BASBUG QUESTIONS MEDIA PERCEPTION

Hurriyet
May 21 2009
Turkey

ANKARA – Chief of General Staff Gen. Ä°lker BaÅ~_bug poses questions
to well-known foreign scholars of history on the perception of Turkey
in the West. ‘Today, we see very strong prejudice against Turks is
still there,’ replies historian Justin McCarthy.

Well-known scholars of Turkish history received a flurry of questions
at a two-session panel held by the General Staff to commemorate the
90th anniversary of the Turkish War of Independence on May 19.

During his presentation, historian Justin McCarthy said the Western
media largely labeled the Turks before the War of Independence as
barbarians and tyrants, but that the situation began changing after
the victory by the forces of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of
the Turkish Republic.

In the question-and-answer part of the session, Chief of General Staff
Gen. Ä°lker BaÅ~_bug, who was in the audience, asked McCarthy about
the reason for these differing perceptions. Gen. BaÅ~_bug also posed
a second question, which he warned could be provocative, about how
the Western press covers Turkey today. "Is it like before the war,
or after the war?" he asked.

In response, McCarthy said the negative coverage of Turks mostly
stemmed from ignorance and strong prejudices in the West that developed
as a result of the World War I-era killings of Armenians at the hands
of the Ottoman Empire.

‘Prejudice against Turks is still there’ "Today, we see very strong
prejudice [against Turks] is still there," he said, adding that the New
York Times was one of the most anti-Turkish newspapers in the United
States, both during the war years and today. As an example, he cited
the paper’s language referring to the Armenian killings as "genocide."

McCarthy also said the newspaper once printed an article about Turkish
lobbying groups in the United States fighting against genocide claims,
while mentioning nothing about the Armenian side.

Another panelist, Prof. Salahi Sonyel, said he had advised the Turkish
government to give up on the Armenian diaspora and instead concentrate
on the Armenians of Armenia. In his opinion, the Armenian diaspora
will never come to good terms with Turkey, but it is important for
Turkey to normalize ties with neighboring governments, including the
one in Yerevan.

Following the panel, Gen. BaÅ~_bug inaugurated a statue of Ataturk
that had been crafted by Sait Rustem. The statue, decorated with quotes
from the Turkish leader, stands 4 meters tall and weighs 2.3 tons.