CONFRONTING GENOCIDE

Today’s Zaman
March 17 2010
Turkey

Have you ever tried to tell someone directly what his problem is? This
person, for example, may have a deep inferiority complex, and this
may be very obvious to you.

Do you think it would be helpful to say this to him upfront? "Hey,
you have an inferiority complex, be aware of your problem and correct
yourself!" If this kind of "help" worked, millions of people would
not spend years seeing psychiatrists and psychoanalysts.

Let us assume you even know what the root cause of his problem is. You
know his childhood, and you know what kind of specific traumas in his
childhood caused his problems today. Would it help to tell him this
root cause? "Your father used to beat you up a lot, and therefore,
this caused you to have very low self-esteem." Would this work? I
do not think so. You cannot reach his subconscious self by simply
saying the "truth." The logical "content" does not make what is
subconscious conscious.

Do you think that if the Armenian genocide bill passes all stages at
the US Congress and is spelled out by the US president in his speech
on April 24, this would help Turkish society confront its past? If the
numbers of these Armenian genocide resolutions increase, I believe
Turkey, like a neurotic person, would lose its logic and start to
do anything to restore "her broken honor." In my previous article,
I tried to explain how counterproductive these "genocide resolutions"
are, and some Armenian readers protested.

They want to think that Turkey will confront what it has denied for
a hundred years by simply being forced by these resolutions. One
reader even accused me of blackmailing Armenians by saying that these
resolutions just reinforce nationalistic positions in Turkey.

Today there are so many Turks in Turkey who do not believe that there
is a shadowy network called Ergenekon which tried to pave the way
for another coup d’état. No matter what kind of evidence you show
them, they simply believe there is no such organization and the whole
process is just a fabrication by the current government in Turkey.

They do not want to believe the existence of Ergenekon gang. Ergenekon
is not something belonging to the past; it is happening right now. So
basically they do not believe what they see with their own eyes. Why?

Because this confrontation threatens their "fundamental beliefs,"
their sense of "identity." They are so-called "modern," "secular"
Turks. If they start to confront Ergenekon, they may have to question
the whole history of the Turkish Republic, military interventions,
massacres and many other things.

Confronting Armenian genocide is a hundred times more difficult than
confronting today’s Ergenekon. Members of the Committee of Union and
Progress (Ittihat ve Terakki), which carried out atrocities against
non-Muslims in Turkey in 1915 and onwards, became very active figures
in the establishment of the new Turkish Republic in 1923. And the
killing machine TeÅ~_kilatı Mahsusa (secret organization) turned
into the "deep state" in modern Turkey.

Slowly, gradually the tragedy of non-Muslims became taboo. This taboo
has been reinforced by a very strong indoctrination through education,
media and other devices.

So, confronting Armenian massacres is not simply confronting a
historical event, it also means breaking down many myths the Turks
believe and identify with.

As I have repeatedly written in this column, I wholeheartedly believe
that this confrontation with our past is the key for a brighter future
for this country, to get rid of our deep neurosis, to gain a real sense
of identity and self-confidence and to bury our bloody "deep state"
structures in the graveyard of history. But I also believe that,
as happens with individuals, this will take time and should happen
by opening the hearts of Turks to past tragedies in this country.

Can the outside world help Turkey? Yes, I think so. But this cannot be
done by issuing genocide resolutions one after another. In my opinion,
the European Union can play an important role in encouraging Turkey
in this endeavor. The EU can pressure the Turkish government to make
reforms in the field of freedom of expression. This infamous Article
301 (against denigrating Turkishness) of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK)
should be abolished once and for all at the very least. Widening
the scope of freedom of expression will help to deepen the already
existent internal discussion about past atrocities in Turkey. The
EU can encourage Turkey to set up independent history commissions
in agreement with Armenia. The EU can lobby to stop the passage of
Armenian genocide resolutions by third parties’ parliaments in exchange
for a promise from Turkey to make sure that these commissions will
be independent, impartial (Turkish members will be internationally
respected historians, not the ones who have written the official
Turkish history), and their findings will be accepted.

Turkey should open its archives to these commissions and should be
in full cooperation with them. These commissions should proceed
step-by-step and produce a written corpus and should not confine
themselves to a simple finding of whether the 1915 events should
be called genocide or not. These kinds of "final wordings" should
be uttered at the end of a long period, let us say in five or 10
years’ time.

The EU can also encourage Turkish and Armenian NGOs to work together
in all areas in which they have mutual interests. Not to mention
the need for opening borders between Turkey and Armenia, resuming
negotiations and enacting protocols.

Finally, I think Armenian and Turkish artists should come together
and produce common films, documentaries and songs, which will help
us to see things with the eyes of our hearts. That is what we need,
after all!

17 March 2010, Wednesday
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