OPEN LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN AND VICE-PRIME MINISTER BULENT ARINC
By Taner Akcam
History News Network
Mar ch 16 2010
Taner Akcam is associate professor of history and the Kaloosdian/Mugar
Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies, at the Strassler Center
for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Clark University (Worcester,
MA). This article originally appeared in Turkish for the newspaper
Taraf on March 13, 2010. Special thanks to Dr. Akcam for providing
this English translation.
There is something I have difficulty understanding. You, who have put
an end to ninety-five years of the "there are no Kurds, they’re just
Turks who wander around the mountains" lying policies by the state;
who have removed the military’s guardianship over politics, the same
military that since the beginning of this Republic has decided who
lived and who died and that initiated coups at the drop of a hat;
how is it that you who have made such important inroads into this
democracy insist on continuing the ninety-five years of denialist
policies when it comes to the subject of 1915?
All of us believed that when you signed those protocols with Armenia
in October 2009, the ninety-five years of lies surrounding 1915 were
coming to an end, just as they had on the Kurdish issue. Could it be
that when you signed those protocols you believed that you were going
to come to a resolution while you continued the ninety-five year old
policies of denial? Doesn’t seem possible….Could you have found a
way out of the Kurdish problem by continuing to insist that "There
are no Kurds, they’re just Turks who wander around mountains"? If
you had stayed loyal to the logic of the problem solving methods of
the military when it came to the Kurds, whereby they were equated with
terrorist organizations, treating the Kurds as "nails" and the military
as the "hammer," would you have found a way out of the impasse?
Well, it seems to appear that you seriously think you are going
to find a resolution to the Armenian problem by continuing the
ninety-five year old lie. Anyone opposing this view on the Armenian
issue is the "nail" and you are the "hammer"….trying to intimidate
the U.S., posturing like a bully…is this how you’re going to remove
a ninety-five year old gangrene? Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. Arınc,
if it could have been fixed this way, don’t you think it would have
been, long ago? Heck, who even needs you then…Å~^ukru Elekdag [the
former Turkish ambassador to the U.S.] would have fixed it; Veli Kucuk
[a retired major general linked to Hrant Dink’s assassination] would
have found a neat solution…right?
So, what happens if tomorrow Obama decides it’s time to call your bluff
and gives you a taste of your own medicine? What if he comes out with
a statement saying "You want to shut me up or get me to tell a lie
by threatening me! You’re trying to force me to deny what I believe
to be true with threats! Shame on you! Aren’t you the slightest bit
embarrassed to be threatening me like that? I’m not lying any more….I
am going to state what I believe about 1915. It was genocide." What
are you going to do then?
When the protocols were signed in Switzerland, we believed that it
marked the end of ninety-five years of the policies of lies and that
it was the death knell for the Gunduz Aktan [a former member of the
Turkish Armenian Reconciliation Commission , Å~^ukru Elekdag and Yusuf
Halacoglu [the head of the Turkish Historical Society] era. Not only
was the border going to be opened, but commissions devoted to making
recommendations on how to resolve the issues stemming from history
were going to be established. It seems likely that while the Swiss
were mediating the agreement, they tried to convince both you and
the Armenians by pointing to the "Bergier Commission" which had been
established in 1996, as an example of a "Commission of Independent
Experts." This commission had been formed to research the role that
Switzerland had played in the Jewish Holocaust. After five years of
work, it presented a final report in 2001, but during those five
years, twenty-five research papers were published covering almost
11,000 pages of information.
There is, however, a fact that is even more important. One year before
the commission was formed, in 1995, the Swiss government apologized
to all Jews in the world for its policies during the Second World
War. In actuality, the commission was formed as a result of that
apology. There is no possible way that you could not have known that
one of the conditions for the establishment of the commission was an
apology to the Jews. Even if the Swiss hadn’t mentioned it to you,
it was a well known fact and we believed that you signed the protocols
with full knowledge of this, and this heralded the beginning of change
in ninety-five years of the policy of denial…. "an apology to the
Armenians is on its way," or so we thought. Apparently, this wasn’t
the case; instead you had some "oriental inscrutability" in the works.
You were going to continue the ninety-five year old policy of denial
while fabricating a resolution to the problems that have plagued our
relationship with Armenia. This is hard to believe, but it is apparent
from everything that you have done thus far.
Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. Arınc, I ask that you put this bit
of information somewhere in the corner of your minds: you will
never resolve the problem of 1915 by repeating a lie that has been
memorized over ninety-five years. If it could have been resolved by
rote repetition, there were those before you – who were much louder
– who would have already achieved it. A black stain was smeared on
the brow of the Turkish nation in 1915. The ones who did this were
the Unionist murderers. If you don’t identify that stain and if you
don’t put some distance between yourselves and those who placed that
stain upon the brow of the Turkish nation, you won’t be able to take
a single step forward on this issue. Don’t even bother trying.
Mr. Prime Minister, you’ve called what happened in 1938 in Dersim a
massacre. It’s true we don’t know exactly how many were killed, but
you are acting like a bully towards those who condemn what happened
in 1915, an event that involved at least ten to fifteen times more
human beings than those who perished in Dersim. On the subject of
war crimes committed by Israel against the residents of Gaza, you
have shown your displeasure and lifted your voice in opposition,
with justification. But when the subject of 1915 comes up, an event
that involved killings on a level that can’t even begin to be compared
with the violations of human rights in Gaza, you made absurd remarks
like "No one can force me to admit that Moslems commit murders. My
forebears were not murderers." Don’t you think others are going to
look at that and say, "Who is he kidding?"
You are the ones who have changed the traditional line that’s been
followed on the Kurdish question. You are the ones who have fought to
push the military out of political life. Why are you parroting the
same ninety-five year old lies that have been told by this military
and this bureaucracy? Let me give you an example. You weren’t able to
make any progress on the Kurdish and military matter by siding with
the ones who called those involved in the Å~^emdinli event [a bombing
of a bookshop in the town of Å~^emdinli suspected to be a false flag
operation] "our boys." (2) You were only able to make progress after
so many painful experiences, once you put distance between those
"good boys" and yourselves. The subject of 1915 is no different.
"Our boys" are the ones who continue to deny that Armenians were
annihilated in 1915! They’re the ones forming the Talat Pasha
Committees and organizing the memorial meetings for Kemal, the
murderous Mayor of Bogazlayan. And, let’s not forget, they are the
same ones who have planned assassinations against you and have tried
to overthrow your administration…Don’t you realize that you will
never be able to solve anything regarding 1915 by holding onto the
same position of those who want to dig your graves?
Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. Arınc, the answers to the problems that
are the legacy of 1915 can’t be found in the denialist policies of
Veli Kucuk, Dogu Perincek [leader of the nationalist Workers’ Party],
Å~^ukru Elekdag and Yusuf Halacoglu. Don’t search for the answers
there. You won’t get anywhere repeating the chorus they’ve been singing
for ninety-five years. They are your adversaries on the issue of 1915,
just as they are when it comes to the Kurdish issue and the issue of
the military’s place in politics. You cannot construct your response
to 1915 by holding rank with those who want to drag the country into
chaos, who murdered Hrant Dink, who have planned massacres against
Christians, and who have been plotting coups against you.
If you are going to respond to 1915, you need to search for that answer
in a place that is different than the answers given by Ergenekon [an
alleged Kemalist terrorist organization] or by the ones who plotted
the coups. For this, you should follow your Moslem roots in Anatolia
that have risen alongside your party and take a closer look at what
these roots did during 1915.
Mr. Arınc, these words are for you. With reason, you were angered
by the way the women of CHP in Mersin tore up the Muslim veil. (2)
Do you realize, however, that with the position that you have taken
you have torn the deep fabric of Anatolian Islam, have ripped apart
the cultural legacy of Anatolian Moslems who can walk head held high
for bravely challenging the murders of 1915? Do you know that when the
Unionist gangs were murdering Armenians in 1915, the ones who put up
the biggest fight, who challenged them the most were the Moslems of
Anatolia? Did you have any idea that it was the Moslem community of
Kastamonu that marched upon the Governor’s office demanding "we won’t
stand for our neighbors being murdered"? Or that it was the Moslems of
Yozgat who opposed Killer Kemal of Bogazlayan yelling "there’s no place
in the Koran for the murder of innocents!"? Have you never heard of the
important role played in the hanging of Killer Kemal by the written
testimony of the Grand Mufti of Bogazlayan, Abdullahzade Mehmed? Did
you know that in opposing the murders being committed by Killer Kemal,
this Moslem Mufti said "Allah stands above us all. I fear his wrath"?
Mr. Arınc, are you aware of the order given by Kamil Pasha of the
Third Army in 1915? He stated, "Who ever tries to hide Armenians in
their homes will be executed before his front door and his home will
be burned to the ground." Despite this order, do you know that Haji
Halil, a Moslem from Urfa, hid an Armenian family of eight in the
attic of his home, in the market of Urfa for one full year despite
the threats of death and burning? Go to Eastern Anatolia and ask the
members of parliament from your own party. They’ll tell you dozens,
hundreds of stories like this.
I don’t need to make the point that when the Unionists were massacring
Armenians in Anatolia, pious Moslems opposed what was happening and
saying that the murder of innocents has no place in the Koran.
Whenever I’m talking with Armenians today, they tell me, "If we
are alive today, it is without a doubt because of the aid of some
Moslems." But they’ll also add, "Because of your government’s policy
of denial, we can’t talk about it openly."
Mr. Arınc, you can’t build a future on the backs of murderers. You
can build a future on the backs of those righteous Moslems in Anatolia
who challenged the murderers. In the same way that you can’t resolve
today’s problems by supporting Hrant’s murderers, the "Samats" and
the "Veli Kucuks", you won’t get anywhere supporting the murderers
of the Hrants of the past. The answers to 1915 can’t be found in
the answers of Dogu Perincek or Veli Kucuk. They are members of the
Ergenekon gang that killed Hrant Dink; it’s natural that they defend
the murderers of the Hrants of the past. Let the "Veli Kucuks" defend
the murderer Samat of today and the murderers Talat, Enver and Kemal of
yesterday. Your place is not at the side of Veli Kucuk. Your duty is to
stand by the side of the "Haji Halils," to stand up for those Moslems
who put themselves and their families at risk opposing the massacres.
I would like you to recognize one more thing. Because of the
ninety-five years of denialist policies and the defense of murderers,
there is, from an international perspective, a second stain on the
brow of Turkishness and Islam, next to the one created by 1915.
Because of the policies followed by the Å~^ukru Elekdags and the
Veli Kucuks, Turks are perceived as a people who enjoy murdering,
who defend murders. We need to rescue Turkishness and Islam from the
Talats and the Envers of yesterday and the Samats of today and to
not allow the Elekdags and the Kucuks to define it. Turkishness and
Islam are identities that are too honorable to be left at the hands of
murderers and their defenders. I have an Armenian friend, and he once
said to me, "Until yesterday, when I heard Turkish, I felt a hatred
for it. I called it the language of my enemy. But since getting to
know you, I’ve begun to say it’s the sound of my friend, a Turk."
We need the honest and honorable cry of Turkishness and Islam. Let
Dogu Perincek, Veli Kucuk and the ones who planned your assassination
defend the murderers of yesterday and today. You must see, by now,
that the ones who defended Talat, Enver and Dr. Nazım in the past
are the same people who defend Ogun Samat today.
If we can walk with a shred of self-respect today, head held high,
it’s because we can point to Hrant’s killer and call him what he is.
You need to see that once we acknowledge the murderers of the Hrants
of 1915, we will walk with our heads held high, self-respect intact.
Nazim Hikmet has the best words for describing what needs to be done
in connection with 1915. I’d like to conclude this letter with him.
Grocer Garabed’s lights are on He hasn’t forgiven, this Armenian
citizen, The way his father was slaughtered in the Kurdish mountains
But he loves you because you haven’t forgiven either The stain that’s
been drawn on the brows of the Turkish people
Mr. Prime Minister, I know that you like to read poetry. The Turkish
person and the Moslems of the Middle East want to hear these verses
from you!
(1) This references an incident where a book store in a Kurdish city
was bombed. Officers in the Turkish military were suspected of having
planned and/or executed the deed. The Chief of the General Staff was
quoted as saying the officers were "our good boys".
(2) This is in reference to an incident during "International Women’s
Day" where women members of the CHP (Republican People’s Party)
tore up symbolically a Muslim headscarf.