EurAsia Review
May 1 2010

In Turkey ‘People Are Rebelling’ Against Armenia Genocide Denial

Saturday, May 01, 2010
By Lou Ann Matossian

(The Armenian Reporter) — As Armenians in Yerevan laid flowers at the
Eternal Flame on the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,
Turkish citizens in Istanbul solemnly commemorated April 24 with
candles and red carnations-despite protests from ultranationalists and
the denial policy of their own government.

Seated on the steps outside Haydarpa’a Station, activists from the
Istanbul Human Rights Association held carnations and posters of
Armenian community leaders whose arrest and deportation from that very
place had heralded the Young Turks’ extermination campaign. "April 24,
1915-Never Again" proclaimed the organization’s banner as human rights
attorney Eren Keskin addressed the solemn group.

"The events of 1915 must not be repeated," Ms. Keskin was quoted in
press reports. "We have gathered here to say no to genocide."

Turkish police stood guard at the peaceful demonstration of about 100
mourners, keeping counter-demonstrators at bay. As journalists’
cameras clicked and whirred, Ms. Keskin and the others threw their
flowers into the Bosphorus, closing the vigil on the Asian shore of
Istanbul.

That same evening in the heart of downtown, on the European side, the
Initiative to Say No to Racism and Nationalism held a peaceful
sit-down demonstration in bustling Taksim Square.

A large black placard, inscribed "This is OUR pain. This is a mourning
for ALL OF US," in Turkish, Armenian, and English, was placed on the
ground with bouquets of red carnations and rows of votive candles
resembling red apples.

"In 1915, when we had a population of only 13 million people, there
were 1.5 to 2 million Armenians living on this land," an organizer
proclaimed in Turkish. More than 200 mourners sat in silence as she
named the cities and regions where Ottoman Armenians had lived, from
Kars in the east to Thrace in the west.

"They were the grocer in our neighborhood, our tailor, our goldsmith,
our carpenter, our shoemaker, our farmhand, our millwright, our
classmate, our teacher, our officer, our private, our deputy, our
historian, our composer…our friend," the statement continued. "Our
next-door neighbors and our companion in bad times.

"On April 24th, 1915, they were `rounded up’. We lost them. They are
not here anymore. A great majority of them do not exist anymore. Nor
do their graveyards," the organizer read out, evoking "the
overwhelming `Great Pain’ that was laid upon the qualms of our
conscience by the `Great Catastrophe’."

Clark University professor Taner Akçam, an endorser of the Taksim
Square statement, called the April 24th commemorations in Turkey a
"serious crack in the wall" of silence and denial. "The other
Turkey-the Turkey that doesn’t belong to denialists-is coming to the
surface," he told the Armenian Reporter.

"People are rebelling," he concluded. "They are saying, `We want to
learn the truth’."

Without identifying the Armenian Genocide as such, the statement urged
"all peoples of Turkey who share this heartfelt pain to commemorate
and pay tribute to the victims of 1915." (The full text, posted online
at buacihepimizin.org with some 1,500 signatures, was endorsed by
about 80 prominent intellectuals and activists in Turkish society.)

Shouts of "Death to the Armenian Diaspora!" could be heard from
counter-demonstrators as the mourners paused in silent commemoration,
reported an eyewitness, Armenian Weekly editor Khatchig Mouradian.
"This is Turkey! Love it or leave it!" chanted a group of angry men
from behind police lines, in a video shot at the scene and posted to
YouTube. Haranguing the mourners as traitors, they extended their
first and fourth fingers in the ultranationalist Grey Wolf gesture.

At the close of the vigil, the mourners tossed carnations into the
air, reported Hürriyet. "The brotherhood of Armenians, Turks, and
Kurds!" they chanted, marching down Istiklal Avenue. "Shoulder to
shoulder against fascism!"

Additional public vigils were reportedly held in Galatasaray, not far
from Taksim Square, by Kurdish mothers of "disappeared" children, and
outside the offices of Agos Armenian newspaper, where editor Hrant
Dink was gunned down in January 2007.

A reparations debate in Ankara

In Ankara, meanwhile, international scholars and writers participated
in a two-day conference on "1915 within its pre- and post-historical
periods," organized by the Ankara Freedom of Thought Initiative.
Nearly cancelled due to political and bureaucratic obstacles, the
panels were held under tight security, with no counter-demonstrations
permitted. Unusually for a conference in Turkey, proponents of the
government’s "official history" were notably absent from the list of
invited presenters.

Nevertheless, a panel on "The Armenian Issue: What is to be done and
how?" sparked plenty of controversy as Worcester State University
philosopher Henry Theriault called for genocide reparations. Turkey
should return or compensate for Armenian property, wealth, slave
labor, pain and suffering, and the loss of 1.5 million people, as well
as cultural, religious, and educational losses, Prof. Theriault
stated.

Although Sevan Nishanian of Agos newspaper flatly rejected these
demands as unjust and unproductive, author Temel Demirer and Welsh
writer-activist Eilian Williams defended them, according to The
Armenian Weekly’s Mouradian, who participated in the intense debate
among the panelists and audience members.

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