TURKISH SCHOLAR TANER AKCAM ADVOCATES CHANGE IN POLICY OF GENOCIDE DENIAL
By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier
Panorama.am
13:45 11/05/2010
Politics
Dr. Taner Akcam, one of the first Turkish scholars to acknowledge
the Armenian Genocide, delivered two important lectures in Southern
California last week. Based on historical research, he analyzed the
underpinnings of Turkey’s denial of the Armenian Genocide and proposed
solutions for its official acknowledgment.
Prof. Akcam made his first presentation at Valley Beth Shalom in
Encino on May 6, before the screening of Dr. J. Michael Hagopian’s
Genocide documentary "The River Ran Red." Rabbis Harold Schulweis and
Edward Feinstein, Jewish World Watch President Janice Kamenir-Reznik,
Dr. Hagopian, 96, a genocide survivor, and Archbishop Hovnan Derderian
made brief remarks.
Dr. Akcam, Associate Professor of History and Chair of Armenian
Genocide Studies at Clark University, explained that the "continuity"
of the "military and civilian bureaucracy," which has been ruling
Turkey ever since the inception of the Republic in 1923, is a key
reason for denial of the Armenian Genocide. "The founders perceived
the ethnic-cultural plurality of society at that time to constitute
a problem for the continuity and security of the state."
Specifically, the Professor identified Hasan Fehmi Bey, a leader of
the Union and Progress party that implemented the Armenian Genocide,
who had confessed in a speech to Parliament in 1920 that his group
knew the international community would call them "murderers" for
eliminating the Armenians. However, he indicated that his party’s
leaders were prepared to accept being called "murderers," as their
aim was securing "the future of the fatherland."
In his second presentation on May 7, organized by the Armenian Rights
Council of America in Altadena, Dr. Akcam disclosed that "Ergenekon,"
the recently exposed criminal group that enjoyed support of the
Turkish military, had prepared a hit list of five individuals,
including journalist Hrant Dink, Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, and
Akcam himself, all targeted for assassination because they spoke out
on the Armenian Genocide. They were condemned to death as "Traitors
to National Security."
In Akcam’s view, this mindset was not simply the perverted view of
an isolated terror group, but that of Turkey’s legal establishment.
During the sentencing of two Turkish-Armenian journalists in 2007 for
using the term genocide, a Judge ruled that: "Talk about genocide, both
in Turkey and in other countries, unfavorably affects national security
and the national interest. The claim of genocide… has become part
of and the means of special plans aiming to change the geographic,
political boundaries of Turkey… and a campaign to demolish its
physical and legal structure." The ruling further stated that the
Republic of Turkey is under "a hostile diplomatic siege consisting
of genocide resolutions…. The acceptance of this claim may lead
in future centuries to a questioning of the sovereignty rights of
the Republic of Turkey over the lands on which it is claimed these
events occurred."
According to Akcam, the United States is avoiding the official
recognition of the Armenian Genocide out of a similar misguided
concern for national security in the Middle East. He stated that
"Morality is a very real issue, and for realpolitik to be successful
in the region; moral values, in this instance, the specific one of
acknowledging historic wrongdoings, must be integrated into a policy
of national security…. Failure to confront history honestly is one
of the major reasons for insecurity and instability in the region."
Akcam revealed that after World War I, Turkey’s leaders, including
Mustafa Kemal, acknowledged the Armenian massacres and favored the
prosecution of their perpetrators in order to gain support of the
Allies for the preservation of the territorial integrity of Ottoman
Turkey.
However, the hopes of Turkey’s leaders were dashed on both counts. The
Treaty of Sèvres in 1920 called for dismemberment of the Ottoman
Empire, while the Istanbul Court Martial sentenced to death in absentia
the Turkish national leadership, including Mustafa Kemal.
Akcam indicated that the Turkish mindset to this day views
"democratization, freedom of thought and speech, open and frank debate
about history, [and] acknowledgment of one’s past historical misdeeds,
as a threat to national security. Those who invite society to engage in
an open examination of the past are therefore labeled ‘traitors’ and
made targets of smear campaigns — dragged into courts and prosecuted
under Turkish Criminal Code Article 301 for ‘insulting Turkishness.’"
Akcam warned the United States that any policy "that ignores morality
and forgets the addressing of historic wrongdoings is doomed to fail
in the end." He suggested that Turkey should be made to understand
that "bullying and threatening others is not the behavior of an
international actor. Turkey cannot continue with the same repressive
domestic policies towards its own history and minorities under the
guise of national security and cannot threaten other countries in
expressing their thoughts on 1915, and at the same time pretend to
be a member of democratic countries in the world. An open, official
acknowledgment by the US government might force Turkey to understand
that blackmailing and threatening other states and suppressing and
persecuting its own intellectuals do not offer solutions for historical
problems and for security."
At a small gathering, after the May 7 lecture, Akcam disclosed for
the first time an alarming incident that had taken place in 1995,
following a talk he had delivered on the Armenian Genocide in Yerevan.
At the last minute, he had cautiously decided to give a milder
version of his prepared remarks. Upon his return to Istanbul, he
was shocked when confronted at the airport by Turkish police who had
in their possession the harsher version of his talk. He had handed
that original version to Armenian officials — the organizers of the
Genocide conference. Someone in Armenia must have leaked his text to
the Turkish authorities. Dr. Akcam was able to save his neck from
Turkish intelligence agents by showing them the copy of the milder
speech that he had actually delivered!