TURKISH INTELLECTUALS WHO HAVE RECOGNIZED THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: ALI NESIN

By MassisPost
Updated: March 13, 2015

By Hambersom Aghbashian

Huseyin Ali Nesin (born in 1957 in Istanbul) is a Turkish
mathematician. After graduating from Saint Joseph Lisesi (Junior
high school) in 1973, he completed his high school study at College
Champittet, Lausanne – Switzerland where he finished in 1977. Then
he gained his degree in mathematics at Universite Paris 7, in 1981,
and earned his PhD degree in Mathematics from Yale University, New
Haven, USA in 1985. He was a visiting Assistant Professor at Notre
Dame University(1987-1988), and Assistant Professor at University
of California at Irvine (1988-1991), and then Associate Professor
(1991-1996). Since 1996, he is a Professor, Chair of Mathematics
Department at Istanbul Bilgi University. Professor Nesin has published
many Academic Books and Monographs, Undergraduate and Graduate
Level Mathematics Books and others. Also has published many research
articles. He is the editor in chief of (Matematik Dunyasi -The World of
Mathematics), Director of the Corporation of the Turkish Mathematical
Society , Founder of the Nesin Mathematics Village at Sirince*, Member
of the advisory board of the Hrant Dink Foundation and many others.(1)

Under the title “Intellectuals Solidarize with Hrant Dink”,
” wrote, “A number of leading Turkish
intellectuals have launched a new civil disobedience action declaring
themselves accomplices of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink whose
most recent prosecution in a series launched by Turkish courts is
based on opinions he expressed in an interview with the Reuters news
agency. The action comes in the wake of an Amnesty International (AI)
statement on Dink that said the human rights watchdog organization
was dismayed at recent reports that yet another case had been opened
against Dink on charges of “denigrating Turkishness” under Article 301
of the Turkish Penal Code. The AI warned that if Dink was arrested
on any of the charges leveled against him, he would be declared a
‘Prisoner of Conscience’ on the international arena.” Professor Ali
Nesin was one of the intellectuals who signed the civil disobedience
action. Dink has been shot dead (January 19, 2007) in front of the
offices of Agos newspaper which he founded.(2)

In December 2008, two hundred prominent Turkish intellectuals released
an apology for the “great catastrophe of 1915â~@³. This was a clear
reference to the Armenian Genocide, a term still too sensitive to use
so openly. The signatories also announced a website related to this
apology, and called on others to visit the site and sign the apology
as well. The complete, brief text of the apology says “My conscience
does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the
Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in
1915. I reject this injustice and for my share, I empathize with the
feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers and sisters. I apologize
to them.” Ali Nesin was one of the Turkish professors who has signed
the petition. (3)

On September 26, 2014, Today’s Zaman wrote “A group of academics,
journalists, artists and intellectuals have released a statement
condemning the harshest terms what they define as expressions that
include ‘open hatred and hostility’ towards Armenians in Turkish
schoolbooks, which were recently exposed by the newspapers Agos and
Taraf. A letter accompanying the text of the condemnation, written
by historian Taner Akcam, notes that including such expressions as
lesson material to teach children is a disgrace. The statement said
‘The revolutions history and history textbooks should be collected
immediately, with an apology issued to everyone and particularly to
Armenian students. The signees said textbooks in schools should seek
to encourage feelings of peace, solidarity and living together over
inciting hatred towards different religious and cultural groups. Ali
Nesin was one of the intellectuals who signed it.(4)

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* The Nesin Mathematics Village is a small village of about 13,5
acres. It is owned by the Nesin Foundation and is a place where
young and old learn, teach, and think about mathematics in peaceful
remoteness. Unpretentious and unostentatious, the houses made out of
rock, straw and clay give off a simple welcoming air.

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