guardian.co.uk
Turkey scared to admit Armenian genocide, says historian
· Remarks cast shadow over efforts to rebuild relations
· Turkish show interest in museum of tragedy
Robert Tait in Yerevan
Monday September 22 2008
Members of the Armenian community join a demonstration march in London in
2005. Photograph: Edmond Terakopian/PA
/sep/22/turkey
Turkey risks a collapse of its secular political system akin to that of the
Soviet Union if it bows to international pressure to recognise the 1915-22
Armenian genocide, the head of Armenia’s state memorial to the event has
told the Guardian.
Hayk Demoyan said Ankara could not acknowledge the systematic killing of up
to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman troops during the first world war
because it would lead to a wholesale re-writing of history and undermine the
ideological basis of the Turkish state.
In remarks that will cast a shadow over attempts to forge a new
Turkish-Armenian rapprochement, he said those implicated included Mustafa
Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey and a figure Turks are taught to
revere. Historical documents proved Atatürk committed "war crimes" against
Armenians and other groups in his drive to create an ethnically homogeneous
Turkish state, Demoyan insisted. "Fear of rewriting history is the main fear
of modern Turkey," said Demoyan, director of The Armenian Genocide
Museum-Institute in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital.
"It is a fear of facing historical reality and causing a total collapse of
the ideological axis that modern republican Turkey was formed around. Turks
get panicked when you compare Atatürk’s legacy to Lenin.
Atatürk was sentenced to death in absentia by a military judge to punish war
crimes during the first world war. There are documents from non-Armenian
sources listing him as a war criminal ."
Demoyan’s remarks come amid fledgling attempts to re-establish links between
two countries which have not had diplomatic relations since 1994, following
a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Turkey’s ally.
Tentative efforts towards normalising ties occurred this month when the
Turkish president, Abdullah Gül, visited Yerevan to attend a World Cup
football match between Turkey and Armenia at the invitation of his Armenian
counterpart, Serge Sarkisian.
Unlike most visiting heads of state, Gül did not visit the genocide museum,
which displays documentary and photographic exhibits proving, Armenian
officials say, that their ethnic brethren were subjected to deliberate
genocide. Turkey vehemently denies this and has jailed Turkish citizens who
argued otherwise. However, rising numbers of Turkish tourists and
journalists have visited the museum recently.
"More than 500 Turks have visited this year. They’ve come in unprecedented
numbers," Demoyan said. "Their reaction is one of shock. At first there is
denial. Sometimes they ask: ‘What is our sin?’ or ‘How can we be responsible
for this?’. It’s not taught in Turkish schools, so we understand their
reaction."
Turkey claims the Armenian death toll has been exaggerated and that most
victims died from starvation or disease. It also argues that many Turks were
killed by Armenian groups.