CONTROVERSIAL ARMENIAN CONFERENCE ENDS WITHOUT MAJOR TURMOIL
The New Anatolian, Turkey
Sept 26 2005
* Conference runs peacefully despite protests
* Oran: End of another taboo in Turkey
ISTANBUL – The once postponed and then later suspended conference on
“Armenians in the Late Ottoman Era” opened in Istanbul on Saturday
under high security and amidst protests by some 300 people holding
banners and Turkish flags.
The self-avowed goal of the conference was to call into question the
official Turkish account of events. It was to be held in May but was
postponed amidst a hail of criticism, and was suspended again by an
Istanbul court on Thursday, hours before it was scheduled to start.
The scene at Bilgi University, which agreed to host the conference,
was quite typical of any controversial event in any democratic country,
with protesters chanting and rotten eggs flying, despite the air of
extraordinary sentimentality and strict security measures.
Only those with invitations were admitted to the university campus
during the conference while protestors, members of the press, and
security forces were stationed outside the gates. Some of the banners
read: “Turkish diplomats, victims of the Armenian slaughters, may
you sleep in peace for we’re on guard,” and, “One-sided thesis is
not academic.”
Professor Erdal Inonu, a senior statesman and former leader of the
Social Democrat People’s Party (SHP), who attended the conference
as a member of the audience, was heckled at the gate, while another
group of protestors shouted at Inonu, saying, “Dear Inonu, don’t go
among those traitors.”
Independent Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate representative Sevgi
Erenerol made a statement saying that Turks didn’t commit genocide
at any point in their history, and that, on the contrary, they were
victims of genocide themselves in various parts of the world.
Academics, as well as a majority of the media, expressed bitter
frustration at the judiciary’s intervention in the event. Not only did
the efforts to block the conference hamper efforts for democratization
and freedom of speech in Turkey on its road to the EU, they said,
but the persistence of these efforts also magnifies the significance
of the conference and its content.
A protestor told TNA that the goal was merely to bring the so-called
Armenian genocide to the public’s attention to stir up the country
and that the meeting was one-sided and non-academic. “It’s illegal to
say there was no genocide in many European countries,” he contested,
“but in Turkey it’s open to discussion. Are we a more democratic
country then?”
The question may be worthwhile, and the fact that the conference did
actually take place without any involved parties resorting to violence
may be a step in the right direction. As Professor Baskin Oran said
this may also be a breakthrough for Turkey in the realm of breaking
taboos and proves that things don’t go awry when people speak.