TURKISH SOCIETY SPLIT ON GENOCIDE, THE EU, AND MANY OTHER
ISSUES
27-09-2005 16:42:00 | USA | Articles and Analyses
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
For 90 years, Turkish officials have denied the reality of
the Armenian Genocide. During the past weekend, for the first
time in Turkish history, a conference was held in Istanbul
during which Turkish scholars challenged the revisionist
position of their own government on the Armenian Genocide. This
was not an easy accomplishment. It came about after the
organizers struggled to overcome a series of almost
insurmountable legal obstacles and physical attacks.
The conference was originally planned for last May.
However, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek caused its cancellation at
the last minute by accusing the participating Turkish scholars
of being "traitors" and "stabbing Turkey in the back."
Embarrassed by stinging criticism from many European
officials, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan quietly urged the
organizers to reschedule the conference for Sept. 23-25, just
days before the planned start of talks for Turkey's EU
membership. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul even promised to
deliver the opening remarks at this unprecedented gathering of
Turkish scholars.
However, just hours before the start of the conference, an
Istanbul court issued an order suspending the gathering. The
judge gave the organizers 30 days to respond to a series of
bizarre questions on the qualifications and selection of the
scholars as well as the financing of their travel and lodging
expenses.
This eleventh-hour postponement of the conference stunned
not only the EU officials but also most of the Turkish public,
including the overwhelming majority of newspapers and TV
stations in Turkey. Both the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister
saw the court order as an attempt to derail Turkey's EU
membership drive. The judge, petitioned by ultra-nationalists,
clearly exceeded his jurisdiction by interfering in the internal
affairs of an academic institution.
The conference, titled "Ottoman Armenians During the
Decline of the Empire: Issues of Scientific Responsibility and
Democracy," was finally held during the past weekend after
changing its venue to Bilgi University. The organizers either
took or were allowed to take advantage of a loophole in the
court order that had specifically banned two of the three
co-sponsoring universities (Bogazici and Sabanci), but not the
third - Bilgi University.
Ultra-nationalist groups and retired military officers had
urged all "patriotic" Turks to converge on the conference site
and disrupt the proceedings. They called the participating
Turkish scholars traitors. Despite the presence of a strong
police force to protect the university from attacks by
extremists, the protesters managed to pelt the participants by
eggs and rotten tomatoes. A few trouble-makers even managed to
sneak into the hall and attempt to disrupt the discussions.
Once they passed the gauntlet, scores of scholars presented
their papers over a two-day period. Most of them carefully
avoided the use of the word genocide, due to their fear of being
hauled into court and charged with "denigrating" the Turkish
nation. Some of the participants were also weary of being
accused of siding with Armenians on this emotionally-charged
issue. The scholars made it clear, however, that Ottoman
officials had organized the mass deportations and the subsequent
killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians.
Even though there were very few new revelations on the
topic of the Armenian Genocide during the course of the
conference, the significant aspect of the gathering was the fact
that it took place at all. This is the first time that a group
of Turkish scholars, facing the wrath of many of their radical
compatriots and a legal ban, had dared to challenge the official
revisionist position of the Turkish establishment on this issue.
Of course, the proximity of the date of the planned start
of Turkey's EU membership talks on Oct. 3 played a considerable
role in winning the tacit and reluctant support of the Turkish
government for this conference. Neither Erdogan nor Gul were
probably motivated by their "deep seated beliefs" in academic
freedom to support the holding of such a conference in Turkey.
Turkish society still has a long and uphill battle in
deciding its future. There are powerful conflicting forces
within Turkey tearing the country into two divergent directions:
one looking to Europe and the other to an ultra-nationalist,
Islamist, and pan-Turkist orientation.
Before the Turks worry about whether the Europeans would
allow them to join the EU, they themselves would have to decide
the direction of their own society. When millions of Turks are
still fanatically clinging to their old authoritarian mentality,
no matter which new laws their government adopts and which
agreements their leaders sign, at the end of the day, these
documents are meaningless pieces of paper. Prime Minister
Erdogan's saying that his country should be a part of Europe
does not make it so. True reform must first take place in the
hearts and minds of the people, before it can be adopted as a
legal code. Such reforms cannot be imposed from outside. They
have to come from within Turkish society.
How long would it take to reform Turkish society is a
question to which no one knows the answer. When millions of
Turks are still adamantly opposed to the most basic values
shared by Europeans, it is clear that they are neither ready now
nor would they be ready anytime soon to join the EU.
Turkey should neither be rejected right away nor accepted
into the EU in the foreseeable future. Turkey should not be
admitted now because it's not and would not be ready to join the
ranks of civilized European nations nor should it be rejected
outright for fear of setting completely loose a monster that
would be a clear and present danger to its immediate
neighborhood!