Armenia, diaspora, and facing history

by Taner Akcam

Published: Friday November 28, 2008

Prof. Taner Akcam.

This essay was originally published in Taraf as "Ermenistan, diaspora ve tarihle yüzle?mek" on Nov. 16, 2008 (http://www.taraf.com.tr/haber/21653.htm). The translation is by Fatima Sakarya with additional notes by the author.

Mr. Akcam is the author of A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility.

There is no doubt that Abdullah Gül's visit to Yerevan was an historical step, and we should applaud both the Turkish leader and Armenian president Serge Sargsian for having shown the courage to take it. It was a big move on their part, and it has cracked open the door to a new beginning in Turkish-Armenian relations. It looks like many people will be able to pass through that door.

It was only seven years ago, in February 2001, when my statement on a television program, that Turkey should apologize to Armenians, created a firestorm of sentiment against me. Now, after Abdullah Gül's visit, retired Ambassador Volkan Vural repeated the same words and stated, "We should apologize," and not a single objection was raised. The words seemed to have been greeted with general acceptance (Taraf, Oct. 18, 2008). As this example shows, with the passage of time, Turkey seems to have made a lot of progress on the subject.

The Ergenekon investigation and arrests play a special role in this progress. If the arrests had not been made, we would have witnessed a serious campaign for the hearts and minds of the public being waged against Abdullah Gül's visit. For the past few years in Turkey the campaigns against the Armenians and 1915 have been led by Ergenekon.[1]  It was Ergenekon followers who organized the memorial anniversary for the execution of mayor of Bogazlayan Kemal,[2] the marches for Talat Pasha in Berlin,[3] and the "war of law" in Switzerland.[4] Again, it was they who mobilized the public against the conference we organized in Istanbul in 2005,[5] who dragged us into the courtrooms,[6] and who drove the campaign against Hrant Dink all the way to murder.

[Notes from the author:

1. Ergenekon is the name of a secret organization existing primarily within the military and civil bureaucracy. The organization, which includes retired generals, journalists, bureaucrats, educators, and businesspeople, has been under investigation for several years. In the end, a trial against 86 individuals, 46 of whom are being detained, was begun on October 20, 2008. The defendants have been accused of establishing a terrorist organization called "Ergenekon," and of plotting to effect regime change through a military coup by committing politically motivated crimes and terroristic acts. Although the murder of Hrant Dink does not figure in the charges of the indictment, there are some very strong clues that the organization was involved.

2. Kemal was the kaymakam (county executive) of Bogazl?yan county in the Yozgat district. He was prosecuted by a mlitary tribunal formed in Istanbul in 1919 for having massacred Armenians en masse, was sentenced to death, and executed on April 10, 1919.

3. The committee was formed in 2005 under the leadership of former Prime Minister of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Rauf Denkta?. A significant number of its board of directors are now under arrest and facing prosecution under the Ergenekon trial. In order to protest the claims of the Armenian Genocide, in Europe, the Committee organized the "Lausanne 2005," "Berlin 2006," "Lausanne 2007," and "Paris 2007" marches and activities.

4. Dogu Perinçek, one of the founders of the Talat Pasha Committee and now a detainee defendant in the Ergenekon trial, had initiated a "legal war" in Switzerland by declaring that "the Armenian genocide did not occur" to protest that country's crime of "denying the genocide." That trial concluded in March 2007 with Perinçek's conviction.

5. On September 23-25, 2005, Bogaziçi, Sabanc?, and Bilgi Universities had organized a conference titled "Ottoman Armenians during the Period of the Empire's Decline: Scholarly Responsibility and Problems of Democracy." The conference, originally planned for August, was initially suspended by court action and a serious campaign against the intelligentsia who had organized the conference, was waged, headed by some government offficials.

6. What is referred to here are the court actions initiated not only against Hrant Dink but also against other well-known journalists and writers, including Orhan Pamuk, Elif ?afak, Murat Belge, Hasan Cemal, and Ismet Berkan, based upon Article 301 and other articles of the Turkish Criminal Code.]

Ergenekon's use of such a painful episode in history, 1915, as a way to confer legitimacy upon itself in society, is extremely significant and meaningful. The connection between those who enforced a policy of annihilation against Armenians in the past and an organization like Ergenekon that organizes hostility against the Armenians today is a subject that deserves to be given a great deal of attention.

Misguided reason

In this short piece, I would like to take up some points that figure prominently in many of the writings that have purported to support Mr. Gül's visit, but which I nevertheless view as misguided. Many of these writings, written by our own enlightened thinkers, are nevertheless poorly conceived. Representing some of the first influential ideas to make it "through the newly opened door" they have the potential for influencing public opinion and for that reason it is imperative that they be critically examined now. Besides presenting a simple critique, I want to create a framework on the subject of how the matter should be approached in the near future. My hope is that I will succeed in laying a stronger foundation to undergird future discourse on the subject matter.