“My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe/Disaster 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.”
This is the short text of an online petition that will be proposed to all Turkish citizens starting 1 January 2009. The campaign will last one year. The “Great Catastrophe/Disaster”, the equivalent to the Armenian expression metz yeghern, refers to the 1915-1916 Armenian Genocide.
This courageous initiative has been taken by three academics; Messrs. Baskın Oran, Ahmet İnsel and Cengiz Aktar, and one journalist, Mr. Ali Bayramoğlu. According to Bia news agency, the initiative has the support of “some other academics”.
Hundred Years of Silence
Professor Aktar told the Turkish daily Vatan, via Bianet, that “We are apologizing for not being able to discuss, not talking openly about this topic for such a long time, nearly one hundred years. … This is a voice coming from individual’s conscience… What happened to the Armenians is not well-known; people are forced to forget it, and the subject is highly provocative. The Turks have heard this mostly from their elders, their grandfathers. But, the subject has not become an objective historical narrative. Therefore, today many people in Turkey, with all the good intentions, think that nothing happened to the Armenians.”
“The official history has been saying that this incident happened through secondary, not very important, and even mutual massacres; they push the idea that it was an ordinary incident explainable by the conditions of the First World War. However, unfortunately, the facts are very different. Perhaps there is only one fact and it is that the Kurds and Turks are still here, but the Armenians are not. The subject of this campaign is the individuals. This is a voice coming from the individual’s conscience. Those who want to apologize can apologize, and those who do not should not.”
Turkish & Armenian Reactions
According to an article in the U.K. daily The Guardian, the four who have issued the public apology for the Genocide risk a fierce official backlash because such an initiative breaks one of Turkish society's biggest taboos. The article reminds its readers that the Turkish state has previously prosecuted many people, including the Nobel prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk, for merely mentioning the Armenian Genocide.
Turkish Kemalist and ultra-nationalist forces have - as expected - vehemently condemned the initiative.
But some other personalities have also refused to endorse the proposed public apology. Professor Ayse Hür, a historian, for instance, has declared that she will not sign the petition because she believes only those who are responsible should apologize. “All these events have been the fault of nascent Turkish nationalism with which I personally do not identify and therefore do not feel the need to apologize”. Like Ayse Hür, other “prominent intellectuals”, according to Turkish daily Zaman, believe that it is up to the state, not the individual citizen, to apologize.
On the Armenian side, the reactions so far have mainly come from nationalist forces. They - as expected - have echoed the Kemalist and Turkish ultra-nationalist reactions instead of discussing the original initiative.
An open letter addressed to Turkish President and signed by around 300 personalities has been meanwhile circulating in Yerevan. The letter requests the Turkish state to recognize the Genocide in which case it will “free the Turkish nation from the burden of History” and open up the possibility of a real and lasting peace in the region. The letter does not refer to the petition initiative at all, and in terms of content and style seems to have been written for Armenian – domestic and diaspora – audience. It can hardly weigh in on the debate in Turkey.
Unfortunately, there have been no reactions coming from independent academics, journalists and other groups of Armenian intellectuals in regards to the public apology petition either. The silence of historians, political scientists and social scientists is particularly deplorable. The reason may be that some think such an initiative cannot go very far or that it is not, at this point, their business.
Proposing such a petition is probably too early. As Mr. Aktar himself puts it; “many people in Turkey, with all the good intentions, think that nothing happened to the Armenians”. They are either not informed or completely misinformed of the Armenian Genocide so how can they be expected to sign the petition? Then, as mentioned earlier, some who are aware of what has happened may think it is not up to them to apologize. The last “I apologize to them” may limit dramatically the scope of the petition. Overall, therefore, in terms of the number of signatories, I think the petition will most probably fail.
However, the year-long campaign surrounding the petition may provide a good opportunity to intensify the discussion and debate in Turkey on the Genocide issue and Armenian-Turkish reconciliation. And this can happen only if the nationalist forces in Turkey do not suppress the petition campaign – which, to some extent, indicates what Armenian academics and intellectuals can and should do.
The Four Initiators
Probably the most outspoken and the best known of the four, Mr. Cengiz Aktar is a political scientist. He completed his post-graduate studies in France at the University of Paris Sorbonne in Development Economics, Anthropology and History of Economic Thought.
An advocate for Turkey’s integration into the European Union, he currently directs the Center for the European Union at Istanbul-based Bahçesehir University.
Mr. Baskın Oran is an instructor of International Relations at the Faculty of Political Science, Ankara University. He earned his PhD in 1974. Other than teaching and research, Professor Oran has collaborated with several publications including Agos and Radikal.
His main areas of interest are nationalism, minorities, globalization, Turkish foreign policy, and religion-state relations. To read Mr. Oran’s online resume including a list of selected publications, in PDF, please click here.
Mr. Ahmet İnsel is an economist. He obtained his PhD from the University of Paris Sorbonne in 1982. Currently, he teaches at Galatasaray University in Istanbul. For full online resume including list of publications, in PDF, please click here.
Mr. Ali Bayramoğlu is a journalist and political commentator. He is ideologically close to the ruling neo-Islamist AK party.
Mr. Bayramoğlu writes in the Turkish daily newspaper Yeni Safak. He has previously campaigned in favor of greater recognition of the Kurdish population of Turkey.
__________________________
Picture: Scene from the Armenia-Turkey World Cup qualification match in Yerevan last September.
>
This is the short text of an online petition that will be proposed to all Turkish citizens starting 1 January 2009. The campaign will last one year. The “Great Catastrophe/Disaster”, the equivalent to the Armenian expression metz yeghern, refers to the 1915-1916 Armenian Genocide.
This courageous initiative has been taken by three academics; Messrs. Baskın Oran, Ahmet İnsel and Cengiz Aktar, and one journalist, Mr. Ali Bayramoğlu. According to Bia news agency, the initiative has the support of “some other academics”.
Hundred Years of Silence
Professor Aktar told the Turkish daily Vatan, via Bianet, that “We are apologizing for not being able to discuss, not talking openly about this topic for such a long time, nearly one hundred years. … This is a voice coming from individual’s conscience… What happened to the Armenians is not well-known; people are forced to forget it, and the subject is highly provocative. The Turks have heard this mostly from their elders, their grandfathers. But, the subject has not become an objective historical narrative. Therefore, today many people in Turkey, with all the good intentions, think that nothing happened to the Armenians.”
“The official history has been saying that this incident happened through secondary, not very important, and even mutual massacres; they push the idea that it was an ordinary incident explainable by the conditions of the First World War. However, unfortunately, the facts are very different. Perhaps there is only one fact and it is that the Kurds and Turks are still here, but the Armenians are not. The subject of this campaign is the individuals. This is a voice coming from the individual’s conscience. Those who want to apologize can apologize, and those who do not should not.”
Turkish & Armenian Reactions
According to an article in the U.K. daily The Guardian, the four who have issued the public apology for the Genocide risk a fierce official backlash because such an initiative breaks one of Turkish society's biggest taboos. The article reminds its readers that the Turkish state has previously prosecuted many people, including the Nobel prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk, for merely mentioning the Armenian Genocide.
Turkish Kemalist and ultra-nationalist forces have - as expected - vehemently condemned the initiative.
But some other personalities have also refused to endorse the proposed public apology. Professor Ayse Hür, a historian, for instance, has declared that she will not sign the petition because she believes only those who are responsible should apologize. “All these events have been the fault of nascent Turkish nationalism with which I personally do not identify and therefore do not feel the need to apologize”. Like Ayse Hür, other “prominent intellectuals”, according to Turkish daily Zaman, believe that it is up to the state, not the individual citizen, to apologize.
On the Armenian side, the reactions so far have mainly come from nationalist forces. They - as expected - have echoed the Kemalist and Turkish ultra-nationalist reactions instead of discussing the original initiative.
An open letter addressed to Turkish President and signed by around 300 personalities has been meanwhile circulating in Yerevan. The letter requests the Turkish state to recognize the Genocide in which case it will “free the Turkish nation from the burden of History” and open up the possibility of a real and lasting peace in the region. The letter does not refer to the petition initiative at all, and in terms of content and style seems to have been written for Armenian – domestic and diaspora – audience. It can hardly weigh in on the debate in Turkey.
Unfortunately, there have been no reactions coming from independent academics, journalists and other groups of Armenian intellectuals in regards to the public apology petition either. The silence of historians, political scientists and social scientists is particularly deplorable. The reason may be that some think such an initiative cannot go very far or that it is not, at this point, their business.
Proposing such a petition is probably too early. As Mr. Aktar himself puts it; “many people in Turkey, with all the good intentions, think that nothing happened to the Armenians”. They are either not informed or completely misinformed of the Armenian Genocide so how can they be expected to sign the petition? Then, as mentioned earlier, some who are aware of what has happened may think it is not up to them to apologize. The last “I apologize to them” may limit dramatically the scope of the petition. Overall, therefore, in terms of the number of signatories, I think the petition will most probably fail.
However, the year-long campaign surrounding the petition may provide a good opportunity to intensify the discussion and debate in Turkey on the Genocide issue and Armenian-Turkish reconciliation. And this can happen only if the nationalist forces in Turkey do not suppress the petition campaign – which, to some extent, indicates what Armenian academics and intellectuals can and should do.
The Four Initiators
Probably the most outspoken and the best known of the four, Mr. Cengiz Aktar is a political scientist. He completed his post-graduate studies in France at the University of Paris Sorbonne in Development Economics, Anthropology and History of Economic Thought.
An advocate for Turkey’s integration into the European Union, he currently directs the Center for the European Union at Istanbul-based Bahçesehir University.
Mr. Baskın Oran is an instructor of International Relations at the Faculty of Political Science, Ankara University. He earned his PhD in 1974. Other than teaching and research, Professor Oran has collaborated with several publications including Agos and Radikal.
His main areas of interest are nationalism, minorities, globalization, Turkish foreign policy, and religion-state relations. To read Mr. Oran’s online resume including a list of selected publications, in PDF, please click here.
Mr. Ahmet İnsel is an economist. He obtained his PhD from the University of Paris Sorbonne in 1982. Currently, he teaches at Galatasaray University in Istanbul. For full online resume including list of publications, in PDF, please click here.
Mr. Ali Bayramoğlu is a journalist and political commentator. He is ideologically close to the ruling neo-Islamist AK party.
Mr. Bayramoğlu writes in the Turkish daily newspaper Yeni Safak. He has previously campaigned in favor of greater recognition of the Kurdish population of Turkey.
__________________________
Picture: Scene from the Armenia-Turkey World Cup qualification match in Yerevan last September.
>
