TURKEY’S STRUGGLES WITH HISTORY
Armen Tamzarian
Los Angeles Times
September 12, 2005 Monday
Home Edition
In recalling Henry Morgenthau’s role as U.S. ambassador to the
Ottoman Empire, your editorial “Turkey’s war with history” (Sept. 8)
unfortunately accepts a one-sided perspective of history as fact.
Claims by Morgenthau of genocide at the end of the Ottoman period
have never been legally substantiated.
This issue, like many in history, defies one-sided interpretations.
As a result, Turkey opened its Ottoman archives to researchers. And
earlier this year, the prime minister issued an unprecedented proposal
to Armenia’s president for an impartial study of the matter by Turkish
and Armenian historians, the results of which will be shared with
the international community.
We hope Armenian expatriates in the U.S. and elsewhere will support
this endeavor, as we seek a reconciliation that will allow us to look
forward to a peaceful and prosperous future.
Regarding novelist Orhan Pamuk, although no authority can interfere
with the constitutionally independent justice system in Turkey,
all previous charges against him for similar acts resulted with no
grounds for further legal action.
ENGIN ANSAY o7Turkish consul general f7o7Los Angeles
*
f7In its editorial, The Times carefully avoided using the word
“genocide” to describe what happened to Armenians between 1915-1918.
There is no excuse for this omission. Every internationally accepted
legal definition of genocide applies. Rafael Lemkin, who coined
the term genocide, described the annihilation of the Armenians as
genocide. So too have prominent historians of the history of genocide
in the 20th century. It’s time for The Times to do the same.