Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Nov 18 2011
Çiçek: No sense in comparing Ottoman past to new republic
18 November 2011, Friday / KAZIM PIYNAR , ÝSTANBUL
Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek said on Friday that the Turkish
Republic is in no shape or form an alternative or antithesis to the
country’s Ottoman heritage, saying discussions that place the Ottoman
Empire against the republic will lead nowhere.
Çiçek, who was speaking at a symposium to commemorate the 150th year
of the death of Ottoman Sultan Abülmecid, said, “Nobody should try to
emphasize erroneous points and exploit this issue.”
The commemorative event was held at Dolmabahçe Palace. Çiçek, who made
the opening speech at the event, noted that the Turkish Republic was
in its 88th year. He said Turkey emerged out of a will to found a
brand new state on Ottoman territory, an area that disintegrated over
a historical process. “We shouldn’t open to discussion issues that
have been accepted. We can’t get anywhere by placing the Ottoman
Empire and the republic as opposing entities,” he said.
Referring to speculation that the government was secretly marking the
day when the last Ottoman Sultan Vahdettin fled Turkey, as this date,
Nov. 17, coincides with the death of Abdülmecid, he said: “Articles
are being written in association with an incident that happened on
Nov. 17. We have a rich history. There could be events that made us
happy and things that made us very sad on the same day. Should we not
be happy about some things because of the things that made us sad?
Then what is history good for. If we are not going to use our past
experiences to learn, then who will?”
He said in the past 1,000 years, Turks have had periods of glory as
well as other periods when they were the target of slander and
accusations. “We are still currently suffering from these accusations,
not only in our country, but globally. This is why we adopted a
resolution in Parliament in 2005, particularly about the 1915
incidents,” Çiçek said, referring to the mass deportation of the
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire’s eastern territories, which Armenia
today claims amounted to genocide, although Turkey rejects these
allegations. “We said we are ready to confront our history. Anyone who
has something to say can come and do so, we will open our archives and
put forth the documents. We believe that evaluating controversial
periods in the light of research carried out by historians is the
right way,” he added.
“We are ready to confront our history, defend what we know is right
and build a future learning from our inadequacies, if there are any. I
see great benefit in holding such meetings. Instead of drawing
conclusions based on inadequate information or polarizing people, we
can build a future by discussing the issues put forth by our
scientists,” he continued on to say.
From: A. Papazian