TURKEY TRIED TO HEAD OFF PM’S VERDICT ON ‘GENOCIDE’
Brian Laghi
Globe and Mail, Canada
May 11 2006
The Prime Minister of Turkey sent Stephen Harper a letter last month
asking him to not characterize the mass killing of Armenians in the
early 1900s as a genocide and instead support an academic inquiry
into the matter.
One day later, Mr. Harper went ahead with the statement, sparking a
diplomatic contretemps that led to the recall of Turkey’s ambassador
to Canada and the country’s decision to withdraw from a military
exercise in Alberta.
The Turkish letter, an unofficial translation of which was obtained
by The Globe and Mail, says that a push by the Armenian community
to have the mass killing of Armenians recognized as a genocide has
clouded Turkish-Canadian relations.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also asked that Mr. Harper instead
support a Turkish initiative to have scholars from Turkey and Armenia
study the matter and issue a report to the international community.
“As you know, the allegation of ‘genocide’ is a sensitive issue for
both the Turkish people and Turkish Governments,” the letter said.
“In fact, the events that took place in 1915 constitute a period
which historians consider as contentious.”
The letter is being made public after Turkey’s decisions this week
to recall its ambassador for consultations and to pull out of an
international military exercise that is to begin in Cold Lake, Alta.,
next week. Turkey is upset about Mr. Harper’s affirmation of a free
vote of Parliament two years ago in which a majority of MPs voted to
condemn the brutal treatment of the Armenians. However, the cabinet
of the day voted against the motion and it was considered non-binding.
About two dozen other countries have recognized the deaths of 1.5
million Armenians as a genocide. Turkey maintains the deaths were
caused by civil strife, diseases and famine during the turmoil of
the First World War while Armenia was under Turkish Ottoman control.
The Turkish Prime Minister’s letter was dated April 18.
The letter said that although Armenia has yet to respond positively
to Turkey’s proposal for an academic study, Mr. Erdogan hoped that
Mr. Harper would support the idea.
He said that while bonds between Canada and Turkey have deepened —
including co-operation on stabilizing Afghanistan — “the Armenian
lobby in your country has not given up its intentions to create
problems in Turkish-Canadian relations.”
Turkish authorities confirmed yesterday there had been
correspondence. They would not say how Canadian officials replied,
if at all, although government sources said yesterday that officials
informed the Turkish embassy in advance of their plans.
Conservative sources have said that the move is not an effort to win
the votes of the Armenian diaspora in Canada, of whom there are about
70,000. Rather, the issue is seen by many in the Conservative caucus
as a historic wrong.
Conservative MP Jason Kenney, parliamentary secretary to Mr. Harper,
and a long-time supporter of the Armenian viewpoint, said yesterday
that the Prime Minister was simply acknowledging the House of
Commons vote.
“I think that personally the Parliament was right to take the decision
and the Prime Minister had no option but to recognize that decision,”
Mr. Kenney said. “I’m hopeful that the government of Turkey will have
as much respect for the decisions of the Parliament of Canada as our
government does.”
Mr. Kenney said the idea of having the two sides co-operate in a
study should not involve Canada.