THE GERMAN-TURKISH CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE DIASPORA
By MassisPost
Updated: November 19, 2013
By Toros Sarian
The background and the effects of the German financed reconciliation
projects.
The decades of silence regarding the Armenian Genocide during the
Ottoman Empire was instantly broken as Gourgen Yanikian shot the
Turkish General Consul and his Employee in Santa Barbara in January
1973. Turkish hopes that this act of Genocide would remain forgotten
was transformed into an illusory wish. An elderly Armenian, living
in distant California, proved that the descendants of this Turkish
atrocity had not forgotten. In Santa Barbara the campaign had begun for
the international recognition of this Genocide. During the campaign
Armenians have informed the world public and have increased world
awareness of these atrocities committed within the Ottoman Empire. Many
Parliaments have passed resolutions recognizing the historical fact
of the Armenian genocide. Turkey has declared the Armenian Diaspora
to be a national enemy and took all possible measures to combat the
“Armenian Lobby” and to prevent the International recognition of the
Armenian Genocide.
It is widely accepted that Germany carries a joint responsibility for
the Genocide against the Armenians during the Ottoman Empire period.
This is clearly documented in the archive papers of the German Foreign
Ministry which were published by the German journalist and publisher
Wolfgang Gust in 2005. He persistently pointed out that only the
German Government could have prevented Turkey from carrying out the
Governments criminal plan of “solving the Armenian problem”. The
German government under Emperor Wilhelm II failed to do so as their
Alliance with the Turkish Regime was more important than the lives
of the Christian Armenians.
The Berlin Government had been extremely silent regarding these
atrocities, whilst at the same time proclaiming their exemplary
conduct in addressing the atrocities committed against the European
Jews during the Second World War, even suggesting that Turkey should
take to heart their example. But when Germany is so courageous and
open to working out the crimes of their past why had the German
government remained silent till 2005 before beginning to evaluate
their part in the Armenian Genocide? Only at the start of 2005
did the present Chancellor, Angela Merkel, forward a motion to
parliament to commemorate the victims of the atrocities committed
against Armenians throughout the Ottoman Empire. In April a debate
took place on this theme in the German Parliament and in June an
all party formulated resolution was passed. This resolution read as
follows: “The German Bundestag honors and commemorates the victims of
violence, murder and expulsion among the Armenian people before and
during the First World War. The Bundestag deplores the deeds of the
Young Turkish government in the Ottoman Empire which have resulted
in the almost total annihilation of the Armenians in Anatolia. It
also deplores the inglorious role played by the German Reich which,
in spite of a wealth of information on the organized expulsion and
annihilation of Armenians, has made no attempt to intervene and stop
these atrocities.” (Full text: )
Although in the Resolution there was no explicit mention of an Armenian
genocide many Armenians outside Germany interpreted the Resolution as
being a recognition by the German Government of the Genocide against
the Armenians. On the website of the ~DArmenian National Institute”
it was stated that Germany was one of the nations which had recognized
the Genocide. However, the Organization of Armenians in Germany has
never viewed this Resolution from the German Parliament as recognition
of the Genocide.
The Central Committee of Armenians in Germany has made it clear on
many occasions that this parliamentary resolution does not meet the
expectations of the Armenians in Germany.
In a Press release on the 13th March 2010 the organization stated
that “The formal recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Germany
is unavoidable and well overdue”, On the 6th April the organization
demanded again from the German Parliament the formal recognition of
the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire in 1915, according the
UN convention concerning Prevention and Punishment of Acts of genocide.
There are clearly different opinions regarding the assessment of
the German parliamentary Resolution of 2005. If the resolution
was such a clear recognition of the genocide, why did the Turkish
Government accept it so calmly and not react as it always did after
such resolutions? Germany has a large Turkish immigrant population
and the Turkish nationalists are well organized, but still there were
no protests or demonstrations. There were no demands for a boycott
of German products. Although the Turkish Government sent a formal
protest against the resolution, it was very mild in contrast to other
occasions when a state recognized the Genocide.
One comes to the conclusion that there must be other reasons why
the Turkish Government and Turkish Nationalists reacted so tamely to
the resolution. After the debate in April 2005 the German Chancellor
Schroder travelled to Turkey. One theme was surely the contents of the
all party formulated resolution. As time passed it was clear that the
German and Turkish Governments had agreed upon a common strategy in
dealing with the Genocide resolution. The old German-Turkish alliance
had made the Genocide in 1915 possible and now the two allies had
to find a way of preventing the demands of the Armenians for the
recognition of the genocide from being pushed into the political arena.
The key to answering this question lies in essence in the title
of the resolution Thus: “Germany must make her contribution to the
reconciliation between Turks and Armenians”
At first glance the demand for reconciliation seems something which
cannot be rejected or criticized. Reading from statements issued by
the German government since 2005, it is clear that the policy is not
reconciliation between Armenians and Turks, but between the Republic
of Armenia and Turkey. If the German government views the Genocide
question as an issue to be solved by the two states then it is clear
that the Armenian Diaspora has no role to play, according to the
German government. The descendants of the survivors of the genocide,
who have settled all over the world, would be accordingly ignored.
Although over the decades it has been these people who have campaigned
for the recognition of the atrocities. Demands of the German Parliament
for a Turkish-Armenian reconciliation have aroused no opposition from
the Turkish government: It is willing for reconciliation, but is not
prepared to recognize the atrocities of 1915 as genocide.
The Armenian Diaspora is viewed by the Turkish Government as an
“enemy”, which they have not so far been able to muzzle. The only
possible way available for the Turkish Government to bypass the
“irreconcilable Armenian Diaspora” is to turn the Genocide Question
into a theme to be dealt with the Republic of Armenia. The Genocide
will become a question for negotiation between the two states, thus
the Diaspora will have no right or chance to engage in the process.
The weakened State of Armenia, already isolated by Turkey and
Azerbaijan can alone be put under even more pressure not only by Turkey
but also her allies, especially Germany. By putting the reconciliation
of the two nations, onto the political Agenda, the German Government
has done the Turkish government an immense favor.
Armenian organizations in Europe have neither been very attentive in
following the political developments since 2005. Nor have they been
able to recognize the ramification of the German contribution to the
Reconciliation process, let alone the political motives behind this
policy. However on evaluation of the information currently available
it becomes increasingly clear. Ulla Jelpke, Parliamentary member for
the Links Party (The Left Party) put forward a short written question
to the German government in August this year. Her aim was to ascertain
which academic projects were being financed by the German state with
the aim of critically evaluating the Genocide Question. The Foreign
Office Secretary of State, Cornelia Piper responded giving details
of great interest to Armenians. The detailed statement included
the following: “On the basis of the cited Resolution of the German
Parliament from June 2005, mentioned in your question, the German
Government´s representative at the Department for Culture and Media
has granted a sum of 410,000 euros to the Lepsius House in Potsdam,
for equipment and cultural development programs, to establish the
House as a center for German-Turkish Research and Cultural Place of
Exchange. The German Government is accompanying the Turkish-Armenian
reconciliation process with support for cross-border activities of
NGO´s and German Political Foundations. In this spirit, the German
Foreign Office has provided funds to a total of 1,4 million between
2009 and 2013 to the reconciliation project established by the
Institute for International Cooperation of the German Adult Education
Association, (dvv international), under the title “Speaking to One
Another”. The content of this project involves Student and scholar
exchanges between Armenia and Turkey, common critical historical
evaluation of the past events in the form of seminars, publications
and exhibitions.” Apart from these two large sums 410,000 and 1,
4 million, the German Government has funded smaller activities to
the sum of 50,000 euros. In total, the sum of 1, 9 million has been
provided to support projects involved in the Reconciliation Process
between Armenia and Turkey.
The financial support by Lepsius House in the city of Potsdam is
widely known, and the work of Lepsius House is also known also by many
Armenians in Germany. But, the work carried out by “dvv international”
is largely unknown. On their website the organization’s areas of
activity are described as follows: “The dvv supports a European and
worldwide exchange of information and expertise regarding adult
education and development, aids the establishment and expansion
of structures for youth and adult education in developing and
transformation countries and offers training consultation and medium
provision for global intellectual euro political learning.” (For more
information see: )
This institution which has been active in the Republic of Armenia since
2002 and according to their Website is “one of the most important
players in the field of Adult Education and LifeLong Learning”, has
certainly established good contacts with the Government. The German
Foreign Office and the dvv-international, and the Armenian ministries
have presumably cooperated in organizing the Reconciliation projects
in Armenia. A similar close cooperation will have taken place with the
Turkish Government as the “dvv international” is also active in Turkey.
The Sarkisian government gladly embraced their role, thought out by
Germany, in the Reconciliation process and, not purely for political
reasons. They should have made it unmistakably clear right from the
start, that the Genocide Question was certainly not an issue solely
between Republic of Armenia and Turkey, but an issue which also
involved the Armenian Diaspora. The position of Yerevan on this issue
shows again that there is no clear agreement between the Sarkisian
Government and the Diaspora regarding the Genocide Question.
One of the Turkish government’s policies is to drive a wedge
between the Diaspora and the Republic of Armenia. The signing of the
Turkish-Armenian Protocols in Zurich is in this connection was a great
success for this Turkish political strategy, even though the Protocols
were not ratified in the end. It may appear to be coincidental that the
dvv-international began their reconciliation projects in the same year,
2009, as the Turkish-Armenian Protocol was being signed in Zurich
and it is not known when the ~DSecret-Diplomacy” began, which led
to the Zurich protocols. If the Turkish-Armenian negotiations began
after 2005 it could be an indication that the negotiations had been
initiated by the German government. Due to Germany’s involvement in
the Genocide, Germany had an interest in ensuring that this theme
was at last taken off the political Agenda.
As close ally to the Turkish government, Germany also had established
close contacts to the Armenian government. Germany had given
generous aid to the country and German investors are an important
investment factor in the region. Therefore the German government had
enough leverage to “convince” Yerevan as to the benefits of starting
negotiations. Perhaps, this leverage had to be used again to persuade
Yerevan to support their “Reconciliation Projects”. After Germany
had pushed the “Recognition Question” onto the “Reconciliation Track”
the Diaspora was and still is confronted with a new situation.
Should they give up their campaign for the recognition of the Genocide
and instead join the “Reconciliation Process” with Turkey?
The Armenian Diaspora must realize the German Government pursued
Reconciliation Policy serves Turkish political interests. Thanks
to Germany, the Turkish Government can now point out that these
“Reconciliation Projects” are being supported by the Armenian
Government and are prepared to “solve” the Genocide question in
cooperation with them. If the international community follows suit and
also views the Genocide Question as a matter between only the Republic
of Armenia and Turkey then the Armenian Diaspora with their demands
for recognition of the Genocide would find no support, as in the past.
The Sarkisian Government was heavily criticized for the Zurich
Protocol. But why is the Diaspora remaining silent when Germany
and Turkey together with the Republic of Armenia are cooperating
on reconciliation? The goal of the German financed “Reconciliation
Projects” is not to persuade Turkey to recognize the atrocities of
1915 as Genocide but to bring about reconciliation between Turkey
and the Republic of Armenia. If this policy succeeds, the Diaspora
campaign for Genocide Recognition which began with the shots in Santa
Barbara would be at an abrupt end.
Photo: Enver Pahsa (L) meeting with a German military officer in
Berlin. (photo AA)
http://massispost.com/archives/10078
www.armenian-genocide.org
www.dvv-international.de