TURKEY WATCH
1ST SEMESTER 2007
European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy Avenue de la
Renaissance, 10 Bruxelles 1000 Belgiques Tel. : +32 (0)2 732 70 27
Fax. : +32 (0)2 732 70 27
1. Threats and Murders Against Armenians & Christians 2 2. Persecution
– Destruction – Oppression 3 3. Gloomy prospect for intellectuals 4
4. The Alarming Deep State Connection 5 5. Genocide denial and other
foreign activities of Turkish government 6 6. Creeping fascism and
other HOME activities of the Deep State 7 7. Recommendations 7
Appendix: Chronology – 1st Semester
2007————————————- ———— 9
TURKEY WATCH 1ST SEMESTER 2007
1. THREATS AND MURDERS AGAINST ARMENIANS & CHRISTIANS
The perception and treatment of Christians – and foremost of Armenians
– today in Turkey and by the Turkish authorities has been brutally
demonstrated to the Western public opinion by the killing of columnist
Hrant Dink (19/01/2007). A few days after the mark of compassion
displayed by a small minority of Turkish citizens (who were mainly
Ethnic Armenians or Kurds themselves), evidences of racial hatred
against Armenians erupted all over the country. The famous white cap
worn by the killer Ogun Samast immediately became a fashionable symbol
which rapidly became out of stock.
Shortly after, hate demonstrations took place during football games
when supporters shouted "We are all Turks, We are all Ogun Samast"
or "Those who aren’t standing are Armenians." Later, the Armenian
Patriarch received anonymous threats and was even targeted by
gunshots. Some Armenian columnists were also dismissed by their
employers because of alleged "negative attitude".
This hostility spread to other Christian minorities and especially to
the small Protestant population. Turkish Protestants are often from
former Christian families (Armenians, Assyrians or Greeks) who were
converted to Islam and who come back to their original faith. After
Dink’ s murder, many Protestant priests denounced the threats they
endured in the general indifference. These threats finally led to
the murder of three Protestants in Malatya in April 2007.
The hate sentiment against minorities in general and against Christians
in particular is tolerated – if not encouraged – by the Turkish
authorities. Dominant media continue to describe these people as
second-class citizens, if not enemies. For instance, in April 2007,
Reverend Ahmet Guvener was interviewed by a local TV station in
Diyarbakir. The interview and the montage were conducted in a way
giving the impression that Reverent Guvener was paying Muslims to
convert to Christianity. His own children have even been introduced
by the TV as kidnapped children compelled to convert! This kind of
incitement to hatred is amplified by the authorities: at the very
end of April 2007, a high ranking official from the Ministry of
Justice stated that activities of "congregations’ are more dangerous
than terrorists". In the very same way and during the same period,
the Council for National Security (MGK) threatened the minorities as
"enemies of the Republic".
Ultranationalist organisations, notoriously xenophobic and hostile
to minorities, such as Ulku Ocaklari or Ataturk Dusunce Dernegi
(Association for Ataturk thought !), also play a notable role in the
social fabric of Turkey and are regularly honoured by the government
or even associated with its strategies.
Given the backdrop of the Armenian genocide, hatred towards Armenians
is especially important in Turkey where it plays the role of an
oriental version of anti-Semitism. Racial stereotypes are widespread
about Armenians, who are described as deceitful, stingy, cowardly
and so forth. "Son of Armenian" or "Armenian bastard" are common
insults. In the same way, conventional anti-Semitism is also widespread
(Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion are regular
best-sellers in Turkey) but is actually less significant since the
Jewish community is now nearly vanished. This gloomy situation leaves
the Armenian and Christian minorities in total dereliction. The last
known episode is the issuance to 32 Armenian schools of anonymous
death threats (14 May 2007). None of these facts triggered appropriate
reactions from the European Union.
2. PERSECUTION – DESTRUCTION – OPPRESSION
Beside the direct threats described above, the overall state of
oppression against the Armenian and Christian minorities has been
tolerated if not reinforced.
Despite so-called "reforms," Armenians and Christians are still
prevented from freely teaching their language, culture and history
to their children. Though officially ruled by a director, minority
schools are today always directed by a Turk Muslim deputy director
who acts as a kind of political commissioner.
Armenians and Christians are still banned from official positions
in the administrations and continue to endure severe discrimination
especially in the remote areas where they are actually persecuted.
They have to finance their own their priests and places of worship
whereas Sunni Muslim clerics and Mosques are granted by the Diyanet,
the Ministry of Religion. Local Christian priests are also not allowed
to train new priests and foreign teachers are prohibited too.
Christian places of worship are strictly monitored and restricted. They
are also economically strangled: Despite numerous announcements,
the law dating from 1936 and prohibiting donations to Churches is
still in force. Thus, countless donated buildings and assets that
have been given to the Christian churches from the 70s’ were looted
by the government and never returned to these churches. The legal
framework behind this organized desecration is deliberately complex
and obscure and attempts of reforms didn’t change the situation.
The latest episode of organized desecration is the "inauguration"
of the Aghtamar Island’s church. This church is one of the most
famous Armenian Churches of Turkey. It is located on the Aghtamar
Island in Lake Van in historical Armenia. It dates back from the Xth
century and it is one of the few remaining Armenian churches that
miraculously escaped destruction in 1915, during the genocide. Its
legal owner remains the Armenian Church since its representatives
never left Turkey even in the aftermath of the Genocide. For a while
the official name given by the authorities to this architectural
monument was turkified in Akdamar and presented as typical of the
Bagratid dynasty to avoid the name "Armenian" .
Recently, under the pretext of so-called reconciliation, the church
was " restored" by erasing all its Christian Armenian symbols. For
example, centuries-old khatchkars (cross-stones) around the church
were displaced (if not destroyed since nobody knows where they are
now) and the cross at the top of the dome was removed. To avoid utter
provocation, the " inauguration" of the desecrated church was moved
to late March 2007 instead of the initially forecast date: 24th April,
the anniversary of the Genocide! The initial reaction of the Armenian
Patriarch of Constantinople was to denounce this scandal and he stated
that he will not attend the "inauguration". Nevertheless, he attended
to diffuse the threats against his community. This soft looting is
up to now the last phase of the desecration and destruction process
against the Armenian Church in Turkey, a country that appears as a
lawless area from this point of view.
3. GLOOMY PROSPECT FOR INTELLECTUALS
Dink’s murder and the nationalist wake-up of Turkey sounded the
end of Istanbul’s spring. It triggered a brutal censorship and
even self-censorship of frightened intellectuals who were used up
to then as a democratic showcase by the authorities. One of the most
noteworthy reactions was the escape of Nobel Prize laureate Orhan Pamuk
who also transferred all his bank accounts in the United States. In
the aftermath, so-called "controversial issues" were banned from the
public debate. Prominent intellectuals such as Ismaïl Kaboglu, Etyen
Mahcupyan, Elif Safak, Ismet Berkan, or Baskin Oran were put under
police protection. Columnist Gulay Gökturk described the atmosphere
as resurgence of the "Union and Progress spirit", the one that finally
led to the Armenian genocide in 1915.
In the framework of this nationalist blow compared by some newspapers
as an "ending Weimar republic", repressive legislations were
reinforced.
For instance, the Grand Assembly adopted a package of laws allowing the
censorship of Internet websites supposed to propagate "insults to Atatu
rk". This package of laws was enacted by President Sezer in May 2007.
Beforehand, many websites mentioning Kurdish or Assyrian issues or the
Armenian genocide had been blocked in Turkey, including the popular
website Youtube.
Additionally, progressive newspapers such as Nokta or Gundem were
closed as well as some radio broadcasting stations. Columnist Ozkoray
who published articles in these papers on militarism in Turkey is
now in exile in France. Ozkoray and others fear major pogroms. These
views are shared by Turkey’s specialists from abroad such as Hamit
Bozarslan who heads the prestigious French "Ecole des Hautes Etudes
en Sciences Sociales".
4. THE ALARMING DEEP STATE CONNECTION
The inquiry on Dink’s murder gave evidence for strong connections
between the killer Ogun Samast and his accomplices Ehran Tuncel
and Yasin Hayal with high-rank military officials such as Veli
Kucuk. Major General Veli Kucuk was responsible for the JITEM, the
Gendarmerie’s Special Forces. His name was previously mentioned during
the investigation on the attack against the Constitutional Court
(May 2006).
Kucuk was known to be in close connection with Muzaffer Tekin, a
former lieutenant-colonel of the Turkish army who was also member
the so-called "Turkish resistance group" a notorious paramilitary
organisation known for having performed murders of Turkish and Greek
pacifists in Cyprus.
Muzaffer Tekin is suspected of having headed Erhan Timuroglu and
Alparslan Arslan who made the attack against the Court. Pictures
recently disclosed give evidence of direct connections between Tekin,
Kuc uk and Arslan and also with Kemal Kerinciz, the ultranationalist
lawyer who filed cases against Dink and against numerous other
intellectuals. Ku cuk’ name was previously mentioned during the
Susurluk scandal but civil prosecutors were forbidden to launch
investigation against him. Kucuk was also present during the last trial
of Hrant Dink. This very unusual and concerning fact was perceived
as a direct threat.
Recurrent usage of concepts, methods and wordings referring to
and taking pride from the Armenian genocide is a significant
feature of these groups. For instance, Tekin is nicknamed "cete"
which literally means "gangster". Cete was also the denomination
of the Special Organisation mobs which implemented the genocide in
1915-1916. In April 2006, Kucuk, Tekin, Kerinciz, former minister
of culture Namik Kemal Zeybek and others paid tribute to Kemal Bey,
a high ranking official involved in the genocide. Those people are
also linked to Kizilelma (Red Apple) a group gathering leftist and
rightist extremists. The name " Kizilelma" is also a direct reference
to the "Turan" – the Turkish world, an expansionist project dating
back from the Ottoman time. Last but not least the very same groups
made projects to foster the denial of the Armenian genocide in Europe
(see next chapter): one of these projects was named "Talat Pasha"
after the name of the genocide’s main architect.
Reliable analysis considers that these gangs are controlling the
narcotic transit from Central Asia to Europe via Nakhichevan, a lawless
area in Azerbaijan, and via Trabzon. Their opposition to Turkey’s EU
application would be motivated by their will to withdraw Trabzon from
the EU custom controlling practices. For instance, Kucuk and Arslan
have attended a worldwide Azeri congress in Stockholm and Arslan
declared that activists are trained in training camps in Azerbaijan
"to kill Armenians". After the Constitutional Court attack, Timouroglu
also declared "we should have killed Armenians".
Facing this reality, Turkish Premier Erdogan recognized that there
is a Deep State ("derin devlet") in Turkey. In the aftermath of
Dink’s murder, he stated "We can describe it as gangs inside a state
organization, and this kind of structure does exist since the Ottoman
time. Our state and our nation have paid a high price because we have
not been able to crack down on such networks."
In the very same vein, Mete Gökturk, the former prosecutor of Istanbul
State Security Court, declared on the 9 February 2007 that he doesn’t
" think that the inquiry [about Dink’s murder] will come to its term
because the ideological profile of the involved criminals is the same
than the one of the persons who are within the State institutions
and who are in charge of the investigations."
5. GENOCIDE DENIAL AND OTHER FOREIGN ACTIVITIES OF TURKISH GOVERNMENT
The denial of the Armenian Genocide is the most constant and
aggressive policy of Turkey abroad. It never slowed down even during
the Istanbul’s spring from the end of 2003 to the end of 2005. It is
nearly impossible to report countless initiatives taken by Ankara
for the sake of this policy. From the beginning of 2007, the most
notorious initiatives were: ï~B§ to hinder an exhibition on the Tutsi
Genocide in the UN (New York) under the pretext that one of the posters
was mentioning Raphael Lemkin’ s stance on the Armenian genocide,
ï~B§ to trigger a threadbare "reconciliation" initiative eluding
the Genocide issue – through some mislead Nobel prize laureates,
ï~B§ to attempt capitalizing on Hrant Dink’s murder in organizing
superficial evidences of "reconciliation" but in covering again the
Genocide issue and their own responsibility both in Dink’s murder
and in the Genocide, ï~B§ to organize denial conferences in Europe,
especially in Brussels (Belgium) and Paris. This last operation is
particularly notable since it has been planned and achieved by the
notorious Talat Pasha committee (the equivalent of what would be
a Hitler committee for the Jewish Holocaust). This committee has a
executive board headed by Dogu Perinc ek, the denier who was recently
condemned in Lausanne (Switzerland) and a board of trustees gathering
representatives of all the major Turkish political parties (AKP, CHP,
MHP, DYP, ANAP and IP) and headed by Rauf Denktas, the former president
of the unrecognized Turkish entity of Northern Cyprus, ï~B§ to send
various missions to Washington to derail the recognition process of
the Genocide initiated by the U.S. House of Representatives; to press
as well various governments to avoid either to recognize to genocide
(Israel) or to penalize its denial (the Netherlands) – to similarly
threaten Chile for having recognized the Genocide or to leverage
Turkish-speaking brethren in Bulgaria to derail the recognition
process in Bulgaria, ï~B§ to place pressure even on the European
Council to try to exclude the Armenian genocide from the field of the
EU framework decision against racism and xenophobia so that only the
Armenian Genocide would be denied, – to inspire physical aggressions
against Armenians in Europe. On the 23rd April 2007, a young Armenian
boy was wounded by knife by a young fanatic Turk.
It should be emphasized that all these initiatives are not standalone
actions led by unconnected groups but are generally headed and
coordinated by governmental bodies. The global aim of this policy is
to make the world (and especially the EU) endorse the racist position
of Turkey against the Armenian (a good illustration would have been
the framework decision penalizing all genocide denial but the one of
the Armenian genocide).
6. CREEPING FASCISM AND OTHER HOME ACTIVITIES OF THE DEEP STATE
To fulfill 7. RECOMMENDATIONS The most recent elements regarding
Turkey and the rise of intolerance, xenophobia and ultranationalism
in this important country should be an actual concern of the European
Union. It is not only a matter of moral principles but this evolution
is endangering the whole regional stability from Iraq to Eastern
Mediterranean Sea, from Armenia to Eastern Europe.
Henceforth, we recommend the European Parliament and the European
Commission: – to demand that Turkey continue Dink’s murderers’
trials throughout its due process. The preceding similar cases about
Susurluk and Semdinli just ended on sanctioning second mates and
have not allowed to punish the backers ; to envisage if needed an
International Court as for the murder of Rafic Hariri in Lebanon, –
to record notorious Turkish criminal organisations such as ADD, Grey
Wolves, Alperen and Ulku Ocaklari in the EU terrorist organizations
list, to closely monitor them and to ban their activities in Europe,
– to make a comprehensive and fair assessment of the Turkish legal
texts (Constitution, penal code and other various codes) legalizing
the past and present discrimination and destruction of the Armenians
of Turkey, – to condition the financial support of the pre-accession
strategy to actual progress in freedom of speech, withdrawing of
denial policy and respect of minorities rights ; to set up mandatory
educational programs within this pre-accession strategy to teach
tolerance and genocide history to Turkish pupils and scholars, –
to address these issues and especially the official recognition of
the Armenian genocide by the Turkish government among the top-level
political priorities of the negotiations chapter.
– to avoid cautioning counterproductive Turkey’s strategies of
fake dialog. Past experiences show that so-called "reconciliation"
initiatives involving dialog between civil societies or experts
committees or historians committees are merely tactical way to delay
the issue and to avoid fair and frank political recognition of the
Armenian genocide by Turkey.
CHRONOLOGY 1ST SEMESTER 2007
– 19/01 Murder of Hrant Dink – The Armenian columnist is shot to death
because of his struggle for the recognition of the Armenian genocide
and for freedom of speech.
– 01/02 Nobel Prize laureate Orhan Pamuk runaways from Turkey. He
used to be regularly threatened by ultranationalists but the murder
of Dink gave some substance to these threats.
– 01/02 Turkey’s warships made intimidation manoeuvres close to Cyprus
after energetic agreement between Lebanon, Cyprus and Egypt.
– 10/02 A "Great project Turkey" disclosed – some Turkish groups
plan to invade Mossul, Kirkuk, Northern Syria, South Cyprus, Crete,
Aegean islands, Western Thrace and Armenia.
– 15/02 Denial Conference regarding the Armenian Genocide organized
in Brussels by the Turkish Diyanet.
– 07/03 Denialist Dogu Perincek fined in Switzerland for having denied
the Armenian genocide in Lausanne on two times.
– 08/03 Gundem newspaper is closed upon administrative decision.
– 29/03 "Inauguration" of the looted and desecrated Armenian church
of Aghtamar by the Turkish authorities.
– 09/03 Turkey forces the UN to cancel an exhibit on the Tutsi genocide
because of a label recalling the Armenian genocide.
– 10/04 The Turkish Parliament approves censoring Internet as China
or Burma: Websites talking about Cyprus occupation or the Armenian
genocide under threat of censorship.
– 12/04 Turkish Army advocates for a direct military intervention in
Northen Iraq.
– 14/04 One million ultranationalist demonstrators gather in Ankara
against the possible candidacy of Erdogan, the fundamentalist Prime
Minister, for the presidential election.
– 18/04 Three Christians slaughtered – Tilman Ekkehart Geske, Necati
Aydin, and Ugur Yuksel are throat-cutted in Malatya. They worked in
an editing house which published Bibles.
– 21/04 Nokta newspaper is forced to close.
– 24/04 92nd anniversary of the Armenian genocide – Abdullah Gul,
the fundamentalist Ministry of Foreign Affairs is candidate to
presidential election.
– 27/04 Abdullah Gul elected in the first round- threats of the Army
against the AKP and against the non-Muslims minorities.
– 29/06 One million ultranationalists demonstrates in Istanbul against
Gu l’s election.
– 01/05 Â" Soft Â" Coup- the Constitutional court cancels the first
round of presidential election.
– 08/05 Turkey launches its nuclear program as Iran.
– 14/05 Death threats against the schools belonging to the Armenian
minority. Turkish intellectuals fear new pogrom against minorities
and against themselves.
– 23/05 Law censoring Internet endorsed by president Sezer.
– 24/05 AKP’s Premier Erdogan pledges to support military invasion
of Northern Iraq.
– 28/05 Trade Unionist Deprem Sarikas, a high school literature
teacher, killed in a "planned and professional manner".
– 04/06 Turkey launches offensive against Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan.
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