TURKISH ACADEMIA AND THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
ASSYRIAN INTERNATIONAL NEWS AGENCY AINA
Dec 23 2013
By Orhan Kemal Cengiz, AL Monitor
Posted 2013-12-23 07:19 GMT
Thousands of master’s theses and Ph.D. dissertations in the social
sciences are written each year in Turkey. The Higher Education Board
(YOK) keeps an electronic database of their topics and titles. A
search in the database of dissertations on the Armenian genocide
returns a striking result: Only four theses have been written on
the issue and, as their titles immediately suggest, they all reflect
Turkey’s official position on the massacres.
The four titles are as follows: “Armenian genocide claims in view
of international law,” “The importance of pressure groups, lobby
activities within the context of the so-called Armenian genocide,”
“Turkish-Armenian relations in history and the impact of Armenian
genocide claims on Turkey’s European Union membership process” and
“Armenian genocide claims in international law.”
That is all Turkish universities have been able to produce in terms
of theses on the topic of the Armenian genocide. How is this possible?
Are there no academics willing to write dissertations contesting
Turkey’s official history line and argue, for instance, that the 1915
events were a genocide? Or is there a state mechanism in place that
doesn’t leave it up to chance?
A Dec. 12 report in the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos reveals
that academics working on dissertations about the Armenian genocide
are under the close scrutiny of the Turkish Historical Society (TTK).
According to Agos, the TTK has asked YOK for the details of academics
studying the Armenian issue and the YOK chairman, in turn, has asked
universities to provide that information. A document Agos published
indicates that the YOK chairman had asked universities to supply
“the names of master’s and doctoral students working on the Armenian
problem, the titles of their researches and contact information,
in view of making them available to the Turkish Historical Society
in the work it conducts.”
As I mentioned in my previous article for Al-Monitor, various
government institutions in Turkey are busy making counter preparations
for 2015, the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. The TTK
is one of them. The society is likely to have requested the said
information from YOK with a view of using it in those preparations.
When Agos asked the TTK why they needed that information, a TTK
official stated that scholarships might be offered to academics working
in this realm. Agos then asked whether the TTK would give a scholarship
to someone whose thesis qualifies the 1915 events as genocide. The
official responded that, since the TTK does not officially recognize
the Armenian genocide, providing a scholarship to such a study might
not be possible.
Agos argues that the TTK’s real motive is to control the academia
and keep records of those working on the Armenian problem.
A subsequent report in the Taraf daily backed up Agos’ argument that
those studying the Armenian genocide are being secretly profiled. Two
former presidents of Istanbul’s Bogazici University, interviewed
by Taraf, shed light on how the censorship mechanism works in the
academia.
Ustun Erguder confirmed he had received letters from YOK with requests
for information. “During my term as university president, YOK would
send such letters, but we would dismiss them as [those requests]
had nothing to do with our understanding of academic freedom. That’s
something that has been done for years. We had even received letters
suggesting we made sure that theses ‘supporting Turkish unity’ were
written. It is out of the question for me to approve of YOK requests
seeking out the names and details of those writing theses on the
Armenian problem,” Erguder said.
Another former Bogazici University president, Ayse Soysal, made
the following comments: “I used to receive similar letters from YOK,
while I was university president. It was routine. Two types of letters
would come from YOK. One would be in the form of [suggestions] that
we support studies backing the state’s official view on subject X or
subject Y.”
The insight the two former presidents provide on how the system
functions explains why only four dissertations have been written on
the Armenian genocide and why all happen to be in line with Turkey’s
official view.
In another article for Al-Monitor, I had written also about how
Turkey’s non-Muslims’ birth registries were marked with secret codes
and how the non-Muslims could not become army officers, judges or
policemen. And this latest example — the lack of even one academic
thesis contesting Turkey’s official position on the Armenian problem
— is another indication that certain taboo realms are besieged by
unwritten but stern rules.
True, the Armenian taboo has been broken in Turkish civil society
and intellectual life. Yet, it continues to exist in this or that
form in the “official” realm. Thanks to the exposure of practices
such as the TTK request for information about academics studying the
Armenian problem, we are getting clues on how Turkey’s official theses
are being produced and sustained.
No doubt, the exposed practices represent only part of the whole
picture. To understand fully why, how and in what atmosphere Turkey’s
official theses remain intact, the known pieces need to be brought
together with the pieces that remain beyond our knowledge. Only then
will we be able to know how Turkey’s official history theses are able
to survive unchanged.
Translated by Sibel Utku Bila.
http://www.aina.org/news/20131223011929.htm