U.S. GENOCIDE MOVE REOPENS OLD WOUNDS IN TURKEY
By Gareth Jones – Analysis
Reuters, UK
Oct 16 2007
ANKARA (Reuters) – A symbolic declaration about events 92 years ago
might seem of little but academic interest, but to Turks a text now
before the U.S. Congress is so sensitive that they are ready to risk
ties with their main strategic ally.
The non-binding resolution, approved by Congress’s Foreign Relations
Committee last week and expected to be endorsed in November by the
House of Representatives, brands as genocide the 1915 mass killings
of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.
NATO member Turkey has recalled its envoy to Washington for
consultations and has hinted it might halt logistical support to
U.S. troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan if the bill passes. It
may also deny U.S. firms lucrative defense contracts.
Most Turks view the bill as a hostile act that insults their national
honor. The resolution also revives old Turkish fears of foreign
meddling in its internal affairs.
"The Armenian issue is being used as a lever by those who want to
hurt and undermine Turkey," Murat Mercan, a senior lawmaker of the
ruling AK Party, told Reuters, voicing a sentiment widely felt in
this key NATO ally of Washington.
"We are proud of our history. We have nothing to hide. The fact
we have opened our archives and have proposed a joint committee of
historians from Turkey, Armenia and elsewhere to study the documents
shows we are confident about our history."
If Congress passes the resolution, it will be following in the steps
of many other foreign legislatures, including those of France, Russia,
Greece and Canada. Each time, Turkey has reacted angrily, temporarily
cutting trade, defense and other ties.
But the Congress moves are especially hurtful to Ankara, already
fuming over Washington’s failure to tackle Kurdish rebels based in
northern Iraq. Turkey is now considering sending troops into Iraq to
crush the rebels, despite U.S. opposition.
NATIONAL CHARACTER
Mehmet Ali Birand, a veteran liberal commentator, said Turkey should
put aside talk of retaliation and adopt calmer tactics in its global
efforts to counter the genocide claims.
"But when we see a wall blocking our way we do tend to charge straight
at it. It seems to be in our national character," he said, conceding
a change of tactics was unlikely.
William Hale of Istanbul’s Sabanci University, said part of the
explanation for Turkey’s behavior lies in its unhappy experiences at
foreign hands in the late Ottoman period before Kemal Ataturk founded
the modern republic in 1923.
"The fundamental problem is the ‘Sevres’ syndrome," he said, referring
to a failed attempt by major Western powers to carve up Turkey after
World War One. That treaty, among other things, envisaged creating
a large Armenian state in eastern Turkey.
"The Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire, including the
Armenians, were long used by rapacious foreign powers as a tool to
advance their territorial ambitions in Turkey," he said.
Similarly, he said, U.S. or French politicians trying to put pressure
on Turkey to accept the genocide claims are motivated by domestic
agendas rather than by a real interest in the past.
The politician behind the Congress resolution has many American
Armenians in his district. France, also home to a large Armenian
diaspora, has used the issue to try to block Turkey’s efforts to join
the European Union, Hale said.
Turkey accepts that many Armenians were killed during World War One,
but denies they were victims of a systematic genocide. It says many
Muslim Turks also died in inter-ethnic fighting that raged as the
multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire collapsed.
Ankara also says many Armenians backed invading Russian forces,
thus ensuring Turkish retaliation.
"It is grotesque to say there was a genocide. It was a political
struggle over a piece of territory. If they could, the Armenians would
have driven out all Muslims," said Hasan Unal, a nationalist-minded
professor at Ankara’s Bilkent University.
"We Turks strongly believe no genocide ever took place."
Turks fear a wave of compensation and property claims by Armenians
if Ankara ever gives any ground on the issue.
TESTING TABOO
Some liberals attribute the power of the genocide taboo in Turkey to
a rigidly nationalist education system.
"The idea of genocide does not tally with Turkey’s official historic
self-image, with the image we have been taught of a glorious revolution
against imperial powers trying to dismember our country," said Semih
Idiz of the Milliyet daily.
Asserting that there was an Armenian genocide is still a crime in
Turkey, despite increased freedom of expression due to European
Union-inspired reforms.
Nobel Literature Laureate Orhan Pamuk narrowly escaped a jail sentence
for his comments on the Armenian issue.
Turkish Armenian editor Hrant Dink, who had urged Turkey to face up
to its history, was shot dead in January outside his Istanbul office
by an ultra-nationalist youth.
More than 100,000 Turks took to the streets at Dink’s funeral to
protest against ultra-nationalist violence. Many wore the slogan
"We are all Armenians", suggesting a new desire among Turks to reach
out despite the past in a spirit of solidarity.
"My fear is that the U.S. Congress vote will now just encourage
the hardliners on both sides, just as the veil (on old taboos) was
starting to lift," said Idiz.