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Turkish Denialism Of Armenians Continues Even With ExhibitionOrganiz

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  • Turkish Denialism Of Armenians Continues Even With ExhibitionOrganiz

    TURKISH DENIALISM OF ARMENIANS CONTINUES EVEN WITH EXHIBITION ORGANIZED IN
    BRUSSELS

    BRUSSELS, November 18 (Noyan Tapan). The Palace of Fine Arts of
    Brussels (Belgium) hosts the exhibition on Turkey entitled "Mothers,
    Goddesses and Sultans", which will last from October 06 2004 to
    January 16 2005. According to the Assembly of Armenians of Europe, the
    exhibition accounts pieces from the collection of the Topkapi Palace
    (Turkey), Louvre, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the museums of
    Berlin and the most important museums in Turkey. This exhibition is
    organized with the mutual agreement of the prime ministers of Belgium
    and Turkey in order to introduce the Belgian and European society
    with the cultural values and the history of Turkey and intends to
    emphasize the European vocation of Turkey.

    The leaflet on the exhibition distributed to the visitors at the
    entrance of the Palace of Fine Arts says: "We encounter the peoples,
    who have left their traces in Anatolia in the course of 9000 years. The
    journey takes us through such renowned cultures as the Hitties, Greek
    and Roman antiquity, Byzantium and the Ottomans." From the first
    sight one may find the absence of the Armenians and Armenian culture
    in Anatolia very strange, since for centuries the Eastern Anatolia
    was the cradle of Armenians and it is also called the Armenian
    Plateau[i]. Even during the Ottoman Empire Armenians represented a
    sizeable and dynamic part of the ottoman population, particularly in
    Istanbul and other urban centre, and their omission in this exhibition
    is quite deliberate on the part of the Turkish organizers. But the
    most interesting piece of the exhibition is the map of the Ottoman
    Empire from 1299 to 1923, without any mention of the Armenians or
    Armenian Republic (the first Armenian Republic, 1918 - 1920) and
    Greece (independence of Greece recognized by the Ottoman Empire in
    1832). No expert or historian would dare to make a single map to
    represent such a complex region over for such a long period of time
    (1299 - 1923), since the movement of borders has been radical over
    the period considered, and at times extremely rapid.

    It is very strange to see the name of "Azerbaijan" on the map, while
    the names of Armenia and Greece are absent. As reported by Radio
    Free Europe, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry spokesman called for
    Azerbaijan's (the closest ally of the Republic of Turkey) takeover
    of the entire territory of Armenia and removal of the entire Armenian
    population from the Caucasus. He went so far as to say, and we quote,
    "Within the next 25 years there will exist no state of Armenia in
    the South Caucasus." This inevitably reminds of the intentions of the
    perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide. In this context the negationism
    of the Armenians is not a simple mistake or lack of professionalism
    by the organizers of the exhibition, but has its roots go back into
    the beginning of the 20th century - the Armenian Genocide committed by
    the Ottoman Empire in 1915. The Armenian Genocide is still denied by
    the Republic of Turkey, which also imposes a blockade on the Republic
    of Armenia for more than 10 years. Therefore, the radical exclusion
    of Armenians from ottoman history is consistent with the genocide
    carried out in 1915-1916 and it has been the practice in Turkey since
    the establishment of the republic in 1923. The negationism and the
    denial of the Armenian Genocide are also reflected in the premeditated
    annihilation of Armenian cultural heritage in the territory of the
    actual Republic of Turkey.

    The Assembly of Armenians of Europe considers such negationist and
    revisionist attitude of the Republic of Turkey, aspiring to the EU full
    membership unacceptable. We believe that such behaviour destabilizes
    the whole region of South Caucasus and impedes the normalization of
    Armeno-Turkish relations. Moreover, the extension of this denialist
    approach to an exhibition carried out in Belgium, in partnership with
    Belgian institutions, is a worrying sign at a moment when Turkey is
    pressing to join the European community of values. The Assembly of
    Armenians of Europe is sure that this is an attempt of the Turkish
    authorities to force their own denialist approach on an unsuspecting
    European public.
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