Tweet
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock)
October 5, 2005 Wednesday
History lesson Turkey and genocide
THE NEXT time a reluctant student or clueless adult says that history
doesn't matter, it's time to talk Turkey. As in Turkey the somewhat
democratic country that's located mostly in what used to be called
Asia Minor.
Over there, a long-festering political sore has broken open. It seems
that some of the country's professors are insisting that their
countrymen face up to Turkey's dark past, aka the Armenian genocide.
An estimated 1.5 million Armenians are believed to have been
systematically massacred by the Turks between 1915 to 1923.
It's a touchy subject in Turkey, where national pride in the old
Ottoman Empire still runs strong. To accuse the old regime of
practicing genocide is an accusation still so offensive that
participants arriving at the conference on the subject were pelted by
fresh eggs and rotten tomatoes.
It seems the history of events now almost a century old still
reverberates. Turkey is up for membership in the European Union, and
the Union has objected to the difficulties organizers encountered in
setting up such a conference on Turkish soil. The conference had to
be canceled twice, once by Turkey's minister of "justice" and a
second time by a Turkish court. The minister accused those organizing
the conference of "stabbing the people in the back." The court
demanded to know the academic qualifications of those who would speak
at the conference. Free speech this isn't.
The meeting did finally get off the ground, but the European Union
still has questions about just how free its newest candidate for
membership may be. The consequences of trying to censor an ugly past
aren't just emotional. It turns out they're economic and political,
too.
The excuses for refusing to deal with the past are all too familiar
by now. What's the point, the apologists ask. It's all ancient
history. Those living today-at least most of them-aren't responsible.
They didn't participate in those crimes. But the simplest excuse of
all is the falsest: It never happened. The Turkish version of denial
goes like this: Yes, some Armenians may have died back in the bad old
days. But not as many as the critics claim, and lots of Turks also
died in the unrest that came with the First World War and the
collapse of Ottoman rule.
Such denial is common in Japan, too. That society has yet to fully
face its crimes against humanity during the Second World War and the
runup to it. The Rape of Nanking is an especially horrific example.
In what some Japanese textbooks now call an "incident," Japanese
troops systematically slaughtered the Chinese residents of Nanking in
a six-month orgy of violence in 1937-38. An estimated 150,000 to
300,000 died. The Japanese may downplay it, but the Chinese aren't
about to forget. Neither should the rest of the world. Incident,
indeed.Compare the way the Japanese have played down their past with
Germany's response to the Holocaust. Bitter as it had to be, the
German government accepted that nation's responsibility for the
Holocaust. That doesn't change what happened, but it provides an
opportunity for conciliation and even redemption. Facing the past is
the first step toward freeing ourselves of its iron grip. It is
truth, not denial, that sets us free.
Turkey has a long way to go. But this conference in Istanbul shows
that at least a few Turks are willing to look at the past. That way
lies a better future.
This article was published 10/5/2005
October 5, 2005 Wednesday
History lesson Turkey and genocide
THE NEXT time a reluctant student or clueless adult says that history
doesn't matter, it's time to talk Turkey. As in Turkey the somewhat
democratic country that's located mostly in what used to be called
Asia Minor.
Over there, a long-festering political sore has broken open. It seems
that some of the country's professors are insisting that their
countrymen face up to Turkey's dark past, aka the Armenian genocide.
An estimated 1.5 million Armenians are believed to have been
systematically massacred by the Turks between 1915 to 1923.
It's a touchy subject in Turkey, where national pride in the old
Ottoman Empire still runs strong. To accuse the old regime of
practicing genocide is an accusation still so offensive that
participants arriving at the conference on the subject were pelted by
fresh eggs and rotten tomatoes.
It seems the history of events now almost a century old still
reverberates. Turkey is up for membership in the European Union, and
the Union has objected to the difficulties organizers encountered in
setting up such a conference on Turkish soil. The conference had to
be canceled twice, once by Turkey's minister of "justice" and a
second time by a Turkish court. The minister accused those organizing
the conference of "stabbing the people in the back." The court
demanded to know the academic qualifications of those who would speak
at the conference. Free speech this isn't.
The meeting did finally get off the ground, but the European Union
still has questions about just how free its newest candidate for
membership may be. The consequences of trying to censor an ugly past
aren't just emotional. It turns out they're economic and political,
too.
The excuses for refusing to deal with the past are all too familiar
by now. What's the point, the apologists ask. It's all ancient
history. Those living today-at least most of them-aren't responsible.
They didn't participate in those crimes. But the simplest excuse of
all is the falsest: It never happened. The Turkish version of denial
goes like this: Yes, some Armenians may have died back in the bad old
days. But not as many as the critics claim, and lots of Turks also
died in the unrest that came with the First World War and the
collapse of Ottoman rule.
Such denial is common in Japan, too. That society has yet to fully
face its crimes against humanity during the Second World War and the
runup to it. The Rape of Nanking is an especially horrific example.
In what some Japanese textbooks now call an "incident," Japanese
troops systematically slaughtered the Chinese residents of Nanking in
a six-month orgy of violence in 1937-38. An estimated 150,000 to
300,000 died. The Japanese may downplay it, but the Chinese aren't
about to forget. Neither should the rest of the world. Incident,
indeed.Compare the way the Japanese have played down their past with
Germany's response to the Holocaust. Bitter as it had to be, the
German government accepted that nation's responsibility for the
Holocaust. That doesn't change what happened, but it provides an
opportunity for conciliation and even redemption. Facing the past is
the first step toward freeing ourselves of its iron grip. It is
truth, not denial, that sets us free.
Turkey has a long way to go. But this conference in Istanbul shows
that at least a few Turks are willing to look at the past. That way
lies a better future.
This article was published 10/5/2005