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ANKARA: Intellectuals' campaign of apology rouses heated debates

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  • ANKARA: Intellectuals' campaign of apology rouses heated debates

    Sunday's Zaman, Turkey
    Dec 21 2008


    Event of the Week
    Intellectuals' campaign of apology rouses heated debates


    An apology campaign launched by three intellectuals -- Baskın
    Oran, Cengiz Aktar and Ali BayramoÄ?lu -- for the Ottoman
    killings of Armenians in 1915, has dominated the national agenda in
    Turkey throughout the past week, with many exchanging harsh statements
    in favor or against the campaign.

    The text of the intellectuals' apology, which people were able to sign
    via a Web site, said: `My conscience does not accept the insensitivity
    showed to and the denial of the great catastrophe that Ottoman
    Armenians were subjected to in 1915. I reject this injustice and for
    my part, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian
    brothers. I apologize to them.'

    On Monday, a group of retired Turkish ambassadors signed a
    declaration urging the intellectuals `not to be a part of an insidious
    plan against Turkish national interests.' The group of retired
    diplomats, which includes former Foreign Ministry Undersecretaries
    Korkmaz Haktanır, Å?ükrü ElekdaÄ? and
    Onur Ã-ymen, in a counter-declaration stressed that the move was a
    `disrespectful act toward Turkish history and its martyrs.' State
    officials also made statements criticizing the campaign.

    When asked on Wednesday about the campaign, Prime Minister Recep
    Tayyip ErdoÄ?an claimed that those who had committed crimes
    could apologize but that the state and the nation did not have to take
    part in the apology. `We cannot accept this just because some writers
    have launched a campaign,' ErdoÄ?an said, continuing: `I don't
    accept such a campaign, I don't support this campaign, and I am not
    taking part in it. We did not any commit crimes, so we don't need to
    apologize.' When asked about his opinion of the campaign on the same
    day, President Abdullah Gül said Turkey is a country in which
    the freedom of expression is alive and well.

    On Friday, Parliament Speaker Köksal Toptan said the
    campaign was an unjust act against Turkey. `Those signing it first
    condemn Turkey and later apologize for this condemnation,' he said,
    adding that Turkish diplomats have, in the past, been killed by
    Armenian terrorist organizations. `Who will apologize for their
    deaths? This is why I think it would be better to not have this
    campaign,' he said. Brig. Gen. Metin Gürak, the head of the
    General Staff's communications department, on Friday in a regular
    press briefing, described the campaign as `definitely not right.'
    `Apologizing is not only wrong, it is behavior that can produce
    harmful results,' he said in response to a question about the
    campaign.

    Dec. 13

    A pileup killed four and wounded three in Ã`mraniye when a driver
    tried to avoid hitting a wild pig that ran onto the road. Witnesses
    said a pack of wild pigs scurried across the road, causing the
    collision. The road was temporarily closed while teams worked to clear
    the road and remove the vehicles.

    A delegation from the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) had
    talks with Massoud Barzani, the head of the regional Kurdish
    administration in northern Iraq. The meeting took place at Barzani's
    residence in the resort town of Salahaddin, the Web site of the
    Peyamner news agency, affiliated with Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic
    Party (KDP), reported.

    Dec. 14

    As of Nov. 1, there were 101,100 convicts and detainees in Turkish
    prisons and detention centers, according to information from the
    Justice Ministry's General Directorate of Prisons and Detention
    Houses. The figure represented the highest number of detainees in the
    past 39 years.

    In the past three days, seven fires occurred in mosques in
    Ä°stanbul, with five of them occurring on the same day. Police
    and firefighters said the cause of the fires may have been faulty
    electrical wiring; however, arson has not been ruled out.

    Dec. 15

    A retired general considered one of the most important suspects in the
    trial of Ergenekon, a clandestine network with links to
    behind-the-scenes intelligence units whose members are charged with
    plotting to overthrow the government, refused to answer questions
    directed at him by the prosecution and co-plaintiff lawyers at the
    Ä°stanbul 13th High Criminal Court in the 26th hearing of the
    trial, which started in late October. Veli Küçük,
    a retired brigadier general believed by the prosecution to be a
    higher-up in the Ergenekon organization, denied all accusations
    against him, including the prosecution's claim that he was the founder
    of a clandestine, unofficial and largely illegitimate intelligence
    unit in the gendarmerie, known to the public as JÄ°TEM.

    More than 130 people were killed and almost 700 were injured in
    traffic accidents during the nine-day national holiday to mark the
    Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice).

    Dec. 16

    Retired Brig. Gen. Veli Küçük, considered one of
    the most important suspects in the trial against Ergenekon, a
    clandestine criminal network charged with plotting to overthrow the
    government, refused to answer questions directed at him on the second
    day of his cross examination at the Ä°stanbul 13th High Criminal
    Court in the 27th hearing of the trial, which started in late October
    in the Ä°stanbul township of Silivri.

    The Supreme Court of Appeals overruled a local court's decision
    regarding a shooting that left a senior judge of the Council of State
    dead in 2006 and demanded that links between the shooting and
    Ergenekon, a criminal network accused of attempting to overthrow the
    government, be investigated. The 9th Chamber of the Supreme Court of
    Appeals voted unanimously against the Council of State ruling handed
    down by the Ankara 11th Higher Criminal Court. The high court ordered
    that the Council of State shooting and a hand grenade attack at a
    newspaper be merged and investigated in light of a suggested link
    established between them and the Ergenekon network.

    President Abdullah Gül postponed a long-planned visit to
    neighboring Iraq due to a recurring ear ailment, his office said.

    A group of retired Turkish ambassadors signed a declaration urging
    intellectuals Baskın Oran, Cengiz Aktar and Ali
    BayramoÄ?lu, who had recently launched a campaign to apologize
    for the Ottoman killings of Armenians in 1915, `not to be a part of an
    insidious plan against Turkish national interests.' Some Turkish
    intellectuals had recently begun to collect signatures for a statement
    that contained a personal apology for the events of 1915, on which the
    Armenian claims of genocide are based. But the group of retired
    diplomats, which includes former Foreign Ministry undersecretaries
    Korkmaz Haktanır, Å?ükrü ElekdaÄ? and
    Onur Ã-ymen, in a counter-declaration stressed that the move was a
    `disrespectful act toward Turkish history and its martyrs.'

    During 2009 budget talks in Parliament, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
    ErdoÄ?an directed harsh criticism at Democratic Society Party
    (DTP) officials, accusing them of resurrecting Nazism in
    Turkey. Tension was high when DTP officials claimed the governing
    party had a `chauvinist mindset.' ErdoÄ?an, in response, lashed
    out at the pro-Kurdish party, saying: `Threats will bring no good to
    you. It is you who has a chauvinist mindset. You have resurrected
    Nazism in this country.'

    Dec. 17

    Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an objected to a campaign initiated by a
    group of intellectuals to apologize for the killings of Armenians at
    the hands of Ottomans during World War I, saying the campaign was
    wrong and was `messing things up.' When asked about the campaign,
    ErdoÄ?an claimed that those who committed crimes should
    apologize but that the state and the nation have no such problem.

    The deputy head of the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat)
    dismissed criticism of the recent addition of 6 million new names to
    the general voter database in the run-up to local elections. Speaking
    with Today's Zaman, TurkStat Deputy Chairman Ã-mer Toprak said
    allegations suggesting that 6 million voters were added to the AKS
    address-based registration database in a single night were
    unfounded. `We did not register anyone as a voter who we could not
    contact,' Toprak said, adding that the number of voters in Turkey has
    remained far below the population over 18 years of age in past
    elections. `For the first time there are as many voters as there
    should be in line with the population aged 18 and above.'

    A leading Armenian diaspora organization based in the United States
    welcomed a public apology by a group of Turkish intellectuals and
    academics for the killings of Anatolian Armenians during World War I,
    suggesting that it represents a step toward recognition of Armenian
    claims that the Ottoman-era killings constituted `genocide.' `An
    irreversible trend has commenced in Turkey,' Bryan Ardouny, executive
    director of the Washington-based Armenian Assembly of America, was
    quoted as saying in a statement posted on the organization's Web site.

    After exchanging harsh words and directing strong accusations at one
    another for days, Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek and
    Republican People's Party (CHP) parliamentary group deputy chairman
    Kemal KılıçdaroÄ ?l u debated for a second
    time on a private television station. The two politicians were
    supposed to settle an argument over claims of corruption in a debate
    broadcast live on Star TV and moderated by journalist UÄ?ur
    Dündar. The debate, however, fell short of revealing the truth,
    with neither side admitting to allegations put forward by the other or
    showing sound evidence to prove their accusations.



    Dec. 18

    Turkey's e-State Portal project, which makes it possible to complete a
    wide range of bureaucratic procedures for various state agencies
    online with minimal effort, was launched in the Ministry of Education
    Assembly Hall in Ankara. Speaking at the ceremony, Prime Minister
    ErdoÄ?an said, `The primary aim of the e-State Portal project,
    which paves the way for the transition to an information society, is
    minimizing bureaucracy and ensuring that our state offers fast and
    quality service to citizens and businesses.'

    Eighteen people were taken into custody in Ä°stanbul by teams
    from the Ä°stanbul Counterterrorism and Intelligence Directorate
    on charges of preparing to launch terrorist attacks.

    Turkey's budget deficit reached YTL 8.3 billion in the first 11 months
    of the year with a deficit of YTL 3.4 billion for November, the
    Finance Ministry announced. The latest deficit figures indicate that,
    despite these high numbers, this year's deficit still remains below
    last year's levels. In the first 11 months of 2007 the budget deficit
    hit YTL 9.7 billion. This year's numbers represent a 14.8 percent
    drop.

    A popular Turkish singer was acquitted of charges against her for
    having made anti-military remarks during a TV program earlier this
    year. A Bakırköy court ruled on that Bülent Ersoy
    be acquitted of charges of trying to turn the public against
    obligatory military service. The court pointed to freedom of speech as
    the rationale for the ruling.

    Dec. 19

    Turkey's slow progress toward eventual European Union membership took
    a small step forward as it opened negotiations with the 27-country
    bloc in two more areas of reforms needed for entry. With the opening
    of the chapters on media reform and the free movement of capital, 10
    of the total 35 chapters have been opened. Ankara has provisionally
    completed negotiations on only one chapter.

    Thirty-eight individuals suspected of membership in al-Qaeda were
    detained in multiple police operations in three Turkish provinces,
    Ä°stanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah announced.



    21 December 2008, Sunday

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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