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PM'S DERSIM APOLOGY TO SPUR NEW LOOK AT REPUBLIC'S DARK DAYS
Today's Zaman
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-264011-pms-dersim-apology-to-spur-new-look-at-republics-dark-days.html
Nov 27 2011
Turkey
In the wake of Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan's unprecedented
apology for the 1937 Dersim Massacres last week, rights groups and
historians say that now is the time for igniting public debate over
the darkest chapters of Republican history.
The Wednesday apology, which was the culmination of a debate which
erupted earlier this month in the ranks of the opposition Republican
People's Party (CHP), responded to growing calls to "face up to
the historical legacy of Dersim" among a torrent of major Turkish
politicians and intellectuals.
"Erdogan's apology is the first time that these issues have been openly
discussed and acknowledged at the state level," said Ferhat Kentel,
sociologist a Å~^ehir University. "This is one of the most important
steps yet on the path to facing the worst moments of Turkey's past."
Erdogan apologized on Wednesday for the state killings of 13,806
people in the southeastern town of Dersim in 1937, stating that
"Dersim is among the most tragic events in our recent history. It is
a disaster that should now be questioned with courage." It was the
first time the Turkish state has offered a public apology to redress
the events of its past.
Just as striking as the apology was the suddenness with which public
debate produced it. The full state apology came just two weeks after
CHP deputy Huseyin Aygun first called on the state and his party to
recognize the Dersim massacres in an interview with Sunday's Zaman.
Aygun, who claims that the Dersim massacre was planned for years by
high state authorities, including Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, infuriated
many within CHP ranks but earned a torrent of support among
intellectuals and politicians looking for recognition of the massacre.
The willingness of society and the state to so quickly confront Dersim
now raises the question of whether a powerful precedent has been set.
"Apologizing for the Dersim tragedy is a historic development in the
history of republic. It has historic meaning," said Alevi writer and
chairman of the Confrontation with the Past Association Cafer Solgun.
Speaking to Sunday's Zaman on Thursday, Solgun stated that the
apology may provide an important opportunity to petition for more than
official recognition of the Dersim incident. "As Dersim activists,
we asked the state to only apologize. That was our priority.
We now got it. We will now press for other requests from the state.
Our second demand is to change the name of Tunceli back to Dersim.
Then state must research the scale of the massacre, find the remains
of those who were killed. The families of the dead demand this."
Solgun's calls for further state confrontation with Dersim seemed
far from wishful thinking after AK Party Deputy Mehmet Metiner's own
suggestion this week that the government go ahead with such a name
swap, restoring historic namesake of "Dersim" to the region that was
the scene of the massacres.
The momentum which Solgun claims has been won in the Dersim case
raises the question of how the state will pursue calls to confront
other events which have faced state silence or outright denial for
decades. "One absolutely cannot say that early history of this nation
is free of crimes or without its secrets. In this period so many
terrible things happened. We are today faced with an Armenian, Greek,
Kurdish, even an Islamic question, stormy chapters in this country's
past that we must face," says Sociologist and Taraf Columnist Ferhat
Kentel. It will be the willingness to investigate such questions,
says Kentel, which will prove the seriousness of Deputy Prime Minister
Bulent Arınc's promise earlier this week to investigate the past
"even if this will be painful for us."
According to minority rights activist Hasan Saltık, there is
an encouraging likelihood that Dersim will act as precedent for
further calls on the state to change its narrative about past
events. Saltık imagines a state inquiry in the near future for the
notorious "Independence Tribunals," arbitrary revolutionary courts
established by Ankara in the 1920s to eliminate political enemies
and war deserters. "Hundreds of dissidents were executed in those
tribunals without a fair trial. It is possible to see an incredible
record of violation of law in the first decades of the republic at
a time a nation-building process took momentum," Saltık said. The
activist also believes that other incidents similar to the Dersim
massacre, specifically the killings of Alevis by ultra nationalists
and extremists in the MaraÅ~_, Corum and Sivas incidents of the 1970s
and 1980s or the state sponsored killings in Turkey's East throughout
the 1990s are likely subjects of state investigation.
Experts say that such retelling of Turkish history must not stop
short of the early Turkish state's most chilling excesses, including
the 1942 wealth tax which intentionally extorted non-Muslims of their
wealth and forced over 30,000 Jews to emigrate, or the 1955 Ä°stanbul
pogrom in which mobs incited by the government killed over a dozen and
precipitated the flight of Ä°stanbul's Greeks. Such events, however,
will take even more time to face, says Bilgi University sociologist
Ayhan Aktar. "At the moment I don't expect a dialogue on certain
events, including the deportations or the Armenian killings. But what
we have seen has been a very good beginning," Aktar said in a Friday
interview with Sunday's Zaman.
"Turkey has two attitudes in relation to history -- one is a defensive,
state history. But you also have another, unofficial story which
can come to the fore -- people talk about these events and there is
a process of collective soul searching. For instance, in Erzurum,
people are of course talking about happened to Armenians in 1915."
Coming face to face with events such as the 1915 Armenian massacres,
Aktar asserts, will necessitate ending the state's denial of historical
realities and confronting, rather than erasing, the collective memory
of Turkey's bitterest chapters. Aktar believes that this process begins
with the government. "When the prime minister challenges the state
history, people will be more open, more courageous to talk about what
happened. In this sense, it begins with the government," says Aktar.
Sociologist Kentel, meanwhile, says that the government must catch up
with the independent effort to challenge the secretive traditions of
the state. "It would be wrong to say that the apology was the "first
step" in challenging the traditions of the past. We have already
seen the outcry and support in the case of Hrant Dink's murder -- we
are already moving to rewrite this country's history," Kentel stated,
referring to the campaign for justice in the wake of Armenian newspaper
editor Hrant Dink's murder by ultranationalists in 2007.
Both Kentel and Aktar admit they have their reservations about the
prime minister's apology. "There is no doubt there is a political
reason behind his acts. He wants to attack Kemalism," Kentel stated.
But such politics, the sociologists say, can't cheapen the significance
of his statement. "I don't think this contradicts the sincerity of
the apology. It has symbolic importance and value, it is the start
of something."
Today's Zaman
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-264011-pms-dersim-apology-to-spur-new-look-at-republics-dark-days.html
Nov 27 2011
Turkey
In the wake of Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan's unprecedented
apology for the 1937 Dersim Massacres last week, rights groups and
historians say that now is the time for igniting public debate over
the darkest chapters of Republican history.
The Wednesday apology, which was the culmination of a debate which
erupted earlier this month in the ranks of the opposition Republican
People's Party (CHP), responded to growing calls to "face up to
the historical legacy of Dersim" among a torrent of major Turkish
politicians and intellectuals.
"Erdogan's apology is the first time that these issues have been openly
discussed and acknowledged at the state level," said Ferhat Kentel,
sociologist a Å~^ehir University. "This is one of the most important
steps yet on the path to facing the worst moments of Turkey's past."
Erdogan apologized on Wednesday for the state killings of 13,806
people in the southeastern town of Dersim in 1937, stating that
"Dersim is among the most tragic events in our recent history. It is
a disaster that should now be questioned with courage." It was the
first time the Turkish state has offered a public apology to redress
the events of its past.
Just as striking as the apology was the suddenness with which public
debate produced it. The full state apology came just two weeks after
CHP deputy Huseyin Aygun first called on the state and his party to
recognize the Dersim massacres in an interview with Sunday's Zaman.
Aygun, who claims that the Dersim massacre was planned for years by
high state authorities, including Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, infuriated
many within CHP ranks but earned a torrent of support among
intellectuals and politicians looking for recognition of the massacre.
The willingness of society and the state to so quickly confront Dersim
now raises the question of whether a powerful precedent has been set.
"Apologizing for the Dersim tragedy is a historic development in the
history of republic. It has historic meaning," said Alevi writer and
chairman of the Confrontation with the Past Association Cafer Solgun.
Speaking to Sunday's Zaman on Thursday, Solgun stated that the
apology may provide an important opportunity to petition for more than
official recognition of the Dersim incident. "As Dersim activists,
we asked the state to only apologize. That was our priority.
We now got it. We will now press for other requests from the state.
Our second demand is to change the name of Tunceli back to Dersim.
Then state must research the scale of the massacre, find the remains
of those who were killed. The families of the dead demand this."
Solgun's calls for further state confrontation with Dersim seemed
far from wishful thinking after AK Party Deputy Mehmet Metiner's own
suggestion this week that the government go ahead with such a name
swap, restoring historic namesake of "Dersim" to the region that was
the scene of the massacres.
The momentum which Solgun claims has been won in the Dersim case
raises the question of how the state will pursue calls to confront
other events which have faced state silence or outright denial for
decades. "One absolutely cannot say that early history of this nation
is free of crimes or without its secrets. In this period so many
terrible things happened. We are today faced with an Armenian, Greek,
Kurdish, even an Islamic question, stormy chapters in this country's
past that we must face," says Sociologist and Taraf Columnist Ferhat
Kentel. It will be the willingness to investigate such questions,
says Kentel, which will prove the seriousness of Deputy Prime Minister
Bulent Arınc's promise earlier this week to investigate the past
"even if this will be painful for us."
According to minority rights activist Hasan Saltık, there is
an encouraging likelihood that Dersim will act as precedent for
further calls on the state to change its narrative about past
events. Saltık imagines a state inquiry in the near future for the
notorious "Independence Tribunals," arbitrary revolutionary courts
established by Ankara in the 1920s to eliminate political enemies
and war deserters. "Hundreds of dissidents were executed in those
tribunals without a fair trial. It is possible to see an incredible
record of violation of law in the first decades of the republic at
a time a nation-building process took momentum," Saltık said. The
activist also believes that other incidents similar to the Dersim
massacre, specifically the killings of Alevis by ultra nationalists
and extremists in the MaraÅ~_, Corum and Sivas incidents of the 1970s
and 1980s or the state sponsored killings in Turkey's East throughout
the 1990s are likely subjects of state investigation.
Experts say that such retelling of Turkish history must not stop
short of the early Turkish state's most chilling excesses, including
the 1942 wealth tax which intentionally extorted non-Muslims of their
wealth and forced over 30,000 Jews to emigrate, or the 1955 Ä°stanbul
pogrom in which mobs incited by the government killed over a dozen and
precipitated the flight of Ä°stanbul's Greeks. Such events, however,
will take even more time to face, says Bilgi University sociologist
Ayhan Aktar. "At the moment I don't expect a dialogue on certain
events, including the deportations or the Armenian killings. But what
we have seen has been a very good beginning," Aktar said in a Friday
interview with Sunday's Zaman.
"Turkey has two attitudes in relation to history -- one is a defensive,
state history. But you also have another, unofficial story which
can come to the fore -- people talk about these events and there is
a process of collective soul searching. For instance, in Erzurum,
people are of course talking about happened to Armenians in 1915."
Coming face to face with events such as the 1915 Armenian massacres,
Aktar asserts, will necessitate ending the state's denial of historical
realities and confronting, rather than erasing, the collective memory
of Turkey's bitterest chapters. Aktar believes that this process begins
with the government. "When the prime minister challenges the state
history, people will be more open, more courageous to talk about what
happened. In this sense, it begins with the government," says Aktar.
Sociologist Kentel, meanwhile, says that the government must catch up
with the independent effort to challenge the secretive traditions of
the state. "It would be wrong to say that the apology was the "first
step" in challenging the traditions of the past. We have already
seen the outcry and support in the case of Hrant Dink's murder -- we
are already moving to rewrite this country's history," Kentel stated,
referring to the campaign for justice in the wake of Armenian newspaper
editor Hrant Dink's murder by ultranationalists in 2007.
Both Kentel and Aktar admit they have their reservations about the
prime minister's apology. "There is no doubt there is a political
reason behind his acts. He wants to attack Kemalism," Kentel stated.
But such politics, the sociologists say, can't cheapen the significance
of his statement. "I don't think this contradicts the sincerity of
the apology. It has symbolic importance and value, it is the start
of something."