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TURKEY SHOULD REMEMBER ITS PAST CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, SCHOLAR SAYS
PanARMENIAN.Net
September 14, 2011 - 09:07 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Taner Akcam, an associate professor of history at
Clark University, referred to changes needed in Turkey's policy to
achieve greater regional role.
"Crimes against humanity is a very important international legal norm.
As a legal term, it was used for the first time on May 24, 1915 in
connection with the Armenian genocide, and it comprised the moral and
legal background for the Nuremberg trials as well as the more recent
Yugoslavian, Rwandan and other international prosecutions of war
crimes. This is common knowledge, but what is not so commonly known is
that the expression was first drafted as crimes against Christianity,"
prof. Akcam writes in an article published by The International Raoul
Wallenberg Foundation.
"In order to change this perception, the AKP has to confront history
and take a clear position regarding the crimes that were committed
against Christians. The AKP, however, is very far from being capable
of doing this and for this reason will continue to be perceived as a
potential repeat actor of 1915 to Christians in the region. Therein
lays the irony. Turkey, which wants to get involved in the region as
an intervener on behalf of freedom and democracy, is going to be a
reminder of its past crimes against humanity," he writes.
"Herein lies the importance of including Armenia in the address to
the nation. If the AKP wants to defend freedom and democracy in the
region and wants to walk a path towards universal humanitarian values
by way of Islamic sensitivities, it needs to learn how to look at
Islam's recent past with a more critical eye."
PanARMENIAN.Net
September 14, 2011 - 09:07 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Taner Akcam, an associate professor of history at
Clark University, referred to changes needed in Turkey's policy to
achieve greater regional role.
"Crimes against humanity is a very important international legal norm.
As a legal term, it was used for the first time on May 24, 1915 in
connection with the Armenian genocide, and it comprised the moral and
legal background for the Nuremberg trials as well as the more recent
Yugoslavian, Rwandan and other international prosecutions of war
crimes. This is common knowledge, but what is not so commonly known is
that the expression was first drafted as crimes against Christianity,"
prof. Akcam writes in an article published by The International Raoul
Wallenberg Foundation.
"In order to change this perception, the AKP has to confront history
and take a clear position regarding the crimes that were committed
against Christians. The AKP, however, is very far from being capable
of doing this and for this reason will continue to be perceived as a
potential repeat actor of 1915 to Christians in the region. Therein
lays the irony. Turkey, which wants to get involved in the region as
an intervener on behalf of freedom and democracy, is going to be a
reminder of its past crimes against humanity," he writes.
"Herein lies the importance of including Armenia in the address to
the nation. If the AKP wants to defend freedom and democracy in the
region and wants to walk a path towards universal humanitarian values
by way of Islamic sensitivities, it needs to learn how to look at
Islam's recent past with a more critical eye."