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TURKEY PUSHES GENOCIDE DENIAL
by Ben Cohen
Commentary Magazine
Dec 5 2012
In 1915, when stories of the systematic extermination of the Armenian
minority in Anatolia by the Ottoman authorities started to surface in
the Western press, Turkish diplomats were rapidly mobilized to deny
the reports. "All those who have been killed were of that rebellious
element," the Turkish consul in New York, Djelal Munif Bey, told
the New York Times, "who were caught red-handed or while otherwise
committing traitorous acts against the Turkish Government, and not
women and children, as some of these fabricated reports would have
the Americans believe."
As the sun began to set on the Ottoman Empire, its leaders-and their
secular successors-laid the foundations of a gruesome template that
remains with us today. Ever since the slaughter of the Armenians, each
episode of genocide and mass killing has been accompanied by voices
who willfully deny that such horrors actually took place. Genocide
denial is a phenomenon most commonly associated with the Shoah, but
it also raised its head in Bangladesh in 1971, in Cambodia in 1979,
in the former Yugoslavia and in Iraq during the 1990s, in Rwanda in
1994 and in Syria in the present day.
As the original pioneers of genocide denial, the Turks remain its
most aggressive practitioners. That, perhaps, is to be expected;
far less understandable is the willingness of certain countries and
institutions to collude in this trampling of history and memory. In
that regard, this item from Denmark's Copenhagen Post is nothing less
than astounding:
The Royal Library has attracted heavy criticism after agreeing to
let Turkey co-arrange an alternative exhibition about the Armenian
Genocide.
The library has complied with the wishes of the Turkish ambassador
to Denmark to be involved with the exhibition, 'The Armenian Genocide
and the Scandinavian response', which is currently on display at the
University of Copenhagen.
The Turkish Embassy has been granted the opportunity to stage a
Turkish version of the historical events in a move that has generated
criticism from a number of circles, including politicians, historians,
and the Armenian Embassy in Copenhagen.
Genocide scholars in Denmark have reacted angrily. "If you believe that
all versions of history are equal, then you've undermined your role as
a research institution," said the historian Matthias Bjørnlund. "It was
genocide and not all interpretations of this history are correct." But
the director of the Royal Library, Erland Kolding Nielsen, denied
having caved to pressure from the Turkish Embassy. "One can't pressure
us, and we have not spoken about removing the Armenian exhibition. We
have simply given [the Turks] the opportunity to show their alternative
exhibition," Nielsen said.
Clearly, this sets an extremely dangerous precedent. No longer does it
seem far-fetched to think that an exhibition about, say, Auschwitz, or
the North Korean gulags, might be "balanced" with a "counter-narrative"
from the perspective of the perpetrators of these atrocities.
The current Danish controversy also speaks volumes about the extent
to which Turkey is prepared to go in enforcing its state doctrine of
genocide denial upon its ostensible allies. Earlier this year, Ankara
temporarily froze ties with France after that country's Senate passed
a law officially recognizing the Armenian massacres as a genocide.
Responding to similar efforts by American lawmakers, Turkey's Islamist
prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told President Obama in March
that he was "tired" by the constant reminders of Turkey's historic
crime, adding that the U.S. administration should "not ... mistake U.S.
senators, lawmakers and politicians for historians."
For decades, Turkey has acted on the premise that Western acquiescence
toward its regional bullying-whether that involves its assaults on
Kurdish civilians or its continued occupation of northern Cyprus-means
that it will never be obliged to reckon with the monstrous crimes
committed against the Armenians. If the authors of Washington's policy
toward Turkey want us to believe that Erdogan and his cohorts share
not just our strategic goals, but our core values too, then Ankara
must be told that the practice of genocide denial, inaugurated by
Djelal Munif Bey in 1915, is no longer acceptable almost 100 years on.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/12/05/turkey-pushes-genocide-denial/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
by Ben Cohen
Commentary Magazine
Dec 5 2012
In 1915, when stories of the systematic extermination of the Armenian
minority in Anatolia by the Ottoman authorities started to surface in
the Western press, Turkish diplomats were rapidly mobilized to deny
the reports. "All those who have been killed were of that rebellious
element," the Turkish consul in New York, Djelal Munif Bey, told
the New York Times, "who were caught red-handed or while otherwise
committing traitorous acts against the Turkish Government, and not
women and children, as some of these fabricated reports would have
the Americans believe."
As the sun began to set on the Ottoman Empire, its leaders-and their
secular successors-laid the foundations of a gruesome template that
remains with us today. Ever since the slaughter of the Armenians, each
episode of genocide and mass killing has been accompanied by voices
who willfully deny that such horrors actually took place. Genocide
denial is a phenomenon most commonly associated with the Shoah, but
it also raised its head in Bangladesh in 1971, in Cambodia in 1979,
in the former Yugoslavia and in Iraq during the 1990s, in Rwanda in
1994 and in Syria in the present day.
As the original pioneers of genocide denial, the Turks remain its
most aggressive practitioners. That, perhaps, is to be expected;
far less understandable is the willingness of certain countries and
institutions to collude in this trampling of history and memory. In
that regard, this item from Denmark's Copenhagen Post is nothing less
than astounding:
The Royal Library has attracted heavy criticism after agreeing to
let Turkey co-arrange an alternative exhibition about the Armenian
Genocide.
The library has complied with the wishes of the Turkish ambassador
to Denmark to be involved with the exhibition, 'The Armenian Genocide
and the Scandinavian response', which is currently on display at the
University of Copenhagen.
The Turkish Embassy has been granted the opportunity to stage a
Turkish version of the historical events in a move that has generated
criticism from a number of circles, including politicians, historians,
and the Armenian Embassy in Copenhagen.
Genocide scholars in Denmark have reacted angrily. "If you believe that
all versions of history are equal, then you've undermined your role as
a research institution," said the historian Matthias Bjørnlund. "It was
genocide and not all interpretations of this history are correct." But
the director of the Royal Library, Erland Kolding Nielsen, denied
having caved to pressure from the Turkish Embassy. "One can't pressure
us, and we have not spoken about removing the Armenian exhibition. We
have simply given [the Turks] the opportunity to show their alternative
exhibition," Nielsen said.
Clearly, this sets an extremely dangerous precedent. No longer does it
seem far-fetched to think that an exhibition about, say, Auschwitz, or
the North Korean gulags, might be "balanced" with a "counter-narrative"
from the perspective of the perpetrators of these atrocities.
The current Danish controversy also speaks volumes about the extent
to which Turkey is prepared to go in enforcing its state doctrine of
genocide denial upon its ostensible allies. Earlier this year, Ankara
temporarily froze ties with France after that country's Senate passed
a law officially recognizing the Armenian massacres as a genocide.
Responding to similar efforts by American lawmakers, Turkey's Islamist
prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told President Obama in March
that he was "tired" by the constant reminders of Turkey's historic
crime, adding that the U.S. administration should "not ... mistake U.S.
senators, lawmakers and politicians for historians."
For decades, Turkey has acted on the premise that Western acquiescence
toward its regional bullying-whether that involves its assaults on
Kurdish civilians or its continued occupation of northern Cyprus-means
that it will never be obliged to reckon with the monstrous crimes
committed against the Armenians. If the authors of Washington's policy
toward Turkey want us to believe that Erdogan and his cohorts share
not just our strategic goals, but our core values too, then Ankara
must be told that the practice of genocide denial, inaugurated by
Djelal Munif Bey in 1915, is no longer acceptable almost 100 years on.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/12/05/turkey-pushes-genocide-denial/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress