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ISTANBUL: Turkey Should Develop Creative Policies To Thwart Genocide

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  • ISTANBUL: Turkey Should Develop Creative Policies To Thwart Genocide

    TURKEY SHOULD DEVELOP CREATIVE POLICIES TO THWART GENOCIDE ALLEGATIONS

    Today's Zaman
    Jan 25 2012
    Turkey

    Twenty-two Parliaments around the world have recognized the killings
    of Armenians by Ottoman Turks around a century ago, which I will
    refer to as the 1915 events, as genocide.

    The French Assembly recognized the killings as genocide in 2001. The
    French Senate passed a law late on Monday that makes it a crime to
    deny that the killings of Armenians constituted genocide. Turkish
    Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated on Wednesday that this
    move would deal a heavy blow to relations between the two countries.

    We Turks have become used to hearing similar reactions from Turkish
    governments each time various nations' parliaments have passed a bill
    that recognizes the Armenian killings as genocide.

    The genocide allegations damage Turkey's national pride. Ankara
    says that there was no systematic campaign to kill Armenians and
    that many Turks also died during the chaotic disintegration of the
    Ottoman Empire. Most historians worldwide, however, say evidence of
    the genocide is indisputable.

    The Turkish argument, in the meantime, has fallen short of convincing
    many nations. Hence, more states can be expected to follow the example
    of the nations that have already recognized the alleged genocide
    of Armenians.

    Until then, Turkey will continue wasting its energy on criticizing
    the nations that recognize the 1915 events as genocide while imposing
    sanctions that, in general, do not work.

    Turkey, which is an integral part of the global world, should seriously
    think about developing creative policies to thwart allegations of
    genocide instead of allowing itself to be hijacked by this issue,
    which has turned into a never-ending story.

    For example, it can begin with an apology for the events that took
    place under the waning Ottoman Empire. However, an apology would
    not mean that Turkey must recognize the genocide of Armenians. This
    is because, in my opinion, there does not exist clear evidence that
    Armenians were killed systematically. Turkey expressed its willingness
    to open all the archives related to that period to Turkish as well as
    foreign historians. Turkey should be encouraged to keep this promise.

    Unlike the state, Turkish intellectuals have already expressed their
    apology for the killings of Armenians. They launched a campaign in
    December 2008 stating that they were apologizing for the deportation
    policy of Armenians in 1915 as a humanitarian gesture.

    Turkey, which recently apologized for the killing of more than 13,000
    Kurds in the late '30s in the southeastern province of Dersim, known
    as Tunceli, can also apologize for the 1915 events.

    Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan apologized last November for the
    Dersim events, commonly known as the massacre of the Kurds. The
    killings occurred when security forces, acting upon orders from the
    then-decision makers, crushed a Kurdish rebellion in Dersim using
    aerial bombings and poison gas.

    "Dersim is the most tragic event in our recent history. It is a
    disaster that should now be questioned with courage," Erdogan declared.

    He became the first Turkish leader to make the apology.

    Another step that should be taken by Turkey as a means to ease
    increased pressure exerted upon it by other nations is to educate
    the extremely nationalistic public about the events surrounding the
    1915 period, which are defined officially by Turkey as the "Armenian
    deportation." This is one of the dark chapters in Turkish history
    that has remained closed to its citizens.

    But the curtain has been raised gradually, and we have been witnessing
    increased public debate over the events that took place close to 100
    years ago.

    Turkey says it would punish France over the Senate's decision to
    criminalize denying that the killing of Armenians constituted genocide,
    but did not disclose the new sanctions to be imposed on Paris.

    Turkey's earlier sanctions, both against France and other countries
    that recognize the Armenian killings as genocide, have not deterred
    further states from adopting similar bills.

    Therefore, Ankara should seriously revise its reactive policies and
    consider the thoughtful ones mentioned above that I believe will work.

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