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Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Jan 27 2012
Zizek: West also guilty for Armenian 'genocide'
by CANSU ÇAMLIBEL
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet
Prominent philosopher Slavoj Zizek advised Turkey to `apologize for
the horrible things happened in 1915' in an ironic way by saying `this
was part of us becoming a modern European nation state.'
`Why is it wrong for Turkey to apologize but also put the blame on
Europe? By apologizing, do not fall into the trap of apologizing to
Europe. These were wild times. What were the Western powers doing at
the same time in their colonies?' said Zizek in an interview with
daily Hürriyet yesterday.
He said Turkey could admit that `something horrible happened to
Armenians' without isolating itself.
He also said he did not like Europe stigmatizing Turkey as an
exception on these issues and the killings of Armenians in 1915 and
1916 were not the same as the Jewish Holocaust of World War II. `It
was a little-planned, chaotic operation, rather than an industrial
decision to clean out Armenians,' he said.
Zizek also criticized the recent bill adopted by the French Senate
penalizing Armenian genocide denial for falling into the mistake of
political correctness, which only served to reproduce racism.
`The problem with political correctness is that if you legalize things
that are already in your habits [...] it is counter-productive in the
long term. Even with the Holocaust it is problematic in this sense.
Some even wanted to regulate the numbers. Five million were killed,
but if you said 4,900,000 Jews were killed you would get penalized.
For me, this is the big fiasco of political correctness,' said Zizek.
Ottoman model for Kurds
Ziziek also said the Ottoman model may be ideal for the situation of
the Kurds in Syria and Iraq.
`Wouldn't it be an almost ideal solution to have an autonomous
Kurdistan containing part of northern Iraq, part of Syria and still a
part of Turkey?' he asked, adding that the current situation would
only lead to permanent tensions.
January/27/2012
From: A. Papazian
Jan 27 2012
Zizek: West also guilty for Armenian 'genocide'
by CANSU ÇAMLIBEL
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet
Prominent philosopher Slavoj Zizek advised Turkey to `apologize for
the horrible things happened in 1915' in an ironic way by saying `this
was part of us becoming a modern European nation state.'
`Why is it wrong for Turkey to apologize but also put the blame on
Europe? By apologizing, do not fall into the trap of apologizing to
Europe. These were wild times. What were the Western powers doing at
the same time in their colonies?' said Zizek in an interview with
daily Hürriyet yesterday.
He said Turkey could admit that `something horrible happened to
Armenians' without isolating itself.
He also said he did not like Europe stigmatizing Turkey as an
exception on these issues and the killings of Armenians in 1915 and
1916 were not the same as the Jewish Holocaust of World War II. `It
was a little-planned, chaotic operation, rather than an industrial
decision to clean out Armenians,' he said.
Zizek also criticized the recent bill adopted by the French Senate
penalizing Armenian genocide denial for falling into the mistake of
political correctness, which only served to reproduce racism.
`The problem with political correctness is that if you legalize things
that are already in your habits [...] it is counter-productive in the
long term. Even with the Holocaust it is problematic in this sense.
Some even wanted to regulate the numbers. Five million were killed,
but if you said 4,900,000 Jews were killed you would get penalized.
For me, this is the big fiasco of political correctness,' said Zizek.
Ottoman model for Kurds
Ziziek also said the Ottoman model may be ideal for the situation of
the Kurds in Syria and Iraq.
`Wouldn't it be an almost ideal solution to have an autonomous
Kurdistan containing part of northern Iraq, part of Syria and still a
part of Turkey?' he asked, adding that the current situation would
only lead to permanent tensions.
January/27/2012
From: A. Papazian