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TURKEY ISSUES DIPLOMATIC NOTE TO FRANCE OVER GENOCIDE INITIATIVE
Today's Zaman
Sept 4 2012
Turkey
Turkey has issued a diplomatic note to France over its move to include
the so-called "Armenian Genocide" in history and geography books used
in French secondary schools.
Turkey's embassy in Paris issued a diplomatic note in the form
of official letters to the French Foreign Ministry and Education
Ministry to protest the inclusion in French textbooks of a two-page
section that details mass killings of Armenians in 1915 using what
the embassy says are "fake documents."
Relations between Paris and Ankara had begun to thaw after a decision
in February by France's constitutional court to strike down the
genocide denial law as contrary to free speech. But the ties of the two
countries could see a winter again as newly elected President Francois
Hollande said in July that he will stand by a campaign pledge to make
it illegal to deny that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in
1915 was genocide.
Turkey had canceled all economic, political and military meetings with
France in December after the French parliament voted in favor of the
draft law. At a joint news conference early in July, French Foreign
Minister Laurent Fabius said the law was unlikely to be resurrected
and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu hailed the opening of
a warmer phase in relations with France.
Armenia, backed by many historians, says that about 1.5 million
Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey during World War
I in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by the Ottoman government.
Turkey says there was heavy loss of life on both sides during the
fighting, in which Armenian partisans supported invading Russian
forces. The Ottoman Empire collapsed after the war. Successive Turkish
governments and the vast majority of Turks have taken the charge of
genocide as an insult to their nation.
Ankara had hoped the Socialist Hollande's election might mean France
is now more open to Turkey's joining the European Union than it was
under his conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, but has so far
received no public support for its EU bid from Paris.
Ankara demanded in the letters that the French authorities revise
allegedly "objective" data provided in the textbooks. The letters
also criticized telegrams allegedly sent by then Ottoman minister
Talat Pasha that prove the mass killings of Armenians were done in
a systematic and deliberate way. The embassy said the telegraphs
are fake.
The letters also warned that the section in the French textbook will
inflame hatred between the two nations.
Chairman of the Turkish Parliament's powerful education committee
Navi Avcı told Today's Zaman in a recent interview that "the erosion
of French culture and the shift towards the radical right in French
politics that started with Sarkozy continues to have a negative
impact on the French education system." "I just hope that sensible
French intellectuals will raise their voices against this kind of
provocative move that will plant seeds of hate in the minds of young
people in France," he added.
The embassy also attached a detailed historical report on the 1915
events in its letter to the French Education Ministry. It claimed
that two books published by the Hachette and Hatier publishing houses
include fake historical documents and Armenian activists whose academic
credentials are unknown.
The Turkish Embassy stressed in the letters that French citizens
of Turkish descent will be negatively affected by the inclusion of
the section.
The section in the French textbook uses a book by Aram Andonian,
an ethnic Armenian from Ä°stanbul, titled "The Memoirs of Naim Bey:
Turkish Official Documents Relating to the Deportation and the
Massacres of Armenians," which is also known as the "Talat Pasha
telegrams" and was originally published in 1920.
Andonian is an exiled Armenian, who was, according to his memoirs,
assisted by Naim Bey in Aleppo in publishing the telegrams of Talat
Pasha, which the Ottoman minister authored and which supposedly prove
the authenticity of the so-called "Armenian Genocide."
Prominent historians Eric Jan Zurcher, Andrew Mango and Guenther
Lewy have downplayed evidence provided in the book while in-depth
research by Å~^inasi Orel and Sureyya Yuca in 1986 revealed that
the book has many fallacies and inconsistencies. The latter two also
could not find any traces of Naim Bey in Aleppo archives and argued
that Andonian might have constructed the man.
Today's Zaman
Sept 4 2012
Turkey
Turkey has issued a diplomatic note to France over its move to include
the so-called "Armenian Genocide" in history and geography books used
in French secondary schools.
Turkey's embassy in Paris issued a diplomatic note in the form
of official letters to the French Foreign Ministry and Education
Ministry to protest the inclusion in French textbooks of a two-page
section that details mass killings of Armenians in 1915 using what
the embassy says are "fake documents."
Relations between Paris and Ankara had begun to thaw after a decision
in February by France's constitutional court to strike down the
genocide denial law as contrary to free speech. But the ties of the two
countries could see a winter again as newly elected President Francois
Hollande said in July that he will stand by a campaign pledge to make
it illegal to deny that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in
1915 was genocide.
Turkey had canceled all economic, political and military meetings with
France in December after the French parliament voted in favor of the
draft law. At a joint news conference early in July, French Foreign
Minister Laurent Fabius said the law was unlikely to be resurrected
and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu hailed the opening of
a warmer phase in relations with France.
Armenia, backed by many historians, says that about 1.5 million
Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey during World War
I in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by the Ottoman government.
Turkey says there was heavy loss of life on both sides during the
fighting, in which Armenian partisans supported invading Russian
forces. The Ottoman Empire collapsed after the war. Successive Turkish
governments and the vast majority of Turks have taken the charge of
genocide as an insult to their nation.
Ankara had hoped the Socialist Hollande's election might mean France
is now more open to Turkey's joining the European Union than it was
under his conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, but has so far
received no public support for its EU bid from Paris.
Ankara demanded in the letters that the French authorities revise
allegedly "objective" data provided in the textbooks. The letters
also criticized telegrams allegedly sent by then Ottoman minister
Talat Pasha that prove the mass killings of Armenians were done in
a systematic and deliberate way. The embassy said the telegraphs
are fake.
The letters also warned that the section in the French textbook will
inflame hatred between the two nations.
Chairman of the Turkish Parliament's powerful education committee
Navi Avcı told Today's Zaman in a recent interview that "the erosion
of French culture and the shift towards the radical right in French
politics that started with Sarkozy continues to have a negative
impact on the French education system." "I just hope that sensible
French intellectuals will raise their voices against this kind of
provocative move that will plant seeds of hate in the minds of young
people in France," he added.
The embassy also attached a detailed historical report on the 1915
events in its letter to the French Education Ministry. It claimed
that two books published by the Hachette and Hatier publishing houses
include fake historical documents and Armenian activists whose academic
credentials are unknown.
The Turkish Embassy stressed in the letters that French citizens
of Turkish descent will be negatively affected by the inclusion of
the section.
The section in the French textbook uses a book by Aram Andonian,
an ethnic Armenian from Ä°stanbul, titled "The Memoirs of Naim Bey:
Turkish Official Documents Relating to the Deportation and the
Massacres of Armenians," which is also known as the "Talat Pasha
telegrams" and was originally published in 1920.
Andonian is an exiled Armenian, who was, according to his memoirs,
assisted by Naim Bey in Aleppo in publishing the telegrams of Talat
Pasha, which the Ottoman minister authored and which supposedly prove
the authenticity of the so-called "Armenian Genocide."
Prominent historians Eric Jan Zurcher, Andrew Mango and Guenther
Lewy have downplayed evidence provided in the book while in-depth
research by Å~^inasi Orel and Sureyya Yuca in 1986 revealed that
the book has many fallacies and inconsistencies. The latter two also
could not find any traces of Naim Bey in Aleppo archives and argued
that Andonian might have constructed the man.