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THE GHOSTS OF 1915
Turkey's Armenians
http://www.economist.com/blogs/charlemagne/2013/01/turkeys-armenians
Jan 29th 2013, 13:54 by A.Z. | ISTANBUL
MARISSA Kucuk was a little old Armenian lady who lived on her own in
Samatya (pictured above), a picturesque neighbourhood of Istanbul
where Christians and Muslims used to rub along peacefully. On December
28th Ms Kucuk, 85, was found dead in her apartment. She had been
stabbed, repeatedly. Relatives said a crucifix was carved onto her
naked corpse.
Last week, a masked assailant attacked another elderly Armenian as she
was entering her apartment. He punched her in the head. When she fell
to the ground he began kicking her. "My mother's mouth was filled with
blood...the neighbours came to the rescue when she screamed for help and
the man fled," Maryam Yelegen, told AGOS, a Turkish Armenian weekly.
The attack marks the fifth in the past two months against elderly
Armenian women (one has lost an eye). All of the attacks took place in
Samatya, which is home to some 8,000 Armenians and the seat of the
Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate. Opinion remains divided as to whether
these are organised hate crimes targeting non-Muslims or just random
theft. Istanbul's governor, Huseyin Avni Mutlu, insists that it was
the latter. "The incident was inspired by robbery, there were no
racial motives. Be sure we will find the perpetrators. Good night," he
tweeted to some 100,000 followers.
Some of the victims were, indeed, robbed. The Turkish police are said
to be concentrating their investigation on a man in his thirties as a
potential suspect. Turkey's Human Rights Association remains unswayed.
"The attacks were carried out with racist motives," it concluded in a
report that was published last week.
Either way, the attacks have dredged up memories of the mass slaughter
of about a million Ottoman Armenians in 1915. "The attacks highlight
the unbearable heaviness of being Armenian in Turkey," says Khatchig
Mouradian an Armenian activist and academic who lost ancestors in the
killings.
Academic opinion worldwide tilts towards the view that these
constituted genocide. Turkey refutes this saying the majority died of
illness and hunger during forced deportations to the Syrian desert.
Those who dared to challenge the official line (among them Orhan
Pamuk, Turkey's sole Nobel laureate for literature) have faced
prosecution and death threats. But none as much as Hrant Dink, the
outspoken Armenian journalist who founded AGOS as a platform for
unfettered debate about 1915. He was murdered in 2007 by an
ultra-nationalist youth outside his office in the heart of Istanbul.
Mr Dink's family insists that the killer was acting under orders from
rogue ultra-nationalist elements within the security forces, who, in
turn, were probably linked to a Byzantine plot known as "Kafes" or
Cage.
Scores of suspects, including three admirals tied to Kafes are being
tried on charges of conspiring to murder Christians in Turkey. Their
alleged aim was to intimidate Christians into leaving for good, place
the blame on Turkey's Islam-tinged Justice and Development (AK) Party
and thus lay the ground for the army to intervene. The 2007 murders
of three Christian missionaries in the eastern province of Malatya
(their throats were slit) are believed to be part of Kafes. Orhan
Kemal Cengiz, a lawyer for the victims, sees parallels between the
Kafes plot and "the ultra-nationalist mentality informing 1915" which
tends to view "citizens of Armenian descent as disloyal and
untrustworthy."
Fresh evidence emerged last week suggesting that local gendarmerie
officials kept thousands of pages worth of files on missionaries and
other Christians in Malatya. But the defence argues that the evidence
was "sexed up" by prosecutors as in the Sledgehammer case, another
alleged coup plot. Independent forensic experts have supported these
claims.
In any case Mr Cengiz says had the Kafes suspects not been brought to
trial attacks against Christians would have continued. Many credit AK
for easing pressure on non-Muslims. A small but vocal group of Turkish
historians now openly talk about genocide. Bookstores have entire
shelves devoted to the topic. Tens of thousands of illegal migrants
from the neighbouring Republic of Armenia with which Turkey has no
official ties work in Istanbul, as the authorities look the other way.
"Reconciliation" projects between Turks and Armenians have become so
commonplace that hawks on both sides no longer blink.
Yet the message from the government is somewhat mixed. Mehmet Nihat
Omeroglu, the controversial judge who upheld a conviction of Mr Dink
for "insulting Turkishness", was recently sworn in by the parliament
as the head of the newly created ombudsman institution. The case was
widely publicised and helped to whip up nationalist fervour against Mr
Dink. Mr Omeroglu apparently has no regrets. "We made our decision on
this case on the basis of our conscience," the ombudsman told Radikal,
a liberal daily.
Turkey's Armenians
http://www.economist.com/blogs/charlemagne/2013/01/turkeys-armenians
Jan 29th 2013, 13:54 by A.Z. | ISTANBUL
MARISSA Kucuk was a little old Armenian lady who lived on her own in
Samatya (pictured above), a picturesque neighbourhood of Istanbul
where Christians and Muslims used to rub along peacefully. On December
28th Ms Kucuk, 85, was found dead in her apartment. She had been
stabbed, repeatedly. Relatives said a crucifix was carved onto her
naked corpse.
Last week, a masked assailant attacked another elderly Armenian as she
was entering her apartment. He punched her in the head. When she fell
to the ground he began kicking her. "My mother's mouth was filled with
blood...the neighbours came to the rescue when she screamed for help and
the man fled," Maryam Yelegen, told AGOS, a Turkish Armenian weekly.
The attack marks the fifth in the past two months against elderly
Armenian women (one has lost an eye). All of the attacks took place in
Samatya, which is home to some 8,000 Armenians and the seat of the
Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate. Opinion remains divided as to whether
these are organised hate crimes targeting non-Muslims or just random
theft. Istanbul's governor, Huseyin Avni Mutlu, insists that it was
the latter. "The incident was inspired by robbery, there were no
racial motives. Be sure we will find the perpetrators. Good night," he
tweeted to some 100,000 followers.
Some of the victims were, indeed, robbed. The Turkish police are said
to be concentrating their investigation on a man in his thirties as a
potential suspect. Turkey's Human Rights Association remains unswayed.
"The attacks were carried out with racist motives," it concluded in a
report that was published last week.
Either way, the attacks have dredged up memories of the mass slaughter
of about a million Ottoman Armenians in 1915. "The attacks highlight
the unbearable heaviness of being Armenian in Turkey," says Khatchig
Mouradian an Armenian activist and academic who lost ancestors in the
killings.
Academic opinion worldwide tilts towards the view that these
constituted genocide. Turkey refutes this saying the majority died of
illness and hunger during forced deportations to the Syrian desert.
Those who dared to challenge the official line (among them Orhan
Pamuk, Turkey's sole Nobel laureate for literature) have faced
prosecution and death threats. But none as much as Hrant Dink, the
outspoken Armenian journalist who founded AGOS as a platform for
unfettered debate about 1915. He was murdered in 2007 by an
ultra-nationalist youth outside his office in the heart of Istanbul.
Mr Dink's family insists that the killer was acting under orders from
rogue ultra-nationalist elements within the security forces, who, in
turn, were probably linked to a Byzantine plot known as "Kafes" or
Cage.
Scores of suspects, including three admirals tied to Kafes are being
tried on charges of conspiring to murder Christians in Turkey. Their
alleged aim was to intimidate Christians into leaving for good, place
the blame on Turkey's Islam-tinged Justice and Development (AK) Party
and thus lay the ground for the army to intervene. The 2007 murders
of three Christian missionaries in the eastern province of Malatya
(their throats were slit) are believed to be part of Kafes. Orhan
Kemal Cengiz, a lawyer for the victims, sees parallels between the
Kafes plot and "the ultra-nationalist mentality informing 1915" which
tends to view "citizens of Armenian descent as disloyal and
untrustworthy."
Fresh evidence emerged last week suggesting that local gendarmerie
officials kept thousands of pages worth of files on missionaries and
other Christians in Malatya. But the defence argues that the evidence
was "sexed up" by prosecutors as in the Sledgehammer case, another
alleged coup plot. Independent forensic experts have supported these
claims.
In any case Mr Cengiz says had the Kafes suspects not been brought to
trial attacks against Christians would have continued. Many credit AK
for easing pressure on non-Muslims. A small but vocal group of Turkish
historians now openly talk about genocide. Bookstores have entire
shelves devoted to the topic. Tens of thousands of illegal migrants
from the neighbouring Republic of Armenia with which Turkey has no
official ties work in Istanbul, as the authorities look the other way.
"Reconciliation" projects between Turks and Armenians have become so
commonplace that hawks on both sides no longer blink.
Yet the message from the government is somewhat mixed. Mehmet Nihat
Omeroglu, the controversial judge who upheld a conviction of Mr Dink
for "insulting Turkishness", was recently sworn in by the parliament
as the head of the newly created ombudsman institution. The case was
widely publicised and helped to whip up nationalist fervour against Mr
Dink. Mr Omeroglu apparently has no regrets. "We made our decision on
this case on the basis of our conscience," the ombudsman told Radikal,
a liberal daily.