Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Dialogue Can Lead To Acknowledgment

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Dialogue Can Lead To Acknowledgment

    DIALOGUE CAN LEAD TO ACKNOWLEDGMENT

    EDITORIAL | JANUARY 28, 2014 1:44 PM
    ________________________________

    By Raffi Bedrosyan

    In a previous article (Dec. 28, 2013 - Emulate Zoryan Institute and
    Bring Armenian History in Turkish to Turks) about the approaching
    2015 centennial of the Armenian Genocide, I had argued about the
    necessity of focusing the Armenians' limited resources to support
    independent academic research, continuing to bring out the truth
    and facts of 1915 toward establishing a "common body of knowledge"
    between the Turks and Armenians. In this article, I will elaborate on
    the necessity to deliver those 1915 facts and truth directly to the
    Turkish people, will outline some of the obstacles created by the
    denialist policies of the Turkish state, and finally, will provide
    a few suggestions for the Turkish state to consider by 2015.

    Meaningful dialogue between two conflicting parties can only happen
    if both parties are aware of the facts and the truth. Even though the
    Turkish state has not allowed the truth and the facts of 1915 to come
    out until recently, there are now clear signs that the taboos about
    1915 are finally broken and that there is a "common body of knowledge"
    emerging among the Turkish opinion makers and ordinary citizens. For
    four generations, the Turkish citizens were brainwashed about 1915
    by the state education system and the media. However, Turkish people
    can no longer be defined as a homogenous, uniform group. Clashes
    between the Turkish state and the sizable Kurdish/Alevi population,
    as well as the prosecution and punishment of the "deep state" leaders
    who ruled Turkey until a few years ago, have become recent factors in
    questioning the state version of history regarding the 1915 events. A
    few bright personalities in politics, academia, media and literature,
    i.e. opinion makers, have advocated increased democratization, freedom
    of speech and minority rights; moreover, they have acknowledged the
    truth about 1915 and demanded that the state also do so. There is
    now a small but fast increasing segment of the population which wants
    the state to face the past about the 1915 events.

    To date, there have been few attempts of dialogue between the Armenian
    world and this liberalized segment of the Turkish population and
    opinion makers. Apart from the activities of the Hrant Dink Foundation
    based in Istanbul, the only contacts by Armenians have been through
    a few individuals in academia, film, media, music and culture, and
    organizationally by the Zoryan Institute in the academic field,
    by the Armenian NGO Civilitas through its recently opened office
    in Istanbul, and some recent political exchanges between Kurdish
    political parties and representatives of the Armenian Revolutionary
    Federation. Armenian academia, NGOs and opinion makers should aim
    at direct contact with their Turkish counterparts in conveying the
    truth in Turkish, through jointly organized conferences, seminars,
    TV programs, films and translated publications. For example, ordinary
    Turks should find out about the courageous Turkish government officials
    who resisted the inhumane government decisions to annihilate the
    Armenian population in 1915. They should learn about the fate of the
    properties left behind by the annihilated Armenians, including hundreds
    of thousands of houses, fields, shops, warehouses, factories, mines,
    churches and schools, all confiscated by the state, Ittihat Terakki
    leaders or local Moslem notables. They should understand that most
    of the Ataturk House Museums scattered all over Anatolia belonged
    to deported or murdered Armenian citizens of the Ottoman state. They
    should be reminded that the very residence where the Turkish President
    sits today in Ankara, was once owned by an Armenian family.

    Of course, the Turkish state will continue using all its resources
    to prevent its citizens from finding out the truth. Notwithstanding
    the boasts of the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan that their archives
    are open and they have nothing to hide, the reality is that their
    archives are not entirely open and have gone through two major
    cleanups. The first cleanup and destruction of files was back in
    1918, when the Ittihat Terakki leaders escaped from Istanbul in
    a German warship in order to avoid prosecution as war criminals,
    carrying several trunkloads of documents with them. At the same time,
    the main planner of the Armenian deportations and massacres, Special
    Organization Chief Bahattin Shakir also burned rooms full of documents
    related to their activities. The second purging was in the 1990s when
    the Ottoman Archives were reorganized, translated into modern Turkish
    and digitized. A team of diplomats, historians, retired ambassadors
    and military officers sifted through millions of documents with the
    objective of eliminating any incriminating reference to the Armenians.

    Recent Wikileaks documents indicate that the Ottoman archival
    documents, initially estimated at 50 million records, turned out to
    be more like 200 million and therefore, the intended purge could not
    be carried out effectively. Obviously, several thousand documents
    escaped scrutiny and a few prominent Turkish scholars like Taner
    Akcam, Umit Kurt and Ugur Ungor have been able to produce significant
    historic facts about the intended annihilation of the Armenians and
    confiscation of their properties, based only on the Ottoman archives.

    It was recently revealed that all researchers delving into the
    Armenian issue in the Ottoman archives were being tracked and
    monitored. If their work was deemed to be against the state version,
    there would be harassment and funding repercussions against them and
    the institutions where they worked/studied. Meanwhile, researchers
    who produce/falsify/create documents minimizing Armenian losses are
    encouraged and rewarded. In 2005, Murat Bardakci, an investigative
    journalist, published Talaat Pasha's diary revealing that Talaat
    had kept detailed records about the numbers and destination of the
    deported Armenians, had tallied the loss of Armenians at 972,000,
    but had also stated that the total missing could exceed 1.2 million
    due to unaccounted relocations. During a recent TV talk show about
    history called Rear Window of History, Bardakci had invited a history
    professor from Sakarya University, a state sponsored 'expert' on the
    Armenian issue, where this expert announced that the archives show
    the Ottoman government took all precautions to care for the 300,000
    Armenians temporarily deported 'only' from the eastern war front,
    that 'only' a few thousand died from illness, but most of them safely
    returned home after the war. Bardakci then confronted him by producing
    Talaat Pasha's diary and the numbers that Talaat himself had quoted;
    the expert said he can only work with whatever is available in the
    state archives. He also announced that Turkish historians have now
    "proven" that all the genocide allegations are "fiction," based on
    American Ambassador Morgenthau's book, which was specifically produced
    as a propaganda tool to drum up support for the United States to enter
    the war. Even Bardakci found this expert's comments embarrassing for
    Turkey, which would result in more ridicule internationally and weaken
    Turkey's hand further in the eve of 2015.

    If Prime Minister Erdogan really wants to prove that Turkey has
    nothing to hide in the Armenian issue, all he has to do is order
    the release of two sets of critical documents - the deportation
    books and the deeds. First set of documents is the 33 dossiers of
    the Deportation and Liquidation Commissions formed in 1915-16 in
    various Ottoman Anatolian provinces, recording, listing, appraising,
    and holding on deposit the assets of the deported Armenians for
    their eventual return, but also selling or distributing some of
    the Armenian assets to Moslem refugees. The whereabouts of these
    dossiers is a mystery but speculated that they are still intact
    and kept in the Prime Ministry offices. The second set of documents
    is the Ottoman land registry and property deeds records. In 2005,
    when the government attempted to comply with European Union (EU)
    modernization initiatives by translating and opening up these records
    to the public, it was prevented from doing so by a stern warning --
    dated August 26, 2005 -- from the National Security Committee of the
    Turkish Armed Forces, which stated that "The Ottoman records kept at
    the Land Register and Cadaster Surveys General Directorate offices
    must be sealed and not available to the public, as they have the
    potential to be exploited by alleged genocide claims and property
    claims against the State Charitable Foundation assets. Opening them
    to general public use is against state interests"...

    Recently, it came to light that a former prime minister had come
    close to taking a positive step toward the Armenian issue. Being a
    very pragmatic politician, in the early 1990s Turgut Ozal had wished
    the issue to be resolved by ending the Turkish denialist policy, and
    he had commissioned a study to quantify the amount of compensation
    needed to be paid to the Armenians worldwide. It is reported that the
    study did come up with a monetary figure but no further steps were
    taken, either because the cost would be exorbitant, or because Ozal
    suddenly and mysteriously died in 1993. His sudden death is still
    subject of speculation today after 20 years, with his body recently
    exhumed and examined for presence of poisons. It is said that he was
    severely criticized by the military and the deep state, not only for
    this Armenian episode, but more critically, for his desire to end
    the separatist Kurdish issue by giving concessions to them.

    Based on feedback and comments on my past articles, there seems to be
    significantly wide readership in Turkey and within their government
    circles. A recurring theme I hear is that the present government,
    unlike the previous ones, has taken a lot of positive steps toward
    the Armenians, and yet, there is no acknowledgement or reciprocating
    goodwill from the Armenian side. The positive examples cited include
    the restoration of Akhtamar Holy Cross Church (note: still known as
    Akdamar Museum in Turkey), return of several confiscated properties
    belonging to the Armenian church and charitable foundations (note:
    returns still less than 10 percent of properties seized after 1930's,
    none from before 1915 and none of the private properties), increased
    freedom of speech with utterance of the term 'Armenian Genocide' no
    longer a punishable offense (note: but still people like Hrant Dink
    can get killed for uttering it and still the real murderers can remain
    hidden), and so on. I do acknowledge that these are positive steps in
    the right direction, but only a few steps toward a mile long journey.

    Perhaps the mile long journey cannot be completed by 2015, but several
    concrete and specific steps need to be taken by Turkey in order to
    achieve some credibility and respectability. Instead of diversionary
    tactical steps like Foreign Minister Davutoglu's recent visit to
    Armenia, which achieved nothing, I will humbly offer a few suggestions
    for the consideration of my Turkish government acquaintances:

    1. open the border with Armenia without any preconditions, re-name
    the Alican border crossing as the Hrant Dink Gate, honoring the heroic
    advocate of dialogue between the two peoples

    2. grant citizenship to all living descendants of the deported
    Ottoman citizen Armenians

    3. clean up the textbooks at all levels of the educational system
    by eliminating the falsifications, hatemongering and discrimination
    toward Armenians (and other minorities)

    4. initiate a state program by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism
    to restore the more than 2000 destroyed or deteriorating Armenian
    monasteries and churches, and return them to the rightful owner,
    the Armenian Church (Istanbul Armenian Patriarchate)

    5. offer a symbolic but meaningful apology to the Armenian people for
    all the crimes of 1915, by returning Mount Ararat and Ani to Armenia,
    perhaps as part of a territorial exchange based on equivalent land area

    6. open up to the public the afore-mentioned documents related to
    the deportation/liquidation records and the Ottoman property deeds
    related to the deported Armenians

    7. allow personal compensation cases by the descendants of the Ottoman
    citizen Armenians related to their confiscated properties to proceed
    in Turkish and international courts

    8. offer free transit and duty free port facilities for Armenia at
    a Black Sea city such as Trabzon and Rize, as partial compensation
    toward past economic losses of the Ottoman citizen Armenians

    Turkish acquaintances in government circles complain that the
    Armenians' insistence in using the word Genocide is a barrier to any
    progress toward dialogue about 1915. None of the suggestions above
    refer to that word, and all of them are do-able by 2015, if there
    really is goodwill. Once there is knowledge of the facts followed by
    dialogue about the truth of 1915 among the Turkish opinion makers and
    ordinary citizens, the far-reaching result would be the creation of
    voters aware of the truth. Knowledgable voters would then vote in
    knowledgable parliament members and eventually governments, which
    would set policies and decisions according to the voters' preferences.

    I would suggest that decisions taken in the Turkish Parliament
    respecting the truth of 1915 would be far more effective than any
    decision taken in the parliaments of third party states.

    Sources:

    Vatan daily newspaper, September 12, 2011, 'Bavul dolusu Ermeni
    belgesi kacirildi' (Trunkloads of Armenian documents were taken out)

    Zaman daily newspaper, April 24, 2012, 'Ozal Yasasaydi Ermeni Sorununu
    Cozecekti' (If Ozal had lived, he would have solved the Armenian issue'

    Internethaber news online, December 12, 2013, 'Turkiye'de skandal:
    Ermeni meselesini calisan ogrenciler fislendi' (Scandal in Turkey:
    Students researching the Armenian issue are being monitored)

    Murat Bardakci, Talaat Pasanin Evrak-i Metrukesi (Talaat Pasha's
    Black Book), 2005, Everest Yayinlari (Everest Publishing House)

    (Raffi Bedrosyan is a civil engineer and concert pianist, living
    in Toronto, Canada. He has donated concert and CD proceedings to
    infrastructure projects in Armenia and Karabagh, in which he has also
    participated as an engineer. He helped organize the reconstruction of
    the Surp Giragos Diyarbakir/Dikranagerd Church and the first Armenian
    reclaim of church properties in Anatolia after 1915. He gave the
    first piano concert in the Surp Giragos Church since 1915.)

    - See more at:
    http://www.mirrorspectator.com/2014/01/28/dialogue-can-lead-to-acknowledgment/#sthash.OatUw2jj.dpuf

Working...
X