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TURKEY AND ARMENIA REDRAW BATTLELINES OVER 1915
AINA Assyrian International News Agency
April 15 2015
By Piotr Zalewski
Financial Times
Posted 2015-04-15 18:45 GMT
On April 24, dozens of world leaders are expected to travel to Turkey
to mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli, one of the
bloodiest campaigns of the first world war. But dozens more could be
conspicuous by their absence.
In past years, Turkey has commemorated the campaign on March 18, the
date when Ottoman forces repelled a naval attack by allied warships
in the Dardanelles Strait, the start of a military campaign that left
nearly 500,000 Ottoman, British, French, Australian, New Zealand and
Indian soldiers dead or wounded.
Turkey has also hosted anniversaries on April 25, the day of the allied
landing on the Gallipoli peninsula. But this year, Ankara's official
ceremonies have been planned to overlap with another centenary --
that of Armenian mass killings. Turkey has not offered an official
explanation for its decision, but critics see it as an attempt to
shift attention away from commemorations in Yerevan.
The decision has been greeted with outrage in Armenia, where April
24 1915 is remembered as the beginning of a wave of Ottoman-ordered
mass deportations and massacres in which as many as 1.5m Armenians
were killed.
Ankara continues to insist that what it describes as a wartime tragedy
that affected Turks and Ottoman Armenians alike, does not meet the
definition of genocide. But Yerevan and the Armenian diaspora continue
to lobby foreign governments to recognise it as such. Successive US
administrations, wary of provoking Turkey, a vital Nato ally, offer
annual commiserations but stop short of using the genocide label.
The governments in Ankara and Yerevan have not established formal
relations since Armenia's independence from the USSR in 1991. An
attempt at rapprochement fell apart in 2010.
Fewer than 10 years ago, Turkish intellectuals faced prison for
making even a roundÂÂabout reference to the 1915 tragedy. In 2005,
Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel prizewinning author, stood trial for "insulting
Turkishness" after telling a Swiss magazine: "One million Armenians
and 30,000 Kurds were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares
talk about it." Charges were dropped.
But in Turkey today, the wall of denial is cracking. Shops have
started stocking books by Armenian and Turkish authors on the 1915
massacres. In 2008, more than 30,000 Turks signed a petition calling
for a collective apology for "the Great Catastrophe". Comments like Mr
Pamuk's are made more widely, and are no longer subject to prosecution.
Rhetoric has also changed at an official level. Last year, President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed condolences to survivors and their
descendants, the closest any Turkish leader has come to issuing an
apology. An ethnic Armenian, who refers to the events of 1915 as
genocide, has been appointed as an adviser to the prime minister.
"They have done away with the various taboos on the Kurdish question,
the role of Islam and the Armenian question," says Halil Berktay,
a historian at Sabanci University, referring to Mr Erdogan's Justice
and Development Party (AKP). He is among the first Turkish academics
to use the genocide label in public.
"They have not asked journalists or academics to fall into line with
the denialist ideology," Mr Berktay adds.
"It is not that all of Turkey has accepted the reality of the genocide,
but it is now a topic that can be freely debated. In 2000, I could
not have imagined I would be saying the things I am saying now."
Yet with the AKP courting the nationalist vote ahead of parliamentary
elections in June, there may not be much appetite left for
conciliatory rhetoric. This year, with its decision to host the
Gallipoli anniversary at the same time as Armenia's remembrance day,
the Ankara government may have dug itself into a hole. The move,
says Mr Berktay, is "deplorable".
In diplomatic terms, it may also prove counterproductive. To date,
more than 20 countries, including France, Russia, and Germany, have
recognised the 1915 killings as genocide. The UK has not. But even
those that accept the label are unlikely to send heads of state to
Gallipoli instead of Yerevan.
"The bigger nations will either be absent at both [events] or go
to Yerevan," says Soli Ozel, a professor at Istanbul's Kadir Has
University.
The occasion, Mr Ozel fears, is likely to turn into a "contest" between
Turkey and Armenia in which the presence or absence of dignitaries
will be trumpeted as a show of support for one historical narrative
over the other. "Comparisons will be made," says Mr Ozel.
http://www.aina.org/news/20150415144552.htm
AINA Assyrian International News Agency
April 15 2015
By Piotr Zalewski
Financial Times
Posted 2015-04-15 18:45 GMT
On April 24, dozens of world leaders are expected to travel to Turkey
to mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli, one of the
bloodiest campaigns of the first world war. But dozens more could be
conspicuous by their absence.
In past years, Turkey has commemorated the campaign on March 18, the
date when Ottoman forces repelled a naval attack by allied warships
in the Dardanelles Strait, the start of a military campaign that left
nearly 500,000 Ottoman, British, French, Australian, New Zealand and
Indian soldiers dead or wounded.
Turkey has also hosted anniversaries on April 25, the day of the allied
landing on the Gallipoli peninsula. But this year, Ankara's official
ceremonies have been planned to overlap with another centenary --
that of Armenian mass killings. Turkey has not offered an official
explanation for its decision, but critics see it as an attempt to
shift attention away from commemorations in Yerevan.
The decision has been greeted with outrage in Armenia, where April
24 1915 is remembered as the beginning of a wave of Ottoman-ordered
mass deportations and massacres in which as many as 1.5m Armenians
were killed.
Ankara continues to insist that what it describes as a wartime tragedy
that affected Turks and Ottoman Armenians alike, does not meet the
definition of genocide. But Yerevan and the Armenian diaspora continue
to lobby foreign governments to recognise it as such. Successive US
administrations, wary of provoking Turkey, a vital Nato ally, offer
annual commiserations but stop short of using the genocide label.
The governments in Ankara and Yerevan have not established formal
relations since Armenia's independence from the USSR in 1991. An
attempt at rapprochement fell apart in 2010.
Fewer than 10 years ago, Turkish intellectuals faced prison for
making even a roundÂÂabout reference to the 1915 tragedy. In 2005,
Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel prizewinning author, stood trial for "insulting
Turkishness" after telling a Swiss magazine: "One million Armenians
and 30,000 Kurds were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares
talk about it." Charges were dropped.
But in Turkey today, the wall of denial is cracking. Shops have
started stocking books by Armenian and Turkish authors on the 1915
massacres. In 2008, more than 30,000 Turks signed a petition calling
for a collective apology for "the Great Catastrophe". Comments like Mr
Pamuk's are made more widely, and are no longer subject to prosecution.
Rhetoric has also changed at an official level. Last year, President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed condolences to survivors and their
descendants, the closest any Turkish leader has come to issuing an
apology. An ethnic Armenian, who refers to the events of 1915 as
genocide, has been appointed as an adviser to the prime minister.
"They have done away with the various taboos on the Kurdish question,
the role of Islam and the Armenian question," says Halil Berktay,
a historian at Sabanci University, referring to Mr Erdogan's Justice
and Development Party (AKP). He is among the first Turkish academics
to use the genocide label in public.
"They have not asked journalists or academics to fall into line with
the denialist ideology," Mr Berktay adds.
"It is not that all of Turkey has accepted the reality of the genocide,
but it is now a topic that can be freely debated. In 2000, I could
not have imagined I would be saying the things I am saying now."
Yet with the AKP courting the nationalist vote ahead of parliamentary
elections in June, there may not be much appetite left for
conciliatory rhetoric. This year, with its decision to host the
Gallipoli anniversary at the same time as Armenia's remembrance day,
the Ankara government may have dug itself into a hole. The move,
says Mr Berktay, is "deplorable".
In diplomatic terms, it may also prove counterproductive. To date,
more than 20 countries, including France, Russia, and Germany, have
recognised the 1915 killings as genocide. The UK has not. But even
those that accept the label are unlikely to send heads of state to
Gallipoli instead of Yerevan.
"The bigger nations will either be absent at both [events] or go
to Yerevan," says Soli Ozel, a professor at Istanbul's Kadir Has
University.
The occasion, Mr Ozel fears, is likely to turn into a "contest" between
Turkey and Armenia in which the presence or absence of dignitaries
will be trumpeted as a show of support for one historical narrative
over the other. "Comparisons will be made," says Mr Ozel.
http://www.aina.org/news/20150415144552.htm