Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Turkey's Gallipoli Date Change Angers Armenian Community

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

  • Turkey's Gallipoli Date Change Angers Armenian Community

    TURKEY'S GALLIPOLI DATE CHANGE ANGERS ARMENIAN COMMUNITY

    Irish Times
    April 17 2015

    Gallipoli commemoration moved to clash with centenary of Armenian
    massacre

    by Constanze Letsch

    Turkey has been accused of belittling the imminent centenary of the
    Armenian genocide by advancing its Gallipoli commemorations to the
    same day.

    The anniversary of the 1915 military operations on the Gallipoli
    peninsula has always been marked on April 25th, the day after
    commemorations of the massacre of more than one million Armenians in
    the Ottoman empire.

    This year, however, president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has invited state
    leaders to join him in Gallipoli on April 24th.

    "This is a very indecent political manoeuvre," said Ohannes Kilicdagi,
    a researcher and writer for Agos, an Armenian weekly. "It's cheap
    politics to try to dissolve the pressure on Turkey in the year of
    the centennial by organising this event.

    Britain's Prince Charles and Prince Harry, Australian prime minister
    Tony Abbott, and New Zealand prime minister John Key have all confirmed
    they will attend events at Gallipoli. As part of the programme on
    April 24th, services will be held at several military cemeteries.

    At the same time, hundreds will gather on Istanbul's Taksim Square,
    where a commemoration of the Armenian genocide has been held since
    2010. Another rally will be held in the eastern city of Diyarbakir,
    an important centre from where the state governor oversaw the mass
    killings in 1915. The main event will be held in Yerevan, the capital
    of Armenia.

    The Turkish government's efforts to divert international attention
    from the commemoration of the massacre have been called "disgraceful"
    by Armenians.

    Overshadow centennial

    "It's not just Gallipoli," said Nazar Buyum, an Armenian columnist.

    "Someone also had the audacity to suggest the organisation of a
    Gallipoli memorial concert in an Armenian church in Istanbul for 24
    April. The government does everything to overshadow the centennial
    of the genocide this year."

    Turkey refuses to accept responsibility for the slaughter of hundreds
    of thousands of Armenians in the Ottoman empire.

    Professor Ayhan Aktar of Bilgi University in Istanbul, who has
    long researched the denial of the Armenian genocide in Turkey, was
    not surprised by the government's decision to move the date of the
    Gallipoli events.

    "Turkey has been putting forward the Turks dying on World War I
    battlefields for 97 years, arguing that, yes, Armenians might have
    died, but so did our ancestors," he said. "This move just continues
    this line of defence. It's indecent, and a disgrace."

    While the Armenian state leader and many Armenians abroad expressed
    outrage at Turkey's diplomatic gamble, the reaction in Turkey has
    been rather muted.

    Part of the reason, Mr Kilicdagi says, is the persistent fear of
    violence against the Armenian community in Turkey.

    "Even though the situation has somewhat improved, and even though
    solidarity with the Armenian community has increased, many have
    learned to live with the constant fear," he said. "It has become
    almost a reflex. Armenians are still a vulnerable group in Turkey."

    After Ankara's announcement to shift all official commemorations
    of Gallipoli to April 24th, critics pointed out that no significant
    military event took place at Gallipoli that day and that Armenians
    had greater claim to it because April 24th, 1915 was when Ottoman
    authorities began arresting Armenian intellectuals in Istanbul.

    Condolences

    Hopes of an Armenian-Turkish thaw were raised last year, when Mr
    Erdogan extended condolences to the grandchildren of all killed
    Armenians. But this year's actions have alienated the 100,000-strong
    Armenian community in Turkey.

    "After Erdogan's words last year, this was a big disappointment," said
    Nayat Karakose, programme coordinator at the Hrant Dink Foundation,
    which promotes Turkish-Armenian reconciliation and culture.

    "We expected a more positive step than to try and shift the
    international focus away from Armenia's effort to raise awareness
    about the genocide." - (Guardian service)

    http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/turkey-s-gallipoli-date-change-angers-armenian-community-1.2178865

Working...
X