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The Truth Behind Turkey's `Open Archives'
Thursday, January 8th, 2015
Mehmet UluıÅ?ık
ISTANBUL (Agos)'When the `Armenian Question' is discussed, Turkish
state officials immediately talk about archives. The fact that the
archives are open to everyone, and that all documents are accessible,
is shown as adequate reason to leave the interpretation of the events
of 1915 to historians. However, Mehmet UluıÅ?ık's story completely
disproves the official version regarding the archives.
UluıÅ?ık is one of many citizens who were forced to migrate to Germany
following the September 12, 1980, military coup d'état. Since he did
not return to Turkey, he was stripped of citizenship in 1991 on the
grounds that he had not carried out his military service. After
becoming a German citizen in 1997, he comfortably travelled to Turkey
at least once a year ` that is, until November 2007.
UluıÅ?ık states that he had encountered no problems until, in 2005, he
began to collect documents from the Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives
(BOA) both for Prof. Taner Akçam's and his own research. Having asked
for documents related to the 1915 Armenian Genocide, UluıÅ?ık was
questioned by archive workers on his third visit, and was effectively
interrogated. Subjected to strange questions like, `Are you Armenian?'
and `Do you frequently meet with Taner Akçam?' UluıÅ?ık also received
death threats from different sources.
When UluıÅ?ık wanted to return to Turkey only a week after he had left
in November 2007, he was sent back to Germany on the grounds that
there was an entry ban to the country in his name. The legal process
initiated by UluıÅ?ık revealed the source of the ban. At the first
hearing of the case he filed at the Administrative Court against the
Ministry of Interior, the petition signed by Osman KarakuÅ? from the
Ministry as revealed at the court, showed that UluıÅ?ık had been
considered, in accordance with the Passport Law, `among those who are
coming to Turkey with the intention of harming the security and
general order of the Republic of Turkey, or with the aim of
collaborating with or aiding such persons'. At the second hearing, a
petition from the Ministry made things even clearer. According to this
petition, the Ministry had received an intelligence memorandum about
UluıÅ?ık from the Police General Directorate. The views included in
this memorandum clearly reveal that his research in the archive caused
discomfort to the state: `Information has been received that the said
person is carrying out work in the Ottoman archives in order to find
support for theses such as; that late period Ottoman administrations,
in the Union and Progress Party period and the National Struggle
period, provoked Caucasian communities, and particularly Circassians,
against Armenians, had Armenians and Circassians massacre each other,
and in this manner carried out not only the Armenian but also the
Circassian Genocide; and that he carries out his work with financial
support he has received from the funds of the Konrad Adenauer
Foundation and the Goethe Institute based in Germany.
UluıÅ?ık's appeal to the ban was accepted first by the Administrative
Court, and then by the Council of State. So UluıÅ?ık thought that his
ban from entering the country had been lifted, but met with another
surprise when he tried to enter Turkey on 15 May 2013: A new ban had
been issued in April 2011. But the real shock was the news he received
from his elder sister. Confident that he would enter Turkey, UluıÅ?ık
had asked his elder sister to go to the archive to request documents
on his behalf, so that they were ready for him to examine the next
day. However, archive workers, upon hearing the name Mehmet UluıÅ?ık,
responded to his sister, `He is prohibited from entering the
archives'. And when his sister said, `His ban from entering Turkey has
been lifted,' they said, `Even if he can enter Turkey, he cannot enter
the archives'. UluıÅ?ık tried to find out the reason for his
prohibition from the archives by contacting acquaintances in official
positions in Ankara and found out that a letter sent by MÄ°T, the
National Intelligence Organization, to the institution during the term
of Prime Ministry State Archives General Director Yusuf Sarınay
prohibited him from entering the archives.
UluıÅ?ık says, `Until then, I thought I was being banned from entering
Turkey so that I wouldn't enter the archives, so I was shocked to
learn that my entry into the archives was already prohibited in every
way'. UluıÅ?ık does not know the reason for the ban. `If we start
talking about it, we could even blame the blowing wind,' says UluıÅ?ık,
and adds that he won't make any legal efforts anymore, since he knows
that the state is capable of banning him forever.
http://asbarez.com/130520/the-truth-behind-turkey%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98open-archives%E2%80%99/
From: A. Papazian
Thursday, January 8th, 2015
Mehmet UluıÅ?ık
ISTANBUL (Agos)'When the `Armenian Question' is discussed, Turkish
state officials immediately talk about archives. The fact that the
archives are open to everyone, and that all documents are accessible,
is shown as adequate reason to leave the interpretation of the events
of 1915 to historians. However, Mehmet UluıÅ?ık's story completely
disproves the official version regarding the archives.
UluıÅ?ık is one of many citizens who were forced to migrate to Germany
following the September 12, 1980, military coup d'état. Since he did
not return to Turkey, he was stripped of citizenship in 1991 on the
grounds that he had not carried out his military service. After
becoming a German citizen in 1997, he comfortably travelled to Turkey
at least once a year ` that is, until November 2007.
UluıÅ?ık states that he had encountered no problems until, in 2005, he
began to collect documents from the Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives
(BOA) both for Prof. Taner Akçam's and his own research. Having asked
for documents related to the 1915 Armenian Genocide, UluıÅ?ık was
questioned by archive workers on his third visit, and was effectively
interrogated. Subjected to strange questions like, `Are you Armenian?'
and `Do you frequently meet with Taner Akçam?' UluıÅ?ık also received
death threats from different sources.
When UluıÅ?ık wanted to return to Turkey only a week after he had left
in November 2007, he was sent back to Germany on the grounds that
there was an entry ban to the country in his name. The legal process
initiated by UluıÅ?ık revealed the source of the ban. At the first
hearing of the case he filed at the Administrative Court against the
Ministry of Interior, the petition signed by Osman KarakuÅ? from the
Ministry as revealed at the court, showed that UluıÅ?ık had been
considered, in accordance with the Passport Law, `among those who are
coming to Turkey with the intention of harming the security and
general order of the Republic of Turkey, or with the aim of
collaborating with or aiding such persons'. At the second hearing, a
petition from the Ministry made things even clearer. According to this
petition, the Ministry had received an intelligence memorandum about
UluıÅ?ık from the Police General Directorate. The views included in
this memorandum clearly reveal that his research in the archive caused
discomfort to the state: `Information has been received that the said
person is carrying out work in the Ottoman archives in order to find
support for theses such as; that late period Ottoman administrations,
in the Union and Progress Party period and the National Struggle
period, provoked Caucasian communities, and particularly Circassians,
against Armenians, had Armenians and Circassians massacre each other,
and in this manner carried out not only the Armenian but also the
Circassian Genocide; and that he carries out his work with financial
support he has received from the funds of the Konrad Adenauer
Foundation and the Goethe Institute based in Germany.
UluıÅ?ık's appeal to the ban was accepted first by the Administrative
Court, and then by the Council of State. So UluıÅ?ık thought that his
ban from entering the country had been lifted, but met with another
surprise when he tried to enter Turkey on 15 May 2013: A new ban had
been issued in April 2011. But the real shock was the news he received
from his elder sister. Confident that he would enter Turkey, UluıÅ?ık
had asked his elder sister to go to the archive to request documents
on his behalf, so that they were ready for him to examine the next
day. However, archive workers, upon hearing the name Mehmet UluıÅ?ık,
responded to his sister, `He is prohibited from entering the
archives'. And when his sister said, `His ban from entering Turkey has
been lifted,' they said, `Even if he can enter Turkey, he cannot enter
the archives'. UluıÅ?ık tried to find out the reason for his
prohibition from the archives by contacting acquaintances in official
positions in Ankara and found out that a letter sent by MÄ°T, the
National Intelligence Organization, to the institution during the term
of Prime Ministry State Archives General Director Yusuf Sarınay
prohibited him from entering the archives.
UluıÅ?ık says, `Until then, I thought I was being banned from entering
Turkey so that I wouldn't enter the archives, so I was shocked to
learn that my entry into the archives was already prohibited in every
way'. UluıÅ?ık does not know the reason for the ban. `If we start
talking about it, we could even blame the blowing wind,' says UluıÅ?ık,
and adds that he won't make any legal efforts anymore, since he knows
that the state is capable of banning him forever.
http://asbarez.com/130520/the-truth-behind-turkey%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98open-archives%E2%80%99/
From: A. Papazian