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Turkish columnist calls for facing history on 98th anniversary of Armenian Genocide Ahmet Insel, columnist of the Turkey-based Radikal daily, addresses a problem of facing history. “Ottoman Muslims divided not only Armenians’ property, but also Armenian women and children, between themselves,” writes the author. April 24 is the 98th anniversary of arrests and deportation of most Armenian deputies, writers, journalists, musicians, lawyers, doctors and scholars to Ayaş. Many poor people were among them. They were arrested because their names sounded similar to the great Armenians’ names. Most of them died, with only few of them allowed to return to Istanbul. A month later, Ottoman Turkey’s government launched a policy of annihilating the Armenian population, with confiscation of property being part of that policy. Some Armenian women and children were forcibly converted into Islam. Not only Armenians, but also Assyrians and Anatolian Greeks were killed during the deportation. Committee of Union and Progress committed a great crime against humanity. Had the term ‘genocide’ existed at that time, their actions would have been termed as ‘genocide.’ Not only the Committee of Union and Progress was criminal. Most Ottoman Muslims were supportive of the policy of de-Christianizing Anatolia. The perpetrators of the genocide, the people that divided the Armenian property and kept silent about the developments constituted a majority. On the other hand, others were denouncing the great crime and struggling against it. “In remembering the pages of our history that are a source of pride for us, we should also face the disgraceful pages and realize that reconciliation with your own conscience is a constituent part of peace,” the author writes.