Armenians In Turkey

[Boghos]

Turkey starts to admit it has an `Armenian Question'

22 September, 2006

TURKEY

 

by Mavi Zambak

http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=7288

Despite resistance and opposition by nationalists, books, newspapers

and TV are starting to talk about the hitherto taboo issue. Judges

are helping the process by throwing out cases against writers

accused of insulting the nation and its institutions.

 

 

Istanbul (AsiaNews) – Section 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which

makes it an offence to insult Turkish identity, is outdated, a

leftover from a nationalist past that is still hanging, thanks in

part to groups like the Grey Wolves, who are linked to the Turkish

Nationalist Movement Party (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi or MHP). It

was Grey Wolves' member Mehmet Ali Aðca who tried to kill Pope John

Paul II in 1981.

Last year famous Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk received death threats

after admitting to a German newspaper that a million Armenians had

been killed in Turkey. He was also charged under Section 301 with

denigrating "Turkishness, the Republic or the Grand National

Assembly of Turkey, [. . .] the Government of the Republic of

Turkey, the judicial institutions of the State, the military or

security organizations". Only after several postponements and

Europeans grumbling about Turkey's commitment to freedom of

expression was the writer found not guilty on January 24 of this

year.

Similarly, elements within the judiciary close to the MHP tried to

ban a conference entitled Ottoman Armenians During the Decline of

the Empire: Issues of Scientific Responsibility and Democracy at

Istanbul's Bilgi University on September 24-25 2005 after it was

blocked in the previous May because its scientific validity and the

qualifications of its participants were challenged. Also in this

case, protests in favour of academic freedom led Turkish Prime

Minister Erdogan to intervene and so it went ahead.

Elif Þafak, a young Turkish writer who lives in the United States,

went on trial yesterday for the same reason. Charges were brought

again by Kemal Kerincsiz, head of the Executive Board of the

Lawyers' Association, which pretends to defend the country against

any writer, editor, journalist or free thinker opposed its own

narrow-minded nationalism.

On trial with Ms Þafak was her bestselling novel The Bastard of

Istanbul (50,000 copies already sold) in which an Armenian character

accuses "Turkish butchers" of massacring Christian Armenians from

1915 till the end of the Ottoman Empire.

If Pamuk risked three years in prison for a historical-political

statement, Ms Þafak faced the same prospect for words uttered by a

fictional character in a novel that had nothing autobiographical

about it. But she too was acquitted and case against her was thrown

out of court. Kemal Kerincsiz lost again.

With the exception of a few nationalist lawyers who protested

outside the Istanbul courthouse, no one has questioned the judge's

decision.

The writer was not present at the proceedings because she gave birth

to a daughter over the weekend. But outside the courthouse

nationalist protesters came face to face with her left-wing

supporters. As a shouting match quickly descended into scuffles,

riot police moved to stop them from degenerating.

All this is a sign that Turkish nationalism is no longer what I used

to be: the ban on talking about Armenian issues is increasingly

being violated.

For years, Turkey has tried to tackle its own recent history. The

Armenian Question is undoubtedly one of the hardest and most painful

ones. It is at the core of a process Turkish historian Altuð Taner

Akçam has called the black hole of the Turkish Republic's identity.

Leading the charge are Turkish journalists and intellectuals.

"There is a silent revolution underway but it is largely the work of

reform-minded political and cultural elites," Ms Þafak said. "The

refusal to acknowledge the genocide inflicted on the Armenian people

stems from collective amnesia, a fracture point in [a people's]

memory". Several cultural events are however underway to "give back

to the Turkish people its own memory and past".

In early 2005 an exhibit showcasing some 600 old postcards opened in

Istanbul. The purpose was to allow ordinary Turkish citizens to see

how important and rooted the Armenian presence was on Ottoman

territory. The opening of Istanbul's Armenian Museum, inaugurated by

Prime Minister Erdogan himself, represents another step in the same

direction.

On the 90th anniversary of the genocide (1915-1916), TV stations,

including state-run broadcasters, devoted several programmes to the

Armenian Question inviting historians and intellectuals with

different points of view to round table discussions.

With in-depth reports, interviews and editorials, print media has

also begun covering the Armenian Question and modern Armenia.

The publishing industry has also started to do its part by releasing

many books in Turkish on the issue.

Another element in this trend is the number of Turks of Armenian

origin daring to speak out. For decades descendants of Armenians

converted to Islam to escape the massacres tried to hide their

shameful origins. Now, taking advantage of greater openness in

today's Turkish society, many are coming out into the open and

reclaim their roots.

Lawyer Fethiye Cetin was amongst the first to do it. In her 2004

book Anneannem (My Grandmother), she tells the story of her

grandmother who was born in an Armenian village in Elazig province,

eastern Turkey. Based on the old woman's recollections of her life,

the tragic events of 1915, the massacre of the men of her village,

the deportation of the women, her own adoption by a Muslim family

and conversion come alive again. The book has sold 12,000 copies and

is in its 7th printing.

What is important to Ms Cetin is that hundreds of "people in a

situation like mine called to tell me: `Me too, my grandmother . . .

always with a veil of suffering."

"I hope that my book will be a trailblazer. I, too, was afraid to

deal with this because it is so taboo," she said. "Being called an

Armenian was an insult. Armenians are seen as conspirators, but

today there is process of digging out" the truth.

After her book came out others started revealing that they, too,

were partly Armenian according to columnist Bekir Coskun. This set

in motion a new trend as more and more people tried to stir the

murky waters of their past.

Film maker Berke Bas is one of them. She set out to find out more

about of her own old grandmother's story and interviewed residents

of Ordu, a town on the Black Sea, in north-eastern Turkey.

"Many people provided me with information. They remembered very well

their old neighbours," she said. "Turks in Ordu remember with

sadness and nostalgia a time of peace and coexistence."

For the young woman who learnt about her Armenian ancestry only as

an adult, Turks today are better prepared to look at their past and

are happy to discover a history that is different from the official

version, one in which Armenians were portrayed as cruel enemies.

"In my opinion half of all Turks are of Armenian origin," said Luiz

Bakar, an attorney for Istanbul's Armenian Patriarchate, as she told

stories of converts who talked to her.

According to Bakar, every year about 20 people or so, who lived most

of their life as Muslims, come to the Armenian Patriarchate to be

baptised finding their way back to the religion of their forebears

before they, too, die.

In order to look at the past with courage the nationalist

stranglehold over history must be broken. Only this way can the

country's painful and troubled past be brought to light without fear

of losing face or one's honour.

This is why more and more people want Section 301 of the Penal Code

abolished, a step the European Union has insistently called for. Not

only does it criminalise any affront to Turkishness but it also

stifles freedom of thought and limits the rights of historians to

freely conduct their research.

Prime Minister Erdogan himself welcomed the court's decision in

favour of Ms Elif Þafak.

He went further and said that parliament must take heart and sit

down to calmly discuss abolishing or at least unanimously amending

the offensive section that has forced to so many Turkish

intellectuals to stand in the defendant's box.

Still another writer, Ipek Calishar, is up for trial on October 5.

She is faced with a possible five-year sentence for writing the

story of Atatürk's former wife thanks to the latter's sister. Like

the Armenian Question, the founder of the Turkish Republic is

another issue, too taboo for Turkish nationalists.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

Karmir kov@ ira kashin chi poxi.

 

 

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TURKISH PRIME MINISTER DEFENDS LAW CRIMINALIZING INSULTS AGAINST TURKEY

 

Associated Press Worldstream

September 26, 2006 Tuesday

 

Turkey's prime minister defended a law that makes it a crime to

insult "Turkishness" or Turkish officials on Tuesday, saying European

countries had similar laws and politicians did not have to stand for

being targets of abuse.

 

"Yes to criticism, no to insult," Erdogan told parliament on Tuesday

while talking about article 301 of the penal code, which the European

Union insists must be changed or abolished because it limits free

expression in this EU candidate country.

 

Despite a rash of prominent court cases using article 301 against

authors, academics and journalists, however, Turkish politicians have

been reluctant to amend the law, saying it needs more time to be tested

and that the problems are in implementation, not with the law itself.

 

Erdogan makes a distinction between criticism, which he says is

democratic and acceptable, and insult, which he says is not. His

lawyers regularly open court cases against journalists who allegedly

insult him.

 

"Is a politician this country's whipping child?" he asked rhetorically

on Tuesday. "There are those circles who mix up criticism and insult."

 

The prime minister added, however, that his government would consider

changing the law as long as the changes ensured it still protected

against insults.

 

"Just like in European countries, this law stems from need. If in

the end it emerges that there is a problem in implementation which,

while stopping the crime (insults), also limits legitimate rights

and freedoms, then we will amend the law in the necessary way. We

are open to concrete suggestions on this subject."

 

Most of the charges brought using article 301, including those against

leading Turkish novelists Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak, have not led

to convictions, but European Union officials argue even the threat

of legal action limits free expression.

 

The law is frequently invoked by nationalist lawyers against those

who suggest that Turks were guilty of genocide against Armenians.

 

On Monday, Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink was charged with

"insulting Turkishness" for saying bluntly that Armenians were victims

of genocide. Dink faces up to three years in prison if convicted.