[Schwartz] EU - Germany urges Turkey to take responsibility for Armenian Genocide [late post]

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April 29th, 2005: Turkey edges towards Armenia ties BBC Online

April 24th, 2005: Armenians remember mass killings BBC Online

April 21st, 2005:Berlin urges Turkey to take
responsibility for massacres Expatica Online

All parties in the German parliament have agreed key points of a resolution which will tell Turkey to "take historic responsibility" for the 1915 Armenian genocide. However, they aren't using the word "genocide." The draft resolution being debated in Germany's parliament does not use the word "genocide" but rather refers to the "expulsion and massacres" of Armenians under the Ottoman Turks in 1915 as part of ceremonies marking the 90th anniversary of the killings.

[Thanks to Ben for alerting me to this article.]

In Thinking-East's Issue 3, scheduled for publication May 31st, 2005, you can read my interview with Yair Auron, the world's leading expert on the Armenian Genocide and the Jewish reaction (who also happens to be a recent resident of the Oasis of Peace.)

I don't yet know what was Turkey's response. Turkey tends to be very sensitive about this issue, and won't even like the use of the word "massacre." Whoever wrote this explanation in the Wikipedia did it very well:

Soon after the Armenian massacres, the world was well aware of the "extermination of the Armenians", which was openly discussed by Turkish government officials, and trials of Ottoman officials were held in regard to the events, after a period of quiet, a new policy of silencing and what is called as denial began. Eventually, a policy that is considered by many historians as official state denial emerged. Mention of Armenian Genocide almost anywhere in the world was met with rebukes from Turkish ambassadors, while mention of it in Turkey itself led to jail terms or worse on many occasions — often prosecuted under a law against inciting ethnic hatred.

Turkey began to spend large amounts of money on lobbying firms in Washington D.C. to counter genocide allegations, and improve its image. It also began to spend large amounts of money on endowed chairs of Turkish or Ottoman history in different U.S. universities which had conditions that the professors who were hired must be on "friendly" terms with Turkey. Some of their efforts to establish such chairs were met with student and public resistance and not all were eventually successful in being beforehand armenian counterpart establishments.

The campaign of what is called as denial has met with mixed success. Some governments, notably Turkish allies the U.S. and Israel will not officially use the word genocide to describe these events, though some government officials have used it personally. Many newspapers for a long time would not use the word genocide without disclaimers such as "alleged". A number of those policies have now been reversed so that even casting doubt on the term is against editorial policy, such as the case is with the New York Times. In recent years the number of governments recognizing the event as genocide officially has grown, despite threats of economic retaliation from Turkey. Two recent examples are France and Switzerland. Turkish entry talks with the European Union were met with a number of calls to consider the event as genocide, though it was eventually not a specific stipulation.

The most recent move by the Turkish government in this regard was for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the head of the main opposition party Deniz Baykal to hold a press conference in March 2005 inviting Armenian historians to meet with historians from Turkey to find out what happened, and called on Armenia to open its archives. This was met with a response from the Armenian Foreign minister that the world already knew what happened, and that Armenia's archives were always open.

Turkey has never established diplomatic relations with Armenia and has closed its land borders with Armenia. Armenia has declared repeatedly it is ready for relations and an open border without preconditions but denied to withdraw its own troops from occupied Azerbeijan. Turkey claims that it would support the occupation of Nagorno-Karabagh by opening his borders.

The Wikipedia entry also has a timeline.

I'll keep you updated...

Further reading:
۞ Check out this Armenian blog.
۞ Check out the Wikipedia's entry, which notes,

There are a number of Turkish scholars who support the theses of genocide, including turkish historians Ragip Zarakolu and Ali Ertem, as well as Taner Akçam and Halil Berktay. Despite being protested strongly by some Turkish nationalists. Orhan Pamuk, a famous Turkish novelist, has also recently told the swiss press that he believes that a million Armenians and 30,000 kurds were killed in Turkey.

The reason why some Turkish intellectuals accept the theses of genocide, lies behind three important points. First, the fact that this organization members were criminals, and that those criminals were specifically sent to escort the Armenians, for them is enough evidences of a government criminal intention. Second, the fact that not only the Armenians living in the war zone were removed, according to them this plays against the theses of military necessity vehiculed by the Ottoman government. Thirdly, according to them, the theses of simple relocation does not make sense, because there was no dispositions taken suggesting a “resettlement,” which could mean that the government didn't expected Armenians would survive. Dr. Taner Akçam, a Turkish specialist, write about this point: “The fact that neither at the start of the deportations, nor en route, and nor at the locations, which were declared to be their initial halting places, were there any single arrangement, required for the organization of a people's migration, is sufficient proof of the existence of this plan of annihilation.”

Those Turkish intellectuals believe that 800,000 or more Armenians lost their lives during the events.