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Lessons in history: Controversial Turkish Historian argues
June 27, 2004 21:43:58
The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec)
June 26, 2004 Saturday Final Edition
Lessons in history: Controversial Turkish Historian argues that
recognizing the Armenian Genocide is a political necessity for his
country
by LEVON SEVUNTS
It's sometimes hard to explain to non-Armenian friends the need to
recognize the 1915 Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman
Turkish government.
"Why don't you let it go?" I often hear. "Get on with your life. It
happened 90 years ago, for God's sake."
But for Turkish historian Taner Akcam, the need to recognize and
learn from the Armenian genocide is as acute now as it was when the
modern Turkish Republic was founded 80 years ago, particularly in
Turkey itself.
Akcam, a controversial historian at home whose views have made him
the target of death threats, argues that Turkey is approaching a
second crucial stage in its nation-building process and if it doesn't
learn from past mistakes, it is bound to repeat them.
Akcam contends the collapse of the Soviet Union and the U.S. invasion
of Iraq have reawakened the Eastern Question, the redrawing of the
political map of the Middle East at the expense of the Ottoman Empire
and now the Turkish Republic.
Equally dangerous, Akcam argues, is the reawakening of revanchist
ideas among Turkey's military-bureaucratic elites. Coupled together,
these tendencies could lead to another calamity, he warns.
>From Empire to Republic is certain to create controversy, especially
in Turkey, where discussions of the Armenian genocide are still
taboo. But what makes Akcam's book stand out among other works on the
subject - apart from the fact that the author is a Turk - is that it
is the first serious scholarly attempt to understand the genocide
from the perspective of the perpetrator, rather than the victim.
Akcam uses a curious mix of historical research, sociology and
psychoanalysis to examine the cultural, ideological and political
climate that led to the genocide and argues it was a carefully
planned extermination, not an unfortunate byproduct of the First
World War, as is the official Turkish position.
His analysis of Turkish national identity and its past and present
propensity for political violence is shocking even for a reader who
does not see the country through the rosy glasses of Turkey's tourism
ads.
But Akcam is not a "self-loathing Turk." On the contrary, he comes
across as somebody who cares deeply about his native country. In
fact, one could argue that for Akcam, the issue of recognition of the
Armenian genocide by Turkey is not just a question of a moral
imperative, but of a political necessity for Turkey's transformation
into a truly democratic country and its integration into the European
Union.
"It is a quest for Turkish national identity," Akcam writes. "The
emergence of this Turkish national identity was one of the important
reasons for the occurrence of the genocide and today is one of the
important obstacles on the way to integration with Europe. The
existence of the same mindset that caused the Armenian genocide seems
today a major hindrance to solving the Kurdish question, and,
therefore, to membership in the European Union."
>From Empire to Republic is also a passionate plea for a dialogue and
reconciliation between Armenians and Turks.
Akcam's book is available online at http://www.zoryan.org/
Levon Sevunts is a Montreal writer.
levon_sevunts@yahoo.ca
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>From Empire to Republic:
Turkish Nationalism & the Armenian Genocide
By Taner Akcam Zed Books, 273 pages, $32
GRAPHIC: Photo: RICHARD ARLESS JR. THE GAZETTE; Robert Kouyoumdjian,
a member of the Armenian National Committee of Canada, near the
Armenian National Monument in Montreal after the federal government
agreed in April to recognize the Armenian genocide during the First
World War.
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submitted by Emil Lazarian
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