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The Economist - 4 August 2005 - When history hurts

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  • The Economist - 4 August 2005 - When history hurts

    When history hurts

    Aug 4th 2005 | ANKARA
    >From The Economist print edition


    Times are tough for outspoken scholars

    IF TURKEY is ever to join the European Union, it will need to
    acknowledge-and allow free discussion of-the mass slaughter of the
    Ottoman empire's Armenian subjects both during and after the first
    world war. That, at least, is the opinion of some EU members-especially
    France, where many Armenians live, and where objections to Turkish
    entry run high.

    In theory, Turkey's rendezvous with the Union-entry talks are due
    to start in October-should be good news for the Turkish scholars
    who have risked prosecution by challenging the official line, which
    holds that the mass deportation of Armenians in 1915 did not amount
    to a conspiracy to kill them. And earlier this year, there were some
    good signs.

    After decades of denying that the killings-which Armenians round
    the world regard as genocide-ever took place, Turkey in April called
    on international scholars to determine once and for all what really
    happened, saying they were free to examine the Ottoman archives. This
    invitation from Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, won strong
    praise from EU governments. But the few intrepid souls who took him
    at his word have had nothing but trouble ever since.

    In May, a group of Turkish historians (many of whom challenge the
    official view that the main cause of death among deported Armenians
    was exposure and disease) suffered a sharp setback. They had to cancel
    a conference which was due to debate the Armenian tragedy after the
    justice minister, Cemil Cicek, accused them of "stabbing Turkey in
    the back".

    Another bad sign: Hrant Dink, the publisher of Agos, an Armenian
    weekly in Istanbul, is facing up to three years in jail for telling
    an audience in 2002 that he was "not Turkish" but "an Armenian of
    Turkey". In a separate case, also filed this year, Mr Dink is facing
    up to six years for urging Armenians and Turks to stop hating one
    another. In both instances, Mr Dink was said to have "insulted the
    Turkish state".

    How do these prosecutions square with Mr Erdogan's stated wish to take
    the sting out of Turkish-Armenian relations by allowing some honest
    research? "Easily," insists Mr Dink. "There are forces in this country
    who are working night and day to stop Turkey from joining the EU and
    part of that is silencing people like me."

    But these days, the problems of liberal Turkish scholars-and advocates
    of Turkish-Armenian reconciliation-are not all caused by their own
    country. Take the case of Yektan Turkyilmaz, an internationally
    acclaimed Turkish scholar who was arrested in Armenia on June
    17th on charges of seeking to smuggle antique books out of the
    country. Fluent in Armenian, Mr Turkyilmaz is among the few Turks
    who say the Ottoman policy in 1915 did amount to deliberate killing.
    The first Turkish academic to be granted access to Armenia's national
    archives, Mr Turkyilmaz is being held in a maximum security prison in
    Yerevan. He will face trial next month for violating Article 215 of
    the Armenian Criminal Code, which equates the smuggling of antiquities
    with trafficking in weapons of mass destruction. He could incur a
    jail sentence of up to eight years.

    Mr Turkyilmaz insists he had no idea about the law, and that the
    dealers who sold him some 100 volumes never said he would need
    permission to take them out. In an open letter to Armenia's president,
    Robert Kocharian, some 200 academics, campaigning for the historian's
    freedom, said the arrest would "raise serious doubts as to whether
    Armenia encourages independent scholarly research on its history."

    Whatever view you take of the Armenian tragedy, it can get you into
    trouble-in unexpected places. Dogu Perincek, an eccentric Turkish
    leftist, was briefly detained in Switzerland on July 23rd. The Swiss
    authorities say he breached article 261 of their penal code, which
    makes the denial or justification of genocide a punishable offence.
    Mr Perincek had told a conference that to speak of Armenian genocide
    was an "imperialist lie". Oddly enough, the Turkish authorities
    seem far more indignant about his minor travails than they are about
    Mr Turkyilmaz.
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