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Turkey Inches Toward Genocide Recognition

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  • Turkey Inches Toward Genocide Recognition

    Assyrian International News Agency
    Jan 2 2009


    Turkey Inches Toward Genocide Recognition

    by Abdulmesih BarAbrahem


    Midyat, Turkey (AINA) --- The head of the pro-Kurdish DTP (Demokratik
    Toplum Partisi -- Democratic Society Party) in Turkey, Ahmet Türk,
    toured the south-east region early this week and visited the Assyrian
    Cultural Association in Midyat. He was accompanied by other DTP
    members of the Turkish parliament from Mardin, Diyarbakir and
    Sanliurfa, Emine Ayna, Aysel Tigluk, and Ibrahim Binici. At the
    Assyrian Club he met with the vice-chairman Yuhanna Aktas and other
    Assyrians.

    According to various Turkish news sources (AINA 12-30-2008), Türk
    apologized to the Assyrians in context of the events of 1915: "Sensing
    the pain of the events in our hearts, we feel that we need to
    apologize. In Turkey, apology is becoming quite a fashion
    recently. However, ours is something very different," he said.

    Recently, a group of 200 Turkish intellectuals launched an Internet
    campaign to apologize for Ottoman war crimes committed at the hand of
    Turks against Armenians during World War I (AINA 12-12-2008). The
    language used does not refer to the term genocide, as favored by the
    victims, though it is certainly helping to erode the biggest taboo in
    Turkey, as the campaign initiator Baskin Oran puts it. The language
    speaks of "the great catastrophe" but Assyrians as victims -- 750,000
    (75%) were killed in the genocide -- are not mentioned. Meanwhile at
    least 25,000 Turks have signed the petition, prompting calls of
    treason by Turkish nationalists and media. The Turkish Prime Minister
    Mr. Erdogan himself has called the petition a "mistake" (AINA
    12-18-2008).

    Mr. Türk continued his statements at the Assyrian association in
    Midyat with the following remarks: "We are ready to apologize for
    wrong doing. This is not to reduce the importance of the events. The
    events should be not brought up to the agenda by a simple apology. We
    are the people of this region and soil. Our struggle is aimed to allow
    people to live in brotherhood."

    Closing his remarks, Mr. Türk said: "Without forgetting that Kurds
    have been abused in the past to act against others, it is important
    that we study the history and derive lessons. Probably we, as Kurds,
    have our stake in the killing of this (cultural) richness. Today, when
    we see Armenian and Assyrian brothers, and look at them, we feel
    shame."

    Subsequently, the DTP delegation led by Türk visited the Assyrian
    monastery of St. Gabriel and met with Bishop Samuel Aktas. The
    monastery has recently came under attack by neighboring Kurdish
    village leaders, who are close to Erdogan's ruling party (AKP), aiming
    at grabbing monastery's land via fabricated lawsuits (AINA
    12-24-2008).

    Clouded and Undifferentiated View

    Mr. Türk's apology is definitely welcomed as a gesture of friendship
    by Assyrians. In fact, it is not the first time that a Kurdish leader
    has apologized for Kurdish crimes committed against Assyrians during
    World War I. Putting Mr. Türk's statement in context of the Apology
    Campaign of by Turkish intellectuals, it is a courageous step by a
    party leader of the Turkish parliament.

    In his statements, Ahmet Türk does not use the term genocide, and,
    like many Kurdish nationalists, compares the "suffering" of the Kurds
    in Turkey to the suffering of the Armenians and Assyrians in the past
    and especially to that of World War I, saying, that "Kurds today live
    the same pain." This confirms still an undifferentiated historical
    view with regards to the great losses that Assyrians had during World
    War I; apparently his suggested studies of history and the lessons to
    be learned from that need to go further.

    In an interview with BBC and CNN in November of 2008, Mr. Türk used
    the word genocide for what is happening to the Kurds in Turkey, later
    on emphasizing that he did not use the word to support any Armenian
    claims. Triggered by protests of Collective VAN, a French-based
    Armenian initiative (Vigilance against the Holocaust Denial), a press
    controversy began in Turkey following the use of the term that is
    still taboo in Turkey.

    According to Collective VAN, Ahmet Turk is best positioned to know
    what a genocide is, since he is the grand-son of one of the heads of
    Hamidiye regiments (Hüseyin Kanco of Mardin), established by the
    Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Hamid II in 1894; they were responsible for
    perpetrating massacres against Armenians and Assyrians in the eastern
    provinces. These para-military regiments consisted of Kurdish chiefs
    who actively participated in the massacres against Christians in
    1894/96 and again later in 1915 during the genocide unleashed by the
    Young Turkish government against the Christian population.

    Despite being very well informed about the reality of the genocide,
    Collective VAN accuses Türk of manipulating the issue. In 2007 Ahmet
    Turk complained to Turkish television because DTP was not invited to
    the commemorations of Victory Day on 30/08/2007. He vehemently
    criticized the decision, stressing that the Turks had obtained the
    victory thanks to the Kurds -- because it is "understood that the
    Kurds had helped clean the Armenian people," according to Collective
    VAN -- and the Kurds were excluded from the festivities.


    Abdulmesih BarAbrahem was born in Midyat, Tur Abdin in the Turkish
    part of Mesopotamia and emigrated with his parents to Germany in the
    mid-1960s, wherehe completed his education and received his M.Sc. from
    the University of Erlangen/Nürnberg in the field of Computer
    Science. Early 1970s, he organized the first Assyrian conference in
    West Germany, which marked the beginning of organized public Assyrian
    activities in Europe. He has published numerous articles on Assyrian
    topics. He is currently President of the Trusty-Fund of the Yoken Bar
    Yoken Foundation.
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