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MICHAEL KAMBECK: ERDOGAN HYSTERIC - SHOULD HE RESIGN?
by Michael Kambeck
Noyan Tapan
2012-01-25
The hysteria in Turkey over the French bill prohibiting the denial
of the Armenian Genocide could hardly be more self-damaging or more
revealing. Readers of the official Turkish official statement of 24
January will be struck by a tone unworthy of a strong and mature nation
and rather be reminded of speeches of some of those Arabic leaders,
who have recently been ousted by their people.
France is allegedly "damaging the freedom of expression in a tactless
manner", says Turkey, which has just today (25 January 2012) received
another condemning report from Reporters Without Borders for its
further weakening media freedom, dropping down to place 148 out of 178
(France is on 38, Armenia on 75, Azerbaijan on 162). The French law
does the opposite of what the Turkish government claims. It protects
freedom. France has, together with the country I know best, Germany,
for many years had such laws against the denial of the Holocaust..
This has neither stopped researchers on this issue nor journalistic
freedom, even where journalists took views which I personally would
find inappropriate. But such laws DO protect against blatant hardliners
and their propaganda, who generally practice the politisation that
Prime Minister Erdogan so loudly condemns these days. He accuses
Sarkozy of fishing for Armenian votes, while omitting the large
number of voters with a Turkish background but a French passport. The
Armenian Genocide has long been recognised by France, as by many other
European states and the European Parliament. This has been done in
view of overwhelming evidence, while in Turkey archives still remain
closed, documents still disappear and journalists writing about 1915,
like Hrant Dink, face the opposite of freedom. The new French law
simply brings the prosecution in line with the earlier recognition
decision. The German Bundestag is allegedly considering a similar move
and should do so. The European ideal of tolerance needs intolerance
vis-Á-vis intolerance. Genocide is the ultimate intolerance. Free
democracies need to be strong in their defence against those who seek
to undermine that freedom.
While the law does not mention Turkey and President Sarkozy even sent
a conciliatory letter to the Turkish government, Erdogan's reaction
was a whole list of threats, calling the law "an unjust action,
which disregards human values and public conscience"... "No one
should doubt our Government's principled approach in this issue"
the MFA refers to the announced retaliation measures. Such words
do not sound like the communication of a mature and proud nation,
it sounds like a vexed child in a sand box, saying "He started
first!". Turkey kills its relations with France and blames France
for it. Instead, Turkey would have had the chance to run a different
policy, even a very nationalistic one (which I would deem wrong but
at least clever): Turkey could have opened the border with Armenia
and with that started a process of debating the issue, which no
international player would have liked to interfere with. Turkey
could state, how ever they classify the "events of 1915", that this
was during the Ottoman Empire and hence only indirectly concerns
modern Turkey. Turkey could have focussed on its national interests
by gaining support from the international community for securing a
deal which limits possible Armenian damage claims and embarking on a
course of a genuine zero-problem-policy with its neighbours. Instead,
that zero-problem-policy has visibly failed all around and Turkey
is today mainly known for being "loud". It destroyed its interests
with the EU and sends enraging and mobilising signals to the Armenian
Diaspora around the world and to its own minorities, especially to
the Kurds in its poorer East.
All this has a high price for Turkey and all this has been dominated
neither by Turkey's Foreign Minister nor by the President. In the
interest of the Turkish nation, you would have to call upon Prime
Minister Erdogan to resign. And as even long-standing friends of
Turkey, like MEP and Turkey rapporteur Oomen-Ruijten, become publicly
more and more frustrated and critical, France and the EU seem to
have little to lose, as long as Mr Erdogan is in power. The only
light comes from the Turkish intelligentsia, which means that civil
society is today our best hope for saving Turkey's modernisation.
*Dr Michael Kambeck is Secretary General of the Brussels based NGO
European Friends of Armenia (www.EuFoA.org). These views represent
his own.
by Michael Kambeck
Noyan Tapan
2012-01-25
The hysteria in Turkey over the French bill prohibiting the denial
of the Armenian Genocide could hardly be more self-damaging or more
revealing. Readers of the official Turkish official statement of 24
January will be struck by a tone unworthy of a strong and mature nation
and rather be reminded of speeches of some of those Arabic leaders,
who have recently been ousted by their people.
France is allegedly "damaging the freedom of expression in a tactless
manner", says Turkey, which has just today (25 January 2012) received
another condemning report from Reporters Without Borders for its
further weakening media freedom, dropping down to place 148 out of 178
(France is on 38, Armenia on 75, Azerbaijan on 162). The French law
does the opposite of what the Turkish government claims. It protects
freedom. France has, together with the country I know best, Germany,
for many years had such laws against the denial of the Holocaust..
This has neither stopped researchers on this issue nor journalistic
freedom, even where journalists took views which I personally would
find inappropriate. But such laws DO protect against blatant hardliners
and their propaganda, who generally practice the politisation that
Prime Minister Erdogan so loudly condemns these days. He accuses
Sarkozy of fishing for Armenian votes, while omitting the large
number of voters with a Turkish background but a French passport. The
Armenian Genocide has long been recognised by France, as by many other
European states and the European Parliament. This has been done in
view of overwhelming evidence, while in Turkey archives still remain
closed, documents still disappear and journalists writing about 1915,
like Hrant Dink, face the opposite of freedom. The new French law
simply brings the prosecution in line with the earlier recognition
decision. The German Bundestag is allegedly considering a similar move
and should do so. The European ideal of tolerance needs intolerance
vis-Á-vis intolerance. Genocide is the ultimate intolerance. Free
democracies need to be strong in their defence against those who seek
to undermine that freedom.
While the law does not mention Turkey and President Sarkozy even sent
a conciliatory letter to the Turkish government, Erdogan's reaction
was a whole list of threats, calling the law "an unjust action,
which disregards human values and public conscience"... "No one
should doubt our Government's principled approach in this issue"
the MFA refers to the announced retaliation measures. Such words
do not sound like the communication of a mature and proud nation,
it sounds like a vexed child in a sand box, saying "He started
first!". Turkey kills its relations with France and blames France
for it. Instead, Turkey would have had the chance to run a different
policy, even a very nationalistic one (which I would deem wrong but
at least clever): Turkey could have opened the border with Armenia
and with that started a process of debating the issue, which no
international player would have liked to interfere with. Turkey
could state, how ever they classify the "events of 1915", that this
was during the Ottoman Empire and hence only indirectly concerns
modern Turkey. Turkey could have focussed on its national interests
by gaining support from the international community for securing a
deal which limits possible Armenian damage claims and embarking on a
course of a genuine zero-problem-policy with its neighbours. Instead,
that zero-problem-policy has visibly failed all around and Turkey
is today mainly known for being "loud". It destroyed its interests
with the EU and sends enraging and mobilising signals to the Armenian
Diaspora around the world and to its own minorities, especially to
the Kurds in its poorer East.
All this has a high price for Turkey and all this has been dominated
neither by Turkey's Foreign Minister nor by the President. In the
interest of the Turkish nation, you would have to call upon Prime
Minister Erdogan to resign. And as even long-standing friends of
Turkey, like MEP and Turkey rapporteur Oomen-Ruijten, become publicly
more and more frustrated and critical, France and the EU seem to
have little to lose, as long as Mr Erdogan is in power. The only
light comes from the Turkish intelligentsia, which means that civil
society is today our best hope for saving Turkey's modernisation.
*Dr Michael Kambeck is Secretary General of the Brussels based NGO
European Friends of Armenia (www.EuFoA.org). These views represent
his own.