A common enemy that is called hate

A common enemy that is called hate


26.04.2008
Hurriyet Daily News


Neither Turks nor Armenians are interested in free-thinking researchers, says historian Ara Sarafian, arguing that both Armenian and Turkish nationalists seek to prolong the animosity between the two peoples


Vercihan Ziflioğlu





Turkey and Armenia must together create the opportunity to secure a peaceful future and the current tactics of the Armenian diaspora are not helpful in the view of the director one of that same diaspora's leading think tanks. That iconoclastic view was shared by Ara Sarafian, who heads the London-based Gomidas Institute on the sidelines of a conference this week held by Bilgi University on the day often associated with allegations of an Armenian genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks that is said to have begun on April 24, 1915. Indeed the date is important Sarafian told the Turkish Daily News, as on that day, " 220 Armenian intellectuals in Istanbul were arrested and were never heard of again." But, he said, the ongoing campaign by the Armenian lobby to generate declarations by parliaments around the world, a campaign bitterly opposed by Turkey, has hardly produced the desired results. It is time for a new approach, he said. This was the message Sarafian shared at the conference, organized by the Human Rights Association (İHD) Istanbul branch and held at Bilgi. And it was a theme Sarafian returned to in a conversation with the TDN. He said nationalists among both Armenians and Turks are fed by hatred and animosity. The researcher agreed that Armenian lobbies and committees are certainly organizing anti-Turkish activities, but argued it is wrong to categorize the entire Armenian diaspora as a single camp. Turkey's stance toward Armenians has only helped the efforts of these Armenian lobbies and committees, he said. Armenians, meanwhile, make comical claims for land that only serve to reinforce Turkish reluctance to engage in dialogue. "Problems will not be solved by people talking from their comfortable chairs in Los Angeles," he said.

‘Those who accused Dink of being a Turkish agent made him a hero' On Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, who was murdered by a teenage Turkish nationalist on Jan. 19, 2007, Sarafian noted a particular irony. For years, many in the Armenian diaspora accused Dink of being a Turkish agent for his views that development of empathy between the two communities was not served by genocide polemics. Now that he is dead, those same critics of Dink when he was alive have turned him into a hero. "Dink created an opportunity for Turkish-Armenian rapprochement but that is now lost," he said. If the genocide issue was solved all these lobbies and groups would face serious hardship because they would have nothing to do, he said. "We have lived like enemies until now. From now on, we must work for peace," said Sarafian, adding that the only thing separating Turks from Armenians was religion.

Neither side is interested in free-thinking researchers: Sarafian said neither Turkish nor Armenian nationalists wanted free-thinking researchers, accusing some professors of Armenian origins in the United States of creating obstacles for German researcher Hilmar Kaiser and noted that some invitations for meetings were canceled at the last minute. "Even this interview will make me a target of some groups," he said. Being a historian is mutually exclusive from being Armenian, he said, adding that most of his own family was lost during the incidents in 1915. "As a historian, my duty is to objectively seek the truth. In the 1990s, I conducted research in Turkey," he said. However, he and Kaiser had encountered serious obstacles during his studies in the Prime Ministry archives, claiming that they were eventually barred from entering it. The Turkish press was manipulating the exchanges with Turkish History Foundation Chairman Yusuf Halaçoğlu, he said. "Upon Halaçoğlu's invitation to work together, I proposed to center our studies in Elazığ. I asked for a list of Armenians deported from the province. If these people were exiled to somewhere and then continued their lives, there must be records. After this request, Halaçoğlu invited me to Ankara and also told a reporter on CNN-Türk, ‘Sarafian knows well that such incidents never took place under the Ottomans.' After this statement, I decided to put a stop to the decision to work together. Halaçoğlu, with that statement, showed his stance. As a historian, it is impossible to conduct an objective study."

Armenians accuse Ottomans of committing organized massacres of Armenians in 1915 that was tantamount to genocide. This week Armenia's new president announced the campaign to secure international recognition of such claims will continue. Turkey dismisses the allegations and argues that there were huge numbers of casualties on both sides and most were caused by inter-communal fighting and wartime conditions. To date, parliaments in some 20 countries have passed resolutions supporting the Armenian position. The United States and the United Kingdom have remained notable exceptions and refrain from use of the word "genocide"