Armenian media debates the identity of mysterious historian

Armenian media debates the identity of mysterious historian
Monday, November 2, 2009

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

Armenian media outlets are speculating on the identity of historians chosen for a controversial history commission after the Daily News reported that the participants have already been selected. Nationalist Tashnak-affiliated Yerkir Media says it has already found out the name of the Istanbul-born Armenian historian said to be in charge of the committee

A recent report by the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review has caused a stir among Armenian media outlets as journalists there seek to uncover the names that were kept undisclosed by the newspaper.

The Oct. 19 report, “Yerevan picks historians for commission,” was based on information the Daily News had obtained from a high-level Armenian authority and confirmed with sources in Turkey.

Armenian authorities, however, denied the report immediately after it was published.

According to the report, Yerevan has already picked the Armenian historians to participate in a history commission that will be set up under the protocols signed between Turkey and Armenia aimed at normalizing relations between the two countries.

The report said an Armenian historian who was born in Istanbul was unofficially put in charge of the committee by the Turkish government and is already holding meetings in Turkey about the establishment of the commission.

The only information the paper revealed about this person was that he was the first historian of Armenian origin to be granted special permission by former President Fahri Korutürk to conduct research using the Ottoman archives, back in 1974.

Although not mentioned in the protocols, Turkey has been naming a settlement on the long-standing territorial dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh and the establishment of the history commission as preconditions for reconciliation with its ex-Soviet neighbor. Ankara says the joint history commission should study and discuss the deaths of Armenians in 1915, during the last days of the Ottoman Empire.

Armenian President Serge Sarkisian and his government meanwhile say that the events of 1915 were “genocide,” and that they will never retreat from their stance on this, nor would they accept Turkey’s preconditions.

Yerkir Media’s claim

In a special report Friday, the Armenian media news site Yerkir Media, which is affiliated with the nationalist Tashnak Party, said it had discovered the identity of the Istanbul-born Armenian historian set to head the commission. The topic was also picked up by daily Aravod.

Yerkir Media claims that the historian is Parsegh Tuğlacıyan, who is known by the name “Pars Tuğlacı” in Turkey.

The Daily News called Yerkir Media and asked the news organization’s director of information and political programs, Gegham Manukyan, how he had reached this conclusion. “We were researching the facts presented in your article and concluded that the Turkish-Armenian historian’s name is Pars Tuğlacı because all of the data points to his name,” Manukyan said. “In 1974, he entered the Ottoman Archives to do research.”

Tuğlacı also went to Yerevan last year to conduct research using the archives of the Genocide Museum.

According to Yerkir Media’s report, Tuğlacı is currently in Yerevan and has refused to answer questions on the subject. The same report said Tuğlacı would be visiting Yerevan again in three months and would make a statement on the subject.

The historic agreement aimed at normalizing relations has yet to be ratified by either parliament.

The history commission, which is expected to be part of an intergovernmental commission between the two countries, is one of the most delicate matters in the recently signed diplomatic protocols.

Though Sarkisian’s government has rejected Turkey’s suggestion of a history commission, calling it “politically motivated,” Yerevan has reportedly already chosen its historians for the commission.

The names for the commission were selected by Sarkisian’s administration, a senior Armenian government official told the Daily News, speaking on condition of anonymity due the sensitivity of the issue. Another diplomatic source from the Turkish side also verified the appointments, adding that the commission would begin working immediately after the diplomatic protocols are ratified by both parliaments.

The Armenian side would offer only Armenian historians to the commission, he said, adding that historians from the diaspora, who have been carrying out research in the archives of many countries, would not be included.

Ara Sarafian, a leading diaspora historian and the director of the London-based Gomidas Institute, said the commission is a political matter and he did not want to comment on the issue. In a previous interview with the Daily News, Sarafian said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s call for a history commission was a positive move, but added that Armenia is not the right place to address the issue. “The archived documents in Armenia are insufficient. The freedom of historians is limited,” he said. “Thus a delicate matter such as genocide will be pulled into the political arena.”