Turks, Armenians making slow progress in dialogue

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Turks and Armenians are making “slow progress” in discussing the traumatic 1915 events, according to authors Ahmet İnsel and Michel Marian.

The two authors, who initiated the Armenian apology campaign in January last year, were speaking at a conference at Istanbul Bilgi University last week to promote their new book, “Dialogues on the Armenian Taboo.”

Speaking to Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review, Marian referred to the 1915 events as “genocide,” while İnsel said they constituted “a crime against humanity.”

“Nomenclature does not matter,” said İnsel, a professor at Galatasaray University. “Perhaps I will be using the term genocide five years from now. What matters right now is being able to discuss the issue.”

“Ahmet has concerns, which I understand,” said Marian, a French academic with Armenian origins and professor at the Paris Institute for Political Sciences. “In order to prepare Turkish public opinion, we must handle the issue in more universal terms.”

In the book, Marian focuses on how to break the taboos between the two nations and initiate a dialogue. After the book’s publication, Marian said he received negative responses because he used the term dialogue.

“But what you call the [Armenian] diaspora is not a homogenous unit, and it is changing slowly. There are those who are warmer toward Turkey. Hrant Dink had a significant role in that,” he said.

The conference was organized in collaboration by the Hrant Dink Foundation and İletişim Books.

Taboos for both sides

"Michel and I talked about dialogue, which is a taboo for Armenians. The title of the book does not only refer to a taboo on the part of the Armenians, but also of Turks. Turks have this taboo that prevents them from talking about what the Armenians have been through, while Armenians have a taboo that prevents them from getting into dialogue with Turks who do not accept the genocide,” İnsel said.

“Armenians look at Turks with hatred on the one hand, and see them close to themselves on the other,” he said. “Ours is an Oriental sort of closeness.”

Marian said his origins were in the eastern province of Erzurum and the Doğubeyazıt district of the eastern province of Ağrı. Although he lost part of his family in 1915, he said others were rescued by a Turkish official.

“The governor warned my grandfather right before the massacres in Ağrı. That is how they managed to survive. My grandfather was grateful to him all his life,” he said.

İnsel’s introduction to the events of 1915 was through a book he read at the age of 15. His research on the issue deepened over the course of many years.

The Turkish academic recalled the 1919 trials, initiated by the Damat Ferit Paşa government, noting that those responsible for the 1915 events were prosecuted then.

"In court records there is a perfect definition by the prosecutor, who said the events were ‘murder against humanity.’ The [Turkish] national liberation movement disregarded these trials. The Boğazlıyan governor, who was sentenced to death as a result of the lawsuit, was announced as a national hero by Parliament a year later.”

İnsel said the debate over nomenclature clouds both sides’ coming to terms with the pain that was experienced.