399) Armenian conference finally gets under way at Bilgi University

A disputed conference questioning Turkey's official line on the alleged massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire began on Saturday amid protests by nationalist groups against the participants and the government.

The academic conference is apparently the first time an institution in the modern Turkish Republic, the successor state of the empire and now a European Union candidate, has hosted an event in which speakers will be permitted to argue that the fathers and grandfather's of . . . today's Turkish citizens committed the first genocide of the 20th century.

The conference had been due to open on Friday at two universities in Istanbul, but a last-minute court order blocked it, causing acute embarrassment to the Turkish government just days before the start of its European Union membership talks.

Organizers then circumvented the court ban by moving the conference on Saturday to a third university in the city.

The event had already been postponed once in May, when Justice Minister Cemil Cicek branded it "treason" and a "stab in the back of the Turkish nation."

But the two universities organizing the conference, Bogazici and Sabanci, refused to back down, rescheduling the event for Saturday and Sunday. The conference was moved to Bilgi University, which opened its doors for the event out of solidarity in order to circumvent the court ruling that barred the event from taking place at the original venue.

Some ultra-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) members shouted "Cad!" and booed participants as they entered the venue of the two-day conference, which brings together academics and intellectuals disputing Turkey's version of the 1915-1917 events in which Armenians claim as many as 1.5 million Armenians were massacred.

Hundreds of nationalists chanting slogans and waving flags protested the controversial academic conference.

"The Armenian genocide is an international lie,� read a giant banner carried by some 150 members of the minor left-wing Workers' Party (IP).

"The government must resign; treason will not go unpunished," chanted the protestors.

Several posters depicting Turks killed by Armenians were posted on security barriers surrounding the venue, where some 200 police officers were assigned to duty.

"This conference is an insult to our republic and to the memory of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk," Erkal Önsel, head of the Istanbul branch of the leftwing but nationalist IP, told protesters gathered outside the private Bilgi University. Ataturk is the revered founder of the modern Turkish Republic, which was established on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire in 1923.

The demonstrators chanted such slogans as "Treason will not go unpunished!" and "This is Turkey: "Love it or leave it!"

The issue of the Armenian massacres is a highly sensitive issue in Turkey. Armenia and its supporters around the world say some 1.5 million Armenians perished in a systematic genocide committed by Ottoman Turkish forces between 1915 and 1923. Ankara categorically rejects claims of genocide and argues that 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife during World War I, when the Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with Russian troops invading the crumbling Ottoman Empire. The Erdoğan government, however, has encouraged researchers to discuss the issue, arguing that it is a matter for historians and not politicians to pursue.

Turkey is under pressure to change its stance if it is to become the first Muslim country to join the European Union.

The conference had originally been due to take place at Istanbul's Bosphorus University in May but was cancelled after Justice Minister Cemil Cicek accused those backing the genocide claims of "stabbing Turkey in the back."

EU pressure
This time, with a nervous eye on Brussels as the clock ticks towards the start of its long-delayed EU entry talks on Oct. 3, the government has strongly backed the conference.

The court order banning the gathering, announced on Thursday evening just before the conference was due to start, drew swift condemnation from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as well as from the European Commission, which spoke of a "provocation" by anti-EU elements.

Lawyers behind the original court ban condemned Bilgi University's decision on Saturday to host the event.

"We will file a legal complaint against all of those people behind this conference," lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz told Reuters outside the university.

"Nobody, not even the prime minister, can go against (a court verdict)," he said.

The court had blocked the conference pending information on the qualifications of the speakers. The court also wanted to know who was participating and who was paying for it.

Despite a flurry of EU-inspired liberal reforms in recent years, promoting certain interpretations of Turkish history can still be deemed a criminal offense under the revised penal code.

The protesters said the organizers of the conference were not really upholding freedom of speech.

"They won't let us inside ... they aren't giving us a chance to state our case. They forget those of the Turkish nation killed by Armenians," said Kemal Ermetin, who runs a nationalist magazine.

The protesters displayed photographs of what they said were Azeris killed by Armenians in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh during fighting in the early 1990s.

Turkey closed its border and cut diplomatic ties with tiny ex-Soviet Armenia in 1993 to protest Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, part of the territory of Azerbaijan, a regional Turkic-speaking ally of Ankara.

Turks debate painful past
A twice-canceled conference on the alleged massacre of Armenians in the early 20th century began with a heavy police presence in Istanbul on Saturday, a test of Turkey's willingness to allow open discussion of its painful past.

The academic conference is the first time an institution in the modern Turkish Republic has hosted a public event in which speakers will be permitted openly to discuss whether the fathers and grandfathers of today's Turkish citizens committed the first genocide of the 20th century as alleged by Armenians.

In May the justice minister accused conference organizers of "stabbing the people in the back." An Istanbul court shut the meeting down on Thursday, but the ruling was circumvented by organizers, who decided to change the conference venue.

Outside the conference hall were 11 police buses and an armored personnel carrier. Police in riot gear blocked the entrance as a large group of protesters, some waving Turkish flags and others throwing eggs at participants as they arrived, accused the organizers of treachery. Most of the protesters dispersed peacefully about an hour and a half after the conference began.

Sunday, September 25, 2005
ISTANBUL - TDN with agencies
© Dogan Daily News Inc.

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Pro-Armenian Istanbul Conference Starts Under Protests
The Turkish protesters chanted slogans and booed delegates entering Istanbul's Bilgi University for the two-day event. The conference had been due to open on Friday, at another venue, but was stopped from doing so by a court order. After the court decision the organization was moved to Bilgi University from Bosphorus University. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul declared that the court decision was not right. Both said that Turkey is a free country and anyone could organize any conference on any subject.

Debate of the Turkish-Armenian killings has been taboo in Turkey and in Armenia. Now pro-Armenian books and articles can be published in Turkey and pro-Armenians may organize such lectures as being witnessed in Bilgi University while it is still taboo in Armenia and Armenian diaspora. Armenians strongly reject t discuss the Armenian issue with the Turks. “The Armenians consider discussion as a treason to their ancestors Dr. Nilgun Gulcan from ISRO says.

Armenians worldwide have been campaigning for decades for the deaths – they claim it is more than a million, around the time of WWI - to be recognized universally as genocide. The Turkish historians on the other hand argue that the Armenians rioted and supported the occupying Russian Armies during the First World War, and the Istanbul Government had to decide to relocate more than 500,000 Armenians from the war theatre to the Syrian province of the Ottoman State. However many Armenians died due to the bandit attacks, ethnic clashes and war circumstances. Bad weather conditions and famine caused a great tragedy. More than 520,000 Turkish and Kurdish villagers were also massacred by the Armenian armed groups. The Tashnaks (Armenian ultra-nationalists) attacked the Turkish and Kurdish villages and massacred many civilians. The Armenian groups continued their attacks after the war. The Armenian terrorists killed many Ottoman high-ranked bureaucrats and former generals after the war. The ASALA terrorism during the 1970s and 1980s massacred more than 40 Turkish diplomats in the name of revenge of the past.

COURT BANNED; PM ERDOGAN DEFENDS
The conference discussing the issue was due to be held at Istanbul's Bosphorus University, but it was banned by an Istanbul court after complaints by nationalists that the historians behind it were "traitors". However Turkish Government leaders regretted the court ruling which "cast a shadow on the process of democratisation and freedoms", according to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan said “Turkey has nothing to be afraidâ€. If we have confidence in our own beliefs, we should not fear freedom of thought he added.

EU enlargement commissioner Krisztina Nagy said Brussels strongly deplored the court's "attempt to prevent the Turkish society from discussing its history".

"The Armenian genocide is an international lie," read a huge banner carried by members of the left-wing Workers' Party. Turkey begins talks on joining the EU in two weeks' time.

NOT A SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE

Dr. Davut Sahiner said that the Istanbul Armenian Conference is not a scientific one:

“Almost all of the participants pro-Armenian. It is not scientific. No academicians could give a reference to this conference in their serious studies. It is political and they make pro-Armenian propaganda. They invite no serious Turkish researchers. You cannot see Ilber Ortayli, Turkkaya Ataov or Mim Kemal Oke. They called the journalists, populists names, Armenians and pro-Armenians. But, I still support the conference. It should be made. Turkey is not Armenia. Turkey is not Switzerland. Even the Armenians or pro-Armenians can say anything they wish, and no one will be punished or put to prison. You remember, a Turkish scholar from Duke University was put to the Armenian prisons in Yerevan last Summer due to his scientific researches in Armenian archives. No Turkish historian can go to Armenia after this. And all of us know that no pro-Turkish speaker can speak in Lyon or California on Armenian issue.

Dr. Nilgun Gulcan similarly argued that a similar conference cannot be organized in France or in Armenia. Because they are not sincere and democratic enough Gulcan added.

© JTW with news agencies
24 September 2005