[Bloquez l'empire!] Montreal Mirror: No shame in slaughter

[Stefan Christoff]

Montreal Mirror: No shame in slaughter
by Stefan Christoff

Turkish scholar Taner Akçam confronts the 1915 massacre
of Armenians as his native country continues to deny it

http://www.montrealmirror.com/2007/021507/news2.html

The histories of Turkey and Armenia are deeply intertwined. Dating back to the 
Ottoman Empire, the Armenian Orthodox Christians, a prominent minority 
community, specialized in commerce, often working as intermediaries for 
merchants from Europe and the eastern empire. But in the early 20th century, as 
momentum and support for Armenian independence expanded, Armenians faced 
mounting repression from Ottoman authorities. During the explosive events of 
World War I, Ottoman repression resulted in genocide, with an estimated 1.5 
million Armenians massacred and expelled from the crumbling empire.

The Armenian genocide persists as a matter of international controversy, one 
that Turkish activist and scholar Taner Akçam continues to confront. As one of 
the first prominent Turkish historians to call the slaughter of Armenians in 
the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1917 a genocide, Akçam's work has garnered 
international attention.

His celebrated new book, A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question 
of Turkish Responsibility, incorporates archival material from British, German, 
U.S. and Ottoman records. Akçam will be delivering two lectures in Montreal 
this weekend.

Official silence

"An official recognition of the Armenian genocide must take place in Turkey," 
Akçam tells the Mirror. "The Armenian diaspora seeks a clear recognition of 
this historical injustice, which present-day Turkish pro-democracy advocates 
must support."

"Despite the international attention toward my book, there has not been one 
single book review published in Turkey," he says. "People in Turkey can't touch 
the book publicly due to pressure from government authorities."

Akçam is not new to controversy. The historian and professor at the Center for 
Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota fled Turkey as a 
political refugee in the 1970s. After receiving a 10-year prison term for 
producing a student journal that focused on Turkey's treatment of the Kurdish 
minority, Akçam was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International 
in 1976 and eventually granted asylum in Germany.

"I was part of the 1968 generation, a common student movement in all of Europe 
and throughout the world," says Akçam. "In Turkey, this student movement had 
multiple targets, including the U.S. war in Vietnam and democratization in 
Turkey, an important U.S. ally until today."

In 2004, the Canadian federal Liberal government presented and passed an 
"acknowledgement resolution" within Parliament concerning the Armenian 
genocide. However, Conservative Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay recently 
tailored the Canadian acknowledgement of the Armenian genocide. MacKay's new 
position includes a statement in support of a recent Turkish proposal to create 
a joint investigative commission with Armenia concerning the events surrounding 
the genocide, which the Armenian Foreign Minister dismissed as a "smokescreen".

Democratic demands

Turkey currently faces multiple political crossroads. As negotiations on 
European Union accession continue, pro-democracy activists continue to mount 
pressure on the government to recognize the Armenian genocide. Akçam argues 
that its open acknowledgment is essential to allow an honest discussion of 
Turkey's past, while opening contemporary political space to address the 
treatment of minorities today.

"Recognizing the Armenian genocide is a crucial point in the process of 
building a vibrant Turkish democracy," says Akçam. "Although the genocide 
occurred almost 100 years ago, it remains central to the Armenian identity and 
directly relates to how Turkey treats its minorities today, especially Kurds."

Both the Turkish government and military continue to publicly deny the Armenian 
genocide, while grassroots political pressure to recognize the genocide has 
grown in recent years. "Turkey is facing a political fight between two forces. 
On one side, the democracy movement--a civil movement without central 
organization--and on the other side, the unelected authoritarian military 
bureaucracy which until now has refused to relinquish its grip on power," says 
Akçam. "The current government is caught in between these two political 
forces."

Last month, Armenian-Turkish newspaper editor Hrant Dink was assassinated in 
Istanbul, allegedly by a Turkish ultra-nationalist. Days after Dink's death, 
hundreds of thousands gathered in Istanbul to denounce the murder in one of the 
biggest demonstrations in contemporary Turkish history.

"The Armenian diaspora should follow closely the current developments in Turkey 
and build ties with the democracy movement," says Akçam. "Turkey's movement for 
democratic change views the recognition of the Armenian genocide as part of its 
struggle, which is one of the messages I will be bringing to Montreal."

Akçam will speak on:

* Friday, Feb. 16, at McGill's Chancellor Day Hall (3644 Peel), 5 p.m.

* Saturday, Feb. 17, at the Society of Armenians from Istanbul
(2855 Victor Doré), 6 p.m.

For more information, call (514) 398-3001 ext. 09950.

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