LEBANON A common memory is possible between Armenia and Turkey?

An international symposium was held at the Saint-Joseph University at the initiative of the Boghossian Foundation entitled “Rebuilding the memorial dialogue: Example Turkish-Armenian.”

Heavy Turkish-Armenian dispute was the subject of an international symposium was organized by the Boghossian Foundation and St. Joseph’s University. It was held at Campus Social Sciences Huvelin Street, in the presence of the Catholicos of the Armenian-Catholic Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX, the Vice-President of the USJ Michael Scheuer and many personalities, as well as a passionate about the issue public. A dozen speakers from Europe, Lebanon and Turkey have raised questions about the possibility of a dialogue between Armenia and Turkey share a memory and a reconstructive approach to turn the page black a crime still alive.

For Armenians, any reconciliation process begins with the recognition of the Armenian genocide by Turkey. This is not the case now before a policy of denial confirmed by a social and even political amnesia. “The Turkish community lives trauma of the loss of the Ottoman Empire,” said Ahmet Insel, a lecturer at Paris I. The Turks live nostalgia of politico-religious and social system of millets where the Muslim millet was higher than the other . This nostalgia is not conceived until today a tie between a Christian and a Muslim, between a Jew and an Orthodox, etc.. Why the company has struggled to live the very notion of difference and its aspiration to homogeneity is very strong. This obsession is the basis of a violence that could explode at any time. In this sense, the speaker Ahmet Insel said that this violence is linked to a fear and a kind of repression of the story based on several denials: What ethnic cleansing suffered Armenians in Anatolia, seizure of their property, massacres Greek Orthodox, etc..

Change factors Michel Marian, of Esprit presented the developments of the Armenian problem. These steps forward are beginning to develop in the early twenty-first century, when Turkey seeks to open up the European Union. We are witnessing the end of “Armenian taboo” in Turkey by its obligation to comply with the standards for human rights in the European Union. International recognition of the genocide is obtained by entering the history books.

In 2014, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his condolences to the grandchildren of the Armenians, the eve of April 24, considered the anniversary of the start of the Armenian tragedy. But “this statement also refers to a shared grief and describes the end of the Ottoman Empire as a difficult period for millions of Ottoman citizens, Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic, Armenian and other, whatever their religion or ethnic origin “says Christine Babikian Assaf, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, USJ.

Evolution takes place on the Armenian side that manifested by the decision to open borders with Turkey and the Armenian National Unity to honor the victims of genocide and to demand recognition by Turkey. Ms. Babikian has compiled a chronology of this union that began in 1945 when the diaspora raised his claims for the first time in a letter to the UN to put pressure on Turkey through international bodies. Armenians have expanded their scope from the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the genocide in 1965, with the founding of the Defence Committee of the Armenian cause. And since the birth of the Armenian state in 1991, successive Armenian presidents have continued in the same direction and have placed this issue high on the agenda of foreign policy.

Reconciliation is possible? Henry Laurens, historian and expert in the Near and Middle East, noted the importance of the reconstruction of a historical relationship by showing the limits of the work of a historian. Mr. Insel emphasized the importance of redefining the Turkish citizen identity. This problem is all the communities that make up present-day Turkey, the Kurdish community who claims to be recognized in its identity. This new definition should allow recognition of all identities which make up society today Turkey: Armenian, Greek, Kurdish, Jewish, Muslim and Arab …

On the other hand, it is time the designer responsible for the massacre. “We must learn to nationals of Turkey that the responsibility for genocide is not that of the company,” says Ahmet Insel. Responsibility is that of state officials who were directly involved. The corporation is guilty of having attended but did not complete the crime. And today as these crimes are no longer alive and can not be judged in court, he should at least do not consider them as heroes, and renaming schools and streets that bear their names.

The international media have contributed to highlight the Armenian cause, but it is time that the work done in the company of today’s Turkey. Guillaume Perrier wants, through his book Turkey and the Armenian ghost, translated and published recently in Turkey, the Turks learn their history. It confirms that everyone is responsible for the oversight and policy that currently, more and more Turkish citizens demand the truth.

Can one ever forgive? Ahmet Insel, the question is not one of forgiveness, although it is necessary to live together, but the recognition of facts; forgiveness is individual, some do, some do not, it is the consciousness of each and everyone to do, but the recognition is collective.

François Dermange, ordinary ethics professor at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Geneva, stresses that reconciliation is not done by legal means and memorial, but forgiveness must have a religious source. “Only forgiveness can meet the impossible,” he says with emphasis on the fact that this is a personal opinion.

L’Orient-Le Jour