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Cengiz Çandar, Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide.

December 18, 2014 By administrator

By: Hambersom Aghbashian

Cengiz Çandar (born 1948) is a Turkish journalist and a former war correspondent, graduated from Ankara University in 1970 with a Bachelor’s degree in political science and Int. relations. He began his career as a journalist in 1976 in “Vatan” after living some years abroad due to his opposition to the regime in Turkey. An expert for the Middle East (Lebanon and Palestine) and the Balkans , Çandar worked for the Turkish News Agency and for Cumhuriyet, Hürriyet, Referans and Güneş newspapers as a war correspondent. Çandar served as special adviser to Turkish president Turgut Özal between 1991 and 1993. From 1997, he lectured for two years on “History and Politics in the Middle East” at Bilgi University in Istanbul. Between 1999 and 2000, he did research work on “Turkey of the 21st century” as a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Int. Center for Scholars, and was a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace. His description of the 1998 events in Turkey as a “post-modern coup” gained notice internationally. In 2007, he condemned the authorities for depriving Aghtamar* of its Armenian past by renaming it to “Akdamar”. He is the author of many books.(1)

Jon Coevet a free-lance journalist based in Istanbul wrote in “Washington Report on Middle East Affairs”, December 2000, quoting Çandar saying “An open society based on social consensus, a society without taboos which stands tall with enough self-confidence is the biggest source of strength. Let us confront our history. Let us do some soul-searching.”(2)

Cengiz Çandar participated in the Conference entitled “The Armenians during the Collapse of the Ottoman Empire” that was held at Istanbul’s Bogazici University in September 2005. Several hundreds of nationalists gathered in front of the university shouting out slogans “Betrayers”, “It’s Turkey – love it or leave it”. During a briefing for members of the press, eggs and tomatoes were thrown at journalist Cengiz Çandar, as a sign of protest.(3)

Çandar has been to Armenia several times and closely follows Turkey-Armenia relations. He wrote many articles concerning Turkish-Armenian relations, “Turkey-Armenia – In the freezer” On 23 April 2010, “From Yerevan to Bursa: writing history anew” On 14 October On the road without return 10 October 2009.(4)

Scott Peterson wrote in the “Christian Science Monitor- March 17, 2010”, Prime Min.Erdogan, was angry over the decision by a US congressional committee and by the Swedish parliament to call the 1915 deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians a “genocide,”. NATO member and EU candidate Turkey does not want to be lumped with Nazi Germany, Cambodia, or Rwanda as perpetrators of genocide in the 20th century. “There are currently 170,000 Armenians living in our country,” Erdogan told the BBC Turkish service in London. “Only 70,000 of them are Turkish citizens, but we are tolerating the remaining 100,000. If necessary, I may have to tell these 100,000 to go back to their country” .“It seems a very careless statement,” says Mr. Çandar. I don’t think that he will be implementing that, sending Armenians working here back to Armenia,” says Candar. “But it is a signal sent to Armenia to deter them from supporting [such] genocide resolutions out loud.” (5)

On March 20, 2010, Taraf newspaper wrote ” The Prime Minister criticized Cengiz Çandar (of Radikal newspaper) who asked for a public apology for the PM’s earlier deportation threats to Armenian illegal immigrant workers .” “These claims [of Armenian Genocide] are baseless and cannot stain our history…I am calling on those journalists and others who try to give us humanity lessons: Be Turkey’s and the Turkish Nation’s lawyer first. … I am calling on those who advice me to apologize: We know whom to apologize very well. Whose lawyer are you?”(6)

The following are some excerpts from Çandar’s article ” Turkish Awakening on Armenian, Kurdish Issues? Al-Monitor , April 28, 2013“. He wrote, “For the past 3 years, Turkey has been holding, Armenian massacre [1915] observations at Taksim Square. The first, at Haydarpasa Station, which was the starting point of Istanbul’s Armenian intellectuals on their trips of no return. It was repeated in 2012 with larger crowd which met in Sultanahmet tourism area, where Armenian intellectuals and politicians were first assembled and then detained in 1915. This year, the dimensions of April 24, 1915, suddenly changed. The observances spread to Turkey’s most important political center of Diyarbakir and to Dersim. As the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide approaches in 2015, could there be a totally unexpected development on the Armenian issue in Turkey? Will this affect Turkish-Armenian relations and change the geopolitics of the Caucasia? That is a question to ponder as 2015 nears. The answer might not be all that difficult if one looks at the developments on the Kurdish issue in 2013 and the recent observances of the 1915 disaster defined as genocide that fell upon the Armenians. The impossible is impossible in Turkey.(7)

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*Aghtamar is the second by size of four islands in Lake Van in Western Armenia ,(currently occupied by Turkey). It is well famous for it’s Armenian Cathedral of the Holy Cross. In 1951 the Turkish government made a decision to destroy the church, but the writer Yasar Kemal managed to stop the destruction. Between May 2005 and October 2006, the church underwent restoration program. The cross which was sent by the Armenian Patriarchate of Turkey was erected on the top of the church on October 2, 2010. after being sanctified by Armenian clergymen. Since 2010, every year a mass is held in the church too.

1- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cengiz_%C3%87andar

2- http://www.wrmea.org/2000-december/armenian-genocide-resolution-nearly-the-end-of-a-beautiful-u.s.-turkey-relationship.html

3- http://www.armeniapedia.org/wiki/Conference:_Ottoman_Armenians_During_the_Decline_of_the

4- http://www.esiweb.org/index.php?lang=en&id=322&debate_ID=4&slide_ID=8

5- http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/0317/Armenian-genocide-talk-has-Turkey-threatening-to-expel-Armenians

6- http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/nationalist-first-islamist-second-the-armenian-issue-shows-the-limits-of-the-erdogan-government

7-http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/pkk-withdrawal-armenian-genocide-day.html

Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide Ümit Kurt

December 12, 2014 By administrator

By: Hambersom Aghbashian

Ümit Kurt (born 1984, Gaziantep- Turkey) is a Turkish scholar and a Ph.D. candidate in Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University and a lecturer at Sabanci University (summer courses). His Ph.D. research topic is “The Emergence of a New Wealthy Class between 1915- 1921: The Seizure of Armenian Property by the Local Elites in Aintab” (supervisor Prof. Taner Akcam). He MA degree is from Sabancı University’s department of European studies (2007), topic “Turkey-EU Relations from the Security Perspective: Two Level Analysis” and is B. Sc. degree is in political science and public administration from Middle East Technical University (2006). He was also a “Research Fellow and Erasmus Student” at University of Keele- UK (2005-2006). Umit Kurt is a young scholar with diverse interest in many fields, Political Science, History, European Studies, Turkey-EU relations, Media and Society and others. Turkish is his mother tongue, he is also fluent in English, advanced in Ottoman Turkish version and Armenian, and has a basic German. He is a member of editorial boards of “Turkish Review”, ” European Journal of Economic and Political Studies”, ” Turkish Journal of Politics”, also member of “Sarajevo International and Comparative Law Review”, and ” Türk Eğitim Gönüllüleri Vakfı”. He held many teaching positions, researcher and assistant researcher positions. (1)

Ümit Kurt is the author of several books, including “Türk’ün Büyük Biçare Irk’ı”, “The lost of Turkey’s Great Race.” and Kanunların Ruhu: Emval-i Metruke Kanunlarında Soykırımın İzlerini Aramak (The Spirit of Laws: Seeking the Traces of Armenian Genocide in the Laws of Abandoned Property, 2012) with Taner Akçam. His main area of interest is the confiscation of Armenian properties and the role of local elites/notables in Aintab during the genocide. In an interview with Varak Ketsemanian “The Armenian Weekly-Sept. 23, 2013”, Umit Kurt tackled how the physical annihilation of the Armenians paralleled the confiscation and appropriation of their properties in 1915. “By citing the various laws and decrees that orchestrated the confiscation process, Kurt places our understanding of the genocide within a legal context.”According to Umit Kurt ” A series of laws and decrees, known as the Abandoned Properties Laws (Emval-i Metruke Kanunları), were issued in the Ottoman and Turkish Republican periods concerning the administration of the belongings left behind by the Ottoman Armenians who were deported in 1915. Most of the Armenians properties were distributed to Muslim refugees from the Balkans and Caucasia at that time. Central and local politicians and bureaucrats of the Union and Progress Party also made use of Armenian properties. (2)

The Armenian Studies Program at California State University – Fresno, organized a lecture by Umit Kurt titled ” The emergence of the new wealthy class between 1915-1922: The seizure of the Armenian property by local elites in Aintab,” which revealed the fact that process of genocide and deportation directed at Aintab Armenians was in fact put into practice by local notables and provincial elites. The lecture took place on Sept.17, 2013 and was organized by the Armenian Student Organization.(3)

The “Society for the Armenian Studies ” (SAS), celebrated its 40th Anniversary by organizing a conference titled ” Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th-20th Centuries”. The conference took place on Nov. 21-22, 2014 at Marriott Wardman Park Hotel– Washington, DC. Ümit Kurt (Clark University- MS) was one of the participants. He presented “The Emergence of the New Wealthy Class between 1915-1921: The Seizure of Armenian Property by the Local Elites in Aintab.”(4)

Glendale News-Press, April 25, 2013, mentioned that “For the first time, Umit Kurt, a Turkish scholar at Clark University, addressed a crowd of more than 1,400 people at the city’s annual event to commemorate the genocide of about 1.5 million people in 1915 by Ottoman Turks, a tragedy still denied by modern-day Turkey 98 years later.” As he discussed how the Ottoman Empire deported Armenians before the genocide began and sold their property, Umit Kurt said “The principle was not to give the Armenians even a single inch,”. Councilman Ara Najarian said this year a Turkish scholar was invited “to showcase a trend towards enlightenment by Turkish academics.”(5)

In his lecture at Ararat Eskijian Museum on Sept.15,2013, Umit Kurt “focused on the importance of acquiring Armenian wealth and material possessions to the local Kurds and Turks in Aintab before and during the Armenian Genocide of 1915.” Kurt described a “link between the role of stolen Armenian assets in the integration and stabilization of Turkification, which makes confiscation of Armenian properties a social process”. “The fate of the Armenians was not only linked to the Committee of Union and Progress party (CUP) orders, but behavior of the local elites.” According to Asbarez.com, in the last minutes, Umit Kurt spoke words that made everyone smile. He said, “I don’t work for Armenian people; I work for my own people to reckon their own historical wrongdoings.” (6)

Umit Kurt visited Armenia and was interviewed by Civilnet on May 28,2014. During the TV interview he mentioned that the Armenian National Archives are open for researchers and he could reach to the documents easily, while in Turkey it is not so easy and lot of Armenian confiscated properties archives are disappeared. He mentioned also that an Antab Armenian living in CA-USA has documents of his grandmother’s lost properties which are worth of $50 million today, confiscated and are transferred to Turks. And about making a shift in opinions, he mentioned that the deportation process execution in Marash, in Adana in Dikranagert, in Vaspouragan should be explained ,so that the people become aware of it, although they already know it, and that will make a shift in their position. (7)

Umit Kurt has many new books which will be published, Also he translated two Armenian books into Turkish, and he is currently translating Kevork Sarafian’s “Badmutyun Aintabi Hayots”, Vol. 1. He has numerous articles in English and Turkish, and participated in many conferences.(1). His research focuses on Aintab Armenians and the confiscation and appropriation of Armenian properties during 1915-1921, and we hope this will be continued with researches on Armenians all over other cities in Turkey and we will have a trustful complete study about Armenian’s lost properties in Turkey.

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1- Comm. with Umit Kurd. Copy of CV received from him on Nov. 29, 2014, upon request.(H.A.)

2- http://armenianweekly.com/2013/09/23/the-confiscation-of-armenian-properties-an-interview-with-umit-kurt/

3http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CE4QFjAH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fresnostate.edu

4-http://societyforarmenianstudies.com/2014/10/14/sas-40th-anniversary-conference-armenians-in-the-ottoman-empire-in-the-19th-20th-centuries/

5- http://articles.glendalenewspress.com/2013-04-25/news/tn-gnp-0425-turkish-scholar-talks-policy-at-glendales-armenian-genocide-event_1_genocide-armenians-turkish-scholar

6- (Asparez.com-Sept. 20, 2013).

7- http://civilnet.am/2014/05/28/confiscation-expropriation-liquidation-armenian-properties-umit-kurt/#.VHbl-MnUiqk

Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide 35- Ümit Kardaş

October 18, 2014 By administrator

By: Hambersom Aghbashian

Ümit Kardaş (born in 1950) is a retired Turkish military judge . He completed his high school (Pertevniyal High School) in 1967, and graduated from Istanbul University -Faculty of Law in 1971. He served 20 years as a military judge and meanwhile earned his PhD degree in law. He wrote many articles for newspapers and magazines examining military-civilian relations. Besides law he is interested in literature specially in poetry and has many published books in poetry.(1)(2)

In his article “Do we have to defend the actions of the Committee of Union and Progress?”, Ümit Kardaş wrote in Today’s zaman (May 2, 2010), ” The German-backed pan-Islamist policy implied a fatal solution for non-Muslims living within the borders of the empire. The conditions for the forced relocation campaign launched in 1915 were different from previous ones. The two-month campaign covered not only Armenians but also all Christians in eastern Anatolia. These relocations could not be considered a resettlement because the specified destinations were not inhabitable. Many people , mostly men, were immediately killed, and others were murdered on the roads. As noted by British social historian David Gaunt, the purpose was to remove a specific population from a specific location. Talat Paşa mistakenly made his last conclusion: “There is no longer an Armenian problem”. Kardaş also added that “No justification can be offered for this human tragedy. It is misleading to discuss what happened with reference to genocide*, which is merely a legal and technical term. No technical term is vast enough to contain these incidents, which are therefore indescribable. Atrocities and massacres are incompatible with human values.(3)

Ümit Kardaş was one of the Turkish intellectuals who have signed “This Pain is Ours” campaign organized by the “Say Stop to Racism and Nationalism! (Dur De!) initiative”, during the commemoration of the Armenian genocide in April 2011.(4). Also according to Today’s Zaman (Sept. 2014), Ümit Kardaş released with a group of Turkish academics, journalists, artists and intellectuals a statement condemning the harshest terms and expressions that include “open hatred and hostility” towards Armenians in Turkish schoolbooks, something which was recently exposed by Agos and Taraf newspapers.(5)

Ümit Kardaş reviewed Wolfgang and Sigrid Gust’s book** (German Documents: Armenian Genocide 1915-1916) and stated that “The conclusion confirmed by the documents published by Gust is that German military officers as agents of German militarism endorsed the forced relocation, and they found military justifications for it. And The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) leaders violently implemented its Turkification and Islamification policies with support and connivance from Germany. When the scope of forced relocation was expanded to the entire country, the Germans did not raise objections to it.” Kardas further suggested that “German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan together condemn the atrocities and massacres their ancestors performed”. (6)

Ümit Kardaş proposed the unconditional opening of the Turkish-Armenian border, as well as an invitation by the Turkish state to all Armenians living in the Diaspora to settle in their ancestral lands in Turkey.(7)

Concerning the compensations, as Henry Theriault (professor of philosophy, Worcester State University- MA ) said in a groundbreaking two-day conference on the Armenian Genocide, organized by the Ankara Freedom of Thought Initiative in 2010 at the Princess Hotel in Ankara , “Modern Turkey must return or compensate for all expropriated property. It should return land and other wealth, including Armenian Church properties, when that wealth has been preserved. Turkey should also compensate for (a) all destroyed property and wealth that is otherwise no longer accessible, (b) the interest that can be calculated on the original material losses, (c) slave labor, (d) the pain and suffering of those who died and all who survived, (e) the loss of 1.5 million people in general and as specific family and community members, and (f) the loss of cultural, religious, and educational institutions and opportunities”.(8)

As far as we , as Armenians, are concerned, The Armenian Genocide was the Ottoman government’s systematic extermination of its Armenian subjects from their historical homeland. Many other massacres against Armenians took place before that, “ Hamidian Massacres, 1894–96″, “ The Adana Massacre of 1909″ etc. and uprooting of Armenians from their Homeland continued through Ataturk’s era. Hrant Dink’s assassination in Istanbul was the latest. If they were suggested, supported, encouraged or endorsed by others, they can’t be justified in any way. After all the Ottoman Empire and the successive Turkish governments are responsible for all of what happened and any excuse to diminish the official Turkish responsibilities will not be acceptable.

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* When Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin coined the term genocide in 1944, he cited the Turkish extermination of the Armenians and the Nazi extermination of the Jews as defining examples of what he meant by genocide.

** Wolfgang Gust, the foreign news chief of Der Spiegel and the editor of Spiegel-Buch, and his wife, Sigrid Gust, have worked on the German Foreign Ministry’s political archives concerning the disaster and massacre Armenians suffered in 1915 and 1916. Their book (German Documents: Armenian Genocide 1915-1916) was published by Belge Yayınları in Turkey.

1- http://www.itusozluk.com/goster.php/%FCmit+karda%FE

2- http://www.timas.com.tr/yazarlar/umit-kardas.aspx

3- http://armeniangenocideblog.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/judge-umit-kardas-op-ed-piece-in-turkeys-todays-zaman/

4- http://www.epress.am/en/2011/04/20/this-pain-is-ours-turkey-commemorates-armenian-genocide-victims.html

5-Asbarez.com, Tuesday, September 30th, 2014.

6- http://www.todayszaman.com/news-280848-german-militarisms-connivance-with-committee-of-union-and-progress-by-umit-kardas*.html

7- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide_reparations

8- http://www.armenianweekly.com/2010/04/28/ankara-conference/

also published on

Nor Or, Thursday 16, 2014

Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide 34- Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı

October 11, 2014 By administrator

By: Hambersom Aghbashian

Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı, (born 30 April 1981, Izmir -Turkey ) is a Turkish journalist and columnist. He was first discovered by Ahmet Altan, the head-columnist of “Taraf“, and was enrolled as a columnist for Taraf ( 2008 -2011), and then for Sabah since 2011. He is a popular political commentator on various TV programs, having started at CNN Turk and now appearing on Beyaz TV. Kutahyali is known for his anti-militarist and liberal political views. He began with a “pro-liberal” political view, and he was involved in reporting the coup attempts in Turkey in the newspaper.(1)(4)

In December 2008, 200 prominent Turkish intellectuals released an apology for “The great catastrophe of 1915”. This was a clear reference to the Armenian Genocide, a term still too sensitive to use so openly. The text of the apology stated “My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in 1915. I reject this injustice and for my share, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers and sisters. I apologize to them”. Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı was one of the intellectuals who signed it.(2)

In his article “How I faced the Armenian genocide”, AlMonitor-Apr 22, 2014, Kütahyalı wrote, “Ninety-nine years ago, one of the region’s Christian people, the Armenians, fell victim to a great tragedy they call it Metz Yeghern, or genocide…” “Today, I tell of my own mental journey and the transformation of conscience I experienced on this issue as a Turk. I speak of how I faced up to the massacres of Armenians and Christians and how the truth scarred my inner being. The road to acceptance was definitely hard, but I eventually came to terms with the truth. The Armenians were uprooted from the lands where I lived. Hundreds of thousands of them were slain brutally on the orders of Talaat Pasha’s Young Turk government. In the ensuing Kemalist era, Turkey’s Christians and Jews were again expelled from their homeland. It was an unmistakable act of ethnic cleansing, which is denied by Turkey. Such denial, on top of everything else, is shameful.

At the end he wrote ” So, that’s my personal story. I no longer deceive myself. What happened in these lands in 1915 was a great tragedy, a genocide against Armenians, a crime against humanity. Every “but …” argument about this crime makes me nauseous.”(3)

In another article in AlMonitor -Aug. 22, 2013, ” Who Poisoned Former Turkish President Ozal?”, Kütahyalı wrote ,” Political disputes between the Kemalist army and democratically elected political parties once were settled heavy-handedly, and a recent investigation into Turgut Ozal’s* death ruled that he was poisoned”. Kütahyalı mentions many reasons , among them is that ” Ozal began uttering some taboo-breaking words: We should resolve the Kurdish question through freedoms and democracy, and What if we officially recognize the 1915 Armenian genocide and face up to our past?”.(4)

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*Halil Turgut Özal (13 Oct. 1927 – 17 April 1993) was the Prime Minister of Turkey (1983–1989) and the President of Turkey (1989–1993).

1- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasim_Ozan_K%C3%BCtahyal%C4%B1

2-http://www.armeniapedia.org/wiki/200_prominent_Turks_apologize_for_great_catastrophe_of_1915

3- http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/tr/originals/2014/04/genocide-armenia-turkey-anniversary-dink-metz-yeghern.html

4- http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/08/turkey-president-ozal-poisoned.html#

Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide 33- Eren Keskin

October 2, 2014 By administrator

By: Hambersom Aghbashian

Eren Keskin (born 24 April 1959, Bursa, Turkey) is a lawyer and human rights activist. She is the vice-president of the Turkish Human Rights Association (İHD) and a former president of its Istanbul branch. She co-founded the project “Legal Aid For Women Who Were Raped Or Otherwise Sexually Abused by National Security Forces”, to expose abuses happening to women in Turkish prisons. In 1995 she was imprisoned for her activities and was adopted as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International . In 2002 she was accused by Turkey’s State Security of “aiding and abetting” the PKK because of her advocacy for Kurds to use their native language in Turkey. In 2004 she received the Aachen Peace Award “for her courageous efforts and activities for human rights”. In 2005 she was awarded the Esslingen (Germany) – based Theodor Haecker Prize for Civic Courage and Political Integrity. In March 2006 a Turkish court sentenced her to 10 months imprisonment for insulting the country’s military. The sentence was then converted to a fine of 6000 Turkish Liras, which Keskin refused to pay.(1)

In her article ” We Are All Guilty”, (The Armenian weekly- Oct.20, 2009), Eren Keskin wrote, “In my view, the only thing that should be normal is accepting the fact of the genocide, with all its consequences, and apologizing to the Armenian nation”. And about all being guilty she wrote, “It’s been 94 years!, Those who believe in the lies, Those who don’t question the lies, Those who remain silent even if they don’t believe in the lies, Those, by their silence, approve of the lies, We are all guilty. And we owe thousands millions of apologies.(2)

In an interview with Eren Keskin (June 27, 2007), She was asked about Ankara’s policy of denial towards the annihilation of an estimated a million and a half Armenians by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) under the cover of World War I. Keskin replied that “The Turkish official thesis regarding the Armenian genocide is still very influential in the street and in academia, although there are efforts to overcome this domination”.(3)

Sara Whyatt also interviewed Eren Keskin (7 March 2014) . One of her questions was “How do you see the future”? Keskin replied saying,”I don’t think there will be significant improvements in the short run because the current government, as was the case with previous governments, will not cross the red line on sensitive issues like the Armenian genocide, human rights abuses by the army, and violence against women. They do have their own ideas for solutions to these issues, but I don’t think there will be significant improvements, so of course the fight goes on.”(4)

On March 16, 2014, a group of Turkish journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders organized a conference entitled “One Less than 2015: Our Past and Future” ahead of the Armenian Genocide Centennial at the hall of Ismayil Beshikchi Foundation in Istanbul. The second session was quite heated. The lawyers touched upon the genocide from the legal angle and drew parallels between the genocides that have been committed to this day. The speakers mentioned that the Turks deny the genocide at the state level and the level of associations “by the instinct of defending the homeland”. According to the speakers, the society must put pressure on the government. Summing up, coordinator Eren Keskin said the following: “We have our share of the blame by keeping silent. We didn’t even raise the issue of famous anti-Armenian Dogu Perincek’s* release and preferred to keep silent”.(5)

In her book titled “Armenian Genocide, Yesterday and Today”, Eren Keskin wrote “Armenian people have argued for decades that when the Ottoman Empire, current day Turkey, moved onto their land and forced people from their homes, this was the first genocide known by the modern world”.(6)

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* Doğu Perinçek (born June 17, 1942 in Gaziantep) is a Turkish politician. Since 1992, he is the chairman of the socialist Workers’ Party (Turkish: İşçi Partisi). In August 2013 he was sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment as part of the Ergenekon trials.

1- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eren_Keskin

2- http://www.armenianweekly.com/2009/10/20/eren-keskin-we-are-all-guilty

3- http://headoverhat.blogspot.com/2007/06/interview-with-eren-keskin.html

4- https://www.ifex.org/turkey/2014/03/07/erenkeskin_interview/

5- http://en.hayernaysor.am/2015

6- http://internationallawstudies.blogspot.com/2014/02/genocide-cannot-be-just-another-crime.html

also published on Nor Or, Oct. 2, 2014

Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide 32-Yavuz Baydar

September 26, 2014 By administrator

By: Hambersom Aghbashian

Yavuz Baydar (born 1956, Istanbul -Turkey), is a Turkish journalist, media critic, author of music and cinema. He completed his high school education in Eskişehir -Turkey, in 1976, and his higher education in Stockholm, (Stockholm University – Faculty of Cybernetics and Informatics) . A journalist since 1979. He has been a radio reporter, news presenter, producer, TV host, foreign correspondent, debater , and in recent years, a news ombudsman for the daily Sabah. Baydar also contributes as a commentator for the BBC World, Swedish Radio-TV, NPR, Russian TV and Al Jazeera. He is a contributing writer for Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse. He is a former president of the World Organization of News Ombudsmen and a member of the World Editors Forum, the Committee of Concerned Journalists and the UNESCO National Committee of Communications.(1)(2)

According to ” www.al-monitor.com/pulse/contents/” (Apr. 25, 2013), Yavuz Baydar wrote that Turkey should get ahead of the 2015 centennial commemoration of the Armenian genocide by acknowledging it, which would be a game-changer in Turkish politics. (3).

Yavus Beayder was also one of the Turkish intellectual who signed a Petition Against Denialist Exhibition in Denmark , reminding the Denmark’s authorities that by giving the Turkish government the opportunity to present an “alternative exhibit”, they support their policy of suppression and intimidation. And that their support constitutes an obstacle to democratization efforts in Turkey today. (4)

In his article “Turkey: Is Ankara Ready for April 24, 2015?” Yigal Schleifer wrote on April 24, 2013 “Today’s Zaman columnist Yavuz Baydar , who suggests Turkey has had a kind of glasnost* when it comes to confronting some of the difficult issues of that past, offers his take on this dynamic: Turkey’s glasnost has been instrumental to defeat the taboo of the last century in Turkey. Today, on April 24, people will gather in Adana, İzmir, Ankara, Batman, Bodrum, Dersim, Diyarbekir and İstanbul. Every year, the number of participants has increased: from 700 in 2010 to 3,000 last year. But the question is whether Turkish glasnost, if successful in sorting out the Kurdish peace process, will also help lead to a proper apology from Ankara in 2015.(5)

Prof. Osheen Keshishian (Publisher – The Armenian Observer) mentioned in his editorial “Changes are coming Slowly”, June 9, 2013, “After almost a century of silence, some Turkish historians, writers and journalists have seen the light and have become much more vocal and have come out to correct Turkish history. Some cautiously and other more abrasively, starting a movement to write unwittingly the facts, the truth of their history, which was altered and disoriented, and to seek justice for the Armenians, the Kurds, and Assyrians. Many Turks are writing in Turkish without mincing words and spread the truth. Maybe their conscience bothered them for decades for not telling the truth. Obviously, times have changed and the internet, exchange of students and writers, twitter bloggers, and other modern devices, have made a dent in their minds and hearts.” Yavuz Baydar is one of those who were mentioned in Prof. Keshishian’s list of Turkish intellectuals.(6)

In his article “All the heroes deserve remembrance” in “The Independent-March 7, 2014”, Robert Fisk wrote ‘Many survivors of the Armenian genocide have told me of courageous Turks who saved the lives of their families’, and talking about a program on Turkish television (February 3, 2001, broadcast under the title “CevizKabugu”, Walnut Shell, a six-hour program of critical inquiry on the Armenian Genocide), he mentioned that “an extraordinary event took place. A Turkish writer and historian lectured his people on the facts – the reality – of the Armenian Holocaust of 1915. A brave man, Dr Akcam. So too,Yavuz Baydar, who in the same day’s Turkish Milliyet newspaper wrote that “he was always convinced of the necessity to show courage and reprove Talat and his company for their misdeeds… These men are our Pol Pots, Berias and Stalins, and the sooner we call these crimes to account, the better our chances of redeeming ourselves from this scourge of being accused of genocide.” (7)

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*Glasnost: a Soviet policy permitting open discussion of political and social issues and freer dissemination of news and information.

1- http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yavuz_Baydar

2-http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/contents/authors/yavuz-baydar.html?b=35#

3-http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/ar/originals/2013/04/armenian-genocide-1915-turkey-

defiant.html#

4-http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/19.12.12.php

5- http://www.eurasianet.org/node/66872

6- http://www.thearmenianobserver.com/?page_id=21

7- http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-all-the-heroes-deserve-remembrance-695035.html

also published on Nor Or Sept. 25, 2014

Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide 31-Temel Demirer

September 20, 2014 By administrator

By: Hambersom Aghbashian
Temel Demirer is a famous Turkish writer and one of the enlightened intellectuals who have recognized the Armenian Genocide . He has been prosecuted for his daring writings and speeches and because of his remarks on the Armenian Genocide.

Temel Demirer is the author of many books and the co- author of many others. His published works include (Ortadogu Yalanci Bahar – Middle East-False Spring), (Kapitalizmin Ekolojic Sorunlan- Ecological Problems of Capitalism), (Kuresel Intifada – Global Intifada), (Eleveda Nosyan..Merhaba Isyan), (Resmi Ideoloji, Devlet, Milliyetcilik- Official Ideology, State, Nationalism), and the list and goes on and it is too long to be mentioned here.

(1)According to (http://bianet.org/english/minorities/105355A), a day after journalist Hrant Dink’s murder on 19 January 2007, writer Temel Demirer read a press statement in central Ankara, saying that the journalist had not only been killed for being Armenian, but also because he had spoken of an “Armenian genocide.” Around a year later, Demirer has been taken to court under Article 301 and 216 for “denigrating the Turkish Republic” and “inciting to hatred and hostility.” In a previous statement Demirer said that he believed that there was a genocide carried out against the Armenians in the Ottoman period.(2)

K. Mouradian wrote on April 24, in (The Armenian Weekly- April 28, 2010), As genocide commemoration events were being held one after the other in different locations in Istanbul, a groundbreaking two-day conference on the Armenian Genocide began at the Princess Hotel in Ankara. The conference, organized by the Ankara Freedom of Thought Initiative , was held under tight security measures. The conference attracted around 200 attendees, mostly activists and intellectuals who support genocide recognition. Among the prominent names from Turkey were Ismail Besikci, Baskin Oran, Sevan Nishanian, Ragip Zarakolu, Temel Demirer and Sait Cetinoglu. Demirer is an author who has been prosecuted for his daring writings and speeches. That panel turned out into a debate on reparations for the Armenian Genocide.(3)
In his book “Modern Turkey and the Armenian Genocide”, Nikolaus Schrodt quoted then Turkish Minister of justice Mehmet Ali Sahin stating to Today’s Zaman (Nov. 18, 2008), “This man, Temel Demirer, is saying Turkey is a murderer state . I am not going to let anyone call my state a murderer. These expressions are not exercising freedom of speech, these are humiliating the state which is exactly what article 301 criminalizes. (4)
In his article titled “Turkish Writer Temel Demirer: There Was A Genocide In Our History”, Jean Eckian (Independent correspondent-Paris, March 6, 2008) mentioned that Demirer, in his press statement in central Ankara announced that “There was a genocide in our history, it is called the Armenian Genocide. At the expense of its life, Hrant said to us, to all this reality. Those who killed the Armenians yesterday attack our Kurdish brothers and sisters today.. I invite all those of you to commit crimes. Yes, there was a Armenian genocide in this country.”(5)
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1- www.idefix.com/kitap/temel-demirer/urun_liste.asp?
2- http://bianet.org/english/minorities/105355-writer-demirer-on-trial-for-armenian-genocide
3- http://www.armenianweekly.com/2010/04/28/ankara-conference/
4http://books.google.com/books?id=m4_IAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT478&lpg=PT478&dq=Temel+Demirer+and+the+Armenian+genocide
5- http://www.armeniandiaspora.com/showthread.php?125139-Turkish-Writer-Temel-Demirer-

also published on Nor Or, Sept. 18, 2014

Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide 30-Omer Laciner

September 11, 2014 By administrator

By: Hambersom Aghbashian

*Once upon a time there were Armenians

Omer Laciner (born Aug.10, 1946 in Sivas – Turkey) is a Turkish author and publisher. He graduated from the Military Academy in 1966 and while serving in the army , he became a member of a socialist political organization. He was dismissed from the army in 1971 and imprisoned for three years. In 1975, together with Murat Belge and Can Yusel published a socialist culture promoting monthly magazine “Accumulation” , which prior to 1980 military coup in Turkey, was recognized as the leader of a youth group. He left the country after 12 Sept. 1980 military coup and lived in France for a while (Accumulation was suspended,1980-89). He returned to Turkey in 1989 and became again the executive editor of “Accumulation”. His published books are, Rethinking Socialism-P1, Rethinking Socialism-P2, Socialism Revolution , Army barracks Constitution, Poverty Cases For a New Left Imagining, Once upon a time there were Armenians*(co-writer) ,and many other books. His translations are, Marx ‘s Philosophy and Marx ‘s Sociology. Omer Laciner was awarded in 2001 by the” Turkey Publishers Association– Freedom of Expression Award.”(1)

Under a head line “Armenian genocide commemorated for first time in Turkey”,“http://www.network54.com/Forum/248068/ (April 24.2010) ” stated ” Though similar demonstrations have become a tradition, this year was somewhat different because a group of Turkish intellectuals expressed their sadness over the sufferings that occurred almost a century ago. Three protests took place on in Taksim Square, the Haydarpaþa Train Station and in front of the Turkish-Armenian Agos weekly. A sit-down strike organized by the ‘Say No to Racism and Nationalism initiative’ in Taksim Square was attended by a group of public figures including Professor Ahmet Ýnsel, columnists Ali Bayramoðlu, Roni Marguiles, Alper Görmüþ, Ferhat Kentel, Erol Katýrcýoðlu , Ümit Kývanç, Birikim journal Editor-in-Chief Ömer Laçiner, pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputy Ufuk Uras , artists Nur Sürer , Zeynep Tanbay and many others “(2). Publisher Ömer Laçiner told bianet, “This was a good start. We want this to become a tradition”.(3)

The Armenian Weekly (Dec. 18,2012) mentioned that Ömer Laçiner (chief editor, Birikim Review) was one of the Turkish Citizens who signed a Petition “Against Denialist Exhibit in Denmark”. They have been distressed to learn that the Royal Library of Denmark has given the Turkish government the opportunity to present an “alternative exhibit” in response to the Armenian Genocide exhibition, and asked them “Not to Stand Against Turkey’s Democratization and Confrontation with its History.”(4)

According to “http://www.remember24april1915.eu“, (Feb 19, 2014), a group of Turkish and other intellectuals launched a petition to commemorate the Armenian genocide together in Turkey. ” This year, human rights and anti-racist activists, committed citizens, civil society leaders, intellectuals and artists, united in Turkey and across Europe by a common desire to see the truth finally recognized, will commemorate the Armenian Genocide in Turkey on April 24^th 2014. Even though we are on the eve of the centenary of the perpetration of the genocide, its legacy remains part of our present. Our shared initiative is one for recognition, solidarity, justice, and democracy.” It was signed by thousand of intellectuals, Politicians, writers, artists, human rights activists and others all over the world. Omer Laciner was one of the signee’s. (5)

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*Once upon a time there were Armenians . Writers, Ömer Laçiner, Ümit Kıvanç, Şükrü Argın, Ahmet Çiğdem, Ahmet İnsel, Etyen Mahçupyan, Hamit Bozarslan, Taner Akçam, Suavi Aydın, Melissa Bilal, Timuçin Binder, Yetvart Danzikyan and Hans-Lukas Kieser.

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1- http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96mer_La%C3%A7iner

2-http://www.network54.com/Forum/248068/thread/1272245708/Armenian+genocide+comm

3-http://www.bianet.org/english/minorities/121557-quiet-commemoration-95-years-after-armenian-deportation

4-http://www.armenianweekly.com/2012/12/18/turkish-citizens-sign-petition-against-denialist-exhibit-in-denmark/

5-http://www.remember24april1915.eu/turks-armenians-and-europeans-lets-commemorate-the-armenian-genocide-together-and-in-turkey/

Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide 28- Gençay Gürsoy

August 7, 2014 By administrator

By: Hambersom Aghbashian
Gencay Gursoy, (b. 20 August 1939 , in Erzurum-Turkey) is a Turkish Neurologists and human rights activist. A graduate of Istanbul University – Faculty of Medicine, in1970, Ass. Professor in 1975, and Prof. in 1980. He was removed from his post In 1983, according to the “Martial Law Act No. 1402″ ( after 1980 Turkish coup), then regained his lost rights in 1990 , by the decision of the Supreme Admin. Court. He spent the years 1968-1969 and 1972-1974 in Oslo, Faculty of Medicine studying Neuroradiology. His researches on cerebral angiography led to the establishment of Neuroradiology lab. His articles of Neurology were published in Int. and national scientific journals, and as book chapters and monographs, and his social-political articles (1975-1990) were published in 1991 as a book titled, captions. Prof. Gursoy was the former secretary general of Istanbul Medical Chamber and a Board member of the Turkish Medical Association . He has Served as the head of the Department of Neurology- Istanbul University (1996 – 2002) and retired in 2006. He was elected as the president of the Central Council of the Turkish Medical Association in 2006 and was among the founders of the Association for Human Rights and the Human Rights Foundation . He served as a board member, and as a president of the Social Studies Foundation for Culture and Arts.(1)
According to ” http://www.thenational.ae “, “Gençay Gürsoy, a Turkish human rights activist, addressed a crowed saying that ” in 1915, within days of the first arrests , thousands were detained and exiled, and hundreds were executed. Forced into the desert, leaving behind all they owned, the Armenians died of disease, starvation, or were massacred by the Ottoman “Special Organization”. “The first genocide of the 20th century was carried out in these lands,”.(2)
According to http://www.turkishnews.com (April 26, 2011), “Say Stop to Racism and Nationalism Initiative” organized events in Istanbul, Ankara, Bodrum and Diyarbakir to commemorate the Armenians massacred in 1915.” Prof. Gençay Gürsoy was one of the participants .(3)
Prof. Gençay Gürsoy was one of the Turkish intellectuals who signed a petition (Dec.2012) against a Turkish denial exhibition which was planned to support Gov. point of view concerning the Armenian Genocide . The message to the Royal Library of Denmark was ” Don’t Stand Against Turkey’s Democratization and Confrontation with its History! “.(4)

According to http://www.bianet.org (Apr 25, 2013), April 24,2013 was observed as the “Armenian Genocide Memorial Day”. Addressing the vigil crowd the night before, Gençay Gürsoy, former chairperson of Turkey’s forensics institute and neurologist, said the arrest of Armenian intellectuals on 24 April 1915 aimed to prevent the world from knowing what were the annihilation politics of Turkey. In a matter of days, the number of arrested Armenian intellectuals, poets and parliamentarians skyrocketed to 2345. The brain of Armenian community was targeted. They were deported to Ayaş and Çankırı. Without any judicial proceedings, 761 of them were killed. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians were exiled to deserts, they had to leave behind their homes, work, belongings which were later on vandalized. They were killed by former Ottoman Secret Service (Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa) hitmen. It has been 98 years. The denial resumes and hatred against Armenians is still out there. Those who see Union and Progress Party as their ancestors took Hrant in 2007 and Sevag in 2011. Planners, collaborators and murderers are out there. These are all consequences of denial politics.(5)
Prof. Gençay Gürsoy was one of the intellectuals, politicians, scholars, etc. (from all over the word) who signed a petition calling for the Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey, “Turks, Armenians and Europeans, let’s commemorate the Armenian genocide together and in Turkey!”. The petitions stated that “In 1915, the implementation of a methodical and premeditated plan led to the extermination of one and a half million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, in an attempt to destroy an entire civilization and to “Turkify” Anatolia. The Armenian people were the victims of a genocide which would soon serve as a gruesome reference for others to follow. The successive governments of the Turkish Republic have since fought to deny the dark side of the history of their country, and to make their people and the world forget that the genocide ever occurred…. “For these reasons, on April 24 we will commemorate the Armenian Genocide together and in Turkey. We call upon all individuals committed to recognition, solidarity, justice and democracy to join us or to support us in turning the page on a century of denial.” (www.remember24april1915.eu Feb 19, 2014). (6)

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1-http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gençay_Gürsoy

2- http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/as-centenary-of-armenian-killings-in-turkey-approaches-progress-toward-reckoning-creaks-on
3- http://www.turkishnews.com/en/content/2011/04/26/we-have-to-end-the-policy-of-denial/
4- http://www.armeniapedia.org/wiki/The_Armenian_Genocide_and_the_Scandinavian_Response
5- http://www.bianet.org/english/minorities/146136-20th-century-s-first-genocide-happened-in-this-land
6- http://www.remember24april1915.eu/turks-armenians-and-europeans-lets-commemorate-the-armenian-genocide-together-and-in-turkey/

also featured on Nor Or, August 7, 2014.

Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide 22- Cengiz Aktar

June 26, 2014 By administrator

By: Hambersom Aghbashian

Cengiz Aktar, (Born in 1955 in Istanbul), is a Turkish Professor, Senior Scholar, journalist and writer. He graduated from the Lycée de Galatasaray(Galatasaray High School ) and completed his tertiary education at Panthéon-Sorbonne where he received his PhD degree on Economic Epistemology in 1982. He is a member of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences (professor at Bahcesehir University)(1). He is the Chairman of the Department of EU Relations in Istanbul, also a weekly columnist for daily Vatan. Aktar is an expert for Turkey-EU relations, but is also intensively involved in civil society initiatives in Turkey dealing with minority issues.(2).

Cengiz Aktar was one of the initiators of the apology campaign launched in December 2008, as a part of which Turks and Kurds expressed their sympathy for the victims of the events of 1915 (2). The apology came in an open letter that invited Turks to sign an online petition supporting its sentiments. It reads: “My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in 1915. I reject this injustice and for my share, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers. I apologize to them.” The contents expose its authors – three scholars, Ahmet Insel, Baskin Oran and Cengiz Aktar, and a journalist, Ali Bayramoglu – to the wrath of the Turkish state, which has prosecuted writers, including the Nobel prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk, for supporting Armenian genocide claims. (3)

As a former director at the United Nations where he spent 22 years of his professional life, Aktar is one of the leading advocates of Turkey’s integration into the EU. Also he is involved in studying policies of memory regarding ethnic and religious minorities in Turkey. Since 1999 he has taught courses on various EU policies at Galatasaray University and Bahçeşehir University. He is also a columnist for daily Taraf and Today’s Zaman, as well as regular commentator at Açık Radio on EU related developments since 1999. Aktar has published nine books and numerous articles in Turkey and abroad. He is a member and advisor to the French periodical La Revue du Mauss, the Turkish ecological NGO Buğday, the Hrant Dink Foundation and the Aladin Project. He is also a reviewer for the European Commission, DG Research.(4). He met late Hrant Dink In 1999 and had established a close friendships with him.(1)

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“Armenian genocide: Turkey has lost the battle of truth”, this was Cengiz Aktar’s (Opinion – aljazeera-24 Apr 2014), where he mentioned that An empowerered Turkish society is now challenging the state’s denialist paradigm on the tragic events of 1915. According to him ” Today, three patterns emerge in Turkey’s traditional policy towards the events of 1915. First, denialist lobbying activities abroad and efforts to influence the lawmakers, especially in the US ( now co-sponsored by Azeris). Secondly, denials cloaked in scientific covers aimed at persuading the Western academic world, replacing the vulgar denialism. And thirdly, there is a clear attempt to substitute other events for 1915. Dardanelles battle victory in the west and the military debacle of Sarikamis in the east, are being flogged in the official narrative as the historical substitutes to what occurred to Armenians in 1915. Despite these endeavors, Turkey has long lost the battle of truth. The destruction of the Armenian population on its ancestral land is a sheer fact, whatever else you might call it. April 24, 1915 was the dark day when the decision to erase Armenians from Anatolia began to be implemented by the Ottoman government of Young Turks, or the Ittihadists. The rationale behind it was to engineer a homogeneous population composed of Muslims designated to form the backbone of the “yet to be invented” Turkish nation. Thus, there was no place for Christian populations despite their historic presence on those lands. No one is capable of evaluating the consequences to human, political and economic relations throughout Anatolia once the Armenians were eliminated. It is, however, quite certain that the effects of such a wide-reaching elimination operation were enormous.(5)”

1-http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cengiz_Aktar

2-http://www.esiweb.org/index.php?lang=en&id=322&debate_ID=4&slide_ID=24

3- http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/dec/08/armenian-genocide-turkey-apology-petition

4-http://ipc.sabanciuniv.edu/en/people/cengiz-aktar/

5-http://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/cengiz-aktar