Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

Candar Calls for Review of History, Foreign Policy After Armenian Bill in US
by Subslug: Commentary by Cengiz Candar
Posted: Tuesday, October 03, 2000 06:46 am CST

"'So-Called Genocide' or Chain of Mistakes"

[FBIS Translated Text] The progress of the bill on the Armenian question through the American legislature and the likelihood of its legislation should help expose the chain of mistakes committed by Turkey and open the path for a policy radically different from the one pursued so far. The most crucial aspect of this problem is not if the "so-called Armenian genocide" finds recognition in the United States or elsewhere. The essential point is we, the Turks, should face our own history, know it, and "come to terms" with that history.

There is indeed an "Armenian diaspora" spread around the world. If the alleged or real "Armenian genocide" thesis is firing up the Armenians generation after generation and impelling them to take negative actions against Turkey then there is not much sense or value in repeating over and over that "this issue should be left to the historians to resolve."

It is simple why: The problem is "political" not "academic." To give "academic" treatment to political problems yield no result. What do you intend to accomplish by leaving it to the historians? Do you think that you can bring a few historians together in symposiums and panels to prove that the "Armenian genocide" is only a "concoction?" Do you expect that after such symposiums issue their reports the diaspora Armenians will fall silent and stop their activities against Turkey by saying to themselves, "Since this or that symposium has scientifically demonstrated that there has been no genocide we should better not pursue this matter further?"

And, what if some historians come to a conclusion close to the Armenian thesis and declare, "This is a genocide because too many Armenians died in it?" Will we then turn the issue into a struggle of "historians" and "symposiums?" And will the Armenian diaspora in the meantime sit on the sidelines and wait for the outcome of this academic struggle?

Five years ago in Yerevan I put the following question to the then Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosyan's Istanbul-born academic adviser: "Would it be acceptable to you if I declare that this was a clash between the two national movements during the First World War and that the Armenian movement emerged defeated from it?" I received a positive reply to my assessment. The "ultimate generalization" favorable to Turkey that might emerge from the "historians" would in no way be more superior than my assessment above.

This Armenian case, however, is a political question. Today Turkey cannot even properly debate the "current" events, and a dominant mentality that tries to shape a "monolithic" and a "homogenous" society would also make it hard to debate history. The weakness in knowing and learning history not only condemns a society to an unfathomable ignorance about itself but also impairs its ability to deal with such crises erupting abroad. Unequipped against claims of "genocide," the Turks are advancing hollow and unconvincing arguments. These cannot gain much ground in an open society like the United States. Had it been so, this affair would not have reached this proportion.

This latest incident has also come to demonstrate the point where the erroneous Turkish foreign policy of the last several years have reached an eventual deadlock. The hope was that the most important byproduct of the excessive rapprochement with Israel, which mostly assumed the form of a "military axis," would have been the securing of the Jewish lobby's support for the "lobby-less Turkey" against the Armenian and Greek lobbies in America. Turkish statesmen of every hue have turned it into a habit of first calling on the Jewish establishments when visiting the United States. What benefit did it bring? Was the most crucial test in this relationship not the prevention of the possible legislation of the "Armenian bill" at the Congress?

What has the $1.2 million (it is now going up to $2 million) paid to Livingstone, one of the prominent members of the Congress, and his partners yielded at the end? Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House of Representatives, is the moving force behind the "Armenian bill." But were we not told that the Republicans were "pro-Turkey?" In recent years Turkish foreign policy has put all its eggs in the American basket through Israel. As such, Turkey does not have much of a maneuvering room in the face of such a crisis.

Each country should draw on its own strength. And an open society based on social concordance is the greatest strength of a country. What is needed is a self-confident and proud society free of taboos. Come, let as face our history. Let us learn our history and debate it.

We can be at peace with the outside world only if we are at peace among ourselves.
[Description of Source: Istanbul Sabah (Ankara edition) in Turkish -- Right-of-center, Mass Appeal Daily; One of Country's Top Circulation papers]

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