Turkish PM Denies Genocide in Germany
During a visit to Germany Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyid Erdogan has denied the deliberate annihilation of late Ottoman Turkey’s Armenian population stating that it is not in Turkish culture to commit genocide.
According to the TurkishPress:
Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said [in Munich] on Saturday there was no such thing like genocide in Turkish culture and civilization.
Erdogan replied to questions on several matters after his speech at the 44th Munich Conference on Security Policy in Germany.
In regard to Armenian allegations regarding the incidents of 1915, Erdogan said, “there is no such thing like genocide in our culture. We cannot accept it. We are ready to discuss the matter by the means of documents.”
[…]
Erdogan’s racist explanation for his government’s denial of the Armenian genocide must have raised eyebrows in Germany since the statement suggests that committing genocide is in the perpetrator’s group culture and civilization.
Bloomberg also reports Erdogan’s denial of the Armenian genocide but doesn’t reference the Turkish PM’s reference to culture.
Asked about the massacre of Armenians in Turkey in 1915, Erdogan said Armenia should open its archives on the period.
”There was no genocide and there is no way we can accept this,” Erdogan said, adding that declarations of some western parliaments that the killing of Armenians had been a genocide ”is not acceptable.” The parliaments of France and a number of other countries have passed resolutions declaring the Armenian massacres were genocide.
Ironically, the automated Google ad on the TurkishPress.com page on Erdogan’s nationalist comments links to the DNA Ancestry Project. Perhaps Mr. Erdogan should form an international commission to prove that it is not in Turkish DNA to commit genocide.
Interestingly, the topic of being capable of committing genocide was in the Armenian press last week. A Hetq.am columnist askes (in Armenian) whether Armenians are capable of genocide and argues that Armenia’s poor democratic record, the government’s treatment of its people and the people’s treatment of each other (especially on regional basis) suggests that Armenians are, indeed, capable of genocide. In terms of Armenia’s largest minorities, especially the Yezidis, the author says that they have been denied opportunity to be part of Armenia’s socio-economic culture and are, thus, not “important” enough to be considered for elimination. (I must add that Armenians have committed cultural genocide against the Roma (“Gypsies”) who are known in Armenian as “Bosha” – but almost every Armenian thinks Bosha is an insult and not an ethnic group.)
So, Mr. Erdogan, if you consider Turks human (and you should) then they are, too, capable of genocide.
Serdar on 10 Feb 2008 at 11:13 am #
I think it’s an automatic reply for our(Turkish) foreign diplomats or any politicians to say that “no such thing as a genocide” when they are asked a question in any foreign country, which include the words “Armenian” and “Genocide” together in a sentence 🙂
As I said in my previous comments, it is impossible to act like nothing bad had happened in 1915; but while arguing whether these occasions should be considered as a “genocide” or not, I think it is silly that saying nothing but “no genocide, no genocide” statements. It’s smt like a boy denying that he did not break the vase when her mother asks what happened =)
I think Turkish state should reconsider Her way of discussing 1915 occasions. Pure refusal of genocide claims does not seem to be anything reasonable for both Armenians and Turks who want to learn the truth..
b.t.w.; Sorry if I missed smt, Did Armenian government or the members of diaspora(I mean people in a dispersion after 1915) make any clarifying about this “discussing by means of documents” thing? I mean has any historical exchange between documents been made between Armenian and Turkish historians? Of course anything written on documents do not always tell the truth, any kind of manipulations should have been done, however discovering these manipulations are also a way of clarifying what has happened in 1915.. I hope I achieved to tell what I mean.
take care;
With hope for sustainable peace,
Serdar
Blogian on 10 Feb 2008 at 10:01 pm #
Serdar,
I think the point in this latter denial isn’t much about history but psychology and racism. Erdogan is saying that genocde in not in Turkish culture suggesting that it is in German, Rwandan and Cambodian culture. His statement is that Turks are super-human beings and are not capable of crimes.
The vase breaking point is a good illustration. I would add that what Erdogan is saying is also, “It is not in our family values to break a vase, therefore, I have never broken one!”
I actually would invite you to ask the question (I don’t have a clear answer myself) whether Turkey would utilize the same reaction to history if it was “Armenian extermination” instead of “Armenian Genocide.” The media has convinced us to believe that it is the G-word that makes Turkish officials mad. But remember that before the G-word existed Turkey was still denying the Armenian extermination like the 1930s affair when it threatened the U.S. of breaking ties if Hollywood made a movie on Musa Dagh.
So it maybe that this angry denial is not just for the simple G-word.
Thanks for the comment,
With hopes for lasting piece,
Simon