09 March 2004, 10:09
Most Turks think it time to discuss genocide
Taner Akcam, a sociologist and history professor at the University of Minnesota, has become the fist Turkish scholar to use the word "genocide" speaking about the mass obliteration of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey in 1915.
A NYT article says most scholars outside Turkey consider the events in the early XX cent. genocide which is defined by the 1948 Convention on Genocide as an act aimed at the complete or partial elimination of a national, ethnic, or religious group. From 1923 Turkey dropped a so-called "silence curtain" over the Armenians genocide and used its influence as a Cold War ally to suppress the emergence of contrary opinions in other nations. Taner Akcam is among the Turkish scholars that ignored this silence. Being a staunch dissident and leaving Turkey in the 1970s, Akcam began to work in cooperation with Vaagn Dadrian, an Armenian historian. Their friendship resulted in a 1997 Danish movie titled "Silence Wall." Akcam says the Turks are afraid of recognizing their past because this would make the founder of contemporary Turkey, who is considered a hero nowadays, an accessory to villainy. The Turkish scholar and his associates believe harmony with its own past would be favorable to Turkey itself. Their views correspond to the experience of Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Africa, and they reflect the widespread opinion that a nation can ensure its democratic future only after it admits its former mistakes. He expressed confidence government's rejection of historic dialogue did not represent the position of most people in Turkey. He said studies showed 61% of Turkey's population believed it time for public condemnation of the genocide.
Source: ARMINFO News Agency
