Turkey: Initiative to Apologize for Armenian "Catastrophe" Sparks Rancor

An online campaign launched in December that allows Turks to sign on to an apology for the "great catastrophe" that the Armenians suffered during World War I has to date been signed by more than 27,000 people.

Observers say the campaign, launched by a group of some 300 Turkish academics and intellectuals, is another indication that the tight social, political and legal limits that control the discussion of the Armenian issue in Turkey are being loosened. At the same time, the bitter backlash the effort has engendered is exposing worrying strains of intolerance in Turkish society, supporters of the campaign say.

"A taboo has been broken," says Yavuz Baydar, a columnist with the English-language newspaper Today's Zaman.

"Now we are in a situation, particularly after the public apology campaign, where we are ready to discuss, at least in broad terms, the magnitude of the tragedy that happened. The taboo has been severely damaged. The direction is there and people will keep walking in that direction."

On the other hand, Baydar adds, "You break a taboo and then you have a deep resistance."

The online apology is short and refrains from using the word "genocide." The apology 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 and sisters. I apologize to them."

Despite the carefully crafted language in the apology, the campaign has been strongly criticized from numerous sides, and may even lead to legal trouble for its organizers. A prosecutor in Ankara announced on January 9 that his office has launched an investigation to see if the apology's authors had violated Article 301, a vaguely worded law that criminalizes "insulting the Turkish nation."

"I neither accept nor support this campaign. We did not commit a crime, therefore we do not need to apologize," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters earlier this month.

Turkey's powerful military also condemned the online effort. "We don't think this is right. It is wrong and will create harmful consequences," Brig. Gen. Metin Gurak, an army spokesman, said at a December briefing.

Some of the heated criticism, meanwhile, was overtly racist.

After Turkish President Abdullah Gul refused to criticize the online apology, saying the signers had a right to post it, Canan Aritman, a member of parliament with the secularist Republican People's Party (CHP), accused Gul of being an "Armenian."

"We see that the president supports this campaign. Abdullah Gul should be the president of the entire Turkish nation, not just of those sharing his ethnicity. Investigate the ethnic origin of the president's mother and you will see," she said in late December.

In response, Gul quickly released a statement saying all Turkish citizens are equal, no matter what their ethnic background. But in a move that disappointed many, he also pointed out that both sides of his family have been Turkish and Muslim for centuries.

"The backlash was appalling. The quality of the debate was appalling," says Cengiz Aktar, director of the European Studies Department at Istanbul's Bahcesehir University and one of the apology campaign's organizers. "The entire world is applauding this initiative, except for Turkey."

Adds Aktar: "My idea was to put in place something through which anybody, not only intellectuals or opinion makers, could express their feelings or conscience regarding this very troubling issue."

"It was high time to start something outside the official line, the official propaganda, which is completely one-sided," Aktar continued.

The apology campaign was launched during a period that has seen some positive moves between Turkey and Armenia, which have no diplomatic relations because of Armenia's occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. This past September, Gul made a historic trip to Yerevan to watch the Turkish and Armenian national football teams play each other in a World Cup qualifying match. Gul's visit was followed by encouraging statements from both sides about the possibility of normalizing relations. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Turkey's foreign minister also recently met with his Armenian and Azeri counterparts to talk about solving the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

Some of the criticism of the apology campaign -- from Gul, the Turkish foreign ministry and even some groups working on Turkish-Armenian rapprochement -- has been based on a concern that it could damage the recent diplomatic efforts.

"There is no problem with the campaign itself. It's a very humanitarian thing. I'm against the timing," says Noyan Soyak, the Istanbul-based vice chairman of the Turkish-Armenian Business Development Council, a group working towards normalizing relations between the two countries. "The nature of people here, especially the politicians, is very populistic. It took us a little bit away from a solution. Things were going smoother before. Again we have harsh words and the two sides" -- those pushing for better relations and those against -- "attacking each other."

Added Soyak: "Whenever this subject becomes an issue, all we talk about is who killed who. There are so many other subjects to talk about."