Akcam: An Open Letter to the Prime Minister and Bulent Arinc

The Turkish version of this letter was published in Taraf on March 13.

There is something I have difficulty understanding. How is it that you, who put an end to 95 years of the state’s policy of “There are no Kurds, they’re just Turks who wander around the mountains”… You, who removed the military’s guardianship over politics—the same military that since the beginning of this Republic has decided who would live and who would die. You, who initiated coups at the drop of a hat. How is it that you, who made such important inroads in this democracy, can insist on continuing the 95 years of denialist policies when it comes to the subject of 1915?

All of us believed that when you signed those protocols with Armenia in October 2009, that the lies surrounding 1915 were coming to an end, just as they were on the Kurdish issue. Could it be that when you signed those protocols, you believed that you could come to a resolution continuing the 95-year-old policies of denial? It doesn’t seem possible… Could you have found a way out of the Kurdish problem by continuing to insist that “There are no Kurds, they’re just Turks who wander around mountains”? If you had stayed loyal to the logic of the problem-solving methods of the military when it comes to the Kurds, whereby they were equated with terrorist organizations, treating the Kurds as “nails” and themselves as the “hammer,” would you have found a way out of the impasse?

Well, it appears that you seriously think you are going to find a resolution to the Armenian problem by continuing these lies. Anyone opposing this view on the Armenian issue is the “nail” and you are the “hammer,” trying to intimidate the U.S., posturing like a bully… Is this how you’re going to remove a 95-year-old gangrene? Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. Arinc, if it could have been fixed this way, don’t you think it would have been so, long ago? Heck, who even needs you then? Sukru Elekdag would have fixed it; Veli Kucuk would have found a neat solution, right?

So, what happens if tomorrow Obama decides it’s time to call your bluff and gives you a taste of your own medicine? What if he comes out with a statement basically saying, “You want to shut me up or get me to tell a lie by threatening me? You’re trying to force me to deny what I believe to be true with threats? Shame on you! Aren’t you the slightest bit embarrassed to be threatening me like that? I’m not lying any more. I am going to state what I believe about 1915. It was genocide.” What are you going to do then?

When the protocols were signed in Switzerland, we believed that it marked the end of the lies and that it was the death knell for the Gunduz Aktan, Sukru Elekdag, and Yusuf Halacoglu era. Not only was the border going to be opened, but commissions were going to be established to make recommendations on how to resolve the issues stemming from history. It seems likely that while Switzerland was mediating the agreement, it tried to convince both you and Armenia by pointing to the “Bergier Commission,” which it had established in 1996, as an example of a “Commission of Independent Experts.” This commission had been formed to research the role that Switzerland had played in the Jewish Holocaust. After five years of work, it presented a final report in 2001; but during those five years, 25 research papers were published covering almost 11,000 pages of information.

There is a fact that is even more important than this, however. One year before the commission was formed, in 1995, the Swiss government apologized to all Jews in the world for its policies during World War II. Actually, the commission was formed as a result of that apology. It’s impossible that you didn’t know that one of the conditions for the establishment of the commission was an apology to the Jews. Even if the Swiss hadn’t mentioned it to you, it is a well-known fact. And we believed that you signed the protocols with full knowledge of this, and heralded the beginning of a change in 95 years of denial policies. “An apology to the Armenians is on its way,” we thought. Apparently that wasn’t the case; instead you had some “oriental inscrutability” in the works. You were going to continue the policy of denial while fabricating a resolution to the problems that have plagued our relationship with Armenia. This is hard to believe, but it is apparent from everything that you have done thus far.

Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. Arinc, I ask that you put this bit of information somewhere in the corner of your minds: You will never resolve the problem of 1915 by repeating a lie that’s been memorized over 95 years. If it could have been resolved by rote repetition, there were those before you who were much louder and who would have achieved. A black stain was smeared on the brow of the Turkish nation in 1915. The ones who did this were the Unionist murderers. If you don’t identify that stain and if you don’t put some distance between yourselves and those who placed that stain upon the brow of the Turkish nation, you won’t be able to take a single step forward on this issue. Don’t even bother trying.

Mr. Prime Minister, you’ve called what happened in 1938 in Dersim a massacre. It’s true we don’t know exactly how many were killed, but you are acting like a bully towards those who condemn what happened in 1915, an event that involved at least 10-15 times more human beings than those who perished in Dersim. On the subject of war crimes committed by Israel against the residents of Gaza, you have shown your displeasure and lifted your voice in opposition, with justification. But when the subject of 1915 comes up, an event that involved killings on a level that can’t even begin to be compared with the violations of human rights in Gaza, you’ve made absurd remarks like, “No one can force me to admit that Muslims commit murders. My forebears were not murderers.” Don’t you think others are going to look at that and say, “Who is he kidding?”

You are the ones who have changed the traditional line that’s been followed on the “Kurdish Question,” who have fought to push the military out of political life. Why are you parroting the same old lies that have been told by this military and this bureaucracy? Let me give you an example. You weren’t able to make any progress on the Kurdish and military matter by siding with the officer who called those involved in the Semdinli event “one of our boys.”1 You were only able to make progress after so many painful experiences, once you put distance between those “good boys” and yourselves. The subject of 1915 is no different.

“Our boys” are the ones who continue to deny that Armenians were annihilated in 1915. They’re the ones forming the Talat Pasha Committees and organizing the memorial meetings for Kemal, the murderous mayor of Bogazlayan. And let’s not forget, they are the same ones who have planned assassinations against you and have tried to overthrow your administration. Don’t you realize that you will never be able to solve anything regarding 1915 by holding onto the same position of those who want to dig your graves?

Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. Arinc, the answers to the problems that are the legacy of 1915 can’t be found in the denialist policies of Veli Kucuk, Dogu Perincek, Sukru Elekdag, and Yusuf Halacoglu. Don’t search for the answers there. You won’t get anywhere repeating the chorus they’ve been singing for 95 years. They are your adversaries on the issue of 1915, just as they are when it comes to the Kurdish issue and the issue of the military’s place in politics. You cannot construct your response to 1915 by holding rank with those who want to drag the country into chaos; with those who murdered Hrant Dink; with those who have planned massacres against Christians and who have been plotting coups against you.

If you are going to respond to 1915, you need to search for that answer in a place that is different than the answers given by Ergenekon or by the ones who plotted the coups. For this you should follow your Muslim roots in Anatolia that have risen alongside your party, and take a closer look at what these roots did during 1915.

Mr. Arinc, these words are for you. With reason, you were angered by the way the women of the CHP in Mersin tore up the Muslim veil.2 Do you realize, however, that with the position that you have taken, you have torn the deep fabric of Anatolian Islam and have ripped apart the cultural legacy of Anatolian Muslims who can walk head held high for bravely challenging the murders of 1915? Do you know that when the Unionist gangs were murdering Armenians in 1915, the ones who put up the biggest fight, who challenged them the most were the Muslims of Anatolia? Did you have any idea that it was the Muslim community of Kastamonu that marched upon the governor’s office demanding, “We won’t stand for our neighbors being murdered”? Or that it was the Muslims of Yozgat who opposed Killer Kemal of Bogazlayan, yelling, “There’s no place in the Koran for the murder of innocents”? Have you never heard of the important role played in the hanging of Killer Kemal by the written testimony of the Grand Mufti of Bogazlayan, Abdullahzade Mehmed? Did you know that in opposing the murders being committed by Killer Kemal, this Muslim Mufti said, “Allah stands above us all. I fear his wrath”?

Mr. Arinc, are you aware of the order given by Commander Kamil Pasha of the Third Army in 1915? He stated, “Whoever tries to hide Armenians in their homes will be executed before his front door and his home will be burned to the ground.” Despite this order, do you know that Haji Halil, a Muslim from Urfa, hid an Armenian family of eight in the attic of his home, in the market of Urfa, for one full year despite threats of death and burning? Go to eastern Anatolia and ask the members of parliament from your own party. They’ll tell you dozens, hundreds of stories like this.

I don’t need to make a point that when the Unionists were massacring Armenians in Anatolia, pious Muslims were opposing what was happening and saying that the murder of innocents has no place in the Koran. Whichever conference I attend and whenever I’m talking with Armenians, I hear, “If we are alive today, it is without a doubt because of the aid of some Muslims.” But they’ll also add, “because of your government’s policy of denial, we can’t talk about it openly.”

Mr. Arinc, you can’t build a future on the backs of murderers. You can build a future on the backs of those righteous Muslims in Anatolia who challenged the murderers. In the same way that you can’t resolve today’s problems by supporting Hrant Dink’s murderers—the “Samats” and the “Veli Kucuks”—you won’t get anywhere supporting the murderers of the Hrants of the past. The answers to 1915 can’t be found in the answers of Dogu Perincek or Veli Kucuk. They are members of the Ergenekon gang that killed Hrant Dink; it’s natural that they defend the murderers of the Hrants of the past. Let the Veli Kucuks defend the murderer Samat of today and the murderers Talat, Enver, and Kemal of yesterday. Your place is not at the side of Veli Kucuk. Your duty is to stand by the side of the Haji Halils, to stand up for those Muslims who put themselves and their families at risk by opposing the massacres.

I would like you to recognize one more thing. Because of the 95 years of denialist policies and defense of murderers, from an international perspective there’s a second stain on the brow of Turkishness and Islam, next to the one created by 1915. Because of the policies followed by the Sukru Elekdags and the Veli Kucuks, Turks are perceived as a people who enjoy murdering, who defend murders. We need to rescue Turkishness and Islam from the Talats and the Envers of yesterday and the Samats of today, and not allow the Elekdags and Kucuks to define it. Turkishness and Islam are identities that are too honorable to be left at the hands of murderers and their defenders. I have an Armenian friend and he has said to me, “Until yesterday, when I heard Turkish, I felt a hatred for it. I called it the language of my enemy. But since getting to know you, I’ve begun to say it’s the sound of my friend, a Turk.”

We need the honest and honorable cry of Turkishness and Islam. Let Dogu Perincek, Veli Kucuk, and the ones who planned your assassination defend the murderers of yesterday and today. You need to see by now that the ones who defended Talat, Enver, and Dr. Nazim in the past are the same people who defend Ogun Samat today.

If we can walk with a shred of self-respect today, heads held high, it’s because we can point to Hrant’s killer and call him what he is. You need to see that once we acknowledge the murderers of the Hrants of 1915, we will walk with our heads held high, self-respect intact. Nazim Hikmet has the best words for describing what needs to be done in connection with 1915. I’d like to conclude this letter with him.

Grocer Garabed’s lights are on
He hasn’t forgiven, this Armenian citizen,
The way his father was slaughtered in the Kurdish mountains
But he loves you because you haven’t forgiven either
The stain that’s been drawn on the brows of the Turkish people

Mr. Prime Minister, I know that you like to read poetry. The Turkish person and the Muslims of the Middle East want to hear these verses from you.

***
 
[1] This references an incident where a bookstore in a Kurdish city was bombed. Officers in the Turkish military were suspected of having planned and/or executed the deed. The chief of the General Staff was quoted as saying the officers were “our good boys”.
[2] This is in reference to an incident during International Women’s Day when women members of the CHP (Republican People’s Party) tore up the headscarf of a Muslim woman.

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Taner Akcam

Taner Akcam is the Robert Aram, Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marion Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University.

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