Turks, Armenians, and the "G-word"

World Policy Journal

Volumn 22, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 81-93

  Cooper, Belinda ^a   Akcam, Taner ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 29044446033     PISSN: 07402775     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1215/07402775-2005-4009     Document Type: Review

References (13)

1. The ICTJ commissioned the opinion at the request of the Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission (TARC), a group of prominent Turks and Armenians from Turkey, Armenia, and the Armenian diaspora in the United States, which met sporadically in the United States, Europe, and Turkey between 2001 and 2004 under U.S. State De partment sponsorship to discuss possible areas of Turkish-Armenian cooperation. Commissioning the opinion (which also concluded that the Genocide Convention of 1948 did not apply retroactively to the Armenian genocide and could not form the basis for any legal claims) was the main achievement of the TARC. The commission purposely avoided addressing the historical dispute in any other way, and otherwise has had little impact in either Turkey or Armenia. The Turkish government's willingness to tolerate the TARC's existence, however, revealed its sensitivity to international opinion on the subject of the genocide; Ankara may have hoped that the commission would deflect attention from the genocide resolutions being promoted by diaspora Armenians. For a more optimistic assessment of the TARC from the perspective of its American chair, see David L. Phillips, Unsilencing the Past: Track Two Diplomacy and Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation (New York: Berghahn Books, 2005).
2. The killings of Armenians also meet the definition of crimes against humanity, which include various types of government-sponsored or tolerated killings, torture, and discriminatory action. However, the charge of "genocide" has proven most controversial, perhaps because it calls up memories of the Holočaust, which has become the standard of extreme evil, and because genocide is considered the worst of international crimes.
3. For a more detailed discussion of the background and context of Turkish denial, see Taner Akcam, From Empire to Republic: Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide (London: Zed Books, 2004).
4. See Taner Akcam, "A Scandal; The Letter form the Turkish Parliament, or Where Are Sükrü Eledag and Justin McCarthy Leading This Country?" published in Turkish in Birikim (Istanbul), May 2005, pp. 89-105.
5. There is an enormous literature on the subject of transitional justice and the importance of historical memory. See, for example, Priscilla Hayner, Un-speakable Truths: Confronting State Terror and Atrocity (New York: Routledge, 2001);
6. Ruti G. Teitel, Tran sitional Justice (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000);
7. Martha Minow, Between Vengeance and Forgiveness (Boston: Beacon Press, 1998);
8. Gesine Swan, Politik und Schuld: Die Zerstörische Macht des Schweigens (Frankfurt: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1997).
9. See, for example, the introduction to Antony Polonsky and Joanna B. Michlic, eds., The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy over the jedwabne Massacre in Poland (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003).
10. Spain is often cited as an example of a country where amnesties and national amnesia appeared to be the agreed-upon method of dealing with the history and aftermath of a bloody civil war. However, seven decades later, cracks are appearing and the descendants of victims are demanding an accounting. See, for example, Sara B. Miller, "Spain Begins to Con-front Its Past," Christian Science Monitor, February 6, 2003;
11. Madeleine Davis, "Is Spain Recovering Its Memory? Breaking the Facto del Olvido," Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 17 (August 2005), pp. 858-80.
12. Indeed, in most cases, amnesia seems to be a strategy that does not outlast the first or, at most, the second generation following historical trauma.
13. The changed climate for public debate on the dark spots in Turkish history was evident recently when members of a nationalist group attacked and defaced an exhibit on the persecution of another Turkish minority, the Greeks. The press and the public reacted with near-universal outrage.