Turkish-Armenian academic criticizes "Turkey's policy of denial"

“I attended the program not because I am Armenian, but because I am a citizen of Turkey,” said Turkish-Armenian academic Sevan Nişanyan, who appeared on a Habertürk television program along with Yusuf Halaçoğlu, the ex-president of the Turkish Historical Society.

“I work and produce for this country,” Nişanyan told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review in an interview. “All that affects this country’s destiny is my concern, not only the Armenian issue.”

During the program, Halaçoğlu said he used archival documents as the basis for his case that the events of 1915 in no way constituted “genocide” – an argument that Nişanyan dismissed as “official Turkish history.”

Armenia claims up to 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed in 1915 under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey denies this, saying that any deaths were the result of civil strife that erupted when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia.

Nişanyan confirmed that he received threatening messages after the program, but dismissed them, saying he does not really care about such threats. Asked about whether he might face the same risk as Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was assassinated Feb. 19, 2007, he said: “I do not believe that a spontaneous murder could be committed in this country; it is not the right milieu for that. Threats are a part of my life and I know very well where they come from.”

The academic said he was initially hesitant about being on the program, but then decided to participate after all. “[If it were not Halaçoğlu on that program] it would have been Yalçın Küçük. I had to pick the best of the worst,” he said. “I attended because it was time that somebody stood up against the lies. I defended historical facts that are well-known by the whole world.”

Nişanyan said Halaçoğlu deliberately manipulated historical documents to make his argument. “For example, he says French ships carried Armenians to Yerevan,” he said. “Is there a sea in Armenia that we somehow do not know about?”

The academic was criticized by many for being very tense and angry on the program.

“My biggest mistake was to get mad, but Halaçoğlu was lying ... and the presenter, Fatih Altaylı, was interrupting me continuously,” he said. “I could not take that any more.”

Speaking about draft bills taken up by legislative bodies worldwide to recognize Armenians' claims of genocide, Nişanyan said: “Nobody questions what happened in 1915, because everybody knows what happened. What is questioned is Turkey’s policy of denial.”

Despite the tension between the two countries, Nişanyan said he believes the problems could be overcome if the Turkish and Armenian peoples establish a dialogue, adding that even the Turkish public itself is now questioning the events of 1915. “Turkish society is a conscientious society. The problem is Ankara,” he said.

The academic was not hopeful, however, about the possibility of opening the land border between the two neighboring nations.

“If the borders are opened and diplomatic relations are established, this will be as a result of pressure from the outside world,” he said. “The current government is catastrophic; they have no vision and the discourse on the [Armenian] initiative is far from convincing.”


/Hurriyet Daily News/