Erdogan banned calling Armenian Genocide “so-called”

[Gavur]

Turkish prime minister bans calling the Armenian Genocide “alleged” by Harut Sassouni

The prime minister of Turkey, Receb Tayyip
Erdogan, has reportedly issued a confidential
decree (No. 2007-18) on July 3 banning the
use of the term “sozde” (alleged or so-called)
when referring to the Armenian Genocide.
The news of this “secret” directive was made
public on July 19 by Turkish Ulusal Kanal
television and its website, and reposted on
several other news sites since then. Turkish
denialists reacted angrily to this decree, accusing
the prime minister of undermining
their efforts against the Congressional resolution
on the Armenian Genocide.
Turkish officials and reporters never fail
to refer to the Armenian Genocide as the
“so-called” or “alleged” genocide, thus casting
doubt on the mass killings of Armenians by
the Turkish government in 1915–23.
According to Mr. Erdogan’s decree, henceforth
the Armenian Genocide should be described
in official statements and public discourse
as the “events of 1915” or “Armenian
allegations regarding the events of 1915.”
The prime minister’s office has reportedly
sent this decree to all state institutions, including
all ministries, governors, mayors,
universities, courts, and the Turkish General
Staff.
Mr. Erdogan is said to have stated in his
decree that he was taking this action on the
basis of a resolution adopted by the Council
of Europe in February 2005. This probably is
a reference to a recommendation by several
Turkish nongovernmental organizations in
February 2005 to cleanse Turkish textbooks
of “xenophobia, machismo, and ultranationalism.”
The proposal was the result of a threeyear
study funded by the European Commission.
Ulusal Kanal explained that the
Council of Europe had called on Turkey to
refrain from using certain disparaging words
and phrases in referring to Armenians and
Greeks in Turkish textbooks.
The European Parliament has adopted
a number of resolutions since 1987 urging
the government of Turkey to recognize the
Armenian Genocide, if it wished to join the
European Union. However, the EU has not
made such recognition a requirement for
Turkish membership.
Mr. Erdogan has reportedly ordered that
his decree remain confidential, while mandating
its implementation by all officials and
society at large. In the coming days, it remains
to be seen whether Turkish government
officials and the media will indeed stop
referring to the Armenian Genocide as “alleged”
or “so-called.” Especially interesting
will be the case of Foreign Minister Abdullah
Gul, who makes frequent denialist statements
on the Armenian Genocide.
If the news of this decree proves to be accurate,
it would be widely criticized by Turkish
denialists, while being hailed by Europeans
as a sign of progress by Turkey on the taboo
subject of the Armenian Genocide.
It is noteworthy that when Prime Minister
Erdogan first came to power, he made cautious
statements when asked about the Armenian
Genocide. Notably, he did not deny the fact of
the Armenian Genocide, but simply stated that
“these events” must be researched or looked
into to find out what really happened.
Immediately, the Turkish military establishment
and ultranationalists began accusing
him of being too pliant in accepting “imposed
terms” for joining the European Union, and
not reacting strongly against Kurdish and Armenian
demands. In response, Mr. Erdogan
started taking tougher positions against EU
membership requirements, the Armenian
Genocide, claims for Kurdish autonomy, the
Cyprus conflict, and Israel’s mistreatment of
Palestinians. The prime minister wanted to
show his hawkish opponents at home that he
was just as good a Turk as his critics and that
they were wrong in accusing him of compromising
Turkey’s national interests.
On the Armenian Genocide issue, he went
from saying that he did not know what really
had happened in 1915, to denying outright
that genocide had taken place, claiming that
the Turkish nation could not have committed
such a heinous crime. Ironically, while repeatedly
denying the facts of the Armenian Genocide,
he was, at the same time, suggesting that
a commission of historians be formed to study
whether such a crime had been committed.
It remains to be seen whether Prime Minister
Erdogan, following his party’s major
victory in Sunday’s parliamentary elections,
would be much less sensitive to the accusations
of his opponents. His newly revealed
decree on banning the term “alleged” Armenian
Genocide could be an early sign that the
prime minister now feels politically strong
enough to take more liberal and daring positions
on a number of thorny domestic and
foreign policy issues, including the Armenian
Genocide.http://www.armenianreporteronline.co...2007/A0728.pdf

[Joseph]

My opinion on this is as follows:

The Turks are taking advice from their well-paid lobbyists in the US. Using the terms "so-called", "alleged", "false", etc make the Turks sound even more guilty. By toning down their rhetoric, they make the appearance that they are not denialists and are actually appeasing Armenians to a degree...which we very well know they are not. Smart move actually, though I don't think many Turkish institutions or the general public will go along with it.

[Steph]

A big step forward !

[Gavur]

Btw, it looks like a scoop by Hye-Tert through a leak no ones picked up on it yet its naturally hush hush in the amazing press of Turkey.(they probably haven;t figure out what spin to put on it so soon after the election
I love it!!!

[Gavur]

I disagree ,this is huge!!!
Not only we are forcing are enemies to change the language they use against us, it also creates opportunuty 's for more direct dialogue between us and like minded Turk's unfettered (or less fettered).The important thing is we are maintaining our status in the world's eyes as the moving party in this dispute and they are the ones giving way to freedom of speech between us and the Turks.I mean Turkish diaspora will look more foolish now using a "blatant denier's "stand compared to their state using "not admitting" stance.

[1.5 million]

Not much of an improvement really - not sure if this is a positive development or not - my gut feel is that Turkey is still supporting denialist semantics and a posture of denial.

[Gavur]

dogan banned calling Armenian Genocide “so-called”
24.07.2007 14:26 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Prime Minister of Turkey Receb Tayyip Erdogan has reportedly issued a confidential decree (No. 2007-18) on July 3 banning the use of the term “sozde” (alleged or so-called in Turkish) when referring to the Armenian Genocide. The news of this “secret” directive was made public on July 19 by Turkish “Ulusal Kanal” TV and its website and reposted on several other news sites since then. Turkish denialists reacted angrily to this decree, accusing the Prime Minister of undermining their efforts against the congressional resolution on the Armenian Genocide. Turkish officials and reporters never fail to refer to the Armenian Genocide as the “so-called” or “alleged” genocide, thus casting doubt on the mass killings of Armenians by the Turkish government from 1915 to 1923. According to Erdogan’s decree, henceforth the Armenian Genocide should be described in official statements and public discourse as the “events of 1915” or “Armenian allegations regarding the events of 1915”.

The Prime Minister’s office has reportedly sent this decree to all state institutions, including all ministries, governors, mayors, universities, courts, and the General Chief of Staff. Erdogan is said to have stated in his decree that he was taking this action on the basis of a resolution adopted by the Council of Europe in February 2005. This probably is a reference to a recommendation by several Turkish non-governmental organizations in February 2005 to “cleanse Turkish textbooks of xenophobia and ultra-nationalism”. The proposal was the result of a three-year study funded by the European Commission. Ulusal Kanal explained that the Council of Europe had called on Turkey to refrain from using certain disparaging words and phrases in referring to Armenians and Greeks in Turkish textbooks.
http://www.panarmenian.net/news/eng/?nid=23075