Armenian academic retracts apology campaign over fierce reactions

Dr. Armen Gavakian from the Macquarie University in Sydney, inspired by a Turkish initiative, decided last month to launch a campaign to apologize to Turks for murders committed by the Asala organization in the 1980s.    Â

Gakavian, however, retracted the campaign over fierce criticism from Armenian diaspora, Hurriyet wrote.Â

Prof. Baskin Oran, one of the intellectuals who initiated the Turkish apology campaign, wrote in Agos daily that they were also exposed to similar reactions from his fellow citizens.

"His (campaign) resembled ours. Attacks from the Workshop for Armenian/Turkish Scholarship (WATS) started immediately... They asked whether the Turks made him write this," he wrote.

Around 200 Turkish academics, writers and journalists have launched a website issuing an apology to Armenians "for ignoring the tragedy that the Armenians faced in 1915". The efforts of Turkish intellectuals have also drawn reaction in Turkey and incited counter website campaigns, and exhibitions containing information and photographs from studies conducted into the events.

Gavakian’s statement was expected to be opened for signatures of support this week. "I apologize to the Ottomans and Turks for murders committed in the name of the Armenian people and I empathize with the feelings and pain of the Ottomans and Turks," the statement said according to media reports. He later denied that the statement included an apology.

Armenia, with the backing of the diaspora, claims up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in 1915.Turkey rejects the claims saying that 300,000 Armenians, along with at least as many Turks, died in civil strife that emerged when Armenians took up arms, backed by Russia, for independence in eastern Anatolia.

The issue remains unsolved as Armenia drags its feet on accepting Turkey's proposal to form an independent commission to investigate the claims.