An apology...

And, yes, I am for a detailed investigation by historians of what indeed happened during those years; to what extent the Unity and Progress Party government of the dissolving Ottoman Empire or the French, the Russians, the Germans, the British and Americans were responsible in the calamity lived in Anatolia during those years and of course, firmly believe that whichever state had any degree of responsibility in the catastrophe must come up with an appropriate apology. Naturally, as it is the duty of any state to safeguard the safety and well-being of its population and as the Ottoman government of the time grossly failed in that, if there is anyone still alive from the government of that time, they must come up with an apology to the Armenians, Kurds, Arabs and of course to the Turks. And, yes, the Turkish state must come up with an apology to the Turkish nation and accept that it was a gross mistake to hide not only the 1915-17 events from the Turkish public but most other details of the dissolution period of the Ottoman Empire just for the sake of cutting the new republic from the Ottoman imperial past.

Back in December 2001, talking at a conference in the Armenian capital Yerevan, I had tried to explain the deep sorrow I felt over what was lived in Anatolia during those years, but stressed that if there was a "communal" crime that required a "communal apology" there was absolutely a need for a mutual apology as Armenians were at least equally responsible of what was lived... But to what purpose an apology by an individual - who played no role in the calamity lived and who because of the state thrown veil on the issue learned some of what might have happened during those years in Anatolia only in the early 1970s, after the notorious Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia, ASALA, terrorist gang started a global terrorist campaign against Turkish diplomats - would serve?

Thus, my objection to the "collective" but "individual" statement of a group of intellectuals - who were accused of being "traitors" in a counter collective statement by a group of retired ambassadors - was not to the entirety of the statement, but rather to the "apology" section that I found meaningless and indeed derogatory for an individual who has not played in any role in what was lived anyhow.

We are a synthesis of common past
But, still, I would like to make an apology... An apology to President Abdullah Gül... As a social democrat who opposes fascist, neo-Nazi, racist and discriminatory attitudes of any sort, I must underline that the allegations made by a social democratic parliamentarian lady that the president did not condemn the "apology" petition of a group of intellectuals was because he did not act as the president of the nation but rather, allowed his ethnic background to shape his attitudes... Later, the same lady even went a step further and charged that the grandmother of Gül was an Armenian and thus implied that because of his grandmother’s ethnic background the president was sympathetic to the initiative of the intellectuals...

Correct or incorrect, the ethnic background of the grandmother of the President should be of no concern for the lady parliamentarian or anyone else. In a place like Anatolia, which has been the cradle of civilizations throughout history, is it possible for anyone - if he claims he is a Turk, a Kurd, an Arab or an Armenian, Caucasian or whatever - to prove his ethnic background? We are all a little bit of everything, but culturally we feel we belong to one of those ethnocultural groups. Thus, what we say, we are... If one feels he is a Turk, he is a Turk, or if he feels he is a Kurd or Armenian, so he is... Our cultural accumulation is our richness, and mind you, in all of us there is little bit of all ethnic cultures that existed in Anatolia over the centuries.

To make racist and discriminatory comments about the ethnic backgrounds of individuals - irrespective of who they are and what posts they occupy in state administration - is nothing less than engaging in a very dangerous fascism campaign. Thus, I apologize to President Gül not because I was engaged in such a fascist attitude, but rather because in this age, despite all the past tragedies we lived, there are still examples of such a fascist mentality in this land...