President Obama during his recent visit to Turkey avoided using the dreaded "genocide" word. Sometimes Presidents on state visits are more constrained about the words they use than Senators trolling for votes. In 1915, another American, the US Ambassador in Constantinople, Henry Morgenthau was not so circumspect in describing the indiscriminate slaughter of Armenians, documented in numerous consular dispatches, with a much more apt term: "race murder." A touchy issue, one that that successive Turkish governments have made every effort to discredit and expunge from the historical record. In Turkey, public comment about the killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians
by the Ottoman Turks during and after World War I is not only a taboo
subject, it is illegal and capable of resulting in an extended vacation in a Turkish prison.
Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, adopted in June 2005,
states that:
"Public denigration of Turkishness, the Republic or the Grand
National Assembly of Turkey shall be punishable by imprisonment of
between six months and three years."
"Public denigration of the Government of the Republic of
Turkey, the judicial institutions of the State, the military or
security matters shall be punishable by imprisonment of between six
months and two years."
There are an increasing number of Turks who have taken the risk of talking about the subject such as the best-selling Turkish novelists Elif Shafak and Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk. The Turkish Publishers' Association reports that more than 60
writers and journalists have been charged under Article 301 with
various forms of "insulting Turkishness," including the
intellectual transgression of allegedly insulting Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. In 2007, a high-profile Turkish-Armenian editor, Hrant Dink, who had been convicted of insulting Turkey's identity, was shot and killed in Istanbul.
Unfortunately the American view of Turkey, exemplified by a string of Presidents and State Department bureaucrats reinforces its status as an "indispensable" ally and ignores such minor transgressions.. Thus, we overlook the crimes of Turkey's paranoid nationalist military overseers and the indiscretions of its
current anti-Western Islamist government for elusive short-term political gains. Trifles like
its nominal participation in Afghanistan (where there have been zero Turkish casualties), the use of Incirlik air base or its crumbling alliance with Israel. Now its emergence as a regional power has further dampened any outrage over Turkey's treatment of her minorities or its clear record of human rights violations bringing only the occasional gentle nudge or lukewarm encouragement to act like the European country it is not. It is becoming increasingly clear to most Europeans that Turkey's entry into the EU which promises to give Turkey a majority representation in the European parliament will permanently and irrevocably transform the European character of the continent. The Europeans were treated to a glimpse of what is in store for them at the NATO summit when Turks fought to derail the appointment of a great Dane,
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, as the new NATO secretary general because he supported the free speech rights of those Danes who dare to caricature the Prophet Mohammed. Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan demands included the closure of a Kurdish satellite
television broadcaster based in Denmark; the establishment of contacts
between NATO and Islamic countries; appointment of a Turk as an aide to
Fogh Rasmussen and senior NATO command positions for Turkish generals.
At one time, Turkish strategists once sought refuge within the NATO camp for protection against the Soviet threat. Now they are unabashedly exercising more assertive
security policies as they seek to take advantage of new opportunities and
preserve Turkish interests in the face of an uncertain future. Turkey's strategic position places it in the center of three unstable regions, the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Middle East. Turkish conventional military capabilities are outstripping those of its neighbors including Iran and Russia, making it a formidable player in the region. The Turkish defense modernization program laid out in the
final years of the Cold War sought to develop a force capable of an integrated
air-land battle as part of the NATO alliance. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the rest of NATO downsized as Ankara continued to
increase defense spending on major systems into the future. The growing unpredictability of Turkish security policy, coupled with
Ankara’s increased military capability,
contributes to increasing regional instability. Instability which Turkey is poised to take advantage of.
Turkey is not the benevolent secular democracy it is portrayed as by its many friends in Washington. The Turkish
government is whipping up Islamic fundamentalism and is systematically dismantling the Kemalist secular state from within. It's goal is nothing less than the establishment of an Islamic state in its place and the only thing that is standing in the way is a corrupt but powerful military establishment. Irregardless of ideology, Turkish nationalists have a long record of suppressing minorities, most recently the Kurds. The Turks have used much of the time since the establishment of the modern Turkish state to consolidate their
position such that Turks and only Turks reign supreme in their realm. The Armenians were finally expelled in the dying days
of World War I. The Greeks and Assyrians were eliminated shortly thereafter. Religious freedom for the few remaining Christians that still live in Turkey is a sham maintained for outside consumption. Aggressive and intimidating actions in Cyprus and continued Aegean overflights are not signs
of a nation seeking peaceful co-existence with weaker neighbors. What Europeans and Americans alike fail to realize is that Turkey is not an impoverished Third World country but rather the heir to an Ottoman legacy. It was a German ally in World
War I, Nazi-friendly in World War II,
and raped Cyprus with impunity while we stood aside.
The Balkans and Caucasus, both former
Ottoman provinces, are again available for exploitation. Turkey is increasingly meddling in such places as Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and Greek Thrace where it is increasingly seen as a protector of Muslim populations. Even the Arabs, who
view Iran as a hostile power with a heretical religion and a revolutionary foreign policy calling for the overthrow of
most of the Arab regimes, look to Turkey (notwithstanding its Ottoman past) as a trusted mediator and model. Turkey is now a free agent, no longer beholden or constrained by Americans or Europeans, with very few restrictions, but dabbling in events
throughout its entire periphery. The portents for the future are not auspicious.
This Pascha marks the one year anniversary of my mother's death. As much as we all miss her, I can't think of a more fitting day to remember her. I am comforted, in particular, by something written by St. John in the Book of Revelations:
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