Monday, April 28 2014

On the
threshold of the 100^th mourning anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
in the Ottoman Empire, the process of
international recognition of the Genocide seems to be losing momentum. Do you agree with such an assessment?

 

24 states of
the world have officially recognized the Armenian Genocide at the level of
Parliaments and Governments. Turkey
seeks to join the EU, and the latter ranks the requirement of Ankara’s
recognition of the Armenian Genocide among several dozens of conditions for Turkey’s EU
membership. Actually, this requirement is not vividly reflected in the
documents and is restricted to verbal statements of European officials. So, the
issue of Armenian Genocide is always in the spare magazine of Europeans. In the
United States
the Armenian Genocide recognition issue has not gone further than the Senate
Committee so far. Nevertheless, if the Senate adopts a relevant resolution, it
will be of great significance to the whole process of the Genocide recognition.
This is what Turks fear so much especially given President Obama’s rather harsh
statements on April 24. The international community drew a line under the issue
of the Armenian Genocide culprits long ago, but Turks did not. The fact of the
Genocide was confirmed by the Ottoman leadership’s decrees and by Istanbul’s court martial
of 1919. In those years the Young Turks annihilated not only Armenians, but
also Greeks, Assyrians and to a smaller extent Jews who were comparatively
fewer in Turkey.
Turkey
set up commissions to nationalize the “abandoned property” of the Armenians,
Greeks and Jews whom the Turks exterminated or deported. And all the Turkish
statements that only 300 thsd Armenians allegedly died in Turkey sound
too awkward and absurd. Turkey
itself does not officially recognize the fact of the Armenian Genocide yet.

 

What about the public? Does the Turkish Prime
Minister’s recent address reflect the public sentiments? 

 

One can
observe an idea of repentance in the Turkish society. Even the leadership has
changed its stance. Prime Minister Erdogan and Foreign Minister Davutoglu speak
of “mass atrocities” and even apologize for that. This is already a step
forward. Some 20 years ago Turkey
propagandized hatred against Armenians. Some scientists are already speaking of
the crime of the Genocide openly though some Turks cannot utter that term yet.
This process is going on in a rather complicated manner, because several
generations were brought up on hatred against Armenians. Therefore, the changes
in the public consciousness are a fact that has become possible after the
Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power. It is the AKP that started
speaking of the rights of national minorities, first of all, Kurds. All we can
do is hope that the national courage of Turkey
will prevail and clear the way for future relations with Armenia. After
all, this crime clears the way for similar crimes as long as the Genocide
remains unrecognized. I am convinced that Turkey should recognize the
Armenian Genocide, because it will determine its future role in the world. It
appears that Erdogan’s recent address contains new statements that were
previously inconceivable.

 

Is this
issue used in Turkey’s
domestic policy?

 

It is used partially.
There is a serious aspect concerning the discrepancies between Recep Erdogan
and Fethullah Gulen. Even Nursists turned their back on the latter following
his statements on Turkey's
stance on Israel,
for instance, condemnation of the Freedom Flotilla campaign. It is noteworthy
that Gulen avoids making any statements on the Genocide of Armenians. At least,
he has never used the term Genocide. 
Nevertheless, Gulen's supporters have faced a wave of criticism after
the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a resolution condemning the
Genocide of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey. In Turkey they began to slam Gulen and
his supporters for contributing to the resolution along with the Armenian lobby
in the Congress. It must be admitted that Gulen bears no relation to that.
However, the Armenian factor was used in the domestic political fights in Turkey.
Incidentally, in Turkey
they began digging into Gulen's roots to find any Armenian traces there.  Earlier, they absurdly claimed that Gulen had Donme roots.

 

So, one
should not expect any tangible progress in Turkey’s policy on recognition of
the Armenian Genocide, even if the power is changed in the country…

 

One
shouldn’t yet. Nevertheless, condemnation of the atrocities at the legislative
level is not impossible. What scares Turkey
most is the property restitution issue that will inevitable emerge if Ankara recognizes the
fact of the Genocide of Armenians. It's no secret that the Armenians in Ottoman
Turkey possessed huge property even for that period of time. Therefore, Turkey avoids
the property claims by Armenians not to face huge financial problems.

 

By the way, Israel does not
recognize the Armenian Genocide…

 

The
position of official Israel,
which does not recognize the Armenian Genocide, is not only unfair but also
illogical and far from humanity. The key reason of Tel Aviv's such behavior is
unwillingness to lose "monopoly" of the only nation that officially
suffered from the genocide - Holocaust. Here the campaign that started in Turkey long ago
also played its part. I mean the campaign during which some mass media and
writers were trying to prove that those who organized the genocide - members of
the "Unification and progress" party were the Jews who adopted Islam.
Nevertheless, Israeli scientists recognize the Armenian Genocide. Taking into
consideration the fact that the historical and political science is strong in Israel, it
would be simply funny, if not profanation. I think that the Israeli residents
are twisting round at the political level trying to restore relations with Turkey that
does not recognize the Armenian Genocide. This is unworthy of the nation, which
was hit by Holocaust. In a certain sense in the political bargain with Ankara the Western
countries are trying to use the Armenian Genocide issue. In 1995 our State Duma
adopted a statement calling this crime - the genocide.

 

The year
2015 will mark the 100^th mourning anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide. Do you think any progress will be registered in the process of its
international recognition?

 

I am
confident that more attention will be drawn at the Armenian Genocide
recognition problem in the world in 2015. We may expect the relevant steps from
many states that do not depend on the political relations with Turkey.
However, only the key countries of the world, which think they are the masters
of the world, may finally settle this issue, for instance, the USA, although
the recent events have demonstrated that not all the countries are ready to be
vulnerable to the USA. Today Russia
does not have another choice. Meanwhile, the Armenian Genocide has horrible
consequences. I mean Hitler's words and other genocide actions, for instance in
Africa and Cambodia.
Only the timely taken measures against display of Nazism may stop such
brutalities. For instance, young men in Ukraine, whose fathers and
grandfathers were fighting Nazism during the Great Patriotic War, were dinned
into head that Stepan Bandera is their leader. As a result, these grass-green
young men are in fact destroying Ukraine under the nazi slogans of
the "Right sector". The Americans do not want to see that. It is just
a real politic for them and nothing else.

 

The impact
of Islamism, particularly, the impact of Turkey in Russia’s North Caucasus is
one of the trump cards of Turkish diplomats in the talks with Moscow. What is the
situation like today?  

 

At present,
in its policy regarding Turkey Russia has been actively using the Muslim
factor. In 2013, in Petersburg
a big sector

of
"Nurjullar" sect (250 people) and another one - 120 people were
revealed. Both were headed by Turks, although Azerbaijanis and ethnic Central Asia residents, etc. were within the sect. All
these people are being programmed not at harmless forms of Islamism. For this
reason, the activity of this sect is forbidden in Russia and even the books by Said
Nursi are also forbidden. As for the Caucasus,
here there are many propagandists and various Muslim movements, first of all, Wahabi
and Salafis, have been trying to infatuate the hearts of the young people. The
authorities do not take enough measures to stop dissemination of such sects in Russia,
although policemen have become rather active for the last period of time when
suppressing terrorism. I’d say that traditional Islam is a serious obstacle on
the way of dissemination of such radical movements. Big funds should be
invested in the economy of North Caucasus to
employ young people and hinder their joining radical sects. Islamist movements
are being disseminated not only in the Caucasus but also in the Volga region, Bashkiria and Tatarstan, although the Turkish vocational
schools were shut down here several years ago.

 

Would you
specify the final goal?

 

The final
goal of dissemination of the Islamist movements in Russia
is creation of the new elite oriented not at the Russians and Russia but at Turkey. In Turkey they
have already created such an elite, and we see what it has resulted in. The
conflict between Gul and Erdogan is the conflict between the new elite brought
up in the vocational schools and universities created by the Hizmet and the
authorities.  All these missionaries have
been striving to split Russia
through capturing the hearts of young Muslims. They want to split the
multi-national state, which would make it possible to separate Russian Muslims
from the rest of the country. This is categorically inadmissible to us. Neighboring
Azerbaijan
has found itself in rather a difficult situation resulting from the
Turkey-sponsored Muslim currents. Turkey's
pressure has even forced Baku
to fire Gulen's Hizmet movement-friendly minister. The movement is based on the
Sunni Islam, while Shia Islam is a traditional religion in Azerbaijan.
Groups of Wahabi and Salafis are also a major threat to the traditional Shia
Islam. All this constitutes threat to the incumbent authorities and the public
in Baku. That
is why Azerbaijan
tries by all means possible to avoid differentiating nationality and religion
and to keep integrity. They have even created a range of myths to that end. One
of the myths, for instance, says that Azerbaijanis are just about to be the most
ancient nation in the world. 
Scientifically, all this looks quite silly, indeed. All these efforts
result from phobias and aspirations to create a nation from nothing. However,
this young country that has borrowed from Iran even its name has no other way
out.