Turkish historians. When history hurts

Times are tough for outspoken scholars

IF TURKEY is ever to join the European Union, it will need to acknowledge - and allow free discussion of - the mass slaughter of the Ottoman empire's Armenian subjects both during and after the first world war. That, at least, is the opinion of some EU members - especially France, where many Armenians live, and where objections to Turkish entry run high.

In theory, Turkey's rendezvous with the Union - entry talks are due to start in October - should be good news for the Turkish scholars who have risked prosecution by challenging the official line, which holds that the mass deportation of Armenians in 1915 did not amount to a conspiracy to kill them. And earlier this year, there were some good signs.

After decades of denying that the killings - which Armenians round the world regard as genocide - ever took place, Turkey in April called on international scholars to determine once and for all what really happened, saying they were free to examine the Ottoman archives. This invitation from Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, won strong praise from EU governments. But the few intrepid souls who took him at his word have had nothing but trouble ever since.

In May, a group of Turkish historians (many of whom challenge the official view that the main cause of death among deported Armenians was exposure and disease) suffered a sharp setback. They had to cancel a conference which was due to debate the Armenian tragedy after the justice minister, Cemil Cicek, accused them of “stabbing Turkey in the back”.

Another bad sign: Hrant Dink, the publisher of Agos, an Armenian weekly in Istanbul, is facing up to three years in jail for telling an audience in 2002 that he was “not Turkish” but “an Armenian of Turkey”. In a separate case, also filed this year, Mr Dink is facing up to six years for urging Armenians and Turks to stop hating one another. In both instances, Mr Dink was said to have “insulted the Turkish state”.

How do these prosecutions square with Mr Erdogan's stated wish to take the sting out of Turkish-Armenian relations by allowing some honest research? “Easily,” insists Mr Dink. “There are forces in this country who are working night and day to stop Turkey from joining the EU and part of that is silencing people like me.”

But these days, the problems of liberal Turkish scholars - and advocates of Turkish-Armenian reconciliation - are not all caused by their own country. Take the case of Yektan Turkyilmaz, an internationally acclaimed Turkish scholar who was arrested in Armenia on June 17th on charges of seeking to smuggle antique books out of the country. Fluent in Armenian, Mr Turkyilmaz is among the few Turks who say the Ottoman policy in 1915 did amount to deliberate killing. The first Turkish academic to be granted access to Armenia's national archives, Mr Turkyilmaz is being held in a maximum security prison in Yerevan. He will face trial next month for violating Article 215 of the Armenian Criminal Code, which equates the smuggling of antiquities with trafficking in weapons of mass destruction. He could incur a jail sentence of up to eight years.

Mr Turkyilmaz insists he had no idea about the law, and that the dealers who sold him some 100 volumes never said he would need permission to take them out. In an open letter to Armenia's president, Robert Kocharian, some 200 academics, campaigning for the historian's freedom, said the arrest would “raise serious doubts as to whether Armenia encourages independent scholarly research on its history.”

Whatever view you take of the Armenian tragedy, it can get you into trouble - in unexpected places. Dogu Perincek, an eccentric Turkish leftist, was briefly detained in Switzerland on July 23rd. The Swiss authorities say he breached article 261 of their penal code, which makes the denial or justification of genocide a punishable offence. Mr Perincek had told a conference that to speak of Armenian genocide was an “imperialist lie”. Oddly enough, the Turkish authorities seem far more indignant about his minor travails than they are about Mr Turkyilmaz.