LOS ANGELES, APRIL 4, ARMENPRESS: A Turkish historian Taner Akcam, prominent outside his native country and controversial at home, told a meeting with young Armenians in California, USA, that the government of Turkey must radically revise its policies on Cyprus, the Kurdish problem and the Armenian genocide, to be looked upon by Europeans as a nation that has all rights to join the European Union.
Akcam was the first Turkish historian to arrive in Yerevan five years ago to participate in an international conference dedicated to the 85-th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. He also ascended the Tsitsernakaberd hill in Yerevan that hosts the Genocide Memorial with researches from other countries to pay respect to the victims of the genocide.
Taner Akcam is among few Turkish scientists for whom the need to recognize and learn from the Armenian genocide is as acute now as it was when the modern Turkish Republic was founded 80 years ago. His views have made him the target of death threats. He argued that Turkey has approached a second crucial stage in its nation-building process and if it doesn’t learn from past mistakes, it is bound to repeat them.
Equally dangerous, Akcam argued, is the reawakening of revanchist ideas among Turkey’s military-bureaucratic elites. Coupled together, these tendencies could lead to another calamity, he warned.
Akcam criticized the Turkish government, whose ideology does not recognize the presence of Kurdish population and denies the Armenian genocide. Akcam is sure that the government and army Generals will never agree to officially acknowledge the Armenian genocide. He said this is possible only through extensive democratic reforms within the country itself.
“Talking about the Armenian genocide in Turkey is tantamount to constantly reminding an ill man, who is trying to hide his disease, about his illness. People not only are reluctant to remember their disgraceful past, but also do not want others to remind hem about it,” he said.
Akcam explained that Turkey rejects the genocide because Turks lack what he called “historical consciousness.”
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