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Turkey´s wilful forgetting

If Turkey wants to be part of the EU it must be prepared to face up to its history.

‘Who remembers today the Armenians?” Adolf Hitler is reputed to have said as he prepared to invade Poland. Ninety years after the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I many people do still remember – most of all the descendants of those who were murdered. In April 1915 Turkish soldiers arrested hundreds of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople, then tortured and executed them. The Ottoman authorities then ordered the mass expulsion of Armenians from eastern Anatolia, where they were suspected of working with Russia to create a separate state. The slaughter of Armenians continued over the next several years. Terrible atrocities were carried out, even against children. This has become known as the first genocide of the 20th century. What has kept bitterness alive is Turkey’s insistence that no genocide ever took place, although it admits many thousands of people died as a result of “civil strife”.

Now the Armenians are seeking international recognition that their people were victims of a deliberate campaign of extermination. One thing gives hope they might achieve this: Turkey’s desire to become part of the European Union. France, which is one of 15 countries to recognise the Armenian genocide, has called on Turkey to set the record straight before it can join the EU. The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has recently proposed a joint Turkish and Armenian commission to investigate the genocide claims. The proposal is welcome, even though its critics say most of the incriminating evidence has been expunged from the Turkish archives.

Turkey has been guilty of wilful amnesia. Germany has managed to reinstate itself as a responsible international citizen because of its recognition of, and contrition for, its Nazi past. Japan is belatedly realising the importance of properly apologising for its wartime atrocities. Turkey wants to be seen as moderate and progressive, fit to be part of Europe, and to that end it has instituted significant social and human rights reforms. But if it is to be permitted to join the EU it must be prepared to own up to its past. As history shows, victims do not forget, and forgiveness is not possible before an acknowledgement of the wrongs committed.

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