200 TURKISH INTELLECTUALS APOLOGIZE TO ARMENIANS FOR GENOCIDE

200 TURKISH INTELLECTUALS APOLOGIZE TO ARMENIANS FOR GENOCIDE

A group of Turkish intellectuals and academics are planning to issue a public apology for the Armenian Genocide on the Internet. Cengiz Aktar, a professor at Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University, one of the campaign’s initiators, said the group plans to issue the apology Monday along with a non-binding Internet petition to gather signatures, Hurriyet Daily News reports. It will read, “My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that befell the Ottoman Armenians in 1915. I reject this injustice and for my share, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers. I apologize to them.” Turks, including Nobel Literature Laureate Orhan Pamuk, have been prosecuted in the European Union aspirant country for recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Aktar said the initiative was meant to allow Turks to be able to offer a personal apology and put an end to an official silence. “We are not targeting anyone. It is an apology of an individual nature. We want to tell our Armenian brothers and sisters we apologize for not being able to discuss this issue for almost 100 years,” he told Reuters. He said the group included 200 writers, intellectuals and academics. Germany’s Green Party co-chair Cem Ozdemir, journalists Ece Temelkuran, Mine Kirikkanat, Oral Calislar, Ertugrul Kurkcu, director Bars Pirhasan, political scientist Baskin Oran, writers Murathan Mungan, Enis Batur, economists Ahmet Insel, Ayse Bugra, musician Aylin Aslim, actress Derya Alabora, and historians Halil Berkay and Selim Deringil are among the signatories.