DENİZ ARSLAN / ANKARA
Today’s Zaman
The Turkish government’s move this year to invite more than 100 leaders around the world for the centennial commemorations of the Gallipoli Campaign of World War I to be held on the same day as the Armenians’ centennial commemoration of what they call the “Armenian genocide” has been perceived as a crude attempt to distract attention from the Armenian commemorations.
In an attempt to reduce the impact of the centennial commemoration ceremonies of the Armenian “genocide” this year on April 24 in Armenia, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has come up with the idea of celebrating the 100th anniversary of World War I’s Gallipoli Campaign on two-day-long ceremonies on April 23-24.
Turkey traditionally commemorates its fallen soldiers in the Battle of Gallipoli — also known as Çanakkale on March 18 every year. But just two years ago, then-president-Abdullah Gül marked the 98th anniversary of the Çanakkale Battle on March 18 in 2013.
No one in Turkey at the time suggested that the Çanakkale Battle should be remembered on April 24. March 18 is the day the British started its bombardment of the Dardanelles peninsula.
The Gallipoli commemorations will take place on April 23-24 this year for the first time and the Turkish government has sent invitations to more than 100 leaders around the world, whose soldiers fought in World War I, including Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu had to explain last week that other ethnic groups, including Arabs and Armenians also fought at Gallipoli. “We [Turks and Armenians] fought together at Gallipoli. That’s why we have extended the invitation to President Sarksyan as well,” he said.
Speaking to Agos daily after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s invitation to Sarksyan, many Turkish citizens of Armenian descent reacted strongly to Erdoğan’s invitation to Sarksyan, calling it a “joke” and an “ill-mannered” act, and further criticizing it as a “political maneuver.”
In an open letter addressed to President Erdoğan, Sarksyan immediately rejected the invitation to the Gallipoli commemoration ceremonies, adding that the invitation itself shows that Turkey continues to pursue its “denial policy” of the Armenian “genocide.”
Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Center (RSC), an independent think tank in Yerevan, said the timing of the Gallipoli invitation could not have been worse.
“In fact, in what seems to be a rather selective reinterpretation of history, the Turkish government has set the two-day Gallipoli commemoration for April 23-24, in a blatant disregard for the traditional April 24 commemoration of the Armenian genocide,” said Giragosian in an email reply to Today’s Zaman.
Giragosian stated that Erdoğan’s move only triggered an intense negative reaction in Armenia and tended to confirm the perception of Turkey as an “insincere and unreliable interlocutor,” as the timing of the Turkish state commemoration of Gallipoli is viewed as “a crude attempt to distract from and deny the Armenian genocide commemoration.”
Armenia is preparing a wide-scale anniversary ceremony for the 1915 events on April 24 and invited a number of leaders around the world. French President François Hollande and US President Barack Obama are among those invited to Yerevan for the ceremonies in Armenia.
Yerevan commemorates the mass killings of Armenians every April 24 and often use the anniversary as an opportunity to lobby Western countries to brand the killings as genocide. Ankara denies claims that the events of 1915 amounted to genocide, arguing that both Turks and Armenians were killed when Armenians revolted against the Ottoman Empire during World War I in collaboration with the Russian army, which was then invading Eastern Anatolia.
Giragosian pointed out that there are concerns over recent developments in Turkish politics. “For one, the rapid rise of President Erdoğan as the most powerful, but most polarizing politician is a cause for worry. And given his rather unpredictable and inflexible personal posture on many issues, there is concern that he will have and hold too much personal and political power, without due deference to the rule of law or democratic institutions within Turkey,” he said.
“At the same time, the future of both Turkey’s broader regional policy and its more specific policy towards Armenian-Turkish normalization are ever more hostage to the outcome of domestic Turkish politics,” Giragosian added.
Erdoğan’s invitation could be interpreted as an olive branch to Armenia, with which Turkey has no diplomatic relations. But Sarksyan in his letter to Erdoğan last week indicated his doubts about the sincerity of the invitation and expressed his expectation that Turkey will reply first to Armenia as to whether it will attend the ceremonies to commemorate the Armenian “genocide” in Yerevan.
“For his part, the Armenian president had little choice but to reject the invitation,” said Giragosian.
Last year, the Turkish government pulled another trick from its bag, only one day before April 24 to reduce the impact of the April 24 commemorations by Armenia. In a historic first for the Turkish Republic last year, Erdoğan, who was prime minister at the time, extended Turkey’s condolences to the grandchildren of Armenians who had lost their lives in 1915.
The statement, which doesn’t include the word “genocide,” was welcomed by the West and Armenians living in Turkey, but was short of satisfying Yerevan.
Another “olive branch” to Armenians came this week from Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. The prime minister released a statement on Tuesday to commemorate slain Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink eight years ago and called for a new beginning in Turkish-Armenian relations.
He stated that a relocation policy and the events of 1915 took place under the harsh conditions of World War l, and Turkey shares the pain of Armenians.
“Our desire to share pain, heal wounds and re-establish friendships are sincere. Our prospect is friendship and peace,” Davutoğlu said.
Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgiç also denied on Wednesday that Erdoğan’s message for Armenians last year and Davutoğlu’s statement addressed to Armenians are “tactical” steps to reduce the effects of centennial commemorative events of 1915.
Speaking at a press conference on Jan. 21, Bilgiç said that both statements by Erdoğan and Davutoğlu are “sincere.”
Nalbandian: ‘It’s inappropriate’
Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, who was visiting Brussels to attend the Armenia-EU Cooperation Council on Jan. 20, told journalists that it’s not appropriate to organize the Gallipoli commemoration events in Turkey on April 24.
“I don’t think it is appropriate to organize such an event in Turkey on April 24 and I couldn’t believe that anybody could perceive this as a proper step,” said Nalbandian.
He also recalled that the Armenian president had invited Erdoğan to participate in the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian “genocide” in April 2015.
“I conveyed the written invitation to President Erdoğan being in Ankara in August of last year,” said Nalbandian.
He had attended President Erdoğan’s inauguration ceremony in Ankara in late August. “Till now we haven’t received any response,” he added.
The chief spokesman for the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Tigran Mkrtchyan, posted a tweet on Jan. 20, after Davutoğlu’s call for a new beginning with Armenia saying, “How can we speak of a ‘new beginning’ if the starting point is an aggressive denial of the Armenian genocide — a double crime!”
Mkrtchyan also accused Erdoğan of “seeking to keep foreign leaders away from the Armenian commemorations by creating an impromptu — and historically inaccurate — anniversary of his own, “ according to an article by Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty on Jan. 16.