Translated by the Zoryan Institute

I will describe an incident on Saturday, February 5, at a conference about the “Armenian Problem,” which took place at the Yapi Kredi Cultural Center, organized by the Helsinki Citizens’ Committee. The purpose of the conference was to find means to solve the “problem”, to make it normal, or to discuss it as civilized human beings. Historian Mete Tunçay and Fethiye Çetin, the author-lawyer whose biographical book My Grandmother was recently published, gave speeches.

Mete Tuncay explained the various theses, writings and meetings concerning Turkey and the Armenian Question in recent years. He spoke very calmly…and then he gave his personal opinion about the subject, which is as follows: While the Turkish Republic completely rejects the negative heritage of the Ottoman Empire, it adopts and owns the Ottoman’s stance in the Armenian Genocide issue, mainly because of the new republic founders’ gains of Armenians’ property and possessions, as well as their concern in preserving their new-found wealth. It is meaningless to debate whether a genocide took place or not, and equally meaningless for the parliaments of other countries to recognize the genocide, when neither Armenia nor Turkey are ready to discuss this subject.

Fethiye Çetin spoke about two different issues. First, she explained the continuing bias and discrimination against Armenians in the legal and education fields. Secondly, she expressed her feelings and Turkish Armenians’ feelings about the subject of her new book, her grandmother, who revealed just before she died that she was an Armenian rescued by a Turkish sergeant during the massacres. She also spoke very calmly…and she finished her remarks by expressing her hope that the ‘genocide’ discussions would be replaced by a bit of empathy for the Armenians’ sorrows.

Soon after Mete Tunçay began his speech, someone from the audience, who claimed to be an ‘historian’ and a member of Aydınlar Ocağı (“Society of Intellectuals”), interrupted Tunçay with remarks such as “you are wrong, it is not true.” Then, a second person, whose name we discovered afterwards to be Ramazan Bakkal began interrupting the speech. Mete Tunçay suggested that Bakkal should step forward and join the lines at the podium, but Bakkal preferred to sit in the audience and continue interrupting from there.

The tension in the conference hall began to increase. As the “corrections” and “warnings” of Bakkal became increasingly disruptive, the audience repeatedly requested Bakkal’s removal, so that they could follow the speakers. The Yapi Kredi security guards invited Bakkal to leave the hall and Bakkal started raging.

A brief background note. Apparently Bakkal is an “important person.” According to his own account, he is a former Turkish state radio producer, a founder of ASAM, a director of Turkish Public Community Committees and an editor of Strategic Analysis Magazine, that is, a rather “intellectual” person. That is why he felt he had the right to interrupt this conference. In addition, he has had another “heroic” incident recently. In December 2004, when EU Parliament’s President, Joseph Barrel, indicated his desire to meet Leyla Zana in Diyarbakir during a meeting organized by TOBB and IKV, Bakkal had similar actions and remarks, such as, “I will teach him a lesson that he deserves;” “I will not allow you to go to Diyarbakir;” “I will not allow division of Turkey.” Lots of swearing, pushing and shoving and being ejected by hotel security guards. (For more comments and two different interpretations of this incident, please visit www.bbp.org.tr, Funda Ozkan’s December 7, 2004 news item in the daily newspaper, Radikal: www.radikal.com.tr)

So Ramazan Bakkal is a professional and national “conference protester.” But perhaps due to the less professional conduct of the HYD conference security guards, Mr. Bakkal’s fists were more effective this time. As far as I could see, he managed to slap one woman in the audience, knock out another man trying to prevent him from attacking Tunçay, to hurl a large plastic sign at Tunçay, to hurl a bottle at a security guard. He gave an excellent performance…

Anyway, even though the security guards took him out of the conference room, he managed to come in again (escorted by a policeman somehow)…During the question period, he and another elderly person from the “Society of Intellectuals,” Aydınlar Ocağı, had long tirades with statements like, “The Turkish nation is the most tolerant and understanding people but beware not to wear out their patience,” or “if you betray us, we will do the same again” and they did their duty of “warning….”

Some urban and modern ladies among the audience also complained to the conference speakers by asking, “Why do you bring up these subjects? What will you achieve? Don’t talk about it anymore, let’s forget about the past.”

At the end, despite the violent and disrespectful persons, despite the professional conference protesters’ actions and the tension created, despite the people who would have preferred if this conference had never taken place (I wonder why they came if they did not what the conference), the conference ended with prolonged applause.

The incidents that took place at this conference, the “EU Minority Report,” which was torn up during a previous presentation, indicates an extraordinary fear and paranoia. Paranoia, fed by fear, is now feeding a hatred which is spreading fear everywhere. Paranoid persons are so full of violence…and they justify their violence by saying “We won’t allow this in our homeland!” As if being patriotic is only in their domain…

“Violence” is not only in conferences but also in literature, even in simple poems that have become monuments of hatred built with words and letters. For example, schoolbooks or supplementary educational books prepared by Turkish Science Academy and Historical Society are full of racist literature. There is a poetry book in the 1998 edition of the Turkish Literature Series published by the National Education Ministry. The book, titled On This Road, is authored by a poet named Yunus Zeyrek. Here is an excerpt:

“The world did not witness such dishonor,
The Armenian from the Stone Age,
You have no good traits, the pen gets broken.
From wherever you look, the Armenian snake.”