The Bastard of Istanbul (Review by Nouritza Matossian)

At last a contemporary novel tackles the greatest taboo in modern Turkey: official denial of the 1915 Armenian genocide – the 20th century’s first holocaust – and its legacy.

Elif Shafak spent her childhood abroad, free from the Turkish school force-feeding of nationalist history that robbed generations of a balanced perspective. Years later, teaching in Arizona, she and other Turkish intellectuals became involved in a new civil-rights movement which put recognition of the genocide at its centre.

A prolific author in a magic realist genre, in The Bastard of Istanbul Shafak offers a social saga about two families, one in Istanbul and the other in Arizona as they discover shocking truths about themselves. They expose the rifts and lies of an establishment in denial of the country’s multi-ethnic past.

Shafak wrote the book in an optimistic era when the government courted candidature to the European Union and many of the estimated two million grandchildren of Armenians who were orphaned, abducted and converted to Islam “came out”.

For smashing old taboos, 60 writers and publishers received death threats and charges of “insulting Turkishness” – most prominently Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk, and later Shafak. Both were acquitted. Turkey closed ranks around its darlings. But for Armenians, as ever, there was no salvation. Outspoken liberal Armenian editor, Hrant Dink, was thrown to the wolves. Shafak’s novel was conceived before his assassination in January this year.

This makes Shafak’s voice all the more remarkable. For Turkish readers she provides vital missing historical background – although discrimination against present-day Armenians in Turkey is not portrayed. “Being a bastard is less about having no father than having no past...” says Asya, the “bastard” of the title. She shares her lack of past with the author, who grew up without her father, and with Turkey, whose history has been falsified.

Asya’s cursed family is all female, except for the favoured brother who skipped it to America and got entangled with an Armenian family mirroring the Turkish one. When his stepdaughter Armanoush unexpectedly visits Istanbul, the two girls unearth much common heritage as well as divergences.

Hidden historical events are revealed, notably the assassination of the Armenian intelligentsia on April 24, 1915, which heralded the Ottoman government’s mass extermination of at least one and a half million.

Armanoush speaks out. Outworn denialist arguments ricochet, exploding in a cafe-fight: “It was a time of war.” “Turks suffered too.” The most touching passages are based on first-hand survivor accounts – for example, that of Grandmother Shushan, who abandons her Muslim child in Turkey to join her family in San Francisco.

Satirical and gutsy, Shafak brings her unique spark of humorous parody to all who wish to understand the modern Turkish psyche, or gain insight into the political and ethical turmoil on Europe’s threshold.

Nouritza Matossian is author of ‘Black Angel: A Life of Arshile Gorky’ (Chatto and Windus).

Turkish MP speaks on the Armenian Genocide

For the first time in history a member of the Turkish parliament recognized the Armenian Genocide and spoke of restitution of the despoiled property, independent French journalist Jean Eckian told PanARMENIAN.Net.

In an interview with journalist Raffí Arax recently, Turkish MP Mehmet Ufuk Uras said, "We committed a terrible massacre against Armenians and Turkey must recognize it. It's not important how we name this calamity: genocide, ethnic purification, etc. The most important thing is that a terrible massacre was committed and it is undeniable.'

`We must face up to the history, bandage the wounds, develop the relations with Armenia, defend our Armenian compatriots and restore what was the property of their ancestors. I come from the area of Durig close to Sebastia where I heard the truth from my parents,' he said.

`We are confident that with the negationism will drive to nothing,' he resumed.

The Armenian community of Istanbul endorsed Uras at the recent parliamentary elections.

Unveilingof the Welsh National Monument to the Armenian Genocide

Dedication of khachkar (stone cross) on 3 November 2007 at the Temple of Peace, Cardiff

The historic consecration of a khatchkar will take place in Cardiff, in the presence of dignitaries and communities from three countries, at 1pm on Saturday 3 November 2007.

Wales has distinguished itself by being the first country within the UK to recognise the Armenian Genocide at both national and regional levels.

This event is unique for a number of reasons.

This is the first time a plot of land has been allocated in a public area within the UK for a memorial to the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

The stone is Welsh, the design is Armenian, the stonemason is Welsh and the inscription is by the hand of a Bishop of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

The commemorative words are in Welsh, Armenian and English.

The religious dedication will be performed by H.G. Bishop Nathan Hovhannisian with supporting clergy and choir.

This will be followed by a reception in the Temple of Peace in whose grounds the khachkar will be located.

The Armenian Genocide Trust is proud to be associated with the Wales-Armenia Solidarity.

Letter of Baroness Cox to the Editor of The Independent

The Editor
The Independent
August 30 2007

Dear Sir,

I have always appreciated the integrity of Robert Fisk’s analysis of the genocide of the Armenians by Turkey in 1915: his well-informed argumentation has been incontrovertible and important – for every genocide which is not acknowledged not only prevents healing for the survivors but is also an encouragement to potential perpetrators of other genocides.

However, I must challenge the grossly inaccurate analogy between the Armenian genocide and the recent war in the predominantly Armenian enclave of Nagorno Karabakh. The Armenians were not the aggressors: Azerbaijan initiated a self-avowed policy, ‘Operation Ring’, of ethnic cleansing of the Armenians who live in this historically Armenian enclave, given by Stalin to Azerbaijan.

I have visited the region 63 times since Azerbaijan carried out massacres of Armenians in Baku and Sumgait in the late 1980s and then unleashed full-scale war against the 150,000 civilians in the enclave. In July 1991, I visited Azerbaijan, with an international group of independent human rights experts, to ascertain the Azeri viewpoint. We were left in no doubt of their policy of intended ethnic cleansing of all Armenians from Karabakh – a policy subsequently publicly affirmed by successive Azeri Presidents and senior politicians. I was in Karabakh virtually every month during the height of the war; I counted 400 ‘Grad’ missiles a day fired by Azeris on the capital city, Stepanakert; I witnessed aerial bombardment and the use of cluster bombs on civilian targets and massacres of indescribable brutality – documented irrefutably in our publication ‘Ethnic Cleansing in Progress: The War in Nagorno Karabakh’.

It would be a great pity if Robert Fisk were to lose credibility of his main thesis by such an inappropriate comparison.

The Baroness Cox

Turkey on the edge (Congressman Edward Royce)

As a member of NATO and a rare Middle Eastern democracy, Turkey has had a special place in geopolitics. In a region hostile to the idea of separation of church and state, Turkey has been the exception.

While Turkey's experience with democracy and secularism has been tumultuous, recent events are jarring, including its attack on the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Efforts to elect Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as Turkey's next President troubled secular Turks, many of whom took to the streets.

Seen as someone who would turn back the clock on secular reforms, from sexual equality to consuming alcohol, they are right to be wary.

The origins of Gul's ruling AKP party are in fundamentalist Islam.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan's political mentor and former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan came to power promising to "rescue Turkey from the unbelievers of Europe" and to launch a jihad against Jerusalem. The AKP, some say, has overcome these sentiments, but caution is in order.

The steady rise of a radical brand of Sunni Islam in Turkey is cause for concern. Islamic brotherhoods, such as the Nurcu and the Fettullahci, have used loopholes in secular law to set up extensive private educational systems. These organizations span from preparatory schools, to universities, to business schools, molding much of the leading cultural power, both at the popular and intellectual level. Many secularists believe that these schools are the madrassas of Turkey, and fear that they may be a Trojan horse for radical Islam. Unqualified madrassa graduates are taking up positions in the Turkish civil service.

Religious intolerance seems to have reached new levels in Turkey, as evidenced by massive protests to the Pope's November visit. In the wake of his controversial comments on the nature of Islam, tens of thousands of Turks rallied against the Pope. So vehement were these protests that the Turkish government deployed 4,000 policemen backed by riot trucks, helicopters, and armored vehicles.

The Ecumenical Patriarch has long been subjected to Turkish misdeeds.

Turkey is the only country not to recognize the 2,000-year-old spiritual beacon to millions of Orthodox Christians. Furthermore, Ankara's demand that the Ecumenical Patriarch be a Turkish citizen threatens the very institution, as less than 2,500 Greek Orthodox citizens of Turkey remain, most of them elderly.

The Armenian Patriarchs of Istanbul endure similar hardships, having to abide by the same restrictions for their religious appointments to the Patriarchal see. The Armenian Orthodox community, the largest Christian community in Turkey comprising of 70,000 citizens, today has only 5 Armenian Apostolic priests and 2 Archbishops to oversee the spiritual guidance of its 38 working Armenian churches throughout Turkey. While Turkish authorities deny governmental interference in religious matters, the closure of theological seminaries in 1969 has continued to take its toll on the Armenian Patriarch's ability to find clergymen who meet the criteria set forth by the Turkish government. Unless Turkey changes its policies, the Patriarchs and their respected Christian communities will disappear in the foreseeable future.

In response to these affronts, I, along with several other members of Congress, signed a letter to Turkish President Erdoðan urging him to end his limits on religious freedom regarding the Ecumenical Patriarch. The practices of the Turkish government, as we expressed to the President, "clearly reflect (his) policy of viewing the Ecumenical Patriarchate as a strictly Turkish institution, when in fact it provides spiritual and moral guidance for millions of believers worldwide." Congress isn't alone in its scrutiny of Turkish repression. The State Department's 2007 Report on Human Rights cites Turkey's denial of the Ecumenical Patriarchs request to reopen the Halki seminary on the island of Heybeli, which was closed in 1971 when it nationalized all private institutes of higher education. If Turkey is to remain a secular state, it must make serious efforts to stop such behavior, and Congress must continue to press Turkey to follow a path to religious tolerance of peaceful minorities.

Congressman Edward R. Royce is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade.

Robert Fisk: The forgotten holocaust

The killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks during the First World War remains one of the bloodiest and most contentious episodes of the 20th century. Robert Fisk visits Yerevan, and unearths hitherto unpublished images of the first modern genocide.

The photographs, never before published, capture the horrors of the first Holocaust of the 20th century. They show a frightened people on the move – men, women and children, some with animals, others on foot, walking over open ground outside the city of Erzerum in 1915, at the beginning of their death march. We know that none of the Armenians sent from Erzerum – in what is today north-eastern Turkey – survived. Most of the men were shot, the children – including, no doubt, the young boy or girl with a headscarf in the close-up photograph – died of starvation or disease. The young women were almost all raped, the older women beaten to death, the sick and babies left by the road to die.

The forgotten Holocaust: The Armenian massacre that inspired Hitler (Daily Mail)

" When the Turkish gendarmes came for Mugrditch Nazarian, they did not give him time to dress, but took him from his home in the dead of night in his pyjamas.

The year was 1915, and his wife, Varter, knew that she was unlikely to see her husband alive again. Armenian men like him were being rounded up and taken away. In the words of their persecutors, they were being "deported" - but not to an earthly place.

Varter never found out what fate her husband suffered. Some said he was shot, others that he was among the men held in jail, who suffered torture so unbearable that they poured the kerosene from prison lamps over their heads and turned themselves into human pyres as a release from the agony.

Heavily pregnant, Varter was ordered to join a death convoy marching women and children to desert concentration camps. "

Taner Akcam on the Armenian Genocide (BBC)

In a HardTalk interview first broadcast on 29 August 2007, Stephen Sackur talks to the Turkish writer and historian, Taner Akcam.

Turkey's new president, Abdullah Gul, is a devout Muslim.

His success is proof that Islam and democracy can and do mix.

But there are powerful forces in Turkey with many in military uniform who see Gul's elevation as a threat to secular-nationalist values.

Taner Akcam, a Turkish historian, has experienced prison and exile at the hands of those forces.

He tells Stephen Sackur that Ankara's commitment to human rights and democracy has still to be tested.