Turkey, the Ottoman Empire, Dead Armenians, and Learning from Mistakes

I went to school in America, so I know about the

• Broken treaties with Indian nations
• Dark days of legalized slavery
• Overthrow of Kamehameha's kingdom
• Atrocities during the War Between the States
• Reconstruction's carpetbaggers
• Relocation camps of WWII
• Micromanaged mess we call the Vietnam War

In the last case, I was around while My Lai (and Watergate) became cultural icons.

That's one reason I'm so glad to be an American. Not what America did wrong: that, as an American citizen, my country made very sure that I knew what America had done wrong.

A Few Armenians Drop Dead, and They Act Like it's Some Big Deal

Around the start of the 20th century, a whole lot of Armenians stopped breathing, rather abruptly in some cases, in and around eastern Turkey. Scholars who study genocides give the Ottoman Empire credit for committing the first big genocide of the 20th century. More followed, making the Ottoman Empire a sort of international trend-setter.

Then, the Ottoman Empire collapsed. Turkey was a mess for a while, until Mustafa Kemal led the country into the current era of comparative peace and stability.

This is important:

• Survivors of the Armenian genocide, who witnessed what the Ottoman Empire did, say that what happened was a genocide
• Scholars who study genocides agree with them
• The Ottoman Empire collapsed generations ago
• Turkey was a mess, until Mustafa Kemal helped create the current government of Turkey
  • Which is not the Ottoman Empire

Given Turkey's history, I can understand - although not approve of - Turkey's blocking YouTube recently. Somebody thought that some video clips on YouTube insulted Mustafa Kemal.

So, Turkey blocked YouTube.

Think of it this way: If you're an American, and a YouTube video insulted (in your opinion) Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, or Harvey Milk, wouldn't you feel an impulse to block YouTube?

Maybe not. America doesn't operate that way, as a rule.

In Turkey, and elsewhere, it's different.

What started this post was a news item about a lawsuit:

"A father is suing the Turkish Education Ministry for forcing his 11-year-old daughter to watch a “racist” and “disturbing” film countering claims that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against Armenians in 1915 with graphic allegations of Armenian atrocities against Turks." (TimesOnline)

That's right, folks: "Armenian atrocities against Turks."

Like the Old South, where dark-skinned people did terrible things to melanin-deficient immigrants.

I'm Not Anti-Turkey, But: Let's Get Real

I think that the post-Ottoman Empire government of Turkey, which isn't the Ottoman Empire at all, is not the worst national government in the world. By far. In fact, given the culture and history of the area, they're doing quite well. Sure, a few Christians get killed here and there (some were involved with printing Bibles, you see), and the odd journalist gets knocked off.

But I'm willing to assume that those incidents are part of what happens when a country is dragged across several centuries, into the the post-eighteenth-century world.

The refusal of Turkey's current government - which is not the Ottoman Empire - to recognize what the Ottoman Empire did to Armenians: that's something else.

But, I'm used to living in America. When we do something stupid, we admit it.

Then, we make learning about what we did wrong part of the curriculum for our educational systems: So we won't do it again.

Related posts:

• "'Towelhead,' 'Retard,' and Talking Sense in a Global Society"
  (February 24, 2009)
• "Guinea, Military Rule, and Terrorism: Beware Hasty Judgment"
  (December 29, 2008)
• "The New York Times, Insularity, and Assumptions"
  (October 21, 2008)
• "United States of America: 232 Years in the Freedom Business"
  (July 3, 2008)
• "Leaky Prisons, Air-Tight Internet: Yemen, Turkey, and the Islamic Way?"
  (May 5, 2008)
• "Japanese Court, Okinawa, Kenzaburo Oe:
  There's a Lesson Here"
  (April 5, 2008)
• "YouTube Banned by Pakistan"
  (February 24, 2008)
• "WWII and Japanese Americans, the War on Terror and Muslims: Learning the Wrong Lesson"
  (February 15, 2008)
• "With Friends Like These, Does Islam Need Enemies?"
  (January 22, 2008)
• "Is the War on Terror a War on Islam? Not Quite"
  (December 8, 2007)
• "Turkey, Iraq, and Kurdistan"
  (October 16, 2007)
• "Fried, Rice Talk Turkey"
  (October 13, 2007)
• "Dead Armenians, Peeved Turks, and Congress"
  (October 11, 2007)

In the news:

• "Father sues Turkish Education Ministry over Armenian 'genocide' DVD"
  TimesOnline.com (February 28, 2009)

Turkey, Iraq, and Kurdistan: Peaceful For Now

A terrorist organization, the PKK, says it's for Kurdish independence, among other things. The PKK has killed a few Turks.

Turkey has reason to be upset. PKK raids have killed 13 Turkish soldiers here, seven Turkish soldiers there.

So, the Turkish parliament gave the okay to invade Iraq on Wednesday of this week. I'm sure they used the proper, diplomatic, euphemism for it: but that's the bottom line. Turkey's Prime Minister says that Turkey will use "common sense" about using the 60,000 troops they've got massed on border with Iraq. (see Turkey, Iraq, and Kurdistan (October 16, 2007))

Turkey says that Iraq should clean up the PKK problem, Iraq says that they're stretched thin already, with terrorists (and crazed security guards) loose on the streets of Baghdad and elsewhere.

So far, Turkey seems to have been using the "common sense" their PM talked about. I hope that situation holds - and that no one in Turkey decides to have a shot at reclaiming the Ottoman province of Kurdistan.

Fried, Rice Talk Turkey

There's no doubt that the U.S. government is taking Turkey seriously.

Both Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and former ambassador to Turkey Eric Edelman and Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Dan Fried have joined Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Turkey. That's a lot of secretaries.

The purpose of the Edelman-Fried-Rice team is over there to talk turkey about the Turkish government about America's use of Turkey's airspace and ground transportation to supply troops in Iraq. That, and the American House of Representatives embarrassing Turkey by reminding the of the Armenian Genocide that Turkey says didn't happen.

On top of logistics and alternative histories, there are the 60,000 or so Turkish troops on the Iraq border. One reasonable explanation is that Turkey wants to, ah, enter Iraq and deal with Kurdish rebels who have been killing Turks. The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, seems to a particularly troublesome group. (The U.S. State Department has declared the Kurdistan Workers' Party to be a terrorist group.)

Turkey says that it's tried to get America and Iraq to take care of the PKK and other annoyances, but is ready to go into Iraq and do the job itself, if necessary. The Iraqi government doesn't see that sort of invasion in a very positive light.

Although it's wildly unlikely to happen, and I don't approve of the PKK, I wouldn't mind seeing Kurdistan become a nation, made up of parts of eastern Turkey, Northern Iraq, and western Iran.

The land of the Kurds is a distinct area where Kurds live. There was a province of Kurdistan in the Ottoman Empire. There would probably be a Kurdistan now, if the allies hadn't been distracted (and, in my opinion, arrogant) when they carved up the Ottoman Empire, and other colonial holdings, after WWI. Actually, a "Kurdistan" was defined, but Mustafa Kemal and company sent troops in, and now we've got today's boundaries.

If you think I'm biased about this, check out the Kurdistan Regional Government website. And remember: Being biased doesn't necessarily mean being wrong.

Back to Turkey

Today, not quite a century later, American officials are dealing with a successor of Mustafa Kemal's bunch, who don't like being reminded of what a previous dynasty did to the Armenians.

What puzzles me most about the current Turkish situation is why the current rulers are so anxious to hush up something done by a previous set of rulers. I'd think that they'd be happy to be able to show how superior they are to the Ottoman Empire.