PSU Magazine Winter 1998

Turkish censorship here Portland State ha taken a step toward the obliterati n of hi torical truth with the establishment of a program u ing Turkish government money. The new Turkish Studies Program i an embar– ras ment to the University, not some– thing to be proud of as touted in the fall 1997 PSU Magazine. In December 1986, Hulya Poturoglu of Istanbu l, Turkey, was facing the pro pect of spending four and one-ha lf years in prison. The defendant was charged with the crime of "weakening Turkish national feelings." All Poturoglu had done, as publisher of the Turkish edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, was supply a translation that read, "an Armenian State existed in southern Anatolia in the 11th century." The reality is that Turkish politi– cians and historians want their people and the world to believe that the three– millennium-old nation and homeland of Armenia never ex isted in history. They would have the world believe that Armenia is a figment of the imagi– nation of Armenians who had once lived in "Anatolia" under Ottoman rule and were "deported ... for their own safety." And they would have the world believe that Turkey did not perpetrate the first genocide of the 20th century by massacring 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923 and absorbing their anc ient homeland within the boundaries of present-day Turkey. Since 2 PSU MAGAZINE WI TER 1998 it did not exist, it couldn't disappear, and since Armenians were never a nation, there cou ldn't have been a genocide. Nowadays a new generation of dias– pora Armenians throughout the world understand the "game," as Turkey continue to make way for geopolitical power plays by removing everything Armenian, including a collective memory in the present. Con idering Turkey's gui lt, this is understandable. But what is not under- tandable i the supporting cast of American universities that are further– ing the Turkish aim of revisionism/ denial academic at uch places as Princeton, University of Louisville, and now Portland State University. Unfortunately, the general public and even some academics are unaware that the Armenian experience erved as a blueprint for the Holocaust. Hitler is reported to have said, "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihi lation f the Armenians? The world believes in success alone." Don't expect to learn these truth anytime oon at Portland tate. The agreement it signed with the government of Turkey requires that P U fill a new professor- hip with an individual "whose published work are based upon extensive utilization of archives and libraries in Turkey." As illus– trated with the trial of Hulya Poturoglu, scholars in Turkey must be careful of which truth they choose. ... Turki h censorship of history now extends from the hares of the Bosporu to Oregon. erop Nenejian Portland, Oregon No fit partner for PSU PSU ha accepted $750,000 from the Turki h government to estab lish a Turkish tudies Program. Contrary to enthu iast ' claims, the program po es erious problems f principle, includ– ing cholarly integrity. If conflicts arise ... the Turki h government need only cut acce to Turkish politicians, scho l– ars, busine se , data, and the program wi ll promptly wither. Is ues? Con ider: In 1982 the Turkish government advised the Israeli government that unle the Armenian genocide wa dropped from the agenda of the impending Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide, Jews might not be safe in Turkey. In 1993-96, after Princeton University received $750,000 from the Turks toe tabli ha program and appointed a former Turki h govern– ment publicist to the new professor– ship, 100 scholar and writer , including five genocide experts, denounced Princeton for corrupting scholar hip and becoming a propa– ganda outlet for denial of the Armenian genocide. In July 1997, the U.S.-ba ed Committee to Protect Journalists noted that Turkey had more journalists in jail-78-than any other country. A 1996 Amnesty International briefing on Turkey reports: In 1995-96 the Istanbul police shot 23 demonstra– tors dead and fata lly beat a news photographer; Al has documented torture in Turkey for over 30 years, with more than 400 people reportedly tortured to death while in custody since 1980. Also, in Turkey's war ince 1985 with Kurdi h guerrillas, Human Rights Watch claims the government has perpetrated most of the violence and the victim are mostly Kurdish civil– ian . HRW estimate 19,000 dead, "including some 2,000 death squad killings, two million internally displaced, and more than 2,200 villages destroyed," concluding: "Legally, Turkey i in gro violation of