Oguz Ozge
What really happened to Armenians living under the Ottoman Empire in 1915, during the First World War is a matter of controversy. Armenian diaspora claims that the events of 1915 come within the realms of “genocide”, whereas Turks argue that in no way can those events be considered as such. Until the events of 1915 are legally determined by a competent international court under the 1948 UN Convention on Genocide or the Armenians and Turks come to a reconciliation over the controversy, the issue will remain a contentious one.
In a recent National Times article Professor Colin Tatz apparently sides with the Armenian diaspora against Turkey as far as the events of 1915 are concerned. I do not intend responding to all the spurious arguments by Professor Tatz except for getting one important fact right. Professor Tatz’s claim that “some 26 nation states and more than 50 regional governments, including NSW and South Australia, ‘formally recognise’ the Turkish attempts to annihilate . . .” is misleading. It is a fact that 21 national parliaments and some regional assemblies have so far adopted resolutions favouring the Armenian arguments. The resolutions by legislative bodies are of a political nature and not binding on the governments. Consequently the claim of “formal recognition” by national states is not true and no single government has so far done so. Under what circumstances of wheeling and dealing those resolutions are passed in parliaments need not be elaborated here.
We are convinced that the events of 1915 are not a matter for legislators to consider because we take “genocide” very seriously. That is why we believe that historians from Turkey, Armenia and third countries should come together to ascertain the facts.
Last but not least, I wish to point out that in the past few years new claims have emerged whereby Greeks and Assyrians were also included in the list of victims by the Ottoman Empire. The scope of the so-called “genocide” list has now been further extended so as to cover the Christian population living under the Ottoman Empire. As an extension of that line of thinking it would have been misleading to exclude Anzac soldiers from such list, if the Christians had fallen victim to the so-called “genocide”. That is why a number of persons have very recently started alleging that Anzac prisoners of war were subjected to ill-treatment in camps around Gallipoli. We should not let those ill-founded arguments damage the long relationship that has been forged between Australia and Turkey out of adversity in Gallipoli.
Oguz Ozge is the Turkish Ambassador to Australia.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/turkish-ambassador-responds-to-professor-tatz-20101116-17ux1.html, November 16, 2010
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