On Hrant Dink’s karasoonk, no more business as usual

Published: Saturday March 10, 2007

The traditional 40 days of mourning have elapsed since the assassination of Hrant Dink on January 19 in Istanbul .

The murder shocked and outraged people around the world: Armenians and Turks, journalists and free-speech advocates. The reaction of Turkish civil society was remarkable: there were massive demonstrations and days of soul-searching in the media. The Turkish government condemned the murder and moved quickly to make arrests and to sack certain officials. Foreign governments, including the United States State Department, also condemned the murder.

This shock, outrage, and condemnation have all too soon given way to complacency and business as usual.

At the 40th-day memorial service in Istanbul, Patriarch Mesrob II rightly lamented, " the real inciters of this assassination have not been found."

The government has made arrests, but it has failed to arrest anyone beyond a motley collection of ultranationalists who are widely believed to enjoy the continued support and encouragement of senior representatives of the Turkish Deep State.

Indeed, the elected government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has been unwilling or afraid to confront the unelected military figures, civil servants, power brokers, and assorted shady characters who constitute the Turkish Deep State.

The government has even failed to make good on promises to repeal Article 301 and other laws that criminalize free speech under chillingly broad notions such as "insulting Turkishness."

On the contrary, it has allowed the prosecution of journalists, authors, and other intellectuals to continue.

The tragedy of Mr. Dink's murder was also a golden opportunity to begin a new era of Turkish-Armenian relations. Instead of seizing that opportunity, the Turkish government has gone back to business as usual.

It has dispatched wave after wave of high-level officials - including the foreign minister, the Armed Forces chief of staff, and members of parliament - to Washington to vigorously oppose the Armenian Genocide resolution pending before the House of Representatives.

These officials alternate between denying the Armenian Genocide and threatening the United States with diplomatic, military, and economic retribution should Congress proceed with proper acknowledgement of this crime against humanity.

It is also business as usual for senior State Department officials who had only 40 days ago called upon the Turkish government to deal with the policies and laws that made this despicable crime possible.

Not to be outdone by their Turkish counterparts, American officials have repeatedly pledged to Turkey that they will try to block the Armenian Genocide resolution. They alternate between claims that the resolution is against U.S. national interests, that it would cause US-Turkey relations to deteriorate, or that it would cloud the prospects of the Turkish ruling party to remain in power.

It is also business as usual for Turkish-American activists, who have mobilized against the Armenian Genocide resolution, in denial of the historical truth and in furtherance of the appalling intolerance of their ancestral homeland.

Tragically, it is not business as usual for Turkey's free-speech advocates, some of whom fled their homeland, cancelled public-speaking appearances around the world, and muted their voices. There were so many death threats against Turkey's intellectuals, publishers, and writers that scores were afforded police protection.

Most assuredly it cannot be business as usual for the Armenian-American community and Armenia's authorities. Armenian Americans have asked the House of Representatives to pass a resolution reaffirming the Armenian Genocide. Our friends in Congress have introduced H.Res.106. Turkey is responding in full force. The State Department is helping Turkey. We cannot be complacent.

We Armenian-Americans must redouble our work with Congress now - and continuously - until the House of Representatives passes the Armenian Genocide resolution.

Let us make ourselves heard! H.Res.106 has 180 Republican and Democratic cosponsors. They need to know that we support their action. Meanwhile, the remaining members of Congress need to hear their constituents urge them to cosponsor the resolution and support it. Contact your representative preferably by phone, by mail, or by fax. Contact information appears below.

We must also let Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice know that we expect much more from our State Department: it should defend the truth about the Armenian Genocide as part of American as well as Armenian history; it should rebuke Turkey for threatening America; it should not undermine but support the growing, progressive movement in Turkey that is willing to confront that nation's genocidal legacy and contemporary intolerance. Contact information for Secretary Rice appears below.