There is something I have difficulty understanding. You, who have put an end to ninety-five years of the “there are no Kurds, they’re just Turks who wander around the mountains” lying policies by the state; who have removed the military’s guardianship over politics, the same military that since the beginning of this Republic has decided who lived and who died and that initiated coups at the drop of a hat; how is it that you who have made such important inroads into this democracy insist on continuing the ninety-five years of denialist policies when it comes to the subject of 1915?

All of us believed that when you signed those protocols with Armenia in October 2009, the ninety-five years of lies surrounding 1915 were coming to an end, just as they had on the Kurdish issue. Could it be that when you signed those protocols you believed that you were going to come to a resolution while you continued the ninety-five year old policies of denial? Doesn’t seem possible….Could you have found a way out of the Kurdish problem by continuing to insist that “There are no Kurds, they’re just Turks who wander around mountains”? If you had stayed loyal to the logic of the problem solving methods of the military when it came to the Kurds, whereby they were equated with terrorist organizations, treating the Kurds as “nails” and the military as the “hammer,” would you have found a way out of the impasse?

Well, it seems to appear that you seriously think you are going to find a resolution to the Armenian problem by continuing the ninety-five year old lie. Anyone opposing this view on the Armenian issue is the “nail” and you are the “hammer”….trying to intimidate the U.S., posturing like a bully…is this how you’re going to remove a ninety-five year old gangrene? Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. Arınç, if it could have been fixed this way, don’t you think it would have been, long ago? Heck, who even needs you then…Şükrü Elekdağ [the former Turkish ambassador to the U.S.] would have fixed it; Veli Küçük [a retired major general linked to Hrant Dink’s assassination] would have found a neat solution…right?

So, what happens if tomorrow Obama decides it’s time to call your bluff and gives you a taste of your own medicine? What if he comes out with a statement saying “You want to shut me up or get me to tell a lie by threatening me! You’re trying to force me to deny what I believe to be true with threats! Shame on you! Aren’t you the slightest bit embarrassed to be threatening me like that? I’m not lying any more….I am going to state what I believe about 1915. It was genocide.” What are you going to do then? Continue to article by Taner Akçam in the History News Network