http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/17/france-armenia-genocide-bill_n_1155299.html?ref=world
History is riling up the Turks again as France moves to make denial of the Ottoman Empire's destruction of the Armenians a crime on the same level as Holocaust Denial.
On the one hand, I don't feel it's right for people to be prosecuted as criminals for being woefully, tragically misinformed for the sake of their ethnic pride. (Furthermore, this denial isn't an idea they latched on to because they hate Armenians. It's been taught to them as true history since birth, a historical fallacy that became fact for a people.)
I suppose a similar bill in America would be making it a crime to deny slavery or the wars and injustices against the native Americans, or maybe making trutherism or birtherism a crime. Unless there are threats, violence or incitement to violence in their denials, education is the best forward.
While it's certainly satisfying on the face of it to see Turkey again challenged on its tragically ahistorical and heartless denial of the Ottoman Empire's treatment of Anatolia's minorities (and by a big player like France), this seems ultimately counterproductive to me. Being called the children of genocidaires by outsiders (and by a country with a history as checkered as France's) is likely to lead to a bunker mentality that will make it even harder for them to look clearly at the past, and make it easier for them deal resolutely with internal voices of dissent.
Improving relations with Turkey and using that relationship to foster greater freedom of expression and create an environment where history can be discussed without fear of "insulting Turkishness" could be a much more effective route to synching Turkey historically with the rest of the world than criminalizing people for repeating falsehoods they've been told since youth.
History is riling up the Turks again as France moves to make denial of the Ottoman Empire's destruction of the Armenians a crime on the same level as Holocaust Denial.
On the one hand, I don't feel it's right for people to be prosecuted as criminals for being woefully, tragically misinformed for the sake of their ethnic pride. (Furthermore, this denial isn't an idea they latched on to because they hate Armenians. It's been taught to them as true history since birth, a historical fallacy that became fact for a people.)
I suppose a similar bill in America would be making it a crime to deny slavery or the wars and injustices against the native Americans, or maybe making trutherism or birtherism a crime. Unless there are threats, violence or incitement to violence in their denials, education is the best forward.
While it's certainly satisfying on the face of it to see Turkey again challenged on its tragically ahistorical and heartless denial of the Ottoman Empire's treatment of Anatolia's minorities (and by a big player like France), this seems ultimately counterproductive to me. Being called the children of genocidaires by outsiders (and by a country with a history as checkered as France's) is likely to lead to a bunker mentality that will make it even harder for them to look clearly at the past, and make it easier for them deal resolutely with internal voices of dissent.
Improving relations with Turkey and using that relationship to foster greater freedom of expression and create an environment where history can be discussed without fear of "insulting Turkishness" could be a much more effective route to synching Turkey historically with the rest of the world than criminalizing people for repeating falsehoods they've been told since youth.
