My wife and I lived in Turkey for about a year. It is a beautiful European-Asian country. It’s people are welcoming, it’s cuisine is remarkable and it’s religious tolerance is an exemplar (the first friends we made in Istanbul were Turkish Jews, descendants of 15th century refugees from Christian Spain). Turkish is a sophisticated world-language whose range extends from the far West of China right up to the East of Europe; Turkish literature, art and music are all important elements of world-civilisation.
And there’s another plus – the wine is very drinkable. This country demonstrates what modern, secular Islam can be. I am even impressed at the recent election of a more conservative Muslim as President – I am sure he will be true to the secular spirit of Ataturk while trying to encourage people to adhere to the positive moral values of the Quran. You see, Turkey is mature; it will swing, of course (every country does), but it will swing within tolerable limits and it will remain true to itself and its values. This is the country of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver. It is the country of Ataturk. It is also the country of Orham Pamuk, Nobel Prize winner. It is Turkey the Brave and Turkey the Wise. Of course it’s got problems, who doesn’t?
About a hundred years ago something pretty terrible happened in Armenia. I don’t know who is responsible and I don’t know exactly what happened; a lot of people did die, I don’t think anyone serious disputes this. What I do know is that I don’t know a Turk today who would either endorse or encourage anything like this. That the current Government of Turkey does not wish to apologise because it contests the causes and the detail of the event is probably more of a contemporary political problem than anything to do with Armenia or what happened a century ago.
Here in England there has been a brouhaha over a proposal that the City of Bristol should formally apologise for it’s role in the slave trade – the source of much of the city’s wealth. They didn’t actually kill them (most of the time), but the slavers were complicit in a terrible evil that puts the Holocaust and Armenia in the shade. This cool Sunday morning I rode my bike down to the Imperial and Commonwealth Museum – an institution that tries to present a balanced view of some 400 years of British international policy. This year is the anniversary of Wilberforce’s historic success in getting the British to act against what many thought was their own self-interest and outlaw the slave trade. Before the terrible business was finally ended, though, some 24 million Africans were ripped from their homes and crammed into stinking, fetid, rocking ships that carried them into exile and life-long captivity. Of those 24 million, however, 12 million were murdered by the system itself before they ever formally became slaves, they were just poor kidnapped wretches who died.
Maybe we ought to clean up our own past before we clean up anybody else’s?
However, before I'm misinterpreted, let me be clear that I'm absolutely not advocating that we ought in any way to ignore any contemporary act of inhumanity, anywhere. I'm not even saying we should not study and learn from our past. Far from it! We must behave morally now and do what is right for humanity now. We ought to aim to be the first generation that no one in the future will have to apologise for. However awkward the structure of that sentence, that’s a pretty admirable objective, isn’t it?
But, as always, I digress. I was talking about Turkey, not about slavery and how Bristol got rich. Moving on, and this is not a non-sequitur: I want to point out that Tom Lantos is behaving stupidly. This US Congressman from California has decided that he ought to be one of the sponsors of a resolution in the US Congress that condemns Turkey for the Armenian Genocide a hundred years ago.
Amazingly, Lantos has decided to do this in the middle of a war when Turkey, one of our best and most loyal allies, is supporting our troops and giving us access to facilities in their country that are critical to our war effort. Turkey has even shown remarkable forbearance in the face of growing cross-border attacks by Kurdish terrorists (both the US and the UK have listed the PKK as a terrorist organisation). At the specific request of the US, they have not moved their very capable military across the frontier. They have given the US a chance to get an administration up and running in northern Turkey that might be able to control the PKK and bring peace to that troubled border. US policy is failing, mainly because the Iraqi Governemnt is weak, incompetent and corrupt. The Iraqi side of the frontier with Turkey is, essentially, no-man’s land and the PKK is running wild.
So Turkish soldiers and civilians have been murdered as a result of PKK terrorist incursions from the Iraqi side of the border. The US and Iraqi forces have not been able to prevent this – there are too few Americans and the Iraqis are not capable. So, to protect its citizens, the Turks have prepared to cross the border and take care of business. Frankly, I can’t blame them.
So, Tom Lantos and all you other idiots in Congress, please think these things through. Stop behaving stupidly! Why don’t you pass a resolution thanking Turkey for half a century or more as a loyal and brave ally? Why not speak up about the suffering of innocent Turks today? If you want the Turks to behave with restraint, you ought to treat them respectfully as serious and mature partners, not as some sordid, petty 3rd world bully – something they most definitely are not!
By the way, I have to declare my interest a bit further; it doesn't make me biased, it makes me more balanced, unlike Mr. Lantos. When I lived in Turkey I made a lot of Turkish friends, including Jews, Armenians and Greeks – all of them Turks! My daughter’s god-parents are Turks, Muslim Turks. Their values, their understanding, their compassion and their wisdom would do credit to any peace-loving, tolerant religion, anywhere! I am grateful for their friendship and the love they have given Alex – indeed, to all of us!
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