Commemorations of the Armenian genocide were canceled on Sunday in Turkey due to bans issued by the authorities, as Ankara and Yerevan try to normalize relations.
Two outdoor rallies, one in Ankara and the other in Istanbul, could not have taken place, according to the two Turkish NGOs which had called for them to be held and an AFP journalist present on the spot.
In Istanbul, however, two open-air commemorations took place over the weekend – after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic – one of which was organized by members of the opposition HDP party.
“The police now allow gatherings on the condition that we don’t use the word genocide. But we don’t want to submit to this ban,” Ayse Gunaysu, a member of the Human Rights Association (IHD), told AFP. to be able to do so on public roads.
“Turkish politicians want to silence us. We won’t. We will continue to commemorate our ancestors”, declared Sunday in Istanbul the HDP deputy of Armenian origin Garo Paylan, who tabled this week a law proposal for the recognition of the Armenian genocide.
Perpetrated in 1915 by the Ottoman troops, the genocide of the Armenians is commemorated on April 24, date of the first arrests of Armenian intellectuals, considered as the beginning of the genocide.
A taboo subject for decades in Turkey – which refutes the term genocide and evokes a civil war coupled with famine – the Armenian genocide began to be commemorated by Turkish intellectuals from 2005.
Hundreds of Turks have joined commemorations over the years at various memorial sites in Istanbul, marking their distance from the official position.
Rallies, exhibitions, book presentations and debates on the subject were also held in other cities of the country, from Ankara to Diyarbakir (southeast), tolerated by the authorities despite their constant refusal to recognize the genocide.
The authorities, however, toughened the tone from 2016, banning commemorations in Taksim Square, then in Sultanahmet, two central districts of Istanbul.
“Ignored Sufferings”
For many activists, the process of normalizing relations between Turkey and Armenia, which began in January, has changed nothing.
Recognition of the genocide is not on the menu of discussions between Ankara and Yerevan, which have never established formal diplomatic relations and whose common border has been closed since 1993.
According to observers, the absence of this issue from the menu of the talks could facilitate their progress, because despite progress in society and the messages of condolence presented since 2014 by the Turkish presidency to the descendants of the Armenians killed in 1915, the position of Ankara has not really changed.
“At the time when the April 24 commemorations could be organized more freely, there was another, more democratic atmosphere in the country. This is no longer the case,” says Yetvart Danzikyan, editor-in-chief of Agos, an Istanbul newspaper published in Turkish and Armenian.
The failed putsch of July 2016 against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan resulted in a hardening against opponents.
“There was absolutely no genocide,” hammered this week the director of communication of the Turkish presidency, Fahrettin Altun, who denounced accusations “null and void” against Turkey.
The pro-government newspaper Yeni Akit on Friday described as “shameful” the bill for the recognition of the Armenian genocide tabled by MP Garo Paylan.
“Every April 24, the suffering of my family is ignored. The denial is getting stronger in Turkey in April,” Alin Ozinian, an Armenian journalist from Istanbul, said Saturday in a column published on the online media ArtiGerçek.
Faced with Armenian demonstrators hostile to his visit to Montevideo (Uruguay) on Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu replied with a long smile, before making the rallying sign of the “Grey Wolves”, a Turkish ultranationalist movement associated in the past with numerous political assassinations.