by Cem Oguz, head of the Turkish Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The bill approved yesterday by the French Senate that criminalizes the Armenian killings during the 1915 deportation as genocide reminded of an interesting episode that took place in 2007 in Belgium.
Perhaps you will remember: Flemish daily Het Laatste Nieuws published a story in November 2007 that described how Belgian singer Jo Vally, who came to Bodrum to shoot a music clip, was arrested by Turkish police due to suspicions relating to his suitcase and put in a “Turkish prison.” Immediately after the circulation of this news story, the Belgian Foreign Ministry and the Turkish Embassy in Brussels launched an investigation. Much to our surprise, they soon found out that Vally’s story was untrue. It was the singer himself who had fabricated it, with the sole expectation that it would help him promote his forthcoming album.
As a matter of fact, there is a close relationship between the attractiveness of a news story and its level of sensation. It is summed up in the well-known motto, “’Dog bites man’ is not news but a ‘Man bites dog’ is.” Up until recently, the Western media’s approach to Turkey, on the Armenian issue in particular, precisely exemplified that phenomenon. Put more bluntly but ironically, an Armenian killing a Turk was not news in the Western press but a Turk killing an Armenian was.
There are a great variety of reasons behind this double standard, ranging from personal bias to deeply rooted stereotypes with regard to Turks as well as Turkish history. In the 19th century, for instance, it was Abdülhamid II who was vilified in the European and American press as the “Red Sultan,” an image primarily based on distorted press accounts of dramatic events in eastern Anatolia, Crete, and Macedonia. The European dailies of the time were full of news stories regarding how the barbarian and tyrannical Turks were slaughtering the innocent and oppressed Christians.
Do you think that this image of Turks is any different today? Among some European circles, I am afraid to say, it is unfortunately not. Fortunately, the Western media has at least changed its biased attitude, but the Western politicians have become worse. With those who would assert that it is the Turks’ own fault, partially I agree. Nonetheless, a remarkable number of our European friends do not seem to be willing to avoid subjectivity and selectivity in their perceptions with regard to our country. It is explicitly for this reason why Mr. Jo Vally might have thought his story would be swallowed without question. Perhaps, it also is for this reason why Het Laatste Nieuws might have published Vally’s fabricated story, seemingly a new “Midnight Express,” without checking its reliability.
The same line of thinking is valid, as far as the Armenian issue is concerned. Armenian claims are consumed without being questioned, but Turkey’s puny efforts at self-defense are tried to be thwarted with bills such as the one passed in the French Senate. For instance, the events leading to the tragedy Armenians faced was not one-sided. Turks, too, were not immune to mass deportations, killings or having their property confiscated by those who claim to have suffered such atrocities. Sincere “impartial third parties,” may read of the Turks’ own tragedy in Professor Justin McCarthy’s book entitled “Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821-1922.”
Having said that, let’s ask ourselves the simple question, “Are Western politicians like Adam Schiff or Nancy Pelosi, Nicholas Sarkozy or Valerie Boyer, who vote in favor of Armenian genocide bills even aware of realities such as these?
If you ask me, I really doubt that they have even the slightest crumb of information as to what really happened in 1915. Apparently, only bias and ignorance motivate them and Mr. Sarkozy is the new Jo Vally…
C. Cem Oguz This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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