Deniz Bolukbasi claims that in Turkey there is an Armenian lobby and a campaign of apology forms a part of their objectives.
A group of retired Turkish ambassadors signed a declaration on Monday urging intellectuals Baskin Oran, Ahmet Insel and Ali Bayramoglu, who had recently launched a campaign to apologize for the Ottoman killings of Armenians in 1915, "not to be a part of an insidious plan against Turkish national interests." Recently, some Turkish intellectuals began to collect signatures for a statement that contained a personal apology for the events of 1915, which the Armenian claims of genocide are based on.
"My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in 1915. I reject this injustice and for my part, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers. I apologize to them," the intellectuals' statement said. But the group of retired diplomats, which includes former Foreign Ministry undersecretaries Korkmaz Haktanir, Sukru Elekdag and Onur Oymen, in a counter-declaration stressed that the move was a "disrespectful act toward Turkish history and its martyrs."
"Such a wrong and unilateral initiative is disrespectful to our history and also to our people who lost their lives in violent terrorist attacks during the history of the republic and during the last years of the Ottoman Empire," the declaration stated. The diplomats' declaration made a point of mentioning the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) in which 70 people, including five ambassadors, four consul generals and 34 public workers, lost their lives and 574 people were wounded. It further claimed that "concessions such as unilateral apologies" do not serve the aim of improving relations between Armenia and Turkey.
"If the aim is to improve relations between Turkey and Armenia and come closer, the proper way to do this is not to make concessions such as unilateral apologies, but to mutually recognize borders and territorial integrity and it will be inevitable that we will share the pain that both sides suffered during history," the declaration claimed, and added, "Otherwise unilateral acts like apologizing will be wrong, against the facts of history and will have grave consequences."
The diplomats underlined that the forced immigration of Armenians in 1915 had "bitter results" under war conditions, "but the pain of the Turks were no less than that of the Armenians due to the Armenian insurgency and terrorism," the diplomats claimed. "First of all, Armenians who have killed innocent Turkish diplomats, public servants and their families in the recent past should apologize to the Turkish nation. These killers are still alive and unpunished as they have been protected by Armenia and some other countries," the declaration noted. The diplomats also claimed that the apology was the second phase of a plan, the first phase of which was to influence world opinion with terrorist attacks. They claimed that they are aware of the third phase of plan, which is to demand compensation and make territorial claims.
The other diplomats who signed the declaration include former Foreign Ministry spokesmen Necati Utkan and Omer Akbel. It was also signed by former Ambassadors Akin Alp Tuna, Ertugrul Ciragan, Onur Oymen, Candan Azer and Gun Gur, together with some others. The retired Ambassadors are supported by Oktay Vural, the deputy chairman of the parliamentary group of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), who said the retired ambassadors had done the right thing but interestingly the Foreign Ministry had kept quiet.
Former ambassador and now-MHP deputy Deniz Bolukbasi claimed that in Turkey there is an Armenian lobby and a campaign of apology forms a part of their objectives. "Who is apologizing for who? If there is anyone who should apologize, it should be the intellectuals and Armenians. They should apologize to the thousands of Anatolian people who suffered the Armenian atrocities. Are these intellectuals apologizing to the Armenian terrorists who killed Turkish diplomats and are still living in Armenia?" Bolukbasi asked.
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