Monday, April 20 2015 07:37

 Nils Muiznieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, has published human rights comments "Armenian-Turkish Reconnections and Human Rights" on the CoE website. 

"The deportation and massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman authorities was a massive violation of human rights,"  Muiznieks writes. "April 24 marks the centennial of the beginning of the mass killings, deportations and dispossession of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, which resulted in the near-total elimination of Armenians from Anatolia. These massive human rights violations and their painful legacy left a major rift between two societies, which has crystallised around the issue of their political and legal designation as genocide."

The human right commissioner asks rhetorically whether the perpetrators are condemned and crimes are acknowledged. "Or are they ignored, downplayed, justified, or even glorified?" Nevertheless, he welcomes any steps towards reconciliation. "... it is heartening to see that today many people are seeking to overcome this difficult legacy and to promote mutual understanding, reconciliation and the reconstruction of a shared history, demonstrating a true human rights ethos." Further in the comments Muiznieks writes: "Discussion in Turkey of what was sometimes euphemistically called the "1915 Events" was long taboo or even subject to criminal prosecution under the offense of "insulting Turkishness". In recent years, prosecutions under this article have become more infrequent and a space for discussion has emerged. This space has been created by a number of concurrent developments, particularly increased contacts between Turks and Armenians and domestic Turkish political and cultural evolution."

"Though the land border remains closed, nationals of both countries have enjoyed relatively free travel to the neighbouring country.  As a result, the number of Armenian nationals entering Turkey increased from less than 5,500 in 2000 to more than 73,000 in 2013. In 2011 the Turkish authorities even granted special permission for migrant children of Armenian nationality to attend the schools of the Turkish Armenian minority. While many Armenians seek informal work in the Turkish economy, others (from both Armenia and the diaspora) have increasingly travelled to Turkey to reconnect with their roots by visiting their ancestors' places of origin and the descendants of family members who stayed during and after World War I."

"At the same time, the debate within Turkey about the past has evolved considerably. While an academic conference in Istanbul was a watershed in 2005, since then, a plethora of scholarly work about the Armenian legacy in Turkey has been published. A turning point in the Turkish debate appeared to come with the tragic assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007, which led to further calls for a reassessment of the past, more open public discussion and a more compassionate tone of discourse. In a sign of this new tone, intellectuals in Turkey organised a petition campaign in 2008, in which thousands signed an apology to Armenians for the "Great Catastrophe".

"... As the centennial approaches, my thoughts and solidarity are again with the victims and their descendants, but also with the civil society activists, scholars, journalists and artists from both Armenia and Turkey who are seeking to promote mutual understanding and foster an honest reckoning with a heavy historical legacy," Nils Muiznieks says for conclusion.