The National Interest
Spring 2001

Traveling Light

by Thomas Goltz

 

. . . There is no question that the "Armenian issue" continues to haunt Turkey. But aside from Ankara's highly negative reaction to attempts by the Armenian diaspora in the United States and Europe to pass congressional and parliamentary resolutions officially acknowledging the genocide of 1915, there has never been so much public and private discussion in Turkey about the events surrounding the creation of the Turkish Republic as in recent years. This forum includes questions of the alleged genocide and the status of the Kurds—and the plethora of other Muslim "minorities" in the country, all previously subsumed under the rubric "Turks." It includes the role of the military in society, corruption in high places, and a whole range of other subjects that were previously kept well under the historical carpet but are now openly aired on a dozen serious discussion programs on privately owned television stations. This is a fascinating story—one that deserves, but does not get, prominent inclusion in the sort of post-Ottoman book that Kaplan set out to write. . . .