Turkish studies chari warranted, but not worth risking integrity

Wednesday, December 3, 1997

SMOKE SCREEN:

Proposal conceals country’s effort to distort historical factsBy
Ardashes Kassakhian

I would like to respond to Demir Barlas’s article, which
appeared Nov. 26 as "Looking past misconceptions, stereotypes of
Turks." He claimed to be in defense of the proposed establishment
of an Ottoman and modern Turkish studies chair here at UCLA. The
arguments that Barlas used in his article only detracted from the
issue at hand. By attempting to present this situation as an issue
of Turks defending their culture from Armenian "propagandists," he
not only insulted his own intelligence but the intelligence of the
entire American academic community. The groups, which include
students of various backgrounds who have voiced their concerns
regarding this chair’s proposed establishment, are not insulting
UCLA’s integrity as Mr. Barlas’s article suggests.

Despite Mr. Barlas’s efforts to create a smoke screen of racial
tension surrounding the gift of $1 million, the facts still remain
unchanged: 1. Turkey is one of the worst human rights violators in
the world. 2. It has more journalists and scholars in prison than
any other country in the world. That’s academic freedom and being
"unfashionable" for you. Guess the government of Turkey has yet to
warm up to the right of freedom of speech. 3. It has attempted to
conceal these and other abuses, including the current massacre of
its Kurdish population and illegal occupation of Northern Cyprus,
by engaging in a very active campaign of revisionist/denialist
propaganda. 4. The money that the university’s history department
has received (a check for $250,000 has already been accepted prior
to the department’s approval of the chair) was given directly by
the same ambassador who not only represents the Turkish government
and all of its inhumane practices, but who has also spearheaded the
government’s attempts at infiltrating U.S. universities with the
government’s money in order to manipulate and distort historical
facts. 5. The conditions that the government has placed upon the
chair are not only restrictive and confining, but further prove
Turkey’s attempts at disrupting academic research and filtering out
those professors and scholars who do not share Turkey’s political
views.

Why do the conditions restrict the holder of the chair to use
official Turkish archives and maintain "cordial relations with
academic circles in Turkey"? Since the chair is to be the study of
history of the Ottoman Empire, why isn’t there a condition that
would require the holder of the chair to speak Turkish and one
other Ottoman language as well as Armenian, Greek, Romanian,
Hebrew, Lithuanian or Arabic? Alan W. Fisher, who was president of
the Turkish Studies Association (TSA) from 1982 to 1984 and editor
of the TSA Bulletin from 1985 to 1988, felt it appropriate to state
in diplomatic terms the concerns which his colleagues expressed
regarding the problems of accessing Turkish archives (Alan W.
Fisher, "Research Access in Turkey," Turkish Studies Bulletin 14,
2; September 1990). It is stated by Fisher that "the detailed
project description (required to carry out research in Turkey) has
raised doubts in the minds of many about the likelihood of
non-academic ­ that is, political ­ standards being
applied to their applications."

The above-mentioned points are all backed by facts available
from the United Nation’s archives, Amnesty International, the
Committee for the Protection of Journalists and numerous petitions
signed by hundreds of scholars condemning Turkey’s attempts to
infringe upon the academic integrity of our universities. This
issue is important to UCLA because if this money is accepted from a
tainted source such as the Turkish government, it will set a
precedent for others to donate money in order to further their
agendas as well.

As a student who is majoring in history and minoring in Near
Eastern studies, I will be the first to agree with Mr. Barlas that
an Ottoman studies course is indeed necessary at a university as
diverse as UCLA. However, as a very proud UCLA student, I feel it
to be my duty to inform the UCLA community and make them aware of
such attempts as the one by the Turkish government to buy
legitimacy for its past and current crimes with the reputation of
such prestigious universities as ours.