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AK Party Founding Member Apologizes for ‘Geno-Deportations’

ANKARA, Turkey (A.W.)—A founding member of Turkey’s ruling AK Party called the Armenian genocide a “geno-deportation” and “personally” apologized in an interview with the Turkish daily newspaper Radikal.

Uçma during the interview with Radikal

İsmet Uçma, a member of Turkey’s Grand National Assembly, added: “Their pain is our pain.”

The parliament member noted that although the Committee of Union and Progress was responsible for what happened, he personally apologized for the suffering of the Armenians during what he called the “geno-deportations.”

Uçma  said that although violence was indeed employed against the Armenian deportees, what happened to the Armenians was not genocide, but a “geno-deportation,” the violent deportation of an entire ethnic group, because if the perpetrators wanted to commit genocide, “annihilation methods employed by the Spanish and Portuguese in South America, or those employed by the Americans against Native-Americans, or the Germans against the Jews would have been used.”

The very annihilation methods that Uçma was referring to were indeed employed against the Armenians.

Asked about reparations, Uçma said that he finds land demands absurd, although he noted that no one should live is someone else’s house. In this context, he said, the government’s initiative to return some confiscated property to non-Muslims was a positive step.

The Turkish government has promised to return less than 10 percent of properties confiscated since the 30’s from non-Muslim minorities. No properties confiscated during the Armenian genocide have been returned.

Kurdish Parliamentarian to Push for Commemoration Day

In a more meaningful gesture, and according to reports, Kurdish Parliamentarian Sırrı Süreyya Önder is working on bringing a motion declaring April 24 a “Day of Mourning and Sharing the Pain of the Armenian victims of 1915.”

Önder is a member of the pro-Kurdish BDP in Istanbul. He is a filmmaker and columnist who was elected into parliament in 2011.

26 Comments (Open | Close)

26 Comments To "AK Party Founding Member Apologizes for ‘Geno-Deportations’"

#1 Comment By Gayane On April 25, 2012 @ 9:53 pm

What??????? He says it was not genocide but geno-deportation. Whhaattt???

#2 Comment By RVDV On April 25, 2012 @ 10:27 pm

I mean….. you got half of the word genocide, so we’re getting there.

#3 Comment By VTiger On April 27, 2012 @ 4:00 am

Half a step forward & 200 steps backwards.

#4 Comment By Eliza On April 25, 2012 @ 10:46 pm

What? Really? A “geno-deportation” ? I think by 2015 he’ll learn how to say, GENOCIDE!

#5 Comment By paul On April 25, 2012 @ 11:00 pm

Geno-deportation, genocide, geno whatever… I guess dying was an option offered to the Geno deportees, just words from desperate people, desperate move by desperate men, going all the way would have saved an embarrassment in the future, but piecemeal is a good start, although a bit childish never-the-less a step in the direction.

#6 Comment By Realist On April 25, 2012 @ 11:01 pm

Does he also think the Holocaust was a Holo-deportation…? LOL!

Call a spade a spade but don’t add insult to injury.

#7 Comment By Murat On April 25, 2012 @ 11:22 pm

The word is tehcir.

#8 Comment By Hairenakitz on YouTube On April 26, 2012 @ 12:05 am

NOP!

The word was, is and would be forever ‘soykırım’, even after Turkish apology!

#9 Comment By VTiger On April 26, 2012 @ 4:31 am

Murat,read this article:
MEHMET ALİ BİRAND
mab@hurriyet.com.tr
We are surrendering ourselves to ‘genocide’
Today is April 24. Again, as happens every year, the 70 million-person population of Turkey will wonder what others are saying about the Armenian issue. What will Washington say? Which country will accept the Armenian genocide claims?

Days will pass in stress, and in the end, we will again forget everything.

This process is like a Chinese torture. Especially as 2015 approaches, the pressure will increase. Turkey, as it has done before, will react harshly. It will utter threats, but they will remain ineffective.

Do you know why? It is because the Armenians have gotten a significant part of the world to accept their claims of genocide. Turkey’s counter-claims were both too late and too weak. We do not need to go far to see this. Just last week, a 1,000-page book on the topic was sent to my office.

It was compiled by the famous German journalist and writer Wolfgang Gust. It includes all of the documentation of activities against the Armenians that were filed in the German Foreign Ministry’s archives in 1915 and 1916. These documents include not only those that were sent by German diplomats or mission members in Turkey, but also views and debates from within the German government on the same subject.

The book is in Turkish. Its English, German, Spanish and Portuguese versions are already in print. Its message is, “Since the Turks won’t do it, let us do it. They should see these documents and understand the facts we have. They should be convinced that we are not acting as their enemies, but trying to explain an incident.” It has been translated into an extremely comprehensible and beautiful Turkish by Belge Publishing House. Obviously it has taken years. It is an extremely important and expensive study.

Without going into detail, if you read the book and look at the documents, if you are a person who is introduced to the subject through this book, then there is no way that you would not believe in the genocide and justify the Armenians. Even if you are an expert on the subject, or have researched what went on from the Turkish side, again, you will be confused. You will have many questions.

In a letter included in the book, the head of the Zoryan Institute in Canada, Greg Sarkissian, says true peace can only be achieved when sources of information about nations’ pasts are shared and nations can talk openly about the past. He also says that in this way mutual understanding and dialogue will develop, instead of hate.

Now, I want to ask all Turkish officials: In the last 50 years, have you done such a study? Have you researched international sources and — however biased or one-sided it may be — have you been able to publish such a book? What kind of a study have you made – moving outside our own sources – that would convince the international public? Were you limited to or satisfied with using only Turkish archives because you could not find plausible documents or evidence?

Let us not deceive each other: If you can give correct answers to these questions, then you will be able to clarify some very key facts for us.

I know you will remain silent.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/Default.aspx?pageID=449&nID=19114&NewsCatID=405

#10 Comment By Sylva-MD-Poetry On April 27, 2012 @ 5:37 am

Tahjer is an Arabic word and never Turkish
When prophet Muhammad traveled (hajara) from Mecca to the Madena…
Early in his ‘Dawa’
But he did not do it for others…He did for his group…

Turks not only invade and kill but let the others leave what they possess
and leave to another land without food …this is not Tahjer…This is real
starvation and death …you can see in the photos of genocide people are starved
dying…no food no water…!

#11 Comment By Katia K On April 25, 2012 @ 11:47 pm

What a lame way to get out of accepting the Genocide! The thousands of villagers who were killed in their own homes or right at the outskirts of their villages, obviously did not survive to tell their story… most of the survivors came from the deportation lines… so Mr.Ucma thinks he found an ingenius explanation in the word “geno deportation” to explain the deportation line survivors’ eyewitness accounts… “These were violent deportations”? Nice try… As if to suggest that ethnic deportations are legal and they don’t fall within the definition of Genocide, and these by “accident” involved massacring the deportees…. Lame, absurd….outrageously insulting.

#12 Comment By Sella On April 26, 2012 @ 12:14 am

Turks who are obsessed with the genocide word and cannot articulate the ‘‘G” word, may need to hire linguists to create a new term that will be more palatable for them. ”Geno-deportation” did not work. LOL

#13 Comment By Hairenakitz on YouTube On April 26, 2012 @ 12:24 am

However, there is little difference between:
Geno-Deportation of Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Geno-Deportation of Armenians to Der Zor-Syria.

Both had to face pre-meditated and pre-planned death!
I wonder what is the next word for Turkish government to replace GENOCIDE!
Should we take this as a positive step toward recognition of Armenian Genocide?
Too little… Too late.

The word Genocide was coined by Raphael Lemkin and is exact reflection of what happend to Armenians before Jews.

#14 Comment By a On April 26, 2012 @ 12:50 am

Hey Ucma…bite me.

#15 Comment By R.D. On April 26, 2012 @ 9:54 am

Shame on the Quasi-Islamist-Wahhabi-Salafi AKP for succumbing to imperalist powers such as the Communist-Socialist EUSSR. Time for a military coup and time to bring in real politicians (CHP).

#16 Comment By Sarkis On April 26, 2012 @ 10:28 am

What about;

1. Looting, plundering, confiscating of property was that “geno-economics” ?
2. Kidnapping, rape, sex-slavery and forced islamization of “brides” and young boys; was that “geno-islamization” ?
3. Desecration of cemeteries and destruction of historic monuments; was that “geno-historic-cleansing” and erasing of all possible traces ?
4. Inventing a new curriculum in schools; was that “geno-revisionism” ?

No Mr. Ucma, Lemkin coined the term genocide based on the Armenian model.

#17 Comment By Sevag On April 26, 2012 @ 11:06 am

They also started using a new tem this year called “Genovive” Where a PhD student in Utah is using it for his thesis stating that the Turks did attack the Armenians and ethnic tried to cleanse them etc. (all definition of the word Genocide), but Turkey had a right to do so in order to secure their own survival….I believe that theory was written on toilet paper

#18 Comment By Alex On April 26, 2012 @ 11:16 am

How disingenuous,

“if the perpetrators wanted to commit genocide, “annihilation methods employed by the Spanish and Portuguese in South America, or those employed by the Americans against Native-Americans, or the Germans against the Jews would have been used.””

The reason they did deportations was so that decades later, they could use this very same defense! Deportations were meant to conceal intent.

İsmet Uçma should do more research.

#19 Comment By Boyajian On April 26, 2012 @ 11:18 am

Getting closer… At least Mr. Ucma is wrestling with the issue of what happened to the Armenians of Asia Minor and his nation’s responsibility. Its much better then complete denial.

#20 Comment By paul On April 26, 2012 @ 1:15 pm

geno-stupidity and geno-unremoursefulness

#21 Comment By serko On April 26, 2012 @ 1:16 pm

How about “geno-denialism”?

#22 Comment By Sella On April 26, 2012 @ 9:06 pm

İsmet Uçma should understand that just like there are many ways to kill a person there are also many ways to “kill” a race/nation.

#23 Comment By Suren On April 27, 2012 @ 4:56 am

Funny how it quickly started to sound less and less like an apology and more like someone trying to cover their ass.

#24 Comment By gaytzag palandjian On April 28, 2012 @ 1:04 pm

Ismet Ucma,Ismet Inonue(some such name of previous turk diplomat).
YOUR METHODS OF TURNING THINGS AROUND AND TRYING TO COVER UP A G E N E R A L M U R D E R (COINED LATER AS GENOCIDE)..
It won´t work.
Come to terms ,bow down and accept the reality,the truth.It won´t hurt..
On the contrary will rid you of your G.D. Guilty conscious and by and by bring you and your people to become -like the rest of humane people-N O B L E!!!!
You cannot escape from reparations/restitutions either…..
So try to put aside those that did not belong to you/your people….

#25 Comment By Mike On April 29, 2012 @ 3:38 am

Sirri Sureyya Onder is a PM from BDP but he is not a Kurd. Please do your research first properly.

All the best,

#26 Comment By David On May 1, 2012 @ 2:29 pm

May good things are happening. Here in the USA I recently attended a major human rights university conference where Kurdish delegates presented a paper on Hrant Dink as the person who represents the face of human rights for Turkish people. Once again I saw the signs and heard the words from his funeral march: “Today we are all Hrant Dink!”