MHP Demands To Know If Gov't Will Transfer Land To Armenians

A leading opposition figure has claimed that the government is preparing to offer some land to Armenians as the 100th anniversary of the mass deportation of Armenians from Anatolia by the Ottoman State approaches.

“I know the AKP [ruling Justice and Development (AK Party)] has an ongoing project [on the issue]. A professor has been advising and working on the transfer of land to Armenians who will be brought to Turkey,” Oktay Vural, deputy chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), told Today's Zaman.

Noting that the Armenian diaspora claims as their own the land of the former presidential residence in Ankara and some land in İstanbul's Yeşilköy district, Vural demanded to know if it was a coincidence that the government earlier said İstanbul Atatürk Airport in the city's Yeşilköy district would be removed.

The former presidential residence, known as Çankaya presidential palace, was in service until President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected president in August last year.

Erdoğan lives instead in a recently built presidential palace, while the former presidential residence will be, Erdoğan previously said, allocated to the Prime Ministry.

Vural said: “Will [İstanbul] Atatürk Airport and Çankaya presidential palace be given to meet the demands of the Armenian diaspora? Is it a coincidence that they are being evacuated at this particular juncture?”

Armenians, as well as more than 20 countries and 41 states in the US, accept the deportation of Armenians that began in April of 1915 as genocide.

Armenians and some Turkish historians usually claim that around 1 million Armenians -- according to some, 800,000, and to others, 1.5 million -- lost their lives during the deportation, while various Turkish sources, who maintain that the term genocide cannot be used in this particular case, claim that the death toll was around 60,000.

According to Vural, the issue should be left for historians to discuss. Taking steps to legitimize demands by Armenians for land and reparations would lead to the trial of history, Vural said, underlining that the issue should be kept outside the realm of politics.

Such an attitude would render Turks into being slaves on their own land, Vural maintained.

“Are we going to retry history by legitimizing the demands of those who ask for Çankaya presidential palace and the Atatürk airport in Yeşilköy? What will the AK Party say if some others demand to have İstanbul back saying it used to be called Constantinople?” Vural said.

He added: “Those who seek to bring old issues under the spotlight should know that history cannot be undone by a political trial.”

Noting that some Turkish foundations used to have properties in Greek Cyprus, which used to be part of the Ottoman Empire, Vural demanded to know if the government would make a claim on those properties together with those in the same category in Palestine.

Legitimizing Armenians' demand for land and reparations would not serve anybody's interest, Vural said, warning that such a step would be a heavy burden on those who took it.

Many scholars in Turkey say the deportation of Armenians was a necessity as some of the Armenians in Eastern Anatolia collaborated with Russian forces against the Ottoman army in fighting that took place several months before the deportation began.

Ali Aslan Kılıç, Ankara (Cihan/Today's Zaman)