An Interview with Turkish Historian Aykut Qansu

On June 28, 2005, the Istanbul-based Armenian "Marmara" online newspaper published on its website -http://www.normarmara.com- (in Armenian) a brief about the interview with Turkish historian Aykut Qansu on the Armenian issue, which was published in the "Radikal" Turkish daily newspaper on June 27, 2005. The brief-article of "Marmara" is titled "Neshe Duzel interviews historian Aykut Qansu- in Turkey, generations grew up without knowing the realities about subjects like the Sarikamish tragedy or the Armenian carnage". Note that instead of the term Armenian Genocide, the Turkish newspaper uses terms like realities, the Armenian deportation, massacres, carnage, etc.
The following is my translation of Marmara's article:
"Neshe Duzel had a very interesting interview in "Radikal" yesterday with the lecturer in Bilgi University historian Aykut Qansu. Neshe Duzel generally selects persons who have different opinions about issues of vital importance for Turkey. Aykut Qansu is one of those who have sharp opinions especially about the Kemalist movement and its relation with the Ittihadists, besides his opinions about the Armenian deportation and massacres.
"Aykut Qansu remarks that in the history of nations lies can't last for a long time; unconditionally the realities will appear one day. He reminds that in Turkey his generation grew up without knowing the realities about the Sarikamish tragedy (during WWI), the Armenian carnage, or the Balkans war. They began to hear things about all these subjects later, and again the realities are concealed. But the new generations are still restless when looking at their history.
"To what extend were the Ittihadists responsible for all this? The realities here are always covered because the state ever wished to cover its weak sides. The Kemalists too were unable to do much thing in this case, because persons who share responsibility for the crimes committed by the Ittihadists were among them.
"Concerning the Ittihadists, Aykut Qansu thinks that they certainly made political decisions concerning the Armenians. The acts of Ittihadists can't be justified in any way. The Armenian deportation is an event that is absolutely unacceptable from the moral view point; it is impossible to defend the idea of deportation. Answering a question about the biggest fault of the Ittihadists, Aykut says it was the Armenian deportation which, on the long term, causes pain in one's heart. In this issue, the account is not settled yet. If an authority hadn't been established in Turkey that had nullified the authority of parliament and press freedom, the account with the Ittihadists would have been settled. In 1926, the Kemalists, at the cause of Izmir's assassination attempt, wanted to isolate the Ittihadists. Before that, in 1925 the "Takriri Skun" (the Silence Law) was adopted, which put an end to the constitutional status. In 1931, the conference of "Halk" party had also established a situation, which contradicted the spirit of the constitution passed in 1924. The one-party domination system continued up to 1946.
"And because of the Kemalist status of our country we are still not able to rectify neither our history nor our political and economical construction, says the historian. Because every time we persist that our economical system should be rectified they would answer us by saying that would be opposite to the Kemalist principles".