Facing History: Denial and the Turkish National Security Concept

Abstract

This article poses the question: why do the current political and legal establishments in Turkey believe that acknowledging the Armenian genocide poses a threat to Turkish national security? The author submits that the answer is revealed in the history of post-WWI, when the victorious Entente Powers divided up the Ottoman Empire and began sentencing the perpetrators of the genocide. The article explores the tension between the concepts of national security and human rights and suggests possible approaches to reintegrating human rights into the Turkish perspective on history, as well as into contemporary Turkish policies.