Knockout in Gallipoli: Turkish Nationalism vs. Armenian Genocide

Appropriately for its time and place, most of the discourse on Turkish social networking sites over the last month focused on events that occurred a century ago, in the Ottoman era. The main focal point of the ongoing, stormy debate was the “Armenian Genocide,” which is recognized as such by the Armenians themselves and by various countries, but very firmly and consistently denied by all governments of Turkey, past and present. Instead, they refer to that historical occurrence as “the events of 1915.” Although this subject unsurprisingly attracted the attention of Turkish social media users, their primary interest was the centennial of the Ottoman Army’s victory over the allies in the Gallipoli campaign during the First World War. That did not happen by chance.

Many believed that Turkey’s formal expression of condolences for the Armenian lives lost during the First World War, published on April 23 of last year, would precede Turkey’s acceptance of the Armenian position. Turkey’s official stance on the subject for the 90 years prior was that the Armenians were simply exiled. However, despite last year’s softening, there has been no significant change in Ankara’s position. Although circles supporting the demand for recognizing the Armenian tragedy were cautiously optimistic last year, it was predictable that Turkey would not continue down that path; the only purpose of last year’s announcement was to contain the damage from the diplomatic tsunami expected on the centennial of the Armenian genocide. Against this backdrop, Ankara chose to adopt a position that recognizes the Armenians’ deaths while placing responsibility for them on Armenian gangs, who the Turks claim purposely instigated conflict between the Ottomans and the Armenians by forming an alliance with Russia against the Ottoman Empire. In other words, Turkey is attempting to market the idea that the Armenian disaster was a tragedy affecting both sides and not genocide enacted by one people on another.

The warring narratives received wide coverage on Turkish social media on April 24, 2015, the Memorial Day commemorating the Armenian Genocide. Numerous users called on the Turkish government to recognize the genocide, using slogans like “Turkey – recognize Armenian Genocide” and “I apologize to the Armenians.” Many shared pictures documenting the killing and exile of the Armenians.[1] Many Turks were joined in this discourse by Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin, who also apologized to the Armenians, because of the many testimonies stating that Kurds cooperated with the Ottoman government in the events of 1915. The supportive messages from Kurdish social media users were augmented by the leader of the Kurdish HDP party Selahattin Demirtaş, who declared that his party recognizes the Armenian Genocide.[2] As the social media discourse about the Armenian tragedy spread by use of international hashtags,[3] and the involvement of Turkish users increased. Users who identified with the Armenian tragedy changed their profile pictures to the forget-me-not flower  that has become a symbol of the Armenian tragedy.[4]

On the other side were users identified with the nationalist MHP party and, in a more moderate tone, activists from the ruling AKP party. The common denominator presented by this front (who are ordinarily found on opposing sides of the political spectrum), was denial of the Armenian narrative of the events and doubts about the very existence of the Armenian Holocaust. “Where all of those Armenians buried?” tweeted some.[5] Others were not content to ask questions and declared, “The Armenian Genocide is an imperialist lie” promulgated by world powers who themselves have been guilty of genocide throughout history, and therefore must not preach morality to Turkey.[6] Even more extreme were the users who circulated photographs of Ogün Samast, the assassin of leading Armenian journalist Hrant Dink who did nothing more than express the Armenian position in the Armenian newspaper Agos, which is published in Turkey. The pictures were accompanied by a threat: “If you want a genocide, we will all become Ogün Samast, don’t worry.” These users did not hesitate to label those Turks who apologized to the Armenians as traitors.[7]

As expected, the strident discourse surrounding the Armenian Genocide was a thorn in the side of the Turkish government which, as noted, had anticipated international political echoes last year on the centennial. Therefore, they decided to spin the media and redirect attention to the Ottoman victory in the battle of Gallipoli.

In addition to national ceremonies commemorating the Turkish soldiers who fell, held every year on March 18, the government of Turkey decided this year to adopt  April 25, ANZAC Day (when Australia and New Zealand remember their fallen from the Gallipoli campaign), as the primary national commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the legendary battle. The manipulative use of ANZAC Day was particularly conspicuous because the ceremonies were scheduled for April 24, with the same day as the commemorations of the Armenian genocide. This forced the world to decide between two ceremonies, the Turkish one in Gallipoli and the Armenian one Yerevan, Armenia. In order to justify the one day deviation from ANZAC Day ‎and forestall criticism, the ceremonies in Gallipoli lasted until midnight and beyond, ending on April 25, so it could be claimed they were indeed held on the appropriate day. The discourse surrounding the Armenian tragedy thus found itself in competition with a government-initiated display of nationalism. Many Turks did not remain apathetic to the memory of the victory at Gallipoli, which is considered a cornerstone of Turkish nationalism, and shared historic photographs of Ottoman soldiers and national flags.[8] Those users who actually participated in the memorial ceremonies in Gallipoli and at the mausoleum of Atatürk, founder of the Republic, in Ankara also shared photographs of those events.

The Twitter war between the Armenian tragedy and the victory at Gallipoli represents the prevailing ambivalence in Turkish discourse surrounding the events of 1915. It includes criticism of the established historical narrative regarding the Armenian tragedy while adopting that narrative regarding the battle of Gallipoli. The prevailing patriotic spirit surrounding Gallipoli was able to dampen, to a large extent, the subversive influence of the Armenian Genocide. In other words, ANZAC Day served as a way to protect Turkish nationalism and legitimized the ceremonies in the international sphere, partially ameliorating Turkey’s diplomatic isolation with regards to the Armenian genocide. The media’s emphasis on the presence of Prince Charles and the prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand at the ceremonies is also evidence of the intentional timing of the victory celebrations. There is no doubt that the government’s move was designed to spin the media to work against the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the presidents of Russia and France, who attended the ceremony in Yerevan. With this brilliant decision the government demonstrated its strength and signaled to the world, and especially to Armenia, that it is not isolated.