The recent news about the mass grave in Nusaybin, a town in the southeast region of Turkey, deepened the discussions not only between Armenians and Turks but also between the international community whose majority asks for the recognition of the “genocide” and the Turkish people who mostly perceive the happenings as a tragedy for both nations during the First World War and refer to the incidences as the displacement of Armenians.

The genocide researcher Prof. David Gaunt from Södertörns University argued that these graves in  Nusaybin town belong to Armenians and Suryanis and took up the topic to the Swedish Parlament. Following this, Prof. Yusuf Halaçoğlu, the head of the Turkish Historical Society addressed to Mr. Gaunt and other academics who are researching in this field, in that he suggested cooperated field work on the graveyards and to open up them together. Mr. Gaunt responded to this affirmatively whereas his conditions such as absolute freedom in his work, the allowance to interview those who have a knowledge about the graves, and the entrance to other mass graves around Mardin were also accepted by the Turkish Historical Society that is also willing to cover the expenses and needs of the researchers who will start their work in March. This project is going to be the first of his kind regarding the international cooperation, says Mr. Halaçoğlu. Prof. Yusuf Halaçoğlu also commented on the assassination of the Armenian Journalist Hrant Dink and referred to it as an important loss for Turkish society. Currently, the Turkish Historical Society expects the final reply from Mr. Gaunt and his colleagues who, in Halaçoğlu’s view, should apologise if the outcomes would show that the graves belong to neither Armenians nor Suryanis but Turkish people. Halaçoğlu finally stated that they would apologise if the researches support the hypothesis of Prof. Gaunt.

The importance of this cooperation does not only lie in its international character but also in its possible outcomes. The lack of a mass grave is one of the mostly claimed points of the Turkish side against the Armenian arguments. In this view, there must be a mass grave for Armenians in the Eastern Turkey or in former Ottoman Syria’s territories who were displaced in 1915 if one is talking about genocide. In Turkish point of view, the hypothesis that most of the Armenians were killed on their way is also not very plausible since nevertheless there would have been a mass grave for so many people.

In the last 20 years, there had been some field work on the graveyards led by the Turkish Historical Society and some universities like Erzurum Atatürk University. However, in these projects there was no Armenian researchers who refused the appeal of the Turkish Historical Society regarding the cooperation.

Another crucial point in the research for the possible Armenian graves is with respect to the route of the displacement. The significant amount of Armenians who were directed to Syria-a province of the Ottoman Empire at that time- should, in Turkish point of view, indicate to the possibility of mass graves in Syria if there had been the genocide against Armenian people. Yet despite its possibility there has not been any opening up works in this region which, in Turkish perspective, strengthens the position that Armenians want to reach conclusions that are based on subjectivity.

The expected cooperation in Mardin would probably reveal important results for both of the parties. On the other hand, one should not expect a quick resolution after the research on the mass grave. As the experience until today has demonstrated, no matter what the current debates are, there is one certain point in the whole debate about what happened in 1915. That it will continue for a long time…

12 February 2007

irem_guney@yahoo.com