"I Apologize" ( tr, Özür Diliyorum) is an online campaign launched in December 2008 in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

by numerous journalists, politicians, and professors, calling for a collective apology for the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

, which the campaign calls "the Great Catastrophe that

Ottoman Armenians Armenians in the Ottoman Empire (or Ottoman Armenians) mostly belonged to either the Armenian Apostolic Church or the Armenian Catholic Church. They were part of the Armenian millet until the Tanzimat reforms in the nineteenth century equaliz ...

were subjected to in 1915." The campaign was launched by Prof. Ahmet İnsel, politician Baskın Oran, Dr.

Cengiz Aktar Cengiz Aktar (born 1955 in Istanbul) is a Turkish political scientist, essayist and columnist. He has published numerous books on the European Union and its relations with Turkey. He was a director at the UNHCR and worked extensively with the Eu ...

, and journalist Ali Bayramoğlu. The campaign emphasizes regret on behalf of Turkey that

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

requests for recognition of the 1915 genocide has been actively suppressed within Turkey. The campaign was signed by 5,000 people within the first 24 hours, and had collected over 30,000 signatories by January 2009. The campaign created widespread outrage in Turkish society.

The campaign

The campaign is conducted online; the message that visitors are invited to sign states: The campaigners emphasized that point that the initiative was not politically motivated but rather a personal and individual motivation. The website has been translated into many different languages including Arabic, Armenian, English, Greek, and Russian. At last count, the campaign has over 32,000 signatures.

Reactions

*Turkish Prime Minister

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the List of presidents of Turkey, 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Lis ...

has said: "I neither accept nor support this campaign. We did not commit a crime, therefore we do not need to apologise, it will not have any benefit other than stirring up trouble, disturbing our peace and undoing the steps which have been taken." "These Turkish intellectuals must have committed the genocide, since they are the ones who are apologizing." *

Nationalist Action Party The Nationalist Movement Party (alternatively translated as Nationalist Action Party; tr, Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP) is a Turkish far-right and ultranationalist political party. The group is often described as neo-fascist, and has been ...

(MHP), a far-right opposition party, issued a statement that stated: "There is no single page in the honorable history of the Turkish nation for which we should be embarrassed, and no crime for which we should apologize. No one has the right to smear our ancestors by deviating from history, declaring them guilty, and ask them to apologize." **

Devlet Bahçeli Devlet Bahçeli (born 1 January 1948) is a Turkish politician, economist, former deputy prime minister, and current chairman of the far-right, ultranationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). An academic in economics from Gazi University, Ba ...

, the leader of MHP, also stated: "No one has the right to insult our ancestors, to present them as criminals and to ask for an apology." * Cemalettin Taşkıran was quoted as stating: "This is the biggest betrayal that could be shown to our forefathers.... The campaign was set up to hurt the unity of the Turkish nation and to prepare the way for Turkey's eventual recognition of Armenian claims of genocide." *A group of sixty retired Turkish diplomats described the initiative as "unfair, wrong and unfavorable to national interests." *Azerbaijani poet and

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

(Parliament) deputy Zelimhan Yakup, wrote a poem which was entitled "A Turk doesn't apologize to the enemy" ( tr, Türk Yağıdan Özür Dilemez).

Aftermath

The signatories received many death threats.

Ece Temelkuran Ece Temelkuran (born 22 July 1973, in Izmir"About"
ecetemelkuran.com ) is a Turkish journalist and author. She was ...

, one signer, claimed to have received 200 e-mails after signing, of which 150 were threats. Turkey's

Şişli Şişli () is one of the 39 districts of Istanbul, Turkey. Located on the European side of the city, it is bordered by Beşiktaş to the east, Sarıyer to the north, Eyüp and Kağıthane to the west, and Beyoğlu to the south. In 2009, Şi ...

2nd Criminal Court Judge Hakkı Yalçınkaya ordered that the 'ozurdiliyoruz.com' site be shut down and the signatories punished under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code which makes it illegal to insult Turkey, the Turkish ethnicity, or Turkish government institutions. A copy of the original site from the Internet Archive was published at http://ozurdiliyoruz.info.

Notable signatories

Notable signatories of the campaign include:

References

External links