Questions to Hasan Cemal would have made a civilized debate - Ruben Melkonyan

In an interview with Tert.am, Deputy Dean of the Department of Oriental Studies, Yerevan State University, Ruben Melkonyan told about the book “1915: Armenian Genocide” (Turkish: 1915: Ermeni Soykırımı) by Hasan Cemal, a Turkish journalist, writer, and the grandson of Ahmet Cemal Paşa, one of the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide.

Mr Melkonyan, who translated the book into Armenian, is discontented with the fact that the Hrant Dink Foundation, which published the Armenian translation of the book, has removed the translator’s footnotes.
He is also surprised that he was not invited to an event organized by the Civilitas Foundation.

“The organizers did not consider it their duty to invite me as the translator of the book,” Mr Melkonyan told Tert.am.

“A civilized debate would have been most interesting. Different people branded our wish for a debate as a ‘show’ or a ‘scandal.’ But our wish was a healthy debate. We have many things to tell Cemal Paşa’s grandson. It was not expected to be monologue by Cemal Paşa’s grandson, without his being aware of the Armenian society’s concerns or being acquainted with Armenian reality. We did not invite Mr Hasan Cemal to curry favor with him. We gathered to present our problems. However, after Mr Hasan Cemal’s monologue, which lasted about an hour and a third, we could not put questions, which caused discontent.”
Talking to Mr Melkonyan, Mr Hasan Cemal said he did not object to any questions, but the organizers did not afford such an opportunity.

“The most important question is that attempts are being made to convince our society that we should be satisfied with an apology and be happy about Cemal Paşa’s grandson using the word ‘genocide’. But you can hardly find a Jew who would be happy about a German using the word ‘Holocaust’, without speaking of restitution or considering it a crime against humanity. I wanted а debate in such a vein.”