Turkey will never mature as a nation if it refuses to admit to evil

LETTERS | DEBATE STIRS ANEW OVER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE. The Boston Globe

REGARDING CHRIS Bohjalian’s March 9 op-ed piece on the Turkish denial of the Armenian genocide: I’d like to explain why I think Turkey, unlike Germany, has not recognized this genocide.

It would take a psychiatrist schooled in political psychology to understand Turkey’s motives. Sadly, Turkey has a deep inferiority complex, especially its leaders, who have brainwashed their people into believing all this. Germany is a strong country that knows that you first have to admit an evil to yourself in order for you to mature as a nation.

Turkey, in short, needs to grow up. Sadly, as it becomes more and more fundamentally Islamic, it will be less likely to recognize someone else’s pain.

Worse, the United States and Israel also do not recognize the genocide because of Turkish pressure. So, in a way, those nations also have to mature.

America and Israel do not need Turkey. They must stand up to Turkey and put pressure on the country to recognize the genocide. But first and foremost, they must recognize it themselves.

I feel that, in time, the Turkish people, who I love dearly, will rise up and get the leaders they deserve, as will all Muslim countries.

Jack Nusan Porter

Newton

The writer, a research associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, is former treasurer and vice president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars and the author of a number of books, including “Genocide and Human Rights” and “The Genocidal Mind.”