“I Apologize” (“Özür Diliyorum”) is an online campaign launched in December 2008 in Turkey by numerous journalists, politicians, and professors, calling for a collective apology for the Armenian Genocide, which I Apologize calls "the Great Catastrophe that Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in 1915." The campaign was launched by Prof. Ahmet Insel, politician Baskin Oran, Dr. Cengiz Aktar, and journalist Ali Bayramoğlu. The campaign emphasizes regret on behalf of Turkey that Armenian 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.
Contents
The campaign
The campaign is conducted online; the message that visitors are invited to sign states:
My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in 1915. I reject this injustice and for my share, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers. I apologize to them.
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
Aftermath
The signatories received many death threats. Ece Temelkuran, one signer, claimed to have received 200 e-mails after signing, of which 150 were threats.
Turkey’s Şişli 2nd Criminal Court Judge Hakki Yalçinkaya ordered that the 'ozurdiliyoruz.com' site should be shut down and that the signatories should to be punished under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, a controversial article which makes it illegal to insult Turkey, the Turkish ethnicity, or Turkish government institutions.
Notable signatories
Notable signatories of the campaign include: