Historian Yusuf Halacoglu, who is president of the Turkish Historical Society (TTK), has arranged a press briefing in order to defend his controversial comments on the ethnic make-up of Turkey.

Refuses to resign

Rejecting calls for his resignation, Halacoglu said, "I, Halacoglu, did not do this research because I am president of the TTK. I am a historian. I have not had a phone call from the government."

He emphasised that his comments had been misinterpreted: "I did not reject [the existence of] Kurds, I said the following: 'Some who believe themselves to be Kurds are shown as Turkmens in 16th century records. Is that saying there are no Kurds? I [also] did not say that Kurdish Alevis are Armenians. There are Armenians who pretended to be Kurdish Alevis in order to escape the forced emigration. Being is different, pretending to be is different."

2,287 Kurdish tribes registered

Halacoglu said that as a scientist he based his claims on documents and said that he had done research on the roots of the Anatolian peoples for years. He rejected accusations of racism, saying that he has the names of Kurdish tribes on his computer: "Look, there are 2,287 Kurdish tribes here. If I am racist, why did I write them down? Alright, if I had said there were no Kurds, there are [only] Turkmen, that would be different."

"Armenian Patriarch is my friend"

The historian recounted that he was being asked where the 1.5 million Armenians who used to live in Anatolia were today. He described it as the duty of scientists to research where they were:

"I researched this. I did not research according to Armenians, Kurds, Turks. It was I who found the Armenians who were said to be dead. The Armenian Patriarch Mesrob is my friend."

Halacoglu had also referred to a famous Turkish actress and singer, Hülya Avsar, who has talked about her Kurdish roots. The historian had denied her claim, saying that she was really of Turkmen origin. In his press briefing, he referred to Hülya Avsar's mother's insistence that they were Kurdish by saying: "She says they are Avsar. That is the biggest lineage of the 24 Oguz. But let her say what she wants." (AB/GG)