Last week week a group of Turkish academics was expected to gather at the Bo gaziçi (Bosphorus) University to hold a conference on "Ottoman Armenians in the Period of the Empire's Collapse."

The day before the conference was scheduled to convene, the Turkish Minister of Justice, Cemil Çiçek, rose in Parliament to denounce it, "This is a stab in the back to the Turkish nation... this is irresponsibility… We must put an end to this cycle of treason and insult, of spreading propaganda against the [Turkish] nation..."

With Turkish academics being accused of treason by the Minister of Justice, the Rector of the Bo gaziçi University felt compelled to cancel the meeting. The contrast with Germany’s encounter with its past could not be greater...