Serdar Korucu

Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s announcement that she would not be taking part in the commemoration ceremony in Armenia on the Centennial of the Genocide sparked debate. Yet there were citizens of Norway among the witnesses of 1915. Norwegian missionary Bodil Katharine Biørn stood out amongst them.

Following the evacuation on the night of 21 February Saturday by military operation of the Suleyman Shah Tomb and the affiliated Commemoration Station, the only piece of land that belongs to Turkey that lies outside of its borders, attention is now focused on the Eşme region in Syria, officially announced as the new location for the tomb. However, the region Ankara has declared as the new destination of the “heritage of forefathers” was along the deportation route of the Armenian Genocide a century ago.

Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine that was the target of the armed attack on January 7, had recently also focused on issues related to Turkey. Particularly the Armenian Genocide and the Kurdish Question featured in the pages of the magazine in various contexts.

Facebook might have bid farewell to 2014 with its message “It’s been a great year. Thanks for being a part of it!”, but it was a year with a lot of negatives, and very few positives for Turkey.