3383) The Distortions & The Facts Against California AJR-2

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Re: www.anca.org/legal/insuranceclaims/defendant_appeal_enbanc.pdf

Compiled by Sukru Server Aya - Istanbul Dec. 20, 2012

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Counter Comments On The Distortions Of Subject Resolution:
California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session
Assembly Joint Resolution No. 2
Introduced by Assembly Members Gatto and Achadjian
December 3, 2012

Assembly Joint Resolution No. 2— Relative to the Armenian Genocide. legislative counsel’s digest

The use of the term “Armenian Genocide” is subject to published rules and regulations by United Nations. No other Legislature is authorized for such a verdict. See Annex 1

AJR 2, as introduced, Gatto. Armenian Genocide.
This measure would designate the week of April 18 to 24, 2013, as “California Week of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide of 1915–1923,” and would memorialize the Congress of the UNITED of the United States to observe the California Week of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide by participating in the Armenian Genocide Commemorative Project :

State of California has no authority to let politicians “write history” on tales distortions. On April 24, 1915, only 235 Dashnakist leaders were arrested and exiled to towns near Ankara; none was killed. Most of them returned to Istanbul in 3-4 months. Commemorate WHAT?

Fiscal committee: no.
WHEREAS, The Armenian Genocide of 1915–1923 was the first genocide of the 20th century, in which 1.5 million men women, and children lost their lives at the hands of the Turkish Ottoman Empire in their attempt to systematically eliminate the Armenian race; and

Valid OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS belie this this shameless slander. See Annex 2: on Populations. Total was under 1.300.000 See submitted evidences and U.S. docs!

WHEREAS, In their 3,000 year historic homeland in Asia Minor, Armenians were subjected to severe and unjust persecution and brutality by the Turkish rulers of the Ottoman Empire before and after the turn of the 20th century, including widespread acts of destruction and murder during the period from 1894 to 1896, inclusive, and again in 1909; and

Vague-words- illogical tales; Can USA return lands to Indians? Slanders, Reversing facts!

See Annex 3 for opposite proofs directly by U.S. documents!

Continued: . . .

AJR 2


Direct Link To AJR 2

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Annex 1


Direct Link To Annex 1

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Annex 2


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Annex 3


Direct Link To Annex 3

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Annex 4


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3382) Methodology Of Taner Akçam

The expanded English edition of German sociologist Taner Akçam’s last book, The Young Turks’ Crime against Humanity. The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire, was published last April. To analyze all the distortions, falsifications and other flaws of this book would mean writing a whole volume. However, some significant examples can be provided here.

Mr. Akçam alleges (p. 203) that “the clearest statement that the aim of the government’s policies toward the Armenians was annihilation is found in a cable of 29 August 1915 from Interior minister Talat Pasha to the province of Ankara.” In fact, this telegram is mostly a list of interdictions of any violence against the displaced Armenians. Especially, the telegram says: . . .

“The transfer of Armenians, which is desired to be carried out in an orderly and prudent manner, should henceforth never be left to the individuals having fanatical feelings of enmity and that the Armenians, whether or not subject to relocation, will be definitely protected against any assault and attack.”

The “military courts” were promised for the recalcitrant people (Hikmet Özdemir and Yusuf Sarinay, Turkish-Armenian Conflict Documents, Ankara, 2007, p. 235).

Similarly, Mr. Akçam claims that the note of Minister of Interior Talat to Grand Vizier Sait Halim sent on May 26, 1915 “has never been completely translated into modern Turkish,” which is false (Özdemir & Sarinay, pp. 55-56; pp. 58-59 for the English translation). More seriously, Mr. Akçam alleges (pp. 136-137) that this document is “the clearest possible refutation of the official Turkish version of the events of 1915, which insists that the policies toward the Armenians were the result of the wartime exigencies. On the contrary, Unionist policy was aimed at resolving the issue of Armenian reforms in a definitive manner.” To come to such a conclusion, Mr. Akçam cuts out several paragraphs of the document, which unequivocally present the relocation as measure decided chiefly because of “armed attacks on security forces and armed uprisings.” For instance (my emphasis):

“Unfortunately, while the means to bring about a final solution to this problem [by reforms] is being worked out, some of the Armenians living in places close to the battlefields have recently become involved in activities aimed at creating difficulties for our army in its fight against the enemy to protect the Ottoman borders. Those Armenians are trying to impede the operations of the army, and the transfer of supply and ammunition. They are combining their aspirations and activities with those of the enemy’s and are fighting against us in the ranks of the enemy. Within the country, they dare to carry out armed attacks against the military forces and the innocent civilians, to become involved in acts of murder, looting and plundering in the Ottoman cities and towns, to provide supplies to the enemy’s navy and to inform them of the places with fortified posts. The conduct of such rebel elements has rendered it necessary to remove them from the area of military operations and to evacuate the villages serving as operational bases and shelters for the rebels.”

The allusion to the reforms proposed in 1914 is only incidental and not the reason given by Talat for the relocation decision.
Taner Akçam also removes the reference to the protection of relocated Armenians, especially this sentence:

“A decision has been taken to ensure the comfort of those subjects on their way to places allocated for their resettling. To ensure the subjects arrival at the resettlement places, and facilitate their rest, and protect of their live and properties on their journey.”

A third striking example of deliberate and serious distortion is the willing mistranslation (p. 208) of a telegram sent by the minister of Interior Talat to the governor Mehmet Resit on July 12, 1915 (my emphasis):

“In Mardin the Armenian bishop and some 700 persons from among Armenian and other Christian population were taken outside the city and slaughtered like sheep by some persons arrived from Diyarbekir.”

Actually, the document says:

“Particularly, from individuals sent from Diyarbakir recently, it has been learnt that in Mardin, a total of seven hundred people consisting of Armenians and other Christians, also including the bishop, had been taken from their houses at nights and killed by beheading like sheep.” (Özdemir & Sarinay, p. 161).

This document was published as early as 1995, with a transliteration. In 2007, a translation into modern Turkish and into English was published. In 2008, Yusuf Halaçoglu denounced Taner Akçam’s mistranslation in the Turkish edition of the book. Regardless, it is maintained in the edition in English.

Mr. Akçam does not refrain from relying on completely discredited material, like the “Andonian documents” (pp. 268 and 272) and the so-called “Ten Commands” attributed to the CUP (p. 197). It has been proven since 1983 that the “Andonian documents” are fakes, and I devoted a 59-pages article to demonstrating it again (Maxime Gauin, “Aram Andonian’s Memoirs of Naim Bey and the Contemporary Attempts to Defend their ‘Authenticity’”, Review of Armenian Studies, 23, 2011, pp. 233-292). It has been proven by Canadian historian Gwynne Dyer since 1973 that the “Ten Commands” are apocryphal, and were not taken seriously by the British authorities (Gwynne Dyer, “Correspondence,” Middle Eastern Studies, IX-3, 1973, pp. 378-379). Dr. Dyer replied to the pro-Armenian author Christopher Walker, who, having read the response, did never use the “Ten Commands” anymore. Even worse, Mr. Akçam relies on the translation of this “document” by Vahakn Dadrian, who adds words (“commit massacres”) which are not actually in the “original” (on this point: Ferudun Ata, “An Evaluation of the Approach of the Researchers Who Advocate Armenian Genocide to the Trials Relocation,” in The New Approaches to Turkish-Armenian Relations, Istanbul: Istanbul University Publications, 2008, p. 560).

Mr. Akçam also distorts material that is already questionable in itself, i.e., the partial accounts of trials which took place in Istanbul from 1919-1920. Mr. Akçam fails to explain how credible these tribunals were, and how they banned the right of cross-examination, the right to be assisted by a lawyer during the investigation and, from April to October 1920, the simple right to hire a lawyer. He fails to explain how the reliability of the newspapers of Istanbul in 1919-1920 (the original material is completely lost); they were submitted to censorship, and the French military in Istanbul complained several times about unsubstantiated rumors and selective information published by at least some of these newspapers. Worse, Mr. Akçam invents (pp. 414-415) a confession by Officer Yusuf Riza. He purely and simply inverts the sense of the published account (see Erman Sahin, “Review Essay: The Armenian Question,” Middle East Policy, XVII-1, Spring 2010, p. 153; this article is a devastating, 20-pages long, analysis of the first version, in Turkish, of The Young Turks’ Crime against Humanity).

Certainly, a better knowledge of Turko-Armenian history is needed, but for that, we need historians.

Maxime GAUIN* - Contributing Analyst, Strategic Outlook
*He is a Ph.D. candidate at Middle East Technical University History Department.

11.12.2012

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Source:http://www.strategicoutlook.org/

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Related Posts:

1. The Filiations of Taner Akcam / Some Examples Of The Method Used By Taner Akcam
2. Scholars To Sue Taner Akcam For Singling Out Names
3. Video: Taner Akcam Story: From Terrorist To Armenian Propagandist
4. Review Essay Armenian Question
5. Review Essay Scrutiny of Akcam
6. Minnesota University Taner Akcam
7. 3105) - Dear Taner Akcam,
8. 3069) Dear Taner Akcam,
9. Halacoglu Is Responding to Taner Akcam
10. "The Armenian Genocide and Turkish National Security" by Taner Akcam
11. Taner Akcam: The Turkish “Poster Boy” Of The Armenian Lobby Turns Out To Be A Paid Armenian-Agent
12. Inventory By Taner Akcam

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Comment by Sukru S. Aya, Istanbul, 12.12.2012



Direct Link To The Document

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Case Of Altug Taner Akcam V. Turkey Updated 24 June 2013


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3381) Demographic Statistics by Associations Patriotiques Armeniennes-1919

Title Demographic statistics produced by the Associations Patriotiques Armeniennes
Creator Messoby, Kevork
Creator-Culture Armenian
Creator-Role author
Creation Date 1919-08-06
Description Demographic information submitted to the Commission by the Associations Patriotiques Armeniennes, focusing on numbers of Armeniens in different parts of Turkey and the former Ottoman Empire.
Subject (LC) Armenia -- Population -- Statistics
Armenians -- Turkey -- History
Inter-allied Commission on Mandates in Turkey. American Section -- Records and correspondence
Spatial Coverage (TGN) Syria (nation)
Armenia (nation)
Turkey (nation)
Temporal Coverage 1919
Language French
Collection Name Albert H. Lybyer Papers, 1876-1949
Repository ID Record series 15/13/22, Box 16: King-Crane Commission (May-August 1919)
Folder 13
Folder Heading Aug 1-7, 1919
OhioLINK Institution Oberlin College
Repository Name University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. University Archives
Copyright Statement Permission to include this material was given to the Oberlin College Archives by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. For additional information please contact the University Archivist, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Room 19 Library, 1408 W. Gregory Dr., Urbana, IL, 61801. Phone: (217) 333-0798.
Digital Publisher Oberlin College. Archives . . .



Direct Link to The Document:
Demographic Statistics by Associations Patriotiques Armeniennes-1919

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3380) America As Mandatary For Armenia (1919) Free E-Book

Author: American Committee for the Independence of Armenia.
Published: New York, 1919.
Subjects: World War, 1914-1918 > Armenia.
United States > Foreign relations > Armenia.
Armenia > Foreign relations > United States.
Physical Description: 56 pages
Classification Number: D651.A7 A6 . . .




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3379) Book Review: Preposterous Paradoxes of Ambassador Morgenthau : A Factual Story About Politics, Propaganda and Distortions

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Sukru Server Aya's new book titled "Preposterous Paradoxes of Ambassador Morgenthau : A Factual Story About Politics, Propaganda and Distortions" is expected to be released in February 1913.

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Here's a review
by Professor Dr Ata ATUN:

The book titled “Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story” written by Mr. Henry Morgenthau Sr. the U.S. Ambassador in Istanbul from 1913 to 1916, on which the Armenian allegations mainly based on, when cross checked day by day with his diary, reveals the fact that it is tailored rather than conveying the real truth on what happened during this era.

Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, during his 780 days of diplomatic mission in Istanbul, did not even travel ten miles out of the city to any countryside village, except a few on the Bosporus and the Belgrade Forest where he and his friends frequently went horse riding. The only trip he took was by ship to Greece and Egypt in March 1914 and from there to Palestine Holy Lands and cities, ending in Beirut. . .


From there he boarded his assigned yacht – (gun boat) Scorpion to travel to Mersin, Adana, Rhodes, Smyrna and finally Istanbul in 40 days. It was like a cruise holiday and he never rode on a horse or a car on the soil of Ottoman Empire. He did not travel eastbound, never went further than 10 miles east of Skudari (Üsküdar) and did not visit the eastern regions of Anatolia.

His book titled “Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story” is based solely on what he heard and was told. These kinds of evidences or depositions are called “Hear to say” and not taken into consideration or credited in the courts of justices.

It is obvious that the stories in the book are fictious, rather than the reality, actually came into life in the minds of Mr. Arshag Schimavonian, the dragoman (interpreter) of the USA Embassy in Istanbul who acted as the Ambassador Morgenthau’s advisor and right hand together with his secretary Mr. Hagop Andonian who both were anti-Turkish Armenians. Their made up stories ingeniously converted to a novel style history book by Mr. Burton J. Hendrick, a Pulitzer Prize winner, who actually is the ghost writer of the book. He did write the book using all his skills.

Pulitzer Prize winner Mr. Hendrick, by magically “putting words in their mouths” of the story tellers as if there was a sound recorder and the conversations were put down verbatim years later in the book, made a fortune out of this tell-a-tale book, by receiving forty percent of the revenues from the sales and a mere $15,000 in cash, equivalent of $1,263,823 of the year 2012. Dressings were all produced in the USA to make the story look real either by Hendrick himself or Schimavonian and Andonian.

The main reason why the book titled “Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story” published was to write a book damning the Turks and the Germans, which would justify the USA’s entrance in the war. It was the idea of Ambassador Morgenthau and he made his offer to President Wilson, whom he was very close to. USA and Britain knew that this was an “Ordered book to serve as a trump card” for USA to participate in WW I.

President Wilson supported the idea and a new team was set up for his alleged services in Turkey to be explained in his reputed book. The team leaders were Mr. Arshag Schimavonian and Mr. Hagop Andonian. Although the author of the book is declared to be the Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, it is by now known by everybody that the actual writer was Mr. Burton J. Hendrick and he considered Morgenthau’s, Schimavonian’s and Andonian’s stories as reliable sources.

After almost 75 years the credibility of the Morgenthau’s book was scholarly researched and a serious check back was done by Prof. Heath W. Lowry for the first time in his book “The Story Behind Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story”, published by the Isis Press, Istanbul 1990 (ISBN 975-428-019-3). The result was a disaster for Mr. “Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story” book.

This very book titled “Preposterous Paradoxes of Ambassador Morgenthau” written solely by Mr. S,ükrü Server Aya, the reliable and distinguished researcher on the Armenian Allegations, cross checks day by day the diary of Mr. Ambassador and his notorious book titled “Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story”.

I used word “notorious” deliberatively, because the output of this cross check reveals the fact that Mr. Ambassador’s book was tailored rather than conveying the real truth on what happened before, during and after deportation on the year 1915.

Professor Dr. Ata ATUN

Academic and Researcher
T.R.N. Cyprus

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The book is a continuation of the chapter 15 of Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2010/12/3189-genocide-of-truth-continues-but.html which can be read and downloaded at the given link

For more remarks by Aya on Morgenthau see also Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2010/08/3121-morgenthau-book-review-by-sukru.html

This last book of about 240 pages, elaborates deeper and demonstrates the distortions and inversions by Ambassador Morgenthau. It compares verbatim excerpts from his book “Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story”, with what he had written on the very same matter in his personal diary kept by him and/or his secretary Hagop Andonian daily, noting the important events. Where necessary, other “neutral documents” are quoted to show that Morgenthau’s Book, is an "excellent book of boasting, diversions and inexplicable lies" he introduced in 1918 by this book (almost four years after the events happened) to create a document damning Turks and Germans, to give “a humane cause” to USA to take part in WW1. Mr. Morgenthau’s Diary written in his hand writing (or his secretary’s) belies the polished words written in his book (by the Pulitzer prize winner ghost writer Burton Hendrick, putting words in mouths as if they were copied from a sound recorder).

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3378) What Did Talat Pasha Speak With Soviet Intelligence ?

• What Did Talat Pasha Speak With Soviet Intelligence ?
• Why Talat Pasha Was Angry About Morgenthau ?
• Talat Pasha - Contacts With Bolsheviks and The British

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Direct Link To: What Did Talat Pasha Speaks With Soviet Intelligence?

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3377) Free E-Book: Relief Of Armenians, Hearings Before the Committee on Foreign Affairs, June 21, 1916

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Comment by Sukru S. Aya

This new addition to your E-library, is a great contribution as “historical evidence”, and reconfirms my previous comments and book contents. The sorrowful reality is the fact that U.S. politicians or Turkish speakers or scholars, do not read such discoveries and repeat their own stale opinions, despite the fact that “documents show the very opposite”.


This document gives the Hearings on June 21, 1916, “Committee of Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives” as regards “Relief to Armenians”. This document comprises the statements of Rev. Arsene E. Vehuni, Bishop of Armenians, who speaks for the Armenian population in Turkey as “about 2,000,000” when we know from the French-Armenian Land Distribution Committee Report dated March 1, 1914 that the population was 1.280.000. The Bishop was brought to the Committee to exert “religious weight” as a Christian!


The speaker on behalf of Armenians was a lawyer Miran Sevasly, who died in 1935 and we see a small report in the New York Times which informs the readers quite well: Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2007/08/1878-nyt-22-jun-1935-armenian-patriot.html


Among the papers submitted by Mr. Sevasly, the following starting sentence is of interest: “Kevork, the Servant of Jesus Christ, and by the…” I thus learned that “Christ had an Armenian servant” and who knows his role in the spread of Christianity?



The following excerpt from page 4 is of very high importance:

“Mr. Morgenthau thinks that about $ 5,000,000 are urgently needed. The American Relief Committee says that, according to their knowledge, ever since deportations have been started, about 750,000 or 800,000 men have been deported from the different parts of Asia Minor to the wilderness of Mesopotamia”.

The readers are cordially invited to view Chapter 11 of my book “The Genocide of Truth Continues…But facts Tell the Real Story”, at

Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2010/08/3143-popped-or-polluted-information-on.html,

and note that Boghos Nubar, head of the Armenian Delegation at the Paris Peace Conference in his letter dated Dec.11, 1918 to the French Foreign Ministry, gave this number as 600,000 to 700.000.


It is not only that the “population numbers are always inflated by Armenian authorities” but I am asking a simple question to all U.S. Scholars, Politicians, Correspondents and or self made scholars such as Orhan Pamuk, Fatma Müge Göcek and many more in Turkey and overseas including pipe blowers such as Taner Akcam, (as well as the Turkish authorities and writers who learn from hearsays) to explain and prove to the readers:


a- If subject document, (Washington Government Printing Office – 1916”) is fake and if not

b- How anyone can kill 1,000,000 or 1,500,000 persons out of maximum 700,000 and have a balance of:

c- 1,414,000 alive on 31.12.1921, as per US Senate-Relief Report resolved on 22.4.1922 or

d- 625,000 alive as per letter dated 24.3.1921 from US High Commissioner in Istanbul to the U.S. Secretary of State?


On page 13 of the same document we have another paradoxical excerpt which reads:

“The dispatch shows that the number of survivors is greater than has been stated in former estimates, which varied between three hundred and five hundred thousand. Now it is cabled that there are 500,000 in the districts of Damascus, Zor, and Aleppo alone. The total number of Armenian refugees in Turkey who need help is at least 800,000.”


Conclusion: Documented counter comments only…are welcome!

Sukru S. Aya, Istanbul 27.11.2012


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3376) State Identity, Continuity, And Responsibility The Ottoman Empire, The Republic Of Turkey And The Armenian Genocide A Reply To Vahagn Avedian

by Pulat Tacar And Maxime Gauin

Introduction
We have been asked by the European Journal of International Law to write a reply to an article entitled ‘State Identity, Continuity and Responsibility: The Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Turkey and the Armenian Genocide’. The article accuses Turkey of ‘prac-tising a denialist policy’ with regard to ‘the act of genocide committed during 1915– 1916’, demanding that it ‘make itself responsible for its own internationally wrongful acts committed against Armenians and other Christian minorities’, and also accuses it of ‘expanding the massacres beyond its borders into the Caucasus and the territo-ries of the independent Republic of Armenia’. According to the same article, there is a state succession and continuation of responsibility from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic, and the Republic must assume full responsibility for and should also repair the injury caused by the Ottoman Empire.

The Armenian question is especially sensitive, among other reasons because of the long accumulation of prejudices against Turks, 1 Armenian terrorism in 1973– 1991, 2 the Armenian invasion and occupation of western Azerbaijan since 1992 . . . . .

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3375) Photograph links Germans to 1915 Armenia Genocide

Newly discovered picture shows Kaiser's officers at scene of Turkish atrocity

Robert Fisk
21 October 2012


The photograph – never published before – was apparently taken in the summer of 1915. Human skulls are scattered over the earth. They are all that remain of a handful of Armenians slaughtered by the Ottoman Turks during the First World War. Behind the skulls, posing for the camera, are three Turkish officers in tall, soft hats and a man, on the far right, who is dressed in Kurdish clothes. But the two other men are Germans, both dressed in the military flat caps, belts and tunics of the Kaiserreichsheer, the Imperial German Army. It is an atrocity snapshot – just like those pictures the Nazis took of their soldiers posing before Jewish Holocaust victims a quarter of a century later.

Did the Germans participate in the mass killing of Christian Armenians in 1915? This is not the first photograph of its kind; yet hitherto the Germans have been largely absolved of crimes against humanity during the first holocaust of the 20th century. German diplomats in Turkish provinces during the First World War recorded the forced deportations and mass killing of a million and a half Armenian civilians with both horror and denunciation of the Ottoman Turks, calling the Turkish militia-killers "scum". German parliamentarians condemned the slaughter in the Reichstag.

Indeed, a German army medical officer, Armin Wegner, risked his life to take harrowing photographs of dying and dead Armenians during the genocide. In 1933, Wegner pleaded with Hitler on behalf of German Jews, asking what would become of Germany if he continued his persecution. He was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo and is today recognised at the Yad Vashem Jewish Holocaust memorial in Israel; some of his ashes are buried at the Armenian Genocide Museum in the capital, Yerevan.

It is this same Armenian institution and its energetic director, Hayk Demoyan, which discovered this latest photograph. It was found with other pictures of Turks standing beside skulls, the photographs attached to a long-lost survivor's testimony. All appear to have been taken at a location identified as "Yerznka" – the town of Erzinjan, many of whose inhabitants were murdered on the road to Erzerum. Erzinjan was briefly captured by Russian General Nikolai Yudenich from the Turkish 3rd Army in June of 1916, and Armenians fighting on the Russian side were able to gather much photographic and documentary evidence of the genocide against their people the previous year. Russian newspapers – also archived at the Yerevan museum – printed graphic photographs of the killing fields. Then the Russians were forced to withdraw.

Wegner took many photographs at the end of the deportation trail in what is now northern Syria, where tens of thousands of Armenians died of cholera and dysentery in primitive concentration camps. However, the museum in Yerevan has recently uncovered more photos taken in Rakka and Ras al-Ayn, apparently in secret by Armenian survivors. One picture – captioned in Armenian, "A caravan of Armenian refugees at Ras al-Ayn" – shows tents and refugees. The photograph seems to have been shot from a balcony overlooking the camp.

Another, captioned in German "Armenian camp in Rakka", may have been taken by one of Wegner's military colleagues, showing a number of men and women among drab-looking tents. Alas, almost all those Armenians who survived the 1915 death marches to Ras al-Ayn and Rakka were executed the following year when the Turkish-Ottoman genocide caught up with them.

Some German consuls spoke out against Turkey. The Armenian-American historian Peter Balakian has described how a German Protestant petition to Berlin protested that "since the end of May, the deportation of the entire Armenian population from all the Anatolian Vilayets [governorates] and Cilicia in the Arabian steppes south of the Baghdad-Berlin railway had been ordered". As the Deutsche Bank was funding the railway, its officials were appalled to see its rolling stock packed with Armenian male deportees and transported to places of execution. Furthermore, Professor Balakian and other historians have traced how some of the German witnesses to the Armenian holocaust played a role in the Nazi regime.

Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath, for example, was attached to the Turkish 4th Army in 1915 with instructions to monitor "operations" against the Armenians; he later became Hitler's foreign minister and "Protector of Bohemia and Moravia" during Reinhard Heydrich's terror in Czechoslovakia. Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg was consul at Erzerum from 1915-16 and later Hitler's ambassador to Moscow.

Rudolf Hoess was a German army captain in Turkey in 1916; from 1940-43, he was commandant of the Auschwitz extermination camp and then deputy inspector of concentration camps at SS headquarters. He was convicted and hanged by the Poles at Auschwitz in 1947.

We may never know, however, the identity of the two officers standing so nonchalantly beside the skulls of Erzinjan.

http://www.independent.co.uk/

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382 Comments:
53 Pages

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From: Ülkü Bassoy
Date: Jun 11, 2006 5:38 AM
Subject: your nonsensical "nonsense"
To: letter@independent.co.uk


Mr Fisk,

This is neither a hate nor a love message.
I better leave the "hate " of you to those of Malkovich natured Europeans and Americans, and "love", to your bigoted Armenian admirers and Dashnak terrorists who might have surfaced as potential benefactors to your self, and to other genocide traders including the turn-coat( as we call them)Turkish ones you mentioned in your letter(regretfully you forgot to mention the most prominent one amongst them - the German Orient Institute backed sociologist Taner Akcam, the self-assigned historian as the other ones at the Michigan University Fatma Müge Göcek and Elif Safak), a paradigm of disproportionate commotion i.e fisking, to the Turkish Ambassador in London.

While admiring your outspoken posture against the Bush and Blair hypocrisy( yet one must be fair to them; they are not really exceptions: Hypocrisy is inherent trait of the powerful US, Europe and the EU) you rightly underline and disseminate, your unseemly uttering to the Turkish Ambassador in London vocalize the fanatical "genocide-obsessed" aggressive Armenian Diaspora who assassinated 35 Turkish diplomats in 1970s.

Weren't the " dark last words" of Joy McClean's daughter in the same vein i.e.hypocrisy and hate?

I appreciated your Independent article of 30 March, 2006, "Lessons from the Ghosts of Gallipoli" mentioning Ataturk's epitaph on the marble plaque at Gallipoli. I wished however not to have read your closing remark which you probably conceived them as attributes to your punditry , intelligence and wisdom. Even a modest student of Turkish history would fail in committing such a mistake i.e mentioning the names of Ataturk and Usame bin Ladin side by side, in the context you structured .

It is untenable. In fact it is like wondering what Hitler would think of Ottoman or Turkish tradition of assigning some Jews, Armenians , Rums and other members of "millet" subjects to the highest levels of the Legislative, the Executive and the Judiciary!

Let me, in the meanwhile, cite another inscription on the monumental pedestal, sponsored mainly by the Apostolic Church in Vienna:"If our children forget this much evil , let the whole world condemn the Armenian people". Can you understand that much hatred? Don't they, don't you think of posterity, Turks and Armenians?

Mr Fisk, misconceiving is inevitable if one unquestionably believe in what he has learnt from certain sources of information. That is your case. You have learnt only of Armenian sources and ignored all the others! Thus your mind is not free for healthy thinking or reasoning although you may be convinced that you are. Then you start Fisking, degenerate the meaningful "nonsense" into nonsensical.

The Shoah is an established fact. Jews did not betray the German State, their Land and People. They fought with them in the 1st world war to defend their country-Germany. They did not kill one single non-Jewish German. Shoah is also accepted by the German State and the German people.

It is substantiated by the Nurnberg Trials of 1945-1946. The Armenian genocide allegations are a product of the traditional policies of the West (US included)the 17th century- dividing, disintegrating and devouring the remaining Ottoman lands i.e. today s Turkiye(you call it rightly Turkey for swallowing) like today's undeniable two concrete examples: fragmented and colonized Afghanistan and Irak.

You are " mostly (if not totally), as Turkish Ambassador wrote, under mistaken conception because;

-the number Armenian subjects in the Ottoman lands is a subject of controversy. Marcel Leart's book (Krikor Zohrab), considered the most complete statistical document, gave the number around 900.000. Ottoman archives less; some others went up to almost three million! They increased the numbers as in an auction -wise manner! A great disrespect to the lost souls. You did the same as putting the Armenian victims at 1,5 million. It seems that the more the figures are increased the more the people of your kind are satisfied. An awful way of pleasing oneself!

More than 500.000 man, women,young and old, children, were killed, burnt, raped, eviscerated, strangled, eyes-carved, even unborn were bayoneted etc.,perished. Yet Ottoman Muslim citizens do not count! Anyway after weren't all these non- Christians and thus had no human value!( Isn't still so? Afghanistan, Irak, Rwanda).

It seems that you have poorly learned about the Armenian atrocities against in 1915 when the Tsarist Russian troops invaded the Eastern part of the Ottoman lands in support of the Armenian Dasnak and Hunchak terrorists who did not even spare the lives of their own Armenian people who refused to collaborate with them? They undertook these treacherous actions by forming the Voluntary Armenian Units which produced nothing but disaster, in spite of the serious warnings of the then Ottoman Government. They were deceived by the British, French, Russian and American promises for an independent or autonomous Armenia on the Ottoman lands. They naively and fatally believed these double-faced perfidious powers who had been competing with each other for regional and the world - as is the case today-hegemony. Besides,Your analogy of the German Ambassador with that of the Turkish Ambassador is irrelevant and tasteless!

You have not mentioned of Lepsius? It is important! You should have mentioned his name as he ,the Founder of the German Orient and the President of the Armenian-German Society, was also the forger of the German archives concerning the Armenian issue! Ask those Akcam, Berktay, Müge, Safak and others. They will possibly tell you! If not tell me, I'll write the details to you..

You have met a few -Armenian- survivors! Ohh! have you really? But you have not met any one Ottoman Muslim survivors? Have you? Just like Lepsius who wrote all his reports and books without setting his foot on the Anatolian land! If not why haven t you tried to meet at least one of them? How can one respect your journalism, your authorship? Armen Wegner, an anti-Hitler yet Stalinist! Somehow he forgot to shoot a single picture of suffering Ottoman Muslim! He lied because he himself confessed that his photos was not taken in the period of relocation of Armenians.

Andonian documents, the well known Talat Pasha Telegramme was false, the famous skull heap picture was false.. And they and you are speaking of genocide!

Amid all these fishy- Fisky- frisky shenanigan contenders of Armenian genocide, why should the fanatic Armenians and their supporters care attaining the truth through discussing with the Turkish scientists and politicians on both side's archival documents! Hence they torpedoed the VAT and TARC meetings initiated between the good-willed Armenian and Turkish historians and diplomats in Vienna and Washington? Why? Your reply to this is the most nonsensical: " Because Armenians established the facts of genocide and that is enough! Because an unprecedented international crime was committed, the mere( Oh God' the 'mere ') questioning of which would be an insult to the millions of victims who perished"! So the counter voices should be reduced to silence ! We say " Yok yav!"in Turkish. Such baseless arguments and bull-stories are unacceptable.

Majority of Turks, I believe would be ready to accept the heaviest incrimination provided that they are nothing but cock-and-bull stories.

In short Mr Fisk you are toadying and voicing Mr Kotcharian's and Sassounian's obsessed views.

Ulku Bassoy

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3374) A Turk, a Kurd, and an Armenian Walk into a Church

by Khatchig Mouradian

We had met the culprits earlier, near the lake—a large herd of sheep that covered the landscape stretching between two hills. (Photo by Khatchig Mouradian)

We park the car near Lake Van and start our long hike towards the side of a hill where the ruins of a medieval Armenian monastery await us. It is a long hike over uneven surfaces thoroughly sprinkled with dry manure. We had met the culprits earlier, near the lake—a large herd of sheep that covered the landscape stretching between two hills. A few shepherds greeted us and offered some tea.

After nearly an hour, the church is in clear view. “I have never walked this long to get to a mosque!” one of my companions, a Kurdish activist from Diyarbakir, jokes.

I smile, but I also want to use the opportunity to make a point to everyone in our small group. “You know, I do not hike for hours to get to churches in the U.S. Or anywhere else for that matter,” I say half-jokingly. “This is about genocide, dispossession, and a search for meaning…” . . .


He knows.

I am being preachy, my American friend’s eyes are telling me. I notice the box of Turkish delights she’d purchased earlier protruding from her handbag. “Your bag is so delightful,” I say, attempting to be funny. We soldier on.

“This is about genocide, dispossession, and a search for meaning…” (Photo by Khatchig Mouradian),

The monastery, historically known as Garmravak, but called Gorundu Kilisesi by locals after the nearby village, is perched majestically on the side of a hill. Two large holes on its dome face each other, indicating that the church was cannonballed before being left to the mercy of the forces of nature. Still, beautiful khatchkars (Armenian cross-stones) and engravings adorn the outside walls of the scarred, ravaged church.

We walk in. My Turkish companion, a soft-spoken urban designer from Istanbul, points to a large hole dug in the middle of the church: Treasure hunters have been here! After six trips to historic Armenian villages and towns over the past two years alone, this is an all too familiar sight for me.

A few minutes later, I am alone in the church. I slide my hand on its walls ceremoniously, like I have done with every single church I have visited in historic Armenia. I know it gives me strength.

I would like to believe that the church also wants a reassuring hand telling it, “Hang in there! I know in my heart that we will be whole again one day.”

Two large holes on its dome face each other, indicating that the church was cannonballed before being left to the mercy of the forces of nature. (Photo by Khatchig Mouradian)

Beautiful khatchkars (Armenian cross-stones) and engravings adorn the outside walls of the scarred, ravaged church. (Photo by Khatchig Mouradian)

“Hang in there! I know in my heart that we will be whole again one day.” (Photo by Khatchig Mouradian)

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About author
Khatchig Mouradian is the editor of the Armenian Weekly, the program coordinator of the Armenian Genocide Program at Rutgers University, and a PhD candidate in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University. He has lectured extensively and participated in academic conferences in Armenia, Austria, Cyprus, Lebanon, Norway, Switzerland, Syria, Turkey, and across the U.S. Write to him: editor@armenianweekly.com. Follow him on Twitter: http://twitter.com/khatcho

Armenian Weekly Editor Khatchig Mouradian just returned from a trip to Dikranagerd/Diyarbakir, Sassoun, and Van. This is the first in a series of articles written about that trip.

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Comments
Chris, October 18, 2012
As I will probably never have the money or stamina to make the journey myself, given that my mother’s family originated in Van, I look forward to making the journey vicariously through your upcoming articles.

Armen Kassabian, October 18, 2012
A moving story. Wonderfully written article by Khatchig Mouradian.

Jacques Oskanian, October 18, 2012
I love this article that Khatchig Mouradian wrote… Must be read…

Tim Upham, October 18, 2012
Figuratively, that would be great if a Turk, Kurd, and Armenian could all walk into a church together. When I saw the khatchkars strewed around in Van, that constantly crossed my mind. I was with a photographer, who was photographing them for a calendar. When the calendar was completed, I gave one to a social worker at a refugee resettlement agency. He was Kurdish, and he was resettling Kurdish refugees from northern Iraq into the United States. We talked about how the Armenians were refugees after World War I, and how the Kurds were refugees after Iraq’s Anfal campaign, and how this calendar can serve as a reminder of both people who suffered. He said he was very much aware of what the Kurds did to the Armenians during World War I, and how the Kurds are now in the same position. Which showed us both, that human rights abuse is perpetual, and how an oppressor can turn into the oppressed.

WR, October 18, 2012
At the end of the article you mentioned Digranagerd/Dyarbakir. Dyarbakir is not the former Digranagerd. Dyarbakir was called Amida in the past. Digranagerd was situated at the town of Silvan. Between Silvan and Aghdam (Artsakh), where he also had a castle, King Dikran was ruling his kingdom from three more castles, most probably all called Digranagerd.

RVDV, October 19, 2012
There is the city of Diyarbakir and the province of Diyarbakir. I’ve read that Dikranagerd is located near Silvan- which is in Diyarbakir province.

Sarkis, October 19, 2012
There are supposed to be several Dikranagerts. The one in Artsakh is indeed on the road from Aghdam heading north, not far from the river Khachenaget, located on our liberated lands. The Azeris had ruined it and completely buried it underground.
Now it has been being excavated by Armenian explorers and revealed. It has foundations similar to Amaras church in the south. I was there in 2011.
There’s also a second church in Dikranagert up the hill behind the museum.
Sorry, but it seems to be impossible up upload pics.

AraK, October 18, 2012
Very touching!

Sebouh der Avedissian, October 19, 2012
My late Mother always referred to herself as Dickranagertsi and so did her relatives that were found over the years, so there has to be some connection between Diyarbakir and Dickranagerd. RVDV is probably right that Dickranagerd is in the province of Diyarbakir rather than the two being the old and new names of the same city.

Sarkis, October 19, 2012
Beautiful story, touching choice of words!
It gives us strength too!
Thank you for sharing it with us.

Maral M. K., October 19, 2012
Thank you for the meaningful and inspiring article Khatchig.

istanbul, October 19, 2012
Wellcome to home Mr. Muradyan. You are touching to souls as well, and i beilive that, souls’ nationalty is humanty.

i wish you can stay and live here, in your motherland.

ARx, October 21, 2012
We already stayed and lived there, in our motherland, istanbul-Christian Constantinople. And what did the Turks do to us? Now we’re “invited” to live there again among unrepentant, unremourseful, unapologetic Turks? No, thanks. We will live there as free Western Armenia not Republic of Turkey.

gaytzag palandjian, October 20, 2012
With due respect to all [posters.All are in praise of the fanciful and well compossed article by Mr. Kh.Muradian.no doubt.
But only the last two are to be commented upon by me as STRANGE,to say it rather softly…
I refer ,first to Mara M.K.’s one totally out of place word “inspiring”
what on earth dloes she wish to convey _-=-
That we be inspired as to what,that the great Turkey is to offer us on silver platter thoe half ruined churches some day,or what inspiring us to do what…
As to the last one, in spanish one would say ,”esto ya es el colmo”
translated, this is already the top or summit…meaning “irritating” sickening.. I WISH YOU CAN STAY AND LIVE ,IN YOUR MOTHERLAND…
wHAT iSTANBULLA, HAVE YOU GUYS DECIDED TO WELCOME US BACK TO OUR LANDS AND STAY AND LIVE THERE…
INDEED, THIS IS A VERY incognito phrase…..
What come and live side by side with people that near ……did us in….
AND UNDER THEIR VERY PROTECTIVE RULE/FLAG…
Are you in search of more Tashnags ,who took the bait..in 1908, when the Young Turks were supposedly comrades in arms with the Armenian Young?
If there are Armenians who still believe that the Turk has changed.They are welcome to go and live with those Arkadash Turks.Not those like me who have truly accepted with my father hs nmarrated to me (from Erzeroum , till age 17 and on till 38 ion Istanbulla!!!!
I know enough to say to God allmighty PLEASE KEEP THE FRONTIERS WITH GREAT TURKEY CLOSED FOR AS LONG AS JUSTICE HAS NOT BEEN DELIVERED TO MY ARMENIAN PEOPLE.REPENTERS REALLY KNEELED DOWN LIKE THE GERMAN chancellor at Aushwitz and begged forgiveness OFFICIALLY AND THEN HIS GOV. AND SUCCESSIVE ONES PAYING ABUNDENTLY TO THE VICTIMS HEIRS…..
THEN WE SHALL GO AND LIVE -NO NOT WITHIN THEM BUT SIDE BY SIDE AND RESPECTING EA OTHER EQUALLY AND TRY TO BE CIVIL-LIKE.LIKE GERMANY AND FRANCE,LIKE gERMANYU AND iSRAEL….
THAT IS AFTER SETTLING PENDING ACCOUNTS….THIS BTW WHAT i TOLD THE TURK AFTER pROF. rICHARD g. hOVANIISIAN IANS DISCOURSE AT A u.s. UNIVERSITY ,WHEN i TOLD THE EX OFFICER tURK AND HE WENT AWAY MUTTERING YES SETTLE THE ACCOUNTS SETTLE THE ACCOUNTS(AFTER i HAVE TOLD HIM YOU ARE RIGHT WE SHOULD LIVE LIKE BEFORE SIDE BY SIDE AS BROTHERS AND SISTERS…
iN BRIEF THEY WILL SOON-MARK MY WORD SOON-COME AND KNEEL AT tSITSERNAKAPERT,LIKE jEMAL PASHA´S GRANDSON DID.BUT…..
NO REPARATIONS NO RESTORATIONS NO GIVING BACK WHAT THEY CONFISCATED FROM MY UNCLES AND GRANDFATHER…
tHOSE ARE BYGONE, A SMART tURK WOULD TRY TO CONVINCE SOME OF US NOW tURKEY IS A VERY dEMOCRATIC COUNTRY.aLL NEIGHBOURS RESPECT AND ARE KIND TOWARDS US.YOU SHOULD ALSO FOLLOW THEM….
mY gOD HOW SIMPLE DO THEY THINK THE THICK OF OUR PEOPLE ARE. oNLY A FEW YES.LIKE THE bISHOP IN gERMANYU WHO KINDLY ENTERTAINED VISTING tURKS,COME FOR SOFTENING AND ……(READ hAIRENIK mR. kH.mURADIAN´S aRMENIAN VERSION nEWSPAPER..THEN UPON NEARING I CANNOT BELIEVE MY EYES THE fOOL OF A bISHOP THAT ONE KISSES THEM GOODBYE….aSK ME NEXT i SHALL GIVE DETAILS TOMORROW …NEWSPAPEERS DATE AND ALL…
wE DO HAVE SOME LIKE THAT ONE…

istanbul, October 20, 2012
Dear Gaytzag Palandjian, I am a Turk, i was born in Yozgat, have been living in ?stanbul. I dont know which country you are living? I have been living with Armenians in here from my childhood, like lots of other Turkish people.
Turkey and Turkish people are changing, this is not about democracy, because they are learning, we didnt know what happend in the history. In Turkey right know more than 30 different ethnic group living together, of course i am not talking about a dream country. Turkey will change faster because people want to learn truths. I am not inviting Armenians to my home, here is your home as well, here is my motherland like yours. This is my feelings and my opinons, like my wife, my little kid, my friends and lots of people from here.

My English is not very good sorry about it, but i am sure you can understand me, we are not from same mother but we are from same motherland.
Best wishes from Republic of Motherlands.

ARx, October 20, 2012
Yes, istanbul (originally Constantinople–the capital of Christian Byzantine empire), there in modern-day Turkey, long before the intrusion of the Seljuk Turks, was Armenians’ home as well, and there was our motherland before almost all the Armenian inhabitants were savagely mass murdered and forcibly deported by the Turks. What do you, Turks, should do now? Apologize to the descendants of the victims or attempt to lessen your guilt by saying “we didn’t know what happened in history”? This is not something that a 21st-century man should say. In the era of the Internet and digital access to materials in various world repositories, to say “we didn’t know what happened in history” is lame and immature… or just Turkish.

boyajian, October 21, 2012
Istanbul, yes, many Turks and Armenians and others live peacefully beside each other in Turkey. But that doesn’t change the fact that your people, your government, your nation must admit to the savage crime committed under the cover of WWI and apologize and make reparations. Without this there will never be healing and real peace. It is no longer acceptable to say “we didn’t know.” You know now. What will you do?

jda, October 21, 2012
istanbul, what we call Bolis,
Your comments are humane.

However your state and culture are not hospitable to Greeks, Armenians, Gypsies, Assyrians, Europeans or Arabs. “Armenian” is an insult in common usage.

If you want to see what my grandmother lived through, watch the first 12 minutes of America America, in which Armenians are burned alive in their vilage church.

Your Generals and Admirals are still killing Christians, as was the case in Malatya. The killers encouraged each other to bring extra towels to soak up the blood.

Your state wants every single Armenian dead. Those in Yerevan, and those in Turkey. Do not be deceived by the spread of liberalism into believing Genocide is in the past. Your countymen simply ran out of Armenians in the east to kill.

necati, October 21, 2012
Istanbul,
I was same as you , a humanist, before i met AW.

After 2 years of conversation with them, now i am an ultra-nationalist/anti-ermenian.

I thank all of ermenians who helped me to find reality.

Margo Babikian, October 20, 2012
Beautiful writing.And great photos too.

Tom Vartabedian, October 20, 2012
A story written wuth passion and meant to elucidate a community. May not have been uncovered unless somelike took the time and effort to perceive such a subject matter. The striking photography is a further complement.

HarryA, October 20, 2012
I am thankful for Khacho for posting this article and bring to readers attention the state of monuments in former Armenian capital, the historic city of Van. I like to add the following clarification, the Karmrakvank is the historic monastery on shores of Lake Van and the church is Surp Astvadzadzin. I strongly recommend reading the details on “www virtualani org / karmrakvank”. There are large number of Armenian churches scattered all around lake Van, and this is one of the surviving example, the largest complex is the monastery of Varakavank, with seven churches. On first week of October, the Varakavank was in headline news, when the owner of the church decided to secure a permits to build a mosque in the grounds of this church complex, an Armenian Activist Nadia Oygun exposed the story and let the world know, it turned out the owner of the church complex is Fatih Altayli, the chief editor and owner of Haberturk. She was successful in cornering this Turkish media mogul and force him to corner where he agreed on returning the SEVEN CHURCHs to the Armenian Patriarchate of Bolis OR the Turkish antiquity department… not calling a victory yet, but the news is very welcoming and need to be echoed in Armenian and world media.

gaytzag palandjian, October 20, 2012
Dear ARx,
You have amply contested/replied to Istanbulla.
I have neithr the disposition nor time to write and explain more …to some one who writes like he does.Very much ala turca.

Priam, October 20, 2012
Upon entering the Church, the Armenian will ask “where is the Russian?”, the Turk will pinch him to wake him up from his dream since it is Turkish territory, then the Armenian will take it personal (because the Armenian Catholicos who lives in Russia has hijacked his brain) a fight will break out between the two, the Kurd who sees this from a distance will join in acting with his heart rather than his logic & the Kurd will kill the Armenian to help the Turk, hence he does not have a protectorate as Armenia (France, Russia, Great Britian) and feels safer with the Turk. (In hindsight looking at the Syrian’s, Palestinian’s, Iraqi’s who have resisted zionism & have been doomed to fail)

Sella, October 21, 2012
Priam,
What a wild and sick imagination you have.

Tim Upham, October 21, 2012
I am sure the Kurds feel safe with Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. The Great Powers are no longer intervening on the Armenians behalf. That is when they were subjects of the Ottoman Empire. The Israelis and Palestinians are going to have to settle it out themselves.

Armen Kassabian, October 21, 2012
Dear ARx,
I appreciate your comment about unrepetant, unremorseful, and unapolgetic Turks. It is certainly true that there are many in the population who may feel that way. That being said, there may be a few Turks who are remorseful. I don’t know without speaking directly to them. In my opinion, boundaries of countries, in general, can only be changed by force of arms. The alternative is dialogue and education from a place of reconciliation with preservation of integrity and justice. Blanket condemnation of every Turk is certainly the right of every one, but may not be an effective strategy. Just my 2 cents.

ARx, October 22, 2012
Perhaps there are remorseful Turks, but I haven’t seen single Turk posting in these pages who’d unambiguously say: “my nation has perpetrated genocide against the Armenians–i.e. a deliberate mass extermination of a particular ethnic group–and I personally offer an apology to the descendants of the innocent victims”.

Boundaries of countries can be changed not only by force of arms. Internal disintegration, revolution, and self-determination movements also change boundaries. Consider the USSR, Yugoslavia, and Kosovo, to name a few.

Avery, October 22, 2012
One Turkish individual, RVDV, who visits us regularly @AW has unambiguously stated that he, as a Turk by choice, has no doubt that OT and CUP Turks committed Genocide against Armenians.

He has in fact gone beyond mere acceptance: he strongly and proactively confronts Denialists of all stripes on the pages of AW.

Regarding the apology: my personal feeling is that no individual Turk needs to apologize for the deeds of people who they had no control over. If they apologize, fine: nice of them to do so. If they don’t: no strike against them, as I see it.

But for me it is far more important for righteous Turks to confront and shame their Denialist compatriots everywhere they find them, and join us in our efforts to defeat the worldwide AG Denialist campaign. Merely accepting the AG in the year 2012 is too little, too late.

Tim Upham, October 22, 2012
I have interviewed people, who were taken in and hidden by Turkish and Kurdish families. One woman told me, how a Turkish family hid them in a cellar. If the Armenians did not know Turkish, they would make up another minority like Arab, or say they were deaf. Villages were combed all of the time for hidden Armenians. So their task was just as dangerous as Poles hiding Jews. There needs to be an Avenue of the Righteous Gentile for those Turkish and Kurdish families, and the three Ottoman governors who got removed from office, when they refused to have the Armenians removed from their provinces.

john the turk, October 21, 2012
HarryA
You said Fatih Altayli who is owner of the church was going to built a mosque but he was exposed. What kind of person are you? Fatih Altayli most probably doesn’t believe in any religion let alone he will built a mosque. Why do you need to distort something you really do not have to do? I think that this is an Armenian habit to change or distort the stories ha?

Betty Apigian Kessel (Serpouhie from Keghi), October 21, 2012
I continue to be overwhelmed at the beauty of our ancient Armenian churches. I had to bear the unbearable, to view Mouradian’s magnificent photos of Akhtamar knowing it is considered a museum. How simply magnificent it must have been for Arshile Gorky (Vosdqanig Adoian) to have lived near Akhtamar and to have been inspired by its unbelievable surroundings to create his marvelous paintings. We Armenians long for the return of our lands and for our people to be reunited for the good of all Armenians everywhere. If I can never make this same trip, I hope Mouradian continues to do so for enriching all of us with his knowledge and sensitivity to his dedication to being Hye. Please continue to reveal the Republic of Armenia and Historic Armenia to me. I love and treasure looking at all the photos with amazement and pure wonder. I remain proud of Armenian art and dedication to their Christian faith. I too want to run my hands over the surface of the church’s walls and to feet the art work, if not on earth, then in Heaven.

istanbul, October 21, 2012
Hi again, first off all, i will not change my mind, i beilive that this country belong to many different origin people. Who feel belong to this land they must be live here.
History is bad, not only for Turks also for other nations, even all nations.
Istanbul was constantinapole sure but before Khalkedon (Greek colony, now Kad?köy) before, a neolithic settlement (now Fikirtepe, also neolithic settlement in Sarayburnu) before paleolithic settlement in the Yar?mca caves, at that time there was no nation. Nation is not very old if you think the human history. Probably somebody want to use people that is why they produced ‘nation’ ‘religon’ they need nationalist and religois people, because this kind of people dont need to think they just beilive. I have read many racist coments in Armenian weekly, from Turks and Armenians. I beilive that, they have same surname only their names different.
Best wishes from motherland.

gaytzag palandjian, October 22, 2012
Istanbull*la..is now turned the page and is advocating the soviet style…that of All nations are one___
My foot especially the turks of Axerbaiajn and great Turkey.
The first one, the AXER…after 70 yrs of harsh soviet rule*also advocating BROTHERHOOD….did not push any brotherhood into the Axerbaijai*turkish heads.As to Contantinopla…welll my Armerican crossing latter,rather staying there a few days, before coming to meet me*us -on business in T..in 1953,told us , that he has seen the maddened, ferocious Truks of Istanbulla burning stores of Greek ownership on main Istanbul*la thoroughfares-streets.
he was then incognizant that his country the U.s. would as of that date appoint great Turkey as its main ally in the Middle Easat*and Israel…pumping into both over a HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS…with no return condition …now, we are seeing how the effect has been especially in great Turkey…
Hence to talk of NO NATION AND BROTHERHOOD NEIGHBOURLY COUNTRIES and that of a person of Turkish origin is tantamount to ZERO.
Certainly like some above have noted there may be ONE or a few in a million that feel and opine differently but the majority is what it is unfortunately AND BELIEVE YOU ME ARMENIANS IN THEIR RIGHT MINDS WILL NOT BE TAKEN IN AGAIN AND AGain…

Hakan, October 22, 2012
all radicals…before you start telling you fabricated lies..tell me why did your radical superstars husnak and tucnak kill neutral armenians businessman, priests and so on..why? because these radicals where inhuman..posined with Russian propaganda..of great armenia…and than radicals started to kill destroy kurdish and turkish muslim villages like in 1912 in the Balkan wars…because of orthodox evil radicals muslims turks bosniaks and albanians , chechens laz tatars were all killed and displaced in millions…before you ask as anything..first admit ask us for forgiveness for your evil deeds. Radicals choose the wrong side..that’s all..blame your radicals …thanks
.

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3373) Critical commentary to Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story

A critical commentary to Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story which largely consists of a Sidney B. Fay quote from the journal Kriegschuldfrage (1925).

Excerpted from:

Harry E. Barnes, Genesis of the World War (New York: Knopf, 1926), pp. 241-247:

. . .

This luxuriant and voluptuous legend was not only the chief point in the Allied propaganda against Germany after the publication of Mr. Morgenthau’s book, but it has also been tacitly accepted by Mr. Asquith in his apology, and solemnly repeated by Bourgeois and Pages in the standard conventional French work, both published since the facts have been available which demonstrate that the above tale is a complete fabrication. The myth has been subjected to withering criticism by Professor Sidney B. Fay in the Kriegschuldfrage for May, 1925:

The contemporary documents now available prove conclusively that there is hardly a word of truth in Mr. Morgenthau’s assertions, either as to (a) the persons present, (b) the Kaiser’s attitude toward delay, (c) the real reasons for delay, or (d) the alleged selling of securities in anticipation of war. In fact his assertions are rather the direct opposite of the truth.

a) As to the persons present, it is certainly not true that “Nearly all the important ambassadors attended.” They were all at their posts with the exception of Wangenheim, himself, and it is not certain that he even saw the Kaiser. Moltke was away taking a cure at Karlsbad, and Tirpitz was on a vacation in Switzerland. Jagow was also in Switzerland on a honey-moon and did not return until July 6. Ballin, the head of the Hamburg-American Line, who was absent from Berlin in the early part of July at a health resort, does not appear to have had any information until July 20, that there was a possible danger of warlike complications. Krupp v. Bohlen-Halbach, the head of the great munition works, was not at Potsdam on July 5, but saw the Emperor William next day at Kiel as the Emperor was departing for his Northern cruise. Nor is there any evidence that they were gathered at Potsdam on July 5 any of the others who were “necessary to German war preparations.” The only persons with whom the Kaiser conferred on July 5, at Potsdam after his lunch with the Austrian Ambassador, were Bethmann-Hollweg, the Chancellor, Falkenhayn, the Prussian Minister of War, and certain routine subordinate officials.


b) It is certainly not true that the Kaiser wished Austria to delay for two weeks whatever action she thought she must take against Serbia in order to give the German Bankers time to sell their foreign securities. There is abundant proof to indicate that Emperor William wished Austria to act quickly while the sentiment of Europe, shocked by the horrible crime at Sarajevo, was still in sympathy with the Habsburgs and indignant at regicide Serbs. As he wrote in a marginal note, “Matters must be cleared up with the Serbs, and that soon.”

c) The real reasons for the delay of two weeks between July 5 and 23, was not to give the German bankers two weeks to sell their foreign securities. The real reasons for delay were wholly due to Austria, and not to Germany. They were mainly two, and are repeatedly referred to in the German and Austrian documents which were published in 1919. The first was that Berchtold, the Austro-Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, could not act against Serbia until he had secured the consent of Tisza, the Premier of Hungary. It took two weeks to win Tisza over from his original attitude of opposition to violent action against Serbia. The second, and by far the most important reason for the final delay, was the fact that Berchtold did not want to present the ultimatum to Serbia until it was certain that Poincaré and Viviani had left Petrograd and were inaccessible upon the high seas returning to France. For otherwise Russia, under the influence of the “champagne mood” of the Franco-Russian toasts and the chauvinism of Poincaré, Iswolski, and the Grand Duke Nicholas gathered at Petrograd, would be much more likely to intervene to support Serbia with military force, and so Austria’s action against Serbia would less easily be “localized.”

d) In regard to Germany’s alleged selling of securities in anticipation of war, if one follows Mr. Morgenthau’s suggestion and examines the quotations on the New York Stock Exchange during these weeks, and reads the accompanying articles in the New York Times, one does not find a shred of evidence, either in the price of stocks or the volume of sales, that large blocks of German holdings were being secretly unloaded and depressing the New York market during these two weeks. The stocks that he mentioned declined only slightly or not at all; moreover, such declines as did take place were only such as were to be naturally expected from the general trend downward which had been taking place since January, or are quite satisfactorily explained by local American conditions, such as the publication of an adverse report of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Here are the facts. The amazing slump in Union Pacific from 155 ½ to 127 ½ reported by Mr. Morgenthau represented in fact an actual rise of a couple of points in the value of this stock. Union Pacific sold “ex-dividend” and “ex-rights” on July 20; the dividend and accompanying rights were worth 30 5/8, which meant that shares ought to have sold on July 22nd at 125 ¾. In reality they sold at 127 ½; that is, at the end of the two weeks” period which it is asserted that there was “inside selling” from Berlin, Union Pacific, instead of being depressed, was actually selling two points higher.

Baltimore and Ohio, Canadian Pacific, and Northern Pacific did in fact slump on July 14, and there was evidence of selling orders from Europe. But this is to be explained, partly by the fact that Baltimore and Ohio had been already falling steadily since January, and partly to the very depressing influence exercised on all railroad shares by the sharply adverse report on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, which was published by the Interstate Commerce Commission. The comment of the New York Times of July 15, is significant: “Stocks which have lately displayed a stable character in the face of great weakness of particular issues could not stand up under such selling as occurred in New Haven and some others today. There were times when it looked as though the entire market was in a fair way to slump heavily, and only brisk short covering toward the close prevented many sharp net declines. For its own account, or on orders from this side, Europe was an unusually large seller of stocks in this market. The cable told that a very unfavorable impression had been created by the Commerce Commission’s New Haven report. The European attitude toward American securities is naturally affected by such official denunciations of the way in which an important railway property has been handled.”

Most extraordinary is Mr. Morgenthau’s assertion about United States Steel Common. He says that between July 5th and 22nd it fell from 61 to 51 ½. The real fact, as any one may verify from the Stock Market reports for himself, is that Steel during these two weeks never fell below 59 5/8, and on July 22nd was almost exactly the same as two weeks earlier.

When the facts are examined, therefore, it does not appear that the New York Stock Market can afford much confirmation to Mr. Morgenthau’s myth of German bankers demanding a two weeks respite in which to turn American securities into gold in preparation for a world war which they had already plotted to bring about.

As Mr. Morgenthau has persistently refused to offer any explanation or justification of his “story” or to answer written inquiries as to his grounds for believing it authentic, we are left to pure conjecture in the circumstances. It appears highly doubtful to the present writer that Mr. Morgenthau ever heard of the Potsdam legend while resident in Turkey. It would seem inconceivable that he could have withheld such important information for nearly four years. The present writer has been directly informed by the Kaiser that Wangenheim did not see him in July, 1914. We know that Mr. Morgenthau’s book was not written by himself, but by Mr. Burton J. Hendrick, who later distinguished himself as the editor of the Page letters. We shall await with interest Mr. Hendrick’s explanation of the genesis of the Potsdam fiction as it was composed for Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story.

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3372) The Holocaust and Other Genocides Edited by Wichert ten Have and Barbara Boender

Edited by Wichert ten Have and Barbara Boender


Since Raphael Lemkin coined the term genocide after the destruction of the European Jews during WWII, the United Nations signed the Genocide Convention in 1948. Though this convention served the prevention of genocide in the future, large scale mass murder returned on all continents, the genocide in Cambodia, Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Armenia as some of the most notorious cases.



176 pages · 31 b/w and 33 colour illustrations . . .
Armenian Genocide 1915 by Umit Ungor


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3371) Book Review: Shattering Empires :The Clash and Collapse of the Ottoman and Russian Empires 1908-1918

by Michael A. Reynolds
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. 324 pp. $90 ($31.99, paper)

Reviewed by Yücel Güçlü
Kavaklıdere/Ankara

Shattering Empires traces the course of foreign relations between the Ottoman and Russian empires from the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 to the end of World War I. Reynolds of Princeton University examines Russia's policies toward eastern Anatolia and highlights the way interstate competition shaped local identities and politics through the introduction of the concept of the national state. . . .

Reynolds aims to show how the confrontation between the Ottoman and Russian states contributed to the collapse of both empires and to the birth of a new kind of politics in the region. He recounts the rivalry between the two empires and their downfall between 1908-18. The book is thematically rather than chronologically arranged; about one-third concerns the prewar years, and the rest is evenly divided between the period of 1914-16 and the remaining war years.

The author argues that "geopolitical competition and emergence of a new global interstate order provide the key to understanding the course of history in the Ottoman-Russian borderlands in the twentieth century." He illustrates the influence of nationalism on interstate politics in the Middle East and Eurasia and explores the ways in which states create and impose ethno-nationalist categories and identities.

However, the study has one significant problem. Although Reynolds does not categorize the Armenian events of 1915 as genocide, he mentions "the whole destruction of Ottoman Armenians during the First World War" and refers to "the effective eradication of the presence in Anatolia of [Armenians]." In fact, 1,295,000 Armenians lived in the Ottoman empire in 1914; 702,900 of these were subject to relocations in 1915-16, and very large numbers of the displaced persons survived their displacement, according to official documents of the Ottoman court.

Still the book remains highly original and insightful, and the author manifests not only a command of the subject matter but a profound understanding of the Ottoman and Russian positions. His objectivity and balanced judgment in most matters places this book at the top among works on Ottoman-Russian relations during the first two decades of the twentieth century.

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Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2012

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3370) Book Review : Crime of Numbers: Role of Statistics in the Armenian Question (1878-1918), Fuat Dündar

Reviewed by Yücel Güçlü, independent scholar

Transactions Publishers, 2010. xiv + 238 pages, with tables, figures, appendices, bibliography, index. $49.95, hardcover.

Crime of Numbers is a continuation of Fuat Dündar's postgraduate research. It is a controversial and provocative venture whose overarching thesis is that "during the First World War, in order to find land for homeless refugees from the Balkans, the Ottoman government evacuated certain areas where Armenians lived" (p. 2). His tone being polemical, Dündar is at pains to stress that this policy led to "the process that culminated in the decision to deport nearly the entire population" (p. 2). . . .

Based mainly on Ottoman and British government documents and an array of secondary sources, Dündar covers in 172 pages both diplomacy and statistics: the emergence of the Armenian question (1878-1918); war, massacre and statistics (1914-18) and the number of Armenian dead. After a brief introduction enumerating the issues for discussion, the book is structured into an uncomfortable union of four parts, all of them contentious. There is, oddly, no conclusion. The prose is often dry and overly abstract, perhaps understandably so, given the subject.

This survey of the Armenian question is incomplete. Most glaringly, the Russian archives, which are now available for the period under review, are not cited. As Dündar himself admits, "One of the largest gaps in the archival material used in this work is the archives of the Russian Empire, which played a definite role in both the 1914 agreement on Armenian reforms and World War I" (p. 4). It is now nearly two decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union made it possible for both Russian and non-Russian scholars to examine its files. The opportunity to do insightful work on the history of Ottoman-Russian relations is now greater than ever. Important original documents are available to foreign specialists in the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire, the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the Russian State Military-Historical Archive and the Russian State Military Archive in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The author should have looked at these records. If he had examined them, perhaps some of his analysis could have been more accurate. Indeed, most historians who have seen the Russian archives have found their earlier hypotheses remarkably altered by new evidence. These central repositories provide historians unprecedented access to fresh material that deepens our comprehension of the Armenian past.

Inaccuracies and misinterpretations mar Crime of Numbers. The author's statement that the Ottomans did not provide credible demographic data about the Armenians (p. 2) is unacceptable. Though they are by no means perfect, figures derived from official Ottoman sources are the most trustworthy guides to the country's nineteenth- and early twentieth-century population trends. The Sublime Porte developed a reasonably efficient system for counting the empire's population shortly after such procedures had been introduced in the United States, Britain and France. This system was no less reliable than the contemporary efforts of other countries in Europe. Keeping statistics on the Armenian population was part of the government's regular registration system and a means of tracking the military exemption tax paid by non-Muslims. The statistics of 1914 were of special importance, as they showed the situation before various national groups such as the Armenians began to use distorted figures to back political claims that arose after World War I.

It is also not possible to agree with Dündar's assertion that "the Unionist policy of Turkification was initiated with the putsch against the Sublime Porte in 1913" (p. 44). It is misleading to identify population removals from strategically sensitive areas as ethnic homogenization. The displacement of some Greeks from certain Aegean coastal areas was clearly a war imperative. The Aegean relocations were pragmatic actions by a state facing the challenge of insurgency, intending to tighten security in vulnerable zones. The Ottoman government was aware of the links between the local and mainland Greeks and had overwhelming evidence to doubt the loyalty of many among its Greek population.

Referring to the Armenian events of 1915, Dündar says, "Although most of these [Armenians serving in the czarist army] were Russian citizens, there were also a few Ottoman citizens among them" (p. 70). Not so. Thousands of Anatolian Armenians crossed the porous eastern border and joined Caucasian Armenians fighting in the Russian army or in the volunteer units formed alongside it for the specific purpose of "liberating" the "Armenian provinces" of the Ottoman empire in the name of Christianity. Garegin Pasdermadjian, who represented Erzurum in the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies during 1908-14, went over to the Russian side with almost all the Armenian soldiers in the Ottoman Third Army in eastern Anatolia at the outbreak of the war and returned at their head — burning villages and killing the Muslims who fell into his hands.

Contrary to the author's claim, Djemal Pasha's chief motive in removing the Armenians from the Cilician coast was not an excuse for changing the local ethnic composition but emanated from a real military necessity (p. 72). Armenian spying activities in this region no doubt served to heighten tension and Ottoman suspicion. Bombs were found in Armenian households. The outbreaks occurring in quick succession, as if by plan, rapidly led the Ottoman public and officials to realize that they were faced with a tightly organized and widespread rebellion. The fear was well founded, as that was exactly the plan of the Entente.

When discussing the Armenian arrests in Istanbul on April 24, 1915, Dündar's account is unsound. He alleges that "during the night of April 24..., 240 Armenian notables were arrested in Istanbul. Two days later, this number rose to 2,345" (p. 74). Indeed these arrests involved the expulsion of only 235 known activists and their accomplices to Ayas, and Çank?r? in central Anatolia. In light of actual events, Ottoman anxieties about the movements of Armenian revolutionary committees — always present before the war amid earlier uprisings — were especially justified now that the war was fully underway and Armenian collaboration with the Russian enemy was in plain sight.

By any standard, Dündar has failed to examine extensively the Armenian exemption from relocations. He argues casually that "some "privileged" Armenian families living in particular areas were exempted from deportations" (p. 92). In fact, many were exempted: Armenian Protestants and Catholics, together with families of those employed by the Ottoman Railways, the General Debt and Tobacco Administrations, major foreign banks, soldiers still serving in the Ottoman army, medical doctors, and other important professional and managerial groups. All Armenian members of the Ottoman Parliament, with the exception of those who had gone to Russia and joined the Russian army, and Armenian men who were in the employ or under the protection of foreign diplomats and soldiers, were also exempted. There were artisans and master craftsmen retained by the Ottoman military authorities, such as tailors, shoemakers, blacksmiths, coach makers, carpenters, woodcutters, cabinet and furniture makers, ironsmiths, weavers, saddlers, harness makers, tinsmiths, draftsmen and workers who produced goods for public use.

The estimate of those killed during the relocations gets short shrift despite its central importance in the book (p. 151). Dündar's number, 664,000, is inflated. According to the last census taken by the Ottoman Directorate for the Administration of Population Records of the Ministry of the Interior before the outbreak of World War I, namely on March 14, 1914, there were 1,295,000 Armenians living in the country.1 Documents of the Directorate for Public Security and the Directorate for the Settlement of Tribes and Immigrants of the same ministry indicate that 702,900 of these were subject to the relocations of 1915-16, and very large numbers of the displaced persons survived. George Montgomery, director of the Armenia-America Society and a Protestant missionary who is highly critical of Armenian displacements, demonstrated in a report he drafted in 1919 that 1,104,000 Ottoman Armenians remained after the war.2 At the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of War and on Enforcement of Penalties unanimously concluded that more than 200,000 Armenians in the Ottoman empire lost their lives during World War I.3 Professor Stanford Shaw, who examined the demographic evidence, shows that about 300,000 Armenians must have died from all causes in that period.4

Crime of Numbers contains a number of factual errors. For instance, the surname of the Ottoman Jewish deputy in 1908-18 was Karaso, not Karasu (p. 7, fn 7); military service for non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire was introduced in 1909, not in 1910 (p. 72); Ismet Inönü was not a pasha on May 2, 1915, but a lieutenant colonel (p. 79); and Cevdet Bey was not the commander of the Third Army, but the governor of the province of Van in 1915 (p. 81).

While this book contains a great deal of valuable research, its overall argument is not wholly convincing. Nevertheless, in highlighting the need for further research, it is most welcome.

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1 Tableaux Indiquant le Nombre de Divers Eléments de la Population dans l'Empire Ottoman au 1er Mars 1330 (Istanbul: Imprimerie Osmanié, 1919).

2 George Montgomery Papers, Library of Congress Manuscript Division, Box 21, Armenia-America Society January-February 1920, report titled "The Non-Arab Portion of the Ottoman Empire" (1919).

3 James Brown Scott Papers, Georgetown University Library Special Collections Division, Box 28, Report Presented to the Preliminary Peace Conference by the Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of the War and on Enforcement of Penalties, March 29, 1919, 19.

4 Stanford Shaw and Ezel Kural Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Vol. 2: Reform, Revolution, and Republic: The Rise of Modern Turkey, 1801-1975 (Cambridge University Press, 1977), 316.

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