3404) Question Of Genocidal Tendency In The Minority Politics Of The Young Turks

Kemal Çiçek
Abstract

The Armenian Question of 1915 should be addressed in a broader context and the events and/or politics that led to the deportation of Ottoman Armenians must be evaluated within the framework of the commonplace population politics in the global context of World War I. By examining unpublished archival sources and existing secondary literature as well as the memoirs of leading Ottoman politicians in the pre-war period, I will question the applicability of the term “ genocide ” and see whether the cadres of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), commonly known as the Young Turks, had any genocidal intention towards the non-Muslim communities in the Ottoman Empire. I shall also put forward many new questions as to whether or not there was, as has been emphasized in the dominant literature, any intent of extermination of the Armenians. Some of the questions to be discussed here are as follows: What was the reason for a sudden change in the Ottoman policies towards the non-Muslim Ottoman citizens even though the Empire had benefited from their service in the pre-WWI period in all sectors of the Ottoman adminis-tration? Were there any racist notions in circulation that might have influenced the CUP ’ s policies towards the Armenians in particular? Although Turkism was one of the main pillars of the Ottomanist movement, why did it become the only pol-itical solution to save the Ottoman Empire during the WWI? . . .


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3403) Nagorno-Karabakh - A Forgotten Conflict (2 Research Papers)

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1) Nagorno-Karabakh - A Forgotten Conflict - An Introduction To The Special Issue by Umut Uzer And Adil Baguirov
2) Nagorno-Karabakh: Competing Legal, Historic And Economic Claims In Political, Academic And Media Discourses by Adil Baguirov

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1)Nagorno-Karabakh - A Forgotten Conflict - An Introduction To The Special Issue
by Umut Uzer And Adil Baguirov


Abstract

In the general area of Southern Caucasus, the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh is among the frozen disputes in the region, the others being South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which are nominally independent states, however de facto occupied by Russia. Pre-sently there is a cold peace in all these regions with the potential to turn into armed con-flict. The fact that the three historically significant countries in the region, namely Russia, Iran and Turkey are very much interested in Southern Caucasus can make any clashes in the region turn into a regional war with wide ranging repercussions.

This state of affairs makes the Caucasus a highly sensitive area of the world for war and peace. Focusing on the NK conflict with its historic, political, security, ethnic and anthropological dimensions, the collection of nine scholarly papers in this special issue of JMMA make serious contribution to the study of world politics in general and regional issues in particular which involve major international players and global security policies as being played out in the Southern Caucasus . . .


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Nagorno-Karabakh: Competing Legal, Historic And Economic Claims In Political, Academic And Media Discourses

Adil Baguirov
Abstract

The Armenia – Azerbaijan conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) region of Azerbaijan, which in its modern form has continued for some 20 years, is a compli-cated case study of multi-vector and multi-layered claims, mostly from the Soviet times, ranging from history, economy and legal status, used to justify the war, occu-pation and ethnic cleansing. The article illustrates that some of the weaker claims were dropped altogether, whilst others were continually mixed with additional charges to make them “ stick ” and are being repeated even today. Despite solid legal, historic and moral grounds, Azerbaijan has been lagging in clarifying and explaining the fictitious charges of NK ’ s supposed transfer to Azerbaijan ’ s suzer-ainty in 1920s, the legal status of NK itself, its economic and financial conditions in Soviet times, and the impossibility to apply the 3 April 1990 Soviet Law on Seces-sion to the NK case whether for the purposes of justifying its independence or attach-ment to Armenia. Despite all the challenges and blame shared by all sides, NK and adjacent currently occupied territories are recognized as part of Azerbaijan, with the latter retaining all rights, including military, to return it under its full sovereignty.

Both sides are well-armed and ready to wage another war instead of backtracking. The goal of this article is to help clarify some of the main claims related to the conflict, so that the international community can play a more pro-active and constructive role in helping to peacefully resolve this conflict.
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3399) Armenian Population in Eastern Anatolia 1878-1915

Armenian Population in Eastern Anatolia between Years 1878-1915
by Prof Dr Ata ATUN

Abstract

Most of the Armenian allegations on the Armenian relocation in the year 1915 based on the Armenian Patriarch's reports and the book titled “Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story” written by Mr. Henry Morgenthau Sr..

Mr. Morgenthau was the U.S. Ambassador in Istanbul from 1913 to 1916, his book 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.

The population and events recorded by various officials, organizations, Armenian Church ecclesiastics and local governments before Armenian relocation on 1915 and after the World War I, reveals the fact that the loss of lives during relocation is far below than the alleged fictitious number.

This paper, going through various non Ottoman documents, tries to reach to actual population before and after the relocation with the intention to figure out the number of loss of lives during this incident.

Keywords: Armenian relocation, 1915, Armenian population, Hearings in USA House of Representative, Deportation, . . .

Introduction

The Armenian population in eastern Anatolia just before the relocation, according to non Ottoman records, contradicts with the Armenian allegation of 2.5 million, which forms the basis of lives lost during the deportation in 1915.

The Armenian allegations based on mainly to the declarations of Patriarch Nerses Varjabedian on 1878, Patriarch Hovannes Arsaruni’s estimation through Mr. Kirkor Zohrab on 1912 and to book “Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story” written by Ambassador Henry Morgenthau on 1918 where a serious research revelaed later that the ghostwriter Morgenthau was Burton J. Hendrick. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences April 2013, Vol. 3, No. 4 ISSN: 2222-6990

Patriarch Nerses Varjabedian had forwarded statistics bearing large figures, as over 2.5 million on 1878 to Berlin Conference as the Armenian population living in eastern Anatolia.

The Armenian Patriarch Hovannes Arsaruni 1 (1912-13) estimated the Armenian population as over 2.1 million on 1912.

Both figures are not based on the birth or baptize or death records of the Patriarchate or to any kind of official register but purposely puffed up to demand autonomy from the Sublime Port of Ottoman Empire.

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Prof. Dr. Ata ATUN
Near East University, Lefkoşa, T. R. North Cyprus
ata dot atun at atun dot com

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3385) Armenian Minister in the Ottoman Foreign Ministry: Gabriyel Noradunkhian Effendi

ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the 19th century, the multinational structure of the Ottoman Empire was one of the primary problems that threatened the empire’s survival. Th ere were also various acts of rebellion against the state by the Armenians who went up to the highest degrees of the Ottoman state administration and were given the title “Millet-i Sadika – the loyalist nation.” Gabriel Noradunkhian E? endi, who served as a bureaucrat and minister for approximately a half century, was rewarded by being bestowed a lot of medals by the Empire because of the result of that service. He went abroad and settled in France before World War I. Th en he was on the Armenian Committee during the Paris Peace Conference in which the collapse of the Ottoman Empire was intended and the Lausan-ne Peace Treaty that ccepted the independence of the new Turkish State.

Keywords: Gabriel Noradunkhian Efendi, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Armenian File, Armenian Home, Sevres, Lausanne. . . .


Summary

Gabriyel Noradunkhian Effendi, descended from a powerful and deep-rooted Armenian family that had individuals given very important missions in the various positions of the bureaucracy of the Ottoman Empire, had received a good education, completed significant tasks in key positions of the Foreign Affairs and Bureaucracy of the State, and had been an active and effective person in the internal and external developments in the last years of the Ottoman Empire due to his technocrat personality. Gabriyel Effendi was also one of the important figures among the Armenian commu-nity in this period. He worked as a legal adviser in the Foreign Affairs of the Ottoman State for many years before he was appointed to Th e Senate on 15 December 1908 by the Sultan Abdülhamid II. In addition to this task, at the same time he took office as a minister in the many governments of the State. He served as the Minister of the Commerce and Public Works in the four Cabinets and the Minister of the Foreign Affairs in the two Cabinets. While performing the task of the Minister of the Public Works, he prepared a comprehensive schedule, but it could not be performed. In the last period of the Ottoman Empire, during the Tripoli (Libya) and Balkan Wars, Noradunkhian Effendi served as the Minister of the Foreign Empire. He was at the meeting of the Cabinet in the course of the infamous Sublime Porte raid on 23 January 1913 by the Union and Progress Party. After the Sublime Port raid, in which Nazim Pasha, the Minister of the War, was killed, Noradunkhian Effendi went abroad by taking his family, settled in France and lived there until his death. While performing his duties, he came to the fore and was granted a lot of medals and decorations in the both internal and external arenas because he solved very crucial international problems and was a competent and successful person.

Gabriyel Effendi, in the reign of Abdülhamit II, prepared a comprehensive report to solve the Armenian problem – the subject which had troubled the Ottoman State the most in the international arena. Th is report, dated 17 September 1897, included a five-article solution plan. In this report, he pointed out preventing the use of the Armenian issue by the Europeans and Russians, blocking the negative effects of the Catholic and Protestant missionaries on the Armenians to rebel against the Ottomans, making the patriarchate have power in the regions where the Armenian inhabitants lived, providing jobs for the unemployed so as to prevent these people from join the seditious committees. Th e initial thoughts of Gabriyel Effendi, especially for the solution of the Armenian problem, replaced the idea of the establishment of an independent Armenian state along with the disintegration of the Ottoman State after World War I. During this term, he acted as a senior representative of the Armenian delegations in Paris and Lausanne. He came together with Ismet Inönü, who was the chief delegate of Turkey at the Lausanne Peace Conference, and requested an Armenian homeland within the borders of Turkey. He exerted himself and intensely lobbied the delegates of the Entente Powers not to sign the Lausanne Treaty when his requests were not accepted. Th ese activities of Gabriyel Noradunkhian Effendi at the Paris and Lausanne Peace Conferences should be seen as efforts to make best use of the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, such as the activities of the Arabs and Kurds.

This article does not claim that it has solved every matter related to Gabriyel Noradunkhian Effendi. On the contrary, it is a pioneering study giving comprehensive information about the political career of an Ottoman bureaucrat, who remained in the shadows, and his role in the international arena. Biographical studies such as this article help re-cognize important figures living in this era, but it also gives the reader the opportunity to evaluate political events more comprehensively and correctly.

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Original: Osmanlı Hariciyesinde Bir Ermeni Nazır: Gabriyel Noradunkyan Efendi

Ercan Karakoç
Dr., Gebze İleri Teknoloji Enstitüsü, Milli Güvenlik Stratejileri Anabilim Dalı

Bu makaleye atıf için: Karakoç, Ercan, “Osmanlı Hariciyesinde Bir Ermeni Nazır: Gabriyel Noradunkyan Efendi”, Uluslararası İlişkiler, Cilt 7, Sayı 25 (Bahar 2010), s. 157-177.

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Source: http://www.uidergisi.com/?p=1792

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academia.edu/1563116/Osmanli_Hariciyesinde_Bir_Ermeni_Nazir_Gabriyel_Noradunkyan_Efendi

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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



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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 . . .



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Demographic Statistics by Associations Patriotiques Armeniennes-1919

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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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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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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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3366) Many Armenian Diasporas, Then and Now

by Martin W. Lewis on February 6, 2012

Wikipedia map of the recent Armenian Diaspora Armenians have long been scattered over many countries, whether as permanent migrants or temporary sojourners. Today, only about a third of their population lives in Armenia, with the rest spread over a wide area, as can be seen on the map posted here. This pattern largely reflects the movements caused by deadly mass expulsions of the early 20th century that most scholars call the Armenian Genocide. As a result, standard . . .
reference sources on the "Armenian Diaspora" focus on the deadly Ottoman deportations into the Levant and the subsequent dispersion of survivors to the far reaches of the world. But earlier Armenian diasporas had completely different geographies that were of great historical significance. Today only vestiges of the earlier movements remain, yet at the same time new patterns are emerging as Armenians once again leave their homeland in large numbers. The Armenian diaspora, it would seem, is always in flux.

One change over the past few decades has been the reduction of the once sizable Armenia communities in the Middle East generated by the Ottoman expulsions. Lebanon is the key locale here, still hosting some 150,000 Armenians, or about four percent of the national population. Before the Lebanese Civil War of the late 1970s and `80s, the community was substantially larger. But despite its recent decline, the Beirut community remains culturally vibrant, publishing three Armenian-language daily newspapers. Each paper is linked to a different Armenian political party, typifying the fractious and sectarian nature of Lebanese politics.

Modified Wikipedia map of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, Circa 1200 CEHistorically speaking, the Armenians are no strangers to mass deportations and refugee crises. Robin Cohen traces the Armenian "victim diaspora" back to the actions of the East Roman Emperor Maurice, who resettled Armenians in Cyprus and Macedonia in 578 CE.* The Seljuk Turkish invasion of the Armenian homeland in the eleventh century resulted in a much larger refugee flow. Many settled in Cilicia in what is now south-central Turkey. There they built their own kingdom, which emerged as a fairly powerful state called Cilician Armenia (or Little Armenia) in the 1200s. After Cilician Armenia fell to the Mamluks of Egypt in late 1300s, the more prosperous members of the community fled to the cities and towns of Europe. Central and Eastern Europe were major destinations. Poland-Lithuania, desperate to populate its vast expanse, welcomed many. So did Hungary and the Romanian principalities. So many migrants settled in the Transylvanian city of Gherla that it became known as "Armenian-town" (Armenopolis, Armenierstadt or, in Armenian, Hayakaghak). As late as 1850, Gherla had an Armenian majority; subsequently, most of the community was assimilated into the Magyar (Hungarian) population.



Modified Wikipedia map of Armenians in Transylvania 1850But not all Armenian mass movements were "victim diaporas." When historians of the early modern period discuss the Armenian diaspora, they usually have in mind a dispersion rooted more in economic opportunity than political persecution. This Armenian "trade diaspora,



" based on long-distance exchange across nodes of ethnic kin, was vast, stretching the breadth of Eurasia. When European adventurers first reached such seemingly isolated states as Tibet and Ethiopia (Abyssinia) they found prosperous Armenian outposts. Such settlements were sometimes founded on trade in highly specific commodities. The Armenians of Tibet,



for example, dealt mainly in deer musk, a once precious substance used as a perfume fixative, incense ingredient, and medicine, and which was also thought to be an aphrodisiac.

This early modern Armenian mercantile diaspora was largely voluntary, but it did include some episodes of coercion. In 1606, Shah Abbas I of Safavid Persia forcibly deported** tens of thousands of Armenians from his empire's contested border zone with the Ottomans. The shah recognized the economic potential of the Armenians, and hoped to turn it to his own advantage. Resettled in New Julfa, a suburb of the Safavid capital of Isfahan, the Armenians were treated with toleration and encouraged to trade. Before long, the New Julfa merchants were carrying out most of Persia's vital silk trade, establishing outposts as far afield as Manila and southern China. The deep extent of the historical Armenian presence in Iran is evident in the large number of Persian loanwords in the Armenian language.



The Safavid Empire was not the only major Muslim polity to want an Armenian presence. India's Mughal emperor Akbar invited Armenian merchants to settle in Agra in the late 1500s, offering substantial inducements: "By an imperial decree, Armenian merchants were exempted from paying taxes on the merchandise imported and exported by them, and they were also allowed to move around in the areas of the Mughal empire where entry of foreigners was otherwise prohibited." Many came, and the South Asian Armenian community thrived though the 1800s.

In the twentieth century, most of the foreign outposts established by this early-modern Armenian system withered, undermined by modernizing trade and transportation practices and by the hardening of ethno-national lines. Most Asian-based Armenians again relocated, usually to the Western Hemisphere, Australia, or France. The Armenian community of India now numbers all of around 100, challenging the survival of such venerable cultural institutions as the Armenian College of Kolkata (Calcutta). A similar situation is found in Ethiopia, where the remaining Armenians struggle to support their school, church and social club. The Armenian population of Iran is more stable, numbering between 40,000 to a little more than 100,000. Still, an estimated 350,000 "Armenian Iranians" now live abroad. In the Armenian communities of Europe, partial assimilation has generated a more ambiguous situation. Poland, site of one of the oldest diasporic communities, found only 1,082 Armenian residents in its 2002 census; some Armenian sources, however, claim that the actual number is closer to 100,000.

While many foreign Armenian communities are disappearing, others are being replenished by emigration from Armenia itself. Since the late 1980s, an estimated one million Armenians have moved abroad, fleeing the poverty of their homeland. Most have relocated to Russia, long a focus of Armenian dispersal. As a result, the population of Armenia itself has dropped substantially in recent years. Demographers estimate that 25,000 to 30,000 people permanently leave the country each year. In 2010, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) officially advised the Armenian government to "improve the socioeconomic situation and strengthen the rule of law" in order to avoid further depopulation. Considering the fact that its total fertility rate is only about 1.5, Armenia's demographic future does seem grim.

The current Armenian exodus has a distinct gender imbalance, with men predominating. In some rural areas, women now form a clear majority. As one local informant recently told a reporter, "It's a total matriarchate. We even joke that our village's name should be changed from `Canyon of Roses' to `Canyon of Women.'"



Counterbalancing this trend has been a marked upturn since independence in the sex ratio at birth;







far more Armenian boys are being born than girls. This trend is found throughout the southern Caucasus: Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan now vie with northern India and eastern China for their natal sex imbalances. The exact reasons for this seldom-noted Caucasian phenomenon are not clear, although son-preference obviously plays a major role.

* Robin Cohen, Global Diasporas: An Introduction. 1997. University of Washington Press, page 44).

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** Persian sources often claim that the Armenians came on their own, fleeing persecution by the Ottoman authorities, but most historians doubt such accounts.

http://geocurrents.info/place/russia-ukraine-and-caucasus/

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Further References:

Armenian emigration creates `women-only` villages
From the Newspaper | 26th September, 2011

VARDADZOR (Armenia), Sept 25: There are no men to be seen in the rural lanes of Vardzador as mother-of-four Susanna Asatrian makes her way to the fields to thresh barley and wheat.

Her husband has left the country in search of work like so many other men in remote, impoverished Armenian settlements, leaving them almost entirely populated by women to symbolise the country`s depopulation problem.

“It`s a total matriarchate. We even joke that our village`s name should be changed from `Canyon of Roses` to `Canyon of Women`,” said the 36-year-old.

In the midst of the harvest season in Vardadzor, around 130 kilometres from the ex-Soviet state`s capital Yerevan, women do the hard agricultural labour, prepare for the long winter ahead and raise their children practically without male assistance.“The children miss their father, but what can we do?” asked Asatrian.

In villages like this, women traditionally marry young and their husbands often leave after their honeymoon to work as migrant labourers, only returning for a couple of months each year.

The men who remain are largely elderly.

More than a million people left Armenia in the years from 1988 to 2007, with around two-thirds of them relocating to Russia, like Asatrian`s husband, leaving the small Caucasus republic with a current population of 3.2 million.

Asatrian is one of the lucky ones, however; her husband comes home every New Year, rings her up frequently and sends hundreds of dollars to support the family every few months.

Others fear that their husbands will find new wives in Russia and abandon them completely, as in the case of one woman from Vardadzor whose emigrant partner broke off contact while she was expecting her second baby.

“There has been no news of him for the past 10 years, not a single phone call,” said the 29-year-old who gave her name as Tamara.

“People say that he lives in Omsk with an older Russian woman, brings up her child and does not want to think about us.”

Emigration has increased again in recent months, a trend which analysts link to the economic recovery after the global financial crisis.

The United Nations Population Fund and the state statistics agency estimate that some 25,000-30,000 people abandon Armenia permanently each year.

“Those who leave the country are mainly young men in the prime of their life,” said Garik Hayrapetian of the United Nations Population Fund.

“The situation negatively affects the population`s reproduction and gender balance and contributes to the ageing of society.”

Armenia`s opposition argues that migration threatens the country`s national security, and President Serzh Sarkisian has declared that the authorities must take action.“The number of people looking for overseas success is large, and of course we should be seriously concerned about this problem,” Sarkisian said earlier this year, suggesting that the only way to reverse the trend was to create better economic conditions.

Surveys have suggested that 70-75 per cent of emigrants leave because of the lack of job opportunities and low wages in a country that suffers from economic isolation because its borders with neighbours Turkey and Azerbaijan have long been closed due to political disputes.

But the head of the country`s migration agency Gagik Eganian accused the opposition of trying to score political points by describing the latest wave of emigration as catastrophic and suggesting that Armenia was becoming “deserted”.

“There is no data on what proportion of these people (this year`s emigrants) left the country forever,” he said.

Some analysts also argue that migration has economic benefits, with many families surviving on money sent home by relatives working abroad — $772 million in the first half of this year alone.

But in a more worrying statistic, the United Nations Population Fund says that 44 per cent of people responding to one of its surveys did not see a future for themselves and their children in Armenia.

Hayrapetian also raised concerns that not only the poor and jobless were now leaving.

“Migration has changed qualitatively. Well-off people with higher education and well-paid jobs are now emigrating,” he said.

The government is preparing what it calls a National Programme for Migration Reduction, which is due to be launched soon, while another scheme entitled `Come Home` aims to encourage people from the huge Armenian diaspora to resettle in their ethnic homeland.

Back in Vardadzor, Susanna Asatrian`s children keep in contact with their father via the internet, while others wait expectantly for their dads to return from Russia for Christmas — although some of them, it seems, are likely to be disappointed.—AFP

http://dawn.com/2011/09/26/armenian-emigration-creates-women-only-villages/

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UN Report Warns Of 'New Wave' Of Emigration From Armenia

The report encourages "the adoption and restoration of democratic values in governance practice and the elimination of double standards."

May 11, 2010
YEREVAN -- Armenia is being warned that it faces "a new wave of emigration" unless the government does more to improve the socioeconomic situation and strengthen the rule of law, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports.

The warning came in a report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) presented today.

The report -- drawn up by local migration experts -- called for wide-ranging government measures, including democratic reform, that would "considerably reduce the motivation of Armenia's population to leave the country."

At least 700,000 Armenians, or about one-quarter of the country's population, are believed to have emigrated to Russia and other countries since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the resulting turmoil in the region.

The outflow slowed significantly in the 1990s as the Armenian economy began recovering from its post-Soviet slump.

"However, despite the aforementioned process, the external migration situation in Armenia still remains alarming," the report says. "Moreover, there are certain factors that give reason to assume that a new, rather massive wave of emigration may emerge."

The report says tens of thousands of Armenian men working abroad might eventually reunite with their families and cause Armenia to "lose another 200,000-300,000 citizens."

It says another factor that could drive emigration is the ongoing concentration of agricultural land in the hands of wealthy individuals.

The report acknowledges an economic benefit of emigration in the form of cash remittances sent home by hundreds of thousands of Armenian migrant workers mainly based in Russia, Europe, and the United States.

According to the Armenian Central Bank, those transfers totaled $1.12 billion last year -- equivalent to nearly 13 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

But it also says emigration has had a number of detrimental effects, including decreased birth and marriage rates and a brain drain.

Accordingly, the report stresses the need for "active intervention" by the state aimed at "limiting the volume of permanent emigration."

It says that should be done through improving not only economic conditions but "governance practices" in the country. More specifically, that should mean "the adoption and restoration of democratic values in governance practice and the elimination of double standards," according to the report.

"Most state officials are inclined to blame [the emigration] on socioeconomic causes such as unemployment," says Vartan Gevorgian, a sociologist who led a team of Armenian experts working on the report.

"But at the end of the day, people become poor not just because of a loss of income but also because of being unable to defend their rights...because of weak property guarantees."

Speaking during a public presentation of the report, Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgian said its findings and proposals would be "useful" for government officials dealing with migration.

Gevorgian also said that the Armenian government was committed to finding "effective and radical solutions" to the problem and was currently working on a strategy of "state regulation of migration."

He did not elaborate.

http://www.rferl.org/content/UN_Report_Warns_Of_New_Wave_Of_Emigration_From_Armenia/2039164.html

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3350) Faith, Freedom, And Flag The Influence Of American Missionaries In Turkey On Foreign Affairs, 1830-1880

Elizabeth W. Shelton, M.A.

ABSTRACT

From the early days of the American Republic, Protestant Christianity and the American values which derived from it have had a heavy influence on U.S. for-eign affairs. The initial 19 th century missionaries to Anatolia in the Ottoman Empire were highly-educated men steeped in Calvinistic and American values. In the period 1830-1880, when American official representation was slight and generally confined to Constantinople, information about activities in Anatolia came largely from the missionaries who were scattered across the region, living in towns and regularly visiting scores of villages in their mission areas. Their reports, letters, articles, lectures, and books profoundly shaped the views of policy makers and have influenced policies and opinions to this day.

Who these missionaries were, what uniquely American values they took with them overseas--rule of law, democracy, equality of citizens and respect for their “in-alienable” rights, including freedom of conscience--how they reacted and then. . .




Direct Link: Faith, Freedom, And Flag The Influence Of American Missionaries In Turkey On Foreign Affairs, 1830-1880 , Shelton Elizabeth

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3341) The Convergent Analysis of Russian, British, French, and American Officials Regarding the Armenian Volunteers (1914-1922)

By Maxime Gauin*

Abstract: The Armenian nationalist parties, after decades of revolutionary action against the Ottoman Empire, supplied in 1914 and during the following years dozens of thousands of volunteers for the Russian and the French armies. The Russian and French officers in addition to the American observers and the British, who cooperated with Armenians in the Caucasus in 1918, initially praised the military value of the Armenian volunteers, but sooner or later, deplored their attacks against Muslims and their lack of loyalty. This article illustrates the convergence of the reports, across the nationalities of the officers, the geography (northeastern Anatolia, Cilicia, the Caucasus), and the time periods (World War I, Russian civil war and Turkish War of Independence).

Keywords: Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnak, Armenian volunteers, Armenian Republic, Caucasus, Cilicia, Ethnic cleansing, Hunchak Party, Boghos Nubar, Ramkavar, Turkish War of Independence, World War I.

“I must not dissimulate from you that this troop no longer inspires confidence in me.”

Report of Captain Josse, commanding the 7th Company of the Armenian Legion, April 20, 1920.2

The Ottoman archives are definitely the most important sources for Ottoman history, including the Armenian issue3, the war crimes perpetrated by the Armenian volunteers, and their other misdeeds. However, the foreign archives provide supplementary and useful evidence, since the authors of these documents worked for countries which were enemies of the Ottoman Empire (UK, France, Russia), or at least allied with its enemies (U.S.). These Russian

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*Maxime Gauin, Ph.D.-candidate, Department of History, Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ-METU), Ankara - Turkey; researcher at International Strategic Research Organization (USAK-ISRO), Ankara - Turkey

Maxime Gauin graduated from Camille-Jullian High School (hypokhâgne, khâgne) and from Bordeaux-III University, earning his BA in history. He received his first half of MA in contemporary history from the École normale supérieure de Lyon and Lyon-II University, then the second half from Paris-I-Sorbonne University, Center of Social History. He is currently researcher at International Strategic Research Organization (USAK-ISRO, Ankara).

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3339) Armenian Relocations & Ottoman National Security: Military Necessity Or Excuse For Genocide? by Edward J. Erickson

US Marine Corps University, USA

Professor William A. Schabas has provided a lens through which the modern world might compare atrocities committed in the past with the intent and terminology of contemporary international law.

In my view, Schabas establishes, in a unique way, a context for broadening the historical narrative by narrowing de?nitions and terminology. Unfortunately, some partisans in the contemporary debate over the Armenian relocations and massacres of 1915 may seek to use his ideas to establish retroactive accountability. In this article, my intent is not to establish any kind of retroactivity regarding these events. Rather, here I offer an opinion as to whether the relocation of the entire Armenian population of eastern Anatolia was necessary for reasons of national security during the First World War.

As a matter of historical record, the Ottoman government considered the Armenian population of eastern Anatolia as ‘enemies within’ during the First World War.

When in April 1915, internal rebellion by Armenian revolutionary committees and external invasion by the Russian army supported by Armenian guerrillas began, the Ottoman high command responded with an active counterinsurgency campaign of population relocation and cordon and destroy operations.

The speed and ferocity of the Ottoman counterinsurgency campaign was a function of imperative military necessity. In fact, actual Armenian threats to the logistics and security of three Ottoman armies caused the Ottomans to consider the potentially catastrophic effect on the national security of the Ottoman Empire should these armies collapse. The government considered this situation as an existential threat to the national security of the Ottoman state.

Today the Ottoman government’s relocation decision continues to feed a polarized academic debate that hinges on two positions that interpret the decision either as one of military necessity or as an excuse for genocide.

The Historical Context
The historical context that led to the events of 1915 is crucial for understanding the framework within which the relocation decision was cast. There are four main historical antecedents that must be understood in order to establish this context:

1. the activities of the Armenian revolutionary committees (particularly the Dashnaks);
2. the activities of outside powers supporting the Armenian committees;
3. the contemporary counterinsurgency practices used by the Great Powers; and
4. the Ottoman counterinsurgency policies and practices in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

This history and these four elements form a lens . .

. . .

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Middle East Critique
Vol. 20, No. 3, 291–298, Fall 2011

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3323) October 1921, 1968, 2011: The New Ankara Agreement and Its Context

By Maxime Gauin
JTW Columnist
11 October 2011

On October 20, 1921, France was the first major power to sign a peace treaty with the Kemalists recognizing Ankara’s government, after the first de facto recognition of May 1920. France even provided weapons and ammunition, which were used against the Greek invasion forces. Henry Franklin-Bouillon, a Centrist politician and chairman of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Committee, was the French chief negotiator. Contrary to legend, Franklin-Bouillon did not make unilateral concessions, still less by his own initiatives. On the contrary, mutual concessions were made, and Franklin-Bouillon was the (efficient executioner) of a policy decided by Aristide Briand, President of the Ministers Council (Prime minister), after a gradual change in both political milieu and public opinion.[1] The successor of Briand, Raymond Poincaré, sent a friend of Turks, Colonel Louis Mougin, as a representative to Ankara in 1922.[2] . . .

From October 25 to 30, 1968, President Charles de Gaulle visited Turkey, paid tribute to Atatürk (“Atatürk attained the greatest glory: the national revival”), and signed a bilateral agreement of cooperation in various fields.

By a remarkable coincidence, the French and Turkish ministers of interior signed in Ankara, on October 7, 2011, an important agreement on police cooperation. The agreement is devoted to fighting terrorism, drug smuggling, money laundering, and other kind of serious crimes. It also includes cooperation in the training of anti-riot police forces. Formalizing the close ties which have been forged during the last years between the police forces of the two countries, the text provides for an exchange of intelligence—especially against terrorism and drug smuggling—experts, and techniques, especially for forensic and technical police.

The sharing of intelligence is especially important for Turkey. It means that all information obtained by the Direction générale de la surveillance extérieure (DGSE; General Directorate of External Intelligence) or any other French agency on the activities of the PKK, DHKP-C, or any other terrorist group can be shared with Turkey. France has a long experience of terrorism, antiterrorism, and bilateral cooperation against terrorism. The probable disappearing of the Basque ETA will be largely due to the increasing Franco-Spanish cooperation since the agreement of 1984. In August 2001, the French counter-intelligence agency sent the FBI a file on Zacarias Moussaoui, a French al-Qaida terrorist of Moroccan origin. If the file would have been considered more carefully, the attacks of September 11 probably would had been prevented. Indeed, Moussaoui was arrested on August 16, 2001, and files on the future attacks were recorded in his personal computer.[3]

Concerning the PKK, the French police have shown their effectiveness during the last years. The eleven perpetrators of arson against Turkish-owned shops in 2007 were arrested in 2008 and sentenced in January 19, 2009, for the fires and some also for the fundraising of PKK activities; the chief of the group received five years in jail and a life-time exile (because he does not have French citizenship). A PKK terrorist who in 2008 hurled a Molotov cocktail at the Turkish representation to Europe’s Council in Strasbourg (killing or wounding no one, by chance) was sentenced to two years in jail in 2010. 18 other people were judged in Paris, in July 2011, for the fundraising of both PKK and TAK activities. An even more efficient fight, in both France and Turkey, can be expected in the context of the agreement signed on October 7.

However, contrary to some inaccurate information published in newspapers, the extradition issue is not directly concerned by the bilateral Franco-Turkish agreement. Before its signature, the French authorities already started to provide their Turkish counterparts information to make files of extradition incontrovertible, which would eventually be presented in front of French tribunals.

More regrettable is the fact that if the agreements of 1921 and 1968 were the result of a coherent policy decided from the top, the last step toward better relations was more the result of Mr. Guéant’s personal influence, of Turkish diplomatic efforts, and of demands by the French police and justice system. Despite having been Minister of Interior from 2002 to 2004, then from 2005 to 2007, Mr. Sarkozy personally paid little interest to the cooperation against PKK and DHKP-C. His words pronounced in Erevan, apparently without much preparation and led by a sudden internal (electoral) motivation, definitely does not lead to great optimism. The presence of Patrick Devedjian, former lawyer of Armenian terrorists in the 1980s, behind Mr. Sarkozy in Erevan is also self-explanatory.

On the other hand, it is fair to notice that as early as Friday morning, Jean-David Levitte, foreign affairs adviser to Mr. Sarkozy, called the Turkish embassy requesting a meeting with Ambassador Mr. Tahsin Burcuoğlu the next day in the afternoon to prevent a new crisis—contrary to the inaccurate information of some newspapers, asserting that Mr. Burcuoğlu came to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by solely his own initiative. The same Mr. Levitte explained to the Turkish government, as early as May 2007, that the promises of Mr. Sarkozy to obtain the vote of the Armenian censorship bill in the Senate would not be carried out—this what actually happened. Similarly, Mr. Guéant denied in Ankara that Mr. Sarkozy gave an “ultimatum” to Turkey.

“Words fly away, but writings remain.” The agreement signed this month is in writing.

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[1] Paul Dumont, Mustapha Kemal invente la Turquie moderne, (Bruxelles : Complexe, 1997), pp. 111-117 ; Alain Quella-Villéger, La Politique méditerranéenne de la France (1870-1923). Un témoin, Pierre Loti, (Paris : L’Harmattan, 1991), pp. 165-191.
[2] Paul Dumont, « À l’aube du rapprochement franco-turc : le colonel Louis Mougin, premier représentant de la France auprès du gouvernement d’Ankara (1922-1925) », in Paul Dumont and Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont (ed.), La Turquie et la France à l’époque d’Atatürk, Paris-İstanbul, ADET/Les éditions Isis, 1981, pp. 75-106.
[3] « Zacarias Moussaoui— Ce que la DST a transmis au FBI », L’Express, June 11, 2002, http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/monde/ce-que-la-dst-a-transmis-au-fbi_498789.html (also see the embedded copy of the google translated version below); The 9/11 Commission Report , pp. 273-276, http://www.911commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf (also see the embedded copy below); Bill Gertz, Breakdown. How America’s Intelligence Failures Led to September 11, (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2002), p. 33.»

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http://www.turkishweekly.net

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Comments by Sukru Server Aya

I thank both Mr. O.E. Lutem and Maxime Gauin, for their very valuable comments.

I submit Page 97 from my new “pocket book” (available on order in English or Turkish) and also in DVD format, and ask the super hypocrite Mr. President, to explain to Armenians also his true fidelity, which is clearly visible in the Sykes-Picot map given below. 1916 is one year after 1915 and France had already wiped out Armenia completely! Does he have a face?

Travesty is not limited to street hookers; the political ones are much worse and harmful to countries and generations to follow. Sukru S. Aya

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3319) I Hear More Interesting Views From Average Armenians Than Intellectuals / Memory & Politics Of Construction Of Armenian Homeland

Memory And The Politics Of Construction Of The Armenian Homeland

“There Is No Place Like Home”: Functional Content Analysis Of The Birthright
Armenia Travelogues

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Turkish PhD Student – “I hear more interesting views from average Armenians than the intellectuals”
Hrant Gadarigian

Sep 26, 2011
An interview with Turgut Kerem Tuncel, PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Trento (Italy).

Mr. Tuncel, native of Turkey, is in Armenia to do research for his thesis entitled “Mayr Hayastan, Im Hayrenik; The memory and politics of the construction of the Armenian homeland”.

What prompted you to do your thesis on the Armenian experience?

Well, it all came out of my initial interest in Jewish studies and anti-Semitism. Then I decided to make a comparative study of the survival strategies of the Jewish and Armenian communities in Turkey. Then, I started to focus on the Armenian community there and the concept of the “diaspora” . .

It was how the Republic of Armenia was portraying itself as the homeland of all Armenians that intrigued me, given that most Armenians in the diaspora derive from eastern Anatolia. This construct of the current Armenian identity was of interest to me.

What did this comparative study between the Jewish and Armenian experiences show?

Briefly, the two tragedies experienced by these two people resulted in opposite realities. In the Jewish case, the Holocaust, in many ways, resulted in the consolidation of the Jewish state, while 1915 resulted in the diasporization of the Armenian people.

Have you looked at the repatriation issue in Armenia during your research? The differences between Israel and Armenia in this regard are glaring?

Actually, the repatriation issue is a major component of my research. It directly ties in to this concept of the Republic of Armenia (RoA) as the homeland for all Armenians.

I’d say that what is being done here in Armenia can be best described a “lip service”. And there are many underlying reasons for this.

Many Armenians from the RoA actually want to leave for socio-economic and other reasons. So how can the government invite Armenians from Paris or Los Angeles, living relatively comfortable lives, to relocate? What will these people do here?

The economic, political and social infrastructure in Armenia is not sufficient to sustain any serious repatriation.

Here, I’d like to remind you of Theodore Herzl’s work “The Jewish State”. The second part of the book gives a very detailed approach to the repatriation of Jews to the land of Israel. Herzl lay down a very rational outline.

I don’t see the same thing in Armenia or in the diaspora press. For example, there is talk of creating a Pan-Armenian National Council but you won’t find any details on the website of the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. Then there was the idea of creating a two-chamber parliament in Armenia to get the diaspora represented. This too seemed to me less than serious

You include the word ‘memory’ in the title of your dissertation. The memory of the traditional diaspora is that of pre-1915 western Armenia. If this collective memory of the past is a major component of the current identity of so many diaspora Armenians, how can the RoA redirect this focus and serve as a rallying point today?

This is a problematic aspect of the diaspora – homeland issue. When you look at some segments of the diaspora, you can say they live in a strange mental world. They live in the present day but their minds are always returning to the pre-1915 period.

The diaspora could be a real asset for Armenia and the country really needs all the assets it can attract. But the traditional diaspora, or let’s say the leadership of the traditional diaspora, they cannot grasp the reality of current Armenia due to this focus on an idealized past.

Thus, I believe young diaspora Armenians must establish real relations and ties with this Armenia in 2011. They must reach out to the Armenia of today and not with that of their grandparents in order to help solve the myriad problems now facing the RoA.

So, can we say that there are two ‘homelands’ competing for the hearts and minds of the traditional Armenian diaspora?

Well, I am sure there are some Armenians who say they do not identify with current Armenia but I would also say that after the creation of the third republic in 1991, more and more diaspora Armenians and organizations have realized that, on a practical level at least, the RoA should be the focus of their energies.

In a way, those talking about a return to western Armenia may be a convenient excuse to not doing more, or even relocating, to the Armenia of today. It would be a challenge for them to leave what they know and are comfortable with in France or the U.S. and move to an Armenia that faces many problems.

This is understandable. We are all human beings. But they have to face reality and not overlook the fact that the Armenia of today needs a lot of help.

You talk about “the politics of the construction of the Armenian homeland”. Can we assume that the RoA government has a political agenda in mind – creating an image of an Armenia where the concept of “love it or leave it” holds sway?

Well let’s look at the official state discourse – the attempt to portray the RoA as the homeland for all Armenians. Of course it’s a political strategy to connect the diaspora to Yerevan and tap into its resources.

In this sense, it’s a very understandable strategy on the part of the RoA government.

This divide between the traditional diaspora and the RoA probably manifests itself most clearly on the Genocide issue. Many argue the Turkish government seeks to manipulate the issue and thus divide the hard-line diaspora with a more malleable RoA. What’s your view?

All I can say is that the general perception in Turkey is that the diaspora takes a more hard-line approach as compared to the RoA. Just look at the fallout resulting from the Protocol debate. But as to whether Ankara has adopted a policy to play one off the other, I can’t say.

What I would like to add is that the RoA government, in turn, has somehow manipulated the issue as well. By creating this bogeyman image of Turkey, it has made calls for national unity and greater support for Armenia. In a way, it has sought the “unquestioning” loyalty of the diaspora in the name of national unity. This too is a fact.

This is your third visit to Armenia and you’ve been here for two months now. Can you give me a few general impressions?

Well, I came here to do research for my thesis and have interviewed several diaspora Armenians who have relocated but I also wanted to get a feel for the country and the people.

On a personal level, I have had positive experiences and have encountered no hostility when people find out I am Turkish.

I find it interesting that the press in Armenia has daily articles on Turkey and developments there. Mostly the press focuses on the negative aspects and not on the recent changes for the positive. This isn’t to say that Turkey doesn’t have problems and that conditions for Armenians living there aren’t problematic. Not at all.

I rented an apartment here and would always go to the same small shop to get bread and some breakfast. The sales ladies would always smile and joke with me. One day they asked where I was from and I told them I was from Turkey. Then they asked if I was Armenian or Turkish. I said, Turkish .After that, their smiles faded.

Another time, I and a few friends were at a nightclub in Yerevan. I went out for a smoke and there was a security guard outside smoking as well. He asked me where I was from. I said, Turkey. He asked if I was an Armenian from Turkey in a kind of aggressive way. I figured I should answer that yes, I was. He then started to interrogate me. Was my father and mother Armenian? I guess he didn’t believe me. It was getting a bit heated. The guy then told me that “I have killed Turks in Karabakh” and repeated this. All I could say was “Ok” and then I left.

This was the only time I felt really uneasy in Armenia. I would like to say that I feel safer in Yerevan than I do in Istanbul. Armenians, I have found, are not an aggressive people.

You have met with repatriates and average citizens here. What about your meetings with officials and the academia? Did you encounter any problems in getting them to sit down and talk with you?

I tried to arrange interviews with the major political parties but only two agreed to talk with me – the Armenian National Congress and Heritage. The others declined but never told me why.

I also spoke to a number of intellectuals and university professors. To be honest, I heard more interesting views and ideas from ordinary people than from the intelligentsia in Armenia. I don’t want to sound over judgemental, but the role of intellectuals is to bring forth new approaches and concepts – in a way to make us angry and challenge us.

What I heard from most, not all, were the same old stories and prejudices regarding the Armenia-Turkish issue.

Maybe a majority of intellectuals in Armenia are too conformist or opportunist when it comes to opening new doors. It makes me somewhat less optimistic regarding the future.

What about preconceived notions of Armenians in Turkey, amongst average citizens?

Let me give you a concrete example. Several years ago there was a quantitative study conducted jointly in Armenia and Turkey about their views of the other.

What the research showed was that the average Turkish person knows very little about Armenians. But, recently, amongst university students and some intellectuals, there’s a growing interest in Armenia and the culture. Again, it’s a new process of learning.

Armenians, on the other hand, have a certain knowledge and understanding of Turkey. This is another asymmetry between the two peoples.

There’s less coverage in the mainstream Turkish press about Armenia than the other way around.

Armenia isn’t a top priority when it comes to Turkish foreign policy. In the end, though, relations between the two neighbouring states must be normalized and this will require more dialogue and understanding of the other.

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Comments (12)
1. Armen_yan - 26 September, 2011
Sounds fair and unbiased.

2. Boghos N - 26 September, 2011
Many Diasporan Armenians continue to preserve their pre-1915 Western Armenian traditions and practice them in the present. This is not the same thing as "living in the past." And (especially) if one's endangered culture and civilization were raped, mutilated and dismantled, one has the right to retain them any way s/he pleases! Solidarity and support for present-day Armenia does not preclude a desire or intention to reclaim the Western Armenian homeland and traditions. Could Turgut Tuncel's intention be to help complete the genocidal process of conquering and confiscating the lands of the indigenous populations by doing his part to wean Diasporan Armenians away from their Western Armenian attachments? I suggest that Turgut Tuncel turn his attentions to the often ignored study of the Central Asian origins of the Turkish people rather than use his current academic research to pursue a Pan-Turkist, false "Turkish-Armenian reconciliation" agenda.

3. Dave - 26 September, 2011
The fact is that Turkey committed genocide from the 19th century to the 20th century against Armenians and stole our property and land. Actually, considering forced Islamization, rape, and abductions, the genocide started centuries before. We Armenian Diasporans know very well where and how to focus our energy, and we do not need this young Turkish man to tell us.

4. Hrant - 27 September, 2011
Mr. Tuncel: Why are you so concerned with a nano-state? There are way more important issues out there concerning Turkish foreign policy.

5. Levik - 27 September, 2011
"Western Armenian attachments????" What the heck are they? I'd say Turgut has put his finger on a very problemmatic sore spot for Armenians who trace their roots to pre-1915 Western Armenia. 100 years of fading memories is getting in the way of thinking and acting in the present day Armenian context. The fact that some have labeled him a pan-Turkist proves the point. At leat the guy has visited the Republic of Armenia 3x. Can that be said for 5% of the diaspora? Why don't more concerned Armenians in the diaspora, who have such "attachments" bring their energies to Armenia and make a practical contribution to the survival of it rather than "living in the past"?

6. Razmik - 27 September, 2011
@ Boghos - "Many Diasporan Armenians continue to preserve their pre-1915 Western Armenian traditions and practice them in the present." - Oh, please elucidate us as to how this is being done!! Shish kebab dinners at a Sunday picnic? People talk about reclaiming western Armenian lands from the bossom of the same western powers that stabbed Armenia in the back soon after 1915. What nonense? As Monte Melkonian stated - the road to Erzerum and Van starts from Artsakh. The least these diaspora patriots could do is start raising their voices for democracy and rule of law in Armenia, the only true basis for eventual return to western Armenia. This way they'd stop paying taxes to the U.S. and Europe who continue to fund the Turkish-occupation of their beloved western Armenia.

7. Berge Jololian- 27 September, 2011
Some Turks are ignorant, some Turks are arrogant, and yet some Turks are both ignorant and arrogant at the same time. Turgut Kerem Tuncel like many Turks, are the product of generations of Turks who are raised with ignorance and arrogance. In the case of Turgut, he deliberately refuses to acknowledge that the Armenian Diaspora was the result of centuries of persecution and massacres that culminated in the Armenian genocide. Genocide scholars note that the Armenian genocide is on-going and only ceases when the perpetrators, the Turkish government and its people stop their denial of the genocide of Armenians. Turgut deliberately does not acknowledge the fact that Turkey has maintained a militarized hostile border blockade on Armenia’s Western frontiers for two decades. According to the IMF (International Monetary Fund) Turkey’s hostile economic border blockade is costing Armenia US $1 billion loss in trade on an annual basis. That means loss of jobs and economic survival of Armenians in Armenia. The economic border blockade imposed by Turkey is an act of war under international law, and is an ongoing act of genocide. The Turks have not only murdered humans, destroyed an ancient culture, civilization and rewritten history, but 99.7% of Turks continue to legitimize the act as well as the racist ideology that led to the act. Denial is not just the simple negation of an act; it is much more the consequent continuation of the very act itself. Genocide should not only physically destroy a community; it should likewise dictate the prerogative of interpretation in regard to history, culture, territory and memory, as the victims Armenians never existed. The impact of the Turkish land blockade prevents Armenia from connecting to Europe and the Middle-east for trade, imports and exports across Turkey to Europe and the Middle-east. The Turkish blockade supports corruption and social imbalance. A nation cannot sustain a healthy economic survival without direct access to the outside world. Turkey is in violation of many international organizations that prohibits member states to have closed borders such as the WTO (World Trade Organization) and TRACERA (Trade Route Access). Armenians are forced to seek economic survival elsewhere outside their natural environment, language, culture, customs, etc. This is in fact genocide. Genocide does not have to be the actual act of killing. Genocide is a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. To bring about the disintegration of the political and social institutions, culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups. A Turkish newspaper columnist, Mustafa Ozfatura, voiced an open threat of genocide, saying "we will make sure that the number of the Armenians in Armenia becomes as much as a museum statistic.

8. Talin- 27 September, 2011
Just because practitioners of W. Armenian traditions are not flaunting their activities does not mean that their activities do not exist.

9. Khoren- 27 September, 2011
@Berge - You write, "In the case of Turgut, he deliberately refuses to acknowledge that the Armenian Diaspora was the result of centuries of persecution and massacres that culminated in the Armenian genocide." Maybe I missed something but where in the above article does Turgut deny the reality of the 1915 Genocide. Was he asked outright or is this just your knne-jerk inference? What you state regarding Turkish official state policy is correct but to conclude that Turgut shares this view based on a 2 page interview underscores your lack of objectivity regarding the man without even meeting him. Maybe you are telepathic or just pathetic...

10. Razmik- 27 September, 2011
Oh I get it now Talin - they're closet 3rd generation western Armenians.

11. Berge Jololian- 27 September, 2011
In a typical arrogant Turkish mentality, Turgut said, "When you look at some segments of the diaspora, you can say they live in a strange mental world. They live in the present day but their minds are always returning to the pre-1915 period." Up until 1915, the population of Anatolia was one third 1/3 Christian; today's Christian population of Anatolia is less than 90 thousand in an ocean of 76 million Turks. The Turks brutally massacred the Christian populations of Anatolia, took away their lands, assets, property and wealth, not to mention the 2 million Armenian lives that were brutally taken away from us in the genocide. It is astonishing that Turgut describes Armenians (divisively) - that the Diaspora Armenians live in a "strange mental world", when it is the criminal foundation of the Turkish republic, the on-going lie they live in, and their own re-written version of history in that 99.7% of Turks live in a "strange mental world." Turkey - a nation built on the bones of its dead cannot, in fact should not stand. Turkey and every Turk are accountable for the crime of Genocide. Genocide Acknowledgment with Accountability: Land, Reparations and Restitution.

12. Rubik- 28 September, 2011
Do you ever notice how Turks demand an apology from everyone, but never offer any apologies? Do you ever notice how Turks demand that that they be treated with respect but never respect anyone? Do you ever notice how Turks complain about being discriminated for not being accepted in the European Union and yet they discriminate against everyone who is not a Turk? Do you notice how Turks accuse Turkey of being a "Christian Club" for not accepting it in the EU and yet Turkey continues to kill its Christian minority and discriminate against them? Do you ever notice how Turks expect Armenians to be understanding but never want to acknowledge their on-going genocide of Armenians? It is not the job of Armenians to reach out, educate, reform, and play psychiatrists for Turks. It is NOT the job of Armenians to "reform" Turkey, as desirable as that may be; we are not their psychiatrists or their nannies.

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Source For The Interview Only: http://hetq.am/eng/interviews/4748/

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