June 23, 2008
Senator Barak Obama
713 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Improving our relations with our allies and trying to engage in talks with our enemies is good but endorsing the so called Armenian Genocide has already created an enemy of the entire population of a strategic ally in that of Turkey, Azerbaijan and other allied Nations.
The genocide claim is biased and inaccurate. A diligent and impartial person would look at the correct evidence and find that the events do not describe genocide. We need to have the truth be told. The following would show only some of the reasons for the claim to be false.
1. Ruling on Serbia is one indication what genocide means.
On February 26, 2007 the International Court of Justice determined that Serbia is NOT guilty of genocide in Bosnia in spite of the trials and conviction for war crimes of a number of Bosnians and Serbs who were financed and equipped by Serbia and findings of clear links between Serbia and the Bosnian Serb military who committed the genocide in Srebrenica. The Court ruled that the crime of genocide required showing convincingly there was a specific plan or the specific intention to destroy the group or part of it.
2. Trials conducted by Allies after the War acquitted the Turks.
At the end of WWI the allies occupied the Ottoman Empire. At the insistence of the occupying Allies a number of the ruling Party members were tried between 1919 and 1920 by the Ottomans and convicted of crimes. Please read Not finding these trials legitimate or satisfactory the Allies imprisoned more than 100 Ottoman officials and sent them to Malta for trial. The Allied High Court then convened, similar to the Nuremberg tribunal, and had all the archives and government documents searched by experts for evidence that showed crimes proving genocide. After 2 years and 4 months they were unable to find any evidence even after requesting evidence from the United States and others who could also not find any. All the Turkish officials in Malta prisons were released. There was and is NOT any evidence that will hold up in a court of law that will point to an Armenian genocide. If truly interested anyone could read the documents in the British archives. These documents are listed in:
3. No new trials have ever been set by the UN Criminal court.
Consider these two facts stated above and consider the standing of the persons proposing this legislation as presuming guilt before trial or without trial. If there would have been any serious evidence of genocide the Armenians would have long ago gone to the Criminal Courts.
4. Seven US Secretaries of State announced their views.
Seven US Secretaries of State signed a declaration that passing a resolution in the House regarding the alleged Armenian Genocide would be a mistake and counter productive. These are highly regarded experienced statesmen and diplomats. Foreign policy cannot be conducted by antagonizing our allies. Respected historians will agree that genocide does not describe the events. William Langer, Guenter Lewy, Heath Lowry, Justin McCarthy, Edward Erickson, Andrew Mango et al have written extensively on this subject. Another source would be the report of the first Armenian Prime Minister Hovannes Katchaznouni to the Dashnak Party in 1923. This Armenian Prime Minister writes that Turkey acted in defense of its existence in ordering the relocation.
5. Falsification of genocide numbers shows dishonesty.
Another fallacy is the number of Armenians killed in that period. A dozen or more sources put the population of the Armenians in Anatolia at around 1,100,000 of which 300,000 fled with the Russians after the War, 150,000 joined the French Army and attacked Turkish cities in the south and then with many others migrated to other Countries. The falsifiers have 1,500,000 killed out of less than half a million Armenians accounted for. The Armenian population never exceeded about 15% of the population in the eastern provinces.
6. The order to relocate the Armenians in 1915 had the same purpose as the relocation of the Japanese in the US during WWII.
The forced relocation of the 120,000 Japanese-Americans in WWII to barbed wire camps was found to be legal by the U.S. Appeals Court on 18 April 1942 in the case of Korematsu vs US citing a lengthy reasoning. This in effect closed all matters relating to compensation, return of property and claims of hardship. Yet Reagan signed a presidential apology in 1988. What he saw was that the relocation started four months after Pearl Harbor at which time there was no eminent danger that the Japanese were going to invade mainland US, the Japanese-Americans were not arming themselves and ready to fight with the Japanese and they were not starting a round of sabotage and terror. They were innocent citizens of the US.
Let us compare this with the Armenians in Turkey. The year is 1915. Russians have entered Turkish territory from the East. English, French and Anzac’s landed in Galipoli aiming to advance to Istanbul. Allenby crossed the Suez and was advancing to the North with the assistance of the Arabs. Since 1890 the Armenian Hinchak and Dashnak organizations were actively engaged in armed revolt. Three prominent Armenians who were members of parliament defected and founded guerilla groups inside Turkey and started the ethnic cleansing of Turks with the help of Hinchak and Dashnak in regions where Turkish Army presence was minimal. The resulting destruction by the Armenians from 1890 to 1920 was the burning down of 22 villages, the killing of more than 400,000 Turkish civilians and the sabotaging of the Ottoman Armies where in one instant in Sarikamis resulted in the freezing to death of 80,000 troops while fighting the Russians.
On 11 April 1915 the minority Armenians of Van revolted and killed almost all of the Turkish population. A few weeks later they handed the city over to the Russians. In spite of a previous agreement between Armenians in Turkey and the Ottoman government that guaranteed that the Armenians would not fight against the Ottomans. As soon as the Russians further advanced into Turkey the Armenian guerillas revolted in Bitlis and Mus. At this time Enver Pasha decided to relocate the Armenians only in the war zones to the southern parts of the Empire. When finally the legislation was approved on 30 May 1915 it required protection of lives and property, resting during journey, distribution of food, designation of land for resettlement, the building of housing for those in need, the payment of assessed value of the property they vacated and for other items with a budget assigned for this purpose. Documents to this effect are available. They prove that the Armenian Genocide claim is false and a lie,
In his book “The Armenians”, Published by G. Toulmin, UK 1916, C.F. Dixon-Johnson wrote:
“Give a lie twenty-four hours’ start and it will take a hundred years to overtake it.”
7. We are hoping that you will be impartial and read the documentation before you start making enemies around the world..
We are praying for a peaceful world that is not filled with hatred and revenge.
Sincerely,
Demirtas Bayar
44 Alex Drive
White Plains, NY 10605