‘Ottoman Turco-Armenian War Tragedy’ presented at Edinburgh City Council

The Federation of British Turkish Associations and the British Turkish Committee for Dialogue

A symposium, jointly organised by the Federation of British Turkish Associations and British Turkish Committee for Dialogue, entitled ‘Ottoman Turco-Armenian War Tragedy’ has been presented at Edinburgh City Council on the 24th October 2005. . . .

In the symposium, the two-sided nature of the Ottoman Turco-Armenian War Tragedy has been presented to the participants, amongst whom were Edinburgh City Council leader Donald Anderson and Edinburgh Councillors.

Prof. Norman Stone (Professor of History) and Retired Ambassador Gunduz Aktan presented the incidents’ historical, political and legal aspects to the audience.

In the symposium, it was explained that the clashes between the Turkish/Muslim community and the armed Armenian groups and resulting migrations in the declining stages of the Ottoman Empire, cost many lives to both sides. The speakers suggested that this should be called a tragedy in which both sides suffered.

Enforcing Turkey to define this tragedy as a genocide that only affected the Armenian population has been the main leverage to block Turkey’s EU membership path by anti-Turkish factions in the past.

The speakers answered questions from the audience, including those from the City Council leader Donald Anderson.

As British Turkish Committee for Dialogue and the Federation of British Turkish Associations we declare that it was upsetting that the CDs and DVDs necessary to present the two-sided nature of the tragedy has been obstructed and delayed at customs, preventing that part of the symposium from taking place.

As BTCD and FBTA, we suggest that the vote on the declared motion by Edinburgh council aiming at defining this tragedy as ‘genocide’ should be cancelled, for the sake of preserving impartiality of Edinburgh Council as a third party. Both organisations have agreed that Edinburgh council has done enough to enlighten the true nature of this tragedy, allowing both parties to present their cases.

Sincerely,
The executive committees of BTCD and ITDF

Background:
The clashes between the Turkish/Muslim community and the armed Armenian groups and the resulting migrations in the declining stages of the Ottoman Empire cost many lives to both sides. (At least 523,000 Turkish lives – documented so far -, and hundreds of thousands of Armenian lives from among the 1,050,000 Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire at the time)

The Armenian Diaspora describes this two-sided Tragedy as genocide committed against them. However, many scholars, including Prof. Dr Bernard Lewis, Prof. Dr. Stanford Shaw, Prof.Dr.Heath Lowry support the view that in these clashes both sides suffered and it is scientifically wrong to call the tragedy as ‘genocide’. There is no decision given by an International Court to this effect.

The Turkish Diaspora in-large maintains the opinion that giving precedence to any side of the victims is unhelpful and they propose to commemorate the victims of both sides. The Turkish government has recently proposed to set up a joint committee between Armenia and Turkey to investigate the events in more detail, based on historical archives.

The scholars that support the view that the incidents can be best described as a two-sided tragedy, in which both sides suffered, have been the target of extremist Armenian organisations in the past, which deny the two-sided nature of the war tragedy so far.