AFTER DAVOS.. ATTACTS ON TURKISH POINT OF VIEW INTENSIFIED .. BELOW İS AN EXAMPLE … TURKISH FORUM …OpinionBy Rafael MedoffPublished March 04, 2009, issue of March 13, 2009. Robert Morgenthau’s announcement that he will retire after more than three decades as Manhattan’s district attorney caps an impressive career in law enforcement. With his latest case, against banks illegally aiding the governments of Iran and Sudan, three generations of Morgenthaus have now confronted perpetrators of genocide – which is as tragic a commentary on the persistence of human rights abuses in modern times as it is a tribute to a remarkable family that has fought those abuses. It began with Robert Morgenthau’s grandfather. A lawyer and realtor in turn-of-the-century Manhattan, Henry Morgenthau Sr. was an unlikely crusader for human rights. His life took a surprising turn when his support for the long-shot presidential candidacy of Woodrow Wilson was rewarded with the post of American ambassador to Turkey. Under the cover of World War I, the Turkish authorities embarked on a campaign of mass murder against their Armenian citizens. Morgenthau’s desperate cables to Washington about this “attempt to exterminate a race” – relaying details of the wholesale deportations, massacres and rapes – are among the most important evidence of the atrocities. The ambassador persuaded The New York Times and other news media to report on the “race murder,” as he called it; he inspired charity groups to raise relief funds for the survivors. But the Wilson administration, anxious to remain neutral in the war, rebuffed Morgenthau’s appeals to intervene. Morgenthau resigned in frustration in early 1916. While Morgenthau was unable to save the Armenians, his example has stood as a beacon to generations of activists determined to stop genocide. Morgenthau’s experience fills the opening section of Samantha Power’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide.” Now a senior foreign policy adviser to President Obama, Power regards “the American nonresponse to the Turkish horrors” as “establishing patterns that would be repeated” throughout the ensuing century. Power, according to recent media reports, is now attempting to break the pattern by urging active American intervention against the genocide in Darfur. Two decades after Henry Morgenthau Sr. resigned his post as ambassador, a twist of fate put his son in a position to act against genocide. As the proprietor of apple orchards in New York’s Dutchess County, Henry Morgenthau Jr. became friends with his neighbor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In 1934, Roosevelt named him secretary of the treasury. Under ordinary circumstances, the Treasury Department would not deal with matters affecting Jews in Hitler’s Europe, but in 1943 Jewish groups asked the department for permission to send funds into Axis territory to ransom Jews. The State Department’s attempt to stall the rescue plan aroused the ire and curiosity of a senior Morgenthau aide named Josiah DuBois. His investigations revealed that the State Department had been suppressing news of the Holocaust and sabotaging rescue opportunities so America would not have to deal with what one official called “the burden and the curse” of having to care for refugees. In early 1944, Morgenthau confronted Roosevelt with the evidence and urged him to create a government agency to rescue Jews. Just then, leading members of Congress, galvanized by the activist Bergson Group, were pressing the president to establish such an agency. The pressure convinced a reluctant Roosevelt to create the War Refugee Board. During the final 15 months of the war, the board helped save an estimated 200,000 Jews. Like his father and grandfather, Robert Morgenthau chose a career path that one would not expect to embroil him in international affairs. As Manhattan’s district attorney since 1975, Morgenthau prosecuted the usual array of criminals, from muggers to Mafia bosses to white-collar swindlers. Last month, however, Morgenthau announced the results of what is perhaps his most important investigation: His office caught 10 major international banks laundering “billions of dollars” for Iran and Sudan. Part of the money purchased goods that international sanctions prevent Tehran and Khartoum from acquiring. Some of the money was channeled to terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah. Ironically, Morgenthau’s bank investigators have been collaborating with the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control – the same office that, under the direction of Josiah DuBois, his father worked with during the Holocaust. Three generations of Morgenthaus were unexpectedly thrust into the international arena and rose to the challenge. Henry Sr. exposed the perpetrators of the Armenian genocide. Henry Jr. helped interrupt the Nazi genocide. Now the Sudanese regime that is carrying out genocide in Darfur and the Iranian regime that dreams of genocide against Israel are facing their own Morgenthau. The family’s legacy has come full circle. Rafael Medoff is director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and the author of “Blowing the Whistle on Genocide: Josiah E. DuBois, Jr. and the Struggle for a U.S. Response to the Holocaust” (Purdue University Press, 2008). Source: [2] Makalenin yazarinin Wikipedia girisi:Rafael Medoff is the director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies. Medoff received his PhD from Yeshiva University in 1991. In 2001 he was Visiting Scholar in Jewish Studies at the State University of New York at Purchase. He has served on the editorial boards of American Jewish History, Southern Jewish History, Shofar and Menorah Review. He is a member of the Academic Council of the American Jewish Historical Society, and his essays and reviews have appeared in many scholarly journals.[1] He has made a significant contribution to the history of US-Israel relations by examining American Jewish attitudes towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Palestinian Arabs. [2]In The Deafening Silence, Medoff argues that had American Jewish leaders been more forceful in presenting the case for rescue of European Jews to the Roosevelt administration, they could have moved the administration to act. In Deborah Lipstadt’s review of Holocaust literature, she engages Medoff’s argument, but concludes that “There is nothing on record to indicate that their outspoken support would have changed the mind of restrictionist legislators.” [3] Lawrence Davidson of West Chester University cites Medoff’s assertion in Zionism and the Arabs: An American Jewish Dilemma, 1898-1948, that Zionists did not see the Palestinian Arabs as “a distinct national group with national rights-largely because the Palestinian Arabs themselves did not claim the status of a specific national grouping,” to argue against Zionism on the grounds that “no one ruled against self- determination in other parts of Greater Syria where the same views prevailed.” [4] |
Morgenthaus vs. Genocide
Comments
4 responses to “Morgenthaus vs. Genocide”
-
Article by: Rafael Medoff “Morgenthaus vs Genocide”
Reader’s REPLY comments: -Open Letter –
I have read the subject article and I am amazed at the “shortage of knowledge” of the writer on Armeno-Turkish or Armeno-Jewish connections in the past century. The purpose of this commentary is to put light “only on the portion studied by me quite extensively, viz. the knowledge given on Henry Morgenthau, Sr. which falls very short of the available documented references. I am not commenting “anything” about the period and actions of his son, on which I know almost nothing. I have also read the “storm of pro-Armenian” commentators, which are based on fragments of general or hearsay stories. Any person that can defy the references I have given, annexed or indicated, with equivalent reliability, is welcome to comment on “any wrongs in my references”. I regret the fact that for exact details, you have to refer to my book “The Genocide of Truth” http://armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2008/04/2429-new-e-book-genocide-of-truth-based.html at your immediate reach. Present annex is just a short abstract for ease.
The writer is a scholar of Jewish history but my impression is that he has not read enough on the Turkish-Armenian or Turkish-Jewish or Armenian-Jewish relations in the near past and has exhibited few errors in his short introduction, viz:
a- Henry Morgenthau‘s status as a “crusader of human rights” or “opportunist getting a reward from W. Wilson against his contribution in money ($ 30.000) and services in the campaign” is hard to tell! Mr.Morgenthau did not speak any foreign language, had no diplomatic experience and was totally guided by his personal secretary Hagop S. Andonian and official dragoman of the Embassy Arshag Schimavonian. The ambassador has left Istanbul only once by boat to Beirut for about a month where he met Lord Bryce, and Missionary Bliss, with whom he was to stay in close contact. Other than this boat trip, the ambassador was never out of Istanbul, has not seen any of the atrocity areas and every information he received was through these two persons, whom he took along with him to USA, or any of the other Armenian staff of the embassy.. Shimavonian was given a job at the State Department, whilst Andonian helped the Ambassador for drafting his book “Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story” which was ghost written by Pullitzer-prize winner Burton J. Hendrick, for a sizeable share of the book income.
b- The ambassador was “assigned by Wilson and State Secretary Lansing, to procure-produce humane causes to justify the participation of USA in WW1 as a savior of Christianity and Humanity”. The ambassador was heavily involved in the propaganda activities, by sending the “letters sent by the missionaries to the Embassy” to Arnold Toynbee and Lord Bryce in “diplomatic bags”, for use in the “propaganda stories” drafted for the “Blue Book”.
c- Attached is a list with excerpts from various U.S. Newspapers, and the headlines are self-explanatory. You are also asked to read in full the article that appeared in the “Reno Evening Gazette” on Oct.15, 1915 about the “status of atrocities and role of the ambassador”.
d- The notes written by the ambassador in his diary about the visit of Zenop Bezcian (page…269. ) and the letter found in his drawer written by Associated Press correspondent George A. Schreiner (page 335) is more than enough to prove the hypocrisy of the ambassador. It was again him, who gave the same notes to German Pastor Lepsius during his one month stay in Istanbul. Lepsius gave the notes to Franz Werfel, who wrote the damning novel “Forty Days at Musa Dagh”.
e- The ambassador was largely involved in relief activities and for this reason was received with applauds in Boston when he returned to USA. The ambassador was in Turkey from Nov.27th, 1913 to Feb. 1919, some 26 months only.
f- Morgenthau did not resign! U.S.A. had allied herself with Britain who was at war with the Ottoman Empire.
Although there was no war declared between USA and Turkey (not to effect the status of the missionary schools and hospitals who remained open and were a large investment of U.S. missionaries) the diplomatic relations had to be cut and the ambassadors called back temporarily. Once he was back, Morgenthau was involved in relief and pro-Armenian activities during the rest of his life. He went by himself to the Paris Conference in 1919 to put pressure on the leaders and he was instrumental to deter the Turkish-USA relations even at the Lausanne Conference.
g- The ambassador was first on the “Board of Trustees” and later in the “Executive Committee” of the “Near East Relief Organization” which was approved by President Wilson on Aug.6, 1919. The report of activities, collections and expenditures effective on Dec.31, 1921 was approved by the U.S. Joint Senate – Congress on April 22, 1922 under document no. 192. Mr. Morgenthau ‘s name is clearly written in the executive board and hence he bears full responsibility for the contents of this 29 page report. This report makes no mention of any acts of “race extermination”, on the contrary “almost thanks Turks” for the protection of orphanages and clearly indicates that effective 31.12.1921, one million Armenians were alive in Armenia, 300.000 in Syria who had evacuated the area with the French pull out and 114.000 persons throughout various orphanages.
In as far that the total Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire was 1.3 to 1.5 millions ( page 303 ) the accusation of genocide and “mass murder”, does not hold by simple arithmetic. I guess that it is up to the pro-Armenian scholars to bring a “logical explanation” to this paradox.
h- My book contains over 1500 excerpts and nearly 500 documents, all from anti-Turkish or neutral sources, which leaves the conclusion to the reader about the gigantic distortions and fabrications.
I- The writer is cordially invited to read chapter 21 of my book and in particular pages 452-453 and familiarize himself
with the Armenian claims and book saying that “Jews exterminated Armenians”(!). It also seems natural that the writer is totally unaware of the Armenian-Nazi Battalions and the fact that it was the Turkish ambassador Behic Erkin and his consular staff that managed to save Jews from going into death camps by “tens of thousands” (page 435.). The irony is that the news in Washington Post dated June 17, 1943 is ahead of the Morgenthau ‘s asking Roosevelt to save Jews when Turkish Republic had already risked diplomatic relations with Germany to save Jews. The writer may also be unaware of the fact that the “Hitler” news trick was applied during the Nuremberg Trials and not only saved the Nazi Armenians from being put on trial but also enabled some 20.000 of them to be accepted in USA as “displaced persons” including General Dro Drastamad Kanajan, who was the right hand of the German army (since he knew Russia and Russian armies too well) and this man was still speaking of “German and Armenian Victory” in the New Year speech in 1945 in Germany.
j- The writer could have at least contacted the Jews in Turkey and the 500th Year Foundation, to get some truthful information about the very old amicable relations between Turks and Jews. I fail the to understand the advocacy of the writer for Armenians, who had erased the last Jewish tribes in the Caucasus and now they have a Jewish community of only 300 persons living in Erivan, versus some 30.000 Jews totally mixed with Turks since times they were expelled from Spain.
Interested readers may get additional information from attached pages. History is a field requiring much reading from paradoxical sources, leaving the conclusion to the evaluation of the readers. For this reason, “scholars are expected to be extremely careful when writing their opinions on certain subjects” without having searched large and deep enough.
Sukru S. Aya – Istanbul. March 10, 2009
Annex: Some documentary references excerpted from the book for your comfort.
-
why don’t you post your piece on the Forward website? Afraid of offending some Jewish people?
-
Here is an article written at Turkish Forum [but not Forward] concerning the Medoff piece directly above. Having slandered Morgenthau as a dupe, a conspirator, and a bigot, the author apparently wanted not to offend Jewish readers by placing the article at Forward.
I have added comments in brackets.
“Reader’s REPLY comments: -Open Letter –
I have read the subject article and I am amazed at the “shortage of knowledge” of the writer on Armeno-Turkish or Armeno-Jewish connections [this is the Turkish denialist way of avoiding use of the term “Armenan Genocide” which they insist on calling “the Turkish-Armenian conflict”. Their national officer Ergun Kirlikovali maintains that it is “racist” even to utter the forbidden words ‘Armenian Genocide’ which of course is taboo to say in Turkey]in the past century.
The purpose of this commentary is to put light “only on the portion studied by me quite extensively, viz. the knowledge given on Henry Morgenthau, Sr. which falls very short of the available documented references. I am not commenting “anything” about the period and actions of his son, on which I know almost nothing. I have also read the “storm of pro-Armenian” commentators, which are based on fragments of general or hearsay stories. Any person that can defy the references I have given, annexed or indicated, with equivalent reliability, is welcome to comment on “any wrongs in my references”. I regret the fact that for exact details, you have to refer to my book “The Genocide of Truth” http://armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2008/04/2429-new-e-book-genocide-of-truth-based.html at your immediate reach. [the blogspot reference is full of Nazi like quotes by anybody who ever said a bad thing about Armenians, going back to the days of the Ancient Romans.] Present annex is just a short abstract for ease.
The writer is a scholar of Jewish history but my impression is that he has not read enough on the Turkish-Armenian or Turkish-Jewish or Armenian-Jewish relations [read: the Genocide] in the near past and has exhibited few errors in his short introduction, viz:
a- Henry Morgenthau‘s status as a “crusader of human rights” or “opportunist getting a reward from W. Wilson against his contribution in money ($ 30.000) and services in the campaign” is hard to tell! Mr.Morgenthau did not speak any foreign language, had no diplomatic experience and was totally guided by his personal secretary Hagop S. Andonian and official dragoman of the Embassy Arshag Schimavonian. The ambassador has left Istanbul only once by boat to Beirut for about a month where he met Lord Bryce, and Missionary Bliss, with whom he was to stay in close contact. Other than this boat trip, the ambassador was never out of Istanbul, has not seen any of the atrocity areas and every information he received was through these two persons, whom he took along with him to USA, or any of the other Armenian staff of the embassy.[Ambassadors do tend to stay at the seats of government. Moreover,Morgenthau’s most damning testimony came from admissions made to him by Talaat in Constantinople, who recounted that almost all the Armenians were dead, that Morgenthau should cause American insurance carriers to escheat policy payouts to the Ottoman state since the covered persons and beneficiaries were all dead, and that Morgenthau, as a Jew, should not care about Christian dead. Talat made similar statements to the Governor of Diyarbekir, as recounted in the de Nogales book].
. Shimavonian was given a job at the State Department, whilst Andonian helped the Ambassador for drafting his book “Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story” which was ghost written by Pullitzer-prize winner Burton J. Hendrick, for a sizeable share of the book income.
b- The ambassador was “assigned by Wilson and State Secretary Lansing, to procure-produce humane causes to justify the participation of USA in WW1 as a savior of Christianity and Humanity”. The ambassador was heavily involved in the propaganda activities, by sending the “letters sent by the missionaries to the Embassy” to Arnold Toynbee and Lord Bryce in “diplomatic bags”, for use in the “propaganda stories” drafted for the “Blue Book”. [Morgenthau would still faithfully pass on his observations. Does the author assert Morgenthau made these things up as a pretext? It was Turkey who joined the Germans and Austro-Hungarians].
c- Attached is a list with excerpts from various U.S. Newspapers, and the headlines are self-explanatory. You are also asked to read in full the article that appeared in the “Reno Evening Gazette” on Oct.15, 1915 about the “status of atrocities and role of the ambassador”.
d- The notes written by the ambassador in his diary about the visit of Zenop Bezcian (page…269. ) and the letter found in his drawer written by Associated Press correspondent George A. Schreiner (page 335) is more than enough to prove the hypocrisy of the ambassador. It was again him, who gave the same notes to German Pastor Lepsius during his one month stay in Istanbul. Lepsius gave the notes to Franz Werfel, who wrote the damning novel “Forty Days at Musa Dagh”. [this is simply not clear].
e- The ambassador was largely involved in relief activities [prompted by the horrors he observed]and for this reason was received with applauds in Boston when he returned to USA. The ambassador was in Turkey from Nov.27th, 1913 to Feb. 1919, some 26 months only. [the massacres of 1914 began in various Eastern areas, the killing of 600 Armenian intellectuals commenced April 24, 1915, and the deportations were largely concluded by the Fall of 1915. Morgenthau was there through 1919 per the author].
f- Morgenthau did not resign! U.S.A. had allied herself with Britain who was at war with the Ottoman Empire. [so?]
Although there was no war declared between USA and Turkey (not to effect the status of the missionary schools and hospitals who remained open and were a large investment of U.S. missionaries) the diplomatic relations had to be cut and the ambassadors called back temporarily. Once he was back, Morgenthau was involved in relief and pro-Armenian activities during the rest of his life. [because whathe saw was horrifying]. He went by himself to the Paris Conference in 1919 to put pressure on the leaders and he was instrumental to deter the Turkish-USA relations even at the Lausanne Conference. [ditto].
g- The ambassador was first on the “Board of Trustees” and later in the “Executive Committee” of the “Near East Relief Organization” which was approved by President Wilson on Aug.6, 1919. The report of activities, collections and expenditures effective on Dec.31, 1921 was approved by the U.S. Joint Senate – Congress on April 22, 1922 under document no. 192. Mr. Morgenthau ‘s name is clearly written in the executive board and hence he bears full responsibility for the contents of this 29 page report. This report makes no mention of any acts of “race extermination”, on the contrary “almost thanks Turks” for the protection of orphanages and clearly indicates that effective 31.12.1921, one million Armenians were alive in Armenia, 300.000 in Syria who had evacuated the area with the French pull out and 114.000 persons throughout various orphanages. [By 1921 the CUP leadership was in exile, and Turkey was occupied by the Allies].
In as far that the total Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire was 1.3 to 1.5 millions ( page 303 ) the accusation of genocide and “mass murder”, does not hold by simple arithmetic. I guess that it is up to the pro-Armenian scholars to bring a “logical explanation” to this paradox. see Bardakji’s book, plus the NY times article showing that Talaat kept track of the 1M Armenians deported and killed].
h- My book contains over 1500 excerpts and nearly 500 documents, all from anti-Turkish or neutral sources, which leaves the conclusion to the reader about the gigantic distortions and fabrications.
I- The writer is cordially invited to read chapter 21 of my book and in particular pages 452-453 and familiarize himself
with the Armenian claims and book saying that “Jews exterminated Armenians”(!). [anything to inflame]
It also seems natural that the writer is totally unaware of the Armenian-Nazi Battalions and the fact that it was the Turkish ambassador Behic Erkin and his consular staff that managed to save Jews from going into death camps by “tens of thousands” (page 435.)[more irrelevance to the 1915 Genocide. 250,000 Soviet Armenians died fighting fascism; 20,000 were recruited from German POW camps, as were larger numbers of other Soviet nationalities, including Turkics and other Moslems. Albanians, Kosovars and other Balkan Moslems volunteered into Waffen formations. What do these 1942 eventshave to do with whether Morgenthau accurately reported Genocide in 1915?]
The irony is that the news in Washington Post dated June 17, 1943 is ahead of the Morgenthau ‘s asking Roosevelt to save Jews when Turkish Republic had already risked diplomatic relations with Germany to save Jews. The writer may also be unaware of the fact that the “Hitler” news trick was applied during the Nuremberg Trials and not only saved the Nazi Armenians from being put on trial but also enabled some 20.000 of them to be accepted in USA as “displaced persons” including General Dro Drastamad Kanajan, who was the right hand of the German army (since he knew Russia and Russian armies too well) and this man was still speaking of “German and Armenian Victory” in the New Year speech in 1945 in Germany. [more of an irrelevant effort to instil hatred of Armenians with a Jewish audience. By the way, the Turkish government denaturalized several hundred Turkish Jewish citizens during the war. Moreover, Turkey entered a non aggression pact with Hitler five days before Germany invaded the Soviet Union, and did not help the allies until 1945 when it became clear the Allies weould win.]
j- The writer could have at least contacted the Jews in Turkey and the 500th Year Foundation, to get some truthful information about the very old amicable relations between Turks and Jews [which has what to do with whether Talaat and the CUP committed Genocide?]. I fail the to understand the advocacy of the writer for Armenians, who had erased the last Jewish tribes in the Caucasus and now they have a Jewish community of only 300 persons living in Erivan, versus some 30.000 Jews totally mixed with Turks since times they were expelled from Spain. [false, but in any event, one apparently cannot praise Morgenthau if Turkey was good to Jews, which it sometimes is, and sometimes is not, like right now. Non sequitor. The message is: Jews, dummy up if you know what is good for you. This works in Turkey to muzzle the minorities, not here.]
Interested readers may get additional information from attached pages. History is a field requiring much reading from paradoxical sources, leaving the conclusion to the evaluation of the readers. For this reason, “scholars are expected to be extremely careful when writing their opinions on certain subjects” without having searched large and deep enough.
Sukru S. Aya – Istanbul. March 10, 2009
Annex: Some documentary references excerpted from the book for your comfort.
-
Now Jerusalem Post on Morgenthaus as “non-Zionist Jews”… How convenient!
Metro Views: The Morgenthau century (Mar 14, 2009)
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1236764182700&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Leave a Reply