To Les Moonves, President & CEO, CBS Corp. lmoonves@cbs.com
From: Robert McKay, PhD., P. O. Box 126, Eastford, CT 06242 860-974-0392
Regarding: Reply to the Bob Simon/Peter Balakian Story titled “Battle over History”
Date: February 28, 2010
Bob Simon’s story being aired Sunday, February 28, 2010, on 60 Minutes with Peter Balakian is causing concerns about CBS by the Turkish community…concerns that I, too, share.
50 Years ago my wife and I traveled to Turkey. We lived there for 5 years as teachers at the Tarsus American College, Tarsus, Turkey. Finding artifacts going back to 2500 B.C. opened our eyes to aspects of history that never seemed real in a sterile classroom on the rolling hills of eastern Connecticut, University of Connecticut.
One of the many issues that interested me were the events of 1915 and the actions that surrounded them.
However if we take 1915 out of context we do not see the relentless, persistent and predictable deaths that the Armenians have inflicted on their neighbors: Jews, Kurds, Turks, Azeries, and all others who might disagree with them.
A flow of history which shows a uniform and consistent pattern of atrocities by the Armenians would be the 3 periods listed:
- 1915 through WWI Armenian Russian conspiracy
- 1980’s Armenians begin worldwide assassinations: Ambassadors and politicians
they didn’t like. The FBI credited Armenia with 25% of international terrorism in the USA.
- 1992—In the Nagorno=Karabakh region of Azerbaijan Armenian and Russian
forces kill 400,000 Azaries leaving 1,000,000 (IDP’s) International Displaced
Persons in Azerbaijan.
Period I
Let’s talk about 1915 through WWI. It is well documented that Russia wished the demise of Ottoman Turkey and wanted access to oceans. During this period Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire flocked to join Russian forces attacking the Ottomans from their eastern flank. The Armenian Russian forces and guerilla forces with the Ottoman Empire blow up post offices, cut lines of communication and caused the Ottomans to move up to 400,000 troops from the southern flank to protect the Armenian Russian threat. There were massacres and atrocities of equal magnitude on both sides. Bones found in Turkish soil are both ethnically Turkic and Armenian. However, today after all these years people like Peter Balakian, who never had first hand knowledge of the situation, claim that the Ottoman’s committed a genocide: as a side note the term genocide was never used until it had political importance long after WWII.
In brief your concern with the topic is appreciated, but telling only the pro-western/Christian side of the story is not appreciated. In the minds of many scholars, writers and politicians, the Armenian perspective is wrong! There are, in fact, two sides.
Please note that a preponderance of scholars and politicians do not accept the genocide concept. Interestingly the highest ranking Armenian, Hovhannes Katchaznouni, the first Prime Minister of the new independent Armenian Republic in 1923 did not accept the concept of genocide.
a) Dr. Katchaznouni in his report to the Dashnaq Party’s 1923 Congress clearly accepts Armenian responsibility for the tragedy that befell his country. “We (Armenians) caused this tragedy. Turks knew what they were doing (and) the (Ottoman Turkish) deportation (of Armenians) was right and necessary”
This report has been hidden from researchers for years, however since being uncovered it has been published in a brief 125 page book titled “Dashnagtzoutiun Has Nothing to Do Anymore”, Kaynak Yayinlari (Kaynak Press) pps. 125.
b) The Malta Tribunal, held by England, immediately after WWI and initiated by the Armenian interest could not convict a single Ottoman military officer or politician of
genocide and/or war crimes.
c) U.S. Admiral Bristol, commander of the Sixth Fleet and later first Ambassador to the new Republic of Turkey (post WWI) traveled the country extensively and reported no genocide.
d) Ambassador Elekdar went to England to intensively study a document produced by the English called the “Blue Book”. The Ambassador has shown that most of the the documents were either fraudulently written or slanted so as to draw England into WWI.
Ambassador Elekdar subjected himself to scholars from around the world on his findings. He has not been refuted.
For brevity it is fair to say that the key scholars and leaders of the early 1900’s did not attribute a genocide to the Ottoman Turks.
Period II
During the 1980’s Armenians, who never at any time in the history of the Ottoman Empire had never had sovereignty over even a single square inch of the Anatolian peninsula were beginning to push for land claims and reparation based upon a made up genocide claim.
During this time the Turkish archives were open to scholars. No one has ever found a single note or sentence regarding a government policy of eliminating or getting rid of Armenians.
Armenia would never open its archives. In order to prevent conflicting view the Armenians began a worldwide campaign of assassinating ambassadors and others who disagreed with them. In fact at one point during this period the FBI identified Armenia as being responsible for 25% of international terror casualties in the U.S.A.
Period III
In 1992 interest in oil drive an Armenian Russian genocide of Azeris. As in Period I (1915) Armenians are pawns of Russia.
However since the early 1800’s those people of the Transcaucuses: Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been under the control of Russia. The Armenians more that the others, have been willing to be the pawns of Russian geo-political interests.
In the 1990’s Russia had decided that the oil rich region of Nagorno-Karabakh would be an autonomous section of Azerbaijan even though it had a high % of Armenians living there.
The Armenians living in this Nagorno Karabkh region of Azerbaijan began killing any Azari that lived there. In the village of Khojaly (about 7000 people) the Armenians killed every man, woman and child. The Russian 366th Regiment participated.
The result was that by 1992 Armenians were responsible for killing 400,000 people and leaving over 1,000,000 International Displaced Persons (IDP’s) in Azerbaijan. Where is the popular media outrage? Where is the political outrage? These events are contemporary.
As background information let’s remember that Armenia today is about the same population as Connecticut, slightly over 3 million. Ten years ago the Armenian population was almost double that of today. For economic reasons, Armenians are relocating around the world, a large percentage to Turkey.
In Conclusion
- The long term actions of Armenia as an aggressor pawn of Russia lends credibility to the Turkish claims that there was no genocide.
- There is no doubt that more ethnic Turks died than ethnic Armenians,
(International Red Cross figures state that more than 25% of all ethnic Turks died
as a result of war, massacres, diseases and starvation.)
- There never was an Ottoman policy to exterminate Armenians.
- Ottoman Turks failed in World War I in large part because Armenian/Russian
forces diverted their capabilities to the eastern part of the empire.
- At the beginning of the century Armenians were pawns of Russian attempts to
gain seaports. Armenia thought part of the Ottoman Empire would be given to
them.
- Later in the century (1992) Armenia was a pawn of Russian oil interests.
Again Russia gets oil, Armenia expands its borders into Azerbaijan.
- Armenian Russian killings in Azerbaijan are 400,000 dead and 1,000,000 IDP’s.
Where is the outrage by the media and U.S. politicians.
Personally I was very unhappy to see any program with Peter Balakian associated with it. He is an Armenian nationalist who, as a “historian” has never attempted to see the truth of both sides.
I could bring a wide range of resources to CBS that would acknowledge the suffering of Armenians and Turks and would like to do so if CBS has any interest in a broader look at history.
Your 60 Minute piece either by plan or coincidence came at a very bad time: the U.S. Congress is considering H. Res. 252 which agrees with the “non historical based claims of Armenia.”
This resolution will harm U. S. Turkish relations and the Armenian-Turkish normalization process for years to come. It will also harm Islam Christian trust for centuries around the world. Alliances between Muslim and Christian countries will be less likely. Certainly Turkish treaties with American backed Israel will be much
less enthusiastically viewed.
Cordially,
Robert McKay
Cc: The Honorable Namik Tan, Ambassador of Turkey, Washington DC
The Honorable Mehmet Samsar, Turkish Consulate, NewYork, New York
Dr. Kaya Buyukataman, President Turkish Forum
Kaya Boztepe, President Federation of Turkish American Associations, New York
Gunay Evinch, President Assembly Of Turkish American Associations, Washington DC
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Senator from Connecticut
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WHO IS TURKISH BOB
| “Turkish Bob’s” Love Of Half a Century |
| Friday, 15 April 2005 | |||||
| Ali Cinar – Connecticut acinar@turkofamerica.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it When American protest singer Bob Dylan, in his autobiography “Chronicles” mentioned his ancestors’ origins as Turkey, it had major repercussions in Turkey, and we experienced the happiness of finding somebody else with ties to Turkey.Believing “everybody whose paths went through Turkey is a Turk!”, we helped the famous rock star to recover his identity. (Even though in his book, Dylan said that his ancestors went from Turkey to Odessa in Southern Russia before moving to USA.) Our guest in this issue is not as famous as Bob Dylan, but he is more valuable to the Turks and to Turkey. He is Dr. Robert B. McKay or “Turkish Bob” as close friends call him, living in Hartford, Connecticut, the center for US insurance companies. Although there are few Turks living in Hartford, Dr. McKay voluntarily acts as a major booster for Turkey. Every October 29th he raises the Turkish flag on the Hartford State Capitol, he volunteers in organizations forging tie between Turkey and US. Together with Turks he is working to promote Turkish culture in different areas. He worked on projects such as bringing the Murat Reis submarine, used to gather intelligence from Russia during the Cold War, to Little Rock, Arkansa, and on efforts to include Turkish culture in the Heritage Museum, which will soon be opened in affiliation with the Smithsonian Institute. HE WAS A TEACHER İN TARSUS McKay’s Turkish story started when he accepted a job as a teacher at Tarsus American College. McKay tells how impressed he was by the attention and the love he received during his five-year stay in Tarsus. Besides teaching, he also did volunteer work building village roads. He still remembers the taste of the fizzy lemonade, “gazoz”, he was offered everywhere he went. His office is decorated with Turkish books and the flag. His wife Lorraine summarizes the five years the couple spent with the words, “I learned more than I taught.” Their favorite locations in Turkey are the Pine Park near Silifke and Istanbul. McKlay, who was consulted by the Clinton administration regarding Cyprus, says, “I received a lot of attention in Turkey, now I am trying to show the same to Turks living in US.” A friend of the Turks, McKay has four missions: to educate Americans that Turkey is a friend in the free world, to increase the industrial and business relations between the two countries, to positively reinforce Turkey’s image in the US, and to make the contribution of Anatolian civilizations to today’s life more widely known. Some of the projects McKay is working on with Turks are the flying of the Turkish flag on the Hartford State Capitol, a program to bring students at Tarsus American High School with insufficient resources to the US, the exhibition of Turkish historical and cultural artifacts in the Smithsonian Institute’s planned new museum in Rhode Island, and the foundation of Ataturk Peace Museum in North Little Rock, Arkansas. McKay notes that such ambitous activities would ordinarily require at least six high-level managers to run, who would be funded by both governmental and private sources. McKay is a member of the board of directors and the advisory board of Turkish Forum, as well as the board of directors of the Southern New England Turkish American Cultural Association. (April 2005, 16th Issue)\ ====================================================================================
Thank you Bob for an excellent Letter to CBS President. I wrote to Andy Rooney, hoping that he would do something about this horrible act of CBS which will tarmish its image. I hope more TAC and Talas teachers and graduates will write to CBS and their congressmen in the US. Below is my letter to Andy Rooney.
Yuksel Oktay
Washington, NJ
Open Letter to Andy Rooney, the Commentator on CBS 60 Minute Program, on “Battle over History’’, aired by CBS 60 Minute, today, Sunday at 19:00 PM, Feb. 28, 2010
Andy Rooney,
CBS 60 Minute Commentator
New York, NY
Dear Mr. Rooney,
Your commentary at the end of the 60 Minute program today was excellent, as usual. You were right in questioning the wisdom of including all those questions in the 2010 Census Form. I don’t know if you watched the entire 60 Minute program, especially the segment called “Battle over History”, the 10 minute segment prepared by E. Goushon and Drew Moughathan, which was full of fabricated stories, distorted facts, and not a good one. In fact, it was a disgrace to TV journalism, in which CBS is good at. In fact, probably the best program on TV is the “Sunday Morning” originated by Charles H Kuralt who would neverallow the showing of a one sided story on his program. Just like you questioned the Cencus Form, I would like to question the allegations in the “Battle of History”, if possible, with your help, which was more like “ Battle over History with Fabrications, Forged Documents, and Armenian Distortion of Facts”
For years, 60 Minutes has been presenting excellent segments on many subjects that the public has cherished over and over again. I still remember the segment that was presented some years ago on Ahmet Ertegun, a Turkish-American and a music mogul who made Charles Ray famous along with many African-American musicians over the years. He is now buried in a small grave in Uskudar, Istanbul, but his contributions to the American society will never be forgotten.
The 10 minute segment “Battle of History “, was full of fabrications, forged documents and distorted facts, as a result of which, the truth was lost. In 10 minutes, the entire Turkish nation was convicted of a crime which has never been proven in an International Court. Peter Balakian made a new revelation that 400,000 Armenians died in , which is a fabrication. Many of the re-located Armenians did arrive in and all of them were given homes, land and money. Armenians were given an option to return to Turkey in 1916 and 1917, and many did, in fact some joining the French forces and fighting against the Ottoman Empire. The descendants of the re-located Armenians who chose to live in Syria and Lebanon make up a large portion of the 8 million Diaspora Armenians. These facts were not mentioned in the presentation.
Just one site was shown along the Euphrates, claiming that the bones were everywhere, which is questionable after 95 years. Perhaps they were just placed there for the program. The Turkish Ambassador Nabi Sensoy was not given an opportunity to tell the truth, since he appeared for less than a minute, and erroneouslyreferred to the re-settlement as deportations. The Hitler statement that Peter Balakian loves to state at every occasion is a total fabrication which has been proven to be false. The reference to genocide scholars is also distortion of facts since these people are self appointed individuals without any credentials to pass a judgament on what happened 95 years ago. The murder of Hrant Dink was condemned by everyone in Turkey when 100,000 Turks walked behind his coffin, including this writer.
The 10 minute segment was broadcast as a propaganda material to influence the 46 members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee before their vote on the fabricated Armenian genocide resolution on March 4, 2010. I will venture to say that, if they watched this segment, they will not believe all the falsifications and vote “NO” to the Resolution. Below is a letter that I sent to the members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and I hope you too will read it. And I hope you will have a talk with Bob Simon who put this segment on 60 Minutes, tarnishing its reputation. It would be wise if CBS 60 Minute airs “Armenian Revolt”, a documentary made by an American, which tells the truth about the Armenian issue.
Respectfully.
Yuksel Oktay
Concerned American with Turkish Heritage and Past President,
Federation of Turkish-American Associations, NY (1973)
Saturday, 27 February 2010
Washington, NJ
Attachments:
Open Letter to the Chairman Howard L. Berman and the 46 Members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on, “Battle over History’’, to be aired by CBS 60 Minute, Feb. 28, 2010
which should be referred to as:
“ Battle over History with Fabrications, Forged Documents, and Armenian Distortion of Facts”
Part II
February 27, 2010, Saturday
CBS will air a segment on the Armenian issue on its 60 Minute program on February 28, just 3 days before the House Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled to vote on the House Resolution 252, “Affirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian genocide Resolution,” on March 4, 2010. Most Turkish-Americans and their friends will be watching the program, as I am sure most of you also will, since this program is seen by many as propaganda material to influence your votes. Some of you have already declared your intentions, such as Rep. Brad Sherman of California where over a million Armenians live and where the Resolution was originated, who has stated that he will vote “yes”. Others have stated that they have not made up their minds, such as Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, which is understandable, since he, like yourselves and the millions of Americans have been bombarded with Armenian propaganda for over 45 years which is based on fabrications, forged documents and distortion of facts, as a result of which the truth has been lost.
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