BOSTON : Turks & Armenians: What Really Happened

Press/Media Release

Contact: Mr. Sefer Ozdemir

Email: bilgi@turkkulturevi.org

Telephone: 617-833-1218

There has been a great deal of confusing information published about what took place on April 24, 1915 in the region in which present day Turkey exists. Leading up to the events of 1915 various ethnic interest groups who were deceived by Russia, Britain and French and were made part of a historical plot to destroy the Ottoman empire have offered conflicting versions of the events.

Mr Ozdemir who is hosting the lecture maintains that these powers bear overall responsibility for the deaths of Ermenians, Kurds as well as Turks who lived in the area together for thousands of years before and “will have to continue to live together in the future.” Mr Ozdemir further proposes that the parties who have suffered should join together and file for class action lawsuit against Russia, British and French governments.

These governments and others to this date still employ same tactics (fueling hatred, pitting ethnic groups against another) in order to financially benefit from the suffering of innocent everyday people. “it is our moral responsibility to shed light to what really happened and the parties responsible” Mr. Ozdemir says.

Dr. Turkkaya Ataov has researched and found documentain that will show that;

• On April 24, 1915, 235 leaders out of 77,735 Armenians of Istanbul were moved to and placed under house arrest to the Anatolian city of Chankiri.  They were free to move about the city in the day time, and confined to house arrest at night.  All were eventually released.  One died due to natural causes.  Two were murdered by two hooligans, who were tried and executed for their crimes.
• In May 1915, many Armenians in the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire were relocated from the war zones in response to the Armenian Revolt which reached its most destructive point in the Van Revolt of March 1915.  In June 1915, the relocation reached port cities in Western Anatolia, where Armenian rebels were importing and transporting arms and ammunitions to Armenian nationalists in the east.
• In November 1915, the relocation ended.  The relocation was a military response to a military problem.  Having initially “slaughtered about 120,000 non-Armenians” in Eastern Anatolia, as recorded even by the British, and seized control of the Ottoman city of Van, with the backing of the invading Russians, the Armenians posed a great military danger to the 3^rd, 4^th, and the 6^th Ottoman armies, as well as to the Ottoman civilian Muslim and Jewish populations
• There is absolutely no similarity between the Armenian case and the Holocaust, as Jews never engaged in an armed revolt to create a Jewish state in Germany.  To equate the Armenian case with genocide, is to dilute the definition of genocide and understate the suffering of the Jews.
• Whether the events of 1915 constitute genocide is not a political question, where truth may be sacrificed for election purposes at Congressional district levels.  History and jurisprudence have their own methodologies that should be respected by all.

In a national speaking tour, Prof. Dr. Turkkaya, a highly respected historian and professor will give a lecture on the political landscape and events of April 24, 1915 which will serve to enlighten the general public and especially those who receive communications from organizations whose agendas include disruption of peaceful relations and bridge building.

Details of this lecture are included herein.

Prof. Dr. Turkaya Ataov
Capital Forum and National Speakers Bureau Program

US-Canada Lecture Series

Turks & Armenians: What Really Happened

on April 24, 1915

Saturday, March 27, 2010 –

Boston 3:00-5:00pm

15 Boston Street Courtyard, Andrew Square
South Boston , 02127
Organized by TurkBirDev Association
Information: 617.833.1218

Biographical Sketch of  Prof. Dr. Turkkaya Ataov

Türkkaya Ataöv is Professor Emeritus in International Relations at Ankara University, Turkey. He did his graduate work in the United States, where he received two M.A.s (NYU & Syracuse Univ. ) and a Ph.D. (1959, Syracuse U., NY ). He taught at Ankara Univ. for more than four decades and lectured in several American, British, Russian, German, Dutch, Indian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, African and Australian universities. He is the author of close to 140 books (most of which have been in foreign languages and printed in Europe or in the