Ergun Kirlikovali ATAA President elect, Ali Cinar ATAA VP ,Ibrahim Kurtulus, President of Young Turks and myself we have contacted the Center about this program.
Lemkin coined the word genocide after the Holocaust which was very appropriate. Erroneously he used the Armenian case as an early example. One wonders about how much he knew about the Ottoman history of early 1900s. It appears that he fell victim to the propaganda machine of the Armenians .. Oya Bain
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—– Original Message —– From: Ergun To: mglickman@cjh.org ; bslovin@yivoinstitute.org Cc: jewishmuseum@jewishmuseum.pmailus.com Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2010 7:45 PM Subject: THE TURKISH-AMERICANS SEND CONCERNS ON JEWISH-ARMENIAN TIES
Michael GlickmanChief Operating Officer, Center for Jewish History 15 W 16th, New York, NY 10011 Tel: 212-294-8301 Bruce Slovin Member of the BOD, American Jewish Historical Society Re: History Of Genocide Initiative – Sunday, January 10, 11:00am at CJH. ”Imagination and Catastrophe: Art and the Aftermath of Genocide”. (For details: http://www.cjh.org/lemkin/ )THE TURKISH-AMERICANS SEND CONCERNS ON JEWISH-ARMENIAN TIES“ (U.S.) Senators send concerns on Turkey-Israel ties” was the catchy title of a recent newspaper article at JTA, a trusted source of news and opinion on events and issues of interest to the Jewish people (source: http://jta.org/news/article/2009/12/14/1009721/senators-concerned-about-turkey-israel-relations ) which inspired me to use the title of our letter to you.I wonder if those US Senators are aware of the unfortunate defamation efforts of the Armenians inexplicably solicited by the Center for Jewish History, demonizing Turkey, Turks, and Turkish-Americans.I am of course referring to the event on January 10, 2010, HISTORY OF GENOCIDE INITIATIVE, Imagination and Catastrophe: Art and the Aftermath of Genocide (source: www.cjh.org/lemkin ) , where filmmakers, writers, and musicians allegedly discussed the complexity of art that deals with genocide and its aftermath. But what if one of the items was deliberately misrepresented to unsuspecting guests as the settled history of a genocide whereas, in fact, it is neither settled, nor genocide? What if such falsifications and deception were conducted solely to defame and demonize an entire nation and a country? Would that come under dishonesty in advertising? Or would it be considered malicious mass propaganda (i.e. ethocide) ? Or even libel? Sincerely, Ergün KIRLIKOVALI If you are intrigued by the above and wish to learn more, please read on: IS IT FAIR OR PROPER TO HOST INFAMOUS ARMENIAN FALSIFIERS AND TURK-HATERS AT A RESPECTABLE JEWISH INSTITUTION?
I am , of course, referring to at least two of the speakers of Armenian descent infamous for their anti-Turkish bias and premeditated distortion of Turkish history: Peter Balakian and Atom Egoyan. I read one of Balakian’s books which was REPLETE WITH FALSIFICATIONS and slurs. I alo saw Egoyan’s boring film which was equally deceptive and fallacious. It is not remarkable that some Armenians resort to slurs, outrageous claims, deceivingly poor math, and plain bad history to exploit others’ feelings. What is remarkable is the fact that such crude propaganda material can find access to mainstream events. Would CJH, for instance, find it fit to organize an event full of anti-Semitic slurs and lies? Why then do it for anti-Turkish slurs and lies? Isn’t it time we all realize that anti-Semitism is not unlike anti-Turkism? And that they are both motivated by the same type of bias, bigotry, anger, and hate? And that they both produce same type of religious and ethnic discrimination ignited and fueled by hate speech? And they both hurt their victims just as much? Falsification, embellishment, and insults seem to be a family tradition at the Balakian family. Here is what Holger H. Herwig, a professor of history at the University of Calgary, Canada, wrote in his review of the book “Armenian Golgotha” written by grandfather Balakian and translated by grandson Balakian, “…those seeking a scholarly history of the Armenian genocide will be disappointed. Balakian revels in stereotypes… The book would have lost none of its impact with careful editing, removing countless repetitious accounts… and correcting the many historical inaccuracies for the non-professional reader… Its greatest shortcoming, of course, is the lack of source materials. Throughout, and especially in Chapter u of Vol. ı, Balakian refers to the ‘Plan for the Extinction of the Armenians in Turkey,’ yet he offers no solid evidence for the existence of such a formal national ‘plan’ …” WOULD CJH HOST A KHOJALY EXHIBITION TO EXPOSE CURRENT ARMENIAN WAR CRIMES?
I wonder if the CJH would be kind and considerate enough to also display a set of Khojaly paintings to expose Armenian atrocities of 18 years ago in Azerbaijan, for fairness and balance, if not also for friendship and empathy. After all, those Azeri women and children saw their houses burn, their loved ones slaughtered until it was their turn to be killed. The loved ones left behind grieve their dethas at the hands of Armenian thugs and terrorists. And there is an element of art in the photo exhibition, too. HOLOCAUST IS A FACT; GENOCIDE, A CLAIM “…We reject attempts to create a similarity between the Holocaust and the Armenian allegations. Nothing similar to the Holocaust occurred. It is a tragedy… what the Armenians went through, but not a genocide.” Source: Israeli Foreign Minister and 1994 Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres, Turkish Daily News, April 10, 2001, Ankara, Turkey *** “…An appropriate analogy with the Jewish Holocaust could be the systematic extermination of all the Moslem population in the Republic of Independent Armenia, which represented at least 30 to 40 % of the total population of this republic…” Source: The Jewish Times, June 21, 1990, Circulation: 470,000 *** “…This issue [of the Armenian Genocide] should be dealt with by historians and not politicians. We do not support the comparison of the Armenian tragedies to the Jewish Holocaust. Israel will not take a historical and political stance on the issue…” Source: The Israeli Consulate, Los Angeles, USA, April 15, 2001, confirming the Perez statement in response to inquiries from Armenian-American daily Asbarez to the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles, asking whether the Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres did actually say the Armenian genocide was meaningless and reject any similarities between the Holocaust and the alleged genocide. “…Israel recognizes the tragedy of the Armenians, however, these events cannot be compared with a genocide…” Source: Israeli Foreign Office, Official statement, February 19, 2002 “HITLER QUOTE IS A HOAX”
Dr. Robert John, a historian of Armenian heritage from New York City stated, according the news article, that a commonly used quotation of an alleged statement by Adolf Hitler about the Armenian massacres was a forgery and should, therefore, not be used. Dr. John demonstrated how he had traced the original document in the Military Branch of the National Archives of the U.S.A. after being handed a folder bearing the quotation at a rally outside the United Nations building in New York following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. .. *** ARMENIAN LEADER’S CONFESSIONS ‘… The war with us was inevitable… We had not done all that was necessary for us to have done to evade war. We ought to have used peaceful language with the Turks…We had no information about the real strength of the Turks and relied on ours. This was the fundamental error. We were not afraid of war because we thought we could win… Our army was well fed and well armed and [clothed] but it did not fight. The troops were constantly retreating and deserting their positions ; they threw away their arms and dispersed in the villages. …In spite of the fact that the Armenians had better material and better support, their armies lost. ….. the advancing Turks fought only against the regular soldiers ; they did not carry the battle to the civilian sector. ….the Turkish soldiers were well-disciplined and that there had not been any massacres…’ Source: The 1923 Bucharest Manifesto of Hovhannes Katchaznouni, the first PM of the Independent Armenian Republic, published by the Armenian Information Service Suite 7D, 471 Park Ave., New York 22 – 1955. VERDICT WITHOUT DUE PROCESS IS LYNCHING Those who take the Armenian “allegations” of genocide at face value seem to also ignore the following: Genocide is a legal, technical term defined by the U.N. 1948 convention and genocide verdict can only be given by a “competent court” after “due process” where both sides are properly represented and evidence mutually cross examined. For a genocide verdict, the accusers must prove “intent” at a competent court and after due process. This could never be done by the Armenians whose evidence mostly rely on hearsay and forgeries. Such a “competent court” was never convened in the case of Turkish-Armenian conflict and a genocide verdict does not exist (save a Kangaroo court in occupied Istanbul in 1920 where partisanship, vendettas, and revenge motives left no room for due process.) Armenian Genocide claim is a long discredited political claim, not a historical fact. It reflects bias against Turks. Therefore, the term genocide must be used with the qualifier “alleged”, for scholarly objectivity and truth. ISRAELIS ARE SPEAKING OUT AGAINST GENOCIDE “…During WWI, the Russians invaded the Caucasus, and with the help of local Armenians, they have chased Turks and Jews, killed whoever they could catch, and then pillaged and plundered Turkish and Jewish villages. He was about 10 years old and my father-in-law was only 3 and he said there is no way he could forget that exodus, that fleeing. Turks and Jews brought with them to Anatolia whatever they could pack with them. Jewish families first went to Van (a city by the lake Van in Eastern Anatolia). While some Jewish families settled there, others continued their travel to settle in Adana and other places, and still others went as far as Palestine. What I am trying to my Armenian friends is this: everything has a prior history. If the Armenian attack and kill Turks, Turks, in their quest to avenge those Armenian atrocities, may have caused massacres in their counter attacks and chases. Aren’t these ‘eye for an eye’ feuds conventional and normal under the conditions of those days? In contrast, what the Germans did to 6 million Jews cannot be explained by such feuds, chases, or civil wars; there was absolutely no reason for the Holocaust. I never quite understood how the Armenians want to be included in the same category as the Jews of Holocaust. Let’s leave those old issues and the old world behind. Let’s look at the present. Let’s talk about what we can do to create a beautiful, happy new world… We should learn from those old stories and history; we should talk about the truth and agree on it; and let’s together build a more secure world to hand over to our children…Nobody benefits from feuds, hatred, and animosity; one can only gain tears that way; let’s worry about tomorrow, brothers, tomorrow! “ When permission was requested from the writer for quoting him, he responded: “…I see no problem in your quoting my story…. Those who create all this fuss around the Armenian issue do not want to understand one thing: instead of teaching love and brotherhood to their kids, they are teaching grudge and hatred (like the Palestinians do). What do they want to achieve with this attitude? Enough of this animosity already…The age old Armenian issue no longer interests me. My children’s future is more important…” Momo Asafrana, December 09, 2004, responding to a request for permission to publish his story above. *** “…We have first hand information and evidence of Armenian atrocities against our people (Jews). Members of our family witnessed the murder of 148 members of our family near Erzurum, Turkey, by Armenian neighbors, bent on destroying anything and anybody remotely Jewish and/or Muslim… Armenians were in league with Hitler in the last war, on his premise to grant themselves government if, in return, the Armenians would help exterminate Jews. Armenians were also hearty proponents of the anti-Semitic acts in league with the Russian Communists…” Source: Elihu Ben Levi, Vacaville, California. San Francisco Chronicle, December 11, 1983 *** When the most powerful nation in the world, 15th century Spain, openly and publicly threatened genocide against the Jewish people for the stated crime of practicing their own religion-Judaism, it was a Muslim government, the Ottoman Empire, which stepped in and saved the Jewish people from destruction. It was the Ottoman Empire that saved the Jews of Spain and to a great extent, Portugal, from certain death which the government threatened them with. Unlike the Christian kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, the Ottoman Empire never had a system of government-sponsored hatred against the Jewish people. Even though Jews were dhimmis, the government of the Ottoman Empire never set in place specific targeted anti-Jewish policies such as those that existed in Christian Europe. It is a sad reality that today many people only remember the Ottoman Turks for alleged bad treatment of minorities, when clearly, they have done many positive things that we today hundreds of years later should continue to praise.
Source: HOW THE TURKS SAVED THE JEWS FROM GENOCIDE , by Shelomo Alfassa, www.alfassa.com, Israel Insider Magazine / October 10, 2007 *** “…To validate a spurious genocide allegations, the Armenians curry favor with the Jewish people, and manipulate the Holocaust tragedy to gain some undeserved recognition from this uniquely Jewish experience. Historical evidences point to a devious Armenian collusion with Hitler to exterminate the Jews during WW II. Today, no matter how much the Armenians try to conceal this heinous episode from the public knowledge the Armenian conspiracy with Hitler is in the history books — indelibly. Soon it will be in the public conscience too… In early 1930s, when Hitler ascended to power, he began cultivating the Armenians to use their long-standing and strong anti-semitic feelings in his plans and policy. The Armenians, through their publications, radio broadcasts and meetings supported and cheered the Nazis on their attacks on Jews. Alfred Rosenberg, who was to become later Hitler’s Minister of the Occupied Territories, declared that the Armenians were Indo-European, or Aryans, which honored them and put them in the same league with the Nazis. In Hitler’s foreign policy the Armenians fitted very nicely too. Hitler’s future invasion plans of Russia provided a golden opportunity for the Armenians to liberate what they considered to be “Historic Armenia” from the Soviet as well as the Turkish rule…” Source: Ayhan Ozer , THE ARMENIAN-NAZI COLLABORATION IN WW II : http://www.tallarmeniantale.com/Nazi-Collaboration.htm WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS TRUTH AND HONESTY, NOT SELECTIVE MORALITY. If one cherishes values like objectivity, truth, and honesty, then one should use the phrase “Turkish-Armenian conflict”. Asking someone “Do you accept or deny Armenian Genocide” shows anti-Turkish bias. The question, in all fairness, should be re-phrased: “What is your stand on the Turkish-Armenian conflict?” Turks believe it was a civil war within a world war, engineered, provoked, and waged by the Armenians with active support from Russia, England, and France, and passive support from the U.S. diplomats, missionaries, media, and others with anti-Turkish agendas, all eyeing the vast territories of the collapsing Ottoman Empire. [1] While some amongst us may be forgiven for taking the ceaseless Armenian propaganda at face value and believing blatant Armenian falsifications [2] merely because they are repeated so often, it is difficult and painful for people like us, sons and daughters of the Turkish survivors most of whose signatures you see below. [3] Those seemingly endless “War years” of 1912-1922 (seferberlik yillari) brought wide-spread death and destruction on to all Ottoman citizens. No Turkish family was left untouched, those of most of the signatories’ below included. Those nameless, faceless, selfless Turkish victims are killed for a second time today with politically motivated and baseless charges of Armenian genocide. Allegations of Armenian genocide are racist and dishonest history. They are racist because they imply only Armenian (or Christian) dead count, the Turkish (or Muslim) dead do not. [4] The former must be remembered and grieved; the latter must be ignored and forgotten. Do you know how many Muslims, mostly Turks, were killed during World War One? Answer: About 3 million, including half a million of them at the hands of well-armed, well-motivated, and ruthless Armenian revolutionaries and para-military thugs. [3,5] Compare that with less than 300,000 Armenian casualties [8] which number is gradually magnified to 1.5 million over the years through Armenian propaganda. And the allegations of Armenian genocide are dishonest because they simply dismiss “THE SIX T’S OF THE TURKISH-ARMENIAN CONFLICT” 1) TUMULT (as in numerous Armenian armed uprisings between 1890 and 1920) [6,7] 2) TERRORISM (by Armenian nationalists and militias victimizing Ottoman-Muslims between 1882-1920) [8,9] 3) TREASON (Armenians joining the invading enemy armies as early as 1914 and lasting until 1921) [6,7,8,9,10] 4) TERRITORIAL DEMANDS (from 1877 to present, where Armenians were a minority, not a majority, attempting to establish Greater Armenia. Ironically, if the Armenians succeeded, it would be one of the first apartheids of the 20th Century, with a Christian minority ruling over a Muslim majority ) [1-11] 5) TURKISH SUFFERING AND LOSSES (i.e. those caused by the Armenian nationalists: 524,000 Muslims, mostly Turks, met their tragic end at the hands of Armenian revolutionaries during WWI, per Turkish Historical Society. This figure is not to be confused with 2.5 million Muslim dead who lost their lives due to non-Armenian causes during WWI. Grand total: more than 3 million, according to Justin McCarthy) [7-10] 6) TERESET (temporary resettlement) triggered by the first five T’s above and amply documented as such; not to be equated to the Armenian misrepresentations as genocide.) [12] Armenians, thus, effectively put an end to their millennium of relatively peaceful and co-habitation in Anatolia with Turks, Kurds, Circassians, and other Muslims by killing their Muslim neighbors and openly joining the invading enemy. Muslims were only defending their home like any citizen anywhere would do. VERDICT WITHOUT DUE PROCESS AMOUNTS TO LYNCHING 1- Genocide is a legal, technical term precisely defined by the U.N. 1948 convention (Like all proper laws, it is not retroactive to 1915.) [13] 2- Genocide verdict can only be given by a “competent court” after “due process” where both sides are properly represented and evidence mutually cross examined. [14] 3- For a genocide verdict, the accusers must prove “intent” and “motive” at a competent court and by allowing due process to run its natural course. This was not, perhaps cannot ever be, done by the Armenians, whose evidence mostly fall into five major categories: hearsay, mis-representations, exaggerations, forgeries, and “other”. [15] 4- Such a “competent court” was never convened in the case of Turkish-Armenian conflict and a genocide verdict does not exist (save a Kangaroo court in occupied Istanbul in 1920 where partisanship, vendettas, and revenge motives left no room for due process.) [8] 5- Genocide claim is political, not historical or factual. It reflects bias against Turks. Therefore, the term genocide must be used with the qualifier “alleged”, for scholarly objectivity and truth. [1-15] 6- Recognizing Armenian claim as genocide will deeply insult Turkish-Americans as well as Turkish-Europeans, and Turks around the globe. Such a conduct would negatively influence the excellent relations currently enjoyed between the U.S. and Turkey, if not the West and Turkey. It will, no doubt, please Armenian lobbies in the U.S. Europe and Turkey but disappoint, insult, and outrage Turkey, one of America’s closest allies since the Korean War of 1950-53. Turks stood shoulder to shoulder with Americans in Gulf War, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and more. Armenian lobbies will have been allowed to poison the U.S.-Turkey relations. American gratitude and thanks will appear to come in the form of the worst insult that can be dished out to an entire nation. 7- History is not a matter of “conviction, consensus, political resolutions, propaganda, or public relations.” History is a matter of research, peer review, thoughtful debate, and honest scholarship. Even historians, by definition, cannot decide on a genocide verdict, which is reserved only for a “competent tribunal” with its legal expertise and due process. 8- What we witness today, therefore, amounts to lynching [14] of the Turks by Armenians and their supporters to satisfy the age old Armenian hate, bias, and bigotry. American values like fairness, presumption of innocence until proven guilty, objectivity, balance, honesty, and freedom of speech are stumped under the fanatic Armenian feet. Unprovoked , unjustified, and unfair defamation of Turkey, one of America’s closest allies in the troubled Middle East, the Balkans, and the Caucasus, in order to appease some nagging Armenian activists runs counter to American interests. 9- Hate-based, divisive, polarizing, and historically biased proclamations, such as Schiff’s HR 106, have never been an American way to do business. Why start now? 10- Those who claim genocide verdict [14] today, based on the much discredited Armenian evidence, are actually engaging in “conviction and execution without due process”, which is the dictionary definition of “lynch mobs”. Those who claim Turks are in the wrong need to show sensitivity to victims of WWI and/or their descendants—without remembering or respecting the Muslim, mostly Turkish, victims of the same WWI due to same wartime conditions—are insulting the silent memory of millions of Muslim, mostly Turkish, victims of WWI tragedy. They are also engaging in Ethocide [16], A new term coined by a Turkish-American in 2003, Ethocide means “systematic extermination of ethics via malicious mass deception for political, economical, religious, social, and other gain.” Ethocide comes with a new Turkish companion term: “AHLAKKIRIM” [17] If an apology is needed today, then the entire humanity should apologize for the mistakes and excesses of the past generations, without resorting to “selective morality” and discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, race, or religion. And if more sensitivity is required, then it should be provided by all for all, without resorting to division, polarization, hostility, bias, or bigotry. Our accounts of WWI are replete with expressions of sadness and sympathy for all the victims of WWI, Turk, Kurd, Laz, Circassian, Armenian, Arab, Greek, Jew, and all others. We do not feel we should segregate the Armenians or others from this lot and grieve only for their dead. If an apology is needed today, we should all start apologizing for the world hunger, global warming, aids epidemics, endless wars, inequity in income distribution, plundering human and natural resources, violation of civil rights of women, children, and some cases all humans, global lack of education and health care, and more. As Ataturk so ably put it for all of us: “Peace at home, Peace in the World.” IN CONCLUSION, I ask that such ethocidal treatment of the alleged Armenian genocide–which has all the tell-tale signs of some sort of retaliation for the “one minute” incident last year at Davos between Erdogan and Perez–be abandoned at the Center for Jewish History. Multi-faceted human tragedies of yesterday ought not be the one-sided propaganda tools to settle political scores of today. Peace Ergun Kirlikovali Son of Turkish survivors from both paternal and maternal parents ……………………….. References: [1] History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Vol I & II, Stanford Shaw (Cambridge University Press, London, New York, Melbourne, 1976) [2] The Story Behind Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story, Heath W. Lowry ( The Isis Press, Istanbul, Turkey, 1990) [3] The Ottoman Peoples and the End of Empire, Justin McCarthy (Arnold, London, U.K., 2001 [4] Declaration Signed by 69 Prominent North American Academicians, New York Times and Washington Post, may 19, 1985 (for a copy: http://www.turkla.com/yazar.php?mid=338&yid=4 [5] Ermeniler: Sürgün ve Göç, Türk Tarih Kurumu (Ankara, Turkey, 2004) [6] Houshamatyan of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Centennial, Album-Atlas, Volume I, Epic Battles, 1890-1914 (The Next Day Color Printing, Inc., Glendale, CA, U.S.A., 2006) [7] The Armenian Rebellion at Van, Justin McCarthy, Esat Arslan, Cemaletting Taskiran, Omer Turan (The University of Utah Press, Salt lake City, USA, 2006) [8] The Armenian File, Kamuran Gurun (Rustem Bookshop, Mersin, Turkey, 1985) [9] The Armenians in History and the Armenian Question, Esat Uras (Documentary Publications, Istanbul, Turkey, 1988) [10] Free E-Book : “Genocide Of Truth” by Sukru Server Aya, Based On Neutral or Anti-Turkish Sources ( Istanbul Commerce University, Turkey, 2008) For a copy: http://armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2008/04/2429-new-e-book-genocide-of-truth-based.html [11] “Pursuing the Just Cause of Their People”, Michael M. Gunter (Greenwood Press, New York, USA, 1986) [12] “Ermenilerin Zorunlu Göçü, 1915-1917, Kemal Cicek (Turk tarih Kurumu, Ankara, Turkey, 2005) [13] Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948: http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html [14] Article 6, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948: http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html [15] Article 2, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948: http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html [16] Ergun KIRLIKOVALI, 2003, “It Was Not ‘Genocide’; It was – and still is – ‘Ethocide’ “, http://www.turkiye.net/bbasol/gorusler27.htm ; [17] Ergun KIRLIKOVALI, 2003, “SOYKIRIM DEGIL, AHLAKKIRIM ” |