What media members think about Turkish-Armenian relations? Aram Abrahamyan, Chief of Aravot Daily in Armenia, shares his ideas about this issue. He points out the important points about this sensitive subject.
Category: Authors
-
German Insurance Companies Should Stop Cheating their Armenian Clients
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
German firms filed a petition for a rehearing by the full 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, after a panel of three judges of that court had ruled that heirs of Armenian Genocide victims could seek payment from life insurance companies operating in the Ottoman Empire.
Rather than spending a fortune on high-powered lawyers, German insurance companies should promptly settle this case and pay the compensation owed to heirs of perished Armenian policy-holders. Many Armenian residents of the Ottoman Empire trusted these European companies and dutifully paid their premiums so that someday, when they passed away, their families would receive the proceeds of their policies.
This lawsuit has nothing whatsoever to do with genocide recognition or rights of states vis-a-vis the federal government. These German companies have violated their contractual agreements and failed to live up to their promises to Armenian policy holders. Their heirs are entitled to receive the payments owed to them, regardless of whether their ancestors were killed by genocidal maniacs or drunk drivers! The only relevant issue here is that upon their deaths, the heirs should have been promptly paid in keeping with the terms of the life insurance policies.
Instead, these German companies have avoided meeting their financial obligations for almost a century, and shamefully use Turkish denialist propaganda as their cover. Their lawyers even quote from revisionist materials posted on the Turkish Embassy’s website. If these companies had filed a similar motion denying the Jewish Holocaust and quoting from neo-Nazi websites, they would have been out of business within 24 hours!
The lawyers argue that recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the U.S. government would “cause great harm to the nation’s foreign policy interests.” It is preposterous that German insurance companies are using such irrelevant arguments in order to continue enriching themselves. Safeguarding the interests of this nation is the responsibility of the U.S. government, not that of German companies.
In their appeal, the lawyers for the German firms cleverly start their recitation of the record on U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide by citing only the last three American Presidents, because during their term in office the House of Representatives did not adopt new congressional resolutions on the Armenian Genocide.
Fortunately, U.S. history does not start with the year 2000. The lawyers conveniently ignore the fact that the U.S. government first acknowledged the Armenian Genocide back in 1951 in a document it submitted to the International Court of Justice (World Court). Since then, the House of Representatives on two occasions — 1975 and 1984 — adopted resolutions commemorating the Armenian Genocide, and in 1981, Pres. Reagan issued a Presidential Proclamation mentioning the Armenian Genocide. Furthermore, 42 U.S. states and scores of American cities have acknowledged the Armenian Genocide during the past 50 years. The federal government has never objected to or expressed disagreement with any of those actions. If recognizing the Armenian Genocide is not in the best interest of the United States, as these lawyers contend, then Pres. Reagan, the U.S. Justice Department, hundreds of House members who voted for the Genocide Resolution, thousands of legislators in 42 states, and scores of Mayors and Governors must be anti-American!
In fact, these historic affirmations are far more relevant to this case than the politically-motivated and morally bankrupt pronouncements of the last three U.S. Presidents. When California adopted a law in 2000 extending the statute of limitation on insurance claims by Armenian Genocide victims, it did so on the basis of the extensive record of U.S. recognition up to that time. Since then, no new resolutions were adopted and no votes cast contradicting this historical record. No U.S. official has ever denied the truthfulness of the Armenian Genocide. In reality, that record has been strengthened considerably by the fact that during the terms in office of the last three Presidents, successive House committees, on at least four occasions — 2000, 2003, 2007 and 2010 — have adopted resolutions acknowledging the Armenian Genocide.
The most ridiculous aspect of the German companies’ appeal is their attempt to justify their irresponsible behavior by citing this writer as an “authority” and quoting from one of my articles in which I criticize Pres. Obama for referring to the Armenian Genocide as “Meds Yeghern.” Ken Hachikian, Chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America, is also listed as an “authority.” He too had complained about Obama’s use of that term. Pres. Obama’s choice of words has no relevance to the fact that these companies have cheated their Armenian clients and their heirs by not paying the payments owed to them.
Rather than filing an appeal, it is high time for German life insurance companies to stop playing games with the legitimate claims of their perished clients, and promptly pay what they owe to their descendants.
-
Turkish Prime Minister Shoots Himself in the Foot Again
Prime Minister Erdogan embarrasses himself and his government just about every time he opens his mouth! His angry statements, often bewildering and insulting, give Turkey a black eye internationally and provide fresh ammunition to his domestic opponents.A year ago, the Prime Minister threatened to deport 100,000 Armenians from Turkey, thereby reminding everyone around the world that Ankara’s present leaders are not much different from their bloodthirsty forefathers who deported and killed 1.5 million Armenians during the Genocide of 1915-23. After he was roundly condemned at home and abroad, Erdogan explained that he had meant to deport only undocumented workers from Armenia. When told that the 100,000 figure included both native and foreign Armenians, the Prime Minister blamed his aides for giving him faulty population figures!Erdogan made another faux pas early this month during a visit to Kars, when he called for the demolition of a gigantic monument symbolizing “Armenia-Turkey Friendship.” The 100-foot, 1,500-ton unfinished statue was commissioned by the city’s former mayor who believed that reconciliation and open borders with Armenia would boost his city’s sluggish economy. The monument depicted the figure of a man sliced into two, extending a hand of friendship to his other half. Calling the statue “freakish” or “grotesque,” the Prime Minister urged the new mayor to have the $1.5 million monument torn down before his next visit.By calling the Kars monument an “ugly” work of art, Erdogan unleashed a torrent of criticism and triggered a chain of events that made him the laughing stock of the world:— Erdogan’s political opponents accused him of pandering to the city’s Azeri voters who vehemently oppose any reconciliation with Armenia. They attributed the Prime Minister’s demolition order to crass electoral motives rather than to his artistic taste.— Turkey’s Culture Minister tried to come to Erdogan’s rescue by claiming that the Prime Minister had called the surrounding shanty houses “freakish,” rather than the statue itself. Undeterred, Erdogan embarrassed his Minister by rebuking him and repeating his earlier statement. Next, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc jumped into the fray by wishing that “God would spare him from finding himself in the same awkward situation as the Culture Minister.”— Even Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey’s much-touted Foreign Minister, got into the act, vainly trying to make his Prime Minister look good. Davutoglu claimed that the real problem with the monument was that it “fails to blend into the Seljuk, Ottoman and Russian character” of Kars. In a sarcastic retort, The Economist of London accused Davutoglu of conveniently erasing the city’s “Armenian legacy,” adding that “a long-abandoned tenth-century Armenian church recently reopened — as a mosque!”— Mehmet Aksoy, the well-known sculptor of the monument, compared Erdogan’s order to the Taliban’s demolition of ancient Buddha statues in Afghanistan. Aksoy warned that Turkey’s image would suffer terribly should the monument be blown up. He threatened to sue the Prime Minister for insulting his artwork.— The international media excoriated Erdogan by ridiculing his artistic taste and exposing his crass political motives. The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, the Associated Press, Radio Free Europe, Reuters, BBC, the Washington Post, Liberation, and hundreds of other media outlets, condemned Erdogan’s destructive directive.— Several Turkish journalists questioned the Prime Minister’s right and authority to have a statue removed and destroyed.— Armenia’s Foreign Minister reacted indignantly to Erdogan’s statement and urged him to build a new foundation for normalizing bilateral relations, rather than damaging them. Most commentators interpreted the Prime Minister’s detrimental words as the last nail in the coffin of the unconsummated Armenia-Turkey Protocols.Not surprisingly, Mubariz Gurbanli, a member of Azerbaijan’s Parliament, expressed his pleasure with Erdogan’s order to demolish the “Armenia-Turkey Friendship” statue. Gurbanli was correct in pointing out: “There is no need to erect a monument to the non-existent friendship with Armenia.”Of course, tearing down monuments is nothing new for Azeri and Turkish officials. A few years ago, Azerbaijan demolished thousands of historic Armenian khatchkars (cross-stones) at a cemetery near Julfa, Nakhichevan, seeking to emulate the Turkish government’s wholesale destruction of hundreds of Armenian churches and monuments ever since the Genocide. Indeed, Erdogan himself is continuing the age-old tradition of his predecessors in ordering the destruction of the Kars “friendship” statue.If Davutoglu and Erdogan are truly sincere in promoting Armenian-Turkish friendship, they should promptly demolish the monstrous “genocide monument” built in Igdir in 1997, consisting of five 130-foot swords thrust towards the sky, intended to perpetuate the great lie about Armenians killing Turks! -
Sassounian’s column of Dec. 30, 2010
Resolute Response Required to Pelosi’sFailure on Genocide Resolution
Armenians worldwide are justifiably outraged by the refusal of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic leadership to bring the Genocide Resolution to a vote.Cong. Pelosi had “the majority, the authority, and the opportunity” to schedule a vote on the Armenian Genocide Resolution, but failed to do so, the Armenian National Committee of America announced last week. Why didn’t she bring up the Resolution to a vote? It is important to note that contrary to their previous practice, neither the President nor the Secretary of State made any public statements against the Resolution. They did not have to; they had made a behind the scenes deal with Speaker Pelosi not to schedule a vote on the Resolution before Congress adjourned for the year, according to a knowledgeable Washington source. Under these circumstances, the self-serving claims of Turkey’s Ambassador and Turkish-American organizations that their belated actions blocked the vote were complete exaggerations, if not outright falsehoods, and inconsequential!The Armenian Genocide Resolution is neither the beginning nor the end of Armenian political demands. Here is why: this is a commemorative resolution with no force of law; similar Genocide Resolutions were adopted by the House of Representatives twice, in 1975 and 1984; and such resolutions are only a means to an end.What is the real objective of the Armenian Cause? Obtaining justice for Armenians from the descendants of those who not only butchered them, but occupied their homeland and confiscated their properties.Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu stated last week that the Resolution was like “the sword of Damocles hanging above our heads.” He expressed the hope that such initiatives would not be brought up again in Congress as they wasted Turkey’s energy and time. The threat felt by Turkish leaders a century after their ancestors’ heinous crimes and the waste of their valuable resources to counter the Resolution are reason enough for Armenians to bring such initiatives to every legislative body in the world year after year. Moreover, each time Turkish leaders demand that a U.S. President block such a resolution, in return they are obligated to make costly political concessions to the American side.Armenian-American organizations, led by ANCA, must now make a dispassionate strategic assessment to consider their next moves:- File lawsuits against Turkey and Turkish firms in U.S. federal courts, the European Court of Human Rights, and the World Court.
- Increase the number of “hanging swords” on Turkish leaders’ heads by submitting multiple congressional resolutions that go beyond genocide acknowledgment. Among other things, these could include restitution of confiscated Armenian properties and return of churches to the jurisdiction of the Armenian Patriarchate of Turkey.
- Capitalize on Turkish leaders’ anti-western policies and statements to generate support for Armenian issues among the new Republican majority in the House.
Here are some preliminary thoughts on specific actions that could be considered by Armenian-American leaders in the coming weeks:- Steps to be taken against Minority Leader Pelosi and House Democratic leaders as political payback for their obstructionism. It is now up to them to woo their disappointed Armenian supporters with a series of concrete actions, not promises, to undo the damage they have caused to their own credibility.
- Start planning for the 2012 elections to ensure that no Armenian-American would cast a vote or contribute a single dollar for Pres. Obama or any other member of Congress, Democrat or Republican, opposed to Armenian issues.
- Assess the inaction of leaders in Armenia and the Diaspora who did not lift a finger nor utter a word in support of the Genocide Resolution, while Turkey’s President, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister were pressuring Pres. Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to block the vote.
- Capitalize on the activism of the newly-energized Armenian-American community, especially the youth and celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Serj Tankian, to engage them in creative ways of pursuing the Armenian Cause.
- Support Senators who have an interest in placing a new “hold” against Francis Ricciardone or his replacement as nominee for U.S. Ambassador to Turkey. There has been no U.S. Ambassador in Ankara for more than 6 months. Similarly, Azeri-American efforts in support of the Turkish campaign of genocide denial must be countered by placing a new “hold” on Matt Bryza or his replacement as nominee for U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan. There has been no U.S. Ambassador in Baku for more than 18 months.
Instead of getting dejected by last week’s temporary setback, Armenians should strengthen their political resolve and escalate their demands from Turkey, using all legitimate means of redress to advance their just cause! -
Turkish Tea “Çay”
Tea is the most popular drink in Turkey. A typical Turk drinks approximately around 10 glasses of black tea pro day.
While both Chinese and Indians claim that they first discovered the use and drink of Tea thousands of years ago, Turks evolved their own way of making and drinking the black tea (Çay in Turkish), which became a way of life for our culture. Wherever you go in Turkey, tea or coffee will be offered as a sign of friendship and hospitality, anywhere and any time, before or after any meal. The production of tea in Turkey mainly started in the early years of the Republic along the eastern Black Sea Region. Many of the tea plantations are centered around the town of Rize, and from the Georgian border to Trabzon, Arakli, Rize, Karadere and Fatsa (near Ordu), reaching in some places 30 kilometers inland and reaching the height of around 1000 m. In 1947 the first tea factory was built in Rize and in 1965 the production of dried tea reached to the level of domestic consumption. The tasks of buying, processing and selling tea was conducted by the Tekel (Monopoly of State) General Directorate until then, in 1971 was transferred to the Tea Corporation, and in 1984 the Monopoly on tea was lifted and this facility was also provided to the private sector. Turkish tea is full-flavored and too strong to be served in large cups thus it’s always offered in little tulip-shaped glasses which you have to hold by the rim to save your fingertips from burning because it’s served boiling hot. You can add sugar in it but no milk, and you can have it either lighter (weaker) or darker (stronger) depending on your taste because Turkish tea is made by pouring some very strong tea into the glass, then cutting it with water to the desired strength. Serious tea-drinker Turks usually go to a coffee & tea house where they serve it with a samovar (Semaver in Turkish) so they can refill their glasses themselves as much as they want. -
E-MAIL CAMPAIGN FOR ENGLAND – UNITED KINGDOM
OH, EALING COUNCILLORS! HOW COULD YOU?
To: Honorable Councillor Julian Bell, Leader of the Ealing Council
c/o Labour Group Members’ Room, Ealing Town Hall, New Broadway,
London, W5 2BY, England, email: julian.bell@ealing.gov.uk <Copy: All councilors, as listed below –
shahbaz.ahmed@ealing.gov.uk ; jasbir.anand@ealing.gov.uk ; justin.anderson@ealing.gov.uk ; sitarah.anjum@ealing.gov.uk ;mohammad.aslam@ealing.gov.uk ; tej.bagha@ealing.gov.uk ; nigel.bakhai@ealing.gov.uk ; jon.ball@ealing.gov.uk ; julian.bell@ealing.gov.uk ;william.brooks@ealing.gov.uk ; theresa.byrne@ealing.gov.uk ; ann.chapman@ealing.gov.uk ; colm.costello@ealing.gov.uk ;john.cowing@ealing.gov.uk ; daniel.crawford@ealing.gov.uk ; katherine.crawford@ealing.gov.uk ; joanna.dabrowska@ealing.gov.uk ;benjamin.dennehy@ealing.gov.uk ; tejinder.dhami@ealing.gov.uk ; ranjit.dheer@ealing.gov.uk ; kamaljit.dhindsa@ealing.gov.uk ;susan.emment@ealing.gov.uk ; john.gallagher@ealing.gov.uk ; yoel.gordon@ealing.gov.uk ; isobel.grant@ealing.gov.uk ;abdullah.gulaid@ealing.gov.uk ; eileen.harris@ealing.gov.uk ; ara.iskanderian@ealing.gov.uk ; yvonne.johnson@ealing.gov.uk ;swarn.kang@ealing.gov.uk ; anita.kapoor@ealing.gov.uk ; ashok.kapoor@ealing.gov.uk ; harbhajan.kaur@ealing.gov.uk ;mohammed.kausar@ealing.gov.uk ; wendy.langan@ealing.gov.uk ; bassam.mahfouz@ealing.gov.uk ; gary.malcolm@ealing.gov.uk ;gurmit.mann@ealing.gov.uk ; rajinder.mann@ealing.gov.uk ; shital.manro@ealing.gov.uk ; mohinder.midha@ealing.gov.uk ;david.millican@ealing.gov.uk ; karam.mohan@ealing.gov.uk ; tim.murtagh@ealing.gov.uk ; Zahida.Abbas.Noori@ealing.gov.uk ;swaran.padda@ealing.gov.uk ; diana.pagan@ealing.gov.uk ; john.popham@ealing.gov.uk ; ian.potts@ealing.gov.uk ; roz.reece@ealing.gov.uk ;mark.reen@ealing.gov.uk ; brian.reeves@ealing.gov.uk ; edward.rennie@ealing.gov.uk ; harvey.rose@ealing.gov.uk ; mik.sabiers@ealing.gov.uk ;atallah.said@ealing.gov.uk ; david.scott@ealing.gov.uk ; jason.stacey@ealing.gov.uk ; gregory.stafford@ealing.gov.uk ; andrew.steed@ealing.gov.uk; chris.summers@ealing.gov.uk ; nigel.sumner@ealing.gov.uk ; hitesh.tailor@ealing.gov.uk ; philip.taylor@ealing.gov.uk ;surinder.varma@ealing.gov.uk ; patricia.walker@ealing.gov.uk ; lauren.wall@ealing.gov.uk ; ray.wall@ealing.gov.uk ; anthony.young@ealing.gov.uk
Re: Decision of Ealing Council to officially recognize the long discredited political claim of Armenian ‘genocide’ as settled history
Dear Honorable Councillor Julian Bell,
It is difficult and painful for me, the son of Turkish survivors on both maternal and paternal sides, to hear of Ealing Council’s unfortunate resolution, based on an Armenian’s misrepresentations—i.e. Councillor Iskendarian—where Armenian war crimes, Armenian hate crimes, and their Muslim, mostly Turkish, victims, are curiously missing. If one excludes half the story, well, even the American civil war can be made to look like a genocide.
I realize that this was not a unanimous decision and that some prudent members considered the motion tabled by an Armenian (Cllr Iskanderian) one sided, without input from responsible opposing views and hence, judged it ill-advised and divisive. I am also aware of at least one councillor saying “…I have never come across a motion in my nine years on the council that so blatantly sought to pitch one community against another – especially on a subject which is highly sensitive and where no member of the council is really able to make a proper and considered judgment…” I truly appreciate those members who thought that way, but I wish they took the trouble to stay on and vote no so that this blatant and malicious fraud could be thwarted.
Those terrible “War Years” of 1912-1922 (known in Turkish as “Seferberlik Yillari”) brought five consecutive wars—Tripoli (North Africa,) Balkan Wars (twice,) World War I, and the Turkish Independence War, in that order— along with wide spread death and destruction on to ALL Ottoman citizens. No Turkish family was left untouched, mine included. Those nameless, faceless Turkish victims are killed for a second time today with politically motivated and baseless charges of Armenian genocide.
Genocide claims are racist because they ignore the Turkish dead: about 3 million during WWI; more than half a million of them at the hands of Armenian ultra-nationalists; and dishonest because genocide charges blatantly dismiss the six T’s of the Turkish-Armenian conflict.
Historians reject the genocide label: This may explain why more than 69 North American scholars categorically rejected Armenian characterizations of genocide, noting that the non-partisan and reliable evidence unearthed so far points to “…inter-communal warfare fought by Christian and Muslims irregulars…” A majority of European historians who specialize on this topic also reject or criticize this label.
The Malta Trials refuted Armenian claims 90 years ago: If you had heard about the Malta Trials by the Crown Courts in 1919-1921, that never got off the ground due to lack of evidence to support the outrageous Armenian claims, you would not have signed that deceptive edict. ( For your information, the British exiled 144 Ottoman leaders to Malta as war crimes suspects, while scouring the Ottoman, British and American archives for proof and came up empty handed. This paper might explain more: The Armenian Issue: Why The “Genocide” Label Doesn’t Fit )
Britain does not recognize Armenian claims as genocide: You would do well to, at least, heed the advice and policy of Her Majesty’s Government when this same issue was raised in the same biased manner, again with total disregard for the other side of the story.
Here is a journey down the history, a collection of brief educational glimpses into the past:
1894
“…The aim of the Armenian revolutionaries is to foment outbreaks, firstly to induce the Ottomans to react to their violence and secondly to encourage the foreign powers to intervene…” Source: Letter of the British Ambassador Currie to the Foreign Office, on March the 28th of 1894, British Blue Book, N°6, p 57
1896
” …The Dashnaks and Hunchaks have terrorized their own countrymen, they have stirred up the Muslim people with their thefts and insanities, and have paralyzed all efforts made to carry out reforms; all the events that have taken place in Anatolia are the responsibility of the crimes committed by the Armenian revolutionary committees…” Source: Williams, The British vice-consul, writing from Van. (March 4, 1896, British Blue Book, Nr. 8 1896, p.108
1915
“…Concerning the Armenian revolutionaries’ tactics, one cannot expect to think up something more diabolic. Killing Moslems in order to punish innocents, robbing in the middle of the night villages that have just paid, the same day, their taxes. (…) The Armenian revolutionaries prefer robbing their own coreligionists rather than fighting against their enemy ; it’s in order to make their compatriots murder that the Armenian anarchists in Constantinople do bomb attacks…” Source: Sir Mark Sykes, “The Caliph’s Last Heritage”, London, 1915, p 409-418
1922
“…I was being employed by His Majesty’s Government to compile all available documents on the present treatment of the Armenians by the Turkish Government in a ‘Blue Book,’ which was duly published and distributed as war-propaganda!…” Source: Arnold Joseph Toynbee, “The Western Question in Greece and Turkey: a Study in the Contact of Civilizations,” Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1922, p. 50.
1923
“…In some towns containing ten Armenian houses and thirty Turkish houses, it was reported that 40,000 people were killed, about 10,000 women were taken to the harem, and thousands of children left destitute; and the city university destroyed, and the bishop killed. It is a well-known fact that even in the last war the native Christians, despite the Turkish cautions, armed themselves and fought on the side of the Allies. In these conflicts, they were not idle, but they were well supplied with artillery, machine guns and inflicted heavy losses on their enemies…” Source: George M. Lamsa, a missionary known for his research on Christianity, “The Secret of the Near East,” The Ideal Press, Philadelphia (1923), page 133
1928
“…A circular was prepared by the War ministry asking the officers to report on the misdeeds of the enemy. According to this circular, exactness was not an essential condition: probability was enough. (…) The most popular lies in England and in America were those concerning atrocities. No war can do without it. One considers that to libel the enemy is a patriotic duty…” Arthur Ponsoby (British Deputy from 1910 till 1918, his book published in 1928 describes propaganda methods used during First World war), Falsehood in War-Time, New York, 1971, p 20-22
1928
“Few Americans who mourn, and justly, the miseries of the Armenians, are aware that till the rise of nationalistic ambitions, beginning with the ‘seventies, the Armenians were the favored portion of the population of Turkey, or that in the Great War, they traitorously turned Turkish cities over to the Russian invader; that they boasted of having raised an army of one hundred and fifty thousand men to fight a civil war, and that they burned at least a hundred Turkish villages and exterminated their population…It is at least time that Americans ceased to be deceived by propaganda…” Source: John Dewey, American professor, The Turkish Tragedy, The New Republic, November 12, 1928
1936
“…Those who in England are loudest in their sympathy with the aspirations of a(n Armenian) people ‘rightly struggling to be free’ can hardly have realized the atrocious methods of terrorism and blackmail by which a handful of desperados, as careful of their own safety as they are reckless of the lives of others, have too successfully coerced their unwilling compatriots into complicity with an utterly hopeless conspiracy…” Source: Lord Warkworth, after paying a visit to Van. ( William Langer, The Diplomacy of Imperialism.)
1964
“…(The Dashnaks)’ aim was by crimes and assassinations to invite Turkish reprisals and massacres, and thus create an international scandal that would attract the intervention of the other powers…” Source: David Thompson, “Europe Since Napoleon” (Alfred A. Knopf, 1964, 2nd. Ed.)
1976
“… The deafening drumbeat of the propaganda, and the sheer lack of sophistication in argument which comes from preaching decade after decade to a convinced and emotionally committed audience, are the major handicaps of Armenian historiography of the diaspora today…” Source: Dr. Gwynne Dyer, a London-based independent journalist with global exposure, 1976
1999
“…The British Government had condemned the massacres at the time. But in the absence of unequivocal evidence that the Ottoman administration took a specific decision to eliminate the Armenians under their control at that time, British governments have not recognized those events as indications of genocide… Nor do we believe it is the business of governments of today to review events of over 80 years ago, with a view to pronouncing on them. The events of 1915-16 remain a painful issue in relation to two states with which we enjoy excellent relations…” Source: Foreign Office spokesman, Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale, AP News, April14, 1999
2001
“…The Government, in line with previous British Governments, have judged the evidence not to be sufficiently unequivocal to persuade us that these events should be categorised as genocide as defined by the 1948 UN Convention on Genocide, a convention which was drafted in response to the Holocaust and is not retrospective in application. The interpretation of events in Eastern Anatolia in 1915-16 is still the subject of genuine debate amongst historians.” Source: Baroness Scotland of Asthal, expressing the position of the British Government’s on the alleged Armenian genocide in a written response to a question at the House of Lords, February 7, 2001
2001
“…The British government of that time and those that followed considered the massacres of 1915-1916 as a horrifying tragedy. We understand the strong feelings for this problem, given the human losses of both parties. But we do not believe that proofs put forward give evidence that those events must be classified as “genocide” as defined by the 1948 Convention of the United Nations on genocide. (…) The events of 1915-1916 constitute a big tragedy, during which the two parties underwent very heavy losses…” Source: Official Statement by the Embassy of Great Britain in Ankara, July 23, 2001.
…
The Armenian claims of genocide were never brought to court and, therefore, a court verdict a la Nuremberg does not exist. By voting yes on a controversial claim that totally ignores Armenian revolts, terrorism, treason, territorial demands and their Turkish victims during WWI, you are lending credence to unsubstantiated, exaggerated, falsified, and fabricated accusations.
Do you really believe a political body is the place to resolve historical conflicts?
Do you think academia with its research capability and/or legal realm with its “due process” expertise would be better equipped to handle such controversies ?
Do you agree that taking one side in a complex historical conflict is offensive, and unfair to the other side?
Do you see now how grave a mistake it is to honor one side of the story with an official stamp of approval, while totally ignoring the other? Would you like such “lynching” done to your country?
In a democracy, history is made by political institutions but written by historians. The Blois Appeal of 2008 in France, signed by several hundreds of historians, from Europe, North America, and elsewhere, says: “… History must not be a slave to contemporary politics nor can it be written on the command of competing memories. In a free state, no political authority has the right to define historical truth and to restrain the freedom of the historian with the threat of penal sanctions… ”
Muslim, mostly Turkish, victims of Armenian revolutionaries and the treasonous Armenian volunteers of Russian, French and Greek armies are documented in Ottoman archives, Russian archives , American archives (and also Niles & Sutherland,) French archives (Paul Bernard, Six mois en Cilicie, Aix-en-Provence: éditions du Feu, 1929,) and even in Armenian sources
(Haig Shiroyan, an Ottoman Armenian wrote in his Memories: “…The Russian victorious armies, reinforced by Armenian volunteers, had slaughtered every Turk they could find, destroyed every house they penetrated…” Smiling Through the Tears, New York, 1954, p. 186).The alleged “Armenian genocide” was popularized by Armenian terrorism of 1973-1991. The ARF controlled one of the two principal Armenian terrorist groups:
a) “Justice Commandos for the Armenian Genocide/Armenian Revolutionary Army”
(Francis P. Hyland, Armenian Terrorism: the Past, the Present, the Prospects, Boulder-San Francisco-Oxford: Westview Press, 1991, pp. 61-62; br>
Gaïdz Minassian, Guerre et terrorisme arméniens, Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2002, pp. 28-37 and 106-109; br>Yves Ternon, La Cause arménienne, Paris: Le Seuil, 1983, pp. 218-224.)
Scotland Yard banned Hrair Maroukian, the leader of ARF from 1972 to 1994, from entering British soil in Autumn 1984, because British police considered him as the real chief of JCAG/ARA (Michael M. Gunter, “Pursuing the Just Cause of their People”. A Study of Contemporary Armenian Terrorism, Westport-New York-London, Greenwood Press, 1986, p. 111.)
The JCAG/ARA killed around thirty innocent victims and bombed the offices of Turkish Airlines in London airport, on May 24, 1978 and even the offices of British airways in Madrid airport, on January 20, 1980.
The ARF continues to glorify its terrorists, including Hampig Sassounian, jailed since 1982 for the assassination of the Turkish general consul in Los Angeles, Kemal Arikan.
Vicken Hovsepian, sentenced in 1984 by an US court to six years of prison for an attempt of bombing is a member of ARF the leader of the party in USA.
b) Another Armenian terrorist group, Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), was actively supported by the Union of Armenian students of UK, who published a pro-ASALA newspaper in London, from 1978 to 1988: Kaytzer.
ASALA killed around forty innocent victims (including at least eight Turkish diplomats), and wounded many more;
ASALA terrorist Zaven Bedrosian was sentenced to eight years of prison by a British court in August 1983, for illegal possession of explosives and weapons, and conspiracy. Mr. Bedrosian admitted during his trial that he wanted to take the Turkish ambassador in London hostage with the hope of exchanging him with the ASALA murderer Levon Ekmekjian, one of the two perpetrators of attack in Ankara airport, in August 1982 (nine tourists were killed, more than 70 wounded.)
ASALA claimed his solidarity with Irish Republican Army (IRA) against “British fascism” (sic).
Ara Toranian, former spokesman of ASALA from 1976 to 1983, who shows no remorse for his violent past, is currently co-chairman of Coordination Council of France’s Armenian Associations.
I hope that you will realize what a grave mistake you have made by taking the words of Armenian propagandists, falsifiers, crooks and terrorists at face value.
…
In summary, if I could manage to raise a grain of doubt in your mind that the Armenian narrative may not be the whole story and that there might be another side, equally ghastly and genuine, where Armenians are the victimizers not the victims, then I consider my mission is accomplished. Thank you for reading.
Respectfully Yours,