Category: Authors

The Turkmen

The Author

Mofak Salman Kerkuklu graduated in England with a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Oxford Brookes University and completed an MSc in Medical Electronics and Physics at London University, and an MSc in Computing Science and Information Technology At South Bank University.
The author was born in Turkmen Subdistrict of Altunkopru in district of Numra Sekiz (District Of Debis).

He is also a Chartered Engineer from the Institution of Engineers of Ireland, Mr Mofak Salman Is the author of Brief History of Iraqi Turkmens, Turkmens of Iraq, Turkmen city of Tuz Khormatu, A report into Kurdish Abuse in Turkmeneli, The Plight of The Iraqi Turkmens, and Altunkopru, The ancient Turkmen city.

He has had numerous articles published in various newspapers and websites.

PUBLICATION F Download

September 10, 2024
Armenia Should Exploit Rifts Between Azerbaijan and Turkey

Countries must have various tools in their arsenal to counter or weaken their enemies. The most obvious one is the use of force. However, Armenia is unable to do that successfully because of its weak military.

Another possible tool is destabilizing enemy states by creating internal turmoil and inciting their oppressed minorities.

The third tool is to cause a rift between a hostile nation and its allies using the well-known method of divide and conquer. Armenia is surrounded by Azerbaijan and Turkey, two hostile neighbors that call themselves “one nation, two states.” Therefore, Armenia should try to drive a wedge between them by deepening their disagreements when such opportunities arise.

In the last 30 years, there have been at least three occasions when Armenia’s two enemies were at odds with each other.

The first opportunity was in March 1995, when members of Azerbaijan’s military, supported by some factions in Turkey, attempted to carry out a coup d’état against Pres. Heydar Aliyev. They wanted to return to power former Pres. Abulfaz Elchibey who was toppled by Aliyev in 1993.

Prime Minister of Turkey Tansu Ciller, whose top aides were involved in the coup, gave the green light to get rid of Pres. Aliyev. The coup was foiled when Turkish President Suleyman Demirel became aware of the plot and alerted Pres. Aliyev. According to Wikipedia, the attempted coup “provoked a diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Azerbaijan.”

This was a missed opportunity for the Armenian government in 1995 to take advantage of the attempted coup and the consequent chaos in Azerbaijan to further alienate the two enemies from each other by publicizing and accentuating the rift.

The second crisis between Azerbaijan and Turkey happened in 2009 in the midst of signing the Armenia and Turkey Protocols, which envisioned normalizing relations between the two countries, including the establishment of formal diplomatic relations, opening of the Armenian-Turkish border and forming a joint historical commission to study the Armenian Genocide issue. These Protocols were brokered by the United States, Russia and France.

Azerbaijan opposed the Protocols, fearing that if Turkey normalized relations with Armenia, it would weaken Azerbaijan’s pressure on Armenia in the Artsakh conflict.

Turkey was caught in the middle of several conflicting interests:

1) Turkey wanted to pursue its self-interest which was the softening of its antagonistic relations with Armenia to eliminate long-standing Armenian demands for the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide;

2) Turkey was being pressured by the United States, Russia, and France to ratify these Protocols;

3) Azerbaijan, Turkey’s junior partner, initially applied diplomatic pressure on Turkey and subsequently threatened to cut off the export of gas or increase its price. When that didn’t have the desired effect, Azerbaijan closed down several Turkish-funded mosques in Baku and took down Turkish flags. Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry declared that improving Armenia-Azerbaijan relations “directly contradicts the national interests of Azerbaijan and overshadows the spirit of brotherly relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey built on deep historical roots.”

Once again, Armenia was merely a spectator in this conflict. Eventually, Turkey succumbed to the Azeri pressures and refused to ratify the Protocols.

The third dispute between Ankara and Baku is happening at the moment after Pres. Erdogan embarrassed Azerbaijan by declaring on July 28: “Just as we entered Karabagh, just as we entered Libya, we should do the same with Israel. There is nothing stopping us. We just need to be strong to take this step.”

Azerbaijan’s officials vehemently objected to Erdogan’s statement because it was exposing the Azeri myth that they won the Artsakh War without any outside help. The fact is that Azerbaijan was supported in the 2020 War by the Turkish military and commanders as well as the thousands of Jihadist mercenaries that Turkey brought to Azerbaijan from Syria to fight against Armenians.

Despite the Azeri denials, Erdogan continued to repeat his statement about Turkish military’s involvement in the Artsakh conflict. On August 1, he said: “In Azerbaijan’s Karabagh, together with our Azerbaijani brothers, we completely eliminated the enemy forces.”

Azerbaijan’s official Gazette responded in an editorial: “Our people, army and commander view with disappointment and deep sorrow the attempts to claim and take ownership of our rightful victory. Azerbaijan’s victory is for the entire Turkic world, but Turkey is not its architect. The Architects of the Karabagh victory are Commander-in-Chief Aliyev and the Azerbaijani Army.” The Azerbaijani Gazette described Erdogan’s words as “a heavy moral blow.”

Baku pursued its disagreement with Turkey through diplomatic channels. On July 29, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Turkey, Rashad Mammadov, met with Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Mehmet Kemal Bozay to complain about Erdogan’s statement. Amb. Mammadov then paid a visit to Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Berris Ekinci the following day to complain for the second time about Erdogan’s statement.

Fortunately, Armenia’s Prime Minister reacted to this latest Azerbaijan-Turkey dispute when answering a reporter’s question during his August 31 press conference: “During the 44-day War [in 2020], in many locations, our military, our explorers saw Turkish flags, Turkish soldiers, Turkish Special Squadrons and Turkish high-ranking officers. Let’s not forget that prior to the 44-day War, there were large-scale military exercises between Azerbaijan and Turkey. And during the entire war, F-16 jets belonging to Turkey were literally in the air and drones belonging to Turkey were maintained by Turkish personnel.”

Modern wars are not fought just with weapons. Nations also use psychological warfare, spread disinformation, instigate internal turmoil in hostile countries, and engage in divide and conquer tactics. Armenia needs to use all of these tools to undermine its enemies and defend its national interests.

If Armenia lacks the expertise in such specialized operations, there are consulting firms that Armenia can hire, for a fraction of the millions spent on weapons, to weaken the enemy from within.

September 10, 2024
ATA ATUN – COMMENTS ON NETFLIX SERIES FAMAGUSTA

During my appearance on Monday, September 2, I spoke on TV24, BENGÜTÜRK TV, and TVNET. I said that the truth was withheld and misrepresented about the television series NETFLIX and FAMAGUSTA, that it was based on lies, that the genocide against us, the Turkish Cypriots, between 1963 and 1974 was not mentioned, that Greece organised a coup on 15 July 1974, that the declaration of the Hellenic Republic of Cyprus and its annexation of the island were omitted, that the massacres were carried out by the Greeks, that it was in the nature of the Turkish soldiers and nation not to shoot at civilians and unarmed enemy soldiers, that the series was created with an imaginary scenario that was not based on facts, completely in line with the Greeks and Greek propaganda, and that I explained an incident that I personally experienced during the Peace Operation, giving an example.

September 3, 2024
Is Netflix a Tool for Propaganda or an Entertainment Platform?

TV shows and movie platforms Without looking into the script’s content, Netflix has blatantly decided to serve as a propaganda weapon for Greek and Greek Cypriot interests.

Press reports state that Andreas Georgiou’s television series “Famagusta,” in which he plays the protagonist, would premiere by the end of September.

The Greek Cypriots, who maintain that the Cyprus issue originated in 1974 and have rewritten history to suit their needs, are currently attempting to convince the world that they were the victims of 1974 by using false information and fantastical stories that they cling to.

The Greek Cypriot Administration sponsored and produced the series, although it omits the internal strife that followed Greece’s coup on July 15, 1974, which led to Makarios’ overthrow. The terrorist group EOKA B slaughtered leftist Greeks, and they designate terrorist commander Nikos Sampson as the head of the coup.

There is no claim that the island of Cyprus, which was thereafter governed by the Hellenic Republic of Cyprus, was annexed by Greece or that the Republic of Cyprus, of which Turkey, Greece, and England were the guarantors, was destroyed and replaced by the “Hellenic Republic of Cyprus.” Of course, the television show “Famagusta” did not address these issues.

Turkiye intervened as the guarantor state after it was announced that the island of Cyprus had been taken over by Greece, and that the terrorist organisation EOKA B and the Greek National Guard had begun shooting at the Turkish Cypriots, in accordance with the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus Constitution, Annex I, the Treaty of Guarantee and Alliance.

As per Annex I, Article 4, the guarantor powers possess the jurisdiction to step in and restore the 1960-declared Cyprus Republic if there is a status shift in the Republic of Cyprus.

Based only on falsehoods, the news about the allegedly televised series suggests that it is a work of fiction.

Assuming you are going to deceive everyone, how will you deceive us?

I took part in the July 20, 1974, military action that was authorised by international law. That “Turkish troops fired at people and the Turkish army bombarded civilian communities” is something I have never seen or heard of.

This is a totally untrue accusation meant to harm one’s reputation.

Turkish soldiers are obligated by custom and belief to “help the enemy even if they are soldiers in need of assistance” and “not shoot unarmed citizens.”

I saw and participated in many of these selfless deeds during the 1974 Peace Operation involvement.

Those included bathing, feeding, and handing over to the authorities the mentally handicapped Greek Cypriot child whose parents had abandoned him, chained him to a tree in their backyard. When he saw us, the the young boy cried and asked for ice cream. In addition, unlike the Greek Cypriots, this story was firsthand seen rather than recorded at a desk.

It appears that these stories need to be told, documented, and disseminated to the public since TV shows with a propagandist bent are now more successful than military conflict. The world, the Greek Cypriots who carried out the genocide, and our own youth are unaware of the genocide against us Turkish Cypriots between 1963 and 1974 since there has been a dearth of publicity and promotion.

Not even the Greeks knew until the latter week of August 2024 about the massacre of 103 Turkish Cypriots in the villages of Muratağa, Atlılar, and Sandallar, fifty years ago on August 15, 1974. The victims ranged in age from 3-month-old newborns to 93-year-olds, and they were cruelly massacred by the Greek Cypriots.

We have witnessed atrocities like the Türkeli, Taşkent, and Kumsal massacres in addition to massacres like Muratağa, Atlılar, and Sandallar. From six months to ninety years old, our people were burnt and dumped into dry wells. Our instructors in the classroom lamented the death of the pupils they were supposed to be teaching. Our cars disappeared on the roads. Our buses and passenger cars were buried with the passengers alive inside.

For eleven years, we were restricted to three percent of the island. Our communities were plundered and set on fire. Not to mention the economic strains, the Greek takeover of the government, and the forced migration of the Turkish Cypriots.

With great success, the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus has been able to conceal these massacres and the genocide against the Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus between 1963 and 1974 from both its own people and the global public opinion. They have also been able to keep these events off the agenda for newspapers, media, press, and television.

Propaganda put the Greek Cypriots in the victim position, while we, the Turkish Cypriots, were the victims and victims of genocides.

It is therefore imperative to produce television shows that will demonstrate our innocence, rightfulness, and victimization—particularly with regard to the “Cyprus issue”—and convince the world that we are the ones who are being victimised, not the invaders.

Making television shows and films that reveal what was done to us and releasing them on Netflix is what we need to do. Subsequently, we shall comprehend if Netflix and similar sites serve as propaganda weapons or genuine entertainment venues. (Yes, but let us double check)

Academic: Prof. Dr. (Civ Eng), Assoc. Prof. Dr. (Int. Rel) Ata ATUN

First Term Deputy of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Assembly;

Member of the Advisory Board of the TRNC President

September 2, 2024
Khachigian’s Memoirs: How a Farmer’s Son Became Speechwriter for Nixon and Reagan

Ken Khachigian, the son of a farmer in Visalia, California, just published the captivating memoirs of his years in the White House as a speechwriter to two prominent U.S. Presidents, Nixon and Reagan. Titled, “Behind Closed Doors: In the Room with Reagan and Nixon,” the book’s cover page describes Khachigian as a “speechwriter, confidant and strategist to political legends.”

Khachigian’s book has attracted keen attention. The Wall Street Journal published a very positive review by Tevi Troy. Quin Hillyer, a popular Washington columnist, wrote two laudatory reviews in the Washington Examiner. Khachigian’s memoirs was ranked #2 in pre-sales of all the titles for the publisher’s new releases in mid-summer. The publisher is now planning a second printing.

Khachigian grew up in a struggling farmer’s family deprived of a shower and other basic necessities to become one of the most influential men in the White House. He started his involvement in politics as a volunteer for the Nixon presidential campaign. After the election, he became Nixon’s speechwriter. He then joined the Reagan administration as the president’s chief speechwriter. He also served as senior advisor and principal strategist for California Governor George Deukmejian in the 1982 and 1986 elections.

In an interview with the Armenian Mirror-Spectator, Khachigian related a memorable episode that happened while he was working for Nixon, when his father passed away in 1975. The President wanted to know what he could do to honor the memory of Khachigian’s father. Since his father was from the Armenian village of Chomaklou in Turkey, Khachigian made the unusual request of asking Pres. Nixon to donate to the Chomaklou Compatriotic Society. Nixon obliged by writing a personal check for $500 to the Armenian society.

Among the hundreds of texts Khachigian wrote for the two presidents, I must isolate two important documents he penned. Up until 1981, no U.S. President had described the Armenian Genocide as genocide. On April 22, 1981, Reagan issued a presidential proclamation in which he mentioned the Armenian Genocide. The text was written by Khachigian. This was 40 years before Pres. Biden finally issued a statement in 2021 officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

While Turkish denialists try to dismiss Pres. Reagan’s 1981 proclamation by stating that it was written by the President’s Armenian speechwriter, Khachigian counters the Turkish accusation by saying that all Presidential Proclamations carry the President’s signature; therefore, the 1981 Proclamation is an official statement by the President of the United States.

In his interview with the Mirror, Khachigian explained that since he was aware of the controversy regarding the mention of the Armenian Genocide by the White House, he checked with the Deputy National Security Advisor, Bud Nance, who said that he saw no problem with the reference. “Well that’s a fact, isn’t it?” Nance asked. Khachigian replied, “as far as I am concerned it is a fact.” Nance then said, “well, it is okay with me.”

Khachigian then decided to make sure that there will be no problems with the reference to the Armenian Genocide in the Proclamation, so he checked with Richard Allen, the White House National Security Advisor. “I want to show this to you. I’d shown it to Bud Nance. Here, please read this proclamation,” Khachigian told Allen who replied: “well, that is an historic fact.” Khachigian told him, “well, yes it is.” Allen then said, “well, as long as it is an historic fact, there is no reason why it shouldn’t be in the proclamation.”

Khachigian related another important Armenian-related episode in his book. He wrote that an Armenian friend, Jim Renjilian, invited Khachigian to accompany him to the Arlington Cemetery for Armenian Genocide Day Remembrance on April 24, 1985. During the commemorative program, Khachigian recalled the stories he had heard as a young boy about the tragic experiences of his family during the Armenian Genocide. His father was a survivor of that Genocide which Khachigian described as “the coerced exile from their homes when the Turks murdered the [Armenian] population of Anatolia by arms, starvation, pestilence, and forced march.”

Khachigian then quoted from Aris Kalfaian’s book about Chomaklou, describing the suffering and hellish experiences of the deported Armenians. Khachigian disclosed that, as a result, his father “at age sixteen, lost his mother, his brother, and sister.”

Khachigian, grief-stricken, described his emotions at the Arlington Cemetery: “The music and prayers in Arlington jolted me with reminders of my heritage and brought back those plaintive memories from my childhood. In 1915, there was a Bergen-Belsen in the Syrian desert that history had forgotten, and the pain and suffering endured by the victims and the survivors of the Armenian Genocide suddenly made my mission very real during our quiet ride back to the White House.”

Khachigian described how the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide at the Arlington Cemetery inspired him to write what many have described as Reagan’s greatest speech which he delivered days later during his visit to the former concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen in Germany.

Khachigian concluded, “the clattering of the keys on the IBM typewriter began shouting through me the story I absorbed that morning and the one the president — and I — needed to tell.”

August 30, 2024
Turkish Textbooks Brainwash Students By Denying Genocide Against Minorities

Turkish investigative journalist Uzay Bulut published on the Gatestone Institute’s website an article titled, “Turkish Textbooks: Turning History on Its Head.”

Bulut wrote: “Turkish government authorities have targeted their own indigenous peoples of Anatolia, namely the Pontic Greeks and Armenians. In the twentieth century, Ottoman Turkey largely exterminated these peoples through a genocide.”

Bulut explained: “The government of Turkey, however, refers to the genocide as the ‘unfounded claims’ of Greeks and Armenians. The titles in the Turkish history textbooks were previously called the ‘Pontus Issue’ and the ‘Armenian Question.’ They are now changed to the ‘Unfounded Pontus Claims’ and the ‘Unfounded Armenian Claims.’”

Turkey also denies that Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks are indigenous peoples of the land where Turks settled centuries later, occupied the land and exterminated those already living there.

“Muslim Turks from Central Asia arrived in the Armenian highlands and Anatolia, which was the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire at the time, only during the 11th century. Through military invasions, Muslim Turks seized the towns and cities where indigenous Christians had lived for centuries. Ottoman Turks finally invaded Constantinople (today’s Istanbul) in the fifteenth century, bringing the destruction of the Byzantine Empire. After that, abuses against Christian religious and cultural heritage became widespread,” Bulut wrote.

The sad part is that young Turkish schoolchildren, who have no idea about the real history of their country, are brainwashed with falsehoods about their country’s origin, and fed hatred about the remnants of the minorities. Consequently, these children become adults parroting the lies taught to them in their schools by denying that the Ottoman government committed genocide against indigenous Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks. These Turkish children have no fault for not knowing the true history of their country nor the facts about the genocide committed against the minorities. They are fed the lies that the minorities lived happily in the Ottoman Empire for centuries until European powers instigated them to rebel against their government. On the contrary, minorities living in the Ottoman Empire were always oppressed, enslaved, attacked, robbed, kidnapped, raped, and massacred, culminating in the genocide of 1915. These minorities were not even considered to be second class citizens. They had no rights whatsoever and were at the mercy of their brutal rulers. Bulut correctly described the education of the Turkish schoolchildren as “misinformation, willful distortion, and historic revisionism.”

This is not just a dispute between Armenians and Turks. The Turkish government knows better than anyone that the accusations of genocide are factual, since the Ottoman archives in its possession reveal the truth, even after being selectively cleansed of any incriminating evidence.

In 2007, the International Association of Genocide Scholars issued a resolution, which said, in part: “It is the conviction of the International Association of Genocide Scholars that the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire between 1914 and 1923 constituted a genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontian and Anatolian Greeks.”

According to Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, President of Genocide Watch, denial is the last stage of genocide: “Denial is a continuation of a genocide because it is a continuing attempt to destroy the victim group psychologically and culturally, to deny its members even the memory of the murders of their relatives.”

More importantly, I suggest that the proud citizens of Turkey listen carefully to the truthful admission of the founder of the modern Republic of Turkey, Kemal Ataturk, who told the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper in an interview published on August 1, 1926: “These leftovers from the former Young Turk Party, who should have been made to account for the lives of millions of our Christian subjects who were ruthlessly driven en masse from their homes and massacred.” I hope no Turkish citizen would be foolish enough to call Ataturk a liar, otherwise they will be jailed immediately if they live in Turkey and if they are currently outside the country, they will be promptly arrested upon returning home.

The Turkish government, at long last, should face the truth and teach the innocent Turkish students the tragic facts of history about the massacres and genocide for which neither today’s young generation nor the current Turkish government were responsible for since they did not even exist during these murders. All nations have dark stains in their history, but instead of hiding them, they come clean and face their true history, including both the tragic and glorious episodes. Only then nations can overcome their shadowy pasts and move forward. Look at the example of Germany which accepted its guilt for the Holocaust and made amends. Otherwise, future generations of Turks will grow up trying to deny and lie about their ignominious past and will always have a guilty conscience for something they played no part in. However, their lies and denials make them accomplices of these crimes after the fact.

August 30, 2024