Our dear friend and valuable member of Turkish Forum, Dr. Ferruh Demirmen, passed away yesterday.
Dr. Ferruh Demirmen, who graduated from Stanford and Tulsa Universities was retired from Shell Company. He was a well-known oil and reservoir expert in the energy sector. He published over 90 technical articles in world literature and made important presentations at many world conferences.
Dr. Demirmen published thousands of articles both in English and Turkish responding to the Armenian genocide allegations made against Turkey.
Dr. Demirmen will be deeply missed, but his memory will live on in our hearts. We are grateful for the contribution he made to the community till the last day.
Services will be held on Tuesday, October 1st 2024
Ferruh Demirmen, beloved husband, father and grandfather, passed away on September 29th, 2024. Services will be held on Tuesday, October 1st 2024. You are invited to attend any or all of the day’s events.
Visitation at Hamza Funeral Home 11:30am-1:30pm
Salat-ul-Janaza at Masjid Hamza (Prayers at Hamza Mosque) 2:00-2:30pm
Burial at Forest Park Westheimer Cemetary (Islamic Place) 3:00-4:00pm
Gathering for Family and Friends 4:30-8:00 pm @ 22023 Erincrest Ct. Katy TX 77450 Please feel free to share this as I’m sure I missed someone.
Copy of message sent to feedback@pov.org on Nov. 5, 2023 in connection with the airing of Aurora’s Sunrise, a supposed documentary film, by PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) on October 23, 2023. Recipient confirmed receipt of the message, but provided no commentary.
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Oh, Mama mia, here we go again! “Aurora’s Sunrise,” with all those phantasies and fabrications. My dear Aurora Mardiganian, My sweet heart, where are those crucified 16 young girls tormented by Ottoman soldiers? Mama mia, My my, how can I resist you, tell me more lies.
Aurora’s Sunrise is a 1 hr. 23 min. film re-telling the story of Arshaluys (Aurora) Mardiganian, the Armenian girl who survived “Armenian genocide” at age 14 and moved to America at age 16. Her supposed memories, published in 1917 when she was 17, were turned into a book, Ravished Armenia in 1918, and later into a Hollywood movie Auction of Souls in 1919. Aurora’s Sunrise is a re-making of Auction of Souls in animated form, where she re-tells her original story. The film had its world premiere in France in June 2022, and aired by PBS, a supposedly respectable organization serving as America’s largest public media enterprise, on October 23, 2023. It was made possible – not surprisingly – with the “academic contribution” (notice the word “academic”) of the Zoryan Institute, which, together with other Armenian sources, contributed to the production of the film.
Shamefully, Aurora’s Sunrise is peddled as a documentary film. In reality, it is a despicable mockery of history and international law, aimed at vilifying Turks as heartless barbarians. The film goes one more step than the original Auction of Souls in throwing dirt and slime on Turks. According to Aurora, crucifixion of the girls depicted in the original movie was inaccurate. The reality was far too grim, she says. “The Armenian girls were actually ordered to bend down, then raped, then they made them sit on the “kazık”(pointed wood), through the vagina. That’s the way they killed.” Crucifixion was “too civilized,” she comments. The movie contains many horrific and sickening scenes of tortured humans splattered across the countryside. The villain is the cruel, heartless Turk. At one point, she brings up the fictitious “Hitler’s Armenian quote” to support the “Armenian genocide” allegation, even though the document bearing this quote was denied as evidence during the Nuremberg trials. She says, “If Turks were punished after WW-I, Jews wouldn’t have been massacred.” Such outrageous comment, and attempting to defraud the audience!
And at the end of the movie she maligns Kemal Atatürk, the legendary Turkish leader praised by many world leaders and honored by the United Nations and UNESCO. Atatürk is blamed for building a new Türkiye “by massacring his way across Armenian land.” She concludes that “Turks should not be really killed with guns or swords; they must be brought down to the chair,” implying death by hanging!
Such repulsive language, not to mention grotesque distortion of truth, is almost unheard of in today’s America. The exception, of course, is the hatred-filled campaign directed against Türkiye and Turks coming from the Armenian lobby, e.g., ANCA and ARF. The Armenian lobby is not only contributing to, but also riding high on the enduring prejudice born of history and Islamophobia in America, i.e., the “Terrible Turk” versus the good, Christian Armenians. Certainly echoes of Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, who called Turks “primitive,” possessing “poisonous blood,” and President Woodrow Wilson characterizing them as “Mohammedan Apaches.” The prejudice is the result of distorted missionary reports combined with British propaganda (Wellington House) before and during First World-I. Native Americans and black Africans brough as slaves to America know such bigotry and derision too well.
And imagine only half of such calumny is brought onto the Jews in America. The Jewish organization ADL (Anti-Defamation League) would scream in protest, and PBS would be in deep trouble. Where are the Turks and the diplomatic representatives of Türkiye to protest such hate speech and character assassination?
The only shred of truth in Aurora’s Sunrise is that Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were a privileged group, in fact a “loyal nation,” and could afford sending their children abroad for education. Even the Foreign Minister in the Ottoman cabinet in 1913 was an Armenian named Gabriel Noradukian. But such privilege was not enough, and during World War-I the Armenians joined the invading enemy armies and attacked and sabotaged the Ottoman Army from behind, all for the glory of the Allies, chiefly the Russians. It was an armed uprising against their government. The insurrection and attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 was a measly child’s play by comparison. The Ottoman government had no choice but relocate Armenians to the south toward Syria. Only those in Eastern Anatola were subjected to Relocation orders. Armenian militants burned the city of Van, and handed the city to the advancing Russian army. Their aim was to carve out an independent Armenia in Eastern Anatolia, where the Armenian population was at most 22%. Even the Dashnak luminary Hovhannes Katchaznouni called attention to the misjudgment and blunder of the Armenian militants, and Boghos Nubar Pasha of the Paris Peace Conference fame admitted the treasonous act of the Armenian militants.
The claimed death of 1.5 million of Armenian refugees during Relocation is a preposterous exaggeration; Turkish archives put the Armenian deaths at 56,600, 10,000 of which were killings due to lawlessness. Those that intentionally harmed Armenian refugees were punished by the Ottoman courts. Some of the punishments were death-by-hanging.
Commander Andranik, recalled in glowing terms by Aurora, was an Ottoman traitor and mass murderer. In 1915 he was named commander of all Armenian volunteer units within the Russian army. Both Andranik and “Dro” Drastamat Kanayan, another Armenian general who later served in Nazi Germany as commander of the Armenian battalion, were war criminals, being responsible for the killing of tens of thousands of helpless and innocent Turkish and Muslim civilians. Both Andranik and “Dro” are considered patriots by Armenia and the Armenian lobby. Between 1914 and 1921 renegade Armenian bands killed 518,000 civilians in cold-blood in Anatolia. There were also 413,000 losses in the Transcaucasian region – not to mention the 1 million that perished during forced migration. Armenian atrocities were witnessed and documented by, among others, Captain E. Niles and A. Sutherland of Near East Relief and Rear Admiral Marc L. Bristol, the successor of Ambassador Henry Morgenthau as the U.S. High Commissioner to Türkiye between 1919 and 1927. The atrocities are also reported in Russian, British and French archives.
The calamity brought upon Muslims – in particular Turkish civilians – by Armenian militias is a story untold in Europe and America, and certainly not in a fictional story championed by PBS.
In 1985, 69 U.S. historians and researchers passed a unanimous resolution, addressed to members of the U.S. House of Representatives and published in New York Times and The Washington Post, refuting Armenian allegations. In 2011, 124 Turkish academicians signed a statement supporting the 1985 declaration.
As for international law, suffice it say that the recognition of “Armenian genocide” clearly violates the 1948 UNConvention on Genocide, ratified or acceded to by 152 states. The U.S. ratified the Convention in 1948, Türkiye acceded, or effectively ratified, in 1950, and likewise Armenia acceded in 1993. The Convention requires (Art. 6) that “Persons charged with genocide”… shall be tried by a competent tribunal … of the State where the act was committed … or by an international penal tribunal that has the proper jurisdiction. The main takeaways from the Convention are: 1: The crime of genocide is committed by persons, not by states. 2: To recognize genocide, determination by a competent court is a must.
Yet, with respect to the so-called “Armenian genocide,” there exists no such court determination; repeat, NONE. This contrasts with the Rwandan, Bosnian and Cambodian genocides, all of which were established and ratified by ad hoc tribunals.
There is, of course, the claim from some Armenian sources that the Ottoman courts martial of 1919-20 issued death sentences to the leaders of the “Committee of Unity and Progress” that gave the Relocation orders, and hence responsible for Armenian deaths. But these courts, operating under the leadership of Nemrut Mustafa Pasha, were “kangaroo courts” established at the instigation of the victorious Allied Powers. They issued death sentences also to the leaders of the Nationalist Movement,“ including Mustafa Kemal. With no due process, no witnesses, no cross-examination, etc., the courts lacked credibility, and certainly did not qualify as “competent courts” referred to in the Convention. The Allies considered these courts a travesty of justice, with British High Commissioner Admiral Somerset Arthur Gough-Calthorpe writing to London on August 1, 1919, that these courts were “proving to be a farce and injurious to our own prestige.”
The “Armenian genocide” narrative, not having the requisite determination by a competent court, raises the obvious question: Given that Türkiye does not recognize “Armenian genocide,” why Armenia, after it gained its sovereignty from the Soviet Russia in 1991, has not to date appealed to the International Court of Justice to prove its “genocide” allegations against its adversary? Same question applies to the Armenian lobby, which could have pursued a similar course by appealing to the UN for establishment of an ad hoc tribunal. Certainly, for both Armenia and the Armenian lobby the day-in, day-out propaganda, riding on the anti-Turk prejudice and Christian sensibilities, and fed by generous political campaign contributions, was far more preferrable.
In 2003 the European Union’s Court of First Instance ruled that the “Armenian genocide” resolution passed by the European Parliament in 1987 was purely a political act – devoid of any legal validity. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled, in 2013, ratified in 2015, that “Armenian genocide,” apart from the fact that it is a controversial issue among scholars, remains unproven. It also made a distinction between the court-proven Holocaust and the 1915 events in Ottoman Turkey. In 2016 France’s Constitutional Council, while also making a distinction between the 1915 events and Holocaust, underlined that governments and parliaments have no authority to judge genocide. Repeat: parliaments and governments have no authority. All these facts, on top of the fact that the Malta Tribunal held by the British in 1919-21 resulted in the conviction of not a single high Ottoman government official charged with killing of Armenians; all 144 detainees were released. And the UN, on three separate occasions in 2000, 2007 and 2015, stated unequivocally that it has not taken a position on “Armenian genocide,” i.e., it does not recognize such “genocide.” As late as April 22, 2021, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, issued a statement that the crime of genocide must be decided by a relevant court, i.e., determinaton by a relevent (competent) court is a must, not an option.
So, what do we say about the “Armenian genocide” resolution passed by the U.S. Congress in 2019, plus President Biden’s recognition of the “genocide” since 2021? They are simply worthless declarations, or opinions, but carrying much political garbage against Türkiye. Forget about seeking the views of the opposing Turkish side; the law-abiding Congressmen and women didn’t even bother to question the authenticity of “Armenian genocide” or consider the international legal ramifications of the resolution they voted on. They simply rubber-stamped what was put in fronth of them by the Armenian lobby. The passage of the resolution by both the House and Senate in 2019 was driven by a mob mentality charged with political undercurrents and a sense of recrimination against an unfavored, barely tolerable, NATO ally. In the Senate, the all-time-high Türkiye critic Robert Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, now indicted on a number federal charges, even shed tears when the resolutıon passed. Oh, Mama mia, all these tears, how sad! Likewise, Biden couldn’t resist saying “genocide.” Bigotry comes cheap. There were also generous campaign contributions from the Armenian side to consider.
As for PBS, this is not the first time it succumbed to Armenian lobby’s pressure to besmirch Türkiye and Turks. There were at least four previous productions aired by PBS that brought up the prejudicial “Armenian genocide” issue. The last one, aired on April 17, in 2006, titled Armenian Genocide, pulled out all the stops to demonize Turks and please Armenians. Playing the religion card, it mocked not only history and international law, at the beginning it showed a macabre image of a pyramid of human skulls, to make the audience think that these were the remains of Armenian victims killed by murderous Turks. In reality, it was “The Apotheosis of War,” a mid-19th century painting by Russian war artist Vasily Vereshchagin. The scheme to fool the audience obviously did not bother the producer. Not surprisingly, the film was bankrolled by more than 30 largely Armenian foundations in America. Despite appeals from the Turkish side, PBS also declined to air, as a balancing act, another film, The Armenian Revolt, that gives a balanced presentation of the Turkish-Armenian conflict. Because it refuted “Armenian genocide,” PBS wouldn’t air it. So much about being “open minded” by America’s largest public media enterprise!
Mama mia, Mama mia, Aurora Mardiganian, the virtuous Christian girl; tell me more lies, tell me more about those “gavur” (infidel) Turks … History, international law, decency and humanity have gone berserk; hatred and dishonesty have taken over. Ethnic harmony in America is at stake. America, where LAW is the king, and “due process” for the accused is a right. When the Congress and Biden recognized “Armenian genocide,” not a single soul sought the opinion of the accused side. Obviously, politically motivated accusations don’t have to comply with such legal niceties! Armenian fabrications, and Türkiye and-Turk-bashing in America started more than a century ago, and are still continuing today almost unabated. Between 1973 and 1987 the Armenian ASALA and JCAG terrorist groups committed 239 acts of terrorism that resulted in the massacre of at least 70 and the wounding of 524 innocent people. Some of the terrorism took place on U.S. soil. Of the dead, 58 were Turkish, of which 31 were diplomats. These were hate crimes motivated by hate-mongering propaganda from the Armenian side; a propaganda that is disgracefully supported by PBS – a supposedly educational media that “helps prepare children for success in school.” What a hypocrisy!
Hello, Mr. Harut; I am still waiting for your response to my message I sent you a week ago. You are a very prolific writer; I thought you would have replied by now. I understand you also didn’t respond to Mr. Mehmet Arif Demirer on his article he sent you nearly a year ago on Garo Paylan raising the issue of “Armenian genocide” at the Turkish Grand Assembly in 2016. You conveniently ignored all the historical facts in that article and still penned your April 3, 2023 article in The California Courier (“Ottoman Parliament and Senate in 1918 Acknowledged ‘the Armenian Massacres’”).
I now notice that on your April 10, 2023 column you brought up a “new discovery” by Taner Akçam: https://www.thecaliforniacourier.com/turkey-bought-poison-gas-from-nazi-germany-to-kill-kurdish-alevis-armenians-in-1938/.
Akçam is a very interesting “scholar.” In fact a “gem,” as far as the Armenian lobby. Tessa Hofmann and Vahakn Dadrian did a wonderful job on him, and the Armenian lobby knows what a “gold mine” is when it sees one. In February 2022 Akçam got a new appointment at UCLA to lead the university’s “Armenian Genocide Research Program.” Certainly a very fitting appointment after holding the Kaloosdian and Mugar Professorship in “Modern Armenian History and Genocide” at the Clark University in Massachusetts. After all, thanks to Prof. Richard Hovannisian, Akçam was a guest speaker at UCLA in 2005 (photo attached). Akçam now has German nationality, and his articles are welcome at the Agos newspaper in Turkey.
A good reading on Akçam is found at: https://tallarmeniantale.com/akcam.htm. For example, one notable fact on Akçam’s credibility as a scholar is that, among some of his peers, Akçam has been characterized as a “village idiot.” He even received the scorn of his own brother on the contradictions and distortions on one of his writings:
Akçam even denied that, for an event to be called “genocide,” a ruling by a court is necessary: https://www.gazeteduvar.com.tr/forum/2019/11/04/sil-bastan-soykirim-ve-bilgi-kirliligi
Voila! This, from a “genocide scholar”!
While on the subject, I have a question on Akçam. You know that Akçam is an ex-convict with the Leninist-Marxist “Dev-Yol” background. He jumped prison 1977 in Turkey and escaped to Germany. In 2000 he entered the USA, presumably to give a talk, probably with a visitor’s visa, and later received an immigrant visa. It was no secret who sponsored his talk and his entry visa. It is nearly impossible for a person of Akçam’s background to obtain a visitor’s visa, let alone an immigrant visa, to the USA. In fact, on February 16, 2007 Akçam was detained in Canada at the airport in Montreal for nearly 4 hours because he was considered a terrorist. Two days later he was likewise temporarily detained at the US border.
My question is: How did someone with Akçam’s background enter the USA in 2000, and later received the immigrant status? I have a pretty good idea; but it is better that you, with all your connections, explain.
By the way, the argument that he was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International will not do. That did not erase Akçam’s criminal record.
Re: Garo Paylan being a member of the Kurdish party HDP, below is the slightly revised version of my message published in Turkish Forum 2 days ago, for archival purposes, and for Harut Sassounian to respond. I hope Harut will respond shortly.
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Why are the articles of a chief Armenian diaspora propagandist Harut Sassounian being posted in Turkish Forum?
Imagine a Turkish person who disputes the bogus Armenian genocide accusation trying to have his/her articles posted or published in an Armenian website or platform. He/she would be lambasted – or worse – for even trying such “outrageous” attempt! Opinions opposing “Armenian genocide” are not welcome in Armenian websites or platforms. Even if they do – as is the case occasionally with “HyeTert”published in Turkey – the reader is warned that the contents are misleading and/or prejudiced, etc. Surely, what is reported in “HyeTert” is truthful and impartial!
I don’t normally comment – in Turkish or English – on Harut bey’s articles posted in Turkish Forum because my comments do not get posted in the “The California Courier.” So, why waste time?
But on Harut’s latest propaganda piece posted below, I make an exception. His assertion that “Armenian Massacres were discussed and acknowledged by the Ottoman Parliament and Senate in 1918,” does not carry any weight. The Ottoman parliament (Meclis-i Mebûsan), just like the Ottoman military tribunals at that time, were under the watch and command of the occupying foreign forces. The 1919-20 courts martial held under the leadership of Nemrut Mustafa Pasha were “kangaroo courts” held at the instigation of the victorious Allied Powers. These courts issued death sentences to not only the leaders of the “Committee of Unity and Progress,” but also to the leaders of the Nationalist Movement “Kuva-yi Milliye,” including Mustafa Kemal. With no due process, no witnesses, no cross examination, etc., the courts lacked credibility. The Allies considered them travesty of justice, with British High Commissioner Admiral Somerset Arthur Gough-Calthorpe writing to London on August 1, 1919, that these courts were “proving to be a farce and injurious to our own prestige.”
Hence these courts were far from being competent tribunals referred to in the 1948 Genocide Convention. Having witnessed these kangaroo court martials, the British decided to hold the Malta Tribunal. And we know what the results were.
Those that inflicted harm to the Armenian refugees during re-location in 1915 were in fact punished earlier by the 1915-16 Ottoman courts-martial acting under no pressure by foreign powers.
Harut should answer: How many rebellious Armenians that terrorized the countryside, killed Muslim civilians, and helped the invading Russian forces were brought to justice in a court of law? Answer: zero, zilch. Nearly 520,000 civilian Muslims were massacred in cold bloodin Anatolia alone by the rebellious Armenian forces during 1914-21. There were also 413,000 Muslim losses in the Transcaucasian region.
And if Harut is seeking legal justification for what he calls “Armenian genocide,” why doesn’t he refer to the decisions of the Malta Tribunal, the 2013/2015 rulings of ECtHR on the Switzerland-Perincek case, and the 1987 ruling of the Constitutional Council of France? As well, from a historical point of view, the views of 69 academicians including eminent historians such as Professors Bernard Lewis and Justin McCarthy, who, in 1985, made a public declaration in U.S.A. that, in their opinion, the 1915 events did not constitute genocide.
While on the subject, Harut should explain why Armenia to date has not taken its case to the European Court of Justice to adjudicate its claims? And likewise, the Armenian lobby, why it has not asked the UN to convene a special tribunal to hear its allegations? He should also ask himself why the British government – certainly very knowledgeable on the 1915 events – to date has not recognized “Armenian genocide.”
Speaking of legal justification for a bogus genocide, Harut should also know that the U.S. Congress, just with some of today’s European parliaments, have no authority to pass judgment on “Armenian genocide.” That is the bailiwick of courts of law. The “Armenian genocide” labels today run on the backbone of Jewish Holocaust – to which it has no resemblance – as well a deep-rooted anti-Muslim, anti-Turkish prejudice in the West, including America. We certainly have heard that Armenians were the “First Christian nation.” A statement that certainly makes a big impact in Christian America.
Lobbying and donations to U.S. politicians – lots of it – of course also make a huge difference.
As for Harut’s reference to the fact that Armenian members of the Turkish Parliament, Selina Doğan and Garo Paylan, had raised the issue of the Armenian Genocide in the Parliament in 2016, such action does not signify the legitimacy of their cause. Garo Paylan is a member of the Kurdish party HDP, which has argued that Turkey should apologize for the 1915 events, https://hdp.org.tr/tr/ermeni-soykirimi-utanciyla-yuzlesin/15358/. The politicians of HDP are apparently totally ignorant on the suffering of Kurdish people during the Armenian revolt in the Ottoman period. Among the civilian Muslims killed by mutinous Armenian terrorists, including those that fell victim during the Van massacre on April 21, 1915, a good percentage of the victims were Kurdish. Also, during the First Republic of Armenia, 1918-20, 98% of the Kurdish population (a figure of nearly 25,000) perished due to deprivations and massacre under a fascist regime. The losses on the Turkish side numbered 200,000. The source of this information is none other than A.A. Lalaian, a Soviet historian of Armenian origin.
The judge involved in the 1919-20 military tribunals, Nemrut Mustafa Pasha, was also Kurdish; he was a traitor, and supported the cause of the occupying Allied forces.
Let us not gloss over the fact that the terrorist Kurdish PKK organization in Turkey also receives some covert help from Armenian elements.
Harut is a prominent member of the Armenian lobby in U.S., including ANCA-WR. Here is a clip from an Armenian-lobby news outlet – one that belongs to the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) -regarding the February 6, 2023 earthquake that hit southeastern Turkey and part of northern Syria: https://armenianweekly.com/2023/02/21/amaa-responds-to-earthquake-stricken-community-in-aleppo/. It is mentioned that some deaths occurred in Syria, and more than 350 Armenian families had found shelter in the halls and courtyard of Bethel Church. But not a single word about the massive human losses and material damage in Turkey! On the date the article was published, there were at least 40,000 deaths in Turkey. So much about the humanity of Armenian websites belonging to the diaspora.
Harut personally targeted me in 2017 in his article, https://www.thecaliforniacourier.com/turkish-activist-admits-major-blow-when-texas-recognized-armenian-genocide/, to which I replied:
http://avim.org.tr/Blog/ARMENIAN-LOBBYIST-SELECTIVELY-USES-GENOCIDE-RECOGNITION-ARTICLE-TO-SUIT-OWN-AGENDA. Because he has taken personal interest in me, I now have a personal question to Harut.
Harut is an “expert” on “Armenian genocide,” and he has even written a book on the subject – a book I am sure would have shocked even Hovhannes Katchaznouni had he read it. Harut’s prolific writings on “Armenian genocide” in The California Courier curiously skip the ASALA/JCAG terror that killed 58 Turkish citizens including 31 diplomats between 1973 and 1998. He meticulously avoided commenting on the 2021 release from prison of Hampig Sassounian, the Armenian gunman who assassinated Turkish Consul General Kemal Arıkan in Los Angeles in 1982. His articles also don’t say a word about the Nazi connections of those like General Dro Drastamat Kanayan during WW-2.
Harut worked in Geneva from 1978 to 1982, and claims he was a human rights delegate at the United Nations in Geneva for 10 years. In 1980 there was a terror attempt by ASALA to kill the Turkish Ambassador in Geneva, and in June 1981, an actual terror act whereby Turkish Consulate Secretary, Mehmet Savaş Yergüz, was assassinated by an Armenian gunman. The assassin was caught, tried, and convicted for murder.
Before long, the Swiss authorities received a letter from Armenia; in it a number Armenian organizations and churches were pleading with the Swiss authorities to release the assassin, stating that, if released, they would look after him. A copy of this letter is still in the possession of a Turkish person living in Geneva.
The question to Harut is: Can he comment on the murderous events in Geneva and the letter mentioned above – events that took place while he was in Geneva? He should certainly know.
To Ray Nutt, CEO Fathom Events 6465 Greenwood Plaza Blvd, Suite 550 Centennial, CO, 80111
December 22, 2022
Dear Mr. Nutt,
I am writing to you in connection with the showing of the “Smyrna” movie on 700 screens in USA on December 8. Suffice it to say that, I am appalled. The claim made in the movie, that Turks were responsible for the catastrophic Izmir fire in September 1922 in Western Anatolia, is an outright deception. The movie is supposedly based on the family diary of an elderly Greek-American woman who lived in the cosmopolitan city at the time.
Before you decided to showcase this movie, have you checked the authenticity of the contents? Surely, just like for any commercial undertaking, for Fathom Events the bottom-line matters. But you also have responsibility to ascertain that a movie production or the like does not unjustly offend a particular ethnic group, or saw the seeds of animosity between ethnic groups.
The fact is, “Smyrna” is very offensive to Turkish Americans because it falsifies history, and in a way, defames them. It is also divisive.
Without belaboring the details, I am attaching two documents for your viewing. One of them is the scanned heading of a news coverage from San Antonio Express dated January 22, 1923, four months after the Smyrna fire. The heading reads “Armenians, Not Turks Set Smyrna Ablaze, the Relief Worker Declares,” and continues, “American Who Reached City Before Occupation Says Victors Not Responsible for Destruction.” The photo caption is that of Mark O. Prentiss, the American representative of the Near East Relief. The story recounts evidence gathered by Prentiss himself and Paul Grescovish, chief of the Smyrna fire department, that it was the Armenians that had set the city ablaze. Within the text, Prentiss also states that the evidence runs counter general belief prevalent in USA.
The news coverage is based on a detailed January 11, 1923 report Prentiss sent to Rear Admiral Mark L. Bristol, the US High Commissioner at the American Embassy in Istanbul. If you like, I can send you the scanned copy of the entire news coverage.
The second attachment is an account provided by a French scholar who researched the topic. In his account he summarizes his conclusion: “Inferno of Izmir” on September 13, 1922 was mainly committed by Armenian terrorists, but also aided by Greek elements.”
As a matter of fact, as the Turkish troops advanced to free the city from Greek occupation, they had no reason to set the city afire because they needed all the resources including shelter, running water, food supplies, etc. that were available in the city. Turks were not crazy to burn the city they had just captured.
Izmir has been a Turkish city since 1415. It was occupied by Greek forces on May 15, 1919 and recaptured by Turkish forces on September 9, 1922. For centuries until World War I, Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Jews and and Levantines lived in the city harmoniously
I can also provide historical data from other sources, e.g., historians Lord Kinross and Stanford Shaw, to convince you that Turks were not responsible for the Izmir (Smyrna) fire. But for the purpose of this letter, what I have provided will suffice.
Given the background above, the question is, what will Fathom Events do to rectify its misdeed? Your company is one of the largest distributors of “content” to movie theatres. I understand there are plans to screen “Smyrna” at the European Parliament in Brussels on January 11, 2023, as well as at other festivals and events around the world, possibly even at the US Congress.
One thing you can do is to cancel further distribution and showing of “Smyrna.” You can also issue mea culpa or public apology to Turkish American community.
Finally, Mr. Nutt, your company may take the position that it is legally protected under freedom of speech guaranteed in First Amendment. But I am sure you know that free speech has limitations, one of them being defamation. Creating animosity between ethnic communities also runs against the spirit of peaceful co-existence.
I am writing to express my strong opposition to AB 1801, which not only adds a so-called “Genocide Remembrance Day”to the list of state holidays, it equates this day with April 24. State schools would be closed on April 24, and community colleges would be authorized to likewise close on April 24. The bill was introduced by Assembly member Adrin Nazarian, and after amendment, was passed in Senate and Assembly last month.
If one were ever to show an example of an ethnicity-driven, divisive, and politically motivated legislative bill, AB 1801 would come at the top of the list. Nazarian is of Armenian descent, Chair of the California Armenian Legislative Caucus, and lobbies for the recognition of so-called Armenian, Assyrian and Greek genocides. April 24 is the day Armenians commemorate “Armenian genocide.”
“Armenian genocide” is not an established fact. Yes, some historians call the 1915-16 events involving Armenians in Ottoman Anatolia “genocide,” but others, e.g., 69 American scholars that issued a public declaration in 1985, disagree. As do the 124 Turkish academicians who issued a similar proclamation in 2001.
But more importantly, there is the law, and in America law is King. The term genocide is a legal term, and according to Article VI of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention, persons charged with this crime can only be tried and declared guilty by a competent tribunal as defined by that article. Yet, there exists no such court determination for “Armenian genocide.”
Strangely enough, AB 1801 lumps “Armenian genocide” with the official Rwandan and Cambodian genocides. Even more strange, the officially recognized Bosnian Genocide, whereby the victims were Moslem and assailants Christian, is not mentioned in AB 1801. Thus AB 1801 has a strong undercurrent of anti-Turk, anti-Moslem sentiment.
Prof. Dr. Justin McCarthy has masterfully described how distorted missionary reports combined with British propaganda before and during First World I created an enduring prejudice involving the “Terrible Turk” in the West, in particular America. AB 1801 is a manifestation of such prejudice.
Further, court decisions in Europe between 2003 and 2017 have established that: (a) recognition of “Armenian genocide” is a purely political statement, (b) there is no resemblance between Holocaust and “Armenian genocide,” (c) legislative and executive branches have no authority to pass judgment on the crime of genocide.
Now, one must ask: What gives the right to the California legislators to declare the Armenian events in Ottoman Anatolia “genocide”? Isn’t it obvious that having April 24 as a state holiday on a newly legislated “Genocide Remembrance Day” is a round-about way of recognizing “Armenian genocide” and declaring the Ottoman Turks guilty?
Recognition of “Armenian genocide” is ex post facto application of the 1948 Genocide Convention, and under US Constitution both federal and state governments are prohibited from enacting such laws. The UN has also not recognized “Armenian genocide.”
But there is more: AB 1801, if it becomes law, will not only discourage or shut off any legitimate discourse on a historical event, thereby depriving the students and teachers alike of their First Amendment rights, it will put students of Turkish descent under undue psychological stress. These students will be bullied or ostracized by their friends, and they will suffer emotionally, affecting their self-esteem. They may even be subjected to physical abuse.
Dear Governor Newsom, you must be aware of the terrorist ASALA and JCAG Armenian organizations that were active between 1973 and 1998. One of the terrorists was Hampig Sassounian, the assassin of Los Angeles Turkish Consul General Kemal Arıkan in 1982. You capitulated to the powerful ANCA-WR Armenian lobby in March 2021 when you opened the door for the release from prison of this terrorist. That was reminiscent of Governor George Deukmeyan pardoning another Armenian terrorist Gourgen Yanikian, who assassinated two LA Turkish Consular officers in 1973.
All this is behind us, Governor Newsom; but I hope this time you will rise above ethnic politics and do the right thing by vetoing AB 1801. The bill would also put a large financial burden on the state budget, and that is another reason to reject it.
