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Category: Armenian Question

“The great Turk is governing in peace twenty nations from different religions. Turks have taught to Christians how to be moderate in peace and gentle in victory.”Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary

  • Jews check Armenian genocide stance

    Jews check Armenian genocide stance


    By ALLISON HOFFMAN, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT

    An official with a leading American Jewish organization told the The Jerusalem Post on Monday that a deterioration in Israel-Turkey relations might prompt his group and others to reconsider Armenian efforts to win recognition of the century-old Turkish massacres as genocide.

    A bill that would ensure such recognition by the US, which was backed by Rep. Adam Schiff – a Jewish Democrat who represents a heavily Armenian area of Los Angeles – failed to make it to a Congressional vote in 2007. However, it sparked a row in the American Jewish community between those who sided with Turkey in an effort to protect Israel’s political interests, and those who argued that Jews were particularly responsible for helping other groups block the public denial of genocide.
    “No Jew or Israeli in his right mind will insult Turkey,” the official told the Post. “But next time… they might not come to Turkey’s aid or equivocate quite so much on the issue.”
    The Bush administration opposed the bill out of concern for what it would do to US-Turkey relations.
    The current blowup between Israel and Turkey comes amid expectations that the Obama administration will name academic and writer Samantha Power, an expert on genocide, to a key National Security Council post dealing with multilateral institutions. Power has been outspoken in labeling the Turkish massacre of Armenians genocide, albeit from outside the government.
    One Washington-based Jewish community leader said Jewish organizations were unlikely to reorient their views and begin backing legislation to recognize the Armenian genocide, arguing that this would only make a delicate situation far worse.
    “If organizations aren’t backing Armenian genocide resolutions because of the Turkish-Israeli relationship and their concern about the Turkish Jewish community, I don’t think they would change now,” he said. “Those same concerns remain, and those same pressures remain.”
    Anti-Defamation League head Abraham Foxman – whose opposition to the Armenian genocide legislation in 2007 provoked widespread criticism – told the Post that as long as Israel maintained its diplomatic ties with Turkey, he saw no immediate reason to change his position on any future genocide resolutions.
    “This is not a punishment or a reward issue – we don’t change our position on what’s right or wrong based on what people say,” Foxman said. “The interests between Israel and Turkey continue.”
    Foxman also noted that he knew of Jewish friends who had cancelled trips to Turkey over Erdogan’s comments, but described the Erdogan flap as a disagreement between “friends.”
    “There have been some very inappropriate harsh statements by the leadership, especially by the prime minister, which we think are inappropriate,” he said, “but they have not changed the basic relationship [with Israel].”
    Hilary Leila Krieger and Haviv Gur Rettig contributed to this report.

  • Turkey’s Turn from the West

    Turkey’s Turn from the West

    Soner Cagaptay

    Washington Post, February 2, 2009

    Turkey is a special Muslim country. Of the more than 50 majority-
    Muslim nations, it is the only one that is a NATO ally, is in
    accession talks with the European Union, is a liberal democracy and
    has normal relations with Israel. Under its current government by the
    Justice and Development Party (AKP), however, Turkey is losing these
    special qualities. Liberal political trends are disappearing, E.U.
    accession talks have stalled, ties with anti-Western states such as
    Iran are improving and relations with Israel are deteriorating. On
    Thursday, for example, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan walked out
    of a panel at Davos, Switzerland, after chiding Israeli President
    Shimon Peres for “killing people.” If Turkey fails in these areas or
    wavers in its commitment to transatlantic structures such as NATO, it
    cannot expect to be President Obama’s favorite Muslim country.
    Consider the domestic situation in Turkey and its effect on relations
    with the European Union. Although Turkey started accession talks,
    that train has come to a halt. French objections to Turkish
    membership slowed the process, but the impact of the AKP’s slide from
    liberal values cannot be ignored. After six years of AKP rule, the
    people of Turkey are less free and less equal, as various news and
    other reports on media freedom and gender equality show. In April
    2007, for instance, the AKP passed an Internet law that has led to a
    ban on YouTube, making Turkey the only European country to shut down
    access to the popular site. On the U.N. Development Program’s gender-
    empowerment index, Turkey has slipped to 90th from 63rd in 2002, the
    year the AKP came to power, putting it behind even Saudi Arabia. It
    is difficult to take seriously the AKP’s claim to be a liberal party
    when Saudi women are considered more politically, economically and
    socially empowered than Turkish women.

    Then there is foreign policy. Take Turkey’s status as a NATO ally of
    the United States: Ankara’s rapprochement with Tehran has gone so far
    since 2002 that it is doubtful whether Turkey would side with the
    United States in dealing with the issue of a nuclear Iran. In
    December, Erdogan told a Washington crowd that “countries that oppose
    Iran’s nuclear weapons should themselves not have nuclear weapons.”

    The AKP’s commitment to U.S. positions is even weaker on other
    issues, including Hamas. During the recent Israeli operations in
    Gaza, Erdogan questioned the validity of Israel’s U.N. seat while
    saying that he wants to represent Hamas on international platforms.
    Three days before moderate Arab allies of Washington, including
    Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, gathered on Jan. 19 in Kuwait to
    discuss an end to the Gaza conflict, Erdogan’s officials met with
    Iran, Syria and Sudan in Qatar, effectively upstaging the moderates.
    Amazingly, Turkey is now taking a harder line on the Arab-Israeli
    conflict than even Saudi Arabia.

    For years, Turkey has had normal relations with Israel, including
    strong military, tourist, and cultural and commercial ties. The Turks
    did not emphasize religion or ideology in their relationship with the
    Jewish state, so Israelis felt comfortable visiting, doing business
    and vacationing in Turkey. But Erdogan’s recent anti-Israeli
    statements — he even suggested that God would punish Israel — have
    made normal relations a thing of the past. On Jan. 4, 200,000 Turks
    turned out in freezing rain in Istanbul to wish death to Israel; on
    Jan. 7, an Israeli girls’ volleyball team was attacked by a Turkish
    audience chanting, “Muslim policemen, bring us the Jews, so we can
    slaughter them.”

    Emerging anti-Semitism also challenges Turkey’s special status. Anti-
    Semitism is not hard-wired into Turkish society — rather its seeds
    are being spread by the political leadership. Erdogan has pumped up
    such sentiments by suggesting Jewish culpability for the conflict in
    Gaza and alleging that Jewish-controlled media outlets were
    misrepresenting the facts. Moreover, on Jan. 6, while demanding
    remorse for Israel’s Gaza operations, Erdogan said to Turkish
    Jews, “Did we not accept you in the Ottoman Empire?” Turkey’s tiny,
    well-integrated Jewish community is being threatened: Jewish
    businesses are being boycotted, and instances of violence have been
    reported. These are shameful developments in a land that has provided
    a home for Jews since 1492, when the Ottomans opened their arms to
    Jewish people fleeing the Spanish Inquisition. The Ottoman sultans
    must be spinning in their graves.

    The erosion of Turkey’s liberalism under the AKP is alienating Turkey
    from the West. If Turkish foreign policy is based on solidarity with
    Islamist regimes or causes, Ankara cannot hope to be considered a
    serious NATO ally. Likewise, if the AKP discriminates against women,
    forgoes normal relations with Israel, curbs media freedoms or loses
    interest in joining Europe, it will hardly endear itself to the
    United States. And if Erdogan’s AKP keeps serving a menu of
    illiberalism at home and religion in foreign policy, Turkey will no
    longer be special — and that would be unfortunate.

    Soner Cagaptay is a senior fellow and director of the Turkish
    Research Program at The Washington Institute, and author of Islam
    Secularism and Nationalism in Modern Turkey: Who Is a Turk?

  • Turkish Scholar Exposes Ankara’s Vain Attempt to Split Armenia from Diaspora

    Turkish Scholar Exposes Ankara’s Vain Attempt to Split Armenia from Diaspora

    ALLEGED SCHOLAR TANER AKCAM -AND HIS VIEWS

    AN ANALISIS BY HARUT SASSONIAN

    From: Harut Sassounian [mailto:sassoun@pacbell.net]
    Sent: Monday, February 02, 2009 6:54 PM

    Turkish Scholar Exposes Ankara’s Vain

    Attempt to Split Armenia from Diaspora

    By Harut Sassounian

    Publisher, The California Courier

    In their persistent efforts to distort the facts of the Armenian Genocide, Turkish denialists resort to all sorts of tricks. Their latest scheme is trying to drive a wedge between Armenia and the Diaspora by claiming that authorities in Yerevan are all too willing to forget about the Genocide and reconcile with Turks, were it not for the “sinister influence” of Diaspora Armenians who constantly undermine all attempts at reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey.

    Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, during a press conference in Ankara last week, claimed that “the Armenian Diaspora is plotting. We can see very clearly and sharply that their efforts are aimed at utilizing [the Armenian Genocide issue]. This is so obvious. But I also see that the current administration in Armenia doesn’t take part in this.”

    Significantly, it was Turkish scholar Taner Akcam who exposed the false arguments of all those who share Prime Minister Erdogan’s false notion that Armenia and the Diaspora are split on the issue of recognition of the Armenian Genocide. In a recent issue of the Turkish newspaper Taraf, Prof. Akcam wrote a lengthy analysis of Turkish misperceptions and misrepresentations on this issue. He argued against the view that “good neighbor” Armenia and the “bad” Diaspora have opposing views on the Armenian Genocide. Prof. Akcam correctly stated that Armenians everywhere agree that what occurred in 1915 was genocide and feel that it needs to be acknowledged by Turkey. He noted, however, that there are differences among Armenians (regardless of where they live) about the consequences of such an acknowledgement.

    Prof. Akcam dismissed the Turkish claim that “the Armenian state has not been very insistent on the subject of ‘recognition of the Genocide.’” Most Turkish analysts wrongly allege, according to Akcam, that Armenia is a very “good” neighbor to Turkey and that it reflects its “goodness” by “refraining from use of the word ‘Genocide’ and by not demanding ‘recognition’” during the course of Pres. Gul’s visit to Armenia last September. Turkish analysts further claim that “the Armenian state is seriously in the grip of and under the influence of the ‘bad’ diaspora.” They conclude that “in order to relieve Turkish-Armenian tension, ‘our good neighbor Armenia’ must be saved from the ‘bad’ diaspora.”

    According to Prof. Akcam, Turkish analysts falsely claim that “the biggest reason why Armenia has fallen under the influence of the ‘bad’ diaspora” is “poorly conceived Turkish policies. As a result, in order to save Armenia from the diaspora, Turkey must relinquish its bad policies and foster ‘good’ relations with Armenia. Consequently, Armenia will be able to distance itself from the bad policies of the diaspora, policies like ‘insisting on recognition of genocide.’”

    Prof. Akcam categorically refuted those allegations by stating that “when it comes to acknowledging the genocide, Armenia and the diaspora are on the same page. It is improper to draw a distinction between the sides on an axis of ‘those who insist on recognition and those who do not.’ It needs to be emphasized right here, right now, that Armenians everywhere agree that what occurred in 1915 was genocide and they feel that it needs to be acknowledged by Turkey.”

    Prof. Akcam then acknowledged that there may be legitimate differences among Armenians, regardless of whether they live in Armenia or the Diaspora, on such complex subjects as “what does it mean to recognize the genocide?” and “on the issue of addressing an historical injustice, what steps Turkey might take that will be considered sufficient?”

    Prof. Akcam then wondered which option Turkey should pursue — the Japanese or German model — in confronting its history? The Japanese model, he explained, would entail a “half-hearted expression” of apology. The German model, on the other hand, constitutes “acceptance of all consequences that arise from that acknowledgement, including providing reparations if necessary, would be required. To follow in Germany’s footsteps, Turkey would have to identify the events of 1915 as genocide and make serious effort to compensate all who were injured by those events both emotionally and materially.” He thus raised the serious issue of bringing “restorative justice” to the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

    It is high time that Turkish denialists face squarely the brutal history of their nation and focus their attention on making amends to heal the wounds of the past rather than seeking to blame the descendants of the victims of the Armenian Genocide, be they in Armenia or the Diaspora!

  • OBAMA and Armenian Issue: Moving Forward

    OBAMA and Armenian Issue: Moving Forward

    The following article by Bruce Fein, was published in The Journal of
    Turkish Weekly on January 27, 2009.

    Armenian Issue: Moving Forward

    During the Senate confirmation hearings of the newly confirmed
    Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senator Robert Menendez (D. N.J.)
    lobbied the Obama administration to characterize the tragic events of
    World War I as a “universally recognized” Armenian “genocide”.  That
    official verdict was said necessary to “move forward.” The Secretary
    of State demurred on the characterization question, but concurred with
    the idea of moving beyond the contentious status quo.

    Moving forward, however, requires recognition of facts, not fiction:
    that the Armenian “genocide” is disputed by reputable scholars and
    historians; that politicians are ill-equipped to deliver “genocide”
    verdicts on matters light years beyond their ken; that Ottoman Muslims
    also suffered horribly during WWI at the hands of Armenians fighting
    as armed belligerents; and, that voicing sympathy for Armenian
    suffering while ignoring the suffering of those whom Armenians
    slaughtered and terrorized would reflect the Christian bigotry of
    yesteryear.

    The Armenian “genocide” is hotly disputed within the universe of
    genuine Middle East scholars versed in the Ottoman Empire, the
    circumstances of World War I, and otherwise.  An inexhaustive list of
    doubters would include:  famed Middle East expert Bernard Lewis of
    Princeton University, the late Stanford Shaw of U.C.L.A., Guenter Lewy
    of the University of Massachusetts, Justin McCarthy of the University
    of Louisville, Norman Itzkowitz of Princeton University, Brian G.
    Williams of the University of Massachusetts, David Fromkin of Boston
    University, Avigdor Levy of Brandeis University, Michael M. Gunter of
    Tennessee Tech, Pierre Oberling of Hunter College, the late Roderic
    Davison of George Washington University, Michael Radu of Foreign
    Policy Research Institute,  and military historian Edward J. Erickson.
    Outside of the United States even more scholars have endorsed a
    contra-genocide analysis of the history of the Ottoman Armenians,
    among them Gilles Veinstein of the College de France, Stefano
    Trinchese of the University of Chieti, Augusto Sinagra of the
    University of Romae-Sapienza, Norman Stone of Bilkent University, and
    the historian Andrew Mango of the University of London.  In addition
    to these and other scholars, the United Nations, Great Britain, and
    Sweden have refused to endorse the “genocide” label.

    Politicians, including Members of Congress or the President, are
    ill-suited to decide the issue pivoting on century-old happenings that
    sharply divide experts.  They have neither the time nor inclination to
    undertake intellectual labors commensurate with the importance of a
    “genocide” charge.  And they do not sit like members of a jury to
    listen to both sides present their respective cases.  Senator Menendez
    exemplifies why politicians should shy from deciding ancient
    historical controversies.  He rendered judgment without examining all
    the credible evidence and analyses.

    Moving forward on the “genocide” question requires placing the
    decision with an international commission of impartial experts with
    access to all relevant archives.  The most important archives that
    remain closed belong to Armenian organizations.  Turkey’s Prime
    Minister has agreed to the international commission solution to the
    Armenian “genocide” issue.

    Moving forward further requires reciprocal apologies by both Turks and
    Armenians for the mutual devastation wrought upon each other.  What is
    customarily ignored are World War I’s harrowing Ottoman Muslim deaths
    effectuated by numerous bloody Armenian revolts; raids and slaughters
    by Armenian extremist revolutionaries; treasonous defections in the
    hundreds of thousands to fight for invading Russian and French armies;
    and, austere wartime conditions that occasioned starvation, disease,
    epidemics, and deaths from acute shortages of medical personnel and
    medicine.  According to research reports, nearly 524,000 Ottoman
    Muslims perished from the actions of Armenian revolutionaries during
    the war.

    Armenians have never acknowledged any culpability for their side’s
    atrocities of World War I. Instead, they apotheosize to this day those
    Armenians who murdered scores of Turkish diplomats in the 1970’s and
    1980’s.

    William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” descried the bigoted
    hierarchy of human suffering that would be reflected by expressing
    moral outrage over historical Armenian suffering or killings while
    remaining silent over the counterpart suffering and deaths of Ottoman
    Muslims or Turks. To paraphrase from an immortalized passage:  “Hath
    not a Turk eyes?  Hath not a Turk hands, organs, dimensions, senses,
    affections, passions?  fed with the same food, hurt with the same
    weapons, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same
    winter and summer, as a Christian is?  If you prick a Turk, does he
    not bleed?  If you tickle a Turk, does he not laugh?  If you poison a
    Turk, does he not die?”

    In sum, to honor her pledge to move forward on the Armenian “genocide”
    question, Secretary Clinton should promote the ideas of an
    international commission of experts and reciprocal apologies.  It is
    also the best formula for Turkish-Armenian reconciliation.

  • “Genocide Traders and Truth”. Şükrü S. Aya’s Speach at London Conference

    “Genocide Traders and Truth”. Şükrü S. Aya’s Speach at London Conference

    1. Guest Speakers
    2. About FTA UK
    3. LSE Conference Programme
    4. Biographies
    5. Opening Speech by FTA UK
    6. An Introduction By Prof. Belma Baskett
    7. Armenian Question 1878-1918:On The Need For A Counter-Narrative By Jeremy Salt
    8. Globalization? Yes, But Of Ethics, First! By Sukru Server Aya
    9. Way Forward By Prof Belma Baskett

    Globalization? Yes, But Of Ethics, First! By Sukru Server Aya, London, 30.01.2009
    Esteemed Ladies and Gentlemen,
    I thank you for sparing this bracket of your lifetime for sharing mutual sentiments and good wishes, which brought us all here.
    I thank the Federation of Turkish Associations, for inviting and giving me this chance to offer you my opinions on a few world affairs, just before I end my life career!
    Since I claim, or at least try to be fair and truthful, permit me to make some confessions to you as one might do, to a priest in the repentance booth.
    Gentlemen, I am no speaker or preacher, nor a scholar or one with stiff-neck collar!
    I have never thought I had any authority to deliver sermons, like many politicians, teachers or clergy who frequently do. I have visited this great country in the past 50 years maybe more than 50 times, since I used to sell workshop equipment and represented or distributed several British-made goods in Turkey. I did not try to use the British accent. I might have sounded even more awkward which would not help in the USA, a country I have been visiting even more frequently. I bear no resemblance to the other speaker, Dr. Jeremy Salt, reputed in several publications as the “scholar par excellence”. Well, then you wonder why I am here and what my message is.
    Dear guests, I am just a good listener and a fair reader, interested in learning and defending the TRUTH like most of you! Just imagine that I was sitting next to you, but that suddenly I decided to change places for a short while to address the audience!
    We are here to remember the crimes against the Turkish diplomats, killed by primitive instincts of taking REVENGE on innocent persons for something that has not even been proven that it truly happened! Yet, those who do not care to learn the truth may be instrumental to serve the goals of some “barons of criminality”!
    As you probably know, during the period of say 1973 – 1985, Turks and their surroundings were subjected to some 240 acts of terrorism, in which 70 persons were killed and over 500 were wounded! 105 persons were taken hostage and 12 of them were murdered in cold blood. Death toll for Turks only was over 40 diplomats or their relatives. These assassinations were committed by so-called “idealist” Armenian youngsters, who were trained at Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, to kill “innocent people” on some illogical excuses, very much like the recent acts of fanatic terrorism in Britain, USA, Spain, Turkey, India, Pakistan and elsewhere. These acts may not have any relationship to the claimed justifications! Still, innocent persons are killed en masse, by villains who are made to believe that “they serve a sacred heroic purpose”! Such criminals believe that they will be rewarded in heaven, but usually with a cash down payment incentive in this world. Last year, a much-liked Armenian newspaper owner, was killed by a fanatic Turkish youngster, and although hundreds of thousands Turks protested this murder marching on streets in Istanbul, the world now speaks only of this one murder of Mr. Dink, and does not remember a thing about the forgotten 240 acts of terror and more than 70 deaths! There is a summary list of ten pages of these acts, which you can ask at the exit, if you want to know all them all!
    Well, we can mourn and hold religious ceremonies, offering prayers to the unknown for the perished souls, but truly relieving our own souls from the responsibility of the present bestiality still existing within the brains of “traders of grudge and hatred”. This profitable trade gives them a position of superiority and necessity within the community, which shares the same knowledge and objectives.
    “This is a picture of boys and girls aged 11-12 years in an elementary school in Armenia dressed in soldier uniforms, taught how to kill and fill and use weapons! “
    Just like one of you, I have noticed that many scholars are unfair, superficial and biased in their works, and hence bear serious responsibility for misguiding the public, by using selective sources or bluntly distorting or even falsifying realities!
    I would rather forgive a “pickpocket” who takes some cash from my pocket, rather than a scholar who takes my “conscience and dedication to honesty” in this world.
    I do not wish to take an easy refuge in some words of consolation, or prayers or empty wishes that go nowhere, to remember the innocent victims of grudge!
    I wrote a book! In fact, I compiled a book, which has taken me some four years, scanning more than 30.000 pages. I have left out the rich Turkish archival documentation and some western historians or scholars, to name but a few like Andrew Mango, Justin McCarthy, Samuel Weems, Bernard Lewis, Stanford Shaw and others whom the Armenian Diaspora easily tags as “denialist” and immediately disqualifies all the authentic information and documentation submitted by these scholars! Well, as a “truth-seeking reader”, I went the opposite way and studied the evidence and comments written by anti-Turkish or neutral sources. These sources,
    presented a multitude of “bragging, boasting and confessing treason in words of braveries” from the first-hand sources and highest authorities. Hence, the contents of my book, “The Genocide of Truth”, cannot be refuted by any person or authority. The sources are all in there in black and white from official documents and exhibit the dirt of the backstage.
    The great Turkish philosopher Mevlana says in one of his poems: Yesterday is gone my dear with all that was said; let us have something new and fresh for today,
    I wish to add my own sentence saying, let us think of what can we do for a better tomorrow! I am here to share my sentiments and my thoughts with you. If I am wrong, please correct me so that I will not err. If I am right, please share and support my compassion.
    A prominent Armenian book writer living in Canada, with whom I enjoy a distant e-mail friendship [despite our minor differences], in one of his very last essays addressing diaspora, has quoted too many wise remarks, and I wish to share just a very few of them with you, as evidence that people so much away from each other, can embrace the same values of honesty and frankness:
    * Explaining things to someone who has no desire to understand, is like trying to reason with the unreasonable.
    * After they silence dissenters, brainwash children, and surround themselves with yes-men, tyrants assume God and the silent majority, to be on their side.
    * To most of them and especially our Turcocentric columnists, the freedom to write about massacres in the Ottoman Empire is the Alpha and Omega of the free speech. And speaking of lawyers: a friend of mine, who happens to be a critic of the regime, tells me he is not allowed to enter Armenia, and no lawyers wants to take his case!
    * At the turn of the last century, the Great Powers of the West were on our side and against our enemies. But no one ever bothered to ask them if they would be willing to sacrifice the life of a single soldier to save a hundred, a thousand or even a million Armenian lives. Had they asked, they would have been surprised at the answer!
    * Nobody deserves to be told the truth, because nobody is equal to the challenge of facing reality. This is why at all times and everywhere propagandists have been more prosperous, popular and powerful thinkers, who more often than have not been treated like common criminals!
    To support this correct observation, you may be stunned to watch a recent Half An Hour Documentary Video on the Turkish Armenians blogsite, in which American diplomats and a correspondent, take a close look to the Palestine-Israel conflict and give evidences of the biased attitude of the newspapers and TV media, in which the losses of the Palestinians are merely mentioned as minimal when they are gigantic and the Jewish losses are aggrandized hundred-fold distorting the realities to shameful or truly criminal limits! For those interested there is another 1 hour NBC documentary video, about a prominent Armenian businessman named Murat Topalian, who was a frequent visitor of the White House and was sitting almost next to President Clinton. He was the person who had trained all the ASALA assassins, and had saved all the arms, dynamites etc. used, which were discovered in a depot by accident, ready to explode due to crystallization over time. He was found guilty of “only storing dangerous weapons”, was sentenced to about 3 years imprisonment but was released after one year and now he still strolls around as a true hero!
    What I am trying to convey to you esteemed guests are not my own revelations. They are thoughts inspired by others well ahead of me, like the following examples:
    “We have been told that the tall tales of the Bible (or Genocide) are “revealed truth”. What we need now, is to have that “revealed truth” revealed, for as yet it never has been. “
    (Preface, Deceptions and Myths of the Bible, Lloyd M. Graham)
    ” It seems even more clear to me that higher levels of civilization must depend even more heavily on conscientious respect for the importance of honesty and clarity in determining what the facts are “. ON TRUTH by Henry. G. Frankfurt
    Now, let me show you again that I have made no discoveries, other than seeing some prophecies come true, about a century later. The following lines are from a news article in the American daily “Reno Evening Gazette” of Oct. 14, 1915.
    “Having imposed a committee of well meaning but admittedly prejudiced American Missionaries, the same agencies that have been engaging in reporting Armenian outrages which never had been committed are now trying to mislead Christian charity in America and Switzerland into furnishing funds for the relief of the supposed victims of the unspeakable Turk.
    It would not matter, so far as the country at large is concerned, but unfortunately there is danger that a self-sufficient person like President Wilson will accept these stories of atrocities as truth, with no further evidence than the statements of Armenians who are directly interested in raising money for the support of themselves. Professional beggars who have bled their own countrymen for years are now trying to induce kindly Americans to support them, not caring whether United States would or should not be embroiled with Turkey and through Turkey with Germany. Ambassador Morgenthau appears to have fallen a ready victim to the smooth rascals that, by apocryphal tales of outrages, have procured contributions from their Armenian countrymen abroad and in this country and have lived in luxury on the proceeds for the last 30 years.
    The Ambassador seriously notified the state department that the Turks had slaughtered the “majority of the Armenians of Asia Minor”. This “majority” now turns out to be 32.000 known to be hostile to Turkey and therefore, dispossessed of their homes in Erzerum and Zeitun and interned in a district where they could be watched by Turkish troops – not killed, nor even dying. The English have done no more with German residents and even with English subjects of German birth and the Germans have done the same with English residents of the German states.
    If this country, therefore, does not want to appear foolish before the whole world, it will refuse to be duped by impossible tales and will let the Armenians severely alone. “
    My reaction today to the writer of these clever observations trying to warn the public a century ago would be:
    “I have sensed that danger of becoming foolish or getting duped in the words of that correspondent and compiled a book squeezed into 700 pages, throwing out almost tenfold similar reference, because of shortage of space. I am trying to warn “decent, fair persons”(regardless of their nationality, race or ethnicity) of the high perils of the distance covered by such charlatans in the past century. These very ingenious charlatans are strong enough to buy or squeeze the throats of many politicians, public officials, writers, scholars, and all institutions that would otherwise resist such an extremity of bigotry, short of every element of logical justification.”
    I have purposely avoided the bloody acts or actual “manure showers” of this episode presenting impossible fabrications as “factual news”. In 1915, during the process of the Armenian relocation, an American paper had carried the headline: “10.000 drowned in one day at Trabzon”. The world believed this. No one would tell them that the port of Trabzon was under blockade, it was impossible even to have a thousand persons in the few small boats then available, and that there were no floating corpses found or reported by the navy, and there are no sharks in the Black Sea to feast on 10.000 bodies!
    Last month, a Turkish lady married to an Englishman and living in the USA, was complaining about a certain TV channel (Channel 21 in the USA) propagating the Armenian Genocide and presenting as evidence a letter written by a Yeniceri (Janissary) soldier to his mother in which he apparently was boasting that we Turks massacred 20.000 Armenians and Jews and fed them to dogs. Yes, esteemed guests, this is the type and scope of the slander freely publicized in the USA to escalate antagonism against the Turks! Allow me to clarify that, there were no Yeniceri soldiers left in the Turkish army because they had long been dissolved back in the early 1820s; that Jews were not subjected to any relocation, but that the few thousands living in the Caucasus were totally scraped by the Armenian volunteers. Also, where can you find a few hundred thousand dogs, to feed them 20.000 bodies?
    Were they selling “canned dog food” 150 years ago in pet shops?
    However, frenzied people do not stop to doubt or filter such shocking reports through their simple logic! So, you see how easy is to float lies and make people believe in them! The worse is that they are not ashamed or penalized for such lack of ethics!
    Well, in the biblical words of Mathew: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves”!
    Dear guests! Written facts of several irrefutable sources show that the good benevolent Christians who donated large amounts of money and put even their wedding rings in the alms boxes of nearly all churches in Great Britain and the USA, and chanting songs such as “Forward Christian Soldiers”, were cheated for the large portion of their donations, truly intended for the needy ones! While only a small portion of the collections were spent for benevolent purposes, the great segment was used to buy arms, ammunition, medical supplies for war and even three airplanes! Large amounts of the collected money or food to be distributed were embezzled and some were feasting on wine and girls and women of the town, where thousands were dying of hunger on the same streets. Through the 26-month rule of the Dashnakist Armenian Republic, between May 1918 and November 1920, the Armenian population in Armenia was reduced from about 1 million to about 800.000 and during the same period, the larger Moslem population in the area was reduced to less than one quarter.
    The young Armenian Republic was founded in May 1918, as a “protectorate of the Ottoman Empire” and the delegation they sent in August to Istanbul to thank the Ottoman Sultan was received in early September with reciprocal prayers and gestures of gratitude. Were there any complaints of any atrocities at that time? No; because it was the Ottomans who had forgiven the Armenians for the atrocities committed by the Armenian gangs themselves! Nevertheless, two months later the Ottoman Empire surrendered on Oct. 30, 1918, and only a month later Armenia declared independence cutting off the “protection” ties of the Ottomans, which was no longer needed and started a new war of land grabbing. The same delegation, which had kissed the Sultan’s hand, was in Paris in February 1919, boasting of all their belligerent sacrifices for Russians, British and French and demanding half of Eastern Turkey from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and most remarkably, “cleaned of the non-Christian elements” which formed 85% of the living population in the area!
    In 1914, before the war started, the total Armenian population within the Ottoman Empire was 1.3 or at most 1.5 million! If 1.5 million people were killed during the relocation process in mid 1915, who was left to fill up this huge land? Were the dead reincarnated? Some prime Armenian sources (Prime Minister Katchaznuni, Soviet historian Lalaian) officially claim that they had 1 million living in 1918 but by 1921 one fifth died of starvation under their rule! Other sources, (such as US Relief Report) give even higher figures of 1.2 or 1.4 million living in early 1922! Do these figures make any mathematical sense? Alternatively, is it not that the “official authorities” are openly lying, gigantically distorting, or exaggerating? The figures are all there in official state documents that no one can deny!
    The LIE is just TOO BIG! So big, that cannot FIT the simplest LOGIC!
    Gentlemen, I wish to reassure you that some of my best friends happen to be of Armenian ethnicity, and I am proud of having such friends, not because of their ethnicity but their character and humane values we equally treasure and share!
    I also wish to add that the greatest contribution to the discoveries behind this international money swindling by the “merry go round” operation, comes from the blogsite founded by three Armenians from Turkey living respectively in U.K., Australia, Canada and Argentina. They have a treasury of authentic original documents in their free E-book library that is available to every one going into that page, as well as several video tapes, almost 3.000 articles (maybe some 30 – 40.000 pages) they have posted in the past three years. There are also other French, Dutch, American people in search of the TRUTH and I hope that the British media and public will start realizing that they “could have been cheated and used” and that “being a Christian” is no proof or insurance policy of innocence.
    The whole world is practicing the calamities brought on by idealistic principles such as “globalization of free trade”, which in the true sense is the “exploitation of the poor ones by the richer and cleverer ones”. Well, the “richness of the capital” had no limits and it went beyond the limits of “decency, respect for others’ rights and justice”.
    Much like some Armenian ring leaders embezzling their own treasury and causing deaths of their countrymen in the past, nowadays several CEO’s have embezzled their own corporations or in fact the savings of the poor ones who trusted the companies and bought shares on the stock market. Given such experiences, should we honestly defend, “free trade without any rules or ethics” ?
    The act of stealing is usually penalized for the little ones, trying to make an easier living to survive, but when it comes to gigantic corporations with millions of dollars, private airplanes and companies of lawyers to defend the rights of the thieves, they get away with it, saying “business is business” meaning that “stealing is part of it”.
    Criminality, crookedness and similar social crimes are not limited to certain “races, nationalities, faiths”. A needy Armenian woman, working illegally in Turkey had given a simple reply when she was asked: “There can be no good or bad nation! There are only good and bad persons !”
    Ladies and gentlemen, I think that what the world really needs as the top priority is not “free trade but globalization of ethical and humane values” everywhere, so that we can all respect, trust each other regardless of our ethnicity and penalize those who cheat humankind by incredible systems of swindling, lotteries, etc.
    How would you feel if you were to be in a firing squad executing a person said to be guilty but without knowing if he was truly guilty or deserved such a punishment? Would your being one of the many persons who pulled the trigger, make you relaxed because it was not “your own action”, but “you simply shared it” with others? Dear guests, if you intentionally kill a person all by yourself or as one in the mob, your responsibility of guilt under law, do not change!
    Luckily, the Armenian Diaspora do not always succeed in their distortions and stumble now and then, but the Turkish authorities fail to circulate such fiascos. Those who click on here may read a decision of European Court Of Justice in German, relative to a court case opened by Armenian Diaspora in France in which they demanded that Turkey should first accept the Genocide crime, before any membership status in the European Union can be granted. This request was made in 1999 with reference to a decision taken by the European Parliament on July 20, 1987 numbered C-190. However, Section 1 of the European Court of Justice rejected the court case on December 17, 2003 under ref.-346/03. The Armenian community objected to this decision and reapplied to the same court for “correction of the decision”.
    Section 4 of the same Court too rejected this application on the date of April 17, 2004 under ref. C-18/04. Applicants were sentenced to pay Euro 30.000 expenses of the court. In principle, the Court resolved, “there can be no punishment, without a law enforced at time of action and that the European Parliament is a Political Assembly and has no authority to take or advise any judicial decision. This court case aimed condemnation of the Republic of Turkey for an unproven guilt or crime, but above and more important than all, restitution of indemnity for the families of the survivors!
    In an article posted in the “TurkishArmenians” under no. 2644, I ridiculed this extravagance by naming my article “Free Consolation, versus Frail Compensation” and printed the photocopy of the letter of agreement exchanged between Republic of Turkey and USA. Under letter dated Sept. 8, 1937, no. 168, the sum and interests of all indemnities totaled to only about $ 900.000. This was paid in installments in full settlement of the benefits of all of the claimants, which were the United States and all her citizens. In other words, the Armenian Diaspora had applied to the European Court of Justice “for an indemnity” that was not possible to make any demand at least for all Armenian survivors of USA nationality. There was no Turkish judge or any involvement in this court case, but the judges were smart enough not to swallow this usual “Armenian bait with a hook for money reward”! This is only one of the many card tricks!
    Dear Sirs and Ladies, as you are probably evidencing, in all my life I have sincerely tried to be just and straight. I resisted to be pulled by my neck by some opportunists or scoundrels. I am not sure how much I succeeded, but in this particular case, I resent this hypocrisy and try to fight my way all alone! Can I succeed? That may be a remote possibility, but more important is to side with and defend the TRUTH! Was I not cheated or mistaken? Of course I was! Yet, I think until the contrary is proven on this allegation, I could see the overall TRUTH clear and loud.
    After all, when we are all dead, what is it we really leave behind? Wealth or a reputation as “a good person”, who always stood for justice and correctness?
    I thank you for your patience and salute, all who will start doubting many accepted facts (without any physical proof) and who may join the honorable team of TRUTH SEEKERS and defending decency under all circumstances. I can live naked without robes! However, I do not want to be strip teased off my honor and respect, nor deal with charlatans or those ravenous wolves warned in the Bible.
    A couple of days ago, when this speech was completed and printed, in one of the many e-mails I received, there was a video in three sections each of thirty minutes of a conference delivered on August 2006 in USA at the “Veterans for Peace National Convention”. The speaker was Mr. John Perkins, author of the book “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”. I am giving the links of this unique evaluation or confession of an economic hit man, giving the backside story of how “the new USA Empire without an Emperor” establishes the global dominance by tactics of threat, bribing, and domestic coups or outside military force! I prepared the present speech on the basis of my own evaluations. It becomes peanuts the moment you start watching the videos:
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    You then realize that this globe, all of a sudden has shrunk into less than a continent or practically ONE country common to all, where the same laws and ethical rules must prevail for the continuation of humanity and its best values, which are nowadays abused by huge corporations.
    Now, before closing, I imagine some of you may ask why I made no clear reference to the GENOCIDE allegations, and what I think about them. I have written an essay “Genocide Lies, Need No Archives” consisting of three parts: I – II – III. You can have a complimentary printed copy for your reading pleasure and going deeper into the three documents exhibited in there. If you surf into the WEB site of Turkish Armenians, you can download my book, “The Genocide of Truth”, you can download and make prints of several authentic documents disclosing the scope of misinformation used by swindlers! Yes, Sir, they are all there waiting for you!
    I have written over 145 articles in the past three years, defending truths only! It may take you as long, several years to learn the truth and JOIN THE TRUTH DEFENDERS.
    I salute and ask you most cordially to volunteer for the “protection of humane ethics and values” and mobilize our personal intelligence, and self-respect instead of weapons!
    Sukru Server Aya

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    Turkish forum ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER  Mr. S.S.Aya’s Biography

    Sükrü Server Aya: Born in 1930, he has been living in Istanbul since 1939. He is a graduate of the reputed Robert College founded in 1863 by Protestant Missionaries, now Bogazici University. After two years in engineering school, he had to quit and work abroad to support his family, he returned after two years of work with a Dutch and Swiss Company, and graduated in 1953 with a BA in Literature instead of Mechanical Engineering. By profession, he was an importer-distributor of engine rebuilding machinery and shop equipment and has been a globetrotter on business and pleasure visiting nearly all industrial countries. He had and has many friends of Armenian ethnicity and after 1985, being a fair history reader, started to read on the Turkish – Armenian history, in which his graduating school was instrumental in the past. In 2004, after a biased article was published in National Geographic Magazine, he started to put together various excerpts from mainly anti-Turkish English readings. His book “The Genocide of Truth” was presented in Istanbul in April 2008 as a publication of Istanbul Commerce University and has been distributed for free, mostly overseas. A shortened Turkish version of the same book was just presented in Istanbul in mid January 2009 under the title “Genocide Traders and Truth”.


  • Position of the European Armenian Federation

    Position of the European Armenian Federation

    ARMENIANS STILL DEMAND RECOGNITION AND REPARATION OF THEIR GENOCIDE BY TURKEY

    The European Armenian Federation has carefully followed recent debates in Turkey regarding the Armenian Genocide.

    We have noted the development of a new campaign in Turkey by which the Armenian people would need appeasement provided by certain strata of Turkish society, thereby solving the Armenian question without causing too much damage to Turkey.

    While being fully receptive to genuine expressions of sympathy and outreach by Turkish individuals who choose to speak out against their own government’s policy of denial of the Armenian Genocide, we must also make clear that the cause of justice with regard to this mass crime cannot be “apologized” away by populist initiatives, however well-intentioned such actions might seem to be.

    The recently publicized “apology” campaign in Turkey is, indeed, a populist initiative, which deliberately avoids the term “genocide” and which, by so doing, intends to de-criminalize the destruction by the Ottoman Turkish government of 1,5 million Armenians, as precisely claimed one of its initiators, Mr. Baskin Oran in a Turkish newspaper (Milliyet – December 19, 2008).

    The Armenian Genocide is a crime against Humanity committed by Ottoman Turkey and recognised as such by the legislatures of a growing number of countries, especially of modern democracies, including the European Parliament. It was jointly recognized in 1915 by France, England and Russia, the world powers of the period.

    The present Turkish government – the successor state of the Ottoman Empire and the notorious beneficiary of Ottoman Turkey’s genocidal undertakings – must formally recognize this Genocide and take full responsibility for all its legal consequences under the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide instead of pursuing an aggressive policy of denial in every capital of the world: there is no other alternative for Turkey than Recognition and Reparation of the Armenian Genocide, supplemented by the Education and Prevention of new crimes that would threaten the safety of Armenians and all people living in the area.

    Armenians have inalienable rights to justice and truth within the framework of international law as clearly expressed in the Charter of the European Armenians officially adopted in October 2004.

    The Turkish civil society must also come to terms with this hard reality: What happened in Turkey during 1915 through 1923 was a full-fledged genocide which cannot be characterized in another way. Relying on euphemistic and evasive language will simply prolong Turkey’s denialist worldview and leave these burning issues unaddressed for another generation.

    The Armenian Genocide was and continues to be an undeniable crime against Humanity, which requires a political solution that cannot be reduced to civil society’s expediencies or to inconsequential dialogues between peoples.