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Poklonnaya Gora. Photo: RIA Novosti

A Presentation with Student Participation at Kadir Has University on March 17, 2010 on What happened in 1915.

Another excellent program was presented by TV Channel D, from Kadir Has
University, which started at 1:30 AM and lasted until 4:15 AM . The
speakers were Turkish forum Advisory Board Member and the  former President of the Turkish Historical Society Prof. Dr. Yusuf Halacogu and the Rector of Kadir Has University, Prof. Dr. Mustafa Aydin. The Moderater was Abbas Guclu, a columnist at Milliyet newspaper and a presenter of programs on a variety of subjects.

First, a clip was shown on the events around 1915, a journey into history,
as characterized by Abbas Guclu who emphasized that this is a very
important issue and stated that there will be messages on this subject. He
also made referrences to the US House Foreign Affairs Committee vote on
March 4 and the Swedish Parliament decision on March 11 on the Armenian
resolutions.

Yusuf Halacoglu started his talk with references to the Armenian
rebellions and revolts supported by the Russians and the French, and the
backstabbing of the Ottomans by countries who are now passing resolutions
in their Parliaments. Halacoglu questioned whether the Armenians were
getting ready for the 100th anniversary commemorations and asked when and
how these would come to an end.

Yusuf Halacoglu, in a lengthy presentation, stated that the origins of the
Armenian issue goes back to 1816 when Russia started to interfere with
internal affairs and the Missionaries began opening schools only for
minorities all over the Pttoman Empire which reached 1,244  by 1878. The
British, the French, the German and the American missionary schools
enrolled 85,000 students in 1878 who were raised with nationalistic views.
These were followed by revolts by the Greeks in 1830, the Serbians, the
Bulgarians, who were used by the imperialist powers to weaken the Ottoman
Empire .

Abbas Guclu introduced the Rector of Kadir Has University Prof. Mustafa
Aydin and asked him to comment on the international aspects of the issue.
Prof. Aydin stated that the Bulgarian uprisings were given special
attention in the British press. First the British and the French and later
the Russians tried to take the control of the Middle East followed by the
Americans. It was indicated that the first country to recognize the
Armenian genocide was Uruguay through the efforts of a small group of
Armenians in that country. There was no significant activity between 1965
and 1980. The Greek Cypriots followed recognizing the Armenian genocide in
1982, followed by other countries.

Abbas Guclu opened the floor for questions. Close to 20 students asked
varied questions, the first on the Prime Ministers threat to expel
100,000 Armenians working illegally in Turkey . The second question was on
the validity of the Toynbees Blue Book and Franz Werfels Forty Days
at Musa Dagh and why Turkey did not fight these allegations. One of the
answer was the issue was not taken seriously.

A young student asked why the Turks were not speaking directly with the
Armenians and wondered if Turks had something to hide. One of the answers
was that the history was not being taught properly in turkey. At the same
time, the West did not know much about the issue, some not knowing where
Van lake is.

Prof. Aydin emphasized that the issue was politicized and it could only be
solved by politicians. Referring to the recalling of the Turkish
Ambassador from Sweden , Prof Aydin suggested that instead of one, perhaps
five visits should be made since the Sweedish government is not supporting
the parliament decision that was passed by one vote. Prof Aydin also
stated that the Armenian resolution would not pass the US Congress since
US needs Turkey for its strategic plans and predicted that the Protocols
would not be approved.

Around 2:35 , clips of interviews with Turkish Armenians were shown and
more students asked questions. A wide summary of the program and a video
of the presentations is available on www.abbasguclu.com.tr web site.

Yuksel Oktay

====================================================

Can Atakli and Turkkaya Ataov Articles on the Armenian Issue, Tuesday, 16
March 2010.

In his daily column in Vatan newspaper, Can Atakli writes about a
discussion that he participated at the Bahcesehir University , in Istanbul
. The article begins with an advise: We should be very calm on the
Armenian Issue.

The other participants at the discussion at Bahceshir University were
prof. Dr. Ilter Turan, Prof. Ersin Kalayci, Ambassador Ozdem Sanberk
(Ret.) , Fehmi Koru, Zeynel Abidin Erdem and Burak Kuntay. In summary,
most have stated that the Turks had lost the World opinion on the Armenian
issue, which is sometimes more important then governments, which Turkey
needs to realize. Another fact agreed was that the Armenian genocide is
not a historical but a political issue and a long term plan has to be
developed to let the world know of this fact. Prof. Turan made reference
to Hrant Dinks murder which was not explained fully either. They also
talked about the Prime Ministers approach to the developments, from
recalling the Turkish Ambassador to US and cancelling his trip to the US ,
which are counterproductive.

Can Atakli also reminds the readers that the US Congress recognized
Armenian genocide on 8 April 1975 (prior to the 60th anniversary of the
alleged genocide) and on 10 September 1984 , the US Congress made
reference to 1.5 million Armenians being subject to genocide. The House
Foreign Affairs committee approved the resolution in 2005, 2006 and 2007
with a much larger margin of votes. Atakli concludes his article with a
question: What happens if the US Congress passes the Resolution? He
states that it would not be the end of the world but the image of Turkey
will be tarnished and the counter arguments of Turkey will be shelved.

The title of Prof. Turkkaya Ataovs , a member of Turkish forum advisory board, article in Cumhuriyet newspaper is:   The Decay of US Congress.

The article states that the US congress has
exhibited a tragi-comic attitude not only on the Armenian issue but on
many other issues as well. Ataov writes that the Congress has a biased and
racist view of Turkey based on lack of knowledge. It is an interesting
article which closes with an assumption by Ataove that both House speaker
Nancy Pelosi and Committee Chairman Berman have committed themselves to be
on the side of Armenians. And on Obama, Ataov states that he no longer
uses the word change and the Turkish National Assembly in Ankara may be
the last place receiving applaud.

Yuksel Oktay

Istanbul

18 March 2010

Israel based IzRus website reported that Israeli parliament (Knesset) is going to discuss Armenian genocide allegations. Reports about discussion of a resolution that recognize so called Armenian genocide in the Israeli Parliament is not confirmed by official Israel.

By Dan K. Thomasson Scripps Howard WASHINGTON — There was a time in this country when mothers regularly ordered their children to clean their plates by reminding them of the "poor starving Armenians." So thoroughly inculcated in my recollection was this admonition that when I first met a person of Armenian descent, I blurted that he couldn't be Armenian because he wasn't starving. The origin of this was of course the elimination of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians, or half of that nation's population, by the Turks in the waning years of the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1919 by massacre, death marches and starvation. It was a tragedy only exceeded in modern history by the Holocaust and the murder of 2 million Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge and it resulted in the coining of the word "genocide" to describe such a horrific event. The Republic of Turkey has refused to take any responsibility for this policy of destruction or to acknowledge that it was genocidal in nature despite the fact that history and at least 20 other nations have recognized it as such. And most Americans have little understanding of the phrase once used to remind their grandmothers and grandfathers that food and the privilege of eating it is a precious thing that many do not have. Many Armenians who survived the devastation made it to America and became among this nation's most prosperous and productive citizens. The noted author William Saroyan and the San Francisco, financier, philanthropist and restaurateur George Mardikian, whose biography, "The Song of America," became a paean to his adopted country and a bible of inspiration to tens and thousands of immigrants, are among them. So the resistance of the Turkish government to official recognition of what the rest of the world knows is about to get a jolt from the American descendents of those who expired nearly 100 years ago. It will be in the form of a major new museum smack dab in the middle of Washington in one of the most traveled corridors in the nation's capitol, 14th Street just above Pennsylvania Avenue where millions of American tourists will be tastefully but firmly educated about man's inhumanity to man. About a half mile further down the street is the Holocaust Museum where millions have learned those lessons through the suffering of the world's Jews at the hands of Nazi Germany. The Armenian Genocide Museum of America will be established in an imposing limestone building that once housed the National Bank of Washington operated by the United Mine Workers of America. The building was erected in 1922, which coincidentally fits the time frame of the events it will memorialize. It has been vacant for a number of years. A modern "tower" addition will be added without disturbing the architectural integrity of the old building. Money and oversight of the project are under the guidance of a committee of distinguished Armenian Americans and directed by Dr. Rouben Adalian of the Armenian National Institute. A date for the restoration and opening is still a ways off. Those who may think this will be just another memorial and museum in a city where there are already too many are missing the point. Coupled in proximity with the Holocaust Memorial and in a location so close to the White House and Capitol Hill, it will be one of the more significant punctuations to the ideal of human rights for which this country always has stood if not always adhered to in its own dealings with minorities. As our mothers knew, it is often necessary to remind us that there are those less fortunate than we are and that survival is tenuous, requiring perseverance reached only by digging deep into the spirit and recognizing the lessons of sacrifice and refusing to forget the tragedies of the past. That is pretty heavy stuff, but my mother and millions of others, even in those harshest days of the Great Depression, distilled it into two words, "starving Armenians," that instantly reminded us of our good fortune and warned us not to waste it. Perhaps if the rest of the world had paid attention to the implications of Armenia, later genocides would not have occurred. It's time the Turks owned up. E-mail Dan K. Thomasson, former editor of the Scripps Howard News Service, at [email protected].

Comments

Manxman wrote on Mar 27, 2010 8:46 AM:

" Can you imagine if back in the days of West Germany during the height of the cold war, the United States refrained form condemning the Holocaust for fear of upsetting or offending a strategic NATO ally? Imagine if European Jewry were told that they need to sit down with the Neo-Nazi Germans and discuss what really happened during 1938-45. Adding that more Germans died during World War II than European Jewry. Or suppose that the US State Department suggests that the State of Israel should discuss the events surrounding 1938-45 with the likes of David Irving (notorious Holocaust denier) and sort things out. The International Association of Genocide Scholars and seven former presidents of the IAGS have unanimously concluded the verdict of genocide. The IAGS has repeatedly called on the Turkish state to acknowledge its crime of Genocide. Jurist Raphael Lemkin, a lawyer of Polish-Jewish descent, and Holocaust survivor coined the word genocide specifically to describe the destruction of Armenians and the barbarity that befell upon them at the hands of the Turkish State. Prior to coining the word genocide, prime minister Winston Churchill and world leaders referred to the destruction of Armenians as holocaust. Genocide is not an issue that concerns only Armenians, Jews, and others; Genocide is a human rights issue that concerns everyone. Denial is not just the simple negation of an act; it is much more the consequent continuation of the very act itself. Genocide should not only physically destroy a community; it should likewise dictate the prerogative of interpretation in regard to history, culture, territory and memory, as the victims Armenians never existed. The Turkish have not only murdered humans, destroyed an ancient culture and civilization, and rewritten history, but the Turkish continue to legitimize the act as well as the racist ideology that led to the act. Denial is the final step in the completion of mass extermination, and the first step towards the next genocide. "