Turkish Forum

Category: Turkey

  • Did Hitler model his Holocaust on the Armenian Genocide?

    Did Hitler model his Holocaust on the Armenian Genocide?

    The Holocaust and 1915 Armenian events are two different things and it dilutes the facts and confuses people to mix them together. Let me put it that way, if Hitler indeed had taken the Ottoman-Armenian events as a model, he would leave all Jews in Berlin comfortably in peace.

    1915 events broke out because armed Armenian groups in north-east were fighting for independence, and the Ottomans, afraid they cannot cope with them, as they were backed by Russia, looked for the solution in deporting them, along with the rest of Armenian civilians living in that region, ie around northeast border with Russia, to south. The purpose was to keep that land and prevent a disintegration of Ottoman Empire (or whatever left of it). I am not trying to show it as a casual thing, the results were tragic, but this is the full picture.

    Armenians in the west (including the capital, Constantinople) and the Arabic states of Ottoman empire were not deported or murdered. As an example, the population of Armenians in Istanbul at that time was 164,000, in Izmit 62,000.. Some of the most Armenian populated cities were in west. You can find my source and other details here:

    How many Armenians were living in the Ottoman Empire?

    Because you compared the Armenian events with the holocaust.. As a simple person, one thing I know about the holocaust is that the nazis hunted down one by one every jewish citizen in the countries they invaded, from Greece to Scandinavian countries, directly or indirectly (thru collaboration with local governments) and sent them to camps with the ultimate goal, to exterminate the jewish race.

    If the Ottomans wished to wipe out the all Armenian race, like Hitler did for Jews, they would probably start from those in front of their noses. But none in west were touched. (Armenians in west, especially in the capital, were the wealthiest of their people.) This is, as I said earlier, like Nazis forgot or ignored about the Jews in Berlin or Munich..

    If you are skeptical, here are some other references:

    – “The majority of the Armenians in Constantinople, the capital city, were spared deportation.” Frequently Asked Questions about the Armenian Genocide

    -2000 were deported or arrested from Constantinople according to some sources Deportation of Armenian intellectuals on 24 April 1915

    The two events, thus, historically are very different, and no need to merge them forcefully to short-cut to a conclusion. The Turkish and Armenian people should be the sides who better most sensitive about details as it is our history. Understanding them can help us shape the future in a better way.

  • Independence for Kurdistan

    Independence for Kurdistan

    John Bolton
    John Bolton

    by John R. Bolton

    Iraqi Kurdistan’s recent referendum on whether to declare independence from Baghdad garnered only slight attention in the U.S. Even the overwhelming vote (93 percent favored independence) and America’s long involvement in the region did not make the story more prominent.

    Nonetheless, we would be badly mistaken to underestimate its importance for U.S. policy throughout the Middle East.

    Protecting American interests in that tumultuous region has never been easy. Not only does Iran’s nuclear-weapons threat loom ever larger, but the struggle against terrorism, whether from Hezbollah, ISIS, al-Qaida or any number of new splinter groups, seems unending.

    Less visible but nonetheless significant forces are also at work. Existing state structures across the Middle East are breaking down and new ones are emerging, exacerbating the spreading anarchy caused by radical Islamic terrorism. Non-ideological factors such as ethnicity and cultural differences are enormously powerful and best understood as movements in the region’s “tectonic plates,” stirring beneath the surface of the more apparent threats of terrorism and nuclear proliferation.

    None of these tectonic plates has more immediate implications for America’s Middle East policy than the Kurdish people’s long-standing determination to have their own nation-state. Modern-era Kurdish aspirations for statehood emerged during the Ottoman Empire’s post-World War I collapse, as European powers redrew the region’s map. The Kurds were unsuccessful in pressing their case, however, and their lands were split among Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria.

    Nonetheless Kurdish longing for a separate state never dissipated, leading to considerable conflict, most visibly in Turkey. The West largely was unsympathetic in recent years because separatists in Turkish Kurdistan channeled their major efforts through the Marxist Kurdistan Workers’ Party. Obviously, during the Cold War, Washington and the West generally had no interest in weakening Turkey and its critical geostrategic role as NATO’s southeast anchor against Soviet adventurism.

    Outside Turkey, however, especially in Iraq, Kurds played a much more constructive role, helping the United States in both Persian Gulf wars.

    Iraqi Kurdistan became de facto independent from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 1991, protected by the U.S-led operation known as “Northern Comfort,” which included massive humanitarian assistance and a no-fly zone over northern Iraq. Saddam’s 2003 overthrow opened the prospect of reunifying the country, but Iranian subversion, using Iraq’s Shia majority to turn the country into its satellite, refueled Kurdish separatism.

    Iraq’s Sunni Arabs were also unwilling to be ruled by a Baghdad regime dominated by Shia adherents, who were little more than Iranian puppets. The rise of ISIS in Iraq occurred in part from this hostility, just as in Syria, ISIS capitalized on the anti-Assad feelings of Sunni Arabs, who felt excluded and oppressed by the dominant Alawite elite in Damascus.

    With the destruction of the ISIS caliphate in Syria, the question of what comes next is unavoidably before us. The United States needs to recognize that Iraq and Syria as we have known them have ceased to exist as functioning states. They are broken and cannot be fixed.

    This disintegration reflects the Middle East’s broader, spreading anarchy, and it provides the context for Kurdish Iraq’s overwhelming support for independence from Baghdad.

    I have previously suggested that disaffected Sunni Arabs in Iraq and Syria might combine to form their own secular (but religiously Sunni) state, which the Gulf Arabs could help support financially. Indeed, while substantial issues remain about allocating the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Kirkuk between Kurds and Arabs, the Kurds themselves are largely Sunni, which suggests considerable confluence of interest with their Arab fellow Sunnis. Helping a new Kurdistan and a new Sunni state might overcome the current split among the Arabian peninsula’s oil-producing monarchies and focus their attention on Iran, the real threat to their security.

    Unfortunately, but entirely predictably, our State Department opposed even holding the referendum and firmly rejects Kurdish independence. This policy needs to be reversed immediately, turning U.S. obstructionism into leadership. Kurdish independence efforts did not create regional instability but instead reflect the unstable reality.

    Independence could well promote greater Middle Eastern security and stability than the collapsing post-World War I order.

    Recognizing that full Kurdish independence is far from easy, these issues today are no longer abstract and visionary but all too concrete. This is no time to be locked into outdated strategic thinking.

    2838Pictured: Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Masoud Barzani speaks to the media at a press conference on September 24, 2017 in Erbil, Iraq. President Barzani announced that the referendum will go ahead as planned. The KRG held an independence referendum on September 25. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
    John R. Bolton, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, is Chairman of Gatestone Institute, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and author of “Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad”

     

  • McMaster to Resign as National Security Adviser, and Will Be Replaced by John Bolton

    McMaster to Resign as National Security Adviser, and Will Be Replaced by John Bolton

    By MARK LANDLER and MAGGIE HABERMAN

    Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster to Leave the Trump White House

    Trump named John R. Bolton, a hard-line former American ambassador to the United Nations, as his third national security adviser on Thursday, continuing a shake-up that creates one of the most hawkish national security teams of any White House in recent history.

    John Bolton
    John Bolton

    Mr. Bolton will replace Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, the battle-tested Army officer who was tapped last year to stabilize a turbulent foreign policy operation but who never developed a comfortable relationship with the president.

    The move, which was sudden but not unexpected, signals a more confrontational approach in American foreign policy at a time when Mr. Trump faces mounting challenges, including from Iran and North Korea.

    The president replaced Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson last week with the C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, a former Army officer and Tea Party congressman who has spoken about regime change in Pyongyang and about ripping up the Iran nuclear deal.

    Mr. Bolton, an outspoken advocate of military action who served in the George W. Bush administration, has called for action against Iran and North Korea. In an interview on Thursday on Fox News, soon after his appointment was announced in a presidential tweet, he declined to say whether Mr. Trump should go through with a planned meeting with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un.

    Continue reading the main story

    General McMaster will retire from the military, ending a career that included senior commands in Iraq and Afghanistan. He had discussed his departure with Mr. Trump for several weeks, White House officials said, but decided to speed it up because questions about his status were casting a shadow over his exchanges with foreign officials.

    Mr. Trump, the White House officials said, also wanted to fill out his national security team before his meeting with Mr. Kim, which is scheduled to occur by the end of May.

    23dc mcmaster hfo bolton master675 v3

    John Bolton, who will take office April 9, has met regularly with President Trump to discuss foreign policy. Alex Wong/Getty Images

    Mr. Bolton, who will take office April 9, has met regularly with Mr. Trump to discuss foreign policy. Though he has been on a list of candidates for the post since the beginning of the administration, officials said Mr. Trump has hesitated, in part because of his negative reaction to Mr. Bolton’s walrus-style mustache.

    On Thursday, however, Mr. Trump summoned him to the Oval Office to discuss the job. Hours later, Mr. Bolton was on Fox, where he has been an analyst, for a pre-scheduled interview, in which he confessed surprise at how quickly Mr. Trump announced the appointment. “This hasn’t sunk in,” he said.

    The news of the appointment competed with an exclusive interview on CNN of a former Playboy model, Karen McDougal, who described to Anderson Cooper what she said was a nine-month sexual relationship with Mr. Trump in 2006. Mr. Trump has denied the affair.

    In his interview on Fox News, Mr. Bolton declined to discuss his views on Iran, Russia or North Korea, though he acknowledged his positions were hardly a mystery after years of writing and speaking. He described the job of national security adviser as making sure that the bureaucracy did not impede the decisions of the president.

    Officials said that General McMaster’s departure was a mutual decision and amicable, with little of the recrimination that marked Mr. Tillerson’s exit. They said it was not related to a leak on Tuesday of briefing materials for Mr. Trump’s phone call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, which infuriated the president and did not help General McMaster’s case. Mr. Bolton complained on Fox News that “a munchkin in the executive branch” was responsible for the leak and called it “completely unacceptable.’’

    Mr. Trump issued a statement that coincided with his tweet. “H. R. McMaster has served his country with distinction for more than 30 years,” the statement said. “He has won many battles and his bravery and toughness are legendary. General McMaster’s leadership of the National Security Council staff has helped my administration accomplish great things to bolster America’s national security.”

    General McMaster said in a telephone interview on Thursday that his departure had been under discussion for weeks, and, “really, the only issue that had been left open is timing.” He would have preferred to stay in the West Wing until the summer, but the timing was dictated by “what was best for him and the country,” he said, referring to the president.

    Interactive Graphic

    Turnover at a Constant Clip: The Trump Administration’s Major Departures

    Since President Trump’s inauguration, staffers of the White House and federal agencies have left in firings and resignations, one after the other.

    all the major firings and resignations in trump administration promo 1521556449710 master495
    OPEN Interactive Graphic

    White House officials said the Army sounded out General McMaster, who is a three-star general, about four-star commands after he left the White House, but he declined them. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has had a contentious relationship with General McMaster, and it was not clear what role he played.

    Democrats greeted the news about Mr. Bolton with deep alarm. “The person who will be first in first out of the Oval Office on national security matters passionately believes the U.S. should launch pre-emptive war against both Iran and North Korea with no authorization from Congress,” said Senator Christopher S. Murphy of Connecticut. “My God.”

    Republicans, however, expressed satisfaction. “Selecting John Bolton as national security adviser is good news for America’s allies and bad news for America’s enemies,” said Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. “He has a firm understanding of the threats we face from North Korea, Iran and radical Islam.”

    Inside the National Security Council on Thursday night, one person described the mood among career officials as somber, with offices largely empty by 9 p.m., unusually early for an agency renowned for its round-the-clock work schedule.

    General McMaster struggled for months to impose order not only on a fractious national security team but on a president who resisted the sort of discipline customary in the military. Although General McMaster has been a maverick voice at times during a long military career, the Washington foreign policy establishment had hoped he would keep the president from making rash decisions.

    Yet the president and the general, who had never met before Mr. Trump interviewed General McMaster for the post, had little chemistry from the start, and often clashed behind the scenes.

    General McMaster’s didactic style and preference for order made him an uncomfortable fit with a president whose style is looser, and who has little patience for the detail and nuance of complex national security issues.

    They had differed on policy, as well, with General McMaster cautioning against ripping up the nuclear deal with Iran without a strategy for what would come next, and tangling with Mr. Trump over the strategy for American forces in Afghanistan.

    Their tensions seeped into public view in February, when General McMaster said at a security conference in Munich that the evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was beyond dispute. The statement drew a swift rebuke from Mr. Trump, who vented his anger on Twitter.

    “General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems,” Mr. Trump wrote, using his campaign nickname for Hillary Clinton. “Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company!”

    General McMaster also had a difficult relationship with the White House chief of staff, John F. Kelly, people close to the White House said. Mr. Kelly, they said, prevailed in easing out General McMaster but failed to prevent Mr. Trump from hiring Mr. Bolton, whom they said Mr. Kelly fears will behave like a cabinet official rather than a staff member.

    Mr. Trump selected General McMaster last February after pushing out Michael T. Flynn, his first national security adviser, for not being forthright about a conversation with Russia’s ambassador at the time. Mr. Flynn has since pleaded guilty of making a false statement to the F.B.I. and is cooperating with Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

    General McMaster carried out a slow-rolling purge of hard-liners at the National Security Council who had been installed by Mr. Flynn and were allied ideologically with Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist, earning the ire of conservatives who complained that his moves represented the foreign policy establishment reasserting itself over a president who had promised a different approach.

    General McMaster’s position at the White House had been seen as precarious for months, and he had become the target of a concerted campaign by hard-line activists outside the administration who accused him of undermining the president’s agenda and pushed for his ouster, even creating a social media effort branded with a #FireMcMaster hashtag.

    Last summer, Mr. Trump balked at a plan General McMaster presented to bolster the presence of United States forces in Afghanistan, although the president ultimately embraced a strategy that would require thousands more American troops.

    General McMaster had been among the most hard-line administration officials in his approach to North Korea, publicly raising the specter of a “preventive war” against the North. He was among those who expressed concerns about Mr. Trump’s abrupt decision this month to meet Mr. Kim, according to a senior official.

    Mark Landler reported from Washington, and Maggie Haberman from New York. Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Peter Baker contributed reporting from Washington.

     

  • LETTER TO WALL STREET JOURNAL

    LETTER TO WALL STREET JOURNAL

    Comment on the Wall Street Journal Article, title ;
    “Will Trump Tell the Truth About the Armenian Genocide?”
    By Robert M. Morgenthau
    Jan. 25, 2018 7:11 p.m. ET

    (Prepared by;
    Dr. Yurdagul Atun / Sukru Server Aya/ Prof. Ata Atun

    WSJ & Museum OPEN COVER LETTER (Feb.11, 2018)
    To: a- The Wall Street Journal – Editors
    b- The Washington Holocaust Museum Memorial Council Members and Management
    c- The Office of the U.S.A. President (as supervisors of this state establishment)

    c.c: The U.S.A. Embassy, Ankara, Turkey (Press Attaché)
    The Turkish Embassy, Washington
    Turkish Foreign Affairs Ministry, Ankara
    Press & Academia

    Esteemed Gentlemen, February 13, 2018

    Re: WSJ Article of Jan. 25, 2018https://www.wsj.com/articles/will-trump-tell-the-truth-about-the-armenian-genocide-1516925489

    As private researchers and writers on the WW-1 and WW-2

    The Washington Holocaust Museum alleged Hitler Quote
    The Washington Holocaust Museum

    History and events related to the “mythomania of genocide” (Erich Feigl) we are profoundly disturbed by the domineering tone of the author and feel compelled to refute the contents of this article from A to Z, since almost everything written by former New York District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau is untrue, not evidenced, and flawed with colossal deficiency of knowledge on past and present history. The “alleged Hitler Quote” still standing on the wall of the Museum is a complete forgery, which undoubtedly has been known to the Museum from the very early days for more than twenty years. Regrettably, despite written applications and provided documentary as evidence, the Museum preferred or was probably told to “remain quiet, hide and falsify history” to the public. The Museum has become instrumental in propagating the “genocide palaver”, despite all judicial requirements and verdicts of various authorized courts in Europe.

    We attach our “research refuting the article” and the patronizing remarks of Mr. Morgenthau, who is presumably unaware of WW-2 Nazi Armenian Legion being complicit in rounding up Jews to be sent to death camps, or the books and articles on internet corroborating how Turkish diplomats saved over ten thousand Jews in Vichy France and Rhodes from Nazi persecution and arranging their transfer to Palestine by special chartered trains. This of course, is no surprise given the history of the Armenians and the Turks living in peace and harmony down the street from each other for centuries. We would like to invite Mr. Morgenthau to take time in his retirement to familiarize himself with the history of the Ottoman Empire which lasted over 600 years because of its policy of “live and let live” and mutual tolerance of its people reaching at one time more than thirty ethnic groups stretching from Europe to Indonesia. We attach as a reminder footnote, two excerpts from history for the treat of Jews by the Ottoman Turks which should be self-explanatory to Mr. Morgenthau.

    We believe we have answered the hearsay or prejudiced grandma stories in the attached research paper and hereby cordially ask you to tell the public if the “quote on the Museum wall true?” also keeping in mind to respect the U.N.’s judicial requirements before saying so. If so, then the “Nuremberg Court decision of 1948 deleting this forgery, or the full definition of this alleged quote and meeting of 22.08.1939as narrated in William L. Shirer’s book must be wrong”, as well as the recent confirmation of the very same contents in the Documents of US Military.”

    Gentlemen, you are ethically obligated to clarify the status and rectify the many “empty, dominative and assertive allegations for which not even a page of legally valid document” has ever been submitted to any competent tribunal, let alone any confirming verdict from the same. The US archives are full of official documents bearing references of the US Congress and Senate contradicting his article and yet, Mr. Morgenthau, a celebrity in law and justice, has either ignored or defied by “acting as a persecutor, without hearing any defense, no evidence, and no obedience to nor respect for the laws of this land and as a judge or deity for eternity”.

    We submit that this cannot be accepted, and we respectfully request a statement from Wall Street Journal whether or not it subscribes to Mr. Robert M. Morgenthau’s claims of “Armenian Genocide.” Thank you.

    Cordially yours,

    Dr. Yurdagül Atun
    (Researcher) – International Aydin University
    (yurdagulbeyoglu@hotmail.com)

    Şükrü Server Aya (Researcher) International Aydin University
    (ssaya@superonline.com&ssaya01@gmail.com)

    Prof. Ata Atun (Rector)
    International Aydin University
    (ataatun@gmail.com)

    “Jewish communities in Anatolia flourished and continued to prosper throughout the Turkish rule. When the Ottomans captured Bursa in 1326 and made it their capital, Jews welcomed the Ottomans as saviors. Sultan Orhan gave them permission to build the Etz ha-Hayyim (Tree of Life) Synagogue, which remained in service until the 1940s.”

    The Chief Rabbi of Edirne between 1454-69, Isaac Sarfati wrote his famous “Edirne Letter” during this same period. It concerns several German Jewish families, which had immigrated to the Ottoman Empire.

    “I have heard of the afflictions, more bitter than death, that have befallen our brethren in Germany, of the tyrannical laws, the compulsory baptism and the banishment, which are of daily occurrence.
    …Brothers and teachers, friends and acquaintances! I, Isaac Sarfati… I proclaim to you that Turkey is a land wherein nothing is lacking, and where, if you will, all shall yet be well with you… Here every man may dwell at peace under his own vine and fig tree… Here you are allowed to wear the most precious garments”..
    # 1 . Bertrand Russell, Human Society in Ethics & Politics, George Allen-Unwin Ltd. London 1954, pg.218.
    # 2. Courtesy, Museum of Turkish Jews, The Quincentennial Foundation, Istanbul pg.76-77 “Bernard Lewis, Jews of Islam”

    Mektubun Türkçe çevirisi

  • Afrin seems quite intact After Turks took control. Does the Kurdish media lie about invasion and destruction?

    Afrin seems quite intact After Turks took control. Does the Kurdish media lie about invasion and destruction?

    Adnan Hakoun, studied at Damascus University – Faculty of Economics

    i am syrian who live in turkey now..i lived in syria for the whole 7 years of war and just left the country last year..i came to turkey illeagely (walking through mountains not by plane) so i had to cross those areas on my way from Damascus (my home city) to turkey and i had to live in the north of syria fo 40 days befor i managed to enter turkey…
    so what i have learned is this:

    every side is lying about what is happening and every side has his own media which make them appear as the rightful and good side…what is rally happening is that the militias which claim to protect the KURDS in the north of syria are actually protecting them frome ISIS and those other extremist militias in the area..but at the same time they made some really horrible crimes against the NON-KURD civilians (arabs , turkmans and arminyans) in the same areas..trying to kick them out of what (so-called) Kurdish lands..so they can proclaim there own country (kurdistan)…a story which i didn’t hear from media but from my friends from DEİR-ALZOR whos actually kicked out of thier homes and saw thier village distroyed completly by those militias because its a NON-KURD village.. here the turkish goverment moved to stop them from what they are doing and enterd the area and took control over it .. kicking those militias out..and again the real loser every time is the civilians who pay the real price in every political conflict..maybe Afrine seems intact when you compare it with AL-RAQA after recapturing it from ISIS but thats does not mean that there is no civilians suffering or no people have been killed by mistake… because it’s IMPOSSIBLE to make any war for either a good reason or bad reason without killing any innocent people….and more important is that those soldier on the ground are not robots they have there minds and feelings there mercyness or savageness and with all this amount of chaos in the war its really hard to ensure that they are Committing to the rules and commands.

    sorry for the long answer but it’s not a yes or no question.

  • Poland’s Misunderstood Holocaust Law

    Poland’s Misunderstood Holocaust Law

    My government wants to ban accusations of Polish wartime complicity for the sake of honoring history.

    Mateusz Morawiecki

    Nazi'lerin toplama kampı, Auschwitz, Birkenau, Polonya
    A visitor is seen behind the lettering “Arbeit macht frei” (work makes you free) at the entrance of the memorial site of the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oswiecim, Poland, on January 25, 2015. Seventy years after it was liberated, 300 Auschwitz survivors — most now in their nineties — will on January 27, 2015 return to the former Nazi death camp, the site of the largest single number of murders committed during World War II. AFP PHOTO / JOEL SAGET (Photo credit should read JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images)

    World War II altered not only the fate of nations but also that of millions of families in Europe. From the viewpoint of Poland, it was the end of a multicultural, multiethnic world that had flourished for more than seven centuries. The borders of prewar Poland in the east included cities such as Nowogrodek, Rowne, and Stanislawow.

    Nowogrodek was the birthplace of Adam Mickiewicz, one of the greatest ever Polish poets, who was personally involved in the process of creating a Jewish legion as part of his efforts to fight for Polish independence in the 19th century. Rowne was the birthplace of the mother of Israeli author Amos Oz, whose novel A Tale of Love and Darkness inspired actress Natalie Portman to make a brilliant movie about Israel’s difficult beginnings seen through the lens of a family of Polish Jews. As for Stanislawow, it is a place close to my heart. My mother’s family comes from this city, which is now called Ivano-Frankivsk and lies within Ukrainian borders.

    continious foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/19/polands-misunderstood-holocaust-law