Category: Asia and Pacific

“The primary purpose of the war was to seize control of oil fields. Control of these (Middle Eastern) resources becomes a first class war aim” Sir Maurice Hankey, 1915, British war cabinet, Ref:book: ‘The PRIZE The Epıc Quest for Oil-Money-Power’ by Daniel Yergin

“We must become the owners or at any rate the controllers  the source of at least a proportion of the oil which we require.” Winston Churchill

“Unless a nation’s life faces peril, necessary, war is murder” Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

“Turks were our Honourable Enemies” David McLachlan, The president of Returned Services League of Victoria-Australia, April, 2006

To the Honourable Premier of Victoria
and
To the Honourable Parliamentarians of Victoria,

I am writing in regards to a motion that will be introduced to the Victoria parliament on October 29, 2024, the anniversary of the republic of Turkiye, accusing Turkiye of events going back 109 years.
Who /what country will be your interlocutor at this motion and why?
Just like in the Middle East today, pretty sure that it won’t be mentioned which powers made the peoples of the region hostile to each other, incited them against each other, and rebelled against their authority. 

“If the Turks were blood-thirsty tyrants why did Ottomans wait 600 years to exterminate
the Armenians?” Ara Baliozian, Armenian author, Translator

So-called Genocide is Fact or Fiction?
Selective Truth or Proof / The OTHERİNG the Middle Eastern People  

Provocation of ETHNICITY by the Imperial forces:
Papazyan, The Armenian representative in the Ottoman Parliament for Van, published a proclamation to the Ottomans stating: “The volunteer Armenian regiments in the Caucasus should prepare themselves for battle, serve as advance units for the Russian armies to help them capture the key positions in the districts where the Armenians live, and advance into Anatolia, joining the Armenian units already there.”  Soon, Papazyan turned out to be a leading “guerrilla” fighter against the Muslim residents of the Ottoman Empire!

Promises to the Armenians, raising their nationalism and Plundering of the Middle Eastern oil!   Louise Nalbandian(*)states that; “The Armenian revolutionary committees considered that the most opportune time to begin a general uprising to achieve their goals was when the Ottoman Empire was in a state of war”.  A secret Dashnak Congress held at Erzurum in June 1914 had already decided to use the oncoming war to undertake a general attack against the Ottoman state and the Russian Armenians joined the Russian army in preparing an attack on the Ottomans as soon as war was declared.”  (*) Louise Nalbandian, historian and professor in the History Department of CSU Fresno from 1964 to 1974.

I am sure that the imperialism it’s ethics of snatching the oil from Ottoman lands in the Middle East in 1915 will not be blamed. 

In the motion, I suppose, Turkey will be targeted for having accomplished the so-called genocide on Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians, instead of Western Powers (imperial) oil hunters.

Reminding that since the 29th of 1923, Turkey is a new country, and no more ties with the Ottomans, therefore there is no interlocutor for your movement.

Being a proud Australian-Turkish citizen, I am not only disappointed by the motion targeting the wrong country, but also because the motion day is chosen very disgracefully. I would like to start expressing my feelings, being an Australian citizen (Metaphorically, I feel Australia is my father) as well as Turkish citizenship (like mother), both are my sweet and proud countries that I respect both of them. I am so lucky to be a citizen of both countries. Both countries are so unique that since 1915, after the WW1 ended, they became friend countries, which is an extremely rare case among countries   after   fighting a war in between. Hoping this peace will stay, as it is to be a rare sample for the rest of the world, and hoping more countries will take an example of this friendship.

If I may, I have many questions in my mind for this motion as a proud Turkish Australian, however there will be a few here;

As we all know that unfortunate accusation of Turkiye is related to the WW1-1915 (Gallipoli War), that means 109 years old incidences and outcomes   just a few years earlier than   the Australian parliament  was established and Australia was only a fourteen years old country to prove herself to the world.
Without being a part of the Gallipoli War, would   Australia be a mature country and   gain its national identity?

When the so-called genocide allegations were asked to the Australian Foreign Minister Mr. Downer, on the 11th of February 2007, he answered the questions as follows; “ … in Australia we have a significant Turkish community, an ethnic Turkish community. We have an Armenian community that would not be anything like as big as the Turkish community, but I don’t think we really want to get into all of that and inflame passions in Australia, between Australians, over an issue like that. The debate is about events that occurred a long time ago, and I don’t think we are going to offer a running commentary on the events, or alleged events, whatever on history. I don’t think it is the role of the Australian government to be a historian. Whatever we may think about history, we deal with the present and future, but we can’t change the past, not even the Australian government can change the past. If we could, there would be a lot of changes we would make.” [Liberal Foreign Minister Mr. Downer on the 11 February 2007]

Many Australians, Anzacs  didn’t know where Gallipoli  is  before involving in the Gallipoli war  of 1915, except false and anti Turkish/(anti Ottoman propaganda in those years.  News were the key propaganda of the war ( Like the Broken Hill incident story)

“You will hear extraordinary horrible stories practiced by Turks. Well, don’t believe a word of them. They are grossly exaggerated if not wholly false. You will be surprised at the gentlemanly way the Turks have fought us.”  Jim Haynes (Cobbers – Stories of Gallipoli, 1915  p. 178) As we all know that WW1, 1915 was a war  by which imperial powers seized the Middle Eastern oil in exchange for the price of lives.

Few Irony and Reminding:
Australian Armenian approach is unethical because they use “selective truth” to “prove” their point!
“Australian Millionaire William D’archy Knox who drilled  and discovered oil after seven years in 1908 then built a pipeline to Persian Gulf. D’archy’s Angolo-Persion Oil Company later known as BP is known to be the most profitable investment in history.”  Ref: The PRIZE The Epic Quest for Oil-Money-Power’ by Daniel Yergin

An Australian businessman William D’Arcy Knox, who discovered Iranian oil, died a poor man, while an adventurous Armenian entrepreneur, Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian (Mr. Five Percent %5), he was the richest man in the world.
What an IRONY!

Sadly, many false accusations and news against Turkiye are still going on until now, since it is the key country of the world and the Middle East.

I wouldn’t know how biased history knowledge of others is; but talking about myself, I had a very basic knowledge and started learning after I settled to Australia, to get to know and learn many facts and I am still researching about  the Gallipoli War  via to the Australian books, documents, media,…and of course the culture. However learning the historical fact was for me from both sides’ views not only a one sided history.  As a result, I compiled views of the Anzac on a book called; “Johnny Turks and Memoirs of Gallipoli”
In my book, there are lots of unbelievable friendship memoires that I admired a lot in between the Turkish soldiers-Mehmetciks (and Johnny Turks (which is a nick name given to the Anzacs).
After the Turkish commander and leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s quote to mothers of Anzacs; “There is no different between the Johnnies and the Turks, your son became ours …” in 1934,

 And Many years after another Australian soldier, Major – Gen. David McLaghlan’s comments describing  the Turkish soldiers as “Honourable Enemy” in 2006. (please see the article on the Age newspaper, by Carolyn Webb. 12th of April, 2006 “Anzac March Open to ‘Johhny Turks’ – But that’s it.” In this article Turks are described as  ‘Honourable Enemy’ by   President of RSL Vitoria, Major Gen. David McLachlan.) Then, this friendship between Australia and Turkiye would be a great example for many countries who have conflicts.

In fact, it is a perfect timing for all parliaments around the world to take this opportunity because this friendship between Australia and Turkiye can became a great example for the rest of the world. Of course, if PEACE is wanted!
If we don’t want peace in the region, of course we may create a lot of biased justifications. In this case, may I kindly ask you a few questions? How about, if any Turk claims that a huge slaughtering was done to the Turks and all the Muslims in Anatolia between 1915 and 1922, by the Westerners; How would you react?

ARMENIAN TRIALS: “In ancient times Armenia was a buffer kingdom between rival enemy. Armenia was frequently invaded-by Assyrians, Persians, Arabs, Greeks and Romans. The Armenians retained their identity.
This kingdom in its turn was destroyed in the 14th century by invaders from Egypt. Under the Ottoman Empire, Armenian merchants and financiers thrived. When the struggles broke out between Turks and Armenians for the possession of Anatolian lands, many Armenians died; others fled abroad.”  Desmond Stewart is a British journalist who worked for many years in Cairo. He wrote a number of books about Egyptian culture and history. Graduated Oxford in 1948.  

 
Armenia and the Turks in the Time of Lawrence!
 

“While Colonel T. E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) sympathized with Armenian aspiration for sovereignty and, indeed, in a map he drew up after the Great War of a desirable Middle Eastern share-out of the Ottoman Empire, he provided for an independent Armenia (in Cilicia), he was also party to the prevalent anti-Armenian prejudices of his day. Lawrence was a member of the British delegation to the 1919 post-war Paris peace conference. On November 3 he told Frank Polk, the American “Commissioner” in Paris, that the Armenians were prone to lend “money at exorbitant rates of interest” and took “the Turks’ land or horses in security for payment,” and this at least in part explained the Turkish atrocities against them during World War I. But there was another factor. “Armenians,” he told Polk, as related in Polk’s report on their conversation, “have a passion for martyrdom, which they find they can best satisfy by quarrelling with their neighbours . . . They can be relied upon to provoke trouble for themselves in the near future.”
In general, Lawrence felt, “it would be most undesirable to attempt to establish an Armenian state.” Except in a specific territory, where they would be overwhelmingly preponderant. “The idea of an Armenian State infuriates all the other races, and it would require 5 divisions of troops (100,000 troops) to maintain it.” According to Lawrence, the Turks had been exhausted by the Great War and their “army is rotten with venereal disease and unnatural vice.” Hence, their birth rate was falling. “
Prof. Dr. Benny Morris is an Israeli historian. He is a professor of history in the Middle East. March 8, 2011 

As a new country Turkiye rather forgot the past,  forgave all the guilty countries and tried to have a good relationship with all the countries in the world since Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his way of looking towards the worlds was“Peace at home, Peace in the world”. As the grandchildren of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, we say “peace in Australia,  Peace in the universe”. I am so disappointed how the parliaments could reverse the history, and also how parliaments, politicians can make such a critical decision without considering all historical facts. I totally reject this divisive motion as it will be an extremely embarrassing motion for the Australian Multicultural Policy.

Armenians, in 1915, became the cause of  civil and military riots (by the support of Rusia and France) against to Ottoman government, some (almost 800 hundred) Armenians were relocated to Damascus from the unrest areas. What a global scenario is to look now, from almost the same area almost eight million Assyrians are relocated to Turkiye by illegally ways. If this is not totally a global game, what is?

EXPOSING THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FALSIFIED GENOCIDE -A LOOK AT SOME ARMENIANS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE  A.LALAYAN  “I killed Muslims by every means possible. Yet it is sometimes a pity to waste bullets for this. The best way is to gather all of these dogs and throw them into wells and then fill the wells with big and heavy stones., as I did. I gathered all of the women, men and children, threw big stones down on top of them. They must never live on this earth.” A. Lalayan, Vostok (Revolutionary East) No: 2-3, Moscow, 1936. (Lalayan is considered as one of the architects of the ethnic cleansing campaign of the Turks… perhaps on the order of an Armenian Adolf Eichmann.)

“I have been on the scenes of massacres where the dead lay on the ground, in numbers, like the fallen leaves in a forest. Muslims had been as helpless and as defenceless as sheep. They had died as the helpless must, with their hearts and brains bursting with horror worse than death itself.”
Leonard Ramsden Hartill, _Men Are Like That_ The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis (1926). _Memoirs of an Armenian officer who participated in the Armenian genocide of 2.5 million Muslim people_

According to Arnold Toynbee;
“There is a systematic plan of destruction of Turkish villages and extinction of the Muslim population.   This plan is being carried out by Greek and Armenian bands, which appear to operate under Greek instructions and sometimes even with the assistance of detachments of regular troops.”
Toynbee, Arnold Joseph (1970). The Western Question in Greece and Turkey: A Study in the Contact of Civilizations. p. 286.

THE UNKNOWN FACE OF SO-CALLED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
“Atrocity stories have been vastly overdone; some of the more recent massacres have been wholly nonexistent. One of the local (Constantinople) members of the press and of a relief organization told some friends openly that he could only send anti-Turkish dispatches to America because that is what gets the money…”
Source: E. Alexander Powell, The Struggle for Power in Moslem Asia, New York, 1925

“Lest forget the ultimate price of the wars” Michael Leung 2002
Except Australia and Turkiye, there are hardly any after war effect that jointly commemorate friendship between the past belligerents’ parties. 

Even 100 years later, Turks and Australians-New Zealanders celebrate the victory of the friendship unlike Armenians and Turks…Why not between Armenians and Turks?

Let’s not involve this animosity, but involve friendship.
Animosity breeds animosity, it is a vicious circle!
For a peaceful world, let’s not forget to CELEBRATE the friendship… 

Julia Gül Arslan (Australian-Turkish)

Peace in Australia, Peace in The Universe
Author Of Books;
– Armenian Dilemma – 1915 War of Oil & the Hypocrisy of the West”
– Johnny Turks and Memories of Gallipoli War

“Peace At Home, Peace in the World” M.K. Atatürk

Please see the following details of 1915 and the TURKS , THROUGH THE EYES OF THE ANZACS; 

After the WW1 (1915)
Turkish soldiers became “Abdul”
to “Johnny Turks” ….. but WHY?

ABDUL
We’ve drunk the boys who rushed the hills,
The men who stormed the beach,
The sappers and the A.S.C.,
We’ve had a toast for each;

And the guns and stretcher-bearers
But, before the bowl is cool,
There’s one chap I’d like to mention,
He’s a fellow called ABDUL.

We haven’t seen him much of late
Unless it be his hat,
Bobbing down behind a loophole
And we mostly blaze at that;

But we hear him wheezing there at nights,
Patrolling through the dark,
With his signals-hoots and chirrups
Like an early morning lark.

We’ve heard the twigs a-crackling,
As we crouched upon our knees,
And his big, black shape went smashing,
Like a rhino, through the trees.

We’ve seen him flung in, rank on rank,
Across the morning sky;
And we’ve had some pretty shooting,
And –  he knows the way to die.

Yes, we’ve seen him dying there in front
Our own boys died there, too-
With his poor dark eyes a-rolling,
Staring at the hopeless blue;

With his poor maimed arms a-stretching
To the God we both can name
And it fairly tore our hearts out;
But it’s in the beastly game.

So though your name be black as ink
For murder and rapine,
Carried out in happy concert
With your Christians from the Rhine,

We will judge you, Mr. Abdul,
By the test by which we can-
That with all your breath, in life, in death,
You’ve played the GENTELMAN.
Poem, written by a war correspondent C. E. W. Bean;

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda lyrics

And On Behind The Lines (2008)
And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (Eric Bogle)

Now when I was a young man, I carried me pack, 
and I lived the free life of a rover
From the Murray’s green basin to the dusty outback, 
I waltzed my Matilda all over.

Then in 1915, my country said son, 
It’s time you stopped rambling, there’s work to be done.
So they gave me a tin hat, and they gave me a gun, 
and they marched me away to the war.

And the band played Waltzing Matilda, 
as the ship pulled away from the quay
And amidst all the cheers, the flag-waving and tears, 
we sailed off for Gallipoli

And how well I remember that terrible day, 
how our blood stained the sand and the water
And of how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay, 
we were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.

Johnny Turk he was waiting, he’d primed himself well. 
He showered us with bullets, and he rained us with shell. 
And in ten minutes flat, he’d blown us all to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia.

But the band played Waltzing Matilda, 
When we stopped to bury our slain.
We buried ours, and the Turks buried theirs, 
And we started all over again.

And those that were left, well we tried to survive, 
In that mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks, I kept myself alive, 
though around me the corpses piled higher

Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head, 
And when I woke up in my hospital bed,
And saw what it had done, I wished I was dead. 
Never knew there was worse things dying.

For I’ll go no more waltzing Matilda, 
all around the green bush far and free
To hump tent and pegs, a man needs both legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me.

And so now every April, I sit on my porch, 
and I watch the parades pass before me.
And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march, 
Reviving old dreams of past glories

And the old men march slowly, old bones stiff and sore. 
They’re tired old heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask, what are they marching for? 
And I ask myself the same question.

But the band plays Waltzing Matilda, 
And the old men still answer the call,
But as year follows year, more old men disappear. 
Soon no one will march there at all.
Eric Bogle

Turks with words of the Anzacs, 1915;

“Turks have treated our captured men and officers excellently”
The diary of the Australian Official Correspondences C.E.W.Bean

“You will hear extraordinary horrible stories practiced by Turks. Well, don’t believe a word of them. They are grossly exaggerated if not wholly false. You will be surprised at the gentlemanly way the Turks have fought us.”  Jim Haynes (Cobbers – Stories of Gallipoli, 1915  p. 178)

“The Turkish sniper understood that we were searching for him. He shot once and the doctor got wounded. When he realized that he was a doctor, he didn’t shoot again.”
[Exerted from Sydney Alex Moseley, former war correspondent during the Gallipoli Campaign]

 “Generally, the Anzacs recognised in the Turk a fellow sufferer and acknowledged his humanity; In his poem Anzac’.  ‘I reckon the Turk respects us, as we respect the Turk; Abdul’s a good, clean fighter – we’ve fought him, and we know.” 
(Lieutenant Oliver Hogue, Book: ‘Gallipoli’, Alan Moorehead,  Page:159)

“They (Turks) too were fighting for their country. Good and fair fighters. No. They fought very fair and honestly like us. Both sides lost their very valuable men.”
(E.W.BARTLETT – was born in Australia, 1891. 11^th Light Horse Regiment) 

“The Turks have always proved themselves perfectly willing to have armistices and have actually asked for one at Helles which was refused by our General Staff.” 
[Excerpted from Ashmead-Bartlett’s dairy(Saturday, 24, 1915, Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett worked for the London Daily Telegraph)

“ After the terrible punishment inflicted upon the brave but futile assaults all bitterness faded … The Turks displayed an admirable manliness … From that morning onwards the attitude of the Anzac troops towards the individual Turks was rather that of opponents in a friendly game.”(Charles. E Bean, the Australian official historian, The Story of Anzac, Vol II, Sydney, 1924, p.162)

“I am a United States veteran and served in The US Air Force. still have friends in Iraq fighting for our freedom. I can tell you that I have never known a nation more underrepresented and discredited more than the Turkish. Turkish troops were clearly the heroes of the Korean War, ask any Korean veteran, yet when the 50th anniversary of Korean War was being celebrated no one heard Turks getting credit for their bravery. Greeks and even the Colombians were remembered but not Turks. Why not? I tell you why. Armenians and Greeks have done a wonderful job on preventing any positive image of Turkey in The United States. I am an Irish-American who happened to dig deep since I have noticed what Turks have been facing due to having some close Turkish friends. Once I started digging and conducting a lengthy research I was shocked to. find out how well Armenians have been playing that Christian card.   http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/soundoff/comment.aspParticleID=335534&page=2

“The Turks were small and shy and gentle, Gordon recalled a particular meeting in Korea of Australian and Turkish soldiers: “If the seeds of this joint respect were planted at Gallipoli; it ripened in the dust and snow of Korea. The Turks’ relish for hand-to-hand fighting, their first-class leadership, their discipline under fire… these were attributes the Australians in Korea possessed themselves and admired in others.” went, and found Norm O’Neill, whose pals in the Field Ambulance used to call him Peggy entertaining a bunch of stocky, dark-awled young men. They stood and listened as O’Neill (with the help of a young Lt. who could speak a few words of English) told them about his father, who had been a machine-gunner at Gallipoli. We gave them packets of chewing gum, and they handed in return hunks of something that looked like a pancake and tasted like rubber… Their ready acceptance weren’t just of us, their eagerness to make us feel at home among standard behaviour for newfound allies. They, too, had had the Gallipoli story drummed into them during their childhood. “For the Aust’ns, many illusions were shattered. Somehow the ANZAC Day speeches of their youth had built the Turks up in their imagination as massive, heavily moustached fighters who carried daggers in their belts and remained sullen and aloof. Nothing could have been further from the truth; the Turks were small and shy and gentle, sometimes moustaches even a certainly, little but comical, soft, oversized boyish, greatcoats kitten-tailed. Their affairs were with the texture and quality of those that 19-year old Australian soldiers were managing to cultivate. The Turks proved to be tough soldiers.

Gordon continues; “The Turks continued to fight with a ferocity which made them something of a legend in Korea. In one action they are on record as having complained bitterly that the artillery barrage put in to soften up an enemy before their charge was too heavy … there

weren’t enough live Chinese left to make a decent fight. “If the seeds of this joint respect were planted at Gallipoli; it ripened in the dust and snow of Korea. The Turks’ relish for hand-to-hand fighting, their first-class leadership, their discipline under fire… these were attributes  the Australians in Korea possessed in themselves and admired in others.” [http://www.awm.gov.au/korea/faces/journalists/

journalists.asp] Australian journalist Harry Gordon

“The Anzacs left Gallipoli without hatred in their heart for their enemy or bitterness at the incompetence of their own high command.”  [ A.K. Mc. Dougall, Australian Historian)

Not all Muslims are terrorists, granted. Only Muslims who make headlines in the international
press and their leaders who shape their destiny and character as a fraction of mankind. 

*To Turks who are brought up to believe Turks are too civilized to be guilty of genocide, may I remind them there is no such thing as a degree or line that separates nations capable or incapable of genocide and to introduce such a degree or line in the discussion of genocide is to engage in fiction. 

* May I also suggest, if you believe in Ataturk, you will believe in anything. * Do I think what I write can change anyone’s mind? My answer: I don’t know, but I can assert with some degree of certainty, no one can change that which does not exist.”
Ara Baliozian; Armenian Author-Translater-Reviewer, Born in Atena-Greece.
“LET US REASON TOGETHER
A Canadian prime minister (Jean Chretien) 
is quoted as having said: 
“I like to stand up to Americans. 
It’s popular.” 
We like to hate Turks. 
That’s popular too. But it’s wrong! 
What have we accomplished after a hundred years of hatred? 
We can’t even convince Americans to support our side. 
Hating is a waste of time, 
Hating nations is worse! 
We should hate not nations but murderers and liars regardless of nationality. 
There are honest Turks 
as surely as there are dishonest Armenians. 
It is wrong to confuse a nation with its regime. 
Regimes are ephemeral and transitory stages 
in a nation’s life. 
Neither should we confuse loyalty 
or subservience to a regime 
with patriotism. 
Hatred may take us from A to B 
but it is understanding 
that can go all the way to XYZ. 
Hating is easy; 
understanding much harder. 
When it comes to politics 
or any other discipline for that matter, 
the easy answer is not always the right one. 
In the writings of our Turcocentric ghazetajis  
and readers who enjoy reading them 
I see nothing but militant malice.”
[Ara Baliozian; Armenian Author-Translater-Reviewer, Born in Athena-Greece,
December 10, 1936]

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29 EKİM 2024 AVUSTRALYA/ VİCTORİA EYALETİNDE Oylamaya sunulmaktan son anda vazgeçilen sözde Ermeni Pontos Yunan Süryani iddialarının oylamasına karşı gönderdiğim mektup ektedir

Prensip olarak Türk tezlerini degil ( resmi tarih ya da resmi tez diye fazla  umursanmiyor), YABANCİLARİN GÖZÜYLE TÜRKLERİN MAĞDURİYETİNİ ANLATAN YAZILARdan oluşan  derleme -amatörce yazılmıs kitaplarımdan yaptığım alintilari yazdığım, yaklaşık 220 mv line gönderdiğim mektup.

Not: Hiçbir cevap gelmedi.

Bilginize
Julia Arslan