Tag: Armenian armed groups

  • ISSUES TO CONSIDER ON THE 109TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN REBELLION IN VAN

    ISSUES TO CONSIDER ON THE 109TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN REBELLION IN VAN

    ISSUES TO CONSIDER ON THE 109TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN REBELLION IN VAN

    Historically, the Armenian Revolts in the City of Van played a major role in the implementation of a mandatory Relocation and Resettlement decision taken by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenian minorities. This decision was a direct result of the actions of the mutinous Armenians who rebelled against the Ottoman State and fought on the enemy side against their own country’s army.

    Armenians, who had previously rebelled in Van, in 1896, ignited a new rebellion right before World War I. They used the church in Van’s Akdamar Island as a revolutionary committee headquarters, a weapons and munitions depot, and a center for torture and rape of the Muslim women they captured.

    Armenians, who received a great deal of political support from the British, Russian and French Consuls, European missionaries in the region and the ABCFM missionaries affiliated with the US, had already begun their preparations for the occupation of Van, way before the onset of WWI.

    Before the First World War, Armenian volunteers began gathering in the Cities of Muş, Van and Bitlis to fight against the Ottoman Empire, and (naturally) none of them responded to the mobilization calls of the Ottoman State.

    Armenians who were serving under the Ottoman Military deserted their positions along with their issued weapons and crossed into the Russian territory with clear intent to defect into the Russian Army. When the Russian Caucasian Army attacked Eastern Anatolia, Ottoman Armenians were at the forefront, serving as vanguard units to the Russian Army.

    Karekin Pastermadjian, who was an MP from Erzurum in the Ottoman Empire’s Congress, personally led the mutinous Ottoman Armenians who defected to Russia. Together, they massacred tens of thousands of Muslims in the City of Van and its surrounding regions.

    Following the Russian Army’s crossing of the Turkish border, 33rd Infantry Division stationed in the City of Van moved out of the city to intercept the Russian enemy. Armenian gangs, who wanted to take advantage of the departure of the Ottoman troops out of Van, immediately formed an armed force of 40,000 men. Soon after, they began massacring the Turkish and other Muslim population in the City of Van and its surroundings. The Muslim population of Van ended up having to seek shelter at the Van Castle. Once the rebellion started in Van on April 15, 1915, Armenians first massacred the Gendarmerie Detachment stationed in the city and then the civilian population was next to be massacred. 

    The uprising and the massacres initiated by the Armenians in the City of Van, which intensified on April 20, 1915, caused the Muslim population to leave the city in panic, and a significant portion of those who fled the city lost their lives en route, due to Armenian attacks, starvation, and disease.

    The fact that around 80,000 Muslims left the city in panic and began to flee in the direction of Bitlis in order to escape the great uprising that the Armenians started in the City Center of Van and the subsequent massacres they committed following the Russian Army’s occupation of Van, revealed to the Ottoman Administration that the Armenian revolts could not be prevented using local security measures. Hence, these events undoubtedly constituted the most important reasoning of the mandatory Relocation and Resettlement measure implemented against the Armenians.

    Armenians burned down and destroyed all mosques and Muslim neighborhoods in the City of Van. Mutinous Armenians burned alive approximately 80 Turkish soldiers who were receiving in-patient treatment at the Van City Hospital. Captured Muslim women were taken by boat to the Armenian Church located on Van’s Akdamar Island to be raped. Some of these women chose to end their own lives by jumping off the boat into the cold waters of Lake Van, in order to not surrender their chastity. During the one-month period leading up to Russian Army’s complete seizure of the City of Van on May 18, 1915, Armenians under the leadership of the gang leader named “Aram” massacred 22,900 Turks.

    Out of the 3,400 Muslim dwellings that existed within the Van Province before the war, were down to three houses standing, after the Armenians set the whole city ablaze and destroyed nearly all Muslim quarters of the city. Also, in the City of Bitlis, all 6,500 houses belonging to Muslims were burned to the ground by the Armenians.

    According to the findings of US Historian Prof. Justin McCarthy, the number of Turks massacred in the Van Region was 194,167 people. According to the Ottoman Archival Documents, however, the number of Muslims murdered by Armenians in the Van Province and its subdistricts is 217,132 people. These indisputable archival documents clearly determine the identities of the murderers and their victims one-by-one, while providing explicit details on each massacre event in terms of place, time and how these crimes were committed.

    Coming to today, Cities of Diyarbakır and Van are among those Eastern provinces that most intensively support PKK terrorism. The obvious cooperation between Armenians and separatist Kurdish elements that have long been wanting to establish an “independent Kurdistan” within the Turkish territories is clearly intensifying. In this context, many meetings have been held between BDP and HDP Parties and the Armenian Dashnak Party (aka ARF). As a result of these meetings, joint statements have been released such as: “[…] in addition to exploring the possibilities of Armenian-Kurdish cooperation in the lands of Western Armenia and Kurdistan, other areas of cooperation between the two nations have been discussed.”

    Following the local municipal elections held on March 31, 2024, in Turkiye, the terrorist actions initiated by DEM Party supporters in these districts gives us the impression that they are preparing the groundwork to secede Turkiye’s Eastern and Southeastern Anatolian regions, ostensibly under the name of “Kurdistan” which, in reality, is bound to become “Western Armenia” later.

    The appointment of a certain felon convicted of terrorism to Van’s Mayoral seat despite his earlier statements that “PKK is strong enough to drown us all in their spit”, contrary to the decision of the Diyarbakır High Criminal Court and Article 76 of the Turkish Constitution, clearly indicate the early signs of such a preparation. These developments indicate that the Armenian issue, and the separatist Kurdish political movement with which it is intertwined, are bound to become larger issues, capable of potentially threatening the very survival of the Turkish State.

    As the grandchild of a family that had to leave their home behind and migrate westward in Anatolia, in order to flee from the Armenian oppression in Van, I have been following up for many years on how foreign (non-citizen) Armenians have been buying up large acreages of land in and around Van province using locals, while hiding their true identities. 

    The recent developments clearly indicate that the City of Van, which was once used as the ground zero point of the Armenian massacres against the Turks before the First World War, is now being used as the ground zero point of a secessionist attempt targeting Turkiye.

    As a native of Van, I feel great sadness seeing all these things transpire, right before my eyes. In this context, I think it is important that the Turkish State’s intelligence agencies meticulously follow-up on the land purchases of Crypto-Armenians in Van and the contacts of elected local officials with terrorist organizations (such as PKK) so that the State can make the necessary interventions against violations of law when needed, without compromise. 

    I feel that it is my civic duty to warn the Turkish Statesmen and the patriotic People of Van, who lost 217,132 martyrs in WWI, to be vigilant about another potential Armenian uprising that could be ignited by these Crypto-Armenians based in Van, who hideously hide themselves behind Turkish and Kurdish identities. These people are obviously conspiring to start an uprising any minute, once they receive instructions from the “State of Western Armenia”, which claims to have been established “in exile”. This knock-off state preposterously claims that 19 provinces of Turkiye are Armenian territories, and they surely have the full support of the imperialist states who support them to see Turkiye divided.

    Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ömer Lütfi Taşcıoğlu

    Ret. Staff Col., Turkish Armed Forces

    President of FEYM Group

  • Armenia Got Funding and Propaganda From EU and US, but not a Single Bullet

    Armenia Got Funding and Propaganda From EU and US, but not a Single Bullet

    The highly anticipated meeting between high-ranking European, US officials and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan took place in Brussels last Friday. Armenians excitedly hyped up the meeting long before it was held.

    Some Armenians speculated vainly that Armenia would soon join the European Union, while others went as far as predicting Armenia would become a NATO member.

    While Armenians are a wonderful people, they have had a major shortcoming during their entire history which is the lack of skill in diplomacy.

    Even though Armenians suffered from invasions, occupation, massacres, and even genocide, they never understood that no foreign power would ever come to their rescue. They kept hoping that some country would save them, as if anyone had an obligation to do so. If Armenians never bothered to defend their own land, why would an outsider do such a thing? How can foreigners be more concerned about Armenia’s security and well-being than Armenians themselves?

    Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Armenians kept on believing for thousands of years the fairy tale that someone would come to their rescue. More recently, most Armenians believed that should they find themselves in real danger, Russia would save them. Naturally, this is the continuation of a long-standing wishful-thinking. Despite Armenian expectations, when Russia did not protect Artsakh in 2020 from Azerbaijan’s invasion, it was obvious that Russia had no obligation to defend Artsakh since it was not part of the Republic of Armenia. After all, the military alliance called the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) was between Russia, four other ex-Soviet countries, and the Republic of Armenia, not Artsakh. But when Azerbaijan occupied portions of Armenia in 2021 and 2022, many more Armenians began to wake up to the fact that the CSTO would not lift a finger to defend Armenia’s territory.

    One would have thought that once Armenians finally realized this fact, they would at long last conclude that no one would defend Armenia. Regrettably, that’s not what happened. They continued their eternal search for saviors. Due to the growing antipathy toward Russia, many Armenians started believing that the West (Europe and the United States) or Iran would now come to their rescue. After a while, when they see that neither Europe nor the US nor Iran are going to save them, they will then fantasize that India and China would defend them. Thus, they would go from country to country looking for a new protector. But Armenians continue to believe that others are obligated to defend them. Every country in the world protects its own national interests, except it seems Armenia. If Armenia had a competent leader, he would have taken emergency steps to arm the country to the teeth to defend itself. There are those who say that Armenia would never be able to protect itself from its more powerful enemies, no matter how much it arms itself. While this is true, the solution is not to leave the borders of Armenia unprotected so anyone can walk in. Armenia’s enemies must realize that if they dare to cross its borders, they would pay a heavy price. They should know that Armenia is not a public park that they can freely go in as they please.

    Turning to the Brussels meeting of last Friday, naturally joining the European Union or NATO never came up. Armenia did receive pledges for a few hundred million dollars over the next four years, and a smaller amount from the United States economic aid. Naturally, this is a good thing. Who can argue against receiving a grant, assuming that the money will be wisely spent and not go to the pockets of pro-government contractors?

    Money was allocated to Armenia for economic development and various other infrastructures, such as energy. That is also good. We then heard a lot of propaganda about Armenia being a democratic state. This was simply a lip service to keep Prime Minister Pashinyan happy. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken kept harping on promoting democracy in Armenia even though the US government pays no attention to such meaningless principles, except when it suits its own political and military interests. Otherwise, the United States would have imposed sanctions on Azerbaijan and Turkey long ago, due to their multiple violations of the democratic rights of their own population as well as those of Artsakh Armenians.

    Armenia does not need political propaganda from the West. Given the continuous attacks by Azerbaijan on Armenia, even while the Brussels conference was taking place, what Armenia needs the most right now are weapons to defend itself from its deadly enemies, Azerbaijan and Turkey. If and when we lose our homeland, it would be meaningless to have improved structures or democratic rule. With neither the East nor West providing a security blanket for Armenia, Pres. Aliyev is reassured that he can do as he pleases with Armenia with no one lifting a finger to protect it, except for handing a fistful of dollars and a lot of useless praise.

  • ACT NOW: Don’t let California Education System Teach One Sided History

    ACT NOW: Don’t let California Education System Teach One Sided History

    California Residents Only

    43e78816 165f 4fe5 b62b f3fc6d137c4c

    SAY NO TO CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY BILL 659

    Give young people a choice not to be indoctrinated

    Click to send your letter in less than a minute

    Dear Friends,

    California Assembly Bill (AB) 659 seeks to amend Section 51226.3 of the state Education Code to include the alleged “Armenian genocide” in the history-social science educational curricula. Sponsored by Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian, AB 659 imposes the one-sided and legally unfounded allegation of a crime against humanity in our public education. Having passed through the Assembly committees on Education and Appropriations, under the influence of ethnic special interests, AB 659 is now up for a full Assembly vote on January 31st.As highlighted by the recent European Court of Human Rights decision in the Perinçek vs Switzerland case as well as by numerous American scholars of history, the Ottoman Armenian suffering cannot be described as ‘genocide’ – a well-defined legal term that applies only to the crimes against humanity tried in a court of law. Furthermore, the very term “Armenian genocide” excludes the massacres of over half a million Turks, Kurds, Azeris and other Muslims by the Armenian armed groups fighting alongside the Russian, Greek and French Armies in World War I.Join the Pax Turcica action campaign to urge your Assembly member to vote against AB 659 when it comes to the floor. The young generations should have a choice to not be subjected to educational malpractice based on the unfair and unethical legislation.

    Please, send your action letters NOW, make sure to select your California Assembly member as a target, spread to your friends in California, and forward all responses received to
    institute@paxturcica.org
    Click to send your letter in less than a minute

     

    ataa
    ataa

    ATAA, representing over 60 local chapters and 500,000 Turkish Americans throughout the United States, serves locally and in Washington DC to empower the Turkish American community through civic engagement, and to support strong US-Turkish relations through education and advocacy.  Established in 1979, ATAA is the largest, democratically elected Turkish American membership organization in the United States.  As a non-faith based organization, ATAA is open to people of diverse backgrounds.  The ATAA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization formed under the laws of the District of Columbia. To learn more about ATAA, please visit www.ataa.org.