Turkish Forum

Tag: genocide

  • Armenian “Settled History Syndrome”: An affliction that runs deep in the media

    Armenian “Settled History Syndrome”: An affliction that runs deep in the media

    By Ferruh Demirmen

    Anyone who tries to see or instill a measure of balance or open mindedness in the Western media on the question of Armenian “genocide” will soon discover he/she is out of luck. For the phenomenon, which I call the “Settled History Syndrome,” is not only palpable, but also widespread. It runs deep in the media across Europe and America. It is not new, but deserves special recognition under a name of its own – hence the term coined here. It is the product of year-in, year-out incessant propaganda perpetrated by the Armenian lobby on the so-called “Armenian genocide.”

    The syndrome explains how a group of certain historians or scholars, supposedly open minded, gather to discuss Armenian “genocide,” but colleagues who disagree are kept away as misguided renegades.

    It explains why anyone who challenges the Armenian version of history is labeled “Genocide denier,” often citing a self-appointed group called ”The International Association of Genocide Scholars“ as the infallible arbiter.

    It explains how minds are frozen, debate is stifled, and freedom of opinion is trampled upon – truth being the ultimate casualty.

    It explains how money and influence, fed by prejudice, create a cadre of ill-informed politicians and general public. The media, itself thrown into deep freeze, commonly plays the role of the facilitator.

    Turks who want to fight unfounded accusations from the Armenian side must first deal with this mindset affecting the media.

    Examples are myriad. I will first relay an anecdote, then continue with a recent example, both from America. No doubt, what goes on in America also goes on in Europe, with some mutations.

    The PBS Episode

    Time is early 2006. PBS, the national Public Broadcasting Service in America, is planning to air on April 17 a supposed TV documentary called “Armenian Genocide.” The film, directed by Andrew Goldberg and bankrolled by more than 30 largely Armenian foundations in America, will surely be an anti-Turkish diatribe based on distorted history. I and a small group of Turks and Turkish Americans contact the PBS headquarters in Alexandria , Virginia, to protest the screening of a one-sided story. (As it turned out, the film shamelessly started with a macabre scene of human skulls taken from a 1871 painting by a Russian artist. For a fuller account, see F. Demirmen, Turkish Daily News, April 24, 2006). We argued that, if PBS decides to go ahead with the screening, it should also show, as a balancing act, “The Armenian Revolt,” a newly released documentary directed by Marty Callaghan.

    The PBS headquarters did not change its mind. And the screening of “The Armenian Revolt” was out of consideration.

    I then took my case to the affiliate of PBS in Houston Texas, which was also planning to air “Armenian genocide.” Commenting on the film, the channel’s website carried the statement: “The International Association of Genocide Scholars affirms that the number of Armenian deaths at the hands of Ottoman Turks …” It was a reminder to the viewers that the “genocide” was a shut case.

    Nonetheless, I thought I should still try to educate the Houston channel, that what they would be airing was a prejudiced and distorted story. To that end, I contacted the programming director and sent him some archival material. After back-and-forth correspondence, I had my fingers crossed. At the end, the channel didn’t change its plans, but the programming director made an admission, which was revealing. He remarked that until I contacted him, they had assumed that “genocide” was a “settled history.”

    It was a Lilliputian victory. But it showed what the Turkish side is against: a mindset more or less frozen on its track.

    Pasadena Star Episode

    Fast forward 9 years. On January 15, 2015, the Pasadena Star in California published a news article titled: “Ground broken on Pasadena Armenian Genocide Memorial.” It was an announcement that the monument would be completed on April 18, ahead of the “100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on April 24.” Pasadena happens to be next door to Los Angeles, a hotbed of Diaspora activism.

    As the Star put it, the monument would take “the form of a 16-foot-tall tripod … with water drops dripping … to represent each of the 1.5 million lives cut short by the Ottoman Turks in the Armenian Genocide of 1915 to 1923.” The droplets would “fall every 21 seconds, so that 1.5 million drops will fall annually.” The tripod would represent “similarly shaped structures which Armenian leaders were hanged from during the Armenian Genocide.” Surrounding the tripod and stonework would be “12 pomegranate trees, representing each of the 12 lost provinces of Armenia.”

    Pictures of Armenian clerics solemnly praying at the ground breaking ceremony and an artist’s rendition of the tripod-shaped monument were included in the news.

    The description and symbolism were chilling; but infused in all was a prejudiced and distorted history. Particularly notable in the article was the absolutist tone in the language. “Genocide” was treated as a fact, with no hint as to its disputable character.

    Considering their mindset, I hesitated contacting the Star to express my disagreement that Armenian “genocide” is a fact. But the invitation at the end of the article, for readers to engage in “insightful conversations,“ was too good to resist. I also thought that, instead of sending a short blog, I should lay out my arguments in a full article so as to enlighten them. I informed the Star of my intention to submit a dissenting view, and proposed that they publish it as a stand-alone contribution by a guest writer. Their initial reaction was encouraging. They asked me to send in my article.

    In the article I took special care to acknowledge Armenian sufferings and losses, but also mentioned sufferings and losses on the Muslim side. I pointed to certain facts, and made corrections to some of the allegations in the article. I also tried to strike a conciliatory note, referring to the calls of Armenian religious leaders in Turkey, and pointed to the poisoning effect such a monument would have on the Armenian-Turkish relations in America. It was an appeal for “peace.” While I did not expect they would agree with my views, my expectations were high that the Star would publish my article – if for no reason than journalistic curiosity and respect for dissenting views.

    The response from the Star was an eye opener:

    “Yes. We don’t print op-eds by Holocaust deniers, nor articles denying the settled history of the Armenian genocide, recognized now by 23 countries and by the vast majority of scholars and historians not in the pay of the Turkish government.”

    So, I was a “Genocide denier,” and Armenian “genocide” was a settled history, the arbiter presumably being the all-knowing International Association of Genocide Scholars. Case shut. Opinions and facts brought forward by others will not change anything.

    The response was the embodiment of a frozen mind. Frozen in time, frozen in space. Here was another example of the “Settled History Syndrome.”

  • ERGUN KIRLIKOVALI: Rebuttal to ZAMAN article by Cengiz Aktar:”DEEP DINKISTS” ARE DISTORTING HISTORY

    ERGUN KIRLIKOVALI: Rebuttal to ZAMAN article by Cengiz Aktar:”DEEP DINKISTS” ARE DISTORTING HISTORY

    images

    Rebuttal to ZAMAN article by Cengiz Aktar:

    “DEEP DINKISTS” ARE DISTORTING HISTORY

    TO MAKE GENOCIDE CHARGES STICK

    Jewish holocaust is a court-proven fact; Armenian Genocide, a discredited political

    claim. Holocaust is supported by a competent tribunal, Nuremberg; where is the

    Armenians’ Nuremberg?

    To call 1915 a genocide would be to equate much-discredited Armenian narrative

    to factual Jewish experience. It would be an insult to the silent memory of six

    million Jews who were killed just for being Jews. Whereas Armenians resorted to

    terrorism (1862-1922, Nalbandian) revolts (1877-1920, McCarthy) and treason

    (1914-1922, Pope) and caused 515,000 Turks and other Muslims to meet their

    tragic ends at the hands of Armenian revolutionaries. Jews did not commit any of

    those heinous acts in 1930s or 1940s. So how can any fair person treat the two

    events similarly? The UN, the US, the UK, Australia, Israel, Sweden and many

    other countries reject the use of the term genocide to describe the Turkish-

    The landmark decision of the highest court in Europe, the European Court of

    Human Rights (ECHR) dated Dec 17, 2013 on Perincek vs Switzerland also

    supports this position. Convicting Switzerland for violating Turks’ rights to free

    speech and expression, ECHR verdict was based on solid facts and reasoning.

    ECHR correctly stated that “[t]he existence of a ‘genocide’, which was a precisely

    defined legal concept, was not easy to prove… (ECHR) doubted that there could

    be a general consensus… given that historical research was, by definition, open to

    discussion and a matter of debate, without necessarily giving rise to final

    conclusions or to the assertion of objective and absolute truths”.

    Thus, the ECHR created a legal precedent of inadmissibility of any comparison

    between the court-proven Jewish Holocaust and the discredited Armenian political

    claims, as the latter lacks what the former clearly has: concrete historical facts,

    clear legal basis, and existence of the “acts had been found by an international

    court to be clearly established”.

    If one needs further proof of the fallacy of the Armenian Genocide, one can simply

    look at this photo at http://www.ethocide.com/ which refutes the entire Armenian

    narrative. Do these people in the photo look like “poor, starving, unarmed, helpless

    Armenians? Taken in 1906—nine years before 1915–it depicts cadets in full

    uniform at an Armenian Military Academy in Bulgaria, arrogantly brandishing

    their Russian-made MOSIN rifles. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation used

    these weapons since 1893 in Eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus, and the Balkans,

    murdering Muslim, mostly Turkish, civilians—including my grandparents and

    exterminating the Turkish population of the village of KIRLIKOVA (hence my last

    name.) My father, as a one-year-old baby, was the sole survivor under conditions

    Let the historical facts speak for themselves:

    1914 “…Armenian nationalist movement had blossomed since the turn of the

    (20th) century, armed and encouraged by the Russian, and several minor coups

    were repressed by the YOUNG TURK government before 1914. Denied the right to

    a national congress in October 1914, moderate Armenian politicians fled to

    BULGARIA, but extreme nationalists crossed the border to form a rebel division

    with Russian equipment. It invaded in December an slaughtered an estimated

    120,000 non-Armenians while the TURKISH ARMY was preoccupied with

    mobilization and the CAUCASIAN FRONT OFFENSIVE TOWARD

    Source: The Macmillan Dictionary of The First World War, Stephen Pope &

    Elizabeth-Anne Wheal, Macmillan Reference Books, London, 1997, ISBN 0 333

    68909 7 (and 2003, ISBN 0 85052 979-4,) page 34.

    1917 “…For fourteen days, I followed the Euphrates; it is completely out of the

    question that I during this time would not have seen at least some of the Armenian

    corpses, that according to Mrs. Stjernstedt’s statements, should have drifted along

    the river en masse at that time. A travel companion of mine, Dr. Schacht, was also

    travelling along the river. He also had nothing to tell when we later met in

    Baghdad… …In summary, I think that Mrs. Stjernstedt, somewhat uncritically, has

    accepted the hair-raising stories from more or less biased sources, which formed

    the basis for her lecture…”

    Source: H.J. Pravitz, A Swedish officer, Nya Dagligt Allehanda, 23 April, 1917

    issue (A Swedish Newspaper published from 1859 to 1944)

    1923 “…In some towns containing ten Armenian houses and thirty Turkish houses,

    it was reported that 40,000 people were killed, about 10,000 women were taken to

    the harem, and thousands of children left destitute; and the city university

    destroyed, and the bishop killed. It is a well- known fact that even in the last war

    the native Christians, despite the Turkish cautions, armed themselves and fought

    on the side of the Allies. In these conflicts, they were not idle, but they were well

    supplied with artillery, machine guns and inflicted heavy losses on their

    Source: Lamsa, George M., a missionary well known for his research on

    Christianity, The Secret of the Near East, The Ideal Press, Philadelphia 1923, p 133

    1928 “…Few Americans who mourn, and justly, the miseries of the Armenians, are

    aware that till the rise of nationalistic ambitions, beginning with the ‘seventies, the

    Armenians were the favored portion of the population of Turkey, or that in the

    Great War, they traitorously turned Turkish cities over to the Russian invader; that

    they boasted of having raised an Army of one hundred and fifty thousand men to

    fight a civil war, and that they burned at least a hundred Turkish villages and

    exterminated their population…”

    Source: John Dewey, The New Republic, 12 November 1928

    1976 “… The deafening drumbeat of the propaganda, and the sheer lack of

    sophistication in argument which comes from preaching decade after decade to a

    convinced and emotionally committed audience, are the major handicaps of

    Armenian historiography of the (Armenian) diaspora today…”

    Source: Dr. Gwynne Dyer, a London-based independent journalist, 1976

    1988 “…In all the countries, under all the regimes, the staff of the armies in the

    field evacuate towards the back, the populations which live in the zone of fights

    and can bother the movement of the troops, especially if these populations are

    hostile. Public opinion does not find anything to criticize to these measures,

    obviously painful, but necessary. During winter of 1939-1940, the radical –

    socialist French government evacuated and transported in the Southwest of

    France, notably in the Dordogne, the entire population of the Alsatian villages

    situated in the valley of the Rhine, to the east of the Maginot line. This German-

    speaking population, and even sometimes germanophil, bothered the French army.

    It stayed in the South, far from the evacuated homes and sometimes destroyed until

    1945….And nobody, in France, cried out for inhumanity…”

    Source: Georges de Maleville, lawyer and a specialist on the Armenian question,

    La Tragédie Arménienne de 1915, (The Armenian tragedy of 1915), Editions F.

    Sorlot-F. Lanore, Paris, 1988, p 61-63

    2005 “…From 1911 to 1923, the Ottoman Empire and the people of Turkey

    participated in five long, hard, and destructive wars. These were the Tripolitanian

    War / Trablusgarb Harbi / Türk Italyan Harbı (1911-1912), the two Balkan Wars

    (1912-1913), World War I (1914-1918), and the Turkish War of National

    Liberation (1918-1923). To most Turkish people who lived through that era, these

    wars were really only one, the Seferberlik, or period of mobilization, which went

    on continuously throughout these years.

    During these wars, the entire infrastructure of life in the Ottoman Empire

    was destroyed. Fields were left barren and uncultivated; roads and railroad lines

    were destroyed and their equipment wrecked; harbors and quays were blown up by

    repeated bombing, and many of the people living nearby were killed; Istanbul and

    the other great cities of the empire were partially destroyed by bombing,

    bombarding and great fires. The entire nation, thus, was for all practical purposes

    destroyed. One of the greatest miracles of Atatürk’s leadership during and after

    the Turkish War of National Liberation was the manner in which he was able to

    raise the Turkish people from this wreckage and lead them to revive and

    reconstruct what became the Turkish Republic.

    In the midst of all this destruction, no fewer than 30 percent, one third, of all

    the people who lived in the Ottoman Empire at the start of the war died. In the war

    zones, Macedonia and Thrace, western Anatolia, northeastern Turkey and

    southeastern Turkey, that percentage was as high as sixty or even seventy percent,

    much higher than any other country that was involved in these wars. No-one was

    counting, so it is very difficult to give actual figures, but perhaps no fewer than

    four million people died in the lands of the Ottoman Empire during these wars, and

    these were people of all races and religions, all ethnic origins, they were Muslims,

    Jews and Christians, they were Turks and Armenians, Arabs and Greeks, and

    Source: From “The Ottoman Holocaust”; a lecture delivered by Stanford J.

    Shaw (1930-2006, Professor of Modern Ottoman History, Bilkent University,

    Ankara, Turkey; Professor of Turkish History, University of California, Los

    Angeles,) to the First International Symposium on Armenian Claims and The

    Reality of Azerbaijan, sponsored by the Atatürk Research Center, 5 May 2005,

    Ankara, Turkey, 1990

    What we need is honest research, reasoned debate, and civilized dialogue, not

    name-calling, deceptions, and partisan monologues that lead to more polarization.

    Ergun KIRLIKOVALI

     Son of Turkish survivors from both paternal and maternal sides of

    atrocities committed by Armenian cadets and Balkan Ottoman-

    Christians (www.ethocide.com )

     His father was the sole survivor, as a one-year-old baby, of the

    massacres of October 1912

    tellers/ and was cared for by the Bebek Orphanage in Istanbul

    WAL_History_Forging_Turkish_Identity )

     His mother was one of the few survivors of her family subjected to

    massacres in 1912, Skopje, who migrated to Anatolia and grew up in

     The untold story of pain and suffering of his parents and masses of

    other faceless, nameless Turkish victims of Ottoman-Christian

    militias, especially of Armenians in the East and Greeks in the West,

    during 1911-1923 is the single most powerful driving force behind his

    modest efforts “to tell the other side of the story.”

    Key words:  Armenian, genocide, cengiz Aktar, Ergun Kirlikovali,

    Hrant dink, Tereset, Ethocide, mosin, Kirlikova, Sarishaban, Drama,

    Kavala, Doksat, Doxat, dinkist, deep dinkist, derin dinkciler, ECHR,

    perincek, Turkey, Anatolia, first world war

  • Report: An Intergenerational Approach to the Study of Genocide

    Report: An Intergenerational Approach to the Study of Genocide

    The workshop entitled, ‘An Intergenerational Approach to the Study of Genocide’ convened from June 10–16, 2011 in Rijssen, the Netherlands. Inanna Foundation organized the workshop with the aim to bring scholars and promising students and activists together to study the consequences of genocides, more specifically the genocide of the Assyrians during the First World War. There were about 24 participants from various European countries and the United States who made presentations, and dozens more who attended from European countries as observers and participants during question-and-answer sessions. The workshop was financed by the European Union within the framework of Grundtvig Lifelong Learning Programme. The organizers and participants were very pleased with the results of the workshop, which were a collective achievement of the participants. The organizers aim to publish an edited volume based on the contributions made during the workshop and on papers submitted by other scholars who have shown interest but could not participate to the workshop.

    The workshop was covered as a news item on SuroyoTV and will be broadcasted in the near future in several chapters or in a documentary format. SuroyoTV is available in America on the satellite Galaxy25 11929, (V), 22000, FEC 1/2, and in Europe and Asia on the satellite Hotbird 13deg E 11317, (V), 27500, FEC 3/4.

    June 11

    Naures Atto of Leiden University (Religious Studies Ph.D. program) and Soner Önder of the Inanna Foundation welcomed the participants, introduced the agenda and opened the workshop. In their opening speech, they elaborated on the importance for later generations of resolving the dilemma between remembering and forgetting the experiences of genocide. They explained that the Inanna Foundation has aimed at bringing the voices of different generations together in order to make a first step in touching on diverse aspects of the Seyfo as one example of a genocide committed in the 20th Century. They furthermore emphasized the importance of bringing together academics in different fields in order to develop a network of people who can collaborate on efforts to study the Seyfo from an interdisciplinary perspective.

    Prof. David Gaunt of Södertörn University (History) and author of Massacres, Resistance Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia during World War I gave the keynote lecture on The Place of Seyfo in Modern Genocide Research. He described a transition from a first generation of genocide scholarship focused on the Holocaust on an archetypal case and the gas chambers of Auschwitz as an ideal type against which to measure genocides, to second and third generations engaged in comparative research into other genocides during the world wars, European colonization, civil wars, and other contexts. This transition has proven to be propitious for the study of Assyrian genocide insofar as it adds to our knowledge of analogous cases, and legitimizes the study of Seyfo despite some dissimilarities with the Auschwitz component of the Holocaust.

    Dr. Ton Zwaan of the University of Amsterdam (Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies) explored the Transgenerational Consequences of Genocide. He argued that genocide represents an extremely vicious disruption of social processes with long term effects. The state is typically centrally, intentionally involved, leading to the victims’ deep sense of disorientation, loss of the social and political context in which their lives had meaning, loss of nearly of their property, and migration requiring building new lives. Victims may, generations later, experience a heightened awareness of vulnerability, threat, and impunity of their oppressors to punishment, as well as a breach of trust with society and the world. This breach of trust leads to weak institutions and leadership on the part of the victim group. Guilt and shame emerge as normal mourning processes are prevented by the large number of victims and small number of survivors. Healthy integration into society and coming to grips with the past can lead to recovery. The conditions for such recovery include truthful historical understanding, open public discussion, justice and compensation, and collective remembrance at the institutional level.

    Dr. Ugur Ümit Üngör,Assistant Professor of History at Utrecht University, described Eastern Turkey as a Zone of Violence and the Destruction of Ottoman Christians. He analyzed eastern Anatolia as a multi-generational zone of ethnic and religious violence. He argued that the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) was lost power in 1918, though its middle managers took leading roles in the Turkish Republic under Mustafa Kemal and even into the 1940s. A prominent example was Mustafa Renda, responsible for the destruction of the Ottoman Christians of Bitlis province from 1915-1918, allowed to return from the Malta trials established by Article 230 of the Treaty of Sèvres, and subsequently appointed to leading roles in the province of Smyrna/Izmir, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Defense, and the Turkish parliament. Dr. Üngör argued that the Ottoman Christian minorities were destroyed as a result of escalation of ethnic conflict at the provincial level. He argued that eastern Anatolia experienced similar events in areas experiencing Kurdish rebellions in 1925, 1930, and 1937-38, in Thrace in 1934 as the Jews were targeted, in Marash in 1921, and in Ararat in 1930. Among others, Dr. Üngör displayed a photograph from the Deutsche Bank archive showing Kurds being loaded onto railcars for their deportations in the 1930s.

    Prof. Ciano Aydin of the University of Twente and Delft University of Technology (Philosophy) spoke on “Collective Trauma and Cultural Identity.” There is a complex relationship between identity and trauma, which can transform some individual or group identities while solidifying others, or creating solidarity. Collective trauma is distinguished from individual trauma on the mass basis and difficulties coping. Dr. Aydin furthermore elaborated on the effects of collective trauma, which cause a discontinuity and disorganization for the group who experience the traumatic event. Taking a departure from Nietzsche’s concept of “active forgetting”, Dr. Aydin endeavored to show how it is possible to overcome the experienced trauma.

    Dr. Önver Cetrez, Assistant Professor at Uppsala University (Religion) surveyed ‘Genocide and Posttraumatic Stress in a Generational Perspective: Examples from Different Cases.’ Psychologists have identified a ‘complex’ of processes by which post-traumatic stress can have transgenerational effects, impacting the identity, relationships, and culture of the children and grandchildren of survivors. Some survivors struggle with issues of isolation, overprotectiveness, and integration into society due to difficulties with communication and trust. Separation anxiety, fear, rage, and compassion are common issues emerging in research on second-generation survivors. Silence and repression as a result of a failure to share experiences and imbue them with meaning can lead to second-generation alienation and doubt. The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fifth Edition identifies the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder as (1) exposure to a traumatic event, (2) involving death or a threat of death or injury and a response characterized by fear or horror, (3) a persistent reexperiencing of the event through distressing memories of the event, distressing dreams of the event, flashbacks or a feeling of reliving the experience, intense emotional distress when encountering symbols or things associated with the traumatic event, (4) persistent avoidance of symbols or things associated with the traumatic event and a feeling of numbness especially when accompanied by efforts to avoid thinking about or discussing the trauma, encountering people or places related to it, forgetting important aspects of it, non-participation in normal daily activities, estrangement from other persons, abnormally repressed feelings, a sense that live will be short, and (5) persistent new symptoms of anxiety such as difficulty sleeping, anger or irritability, finding it tough to concentrate, and (6) significant effects on one’s career, social relations, or activities as a result of all of this.

    Aryo Makko of Stockholm University (History Ph.D. program) gave a presentation entitled, ‘From “Forgotten Genocide” to the “Main Pillar of Identity”: The Role of Seyfo in Contemporary Assyrian Historiography.’ He argued that from being understood by scholars of Assyrian history as a mostly forgotten trauma, the perception of Seyfo has changed in recent years as being an important unifying event for Assyrians, otherwise divided on denominational and geographical grounds. The shared experience and knowledge of the Seyfo serve as common ground for the Western, Eastern, and Persian Assyrians.

    June 12

    Prof. Efrem Yildiz of Salamanca University (Faculty Philology, Hebrew and Aramaic studies) detailed The Armenian and Assyrian Eyewitness Report Through the Eyewitness Testimony of Israel Audo and Jacques Rhétoré. Israel Audo was the bishop of Mardin at the time of Seyfo. Jacques Rhétoré was a French Dominican monk from Mosul who was deported to Mardin, where 75,000 Assyrians lived. Rhétoré wrote that hundreds of Assyrian clerics were captured, and virtually all killed. Prof. Yildiz explained that Israel Odo gives much of the same information as Rhétoré. They both discussed the death of Addai Sher, the Chaldean Archbishop of Siirt, at some length. Rhétoré’s text ‘Les chrétiens aux bêtes/Christians to the Beasts: Souvenirs de la guerre sainte proclamée par les Turcs contre les chrétiens en 1915’ is available in a Spanish edition.

    Prof. David Gaunt of Södertörn University (History) described ‘The Sources for the History of Seyfo ‘. The sources include British, American, French, German, and Russian diplomatic and other official documents, the Vatican archives, memoirs such as those of Jacques Rhétoré, Hyac in the Simon, Jean Naayem, Lady Surma d’Bait Mar Shimun, and academic studies by Gabrielle Yonan and other authors. The submissions of the Assyro-Chaldean delegation to the Paris Peace Conference are also important. Prof. Gaunt discussed an extensive bibliography put together by himself, Jan Bet-Sawoce, and Racho Donef. These same individuals are working to translate the journal L’Action assyro-chaldéenne from French to English.

    Jan Bet-Sawoce of Södertörn University (Mesopotamian Library) gave ‘A Short Study of the Sayfo Issue in the Vatican Archives.’ The Vatican archives are important because three French Dominican monks were eyewitnesses to Seyfo in Mardin. In addition, a special papal delegate created reports on each province of the Ottoman Empire, and the condition of the Christians therein, for the Vatican foreign affairs department. The Vatican documents contain first-hand reports of how the town criers (tallals) disseminated the call for holy war against Christians throughout the empire, resulting in massacres. Local reports of massacres in Urhoy, Kharput, Mardin, Siirt, Bitlis, and other places were sent in 1915. Massacres in Urmi and Salamas in 1918 are the subject of further reports sent in 1918.

    Prof. Hannibal Travis of Florida International University (Law) and author of the book “Genocide in the Middle East: The Ottoman Empire, Iraq, and Sudan” explored: Constructing “The Armenian Genocide”: How Genocide Scholars Unremembered the Ottoman Assyrians. He argued that although genocide scholars have tended since the 1960s to describe the late Ottoman Empire’s genocidal policies as solely an “Armenian Genocide,” a growing consensus describes these events as a general Ottoman Christian genocide. Several books and articles were published from 1966 through 2010 detailing an Armenian genocide that claimed 1.2 to 1.5 million lives, but failing to mention or even minimizing the death toll among Assyrians and Greeks. Scholars of the Armenian genocide often state that there were more than two million Armenians in 1914, and virtually none remaining in Turkey by 1923. They often neglect to state, however, that there were more than 500,000 Assyrians in 1914, and that in Turkey in 1919, the Assyrian population was actually smaller than the Armenian population. In addition, the Assyrian population of Persia was much more dramatically affected by the Ottoman occupation of northern Persia than was the Armenian population, which actually grew from the 1850s to the 1950s, in contrast to the Assyrian population which fell dramatically. The reasons why Armenian genocide scholars neglect the Assyrian genocide include ignorance, statistical questions, and pure politics. The sources most often used by Armenian genocide scholars describe the same methods being employed to kill and expel Assyrian communities living in close proximity to Armenian communities.

    Dr. Andrew Palmer of Münster University spoke on U-gubo da-qTiloye — The Cistern of the Slaughtered Christians and Muslims in M’arre. His topic was the village of M’aare, which he identified with the Castra Maurorum or Castle of Maure, and the fourth-century fortress of M’arrin. M’aare sits on the former Persian/Byzantine Roman border, and was the site of conflict between Syrian Orthodox and Church of the East Christians. Tur Abdin and M’arre jutted into Persian territory, dividing the Church of the East believers in Batman and Nisibis from one another to some extent. The Assyrians of M’arre were massacred during World War I, many of their bodies dumped down the cistern or town well.

    June 13

    Prof. Michael Abdalla of Poznan University explored Opportunities and Barriers to Disseminating the Holocaust of the Assyrians in Poland. He described the need for Christian churches and large organizations like universities to discuss Assyrians’ whole history, not in pieces. He described difficulties in attempting to speak on Assyrian persecution in the Ottoman Empire and Iraq at the Catholic University of Warsaw, one of whose faculty forbade students to attend an event organized by, what they still call “heretics”. He explored reasons why Polish institutions might be willing to raise funds for Georgia or Japan, but less often for Christian Assyrians in Iraq. Nevertheless, some members of the Polish church have been very active in facilitating Prof. Abdalla’s speeches on the Ottoman and Iraqi Assyrians, which have been well attended. In addition, the Church/People in Distress organization Poland invited Archbishop Louis Sako from Iraq to speak, and he was interviewed or profiled in numerous Polish newspapers and television programs.

    Scharbil Raid Gharib of the University of Tübingen (Politics, Ph.D. Programme) presented a talk on ‘Sword and Betrayal–The Repercussions of Seyfo on the Syriac Speaking Communities.’ He identified several internal and external factors that have blocked the inclusion of Syriac speaking people in the modern world. External factors involve depopulation and dispersion as a result of Seyfo, and internal factors relate to the culture, politics, and religion of Syriac speaking communities. Malik Kambar criticized the diplomats of the West for dividing the Assyrian nation in their own interests. The denominational division of the Assyrian/Syriac nation represented a further betrayal. In the aftermath of Seyfo, the leaders of the Syriac speaking people presented demands aimed at reversing both betrayals, including liberation from the Turkish and Persian yoke, reparations for material damage, and a unified Assyrian state under a League of Nations mandate. Similarly, Archbishop Ignatious Afram I Barsoum demanded that the delegates to the Paris Peace Conference guarantee the Syriac speaking people French protection, reparations for lost churches, monasteries, and schools, and the same material aid as Armenians. Mar Shimun’s representatives asked for British protection with an autonomous patriarchal government, with boundaries from Bashkala and Bitlis in the north to Jazireh in the southeast. The last remaining sources of Assyrian unity were lost with the exile of Agha Petros by the British and French, and the massacres at Simele which destroyed the last remaining power of the Assyrians, politically and militarily.

    Sabri Atman of Seyfo Center described ‘Seyfo Activities at the International Level.’ Activism and scholarship have contributed to the recognition of the Assyrian genocide by the Swedish parliament, the South Australia parliament, the local government of New South Wales in Australia, and several governors of the State of New York. A monument was erected in Fairfield, Australia. Monuments also exist in Chicago, Illinois and Los Angeles, California. Seyfo Center has been active in documenting the Assyrian genocide, representing the Assyrian cause in governmental and intergovernmental institutions, and educating non-Assyrians and Assyrians alike in educational and political fora. It is a resource for academics, journalists, politicians, and filmmakers.

    Dr. Jan van Ginkel of Leiden University spoke on 1917: A New Bishop in Amid/Diyarbakir. Who was Mor Dionysus ‘Abd an-Nur Aslan? He told a fascinating story of a bishop with strong social connections, who was transferred from Harput to Syria in 1913, and became bishop of Diyarbakir in 1917. The appointment represented the hope of the Syrian Orthodox church that Diyarbakir would again become a center of Syrian Orthodox life in the aftermath of the Seyfo, a hope unrealized.

    Abdulmesih BarAbraham of the Yoken-Bar-Yoken Foundation described Turkey’s Key Arguments in Denying the Assyrian Genocide. He summarized the works of Salahi Ramadan Sonyel and Bulent Ozdemir on the Assyrian genocide, which emphasize that the Assyrians were the ‘smallest Ally’ of Britain and Russia, who rebelled against Ottoman Empire. In addition, both play down the effect of the events on the Assyrians, claiming that Assyrians had long lived together in peace with Turks and Kurds, and suffered flight from their homes and losses in battle as a result. In 1931, the Republic of Turkey issued a directive on the teaching of history from a Kemalist slant. The Turkish Historical Society enjoys a constitutional mandate under article 134 of the constitution of 2005. The Assyrian section of the society was set up in 2007 under the leadership of Bulent Özdemir. Özdemir argues that the Jacobites of Mardin, Midyat, Diyarbakir and Mosul lived in peace because they did not rebel, while the Assyrians of Hakkari, Van and Urmia suffered losses because they joined with Russia in the war. The Society’s stand is denial of any wrongdoing by the Turks; to blame are external powers, missionaries, and the victims for what happened. In their narrative, there was no planned genocide, but some armed robberies and outbreaks of illness.

    Ibrahim Seven, an independent activist, explored ‘Seyfo in the Turkish and Kurdish Media.’ A number of books have been published in Turkey by Turkish and Kurdish authors who recognize the Assyrian genocide, including not only Seyfo but the genocide perpetrated in the 1840s by Turks and Kurds. Mr. Seven described some of these books, the backgrounds of their authors, and their findings.

    June 14

    Tour of Amsterdam including the Jewish Historical Museum and Anne Frank House Museum.

    June 15

    Prof. Shabo Talay of the University of Bergen (Arabic and Aramaic) described the ‘Impacts of Seyfo on the Aramaic Language.’ Aramaic-speakers have suffered linguistic genocide due to direct killings, outlawing of their language, and exclusion from their traditional homes and communities. There has been a sharp decline in Aramaic speakers, because a language needs a culture, and the culture of Aramaic-speakers is changing as a result of living in diaspora. Dr. Talay described how Aramaic-speaking youth growing up in the wake of Seyfo would suffer punishment in Turkish schools for using Aramaic words and were forced to recite poems saying ‘my father is a Turk’ and so on. He explored how Seyfo is often referred to in Aramaic as a firman, the etymology of which reflects both a decree and cutting/killing/decapitating. Aramaic also uses kafla, which means deport or ‘pursue’, for Seyfo. He described the 1993 attack on the village of Hassan/Hasanna, in which 300 families of Protestant, Chaldean and Syrian Orthodox Christians fled the last base of Aramaic speakers in Turkey east of the Tigris river, many of them moving to Mechelen in the 1990s. This was the death knell of a dialect of Aramaic east of the Tigris.

    Nineb Lamassu of the School or Oriental and African Studies, University of London (Assyriology) spoke on a ‘Private Archive of Malik Yaqu and Malik Ismael and Early Attempts at Compensation for Seyfo .’ The maliks of the Assyrians living in the United States in the 1960s learned that Germany had paid over $800 million in reparations to the Jews for the Holocaust, and explored in private communications the tabulation of Assyrian losses due to Seyfo, especially churches and agricultural lands and flocks, for a lawsuit seeking compensation from Turkey. Mr. Lamassu reviewed several letters from private archives he has consulted in the United States during his participation in the Modern Assyrian Research Archive project. He described how MARA will help scholars engaged in similar research in the future.

    Naures Atto of Leiden University (Religious Studies Ph.D. program) reviewed the history of song lyrics about Seyfo in a talk entitled. ‘Lyrics about the Seyfo.’ She described the evolution of this music from traditional to more contemporary formats such as hip-hop or rap.

    Mousa Elias of the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm spoke on ‘The Place of Seyfo in Mousa Elias’ Music.’ He described his collaboration with an Assyrian poet and the preparation of the melody prior to asking for the lyrics to be written. He then delivered a very moving performance of his music on the Seyfo.

    Nahrin Malki Atto, an independent artist, presented and discussed her Seyfo -related paintings. She passed around examples of her work and talked about the tension between evoking Seyfo without being too didactic about doing so.

    In the Open Session, two MA students presented their work. Sanharib Demir of Bielefeld University (Politics) spoke on ‘Seyfo –A Result of Conflicting National Identities.’ He described the importance of Assyrian national identity in the pre-war Ottoman context, as exemplified by the use of names such as Sanharib to evoke the Assyrian nations’ past. He analyzed how the rise of racism and ultranationalism in the Ottoman Empire set the stage for genocide, referring specifically to the theories of Young Turk ideologist Ziya Gokalp. Oya Nuzumlali of Sabanci University (Cultural Studies) explored ‘Configurations of Genocide: The Case of Chaldeans in Istanbul.’ She described preparing survey research on the Chaldean community in Istanbul today. She explored potential challenges in conducting such a study, and ways of facing them. She argued that the Chaldean community in Istanbul bears the scars of a past genocide, including fear of outsiders, heightened religiosity to the exclusion of worldly pursuits, and dispersion globally. Many Chaldeans have come from Iraq in recent years due to persecution, yet some view Istanbul as a mere wayplace en route to Europe, the United States, or elsewhere.

    In an event after the closing dinner which was organized to honor the Seyfo -related work by David Gaunt, several participants gave a speech and handed him a present. The invited musician Mousa Elias entertained the audience with his oud, a session which continued until midnight.

    By Hannibal Travis
    www.inannafoundation.org

  • Khojali Genocide

    Khojali Genocide

    The story of Asli Mammadova – the only survivor of Mammadova family in Khojali genocide committed by Armenian and Russian armed forces on 25–26 February 1992 during the Nagorno-Karabakh War.

  • MASSIVE ARMENIAN FRAUD EXPOSED … AGAIN!

    MASSIVE ARMENIAN FRAUD EXPOSED … AGAIN!

    The 33 Chilean miners were not the only ones brought to daylight last week; a massive criminal Armenian immigrant ring defrauding the Medicare by a whopping $135 million was, also. While the former delighted us and uplifted our spirits, the latter shocked and outraged us.

    How can one not be incensed? While those gold chain wearing, hairy and smelly thieves were lining up to buy 350,000 dollar sports cars with American taxpayers’ hard-earned money, most American families, faced with job cuts, dwindling incomes, and foreclosures, were dreading to put food on table.

    But there is worse. What the Armenian crooks perpetrated has far reaching implications impacting a wide range of policies and programs affecting all of us well into the future. These range from the cost of recent health care reforms, identification theft, and safety of senior citizens, all the way to the security of government archives, abuse of taxpayer funds, and foreign policy influenced by Armenian crooks and terrorists with access to some gullible or corrupt American politicians.

    ARE BOXER AND MENENDEZ, RECIPIENTS OF ARMENIAN MONEY, CLEAN?

    This is why I think Boxer’s campaign chest must be investigated: “Armenian organization to back Barbara Boxer at November elections”, news.am, October 15, 2010: https://news.am/eng/news/34644.html ; )

    “ The committee on political affairs of the Armenian Council of America will back Sen. Barbara Boxer at the elections scheduled for November…The Armenian Council of America made the decision due to close ties of Sen. Boxer with the Armenian community and pro-Armenian activities in the Senate…Barbara Boxer is an advocate of the Armenian Genocide recognition and has repeatedly been the author of relevant bills. She also raised the issue on unblocking of the Armenian border by Turkey. Senators Barbara Boxer and Robert Menendez have jointly placed a “hold” on U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan nominee Matthew Bryza, noting his close ties with Azerbaijan.”

    Here is my beef with all this: ambassadors to Turkey and Azerbaijan, both staunch American allies, cannot be appointed, as the vetting process is taken hostage by the Armenian lobby through their proxies in the Senate, Boxer and Menendez. I am wondering, therefore, how much of that dirty Armenian money found its way into the coffers of Boxer, Menendez, Schiff, Pallone, Radanovich, and other passionate “genociders” who bend over backwards to appease the Armenian lobby, even at the cost of sacrificing American interests.

    I am in the process of getting a copy of the official indictment. I plan to check the Armenian names against the Armenian donors of Boxer and Menendez, as the Federal Election Commission reports are public. If names match, then Boxer and Menendez must resign immediately for using Armenian fraud money to serve Armenian interests. Whether American interests were hurt or not by their actions does not even matter at that moment, because they will have served the interests of a foreign government (Armenia) without first registering as a foreign agent or lobbyist, thus breaking the law. This goes for Schiff, Pallone, Radanovich, and other bogus “genociders” on the hill.

    I appreciate that it could be hard to check, since Boxer has had over 8,000 donors in 2010, and the tricky Armenians use different spelling variations of their names making it much harder to track them down without serious investment of time and resources. But I think FBI should do it to protect the American taxpayer. If FBI finds some of those Armenian crooks in the donor rolls of Boxer, Menendez, or others, then so be it! If they do the crime, they should do the time. Let’s throw the trash out! Impeach them!

    If you think all this is far-fetched, then I suggest you think again. See, for example, “Dem donor arrested in Medicare ring”, Politico, October 14, 2010 ( .)

    One of the alleged Armenian gangsters arrested in the record-breaking $163 million Medicare fraud scheme was also a major donor to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Pogos Satamyan of Glendale, CA, reportedly arrested today, gave the DCCC $10,000 just this July, according to public records. (Only $10K? What a cheapskate! )

    OUTSMARTING THE SYSTEM: A “SKILL” REVERED IN ARMENIAN CULTURE

    Armenian fraud is not something new. “Outsmarting the system” seems to be a national pass time among most Armenians. Deception, fraud, lies, in the finest tradition of Andonian of the fake Talaat telegrams fame, should give any fair minded American a clue about the Armenian psyche.

    What I wonder is not that organized Armenian fraud makes the news for the millionth time, but did any of this Armenian fraud money, even a cent, found its way into the campaign funds of some gullible and/or corrupt politicians. After all, these politicians sold America’s interests time and again, just for a few dirty Armenian dollars, didn’t they? Shouldn’t we impeach corrupt politicians for siding with Armenian criminals?

    ARMENIAN FRAUD AND DECEPTION: A CHRONIC DISEASE

    This is not the first case of medical fraud by Armenians in US, nor is it the biggest. For example, just two years ago, in 2008, some 6 Armenians were indicted by the FBI on a $2 million fraud case: . Here is what was said in the April 4, 2008 report “ Six arrested and charged in connection with $2 million health care fraud ring”:

    “ LOS ANGELES – Six men charged with running a crime ring that stole nearly $2 million from federal and private health insurers were arrested here today following a federal and local probe involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into a health care fraud scheme.
    Collectively, the defendants face 62 counts of conspiracy to commit a crime, money laundering and grand theft of personal property. The alleged crimes occurred between March 2005 and September 2006.

    ‘On a national level, health care fraud continues to milk billions of dollars annually from government-funded health plans and private health insurers,’ District Attorney Steve Cooley said. ‘Health care fraud affects us all. These criminals not only squander health funds for underserved populations who truly warrant subsidized aid, they also affect the average consumer who is hit in the pocket book by fraud-related costs incurred by private health companies.’

    Robert Schoch, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Office of Investigations in Los Angeles, said ICE will continue to work with its local and federal law enforcement partners to attack and dismantle these kinds of schemes.

    ‘Aside from the obvious harm to insurers and needy patients, the money siphoned off in fraud schemes like this is often funneled into other forms of criminal enterprise,’ Schoch said.

    Those charged in the case are: Karapet Khacheryan, 37; Hovik Joe Altunyan, 30; Edkar Mikirtijyan, 25; Grigor Khorikyan, 29; Vahan E. Harutyunyan, 32; and Smbat Khachtryan, 26. The six men are due to be arraigned at the Criminal Justice Center April 7. Bail is recommended at $1.98 million for each defendant.
    The case, which was referred to the District Attorney’s Office by ICE and the United States Department of Health and Human Services – Office of the Inspector General, began as a drug and money laundering investigation, later expanding to include health care fraud.

    ‘Fighting Medicare and Medicaid fraud is a top priority,” said Glenn Ferry, Special Agent in Charge for the Los Angeles Region of the Office of Inspector General for the federal Department of Health and Human Services. “We will work tirelessly with our federal and state law enforcement partners to bring those who perpetrate such frauds to justice.’

    The men were taken into custody early this morning by federal authorities from residences in North Hollywood, Glendale, and Van Nuys, Calif. A seventh suspect was taken into custody on an unrelated gun charge. Search warrants also were executed at two businesses in Burbank. Of those named in the case, the highest number of charges faced by a single defendant is 31 counts. ..”

    It was a coordinated effort The Los Angeles County Health Authority Law Enforcement Task Force (HALT), the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Major Crimes and COPS bureaus, and the California Department of Justice, Bureau of Medical Fraud and Elder Abuse assisted federal agents in this investigation. All defendants faced special allegations because the offenses involved fraud and embezzlement with a pattern of related felony conduct. The special allegations also stemmed from the fact the defendants were suspected of taking more than $500,000, with estimated property losses exceeding more than $1 million.

    ARMENIAN THIEVERY HAS DEEP CULTURAL ROOTS

    I remember well how back in 1999, we were all shocked to learn that a bunch of Armenian crooks defrauded Medi-Cal (that’s California’s Medicaid) of $1 billion USD! That’s by far the largest medical fraud case in the history of the world:

    Here is what was reported by Rone Tempest , Los Angeles Times Sacramento Bureau Chief, on December 08, 1999, in his article titled “Medi-Cal Scandal Alarms Armenians”:

    “ Culture: Leaders stress that those caught are a tiny minority, and that they may have learned such behavior as a survival skill in former Soviet Union.

    Chagrined by the estimated $1-billion Medi-Cal fraud scandal among new immigrants in their community, Armenian church and civic leaders say that an explanation may lie not in Los Angeles, where most of the crime occurred, but in the culture and politics of their homeland in the former Soviet Union.

    Vazken Movsesian, parish priest of St. Gregory Armenian Orthodox Church in Pasadena, said members of the largely ethnic Armenian network charged with bilking the state and federal governments using phony medical billings came from a place ‘where the government was the government you cheated from.’ “

    Nice try by the Armenian priest to control damage, but unfortunately for Armenians, the organized fraud cases unearthed since this 1999 report shows that the Armenian community supports such illegal activities, just like they supported Armenian terrorism victimizing Turks, both in the Ottoman Empire from 1882-1922 and in the United States 1973 to present. Violence and corruption, the twin evils, seem to find fertile grounds in the Armenian culture.
    Armenian Consul General in Los Angeles and Mayor are in jail as we speak for selling fake documents to Armenian murderers and rapists to get a permanent residence in USA, for a mere , $35.000… A bargain!

    ARMENIA IN PANIC

    Alarmed by the developments, the government of Armenia embarked upon a hastily put together damage control program (See “Armenia to help US investigate Medicare scam”, By AVET DEMURYAN, Associated Press, YEREVAN, Armenia, October 14, 2010: . ) Too little, too late.

    Armenia now says it will cooperate with the United States in an investigation of Armenian gangsters accused of using bogus health care clinics to cheat Medicare out of $163 million.
    Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan said today that Armenia was sorry. The operation was reportedly led by captured crime boss, Armen Kazarian, who is known by the Soviet term “thief in law,” or “godfather” in English. Here is the rub: a top Armenian police who wanted to remain anonymous apparently told The Associated Press that about 40 ethnic Armenian godfathers operate in Europe, the U.S., Australia and the Middle East. U.S. authorities, who say this is the largest fraud in Medicare’s history, are not amused.

    VIDEOS OF ARMENIAN CROOKS AND SWINDLERS AVAILABLE

    See “Dozens Charged in $163M Medicare Fraud Scheme”, a CBS, , New York, Oct. 13, 2010:

    Here is a glimpse of what CBS said:

    “A vast network of Armenian gangsters and their associates used phantom health care clinics and other means to try to cheat Medicare out of $163 million, the largest fraud by one criminal enterprise in the program’s history, U.S. authorities said Wednesday. (Scroll down to watch a “60 Minutes” report on Medicare fraud from earlier this year)

    Federal prosecutors in New York and elsewhere charged 73 people. Most of the defendants were captured during raids Wednesday morning in New York City and Los Angeles, but there also were arrests in New Mexico, Georgia and Ohio.

    CBS News reports that more than 60 people were in custody as of Wednesday afternoon.

    The scheme’s scope and sophistication “puts the traditional Mafia to shame,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said at a Manhattan news conference. “They ran a veritable fraud franchise.” ( Read the First Indictment (PDF) , Read the Second Indictment (PDF) )

    Unlike other cases involving crooked medical clinics bribing people to sign up for unneeded treatments, the operation was “completely notional,” Janice Fedarcyk, head of the FBI’s New York office, said in a statement. “The whole doctor-patient interaction was a mirage.” (video:
    Medicare Fraud: A $60 Billion Crime )

    The operation was under the protection of an Armenian crime boss, known in the former Soviet Union as a “vor,” prosecutors said. The reputed boss, Armen Kazarian, was in custody in Los Angeles.

    Bharara said it was the first time a vor – “the rough equivalent of a traditional godfather” – had been charged in a U.S. racketeering case.

    Kazarian, 46, of Glendale, Calif., and two alleged ringleaders – Davit Mirzoyan, 34, also of Glendale, and Robert Terdjanian, 35, of Brooklyn – were named in an indictment unsealed in Manhattan.

    Most of the defendants were to appear in court later Wednesday on charges including racketeering conspiracy, bank fraud, money laundering and identity theft.

    Authorities began the New York-based investigation after information on 2,900 Medicare patients in upstate New York – including Social Security numbers and dates of birth – were reported stolen.

    The defendants in the New York case also had stolen the identities of doctors and set up 118 phantom clinics in 25 states, authorities said. The names were used to submit fake bills for care that was never given, they said.

    Some of the phony paperwork was a giveaway: It showed eye doctors doing bladder tests; ear, nose and throat specialists performing pregnancy ultrasounds; obstetricians testing for skin allergies; and dermatologists billing for heart exams…”

    In the New York portion of the case, more $100 million in fraudulent bills were submitted and Medicare paid out at least $35 million, sometimes by wiring it to the clinics’ banks accounts, according to the investigators. Most of the defendants were reported to be “ Armenian nationals or immigrants” with substantial ties to Armenia and even criminals there, in the indictment. Couriers would often carry cash proceeds from the fraud back to Armenia, it added. Prosecutors were reportedly seeking forfeiture of real estate in Las Vegas; Palm Springs, Calif.; and elsewhere, and of expensive cars like a 2007 Maserati and a 2006 Jaguar.

    ***

    This is far from over as the saga of Armenian thieves, crooks, swindlers, fast talkers, and genocide peddlers continues…

    Stay tuned !

  • ANOTHER LEGAL VICTORY FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH

    ANOTHER LEGAL VICTORY FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH

    ergun sThe tables are slowly but surely turning and Armenians are in visible panic. All this because of a recent legal defeat. Prof. Guenter Lewy is cleared of all defamations dished out by Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), perhaps a hapless tool in the Armenian propaganda. If this intrigues you, then fasten your seatbelt for what follows.

    Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), one of America’s revered civil rights organizations, accused in 2008 Professor Guenter Lewy of being part of a network of academicians financed by the Turkish government, based on input from SPLC, we now understand that an Armenian employee misled SPLC with falsified information (why am I not surprised?)

    SPLC even compared Prof. Lewy and Neo-Nazis, even though Prof. Lewy had been harassed by Nazi thugs on Kristallnacht in 1938 and later joined the British Army’s Jewish Brigade in World War II to fight Nazis. Armenian fanaticism, deception, and misrepresentations know no ends, in the true tradition of the master falsifier Aram Andonian of fake Tallat telegrams, and the above article is no exception.

    The court battle forced the SPLC to publish an embarrassing apology and retraction, perhaps a first in their history, as a small price for trusting Armenian falsifiers and Turk haters in matters relating to the Turkish Armenian conflict. Reportedly, SPLC will also provide Prof. Lewy a monetary settlement.

    Prof. Lewy was still kind when he commented, “The SPLC has made important contributions to the rule of law and the struggle against bigotry. Thus I took no pleasure in commencing legal action against it. But the stakes, both for my reputation as a scholar and for the free and unhindered discussion of controversial topics, were compelling. It must be possible to defend views that contradict conventional wisdom without being called the agent of a foreign government.”

    David Saltzman, one of Lewy’s co-counsel from the TALDF was more to the point when he said, “Academic freedom requires that scholars not work under a cloud of suspicion of their motives. Professor Lewy has been transparent and objective in his work.”

    Bruce Fein, Lewy’s other co-counsel reinforced this by stating, “SPLC did the right thing by admitting and correcting their errors” whereby they rescued Professor Lewy’s reputation and “… advanced a common goal of free inquiry as the best method of discovering truths.”

    Lincoln McCurdy, president of Turkish Coalition of America, perhaps put it best when he observed, “Reconciliation between the Turkish and Armenian peoples will require a full accounting of history. TCA supports an open dialogue and unfettered academic inquiry into this controversial period of Ottoman-Armenian history and tragedy. We are proud of TALDF’s hard work which hopefully will contribute to this open debate and offer our congratulations to Professor Lewy.”

    THE FACTS ARE CLEAR FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO KNOW THE TRUTH

    Jewish Holocaust is supported by due process and a court verdict by a competent tribunal (Nuremberg, 1945.) What due process and court verdict support Armenian claims of genocide? The answer might surprise you: none!

    Armenian claims are based on a racist and dishonest version of history, not law or the truth. They are racist because they ignore the Turkish victims at the hands of Armenian revolutionaries (120,000 in the year 1914 alone, according to the dictionary of World War One, by Stephen Pope and Elizabeth-Anne Wheal, 2003, page 34.) And they are dishonest because they simply dismiss the six T’s of the Turkish-Armenian conflict. The “poor, starving Armenians myth” needs to be reconciled with these photos of the Armenian ultra-nationalists armed to the teeth (www.ethocide.com .)

    Whereas the picture is crystal clear: Armenians took up arms against their own government. After a millennium of harmonious cohabitation, Armenians, thus chose to resort to revolts, terrorism, supreme treason, and territorial demands, causing countless Muslim/Turkish casualties, all of which triggered the TERESET (temporary resettlement of 1915). These are the plain facts.
    Armenians must face up to their own unspeakable crimes against humanity before any closure can occur. If you are still in doubt, let me refer you to an Armenian source to see photos of Armenian murderers, gun-toting Armenian clergy, their Muslim, mostly Turkish, victims: Houshamatyan of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Centennial, Album-Atlas, Volume I, Epic Battles, 1890-1914 (The Next Day Color Printing, Inc., Glendale, CA, U.S.A., 2006)

    These facts contradict with the embellished and falsified Armenian narrative, which in turn, creates “cognitive dissonance” in Armenian people. Modern psychology informs us that this trauma can be resolved in two ways:

    1) accept the new facts and change your attitude accordingly, or

    2) ignore/dismiss the new facts and demonize all dissenters.

    Most Armenians, unfortunately, seem to still choose the latter, hence no closure after a century.