Tag: protocols

  • WHO WOULD INSIST ON TEACHING ONLY ONE SIDE OF A CONTROVERSY?

    WHO WOULD INSIST ON TEACHING ONLY ONE SIDE OF A CONTROVERSY?

    Re: “In appeal, lawyer asserts genocide teaching skewed”, By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff / March 3, 2010,

    To: Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff, [email protected] .

    Dear Mr. Saltzman,

    Please take a good look at the photos here: www.ethocide.com . Do these people look like “poor, starving Armenians” to you?

    Do they, in your honest opinion, substantiate, in any way, shape, or form, that “unarmed, non-combatant, helpless Armenian cut down by the Turk” myth?

    You’ve been duped!

    We all have been duped by the Armenian falsifiers and Turk-haters (AFATH).

    WHO WOULD INSIST ON TEACHING ONLY ONE SIDE OF A CONTROVERSY?

    These photos of Armenian revolutionaries, armed-to-the-teeth, and their Turkish victims, censored in Boston and went untold for a hundred years, their suffering unacknowledged and un-commemorated, and un-grieved, explain why Turkish Americans strenuously object the racist and dishonest teachings forced on the education system by Armenian extremists of Massachusetts.

    First, let us all agree that it is a controversy. After all, if the debate still continues after a hundred years, what would you call it?

    Next, let us all agree that an issue is controversial because there are those who disagree with one side’s claims and produce their own facts, figures, and arguments. After all, if all agree on a given issue, would there be “the other side of the story”? And if there is no dispute, would there be controversy?

    Now that we all agree, without taking sides, that the Turkish-Armenian conflict is controversial, then the question begs to be asked is: “Why on earth would anyone want to teach our children only one side of it?

    Would you agree if only one side (the side that you oppose) of a controversy–like abortion, gun control, Iraq war, Afghanistan war, financial meltdown, poorly performing economy, health care, gay marriage, stimulus package, social security, unemployment, any one of million other issues–is forced down the throats of your children at school?

    That is where we are with this issue. The arrogant Armenian lobby mobilized the Armenian community in 1998 to force the legislature to force the education department to teach our children Armenian version of history only, based on distortions, hearsay, forgeries, hate and vengeance.

    When the responsible opposing views were also included, as they should in any civilized society, the Armenian intolerance and politicians’ weaknesses weighed in again to censor the other side of the story. This is nothing less than a frontal attack on free speech by Armenian hate groups.

    The question is, will you stomach it?

    A FRONTAL ATTACK ON FREE SPEECH BY ARMENIAN HATE GROUPS

    Selection of obviously biased contents, clearly provocative symbols, incredibly misrepresented people, locations, dates, causalities, all converging in a dishonest and racist version of history by Armenian pressure is hardly the civilized way of teaching history to our children. Schools are not meant for propaganda waged by the loudest or dominant political groups. That would change this country to Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, or Taliban’s Afghanistan. This is America where we, the people, can courageously take sides in controversies, freely present our opinion, and teach our children universal facts in a non-partisan, non-sectarian ways . Our freedom of speech is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, not to be stumped every time Armenian extremists make a racist demand.

    Most of the true scholars, researchers, and historians publicly rejected on 19 May 1985, in New York Times & Washington Post, the Armenian characterization of WWI events as genocide, instead called it “…inter communal warfare fought by Christian and Muslim irregulars…”. The signatories included world renown names like Prof. Bernard Lewis of Princeton, Prof. Stanford Shaw of UCLA, Prof. Justin McCarthy of Louisville, and many others.

    In fact, so many of the true scholars were refuting the Armenian claims that the Armenian lobby was forced to create new avenues to buy credibility: genocide scholars. These are mostly retired professionals, psychiatrists, lecturers on US Government, English teachers, writers, authors, and others, all posing as authorities in history although most are not even historians, and all organized through the Armenian lobby, financed in part by the Cafesjian Foundation and organized by the notoriously anti-Turkish Zoryan Institute (like Taner Akcam of formerly U. of Minnesota, now Clark U.)

    EVEN THE U.S. CONGRESS’ OWN RECORDS REFUTE ARMENIAN CLAIMS

    Even the U.S. Congress’ own records from those times and dates clearly corroborate the Turkish position on the conflict—though perhaps in an unintended way:

    a- “American Military Mission to Armenia” (General Harbord) Report 1920 and the Annex Report Nat. Archives 184.021/175 –which does not mention any “race extermination” but, on the contrary, refers to “…refinements of cruelty by Armenians to Muslims…”

    b- Joint U.S. CONGRESS RESOLUTION NO. 192, APRIL 22, 1922 relative to the activities of Near East Relief ending 31 December 1921 which has unanimously resolved that a total of 1,414,000 Armenians were alive (which makes killing of 1.5 million Armenians an impossibility, since the total Armenian population was around 1.5 million at the time.)

    c- George Montgomery, a member of the U.S. delegation at the Paris Conference, had presented a detailed tabulation in 1919, showing a total of 1,104,000 Armenians alive, apart from those who had already immigrated to other countries.

    NUMBERS DON’T LIE, ARMENIANS LOBBYISTS DO

    29 March 1919 report to the Paris Peace Conference by the subcommittee on atrocities, chaired by the U.S. secretary of State Lansing, lists Armenian losses as “…more than 200,000…” Even this number is exaggerated as they got their information from the Armenian church, not exactly an impartial source.

    After meticulous research through the archives, the Turkish Historical Society documented the deaths of 54,000 Armenians using Ottoman police reports filed on site, of which number only about 8,400 are reported as victims of massacres. The paragraphs a, b, and c jointly clearly point to the THS number being closer to reality.

    Who, then may have jacked this number of Armenian casualties from the original 54,000 first to 200,000 in 29 March 1919 (Paris Peace Conference;) then to 600,000 in May 1919 (in a poster created by Armenians soliciting money in U.S. churches;) and finally to the current 1.5 million?

    Take a guess!

    ARMENIAN FALSIFIACTIONS CONTINUE

    Armenians did not suffer alone, millions of Turks, Azeris, Kurds, Jews, Circassians, Persians also lost their lives during the same period from similar causes, including massacres by Armenian rebel bands. Take a look at the photos of Armenian revolutionaries, armed-to-the-teeth, here: www.ethocide.com . Do they look like the “poor, starving, unarmed, helpless Armenians” myth promoted deceptively and incessantly?

    The mound said to contain Armenian skulls was that Vereshagin painting of 1871 protesting the brutalities of the Prussian war, still hanging in a museum in Moscow today, with which the Armenians duped the world into thinking that those were the skulls of Armenians killed by Turks. When the Armenian lies were finally exposed by Prof. Turkkaya Ataov in 1983, no apology was issued by the Armenian lobbies.

    Same falsification with the alleged Hitler quote: it is also a shameless hoax. Even the most cursory search in the internet will readily reveal many sources showing Princeton historian Heath Lowry’s extensive work exposing the Armenian falsifications.

    That the frequently used infamous Hitler quote is a hoax is beyond suspicion. It suffices to read a few lines from the article “Historian of Armenian Descent Says Frequently Used Hitler Quote Is Nothing But a Forgery”, that appeared in The Armenian Reporter Vol. XVII, NO. 40, on August 2, 1984, where an Armenian historian advises his fellow Armenians not to use this fake quote again. “…Dr. Robert John, a historian of Armenian heritage from New York City stated, according the news article, that a commonly used quotation of an alleged statement by Adolf Hitler about the Armenian massacres was a forgery and should, therefore, not be used…” The complete article available at :

    Many other such fabrications, meticulously documented in recent a book by Ataov, are the reasons why we would be careful, if we were Massachusetts educators or Supreme Court judges, not to take any Armenian claims, let alone who lies in the alleged mass grave, at face value. (Would you buy a used car from someone who claims a bogus genocide with fabricated evidence?)

    OTTOMAN TOLERANCE AND THE “MILLET SYSTEM”

    It is a matter of historical record that the Ottomans had established one of the most tolerant administrations in history, with its “millet” system where the faith-based groups were organized in self-ruling, autonomous “millets”. When the Jews of Iberia were persecuted during the 1492 Spanish inquisitions and were told to convert to Catholicism, or leave, or get killed, no country in Europe would offer sanctuary to Jews for fear of retaliation by Catholic Rome. No country, except the Ottoman Empire, that is. Since than many other persecuted peoples have freely come to the Ottoman lands and prospered there in the centuries since.

    Turkey continued this fine tradition when German Jews in 1930, secular Iranians in 1980s, Iraqi Kurds in 1990s, and many others have also been saved. Armenians’ passionately deliberate misrepresentations, embrace of intimidation, harassment, and even terrorism directed at dissenters, and willingness to teach their children hate for all things Turkish speak volumes about the Armenian psyche and character, don’t they?

    Then there the forced comparison between the court-proven (Nuremberg, 1945) uniquely Jewish tragedy of Holocaust versus the long discredited, political, and unsubstantiated claim of genocide. Deportation is a misnomer, because the treasonous elements were moved from one part of the country to another temporarily, until the end of the war, hence the term TERESET, temporary resettlement. Therefore, mentioning the factual Jewish Holocaust in the same breath with the bogus Armenian genocide is an insult to the silent memory of six million Jews who were killed just for being Jews. Jews did not take up arms against their own government. They did not demand German territories to establish a Jewish state on them. They did not terrorize the German countryside. They did not kill their German neighbors to the tune of 524,000 German victims. They did not join the invading enemy armies during WWII. Armenian, on the other hand, committed all of those heinous crimes during WWI and got away with them. Judging by the Armenians’ ethocidal treatment of the conflict to this day, the Armenians are still getting away with murder.

    CURRENT ARMENIAN MATERIAL TEACHES OUR CHILDREN HOW TO HATE

    Current material fails to remind the impressionable students that Armenians actually resorted to a very bloody, very massive revolt in April 1915; killed more than 40,000 Muslims in cold blood; wrestled the city out of the Ottoman government forces , and turned it over to the invading enemy armies (Russians.) That was the equivalent of 9/11 for the Ottoman Empire. Why is it acceptable for the U.S. to cross the oceans to start a global war on terrorists in Afghanistan in 21st Century but not acceptable for the Ottoman Empire to move its terrorists from one corner of its land to another in the 20th Century?

    And the 24 April 1915, billed by the Armenian falsifiers as the start of a genocide is actually the equivalent of Guantanamo for the Ottoman Empire when known Armenian terrorists and their suspected accomplices were arrested and incarcerated for questioning. If it is good for the goose now, it should be good for the gander, shouldn’t it? Please, no more blatant double standards.

    Loaded terms like “death march”, “concentration camps” and claims like the Nazis learned from Turks, included in Armenian teachings, are more recent inventions and after thoughts by the Armenian lobby, not unlike the genocide scholars, genocide curriculums, genocide lectures at Holocaust museums and Jewish synagogues. All new, all cunning steps in a master propaganda scheme, all designed to establish “credibility by association”, all funded by the Armenian lobby.

    Morgenthau, the career diplomat , historian, writer, quoted in the documentary, was actually none of those. He was a real estate agent and a developer from upstate new York who raised the most funds for Wilson in 1912 presidential campaign and was rewarded for his services by an ambassadorial post. He was a rabid anti-Turks and a Muslim hater. His book, published in 1918, was actually ghost –written by a Pulitzer Prize winner for him. Morgenthau never left Istanbul (except once for Jerusalem) but never set foot in Anatolia from where he reported. He could speak none of the languages of the era and area (Turkish, Persian, Arabic, Ottoman) so he relied on the translations and reports of his two male Armenian secretaries, Schmavonian and Andonian, hardly impartial sources of information.

    Morgenthau simply relayed the embellished and exaggerated reports filed by Armenian revolutionaries, American missionaries and other biased parties who could not care less about Muslims’ suffering, either directly or through American consuls in the area. As any fair-minded, honest, truth-seeker can easily see, the deck was shuffled with a pro-Armenians and anti-Turkish bias from the start.

    Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink’s assassination of 2007 is also mentioned in Armenian teachings, but not surprisingly, no word about the thousands of Turks who took to the streets condemning it. No mention, either, of the murder of Turkish Consul General Kemal Arikan in 1982 in Los Angeles or the fact that Armenians took to the streets to “celebrate it”! This is important, because both men were the same age when assassinated under similar circumstances by brain-washed youths, both married, and both had kids, both victimized by a similar hate crime. Yet, the Armenian victim (Dink) is glorified while Turkish victim is forgotten, dismissed, or ignored. Also ignored are more than 70 victims of Armenian terrorism and hate crimes since 1973. What is even more incredible that four of those victims were murdered in cold blood on American soil! No word on any of this in Armenian version of history, because most Armenians seem to think that Turks, being of the wrong ethnicity and religion, are certainly expendable sub-humans who deserve death.

    BIAS & BIGOTRY IN THE TERM “ARMENIAN GENOCIDE”

    If one cherishes values like fairness, objectivity, truth, and honesty, then one should really use the term “Turkish-Armenian conflict”. Asking one “Do you accept or deny Armenian Genocide” shows anti-Turkish bias. The question should be re-phrased “What is your stand on the Turkish-Armenian conflict?”

    Turks believe it was an inter communal warfare mostly fought by Turkish and Armenian irregulars, a civil war which is engineered, provoked, and waged by the Armenian revolutionaries, with active support from Russia, England, France, and others, all eyeing the vast territories of the collapsing Ottoman Empire, against a backdrop of a raging world war.

    Armenians, on the other hand, totally ignoring Armenian agitation, raids, rebellions, treason, territorial demands, and Turkish victims killed by Armenians, unfairly claim that it was a one way genocide.

    GENOCIDE ALLEGATIONS IGNORE “THE SIX T’S OF THE TURKISH-ARMENIAN CONFLICT”

    While some in unsuspecting public may be forgiven for taking the blatant and ceaseless Armenian propaganda at face value and believing Armenian falsifications merely because they are repeated so often, it is difficult and painful for someone like me, the son of Turkish survivors on both maternal and paternal sides.

    Those seemingly endless “War years” of 1912-1922 brought wide-spread death and destruction on to all Ottoman citizens. No Turkish family was left touched, mine included. Those nameless, faceless Turkish victims are killed for a second time today with politically motivated and baseless charges of Armenian genocide.

    ALLEGATIONS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ARE RACIST AND DISHONEST HISTORY

    They are racist because they ignore the Turkish dead: about 3 million during WWI; more than half a million of them at the hands of Armenian nationalists. And the allegations of Armenian genocide are dishonest because they simply dismiss the six T’s of the Turkish-Armenian conflict:

    THE SIX T’S OF THE TURKISH-ARMENIAN CONFLICT:

    1) TUMULT (as in numerous Armenian armed uprisings between 1877 and 1920)

    2) TERRORISM (by well-armed Armenian nationalists and militias victimizing Ottoman-Muslims between 1882-1920)

    3) TREASON (Armenians joining the invading enemy armies as early as 1914 and lasting until 1921)

    4) TERRITORIAL DEMANDS (where Armenians were a minority, not a majority, attempting to establish Greater Armenia, the would-be first apartheid of the 20th Century with a Christian minority ruling over a Muslim majority )

    5) TURKISH SUFFERING AND LOSSES (i.e. those caused by the Armenian nationalists: 524,000 Muslims, mostly Turks, met their tragic end at the hands of Armenian revolutionaries during WWI, per Turkish Historical Society. This figure is not to be confused with about 2.5 million Muslim dead who lost their lives due to non-Armenian causes during WWI. Grand total: more than 3 million, according to Prof. Justin McCarthy.)

    6) TERESET (temporary resettlement) triggered by the first five T’s above and amply documented as such; not to be equated to the Armenian misrepresentations as genocide.)

    VERDICT WITHOUT DUE PROCESS AMOUNTS TO LYNCHING

    Those who take the Armenian “allegations” of genocide at face value seem to also ignore the following:

    1- Genocide is a legal, technical term precisely defined by the U.N. 1948 convention (Like all proper laws, it is not retroactive to 1915.)

    2- Genocide verdict can only be given by a “competent court” after “due process” where both sides are properly represented and evidence mutually cross examined.

    3- For a genocide verdict, the accusers must prove “intent” at a competent court and after due process. This could never be done by the Armenians whose evidence mostly fall into five major categories: hearsay, mis-representations, exaggerations, forgeries, and “other”.

    4- Such a “competent court” was never convened in the case of Turkish-Armenian conflict and a genocide verdict does not exist (save a Kangaroo court in occupied Istanbul in 1920 where partisanship, vendettas, and revenge motives left no room for due process.)

    5- Genocide claim is political, not historical or factual. It reflects bias against Turks. Therefore, the term genocide must be used with the qualifier “alleged”, for scholarly objectivity and truth.

    HISTORY IS A MATTER OF SCHOLARSHIP, NOT CONVICTION, CONSENSUS, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

    History is not a matter of “conviction, consensus, political resolutions, political correctness, or propaganda.” History is a matter of research, peer review, thoughtful debate, and honest scholarship. Even historians, by definition, cannot decide on a genocide verdict, which is reserved for a “competent court” with its legal expertise and due process.

    POLITICAL LYNCHING OF THE TURKS BY ARMENIANS TODAY

    What we witness today amounts to lynching of the Turks by Armenians to satisfy the age old Armenian hate, bias, and bigotry. Values like fairness, presumption of innocence until proven guilty, objectivity, balance, honesty, and freedom of speech are stumped under the fanatic Armenian feet. Unprovoked , unjustified, and unfair defamation of Turkey, one of America’s closest allies in the troubled Middle East, in order to appease some nagging Armenian activists runs counter to American interests.

    Those who claim genocide verdict today, based on the much discredited Armenian evidence, are actually engaging in “conviction and execution without due process”. Last time I looked in the dictionary, that was the definition of “lynching”.

    Isn’t it time to stop fighting the First World War and give peace a chance?

  • CBS 60 MINUTES TAKES SIDE IN “BATTLE OVER HISTORY”

    CBS 60 MINUTES TAKES SIDE IN “BATTLE OVER HISTORY”

    Watch video and post comments:

    Read article and post comments:

    ***

    It is with utmost disappointment and grave sadness that Americans of Turkish heritage coast-to-coast watched CBS’s 60 Minutes program on 28 February 2010 blatantly take side on the documentary “Battle Over History”. Instead of being impartial, objective, and balanced reporters, as expected from an international news media organization, CBS chose to act like an arrogant journalist with a cause, promoting a long discredited political claim of a spurious genocide as settled history.

    Selection of obviously biased contents, clearly provocative symbols, incredibly misrepresented location, dishonest and racist Armenian speakers, and overtly partisan narratives pointed to a propaganda campaign rather than an honest attempt to educate public about a historical controversy.

    The documentary start with a falsehood purporting “…overwhelming majority of historians recognize genocide…” whereas the opposite is true. Here is a partial list of 69 world renown historians who rejected publicly on 19 May 1985, in New York Times & Washington Post, the Armenian characterization of WWI events as genocide, instead called it “…inter communal warfare fought by Christian and Muslim irregulars…”: Prof. Bernard Lewis of Princeton, Prof. Stanford Shaw of UCLA, Prof. Justin McCarthy of Louisville, and many others.

    In fact, so many of the true scholars were refuting the Armenian claims that the Armenian lobby was forced to create new avenues to buy credibility: genocide scholars. These are mostly retired professionals, psychiatrists, lecturers on US Government, English teachers, and others, all posing as authorities in history but most are not even historians, and all organized through the Armenian lobby, financed in part by the Cafesjian Foundation and organized by the notoriously anti-Turkish Zoryan Institute.

    It was remarkable that an English professor, Balakian, and not a historian was selected as the spokesperson for Armenians in a complex event in history, along with a dentist, a priest, and others. The token inclusion of the harshly edited words of the frequently interrupted Turkish ambassador did little to counter the massive infusion of disinformation and deception by the Armenian propagandists featured prominently throughout the documentary.

    Balakian asserted “…450,000 Armenians died in Dar El Zor…” which was another falsehood. Even American consul wrote that 500,000 Armenians survived the move within the context of the temporary resettlement (TERESET) order of 1915. TERESET was a wartime homeland security measure taken to defend the country in the face of brutal foreign invasions (i.e. military campaigns by the ANZAC and the French in the Dardanelles, Russians in the Ottoman-Russian border, and British in Sinai, among others) and equally atrocious domestic revolts and fifth columns (i.e. Van Revolt by Armenians in April 1915).

    Even the U.S. Congress’ own records from those times and dates clearly corroborate the Turkish position on the conflict:

    a- “American Military Mission to Armenia” (General Harbord) Report 1920 and the Annex Report Nat. Archives 184.021/175 –which does not mention any “race extermination” but, on the contrary, refers to “…refinements of cruelty by Armenians to Muslims…”

    b- Joint U.S. CONGRESS RESOLUTION NO. 192, APRIL 22, 1922 relative to the activities of Near East Relief ending 31 December 1921 which has unanimously resolved that a total of 1,414,000 Armenians were alive (which makes killing of 1.5 million Armenians an impossibility, since the total Armenian population was around 1.5 million at the time.)

    c- George Montgomery, a member of the U.S. delegation at the Paris Conference, had presented a detailed tabulation in 1919, showing a total of 1,104,000 Armenians alive, apart from those who had already immigrated to other countries.

    d- 29 March 1919 report of the Paris Conference subcommittee on atrocities, chaired by the U.S. secretary of State Lansing, lists Armenian losses as “…more than 200,000…” Even this number is exaggerated as they got their information from the Armenian church, not exactly an impartial source. After meticulous research through the archives, the Turkish Historical Society documented the deaths of 54,000 Armenians using Ottoman police reports filed on site, of which number only about 8,400 are reported as victims of massacres. The paragraphs a, b, and c jointly point to the THS number being closer to reality.

    Who, then may have jacked this number of Armenian casualties from the original 54,000 first to 200,000 in 29 March 1919 (Paris Peace Conference;) 600,000 in May 1919 (in a poster created by Armenians soliciting money in U.S. churches;) to the current 1.5 million? Take a guess!

    Many of the re-located Armenians did arrive in Syria and all of them were given homes, land and money. Armenians were given an option to return to Turkey in 1916 and 1917, and many actually did, in fact, some even joined the French forces and fought against the Ottoman Empire. The descendants of the re-located Armenians who chose to live in Syria and Lebanon make up a large portion of the Diaspora Armenians today. These facts, unfortunately, were not mentioned in the presentation.

    A single site was shown along the Euphrates, claiming that the bones were everywhere, which is extremely questionable after 95 years. The Armenian propagandists featured in the documentary certainly are not known to be below placing those bones there just before the “show” for maximum impact on the story, in the finest tradition of Andonian, the master fabricator of fake Talaat telegrams fame.

    The Turkish Ambassador Nabi Sensoy was not given an opportunity to tell the truth, as he appeared for less than a minute, and erroneously referred to the re-settlement as deportations.

    Many American researchers and scholars, all experts in the history of the Ottoman Empire, dispute Armenian allegations, leading to the conclusion that although Armenian civilian losses during World War I were tragic, the events of 1915 were not tantamount to genocide. Armenians did not suffer alone, millions of Turks, Azeris, Kurds, Jews, Circassians, Persians also lost their lives during the same period from similar causes, including massacres by Armenian rebel bands. Take a look at the photos of Armenian revolutionaries, armed-to-the-teeth, here: www.ethocide.com . Do they look like the “poor, starving, unarmed, helpless Armenians” myth promoted deceptively and incessantly?

    The mound said to contain Armenian bones sounds very much like that Vereshagin painting of skulls of 1871, hanging in a museum in Moscow, with which the Armenians duped the world into thinking that those were the skulls of Armenians killed by Turks. When the Armenian lies were finally exposed by Prof. Turkkaya Ataov in 1983, no apology was issued by the Armenian lobbies. Same thing with alleged Hitler quote: it is a hoax. Even the most cursory search in the internet will readily reveal many sources showing Princeton historian Heath Lowry’s extensive work exposing the Armenian falsifications.

    That the frequently used infamous Hitler quote is a hoax is beyond suspicion. It suffices to read a few lines from the article “Historian of Armenian Descent Says Frequently Used Hitler Quote Is Nothing But a Forgery”, that appeared in The Armenian Reporter Vol. XVII, NO. 40, on August 2, 1984, where an Armenian historian advises his fellow Armenians not to use this fake quote again. “…Dr. Robert John, a historian of Armenian heritage from New York City stated, according the news article, that a commonly used quotation of an alleged statement by Adolf Hitler about the Armenian massacres was a forgery and should, therefore, not be used…” The complete article available at :

    Many other such fabrications, meticulously documented in recent a book by Ataov, are the reasons why we would be careful, if we were CBS reporters, not to take any Armenian claims, let alone who lies in the alleged mass grave, at face value.

    Armenians were never called infidels by the Ottomans as claimed in the film. On the contrary, it is a matter of historical record that the Ottomans had established one of the most tolerant administrations in history, with its millet system where the faith-based groups were organized in self-ruling, autonomous “millets”. When the Jews of Iberia were persecuted during the 1492 Spanish inquisitions and were told to convert to Catholicism, or leave, or get killed, no country in Europe would offer sanctuary to Jews for fear of retaliation by Catholic Rome. No country, except the Ottoman Empire, that is. Since than many other persecuted peoples have freely come to the Ottoman lands and prospered there in the centuries since. Turkey continued this fine tradition when German Jews in 1930, secular Iranians in 1980s, Iraqi Kurds in 1990s, and many others have also been saved. Balakian’s deliberate misrepresentation speaks volumes about his character. Like the skulls photo and the Hitler quote, this claim is fake, too.

    Then there the forced comparison between the court-proven (Nuremberg, 1945) uniquely Jewish tragedy of Holocaust versus the long discredited, political, and unsubstantiated claim of genocide. Deportation is a misnomer, because the treasonous elements were moved from one part of the country to another temporarily, until the end of the war, hence the term TERESET, temporary resettlement. Therefore, mentioning the factual Jewish Holocaust in the same breath with the bogus Armenian genocide is an insult to the silent memory of six million Jews who were killed just for being Jews. Jews did not take up arms against their own government. They did not demand German territories to establish a Jewish state on them. They did not terrorize the German countryside. They did not kill their German neighbors to the tune of 524,000 German victims. They did not join the invading enemy armies during WWII. Armenian, on the other hand, committed all of those heinous crimes during WWI and got away with them. Judging by CBS’s ethocidal coverage, the Armenians are still getting away with murder.

    Simon also failed to remind his unsuspecting audiences that Armenians resorted to a massive revolt in April 1915, killed more than 40,000 Muslims in cold blood, wrestled the city out of the Ottoman government forces , and turned it over to the invading enemy armies (Russians.) That was the equivalent of 9/11 for the Ottoman Empire. Why is it acceptable for the U.S. to cross the oceans to start a global war on terrorists in Afghanistan in 21st Century but not acceptable for the Ottoman Empire to move its terrorists from one corner of its land to another in the 20th Century?

    And the 24 April 1915, billed by the Armenian falsifiers as the start of a genocide is actually the equivalent of Guantanamo for the Ottoman Empire when known Armenian terrorists and their suspected accomplices were arrested and incarcerated for questioning. If it is good for the goose now, it should be good for the gander then. Please, no more double standards.

    Loaded terms like “death march”, “concentration camps” and claims like the Nazis learned from Turks are more recent inventions and after thoughts by the Armenian lobby, not unlike the genocide scholars, genocide curriculums, genocide lectures at Holocaust museums and Jewish synagogues. All new, all cunning steps in a master propaganda scheme, all designed to establish “credibility by association”, all funded by the Armenian lobby.

    Morgenthau, the career diplomat , historian, writer, quoted in the documentary, was actually none of those. He was a real estate agent and a developer from upstate new York who raised the most funds for Wilson in 1912 presidential campaign and was rewarded for his services by an ambassadorial post. He was a rabid anti-Turks and a Muslim hater. His book, published in 1918, was actually ghost –written by a Pulitzer Prize winner for him. Morgentahu never left Istanbul (except once for Jerusalem) but never set foot in Anatolia from where he reported. He could speak none of the languages of the era and area (Turkish, Persian, Arabic, Ottoman) so he relied on the translations and reports of his two male Armenian secretaries, Schmavonian and Andonian, hardly impartial sources of information. Morgenthau simply relayed the embellished and exaggerated reports filed by Armenian revolutionaries, American missionaries and other biased parties who could not care less about Muslims’ suffering, either directly or through American consuls in the area. As any fair-minded, honest, truth-seeker can easily see, the deck was shuffled with a pro-Armenians and anti-Turkish bias from the start.

    Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink’s assassination of 2007 was mentioned, but no word about the thousands of Turks who took to the streets condemning it. No mention, either, of the murder of Turkish Consul General Kemal Arikan in 1982 in Los Angeles or the fact that Armenians took to the streets to “celebrate it”! This is important, because both men were the same age when assassinated under similar circumstances by brain-washed youths, both married, and both had kids, both victimized by a similar hate crime. Yet, the Armenian victim (Dink) is glorified while Turkish victim is forgotten, dismissed, or ignored. Also ignored are more than 70 victims of Armenian terrorism and hate crimes since 1973. What is even more incredible that four of those victims were murdered in cold blood on American soil! Still, not a word from CBS on Turkish victims. Perhaps CBS reporter thinks Turks are expendable sub humans who deserve deaths, being of the wrong ethnicity and religion.

    BIAS & BIGOTRY IN THE TERM “ARMENIAN GENOCIDE”

    If one cherishes values like fairness, objectivity, truth, and honesty, then one should really use the term “Turkish-Armenian conflict”. Asking one “Do you accept or deny Armenian Genocide” shows anti-Turkish bias. The question should be re-phrased “What is your stand on the Turkish-Armenian conflict?”

    Turks believe it was an inter communal warfare mostly fought by Turkish and Armenian irregulars, a civil war which is engineered, provoked, and waged by the Armenian revolutionaries, with active support from Russia, England, France, and others, all eyeing the vast territories of the collapsing Ottoman Empire, against a backdrop of a raging world war.
    Armenians, on the other hand, totally ignoring Armenian agitation, raids, rebellions, treason, territorial demands, and Turkish victims killed by Armenians, unfairly claim that it was a one way genocide.

    GENOCIDE ALLEGATIONS IGNORE “THE SIX T’S OF THE TURKISH-ARMENIAN CONFLICT”

    While some in unsuspecting public may be forgiven for taking the blatant and ceaseless Armenian propaganda at face value and believing Armenian falsifications merely because they are repeated so often, it is difficult and painful for someone like me, the son of Turkish survivors on both maternal and paternal sides.

    Those seemingly endless “War years” of 1912-1922 brought wide-spread death and destruction on to all Ottoman citizens. No Turkish family was left touched, mine included. Those nameless, faceless Turkish victims are killed for a second time today with politically motivated and baseless charges of Armenian genocide.

    ALLEGATIONS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ARE RACIST AND DISHONEST HISTORY

    They are racist because they ignore the Turkish dead: about 3 million during WWI; more than half a million of them at the hands of Armenian nationalists.

    And the allegations of Armenian genocide are dishonest because they simply dismiss

    THE SIX T’S OF THE TURKISH-ARMENIAN CONFLICT:

    1) TUMULT (as in numerous Armenian armed uprisings between 1877 and 1920)

    2) TERRORISM (by well-armed Armenian nationalists and militias victimizing Ottoman-Muslims between 1882-1920)

    3) TREASON (Armenians joining the invading enemy armies as early as 1914 and lasting until 1921)

    4) TERRITORIAL DEMANDS (where Armenians were a minority, not a majority, attempting to establish Greater Armenia, the would-be first apartheid of the 20th Century with a Christian minority ruling over a Muslim majority )

    5) TURKISH SUFFERING AND LOSSES (i.e. those caused by the Armenian nationalists: 524,000 Muslims, mostly Turks, met their tragic end at the hands of Armenian revolutionaries during WWI, per Turkish Historical Society. This figure is not to be confused with about 2.5 million Muslim dead who lost their lives due to non-Armenian causes during WWI. Grand total: more than 3 million, according to Prof. Justin McCarthy.)

    6) TERESET (temporary resettlement) triggered by the first five T’s above and amply documented as such; not to be equated to the Armenian misrepresentations as genocide.)

    VERDICT WITHOUT DUE PROCESS AMOUNTS TO LYNCHING

    Those who take the Armenian “allegations” of genocide at face value seem to also ignore the following:

    1- Genocide is a legal, technical term precisely defined by the U.N. 1948 convention (Like all proper laws, it is not retroactive to 1915.)

    2- Genocide verdict can only be given by a “competent court” after “due process” where both sides are properly represented and evidence mutually cross examined.

    3- For a genocide verdict, the accusers must prove “intent” at a competent court and after due process. This could never be done by the Armenians whose evidence mostly fall into five major categories: hearsay, mis-representations, exaggerations, forgeries, and “other”.

    4- Such a “competent court” was never convened in the case of Turkish-Armenian conflict and a genocide verdict does not exist (save a Kangaroo court in occupied Istanbul in 1920 where partisanship, vendettas, and revenge motives left no room for due process.)

    5- Genocide claim is political, not historical or factual. It reflects bias against Turks. Therefore, the term genocide must be used with the qualifier “alleged”, for scholarly objectivity and truth.

    HISTORY IS A MATTER OF SCHOLARSHIP, NOT CONVICTION, CONSENSUS, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
    History is not a matter of “conviction, consensus, political resolutions, political correctness, or propaganda.” History is a matter of research, peer review, thoughtful debate, and honest scholarship. Even historians, by definition, cannot decide on a genocide verdict, which is reserved for a “competent court” with its legal expertise and due process.
    POLITICAL LYNCHING OF THE TURKS BY ARMENIANS TODAY

    What we witness today amounts to lynching of the Turks by Armenians to satisfy the age old Armenian hate, bias, and bigotry. Values like fairness, presumption of innocence until proven guilty, objectivity, balance, honesty, and freedom of speech are stumped under the fanatic Armenian feet. Unprovoked , unjustified, and unfair defamation of Turkey, one of America’s closest allies in the troubled Middle East, in order to appease some nagging Armenian activists runs counter to American interests.
    Those who claim genocide verdict today, based on the much discredited Armenian evidence, are actually engaging in “conviction and execution without due process”. Last time I looked in the dictionary, that was the definition of “lynching”.
    Isn’t it time to stop fighting the First World War and give peace a chance?

  • ARE YOU  “TOO BUSY” TO STAND TALL FOR YOUR CULTURE & HERITAGE?

    ARE YOU “TOO BUSY” TO STAND TALL FOR YOUR CULTURE & HERITAGE?

    Click here to send your message to the members of House Foreign Affairs Committee

    Dear All,

    Congressman Howard Berman (D-CA, 28th District) is one of the lead actors in the unfortunate scheme that is H.Res.252. For what it is worth, below, please find the summary of my conversation with HB’s staffer.

    ***

    I called Congressman Howard Berman’s Washington office at 9:00 am PST (Noon EST) and talked to Dan Harsha. After greetings, I started out with this introduction:

    “… This phone call is about H.Res. 252. We, Americans of Turkish descent, think it is replete with factual errors, omissions, and distortions. Also, it is insulting and defamatory to Turkey. If passed, not only Turkish-US relations would be harmed, but also the US Congress’ own records dating back to 1920s would have been dismissed or ignored.

    “ General Harbord’s report dated 1920 mentions “…refined Armenian atrocities victimizing Muslims…” not race killings of Armenians as alleged. H.Res.192 of 24 April 1922 states 1,414,000 Armenians being alive as of 31 December 1921, thus refuting Armenian claims of 1.5 million dead as the entire population was around that. How can one kill the entire population and still come up with 1.4 million Armenian alive?

    “ If you step back from this controversy for a minute and take a look at the big picture, you will see this: Turks and Armenians lived in harmonious co-habitation for nearly a millennium. This was changed towards the end of 19th Century and beginning of 20th Century when Armenians took up arms against their own government. Russia, England and France, of course, helped and encouraged Armenians in their revolts.

    “ Then there were Armenian agitation, raids, feuds, terrorism, and treason, all based on territorial demands towards establishing a greater Armenia. Armenians were never a majority in the lands where they lived and if greater did Armenia succeed, it would be the first apartheid of the 20th Century where a Christian minority would be ruling a Muslim majority.

    “ When Turks defended their home in the face of brutal foreign invasions and equally vicious domestic fifth column activities and revolts, through TERESET (temporary resettlement) it was reported in the Western media frequently as Muslims or Turks annihilating Armenians. The New York Times reported on the conflict 145 times in 1915 not allowing Turkish side to be heard even once; that’s how deep the bias and bigotry run in those days.

    “ Even the US Ambassador to Istanbul was merely conveying reports filed by Armenian revolutionaries and missionaries who could not care less about the Muslim suffering. Morgenthau was billed as a diplomat and a historian, whereas he was neither. He was a real estate agent and a developer from upstate New York who raised the most funds and was rewarded by Pres, Wilson with an ambassadorial post. At first, he didn’t want to go, because he wanted a more influential capital, like London, Paris, or Berlin. A Rabbi friend of his convinced him to go telling him how important the Ottoman Empire is and how the Ottomans helped Jews escape death in Iberia during the Spanish inquisitions of 1492. That’s how ignorant and biased Morgenthau was. Based on his reports, the British wartime propaganda book, the Blue Book, was published. Embellishments, feeding on falsifications, appearing in more and more exaggerated tertiary, quaternary sources and beyond… The cycle of hearsay and forgeries finally ended up in H.Res. 252…”

    (At this time, Dan Harsha interrupted saying he could not listen to me ad nauseam. Would I please wrap it up.)

    “…Let me conclude by saying that H.Res. 252 is erroneous, unfair, unwise, and unethical. What’s more, it would harm US-Turkey relations…”

    Dan Harsha responded:

    “… I appreciate hearing your views. Berman is a member of the Turkish Caucus and values Turkey’s friendship a lot. Berman doesn’t think what happened 100 years ago was Turkey’s fault or recognizing genocide would affect US-Turkey relations. He just thinks that Turkey should face its own history like Germany did about its Nazi past. Berman, himself being a survivor from the Holocaust, is sensitive about this issue…”

    Then I responded again by saying that the Jewish Holocaust is a court-proven fact, whereas the Armenia genocide is a long-discredited political claim. I stated:

    “… Holocaust is a uniquely true tragedy, while the alleged genocide is a wartime suffering that involves revolts and retaliations. Did Jews establish Jewish armies behind German lines, join invaders, terrorize the German countryside, demand German territories, in order to establish a Jewish state on German soil? Of course, not. Armenian, on the other hand, did all that and much more before, during, and after WWI. How can the two be uttered in the same breath? Isn’t that an insult to the silent memories of six million Jews exterminated for just being Jews?..”

    By this time, Dan Harsha was anxious to leave this conversation. He said he really had to go and thanked me for my time. I thanked back for his time.

    CONCLUSIONS:

    Howard Berman will vote yes. That’s too bad. Berman thinks he is doing the right thing, without realizing he is simply brainwashed by the Armenian lobby (if not also intimidated and threatened by the Armenian fanatics who gave us Armenian terrorism. Remember Hampig Sassoonian and Mourad Topalian?)

    If Berman could click on www.ethocide.com and see the photos of Armenian gangs armed to the teeth, posing proudly by the Turks they killed, gun toting Armenian priests claiming to have waged epic battles against the Turks, and many other Armenian terrorists, would Berman still believe the “poor, starving, unarmed, helpless, noncombatant Armenian” myth? Genocide, huh? What a sham!

    SOLUTIONS:

    This entire crop of pro-genocide congress people needs to be replaced with a new crop which is more educated ( and financially and electorally supported by Turkish Americans) about

    1) the other side of the story and

    2) geo-strategic, military-industrial, socio-economic, and political values of Turkey.

    3) the emerging socio-economic and political might of the Turkish Americans.

    APPEAL TO DEAR VOLUNTEERS AND FRIENDS,

    If you want to give our selfless and spirited efforts opposing H.Res.252 a helping hand, then send your message to all members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in 30 seconds by clicking the link below right.

    Click…click… Done!

    Cost = 30 seconds of your time.

  • TURKISH & TURKIC AMERICANS LAUNCH JOINT ACTION ALERTS AGAINST H.RES. 252

    TURKISH & TURKIC AMERICANS LAUNCH JOINT ACTION ALERTS AGAINST H.RES. 252

    Fallacious and devious resolution, penned and rammed through the U.S. Congress by the Armenian lobby, seen as a serious threat that, if passed, can derail amicable Turkey-USA relation and hurt American interests in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East, the Caucasus, the Balkans and Central Asia.

    ***

    The Armenian lobby and its supporters in Congress have introduced another “Armenian Genocide Resolution,” similar to the resolutions in previous years. H.Res.252 has been scheduled for a vote at the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 4, 2010 .

    Turkish Coalition Of America (TCA), The Assembly Of Turkish American Associations (ATAA), The Federation Of Turkish American Societies (FTAA) and U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) all urged their members to educate their representatives via letters, phone calls, and visits. Two action alerts are launched for this purpose.

    The Hill newspaper today quotes the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) as “very confident” that the so-called Armenian genocide resolution would pass the House Foreign Affairs Committee and that it has “very strong prospects for passage” on the House floor.

    ANCA, which has been lobbying Congress for the Resolution’s passage, is the same organization whose recent National Chairman Mourad Topalian was indicted and sentenced to over three years in prison by a Ohio Federal Court for being part of a terrorist network that organized the bombing of the Turkish Center in New York and other violent attacks against Turks. ANCA awarded the convicted terrorist the “Freedom Award” for his “unique brand of leadership in driving forward and promoting Armenian history and the cause of the Armenian nation.”

    TCA invitation to action reminds concerned citizens to “…tell your member of Congress: ‘Enough is Enough.’ Write to your member of Congress TODAY to urge him or her to stand for reconciliation, fairness and truth and vote “No” on H.Res.252…”

    To send a pre-written letter to one’s representative, one is urged to visit the TURKISH COALITION OF AMERICA (TCA) ACTION ALERT page:

    U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) also launched an action alert. One is urged to log in and send a message by clicking the link:

    In addition to sending a letter to one’s representative, one is also encouraged to organize visits with one’s member of Congress and staff at his/her district office and raise one’s concerns and objections on the issue in person. For further information, one can visit

    TCA: www.turkishcoalitionofamerica.org (action alert)

    ATAA: www.ataa.org (articles by historians and experts)

    FTAA : www.ftaa.org (community initiatives)

    USAN: www.USAzeris.org (action alert)

    www.ethocide.com : For photos of armed-to-the-teeth Armenian murderers during WWI and their Turkish victims to demolish the myth of “poor, helpless, unarmed Armenian” myth

    www.turkla.com and www.historyoftruth.com , www.tallarmeniantale.com : for articles elucidating malicious mass deception for political gain (ETHOCIDE) by the Armenian lobby since WWI

    https://armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2010/01/2993-second-open-letter-to-president.html : for the U.S. Congress’ own records refuting the Armenian deception and distortions

    And many other websites for which links are provided at these sites. Below is a typical letter that can be presented to one’s representative at the U.S. Congress.

    ***

    SUBJECT: VOTE FOR AMERICA, NOT ARMENIA! VOTE “NO” ON H.RES. 252 !

    Dear Congressman/woman,

    H.Res. 252 has been scheduled for a vote in at the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 4, 2010. This Resolution is seeking to validate the Armenian allegation of genocide against Turkey. I strongly urge you NOT to become a co-sponsor of this resolution and to vote AGAINST it, should it come to a vote.

    Similar resolutions have been introduced in the past and have caused nothing but harm to US interests, while deeply offending Americans of Turkish descent. H.Res. 252 will be no different.

    THE RESOLUTION WILL SEVERELY UNDERMINE PROTOCOLS AND PEACE EFFORTS

    The Resolution will severely undermine ongoing bilateral efforts between Turkey and Armenia to establish diplomatic relations, as well as economic and political ties. The recently signed protocols between the two countries also include the forming of a joint historical commission to study the tragic events during World War I and reach a common understanding. Turkish Americans overwhelmingly support this rapprochement.

    WORLD-RENOWN HISTORIANS REJECT ARMENIANS CLAIMS EMBODIED IN H.RES. 252

    The proponents of these resolutions frequently allege a consensus among scholars that the events of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire were genocide. The fact is that there is no consensus on this issue and many historians do not accept the genocide thesis. They include internationally acclaimed scholars of World War I and the Middle East, such as Bernard Lewis, Norman Stone, Andrew Mango, David Fromkin, Guenter Lewy, Pierre Nora, Malcolm Yapp and Justin McCarthy, to name a few.

    H.RES. 252 IS FALLACIOUS AND DECEPTIVE

    The resolution seeks to legislate history based on incomplete, partisan and falsified information. While portrayed as “non-binding,” the Resolution will create high emotions among Turks and Armenians and prejudice the continued study and understanding of the Ottoman Armenian tragedy by endorsing a one-sided narrative.

    More menacingly, Armenian lobbyists openly proclaim that these resolutions are but a stepping stone to eventual reparations and land claims against the Republic of Turkey, which did not even exist at the time. Thus, passing these resolutions will hardly end this contentious debate.

    GENOCIDE VERDICTS RESERVED FOR COMPETENT TRIBUNALS, NOT POLITICIANS

    If pronouncing convictions of the high crime of genocide was to have been left to politicians, the United Nations would not have given authority exclusively to the International Court of Justice. However, it is precisely because of the grave implications of a genocide charge that a special legal process has been established to prosecute it, and the United States adopted this process when it ratified the U.N. Genocide Convention in 1987. With resolutions of this nature, Congress is usurping its power and creating a dangerous precedent.

    To quarrel with a genocide characterization — the crime of crimes – is not to deny lesser crimes or atrocities. In fact, the Ottoman government itself prosecuted and convicted nearly 1,400 individuals, executing scores, including a provincial governor, for crimes committed against Armenians.

    HALF A MILLION MUSLIM DEATHS CAUSED BY ARMENIANS SIMPLY IGNORED

    One of my key objections to H.Res. 252 is its lack of reference to the nearly 2.5 million Muslims of the Ottoman Empire who perished during the same period of time. Among them are about half a million Ottoman Muslims in Eastern Anatolia whose tragic ends had come in the well documented massacres and ethnic cleansing committed directly or assisted by Armenian rebels. Muslim losses and suffering are ignored or outright denied by the proponents of this legislation. This is selective morality bordering on racism.

    PASSING H.RES. 252 WOULD MAKE A MOCKERY OF THE U.S. CONGRESS’ OWN RECORDS

    What is perhaps most ironic of all is the fact that if the fallacy and deception in H.Res. 252 is approved, then the U.S. Congress would be denying its own reports, resolution, and records dating back to 1920 and 1922 refuting Armenian claims of systematic annihilation (since the term genocide did not exit back then and invented decades later.) US recognition of a bogus genocide and thus legislating falsified version of history into law, to appease the arrogant Armenian lobby would be a travesty scholarship, critical thinking, and free speech, making a mockery of the U.S. Congress’ own records, as the following among many other such documents, clearly refute Armenian claims once and for all:

    a- “American Military Mission to Armenia” (General Harbord) Report 1920 and the Annex Report Nat. Archives 184.021/175 –which does not mention any “race extermination” but, on the contrary, refers to “…refinements of cruelty by Armenians to Muslims…”

    b- Joint U.S. CONGRESS RESOLUTION NO. 192, APRIL 22, 1922 relative to the activities of Near East Relief ending 31 December 1921 which has unanimously resolved that a total of 1,414,000 Armenians were alive (which makes killing of 1.5 million Armenians an impossibility, since the total Armenian population was around 1.5 million at the time.)

    c- George Montgomery, a member of the U.S. delegation at the Paris Conference, had presented a detailed tabulation in 1919, showing a total of 1,104,000 Armenians alive, apart from those who had already immigrated to other countries.

    ARMENIAN NARRATIVES: THE ONLY CASE IN THE WORLD WHERE THE DEAD MULTIPLY OVER THE YEARS

    d- 29 March 1919 report of the Paris Conference subcommittee on atrocities, chaired by the U.S. secretary of State Lansing, lists Armenian losses as “…more than 200,000…” Even this number is exaggerated as they got their information from the Armenian church, not exactly an impartial source. The Turkish Historical Society documented the deaths of 54,000 Armenians using Ottoman police reports field on site, of which number only about 8,400 are reported as victims of massacres based on police reports in Ottoman archives. The paragraphs a, b, and c jointly point to the THS number being closer to reality.

    Who, then may have jacked this number of Armenian casualties from the original 54,000 first to 200,000 in March 1919, and then to 600,000 in May 1919 (in a poster created by Armenians soliciting aid from American donors), and finally to the current 1.5 million even higher? Take a guess!

    H.RES 252 UNDERMINES AMERICAN NATIONAL INTERESTS AND SECURITY

    H.Res 252 undermines American national interests and security, as it will damage US-Turkish relations. Turkey is a key ally of the United States and an indispensable partner to the Unites States efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, helping the United States and the international community to combat terrorism and build security in the region. At a time when the United States is seeking to improve relations with the world, H. Res. 252 singles out a genuine historical controversy and turns it into an affront against our valued ally Turkey.

    H.Res. 252 serves no contemporary US policy purpose, dispenses dubiously selective morality in response to special interest lobbying, hurts American national interests, and the principles of fairness and justice. Today, America is fighting two wars, faces an economic crisis of historical proportions and depends on the good-will and support of nations like Turkey. I urge you to put national interest ahead of special interest and respectfully ask you NOT to support and…

    VOTE FOR AMERICA, NOT ARMENIA!

    VOTE “NO” on H.Res. 252 !

  • TURNING POINT IN TURKISH AMERICAN PUBLIC ADVOCACY

    TURNING POINT IN TURKISH AMERICAN PUBLIC ADVOCACY

    ATAA’s Statement on H.Res. 252

    Dear Turkish Americans and Friends of Türkiye:

    House Resolution 252 passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC) by a vote of 23-22 after HFAC Chairman Howard Berman extended the voting period thrice and forced reluctant legislators to show up and vote in favor of the resolution.

    The passage of H.Res. 252 represented ethnic politics at its worst, and made a mockery of the U.S. legislative, judicial and foreign policy processes. Indeed, United States foreign policy regarding Turkey, Armenia and the broader region was hijacked by ultra-nationalist Armenian politics in a few Congressional districts.

    The recalling of Turkish Ambassador Namık Tan was an expression of Turkey’s disappointment in what now appears to be a contradiction in the United States’ position on Turkish-Armenian rapprochement. It was also an expression in defense of the dignity of the Turkish people to whom the U.S. now appears to have denied fair and just treatment by this prejudicial resolution plagued with blatantly libelous falsifications.

    At this stage it is difficult to expect the Turkish people to support the ratification of the Turkey – Armenia protocols, as the people’s interest now turns to whether U.S. President Obama will attempt to rehabilitate U.S. credibility in Turkey and among Turkish Americans, or permit further deterioration in a Proclamation on April 24. Furthermore, an alleged agreement between the White House and HFAC not to bring H.Res. 252 to a floor vote appears empty, if not also deceptive, as confidence in the ability of the Resolution to actually pass Congress is meager.

    House Resolution 252 signals a turning point in Turkish American public advocacy. The 23-22 vote reflects the growing efficacy of the Turkish American public advocacy network, including its infrastructure, technical abilities, critical mass, cooperation, solidarity, and resolve. In 2007, H.Res. 106 passed the HFAC 27-21, after the late Congressman Tom Lantos voted in favor of the motion, and was followed by three standby members. In 2005, H.Res. 316 and 195 passed overwhelmingly 42-7 and 35-11, respectively. This is just the beginning, as an awakening Turkish American community and a resurging Turkish Republic take command of their destiny for “Peace at Home, Peace in the World.”

    I thank the Turkish American community, particularly YOU – the individual Turkish American and friend of Türkiye — for your tremendous efforts. In solidarity within diversity, over 5000 letters were submitted through the ATAA-FTAA-TCA campaign. ATAA visited most of the HFAC members at least once at the local level and three times on Capitol Hill. On March 3, 2010, the ATAA and FTAA joined in solidarity on Capitol Hill, as we visited each HFAC member one final time.

    I also thank the Azerbaijani, Crimean, Turkmen, Turcoman, Uzbek, Kazakh, Kirghiz, and Uighur American communities for their support. The Azerbaijan Society of America in New York – PaxTurcica in Los Angeles – USAN in Washington, DC supported the ATAA-FTAA-TCA letter campaign and Congressional visits. In addition, the Azerbaijanian American Cultural Alliance traveled from Texas to show its support at the March 4 HFAC Hearing.

    I thank the Turkish Coalition of America (TCA) for their invaluable support and guidance.

    Finally, I thank the ATAA Executive Committee, Board of Directors and Board of Trustees, and ATAA’s dedicated staff for their excellence in representing the Turkish American community in opposition to H.Res. 252 and in support of U.S.-Turkish relations. They have done this in parallel with four major ATAA projects, including Census 2010, SayTurk, Turkish American Broad Advocacy Network (TABAN) grassroots program, Turkish Student Outreach, and www.MediaWatchNow.com.

    Our task is not finished, though. In fact, it might be said that it is just starting now. First, we should build on this momentum to maintain our contact with our representatives to educate them on matters concerning Turkey USA relations, so that such “ill-informed” resolutions will not be supported in Congress. We should establish lasting bonds of friendship for future. Next, we should revive, reinvigorate, and grow our component organizations to reach out and touch every Turkish American in 50 states, to deter future misguided attacks on our heritage.

    Together we can do it and ATAA is here for you.

    Gunay Evinch
    President
    Assembly of Turkish American Associations

    ***

    Sevgili Türk Amerikalı’lar ve Türkiye’nin dostları:

    Sözde Ermeni soykırımı ilgili yasa tasarısı (H.Res. 252) Meclis Dı İlikiler Komitesi (HFAC) den 22 hayır ve 23 evet oyu alarak geçti. HFAC Bakanı Howard Berman oylama süresini 3 kez uzatıp oy vermekte isteksiz gözüken üyeleri zorlayarak tasarı lehine oy vermelerini sağladı.

    Etnik siyasetin en kötü ekilde temsil edildiği H.Res. 252 oylaması, Amerikan, yasama, yargı ve dı ilikiler süreçlerini maskaralık haline getirmitir. Nitekim, Amerika Birleik Devletleri’nin, Türkiye, Ermenistan ve bölge ülkelerle olan dı politikası aırı milliyetçi Ermenilerin Kongre seçim bölgelerindeki politikaları yüzünden gasp edilmitir.

    Bir hayal kırıklığı ifadesi olarak, Türk Büyükelçisi Namık Tan’ın geri çağrılması, Türk-Ermeni yakınlamasını destekleyen ABD için bir çeliki gibi görünüyor. Bu aynı zamanda, Türk insanının onurunu savunmanın da bir göstergesi olarak da algılanabilir. Bu sakıncalı karar tasarısı ile A.B.D adil tavrından uzaklamı duruyor.

    Bu aamada, Türk halkından Türkiye ve Ermenistan arasındaki protokolleri deskteklemesini beklemek oldukça zor görünmektedir. imdi merakla beklenen, Bakan Obama’nın, Amerika’nın Türkiye ve Türk Amerikalılar için güvenirliliği yeniden sağlamak için çaba gösterip göstermemesi ya da 24 Nisan resmi açıklamasını yaparak ilikileri daha da zor bir hale getirip getirmemesidir. Ayrıca, H.Res. 252 tasarısının oylamaya getirilmemesi konusunda Beyaz Saray ve HFAC arasında bir karar sağlanamamakla birlikte bu tasarının Kongre’ den geçip geçmemesi u an için belirsiz gözükmektedir.

    H.Res. 252, Türk-Amerikan ortak savunmasında dönüm noktasının sinyallerini vermektedir. 23-22’lik oy sonucu, altyapı, teknik becerileri, kritik kütle, ibirliği ve dayanıma da dahil olmak üzere Türk-Amerikan ortak savunma ağının artan etkinliğini yansıtmaktadır. 2007 yılında, H. Res. 106, Kongre üyesi Tom Lantosun lehte geç oyuyla HFAC de 27-21 oyla geçmiti. 2005 yılında H. Res. 316 ve 195 sırasıyla 42-7 ve 35-11 lik ezici bir çoğunlukla geçti. Bu sadece bir balangıç, aynı zamanda Türk Amerikan toplumu için büyük bir uyanı ve Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’nin Yurt ta ve Dünya da Barı” için komutayı ele almasıdır.

    Türk Amerikan toplumuna, özellikle de “Siz” değerli Türk Amerikalılara ve Türkiye’nin dostlarına göstermi olduğunuz muazzam gayretten dolayı teekkür ediyorum. Farklılıklar içinde dayanıma ilkesinden yola çıkarak, ATAA-FTAA-TCA olarak yürüttüğümüz mektup kampanyası kapsamında 5000’in üzerinde mektup Kongre’ye gönderildi. ATAA, ABD Temsilciler Meclisi Dı İlikiler Komisyonu’ndaki üyelerin ofisleri yerel düzeyde en az bir kere ve Capital Hill’de birkaç kez ziyaret edildi. 3 Mart 2010’da ATAA ve FTAA birlik olup tüm Komisyon üyelerinin ofislerini ziyaret ettik.

    Azeri, Kırımlı, Türkmen, Özbek, Kazak, Kırgız ve Uygur toplumlarına bizden desteklerini esirgemedikleri için teekkürlerimi iletiyorum. New York’taki Azerbaycan-Amerikan Toplumu, Los Angeles’daki Pax Turcica, Washington DC’deki Amerikan-Azeri Network ATAA-FTAA-TCA mektup kampanyasında ve Kongre ziyaretlerinde bize hep destek oldular. Bunun yanı sıra, Azerbaycan Amerikan Kültür Birliği 4 Mart’ta Dı İlikiler Komisyonu’ndaki oturumda Teksas’tan gelerek bizi yalnız bırakmadılar.

    Ayrıca, Amerika Türk Koalisyonu’na çok kıymetli destek ve katkılarından ötürü ükranlarımı sunuyorum.

    Son olarak, ATAA İcra Kuruluna, Yönetim Kuruluna ve Mütevelli Heyetine ve kendini iine adamı olan profesyonel ekibine, Türk Amerikan toplumunu 252 yasa tasarısına karı en iyi ekilde temsil ettikleri için ve Türk Amerikan ilikilerine yaptıkları katkılardan dolayı teekkür ediyorum. Ayrıca bir diğer önemli nokta, ATAA ekibinin bütün bu çalımaları dört büyük ATAA projesi ile birlikte yürütmü olmasıdır. Bunlar sırasıyla, Nüfus Sayımı için balattığımız Saytürk kampanyası, TABAN projesi, Türk Öğrenci Eriim programı ve medyada Türkiye hakkında çıkan yazıları takip ettiğimiz www.MediaWatchNow.com’ dur.

    Daha görevimiz bitmedi. Hala iin baında sayılırız. Bu gibi temelsiz tasarıların Kongre’de destek bulmasını önlemek için, öncelikle yapmamız gereken; mecliste temsilcilerimizle ilikilerimizi sürdürmek ve onları Türk Amerikan ilikilerini ilgilendiren meseleler üzerinde eğitmek olmalıdır. Gelecek için sağlam temelli ilikiler kurmamız gerekir. Bundan sonra, mirasımıza yapılan asılsız saldırıları engellemek; canlanma, yenilenme ve yerel derneklerimize ve 50 farklı eyalette yaayan her Türk Amerikalıya ulamakla mümkün olacaktır.

    Beraber baarabiliriz ve ATAA her konuda sizin yanınızda.

    Gunay Evinch
    Bakan
    Türk Amerikan Dernekleri Kurulu

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    Assembly of Turkish American Associations
    1526 18th St., NW Washington, DC 20036
    Ph: 202.483.9090 Fx: 202.483.9092
    www.ataa.org, [email protected]