Turkish Forum

Tag: VAN ISYANI

  • VAN MASSACRE OF APRIL 20, 1915

    VAN MASSACRE OF APRIL 20, 1915

    TADA-FEYM WORKING GROUP ANNOUNCEMENT  ON
    VAN MASSACRE OF APRIL 20, 1915

    On the 108 th anniversary of the vicious slaughter of 22,900 innocent Muslims at the provincial center of the City of Van on April 20, 1915 by mutinous Armenian gangs (Hunchak, Dashnak and alike), We, The Turkish People around the world, would like to commemorate our martyrs with compassion and love, bowing down in front of their honorable, loving memory with respect.

    The VAN massacre originates from the mutinous attitude fanatical Armenian gangs acquaired in the depths of history. Similar massacres committed by Armenians were witnessed throughout the Ottoman-Russian Wars of 1828 and 1877-78, due Armenians’ cooperation with the enemy, as well as other major massacres Armenians committed on their own.

    During the early phases of these Russian invasions, aiming the realization of Russia’s historical ambitions, some Armenians who knew the region very well as Ottoman citizens and whose second language was Turkish, led the Russian forces into Turkish territories, causing them to raid Turkish forces and massacre many Muslims. Armenians have repeated similar practices in the VAN MASSACRE.

    Due to the fact that Turkish men were engaged in the war efforts against invading enemy armies on six different battle-fronts during WWI, and that this situation created a vulnerability in the security forces of the region, Armenians who wanted to take advantage of this situation committed wide-scale massacres in Eastern villages and towns of Turkey, against the Muslim population. Armenians’ true intent was to reduce the numbers of the local Muslims, and thereby increase the ratio of the Christian population in the region, against Muslims. 

    Once the Tsarist Russian Army entered Eastern Anatolia, taking advantage of this weakest time of the Ottoman State, Armenians increased their terror activities in the City of Van with the purpose of gaining majority in the population of the city, while once more helping the invading Russian Army. Their massacres in the region peaked on April 20, 1915, at the centre of Van.

    During these massacres where 22,900 Muslims perished, extremely cruel and inhumane acts of murder took place on the Akdamar Island where a historic Armenian Church is located; Armenian gangs also committed all sorts of immoral acts against Muslim women and girls. Many girls and women ended up having to commit suicide by jumping into the Lake of Van in order to protect themselves, their honor and dignity against the Armenians’ sexual violence.

    Perhaps the best response to the groundless Armenian claims came from the Armenian Republic’s First Prime Minister, Hovhannes Katchaznouni, in his 1923 manifesto to the Armenian Revolutionary Federation’s (Dashnaktsutyun) Party Conference, in Bucharest. This manifesto of Katchaznouni, which has been removed from the libraries of the civilized(!) Western World by Armenian propagandists, blamed not the Turks but the Armenians as “the responsible party for the suffering of the Armenians”. He states that “the Armenians rebelled against their own state and committed treason by cooperating with the imperialist countries that occupied the Ottoman Empire”.

    Based on such Armenian confessions and the research of expert historian and demographer Prof. Justin McCarthy, we now know that 1,189,332 Muslims lost their lives in Anatolia during those years, mainly in the hands of rebellious Armenians.

    Considering Johanness Lepsius’ pre-WWI population numbers and numerous archival reports showing the number of Armenians surviving the war, we come to the conclusion that only around 83,000 Armenians lost their lives during the forced relocations of 1915. 

    Despite such true archival information, Armenian propaganda machine resorts to all kinds of intrigue and deceit, telling world public the biggest lie of all times – that 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the hands of Turks! They pursue policies similar to that of Hitler’s Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Every year, they engage in political activities to force the politicians around the world to pass meaningless, unbinding resolutions declaring April 24th as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.

    On the other hand, we wish the sane, impartial and fair people of the world would at least ask themselves the very question that French historian Prof Yves Bérnard asked himself once, when he gave the following title to one of his books: “Génocide Arménien: Et si on nous avait menti? (Armenian Genocide: What if they have lied to us?)”.

    According to the researches of Prof. McCarthy, apart from the human casualties they caused, the Armenian insurgents also destroyed all 3,400 buildings, except 3, in the province of Van, belonging to the Muslims, and left the region.

    With Regards and Respect,

    Uğur Kara
    Chairman
    TADA – Turkish Anti Defamation Alliance  

    Orhan Tan
    Chairman
    FEYM Group- Disproving False Armenian Claims

  • Captain Emory Niles and Mr. Arthur Sutherland

    Captain Emory Niles and Mr. Arthur Sutherland

    August 22, 2008

     

    Van Rebellion, took place after the outbreak of World War I. By February of 1915 Muslims in mixed villages were fleeing to be among other Muslims. Armenians did the same. The confrontation was no longer one of Ottoman forces against Russian forces and their Armenian partisans; “[i]t had become a general war between the Muslims and the Armenians.” It raged first outside of the city an then, by late April 1915, in the city itself.

    The Armenians, well armed, though without artillery, determinedly held their ground within the city center throughout the fiercest fighting, earning the upper hand by May 17, at which point they burned the Muslim quarter of the city and massacred those Muslims who had not fled. On May 20, they handed the city over to the Russian Army. The Russians rewarded the rebels by installing the rebel leader, Aram Manukian, as governor of the Russian Province of Van, which was short-lived, as Ottoman forces retook the city ten weeks later, leading to reprisals by Muslims against Armenians, who now were in flight toward the retreating Russian lines. Van was to change hands yet several more times during the ensuing weeks before Russian forces established firm control over the area in late September. This time, however, the Russians remained in charge, appointed a military governor, and disarmed local Armenian “volunteers.” Van’s fate changed yet again when the Russian Army decamped to join in the Russian Revolution. Armenians were left in control of the region and formed a government, which even issued its own currency. Despite an influx of returning Armenian refugees, the military strength of the Armenians had waned and Ottoman forces finally reclaimed the city of Van in April of 1918. When an American survey mission led by Captain Emery Niles toured the area in 1919, they beheld a depopulated, utterly devastated region.
    Mavi Boncuk |

    Captain Emory Niles and Mr. Arthur Sutherland were Americans ordered by the United States Government (in 1919) to investigate the situation in eastern Anatolia. Their report was to be used as the basis for granting relief aid to the Armenians by the American Committee for Near East Relief. The following is an excerpt from their report:

    “In the entire region from Bitlis through Van to Bayezit we were informed that the damage and destruction had been done by the Armenians, who, after the Russians retired, remained in occupation of the country and who, when the Turkish army advanced, destroyed everything belonging to the Musulmans. Moreover, the Armenians are accused of having committed murder, rape arson and horrible atrocities of every description upon the Musulman population. At first we were most incredulous of these stories, but we finally came to believe them, since the testimony was absolutely unanimous and was corroborated by material evidence. For instance, the only quarters left at all intact in the cities of Bitlis and Van are the Armenian quarters, as was evidenced by churches and inscriptions on the houses, while the Musulman quarters were completely destroyed. Villages said to have been Armenian were still standing whereas Musulman villages were completely destroyed” [U.S. 867.00/1005].

    For a complete copy of the report, see: | or click

    Mavi Boncuk

    Cornucopia of Ottomania and Turcomania | Contact:mailmaviboncuk(at)gmail.com