2730) London Turkish–Armenian Relations Conference Notes, 30Jan2009

1. Guest Speakers
2. About FTA UK
3. LSE Conference Programme
4. Biographies
5. Opening Speech by FTA UK
6. An Introduction By Prof. Belma Baskett
7. Armenian Question 1878-1918:On The Need For A Counter-Narrative By Jeremy Salt
8. Globalization? Yes, But Of Ethics, First! By Sukru Server Aya
9. Way Forward By Prof Belma Baskett

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London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London

Guest Speakers: Prof. Jeremy Salt, Sükrü Server Aya, Chaired By Prof. Belma Baskett, Organised by: The Federation Of Turkish Associations UK

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This conference has been organised in the memory of Turkish diplomats and other innocent victims who were murdered by various Armenian terrorist groups, while serving abroad between 1973 and 1994 and whose only crime was being born 'Turkish'. Most of the perpetrators have never been brought to justice, of the few that were, only some were imprisoned and given very light sentences.

About FTA UK
The Federation of Turkish Associations UK (FTA UK) was formed in 2002 consisting of sixteen independent and diverse Turkish associations to bring together the voice of their members on common issues. The FTA UK represents a large proportion of the Turkish community which is estimated at nearly 500,000 ethnic Turks who live mainly in London and its surrounding areas and includes Turkish Cypriots.

The Federation’s main aims and objectives are; to bring together the Turks living in Britain in solidarity and strengthen their relationship; to help the community to integrate better within the British system whilst maintaining their own culture and identity; to find solutions to their common problems and protect their common interests; to promote and enhance the British - Turkish friendship and to share the Turkish culture and history.

The Federation carries out its duties completely independently without being influenced by any political party, ethnic influence, religion or any form of discrimination and in the interest of the British-Turkish Community. It is a non profit - non governmental organisation and acts as an umbrella organisation and communication vehicle for the whole community.

turkishfederationuk at yahoo.co.uk
FTA UK, 41 Camberwell Church Street, London SE5 8TR
Telephone: + 44 (0)77 8890 8803

LSE Conference Programme
18.00 - Registration and refreshments
18.50 - Welcome speech by FTA UK and one minute silence in respect of the murdered diplomats
18.55 - Prof. Belma Baskett, “Introduction”
19.00 - Prof. Jeremy Salt, “The Armenian Question 1878-1918: a Counter-Narrative”
19.45 – Sükrü Server Aya, “Globalisation of Ethical and Humane Values”
20.25 - Questions and Answers
20.40 - Prof. Belma Baskett, “The Way Forward”
20.45 – End

BIOGRAPHIES
Chair : Prof. Belma Ötüs Baskett : Born in Istanbul and educated at Robert College, Istanbul; Faculty of Languages, Ankara University; University of California, Berkeley, has degrees in B.S., Honors Diploma, MA, PhD. Lecturer for 23 years at Middle East Technical University, Ankara; Michigan University(12 years), Visiting Prof. at University of Pittsburgh, Kansai Gakuin University and Kobe College, Japan; Bilkent University, Ankara; University of Surrey at Roehampton for 2 years. She has written and translated many books as well as monographs; Editor of Ufuk magazine and Turkish Area Studies Review, has more than 60 articles published in Turkey, USA, UK, Austria and Spain. President of International Society for Contemporary Literature and Theatre.

Prof Jeremy Salt: Jeremy Salt runs courses on the modern Middle East and media and propaganda in the Department of Political Science at Bilkent University, Ankara. He has taught at the University of Melbourne, where he took his PhD in Middle Eastern studies, and Boğazici (Bosphorus) University in Istanbul. His publications include Imperialism, Evangelism and the Ottoman Armenians 1878-1896 (Frank Cass, London, 1993), a study of the involvement of foreign governments and missionary organizations in the development of the ‘Armenian question’ in the late 19th century. He also writes on the politics of the modern Middle East, with an emphasis on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The Unmaking of the Middle East. A History of Western Disorder in Arab Lands (University of California Press, July 2008) studies the involvement of the ‘West’ in the Middle East over the past two centuries. He Journals in which his articles have appeared include The Muslim World, Current History, Middle Eastern Studies, Journal of Palestine Studies, Third World Quarterly and the International Journal of Turkish Studies.

Sükrü Server Aya: Born in 1930, he has been living in Istanbul since 1939. He is a graduate of the reputed Robert College founded in 1863 by Protestant Missionaries, now Bogazici University. After two years in engineering school, he had to quit and work abroad to support his family, he returned after two years of work with a Dutch and Swiss Company, and graduated in 1953 with a BA in Literature instead of Mechanical Engineering. By profession, he was an importer-distributor of engine rebuilding machinery and shop equipment and has been a globetrotter on business and pleasure visiting nearly all industrial countries. He had and has many friends of Armenian ethnicity and after 1985, being a fair history reader, started to read on the Turkish – Armenian history, in which his graduating school was instrumental in the past. In 2004, after a biased article was published in National Geographic Magazine, he started to put together various excerpts from mainly anti-Turkish English readings. His book “The Genocide of Truth” was presented in Istanbul in April 2008 as a publication of Istanbul Commerce University and has been distributed for free, mostly overseas. A shortened Turkish version of the same book was just presented in Istanbul in mid January 2009 under the title “Genocide Traders and Truth”.

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Opening Speech by FTA UK

Dear Guests, Dignitaries and Distinguished Panellists,

The Federation of Turkish Associations UK welcomes you to the 3rd Memorial Conference in London for the Turkish diplomats assassinated by various Armenian terrorist groups, between 1973 and 1994. They were subjected to a racist terrorist campaign while serving abroad and their sole crime was being born 'Turkish'.

Retired Ambassador Dr. Bilal Simsir who wrote extensive books on the matter believes that the Soviet Armenian Republic and the Armenian Republic of today are both responsible for the murders of the Turkish diplomats. He says “Huntchak and Dashnaktsutiun parties which were established in 1887 and 1890 respectively, had from the beginning adopted terror as their method”. If we had remembered it perhaps we would have been more cautious towards Armenian attempts and most probably some of our diplomats would still be alive today. He says “If Armenia wants to normalize its relations with Turkey; she needs to accept the principle of invariability of the borders; should apologise for the assassinations of the Turkish diplomats and finally hand over to Turkish justice their assassins some of whom live in Armenia today.”
Federation of Turkish Association UK is an umbrella organisation serving various needs of the Turkish community. We think the best way to solve these problems is through understanding and research. Every year we meet with some protests from Diaspora Armenians who try to prevent our conferences.

What are they afraid of? Why are they trying to silence us?
If we do not know what really happened in the past how are we going to shape the future? History is not gossip, made-up or hearsay stories; but facts. The reason we organize these conferences is to learn the truth and learn lessons from past experiences so we may prevent similar incidents in the future.

Michael M. Gunter described one of the main reasons for the Armenian terrorism in his study entitled “Armenian National Liberation” as follows: It is evident that one of the main reasons of Armenian terrorism today, is the explicit support provided to this struggle by many states and people”.

We believe the motive for these terrorists is the deep hatred against the Turks stemming from their upbringing. Today, we remember the events with great sadness and ask ourselves how we can prevent this happening again in the future.

The Federation of Turkish Association condemns all forms of terrorism and wishes a peaceful and better world for all human beings regardless of their race, colour or religious beliefs.

May I invite everyone to stand for one minute’s silence in respect of the murdered Turkish diplomats and all the innocent lives lost during that terrible terrorist campaign?

We wish everyone an informative conference.

Thank you!

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An Introduction By Prof. Belma Baskett
Today, we are gathered here to commemorate the 27 members of the Turkish Diplomatic corps who were assassinated by ASALA and other Armenian terrorist groups (JCAG, ARA and others) between 27 Jan 1973 and 14 July 1994.

In fact, during their terror campaign they did not just kill 27 diplomats; in some instances they also killed their wives, husbands, children and many other civilians. Among those killed were four ambassadors and four consul generals. Between 1973 and the present, Armenian terrorists have committed 239 acts of terrorism which have killed at least 70 and wounded 524 innocent person. They have taken 105 hostages, “executing” 12, one of them an American woman. In addition, the Armenian terrorist bombing campaign caused 160 incidents of property destruction, totalling several hundred million dollars in property damage in the United States, Europe, Middle East and Australia.

I am not a historian but during those years I was living in Ankara, teaching at the Middle East Technical University. Many of the diplomats assassinated and their families were my friends or friends of my friends. I remember them all. I remember the pain their assassinations caused. There is a Turkish saying “ Bir fincan kahvenin 40 yıl hatırı vardır”; a cup of coffee shared by friends is remembered for 40 years. I feel it my duty to honour the memory of those innocent Turkish diplomats killed in the line of duty. These assassinations were unjust, uncalled for and in no way can the events of 1915 excuse them.

There were unfortunate events in 1915. Those were the years of the 1st World War; a weakened Ottoman Empire was fighting enemies on many fronts. In the North East Ottoman armies were fighting the Russians; the Armenians living in Turkish villages near the front collaborated with the Russians. Young Armenians joined the Russian army, put on Russian uniforms and turned against their neighbours. A similar situation developed in the South East, Ottomans were fighting French occupation, Armenians of the area collaborated with the French army, putting on French uniforms and started fighting their Ottoman neighbours and fellow –villagers. Many people died on both sides. An Ottoman decision was taken to relocate the Armenians away from those war zones.

Armenians in big cities like Izmir and Istanbul continued their lives untouched. There were no orders, no decisions to kill anybody or exterminate a race. Archives, when examined reveal only a relocation order. The British court in Malta at the time that tried some of the officials involved in the relocation found no evidence of war crimes and had to free them. Those Armenians who were relocated were citizens of the Ottoman Empire ‘of the taba-i sadika’ faithful citizens, a significant number of whom had rebelled. Every country has the right to protect itself from enemies outside and within the country. The relocation of Armenians from war zones was a legitimate Ottoman response to protect both Muslim and Armenian citizens during a time when the Empire was under attack.

The events of 1915 should have been left in the pages of history books. Instead, so many years later some Diaspora Armenians decided on baseless revenge and the first ASALA shot was fired in Los Angeles and killed The Turkish Consul General, a young brilliant diplomat leaving his wife a widow and his small daughter an orphan. They were my friends. The murders of Turkish diplomats in various cities of the world continued for 21 years. The accompanying propaganda of hatred of Turks has been continuing to this day--for almost a century now. (Exactly 94 years)

Nobody in Turkey is insensitive to the events of 1915 or denies that both Turks and Armenians suffered. Everybody agrees that the troubles of 1915 were caused by imperialist powers colluding with Dashnak and Hunchack murder squads. In the German Genocide of Jews, no one blames the Germans as a nation but the decision making politicians of the time; the Nazis. The relocation decision was taken by Ottoman politicians of the Union and Development Party of 1915, but beginning with 1973, Turkish diplomats who were not even born then, were held responsible and murdered by Armenian assassins. Many of these murderers went scot-free, were never apprehended and some received very light sentences. Unfortunately, these murderers are considered as ‘heroes’ in today’s Armenia.

Finally, the Turkish and Armenian dead of 1915 were war casualties. The killing of Turkish diplomats and sometimes their families were perpetrated in peace time by professional Armenian assassins, all planned and pre-meditated murders. They can never be excused as retaliation for events during the 1st World War. The murders were unjust, uncalled for, unlawful and in no way can the tragic events of 1915 excuse them.

Now, our two speakers who are historians and scholars will give their detailed analysis of historical events regarding Turkish-Armenian relations.

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The Armenian Question 1878-1918: On The Need For A Counter-Narrative By Jeremy Salt
As it has been embedded in the ‘western’ cultural mainstream, the ‘Armenian Question’ raises more questions than it answers and stands in need of deconstruction, reconstruction and recontextualisation from beginning to end. Judgment on what happened in the Ottoman Empire during the First World is commonly passed by people who would have no idea of what happened in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Nothing at all is known of the war as experienced by the civilian population of the empire beyond the suffering of Ottoman Christians. It is rare to find a book in which overall civilian casualties - more than three million of which about 2.5 million of which were Muslim – are even mentioned. The Ottoman Empire at war is a story that has never been told. Unless and until it is told the particular fate of the Armenians cannot be told in context.

Almost nothing is known in the western cultural mainstream of the military campaigns beyond Gallipoli and to a much lesser extent Mesopotamia. As the official military history of the war alone runs to 27 volumes we have some idea of the extent of the research that needs to be done. We need to know more about the conversations taking place in the general staff and the reasons being advanced for the decisions that were taken.

More work is being done all the time on Armenian uprisings but a lot more is needed. The recent work written by Justin McCarthy and others on the Van rebellion of 1915 greatly expands our knowledge the scale of the rebellion, the atrocities that were committed and our understanding of the impact this must have had on the military high command. We still know very little about the links between the Armenian revolutionary committees, and the extent to which Armenian uprisings may have been coordinated with the Russian High Command. Very little has been done on the commissions of inquiry set up by the Ottoman government to investigate the crimes committed against Armenians in 1915 and the courts martials and sentences, including terms of imprisonment, that followed. None of this is present in the western cultural mainstream and hardly exists yet even in Turkish sources. Armenians were perpetrators of great crimes as well as the victims of great crimes. The western mainstream account is built on atrocities or allegations of atrocities committed against Armenians but entirely empty of the atrocities or alleged atrocities committed by them.

The documentation here is far more substantial than British wartime propaganda. The British naval blockade of the eastern Mediterranean and the effects on the Ottoman civilian population has not yet been researched. Neither has the locust plague of 1915 and the famine which spread across Syria, causing, according to the Arab historian George Antonius, hundreds of thousands of deaths during the war. Yet despite these gaps, despite the mass of material still waiting to be researched, there is no shortage of people far from the eastern Mediterranean in space and time who presume to know what happened in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War and who do not hesitate to pass judgment. By contrast, Turks are denied space to tell their side of their story – just as they were denied the same space back in the 19th century. Orientalism has given way to neorientalism. The same ignorant and often racist clichés of the 19th century are still being repeated as if history has stood still. The ‘Armenian Question’ was never a question in isolation but an Ottoman question and this is the only context in which it can be studied in any balanced way. Unfortunately, the Ottoman side of it has been left out of the equation, just as the Muslims (Turks and Kurds) have been left out of it except as the perpetrators of violence. When so much is not known, when so much that is ‘known’ is based on propaganda stretching all the way back to the 19th century, and beyond, considering the role of anti-Islamic invective in the formation of western attitudes towards ‘the Turks’, it is clear that a reappraisal of the ‘Armenian question’ is long overdue.

J.Salt

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Globalization? Yes, But Of Ethics, First! By Sukru Server Aya, London, 30.01.2009

Esteemed Ladies and Gentlemen,

I thank you for sparing this bracket of your lifetime for sharing mutual sentiments and good wishes, which brought us all here.

I thank the Federation of Turkish Associations, for inviting and giving me this chance to offer you my opinions on a few world affairs, just before I end my life career!

Since I claim, or at least try to be fair and truthful, permit me to make some confessions to you as one might do, to a priest in the repentance booth.

Gentlemen, I am no speaker or preacher, nor a scholar or one with stiff-neck collar!
I have never thought I had any authority to deliver sermons, like many politicians, teachers or clergy who frequently do. I have visited this great country in the past 50 years maybe more than 50 times, since I used to sell workshop equipment and represented or distributed several British-made goods in Turkey. I did not try to use the British accent. I might have sounded even more awkward which would not help in the USA, a country I have been visiting even more frequently. I bear no resemblance to the other speaker, Dr. Jeremy Salt, reputed in several publications as the “scholar par excellence”. Well, then you wonder why I am here and what my message is.

Dear guests, I am just a good listener and a fair reader, interested in learning and defending the TRUTH like most of you! Just imagine that I was sitting next to you, but that suddenly I decided to change places for a short while to address the audience!

We are here to remember the crimes against the Turkish diplomats, killed by primitive instincts of taking REVENGE on innocent persons for something that has not even been proven that it truly happened! Yet, those who do not care to learn the truth may be instrumental to serve the goals of some “barons of criminality”!

As you probably know, during the period of say 1973 – 1985, Turks and their surroundings were subjected to some 240 acts of terrorism, in which 70 persons were killed and over 500 were wounded! 105 persons were taken hostage and 12 of them were murdered in cold blood. Death toll for Turks only was over 40 diplomats or their relatives. These assassinations were committed by so-called “idealist” Armenian youngsters, who were trained at Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, to kill “innocent people” on some illogical excuses, very much like the recent acts of fanatic terrorism in Britain, USA, Spain, Turkey, India, Pakistan and elsewhere. These acts may not have any relationship to the claimed justifications! Still, innocent persons are killed en masse, by villains who are made to believe that “they serve a sacred heroic purpose”! Such criminals believe that they will be rewarded in heaven, but usually with a cash down payment incentive in this world. Last year, a much-liked Armenian newspaper owner, was killed by a fanatic Turkish youngster, and although hundreds of thousands Turks protested this murder marching on streets in Istanbul, the world now speaks only of this one murder of Mr. Dink, and does not remember a thing about the forgotten 240 acts of terror and more than 70 deaths! There is a summary list of ten pages of these acts, which you can ask at the exit, if you want to know all them all!

Well, we can mourn and hold religious ceremonies, offering prayers to the unknown for the perished souls, but truly relieving our own souls from the responsibility of the present bestiality still existing within the brains of “traders of grudge and hatred”. This profitable trade gives them a position of superiority and necessity within the community, which shares the same knowledge and objectives.

"This is a picture of boys and girls aged 11-12 years in an elementary school in Armenia dressed in soldier uniforms, taught how to kill and fill and use weapons! "

Just like one of you, I have noticed that many scholars are unfair, superficial and biased in their works, and hence bear serious responsibility for misguiding the public, by using selective sources or bluntly distorting or even falsifying realities!

I would rather forgive a “pickpocket” who takes some cash from my pocket, rather than a scholar who takes my “conscience and dedication to honesty” in this world.

I do not wish to take an easy refuge in some words of consolation, or prayers or empty wishes that go nowhere, to remember the innocent victims of grudge!

I wrote a book! In fact, I compiled a book, which has taken me some four years, scanning more than 30.000 pages. I have left out the rich Turkish archival documentation and some western historians or scholars, to name but a few like Andrew Mango, Justin McCarthy, Samuel Weems, Bernard Lewis, Stanford Shaw and others whom the Armenian Diaspora easily tags as “denialist” and immediately disqualifies all the authentic information and documentation submitted by these scholars! Well, as a “truth-seeking reader”, I went the opposite way and studied the evidence and comments written by anti-Turkish or neutral sources. These sources,

presented a multitude of “bragging, boasting and confessing treason in words of braveries” from the first-hand sources and highest authorities. Hence, the contents of my book, “The Genocide of Truth”, cannot be refuted by any person or authority. The sources are all in there in black and white from official documents and exhibit the dirt of the backstage.

The great Turkish philosopher Mevlana says in one of his poems: Yesterday is gone my dear with all that was said; let us have something new and fresh for today,

I wish to add my own sentence saying, let us think of what can we do for a better tomorrow! I am here to share my sentiments and my thoughts with you. If I am wrong, please correct me so that I will not err. If I am right, please share and support my compassion.

A prominent Armenian book writer living in Canada, with whom I enjoy a distant e-mail friendship [despite our minor differences], in one of his very last essays addressing diaspora, has quoted too many wise remarks, and I wish to share just a very few of them with you, as evidence that people so much away from each other, can embrace the same values of honesty and frankness:

* Explaining things to someone who has no desire to understand, is like trying to reason with the unreasonable.
* After they silence dissenters, brainwash children, and surround themselves with yes-men, tyrants assume God and the silent majority, to be on their side.

* To most of them and especially our Turcocentric columnists, the freedom to write about massacres in the Ottoman Empire is the Alpha and Omega of the free speech. And speaking of lawyers: a friend of mine, who happens to be a critic of the regime, tells me he is not allowed to enter Armenia, and no lawyers wants to take his case!

* At the turn of the last century, the Great Powers of the West were on our side and against our enemies. But no one ever bothered to ask them if they would be willing to sacrifice the life of a single soldier to save a hundred, a thousand or even a million Armenian lives. Had they asked, they would have been surprised at the answer!

* Nobody deserves to be told the truth, because nobody is equal to the challenge of facing reality. This is why at all times and everywhere propagandists have been more prosperous, popular and powerful thinkers, who more often than have not been treated like common criminals!

To support this correct observation, you may be stunned to watch a recent Half An Hour Documentary Video on the Turkish Armenians blogsite, in which American diplomats and a correspondent, take a close look to the Palestine-Israel conflict and give evidences of the biased attitude of the newspapers and TV media, in which the losses of the Palestinians are merely mentioned as minimal when they are gigantic and the Jewish losses are aggrandized hundred-fold distorting the realities to shameful or truly criminal limits! For those interested there is another 1 hour NBC documentary video, about a prominent Armenian businessman named Murat Topalian, who was a frequent visitor of the White House and was sitting almost next to President Clinton. He was the person who had trained all the ASALA assassins, and had saved all the arms, dynamites etc. used, which were discovered in a depot by accident, ready to explode due to crystallization over time. He was found guilty of “only storing dangerous weapons”, was sentenced to about 3 years imprisonment but was released after one year and now he still strolls around as a true hero!

What I am trying to convey to you esteemed guests are not my own revelations. They are thoughts inspired by others well ahead of me, like the following examples:

"We have been told that the tall tales of the Bible (or Genocide) are “revealed truth”. What we need now, is to have that “revealed truth” revealed, for as yet it never has been. "

(Preface, Deceptions and Myths of the Bible, Lloyd M. Graham)

" It seems even more clear to me that higher levels of civilization must depend even more heavily on conscientious respect for the importance of honesty and clarity in determining what the facts are ". ON TRUTH by Henry. G. Frankfurt

Now, let me show you again that I have made no discoveries, other than seeing some prophecies come true, about a century later. The following lines are from a news article in the American daily “Reno Evening Gazette” of Oct. 14, 1915.

“Having imposed a committee of well meaning but admittedly prejudiced American Missionaries, the same agencies that have been engaging in reporting Armenian outrages which never had been committed are now trying to mislead Christian charity in America and Switzerland into furnishing funds for the relief of the supposed victims of the unspeakable Turk.

It would not matter, so far as the country at large is concerned, but unfortunately there is danger that a self-sufficient person like President Wilson will accept these stories of atrocities as truth, with no further evidence than the statements of Armenians who are directly interested in raising money for the support of themselves. Professional beggars who have bled their own countrymen for years are now trying to induce kindly Americans to support them, not caring whether United States would or should not be embroiled with Turkey and through Turkey with Germany. Ambassador Morgenthau appears to have fallen a ready victim to the smooth rascals that, by apocryphal tales of outrages, have procured contributions from their Armenian countrymen abroad and in this country and have lived in luxury on the proceeds for the last 30 years.

The Ambassador seriously notified the state department that the Turks had slaughtered the “majority of the Armenians of Asia Minor”. This “majority” now turns out to be 32.000 known to be hostile to Turkey and therefore, dispossessed of their homes in Erzerum and Zeitun and interned in a district where they could be watched by Turkish troops – not killed, nor even dying. The English have done no more with German residents and even with English subjects of German birth and the Germans have done the same with English residents of the German states.
If this country, therefore, does not want to appear foolish before the whole world, it will refuse to be duped by impossible tales and will let the Armenians severely alone. “

My reaction today to the writer of these clever observations trying to warn the public a century ago would be:

“I have sensed that danger of becoming foolish or getting duped in the words of that correspondent and compiled a book squeezed into 700 pages, throwing out almost tenfold similar reference, because of shortage of space. I am trying to warn “decent, fair persons”(regardless of their nationality, race or ethnicity) of the high perils of the distance covered by such charlatans in the past century. These very ingenious charlatans are strong enough to buy or squeeze the throats of many politicians, public officials, writers, scholars, and all institutions that would otherwise resist such an extremity of bigotry, short of every element of logical justification.”

I have purposely avoided the bloody acts or actual “manure showers” of this episode presenting impossible fabrications as “factual news”. In 1915, during the process of the Armenian relocation, an American paper had carried the headline: “10.000 drowned in one day at Trabzon”. The world believed this. No one would tell them that the port of Trabzon was under blockade, it was impossible even to have a thousand persons in the few small boats then available, and that there were no floating corpses found or reported by the navy, and there are no sharks in the Black Sea to feast on 10.000 bodies!

Last month, a Turkish lady married to an Englishman and living in the USA, was complaining about a certain TV channel (Channel 21 in the USA) propagating the Armenian Genocide and presenting as evidence a letter written by a Yeniceri (Janissary) soldier to his mother in which he apparently was boasting that we Turks massacred 20.000 Armenians and Jews and fed them to dogs. Yes, esteemed guests, this is the type and scope of the slander freely publicized in the USA to escalate antagonism against the Turks! Allow me to clarify that, there were no Yeniceri soldiers left in the Turkish army because they had long been dissolved back in the early 1820s; that Jews were not subjected to any relocation, but that the few thousands living in the Caucasus were totally scraped by the Armenian volunteers. Also, where can you find a few hundred thousand dogs, to feed them 20.000 bodies?

Were they selling “canned dog food” 150 years ago in pet shops?

However, frenzied people do not stop to doubt or filter such shocking reports through their simple logic! So, you see how easy is to float lies and make people believe in them! The worse is that they are not ashamed or penalized for such lack of ethics!

Well, in the biblical words of Mathew: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves”!

Dear guests! Written facts of several irrefutable sources show that the good benevolent Christians who donated large amounts of money and put even their wedding rings in the alms boxes of nearly all churches in Great Britain and the USA, and chanting songs such as “Forward Christian Soldiers”, were cheated for the large portion of their donations, truly intended for the needy ones! While only a small portion of the collections were spent for benevolent purposes, the great segment was used to buy arms, ammunition, medical supplies for war and even three airplanes! Large amounts of the collected money or food to be distributed were embezzled and some were feasting on wine and girls and women of the town, where thousands were dying of hunger on the same streets. Through the 26-month rule of the Dashnakist Armenian Republic, between May 1918 and November 1920, the Armenian population in Armenia was reduced from about 1 million to about 800.000 and during the same period, the larger Moslem population in the area was reduced to less than one quarter.

The young Armenian Republic was founded in May 1918, as a “protectorate of the Ottoman Empire” and the delegation they sent in August to Istanbul to thank the Ottoman Sultan was received in early September with reciprocal prayers and gestures of gratitude. Were there any complaints of any atrocities at that time? No; because it was the Ottomans who had forgiven the Armenians for the atrocities committed by the Armenian gangs themselves! Nevertheless, two months later the Ottoman Empire surrendered on Oct. 30, 1918, and only a month later Armenia declared independence cutting off the “protection” ties of the Ottomans, which was no longer needed and started a new war of land grabbing. The same delegation, which had kissed the Sultan’s hand, was in Paris in February 1919, boasting of all their belligerent sacrifices for Russians, British and French and demanding half of Eastern Turkey from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and most remarkably, “cleaned of the non-Christian elements” which formed 85% of the living population in the area!

In 1914, before the war started, the total Armenian population within the Ottoman Empire was 1.3 or at most 1.5 million! If 1.5 million people were killed during the relocation process in mid 1915, who was left to fill up this huge land? Were the dead reincarnated? Some prime Armenian sources (Prime Minister Katchaznuni, Soviet historian Lalaian) officially claim that they had 1 million living in 1918 but by 1921 one fifth died of starvation under their rule! Other sources, (such as US Relief Report) give even higher figures of 1.2 or 1.4 million living in early 1922! Do these figures make any mathematical sense? Alternatively, is it not that the “official authorities” are openly lying, gigantically distorting, or exaggerating? The figures are all there in official state documents that no one can deny!

The LIE is just TOO BIG! So big, that cannot FIT the simplest LOGIC!

Gentlemen, I wish to reassure you that some of my best friends happen to be of Armenian ethnicity, and I am proud of having such friends, not because of their ethnicity but their character and humane values we equally treasure and share!

I also wish to add that the greatest contribution to the discoveries behind this international money swindling by the “merry go round” operation, comes from the blogsite founded by three Armenians from Turkey living respectively in U.K., Australia, Canada and Argentina. They have a treasury of authentic original documents in their free E-book library that is available to every one going into that page, as well as several video tapes, almost 3.000 articles (maybe some 30 – 40.000 pages) they have posted in the past three years. There are also other French, Dutch, American people in search of the TRUTH and I hope that the British media and public will start realizing that they “could have been cheated and used” and that “being a Christian” is no proof or insurance policy of innocence.

The whole world is practicing the calamities brought on by idealistic principles such as “globalization of free trade”, which in the true sense is the “exploitation of the poor ones by the richer and cleverer ones”. Well, the “richness of the capital” had no limits and it went beyond the limits of “decency, respect for others’ rights and justice”.

Much like some Armenian ring leaders embezzling their own treasury and causing deaths of their countrymen in the past, nowadays several CEO’s have embezzled their own corporations or in fact the savings of the poor ones who trusted the companies and bought shares on the stock market. Given such experiences, should we honestly defend, “free trade without any rules or ethics” ?

The act of stealing is usually penalized for the little ones, trying to make an easier living to survive, but when it comes to gigantic corporations with millions of dollars, private airplanes and companies of lawyers to defend the rights of the thieves, they get away with it, saying “business is business” meaning that “stealing is part of it”.

Criminality, crookedness and similar social crimes are not limited to certain “races, nationalities, faiths”. A needy Armenian woman, working illegally in Turkey had given a simple reply when she was asked: “There can be no good or bad nation! There are only good and bad persons !”

Ladies and gentlemen, I think that what the world really needs as the top priority is not “free trade but globalization of ethical and humane values” everywhere, so that we can all respect, trust each other regardless of our ethnicity and penalize those who cheat humankind by incredible systems of swindling, lotteries, etc.

How would you feel if you were to be in a firing squad executing a person said to be guilty but without knowing if he was truly guilty or deserved such a punishment? Would your being one of the many persons who pulled the trigger, make you relaxed because it was not “your own action”, but “you simply shared it” with others? Dear guests, if you intentionally kill a person all by yourself or as one in the mob, your responsibility of guilt under law, do not change!

Luckily, the Armenian Diaspora do not always succeed in their distortions and stumble now and then, but the Turkish authorities fail to circulate such fiascos. Those who click on here may read a decision of European Court Of Justice in German, relative to a court case opened by Armenian Diaspora in France in which they demanded that Turkey should first accept the Genocide crime, before any membership status in the European Union can be granted. This request was made in 1999 with reference to a decision taken by the European Parliament on July 20, 1987 numbered C-190. However, Section 1 of the European Court of Justice rejected the court case on December 17, 2003 under ref.-346/03. The Armenian community objected to this decision and reapplied to the same court for “correction of the decision”.

Section 4 of the same Court too rejected this application on the date of April 17, 2004 under ref. C-18/04. Applicants were sentenced to pay Euro 30.000 expenses of the court. In principle, the Court resolved, “there can be no punishment, without a law enforced at time of action and that the European Parliament is a Political Assembly and has no authority to take or advise any judicial decision. This court case aimed condemnation of the Republic of Turkey for an unproven guilt or crime, but above and more important than all, restitution of indemnity for the families of the survivors!

In an article posted in the “Armenian Genocide Resource Center” under no. 2644, I ridiculed this extravagance by naming my article “Free Consolation, versus Frail Compensation” and printed the photocopy of the letter of agreement exchanged between Republic of Turkey and USA. Under letter dated Sept. 8, 1937, no. 168, the sum and interests of all indemnities totaled to only about $ 900.000. This was paid in installments in full settlement of the benefits of all of the claimants, which were the United States and all her citizens. In other words, the Armenian Diaspora had applied to the European Court of Justice “for an indemnity” that was not possible to make any demand at least for all Armenian survivors of USA nationality. There was no Turkish judge or any involvement in this court case, but the judges were smart enough not to swallow this usual “Armenian bait with a hook for money reward”! This is only one of the many card tricks!

Dear Sirs and Ladies, as you are probably evidencing, in all my life I have sincerely tried to be just and straight. I resisted to be pulled by my neck by some opportunists or scoundrels. I am not sure how much I succeeded, but in this particular case, I resent this hypocrisy and try to fight my way all alone! Can I succeed? That may be a remote possibility, but more important is to side with and defend the TRUTH! Was I not cheated or mistaken? Of course I was! Yet, I think until the contrary is proven on this allegation, I could see the overall TRUTH clear and loud.

After all, when we are all dead, what is it we really leave behind? Wealth or a reputation as “a good person”, who always stood for justice and correctness?

I thank you for your patience and salute, all who will start doubting many accepted facts (without any physical proof) and who may join the honorable team of TRUTH SEEKERS and defending decency under all circumstances. I can live naked without robes! However, I do not want to be strip teased off my honor and respect, nor deal with charlatans or those ravenous wolves warned in the Bible.

A couple of days ago, when this speech was completed and printed, in one of the many e-mails I received, there was a video in three sections each of thirty minutes of a conference delivered on August 2006 in USA at the “Veterans for Peace National Convention”. The speaker was Mr. John Perkins, author of the book “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”. I am giving the links of this unique evaluation or confession of an economic hit man, giving the backside story of how “the new USA Empire without an Emperor” establishes the global dominance by tactics of threat, bribing, and domestic coups or outside military force! I prepared the present speech on the basis of my own evaluations. It becomes peanuts the moment you start watching the videos:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3968544393356669182&hl=de ,
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3848716298990404813&hl=de ,
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7969424888680179897&hl=de ,

You then realize that this globe, all of a sudden has shrunk into less than a continent or practically ONE country common to all, where the same laws and ethical rules must prevail for the continuation of humanity and its best values, which are nowadays abused by huge corporations.

Now, before closing, I imagine some of you may ask why I made no clear reference to the GENOCIDE allegations, and what I think about them. I have written an essay “Genocide Lies, Need No Archives” consisting of three parts: I – II – III. You can have a complimentary printed copy for your reading pleasure and going deeper into the three documents exhibited in there. If you surf into the WEB site of Turkish Armenians, you can download my book, “The Genocide of Truth”, you can download and make prints of several authentic documents disclosing the scope of misinformation used by swindlers! Yes, Sir, they are all there waiting for you!

I have written over 145 articles in the past three years, defending truths only! It may take you as long, several years to learn the truth and JOIN THE TRUTH DEFENDERS.

I salute and ask you most cordially to volunteer for the “protection of humane ethics and values” and mobilize our personal intelligence, and self-respect instead of weapons!

Sukru Server Aya

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THE WAY FORWARD By Prof Belma Baskett
I thank our well-informed speakers not only for presenting historical information but particularly for their compelling analyses.

Now, a few words about the future. At present there is a rapprochement between the Turkish and Armenian Governments. An unfortunate recent development in Turkey, however, was the call to ‘apologize’ by a handful of so-called intellectuals. There were immediate condemnations and rejections of this proposal by academicians, journalists, retired ambassadors and members of the public who regarded it as a provocation to impede the development of further peace between Turkey and Armenia.

As someone who has lived through the pain of losing friends and friends of friends to Armenian terrorism, I have no apologies to give. I am entitled to receive them, but I believe apologies will not solve problems of international terrorism.

The way forward is by dismantling the ‘genocide industry’ of the Armenian Diaspora. Armenia is a very poor country, and many Armenian citizens come to work in Turkey. I know Armenian women working as maids, housekeepers, carers in my friends’ homes at the present time. The relationship between the Turkish employers and Armenian employees is based on mutual respect and understanding. The atmosphere of hatred engendered by the Diaspora Armenians has no place as far as contemporary, honourable, peace-loving citizens of Turkey and Armenia are concerned in their contemporary lives.

The duplicitous wording of the apology was very unfortunate. The word ‘genocide’ was not used but ‘Büyük Felaket’ -- Great Disaster’. This is a translation of ‘MEDZ YEGHERN’ in Armenian-- literally ‘Great Disaster’ but in Armenian it is synonymous with ‘genocide’. There is no other word for ‘genocide’ in Armenian. So the wording of the apology may look innocent as expressing sympathy for a great disaster - a commendable human sentiment. Here, however, it is a word play, a cunning trick-- lost in translation a covert apology for genocide and thus totally unacceptable.

Neutral scholars such as Bernard Lewis, Stanford Shaw, Guenther Levy, Michael Guenter, Andrew Mango, Norman Stone, Justin McCarthy and (off course Jeremy Salt) have proven beyond doubt with archival material that the 1915 events did not constitute a ‘genocide’. The relocation decision was not based on ethnicity and racism but on distancing collaborators from the war zones as all commentators has shown.
The way forward should be through scholarly work by historians to set the record straight. All the archives in Turkey are open and truth can only emerge from honest scholarly research. It is immoral to perpetrate lies about something that was proven not to have happened. Many scholars including some Armenians have written refuting the idea of genocide.

It is time for the Armenians to agree to the offer from the Turkish government for an international or joint Turkish -Armenian committee of scholars to study all archival material and establish once and for all what really happened and stop the perpetuation of hatred as has been pointed out by our excellent speakers today.

THANK YOU!

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