269) Justin McCarthy: A one-man army

 
 HURRIYET- It’s obvious why we can’t disprove the Armenian allegations, because we don’t know what happened in the years 1915-16. Moreover, unlike the Armenians’ fervent belief in their allegations, we don’t have a strong belief in the fact that we are right. As with every issue, we are so lazy that we prefer to stay silent instead of fighting. I was thinking about this when I was talking with Justin McCarthy from the University of Louisville after his conference at Marmara University. ‘The Armenian allegations are a great lie and their documents are false. Turkey has to fight these slanders, but I have to admit I’m not positive that it will do so,’ he told me.
 
 I asked McCarthy how he began his research on the issue. As a Ph.D. student at the University of California Los Angeles in 1976, McCarthy found out that 3 million Muslims had been killed in the Balkans and Turkey, and he started to look into this. His studies drove him to research the Armenian genocide allegations. ‘I have to say that until then I also believed the Armenian genocide allegations, but as I looked deeper into the issue the truth came out,’ he said frankly. ‘As my research continued, I found out that the documents of the Armenians were fake. The Turks were facing a great lie and slander.’ McCarthy came under pressure. He was threatened with losing his job if he continued his research. His family had to get police protection. This didn’t intimidate McCarthy.
 
 Many of his colleagues who signed an open letter published in The Washington Post saying that there was no genocide withdrew after receiving threats and gave up their research on the allegations. Only McCarthy stood firm. ‘I would always say the same things, because they’re true,’ said McCarthy. He also exposed that the people and accounts in ‘The Blue Book’ by British historian Arnold Toynbee were nothing more than fiction. He found out that there had been no genocide at the places mentioned in the book. ‘Toynbee did it wrong. He wasn’t honest in his profession,’ said McCarthy. ‘I think he was embarrassed. History can’t be written with such lies, because this isn’t history.’ I believe that McCarthy’s honesty and courage won’t let him give up his fight.

 

 

 

BY TUFAN TURENC

Hürriyet Newspaper

Published: 3/28/2005