2107) What Is The Turkish Position On The Armenian Genocide by Michael Sercan Daventry

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Comments by Sukru Server Aya

After reading the 60 pages of this, “Historical Research (?) Dissertation” and much that I credit this young Turkish-British gentleman for his penmanship and efforts to be neutral, the only thing I liked from this research was his translation on page 5, belonging to Ataturk, as follows:

“To write history is as important as to make history. If the writer is not faithful to the maker, then he will misled humanity over the facts that cannot be changed.” I had translated the same phrase as: “Writing history is as important as making history. If the writer is unfaithful to the maker, the unchanged truth creates uncertainties for humankind” in my pocket book (A Brief Hopscotch Stroll in the Ottoman History and Economy) posted as video on the internet in 3 parts, each of 20 minutes https://vimeo.com/45804278 + https://vimeo.com/46142594 + https://vimeo.com/46933935) in condensed format, deleting several pages due to length.


A mere look to the bibliography of this research is enough to tell that the knowledge collected by the writer is at “elementary school level” when writing such a “Paper for a University degree”, and most likely it has passed because the readers knew nothing better about the facts, and just looked at the nice presentation.


I do not want to go into the details of this “empty paper” writing history based on very few Turkish or English sources, omitting even the “must sources” such as Nassibian, Feigl, Lowry, Pastermadjian, Dasnabedian, Katchaznuni, Lalaian, Sarafian, Vramian, Salt, Shaw, Sonyel, Grabill, Nubar, etc. etc.

The writer is not aware of the very important events such as the Malta trials, the fact that Armenian Legion under General Dro served in the Nazi Army during WWII etc.

The research is based on “who said what, thought what” as if a gossip interview and does not include a sentence taken from many official documents at the Paris Peace Conference or other papers submitted to U.S., British, French or Russian authorities. The research mentions the names of many Turkish scholars who are reputed for their pro-Armenian stands (but never provided one page of authentic document to support their “opinions”).

Excuse me but, I trust DOCUMENTS first, when available… and need not to give any credit to “opinions of this or that scholar or writer or politician” writing or speaking based on hearsays or grad-ma tales, without viewing any documents, not even those of the League of Nations General Secretaries.

Let the readers decide if the writer was - faithful to the maker or not -.

S.S. Aya

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1 comments:

7/2/2013, Michael Daventry said...

Şükrü Server Aya has clearly missed the point of my dissertation, which I explained on page 9:

"This dissertation will examine the various views and arguments expressed by Turkish historians on the events of 1915."

It was never intended to be a study of what happened in eastern Anatolia in 1915; it was a review of what Turkish nationals *believe* happened. It is somewhat unfair to criticise an author for not referring to events like the Malta trials or sources like Nassibian and Feigl if they were beyond the scope of the study. Mine is a study of historiography, not of historical events.

I strongly suspect Mr Aya read the Ataturk quote on page 5 and jumped straight to the bibliography, reading nothing in between. If he had read all 60 pages as he claims, he would have seen his criticisms are unwarranted.

He would also have noted the section entitled "The reliance on documentary evidence" on page 41, in which I discuss how a key Turkish argument regarding the events of 1915 is that no documents exist to prove a genocide. He clearly subscribes to that view.

Mr Aya is perfectly entitled to refer to my work as an "empty paper" or "elementary school level" research, but he should do the courtesy of reading it first. Shame on him.

Perhaps he was upset that his own name is not in the bibliography.

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Sukru Aya's Reply to Michael Daventry's counter remark at 7/2/2013



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