2153) Armenian Propagandist Stresses Armenian Belligerence

The following incredibly ugly composition of hatred and propaganda — appearing in The New York Times, of course, the newspaper that uncritically accepted the worst anti-Turkish sewage, no matter the source or lack of verification — is relevant strictly because the Armenian author corroborates and actually stresses Armenian belligerence, rather than the victimhood of "genocide." It's not as dramatic as when the Armenian leader Boghos Nubar "confessed," of course, but it is still pretty important.

The following passage is the critical one:

"In this world war it was largely due to the bravery and leadership of the Armenian soldiers and volunteers, who knew the terrain well, that Erzerum, Bitlis, Erzingan, and Trebizond were captured from the Turks."

In other words, Ottoman-Armenians, "who knew the terrain well," betrayed their nation.

Interesting to note, as well, is the bitter admission on how Armenians allowed themselves to be duped by the Russians yet another time.

Naturally, there was no shortage of Westerners with ferocious anti-Turkish hatred, and our author makes certain to sprinkle his piece with a few excerpts. He even takes out of context the statements of Sir Charles Eliot, making it seem as though the ideas signified brutality.

What can we say of the writer, Arshag Mahdesian? Even the great Armenophile, Alice Stone Blackwell, called him for what he was, a propagandist:

ARSHAG MAHDESIAN, journalist and poet, was born in Paloo. He was graduated from Euphrates College at Harpoot, and took a graduate course in English literature at Yale University. He has been actively connected with the Armenian propaganda, has edited several periodicals in English devoted to Armenian topics, and at present edits in New York the English magazine, “The New Armenia.” (Source: Blackwell, Alice Stone. Armenian Poems, Rendered into English Verse. Boston, MA: Atlantic Printing Company, 1917.)

At least we can be grateful to the professional manipulator and former Ottoman for having placed on record, in yet another letter The New York Times happily doled out space for ("The Light That May Go Out in Turkey," Oct. 28, 1915) that the pre-war Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire amounted to 1,100,000. (Today's propagandists testify one million Armenians survived; you figure it out.)


Thanks to Gokalp.

NEW SITUATION IN TURKEY
Mar 17, 1918, Sunday, The New York Times

NEW SITUATION IN TURKEY
With Russia Out, the Allies Will Need Other Measures.

To the Editor of The New York Times:

Nerses Ashtaraktsi was the Catholicos,1843-1857

The Armenians have once more been betrayed by Russia. Professor Frederic Macler of L'Ecole des Langues Orientales Vivantes, Paris, France, relates that Russia, early in the nineteenth century, promised the Armenians independence If they would assist her to redeem from Turkey and Persia the regions of Kars, Erivan, and Karabagh. The Armenian crusaders, under the leadership of their illustrious Catholicos, Nerses of Ashdarag, who held in one hand the cross and in the other the flag, rushed to the field of battle and insured victory for the Russian arms. Then Russia annexed to her own territory these Armenian districts and exiled Nerses Catholicos, the “Garibaldi in the cloth,” who intrepidly reminded her rulers of their broken promise.

In this world war it was largely due to the bravery and leadership of the Armenian soldiers and volunteers, who knew the terrain well, that Erzerum, Bitlis, Erzingan, and Trebizond were captured from the Turks. And now all the Armenian regions are to be returned to the tender mercies of Teuto-Turk barbarism.

It Is the duty of America and the Allies to find a way or make one to succor Armenia. Japanese forces should be invited to co-operate with the British troops and Armenians against the Turks. Another blow at Constantinople, also, will be In order.

Certain people. Turcophile or otherwise, have urged our Government to maintain a pacific policy toward Turkey, alleging that a declaration of war would incite the Turks to massacre all the Armenians, to destroy missionary establishments, and prevent relief reaching the Christian refugees.

The simple truth Is that the Turk, like his Prussian kinsman, Is more amenable to force than to reason, and that the pacific attitude of America toward Turkey did not save the life of a single Armenian, or prevent the majority of the missionary establishments, outside of Constantinople, from being seized by the Turks and converted either Into barracks or stables. If relief is being permitted in Turkey, It is probably because ten Turks are being fed before one Armenian or Syrian receives a crust of bread.

Heinrich von Treitschke
(1834-96), historian; also
said: "The Jews are our
misfortune’

There are also certain eviscerated intellectuals who delude themselves with the hope that If America remain friendly to Turkey it will enjoy, after the war, the privilege of regenerating and reforming her. A government of murderers, by murderers. and for murderers, as that of Turkey, cannot be reformed: It must be destroyed. Even Treitschke, the deifier of brutal force, says of Turkey:

A near future will, it is to be hoped, blot out the scandal that such heathendom should ever have established itself on European soil. What has this Turkish Empire done in three entire centuries? It has done nothing but destroy.

And Sir Charles Eliot, one, of the greatest authorities on Turkey, asserts that “The Turk changes not; his neighbors, his frontiers, his statute books, change, but his ideas and his practice remain the same."

But whether or not Turkey can ever be regenerated is a matter of secondary consideration. She must be defeated and chastised first. A declaration of war by .America upon Turkey will help to that end. And such a war, as an eminent theologian declared recently In a private conversation. would be the most popular.

ARSHAG MAHDESIAN.
March 15, 1918

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