2687) A Turkish 'I Apologize' Campaign To Armenians

The Fate Of Armenians In 1915 Remains Taboo In Turkey, But Some Intellectuals Are Taking Action, By Esra Özyürek, January 5, 2009
» Discuss Article (65 Comments)

Two hundred Turkish intellectuals last month launched an Internet signature campaign for an apology to Armenians for the 1915 massacres. "My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Armenians were subjected to in 1915," the brief statement reads. "I reject this injustice and for my share, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers and sisters. I apologize to them." . . Within a month, more than 26,000 people signed on, a significant number in a country where the fate of the Armenians at the end of the Ottoman Empire has been largely unmentionable for decades. To those long frustrated by Turkey's intractability on the issue, this campaign may appear an inadequate gesture. But it has immense value, educating many Turks about the violence done to Armenians for the first time and enabling those who are ready to come to terms with it.

The official Turkish position on 1915 has shifted over time. It was a fight between local Turkish and Armenian bands. Or it was a forced resettlement -- a march on which hundreds of thousands of Armenians were sent to Syria, but most never arrived. Historians and politicians also have argued that it was actually Armenians who massacred Turks and that talk of an Armenian genocide was an international conspiracy. In contemporary Turkey, novelists, journalists, historians or other intellectuals who call the events a genocide or even mass murder can face trial under the infamous Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which outlaws insulting Turkey, its government or its people.

Organizers of the "I apologize" campaign notably shied away from the word genocide, opting instead for "the Great Catastrophe," a phrase initially used by Armenians. Still, Turkish nationalists were quick to condemn the project and launch multiple, counter we-want-an-apology campaigns.

Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, quickly dismissed the apology movement. "These Turkish intellectuals must have committed the genocide," he said mockingly, "since they are the ones who are apologizing." Opposition parties in the parliament, other than the Kurdish-inclined Democratic Turkey Party, have all condemned the campaign as well. The Nationalist Action Party, for example, issued a statement that said, in part, "There is no single page in the honorable history of the Turkish nation for which we should be embarrassed, and no crime for which we should apologize. No one has the right to smear our ancestors by deviating from history, declaring them guilty, and ask them to apologize."

Granted, 26,000 signatories to the campaign means Turks interested in apologizing remain few and far between in a nation of 70 million. Still, this is a very significant development in Turkey. In the last 10 years, several Turkish scholars began studying the Armenian massacres outside the official Turkish framework, and some of them, such as Taner Akcam, have openly acknowledged those events were a genocide. Turkish and Armenian scholars organized joint workshops to discuss what happened to Armenians at the end of the Ottoman Empire. When Hrant Dink, a prominent journalist of Armenian background, was assassinated by a nationalist thug in Istanbul two years ago, 200,000 Turks marched in the streets carrying banners that said, "We are all Armenian."

Critics will certainly reply that these modest activities do not compensate for the original crime nor the suffering caused by its denial for almost a century. They will complain that the current signature campaign does not use the word genocide. Yet the significance of this campaign cannot be understated.

I grew up in Turkey in a politically engaged, educated and reasonably liberal family in the 1970s and the 1980s, and I had only a vague idea about the animosity between Turks and Armenians. It wasn't until I enrolled in graduate school at the University of Michigan, one of the most important centers of Ottoman and Armenian studies in the United States, that I learned about the unacceptably sad end of the Armenian subjects of the Ottoman Empire.

Turks growing up today surely are better informed about the history of the land they inhabit. Even those who accept the nationalist line have to be aware of the sudden end of the centuries-long Armenian presence in Anatolia. Regardless of the terms they employ or the specific amount of responsibility they willingly shoulder, this next generation of Turks is already in a much better position to face the darkest aspect of their national history and develop a more responsible relationship to it.

It may appear a small gesture now, but the initiators of the "I apologize" campaign have introduced a ray of hope for reconciliation between Armenians and Turks before the 100th anniversary of the catastrophe comes around.

Esra Özyürek is an associate professor of anthropology at UC San Diego and the author of "Nostalgia for the Modern: State Secularism and Everyday Politics in Turkey" and "Politics of Public Memory in Turkey."

---

Comments
1. Why is LAT giving voice only to one side of the story? Why are our op-eds ignored? You would not think of covering other controversial issues like abortion, gun control, immigration, war in Iraq, taxes, and million others from only one side, would you? Why lower your journalistic standards of objectivity, truth, and honesty when it comes to the 100 year olf Turkish-Armenian conflict?
Submitted by: Ergun Kirlikovali
9:45 AM PST, January 6, 2009
2. I don't know which side of the story is true. I really wonder why Armenian president opposed Turkey's proposal that is forming a team of historians from both sides and researching the Ottoman archives and the archives of both nations to find out the truth. Is it because Armenians are scared of finding the truth or is it the fear of archives being corrupted? I think both nations have skeletons in their closets and don't want to reveal too much of their secrets...
Submitted by: Erim Erdi
9:10 AM PST, January 6, 2009
3. An "I'm not sorry" campaign is meaningless and has no value. It's just a list of 2 million ignorant Turks.
Submitted by: Arthur
8:27 AM PST, January 6, 2009
4. I work for the Turkish government.
Submitted by: Ergun Kirlikovali
8:21 AM PST, January 6, 2009
5. Ergun Kirlikovali is only posting things that "support" his beliefs. The only thing that he's proving is that he's extremely unintelligent and useless.
Submitted by: John Mellow
8:19 AM PST, January 6, 2009
6. The Turkish archives covering the period of the Armenian Genocide are not opened to the public. They are only open to Turkish scholars and persons friendly to Turkey. The Turkish archives have been closed so long that scholars have no idea of what is being, or has been, purged. Furthermore, the work of the Genocide was done under the aegis of the Committee of Union and Progress, a shadow government similar to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and in particular by its Special Organization (Teshkilat-i Mahsusa) Will their records be opened? There is no talk of that.
Submitted by: Mark B
7:28 AM PST, January 6, 2009
7. The Turks had to deport the Armenians from the eastern war front where they were helping the Russians who promised them a homeland. Armenians all over Anatolia, not just on the eastern war front, were wiped out. The cities of Yozgad, Sivas, Caeserea, Hadjin, Marash, Adana, and Ankara -- just to name a few -- are hardly in the east. One needs but to look at a map of Turkey to see this. Turkish apologists depend on American ignorance of geography to make such foolish claims
Submitted by: Mark B
7:24 AM PST, January 6, 2009
8. Please think twice about the definition of genocide before writing. How can you speak of genocide when Armenians are the largest minority living in Turkey. And how many Turks live in Armenia??? 0! Turkey has invited Armenia to open up archives and judge together whether there has been a genocide or not. Armenia does not accept this and Turkey is supposed to accept genocide without any judgement. How fair is that. If any apologies, it should be mutual as there was a war fought. For more information read Prof. Stanford Shaw and find out why he had to leave the United States and coem to Turkey.
Submitted by: joker
7:19 AM PST, January 6, 2009
9. Get a good calculator Bizantian... "Compare that with less than 300,000 Armenian casualties which number is gradually magnified to 1.5 million over the years through Armenian propaganda" Now your number reached to 2 million...Get an elemantary math and history classes ??? lol
Submitted by: Erin
6:07 AM PST, January 6, 2009
10. I hope one day Armenians will have courage apologize to Azeri Turks for the Khojaly massacre that was carried out by Armenian armed forces in a peaceful town of Khojaly located in Karabakh province of Azerbaijan.
Submitted by: Osman Gunduz
5:59 AM PST, January 6, 2009
11. Bizantian...Obviously facts which prove you wrong are bothering you temendously. And you are asking stopping Ergun's comments here... Ooppps, it's you, not Turks, whose goal is to silence others, smart ones
Submitted by: Erin
5:35 AM PST, January 6, 2009
12. Now the US must come clean about its treatment of Native Americans, and its interventions in countries all over the world.
Submitted by: KeLeMi
3:55 AM PST, January 6, 2009
13. The denial of Armenian Genocide has grown into an international mini-industry. An excellent professional report on the subject is here: http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=935 It seems these are Turks who should "get over" the subject first of all - instead of passing the guilt to newer and newer generations. A crime like this cannot be forgotten under any pretext.
Submitted by: Robert
11:19 PM PST, January 5, 2009
14. So much for the Turkish government's suggestion that a joint commission of historians be impaneled to discuss the Armenian question. A slew of non-payroll type, Turkish intellectuals, no less, have answered the question. It happened.
Submitted by: freakshow
10:32 PM PST, January 5, 2009
15. What shocks me is the depth of the racism, the shamelessness of it, and the prominent place Kirlikovali enjoys in Turkish American politics. He has written at the Pasadena Star website that Armenians are all "hateful" and he has compared theirvdeaths to the deaths of flies, post 173 PS. Nor is his racism Limited to Armenians. In November, on the OC weekly blog he insulted Mexican American writer Gustavo Arellano repeatedly, calling him "speedy Gonzalez" (a racist caricature) and advising this American journalist not to do things as they are done in Tijuana. he writes for Turkish Forum and turkla.co
Submitted by: jda3
10:21 PM PST, January 5, 2009
16. but here is the point: while filling the web with irrelevant quotes about A supposed civil war(in which unarmed civilians under guard are portrayed as combatants) Kirlikovali portrays all Armenians of 1915 and today as liars and traitors or worse. Any scholar he disagrees with is a stooge or was bribed. Were these the frantic ravings of a lone racist, no problem.
Submitted by: jda2
10:02 PM PST, January 5, 2009
17. Mr. Kirkikoval's posts here and throughout the web are good examples of why some Turks sought to show compassion through the apology. Although the Armenian victims of 1915-1923 were murdered by their deportation guards and special action units formed and unleashed by the state in 1914, his posts pretend that unarmed civilians were combatants.
Submitted by: jda
9:53 PM PST, January 5, 2009
18. Breath of fresh air! A Turkish cab driver I had 2 yrs ago shared some horrible stories that his own father had shared with him re: his own involvement in the annilihation of Armenians in 1914 & the guilt & nightmares his Dad has suffered from ever since. The Turks can continue to deny all they want but those who lived thru it all, all the photographic evidence of it all will NEVER be drowned, EVER! Such Turks are obviously cut of same cloth as the bloodthirsty, hatred-filled militant Muslims whom continue to create the issues in the ME - killing their own people as well as non-Muslims.
Submitted by: Cathy Marderosian
9:20 PM PST, January 5, 2009
19. As an armenian man, i think our community should get over this issue, there was a war there (as my grandparents told me before they past away) and neighbor kill neighbor... Whatever happened, it happened during Ottomans, 100 years ago.. So enough with those kinda debates..GET OVER!
Submitted by: Dave Zikoyan
8:48 PM PST, January 5, 2009
20. Thank you. Once again, The Academy membership - whether in Turkey or the USA - risks their academic jobs by acknowledging our history. Wanda Tene Ramser UCLA M.A./UCLA M.L.I.S.
Submitted by: Wanda Tene Ramser
8:21 PM PST, January 5, 2009
21. Thank you. Once again, brave and courageous persons in The Academy - whether in Turkey or the USA - are risking their professional jobs to acknowledge our history. UCLA M.A. Latin American Studies/UCLA M.L.I.S. Library & Information Services
Submitted by: Wanda Tene Ramser
8:19 PM PST, January 5, 2009
22. Armenians ARE in constant denial of the atrocities they did at the end of the first world war. And they repeat it, because they deny it. When did they repeat it? Just 16 years ago in Azerbaijan, Khocali. How many of you know how Armenian irregulars and army slaugtered Azeris 16 years ago in Khocali? This is bound to repeat as long as Armenians are tolerated for what they have done, and are still doing today. Go to Turkey today, go to Azerbaijan, Georgia. Those states are all ethnic mixes. Armenia? %99 ethnically Armenian. What does that tell you?
Submitted by: AnotherOpinion
8:16 PM PST, January 5, 2009
23. I do not understand how it is that Ergun Kirlikovali is silencing many opinions by quoting the very stories that reveal the atrocities committed by Armenians.
Submitted by: AnotherOpinion
8:15 PM PST, January 5, 2009
24. Please DO publish the commentators who does not shy away giving historical accounts of what really happened. Good work Ergun. I hope those who were filled by hatred with false information at Armenian churches in US would learn from your references. I also hope the author is getting a good education by reading these comments. We all lost in that time interval. Now it is time to move on.
Submitted by: Kallespapaz
7:39 PM PST, January 5, 2009
25. Hey all of you who say the Armenian Genocide is a fact. Show me one proof, one shred of evidence besides the made up stories and photoshopped pictures. Those of you who do not know the difference between allegations and facts. Start studying because you sound plane ignorant. Do you understand Orhan Gonul?
Submitted by: Mel Bakuy
7:11 PM PST, January 5, 2009
26. I do not apologize for something I did not do. They should apologize first for starting it and killing my ancestors without any mercy.
Submitted by: vduygun
6:32 PM PST, January 5, 2009
27. Please do not publish Ergun Kirlikovali's comments anymore as he is obviously trying to silence everyone else's opinions by posting a massive amount of text. Very typical of the Turks whose only goal is to silence any one who speaks anything against them, truth or not...
Submitted by: Bizantian
5:44 PM PST, January 5, 2009
28. Here is a very simple question to anyone who is in denial of the Armenian Genocide. Where are nearly 2 million Armenians who lived in Asia Minor before 1915? Did they vanish? For the ones seeking the truth, here it is in a nut shell: http://www.armenian-genocide.org/genocidefaq.html I am a Greek from Turkey. Most of my family (and myself too) left Turkey because they faced ethnic prosecution of different kinds. I highly recommend Kemal Yalcin's books (i.e. Sari Gelin) who is interested to hear actual stories of genocide survivors.
Submitted by: Bizantian
5:36 PM PST, January 5, 2009
29. as a turkish person i think we havent been taught this subject very openly. i had realised that we knew very little of armenian killings. killing took place that time but i still cant look at as a genocide...
Submitted by: berroll
4:29 PM PST, January 5, 2009
30. "Since all the able Moslem men were in the army, it was easy for the Armenians to begin a horrible slaughter of the defenseless Moslem inhabitants in the area. They ... simply cleaned out the Moslem inhabitants in those areas. They performed gruesome deeds, of which I, as an eye witness honestly say that they were much worse than what Turks have been accused of as an Armenian atrocity." General Bronsart von Schellendorf , "A Witness for Talat Pasha," Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, July 24, 1921 Why is everyone so silent about Muslim suffering and Armenian hate crimes?
Submitted by: Ergun Kirlikovali
3:43 PM PST, January 5, 2009
31. "The Armenians did exterminate the entire Muslim population of Russian Armenia as Muslims were considered inferior to the Armenians by the prominent leaders of the Dashnaks." Mikael Kaprilian, Armenian revolutionary leader, in Yerevan, 1919. Let historians show you the Armenian war crimes that biased scholars or media will not.
Submitted by: Ergun Kirlikovali
3:43 PM PST, January 5, 2009
32. "There is little news from the interior save that the Russians have entered Van. The contingent is mostly composed of Armenian volunteers who fight with desperate courage, but whose excesses have shocked even the Russian commanders." Lewis Einstein, "Inside Constantinople – A [Diplomat's] Diary During the Dardanelles Expedition, April-September, 1915,". 1917, p. 68; John Murray, London. Armenian war crimes belie Armenian genocide claims.
Submitted by: Ergun Kirlikovali
3:41 PM PST, January 5, 2009
33. "Many massacres were committed by the Armenians until our army arrived in Erzurum... (after General Odesilitze left) 2,127 Muslim bodies were buried in Erzurum's center. These are entirely men. There are ax, bayonet and bullet wounds on the dead bodies. Lungs of the bodies were removed and sharp stakes were struck in the eyes. There are other bodies around the city." Official telegram of the Third Royal Army Command, addressed to the Supreme Command, March 19, 1918; ATASE Archive of General Staff, Archive No: 4-36-71. D. 231. G.2. K. 2820. Dos.A-69, Fih.3. Why is no one talking about Armenian war crimes?
Submitted by: Ergun Kirlikovali
3:40 PM PST, January 5, 2009
34. "...We closed the roads and mountain passes that might serve as ways of escape for the Tartars (Turks), and then proceeded in the work of extermination. Our troops surrounded village after village. Little resistance was offered. Our artillery knocked the huts into heaps of stones and dust, and when the villages became untenable and the inhabitants fled from them into the fields, bullets and bayonets completed the work." Ohanus Appressian, describing incidents in 1919; Memoirs of an Armenian officer, Men are Like That, 1926. Still doubt Armenian war crimes?
Submitted by: Ergun Kirlikovali
3:38 PM PST, January 5, 2009
35. "The Moslems who did not succeed in escaping [the city] were put to death..." Grace H. Knapp, The Tragedy of Bitlis, Fleming H. Revell Co., New York (1919) , page 146. Here is the civil war that no one talks about.
Submitted by: Ergun Kirlikovali
3:37 PM PST, January 5, 2009
36. "I have it from absolute first-hand information that the Armenians in the Caucasus attacked Tartar (Muslim) villages that are utterly defenseless and bombarded these villages with artillery and they murder the inhabitants, pillage the village and often burn the village." Admiral Mark Bristol, Bristol Papers, General Correspondence: Container #32: Bristol to Bradley Letter of September 14, 1920. Facts belie Armenian claims.
Submitted by: Ergun Kirlikovali
3:37 PM PST, January 5, 2009
37. "Thousands of Armenians from all over the world, flocked to the standards of such famous fighters as Antranik, Kery, Dro, etc. The Armenian volunteer regiments rendered valuable service to the Russian Army in the years of 1914-15-16." Source: Kapriel Serope Papazian, Patriotism Perverted, Boston Baker Press, 1934, pg. 38 (Defending one's home is no genocide.)
Submitted by: Ergun Kirlikovali
3:35 PM PST, January 5, 2009
38. The only people due an apology are the victims. The only people who need to apologize are the perpetrators. If one perpetrator is alive to apologize to a victim who is still alive then the whole controversy makes sense; otherwise what's the point?
Submitted by: Gilbert Avila
3:34 PM PST, January 5, 2009
39. "Only 1,500 Turks remain in Van" Source: The Gochnag, an Armenian newspaper published in the United States, May 24,1915 ... in a proud report documenting the slaughter of the Turkish citizenry of Van. What genocide are you talking about?
Submitted by: Ergun Kirlikovali
3:34 PM PST, January 5, 2009
40. " All Turkish children also should be killed as they form a danger to the Armenian nation" Source: Hamparsum Boyaciyan, nicknamed "Murad," a former Ottoman parliamentarian who led Armenian guerilla forces, ravaging Turkish villages behind the lines, 1914. Cited from Mikael Varandean, "History of the Dashnaktsutiun. What genocide are you talking about?
Submitted by: Ergun Kirlikovali
3:33 PM PST, January 5, 2009
41. "Few Americans who mourn, and justly, the miseries of the Armenians, are aware that till the rise of nationalistic ambitions, beginning with the 'eighteenseventies, the Armenians were the favored portion of the population of Turkey, or that in the Great War, they traitorously turned Turkish cities over to the Russian invader; that they boasted of having raised an army of one hundred and fifty thousand men to fight a civil war, and that they burned at least a hundred Turkish villages and exterminated their population." Prof. John Dewey, The Turkish Tragedy, The New Republic, Nov. 12, 1928
Submitted by: Ergun Kirlikovali
3:27 PM PST, January 5, 2009
42. Ozyurek mentions Taner Akcam but fails to alert the readers to the facts that he was paid, until recently anyway, by the Armenian lobby. His paycjeck came from the Cafesjian Foundation and the notoriously anti-Turkish Zorian Institute. That makes him a paid Armenian agent. Please see my expose on Taner Akcam at www.turkla.com
Submitted by: Ergun Kirlikovali
3:26 PM PST, January 5, 2009
43. Allegations of Armenian genocide are racist and dishonest history. They are racist because they imply only Armenian (or Christian) dead count, the Turkish (or Muslim) dead do not. And the allegations of Armenian genocide are dishonest because they dismiss “The Six T’s Of The Turkish-Armenian Conflict”: TUMULT (Armenian rebellions), TERRORISM (by Armenians,)TREASON (Armenians joining the invaders,) TERRITORIAL DEMANDS (by Armenian,) TURKISH SUFFERING (caused by Armenians,) and TERESET (temporary resettlement) triggered by the first five T’s above.
Submitted by: Ergun Kirlikovali
3:15 PM PST, January 5, 2009
44. Those familiar with the Mosin-Gaflan mentality and “Greater Armenia” dreams will note this apology campaign as another link in the chain of deception and defamation of Turkey by the supporters of the official Armenian history. Asking someone “Do you accept or deny Armenian Genocide” shows anti-Turkish bias. The question should be rephrased: “What is your stand on the Turkish-Armenian conflict?” Turks believe it was a civil war within a world war provoked and waged by the Armenians with support from Russia, England, and France, the U.S. diplomats, missionaries, media, and others;most Armenians claim it was genocide.
Submitted by: Ergun Kirlikovali
3:13 PM PST, January 5, 2009
45. Ozyurek did a great disservice to unsuspecting readers by not telling them, even in passing, the fact that a dozen or more counter campaigns have spontaneously sprouted all over the world (one right here in Southern California, www.ozurdilemiyorum.net) that collected nearly a million votes for “No apology” versus 26,000 for apology. How fair or honest is leaving half the story out? This is also significant because this is the first time close to a million Turks of all stripes (Turkish, American, European, Asian, African, Australian) have come together so powerfully and swiftly to scream “Enough is enough!”
Submitted by: Ergun Kirlikovali
3:10 PM PST, January 5, 2009
46. Ergun's useless 6-T test can be applied to any situation. You just have to change your perception, and ignore facts that don't support your conclusion. Let's apply it to PROVE that the Palestinians are commiting genocide against Israel: TUMULT (Palestinian rebellions); TERRORISM (by Palestinians); TREASON (Palestinians joining the invaders - Hamas); TERRITORIAL DEMANDS (by Palestinians); ISRAELI SUFFERING (sorry, no T here) (caused by the Palestinians); and TERESET (temporary resettlement of the areas under Hamas rocket fire). There. See how easy that was? I'm a genius like Ergun.
Submitted by: Aptal Ergun
2:29 PM PST, January 5, 2009
47. Turkey will NEVER accept a finding of GENOCIDE because it will NEVER come to that conclusion in its endless investigation. This has already been investigated for over 90 years. Turkey just doesn't like the results of the investigation. Turkey's not seeking the truth. They're looking for reasons to deny it. Do you honestly think that Turkey could EVER accept that a genocide occured? So what's the point of them suggesting more investigation?
Submitted by: John Whitman
2:18 PM PST, January 5, 2009
48. What happened and who is at fault will forever be debated. It remains nonetheless, that the Ottoman Empire no longer exists, and any Armenian who doesn't like it where he is now has an Armenia in which to reside, so the point is moot. In short: Get over it!
Submitted by: Tim Bowman
1:11 PM PST, January 5, 2009
49. It is for the pseudo-scholarship that seeks to denigrate the sufferings of these groups as nothing more than deaths in a civil war. It is for Turkish government's and pro-government websites that spew hatred of Armenians of 1915 and of today every day labelling them as "enemies".
Submitted by: jda3
12:26 PM PST, January 5, 2009
50. It is for the discrimination and hatred Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians endure every day in Turkey today, not that large numbers survive from the millions who lived there in 1915. It is for the pseudo-scholarship that seeks to denigrate the sufferings of these groups as nothing more than deaths in a civil war. It is for Turkish government's and pro-government websites that spew hatred of Armenians of 1915 and of today every day labelling them as "enemies".
Submitted by: jda-2
12:25 PM PST, January 5, 2009
51. It is important first to read the apology for what it says and does not say: it is a compassionate gesture and acknowledgement of the suffering of despised Christian minorities by intellectuals and ordinary Turks who often express revulsion at the aggressive and factually unfounded denial campaign their government has been pursuing in this country and theirs since 1915. It is for the discrimination and hatred Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians endure every day in Turkey today, not that large numbers survive from the millions who lived there in 1915.
Submitted by: jda
12:22 PM PST, January 5, 2009
52. The only reason why the Turkish side is proposing the so-called "Historical Commision" is because it wants to drag on the issue as much as possible. So that when the issue of genocide recognition is brought against Turkey, they can freely say "We are taking care of it in the historical commission. Ninty years of denial is enough, the recognition needs to happen NOW.
Submitted by: VGA
11:24 AM PST, January 5, 2009
53. And the allegations of Armenian genocide are dishonest because they simply ignore “The Six T’s Of The Turkish-Armenian Conflict” TUMULT (Armenian rebellions); TERRORISM (by Armenians); TREASON (Armenians joining the invaders); TERRITORIAL DEMANDS (by Armenians); TURKISH SUFFERING (caused by the Armenians); and TERESET (temporary resettlement) triggered by the first five T’s above; not to be equated to the Armenian misrepresentations as genocide.) What the world needs now is truth and honesty, not more Armenian propaganda s featuring selective morality. By Ergun Kirlikovali www.turkla.com 3 OF 3
Submitted by: Ergun KIRLIKOVALI
11:19 AM PST, January 5, 2009
54. Allegations of Armenian genocide are racist and dishonest history. They are racist because they imply only Armenian (or Christian) dead count, the Turkish (or Muslim) dead do not. More than half a million Muslims, mostly Turks, have met their tragic end at the hands of well-armed, well-motivated, and ruthless Armenian revolutionaries and para-military thugs. Compare that with less than 300,000 Armenian casualties which number is gradually magnified to 1.5 million over the years through Armenian propaganda. By Ergun Kirlikovali www.turkla.com 2 OF 3
Submitted by: Ergun KIRLIKOVALI
11:17 AM PST, January 5, 2009
55. Ozyurek did a terrible disservice to unsuspecting readers by not mentioning, even in passing, that the counter campaigns rejecting such an ill-informed apology popped up simultaneously and managed to collect 20 fold more signatures in the same period ( see www.ozurdilemiyorum.net) This is significant, because this is the first time close to a million Turks around the world are raising their voice so quickly and powerfully against a campaign of defamation and deception. By Ergun Kirlikovali www.turkla.com 1 OF 3
Submitted by: Ergun KIRLIKOVALI
11:17 AM PST, January 5, 2009
56. (continued)... But the Armenian Propagandists insist that there was a Government plan to exterminate the Armenians because of their race/ethnicity, that the provocation was negligible, that there was no state of Emergency similar to the Hiroshima case and that the Moslem Turks simply wanted to exterminate the Christian Armenians. The historical facts show this to be completely untrue so we should not be surprised that the the number of Turks objecting -in writing- to the apology is currently 25 times as many as those who have signed on to the apology to date.
Submitted by: AmericanGuy
10:56 AM PST, January 5, 2009
57. Esra as a Turk feels uncomfortable about the fate suffered by so many innocent Armenians in 1915; I as an American feel uncomfortable about the fate of so many innocent Japanese non-combatant residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As recently as 1995 President Clinton was asked if the U.S. should apologize to Japan for dropping Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and he answered "No" saying that Truman had "made the right decision based on the facts he had before him". This is typical of the response that most Americans would give. Many would point to the provocation of Perl Harbor, State of emergency, etc.
Submitted by: AmericanGuy
9:30 AM PST, January 5, 2009
58. Ms. Ozyurek, obviously you have been heavily brainwashed by the Armenians. I have been here 40 years and I have seen this happen many times. It is a shame. What is wrong with the Turkish proposal of forming and International committee made up of Historians and experts to study this matter. Turkish prime minister said on national Television here that if they decide there was a genocide we will accept it. Why don't you study the Greek genocide on Turks in western Anatolia during the independence war where my grandfather was killed and my mother was almost killed. But we said it was war and did not hold any ill feelings for the Greeks.
Submitted by: Mel Bakuy
9:18 AM PST, January 5, 2009
59. (continued-4) I feel sorry for you and the rest of the 70 million turks that think the same way as you do.
Submitted by: Orhan Gonul
8:56 AM PST, January 5, 2009
60. (continued-3) Let's try an experiment. I will apply your logic (about the Armenian Genocide) to the current Israeli/Palestinian situation. Here we go... Hamas is threatening Israel, so Israel has the right to kill all of the Palestinians. In case you can't follow me, this is like Turkey killing all of the Armenians because it felt the Armenians were a threat to Turkey. According to you, this logic makes sense. Or, do you only take the flawless Turkish/Muslim side?
Submitted by: Orhan Gonul
8:55 AM PST, January 5, 2009
61. (continued-2) Hamas should appologize to the Palestinian mothers. Hamas caused the current situation by continually launching rockets at Israel during the cease-fire. Hamas isn't interested in peace - they just want to destroy Israel. But I'm sure you will blame Israel for all of your problems, the Arab countries' problems, and the world's problems, too.
Submitted by: Orhan Gonul
8:55 AM PST, January 5, 2009
62. To Commenter #1: It's common in Turkish culture to blame a victim for his/her fate -- implying that he/she deserved what happened. So, after all of the research proving the fact of the Armenian Genocide, I'm not surprised that you can still find a reason/excuse to blame the Armenians for what happened to them. Unfortunately, your opinion will never change because you've taken sides instead of trying to learn the truth.
Submitted by: Orhan Gonul
8:54 AM PST, January 5, 2009
63. While it is true that next generations would be equipped with more knowledge due to the accessibility of information - thanks to internet, we have to keep in mind that people have to filter, read everything with a keen, skeptic eye since the amount of legitimacy, reliability of written material is not something you should take it for granted. I personally believe that it is the diaspora that sleeps and lives by this. Armenian church aims to keep it up for its own survival. They keep spreading the hatred into the generations born outside of the region with no idea of the struggles of today's poor Armenia.
Submitted by: Kallespapaz
8:01 AM PST, January 5, 2009
64. KEMAL ARIKAN 28th January 1982 Ring a bell Ms./Mrs. Ozyurek? International conflicts and historical cases have always more than one side. Your version of history is pretty single sided and as radical as the official version of history in Turkey regarding the "so-called genocide" Research is the key. Keep up the good work. One last thing what's going on now in Gaza? Define it for me please. I would like to hear your approach on that issue also. Who is gonna apologize from the mothers of hundreds and thousands of Palestanians, Iraqis and more? Are you gonna apologize from Indians? Aztecs? and Africans? Who will tell the truth?
Submitted by: Karan LIKAYDIN
4:51 AM PST, January 5, 2009
65. Read Rabbi Lerner's Op-Ed in today's London Times. Two inspired writings in one day from across the world. Perhaps there is hope for humanity in 2009. Well done Professor Ozyurek!
Submitted by: Patrick, Esq.
12:23 AM PST, January 5, 2009

---