3006) Turkey Changes Course On Armenia & Counter Comments

By Caleb Lauer & Counter Comments in Italic and Bold

Followed by The Truth Is Not In What The Armenians Say, But In What They Do Not Say by Ergun Kirlikovali

Feb 3 2010

ISTANBUL - Though genocide scholars around the world agree that more than one million Ottoman-Armenian civilians were deliberately killed during World War I when Turkish Ottoman authorities forced them to walk out of Anatolia into the Syrian desert, Turkey has always officially denied this was genocide. Ankara has insisted that a commission to study this tragic history be a pillar of its now fizzling peace deal with neighboring Armenia. .


The idea of the commission has caused much controversy. Armenia, bowing to Turkish pressure and eyeing the prospect of an open border with its much richer European Union-candidate neighbor, has committed itself to something that suggests the facts of the genocide are insufficiently known. But for Armenians, the genocide carried out against them is a fundamental aspect of their modern identity. And likewise for the Turks; denial of the genocide is intimately intertwined with the story of modern Turkey's founding in 1923.

The author is totally unaware of factual documented history and arrives to hearsay conclusions about “scholars around the world agree”, “more than one million Armenians were killed” and alike fabrications.

The author is cordially invited to read “some of the Armenian history” books in the free-E-library and acquaint himself with some reality written back in Oct.1915 by Reno Evening Gazette which he can find in p.662-663 of my book. The author is also advised to read the US RELIEF REPORT of 22.04.1922 which states that 1.414.000 Armenians were alive on 31.12.1921, and more over note from General Harbord’s report that it was “the Armenians doing many refinements of cruelty in large scale to Moslems and they did most of the damage to towns and villages”. Cheap words such as “denial” and alike do not serve as any logic justification, other than use of ballast literature by simple writers who think that the readers would swallow anything!

Suat Kiniklioglu, the governing AKP's (Justice and Development Party) deputy chairman of external affairs and spokesman for the Turkish parliament's foreign affairs committee, said in an e-mail that the Turkish government insisted on a historical commission to "have a fresh look at the evidence [and] documentation surrounding the unfortunate events of World War I. The events of 1915 cannot be understood without situating them in an appropriate historical context."

It is a mishap that such persons knowing nothing but a fraction of some reading, do the representation and speaking for the Republic of Turkey. His words are alike “ballast literature”.

This context, said Kiniklioglu, includes " ... the ethnic cleansing of millions of Turks and Muslims from the Balkans, the Caucasus, and other parts of the crumbling [Ottoman] empire". Many Armenians, genocide scholars and others say this just rationalizes denial of the genocide and is an extension of Turkey's policy of lobbying abroad to prevent its recognition. Some also say it is an affront to historical research and the lessons drawn from it.

Sir, do you have any valid documentation to put on the table? If yes, submit, if not stop the ballast literature “many genocide scholars”… To what extent you can depend on scholars that are paid/fed by certain institutions, where only a small section of the Armenian history books are read!

Roger W Smith, a former president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars and current chairman of the academic board of directors at the Zoryan Institute in Toronto, wrote in a September 30, 2009 open letter to Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian that the proposed commission "in effect dismisses all of the extensive research that has already been conducted for decades and implies that none of it was impartial or scientific". He also wrote that genocide scholars have no confidence "that a politically organized commission would not compromise historical truth, especially considering the imbalanced power relations between Armenia and Turkey". He also argued such a commission would show "how easily genocide can be relativized, especially by the powerful".

But some doubt the commission will be effective enough to warrant fear. Cengiz Aktar, a retired United Nations official and now chair of the European Union Relations department at Bahcesehir University in Istanbul, dismissed the idea that a commission was a threat, saying such a commission would have so little credibility, and would be so dysfunctional, it would be simply impracticable. "It is ridiculous to think for even a second that [such a] commission could even meet, let alone decide about anything [historical]."

Mr. Cengiz Aktar, like Taner Akcam are pipe blowers of genocide, they have done no reading of “complete documents available in English” and deny the thousands of Turkish archival documents. His past employment in United Nations, does not make him an arbiter, and international judge, other than a corner writer and frequent speaker on certain channels, in the same frequency of propaganda! Ask Mr. Aktar if he ever heard of my book, which has been laying in the library of his university and this blog site for over two years! Did he take the trouble to read the authentic documents in the E-library? How can you claim to be a scholar, when you are so biased and uninformed?

Any equally weighted, government-run commission, Aktar imagines, would consist of one side of "denialists" and one side of genocide scholars. "These guys are not capable of even shaking hands," he said.

Aktar is also the creator of an online "I apologize" proclamation addressed to Armenians, so far joined by more than 30,000 Turks. He suggested that unsealing relevant archives in Ankara, Jerusalem and Boston would be a more constructive goal of the commission.

Aktar is the creator of I apologize because his knowledge is crippled and moves on Zorian or diaspora leased crutches! By his evaluation Hrant Dink’s (regrettable murder) is a hero, even greater than Ataturk, but he fails to say that 100.000 Turks walked behind the funeral, in protest of this idiotic shameful murder. However, he never makes mention of over 250 acts of ASALA terrors over 80 deaths or the self-burning of Artin Penik in 1982, protesting the ASALA killings! Aktar is hosted in all meetings, workshops against Turkey and keeps away from meeting any other scholars or persons who disagree with him!

But the prospect of a commission has a significant inverse; it may be a sign of, and end up promoting, Turkey's increasing openness to a less categorical and dogmatic view of its own official history. Turkish schools teach that the genocide never happened; Turks who publicly say otherwise have risked prosecution by the state and vilification in the media.

Armenian diaspora or puppet government will never meet in any commission, because they know that they have no documents to lay on the table, other than plenty evidences of treason!

But the current AKP government, in power since 2002, has been steadily pushing the old guard - especially the military - out of the center of the Turkish state. With major electoral support, there is no doubt that the government's democratic reforms have helped it consolidate power; still, thanks in part to this new environment, many long-sacred taboos of Turkish public life are being challenged and more and more Turks, in newspaper articles, books, and academic conferences, have been questioning the conventional denialist view of the genocide.

Government’s democratic (?) reforms! Kiss my hand… and rid yourself from this “denial-mania” or similar ballast words meaning nothing!

Professor Taner Akcam of Clark University in Massachusetts, a leading genocide scholar and one of the few Turkish historians to unequivocally affirm the Armenian genocide, rejects the Turkish government's argument that more context is needed to understand what happened in 1915 and says Turkey must understand that the historical debate "is over". Still, Akcam argues that the significance of the moment should not be overlooked.

Another pipe blower, paid by Armenian family, originally fugitive of prison, had some schooling on sociology but all of the sudden has become an authority on history! Why not? This is his duty as “his master’s voice”! Mr. Akcam has created many fantasies and empty bragging but no documents whatsoever and stays away from any confrontation with any person that may not applaud him! Mr.
Akcam is a good example of travesty of scholarship based on presumptions but no concrete facts!

"Nobody understands enough the importance of Turkey's readiness for negotiations. For 100 years Turkey denies everything. And now after 100 years, Turkey officially says - 'OK, let's negotiate about our own history' ... There is something seriously changing in Turkey," he said.

"The Turkish republic was established by the same military and bureaucratic elite which organized the Armenian genocide," said Akcam. “We know [from historical study] that a change in the ruling elite is the precondition for facing history."

"There is a huge process of transition in Turkish society from an authoritarian system [of rule] to one more democratic and more European. And within this system, Turkey will, and has to, face its own history."

Mumbo-jumbo ballast words…

The Turkish government may use the commission as a "face-saving operation", that is, to minimize blame as much as possible while communicating unknown, and unwelcome, facts to the Turkish public, said Akcam. "After 100 years of denial, you cannot suddenly say: 'Yes, it was a genocide.' Or, 'Yes, it was a crime.' You need a transition."

There is no need for any commission, the documents are all sitting there on the internet but those who speak are so naïve that they speak without learning or knowing!

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 during Armenia's war with Turkey's ally Azerbaijan. Once the Armenian and Turkish parliaments ratify the protocols signed by their foreign ministers last autumn in Switzerland, the two countries will open their common border and establish normal relations. (Though lately it seems Turkey is willing to let a dispute over the Armenian-controlled province of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan put the whole deal at risk.)

It is expected bureaucrats from Armenia, Turkey and Switzerland, which mediated the peace deal, will comprise the commission, and, according to the protocols, will carry out " ... an impartial scientific examination of the historical records and archives to define existing problems". Despite protests against the commission and other aspects of the peace deal, poor, land-locked Armenia has a clear interest in an open border with Turkey, which could join the European Union in the next decade.

In the end, however, Akcam believes real reconciliation between the two countries cannot come through commissions or legislation. He recalls the words of Hrant Dink, an Armenian-Turkish newspaper editor whose prosecution for comments made about Turkish-Armenian reconciliation made him a target of ultranationalists. He was assassinated outside his newspaper office in Istanbul on January 19, 2007.

a- Will Akcam and alike have the courage to sit at any debate or scholarly workshop table?

b- Why you repeat as a rhetoric Hrant Dink’s (only ONE yet shameful) murder but make no mention of the so many diplomats murdered by ASALA or watch the Video of Murat Topalian, their leader!

"My dear friend Hrant was always saying: when the Armenian and Turkish people come together, see each other, talk to each other, the genocide problem will be solved automatically."

Yes, Hrant Dink spoke the truth and Turkish Armenians are much alike and live in harmony until such time that outside trouble mongers step in. This blog site is full of many articles reflecting the outside intrusions and the on going friendship in Turkey, which the outsiders cannot understand because they are not from Anatolia, the same land who lived a thousand years in perfect harmony. Shame on those who distort this harmony to satisfy their egos or interests!

Caleb Lauer is a Canadian freelance journalist based in Istanbul.
Copyright 2010 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd

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The Truth Is Not In What The Armenians Say, But In What They Do Not Say by Ergun Kirlikovali

02 February 2010

Letters to the editor, writeto@atimes.com
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Re: “Turkey changes course on Armenia” by Caleb Lauer, ISTANBUL, Turkey, Asia Times Online, Feb 3, 2010; http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LB03Ak03.html . .

Caleb Lauer’s biased article (“Turkey changes course on Armenia”, Asia Times Online, Feb 3, 2010, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LB03Ak03.html ) is replete with falsifications, omissions, and errors. Reading this article, one would never know that Armenians took up arms against their own government, attacked the rear of their own army, terrorized their Muslim neighbors, joined the invading enemy armies, demanded territory for an apartheid (greater Armenia), and caused the death of 524,000 of their countrymen, women and children. One would never appreciate that the Tereset (temporary resettlement) was a wartime home security measure and that Turks were only defending their home in the face of brutal foreign invasions and equally savage Armenian nationalists and revolutionaries.

Caleb Lauer’s prejudice also shows in the selection of sources to validate claims of genocide; all other sources are ignored. Genocide scholars, for instance, is an Armenian invention created by the notoriously anti-Turkish Zoryan Institute in 1994. These genocide scholars are not even historians. Most are English teachers and sociologists. There are some psychologists and government majors among them. And seventy-five percent of the board of directors are ethnically Armenians. But they all like to pose like authorities in history which they absolutely are not. They vie for winning the confidence of their unsuspecting readers. What the Armenian claims lack in the credibility department, the Armenian lobby tries to fill the gap with new inventions like these so-called genocide scholars and other avenues like films, exhibits, and panels where only the Armenian side is represented and the Turkish side is censored. Anything to avoid history, primary sources, facts, peer review, and debate seem to be fine with the Armenian lobby. They think they are winning on the political side where opinions can be manipulated, political candidates, legislatures, and voters can be convinced without having to deal with legitimate, non-partisan historians and scholars driven by facts only.


Taner Akcam , the poster boy of sorts of the Armenian lobby, for instance, was exposed to be a paid Armenian agent. In a letter dated 17 January 2008, the University of Minnesota legal counsel stated that Akcam’s salary was funded by Cafesjian Foundation (an Armenian institution) and Zoryan Institute (also an Armenian institution.) What’s just as troubling is the fact that that letter said “…Dr. Akcam is currently employed by the University as a Research Associate in the College of Liberal Arts (CLA), Department of History. This is an annually renewable, Professional & Administrative ("P&A") position…” A few days after this letter was written, Akcam was spotted in New Orleans, presenting himself as “associate professor” in history to unsuspecting audiences. He was neither employed as a professor nor historian, as his PhD is in sociology. Is this important? It ought to be, in the name of truth. Why is he posing as a historian then if he is a sociologist? How did he become a professor when he arrived into the U.S. as only a visiting scholar attached to no university only about ten years ago? The more one digs, the more one finds the Armenian lobby lurking ominously underneath all this stink.

Whereas the facts are simple. Armenians revolted to establish an apartheid (i.e. greater Armenia) in Ottoman territories, when the motherland (the Ottoman Empire) was fighting for its survival against multi-front brutal invasions. The Ottoman Empire, as a home security measure, was left with no choice but to tereset (temporarily resettle) the treasonous elements to non-war zones of the empire (hence not even a deportation.) Measures were taken for security and safety of the groups teresetted, perhaps insufficient and at times ineffective, but without intent to destroy as claimed.

Unsubstantiated accusations such as race extermination or over 1.5 million Armenians stand short of truths and the U.S. state archives refute them openly because:

a- “American Military Mission to Armenia” (General Harbord) Report 1920 and Annex Report Nat. Archives 184.021/175 does not mention any “race extermination” but refers to “…refinements of cruelty by Armenians to Muslims…”

b- Joint US-Congress Resolution no. 192, April 22, 1922 relative to the activities of Near East Relief ending 31.12.1921, has unanimously resolved that a total of 1,414,000 Armenians were alive.

c- George Montgomery, a member of the US delegation at the Paris Conference, had presented a detailed tabulation in 1919, showing a total of 1,104,000 Armenians alive, apart from those who had already immigrated to other countries. ( 29 March 1919 report of the Paris Conference subcommittee on atrocities lists Armenian losses as “…more than 200,000…” Who may have jacked this number to the current 1.5 million? Take a guess!)

d- Reliable sources show that THE TOTAL ARMENIAN POPULATION in the Ottoman Empire was less than 1.3 MILLION ( and others saying up to a maximum of 1.5 million) and hence it would be Armenian falsifiers’ liability to defy and annul these official U.S. State Records. You think Armenian lobby can do that? That is, use current pro-Armenian politicians to void the records of the U.S. Congress of 1919 with bogus resolutions?

In case you missed it, it bears repeating: these are the U.S. Congress records of 1919, solidly laying down the situation as it was back then. Can the Armenians change them today?

Unfortunately yes, if “genocide scholars” like Akcam, “journalists” like Lauer, and bogus Hitler quotes fabricated by the ever resourceful Armenian lobby are not confronted by truth-seeking, dispassionate, and genuine scholars… and still closed archives of Armenia and Armenian church(as) are not opened…

If Armenia, the tiny, land-locked, poverty-stricken, violent, and corrupt country, wants to avoid bankruptcy and famine, which would turn it into a distant, inaccessible, and irrelevant province of Russia, then Armenia should stop the military occupation of Azeri lands (including Karabakh), allow the return home of one million Azeri refugees, and agree to opening and scholarly studying all relevant archives of WWI era soon. Nothing short of that will save Armenia… and the time is ticking!
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Some useful reference sites:
www.turkla.com
www.ethocide.com
www.ataa.org
www.tallarmeniantale.com
www.historyoftruth.com
www.turkishjournal.com
www.turkishny.com
www.mediawatchnow.com
www.turkishalert.com

Some PDF Documents:
Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2008/10/2635-genocide-lies-need-no-archives.html (Part 1 & 2)
Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2008/10/2635-genocide-lies-need-no-archives.html (Part 3)
Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2009/04/2813-conditions-in-near-east-report-of.html (General Harbord Report)
Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2008/06/2512-free-e-book-armenian-question.html
Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2007/11/2187-book-excerpts-pastermadjians-why.html
http://www.turkla.com/

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Source: http://www.turkla.com/

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