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INTRODUCTION
As a bridge
between Asia and Europe, with its straits connecting The Black
Sea with the Mediterranean and its geopolitical situation
at a point where the Central Asian, Caucasian and Middle Eastern
natural energy sources intersect, Turkey draws the attention
of the entire world.
The Ottoman
Empire in the past and Turkey at present has always been an
arena for which intrigues were incessantly designed. The colonialist
superpowers wishing to eradicate the Ottoman Empire from the
world by dividing it did not fail to use in their schemes
also the Armenians who coexisted in peace with the Turks for
so many centuries.
There are today
just like in the past, several countries striving to secure
themselves political and economic benefits at the expense
of Armenian community. Monuments accusing Turks and Turkey
of having committed genocide are being erected in some countries;
decisions intending to recognise the so called genocide are
brought into the parliamentary agenda in several countries
and even voted for in some others. Issues that need to be
left to historians are turned into means of self interest
by the politicians.
The Armenians
who were ousted from one place to the other, pushed into wars,
and treated as third rate citizens throughout the history
by the Romans, Persians and Byzantines. After the advent of
Turks into Anatolia, they benefited from the just, humane,
tolerant and unifying traditions and beliefs of their new
neighbours. The period that lasted until the end of the nineteenth
century when the apogee of these developments and relations
was attained, was the golden age of Armenians. In fact,
the Armenians were by far the greatest beneficiaries of the
opportunities offered by the Ottoman Empire to all industrious,
capable, honest and straightforward citizens of the non-Moslem
communities. Being exempted from the military service and
to a large extent from taxation, they had the opportunity
to excel themselves in trade, agriculture, craftsmanship and
administration and therefore were rightly called the “loyal
nation” because of their loyalty and ability to interact
with the Ottomans. There were so many Armenians who spoke
Turkish, who even conducted their rites in this language ,
who rose to topmost public service posts such as the Ministries
and Under-Secretariats of State for the Public Works, Navy,
Foreign Affairs, Finance, Treasury, Posts and Telegraph and
Minting. There were some who even wrote books in Turkish and
foreign languages on the Problems of the Ottoman Empire .
With the start
of the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the European powers
began to intervene in its affairs and degeneration became
evident in the peaceful Turkish-Armenian relations. Great
effort was displayed by the instigators whom the Western powers
planted into the Ottoman Empire under clerical guise, to create
a schism between Turks and Armenians in the religious, cultural,
commercial, political and social fields. Thus, bloody clashes
arose, in which the blunt of pain was borne by the Turks,
and thousands of Armenians and Turks lost their lives in the
revolts that broke out in Eastern Anatolia and spread all
the way to Istanbul.
Though there
were many Armenians fighting in the Ottoman armies against
the enemy or serving in the rear ranks during the World War
I, a considerable number had sided with the foes on the battlefronts
and launched massacres against the population without distinction
of women, children and the aged. Their toll was hundreds of
thousands of Moslems and ruin in Eastern Anatolia.
The measures
adopted by the Ottoman Empire to stop this violence were presented
to the rest of the world under a completely different light
and the Armenians, misguided by the promises and instigation
of the Western Powers started to undermine the country where
they had led a privileged life more than a thousand years.
The Hinchak,
Tashnak, Toward Armenia, Young Armenians, Union and Salvation,
Ramgavar, Paramilitaries, Black Cross societies and Hinchak
Revolutionary Committee, which were established out of Anatolia,
formed organisations urging the people for an armed revolt.
These activities were the bloody uprisings that cost thousands
of Turkish and Armenian lives.
During World
War I, the Ottoman Empire was fighting against Russian armies
in Eastern Anatolia, where the Armenian revolt was at its
peak; and also against Armenian forces which supported the
Russians. On the other hand, behind the lines it had to continue
to fight against Armenian guerrillas that were burning Turkish
villages and towns and attacking military convoys and reinforcements.
In spite of this violence, the Ottoman Empire tried to solve
the Armenian problem for months by taking local measures.
Meanwhile, an operation was made against the Armenian guerillas
and 2345 rebels were arrested for high treason. When it became
evident that the Armenian community was also in rebellion
against the state, the Ottoman Empire proceeded with the last
resort of replacing only those Armenians in the region who
actively participated in the rebellion. With this measure,
the Ottoman Empire also intended to save the lives of the
Armenians who were living in a medium of civil war because
Turks started to counter-attack the Armenians who had performed
bloody atrocities against Turkish communities.
Today, Armenia
and some states using Armenians for their economic and political
benefits have launched a massive propaganda campaign to present
the replacement decision and the 24 April arrests as genocide
to the world public opinion.
At the end
of the World War I, when the armies of Allied States occupied
The Ottoman Empire and the British officials among them arrested
143 Ottoman political and military leaders and intellectuals
for “having committed war crimes toward Armenians” and exiled
them to Malta where a trial was launched. However, the massive
scrutiny made on the Ottoman, British, American archives in
order to find evidence to incriminate these 143 persons failed
to produce even the least iota of proof against them. In the
end, the detainees in Malta were released without trial and
even any indictment in 1922.
The United
States archives contain an interesting document sent to Lord
Curzon on 13 July 1921 by Mr. R.C. Craigie, the British Ambassador
in Washington. The message was as follows: “I regret to
state that there is nothing that may be used as evidence against
the Turkish detainees in Malta. There are no events that may
constitute adequate proofs. The said reports do not appear
to contain even circumstantial evidence that could be useful
to reinforce the information held by His Majesty’s Government
against the Turks.”
On 29 July
1921, the legal advisers in London decided that the intended
indictments drawn up against the persons on the British Foreign
Ministry’s list were semi-political in nature and therefore
these individuals should be treated separately from the Turks
detained as criminals of war.
They also stated
the following: “No statements were hitherto received from
the witnesses to the effect that the indictments intended
against the detainees are correct. Likewise it does not need
to be restated that finding witnesses after so long a time
is highly doubtful in a remote country like Armenia which
is accessible only with great difficulties.” This statement
was made also by none other than the legal advisers in London
of His Majesty’s Government.
Yet, the efforts
to smear the image of Turks with genocide claims did not come
to an end as the British press published certain documents
attempting to prove the existence of a massacre claimed to
have been perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire while efforts
were being made to start a lawsuit in Malta. It was stated
that the documents were found by the British occupation forces
in Syria, led by General Allenby. The inquiries subsequently
made by the British Foreign Office revealed, however, that
these documents were fakes prepared by the Armenian Nationalist
Delegation in Paris and distributed to the Allied representatives.
The Armenian
Diaspora, who left no stone unturned to keep the genocide
claims on the agenda despite all these facts, resorted to
terrorism in the end. The so-called Armenian issue, which
started to attract the attention of the world and Turkish
public opinion through the smearing campaign launched by the
Armenians against Turkey after 1965, in the ‘70s turned into
terrorist attacks directed against the Turkish representations
abroad. In Santa Barbara on January 27, 1973, the first individual
terrorist attack was launched by an aged Armenian named Gurgen
(Karekin) Yanikian. He murdered Mehmet Baydur and Bahadir
Demir, the Turkish Consul General and Vice Consul in Los Angeles,
and these murders turned into an organised campaign after
1975. The attacks against Turkish embassies, officials and
institutions abroad gradually intensified.
A major increase
in the attacks was noted after 1979 when an internal unease
started in Turkey. The Armenian terrorists staged a total
of 110 attacks at 38 cities of 21 countries. 39 of these acts
were committed by small arms, 70 of them were realised by
bombs and one was an outright occupation. 42 Turkish diplomats
and 4 foreigners were killed and 15 Turks and 66 foreigners
were wounded in these incidents.
As these actions
received a strong reaction from the world public opinion,
the Armenian terrorist organisations changed their tactics
in 1980 and began to co-operate with the PKK terrorist group
which was pushed into the scene by the Eruh and ªemdinli attacks
as the ASALA and Armenian operations were stopped. The documents
and evidence from Beqaa and Zeli camps show that the PKK and
ASALA militants were trained there together.
The success
achieved by the Turkish security forces made the Armenian
terrorism pursue the so called genocide claims through the
Armenian Diaspora and attempt to make the world believe in
the existence of such an event by inducing several parliaments
to adopt resolutions and laws which recognise it.
The goal of
these terrorists is to plant into minds of people the existence
of a genocide, to force Turkey to recognise it, to receive
indemnity from Turkey and, finally, to snatch from Turkey
the land needed for realising the dream of Great Armenia
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