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ARMENIAN ALLEGATIONS AND UN TREATY ON GENOCIDE
The concept “genocide” is defined
with the “UN Agreement on the Prevention and Punishment of
Genocide Crime” dated 1948. In accordance with article 2 of
the agreement;
“Genocide covers one of the
following actions; with the intention of killing a national,
ethnic, racial or religious group completely or partially:
killing the members of the group, giving heavy damages to
the physical or mental integrity of the members of the group,
keeping the group in living conditions that will result in
the loss complete partial physical existence of the group,
taking precautions that will prevent births among the group,
transfering of the children in the group to another group
by force. In genocide, planned actions that have become a
state policy are involved.”
When the issue is assessed
in terms of the genocide agreement, it is impossible not to
mention some events in the history. For committing an offence
of inhumanity as genocide, that nation must have a tendency
for such a crime in its history. Tendency for crime is a characteristic
for the societies just as it is for human beings. When the
Turkish history is examined, one can not find any trace of
no genocide or assimilation.
When we look at the geography,
on which it has spread, we see that the Ottomans held a part
of Europe together with the Balkans up to the borders of Vienna,
all Northern Africa on Mediterranean coast, all of the Middle
East and the Arab Peninsula under its management for many
years. This period is at least 200 — 400 years. Which nation
in this geography can be said to be extinct? In the period,
during which religious rules were executed in Anatolia, beliefs
such as the oldest Christianity sect Syriacism and Yezidi
belief worshipping flame and peacock were able to survive
lived and in 1800s, although violated of the religious laws,
churches have been opened in Anatolia. Even while one of the
two brothers was Sokullu Mehmet Pasha, the Ottoman Grand Vizier,
the other was assigned as Patriarch to the Makarje Serbian
Church and has resurrected the Serbian nation. In the same
period, when we look a other regions of the world, we see
the genocides of the sects struggle period in Europe, the
communities, whose languages were changed in the far east
(Indians — Pestun), Africa, and Southern America whose language
and religion have been completely changed.
Nazis have killed millions
of people during the 2nd World War. Between 1939
— 1945, 5-6 million Jews, more than 3 million Soviet war prisoners,
more than one million Polish and more than one million Yugoslavians,
approximately 200.000 gypsies and 70.000 disabled were killed.
This is the genocide.
In addition to these, although
the United Nations has a preventive agreement, there have
been many genocide events in the modern era. For example,
in accordance with the confessions of 2 retired French generals
published in Le Monde, the French have killed minimum one
million Algerians between 1954 — 1962, the Indonesian army
has killed one million communists and their families between
1965 — 1966, the Red Kmers in Cambodia killed 1.7 million
Cambodians between 1975 — 1979, in 1994 500.000 Tutsies have
been killed by the Hutus in Ruanda, and finally thousands
of Muslims have been subject to the Serbian severity in Bosnia
— Herzegovina after 1991.
The genocide crime has been
committed in these events in its real meaning. Contrary to
the Armenian pretensions, the implementation performed in
Eastern Anatolia in 1915 is the migration from one place to
another region within Ottoman land and it has no relation
with the genocide. Turkish management is accustomed to living
with the nations of different cultures and races in the regions
it dominated. There is “justice” in the Turkish tradition,
there is “keeping the cultures alive”; but there is no “massacre”
or “genocide”. This matter is clearly indicated in the book
of Justin McCarthy named “Death and Exile”. In this book,
the story of the Balkans and the Caucasian people taking refuge
in the Ottoman management to escape death are related.
One should the ones accusing
the Ottoman management with genocide: Where did the Jews and
the Muslims escape from Spain and Portugal in 1469 where did
Tökeli Imre and his men escape from Hungary in 1680, where
did Rakoczi Ferench and his men go in 1711, where did Layos
Kosuth and a Hun group of 2000 people go in 1849, where did
Prince Chartorski go with his 135000 soldiers in 1841 and
1856, where did the Russian commander Vrangel and even Trouchki
escape in order to take refuge from death?
The history gives the answer
all these questions as the “Ottoman”. Don’t the ones announcing
the relocation implementation in 1915 as the so called “Armenian
genocide” know that Poland and Germany origin Jews found shelter
in Turkey since 1930s? While only 20 — 25 years had passed
over the so — called Armenian genocide, why did the ones looking
for a country to adopt chose Turkey as their rescuer? The
answers to these questions are hidden in the just, humane,
tolerant, uniting character of the Turkish State tradition,
which has always been respectful towards traditions and beliefs.
Furthermore, the genocides
and assimilations made in the Balkans 550 years after the
Ottoman Empire Fatih, who gave the people living on the land
he ruled, the chance of preserving their values alive and
transferring them to the new generations, must be remembered.
The Balkan nations, whose languages, religions, churches,
schools were taken under guarantee with this order, have torn
the Bosnians, Albania — rooted Muslims, Macedonians and Bulgaria
Turks out of their own land in the verge of the 21st
century. Today, the ones accusing Turkey of genocide have
ignored the massacres that continued for moths and tapped
their ears to the screams of the raped women of any age. Recently,
not only the Balkan nations found shelter in Turkey; but also
the Iraqis running away from Saddam Hüseyin, the Iraqi state
president, who tried to commit genocide using the “mustard
gas” he provided from the western chemical weapon producers,
found shelter in Turkey. The Turkish people has always shared
their bread at any time in history in spite of their limited
opportunities and have opened their arms to the oppressed
nations. The Turkish people, the Ottoman and the Republic
of Turkey have a very clean register that can be an example
for other nations and states.
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