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WIKILEAKS: OTTOMAN ARCHIVES 'PURGED' TO HIDE GENOCIDE
asbarez
Friday, September 9th, 2011
A Turkish Professor told US Consul General in Istanbul that there were
efforts to "purge" the Ottoman Archives of incriminating documents
on the Armenian Genocide, according to a cable recently released by
the whistleblower site WikiLeaks.
In a cable dated July 12, 2004, Sabanci University professor Halil
Berktay told then US Consul General to Istanbul David Arnett that
"there were two serious efforts to "purge" the archives of any
incriminating documents on the Armenian question."
"The first" Berktay explained, "took place in 1918, presumably before
the Allied forces occupied Istanbul. Berktay and others point to
testimony in the 1919 Turkish Military Tribunals indicating that
important documents had been 'stolen' from the archives."
"Berktay believes a second purge was executed in conjunction with
Ozal's efforts to open the archives by a group of retired diplomats
and generals led by former Ambassador Muharrem Nuri Birgi (Note:
Nuri Birgi was previously Ambassador to London and NATO and Secretary
General of the MFA)," Arnett wrote in the cable.
"Berktay claims that at the time he was combing the archives, Nuri
Birgi met regularly with a mutual friend and at one point, referring to
the Armenians, ruefully confessed that 'We really slaughtered them,'"
the cable read.
"Tony Greenwood, the Director of the American Research Institute
in Turkey, told poloff separately that when he was working in the
Archives during that same period it was well known that a group of
retired military officers had privileged access and spent months
going through archival documents. Another Turkish scholar who has
researched Armenian issues claims that the ongoing cataloging process
is used to purge the archives," said Arnett in the cable.
From: Baghdasarian
asbarez
Friday, September 9th, 2011
A Turkish Professor told US Consul General in Istanbul that there were
efforts to "purge" the Ottoman Archives of incriminating documents
on the Armenian Genocide, according to a cable recently released by
the whistleblower site WikiLeaks.
In a cable dated July 12, 2004, Sabanci University professor Halil
Berktay told then US Consul General to Istanbul David Arnett that
"there were two serious efforts to "purge" the archives of any
incriminating documents on the Armenian question."
"The first" Berktay explained, "took place in 1918, presumably before
the Allied forces occupied Istanbul. Berktay and others point to
testimony in the 1919 Turkish Military Tribunals indicating that
important documents had been 'stolen' from the archives."
"Berktay believes a second purge was executed in conjunction with
Ozal's efforts to open the archives by a group of retired diplomats
and generals led by former Ambassador Muharrem Nuri Birgi (Note:
Nuri Birgi was previously Ambassador to London and NATO and Secretary
General of the MFA)," Arnett wrote in the cable.
"Berktay claims that at the time he was combing the archives, Nuri
Birgi met regularly with a mutual friend and at one point, referring to
the Armenians, ruefully confessed that 'We really slaughtered them,'"
the cable read.
"Tony Greenwood, the Director of the American Research Institute
in Turkey, told poloff separately that when he was working in the
Archives during that same period it was well known that a group of
retired military officers had privileged access and spent months
going through archival documents. Another Turkish scholar who has
researched Armenian issues claims that the ongoing cataloging process
is used to purge the archives," said Arnett in the cable.
From: Baghdasarian