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WikiLeaks: Ottoman archives `purged' of documents on Armenian Genocide
September 10, 2011 - 10:37 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - A Turkish Professor told U.S. 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.
Asbarez reports that in a cable dated July 12, 2004, Sabanci
University professor Halil Berktay told then U.S. 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
September 10, 2011 - 10:37 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - A Turkish Professor told U.S. 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.
Asbarez reports that in a cable dated July 12, 2004, Sabanci
University professor Halil Berktay told then U.S. 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