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ARMENIANS, TURKS BOTH EQUALLY AFFECTED BY VIOLENT CONFLICT A CENTURY AGO: READER
Inside Toronto
March 4 2015
Bloor West Villager
To the editor:
Re: 'High Park artist channels Armenian genocide onto canvas to raise
awareness,' News, Jan. 29
I read this article with interest and believe your readers deserve
to be made aware of some facts and the context in which these events
occurred 100 years ago.
I believe it is historically verifiable that prior to the First World
War, in the late 19th century, nationalistic Armenians in Europe and in
Russia, provoked and armed by the Russians, were already planning an
insurgency against the Ottoman Turks, with the intent of carving out
a state of 'Armenia' in northeastern Anatolia. While Armenians were
killed in the course of the conflict in which my father served as an
Ottoman reserve officer in the Caucuses, so were thousands of Muslims.
If civilian Armenians were displaced from the area of conflict in
the eastern provinces, it was intended for their own protection. The
Ottoman census prior to 1915 indicates the population of Anatolia
consisted of 13,390,000 Muslims, 1,564,939 Greeks and 1,173,422
Armenians.
It is therefore implausible that two million Armenians were massacred,
as is often claimed. Somehow with each retelling of this tragic chapter
of history, the number of Armenian victims tends to increase steadily.
The term genocide has come to characterize these events, even though
historians continue to discuss records and claims regarding what
occurred in the midst of this bitter conflict and its aftermath.
In April 2006, following a vote in the House of Commons on a Bloc
Québécois motion, these events were recognized by the Canadian
government as genocide. The vote was by no means unanimous and many
MPs were notably absent.
No one denies that tens of thousands of Armenians were tragically
affected by First World War events in which their nationalistic
brethren, in collaboration with the Russians, were essentially the
instigators and aggressors.
But it's important that Armenians publicly recognize that tens of
thousands of Turkish-Muslim soldiers, civilians, men, women and
children were also killed, brutalized, displaced and orphaned by the
same events.
GuneÅ~_ N. Ege, MD
http://www.insidetoronto.com/opinion-story/5458635-armenians-turks-both-equally-affected-by-violent-conflict-a-century-ago-reader/
Inside Toronto
March 4 2015
Bloor West Villager
To the editor:
Re: 'High Park artist channels Armenian genocide onto canvas to raise
awareness,' News, Jan. 29
I read this article with interest and believe your readers deserve
to be made aware of some facts and the context in which these events
occurred 100 years ago.
I believe it is historically verifiable that prior to the First World
War, in the late 19th century, nationalistic Armenians in Europe and in
Russia, provoked and armed by the Russians, were already planning an
insurgency against the Ottoman Turks, with the intent of carving out
a state of 'Armenia' in northeastern Anatolia. While Armenians were
killed in the course of the conflict in which my father served as an
Ottoman reserve officer in the Caucuses, so were thousands of Muslims.
If civilian Armenians were displaced from the area of conflict in
the eastern provinces, it was intended for their own protection. The
Ottoman census prior to 1915 indicates the population of Anatolia
consisted of 13,390,000 Muslims, 1,564,939 Greeks and 1,173,422
Armenians.
It is therefore implausible that two million Armenians were massacred,
as is often claimed. Somehow with each retelling of this tragic chapter
of history, the number of Armenian victims tends to increase steadily.
The term genocide has come to characterize these events, even though
historians continue to discuss records and claims regarding what
occurred in the midst of this bitter conflict and its aftermath.
In April 2006, following a vote in the House of Commons on a Bloc
Québécois motion, these events were recognized by the Canadian
government as genocide. The vote was by no means unanimous and many
MPs were notably absent.
No one denies that tens of thousands of Armenians were tragically
affected by First World War events in which their nationalistic
brethren, in collaboration with the Russians, were essentially the
instigators and aggressors.
But it's important that Armenians publicly recognize that tens of
thousands of Turkish-Muslim soldiers, civilians, men, women and
children were also killed, brutalized, displaced and orphaned by the
same events.
GuneÅ~_ N. Ege, MD
http://www.insidetoronto.com/opinion-story/5458635-armenians-turks-both-equally-affected-by-violent-conflict-a-century-ago-reader/