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PRESIDENT ERDOGAN'S TRADEMARK PARANOIA
17:36, 25 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan
Two large Turkish dailies, 'Hurriyet' and 'Today's Zaman', on March
19, 2015 reported unprecedented attacks on the Armenian diaspora by
the Turkish President Racep Tayyip Erdogan.
According to 'Today's Zaman', the Turkish President stated: "Oh
Armenian diaspora, Oh Armenian administration, ...Bring your documents,
and we will task the historians, our historians, political scientists,
even archeologists and lawyers [with studying them]... let's seek
the truth here."
It looks like Mr. Erdogan is suffering from amnesia or has disjointed
from reality or doesn't know what has transpired in the last 100
years vis-a-vis his society, academia, and the international community
regarding the Armenian Genocide.
It seems everyone other than Mr. Erdogan knows the truth. Over 400
historians, Holocaust scholars, and genocide experts have given the
authoritative answer to this issue and concluded that what happened
to the Armenians was genocide.
The International Association of Genocide Scholars, the leading group
tasked with researching and studying genocides, in a June 12, 2006
letter to Mr. Erdogan, then the Prime Minister of Turkey, stated:
"Scholars who advise your government and who are affiliated in other
ways with your state-controlled institutions are not impartial. Such
so-called 'scholars' work to serve the agenda of historical and moral
obfuscation when they advise you and the Turkish Parliament on how
to deny the Armenian Genocide."
Mr. Erdogan's suggestion to create "historians commission" to study
the Armenian Genocide is redundant. It's akin to Holocaust deniers'
demand to create "historians commission" to prove whether the Holocaust
took place.
The Turkish President stated: "The truth should be sought in the
archives." Many witnesses during the Istanbul Military Tribunal (1919
- 1921) of the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide, testified that
the documents of CUP, the government in power at the time, had been
removed and Interior Ministry archives had been burned by Talaat Pasha,
Minister of Interior, prior to fleeing the country.
Whatever is left of these archives are granted limited viewing to a
small group of selected historians who a priori have demonstrated their
support of Turkish government's genocide denialist narrative. So the
Turkish archives openness argument is a clever way to mislead and to
divert attention from the real issue, the crime of genocide.
How about third country archives such as that of Britain, France, the
United States, Canada, Vatican, and even then-Turkish allies Germany
and Austria, among others? How about the hundreds of photographs
by war correspondents, massive eyewitness accounts and coverage by
Western journalists, missionaries and NGOs?
'Hurriyet' reported that Mr. Erdogan said: "The greatest massacres
targeting Muslims in the Balkans and in Caucasia happened in the same
period. In Anatolia,...as many as Armenians were harmed." For him
to equate Armenian and Muslim loses is deceitful. The two losses are
not interrelated. The Armenian loses were due to Ottoman government
premeditated and centrally-planned race extermination. The Muslim
losses were due to Turkey taking side in a global war. It is an
Orwellian charade for Mr. Erdogan to compare the two losses.
Finally, the sultan of the new Ottomans stated: "The Armenian diaspora
is trying to instill hatred against Turkey everywhere in the world
through campaigns on genocide claims." It is not only the Armenians
who are calling on the Turkish government to recognize the Armenian
Genocide. In addition to the international community, thousands of
righteous Turks are calling on Mr. Erdogan and the Turkish government
to end the 100-year-old callous policy of denial.
Mr. Vatche Demirdjian, the President of the Armenian Canadian
Conservative Association (ACCA),commented on Mr. Erdogan's paranoid
statements and conspiracy theories by stating: "Mr. Erdogan's comments
are sign of desperation and bankrupt policy." He added: "Armenians
hold no grudge against Turks. On the contrary, we acknowledge that
many righteous Turks during the Genocide risked their lives to save
their Armenians. We also value the 40,000 Turkish intellectuals,
historians, journalists, and civil society members who have signed
an online "I apologize" proclamation asking the Turkish government to
atone for its predecessors' crimes against the Armenians and humanity."
http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/03/25/president-erdogans-trademark-paranoia/
17:36, 25 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan
Two large Turkish dailies, 'Hurriyet' and 'Today's Zaman', on March
19, 2015 reported unprecedented attacks on the Armenian diaspora by
the Turkish President Racep Tayyip Erdogan.
According to 'Today's Zaman', the Turkish President stated: "Oh
Armenian diaspora, Oh Armenian administration, ...Bring your documents,
and we will task the historians, our historians, political scientists,
even archeologists and lawyers [with studying them]... let's seek
the truth here."
It looks like Mr. Erdogan is suffering from amnesia or has disjointed
from reality or doesn't know what has transpired in the last 100
years vis-a-vis his society, academia, and the international community
regarding the Armenian Genocide.
It seems everyone other than Mr. Erdogan knows the truth. Over 400
historians, Holocaust scholars, and genocide experts have given the
authoritative answer to this issue and concluded that what happened
to the Armenians was genocide.
The International Association of Genocide Scholars, the leading group
tasked with researching and studying genocides, in a June 12, 2006
letter to Mr. Erdogan, then the Prime Minister of Turkey, stated:
"Scholars who advise your government and who are affiliated in other
ways with your state-controlled institutions are not impartial. Such
so-called 'scholars' work to serve the agenda of historical and moral
obfuscation when they advise you and the Turkish Parliament on how
to deny the Armenian Genocide."
Mr. Erdogan's suggestion to create "historians commission" to study
the Armenian Genocide is redundant. It's akin to Holocaust deniers'
demand to create "historians commission" to prove whether the Holocaust
took place.
The Turkish President stated: "The truth should be sought in the
archives." Many witnesses during the Istanbul Military Tribunal (1919
- 1921) of the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide, testified that
the documents of CUP, the government in power at the time, had been
removed and Interior Ministry archives had been burned by Talaat Pasha,
Minister of Interior, prior to fleeing the country.
Whatever is left of these archives are granted limited viewing to a
small group of selected historians who a priori have demonstrated their
support of Turkish government's genocide denialist narrative. So the
Turkish archives openness argument is a clever way to mislead and to
divert attention from the real issue, the crime of genocide.
How about third country archives such as that of Britain, France, the
United States, Canada, Vatican, and even then-Turkish allies Germany
and Austria, among others? How about the hundreds of photographs
by war correspondents, massive eyewitness accounts and coverage by
Western journalists, missionaries and NGOs?
'Hurriyet' reported that Mr. Erdogan said: "The greatest massacres
targeting Muslims in the Balkans and in Caucasia happened in the same
period. In Anatolia,...as many as Armenians were harmed." For him
to equate Armenian and Muslim loses is deceitful. The two losses are
not interrelated. The Armenian loses were due to Ottoman government
premeditated and centrally-planned race extermination. The Muslim
losses were due to Turkey taking side in a global war. It is an
Orwellian charade for Mr. Erdogan to compare the two losses.
Finally, the sultan of the new Ottomans stated: "The Armenian diaspora
is trying to instill hatred against Turkey everywhere in the world
through campaigns on genocide claims." It is not only the Armenians
who are calling on the Turkish government to recognize the Armenian
Genocide. In addition to the international community, thousands of
righteous Turks are calling on Mr. Erdogan and the Turkish government
to end the 100-year-old callous policy of denial.
Mr. Vatche Demirdjian, the President of the Armenian Canadian
Conservative Association (ACCA),commented on Mr. Erdogan's paranoid
statements and conspiracy theories by stating: "Mr. Erdogan's comments
are sign of desperation and bankrupt policy." He added: "Armenians
hold no grudge against Turks. On the contrary, we acknowledge that
many righteous Turks during the Genocide risked their lives to save
their Armenians. We also value the 40,000 Turkish intellectuals,
historians, journalists, and civil society members who have signed
an online "I apologize" proclamation asking the Turkish government to
atone for its predecessors' crimes against the Armenians and humanity."
http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/03/25/president-erdogans-trademark-paranoia/