This letter has been posted through the web site of the U.S. Department of State on 12 July 2010:
Dear Ms Clinton,
Your visit to Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan was on TV news in Turkey last Monday. As I watched you approaching the monument I wondered how much you know about the unfortunate events of the period.
I wondered if you knew that
* relocation was the result of an unrealistic ambition to rule 83 % majority of population as a 17 % minority in the region, relying on the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and encouragement of Russia,
* 500.000 Turks and other Moslem people were massacred by Armenians and several Turkish villages were exterminated,
* the exaggerated figures spelled by the Armenians include Armenians voluntarily left their hometowns because they betrayed, killed and pillaged their neighbours, and they had to leave when they understood they were to lose. --Some of them came back as the Officers of the Russian Army in 1916 and continued their killings until retreat of the Russian army. Some Armenians converted to Islam to hide. 30 households only in one village, namely Yeshilyaka, Cayirli, Erzincan which is my husbands birth place were such Armenians in early 50s. Some followed the French Army in the south towards Syria, despite the pieces of clothes wrapped around the feet of the army horses on the night of the of retreat so that cooperating Armenians would not follow them. The real figure for Armenians relocated is far lesss than they killed.
Although I have been living in Ankara for over 45 years; with roots in Erzurum, I get more and more frustrated by the news that Armenian Genocide will be recognized by so-and-so country's parliament, in April every year. Is this a kind of modern crusade, which overlooks the facts and figures, and recorded data? Apparently we Turkish people fail to make ourselves understood better, but I feel that there is also a reluctance to understand as well.
The First World War caused too many peoples of the world to suffer. We lost 5.5 million souls from 1912 to 1923. Among the heavy loss of lives in Gallipoli there were, for instance, the whole senior class of the Medical School in Istanbul and the School did not give a single graduate in the year of 1915, because all students died in Gallipoli. Yet, for Anzacs, the young people that came from Australia and New Zealand to fight against us, Ataturk said “"Those heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives, you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side in this country of ours. You, the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears, your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they become our sons as well." http://www.bigloveturkey.com/pages/info-gallipoli-tours.asp) Yes, we left what we have been through behind us. We buried the memories of those lost in our hearts. The losses include numberless raped and killed young girls and mothers with their children--by Greeks in the west, and by Armenians in the East , while their husbands, fathers, fiancees were fighting and dying on seven frontiers. We left all these behind and we aspire to a peaceful world. I find it hard to believe that some people still build on hatred and enmity after almost 100 years, and find a suitable milieu to do that. I don't know if you had a chance to visit Gallipoli during your visits to Turkey. Gallipoli Campaign and Armenian Deportation took place in the same year, 1915. These two great disaters of the First World War now belong to history.
I recently started a blog which includes the story of my grandma who had to emigrate from Erzurum with her family in those years because of Armenian atrocities, and links to several resources concerning the sad events of the period in Eastern Anatolia at http://armenianholocaustmystory.blogspot.com/2010_03_01_archive.html. Links lead to third party full text web resources such as a book written by an Austrian historian Erich Feigl , the memoirs of a Russian officer, Lieutenant Colonel Tverdohlebov and a lecture given by American historian Professor Justin McCarthy, and some others.
With best wishes
Selma Aslan
NB. When I wrote the letter above I didn't know that actually the Allied countries decided to attack on Gallipoli to ease the hand of Russia in the East, to put the Ottoman Empire between two fires, --to put aside the Armenians cooperating with Russia at the rear of Eastern Army inside the country-- so that the Empire would collapse quicker. These were only two of seven frontiers Turks had to fight during WWI and the War of Independence, through which 5.5 million souls were lost. - Dec 09, 2012
"Deportation" changed to "relocation" and the figure of 300.000 for relocated Armenians removed since this is a disputed topic. Possibly Toynbee's estimate of 600.000 is acceptable in view of the fact that 644.900 Armenians came back in 1918 after Moudros Armistice. 07.04.2013
Armenian Holocaust:My Story blog by Selma Aslan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Gayriticari-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Dear Ms Clinton,
Your visit to Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan was on TV news in Turkey last Monday. As I watched you approaching the monument I wondered how much you know about the unfortunate events of the period.
I wondered if you knew that
* relocation was the result of an unrealistic ambition to rule 83 % majority of population as a 17 % minority in the region, relying on the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and encouragement of Russia,
* 500.000 Turks and other Moslem people were massacred by Armenians and several Turkish villages were exterminated,
* the exaggerated figures spelled by the Armenians include Armenians voluntarily left their hometowns because they betrayed, killed and pillaged their neighbours, and they had to leave when they understood they were to lose. --Some of them came back as the Officers of the Russian Army in 1916 and continued their killings until retreat of the Russian army. Some Armenians converted to Islam to hide. 30 households only in one village, namely Yeshilyaka, Cayirli, Erzincan which is my husbands birth place were such Armenians in early 50s. Some followed the French Army in the south towards Syria, despite the pieces of clothes wrapped around the feet of the army horses on the night of the of retreat so that cooperating Armenians would not follow them. The real figure for Armenians relocated is far lesss than they killed.
Although I have been living in Ankara for over 45 years; with roots in Erzurum, I get more and more frustrated by the news that Armenian Genocide will be recognized by so-and-so country's parliament, in April every year. Is this a kind of modern crusade, which overlooks the facts and figures, and recorded data? Apparently we Turkish people fail to make ourselves understood better, but I feel that there is also a reluctance to understand as well.
The First World War caused too many peoples of the world to suffer. We lost 5.5 million souls from 1912 to 1923. Among the heavy loss of lives in Gallipoli there were, for instance, the whole senior class of the Medical School in Istanbul and the School did not give a single graduate in the year of 1915, because all students died in Gallipoli. Yet, for Anzacs, the young people that came from Australia and New Zealand to fight against us, Ataturk said “"Those heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives, you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side in this country of ours. You, the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears, your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they become our sons as well." http://www.bigloveturkey.com/pages/info-gallipoli-tours.asp) Yes, we left what we have been through behind us. We buried the memories of those lost in our hearts. The losses include numberless raped and killed young girls and mothers with their children--by Greeks in the west, and by Armenians in the East , while their husbands, fathers, fiancees were fighting and dying on seven frontiers. We left all these behind and we aspire to a peaceful world. I find it hard to believe that some people still build on hatred and enmity after almost 100 years, and find a suitable milieu to do that. I don't know if you had a chance to visit Gallipoli during your visits to Turkey. Gallipoli Campaign and Armenian Deportation took place in the same year, 1915. These two great disaters of the First World War now belong to history.
I recently started a blog which includes the story of my grandma who had to emigrate from Erzurum with her family in those years because of Armenian atrocities, and links to several resources concerning the sad events of the period in Eastern Anatolia at http://armenianholocaustmystory.blogspot.com/2010_03_01_archive.html. Links lead to third party full text web resources such as a book written by an Austrian historian Erich Feigl , the memoirs of a Russian officer, Lieutenant Colonel Tverdohlebov and a lecture given by American historian Professor Justin McCarthy, and some others.
With best wishes
Selma Aslan
NB. When I wrote the letter above I didn't know that actually the Allied countries decided to attack on Gallipoli to ease the hand of Russia in the East, to put the Ottoman Empire between two fires, --to put aside the Armenians cooperating with Russia at the rear of Eastern Army inside the country-- so that the Empire would collapse quicker. These were only two of seven frontiers Turks had to fight during WWI and the War of Independence, through which 5.5 million souls were lost. - Dec 09, 2012
"Deportation" changed to "relocation" and the figure of 300.000 for relocated Armenians removed since this is a disputed topic. Possibly Toynbee's estimate of 600.000 is acceptable in view of the fact that 644.900 Armenians came back in 1918 after Moudros Armistice. 07.04.2013
Armenian Holocaust:My Story blog by Selma Aslan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Gayriticari-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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