Armenian Ottoman Captain Sarkis Torossian : A Hero of Gallipoli Battle With a Medal from Enver Pasha

Captain Sarkis Torossian

Putting aside the rather negative language used, I think we Turks should thank to Mr. Robert Fisk for his article of 12 May titled  "The Armenian hero Turkey would prefer to forget : The Armenian-Turkish officer Torossian was awarded medals by Enver Pasha", firstly as he has exposed  that not all Armenian Turks were relocated in Southern provinces of the Empire, that is there was no genocide on ethnic basis. Secondly how 'Turkish' intellectuals who support the view that relocation was a genocide lack knowledge concerning the tragic events of 1915. I am pleased, because some Western people do not believe in what Turkish people say, and I hope they believe in Mr. Fisk^[1].

Captain Torossian was surely not the only Armenian Turk  in the Ottoman Army. On his return from Sarikamish Battle in January 1915 where we lost 60.000 - 90.000 soldiers on Allahuekber mountains mostly because of harsh weather and partially on account of the betrayal of Armenians, Enver Pasha sent a letter of gratitude to the Patriarch for the contribution of Armenians in the army^[2]. Hikmet Özdemir states that out of 163 medical corps officers of the Ottoman army who lost their lives on the Caucasus Front, 124 were Muslim, 19 Greek, 17 Armenian and 3 Jewish Ottomans^[3]. While sending this letter for a small number of Armenian Turks who fought on the Ottoman side, Enver Pasha called Armenian Turks who deserted the Ottoman Army and joined  Russians under the leadership of Armen Garo, as traitors.

Vahan Pastermadjian

Armen Garo was actually Karekin Pastermadjian, one of the leaders of Tashnaksutyun Party who was  elected as Member of  Parliament  from Erzurum twice in 1908 and 1912. He organized Volunteer  Units and changed fronts as soon as the war broke with nom de guerre Armen Garo. A hero for Armenians, a killer for Turks. All volunteers took horses, weapons and ammunition given  by the Ottomans  together with them to the Russian side when they deserted the Ottoman Army. However, on the contrary Karekin's brother Vahan chose to fight on the Ottoman side in Sarikamish against the Russians, as part of the Yergok Brigade 83rd Division. The commander Ziya Yergok  praised him in his  memoirs published in 2005 saying  "One of the daring and  valorous officers of this regiment, studying at the Military Academy of Istanbul at the time of the constitutional government, was the second lieutenant Vahan Pastermadjian of Erzeroum. This officer was wounded in the leg during the Battle of Koprukoy"^{[4, 5]}. I don't know if he got a medal or not, but certainly Torossian was not the only Armenian Turkish officer who would get a medal.

 

120.000 Armenian Turks living in Istanbul, and 284.000 in total were not relocated because they were not conspiracy suspects.  There are decrees for particular persons or families to be brought back who were relocated erroneously. Those living near to  the Caucasus front, not to help the Russians; along logistic routes of the Ottoman army, not to get involved in a sabotage; and in Armenian towns succeptible to start a revolt to divert part of the forces from the front such as Zeitun or Sassoun were to be relocated.  Salih Zeki Bey who was the governor for Everek (now Develi) where Torossian family lived seems to have overridden directives and he was sentenced to death by the Court Martial in 1920.

In addition to those who were not relocated, a number of Armenian Turks were protected and hidden by their neighbours, some converted to Islam and stayed back. Their number is estimated to be over 100.000. Turks have no problem with neither Armenian Turks nor Armenians from other countries unless they are not hostile.

What is missed is that it is not Turks but Armenians who use hate speech and do not leave behind what has been lived through.   What young Armenians are told is an incomplete story and they are brought up with a very strong feeling of hostility towards  people they do not know at all.

While The Ottoman Empire had to take the decision of relocation to secure the rear  on the Caucasus Front, it was actually Armenians who aimed an ethnic cleansing in Eastern Anatolia as soon as Russia retreated after October 1917 Revolution leaving the region to Armenians.The British Army was quite helpful to them giving the weapons and ammunition they collected from the Ottoman Army when they took over control in Batumi following Moudros Armistice in 1918.

As Justin McCarthy states the loss of Muslims are much more than Armenians'^[6]. Collective memory of Eastern Anatolian people will remain as fresh as 1910s not to be fooled to admit that there was a genocide while they were actually subject to ethnic cleansing themselves. Atrocities perpetrated by Armenians on Muslim people of the region are well documented in Russian and Ottoman Archives.  Russian Officer Colonel Tverdohlebov's witnessing which is available on Internet can give an opinion^[7]. Of course not the atrocities but aspiration of having a state for themselves in Eastern Anatolia and Cilicia are well documented in Armenians' own sources. What they do not say is that they formed only about 25 percent of the population  in the region called historic Armenia in 1914  and since they could not kill 75 percent of the population they committed very ferocious atrocities against Muslim population in order to make them flee.

Wreck of HMS E15 sunk at Gallipoli

If Turkish Government decided just to concentrate on Gallipoli Battle on its 100th Anniversary, in my opinion this is not a very good idea. It is high time to reconstruct the events of 1915 with their background as a whole and related to each other for a better understanding of the era. Turks are proposed to face their past. I think the Western world and Armenians should do the same. Let's think of those days just for a few second, Russia attacking on the Caucasus Front, some Armenians fighting together with them, some Armenians intending to uprise at locations where Armenian population is relatively dense to divert part of  army forces from the front and asking for weapons and ammunition from the Allies to sabotage logistic routes, Britain and France attacking from Gallipoli, and again Britain stirring Arab peninsula to make Arabs revolt, Greece starting mobilization, Italy declaring war....  Surrounded Turks had to fight on all fronts at the same time. Who can blame them for precautions taken to avoid revolts,  sabotage on logistic routes and cooperation with enemy. The intention of Armenians to support the Allies is documented by British Consuls in their various statements and in the documents in Russian Archives. Quotations from these statements of Consuls can be accessed at Armeniangenocidefacts.com web site^[8] and the original documents should be available at the Public Records Office.

It is useful not to forget a few points:

* During Malta Tribunals, 1920-21, no  evidence that would be of value for purposes of prosecution could be found and thus legal process was completed. No other case has been opened since then.  Therefore no legislative body or no  institution or no  individual can put own self  in a court's place and decide that there has been a genocide and  it is not right to talk as if there has been a genocide. It can be expressed only as a personal opinion or belief, or as an allegation only.

* Since Relocation and Settlement Act of May 1915 was passed as a precaution concerning the Caucasus Front during WWI, and there is clear documented evidence that Hunchak and Tashnaksutyun Parties were working together with Russia, it should go under The 1977 Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions, December 12, 1977 Protocol II, which covers situations when military action need to be undertaken^[9].

* At the end of the war estimates varied between 250.000 - 750.000 concerning Armenian losses during relocation. When Armenians say 1.5 million they expand the time from 1915-1923, I suppose including casualties at the fronts as they  fought against Turks on several fronts during Turkish War of Independence. Alleged Armenian genocide supporters are better be careful about figures to decide whether only 1915 Relocation should be considered as a genocide in their opinion or that genocide continued from 1915 to 1923 until the Republic of Turkey was established. Figures from various Armenian and Western sources have been brought together by Yusuf Halacoğlu in a work written in Turkish^[10]. I  referred to this work in  "1.5 million : The Puzzle in Remembrance Day Statements"^[11].

* Armenian Americans raise reparation and territory demands to further their accusations  and keep the issue on the agenda. Lausanne Treaty signed between Turkey and the Allies in 1923 and Treaty of Friendship and Commerce signed between the US and Turkey in 1933 have covered reparations. Turkey paid $ 900.000 to the diaspora in the US already. As for the territorial demands,  the borders between the two countries were defined with the Kars Treaty. When Armenia became independent, refused the treaty signed by the Armenian Soviet Republic and  still tries to revive The Treaty of Sèvres which was annulled in the course of the Turkish War of Independence and superseded by the Treaty of Lausanne as mentioned above. Sevres Treaty covered partitioning  of Ottoman lands. There is no longer an Empire to be partitioned,  so no Sevres. According to 1914 census the Armenian population in the Six Provinces was less than a million with a ratio of approx. 25 percent. Today the population of the region which corresponds to Wilsonian imaginary Armenia is around 5 million with probably a very small proportion of Armenian Turks. Just before Soviet intervention Turkey and Democratic Republic of Armenia had signed the Treaty of Alexandropol on 2 December 1920 and it was to be ratified at the Armenian Parliament. If Armenia refuses Kars Treaty, then  can  ratify this one and complete the procedure. While Turks are forced to admit a non-existent genocide why nobody reminds Armenia that Sevres was annulled and Armenia either goes with the Treaty of Kars already signed, or completes the procedures on the Treaty of Alexandropol. It should also be noted that Kars was a Turkish city in the last millenium but had to be ceded to Russia together with Batumi and Ardahan in 1878 because war indemnification could not be paid. People of Kars and Ardahan remember those 40 years as "Dark Years". Probably it was the same for Batumi people, but unfortunately we could not get it back. In 1071 Turks took over Anatolia from Byzantine, and Armenians welcomed them because they were not happy with oppressive Byzantine governance. 9.5 centuries Turkish existence in Anatolia will reach a millenium in 2071.  Balkan states could be established with a ratio of population  60 percent to 40, although very painful for the Muslim Balkan people. Armenians ignored the difference in population structure of two regions when they took Balkan countries as exemplary. Efforts to make advances towards an unrealistic ambition should not be allowed to nourish through a false victimization  story.

* Having said that facing the past is necessary for everyone, though it may be difficult, it is high time to tell to the Western public that the Blue Book, news items appeared during war years in the newspapers, Morgenthau official reports were part of propaganda war. Atrocities perpetrated in Eastern Anatolia and Caucasus were mutual under war conditions but those perpetrated by Armenians' were not publicized.

* It should neither be Turkish nationalism nor Armenian nationalism but the truth  to win out over a fabricated incomplete history. If nationalism is over in the 21st century what the US, French, and many other Western countries have done about it? The way end of nationalism imposed on Turkey is rather crude, Turks who have won their  independence through a legendary war recognized with admiration worldwide only 90 years ago naturally have sensitivities. More cultivated ways of changing paradigms should be developed rather than attacking values.

Hate speech and presentation of an allegation as a fact do not help to better relations. Armenians' sufferings are well understood by Turks. Unless Turks' sufferings are equally recognized and understood, and  one million Azeri return home to Nagorno Karabagh I can't see how this issue can be solved unfortunately. 

Nobody has right to accuse Turks as deniers, to demonize them and despise them. The pressure on Turkish people to admit a crime that was not committed and blaming them as deniers is unacceptable.  If it were possible for individuals to appeal international courts I would open a case of defamation against all who are part of the pressure made on Turks for acceptance of an allegation and insulting by blaming them as deniers. This is really what I wish I could.

I hope commonsense and neutrality can overtake for an evenhanded approach to the issue which will help to the solution of the problems and bring the hostility of Armenians towards Turks to an end. They should visit Turkey more to get to know us better.

References
 
1) Fisk, Robert. "The Armenian hero Turkey would prefer to forget : The Armenian-Turkish officer Torossian was awarded medals by Enver Pasha," The Independent, May 12 2013. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-armenian-hero-turkey-would-prefer-to-forget-8612890.html

2)  Benazus, Hanri. Sarıkamış Faciası. 3. bs.İstanbul: Toplumsal Dönüşüm Yayınları, 2006.

3) Özdemir, Hikmet. Issues Missed in the 1915 Armenian Debate. Ankara : Sarem yayınları, 2007.

4) Çongar, Yasemin.  "İki Pastırmacıyan ve diğer bilmediklerimiz [Two Pastermadjians and what we don't know]," Milliyet, June 4, 2006. http://www.milliyet.com.tr/2006/06/04/pazar/yazcongar.html

5) Saygılı, Oğuzhan. "Tuğgeneral Ziya Yergök’ün Anıları: “Sarıkamış’tan Esarete [Brigadier General Ziya Yergök's Memoirs: "From Sarikamish  to Captivity]”," Erzurum Gazetesi [local Internet newspaper], April 28, 2010. http://www.erzurumgazetesi.com.tr/default.asp?page=yazar&id=2103

6) McCarthy, Justin. Death and Exile : The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821-1922. Princeton, N.J.: Darwin, 1995.

7)  Colonel Tverdohlebov. I Witnessed and Lived Through.  http://armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2007/03/1540-russian-commander-lieutenant.html

8) Statements & Assessments on the Armenian Rebellion and the Relocation in 1915. http://armeniangenocidefacts.com/statements-assessments-on-the-armenian-rebellion-and-the-relocation-in-1915/. (Site no longer available - 05 April 2014)

9) Gürkan, Uluç. Ermeni sorunu'nu anlamak : Önyargıları aşmak ve nefretten arınmak söyleşi : Serdar Palabıyık ; haz.: Okan Bensoy.İstanbul : Destek Yayınevi, 2011. http://www.idefix.com/kitap/ermeni-sorununu-anlamak-uluc-gurkan/tanim.asp?sid=IG05F4JHDS2SXDG4TN2G. Tanıtım: http://cerideimulkiye.com/?p=15109

10)  Halaçoğlu, Yusuf. Ermenilerin Suriye'ye nakli : Sürgün mü, soykırım mı?" [Transfer of Armenians to Syria*: Relocation or genocide?]  http://www.ttk.org.tr/templates/resimler/File/01.pdf

11) Aslan, Selma. 1.5 million : The Puzzle in Remembrance Day Statements. Armenian Holocaust : My Story blog. May 11, 2013.  http://armenianholocaustmystory.blogspot.com/2013/05/15-million-puzzle-in-remembrance-day.html.

Suggested Further Reading

The Armenian Question in the Caucasus Russian Archive Documents and Publications (1724-1914) ed. by The European Azerbaijan Society. Ithaca Press, 2011.  9780863724091

Atılgan, İnanç; Moumdjian, Garabet. Archival Documents of the Viennese Armenian-Turkish Platform.  Edition Diwan im Wieser Verlag, 2009/2010. 978-3-85129-788-1 ; 9783902713049. 907 pp.

Katchaznouni, Hovhannes. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnagtzoutiun) has nothing to do any more:The Manifesto of Hovhannes Katchaznouni, First Prime Minister of the Independent Armenian Republic. Translated from the Original by Matthew A. Callender. Edited by John Roy Carlson (Arthur A. Derounian). Published by the Armenian Information Service, 1955.

Lowry , Heath W. The Story Behind Ambassador Morgenthau's Story. ISIS Press, 1990.

Turkish Archives e-Library.   



Armenian Holocaust:My Story blog by Selma Aslan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Gayriticari-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.