Armenian Genocide Truth and Justice Act and the Truth

The Honorable Adam Schiff, Michael Grimm, David Valadao and Frank Pallone

United States House of Representatives

Dear Representatives:

You submitted a bill titled  "Armenian Genocide Truth and Justice Act" to The House on May 16, 2013. Any person of integrity who has listened to the Armenian community would do that. However, when the issue is questioned a little further it can easily be seen that there are important points missing in their story. Please let me offer you some headlines which have been detailed at the bottom of this message:

1. Calling 1915 tragic events as “genocide” has no legal basis and therefore its legitimacy is very strongly arguable in view of
1. Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe 2012 Resolution
2. European Court of Justice 2003 and 2004 rulings
3. 69 American academicians’ statement on H.J.res 192 of 1984
4. Malta Tribunals etc.
2. Relocation and Resettlement Act of 1915 was a precaution to secure the rear of Caucasus Front and should come under 1977 Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions as testified by many events and documents such as
1. Rep. Karekin Pastermadjean becoming a leader in Armenian Volunteer Units
2. Rep. Vahan Papazian becoming one of the leaders of Van Upsurge
3. Zeitun delegation asking for weapons and ammunition to upsurge
4. Armenian Delegations own expression that they were belligerents against the Ottoman Empire during WWI at the Paris Conference in 1919 etc.
3. The figures for losses asserted today contradicts Armenians’ own earlier figures & many others’.
4. Demands for reparations claiming “justice” is groundless because Lausanne Treaty for Europe, 1933 Treaty of Commerce and Friendship for the US have covered this issue.
5. Demand for territories is also groundless because Treaty of Sevres was annulled. Armenia can surely make a choice between Kars and Alexandropol Treaties.
6. There is a need for clarification on “well settled facts” since
1. Admiral Bristol rebuffed Morgenthau
2. Morgenthau’s book and diaries are contradictory
3. Blue Book was a war propaganda tool
4. Naim Bey character is dubious
5. Black book is misread

The Press Release reads "we will not stand idly by when the truth of this genocide is distorted by the Turkish government.” I have to say that if the House passes this act it will be distorting historical facts, and will hurt a nation of 75 million because  there is hardly any family in Turkey today whose grandparents had not been devastated by the WWI. My grandmother on my father's side had to migrate from Erzurum to Istanbul in 1916, my other grandmother from my mother side had to go to Malatya on horseback at the age of 12 leaving her parents behind and her 6 years old sister witnessed her friend  to be stabbed and left to die because he was a boy. She could not help shivering the second she heard the name "Armenian" throughout her whole life. Her son still alive, aged 83 remembers a mosque which could not be used for long years despite several restorations because the traces of burnt human flesh on the walls could not be removed.  Because of serious inter communal warfare perpetrated by Muslim and Christian irregular forces, complicated by disease, famine, suffering and massacres in  Anatolia and adjoining areas during the WWI the death toll among both Muslim and Christian communities of the region was immense. 524.000 people known by name killed by Armenians between 1916-1920 together with some two million unidentifiable muslim population annihilated in Eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus through mass killings from early 1900s to 1920 will not rest in peace if this bill is enacted. Will your conscious be in peace I wonder.

Daniel Pipes who reviewed Justin McCarthy's book titled Death and Exile : The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821-1922, points out that "... in the course of the century between the Greek war of independence and World War I, the Ottoman Empire suffered five and a half million dead and five million refugees. McCarthy deems this Europe's largest loss of life and emigration since the Thirty Years' War. Christian suffering in this time and place is well-known; McCarthy shows the other side, that "Muslim communities in an area as large as all of western Europe had been diminished or destroyed."  The Western tendency to repeatedly count only Christian lives, and minimize or disregard Turkish civilian lives as unworthy, is especially galling to present-day Turks. Armenian troops mutilated and killed defenseless Azeri Turkish civilians under the most inhumane conditions at Khojaly, Nagorno-Karabakh in 1992. Why the same sensitivity has not been shown for them  over the last 20 years? The deaths of non-combatant Muslim civilians and the treasonous acts of Armenian revolutionaries are ignored while counting only the deaths of Christian (Armenian) civilians. Any legislative body intending to recognize Armenian losses as genocide, should also recognize Muslim losses  mentioned above as ethnic cleansing and genocide for the sake of truth and justice.  

Congressman Valadao has stated his concern about the feelings of the Armenian Americans.  Some scholars have observed that indoctrinated to be anti-Turkish from childhood onward in their families, schools, churches and close-knit communities, they become bigoted citizens in the society indeed. Such bigotry is anathema to racial and ethnic harmony. No nation in history has escaped traumatic experiences, some impinging on life and death. But most nations leave historical grievances, justified or otherwise, behind, and look forward for fruitful and peaceful existence with other nations. But not apparently, the Armenians. There should be a way out to bring Armenians to the point they will be able to see the other side of the coin, the sufferings their grandparents caused. They need to be more considerate towards people they live together. A Turkish American was  watching a dance competition among children  on TV recently. When an Armenian American child’s turn came the mother told her to dance  for the memory of her ancestors killed by Turks. The child happened to win the competition and said she had danced in memory of her ancestors killed by Turks. Can you imagine what the Turkish American citizen felt when she heard these words?  How these Armenian Americans think they have right to offend innocent Turkish Americans in this way. That citizen’s grandparents might have been equally affected by the atrocities perpetrated by Armenians. I think it is great pity for Armenian American children to be brought up intoxicated with hatred. I am surprised that American society lets this happen. Do certain American communities with a particular ethnic background have primary or secondary rights in the American society? Armenian Americans are so aggressive that Turkish Americans hardly dare express themselves. This is not righteous.

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, unfortunately I can't see how this issue can be solved. Enactment of this bill can only worsen the situation and  I hope this will not happen. I would like this bill to give an opportunity to the US governance to clarify their position. Because it is not acceptable to know that the President believes that what had happened was a genocide but can't utter this because he has to maintain good relations with Turkey. As a Turkish citizen I am not happy with this situation at all. The pressure on Turkish people to admit an alleged 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 allegers who are part of the pressure made on Turks for acceptance of an allegation and being insulted through blaming as deniers. This is really what I wish I could do. In my opinion whoever has got the capacity to do so should take this issue to the court and of course the court should be completely impartial.

In the light of the information and documentation I offer hereby I  hope you review the issue once more. It will be my  pleasure to provide any further details within my capacity if required.

Respectfully yours

Selma Aslan

A Turkish woman aged 63 from Erzurum, Turkey

Details of headlines:

1. Calling 1915 tragic events as “genocide” has no legal basis and therefore its legitimacy is very strongly arguable:

1. Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has passed a resolution for a change in the ruling on the Armenian issue to grant decisive power to historians in 2012. The resolution reads as follows: "In cases of emigration and resulting events, a ruling should be made by a commission consisting of historians following the opening of archives by the countries involved. The ruling should also inform that the negligence of the politicians at that time in history will not be accepted." The resolution was passed with a landslide majority. (PACE, 28.01.2012).
2. Prior to the resolution mentioned above the European Court of Justice in Brussels, in its December 2003 ruling on a lawsuit launched by Armenians in Europe (“Euro-Armenia” and the Krikorians), concluded that the Armenian “genocide” resolution passed by the European Parliament in 1987 was a “purely political” decision, with no legal foundation. On appeal by the plaintiffs, the ruling was re-confirmed in October 2004.    (http://www.turkishpac.org/pdfs/ArmenianIssueV2b.pdf).

3. On H. J. Res. 192, mentioned in your Press Release as “1984 Resolution”, 69 American academicians who specialize in Turkish, Ottoman and Middle Eastern Studies have expressed their concerns through a statement published in several leading newspapers on May 19, 1985, on the grounds "that the current language embodied in House Joint Resolution 192 is misleading and/or inaccurate in several respects. Specifically, while fully supporting the concept of a "National Day of Remembrance of Man's Inhumanity to Man," we respectfully take exception to that portion of the text which singles out for special recognition: "... the one and one half million people of Armenian ancestry who were victims of genocide perpetrated in Turkey between 1915 and 1923 . . ". The scholars noted that although there were many deaths in this relocation, many Armenians survived in their new location or emigrated to various locations; many returned after a law was passed ending the relocation.  Food was scarce, and non-Armenians (Turks especially) were dying of starvation everywhere and many of the deaths resulted from an atmosphere of anarchy; outlaws roamed the countryside with impunity. They thought the resolution would inevitably reflect unjustly upon the people of Turkey and perhaps set back progress irreparably and also would damage the credibility of the American legislative process.
4. At the end of WWI a Court Martial was constituted by Britain in Malta. Despite over two years' investigation in archives of several countries  no  evidence that would be of value for purposes of prosecution could be found and thus the legal process had to be completed. No other case has been opened since then.  Therefore it is highly questionable if it is legitimate and right for a legislative body to put itself  into a court's place and decide that there has been a genocide. (References to British Foreign Office documents are available at http://www.ataa.org/reference/deportees_ozer.html) It is worth querying why  Armenians do not go to the international court but want parliaments to pass resolutions.

2. Relocation and Resettlement Act of 1915 was a precaution to secure the rear on Caucasus Front and should come under 1977 Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions:

It should be noted that 284.000 Armenians were not relocated. There were Armenian officers in the army. The relocation covered those living around Caucasus Front; logistic routes of the Ottoman armies fighting on the Caucasus Front, in Gallipoli and in Palestine; locations with dense Armenian population where a revolt to divert Ottoman forces was likely to take place and conspiracy suspects mostly due to political affiliations. It is true that this means almost all Anatolia, but it is because all Anatolia was involved in war that was going on on five fronts. There is clear documented evidence that Hunchak and Tashnaksutyun Parties were working together with Russia, and therefore relocation 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. Following  items below exemplify some of the evidences.

1. Rep. Karekin Pastermadjean (Guerre de nom Armen Garo) for Erzurum province organized Armenian youth to join Russian army taking Ottoman horses and weapons with them to form Volunteer Units and changed fronts as soon as war broke and became Commander, 2nd Battalion of Armenian Volunteer Units in December 1914. His own writing depicts how proud he was for the role of Armenian Volunteer Units in the victory of Russia.
2. Rep. Vahan Papazian (Guerre de nom Goms) for Van was one of the leaders of the revolting in Van as Russian army was approaching in April 1915, and Gochnak, US dated 24 May 1915 proudly announced that only 1500 hundred Turks remained  in the city. --Turkish population of the province was 119.000 according to Patriarchate and 179.380 according to 1914 census. -- Kathe Ehrhold, a German nurse who was working at an Armenian orphanage as missionary at the time, witnessed  mercilessness of Armenians towards Muslims and wrote about it in her memoirs titled Flucht in die Heimat, published in 1937. Muslim districts of the city were completely wrecked.
3. While Russia asked the Allies to attack from the West to divert Ottoman forces from the Caucasus Front and Gallipoli Campaign was started; Armenians of Zeitun sent a delegation to the Caucasus Army Headquarters to ask for weapons and ammunition for 15.000 men to strike on the Turkish transportation lines of the Turkish army in Erzurum in February 1915. (Russian Archive)
4. "In a 40 page document presented to the Paris Peace conference in 1919, and still extant in English, they argued that this was their due since Armenian “volunteers and soldiers ...fought side by side with the Allies...on all fronts.” They provided lengthy evidence of their complicity against their own government and demanded that the Allies pay up on these grounds. Similar evidence was presented in “Why Armenia Should be Free - Armenia's role in the present war” published in Boston in 1918. (Armenian Issue...)

3. At Paris Peace Conference in 1919, The president of the "Armenian National Delegation" Nubar Boghos gave a demographic account saying that there were 1.3 million Armenians on Ottoman lands prior to WWI. In 1919 700.000 were living in other countries and 280.000 on Ottoman lands. These figures leave us with 320.000 losses. Yet an inflated figure of 1.5 million is widely used.  Relevant documents in US Archives concerning survivors, incl. the report of Patriarchate stating that 644.900 Armenians returned home in 1918 are listed below.

4. By the term "justice" Armenian Americans imply their demands. One of them is reparations. 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. It needs clarification what is expected any further and why? How many more times reparations are to be demanded?

5. 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 was superseded by the Treaty of Lausanne. Sevres Treaty covered partitioning  of Ottoman lands. There is no longer an Empire to be partitioned,  so no Sevres. Now that Armenia reject Kars Treaty, they can ratify the Treaty of Alexandropol which was signed between the Turkish Grand National Assembly and the Democratic Republic of Armenia on December 2, 1920 but because of Soviet occupation of Armenia  the ratification had to be suspended. 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.

6. You say “The facts of history are well-settled”. A clarification how they are well-settled would definitely be useful. Armenians usually refer to Morgenthau, the Blue Book, Andonian's Memoirs of Naim Bey and Talat Pasha's Black Book.

1. Armenian accusations contained in Morgenthau’s book are rebuffed by his successor, Admiral Mark Bristol who called the false Armenian reports circulating in the United States an "outrage."  “Bristol Letters” available in the Library of Congress are ignored.  Professor Heath Lowry of Princeton University described Ambassador Morgenthau's Story as a record of "crude half-truths and outright falsehoods" in 1990. Morgenthau's diary is generally regarded as an interesting historical source revealing that his book is a propaganda piece.
2. A second source that is continually used by advocates of alleged genocide  is the British Blue Book, published in 1916.  It does not contain any evidence proving that the Turkish government was responsible for the massacres described therein and some of them were hearsay. Five years after compiling it, Arnold Toynbee would visit Turkey, report his deep shock at the instances of cruelty and barbarity he saw perpetrated by Greeks against Moslem Turks in Western Anatolia, and then later reveal that he had - all along- been ignorant of Armenian provocation in Eastern Anatolia.
3. It is dubious if there was ever a Naim Bey and Britain did not consider using the Memoirs at Malta Tribunals.
4. As for the Black Book a full translation of it has not been done. The author Murat Bardakchi is infuriated about the pirated distorted abbreviated translation. He expresses his frustration saying “Leave my book alone if you are not able to comprehend it.”

Some Sources

1. The Armenian Issue : Why the “genocide” label doesn’t fit; An overview and analysis of the controversy surrounding the events of 1915 Produced by a multi-national panel of independent researchers of European, American and Turkish Ancestry. 2nd Edition. April 2010. http://www.turkishpac.org/pdfs/ArmenianIssueV2b.pdf (ref. 2.

2. Battle of Gallipoli. BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/battle_gallipoli.shtml (Ref 2.c)

3. Erich Feigl. A Myth of Terror.

http://www.azembassy.com.ua/docs/282_687_Erich%20Feigl%20-%20A%20myth%20of%20terror%20%28eng%29.pdf (ref. 1.3)

4. Pipes , Daniel.“'Death and Exile : The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821-1922 by Justin McCarthy: Review”  Middle East Quarterly, June 1996. http://www.danielpipes.org/704/death-and-exile-the-ethnic-cleansing-of-ottoman-muslims

5. Russian Archive:   Ref. no. 1185 of 07.02.1915 and N. 708 of 09.02.1915 (Ref 2.c)

6. The US National Archive: NARA 867.4016/193: Copy no: 484; NARA 867.4016/816 Jan 10,1923; NARA, Microfilm No. T 1192, Roll 8; NARA, T 1192 R2.860J/395; NARA 867.4016/251; NARA, Inquiry Report No. 90. s. 56; RG 84 Box 19. No: 414. From J.B. Jackson to Mr. L. R. Fowle. June 14, 1917-; Department of State Papers..., 86oJ.5811; Near East Foundation Archives, American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief Minutes, 1915-1919; Annual Report of the Commissioner General of Immigration to the Sec of Labor, Government Printing Office, beginning 1895-1932;The New Near East, Vol.6, No.7, Gen. No. 31, Jan. 23, 1920, s.28.

A mansion set to fire by Armenians after packed  with  local Muslim people

http://www.zafersen.com/ermeni_meselesi_ermeni_meselesi_fotograflar.htm

When Armenians cherished the illusion of ruling Eastern Anatolia relying on fall of the Ottoman Empire  and 
support of Western countries they formed 17 percent of population in Erzurum and less than 30 % in the region overall. 
They have always overlooked that their homeland was multicultural, ie a homeland for some other people as well. 
What they have been through during relocation from an Ottoman Province to another was very similar to what 
Circassians deported in 1864 by Russia from Caucasus;  Muslims of several ethnic origins who had to come to Anatolia under forced migration from Balkans in 1912 and from the land of current Armenia in 1890's and during war years faced.
 Yerevan Province was completely Turkish until 1827 and not a single Turk was left  by 1990.