Ms Simonetta Sommaruga, Federal Councillor for Justice, Switzerland
I‘ve read the Press Release about Switzerland’s intention to request that the European Court of Human Rights have the case of Doğu Perinçek referred to the Grand Chamber for review. I highly appreciate your efforts to combat racism. I also understand the appeal made to clarify the situation. Sometimes a situation can be hard to comprehend. There are a few things I have difficulty in understanding too and I would like to share them with you.
It was stated in the ECHR Press Release of 17 December 2013 that “ [The Criminal Cassation Division of the Vaud Cantonal ] court’s view, the Armenian genocide, like the Jewish genocide, was a proven historical fact, recognised by the Swiss legislature on the date of the adoption of Article 261bis of the Criminal Code.”
Malta Tribunals and four years’ British investigations have not yielded one single proof and therefore a case could not be opened whereas ECHR has pointed out that “the notion of “genocide” was a precisely defined legal concept … Genocide was a very narrow legal concept that was, moreover, difficult to substantiate.”
I would like to know what proof have you got if possible.
While ECHR has specifically emphasized that “Genocide” is a legal term, eminent Middle East specialist scholar Professor Bernard Lewis says:
There is a question of definition, and nowadays the term genocide is used very loosely even in cases when a bloodshed is involved at all. And I can understand the annoyance of those who fine it if refused. But in this particular case the point that was being made was that the massacre of the Armenians in The Ottoman Empire was the same as what happened to the Jews in Nazi Germany and that is a downright falsehood.
What happened to the Armenians was the result of a massive Armenian armed rebellion against the Turks which began even before war broke out and continued on a larger scale. Great numbers of Armenians including members of the armed forces deserted, crossed the frontier and joined the Russian forces invading Turkey. Armenian rebels actually seized the city of Van and held it for a while intending to hand it over to the invaders. There was a guerrilla warfare everywhere in Anatolia and this was what we nowadays call a national liberation movement of the Armenians against Turkey. And Turks certainly resorted to very ferocious methods in repelling it. There is clear evidence of a decision by the Turkish government to relocate the Armenian population from the sensitive areas which meant virtually the whole of Anatolia but not including the Arab provinces which were then still part of the Ottoman Empire. There is no evidence of a decision to massacre. On the country there is considerable evidence of attempts to prevent it which were not very successful. Yes, there was tremendous massacres, the numbers are very uncertain that million there may well be likely. The massacres were carried out by irregulars, by local villagers responding to what had been done to them and a number of other ways. But to make this a parallel with the holocaust in Germany you would have to assume that Jews in Germany had been engaged in an armed rebellion against the German state collaborating with the allies against Germany, that in the deportation order the cities of Hamburg and Berlin were exempted, and the persons in the employment of the state were exempted. And the deportation only applied to the Jews of Germany proper, so that when they got to Poland they were welcomed and sheltered by the Polish Jews. This seems to me a rather absurd parallel.
Lewis is quite right when he says the term is loosely used. An Australian who has written to Australian Turkish Advocacy Alliance “The Ottoman & Turkish states killed, injured and misplaced a number of persons. These states have killed our ANZACS on your shores in Gallipoli in 1915. … Atatürk was an Evil Murderer like Hitler who instructed his troops to kill and commit genocide” and suggested that Turks go back to Mongolia is an interesting example.
I wonder where the Swiss Members of Parliament who voted that relocation was a genocide stood in this wide array of notions of genocide?
Perhaps rather than revising the act which aims to combat racism, withdrawal of resolution which asserts that relocation was a genocide can be the solution. Any way it is most adverse to protect a nation which aimed ethnic cleansing to change the population ratio, taking Balkans as an exemplary, to deserve the territory in view of Wilson Principles. Erzurum lost one third of its population throughout long war years including WWI and War of Independence. Russian Archives are full of documents reporting atrocities and slaughters exerted by Armenians in Eastern Anatolia and Caucasus, high number of enrollments in voluntary units, purchase of weapons and ammunitions to make preparations for insurrections in various locations in Anatolia and messages of expression of readiness for cooperation and similar topics.
If a parliament puts itself instead of a Court and votes for such a resolution, perhaps it should scrutinize the case more thoroughly to ensure justice.
I have been maintaining a blog in an effort to show other side of the coin to the layman at http://armenianholocaustmystory.blogspot.com.tr/ over the last three years. Further information and references can be found there.
However I would like to suggest one single booklet which is available on Internet:
Kachaznuni, Hovhannes. Dashnaktsutiun Has Nothing To Do Anymore. Bucharest, 1923.http://www.turkishpac.org/pdfs/KachaznuniEnglish.pdf
(Kachaznuni was the first Prime Minister of Democratic Armenian Republic, 1918-1920.)
Please note that while the loss ratio among Armenians relocated to Southern provinces of the Empire was 20 percent, half of Armenians who chose to go to Russia and Caucasus on their own lost their lives because of epidemics and starvation. The Ottoman Empire, despite campaigns on seven or more fronts tried to do its best to provide food, sanitation and security during relocation. On the other side, the loss rate was 40 percent among Muslim people of Erzurum who had to flee when the province was to be occupied by the Russian Army which comprised Armenian troops as well!
Respectfully
Selma Aslan
A Turkish woman aged 64 from Erzurum
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