Prospective Perinçek v Switzerland Case Grand Chamber Hearing of January 28, 2015 and Armenian Activities

In early January Columnist Uğur Dündar had an interview with Şükrü Elekdağ, former Ambassador to Japan and USA, and  one of the prepotent foreign policy makers of Turkey in 1990s, on Armenian allegations of genocide and Turkey’s position on this matter.  Elekdağ mentioned 4 phases plan of Armenians which entails Awareness, Recognition, Reparation and Territory aiming to achieve their “Cause”. Elekdağ  pointed out that Armenians aim to have as many as possible  parliaments and international organizations recognize 1915 incidents as genocide and thus a worldwide consensus to be built to move on to the 3rd Phase of Reparation demands [1].

As the centenary of the tragic event approaches, 22 countries have recognized the event as genocide in their parliaments so far. As Armenians carry on lobbying heavily to increase  the number of countries to recognize genocide on one hand, they have started voicing reparation and territory demands louder on the other.  

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan [2] said the following on 27 May 2014:

May no one cherish hopes that the Genocide centennial marks the boundary of our Cause. It is just a unique phase of experiencing the grief, becoming psychologically strengthened and reaching justice. We will propose new objectives and a new pan-Armenian agenda at the centennial, as well as a new plan for having a more powerful statehood and a more consolidated Diaspora. With the centennial, we will sum up a period and signal a new phase of revival for the sake of reinstating justice.

“We have an important message to the world. With new zeal, energy and resoluteness, we will continue our struggle towards the recognition and condemnation of the crime against humanity, the Armenian Genocide…

About a month later Armenian Revolutionary Federation Western US’s 49th Regional Convention  unanimously approved a statement delineating the organization’s list of demands for justice! The crazy list which can be found at Asbarez web site [3] ignores that Turks have been living on this territory they have an eye on for a millennium and today almost no Armenian lives there. When WWI started they held 20 percent of the population and tried to expel and exterminate 80 percent to found a country reaching three seas*. Approximately 2,7 million Muslim people were living in Trabzon, Erzurum, Bitlis and Van in 1914. Although most of those who had fled came back by 1918, the population could only reach 700.000.[4] Two million losses were mainly due to extermination of people by Armenians, epidemics and starvation. If Ottoman government was not wise enough to relocate Armenians they would claim to found a state taking Balkan countries as an examplar.  If there was an incident which should have been called as genocide it was what Tashnaksutyun chetes exerted on Muslim people, not the relocation.

Can a healthy mind assert that a community with a population below one million should have been allowed to expel, exterminate almost three million people and found a state. And can a healthy mind allege that this community has been subjected to genocide because it was not allowed to achieve this cause.

Never considering how Tashnaksutyun devastated Eastern Anatolia through scorched earth policy exercise during retreat, causing great economic losses, undermining the fact  that goods and lands of one million Yerevan Muslims were seized, and  ignoring that payments were made at the time by the Republic of Turkey as undertaken according to  treaties signed [5, 6],  they still expect reparations inexplicably. These expectations are covered by Armenian Cause Foundation on their web site in detail and discussed [7].

Armenians are working hard  to create consensus.  In ECHR  Press Release issued on December 17, 2013 there were a number of references to “consensus”.  One of them  read as follows: “ The Court doubted that there could be a general consensus as to events such as those at issue, given that historical research was by definition open to discussion and a matter of debate, without necessarily giving rise to final conclusions or to the assertion of objective and absolute truths.” [8]

What the Court doubts is apparently not doubted by genocide alleger Armenians and their supporters. It is hard to weigh whether consensus has been reached or not and even if it is reached  it may not be sign of a fact. This world had a time people believed that the earth was flat and there was a consensus on this, but the world was actually not flat.

With Lausanne Peace Treaty arrangements were made among legitimate parties of the time concerning properties and borders. Ottoman citizens had the opportunity to return home within a certain time frame, and as mentioned above,  whatever needed to be paid was paid.  Both Armenians in the East and Greeks in the West practised scorched earth policy as they retreated in 1920 and 1922 respectively. If I am not wrong young Republic of Turkey did not have any demand for losses. It was a great challenge to rebuild the country. One million Muslim of Yerevan who had to flee home lost their everything and got nothing either. It does not make sense to open old books after such a long time.

The hearing for the Perinçek v. Switzerland case, in front of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), will take place on 28 January 2015 in a couple of days. I hope ECHR decision will be legally  firm and comprehensive  enough to end this futile centenarian dispute in which Armenians aim to legitimize their ambitious demands of reparation and land. Historians can always discuss the nature of a certain historical event. But what Armenians aspire is to build a legal ground for their ambitions through consensus. They should not be allowed to cherish such vain hopes and tire out almost  the whole  world with their demands of recognition and support.

* This ratio can give the impression that such a thing is not possible, but it should be taken into consideration that men were away, fighting on seven or eight fronts from Yemen to Galicia, and women, elderlies and children were left behind and there was Russian invasion. It is also worth to remember that the same ratio applied to Thessaloniki, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's birth place which is a Greek city at the moment!

Sources

1)      Dündar, Uğur. Türkiye, Ermeni iddialarının 100. Yılında Bir Stratejiye Sahip mi? Sözcü. 11 Ocak 2015. http://sozcu.com.tr/2015/yazarlar/ugur-dundar/turkiye-ermeni-iddialarinin-100-yilinda-bir-stratejiye-sahip-mi-706376/

2)      Sargsyan, Serzh.  Genocide centennial not the end of Armenian Cause. 27 May 2015. Tetr.am. http://www.tert.am/en/news/2014/05/27/genocide/1097901 (Same news item also available with the title:  Genocide centennial not end of Armenian Cause: President  incl a Video  at http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/179304/ )

3)      ARF’s Statement of Demands For Justice for the Armenian Genocide. Asbarez. 23  June 2014. http://asbarez.com/124379/arfs-statement-of-demands-for-justice-for-the-armenian-genocide/

4)      Öğün, Tuncay. Kafkas Cephesinin Birinci Dünya Savaşındaki Lojistik Desteği. Ankara: Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi, 1999. (P. 329)

5)      Şir, Aslan Yavuz. Diyaspora Ermenileri ve ABD Mahkemelerindeki Tazminat Girişimleri. Ermeni Araştırmaları, 2012 No.41 p.127 – http://www.academia.edu/2129309/Diaspora_Armenians_and_Their_Restitution_Attempts_In_The_US_Courts.

6)      Lausanne Peace Treaty. http://www.mfa.gov.tr/lausanne-peace-treaty.en.mfa

7)      Armenian Cause Foundation. http://www.armeniancause.net/?cat=1

8)      European Court of Human Rights. (2013). Criminal conviction for denial that the atrocities perpetrated against the Armenian people in 1915 and years after constituted genocide was unjustified. Accessed on 21.03.2014 at   http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/webservices/content/pdf/003-4613832-5581451