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Date Posted: 07:48:41 07/13/00 Thu
Author: Safarian Vardan
Author Host/IP: hermes.telenet-ops.be / 213.224.83.18
Subject: Re: The problem
In reply to: Inconito 's message, "The problem" on 08:47:37 03/06/00 Mon

> FACT SHEET: ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
> KNIGHTS OF VARTAN ARMENIAN RESEARCH CENTER
> The University of Michigan-Dearborn
> Dearborn, MI 48128
>
>
> The Armenian Genocide was carried out by the "Young
> Turk" government of the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1916
> (with subsidiaries to 1922-23). One and a half million
> Armenians were killed, out of a total of two and a
> half million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
> Most Armenians in America are children or
> grandchildren of the survivors, although there are
> still many survivors amongst us.
>
> Armenians all over the world commemorate this great
> tragedy on April 24, because it was on that day in
> 1915 when 300 Armenian leaders, writers, thinkers and
> professionals in Constantinople (present day Istanbul)
> were rounded up, deported and killed. Also on that day
> in Constantinople, 5,000 of the poorest Armenians were
> butchered in the streets and in their homes.
>
> The Armenian Genocide was masterminded by the Central
> Committee of the Young Turk Party (Committee for Union
> and Progress [Ittihad ve Terakki Cemiyet, in Turkish])
> which was dominated by Mehmed Talât [Pasha], Ismail
> Enver [Pasha], and Ahmed Djemal [Pasha]. They were a
> racist group whose ideology was articulated by Zia
> Gökalp, Dr. Mehmed Nazim, and Dr. Behaeddin Shakir.
>
> The Armenian Genocide was directed by a Special
> Organization (Teshkilati Mahsusa) set up by the
> Committee of Union and Progress, which created special
> "butcher battalions," made up of violent criminals
> released from prison.
>
> Some righteous Ottoman officials such as Celal,
> governor of Aleppo; Mazhar, governor of Ankara; and
> Reshid, governor of Kastamonu, were dismissed for not
> complying with the extermination campaign. Any common
> Turks who protected Armenians were killed.
>
> The Armenian Genocide occurred in a systematic
> fashion, which proves that it was directed by the
> Young Turk government.
>
> First the Armenians in the army were disarmed, placed
> into labor battalions, and then killed.
>
> Then the Armenian political and intellectual leaders
> were rounded up on April 24, 1915, and then killed.
>
> Finally, the remaining Armenians were called from
> their homes, told they would be relocated, and then
> marched off to concentration camps in the desert
> between Jerablus and Deir ez-Zor where they would
> starve and thirst to death in the burning sun.
>
> On the march, often they would be denied food and
> water, and many were brutalized and killed by their
> "guards" or by "marauders." The authorities in
> Trebizond, on the Black Sea coast, did vary this
> routine: they loaded Armenians on barges and sank them
> out at sea.
>
> The Turkish government today denies that there was an
> Armenian genocide and claims that Armenians were only
> removed from the eastern "war zone." The Armenian
> Genocide, however, occurred all over Anatolia
> [present-day Turkey], and not just in the so-called
> "war zone." Deportations and killings occurred in the
> west, in and around Ismid (Izmit) and Broussa (Bursa);
> in the center, in and around Angora (Ankara); in the
> south-west, in and around Konia (Konya) and Adana
> (which is near the Mediterranean Sea); in the central
> portion of Anatolia, in and around Diyarbekir
> (Diyarbakir), Harpout (Harput), Marash, Sivas
> (Sepastia), Shabin Kara-Hissar (țebin Karahisar), and
> Ourfa (Urfa); and on the Black Sea coast, in and
> around Trebizond (Trabzon), all of which are not part
> of a war zone. Only Erzeroum, Bitlis, and Van in the
> east were in the war zone.
>
> The Armenian Genocide was condemned at the time by
> representatives of the British, French, Russian,
> German, and Austrian governments—namely all the major
> Powers. The first three were foes of the Ottoman
> Empire, the latter two, allies of the Ottoman Empire.
> The United States, neutral towards the Ottoman Empire,
> also condemned the Armenian Genocide and was the chief
> spokesman in behalf of the Armenians.
>
> The American people, via local Protestant
> missionaries, did the most to save the wretched
> remnants of the death marches, the orphaned children.
>
> Despite Turkish denial, there is no doubt about the
> Armenian Genocide. For example, German ambassador
> Count von Wolff-Metternich, Turkey's ally in World War
> I, wrote his government in 1916 saying: "The Committee
> [of Union and Progress] demands the annihilation of
> the last remnants of the Armenians and the [Ottoman]
> government must bow to its demands."
>
> German consuls stationed in Turkey, including Vice
> Consul Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richner of Erzerum
> [Erzurum] who was Adolf Hitler's chief political
> advisor in the 1920s, were eyewitnesses. Hitler said
> to his generals on the eve of sending his Death's
> Heads units into Poland, "Go, kill without mercy . . .
> who today remembers the annihilation of the Armenians."
>
> Henry Morgenthau Sr., the neutral American ambassador
> to the Ottoman Empire, sent a cable to the U.S. State
> Department in 1915:
>
> "Deportation of and excesses against peaceful
> Armenians is increasing and from harrowing reports of
> eye witnesses [sic] it appears that a campaign of race
> extermination is in progress under a pretext of
> reprisal against rebellion."
> Morgenthau's successor as Ambassador to Turkey, Abram
> Elkus, cabled the U.S. State Department in 1916 that
> the Young Turks were continuing an ". . . unchecked
> policy of extermination through starvation,
> exhaustion, and brutality of treatment hardly
> surpassed even in Turkish history."
>
> Only one Turkish government, that of Damad Ferit
> Pasha, has ever recognized the Armenian genocide. In
> fact, that Turkish government held war crimes trials
> and condemned to death the major leaders responsible.
>
> The Turkish court concluded that the leaders of the
> Young Turk government were guilty of murder. "This
> fact has been proven and verified." It maintained that
> the genocidal scheme was carried out with as much
> secrecy as possible. That a public facade was
> maintained of "relocating" the Armenians. That they
> carried out the killing by a secret network. That the
> decision to eradicate the Armenians was not a hasty
> decision, but "the result of extensive and profound
> deliberations."
>
> Ismail Enver Pasha, Ahmed Cemal Pasha, Mehmed Talât
> Bey, and a host of others were convicted by the
> Turkish court and condemned to death for "the
> extermination and destruction of the Armenians."
>
> The Permanent People's Tribunal recognized the
> Armenian Genocide on April 16, 1984.
>
> The European Parliament voted to recognize the
> Armenian Genocide on June 18, 1987.
>
> President Bush issued a news release in 1990 calling
> on all Americans to join with Armenians on April 24 in
> commemorating "the more than a million Armenian people
> who were victims."
>
> President Clinton issued a news release on April 24,
> 1994, to commemorate the "tragedy" that befell the
> Armenians in 1915.
>
> The Russian Duma (the lower house of the bicameral
> Russian legislature) voted on April 20, 1994, to
> recognize the Armenian Genocide.
>
> Israel officially condemned the Armenian Genocide as
> Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin
> proclaimed on the floor of the Knesset (the Israeli
> legislature), on April 27, 1994, in answer to the
> claims of the Turkish Ambassador, that "It was not
> war. It was most certainly massacre and genocide,
> something the world must remember."
>
> The Armenian genocide is similar to the Jewish
> holocaust in many respects. Both people adhere to an
> ancient religion. Both were religious minorities of
> their respective states. Both have a history of
> persecution. Both have new democracies. Both are
> surrounded by enemies. Both are talented and creative
> minorities who have been persecuted out of envy and
> obscurantism.
>
> Issues:
>
>
> The Republic of Turkey must cease to be the only major
> country in the world to deny the Armenian Genocide.
>
> The Republic of Turkey must show good will by allowing
> American aid to present-day Armenia to pass through
> unhindered.
>
> The Republic of Turkey must cease to train Azerbaijani
> soldiers in Turkey for the purpose of attacking
> Armenia.
> April 3, 1996

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