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By Laurie Apelian
Published: 4/24/05
In the wake of the solemn remembrance of the 90th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide, Mehmet Basoglu has yet again attempted to discredit and undermine the events of the genocide with myriad skewed facts and sketchy statements regarding what occurred.
At first, I was tempted to respond to Mr. Basoglu's article "Changing History" (The Daily Targum, April 14) by refuting each historical "fact" of his one by one. I decided not to for two reasons.
The first reason is that I strongly urge all of you who are reading this letter to read the following: "Ambassador Morgenthau's Story," the eyewitness accounts of the American ambassador, Henry Morgenthau, who was stationed in Turkey during the latter parts of the massacres and documented exactly what he observed; "The Slaughterhouse Province: An American Diplomat's Report on the Armenian Genocide (1915 - 1917)," based on the American consul Leslie Davis' report to the State Department from Harput, Turkey; and Peter Balakian's "The Burning Tigris," a thorough compilation of many historical sources and documents regarding the massacres and an examination of America's response to the Armenians' plight. These sources are no "British Blue Book propaganda," with which Mr. Basoglu accuses Armenian Americans of being brainwashed. These sources contain the facts that no one but the Turkish government is trying to conceal.
My second reason for not disputing his claims one by one is that the accounts of my own grandfather and great-grandfather are enough evidence to me that the genocides occurred, and that is what I'd like to share a little bit of with you.
Mr. Basoglu makes the statement that "true progress will never be made on this issue until the Armenian Diaspora examines the roots of their own identity." I am a child of the Armenian Diaspora, and I know full well the roots of my Armenian identity. My roots reach back to my great-grandfather, Bedros Bahadourian, who passed away a few years ago. As a child, as a teenager, I would sit next to my great-grandfather and listen to his first-hand accounts of how he was orphaned during the massacres, of how he and his siblings had to march through the desert, of how he watched the bodies of those he loved perish under the sun and at the hands of the Turkish troops, and of how he was left poor, homeless and starving to the point of stealing food and licking the remains of food off of the ground. Also, my grandfather, Kevork Parseghian, was born and raised in Turkey, and he describes how he and his younger sister would be physically harassed and spit upon by the Turks while simply passing by Turkish villages on their way to school. These stories are not slanted British propaganda. They are not lies or allegations made up by extremists. They are the true experiences of my own family members.
Amazingly enough, my great-grandfather never once exhibited hatred toward the Turks, although he and his family suffered at their hands. He never taught his children, his grandchildren or his great-grandchildren to hate the Turks or to retaliate in violence. My great-grandfather was not a revolutionary or a member of a political party - he was a man of God, who after relating all the horrors of his childhood to us, would say, "Oor eyeenk, oor yegank Park Asdoodzo," meaning, "Where were we before? And look how far we have come! Praise be to God!"
Mr. Basoglu quotes Turkish sources - if they are not slanted sources, I don't know what is - as saying only 300,000 Armenians died during the period of the massacres. The truth of the matter is that 300,000 Armenians lost their lives in just the first period of attacks, from 1894-1896 at the hands of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. That is a fact from "The Armenian Massacres, 1894-1896 U.S. Media Testimony" by Arman J. Kirakossian. The massacres continued and only escalated during World War I until about 1916, this time led by leaders like Enver Pasha and Talaat Pahsa, among many others. By the end of 1916, the death toll had reached over one million, a fact documented in many places, but namely Merrill D. Peterson's "Starving Armenians."
To me personally, the exact numbers of how many people died is not what matters the most. What is more crucial is that a targeted, premeditated genocide against one specific group of people was carried out for the sole reason that they were Armenian, and nothing else. The Young Turks went after the Armenians for the same basic reasons that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis went after the Jews and the Hutus in Rwanda went after the Tutsis - to exterminate an ethnic group of people who they did not see fit to live. The Jewish Holocaust and many other occurrences of ethnic cleansing have been acknowledged and dealt with on a federal level. Why must the Armenian people alone continue to suffer the disgrace and pain of having their genocide called "slanted propaganda" and mere "allegations"?
I do not support the few and far between Armenian extremists who express their views with violence and hatred. But every time someone like Mr. Basoglu writes such infuriating, blasphemous, careless inaccuracies about the genocide that my own family members suffered through, my Armenian blood boils. It is my Christian values that keep me from retaliating in hatred, but it is my human dignity that demands recognition of the atrocities committed against my people.
Laurie Apelian is an Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy sophomore.
Published: 4/24/05
In the wake of the solemn remembrance of the 90th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide, Mehmet Basoglu has yet again attempted to discredit and undermine the events of the genocide with myriad skewed facts and sketchy statements regarding what occurred.
At first, I was tempted to respond to Mr. Basoglu's article "Changing History" (The Daily Targum, April 14) by refuting each historical "fact" of his one by one. I decided not to for two reasons.
The first reason is that I strongly urge all of you who are reading this letter to read the following: "Ambassador Morgenthau's Story," the eyewitness accounts of the American ambassador, Henry Morgenthau, who was stationed in Turkey during the latter parts of the massacres and documented exactly what he observed; "The Slaughterhouse Province: An American Diplomat's Report on the Armenian Genocide (1915 - 1917)," based on the American consul Leslie Davis' report to the State Department from Harput, Turkey; and Peter Balakian's "The Burning Tigris," a thorough compilation of many historical sources and documents regarding the massacres and an examination of America's response to the Armenians' plight. These sources are no "British Blue Book propaganda," with which Mr. Basoglu accuses Armenian Americans of being brainwashed. These sources contain the facts that no one but the Turkish government is trying to conceal.
My second reason for not disputing his claims one by one is that the accounts of my own grandfather and great-grandfather are enough evidence to me that the genocides occurred, and that is what I'd like to share a little bit of with you.
Mr. Basoglu makes the statement that "true progress will never be made on this issue until the Armenian Diaspora examines the roots of their own identity." I am a child of the Armenian Diaspora, and I know full well the roots of my Armenian identity. My roots reach back to my great-grandfather, Bedros Bahadourian, who passed away a few years ago. As a child, as a teenager, I would sit next to my great-grandfather and listen to his first-hand accounts of how he was orphaned during the massacres, of how he and his siblings had to march through the desert, of how he watched the bodies of those he loved perish under the sun and at the hands of the Turkish troops, and of how he was left poor, homeless and starving to the point of stealing food and licking the remains of food off of the ground. Also, my grandfather, Kevork Parseghian, was born and raised in Turkey, and he describes how he and his younger sister would be physically harassed and spit upon by the Turks while simply passing by Turkish villages on their way to school. These stories are not slanted British propaganda. They are not lies or allegations made up by extremists. They are the true experiences of my own family members.
Amazingly enough, my great-grandfather never once exhibited hatred toward the Turks, although he and his family suffered at their hands. He never taught his children, his grandchildren or his great-grandchildren to hate the Turks or to retaliate in violence. My great-grandfather was not a revolutionary or a member of a political party - he was a man of God, who after relating all the horrors of his childhood to us, would say, "Oor eyeenk, oor yegank Park Asdoodzo," meaning, "Where were we before? And look how far we have come! Praise be to God!"
Mr. Basoglu quotes Turkish sources - if they are not slanted sources, I don't know what is - as saying only 300,000 Armenians died during the period of the massacres. The truth of the matter is that 300,000 Armenians lost their lives in just the first period of attacks, from 1894-1896 at the hands of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. That is a fact from "The Armenian Massacres, 1894-1896 U.S. Media Testimony" by Arman J. Kirakossian. The massacres continued and only escalated during World War I until about 1916, this time led by leaders like Enver Pasha and Talaat Pahsa, among many others. By the end of 1916, the death toll had reached over one million, a fact documented in many places, but namely Merrill D. Peterson's "Starving Armenians."
To me personally, the exact numbers of how many people died is not what matters the most. What is more crucial is that a targeted, premeditated genocide against one specific group of people was carried out for the sole reason that they were Armenian, and nothing else. The Young Turks went after the Armenians for the same basic reasons that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis went after the Jews and the Hutus in Rwanda went after the Tutsis - to exterminate an ethnic group of people who they did not see fit to live. The Jewish Holocaust and many other occurrences of ethnic cleansing have been acknowledged and dealt with on a federal level. Why must the Armenian people alone continue to suffer the disgrace and pain of having their genocide called "slanted propaganda" and mere "allegations"?
I do not support the few and far between Armenian extremists who express their views with violence and hatred. But every time someone like Mr. Basoglu writes such infuriating, blasphemous, careless inaccuracies about the genocide that my own family members suffered through, my Armenian blood boils. It is my Christian values that keep me from retaliating in hatred, but it is my human dignity that demands recognition of the atrocities committed against my people.
Laurie Apelian is an Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy sophomore.
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