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**imported_Armenian** · 08-19-2005, 03:15 PM

All Armenians have stories, here is my family story.

On my maternal side:

My grandfather came from a large family of tradesmen, bakers and farmers. My grandfather was only in his teens when the orders came to eliminate the Armenian presence from within Anatolia. Soon after April 24th 1915, Turkish soldiers entered my grandfather's hometown of Marash. The Turks began to gather all the Armenians within the town in-order to force march them to the Syrian desert and/or to kill them outright. My grandfather's immediate family was not fortunate enough to be expelled into the deserts of Syria. Turks murdered my grandfather's parents and some siblings that happened to be present in their house at the time - in front of his eyes. My grandfather, however, somehow escaped and managed flee to the mountains surrounding his town.

According to my family, my grandfather lost his senses after his ordeal. While surviving off the land, eating herbs and wild fruits, he decided to join a band of Armenian freedom fighters who at the time were trying to help Armenians escape Turkish atrocities. As an Armenian freedom fighter, my grandfather engaged in various raids into Turkish towns and camps in search and rescue operations seeking Armenian orphans held by Turks and Kurds. According to my grandmother, my grandfather had become a ruthless killer of Turks and Kurds. According to many stories about him, my grandfather killed hundreds of Turks and Kurds - practically any Turk or Kurd he could get his hands on.

There is even a story of him shooting down from a Mosque minaret a Mufti (Moslem priest) as the mufti was preparing to recite prayers. Another story, describes how he infiltrated a Turkish town that had young Armenian girls held as captives. After killing their captors during the night, he would bring the Armenian girls back to secure areas and marry them off to young Armenian orphan boys.

On my paternal side:

As bakers, shoemakers and lawyers, they were relatively well-off towns folk, and a particular relative held the title of village chief. Through the town lawyer and village chief, my father's family knew the Turkish authorities within the region well. According to my father, his family would even once-in-a-while have Turkish authority members, perhaps the governor, over for dinner. Thus, when rumors of impending expulsion orders were heard within the town where my father's family dwelt, my relatives sought the protection of the Turkish authorities, with whom they thought they had good relations with.

The Turkish governor, having received the request by my father's family to speak to him, invited the representatives my father's family over for dinner - to see what they had to say. According to my father, his family pleaded with the Turk in charge for protection. Claiming to be good Ottoman citizens and having no political affiliations, my father's family asked the Turk not to expel them from their hometown. According to my father's story, representatives of my father's family and the Turkish governor had a very friendly discussion over dinner.

However, as they were about to leave the Turk's residence, my father's relatives asked if they could have the governors word that no harm would come to their families and/or their property. The Turkish governor, in response, ensured them that my father's family were well liked and respected by Turks, and thus, he more or less stated "when the order comes to evict and/or kill all Armenians within this town, out of mercy, I will order my troops to use "extra sharp" knives to kill you all."

Soon after April 24th 1915, the order came to eliminate all Armenians living within all regions of Anatolia. My father's extended family was decimated, many killed by Turkish and Kurdish brigands, some died from disease and starvation, some lost, never to be found again, and the rest, including my paternal grandfather, driven to the Syrian desert starving, barefoot and penniless.

An interesting story was that of my father's uncle: This man escaped certain death jumping into a fast flowing river and disappearing downstream. My father's uncle was thought to have been dead for many decades, until by a very strange coincidence, my father met his uncle's son within New York City. Apparently, my father's uncle, after swimming downstream for a long distance, was rescued by a Kurdish family. This kind Kurdish family fed him and kept him hidden from Turks and other Kurds for a long time. He eventually found his way to Constantinople and got married with an Armenian girl and gave birth to several children.

All told, between 1895 and 1923 over two million Armenians were killed in the most horrendous of manners. Every Armenian family has stories of terrible loss, yet the civilized world has tuned a deaf ear. Today, I pray for the countless tormented souls of all my countrymen who opted to die as Armenian Christians, instead of betraying their God and nation. As a grandchild of genocide survivors, I promise that I will do all that I can to somehow someday avenge my countrymen. I pledge to keep the memories of the martyrdom that the Armenian nation suffered alive within my children. And God willing, I pray to see my ancient homeland, a Turkic cesspool today, returned to its former glory.

**Tongue** · 08-19-2005, 07:54 PM

Hi Armenian, welcome to the forum.

Very interesting stories... my great grandmother was from Mush... She lost her entire family in the genocide. We videotaped her talking about her memories of the genocide and I have it on DVD. It's about an hour long... with all the details. VERY INTERESTNG. Does anyone know how I can upload it to the web so I can post it in this forum?

**imported_Armenian** · 08-20-2005, 01:41 PM

German Responsibility in the Armenian Genocide

A Review of the Historical Evidence of German Complicity, by Vahakn N. Dadrian, Cambridge, Mass.: Blue Crane Books, 1996. Pp. 304.

Vahakn N. Dadrian, an internationally well-known scholar on the Armenian genocide wrote an exceedingly important and scholarly book, not directly related to the issue of his long life interest of Armenian Genocide, but on the German Responsibility in the Armenian Genocide. This book is a review of the historical evidence of German complicity in the Armenian genocide. Indeed, Hitler once said "who remembers the Armenians?" in contemplating the Jewish holocaust. The focus of the present study is an examination of the role that German officials (both military and civilian) played in the Armenian genocide by Turkey, then an ally of Germany during World War I.

Using an avalanche of historical sources both primary and secondary (drawn from diplomatic history, international law, political science, and official German documents), the author has written a book indictment not only of Germany but of the Western world -- an affront against humanity. In his words, the author "attempts to dissect and expose the lethal role performance of these officials who, for reasons of their own, allowed themselves to be co-opted by the Turk Ittihadist leaders to aid the executioners of the Armenian people" (p. 94). The author believes, "the study is also an invitation to consider the entire matter as a challenge to historical truth and, therefore, ultimately treat it as a moral issue" (p. 94). Dadrian argues the Armenian genocide is not due to memory amnesia, nor is it a "forgotten genocide," but it was sacrificed by the altar of political expediency and economic rapaciousness by the victorious Entente powers. Seen in this light it is more about the distribution of power relations in national and international politics rather than historical truth. In a diabolical sense, the Turkish denial of Armenian genocide served as a shield to Nazi Germany. Despite the overwhelming historical evidence of the documents, the author states, the Turks continue to deny its ocurrence.

In is words, "Turkey has engaged in all forms of public relations and co-optation, cajoling, and intimidation to influence the western media" (introduction). According to him, there is a systematic effort on the part of modern Turkey to conceal its crime by changing the archives and deleting sentences in a sort of cover-up. The book was written primarily for German audiences by relying a great deal on German State archives and documents. The author also makes clear that the German complicity of the Armenian genocide does not in any way exonerate the crime committed by Turkey, which is second only to the holocaust in the 20th century. In his introduction Dadrian states that "German minor officials and consuls stationed in Turkey had documented the Armenian genocide, sometimes in defiance of their superiors or in secrecy. Most of these reports were classified information and were marked as confidential secret or top secret.

Using a variety of informal and secret methods such as stealth, conspiracy, and secrecy of transactions, Turkey bribed German and Austrian newspapers and agents to suppress any trace of Armenian massacres. Turkey also used spies overseas to spy on Armenian nationalists. The author examines the legal and international ramifications of the Armenian genocide. He documents the fact that a number of German (mostly) minor officials risked their lives by objecting to the Armenian carnage in the interior of Turkey. By failing to address this international crime against humanity, the author strongly believes this later led to the Jewish Halocaust. Dadrian thinks that the Armenian genocide is also an issue of international law which the West has failed to address. The author found an overwhelming evidence of a mass execution of an Armenian labor battalion ordered by the German General Bronsart von Schellendorf, who worked with the Ottoman general staff. The rationale of the mass execution of the Armenians was justified for security reasons. Both civilian and military personnel attest to this crime as eye witnesses and reported in many documents.

A commission on these atrocities, which issued its final report on March 29, 1919, accused Turkey and its allies (the Germans) of using barbarous and illegitimate methods against the Armenian citizens. Again, a committee of jurists in 1920, commissioned by the Council of the League of Nations, concluded that the official order to deport the Armenians en masse "was a violation in international law" (p.l9). Two German generals, Bronsart (on July 25, 1915) and Boemich (on October 3, 1915), who served as members of the military mission in Turkey, are said to be responsible for ordering the Armenian deportation.

The author names specific German generals and civilian officials who knew of the destruction of the Armenians, such as Marshal Sanders, the Prussian officer Captain Rudolf Nadolny, German Regimental Commander Colonel Stange, Lieutenant Scheubner Richter, Hauptmann Schwarz, Louis Mosel, Oswald von Schmidt and others. He also mentions Turkish generals and leaders of the Special Organization East led by Dr. B. Sakiz, Alihsan Sabis, Omer Naci, Yakub Cemil, Deli Halit, Cerkez Ahmed, and Topal Osman (p. 55). In addition, the author documents the ideological complicity and zealousness of the Baron Oppenheim against the Armenians in order to please the German emperor. The author details Oppenheim's conspiratorial consort in plotting the destruction of the Armenians (p. 77). Finally, the author examines the issue of legal liability by reviewing the record made by the Allies and issued as a joint declaration on May 24, 1915. This record condemned the Ottoman massacres of the Armenians and those responsible for assisting in the genocide (pp. 89-94).

The book is divided into two major parts. Part one covers pages 7-105 including notes and part two covers pages 107-198. Each part contains extensive notes and annotations from various primary and secondary sources. In addition, there are four appendixes (A, B, C, & D, pp. 199-271), and a number of photographs and names of the major architects (both German and Turkish generals) of the Armenian genocide mentioned in the text (pp. 273-281). Pages 283-291 include a general bibliography of primary sources of state and national archives and official documents including materials from Austria, Germany, France, Great Britain, Turkey (both Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic), United Nations, United States, and Armenian sources. Also the author includes an extensive list of works on genocide and genocide-related topics (pp. 293296). Dadrian himself has published extensively on the issue of genocide including 5 books, 3 monographs, 34 articles, and a translation of a book.

Part one deals with the German's readiness to embrace Turkey's antiArmenian posture. Germany's relationship to Turkey extends back to Bismark (1878), the German nationalist who was instrumental in the unification of Germany. According to the author, Germany was interested in reorganizing the Ottoman Turkish military and Bismark played the broker at the Congress of Berlin. Within four years following that Congress, the first German military mission arrived in Turkey with the aim of reorganizing the Ottoman Turkish Army. A number of military missions and economic elites arrived, including emperor William II. Germany was the first country to be given the Bagdad Railway Construction Project in 1888 during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamit.

The Bagdad Railway Construction Project was facilitated by two trips of the emperor to Turkey in 1889 and 1898. At the same time, Prussian military officers continued to instruct, train, and rebuild the Ottoman Turkish Army (p. 8). It must be noted that while these things were taking place, the Armenian genocide already had started in the closing decade of the 19th century. The German-Turkish military and economic alliance made the Germans indifferent to ongoing Armenian genocide. Not only did the official German government not protest, but emperor William II visited Turkey for the second time and was welcomed with red carpet treatment by the Sultan himself during the Armenian massacres of November 1896. It was obvious that in the name of German national interests Germany did not raise the issue of Armenian genocide, despite the fact that both Bismark and the emperor William II were dismayed by Turkish barbarities. Yet, despite his knowledge of the Armenian genocide, the German emperor praised Abdul Hamit as a model for other countries to emulate. Moreover, the German emperor was against the young Turk revolution of 1908 which deposed the Sultan. It was this revolution that ended the Ottoman empire in the Balkans.

Source: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articl...07/ai_n8847533

**imported_Armenian** · 08-20-2005, 02:04 PM

Germany to Turkey: Own Up to Massacre

The German parliament has agreed on a resolution that will ask Ankara to accept its role in the expulsion and massacre during and after World War I that killed up to 1.5 million Armenians.

The resolution, which is set to win final approval by lawmakers in the next few months, avoids the word "genocide," but calls on Turkey to "take historic responsibility" for the massacres of Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish government and ask forgiveness from the descendents of the victims.

The document, which was drafted by the conservative Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union (CSU/CSU) bloc and later modified by a parliamentary committee, is meant to coincide with the April 24 commemoration of the beginning of the expulsions 90 years ago, in Yerevan, the Armenian capital.

"We don't want to want to put the Turkish government on trial," CDU representative Christoph Bergner said. Instead, the goal is to "invite our Turkish friends and partners" to come to terms with the past.

German role

The three-page resolution also recognizes a limited German role in the massacres that killed between 1.2 and 1.5 million Armenians. Germany was Ottoman Turkey's main ally in the war. "Partly through approval and through failure to take effective measures, there was a German co-responsibility for this genocide," said Gernot Erler, the Social Democratic (SPD) deputy foreign affairs spokesman in the Bundestag in a statement. "The (Bundestag) asks the Armenian people for their forgiveness," said a statement.

[...]

But Turkey's ambassador to Germany, Mehmet Ali Irtemcelik, condemned the planned resolution as containing "countless factual errors" and said it was being written "in agreement with propaganda efforts of fanatic Armenians."

Germany has been reluctant to address the issue of Turkish and Armenian history in the past largely due to its own 2.5 million Turkish residents. However, a member of the CSU/CSU bloc, Erwin Marschewski, said the EU value system required that countries "shine a spotlight on the dark pages of our history."

"Recognition by Turkey of the Armenian genocide of 1915 and 1916 is important," he said in a statement.

EU membership hopes

The resolution comes at a sensitive time, since negotiations for Turkey's membership in the European Union are set to begin in October. Critics of the resolution accused the conservative alliance of drafting the resolution to throw another hurdle in the way of future Turkish EU membership, which many conservatives have not supported. The bloc itself has rejected the accusation. However, German Chancellor Gerhard Schr�der is a staunch supporter of Turkey's EU bid and will visit Ankara and Istanbul for talks with political and business leaders there on May 3 and 4.

Commemoration

Armenians themselves are planning a large demonstration on April 24 to commemorate the massacres. They say their forbears were systematically eliminated by Ottoman Turkey's rulers from 1915 to 1923.

[...]

Their claims, that between 1.2 and 1.5 million Christian Armenians were killed or died from disease and starvation as a result of planned relocations, are supported by many Western historians.

Ankara has always rejected those claims, saying Armenians have no firm data to back them up. Most Turkish historians say nationalists in Armenia sided with Russia troops when they invaded eastern Turkey. While admitting many Armenians died at the time, Turkey says it was due to war, not planned murder.

The two countries have no diplomatic relations and Turkey shut the border in 1993 to show solidarity with Turkish-speaking ally Azerbaijan, which was then engaged in a conflict with Armenia.

Source: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,...560270,00.html

**imported_Armenian** · 08-20-2005, 02:16 PM

"BETRAYAL AND ABANDONMENT BY THE FRENCH AND BRITISH"

The Armenian Legion and the Battle of Arara

By Mark Mathosian

On September 19, 1918, a decisive battle was fought at the heights of Arara in Palestine. That day, brave volunteer soldiers of the Legion d'Orient defeated fortified German and Turkish forces and drove the enemy from the mountainside. It was a victorious day for the gallant Armenians. I am proud to say that my grandfather, Nshan Matosian, was one of those brave Legionnaires who fought in that battle for Armenian independence.

My grandfather died when I was 10-years old, and information about the Legion and my grandfather's role as an American-Armenian freedom fighter was discussed only vaguely. I knew that he fought for Armenia and that his name and photo were in an Armenian history book. However, no one had the book, and my father said he remembered seeing it only as a child.

[...]

THE ARMENIAN LEGION IS FORMED

The Armenian Legion was created in 1916 by the French and British governments. As World War I raged, the French and English agreed to a secret pact that included a postwar division of Turkey. Under the pact, France would be allocated an area in southwest Turkey known as Cilicia. After the war, Cilicia would become autonomous and be placed under Armenian rule. Based on these promises, in October 1916 an accord was reached between the President of the Armenian National Delegation, Boghos Nubar Pasha, and representatives from France and England to create the Eastern Legion, also known as the Legion d' Orient.

The Eastern Legion would be under the military leadership of the French and organized in a similar fashion to the famed French Foreign Legion. From the onset, only Armenians and Arabs could join. The officers in the new organization would be French, and the non-commissioned officers were Armenian veterans of the Foreign Legion. The early Legion consisted primarily of volunteer Armenians and Syrians.

By 1918, the Legion had grown in numbers and consisted of four companies of volunteers, including about 500 war-hardened Armenian survivors of the battle of Musa Dagh. Recruitment for soldiers occurred in America, Europe, South America, Egypt, and Australia. About 1,200 of the volunteers were from America. These proud American volunteers insisted on flying an American flag and carried a worn and tattered stars and stripes during the conflict. In total, about 5,000 patriotic Armenians joined the Legion d' Orient.

In 1910, I came to America to the city of Lawrence. In Lawrence, I met many fellow-countrymen. In 1911, under a veil of confidentiality, we founded the Patriotic Union. The purpose was secretly supplying Chunkoosh with guns and weapons. Almost all compatriots from Chunkoosh joined us. The Unions were founded in Chicago and Massachusetts. Twice a year, we had meetings devoted to our holy purpose. By secret vote, we elected the administrative staff, which included four members. The members were Avetis Takhtikian, Haryutyun Poroian, Khachik Tlokian, and Nshan Matosian.

[...]

American Armenians were very excited. Young men were being recruited and registered as volunteers for Armenian liberation. They said that now is the time to go and to take revenge for our parents, brothers, and sisters--to go and reunite the Armenian nation. Men of Chunkoosh were voluntary recruited and were ready to go to Cilicia. Finally came the time when we got called, and we were organized and ready.

We were waiting for our turn and shortly after the first group had departed we were called to depart. When we arrived at New York, we met 125 more volunteers. We waited several days for the French boat "Milampo" which finally arrived. We were led onto the boat, and in order to keep straight discipline, five leaders of the groups were elected with one of them being myself. On the 25th of July of 1917, we departed from New York to France. After eight days of traveling, we finally arrived to the city of Porto. After one night, we left for Marseilles, acquired military uniforms, and departed to Egypt. After spending several weeks in Egypt, we went to Cyprus. Here in Cyprus, we received training. We exercised every day for eight hours. The volunteers were impatient to go to the front.

THE ARMENIAN LEGION IN BATTLE

After completing 10 months of military training at Monarga, Cyprus, the volunteer army marched through the desert toward Palestine and the frontlines of the war. Upon arrival, they joined the allied forces under the leadership of British Commander Edmund Allenby. The Legionnaires entered combat for the first time in an area known as Arara, just south of Nablus. This became known as the Battle of Arara. The Legion d' Orient was ordered to capture the Turkish/German positions at the heights of Arara.

On the 19th of September, 1918, at 4 am, we were organized and ready, and we attacked. Armenian volunteers ran up to the mountain yelling: "We want revenge." We attacked the enemy on the slope of the mountain, and the enemy retreated with fright. They were convinced that they could not withstand the Armenian volunteers. Turks are brave when the opposite side is not armed. When they attack unarmed Armenians they are heroes. When they see guns, they run away like rabbits.

The battle continued one day, and the enemy lost on our front. Armenian soldiers came up to the first line quietly and were moving up carefully trying to find the enemy unaware. Finally we reached the barbed lines of the enemy. The front was fairly wide. We didn't have much trouble cutting the wires. At last we were on the enemy's side. Suddenly the light flashed on us coming from the enemy's side. Right after the light, the enemy started to shoot a continuous cannonade. But, luckily, we had moved up 15 steps from the line, and we were not hurt.

Our enemy took very strong positions on the peak and the side of Arara. Suddenly the machine-guns opened fire at us, but the Armenian volunteers were well trained and were moving ahead. The distance between the enemy and us was 40 yards when suddenly the enemy stopped shooting. We, the Armenian soldiers occupied Mount Arara. But, the enemy started to continuously fire cannonade. However, we had already strengthened our positions. At that time our couriers brought the message that the enemy had lost and is retreating.

Our loss in this battle was 21 dead and 40 injured. The next day we buried our heroes on the mountain...We, the Armenian volunteers, lined up with tears in our eyes and took a last look at our heroic friends. We said the last goodbye to our lovely friends: Peace to your tomb, dear and unforgettable friends. Among the dead were men from Chunkoosh. Their names are Martiros Papagian, Poghos Tereksikian, Melgsit Takimanjian. They died as heroes on the front line.

According to historians, 23 Legionnaires were killed during the assault and 65 men were wounded. However, the victory at Arara proved to be the beginning of the collapse of the Turkish army. Up until this point the Armenian Legion was officially referred to as the Eastern Legion (Legion d' Orient). After the battle, the Syrian troops separated and the Eastern Legion became known as the Legion Armenienne, the Armenian Legion. The Armenian Legionnaires then marched through Nazareth, along the Sea of Galilee, Jaffa, Haifa, and Beirut. By December 1918, the Armenian Legionaries entered the city of Adana, Cilicia, and other key locations in the Middle East. All the while, the Turkish army was retreating as World War I ended.

From 1918-1919, British troops occupied Cilicia and over 100,000 Armenian survivors of the Genocide returned to Cilicia believing they were under the protection of the French and British. From 1919-1920, the Legionnaires systematically replaced British soldiers in Cilicia and occupied key positions in the region.

It appeared as if the Armenians would receive autonomy as promised and that the French and English would live up to their word. However, behind the scenes, political deals were being made. By February 1920 the French forces began to retreat from Marash, and throughout the spring attacks by the Turkish military intensified throughout the region. What the Armenians did not know was that during this time France had secretly changed its policy toward Turkey and intended to revoke its earlier promises to the Armenians. In my grandfather's memoirs he recalled an incident from this period.

[...]

BETRAYAL AND ABANDONMENT BY THE FRENCH AND BRITISH

In May 1919, the Armenians declared Cilicia, independent and an Armenian Governor was appointed in Adana. However, the French opposed this act and the declaration of independence was abruptly halted. By now, the decision to disband the Armenian Legion had been decided and the Armenian patriots were quickly disbanded. In his memoirs, my grandfather recalled the bitterness he and other patriots felt by the betrayal of the French and English.

We knew very well that the political situation was getting worse, and our duty was over, and that the soldiers were free to go. Again dark clouds covered the Armenian sky. Our guns were taken from us and colored clothes were given to us to wear. We looked like prisoners. Where were the promises given by the French commanders? They said, "You will take possession of your land which you have lost 500 years ago. The Armenian flag will wave on the fort of Sis, and you will become masters of the land which you occupied in bloody war. You have all legitimate rights. Glory to Armenia."

Now, I have a question for you, our big ally. Why did you betray us, why did you abandon us, why did you break the promises you gave to Armenians? What kind of deceit are you planning by acting like a Christian and in the name of Christ? You are exploiting the name of Christ to give a hand to a murderer, robber, barbarian Turk, whose hands are painted with the blood of innocent Armenians. What is the difference between you and the Turk, then? I am asking you, French and English. Be brave enough to answer my questions honestly. Justice will finally win sooner or later, and the day when somebody will betray you is not far. We had to give up our Adana, though we fought and won. We were told that we have no choice. Our big ally abandoned and betrayed us, but in these days we, Armenians have an ally who loves us like a son, who cherishes us. We have a great developing and growing Armenia, and we Armenians are proud of our Armenia.

By September 1920, the disbandment of the Armenian Legion was complete. In October, France recognized Turkey and the French troops were withdrawn from Cilicia. The Armenian population was once again left to the mercy of the Turks and massacres continued. In 1925, the bodies of 23 Legionnaires who died in the Battle of Arara were moved to an Armenian cemetery in Jerusalem. My grandfather recalled the final days in his journal.

The war was over, and we, the volunteer soldiers, had a chance to get two weeks rest. But one day, we got the news that we had to go to Beirut. The Palestinian and Syrian climate was too hot. Finally, we were ready for our long trip. We put everything what we had on our backs. We walked under the hot sun eight hours every day. Many soldiers became very sick, unable to take the heat. After three long weeks, we finally arrived in Beirut. Half of the soldiers were still behind because of illness. One day in Beirut, or more precisely on November 11, we heard cannonade shooting. We, the Armenian volunteers, were anxious to find out what was happening. Later we found out that the armistice had been signed. Armenian soldiers hugged each other yelling we had a victory, and we were sincerely happy. But we never could have imagined that for the Armenian soldiers the war was just starting. The sad day finally came and Armenian volunteer soldiers gave up occupied Adana. Armenian people were removed from the city, leaving everything they had along with their homes. The Armenian volunteers were sent back from where they came.

My grandfather returned to his home in Massachusetts, where he resided for some years before moving to Melvindale, MI, where he became employed in one of Henry Ford's automobile factories. The Matosian family lived and prospered in Melvindale and became involved in the Armenian-American community until the Great Depression, when they were forced to sell the family homes. They moved to Fairview, NJ, and eventually settled in New York. My grandfather opened a tailor shop in the Bronx, and the family lived there for many years.

Source: http://www.hairenik.com/armenianweek...istory003.html

**imported_Armenian** · 08-20-2005, 02:38 PM

The Zionist Role within the Armenian Genocide

The Hidden History of Zionism

Chapter 2
Zionist Objectives

The objective of Zionism has never been merely to colonize Palestine � as was the goal of classical colonial and imperial movements during the 19th and 20th centuries. The design of European colonialism in Africa and Asia was, essentially, to exploit indigenous peoples as cheap labor while extracting natural resources for exorbitant profit.

What distinguishes Zionism from other colonial movements is the relationship between the settlers and the people to be conquered. The avowed purpose of the Zionist movement was not merely to exploit the Palestinian people but to disperse and dispossess them. The intent was to replace the indigenous population with a new settler community, to eradicate the farmers, artisans and town-dwellers of Palestine and substitute an entirely new workforce composed of the settler population.

In denying the existence of the Palestinian people, Zionism sought to create the political climate for their removal, not only from their land but from history. When acknowledged at all, the Palestinians were re-invented as a semi-savage, nomadic remnant. Historical records were falsified � a procedure begun during the last quarter of the 19th century but continuing to this day in such pseudo-historical writings as Joan Peters� From Time Immemorial.

The Zionist movement would seek alternative imperial sponsors for this bloody enterprise; among them the Ottoman Empire, Imperial Germany, the British Raj, French colonialism and Czarist Russia. Zionist plans for the Palestinian people anticipated the Ottoman solution for the Armenians, who would be slaughtered in the first sustained genocide of the 20th century.

Zionist Plans for the Palestinian People

From its inception, the Zionist movement sought the �Armenianization� of the Palestinian people. Like the Native Americans, the Palestinians were regarded as �a people too many�. The logic was elimination; the record was to be one of genocide.

This was no less true of the Labor Zionist movement, which sought to provide a �socialist� patina for the colonial enterprise. One of the principal theorists of Labor Zionism, a founder of the Zionist party Ha�Poel Ha�Tzair (The Young Worker) and a supporter of Poale Zion (Workers of Zion), was Aaron David Gordon.

[...]

Palestinian Society

There were over one thousand villages in Palestine at the turn of the 19th century. Jerusalem, Haifa, Gaza, Jaffa, Nablus, Acre, Jericho, Ramle, Hebron and Nazareth were flourishing towns. The hills were painstakingly terraced. Irrigation ditches crisscrossed the land. The citrus orchards, olive groves and grains of Palestine were known throughout the world. Trade, crafts, textiles, cottage industry and agricultural production abounded.

Eighteenth and 19th century travellers� accounts are replete with the data, as were the scholarly quarterly reports published in the 19th century by the British Palestine Exploration Fund. In fact, it was precisely the social cohesiveness and stability of Palestinian society which led Lord Palmerston, in 1840, when Britain had established a consulate in Jerusalem, to propose, presciently, the founding of a European Jewish settler colony to �preserve the larger interests of the British Empire�.

Palestinian society, if suffering from the collaboration of feudal landowners [effendi] with the Ottoman Empire, was nevertheless productive and culturally diverse, with a peasantry quite conscious of its social role. The Palestinian peasants and urban dwellers had made a clear, strongly felt distinction between the Jews who lived amongst them and would-be colonists, dating from the 1820�s, when the 20,000 Jews of Jerusalem were wholly integrated and accepted in Palestinian society.

When the colonists at Petah Tikvah sought to push the peasants off the land, in 1886, they were met with organized resistance, but Jewish workers in neighboring villages and communities were wholly unaffected. When the Armenians escaping the Turkish genocide settled in Palestine they were welcomed 9by Arabs). The genocide was ominously defended by Vladimir Jabotinsky and other Zionists in their attempts to obtain Turkish support.

In fact, until the Balfour Declaration [1917], the Palestinian response to Zionist settlements was unwisely tolerant. There was no organized Jew-hatred in Palestine, no massacres such as the Czar and Polish anti-Semites prepared, no racist counterpart in the Palestinian response to armed colonists (who used force wherever possible to drive Palestinians from the land). Not even spontaneous riots, expressing pent up Palestinian rage at the steady theft of their land, were directed at Jews as such.

Courting Imperial Favor

In 1896, Theodor Herzl set forth his plan for inducing the Ottoman Empire to grant Palestine to the Zionist movement:

Supposing his Majesty the Sultan were to give us Palestine; we could, in return, undertake to regulate the finances of Turkey. We should there form an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism. [16]

By 1905, the Seventh World Zionist Congress had to acknowledge that the Palestinian people were organizing a political movement for national independence from the Ottoman Empire � a threat not merely to Turkish rule but to Zionist designs.

Speaking at this Congress, Max Nordau, a prominent Zionist leader, set forth Zionist concerns:

The movement which has taken hold of a great part of the Arab people may easily take a direction which may cause harm in Palestine. ...The Turkish government may feel itself compelled to defend its reign in Palestine and Syria with armed force. ...In these circumstances, Turkey can be convinced that it will be important for her to have in Palestine and Syria a strong and well-organized group which ... will resist any attack on the authority of the Sultan and defend his authority with all its might.

As the Kaiser undertook to forge an alliance with Turkey as part of his contest with Britain and France for control of the Middle East, the Zionist movement made similar overtures to Imperial Germany. The Kaiser took nearly ten years in his on-and-off dealings with the Zionist leadership to formulate a plan for a Jewish state under ottoman auspices which would have as its principal task the eradication of the Palestinian anti-colonial resistance and the securing of the interests of Imperial Germany in the region.

By 1914, however, the World Zionist Organization was already far advanced in its parallel bid to enlist the British Empire to undertake the break-up of the Ottoman Empire with Zionist assistance. Chaim Weizmann, who was to become president of the World Zionist Organization, made an important public announcement:

We can reasonably say that should Palestine fall within the British sphere of influence, and should Britain encourage Jewish settlement there, as a British dependency, we could have in twenty to thirty years a million Jews out there, perhaps more; they would develop the country, bring back civilization to it and form a very effective guard for the Suez Canal.

Source: http://www.marxists.de/middleast/schoenman/ch02.htm

**imported_Armenian** · 08-20-2005, 02:40 PM

Jewish Role within the Armenian Genocide

The Planned, Organized, Executed Genocide Of Armenians

By Jack Manuelian
3-27-5

Were the plans of the 1915-23 Armenian Genocide actually drawn up and were in place by the year 1910 or 1912? According to some sources, definitely yes.

There is the book Inner Folds of the Ottoman Revolution written by Mevlan Zadeh Rifat and published in 1929, the author, a pro-sultan Turk, claims that the "Armenian genocide was decided in August 1910 and October 1911, by a Young Turk committee composed entirely of displaced Balkan Jews in the format of a syncretist Jewish-Muslim sect which included Talaat, Enver, Behaeddin Shakir, Jemal, and Nizam posting as Muslims. It met in the Rothschild-funded Grand Orient loge/hotel of Salonika." Syncretism means a combination of different forms of belief or practice; masonism fits that description.

A 1994 conference paper/lecture by Joseph Brewda of Schiller Institute entitled Palmerson launches Young Turks to permanently control Middle East claims the founder of the Young Turks to be a certain Jew by the name of Emmanuel Carasso. He states: "Carasso set up the Young Turk secret society in the 1890s in Salonika, then part of Turkey, and now part of Greece. Carasso was also the grand master of an Italian masonic lodge there, called 'Macedonia Resurrected.' The lodge was the headquarters of the Young Turks, and all the top Young Turk leadership were members."

Further on Mr. Brewda says: "During the Young Turk regime, Carasso continued to play a leading role. He met with the sultan, to tell him that he was overthrown. He was in charge of putting the sultan under house arrest. He ran the Young Turk intelligence network in the Balkans. And he was in charge of all food supplies in the empire during World War I." It is ironic that five centuries after the Turkish sultans welcomed the expelled European Jews into Turkey, certain Jews belonging to secret societies and to Zionism will kick the sultans out of power early in 20th century, destroy the Ottoman Empire, and celebrate their victory by massacring by proxy almost the whole Christian Armenian people, one million and half Armenians; half million Greeks; and half million Christian Assyrians & Arameans.

Mr. Brewda writes: "Another important area was the press. While in power, the Young Turks ran several newspapers, including 'The Young Turk,' whose editor was none other than the Russian Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky. Jabotinsky had been educated as a young man in Italy."

Mr. Brewda, ignoring the possibility that Talaat could have been a secret infiltrated Jew, writes: "Of course, there were also some Turks who helped lead the Young Turk movement. For example, Talaat Pasha. Talaat was the interior minister and dictator of the regime during World war I. He had been a member of Carasso's Italian masonic lodge in Salonika. One year prior to the 1908 coup, Talaat became the grand master of the Scottish Rite Masons in the Ottoman Empire. If you go to the [archives of] Scottish Rite headquarters in Washington, D.C., you can find that most of the Young Turk leaders were officials in the Scottish Rite."

Mr. Brewda also mentions the novel Greenmantle, whose hero is a British spy who led the Young Turks, and that the book's author, John Buchan, later identified the novel's hero as the English nobleman Aubrey Herbert, who was the top British spy master in the Middle East during WW I. And that Lawrence of Arabia later identified Herbert as having been, at one time, the head of the Young Turks. According to Mr. Brewda, Carasso also appears in that novel under the name Carusso.

By 1916 the British and French, overpowered by greed, already had a secret agreement to divide the Ottoman Empire between themselves. Presently Hitler's Mien Kempt anti-semitic book is a best-seller in Turkey, it is published by various Turkish publishers by the thousands and thousands. Are the Turks finally waking up and realizing that their Sultan's refusal to grant Palestine to the Zionist Jews as a homeland had cost them their centuries- old empire?

Talaat was a living witness to the Genocide and history. He should not have been assassinated. His silencing for good by hot-tempered Armenians only served those who planned and executed the Genocide. Had he been left alone, who knows he might have confessed everything at his old age or at his deathbed.

Another conspiratorial source is the lengthy article The Armenian & Jewish Genocide Project: Eliminating Ethnic Conflict Along the Oil Route From Baku to the Suez Canal Region written by Clifford Shack and posted in his web-site.

Mr. Shack writes: "In the 1880's, the French branch of the Rothschild family acquired interests in Russia's Baku oil fields in an effort to supply their refinery on the Adriatic with cheap Russian oil. In exchange for these interests they built a railroad linking Baku to the newly acquired Black Sea port of Batum. This opened up the Baku oil, a major world supply, to the world. With the success of the new railroad, the Rothschilds had more oil than they could actually sell. Overcoming their fear of competing with the giant Standard oil [of USA], they sought out the huge [Far East] markets east of Suez."

[...]

Mr. Shack notes that "the mere elimination of the Armenian population of Baku would not solve the problem of ethnic conflict in that region. The surrounding areas would provide reservoir effect in resupplying the conflicting minority element." And he asks: "was the removal [in 1915-23] of a small minority like the Armenians [from historical Armenia] a fair price to pay for the peace in a region so crucial to the development and investment of the Far East?" Apparently Mr. Shack ignores the factor of revenge raging in the heart of human beasts.

Mr. Shacks answers his own question by stating in his article about the big business or big corporations: "It would be fair to say that the genocide of a group of a million or so, to serve the benefit of a billion or so [in the Far East], is less of a question of should it be done, than how it could be done. So as not to reveal any plausible motive which could link the actual planners to the genocide, the scheme involved a proxy party [namely the muslim Turks, Kurds & Azeris] , which was manipulated through layers of influence, providing sufficient cover for the planners."

The fool said in his ignorance, "There was no planned and organized and executed genocide of the Armenians."

In chapter 30 of the book of Isaiah, we read God speaking by His prophet: "Woe to the rebellious children, who execute a plan, but not Mine, and make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, in order to add sin to sin;...For this is a rebellious people, false sons, sons who refuse to listen to the instruction of the Lord."

March 27, 2005
Jack Manuelian

Source: http://www.rense.com/general63/armen.htm

**imported_anoush** · 08-21-2005, 10:24 AM

The Young Turks: Who Were They?

During the last quarter of the 19th century, the Near East Question passed into its critical phase. As a result of the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78, the Ottoman Empire lost extensive territory mainly in the Balkans where the "autonomous" states of Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Herzegovina passed into the de facto administrative sphere of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Thessaly and the prefecture of Artas were ceded to Greece, and in Asia, Russia annexed the territories of Kars and Ardachan in Turkish Armenia. In Africa, the English claimed Egypt, and the French Tunisia, while the Italians did not bother to conceal their territorial ambitions toward Tripoli. Meanwhile, the dissident movements in Crete, Armenia, and Macedonia were beginning to reach worrisome levels for the Turkish Sultanate.

One of the first real threats to the Ottoman Throne was a hard-core, conspiratorial group that formed in 1889 among the students of the Military Medical School in Constantinople. The dissatisfaction, though, was widespread throughout the entire military, and had to do with what might be considered today to be union demands: low wages that were paid sporadically and after months of waiting, a promotion system that was torturously slow and not based on merit but on connections, and a cynical disappointment engendered by the promised but never actualized modernization of the military. The main motivating factor in the ever-widening discontent, however, was an agony and concern over the independence of the Turkish State and how best to ensure its continuance. Added to this, and of equal concern, was the problem having to do with the welfare and perpetuation of the Muslim populations living among the many other ethnicities within the Empire.

The conspiratorial leadership, who came to be known as the Young Turks, expressed their dissatisfaction with the status quo, throwing all of the blame on the Sultan, Abdul Hamit, who they proclaimed to be too dictatorial. They demanded his exile -- though not the abolishment of the Sultanate -- together with the restoration of the constitution of 1876.

Union and Progress

The Young Turk movement -- after many mishaps and near dissolution -- finally achieved it first goal. In early July of 1908, led by the officer-members of the Committee of Union and Progress (Itih�t v� Terak�), the Turkish troops stationed in Macedonia refused to obey orders coming from Constantinople. The Young Turks then sent a telegraphed ultimatum to the Sultan from Serres on the 21st of July. They demanded the immediate restoration and implementation of the constitution, and threatened him with dethronement should he fail to comply. On the 24th of July, Abdul Hamit announced that the constitution had been restored and was in full force and effect.

The subsequent mid-20th century overthrow of King Farouk in Egypt by the Nasserite revolutionaries bears some striking similarities to the Young Turk movement. There are, however, some very striking differences as well. Some of these are: 1) the diverse ethnic background of the conspirators; 2) the significant and crucial role played by the allied movement of fellow-conspirators known as the Donm� (Jews who had converted [?] to Islam); and, 3) the enthusiastic way in which the conspiracy was embraced by Masonic elements.

As far as the multiethnic composition of the conspirators is concerned, one need only read their names to verify their diverse background: Tserk�s (Circassion ), Mehmet Ali, Xersekli (Herzogovinians), Ali Roushdi, Kosovali (Kosovars) and others. In many cases, the ethnic origin of the conspirator was not evident from the name: Ibrahim Temo was an Albanian, as was Ismail Kemal. Murat Bey Dagestanos and Achmet Riza had an Arkhazian father and an Austrian mother. One of the theoreticians of the movement was Ziyia Ngiokali, a Kurd, while one of the major planners of tactics and theory was a Jew from Serres who went by the name of Tek�n Al� (real name, Moshe Cohen).

The telegraph-office clerk who became one of the ruling troika of post-revolutionary Turkey, Tala�t Pasha, was Bosnian, Pomack, or Gypsy; the point being that he was not a Turk. We should also make note of the fact that the Committee of Union and Progress admitted many members from areas outside of the Ottoman Empire, and that some of these even served on its Central Committee.

Masonic elements

The strong connection between the Itih�ts (conspirators) and Masonry is a well-documented fact. The leftist Turkish writer, Kamouran Mberik Xartboutlou, in his book, The Turkish Impasse ( from the Greek translation of the French publication of 1974. p.24), wrote: "Those who desired entry into the inner circle of that secret organization [the Itih�t], had to be a Mason, and had to have the backing of a large segment of the commercial class." The true nature of the relationship between the Young Turks and the Masonic lodges of Thessaloniki has been commented upon by many researchers and writers. In her well-known and extensively documented book, Secret Societies and Subversive Movements (London. 1928, p. 284), author and historian Nesta Webster writes that "The Young Turk movement began in the Masonic lodges of Thessaloniki under the direct supervision of the Grand Orient Lodge of Italy, which later shared in the success of Mustapha Kemal."

Of course, the precise nature of this relationship is clouded in mystery, but enough facts exist allowing for more than just informed conjecture based on circumstantial evidence. An example of the Itih�t-Masonic connection is the interview that Young Turk, Refik Bey, gave to the Paris newspaper Le Temps, on the 20th of August 1908: "It's true that we receive support from Freemasonry and especially from Italian Masonry. The two Italian lodges [of Thessaloniki] -- Macedonia Risorta and Labor et Lux -- have provided invaluable services and have been a refuge for us. We meet there as fellow Masons, because it is a fact that many of us are Masons, but more importantly we meet so that we can better organize ourselves."

The Jewish Component

The Donm� ("convert" in Turkish), was a Hebrew heresy whose followers converted [?] to Islam in the 18th century. They were most heavily concentrated in Thessaloniki. According to the Great Hellenic Encyclopedia [Megali Elliniki Enkiklopethia]: "It is generally accepted that the Donm� secretly continue to adhere to the Hebrew religion and don't allow their kind to intermarry with the Muslims."

The disproportionate power and influence (in light of their number) that the Donm� had on both the Ottoman Empire and on the Young Turk movement has been the subject of a great deal of commentary by many observers and researchers. The eminent British historian, R. Seton Watson, in his book, The Rise of Nationality in the Balkans. London, 1917 (H Gennisi tou Ethnikismou sta Valkania), wrote the following: "The real brains behind the [Itih�t] movement were Jews or Islamic-Jews. The wealthy Donm� and Jews of Thessaloniki supported [the Young Turks] economically, and their fellow Jewish capitalists in Vienna and Berlin -- as well as in Budapest and possibly Paris and London -- supported them financially as well.

In the January 23rd, 1914, issue of the Czarist Police [Okrana] Ledger (Number 16609), directed to the Ministry of the Exterior in Saint Petersburg, we read: "A pan-Islamic convention of Itih�ts and Jews was held in the Nouri Osman lodge in Constantinople. It was attended by approximately 700 prominent Itih�ts and Jews, including "Minister" Tala�t Bey, Bentri Bey, Mbekri Bey, and (Donm�) Javit Bey. Among the many Jews in attendance, two of the most prominent were the Head of the Security Service, Samouel Effendi, and the Vice-Administrator of the Police, Abraham Bey."

Donm� and Constantine

The numerous Donm� in positions of authority within the machinery of the Itih�t government, as well as on the powerful Central Committee, strengthens the conviction that their influence was widespread and vital to the cause. Ignoring the names mentioned in the Czarist Police Ledger, and even ignoring such Jews as the fanatical Pan-Turkic [Marxist revolutionary and poet, Hikmet] Nazim, or even the many casual allusions [as if it were common knowledge at the time] to the Jewish descent of that most dedicated believer in the Young Turk movement, Mustapha Kemal "Atat�rk," one still finds oneself wondering by what authority and under whose auspices was such an obscure Jewish Donm� from Thessaloniki, by the name of Emmanouel Karasso, able to become a member of the three-man committee that announced his dethronement to Sultan Abdul Hamit after the counter-coup of April 1909?

Compelling, too, is the widely-referenced document which states that Constantine, the King of Greece at the time, characterized the entire Young Turk movement as composed of "Israelites." According to the facts presented in her book, Glory and Partisanship, the Greek professor of the University of Vienna, Polychroni Enepekithi, contends that Constantine made that characterization while complaining to the German Ambassador in Athens about the outrages committed by Young Turks against Hellenes living in the Ottoman Empire.

These references to the relationship between the Donm�, the Masons, and the Young Turks has not been prompted by anti-Semitism or Masonophobia. Rather, we are attempting to shed some light on what to us seems like a puzzling paradox in this revolutionary movement, which is: Why it is that this non-Turkish leadership struggled so hard under the banner of justice for the Turkish people? Also, why is it that others, having nothing to do with Sunnite Islam [the form of Islam practiced in Turkey] struggled equally hard under the banner of justice for Islam? The only answer to this paradox demands that we consider that there may have been another reason behind their fervid struggle, and that this unstated cause is what bound these "ideologues" together.

Source Nemesis. by Ioasif Kassesian. September 2001. pp. 64-66.Translated by staff. Emphasis added.

스포츠토토 배팅 적중률 높히는 방법 - grecoreport

http://www.grecoreport.com/the_young_turks_who_were_they.htm

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**imported_Armenian** · 08-21-2005, 11:19 AM

Anoush, thank you for the post. But we need to realize that the blame for the Armenian Genocide can't be placed only upon Turks, Jews or Zionism. The entire western world, especially Germany, England and France needs to be blamed as well. However, I have to agree that the Jewish factor within the Armenian Genocide is the least talked about.

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