The Armenian archives issue

[GreekForumer]

Time and time again, Turks online bring up the line "Armenia won't open their archives. They must be hiding something".

For me the rebuttal is obvious.
1. There was no Armenian state in 1915 to generate archives.
2. If the archives they are referring to are the ones belonging to Armenian political parties (Dashnaks), then the Turks should open the archives of the CUP and the "Special Organisation".

A Turk might counter that these Turkish archives are open. How true is that ?

Is it true the CUP archives are incomplete and cleansed and the "Special Organisation" archives were torched ?

Is there a rebuttal that will put this issue to an end ?

[Alexandros]

Re: The Armenian archives issue

Even if Armenia did open the archives it wouldn`t change anything. There might and let me repeat that, there might - but it doesn`t necessarily have to be so - be some dirty things that Armenia wants to hide but the foreign archives are enough to prove that there was a Genocide against the Armenians. In fact, even the prime ministerial archives in Istanbul shows clearly the intent of Genocide against the Armenians according to the Turkish Prof. Taner Akcam.

This is just another attempt by Turkey to put the blame on Armenia. We have seen this before.

[GreekForumer]

Re: The Armenian archives issue

Alexandros, I agree with you but Turks online use this archives issue time and time again in debates. From my point of view, the archives issue is nothing but a red herring. If anyone's hiding archives, it's the Turks. Where are the CUP and Special Organisation archives ? Are they complete or cleansed ?

[Joseph]

Re: The Armenian archives issue

Alexandros, I agree with you but Turks online use this archives issue time and time again in debates. From my point of view, the archives issue is nothing but a red herring. If anyone's hiding archives, it's the Turks. Where are the CUP and Special Organisation archives ? Are they complete or cleansed ?

Most likely cleansed though it has also been noticed that their are thousands of documents in the archives that have yet to be catalouged. Additionally, they are written in Ottoman script and only a few can really decipher what they say. Vahakh Dadrian's latest project is the translation of the Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919-20 from Ottoman Turkish to English. He is one of the few.

[GreekForumer]

Re: The Armenian archives issue

What about the Special Organisation (Teşkîlât-ı Mahsûsa) archives, Joseph ?

[Joseph]

Re: The Armenian archives issue

What about the Special Organisation (Teşkîlât-ı Mahsûsa) archives, Joseph ?

Not sure about the extent of information about the organization in the Turkish archives although Taner Akcam, Haili Berktay, Dadrian and other have found quite bit

http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/online_exhibition_9.php

http://www.atour.com/~aahgn/news/20001101c.html

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v23/n03/mark-mazower/the-g-word

[Alexandros]

Re: The Armenian archives issue

More links:

The Executions of Some of the Arch-perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide by the Ittihadists and Kemalists, 1915-1926

by Prof. Vahakn N. Dadrian - Armenian News Network / Groong - December 12, 2000

Posted: Wednesday, December 13, 2000 08:15 am CST

---

Topal Osman. Milice Colonel. A veteran guerilla from the days of the 1912-1913 twin Balkan wars, Osman during the war operated in the eastern border regions, as a Special Organization brigand (chétté). He too repeatedly had bragged about his murder missions against the Armenians. After the war he too joined the Kemalist insurgents and in the process organized extensive massacres against Greek populations in the Trabzon area as reprisal, as well as against clusters of surviving Armenians. He eventually was awarded by Mustapha Kemal with the position of Chief of the Personal Guard Contingent with duties to protect M. Kemal. But he incurred the wrath of the Kemalist Deputies in the fledgling Parliament in Ankara when he lured a deputy to his home and out of spite strangled him. He was killed during an exchange of gunfire with military units trying to capture him, and his corpse was subsequently hanged in front of the Parliament in March 1923.

---

http://www.atour.com/~aahgn/news/20001213f.html

Bibliography of the Publications

of Vahakn N. Dadrian

http://www.armenian-genocide.org/bib...ian_biblio.htm

H-GERMAN BOOK REVIEWS 13 APRIL 1997

Vahakn N. Dadrian, 'German Responsibility in the Armenian Genocide: A Review of the Historical Evidence of German Complicity'.

REVIEWED BY MEREDITH HINDLEY

http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin...er/hindley.htm

The Key Distortions and Falsehoods in the Denial of the Armenian Genocide.
(A Response to the Memorandum of the Turkish Ambassador)

Prepared by the Zoryan Institute

Revised August 1999

http://www.zoryaninstitute.org/Genoc...istortions.htm

CHILDREN AS VICTIMS OF GENOCIDE:

THE ARMENIAN CASE

VAHAKN DADRIAN

http://www.sci.am/downloads/musgen/Issues_07.pdf

[GreekForumer]

Re: The Armenian archives issue

Not sure about the extent of information about the organization in the Turkish archives although Taner Akcam, Haili Berktay, Dadrian and other have found quite bit

http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/online_exhibition_9.php

http://www.atour.com/~aahgn/news/20001101c.html

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v23/n03/mark-mazower/the-g-word

Joseph,
from your Berktay link...

The provincial governors and garrison commanders were directed to deport the Armenians to the region south of Turkey's current borders. However, it's clear that, in addition to these official orders, separate, non-written orders were given to the most rapacious members of the `Teskilat-i Mahsusa' (`Special Organization'), who worshipped violence and were not bound by adherence to any normal moral code.