government decree for deportation.

[eticrax]

Re: government decree for deportation.

Excuse me, bell-the-cat, but this book sold thousands of copies the first time around and has been selling USED on Amazon.com for anywhere from $175 to $1600 per copy! My publisher, however, neglected to pay my royalties. I had a bomb threat when publication of the book was announced and was harrassed because of this book--just do a search of the Washington Post for 1991 or New York Times for 1990 and you can find out about it. I lost my business, had to leave my home and my friends, as did my family. The FBI and police investigated and recommended we move--they couldn't protect us, they said.

There are times that reprinting makes sense--and I am not an academic. Other people do read books and many people have asked me where they can buy copies.

The original of this copy of the deportation proclamation is in the National Archives, Record Group 59--go take a look. I know cats like to snooze, but sometimes a little effort is worth it. Cats also are supposed to enjoy exploring and you might be surprised what you could learn with a little detective work in the National Archives.

Seriously, we just bought a new scanner and I will scan it soon.

Go ahead, "reprint" another "document" with your new printer. Why do you produce that much fake documents since most of the world already believe you without documents? What is the reason of this effort? Why don't you confess to yourselves that many documents that you previously showed as the evidence of genocide is proved as fake?

[bell-the-cat]

Re: government decree for deportation.

Excuse me, bell-the-cat, but this book sold thousands of copies the first time around and has been selling USED on Amazon.com for anywhere from $175 to $1600 per copy!

Then I've just missed a serious bargain on ebay.

There was a reprinted copy of "The Slaughterhouse Province" that I saw on sale about 2 weeks ago with a reserve of $25. I didn't take much notice since I assumed that it was just one of those recent reprints that the Gomidas Institute have been publishing and I could always get a copy at a later date. But, checking their website right now, I see that Gomidas have not reprinted that particular book. So it must have been yours from the 1990s.

Apologies for my original posting - I had actually assumed that you were in some way connected to Gomidas, whose recent publications, although valuable in themselves, would be far more valuable if they were part of an online library, accessible to anyone at no charge.

2006 isn't 1990 - which is good in some ways, bad in others! But it is good as far as electronic publishing goes. Or if you want to have something physical to sell - convert it to pdf files, put it on cd or dvd, and manufacture them on demand.

[Historian]

Re: government decree for deportation.

Go ahead, "reprint" another "document" with your new printer. Why do you produce that much fake documents since most of the world already believe you without documents? What is the reason of this effort? Why don't you confess to yourselves that many documents that you previously showed as the evidence of genocide is proved as fake?

Please read more carefully.

The book I did contains a collection of documents from the United States National Archives that I found back in the 1980s while doing research there on another topic. I am not Armenian, but what I have seen in archives convinced me that the genocide perpetrated against the Armenian inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire was horribly real.

There are official documents on the Armenian genocide in the archives of every nation that was neutral in World War I in 1915, and in the German archives--and remember Germany was the OE's ally. It was actually a German diplomat who said in 1915 that the Ottoman empire's goal was "the extermination of the Armenian race." He used the German word "Vernichtung."

The Turkish government did not deny the Armenian genocide for many years after it happened. Attaturk spoke openly about it. Everyone knew it happened during his time.

It was obviously a political measure. Modern Turkey would have a lot less territory if most of what was historically Armenia--before the Turks arrived from Central Asia--became an independent country as was outlined in the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I. The Ottoman Empire had already lost the Balkans, the Crimea, and North Africa. The OE leaders at the time didn't want to lose ancient Armenia in particular because its loss would have cut them off from the Arab-populated territories of Syria, Palestine, and what is today Iraq and the Saudi Arabian peninsula.

It is interesting that Armenians and Kurds outnumbered Turks in that area at the time World War I began. Had those areas become part of Armenia, how would the Kurdish question have played out?

Seriously, since there are Armenians and Turks on this forum, why not use this opportunity to open a rational dialogue? Name calling achieves nothing beyond making the name-caller feel good.

Here are several of the key issues, the first of which may well be the most important to most Armenians in the world. Obviously, since I'm neither Turkish nor Armenian, my opinion doesn't count for much, but I really would like to see a resolution to a situation that hampers both Turkey and Armenia.

1. Admission by the current government of Turkey that the Armenian genocide happened.

2. Property confiscated from Armenians in 1915--that thorny reparations question.

3. Territory. Should the Treaty of Versailles boundaries be restored to Armenia, and if so, how could an area now populated by Turks and Kurds be administered so the population would be safe?

4. Maintenance of historic Armenian buildings and cemeteries now in Turkey.

Numbers one and four would be relatively easy to implement. Two and three pose difficulties.

Realistically, item two poses a problem in terms of documenting who owned what in 1915. In all probability, the United States would wind up footing the reparations bill if such a thing were ever negotiated as will probably happen with the Palestinians. A per-person reparations payment to each Armenian descended from an inhabitant of what was western Armenia who was forced from their home during the 1915-1923 period would be one way of handling this.

As far as territory is concerned, Turkey obviously would not want to give up the land, even given the fact that its largely Kurdish inhabitants are a source of concern to Ankara. These are some thoughts on the subject.

Reparations could include compensation for land.

Areas of particular interest to Armenians are Mount Ararat and the Lake Van region due to their historical importance. After items one and four are implemented, tensions between the two countries would diminish over time. Perhaps a long-term treaty could be negotiated between Turkey and Armenia under which these areas could be freely visited by Armenians. Perhaps one day Armenians could live comfortably and safely in these areas.

It will take decades for this situation to be resolved.

It would obviously be unfair to punish today's citizens of Turkey for something that some of their ancestors perpetrated. Likewise, it is unfair to Armenians to deny the genocide for reasons of political or economic expediency.

Can't everyone work toward a solution rather than continuing the recrimination?

[Historian]

Re: government decree for deportation.

Then I've just missed a serious bargain on ebay.

There was a reprinted copy of "The Slaughterhouse Province" that I saw on sale about 2 weeks ago with a reserve of $25. I didn't take much notice since I assumed that it was just one of those recent reprints that the Gomidas Institute have been publishing and I could always get a copy at a later date. But, checking their website right now, I see that Gomidas have not reprinted that particular book. So it must have been yours from the 1990s.

Apologies for my original posting - I had actually assumed that you were in some way connected to Gomidas, whose recent publications, although valuable in themselves, would be far more valuable if they were part of an online library, accessible to anyone at no charge.

2006 isn't 1990 - which is good in some ways, bad in others! But it is good as far as electronic publishing goes. Or if you want to have something physical to sell - convert it to pdf files, put it on cd or dvd, and manufacture them on demand.

apology accepted--and I'm sorry you missed the bargain.

Perhaps I should just put everything on CD as you say.

I'm not related to Gomidas Publishing in any way. They have reprinted many documents from the National Archives, which is a valuable task.

But as you say, since these documents are in the public domain, it would be great to have them available on the Internet.

I don't know if the National Archives is working on that.

[bell-the-cat]

Re: government decree for deportation.

apology accepted--and I'm sorry you missed the bargain.

Perhaps I should just put everything on CD as you say.

I'm not related to Gomidas Publishing in any way. They have reprinted many documents from the National Archives, which is a valuable task.

But as you say, since these documents are in the public domain, it would be great to have them available on the Internet.

I don't know if the National Archives is working on that.

I don't know what the book finally sold for, so maybe it wasn't a bargain by the end of the auction!

I heard a news report recently that google are scanning a lot of books and making them available online free of charge - but they are mostly concentrating on recent books (much to the annoyance of authors since they are doing it without getting their permission first).

It's not that difficult to scan a book using ocr software. Most books are electronically typeset these days anyway, I think. So you would need to have a digital copy even for a physical reprint on paper.
But I've never converted one to pdf files so I don't know how accurate or easy it is to do - I guess you would need to do it chapter by chapter to keep the file sizes down.

[Fadix3]

Re: government decree for deportation.

Hi Susan, I know your story, I do have all Leslie Davis reports of that book except one in one of my digitized collections, I could probably find it, but don't expect this denialist to change his view just because he would read them.

About your publisher not having pied your loyalties, did you thought of taking legal actions? I do understand that due to the situation and the fact that you became anonymous he could have always claimed that since you had no 'identity' it was impossible to pay loyalties but I am sure that there must be some solutions.

About gomidas, it is totally lasiness to mostly edit memoirs from others to make money out of it, when the place of such memoirs is on the web.

I indeed already started collecting them to place them on the internet, but now I am engaged to Wikipedia and will contribute there. On the internet, there is only one website that exist that has collections of such writtings and works to the measure of the tragedy, but it is in French, the authors are very professional in gathering their information. http://www.imprescriptible.fr/

Regards

[TomServo]

Re: government decree for deportation.

Not you again...