Turkish Articles About Armenian Genocide

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Armenians commemorate anniversary of 1915 events

Armenians commemorate anniversary of 1915 events

The New Anatolian / Ankara with agencies



Demonstrators marched in Yerevan, Armenia on Sunday to commemorate the Armenians who died during 1915 as a result of forced deportation and ethnic conflict in the Ottoman Empire.

The Armenian diaspora also took to the streets in various cities in the U.S. and several capitals in Europe over the weekend demanding recognition for the so-called genocide claims, while the Turkish and Azerbaijani diaspora held counter-demonstrations.
Over the weekend New York's Times Square played host to Turkish counter-demonstrations. Turks living in the U.S. organized a rally entitled "End to Armenian Lies."

Many Turks, including Turkey's Consul General to New York Omer Onhon and Turkish Americans, attended the demonstration held by the Federation of Turkish-American Associations (FTAA) and Association of Young Turks. "This march is Turkish society's reaction to the constant repetition of the Armenians' baseless allegations," said Onhon.

In related news, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in a letter to Armenian diaspora members, backed the genocide claims.

"In recent years the Canadian Senate adopted a motion acknowledging the period as 'the first genocide of the 20th century,' while the House of Commons adopted a motion that 'acknowledges the Armenian "genocide" of 1915 and condemns this act as a crime against humanity.' My party and I supported those resolutions and continue to recognize them today," Harper said.

Ankara and Yerevan are at odds over the Armenian claims of genocide. To break the deadlock, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last year suggested the establishment of a committee of Turkish and Armenian historians to study the claims, in a letter sent to Armenian President Robert Kocharian. But Kocharian refused Erdogan's proposal, saying that the two countries must first establish diplomatic relations and that committees could be formed only within the process of normalization of relations.

[Gavur]

From Where Should we Start the Armenian Issue?

SELCUK GULTASLI
06.01.2006 Thursday - ISTANBUL 09:37



From where should we start and what should we do regarding the “genocide” issue, which has become a tool in the hands of the enemies of Turks, Muslims and xenophobics, as Ara Sarafian, a British historian of Armenian origin, aptly points out? Should we feel relieved over the postponement of the French bill to punish the deniers of the Armenian “genocide” or should we feel the need for a fresh look at 1915? I support the second opinion.


It does not take long for people who live abroad to “crash” into the dimensions of the Armenian issue. Everybody has certain memories that he/she cannot forget and feels himself/herself “caught red-handed.” I also have a story:

I was waiting for the green light several years ago. An old lady, about 80 years old, glaring with her elegance asked in French: “Could you please help me if you are getting across?” It is something very common in Brussels. Europeans are getting alone as they get older. Elderly ask the young to help them while they are counting money in the market or crossing the road. I told the old lady that I would help her with great pleasure and asked her if we could continue in English. With a perfect English, she replied jokingly, “how happy I am with such a handsome man” and asked me if I were English. When the green light was on and we began our very short journey across the road, I said, “No, I am Turkish.”

The old woman forcefully pulled her arm with incredible quickness and shockingly said, “I am Armenian and you are our enemies.” I was trying to figure out what she meant and mumbled, “I like Armenians as I like all human beings. Why should we be enemies?” The old woman had already walked several steps ahead, repeating her hatred for Turks, which was enough to understand that it was impossible to continue the talk. I told her I could take her wherever she wanted to go but she refused politely.

As a rule, after such shocking incidents one starts to do further reading about the events and what follows is the melting of your mindset.

Leaving aside funny arguments such as, “It was the Armenians who actually committed the genocide against us,” or “Armenians died of an epidemic,” one has to accept that in 1915, Armenians, then Ottoman citizens, were subjected to oppression and one has to show respect for the loss of Armenian lives. Even Professor Guenter Lewy, who has become a target for the Armenian Diaspora with the claim of being pro-Turkish, put the Armenian death toll at 642,000. It is in vain to fight the Armenian Diaspora without acknowledging the great sorrow of Armenians; under these circumstances, it is impossible to find even a single serious interlocutor in the West.

Acknowledging the suffering will provide an opportunity to utter few meaningful words about the massacres by Armenian gangs, their siding with the invading Russian army and the joy of the Western world while Muslims were being forced out by a genocidal campaign from the Balkans and above everything the heinous campaign by those who aim to clean their conscious over Turkey but refuse to face their own history.

As one starts looking at the issue from a right point of view, one has to break another taboo. It is the notion that Muslims, Kurds and Alevis have vowed to destroy Turkey. I vividly remember the desperation of diplomats when they listened to General Tuncer Kilinc, the former Secretary-General of the National Security Council, when he begun his speech by insulting women with headscarves. Although the general’s trip to Brussels was meant to build unity, he only left ruins behind. If statesmen themselves begin to categorize the Turks in Europe, then tomorrow, you will not find anyone to defend the country and then you will have to insult your own people time and again. There is dire need for the kind of ambassadors who regard themselves as representatives of all the people in Turkey, whether they are Muslims, Kurds or Alewites, but definitely not the kind of people who transfer the headscarf ban of President Ahmet Necdet Sezer to Europe.

As long as the parrot mindset gives answers to Muslims “Turkey is secular, and will remain secular!” to Kurds “You are mountainous Turks,” and to the Armenians “You died of typhus” there will be no remedy to our woes. Just as we respect the dear remains of our people who gave their blood in the Balkans, in the Caucasus and in Yemen, we have to feel the suffering of the Armenians. Only the, we can begin the fight against the genocide plot.


May 30, 2006



05.31.2006


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