ANKARA: 'I am a Denier, too'

[Gavur]

Zaman, Turkey
May 13 2006

'I am a Denier, too'

SAHIN ALPAY
05.13.2006 Saturday - ISTANBUL 19:53



On May 18, the French National Assembly is expected to start debating
the draft law that stipulates prison sentences for those who deny
that the tragedy that befell the Ottoman Armenians in 1915 - 1916 was
a `genocide."

If the law is enacted, France will become the second country after
Switzerland to impose prison sentences on those who do not agree to
the `Armenian genocide" claim. Belgium may soon join them. The only
thing that can be said about the decisions to recognize the `Armenian
genocide' by countries ranging from France and Belgium to Lebanon and
Uruguay, whose number has risen to 20 with Canada recently joining
them, is expressed by French historians who issued a declaration
entitled "Freedom for History": "Writing of history is not the duty
of parliaments..." If the parliamentarians of these countries have
concluded that it is appropriate to recognize "the Armenian
genocide," this is an issue that has to be assessed in the context of
the domestic and foreign policies of the countries concerned. As for
the criminalization of the "denial of the Armenian genocide", on the
other hand, a number of things can be said.

The first point I would like to make is that such a ban constitutes a
gross violation of one of the most fundamental principles of liberal
democracy the European Union and the Council of Europe want to
consolidate in all their member states. Such a ban does not at all
becoming of France, the country of Voltaire who famously said, "I
disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right
to say it." Punishing those who claim `there was no Armenian
genocide" in Switzerland, France or in other countries is,
undoubtedly, as serious a violation of the freedom of expression as
punishing those in Turkey who claim that "Ottoman Armenians were
victims of genocide" for denigrating the Turkish nation. `Hate
speech' aiming to incite enmity against a certain religious or ethnic
group is, surely, incompatible with freedom of expression. No one,
however, who is committed to the ideals of an "Open Society" can
approve of censoring or banning of debates on whether the countless
cases of massacres in history constitute genocide or not, according
to UN Convention or other criteria.

It is not possible to compare what happened to the Jews in Nazi
Germany with what happened to Armenians in the last years of Ottoman
Turkey. Nowhere in the world is there a serious historian who claims
that what the Nazis did to the Jews was not genocide. There is, on
the other hand, no consensus among historians on the question as to
whether or not the Ottoman government ordered the annihilation of its
Armenian subjects. Highly respected Ottoman historians such as
Bernard Lewis and Gilles Veinstein, and the distinguished genocide
studies scholar, Guenter Lewy (in his recently published book which
provides perhaps the most meticulous research on the issue) claim
that "There is no evidence that the Ottoman government intended to
annihilate the Armenian community." It is obvious that the
criminalization of the "denial of the Armenian genocide" will have no
other consequence than helping prevent the clarification of the
question as to what happened in 1915 - 1916, sharpening enmities, and
provoking ethnic nationalisms. It is, therefore, necessary that even
those who are convinced about the `Armenian genocide' oppose the
criminalization of views to the contrary. Otherwise can only be
explained by feelings of enmity and revenge against Turkey and the
Turks.

I have no doubt that a part of the Ottoman security forces was
involved in the massacres of Armenians in 1915-1916. I have also no
doubt that Armenian nationalist gangs provoked the deportations that
resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent
Armenians. I strongly believe humanity requires that the memory of
the massacred Ottoman Armenians has to be respected as well as that
of the Ottoman Turks who were slaughtered by Armenian nationalists. I
am not, however, convinced that the decision of the Ottoman
government for the deportation of Armenians, and the great tragedy
that followed constitutes "genocide." I am, therefore, also a
`denier'. I too, then, can be indicted.

[Mika]

You've got no right to speak about what is right or wrong cause you Gavur are a criminal yourself

[Gavur]

My ancestors were saved by Armenian organizations that had deep roots in Europe.How many did yours save?

[Gavur]

Theres got to be some place left in this world for deniers!
Denying is a habit similar to smoking if you must do it!
Fine but take it outside please.

[Joseph]

Theres got to be some place left in this world for deniers!
Denying is a habit similar to smoking if you must do it!
Fine but take it outside please.

The American missionary Henry Riggs wrote a vivid account of the Armenian Genocide in Kharpert (Harpoot). Completed in 1918, Rev. Riggs's memoir, "Days of Tragedy in Armenia: Personal Experiences in Harpoot, 1915-1917," has now been published by the Gomidas Institute.

"'Days of Tragedy in Armenia' is probably the most detailed local history of the Armenian Genocide written in the English language," said the historian Ara Sarafian, who wrote the introduction to the volume. Rev. Riggs's narrative is the first in the Gomidas Institute's Armenian Genocide Documentation Series, of which Sarafian is general editor.

"This is the story of an engaged observer," Sarafian added. "Rev. Riggs was born in the Ottoman Empire. He spoke Turkish, Armenian, and English. His narrative is based on his personal observations and his conversations with Armenian, Kurdish, and Turkish friends and neighbors, Ottoman officials, other Americans, and foreign nationals. It really is an amazing account."

Rev. Riggs prepared the manuscript in 1918 and it was submitted to a U.S. government commission investigating various aspects of the First World War, including the destruction of Armenian communities in the Ottoman Empire. It has never before been published as a book.

A STATE OF WAR

Rev. Riggs's story begins with the Ottoman Empire's preparations for entering World War I. According to Riggs, the Ottoman government was hardly ready to fight a war in 1914, at least in the Harpoot region.

The Ottoman army confiscated some of the buildings of Euphrates College, the American missionary compound in Harpoot, to house conscripts. The army also took over the Annie Tracy Riggs hospital to care for wounded soldiers. Thus, Riggs had a close-up view of army life in Harpoot and its surroundings.

Through sad and sometimes amusing vignettes, Riggs shows that the army was simply unable to process the enlistment of thousands of Ottoman subjects who heeded the general call to arms. Nor was the army able to adequately feed the soldiers, meet their other basic needs, and care for the wounded. Meanwhile, a language barrier existed between Turkish officers and Kurdish conscripts. Under these circumstances, draft-dodging, desertion, and various forms of corruption were pervasive.

RACE EXTERMINATION

Rev. Riggs describes how ordinary Armenians were rounded up and destroyed by the Ottoman government after June 1915. Riggs observes that these killings were not expected and came as a surprise.

The first convoy of so-called deportees consisted of men. After the men were destroyed, women, children, and the elderly were gathered in convoys and marched out of the city. Riggs describes the systematic way in which individuals were sought out by gendarmes. He also describes the state of innumerable caravans of Armenian exiles from other regions that passed through Harpoot.

Riggs heard the firsthand reports of several reliable eyewitnesses who observed mass graves of Armenians outside Harpoot. These included the local American consul Leslie A. Davis and his colleague Dr. Henry Atkinson. He concluded that the abuses and murder of Armenians were too persistent to be dismissed as simple aberrations of a purportedly benign policy of population transfer.

Rev. Riggs's account is particularly valuable as a historical document because the author provides a great deal of detail and distinguishes what he personally saw, what he was told, and what he thought. Moreover, Riggs's account can be corroborated with several other contemporary sources from Harpoot.

DEFIANT KURDS

Rev. Riggs pays close attention to the Kurdish population of the Dersim region, adjacent to Harpoot. Noting that the relationship of Kurdish tribes in this region with the Ottoman government had long been tenuous, he reports that in the spring of 1916 a Kurdish uprising took place. After suppressing the rebellion, the government began an abortive effort to deport Kurds from the region.

Riggs credits the Dersim Kurds with saving tens of thousands of Armenians by providing them with safe passage to Russia. He writes:

"It was during this period that the hunted Armenians began to flee into the Dersim. To those who knew of the depredations of the Dersim Kurds in the massacres of 1895, this sounds like a strange situation, for then the Kurds were the persecutors of the Armenians. That was, however, as it were, strictly a matter of business, as the Kurds in 1895 were invited to come and plunder the Armenians, and the killing at that time was merely incidental to getting the loot, which forms so large a part of a well-regulated Kurd's income. In 1915, however, there was no loot to be had, for the government took care of that. And when it came to dealing with a defenseless Armenian fugitive, the instinct of the noble savage is to save rather than wantonly to destroy this neighbor against whom he has no grudge (p. 111)."

CLANDESTINE RELIEF

Rev. Riggs and his fellow missionaries did what they could to help the Armenians during the various stages of the genocide. Riggs reports his meetings with the governor, the police chief, and other officials--including the visiting minister of war Enver Pasha, one of the masterminds of the Genocide.

He found the officials indifferent to his pleas. At best, they were willing to make promises they had no intention of keeping. Riggs discusses the various ways he worked around the official restrictions on helping Armenians.

He describes his own efforts to get messages to and from relatives and to transmit money on behalf of Armenians, contrary to the strict instructions of the governor.

After the bulk of the Armenians had been eliminated, Riggs was closely involved in helping the few destitute survivors. Much of the relief work took the form of helping people help themselves. The missionaries were involved in setting up bakeries, textile mills, and the like.
From the Back Cover
Rev. Henry Riggs, an American missionary born in the Ottoman Empire, gives a firsthand account of events in Harpoot (Kharpert) during the fateful days of World War I.

Writing immediately after the events, Riggs relates the story of the destruction his Armenian friends and neighbors within the context of the Ottoman war effort on the Caucasian front. In vivid detail, he describes

* the induction, supply, and training of raw recruits in the Ottoman army

* the systematic way the Armenian Genocide was carried out in Harpoot, and the face-to-face interaction between victim and victimizer

* the deportation of Kurds, the uprising of Kurdish tribes in the Dersim, and the significant role Kurds played in saving tens of thousands of Armenians

* the difficult task of organizing clandestine relief in the heart of the empire

"Days of Tragedy in Armenia" is probably the most detailed local history of the Armenian Genocide written in the English language. Riggs captures, in a forthright style, both tragic and ironic elements of the momentous events he witnessed, and integrates them in a disturbing yet highly readable narrative.

Students of the First World War and the modern Near East will find this volume to be essential reading.

Cover illustrations: Compound of Euphrates College, Harpoot (A Project SAVE photograph, courtesy of Ruth Woodis, Watertown, Massachusetts); American Geographical Society map, "Anatolia and Armenia," [circa 1915].
About the Author
Rev. Riggs was born in Sivas in 1875 to a family of missionaries stationed in the Ottoman Empire. He grew up in the area, traveling to the United States to attend Carleton College in Minnesota and Auburn Seminary. He was president of Euphrates College in Harpoot from 1903 to 1910. After a break, he resumed missionary work in Harpoot in 1912, where he stayed until 1917. He worked as a teacher and evangelist among Armenian refugees in Beirut from 1923 to 1940. Rev. Riggs died in Jerusalem in 1943.
Excerpted from Days of Tragedy in Armenia : Personal Experiences in Harpoot, 1915-1917 (Armenian Genocide Documentation) by Henry H. Riggs. Copyright © 1997. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
In Sabit Bey's Office

The Vali replied very coldly that there was no possibility of changing the order in any way, as it had been sent in just that form from Constantinople. He went on to say, however, that the Armenians had brought this on themselves, and told of reports of disloyalty that had already become current from Van and other places, and told of what he had discovered in Harpoot, saying that weapons and bombs had been found among the Armenians. I said to him, "Is this any reason for condemning to death all of the innocent women and children?" He answered rather indignantly that they were not condemned to death, but to be sent into exile. I spoke of what we had heard of the fate of our professors on the Diarbekir road, and he acknowledged that they had been attacked, as I have already mentioned. "But," he said, "we are going to send all these people very carefully. I am going to furnish them guards who will see to it that no one harms them." I called his attention to the reports that had already begun to come of the massacre and outrage of exiles from other provinces. He replied, "I am not responsible for what may have happened in other provinces, but for this province I am responsible, and I promise you that all of these people will be sent in safety to Ourfa. No one's nose shall bleed on the journey." That Vali, Sabit Bey, without hesitation took upon himself full responsibility for the manner of carrying out the deportation of the people in his province, and the Day of Reckoning will come when he must account for the way he met that responsibility. He was responsible for the miserable suffering or death not only of the vast majority of the Armenians in his own province, but also of scores of thousands of Armenians from northern provinces, who were relatively safe till they entered his province, but within his jurisdiction were massacred wholesale or done to death in ways more cruel than out-and-out massacre.

We raised the question of transportation for this multitude. The Vali replied that the government would provide for this. He said that wagons would be provided for all the families, one or two for each family, so that they might take their household goods with them, and that each person would be provided with an animal to ride. This promise was so absurd on the face of it that it brought us no comfort. No such large supply of animals was in existence in the province, and the military authorities had been so rigorous in commandeering animals that it was exceedingly difficult for a single family with money to spend to get a wagon to travel in. It was manifest that the Vali could not fulfill his promise, and events proved, later, how well-founded were our fears. When the day came for our neighbors to start, not a wagon was to be had, and only those who hired animals and paid for them could get any transportation whatever. Most of the people had to walk.

As so many of the Armenian men were in prison, we begged the Vali to release them, so that they could travel with their families. On this the Vali turned to me again and said, "I give you my promise that not a single man from this day on will be sent off from the prison. They shall all be released and allowed to accompany their families." How this promise was fulfilled I will narrate later. I have yet to hear of a single Harpoot man who survived to leave the province with his family.

We also asked for mercy for the aged, the sick and the infirm, for whom to start on such a journey would mean certain death. With regard to this obviously reasonable request the Vali said that, while he had no authority to spare any Armenian, man, woman or child, he would postpone the deportation of those feeble persons till the others had all been sent, and he hoped that some change in the orders might come. To give even Sabit Bey his due, I should say here that I know of a few individual cases in which this promise was fulfilled by his orders. But I also know of many cases where it was horribly violated, in spite of protests and appeals. I saw with my own eyes two bedridden old men driven out to their death, a woman in the pains of childbirth cursed and ordered into the street, and a feeble old lady literally dragged over the cobble stones by the police.

We then took up the question of how we could help the Armenians in their hour of need. The Vali was very ready to say that he would be glad to have us help them in any way we could. But it soon narrowed itself down to a permission to give them food and money, and as things turned out, this promise was largely nullified by the action of the local police. But the Vali himself hedged about our efforts with many limitations. He forbade our taking any of the property of the Armenians for storage. He said that we could buy their goods only at public auction. That we might not accept any of their money on deposit to remit to them later. The general attitude that he took with regard to all of these matters was that whatever the Armenians could not take with them should be taken charge of by the government and by no one else. This was an enormously profitable arrangement for the government, which thus made itself the legal heir to all the Armenians' wealth. It would have been even more profitable for the government if many Turks--including the Vali himself--had not forestalled the claims of the government.