An email I received -- Bodrum Airport

[notjustarmenian]

Subject: Bodrum airport

Hello,

I just wanted to put some information out there. Last night we flew back from Turkey after spending a week on holiday outside of Bodrum. At the airport in the waiting area for passengers there are several posters hung up around the seating area about the "ficticious" Armenian genocide. I was shocked to see these posters at the airport. The posters were put up by the T.C. Bodrum Kaymakamligi (I'm not sure what this is exactly.)

One of the posters has a replication of a painting of skulls and it says that the painting is used by the Armenian genocide committee, which alludes that the painting is of the massacre of Armenians when in fact it is a painting about a war fought some 45 years earlier. Here I quote that the Armenian genocide committee uses it to represent "Armenians killed during the fictitious genocide....they are creating false propaganda as there are no real evidence. The reason is it simple [sic] did not happen."

The other poster is of Ataturk with some of his dogs. Then another picture of Ataturk with the corpse of a emaciated, dead child at his feet. The text says that the Armenian genocide committee is manipulating digitally images as there never was a picture of Ataturk with this dead child and this proves that the Armenians are lying and they want to blacken the name of Ataturk, who was one of the world's greatest humanitarians.

I didn't take a photo as I wasn't sure if this was possible in the waiting area.

I'm not sure if this is useful to the group, but I for one was really surprised at the finding of these posters at the beginning of high season for tourism in the area.

Best,
Michelle Kelso

[Joseph]

Subject: Bodrum airport

Hello,

I just wanted to put some information out there. Last night we flew back from Turkey after spending a week on holiday outside of Bodrum. At the airport in the waiting area for passengers there are several posters hung up around the seating area about the "ficticious" Armenian genocide. I was shocked to see these posters at the airport. The posters were put up by the T.C. Bodrum Kaymakamligi (I'm not sure what this is exactly.)

One of the posters has a replication of a painting of skulls and it says that the painting is used by the Armenian genocide committee, which alludes that the painting is of the massacre of Armenians when in fact it is a painting about a war fought some 45 years earlier. Here I quote that the Armenian genocide committee uses it to represent "Armenians killed during the fictitious genocide....they are creating false propaganda as there are no real evidence. The reason is it simple [sic] did not happen."

The other poster is of Ataturk with some of his dogs. Then another picture of Ataturk with the corpse of a emaciated, dead child at his feet. The text says that the Armenian genocide committee is manipulating digitally images as there never was a picture of Ataturk with this dead child and this proves that the Armenians are lying and they want to blacken the name of Ataturk, who was one of the world's greatest humanitarians.

I didn't take a photo as I wasn't sure if this was possible in the waiting area.

I'm not sure if this is useful to the group, but I for one was really surprised at the finding of these posters at the beginning of high season for tourism in the area.

Best,
Michelle Kelso

I'm not suprised. When I was last in Istanbul I noticed that the bookstores in the airport have an entire section dedicated to genocide denial books.

[bell-the-cat]

I'm not suprised. When I was last in Istanbul I noticed that the bookstores in the airport have an entire section dedicated to genocide denial books.

I have been to Istanbul airport dozens of times, the last being this April, and have seen no such thing.

[bell-the-cat]

One of the posters has a replication of a painting of skulls and it says that the painting is used by the Armenian genocide committee, which alludes that the painting is of the massacre of Armenians when in fact it is a painting about a war fought some 45 years earlier. Here I quote that the Armenian genocide committee uses it to represent "Armenians killed during the fictitious genocide....they are creating false propaganda as there are no real evidence.

Co-incidentally, regarding that painting - it appears in this book published in 1907. The book is, I presume, about the massacres that took place in (what is now) Azerbaijan the previous year. As far as I know, it is the earliest use of the painting in literature connected to the massacre of Armenians. Can someone here translate the caption that is underneath it?
Book on ebay - Gift of immortal memory of Armenian national heroes

[bell-the-cat]

No need to answer. The words in bold are the name of the painter - so I guess the itialics are the name of the painting. I.e. clearly there was no intent in misrepresenting it as a real scene of a real massacre. So when did such misrepresentation first occur?

[Joseph]

I have been to Istanbul airport dozens of times, the last being this April, and have seen no such thing.

My wife and I saw it with our own eyes in June 2005. Not only did we see a good 4 to 5 rows of books dedicated to the "false Armenian Genocide"; when we stood there in somewhat of a shock, a lady who was browsing the section started up a conversation with my wife about how all of the books should be in every Turkish bookstore (they probably already are ) and should be translated in every language for everyone to see. I'll never forget the rancor in her voice and the look in her eyes.

[notjustarmenian]

No need to answer. The words in bold are the name of the painter - so I guess the itialics are the name of the painting. I.e. clearly there was no intent in misrepresenting it as a real scene of a real massacre. So when did such misrepresentation first occur?

The painting was circulated in the 1910's and 1920's as a photographic postcard depicting the human devastation of the Armenian Genocide but was originally an 1871 oil on canvas painting "The Apotheosis of War" by Vasily Vereshchagin as you know. It has also been used sporadically in contemporary subject literature on the Armenian Genocide: see Tessa Hofmann's volume Der Völkermord an den Armeniern vor Gericht: der Prozess Talaat Pascha [The Genocide of Armenians in Court: The Process of Talaat Pasha]"

[bell-the-cat]

The painting was circulated in the 1910's and 1920's as a photographic postcard depicting the human devastation of the Armenian Genocide but was originally an 1871 oil on canvas painting "The Apotheosis of War" by Vasily Vereshchagin as you know. It has also been used sporadically in contemporary subject literature on the Armenian Genocide: see Tessa Hofmann's volume Der Völkermord an den Armeniern vor Gericht: der Prozess Talaat Pascha [The Genocide of Armenians in Court: The Process of Talaat Pasha]"

Prove that it was circulating as a postcard in the 1910s. Where have you seen such a card from that period?

My question is when was it first explicitely used by Armenians in publications as an image purporting to be a real photograph of a real scene connected to the Armenian Genocide? I suspect the 1950s. Photographic cards from the immediate post war period are, I think, souvenirs produced to be sold to Allied soldiers and tourists. I have never seen any with Armenian writing on them.

[Jade]

Subject: Bodrum airport

T.C. Bodrum Kaymakamligi (I'm not sure what this is exactly.)

Well if you were asking about the Turkish meaning of "Bodrum Kaymakamligi" it roughly translates I believe as a governmental branch, which makes it quite grave as this means that these posters were put up by the government themselves. It is of course everyone's personal decision to believe in the genocide or not but to try and impose a belief on others and in such a shallow and degrading way is quite frankly sickening.

[notjustarmenian]

Prove that it was circulating as a postcard in the 1910s. Where have you seen such a card from that period?

My question is when was it first explicitely used by Armenians in publications as an image purporting to be a real photograph of a real scene connected to the Armenian Genocide? I suspect the 1950s. Photographic cards from the immediate post war period are, I think, souvenirs produced to be sold to Allied soldiers and tourists. I have never seen any with Armenian writing on them.

I have the postcard and I have also seen other copies of it sell numerous times to collectors. I did not claim Armenians were responsible for the postcard's circulation.