Sworn Statement by Edward TASHJI

Ed Tashji, American-born son of Ottoman-Armenian and Ottoman-Syrian Orthodox parents, has devoted his whole adult life to defending Turkey and Turkish culture against un-relenting defamation campaigns launched by the AFATH community in the U.S. His love for Turkey and Turks is such that he still refers to Turkey as "my country"; his car plate reads "Vatan"; he wears gold crescent and star necklace everyday; carries the largest Turkish flag every year at the Turkish American Day Parade (May 19) in New York; and has written thousands of letters to U.S. politicians, media, companies, and whoever else would listen, enlightening them about the facts surrounding Turkish history.

Ed Tashji's sworn statement was printed by FTAA in 1992 and distributed widely to politicians, media, and academicians in the United States in order to counter the misinformation and defamation campaign waged by the AFATH community. FTAA included the following foreword with each mailing:

We, concerned American citizens who are proud of their Turkish heritage, are deeply saddened by recent attempts, SJR 212 and HJR 417, to falsely re-write our history through legislation. Both of these resolutions view the Turkish-Armenian issue from only one side: the Armenian side...

We, law-abiding. hard-working, tax-paying, god-fearing members of the Turkish-American community, are offended by the unfortunate resolutions SJR 212 and HJR 417, which seem to serve no purpose other than to slander our ancestors... The charge of "genocide" is based on "selective review" of available sources, therefore, it's bad history which is why SJR 212 and HJR 417 are bad resolutions...

We, the people, oppose SJR 212 and HJR 417, because both resolutions are factually misleading, historically biased. socially explosive, politically divisive, morally wrong, and are simply "un-American"!

How, then, do you fight misrepresentation? We believe you fight it by Introducing facts, not fiction! And that's exactly what we are going to attempt to do here, in this little booklet now...and In others like it that will follow in the future...

Please join us now for a truly unique story: that of an Armenian-American who was born in New York In 1932 of an Armenian mother and a Syrian Orthodox father. Both mother and father had been eye-witnesses to the tragic events of WV/I in eastern Anatolia... See if the true suffering and loss they experienced was not, in actual fact, shared by all the peoples of the region... See if they taught their American born sons "their suffering was genocide" or whether they urged their sons to "hate the Turk"... See !f what's espoused In SJR 212 and HJR 417 has anything to do with reality... Maybe then, and only then, the sponsors will find it In their hearts to see things as they really were, and not as some Armenian radicals want them to be seen...

Through the remarkable sworn statement of ED WARD TASHJI, you will develop an insight into what It Is that kept the Turks and Armenians in peaceful co-existence for more than six centuries... and how "an unsuccessful uprising" was packaged and marketed by some radical leaders In the Armenian community as "genocide by the Turkish rulers" and how some young Armenian students were indoctrinated to "hate the Turk".., Here Is a "primary source" telling it like It was and still Is... We are still hopeful that truth, love, and peace will prevail in the end?

We, the people, in the name of truth, oppose SJR 212 and HJR 417!

Federation of Turkish-American Societies

821 United Nations Plaza
New York, N.Y 10017

The following commentary is presented as a sworn affidavit by the undersigned, and Is intended to express explicitly my position on the subject of Turkish-Armenian relations. Being of sound mind and body, fully cognizant of my statements, free of any coercion and/or any suggestion of any monetary recompense, — I do hereby declare the comments in this written material are solely mine and for which I take full responsibility. My signature follows this declaration and It will appear at the conclusion of this commentary.

Edward Tashji

This is not intended to portray even a semblance of any historical research, nor to create a subterfuge in the expression of my thinking and sincere feelings on a subject to which I have devoted a lifetime of attention. Simply stated, these pages are intended to reveal my position on a highly emotional issue based upon childhood experiences, an exposure to both the Armenian and Turkish communities, and as a result of long years of effort.

The purpose of this life-long effort has been and, by the grace of God will continue to be, two-fold:

Firstly, to continue the bond of brotherhood between the Armenian and the Turkish peoples.

Secondly, with the continuance of the six centuries of trust and harmony, to eradicate an infectious hatred which has manifested itself in innocent hearts and minds of succeeding generations.

To say that my task has been most difficult and potentially dangerous to my life is not an exaggeration, as the content of this commentary will confirm.

The average American is unaware that a serious problem between these ancestral brothers even exists. However, as a result of a blatant anti-Turkish posture on the part of our news media, together with the acceptance by many members of Congress of one version of a tragic story, the Turkish Nation and its God-fearing people are being accused of "genocide."

The absurdity of the charge is equal only to the mindless "hate merchants" within the Armenian community. So why should my pro-Turkish position be of interest to anyone outside the Turkish Community? It should, I say, it must, I emphasize, because I am not Turkish nor am I of the Moslem faith; In reality I am a Christian and an Armenian!!

I was born In Troy, New York — In 1932 — as the second son of an Armenian mother and a Syrian Orthodox father, who had been eyewitness to the tragic events which took place In Ottoman Turkey during the First World War. In spite of their suffering, in spite of their losses, in our home, our parents had taught us not to hate the Turkish people, in fact, just the contrary, was instilled in our hearts. We learned the realities of those events about which the West has accepted one interpretation as historical fact.

My wife's background is similar to my own, except that both of her parents were Armenian. Her support of my efforts and her endless patience have been my greatest source of encouragement.

Do you think, dear reader, any book, any newspaper account, or any politician could outweigh the Influence upon me by my parents who were there!? They had no reason to give me false information, and their greatest gift to me was to love the traditions and culture of our peoples. Because of their wisdom, their compassion and their humanity, I was destined to be FREE of all animosity. Based upon THEIR comments to me, and after years of study and effort, (which cannot be described here), I offer for your consideration the following facts which should be recognized by every member of Congress:

1. That the Armenian people had suffered in Ottoman Turkey during the First World War is beyond dispute. Their suffering was brought about as a result of the ravages of war; they suffered as did the Arab, the Jew, the Syrian Orthodox, the Greek, as well as the Turkish Moslem. The suffering of the Armenians was NOT as a result of a "genocide"! To this day, the other ethnic and religious groups which had endured those terrible days, HAVE NOT referred to being the victims of "genocide" In Turkey! But Armenian extremists have used the term "genocide" as a way of concealing their own crimes:

2. My mother was born in Balikesir, not far from the city of Izmir. In her town she had remembered that there were organized Armenian political factions determined to overthrow the government, and engaged in war activities against Turkish military forces as well as thousands of innocent civilians. These groups were active In Turkey then, as they continue to be to this day IN the United States. These are the names of the infamous groups: the Ramgavar, the Huntchak, and the fanatical Dasnaksakgan, (all spelled phonetically). These armed revolutionaries were headed by a maniacal fringe who had even attacked Armenians who did not support them in their treachery and disloyalty against a country where for seven centuries they had prospered and enjoyed total freedom.

3. As a child, my mother had learned a song which had been taught in Armenian school to all the children, The following Is a translation, from the Armenian, of the only words I remember:
"Let us slaughter the Turks — Let us establish our own country..." What would be our reaction if any cultural or religious community taught their children to kill Americans?!

4. Many Armenians after leaving their homes were allowed to RETURN and take possession of their homes and properties. My uncle was one who returned to his home, and my wife's aunt, who is still living, was another. Her family had returned to their home in Adiyaman.

5. As a refugee, my mother was taken into the home of an Armenian family in the town of Kilis. They lived in a house which they owned, and this was toward the end of 1915!

6. The long list of ethnic Armenians who had attained the highest positions in the Ottoman Government is a matter of record.

7. Armenian fanaticism In Ottoman Turkey spread to our country during those years and it continues to this very day: The Armenian community and church in the United States is torn apart by bitter hatred within its own family. Many Armenians, especially those who came from Turkey in recent years, do not feel any hatred against the Turkish people but dare not make their feelings public, lest they be castigated by church and community leaders. In 1932, while celebrating mass on Christmas morning, the Armenian Archbishop Tourian was assassinated by members of an opposing Armenian group. Today Armenian terrorism has taken the lives of over sixty-five Innocent Turkish Diplomats and family members world-wide.

8. A so-called statement purportedly made by Adolf Hitler referring to the plight of the Armenians, was, after extensive research, proven to be FALSE by historian Robert John, who like myself is born of Armenian ancestry!

9. The following is an exact quotation from a pamphlet printed and distributed by The Armenian Revolutionary Federation, here in New York:
"...Its History: Struggle for National Liberation. Founded in 1890, as a confederation of various action groups struggling for Armenian national and human rights, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, (ARF), known as Dashnaktsoutioun, carried on this struggle with all available means: political action, propaganda, and at times, armed struggle…"

I direct the attention of the reader to the date: 1890! Twenty-five years BEFORE the Armenians began with their theme song: "genocide". I'm certain you made notice of the words: "...armed struggle...".

10. In her book entitled, "The Armenian Revolutionary Movement", the author, Louise Nalbandian, says about her book, in part, the following: "This study covers in detail the armed struggle of the Armenian revolutionists against the Ottoman government, beginning with the first major disturbance in 1862 and extending to 1896..."

And they speak of "genocide"! It is the Turk who is justified in accusing the Armenian of this heinous crime! There is more, much much more which can refute the allegation made against Turkey.

Once again our Congress considers the so-called Armenian Resolution. How dare they sit in judgment of a nation whose true history is not known by those who would accuse Turkey of "genocide"?! I say, Mr. Senator and Mr. Congressman, examine your own history and consider the plight of the American Indian!!

Dear reader, these are the words of my beloved mother:

"… My son, we had everything in Turkey. We owned our own homes, our farm lands, shops, and businesses. We were free in our schools, our churches, and our press. On religious holidays Christians and Muslims would exchange greetings, flowers, and baskets filled with all kinds of foods. After having so much, for so long, WHY should the Turks decide to destroy us?! WE, my son, WE were responsible, beyond any doubt, for the misfortune that befell our people! WE, the Armenians, were not loyal to our homeland, Turkey!…"

Many years later, when several Turkish Naval Officers visited our home In Queens, New York, my mother had said to them, "Welcome my children — this is your home, welcome..." She had become their "mother" and we their family in the United States.

THIS is humanity!
THIS is God's wish for all of us!
THIS is the only answer if we are to give our children a world free of hatred!
THIS is what I have found In the Turkish heart; I stand in awe of their compassion, of their warmth, their humanity.

I am proud that I have devoted a lifetime of service in behalf of our ancestral brothers and sisters. How we have labored, examples of our efforts, the Identity of the long list of government officials with whom we have met, how we were able to learn to speak Armenian and Turkish, why our home Is called an "Ottoman" home, and much more, is for another time between two hard covers perhaps. May I offer now my concluding statements:

Dear reader, to the Armenian I am a traitor, one who has committed the greatest sin; to the Turk 1 have come to be known as a, "Turk dostu" — a friend of Turks; ours Is the embrace of brotherhood. I offer the reader my greatest success, that for which I have devoted much of my life, and this you will read on separate pages following my commentary. Read carefully please the writings of an Armenian student who sent me three letters. The most satisfying achievement in my humble life is the third and final letter I received from a young man whom I have never met. Indeed, read his words carefully an~ understand I have not turned against my people, for to do so would be to deny my mother.

I am convinced that hate breeds more hatred, and as we were blessed to have parents who passed on to us their message of love, so have I spoken to all who care to listen, our history, our culture and traditions, begin In Turkey as we have shared with her people the joys and the sorrows of that beautiful land. Today, the Armenians living in Turkey praise us for our efforts. The Syrian Orthodox community shares my position and our children grow free of the cancer of hate. Let the United States Congress honor the sacred memory of ALL the peoples that had suffered, and let not this resolution blemish the honor of a great people. I have dedicated myself to the inseparability of the Turkish and Armenian peoples and no power on earth can deter my resolve. In the name of reason, of universal peace for all mankind, and in the name of the God of all peoples, I remain, yours respectfully,

Edward Tashji
Director of Public Affairs Committee , FTAA

TURKEY AND THE JEWS OF EUROPE DURING WORLD WAR II

By Stanford J. Shaw,
"While six million Jews were being exterminated by the Nazis, the rescue of some 15,000 Turkish Jews from France and even of some 100,000 Jews from Eastern Europe might well be considered as relatively insignificant in comparison. It was, however, very significant to the people who were rescued, and above all it showed that, as had been the case for more than five centuries, Turks and Jews continued to help each other in times of great crises."

STANFORD J. SHAW
Professor of Turkish History
Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey

The French and foreign Jews interned in the camp formed two hostile groups:

The French Jews affirmed that their being there was the fault of the foreigners, and they hoped for a special treatment by the authorities which never came....The French Jews believed that they would be freed soon, and so they did not want to be seen in solidarity with the foreigners.... The French Jews believed that it was because of the former that he was in the camp. He spoke of the foreign Jew with disdain.... Their deception brought even more bitterness when they saw that the Germans made no distinction between Jews and Jews.... The foreign Jews in turn reproached the French Jews for the attitude of France. This led to interminable discussions that ended in tumult and dispute....When Turkish Jews not yet in the camps were ordered to join other foreign Jews in forced labour gangs, the Turkish consulate advised them not to report, and sent protests to the French government, which usually led to the Turkish Jews being exempted. To quote a report from Turkish Ambassador Behiç Erkin (Vichy) to Ankara on 15 December 1942:

I have wired the French Foreign Ministry by telegram asking that Turkish Jewish subjects not be included in the decision recently published in the newspapers by the Prefecture of Marseilles that all foreign Jews who entered France since December 1933 and who are without work or in need be gathered in foreign worker groups....

At the same time, Erkin sent the following instructions to the Turkish Consul-General in Marseilles, Bedi'i Arbel:

Jewish citizens whose papers are in order cannot be subjected to forced labour, and if such situations arise, it is natural that we should provide them with protection. The prefects of police should be reminded of the relevant instructions, and it is necessary to intervene with the competent authorities when necessary.

Turkish diplomats in France also spent a good deal of time organizing 'train caravans' to take Turkish Jews back to Turkey. This actually was encouraged by the Vichy government as well as the French authorities in German-occupied France as the only way to make sure that Turkish Jews were not subjected to the anti Jewish laws applied to French Jews, because the Nazi occupation officials themselves were increasingly unhappy about the exemptions and were regularly demanding that they be brought to an end. Thus the French Foreign Ministry wrote to the Turkish Embassy at Vichy on 13 January 1943, after the French finally had accepted the Turkish argument that it was illegal for them to discriminate among Turkish citizens of different religions:

To avoid the application of these measures to Turkish citizens, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would be disposed to look favourably on the return of the interested parties to their countries of origin.

In the middle of 1943, the Nazi occupying authorities, inspired by Adolph Eichmann, finally issued an ultimatum to Turkey and other neutral countries that they would have to repatriate all their Jewish citizens in France, after which all those who remained would be treated the same as French Jews.

Most of the neutral countries agreed to this right away and evacuated their Jews quickly because they were able to send them home directly without having to send them through third countries. Turkey was unable to do the same because with the Mediterranean closed to shipping, the only way to send Turkish Jews back was by train through South-eastern Europe. The Nazis issued group visas for the Jews being evacuated, but the various countries located along the path of the trains were not at all anxious to help Jews escape extermination. The most notorious of these were Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria, which caused many difficulties to prevent the trains from passing through their territory on their way to Turkey. Finally, however, the Turkish diplomats were able to organize some four train caravans during 1943 and eight more in 1944, which together transported some 2,000 Jews to Istanbul. Other Jews were helped to flee to the areas of southern France under Italian occupation, where they were treated much better until Mussolini fell and Italy was occupied by the Germans in the middle of 1943. They also fled across the Pyrenees into Franco's Spain, where they were given refugee despite Spain's alliance with Germany, or across the Mediterranean to North Africa. There they were interned but not persecuted, except in Algeria, where the French colons were even more anti-Semitic than were the Germans. In 1944, when the Vichy government was thinking of deporting all 10,000 Turkish Jews living in its territory to the East for extermination, Turkish Foreign Minister Numan Menemencioglu intervened with the French government, on the direct orders of President Ismet Inönü, stating that such an act would be considered unfriendly by Turkey and would cause a major diplomatic incident, including perhaps a complete break in diplomatic relations. This convinced Vichy to abandon the plan and saved these Jews from almost certain death. The original correspondence on this matter has not yet been uncovered. Turkey's key role in this matter is, however, well documented in other sources. The American Ambassador at Ankara, Laurence Steinhart, himself a Jew, wrote the head of the Jewish Agency office in Istanbul, Chaim (Charles) Barlas on 9 February 1944:

... It has been a great satisfaction to me personally to have been in a position to have intervened with at least some degree of success on behalf of former Turkish citizens in France of Jewish origin. As I explained to you yesterday, while the Vichy government has as yet given no commitment to the Turkish Government, there is every evidence that the intervention of the Turkish authorities has caused the Vichy authorities to at least postpone if altogether abandon their apparent intention to exile these unfortunates to almost certain death by turning them over to the Nazi authorities.

This is confirmed in the memoirs of Steinhart's German counterpart in Ankara, Ambassador Franz von Papen, who, of course, emphasized his own role in the affair:

I learned through one of the German émigré professors that the Secretary of the Jewish Agency had asked me to intervene in the matter of the threatened deportation to camps in Poland of 10,000 Jews living in Southern France. Most of them were former Turkish citizens of Levantine origin. I promised my help and discussed the matter with m. Menemencioglu. There was no legal basis to warrant any official action on his part, but he authorized me to inform Hitler that the deportation of these former Turkish citizens would cause a sensation in Turkey and endanger friendly relations between the two countries. This demarche succeeded in quashing the whole affair.

Finally, one of Barlas's associates at the Jewish Agency office in Istanbul, Dr. Chaim Pazner, stated to the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference on Rescue Attempts during the Holocaust, held in Jerusalem in April 1974:

In December 1943, Chaim Barlas notified me from Istanbul that he had received a cable from Isaac Wiesman, representative of the World Jewish Congress in Lisbon, that approximately ten thousand Jews who were Turkish citizens, but had been living in France for years and had neglected to register and renew their Turkish citizenship with the Turkish representation in France, were in danger of being deported to the death camps. Weismann requested that Barlas contact the competent Turkish authorities and attempt to save the above-mentioned Jews. Upon receiving the telegram, Barlas immediately turned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry in Ankara, submitted a detailed memorandum on the subject, and requested urgent action by the Turkish legation in Paris.... We later received word from Istanbul and Paris that, with the exception of several score, these ten thousand Jews were saved from extinction.
In addition to providing material assistance to Turkish Jews persecuted in France and other countries occupied by the Nazis in Western Europe, Turkey also helped East European Jews persecuted in countries such as Greece, Lithuania, Rumania, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Right from the start of the war, the Turkish government permitted the Jewish Agency to maintain a rescue office at the Pera Palas and other hotels in the Tepebasi section of Istanbul, overlooking the Golden Horn, under the direction of Chaim (Charles) Barlas, as we have seen. Ina addition, other Jewish organizations based in Palestine were allowed to maintain representative offices in Istanbul. Many were sent by kibbutzim wanting to rescue members from persecution or death in Eastern Europe. First, however, they had to learn what was going on in those countries. For this purpose they sent their agents from Istanbul to these countries to gather information. They used the Turkish post office to send letters to Jews in these countries and to receive responses. They sent packages of clothing and food to help out when needed. In all of these activities, the Turkish Ministry of Finance, despite Turkey's severe financial problems resulting from the war, provided them with the hard currency needed to meet their expenses, and the Turkish diplomats stationed in these countries allowed their facilities to be used when needed.

With this help, the Jewish rescue groups based in Istanbul were able to organize trains and steamships which carried to safety in Turkey and beyond as many refugees that could leave their homes. In this they were vigorously opposed, not only by the Nazis, but also by the British government, which correctly feared that most of the refugees arriving in Turkey would go on in Palestine. Turkey as a matter of fact made this a condition of its agreement to allow these refugees to enter its territory. It would not support large number of immigrants of this sort since people in Turkey were already starving as a result of wartime shortages and blockades in the Mediterranean. It did allow the Jewish Agency and other organizations to bring these refugees through Turkey on their way to Palestine, however, permitting the Mossad organization to send them in small boats across the Mediterranean from southern Turkey. When the British were successful in preventing some of these refugees from going to Palestine, instead interring them on Cyprus, the Turkish government allowed them to remain in Turkey far beyond the limits of their transit visas, in many cases right until the end of the war.

The Vatican's reluctance to help the persecuted Jews of Europe is well documented. This was not the case, however, with the Papal Nuncio in Istanbul from 1935 until 1944, Archbishop Angelo Roncalli, who later became Pope John XXIII. Roncalli was a very unusual person. When he first came to Turkey even before the war, he taught his parishioners, including many Greeks and Armenians, that they should forget their prejudices against Turks and Muslims, that they should follow the precepts of Christian charity and love in dealing with them, that they should forget the bigotries of the past and work together with their fellow Turkish citizens to build a new and modern Republic. Roncalli learned Turkish himself and recited the Christmas mass in Turkish at least once in Istanbul. This greatly pleased the Turkish people, who had become increasingly disgusted with the insistence of Christians in Turkey to continue using Greek, Italian, French or Armenian in preference to Turkish, unlike the Jews who had emphasized the use of Turkish instead of French and Ladino since the mid 1930's. During the war Roncalli went much further. He got the Sisters of Sion order of nuns to use their own communications network in Eastern Europe to help the Jewish Agency pass communications, clothing and food to Jews in Hungary in particular. Other Vatican couriers going from Istanbul to Eastern Europe did the same thing as the result of Roncalli's orders. He even got them to carry false Certificates of Conversion to Hungarian Jews to help save them from the Nazis. A remarkable person indeed, early in the year 2000 was recognized as a Saint by the Catholic Church.

Turkey also acted to help the Jews of Greece during the Holocaust. Just as was the case in the areas of southern France occupied by Italy, so also in Greece, during the time it was under Italian occupation early in the war, Greek Jews did reasonably well, despite pressure from Greeks themselves, whose long tradition of anti-Semitism led them to hope that the foreign occupation would at least enable them to get rid of their Jewish fellow-citizens. Even after German troops entered Greece to help the Italians against Greek guerrilla resistance. The Italian troops protected Greek Jews from persecution at the hands of the Germans and the Greeks. Once Italy fell out of the war in 1943 and the Germans took over, however, the situation of Jews in Greece became worse than anywhere else in Europe, since while many Frenchmen and Dutchmen, and even Germans had helped the Jews to escape the Nazi persecution, most Greeks did none of this due to their long history of pervasive anti-Semitism. The only Greeks who helped Jews were the partisans fighting against the Nazis, spiriting Jews out of Greece, either across the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean to Turkey or Palestine, or by land across the Maritza River into Turkey. Most Greek Jews were in fact exterminated by the Nazis. Jewish synagogues and schools were systematically destroyed. Even the great Jewish cemetery at Salonika was wiped out. After the war, instead of restoring it, Greece built the new Aristotle University of Salonika on the cemetery lands.. The Turkish consuls in Greece, at Athens, Salonika and Gümülcine as well as on the islands of Midilli and Rhodes provided the same sort of assistance that the Turkish consuls did in France, also organizing boats to carry Jews to safety in Turkey and intervening with the Germans to exempt Turkish Jews from persecution and extermination. The most outstanding example of this came with the activities of Consul Selahattin Ülkümen in Rhodes, who got the Nazis to spare the Turkish Jews on the island, and who as a result was subsequently imprisoned by the Nazis after his consulate was bombed and his pregnant wife killed by the Germans. The Turkish guards on the Greek-Turkish border allowed Jews coming from Greece as well as Bulgaria to enter Turkey even though most of them had no papers at all. Camps were set up for them near Edirne, and ultimately they were allowed to pass on to Istanbul, and, for most of them, to join the other refugees doing by small boats from the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey to Palestine. Turkey thus provided major assistance to Jews being persecuted by the Nazis, despite pressure from the British, who wanted to stop Jewish immigration to Palestine, and by the Nazis, who demanded not only that this rescue work be stopped, but also that all Turkish Jews, as well as the refugees, be sent to Germany for extermination. Turkey steadfastly refused these demands and continued to assist European Jews to escape from the Holocaust and in most cases go to Palestine. . Only after it was assured of an Allied victory, and the impossibility of a German invasion, by late 1943, was it ready to enter the war. Even then, however, it reacted to appeals for delay from the Jewish Agency, which understood that immediate Turkish entry would cut off the escape routes through Turkey which were enabling thousands of Jews to escape the Nazis throughout Europe, postponing its entry for almost a year. While six million Jews were being exterminated by the Nazis, the rescue of some 15,000 Turkish Jews from France, and even of some 100,000 Jews from Eastern Europe might well be considered as relatively insignificant in comparison. It was, however, very significant to the people who were rescued, and above all it showed that, as had been the case for more than five centuries, Turks and Jews continued to help each other in times of great crises.

Stanford J. Shaw is Professor Emeritus of Turkish History, University of California Los Angeles Professor of Turkish History, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
Bibliography:
• Stanford J. Shaw, Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey's Role in Rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi Persecution, 1933-1945.
• Stanford J. Shaw, The Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic. Both books were published both by the New York University Press and by MacMillian publishers in England (now called Palgrave Publishers).Unfortunately the American editions, which were in paperback, are out of print, but I understand that the British editions (only in hardcover) are still available.

Pictured Top Left Behic Erkin was the ambassador of Turkey to Paris during World War II. He played a crucial role in saving the lifes of over 15000 Jews after Nazi invasion in the capital of France. He also lead by example and indirectly assisted in saving 100, 000 Jews from extermination in Eastern Europe.

Armenian Terrorism (1973 - 1994)

TURKISH DIPLOMATS KILLED BY THE ARMENIAN TERRORISTS DURING THEIR DUTY

The main targets of Armenian terror organizations, ASALA and JCAG in particular, were now being chosen from among Turkish diplomats abroad. The first of the series of terrorist attacks was carried out against Mehmet Baydar, the Turkish Consul General in Los Angeles and his Deputy, Bahadir Demir. The assassinations were perpetrated by an Armenian by the name of Gurgen Yanikan in 1973. This individual action turned into organized Armenian terror as of 1975 and further escalated as of 1979. 110 acts of terror were carried out by Armenian terrorists in 38 cities of 21 countries. 39 of these were armed attacks, 70 of them bomb attacks and one was an occupation. 42 Turkish diplomats and 4 foreign nationals were assassinated in these attacks, while 15 Turks and 66 foreign nationals were wounded.

A list of all those killed by terrorists are below. One must remember these were people with family.

27.01.1973 Santa Barbara / Consul General Mehmet BAYDAR
Santa Barbara / Consul Bahadır DEMİR
22.10.1975 Vienna / Ambassador Daniş TUNALIGİL
24.10.1975 Paris / Ambassador İsmail EREZ
Paris / Driver Talip YENER
16.02.1976 Beirut / First Secretary Oktar CİRİT
09.06.1977 Vatican City / Ambassador Taha CARIM
02.06.1978 Madrid / Ambassador’s wife Necla KUNERALP
Madrid / Retired Ambassador Beşir BALCIOĞLU
12.10.1979 The Hague / Ambassador’s son Ahmet BENLER
22.12.1979 Paris / Tourism Counsellor Yılmaz ÇOLPAN
31.07.1980 Athens / Administrative Attache Galip ÖZMEN
Athens / Administrative Attaché’s daughter Neslihan ÖZMEN
17.12.1980 Sydney / Consul General Şarık ARIYAK
Sydney / Security Attaché Engin SEVER 04.03.1981
Paris / Counsellor for Labour Affairs Reşat MORALI
Paris / Counsellor for Religious Affairs Tecelli ARI
09.06.1981 Geneva / Secretary M.Savaş YERGÜZ
24.09.1981 Paris / Security Attaché Cemal ÖZEN
28.01.1982 Los Angeles / Consul General Kemal ARIKAN
08.04.1982 Ottawa / Counsellor for Commercial Affairs Kani GÜNGÖR
04.05.1982 Boston / Honorary Consul General Orhan GÜNDÜZ
07.06.1982 Lisbon / Administrative Attaché Erkut AKBAY
27.08.1982 Ottawa /Colonel, Military Attaché Atilla ALTIKAT
09.09.1982 Bourgas / Administrative Attaché Bora SÜELKAN
08.01.1983 Lisbon / Administrative Attaché’s wife, wounded in the armed assault directed against her husband Erkut Akbay on 07 06 1982, died on 08 01 1983 Nadide AKBAY
09.03.1983 Belgrade / Ambassador Galip BALKAR
14.07.1983 Brussels / Administrative Attaché Dursun AKSOY
27.07.1983 Lisbon / Counsellor’s wife Cahide MIHÇIOĞLU
28.04.1984 Teheran / Secretary’s wife Işık YÖNDER
20.06.1984 Vienna / Attaché for Labour Affairs Erdoğan ÖZEN
19.11.1984 Vienna / International Official Enver ERGUN
07.10.1991 Athens / Press Attaché Çetin GÖRGÜ
11.12.1993 Baghdad / Administrative Attaché Çağlar YÜCEL
04.07.1994 Athens / Embassy Counsellor Haluk SİPAHİOĞLU

MEHMET BAYDAR

27 January 1973
Los Angeles/US

The Armenian assaults against Turkish citizens started in 1973 when Mehmet Baydar and Bahadir Demir, Turkish Consul General and Consul in Los Angeles, were murdered by a 78-year-old American Armenian named Gurgen (Karakin) Yanikian.Inviting Baydar and Demir to the Baltimore Hotel in Santa Barbara by declaring that he wished to give a painting of Abdulhamid as a gift to Turkey, Yanikian shot the two Turkish diplomats dead. He was arrested for murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, Yanikian was paroled on 31 December 1984 and died shortly afterwards. This incident, constituting the first assault against the Turkish diplomats, launched a chain of murders and became a template for the subsequent attacks by Armenian terrorists.

BAHADIR DEMIR

27 January 1973

Los Angeles/USA

The Armenian assaults against Turkish citizens started in 1973 when Mehmet Baydar and Bahadir Demir, Turkish Consul General and Consul in Los Angeles, were murdered by a 78-year-old American Armenian named Gurgen (Karakin) Yanikian.Inviting Baydar and Demir to the Baltimore Hotel in Santa Barbara by declaring that he wished to give a painting of Abdulhamid as a gift to Turkey, Yanikian shot the two Turkish diplomats dead. He was arrested for murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, Yanikian was paroled on 31 December 1984 and died shortly afterwards.
This incident, constituting the first assault against the Turkish diplomats, launched a chain of murders and became a template for the subsequent attacks by Armenian terrorists.

DANIS TUNALIGIL
Vienna/Austria

22 October 1975

Turkey's Vienna Ambassador Danis Tunaligil was murdered by three terrorists raiding the Embassy.

When the Turkish Airline Office in Beyrouth was bombed on 20 February 1975, the letter left in the location by ASALA's Esir Yanikian group that undertook the attacks responsibility declared that they would fight against the imperialists for the Armenians rightful case and that the attacks would aim at Turkey, Iran and United States and that this case was only a beginning.

On 22 October 1975, three persons bearing automatic weapons forced their way into the Turkish Embassy in Vienna, neutralised the guards and entered the Ambassadors office. Receiving an affirmative reply to their question in Turkish to Danis Tunaligil if he were the Ambassador, they shoot him with automatic weapons. Tunaligil died on the spot and the murderers rapidly left the premises and fled in an automobile.

ISMAIL EREZ

Paris/France

24 October 1975

Turkeys Paris Ambassador Ismail Erez and his driver Talip Yener were murdered in the vicinity of the Embassy. The Ambassadors car was ambushed at around 13.30 hours at the Bir Hakeim Bridge on Seine River and Ismail Erez and his driver Talip Yener were murdered by automatic weapon fire. The attack was owned by an organisation that called itself the Armenian Genocide Justice Commandos. (JCAG)

TALIP YENER

Paris/France

24 October 1975

Turkeys Paris Ambassador Ismail Erez and his driver Talip Yener were murdered in the vicinity of the Embassy. The Ambassadors car was ambushed at around 13.30 hours at the Bir Hakeim Bridge on Seine River and Ismail Erez and his driver Talip Yener were murdered by automatic weapon fire. The attack was owned by an organisation that called itself the Armenian Genocide Justice Commandos.

OKTAR CIRIT

Beyrut/Lebanon

16 February 1976

Turkeys Beyrouth Embassy First Secretary Oktar Cirit became the victim of Armenian terrorism while sitting at a hall. The attack was owned by the ASALA, which made its name known for the first time.

TAHA CARIM

Rome/Italy

9 June 1977

Turkeys Vatican Ambassador Taha Carim was killed by the cross fire of two terrorists in front of the Embassys residence. The attack was owned this time by the Armenian Genocide Justice Commandos organisation.

NECLA KUNERALP

Madrid/Spain
2 June 1978

Three terrorists opened fire on the car of Turkeys Madrid Ambassador Zeki Kuneralp whose wife Necla Kuneralp and retired Ambassador Besir Balcioglu lost their lives in this attack owned by the organisation that called itself the Armenian Genocide Justice Commandos organisation. For the first time in this incident, a foreigner had lost his life in an attack directed against Turks. That was the Ambassadors driver Antonio Torres.

BESIR BALCIOGLU

Madrid/Spain

2 June 1978

Three terrorists opened fire on the car of Turkeys Madrid Ambassador Zeki Kuneralp whose wife Necla Kuneralp and retired Ambassador Besir Balcioglu lost their lives in this attack owned by the organisation that called itself the Armenian Genocide Justice Commandos organisation. For the first time in this incident, a foreigner had lost his life in an attack directed against Turks. That was the Ambassadors driver Antonio Torres.

AHMET BENLER

The Hague/Netherlands

12 October 1979

Ahmet Benler, son of Turkeys The Hague Ambassador Özdemir Benler, was killed in an armed attack. This case was owned separately by the ASALA and the Armenian Genocide Justice Commandos organisation.

YILMAZ COLPAN

Paris/France
22 December 1979

Turkeys Paris Tourism Counsellor Yilmaz Colpan was murdered as a result of the attack by a terrorist. This case was the second attack in Paris of the Armenian terrorism. A person calling the news agencies thereafter said that the Armenian Genocide Justice Commandos was responsible for the assaults in Rome, Madrid and Paris and added that it was killing the Turkish diplomats because Turkey did not grant the rights of Armenians.

GALIP ÖZMEN

Athens/Greece

31 July 1980

Turkeys Athens Embassy Administrative Attaché Galip Özmen and his 14-year-old daughter Neslihan Özmen were killed in an armed attack by a terrorist while his wife Sevil Özmen and son Kaan Özmen survived though seriously wounded. The attack was owned this time by the ASALA.

NESLIHAN ÖZMEN

Athens/Greece

31 July 1980

Turkeys Athens Embassy Administrative Attaché Galip Özmen and his 14-year-old daughter Neslihan Özmen were killed in an armed attack by a terrorist while his wife Sevil Özmen and son Kaan Özmen survived though seriously wounded. The attack was owned this time by the ASALA.

SARIK ARIYAK

Sydney/Australia

17 December 1980

Turkeys Sydney Consul General Sarik Ariyak and his security guard Engin Sever became the victims of Armenian terrorism.

Aside from this case,

- Dogan Türkmen, Turkeys Ambassador to Switzerland, came out alive from the attack on 6 February 1980 in Bern,

- Weapons fired aimed at the official car of Turkeys Vatican Ambassador Vecdi Türel on 17 April 1980. Both Türel and his security guard Tahsin Güvenc were wounded in this attack, and

- Selcuk Bakkalbasi, the Press Attaché of Turkish Embassy in Paris, was wounded in an armed attack on 26 September 1980.

ENGIN SEVER

Sydney/Australia

17 December 1980

Turkeys Sydney Consul General Sarik Ariyak and his security guard Engin Sever became the victims of Armenian terrorism.

Aside from this case,

- Dogan Türkmen, Turkeys Ambassador to Switzerland, came out alive from the attack on 6 February 1980 in Bern,

- Fire was opened on 17 April 1980 on the official car of Turkeys Vatican Ambassador Vecdi Türel. Both Türel and his security guard Tahsin Güvenc were wounded in this attack, and

- Selcuk Bakkalbasi, the Press Attaché of Turkish Embassy in Paris, was wounded in an armed attack on 26 September 1980.

RESAT MORALI

Paris/France

4 March 1981

Resat Morali and Tecelli Ari, Counsellors of Labour and Religious Affairs at the Turkish Embassy in Paris were attacked by two terrorists when they were taking their car in front of the Labour Attachés office. Morali was killed on the spot while the Religious Affairs Attaché Ari succumbed to death at the hospital where he was rushed with serious wounds. The attack was owned by ASALA in this third murderous attack of the Armenian terrorism and Turkey gave a protest note to France for not properly protecting the Turkish diplomats.

TECELLI ARI

Paris/France

4 March 1981

Resat Morali and Tecelli Ari, Counsellors of Labour and Religious Affairs at the Turkish Embassy in Paris were attacked by two terrorists when they were taking their car in front of the Labour Attachés office. Morali was killed on the spot while the Religious Affairs Attaché Ari succumbed to death at the hospital where he was rushed with serious wounds. The attack was owned by ASALA in this third murderous attack of the Armenian terrorism and Turkey gave a protest note to France for not properly protecting the Turkish diplomats.

M. SAVAS YERGÜZ

Geneva/Switzerland

9 June 1981

Mehmet Savas Yergüz, Secretary of the Turkish Consul General in Geneva, lost his life in an armed attack shortly after leaving the office for going home. The attack was owned by the ASALA. Mardiros Camgozian, the Lebanese Armenian terrorist arrested after the attack, received a 15-year imprisonment sentence.

CEMAL ÖZEN

Paris/France

24 September 1981

Four Armenian terrorists occupying the premises housing the Turkish Consulate General and the office of Cultural Attaché, hostaged 56 Turkish officials and citizens and killed security guard Cemal Özen who attempted to attack and wounded Consul General Kaya Inal. The terrorists wanted Turkey to release 12 political detainees and to send them to Paris. As they realised that this demand would not be complied with, they surrendered to the police some 15 hours after. Turkey warned France once more and France demented the attack that was owned by the ASALA. Four Armenian terrorists named Vasken Sakoseslian, Kevork Abraham Gozlian, Aram Avedis Basmacian and Agop Abraham Turfanian, received 7-year imprisonment sentences. The court verdict received a large dissentment in Turkey.

Also in 1981,

- Turkeys Copenhagen Labour Attaché Cavit Demir came out with small arm wounds on 2 April in the lift of the apartment house where he lived, and

- Turkeys Rome Embassy Second Secretary Gökberk Ergenekon survived with minor wounds an attack that was directed against him on 25 October on a street.

KEMAL ARIKAN

Los Angeles/USA

28 January 1982

Turkeys Los Angeles Consul General Kemal Arikan was killed by the Tashnak militant Hampig Sasunian, who was sentenced to life imprisonment.

ORHAN GÜNDÜZ

Boston/USA

5 May 1982

Turkeys Boston Honorary Consul General Orhan Gündüz was killed in an armed attack.

ERKUT AKBAY

Lisboa/Portugal

7 June 1982

Turkeys Lisbon Embassy Administative Attaché Erkut Akbay died as a result of an armed attack on his car. His wife Nadide Akbay succumbed later to death at the hospital where she was brought with corporeal wounds.

NADIDE AKBAY

Lisboa/Portugal

7 June 1982

Turkeys Lisbon Embassy Administative Attaché Erkut Akbay died as a result of an armed attack on his car. His wife Nadide Akbay succumbed later to death at the hospital where she was brought with corporeal wounds.

ATILLA ALKIKAT

Ottawa/Canada

27 August 1982

Atilla Alkikat, the Military Attaché at the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa, was killed in an armed assault.

BORA SÜELKAN

Bourgos/Bulgaria

9 September 1982

Bora Süerlan, Administrative Attaché of the Turkish Consulate General in Bourgos, was killed by a terrorist attack.

Also in 1982,

- Kani Güngör, Commercial Attaché in the Ottawa Embassy of Turkey, was wounded in an attack on 8 April,

- Kemal Demirer, Rotterdam Consul General of Turkey, was wounded in an attack in front of his residence on 21 July. He came out of this attack with minor wounds and the attacker was arrested while trying to get away.

- On 7 August, two ASALA terrorists made an armed attack in Esenboga Airport of Ankara. There were eight casualties and seventy two injuries in this attack, constituting the first within Turkey of the Armenian terrorism.

GALIP BALKAR

Belgrad/Yugoslavia

9 March 1983

An armed assault was made against Turkeys Belgrade Ambassador Galip Balkar on 9 March 1983 by two terrorists. Mortally wounded in this attack, Balkar died on 11 March. A Yugoslavian student also lost his life in this incident. Terrorists Kirkor Levonian and Raffi Alexander were sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment on 9 March 1984, exactly one year after the incident.

DURSUN AKSOY

Brussels/Belgium

14 July 1983

Turkeys Brussels Embassy Administrative Attaché Dursun Aksoy was murdered by Armenian terrorists.

CAHIDE MIHCIOGLU

Lisboa/Portugal

27 July 1983

The Lisbon Embassy of Turkey was occupied and those within the building were hostaged by five Armenian terrorists. Cahide Mihcioglu, wife of Embassy Counsellor Yurtsev Mihcioglu, was killed during this incident. The Portuguese police saved the hostages by an operation and killed all five terrorists. The attack was owned by an organisation that called itself the Armenian Revolutionary Army, which threatened with death the Portuguese Prime Minister Mario Soarez because of the death of the terrorists.

On 16 June, a terrorist opened fire on the people at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. Two persons were killed and twenty-one were wounded in this attack of which the author was killed on the spot. It was later ascertained that he was an Armenian.

A bomb exploded in front of the Turkish Airlines office in Paris-Orly Airport. Two Turks, four Frenchmen, one American and one Swedish died and sixty-three persons, of whom twenty-eight were Turks were wounded in this attack, named later as the "Orly massacre"

ISIK YÖNDER

Teheran/Iran

28 April 1984

Isik Yönder, husband of Turkeys Teheran Embassy Secretary Sadiye Yönder, who was a businessman doing trade with Iran, was killed by an ASALA militant.

ERDOGAN ÖZEN

Wien/Austria

19 November 1984

Turkeys Vienna Embassy Labour Attaché Erdogan Özen was killed as a result of the explosion of a bomb planted in his car. This incident was owned by the Armenian Revolutionary Army.

ENVER ERGUN

Vienna/Austria

19 November 1984

Enver Ergün, an official at the UN Representation of Turkey, was killed as a result of the explosion of a bomb planted in his car. This incident too was owned by the Armenian Revolutionary Army.

A terrorist trying to plant a bomb on the car of Isil Ünel, Turkeys Teheran Embassy Deputy Commercial Attaché, was blown to pieces as the bomb exploded in his hands on 28 March 1984.

The next day, Hasan Servet Öktem and Ismail Pamukcu, First Secretary and Deputy Attaché of the Turkish Embassy in Teheran, were wounded in an armed assault in front of their houses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a1c_5APvto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6JQfU1pXMo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BblzdvhC3II

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tljTdQwFoVA

ARMENIAN ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE OTTOMAN PERIOD

Free E-Book: The Armenian Issue and the Jews By Sedat Laciner & Ibrahim Kaya

ASAM - Institute for Armenian Research
Ankara University Printing House, 2003 (Out Of Print)

CONTENTS
-About the Authors
-Armenia's Jewish Sceptism and its impact on Armenia-Israel Relations, Sedat Laciner
-The Holocaust and Armenian Case: Highlighting the Main Differences, Ibrahim KAYA
-Selected Bibliography . .

About the Authors
The Armenian Issue and the Jews
Sedat Laciner: Assist Prof. Dr. at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Department of International Relations and senior researcher at the Institute for Armenian Research, Ankara. He also is the President of the Middle Eastern Studies Desk at the Center for Eurasian Studies. Dr. Laçiner is co-editor of the Review of Armenian Studies and Ermeni Arastirmalari journals. Laçiner is also author of: “Art and Armenian Propaganda, Ararat As A Case Study”, (Ankara: 2003, with Kantarci); “Turkey and the World” (Istanbul: 2001); “Bir Baska Açidan Ingiltere” (Ankara: 2001, editor); “Ararat Sanatsal Ermeni Propagandasi” (Ankara: 2002, with Kantarci); “Ermeni Sorunu El Kitabi (with Kantarci, Kasim and Kaya). BA (Ankara University, Turkey), MA (Sheffield University, England), PhD (King’s College, University of London, England). E-mail: sedat100@hotmail.com.

Ibrahim KAYA: Assist. Prof. Dr. at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Department of Public Administration and senior researcher at the Institute for Armenian Research, Ankara. He is the author of many articles on Armenians and the Armenian issue. Dr. Kaya is also the co-editor of the Review of Armenian Studies, Stratejik Analiz and Ermeni Arastirmalari journals. BA (Ankara University, Turkey), LLM (Nottingham University, England), PhD (University of Keele, England).

Armenia's Jewish Sceptism and its impact on Armenia-Israel Relations
Asst. Prof. Dr. Sedat Laciner*


The Armenian Issue and the Jews

‘It is in our blood to hate the Turks. However, we hate Bulgarians and Greeks also. The Jews like Turks, but they hate Arabs. The Arabs, in their turn, are not in favor with the Turks. And the level of hatred is rising’
Narek Mesropian[1]

Although the Jewish community in Armenia dates back almost 2,000 years, the population of the Jews has reduced to fewer than 1,000 individuals in Armenia and in Karabakh province, which is the Azerbaijan territory under the Armenian occupation. Ironically this tiny Jewish community has exposed to the rising Armenian anti-Semitism in the recent years, and now they are considered as ‘guests’ in Armenia where they have lived for the ages.[2] The reasons for anti-Semitism among the Armenians is not actually the Jewish activities, but the regional and international politics and the historical mistrust, namely the problems between Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan, and Israel’s recent co-operation with Turkey. Before analyzing the reasons, the study will provide the historical background of the Armenian ‘antagonism’ against the Jews and the history of the Jewish community in Armenia. Then it will move in to the current reasons of the Armenian Jewish skepticism in the recent years. The study, in questioning the reasons, also focuses on Armenia-Israel relations and the Israeli-Turkish alliance’s impact on Armenia’s perception of the region. The article further discusses Israel’s and the world Jewish community’s attitude regarding the Armenian ‘genocide’ allegations. The author reminds that the Jewish community clearly oppose the Armenian allegations and reject all the Armenian attempts to create a similarity between Holocaust and the 1915 events, and the article discusses the Jewish opposition’s effects on the Armenian issue.

I. ARMENIAN ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE OTTOMAN PERIOD

The Ottoman experience proves that anti-Semitism is an old Armenian habit. The main reason for anti-Semitism among the Ottoman Armenians was mainly religious biases. For the Christian Armenians the Jews were in great sin. It was a common belief among the Armenians that the Jews slaughter young Christian Armenians and use their blood at the Passover feast. In Amasya province for instance local Armenian priests and notables claimed that an Armenian woman had seen Jews slaughter a young Armenian boy and use his blood for religious purposes. Stanford J. Shaw describes the following events:

‘Several days of rioting and pillaging and attacks on Jews followed, with Armenian mobs devastating the Jewish quarter of the city, beating men, women and children alike. The Armenian notables convinced the local Ottoman governor to imprison several Jewish leaders, including Rabbi Yakub Avayu, who was accused of having supervised the blood letting. They were said, after undergoing severe torture, to have confessed to their crimes and were hanged. Later, however, the Armenian boy who supposedly had been murdered was found and a new Ottoman governor punished the accusers, though nothing could be done about the Jews who had suffered in the process.’[3]

As Abraham Ben-Yakob put it, the Armenian and Greek attacks against the Armenians continued in the following years:

‘There were literally thousands of incidents in subsequent years, invariably resulting from accusations spread among Greeks and Armenians by word mouth, or published in their newspapers, often by Christian financiers and merchants who were anxious to get the Jews out of the way, resulting in isolated and mob attacks on Jews, and burning of their shops and homes.’[4]

Apart from the religious prejudices, the Jewish community in the Empire dramatically rose in numbers and their influence over the administration and economy increased, and this development made the Christian subjects (Armenians, Greeks etc.) worried. Unfortunately this competition between the Jews and Christians resulted in a long series of attacks against the Jews by the Armenians and Greeks, who simply did not want to lose their influential position in terms of politics and economy. In these assaults many Jews were assassinated. When the Europeans increased their economic and political influence over the Ottoman Empire they publicly supported the Ottoman Christians and the Armenians and Greeks gained a clear privilege in trade, which was unfavorable to the Jews. The local Armenians and Greeks had the American and the European diplomats and businessmen with them, while the Jews had to rely on their own sources and their good relations with the Ottoman bureaucracy. In addition, as the Armenians and Greeks got richer and more influential, harassments and the constant attacks against the Jews increased as witnessed in Izmir during the 19th century. The competition between the Armenians and the Jews was severe in Palace and the financial system in particular. When the Armenian bankers sustained monopoly over the Ottoman financial system they did everything to get the Jews out of the Palace, and even labeled Jews by accusing the Jews of not being loyal to the Sultan. As a result of these slanders, many Jews lost their life.[5]

Another dramatic development for the Jews was the impact of the European military victories and conquests of Ottoman territories by the European armies, because when the Christian European armies occupied the Ottoman possessions they were supporting their Christian ‘brothers’, Armenians, Greeks and Bulgarians, and punishing the Jews and Muslims alike.[6] Consequently the Jews became the most loyal ones to the government in the 19th century and this also worsened the relations between the nationalist Armenians and the Jews. The radical Armenians perceived the Jews as the agent of the state against their ‘revolutionary’ movement. Even some Armenians would claim that some of the responsible officers for the 1915 events, which the Armenians see these events as ‘genocide’, were Jews, freemasons or supported by the Jews or freemasons. Although this kind of claims cannot be considered as serious or scholarly, they are useful to understand the degree of the Armenian anti-Semitism.

The fourth negative development for the Ottoman Jews was the nationalist-separatist movements in the Arab territories, the Balkans and in Anatolia. The only protector of the Jews in these regions was the Ottoman state and its governor because the Arabs and the Christians hated the Jews due to the tradition and religion. That is why the Jews became more and more loyal to their state, and this more annoyed the nationalist groups, particularly the Greeks and the Armenians. In many Greek uprisings for instance the Jews supported the Ottoman State against the rioters as witnessed in the Ottoman - Greek War in 1897 for Crete Island. The Ottoman security forces had to intervene to protect the Jews from the Armenians, Greeks and the Arabs especially in the 19th century. In Syria in particular the Christian Arabs and Armenians hated the Jews as a result of the religious biases.[7]

In summary, the Armenians continually attacked the Jews for the religious reasons and for personal and ethnic interests. In the words of Shaw, ‘the attacks were brutal and without mercy. Women, children, and aged Jewish men were frequently attacked, beaten and often killed’.[8] These attacks inevitably caused a severe tension and nourished mutual hate between the Armenians and the Jews. As a result the Jews sometimes co¬operated with other ethnic groups against the Armenians as Shaw puts it:

‘Jewish resentment against the continued persecution and ritual murder attacks by Greeks and Armenians led to such hatred that, for example, many Jews actively assisted the attacks of Kurds and Lazzes on the Armenian quarters of Istanbul in 1896 and 1908, showing the Kurds where Armenians lived and where many of them were hiding and joining them in carrying away the booty. The result was even greater Armenian hatred for Jews than had been the case before, leading to further persecution and attacks in subsequent years’.[9]

In addition to the assaults against the Jewish people the Armenians and Greeks made enormous efforts to keep the Jews out of the Palace and other important official places. Furthermore they tried to prevent constructing new synagogues in Istanbul. Güleryüz’s research on Turkish Jewry’ gives an example:

‘Greeks and Armenians agitated widely to prevent Jews from constructing new synagogues when needed in the Empire. The best example of this came with Greek and Armenian opposition to the construction of a new Jewish synagogue at Haydarpasha in 1899. Sultan Abdul Hamid II allowed the synagogue to be built, and assured its opening despite the protests by sending a contingent of soldiers from the nearby Selimiye barracks, leading the contregation to adopt the name Hemdat Israel synagogue, but also the word Hemdat was close to the name of their benefactor, Sultan Abdul Hamid.’[10]

In conclusion, anti-Semitism was a strong tradition among the Ottoman Armenians, and as will be seen it would be revived in the modern ages.

[1] For example see Richard G. Hovannasian, ‘Etiology and Sequele of the Armenian Genocide’, in George J. Andreopulos (ed.), Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimnensions, (Philedeiphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994), pp. 125-126.
[2] For a recent example of this see Vahak” N. Dadrian, ‘The documentation of the Armenian Genocide in the Light of Persistent Turkish Denials’ Conference paper delivered at Generations of Genocide, Wiener Library, 26-27 January 2002, London/UK.
[3] Heat W. Lowry, ‘The U.S. Congress and Adolf Hitler on the Armenians’, Political Communication and Persuasion, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1986, pp. 111-140.
[4] The facts given in this part is based on the information supplied by Haim Bresheeth, Stuart Hood and Lisa Jansz, The Holocaust, Turkish translation, Soykirim, (istanbul: Milliyet Yayinlari, 1996). Various internet resources, including thinkquest, Massuah. The Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, remember.org, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum are also referred to. The views contrary to those which summarized here may be found at fpp.co.uk and the works of David Irving.
[5] Emil Fackenheim at http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/uk/newsid6l80
[6] Eight centuries ago the Jews were hunted in Germany, expelled from England, France and finally from Spain in 1492.
[7] Yavuz Ercan, Osmanli Yönetiminde Gayrimüslimler (Non-Muslims under the Ottoman Rule), (Ankara:Turhan Kitapevi, 2001), p. 3.
[8] See Ercan, Osmanli Yönetiminde... ,pp.1-23.
[9] Vartan Artinian, The Armenian Constitutional System in the Ottoman Empire, (Istanbul), p.1 1.
[10] Yves Ternon, The Armenians, (Delmar: Caravan Books, 1981), pp. 37, 38 and 49.

Armenian Lies and Forgeries

On the 14th April 2005, at an Anti Turkish conference held at UCLA, organised by the Armenian Genocide liars the images above had been handed out to all attendees, printed up and posted on walls.

On the left hand side (above), the original photograph of Ataturk were taken in 1924 and signed by Ataturk himself as he presented them to his wife, Latife Hanim.

The right hand side has the same picture docted by Armenians who are well versed at forging documents and lying to the general public. Also the original photograph of a dead child is dispayed on the far right. According to historian Dr. Turkaya Ataov, the photo of the child is from WWII era. My question is were Dr Vahram Shemassian, Kassakhian and Dr Levon Marashlian aware of these forgeries and decide to accept their names being printed on this lie campagne? (You cant be too careful with these lying Armenians!)

Pictured also is the infamous "Tower of Sculls".

The Armenians claimed this was a picture of some of the sculls after the attocities commited to them. There claim went on to say the Turks had skinned them and made pyramids of them throughout Anatolia. These pictures were sent from Iran to Latin America, from Germany to Bulgaria.

A book published in 1980 at Göttingen and Viyana had this picture on its cover with "Turkish Barbarianism" as the title. The picture was dated 1916-17

The painting actually belongs to a Russian artist named Vasili Vereşçagin and is titled "Shrine of War". Vasili Vereşçagin was born in 1842 and died in 1904. He had nothing whatsover to do with the Armenian Issue.

Vereşçagin completed his painting in 1871.

Needless to say, when it was presented to the UN by V. N. Sofinsky, it was not taken seriously.

But the above two samples are irrevocable examples of how the Armenians are liars and cowardly, who will stop at nothing to ensure the usupecting public beleive their claims...

Boghos Nubar's letter

Translation of Boghos Nubar's letter:

Dear Minister,

I have the honor, in the name of the Armenian National Delegation, of submitting to Your Excellency the following declaration, at the same time reminding that:

The Armenians have been, since the beginning of the war, de facto belligerents, as you yourself have acknowledged, since they have fought alongside the Allies on all fronts, enduring heavy sacrifices and great suffering for the sake of their unshakable attachment to the cause of the Entente:

In France, through their volunteers, who started joining the Foreign Legion in the first days and covered themselves with glory under the French flag;

In Palestine and Syria, where the Armenian volunteers, recruited by the National Delegation at the request of the government of the Republic itself, made up more than half of the French contingent and played a large role in the victory of General Allenby, as himself and his French chiefs have officially declared;

In the Caucasus, where, without mentioning the 150.000 Armenians in the Imperial Russian Army, more than 40.000 of their volunteers contributed to the liberation of a portion of the Armenian vilayets, and where, under the command of their leaders, Antranik and Nazarbekoff, they, alone among the peoples of the Caucasus, offered resistance to the Turkish armies, from the beginning of the Bolshevist withdrawal right up to the signing of an armistice.

(The letter bears the date on which it was received in the French Foreign Office-December 3, 1918)(57)

(57) Erich Feigl, A Myth of Terror-Armenian Extremism: Its Causes and Its Historical Context (Austria, 1986), pp.102-103

Armenian Relocation and the Jewish Holocaust

Armenians try to draw a parallel between the Armenian relocation and the great Holocaust. Such a conclusion is totally unjustifiable when the reasons for and the conditions at the time are taken into account.
Dadrian claims "one of the most significant elements between the Armenians and the Jews has been the inferior status to which they have been relegated for centuries as disdained minorities by nation states and the dominant groups operating within them." He continues (and this is the line of many Armenians) "legal disabilities often compunded these social liabilities. For the Armenians, the legal disabiilties included the denial of the right to bear arms in a oand where their adversaries were armed to the teeth... both the Armenians and the Jews were politically disenfranchised and , barring some incidental exceptions, were excluded from the governmental power structure of their respective societies." (1)

(1) Vahakn N. Dadrian, The Historical and Legal Interconnections between the Armenian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust: From Impunity to Retributive Justice, The Yale journal of International Law (1998 Vol. 23 No.2)

Mesrob K.Krikorian, in the preface of his research entitled "Armenians in the Service of the Ottoman Empire 1860-1908" states that both in Anatolia and Syria, the Armenians were employed in various administrative, judicial, economic and secretarial fields and, to a lesser extent, in technical affairs, agriculture, education and public health. Armenians were also employed in the police force of provinces where there existed Armenian communities. Armenians held high level posts in the Ottoman Administration such as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Secretary General of the same Ministry, Ambassadors, Ministers of Finance, Treasury, and Public Works, Presidents of the State Banks and Post Services and as Governors.

In his conclusion, Krikorian asserts: "It is advisable for comparative study to notice the parallel participation of the other principal non- Turkish elements of the population. Summing up the participation of the communities other than Armenian, it is clear that none of them had such a large and permanent co-operation with the Ottoman Government in the public affairs of Eastern Anatolia and Syria as the Armenian 'millet'." (2)

(2) Mesrob K. Krikorian, Armenians in the Service of the Ottoman Empire (London 1977) p.107

In an article entitled "La Societe Armenienne Contemporaine by B. Dadian, which appeared in Revue des Deux Mondes (Juin 1867) the writer says: "after the Turks hoisted their victorious flag on the citadel of Istanbul, they did not make almost any change on the civil and political conditions of the Sultans, the christian population maintained a sort of independence and their nationality. "

Comparisons:

April 15, 1924: Hitler began writing his book Mein Kampf while he was in prison for committing treason against Germany. Hitler writes that the Jews must be eliminated from society. After this Hitler begins his personal public hate campaign against the entire Jewish race. (we all know the rest)

No Ottoman or Turkish leader gave such an order condemning the Armenians and there was no campaign to exterminate the entire Armenian race by any Ottoman leader. Any litterature provided by the Armenians has been proven that the evidence mostly fall into five major categories: hearsay, mis-representations, exaggerations, forgeries, and “other”.

March 21, 1933: Hitler and his Nazis create special courts to persecute political enemies.

No such court was ever established within the Ottoman Empire

April 26, 1933: Hitler organized the infamous Gestapo, this "above the law" police force would lead in the Jewish extermination campaigns.

The Ottomans never had such a special police force to terrorize the Armenians

May 2, 1933: Hitler dissolved all labor unions.

The Ottomans never did such a thing. However, in Armenia today, labor unions like in Nazi Germany are not permitted. Between 50% and 60% of all Armenian businessmen do not pay any taxes. This is why the Armenian number one import is foreign aid from the Christian nations of the world. In Armenia today the privileged few, just as in Nazi Germany, get richer while the working people of this tiny state remain in poverty and are forced to live a life of squalor.

October 28, 1938: the first Jews were deported just because they were Jews.

The Ottomans never deported anyone because of race. What the Ottomans did was deport Armenians from only one part of their empire for being disloyal citizens who were actively helping the invading Russians. The Jews never helped anyone invade Germany. There is no way anyone can compare the Jews to Armenians! However, in 1938 when the first Jews were deported, Armenians were voluntarily joining the Nazis to help them create the real genocide of the 20th century. The evidence is absolute that more than 100,000 Armenians joined Hitler. The evidence is also absolute that Armenian politicians took part in Hitler's racial purity campaigns.

July 4, 1939; Hitler decreed that German Jews were prohibited from holding government jobs.

On the contrary, the Armenians held high ranking jobs throught the Ottoman Empire.

October 12, 1939: Jews were removed from Vienna, Austria for the sole reason they were Jews.

The reason for the Armenian relocation from eastern Anatolia has already been covered in my previous posts. The Nazi acts do not compare to the Ottoman actions. For anyone to compare Nazi Germany to the Ottoman Empire is a sign of their hatred and bias towards anything Turkic.

September 17, 1941 marks the date the Nazis began the general deportation of all German Jews.

The Ottomans only deported from the troublesome areas, Armenians in Izmir (Smyrna), Istanbul etc were left untouched. (There are still circa 80 000 Armenians living in Istanbul alone)

December 15, 1942: The Armenian National Council was given official Nazi recognition by Alfred Rosenberg, the German minister of Nazi occupied areas. The Armenians had made a consecrated effort to prove to Hitler that they were Aryans like he was and they were so accepted.

The Armenians made radio broadcasts from Berlin supporting Hitler's Aryan and racially pure beliefs. Several Armenian newspapers also supported Hitler's ethnic/racial pure beliefs during World War II. The Ottomans never did such things. The actual proof is that during World War II the Turks opposed Hitler while the Armenians within Turkey supported first Hitler and then switched sides to the Russians when they saw Germany losing the war.

November 20, 1945: The Nuremberg International Tribunal began to try Nazi leaders for war crimes.

After World War I the Paris Peace Conference was held. The Armenians presented their massacre claims to this conference who rejected the claims and gave the Armenians nothing for damages. The Armenians refused to accept the Peace Conference answer and again asked to be heard and to present more evidence. The Paris Peace Conference agreed to allow the Armenians to present their massacre claims a second time and again--for a second time the Paris Peace Conference rejected the Armenians claim against the Ottoman Empire. The Armenians have tried the courts not once, but twice, and they offered their self-called proof twice and each time they received nothing.
Today the Armenians want land and reparations from Turkey, which didn't even come into existence until 1923. 8 years after the self anointed Armenian genocide bogus claim. The Armenian government demands today that the Turkish government admit to this fake genocide claim. The question cries out to be answered: Why should the Turks admit to any such thing? When will the Armenians work for peace in their region of the world rather than starting war after war and making false demands upon its neighbors?

The First World War

The Ottoman Empire entered the war on 31 October 1914. The Russian invasion of eastern Anatolia also started the same year.
After the Adana rebellion, the Party of Union and Progress which was the governing party made an agreement with the Istanbul delegation of the Dashnak Committee" in order to ensure the independence of the country, to protect till the end its integrity and policy, to eradicate the evil thoughts appearing in various individuals, and to establish good relations between Ottoman subjects."

" Considering the Adana disaster as a warning, total agreement has been reached between the Committee of Union and Progress and the Armenian Dashnaktsutiun Committee on sparing the sacred Ottoman country from any partition and separation, and making attempts to eradicate the rumors that Armenians are leaning towards independence, among others." (34)

Nevertheless, the Dashnak Committee, at its Congress held in Erzurum in June 1914, decided to remain in opposition to the Government of the Union and Progress.

Papazian writes as follows on this subject:
"When the world war broke out in Europe, the Turks began feverish preparations for joining hands with the Germans. In August 1914 the young Turks asked the Dashnag Convention, then in session in Erzurum, to carry out their old agreement of 1907, and start an uprising among the Armenians of the Caucasus against the Russian government. The Dashnagtzoutune refused to do this, and gave assurance that in the event of war between Russia and Turkey, they would support Turkey as loyal citizens. On the other hand, they could not be held responsible for the Russian Armenians ... The fact remains, however, that the leaders of the Turkish-Armenian section of the Dashnagtzoutune did not carry out promise of loyalty to the Turkish cause when the Turks entered the war. The Dashnagtzoutune in the Caucasus had the upper hand. They were swayed in their actions by the interests of the Russian government, and disregarded, entirely, the political dangers that the war had created for the Armenians in Turkey. Prudence was thrown to the winds: even the decision of their own convention of Erzurum was forgotten, and a call was sent for Armenian volunteers to fight the Turks on the Caucasian front."(35)

Kachaznouni, the Prime Minister of the independent Armenian Republic shares the same views with Papazian:

"In the beginning of fall 1914, when Turkey had not yet entered the war, but was preparing to, Armenian volunteer groups began to be organized with great zeal and pomp in Trans-Caucasia. In spite of the decision taken a few weeks before at the General Committee in Erzurum, the Dashnagtzoutune actively helped the organization of the aforementioned groups, and especially arming them, against Turkey ... There is no point in asking today whether our volunteers should have been in the foreground. Historical events have a logic of their own. In the fall of 1914 Armenian volunteer groups were formed and fought against the Turks. The opposite could not have happened, because for approximately twenty years the Armenian community was fed a certain and inevitable psychology. This state of mind had to manifest itself, and it happened." (36)

Hovannisianjoins the above Armenian writers:

"Although most Armenians maintained a correct attitude vis-a-vis the Ottoman government, it can be asserted with some substantiation that the manifestations of loyalty were insincere, for the sympathy of most Armenians throughout the world was with the Entente, not with the Central Powers. By autumn 1914, several prominent Ottoman Armenians, including a former member of parliament, had slipped away to the Caucasus to collaborate with Russian military officials. "(37)

(34) Tanin, 3 September 1909
(35) K.S. Papazian, Patriotism PerveJied (Boston 1934), p.37
(36) Hovhannes Kachaznouni, The Dashnaks Have Nothing More to Do, p.1
(37) Richard Hovannisian, Armenia on the Road to Independence, (Califomia 1967), p.42

When the mobilization started, the Catholicos of Etchmiadzin sent a letter to Vorontsov-Dachkov, the Governor General of the Caucasus, on 5 August 1914. He writes:

"Based on the information I have receivedfrom the Istanbul Patriarchate and the Armenian Assembly, I am convinced that any reform to be implemented by the Government ... will not survive long. . .I request from Your Highness that you present to His Majesty the Emperor, the devotion of his faithful subjects on my behalf and on behalf of my congregation in Russia, the sincere loyalty and attachment of the Armenians of Turkey, and at the same time that you defend to the Czar the hopes of the Armenians of Turkey ... "

Governor General Vorontsov-Dashkov replies on September 2, 1914:

"I wish that the actions of the Armenians here, as well as those on the other side of the border, be now in accordance with my instructions. I request that you use your authority over your congregation, and ensure that our Armenians and those who reside in the border regions implement the duties and services which I will ask them to carry out in the future, in the event of a Russo-Turkish war, as in the situation of Turkey today." (38)

"Having agreed to the proposal of Vorontsov (to create volunteer corps) the National Bureau selected a special committee to supervise the operations of the volunteer corps. Functioning from Tiflis, Alexandropol, and Erivan, the committee began its activities by assigning enlistees to the four authorized units, all of which where immediately filled to capacity ... The first group over 1,000 men, was led by Andranik, an experienced revolutionary who had participated in the Balkan wars as commander of an Armenian contingent in the Bulgarian army. Andranik's unit joined the Russian forces in North Persia, while the other three advanced toward the Turkish border. Dro, assisted by the former Ottoman parliament member Armen Garo, directed the second group, which, moving over Igdir in the Erivan province, poised for an offensive in Van. The third and fourth units, commanded by Hamazaps and Keri, took advance positions along the western border of the Kars oblast,from Sarzkamzsh to Olti." (39)

(38) Gn. Tcha1kouchian, the Red Book (Paris 1919).
(39) Hovannisian, op. cit., P.44

"What the National Bureau did not know was that representatives of the Romanov sovereign were earnestly negotiating the partition of Turkey with the other members of the Entent. Moreover, Russian designs to annex the eastern vilayets included no provisions for Armenian autonomy." (40)

Prof. Stanford 1. Shaw, expert on Ottoman History, elucidates this period:

"The Armenian leaders told Enver (leader of the Union and Progress Party) that they only wanted to remain neutral, but their sympathy for the Russians was evident, and in fact, soon after the meeting several prominent Ottoman Armenians, including former member of parliament, slipped away to the Caucasus to collaborate with Russian military officials, making it clear that the Armenians would do everything they could to frustrate Ottoman military action ... Meanwhile, Czar Nicholas II himself came to the Caucasus to make final plans for cooperation with the Armenian National Bureau in Tiflis, declaring in response:

"From all countries Armenians are hurrying to enter the ranks of the glorious Russian Army, with their blood to serve the victory of Russian arms ... Let the Russian flag wave freely over the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus. Let, with Your will, great Majesty, the peoples remaining under the Turkish yoke receive freedom. Let the Armenian people of Turkey who have suffered for the faith of Christ receive resurrection for a new free life under the protection of Russia ..."

''Armenians again flooded into the Czarist armies. Preparations were made to strike the Ottomans from the rear, and the Czar returned to St. Petersburg confident that the day finally had come for him to reach Istanbul."

"In April 1915 ... Dashnaks from Russian Armenia organized a revolt in the city of Van, whose 33,789 Armenians comprised 42.3 percent of the population, closest to an Armenian majority of any city in the Empire ... The Russian army of the Caucasus also began an offensive toward Van with the help of a large force of Armenian volunteers recruited from among refugees from Anatolia as well as local Caucasian residents. Leaving Erivan on April 28, 1915 they reached Van on May 14 and organized and carried out a general slaughter of the local Muslim population during the next two days while the small Ottoman garrison had to retreat to the southern side of the lake." (41)

The Armenian support given to the invading Russian army in the Eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire is depicted by W.E.D.Allen and Paul Vfuratoff. They write:

"The Armenian nationalist movement (Dashnaksutzion) rose in revolt, and after fierce street fighting took possession of the ancient city by the lake Van) (l3-14 April) ... (1915)

Well informed by Armenian agents of the situation at Van, Yudenich determined to take advantage of it. Since March four of the Armenian lruzhiny (batallion) had been concentrated at Bayazit. Yudenich added to this force of sturdy nationalist volunteers the 2nd Transbaikal Cossack Brigade of 'Jeneral Trukhin, and ordered this officer to cross the Teperiz Pass over the Ala­lag and advance on Begrikale and Van ...

Trukhin and his Armenians and Cossacks were engaged during June in clearing the Turks from the southern shores of Lake Van. The Armenian druzhiny, under such popular leaders as Antranik, Hamazaps and Dro, fought vith great elan, and drove the Turkish gendarmerie units from Vastan on the lake and from the two villages of Catak and Mukus on the road to Siirt. On 20 June 1915) the Armenians took Sevan, on the 25th, Sorp-both villages on the shore of he lake ...
Pomiankowski (Zusammenbruch, p. 147) states that the Armenian rising in Van vilayet influenced decisively the failure of Halil Pasa's offensive in Azerbaijan. The rising held the Turkish gendarmerie division round Van at the Titical moment when Halil was checked at Dilman ... The insurrection of the Armenians and Nestorians of the Van vilayet; the presence of strong Russian cavalry formations in the country between the two lakes; and the maneuvers of Gereneral Oganovski's troops in the Murat valley-all these factors tended to make Turkish general headquarters anxious for the Bitlis - Mus region, the successful occupation of which by the enemy might outflank the stronghold of Erzurum and open the way into the interior of Anatolia." (42)

During the campaigns of 1914-1916 offensives and counter-offensives between the sides in the eastern provinces continued.
" ... the irregular bands operating on either side had begun the work which famine and epidemics had completed. The remnants of the Armenian population had fled into Russian territory or had been deported by the Young Turk administration,' the Moslems, scarcely more fortunate, had suffered equally from famine, epidemics and irregular slaughter, and the survivors had dispersed with what remained of their livestock into the interior of Asia Minor." (43)

"The months March through October 1917 were permeated with Armenian hopes and emotions ... For Western Armenia, autonomy, or perhaps unification with the Armenian region of Transcaucasia was the envisaged solution. The March Revolution eliminated the czarist restrictions and gave the Armenians the opportunity to gain valuable experience in the administration of occupied Turkish Armenia." (44)

In 1917 while the Russian Revolution penetrated more deeply into the morale of the troops "the Russian general headquarters was compelled to rely only on the national formations" in the defense of the Caucasian front against the Ottomans.(45)

"The divergent tendencies and interests of the three national groups (Armenians, Georgians and the Azeris) constituting the federation (The Caucasian federation set up in response to the transfer of power in Russia to the government of soviets) immediately became evident,· ... The Armenians remained strongly pro-Ally-and fundamentally pro-Russian and they tried to develop a national army with the help of Russian general headquarters on the Caucasian front and in the eventual hope of securing support from the British."


(40) Ibid, p.57
(41) Stanford Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and the Modem Turkey, London, Cambridge University Press pp.314-316
(42) W.E.D.Allen and Paul Muratoff, Caucasian Battlefields (Cambridge 1953), pp.299,30l and 302
(43) Ibid, p.368
(44) Hovannisian, op. cit., P.93
(45) Allen and Paul Muratoff, op. cit., P.457

"By 1 January 1918 the Armenian Corps consisted of two divisions of Armenian rifles, three brigades of Armenian volunteers, a cavalry brigade and some battalions of militia ... the volunteer brigades were made up of four battalions each and the cavalry brigade was composed of two regiments each four squadrons strong. The rifle divisions were made up of men from the Armenian rifle druzhiny (battalions) which had seen hard and honorable fighting during the campaigns of 1914-1916. Their numbers were increased by Armenians from different units of Yudenich's army who decided to join their compatriots. The volunteers were natives of Turkish Armenia who joined the national army on the spot-in Erzincan, Erzurum, Van and the Eleskirt valley.

"The feelings of the Moslems towards the Armenian national army became clear even before the Turks began their (counter) advance ... Local encounters between Armenians and Kurds immediately broke out and there were killed and wounded on both sides almost every day." (46)

"The frenzied troops and bands retreating from Erzurum killed any Moslems falling into their hands and burned the Turkish villages that lay in their path." (47)

"The Ottoman forces, having encountered victims of Armenian atrocities all the way from Erzincan, feared for the safety of Moslems in Kars. When smoke was seen rising from the city, they marched to the rescue of the populace. " (48)

"Vehip Pasa had initiated military action against the Armenian detachments who were holding the front line following the withdrawal of Russian troops. Vehip began by sending repeated protests against the action of disbanded Russian soldiers and the massacres of Moslems committed by Armenian bands." (49)

Hratch Dasnabedian gives the following information about the formation of the volunteer movement and the volunteer battalions:
"At first, the volunteer movement that developed in the last months of 1914 was the result of the initiative taken by the Armenian National Bureau ill Tiflis, with the encouragement of the Viceroy Vorontsov- Das hnov ... Around mid­1916, by decision of the Russian command, the Armenian volunteer battalions were integrated into regular units of the Caucasian army, thus losing all independence of movement and initiative ... The volunteer battalions were not the only form of assistance the Armenians brought to the Allied war effort. More than 250,000 Armenians fought against the Central Powers, about 200,000 of them in the Russian army on the European front."


(46) Ibid, pp 458-459
(47) Hovannisian, op. cit., P.135
(48) Hovannisian, op. cit., P.166
(49) Allen and Paul Muratoff, op. cit., p.460

Dasnabedian continues to confirm:
"Near the end of October, 1917 (on November 7 of the new calendar), the Bolshevik Revolution shook the entire Russian Empire. Headed by Lenin, the new government (the Sovnarkom) not only adopted the principle of the free self-determination of nations but also issued, in January 1918, a decree on 'Turkish Armenia', which granted military, administrative, and political freedoms of 'Turkish Armenia ' and its people.
Nevertheless, on March 13 of the same year, communist Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Article 4 of which not only returned all the conquered 'Turkish Armenia' to Turkey but also gave up regions of Kars, Ardahan, and Batum ...
“In the meantime Armenians continued their back stabbing against the Ottoman forces.

"The ARF militias, which had been organized secretly and sometimes semi-officially after the dissolution of the Armenian volunteer battalions, were insufficient for the task. Apprehensive, The Western Armenian Bureau formed a Security Council, which issued a call to arms. With the assistance of the Caucasian high command and the National Council of Eastern Armenians, the Security Council succeeded in forming the Armenian Corps, which was placed under the overall command of General Nazarbegian. The number of Armenian fighters was nearly 30,000 ... "

"While Armenia fought for its life, Transcaucasia fell apart as a political unit. On May 26, with the blessings of the Germans, Georgia declared independence. On the very next day, Azerbaijan followed Georgia's example.

Finally, on May 28, 1918, sanctioning a situation already extant since January, when the Armenians were forced to fight alone against Turkey, the Armenian National Council in Tiflis drafted a declaration of Armenian independence and sent its representatives to Batum to sign a separate truce with Turkey.

On June 4, 1918, Turkey became the first nation to officially recognize the Republic of Armenia."(50)



(50) Dasnabedian, History of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation 1890/1924 (Milan, 1989), p.123