The Turkish government is at it again– attacking those who seek to teach and remember the Armenian genocide that occurred under the Otttoman empire. Unlike, Turkish newspapers, we do not preface the word, “genocide” by “alleged.” It happened, there are hundreds of eye witness accounts including those from American diplomats who were stationed in Turkey at the time. Now, the Turkish government, apparently having nothing better to do, is angry at the Canadian Education Ministry for authorizing an 11th grade curriculum on genocide that deals with the Holocaust, Rwanda and the blatant Turkish massacre of innocent Armenians, as well as rape of thousands of women. Turkey was previously upset because the Canadian parliament in 2004 passed a resolution on the genocide and last yar, April 24th was set aside as a day of memory for those who died during the ACTUAL MASSACRE.
It is time for Turkey to cease harassing other nations because they wish to speak out about the Armenian genocide. Is Turkey going to allow other nations to decide what is taught in Turkish schools? I doubt it.
10 responses so far ↓
1 journeyer58 // Jan 12, 2008 at 10:20 am
Is the government of the nation of Turkey, so much like an ostrich, that they continue to stick their collective heads in the sand regarding the first genocide of the 20th century? Are we truly to believe that nothing happened and that the Armenians, Christians in a Muslim land responsible for their own demise? People who had been residing on lands for thousands of years, who suddenly decided to start walking throughout Turkey without ceasing and that the women of the Armenians, suddenly started raping themselves?
I have many Turkish acquaintances and among them, I have yet to hear one who speaks with regret of the Armenian Genocide. Are the consciences of the Turkish people so seared that they cannot admit that the Armenians were subjected to horrific and devastating actions by the then Turkish government and armed forces? We must not allow any government the right to dictate the curricula of any other governments schools and without doubt, the children of Canada are learning a valuable lesson, that we in the free world must stand and be counted when atrocities are happening, we must with all our voices raised say, “You cannot continue in this manner.” Soon hopefully, there will be no more need for those who stand against the powers that would destroy a people for one reason or another, yet in the near future, I, foresee, that America has no place in the fight against tyranny and despotism, for we as a nation are now faced with rulers who deem themselves above the law and have no conscience with regards to the rights of the people they serve. G-d Bless America.
2 Erkin Baker // Jan 12, 2008 at 10:36 am
Freedom of speech is O.K. But slander is not. Througout history millions of civilians, along with the military have been killed in armed conflicts. Are the Armenians denying that they had an arrmy of over 100,000 men, and that they started a civil war, claiming land in Eastern Turkey on which they were a minority for a millennium? Their own Prime Minister (of Armenia) remarked in his report, entitled “Dashnagtzoutin Has Nothing to do Anymore” submitted to the 1923 Dashnagtzoutin Party Convention, “Are we not capable of doing in the Soviet Armenia what we did in the Turkish Armenia, for tens of years?”
No person, writer, state, or parliament has the authority to label unfortunate results of a civil war as “genocide”. The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide stipulates certain guidelines to establish proof. The International Court of Justice (an arm of the U.N.) is the only authority to reach a verdict on this issue. And, last Arpil, tired of the false Armenian claims, Ban Ki-Moon, the Secretary General of the U.N. declared, loud and clear, that the U.N. has never recognized that a genocide of the Armenians occurred.
To prove they are right, why don’t the Armenians open their archives in Yerevan and in Boston? Are they afraid that their claims are going to be proven false?
Deniz
3 Fred Stopsky // Jan 12, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Please read the reports from American diplomats, including our ambassador, in the Ottoman empire who described in detail the h0rrors of what they witnessed, slaughter of thousands, rape and destruction. I just read an account by a Jewish agronomist named Aahronson who traveled in regions in which the slaughers occurred. Sorry, there is simply too much evidence against what you claim.
4 Ester // Jan 12, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Thank you for this article..I thought it spoke so eloquently, and truly touched me.
5 Fred Stopsky // Jan 12, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Thank you. I still don’t know why Turkish people in 2008 are defending genocidal policies of the Ottoman Empire which has disappeared from history. They might study Germany’s openess in discussing the Holocaust
6 Hakan // Jan 12, 2008 at 4:34 pm
The sooner Turkey stops denying the Armenian Genocide and moves on, the sooner we will be accepted as the honorable nation that we are. I am a Turk and I despise the current policy of Turkey regarding the denial of a well documented Genocide .
7 Erkin Baker // Jan 13, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Reply to Hakan:
You seem not to have read my remarks above. The International Court of Justice (an arm of the United Nations) is the only authority to determine that certain massacres (in this case, massacres committed both by the Armenians and Turks alike) contitute a genocide. Yes, Germany has had to accept that they committed genocide. They had to, because the Nuremberg Trials proved it after extensive legal proceedings. The Turks have never had their Nuremberg.
There are many others, amongst them, a US ambassador, Admiral Bristol, and others, who visited Eastern Turkey, and who wrote about the Armenian revolts and brutality towards the Turks. You, and others, who are so sure of the Ottoman Turks’ guilt should bring your/their case to the International Court, and prove it. A person, or an entity, is innocent until proven guilty.
And all should be aware of the powerful driving force behind the Armenians’ seemingly endless efforts to have the world condemn the Turks: The Armenians want billions of dollars in reparations, as well as land from the Turks of today- — even though the Republic of Turkey did not exist till 1923.
Erkin Baker
8 Fred Stopsky // Jan 13, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Bristol was NOT America’s ambassador to Turkey when the genocide occurred. Wake up to reality. I guess the murdered Armenian women and children were part of the “Armenian army.”
9 Tulin // Jan 14, 2008 at 12:04 am
There is no such as an Armenian “genocide”. They started an armed rebellion in the hopes of gaining an independent state, so the Ottoman government relocated them away from the east. Calling the events of this period as you did, is an insult to the many non-Armenians murdered by Armenian bandits for their nationalist cause.
I find your opinions especially offensive since my own ancestors were ethnically cleansed from what is now Bulgaria during the Balkan wars. Why arent you instead clamouring to recognise this as genocide?. Oh yes, its because the victims in this case are Muslim Turks and the perpetrators Christian Bulgarians and Russians, and therefore it doesnt count!
10 Fred Stopsky // Jan 14, 2008 at 8:55 am
Could you please explain the killing of thousands of women and children in response to the “armed rebellion?” Or, th rape of thousands of women? Is this the way Turks respond to “armed rebellions?”
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