Hellenic Resources Network
Tuesday, 26 October 2004

Turkish Press Review, 04-10-26

ONE SIDED OR MUTUAL? BY TAHA AKYOL (MILLIYET)

Columnist Taha Akyol comments on the so-called Armenian genocide. A summary
of his column is as follows:

“In 1919, writer Ziya Gokalp told the following to a military court
about the Armenian issue: ‘It wasn’t one-sided, the massacre was
mutual!’ In two books, ‘Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of
Muslims 1821-1922’ and ‘Muslims and Minorities,’ Professor Justin
McCarthy wrote about Muslim- Christian clashes and massacres between
which resulted in 5 million Muslim deaths. He researched not only
the Ottoman archives, but also made extensive use of reports of the
British Consulate. McCarthy characterizes the incidents which began
with the 1915 Armenian revolt as a ‘war between communities.’ The real
issue is the ‘Ottoman response’ to the massacres which the Armenians
started. There were more Muslim deaths (Death and Exile, p. 217).

The Bosnians lived through the last massacre in the Balkans. Europe
just sat and watched this until NATO intervened! In his book ‘The
World’s Banker, ‘ Sebastian Mallaby wrote about the World Bank’s
failure to respond and the efforts of Kemal Dervis, later an economy
minister but then a WB official, to save the Bosnians. Through Dervis’
efforts, the WB eventually decided to help Bosnia’s reconstruction,
which encouraged NATO to intervene.

French daily Le Monde asked Dervis his opinion about the so-called
Armenian genocide. Dervis expressed his concerns about the incidents
and reminded them of Muslim massacres. The truth about the Armenian
question is that it wasn’t a one-sided reaction, but a mutual
massacre. If you act as if nothing happened, then people label the
incidents ‘genocide.’ Moreover, we have to remind the West of the
‘Muslim Massacre.’ The massacre, which began in 1821 on the Danube
and continued until 1995 in Bosnia… I wish there were more Turkish
people like Dervis working in the WB, the International Monetary Fund,
the UN and OECD.”

–Boundary_(ID_UNaTbXeJko6QmR6o3x/vMQ)–