Turkish Press
March 23 2006

Lutem: Ottoman Empire Granted Broad Religious Freedoms To Non-muslim
Minorities
Published: 3/22/2006

NEW YORK – ”Non-Muslim minorities were granted broad religious
freedom under Ottoman Empire,” Omer Lutem, chairman of the Institute
of Armenian Studies, said on Wednesday.
Taking the floor in a seminar at the New York Columbia University on
”Minorities in the Ottoman Empire” Lutem said: ”according to
sources, nearly 2 million Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire.
During the World War I, Armenians collaborated with the enemy, i.e.
Russian forces. Therefore, the Ottomans had to fight against both
Russians and Armenians. On the contrary of all allegations, Armenians
were not deported. They were merely relocated in different parts of
the empire. Some of them died during the transfer. However, Armenians
exaggerated number of casualties and qualified the relocation as
‘genocide’. In fact, number of killed Muslim civilians was much
higher.”

”On the other hand, Armenians signed the Gumru Treaty in 1920 and
acknowledged the borders drawn with the Treaty of Sevres. Therefore,
they cannot have territorial claims from Turkey,” he added.

Meanwhile, Eurasia Strategic Studies Center Chairman Gunduz Aktan
said, ”there are personal and collective memories on one hand, and
history on the other. Memories belongs to the Armenian diaspora. But
the history is much more objective. We (the Turks) have also memories
about the events. Dialogue and cooperation are necessary to form a
common recollection. Actually, Turkey is the party which has launched
initiatives to this end. Lately, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan proposed to set up a joint commission, however, the Armenians
rejected the proposal.”
From: Baghdasarian