TANER AKCAM’S RESPONSE TO YUSUF HALACOGLU ARTICLE –

TARAF,
Sunday,
June 15, 2008

TIME TO EXPOSE LIES

It is time to put an end to the primitive and deceitful policy of
the Turkish Historical Society, based on lies and propaganda for
internal public opinion and a cause for embarrassment for Turkey and
Turkish historians

First, I would like to thank Ayse Hur for providing a summary of
the Ottoman Archives research covered in my book titled The Armenian
Problem Is Solved – Armenian Related Policies During Wartime According
To Ottoman Archives (Iletisim Publishers, January 2008). Ayse Hur
also included sections from my book criticizing Halacoglu, in an
article titled "Akcam Asks Questions, Halacoglu Remains Silent."

Before I respond to Halacoglu’s article, I would like to provide some
context in order not to be drowned in minute details back and forth.

THE FALSIFICATION ABOUT 1397

Those claiming that there was no genocidal intent or mass destruction
in the 1915 Armenian Deportations often use the argument that all
civil servants who maltreated the Armenians, attacked the convoys
or murdered the deportees were arrested and prosecuted. Accordingly,
some government officials who exploited the situation were investigated
and sent to courts, a total of 1397 people were tried, a majority of
them were convicted and given various sentences, including capital
punishment.

I have demonstrated in my book that based on the Ottoman Archives,
this argument is not correct. There are no documents in the Ottoman
Archives related to prosecution and punishment of government officials
accused of Armenians’ murders. The Ittihat Terakki party in power
had no such policy; on the contrary, I have documented that if any
government officials were by chance accused of any such crimes, the
government took steps to have them discharged immediately. I have also
documented on several occasions how the Ittihat Terakki government
eliminated a few of their own officials who could potentially cause
future allegations related to the Armenian case.

ATTENTION AND CARE ABOUT PROPERTY NOT HUMAN BEINGS

One of the facts that is clearly evident in the Ottoman Archives
is that the Ittihat Terakki government, which had shown no care
toward the Armenians as human beings, did show extra care and
attention toward the possessions and properties left behind by the
Armenians. The government took extraordinary precautions to ensure
that all these possessions were converted to state ownership. The
special commissions or trials set up to investigate the wrongdoings
related to the Armenians were all about the government officials who
attempted to personally plunder, steal or take over ownership of the
Armenians’ properties. There has been absolutely no investigation
or trial by the Ittihat Terakki government about those who committed
crimes against the Armenians or who organized the massacres.

I had explained in my book how Yusuf Halacoglu leads the campaign
of lies in this subject, by giving an example from his book titled
The Armenian Deportations and Truths (1914-1918) (Turkish Historical
Society, Ankara, 2001). I had accused him of revising the Ottoman
Archives and by deliberately providing misinformation. Halacoglu in
his responding article merely repeats and confirms that I am right.

In his book, in the chapter titled "Attacks on the Armenian Convoys
and Preventive Measures Taken by the Government," Halacoglu writes
that "special investigative commissions were formed in order to
prosecute the officials accused of neglect of duty or illegal
activities." He further claims that "government officials who were
accused of wrongdoings and maltreating the Armenians were prosecuted,"
and that "they were taken to the Military Tribunals for severe
punishment." Halacoglu bases these words on the following Archival
Document No. 12 (Internal Ciphers Directory 54-A/236; 55-A/146:
55-A/157: 58-A/141; 58-A/278; 61/165; 57/105; 57/116; 57/143; 57/416;
59/196; 59/235) .

In fact, Yusuf Halacoglu is lying, as none of these archival
documents relate to Military Tribunals and punishment of officials
for maltreatment of Armenians. As I have shown in my book, one by
one for each document, these are all related to personal enrichment
crimes of officials plundering, stealing or converting ownership of
the properties and possessions left behind by the Armenians.

In these documents, Talat Pasha directs officials to comment (59/196),
to investigate (55-A/156), to fire from duty the accused persons
(57/143). Two other documents are related to seeking authority to
take the personal enrichment cases to the Military Tribunal (57/146,
61/165).

Halacoglu not only dared to present these documents as "trial and
punishment of government officials at Military Tribunals charged
with maltreating the Armenians," but he also used documents "praising
government officials for successful deportation activities" for the
same purpose. For example, the document no. 58-A/141, dated November
28, 1915, is a telegram from Talat Pasha to Cemal Pasha, reminding
Cemal that he has no right to fire a local governor for maltreatment,
praising the fired official and instructing Cemal to reinstate him.

I have asked in my book and pose the same question again: Isn’t it
shameful, isn’t it criminal in the name of scientific research to use
these documents as evidence that "government officials maltreating the
Armenians were prosecuted and punished, including capital punishment?"

NEW DOCUMENT NO. 13 OUT OF A HAT

What could be expected from Yusuf Halacoglu as a response to my
allegations?

Shouldn’t he use my documents, one by one, to prove or disprove
that I have told the truth? Instead, in his article he responds by
referring to another book of his and writes: "Akcam’s questions are
answered with the necessary documents." In his book titled Armenian
Allegations from Deportation to Genocide, in the Section titled
"Guilty Deportation Officials" (Pages 91-96), the same information,
same documents exist as in his 2001 book that I criticized. There
are also 12 new documents unrelated to my criticism.

That is, there is absolutely no change.

My criticism was that none of the new 12 documents shed light on the
punishment of government officials charged with the maltreatment of
Armenians. Halacoglu does not and cannot say "These documents show
that there is information about punishment of government officials for
maltreating the Armenians." Instead, he produces a new Document No. 13.

But funnily enough, this new document further reinforces my criticism.

As can be seen, this new document, dated March 12, 1916, relates to
sixteen trials of the Syria Military Tribunal. Of the sixteen trials,
fourteen are related to the personal plunder and stealing of properties
and possessions left behind by the Armenians. The last two are about
Circassian Ahmet (Halacoglu erroneously writes Recep, son of Ahmet,
whereas the correct names are Ahmet, son of Recep). Nine cases were
discharged outright and the accused released. Five cases resulted in
guilty verdicts but punishments were deferred (Please see Appendix
for the translation). The aforementioned Circassian Ahmet was a
member of the Teskilat-i Mahsusa (Special Organization), executed on
September 17, 1915. Talat Pasha had sent a telegram to Cemal Pasha,
authorizing the execution, saying that: "His death is immediately
required, otherwise, he can cause us harm in the future."

The execution of a few undesirable Teskilat-i Mahsusa members is
further covered in my book (pages 247-252).

THERE ARE NO NEW FACTS

I will repeat my questions, again and again: Are there any trials
and prosecutions against anyone for maltreating the Armenians, FOR
HARMING THE ARMENIANS AS HUMAN BEINGS? The answer is NO. Are there
any officials arrested by chance for other crimes, but released by
the Central government?

YES. The Ittihat Terakki government has never organized any trials
related to the massacres but if any accused officials were to be
arrested, it did everything possible to have them released. Are
there any trials and prosecutions of government officials for
personal plunder of the property and possessions left behind by the
Armenians? YES. Have these been successful? NO. This is evident from
any and all documents. Property and possessions plundered personally
have remained in the ownership of these persons. We do not need any
documents for these. Anatolia is still full of these stories.

My second criticism of Halacoglu’s book, Armenian Deportations and
Truths, relates to another deceitful thesis. Halacoglu states that
"The Abandoned Properties Commissions paid funds from the proceeds
of the sold properties to the deportees. The resettled refugees used
these payments to start new businesses and quickly adapted to their new
environment." Halacoglu uses three documents to support this argument
(DH. SFR. 57/348; 57/349; 57/350).

As can be seen, there is a great thesis and three documents. The thesis
is that the Armenians were paid monies in lieu of their properties
left behind.

This is completely untrue, and Halacoglu is deliberately lying. It is
in vain to find any documents in the Ottoman Archives related to funds
paid to the Armenians; such documents do not exist and therefore,
the supporters of this thesis can lie indiscriminately. When
Halacoglu referred to three archival documents about "monies paid
to the Armenians and about Armenians using these monies to set up
businesses in their new settlements," he perhaps thought that no one
would investigate these three documents. These three documents are all
from Eskishehir, and they refer to monies to be sent to the Governor
of Aleppo, not to be given to the Armenians, but to cover the expenses
of the local government during the Armenian deportation activities.

WHY ARE THOUSANDS OF ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTS MISSING?

It is impossible to have only three puny documents to support the
argument of considerable transfer of funds to the Armenians. There
should have been hundreds of thousands of documents about the Armenians
deported to Syria and Iraq. These documents simply do not exist. There
is a simple argument to refute this deceitful thesis. If we consider
the official government declaration dated March 11, 1919, it states
that 101,747 Armenians did return to their homes after the war. Did
any government official ask these Armenians: "Brother, we paid you
for your sold possessions when you resettled elsewhere, now, you have
to pay back…"

THE LIE ABOUT AID

When one reads Halacoglu’s response, it becomes apparent that his
argument changes from financial payment to the resettled Armenians to
financial aid to Armenians during the deportations. He refers to some
documents about government fund transfers to cover the deportation
expenses. While doing this, he brazenly falsifies the archival
documents. As an example, he refers to a report by Dr. W. M. Post,
a doctor at the American Hospital in Konya.

The doctor states that "Armenians are paid 1 kurus (piastre)
per adult and 20 para per child." It is obvious that Halacoglu
has not researched this subject, as he states that he got this
information from his colleague Kemal Cicek. Kemal Cicek is an expert
in document falsification. He has published the said falsified
document of Dr. Post in his book titled, Armenians’ Forced Emigration
1915-1917. Readers interested in the original complete reports can
refer to Ara Sarafyan (ed.), United States Official Record on the
Armenian Genocide 1915-1917, Princeton, London: Gomidas Institute,
2004, pages 245-257. Dr. Post explains the Konya deportation camp
where "there are absolutely no sanitary conditions, average 30 to 40
people die daily, rape, murder, bribe and kidnapping is rampant." Kemal
Cicek’s version does not refer to these facts. The payment of 1 kurus
per adult and 20 para per child is a limited arrangement for a few
days. But Halacoglu applies this with a magical trick to all the
Armenian convoys, throughout the entire duration of the deportations.

There is no limit to the document falsification and revisionism
in Halacoglu’s world. In his response, he writes that "foreign aid
organizations received permission to help the Armenians with Talat
Pasha’s signature." I refer the reader to my book, pages 306-320,
which explains how the Ottoman government refused any help to the
Armenians from the foreign aid organizations. In fact, Ottoman archival
documents clearly show that not only was the foreign aid refused,
but any foreigners trying to aid the Armenians were threatened,
arrested and imprisoned.