TURKISH HISTORIAN AFFIRMS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

armradio.am
01.04.2010 16:41

Prominent Turkish historian told Taraf newspaper in an interview that
"the Young Turks planned to annihilate the entire Armenian population."

Historian Selim Deringil told Taraf that there was also a distinction
between the aims of the Young Turks and their predecessor Sultan
Abdul Hamid at the turn of the 19th century, Asbarez reports.

"The difference between Sultan Abdul Hamid and the Young Turks was
that the Young Turks wanted to completely destroy and annihilate the
Armenians, while Sultan Abdul Hamid sought to get rid of a certain
element of Armenians, to diminish their economic dominance and to
create and Islamic bourgeoisie."

"There were Armenians [living] everywhere [in Turkey]. The massacre
of Armenians took place in different cities. Today, the official
history states that in all the areas where people were killed there
were Armenians revolts; however, the majority of those were not
rebellions," said Deringil.

The historian told Taraf that between 1841 and 1897, 300,000 Armenian
were massacred under Sultan Adbul Hamid. He claims that 800,000 were
murdered during the Armenian Genocide.

Deringil also cites the failures of Turkish policy after the
establishment of the modern-day Republic. He told Taraf that at the
onset of the Republic an estimated 300,000 Armenians lived in Turkey,
while today that number has dwindled to 70,000.

"Annihilation does not only happen through killings," claimed
Derengil. "If you make life unbearable [for people] they will pick
up and leave."

Derengil also criticized Turkish historians, who, he said, spend
all of their time trying to rationalize Turkey’s official denialist
position on the Genocide. "They work only to prove that Armenian
assertions are baseless."

After World War I, Derengil said, there was plenty of evidence that
demonstrated the crimes, kidnapping and rape of Armenian women in
Anatolia beginning in 1915. He cited that at that time the number of
adoptions was 300,000"

"This is worth discussion."