ARMENIAN LOBBY VS TURKEY
Agoravox
rticle/armenian-lobby-vs-turkey-11506
April 26 2010
A Turkish flag was burnt in Armenia yesterday to ‘commemorate’
a so-called genocide.
For those who have not yet been touched by the activities of
the Armenian lobby in regards to the recognition of the so-called
Armenian genocide, let me explain, in brief, what they are claiming:
Supposedly, in 1915 during the Ottoman Empire, Turks, who lived in
peace side by side with the Armenians and other ethnic groups for more
than 150 years, all of a sudden felt like killing Armenians. This is
what the Armenian diaspora claim in Europe and in America. They now
want a "recognition", to "commemorate the dead", it is long been said
that the recognition was the only common fact that gathered together
Armenians around the globe, but I find it hard to believe their only
motivation is to come together through this tragedy. A financial
subvention accompanied by land grabbing, is what I guess is their
main motivation. Action less honourable than ‘commemorating the dead".
But I would leave the discussion of whether it was genocide or not
to experts. The issue is a complex issue upon which not even an
international panel of historians agreed on. Turks have, in 2005,
called upon an international panel of historians to gather and debate
this claim; Armenians have refused. Let’s get back to this very coward
act of burning flag. What does it make the burner look like apart from
showing its uncivilised nature? A Greek flag had been laid down in
front of the entrance to an office, but Ataturk refused to step on it.
The event was in contrast to Greek officers walking over a Turkish
flag when taking over the Mayor of Izmir’s office in 1919. Ataturk
refused to do the same display at the same building in 1922.
"The flags are sacred; no one has the right to be disrespectful to
them, even if it is your enemy’s" said Ataturk. I guess the problem
of Turks is that they are too considerate and expect people to be
the same. There have been dead on both sides during the civil unrest
in 1915, but Turks do not talk about their dead. Armenians do talk
about theirs without mentioning Turks who perished, massacred by
the Armenian milicia, my Turkish grandfather saw his mum raped and
put into an industrial oven alive by Armenian milicia who, while
Turkish men were busy fighting the war, would go from a village to
another rape and kill women and civilians. When talking about his
mother death, grandfather would say "but it was war", Armenians say
"genocide". Armenian diaspora has been extremely active for the last
40 years.
Turks did not feel the need to do anything, for them, it was a civil
war in which both side lost. I always wondered how is it that I, as a
Turk, get from my French friends questions like: "why don’t you guys
recognize the genocide, poor them!" My friends wouldn’t know what the
state of the Ottoman Empire in 1915 was but they did know something
happened to the Armenians in 1915, because they had seen and heard
"stuff" around this "genocide thing". How wonderful is this lobby
thing, and the Armenian lobby is sure doing a great job. If there is
one thing Turks should get their hands on, it is the lobbying culture.
The questions relative to war crimes were settled within the framework
of the Treaty of Kars (1921), where the war criminals of both sides
benefited from a generalized amnesty.
There was a war, in which the Armenians (Soviet or Ottomans) took
part allying with the Alliance (Britain and France) and Russia. This
participation is recorded in the correspondences of Boghos Noubar,
leader of the Armenian delegation at the Peace conference in Versailles
in 1919. This quotation of the Armenian participation in the war
is also available in a British newspaper dated January 30th, 1919
(The Times of London) but also in the French Archives of the Foreign
Ministry. Do people know this? Of course, not. Does anyone know
that the Ottoman authorities arrested and sentenced more than 1600
persons, state employees or not, who were guilty of exactions and
ill-treatment against transported convict and that these people were
sentenced because they acted against the directives of the central
power at the time. Some of them were even hanged.
Turkey should today start leading a just and justifiable fight,
so that this obnoxious campaign of slander and defamation stops,
a campaign which started in the 1960s corresponding thus at the
beginning of the cold war. It is a propaganda launched by Russia who
is the sole responsible of the isolation of Armenia. This issue has
to stop being used as an instrument for domestic policies or as an
excuse to blackmail Turkey to extirpate concessions. Mao said and
some lobbyists understood this really well, "a lie repeated hundreds
times become a truth’, maybe if Turks repeated hundreds times their
version then maybe the truth would appear.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
