Author: Chilingarian Babken

COMMITTEE ON PREPARATION AND ORGANIZATION OF EVENTS ON RA CONSTITUTION’S 15TH ANNIVERSARY FORMED

NOYAN TAPAN
DECEMBER 14, 2009
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, NOYAN TAPAN. RA President Serzh Sargsyan signed
an order on creating a committee on preparation and organization
of events on RA Constitution’s 15th anniversary. According to RA
President’s Press Office, committee’s Chairman is RA Prime Minister
Tigran Sargsian.

APA
[ 09 Dec 2009 22:56 ]

Turkish Ambassador to the US Nabi Shensoy reportedly resigned over
strained relations with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Baku-APA. Turkey ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the
United States has announced that he presented his letter of
resignation to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, demanding his recall
from the US.

Although he declined to refer to any reason behind his resignation,
Turkish reporters accompanying Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an
during his state visit in Washington learned from unidentified sources
said the ambassador quit for strained relationship with Foreign
Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu over the format of a meeting between the
prime minister and US President Barack Obama.

According to the unconfirmed information, Turkish Ambassador to the US
Nabi Shensoy had been ordered by the foreign ministry to arrange the
meeting between Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Barack Obama in the 2+2
format, i.e. with the presence of Ahmet Davutoglu and Hillary Clinton.

Although that format had been tentatively agreed, the US
administration refused to accept the format at the last minute.

Getting angry with the ambassador who was responsible to arrange the
meeting, Ahmet Davutoglu told him `he doesn’t want to work with him
any longer’

In response, the ambassador said we will quit his job after the prime
minister visit and asked the ministry to recall him.

The ambassador declined to say why he is resigning despite reporters’
insistence.

Co-Chairs in the region to prepare the way for further meetings
between Presidents

armradio.am
12.12.2009 11:32

The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs issued the following statement today:

"The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs (Ambassador Yuri Merzlyakov, the
Russian Federation; Ambassador Bernard Fassier, France; Ambassador
Robert Bradtke, United States) visited Azerbaijan December 11.

They met with President Ilham Aliyev to follow up on the discussions
between President Aliyev and President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan in
Munich November 22. As a next step, they also intend to visit Yerevan
in early January.

These visits will prepare the way for further meetings between the two
presidents in 2010 to finalize the Basic Principles for the peaceful
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict."

PACKAGE OF AGREEMENTS CONSISTING OF MORE THAN 20 DOCUMENTS SIGNED AT EURASEC INTER-STATE COUNCIL’S SESSION

ARMENPRESS
Dec 11, 2009

ST. PETERSBURG, DECEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS: The session of the EurAsEC
Inter-State Council started today with the presentation of issues of
the Council of the Supreme Customs Body. The heads of the member states
of the organization first conducted a narrow and then an extended
discussion. During the session package of agreements consisting of
more than 20 documents have been signed.

At the meeting with the reporters Russian Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin described today’s meeting as strictly important, pointing
out that this organization may be the locomotive of development
of EurAsEC. According to him, the signing of these documents is
a serious step for the creation of joint economic territory and
seriously promotes the economic integration. The crisis, according
to Putin, may be considered overcome but the situation is not smooth
yet, thus in that respect the implementation of the events initiated
by the organization are seriously highlighted. After the collapse of
the USSR the economic ties seemed do be destroyed and the integration
processes slowed down. Within the framework of the CIS and a number
of other organizations an attempt is being made to fill the gap and
the activity of EurAsEC is too directed toward it.

"There still are very serious and unsettled issues and this is a
step toward their solution," he said, highlighting the signing of
today’s documents.

The anti-crisis fund established by the organization will start its
main activity from 2010. Armenia too takes part in its work. The fund
will promote the effective implementation of anti-crisis events in
the member states and from 2011 steps will be undertaken toward the
creation of joint economic territory.

>From 2010 for the member states of EurAsEC joint customs tariffs will
be established. The agreement over it was signed yet in November.

LAUNCHING STRUGGLE AGAINST OLIGOPOLY, ARMENIAN AUTHORITIES MUST START WITH THEMSELVES

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.12.2009 15:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Prime Minister and Parliament Speaker’s
statements about the struggle against the oligopoly in Armenia are
not credible, since none of such statements has been called to life
so far, Heritage parliamentary group member Anahit Bakhshyan said.

"If the authorities want to fight oligopoly, they must start with
themselves," she told a parliamentary briefing on Friday. "All Armenian
oligarchs and monopolists are the leadership’s inner circle."

U.S. AGREED ON ARMENIA AND NAGORNO-KARABAKH ECONOMIC AID PACKAGE IN 2010

Tert.am
12:30 ~U 10.12.09

The U.S. House and Senate agreed upon a far-reaching Fiscal Year 2010
(FY10) spending measure that includes a $41 million USD economic aid
package for Armenia, $8 million USD for "programs and activities"
in Nagorno-Karabagh, and parity in Foreign Military Financing for
Armenia and Azerbaijan, reports the Armenian National Committee of
America (ANCA).

These figures were determined by a conference committee, comprised
of House and Senate appropriators tasked with reconciling the two
versions of the FY10 foreign aid bill. The House measure, overseen by
the State-Foreign Operations Subcommittee Chair Nita Lowey (D- NY),
included a $48 million USD allocation for Armenia, $10 million USD
for Nagorno-Karabagh, and across-the-board parity in military aid to
Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The Senate version, presided over by the State-Foreign Operations
Subcommittee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-VT), set aside just $30 million
USD for Armenia, the figure proposed in President Obama’s budget,
and did not include any figures for either aid to Nagorno-Karabagh
or military aid to Yerevan and Baku. The President’s low aid request
for Armenia – which represented a dramatic 39% cut from the previous
year, stood in stark contrast to his campaign pledge to maintain aid
levels and to foster the growth and development of Armenia.

Congress also rolled back President Obama’s request to reverse the
long-established policy of maintaining military parity between Armenia
and Azerbaijan in terms of Foreign Military Financing. No figures were
included in the Conference Report regarding International Military
Education and Training.

"We want to thank all our friends, among them Chair Lowey, Adam
Schiff, Mark Kirk, Steve Rothman, Jesse Jackson, Steve Israel,
and Frank Lobiondo, for restoring $11 million USD of the $18
million USD reduction in aid to Armenia proposed by the Obama-Biden
Administration, and also for setting, for the first time, unrestricted
aid to Nagorno-Karabagh at $8 million USD," said Aram Hamparian,
Executive Director of the ANCA.

THE ACADEMY AND 50 MILLION

Lragir.am
10/12/09

A serious relationship seems to appear between the leadership of the
RA Academy of Sciences and the global economic crisis. Unfortunately,
this connection is not due to the inventions of the eminent Armenian
scientists and the non-eminent methods of combating the crisis,
but the state budget, in other words, legal wasting of its means. As
our reliable sources at the Ministry of Finances inform, this year,
in connection with the crisis, it is impossible to turn a blind eye
to illegal colossal waste of the budget (about 50 million), which are
deducted as premiums to already dead academicians and correspondent
members. According to our source, the president of the RA Academy of
Sciences Radik Martirosyan still tries to solve the problem pointing
out the RA government in particular the Armenian Ministry of Education
and Science with its unjustified expenditure and does not appeal to
the professional assistance of the Academy economist members.

OUR DOORS ARE ALWAYS OPEN FOR TURKISH PRESIDENT, SAYS ISRAELI PRESIDENT

Tert.am
14:21 â~@¢ 10.12.09

"We are still expecting Mr. President to visit Israel. Our doors are
always open to him," said Israeli President Shimon Peres, referring to
Turkish President Abdullah Gul and speaking at a ceremony of Turkey’s
newly-appointed ambassador to Israel, Oguz Celikkol, presenting his
credentials to the Israeli president, reports Turkish news source
Today’s Zaman.

Speaking at the ceremony in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Peres said Israel
and Turkey had "a long history of relations as well as a bright
future ahead."

Peres said Turkey and Israel had common enemies and faced common
threats, against which he said the two countries should join in
the struggle.

"We want our relations with Turkey to move on for the better,"
Peres said.

BRAZIL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP: SEVAG MEKHITARIAN ONLY HALF A POINT BEHIND THE LEADER

Panorama.am
18:27 08/12/2009

Armenian IM Krikor-Sevag Mekhitarian continues to play excellently
in the 76th Brazil Championship held in city of Americana. After
another win in the 7th round Mekhitarian scored 5,5 points totally
and shortened the difference between his and GM Goivanni Vescovi’s
points even more. Now Sevak is only half a point behind the leader.

There are four rounds left before the end of the tournament.

A RECENT ANTI-SEMITIC THEME: THE SABBATEAN ROLE IN THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Rifat Bali

Armenian weekly
December 7, 2009

We publish below chapter IX of Rifat Bali’s book A Scapegoat for All
Seasons: The Doenmes or Crypto-Jews of Turkey in its entirety.

Rifat Bali was born in Istanbul in 1948. Between the years 1970-1995
he worked first as a manager then as a managing partner in a
private company. In 2001 he graduated from the Ecole Pratique des
Hautes Etudes of the Sorbonne University. Since 1996 he has been
researching and publishing in the field of non-Muslim minorities of
Turkey, anti-Semitism, conspiracy theories, the social and cultural
transformation of the Turkish society and Doenmes (Crypto Jews). He
is a research fellow of the Alberto Benveniste Center for Sephardic
Studies and Culture based in the Religious Studies Department of the
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne (Paris) and a member of
Ottoman-Turkish Sephardic Culture Research Center. He is fluent in
English, French and Ladino. Currently he is serving libraries through
his company Libra Kitapcilik ve Yayincilik with monographs and serials
published in Turkey.

To obtain a copy of A Scapegoat for All Seasons: The Doenmes or
Crypto-Jews of Turkey, contact Libra Books at [email protected].

***

Another interesting and recent product of the anti-Dönme mindset, a
worldview that sees those belonging to or descended from this group
as a secret, select and extremely powerful branch of Judaism that
controls Turkey, is the claim that is was not the Turks, but the
Sabbateans, who both planned and implemented the 1915 Deportation
resulting in the mass slaughter and death of most of the Ottoman
Empire’s Armenian population. According to this view the idea of
mass deportation and slaughter emerged because the country’s Jewish
bourgeoisie wished to take control of the empire’s economic life,
and, since many of the leaders of the ruling Committee of Union and
Progress were of Dönme origin (e.g. Talât Pasha and Dr. Nâzým), they
proposed this plan to the committee as a way of eliminating their
Armenian competitors. An example is Christopher Jon Bjerkness, an
amateur historian of science. A 543-page document entitled The Jewish
Genocide of Armenian Christians which he posted on the internet where
he claims as the title suggests, that it was the Crypto-Jews who were
the perpetrators of the Armenian genocide.[1] Since this opinion has
been shared by a wide audience among Armenian and Turkish Islamist
circles, Khatchig Mouradian, the editor of The Armenian Weekly, an
American-Armenian weekly newspaper, and Dr. Nilgün Gülcan, a researcher
working at the International Strategic Center Research Organisation
(Ankara),[2] felt obliged to discount such claims.

Mouradian in his article stated that:[3]

Having written several articles on Jewcy about the bigotry and racism
of some Jews and Turks regarding the Armenians and their suffering,
I now feel obliged to address one of the conspiracy theories that
has been passed from generation to generation–and shared by some
Armenians–for a few decades at least. It goes something like this:

The plan to exterminate the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire was
conceived and implemented by Jews, Zionists and Freemasons. You
want proof? Several leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress
(CUP)–that committed the genocide–were Jews converted to Islam (the
Turkish term used to refer to them is Donme) and freemasons. Those
who present these arguments, of course, set out several reasons that
might have prompted the Jews to exterminate the Armenians, ranging
from jealousy (for example, the Armenians were successful merchants,
even more so than the Jews) to greater geo-political schemes sometimes
involving the domination of the world. In some cases, this conspiracy
theory is amalgamated with a similar theory prevalent among some
Arabs that the Young Turk revolt of 1908 against the Ottoman Sultan
Abdulhamid II was also a Jewish and Freemasonic conspiracy because
the sultan was vehemently opposed the settling of Jews in Palestine,
while the Young Turks were allegedly more inclined to implement the
Zionist designs.

While no professional historian of the Armenian genocide has taken
this conspiracy theory seriously, there has unfortunately been no
separate academic analysis as well to expose its origins and the
reasons of its persistence, making it possible for this theory to
survive on the margins of Armenian life.

A quick glance of those in Turkey who espouse this view will show that
they can be classified into three main groups: a) numerous columnists
from the Islamist press; b) a group of Turkish-Armenian journalists,
most notably the recently assassinated[4] Editor-in-Chief of the
Armenian community’s semi-official organ Agos,[5] Hrant Dink, the
paper’s columnist Markar Esayan and Levon Panos Dabaðyan, a writer for
the Turkish nationalist paper Önce Vatan; c) Ilgaz Zorlu, a young Turk
who, after ‘going public’ with an admission of his Dönme origins in the
late 1990s, has been on this basis accorded widespread media attention
and whose every public statement has enjoyed an extraordinary level
of credibility;[6] and finally d) the Marxist Economics Professor
Yalçýn Küçük, whose fame has spread in recent years as a result of
his numerous publications on the Sabbateans.

a. The Islamist Press

Akit Editor-in-Chief Abdurrahman Dilipak

During the fall of 2000 the Turkish press was completely preoccupied
with the debate then transpiring in the U.S. House of Representatives
over the House Resolution 398 "Affirmation of the United States Record
on the Armenian Genocide". During this period Abdurrahman Dilipak, the
Editor-in-Chief of the radical Islamist daily Akit wrote a column in
which he raised the subject of the genocide and role of the Sabbateans
in it:

Is there such a thing as Sabbateanism or isn’t there? Some say there
is, others claim that there’s no such thing, while still others say
that there once was, but it no longer exists.

Sabbateanism is a subject which is not written about, outlined or
spoken of very often. But it’s not that there aren’t some works
from which the curious can acquire some general information about
the topic. For example, there are Abdurrahman Küçük’s work titled
Dönmeler,[7] Galante’s work,[8] and the National Education [Ministry]
and [The Presidency of] Religious Affairs’ Ýslâm [A]nsiklopedileri.

What is generally agreed upon [by all of these authors] is that
[Sabbateanism] is a secret movement like Freemasonry, it is connected
to the Jewish faith, Kabbala and its traditions, based on the Messianic
claim [of Sabbatai Sevi], and, having originated in Salonica, is
centered in Izmir and Salonica. It is a sect or a [dervish] order.

What we’re talking about is an unknown reality of this country.

In fact, we do not know enough about the Armenians, the Greeks,
the Syriac Christians or the Yezidis either.

Now, as the debate of the claims of a[n Armenian] genocide has begin
in America, the question [of the Sabbateans] has once more come to
the agenda in this regard. A good researcher will easily see that
the true address for claims of [responsibility for] the genocide are
neither the Ottoman [Empire] nor the Republic of Turkey. The role in
this affair of those Jewish, Masonic and Sabbatean Unionists within
the Committee of Union and Progress is a well-known fact.

So why doesn’t anyone want to see it as a fact? The reality of it is
painfully clear.[9]

Six years later, upon the French Parliament’s passage of a law
outlawing the denial of the truth of the Armenian genocide, Dilipak
would once again pick up this line of argument, implying, among others,
Jewish and Dönme responsibility for the Armenian genocide with the
statement "The Armenian question is a subject that not only concerns
the Turks, the Kurds and Jews are also involved in this affair. The
Sabbateans are also [involved]. So, for that matter, are the Russians,
the Americans, the British, the French and the Greeks.

We will [soon] understand that none of us are without blame".[10]
In 2007 the day after the House Resolution 106 entitled "Affirmation
of the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution"
was accepted by The Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of
Representatives Dilipak referred again in his column to this matter
and stated that "if we discuss in depth the Armenian problem,
it would become apparent that those who did this in the Ottoman
Empire were Committee of Union and Progress bands made up of Jews,
Freemason-Sabataist mongrels".[11]

Millî Gazete Columnist Mehmed Þevket Eygi

The question of the Armenian genocide and Dönme responsibility for
it was also recently taken up by the columnist of the Islamist daily
Millî Gazete,[12] Mehmed Þevket Eygi. In a late-2005 column Eygi wrote:

The events of 1915 were planned by the Dönme. [They were carried out]
because at that time the commerce, the crafts production and capital
of Anatolia were in great measure in the hands of the Armenians. The
Dönmes wanted to replace them in the economic, commercial and
finance-related fields.

Were some atrocities committed against the Armenians? They were, but
it wasn’t the Muslim Turks who committed them. As to those who did
carry out [such acts], those who are well-versed in history, who know
the true nature of the[se] events, are aware [of who is responsible].

(1) The Armenian question is the concern of the Dönmes.

(2) [These actions] were performed as a reprisal for the actions
carried out by the Armenian armed gangs incited by aggressive
missionaries. Let it not be forgotten how, when the Russian army
entered Anatolia, entered Van, some Armenians who were enemies of
the very state to which they belonged carried out barbarities against
the Muslim [inhabitant]s.

(3) In general, those Armenians who had been deported were killed
and robbed by other, non-Turkish groups.

The columnist then concludes his piece with the following ‘note’:

I suggest that you read the article titled "GÝZLÝ BÝR SAVAÞ: YAHUDÝLER
ERMENÝLERE KARÞI" [‘A secret war: the Jews against the Armenians’]
found at the Internet site for which I give the web address below. In
this two-page article it is claimed that the planners of the Armenian
events of 1915 were Dönmes, or Crypto-Jews.

.[13]

The web article to which Eygi refers his readers was written in
Turkish in 2001 and is presented below in full:

In this article of mine, I wish to explain to you some truths about
the Armenian Question with the intention of at least partially removing
the scales from your eyes:

I want to speak of two large minority [populations] that competed with
one another within the Ottoman Empire for centuries, that is to say,
the Jews and the Armenians. The disputes between these two minorities
derived not from the land dispute [that, originating with] the Young
Turks [and continuing] down to the establishment of the Union and
Progress Party, but with the struggles between these two groups for
commercial advantage. The Armenians were always much more capable
artisans than the Jews and [so the latter] did not engage in commerce
apart from through fraud and dubious dealing or by creating all manner
of division and dissent against their competitors, because the society
was not familiar with their culture. That’s how it was with the Jews,
it was part of their ideology; that’s what it meant to be Jewish.

In the 1870s two branches of Judaism, the Sabbateans and the Jews,[14]
began to organize among themselves and gain in strength. Through the
assistance of the French, Italians and other foreign powers they began
to understand the dimensions of their own united power in the economic
field. They began to [work toward] destroy[ing] the [Ottoman] Empire
and planting the seeds of an entirely new state that they themselves
would establish. But naturally, as part of this plan they could
not be on friendly terms with the Armenians, who were their biggest
competitors. For this reason you cannot find Armenians among the Young
Turks or the [Committee of] Union and Progress. They embarked upon
preparations for the whittling down and elimination of the Armenians.

What they intended to do was to eliminate the Armenians, who for
centuries had established a powerful minority community within the
various cities and centers of Anatolia, and to establish a state in
which the control and administration would be in their own hands. This
was what Sabbatai Sevi had intended in the 17th century. The Armenians
would be eliminated and they themselves, that is, the Sabbateans,
the majority of whom were wealthy and powerful, would come from the
Balkans to Anatolia and settle there. In this way the Jews would also
be rid of the their strongest competitors.

The Sabbateans attempted not to make themselves noticed within the
other communities of the Balkans. If [these] other communities sensed
that the Sabbateans were different in any way, they didn’t do a thing
about it. The majority of persons in the[se] other communities were
very poor. Power and money were in the hands of the Sabbateans. The
visible behavior and other characteristics peculiar to the Sabbateans
appeared to [those of] other nations simply as behaviors that derived
from their material wealth. But it was not so. On the contrary. The
Sabbateans were culturally very different and they grew rich from
acting in partnership with the Jews, and because, in fact, they
were Jews.

There were Sabbateans who attained command and high rank within
the army. Because the army was, in the eyes of the people, the
savior [of the nation], they submitted to the dictates of its high
officers without knowing what was being done or what it’s objectives
were. Upon the orders of the [Committee of] Union and Progress,
most of the Armenians were either killed in their villages or, while
being driven in utter misery and deprivation to Lebanon and Syria,
died on the journey.

The Armenians all know that those who killed their ancestors were the
Young Turks/Union and Progress–in other words, the Jews (Musevi) and
Sabbateans, who descended from the Jewish (Yahudi) race. The killers
may have been Turkish on the outside, but on the inside they were in
fact Jewish. Although the Sabbateans all possess Turkish names and
cloak themselves in a Muslim identity, they [i.e., the Armenians] are
able to make this differentiation because in the Ottoman Empire for
centuries there was no interaction between them and the Muslim Turks.

They all know very well with whom they interacted and they were
not deceived in the least. Since the appearance of Sabbateanism the
Armenians even wrote books about them. In this sense in a memorial
commemorating the Genocide that was opened last year in France, they
even inscribed upon this monument that it was not the Turks but the
Union and Progress or Young Turks (in other words, the Sabbateans
and Jews) who carried out this genocide.

Have you ever noticed that the ASALA has never killed a single Turk who
descends from [true] Muslim roots? It is said that without exception
only Sabbateans are accepted into the Foreign Ministry.

Everybody knows this. Turkish youth who are of Muslim origin are
not accepted into the Foreign Ministry so that they won’t notice the
presence of Sabbateans, won’t discern their games, and [therefore]
won’t tell others outside the ministry. Now think for a minute: why
has the ASALA up to now only attacked [Turkish] diplomats and other
Foreign Ministry employees? The reason is simple: it is because they
know that those who work in the Foreign Ministry are the descendents of
those ordered and are responsible for the genocide of their ancestors.

For the past years there have been a number of panel discussions
on the Armenian Genocide on the ATV, Show TV, NTV, Kanal D and BRT
[television channels]. For some reason, all of those who are called
to be discussants are Sabbateans. Professor Eser Karakaþ,[15] for
instance…It is interesting that he himself carries [a surname that
is identical with] the name of the Karakaþ group, one of the three
branches of the Sabbateans. What is this individual’s knowledge and
interest in the Armenian Genocide? We knew him as a professor of
business management, was it history in which he specialized? And
why did he come out so strongly against the statement by his
co-panelist Hürriyet’s Paris correspondent Madam [Nurdan] Bernard,
that "the more young people who apply to the Foreign Ministry,
the more persons will be accepted"? On another interesting note,
a student at Harvard, who has been characterized by the media as
"our own young, super nationalist [Turkish] girl" actually comes
from a Sabbatean family.[16] It will be recalled that she allegedly
stood up to French parliamentarians! She [allegedly ] taught [them]
a lesson! I wonder, did the French parliamentarians even hear what
she said? What wonderful scales have been placed on the eyes of the
Turkish nation, and how masterfully those who have placed these scales
have blinded them [to the truth]….

The Armenians are particularly aware of the Sabbatean-Greek
rapprochement that has been going on for the past ten years. An
example of this increasing intimacy, which has been fostered within
[the framework of] Freemasonry, was seen on Show-TV. Let’s see how
long before we actually notice this rapprochement….[17]

Mehmet Kamýþ, writer for Zaman

Mehmet Kamýþ, a writer for the daily Zaman, which is owned by the
‘moderate’ Islamist community of Fethullah Gülen, speaks of the
Armenian deportations, but refers to it chief architect, Unionist
Interior Minister Talât Pasha, as a ‘Sabbatean’:

Talât Pasha, whom Soner Yalçýn characterizes as a ‘Sabbatean’ in his
book Efendi, did not only bring all of these things upon our heads;
instead, by exaggerating the actions that he took when writing in his
notebook, which has now appeared I don’t know how many years since
his death, he has continued to cause us troubles.[18]

Kamýþ goes on in this column to depict the question of the Armenian
massacres as the problem of Talat Pasha, whom he takes pains to
portray as a Sabbatean: "The Armenian [D]eportation", he claims,
"is not a problem for the Ottomans and the Turks. It is the problem
of Talat Pasha and his ilk".

Ýbrahim Karagül, Foreign Policy Columnist for Yeni Þafak

Another Islamist writer who has broached the question of who
conceived of and planned the Armenian Deportation is Ýbrahim Karagül,
a commentator on foreign policy issues for the daily Yeni Þafak,
an Islamist daily owned by the Albayraklar Group, which is known
for its close ties with the ruling Justice and Development Party,
(Adalet ve Kalkýnma Partisi, or AKP). In a piece on the Armenian
question that appeared in May, 2005 Karagül states:

There are no aspects of the Armenian [D]eportation and genocide claims
that have not already been debated. Turkey’s relations with the rest
of the world have continually be framed within the parameters of this
painful debate. While the United States and the European powers have
repeatedly employed the genocide claim as the most effective means
of pushing Turkey into a corner, Turkey itself continues to hope for
help against these claims from the Jewish lobby in the United States.

Karagül then presents his readers with three sources for consideration:

1) an article by Joseph Brewda published in 1994 and which appears on
the website of The Schiller Institute, named after the 18th century
German poet and dramatist Friedrich Schiller and established by the
American politician and conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche and
his wife Helga Zepp LaRouche. In his article, Brewda claims that
the American Jewish organization B’nai B’rith took control of the
Middle East by means of Dönme, Zionist and Freemasonic members of
the Committee of Union and Progress.[19]

2) a web article by Clifford Shack claiming that the famous American
[sic] Jewish Rothschild family concocted the Armenian Deportation
with the aim of gaining control of the Middle Eastern oil reserves.[20]

3) An article by the Armenian American Jack Manuelian, who is also
the author of the book Nostradamus: Predictions of World War III
(distributed by an American publisher known for its ‘conspiracy
theory’ works). Manuelian claims–largely on the basis of the two
aforementioned articles–that the Armenian Deportation was carried
out by the Dönmes.[21]

After making frequent reference to these three sources, Karagül hedges
his bets:

I’m simply sharing [this information] with my readers…I’m not
claiming that these [claims] are true. But there is a sensitive
question that I have not been able to answer: Are we, the people who
live on this patch of earth, being forced to pay the price for the
sins of others?

We all notice the dark clouds that hover over Turkey. For the sake
of this country we will all struggle against these with all our might.

But I wonder: are we only doing ourself evil by acting so? I mean,
who is defending whom here? The subject impels us to come face to
face with ourselves….[22]

Karagül’s piece would in the following days be widely quoted by
the Islamist daily Millî Gazete,[23] and only Engin Ardýç of the
centrist daily Akþam would offer any criticism of the Yeni Þafak
writer’s claims:

In recent times Turkey has been experiencing a ‘Sabbatean’ crisis.

Certain ‘eccentric thinkers’ in possession of questionable mental
states have been tossing a Sabbatean stone in the well; no one has any
intention of pulling it out again–and the fact is, no one could [once
it’s been thrown]. On the contrary, there are those who have something
to gain by having this stone remain there, and who are attempting
to quickly convert it into ‘a series of articles, [which will lead]
to increased sales and [thus, more] money’….that is shameful.

Let me quickly explain for the psychopaths that I have no connection,
either close or distant, with Judaism, Sabbateanism or ‘Dönme-ism’.

That said, I also don’t believe that these are a condition of which
one need be ashamed. But some consider it so strange that I would
devote attention to questions like the concentration camps, genocide
and such, that they delight in searching out alternate reasons for
this [behavior]; so much so that one of my Jewish readers even said
"O.K., Engin Bey, [it’s out of a love for] humanity and whatnot. We
got it. But really, why are you so interested in these topics?" I
wonder: did he think I would ultimately turn out to be a ‘dönme’?

The word ‘dönme’ is used in this country as a term of opprobrium. And
because in recent years in particular it has also been used in the
sense of ‘a person who changes their sex’ [i.e., a transsexual],
it also conjures up all manner of negative associations.

The person who has ‘converted’ to Islam, meaning he or she has come
from another religion and chosen Islam is not to be debased–on the
contrary, they are to be exalted and embraced. To say such things
like ‘He used to belong to another religion, and only became a real
human because of us’ either to their face or behind their back is
absolutely disgraceful.

And so among us [the word] ‘dönme’ [i.e., ‘convert’] is an insult…And
the one who is doing this is an old Marxist![24] Go, figure…

Yes, it’s true. The masonic lodges of Salonica in particular played
a role–not in the founding of the Committee for Union and Progress,
but in its transformation into a [political] party and, later on,
in its coming to power as well. Enver and Cemal were not masons,
but Talât was. (As for the situation of [other] leading figures like
Bahaettin Þakir, Nazým of Florina and Mithat Þükrü, go and ask it
yourself to the Supreme Master [of the freemason lodge] ….But in
order to assert that this [organization] was simply ‘the result of a
grand conspiracy to take control of the Ottoman [Empire] and the Middle
East [as a whole]’ one has to be a few cards short of a full deck!

They may have indeed been able to imagine ‘giving equality and freedom
to all of the peoples of the Ottoman [Empire], and meanwhile plucking
off an autonomous Jewish province in Palestine’.

Just look: this upstart Armenian, some fellow by the name of Jak
Manuelian has asserted that ‘the Sabbateans who wished to seize the
economy of the Middle East from the Christians concocted the Armenian
deportation’. Whoa, stop right there. The ones who created the Armenian
deportation were Turanist and Unionist bureaucracy that wanted to
create a [racially] pure and unadulterated fortress, a true homeland
that would remain from the shrinking and crumbling [Ottoman] Empire,
one last piece of earth in Anatolia in which we could seek refuge.

This policy ‘overlapped’ (as the intellectuals love to say) with
this same party’s policy of wishing to take the economy out of the
hands of the minorities and giving it to the Turkish nation, or more
correctly, of wanted to create a Turkish bourgeoisie, because there
were no proper Turkish merchants available [at the time].[25]

Dünden Bugüne Tercüman Columnist Nuh Gönültaþ[26]

Several weeks before the Karagül piece the Islamist journalist
Nuh Gönültaþ, well known for his antisemitic conspiracy theories,
published an article that is worth quoting in full:

Bediüzzaman fought against the Armenian armed gangs and the Russian
army, but he never harmed civilians. Bediüzzaman freed the thousands of
Armenian children who were collected over the course of these battles
and returned them to their families in Russia. This action was an
important lesson by example for the Armenians and they were astounded
at the ethics of the Muslims. In response the Armenian militia heads
abandoned their custom of slaughtering the Muslim children [that fell
into their hands] and vowed, "If Molla Said will not slaughter our
wives and children and instead turn them over to us, from this point
on we will not slaughter Muslim children". One blizzard-filled night,
during a battle with the Russian and Armenian soldiers over the city
of Bitlis, [Bediüzzaman] broke his leg while jumping from a wall into
a ditch in an attempt to hide under a bridge and remained there with
his students for two days, lying in a drainage canal amid the ice. They
were finally forced to surrender so as not to freeze to death.

One can read in the book Tarihçe-i Hayat’tan ve Bilinmeyen Taraflarýyla
Bediüzzaman Said Nursi how he rescued a great number of Armenian
civilians from the hands of Muslim militiamen who were going to kill
them. That’s but a summary of one part of the event that concerns
Bediüzzaman. But there is a very interesting duplicity in regard to the
question of the Armenian Genocide. Unfortunately it was the Armenians
and the Kurds who did this. Although the Armenians and the Armenian
terror organizations know full well which particular community having
an ‘international’ reach within the Committee of Union and Progress
helped to transform the ‘deportation’ operation into a tragedy, and
which later killed many of its important leaders, they do not state
this openly. Why not? Because today, just like back then and every
time since then, it is the same center of power that nourishes the
Armenian Diaspora. They cannot go any further than this center.

Tell me, who gave to Professor Vahakn Dadrian, [an Armenian-American
professor] who has devoted his life to obtaining official recognition
for the Armenian Genocide, a prize "for the contributions that he
has made to genocide studies"? The International Jewish Holocaust
Conference. They held their gathering this year in Florida in the
United States on March 5-8. Five years ago this crew demanded that
Turkey accept "the Armenian genocide as a reality whose histor[ical]
truth is undeniable".[27] Among the names [of those receiving
this award] is Eli Wisel [sic], a survivor of the Auschwitz [sic]
[extermination] camp and one of the closest advisors of U.S.

Presidents.

So what has happened in recent years to those persons who for years
spoke of the Armenian ‘genocide’ and then, at the last moment came to
support the Turkish position and withdrew their genocide resolutions
from the conference?

The first accusation in this matter was expressed five years ago by
Israel’s former National Education Minister Yosi Sarid, thereby causing
a diplomatic crisis. [At that time] Sarid said: "In our new history
[textbooks] I want to see a lengthy section about genocide and the
Armenian genocide must be mentioned openly in this section. This is
our duty to you and to ourselves".[28]

In fact the subject is quite complicated, but it’s not so out of
control as all that. In order to be able to understand the Armenian
question it is necessary to know [about] the ‘Auspicious Event’, [that
is] the elimination of the Janissaries, and how the gang of Jewish
community leaders was also eliminated-the same leaders who exploited
the Janissary officers during the course of these momentous events,
to make them turn over their large rice cauldrons [in revolt], how all
their assets were seized, how [all] Jewish influence was removed from
the government and how the Armenians were brought in their place.[29]

The disputes between these two minorities derived not from the land
dispute [that, originating with] the Young Turks [and continuing]
down to the establishment of the Union and Progress Party, but with
the struggles between these two groups for commercial advantage. The
Armenians were always much more capable artisans than the Jews and
because it was not a part of the [ Armenians’] culture they generally
did not engage in commerce "by eliminating their competitors by other
means". But that wasn’t the case with their rivals. During the 1870s
Ottoman Jewry (including Dönmes (Avdeti) and Masons), which was
centered in Salonica began to organize itself and grow in strength.

Through the assistance of the French, Italians and other foreign
powers they began to understand the dimensions of their own united
power in the economic field. They destroyed the [Ottoman] Imperial
Dynasty and began planting the seeds of an entirely new state that
[in which] they themselves would establish. But their most important
rivals, the Armenians, would spoil their plans. Ever since Greek
Independence, the Greek Orthodox [Ottoman subject] had formed an
enormous problem. But the Armenians were, in contrast to them, "the
loyal community". They had settled in Anatolia and in the capital
[i.e., Istanbul]. For this reason you cannot find Armenians among the
Young Turks or the C[ommittee of] U[nion and] P[rogress]. In fact,
at the beginning there was a fair amount of mutual sympathy [between
the two sides], but later on things quickly changed. The CUP’s "steel
core" embarked on preparations to eliminate the Armenians. What they
intended to do was to drive out the Armenians, who for centuries
had established a powerful edifice within the various [population]
centers of Anatolia, and to establish a state in which the control and
administration would be in their own hands. The Armenians all knew
that the ones who "brainwashed" their ancestors were the European
states and Russia, along with the great weapon and finance cartels.

Just as [the Armenians] betrayed the Ottoman [Empire] for the Russians
during the First World War, the [Kurdish] Peshmerga that trusted Bush
the father in 1991 and revolted against Saddam [Hussein], only to be
scattered into the mountains by the hundreds of thousands, fell into
this same state. The Armenians know full well who the real persons are
with whom they have accounts [to settle], but there isn’t a whole lot
that they can do about it today. They are in the situation in which a
‘carrot’ has been held out before them yet again. Just as they knew who
was behind the events of September 6-7, 1955, and who gained ownership
of their property for but a pittance. Indeed, the basic question here
is one of ethics, and they can’t say it. They know very well about
Dr. Nâzým, Finance Minister Cavid, Talat [Pasha], Cemal [Pasha], CUP
Secretary-General Mithat Þükrü Bleda and the "special" connections
between this group. Just as they knew about Dr. Yahya Muhlis Bey, the
CUP member who, while appearing to be vaccinating the Armenian villages
in the Bingöl and Bitlis areas against the contagious diseases, was
actually infecting the population with the typhoid and typhus microbes.

It is clear that we have entered into volatile times, but it’s still
necessary to be able to be calm and objective about everything. I
should remind [my readers] just how much of an incendiary matter
the insulting of the [Turkish] flag represented during the Nevruz
demonstrations. During the events of September 6-7 [1955], the naive
population was driven into Þiþli and Bakýrköy by such empty boasts as
"Atatürk’s house in Salonica has been bombed" and the final elimination
of the Armenians and Greeks was carried out. There’s benefit to be
had in being cautious![30]

Apart from the fact that Gönültaþ has lifted nearly half his piece
word-for-word from the aforementioned 2001 web article (see the section
on Mehmed Þevket Eygi) while leaving out any overt references to the
Dönmes, even at first glance it becomes apparent that the author’s
intent is to exonerate Muslim Turks from any responsibility for
the Armenian genocide and place the entire blame for the planning
and execution of the atrocities on the Sabbateans. Gönültaþ doesn’t
stop their, however, and even insinuates that they incited the 1955
anti-Greek riots as well, a claim subsequently reiterated by Yalçýn
Küçük.

Bülen t Þahin Erdeðer

Bülent Erdeðer, editor of the journal Kur’an Nesli "Qur’an Generation"
of the website with the same name () and a
contributor to the radical Islamist journal Haksöz also seems to
believe that the Dönmes were influential in the decision to deport
the Armenian population of Anatolia. In a lengthy piece titled
"The Armenian Question in the Context of Atrocities and Genocide"
he writes:[31]

A rather powerful commercial bourgeoisie was raised up in Salonica.

The Salonican dönmes [i.e., the Sabbateans] distinguished themselves
quite thoroughly as a commercial bourgeoisie, through their level
of culture, their knowledge of languages, the printing houses they
established, their newspapers, clubs and special schools. The Dönmes
and the Jews both lent their support to the Young Turk movement. They
hoped that a change of regime would provide them with the opportunity
to destroy the [commercial] monopoly of the Greek and Armenian
businessmen in Istanbul. For the sake of their own interests, this
burgeoning commercial bourgeoisie was much closer to the Central
Powers, to Germany and Austria. In their economic relations with
Turkey the British and French generally supported the Greeks and
Armenians. As for the Germans, whose economic relations with Turkey
were rapidly developing, they showed a greater tendency to support
the Jewish and Muslim bourgeoisie. By means of the Masonic Societies
ties were established between the leading figures of the [Committee
of] Union and Progress and the Salonica Bourgeoisie. It was against
just such political conditions and social relations that the 1908
Movement came to fruition.

The movement did not long remain a movement of [army] officers and
intellectuals, but also rested on a social foundation, being supported
by a commercial bourgeoisie intent on destroying the monopoly in
economic life established by the pashas and the wealthy Greek and
Armenians. The 3rd army corps commander of the Action Army that
marched from Salonica to Istanbul on March 31 [1909] was Hüseyin
Hüsnü Pasha. We can see this name appearing on the list of famous
Masons that the Masons themselves have provided. The Adjutant Major
(Kolaðasý) of the Action Army was Mustafa Kemal. Whether out of the
historical Jewish-Armenian hostility, due to the dominance of the
Jewish and Sabbatean elements within the CUP, or as a result of the
effort to create a ‘Turkish’ bourgeoisie, the pro-German CUP embarked
upon a complete settling of accounts with the problematic Armenians
by means of the Armenian genocide. The period was a republican epoch,
and in order to sell property to the bourgeoisie it was necessary to
have a state like a republic, an ideology like nationalism, a nation
like the Turks and a national market like Anatolia…and that is
what happened. From the standpoint of both its the leaders and its
ideologues, the CUP was a construct stamped first by its Sabbatean
and secondly, its Jewish identity–and in that period the Jews needed
a state, a country….

During those trying days, the extent of efforts that the Jews living
in Istanbul showed on behalf of the Turkist cause was made manifest in
the area of supplying the Nationalist Government with intelligence,
weapons and other supplies. At the head of those providing services,
and especially the provision of intelligence, was Avram Galanti. Çetin
Yetkin shares the following information with his readers: "Moreover,
let me state that when I appealed to Üzeyir Garih, the businessman
about whose father we had obtained snippets of information concerning
his involvement in the same type of activities, and asked him whether
or not such information existed on this matter, we learned from him
that beginning in 1919 his father had worked with Colonel–later,
Turkish Ambassador to Vienna and Paris–Behiç (Erkin) Bey in smuggling
people to Anatolia and intelligence gathering, and that another person
with whom he had had connections was Kara Kemal". [32]

Erdeðer adds the following warning in one of his footnotes:
"Nevertheless, it is important not to forget that it is obvious that
the claims of the popular conspiracy theories that have recently
emerged about Sabbateanism, whereby all the events are connected to
one single cause/Judaism, are both tenuous and [highly] speculative".

However, coming as it does within a lengthy exposition insinuating that
it is precisely such a Jewish/Dönme/Masonic cabal that is responsible
for the tumultuous events in the Ottoman-Turkish realm during the
first quarter of the 20th century, his qualification rings false,
and must be seen as nothing more than an attempt to ‘cover himself’
against accusations of subscribing to such theories.

M. Emin Kazcý, writer for Anadolu’da Vakit

M. Emin Kazcý, a writer for the radical Islamist daily Anadolu’da
Vakit, also made his contribution to the incestuous, gossipy nature
of much of the ‘yellower’ Turkish press by citing the aforementioned
articles by Jack Manuelian and Clifford Shack, having read about
them in the Ýbrahim Karagül piece in Yeni Þafak. In a piece in
which he explains the reasons of the American Jewish organizations’
support of the position of the Turkish Republic in opposing the latest
(January 2007) "Affirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian
Genocide Resolution" (USHR No. 106) submitted to the U.S. Congress,
Kazcý writes:

[AK Party] Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül went to America.

As is well known, there is an "Armenian Genocide Resolution" on the
agenda of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The matter at hand is that Gül, having contacted various circles
within this milieu, is working to convince the concerned parties that
Turkey-U.S. relations would be severely hurt should the aforementioned
resolution be accepted into law.

According to the reports that have again been appearing in our press,
the Jewish lobbies in the U.S. are attempting to block [the passage]
of the resolution by exercising their influence in Congress.

In fact, it has long been known that the Jewish lobbies take the
position of fully supporting Turkey against the claims of the alleged
Armenian genocide.

While some have attempted to portray this stance as "a steadfast
love for Turkey", there is of course no place in the language of
international relations for such notions as "best of friends".

We can safely state that the Jewish lobbies’ coolness toward the
Armenians’ genocide claims derives from two general sources. The
first of these is the Armenian claims that the Jews and some of their
leading companies played a central role in the bringing about of the
alleged genocide.

According to the Armenian claims, the Young Turks, who carried out the
massacres against them and who–again, according to their claims–were
composed primarily of Sabbateans and Masons, were but all pawns. The
real power behind all of these was the French Jewish Rothschild family
and their war for oil.

In his article titled "The Planned, Organized and Executed Genocide
of the Armenians" the Armenian writer Jack Manuelian claims that
the Armenian genocide that was carried out between 1915-1923 was
planned by the Young Turks who appeared to be Muslims, but who were
actually composed of (Sabbatean) Balkan Jews who were members of a
secret sect"….

No doubt, to what degree these claims are in agreement with historical
truth is a separate issue for debate.

Ultimately, some of these claims have found some resonance within
Armenian circles.

Nevertheless, it is not possible to understand the reasons that the
Jewish lobby has remained so cool and distant on the question of the
"Alleged Armenian Genocide" without knowing these claims that hold
the Jews directly "responsible" [for the crime].

The second reason that the Jewish lobbies have distanced themselves
from the "Genocide" claims is that, from the strategic viewpoint they
find a second claim of a genocide–one that will take place next to
their own in the world–to run contrary to their interests.

They do not wish to share with others a weapon that they have used
as an extremely effective and useful instrument in the international
arena, this much is clear.

Certainly, every approach is important and valuable that would support
Turkey’s claims against the Armenian lobbies and the Western powers
that support them, who, if we observe their various, shrouded middle
and long-range goals, wish to forcibly brand Turkey with the mark of
‘perpetrator of genocide’.

Yet, without getting swept away with unnecessary delusions and
emotionality, Turkey who is struggling for its existence within a
difficult geography nevertheless has both the right and the duty to
know the what and why of things.[33]

Baran writer Fazýl Duygun

The program "No Place for Hate" that was implemented in various
communities throughout the United States by the Anti-Defamation
League in order to combat racism, antisemitism and bigotry gave rise
to a heated and interesting debate in the community of Watertown,
Massachusets, home to a large Armenian population. The uproar began in
August 2007 when the leaders of the town’s Armenian community declared
that they would not be putting the program into effect so long as
the ADL refused to publicly recognized the Armenian genocide. During
the course of the ensuing recriminations, the call began to be heard
within the American Jewish community for ADL National Leader Abraham
Foxman to resign.[34] In response, the ADL, which up to that time had
referred to the various incidents associated with the Armenian genocide
as "massacres", would begin to change its stance and state that they
compromised to the definition of "genocide".[35] This reformulation of
its long-held stance would be met in the Turkish press with expressions
of shock, anger and betrayal.[36] Among the many voices sharing these
views was the radical Islamist journal Baran, although in contrast
to many of the other Turkish publications, the journal asserted that
the reasons for the ADL’s volte-face was that the actual perpetrators
of the Armenian genocide were Dönmes, and that the Turkish Republic
itself was a "Dönme Republic". Fazýl Duygun, one of the writers for
Baran, wrote as much in an article for the journal: [37]

The Jews, and the ADL at their head, have until now rejected the
claims of an Armenian genocide. The reason for this is that, by
means of the [widespread] propaganda claiming that the Jews are
the only ones who’ve been subjected to a genocide, they are able
to falsely portray themselves as the sole victims [of such a crime]
and this has afforded them a means of political pressure to influence
the policies and nations of the world; and until now they have been
wildly successful at this. By constantly shielding themselves behind
the claim that "antisemitism is being perpetrated", the Jews have
even [attempted to] legitimize the[ir] butcheries in Palestine and
the massacre operations [carried out] by the Mossad against the
independence movements fighting against Israel and Jewish imperialism!

Nevertheless, this weapon will now be taken from their hands, and as
a result of the Armenian Genocide Draft Resolution that they have
been forced to accept, they may well find themselves as defendants
[against charges of genocide].

And this, because those who carried out the Armenian massacres were
the Committee of Union and Progress, which an organization of the
Jewish Dönmes, and the leaders of this party were also members of
famous masonic lodges. The petroleum trusts of the period, like
Rockfeller and Nobel (both of them were Jewish), saw the Armenians
as their enemies. Armenians lived in the Promised Lands, where the
petroleum was located.[38] The Armenians were then one of the greatest
obstacles laying before the Jews in their attempt to control these
lands. [Moreover,] the Armenians, as members of the Orthodox Church,
one of the more fundamentally and fiercely anti-Jewish sects of
Christianity, had to be eliminated, one way or another. Immediately
after the Armenians had been ‘cleansed’ by means of immense massacres,
it was the turn of the Greek Orthodox Christians, and within one year’s
time a full 2.5 million wealthy Greeks were forced to leave for Greece,
leaving their wealth and immovable property here in Anatolia.

After all of this had been realized, the Turks, the Kurds, the
Circassians–essentially all of the Muslim peoples of Anatolia, who
had been broken and subjected over a decade of wars, and an entire
generation of whose young men had been decimated in the First World
War and the Turkish-Greek War. If the Armenians and Greeks had not been
[ethnically] cleansed, the CUP[39] and its successor Turkish Republic
would never have been able to impose a secular regime on these lands,
because these two communities (millet) both possessed the traditions
of communal worship demanded by their faiths, and in addition, they
represented a potential three-way bloc due to both their [possession
of immense] capital and their holding a sizeable and well-organized
presence within the bureaucracy. It is interesting [to note] that,
although they shared the same faith as the West, the latter never made
a peep during either the Armenian massacres during the CUP era, nor
the Greek expulsions during the Republican period; on the contrary,
it gave [these governments] as much support as it was able. As we
explained previously, this was all part of the plan to bring about
the grand plan of permanently secularizing Istanbul, the location of
the Caliphate, and the Turkish nation, the leader of the [world’s]
Muslims. This project was deemed so crucial that the West not only
did not openly object to the oppression of its coreligionists,
but even lent its support [to the effort]. The greatest support for
the massacre of the Armenians came from Germany, which admitted that
these killings amounted to a ‘genocide’. As for the expulsion of the
Greek population, the entire West lent its support, with the principal
supporters being England, the United States, France and Russia.

Yet it was these same western countries who, during the reign of Sultan
Abdulhamid II, established a great many international tribunals to
deal with the ‘Hamidiye Regiments’ that were established to prevent the
Armenians from carrying out, with Russian support, any more massacres
against the Muslim Kurds and Turks in the East. The most famous of
these was the trial against the martyr Hacý Musa Bey, who during
that period was the man most feared by the Armenians of the East,
and who was tried in Istanbul and acquitted.

As part of its overall strategy of claiming an "Armenian Genocide",
the Armenian lobby is proceeding with great caution and deliberation,
and omits any mention or discussion of the events in Eastern Anatolia.

This is because they know full well that they were the ones who
first pepetrated massacres in the East, and who were the main ones
responsible for them. Nevertheless, the Armenian communities in the
West show no interest in these massacres. And many of those who were
truly innocent ultimately fell victim to a wholly Jewish-CUP massacre.

Indeed, the whole problem lies therein. The Armenian-Jewish conflict
that is taking place on the international stage is being fought over
the secular Republic of Turkey, which is a Dönme Republic. The Jews,
who officially view the Dönmes as "the children of adulterous unions"
(veled-i zina) (see: Ertuðrul Düzdað, Yakýn Tarihimizde Dönmelik ve
Dönmeler), nevertheless see no harm in using these Dönmes, with whom
they maintain close ties, in order to impose their policies on the
world. The Dönmes, who in this sense see the Republic of Turkey as
the first ‘Israel’ to have been created, have received a great deal
of support from the Jews of Israel, who see as one of its central
objectives the creation and maintenance in a certain fashion of the
Republic of Turkey, which has been one of the principal factors in [the
ensuring of] Israel’s survival. It must not be forgotten that those
Jews who emigrated from Turkey (the founding Prime Minister Ben-Gurion)
and the Dönmes were the ones who founded Israel by [waging] war and
killing Muslim Arabs. And the Israeli Jews themselves say "We would
prefer to lose [the support] of America to [that of] losing Turkey",
because they know that if Turkey is lost, they may well lose America,
too. Turkey is one of the first three or four countries in the world
to recognize Israel! The loss of Turkey will mean the reestablishment
of the Caliphate and the demonstration that Islam is the TRUE BELIEF,
and that theirs is falsehood and superstition. Indeed, Turkey does
indeed hold such a vital importance for the Jews of Israel….

Another reaction to the ADL’s declaration would come from the radical
Islamist Aylýk journal too. The journal would comment this decision
as follows: [40]

Every year during the "Genocide Day" campaigns the Jews in Armenia
are subjected to attacks, because when the Armenians in Turkey were
subjected to massacres after the [Committee of] Union and Progress
came to power, the Jews played the leading role. This fact is well
known all over the world except in Turkey.

For years, the lie of the Jews that only they have been the victims
of "genocide" has been a policy that was devised and developed
in order to strengthen their own political position in the world
and to create international pressure. Although it has stung their
consciences greatly, the Jews have been forced reluctanty to digets
the initiatives that the Armenians have taken [to have their own
genocide recognized]. But from now on it is going to be a very
difficult process, both for the Jews and for their servants. (…)

As it will be understood, the Jew has been forced to leave Turkey
to confront its own pains. But it seems that the prize that [Prime
Minister] Tayyip [Erdoðan] received from the Jew wasn’t worth a damn
thing.[41] At this point, as so many internal and external developments
are coming one after the other, will Turkey be able to confront and
emerge from the hopelessness that [ADL National Director Abe] Foxman
was obliged to describe by consulting and cooperating with the Jew?

If not, will new clashes be triggered when the truths upon which the
regime was founded unexpectedly come to light one after the other?

Our opinion is that the "guarantee certificate", that the Turkish
Republic obtained in Lausanne from the Jew who was the vanguard of
imperialism, has now expired.

b. The Turkish-Armenian Journalists

Agos Editor-in-Chief Hrant Dink

During an interview with Agos Editor-in-Chief Hrant Dink the day
following the appearance of the above-mentioned Karagül and Kamýþ
pieces, the conspiracy-minded journalist Aydoðan Vatandaþ[42] broached
the subject of Jewish involvement in the Armenian Genocide. Below is
an account of their conversation and Dink’s replies:

Question: There was an article by Mehmet Kamýþ in yesterday’s Zaman.

Ýbrahim Karagül also published an article in Yeni Þafak. There is
such a theory [stating that] a group known today as the Sabbateans
was to a large extent in control of the leadership of the Committee
of Union and Progress. Another analysis has claimed that there was
Jewish capital behind the [actions of] the German Army. What do you
say [to these claims]?

Answer: It is not a new thesis. I also wrote on this matter a few
times. You can also add to that the Baghdad Railway project. I could
mention some things from Armenian sources or about the way that
Armenians see the[ir] history, but there might be persons who will
interpret our conversation as a kind of antisemitism. Let me say right
here and now that that would be unfair. If you look to the account
generally accepted by the Armenians you will indeed see that behind
the Committee of Union and Progress there was German military power,
and along side German military power there was the Jewish capital
of Germany. This is a topic yet to be researched. If there are any
documents or information [on this subject] it will [eventually]
come out. In the end the German archives will be the most important
testimony, and the Germans themselves have begun to question their
own history. In the future we will have a much clearer view [of what
happened]. I do not want to go too far into this Sabbateanism thing
because, yes, in fact, there are views that claim that among the
Committee of Union and Progress leaders that you listed there were
indeed certain leaders, such as Dr. Nâzým, who were Dönmes.

I don’t wish to say that the Jews were the enemies of the Armenians.

It’s true, such things can exist, [but] it doesn’t make any
difference. Let me state that here. An Armenian could also have been a
member of the Committee of Union and Progress (…) You know that there
was the problem [of competition over influence] in the Palace between
the Jews and the Armenians during the Ottoman period. The question
of who would economically dominate the Palace was a crucial matter.

Sometimes, it was the Jews who would dominate, at other times, the
Sultan would grow angry at the Armenians and would decree that from
that moment on Armenians would be prohibited from participating in
tenders [for contracts]. It is a fact that such a competition existed
between the Armenians and the Jews over who would dominate commerce.

The economists will discover [the truth about this matter]. Anyway,
it is not my task to find out how this competition has or has not
affected what happened [in 1915]. But, when speaking openly, the
Armenians do say such things as that "it was in fact the Jews that
had a hand behind what happened to us".[43]

Although Dink attempted–unsuccessfully–to give the impression that
his approach to the matter was objective and scholarly, his response
ultimately implied that the Dönmes were indeed the real agents in the
Armenian genocide. Not that we should be surprised by this, for five
years previous Dink had expressed such a view much more clearly in a
piece that he penned during the time when the much disputed U.S. House
Resolution No. 398 calling for official American recognition of the
historical reality of the Armenian genocide was being submitted to
Congress, only to be ultimately withdrawn at the last minute as a
result of the combined urgings of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the
Quincentennial Foundation, various Jewish-American organizations,
the State of Israel and even President Bill Clinton. In this article
Dink openly expressed the disappointment and irritation that had been
created within the Turkish Armenian community at the aforementioned
Jewish organizations, the Israeli government and the Quincentennial
Foundation for their consistent and successful effort to block
successive ‘Armenian genocide resolutions’ every time they came before
Congress. The Agos editor-in-chief then went on to indirectly hint
that crypto-Jews played an important role in the 1915 Deportation:

The history of Armenian-Jewish relations is a subject to which I
have always paid close attention. It’s likely that there were good
times [in this relationship] and bad times, too. It certainly is an
interesting area for those with an interest in history, and one that
should be further studied.

Some historians have indirectly said that there might be a ‘Jewish
hand’ behind the 1915 Armenian Genocide, as well as in a series of
events that preceded it. It has been shown that there were a goodly
number of Jewish descendants of Sabbatai Sevi among the leadership
of the CUP, persons such as [Dr.] Nâzým Bey, and that they played an
important role in the decision to [carry out] the deportation of 1915.

There are even those who claim that ‘German-Jewish Capital’ was [the
force] behind the German Militarism that manipulated the CUP during
this period. The research on the subject is still inconclusive, but
new claims are appearing daily. I don’t know if the Jews played an
important role in [the events of] 1915, but it should be remembered
that both the Jewish ‘palace’ merchants and the Armenian ‘Amira’
merchants were in competition for the Sultan’s favor, and the [two
communities’] bazaar merchants were waging a momentous struggle to
secure themselves contracts from the palace.

This struggle between the[se two sides] sometimes reached the level of
attempting to ‘trip each other up’ in extremely brutal fashion. And
it is so written in the history books that, in one period in which
Jewish influence in the Palace was great, the Sultan Abdülhamid
[II] issued an imperial decree stating that "from this time onward,
Armenian merchants shall not be considered for state tenders".

Anyway, let’s leave history to the historians and deal with the here
and now.

It appears that the word "Jewish Lobbies" has been mentioned in some
way or another in connection with almost every "Armenian Genocide
[Resolution]". The Jewish Lobbies have consistently opposed the
"Armenian Genocide [Resolution]s for two separate reasons.

The first of these can be summed up thus: "The term Holocaust cannot
be used for such a claim. Until now, the only people to have suffered
a genocide are the Jews and the only genocide that has been recognized
in international legal circles as meeting the definition of Holocaust
is that perpetrated by the Germans against the Jews. All claims apart
from this are attempts to cheapen the significance of this term".

If we were to reduce this down to one sentence, it would be:

"Holocaust is a term that exclusively explains the genocide of the
Jews, no one else has the right to use it".

A cautious approach to Turkish-Israeli relations would appear to be
the second reason, as this situation is better understood. And so
certain circles can claim that, the Jewish lobbies’ stance of opposing
the Armenian lobbies has played an important role matter of the good
relations that have developed between Turkey and Israel.[44]

In response to Dink’s article, the Turkish-Jewish businessman and
Quincentennial Foundation Chairman Jak Kamhi would react by writing a
letter to the editorial board of Agos claiming that "the attribution
of the responsibility for the bitter events of 1915 to Turkish-Jewish
community, and on the basis of words that carry very different meanings
from those into which they are forced, is, in my mind, an example of
a fanaticism whose equal is rarely seen".[45]

On August 16, 2007 Jak Kamhi was given the Turkish Medal for
"Outstanding Service to the State" by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer
at an official ceremony. After reporting on this event Agos added
an "editor’s note" at the end of the article showing very clearly,
that it continued to stand by the comments made by Hrant Dink in the
year 2000:[46]

It is clearly understood that first and foremost among the services
for which Jak Kamhi has earned the state’s outstanding service award
are the extensive efforts that he has displayed in regard to the
Armenian Question. It should be recalled that in his function as
President of the Quincentennial Foundation and within the framework
of the outstanding services that he performed against the Draft
Resolution on the Armenian Genocide, Jak Kamhi sent a letter to the
[U. S.] House of Representatives. In response Hrant Dink, the founder
of our newspaper wrote and published in Agos on October 20, 2000 an
article titled ‘The Real Farce’ (Gerçek Maskaralýk), and that Jak
Kamhi then responded by sending a refutation–not to the daily Zaman,
which was the source of the original report, but to Agos. Those of
our readers who wish to do so may access the aforementioned article
via the Agos website and can then once more recollect how Hrant Dink
explained and interpreted [Kamhi’s] "outstanding services".

Another example of the anger generated within Turkey’s Armenian
community intellectual intelligentsia by President Ahmet Necdet
Sezer’s awarding of Jak Kamhi with the medal for "Outstanding Service
for the State" appeared not in Agos this time, but in an article by
Levon Panos Dabaðyan, an Armenian popular historian and columnist
published in the Turkish ultra-nationalist daily Önce Vatan:[47]

In truth, no serious enmity has ever been experienced in any period
of Turkish-Armenian history and for centuries they lived together,
intertwined with one another. And that’s exactly how they had continued
to live until the appearance of those well-known [foreign] incitements
and conspiracies.

The "Zionist-derived" and nourished The Party of Union and Progress as
well as the arm of Zionism, Dashnaktsoutian and Hunchak Parties played
the central role in the emergence of the aforementioned tragedy and
the Turkish and Armenian peoples were made to pay the price for this!..

This is what they have wanted to keep secret from the Turks and
Armenians, and how bitter it is that certain corrupt media and
television outlets have even succeeded in hiding this horrible
truth.(…)

The American "Jewish Lobby" will look you straight in the eyes and
use the Armenians in the most reprehensible ways and even deceive
you when necessary…. In this way some of the Jewish businessmen in
Turkey are, by fanning the flames, working with all their might so
that the question will become a full-blown problem!…

[Such a thing] has not been seen anywhere else in the world: That
[a member of] one of the two minorities that live within a country as
citizen be able to state openly and publicly that he is against the
other minority and receive an award from the State?!.. This is the case
in Turkey, and although the problem is our problem, since we are not
trusted [with such a task] an individual who is a member of another
minority is entrusted with said task. The most interesting aspect of
this question is that they look upon this [minority] as heroes, even
though they have been unable to solve any problem whatsoever!… (…)

The people who suppose that we can resolve the "Turkish-Armenian"
question through [using] Jewish scholars, Jewish businessmen and those
in the media and such, are doomed to err again and again, because
"the mill doesn’t turn with carried water! (You can’t complete a task
without the correct means to do so)"

The Jew, in order to preserve his position in the Middle East, wants
always to see Turkey as his ally and he is absolutely right since
the issue is his own "national existence". But since he is thinking
about his own benefit in the sense of his own national interests,
it is not at all elegant to incorporate the Armenian sphere into his
political plans!..

Agos Columnist Markar Esayan

In a piece reviewing Soner Yalçýn’s highly successful book Efendi,
the Agos columnist Markar Esayan calls "the book, something that
has greatly drawn my interest, and deals with a subject over
which I have myself conducted only very superficial research: the
connections between the Sabbateans, [i.e.,] the ‘White Turks’, the
Union and Progress Party, Ottoman history in the 19th century, the
Armenians and, of course, the connection of all of these to the 1915
Deportation…". Esayan then goes on to briefly explain the phenomenon
of Sabbatai Sevi and the Dönmes, finally concluding by saying:

What sort of connection is there really between these persons,
who controlled the sect of Sabbateanism and Islam, and occupied the
highest positions in the [Ottoman] state, and who skillfully merged
Jewish identity and Turkishness, with the ‘deep state’ of today and of
yesterday? This is exactly the subject of Soner Yalçýn’s book Efendi.

Although its reliability and scientific character are open to debate,
it is certain that this book had posed a number of unanswered
questions. In particular, this subject is connected a lot to the
elimination of the Janissary regiments, which had thoroughgoing
economic ties with the Jews, during the reign of Mahmud II and
the establishment of the Nizam-ý Cedid–which was supported by the
Armenians and Greeks–in their place, the [burgeoning] relations with
Europe that produced economic conditions that increasingly favored the
Armenians and Greeks at the expense of the Jews, and soon thereafter,
the overthrow of Abdülhamid II, plus the elimination of the Armenians
after the Unionists came to power.[48]

Önce Vatan Columnist Levon Panos Dabaðyan

One final example of the ‘Sabbatean conspiracy’ theorists within the
Armenian community is again from an article of Levon Panos Dabaðyan,
published in the Turkish ultra-nationalist daily Önce Vatan. Dabaðyan,
who is well-known for his antisemitic[49] and staunchly pro-Turkish
nationalist views, also touched on the subject of the Armenian genocide
in one of his essays:

England, which was planning the partition and elimination of the
Ottoman-Turkish Empire, naturally envisioned [by means of] this issue
the establishment of direct control over the Middle East [in order]
to obtain ownership and control of 100 per cent of the oil of the
[region]. As for the Zionists, who possessed their own grand plan in
this region during those years, and who relied upon the ability to
establish the central goal of this plan (a reborn State of Israel),
they never for one second forgot the Armenians who, despite being a
minority population, were considered the most loyal subjects.

Likewise, they were able to solve this problem–albeit only
partially–during the years of the First World War. Because Czarist
Russia, which was expanding, incited the Armenians of the Caucasus to
action and they brought the Armenian Question to the agenda within
Ottoman-Turkish lands and were thereby indirectly able to drive the
Armenians of Ottoman Turkey into the midst of the inferno.

And afterward? What came afterward is well known: There were
rebellions and suppressions [of rebellions] during the reign of Sultan
Abdülhamid II. And after that there was the well known and unfortunate
[Deportation affair], in which thousands of innocent Turks and Turkish
Armenians fell victim. In other words, together with the Russians,
the Armenians of the Caucasus attacked the Turkey of the Ottomans,
and the Turkish Armenians paid the price [for this].[50]

Other Examples

It would be wrong to conclude, on the basis of the examples exhibited
above that this type of theorizing is a phenomenon peculiar to
Turkish Armenian journalists. This view has also been embraced both by
certain fringe elements in Armenia itself as well as by some of the
Armenians in the diaspora. For example, an Armenian in Iran taking
part in an Armenian discussion group online expressed near identical
views. He wrote:

I just wanted to share with you a certain conspiracy theory that
is being widely recited amongst Armenian Persians and Persians both
inside and outside of Iran. You may be able to help me to verify the
truth or falseness of this claim concerning the Armenian Genocide.

As you may agree[,] in any major event there are instigators and
perpetrators. The instigators being those who pull the strings behind
the scenes and the perpetrators being those mercenaries who carry
out their orders in exchange for some form of compensation.

It is being said that in the Armenian Genocide[,] although the
perpetrators were indeed the Turks[,] the instigators were Jewish.

This by no means is meant to diminish the horrible crimes committee
by Turks and their brutality and cruelly.

The reason being cited is that the great majority of Jews living in
Turkey had escaped the Spanish Inquisition in Spain and had taken
refuge in Turkey around 500 years ago. The Jewish people were burnt at
[the] stake and flayed alive and viciously persecuted by the advancing
Catholic Armies. The Jewish community in Turkey had become prosperous
as successful merchants and businessmen and were very influential in
the Ottoman courts as advisors, treasurers and doctors. The Jewish
people were looking for an opportune moment to take revenge on a
Christian minority since they truly believe in an eye for an eye. So
they used the chaos created by WWI in order to realize their plans.

The other reasons being cited is that the Jews are mad at Armenians
since they partly blame them for the survival of Christianity[,]
since the Armenians are believed to be amongst the first people who
converted to Christianity en masse.

That is why to this day the jews are reluctant to allow any comparison
between the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust and it is also being
rumored that they are blocking indirectly Armenian efforts to have
the Armenian Genocide recognized[,] particularly in the US.[51]

In another online article discussing the situation of the Jews in
Armenia, one can find frequent claims that the recent emergence of
antisemitism in Armenia derives from the views mentioned above:

It appears that Anti-Semitism began in Armenia in the 1960s and 1970s.

Some Soviet historians claimed that the Young Turks had been guided by
the Zionists when planning out and implementing the Armenian Genocide.

One thing that remains unclear is how Israel took advantage of the
Armenian Genocide when founding the nation.

Many Armenian nationalists adopted this ridiculous theory. Those
nationalist forces became more active during the past couple of years
by spreading their Anti-Jew comments in the press. The most influential
representative of the "Tribe Worshippers"[,] Armen Avetisyan[,] was
the most talked about figure in the media throughout 2003-2004. In
one of the interviews, Avetisyan threatened to exile all Jews from
Armenia. Even [the] owner of the ALM television network[,] Tigran
Karapetyan[,] enjoyed cursing the Jews.[52]

And yet another testimony worth noting–despite its bad grammar-is
the following declaration that appeared in another Internet discussion
site:

The anti-Semitism, or to be more concrete, the antagonism felt
toward Jews by some Armenian circles is very closely connected to the
Turkish-Armenian past. I have many times witnessed people starting
talking or condemning Israeli politics and reaching to a point at
the end of the discussion where they accuse all Jews ruling the
world anyway. (Not to be able to distinguish between criticizing
a country for its politics and condemning a whole group of people
being responsible for world suffering–that is, in Jewish context,
anti-Semitism. Where hostility toward Jews among some Armenians is
very much connected to the issue we discuss here, is when discussions
(mostly in private circles) on Armenian Genocide reach a point where
people decide to agree upon not the Turks or the Ottomans, but the
Jews being the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide (because of claims
regarding Talat, Enver, etc. being Jews, or Dönme, or Sabetayist, etc.)

Let me stress here that, yes, these discussions take place among
private circles, and, yes, I base my claims on anti-Semitic mind-set
among some Armenian circles to my private observations. Please note my
wording "SOME Armenian circles." I refrain from most generalizations.

It is therefore that I will never be able and never want to claim
anti-Semitism being prevalent among ALL Armenians. Coming to the
issue of the validity of private observations: I believe of these
incidents–as they occurred to me more than once–to be pretty
representative. Another reason why I rely on my "private" observations
is because they involve "public" figures in both Turkish and Armenian
communities.[53]

One final example is the following statement, which was made by the
Armenian citizen Arshak Sarkisyan and recorded by Milliyet writer
Ece Temelkuran in a series of articles that she wrote reporting his
impressions of her visit to Armenia:

Talat Pasha was a Jew. They [i.e., the Young Turks] created the bad
blood between the Turks and Armenians. The Turks didn’t carry out
the genocide. But all of the Young Turks were Jews.[54]

In a similar vein, on April 24, 2003, at a commemoration of the 88th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the extreme rightist Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaksoutian) burned a Turkish flag in
which the traditional five-pointed Turkish star had been replaced by
a six-pointed Star of David, no doubt intending to send the message by
this action that the Republic of Turkey was controlled by the Jews.[55]

c. Ilgaz Zorlu

Another figure who has expressed views similar to those espoused by
Hrant Dink and the Armenian nationalists is Ilgaz Zorlu, the Turkish
citizen who created a sensation when he came forth in the late 1990s
with the claim that he was of Sabbatean origin. As a result of his
claim of being an ‘insider’ to the whole Dönme phenomenon, Zorlu was
quickly embraced by the Turkish media as an authority on the subject.

In a 2001 interview, he gave his own, largely corroborating version
of the Armenian nationalists’ thesis:

I believe that there has been a serious Armenian-Sabbatean dispute in
regard to this Armenian question. The greatest error of all derives
from this [dispute]. [It’s in] the German archives of that period in
which the [documentation regarding] the [Berlin-to-]Baghdad Railway is
located, because Germany was very powerful during that period. I think
that the German archives were destroyed during the Second World War.

There’s the same problem in the Russian archives, as well as in the
Ottoman Archives. In any case, at this time it isn’t possible for
all of the documentation to be opened [to the public], because we’re
talking about millions of documents. In such a situation, it seems
to me that it’s just a lot of empty chatter. What needs to be done is
for researchers and historians to come together and study these things.

The Armenian question is a serious problem. The question of the
[Committee of] Union and Progress is even more serious. I believe
that when the Union and Progress [question] is resolved, a lot of
[other] things in Turkey will be resolved as well.[56]

Zorlu would repeat these same views–wildly conjectural as they
were-in various online discussion groups. On the "Türkistan Newsletter"
discussion group site, for example, he asserted that a secret agreement
had been made between the Unionist leaders Dr. Nâzým and Finance
Minister Mehmet Cavit, both of whom were of Sabbatean origin, and
that "those who look [into this matter] know that these individuals
[we]re the active agents in the [Committee of] Union and Progress and
especially, by means of the anti-Armenian group that they established,
in the transforming of the [Armenian] deportation into a genocide".[57]
In the "Tarih ve Demokrasi Forumu" (History and Democracy Forum)
discussion group he wrote "this much is definite: the expulsion of the
Greeks and Armenians from Anatolia is a Jewish-Sabbatean idea".[58] In
a subsequent posting to a different discussion group, Zorlu would add
the following: "Very bitter things occurred during the course of the
Armenian incidents (please note: I said ‘incidents’; I’m consciously
not using [the words] massacre and genocide), [and] it’s a shame that
the Sabbateans were active in this, but it’s difficult to write about
these matters without documentation[.] I have made a point of not
writing about certain things that I have discovered, but I relayed
them to a great many persons, including Yalçýn [Küçük] Hoca’.[59]

d. Yalçýn Küçük

Yalçýn Küçük is a Marxist professor of economics who in the past
decade has increasingly turned his attention to the question of the
Sabbateans and Sabbatean-Jewish influence in/control of Turkey. In
particular, as a piece with his conviction that the Turkish political,
cultural, economic and social elite is nearly entirely composed of
crypto-Jewish Sabbateans (and has been since its inception), he has
become an ardent proponent of the use of ‘Onomastie’, also called
the science of name origins, as a method of ‘determining’ the Hebrew
equivalents of Turkish surnames, and thereby unmasking such persons.

In light of this worldview, it is perhaps not surprising that in
nearly every statement that he has made on the subject, Professor
Küçük has characterized the 1915 Armenian Deportation as the result
of a "Jewish-Armenian war". In similar fashion, the anti-Greek riots
of September 6-7, 1955, in which crowds in Istanbul descended upon,
burnt and looted Greek-owned businesses, homes, cemeteries and
churches, as the product of a "Jewish-Orthodox war". Consider the
following statements:

The [events of] "September 6-7 [1955]" [occurred] within [the framework
of] the "Jewish-Christian Wars". The 1915 Armenian massacre was also
[one link] in the chain of these wars. We can show these things [to be
true]. Thanks to heavens, Yerevan also sees things this way, and holds
the Hebrews and the Sabbateans more responsible than the Turks.[60]

For the past hundred years there has been [a series of]
Jewish-Christian Wars on these lands. Whether overtly or covertly,
the Christian communities have been driven out by the Jewish elements.

Want examples?: a) the 1915 Deportation was the Jewish expulsion
of the Armenians, we call this the "Jewish-Armenian Wars"; b) the
events of September 6-7, 1955 was the expulsion and massacre of the
Hellenes, or, more correctly, the Orthodox [Christians]. There were
no involvement of Turks in either of these two [events], [or if]
there were, they were [merely] figure[heads]….Sometimes we are
belligerents, and sometimes we are [merely] figure[heads].[61]

The Armenians hold the Crypto-Jews responsible for those things
that came upon them. We can see traces of this in the ‘ASALA’ plots
(those members of the Foreign Ministry of the Turkish Republic who
fell victim to these plots were [all] Sabbateans). My works do not
contradict this view. Among the most active [actors] in this field
was Dr. Nâzým. Tevfik Rüþtü Aras was another. We know that they were
‘brothers-in-law’. While one of them was hanged, the other was a
[government] minister. The son-in-law of the minister–the one
who wasn’t hanged–was later hanged himself. I think that they
were [members of the Sabbatean subsect of the Karakaþ. There is
no difference between Allawi, Saakashvili, [Azerbaijan President]
Aliyev’s son and Ýrecep Ýrdoðan, they were all placed [in their
positions] by Washington. In fact, there is a difference between the
first two and the latter two, one that favors the former. They were
put in place by means of an occupation or a coup. Washington didn’t
feel the need to [carry out] a coup when putting Aliyev and Ýrdoðan in
place. There was no genocide [against] the Armenians. The Armenians
themselves speak of the "great massacre". Th[ese actions] that the
former and ‘set-in-place’ Minister carried out need to be confessed
to and forgiveness requested. When Kemal Derviþ asks for forgiveness,
he is asking for forgiveness on behalf of his Sabbatean ancestors.[62]

In a reference to a recent article by the Russian-Israeli writer
Israel Shamir,[63] Küçük made the following declaration:

In a new piece Israel Shamir writes the following [about the
Sabbateans]: "This peculiar sect played an important role in the
tragic development in Turkey in the early 20th century; some Turkish
historians connect them with the genocidal expulsion of Armenians,
massacres of Greeks in Anatolia…" What [he’s] writing about [is
that] some Turkish historians have attributed the expulsion of the
Armenians and Greeks from these lands to the sabbateans; that means
that our debates are already being heard everywhere [outside of Turkey
as well].[64]

e. The Murder of Hrant Dink and the Conspiracy Theories Surrounding
it

On October 19, 2007, Agos Editor-in-Chief Hrant Dink was gunned down
in front of his offices by a young Turkish nationalist incensed by
what he had been led to believe was Dink’s insulting and disrespectful
statements toward Turkey. News of Dink’s murder created a great stir
in the Turkish press. Not surprisingly, in attempting to answer the
question of "Who killed Hrant Dink–and why?", the Islamist press
wasted no time in turning out antisemitic conspiracy theories for
the killing of this meteoric Turkish-Armenian journalist.

Aydoðan Vatandaþ

In a piece that appeared the day after the assassination, Aydoðan
Vatandaþ (see section b. above) recalled the interview that he had had
with Dink a year earlier in which the latter had not-so-indirectly
hinted that the Dönmes and Jews were the main architects of the
Armenian genocide. Using this as his starting point, Vatandaþ then
went on to imply on a vaguely worded piece that these same groups
may have also planned Dink’s murder:

I got to know him in the month of May, in the year 2005, at the
time that I was doing interviews for my book ASALA Operasyonlarý,
published by Alfa Yayýnlarý, and in which I attempted to understand
the Armenian Question and the ASALA Murders.

During this interview [with him] Dink made several claims that no one
in Turkey had yet had the courage to discuss, and he mentioned entirely
different factors in the things that had happened to the Armenians.

Regarding the events that came upon the Armenians Dink drew
attention to various countries apart from the Ottoman [Empire], to the
composition of the [large] capital accumulations behind them and to a
powerful ethnic community within the [Committee of] Union and Progress.

Dink was inclined to view the whole deportation affair in connection to
‘imperialism’.

When one looks at the timing of the murder, it [appears to be a]
situation of killing two birds with one stone.

As is well known, the Armenian question will soon be taken up by the
American Senate.

In a lead piece from last week, Eyüp Can, the Editor-in-Chief of
the daily Referans, recounted at a dinner that he had attended with
representatives of the Jewish Lobby in America and that these Jewish
Lobby representatives had said that they wouldn’t be able to rescue
Turkey this time.[65]

The truth of the matter is that, with this murder, Turkey has both lost
its ability to maneuver abroad in regard to the Armenian question and
has also had Hrant Dink silenced, the person who in recent years has
been blaming the ‘Dominant’ powers [of complicity] in the Armenian
question.

There will no doubt appear those who will interpret this murder as
connected with the [current issue of] the President[ial election]
process. But the timing of the Dink murder appears to me to be but
one of the many assaults meant to weaken Turkey’s hand in regard to
its international activity concerning the Armenian question.

The task [of discovering the truth] now falls to MÝT [Turkey’s National
Intelligence Organization] Under Secretary Emre Taner.

An important opportunity has now presented itself to Taner, who has
previously called for MÝT to develop a more proactive vision, to go on
the offensive and not to merely react to developments [as they occur].

Like to solve th[is] murder, as well as to expose the international
connections [behind it].

Let’s recall the words of the MÝT Advisor while they are still fresh:
in carrying out of such a plot, there absolutely must be [some]
leads that point toward MÝT itself.

Maybe the message to MÝT is: "Go ahead, try and be as proactive as you
can, we are still going to carry out such murders in broad daylight,
right under your noses!"

"To foresee the future is to create it anew".[66]

Bugün columnist Nuh Gönültaþ

Vatandaþ’s interview with Dink, published in the book Asala
Operasyonlarý was then taken up by Bugün writer Nuh Gönültaþ,
who, after quoting Vatandaþ’s account of Dink’s claims of Dönme
responsibility for the Armenian genocide, concluded:

This book by Aydoðan Vatandaþ is a really satisfying work. His
interview with Hrant Dink really reveals what party or parties are
really behind those who attacked him for his agenda![67]

The website Kürþad Harekâtý

Another contributor to the ‘Dönme conspiracy’ theory of Dink’s murder
was the web entity known as Kürþad Harekâtý,[68] which has also
asserted that Turkey’s current Chief-of-Staff, Army Commander Yaþar
Büyükanýt comes from Dönme origins. The following article appeared
on the organization’s website:

The murder of Hrant Dink was planned by masonic cells with ties to
the Treason Organization, which is under the control of the secret
sabbatean minority. The sabbateans who, by camouflaging themselves
have gained control of a number of civilian and military offices,
and the masons who are under their control are deceiving us with even
simpler and conjectural threats so as to cloak themselves and cause
[others] to forget [about their presence].

Ever since the end of the 19th century, when these circles succeeded
in infiltrating the [Committee of] Union and Progress, they have
directed all of the attention of our nation and its leaders toward the
"Greek" and "Armenian" minorities, while hiding their own Jewishness
by passing themselves off as Turks and Muslims. These sabbateans, who
are in fact secret Jews, are more dangerous–incomparably more–than
our Greek and Armenian fellow citizens, whose ethnic origins and
religion we know and toward whom we clarified our legal relationship
through the Lausanne Treaty.

The crypto-Jewish sabbateans have constantly fanned the flames
of others’ ethnic and religious differences in order to disguise
their own identities and cause it to be forgotten, to keep it
off the agenda, to infiltrate into our ranks and [use it for]
a field of activity. Behind the various tensions that are stirred
up in our country at regular intervals, whether Turkish-Kurdish,
secular-religious, Turkish-Armenian, Turkish-Greek or alevi-sunni
tensions, are the filthy hands of the Treason Organization. These
agents of treachery today work to foist upon our country’s most
important institutions some of the intrigues that they have spun in
the past.

Most recently, they have not only managed to have all reports of the
formation of sabbatean cadres dropped from the headlines through the
murder of Hrant Dink, which they carried out by means of nationalist
terrorists, but also to ignite the first sparks of a new period of
internal disorder, to incite against the [Turkish] nationalist [camp]
so as to discredit them and leave them under a cloud of suspicion.

What’s more, we will now be forced to depend on the support of the
Jewish lobbies in order to be rescued from the pressures [exerted]
by the Armenian diaspora; we will consent to the Greater Middle
East Project[69] operations that the U.S. and Israel will carry out,
and our ability to act against the illegal kurdo-judaic organizations
will be steadily reduced so as not to be accused of being perpetrators
of genocide, and on this pretext our present legal arrangements that
punish insults to our Turkishness will be done away with, the position
of the crypto-Jews and other minorities will be strengthened so that
our nation will be declared guilty, and the economic fields that will
be emptied of Armenians, who will be forced to leave our country,
will quickly be filled by sabbateans, and so on, and so on….

Baran writer Hakký Açýkalýn

Another voice reiterating claims of a vast ‘Sabbatean conspiracy’
was Dr. Hakký Açýkalýn, a writer for the radical Islamist journal
Baran.[70] In a recently published article, Açýkalýn identifies the
Jews and Dönmes as being behind the Armenian genocide:

The massacre and forcible deportation of the Armenians was carried
out in April 1915 and beyond. The [Committee of] Union and Progress
was the reason that this black mark has been credited to the people
of Anatolia. Ziya Gökalp has defended this massacre with the following
words:

‘[But] do not sully the name of our nation [on this account]. There
has never been anything in Turkey like a wholesale slaughter of
Armenians. There is a Turkish-Armenian dispute. They stabbed us in the
back. And we struck [back]…'[71] How bitter it is that this person,
who is considered the father of Turkish Nationalism, was a Kurdish
Jew. That which has been characterized as the ‘Turkish-Armenian
dispute’ was actually a ‘Jewish-Christian’ dispute, and this Jew
inciting the Muslim Turks and Muslim Kurds against the Christian
Armenian population, who were known as ‘the loyal nation’, threw them
into the inferno with the aim of protecting Jewish interests. For
90 years the Turkish and Kurdish people have been [living] under
torment of this accusation. But for their part, the Jews have come
out smelling clean.

In a great many families in Turkey there are old women of Armenian
origin. They always hid their Armenian origins out of fear. The
Armenians experienced an enormous social and political trauma [as a
result of] the deportation and massacres. Besides the Armenians, who
were subjected to massacres, the Kurds, who inhabit the same geography
[as the Armenians], have been equally affected by the trauma that they
experienced as a result of their own participation in these events.

Why should the Turks and Kurds be the partners of this generation of
Talat, Enver and Cemal Pashas, of Dr. Bahaettin Þakirs, Dr. Nâzýms
and Ziya Gökalps in Turkey (AND I’LL SAY IT AGAIN; THEY ARE ALL
SABBATEAN DÖNMES, THEY ARE JEWS!), on account of what they did to
the Armenians?[*]

The Sabbateans attempted not to make themselves noticed within the
other communities of the Balkans. If [these] other communities sensed
that the Sabbateans were different in any way, they didn’t do a thing
about it. The majority of persons in the[se] other communities were
very poor. Power and money were in the hands of the Sabbateans. The
visible behavior and other characteristics peculiar to the Sabbateans
appeared to [those of] other nations simply as behaviors that derived
from their material wealth. But it was not so. One the contrary. The
Sabbateans were culturally very different and they grew rich from
acting in partnership with the Jews, and because, in fact, they
were Jews.

There were Sabbateans who attained command and high rank within
the army. Because the army was, in the eyes of the people, the
savior [of the nation], they submitted to the dictates of its high
officers without knowing what was being done or what it’s objectives
were. Upon the orders of the [Committee of] Union and Progress,
most of the Armenians were either killed in their villages or, while
being driven in utter misery and deprivation to Lebanon and Syria,
died on the journey.

The Armenians all know that those who killed their ancestors were the
Young Turks/Union and Progress–in other words, the Jews (Musevi)
and Sabbateans, who descended from the Jewish (Yahudi) race. The
killers may have been Turkish on the outside, but on the inside they
were in fact Jewish.

Although the Sabbateans all possess Turkish names and cloak themselves
in a Muslim identity, they [i.e., the Armenians] are able to make
this differentiation because in the Ottoman Empire for centuries
there was no interaction between them and the Muslim Turks. They all
know very well with whom they interacted and they were not deceived
in the least. Since the appearance of Sabbateanism the Armenians even
wrote books about them. In this sense in a memorial commemorating the
Genocide that was opened last year in France, they even inscribed upon
this monument that it was not the Turks but the Union and Progress
or Young Turks (in other words, the Sabbateans and Jews) who carried
out this genocide.

Have you ever noticed that the ASALA has never killed a single Turk who
descends from [true] Muslim roots? It is said that without exception
only Sabbateans are accepted into the Foreign Ministry.

Everybody knows this. Turkish youth who are of Muslim origin are
not accepted into the Foreign Ministry so that they won’t notice the
presence of Sabbateans, won’t discern their games, and [therefore]
won’t tell others outside the ministry. Now think for a minute: why
has the ASALA up to now only attacked [Turkish] diplomats and other
Foreign Ministry employees? The reason is simple: it is because they
know that those who work in the Foreign Ministry are the descendents
of those who ordered and are responsible for the genocide of their
ancestors. There is no need for either the Turkish nation nor Muslims
in general to get up in arms. Those who are being liquidated are
neither Muslims, nor Turks, nor Kurds, nor Circassians, nor Arabs.

In that case, why should it concern us if a [C]UP gang is punished by
the Armenian people or its organizations? Aren’t they the ones who have
conspired against our very lives? In that case, why should we hold a
‘requiem’ after the sabbateans [who were murdered], why should we
feel sorrow? For those who spill the blood of Palestine, those who
are responsible [for what’s happening] in Iraq, those who set the
entire world against itself, why should we entertain this illusion
that they have been ‘persecuted’? The Armenian people is much closer
to us than the curse of the Jews and we’ve never received any injury
from them. The Armenians have never done any damage to Islâm. Whereas
the history of the Jews is the history of destruction and loss.[72]

Another insinuation that the perpetrators of Hrant Dink’s murder were
Sabbatean was to be found in the pro-ÝBDA-C journal Aylýk. Enes Duman,
one of the journal’s writers, explained the assailants’ reason for
killing Dink thus:[73]

Those utterances directed at Dink to the effect of "That’s enough out
of you!" were not simply empty threats, because Hrant Dink had become
quite frightening to those gentlemen, in regard to his identification
of the source of the filth [in this country]; he held the Union and
Progress, its successors (whoever was left) the United States and
Germany responsible for the Armenian massacres, and, most important,
in recent times he had identified [the entire affair] as a Sabbatean
operation.

El Aziz Newspaper’s columnist Vahit Þekerci

Another article suggesting that Hrant Dink was murdered by a "Sabbatean
plot" was published in El Aziz, a local newspaper of Elazýð known
for its pro-Erbakan and pro-Felicity Party (SP) views:[74]

The deep, underlying powers that lay the utmost importance on taking
measures to hide their [true] identities and goals are quite merciless
toward those who expose them and reveal their true identities. They
cannot stand those who shine the harsh light on the either their
existence or activities and bring them before the public’s attention,
who never tire of enlightening and educating society. And as for
a person who has the status of an opinion leader who has influence
over a given society, someone such as Hrant Dink, who is the subject
of our discussion…

Hrant Dink made the following statement–a statement not only
terrifying but also dangerous–so dangerous in fact as to cost him
his life:

As a person who knows and is intimately familiar with the Diaspora,
the truth as I see it, is that the Diaspora definitely doesn’t possess
the power to allow them to continue the influential international
campaigns concerning the claims of an Armenian genocide, or to have
various laws and resolutions passed in various countries’ parliaments.

How can anyone imagine that they could have such decisions passed
in the parliaments of countries like Germany, where the Armenian
population is so small as to be practically non-existent? Let me
also add this fact: the claims of an Armenian genocide have until
now not produced any benefit whatsoever for either the Armenians or
for Armenia.

These words show that Hrant Dink had correctly discerned the power of
the American Jewish Lobby and international Zionist organizations and
had clearly and precisely stated that, by constantly keeping these
claims of an Armenian genocide on the world’s agenda, these powers
had devised policies that served the Jews more than the Armenians.

Here at El-Aziz we have consistently explained that ever since the
final years of the Ottoman [Empire] the Armenian and Greek danger
was artificially inflated by sowing the seeds of enmity, hatred and
hostility between them and the Muslim society, and that behind this
[effort one can find concealed] the awesome power of the Sabbatean
community. [The modern country of] Turkey was established on such
policies.

It is as a result of these systematic, persistent and deeply-rooted
policies that the Greeks–and especially the Armenians, who had
traditionally been referred to affectionately as the ‘faithful
community’ (tebaa-i sadýka)-became the most hated minorit[y
communitie]s within Turkey and were completely extirpated, despite
the fact that they were those communities with the deepest roots in
the Ottoman State. In contrast, the Jews were raised up and exalted,
and brought to a position of domination over the overwhelmingly Muslim
majority in every area [of society].

Those who carried out the Deportation of Armenians (Tehcir) were
the leaders of the Committee (Party) of Union and Progress, who
acquired control of the Ottoman state through a number of political
conspiracies, revolts and coups d’etat. Talât Pasha, who as Grand
Vizier planned and brought to fruition the Deportation affair,
would pay for this deed with his life in Germany, his place of exile
[after the war], when he was struck in the back by the bullets of an
Armenian militant. He was both a Sabbatean and a Freemason.

Those states under the control of International Zionism, who
established and ran the Armenian Hunchak and Dashnak organizations and
who, by [holding out] the promise of an independent state [of their
own], incited them to undertake bloody actions and thereby betray
the Ottoman [Empire] by striking it from behind, were not satisfied
merely to watch the calamity of the [D]eportation, but instead even
provided various [means of] support.

These same states [under the control of International Zionism] remained
also passive observers when the oligarchy [in charge of the] Sabbatean
community, which generally relies on Zionism, forced those Armenians
remaining [in Turkey] after the Deportation and those Greeks remaining
after the [1923] Population Exchange to emigrate as a result of an
incomprehensible action like the Capital Tax, which was carried out
before the gaze of the modern world, and the looting and pillaging
that were systematically carried out on September 6-7 [1955] with the
knowledge of the state forces. Since the Sabbatean community oligarchy
has been dispersed in Turkey the Zionist powers are now continuing
to keep the claims of an Armenian genocide on the [world] agenda by
showing as an argument the political conspiracies and murders that
they have themselves arranged with the aim of again bringing Turkey
to the state of that they will monopolize all power within the country.

In short, the very political crimes and murders that were carried
out a century before are now used as a justification for shielding
[their responsibility for] new ones.

And so it is that elements connected to the American Jewish lobby are
on one hand annually receiving hefty amounts of cash from Turkey for
the purpose of preventing [the passage of] Armenian genocide bills,
while on the other hand they are the ones preparing these bills and
submitting them to the U.S. Congress. And of course they cover the
deceitful games that they are playing with the cloak of the Armenian
diaspora.

Without any doubt, the Armenian diaspora has neither the strength
or the intelligence for such grand matters. And Hrant Dink, the
Editor-in-Chief of the Agos newspaper, was targeted because he
saw this reality and tried to show it to the community to which he
belonged. Apart from International Zionism and its branch in Turkey
(the members of the Sabbatean community), who else would be angered
by Hrant Dink’s [above quoted] statement, and his dissemination of
his views and opinions regarding this statement?

Just as International Zionism has worked to instill hostility toward
Turkey among the Armenian diaspora and its puppet the government of
Armenia, the actions of the Sabbatean Community has here employed
certain allegedly ultra-nationalist elements in the attacks that it
has carried out against the Armenian community.

The members of this crypto-Jewish community, which places extraordinary
importance on disguising its true identity, have established themselves
in almost every sector and particularly within the nationalist
organizations. It is for this reason that the greatest nationalist
ideologues of our recent history have almost all been members of this
crypto-Jewish community.

It is no coincidence that the trigger men in political murders are
generally identified and chosen from within the militant nationalist
groups. The Jews’ tactic of divide and conquer, which is their oldest
method, can still be implemented within societies that are divided
and weakened by micro-nationalism. Judaism itself, which, in a word,
is a racist religion, is [responsible for] organizing all of the
racist movements on the face of the earth.

The fact that the views and opinions expressed by Hrant Dink were
likely to throw a wrench in the gears of Zionist plots, and the
nationalist tendencies of the trigger men that are used in these
conspiracies both clearly point to the real actors [in these events].

I think that that it goes without saying that ‘tidy’ (!) operations
like these were cooked up in the MOSSAD kitchen and served up
[in Turkey].

Conclusion

There are two principal reasons for the spread of the notion that
the Dönmes are the true architects of the Armenian genocide, now so
frequently encountered in Armenian popular culture.

The first of these is the fact that the State of Israel, the various
Jewish-American organizations, the Quincentennial Foundation and even
the Chief Rabbinate of Turkey have adopted such a harsh, rejectionist
stance toward the idea that the events of 1915 constitute a genocide
and reject any comparisons with the Holocaust.

The second–and partially stemming from the first–is the ongoing
(and heretofore, largely successful) struggle that these groups have
waged on Turkey’s behalf to block the more than 30-year attempt by
Armenian-American organizations to receive official governmental
recognition of these events as a genocide. This behavior is largely
seen by the Armenian community as an unwillingness by the Jewish
people to compromise the uniqueness of the Holocaust, and of their own
historical experience by ‘sharing’ the status of ‘genocidal victimhood’
with others. One of the principal ways in which the resentment that
such behavior has elicited among the mass of Armenians has manifested
within their popular culture is the development and spread of the
idea that the Jews were behind their own genocide. In this attempt,
the presence–real or imagined–of persons originating crypto-Jewish
Sabbatean sect plays a crucial role, since it allows one to claim
that ‘things are not what they seem’ and therefore to overcome the
fact that the actual Jewish population of the Ottoman Empire, (and
certainly in the government and coercive branches) was too negligible
to actually be charged with such a task. Not so the Dönmes, who by
their very secretive nature and unconfessed identities can thus be
‘discovered’ everywhere. Who is a Dönme? Whoever you want, or, more
seriously put, anyone who, by their identification as such, further
reinforces one’s conspiracy theory.

And if these variations on the theme of Dönme responsibility for
the Armenian genocide find a psychic and emotional resonance among
Armenians as a sort of ‘moral payback’ for the Jewish rejection of
their Holocaust, how much more satisfying must such an explanation
of the Armenian tragedy be for Turkey’s Muslim population? Turkish
popular culture has long has its own widespread theory of a
Jewish-Zionist-Dönme-Masonic cabal (varying combinations and
explanations exist) having toppled Sultan Abdülhamid II and having
created and/or dominated the Committee of Union and Progress. This
theory has long been current among a large part of Turkey’s
conservative Islamic population, as it works to blame someone else both
for the Ottomans’ military debacles during the final decades of its
existence as well as for the creation of the secular, Western-oriented
(and therefore much-despised) Turkish Republic. Upon the bedrock of
this already widespread belief, the exculpating theory that it wasn’t
real Turks, (or, alternately, real Kurds or real Muslims) but rather a
‘foreign’, Jewish cabal who planned and carried out the deportation
and massacre of Armenians must be an immensely satisfying notion
for a nation that has labored for decades under what it considers
unjust accusations, and which has yet to fully confront its own
troubled history. Moreover, in light of the recent sad history of
Turkish-Armenian relations, one that is characterized by the hopeless
cycle of harsh accusations, categorical denials, intolerable burdens
of guilt, and a complete lack of closure regarding the events of 1915,
against such a background, the projection of all blame onto a third
party, one against which both sides already have their prejudices,
seems to offer a psychic path out of this impasse. And it is in
this role that the Dönmes fit so perfectly: an entity immeasurable
and unknown, and thus, eminently malleable to the conspiratorial
mindset; an empty vessel of indeterminate volume, one which can be
filled with one’s fears, resentments, guilt and other psychological
needs. Within the Turkish context, the Dönmes have indeed become the
perfect scapegoat.

————————————– ——————————————
[1]

[2] Nilgün Gülcan, "Strange Armenian Claim: ‘Atatürk was Jewish and
Zionists were Behind Armenian Genocide’", Journal of Turkish Weekly,
February 18, 2008,

[3] Khatchig Mouradian, "The Stubborn Myth of Jewish Involvement in
the Armenian Genocide", , February
11, 2008.

[4] On January 19, 2007 Dink was assassinated outside his office by a
19 year old Turkish nationalist who had traveled to Istanbul from his
hometown of Trabzon in northeastern Turkey. This article was completed
before Dink’s murder. For a narrative of the murder see Timur Soykan,
Demet Bilge Ergün, Sapan, (Ýstanbul: Güncel Yayýnlarý), 2007.

[5] Because the paper is the only Armenian newspaper published
exclusively in Turkish it has received a certain amount of esteem and a
‘semi-official’ status from the Turkish elites as the mouthpiece of
the country’s Armenian community.

[6] See the book’s Foreword for more on Zorlu and his place in the
Dönme debate.

[7] The correct title of Küçük’s work is actually Dönmelik ve Dönmeler
Tarihi (1st printing 1979).

[8] Dilipak is referring to the Turkish translation of Abraham
Galante’s work Nouveaux Documents Sur Sabbatai Sevi Organisation et
Us et Coutumes et ses Adeptes.

[9] Abdurrahman Dilipak, "Sabetaycýlýk ya da soykýrým iddialarý
üzerine", Akit, September 25, 2000.

[10] Abdurrahman Dilipak, "Soykýrým meselesi", Anadolu’da Vakit,
October 11, 2006. Anadolu’da Vakit is the more recent name of daily
Akit.

[11] Abdurrahman Dilipak, "Derin Gerçek", Anadolu’da Vakit, October
12, 2007.

[12] The paper has since its inception been an enthusiastic
proponent–and, as a result, the semi-official mouthpiece–of the
‘National View’ (Millî Görüþ) ideology espoused by Necmettin Erbakan,
the doyen of political Islam in Turkey.

[13] Mehmed Þevket Eygi, "Agresif Misyonerler, Müslümanlar, Ermeniler",
Millî Gazete, December 29, 2005.

[14] The term the author uses for Jews is Musevi (literally,
‘Mosaic types’). In modern Turkish both this term and Yahudi are used
interchangeably for ‘Jew’ or ‘Jewish’, but since the author uses the
term Yahudilik for Judaism, the term Musevî is apparently used–albeit
mistakenly-to show that Jews are but one of several branches of what
he or she conceives of as ‘Judaism’.

[15] Eser Karakaþ is a professor of economics and Vice Rector of
Bahçeþehir University.

[16] The "student" being referred here is Suna Vidinli. Her name
became popular on January 25, 2001 during the TV debate screened on
the Show TV channel where a French parliamanterian participated. She
was one of spectators following the debate and became famous when she
interfered and told the French parliamanterian that he was wrong when
he defined the mass killing of the Ottoman Armenians as a genocide.

Hürriyet reported that "she teached a lesson to French parlamentarian
François Rochebloine". See Ayda Kayar, "Suna Pantagos’a da haddini
bildirmiþti", Hürriyet, January 27, 2001. She was until April 2007
the Foreign Relations Coordinator of Doðan Media Group, afterwards
she worked for the Ciner Media Group. She was the DP candidate for
parliament from Samsun in the July 22, 2007 general elections but
was not elected.

[17] "Gizli bir savaþ: Yahudiler Ermenilere karþý",
ezelel53/Ermeniler/body_ermeniler.htm. The
same article can also be found at:
ash/Ermeniler/ermeniler.html.

Since writing this article these links no more exist. However
this text has been published in a Turkish Turanist forum See:
.asp?TID=2918&PN=19

[18] Mehmet Kamýþ, "Suçlu Talat Paþa", Zaman, May 4, 2005.

[19] Joseph Brewda, "Palmerston launches Young
Turks to permanently control Middle East",
iclc/1990s/conf_feb_1994_brewda.html.

[20] Clifford Shack, "The Armenian & Jewish Genocide
Project: Eliminating Ethnic Conflict Along the
Oil Route From Baku to the Suez Canal Region",
/RothschildianGenocide.html.

[21] Jack Manuelian, "The Planned, Organized and
Executed Genocide of the Armenians", March 27, 2005,
=2&id=59.

[22] Ýbrahim Karagül, "Ermeni tehciri, Selanik ‘dönmeleri’ Bakü petrolü
ve Rothschild ailesi…", Yeni Þafak, May 6, 2005. Karagül would
repeat these claims in another piece the following year, "Soykýrým
ve paylaþýmý: Ermeniler kimin umurunda!", Yeni Þafak, October 20, 2006.

[23] "Ermeni tehciri ve Selanik dönmeleri", Millî Gazete, May 7, 2005.

[24] Engin Ardýç refers here to Prof. Yalçýn Küçük.

[25] Engin Ardýç, "Baþbakan’ýn kedisi", Akþam, May 7, 2005.

[26] Gönültaþ (1966- ) began his journalistic career with the Islamist
daily Zaman, eventually moving to Dünden Bugüne Tercüman. The latter
paper has since changed its name to Bugün.

[27] Professor [emeritus] Vahakn N. Dadrian was awarded the
Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Association of
Genocide Scholars during its Sixth Biennial Conference on June 4-7,
2005. See Roger W. Smith’s "Brief Biography of Vahakn N. Dadrian",
ntents/genocide_bio_dadrian.htm. As
can be readily seen, Gönültaþ’s account is flawed, both in its dates
and in his representation of the gathering as ‘The International
Jewish Holocaust Conference’.

[28] Gönültaþ is referring to Yossi Sarid’s statement made in April
2000. See: Gil Hoffman, "Armenian Genocide to be taught", The Jerusalem
Post, April 25, 2000.

[29] Gönültaþ’s footnote: Aron Rodrigue, French Jews, Turkish Jews:
The Alliance Israelite Universelle and the Politics of Jewish Schooling
in Turkey, 1860-1925 (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press), 1990.

[30] Nuh Gönültaþ, "Bediüzzaman ve Ermeniler", Dünden Bugüne Tercüman,
April 9, 2005.

[31] Bülent Þahin Erdeðer, "Mezalim ve Soykýrým Baðlamýnda ‘Ermeni
Sorunu’ ", Haksöz, May 2005, no.170, pp.36-48.

[32] Although missing quotation marks and the author’s failure to
provide proper citation make this unclear, the source for Erdeðer’s
quotation is Çetin Yetkin’s Türkiye’nin Devlet Yaþamýnda Yahudiler,
(Istanbul: AFA Yayýnlarý), 1992, p. 197. The italics of the second
quotation, which is actually found in the footnote at the bottom of
the page, are in the original article.

[33] M. Emin Kazcý, "Lobiler ve diplomasi", Anadolu’da Vakit, February
6, 2007.

[34] Ben Harris, "ADL faces fight over Armenian Position", Jewish
Telegraphic Agency, August 7, 2007.

[35] "ADL Statement on the Armenian Genocide", August 21, 2007,

[ 36] For example Ertuðrul Özkök, "Ýsrail Türkiye’yi kaybedebilir",
Hürriyet, August 24, 2007; Ergun Babahan, "Ýsrail Türkiye’yi gözden
mi çýkardý?", Sabah, August 24, 2007.

[37] Fazýl Duygun, "Ermeni lobisi bastýrdý, Panikleyen Yahudi, Dönmeler
Rejimini Sattý…", Baran, August 30, 2007, no. 34, p. 21. See also:
Fazýl Duygun, "Ermeni Katliamlarýndan Suriye Saldýrýsýna, "Ýsrail ve
TC" Baðý", Baran, September 13, 2007, no.36, p. 21.

[38] The plural used here "Promised Lands" (Vaat Edilmiþ Topraklar)
is not merely a Turkish grammatical idiosyncracy. Rather, it reflects
here the widespread belief within the Islamic world that Jews–and
more specifically the Zionist movement-view the entire area of the
central Islamic lands "from the Nile to the Euphrates" as their
divine inheritance, and are determined and actively attempting to
expand Israel’s borders until it encompasses these areas. Thus,
when the author speaks of "petroleum being found there", this is
a reflection not of author’s bad geological knowledge, but of his
ideological outlook.

[39] The term increasingly used in Islamic circles for the Committee
of Union and Progress (and used here, as well), is "ÝT", for Ýttihat
[ve] Terakki, since in addition to the acronym, the Turkish word it
means dog, but is largely used as a pejorative; similar to calling
someone a dog or swine in English.

[40] "Ermenilerin Yahudilere Ataðý", Aylýk, no. 36, September 2007,
p.40.

[41] The author is referring here to the "Profiles in Courage" award
presented to Prime Minister Erdoðan by the American Jewish Congress
on January 27, 2007 and the "Courage to Care" award, in memory of
the Jews who were saved by Turkish diplomats from the Holocaust in
World War II, presented by ADL on June 10, 2005.

[42] Aydoðan Vatandaþ (1974- ) started his career as a veteran writer
for the Fethullah Gülen-affiliated journal Aksiyon. In his 1997 book
Armagedon: Türkiye-Ýsrail Gizli Savaþý (Armageddon: The Covert War
of Turkey and Israel), Vatandaþ claimed that former Deputy Chief
of Staff Çevik Bir was of Dönme origin. Among his other works of
apocalyptic conspiracy theory are: Agharta: Elektromanyetik Savaþ
Baþladý (Agharta: the Electromagnetic War has begun) (Istanbul: Timaþ
Yayýnlarý), 2001; Apokalipse: Kýyametin Gizli Tarihi (Apocalypse: The
Secret History of Doomsday) (Istanbul: Timaþ Yayýnlarý), 1999; Kýzýl
Tarikat: Tokyo Moskova Washington Üçgeninde Kýyamet Silahlarý (The
Red Sect: Doomsday Weapons in the Tokyo-Moscow-Washington Triangle)
(Istanbul: Karakutu Yayýnlarý), 2003; Kod adý: Kýlýçbalýðý/11Eyl&#x FC;l
Senaryosu (Code Name: Swordfish/The September 11th Scenario) (Istanbul:
Karakutu Yayýnlarý), 2002 and Kuru Kafa ve Kemik Tarikatýnýn Gizli
Tarihi (The Secret History of the Order of The Skull and Bones)
(Istanbul: Q Matris Yayýnlarý), 2003.

[43] Aydoðan Vatandaþ, Asala Operasyonlarý Aslýnda Ne Oldu?, (Istanbul:
Alfa Yayýnlarý), 2005, pp. 110-111.

[44] Hrant Dink, "Gerçek maskaralýk", Agos, October 20, 2000.

[45] Hassasiyet", Agos, October 27, 2000.

[46] "Jak Kamhi’ye devlet üstün hizmet madalyasý", Agos, August
24, 2007.

[47] Levon Panos Dabaðyan, "Gidi Amerikan kemikçileri gidi Amerikan
oðlanlarý sizi!", Önce Vatan, September 14, 2007.

[48] Markar Esayan, "Efendi kim?", Agos, May 28, 2004.

[49] In his book 100 Makale 100 Yorum (Istanbul: Karadað Yayýnlarý),
2006, which as its name might suggest is a compilation of 100 of his
essays originally appearing in Önce Vatan, Dabaðyan claimed that
he was not an antisemite (p. 54), but then went on to repeat the
well-worn antisemitic saw about Jewish domination of the U.N. (pp.

54-60), referred to Theodor Herzl as "a Zionist whose God is Gold" (p.

100), and claimed that the Armenian terrorist organization ASALA,
which carried out a number of assassinations of Turkish diplomats in
Europe and the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, had in fact been
infiltrated by Zionists and was acting in accordance with Zionist
designs (pp. 320-321).

[50] Ibid., pp. 139-140.

[51] Persian Friend, September 28, 2003, 12:11
p.m., Member No.: 1427, HyeForum>Politics>Genocide,
http://hyeforum. com/index.php?showtopic=7131.

[52] Emil Danielyan, "Who continues to destruct [sic]
the Holocaust monument in Yerevan?", February 2, 2006,

[53] Ani Deðirmencioðlu’s, message dated March 5, 2006, posted in
the Workshop for Armenian Turkish Scholarship listserve.

[54] Ece Temelkuran, "En uzak komþu Ermenistan", Milliyet, May 17,
2006.

[55] "Ermenistan’daki Türk ve Yahudi düþmanlýðý",
http:// 8.

[56] Hatice Sancaktar, "O þimdi Yahudi",
z_Zorlu/Mulakat/mulakat.html

[57][57] Hanifi Altaþ, "Dedikodu Tarihçiliði ve Yahudi – Ýslamcý
Paslaþmasý!", Yeni Hayat, Year 8, No. 91 (May, 2002), pp. 3-5.

[58] Ilgaz Zorlu, "Mehmet Þevket Eygi Hakkýnda",
ökyuzu/html

[59] Ilgaz Zorlu, "Yazýlanlar hakkýnda birkaç söz",
essages/9599.htm, March 17, 2003.

[60] Erol Elmas, "Büyüyemezsek Küçülürüz", Yarýn, November, 2005,
pp. 32-37.

[61] Gürkan Hacýr, "Onlarýn MÝT’i Mossad’i varsa, halkýmýzýn da Yalçýn
Küçük’ü var", Yeni Harman, No. 85 (October 1, 2005), pp. 8-12.

[62] Emin Þirin, "Yalçýn Küçük’e inanmýyorum (!)…", November 10,
2004, rum.htm.

[63] Israel Shamir, "An Etude in Cabbala", in PaRDeS,
pdf. Shamir has been
a champion of the ‘One Man, One Vote, One State’ position which
sees in a single, united democratic state a solution for the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. For more on the author and his beliefs,
see:

[64] Gürkan Hacýr, "Prof. Yalçýn Küçük: Þimdi kapýlar makarnacýlara
ve þarapçýlara, beyaz saray tercümanlarýna havluculara açýktýr",
Yeni Harman, No. 92 (March 1, 2006).

[65] The article to which Vatandaþ is referring is: Eyüp Can, "Musevi
Lobisinden Dýþiþlerine Ermeni Soykýrýmý tasarýsý için uyarý", Referans,
January 13, 2007.

[66] Aydoðan Vatandaþ, "Hrant Dink Cinayeti: Bir taþla birkaç kuþ",
January 19, 2007,

[67] Nuh Gönültaþ, "Bizim baþýmýza gelenlerde Yahudi parmaðý vardý!",
Bugün, February 2, 2007.

[68] For details on this entity please refer to section I.

[69] "The Greater Middle East is a political term invented by the
Bush administration to englobe together various countries, pertaining
to the Arab world, but also including the non-Arabic countries of
Turkey, Iran, Israel, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Various Central Asian
countries and the lower Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia)
and Cyprus and Greece are sometimes also included. Some speakers may
use the term to denote areas with significant Muslim majorities, but
this usage is not universal. This expanded term was introduced in the
U.S. administration’s administration’s preparatory work for the G8
summit of 2004 as part of a proposal for sweeping change in the way
the West deals with the Middle East. This initiative is aimed at the
Muslim world in the region and promoted heavily by neoconservative
think tanks such as Project for the New American Century. It
was outlined around the Helsinki Accords from 1975." Source:
e_East . In the Turkish
political culture "Greater Middle East" has been perceived as "an
imperialistic project of the United States".

[70] Baran is known to be published by persons sympathetic to the
aims and means of the Islamist terror organization known as the
[Paramilitary] Front of the Islamic Great Eastern Raiders ÝBDA-C
(Ýslamî Büyük Doðu Akýncýlar Cephesi), which has been implicated in
numerous murders and other crimes within Turkey.

[71] The statement to which Açýkalýn is alluding is the statement
that Gökalp made in his own defense before the Court-Martial after
the First World War, when he was on trial for his role in the killing
of Armenians: "There was no Armenian massacre in Turkey, there was a
[mutual] Turkish-Armenian massacre. They struck us from behind, and
we struck [back]". See: Zafer Toprak, "Ermeni Sorunu’nda Dünü Ýnþa
Etmek ya da ‘Mukatele’nin Ýcadý", Toplumsal Tarih, No. 147 (March,
2006), pp. 18-25.

[72] Dr. Hakký Açýkalýn, "Ermeni-dönme-ÝT-Türk-Kür t ve 2007", Baran,
No. 7 (February 22, 2007), pp. 10-11. As the reader may have already
noticed, Açýkalýn’s article represents yet another example of the
unconscionable practice of ‘lifting’ of passages wholesale from the
works of others. The section beginning after the bracketed asterisk
[*] at the end of paragraph eight, and continuing until the middle of
the penultimate paragraph was taken word for word from the article
"Gizli bir savaþ: Yahudiler Ermenilere karþý" cited in footnote 12
above. Additionally, the use of the acronym ‘ÝT’ for the Committee of
Union and Progress (Ýttihat ve Terakki [Cemiyeti]) is frequently used
by conservative opponents of secularism and/or the Republic–both of
which trends they see as originating with this organization-because
the word ‘it’ in Turkish is a derogatory term with the approximate
meaning of ‘lowly swine’ or ‘cur dog’. See further examples in the
subsequent text.

[73] Enes Duman, ‘Damarlarda Zehirli Kan’, Aylýk, April 2007, year 3,
no. 31, p.10.

[74] Vahit Þekerci, "Who had Hrant Dink in their sights?", El Aziz,
January 24, 2007.