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Armenian crime amnesia?
Washington Times
October 16, 2007
Bruce Fein - Armenian crimes against humanity and war crimes against
the Ottoman Turkish and Kurdish populations of eastern and southern
Anatolia during World War I and its aftermath have been forgotten
amidst congressional preoccupation with placating the vocal and richly
financed Armenian lobby.
Last Wednesday, the Armenians hectored members of the House
International Relations Committee by a 27-21 vote into passing a
counterfactual resolution convicting the Ottoman Empire and its
successor state, the Republic of Turkey, of genocide. A historically
supportable resolution would have condemned massacres against
Armenians with the same vigor, as it should have condemned massacres
by Armenians against the innocent Muslim populations of the crumbling
Ottoman Empire.
Capt. Emory Niles and Arthur Sutherland, on an official 1919 U.S.
mission to eastern Anatolia, reported: "In the entire region from
Bitlis through Van to Bayezit, we were informed that the damage and
destruction had been done by the Armenians, who, after the Russians
retired, remained in occupation of the country and who, when the
Turkish army advanced, destroyed everything belonging to the
Musulmans. Moreover, the Armenians are accused of having committed
murder, rape, arson and horrible atrocities of every description upon
the Musulman population. At first, we were most incredulous of these
stories, but we finally came to believe them, since the testimony was
absolutely unanimous and was corroborated by material evidence. For
instance, the only quarters left at all intact in the cities of Bitlis
and Van are Armenian quarters ... while the Musulman quarters were
completely destroyed."
Niles and Sutherland were fortified by American and German
missionaries on the spot in Van. American Clarence Ussher reported
that Armenians put the Turkish men "to death," and, for days, "They
burned and murdered." A German missionary recalled that, "The memory
of these entirely helpless Turkish women, defeated and at the mercy of
the [Armenians] belongs to the saddest recollections from that time."
A March 23, 1920, letter of Col. Charles Furlong, an Army intelligence
officer and U.S. Delegate to the Paris Peace Conference, to President
Woodrow Wilson elaborated: "We hear much, both truth and gross
exaggeration of Turkish massacres of Armenians, but little or nothing
of the Armenian massacres of Turks. ... The recent so-called Marash
massacres [of Armenians] have not been substantiated. In fact, in the
minds of many who are familiar with the situation, there is a grave
question whether it was not the Turk who suffered at the hands of the
Armenian and French armed contingents which were known to be occupying
that city and vicinity. ... Our opportunity to gain the esteem and
respect of the Muslim world ... will depend much on whether America
hears Turkey's untrammeled voice and evidence which she has never
succeeded in placing before the Court of Nations."
The United States neglected Col. Furlong's admonition in 1920, and
again last Wednesday. Nothing seems to have changed from those days,
when Christian lives were more precious than the lives of the
"infidels."
Justin McCarthy of the University of Louisville concluded that a
staggering 2.5 million Anatolian Muslims died in World War I and the
Turkish War of Independence. More than 1 million died in the Six
Provinces in Eastern Anatolia, as Armenians with the help of Russia's
invading armies sought to reclaim their historical homeland.
In contrast, best contemporaneous estimates place the number of
Armenians who died in the war and its aftermath at between 150,000 and
600,000. The Armenian death count climbed to 1.5 million over the
years on the back of political clout and propaganda.
The committee voiced horror over the Armenian suffering, but said
nothing about the suffering Armenians inflicted on the Muslim
population. Nor did the committee deplore the 60 years of Armenian
terrorism in the Ottoman capital Istanbul, including assassination of
the Armenian patriarch and an attempted assassination of the sultan as
he was leaving prayer. Armenian terror was exported to the U.S.
mainland and Europe by fanatics who murdered over 70 Turkish
diplomats, three of them in Los Angeles and one honorary consul
general in Boston.
Mourad Topalian, erstwhile head of the Armenian National Committee of
America, a lead lobbying group behind the resolution and major
campaign contributor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members,
was sentenced to 36 months in prison for complicity in a conspiracy to
bomb the Turkish mission at the United Nations. Yet Toplain has
escaped a terrorist label by either Armenian-Americans or their echo
chambers in Congress.
The home of the late Professor Stanford Shaw of the University of
California-Los Angeles was firebombed in retaliation for his academic
courage in disputing the Armenian genocide claim. Like Benito
Mussolini, Armenians believe truth is an assertion at the head of a
figurative bayonet.
In parts of Europe, disbelief in the Armenian genocide allegation is a
crime on par with Holocaust denial. But the Holocaust was proven
before the Nuremburg Tribunal with the trappings of due process.
Armenians, in contrast, have forgone bringing their genocide
allegation before the International Court of Justice because it is
unsupported by historical facts.
In contrast to open Ottoman archives, significant Armenian archives
remain closed to conceal evidence of Armenian terrorism and massacres.
If the resolution's proponents had done their homework and put aside
religious bigotry, they would have reached the same conclusion as
author and Professor Bernard Lewis of Princeton University: "[T]he
point that was being made was that the massacre of the Armenians in
the Ottoman Empire was the same as what happened to Jews in Nazi
Germany and that is a downright falsehood. What happened to the
Armenians was the result of a massive Armenian armed rebellion against
the Turks, which began even before war broke out, and continued on a
larger scale."
Brian Ardouny of the Armenian Assembly of America in a videotaped
interview for a documentary on the Armenian Revolt clucked: "We don't
need to prove the genocide historically, because it has already been
accepted politically." Congress should reject that cynicism in defense
of historical truth.
Bruce Fein is a resident scholar with the Turkish Coalition of America.
Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20071016/CO MMENTARY02/110160004
Washington Times
October 16, 2007
Bruce Fein - Armenian crimes against humanity and war crimes against
the Ottoman Turkish and Kurdish populations of eastern and southern
Anatolia during World War I and its aftermath have been forgotten
amidst congressional preoccupation with placating the vocal and richly
financed Armenian lobby.
Last Wednesday, the Armenians hectored members of the House
International Relations Committee by a 27-21 vote into passing a
counterfactual resolution convicting the Ottoman Empire and its
successor state, the Republic of Turkey, of genocide. A historically
supportable resolution would have condemned massacres against
Armenians with the same vigor, as it should have condemned massacres
by Armenians against the innocent Muslim populations of the crumbling
Ottoman Empire.
Capt. Emory Niles and Arthur Sutherland, on an official 1919 U.S.
mission to eastern Anatolia, reported: "In the entire region from
Bitlis through Van to Bayezit, we were informed that the damage and
destruction had been done by the Armenians, who, after the Russians
retired, remained in occupation of the country and who, when the
Turkish army advanced, destroyed everything belonging to the
Musulmans. Moreover, the Armenians are accused of having committed
murder, rape, arson and horrible atrocities of every description upon
the Musulman population. At first, we were most incredulous of these
stories, but we finally came to believe them, since the testimony was
absolutely unanimous and was corroborated by material evidence. For
instance, the only quarters left at all intact in the cities of Bitlis
and Van are Armenian quarters ... while the Musulman quarters were
completely destroyed."
Niles and Sutherland were fortified by American and German
missionaries on the spot in Van. American Clarence Ussher reported
that Armenians put the Turkish men "to death," and, for days, "They
burned and murdered." A German missionary recalled that, "The memory
of these entirely helpless Turkish women, defeated and at the mercy of
the [Armenians] belongs to the saddest recollections from that time."
A March 23, 1920, letter of Col. Charles Furlong, an Army intelligence
officer and U.S. Delegate to the Paris Peace Conference, to President
Woodrow Wilson elaborated: "We hear much, both truth and gross
exaggeration of Turkish massacres of Armenians, but little or nothing
of the Armenian massacres of Turks. ... The recent so-called Marash
massacres [of Armenians] have not been substantiated. In fact, in the
minds of many who are familiar with the situation, there is a grave
question whether it was not the Turk who suffered at the hands of the
Armenian and French armed contingents which were known to be occupying
that city and vicinity. ... Our opportunity to gain the esteem and
respect of the Muslim world ... will depend much on whether America
hears Turkey's untrammeled voice and evidence which she has never
succeeded in placing before the Court of Nations."
The United States neglected Col. Furlong's admonition in 1920, and
again last Wednesday. Nothing seems to have changed from those days,
when Christian lives were more precious than the lives of the
"infidels."
Justin McCarthy of the University of Louisville concluded that a
staggering 2.5 million Anatolian Muslims died in World War I and the
Turkish War of Independence. More than 1 million died in the Six
Provinces in Eastern Anatolia, as Armenians with the help of Russia's
invading armies sought to reclaim their historical homeland.
In contrast, best contemporaneous estimates place the number of
Armenians who died in the war and its aftermath at between 150,000 and
600,000. The Armenian death count climbed to 1.5 million over the
years on the back of political clout and propaganda.
The committee voiced horror over the Armenian suffering, but said
nothing about the suffering Armenians inflicted on the Muslim
population. Nor did the committee deplore the 60 years of Armenian
terrorism in the Ottoman capital Istanbul, including assassination of
the Armenian patriarch and an attempted assassination of the sultan as
he was leaving prayer. Armenian terror was exported to the U.S.
mainland and Europe by fanatics who murdered over 70 Turkish
diplomats, three of them in Los Angeles and one honorary consul
general in Boston.
Mourad Topalian, erstwhile head of the Armenian National Committee of
America, a lead lobbying group behind the resolution and major
campaign contributor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members,
was sentenced to 36 months in prison for complicity in a conspiracy to
bomb the Turkish mission at the United Nations. Yet Toplain has
escaped a terrorist label by either Armenian-Americans or their echo
chambers in Congress.
The home of the late Professor Stanford Shaw of the University of
California-Los Angeles was firebombed in retaliation for his academic
courage in disputing the Armenian genocide claim. Like Benito
Mussolini, Armenians believe truth is an assertion at the head of a
figurative bayonet.
In parts of Europe, disbelief in the Armenian genocide allegation is a
crime on par with Holocaust denial. But the Holocaust was proven
before the Nuremburg Tribunal with the trappings of due process.
Armenians, in contrast, have forgone bringing their genocide
allegation before the International Court of Justice because it is
unsupported by historical facts.
In contrast to open Ottoman archives, significant Armenian archives
remain closed to conceal evidence of Armenian terrorism and massacres.
If the resolution's proponents had done their homework and put aside
religious bigotry, they would have reached the same conclusion as
author and Professor Bernard Lewis of Princeton University: "[T]he
point that was being made was that the massacre of the Armenians in
the Ottoman Empire was the same as what happened to Jews in Nazi
Germany and that is a downright falsehood. What happened to the
Armenians was the result of a massive Armenian armed rebellion against
the Turks, which began even before war broke out, and continued on a
larger scale."
Brian Ardouny of the Armenian Assembly of America in a videotaped
interview for a documentary on the Armenian Revolt clucked: "We don't
need to prove the genocide historically, because it has already been
accepted politically." Congress should reject that cynicism in defense
of historical truth.
Bruce Fein is a resident scholar with the Turkish Coalition of America.
Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20071016/CO MMENTARY02/110160004