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No equivocation about Armenian genocide
BY WAYNE S. BERBERIAN
Saturday, May 9, 2009
NorthJersey.com
Theodore Roosevelt advocated U.S. participation in World War I partly
to put a stop to the Armenian genocide.
THE AMERICAN right to freedom of speech is sometimes misused by
Turkish-Americans in improperly characterizing the Armenian genocide of
1915.
They count on the fact that most Americans do not know enough about
this chapter of Armenian history to differentiate the truth from the
chaff, and will therefore eventually lose interest.
I think that it would be more productive to rely upon the word of
well-respected people who were neither Turkish nor Armenian, and who
were alive at the time of the genocide. Some of them were even present
in the Ottoman Empire to witness the slaughter firsthand.
Henry Morgenthau, grandfather of current Manhattan District Attorney
Robert Morgenthau, was United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire
from 1913-16. In describing the forced relocation of the Armenians into
the Syrian desert, he stated: "When the Turkish authorities gave the
orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death
warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and in their
conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the
fact."
Theodore Roosevelt advocated U.S. participation in World War I partly
to put a stop to the Armenian genocide. In a letter dated May2011, 1918,
he stated: "The Armenian horror is an established fact. Its occurrence
was largely due to the policy of pacifism this nation has followed for
the last four years. The presence of our missionaries, and our failure
to go to war, did not prevent the Turks from massacring between half a
million and 1 million Armenians, Syrians, Greeks and Jews ` the
overwhelming majority being Armenians."
David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1916`22, wrote
in his memoirs: "In the province of Armenia, Abdul Hamid and the Young
Turks had deliberately set themselves to the simplification of the
Armenian difficulty by exterminating and deporting the whole race, whom
they regarded as infidels and traitors. In this savage task they had
largely succeeded."
Winston Churchill, prime minister of Britain during most of World War
II, concurred. In Volume 5 of "The World Crisis," he wrote: "In 1915
the Turkish government began and ruthlessly carried out the infamous
general massacre and deportation of Armenians in Asia Minor. Three or
four hundred thousand men, women, and children escaped into Russian
territory and others into Persia or Mesopotamia; but the clearance of
the race from Asia Minor was about as complete as such an act, on a
scale so great, could well be. There is no reasonable doubt that this
crime was planned and executed for political reasons."
In "Pallone takes narrow, politicized view o
f history" (Other Views,
April 28), Mehmet Basoglu seems to feel that recognition of the
genocide would be counter to American interests.
It might be informative to read a quote from one other leader from that
period: Adolf Hitler.
On the eve of his invasion of Poland, Hitler said: "I have issued the
command ` and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism
executed by a firing squad ` that our war aim does not consist in
reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy.
"Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness with
orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion,
men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus
shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need.
"Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"
Wayne S. Berberian lives in Paramus.
Theodore Roosevelt advocated U.S. participation in World War I partly
to put a stop to the Armenian genocide.
THE AMERICAN right to freedom of speech is sometimes misused by
Turkish-Americans in improperly characterizing the Armenian genocide of
1915.
They count on the fact that most Americans do not know enough about
this chapter of Armenian history to differentiate the truth from the
chaff, and will therefore eventually lose interest.
I think that it would be more productive to rely upon the word of
well-r
espected people who were neither Turkish nor Armenian, and who
were alive at the time of the genocide. Some of them were even present
in the Ottoman Empire to witness the slaughter firsthand.
Henry Morgenthau, grandfather of current Manhattan District Attorney
Robert Morgenthau, was United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire
from 1913-16. In describing the forced relocation of the Armenians into
the Syrian desert, he stated: "When the Turkish authorities gave the
orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death
warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and in their
conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the
fact."
Theodore Roosevelt advocated U.S. participation in World War I partly
to put a stop to the Armenian genocide. In a letter dated May 11, 1918,
he stated: "The Armenian horror is an established fact. Its occurrence
was largely due to the policy of pacifism this nation has followed for
the last four years. The presence of our missionaries, and our failure
to go to war, did not prevent the Turks from massacring between half a
million and 1 million Armenians, Syrians, Greeks and Jews ` the
overwhelming majority being Armenians."
David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1916`22, wrote
in his memoirs: "In the province of Armenia, Abdul Hamid and the Young
Turks had deliberately set themselves to the simplification of the
Armeni
an difficulty by exterminating and deporting the whole race, whom
they regarded as infidels and traitors. In this savage task they had
largely succeeded."
Winston Churchill, prime minister of Britain during most of World War
II, concurred. In Volume 5 of "The World Crisis," he wrote: "In 1915
the Turkish government began and ruthlessly carried out the infamous
general massacre and deportation of Armenians in Asia Minor. Three or
four hundred thousand men, women, and children escaped into Russian
territory and others into Persia or Mesopotamia; but the clearance of
the race from Asia Minor was about as complete as such an act, on a
scale so great, could well be. There is no reasonable doubt that this
crime was planned and executed for political reasons."
In "Pallone takes narrow, politicized view of history" (Other Views,
April 28), Mehmet Basoglu seems to feel that recognition of the
genocide would be counter to American interests.
It might be informative to read a quote from one other leader from that
period: Adolf Hitler.
On the eve of his invasion of Poland, Hitler said: "I have issued the
command ` and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism
executed by a firing squad ` that our war aim does not consist in
reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy.
"Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness with
orders to them to send=2
0to death mercilessly and without compassion,
men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus
shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need.
"Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"
Wayne S. Berberian lives in Paramus.
BY WAYNE S. BERBERIAN
Saturday, May 9, 2009
NorthJersey.com
Theodore Roosevelt advocated U.S. participation in World War I partly
to put a stop to the Armenian genocide.
THE AMERICAN right to freedom of speech is sometimes misused by
Turkish-Americans in improperly characterizing the Armenian genocide of
1915.
They count on the fact that most Americans do not know enough about
this chapter of Armenian history to differentiate the truth from the
chaff, and will therefore eventually lose interest.
I think that it would be more productive to rely upon the word of
well-respected people who were neither Turkish nor Armenian, and who
were alive at the time of the genocide. Some of them were even present
in the Ottoman Empire to witness the slaughter firsthand.
Henry Morgenthau, grandfather of current Manhattan District Attorney
Robert Morgenthau, was United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire
from 1913-16. In describing the forced relocation of the Armenians into
the Syrian desert, he stated: "When the Turkish authorities gave the
orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death
warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and in their
conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the
fact."
Theodore Roosevelt advocated U.S. participation in World War I partly
to put a stop to the Armenian genocide. In a letter dated May2011, 1918,
he stated: "The Armenian horror is an established fact. Its occurrence
was largely due to the policy of pacifism this nation has followed for
the last four years. The presence of our missionaries, and our failure
to go to war, did not prevent the Turks from massacring between half a
million and 1 million Armenians, Syrians, Greeks and Jews ` the
overwhelming majority being Armenians."
David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1916`22, wrote
in his memoirs: "In the province of Armenia, Abdul Hamid and the Young
Turks had deliberately set themselves to the simplification of the
Armenian difficulty by exterminating and deporting the whole race, whom
they regarded as infidels and traitors. In this savage task they had
largely succeeded."
Winston Churchill, prime minister of Britain during most of World War
II, concurred. In Volume 5 of "The World Crisis," he wrote: "In 1915
the Turkish government began and ruthlessly carried out the infamous
general massacre and deportation of Armenians in Asia Minor. Three or
four hundred thousand men, women, and children escaped into Russian
territory and others into Persia or Mesopotamia; but the clearance of
the race from Asia Minor was about as complete as such an act, on a
scale so great, could well be. There is no reasonable doubt that this
crime was planned and executed for political reasons."
In "Pallone takes narrow, politicized view o
f history" (Other Views,
April 28), Mehmet Basoglu seems to feel that recognition of the
genocide would be counter to American interests.
It might be informative to read a quote from one other leader from that
period: Adolf Hitler.
On the eve of his invasion of Poland, Hitler said: "I have issued the
command ` and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism
executed by a firing squad ` that our war aim does not consist in
reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy.
"Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness with
orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion,
men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus
shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need.
"Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"
Wayne S. Berberian lives in Paramus.
Theodore Roosevelt advocated U.S. participation in World War I partly
to put a stop to the Armenian genocide.
THE AMERICAN right to freedom of speech is sometimes misused by
Turkish-Americans in improperly characterizing the Armenian genocide of
1915.
They count on the fact that most Americans do not know enough about
this chapter of Armenian history to differentiate the truth from the
chaff, and will therefore eventually lose interest.
I think that it would be more productive to rely upon the word of
well-r
espected people who were neither Turkish nor Armenian, and who
were alive at the time of the genocide. Some of them were even present
in the Ottoman Empire to witness the slaughter firsthand.
Henry Morgenthau, grandfather of current Manhattan District Attorney
Robert Morgenthau, was United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire
from 1913-16. In describing the forced relocation of the Armenians into
the Syrian desert, he stated: "When the Turkish authorities gave the
orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death
warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and in their
conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the
fact."
Theodore Roosevelt advocated U.S. participation in World War I partly
to put a stop to the Armenian genocide. In a letter dated May 11, 1918,
he stated: "The Armenian horror is an established fact. Its occurrence
was largely due to the policy of pacifism this nation has followed for
the last four years. The presence of our missionaries, and our failure
to go to war, did not prevent the Turks from massacring between half a
million and 1 million Armenians, Syrians, Greeks and Jews ` the
overwhelming majority being Armenians."
David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1916`22, wrote
in his memoirs: "In the province of Armenia, Abdul Hamid and the Young
Turks had deliberately set themselves to the simplification of the
Armeni
an difficulty by exterminating and deporting the whole race, whom
they regarded as infidels and traitors. In this savage task they had
largely succeeded."
Winston Churchill, prime minister of Britain during most of World War
II, concurred. In Volume 5 of "The World Crisis," he wrote: "In 1915
the Turkish government began and ruthlessly carried out the infamous
general massacre and deportation of Armenians in Asia Minor. Three or
four hundred thousand men, women, and children escaped into Russian
territory and others into Persia or Mesopotamia; but the clearance of
the race from Asia Minor was about as complete as such an act, on a
scale so great, could well be. There is no reasonable doubt that this
crime was planned and executed for political reasons."
In "Pallone takes narrow, politicized view of history" (Other Views,
April 28), Mehmet Basoglu seems to feel that recognition of the
genocide would be counter to American interests.
It might be informative to read a quote from one other leader from that
period: Adolf Hitler.
On the eve of his invasion of Poland, Hitler said: "I have issued the
command ` and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism
executed by a firing squad ` that our war aim does not consist in
reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy.
"Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness with
orders to them to send=2
0to death mercilessly and without compassion,
men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus
shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need.
"Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"
Wayne S. Berberian lives in Paramus.