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ANKARA: Genocide Claims and Mr. Oskanyan!

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  • ANKARA: Genocide Claims and Mr. Oskanyan!

    Zaman on Line
    05.15.2005 Sunday
    ISTANBUL 04:23

    ERHAN BASYURT
    05.15.2005 Sunday - ISTANBUL 04:23

    Genocide Claims and Mr. Oskanyan!

    The so-called Armenian "genocide" allegations are on the agenda again.
    Turkey has been slandered for 90 years through an unfair and partial
    propaganda.
    I say unfair because the Armenians do not use of any legal channels they
    have but only try to pressure Turkey politically.
    Unfortunately, Turkey ignored revealing the facts for many long years.
    Statements made from time to time were not satisfactory. For the first time,
    the government, the opposition and parliament, with one voice, are
    challenging these baseless allegations. There were similar attempts in the
    past; however, these were done by diplomats or scientists, solely on their
    own.
    Turkey invited a commission consisting Turkish and Armenian historians to
    investigate the issue in detail by opening the Ottoman as well as military
    archives. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter to Armenian
    President Robert Kocharian calling for the establishment of a "commission of
    historians." The Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) sent a letter to the
    British House of Commons asking it to declare that the "Blue Book" written
    by Arnold Tonybee, which supports Armenian allegations, is a product of
    propaganda.
    Tonybee himself confesses that the book is a propaganda product. Britain had
    prepared a similar book during World War I against the Germans. The reason
    behind this was to make things difficult for Turkey and Germany in the
    international arena, to get US support during the war and to prepare the
    ground for the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and hence, establish two
    Armenian states in Anatolia.
    Prof. Hikmet Ozdemir who is conducting researches on the Armenian issue at
    the Turkish Institute of History (TTK) revealed in his interview published
    in Aksiyon Weekly News Magazine that around 1914, just before World War I,
    Britain prepared some maps that gave Izmir to the Greeks, established the
    Armenian Kingdom of Celicia around Cukurova and an Armenian Republic in Van.
    Ozdemir has proven these with original documents written at that time. It is
    also a fact that Russia incited the Armenians in eastern Anatolia.
    It is also known that Armenians started to seek new ideals, incite many
    rebellions, murder many Muslims and sabotage military deliveries under the
    influence of nationalism and with external support. As a result, the Ottoman
    Empire implemented forced emigration against the Armenians. This
    implementation known as "Emigration" took place in 1915 and it was also
    applied by many countries in the world including the US and Russia. It is a
    fact that many people lost their lives during the emigration; there were
    serious tragic events due to attacks by gangs and epidemics. But if it is
    taken into account that over 400,000 Ottoman soldiers also died from
    epidemics in the same period, and those who were responsible for these
    deaths were tried and punished, it will be better understood that these
    deaths and tragedies were not intentional but resulted from the helplessness
    of the Ottoman Empire.
    Erdogan and the calls he made in parliament are very important because of
    this reason. The Armenians, who do not have any proof to back their
    "genocide" claims, are not comfortable with this call. Just as Armenian
    Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan said to the Mediamax News Agency: "Turkey
    is not only trying to rewrite its own history from the beginning in a
    disrespectful manner, but it also trying to encourage other countries to do
    likewise."
    Why does Armenia, which has been involved in ethnic cleansing acts in
    Nagorno-Karabakh and has forced over 1,000,000 Azeris out of their own
    lands, oppose the establishment of a commission of historians and opening of
    the Armenian state archives and those of the Tasnak Party? It is because
    they are afraid that their stabbing of the Ottomans in the back, by
    cooperating with the Russians and the British, and also the fact that the
    emigration implemented by Ottoman Empire was not genocide, but a
    precautionary measure, will be revealed.
    If it were the reverse, Oskanyan would not have wasted his breath but would
    have used his unilateral right to apply to the International Court of
    Justice (ICJ) with the documents that he has.
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