On Armenian Allegations /Yücel Akyürek

On Armenian Allegations

A different View on the Recent State of Affairs

A Call for Resolution

 

Yücel Akyürek^[1]

 

Since President Biden with his one-sided declaration on April 24, 2021 joined others in generously granting the “benefit of the doubt” to the accusers, it has been painful to watch the successive outpouring on the Turkish media showing the intentional cruelties of the Armenian groups portrayed as genocide victims, perpetrated on Muslim, mostly Turkish population classified as offenders. The injustice of this partiality leads to its counter reactions leaving no ground for a civilized dialogue and a possible reconciliation. I think all this is deliberately intended. 

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern Turkish Republic with his exceptional statesmanship and vision, must have decided to leave all accounts of such painful acts in the past so that they would not cloud the clear bright skies of hope and renewal for the newly formed Republic in 1923. He knew that hatred is a heavy burden which does not allow anything else to flourish on the same grounds. This explains partly why new generations of Turkey have been so distant to the subject and grudge and vendetta have never been a part of our upbringing. İt is obvious now that this dignified silence on our part has been mistaken for admission of guilt. Apparently Mr. Biden and his predecessors have no legal proof of their allegations and I do not know if they have ever gone into the trouble of seeking the truth from both sides but I want to hope that there are people with conscience out there willing to consider a fairer point of view.

Let us not overlook that 1915 was a tragic time in history.  WW1 was in its full force.  Men were dying in the trenches not only by bullets and shrapnel but also with poisonous gasses, sicknesses and starvation all over Europe.  250,000 men on our side only in Gallipoli were either wounded or killed with an equal number on the other side. At least 40,000 young soldiers froze to death in one night without firing a single bullet to the invading Russian army on our north eastern front and many more were lost in Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Sinai and Egypt. The empire had already lost most of its land and resources in the previous decade and was confined to Asia Minor only. More was yet to come with the stillborn and notorious Sevres Treaty later in 1920. One simple glance at the demographic map issued in 2010 by Justin McCarty, a reputed historian is enough to indicate the tragedies suffered by 5 million Muslims and 1.9 million Christians forcefully displaced in this part of the world in between 1770–1923.

 

           Map of Forceful displacements during 1770-1923. Issued by Justin Mc.Carthy in 2010

Therefore, I must say that I am highly disappointed by the biased and casually worded conclusions on the subject leaving the other side of the story completely out. One important aspect ignored is that during a war of survival for the Ottoman Empire, Armenians revolted for their independence. Many Armenian rebels were fighting against the Ottoman forces in Russian uniforms; many more a few years later in French uniforms and still more in peasant outfits behind the Turkish lines. 

Needless to say, there were those Armenians who did not take any part in such atrocities carrying on with their daily lives. They either did not believe in separatism, as they were happily integrated to the Ottoman rule or they were wise enough not to trust the sincerity of the western powers who were ambitiously exploiting the situation for their own benefits. There were also many Armenians in Ottoman uniforms willing to fight and die for the same cause as their fellow Turks. Most were forcefully silenced and intimidated by the Armenian insurgents. ^[2]  

A sensible ethical question here would be to ask, “was it a valid cause on the part of the Armenians and did they have a right to do that?” Bearing in mind that the line dividing the idealism of separatism and treason is very thin and setting aside its unfair opportunistic nature for the moment, we can conclude that the answer in principle is yes. But equally valid is the right of a state to restore law and order to maintain unity. What was true for approximately 25 ethnic nationalities once under the Ottoman rule including Hungarians, Serbs, Croats, Bulgarians, Rumanians, Greeks and Arabs, is equally true for Armenians. “Was it viable and timely?” however is another matter. After all, the Armenians were a minority in all the areas they lived.

What happened next is that some Armenians fought for these ideals but lost to a parallel very significant cause, the Turkish War of Independence.  This goes only for the ones who fought honorably on both sides. The Turkish odyssey to independence was also the first to seriously challenge the ruthless exploitation of the imperialist powers  and win a decisive victory over them. This is why Kemal Atatürk has been an inspiration to most of the countries which successively broke free one by one from their chains of slavery imposed on them a century or two ago. 

In a sense, what happened to Armenians was probably what would have happened to us if the Turkish National Forces under Atatürk’s leadership was defeated.  Instead of accepting this fact in dignity as the first prime minister of the State of Armenia,  Hovhannes Katchaznoini  did back in 1923, the Armenian Diaspora, inspired by the global sympathy heaped upon Jewish victims of the holocaust assumed a position of a similar victimhood  rejecting responsibilities for territorial demands. They misrepresented the Ottoman Armenians as a subjugated community with no motivations or ambitions to appeal for Christian sentiments. They were immediately welcomed by European and USA governments and other power centers seeking retaliation and vengeance by any possible means against the Turkish victory over colonialism. Some elements of anti- Turkish bias can even be traced back to the times of the Crusaders and/or to the later Ottoman conquests in parts of Europe.

But then again, it wasn’t just a brutal invasion in Europe or a simple clash of religions. It was the time of prima nocta, the first night rights of the senior lords, of indulgence sales, the inquisition courts and of witch hunting which lasted until the very end of the 17th century even in America.  İt might also be worthwhile here to mention the heterodox groups such as “Bogomils” in the Balkans who were in serious conflict with Papacy.  This was one of the reasons why some groups like the Bosnians joined Ottomans willfully. It may also be the right moment now to consider how Ottoman advances into Europe might have positively affected the Renaissance and Reform movements and to revise the history teachings accordingly starting from the school books.  

The allegations of genocide were concurrent with the terrorist acts of ASALA in major cities of the World in 1970’s. Turkish diplomats, government officials with their family members and others accompanying them were brutally assassinated one after the other for no reason other than their nationality. Although it was clearly visible then, İt created such a deceitful blind spot that no one pondered on what ASALA really meant or that the 1915 events had nothing to do with the acts of the Nazi government where gas chambers for mass killings were designed, tendered and ordered by the government authorities and where human guinea pigs were used for medical experiments.  

If I were an Armenian, despite the success of this unfair campaign I would most probably refuse to be used as a tool serving the hypocritical political agenda of the former colonialists.

Ottomans were a multinational and multicultural Empire with its Turkish core. Some historians would refer to it as the third Roman Empire. Dimitris Kitsikis of Greece goes even further to call it a “Greco Turkish Empire”. Like all other ethnic communities of the Empire and even more so for Armenians, especially in the later periods of its history, they have been one of the major constituents of the “pax Ottomana” with their significant contribution to Ottoman politics, architecture, crafts, music, stage and military.  İt would be most surprising to find out how many army generals and high ranking officers of Armenian origin were employed in the Ottoman army in 1915.   Perhaps this is the reason why they have stayed long after others left. This perspective is extremely important from the point of view of all the people of former members of the empire because this is the key to understand that it wasn’t the brutal force of the Turks that kept them in the empire for 300 to 400 years or even longer but the harmonious cohabitation and prosperity of living together in peace. 

Kurds are another group trapped in this vicious cycle. Anyone who has any idea about life in Turkey can witness the fact that there have been regional and/or indiscriminate inequalities but never an ethnic discrimination against Kurds who are an integral part of the society. Our recent history is full of examples of presidents, statesmen, politicians, army generals, government officials, parliamentarians, industrialists and well to do tradesman of Kurdish origin. Likewise, there were patriots fighting and dying in the Ottoman army in Gallipoli while others were insurgents in the East.

I think it is time to listen to the Armenians themselves who are living in Turkey. On average they form a fairly prosperous part of the community and I have many such friends including those who are Jews, Orthodox Greeks and others. The Armenian Patriarch in Istanbul Sahak Mashalian issued a statement after Mr. Biden’s declaration saying that “It is not helpful at all. We can get along well if we are left alone. We do not want interferences.”  Many others spoke the same. Karolin Fişekçi, a painter and a writer who is born in Sivas is saying exactly the same thing in newspapers adding that “I am an Anatolian. Diaspora has a different psychology. For instance, Kim Kardashian is full of anger and resentment because she is unaware of the warmth in Anatolia”.

I must refer to late Hirant Dink also who was a journalist for AGOS newspaper regularly published in Istanbul until he was killed by a Turkish mob with nationalistic pretences in 19 Jan, 2007. He could possibly have been killed by an Armenian fanatic, judging on where one is looking from. He acknowledged the fact that violence has been on both sides and that Armenians did side with the invading Russians. Quoting his own words he said “İn the aftermath one side ended up in trauma while the other in paranoia”. He was concluding that “we should unite in mourning for both sides in forgiveness”.

I cannot forget the day when his widow Mrs Raşel Dink was asking in pain “what is it that turns once an innocent baby into a murderer?” 

 

These are my own thoughts. I do not represent any group or anyone else.  I am not a politician, a historian, a judiciary, a government official nor someone with enough proficiency on the subject to elaborate on the extensive material available to all unbiased persons and parties firmly establishing these three points:

·       Genocide is a serious crime which entered into the legislative system in 1951; 

·       Only competent tribunals can adjudicate genocide claims 

and

·       If all pre-1951 events were to be dealt with, it would be very difficult if not impossible to find the first to cast the stone.

 

Looking into several other things might cast more light upon the subject. First of all, our history has no such legacy as genocide. On the contrary, it has countless examples of cultural traits like hospitality, tolerance and accommodation. The Armenian Church and the clergy formerly persecuted by Byzantine were invited to Istanbul immediately after the conquest to serve Armenians, in harmony with  all other residents in peace. 150.000 Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in 1480’s were rescued by Ottoman ships and welcomed to the empire when all other countries rejected them during the reign of Sultan Bayezid II.  Scores of Jews were rescued from Holocaust in WW2 with the help of Turkish foreign Services in Europe. Many scholars who fled the Nazi regime then have provided significant impetus to the development of our new universities. 

 

I also hope that more than five million Syrian victims of war and refugees under our care now are not unnoticed in stark contrast to countries which are pushing their boats away to their deaths into the open sea, while everyone else is turning a blind eye.

 

Scapegoating one party should not be regarded as a tool to lever other problems as it is most often the problem itself. It takes years to clear the damage it has done even long after governments, policies and social climates change.

Feeling deep inside that no one can be impartial to the pains endured during the terrible long distance marches resulting in loss of lives due to shortage of supplies and to savagery of rural tribes and of having to leave daughters and sons behind to the sympathy of others, I stand in respect for all who have lived and suffered through these unfortunate years and would like to see the day in which Armenians and Turks alike would mourn in understanding for all.

 

Istanbul – May 8, 2021

^[1] Yücel Akyürek, architect, born in 1942 was educated in Talas & Tarsus American Schools in Turkey. They were set up in Ottoman times in 1880’s primarily for the purpose of protestantisation of Armenians, recruiting ethnic students only but continued later in the Republic with secular goals, accepting Turkish students as well. 

Interesting recollections of his school days are ardently narrated in his book “Yolboyu” published two years ago within his memoirs of ‘50, ‘60 and 70’s.

He refers proudly to the quality and benefits of his education in these two successive schools. 

 

^[2] It is interesting to read the memoirs of one such person Agop Martayan an Armenian intellectual, a graduate of The Robert College in Istanbul, and a lieutenant in the Ottoman Army. He was wounded in a battle against Russians in Kars and posted to the Syrian front where he served under Mustafa Kemal. After the war he became a World known linguist and Ataturk’s advisor until 1938 throughout his reforms on Turkish language, including the shift to Latin alphabet. He is better known with his “Dilaçar” last name he adopted after Ataturk’s proposal which means “Language Pioneer” in Turkish. He is not the only one in doing so. We should all be thankful to our Armenian friends who are still with us contributing so much to all aspects of our economic and cultural life.