From: nextug@ac.dal.ca
Newsgroups: soc.history
Subject: Turkey & Armenia: Forward to Future or Back to Past
Date: 16 Apr 92 21:51:44 GMT
Organization: Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

It is a sad state of affairs when the events of the
First World War in the former Ottoman Empire are still
provoking zealots on both sides to grind the axes of
their righteous indignation with angry dreams of
retribution and reparations.

Readers of soc.culture.soviet, soc.culture.greek.,
soc.history or any of the other  newsgroups so
prolifically and malignantly crosposted by Hasan B-)
'Mutlu' may be excused if they never want to hear
another word in their lives about the Turkish/Armenian
conflict, so thoroughly has he annoyed and alienated
many readers.In his sectarian and assiduously one-
sided treatment of this conflict (and all the other
historical and national issues which his uncritical
sentiments lead him to embrace) Mr. 'Mutlu's' extremist
positions land him squarely in the camp of those who
would incite hatred along racial, ethnic or national
lines, a hallmark of fascist political philosophy. The
world has had ample experience of where an-eye-for-an-
eye justice has lead: to the festering wounds of
Northern Ireland, Lebanon, Palestine, Serbia & Croatia,
Armenia & Azerbaijan, etc.

It ought to be incumbent on all who concern themselves
with such issues to serious ask themselves; "What do I
seek: a real solution and a lasting peace; or another
round of retribution, humiliation and revenge?" An-
eye-for-an-eye leads to blindness for all.

An example of such blindness in one eye is Mr.
'Mutlu's' sympathy with the suffering experience by
Turkish people during this sad conflict and his
excoriation of the Armenians. As so many contemporary
accounts indicate, there were brutal and unspeakable
acts perpetrated by Turks, Armenians, Kurds, Russians
and Germans alike. Few are innocent here. All carry
some measure of guilt and responsibility. Mr. 'Mutlu,'
however, ignores the manifold evidence which pins a
great deal of blame and responsibility on Enver Pasha,
Djemal Pasha, Talaat Bey and the other memembers of the
Young Turk movement, not only for a fantastic campaign
of barbarity against Armenians specifically, but first
and foremost, for setting into motion a political
philosophy which exacerbated the cycle of violence and
revenge in Transcaucasia.

For those snowed under by the weight of 'Mutlu'
prolific quotations on the genocide of Turks, it is
worth examining what  contemporary reports had to say
about Turkish treatment of Armenians during this
period.

*Done To Death by Turks: Hundreds of Armenians Were
Massacred in Transcaucasia: Corpses Left in the Streets
for Dogs to Devour*

Petrograd, February 23, 1915 (Russkoe Slovo) -- Only
now are details becoming available of the horrors
perpetrated by the Turks during their occupation of
Ardanvate, Transcaucasia, near the Armenian frontier.
     The Tiflis correspondent of Russkoe Slovo, learned
that at first the Turks confined themselves to pillage
and slew only fifteen civilians, but after December 30,
when the news of Russian occupation of Ardahan was
received, the local Mussulmen threw off the mask and
the same evening organized a systemic massacre.
     One hundred and fifty Armenians were lead out into
the streets and shot or had their throats cut. Old
Turkish residents who had been for years on friendly
terms with Armenians slew in cold-blood old
acquaintances, carefully counting the corpses to make
sure that entire families had been wiped out.
     Fifty Armenians were removed from prison, stripped
naked, and compelled to leap into the abyss of
Jenemdere, the "Devil's Gap," until one victim carried
a Turk with him, then the remainder were shot.
     Two hundred and fifty were masacred at Tamvot and
the women were carried into captivity.
     The Turks did not permit the burial of the corpses
which were left to be devoured by dogs until the
arrival of the Russians.

or the following:

*Armenians Fall Victim to the Turks' Cruelty*

Special Cable by Francis Lavelle Murray of the
International News
Petrograd, July 23:- More than 10,000 Armenians have
been massacred by the Turks in the worst slaughter of
Christians ever recorded, according to reports received
here by Novoe Vremya. The scene of the massacre was at
Bitlis, and in the surrounding district of Lake Van,
Turkish Armenia.
     After looting and burning homes of Christians in
Bitlis, and torturing or killing many of the residents
of that city, the Turks gathered 9,000 men, women and
children from the nearby villages and drove them more
than thirty miles to the banks of the Tigris, where all
were shot. Their bodies were then thrown into the
river.
     Another thousand who had escaped the first
slaughter were later dragged from their places of
refuge and also put to death.

or the following:

*Massacre by Turks: Frightful Outrages Perpetrated Upon
Armenians in Bitlis*

Aug 20, 1915, Petrograd (Reuter):- Almost unbelievable
details of Turkish massacres of Armenians in Bitlis
have reached Petrograd. In one village 1,000 men, women
and children are reported to have been locked in a
wooden building and burned to death.
     In another village only 36 persons, it is said,
escaped massacre.
     In still another instance, it is asserted that
several score of men and women were tied together by
chains and thrown into Lake Van.

or the following:

*Turks Slay 14,000 in One Massacre: Blackest Page in
Ottoman History Revealed by Former Italian Consul*

Rome, Aug 26, 1915 (Special Cable Dispatch to The
Toronto Globe):- Giacomo Gorrini, the former Italian
Consul at Trebizonid, who arrived in Rome to-day,
decalred that 14,000 Armenian Christians were killed by
Turks and Kurds in one massacre at Trebizonid.
     "The decree, which was published on June 24,
ordered the massacre of Armenians, and forms the
blackest page in Ottoman history," said Signor Gorrini.
"The result of the proclamation was carnage on a big
and bloody scale. Out of 14,000 Armenian Catholics and
Protestants residing in Trebizonid only 100 escaped.
     "I saw thousands of innocent women and children
placed on boats which were capsized in the Black Sea.
Thousands of young Armenian women were forcibly
converted to Mohammedanism. There were suicides without
end.
     "I shall never forget the scenes of horror I
witnessed from June 21 to July 23, when I left.
     "The situation in the interior of Turkey is
horrible, and the population is desperately calling for
peace, anathematizing the Germans and Young Turks."

and on and on and on ...

     What can possibly be the point of rubbing still
more salt into these old wounds? What reperations can
be made to the dead? The greatest service we can do
them is to ensure that the hatred and intolerance which
lead to their deaths can never again rear its head -
- not to to exact vengence and reperations.  As the old
saw goes "Those who forget their past are destined to
repeat it." But those who become fixated on it, and
cannot learn to forgive, are destined to be slaves to
their past and repeated it just as surely -- perhaps,
as Karl Marx would have it, the second time as a farce.

     - C. Majka
     nextug@ac.dal.ca