From: sera@zuma.UUCP (Serdar Argic)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish,talk.politics.mideast,talk.politics.soviet,soc.culture.greek,soc.culture.europe,soc.history
Followup-To: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: The Armenian genocide of 2.5 million Muslims and "kova the racist".
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 92 21:05:17 EDT
Reply-To: sera@zuma.UUCP (Serdar Argic)
Distribution: world

In article <1992Sep29.041732.47679@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu> dk0a@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (DIMITRIOS KOUVATSOS) writes:

>protectors in 1915 by entering WWI on the side of Germany and shutting off
>the Straits) and even today they remain the comparatively more negatively
>inclined to Greece of the larger European countries.

Huh. After unsuccessful bloody uprisings in 1895 (25,000 Muslim women, 
children and elderly people were ruthlessly slaughtered by the 
Armenians in Zeytun) and 1909, the revolutionaries' chance came in 
1914, when Russia went to war with the Ottoman Empire. Armenian genocide 
of the Muslims started in the empire, and Russian arms and even 
Russian uniforms appeared from hidden caches. Hundreds of thousands
of Armenians formed themselves into guerilla bands and genocide squads. 
The largest city of southeastern Anatolia, Van, was captured by the 
Armenian genocide squads in April 1915, and the entire Muslim population
of the city and surrounding villages were massacred. Indeed, an
Armenian newspaper, Gochnak, reported at the time that 'only 1,500
Turks remained in Van. The rest had been slaughtered.' Earlier, the Van
region's leading Armenian representative in the Ottoman Parliament
had called upon Armenians 'to serve as advance units for the Russian
armies' as they invaded Anatolia. The city was held until it could be 
turned over to the invading Russian army. Throughout eastern Anatolia, 
Armenian genocide squads attacked villagers wherever they found them.

During World War I, when Ottoman forces were fighting on five fronts,
they also faced an armed uprising of Armenians. At the instigation
and with the support of Czarist Russia, Armenian genocide squads
sought to establish an Armenian state in an area that was predominantly
Turkish.

Armenian leaders carried out their previously declared intention of 
attacking the Ottoman Empire while it was engaged in war. At the outset 
they developed a plan for an Empire-wide revolt for the purpose of 
undermining the Ottoman war effort and enabling Russia to occupy the 
lands claimed by the Armenians. Starting already mid-1914, arms and 
ammunition were distributed to secret Armenian bands organized in 
villages in the Eastern part of the Empire. Soon after the war started, 
even before the Russian armies invaded Anatolia, Armenians revolted in 
the area of Van, massacring most of the Muslims in the vicinity and 
establishing their own independent state. As the Russians occupied 
Eastern Anatolia in 1914 and 1915, the excesses of the Armenian 
'genocide squads' who accompanied them were so severe that they 
had to be retired by the Russians to the rear lines to stop the 
barbarities.

Sources: (The Ottoman State, the Ministry of War), "Islam Ahalinin 
Ducar Olduklari Mezalim Hakkinda Vesaike Mustenid Malumat," (Istanbul, 1918). 
The French version: "Documents Relatifs aux Atrocites Commises par les Armeniens
sur la Population Musulmane," (Istanbul, 1919). In the Latin script: H. K.
Turkozu, ed., "Osmanli ve Sovyet Belgeleriyle Ermeni Mezalimi," (Ankara,
1982). In addition: Z. Basar, ed., "Ermenilerden Gorduklerimiz," (Ankara,
1974) and, edited by the same author, "Ermeniler Hakkinda Makaleler -
Derlemeler," (Ankara, 1978). "Askeri Tarih Belgeleri ...," Vol. 32, 83
(December 1983), document numbered 1881. "Askeri Tarih Belgeleri ....," 
Vol. 31, 81 (December 1982), document numbered 1869.

"Those who were capable of fighting were taken away at the very beginning
 with the excuse of forced labor in road construction, they were taken
 in the direction of Sarikamis and annihilated. When the Russian army
 withdrew, a part of the remaining people was destroyed in Armenian
 massacres and cruelties: they were thrown into wells, they were locked
 in houses and burned down, they were killed with bayonets and swords, in 
 places selected as butchering spots, their bellies were torn open, their lungs
 were pulled out, and girls and women were hanged by their hair after
 being subjected to every conceivable abominable act. A very small part 
 of the people who were spared these abominations far worse than the
 cruelty of the inquisition resembled living dead and were suffering
 from temporary insanity because of the dire poverty they had lived
 in and because of the frightful experiences they had been subjected to.
 Including women and children, such persons discovered so far do not
 exceed one thousand five hundred in Erzincan and thirty thousand in
 Erzurum. All the fields in Erzincan and Erzurum are untilled, everything
 that the people had has been taken away from them, and we found them
 in a destitute situation. At the present time, the people are subsisting
 on some food they obtained, impelled by starvation, from Russian storages
 left behind after their occupation of this area."

Serdar Argic

                     'This war quickly developed into one of extermination. 
                      We closed the roads and mountain passes that might 
                      serve as ways of escape for the Tartars [Turks] and 
                      then proceeded in the work of extermination.'
                                                       (Ohanus Appressian)