From: sera@zuma.UUCP (Serdar Argic)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish,talk.politics.mideast,talk.politics.soviet,soc.culture.greek,soc.culture.europe,soc.culture.soviet,soc.rights.human,soc.culture.yugoslavia
Followup-To: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: Why was it easy to organize a genocide against 2.5 million Muslims?
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 20:37:58 EST
Reply-To: sera@zuma.UUCP (Serdar Argic)
Distribution: world

In article <SUOPANKI.92Nov19174504@stekt7.oulu.fi> suopanki@stekt7.oulu.fi (Heikki T. Suopanki) writes:

>> All reliable Ottoman historians describe how Armenians ruthlessly
>> exterminated 2.5 million Muslim women, children and elderly people of 
>> Eastern Anatolia 

>When I read that passage the only conclusion is that the Muslim men did
>leave Eastern Anatolia and let the women, children and elderly people die....
>So Muslim men are cowards?

"Finos". Amazing creatures. With your level of understanding, I thought 
that I'd be nice and help you to get the point. 

General Bronsart wrote as follows in an article in the July 24, 
1921 issue of the newspaper "Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung:"

"As demonstrated by the innumerable declarations, provocative pamphlets,
 weapons, ammunition, explosives, etc., found in areas inhabited by
 the Armenians, the rebellion had been prepared over a long time,
 organized, strengthened and financed by Russia. 

 Since all the Moslems capable of bearing arms were in the Turkish Army,
 it was easy to organize a terrible massacre by the Armenians against
 defenseless people, because the Armenians were not only attacking the
 sides and rear of the Eastern Army paralyzed at the front by the 
 Russians, but were attacking the Moslem folk in the region as well."


"Kazim Karabekir

It is recorded in official Ottoman publications that even before the
Ottomans entered the war, British, French and even Italian Consuls,
in addition to the Russians were helping the Armenian revolutionary
committees to communicate with the outside world and were assisting
them with money, arms, etc.: 

 'Heads and members of foreign missions served them as excellent spies
  on our political and military situation.'[1]  

The report goes on to say:

 'While Armenians in foreign countries were being armed with the help
  of the Consuls of these countries and were rushing to the Caucasian
  and Iranian borders as vengeance regiments, and while Armenian
  soldiers in the Ottoman army were deserting their units to join the
  enemy with their arms, civilian Armenians began to arm and to start
  rebellions in every region in order to utilize their national 
  resources in hastening the victory of the Allies and in pulling 
  down the Ottoman Government which they believed could live only for
  a few more days'[2]

[1] "Ermeni Komitelerinin Amal...," p. 161, BBA, the Ministry of the
    Interior, Directorate General of Security, K: 47, 22 November 1914.
    It is also noted in the same file that there were wireless sets in
    Armenian schools (17 November 1914).
[2] "Ermeni Komitelerinin Amal...," p. 161; "Askeri Tarih Belgeleri,"
    Vol. XXXII, 83 (December 1983), documents numbered 1899-1915.


Source: Doc. Dr. Azmi Suslu, "Russian View on the Atrocities Committed
        by the Armenians Against the Turks," Ankara Universitesi, Ankara,
        1987, pp. 45-53.

"...We learnt the details this incident from the Commander-in-Chief,
 Odishelidge. they were as follows:

 The killings were organized by the doctors and the employers, and the
 act of killing was committed solely by the Armenian renegades...
 More than eight hundred unarmed and defenceless Turks have been
 killed in Erzincan. Large holes were dug and the defenceless 
 Turks were slaughtered like animals next to the holes. Later, the
 murdered Turks were thrown into the holes. The Armenian who stood 
 near the hole would say when the hole was filled with the corpses:
 'Seventy dead bodies, well, this hole can take ten more.' Thus ten
 more Turks would be cut into pieces, thrown into the hole, and when
 the hole was full it would be covered over with soil.

 The Armenians responsible for the act of murdering would frequently
 fill a house with eighty Turks, and cut their heads off one by one.
 Following the Erzincan massacre, the Armenians began to withdraw
 towards Erzurum... The Armenian renegades among those who withdrew
 to Erzurum from Erzincan raided the Moslem villages on the road, and
 destroyed the entire population, together with the villages.

 During the transportation of the cannons, ammunition and the carriages
 that were outside the war area, certain people were hired among the 
 Kurdish population to conduct the horse carriages. While the travellers
 were passing through Erzurum, the Armenians took advantage of the time
 when the Russian soldiers were in their dwellings and began to kill
 the Kurds they had hired. When the Russian soldiers heard the cries
 of the dying Kurds, they attempted to help them. However, the 
 Armenians threatened the Russian soldiers by vowing that they would
 have the same fate if they intervened, and thus prevented them from
 acting. All these terrifying acts of slaughter were committed with
 hatred and loathing.

 Lieutenant Medivani from the Russian Army described an incident that
 he witnessed in Erzurum as follows: An Armenian had shot a Kurd. The
 Kurd fell down but did not die. The Armenian attempted to force the
 stick in his hand into the mouth of the dying Kurd. However, since
 the Kurd had firmly closed his jaws in his agony, the Armenian failed
 in his attempt. Having seen this, the Armenian ripped open the abdomen
 of the Kurd, disembowelled him, and finally killed him by stamping
 him with the iron heel of his boot.

 Odishelidge himself told us that all the Turks who could not escape
 from the village of Ilica were killed. Their heads had been cut off
 by axes. He also told us that he had seen thousands of murdered
 children. Lieutenant Colonel Gryaznov, who passed through the village
 of Ilica, three weeks after the massacre told us the following:

 There were thousands of dead bodies hacked to pieces, on the roads.
 Every Armenian who happened to pass through these roads, cursed and
 spat on the corpses. In the courtyard of a mosque which was about
 25x30 meter square, dead bodies were piled to a height of 140 
 centimeters. Among these corpses were men and women of every age,
 children and old people. The women's bodies had obvious marks of
 rape. The genitals of many girls were filled with gun-powder..."

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)