From: tayfuna@engin.umich.edu (Tayfun Akin)
Subject: A response to Armenian "Genocide" Allegations
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 92 15:48:51 EDT
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor

 The following letter is my answer to the letters  printed 
in the Michigan Daily, the student newspaper of The University of
Michigan.


                 GENOCIDE ALLEGATIONS BASED ON FORGERIES

                              By Tayfun AKIN

        A number of letters by Armenians have been printed in the Daily
following a full page ad commemorating April 24, 1915 as Armenians
Martyrs' Day. They were angry at the Daily's refusal to print the term
"genocide." They refer to elderly Armenians' experiences and to 
telegrams allegedly written by Ottoman Minister of the Interior, Talaat
Pasha, as historical proof of the "genocide" charge (they usually
refer to the Ottoman Government as the Turkish Government to draw a
parallel with the current republic of Turkey). Furthermore, they call
any study challenging their interpretations of the events that took 
place in Eastern Anatolia during World War I "anti-Armenian Turkish-
governmental generated propaganda."

        I do not wish to minimize the scope of the sufferings of the
Armenians, but I am also aware of the suffering experienced by non-
Armenians in the same place, during same time. In 1915, Armenians in
Eastern Anatolia joined to the Czarist Russian army during its invasion
of the Eastern Anatolia as an act of rebellion against the Ottoman
Government. The ensuing civil war and subsequent relocation of civilian
population of Eastern Anatolia had tragic consequences. Hundreds of
thousands of people - Armenians, Kurds, and Turks, Christians and
Moslems - died in inter-communal warfare or because of disease and
famine.

        In fact, my great-grandfather and some other family members
were killed by Armenians while they were trying to escape from Van,
a town in Eastern Anatolia, before the Russian Army reached there. 
In addition, I heard of atrocities commited by Armenians, massacres
of Turks and Kurds, and other outrageous stories. Unfortunately, these
non-Armenian people never came to the United States and their stories
were not heard in the Western World.

        Unfortunate suffering of Armenians and one-sided reports on
these events are not enough evidence to satisfy the great majority
of scholars to prove that the Ottoman Empire instituted a systematic,
state-run program to exterminate the Armenian people. Armenian
allegations are mainly based on the telegrams allegedly signed by top
Ottoman Government officials that appeared in a book written in 1920
by an Armenian named Aram Andonian, "The Memoirs of Naim Bey : Turkish
Official Documents Relating to the Deportations and Massacres of 
Armenians."

        These telegrams, however, were proved to be forgeries by
extensive scientific research. The following words are from Erich
Feigl's book "A Myth of Terror ; Armenian Exterminism : Its Cause
and its Historical Context " : "The originals of the papers copied by
Andonian were never seen. Photographs of fourteen 'documents' appear
in his books. When asked for the originals, he claimed they were lost.
Not a single one of the documents reproduced by Andonian can be found 
today. They were probably destroyed to make it more difficult to
prove that they were forgeries. Andonian made so many mistakes in
preparing the papers, however, that it is possible to prove with
absolute certainty that they were forgeries, even without the 
originals... To give just one example, Andonian has the governor
of Aleppo signing documents at a time when he had not yet been named
to the post and was still in Istanbul."

        Some Armenians still question the validity of these scientific
works, simply calling them works of the Turkish Government. Andonian's
"documents" have been available to scholars sice 1920; however, the 
majority of scholars do not seem to accept them as valid sources, and 
neither do they accept the genocide allegations. When a resolution was
brought to the U.S. Congress to commemorate April 24, 1915 as Armenian
"Genocide" Day, the majority of American academic experts on late 
Ottoman history declared their opposition. Those 69 scholars wrote in
the New York Times :"The weight of evidence so far uncovered points in
the direction of serious inter-communal warfare (perpetrated by Moslem
and Christian irregular forces), complicated by disease, famine,
suffering and massacres." They appeal to the Turkish political 
authorities to open the relevant Ottoman archives, which had been
classified since 1914.

        Prof. Heath Lowry, the editor of the Journal of Ottoman
Studies, wrote following in The Wall Street Journal : "In response
to the appeal, The Turkish Government... issued new regulations
facilitating access to tens of thousands of documents with relevance
to the history of Eastern Anatolia in the First World War... Even to
the uninitiated, the importance of these materials to determining the
validity or lack thereof the genocide charge should be apparent."

        The arguments calling these scientific studies Turkish 
government propaganda are weak and do not seem to satisfy the 
scholarly work. Armenian emotions about this tragic time have been 
fired by the stories from their parents, grandparents, great-
grandparents, and by movies like "The Forty Days of Musa Dagh."
I understand the emotions, since I used to have the same kind of
emotions when I heard stories of atrocities committed aginst my
great-grandfather and other relatives, and massacres of Turks and
Kurds by Armenians during those times of war.

        These memories and emotions should not be used to spread the
seeds of animosity, bigotry, and hatred between Turks and Armenians.
The results of these emotions opened a chapter in the world history
known as Armenian Terrorism. The world needs a better future with
understanding and friendship instead of hatred. I would like to
conclude by stressing that my intention is not to offend anybody or
to spread "Turkish governmental propaganda," rather to tell I and
the majority of historians view the issue.
Xref: sparky soc.culture.turkish:8904 talk.politics.mideast:18641 talk.politics.soviet:7002