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: Re: Sechrest's inability to distinguish between Turkiye and Soviet...
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 21:04:49 EST
Reply-To: sera@zuma.UUCP (Serdar Argic)
Distribution: world

In article <1992Dec15.042225.18169@zip.eecs.umich.edu> sechrest@dip.eecs.umich.edu (Stuart Sechrest) writes:

>>Your inability to distinguish between the Turkish Genocide in Eastern 
>>Anatolia (see McCarthy) and the Turkish Genocide in x-Soviet Armenia 
>>(see Hovannisian) is truly amazing. 

>I wrote:
>>>Please review the figures in the book, particularly Table 7.10.  You will
>>>find that the figure he gives for the population loss in the six eastern 
>>>provinces is 1,040,376, not 2.5 million.  

>>Mr Argic writes:
>>>How quaint. How about Sivas? How about Trabzon? How about Adana? How about 
>>>the entire Muslim population of x-Soviet Armenia?

>The six eastern provinces are, of course, Van, Bitlis, Erzurum, Diyarbakir,
>Mamuretuelaziz, and Sivas.  So how about Sivas?  It is included.

Couldn't let this joke go by. You obviously only listened to half of the
story, and then cut out when you didn't like it. How about Adana? How
about Haleb? How about Aydin? How about Konya? How about Trabzon? How
about the entire Muslim population of x-Soviet Armenia? How about...

Source: Table 3.23.  
Source: Page 79 (The Other Provinces). 

And even the Armenian representative in the Ottoman Parliament for 
Van, Papazyan, soon turned out to be an Armenian genocide squad 
leader, publishing a proclamation that:

 "The volunteer Armenian regiments in the Caucasus should prepare
  themselves for battle, serve as advance units for the Russian armies
  to help them capture the key positions in the districts where the
  Armenians live, advance into Anatolia, joining the Armenian units 
  already there and exterminate the Muslims."

As the Russian forces advanced into Ottoman territory in eastern Anatolia,
they were led by advanced units composed of Ottoman and Russian Armenian
genocide squads, who were joined by the Armenians who deserted the Ottoman
armies and went over to the Russians. Within a few months after the war
began, these Armenian genocide squads, operating in close coordination
with the Russians, were savagely attacking Turkish and Kurdish cities,
towns and villages in the East, massacring their inhabitants without
mercy, while at the same time working to sabotage the Ottoman army's
war effort by destroying roads and bridges, raiding caravans, and 
doing whatever else they could to exterminate the entire Muslim 
population of the Eastern Anatolia and to ease the Russian occupation.

Nor did these Armenian atrocities affect only Turks and other Muslims.
The Armenian genocide squads had never been happy with the failure 
of the Jews to fully support their genocide programs. As a result in
Hakkari and vicinity they slaughtered thousands of Jews.[1]

[1] Schemsi Kara, "Turcs et Armeniens devant l'Histoire," Geneva,
    Imprimerie Nationale, 1919, p. 41 and p. 49.

>McCarthy estimated the population loss for Adana and Trabzon as 92,418.
>McCarthy includes the losses for Trabzon in his comparison of Greek
>and Muslim losses (Table 7.13), so I followed his lead in placing them
>in the context of the Greek/Muslim intercommunal strife.  

Given your beliefs, I think it's extremely enlightened of you to be
able to make this distinction. What is more, the activities of the 
Armenian revolutionaries seem to have been efforts aimed at eradicating 
a race (the Turks) or aimed at carrying out a one-sided feud, instead of 
being a struggle for liberation. From the outset, the efforts of the 
Armenian revolutionaries within the Ottoman borders took the form of 
terrorist and destructive actions aimed at mass murder, cruelty and 
genocide, so that no other interpretation of them is possible. Armenian
activities started during the reign of Abdulhamid II as individual acts of
terror, and then developed into assassinations and surprise attacks. The element
of brute force in these activities increased steadily, culminating in mass
rebellions and widespread fighting during the First World War. Furthermore,
when the Ottoman army withdrew from Eastern Anatolia after the 1915 Sarikamis
defeat, Armenian revolutionaries initiated a series of cruelties in this area.
Although the Russians occupied Eastern Anatolia as an enemy, nevertheless they
were constrained by the rules of war. However, when they returned to their
country in 1917 after the Revolution, Armenian revolutionaries were unchecked
in this area for about a year until the Ottoman forces returned to Erzurum
in 1918. During this period, Armenian revolutionaries executed massacres on
the local people which is recorded in historical documents.[1]

For example, let us look at a report dated 21 March 1918 which the Commander
of the Third Army submitted when he entered Erzurum and Erzincan: "They were
completely and systematically destroyed and burned down by Armenians,
even the trees were cut down, and they are like a building entirely
consumed by fire in every sense of the word." As for the people who
had been living in Erzurum and Erzincan:

"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."[2]
 
Foreign observers who witnessed the events, including Russian Officers
who did not desert their lines, submitted detailed reports proving the
genocide to Ottoman commanders who received them as prisoners of war.
What is most important is that they stated in their reports 'the 
massacres did not happen by chance but were planned.'[3]

At the end of the war, the German author Dr. Weiss, his Austrian colleague
Dr. Stein and his Turkish colleague Mr. Ahmet Vefik visited Trabzon, Kars,
Erzurum and Batum between April 17th and May 20th 1918 to record the
cruelties. Their writings not only show the scope of Armenian activities,
but also reveal their goal and true nature.[4]

[1] (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.
[2] "Askeri Tarih Belgeleri ....," Vol. 31, 81 (December 1982), document
    numbered 1869.
[3] From Twerdo-Khlebof's report dated 29 April 1918; quoted in Ermeniler ...,
    Vol. 2, p. 275.
[4] A. R. (Altinay), "Iki Komite - Iki Kital," (Istanbul, 1919), and, "Kafkas
    Yollarinda Hatiralar ve Tahassusler" (Istanbul, 1919).

                     (to be continued...)

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)