Evening star., 1945-09-17
Letters to The Star
Differs With Mr.. Browns Views
Of Russian.Turkish Issue


mands Russia is said to have made upon
| Turkey. These demands are reported
to embody important Turkish conces-
sions, including the cession of the two
Armenian provinces of Kars and Arda-
han. Mr.. Brown finds these demands
not only unfair and unjust, but also
likely to endanger the status quo in the
Near East and bound to create more
trouble in the future. He therefore
would like to have this Government
do its utmost to back the British and
insist upon the territorial integrity Of
Turkey.
Otherwise, Mr.. Brown AYERS, the Turks,
ices against the Nazis by their neutral
ity, will be sacrificed to the Russians.
(See his columns for July l4-l5) Car
rying on this mode of reasoning, he
presents the reported Russian armies of
100000 strong in the Caucasus as forces
of aggressive evil (see his column for
September 81; he likewise presents the
Turks as defenders of their sacred soil
against such forces; and finally he
pleads for our sympathy in favor of the
Turks against the Russians. 1 shall
take him up on each of these premises
and will attempt to show that all three
of them are tenuous assumptions which
have little to do with facts.
Denies Turkish Claims.
If 1t is true that the cession OF the
Armenian provinces is part of the
Russian demands, then one should not
condemn the Russians for attempting
to wrest this part of Armenian territory
from the Turks, for this territory is no
more an integral part of Turkey than
Korea is that of Japan. These prov
inces, and much more of what modern
ized" Turkey now holds, are Armenian
territories. In the course of several
centuries of Turkish rule the Turks
never had a majority there; and, de-
spite systematic maSSacres and other
designs to reduce the Armenian popu-
lation, until the eve of the First World
War the Armenians had outnumbered
the Turks It took the wholesale mas
sacres and deportations of 1915 to clear
the country of its Armenian inhabitants.
OF the survivors of these massacres
about 100000 are now crowded in the
circumscribed territory of the Soviet
Armenian Republic, while another 500.-
900 have been refugees, scattered in all
parts of the Near East and France for
nearly 30 years. And now if Russia
is aiming to detach these lands from
Turkey and allow Armenian refugees
as their rightful owners to return to
their homeland, Mr.. Browns reasoning
and the position he takes in this par
ticular case are quite inconsistent with
his avowed sympathy for oppressed peo-
pies.
His understanding Of Turkey and es-
pecially of the presumed services which
Turkey claims TO have rendered to the
Allied cause by her neutrality is hypo-
thetical, based upon a misleading Of
facts. II there is documentary evidence
(as Mr.. Brown thinks there is, accord
ing to his column for July 14) to support
this contention, then 1t is better TO
produce the documents in question :;
otherwise it is easier and sounder TO
support the contrary.
Charges Selfish Neutrality.
Meanwhile, there is sufficient evidence
to prove that Turkey deliberately stuck
to her neutrality in order to avail her
self of our lease-lend generosity, re-
ceiving supplies worth sl03,000,000. She
refused to fulfill her treaty obligations
not only to her allies in the Balkans but
rk-a -1s ct l. ali,
CATION to Great Britain: this fact was
made public by Churchill in the House
Of Commons. Turkey declared war on
the Axis late in March grudgingly and
under duress, only to secure an invita-
ton to the San Francisco Conference.
A random sampling of such facts should
dispel the myth that Turkeys correct
behaviour during this war rendered yeo-
man service to the Allied cause.
BY magnifying the Russian menace
in the Near East, by whitewashing the
black record of Turkey and by making
her neutrality role wholly honorable,
Mr.. Brown would like to have us pose
as preserver of the status quo and dis
penser of justice in the Near East.
should like to point out that If Russian
aggression" means the occupation and
liberation of Armenian territory now in
Turkish possession, that perhaps will
not square exactly with the aspirations
of liberty loving and almost forgotten
Armenian refugees, but it will most
likely deliver at least several hundred
thousands of them from the endless
uncertainty and untold misery to which
they have been doomed for more than
a generation. 1t is not the good fortune
of all oppressed peoples to accept liberty
from the hands of a Washington or a
Mazzini; it is only fitting that each and
every Armenian should be grateful for
small blessings, And if our government
is asked to exert its influence and raise
its voice in Near Eastern affairs, that
immense influence should be aimed at
tipping the scales in favor of the right
eous, and its voice should be heard in
behalf of the forgotten, for that has
been and, let us hope, will remain one
constant in our foreign policy.
A. o. SARKISSIAN.
Humility and Debt to Britain
To the Editor OF The Star:
Americas peril from the atomic bomb
is real, deep and inward. 1t is the peril