Tall Armenian Tale

 

The Other Side of the Falsified Genocide

 

  Turks Offer Help to Excavate Alleged Mass Armenian Grave  
HOME
First Page
Background
Scenario
End-of-argument

 

SECTIONS
Quotes
Thoughts
Census
Questions
Reviews
Major Players
Letters
Cumulative
Search
Links & Misc.

Translate

 

COMMENT
Mahmut Ozan
Edward Tashji
Sam Weems
Others
 

 Historian Halacoglu: Let's excavate disputed site together


The New Anatolian / Ankara

26 February 2007


(Thanks to Stephen)

 
 


Yusuf Halacoglu, head of the Turkish Historical Society (TTK), is urging a leading Armenian historian to officially declare his intent to work alongside Turkish historians at an alleged mass grave site near Harput.

Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, Halacoglu said that Armenian historian Ara Sarafian claimed Leslie Davis, who was on the Harput Council in 1915, said 12,000 Armenian were killed and thrown into a valley near Lake Hazar.

"Upon his allegations I told Sarafian we should open this so-called mass grave together," said Halacoglu. "The allegations are so groundless that it wasn't possible to find a grave to put 12,000 people in those days. Moreover, it was impossible to cover up 12,000 people by working with shovels."

Yusuf Halacoglu

     Halacoglu said that when the Armenian historian went there to do research he didn't find anything. "So I told him that he can't claim what he didn't find as real by citing some reports as evidence," he continued. "Basing allegations on rumors of missionaries without researching the Ottoman archives or other archives isn't suitable for a scholar or historian. I proposed to Sarafian that we investigate together what had happened to the Armenians all over Anatolia in those days, and what had happened to Muslims; in other words what happened generally in 1915. Upon my offer I think they came with a suggestion to work together regarding the alleged mass grave in Nusaybin."

Claiming that both Ottoman and Armenian archives should be researched thoroughly regarding the issue, Halacoglu said that working alone doesn't work out.

 

 

Ara Sarafian

     The historian added that Sarafian didn't write to him directly. "He should have make contact directly with us," said Halacoglu. "Now if he didn't write to us officially his intention won't be seen as sincere. They should have sent us their offer officially. We can't solve a problem by just saying, 'Let's deal with an event in Harput.' It may only be a beginning. The reason behind my accepting his suggestion immediately was to show that we don't have anything to hide. We can work wherever they want."

Halacoglu said that they are ready to confront everything with every kind of method. "If they want to open a grave, then let's do it; if the want to do research, let's do it," he said.

Stating that the atrocities Armenian committees committed on Turks and Muslims should also be dealt with, Halacoglu said that the Armenian Dashnak organization's atrocities were recorded in archives in Yerevan and Boston. He added that opening these archives will shed light on history.

Halacoglu also said that forming a tribunal to deal with the 1915 events is not possible. "If such a court is formed, then it should deal with the deeds of many countries," he claimed. "What Armenians or Russians or Greeks did to Turks should be investigated by the tribunal as well. In other words, 5.5 million people were deported in the Balkans, which can be called ethnic cleansing. This should also be investigated."

Halacoglu said that some world parliaments say Turks should confront their past. "But which Turks? Turks in the Middle East, in the Caucasus, the Balkans? Turks today?" he asked. "How can they accuse me of committing the worst crime of humanity before giving me a chance to defend myself? If I make an application at the European Court of Human Rights I can get compensation. Accusing them of hurting me and humiliating me with their accusations, I can get a huge amount of compensation. We can do it together."

Halacoglu said that rather than officials, ordinary people and non-governmental groups should do this against the 19 countries which have taken decisions regarding the so-called Armenian genocide, including Italy, Germany, Belgium, Poland and France.

Armenians claim that large numbers of Armenians — with figures ranging between 600,000 and 1.5 million — were massacred by Turks during World War I, which they say amounts to genocide. The Turkish side says that there were many deaths on both sides, fiercely denying any systematic massacres.

EPILOGUE

 (ADDENDUM, 3-07)

(Thanks to Ferruh)

According to the Turkish newspaper Zaman (March 11, 2007 edition), Sarafian accepted the proposal, but then (in an e-mail to Halacoglu) bowed out. An implication in that week's Agos newspaper (Turkey's Armenian publication the late Hrant Dink used to edit) is that the Armenian diaspora pressured Sarafian to change his mind. Halacoglu indicated he was extremely sad to have lost such a good opportunity. We also learn Sarafian's Turkish is excellent.

Ara Sarafian deserves credit for even considering the idea. He has been burned in the past by the fanatics in his midst. These fanatics are motivated by what they think of Turks as evil incarnate, and the most unpatriotic thing for an Armenian to do is to lock hands with the Turks. These people seek to sustain division, as that is what nurtures "Hai Tahd." Understanding and brotherly love are anathema to these psychologically warped forces. (As is getting at the real truth of these "genocide" matters.)

 


 

 

 

ARTICLES
Analyses
"West" Accounts
Historical
Academic
Crimes
Terrorists
Politics
Jewish
Miscellaneous
Reference

 

REBUTTAL
Armenian Views

 

MEDIA
General
Turks in Movies
Turks in TV

 

ABOUT
This Site
Holdwater
  ©  


THE PURPOSE OF TALL ARMENIAN TALE (TAT)
...Is to expose the mythological “Armenian genocide,” from the years 1915-16. A wartime tragedy involving the losses of so many has been turned into a politicized story of “exclusive victimhood,” and because of the prevailing prejudice against Turks, along with Turkish indifference, those in the world, particularly in the West, have been quick to accept these terribly defamatory claims involving the worst crime against humanity. Few stop to investigate below the surface that those regarded as the innocent victims, the Armenians, while seeking to establish an independent state, have been the ones to commit systematic ethnic cleansing against those who did not fit into their racial/religious ideal: Muslims, Jews, and even fellow Armenians who had converted to Islam. Criminals as Dro, Antranik, Keri, Armen Garo and Soghoman Tehlirian (the assassin of Talat Pasha, one of the three Young Turk leaders, along with Enver and Jemal) contributed toward the deaths (via massacres, atrocities, and forced deportation) of countless innocents, numbering over half a million. What determines genocide is not the number of casualties or the cruelty of the persecutions, but the intent to destroy a group, the members of which  are guilty of nothing beyond being members of that group. The Armenians suffered their fate of resettlement not for their ethnicity, having co-existed and prospered in the Ottoman Empire for centuries, but because they rebelled against their dying Ottoman nation during WWI (World War I); a rebellion that even their leaders of the period, such as Boghos Nubar and Hovhannes Katchaznouni, have admitted. Yet the hypocritical world rarely bothers to look beneath the surface, not only because of anti-Turkish prejudice, but because of Armenian wealth and intimidation tactics. As a result, these libelous lies, sometimes belonging in the category of “genocide studies,” have become part of the school curricula of many regions. Armenian scholars such as Vahakn Dadrian, Peter Balakian, Richard Hovannisian, Dennis Papazian and Levon Marashlian have been known to dishonestly present only one side of their story, as long as their genocide becomes affirmed. They have enlisted the help of "genocide scholars," such as Roger Smith, Robert Melson, Samantha Power, and Israel Charny… and particularly  those of Turkish extraction, such as Taner Akcam and Fatma Muge Gocek, who justify their alliance with those who actively work to harm the interests of their native country, with the claim that such efforts will help make Turkey more" democratic." On the other side of this coin are genuine scholars who consider all the relevant data, as true scholars have a duty to do, such as Justin McCarthy, Bernard Lewis, Heath Lowry, Erich Feigl and Guenter Lewy. The unscrupulous genocide industry, not having the facts on its side, makes a practice of attacking the messenger instead of the message, vilifying these professors as “deniers” and "agents of the Turkish government." The truth means so little to the pro-genocide believers, some even resort to the forgeries of the Naim-Andonian telegrams or sources  based on false evidence, as Franz Werfel’s The Forty Days of Musa Dagh. Naturally, there is no end to the hearsay "evidence" of the prejudiced pro-Christian people from the period, including missionaries and Near East Relief representatives, Arnold Toynbee, Lord Bryce, Lloyd George, Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and so many others. When the rare Westerner opted to look at the issues objectively, such as Admirals Mark Bristol and Colby Chester, they were quick to be branded as “Turcophiles” by the propagandists. The sad thing is, even those who don’t consider themselves as bigots are quick to accept the deceptive claims of Armenian propaganda, because deep down people feel the Turks are natural killers and during times when Turks were victims, they do not rate as equal and deserving human beings. This is the main reason why the myth of this genocide has become the common wisdom.