GENOCIDE? THIS AMERICAN SAYS "NO!"
Turkish Daily News
Nov 5 2007
The Anti Defamation League (ADL) has recently stated it supports
the claim of an Armenian genocide occurrence. Does this come to
anyone as a surprise? What else can we expect from a human rights
group? The ADL is not a political group. The ADL is not Israel. It
does not represent Israel (who has not taken a position). It does
not represent the Jews. The ADL represents itself. That is all.
One would think that Israel, or certainly some lone member of Knesset,
would support the claim on this sensitive issue of a possible
genocide with an ally as close as Turkey is to Israel. Even more
interesting is the time frame of this "ethnic cleansing" that the
Armenians claim. During the same time that they claim the Turks set
out to annihilated their entire existence, the Ottoman Empire was
in Palestine, in Jerusalem . For centuries the Armenian Quarter had
existed in Jerusalem. Why not start there? One would think that the
Turks occupying Palestine would wipe out that quarter. Even back then
it would probably take them all but an hour to do so. However, not only
did the Armenians in Jerusalem, survive, but they thrived. There were
no skirmishes. In fact, the Turkish Ottomans gave the Armenians, just
as they had given the Jews, the freedom to practice their own religion.
Must we Jews be reminded that on Mar. 28, 1949, Turkey became the
first country with a Muslim majority to formally recognize the State of
Israel? Not only this but they were among the first nations to ratify
Israel’s Statehood. When 150,000 Spanish Jews fled the inquisition,
the crusades and the Black Death, They repopulated Constantinople’s
(today’s Istanbul) declining population. These Sephardic Jews settled
in Constantinople, but also in Thessalonica which came to be known as
"Mother of Israel" due to its large Jewish population.
Do we forget that Turkey also served as a transit for European Jews
fleeing Nazi persecution during the 1930s and 1940s? The Israeli
foreign ministry has characterized its relations with Turkey as
"perfect." With the dissolve of the Ottoman Empire, Israel has
maintained a friendship for almost 90 years. These two countries train
their armies together. If Israel had thought for a moment that their
allies were capable of ethnic cleansing, then they would not have
a long established friendship. If there were an ethnic cleansing,
then the Armenian quarter that was long established for centuries
would not have flourished during the Ottoman Empire.
This was war We Jews know what ethnic cleansing is. Probably more so
than many other ethnic groups do. What happened to the Armenians was
a horrific massacre and loss of life. Was every massacre throughout
history motivated by ethnic cleansing? Certainly not. What Hitler tried
to accomplish is a far cry from any Armenian so-called genocide. You
cannot deny that many Armenians lost their lives as they were
looking for a land of their own, however, what is not recognized is
that the Armenians themselves inflicted as much damage as others in
the hostilities of that time for their own selfish objectives. The
Turk’s only policy was the removal of Armenians from the front line
with Russia, where they were collaborating with the Ottoman Empire’s
enemies. They were a threat to security. This is called war.
Regarding persecution, the Ottomans had one of the most tolerant
policies toward non-Turks of any empire of its day. The three
communities of Jews, Greeks and Armenians were virtually autonomous
within the empire. It cannot be denied that throughout history the
Ottoman Empire unlike any other empire of its time allowed Jews to
practice their own religion as well as many freedoms of their time.
When the Ottoman Empire had taken over Jerusalem, had they tried to
annihilate the strong presence of the Armenians who had their own
quarter? Never. Could you say that the Russians committed genocide
against the Circassians and Adyghes? If you could then the Armenians
slaughtered 200,000 people including Turks and Kurds and Jews in
Eastern Anatolia during Turkey ‘s Independence War while the Turks
were fighting against the imperial powers of Europe on five fronts.
Armenians took advantage of the Turks’ weak position and waged a war
against them by opening a new front. But, this was war.
As a Jew, I have huge respect for the Ottoman Empire as they gave us
freedom of religion to not only Jews but to the Christians as well.
My grandfather was born under the Ottoman Empire in Jerusalem. We
return to our history books that once again show us that the Ottomans
allowed freedom of religion unlike every other empire that existed.
This set the precedence for a friendship between Israel and Turkey .
Once more, one does not befriend its enemy. Could it be that the
Armenians massacred were only the victims of war?
When the public is given the correct information, then we can make
an intelligent choice. Our history books give us the proof as the
Armenians had a complete alphabet at that time and kept good records
as did the Ottomans. In 2007, however, history was ignored and
replaced with slanting, propaganda and lies. The House’s decision
to rewrite history and rename the Armenian/Turkish conflict as
genocide is ridiculous. Not even the United Nations or Israel has
supported this as true. It was not racially motivated. There was no
ethnic cleansing. If this held any truth then the Armenian quarter
could have been wiped out in an hour but instead was respected by
the Muslim Ottomans allowing the Armenian quarter to flourish and
grow giving them freedom of religion.
Genocide is being used as a loose term In a recent article in the
Jerusalem Post Armenians in Israel led a small protest and were upset
that Israel had not taken an official position. One would think that
Israel would be the first country to define Genocide with its own
history. The problem is that Genocide is being used as a loose term.
Israel, a people who have tasted the bitterness of ethnic cleansing
would be the first to declare this as genocide. They have had nearly
90 years to do so. Instead, they have befriended Turkey as the two
nations train their military together and have become close allies.
Here in the year 2007, nearly 100 years after the decline of the
Ottoman Empire, Armenians are still trying wake the dead in this
controversy. This is alike to Black African Americans looking for
reparations for slavery. And like this it falls upon deaf ears.
Society has little tolerance for people with a chip on their shoulder
It is not enough that this country had not learned from Vietnam
and Iraq, but now the House wants to re-write history concerning
the Armenian Turkish conflict. The problem is, the West is trying
to judge history with respect to its own historical and cultural
references. Racism is a Western concept, which didn’t have a place in
Turkish or Ottoman history and the West cannot understand anti-racist
Ottomans. Annihilation is a Western concept and the West cannot
understand the Ottomans which chose to let live instead of wipe out.
Assimilation is a Western concept and the West cannot accept the fact
that different ethnic groups could live together.
Mainstream Western understanding has given the word "culture" a
specific meaning and does not understand culture beyond that. And it
chooses to denigrate what it does not understand. The problem is,
the last real empire that the West had was the Roman Empire. Later
so-called "empires" were only colonial formations, not real empires,
and depended on exploitation and repression. Like Ilber Ortayli said,
the last Roman type empire was the Ottoman Empire.
You can’t really expect the (declining) Western powers to
understand and appreciate something that is really different from
their understanding of politics. That’s like Americans appreciating
Martian culture and politics. However while the House committee voted,
acknowledging the Armenian Genocide, it disregarded the Azerbaijan
Genocide of 1905-1907 by the Armenians. War is war. This claim of
genocide happened as much as the Jews crucified Jesus. When will the
House stop robbing Peter to pay Paul? The ADL, and like organizations
such as CAIR and the NAACP should go back to their support of illegal
immigrants rights as they have been doing and leave history to
the books.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
