Turkish PM: No Genocide, We Even Gave the Armenian Deportees Pocket Money
By Khatchig Mouradian
The Armenian Weekly
Nov. 10, 2007
WASHINGTON’On Nov. 5, after meeting with President Bush, Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave a speech at the National Press Club
in Washington, speaking mainly of U.S.-Turkish relations, the Kurdish
issue and the Armenian Genocide Resolution, H.Res.106.
In his speech, Erdogan said that `it is sad for us to see’ the
introduction of a resolution that `renders legitimacy to the so-called
Armenian genocide.’ He stressed that the resolution `has the potential
to deeply damage our strategic relations and it is important to ensure
that is not discussed on the floor of Congress.’
`In fact, these Armenian allegations which are being kept constantly
on the agenda in various countries have not been proven historically
or legally,’ Erdogan continued, repeating his call for a joint
historical commission to examine what happened to the Armenians in
1915. When Erdogan suggested the idea of a `joint commission’ in 2005,
the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) sent him an
open letter which read: `We are concerned that in calling for an
impartial study of the Armenian Genocide you may not be fully aware of
the extent of the scholarly and intellectual record on the Armenian
Genocide. ¦ We want to underscore that it is not just Armenians who
are affirming the Armenian Genocide but it is the overwhelming opinion
of scholars who study genocide: hundreds of independent scholars.’
Yet, at the National Press Club this week, Erdogan said he was sure
there was never a genocide of the Armenians. `What took place was
called deportation,’ he said. `That was a very difficult time. It was
a time of war.’
The Armenians, he argued, were provoked by other countries to rebel,
leading to Ottoman Turkish government’s decision `to start deporting
the Armenian citizens to other parts of the Empire.’
To show how well the Armenian deportees were treated, Erdogan’who made
no reference to the killing of any Armenian’went so far as to say that
the Ottoman government even provided the Armenians with pocket
money. `¦And we have documents in our archives which attest to this
fact,’ he said.
`There are all sorts of instructions about how people should be sent
from one area to another, how much money is to be paid to them as
pocket money as they travel. Those who counter [our thesis] must come
up with their own documents, but there are no documents that they can
show,’ he charged.
A Leading Turkish Historian Responds
The Armenian Weekly contacted Turkish-born historian and sociologist
Taner Akcam, professor of history at the University of Minnesota and
author of A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of
Turkish Responsibility, to comment on Erdogan’s allegation.
`I haven’t seen any single Ottoman document that shows that money was
given to Armenians,’ Akcam said. `It is, indeed, true that the central
government sent money to the regional authorities to cover the
expenses of the deportations. Part of the revenues from plundering the
possessions of the Armenians and auctioning them was used by the
government to finance the deportations.’
Furthermore, Akcam said, `There is ample evidence that in the Eastern
Anatolian regions like Eskishehir, Afyon and Konya, Armenians were
partially `transported’ by train and were made to pay for their own
tickets.