TV REPORTS RUSSIAN TROOPS PULLOUT FROM GEORGIA
NTV Mir, Moscow
15 May 06
Excerpt from report by Russian external TV service NTV Mir “Segodnya”
news on 15 May.
[Presenter] The first echelon with Russian hardware has left the
Akhalkalaki base. The military hopes that this train as well as all
the subsequent ones will not have problems while travelling across
Georgia. The first echelon left three hours ago. The Russian and
Georgian defence ministers have agreed to close down the base and it
has to be closed down completely by the end of 2007. Our correspondent
Vadim Fefilov was watching the withdrawal of the first consignment of
Russian tanks, armoured personnel carriers and reconnaissance patrol
vehicles from the Georgian territory.
[Video shows troops leaving] [Correspondent] Lt-Gen [Valeriy]
Yevnevich makes a short report by satellite telephone to his bosses
in Moscow and the first echelon with Russian hardware pulls out of
the Ahkalkalaki base to make its way across Georgia and Azerbaijan to
Russia. Russian servicemen, just as they had promised to the Georgian
side, have managed to move tanks, combat reconnaissance vehicles,
ammunition and missiles from Akhalkalaki to the railway station of
Tsalka. That was not simple.
[Passage omitted: they had to move along difficult routes in the
mountains at an altitude of 2,500 metres; but the vehicles are in
good order because soldiers are really professional; everything is
proceeding without problems so far.]
[Correspondent, continues] It has transpired that Armenia has feared
that some of the Russian equipment may be left in Azerbaijan for some
reason. Azerbaijan’s military attache are telling their Armenian
colleagues that there is nothing to worry about.
[Passage omitted: Russia and Azerbaijan have agreed the equipment will
not be stopped in Azerbaijan; locals around the base are primarily
ethnic Armenians and they are now losing their jobs because of the
withdrawal]
[Correspondent, continuing] In line with earlier agreements between
the Russian and Georgian defence ministers another 20 echelons with
Russian heavy hardware will leave the area before the end of the year.
[Passage omitted: the correspondent signs off]

RUSSIANS START WITHDRAWAL FROM MILITARY BASE IN GEORGIA
Channel One TV, Moscow
15 May 06
[Presenter] The first convoy of military equipment left the Russian
base at Akhalkalaki two hours ago. It contains 20 tanks and an
equal number of reconnaissance vehicles. The heavy equipment will be
completely removed from Akhalkalaki by the end of the year, and the
personnel by the end of next year. Our correspondent Mikhail Robakidze
reports from Georgia.
[Correspondent] The first convoy of Russian military equipment left
the Tsalka railway station at 10 o’clock. Yesterday the military were
saying that the departure might be delayed until midday because of
customs paperwork. But in the event everything was done in time and
the convoy will cross the Georgia-Azerbaijan border by the end of
the day. It will cross Azerbaijan on its way to Russia.
[Igor Konoshenkov, head of information service, Russian Ground
Troops] The Georgians are responsible for security inside Georgia. In
Azerbaijan, the Azeris are responsible. And on Russian territory,
the Group of Russian Forces in the Caucasus will provide guards to
travel with the convoy.
[Correspondent] The first convoy to leave Akhalkalaki will take seven
tanks, eight infantry fighting vehicles, two radio stations and four
communications vehicles. [Note: figures as heard, at variance with
presenter’s lead-in] In the meantime, enough hardware, weaponry and
other resources for another two convoys have been gathered at Tsalka.
Twenty-one convoys will go from the Akhalkalaki base by the end of
this year. A further one convoy will go from Batumi to Russia via
Azerbaijan. Only a small proportion of the hardware here is planned
for redeployment at the Russian base in the Armenian town of Gyumri.
[The entire process of vacating the base at Akhalkalaki will be
completed on time, the deputy commander-in-chief of Russia’s Ground
Troops told Interfax-AVN Military News Agency. “The first convoy
with armour deployed at military base No 62 in the Georgian town of
Akhalkalaki departed for Russia today in accordance with the plan and
schedule,” Gen Valeriy Yevnevich said in a report at 0646 gmt. “And
there should be no doubt that the other convoys will also leave in
strict compliance with the plan and schedule endorsed by the chief
of the General Staff.”]

A MEDIEVAL CEMETERY VANISHES WITHOUT A TRACE
By Idrak Abbasov
The Moscow Times, Russia
May 16 2006
AZERBAIJANI-IRANIAN BORDER — It has become one of the most bitterly
divisive issues in the Caucasus — but up until now no one has been
able to clear up the mystery surrounding the fate of the famous
medieval Christian cemetery of Jugha in Azerbaijan.
Armenians regarded the cemetery as the biggest and most precious
repository of medieval headstones marked with crosses — called
khachkars — more than 2,000 of which were still there in the late
1980s. Each elaborately carved tombstone was a masterpiece of carving.
Armenians say the cemetery was razed, comparing its destruction
to the demolition of two giant Buddha figures by the Taliban
in Afghanistan. Azerbaijan has hit back by accusing Armenia of
scaremongering and of destroying Azerbaijani monuments on its own
territory.
Now an IWPR contributor has become the first journalist to visit
the site of the cemetery on Azerbaijan’s border with Iran — and has
confirmed that the graveyard has completely vanished.
The European Parliament, UNESCO and Britain’s House of Lords have
all taken an interest in the fate of the Jugha cemetery. But so far
no one has been allowed to visit the site itself.
If international observers can confirm that the cemetery has been
razed, it is sure to spark a new high-voltage row between Azerbaijan
and Armenia, which have engaged in a bitter war of words since fighting
ended in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 1994.
The IWPR contributor was accompanied by two Azerbaijani security
service officers and was restricted in his movements. He was unable
to go down to the River Araxes, the site of the former cemetery, as
it lies in a protected border zone. But he was able to see clearly
that there was no cemetery there.
This is one of the most inaccessible parts of Europe, located in the
Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan, which is surrounded by Armenia and
Iran and — because of the unresolved Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute —
is only accessible from the rest of Azerbaijan by air.
Old Julfa, or Jugha as it is known by the Armenians, was a flourishing
Armenian town in the Middle Ages. But in 1604, Shah Abbas of Persia
forcibly resettled the inhabitants to Isfahan, where to this day
there is still an Armenian quarter, New Julfa. The ruined town and
its cemetery remained and were visited by many. Britain’s Sir William
Ouseley arrived in July 1812 and found “a city now in perfect decay,”
and the remains of what had been one of the most famous stone bridges
in the world.
Historian Argam Aivazian, the principal expert on the Armenian
monuments of Nakhichevan, said Jugha was a unique monument of medieval
art and the largest Armenian cemetery in existence. Aivazian last
visited the site in 1987, when it was still mostly intact.
Artist Lusik Aguletsi, a Nakhichevan-born Armenian, also last visited
the cemetery in 1987, although she was under escort. “There is nothing
like it in Armenia,” she said. “It was a thrilling sight. Two hills
completely covered in khachkars. We weren’t allowed to draw or
photograph them.”
Armenian experts now accuse Azerbaijan of a deliberate act of cultural
vandalism. “The destruction of the khachkars of Old Jugha means the
destruction of an entire phenomenon in the history of humanity, because
they are not only proof of the culture of the people who created them,
they are also symbols that tell us about a particular cultural epoch,”
said Hranush Kharatian, head of Armenia’s state department for national
and religious minorities.
Photos copyright Argam Aivazian
A view of the medieval Christian cemetery and its elaborately carved
tombstones marked with crosses in the 1970s.
Although the historical provenance of the cemetery is disputed
in Azerbaijan, its cultural importance is confirmed by the 1986
Azerbaijani book “The Architecture of Ancient and Early Medieval
Azerbaijan” by Davud Akhundov. The book says the stones are of
Caucasian Albanian origin, in line with the official theory taught
in Azerbaijan that Christian monuments there were not the work of
Armenians but of Albanians. Caucasian Albanians, a people unconnected
with Albania, lived in the southeastern Caucasus, but their culture
began to die out in the Middle Ages.
Husein Shukuraliev, editor of a local newspaper, Voice of Araxes,
said the destruction of the cemetery began as early as 1828, when
Azerbaijan became part of the Russian empire. Thousands of tombstones
were then destroyed at the turn of the 20th century when a railway
was constructed, he said.
However, other people said there has been more recent destruction of
the cemetery. A man named Intigam who repairs tin cans in Baku said
he was posted near Julfa with the Soviet Army in 1988 and 1989. In
late 1989, Azerbaijani politician Nemat Panakhov dismantled the
border-posts on the border with Iran. Intigam said part of the Julfa
cemetery was destroyed at that time.
Panakhov declined to comment.
A second witness, who asked that his name not be published, said
there were khachkar stones on the site up until 2002, but they were
removed on orders of the Nakhichevan military command.
Armenian architect Arpiar Petrossyan said he visited the Iranian side
of the border in 1998 with a friend to view monuments there. Looking
across the river into Azerbaijan, he said, they noticed a flat-bed
train apparently removing cross-stones from the cemetery.
Armenian Deputy Culture Minister Gagik Gyurdjian said Armenia raised
the alarm in 1998. “Then we got the entire international community
up in arms and stopped the destruction. But in 2003 the destruction
started again,” he said.
In recent months, the propaganda war over Jugha has reached a new
intensity — just as Karabakh peace talks between Presidents Ilham
Aliyev and Robert Kocharian ran into trouble. Aliyev angrily denied
Armenian claims about the Jugha cemetery last month, calling them
“a lie and a provocation.”
International institutions are now demanding to be allowed to visit
the site of the cemetery. However, Azerbaijan is insisting that it
will only accept a European parliamentary delegation if it visits
Armenia as well. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry says 1,587 mosques
and 23 madrassas have been destroyed in Armenia.
Avetik Ishkhanian, president of Armenia’s Helsinki Committee, blames
the international community for not reacting sooner to the razing
of Jugha, contrasting the response with the outcry that followed the
Taliban’s demolition of the Buddhas of Bamian in 2001. “Why has there
not been the same reaction in this case?” he said.
Reporting also by Shahin Rzayev and Jasur Mamedov in Baku; and Seda
Muradian, Narine Avetian and Karine Ter-Sahakian in Yerevan. This
article comes from the Caucasus Reporting Service of the Institute
for War and Peace Reporting,

TURKEY THREATENS SANCTIONS IF FRANCE ADOPTS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE LAW
Jeannie Shawl
Jurist
School of Law, University of Pittsburgh
May 15 2006
[JURIST] Turkey will impose trade sanctions on France if the French
parliament adopts a bill that would criminalize the denial that the
World War I-era massacre of Armenians [ATI backgrounder] in Turkey
constitutes genocide, according to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan [BBC profile]. As many as 1.5 million Armenians were killed
in the then-Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1917 in what Armenians
consider a genocide; Turkey has insisted that the deaths do not
constitute genocide [Turkish DC Embassy backgrounder].
The French National Assembly is slated to consider an opposition
Socialist party-sponsored bill [National Assembly materials] this
Thursday that would make denying the massacre was genocide illegal.
Offenders could face a five-year jail sentence and fines up to
$57,000. France already has a law on the books which recognizes the
massacre as genocide.

TURKISH, AZERI DIASPORAS SHALL HELP TO DESTROY THE MYTH OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE – TURKISH AMB TO AZERBAIJAN
Author: R. Abdullayev
TREND Info, Azerbaijan
May 15 2006
Turkey and Azerbaijan shall use diasporas more to prevent Armenians’
efforts to achieve global recognition of so-called Armenian
genocide of 1915 in Osman Empire, reportedly said Turan Morali,
Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan, commenting French Senate discussed
law draft for prosecution of persons openly refusing to recognize
so-called Armenian genocide.
“We shall work not only at the level of governments but also among
public using our diasporas”,- Ambassador said, adding that Turkey
will do its best to prevent passing this law draft.
Morali reminded the recall of Turkish Ambassador from France and
stated his hope for stability of economic relations between the two
countries regardless of these steps taken.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT REFUSED PARTICIPATION AT NATO PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY SESSION
Author: A. Mammadov
TREND Info, Azerbaijan
May 15 2006
The President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan refused to take part at the
plenary session of NATO Parliament Assembly to be held May 26-30 in
Paris. The NATo Parliament assembly`s press service told ArmInfo.
The Press secretary of Armenian President Victor Sogomonyan, speaking
about Mr. R. Kocharyan`s refusal reasons to take part at the Spring
session in Paris, referred to Armenian President`s overemployment.
“The President refused to take part at the session, as he has
a complex time-table. During the session, the Minsk Group OSCE
co-chairmen to come to the region. Moreover, this period will
coincide with public holidays in Armenia”, – told the President`s
Press secretary.
It should be remind that the Chairman of NATO Parliament Assembly
Pierre Lelush invited the President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan and
the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to take part and deliver a
speech at the Spring session of the Assembly. Furhermore, Chairman
Lelush told before that NATO Parliament assembly did all possible to
solve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It should also be pointed out
that the issue of a possible organization of meeting between the two
Presidents within the session in Paris remains open
Answering ArmInfo, Mr. V. Sogomonyan underlined that he does not
consider that President R. Kocharyan`s refusal to take part at the
session could be a cause to the international community`s pressure
on Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.

FIRST TRAIN OF RUSSIAN WEAPONS FROM GEORGIA HEADS FOR RUSSIA
ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 15 2006
BAKU, May 15 (Itar-Tass) — The first trainload of Russian hardware
and weapons from Russia’s military base in Akhalkalaki, Georgia,
that arrived in Azerbaijan on Monday evening is heading for the
Russian border.
The Azerbaijani railway administration told Itar-Tass that the Russian
train will get the “green light” along the way, in keeping with the
agreements between the two countries.
“The train will go straight through and reach the Azerbaijani-Russian
border on May 16, approximately at 2 p.m. Moscow time (1000 GMT). It
will proceed to Russia after formalities have been completed,” First
Deputy Transport Minister Musa Panakhov told Itar-Tass.
In his words, “The train will be handed over to the Russian side as
scheduled at 4.30 p.m. Moscow time (1230 GMT).”
The train left the station of Tsalka, Georgia, earlier on Monday. It
is carrying seven T-72 tanks, eight reconnaissance vehicles, four
infantry combat vehicles, four communication vans and 340 boxes with
rockets for Grad launchers.
All hardware and munitions are “in good condition,” Deputy
Commander-in-Chief of the Russian ground troops, Valery Yevnevich,
who controls the pullout process, told Itar-Tass.
“Hardware and munitions have been delivered by truck convoys by
mountain roads from Akhalakalaki, where there is no railway, to
Tsalka,” he said.
“We’ll strictly comply with the instructions of the Russian president
and the Defence Ministry. All hardware and munitions will be delivered
to the Russian bases and storage facilities on time,” Yevnevich said.
Under the agreements between Russia and Georgia, the withdrawal of
the Russian base from Akhalkalaki should be completed in 2007.
This year, 19 trainloads are expected to bring all hardware back to
Russia. The departures of other trains are scheduled for May 23, 25,
and 30.
Part of the hardware and munitions will be redeployed to the Russian
base of Gyumri, Armenia. The first truck convoy will leave for Gyumri
on May 18.
When all personnel, munitions and material supplies have been pulled
out of Akhalkalaki by late 2007, the base will be closed.

THE DARFUR TRAGEDY : THE ISLAMIC WORLD NEEDS TO SPEAK OUT LOUDLY
Pakistan Link, Abubakr G. Shaikh
New California Media, CA
May 15 2006
The blood-thirsty and the much feared Sudanese militia, known as
Janjawed, has been trained by the Sudanese army with the explicit
purpose of ridding Darfur villages of black Muslims. They race their
camels and machinegun- mounted trucks through the villages, shooting
indiscriminately at the helpless and unarmed villagers. These barbarous
butchers are aided helicopter gunships to maximize the terror and
mayhem so that none could dare to return. Men, women and children
are virtually mowed down without mercy. When the mayhem is complete,
the victims’ bodies are dismembered, sprayed with oil and burnt
alongside their huts. The livestock and young women are spared to
be taken away as the war booty. The women are routinely kidnapped,
raped and enslaved as serfs and domestic servants. They tend the
farms and cattle of the brown skinned Arabs and satisfy their lust
and give birth to the Arab progeny to replace the black population.
Slavery is an ugly blot on the Islamic faith. Despite the immense
compassion shown by the holy Prophet, peace be upon him, for the
oppressed, poor and children, it is an irony that slavery is still part
of the Sharia. The glorious Qur’an says: “O mankind We have created you
from a single male and a female and made you into nations and tribes
that you may know one another. Verily the most honorable in you in the
sight of Allah is that who has At-Taqwa (pious and righteous person)
who fear Allah much and love Allah much.”(49.13).
Color, creed or caste, does not distinguish a person from the other
in Islam and given that all people are born equal how could slavery
be justified?
The Darfurians have a valid claim on their sacred lands from where
they are being consistently and systematically uprooted. They are the
original natives, not the Arabs whose forefathers came to the region
with a noble cause: delivering the message of peace and not to rule or
drive the Darfurians away from their homelands .They were received
well by their hosts and they in turn served them well. However,
their descendents have followed a path of savagery, prejudice and
hate, breaking every rule of civility, all principles of humanity,
and the basic tenets of Islam.
The merciless genocide has gone on unchecked for the past two years
and while the actual death toll is difficult to estimate, close to
200,000 innocent people have been butchered in this worst scenario
of ethnic cleansing according to some sources – the biggest carnage
after Rwanda and Bosnia. More than two millions have been rendered
homeless. Milovesic must have been wondering in his grave what did
he do to deserve the Hague trial! The United Nations’ duplicity and
double standards are also evident from the fact that it actively got
involved in East Timur and Sudan’s other conflict based on religion
with its southern region whereas in this conflict based on color
prejudice there are no signs of urgency on the part of the world
body. The world remains cool and impassive because of global oil
interests tainted with the blood of the innocent Darfurians.
In their quest to complete the annihilation of black Muslins,
Sudan’s army supported by its notorious militia, continues to chase
and attack refugee camps inside the neighboring country Chad. Sudan
is also accused by the president of Chad to be actively involved
in its nefarious activities to destabilize his regime by providing
aid to rebels to instigate a revolt in Chad. The aim is to install
a proxy government, which in collaboration with Sudan, will wipe out
the entire black Muslim population of Darfur. The only crime of these
unfortunate and helpless people is the color of their skin and their
Islamic faith, Islam, whose basic tenets call for eradication of all
kind of prejudices.
How much longer can they endure and keep their faith in Islam?
Perhaps they must already be thinking of other options for their
survival while the Islamic world remains unmoved. Its silence and
indifference is staggering. The catastrophe is of a colossal nature,
but it has not moved the hearts of 1.2 billion Muslims of the world
who only recently reacted violently to the much less critical issue
of the cartoon controversy. The entire Muslim community from one
end of the globe to the other, erupted in furor, over-reacting to
the controversy in a manner that seemed to suggest that Islam was in
eminent danger. The irrational behavior led to many deaths of innocent
citizens, loss of property and revenue, and contra-productive results
in the form of severe criticism on the conduct of Muslims by the
international press. However, not a single protest march took place
on the massacre and carnage of 200,000 Muslims at the hand of fellow
Muslims in Darfur.
One wonders about the priorities of the Ummah. The Qur’an is very
specific on resolving disputes and making reconciliation between two
Islamic factions. Allah has ordained: “And if two parties or groups
among the believers fall into fighting ,then make peace between them
both and if one of them rebels against the other then fight you against
the one that which rebels till it complies with the command of Allah
then if it complies then make reconciliation between them justly and
be equitable”(49: 9,10) Every big fire starts with a small spark, each
movement is the brainchild of an individual and eventually transforms
into a revolution, every hurricane develops from the buildup of winds
and waves.
Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times columnist and champion of the
oppressed people around the world, has tirelessly raised awareness
on the Darfur genocide in the past two years. The spark now seems
to have developed into a sizeable flame. Here in the United States,
with the steady involvement of the common people, religious leaders,
organizations, human rights activists, college and universities
students – the flame is getting larger every day. In contrast tothe
Muslim world’s apathy, the Jewish, Evangelical, Armenian and human
rights organizations are in the forefront of building alliances,
pressure and lobbying groups to get the administration involved in
ending the genocide in Darfur. I had counted more than 60 nationwide
Jewish organizations’ names which sponsored a full-page protest in the
Columbus Dispatch, the leading newspaper of Ohio on the insensitivity
of the Bush administration to the Darfur genocide. I am sure similar
protest ads must have appeared in all major newspapers nationwide. The
Jews’ sensitivity reflects their having suffered the worst genocide
in human history. This movement is gathering momentum and now has
reached colleges and universities, churches and synagogues. These
groups also arranged a million march to Capital Hill. No name of
any Muslim organization appeared in the protest march nor any public
statements appeared on the subject in any newspaper.
Some hopes have started to build as there are indications that
president Bush might take an initiative to involve UN troops in
Darfur yet nothing concrete has emerged so far. Meanwhile, Sudan
has successfully persuaded South Africa to stay for six more months
in Darfur and delay in handing over charge to the UN. What sinister
motive is behind this move is not clear yet.
One regrets the snail-pace response of the UN and the confounding
apathy of the Muslim world to the unfolding tragedy.

GREECE: IN COMMEMORATION OF THE PONTIAN GENOCIDE
Greek News, New York
May 15 2006
New York.- May 19 has been recognized by the Greek parliament as the
day of remembrance of the Pontian Greek Genocide by the Turks. There
are various estimates of the toll. Records kept mainly by priests show
a minimum 350,000 Pontian Greeks exterminated through systematic
slaughter by Turkish troops and Kurdish para-militaries. Other
estimates, including those of foreign missionaries, spoke of 500,000
deaths, most through deportation and forced marches into the Anatolian
desert interior. Thriving Greek cities like Pafra, Samsous, Kerasous,
and Trapezous, at the heart of Pontian Hellenism on the coast of
the Black Sea, endured recurring massacres and deportations that
eventually destroyed their Greek population.
The opening bell of the genocide came with the order in 1914 for
all Pontian men between the ages of 18 and 50 to report for military
duty. Those who “refused” or “failed” to appear, the order provided,
were to be summarily shot. The immediate result of this firman
(decree) was the murder of thousands of the more prominent Pontians,
whose name appeared on lists of “undesirables” already prepared by
the Young Turk regime.
Added thousands ended up in the notorious Labor Battalions (amele
taburu). In a precursor of what was to become a favorite practice in
Hitler’s extermination camps, Pontian men were driven from their homes
into the wilderness to perform hard labor and expire from exhaustion,
thirst, and disease. German advisors of the Turkish regime (what a
surprise!) suggested that Pontian populations be forced into internal
exile. This “advise” led directly to the emptying of hundreds of
Pontian villages and the forced march of women, children, and old
people to nowhere. The details of this systematic slaughter of the
Pontians by the Turks were dutifully recorded by both German and
Austrian diplomats.
The Pontians, unlike Greeks elsewhere in Asia Minor, did try to
organize armed resistance against their butchers. Pontian guerrilla
bands had appeared in the mountains of Santa as early as 1916. Brave
leaders, like Capitan Stylianos Kosmidis, even hoisted the flag of
independent Pontus in the hope of help from Greece and Russia (which
never arrived). But the struggle was unequal. The Turkish army,
assisted by the blood-thirsty Tsets, cuthroats of mostly Kurdish
extraction, attacked and destroyed undefended Pontian villages
in revenge.
On May 19, 1919, chief butcher Kemal himself disembarked at Samsous
to begin organizing the final phase of the Pontian genocide. Assisted
by his German advisers, and surrounded by his own band of killers —
monsters like Topal Osman, Refet Bey, Ismet Inonu, and Talaat Pasha —
the founder of “modern” Turkey applied himself to the destruction of
the Pontian Greeks. With the Greek army engaged in Anatolia, a new
wave of deportations, mass killings, and “preventative” executions
destroyed the remnants of Pontian Hellenism. The plan worked with
deadly precision. In the Amasia province alone, with a pre-war
population of some 180,000, records show a final tally of 134,000
people liquidated.
The memory of the Pontian Genocide is dedicated to all those in Europe
and the U.S. who shamelessly advocate admitting Turkey into the EU and
describe it as a “democracy.” They are all blind as they are shameless.
AUSTRIAN AND GERMAN ARCHIVES REVEAL THE CRIME
24 July 1909 German Ambassador in Athens Wangenheim to Chancellor
Bulow quoting Turkish Prime Minister Sefker Pasha: “The Turks have
decided upon a war of extermination against their Christian subjects.”
26 July 1909 Sefker Pasha visited Patriarch Ioakeim III and tells him:
“we will cut off your heads, we will make you disappear. It is either
you or us who will survive.”
14 May 1914 Official document from Talaat Bey Minister of the Interior
to Prefect of Smyrna: The Greeks, who are Ottoman subjects, and
form the majority of inhabitants in your district, take advantage
of the circumstances in order to provoke a revolutionary current,
favourable to the intervention of the Great Powers. Consequently, it
is urgently necessary that the Greeks occupying the coast-line of Asia
Minor be compelled to evacuate their villages and install themselves
in the vilayets of Erzerum and Chaldea. If they should refuse to be
transported to the appointed places, kindly give instructions to our
Moslem brothers, so that they shall induce the Greeks, through excesses
of all sorts, to leave their native places of their own accord. Do
not forget to obtain, in such cases, from the emigrants certificates
stating that they leave their homes on their own initiative, so that we
shall not have political complications ensuing from their displacement.
31 July 1915 German priest J. Lepsius: “The anti-Greek and
anti-Armenian persecutions are two phases of one programme – the
extermination of the Christian element from Turkey.
16 July 1916 German Consul Kuchhoff from Amisos to Berlin: “The entire
Greek population of Sinope and the coastal region of the county of
Kastanome has been exiled. Exile and extermination in Turkish are the
same, for whoever is not murdered, will die from hunger or illness.”
30 November 1916 Austrian consul at Amisos Kwiatkowski to Austria
Foreign Minister Baron Burian: “on 26 November Rafet Bey told me:
“we must finish off the Greeks as we did with the Armenians . . . on
28 November. Rafet Bey told me: “today I sent squads to the interior
to kill every Greek on sight.” I fear for the elimination of the
entire Greek population and a repeat of what occurred last year”
(meaning the Armenian genocide).
13 December 1916 German Ambassador Kuhlman to Chancellor Hollweg in
Berlin: “Consuls Bergfeld in Samsun and Schede in Kerasun report of
displacement of local population and murders. Prisoners are not kept.
Villages reduced to ashes. Greek refugee families consisting mostly
of women and children being marched from the coasts to Sebasteia. The
need is great.”
19 December 1916 Austrian Ambassador to Turkey Pallavicini to Vienna
lists the villages in the region of Amisos that were being burnt to
the ground and their inhabitants raped, murdered or dispersed.
20 January 1917 Austrian Ambassador Pallavicini: “the situation for
the displaced is desperate. Death awaits them all. I spoke to the
Grand Vizier and told him that it would be sad if the persecution of
the Greek element took the same scope and dimension as the Armenia
persecution. The Grand Vizier promised that he would influence Talaat
Bey and Emver Pasha.”
31 January 1917 Austrian Chancellor Hollweg’s report: “. . . the
indications are that the Turks plan to eliminate the Greek element
as enemies of the state, as they did earlier with the Armenians. The
strategy implemented by the Turks is of displacing people to the
interior without taking measures for their survival by exposing them
to death, hunger and illness. The abandoned homes are then looted
and burnt or destroyed. Whatever was done to the Armenians is being
repeated with the Greeks.
Thus, by government decree 1,500,000 Armenians and 300,000 Pontian
Greeks were annihilated through exile, starvation, cold, illness,
slaughter, murder, gallows, axe, and fire. Those who survived fled
never to return. The Pontians now lie scattered all over the world
as a result of the genocide and their unique history, language
(the dialect is a valuable link between ancient and modern Greek),
and culture are endangered and face extinction.
A double crime was committed – genocide and the uprooting of a people
from their ancestral homelands of three millenia. The Christian nations
were not only witnesses to this horrible and monstrous crime, which
remains unpunished, but for reasons of political expediency and self
interest have, by their silence, pardoned the criminal. The Ottoman
and Kemalist Turks were responsible for the genocide of the Pontian
people, the most heinous of all crimes according to international
law. The international community must recognise this crime.
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RAGIP ZARAKOLU, A MAN OF VISION
By Sofia Kontogeorge Kostos
Greek News, New York
May 15 2006
Ragip Zarakolu, the Turkish publisher and writer wrote, “We have
to learn from history and avoid denying the past tragedies, which
should cause shame in us. Otherwise, history is bound to repeat
itself.” He believes that the fight for freedom of expression can only
be accomplished from within Turkish borders and not from the outside.
For thirty years, Ragip Zarakolu owner of the Belge Publishing House
has been translating and printing into Turkish, books that break
the barriers of silence instilled by the Turkish Government-the
perpetrators of the Genocides of the Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians
of Turkey.
In spite of perpetual harassments Zarakolu perseveres in his struggle,
for freedom of expression. With unwavering conviction he says, “….Not
for the Armenians or any others – but for citizens of Turkey.” He adds,
“We must face these realities to become a real democratic country. We
are giving a struggle for this, to give light to the dark pages of
our history.”
Over the years:
1. His presses and his publications offices were fire bombed and
demolished.
2. He and his late wife were collectively imprisoned for 5 years.
3. Their books were confiscated and banned.
4. He is repeatedly fined and tried.
5. On June 21st, 2006, he faces his eighth trial-with one exception,
he must appear in court with a historian whose name remains undisclosed
at this time.
If Ragip Zarakolu is found guilty, he faces 13.5 years imprisonment
for printing and distributing the Turkish translation of the following
two books:
1: Prof. Dr. Dora Sakayan’s book is a compilation of her Grandfather’s
meticulous journals of the heart pounding accounts of the destruction
of Smyrna and his ensuing escape starting from August 28th 1922
and ending in Salonika on June 1st 1923. Dora Sakayan’s book, “An
Armenian Doctor in Turkey: Garabed Hatcherian: My Smyrna Ordeal in
1922,” is both informative and compelling. It has been translated
into nine languages that include Greek and Turkish.
2: In George Jerjian’s “The Truth Will Set Us Free,” he brilliantly
and convincingly offers ideas on how Turkey can break out of its
straightjacket of denials in order to create a better future. He
includes a surprising and heartwarming introduction by former Sen.
Bob Dole.
In addition to the 39 books regarding the Genocides of the Greeks,
Mr. Zarakolu has published books on the Genocides of the Armenians,
Kurds, and of the Massacre of the Jews in Russia. Indeed Ragip Zarakolu
is man of vision and a giant amongst us.
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