Publisher sentenced over book on Armenian killings by Shan Karniyarikyan

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Adventures of Karniyarikyan

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-Publisher sentenced over book on Armenian killings by Shan Karniyarikyan
Jul 7, 2008 Today’s Zaman With Wires Istanbul

A Turkish publisher has been sentenced to five months in prison for publishing a book by a British author about a mass killing of Armenians in 1915. Ragip Zarakolu was found guilty of “insulting the institutions of the Turkish Republic” under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) on Tuesday.

The controversial article was recently amended under pressure from the EU to ensure freedom of speech in Turkey. This is the first high-profile verdict to be handed down since then.

Zarakolu’s sentence seems to confirm campaigners’ fears that changes to the law were merely cosmetic. In April it became a crime to insult the Turkish nation, rather than Turkishness. But insulting the Turkish nation is still punishable by up to two years in jail. Zarakolu was brought to trial for publishing a book by British author George Jerjian on the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

Turkey denies the killings were genocide, saying both Turks and Armenians were killed, and the issue remains highly sensitive.

Reading the verdict, the judge told Zarakolu he had insulted the Turkish republic and its founders. His own defense -- that he had the right to criticize -- was rejected. Zarakolu’s case was not referred to the Ministry of Justice, as required under the reforms, and he has said he will appeal against the verdict. His sentence will not be imposed until the appeals process is complete.

Standing outside the court, Zarakolu said such rulings had silenced many writers in Turkey but that he would continue to challenge the restrictions. “I was partly expecting this result. But it is a struggle for the truth and it will go on. I do not consider myself convicted. This is a conviction for official history and for denial,” he said.

-Let me take a wild guess... this guy is paid off by the armenians somehow??

-No thoughts?

- To Karniyarikyan:
Listen,
if you go to the police and tell them that this guy named "whatever" is a murderer and that you are sure you know he killed many people, the police will take it seriously they will go to that guy and maybe even interrogate him if he is somewhat suspicious. However, if they find out that you have absolutely no evidence the police in some countries may arrest you for lying and fabricating lies about a person, who you condemned as a murderer.

Now,
Blaming someone for murder without proof is punishable by law, so why can't blaming a government for genocide (which is worse) without proof be punishable by law either?

In addition, such laws similar to Article 301, exist all over the world, in Portugal, in Germany, in the Netherlands (insulting the monarchy), these are even more primitive laws than the Turkish Article 301. Or let's talk about Article 301 of the Armenian Penal code?

Now sure, everyone has a right to criticize anyone they feel like. But blaming someone for the HIGH CRIME of Genocide without 100% solid proof, is nothing but pure evil----- pure evil that LEADS TO GENOCIDES IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Spreading Hatred by condemning the Ottomans for genocide, is racism, why? Because you are undermining the Ottoman Muslim victims of the empire at the hands of the Dashnaks (ARF), who massacred hundreds of thousands of Muslims simply because they were Muslim, and then led a 90 year campaign of fabricating propaganda to condemn the VICTIMS THEMSELVES FOR GENOCIDE.


To: Karniyarikyan
I have another answer too, Shan. Try publishing an article in a newspaper about the documented and verified Turkish mass killings and massacres committed by Armenians.

Do you know what happens in the West? The article gets rejected unless it's written by a well known history expert. Even then those experts are ostracized as doing Turkish propaganda. On the other side, so many NON-EXPERTS have written AND published stories in Western mainstream media about mass Armenian killings WITHOUT having to be a world renown history scholar.

The famous Blue Book of the British, for instance, is a propaganda book written by those trying to justify the Turkish invasion, and it has lies and false information (remember Andonian documents, Hitler quote, Ataturk picture with dead babies in UCLA conference, etc.) and in my opinion, it SHOULD be available in Turkish for us to read. It may very possibly be available and if it's not, the supposed "defenders" of the Turkish position exercising such a ban would be making a mistake.

Now you would really do us a favor if you gave the info on which British author wrote this book, if this is a recent book or an older one, etc. We know Robert Fisk nowadays is a vehement defender of your cause, for instance.

I agree with the above viewpoint and he does make a hell of a case, however I will have to admit that even from a practical and a very pro-Turkish perspective, banning such stuff within Turkey or punishing those within Turkish borders will absolutely do no good in trying to convey the real message that Turks are having so many difficulties in conveying overseas. Because ultimately, nobody is able to control what gets disseminated throughout the media globally, and nobody can even do a good job from within Turkey.

The best thing is that those books written in English should be available in Turkish so that if anyone wishes to defend the pro-Turkish narrative, they can read the book and object in a methodical and academic fashion if they so wish. That would be much more effective even for someone who is fiercely pro-Turkish and rejects such mass killings.

Just to clarify some of my earlier writings on 301. I am in support of these laws and object to the removal of them due to similar laws being present in a lot of other countries. AND if those laws were efficiently used, they could be used in combating terrorism and in favor of national security, among other things.

However, unfortunately many cases got filed that have absolutely NO bearing on Turkish national security, but were more of a PR effort against Turkey in and of themselves. Thus filing cases against certain authors had no bearing on what kind of PR got done against Turkey overseas. So these cases had the opposite of the effect they intended to have: More negative PR internationally. Thus a large majority of these cases either shouldn't have been filed or should have been dismissed, but it didn't happen that way.

In this specific situation above, I cannot comment on the book or the publisher of the book because I don't know the entire story and don't even remember reading any names.

Oh, okay:

"Zarakolu was brought to trial for publishing a book by British author George Jerjian on the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in 1915."

Sorry for missing this part. I don't want to be sloppy and don't have the time to google this George Jerjian, okay, a minor point and doesn't change any argument but doesn't Jerjian sound Armenian :))))

Because the article tries to convey this Jerjian as a disinterested British author. Not that it would make any difference for me, because the book should be available in Turkey in any way.

I mean, it's not the same league as the BRTISH Brit Arnold Toynbee of the Blue Book, who also happened to be a historian, for instance. Of course, nevertheless Jerjian's book must have gotten more publicity this way :))

-To: Karniyarikyan
on Jul 14, 2008 at 5:37 AM
"no thoughts?"

Curious you should ask this question, since you post none of your own.

QUESTIONS FOR YOU:
Has Justin McCarthy's book on the ethnic cleansing of Ottoman Muslims been published in Armenian in Armenia?
How about Guenter Lewy's book?
How many books that conclude no genocide occurred during WWI have been published in Armenian in Armenia?

Tell us that and give us citation to sources to support your answer.

"let me take a wild guess... this guy is paid off by the armenians somehow??"

Since you are always seeking to have Turks prove a negative, let's apply the same to you. Can you prove that he is not paid by Armenians?

-One more question for you Shan, I'd like to publish 100 page booklet in Armenian in Armenia that calls upon the people of Armenia to acknowledge the death and destruction wrought upon Ottoman Muslims and Jews by the 200,000 member strong Armenian militias during WWI. In it, I will suggest that if Armenia acknowledges the crimes committed by its militais against the Turkish populace, the destruction to hearth, home and agriculture, this would go a long way towards reconciliation between the two countries.

I would also suggest that Armenians finally and formally acknowledge the Andonian documents for the forgeries that they are and that no genocide occurred, but that instead there was a general civil war waged by Ottoman Armenians together with their Russian Armenian compatriots to obtain possession by force of the eastern third of Anatolia to form a "Greater Armenia" without regard for the fact that Armenians were a minority population constitution no more than 17% on average of the vilayets in the region.

I'd also encourage Armenians to re-read the Treaty of Gumru in which Armenia and Turkey agreed that all claims for reparations for damages caused by militants not brought within one year of the Treaty's execution were henceforth barred. I would suggest that either all claims for reparations be dropped or that Armenia prepare to pay reparations for damages Ottomans suffered at the hands of Armenian combatants.

So Shan, would it be possible for an Armenian publishing house to translate my manifesto into Armenian and publish it in Armenia without repercussions?

After all, if Armenians want to be free to publish their propaganda in Turkey, we Turks should also be free to publish our propaganda in Armenia. Agreed?

From: Shan
Congratulations. You win the award for worst analogy ever.

Don't give me the McCarthy bullshit. You have a handful of 'historians' whose chairs are clearly funded Turkish dollars. In the spirit of drawing horrible analogies, like the one made by Baran... these historians are kind of like prostitutes.


To: Karniyarikyan
Answer the questions Shan.

Can such books and my manifesto be published in Armenian in Armenia and made available for purchase by the general public?

Or shall we just accept your evasive tactics for the answer, which is NO?

Do you know that the Armenian who wrote the book at issue in Turkey is NOT a historian. Why should his propaganda be published in Turkey?

"these historians are kind of like prostitutes"

Really? And the historians funded by the Zoryan Institute (funded by Armenians) and the Cafesjian family, you know like Taner Akçam, are they prostitutes too? If not, why not?

Does your hypocrisy bother you even just a little bit?

To: Karniyarikyan
I was in Turkey this year, and I found many books in the bookstore by Tamer Akcam, who supports the genocide. This is a guy who's been to a Turkish prison and escaped as a fugitive. Does it sound like Tamer Akcam could ever be a valid historian? If you think Tamer Akcam is credible, I pity your sanity.

You call historians who disagree with your thesis as prostitutes or "Lawyers" paid by the Turkish government, yet you can never prove it.

Erik Van Zurcher is someone who supports the Armenian Genocide, and yet he has received a medal from the Turkish government for his book on Turkish language.

Isn't it interesting that all you can do is attack my analogy by saying its bad without explaining why and call our historians prostitutes and other insults, yet you cannot make one coherent argument that can convince anyone that you yourself are credible at all.

Yes, Tamer Akcam's books are definitely sold everywhere in Turkey. If Turks in general had a problem with people supporting the genocide thesis, his books would be the first to be lifted off the shelves.

Also Kaiser was met in a positive fashion whenever he wanted to do work in the archives, right? Wasn't he the one who said when Turks opened the archives, they were expecting all Armenians to "raid" the store and no one came for a while???

Right, not only Akcam, other so-called genocide supporter books can be purchased in bookstores in Turkey. Not only books, Armenians come here and participate in conferences to express their ideas and newspapers publish interviews with them. They openly call the events a genocide on the press which are the most popular newspaper in Turkey. None of them sentenced for that.

This is such a coutry that people even organize demonstrations to suppport our present day enemy PKK leader. This is seriously the most free country i've ever seen!

If it was a European country, dissent would be effectively censored behind the scenes and no newspaper would write about it :))))

Same is true for the U.S., of course. But also for US, dissent is packaged as a ridiculous thing and portrayed in such a manner as to show the citizens, "Hey, look how silly/idiotic/nuts these folks are", etc.

Or when Turks object to Armenian allegations in the US, those writing smart sounding and highly educated letters are censored but others who sound like more uneducated find their space in the response column. So as to make everyone think like, "Hey, look at what these denialist Turks are saying", etc.