"Macreau" : Exposing The Armenian Trouble Maker: Bulanikian (BULANIK KAFALIYAN)

Here's some selection of gems from the Notorious "Macreau" or Serj Bulanikian (BULANIK KAFALIYAN):


Re: [TURKISHARMENIANFRIENDSHIP] The ABC of OWNING Macreau

Macreau is disenchanted with himself. The more you get him to write the more he gets himself tangled up in his own delusions. An example is, he said there was no other word for baba ( father ) in the Turkish language. But, when I pointed it out that ata is the Turkish equivalent of father in the Turkish language, Macreau out of humiliation lost all sense of reality. He became impotent and was even unable to check neutral references like hazar.com, where it states that ata is father. This man is incapable of logical thought and is only good at being an attack dog. He has attacked Mr. Arabaliozian, for not being in par with his ( Macrau ) racist and ultra nationalistic views ( though it is ironic that Macreau does not reside in Armenia ). He has attacked Jokermaydance ( JTV ) for being Jewish and called him an ass licker. JTV's only crime was posting an article about the Holocaust. How can this man ( which I am ashamed of even considering him a part of the human race ) be taken seriously.

He is a Hitler in disguise. His only purpose is to kill Turks, and since he is impotent to do that, he takes his rage out of people here. My only quarrel with him is, I got sick and tired of his Hitleric ways. It is because of waste-less life like this ( Macreau ) that Turks and Armenians have disputes. If radicals like him get routed up and demarginalized , more Turks like me will take Armenian claims seriously. As long as vermin like him exist, the more I will become radicalized. Believe it or not, I have no issues with Armenians. Just wannabe Adolfs like Macreau.

Re: The ABC of OWNING Macreau

Macreau, you are a familiar type among us (Armenians) and you are just a smart-ass know-it-all racist who pretends to be a patriot.

I wouldn't think any any other logical thinking Armenian disagrees with that.

As for barbarosari, people like him will be a good medicine for you,

believe you me. I don't care if he is Turkish or not?

if not him, perhaps an Armenian will kick you someday real soon

--- In TURKISHARMENIANFRIENDSHIP@yahoogroups.com, Macreau@... wrote:
In a message dated 3/2/2008 4:15:07 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
setrak.ashjian@... writes:


Macreau has even insulted Ara Baliozian many many times.

He is just a cyber thug.

Other than being generating some content here(maybe that's why he is allowed to mess around here) ,

he is just useless forum member.

I suggest we ignore him please
--------------------------------------------------------------------

This is not the first time that an Armenian is buttering up a
Turkish pion.

Setrak have you ever expressed an opinion in this medium?
Do you know what constitutes an insult ?

Yes. Indeed . I have criticized ARA many times on some of his point of views but "INSULT"? SETRAK...why don't you show me where I have insulted ARA?? The proof is in the pudding. Instead of mud slinging why don't you prove your statement.

Obviously you do not know the gist of my argument with your buddy Barbar and you will never understand it if you do not know Turkish. Why don't you read my lines carefully and digest it......as your mud slinging...well if you rub elbow with the likes of Barbar you are bound to adopt his shortcomings..

Setrak,
What has gotten into you? You ruminate without cause. As I said when you accuse somebody you have to be ready to prove it. I asked you simple questions and you could come up only with what you wrote above .I have never , never pretended to be anything else than somebody who raises questions about some statements made in this medium.As for logical thinking

Armenian..well...according to ARA , they are a rarity...

The fact that you think Barbar is a good medicine for the likes of me...here is the proof that you are out of your league. Obviously you have not understood what I am writing about..You could only understand if you knew Turkish and the use a certain word in the Turkish lexicon.

Having said that , why don't you post something , express an opinion about an statement rather than harping on somebody without knowing what is going on?

From: Macreau@aol.com ..serj.bulanikian

Re: [TURKISHARMENIANFRIENDSHIP] NEWYORK : EDWARD TASHJIYI ANMA TOPLANTISI (Kayaalp Buyukataman)

Edward Tashjyi bu kadar pofloflamanin sebebi Turk tezini korudugundan dir. Bos lafla peynir gemisi yurumez.

Bu kadar tarihcinin kabul ettigi 1915 jenosidini Tashji mi red etmis? Kim bu Tashji? Ermeni bile degil, babasi Suryani, annesinin ne oldugunu bilmem..eh ..Ermeni olsun. Peki bu adamin husniyeti ne? Lakabi ne? Her hangi bir univesite ile alakasi var mi idi? Bu sahsin her hangi akademik bir sifati var mi? Kac tane etud, monograf, kitap yazmis? Hangi yuksek ogretim muessesine bagli idi?

CEVAP : SIFIR.....hic birine bagli degildi..Fakat sizleri iyi cengellemis...ben Ermeniyim demis ve sizinle hemfikir demis ve sizleri iyice suzmus......
Tashjinin Ermenilikle tek alakasi sizin tezinizi poh poh etmesinden baska hic bir baglantisi yok.

Sayet aranizda Tashjini akademik gecmisini bilen varsa bildirsin..Hodri Meydan...Sam burada ise arsin da burada.....

Anamadigim tek sey su : Turkler arasinda bu kadar okumus, zeki sahislar oldugu halde arada bir ortaya boye sacma kisiler sokuyorsunuz . Bundan bir ara evvel de Arlansas barosundan def edilmis, musterilerin parasini yemis bir kadi , sonra da avukat Samel Weems birden ortaya cikti...baktik ki...sizlerin parasi ile gene sizlerin borazanini otturuyor....Vaz gecin...ama ata sozu.....denize dusen yilana sarilir.....sizler de Tashji, Weems gibilerinden umit bekliyorsunuz..

Evet cevap bekliyoruz: Tashji nin akademik gecmisi ne?

---

From: Macreau@aol.com ..serj.bulanikian
Re: [TURKISHARMENIANFRIENDSHIP]

TURKISH LOSSES DURING FIRST WORLD WAR

In order to justify the genocide of some 1,5 million Armenians during 1915-1918 , Turkish authorities and historians have repeatedly insisted over the last 96 years that, if a few thousand Armenians died due to deportations from strategic military zones in Turkey, the number of Turks who lost their lives due to ??? Armenian Atrocities??? during the same period was between 1,5 million ( Djemal Pash, War Memories) to 3 million ( East Uras,Tarihte Ermeniler ve Ermeni meselesi)

In order to place Turkey???s human losses in proper perspective, it would beuseful to examine the number of casualties suffered by the fighting nations during the war.
According to US Governmental figures total casualties among all belligerent nations during Wwi were 8,538,315 military personnel killed and 7,750,919 missing or imprisoned. It is believed that the latter figure, from 25 % to 50% might be considered as having been killed. Thus roughly, ten million military personnel of all nations were killed. In aditiondeaths among the civilian population caused indirectly by war have been estimated to be 10-12 millions. In WWI , then , one civilian lost his life for each soldier killed.

Again according to US Governmental statistics, in WWI , Turkey mobilized 2,850,000 men . ( Turkish historians say that there were only 1,5 million men)Of these 325,00 were killed, and 250,000 were made prisoners or were missing in action. No figures are given for civilian casualties.

Official Turkish Government figures for Turkish casualties are as follow:

Number of Soldiers killed, excepting the Dardanelles operation....68,378
Number of soldiers killed in the Dardanelles operation.....55,127
Missing in Dardanelles.....10,067
Total combat dead and all missing...133,574
Number of soldiers dead of illness......455,759
Number of Soldiers dead of illness at the Dardanelles..... .21,498
TOTAL DEAD OF ILLNESS......488,257

Thus, for each Turkish soldier killed in action, four others died of illness, mostly in epidemics of typhus, typhoid, dysentery, malnutrition and frost-bite and gangrene due to inadequate clothing and poor military leadership.

Now then, what about the number of Turkish civilians who died during the same time? No figures on this matter have been issued by the Turkish authorities and probably no such figures are available. There is little doubt that many Turkish or Moslem civilians died during the war due to epidemic and malnutrition, mentioned above. Considering the condition of the average Turkish soldier, who was supposed to have preference over the civilian in the matter of the availability of the sinews of life during the period of warfare, there is a good possibility that the loss of life among Turkish civilians was at least one-and one-half million. Thus , for each soldier killed in combat, four other soldiers and about 15 civilians died of illness. However, as shown above, and crucially, it is absolutely unfounded that these civilians were killed mainly by Armenians.

The Western, or ???Turkish??? Armenians were deported and largely killed between 1915-1916, and Russian Armenian soldiers in the Russian Tsarist armies were largely sent to other fronts elsewhere in the Russian Empire, until the Russian Revolution of 1917

The actual and direct cause of the terrible Turkish loss of life from ilness, among soldiers and civilians alike , was the Union and Progress Party, the Ittihad, under the autocratic rule of the Talaat-, Djemal.- Enver triumvirate.

The German General Liman von Sanders, who became the Inspector-General of the Ottoman ariems in January 1914 found Turkish troops in wretched state. Officers had not received salaeries for 6-8 months, while their soldiers had not been paid for years, were undernourished, their uniforms and personal equipment in rags,

Alarming conditions existed in military installations and hospitals; there were vermin, filth, overcrowding; often two soldiers occupied one bed; a large number soldiers died daily; sometimes, the wards holding ill Turkish soldiers were locked, and Turkish physicians would swear that keys to these chambers were lost...When von Sanders refused to accept this excuse and insisted on having wards open to him, he found that these locked rooms were filled with seriously ill or dying soldiers.

It was under these conditions that Turkey entered the war. Professor Ahmet Emin states in his work :

-- The Turkish soldier....His neverchanging diet consisted of food both uneatable and not even suitable for bodily upkeep. He was not protected from heat or cold, nor from sickness....The Turkish soldier could never be without the thought that his family had no means of livelihood....At the beginning of 1917, desertions had reached the number of 300,000. By the summer of 1918 the figure had reached to more than 500,000.. Deserters could not go back to their villages....Capital punishment awaited them the moment they were caught..--

This means of course that to be a Turkish soldier was worse than dying under military court edict. If this then were the condition of the Turkish soldier, one needs not strech one???s imagination to perceive what was the condition of the average civilian population.

In a confidential report, Mustafa Kemal Pasha ( Futur Ataturk) in September 1917 , addressed this report to Enver, the Minister of War :

-- There are no bonds left between the Government and the people. What we call the people are composed now of women, disabled men and children. For all alike the Government is the power which insistently drives them to hunger and death. The administrative machinery is devoid of authority. Public life is in full anrachy. Every new step taken by the Government increases the general hatered the people feel for it....The best orginized divisions lose half their numbers by desertion or sickness before they reach the front.--

Kemal???s report leaves no doubt who were the real murderers of the Turkish civilian population.

---

From: Macreau@aol.com ..serj.bulanikian
Re: [TURKISHARMENIANFRIENDSHIP] The Armenian Revolt: 1894-1920 (Documentary)

Ilkinbalta
Asagida uzman tarihci olarak gosterdigi tarihcilerin hepsi bilaiistisna Turk tezini tutanlardir. Bu sahislar dunya soykirim uzmanlari tarafindan kritik edilmis ve gecmisi tahrif ettiklerinden ciddiye alinmamistir. Bu tarihciler Turk hukumeti ile olan bagliliklari dolayisiile acaba ne kadar ciddiye alinabilir/
Sanford Shaw----karisi Turk, acaba onun etkisi altinda olabilir mi?
Justin Mc Carthy...Turkyede calismis, Turk hukumetinden bir cok oduller almis vs.vs...acaba ne kadar objektif?
Norman Stone...aynisi
Oburleri ise gene Turk hukumetinden ekmek yiyorlar....

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From: Macreau@aol.com ..serj.bulanikian

Re: [TURKISHARMENIANFRIENDSHIP] ARMENIAN ISSUE AND AL JAZEERA BROADCAST

There is nothing new under the Turkish sun. Not only Mr. Kirlikovali fabricates story he also denies what 126 genocide scholars have found the blood on Turkish hands. These world renowned scholars have succinctly exposed Turkish malfeasance ..and ...yet here we have Ergun Bey spinning the same denialist yarn.

What is amazing is that despite all facts, proofs etc.etc....he and his likes refuse to see the truth....This is what a Devekusu ( ostrich) does....stick its head in sand....

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From: Macreau@aol.com ..serj.bulanikian
Re: [TURKISHARMENIANFRIENDSHIP]

The real Aaturk hidden from Turks

In all probability, the material which Wikileaks has on Ataturk pertain to the secret side of his private life. That there is much documented in this regard is a fact. I have myself read many reports by diplomats about Ataturk dating from the 1920s and '30s which would be worthy of publication in Playboy or Instinct. I must emphasise the fact that the details of the private lives of public figures are, for that reason, not private at all in their essence. What is private sensibly conditions human thought, which, in turn, is the basis for making decisions, decisions upon which thousands of human lives and historical eras depend. The factor of the private for politicians is always a matter of import for societies in general and ends up having wide-ranging influence.

As a result, a political figure does not and cannot have a private life. The lifestyle of a politician is a voluntary choice, which each individual consciously carries out. One's sexuality is one of the most important aspects of one's private life, and so, one's sexual practices can reveal a great deal and provide significant information on a person's internal state and thinking.

The first bit of information by Armstrong on Mustafa's initial sexual life and orientation takes place in his second year, in 1894, at the Military Cadet School at Salonika (Thessaloniki). It is here that Mustafa's mathematics teacher who shared his name, one Captain Mustafa, took the 13-14 year old adolescent "under his wing": "In his second year one of the masters, a Capitan Mustafa, took a fancy to him". The use of the phrase "to take a fancy" is an interesting move by Armstrong. That expression may have a number of meanings -to like, to be taken by, to be attracted to, to feel attached to, especially in sexual way. Also, it is this very Captain Mustafa who bestowed the title "Kemal" - "perfect", "beautiful" - to the young, blue-eyed Mustafa.

Armstrong elaborates on what he means in the following passage: "The friendship and protection of Captain Mustafa did him no good. The friendship was unhealthy. He developed overrapidly. Before he was fourteen he had passed the boy stage: the gropings after sex: the petty dirtiness: and he had started an affair with a neighbor's daughter".

In order to continue his education, Mustafa Kemal transferred from Salonika at first to Monastir in 1895, and then to Constantinople in 1899. The young Mustafa Kemal dove headlong into the nightlife of the big city:

"At once he plunged wildly into the unclean life of the great metropolis of Constantinople. Night after night he gambled and drank in the cafes and restaurants. With women he was not fastidious. A figure, a face in profile, a laugh, could set him on fire and reaching out to get the woman, whatever she was. Sometimes it would be with the Greek and Armenian harlots in the bawdy-houses in the garbage-stinking streets by Galata Bridge, where came the pimps and the homosexuals to cater for all the vices; then for a week or two a Levantine lady in her house in Pangaldi; or some Turkish girl who came veiled and by back-ways in fear of the police to some maison de rendez-vous in Pera or Stambul.

He fell in love with none of them. He was never sentimental or romantic. Without a pang of conscience he passed rapidly from one to next. He satisfied his appetite and was gone. He was completely Oriental in his mentality: women had no place in his life except to satisfy his sex. He plunged deep down into the lecherous life of the city."

Armstrong's next bit of information on the private life of Mustafa Kemal refers to that time period when he was the military attache of the Ottoman Empire in Sofia (27 October, 1913 to 2 February, 1915): "He learnt ball-room dancing, methodically with a teacher, and then danced whenever possible, but always as if he was on parade. He frequented the drawing-rooms and tried to become the society gallant, making love to the ladies of Sofia, but they found him excessively gauche."

Mustafa Kemal fell in love in Sofia with Dimitrina, the daughter of General Stiliyan Kovachev, the former defence minister of Bulgaria.

However, he was rejected by her, "And Mustafa Kemal, touchy and sensitive, became more lofty and aloof than ever. He began to hate society".

Avoiding high society, Mustafa Kemal was drawn more and more towards other circles.

"With men - and especially men who were deferential - and with the loose women of the capital, Mustafa Kemal was far more at ease. With these, in the cafes and the brothels, he drank and reveled night after night far into the dawn. He gambled and diced for hours against any one who would sit against him. He heaped up all the indulgences and glutted himself with them. He tried all the vices. He paid the penalty in sex disease and damaged health. In the reaction he lost all belief in women and for the time being became enamored of his own sex."

The First World War began in 1914. On the 28th of October, 1914, Turkish battleships perfidiously bombed the Russian ports of the Black Sea, due to which war was declared on Turkey by Russia on the 3rd of November, followed by France and Britain on the 5th of November.

Turkey was facing war on two fronts.

Little is known in general about the private life of Mustafa Kemal in the war years, and Armstrong does not convey much either, for his part. One thing is evident, that alcohol deteriorated his health to such a degree that he was forced to leave for Carlsbad (Karlovy Vary, in the Czech Republic today) for treatment from April to August, 1918, during the most heated time of the war. As Armstrong relates, he was seen by the celebrated Austrian physician, Otto Zuckerkandl, who warned him, that "If he did not stop drinking he would die in a year".

It must be emphasised that the Austrian doctor was wrong; although Mustafa Kemal continued to drink no less than what he used to, he lived for twenty more years nonetheless, until 1938.

After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire and the signing of the Treaty of Moudros (on the 30th of October, 1918), Mustafa Kemal returned to Constantinople from the Syrian front. Despite his many efforts, Kemal did not receive any offices in the new government. What is more, in staying unemployed, he rented a small house in the ?i?li district of Constantinople and gave himself to the pleasures of life. His only friend in that period was one Colonel Arif:

"He had few friends and only one intimate, a Colonel Arif. Arif was a capable staff officer trained in Germany. He was a younger man than Mustafa Kemal. They had known each other since the days in Salonika and Monastir; they had served together in Syria, the Balkans and Gallipoli. After the Armistice they struck up a close friendship. They had common tastes; both were absorbed in all military matters; both enjoyed the same loose talk, the heavy drinking and the wild nights with women. Mustafa Kemal's enemies said they were lovers, for Arif was the only person for whom Mustafa showed open affection, putting his arm round his shoulders and calling him endearing names."

Mustafa Kemal kept his daring and indiscriminate sexual life in future years. Armstrong writes the following on Ataturk's private life during the years 1921-1922:

"As long as there was work, it absorbed Mustafa Kemal's every minute: nothing could divert him. When work slackened, he grew irritable and restless and began to interfere with his subordinates. It was then that with Arif and one or two other men he would disappear on heavy drinking bouts which, with gambling, would last whole nights; or he went a whoring with the painted women of the poor brothels of the town."

Naturally, such a lifestyle had its negative effects on Mustafa Kemal's health. A doctor advised him to "work and drink less, and lead a regular life with someone to look after him". It was at that time that Fikriye Hanum came into his life: "From a break-down he was saved by Fikriye Hanum. She was a distant relative of his from Stambul who had volunteered as an army nurse and come to Angora. As soon as he saw her, Mustafa Kemal took her to his house."

Armstrong is mistaken here. Fikriye (1887-1924) was not a distant relative of Mustafa, but his own first cousin (his mother's brother's daughter), in whose house Mustafa lived for two years during his childhood. Fikriye had been married to a rich Egyptian Arab, but had long since been separated.

"She watched over all his needs. When he was ill, she nursed him. She was his mistress and his absolute slave, for she was Turkish and oriental.(...) For a while Mustafa Kemal was absorbed in her. But very soon he tired. He went back more and more to his painted women, his drinking companions and his cards."

The life of Mustafa Kemal during the period 1922-1924 is reminiscent of a classic love triangle. In September, 1922, Mustafa Kemal met Latife U?akl?gil (1898-1975). The meeting changed his life for a while. Fikriye was suddenly rendered superfluous, a burden. Kemal had her sent to Munich "for treatment" in 1922. On the 14th of January, 1923, the only close person to Mustafa Kemal, his mother Zubeyde, died. Barely fifteen days after her death, Kemal married Latife, with whom he lived for two and a half years. In 1924, Fikriye returned from Munich, met with Mustafa Kemal and tried to discuss what was to become of her. The next day, Fikriye was found dead in a ditch behind Mustafa Kemal's house. The theory that she committed suicide is heavily questioned to this day.

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From: Macreau@aol.com ..serj.bulanikian

Re: [TURKISHARMENIANFRIENDSHIP] turks vs. russians

There is no such word as " ALLIAS"
There is no such verb as " QUESS"
Bu mu Amerikadaki Turk toplumunu temsil eden??? Baskaniniz Doktor, professor vs. gibi lakiplari olan bir kimse dogru durust ingilizce bile yazamiyor.....

In a message dated 12/3/2010 10:33:50 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, Kayaalp Buyukataman@... writes:

MY DEAR FRIEND ALLIAS MCREAU

I QUESS SOME ARMENIANS AND YOU MY JEWISH FRIEND NEED PROTECTION

SALOM

KBN

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From: Macreau@aol.com ..serj.bulanikian

Re: [TURKISHARMENIANFRIENDSHIP] more about our big brothers and us

This question reminds me Turkish reasoning...Well... they were not 1,5 million , only 800,000. As if quantity changes the perception.....

In a message dated 12/2/2010 2:02:04 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, arabaliozian@... writes:

300,000 armenians died during world war ii alone.
many thousands more were killed during and after the Revolution that sovietized armenia.
many more died during waves of purges.
i doubt if ten turkish bombs would have done that kind of damage. / ara baliozian

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From: Macreau@aol.com ..serj.bulanikian
Re: [TURKISHARMENIANFRIENDSHIP] Mata Hari . . Role of Truth . . Media Relati...

I love this paragraph.......how insane some people could be......

In a message dated 11/28/2010 1:09:31 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, newsrush@... writes:

3) That is right the Armenian Ottoman population was not subjected to a campaign of extermination (i.e. genocide), but several certified Armenian traitors were sentenced to death and hanged by Ottoman authorities, a decision perfectly understandable in World War I???s time.

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From: Macreau@aol.com ..serj.bulanikian

Re: [TURKISHARMENIANFRIENDSHIP] from my notebooks

You are so wrong. When talking about Americanization or Ottomanization you should consider the premis. America being Christian ( whatevet that means), with all the freedoms and without any pressure it is easy to become Americanized.

What about Ottomans...OK if the genocide is small fraction of total damage what are other damages? Now.if you answer it should cover ONLY but ONLY "loss of national identity" nothing else.

In a message dated 11/18/2010 9:38:14 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, arabaliozian@... writes:

It takes less than 25 years (or a single generation)
to Americanize an Armenian.
Now imagine what 600 years (or 24 generations)
in the Ottoman Empire may have done to us!
What if the Genocide is only a small fraction of the total damage?
#

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From: Macreau@aol.com ..serj.bulanikian
Re: [TURKISHARMENIANFRIENDSHIP] from my notebooks

You are so wrong. When talking about Americanization or Ottomanization you should consider the premis. America being Christian ( whatevet that means), with all the freedoms and without any pressure it is easy to become Americanized.

What about Ottomans...OK if the genocide is small fraction of total damage what are other damages? Now.if you answer it should cover ONLY but ONLY "loss of national identity" nothing else.

In a message dated 11/18/2010 9:38:14 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, arabaliozian@... writes:

It takes less than 25 years (or a single generation)
to Americanize an Armenian.
Now imagine what 600 years (or 24 generations)
in the Ottoman Empire may have done to us!
What if the Genocide is only a small fraction of the total damage?

---

From: Macreau@aol.com ..serj.bulanikian
Re: [TURKISHARMENIANFRIENDSHIP] Koran,Sharia,,,101. (Kayaalp Buyukataman)

Spending pleasurable nights in the Turkish army is more to your liking my friend. Your disgusting innuendos neither diminishes nor can deny facts of history.
In a message dated 10/9/2010 8:34:47 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, Kayaalp Buyukataman@... writes:

An expected answer

What do you expect from a jew who appears to like Armenians

But in reality his pain is resurfaces when he thinks the pleasurable nights he spend while serving in the turkish army J

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From: Macreau@aol.com ..serj.bulanikian
Re: [TURKISHARMENIANFRIENDSHIP] BRAVO YALCIN AYASLI : Hittite founders money ...

Himmm.......a Ohiao congresswoman who has been bought by Turks....so...what's new about that?

In a message dated 10/5/2010 6:50:45 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, Kayaalp Buyukataman@... writes:


From: Dr. Kayaalp Buyukataman [mailto:kaya2012@...]
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 10:20 PM
To: Dr. Kayaalp Buyukataman
www.turkishforum.com.tr

Five years after stepping aside as chairman of Chelmsford???s Hittite Microwave Corp., Yalcin Ayasli has pumped tens of million of dollars into Turkish causes, even finding himself in the middle of the debate over whether the killing of 1.5 million Armenians during the Ottoman Empire was genocide.

Ayasli???s spending largely has escaped notice. Even some of the beneficiaries of his money, such as an Ohio congresswoman, say they don???t know who he is.

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From: Macreau@aol.com ..serj.bulanikian
Re: [TURKISHARMENIANFRIENDSHIP] Vahe Avetian: I'm Honored By "Abi" Title By ...

What is the purpose of this article? Is it to knock down ARF.? I am not a Tashnak but there is no doubt that ARF has done many good deeds.
The only thing I agree that individual Turks are very friendly and hospitable. Forget the masses, Turkish government has washed their .

Vahe does not know the meaning of "ABI"..it is not a title..It is the abbreviation of Aga Bey which young boys call their elder brothers. It means big brother and most youngsters call elders "aga bey " OR "ABI"....It is not honorary title like Vahe claims....thus, he does not know what he is talking about.

In a message dated 9/21/2010 6:09:30 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, newsrush@... writes:

Vahe Avetian: I am honored by the title "abi" daily by the Turkish kids and youngsters of the neighborhood, and believe me, it is not a word with which they honor many. I can definitely tell today that my personal experience with Turks is very different from the "official line" and the brainwashing about Turks by the Armenian state, academicians, Diaspora, parents, grandparents, all kinds of authorities and priesthood....

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From: Macreau@aol.com ..serj.bulanikian
Re: [TURKISHARMENIANFRIENDSHIP] Ari Sivacyan and Ara Baliozian...

One who sees always worst in us and the other one is ashamed of being Armenian. A Turkish proverb is very appropriate in this case. Those who know Turkish would understand.
"TENCERE YUVARLANMIS KAPAGINI BULMUS "

In a message dated 7/31/2010 10:35:27 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, arabaliozian@... writes:

Ari Sivacyan commented on your note "thank you":

"Productive human beings like Ara Baliozian who contribute to Armenian culture, work for less than minimum wage for scumbag Armenians (Armenian government, mafia, church, and business "leaders") who send our women to prostitute themselves in the brothels of Turkey -- when not tying to assassinate heroes like Monte Melkonian because they wanted to sell for profit the fuel that he needed to put in his tanks in order to defend Armenians.... That's what Armenians amount to, today. I'm ashamed to be an Armenian TODAY."

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Read More . . .

What Was The Hitler's Quote

Hitler's Armenian Genocide Quote is a paragraph from Hitler's alleged second speech to his Wehrmacht commanders, a week before the invasion of Poland in August 22, 1939. Since it's first appearance, the quote has been used by Armenian activists as just another reason to believe in the Armenian Genocide.

The quote, though has many similar translations is as follows:

Quote:
Our strength is our quickness and our brutality. Genghis Khan had millions of women and children hunted down and killed, deliberately and with a gay heart. History sees in him only the great founder of States. What the weak Western European civilization alleges about me, does not matter. I have given the order—and will have everyone shot who utters but one word of criticism—that the aim of this war does not consist in reaching certain geographical lines, but in the enemies' physical elimination. Thus, for the time being only in the east, I put ready my Death's Head units, with the order to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of the Polish race or language. Only thus will we gain the living space that we need. Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?
The important part is the last sentence that Armenian activists seem to point as evidence for the genocide.

The Argument behind the quote

The goal here is to convince you that Hitler justified the Holocaust and extermination of Jews because no one cared about the genocide of the Armenians.

The argument they use with this quote, is a logical fallacy. If you don't punish the Turks for the Armenian Genocide, some crazy dictator like Hitler will see them get away with it, and thus will commit genocide himself. It's an appeal to emotion. It assumes that crazy people need rational justification or only do something evil because they saw someone else get away with it (like a child may steal a cookie from the jar because he saw dad do it).

Lack of Evidence suggests the Speech is False

Dr. Heath Lowry wrote after looking through the Nuremberg trials for proof of this quote:

Dr. Heath Lowry wrote:
The address was never accepted as evidence in this or any other session of the Nuremberg Tribunal.

There was an attempt to have the quote inserted into the Nuremberg Trials, but the tribunal rejected it because it was a incoherent merger of two Hitler speeches acquired from questionable sources.

Nuremberg trial officials located the true speeches of Hitler during this time and admitted it into evidence. None of them mention Armenians.
Motivation for Fabricating this Evidence

It doesn't take a genius to realize that since everyone equates Hitler and Nazi Germany with pure evil, tying your enemy to them, makes it very easy to force others to sympathize with you and to appeal to their emotions.

Since the popularity of this quote amongst the Armenian community, they have been using it to acquire more sympathy especially among Jewish communities. They have used it to involve themselves more in Holocaust studies and they try hard to relate them to each other.

The mere thought of equating the horrific suffering of Jews to the failed rebellion of the Armenians should enrage any Jewish person. The Jews never rebelled against the Nazis, they were singled out in Germany society and were forced to wear identifying Jewish badges in order to promote antisemitism by law.

They were forced to live in ghettos. None of this happened to Armenians. There were many Armenians in leadership positions within the Ottoman government during the reign of the supposed "genocide perpetrators".

Even if we were to assume the speech is absolutely true

If we were to assume the speech is authentic and not question it, the wording of the speech is irrational. The last sentence doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the speech, it's as if, out of the blue, Hitler decides to talk about the plight of the Armenians.

The Speech was about Poland NOT the Holocaust

The speech was talking about the annihilation of the Polish people not the Jews. The Final Solution and the Wannsee Conference that established it, had not yet happened. The Polish people were indeed terrorized by the Nazis during the war, but they weren't exterminated "men, women, and children". Did Hitler's commanders ignore Hitler's command by not exterminating all Poles?

Hitler had to justify genocide to his own commanders?

The speech seems very far-fetched, why would the Fuhrer need to justify to his fascist subordinates about killing anyone by justifying it with past events? Why would he compare himself to the barbarian Genghis Khan?

If he is prepared to shoot anyone who utters "one word of criticism", why did he feel the need to justify killings by referencing Armenians?

Why is the Hitler quote being used as proof of genocide?

How is the word of one crazy dictator somehow evidence? This is like saying "this book says 2+4 = 263 is true, therefore, it must be true." If Hitler had a friend who kept telling him stories about the extermination of Armenians, does that mean Armenians actually faced extermination? Was Hitler a historian? The premise of the argument is that it is assumed the genocide is true when that has yet to be proven.

Everyday however, Armenians mention this quote as if it is absolute proof that the genocide was real and that others are using it to justify more genocide.

People are reluctant to question every detail, so fabricating new evidence may be discredited by historians but it if it is repeated enough times, even educated people will believe it to be true. Conspiracy theorists use this technique to flood the victim with false facts and false evidence in an effort to wear you down and make you believe.

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Turkish Government Denial and Payroll

Armenians claim that the Ottoman Empire committed genocide to the Armenian people, they called it the Armenian Genocide. Decades ago, Turkish historians are able to talk to villagers in Turkey and research historical archives of the Ottoman Empire, investigate these genocide claims and conclude that the Young Turk Ottoman government did not plan any genocide. . .

At first, many decades ago, during the 1940s and 1950s, the claim of Armenian Genocide was not widely dispersed. When Armenians saw the reparations being rightfully paid by Germany to the Jews for the Holocaust, they strengthened their claims of the Armenian Genocide and started pressuring other governments to recognize this genocide.

Once it became political and Turkish historians increasingly found more evidence of Armenian massacres and rebellions, the Turkish government decided to deny this alleged genocide because of lack of evidence and because they are the ones with access to the Ottoman archives.

Thus, Armenians began to claim, that since they deny the genocide, then they must have committed the genocide because all perpetrators of genocide deny their genocide.

In essence, if person A claims you're a murderer, and you deny that you murdered anyone. Person A then claims that all murderers deny murders, hence you are truly a murderer. This is a logical fallacy called Begging the Question or circular argument.

To top it off, the Turkish government seeing that Armenians are continuing to convince the world without any evidence, decided it was time to allow all world historians to come to the Ottoman archives in Istanbul and learn the history of previous Ottoman governments. Every year more and more historians come out with new books on the subject, rejecting the idea that this was a genocide.

As a result of the Turkish government's involvement in the debate, Armenians have started a habit of calling anyone who hints at looking for evidence for the Armenian Genocide as "on the Turkish government's payroll". They have used it against every single author that has suggested that the Armenian Genocide does not qualify as genocide as declared by the United Nations.

In fact, even writers for this website have been attacked as being paid by the Turkish government. If this website or any of its writers or researchers were paid by the Turkish government, then wouldn't we have advertisement all over the web trying to convince you? Yet we don't have a single ad. We post articles and our research because we are historians and we believe this subject is an important part of history.

If Armenians make this claim, then cannot Turks make the claim that they are being funded by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation or the Armenian government?

In fact, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, has an office in Boston! What is a 100 year old terrorist organization doing in the United States? (This is equivalent to Al Qaeda having an office in NATO nation). The ARF is working to use US taxpayer money to send billions of dollars of aid to Armenia and to stop aid to country's Armenia hates, such as Azerbaijan and Georgia.

What does Armenia do with more than 2 billion dollars of US taxpayer money over the last few decades? Allow Russia to build more Russian airbases, military bases, and batteries inside Armenia and make more trade deals with Iran (their only friendly neighbor). At least the Russians are getting their money's worth.

As Americans, we dreamed our tax payer money would be used on Americans or at least on allied nations in their times of need that we know would support us when the time comes. Instead we are funding Armenia's war and propaganda machine.

In 1992, Armenia launched an unprovoked sneak attack against Azerbaijan (a neighbor and a US ally). Wealthy Armenian lobbyists campaigned and the US Congress cut aid to Azerbaijan and increased aid to the aggressor: Armenia.

Instead of assuming--that just because the Turkish government elected by its people, and for decades (with completely contradicting political parties in power over the years) denying this genocide--is lying or guilty; we should do some research.

Perhaps it's time we focus our attention to Armenia, a country that keeps its historical archives locked from even their own historians--or how about the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, an organization established to destroy the Ottoman Empire that has offices today in Boston, with its own ARF historical archives also locked.

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Are Armenians Full of Contradictions ?

Armenians are a proud people, and if you aren't Turkish and you don't deny their unproven genocide, they are also a very friendly people. I've met many Armenians over the years, since I am American, they are extremely friendly to me, and for that reason, I do not discuss this topic with them. That is of course, until they google my name and read some of my articles that disagree with the notion of an Armenian Genocide. After which, they will either disassociate themselves with me, or they will come by and either try to convince me or argue with me. I'm sure many of you, no matter where you are from, have encountered Armenians who try to convince you of the genocide.

The reason they try to convince you, is because of their nationalism, this is not a negative trait, it's just the way they were raised and they are proud of working together with other Armenians to convince the world of their genocide. This is how the Armenian Revolutionary Federation saves its face, otherwise they would have to finally admit after 94 years, that they indeed lost World War I to the Central Power, Ottoman forces. They would have to admit that the Allies really did betray them and left them without reinforcements and all their efforts to sabotage the Ottoman war effort would be gone. The Russian and British promise of a Greater Armenia was broken, they were left with a tiny country and they had no economy and many refugees that were starving in their land-locked nation.

Due to human nature, they had to find someone to blame. They tried to blame the Russians and the rest of the Allies, but it didn't help, no one listened, no one cared. However, when the ARF decided to blame the Ottoman Turks, enemies of the Turks, joined in the blame game, because they all had grudges against the Turks. The British had lost 2 significant battles to the Turks, and they lost the Turkish Independence war, giving the new nation Turkey its own land. The Greeks had lost all of Western Anatolia to the Turks during this war. The French lost all of South-Eastern Anatolia to the Turks. The Russians were creating the Soviet Empire and they were no longer interested in Anatolia, but they too felt betrayed by the Turks who accepted their gifts of weapons but did not convert to communism. Although the Allies had won World War I, in the Turkish independence war, they had lost, and they did not like the Turks.

The Armenian Genocide concept, started after this Turkish independence war. It didn't gain traction until the 1950s and 1960s through widespread propaganda by Armenian communities around the world. This is why the founder of Turkey, Ataturk, has never made any comments about the Armenian Genocide or the accusation of any genocide, because such accusations did not exist when he was alive.

Two Armenians in different times tried to convince me of the genocide. One of them, talked about how his grandmother's husband and children were killed. However, said that she was forced to walk all the way to Syria. As a skeptic, I asked why anyone would kill a family, and then let one of them escape scratch free to Syria, which he could not answer (the reason being, the story was fabricated). When I asked him why then there is no evidence that Talat Pasha, one of the leaders of the Ottoman Empire, had no telegrams ordering genocide, he replied "Why would Talat Pasha leave evidence of his own crimes?"

Another Armenian, tried to convince me by telling me how Talat Pasha wrote a "Black Book" (funny), detailing how he committed the genocide and references "Ottoman documents, not allowed to be seen in the Ottoman Archives today." That was funny because the previous Armenian was telling me Talat Pasha left no evidence of his crime and now he's written a whole black book detailing his crimes, very interesting, very improbable.

When I asked where I can have a copy of this black book, he could not produce it, said that it was sold in various places in different countries. Later, I found out, that he apparently, learned about this black book from some Armenian forum. Again, rumors.

This was similar to the one time where I read a Reader's Digest article hilariously entitled "Why I hate the Turks" -- The Armenian that wrote it, discussed how this very old Armenian described a story of how, he and his family and all of his fellow villagers were trapped in a church, and the "evil Turks" used wood to cover up the windows, and then poured kerosene everywhere and lit the church on fire. He told about how he cried with his family and told them they'd be together again in heaven. Then the story cut off--- huh?? -- How did he escape then? Apparently, that miraculous detail was classified. My suspicion is that he was an ARF member who was the one burning Muslim families in a Mosque, and just twisted the story and made himself the victim, I have no proof, but then again, he doesn't have any proof of his story either.

The writer wrote another story about when this old Armenian man, was only 13, "Turkish and Kurdish marauders" came and attacked his village on horseback. I said "Interesting, never knew Turks and Kurds ever worked together" (because they never did, it was more likely they were all Kurdish, but alas, they always want to put the blame on Turks rather than the real killers). The attackers apparently, killed many villagers, and stabbed the boy with a bayonet and then "stole his clothes" (a grown man stole a child's clothes, very interesting). Wait wait, I missed something, a 13 year old boy was stabbed with a bayonet back in 1915, and somehow survived such a wound in a time where there weren't even any hospitals in most villages? Lies.

This is the problem. We need to apply our logic when listening to these eye-witness stories. Even an American Consul in 1915, once said that "These Orientals, they can't help but exaggerate every story" about the Kurds and Armenians.

These stories to Armenians, are a mission, a nationalistic goal, to convince everyone of a genocide, because they cannot admit the losses they suffered in World War I, were the fault of the ARF, a terrorist organization that sided with the Allies and killed, Armenians, Kurds, and Turks, alike who opposed them.

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April 24th: The Day of Justice Or Wheeling And Dealing

In April 24th, 1915, approximately 250 Armenian Revolutionary Federation leaders and high ranking officers were arrested for their roles in the siege and capture of Van, an Ottoman city and their attempt to hand the city over to the Russians (Allies) during desperate hours of the Russian invasion of Ottoman Turkey in World War I.

Contrary to what Armenian Genocide supporters write, the arrests were not made in only Constantinople (present day Istanbul). Contrary to what Armenian Genocide activists say, the arrests were not of academics, clergymen, or "philosophers." These were ARF (Dashnak) members, some of them were Hunchak members as well, another terrorist organization rebelling against the Ottoman Empire and killing civilians in their rabid form of ultra-nationalism and their dream of creating a Greater Armenia. . .

Other sources report that instead of 250, 1,234 ARF and Hunchak members were arrested throughout the Ottoman provinces. Whatever the exact number, what we know for sure is they were indeed rebels.

Armenians claim they were arrested merely for being Armenian. They claim that it was the "start of the genocide." In fact, they celebrate it every year by protesting the Turkish embassy in various countries during that day. Kind of an awkward way to mourn the deaths of ancestors if you ask me. If it was the start of a genocide, then why only 250? Why not thousands and thousands being executed immediately? Why relocate them all the way to Eastern Anatolia or Syria?

Armenians answer such questions by saying that the Ottomans did not want Europeans who had diplomats in the big cities to know what was going on. If that was true, then why did they allow European and US diplomats to visit the relocation camps? US Consul Jackson was walking every day through the relocation camps with full privileges. He was bringing the Armenian families more food and money to help them.

The Ottoman governor of Aleppo Syria, spent a lot of money helping the Armenians rebuild homes and livelihoods in Aleppo. The money was approved by the Ottoman leadership.

Even Djemal Pasha was ordering soldiers to ambush bandits and Kurds who were trying to attack the families who were on route, relocating to Syria.

These are inconvenient facts that do not work for the "Armenian Cause" of recognition of genocide. They need a common enemy, the Turks, to keep themselves as an un-assimilated world-wide Armenian community. They need a reason to keep the ARF alive for 100 years (yes they still exist today). The acceptance of failure of the rebellion in World War I, is too difficult compared to the simple task of blaming the Ottoman government for defending itself during war-time against the ARF who allied themselves with the enemy.

The unfortunate deaths of thousands of Armenians and Turks who were innocent should be mourned on April 24th. However, justice was served against the ARF, but some Armenians are not ready to accept this inconvenient truth.

The Armenians suffered indeed, at the hands of the ARF, not the Ottoman Empire.

04/24/2009

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Nazi Guilt Vs Anti Turkism

The history channel created a documentary discussing Nazi Germany, Hitler, and the story of the Germans who tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler. This documentary was created very recently probably in response to the new Tom Cruise movie Valkyrie directed by Bryan Singer. The idea is conscience versus country. The Nazis had created great crimes against humanity especially against the Jewish people. Armenians try to equate Ottomans and especially Turks to the Nazi Germans even though there is serious doubt, by world renowned historians who study Ottoman History such as Dr. Bernard Lewis, that an Armenian Genocide ever took place.

The Germans have since been vilified all over the world even if they had nothing to do with Nazi Germany. However, unlike the Jews and everyone who blame the Nazis for genocide, the Armenians blame the Turks for genocide rather than simply the Committee of Union and Progress.

Instead of saying "The CUP Ottoman Empire committed genocide," Armenians say "The genocide committed by Turkey" or "Turks". They justify this by saying, "well the Turks still deny it." The problem is, the Holocaust is a proven genocide, but the alleged Armenian Genocide has never been proven.

The reason some people believe it is proven, is because Armenians continue to distribute forgeries to journalists and historians around the world hoping to find someone that will support their cause for reparations. They find many, maybe because the person they find is Islamophobic, maybe has anti-Turkish tendencies already, or simply because of their ignorance of history.

While the Germans still carry the guilt of Nazi Germany, the Turks carry an artificial guilt that is created by Armenian propagandists.

The Armenians find the Armenian Genocide narrative extremely unifying for Armenians, keeping generations of Armenians working toward a common cause and keeping them organized and preventing assimilation of Armenians in Western societies. While the Turks are only beginning to learn about the many organizations of Armenians that have been laying the seeds of propaganda throughout the West. Some Armenians still hope that one day the Turks will accept their version of history, apologize, and pay reparations for losses they believe they received.

The truth is far from it. The delusion is created by their own refusal to come to terms with their loss in World War I as part of the Allies.

Accepting loss is much more difficult then assuming that they are the victims equal to the Jews.

The worst chapter of this story is that the real victims, the Muslim villagers throughout Anatolia who suffered millions of losses at the hands of the Allies and Armenian Revolutionary Federation are being blamed for genocide.

If you wonder why so many people believe in the Armenian Genocide, you should understand that the dead cannot speak, but the ones who survive can. It is because of this reason, that the Armenians have been able to spread their misinformation, because they lost the war, but they survived it in large significant numbers.

They claim they lost millions of lives but in reality those statistics come from migration not of death tolls.

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Who Should Apologize ? Turks or Armenians?

The question has been asked thousands of times, usually by foreigners who do not know the history of Ottoman-Armenian and Turkish-Armenian relations. They do not know who to point to and blame. They see the world in black and white, they are looking for an evil to blame. The Armenians want to blame the Turks for an Armenian Genocide. The Turks want to blame Armenians for a Turkish Genocide. Who's to blame?

Most Europeans and Americans grew up learning about the horrible history of the Holocaust. They saw documentaries, videos, and read books about the horrors of Nazi Germany. They see it and they wish they could stop it but know that it is in the past.

Hence, when they are older, they grow up looking for this evil, trying to find where evil is and pretend they can save the world from it.

When they meet an Armenian who tells them of 1915, describing it like the ARF (Armenian Revolutionary Federation) as a systematic genocide equal to the Holocaust, they become activists they decide they now think they know where evil is. Then the Armenian tells them that the Turks "still deny it to this day," and now they have a new "evil" to fight against, the Turks.

What they don't realize is that they are only hearing a distorted story created in 1915 after a gruesome and tragic WWI loss by the Armenians who's rebel groups sided with the Allies against the Ottomans, as a persuasive essay meant to convince Americans and Europeans to bring aid to the poor Christian Armenians.

Using their gruesome stories (some of them true, some of them distorted or exaggerated, and some of them with misidentified villains), for generations they have convinced churches, diplomats, and even nations to send millions of dollars in foreign aid to Armenians and the country of Armenia.

The problem is, they have not been able to accept their inevitable loss in World War I, some of them still think the war is not over and that the Lausanne Treaty of the 1920s will be voided and the outcome of World War I will be different!

Yes, many Armenian nationalists believe they can still win World War I, in the 2000s. Other Armenians believe they can at least seek revenge on Turkey for 1915 by painting the Turks as evil villains equal to the Nazis.

This hate campaign is nothing more than racism combined with Islamophobia, Anti-Turkism, and revenge. It is also a unifying cause for the Armenians, keeping their culture in tact, making Armenians around the world harder to assimilate into the countries they live in.

They believe this unification created by an ancient common foe, will keep them together.

Armenia, in shambles with poverty and political turmoil needs help, and they use the Armenians around the world to send aid to these countries on the pretext that the Armenians suffered genocide because of their neighbors the Turks.

When the reality of their situation was, they fought a war on the Allied side, and when the Allies abandoned them they suffered at the hands of local inhabitants seeking revenge for the Allied-endorsed slaughter.

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians, Turks, Kurds, and other Muslims died in this conflict. And all by fighting rebels, or each other, or the government. There was no systematic genocide. There were no death camps. There were no weapons of mass destruction. And as with all wars, many innocent people died. Many of them from diseases and starvation.

Even the Ottoman army had to go to war hungry and diseased, the Ottoman government was bankrupted but tried all it could to feed its Armenian and Turkish citizens even the ones that were relocated because of hostility or possible rebellion.

Later the leaders of the Ottoman Empire during that time were assassinated one by one by Armenian assassins seeking revenge for what they were led to believe was genocide. Communication being a problem at the time, rumors always spread fast, and when stories of Armenians being massacred spread, it didn't matter who the perpetrators were, historians conclude it was local inhabitants seeking revenge from Armenian rebels or money/food during a time of crisis, but eventually many of them were falsely led to believe it was murder by the government.

The relocation orders only enforced their beliefs in the rumors, even though it was a standard procedure by all European nations at the time to put down rebellions quickly during war-time.

Hence, today we ask who should apologize? The Turks who were fighting for their survival in World War I and whose government tried their best to keep a multi-ethnic society together and stop an Armenian rebellion at the same time? The Armenians who voluntarily rebelled and the Armenians who were forced to rebel by the rebels (they killed their own people and church leaders who opposed rebellion)? What about the Allied powers whose diplomats and leaders encouraged Armenian rebellions while at the same time demanding more rights for Armenians from the Ottoman leaders?

The reality was this was a war. Massacres were common (on all sides). Disease was common. Food shortages rampant. Disease abundant. Survival of the fittest was the only thing that mattered during these times, if you were alone you were robbed or killed for the few pieces of clothes on your back. It was a troubling tragic time, and it all could have been avoided if someone hadn't killed the Archduke.

The fact is, no one needs to apologize, they simply need to move on. Sure you can blame the British for encouraging Arab and Armenian rebellions, you can blame the Russians for killing the Jews, you can blame the Armenians for killing the Turks and Kurds, and you can blame the Kurds and Turks for killing the Armenians, you can blame the Austrians for starting wars, you can blame the Serbs for assassinating Austrians.

The Europeans and Americans understood this blame game, hence why they let it go and stopped thinking about it.

Though when they did seek revenge and punishment, the Versailles Treaty, well that just created World War II! Hence, before you start World War III, stop blaming each other for the past and move on. Before you cry out "genocide", understand that the Holocaust was a very unique case and that no two wars are the same and genocide is a blanket term that can be applied to any war where innocent people died (which is every war)!

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Why Do The Turks Always Refuse To Admit The Armenian Genocide?

This is a question for a world renowned historian to answer, this very question was asked by Le Monde to Dr. Bernard Lewis an Ottoman and Islamic Historian, a New York Times Best Seller Author:

Ottoman and Islamic Historian, NYT Best Seller Bernard Lewis wrote:

You mean, the Armenian version of the history? There was an Armenian problem for the Turks created by the advance of the Russians, and also there was a population with an anti-Turkish sentiment in the Ottoman Empire who sought independence, and they overtly sympathized with the Russians advancing from the Caucasus. Also, there were Armenian bands, the Armenians bragged about their heroic exploits . . in resistance, and the Turks had trouble to maintain order under the prevailing war conditions. For the Turks it was necessary to take the punitive and preventive measure against a hostile population in a region threatened by foreign invasion. For the Armenians it was liberating their land. However, both parties agree that the repression was geographically limited; for example, those measures did not affect the Armenians who lived in the other parts of the Ottoman Empire.

No one has any doubt that terrible events took place; the Armenians, as well as the Turks suffered and perished in equal measure. Yet, no one will be able to tell what the circumstances were like, and how many people died. Consider, for instance, the case of Lebanon [Beirut] that took place recently and in full view of the entire world. During their [the Armenians] relocation to Syria [an Ottoman province at that time] hundred thousands of Armenians died on account of famine and epidemics. However, when you brought up the question of "genocide", you imply that there was a deliberate policy of extermination, to annihilate systematically the Armenian nation. This is very doubtful. The Turkish documents prove an action of relocation, not extermination.

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Why PBS Never Air Pro-Turkish Documentaries To Be Fair?

PBS Airs a Documentary Promoting Armenian Genocide "A Family Erased"

"A Family Erased" is a documentary by Armenian director George Kachadorian, depicts the journey his father and two sisters take to Eastern Turkey to find the lost homes their family had migrated from in early 1900s. The documentary has the theme of the Armenian Genocide acknowledging it and promoting it's awareness through this personal anecdote.

It is true that during 1915 and before many Armenians had migrated from Turkey, some to Erivan province where the Armenian Revolutionary Federation was powerful and recruiting soldiers for their rally against the Central Powers as they awaited aid from the Allied powers.

The story of 1915 is a fascinating one, because it is about a people who were hijacked much like the extremists hijacking Islam today; the Armenian people were hijacked by the various rebel groups, much like gangs in a city and those who opposed these gangs were murdered or tortured. The Armenian church was taken over as teaching centers for revolution rather than religion as atheist/agnostic Armenian Revolutionary Federation members began to smuggle thousands of weapons across from the Iranian and Russian borders to prepare for rebellion against the Ottoman Empire.

The rebellion did not begin because of World War I, the rebellion had begun back in the 1890s when European powers began to request that the Ottoman Empire grant more rights to the Armenian people living in the Ottoman Empire. Though the Armenian people lived well, some of them even becoming governors of Ottoman provinces, they had a few less rights because the Ottoman Empire was an Islamic Empire but tolerated all Christian minorities.

The fighting in Eastern Anatolia as well had been there since the dawn of time, even before the Ottomans as Kurdish, Armenian, Byzantine, and later Turkish forces often clashed in the vast open mountains of Eastern Anatolia.

When the rebellion got completely out of control, causing serious damage to the Ottoman war effort in World War I, the Ottoman leadership in 1915, a few months after the rebellion in Van city (where the Armenians captured an Ottoman city for the Allied Russians), decided that it was time to take emergency action to cease the rebellion. They decided to relocate Armenians only in Eastern Anatolia of suspected rebellion hotspots to the Syrian Ottoman territory. Nonetheless, the forced migration took a death toll on the Armenian population, as money was scarce in the Ottoman Empire, food shortages, the spread of violent diseases -- so much so that the Ottoman army itself went into battle starving and diseased.

Though many Armenians died, some of them leaving behind their homes and property, there was a very high survival rate. The reason Armenians claim genocide today is because once they reached Syria, many of them took Allied warships to France, Russia, the United States, and Britain. Some crossed the border to Iran and Russia disappearing from Eastern Anatolia.

And since the Turkish archives were closed up until 1990s, scholars merely assumed that the Ottoman Empire had exterminated the Armenian people. However now, these same scholars having the ability to research the Ottoman Archives and being able to visit mass graves of Turkish and Armenian villages, have now decided to not accept the Armenian Genocide thesis as it once stood.

Many world renowned scholars, such as Dr. Bernard Lewis (who once believed in the Armenian Genocide but now does not) now realize that the Ottoman Empire did everything in its power to make sure the innocent Armenians survived, they simply wanted to disrupt the ARF operations that took place within the civilian population (much like terrorist cells) in a quick fashion. Though it cost many Armenian lives, it also cost many Turkish lives as well, and the rebellion did indeed weaken. The Western Turkish-Armenians were never even touched, so how could it have been a genocide?

If the Turks just wanted Armenian money, why didn't they just take the money from the Armenians in Western Turkey who were wealthier?

If there was a genocide, why can't they find any mass Armenian graves in Syria?

Is it just possible that perhaps the Armenians that died in small numbers were because of Kurdish bandits and raiders robbing vulnerable travelers being migrated to Syria?

Is it possible that the Ottoman Empire simply wanted to stop a rebellion in war-time rather than a diabolical plan to kill all Armenians?

PBS has decided to air this documentary, but isn't PBS suppose to be fair, why is it that they never air pro-Turkish documentaries to be fair? Isn't censorship of one side of the story a way of propaganda? Write a letter to PBS if you believe it isn't fair.

We only get to the truth through debate and open uncensored discussion, not through documentaries alone.

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How Does The Armenian Hypocrisy Work? & Cumhuriyet Bayram with the Diaspora

Apparently Asbarez Armenian Daily doesn't know what October 29 is, it's the anniversary of the declaration of the birth of the Republic of Turkey-- it is Turkey's 4th of July. It is not Ataturk day. You'd think they could get something that simple right.



From Asbarez Armenian Daily



Armenian Youth Federation Demonstrates Against Gala Honoring Ataturk



LONG BEACH, CA--Over 50 members of the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) converged around the perimeter of the Long Beach Hilton Hotel Saturday night to demonstrate in protest of an annual banquet honoring the establishment of the modern Turkish republic and its founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. . .



"Hosted by the Association of Turkish Americans of Southern California (ATASC), the Turkish Republic Day Ball differentiates itself from other benign cultural or social events due to its desire to celebrate the founding of the modern Turkish Republic," said Vache Thomassian of the Armenian Youth Federation. "This event, which deifies Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and other Turkish "founding fathers", seeks to commemorate the establishment of a Republic built on the ashes of 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide; a feat we believe is not worthy of celebration."



For four hours demonstrators, lined outside the hotel, chanted slogans and read short statements highlighting Turkey's past and present human rights violations, while a smaller group of AYF members inside the hotel silently demonstrated in the lobby, wearing t-shirts depicting a bloody Turkish flag and the words "republic of inhumanity."



"On October 29, 1923 Ataturk's Republic of Turkey was formed and recognized as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire," Arek Santikian screamed into a megaphone outside the hotel. "This Republic continued the oppressive and murderous policies employed by the Ottoman Empire, continuing to repress minorities, squash free speech and deny the Armenian Genocide."



Chants and statements read by AYF members outside the hotel echoed throughout the hotel lobby, reaching all the way to rooms on the hotel's top floors, according to AYF members stationed inside the Hilton.



Meanwhile, two members, inside the banquet, shouted "recognize the Armenian Genocide" repeatedly during a moment of silence held in memory of "Turkish victims" killed by Kurds, a repressed minority currently under siege in Turkey.



The demonstration's objective, according to the AYF, was to remind the event's patrons of the historical truths surrounding the establishment of the Turkish Republic.



"Undeniable human rights violations such as the denial of the Armenian Genocide, the occupation of Northern Cyprus, the massacre of Pontic Greeks, repression of minority populations and outright rejection of free speech are issues which must be brought to like during such a 'celebration'," said Thomassian. "Although we feel every ethnicity and nation has an indelible right to observe their respective cultural milestones, this instance is one which the AYF cannot remain quiet."



The demonstration was a success, according members posing as guests in the lobby. "Everyone inside the hotel lobby was talking about the demonstration and the Armenian Genocide," Thomassian said, adding that even detectives on scene sympathized with our cause.

__________________________________________________



NOW CONTRAST THE ABOVE WITH WHAT'S POSTED BELOW:

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Professor Taner Akçam submitted the below text to IC and it is being published by his kind permission. The Middle East Studies Association Committee on Academic Freedom wrote a protest letter to the Turkish government concerning his case, which can be found here. Donations to the work of the Committee on Academic Freedom may be made here.

....

On November 30, Turkish Forum mobilized an e-mail campaign against the “Taner Akçam conference.” Members were also urged to attend the symposium and a “pre-meeting for Turks,” coordinated by Ibrahim Kurtulus.



I [Akcam] forwarded this information to the event organizers with a request that appropriate precautions be taken. I let them know that if they were going to allow intruders from Turkish Forum to leaflet my presentation and disrupt the symposium, I wasn’t going to participate. Yeshiva was concerned. An organizer who had attended the CUNY gathering on November 1 assured me that security would be increased.



As a pre-emptive step, the event committee informed the Turkish Consulate that the law school symposium was intended to be general in scope, comparative and scholarly in approach, and not focused on either Taner Akçam or Turkey. They made it clear that any disruption similar to the CUNY incident would not put Turkey in a favorable light. A Turkish consular official disavowed any government involvement in the disruption at CUNY, which he attributed to “the actions of civilians” in grassroots organizations. There was nothing the Consulate could do about them, he said. The organizers stressed that they intended to take extra security precautions and that the Consulate ought to think hard about what would happen if the symposium was invaded and its participants attacked.



Just one day before the symposium there was another phone conversation between the Turkish consular official and the organizers. He assured them that no disruption would take place and only two or three Turkish representatives would attend.



The government kept its word. The symposium was peaceful and no leaflets were distributed. The Turkish consular official attended with ATAA President-elect Gunay Evinch, both of whom were scrupulously polite. It was as though three intense weeks of mobilization had never happened.

For many Turkish intellectuals, freedom of speech has become a struggle in North America as well as in our native country. What is happening to me now could happen to any scholar who dissents from the official state version of history.





YES FRIENDS, TAKE NOTE, FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS AN INVALUABLE RIGHT THAT MUST BE PROTECTED, BUT NOT IF TURKS WANT TO SPEAK.

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What Does Obama Have To Say On The Armenian Genocide?

A person from the crowd asks Senator Barack Obama, "[Will you support S.R. 106, and will you speak to Joe Biden about his support]?" Senator Obama then responds discusses the events of 1915 and condemns the Turks for committing this genocide against the Armenian people. . .
He says "[The genocide that DID happen to the Armenian people. The Turkish government has been in denial and others too and it has become a sore spot in diplomacy, I'll check with my staff before I sign on to that resolution.]".

One question that would be asked is why he readily accepts the Armenian Genocide when he is not a historian and is not qualified to comment on this controversial issue. He didn't say "I believe" or "I think", he claims it did happen for sure, ignoring the historical disagreement on the issue.

Joe Biden his running mate, at the time of the video, he was not his running mate, but he as well has been a sponsor of Armenian Genocide bills and supported any tactics that could damage Turkish-American relations.

For decades the Democrats have sided with Armenians and Greeks, while the Republicans have sided with Republicans.

Though there are many Turks who support the Democratic party, eventually the Turks will unite together with the Republicans and begin to form strong opposition to future Armenian Genocide Resolutions. After all, the Republicans and especially Senator John McCain, has been very supportive of Turkey, Turkish relations, and opposed the Armenian Genocide resolutions and has never used the word Armenian Genocide.

It seems the Democrats will constantly say positive things about Turks in front of a Turkish audience, then turn around and say horrible things about the Turks when in front of an Armenian audience. Eventually this double standard by the Democrats will byte them in the future. The Turks will not tolerate being blamed for something they believe they have not committed.

The debate of the Armenian Genocide continues, but it is clear that the Turks will be a major Republican voting bloc in the future. After all, the Armenians are a major Democratic voting bloc already, very few of them ever vote Republican, and they have positioned themselves time and time again as the Anti-Turkish voting bloc.

Close to the election, Senator Obama has continued his support for Anti-Turkish policies, and so has Senator Joe Biden. His socialistic policies, inexperience, naive view of foreign policy, and his support for Anti-Turkish organizations such as the ANCA, have put him at odds, and as a result the Turks will not vote for Senator Obama.

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Who Is Yusuf Halacoglu?

* Turkish Historical Society
* Yusuf Halacoglu's Position on the Armenian Genocide
* Recent History


Dr. Yusuf Halacoglu is a world renowned Turkish professor of history and former president of the Turkish Historical Society. He is an expert on the Armenian Genocide allegations and Turkish-Ottoman history.

Yusuf Halacoglu was born in Adana, Turkey in 1949. In 1971 he graduated from the History Department in Istanbul University. He joined Istanbul University's Modern History staff in 1974. In 1978 he obtained his doctorate and became an associate professor by 1982, and a full professor by March of 1989.
Turkish Historical Society

Dr. Yusuf Halacoglu joined the Turkish Historical Society, and was appointed as Head of Ottoman Archives in the Directorate-General of State Archives and by 1990 he became its deputy director-general. Dr. Yusuf Halacoglu resigned that post to work at Marmara University in Istanbul in 1992. In 1993, he was appointed Director of the Turkish Historical Society.

As director of the Turkish Historical Society, Yusuf Halacoglu began to increase research on the 1915 events between Ottomans and Armenians. Numerous hate campaigns had begun to target Turks as perpetrators of genocide around the world run by Armenian organizations as well as increase in Armenian terrorism in 1980s targeting US, French, and Turkish citizens had begun in the United States. These campaigns prompted the Turkish government to work with the Turkish historical society to research the 1915 era of the Ottoman Empire and what had happened to the Armenian people.

It was always common knowledge in Turkey that the Armenians were relocated after numerous rebellions to aid the Allies in World War One. However, accusations of genocide were not well known until the 1980s.

Dr. Yusuf Halacoglu worked with others to catalog Ottoman archives that related to the treatment of Armenians. By early 1990, the Ottoman archives were opened to the public, though millions of archival documents still had to be cataloged, funding and manpower was a problem.

Yusuf Halacoglu's Position on the Armenian Genocide

Nonetheless today, thousands of historians interested in the Armenian Genocide allegations come to Istanbul every year to research the events. This is the reason why the Armenian Genocide thesis was so well accepted, because Ottoman archives were not available for research; today, the Armenian Genocide thesis is under heavy criticism and is not as widely accepted anymore as it was in the 1980s. Researchers and famous historians of Ottoman and Islamic studies have argued against the Armenian Genocide, such as world renowned historian Dr. Bernard Lewis and Dr. Yusuf Halacoglu.

Yusuf Halacoglu, had uncovered thousands of documents that questioned long-held beliefs that the Turks were cruel to the Armenian people. Uncovering archival material on Ottoman orders and reports, Yusuf Halacoglu wrote in his books that evidence was simply not there to support a genocide conclusion. In contrast, Yusuf Halacoglu writes in his book "The Story of 1915: What Happened to the Ottoman Armenians?":

Yusuf Halacoglu wrote:

Research shows that in 1915, the relocated Armenians and Greeks received 3 krs. (Ottoman currency) a day if they were adults and 60 paras (Ottoman currency) a day for food...Talat Pasha had instructed that Armenians' debts to the state should not be collected.

Yusuf Halacoglu explains that the government spent money on the Armenian relocations for providing the Armenian people with food, water, protection, and shelter and that they also spent significant time writing laws, regulations, and telegrams to ensure that the Armenians reached their destinations and were able to resettle in their designated relocation areas.

In addition, Yusuf Halacoglu provides proof that many Armenians during the same government were given permission to return to their homes and their property was returned to them.

Yusuf Halacoglu explains that the reason for the lower population is the significant Armenian migrations through Allied ships which had helped Armenian populations of the Ottoman Empire migrate to Russia, America, and France, where there are significant populations of Armenians today.

Yusuf Halacoglu wrote:
I always receive proposals from Dashnak (Armenian Revolutionary Federation) members who want to find out what really happened. If Armenians are sincere, it will be known soon.

Recent History

Dr. Yusuf Halacoglu released several books dealing with the Armenian Relocations of 1915 in Turkey. He has even released English books such as "The Story of 1915: What Happened to the Ottoman Armenians".

Yusuf Halacoglu was recently removed from Directorship of the Turkish Historical Society for reasons that were never clarified but may have been related to the erratic political movements by the AKP government during the summer of 2008. He had served in the Turkish Historical Society as Director for 15 years.

Yusuf Halacoglu has become an expert on the Armenian Genocide thesis and explains he is ready to debate anyone publicly at any moment regarding the issue.

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With Fake Credit Cards, We Draw Money Out Of The Bank Get Gasoline, Make $50,000-60,000 A Year

A report from a Yerevan Armenian who just spent some time in Los Angeles:

“Of all Hayastan Armenians who have moved to Los Angeles, I’d say eighty percent are rabiz, ten percent are all right, and ten percent are educated, intelligent people.

The Armenians that leave Armenia for Los Angeles aren’t usually of the highest class, and when they get to Los Angeles, they go downhill. Fifteen thousand, maybe as many as 18,000 Hayatantsis are in prison there.

What disgusted me was how they brag about beating the system there. One said, ‘With fake credit cards, which we use to draw money out of the bank and get gasoline, we make $50,000-60,000 a year. I haven’t worked since I got here.

Armenians own all the houses on this street. Almost none of them work.’”

Andranik Michaelian, October 2 2008

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Was Eastern Anatolia The Original Homeland Of The Armenians ?

Even Armenian historians disagree on this question. Let us examine some of their contradictory theories while looking into Anatolian history.

1. The Biblical Noah Theory. According to this idea, the Armenians descended from Hayk, great-great grandson of the Biblical patriarch Noah. Since Noah's Arc is supposed to have come to rest on Mount Ararat, the advocates of this idea conclude that eastern Anatolia must have been the original Armenian homeland, adding that Hayk lived some four hundred years and expanded his dominion as far as Babylon. This claim is based entirely on fables, not on any scientific evidence, and is not worthy of further consideration. The historian Auguste Carriere summarily dismisses it stating that "it depends entirely on information provided by some Armenian historians, most of which was made up."(1)

2. The Urartu Theory. Some Armenians claim that they were the people of Urartu, which existed in eastern Anatolia starting about 3000 B.C. until it was defeated and destroyed by the Medes, with its territory being contested for some time by Lydia and the Medes until it finally fell under the influence of the latter. This claim has no basis in fact. No form of the name Armenian is found in any inscription in Anatolia dating from that period, nor was there any Similarity at all between the Armenian language and that of Urartu, the former being a member of the Satem group oflndo European languages, while the latter was similar to the Ural-Altaic languages. Nor were there any similarities between their cultures. The most recent archaeological finds in the area of Erzurum support these conclusions very clearly. There is, therefore, absolutely no evidence at all to support the claim that the people of Urartu were Armenian.

3. The Thracian-Phrygian Theory. The theory most favored by Armenian historians claims that they descended from a Thracian-Phrygian group, that originated in the Balkan Peninsula and by the pressure oflllyrians migrated to eastern Anatolia in the sixth century B.C. This theory is based on the fact that the name Armenian was mentioned for the first time in the Behistan inscription of the Mede (Persian) Emperor Darius from the year 521 B.C., "l defeated the Armenians." If accepted, of course, this view effectively contradicts and disproves the Noah and Urartu theories.

4. The Southern Caucasus Theory. This idea claims that the Armenians are related racially and culturally to the peoples of the Southern Caucasus and that, therefore, they originated there. it is, however, supported only by the fact that Darius defeated the Armenians in the Caucasus. The Armenians are in no way related to any of the Caucasian races.

5. The Turanian Theory. Some Armenians have adduced similarities of certain elements of the Armenian language and culture with those of some Turkish and Azeri tribes of the Caucasus to document a relationship, but this remains to be proved.

Whichever, if any, of these theories is correct, it is very certain that the Armenians did not originate in Anatolia, nor did they live there for three to four thousand years, as claimed. They have put forward these ideas merely to support their claims that the Turks drove them out of a homeland in which they have lived for thousands of years, but they can not stand up to the facts.

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Have Turks Always Attacked And Misruled Armenians Throughout History ?

Armenian propagandists have claimed that the Turks mistreated non-Muslims, and in particular Armenians, throughout history in order to provide support for their claims of "genocide" against the Ottoman Empire, since it would otherwise be difficult for them to explain how the Turks, who had lived side by side with the Armenians in peace for some 600 years, suddenly rose up to massacre them all. The Armenians moreover, have tried to interpret Turkish rule in terms of a constant struggle between Christianity and Islam, thus to assure belief in whatever they say about the Turks on the part of the modem Christian world.

The evidence of history overwhelmingly denies these claims. We already have seen that the contemporary Armenian historians themselves related how the Armenians of Byzantium welcomed the Seljuk conquest with celebrations and thanksgivings to God for having rescued them from Byzantine oppression. The Seljuks gave protection to an Armenian church which the Byzantines had been trying to destroy. They abolished the oppressive taxes which the Byzantines had imposed on the Armenian churches, monasteries and priests, and in fact exempted such religious institutions from all taxes. The Armenian community was left free to conduct its internal affairs in its own way, including religious activities and deducation, and there never was any time at which Armenians or other non-Muslims were compelled to convert to Islam. The Armenian spiritual leaders in fact went to Seljuk Sultan Melikshah to thank him for this protection. The Armenian historian Mathias of Edessa relates that,

"Melikshah's heart is full of affection and goodwill for Christians; he has treated the sons of Jesus Christ very well, and he has given the Armenian people affluence, peace, and happiness.''(3)

After the death of the Seljuk Sultan Kilich Arslan, the same historian wrote,

"Kilich Arslan's death has driven Christians into mourning since he was a charitable person of high character. "

How well the Seljuk Turks treated the Armenians is shown by the fact that some Armenian noble families like the Tashirk family accepted Islam of their own free will and joined the Turks in fighting Byzantium.

Turkish tradition and Muslim law dictated that non-Muslims should be well treated in Turkish and Muslim empires. The conquering Turks therefore made agreements with their non-Muslim subjects by which the latter accepted the status ofzhimmi, agreeing to keep order and pay taxes in return for protection of their rights and traditions. People from different religions were treated with an unprecedented tolerance which was reflected into the philosophies based on goodwill and human values cherished by great philosophers in this era such as Yunus Emre and Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi who are well-known in the Islamic world with their benevolent mottoes such as "having the same view for all 72 different nations" and "you will be welcome whoever you are, and whatever you believe in". This was in stark contrast to the terrible treatment which Christian rulers and conquerors often have meted out to Christians of other sects, let alone non-Christians such as Muslims and Jews, as for example the Byzantine persecution of the Armenian Gregorians, Venetian persecution of the Greek Orthodox inhabitants of the Morea and the Aegean islands, and Hungarian persecution of the Bogomils.

The establishment and expansion of the Ottoman Empire, and in particular the destruction of Byzantium following Fatih Mehmed's conquest of Istanbul in 1453 opened a new era of religious, political, social, economic and cultural prosperity for the Armenians as well as the other non-Muslim and Muslim peoples of the new state. The very first Ottoman ruler, Osman Bey (1300-1326), permitted the Armenians to establish their first religious center in western Anatolia, at Kutahya, to protect them from Byzantine oppression. This center subsequently was moved, along with the Ottoman capital, first to Bursa in 1326 and then to Istanbul in 1461, with Fatih Mehmet issuing a ferman definitively establishing the Armenian Patriarchate there under Patriarch Hovakim and his successors(4). As a result, thousands of Armenians emigrated to Istanbul from Iran, the Caucasus, eastern and central Anatolia, the Balkans and the Crimea, not because of force or persecution, but because the great Ottoman conqueror had made his empire into a true center of Armenian life. The Armenian community and church thus expanded and prospered as parts of the expansion and prosperity of the Ottoman Empire.

The Gregorian Armenians of the Ottoman Empire, like the other major religious groups, were organized into millet communities under their own religious leaders. Thus the ferman issued by Fatih Mehmet establishing the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul specified that the Patriarch was not only the religious leader of the Armenians, but also their secular leader. The Armenians had the same rights as Muslims, but they also had certain special privileges, most important among which was exemption from military service. Armenians and other non- Muslims generally paid the same taxes as Muslims, with the exception of the Poll Tax (Harach or Jizye), which was imposed on them in place of the state taxes based particularly on Muslim religious law, the Alms Tax (Zakat) and the Tithe (Osur), from which non-Muslims were exempted. The Armenian millet religious leaders themselves assessed and collected the Poll Taxes from their followers and turned the collections over to the Treasury officials of the state.

The Armenians were allowed to establish religious foundations (vakif) to provide financial support for their religious, cultural, educational and charity activities, and when needed the Ottoman state treasury gave additional financial assistance to the Armenian institutions which carried out these activities as well as to the Armenian Patriarchate itself. These Armenian foundations remain in operation to the present day in the Turkish Republic, providing substantial financial support to the operations of the Armenian church.

By Ottoman law all Christian subjects who were not Greek Orthodox were included in the Armenian Gregorian millet. Thus the Paulicians and Yakubites in Anatolia as well as the Bogomils and Gypsies in the Balkans were counted as Armenians, leading to substantial disputes in later times as to the total number of Armenians actually living in the Empire.

The Armenian community expanded and prospered as a result of the freedom granted by the sultans. At the same time Armenians shared, and contributed to, the Turkish-Ottoman culture and ways of life and government to such an extent that they earned the particular trust and confidence of the sultans over the centuries, gaining the attribute "the loyal millet". Ottoman Armenians became extremely wealthy bankers, merchants, and industrialists, while many at the same time rose to high positions in governmental service. In the 19th century, for example, twenty-nine Armenians achieved the highest governmental rank of Pasha. There were twenty-two Armenian ministers, including the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Finance, Trade and Post, with other Armenians making major contributions to the departments concerned with agriculture, economic development, and the census. There also were thirty-three Armenian representatives appointed and elected to the Parliaments formed after 1826, seven ambassadors, eleven consul-generals and consuls, eleven university professors, and forty-one other officials of high rank.(5)

Over the centuries Armenians also made major contributions to Ottoman Turkish art, culture and music, producing many artists of first rank who are objects of praise and sources of pride for Turks as well as Armenians in Turkey. The first Armenian printing press was established in the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century.

Thus the Armenians and Turks, and all the various races of the Empire lived in peace and mutual trust over the centuries, with no serious complaints being made against the Ottoman system or administration which made such a situation possible. It is true that, from time to time, internal difficulties did arise within some of the individual millets. Within the Armenian millet disputes arose over the election of the patriarch between the "native" Armenians, who had come to Istanbul from Anatolia and the Crimea, and those called "eastern" or "foreign" Armenians, who came from Iran and the Caucasus. These groups often complained against each other to the Ottomans, trying to gain governmental support for their own candidates and interests, and at the same time complaining about the Ottomans whenever the decisions went against them, despite the long-standing Ottoman insistence on maintaining strict neutrality between the groups. The gradual triumph of the "easterners" led to the appointment of nonreligious individuals as Patriarchs, to corruption and misrule within the Armenian millet, and to bloody clashes among conflicting political groups, against which the Ottomans were forced to intervene to prevent the Armenians from annihilating each other.

These internal disputes, as well as the general decline of religious standards within the Gregorian millet led many Armenians to accept the teachings of foreign Catholic and Protestant missionaries sent into the Empire during the 19th century, causing the creation of separate millets for them later in the century. The Armenian Gregorian leaders asked the Ottoman government to intervene and prevent such conversions, but the Ottomans refrained from doing so on the grounds that it was an internal problem which had to be dealt with by the millet and not the state. Bloody clashes followed, with the Gregorian patriarchs Chuhajian and Tahtajian going so far to excommunicate and banish all Armenian protestants(6). Later on, serious clashes also emerged among the Armenian Catholics as to the nature of their relationship with the Pope, with the latter excommunicating all those who did not accept his supremacy, forcing the Ottomans finally to intervene and reconcile the two Catholic groups in 1888.

The freedom granted and the great tolerance shown by the Ottomans to non-Muslims was so well known throughout Europe that the empire of the sultans became a major place of refuge for those fleeing from religious and political persecution. Starting with the thousands of Jews who fled from persecution in Spain following its re-conquest in 1492, Jews fled to the Ottoman Empire from the regular pogroms to which they were subjected in Central and East Europe and Russia. Catholics and Protestants likewise fled to the Ottoman Empire, often entering the service of the sultans and making major contributions to Ottoman military and governmental life. Many of the political refugees from the reaction that followed the 1848 revolutions in Europe also fled for protection to the Ottoman Empire.

The claims that the Ottomans misruled non-Muslims in general and the Armenians in particular thus are disproved by history, as attested by major western historians, from the Armenians Asoghik and Mathias to Voltaire, Lamartine, Claude Farrere, Pierre Loti, Nogueres Hone Caetani, Philip Marshall Brown, Michelet, Sir Charles Wilson, Politis, Arnold, Bronsart, Roux, Grousset Edgar Granville Gamier, Toynbee, Bernard Lewis, Shaw, Price, Lewis Thomas, Bombaci and others, some of whom could certainly not be labelled as pro-turkish. To cite but a few of them:

Voltaire:

"The great Turk is governing in peace twenty nations from different religions. Turks have taught to Christians how to be moderate in peace and gentle in victory"

Philip Marshall Brown:

"Despite the great victory they won, Turks have generously granted to the people in the conquered regions the right to administer themselves according to their own rules and traditions."

Politis who was the Foreign Minister in the Greek Government led by Prime Minister Venizelos:

"The rights and interests of the Greeks in Turkey could not be better protected by any other power but the Turks."

J. W. Arnold:

" It is an undeniable historic fact that the Turkish armies have never interfered in the religious and cultural affairs in the areas they conquered."

German General Bronsart:

"Unless they are forced, Turks are the world's most tolerant people towards those of other religions."

Even when Napoleon Bonaparte sought to stir a revolt among the Armenian Catholics of Palestine and Syria to support his invasion in 1798-1799, his Ambassador in Istanbul General Sebastian! replied that "The Armenians are so content with their lives here that this is impossible."

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