ARMENIAN ISSUE

      The so-called Armenian issue started in late 1960's, with the defamation campaigns aganist Turkey by the Armenian groups settled in different countries, and turned into a "Bloody Armenian Terorism" after 1973.

     Since the, the Armenian activities aganist Turkey have been put into practice within the framework of the "Four T" plan. This plan (corresponding to Tanıtım, Tanınma, Tazminat and Toprak in Turkish) is based on the Propaganda of the so-called genocide, receiving Indemnity, and obtaining Territory from Turkey.

      It would be useful to examine the historical course of the so-called Armenian issue, which is purposefully tried to be kept alive today, in order to understand how groundless it is, and with what purposes it is alleged.

      1. ARMENIAN IDENTITY AND TURCO-ARMENIAN RELATIONS IN THE HISTORY:

      It is very difficult to answer in the history the questions such as "Where is Armenia? Where do its boundaries start and end?" In the encyclopedic sources, it is indicated that the region including Yerevan, Gokcegol, Nakhichevan, northern part of Lake Urmia and Mako area was called as “Armenia” meaning highland country, and people living in this region were called as “Armenians”.

      Some of the Armenian historians contend that they are descendants of the Hittites lived in northern Syria and Cilicia region in the sixth century B.C., while the others assert that they come of the family of Haik, one of the sons of Noah. On the other hand, it is not exactly clear at which point of the region called as Armenia lived the people named today as Armenians, how many they were in number and what the ratio of their population was when compared to the other groups residing in the same region.

      It is evident that even the Armenian historians are not of the same opinion about their origins. Thus, it is not possible for the Armenians, who have not borne the quality of being a nation and an independent state during the history, to call a certain region as their “motherland”. The dream of "Great Armenia" is seen as an outcome of a completely expansionist thought.

      From a historical point of view, Armenians came under sway of Persians, Macedonians, Seleucids, Romans, Parthians, Sassanids, Byzantines, Arabs and Turks respectively. Most of the Armenian feudalisms were founded by the states dominating the region and/or willing to benefit from the Armenians by taking their support.

      It was the Seljuk Turks who saved the Armenians that came under the Turkish domination in 1071 from the Byzantine persecution and granted them the right to live as a man should. During Fatih’s rule, the Armenians were granted freedom of religion and conscience, and the Armenian patriarchate was founded to conduct the religious and social activities of the Armenian community.

      The Armenian patriarch was granted the authority to dismiss the spiritual facilities, to prohibit the religious services, to collect taxes from his community, to perform the marriage ceremonies and to conclude prison sentences.

      Until the end of the 19 th century, the Armenians had their golden age under the rule of Ottomans, by availing themselves of the tolerance of Turkish people. Exempted from the military service and having enjoyed a partial tax exemption, the Armenians found the opportunity to get the high ranks in the trade, craft, agriculture and administrative mechanisms. The Armenians employed in the Ottoman Ministry of Foreign Affairs that was emptied following the Greek Rebellion were given the title of “the most loyal nation of the empire (millet-i sadıka)” due to their services for the Ottoman Empire.

      Therefore, the Ottoman Empire did not have an Armenian issue until the last quarter of the 19 th century; neither the Armenian subjects had an unsettled problem with the Turkish authorities.

      2. WHAT IS ARMENIAN ISSUE?

      When the Ottoman Empire began to weaken and to be subjected to European intervention in almost every field, the Turco-Armenian relations began to deteriorate. The Western countries aimed at creating a rift between Armenians and Turks in order to achieve their regional interests by dividing the Ottoman Empire.

      Especially some great European countries interfered on one hand in the internal affairs of the Ottoman Empire under the pretext of the “reforms (ıslahat)", and they organized the Armenians against the Ottoman government on the other.

      Thus, as a result of the provocative activities of the Armenian churches and the Armenian committees organized and armed at home and abroad, the Armenian society gradually got alienated from Turks.

      Armenians, who began to struggle with Turks by allying with the foreign states despite the tolerance of the Turkish people, tried to present themselves as an “oppressed community” in order to receive the support of the West and started to express that “the Turks were usurping their sovereignty rights in Anatolia”. They tried to announce these activities through press and to create a public opinion. They use these groundless propagandas even today as the foundation of their allegations.

      With the 1839 Tanzimat and 1856 Islahat Firmans (political reforms in the Ottoman state), the Armenians inclined more and more towards the West, and the mutual expectations increased. Armenians began to be oriented by the Missionaries and to be used for the influence of the foreign states. In return, Armenians saw the West as an instrument to carry out their objectives.

      Armenians, who lost their privileges when the Muslims and non-Muslims were brought to the equal status with the Islahat Firman, demanded Russia at the end of the 1877 - 1878 Ottoman – Russian War “not to withdraw from the eastern Anatolian territories they occupied, to give autonomy to the region or to make reforms in favor of Armenians". With these demands, the Armenian issue began to appear and to take an international form.

      Put on the stage of history by United Kingdom and Russia, the Armenian issue is in fact the extension of the imperialist policy of destroying and sharing the Ottoman Empire.

      3. ARMENIAN REBELLIONS AND MASSACRES:

      The committees such as Armenakan and Land Protectors (Vatan Koruyucuları) in Anatolia, Hinchak in Geneva, Tashnak in Tbilisi were founded respectively by the Armenians. Their targets were the lands in the eastern Anatolia and their goal was the independency of the Ottoman Armenians.

      The Armenian committees were provoked for this purpose and they rioted firstly in Erzurum in 1890, then they organized Kumkapı demonstration, Kayseri, Yozgat, Çorum and Merzifon events, Sasun revolt, Bab-ı Ali/Sublime Porte demonstration, Zeytun and Van revolts, the raid of the Ottoman Bank, assassination attempt to Sultan Abdülhamit II and 1909 Adana revolt.

      Armenians gave the greatest harm to the Turkish people by the massacres they undertook during the First World War. In this period, the Armenians gave great harm to the civilian people by attacking Turkish villages. For example, the whole population of the Zeve village of the Van province was massacred by the Armenians, without considering whether they were women, children or the old. [2]

      According to an English document, the number of the Turks killed by the Armenians around Van and Bitlis is between 300.000 - 400.000, contrary to their groundless allegations. [3]

      4. TEHCIR (RELOCATION) LAW, ITS IMPLEMENTATION AND THE SO-CALLED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ALLEGATION:

      In order that the local rebellions did not turn into a total betrayal because of the gradual increase of the Armenian incidents despite all the bona fides of the Ottoman government, the increase of the Armenian assaults against Turkish women and children that remained defenseless as the male population was recruited and the army’s being in state of war in multiple fronts, the hinterland had to be protected.

      On February 26, 1921, Mustafa Kemal Pasha, the leader of the Turkish National Struggle, stated to the correspondent of ‘Public Ledger’(Philadelphia):

      “When the Russian Army started its attack against us in 1915, the Tashnak committee then serving for the Tsardom provoked the Armenian people behind our military units. As we were obliged to withdraw in the face of the superiority in number and equipment of the enemy, we saw ourselves being caught between two fires. Our supply and wounded convoys were being massacred without remorse, the bridges and roads behind us were being destroyed and terror was prevailing in the Turkish villages. The armed bands that committed murders and recruited all the Armenians old enough to be drafted were taking on their weapon, ammunition and food supplies from the Armenian villages, where they accumulated big stocks for this purpose by taking advantage of the immunities that some small states obtained in peacetime owing to the capitulations.”

      On April 24, 1915 the Armenian committees were closed and its 235 managers were arrested for "being engaged in counter-state activities". The date of 24 April that is commemorated every year by the Armenians as "the commemorative day of the so-called genocide" represents that event and is not related to relocation.

      The closure of the committee and apprehension of the ringleaders and some terrorists further aggravated the events rather than mollifying them. As a last resort, the Ottoman government passed the "Tehcir (Relocation) Law" in May 27, 1915 for the “dispatch and housing” to a distance from the battlefield of the people in the combat area and the ones implicated in espionage and betrayal activities against the Ottoman Empire.

      According to the official data of 1914, there are 1.234.671 Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. This figure is indicated by the Armenian Patriarchate as 2.5 millions, by the Armenian Delegation in the Lausanne Conference as 2.2 millions, in the French Yellow Book as 1.5 millions, in Britannica as 1.5 millions and in the English Almanac as 1 million.

        According to the archives documents; distribution in the vilayets of the Armenians who were to be relocated and distanced is as follows. [4]

      Catholic and Protestant Armenians were not relocated. [6]

      The so-called Armenian genocide is a totally made-up, unreal and unfounded scenario of imagination based on enmity towards Turks and lacking any valid instruments, proofs or any legal basis.

      Indeed, Armenian professor Hovannisian from the USA expressed the same thing in the “Congress on the Problems of the World Armenians” in Munich in 1982 as follows: “The Armenian genocide could not be proven. Genocide is invalid in legal terms and has already been prescribed.”

      Prof. Bernard Lewis and Prof. Stanford Shaw from the USA faced an intense reaction by the Armenians due to their theses claiming that the so-called Armenian genocide was not true. In his article published in “Le Monde” in 1993, Bernard Lewis wrote the following lines concerning the genocide claim: “There isn’t any valid proof showing that the Ottoman Government had a plan for mass destruction against the Armenian nation. Turks had justified reasons for relocation (the dispatch of the Armenian people from the battlefield to other places), because the Armenians were fighting against Turks in alliance with Russia, which had occupied Ottoman territories.” It is again stated in Dr. Karekin Pastırmacıyan’s book, titled as “Anadolu-yı Şarkı Şimendifer Meselesi” [Eastern Anatolian Railway Problem], that about 15.000 Armenians living around Erzurum left Turkey at will, that Turks did not put pressure on Armenians and there was not any treatment as genocide against them.

      5. WHAT IS GENOCIDE?

      In the Genocide Convention, which was adopted in 1948 in order to prevent and punish the genocide crime in the world, United Nations General Assembly described genocide as follows:

      “Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

• Killing members of the group,
• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group,
• Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,
• Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group,
• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”

      Turkey became party to this convention in 1950.

      Today in official/ legal terms, the mass slaughter of the Jewish and other ethnical groups by the Nazis during World War II and the slaughter of Bosnian people by the Serbian nationalists in Srebrenitsa (Bosnia) are accepted as genocide. [7]

      The genocide crime was perpetrated in the above-given cases in real terms. Contrary to the claims of Armenians, the treatment towards the Armenians in Eastern Anatolian region in 1915 is not a genocide but forced migration within the empire simply in order to provide security.

      It is true that Armenians suffered losses during the years of war and relocation in Eastern Anatolia. However, these losses occurred as a result of the failure in maintaining security due to the war and rebellions in Eastern Anatolia, and the destruction caused by the lack of vehicles, fuels, food and medicine, severe climate conditions and epidemic diseases such as typhus. [8]

      6. CONCLUSION:

      The fact that Armenians started to use the armed terror methodology against the Turks caused the Armenian problem to gain a significant dimension for Turkey. This terrorist strategy, which particularly aimed at Turkish statesmen, first started with the bomb attack against Abdulhamid II in 1905. Following the calm period until 1965, terrorist movements reoccurred suddenly with the support of the Armenian lobby. The press and media activities began to be carried out in a systematic manner. The Armenian terror became intensified and revealed a rapid acceleration in a very short time in the form of armed attacks against Turkish officials, representatives and institutions abroad. 36 state officials were martyred in the period from 1973 to 1994. [9]

      The common goal of Armenian terror organizations was to lead Turkey to instability through the means of every opportunity and establish “an independent Armenia” by rescuing the so-called occupied Armenian territory. Today, it is observed that those demands continue under different headings in the Armenian policy.

      After gaining its independence, Armenia is trying to materialize its claims on Nagorno-Karabakh by implementing its expansionist policy before the independence. Turkey is among the first states to have recognized the independence of Armenia. However, Armenia has continued its relations with Turkey within the frame of “the Dream of Establishing the Great Armenia” and still insists on the same policy even today.

      Armenia is following a policy towards establishing the Great Armenia through receiving a heavy indemnity from Turkey and enabling the return of their so-called territory, which they claim to be located within the borders of Turkey, as the last stage, depending on the recognition and the approval of their genocide claims. Likewise, the Armenian parliament included the following article in the declaration that it adopted on 23 August 1990: “The Armenian Republic supports the efforts for the international recognition of the 1915 genocide, which took place in the Ottoman Turkey and the Western Armenia.”

      The Armenian Parliament declared that it did not recognize the border between Turkey and Armenia, which was determined by the Kars Agreement between the Soviet Union and Turkey in 1922. Upon this declaration, Turkey stated that it would not formalize its relations with Armenia unless it made an official and written declaration stating that it recognized the current borders of Turkey. The improving Turkish-Armenian relations in subsequent years, the continuation of the state of war in Nagorno-Karabakh, the fact that 1/5 of the Azerbaijani territory was still under Armenian occupation and that thousands of Azerbaijanis had to migrate from their own territory led Turkey to be prudent in its relations with Armenia.

      The initiatives for the recognition of the so-called genocide became intensified especially in Belgium, France, Australia, Greece, Lebanon, Canada, Russia, the USA and Argentina. In these countries, genocide monuments started to be erected one after another, and the so-called genocide was included in the curriculum of the schools in some of those countries.

      After the moderate attitude of the Ter-Petrosyan administration, and together with the appointment of Koçaryan as the President in April 1998, ultra-nationalist movements were set free, and Armenia started to follow a strict policy in its relations with Turkey.

      Besides, Koçaryan explained in his official statement that “they would never forget the genocide, they had to remind the world of that tragedy, the genocide remained unpunished and the international recognition and condemnation could not be duly fulfilled”. He reiterated his familiar claims in the 53 rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, and expressed that Armenia was blockaded by Turkey and Azerbaijan.

      As a conclusion, Armenia and the Armenian diaspora aim at the recognition of the problem, its acceptance as genocide, thus demanding for indemnity and territory from Turkey through their so-called genocide claims.

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      [1] Erdal Açıkses, “Göçün Ermeni Meselesindeki Rolü Üzerine” The Papers of the 1 st Turkey Congress on Armenian Researches. Vol.II Ed. Şenol Kantarcı et all., Publications of Eurasian Strategic Research Center, Ankara, 2003, p. 3-13.

      [2] The Papers of the Symposium on Turkish-Armenian Relations in History, 13-14 April 2001, http://www.belgenet.com.

      [3] Justin McCarthy, Ölüm ve Sürgün (Death and Exile), İnkılap Press, 3. Edition, 1998, Istanbul, p. 221.

      [4] ATASE Archives, BDH, File No:361, E.Dossier:1030/Y.Dossier:1445, Index No: 1-6 (7,8); Arşiv Belgeleriyle Ermeni Faaliyetleri 1914-1918 Vol. 1, Publications of TGS ATASE and Inspection Directorate. Ankara, 2005, p. 147-170.

      * For information on detailed documents concerning the runaway, see Prime Ministry, Ottoman Archives, Internal Affairs Fund; (for information on documents in foreign archives) Ermeniler: Sürgün ve Göç, Publications of Turkish History Association. Ankara, 2004, p. 89-108.

      [6] Davut Kılıç, “1915’te Tehcir Edilmeyen Ermeniler”, The Papers of the 1 st Turkey Congress on Armenian Researches. Vol.II, Ed. Şenol Kantarcı et all., Publications of Eurasian Strategic Research Center, Ankara, 2003, p. 113-120.

      [7] In 2004, The UN War Crimes Court of Appeal in The Hague, the Netherlands described the slaughter where at least 7000 Bosnian men were killed in 1995 as genocide.

      [8] For detailed information, see Hikmet Özdemir, Salgın Hastalıklardan Ölümler: 1914 – 1918, Publications of Turkish History Association. Ankara, 2005.

      [9] Bilal Şimşir, Ermeni Meselesi:1774-2005, Bilgi Press. 2. Edition, 2005, Ankara, p. 200-204.