DARE WE CALL IT BIASED?

Nicholas Kickof's op-ed in New York Times, “Dare We Call It Genocide”  (June 16, 2004) mixes fact with fiction. 

While covering the Bush administration’s explorations whether to describe the mass murder and rape in the Darfur region of Sudan as genocide, the writer injects these totally uncalled for deliberate misrepresentations:

“…The Sudanese authorities, much like the Turks in 1915 and the Nazis in the 1930's, apparently calculated that genocide offered considerable domestic benefits — like the long-term stability to be achieved by a "final solution" of conflicts between Arabs and non-Arabs — and that the world would not really care very much. It looks as if the Sudanese bet correctly…”

This is a typical tactic by AFATH (Armenian Falsifiers and Turk-Haters).  This is how it goes:  An AFATH member would write about, say, the sun and the moon, and then suddenly, out of the blue, interject something like “Therefore, the climate change is caused by the alleged Armenian genocide of 1915 where 1.5 million Armenians were… blah…blah…blah…”. The reader is startled for a few seconds, trying to make sense of this incredible leap.  Such interjections are arrogant, disrespectful, untrue, and unfair, but unfortunately, very effective.

May I kindly remind Kristof that while the Jewish Holocaust is an undisputed fact,  Armenian genocide is a mere allegation.    To gain credibility for their genocide allegations, members of the AFATH community frequently invoke the name of the Jewish Holocaust.  If there is any doubt in your mind, please perform this  “one minute balance test" by asking yourself these simple questions:

Did German-Jews establish Jewish armies behind German lines? …And join the invading armies of enemies of Germany? …And wage a campaign of ethnic cleansing against their fellow German citizens? …And capture a major German city and annihilate all its German citizens? …And otherwise attempt to ethnically cleanse parts of Germany in order to establish a Jewish state on German soil?  If the answer to any of these questions is “Yes”,  then one can compare the Jewish Holocaust with the allegations of Armenian Genocide, in which case that person should quickly get clinical help, perhaps at a mental institute.   

These are the reasons why government of Israel flatly rejects AFATH claims of genocide. These are exactly the reasons why Mr. Shimon Peres, Israeli Foreign Minister, characterized Armenian allegations of genocide "...meaningless…" on April 9, 2001. 

"... Armenian allegations of genocide are 'meaningless' and there is no similarity between the Holocaust and fate of the Armenians during the First World War... What occurred to the Armenians was not a Genocide". 

Boghos Nubar Pasha, an Armenian leader, in a letter dated January 30, 1919, to The Times of London  “… lends evidence on Armenian military support for the allies during the First World War; Mr. Nubar's words should make anyone think twice before they conclude the Armenians were innocent victims…” (please see www.tallarmeniantale.com for much more on this topic.)

Hovhannes Katchaznouni. the first prime minister of the independent Armenian Republic, stated in his manifesto, "The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnagtzoutiun) has nothing to do any more" (Armenian Information Service, Suite 7D, 471 Park Ave.New York 22, 1955) 

 "... At the beginning of the Fall of 1914 when Turkey had not yet entered the war but had already been making preparations, Armenian revolutionary bands began to be formed in Transcaucasia with great enthusiasm and, with especially, much uproar. Contrary to the decision taken during their general meeting at Erzurum only a few weeks before, the A.R.F. had [actively participated] in the formation of the bands and their future military action against Turkey (p. 5)... 

"... the formation of bands was wrong... contrary to the decision and the will of the General Meeting of the Party... Armenians had embraced Russia whole heartedly without any compunction... (p. 6) ....  

"... We had created a dense atmosphere of illusion in our minds. We had implanted our own desires into the minds of others... Armenians had overestimated the ability of the Armenian people...  And by overestimating our very modest worth and merit we were naturally exaggerating our hopes and expectations (p. 7)...  

"... (The Armenian revolutionaries) had drawn such conclusions as though the Armenian issue was 'the center of gravity of the Great War, its cause and purpose'... 'Armenian national psychology'... [is] to seek external causes for [Armenian ] misfortune. .. One might think we found a spiritual consolation in the conviction that the Russians behaved villainously towards Armenians... later it would be the turn of the French, the Americans, the British, the Georgians, the Bolsheviks -and the whole world- to be so blamed (p. 8)  

Think about it: all this, delivered by the top Armenian leader, 5 whole years after the so-called genocide, and yet, he utters not one word, even remotely resembling those one sided AFATH statements of today concerning systematic killing of one side by another... What was holding him back from saying things like “Turks planned and systematically killed all of Armenians and then more Armenians (That’s what the allegation of 1.5 million Armenian dead actually amounts to)? 

He had all the time in the world to prepare his speech and had the lectern to deliver it.  Why wouldn’t he leave a record, a strong anti-Turkish  message, to history?  After all, AFATH people have no problem doing just that 89 years after the fact.  Is there something that the Armenian prime minister didn’t know about Turkish-Armenian relations in 1920, but AFATH people of 2004 seem to know by heart?  Why would an Armenian leader not say those awful thing about Turks that AFATH people so readily blurt out, as-a-matter-of-factly ? 

The answer is simple:  because the Armenian prime minister in 1920 knew that the Armenian started a civil war with their agitation, terror, and treason, to which Turks only reacted in self-defense.  He knew he couldn’t blame Turks for the evil  plans that Armenians had reamed up and ruthlessly executed, shamelessly backstabbing their fellow citizens, the Turks, at a time when the Turks were up against a brutal invasion by most major powers of the time (Britain, France, Russia, and others) simultaneously and were fighting for their own very survival!  How would any other country treat such a treason of the highest order when the mother country is at a war of survival ?

Genocide is a 1950 invention of AFATH.  That is why it was never accepted by the international community, save a few which came under intense pressure by various AFATH groups.

What part of "civil war" don't you understand, Mr. Kristof?