{"id":30100,"date":"2011-01-13T21:31:30","date_gmt":"2011-01-13T19:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=30100"},"modified":"2023-04-05T14:24:09","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T11:24:09","slug":"letter-to-the-leader-of-the-ealing-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2011\/01\/13\/letter-to-the-leader-of-the-ealing-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to the Leader of the Ealing Council"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

To: Honorable Councillor Julian Bell, Leader of the Ealing Council
\nc\/o Labour Group Members\u2019 Room, Ealing Town Hall , New Broadway,<\/p>\n

Dear Councillor Bell,<\/p>\n

We have read your statement to Turkish Times with great sadness and disappointment. It is hard to believe that such an ill advised and ill judged\u00a0decision can be taken by wise and presumably informed Councillors. Both the Labour and the Liberal Democrat Councillors seem unfortunately to have been persuaded\/pressurised by S Pound MP and Councillor Iskenderian, with participation by The Armenian National Committee of United Kingdom. (ANC UK is the main Armenian association which claims the \u201crecognition\u201d of the \u201cArmenian genocide\u201d and is an arm of Armenian Revolutionary Federation, ARF. The ARF controlled one of the two principal Armenian terrorist groups, the so-called \u201cJustice Commandos for the Armenian Genocide\/Armenian Revolutionary Army\u201d –\u00a0Francis P. Hyland,\u00a0Armenian Terrorism: the Past, the Present, the Prospects\u00a0– <\/em><\/em>Boulder -San Francisco-Oxford: Westview Press, 1991, pp. 61-62 – this information has already\u00a0been provided in an email to you by Maxime Gauin 03\/01\/11).<\/p>\n

What is also fundamentally wrong with this action is that the decision has been taken without listening and weighing\u00a0up\u00a0the\u00a0argument on the other side,\u00a0and holding the\u00a0discussion\/hearing un-announced to all the interested parties. We can not consider this to be\u00a0an appropriate action by a truly democratic Council.<\/p>\n

You may like to read\u00a0below Mr Ergun Kirlikovali’s comprehensive and authoritative response to this ill judged decision. A new book by SS Aya,The Genocide of Truth Continues,<\/em><\/em> (Derin Yayinlari)\u00a0is\u00a0full of documentary\u00a0information and it <\/em><\/em>is a book which is entirely committed to telling the truth (can be obtained via\u00a0ssaya@superonline.com).<\/p>\n

We would very much appreciate if you and the other responsible Councillors can reconsider their position and appreciate the feelings of\u00a0the Turkish Community in London .<\/p>\n

Yours sincerely,<\/p>\n

Betula Nelson<\/p>\n

Media Coordinator<\/p>\n

ASOUK
\nwww.ataturk.org.uk<\/span><\/p>\n

OH, EALING COUNCILLORS! HOW COULD YOU?<\/strong><\/strong>
\n<\/strong>
\nErgun Kirlikovali January 6, 2011\u00a0 Turkish Forum<\/p>\n

To: Honorable Councillor Julian Bell, Leader of the Ealing Council
\nc\/o Labour Group Members\u2019 Room, Ealing Town Hall , New Broadway,<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Re: Decision of Ealing Council to officially recognize the long discredited political claim of Armenian \u2018genocide\u2019 as settled history<\/span><\/p>\n

Dear Honorable Councillor Julian Bell,<\/span><\/p>\n

It is difficult and painful for me, the son of Turkish survivors on both maternal and paternal sides, to hear of Ealing Council\u2019s unfortunate resolution, based on an Armenian\u2019s misrepresentations\u2014i.e. Councillor Iskendarian\u2014where Armenian war crimes, Armenian hate crimes, and their Muslim, mostly Turkish, victims, are curiously missing. If one excludes half the story, well, even the American civil war can be made to look like a genocide.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

I realize that this was not a unanimous decision and that some prudent members considered the motion tabled by an Armenian (Cllr Iskanderian) one sided, without input from responsible opposing views and hence, judged it ill-advised and divisive. I am also aware of at least one councillor saying \u201c\u2026I have never come across a motion in my nine years on the council that so blatantly sought to pitch one community against another \u2013 especially on a subject which is highly sensitive and where no member of the council is really able to make a proper and considered judgment\u2026\u201d I truly appreciate those members who thought that way, but I wish they took the trouble to stay on and vote no so that this blatant and malicious fraud could be thwarted.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those terrible \u201cWar Years\u201d of 1912-1922 (known in Turkish as \u201cSeferberlik Yillari\u201d) brought five consecutive wars\u2014Tripoli (North Africa,) Balkan Wars (twice,) World War I, and the Turkish Independence War, in that order\u2014 along with wide spread death and destruction on to ALL Ottoman citizens. No Turkish family was left untouched, mine included. Those nameless, faceless Turkish victims are killed for a second time today with politically motivated and baseless charges of Armenian genocide.<\/span><\/p>\n

Genocide claims are racist because they ignore the Turkish dead: about 3 million during WWI; more than half a million of them at the hands of Armenian ultra-nationalists; and dishonest because genocide charges blatantly dismiss the six T\u2019s of the Turkish-Armenian conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n

Historians reject the genocide label: This may explain why more than 69 North American scholars categorically rejected Armenian characterizations of genocide, noting that the non-partisan and reliable evidence unearthed so far points to \u201c\u2026inter-communal warfare fought by Christian and Muslims irregulars\u2026\u201d A majority of European historians who specialize on this topic also reject or criticize this label.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Malta Trials refuted Armenian claims 90 years ago: If you had heard about the Malta Trials by the Crown Courts in 1919-1921, that never got off the ground due to lack of evidence to support the outrageous Armenian claims, you would not have signed that deceptive edict. ( For your information, the British exiled 144 Ottoman leaders to Malta as war crimes suspects, while scouring the Ottoman, British and American archives for proof and came up empty handed. This paper might explain more: The Armenian Issue: Why The \u201cGenocide\u201d Label Doesn\u2019t Fit )<\/span><\/p>\n

Britain<\/span> does not recognize Armenian claims as genocide: You would do well to, at least, heed the advice and policy of Her Majesty\u2019s Government when this same issue was raised in the same biased manner, again with total disregard for the other side of the story.<\/p>\n

Here is a journey down the history, a collection of brief educational glimpses into the past:<\/span><\/p>\n

1894<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026The aim of the Armenian revolutionaries is to foment outbreaks, firstly to induce the Ottomans to react to their violence and secondly to encourage the foreign powers to intervene\u2026\u201d Source: Letter of the British Ambassador Currie to the Foreign Office, on March the 28th of 1894, British Blue Book, N\u00b06, p 57<\/span><\/p>\n

1896<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201d \u2026The Dashnaks and Hunchaks have terrorized their own countrymen, they have stirred up the Muslim people with their thefts and insanities, and have paralyzed all efforts made to carry out reforms; all the events that have taken place in Anatolia are the responsibility of the crimes committed by the Armenian revolutionary committees\u2026\u201d Source: Williams, The British vice-consul, writing from Van. (March 4, 1896, British Blue Book, Nr. 8 1896, p.108<\/span><\/p>\n

1915<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Concerning the Armenian revolutionaries\u2019 tactics, one cannot expect to think up something more diabolic. Killing Moslems in order to punish innocents, robbing in the middle of the night villages that have just paid, the same day, their taxes. (\u2026) The Armenian revolutionaries prefer robbing their own coreligionists rather than fighting against their enemy ; it\u2019s in order to make their compatriots murder that the Armenian anarchists in Constantinople do bomb attacks\u2026\u201d Source: Sir Mark Sykes, \u201cThe Caliph\u2019s Last Heritage\u201d, London , 1915, p 409-418<\/span><\/p>\n

1922<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026I was being employed by His Majesty\u2019s Government to compile all available documents on the present treatment of the Armenians by the Turkish Government in a \u2018Blue Book,\u2019 which was duly published and distributed as war-propaganda!\u2026\u201d Source: Arnold Joseph Toynbee, \u201cThe Western Question in Greece and Turkey : a Study in the Contact of Civilizations,\u201d Boston , Houghton Mifflin, 1922, p. 50.<\/span><\/p>\n

1923<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026In some towns containing ten Armenian houses and thirty Turkish houses, it was reported that 40,000 people were killed, about 10,000 women were taken to the harem, and thousands of children left destitute; and the city university destroyed, and the bishop killed. It is a well-known fact that even in the last war the native Christians, despite the Turkish cautions, armed themselves and fought on the side of the Allies. In these conflicts, they were not idle, but they were well supplied with artillery, machine guns and inflicted heavy losses on their enemies\u2026\u201d Source: George M. Lamsa, a missionary known for his research on Christianity, \u201cThe Secret of the Near East,\u201d The Ideal Press, Philadelphia (1923), page 133<\/span><\/p>\n

1928<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026A circular was prepared by the War ministry asking the officers to report on the misdeeds of the enemy. According to this circular, exactness was not an essential condition: probability was enough. (\u2026) The most popular lies in England and in America were those concerning atrocities. No war can do without it. One considers that to libel the enemy is a patriotic duty\u2026\u201d Arthur Ponsoby (British Deputy from 1910 till 1918, his book published in 1928 describes propaganda methods used during First World war), Falsehood in War-Time , New York , 1971, p 20-22<\/span><\/p>\n

1928<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFew Americans who mourn, and justly, the miseries of the Armenians, are aware that till the rise of nationalistic ambitions, beginning with the \u2018seventies, the Armenians were the favored portion of the population of Turkey, or that in the Great War, they traitorously turned Turkish cities over to the Russian invader; that they boasted of having raised an army of one hundred and fifty thousand men to fight a civil war, and that they burned at least a hundred Turkish villages and exterminated their population\u2026It is at least time that Americans ceased to be deceived by propaganda\u2026\u201d Source: John Dewey, American professor, The Turkish Tragedy, The New Republic, November 12, 1928<\/span><\/p>\n

1936<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Those who in England are loudest in their sympathy with the aspirations of a(n Armenian) people \u2018rightly struggling to be free\u2019 can hardly have realized the atrocious methods of terrorism and blackmail by which a handful of desperados, as careful of their own safety as they are reckless of the lives of others, have too successfully coerced their unwilling compatriots into complicity with an utterly hopeless conspiracy\u2026\u201d Source: Lord Warkworth, after paying a visit to Van. ( William Langer, The Diplomacy of Imperialism.)<\/span><\/p>\n

1964<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026(The Dashnaks)\u2019 aim was by crimes and assassinations to invite Turkish reprisals and massacres, and thus create an international scandal that would attract the intervention of the other powers\u2026\u201d Source: David Thompson, \u201c Europe Since Napoleon\u201d (Alfred A. Knopf, 1964, 2nd. Ed.)<\/span><\/p>\n

1976<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 The deafening drumbeat of the propaganda, and the sheer lack of sophistication in argument which comes from preaching decade after decade to a convinced and emotionally committed audience, are the major handicaps of Armenian historiography of the diaspora today\u2026\u201d Source: Dr. Gwynne Dyer, a London-based independent journalist with global exposure, 1976<\/span><\/p>\n

1999<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026The British Government had condemned the massacres at the time. But in the absence of unequivocal evidence that the Ottoman administration took a specific decision to eliminate the Armenians under their control at that time, British governments have not recognized those events as indications of genocide\u2026 Nor do we believe it is the business of governments of today to review events of over 80 years ago, with a view to pronouncing on them. The events of 1915-16 remain a painful issue in relation to two states with which we enjoy excellent relations\u2026\u201d Source: Foreign Office spokesman, Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale, AP News, April14, 1999<\/span><\/p>\n

2001<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026The Government, in line with previous British Governments, have judged the evidence not to be sufficiently unequivocal to persuade us that these events should be categorised as genocide as defined by the 1948 UN Convention on Genocide, a convention which was drafted in response to the Holocaust and is not retrospective in application. The interpretation of events in Eastern Anatolia in 1915-16 is still the subject of genuine debate amongst historians.\u201d Source: Baroness Scotland of Asthal, expressing the position of the British Government\u2019s on the alleged Armenian genocide in a written response to a question at the House of Lords, February 7, 2001<\/span><\/p>\n

2001<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026The British government of that time and those that followed considered the massacres of 1915-1916 as a horrifying tragedy. We understand the strong feelings for this problem, given the human losses of both parties. But we do not believe that proofs put forward give evidence that those events must be classified as \u201cgenocide\u201d as defined by the 1948 Convention of the United Nations on genocide. (\u2026) The events of 1915-1916 constitute a big tragedy, during which the two parties underwent very heavy losses\u2026\u201d Source: Official Statement by the Embassy of Great Britain in Ankara , July 23, 2001.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

The Armenian claims of genocide were never brought to court and, therefore, a court verdict a la Nuremberg does not exist. By voting yes on a controversial claim that totally ignores Armenian revolts, terrorism, treason, territorial demands and their Turkish victims during WWI, you are lending credence to unsubstantiated, exaggerated, falsified, and fabricated accusations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you really believe a political body is the place to resolve historical conflicts?<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you think academia with its research capability and\/or legal realm with its \u201cdue process\u201d expertise would be better equipped to handle such controversies ?<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you agree that taking one side in a complex historical conflict is offensive, and unfair to the other side?<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you see now how grave a mistake it is to honor one side of the story with an official stamp of approval, while totally ignoring the other? Would you like such \u201clynching\u201d done to your country?<\/span><\/p>\n

In a democracy, history is made by political institutions but written by historians. The Blois Appeal of 2008 in France , signed by several hundreds of historians, from Europe, North America , and elsewhere, says: \u201c\u2026 History must not be a slave to contemporary politics nor can it be written on the command of competing memories. In a free state , no political authority has the right to define historical truth and to restrain the freedom of the historian with the threat of penal sanctions\u2026 \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Muslim, mostly Turkish, victims of Armenian revolutionaries and the treasonous Armenian volunteers of Russian, French and Greek armies are documented in Ottoman archives, Russian archives , American archives (and also Niles & Sutherland,) French archives (Paul Bernard, Six mois en Cilicie, Aix-en-Provence: \u00e9ditions du Feu, 1929,) and even in Armenian sources
\n(Haig Shiroyan, an Ottoman Armenian wrote in his Memories: \u201c\u2026The Russian victorious armies, reinforced by Armenian volunteers, had slaughtered every Turk they could find, destroyed every house they penetrated\u2026\u201d Smiling Through the Tears, New York , 1954, p. 186).<\/span><\/p>\n

The alleged \u201cArmenian genocide\u201d was popularized by Armenian terrorism of 1973-1991. The ARF controlled one of the two principal Armenian terrorist groups:<\/span><\/p>\n

a) \u201cJustice Commandos for the Armenian Genocide\/Armenian Revolutionary Army\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

(Francis P. Hyland, Armenian Terrorism: the Past, the Present, the Prospects, Boulder-San Francisco-Oxford: Westview Press, 1991, pp. 61-62; br>
\nGa\u00efdz Minassian, Guerre et terrorisme arm\u00e9niens, Paris : Presses universitaires de France, 2002, pp. 28-37 and 106-109; br><\/span><\/p>\n

Yves Ternon, La Cause arm\u00e9nienne, Paris : Le Seuil, 1983, pp. 218-224.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Scotland Yard banned Hrair Maroukian, the leader of ARF from 1972 to 1994, from entering British soil in Autumn 1984, because British police considered him as the real chief of JCAG\/ARA (Michael M. Gunter, \u201cPursuing the Just Cause of their People\u201d. A Study of Contemporary Armenian Terrorism, Westport – New York – London , Greenwood Press, 1986, p. 111.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The JCAG\/ARA killed around thirty innocent victims and bombed the offices of Turkish Airlines in London airport, on May 24, 1978 and even the offices of British airways in Madrid airport, on January 20, 1980.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ARF continues to glorify its terrorists, including Hampig Sassounian, jailed since 1982 for the assassination of the Turkish general consul in Los Angeles , Kemal Arikan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vicken Hovsepian, sentenced in 1984 by an US court to six years of prison for an attempt of bombing is a member of ARF the leader of the party in USA .<\/span><\/p>\n

b) Another Armenian terrorist group, Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), was actively supported by the Union of Armenian students of UK , who published a pro-ASALA newspaper in London , from 1978 to 1988: Kaytzer.<\/span><\/p>\n

ASALA killed around forty innocent victims (including at least eight Turkish diplomats), and wounded many more;<\/span><\/p>\n

ASALA terrorist Zaven Bedrosian was sentenced to eight years of prison by a British court in August 1983, for illegal possession of explosives and weapons, and conspiracy. Mr. Bedrosian admitted during his trial that he wanted to take the Turkish ambassador in London hostage with the hope of exchanging him with the ASALA murderer Levon Ekmekjian, one of the two perpetrators of attack in Ankara airport, in August 1982 (nine tourists were killed, more than 70 wounded.)<\/span><\/p>\n

ASALA claimed his solidarity with Irish Republican Army (IRA) against \u201cBritish fascism\u201d (sic).<\/span><\/p>\n

Ara Toranian, former spokesman of ASALA from 1976 to 1983, who shows no remorse for his violent past, is currently co-chairman of Coordination Council of France\u2019s Armenian Associations.<\/span><\/p>\n

I hope that you will realize what a grave mistake you have made by taking the words of Armenian propagandists, falsifiers, crooks and terrorists at face value.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

In summary, if I could manage to raise a grain of doubt in your mind that the Armenian narrative may not be the whole story and that there might be another side, equally ghastly and genuine, where Armenians are the victimizers not the victims, then I consider my mission is accomplished. Thank you for reading.<\/span><\/p>\n

Respectfully Yours,<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To: Honorable Councillor Julian Bell, Leader of the Ealing Council c\/o Labour Group Members\u2019 Room, Ealing Town Hall , New Broadway, Dear Councillor Bell, We have read your statement to Turkish Times with great sadness and disappointment. It is hard to believe that such an ill advised and ill judged\u00a0decision can be taken by wise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":30101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,94],"tags":[4035,4869,4872,4871,4870,9732],"class_list":["post-30100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question","category-uk","tag-asala-2","tag-ealing-councillors","tag-terrorsm","tag-the-armenian-national-committee","tag-turkish-times","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}