{"id":53498,"date":"2012-05-11T19:49:05","date_gmt":"2012-05-11T16:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=53498"},"modified":"2023-04-15T18:02:02","modified_gmt":"2023-04-15T15:02:02","slug":"53498","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2012\/05\/11\/53498\/","title":{"rendered":"ETHNIC CLEANSING’ AGAINST ARMENIANS?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Maxime Gaui<\/span><\/strong>n
\n<\/span>JTW Columnist<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

This column is a reaction to one of Mustafa Akyol\u2019s in H\u00fcrriyet Daily News, published on April 25, 2012. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

There is absolutely nothing personal, or even ideological, in this response; I want only to respond to these precise points, as a historian working on the Armenian question.<\/p>\n

Mr. Akyol alleges that \u201cthe nationalist Young Turk government decided to expel almost all Armenians to Syria\u201d and that \u201cThe \u2018Turkism\u2019 of the Young Turks, Kaplan reminded, yearned for not a plural nation of many faiths and ethnicities, but an exclusive \u2018Turkish homeland.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ottoman census counted around 1,300,000 Ottoman Armenians on the eve of 1914. This census undercounts both Muslims and non-Muslims, for technical reasons (a lack of material and human power to count everybody, especially in eastern Anatolia and Arab lands). The most serious estimations count around 1,700,000-1,750,000 Armenians.[1]<\/p>\n

There is no definitive study on the number of relocated Armenians. The Ottoman sources indicate that 438,758 Armenians were relocated until the beginning of 1916 to Arab provinces, including 382,148 who arrived at their destination and 56,612 who perished.[2]Certainly, more perished due to illness or being attacked by Arab tribes, especially during the year 1916; others had been killed in inter-communal clashes in Van, Urfa, and some other cities. There are also reasons to believe that the account of relocated Armenians is not comprehensive.[3]<\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s look at the Armenian sources. In 1918, Boghos Nubar, co-president of the Armenian delegation in the Paris peace conference, estimated the total to be 600 or 700,000.[4] In addition, the Russian army relocated about 300,000 Armenians (half whom perished, surely not because of any \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d design)[5], and some others were relocated from one Anatolian town to another.<\/p>\n

As a result, to pretend that \u201cthe nationalist Young Turk government decided to expel almost all Armenians to Syria\u201d is at least questionable and an overly simple assertion.<\/p>\n

Most of the Armenians of Ystanbul (160,000), Yzmir (13,000), Edirne (33,650), Kastamonu (13,700), K\u00fctahya (several thousand), Antalya (at least 500), Mara? (6 or 7,000), and Aleppo (22,000)were not relocated during WWI, and neither were thousands of Armenians who were Catholics, Protestants, artisans or parents of soldiers.[6] They were not because they did not represent a threat to the Ottoman State\u2019s security.<\/p>\n

Indeed, it should be noted that there was no \u201cTurkism\u201d in the main reasons for the relocation. If the CUP \u201cyearned for not a plural nation of many faiths and ethnicities, but an exclusive \u2018Turkish homeland,\u2019\u201d why did this party accept Christians, Jews and non-Turkish Muslims, not only as members, but also for high positions, like mayors, deputies and ministers?<\/p>\n

The presence of Jews, including Emmanuel Carasso, a leader of the Young Turks, provoked anti-Semitic reactions against the CUP from various factions. The Young Turks supported the election of its sympathizer Bedros Kapamaciyan as mayor of Van in 1909. Kapamaciyan was assassinated by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation in December 1912.[7]The CUP promoted Gabriel Noradunkian to minister of commerce in 1908, despite him havingmade his career as a top-rank civil servant under Abd\u00fclhamid. Noradunkian served as minister of foreign affairs in the anti-CUP government of 1912-1913. Regardless, the CUP, coming back to power in January 1913, proposed several times, in vain, that Noradunkian remain in his position.[8] From January 1913 to November 1914, the minister of PTT, Oskan Mardikian (member of the CUP), was Armenian, and the minister of public works, S\u00fclaymanBustani, was a Christian Arab. Both resigned because they supported the neutrality of the Ottoman Empire; the majority of the CUP leaders considered maintaining the neutrality to beimpossible.<\/p>\n

In summer 1914, the CUP proposed in vain that Boghos Nubar become the Ottoman minister of foreign affairs. The Armenian insurrections (see below) did not provoke an absolute and general distrust of Armenians by the CUP leaders. Indeed, Ber\u00e7 Keresteciyan, deputy director general of the Ottoman Bank, was promoted to director general during WWI. Keresteciyan supported the Kemalist movement during the Turkish war of independence, and was a deputy of Afyon from 1935 to 1946.<\/p>\n

It should also be noted that even Enver Pasha was a staunch supporter of the full integration of non-Muslims in the Ottoman army, at least until 1914.[9]<\/p>\n

Mr. Akyol rightfully praised the book of Guenter Lewy on the Armenian question. This book contains a devastating analysis of the allegations against Ziya G\u00f6kalp, an intellectual and member of the CUP central committee, wrongly presented as a chauvinist and anti-Christian.[10]<\/p>\n

What motivated the Ottoman government in 1915 to relocate a portion of the Armenian community? Chiefly, military and security reasons. In addition to the well-known insurrection in Van (April 1915), other important revolts took place in Zeytun (August 1914, February 1915) and Bitlis. Insurrectional activities were organized in Cilicia as well, with the Armenian committees hoping for and repeatedly making claims of an Anglo-French landing. Even in the Bursa region, there were Armenian gangs attacking the Ottoman army and Muslim civilians. Considering the atmosphere of panic in spring 1915 and the limited number of roads in the Ottoman Empire, the decision is easy to understand.[11] The gradual reaction of the Istanbul authorities is another argument against the \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d allegation: The insurrectional movement in Zeytun was crushed in the relocating of the Armenians of this city to Konya, instead of Arab lands; and as late as May 2, 1915, Enver suggested relocating only the Armenians living in the vicinity of Lake Van.[12]<\/p>\n

\u201cEthnic cleansing\u201d was so far from the Ottoman government\u2019s mind that, as early as 1916-1917, several thousand Anatolian Armenians were allowed to goback to Urfa.[13]<\/p>\n

It is perfectly true, however, that the Armenian committees, assisted by the Greek government, prevented the coexistence of communities in Cilicia through intense and misleading propaganda.[14] Similarly, the Greek army practiced a scorched earth policy during its retreat of 1922, which not only included a general burning of all villages and cities, as well as numerous massacres, but also the forced exile of Christians, to undermine the recovery of the Turkish economy after the peace treaty.[15] This was a kind of \u201cethnic cleansing.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the descendants of Christian Anatolians want to present grievances, if Turks want to show a \u201ccommon pain,\u201d they should logically begin presenting their critiques to Athens and to the headquarters of the three old Armenian nationalist parties, namely the ARF, Hunchak and Ramkavar.<\/p>\n

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[1] Guenter Lewy, The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey<\/em>, Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2005, p. 235; Justin McCarthy, \u201cThe Population of the Ottoman Armenians,\u201d in T\u00fcrkkayaAta\u00f6v (ed.), The Armenians in the Late Ottoman Period<\/em>, Ankara: TTK\/TBMM, 2001, p. 70, https:\/\/web.itu.edu.tr\/~altilar\/tobi\/e-library\/TheArmenians\/thearmenians_table2page70.gif<\/p>\n

[2] Yusuf Hala\u00e7o?lu, \u201cRealities Behind the Relocation,\u201d in T\u00fckkayaAta\u00f6v (ed.), The Armenians in the Late\u2026<\/em>, pp. 130-133, https:\/\/web.itu.edu.tr\/~altilar\/tobi\/e-library\/TheArmenians\/Relocation.pdf<\/p>\n

[3] GuenterLewy, The Armenian Massacres\u2026<\/em>, pp. 198-203, 209-220 and 236.<\/p>\n

[4] <\/p>\n

[5] Richard G. Hovannisian, Armenia on the Road to Independence. 1918<\/em>, Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: University of California Press, 1967, p. 67.<\/p>\n

[6]Kemal \u00c7i\u00e7ek, \u201cRelocation of the Ottoman Armenians in 1915: A Reassessment,\u201d Review of Armenian Studies<\/em>, n\u00b0 22, 2010, pp. 120-121; Yusuf Hala\u00e7o?lu, The Story of 1915. What Happened to the Ottoman Armenians?<\/em>, Ankara: TTK, 2008, pp. 52 and 91; GuenterLewy,The Armenian Massacres\u2026<\/em>, pp. 158, 165, 180, 186-187, 191, 203-205; Hikmet\u00d6zdemir and Yusuf Sarynay, Turkish-Armenian Conflict Documents<\/em>, Ankara: TTK\/TBMM, 2007, pp. 119, 127, 175, 201, 203, 207, 213- 221, 237, 265, 283, 321, 339, 341.<\/p>\n

[7]HasanOktay, \u201cOn the Assassination of Van Mayor Kapamacyyan by the Tashnak Committee,\u201d Review of Armenian Studies<\/em>, I-1, 2002, pp. 79-89, http:\/\/www.eraren.org\/index.php?Lisan=en&Page=DergiIcerik&IcerikNo=94; KaprielSeropePapazian, Patriotism Perverted, Boston: Baikar Press, 1934, p. 69.<\/p>\n

[8]Y\u00fccelG\u00fc\u00e7l\u00fc, The Holocaust and the Armenian Case in Comparative Perspective<\/em>, Lanham-Boulder-New York-Plymouth: University Press of America, 2012, pp. 85-86.<\/p>\n

[9]Odile Moreau, L’Empire ottoman \u00e0 l’\u00e2ge des r\u00e9formes. Les hommes et les id\u00e9es du \u00ab\u00a0Nouvel Ordre\u00a0\u00bb militaire (1826-1914)<\/em>, Paris\u00a0: Maisonneuve et Larose, 2007, pp. 49-50 and 70-71, <\/p>\n

[10] Guenter Lewy,The Armenian Massacres\u2026<\/em>,pp. 43-47.<\/p>\n

[11]Numerous references in MaximeGauin, \u201cThe Convergent Analysis of Russian, British, French and American Officials Regarding the Armenian Volunteers (1914-1922),\u201d International Review of Turkish Studies<\/em>, I-4, Winter 2011-2012, pp. 13-16, <\/p>\n

[12]Yusuf Hala\u00e7o?lu, \u201cRealities Behind the Relocations\u2026\u201d, pp. 109-110; Facts on the Relocation of Armenians. 1914-1918<\/em>, Ankara: TTK, 2002, pp. 58-60 and 67-68; GuenterLewy, The Armenian Massacres\u2026<\/em>, p. 307, n. 4.<\/p>\n

[13]GuenterLewy, The Armenian Massacres\u2026<\/em>, pp. 203 and 215.<\/p>\n

[14] Background and references in MaximeGauin, \u201cThe Convergent Analysis\u2026\u201d, pp. 34-41.<\/p>\n

[15] See, for instance,Mevl\u00fct\u00c7elebi (ed.),Greek Massacres in Anatolia on Italian Archive Documents<\/em>, Ankara: AAM, 2010, pp. 102-110; Rapport d\u2019Elz\u00e9arGuiffray, administrateur d\u00e9l\u00e9gu\u00e9 de la Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des quais de Smyrne, 27 juillet 1922\u00a0; Raymond Poincar\u00e9 au colonel Mougin, 7 septembre 1922\u00a0; Colonel Mougin au g\u00e9n\u00e9ral Pell\u00e9, 8 septembre 1922\u00a0;Minist\u00e8re des Affaires \u00e9trang\u00e8res au repr\u00e9sentant fran\u00e7ais \u00e0 Ath\u00e8nes, 8 septembre 1922\u00a0; minist\u00e8re aux ambassadeurs \u00e0 Londres, Rome et Washington, 8 et 9 septembre 1922\u00a0; G\u00e9n\u00e9ral Pell\u00e9 au minist\u00e8re des Affaires \u00e9trang\u00e8res, 12 septembre 1922\u00a0; minist\u00e8re au charg\u00e9 d\u2019affaires \u00e0 Washington, 26 septembre 1922, Archives du minist\u00e8re des Affaires \u00e9trang\u00e8res, P 1380 (the microfilm P 1380 is full of French documents regarding the Greek scorched earth policy).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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“Statements of facts or opinions appearing in the pages of Journal of Turkish Weekly (JTW) are not necessarily by the editors of JTW nor do they necessarily reflect the opinions of JTW or ISRO. The opinions published here are held by the authors themselves and not necessarily those of JTW or ISRO.Materials may not be copied, reproduced, republished, posted without mentioning the mark of JTW or ISRO in any way except for your own personal non-commercial home use. For the news and other materials republished by the JTW you must apply the original publishers. JTW cannot give permission to republish this kind of materials.”<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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\u00a0OTHER COMMENTS OF MAXIME GAUIN<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Did the Ottoman Government Practice \u2018Ethnic Cleansing\u2019 against Armenians?
\n7 May 2012<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Clearing Some Misconceptions About the Armenian Issue
\n5 May 2012<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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The Revenge of Law on Politics
\n5 March 2012<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Nicolas Sarkozy, Victim of Himself
\n14 February 2012<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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France-Turkey: The Night Will End
\n2 February 2012<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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France-Turkey: What Went Wrong?
\n16 January 2012<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Resisting Nicolas Sarkozy
\n10 January 2012<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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ASALA’s Day in the French National Assembly
\n7 January 2012<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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MUSTAFA AKYOL<\/p>\n

akyol@mustafaakyol.org<\/p>\n

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Armenian ethnic cleansing as \u2018de-Islamization\u2019<\/span><\/h1>\n

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Yesterday was the 97th anniversary of what Armenians call the \u201cGreat Catastrophe,\u201d or the ethnic cleansing of Ottoman Armenians from Anatolia, their historical homeland, in 1915. Those who commemorated the tragedy included some Turks, such as the group that gathered in Istanbul\u2019s Taksim Square.<\/p>\n

With the slogan, \u201cLet\u2019s meet with the common hope that comes out of common sorrow,\u201d these were a group of liberal activists who defy both the anti-Armenian enmity of Turkish nationalists, and the anti-Turkish bias of the Armenian Diaspora. And, most notably, they included not only secular liberals, who have always been at the forefront of \u201crevisionism\u201d on \u201cthe Armenian issue,\u201d but also some Islamic figures.<\/p>\n

One such figure was Hilal Kaplan, a young veiled lady who has degrees in sociology and writes an influential column in Yeni \u015eafak, a mainstream Islamist daily. She not only joined the Taksim commemoration, but also called on fellow Muslims to do the same in a significant piece she wrote the day before.<\/p>\n

Titled \u201c1915 as a move of de-Islamization,\u201d Kaplan\u2019s piece defined the ethnic cleansing of Ottoman Armenians as a part of secular Turkish nationalism\u2019s onslaught against Islam. Islam, she reminded, was the very reason why Armenians had lived safely under Ottoman rule for centuries, for Islamic law had defined Christians as \u201cPeople of the Book\u201d with inalienable rights. That is why in 1915, when the nationalist Young Turk government decided to expel almost all Armenians to Syria, some Islamic opinion leaders, such as the famous mufti of Bo\u011fazl\u0131yan, Abdullahzade Efendi, defied Istanbul\u2019s orders and tried to protect the Armenians.<\/p>\n

The \u201cTurkism\u201d of the Young Turks, Kaplan reminded, yearned for not a plural nation of many faiths and ethnicities, but an exclusive \u201cTurkish homeland.\u201d This led not only to the destruction of Armenians, but other tragedies of the Republican period, such as the ethnic cleansing of other Christian groups, or the Kurdish massacres in Dersim.<\/p>\n

In her piece, Kaplan also called on all conservative Muslim Turks to revisit their respect for \u201cour forefathers.\u201d \u201cIsn\u2019t it worth asking,\u201d she wrote, \u201cwhether your forefathers are those who formed and protected the multi-religious [Ottoman] structure, or those who brutally wasted it?\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, Kaplan\u2019s piece was only one example of a new rhetoric that is emerging among a new generation of liberal-minded Islamic intellectuals: They see the ethnic cleansing of Ottoman Armenians, along with all the oppression that non-Muslims of Turkey have faced in the past century, as an abomination against Islamic values. And they argue for what one can dub as \u201cneo-Ottomanism,\u201d which is basically a call for a pluralist Turkey of many faiths and ethnicities.<\/p>\n

Of course, the historic accuracy of this argument can be debated. What is perhaps more important, however, is its political promises. For one of the reasons why liberal pluralism did not flourish in modern day Turkey is that its supporters remained an elite group of Westernized secular liberals, who often had the best of intentions, but also lacked the cultural connections with the common Turk.<\/p>\n

However, Islamic liberals such as Hilal Kaplan speak within the Islamic values that are engrained in large segments of Turkish society. And that is why their message is more promising for building a more democratic, self-critical, and, I would say, virtuous Turkey.<\/p>\n

April\/25\/2012<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

t     Maxime Gauin JTW Columnist This column is a reaction to one of Mustafa Akyol\u2019s in H\u00fcrriyet Daily News, published on April 25, 2012. There is absolutely nothing personal, or even ideological, in this response; I want only to respond to these precise points, as a historian working on the Armenian question. Mr. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":775211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2592],"class_list":["post-53498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question","tag-ethnic-cleansing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53498","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=53498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}