To: Letters@independent.co.uk
\nCc: editor@independent.co.uk
\nSubject: Article by Robert Fisk “You’re talking nonsense, Mr Ambassador”<\/p>\n
TISK-TISK, ROBERT FISK\u00a0(Or shame on you Mr. know-it-all.)<\/p>\n
(An Editorial)<\/p>\n
Mahmut Esat Ozan
\nChairman -Editorial Board
\nThe Turkish Forum<\/p>\n
Mr. Fisk, there is nothing worse in this world than being labeled a\u00a0“know-it-all”. A person by that title is one who pretends to know something\u00a0about everything but really knows nothing about anything . Since the\u00a0knowledge of things you try to write about does not seem so great, you\u00a0shouldn’t mind my asking you if you were familiar with the colloquialism we use in this country’s jargon, ( Tisk-Tisk) , an expression composed of two words which when it is\u00a0placed in front of the name of an unfortunate person such as yours, it\u00a0connotes that the person in question had done a shameful deed. And speaking\u00a0of shameful deeds, Mr. Fisk, you seem to be ahead of many we know. You appear\u00a0to be a genuine expert in that field. I, for one, have been noticing your\u00a0irrational, biased, and prejudiccial behavior through the years, vis-\u00e0-vis the\u00a0venerable nation of Turks. Every article you write concerning the Turks is\u00a0replete with offensive passages, undeserved accusations, at times\u00a0innuendoes, at others out and out lies hurled against them, the Turks about whom\u00a0you claim they initiated the very first alleged genocide of the Twentieth century\u00a0and decimated the Ottoman Armenians. The very latest of one of those\u00a0irresponsible recriminations appeared in your latest drivels involving the\u00a0Pope’s visit to Syria. You’ve been complaining that in the past 15 years 15\u00a0million Christians have abandoned their homes in the largely Muslim world.<\/p>\n
What baffles me is the way you manipulate this piece of ordinary news and\u00a0very cunningly relate it to your favorite subject “the alleged Armenian\u00a0genocide by the Ottoman Turks.” You seem to be stuck on this one subject and\u00a0sound like a broken record every time you bring it up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The newest form of your idiosyncrasy, showing your obsession in defending\u00a0the Armenian causes, is apparent in your following sentence: “Turkey’s\u00a0genocide of its Armenian community in 1915 left the bones of one and a half\u00a0million Christians across Anatolia and what is now northern Syria.” Really,\u00a0Mr. Fisk what possible connection could you find between the visit of the\u00a0head of world Catholicism and the alleged ‘genocidal events which may have\u00a0taken place over eight decades ago. Allow me to read your\u00a0twisted mind, Mr. Fisk. You are an incorrigible Turcophobe. You cannot help\u00a0yourself. Chances are either you were born with that affliction or someone\u00a0inculcated that prejudice into your feeble brain when you were most vulnerable to\u00a0discrimination involving the Turks. In your last article you are quoting an\u00a0obscure “Dr.Jarjour, whoever he may be, and whatever weight his words may\u00a0carry. You tell us that this so-called Dr. instructs us, ‘-somewhat\u00a0defensively- that the present-day Christian exodus is primarily economic.’<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, you quote from him, or you extract from this poor fellow’s words\u00a0the following quotation:: “I wouldn’t say at all that there is a\u00a0religious factor , except in some cases like Turkey where\u00a0Christians have been a little pressured recently.” Honestly Dr. Jarjour, or\u00a0whatever your name is, and you Mr. Fisk, what was that ‘little pressure’ Turks\u00a0inflicted on the Christians in Turkey? Are you referring to the Turkish government’s\u00a0recent expenditures in renovating the Greek Orthodox Patriarchy building in Fener, in\u00a0Istanbul?, or are you referring to the acquittal of a Syrian Armenian Priest\u00a0who was accused to have made statements that his ancestors were the victims\u00a0of a Turkish genocide in 1919? You were not fair , nor were you specific when\u00a0Dr.Jarjour was talking to you against Turks.<\/p>\n
You see, Mr. Fisk, I am proud to belong to that honorable nation of\u00a0‘Turks’, whose early ancestors brought civilization to the European\u00a0continent, when its inhabitants were still wallowing in muddy huts and\u00a0tribes decimated each other in fratricidal animalistic wars. Ottoman\u00a0Turks, even then, knew how to vaccinate people against diseases caused by\u00a0bacteriological factors. They were reaping the benefits of time-telling\u00a0devices such as clocks etc. when the Europeans were about to discover the\u00a0uses of ‘sundials’. A newly produced documentary film called, Empire of\u00a0Faith narrated by the British actor, Ben Kingsley, of the ‘Ghandi’ fame was\u00a0Extolling the superiority of the Muslim world. More than half of the\u00a0presentation was consecrated to the achievements of the Turks in various\u00a0fields, other than military, let alone their legendary tolerance and magnanimity\u00a0in treating differing religions when Europe imposed on the Jews the cursed\u00a0inquisitions and forced conversions.<\/p>\n
When no Christian country wanted to admit into their domain any\u00a0Jew expelled from Spain and Portugal, it was the Turkish Sultan ‘Beyazit’ who\u00a0welcomed them into his vast empire to come and settle there and flourish in\u00a0freedom of religion, and the pursuit of their own language, culture and trade..<\/p>\n
Turks even sent sea-faring galleons to Spain to transport these unfortunate\u00a0people, free of charge, to any and all points of their realm. Turks, for\u00a0centuries, helped to enlighten your ancestors. Sometime it was a losing\u00a0battle. Europeans learned from my ancestors, but they, in turn derided them at\u00a0every chance they had.<\/p>\n
There were, however, intellects such as the renown British anthropologist\u00a0and historian Edson L. Clark (1827-1913) who said in his “Nations of the\u00a0World Series,1900,N.Y. (pp. 84-87.) that the Turks whose honor and the\u00a0dignity you have been pummeling and mauling these many years, were, and I\u00a0quote: “…far better men and far abler rulers than the wretched tyrants\u00a0whom they suppressed….the Turks were in advance, not of their Christian\u00a0subjects alone, but of the greater part of Christian Europe.”<\/p>\n
Mr. Fisk, I know that you British do not consider yourselves European.<\/p>\n
However, you must admit that you live on the European continent and are a\u00a0British Commonwealth member state of the European Union. What I am driving\u00a0at, Mr. Fisk, is the fact that your ancestors were then as you are now, an\u00a0inferior exemplification in comparison to the Turks. Let me elucidate a bit\u00a0more by adding that you belong to the illustrious school of ‘Political\u00a0Science’ of the turn of the century British Prime Minister, one Lloyd George\u00a0who, when he was getting ready to “annihilate” the last remnants of the dying\u00a0Ottoman Empire, was gloating by saying to the whole world the following:<\/p>\n
“The Turks are a human cancer, a creeping agony in the flesh of the lands\u00a0they misgovern, rotting every fiber of life. I am glad that the Turk is to\u00a0be called to a final account (referring to the impending Greek invasion of\u00a0Asia Minor ) for his long record of infamy against humanity.”<\/p>\n
The British PM, not being an adequately -educated British subject, reminded me\u00a0of you, Mr. Fisk. He was unaware of the above-mentioned quotation from\u00a0Edson L. Clark. Thus, a rancorous, vindictive and vengeful Lloyd George, not\u00a0Unlike yourself , launched a campaign, ‘doomed from the beginning’ in the Ottoman\u00a0Turkish lands in Gallipoli, against those he called “human cancers” the Turks.<\/p>\n
Even though aided by the French and the Anzak military forces and the world’s\u00a0most formidable naval armada, the Allied forces were repulsed. Lloyd George\u00a0not only lost his post as the Prime Minister of his disgruntled country, but he lost\u00a0his honor and his shirt, too, in the process. In addition he carried down with him,\u00a0to the abyss, his favorite, but incompetent advisor Winston Churchill, who was the\u00a0First Lord of the Admiralty. The glorious victor of the Dardanelles, the\u00a0military genius of the Gallipoli campaign, the great Mustafa Kemal had taught\u00a0them a lesson they never forgot. Lloyd George died as a broken, destitute\u00a0soul after having sheepishly underestimated and unjustly denigrated the\u00a0noble Turk.<\/p>\n
Let us hope that you, dear Mr. Fisk, may be spared such a predicament of fate.<\/p>\n
Recently a Letter writer said the following to an English language\u00a0publication. “I have been living in Turkey 8 months, and I intend to spend\u00a0the rest of my life somewhere in your country. You have made me most welcome.<\/p>\n
I’ m glad I chose your Turkey rather than England or France or any other\u00a0European country. This gentleman’s words were familiar to me. I had read a\u00a0passage from a Swedish king once. Hurriedly I checked my files and found what\u00a0I was looking for. Mr. Fisk, I’d like to share Swedish King Charles VII’s words\u00a0with you. And again, knowing the stuff you are made of, I suspect you may\u00a0not enjoy it as much as the Friends of the Turks. Here’s that full quotation\u00a0he wrote to his sister Ulrique-Eleanor in 1772:<\/p>\n
“I was going to be a prisoner in Poltova, (Russian territory at that time)\u00a0that would have been my death. I was saved on the shores of Bugh River. Then\u00a0the danger became more imminent…I was saved. But today I am a prisoner of\u00a0the Turks. What fire, steel, and floods were not able to do the Turks did. I\u00a0don’t have chains on my feet. I am not in jail, either. I am free, free to do\u00a0whatever I like . But I still am a prisoner- a prisoner of affection, of\u00a0generosity, of nobility, of courtesy. The Turks have tied me with this\u00a0diamond chain. Oh! if you knew how sweet it is to live as a free slave with\u00a0people so affectionate, so noble, so gentle.” I hope you are listening Lloyd\u00a0George, wherever you may be.<\/p>\n
I’ve been asking myself the following question over and over again concerning\u00a0you and people like you: “What is their problem.?” I try to answer my very\u00a0own questions. I find no answers. I am unable to decipher the origin of\u00a0your arrogance and your disrespectful behavior when it comes to Turks.<\/p>\n
Your defense of the Armenian “riff-raffs who have made a profitable industry of\u00a0accusing the Ottoman Turks of having perpetrated the most heinous of all\u00a0crimes, the crime of genocide, and in the same breath denying that they have\u00a0not even bloodied a single Turkish nose. When neutral, non-Turkish\u00a0historians accept that for every Armenian who was killed in that civil war,\u00a0within a World War in 1914-1918, four (4) Muslim Turks, Kurds, Sircassians,\u00a0and Azerbaijanis lost their precious lives. But I guess you don’t pay too much\u00a0attention to that because they were not Christian. Most observers can not\u00a0tell us where this hatred for Turks is emerging. You are a part of that\u00a0equation. The only source of frustration from which you are suffering may be\u00a0the result of your government’s disability to prove that Turks were guilty\u00a0of a premeditated so-called genocide. There was not an iota of evidence found\u00a0in the infamous trials held on the island of Malta conducted by the British\u00a0occupiers of the Ottoman capital, Istanbul, when they arrested and took with\u00a0them a goodly portion of Ottoman government functionaries to the Island\u00a0of Malta and imprisoned them for over a year, trying to extract from them\u00a0juicy confessions, but at the end they totally failed. The final communiqu\u00e9\u00a0sent to Lord Curzon was very disappointing to the Armenians and their\u00a0‘bootlicker’ friend, such as you Mr. Fisk. The royal report had said at the time:\u00a0<\/p>\n
I REGRET TO INFORM YOUR LORDSHIP HERE WAS NOTHING THEREIN WHICH COULD<\/p>\n
BE USED AS EVIDENCE AGAINST THE TURKS WHO ARE PRESENTLY BEING DETAINED AT MALTA…NO CONRETE FACTS BEING GIVEN WHICH COULD CONSTITUTE SATISFACTORY INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE…THE REPORTS IN QUESTION DO NOT APPEAR, IN ANY CASE,TO CONTAIN EVIDENCE AGAINST THE TURKS.”<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Mr. Fisk , if you still are unconvinced, then please listen to\u00a0what the U.S. government had to say. The American General James G. Harbord,\u00a0of the U.S. government’s investigative commission, sent to Anatolia in the\u00a0fall of 1919 by none other than President Woodrow Wilson, declared\u00a0unequivocally the following in his official report. General James G. Harbord\u00a0concluded : The Turks and the Armenians lived in peace, side by side for centuries; that\u00a0the Turks suffered as much as the Armenians at the time of relocations, that\u00a0at the start of World War I and before, Armenians never had anything\u00a0approaching a majority of the population in the territories they call : Western\u00a0Armenia”; they would not have a majority even if all the deported Armenians\u00a0returned; and the claims that returning Armenians would be in danger were not\u00a0justified.”<\/p>\n
Mr. Fisk, have you read the forged Adonian papers?, have you watched the\u00a0often exhibited painting of the Armenian skulls piled up in a grotesque\u00a0heap claiming that it was the Turks who had caused it to happen? Well, the\u00a0photograph Armenians claim was taken in 1915, actually a stolen copy of a\u00a0painting done in oil by a late Russian painter, named Vasily Vereschagin. The\u00a0canvas is dated 1905 and it is still hanging in the Tretyakov Art Gallery\u00a0in Moscow today. Now Mr. Fisk, I got a hunch you’ll deny this too, as you\u00a0always do, instead you will invoke the infamous Hitler quotation as a last\u00a0resort. Here is a rebuttal for it, also. Hitler may have been a monster as\u00a0most claim, but nobody yet accused him for being a stupid individual.<\/p>\n
According to Prof. Dr. Turkkaya Ataov,Chairman, International Relations\u00a0Division, Ankara,Turkey, and the Nuremberg, Germany NAZI War Crimes Trials,\u00a0that invented quotation does not hold any water. Adolf Hitler never made\u00a0such an idiotic statement in his life. Prof. Ataov says, however, that Hitler\u00a0said a few choice words about the Armenians, and that is true. He made one reference\u00a0to the Armenians in a talk delivered on December 12, 1942, in which he\u00a0described them as unreliable, (Unzuferlassig) and dangerous,(Gefahrlich). It\u00a0is rumored also that Hitler was furious about the Armenians when he used\u00a0those adjectives. I’m afraid those two adjectives were also appropriate to\u00a0describe you and your unfortunate task against Turks. So, let us say once\u00a0more: Tisk-Tisk, Robert Fisk. (Shame on you.)<\/p>\n
meeozan@turkishforum,com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To: Letters@independent.co.uk Cc: editor@independent.co.uk Subject: Article by Robert Fisk “You’re talking nonsense, Mr Ambassador” TISK-TISK, ROBERT FISK\u00a0(Or shame on you Mr. know-it-all.) (An Editorial) Mahmut Esat Ozan Chairman -Editorial Board The Turkish Forum Mr. Fisk, there is nothing worse in this world than being labeled a\u00a0“know-it-all”. A person by that title is one who pretends […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":782329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,794],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question","category-prof-mahmut-esat-ozan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6436","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=6436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}