Why diminish the importance and uniqueness of the Holocaust!

Re: Why diminish the importance and uniqueness of the Holocaust!

Dear Honorable Member of the House of Commons,

Armenian genocide lobby argue that the World War I tragedy in Eastern Anatolia was the same as what happened to the Jewish people in Nazi Germany.  

Can this really be justified? This is what Bernard Lewis, the world’s foremost eminent British-American Jewish historian of Orientalism, Islam, and the Middle East says on the subject:

“This is a downright falsehood” and adds: “Armenians as well as the Turks suffered and perished in equal measure…”

“What happened to Armenians was the result of a massive Armenian rebellion against the Turks, which began even before war broke out and continued on a larger scale…” 

“The Armenians are proud of their struggle for an independent Armenia against the Ottoman regime. It was a national liberation movement, and they fought with great courage. But what happened to the Armenians has no similarity to what happened to the Jews in cold-blooded bureaucracy.”

“Armenians had an armed rebellion: They collaborated with Russians against the Turks. They killed many in Van that they seized and held for a while to hand it over to the invaders. Ottomans were very careful by not hurting Armenians in the deportations. There is clear evidence of a decision by the Turkish Government, to deport the Armenian population from the sensitive areas. Which meant naturally the whole of Anatolia. Not including the Arab provinces which were then still part of the Ottoman Empire. There is no evidence of a decision to massacre. There was guerrilla warfare all over Anatolia. The illegal groups, and others may have attacked Armenians later and caused casualties however this is not related with the Holocaust in Germany.”(1)

The League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Fridtjof Nansen described this tragedy at the Sixteenth Plenary Meeting of the League of Nations on September 21st, 1919:

“The allied Western Powers had said to the Armenians ‘If you fight with us against the Turks and if the war ends successfully for us, we promise to give you a national home, liberty, and independence… The Armenians fought for the Allied Powers. Two hundred thousand volunteers sacrificed their lives for the cause of the Entente; but when the Armistice was signed and peace concluded, the promise given to the Armenians were forgotten…”(2)

As Bernard Lewis and Fridtjof Nansen point out, Ottoman Armenians openly and intentionally took up arms, travelled to Russia for training and fought for an independent Armenia. When the war broke out, they sported Russian and French uniforms and fought against the Ottoman Army. Non-uniformed Armenian irregulars/bandits also fought against the Ottoman army from behind the lines.

Therefore, no possible similarity can be established between the Ottoman Armenians and German Jews. Jews of Germany were not engaged in an armed rebellion against the German State. They were not collaborating with the allies against Germany. Moreover, Jews did not demand the dismemberment of the nation in which they lived. 

Besides, the Ottoman government had no intention of exterminating the Armenians as no such evidence exists, while the Armenian genocide lobby insists on this with falsified documents and basing it on the discredited propaganda “Blue Book” and discredited author Tamer Akcam’s books. 

On the 1^st of March 1920, the “note verbale” released by Sir Eric Drummond, Secretary General of the League of Nations, British politician, and diplomat, declared that “in Turkey, … massacres carried out by irregular bands who were entirely outside the control of the Central Turkish Government.” (3)

Contrary to all this, the Armenian genocide lobby want to compare their tragedy with the Jewish Holocaust. They seek to benefit from the use of the word. But this only leads to diminishing the significance and uniqueness of the Holocaust.

There is ample evidence, recognized by a competent International Court proving that genocide was committed in Nazi Germany against the Jews. The Tribunal at Nuremberg proved the guilt of the perpetrators of the Holocaust and sentences were carried out in accordance with agreed-upon procedures. 

Therefore, the Holocaust is an undisputable historical fact. 

On the contrary, Malta Tribunal, which was convened by the World War I victors and conducted by Great Britain’s highest prosecution authority, H.M. Attorney General Sir Gordon Heward (4),  acquitted those Ottoman Turks who were alleged to have been responsible for the misrule of the Armenian relocation policies. 

Yours sincerely, 

         UluçGürkan

Uluç Gürkan – Lecturer in Politics

• Deputy Speaker-Turkish Grand National Assembly/TGNA (1995-1999)
• Vice President-Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe/PACE (2000-2002)
• Vice President–Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe/OSCE-PA(1992-1995) 
• Head of the Turkish Delegation-Parliamentary Assembly of the Western European Union/WEU-PA (1999-2002)

Member- Turkish Grand National Assembly/TGNA (1991-2002)

Lecturer at METU & Ufuk University (2003- ……) 

Middle East Technical University and Ufuk University (2003-….)

www.ulucgurkan.net – www.twitter.com/Uluc_Gurkan

[email protected] – [email protected]

0090 312 4198777 – 0090 532 2180758

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1 Bernard Lewis – with Buntzie Ellis Churchill, Notes on a Century:Reflections of a Middle East Historian (Viking;2012) pp. 3325-338)

2 Leage of Nations, Sixteenth Plenary Meeting, September 21th, 1929 the Turks, We Promise to Give Them National Home, Liberty and Independence  (League of Nations Official Gazettee: Şükrü Server Aya,  Twisted Law versus Documented History, pp. 7-8

3 Şükrü Server Aya, Twisted Law versus Documented History, (Belfast: Athol Books, 2013) p. 5

4  Sir Gordon Heward : H.M. Attorney General (Jan.10, 1919-March 6, 1922) – Lord Chief Justice of England (March 8, 1922 – Oct. 12, 1940)