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SWEDISH PROFESSOR: WHAT HAPPENED IN THE OTTOMAN 

EMPIRE WAS GENOCIDE, NOT DEPORTATION
23 Feb 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

On February 19 the Radio Sweden spoke to Sweden's leading experts
in international law, Professor Emeritus Ove Bring, an author of a
number of monographs and publications on genocide.

In an interview with Radio Sweden, Professor Bring presented the
situation in Ottoman Turkey during the years of the Armenian Genocide.

He noted that the Ottoman Government faced the task of assimilating
the Armenians and other Christian minorities living on the territory
of the Empire, and did it through genocide, availing itself of the
opportunity provided by the World War First.

The Professor presented the process of the genocide, noting that
first the intellectuals were arrested and killed, after which the
other part of the population - mostly women, children and elders -
was deported and sent to death.

Ove Bring underlined that what happened in the Ottoman Empire was
genocide, not just deportation, as deportation envisages re-settlement
of groups of people, provision of necessary conditions and dwelling.

In conclusion the Professor said an estimated 1-1.5 million Armenians
died as a result of the genocide. "It's because of the genocide that
Armenians are spread all over the world today," he concluded.


TURKEY INSTIGATED THE BURNING OF THE EGYPTIAN ARCHIVES 

CONTAINING DOCUMENTS THAT WOULD INCRIMINATE TURKEY
Bawwabet Vito (Vito Gate), Egypt
Feb 18 2015

Sheikh Nabeel Naeem, founder of the Islamic Jihad in Egypt, announced
that the National Archives of Egypt was burned down by members of the
Moslem Brotherhood on orders from Turkey, which is the main instigator
that paid millions of dollars to the terrorist group.

In a statement to "Veto", Naeem said that this place was the only one
with archival documents that would incriminate the Turkish state for
committing the massacres of Armenians. Turkey wanted to prevent an
international trial in the case of the disclosure of these documents,
so it incited the terrorists to burn the NAE. Naeem stressed the need
for Egypt to punish Turkey for this crime.

[Groong note: the above was translated from Arabic by Katia
M. Peltekian]

catholicherald.co.uk
We must not forget Armenia’s Suffering
by Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith
Wednesday, 4 Feb 2015 

Armenia has arguably produced more martyrs than anywhere 

else, given that the victims of the genocide were killed in hatred of 

the Faith 

Early February is a good time, liturgically speaking. On Monday 

we celebrated the lovely feast of the Presentation of the Lord in 

the  Temple, when candles were blessed, marking the fortieth day 

since Christmas , and on Tuesday we celebrated St Blaise, when 

throats were blessed. 

St Blaise is one of those saints of which we know very little, even 

though his is a famous cult. As is the case with so many early 

martyrs, legends sprang up and accounts were written down many 

centuries later, which have no historical value. But we can be sure 

that Blaise was a bishop and a martyr and lived in what is now 

called Sivas in Turkey, but in which those days was called Sebastea 

in Armenia. 

Once Armenia covered much more territory than that presently 

covered by the former Soviet Republic in the Caucasus. A look at 

a map places Sivas in the middle of modern Turkey, but up to a 

hundred years ago the town still had a flourishing Armenian and 

Greek Christian population. Then came the fateful day: April 24 1915. 

It was on this day that the Ottoman government began to arrest 

and deport Armenians who had been living in Anatolia from time 

immemorial. This organised campaign of arrest, deportation, 

massacre and extermination led to the deaths of between one 

million and one and a half million Armenians . It is for this reason 

that visitors to Turkey today will find plenty of Armenian history 

but no actual Armenian people, or at least very few.

The Armenian genocide is commemorated all over the world, 

but not in Turkey and not much in Britain, which studiously 

avoids mentioning the genocide in order not to jeopardise 

relations with Turkey. This is a pity, to put it mildly, as it is 

hard to see how any nations – ours or the Turks – can flourish 

when we deny truth. 

St Blaise, ever popular throughout the Catholic Church, is the only 

Armenian saint in the Universal Calendar. He is the solitary 

representative of his culture, but what a culture! The nation of 

St Blaise is the oldest Christian nation, having been converted to 

Christ by St Gregory the Illuminator in 301, before the time of 

Constantine. Moreover, Armenia has arguably produced more 

martyrs than anywhere else, given that the victims of the genocide 

were killed in odium of the Christian faith. Right now we are rightly 

concerned by ISIS’s cruelty; let us not forget the Armenians of 

100 years ago.

Adolf Hitler’s view of the Armenian genocide is worth recalling, 

and his reference to it, made in August 1939 , worth quoting:

Our strength is our quickness and our brutality. Genghis Khan had 

millions of women and children hunted down and killed, deliberately 

and with a gay heart. History sees in him only the great founder of 

States. What the weak Western European civilization alleges about 

me does not matter. I have given the order – and will have everyone 

shot who utters but one word of criticism – that the aim of this war 

does not consist in reaching certain designated [geographical] lines, 

but in the enemies’ physical elimination. Thus, for the time being only 

in the east, I put ready my Death’s Head units, with the order to kill 

without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of the Polish 

race or language. Only thus will we gain the living space that we need. 

Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians? 

Who indeed? That is why we need to talk about Armenia and 

remember them this April. Put the date of that hundredth anniversary 

in your diary now. 

[at least they do not mention the word 'genocide' that the Azeris do

What people will do for money] 

BAKU: LETTER FROM MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS, 

THE PARLIAMENT OF THE UK TO PRESIDENT ALIYEV 

The Azerbaijan State Telegraph Agency

Feb 23 2015

Dear President Ilham Aliyev,

We, the undersigned, write to express our solidarity with the people of
Azerbaijan as you commemorate 23rd anniversary of Khojaly massacre,
killing of 613 innocent civilians by the invading Armenian armed
forces with the support of the Soviet infantry regiment 366 in the
town of Khojaly on 26 February 1992. We share the grief of Azerbaijani
people on this very sad anniversary and support your tireless efforts
to settle the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno
Karabakh on the basis of the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the
occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Many of us have been to Azerbaijan
and have witnessed the plight and sufferings of IDPs at refugee camps.

What happened in the town of Khojaly is undoubtedly a human tragedy
and it is important that perpetrators are brought to justice. The
ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabakh
represents obstacle to bringing lasting peace and stability to the
Southern Caucasus. As an important strategic and economic partner
of your country, United Kingdom has long-standing interest to see
the conflict resolved peacefully making South Caucasus a stable and
peaceful region. Therefore, it is essential that international peace
talks conducted under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group further
intensify with a view to starting the work on comprehensive peace plan.

Your Excellency, please accept our condolences on this very sad day
for your people.

Yours sincerely,

Members of the House of Lords:Lord David Evans, Baroness Detta
O'Cathain, Lord Risby, Lord Michael German, Lord Anthony St John,
Viscount Trenchard, Baroness Zahida Manzoor


The Times (London)
February 21, 2015 Saturday
Last days of the great caliphate
Was the Ottoman Empire really so
by  Lawrence James

On November 13, 1918, the dreadnought HMS Agamemnon (they knew 

how to name ships in those days) led an armada of Allied warships into 

the harbour at Constantinople. A dismayed Turkish boatman watched and
lamented: "Who would have believed that a foreign fleet would enter
Constantinople so illustriously and that we Muslims would be simple
spectators." His passenger consoled him: "These black days will pass
too." But they did not pass.

As in Europe, the end of one war prepared the way for another. The
surrender of the Ottoman Empire marked the beginning of what has been
called "The War of the Ottoman Succession", an intermittent struggle
for mastery of the Middle Eastern lands once ruled by the Sultan.
First Britain and France attempted to dominate the region and were
evicted, now the US, Israel, Iran and Saudi Arabia contend for
supremacy, and, lately, they have been joined by the ferocious
fanatics of Isis who want a caliphate and the restoration of a Dark
Age Islamic state. Slavery, reluctantly abolished by theTurkish
sultans in the 19th century, has returned to the Middle East. So too
has another Ottoman vice, the systematic massacre of Christians. A
hundred years of turmoil and bloodshed raises the question whether the
Ottononfiction man Empire, for all its faults, was not a bad thing.
After all, as Eugene Rogan reminds us, in the years just before the
outbreak of war, the ruling Committee of Union and Progress ("The
Young Turks") were endeavouring to modernise the empire.

They were too late: Turkey lacked the industrial base, communications
systems and administrative structure to fight a modern war on several
fronts. German credit and weaponry kept the show going, but only just.
"What kind of war are we fighting?" asked one soldier in the trenches
during the first battle of Gaza in 1917. "Our army has no working
artillery, no functioning machineguns, no aircraft, no commanding
officers, no defensive lines, no reserves, no telephone."

Material deficiencies were, however, offset by the pluck and tenacity
of theTurkish soldier and a handful of good generals, most famously
Mustafa Kemal Pasha, the future Kemal Atatürk. During 1915 and 1916,
the Turks defeated the Allies at Gallipoli and in Iraq, where an
Anglo-Indian army surrendered at Kut Al Amara. An Oxford historian,
Rogan's account of these campaigns fits well into a comprehensive,
lucid and revealing history of a war, which has always been seen
though British eyes focused on Gallipoli and TE Lawrence rallying the
Bedouin and posing for photographers. This book will surely become the
definitive history of the war, for there is much that is new. Rogan
has used Turkish and Arab sources and recent research in the Ottoman
archives. Rooting out the truth is, however, a fraught business, since
the Turkish government is cagey about access to wartime military
papers. Official furtiveness is understandable given how prickly
modern Turkey is about the Armenian genocide. At least 850,000
Armenians and Assyrian Christians were murdered between 1915 & 1918,
but successive Turkish governments have denied any complicity by the
Ottoman government and its servants. Anyone who challenges official
orthodoxy is liable to be charged with "insulting Turkishness" and
faces prison. Visit the otherwise impressive military museum in
Istanbul and all you will find are grisly photos of Turks allegedly
slain by Armenian terrorists at the behest of Russia. This repeats
baseless contemporary propaganda that the Armenians were a vast fifth
column, ready to assist invaders.

Rogan blows away the fog of obfuscation and denials. Talaat 

Pasha, the Young Turk Minister of the Interior, the Ottoman Intelligence 

Service, sundry provincial governors and policemen were actively 

engaged in what was intended to be an extermination of the entire 

Armenian population of the Near East. "The orders came from the 

Central Committee and the Interior Ministry," one officer told an 

Armenian. They were conveyed orally and one governor who sought 

written instructions was sacked and later murdered. Rogan's evidence 

about the official origins and enforcement of the massacres augments 

and confirms that from German sources.

Killing the Armenians achieved nothing for Turkey's war effort. The
successes of the first half of the war were not repeated during the
second, when Allied forces pushed steadily through Iraq, Palestine and
Syria. Numerical and technical superiority had tipped the balance in
favour of the Allies, although the Turkish soldier fought doggedly on.
During the fighting at Gaza, Turkish infantrymen stood their ground,
firing their rifles in a futile attempt to repel tanks at close range.

There are some surprises for those who take their history from
Lawrence of Arabia. The repeated demolition of the Damascus to Medina
railway by Lawrence and his Bedouin irregulars had a limited effect,
since the Turks quickly relaid the track and the line stayed open
until the spring of 1918, when it was permanently severed by Allied
forces. The Arab Revolt was also an Arab civil war: some tribes chose
Turkish gold and arms rather than British.

One of the trains that reached Medina from Damascus in November 

1917 contained Turkish newspapers with details of the secret Sykes

-Picot Agreement by which Britain, France and Tsarist Russia had 

agreed the future partition of the Ottoman Empire. The documents 

had just been released by Trotsky to remind the Arab world that it was 

being duped by Allied promises of postwar liberation.

This may not have been too much of shock, for French and British
imperial ambitions were in character and over the past 80 years, the
two powers had stripped the Ottomans of Egypt, Algeria, Tunis and
www.Morocco.Be that as it may, the alleged duplicity of Britain and
France continues to have political resonances today in the Middle East
where state boundaries follow lines first sketched on a map by greedy
foreigners. The repercussions of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire will
not go away. Lawrence James's latest book is Churchill and Empire:

Portrait of an Imperialist The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in
the Middle East, 1914-1920 by Eugene Rogan Allen Lane, 445pp 

£25 * £20