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When this site began, Turkish sources were steered
clear of as much as possible; the Turks are the accused party in these
genocide allegations, and the allegations are widely accepted. We all know
from prison movies that every man in the joint says he's innocent. And
everyone knows the criminal can't be believed. (The difference in this
analogy, of course, is that the men from the joint were tried and convicted.
The Turks are only accused, nothing has been proven, but because of prejudice,
all the world needs is the accusation to convict the Turks.)
However, as there is a page on this site examining Armenian Oral History, there
should also be a place to put up what Turkish witnesses had to say. (There
have already been a couple of incidental examples, links of which are at page
bottom.)
The problem with "oral history" in all forms
is that even if the witness makes an honest attempt to relate events, the
experienced trauma could color one's views. Even when there was no passage of
time, the views of witnesses could be colored, as evidenced poignantly here.
Because the Armenians' genocide is such a politicized raison
d'etre, a lot of "Armenian oral history" is suspect to begin
with. Why were these being recorded? Mainly, for propaganda purposes. In cases
where genocide advocates sought aged Armenians to tell their tales, it is not
unreasonable to assume a degree of manipulation was involved. Too many
Armenians are also raised with a hatred for Turks, and as Hovhannes
Katchaznouni noted, Armenians as a whole are not good in accepting
responsibility, even when they are at fault. The monstrous Turks make a handy
fall guy, no matter what.
By contrast, the Turks who suffered at the hands of
Armenians did not go out to advertise their sufferings. Culturally, this is
the Turkish way:
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One might be pardoned if, on reading of the various atrocities visited upon
the Balkan Turks, it seems as if the atrocities were invented, or at least much
inflated, by those who allegedly suffered. One answer to this is the type of
confirmatory evidence provided by the European consuls, reporters, and other
observers. I believe, though, that the evidence drawn from Muslim refugees was
generally reliable in itself. Those who in 1876-78 had long dealt with Turks avowed
that Turks were very unlikely to overstate their suffering. Quite the opposite was
true — Turks were unlikely to mention their defeats, or to underplay them, and the
massacres of the Balkan Turks were a horrible defeat. British Consul Blunt at Edirne
spoke of the difficulty of getting Turks to speak of their sufferings, because of the
‘habitual reluctance of the Turks to speak of indignities to which any among them
have been subjected. (It is this very policy, I may add, which induced them to conceal
from public knowledge, rather than denounce the mutilations constantly practiced by
the Montenegrins on their Turkish victims.)’ " (F.O. 195-1137, no. 90, Blunt to
Layard, Adrianople, 6 August 1877.)
Justin McCarthy, "Death and
Exile," 1995, Footnote, p. 97
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The only reason why these people were sought was to combat Armenian
propaganda. Is it possible they also could have been coached, or as Armenian propagandists
would be quick to charge, that the Turkish government paid them off to lie? Anything is
possible. This is why "Oral History" is not one to prominently turn to, in the
seeking of truth.
But when one considers the psychology involved with both people
(Armenians: Sell the genocide to the world in any way possible, with the perpetuation of
hatred; Turks: Bad things happen. Best to put the bad things behind, for the sake of a
future with brotherhood and love. Armenians: Yell and shout, make a religion of victimhood;
Turks: Suffer silently), the reader can determine which side is better coming from the
position of truth.
One other matter to bear in mind is that witnesses who saw Armenian
suffering and dead, like Armin Wegner and Leslie Davis, usually saw bodies in one piece.
Atrocity tales from the Armenian perspective are almost always provided second hand,
through missionaries and other sympathetic Christian parties, who accepted Armenian
accounts first hand. (A genocide book claims there was only one American newspaperman who
travelled to the Ottoman interior in 1915, George Schreiner, serving as the rare and
genuine eyewitness, and he concluded there was no "genocide.") Those
"neutral" witnesses who support the Turkish accounts come from the ranks of
Armenian sympathizers: Americans (like Robert Dunn, Niles and Sutherland), French, and
especially Russians. The common thread in what these latter groups tell is that the
Armenians usually did not stop just with massacring, but performed the most hideous and
sadistic deviltries.
An Ottoman Soldier
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The Russian soldiers have occupied Kars, Erzurum,
Erzincan and they were marching towards Sivas. There were Armenian battalions among
the Russian army. Even though the Russian commanders tried very hard to stop them,
wherever they set foot these Armenian soldiers tortured the Muslim Turks and
burned them alive.
. . .
Sevket Sureyya Aydemir volunteered to join the Ottoman Army's
university educated soldiers class during World War I. He was assigned to fight in
the Eastern front, namely the Caucasus Branch. In 1917 while he was sitting in the
trenches waiting for the fight to begin, their opponents leave the Russian trenches
and walk towards them with bread and cheese in their hands.
They are unarmed. They say "We want to become friends with you, not
fight". They leave their trenches and leave for their villages. The Bolshevik
revolution has taken place in Russia. Some Armenians also leave with the Russian
soldiers, because they could not hold foot on Anatolian soil. Once the path is
cleared, the Turkish soldiers rush to the evacuated
places.
Sevket Sureyya Aydemir reaches to a village of
Erzincan. His
observations were like this; "The Dashnak Committee members had the upper hand
among the Armenian Army. The only ambition of this committee members was to
eradicate and revenge. Their demented ambition had no end.
Along the road to Erzurum, across from the
Cinis Village there was a village named Evreni. The Armenians did not feel satisfied
with killing all inhabitants of this village — children, elderly, and women they
also cut up their body parts — arms, legs, and heads, and hang them on hooks and
nails for exhibition like a butchers' shop. This was not enough either.
They also killed all animals — cows, fowl,
even dogs and tore them limb to limb. All were scattered on the streets. The Turkish
army continues with its forward march. When they arrive in Erzurum Sevket
Sureyya writes in his memoirs the things that he saw like this; "The bloodbath
reached its zenith in Erzurum. I think half the population was killed. Only in the
station called Georgian Gate (Gurcu Kapisi Istasyonu) there were 3,000 bodies
stored. They were sorted according to size, very neatly laid down to make efficient
use of all space, like you would with your fire-wood. It appears that the people who
did this took pleasure from handling these corpses. Any space between large bodies
was carefully filled up by insertion of a child's or old person's small body to
avoid the pile from falling aside. I imagine the Turkish-Armenian reckoning chapter
should better be erased from the history books.
(Sevket Sureyya Aydemir, The Man Who Searches
for Water: pp 120-121. Remzi kitabevi, Ninth printing, 2003).
Thanks to Fatma S. for providing and
translating the above; the original Turkish may be
[Read
Here].
Rus ordusu Kars'i, Erzurum'u, Erzincan'i almis,
Sivas'da dogru
ilerlemektedir. Rus ordusunda Ermeni taburlari vardir. Bu Ermeni
birlikleri, Rus kumandanlar önlemek de istese, girdikleri her yerde,
Müslüman-Türkleri iskencelerle öldürmekte, diri diri yakmaktadir.
. . .
Aydemir, Birinci Dünya Savasina gönüllü yedek subay olarak katilan gençlerden
biridir. Dogu cephesinde, Kafkas ordusunda görev yapar. 1917 de Ruslarla
karsilikli hendekler içinde vurusmalar beklerken, bir sabah Rus askerleri
siperlerinden çikar ellerinde peynir ekmekle Türk siperlerine yaklasirlar.
Silahsizdirlar. "Biz sizinle savasmak istemiyoruz, dost olmak istiyoruz",
derler ve siperleri birakip memleketlerine dönerler. Rusya'da 17 ekim Komunist
ihtilali olmustur.. Rus ordusu ile beraber Ermeniler de Dogu Anadolu' nun bazi
bölgelerinde tutunamaz, çekilirler.Önü açilan Türk birliklerinin içinde
Sevket Süreyya Erzincan'in bir köyüne ulasiyor, gördüklerini anlatiyor:
" Ermeni ordusuna Tasnak komitacilari hakimdi. Bu komitenin büyük hirsi,
sadece bir imha ve intikam savasindan ibaretti. Çilgin hesaplasmanin bir türlü
sonu gelmiyordu. Erzurum yolu üzerindeki Cinis köyü karsisinda Evreni köyünde,
kadin ,erkek, çocuk, bütün köylüler öldürülmekle kalmamisti.
Öldürülenlerin vücutlari
parçalanarak, kollar, bacaklar, kafalar, kasap dükkanlarindaki etler gibi,
duvarlara, çivilere, çengellere asilmisti. Fakat bunlari yapanlarin hirslari
bununla da sönmemisti. Köyde ne kadar hayvan ele geçmisse, mandalar, sigirlar,
davarlar, kümes hayvanlari, hatta köpekler öldürülmüs, parçalanmis, yerlere
serilmisti....
Türk ordusunun yürüyüsü
devam eder. Sevket Süreyye ordu ile Erzuruma girince gördüklerini
yaziyor:"Erzurum'da kan çilginligi son haddini bulmustu. Sehrin galiba yari
nüfusu öldürülmüstü. Yalniz Gürcü Kapisi istasyonunda üç bin kadar ölü,
bir odun veya kereste deposunda oldugu gibi, intizamla, adeta zevkle, dizi dizi,
yigin yigin siralanmis, istiflenmisti. ...Istiflerin bozulmamasi, yikilmamasi
için, boylarina, cüsselerine göre dizilen ölü siralarinin aralarina , yerine
göre ayri ayri boylarda, çocuk, yahut yasli ölü vücütlari sikistirilmisti.
Birinci dünya Savasi içindeki karsilikli Türk Ermeni bogusmasi ve hesaplasmasi,
öyla saniyorum ki, insanlik tarihinin unutulmasi daha iyi olacak bir safhasidir."
(Sevket Süreyya Aydemir, Suyu
Arayan Adam: 120-121.Remzi Kitabevi, dokuzuncu baski: 2003)
[Close]
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Reader Accounts |
Plenty of readers have written with
their own "oral history" as to how much the Armenians hurt their families.
Here's one:
I am 39 years old and living in Istanbul. My mother born in Rize (blacksea city) in 1936.
My grand mother and my grandpa
also from born in same city in begining of 20th century , years of 1900 & 1905 . They
told us lots of bad things about the past...
During the russsian war, armenian gangs always was attacking to their towns and
neighboorhood villages.They were killing
families, villagers, and muslim population.
THE WORST STORY IS:
My mother'shas two Aunt , Sisters of my Grandpa , they were twins, and was 15-16 years
old. Armenian gangs had wrapped them to a tree and raped them. then cut their nipples and
make "prayer beads"(tespih) from the cutted woman nipples.. It was a tradition
that time.. In eastern Turkey, Hundreds of thousand innocent people killed or raped by
armenian gangs and russian troops during and before first world war. Because all Muslim
Men , Turks and few Christian Ottomans (their brothers since 1000years) was fighting in
all around the Anatolia against enemies, such as in Gallipoli, etc..
my father killed by Iranian troops in 1986, during Iran - Iraq war , shall i hate from
Iranians? Answer is "No"
Actually i have lots of good armenian friends in my town that i born. Now, we had mosque
and armenian churches next to next, living in a peace since many many years in this nice
lovely country.
be sure that emperialist powers such as Usa , UK , France , and others tried to make
brothers enemy , they succeeded partly.. but not entirely..
Tarkan K., March 8, 2007
Mass Graves
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Mass graves were unearthed in the following villages
in Turkey: Oba Village of Igdir (March 1986); Alaca Village of Erzurum (three graves
in May and July 1986); Cavusoglu hay-stack of Van Ercis (July 6, 1988); Yesil Yayla
of Erzurum Dumlu (October 1988); Zeve of Van (April 4, 1990); Subatan of Kars (June
20, 1991); Timar Village of Erzurum Pasinler (July 7 1993); Hakmehmet of Igdir
(October 6, 1999). Shreds of fabrics, fez, head coverings, rings, buttons, bullets,
wallets, and Islamic relics, cigarette holders remained intact.
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More
Reading |
Further Turkish Oral History:
A
Massacre at Van
The 1915 Armenian Revolt in Van: Eyewitness Testimony
Ahmet Refik Book Excerpts
Ottoman Archives:
Documentation of Massacres upon Turks by Armenians
Armenian, Russian and other testimony:
Slayer Armenians Reveal Their Turk-Killing Ways
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