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"Fool Me Once,
Shame on You. Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me."
An adage
lazy-thinking individuals would do well to remember the next time they
consider accepting, at face value, the claims of Vahakn Dadrian... a
liar.
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Vahakn Dadrian, in his chapter of Editor Jay Winter's propaganda
book America and the Armenian Genocide of 1915 (entitled "The Armenian
Genocide: an Interpretation"), where Dadrian threw in practically every weasel
fact he has come up with in his long years of prosecutorial research, wrote:
In his post-war memoirs he {Halil Pasha,
Enver's uncle} boasted of having killed altogether "300,000 Armenians" adding
"it can be more or less. I didn't count."27 Given the relatively large numbers
involved, and given the vicissitudes of war, this process of liquidation inevitably took
several months to complete
[Footnote 27: Halil Pasa, Bitmeyen Savas;, ed. M. T. Sorgun (Istanbul: Yedigun,
1972), p. 274. On p. 241, Halil is more emphatic: "I have endeavored to wipe out the
Armenian nation to the last individual" ("Son ferdine kadar yok etmege
calistigim Ermeni milleti"). For more details, see Dadrian, "Documentation of
the Armenian Genocide in Turkish Sources," pp. 116-17.]
When I first came across this Dadrian claim in a source other than the above (naturally,
the prosecutor has made use of his "Halil card," repeating it in many of his
other writings and speeches), I was taken aback. Could this be the "smoking gun"
of genocidal proof, at last?
After all, finally, here is a high Ottoman officer admitting that he killed tons of
Armenians! This is the kind of thing that is infinitely more valuable than all the
Morgenthaus, Bryces, Lepsiuses, missionaries, New York Timeses and other agenda-ridden
Turk-hostile parties put together. Why, this sounded like real evidence!
I had my suspicions, of course, and not just because the notoriously dishonest V.D. was
behind this claim. As Mr. Spock might have put it, for simply
one Ottoman mass murderer to have been behind the killings of so many Armenians would be
"highly illogical."
We know up to 600,000 Armenians really died. (Again, Armenian extremists like Dadrian concede one million survived; subtracted from the
pre-war population hovering around 1.5 million, according to most "neutral"—
that is, pro-Armenian and Western — sources, we get a good idea of the actual
mortality.) An entire quarter of those were killed by starvation and disease, while
accompanying the Russian retreats, as Hovannisian wrote in his 1967 book. That is, the
Turks were nowhere in sight, and yet these 150,000-odd Armenians somehow became
"genocide victims." The bulk of the 400,000 or so remainder also died of the
same reasons, famine and disease, along with exposure and combat... while we can never be
exactly certain, the ones who were massacred outright probably numbered in the low tens of thousands, at most.
So it didn't make sense for just one Turkish villain to have knocked off 300,000
Armenians. Why, even if we go with the Armenian Patriarch's inflated pre-war population
figure (2.1 million. The truth-challenged Patriarch also went with 1,850,000, according to
Johannes Lepsius' sworn testimony at the 1921 Tehlirian trial), of that number, only
840,000 Armenians were killed, as the Patriarch himself concluded at 1918's tail end.
Subtract Hovannisian's 150,000 who died when the Turks were nowhere in sight, and are we
to assume Halil Pasha would have succeeded in single-handedly rubbing out nearly an entire
half of the exaggerated 690,000 remainder?
Another point that made me doubtful was that I couldn't understand why I had not come
across this Halil Pasha "confession" at a much earlier stage of my genocide
research. Why weren't Armenian genocide sites screaming this "confession" at the
tops of their lungs? After all, here was, on the surface, the evidence they were looking
for, for so very, very long. And why was Dadrian himself referring to this
"confession" in a kind of "by the way" fashion?
The only way to find the answer lay with consulting the original book itself.
We know Mr. Dadrian is prone to make alterations, to serve his propagandistic agenda.
Actually, it's not true to say "we"; the prejudiced "scholarly" world
has taken what Dadrian has been saying at face value, so only few are aware. But even some
"genocide scholars" like Donald Bloxham and Hilmar Kaiser have begun to perform
the unthinkable, and have been pointing fingers at Dadrian's lack of scholarly ethics. The
latter, for example [in Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies, 9 (1996)], warned
against Dadrian's penchant to make use of "misleading quotations," which the
Halil Pasha "confessions" will serve as a particularly deadly example of, as
we'll be seeing in a moment.
It's easy to bust the deceitful Dadrian (ye olde English meaning of the obsolete verb
"didrian": To Deceive) when he makes outright falsehoods such as "Malta
was not a venue for criminal trials but a temporary detention center," in order
to throw the bloodhounds off his track. All one has to do, with this example of the Malta
Tribunal, is to check the sources available in English, the British archives itself. (All
of it, not just the selective ones Dadrian deceptively points to, in the service of his
agenda.) But Dadrian also points to sources in other languages. The English-speaking
researcher with limited resources is going to be at a loss, and has little choice but to
accept Dadrian's "word."
Prof. Norman Stone wrote, "Lewy...
has the considerable merit of showing that Dadrian’s scholarship is itself full of holes
— documents selectively quoted in pursuit of his thesis that the Armenian massacres can
be put on the same level as the Holocaust. Since Lewy reads German as well as Dadrian
does, he is in a very good position." This is what makes Guenter Lewy and his
book, The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey — A Disputed Genocide, so
valuable. Like the genuine scholar Lewy is, Lewy did not simply take the word of Vahakn
Dadrian, as so many amateurish historians or prejudiced "genocide scholars" have
done. Lewy consulted the original German sources, and exposed, time and time again,
Dadrian's "willful mistranslations, selective quotations, and other serious
violations of scholarly ethics" (as Lewy summed up in his response to a highly abusive
Peter Balakian, letters, Commentary Magazine).
At least German is more of an international language. Dadrian also knows Turkish, and that
puts those who have no access to Turkish sources (along with the lack of familiarity with
the language) in a tougher spot. This may be one reason why Dadrian appears lately to be
concentrating on Turkish sources, knowing that hardly anyone will be looking over his
shoulder, so he can escape with claiming whatever he feels he could get away with. I
became particularly aware of this shortcoming, while dissecting Dadrian's smear attack on Erickson.
But the TAT site has been around for a while now, and I've begun to get letters from Turks
in Turkey. So I wrote back to a few whose English was proficient enough, and asked whether
they could dig up Halil Pasha's memoirs, "Bitmeyen Savas" (The Unending
War). I give thanks to Damla Ozdemir, and especially to Serhan Altug, who located the book
and took the trouble to translate the "Armenian" chapter (which will be
presented after our analysis, below). A Turkish professor also cleared
up what was behind the 300,000 killed "confession," so I was fortunate to get
the information from two different sources. (Thanks to Sukru Aya for translating what the
professor wrote.)
300,000 Armenians Killed by Halil Pasha?
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(The highlighted section below represents the pertinent passage from the book.)
Things spoken about Halil Bey are partly right, partly
wrong. For one thing, Halil Bey uncle of Enver Pasa, when he was a convict at
Bekiraga Army Barracks, is invited by a British Captain to the room of the camp
director. Let us learn the rest by reading from his memoirs:
The British Captain says: "You, Halil Pasa, are responsible for the deaths
of three hundred thousand Armenians, fifty to sixty thousand Arabs, thirteen Jews,
two British officers and a Turkish Corporal. What is your answer?"
I presume the British captain had forgotten to whom he was speaking; I had met too
many similar persons. When introducing himself he had only
mentioned his name and rank and had not mentioned on behalf of whom he was placing
the questions. I was upset by his arrogant manners. I turned to the director and
said:
"Give me a pen and paper... Let me write down so that he can take it and go.
And I wrote:
1- 300.000 Armenians...can be less or more, I did not count. Wherever they revolted
against my state, I supressed and punished them. Wherever their revolting was
probable, I ordered local authorities for their relocation.
Dear Aya, As you can understand, Halil Pasa was angry about the placed question and
gives a joking answer. He definitely did not say that he has killed or so. The
incident takes place in 1919 and displays the behaviour against occupation forces,
There is no other memory about the relocation and killing of Armenians in Halil
Bey's memoirs. In reality he was not responsible for this matter during that period
of time. He was an army commander in chief.
Regards - Kemal Cicek
(Let us bear in mind this was a private communication, written quickly and
informally off the top of the professor's head, and the comments should not be taken
as "official." The passage has been used with permission.)
Halil Bey ile ilgili olarak söylenenler kismen dogru kismen degil, Söyle ki
Halil Bey, yani Enver Pasa'nin Amcasi, Bekiraga Bölügünde mahkumken Bir Ingiliz
Yüzbasi tarafindan müdürün odasina davet ediliyor. isterseniz hatiratindan
okuyarak bundan sonrasini ögrenelim:
Ingiliz Yüzbasi: "Halil Pasa.... Üçyüzbin Ermeninin, elli altmis bin
Arabin, onüç Yahudinin, iki Ingiliz subayinin ve bir de Türk çavusun katili
olmaktan manunsunuz, cevabiniz nedir...?
"Ingiliz Yüzbasisi kimin karsisinda oldugunu unutmus olacakti, böylelerini
çok görmüstük. ... Kendini tanitirken yalniz adini ve rütbesini söylemekle
yetinmisti., kimin adina bu sorulari sordugunu bildirmemisti:... Küstahça tavri
canimi sikti, Müdüre döndüm.
-Bana bir kagit ve bir kalem veriniz... Yazayim da alsin gitsin ....
Ve yazdim:
1- 300,000 Ermeni... Fazla veya eksik olabilir. Saymadim. Devletime karsi nerede
isyan ettilerse ihtiyat kuvvetlerimle tenkil ve tedib ettim. Nerede isyanlari
muhtemel ise tehcirlerini mülki makamlara emrettim ve tehcir ettirdim.
Sayin Aya, görüldügü gibi burada Halil Pasa öldürdügü Ermeniler hakkinda
sorulan soruya kizarak ve alayci bir cevap vermektedir. Kesinlikle öldürdügüü
falan söylemis degildir. Olay 1919 yilinda geçmektedir ve isgalcilere tavrini bu
sekilde meydan okuyarak koymaktadir. Halil Bey'in hatiratinda ise Ermenilerin
tehcir ve katline dair baska bir aniyoktur. Aslinda kendisi de o dönemlerde bu
isten sorumlu kisi degildir. Ordu da komutandir.
Selamlar
Kemal Çiçek
[Close]
So what do we make of the above?
What we are immediately reminded of is that context is so important. For
example: the pro-Armenians simply point to the fact that Armenians died or were
killed, and try to come up with reasons as to why the events constituted a
genocide. As if these deaths occurred in a vacuum, in a nation where the Armenians
had prospered for centuries. No mention that Armenians formed terrorist groups,
little or no mention of the role of the imperialist powers using the Armenians,
and an outright denial that Armenians had revolted against their Ottoman nation.
A conscientious person can't do that. And a genuine scholar certainly can't do
that.
The parts of the Halil Pasha memoirs that Dadrian deliberately omitted:
1) Halil Pasha was a prisoner of the British. Dadrian tried to make it sound as
though Halil Pasha simply "confessed" in his memoirs. But the context
was entirely different; the words were presented to a captor. (A favorite Dadrian
witness, Vehib Pasha, was also a
prisoner at Bekiraga when Vehib made his "genocide" remarks. Dadrian
never mentions Vehib's comments were made in prison, whenever Dadrian points out
this other "confession.")
2) Halil Pasha was not "confessing" to the arrogant British officer.
Halil Pasha was disgusted with the Briton's sanctimonious attitude, and provided
his response in a "screw you" fashion. The 300,000 figure was the
Briton's figure, which Halil Pasha threw back at his face.
3) Halil Pasha did not at all admit that he killed these 300,000 Armenians.
(And he certainly was not making his statement "boastfully," as Dadrian
deliberately misled; by leaving out the context, Dadrian gives the impression that
Halil had made this "confession" to the reader in a matter-of-fact
style.) What Halil is saying is that in areas where the Armenians were rebelling,
or appeared to have the potential to display disloyalty (remember, the Ottomans
were battling enemies in as many as five to eight fronts, and a threat from within
could spell the difference between life or death for the nation), he
"suppressed" the Armenians by ordering what pro-Armenians would call
their "deportation."
There is a big difference between that and having "murdered" them.
Dadrian's despicable conclusion: "this process of
liquidation inevitably took several months to complete."
As if the bankrupt "Sick Man" could have afforded diverting already
limited manpower and resources for such a colossal extermination plan (killing
300,000 would be no easy feat), with enemies intent on the Ottomans' extinction,
via secret treaties, breathing
down their necks. As history teaches us, the Ottoman Empire indeed became extinct,
and if there was no Ataturk, so too would have likely been what remained of the
Sèvres-dictated Turkish "Indian reservation," in time... with murderous
Allied-supported Greeks in the west, and murderous Allied-supported Armenians in
the east.
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Let's dispatch with other Halil Pasha "evidence"
that Dadrian has provided, before moving on to the second "confession" of Halil
Pasha.
Here's Dadrian at work. He came across a juicy tidbit from a high Ottoman general that
could be manipulated into sounding like a confession for systematic extermination. In
order to drive the nail into Halil's coffin, Dadrian feverishly looked for any other
implicating materials regarding Halil Pasha, in order to make Halil Pasha out to be
another Heinrich Himmler. It doesn't matter if these other references were tainted. The
Turk confessed, didn't he? The supplementary materials must then be true as well, even if
they derived from biased sources.
From "The Armenian Genocide: an Interpretation," here is what preceded
the devastating "confession":
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Vahakn Dadrian |
This practice of wholesale slaughter of
Armenian conscripts was confirmed by Germany's Vice-Consul at Erzurum, Scheubner Richter,
a Reserve Captain. In a 4 December 1916 report to Berlin, he declared that General Halil
(Kut), the uncle of War Minister Enver, ordered "the massacre of his Armenian . . .
battalions."[24] Halil's policy of extermination of the Armenian soldiers
under his command is attested to by a Turkish officer who was part of his First
Expeditionary Force (formerly the Fifth Expeditionary Force). As he stated, "All of
the Armenian officers and soldiers of our Force were massacred by the order of Halil
Pasa." The same officer continues to say that subsequently "Halil had the entire
Armenian population (men, women and children) in the areas of Bitlis, Mus, and Beyazit
also massacred without pity. My company received a similar order. Many of the victims were
buried alive in especially prepared ditches."[25] A Russian-Armenian lawyer
disclosed, in the Red Paper he compiled to expose, he said, the falsehoods of the White
Paper the Ottoman authorities had published during the war, that "upon orders of
General Halil, 800 Armenian and another time 1,000 soldiers, officers, and MDs in his
Expeditionary Force were disarmed and killed by the Turkish soldiers of that Force."[26]
Halil had been successively commanding several Ottoman Turkish army units, including the
Fifth Expeditionary Force, the fifty-second Division, the Eighteenth Army Corps, the Sixth
Army, and finally the Army Groups East.
[Footnotes: 24 AA Turkei 183/45, A33457, or, at new R14094. For similar reports on
the mass murder of disarmed Armenian labor battalion soldiers, see below, notes 69, 73,
and 79, and corresponding texts, discussing reports made by the Austrian Trabzon Consul, a
German Colonel in charge of a regiment comprising felons released from the prisons of the
Ottoman Empire, and Trabzon's US Consul Heizer.
25 Report in Bureau de Correspondance Juif, The Hague, reproduced under the title,
"Les massacres d'Armenie d'apres un temoin oculaire" in La [Vow] de I'Armenie
(Paris, fortnightly) LVA 1:24 (15 December 1918), p. 901.
26 Gregory Tchalkhouchian, Le Livre rouge (Paris: Imprimerie Veradzenount, 1919),
pp. 43-4. For a similar Armenian account see Garo Pasdermadjian, "Armenia. A Leading
Factor in the Winning of World War I," Armenian Review 17:1-65 (Spring, February
1964), pp. 29-30.]
Were Armenian labor battalion soldiers killed? Yes, they were. Nobody is saying crimes
against Armenians were not committed. For example, Dadrian is fond of telling us General
Vehib established a court martial and hanged the two major perpetrators of one such
massacre. Ironically, this represents actual evidence against state-sponsored
genocide, to give the highest punishment to rogue elements who went off on their own and
committed crimes. By contrast, only one soldier was tried for the massacre of hundreds of
Vietnamese civilians at My Lai, and his (Lt. Calley's) punishment, before a period of
house arrest, was only three days' imprisonment. Hitler never punished SS men for
abusing or killing Jews.
Kamuran Gurun had written in "The Armenian File" that
the total number tried for crimes against Armenians was 1,397. Turkish researchers have
updated that, via documents in their country's archives, with the following, as taken from
the introduction of an upcoming book: "[B]y mid-1916 the Ottoman Government had
brought to justice 1673 people with claims of attacking the Armenian convoys and punished
67 of them with death penalty, 524 were jailed, 68 were exiled or similar, and 227 were
found innocent. Out of the 1673 who were court-martialed 170 of them were government
officials and 678 were soldiers. Amongst them were majors, commanders, lieutenants,
gendarmeries, commanders, and police chiefs."
Let's bear in mind no Armenians were tried for the
slaughter of Turkish prisoners, as reported by Ohanus Appressian in "Men Are Like That" (p. 132):
In this movement we took with us
three thousand Turkish soldiers who had been captured by the Russians and left on our
hands when the Russians abandoned the struggle. During our retreat to Karaklis two
thousand of these poor devils were cruelly put to death. I was sickened by the brutality
displayed, but could not make any effective protest. Some, mercifully, were shot. Many of
them were burned to death. The method employed was to put a quantity of straw into a hut,
and then after crowding the hut with Turks, set fire to the straw. One thousand of these
prisoners were spared because it was known in Europe that we had inherited a large number
of them from the Russians, and that no doubt an accounting would have to be made for them
some day. The thousand who were spared were later liberated, as we had no means of caring
for prisoners. No doubt they again took up arms against us; so in a way the killing of the
two thousand was justifiable.
Let's get back to the evidence condemning
Halil Pasha.
The primary accuser is a German vice-consul. This is yet another example of "hearsay
evidence." The diplomat was in his cozy office, and could not have possibly witnessed
events such as the massacre of Armenian battalions. I wasn't there, you weren't there, and
Vice-Consul Scheubner-Richter was not there. He got the
information second-hand, probably either through missionaries, Armenians, or
Christian-sympathizing Germans. He happened to be one of the latter himself, as we can
learn through what the reams of Armenian propaganda have unearthed.
For example, he is on record for having written, “The Armenians of Turkey for all
practical purposes have been exterminated.” As we’ve seen, even the Armenian
Patriarch was in disagreement with that foolish conclusion. (The Patriarch revised his
number of 1,260,000 surviving Ottoman-Armenians three years later, in a 1921 report
provided to the British, attesting to 644,900
still living in what remained of the empire. This is not what an objective party would
classify as "extermination.") Scheubner-Richter also wrote: "by July 15
(1915) almost all of the Armenians had been expelled from Erserum." Yet, many
Armenians lived in Erzurum during the
Russian occupation that was to follow. (And Morgenthau himself stated large numbers of
Armenians remained in almost every city, in a March 3, 1916 letter to Lord Bryce, as
quoted by Vahan Cardashian. [The Armenian Review, Winter 1957, p. 107]) Dadrian
himself has instructed that by 1916,
"the genocide had all but run its course.") Like other Christian-sympathizing
Western consuls, Scheubner-Richter is
not a reliable source.
One thing is sure: Armenian
statements that almost all of the Erzurum Armenians were deported and killed are
ridiculous. This is demonstrated by the fact that so many Armenians lived in Erzurum
during the Russian occupation. When the Russians departed there were enough
Armenians remaining in Erzurum or returning from Russian Armenia to create an army
and attempt to run a government. If all the Erzurum Armenians were dead, where did
those Armenians come from? It is absurd to think, and no one then or now has
asserted, that these were Russian Armenians who had first come to Anatolia in 1916.
Justin McCarthy, The Destruction of Ottoman Erzurum by Armenians
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But the German represents far more believability than the other "evidence"
Dadrian presents. In Footnote 25, an unnamed Turkish officer is supposed to have made
statements, as presented in an Armenian propaganda report? (Entitled, "Les
massacres d'Armenie..." from a publication in an enemy nation, France. Is that
supposed to comprise actual "evidence"? Note the date is December 15, 1918,
before the 1919-20 Ottoman kangaroo courts were established. [When the accused had guns
pointed to their heads to come up with culprits, otherwise it would be curtains for the
Turkish nation.] Since the war had ended a mere six weeks ago (Oct. 30, 1918, the
Armistice of Mudros) and it would have taken time to investigate and publish this report,
such an interview with this purported Turk would have likely taken place during wartime.
Even if the account were true, what soldier would have made such statements detrimental to
his country, especially while war was ongoing, to an enemy of his country? Particularly if
the statements were related in such an obviously over-the-top fashion, every single man,
woman, child killed in the most monstrous ways, made to order by an Armenian
propagandist.)
The worst is yet to come in the following footnote, however, as we are expected to accept
the "word" of an Armenian propagandist living in France. Can Dadrian embarrass
himself further? (Of course he can. He follows up in Footnote 26 with the "word"
of the notorious Dashnak terrorist and mass murderer, Armen Garo, the one who bore
responsibility for "burning hamlets and mercilessly putting to the knife all of the
peaceful Mussulman villagers that fell into their hands," (Rafael de Nogales, "Four
Years Beneath the Crescent," 1926), along with a long list of other crimes from
the Ottoman Bank takeover in 1896 to the running of the Nemesis hit squad organization
during the early 1920s. (A caveat: the work listed might have been written by Garo's son,
Hrand Pasdermedjian. However, it is doubtful the son would have used his modest dad's
self-given nickname of "Garo," which means "hero.")
This is not to say Halil Pasha did not order the massacre of the unarmed Armenian soldiers
under his command. But before people of conscience make accusations, particularly of high
crimes, they must rely on genuine evidence; not hearsay. Since all Dadrian has to offer is
hearsay, he feels no compunction in simply making things up, to support his precious
genocide thesis... things like the appearance of Halil Pasha actually confessing.
Halil Pasha's Other
"Confession"
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Let's get to the second "confession" of
Halil Pasha, from his memoirs. To refresh your memory:
On p. 241, Halil is more emphatic: "I have endeavored to
wipe out the Armenian nation to the last individual" ("Son ferdine kadar
yok etmege calistigim Ermeni milleti").
Sounds bad, doesn't it?
Sure sounds bad on the surface, anyway. But as Greek-Cypriot with conscience,
Antonis Angastiniyotis, wrote: If
you want to find more than one reality, you need to constantly dig the soil until
your hands are bloody.
But that kind of thinking would entail integrity, a concept that is apparently pure
anathema to one such as Vahakn Dadrian.
Once again, context is important. And the context of the above comes from a
speech made to cheering Armenians... in Armenia!
You can read about it in the chapter from the book, presented below. You can bet on
one thing: Halil Pasha's meaning had nothing to do with the genocidal implication
Vahakn Dadrian was hoping for his readers to swallow.
What can be said about Vahakn Dadrian? Fortunately, I don't always have to worry
about being diplomatic, and beat around the bush with such terms as "a lack of
scholarly ethics."
Let us call a spade a spade:
Vahakn Dadrian is a first-class liar.
What's more, his morality is at a shockingly low level. Dadrian is willfully
employing his deceptive tactics, with the purpose of making people out to be
murderers. Sure, Halil Pasha is dead and cannot defend himself. Does that excuse
Dadrian from twisting whatever snippets of propaganda and hearsay he can find, in
order to blacken the man's reputation?
Forget about what Dadrian has been committing against this one individual. The
hateful prosecutor has been employing the very same tactics to blacken the honor and
reputation of an entire nation and people. (A nation, not incidentally, that allowed
his family to thrive, a family that "largely survived the genocide.")
Of course, more and more parties are going to find out exactly what kind of a
"scholar" Dadrian is, and his currently acclaimed reputation will one day
be ruined. But the intriguing question to bear in mind is... what do we make of the
countless "scholars" who have simple-mindedly and unquestioningly accepted
the scholarship of Vahakn Dadrian at face value? What will happen to their
reputations?
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The "Armenian" Chapter from Halil Pasha's Memoirs |
ERIVAN
In the morning at 9.00 am, my train stopped in Asmiyetzen where it is not too far
away from Erivan. Armenian governors and commanders were ready to meet me at the
railway station. German General Von Kres also wanted to celebrate the Armenian
government with me and that’s why his train has arrived at the same time with
mine.
I was just leaving the train when the Chief of Tasnaksutyan [Dashnak]
Assembly, Aram Pasha, who I met in Van and has become a friend of mine, entered the
wagon. My old friend that Armenians call as Aram Pasha embraced me while he was
crying.
“Welcome Halil welcome.” With those words he was trying to show his pleasure
sincerely. We alighted from the train. Von Kres just did the same thing. We greeted
each other and then with the presentation of Aram, I met with the Armenian
governors. I had not known them before but they were getting used to knowing me. I
was leaping forward to the middle of certain death again. I controlled my armpit
where my gun is and I have no doubt that I could reach the other gun easily that is
in my belt. Somehow I would find a way.
We had a journey about 2 and half kilometers from the railway station to Erivan. I
took Aram to my car and Von Kres was in another one with the Armenian governors.
While the car was moving, I saw Armenian soldiers that were positioned on both sides
of the road.
“Long live Halil Pasha” They were on the display.
Aram was unsettled and suspicious. He spoke in a whisper to me.”I became Interior
Minister two days ago but the ovens couldn’t meet the demand. Therefore, I got
beaten and my body is ruined. If the troops that are loyal to the government weren’t
on time to keep them away from me, I wouldn’t be in here. Because of starvation,
the government has no authority over the folk. As a conclusion we placed loyal
troops on the roads that we are going to pass and also the most loyal gangs to the
government are located on the mountains that are around the city to protect you. To
summarize, Halil Pasha, we are really in a bad position."
In the city, a mansion for us and another one for Von Kres and his retinues were
reserved. After we settled in the mansion, I was alone for a moment. I told my
retinues what they would need to do if there would be any clash. In any Armenian
attack, we would fight till we have one person left alive.
A little later, protocol visits started. Gently, we visited the Armenian Prime
Minister in the office of President with Von Kres and celebrated them because of
their new, independent government. As we decided with Von Kres before, at night we
would return to Gümrü and Von Kres would move to Tiflis using the same route with
us that passes from Gümrü.
We asked them for their permission to leave politely. They spoke in Armenian between
each other, then Aram Pasha started to talk.
“General Von Kres can abide by his program but we are from the East and according
to those Eastern habits we can not let Halil Pasha go before he would be our guest
at least for one or two nights.”
“Aram Pasha, I have to leave too.”
“I can not let you go Halil Pasha before we put you up at least for one night.”
As other Armenians were too insistent, I had no choice but to stay the night here.
Afterwards, we went to the railway station all together to see Von Kres off. Before
his train departed, he couldn’t keep himself from saying that:
“I am astonished to see in one day you fascinated the Armenians that we were
trying to please for a month. As an ally of yours, I am proud with that situation.
I only answered with a smile.
Actually, to bind Armenians to themselves as they have directly bound Georgians,
Germans made every sort of promises to Armenians and offered them money and
aircraft. Their desire was keeping old grudges against the Turks alive. At such
times, Germans had to act in that way to secure their economical and political
gains.
We saw Von Kres off and returned to the city. Night was coming. A big dining table
was laid in the green garden of municipality. Before the dinner, bottles of raki and
wine were opened. While we were proposing a toast, we heard the sounds of guns going
off. My retinues were restless; their hands were on their guns waiting for my order.
We were ready about what we were going to if there would be any backstab on us.
While the sounds of blowing guns were stopping and restarting, Armenian cavaliers
were sent to those places where the sounds were coming from. That detachment was at
the command of War Minister Nazarberkof. The man giving the orders was General
Nazarberkof that was the Russian general defending the brows of Hay when I entered
to Iran with Kuvve-i Seferiye. We used to be the enemy before, but in one night we
became friends.
Hours passed in the night and everyone was going to be in their beds soon.
“Pasha, tomorrow visiting the Katagisos, the biggest spiritual leader of
Armenians, would be a worthy attitude, would you accept it?” Aram said.
The next midday we would visit the spiritual leader in the Church of Asmetziyen.
Till the morning we didn’t have a comfortable sleep. In the early hours of the
morning, the hum of voices started to come from the outside. At that moment there
was a knock on the door and one of the assistants entered the room with a worried
frown.
“Good morning Pasha, could you look outside, your orders…” The assistant said.
I moved to the window. There were thousands of Armenians in the square.
“Tell my friends to wait for my instructions and to be ready for anything. Don’t
act or do anything out of my orders.”
Anything could have happened but I decided to walk through the paths of dead again
and whenever I decided it before, I was feeling some relief inside me. After I was
dressed and checked my guns, they reported that Aram Pasha had arrived. I found him
a little thrilled.
“Could you make a speech addressed to the Armenian folk?” Aram asked.
I went out and gave the speech. My assistant Selahaddin had recorded the situation
and his notes were as follows.
“At the end of September, 1918 we went to Erivan for the negotiations with the
Armenians. There were negotiations there. There was a square in front of the
building that we were staying at and about fifty to sixty thousand Armenian were
gathered, calling Halil Pasha’s name. Aram, who was the Interior Minister of the
Armenian Government, propsed for Halil Pasha to make a speech to the Armenian folk.
Halil Pasha accepted the offer but I was suspicious. Since the crowd was composed of
Armenians who were taken out of the country and almost all of their families had
died or were wounded, they all were living for vengeance and seeing Halil Pasha as
the man responsible for the deaths. Certainly the folk that believes they suffered
cruelties can do anything to the man perceived as the heartless one. Especially on
that subject, Armenians were bloodthirsty. Perhaps, precautions were taken by the
government but the precautions that were taken by the government couldn’t prevent
people from doing any bad thing if they wanted to do. When we got out of the door to
reach the chair that was placed among the folk, we heard a scream but we weren’t
sure about the cause. Aram was leading the group, and we were following behind him.
Hereafter, I didn’t hope to return alive from there but by the way I was thinking
about how we could save our honour, show them we have the courage to talk in front
of them and we doubtless would do that. I was with Halil Pasha and whenever he
reaches his gun that will cost the attackers. I was watching everything carefully.
When he reached the chair, people reacted with a flood of applause and Halil Pasha
started his speech, addressing them as follows.
“The Armenian folk that cooperated to dethrone a cruel, heartless sultan and to
set up a free and happy country."
"The Armenian folk that I tried to kill to the last person since they tried to
enslave a nation to the enemy in the most terrible and painful days of my country,
the Armenian folk that I am offering peace, comfort since they take refuge of the
Turkish nation’s high mind… If you stick together with the Turkish homeland, I
would do whatever I can for your country but if you obey some group of
unconscientious Armenians who would betray the Turks and their homeland again, I
will give an order to the armies that are surrounding your country to not leave any
Armenians still breathing on the earth. Be more reasonable."
[The original Turkish]
“ Zalim bir padisahi yikmak için ve hür ve mesut bir
vatan kurmak için elbirligi ettigim Ermeni milleti.”
“ Vatanimin en korkunç ve aci günlerinde vatanimi düsmana esir olarak
tarihten silmeye kalktiklari için son ferdine kadar yok etmeye çalistigim Ermeni
milleti, bugün Türk milletinin âlicenapligina sigindigi için huzura ve rahata
kavusturmak istedigim Ermeni milleti. Eger siz Türk Vatani’na sadik kalirsaniz,
size elimden gelen her iyi seyi yapacagim. Eger yine bir takim suursuz
komitacilara takilarak Türk’e ve Türk Vatani’na ihanete kalkarsaniz bütün
memleketinizi saran ordularima emir vererek dünya üstünde nefes alacak tek
Ermeni birakmayacagim, aklinizi basiniza alin.
Köylerinize, evlerinize ailelerinizin saadeti için dönün ve çalisin, zaman
bugünkü yaralari siler.”
Kisacasi aynen naklettigim bu nutuktan sonra müthis bir gürültü ve onunla
beraber bir alkis tufani koptu, kaldigimiz binaya döndük. Ertesi sabah erkenden
Erivan’dan Gümrü’ye hareket ettik. Halil Pasa’ya trenden nasil korkmadan
bu kalabaligin arasina girdigini ve orada Ermenilere bu kadar sert ve aci hitap
edebildigini sordum. Cevabi su oldu:
“ Aram’in teklifini kabul etmemek bir korkaklik olurdu, ortaya çiktiktan
sonra da ürkek bir konusma Türk’ün kahraman ruhuna hürmetsizlik olurdu, ben
de bu kürsüden sag dönecegimi düsünemiyordum fakat serefli bir ölümü
korkakliga tercih ettim…”
“ Pasam, bu asil ani sizinle bir defa daha yasamak isterim…”
“ Selahaddin, zelil yasamaktansa ölmek, iste Türk’ün binlerce senelik
tarihinin tek ifadesi…”
“ Basimi önüme egdim, Halil Pasa’ya derin bir saygi duyuyordum.
[Close]
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The above speech is where
Dadrian derived what he termed an emphatic Hall Pasha's "confession" for
systematic extermination. The translation is not polished in style, and aims strictly
to provide a literal counterpart to the original sentences in Turkish. Thus, "the
Armenian folk that I tried to kill to the last person since they tried to enslave a
nation to the enemy in the most terrible and painful days of my country" became
Dadrian's simple and genocidal "I have endeavored to wipe
out the Armenian nation to the last individual."
Is Dadrian correct to have highlighted this damning segment, and leaving the rest out?
After all, Halil did say that he endeavored to get rid of the Armenians.
I am reminded of Sir Charles Eliot's observation regarding foreign influence upon
Ottoman-Armenians (Turkey in Europe): "'Onward, Christian soldiers,
marching as to war,' in English is a harmless hymn, suggestive of nothing worse than a
mildly ritualistic procession; but I confess that the same words literally rendered
into Turkish do sound like an appeal to Christians to rise up against their Mohammedan
masters."
Similarly, the context in which Halil Pasha made his statement had nothing to
do with a "Final Solution." What he was trying to convey was that "the
Armenians fought by the side of the Allies on all fronts" and were "belligerents
de facto, since they indignantly refused to side with Turkey," as Armenian
leader Boghos Nubar flatly admitted. Halil
Pasha was a soldier; the Armenians had betrayed his country. It is the duty of a
soldier to kill enemies who are trying to kill off his country. And he is expressing
his sentiments in a "culturally dramatic" tone that may be misinterpreted in
the West, along the lines of Eliot's "Onward, Christian soldiers"
example.
The once Ottoman-Armenians who were part of that audience knew what Halil Pasha was
talking about. They knew the only reason why they were in this mess was because of the
madness of their greedy and bloodthirsty Dashnak leaders, as Prime Minister Hovhannes
Katchaznouni admitted in 1923 as a "terrible fact." It was these awful, corrupt leaders who were
misgoverning them, leading them to three wars that they declared or provoked when the
young Armenian nation should have been concentrating on getting her bearings, and who
were causing the people's starvation through the leaders' corruption and neglect. (As
Richard Hovannisian outlined in his
history, prompting Sam Weems to conclude, "The real Armenian genocide was
caused by the Armenian peoples' 'own dictator leaders.'" Hovannisian:
"In 1919, for each 1000 persons in Armenia there were 8.7 births and 204.2
deaths, a net loss of 195.5. It was verily a land of death.") This is
precisely why in Halil Pasha's memoirs, we learn how precarious the position of the
Dashnak government was, when beaten-up Interior Minister Aram Pasha whispered, "Because
of starvation, the government has no authority over the folk.")
These Ottoman-Armenians in the audience likely had tears in their eyes, remembering
the wonderful times they used to enjoy, when the wealthier ones were masters of
Ottoman society... before their crazy leaders screwed everything up for them.
Certainly, Armenian propaganda tells us it was all the Turks' fault — it's always
the Turks' fault — but at that time, the Armenians knew better, and conditions were
too grim to give priority to their propaganda. They knew the truth!
So they met Halil Pasha's "confession" of wiping out the Armenian nation to
the last individual with applause! Of course; they knew that they had fired the first
shot, and it was Halil's soldierly duty to do onto the enemies of his nation before
they did onto his nation. How could they argue with the truth? (Even
"today," an isolated Armenian of integrity can be found who points to this truth. ADDENDUM: How Armenians warmly greeted the Turkish army may
also be determined by the report of this Armenian officer.)
The Armenians did not interpret Halil's words as an admission for a "Final
Solution," and that he was talking about slaughtering innocent Armenian women and
children. They knew that is not what Halil Pasha meant, the same thing as the Andonian
concocted words that were stuck into
Ottoman leaders' mouths, to the effect of "kill every last Armenian man, woman
and child without mercy." What is the final proof of this statement's not
being a "genocidal confession"? It's the fact that Halil Pasha lived to tell
his tale. Imagine a Nazi giving a speech in the newly formed Israel by the end of the
1940s, stating that he tried to eliminate every single Jew. The Nazi would have been
lynched.
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"Return to your villages, homes and your families. Work for their happiness, time
will erase the wounds of the present and the past."
After the speech that I kept notes from, the crowd replied with a flood of applause again
and we returned to the building that we were staying in. Early in the next morning we
moved from Erivan to Gümrü. As I asked Halil Pasha how he could go into the crowd
without fear and make such a sharp, sorrowful speech to the Armenians, he replied that
declining the offer of Aram would be cowardice; after accepting the offer and then
behaving in a cowardly manner would be disrespectful to the heroic spirit of the Turks.
“I didn’t consider returning alive from that chair but I chose an honorable death
instead of a cowardly living.”
“My Pasha, I would like to live those noble moments with you once more.”
“Selahaddin, dying instead of living despicably is the only expression of the one
thousand year history of the Turks.” I agreed with him and I was feeling a deep respect
toward him.”
The speech was done but the danger had still existed. According to the program that was
prepared by the Armenian government, we started to move ahead of the Hazmiyetse Church
that had a three-to-four thousand year history.
Soldiers were still holding both sides of the road and beyond them there were a lot of
Armenians in their crates and in the church square. Most of them had a miserable
appearance due to the starvation caused by the immigrations. This bad scene left tragic
impression on my emotions as it would have on everybody but the truth and main reason for
being in such a bad position is the Armenians that tried to lay low an empire and covet
the domain of the Turkish government, wealth of the Turks instead of a life full with
comfort and earning. If my own citizens had tried to destroy my kingdom, I wouldn’t
hesitate to act in the same way. In fact, we weren’t hesitating to send our own friends
to their providential fates. An empire can not accept a betrayal or negligence.
Finally, we arrived to the church and as we entered the big saloon of Katagisos, the
spiritual leader was waiting in his dressing uniform.
Firstly, I saluted him as a soldier, then sincerely kissed the hands of that long bearded,
ruddy- cheeked, healthy despite his age, respected elder. He also kissed my cheeks; his
eyes were filled with tears.
Katagisos was speaking the Turkish language with the Caucasian dialect. Once we didn’t
understand each other, Karabet Ayiciyan were interpreting. Ayiciyan was one of the
Armenians had received his law education in Istanbul. After his education, he had become a
judicial inspector in Van. During the anarchy in Van, he escaped to Erivan. Katagisos
invited us to the dining table after the conversation. Meat, pilaf and wine were put on
the dining table. As we were eating and drinking, Katagisos found a chance and started to
talk.
“My son, my Halil Pasha we are finding something to eat in order to survive with the
kindness of God but the condition of the scattered people on the roads is so miserable. I
am wondering if any aid from your side is possible.”
I turned to my staff president Basri who was sitting on the right of me.
“What is the reserve stored food of 9th Army?” I asked.
Basri opened his small notebook, looked at one page of it and gave it to me secretly.
According to the records in the book, the food storage can meet the demand of the 9th and
3rd Armies at least for 3 years and the product of the year had been harvesting at the
same time. That means sharing one or two tons of wheat with the Armenians wouldn’t make
a difference for our armies.
“Give me a paper.” Halil Pasha said.
Armenians that are sitting on the table were waiting with a hope with their eyes wide
open. I started to write.
“To the General of the 9th Army Sevki Pasha,
Two hundred tons of cereal will be sent to Hasmiyetze Station immediately and will be
delivered to the Armenian government. Without losing time, beginning the transportation is
a necessity. -- Halil “
“Send this telegraph; tell them to post it immediately.”
A hand reached and took the telegraph, a man read it and stood up and gave it happily to
an Armenian cavalier. As the Armenian cavaliers and the other cavaliers sided with him
were galloping to the telegraph office, the guns were fired. People were acting as if they
were in a big festival and besides those entire noises the spiritual leader Katagisos was
crying. The feast had been ended.
When we were returning to our mansion in the city, the people were applauding madly and
showing their delight. Hungry people forgot their hatred, probably I wanted to let them
know that the Turkish government can be merciless against the people whom betrayed itself
but even they were the enemies, The Turkish government is so pitiful to people who are
demanding food and calling for aid. We had seen a lot of Turkish warriors who threw their
canteens to the enemy soldiers from their trenches.
Judicial Inspector Karabet Ayiciyan that I have known since the days I had been the
gendarme commander in Van, came and started to talk.
“My Pasha, I couldn’t hear from my family since I left Istanbul three years ago. I
wonder if you can help me…” I desired to ask why he left Istanbul and decided to
betray his country with joining Armenian terrorists in spite of being a Judicial Inspector
but I didn’t want to offend him. Also I sent this telegraph to Istanbul.
“From my account, but without talking about me, pay fifty pieces of gold to Ayiciyan
family living in Bakirköy Zeytinlik, Istanbul. Besides pay one hundred Liras each month
and inform them that Karabet Ayiciyan is alive and healthy in Erivan.”
Istanbul Central Commandership replied immediately and informed me that the order was done
and the family was alive and healthy. When Karabet Ayiciyan heard the news, he beamed to
me.
“How could you be such a good person Halil Pasha?” he asked and he went out in a
hurry. I was watching as I remained behind. He saw his friend and started to explain
something excitedly. I couldn’t understand what he said but I could imagine.
On pg. 213 of these memoirs, we
also have this statement by Halil::
" ... [T]here were thousands of Armenians who, through starvation, became
misarable and wretched due to the migration. Like anybody else, this bad sight had
left a painful mark on my feelings..."
( ...MUHACERET SEBEBIYLE acliktan sefil ve perisan olmus binlerce Ermeni bulunuyordu.
Bu kotu manazara, her gorende oldugu gibi benim de insanlik duygularim uzerinde aci
bir iz birakti... )
(Thanks to Hector; Addendum, March, 2007)
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Is it possible that Halil Pasha
was making himself out to be too much of a saint? Well, everyone has an ego, and it
does sound like there was a little whitewashing involved.
His claims, however, are believable, in line as they are with historic Turkish
generosity, tolerance and forgiveness. Look at what this "Eichmann" did:
He performed a personal favor for Karabet Ayijian, as much as he resented the fact
that Ayijian betrayed his country, the country that had treated him well enough for
Ayijian to have built up a huge bank account. (Say! I thought the Turks were
supposed to have stolen the wealth of the Armenians; I wonder why Ayijian's account
was still intact.) More importantly, when Halil Pasha's country was in the throes of
famine, he diverted food to alleviate the suffering of the starving Armenians. If
there was diverting to do, he could have chosen to divert this precious surplus to
the starving people of his own devastated nation.
Halil Pasha, often identified as the uncle of Enver Pasha (the reason: Enver was one
of the "Evil Triumvirate," thus his relative must have also been guilty by
association, and similarly evil; another maligned relative was Enver’s
brother-in-law, Jevdet Bey, the governor of Van, whom Armenian propaganda states
nailed horseshoes onto Armenian feet) emerges as a soldier, a patriot and a man of
honor. A far cry from the monster that Dadrian and his fellow propagandists have
tried to paint him as.
Naturally, it is the duty of Armenian propaganda to portray the Turks as subhuman,
comic book villains, and to smear any non-Turk exhibiting the audacity to treat
Turks with a little fairness... such as the great American, Admiral Mark Bristol. In
his paper detailing how the
Tweedledee to Dadrian's Tweedledum, Prof. Richard Hovannisian, is also basically a
"liar," Prof. Heath Lowry wrote that Bristol had paid several historic
visits to Armenia, holding meetings with President Khatisian, which Hovannisian had
ignored in his history books, at least until that time. Lowry asked, "How
then do we account for Hovannisian’s silence in regard to this important event in
this crucial period of the Republic’s history? I would submit... that it stems
from an obvious Iack of objectivity in his approach." (If Hovannisian paid
note, in other words, he would have had — for one thing — to admit Bristol was
not the "Turcophile" that propagandists charge Bristol as being, in an
effort to discredit him.)
Similarly, what do we make of the fact that Dadrian completely ignored the details
of this historic visit of an important Turkish commander, to the newly created state
of Armenia? (Do not be surprised if other Armenian "historians" such as
Richard Hovannisian similarly ignored the episode, which must clearly be documented
in the Armenian archives and other sources.) These unscrupulous "scholars"
will do anything to try and hide information going against their genocide thesis.
The fact that Halil Pasha was greeted with applause, the fact that Halil Pasha
demonstrated compassion for the Armenians... these are lethal examples of
information for propagandists concerned with showing that the Turks were and still
are all little Hitlers.
That is why Vahakn Dadrian made absolutely no mention of the details of Halil's
"Erivan" chapter, nothing to brush aside in the history of the new
nation's development phase. Dadrian only singled out parts of two sentences, taken
way out of context, to demonstrate the evilness of Halil Pasha. Dadrian engaged in
this "scholarly technique" deliberately, since he obviously read the
entire book.
Is this hateful man simply immoral, or is he amoral? Does he know the difference
between right and wrong? Only Dadrian knows the answer in his charcoal heart, of
course. The more relevant question, as posed before, is: why do so many
"scholars" pay attention and keep paying attention to this highly
dishonest source?
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Vahakn Dadrian was introduced in TAT's Armenian Professors page
See also: Vahakn Dadrian's Genocidal Evidence
The Key Distortions and
Falsehoods in the Methods of the Zoryan Institute
Vahakn Dadrian Objects to Guenter Lewy
Vahakn Dadrian Objects to Edward Erickson
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