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The Other Side of the Falsified Genocide

 

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 Sometimes the rabidly pro-Armenian New York Times would get confused and publish the rare article fairly examining Turco-Armenian issues. The inevitable reply would never be far behind, and what follows is such a sequence from 1894.

Holdwater's comments have been footnoted. (Thanks to Gokalp for the clippings.)

 

 
THE ARMENIAN QUESTION.



THE ARMENIAN QUESTION.

The New York Times, Pg. 4, February 15, 1894


The work of the Armenian revolutionists, to which we referred a few weeks since, is already bearing fruit. We may indeed question the absolute accuracy of news from Asia Minor that comes to us via Vienna and London. The story of 125 killed and 340 wounded at Yuzgat may be very heavily discounted, as may also most of the statements that come in that roundabout way. As a matter of fact, the Yuzgat riots occurred last November and were reported at that time. The repetition of the same report now is simply a move in the revolutionist campaign by which when there is nothing new something old is raked up, so that the Armenian and European public may not allow their horror at the outrages of "the unspeakable Turk" to grow less. [1]

That "Question" Again.

We might well pass them in silence but for the fact that they furnish occasion for some well-meaning but badly informed persons to make attacks upon the Administration for its refusal to lend itself in any way to a perfectly hopeless and utterly unjustifiable attack upon a Government with which we are at peace.

We say unjustifiable advisedly. We do not forget for a moment the wrongs committed by Turkish Governors upon defenseless subjects. We do not condone in the least the outrages by predatory Kurds upon Armenian villages, for which the Turkish Government has meted out no just punishment. We do not ignore the fact that the Government has steadily sought to hamper the work of American missionaries resident in Turkey. We do not deny that in its treatment of certain naturalized American citizens it has been unnecessarily harsh and has thus merited remonstrance from our Government such as has evidently been made, even if the report of Minister Terrell's threat to bombard Iskanderum be incorrect, as in all probability it is. [2]

Our contention is that in case of incendiarism and revolution, no Government, least of all our own, can afford, even in appearance to indorse such movements as those of the Armenian revolutionists. [3] What are the facts in the case? There is a body of such revolutionists in this country, holding constant communication with associates in Turkey. Those associates in Turkey are engaged in wholesale attempts, by assassination and pillage, to involve this Government in difficulties with the Turkish Government. [4] The very men whose photographs were displayed in this city a few weeks since, and who were lauded to the skies as martyrs, having already assassinated fellow-countrymen, were sharers in a plot to assassinate two Armenian teachers in the mission college at Marsovan and an American missionary. [5] The plot was discovered, and these men met their death in a fight with the Turkish police, acting in defense of other Armenians and the missionaries. It is a fact that the Turkish Governor of Marsovan restrained, at considerable effort, the Moslem community, bitterly incensed by unjust charges made by these revolutionists, and ready for an attack upon all Christians. [6] Similar statements come to us from various sources.

The situation is critical. Not only the Armenians, who, as we have said, are in the main peaceable, but the Turkish Government, are between two fires. [7] On the one hand, a band of Russian Nihilists, one of whom was among the killed at Marsovan last Fall, are preaching their gospel of assassination and pillage all over the empire. [8] On the other, lawless Kurds, under the practical protection of Turkish underofficials, are taking advantage of the situation to work their will upon the Christians, and even the more law-abiding element of the Turkish peasantry, incensed beyond endurance, are in danger of a general uprising. [9] Under such circumstances, the Turkish Government comes to this Government, asking its assistance in keeping these incendiaries and assassins out of its country. It makes no statement that all Armenians who carry American passports belong to this class, but claims its right, in the difficulty of distinguishing between them, to keep all alike out of its borders, at least until the present crisis is past. Furthermore, it presents its claim, a claim disputed by no one, that any subject who, after taking out naturalization papers in another country, returns to his native land as a resident thereby, makes his naturalization void, and forfeits every claim upon his adopted country. [10]

To such claim there can be only one answer on the part of any honorable Government, and that answer was given by President Cleveland in his message. [10a] Undoubtedly, in carrying out such a principle individual cases of hardship will occur, and it is the duty of our Government to do what it can to relieve them. We believe that it has this duty in mind. It may very well be that Minister Terrell, having no previous diplomatic experience and having so recently gone to Constantinople, is not perfectly cognizant of all the bearings of each case. But that is not his fault; it is the misfortune arising from the conditions of our diplomatic service, and one which will be likely to recur at any time until we see fit to change our whole method of diplomatic appointment. [11]

The thing to be done now is for the Armenians who are here to make it unmistakably evident that they are not in collusion or in sympathy with the men who are carrying murder and violence into the interior towns and villages of Turkey. Let them break up this Huntchaguist and similar movements, and then they will find Americans of all classes earnestly supporting them in their efforts to improve the condition of their suffering people. [12] We notice that one point made against the position of our Government is that it is hostile to the efforts of the missionaries, and will prevent the return of Armenians as missionaries. This is the purest nonsense. It is, in truth, the only safeguard for the Americans there resident as missionaries, and as for Armeno-American missionaries, the less of them the better. No man who ignores his own nationality can ever hope to be a power for good among his people.

 



1. Is not this opening paragraph absolutely remarkable? Not only is the astute writer giving blame where blame is due (the Armenian revolutionists), but he is providing the extremely rare fact (rare especially for the rabidly pro-Armenian New York Times) that atrocity numbers have been exaggerated, and the astounding revelation that the purpose for such lies is to maintain racist hatred against Turkish people! (One primary factor involved in the omnipresent anti-Turkish propaganda today, although hardly anyone acknowledges it; the license to hate Turks is still in no danger of expiring, much as well over a century has elapsed since the appearance of this article.)

2. This reminds me of Guenter Lewy's excellent book, The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide. Over and over, whenever Prof. Lewy wrote something critical of Armenians, he often followed up with a disclaimer regarding how we must still remember the Turks were bad as well. Perhaps Prof. Lewy hoped to forestall the typical accusations that were sure to follow, trying to preserve his truly neutral status. (A strategy that was doomed to failure; any historian who tells the truth about the Armenians will always be accused of being a tool of the Turkish government, a denier, or what-have-you.) Similarly, the writer of this article knew he was at a disadvantage in an atmosphere emphasizing the Turks as less-than-human animals. Since he had the courage to go against the hatred and lies, he still had to cover himself by reminding readers that, yes, Turks are "bad."

As an additional point, it is interesting that the Turks should have been criticized for "hamper[ing] the work of American missionaries resident in Turkey"; did the missionaries have a God-given right to go anywhere on earth to perform their corruption and mischief on simple, impressionable folks? The tolerant and liberal Ottoman Empire deserves much credit for having allowed these hostile Christian forces into their country in the first place, and to stir the waters as they have.

3. Shall we repeat the unimpeachable nature of that statement, ladies and gentlemen, common sense and truth that gets lost in "genocide" discussions? Here we go: "Our contention is that in case of incendiarism and revolution, no Government, least of all our own, can afford, even in appearance to indorse such movements as those of the Armenian revolutionists."

4. Ye Gads, can you believe it? The rare truth being told, that Armenian colonists made a point to move to the United States, not because they were in love with the United States, but in full awareness of the protection their "Yankee" status would provide, when they continued their nefarious activities in support of Hai Tahd, the Armenian Cause.

5. Armenian terrorists "lauded to the skies as martyrs." Well, some things never change! Similarly, as Armenian terrorists caused their worldwide spree of murder and destruction during the 1970s-80s, Armenian communities throughout the diaspora would regard these criminals as the greatest heroes. When pressure and prejudice forced wussy nations as France to prematurely release the few Armenian terrorists who got caught, Armenia would welcome the criminals as national heroes. Another "Secret of the 'Christian' Terrorist State" is that Armenia would also welcome the remains of their past criminals as the greatest heroes, lauding them "to the skies as martyrs," at the same time.

The Marsovan episode was covered in another newspaper report here, as well as others on the same page, oddly dated the next year. Perhaps there were other intrigues at the American college in Marsovan, as unlikely as that sounds.

6. Admissions that the Turkish authorities actually worked to safeguard Armenians and missionaries. It's cause for a heart attack! This kind of truth was practically unheard of, and it is especially ironic that such truth would have appeared in The New York Times. And then there is an example of the almost-inhuman capacity for Turks to restrain themselves, in the face of the worst injustices.

7. "Not only the Armenians, who, as we have said, are in the main peaceable, but the Turkish Government, are between two fires." It's outrageous! Yes, absolutely; not only did the main body of the Ottoman-Armenian community oppose the villainies of the fanatical revolutionists (an attitude that was barely curbed in this early period of 1894; but give another generation, and most of the Ottoman-Armenian community, either through choice or terroristic coercion, would join the terror movement heart and soul), but the Ottoman government was caught between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, it was the government's duty to maintain law and order, and to preserve the peace. On the other hand, disorder was the excuse enemy European imperialists were eager to exploit, in order to sicken the Sick Man further, in hopes of gaining its riches. And the Armenian revolutionists were all too aware of this sickening fact, trying that time-honored Turkish restraint and tolerance time and time again.

8. The "Loyal Nation" of Ottoman-Armenians, prosperous and in effect the masters of Ottoman society (most of the wealth was in their hands), had no complaints to speak of, for the most part. The ones who screwed them and everyone else were Armenians who originated mainly from outside the country.

9. While it is true some Kurdish tribes made life hell for rural Armenians, as the Kurds made life hell for others (including fellow Kurds), the propaganda point of Armenian suffering under Kurds was surely overplayed. Most Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were urbanized, for one thing. Of peasant Armenians who were not, one who was in the position to know (Russian consul, General Mayewski) has logically told us: Armenians "should not be regarded as continually under the threat of Kurdish attacks. If such allegations had been true not a single Armenian would have survived in the region."

10. As a point of reference, of the 66,000 Ottoman-Armenians who came to America from 1834 to 1914, the mid-1890s served as the period where immigration stepped up. (12,500 arrived from 1891-1898, and the bulk, almost 52,000, followed from 1899-1914, as sourced by Robert Mirak, in his “Armenian Emigration to the United States to 1915,”Journal of Armenian Studies, I/1, 1975,, pp. 5-42.) These were the days before double-citizenship was allowed, and of course those who were naturalized in their new countries were expected to do away with loyalties to their old countries. This was not the case for most Armenians, and it's to this honest Times journalist's credit to have acknowledged it.

10a. President Grover Cleveland's response to this issue in his December 4th, 1893 State of the Union message to the U.S. Congress (available in its entirety at presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29534):

Turkey complains that her Armenian subjects obtain citizenship in this country not to identify themselves in good faith with our people, but with the intention of returning to the land of their birth and there engaging in sedition. This complaint is not wholly without foundation. A journal published in this country in the Armenian language openly counsels its readers to arm, organize, and participate in movements for the subversion of Turkish authority in the Asiatic provinces. The Ottoman Government has announced its intention to expel from its dominions Armenians who have obtained naturalization in the United States since 1868.

The right to exclude any or all classes of aliens is an attribute of sovereignty. It is a right asserted and, to a limited extent, enforced by the United States, with the sanction of our highest court. There being no naturalization treaty between the United States and Turkey, our minister at Constantinople has been instructed that, while recognizing the right of that Government to enforce its declared policy against naturalized Armenians, he is expected to protect them from unnecessary harshness of treatment.


11. Minister Terrell appears to have been an honorable and competent man for the most part (not that he didn't have his prejudices either), and it is interesting that the writer is giving the impression that Terrell might have been misled.

12. Expect the Armenian rank and file to speak ill of, or not be in sympathy with their terrorists? Good luck!




TURKEY AND THE ARMENIANS.


As usual, The New York Times fell over itself to publish the inevitable reply to the rare "pro-Turk" (that is, "pro-Truth") report, accommodating this time a response that was almost twice as long as the original. In typical extremist Armenian fashion, the respondent claimed anything and everything to dig his "Cause" out of the hole of dishonesty, and the following must be read to be believed. (Not to say this offering is much different than the typical exercise in Armenian mendacity, but this one offers a little more amusement value, even capping off with the shameless statement, "All I have said is true.")



The New York Times, Pg. 3, March 19, 1894


TURKEY AND THE ARMENIANS.

The So-Called Hentchakist Society a Government Trick.



To the Editor of The New York Times:
In your Issue of the 15th ult. there was a leading article under the heading "The Armenian Question," which was somewhat hostile to the interests of the Armenian-Americans, but still your good will toward them was visible. I noticed that, although you pity the Armenians for their unjust sufferings at the hands of the Turkish Government and savage Kurdish hordes, you cannot quite sympathize with them, [13] because, according to some information you seem to have received about the Armenians, you consider their behavior and actions toward Turkey nothing less than Anarchistic and murderous. [14]

Hunchaks a Government Trick!

As it appears, you have been informed that Armenians in Turkey have arisen in rebellion against the Turkish Government, and are carrying on an endless work of horrible crimes, assassinations, murders, and pillages, and that, in short, they have put the country under a reign of terror. It seems that you have further been informed that these outrages are being perpetrated by a great organization of Armenians called the Hentchakist Society, which has a mighty branch in America, and that most of the Armenians in this country are active members in it, and are vigorously striving to help their numerous accomplices in Turkey to keep under fire the population and Government of that country. [15]

Perhaps you will be surprised when I say that the Hentchakist is, in fact, nothing but the wicked invention of the wily Turk, by which he has succeeded to a great extent in confusing the Armenian question [16], and in giving it the aspect of an Anarchistic movement against the wealthy people of the country.

Fuad Pasha, the Bismarck of the Turks, who was Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire some thirty-five years ago, said, "Our forefathers fell into a great error; either they ought to have put to the sword all the Christians that were in the lands that they conquered, or they ought to have forced them to accept the Moslem faith." Since that sentiment was uttered the Turks have been ardently striving to correct the error of their forefathers. [17] As they see that in this country they are unable to force their Christian subjects to accept the Moslem faith, they have adopted a policy of annihilating them by massacres, imprisonment, and other means. The horrible massacres of the Bulgarians some eighteen years ago cannot be soon forgotten. Had not Russia stepped forward in time, the Turks would have annihilated the little Bulgarian Nation. [18] The Turk is a short-sighted being; he cannot see the future; he loses no opportunity to massacre Christians under any pretenses, and believes that the less the number of Christians in Turkey, the more the chances are for him to keep hold of his possessions. The only fear the Turk has is from the public opinion in the West and the North, and he tries to give it satisfaction by circulating false stories of Armenian uprisings when he is massacring peaceful people.[19]

This short-sighted policy has moved Turkey to treat her Christian subjects in such a manner that it has often called forth the wide attention of European powers, especially that of Russia, which now and then extends a hand of deliverance to the oppressed Christians of Turkey, and every time rewards herself with a portion of the Sick Man's dominion, and thus takes another step toward capturing Constantinople. [20]

As I have said, the Hentchakist is an invention of the Turk. Nobody knows who is the leader of the society. The society is not a united body. It consists of some lodges in cities outside of Turkey, who communicate with the editor of the Hentchak, who is personally unknown to any of its members. [21] This society was founded in a peculiar way. About six years ago one or more adventurers hired by the Turkish Government started an Armenian monthly journal of eight small pages in Athens, Greece, with the name Hentchak. (Bell.) It was the first of its kind in the Armenian language. [22] It advocated Socialism—a Socialistic form of government in Turkey for the welfare of its population. It was altogether inconsistent with what is required for the people of Turkey and for Armenians. Armenians have not any Socialistic complaints; no capitalists, no land questions, no labor questions—in short, they have nothing that has anything to do with Socialistic doctrines. All they want is not to be robbed, murdered, unjustly imprisoned, or obstructed to their trading ventures, to be free to worship their own God in their own way, and to have a court of justice where they can be on equal footings with Mohammedans, and where the Judge does not extort money from them.

All those Armenians that knew what Socialism was at first laughed at the idea of introducing it to the Armenians. After the publication of this paper was begun, whenever the representatives of the European powers asked for an explanation for certain outrages committed on Armenians by the Turkish Government, the Porte showed them the Hentchak and said: "Like Germany and France, we are also troubled by Socialists and Anarchists, and are doing our best to suppress them and to preserve order, and, as you see, this is the organ of our Anarchists." The representatives of foreign powers held their tongues with apparent satisfaction. This encouraged the Turkish officials, and joyfully they repeated the old Turkish saying: "The Sublime Porte can capture a rabbit with a chariot." Whenever the Turkish Government makes wholesale arrests of Armenians on alleged suspicions, The Hentchak immediately publishes a list of the names of the arrested and tells its readers that those persons were Hentchakists, and were conspiring a great plot against the Government, but, unfortunately, they were discovered and arrested. By doing this it places the arrested victims in such an embarrassing position that their case becomes hopeless in a Turkish court; after that the Porte can impose upon them any kind of punishment, and if an explanation is demanded by the British or Russian Ambassadors at Constantinople, the Turk replies that he is punishing them for conspiring against the public peace, and as an undeniable proof shows them the Hentchak. By this treachery The Hentchak not only renders great service to the Turkish Government in its work of annihilating Armenians, but also, singularly enough, gains the affections and sympathy of some simple-minded Armenians of the ignorant class by convincing them the Hentchak has a great organization laboring in secret for the welfare of the public in Turkey, and that those that have been discovered and arrested are but few out of many.

In reality there is no such thing as Hentchakist revolutionists. There are no Henchakists in Turkey that do anything hostile to the Porte, neither is there any other organization of Armenians for such purposes. [23]

As all nations, so also the Armenians have an ignorant class of people, some of whom are so simple-minded as to put faith in such stories [24] and contribute money for the Hentchakist revolution, which they send to the mysterious editor of the Hentchak. The list of all these contributions is published in The Hentchak, the total of which does not reach the amount of $2,000 per annum. [25] The people who make such contributions are too ignorant to realize what they do. They have no idea of what Socialism means. When they read of Socialism in The Hentchak they think it means nothing but peace in Turkey and protection of the rights of Armenians. There are Hentchakist lodges in some cities outside of Turkey composed of this sort of simpletons, who do nothing else but hold meetings, make speeches, collect a few hundred cents, and send them to the editor of The Hentchak; beyond that they know nothing and do nothing. Their belief is that if they send their pennies to The Hentchak, The Hentchak will do the rest. The greatest of these lodges is the one in New York City, with a membership of seven persons of the most illiterate class. [26] They not only don't know English, but even don't know their own mother tongue.

The Turkish Government has been making a big fuss about these Hentchakist revolutionists, and under pretense of fearing them is heaping all sorts of injustices upon the peaceful Armenians. [27] And it has lately attempted to keep out of its borders all Armenians that have become naturalized citizens of the United States, with the excuse that during the present confusion (!) It is very difficult to distinguish which of them belongs to that terrible society (!) and which of them does not; so that, for the sake of preservation of peace in Turkey, it has been compelled to banish them all. [28]

No wonder that as a result of all these tricks of the "unspeakable Turk," some Americans have been horrified by the monstrous crimes and misdeeds of the Armenians, of which they hear through the Turkish agents, and have condemned them as Nihilists, incendiaries, assassins, &e. But we want to be treated fairly. I assure you that for the followers of the Hentchak are too ignorant to know what they do, and are so simple that they are but harmless creatures. [29] The leader of the New York lodge, who is supposed to be their Johann Most, is employed as a porter in the warehouse of one of the leading Armenian merchants of Oriental goods in this city, and his master not for a moment doubts his faithfulness. It is a farce on the part of Turkey to exclude from her shores all American Armenians on the ground of fearing from a handful of miserable creatures.

No intelligent Armenian can have any sympathy with the Hentchak. [30] We hate it as a mean traitor and a tool in the hands of the Turkish Government. It is even doubtful whether the editor of The Hentchak is an Armenian at all. The Armenian language he uses in his paper is unlike any. It is a new jargon, being a mixture of Armenian, French, German, Turkish, Greek, Russian, and a little of everything. Its followers are also gradually seeing that they have been deceived: the advice of their friends is helping them in their vision, and Hentchakist lodges are slowly but surely dying out. Let the Americans know that the Hentchakist is not an Armenian society, and that Armenians denounce it. All I have said is true . P.H. VARTOOGUIAN. new York, March 15, 1894

 




13. While hateful and genocide-obsessed Armenians who otherwise can't get a life are entitled to all of our pity (as Admiral Bristol expressed in his letter to Rev. James Barton: “I am not disgusted with the Armenians, and I pity them"), what Armenians are really after, as usual, is "sympathy."

14. There were Armenians who harbored an "Anarchistic and murderous" attitude toward their Ottoman government? Why, that's slanderous!

15. Generally speaking, pretty valid and accurate information, to be sure; yet deadly, if such were allowed to spread on a wide scale basis to fellow Christians the Armenians have relied upon, for their precious "sympathy." This is why our faithful Armenian author must do whatever in his power to dispel the truth from spreading further.

16. In the annals of Armenian trickery, surely this episode must contend for one of the top prizes. Can you imagine? The Hunchaks have now become an "agent of the Turkish government."

Reminds me of when Armenians got caught with their pants down during their 1992 invasion of Karabakh, offering the Western world an extremely rare glimpse of the Armenians' massacring ways, endangering the Armenians' precious "Myth of Innocence." (Innocence is a necessity in order to gain sympathy. Murdering actual innocents makes it very difficult to engage in the all-important sympathy commodity.) So what did the Armenians do? They claimed it was the Azeris who murdered and mutilated their own!

Of course there are honorable Armenians, but why do too many Armenians go down the path of falsehood so easily? For too many, "patriotism" justifies everything, and it is truly an astounding phenomenon.

17. Since (in good measure) it was the Ottomans' kindness and tolerance that ultimately brought them down, as opposed to other multi-cultural empires who treated their conquered peoples far more ruthlessly, this Fuad Pasha was not without a point. But it is one thing to provide an opinion, and quite another to suggest an opinion would have translated into governmental policy. In order to demonstrate the latter, one needs to deal with that annoying concept known as "factual evidence." In addition, while Fuad Pasha served as one of several Tanzimat reformers, how could he even be mentioned in the same breath as Bismarck... whose name is known for good reason?

18. Rather typical of the Armenian crock Western publications printed without question, isn't it? As though the Russians suddenly appeared to save Bulgaria, and that the Russians did not play a hand in the Bulgarians' insurrection to begin with. The few thousand Bulgarian deaths, not an unusual toll when there is a serious uprising to deal with (the Bulgarians began with the slaughtering), was surely made out to be a case of unprovoked "massacres," while to this day, few are aware of the 262,000 Ottoman Muslims and Jews who were murdered in the hands of the Bulgarians and Russians.

19. Such were the racist and deceptive views widely believed then, and more sadly, still widely believed today.

20. Need it be mentioned that, for centuries, nothing happened to Ottoman-Armenians before they stirred trouble when Russians and other imperialists encouraged them and used them as pawns; and additionally, let's stop pretending that when Russia stepped in, extending a "hand of deliverance" to fellow Christians was hardly at the forefront of their minds.

21. It is possible that in 1894, few "odars," or outsiders, knew the inner workings of the shadowy terrorist organization — a situation rectified in a few short years, when the crazy Hunchaks called attention to their murderous ways in the countries that Armenian colonists had settled. The Hunchaks became very famous in the Western press at the turn of the century. Little more than a decade after the above article saw print, an American newspaper (The Washington Herald) spelled out the name of the publisher of the Hentchakist (Avetis Nazarbekian), so one surmises it couldn't have been such classified information. Not among Armenians, at any rate.

22. Fortunately, a few Armenian historians of at least some integrity (a most rare breed) spelled out the real origins of the Hunchaks, as Louise Nalbandian. It was certainly a united (at least for a while; in 1896, the Hunchaks split into two factions, and in the years ahead, found it difficult to compete with the increasingly popular Dashnaks) and extensive organization. Migirdich Portakalian served as the spark for the Hunchaks' formation (after the revolutionist was booted from Van, and moved to France to publish his Armenia newspaper; nine of his students formed the Armenakan Party in 1885, which probably became the Ramgavar Party); Nazarbekian, a writer for Armenia, his fiancée and four Russian-Armenian students in Geneva established the nationalistic and Marxist Hunchak guidelines by the end of 1886, stressing revolution and terror, and the party was born in August 1887. They sent organizers to the Ottoman Empire, Russia and Iran. The Hunchaks took responsibility for the Kumkapi (their first major operation, in July 1890) and Babiali (1895) demonstrations, as well as the Sassun (1894, where head Hunchak honcho Hamparsum "Murad" Boyadjian had succeeded in inciting thousands) and Zeitun (began by Aghasi in 1895; this is the one where he, in his diary, claimed to have killed 20,000 Turks vs. an Armenian loss of 125) rebellions.

23. We have all heard the expression, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall." While it has an altogether different meaning, we can apply this saying with great success here. As the Nazis realized, not just any lie would do. It was the big lies that often proved the most successful, because people couldn't fathom anyone would lie that shamelessly, so there must be truth to the assertion. Similarly, the creepy propagandist we're examining here felt no compunction over making such a ridiculous assertion, perhaps in the belief that the bigger the lie, the harder it will fall.

24. If the story in question is the "genocide,": then that is one gigantic class of Armenians who exercise their "faith."

25. Let's make a record of that; with all their evil extortions driving many wealthy Armenians to a penniless state, the annual budget of the Hunchaks only amounted to a measly $2,000 a year.

26. Let's make another record: there were only seven Hunchaks in New York City.

27. It wasn't only the Ottoman government who feared these immoral and murderous desperadoes. Even the Armenians' allies, the missionaries, on occasion had their hackles raised. We can read the horrified reaction of Rev. Cyrus Hamlin here, upon his learning of the mentality of a typically dangerous Hunchak. Hamlin also reported that the Hunchaks claimed (in 1893) that they had "branches in every village and city in Armenia, also in the colonies." Hamlin added that the Hunchaks were "causing great evil and suffering to the missionary work and to the whole Christian population of certain parts of the Turkish Empire." (The missionary didn't care about the harm caused to Ottoman Muslims and Jews, of course.)

28. Meanwhile, what these Armenians were doing was getting naturalized as U.S. residents, travelling back to their real home in service of Hai Tahd, poisoning the minds of the yet-to-be-converted other Ottoman-Armenians, and when the Ottoman authorities tried to preserve order, these "American" Armenians would lie out of reach, under the protection of the U.S. government. Pretty crafty!

29. The Hunchaks: "harmless creatures." Now we've heard everything.

30. The first sensible bit the Armenian author has written, much as it was for the wrong reason. (The Hunchaks should not be supported as they are a Turkish tool, you see.) He will go on to actually tell us that "the Hentchakist is not an Armenian society, and that Armenians denounce it. All I have said is true.")


 

 

 




 

 


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THE PURPOSE OF TALL ARMENIAN TALE (TAT)
...Is to expose the mythological “Armenian genocide,” from the years 1915-16. A wartime tragedy involving the losses of so many has been turned into a politicized story of “exclusive victimhood,” and because of the prevailing prejudice against Turks, along with Turkish indifference, those in the world, particularly in the West, have been quick to accept these terribly defamatory claims involving the worst crime against humanity. Few stop to investigate below the surface that those regarded as the innocent victims, the Armenians, while seeking to establish an independent state, have been the ones to commit systematic ethnic cleansing against those who did not fit into their racial/religious ideal: Muslims, Jews, and even fellow Armenians who had converted to Islam. Criminals as Dro, Antranik, Keri, Armen Garo and Soghoman Tehlirian (the assassin of Talat Pasha, one of the three Young Turk leaders, along with Enver and Jemal) contributed toward the deaths (via massacres, atrocities, and forced deportation) of countless innocents, numbering over half a million. What determines genocide is not the number of casualties or the cruelty of the persecutions, but the intent to destroy a group, the members of which  are guilty of nothing beyond being members of that group. The Armenians suffered their fate of resettlement not for their ethnicity, having co-existed and prospered in the Ottoman Empire for centuries, but because they rebelled against their dying Ottoman nation during WWI (World War I); a rebellion that even their leaders of the period, such as Boghos Nubar and Hovhannes Katchaznouni, have admitted. Yet the hypocritical world rarely bothers to look beneath the surface, not only because of anti-Turkish prejudice, but because of Armenian wealth and intimidation tactics. As a result, these libelous lies, sometimes belonging in the category of “genocide studies,” have become part of the school curricula of many regions. Armenian scholars such as Vahakn Dadrian, Peter Balakian, Richard Hovannisian, Dennis Papazian and Levon Marashlian have been known to dishonestly present only one side of their story, as long as their genocide becomes affirmed. They have enlisted the help of "genocide scholars," such as Roger Smith, Robert Melson, Samantha Power, and Israel Charny… and particularly  those of Turkish extraction, such as Taner Akcam and Fatma Muge Gocek, who justify their alliance with those who actively work to harm the interests of their native country, with the claim that such efforts will help make Turkey more" democratic." On the other side of this coin are genuine scholars who consider all the relevant data, as true scholars have a duty to do, such as Justin McCarthy, Bernard Lewis, Heath Lowry, Erich Feigl and Guenter Lewy. The unscrupulous genocide industry, not having the facts on its side, makes a practice of attacking the messenger instead of the message, vilifying these professors as “deniers” and "agents of the Turkish government." The truth means so little to the pro-genocide believers, some even resort to the forgeries of the Naim-Andonian telegrams or sources  based on false evidence, as Franz Werfel’s The Forty Days of Musa Dagh. Naturally, there is no end to the hearsay "evidence" of the prejudiced pro-Christian people from the period, including missionaries and Near East Relief representatives, Arnold Toynbee, Lord Bryce, Lloyd George, Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and so many others. When the rare Westerner opted to look at the issues objectively, such as Admirals Mark Bristol and Colby Chester, they were quick to be branded as “Turcophiles” by the propagandists. The sad thing is, even those who don’t consider themselves as bigots are quick to accept the deceptive claims of Armenian propaganda, because deep down people feel the Turks are natural killers and during times when Turks were victims, they do not rate as equal and deserving human beings. This is the main reason why the myth of this genocide has become the common wisdom.