Editorial by Ambassador of Turkey in US and a reply by an American citizen
O. Faruk Logoglu -- Ambassador of Turkey in US
REESE CLEGHORN Washington, D.C.
Logoglu
As Armenian calls for recognition of their tragedy grow louder, Turks around the world are also remembering, albeit in a silent manner. They recall not only their forebears who perished during the same years in war-torn Anatolia but also compatriots targeted by Armenian terrorists in the 1970s and '80s.
CLEGHORN
[...] the ambassador seeks sympathy for Turks as if they were equally wronged. It was all a result of wartime diseases and famine and "the Armenian revolt in the Eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire, in which hundreds of thousands of Turks and Armenians died." And then this, an astonishingly mendacious thing to write: "We should ... acknowledge the grief and sadness felt by present generations of Armenians over the terrible losses suffered by their parents and grandparents. The same compassion must be extended to the Turkish people."
Mr. Logoglu certainly knows better. Even the Turkish government archives show how the Ottoman Turkish government planned and carried out the massacres of the Armenians because of their race and Christian religion, "ethnically cleansing" the heavily Armenian provinces in the East and other parts of Turkey, including Istanbul, with the loss of an estimated 1.5 million Armenian lives.
The ambassador mentions some Armenian revenge assassinations of Turkish officials in the 1970s and '80s -- abominable events, to be sure. He does not mention assassinations of guilty Turkish officials more than a half-century earlier. The story of Soghomon Tehlirian suggests why. He shot and killed the former interior minister and planner of the genocide, Talaat Pasha, in Berlin in 1921. Tehlirian's sisters had been raped and his brother beheaded; his parents had died on a death march that killed tens of thousands of Armenians. Before shooting Talaat, he shouted: "This is to avenge the death of my family."
[...]
Many Americans knew what was happening in 1915 and thereabouts and tried to help, but too late. They included Theodore Roosevelt, who criticized Woodrow Wilson for not sending troops into Turkey to fight to save the Armenians.[...].
[...]
In due time, I hope, Turkey will be a member of the EU and by then will have firmly emplaced democratic government and First Amendment freedoms. But it would be another atrocity if that happens before Turkey accepts, as any European nation should, its responsibility for the massacres. Can we imagine Germany as a EU member if it denied the Holocaust and asked equal sympathy for Germans and Jews because of what happened?
Note: Above are excerpts from articles which appear on:
http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20050502-094118-2216r.htm
http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20050507-111847-6968r.htm
Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...].The bold emphasis is mine.
REESE CLEGHORN Washington, D.C.
Logoglu
As Armenian calls for recognition of their tragedy grow louder, Turks around the world are also remembering, albeit in a silent manner. They recall not only their forebears who perished during the same years in war-torn Anatolia but also compatriots targeted by Armenian terrorists in the 1970s and '80s.
CLEGHORN
[...] the ambassador seeks sympathy for Turks as if they were equally wronged. It was all a result of wartime diseases and famine and "the Armenian revolt in the Eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire, in which hundreds of thousands of Turks and Armenians died." And then this, an astonishingly mendacious thing to write: "We should ... acknowledge the grief and sadness felt by present generations of Armenians over the terrible losses suffered by their parents and grandparents. The same compassion must be extended to the Turkish people."
Mr. Logoglu certainly knows better. Even the Turkish government archives show how the Ottoman Turkish government planned and carried out the massacres of the Armenians because of their race and Christian religion, "ethnically cleansing" the heavily Armenian provinces in the East and other parts of Turkey, including Istanbul, with the loss of an estimated 1.5 million Armenian lives.
The ambassador mentions some Armenian revenge assassinations of Turkish officials in the 1970s and '80s -- abominable events, to be sure. He does not mention assassinations of guilty Turkish officials more than a half-century earlier. The story of Soghomon Tehlirian suggests why. He shot and killed the former interior minister and planner of the genocide, Talaat Pasha, in Berlin in 1921. Tehlirian's sisters had been raped and his brother beheaded; his parents had died on a death march that killed tens of thousands of Armenians. Before shooting Talaat, he shouted: "This is to avenge the death of my family."
[...]
Many Americans knew what was happening in 1915 and thereabouts and tried to help, but too late. They included Theodore Roosevelt, who criticized Woodrow Wilson for not sending troops into Turkey to fight to save the Armenians.[...].
[...]
In due time, I hope, Turkey will be a member of the EU and by then will have firmly emplaced democratic government and First Amendment freedoms. But it would be another atrocity if that happens before Turkey accepts, as any European nation should, its responsibility for the massacres. Can we imagine Germany as a EU member if it denied the Holocaust and asked equal sympathy for Germans and Jews because of what happened?
Note: Above are excerpts from articles which appear on:
http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20050502-094118-2216r.htm
http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20050507-111847-6968r.htm
Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...].The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 9:52 PM
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