Insulted By Genocide Story
January 11th, 2006
Embassy,
LETTERS
By Albert Kaprielian Ottawa, ON
Gwynne Dyer's article on Turkey's EU membership prospects, the Orhan Pamuk trial, and the Armenian Genocide does a great disservice to the Armenian people, and insults your professional, international, and educated readers (Re: "A Question of Genocide in Turkey" Embassy Dec. 21, 2005).
To say that "what happened to the Armenians probably does not qualify, in the strict definition of the word, as a genocide" is patently absurd and insulting. The Armenian Genocide is so well documented by unbiased respected irrefutable international sources that to continue the debate is ridiculous.
Missionaries, journalists, photographers, doctors, diplomats, victims, Turkish perpetrators, archival documents, and Turks who helped save Armenians all bear witness to the mass murder of innocent unarmed Armenian civilians on a grand scale. The diary of Talaat Pasha, who was at the time the Interior Minister of the Ottoman Empire, and one of the triumvirate of the Young Turks and chief engineer of the Armenian Genocide, counts over 900,000 dead Armenians and provides the numbers for each province, city, and village, without even mentioning the two large provinces of Erzerum and Van. Clearly the intent was to annihilate an entire ethnic population.
Statements recently made by the International Association of Genocide Scholars confirm the facts of the genocide. Hundreds of articles published in our own Canadian press from the time also bear witness. For example, Le Devoir, in Oct. 1915, under the heading "Armenians Massacred", reported: "Viscount Bryce estimates that some 800,000 were killed in Armenia. This is deliberate and premeditated extermination by the Turkish government." Similarly, some 250 examples demonstrating the same intent were reported in the Halifax Herald (1894-1922), and compiled by Katia Peltekian under the heading "Heralding of the Armenian Genocide" (2000). The Jan. 2006 National Geographic contains a chilling enumeration of genocides that have grown from the ashes of my Armenian ancestors.
Mr. Dyer is a journalist and not an historian. He cannot provide judgment on sensitive issues by relying upon a single source.
As an appreciative reader of your newspaper over the past year, I would expect that Embassy would be interested in fostering good relations between countries and various ethnic peoples of Canada rather than publishing divisive and inflammatory nonsense such as this. Please print an apology.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
Embassy,
LETTERS
By Albert Kaprielian Ottawa, ON
Gwynne Dyer's article on Turkey's EU membership prospects, the Orhan Pamuk trial, and the Armenian Genocide does a great disservice to the Armenian people, and insults your professional, international, and educated readers (Re: "A Question of Genocide in Turkey" Embassy Dec. 21, 2005).
To say that "what happened to the Armenians probably does not qualify, in the strict definition of the word, as a genocide" is patently absurd and insulting. The Armenian Genocide is so well documented by unbiased respected irrefutable international sources that to continue the debate is ridiculous.
Missionaries, journalists, photographers, doctors, diplomats, victims, Turkish perpetrators, archival documents, and Turks who helped save Armenians all bear witness to the mass murder of innocent unarmed Armenian civilians on a grand scale. The diary of Talaat Pasha, who was at the time the Interior Minister of the Ottoman Empire, and one of the triumvirate of the Young Turks and chief engineer of the Armenian Genocide, counts over 900,000 dead Armenians and provides the numbers for each province, city, and village, without even mentioning the two large provinces of Erzerum and Van. Clearly the intent was to annihilate an entire ethnic population.
Statements recently made by the International Association of Genocide Scholars confirm the facts of the genocide. Hundreds of articles published in our own Canadian press from the time also bear witness. For example, Le Devoir, in Oct. 1915, under the heading "Armenians Massacred", reported: "Viscount Bryce estimates that some 800,000 were killed in Armenia. This is deliberate and premeditated extermination by the Turkish government." Similarly, some 250 examples demonstrating the same intent were reported in the Halifax Herald (1894-1922), and compiled by Katia Peltekian under the heading "Heralding of the Armenian Genocide" (2000). The Jan. 2006 National Geographic contains a chilling enumeration of genocides that have grown from the ashes of my Armenian ancestors.
Mr. Dyer is a journalist and not an historian. He cannot provide judgment on sensitive issues by relying upon a single source.
As an appreciative reader of your newspaper over the past year, I would expect that Embassy would be interested in fostering good relations between countries and various ethnic peoples of Canada rather than publishing divisive and inflammatory nonsense such as this. Please print an apology.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 11:33 PM
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