By Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey, Pravda.Ru, Mathaba
One vector in the Syrian crisis which seems to be ignored by the international media is the question of the rise of Turkey as a regional power-broker. Let us therefore remember who and what Turkey is, what it is responsible for and examine its past history in the area. It is certainly not very pleasant. Key word? Genocide.
“The Turkish denial [of the Armenian Genocide] is probably the foremost example of historical perversion. With a mix of academic sophistication and diplomatic thuggery — of which we at Macquarie University have been targets — the Turks have put both memory and history into reverse gear.”
- Prof. Colin Tatz, Director, Centre for Comparative Genocide Studies
The first genocide of the twentieth century was the Armenian Genocide: “The Armenian Genocide, the first genocide of the 20th Century, occurred when two million Armenians living in Turkey were eliminated from their historic homeland through forced deportations and massacres between 1915-1918”.(1)
“It was not war. It was most certainly massacre and genocide, something the world must remember… We will always reject any attempt to erase its record, even for some political advantage.”
Yossi Beilin – Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister. April 27, 1994 on the floor of the Knesset in response to a TV interview of the Turkish Ambassador
Other research sets the toll even higher: “From 1900 to 1923, various Turkish regimes killed from 3,500,000 to over 4,300,000 Armenians, Greeks, Nestorians, and other Christians”. (2)
In fact, the genocide started well before this time. It has been estimated that under Sultan Abdul Hamid, between 1894 and 1896, over 100,000 Armenians had been slaughtered in their villages after levying special taxes on them for being Christians.
“The Ottoman Empire should be cleaned up of the Armenians and the Lebanese. We have destroyed the former by the sword, we shall destroy the latter through starvation.” Enver Pasha – One of the triumvirate rulers publicly declared on 19 May 1916…
In 1939, Hitler told his generals: “Thus for the time being I have sent to the East only my ‘Death’s Head Units’ with the orders to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish race or language. Only in such a way will we win the vital space that we need. Who still talks nowadays about the Armenians?”
The Turks, in fact, invaded and annexed a vast part of the territory of Armenia, the world’s first Christian nation. Claims that Mount Ararat is “Turkish” are proof of this, because Ararat was and remains Armenian.
