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FOREWORD
On Page 1, paragraph 3 of a letter
dated April 6, 2005; addressed to the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan of the Turkish Republic; and circulated on May 17, 2005 by the
Armenian National Congress of America (ANCA) ; President Robert Melson,
Vice President Israel Charny and Secretary-Treasurer Steven Jacobs of the "International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS)" claimed that
- "On April 24, 1915, under cover of World War I, the Young
Turk Government of the Ottoman Empire began a systematic genocide of
its Armenian citizens- an unarmed Christan minority population. More
than one million Armenians were exterminated through direct killing,
starvation, torture and forced death marches. Another million fled into
permanent exile. Thus an ancient civilization was expunged from its
historic homeland of 2500 years."
This claim summarizes, in a nutshell,
the century-long defamation campaign against the Republic of Turkey, against her citizens, against
their forefathers and their posterity, and against the Turkish National
Heritage in general.
The claim can be broken down into its essential
elements as follows:
-
In 1915, the Armenian subjects of the Ottoman Empire were living in their 2500 year-old historic homeland;
-
Their number exceeded 2 million:
-
They were unarmed; and
-
The machinery of the Young Turk Government of the Ottoman
Empire exterminated or exiled them, for no other reason than they were
Christian and Armenian.
In order to refute the claim, each and every one of the 4 statements
above must be proven wrong based on historical evidence. Fortunately, available evidence points unequivocally to the facts that:
-
The Armenian Plateau was the historic homeland of nobody;
-
In 1915, the total Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire did
not exceed 1 million; not more than 700,000 of these were relocated, of whom around 400,000 were
accounted for in Allied-held territories at the end of WWI; -
The Armenians were neither innocent nor unarmed; and
-
There is not a single authentic document that proves that the
Young Turk Government centrally planned, out of bare malice, the extermination of the Armenians.
Furthermore, there is convincing evidence that:
-
The people who have been parading for centuries as "Armenians" are
not even that, nor is their country "Armenia". Their historically accurate name is Hayik, and their
country’s is Hayastan. That is how the world should call them. -
The only Armenian Genocide is the genocide that has been
committed, and is still being committed, by the Armenians against the Muslim population of Turks, Azeris, Kurds and Tartars.
On the following pages, we attempt to address each one of these
points in the light of original archival documents. The information is intended for everybody to use freely in their
verbal and written communications for the defense of the Turkish National honor.
Next: Historical Background