TBMM eski Başkan Vekili Sayın Uluc Gürkan tarafından, Avam Kamarası üyesi Tim Loughton tarafından verilen önergenin reddi amacıyla Avam kamarası üyelerine yazılan mektupların dokuzuncu, onuncu ve onbirincisi (sonuncusu) nin metinlerini aşağıda okuyabilirsiniz. 

Ermeni iddialarının sözde "soykırım" olarak tanınmasına ilişkin  önergenin 18 Mart 2022 de ikinci görüşmesinin yapılması söz konusudur. 

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dokuzuncu mektup

Subject: What happened in 1915 Armenians was a “war tragedy”, not genocide.

Dear Honorable Member of the House of Commons,

Besides Ottoman archives, British, French, Russian and League of Nation’s archived documents confirm that the Ottoman government did not intend to exterminate the Armenians. The 1915 war-time decision on the relocation was since the Armenian armed rebellion and cooperation with the invading Russian army.

Professor of Military History Edward Ericson’s carefully researched study “Ottomans and Armenians” provides irrefutable evidence that the relocation, planned as a military precaution to head off an Armenian uprising against the Ottoman state with volunteer troops on the battlefield and gangs behind military lines, during the Russian occupation of Eastern Anatolia, created many victims.

“It was self-defense for the Turks” says Professor Ericson and adds: “The Ottoman Government had every right to protect the lives of their Muslim subjects who constituted most of the population in the areas selected for declaration of their autonomous state of Armenia.”

Additionally, Ottoman court-martials of 1915-1916 historically prove that Armenian relocation was not a planned march to death.

1,673 Ottoman subjects, 975 civilian bandits from irregular bands, together with 528 government officials and 170 local officials, accused of alleged crimes against the Armenians during the relocation of 1915 were put on trial and sentenced by the Ottoman 1915-1916 court-martials.

Can you think of a government planning a relocation for the destruction of the Armenians, and yet conducting trials and sentencing hundreds of its citizens and officials for ill treatment to the Armenians while the war is going on?

It is illogical and unbelievable. What in 1915 was a “war tragedy”, not genocide.

In August 1914, following Germany's declaration of war against Russia, Armenian Volunteer Units were established under the Russian Caucasus Army. They were primarily composed of Armenians from the Russian Empire, though there were also Armenians from Ottoman Eastern Anatolia.

In November 1914, when Russia declared war to Ottoman State, these well-equipped and trained volunteer units advanced into Ottoman territory together with Russian forces.

Boghos Nubar, the president of the Armenian National Assembly, declared to Paris Conference that the volunteers fighting against Turks were around 150,000 Armenians who were regular soldiers served in the Russian and near 50,000 fighters under the command of irregular Armenian military leaders.

Russian forces had the position of advantage and control at the front. Ottoman forces based in Eastern Anatolia were 126,000 men. Many were poorly equipped to defend a line of more than 600 kilometres. They had only 74,057 rifles, 77 machine guns, and 180 pieces of artillery. The Battle of Gallipoli was draining all Ottoman resource.

Within a few months after the war began, the Ottoman Armenians refused to serve their constituted authority and took the side of Russians. Thousands of Armenian soldiers deserted the Ottoman armies and joined the invading Russian Army. Additionally, behind the battle lines numerous Armenian bands were formed to fight a guerrilla war against Turks.

By the beginning of 1915 thousands of Armenians were fighting behind the lines. These rebellious Armenians, operating in close coordination with the Russians, were working to sabotage the Ottoman army's war effort by raiding supply depots, destroying roads and bridges, attacking caravans, to ease the Russian occupation.

In April 1915, the Russian armies launched an offensive against Van, in the east, and the Allied troops landed on Gallipoli peninsula, in the west. At that critical moment, on May 27, 1915, the Ottoman Government ordered to remove insurgent rebellious Armenian minority from the war zones along the Eastern Front to the to the Syrian province of the Ottoman State.

Armenian rebellion was a factual threat to the Ottoman State, both on the battle front and behind the lines. Apart from Caucasus, Armenians, for the cause of Entente, have been on the side of the Allies on all fronts.

Armenian volunteers have fought as members of the colonizing French Legions. More than 5,000 Armenians comprised more than half of the French Legion in Palestine. Armenian volunteers also helped the English military forces in Mesopotamia by preventing the Germans and Turks from sending their own soldiers to the other war zones.

Taking into consideration all these points, the then Armenian Republic have been recognized as an established Allied Power of the war against the Ottoman State in the Treaty of Sevres (Section VI "Armenia", Articles 88-93)

Hovannes Katchaznouni, the first Prime Minister of the Independent Armenian Republic in his report to the 1923 ARF (Armenian Revolutionary Federation) Congress underlines that during the World War I, for colluding with the Russians, Armenians rebelled against the Ottoman Empire and were at war with the Turks with whom they lived in peace and harmony for centuries down the street from each other:

“The Winter of 1914 and the spring of 1915 were the periods of greatest enthusiasm and hope for all the Armenians in the Caucasus... We had no doubt the war would end with the complete victory of the Allies; Turkey would be defeated and dismembered.”

Yours sincerely,

Uluc Gurkan

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Onuncu mektup

Subject: Why did the Armenian genocide allegations gain new momentum in the 1990s?

Dear Honorable Members of the House of Commons,

I would like to point out that the both the timing and reasons for turning the Armenian genocide allegations into some sort of religious hate speech against Turkey are notable.

Armenian allegations gained new momentum in the 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet system and the ending of the Cold War. Besides, they gained a new international dimension, incorporated in the “New World Order” shaped around the idea of “Clash of Civilizations” where Prof. Samuel Huntington emphasized religious differences.

Although they were not directly involved but very much influenced by the Armenian lobby, up to some 30 countries and two international parliamentary assemblies passed a total of 58 parliamentary resolutions on the subject.

One of these allegations was made back in 1915. As part of war propaganda, the Russian, French and British Parliaments blamed Turkey with a joint declaration based on false documents and false accounts. From 1915 to 1990’s, including the 1970’s and 1980’s when Turkish diplomats were mercilessly assassinated, the number of parliamentary declarations were only six. The remaining 51 resolution are a product of the “new world order”.

The first accusation after the ending of Cold War came about in 1993, when Samuel Huntington published his “Clash of Civilizations” thesis in the Journal of Foreign Affairs. After his thesis came out as a book in 1996, foreign parliaments started to declare their accusations one after the other.

This cannot be a mere coincidence.

Huntington had emphasized that ethnic and religious differences, which he defined as the civilization, would become the major fault line in the new world order. Here, the events ending with tragic outcomes, between Armenians against Turks and Kurds during World War I is described as a major example of the conflict of civilizations where the enemy is Islam, supported by the claim that the borders of Islam are drawn in blood.

The Armenian allegations of genocide were brought forward in the international arena within this context. As a result, they have become part of contemporary politics rather than a historical and legal issue which it is.

Beyond that, the clash of civilizations theory has also shaped the fashion with which Armenian allegations of genocide are framed. The accusations of genocide are directed towards Turks as a nation and Turkey as a Muslim country without any justification.

Yours sincerely,

Uluc Gurkan

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Onbirinci mektup 

Subject: Why the Bill (Vol. 703) brought to the House by Mr. Tim Loughton MP should be rejected at the second reading on the 18the of March 2022?

Dear Honorable Members of the House of Commons,

As you may know that Mr Tim Loughton MP put forward a Bill on the 9th of November 2021 for the recognition of hardships experienced by Armenians in Eastern Anatolia during World War I should be recognised as “genocide”. In the light of this, I am writing to you all to draw attention to some facts.

Britain has been a notable exception among several Western powers which blindly recognized the tragic war-time events in Eastern Anatolia during World War I as the first genocide of the 20th century. Until now British governments and parliamentarians have followed an exemplary foreign policy, guided by integrity and credibility.

According to Genocide Convention adopted by the UN in 1948, a court ruling is required for a historical or current event to be recognized as genocide. Without a fair judicial trial, the coding of any historical event as genocide on the grounds of personal or legislative accounts is a highly politicized act. It has no value in terms of international law. Armenian genocide allegations have not been ratified by any international court or tribunal as defined in Article 6 of the Convention. On the contrary, it was confirmed in the Malta Tribunal that there had never been a Turkish policy to exterminate Armenians.

By the end of World War I, when the victorious British army occupied Istanbul, 144 Ottoman officials and military officers were arrested and sent to Malta as prisoners of war. The judicial investigation lasted for more than two years, while the Crown Prosecution Service gathered evidence to prosecute and “sentence the Turks” for perpetrating “mass killings against Armenians”. As well as transporting the relevant Ottoman archives to London from occupied Istanbul, every document believed to be in America, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and Caucasia was called for examination. Eventually, on July 29, 1921, Britain’s highest legal prosecution authority, Her/His Majesty’s Attorney General for England, and Wales informed the British Government that without reasonable doubt, and with the “evidence in hand”, none of the Turks in Malta could be prosecuted for massacring Armenians.

There is no doubt that the British Prosecutor General’s ruling to dismiss the Armenian massacre accusations for “lack of evidence” concludes the matter and refers to a legal prosecution process during which the “Armenian massacre”, or currently termed “genocide” allegations, were studiously investigated and found baseless. In modern law this ruling corresponds to a "judgement of non-prosecution” which amounts to saying, “If there is no legal evidence to support the Armenian massacre claims, there is no legal basis to file or bring a lawsuit”.

Britain has since then clearly and irrevocably stated that the events of 1915/1916 cannot be described as genocide. However, some Western parliaments habitually take a prejudicial stance and pass a bill as if they have jurisdiction in the matter. Prejudices are symptoms of an ill-natured political culture which may threaten the very concept of politics and pose dangers to democracy.

The Malta Tribunal is the key to overcome prejudices and to face the historical and judicial facts. The British Foreign Office documents of the Malta Tribunal (1919/1921) which are available in the British National Achieves refute the Armenian genocide allegations.

These documents confirm that the wartime tragedy in Eastern Anatolia do not meet the criteria for the definition of genocide by the UN Convention.

On the basis of all these facts, I trust the Honourable Members of the House of Commons will reject the Bill (Vol. 703) brought by Mr. Tim Loughton MP on the second reading on the 18th March 2022.

Yours sincerely,

Uluc Gurkan

Lecturer in Politics