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The aim of the
“Armenian Genocide and the Armenian Case” series
is threefold: To honor the Armenian victims by
keeping their memory alive, to present
compelling evidence to persuade Turkey to
confront its past, and to once again remind
humanity that complacency will no doubt trigger
ever more lethal genocides, and perhaps even
Omni-cide- the total annihilation of mankind.
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British
Reports on Ethnic Cleansing in Anatolia,
1919-1922: The Armenian –Greek Section” |
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“British Reports on Ethnic Cleansing in
Anatolia, 1919-1922: The Armenian-Greek
Section, is a provocative new book that
clearly and vividly demonstrates that from
1919 to 1922, the Turkish Nationalists under
Mustafa Kemal perpetrated an organized
scheme of wholesale ethnic cleansing upon
the indigenous Armenians of Asia Minor and
Cilicia, and the Greeks of Pontus.
This important book, compiled by Attorney
Vartkes Yeghiayan, chronicles how the
Turkish forces, after invoking a “War of
Independence,” massacred innocent civilians
and looted and appropriated Armenian and
Greek cathedrals, monasteries, churches,
institutions, fields, orchards, stores and
factories, while the victorious Allies
looked away.
WW I “ended” when the defeated Ottoman
Empire signed the Mudros Armistice, which
dictated categorically that the Ottomans had
to renounce their empire, with the exception
of Anatolia, and the Allies would have the
right to occupy the Six Armenian Provinces
in Asia Minor (Anatolia) in case of
disturbances.
Ten days after the signing, the victorious
British took charge of Constantinople and
formed the Armenian-Greek Section to deal
with all urgent and outstanding issues
related to the Armenians and Greeks in
Turkey. The victorious British also
persuaded the Sultan to dissolve the Ottoman
Parliament. In a Proclamation on 6 December
1918, Sultan Mohammed VI announced, “My
sorrow is profound at the mistreatment of my
Armenian subjects by certain political
committees acting under my government.”
The remnants of the Young Turk Regime,
however, especially those who had gotten
rich by the wholesale looting of Armenian
and Greek assets, rejected such acts of
contrition and sabotaged all efforts that
would reverse their ill-begotten fortunes.
“British Reports on Ethnic Cleansing in
Anatolia, 1919-1922: Minutes of the Armenian
Greek Section,” is the verbatim record of 87
reports the British High Commission compiled
for the use of the British Foreign Office.
These reports are yet another “smoking gun”
that confirm that the genocide of the
Armenian people did not end with the end of
the Great War. Kemalist forces
systematically evaded the Armistice terms,
and instead, implemented a scorched earth
policy of a massive ethnic cleansing. The
reports collected in this book cumulatively
confirm without the shadow of any doubt,
that the genocidal policy started by the
Young Turks was brought to its merciless and
bloody climax by the Nationalists.
The first official meeting between the A.G.S.
and the American, Greek, and Armenian
representatives took place on 5th March
1919, with the participation of Dr. Tavitian,
and Mr. Tchakirian, representing the
Armenian Patriarchate, and Dr. Theotokas
representing the Greek Patriarchate.
Here is a sample of the war crimes committed
by Turks that are recorded in the minutes of
the A.G.S.:
“Dr. Tavitian stated that he had received
news from Boghazlian, Yozgat and Caesarea to
the affect that repatriated Armenians were
now being accused of having murdered Turks
and so were obliged to leave again.”
“At Yozgat a secret anti-Christian movement
had been started, and as a result of a
telegraphic order received from Mustafa
Kemal Pasha, many volunteers had been
enrolled.”
“Dr. Tavitian reported that the same state
existed everywhere, at Everek (Caesarea)
boycottage of Christians was being carried
on, and the Mufti was preaching in the
Mosque ordering his people not to sell to
Christian. From Sivas and Samsoun many
reports of outrages, cruelty and brigandage
had been received, thus confirming the
reports of Relief Officer in those
districts.”
“Information from Sivas showed that a number
of the more notorious malefactors of the
time of the massacres were re-appearing; for
instance, Rassim Bey, an ex-Deputy, has
offered himself for election”
“The Kemalists have requisitioned the
Armenian Cathedral and are using it as a
prison. (They have also taken over) the
Armenian Church of St. Saviour; the Convent
of St. Nishan; the Armenian College; the
Archbishop’s residence; the Armenian
Protestant Church; the Greek Church; the
Jesuit School and the School and Residence
of the Sisters. The Authorities have also
requisitioned about 2500 kilos of brass
Church ornaments.”
Turkish propagandists have recently
intensified their efforts to distort these
truths so clearly stated in these damning
reports. One of the false narratives the
Turks have been pushing is the lie that
after the war ended, thousands of Armenians
were allowed to return and reclaim their
homes and properties. The reports gathered
in this book prove otherwise. British
Colonel Graves, who ran the Greek-Armenian
Section, asserts in these reports that, “the
locality from which these disturbances were
reported was precisely that in which
returned Armenians had managed to a certain
extent to resettle; one would say that since
November the Turks were trying to rid
themselves of these few Armenians too.”
In another report we read, “The Kemalists
blocked the Armenian quarter on the pretext
that the Armenians had helped the
Circassians, pillaged their houses and
murdered the men. They then collected all
the women, young girls and children in the
Armenian church to which they set fire and
burnt them alive. They finally reduced the
Armenian quarter to ruins.
And finally, “This report described at
length and in detail the terrible sufferings
which the Armenian population had undergone
through the systematic endavours of the
Kemalists to completely annihilate the
Armenian race by requisitioning their
houses, schools, churches; their land (40%),
cattle, merchandise and provisions for the
needs of the Kemalist Army. Crushing taxes
were being imposed upon these unfortunate
people. Young Armenian Orphans were being
recruited into the Turkish Labour Battalions
and turned on to road mending.”
“British Reports on Ethnic Cleansing in
Anatolia, 1919-1922: Minutes of the Armenian
Greek Section, forms a continuum with the
“Blue Book” by Viscount Bryce that
chronicled the massacres and ethnic
cleansing of Armenians in 1915.
When it became clear to the British that
they couldn’t neutralize Ataturk, they shut
down the A.G.S., abandoned Constantinople,
abandoned the Armenians and Greeks still
stuck under the yoke of triumphant Turks,
declared victory, and return to England –
after having secured rights to Mosul oil.
Soon after, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk became the
President of the Republic and ever since,
successive Turkish governments have denied
that, their “War of Independence” was
nothing else but the ethnic cleansing of
Greeks and Armenians from their
millennia-old natural habitats.
This important book sets the record
straight.
The book is part of the Genocide Remembrance
series published by CAR, the Center for
Armenian Remembrance.
Books may be ordered by mail, phone or
online. Books also available at your local
Armenian Bookseller.
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The Case of Misak
Torlakian
"The Case of
Misak Torlakian" is about the trial of Misak
Torlakian, an Armenian Ottoman subject, by
the British Military Court, which took place
at 10:00 A.M. on August 11, 1921, on the
charge of murdering Binbud Khan Jivanshir,
Ex-Minister of Interior of Azerbajian,
outside the Pera Palace Hotel in
Constantinople (Istanbul) on July 18, 1921.
"The Case of Misak Torlakian" is the twin of
"The Case of Soghomon Tehlirian". Both
trials involved the murder of a tyrant, and
both of the perpetrators were found not
guilty. During both trials, history,
theology, philosophy, physiology,
psychology, and politics were invoked by
both sides to sway the Military Judge in the
case ot Torlakian, and the Jury of Peers in
the case of Tehlirian. Thus in addition to
being landmark legal cases, these two trials
reveal the prevailing mindsets and political
strategies of Germans, Turks, Armenians and
Azeris in the aftermath of World War I.
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The Case of Soghomon Tehlirian
“The Case of Soghomon Tehlirian” is a
fascinating, multidimensional document. It is a
trial transcript, which offers the reader a
front row seat to a riveting trial which
established a number of legal precedents.
“For the first time in legal history” wrote
Robert Kempner, a law student who attended the
trial, and who subsequently became a key
prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, “it was
recognized that other countries could
legitimately combat gross human rights
violations caused by a government, especially
genocide, without committing unauthorized
intervention in the internal affairs of another
country”
“The Case of Soghomon Tehlirian” was also
instrumental in provoking Raphael Lemkin, who
coined the word geno-cide, to investigate the
paradox of how a single man, Tehlirian, could be
prosecuted for murder, yet the murdered man,
Talaat, had almost gotten away after
successfully planning and prosecuting the
extermination of over a million souls!
About the Author:
Attorney
Vartkes Yeghiayan, well know for his
multi-million dollar insurance class action
settlements on behalf of Armenian Genocide
heirs, is the author of this fascinating
novel, which is part of a series on the
Armenian Genocide. |
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