Armenian Allegations


A very nice letter summarising the issue as another April 24 Armenian hate-the-Turk-day passes. Repeated lobbying by Armenian groups in the USA undermines the possibility of improved Armenian-Turkish and Armenian-Azeri relations.

April 18, 1999 Dear Sir: RE: The alleged Armenian Genocide 1915 to 1999 The Armenians have been feverishly trying to attach a charge of genocide on the Turks for the past 84 years or so. In the relentless pursuit of it, they have declared April 24 as the date of commemoration of this "alleged genocide". The British were the closest party to these events from 1915 to 1922 because they were the principal occupying power of the Ottoman Empire and its capital, Istanbul, and the Ottoman archives etc. As such, the British led an international war crimes tribunal on the island of Malta against 144 high Ottoman officials who were charged with war crimes against the Armenians. Subsequently 56 out of the 144 alleged criminals were deported to the Island of Malta to stand a trial. After a wide scale frantic search of all the archival material in the British and the US possession they concluded: Sir H. Rumbold, His Majesty's High Commissioner at Istanbul as the head of the occupying powers wrote in forwarding to London the "evidence" against the deportees: "very few were available, that Armenian Patriarchate at Istanbul had been the principal channel through which information had been obtained, and that none of allied, associated and neutral Governments had been asked to supply evidence". He admitted that" under these circumstances the Prosecution will find itself under grave disadvantage", but he added, "he hoped that the American Government could supply a large amount of documentary information". (Foreign Office document 371/6500/E. 3557). In failing to find any legally supportable evidence against the deportees in the hands of the occupying powers, Lord Curzon, the British foreign secretary at the time, informed Sir A. Geddes, the British Ambassador at Washington, that there was a "considerable difficulty" in establishing proof of guilty against the Turkish detainees at Malta and requested him "to ascertain if United States Government are in possession of any evidence that could be of value for purpose of prosecution". (Foreign Office document 371/6502/E. 5845). On July 13 1921, the British Embassy in Washington returned the following reply: "I regret to inform Your Lordship that there was nothing therein which could be used as evidence against the Turks who are being detained for trial at Malta? Having regard to this stipulation and the fact that the reports in the possession of the Department of State do not appear in any case to contain evidence against these Turks which would be useful even for the purpose of corroborating information already in possession of His Majesty's Government, I fear that nothing is to be hoped from addressing any further inquiries to the United States Government in this matter". (Foreign Office document 371/6504/E.8519. R.C. Craige , British Embassy in Washington to Lord Curzon, No. 722, of July 13, 1921.) Subsequently all the Ottoman detainees were dismissed of charges and exchanged for the British prisoners in Turkey. And there were no war crimes charges, let alone a charge of a "genocide" of the Armenians. This year, again, the Armenians appealed to the British Government to recognize the alleged Armenian genocide to which the British Government replied. On April 14, 1999 the PA News from London reported: "A bid to get the British Government to recognize as genocide the deportation and massacre and slaughter of thousands of Armenians by the Ottoman government of Turkey in 1915, was rejected by ministers in the Lords tonight". Foreign Office spokesman, Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale, said "the British Government had condemned the massacres at the time. But in the absence of unequivocal evidence that the Ottoman administration took a specific decision to eliminate the Armenians under their control at that time, British governments have not recognized those events as indications of genocide". "Nor do we believe it is the business of governments of today to review events of over 80 years ago, with a view to pronouncing on them. The events of 1915-16 remain a painful issue in relation to two states with which we enjoy excellent relations". Since the 1921verdict, after 78 years, thank you Britain, once again, for being so meticulous in observing the rule of the law. A heap of dubious documents, revisionist history, greatly inflated population figures and exercise of terror to cow the Turks over a span of 84 years obviously do not spell genocide. Sincerely, by Dr.Tunch M. Kuzay, from a letter A very nice letter summarising the issue as another April 24 Armenian hate-the-Turk-day passes. Repeated lobbying by Armenian groups in the USA undermines the possibility of improved Armenian-Turkish and Armenian-Azeri relations