|
Refutation of the Armenian resolution, article by article - PART V |
|
|
Sunday, 1 April 2007View by Prof. Dr. KEMAL CICEK*
(Article 21) President Ronald Reagan in proclamation number 4838, dated April 22, 1981, stated in part "like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and the genocide of the Cambodians, which followed it -- and like too many other persecutions of too many other people --the lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten."
If the fact that the speechwriter of President Ronald Reagan was Kenneth L. Khachigian is taken into account, one can understand why the president used this terminology as opposed to that of his predecessors.
(Article 22) House Joint Resolution 247, adopted on Sept. 10, 1984, resolved: "[t]hat April 24, 1985, is hereby designated as ÔÇÝNational Day of Remembrance of Man's Inhumanity to Man,' and the President of the United States is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe such day as a day of remembrance for all the victims of genocide, especially the one and one-half million people of Armenian ancestry."
Even after such a decision, it is important to note that US presidents have since then not recognized April 24 as "Armenian Genocide Day." The resolution of the House of Representatives was certainly a political one; few of undersigned persons cared about its truthfulness.
(Article 23) In August 1985, after extensive study and deliberation, the United Nations SubCommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities voted 14-1 to accept a report entitled "Study of the Question of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide," which stated "[t]he Nazi aberration has unfortunately not been the only case of genocide in the 20th century. Among other examples, which can be cited as qualifying, areÔÇÐ.the Ottoman massacre of Armenians in 1915-1916."
This is one of the untrue articles of the resolution. The UN has never accepted the report of Mr. Whitaker and as we have shown below, the Subcommittee did not receive the report in question, but only "took note of." (File E/CN.4/1986/5-E/CN.4/Feb.2/1985/57; Para.57) and instead of that, it is added to the special report as "noted" (E/CN.4/1986/5 E/CN.4/Feb.2/1985/57 page 99. Para 1). Unfortunately, we have encountered that big lie even in scientific meetings.
(Article 24) This report also explained that "[a]t least 1,000,000, and possibly well over half of the Armenian population, are reliably estimated to have been killed or death marched by independent authorities and eye-witnesses. This is corroborated by reports in United States, German and British archives and of contemporary diplomats in the Ottoman Empire, including those of its ally GermanyÔÇÐ."
It is obvious that Mr. Whitaker's report was prepared with the direction of Armenian historians. As a matter of fact, in the meeting of the subcommittee, US representative Mr. Carey said: "All the existing sources have not been taken into account and the matter has not been elaborated sufficiently in depth. The question of genocide has not been elucidated sufficiently." Carey added, "He was not in a position to approve any resolution on this issue." In the same meeting of the committee, French representative Mr. Joinet said, "The debate on Mr. Whitaker's report is in fact a debate on history."
(Article 25) The United States Holocaust Memorial Council, an independent federal agency, unanimously resolved on April 30, 1981, that the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum would include the Armenian Genocide in the Museum and has since done so.
This resolution cannot be taken as a proof of the international acceptance of the so-called Armenian genocide, nor does it strengthen the false Armenian thesis.
(Article 26) Reviewing an aberrant 1982 expression (later retracted) by the United States Department of State asserting that the facts of the Armenian Genocide may be ambiguous, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1993, after a review of documents pertaining to the policy record of the United States, noted that the assertion on ambiguity in the United States record about the Armenian Genocide "contradicted longstanding United States policy and was eventually retracted."
Like other decisions that were taken without consulting the Turkish side, this resolution also is not obligatory.
(Article 27) On June 5, 1996, the House of Representatives adopted an amendment to House Bill 3540 (the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 1997) to reduce aid to Turkey by $3 million (an estimate of its payment of lobbying fees in the United States) until the Turkish government acknowledged the Armenian Genocide and took steps to honor the memory of its victims.
Again this decision was taken under the pressure of the effective Armenian lobbying in the House of Representatives. Unfortunately, the politicians are not very interested in reality. In fact, Turkey has a very strict policy concerning US aid, and will not accept any stipulation of this kind in order to benefit from US aid.
(Article 28) President William Jefferson Clinton, on April 24, 1998, stated: "This year, as in the past, we join with Armenian-Americans throughout the nation in commemorating one of the saddest chapters in the history of this century, the deportations and massacres of a million and a half Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the years 1915-1923."
As it is seen, President Clinton talked about massacres and deportations but did not define that tragedy as "genocide." Genocide is a crime against humanity as defined by the UN Convention of 1948. Moreover, "massacre" and "genocide" are very different terms from the perspective of law. No need to say that massacres may occur anywhere and anytime during wars.
(Article 29) President George W. Bush, on April 24, 2004, stated: "On this day, we pause in remembrance of one of the most horrible tragedies of the 20th century, the annihilation of as many as 1.5 million Armenians through forced exile and murder at the end of the Ottoman Empire."
Again the events that took place in Anatolia between 1915 and 1923 were defined as tragedy in the speech of President Bush. A moment of silence for the victims of war is a duty for all human beings.
(Article 30) Despite the international recognition and affirmation of the Armenian Genocide, the failure of the domestic and international authorities to punish those responsible for the Armenian Genocide is a reason why similar genocides have recurred and may recur in the future, and that a just resolution will help prevent future genocides.
Unfortunately those who are saying this carried out a massacre in Hocalı in Feb. 26, 1992, deported 180,000 Azeris from the Karabag enclave and occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory. Today there are more than 1 million refugees in the city of Baku from the occupied areas and these people live in deplorable conditions.
(See also Part I, II, III, IV and V please)
PART I: http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=43912
PART II: http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=43913
PART III: http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=43914
PART IV: http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=43915
PART V: http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=43916
---------------
*Head of Black Sea Technical University, Faculty of Arts & Sciences; Turkish Historical Association, Armenian Desk
1 April 2007
Todays Zaman
|
Sunday, 1 April 2007
Armenian Issue
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
