Reader Responds -- Ergun Kirlikovali

I feel compelled to submit the following response to the recent

response by Victor Annigian (Jan. 6) to a letter submitted by Albert

Ilter Eryakub (Dec. 21).

Annigian’s letter was full of hype and hatred, while Eryakub’s letter

was fair, balanced and factual. Armenian allegations of genocide cannot

be substantiated by nonpartisan historical evidence. More than 70 North

American scholars who researched the subject for most of their careers

signed an open letter to the U.S. Congress (published in the New York

Times and Washington Post on the same day, May 19, 1985) disputing

Armenian allegations.

Top scholars on the subject in the world, like Prof. Stanford Shaw of

UCLA, Prof. Bernard Lewis of Princeton, Prof. Justin McCarthy of the

University of Louisville and many others, signed that carefully worded

historical document, which said: “... As for the charge of genocide: No

signatory of this statement wishes to minimize the scope of Armenian

suffering. We are likewise cognizant that it cannot be viewed as separate

from the suffering experienced by the Muslim inhabitants of the region.

The weight of evidence so far uncovered points in the direction of

serious intercommunal warfare (perpetrated by Muslim and Christian

irregular forces), complicated by disease, famine, suffering and

massacres in Anatolia and adjoining areas during the First World War...”

Armenians have exaggerated, misrepresented, fabricated and outright

lied for many decades without opposition. But now that there is a growing

Turkish-American community in Southern California in the last 20-30

years, these distortions are being exposed for what they are. The Turkish

position is simple: Yes, there was suffering, but on both sides. Ignoring

the much larger Turkish suffering, and only focusing on comparably

smaller Armenian suffering, is selective morality at best, or racist

and/or religious discrimination at worst.

Fact: Armenians sided with invading enemy armies (Russians) in the

hopes of ethnically cleansing Turks from their perceived motherland,

backstabbed their fellow Turkish citizens and committed treason of the

highest order. Armenian irregulars killed many Turks in cold blood and

buried them in mass graves (just like what the Serbs did to Bosnians and

Kosovars in the 1990s). This was repeated over and over in many locations

in Anatolia in the hopes of provoking retaliation from the Turkish side,

which the Armenians believed would trigger intervention by European

powers.

This was the evil Armenian plan. But it didn’t work, because it failed

to factor in the incredible Turkish resolve, Turkish courage and

legendary Turkish valor. Fact: When American scholars published books

presenting their findings, which didn’t fit the Armenian description of

those same events, Armenian terrorists bombed these professors’ homes.

Case in point: Prof. Stanford Shaw’s home in Los Angeles was bombed in

1977. One of those terrorists responsible for supplying explosives was

captured by FBI in Ohio last year. His “network” is now being exposed to

include his nationwide network of connections. The captured Armenian

terrorist led a double life as a respected community leader, hobnobbing

with politicians and journalists!

Fact: Armenian terrorists killed four Turkish diplomats in the USA and

maimed several in Canada, and many more around the world. These hate

crimes by Armenian terrorists largely went unpunished. Armenian threats

of violence, bombings and even assassinations need to be taken seriously,

as LAPD records will show. This is why many Turkish Americans were not

surprised at the recent assassinations in the Armenian parliament.

Armenian violence simply changed direction and turned on Armenians

themselves. As the saying goes, those who live by the sword die by the

sword.

Fact: Many apprehended Armenian terrorists were not properly punished

for their hate crimes against humanity. The Armenian lobby in North

America saw to it that monies were collected from members of the Armenian

community, and all the legal help imaginable was provided to these

cold-blooded Armenian terrorists. This kind of support for terrorism

didn’t get punished, either. In short, Armenian terrorists and their

supporters literally got away with murder.

Fact: The real reason the Armenian lobby is still focusing on the

alleged genocide of 1915 is something that may have escaped most

unsuspecting readers: to hide another human tragedy that is unfolding

halfway around the world in Azerbaijan -- the Azerbaijani Genocide. Did

you know, for example, that right this moment, more than 1.5 million

innocent, unarmed, noncombatant, civilian Azerbaijanis -- older men,

women and children -- are forced to spend their ninth winter in leaky,

cold, wet tents, with little or no food or medicine, sick and hungry? Did

you know that the Azerbaijani population is suffering all this indignity

and torture because some Armenian thugs and paramilitary hoodlums in

Nagorno-Karabagh forced them out of their homes at gunpoint?

Did you know that these same Armenians in 1992, with help from Armenia

and Russia, used more brutal ethnic cleansing methods than even the Serbs

today, actually killing the entire Azerbaijani noncombatant population of

a certain “Khodjaly” region in Karabagh? (Source: The New York Times,

Feb. 19, 1992.) Yes, the Armenians even scalped the Azerbaijanis they

killed!

Last but not least, the Ottoman Empire bestowed upon the Armenians the

title “millet-i sadika” which means the loyal nation. This was to reward

the Armenians for peaceful co-existence with Turks for almost a

millenium. Armenians have risen to ranks of generals and ambassadors in

the Turkish Ottoman Empire. All this was ignored and forgotten in one

big, sloppy swoop, when dealing with Armenian allegations of genocide.

Armenians caught the nationalistic bug at the turn of the century,

schemed, backstabbed and lost, because they relied too much on the

kindness and help of outsiders (European and Russian powers of the time),

too little on themselves, and totally miscalculated the Turkish resolve,

which can create miracles in the face of incredible odds.

Armenians should learn to give peace a chance. And those who still

allege genocide are simply sore losers. Being full of hatred is such a

miserable way to go through life.

ERGUN KIRLIKOVALI

Santa Ana