Armenian Atrocities & Terrorism

1.       Preface

2.       Introduction

2.1.             Recollections of the Survivors

2.2.             Perpetuating the Genocide Myth

2.3.             Armenian Terrorism and the Armenian-American Community

2.4.             Intimidation in Academia

2.5.             Joining the Holocaust Bandwagon

2.6.             Conclusion

3.       Testimonies of Witnesses

4.       Chronological Rundown

I. Preface

The publication of this account is long overdue. This compilation is not only intended to honor the memories of those who lost their lives during the tragic period surrounding World War I in eastern Anatolia, but also to serve as a response to the often malicious defamation campaigns waged against Turks and the Turkish Republic.

The experience of the Turks and Armenians during World War I and its aftermath has been widely distorted. Armenians in diaspora around the world have aggressively promoted their claims that the Turks of the Ottoman Empire perpetrated a systematic annihilation campaign against the Armenians of eastern Anatolia. This distortion of history has been so widely and incessantly dispersed by the Armenians that, year after year, resolutions are considered in the U.S. Congress and throughout Canada and Europe promoting Armenian claims.

There are many reasons why we feel that we must defend our ancestors as well as future generations against these attacks. For the objective observer, it will undoubtedly be difficult to understand the passions that run so deeply on both sides of this issue. While it is difficult to summarize the feelings of an entire people on a few pages, there are some common sentiments which must be briefly touched upon:

First, while it is not disputed that the whole population in eastern Anatolia suffered losses during this period, the enormous loss of life among the Muslim people often goes ignored or is even flatly denied. Secondly, Turks have been falsely accused of the most heinous of crimes: genocide. This is certainly not a charge which should be accepted at face value by scholars, the U.S. Congress, or the general public.

Thirdly, by continuing to present inaccurate depictions of history and Turks, unfounded ethnic hatred is perpetuated. This was clearly manifested in the 1970's and 1980's when Armenian terrorists waged a campaign to advance their goals, targeting Turks and killing many innocent people in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia.

The truth of the matter is that Turks and Armenians lived together for centuries. Armenians lived comfortably in areas of the Empire removed from the intercommunal fighting, and they continued to serve in high-level offices of the Ottoman government. These realities clearly defy the concept of an annihilation campaign, which would have put the entire Armenian population at risk. Today, an Armenian minority continues to live and thrive in Turkey, enjoying the full rights of Turkish citizenship.

However, the subject at hand discusses a time of war, and it is not our intent to minimize the suffering of any side of the conflict. It is our hope that this volume will shed light on an often overlooked aspect of history. Only after the full truth is accepted can we redeem our people, adequately commemorate the period, and honor those who suffered unspeakable hardships and lost their lives.

Assembly of Turkish American Associations
Washington, D.C., November 1997

II. Introduction

The recollections of Armenians who lived through the ethnic warfare and conflict that raged through eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus from 1915 to 1921 have been frequently used by Armenian writers and propagandists to illustrate that a "genocide" was perpetrated against the Armenians by the Turks. The heartbreaking stories of Armenian "survivors" are often presented as part of the proof that the Ottoman authorities engaged in a systematic destruction of the Empire's Armenian citizenry. These stories have also become a major and potent source for indoctrinating younger generations of Armenians in this country into believing that a horrible crime was committed against their ancestors and that they should forever hate and despise the Turks and seek revenge against them for the events that took place more than 80 years ago. These themes and messages are repeated in countless books, essays, novels, poems, and plays that focus on the experiences and recollections of those Armenians who survived the ravages of war and famine that took place in eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus during and immediately after World War I.

Reading the standard Armenian interpretations of the events surrounding World War I, or those written by the supporters of the Armenian views, one would have no idea that more than a million Muslims, the majority of them Turks, also lost their lives in intercommunal fighting, and that another 900,000 became refugees in eastern Anatolia during 1914-21. According to careful and detailed analysis of historical statistics and records, the ethnic warfare that engulfed the Armenian, Turkish, and Kurdish communities led to drastic losses of the Muslim population in major eastern Anatolian cities: For example, the Muslim population of Van decreased by 62 percent, that of Bitlis and Erzurum by 42 percent and 31 percent, respectively.¹ Eyewitness accounts and reports show that the majority of the Turks and other Muslims who lost their lives were killed by bands of Armenian irregulars or by Armenians serving in the Russian army. The massacres committed by the Armenians indiscriminately targeted men, women, and children, and they involved gruesome methods that were intended to spread terror among the innocent civilians and cause total physical destruction of their communitites. The methods, scope, and the impact of the ethnic cleansing strategy used by the Armenian revolutionary groups were witnessed and recorded by numerous non-Turkish and independent observers. For example, Captain Emory Niles and Mr. Arthur Sutherland, two Americans who investigated the conditions in eastern Anatolia for the U.S. government, reported:

"In this entire region, [Region from Bitlis to Van to Beyazit], we were informed that the damage and destruction that had been done by the Armenians, who, after the Russians retired, remained in occupation of the country, and who, when the Turkish army advanced, destroyed eveything belonging to the Musulmans. Moreover, the Armenians are accused of having committed murder, rape, arson, and horrible atrocities of every description upon the Musulman population. At first we were most incredulous of these stories, but we finally came to believe them, since the testimony was absolutely unanimous and was corroborated by material evidence. For instance, the only quarters left at all intact in the cities of Bitlis and Van are the Armenian quarters, as was evidenced by churches and inscriptions on the houses, while the Musulman quarters were completely destroyed. Villages said to have been Armenian were still standing, whereas Musulman villages were completely destroyed."²

The atrocities committed by the Armenians against the Turks had begun before the Ottoman government's decision in late May 1915 to deport Armenians from eastern provinces. However, their intensity and scope increased vastly during the latter part of the decade. Reports sent by the Ottoman officials in Van, Bitlis, Erzurum, and other eastern provinces to Istanbul describe in detail the massacres that were carried out by the Armenians.³ What took place in Van following the rebellion by the Armenians in March 1915 was typical of many towns and villages in eastern Anatolia:

"The stories told by Muslim villagers were all much the same. When the Armenians attacked Muslims' own villages or nearby villages, Muslims fled with whatever moveable property they could carry. On the road, Armenian bandits first robbed them, then raped many of the women and killed many of the men. Usually, but not always, a number of women and young children were killed as well. The surviving villagers were then left to travel to safety if they could, without food or adequate clothing. The villagers were unable to defend themselves either in their homes or on the road because most young Muslim males had been conscripted. Only very old and very young males and women were left. Armenian bands, however, were made up of young males who had never been drafted, were deserters from the Ottoman army, or had come from the Caucasus."⁴

Despite overwhelming historical evidence, the plight and suffering of the Turks and other Muslim communities in eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus have received far less attention than that experienced by the Armenians. By talking only about the Armenian "survivors" of an alleged "genocide" perpetrated by the Ottoman government, Armenian writers and propagandists, along with their sympathizers, have managed to disseminate the misperception that it was only the Armenians who were killed, tortured, and forced to flee from their traditional homelands. The success of the Armenian propagandists in perpetuating the myth of "genocide" has led many Americans to overlook the fact that more than a million Muslims also lost their lives and close to a million became refugees.

Several factors have been responsible for the silence about the plight of the Turkish victims of Armenian atrocities. The most important has been the historical prejudice and bias in the West against the Turks and Muslims in general which led many to view only the Armenians as the victims and to ignore the calamity that fell on the non-Christian populations of the Empire. This traditional one-sided and biased perception was bolstered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by the reports of the Christian missionaries, sent to the region mostly from the United States, whose religious zeal and anti-Muslim world view precluded objectivity in dealing with the causes and consequences of the rising ethnic and religious tensions in the Ottoman Empire.⁵ Another reason is that unlike their Armenian counterparts, the Muslim survivors of the violence that gripped eastern Anatolia had no chance to make their voices heard in the West, especially in the United States. Many Armenians who survived World War I and immigrated to this country succeeded in telling their recollections and stories to sympathetic audiences. More importantly, their children and grandchildren went to some of the best American universities. These second and third generation Armenians - novelists, professors, poets, playwrights - then became articulate spokespeople for their grandparents and parents. By contrast, few, if any, of the Muslim survivors immigrated to the United States after World War I to tell their recollections of the horrors they lived through at the hands of the Armenians. The majority of the Turks who survived the violence of 1915-21 continued to live as simple peasants and villagers in some of Turkey's least developed regions. Consequently, they had no means to influence American public opinion through books, "oral history" programs in universities or media appearances. Although their travails and horrible experiences are well-known and still remembered in their small villages or towns, as a trip to eastern Turkey today will readily show, they have remained largely unknown to the rest of the world.

While the Armenians have continued to clamor for an apology from Turkey, they have shown no inclination whatsoever to express any regret or remorse for millions of Muslims who were either killed or forced to become refugees in eastern Anatolia during 1915-21. Characteristically, Armenian writers and propagandists either completely ignore the killings of innocent Muslim men, women, and children, or come up with superfluous explanations. The following statement by Dennis Papazian, Director of the Armenian Research Center at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, is typical of the Armenian attitude:

"The Turks died unfortunately because their own government led them into World War I against the European allies. Many Turkish Muslims also died fighting Arab Muslims . . . and Indian Muslims who were with the British Middle East army in Mesopotamia. All this Muslim blood, then, is on the head of the Ottoman Turkish government and not on the victimized and helpless Armenians."⁶

Papazian's argument is not only a blatant distortion of historical facts, but defies logic as well: How could anyone account for the massacres of more than a million Muslims in eastern Anatolia, in places such as Van, Bitlis, or Erzurum, with the Arab-Ottoman or British-Ottoman war campaigns that took place in Iraq, Syria, or Yemen? And how is it possible, indeed, for the so-called "helpless" Armenians to slaughter entire village communities, brutalize their victims, rape women, and bring about so much havoc and destruction? Papazian clearly fits into the category of Armenian-American historians whose writings have been described by the British historian Gwynne Dyer as representing "capering caricatures of the historical method" which reflect "the deafening drumbeat of the propaganda, and the sheer lack of sophistication in argument which comes from preaching decade after decade to a convinced and emotionally committed audience."⁷

In addition to official Ottoman records and reports prepared by Western observers, there is much information about the intensity and scope of Armenian atrocities in the recollections of some of the Muslims who survived the ethnic warfare in eastern Anatolia. By now, the majority of the victims of Armenian violence have passed away without, unfortunately, having had a chance to talk about their experiences to scholars, writers, and journalists. Only a handful of them are alive today and they are in the very late stages of their lives. An effort-albeit belatedly-was made by a team of researchers led by Professor Azmi Suslu in the early 1980's to interview some of the survivors in Van, Kars, Bitlis, and Mus. These interviews, together with the photographs of the individuals who were interviewed, were published in Turkish as Van, Bitlis, Mus, ve Kars'taki Ermeni Katliamlar , Gazilerle Mulakat Van Yuzuncu Y l Universitesi Rektorlugu Yayinlari, No. 8 Ankara, 1994. The translations of these interviews are presented here see Part III for the first time in English.

Recollections of the Survivors

The testimonies of those who were interviewed by the team of researchers show that Armenian and Muslim communities lived on relatively good terms and peacefully until the Armenian revolutionary organizations began their rebellion against the Ottoman government and started their collaboration with the Russians. As Haci Zekeriya Koç, born and raised in a village called Ayanis near Van, recalls:

"When the Armenian incidents broke out we were in our village, Ayanis. Zeve, Mollakasim and Ayanis were the villages in the region inhabited entirely by Muslims. There were five or ten Armenian homes in the other villages. Before these problems broke out, we had excellent relations with the Armenians. We got along particularly well with Armenian-inhabited Alakoy. We would invite each other to banquets, and there were no hostilities between us."

Others, such as Bekir Yöruk, who was born in Van in 1900, express a similar view:

"We lived in the same neighborhoods as the Armenians. We too livedin the Norsin neighborhood and got along well until the Russians intervened."

However, once the political agitation by the Armenian revolutionary and terrorist organizations began in earnest in early 1915, violence and bloodshed replaced these peaceful relations after the Armenians began attacking civilian Muslim communities. The eyewitness testimonies of the victims of these Armenian attacks underscore a systematic policy of ethnic cleansing that is reminiscent of the horrors that were inflicted on the Bosnian Muslims by the Serb extremists in the 1990's: Massacres of entire villages, indiscriminate killing of the old and the young, brutalization and rape of women, burning and destruction of mosques, and forced expulsion of people from their villages. The atrocities committed by the Armenians in and around Van and Bitlis during 1915-16, for example, are vividly recalled by those who managed to save their lives. Sait Aldanmaz, who was born in Bitlis in 1900, remembers:

"With my own eyes I saw an Armenian poke a dagger into a woman's stomach and pull out her child. They killed 15-20 people with bayonets in my neighborhood of Ersan. When the Russians arrived, the Armenians helped them . . . . Among the ruins of every home, in the fields, and in the farms were the bodies killed with the Armenians' bayonets. We applied for permission to bury them. The soldiers dug ditches and the bodies were buried there."

Ibrahim Sargin who lived in the village of Zeve near Van was 11 years old when he witnessed the destruction of his community by the Armenians:

. . . The village was burning . . . The Armenians were throwing small children in the air and piercing them with bayonets or sticking them in the stomach with bayonets. The children let out shrill cries and fell to the ground like baby birds . . . They captured Corporal Seyyat alive, laid him on the ground, undressed him, and skinned him alive. They also carved out his shoulders and carved into his sides, taunting him by saying that Sultan Resat promoted him and gave him a medal. The Armenians also set fire to the grass and threw some of our women and children into the fire and burned them alive. They sliced the throats of the rest of the survivors as if they were sacrificial lambs . . . After massacring the entire village, they killed the five most attractive women: my cousin Seher, Esma, the headman's wife, a distant relative Hayriye, my Aunt Ayse, and Gullu."

The savagery and brutality that was inflicted on the innocent villagers by the Armenian rebels in 1915 in Van's villages was also recalled by Bekir Yöruk:

". . . My uncle, his family and children, were cut into pieces with a hatchet under the mulberry tree in our neighborhood. They [Armenians] massacred all those that stayed behind when we left . . . They killed whomever they could corner. They killed them and threw them into the lake or into the fire. For example, a woman was baking bread in a nearby village, and had her young child at her side. The Armenians went into her backyard and asked her what she was doing. When she answered that she was baking bread, they insisted she needed a kebab as well, and pierced her child and threw him into the fire and burned him alive."

Mehmet Hatunoglu similarly lived to tell the horrors that he witnessed as a child:

"I can't tell you what I saw, it was so hideous. They [Armenians] planted a stake every fifty meters on the Pulur (now Çinarli neighborhood) and Ercis-Egans road, and impaled the elderly taken from the mosques on these stakes. They all died in a pool of blood. Then we went into the large Çavusoglu barn, and saw people sliced up and laying in blood, most of whom were relatives or people we knew. They were beaten and killed with axes, shovels, and cleavers. They placed a basket over the head of Haydar Imam, and impaled him.

According to the recollections of the victims, rape of Muslim women and young girls was widely practiced by the Armenians to terrorize the civilian population. Haci Sait Aldanmaz, born in Bitlis in 1902, remembers a particularly horrible incident:

"The Armenians were committing atrocities [in Bitlis] before the Russian invasion as well, but after the occupation, the crimes accelerated. As far as I remember, 9 year old Hatice who lived in the Hersan neighborhood was taken from her mother's arms by the Armenians, who viciously raped her without reference to the fact that she was a child. Hako was the Armenian who took this child from her mother and raped her."

Thousands of those who managed to escape the Armenian violence were uprooted from their villages and became refugees. Those who escaped from Van, Bitlis, or Kars were forced to travel very long distances to safety under the most difficult conditions. Many of them died on the way from hunger and disease, but some managed to survive. As a child, Bekir Yöruk witnessed the suffering of Turks who escaped from Van in 1915 and became refugees:

"We left before the Russians arrived. There were about 250 in our group, and 60 died. Some died at the hands of the Armenian bandits, others from cholera, disease, and hunger . . . The women couldn't take care of the children. Hunger and disease were rampant."

Kadriye Duran, the daughter of Hamit and Nigar Duran, was ten years old when she was uprooted from her village called Kavunlu near Van by the Armenians and became a refugee:

"We were going towards Edremit when the Armenians raided Van. The city was burning . . . We reached Edremit, but they raided that too. We went from there to Bitlis to Siirt, to Diyarbakir, and then to Siverek. We stayed there three years. There were eight people in our family who became refugees. On the way, my brother Ali was captured. The rest died on the road. Only my mother and I were able to return to Van. We weren't the only ones affected. The inhabitants of Van, Edremit, and Van's Muslim villages all became refugees. Those that didn't run were killed at the hands of the enemy, while most of those that got away died on the road."

While most of the people who were interviewed talked about the horrible events that they witnessed in Armenian attacks on Muslim citizens, some also mentioned a few brave Armenians who ventured to help them. Cevahir Kokum, born and raised in Bitlis, remembers one:

"My deceased grandmother would always talk about an Armenian called Manik. When talking about him, she would also pray in thanks for all that he had done. Manik worked as a servant for Haci Yusufzade. This Armenian saved my grandmother and her other relatives from the Armenian massacres . . . Manik would leave in the day, and return at nightfall with all of the bread, sugar, and other food supplies he could find. When we asked why he was doing this, he replied that he could not betray us after eating our bread for so many years. One day Manik came to us excitedly and said that the Russians had emptied the city, and that it was not right for him to stay after everything that the Armenians had done, and that he would emigrate to Russia with the rest of the Armenians . . . Manik left, but we did not forget him or what he did."

The recollections of those who were interviewed show, once again, that explanations of the events that took place in eastern Anatolia during World War I with reference to an alleged "genocide" committed by the Turks against the Armenians are gross distortions of the historical record. Descriptions and analyses of this period that do not take into consideration the aims, methods, and ultimate e Armenians simply is a gross distortion of historical facts.

Perpetuating the Genocide Myth

Despite overwhelming evidence that Muslims also suffered greatly in the events of eastern Anatolia during the turbulent years from 1915 to 1921, Armenian propagandists have continued to claim that Armenians were the only victims of these incidents. Moreover, they have sought to convince American and world public opinion that the Ottoman authorities were engaged in a systematic and planned effort to eradicate the Empire's Armenian population. The stories told by Armenian survivors and reports written at the time by Christian missionaries and Western observers sympathetic to the Armenians are weaved together with forged documents such as the infamous Andonian book and fabricated statements attributed to Hitler to perpetuate the myth of "genocide."₈ Instead of historical objectivity, based on a careful study of all the available evidence, Armenian propagandists continue to claim that their own version of the events that took place in eastern Turkey more than 80 years ago as the absolute and undeniable truth. Although world-renowned experts and historians of the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey &emdash; scholars who, unlike the Armenian propagandists, have worked for long years in the Ottoman archives in Istanbul &emdash; reject the "genocide" allegation and refuse to support Armenian claims, the Armenian propaganda machine in this country continues to parrot the standard "party line" Armenian accusations against the Turks.⁹

In addition to books and publications, extensive lobbying in Congress, and grassroots activities to influence American public opinion, Armenian propagandists seek to perpetuate the "genocide" myth to convince younger generations of Armenians that they are the descendants of innocent victims of a "genocide" that was committed by the Turks. Young Armenian children are taught that their ancestors, who lived peacefully and minded their own affairs in the Ottoman Empire, were suddenly subjected to a horrible crime perpetrated by the Turks who massacred millions of Armenians and tried to exterminate their race from the face of the earth. This so-called "history" that is taught to young Armenian children has nothing to say about the fact that many Armenians rose to the highest positions of power in the Ottoman Empire, that they practiced their religion freely in a predominantly Muslim state and that many Armenians in large Ottoman cities such as Istanbul or Izmir lived prosperous lives since they controlled a great deal of commercial and business activities. The standard "history" that the young Armenians learn today similarly has nothing to say about the real course of events that preceded the Ottoman government's decision to deport Armenians from several eastern provinces: How Armenian revolutionary groups decided to seek independence through violence, how terrorism was used by the Armenian radicals to provoke an intervention by the Western powers, how rebellions were started in cities like Van and Bitlis in 1915 in which thousands of innocent Muslim civilians were killed or forced to flee their homes, or how the Armenian rebels made the fateful decision to side with the advancing Russian army and fight against the Ottomans.

Armenian propagandists and writers seek to accomplish several objectives in their ceaseless efforts to indoctrinate young Armenian-Americans in this country. Their first, and most important objective, is to have these young people develop intense hatred and enmity towards Turks and Turkey. In books, essays, and poems written by Armenian authors, the Turks are portrayed as the most barbaric nation in the world and capable of carrying out only the most heinous and horrible acts against humanity. The dehumanization of "the Turk" through blatantly racist remarks and characterizations is one of the most common themes in books written by Armenians or in the articles and essays published in Armenian-American newspapers and magazines. The second objective of the Armenian propaganda machine is to convince the young Armenian-Americans that they should "never forget" what happened in 1915 and seek revenge against the Turks for the alleged atrocities they committed against the Armenians. Again, in Armenian newspapers and publications the theme of "revenge" is constantly played up and the Armenian youth is exhorted to action to "pursue the just cause of their people." The third objective of the Armenian scholars, writers, and propagandists is to indoctrinate the young Armenians into believing that their homeland was taken away from them forcibly and that it should be returned to them. The effort here is directed toward first pushing Turkey into a position of accepting the blame for an alleged "genocide" and, following that admission, to press for territorial claims in eastern Turkey near the borders of the newly-independent Armenian republic. Finally, Armenian propagandists use the myth of "genocide" to instill a sense of identity among the Armenian youth to prevent their complete assimilation into American society and culture. The process of building up national or cultural identity by choosing an "enemy" has been practiced widely by many ethnic groups throughout the world. In the case of the Armenian-Americans, fostering enmity toward Turkey by perpetuating the myth of "genocide" serves the same purpose.

The process of indoctrinating the Armenian-American youth takes place at many different levels, ranging from church sermons on Sundays to organized activities such as "genocide workshops" at youth camps. For example, the Armenian Youth Federation regularly conducts a "genocide education workshop" at Camp Haiastan to provide Armenian youth "with a better knowledge and understanding of the Armenian Genocide."10 A 16-year-old, who participated in one of these so-called "education workshops," described her impressions as follows:

"Upon arriving at the camp, I saw most of the Watertown chapter already there. I met people from Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and New York. There were more than 100 kids there all busy getting to know each other . . . The main reason we had this weekend was to learn about the awful incident that took place in 1915, the Genocide. We went to lectures on Saturday and Sunday and learned about the "bigger picture." . . . While listening to the different discussions during the weekend, we were all reminded of where each came from and what our ancestors had to go through for us to be here today."11

According to reports in the Armenian-American newspapers, the "education" of the Armenian youth in these camps goes beyond teaching them the Armenian version of history. It also includes training them in techniques of "activism." These involve teaching youngsters how they should organize demonstrations in front of Turkish Embassy and consulate buildings in the United States. For example, the caption of a photo taken on the camp grounds showing young kids with posters and banners denouncing Turkey reads: "Campers learn a little about activism during a mock demonstration in the cabin circle."12

Another photo that appeared in an Armenian-American newspaper has far more serious and alarming implications about how far the Armenian propagandists go in turning young children into hate merchants and potential terrorists. This photo shows a group of five young Armenian children holding another young person hostage with his hands tied behind his back and seated on a chair. The scene was apparently the reenactment of the 1983 attack on the Turkish Embassy in Lisbon when five Armenian terrorists tried to get into the building and take its residents hostage. The newspaper report states: "On July 5, 1983, five Armenians now known as the Lisbon 5 took over the Turkish Embassy in Lisbon. These brave Armenians' purpose was to attract attention to the unjust acts of 1915. The Lisbon 5 were about to get caught when the building blew up. All five Armenians perished. Last Saturday, July 10, we at Camp Haiastan had a reenactment of what happened. We broke up into different committees to help the Lisbon 5."13

Given the "education" and "training" they receive from the Armenian propaganda machine, it is no wonder that the Armenian youth is indoctrinated not just into believing the genocide myth, but also conditioned to use whatever means necessary, including the use of terrorist methods, to avenge an alleged crime that was committed against their ancestors. Indeed, the anti-Turkish propaganda that has been churned up by the Armenian propaganda machine for decades in this country played a significant role in the wave of Armenian violence that has targeted Turkish diplomats, Turkey's diplomatic and commercial offices, businesses owned by Turkish-Americans, and American professors of history who have dared to speak out objectively on the Armenian issue in the Ottoman Empire.

Armenian Terrorism and the Armenian-American Community

Beginning with the cold-blooded murder of Turkey's Consul General in Los Angeles, Mehmet Baydar, and his young deputy, Consul Bahadžr Demir in January 1973, Armenian terrorists waged a relentless campaign of assassination against Turkish diplomats and officials. For the next 15 years, Armenian terrorists murdered 73 innocent men, women, and children, including 41 Turkish diplomats in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia. In addition, the spree of Armenian political terrorism involved bombings that claimed the lives of innocent bystanders in France and Turkey as well as several hostage-taking incidents.

With the exception of the first event in Los Angeles that was carried out by a lone Armenian-American, all other terrorist acts were carried out by the two main Armenian terrorist groups, Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) and the Justice Commandos for the Armenian Genocide (JCAG). The worldwide campaign of Armenian terrorism against Turkish diplomats usually involved two or three gunmen stalking the official travelling in his car between home and work, and shooting at the intended victim when his car stopped at a traffic light. Although few of the Armenian assassins were apprehended, most have eluded capture by the authorities.

The United States and Canada ranked high in terms of the number of Armenian terrorist acts around the world. In addition to the murders of Mehmet Baydar and Bahadžr Demir, Kemal Aržkan, the Turkish Consul General in Los Angeles was assassinated by two Armenian terrorists in January 1982, and the Honorary Turkish Consul General in Boston, Orhan Gündüz, was killed in May 1982. Both attacks were claimed by JCAG. While an Armenian terrorist named Hampig Sassounian was charged with Aržkan's murder, Gündüz's killer was never apprehended. During the same year, Kani Güngör, a commercial counselor at the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa was seriously wounded and permanently paralyzed by an ASALA member and Turkey's military attache in Ottawa, Colonel Atilla Altžkat was shot to death by a gunman of the JCAG.

In March 1995, the Turkish Ambassador in Ottawa was seriously injured and his wife and daughter were taken hostage by the JCAG-ARA (Armenian Revolutionary Army). In addition to assassinations, Armenian terrorists frequently planted bombs at various targets and threatened the lives of many Turks and friends of Turkey. At least two other potentially deadly Armenian terrorist attacks planned against the Honorary Turkish Consuls in Tampa and Philadelphia were aborted either by the intended victim or by the police.

The Armenian terrorist campaign against the representatives of Turkey, Turkish-Americans, and friends of Turkey was widely criticized by the U.S. government and in the media. By the early 1980s, U.S. officials and American experts on international terrorism ranked the Armenian terrorist groups among the deadliest terrorist organizations in existence and a major threat to law and order in the United States. Similarly, especially in view of the indiscriminate killings and bombings that targeted both Turks and others, there was a growing backlash against the Armenian terrorists in Western Europe as well.

However, some Armenian-Americans, including professors teaching at prestigious universities in this country, prominent writers and elected public officials, expressed their satisfaction at the fact that Armenian terrorism had led to widespread publicity about the events that took place in eastern Turkey during World War I. The typical attitude of many Armenians was that while they did not necessarily approve of the killings of Turkish officials, they were nevertheless happy that these events had put the spotlight on the alleged "genocide" of the Armenians by the Turks more than 80 years ago.

However, there were also many Armenian-Americans who did not shy away from expressing their open support for the terrorists. The trial of Gourgen Mkritch Yanikian in Santa Barbara in 1973 was a harbinger of things to come: Yanikian, who had carried out one of the most heinous double-murders in the state's history, was treated as a "hero" by the crowd of Armenians who had gathered in the courtroom. Armenian-Americans quickly mobilized and formed a group called "American Friends of Armenian Martyrs" to raise funds for his defense and to use the court case as "an educational campaign to bring the story of Turkish genocide before the American and world attention."(14) Until his death almost a decade later, a few months after he was released from prison on the order of the then California governor, George Deukmejian, Yanikian continued to receive gifts and supportive letters from Armenian-Americans. Similarly, after Hampig Sassounian was found guilty of murdering the Turkish Consul-General in Los Angeles, Kemal Aržkan, a campaign to provide funds for his defense raised $250,000 in small donations from Armenian-Americans throughout the United States.(15) Armenian-Americans launched similar campaigns for moral support and fund-raising for several other Armenian terrorists who were captured by the authorities in this country and in Europe.(16)

In his study of Armenian terrorism, Michael Gunter provides a detailed description of the attitudes expressed by some of the leading members of the Armenian-American community about the Armenian terrorists:

"Harry Derderian, a leading official of the Armenian National Committee (the Dashnag's political arm), for example, told a reporter: "If terrorism is a contributing factor in getting people's attention, I can go along with it." Commenting about the events of 1915 and the current terrorism, Armand Arabian, a superior court judge in California, declared: "It is the right of Armenians to seek redress . . . Some seek it on street corners." After Hampig Sassounian was found guilty of murdering the Turkish Consul in Los Angeles in 1982 . . . Bishop Yeprem Tabakian, the prelate of the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church, stated: "Hampig's conviction is an indictment directed against all Armenians." Archbishop Vatche Hovsepian, the primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church, added: "I am truly shocked about the verdict." George Mason, the moderate publisher of The [Armenian] California Courier, concluded: "There are many Armenian Americans in California who feel great sympathy and support for Armenian terrorists. I have talked to numerous peaceful, fair, and thoughtful men who have expressed support for the terrorists."

Levon Marashlian, of the Glendale College of Armenian history and culture, said Armenian terrorists are "patriots who have been waiting for 70 years." An Armenian student of Dr. Dennis Papazian, professor of history and the University of Michigan in Dearborn, was quoted as saying: "In a way, I'm kind of proud of the terrorists."(17)

The support that Armenian-Americans gave to the assassins of Turkish diplomats was also reflected in the Armenian publications in this country. For example, the January 28, 1982 issue of The Armenian Reporter published a New Year's message by Ara Alex Yenikomshian, a leading member of ASALA. The message, a transcript of the broadcast that was made in Beirut, discussed openly the terrorist activities that were carried out by ASALA during 1982 and exhorted all Armenians to "action" until "occupied Armenian lands are liberated."(18 )The openness with which a prominent Armenian newspaper in this country lent its pages to one of the top leaders of ASALA clearly showed the degree of sympathy and support that many Armenian-Americans extended to a terrorist organization that was considered to be a threat to law and order by the FBI and other American law enforcement agencies.

The direct or indirect support that was given to Armenian terrorism by many Armenian-Americans played a major role in the acts of violence that led to scores of fatalities in this country and elsewhere in the world during the 1970s and 1980s. Undoubtedly, the efforts of the Armenian propagandists to portray Turks and Turkey as the enemy of the Armenian people, to dehumanize the Turks, and to glorify the assassinations of the Young Turk leaders by Armenian terrorists after World War I were all influential in leading young Armenians toward the path of terrorism and violence. Studies on terrorism show that many terrorists are drawn to violence when they are able to overcome moral restraint through the process of socialization, collective beliefs, influence of history, and family traditions.(19) These studies also show how through indoctrination and propaganda, individuals can be "transformed rapidly into skilled combatants, who may feel little compunction and even a sense of pride in taking human life."(20) One of the main objectives of the Armenian propaganda machine in the United States is to perpetuate the "genocide" myth to such an extreme that taking revenge against the Turks through any means, including acts of violence against Turkish officials, becomes morally acceptable for young Armenian-Americans. An Armenian terrorist, who got caught with four others in 1982 after five sticks of dynamite and a timing device was found in their luggage at Boston's Logan International Airport, underscored this point when he said later in an interview: "We had no intentions of plea bargaining . . . because we sincerely thought that what we had done was morally justifiable."(21)

The dehumanization of the intended victims is another characteristic feature of terrorist mentality and behavior. As one expert notes: "Once dehumanized, the potential victims are no longer viewed as persons with feelings, hopes, and concerns, but as subhuman objects . . . It is easier, for example, to brutalize victims when they are referred to as 'worms'."(22) The behavior of the Armenian terrorists conformed to this pattern. With their constant vilification and dehumanization of "the Turk" in their writings, Armenian propagandists in this country created a favorable environment for the wave of violence and terrorism by young Armenian terrorists against Turkish officials for nearly two decades beginning in the early 1970s. The comments of John D. Hagopian in an Armenian-American newspaper is a typical example of this effort to divest the Turks of human qualities: "You [the Turks] are the offspring of those who butchered my people, and I have no love for you whatsoever. Yes, God made you and your fathers. But he also made snakes and jackals and hyenas, and Oswald, and Manson."(23)

The glorification of the Armenian terrorists who assasinated the Young Turk leaders after World War I by the Armenian propagandists and writers has similarly contributed to the attractiveness of terrorism for some young American Armenians. Books and articles written about the Armenian terrorists of the 1920s portray them as national heroes who fulfilled their mission of taking revenge against the Turks rather than criminals or terrorists. Individuals who carried out these assasinations are presented to the younger generations of Armenians in this country as virtual role models who dared to challenge the historical "injustice" that was done to the Armenian nation by the Turks.24 Decades of hero-worshipping of those who assassinated Young Turk leaders influenced the motives and behavior of those young Armenians who chose to follow in their footsteps more than 60 years later. It is also worth noting the similarities and continuities between the two waves of Armenian community mobilized to raise funds for the terrorists with the Armenian churches and community centers in America taking the lead. And in both instances, the actions of the Armenian terrorists were supported directly or indirectly by many Armenian-Americans for publicizing their "cause" and reviving an interest about the Armenian question in American public opinion.

Intimidation in Academia

One of the major goals of the Armenian propaganda machine in this country has been to suppress scholarly debates and discussions of the tragic events that took place in eastern Anatolia during World War I. Fearful that objective and unbiased historical analysis might endanger decades of propaganda based on one-sided interpretations of the historical record, Armenians have tried to use various methods to silence those American historians and experts on the Ottoman Empire who do not subscribe to the standard "party line" perspective on the Armenian question. Initially, these methods involved the use of physical violence and terrorism: In 1982, Armenian students and extremists disrupted the history class taught by Professor Stanford J. Shaw at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), a prominent scholar and a widely-recognized expert on Ottoman history. Later, Armenians turned to terrorism: They bombed Shaw's home and also broke into his office at the university and ransacked it. Professor Shaw had become a target for Armenian terrorists because, based on his years of meticulous research in the Ottoman archives, he had come to the conclusion that there was no systematic effort by the Ottoman government to engage in a genocide against the Armenians. The fact that the physical violence and terrorism directed at Shaw took place at UCLA was no coincidence: In addition to being located in one of the largest Armenian-American communities in the United States, UCLA's Center for Near Eastern Studies has become a major center for producing anti-Turkish propaganda through the efforts of a leading Armenian-American historian, Richard G. Hovannissian.

The terrorist bombing of Shaw's home was meant to send a signal to other American historians who might challenge the "facts" of the events during 1915-21, as presented by the Armenian propagandists. In fact, since the incidents at UCLA, their efforts to intimidate other historians and suppress their views have continued unabated. However, instead of actual terrorism and physical violence, this intimidation campaign has involved sending messages of threat via mail or telephone, intervening with the university administrators to undermine academic careers and seeking to discredit individuals through well-publicized campaigns. More recently, the Armenian propaganda machine has begun yet another campaign designed to prevent free academic debate, discussion and learning at American universities. This time the target is a program to establish Turkish Studies Chairs at several American institutions of higher learning such as Harvard, Princeton, Georgetown, and the University of Chicago. The program, which is partly funded by the Turkish government, seeks to expand the study of Turkish history, society and culture through the establishment of professorships in Ottoman and modern Turkish history.

Armenian propagandists have been very critical of Turkish Studies Chairs on the grounds that they were being established by the Turkish government to present its views on the Armenian question and that they would be filled by individuals who sympathized with Turkey's stand on this issue. As usual, Armenian allegations have large doses of fiction and untruth mixed with the fear that learning more about Turkey and its people might offset the negative propaganda that has been disseminated in this country for decades about the Turks. The charges and allegations are false since the Turkish officials have repeatedly stated that they have no intention to interfere with the selection of professors for these chairs or the contents of the course materials. Furthermore, the university administrators at Harvard, Princeton, Georgetown, and Chicago have also repeatedly stated that the Turkish government has made no attempt to influence their choice of candidates for these positions. Despite the absence of any evidence that would contradict these statements, Armenian propagandists continue to fabricate unfounded allegations based on conspiracy theories. Their objective is to intimidate American universities, this time through orchestrated campaigns rather than terrorism and violence directed at individual professors, to prevent the dissemination of objective and unbiased knowledge about Turkey. The efforts of the Armenians on this issue are all the more hypocritical since during the past two decades, more than a dozen major American universities have established professorships or programs in Armenian studies with contributions from wealthy Armenian-Americans. Some of these universities, such as UCLA, have gone even further and specifically designated these new programs to support the study of the "Armenian genocide." Clearly, in the distorted world of the Armenian propaganda machine, the establishment of Armenian studies programs where the main focus is on the study of an alleged "genocide" qualifies for genuine academic scholarship whereas the promotion of knowledge and learning about the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey does not.

Joining the Holocaust Bandwagon

Since the 1970s, Armenian writers and propagandists have followed a new strategy to win greater support and sympathy for their "cause." This strategy aims at establishing parallels between the fates of the European Jewry during World War II and that of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. By equating the tragedy that fell upon the Jews in the Holocaust and the sufferings experienced by many Armenians in an alleged "genocide," Armenian propagandists seek to exploit the sensitivities of many Americans who are deeply troubled by the horrible events that led to deaths of more than 6 million Jews in Europe at the hands of the Nazis. The efforts of the Armenians to join the "Holocaust bandwagon" and benefit from the sympathies of Americans towards the victims of Nazi violence have included support for "scholarly" studies that seek to establish linkages between the two events, letters to major American newspapers where this linkage is emphasized, grassroots activities that are intended to gain the sympathy and support of the American Jewish community, and repeated use of a statement attributed to Hitler alleging a similarity between the Jews and the Armenians - a statement that has been proven false and without any foundation.

Anyone who is even remotely familiar with the experiences of the Jews in Europe and the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire can easily see that the two have very little in common. Germany's Jews did not rebel against the German government in search of an independent state, they did not begin a campaign of violence, terrorism, and ethnic cleansing against the Germans, the Jews did not collaborate with Germany's enemies during a major war, and few of them managed to live normal lives in Germany while the Nazis embarked on a campaign that was planned to exterminate their race. The case of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War I was strikingly dissimilar: Armenians revolted against the Ottoman state and collaborated with the invading Russian army, Armenian revolutionary organizations engaged in mass violence and terror against innocent Muslim civilians and uprooted them from their homes, and millions of Armenians continued to live in peace in cities and towns in Western Turkey that were not gripped by communal violence. More importantly, there is no question about Hitler's plans to exterminate the Jews or about the horrible Holocaust event.25 There is no evidence, however, that the Ottoman government ever had a similar plan and the Armenian allegations about a "genocide" is strongly disputed by qualified American scholars and experts on Ottoman history.

The efforts of the Armenian writers and propagandists to establish a linkage between the Holocaust and the events of 1915 to gain the sympathy of the American Jewish community conveniently overlook the fact that during World War II, a large number of Armenians living in Germany actively supported Hitler's policies. According to Christopher J. Walker, a pro-Armenian historian and the author of a major study of Armenian history, this support took the form of Armenians fighting in the Nazi armed forces. As Walker puts it:

"Nevertheless, there remains the incontestable fact that relations between Nazis and Dashnaks living in the occupied areas were close and active. On 30 December 1941 an Armenian battalion was created by a decision of the Wehrmacht, known as the 'Armenian 812th Battalion.' It was commanded by Dro, and was made up of a small number of committed recruits and a larger number of Armenians from the prisoners of war taken by the Nazis in their sweep eastward. Early on the total number was 8,000; this number grew to 20,000. The 812th Battalion was operational in the Crimea and the North Caucasus.

A year later, on 15 December 1942, an 'Armenian National Council' was granted official recognition by Alfred Rosenberg, the German Minister of the occupied areas. The 'Council's' president was Professor Ardashes Abeghian, its vice-president Abraham Giulkhandanian, and it numbered among its members Nzhdeh and Vahan Papazian. From that date until the end of 1944 it published a weekly journal, Arménien, edited by Viken Shant (the son of Levon) who also broadcast on Radio Berlin."26

The collaboration between the Dashnak Armenians and the Nazis during World War II was accompanied by articles appearing in the pro-Nazi Armenian publications that praised Hitler's policies and made derogatory and anti-Semitic remarks about the Jews. The service of the Armenians to Hitler's efforts to exterminate the Jews came at a time when the Turkish government was giving asylum to many German Jews who were fleeing from Hitler. Given the fact that scores of Armenians expressed blatantly anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi views in this country and in Europe during World War II and large numbers of Armenians served in Hitler's armies, one wonders how-without feeling any shame or guilt-the Armenian propagandists today can ask the support and sympathy of the American Jewish community.

Conclusion

The following sections in this publication offer the recollections of those who survived the Armenian atrocities against the Muslims in eastern Anatolia during World War I and a chronology of the incidents of terrorism that were carried out by Armenian terrorists during the 1970s and 1980s. The first is a testimony to the fact that the Armenians were not the only victims of the tragic events that took place more than 80 years ago, and that large numbers of Turks, along with other Muslim groups, also suffered in the communal strife and warfare that began with the insurrection of the Armenians against the Ottoman government. The recollections of these survivors also make it evident that biased and one-sided interpretations of these events, in which the Armenians are portrayed as the helpless victims of a sudden policy change in Istanbul, are simply not corroborated by many who lived through the bloodshed and suffered at the hands of the Armenians. The insistence of the Armenians that a "genocide" was perpetrated against them - allegation that can not be taken lightly and accepted by any country in the world simply because of the claims made by one of the parties in the ethnic and communal conflict - overlooks the fact that more than a million Muslims lost their lives and close to a million were forced to become refugees largely as a result of the violence caused by the Armenian revolutionary groups and Armenians who fought alongside the invading Russian army.

The second section on Armenian terrorist activities is a stark reminder of how decades-long propaganda against Turkey and the Turks led many Armenians to turn to violence and murder as a means to take revenge and create worldwide publicity for their cause. Armenian terrorism is also instructive in demonstrating the consequences of "educating" young children in the so-called "genocide workshops" where one-dimensional perceptions of the Turks as the "evil enemy," along with moral justifications for seeking revenge from Turkey, are poured into the minds of the teenagers. Studies on terrorist movements show that sustained waves of terrorism, such as the one that involved the Armenian terrorist organizations, are difficult to maintain without a certain level of popular support.27 While the majority of the American public did not condone the assassinations of the Turkish diplomats and the bombing of Turkish consular offices or businesses owned by Turkish-Americans, many in the Armenian-American community did, either openly or indirectly. Clearly, this support, displayed through fund-raising campaigns for the captured terrorists along with meetings and various activities organized by the Armenian churches and community centers throughout the United States, was instrumental in perpetuating the spree of murders targeting innocent civilians.

Turkish-Americans are part of the ethnic mosaic that makes up the United States. As a community, it does not believe in fostering enmity against other ethnic groups in this country and views such efforts as contradictory to the basic founding principles and philosophy of America. The perpetuation of the enmity towards Turkey and Turks by the Armenian propagandists are not in the best interests of anyone living in this country, with the exception, perhaps, of those who thrive on the continuation of historical animosities.

III. Testimonies of Witnesses

MUHAMMET RESIT GÜLESER

Father's Name: Abdullah
Mother's Name: Habibe
Place of Birth: Van
Date of Birth: 1900

I was a young student at the Dar'ül-Muallimin school, around 15 or 16 years old during the Armenian massacres, and remember what happened quite well. Before the First World War, we had good neighborly relations with the Armenians (whose population was said to be approximately 17,000).

With the declaration of the constitutional monarchy in 1908, they started to exploit the principles of independence, equality, and justice to their benefit. Their leader in Van, Aram Pasha, was in the delegation that notified Sultan Hamit that he would have to leave his throne. The Armenians set up an underground organization in Van, and dug tunnels which extended from near the Great Mosque (Büyük Cami) all the way to the old section of town. It was even possible to go through these tunnels on horseback. One day the tunnels were inadvertently discovered when a section caved near a guard. Even though Aram Pasha was detained near the Great Mosque based on the intelligence provided by an Armenian after the discovery, he was released without punishment due to the political sensitivities of the time.

In short, the Armenians were very well organized. Already well established in commerce, they were doing very well financially. After the Armenians and Jews were permitted to join the military, groups of Armenians joined the military during the retreat of the Van division. The Armenians entered the military prepared -- with their own weapons. Our soldiers were carrying German-made primitive weapons that after firing four shots, would drop the fifth bullet. According to what we had heard from Mr. Hacž Latif and others who later returned to Van, the Armenians in the Van division were shooting our soldiers in the back. There were also several cases of Armenian doctors and nurses poisoning our wounded soldiers who were hospitalized in Van after returning from the eastern front.

Regarding the situation in Van, the Russians were approaching from three fronts, Muradiye, Özalp, and Baskale. The Armenians in the city were rebelling and continued an aggressive campaign against the Muslim population for 29 days. We had three barracks, Hacž Bekir, Aziziye, and Toprakkale. Ten soldiers would guard each one. They raided these barracks and slaughtered the soldiers like sheep by slicing their throats. Ali Çavus was also martyred there. While our weak militia were digging trenches to try to fight, the Armenians made holes in the walls and were firing shots with machine guns, pouring cans of kerosene, lighting fires, and escaping through the deep tunnels. This brutal attack lasted 29 days. The decision to flee was finally made so that the Muslim population would not suffer any more deaths. Those with carts used them; those without were under desperate conditions, but we all joined the exodus. People left their children on the road, others died from hunger and disease.

It should be remembered that the Armenians not only committed large massacres in Van, but in the villages as well. The homes in the villages of Tžmar, Baskale, and Özalp were stuffed with hay and set on fire. Those that tried to escape were killed with bullets and bayonets. The inhabitants of a few villages in Zeve organized and fought the Armenians, but almost all of them -- from seven different villages -- were killed. Mass graves are still being uncovered in these villages and a memorial was built.

Of the twelve ships that carried the Muslim refugees from Van, four of them carried government employees and their families. All of the sailors aboard the vessels were Armenians. The Armenian bandits, aided by these sailors, forced the four government employee boats to dock at the Adžr island, and killed all of the passengers. As for those in the other eight boats, they were taken to another island near Tatvan where Armenian bandits were waiting, but were able to escape with few casualties because they were armed.

When we left Van, we first went to Bitlis, and later to Diyarbakžr. We witnessed the Armenian savagery along the way. Finally, I will tell you about what we saw and heard upon returning to Van. The Armenians applied all types of torture to the inhabitants, God bless their souls. They paraded Isa Hodja, who was over 100 years old, on a donkey through the village, raided and looted homes, and gathered women and girls into Mr. Ziya's home where they repeatedly raped them. They threw the bodies of the dead into wells, and even filled the well of our mosque with their victims' bodies.

When General Cevdet entered Van for the first time, he asked the gendarmes to escort 130 women whose husbands were at the front to Diyarbakžr. They had been stranded in Van because they did not have any transportation. About 30 of them stayed in our house. They spun wool to survive. They were also given military rations. They told us that there was no end to the torture and cruelties they suffered at the hands of the Armenian bandits. The Armenians skinned the men, castrated them, and raped and impaled the women.

We returned to Van four years later. We stayed two years initially, but were forced to flee again when the Russians arrived. This time we went as far as Siirt. When we returned 200-250 Armenian families were seeking refuge on the Çarpanak island. They were hoping that the Turks would leave, and that they would resettle in Van. Most of them were artisans. A short time later, a new decree was issued, and they were sent to Revan under the protection of the government. However, Van, raided seven times by the enemy, was completely destroyed except for the Armenian quarters. We had to rebuild the city.

SEYH CEMAL TALAY

Father's Name: Cimsid
Mother's Name: Fatma
Place of Birth: Van
Date of Birth: 1901

The Russians were providing weapons to the Armenians. With military assistance from the Russians and encouragement from England, France, and the United States, all of which had consulates in Van, Armenians increased their hostilities in the beginning of 1915. The Russians were secretly providing them with sophisticated arms hidden in food supplies sent from Russia to the port of Trabzon, and from there sent by caravan to Van. The goods on the caravans were distributed in the center of the old city, and the hidden ammunition was secretly distributed to the Armenian militants. The leader of the Armenian rebellion in Van was Aram Pasha, but I don't remember the name of the leader of the Dashnaks. They all had land claims, especially in Van. The 11th squadron was assigned to Van, but went to Erzurum to mobilize. The Armenian bandits were emboldened by this and started their campaign of terror against the Muslim inhabitants.

The militants were launching raids on the Muslim villages and neighborhoods. The only thing we had to fight them with was a militia led by IImam Osman, composed of those either too old or too young to join the army.

Let me tell you a story which I will never forget. I went to a school located near the government mansion. Armenians studied at the same school. Some of the students in the Armenian underground went to get a Muslim student named Rüstü from his home on the pretext of studying. They took him to the Isžtma bridge near the industrial park. After insulting him, they raped and killed him, leaving his body for his family to find the next day. The family later composed a ballad to honor his memory.

I can remember the beginning of the skirmishes between the Muslims and Armenians. Our militia, which would meet in the Mahmut Aga barracks across the street from the Van State Hospital, was on duty a day before the war with the Armenians started. The Armenians prepared the night before and positioned themselves well. They had dug holes in the State mansion, and when our militia was preparing for morning prayer at a fountain nearby, the Armenians showered them with bullets. Many of our soldiers were killed. The fighting between local Muslims and Armenians had begun. Everyone took to the streets, and mass confusion ensued. Despite this, we got up and went to school. We had two teachers, one from Selanik, one from Edirne. They said "Come on kids, let's all forgive each other, we might not see each other again," and suggested we use the side streets to avoid Armenian bullets. I left school with some friends, but decided to take our regular route. We saw that weapons and munitions were being distributed in front of a munitions storage area for protection against the Armenians. We then noticed a few Armenians creeping up from behind, and notified the man distributing the weapons. He threw down the munitions in his hand and fired on them, and they ran away.

The wars started on April 2-3, 1915. In 1914, the Russians had not been able to penetrate the front line, but they surrounded our soldiers from behind by passing Çaldžran-Bahçesaray, and established a headquarters in the Molla Hasan village.

It was difficult to provide our soldiers with military supplies since the young students and elderly people carrying the equipment could not go further because of the cold weather. Many of them died.

We couldn't go anywhere either. But in the spring the Armenians went completely crazy. On May 10, 1915, the Russians were moving toward Van. On Governor Cevdet's orders we evacuated Van, taking with us what we could carry. During the war, Armenian brutality had reached a stage that no one, including the old, sick, captive, women, or children, could escape. The atrocities reached the degree that even the Armenians' main supporters, the Russians, were trying to prohibit their actions.

My grandmother Mihri couldn't flee with us because one of my uncles was paralyzed from the waist down. Unable to speak because of the shock of what happened in our absence, she later used sign language to explain what had transpired. They shaved my uncle's mustache along with his flesh, and then took them to a house which they used as a detention center and tortured him and the other captives until the Russians arrived.

When we became refugees there were 23 members of our family. We lost most of our family on the road to Bitlis and Urfa. Only two of us returned to Van. Our first stop on the road was Bitlis where we arrived in 11 days, and then went to Siirt, where we had relatives with whom we stayed for a few months. When we heard about the Russian advance, we again fled to Diyarbakžr. Our convoy consisted of 250 people. We suffered from hunger and thirst on the way. We went through Kurtalan and Diyarbakžr and the village of Kebir, where we didn't stay long, and again took the road to return to Van. When we reached Kurtalan, we learned that the Russians had entered Van again and went to Siirt. In the spring of 1916 we went to Baghdad, but fled to Mardin when the English advanced. In 1917 we arrived in Urfa. The French who entered Urfa started tormenting the Muslims by bringing the Aleppo Armenians to the city. This time we fought for 22 days.

We had left Van in 1915. When we were finally able to return, only two people remained from the 23-member family. Van was totally destroyed. The Armenians burned and demolished everything except for the Armenian-owned homes. In fact, when the Turkish army entered Van, around 2,000 Armenian artisans, expecting retaliation for their repression of the Turkish population, sought refuge on the island of Adžr. The Turkish government instead ensured their safe passage to Revan.

BEKIR YÖRÜK

Father's Name: Yusuf
Mother's Name: Gülnaz
Place of Birth: Van
Date of Birth: 1900

Q: Can you tell us as best as you can remember what the Armenians did in Van and Gevas?

A: We lived in the same neighborhoods as the Armenians. We too lived in the Norsin neighborhood and got along well until the Russians intervened. In those days, Armenian youths established committees with Russian encouragement, and started causing trouble. They killed the superintendent of police and threw him in the park. They killed the postman in Hasbagž. They bombed a building now replaced by a bathhouse, and twenty people died in the explosion. When the constitutional monarchy was declared, the mufti and the priest shook hands and extolled the brotherhood of Muslims and Christians. The Mufti cried as he shook hands, but events developed against us. The committee members became increasingly out of control and the rebellion began. We fought the Armenians for 29 days in Hasbagž. We had no weapons. When the division went to Erzurum, we remained completely defenseless.

The Armenians who joined the army after the establishment of the constitutional monarchy used our weapons to shoot at us, and those who remained in the army hit our soldiers from behind. They also bombed the barracks. The young people and the elderly left in the Muslim neighborhoods would take turns guarding against the Armenians. Meanwhile, the Russians were sending them gold to finance their effort.

This struggle lasted 29 days until the arrival of the Russians. The elderly Armenians didn't want this fight because they were the wealthiest inhabitants of the area, and feared sacrificing their standard of living. Armenians owned up to 1,000 stores and sold European cloth in the old part of the city of Van. When these events broke out, inhabitants of nearby villages and towns all fled to Van, and those stores disappeared within two days.

Fifty vessels full of people left Van, three of which carried wounded soldiers. Cevdet Pasha saw the passengers off at the pier. We went to Adžr Island, where the Armenians were training underground. We stayed on the island for nine days. The waves destroyed some of the ships with wooden sails. The island had wells and two bakeries. No one brought any supplies from Van. We were hungry and distraught. My elder brother was an officer and came back wounded from Erzurum. My brother realized that the Armenians would cut us off. He convinced his captain, and ten ships left from there, but we couldn't go very far. Thank God we stayed close to shore. The next day we reached Tatvan, but under difficult circumstances. The day we left Van the Armenians had set everything ablaze. There were wounded soldiers from all parts of Turkey in Van, and the Armenians fired on apartments used as hospitals where they were staying. That is why Van is sacred ground with martyrs from 67 provinces [in Turkey].

My uncle, Terren Aga, was very old, and we couldn't take him with us when we left Van. His wife, daughter, and two grandchildren remained with him. Armenian hoodlums beat my uncle and the children with an ax and killed them. His daughter hid in an abandoned American school. When the Armenians found her, they killed her by throwing her from the second floor.

We went to Bitlis from Tatvan where we remained for nearly two months. When the Russians arrived, we again went on the road. We then went to Hizan and Diyarbakžr. After we left, the Gendarme commander -- who was crying like a baby -- brought my uncle (who was Deputy Governor Ömer Bey) a report. A soldier named Mansur was also present. When we asked him to explain, he said that three days after Van was emptied they went to pick up the bodies. Hundreds of elderly women were impaled on stakes. They still had their scarves on and looked as if they were sitting. When they got closer they saw that they were killed before being impaled. They saw a woman who was split in two and her unborn child was placed on her chest.

Muslims who witnessed these thousands of examples of inconceivable brutality tearfully reported the incidents to Ömer Bey, who then told Mustafa Kemal. When the Russians finally arrived, they were displeased with the savageness which resulted in the destruction of four-fifths of Van. In addition to those massacred by the Armenians, many people also died as they were fleeing. Many collapsed on the road from hunger and disease. No one was able to take anything with them when they left Van.

When we returned to Van from exile three years later we found the Muslim neighborhoods leveled to the ground, but the areas owned by Armenians were left undamaged. When we returned there were about 2,000 Armenians living in Van who fled to the islands when the Turks started returning. Two years later, the government sent them to Revan.

Q: Did you ever participate in the fighting or use a weapon?

A: No, I have never used a weapon. I didn't have a gun, plus they didn't give me one because I was too young and didn't know how to use it. Instead, I would bring food and water to the combatants.

Q: What kind of equipment were the Armenians using?

A: They had the latest equipment which was provided by Russia and England. They gave them weapons and had them fight us. The Armenians couldn't do anything to us, but when they were armed, the balance was upset.

Q: Did many people die in these and other clashes?

A: Of course, thousands of people died. After fighting for 29 days, the then-Governor Cevdet Pasha commanded us to leave Van when he heard that the Russian forces were approaching. Cevdet Pasha was actually a very courageous man, but we had neither guns nor ammunition, while the Russians were armed with top of the line weapons.

Q: Didn't the Ottoman state take any precautions against the Armenians arming themselves to this extent? Didn't word get around?

A: People knew, and the government knew. Yet the military was on the fighting front, and only a few gendarmes were left in Van. They couldn't do anything about it. The Armenians first shot Police Lieutenant Nuri Efendi, and blew up the Hamitaga barracks. Many soldiers were killed. Then they placed bombs in the Norsin Mosque and Hacž Naci Hodja Mosque. They blew up Hafžz Hodja along with his son. Our women were raped, and our children shot.

Q: How was the evacuation carried out?

A: We left from here on 50 ships. That day the weather was stormy and rainy, as if all hell broke loose. The ships ran into each other. They were unable to approach the pier for a long time. The weather hadn't warmed up yet -- I think it was April. We left before the Russians arrived. There were about 250 people in our group, and 60 died. Some died at the hands of the Armenian bandits, others from cholera, disease, and hunger.

My uncle, his family and children, were all cut into pieces with a hatchet under the mulberry tree in our neighborhood. They [Armenians] massacred all those that stayed behind when we left. We lived in the Norsin neighborhood at the time. They burned all of Van.

All of this was planned by the Armenian committees which treacherously manipulated the Armenian population.

Q: Do you remember the names of those committees?

A: Dashnak was the most prominent one. There were others as well, but I don't remember their names now. They received money and gold from Russia and England.

Q: Did the Armenians kill many women and children?

A: The elderly didn't bother much, but all of their young people were armed. They killed whoever they could corner. They killed them and threw them into the lake or into the fire. For example, a woman was baking bread in a nearby village, and had her young child was at her side. The Armenians went into her backyard and asked her what she was doing. When she answered that she was baking bread, they insisted she needed a kebab as well, and pierced her child and threw him into the fire and burned him alive.

What else can I tell you? God knows the extent of what went on. During our escape, we took off on the ships, and stayed around the islands for four days. We couldn't sleep at night because of the wails, crying, and screams we heard all night. These were the cries we heard from surrounding villages: Zeve, Bardakçž, Kalaç, and Molla Kasžm. I hope God ensures that we don't have to relive those days when these massacres took place.

Q: Where did you go after the islands?

A: From the islands we went to the Dervis village. It took us all day to get there. Ten ships were tied together at the edge of the lake. We were very frightened. In the morning we left toward Tatvan, and finally reached our destination. We were able to rest there, and later left toward Bitlis.

Q: Do you remember how many people were with you in your convoy?

A: There were between 10 and 20 thousand people in our convoy.

Q: Did many people from your convoy die in the exodus?

A: Of course.

Q: Could you tell us how they died?

A: The women couldn't take care of the children. Some would leave them in remote areas. Hunger and disease were rampant. For example, Ömer Efendi wrapped his child in rags and left him alive under a tree as we approached the Bitlis creek. There were many other children like this thrown into the Bitlis creek, or buried when they died. But Ömer Efendi regretted what he did, and a few days later went to retrieve the child and brought him back alive.

Q: How long were you a refugee?

A: Three years.

Q: What did you find when you returned to Van? How was Van, was there much damage?

A: I saw Van; it was completely destroyed and burned. When we were in Bitlis, the Deputy Governor Ömer Bey was there. He would regularly receive reports on the situation in Van. We would follow the situation of the Russians from there. One day a soldier, Mansur, came to Bitlis. He was from Halep and used to live near the Norsin Mosque. He was in tears as he told us the story of how they entered Van, and saw that the women were lined up in a row with their head scarves still on. As they approached, they saw that they were impaled and killed. They painfully removed them and buried them. The soldiers left all their work and buried them. They then went to another location where the women had been raped and then killed. There was blood everywhere.

A similar incident occurred in the Amik village which is close to here. The inhabitants took refuge in the castle and pulled up the ladder when the Armenians arrived. The Armenians approached and convinced them to let down the ladder because they were now friendly and there was no reason to be afraid. As soon as they ascended the stairs, they separated the children and men and threw them down the hill. Some of the women threw themselves from the castle, while the others were taken to an unknown location.

Q: Did you hear about similar incidents at the time?

A: Of course I did, but what else can I tell you? Dignity, chastity, and integrity all went out the window. We suffered so much, some people even resorted to cannibalism. But we were so compassionate that when we found Armenians hiding on the island, we didn't do anything to them.

Q: Were they the Armenians who stayed when you fled?

A: No, they were Armenians remaining on the island. During the exodus they brought many Turks to this island and killed them. The ship captains were Armenians. Many of our people were maliciously killed in this way on the ships. As I told you earlier, we couldn't sleep because of the wails in those days. When we left, Van was burning, and it was still burning when the soldier Mansur came.

Q: Will you tell us about your situation in Bitlis?

A: When we arrived in Bitlis as refugees, they were angry with us because we abandoned Van. Initially the people in Bitlis were not very kind to us, asking us why we ran away and did not fight the enemy. We answered that we had no other choice because we did not have guns or ammunition. Not long after, the population of Bitlis had to flee as well, and they understood our position. The heat was debilitating. There was no food or water. Cholera and disease were spreading. Many people died. One day we saw that vehicles from Elazžg were arriving. The army corps came with Armenian drivers to bring salt to Harput.

Q: Were the drivers Armenian?