To pretend H.R. 106 is about condemning ‘another government from another time’ and has nothing to do with the Turkey or Turks of today is entirely disingenuous.
Anyone with any knowledge about this issue knows that issue of recognizing Armenian genocide claims is tied to LAND RESTITUTION CLAIMS.
Stunningly, at the urging of the Armenian Diaspora, this resolution has been drafted to allege that the alleged genocide occurred from 1915-1923, which is outrageously inaccurate about even the most fundamental fact about this issue: when it occurred.
Relocation orders were issued in 1915 to remove Armenians from locations near the Russian front. However, BEFORE WWI ended in 1918, orders were issued repeatedly to stop relocating Armenians.
Starting in 1919, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and the nationalists under him began the war of independence against the Ottoman regime. During that time, the so called “French” Armenian Legion invaded South East Anatolia aided by the French. Why? Because the French wanted control over the oil fields in what is now Northern Iraq. At the same time, there was an unprovoked invasion by the Greeks to the west, conducted under the watchful eye of the British.
The aim of creating the French Armenian Legion was to allow Armenian to contribute to the liberation of the Cilicia region in the Ottoman Empire from the overwhelming majority Turkic population and help Armenians to realize their national aspirations of creating a state in that region. The Armenian Legion was to fight only Turks and only in Cilicia, and become the core of a planned future Armenian Army. And, all of this, occurred between 1919 and 1923.
This resolution was deliberately written to include as “genocide” this period of time, long after WWI and when Armenians were clearly waging an all out war against Turks. The intent can only be, if this resolution is ever adopted, for the Armenian Diaspora to next allege that the modern Republic of Turkey is responsible for the “genocidal” acts occurring during 1919-1923, the defense of their homeland, under the leadership of officials who formed the Republic of Turkey in October 1923.
This is characteristic of the Diaspora’s methods. They are dishonest, dishonorable, in denial that their own Dashnak revolutionary forces openly declared war against the Ottoman regime during WWI, which then set into motion a horrific series of events in which Ottoman Muslims and Armenians massacred each other on an industrial scale, while the Allies idly stood by and watched.
Now, turning modern jurisprudence on its head, Armenia refuses to release the archives of the Armenian revolutionary parties operating in concert with Russia and France during WWI, and declare it is Turkey that must prove that a genocide did not occur!
While Turkey is criticized without restraint by EU countries and Armenians for disallowing genocide claims, in Armenia, it is illegal to possess a copy of the Manifesto of Hovhannes Katchaznouni, First Prime Minister of the Armenian Republic. Why? Katchaznouni was a leader of the Dashnak revolutionaries during WWI. In his manifesto, he honorably takes responsibility for the Armenians inability to achieve a Greater Armenia in SE Anatolia. He acknowledges that the Dashnak leadership overestimated the support the Russians and French were willing to provide, and grossly underestimated the resolve of the Turks to keep their homeland. Most striking, he actually states that the Ottomans knew what the Dashnak’s goals were and that they were justified in doing what they did to protect their lands.
Meanwhile, in democracies like France and Switzerland, any discussion that challenges the version of history presented by Diaspora Armenians are forbidden by law, a crime.
Moreover, the one and only Turkish citizen that was granted access to the Armenian archives, was arrested by Armenian authorities as he was boarding a plane to come back to the states to return to his doctoral program at Duke. He was arrested for buying books, old books, and having the audacity to think he could take them with him when he left. All of his research was confiscated and he was imprisoned for several months and finally tried and convicted of under a law relating to printed matter more than 50 years old.
Let’s not also forget, that Professor Stanford J. Shaw, one of the most renowned historians of Ottoman history, who concluded there was no Armenian genocide, only a failed attempt at forming an independent nation. As a result, Armenians bombed his house in Los Angeles, Armenians disrupted his classes at the University of Southern California, threatened his life and made it impossible for him to remain in the U.S.
When the EU began insisting Turkey “accept responsibility” for the Armenian genocide committed by a defunct previous regime, Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan asked the United States and Russia to open their sealed archives for review. Both refused. The United States’ complicity has been documented to some extent. But it’s the suspected Russian involvement in Armenian acts of terrorism against the Ottoman Empire over a period of nearly 80 years that Russians most certainly don’t want exposed.
To the casual observer with no axe to grind, declarations made without access to all the pertinent archives certainly suggests that Turkey is getting railroaded for political purposes, that those making demands are making use of illegitimate leverage with half the facts concealed.
Freedom of speech and freedom of inquiry when it comes to Armenian genocide claims only exists for those who accept the Diaspora’s claims without question.
And, how ironic, that now the effort to pass this resolution would put at risk U.S. efforts in its war against terror. Some of the first acts of terror that occurred on U.S. soil were committed by Armenian terrorists who murdered over 70 Turkish diplomats (and members of their family, including children) as well as people of other nationalities who were unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity during a span of 12 years, starting in 1973—acts of terror that were committed to promote “genocide awareness,” no less.
Apparently, among the Diaspora, freedom of speech and civil liberties like the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are only permitted if you mindlessly and unquestioningly support their cause.