Blog

03 Oct
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New Book Deconstructs the Armenian Campaign

“The Armenian Genocide only exists in the imaginations of some Armenians and in their politicized campaign.”

screen-shot-2016-10-03-at-1-45-08-pmIn his new book, Assistant Professor at The Institute of International and Civil Security (IICS) at Khalifa University, Brendon J Cannon attempts to deconstruct the political recognition campaign for the so-called genocide by the Armenian diaspora. screen-shot-2016-10-03-at-1-44-15-pm

Cannons highlights the fact that the efforts at “Armenian Genocide” recognition have been greatly assisted by many in the West who suffer from occasional maladies associated with historical guilt over the Western excesses such as colonialism, genocide, slavery, ethnic cleansing and two World Wars that shaped the last two centuries.

You can read Cannon’s OpEd about his book on this link.

 

The book, Legislating Reality and Politicizing History – Contextualizing Armenian Claims of Genocide can be purchased from this link.

 

22 Sep
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5 Wrongs In Kim Kardashian’s New York Times Ad

 

screen-shot-2016-09-20-at-9-46-33-amKim Kardashian, the US celebrity who has been described as perhaps the world’s most famous Armenian, has taken out a full-page ad in the New York Times urging the tragic events of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire to be officially called genocide.

The ad in Saturday’s edition and titled “Genocidal Denial Cannot be Allowed”, was in response to an ad in the Wall Street Journal in April by the Turkic Forum rejecting the use of the term genocide.

There are five things wrong with the ad, which bears her signature:

 

1. “Advocating the denial of a genocide by the country responsible for it …”

Countries do not commit genocide. Individuals bear responsibility. That is why the wholesale accusation against the Ottomans, the Turkish Republic and the Turkish people is wrong.

Genocide is a precisely defined legal term. Only competent courts, such as the United Nations’ ICTY, can deliver a verdict on this.

There has been no such verdict against the Ottomans, the Turkish government OR any individuals in relation to Armenian claims during the past 101 years. So, technically, it is not genocide. Australia, along with the US and more than 100 others, is one of the nations around the world that do not formally accept the use of the word genocide in relation to the evens of 1915.

Historically as well, it is an ongoing debate. Again, among historians there is no consensus on whether or not to label the tragic events of 1915 as genocide.

Some Armenians, including Kim Kardashian, want a guilty verdict without trial against a whole nation.

2. “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”

Karekin Nezhdeh, an Armenian general founded Armenian Tseghagron, a racist organization through which Armenian young people flowed to the infamous Nazi SS and other elite German military forces

Karekin Nezhdeh, an Armenian general founded Armenian Tseghagron, a racist organization through which Armenian young people flowed to the infamous Nazi SS and other elite German military forces

The remark is attributed to Adolf Hitler in 1939. Hitler did not utter these words. This is a classic example of  fabricating history by some  Armenians.

There is no proof that Hitler ever made such a statement. The attributed quote appears only in one of the three documents from Hitler’s 1939 Obersalzberg Speech. The Nuremberg tribunal deemed the document with the attributed quote to be a forgery and dismissed from the evidence, as the source of the paper was unknown and it differed substantially with the other two copies.

Please see further information specific to Hitler’s alleged quote on this link.

3. “When we allow ourselves to be silenced by money, by fear and by power …”

This statement elaborately sums up the Armenian Diaspora’s modus operandi, as shown by Kim’s expensive full-page ad.

There is also the case of Armenian terror groups that promoted fear for decades.

From the 1970s to the mid-1980s, Armenian terror groups carried out numerous TERRORIST attacks around the world, including more than a dozen on the US soil and two in Australia.

In the wave of these TERROR attacks around the world, at least 46 people were killed and 300 injured. Car bombs, explosive devices and guns were used to silence Turkish voices and scholars who questioned their version of history.

They sought “revenge” on people who were born years after the tragic events. Both the Justice Command for the Armenian Genocide (JCAG) and the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) received widespread support from some members of the Armenian diaspora in the US and elsewhere according to widely cited intelligence reports.

screen-shot-2016-09-22-at-10-43-57-amscreen-shot-2016-09-22-at-10-44-05-am

To “silence” the late Professor Stanford Shaw, who was a known critic of the Armenian version of history at University of California, unknown assailants bombed his home.

In fact, it is Turkey who wants this tragic chapter of history to be researched and debated openly. It is the Armenian diaspora who wants to silence anyone opposing their version.

 

Follow this link to learn more about the Armenian terror groups in CIA reports.

 

 

4. “Many historians believe if Turkey had been held responsible … the Holocaust may not have happened”

The most serious legal attempt to punish those who perpetuated the alleged crimes was the Malta Tribunals and the cases there collapsed due to lack of evidence.

Special trials were set-up by the British in Malta in 1921. They wanted to convict Ottoman war prisoners of crimes against humanity. But the British prosecutors concluded that there was not enough evidence to prosecute any of the POWs. Subsequently, they were all released.

We believe drawing similarities between the tragic events of the 1915 and the Holocaust shows the utmost disrespect to the survivors of the Nazi regime.

We believe unless all parties acknowledge and take responsibility for their part in the suffering of innocents, the world will continue to see more atrocities such as the ones in Syria, the Azerbaijani city of Khojaly, Sudan, Bosnia and the Congo.

5. “Money talks, and right now it’s talking crap”

Kim Kardashian, thank you for your brutal honesty and introspect!

12 Aug
0

Don’t Threaten Friendship

As published on the Daily Telegraph on August 12, 2o16:

Australians and the Turks have had a special bond since the Gallipoli campaign. In the fringes of our society, there has always been some anti-Turkish sentiment but that has never spilled over to the mainstream, until recently.

A wave of extraordinary and unprecedented developments in Turkey has sparked an appetite for opinion pieces about the country and its current leadership. Some of these are warranted but some are genuinely simple & naive. Others are openly divisive and risk creating animosity towards Australia’s 66,000 strong Turkish community.

For example, last week the editorial of a major Australian newspaper wrongly asserted that there had been an increase in attacks against Turkey’s Christians, whose numbers have fallen from 2 million to 120,000 in two years. How would such unsubstantiated assertions make Australian Christians feel about the predominantly Muslim Australian Turkish community?

In another example, an opinion piece by John Adams, which was published in the Daily Telegraph last Friday, calls for the Australian government to ‘take on the Turks’ and recognise the Turkish-led Ottoman genocide against the Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians between 1914 and 1923.

Adams asserts in his piece that the Turks committed genocide against Christian minorities for over nine years.

First of all, although there is an ongoing debate on whether or not the forced historical relocation of the Ottoman Armenians would constitute genocide, the claim that the Assyrians and Greeks were subject to genocide is absurd. The Greeks in particular carried out well-documented massacres against their neighboring Muslims dating back to the 1820s and into the 1920s.

While Adams is entitled to his own opinion and has a right to express it freely, he does not have the right to make up historical facts. His piece, based on a false understanding of history and incorrect information about contemporary events in Turkey, serve only one purpose: vilifying the Australian-Turkish community.

Secondly, the Armenian lobby groups in the diaspora have been pressuring governments to recognise the events of 1915 as genocide since the 1970s and the Australian government is among the majority of those respectable states that have not bowed to the pressure.

As Adams points out, it is indeed a matter of the values that Australia stands for, like the rule of law, due process and being a good international citizen.  The Australian government knows that passing judgments on historical foreign debates is not its job and should be left for historians not lobbyists. If it comes onto the table, we have a strong belief that the government will follow the due process of setting up a commission, listening to historians and the relevant stakeholders.

Finally, genocide is a precisely defined legal term. There is no court decision as such since; there is no evidence that would warrant the tragedy of 1915 as genocide. Our refusal to use the term genocide should not imply that we deny the suffering of the Ottoman Armenians. Like millions of others, they suffered too. We share their pain.

These kinds of divisive campaigns by lobby groups and opinions based on wrong information continue to create wedges within the Australian community. People from more than 192 different nations call Australia home and the actions of these lobbyists with agendas are a threat to possibly the greatest multicultural society in the world. We should continue the intellectual debate based on facts, not opinions.

 

Baris Atayman

National Secretary for the Australian Turkish Advocacy Alliance

29 Jun
0

ATA-A Condemns Istanbul Terror Attacks

The Australian Turkish Advocacy Alliance (ATA-A) condemns the latest terrorist attack in Istanbul and calls up on all community organisations and leaders to take a stand against this gross assault on human life.

There are no excuses to justify the violent acts against human life.

This attack was not only against Turkey but the citizens of the world as terrorists stormed one of Europe’s busiest airports airport with guns, hand grenades and suicide vests.
Video footage of the event reportedly shows security guards fighting off at least one of the attackers.
The attack has left nearly 50 people dead and many more injured.

Among the many expression of sympathy, a phone call has touched us all in particular. Australian Vietnam War Veteran Lindsay Gazzard from Paramatta, NSW wanted to express his sympathies personally and called ATA-A.
On a day like this the conversation with Mr Gazzard and his warm words mean a lot to us, more than anything else. It is encouraging to know we are all together against these kind of evil acts.
It is comforting to know that the people of Turkey are not alone in their never-ending fight against terror.

Mr Gazzard told us to ‘stay strong’ and we will, knowing people who believe in the value of human life outnumber those who murder and massacre the innocent to make political statements.

We are grateful to all Australians who stand by us in solidarity during yet another hard day like this.

ATA-A