The Armenian Issue

BY HASAN PULUR
MILLIYET- I should first emphasize that there is in fact a historical Armenian issue, which unfolded as follows: Imperialist states seeking to split the Ottoman Empire forced Armenians loyal to the Ottoman Empire to revolt against the empire and promised them an independent Armenian state in return. This was a result of the empire’s decision to enter World War I on the same side as Germany. France and Britain incited the Armenian revolt against the Ottoman Empire in order to gain a strong hand in the Dardanelles and the empire’s southern and eastern flanks. Thus, Armenians attacked Turkish civilians and furthermore, Armenian soldiers in the Ottoman Army deserted to the Russian Army.
The Ottoman government called on the Armenians to stop the violence. Heedless, the Armenians continued and as a result, the Ottoman government forced the Armenians in the region to emigrate. This was the only thing the Ottoman Empire did to put a halt to the Armenian violence. During this emigration, the Armenians had to fight neither the Ottoman government nor the Turks, but the Kurds in the region. This is the incident which the Armenians now call ‘genocide.’
Historian Mete Tuncay wrote in an article published in the Journal of Social History that in his view, the so-called Armenian genocide is a sort of myth for the establishment of the Armenian state. ‘Armenians want Turkey to recognize the so-called genocide and pay compensation and give land to the Armenian state,’ said Tuncay. It is true that there is an Armenian issue, but this is nothing more than a fight between two communities, as Ziya Gokalp has noted.
People who talk about these issues as if they happened yesterday ignore the ongoing killings in Iraq and the destruction of valuable works of ancient civilizations in museums there.