Prof. Havva Kök Arslan: "Turks, Greeks and Armenians can lay the foundation of a new economic and cultural union"

Stating that April 24 is considered to be the day when the Committee of Union and Progress started to arrest Armenian intellectuals in İstanbul during the First World War, Political Scientist Prof. Havva Kök Arslan expressed that "April 24 is perhaps the most problematic day of the year for the Turkish Foreign Ministry."

Emphasizing that Türkiye's attitude towards this incident is based on the rejection of the concept of 'genocide' as a state policy, Prof. Havva Kök Arslan stated that "If the peoples of this region can leave the traumas of the First World War behind and look to the future, Turks, Greeks and Armenians can lay the foundation of an economic and cultural union again."

Üsküdar University Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Head of the Department of Political Science and International Relations (English) Prof. Havva Kök Arslan evaluated April 24, which is considered the beginning day of the Armenian deportation, in terms of politics and foreign affairs due to the arrest and deportation of 2,234 people from the Armenian community in İstanbul on April 24, 1915.

On the day the deportation began...

Prof. Havva Kök Arslan expressed that "Perhaps the most problematic day of the year for the Turkish Foreign Affairs is April 24," and said that "This date is considered to be the day when the Committee of Union and Progress started to arrest Armenian intellectuals in Istanbul during the First World War. This date has been accepted as the 'Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day' in many countries of the world with the efforts of the Armenian diaspora and lobbies. Türkiye's attitude towards this incident is based on the rejection of the concept of 'genocide' as a state policy."

"What happened in 1915 and why did Türkiye never accept the word 'genocide'?"

Answering the questions "What happened in 1915 and why Türkiye never accepted the word 'genocide'", Prof. Havva Kök Arslan made the following remarks.

"Of course, what happened was a practice that had painful consequences in terms of Turkish history, which we wish had never happened. The political parties of the Armenians, who were citizens of the Ottoman Empire at war with Britain, Russia and their allies, such as Hunchak and Dashnaktsutyun, called on the Armenian community to support the Russian armies on the Eastern Front for the establishment of an independent Armenian state on Turkish soil, and this call was effective in the border provinces. Unfortunately, the Armenians fell for establishing a country with foreign support in a piece of land where they were in the minority, by signing uprisings such as sabotage and rebellion that hit the Turkish Army fighting against the Russian Army on the Eastern front.

However, the sons of this people, known as loyal people, had shown great usefulness and heroism as soldiers of the Turkish Army in the Balkan Wars three years ago. If history had flown differently and the Armenians, like the Kurdish tribes in the East, had defended their country of which they were citizens and their homeland, where they had lived for thousands of years, against the Russian invaders in the Turkish Army and participated in the War of Independence, we would have Armenian generals, ministers and ambassadors today, just as we did in the Ottoman Empire. However, history flowed differently and the game that the imperialists set up in the Balkans was also played out in Eastern Anatolia. Terror, repression and foreign support have pushed a Christian minority to establish a state on a Muslim-majority piece of land."

"This country experienced a similar situation during the Balkan wars"

Explaining that the same play has been staged since the 1821 Peloponnese uprising and the establishment of Greece, and that the whole of Rumelia was successfully taken out of our hands by the Ottomans in 1915, Prof. Havva Kök Arslan stated that "If a harsh and decisive measure was not taken, our lands up to Sivas would be out of our hands overnight with the support of the Russian armies. This country experienced a similar situation in the Balkan wars and lost half of the country in a short period of time, and it could not suffer the same fate again.”.

Why was the Deportation Law enacted?

Stating that it is not a secret that the Unionists who took the decision to deport worked with Armenian revolutionary organizations against the 2nd Abdulhamid regime Prof. Havva Kök Arslan expressed that "Indeed, when the country entered the First World War, the Unionists made a lot of efforts to ensure that Armenians participated in the defense of the country. The Patriarchate responded positively to this request, but the Hunchak and Dashnak organizations, which are Armenian armed terrorist organizations, took advantage of this war and dreamed of establishing Greater Armenia, whose borders stretched from the Caucasus to Adana and Mersin, with the help of the Russian army. On the other hand, the Talat Pasha Government decided to temporarily exile the Armenian people in Anatolia to the Ottoman provinces in Syria during the war to eliminate the Armenian danger by Islamizing the population of the region in order not to lose Eastern Anatolia while the country was struggling for life and death in the Gallipoli campaign and enacted the Deportation Law. In his memoirs, Talat Pasha admits that they took this decision as a war measure, that they did not think that they would face so many losses, and that this practice turned into a tragedy."

The murder of the Armenian Mayor of Van, Bedros Kapamajian Efendi...

Stating that the Armenian deportation was considered as a temporary military measure during the war that Armenian civilians could return to their homes temporarily, that is, at the end of the war, Prof. Havva Kök Arslan also reminded what happened to the Armenians who remained loyal to the Ottoman Empire as follows: "It reminds today's Armenian lobbies that the Armenian Mayor of Van, Bedros Kapamajian Efendi, was killed by the militants of this organization because he remained loyal to the Ottoman Empire and did not support the Dashnak organization There is benefit. On December 10, 1912, at the age of 65, Kapamajian Efendi was killed by two bullets to the head by Aram Manoukian, a member of the Dashnak. When he was killed, the Muslim people were also very saddened and the funeral ceremony in the church was attended by Turks as well as Armenians. Those who did not attend the funeral were Dashnakists. It is impossible to understand the deportation and the Armenian question without understanding this assassination, which took place three years before the deportation because this assassination clearly shows that the Deportation Law was not a racist genocide plan or practice carried out by the Ottoman Government to completely eliminate the Armenian people overnight and wipe them off the face of the earth. One of the biggest proofs that this was not a genocide is that the Ottoman Empire granted the Armenian citizens who were subjected to deportation the right to return to their homeland after the war."

"The Turkish State deported Armenians not because they were Armenians, but because they rebelled against the state"

Noting that many civilians lost their lives due to hunger and disease due to the adverse conditions on the road due to the lack of trains, motor vehicles and smooth roads during the deportation application in those years, Prof. Havva Kök Arslan stated that "Deserters, regional bandit gangs and some local forces who took advantage of the situation also attacked the Armenian convoys and committed massacres. There are also testimonies that some undisciplined law enforcement officers carried out executions amounting to cruelty. None of this indicates that there was a systematic genocide. The Turkish state deported Armenians not because they were Armenians, but because they rebelled against the state. Moreover, both the Ottoman Governments and the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye gave similar severe punishments to Turks and Kurds who rebelled against the State. There is perhaps a tradition that continues as a common custom and political reflex in Turkish states, which is that the state can forgive everything, but it never forgives rebellion against the state. We know how Rum Mehmet Pasha, who is a Byzantine Greek pasha of Fatih Sultan Mehmet, inflicted a great massacre on the Konya-Karaman Turkmens who rebelled against the Ottomans. The histories write that Kuyucu Murat Pasha, who was of Croatian origin, massacred Anatolian Turkmens by throwing them into wells. The concept of genocide, on the other hand, is a legal term that was formed as a result of the Holocaust after the Second World War and imposes heavy compensation penalties on the states that committed genocide."

"Every April 24, Türkiye expresses its sorrow for the innocent Ottoman Armenian civilians who died in the deportations"

Not only did the Armenians revolt in Eastern Anatolia during the First World War, but also the independent Armenian Republic, which was established after the collapse of the Russian Empire, started a war with the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye to Eastern Anatolia or, according to their claims, Western Armenia, and the 3rd Division under the command of Kazım Karabekir Pasha. Reminding that it was severely defeated by the army, Prof. Havva Kök Arslan stated that "The Armenian lobbies, who do not want to consider these historical conditions, rebellions and military defeats, revolt in a country where they are in the minority and take refuge in genocide allegations, seek territorial and monetary compensation against Türkiye, and make the entire Armenian nation live under the trauma of victimization. However, Türkiye expresses its sorrow for the innocent Ottoman civilians who died in the deportation with the condolence messages published by the Presidency every April 24. Türkiye has not closed its eyes to the human tragedy that has developed as a result of the incident. Türkiye has not and will not bow down to the indulgence that is only trying to extract political profit from this humanitarian tragedy.”

"It is not a fantasy at all to see Armenian and Greek channels on TRT"

Prof. Havva Kök Arslan sad that "The fact that Armenian President Pashinyan did not use the word genocide this year is important in terms of showing that some Armenian politicians have understood that they cannot take land from Türkiye with some legal games by taking the Western states behind them," and continued her remarks as follows: "If the peoples of this region can look to the future by leaving the traumas of the First World War behind, Turks, Greeks and Armenians will be able to achieve a new economic and cultural unity. they can lay the foundation. It is not a fantasy to see that one day the state broadcaster TRT will have Arabic and Kurdish channels as well as Armenian and Greek channels."

 

Üsküdar News Agency (ÜNA)