Political scientist Prof. Dr. Havva Kök Arslan stated that April 24 is accepted as the day when the Relocation (Tehcir) began, with the Committee of Union and Progress Government starting to arrest Armenian intellectuals in Istanbul during World War I, and said, 'From the perspective of Turkish Foreign Affairs, April 24 is perhaps the most problematic day of the year.'
Emphasizing that Turkey’s stance on this event is based on the rejection of the term 'genocide' as a state policy, Prof. Dr. Havva Kök Arslan said, 'If the peoples of this region can leave the traumas of World War I behind and look to the future, Turks, Greeks, and Armenians can once again lay the foundation for an economic and cultural union.'
Prof. Dr. Havva Kök Arslan, Head of the Department of Political Science and International Relations (English) at Üsküdar Üniversitesi’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, evaluated April 24 from the perspective of politics and foreign affairs, as it is accepted as the start date of the Armenian relocation due to the arrest and deportation of 2,234 people from the Armenian community in Istanbul on April 24, 1915.
The day the Relocation began...
Saying, 'From the perspective of Turkish Foreign Affairs, April 24 is perhaps the most problematic day of the year,' Prof. Dr. Havva Kök Arslan added, 'This date is accepted as the day when the Relocation (Tehcir) began, with the Committee of Union and Progress Government starting to arrest Armenian intellectuals in Istanbul during World War I. Through the efforts of the Armenian diaspora and lobbies, this date has been accepted as the 'Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day' in many countries around the world. Turkey's stance on this event is based on the rejection of the concept of 'genocide' as a state policy.'
“What happened in 1915 and why Turkey never accepted the word ‘genocide’”
Prof. Dr. Havva Kök Arslan also answered the questions, 'What happened in 1915 and why Turkey never accepted the word ‘genocide’,' stating:
“Of course, what happened was a practice that yielded bitter results, which we would wish had never occurred from the perspective of Turkish history. Political parties of Armenians, who were citizens of the Ottoman Empire at war with Britain, Russia, and their allies, such as Hunchak and Dashnaktsutyun, were calling on the Armenian Community to support Russian armies on the Eastern Front for the establishment of an independent Armenian state on Turkish soil, and this call was effective in border provinces. Unfortunately, Armenians engaged in sabotages and revolts, striking the Turkish Army fighting against the Russian Army on the Eastern Front from behind, and fell into the ambition of establishing a country with external support in a piece of land where they were a minority.
Yet, the children of this people, known as the loyal nation, had shown great valor and heroism as soldiers of the Turkish Army in the Balkan Wars just three years prior. If history had flowed differently, and if Armenians, like the Kurdish tribes in the East, had defended Turkey, of which they were citizens, and their homeland where they had lived for thousands of years, within the Turkish Army against Russian invaders and participated in the War of Independence, we would have had Armenian generals, ministers, and ambassadors today, just as in the Ottoman Empire. However, history flowed differently, and the game established by the imperialists in the Balkans was also played out in Eastern Anatolia. With terror, pressure, and external support, a Christian minority was pushed to establish a state in a piece of land where the Muslim population was in the majority.”
“This country had experienced a similar situation in the Balkan Wars”
Prof. Dr. Havva Kök Arslan explained that the same game had been staged since the 1821 Morea uprising and the establishment of Greece, and successfully in 1915, all of Rumelia was lost from Ottoman hands. She pointed to the events of that period, saying, “If strong and decisive measures were not taken, our territories up to Sivas would also be lost overnight with the support of Russian armies. This country had experienced a similar situation in the Balkan Wars, losing half its territory in a short time, and could not suffer the same fate again.”
Why was the Relocation Law enacted?
Prof. Dr. Havva Kök Arslan also stated that it is no secret that the Unionists who made the relocation decision worked with Armenian revolutionary organizations against the regime of Abdülhamit II. She explained, “Indeed, when the country entered World War I, the Unionists made considerable efforts for Armenians to participate in the defense of the country. The Patriarchate reluctantly gave a positive response to this demand, but Armenian armed terrorist organizations, Hunchak and Dashnak, seized this war as an opportunity and, with the help of the Russian army, pursued the dream of establishing a Greater Armenia with borders extending from the Caucasus to Adana and Mersin. While the country was fighting a life-or-death struggle in the Dardanelles War, the Talat Pasha Government decided to temporarily deport the Armenian people in Anatolia entirely to the Ottoman provinces in Syria for the duration of the war, in order to prevent the loss of Eastern Anatolia and eliminate the Armenian threat by Muslimizing the region's population, and thus enacted the Relocation Law. Talat Pasha admits in his memoirs that they took this decision as a war measure, did not anticipate so many losses, and that this implementation turned into a tragedy.”
The assassination of Bedros Kapamacıyan Efendi, Armenian Mayor of Van...
Prof. Dr. Havva Kök Arslan stated that the Armenian relocation was considered a temporary military measure during wartime, meaning Armenian civilians could return to their homes after the war, and also recalled what happened to Armenians who remained loyal to the Ottoman State:
“It is useful to remind today's Armenian lobbies that Bedros Kapamacıyan Efendi, the Armenian Mayor of Van, was assassinated by militants of the Dashnak organization because he remained loyal to the Ottoman State and did not support the Dashnak organization. Kapamacıyan Efendi was killed on December 10, 1912, at the age of 65, by Dashnak member Aram Manukyan, who shot him twice in the head. When he was killed, the Muslim people were also very saddened, and Turks, as well as Armenians, largely attended the funeral ceremony at the Church. Those who did not attend the funeral were the Dashnaks. It is impossible to understand the relocation and the Armenian issue without understanding this assassination, which took place three years before the relocation. Because this assassination clearly shows that the Relocation Law was not a racist genocide plan or implementation carried out by the Ottoman Government with the aim of completely eliminating and wiping out the Armenian people overnight. One of the greatest proofs that this was not a genocide is also the fact that the Ottoman State granted its Armenian citizens subjected to relocation the right to return to their hometowns after the war.”
“The Turkish State relocated Armenians not because they were Armenian, but because they rebelled against the state”
Prof. Dr. Havva Kök Arslan noted that during the relocation, many civilians lost their lives due to hunger and disease from adverse road conditions, as there were no trains, motor vehicles, or proper roads in those years. She said, “Military deserters, regional bandit gangs, and some local forces who took advantage of the situation also attacked Armenian convoys and carried out massacres. There are also testimonies indicating that some undisciplined law enforcement forces carried out executions amounting to atrocities. None of this indicates a systematic genocide. The Turkish State relocated Armenians not because they were Armenian, but because they rebelled against the state. Moreover, both the Ottoman Governments and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Governments imposed similar heavy penalties on Turks and Kurds who rebelled against the state. In Turkish states, there is perhaps an ongoing tradition, a common custom and political reflex, that the state can forgive anything but never rebellion against the state. We know how Rum Mehmet Pasha, a Byzantine Greek Pasha of Fatih Sultan Mehmet, carried out a great massacre of the Konya-Karaman Turkmens who rebelled against the Ottomans. Histories record that Kuyucu Murat Pasha, of Croatian origin, massacred Anatolian Turkmens by throwing them into wells. The concept of genocide, on the other hand, is a legal term that emerged after World War II as a result of the Jewish genocide and imposes heavy compensation penalties on states that commit genocide.”
“Turkey expresses its sorrow for innocent civilian Ottoman Armenians who died in the relocation every April 24”
Prof. Dr. Havva Kök Arslan also reminded that Armenians not only rebelled in Eastern Anatolia during World War I, but also that the independent Armenian Republic, established after the collapse of the Russian Empire, entered into war with the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Government to annex Eastern Anatolia, or according to their claim, Western Armenia, and was severely defeated by the 3rd Army under the command of Kazım Karabekir Pasha. She said, “Armenian lobbies, who do not want to take into account or remember these historical conditions, rebellions, and military defeats, are acting like spoiled children, pursuing land and monetary compensation against Turkey by taking refuge in genocide claims, despite having rebelled and been defeated in a country where they were a minority, and thus keeping an entire Armenian nation living under the trauma of victimhood. However, every April 24, Turkey expresses its sorrow for the innocent civilian Ottoman Armenians who died in the relocation through condolence messages published by the Presidency. Turkey has not turned a blind eye to the human tragedy that developed as a result of the event. Turkey has simply not succumbed, and will not succumb, to the insolence that tries to gain political leverage from this human tragedy.”
“It is not at all unrealistic to see Armenian and Greek channels also go on air on TRT”
Prof. Dr. Havva Kök Arslan stated, “The fact that Armenian President Pashinyan did not use the word 'genocide' this year is important as it shows that some Armenian politicians have now understood that they cannot seize land from Turkey through some legal games by relying on Western states in a spoiled manner.” She added, “If the peoples of this region can leave the traumas of World War I behind and look to the future, Turks, Greeks, and Armenians can once again lay the foundation for an economic and cultural union. It is not at all unrealistic to see Armenian and Greek channels also go on air on TRT, just as there are Arabic and Kurdish channels on the state television, TRT, one day.”