ANKARA – Turkish Institute of History (TTK) Armenian Studies Chairman Prof. Dr. Hikmet Ozdemir said on Thursday that they wanted to discuss the events of 1915 with their interlocutors.
Speaking at a conference on ”the Past, Today and Future of Turkish-Armenian Conflict” at the Anadolu Agency (A.A), Ozdemir said, ”the Relocation Law and ensuing developments are not enough to explain the conflict between Turks and Armenians. The atmosphere in which the law was approved, international developments and conditions of the Ottoman Empire should be well-known to this end. Some documents revealed that a map prepared by Britain, France and Russia in 1914 had envisaged separation of the Empire before the World War I.”
”Britons had made many propaganda together with media and scientists to gain support of the United States during the World War I. Some special news reports had been made up to incite the Christian world. We should clean such propaganda of Britain in order to enlighten the events of 1915. We want to discuss those events with our interlocutors. We have already accepted the risk of results of such a study,” he said.
Ozdemir stressed that it was impossible to understand parliaments of some countries which accepted resolutions without conducting a detailed research.
”The Relocation Law was nothing but a measure taken by the Ottoman Empire to prevent an uprising. As a result of Armenian uprisings, hundreds of thousands of Armenians and security forces had been killed. Those Armenians had been militants of Tashnak and Hinchakian committees. Due to ongoing wars, the Ottoman Empire had to protect the roads of military supply. The military officials in the eastern region had requested the government to transfer the armed Armenians to another place for the security of those routes,” he said.
”According to the first scenario, transfer of Armenians to Caucasus had been envisaged. However, the Ottoman government had decided to send them to Syria (which was then Ottoman territory). If they had been sent to Caucasus, it would have been an exile. The decision had conformed to the Constitution and the law. If the Ottoman Empire had targeted to make the population in Anatolia Turk, it would have sent Armenians to Caucasus. On the other hand, Turks had also suffered during the World War I. Turks in Caucasus had been exiled from Caucasus to Anatolia. It had been nothing, but crisis management,” he said.
Noting that the Ottoman Empire had put into force a series of instructions to meet requirements of migrants, Ozdemir said, ”however, no one can say that those instructions had been fully applied under war conditions. During those days, hundreds of thousands of people died because of epidemics in Anatolia. Turks have never been cherished revenge against anyone.”
Stressing that Armenians who had been forced to migrate in 1915, returned later under a decision of the government, Ozdemir said, ”however, they returned as officers in the French Army, and massacred their neighbors in Adana, Antep and Maras.”
Referring to arguments over Armenian population, Ozdemir said, ”the notebook which was claimed to have belonged to Talat Pasha does not tell the truth. According to the notebook claiming that 924 thousand Armenians had been relocated, Armenians in Aleppo had also been forced to migrate. In fact, Armenians had been sent to Aleppo. The Turkish General Staff archives put the number of the relocated Armenians as nearly 500 thousand. Experts should sit and discuss everything in detail.”
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