Book Review: Samuel Weems: Armenia: Secrets of a

This book written by an American judge, Samuel Weems, analyzes the policies of Armenian state and related matters such as the genocide allegations, Armenian-Azeri relations, Karabagh problem and Armenian lobbying activities in the United States. By referring mainly the British and American archival documents, Weems tries to show the inconsistency and inaccuracy of the Armenian claims. He also warns the US people that many funds, which are established by the taxes of the American people, are allocated to the Armenians for their belligerent quests.

In the long prologue of his book, Samuel Weems argues that particularly the September 11 events and consequent developments in the Arab world reflect a hatred towards American government. He accepts that there are some significant reasons for this hatred. According to Weems, American hypocrisy towards terrorism, namely supporting terrorist activities of some states while punishing those, which try to counter these activities, is one of the reasons of this hatred. He mentioned the 1992 Armenian attack on Azerbaijan and criticized American financial aid towards Armenia and the Congress’ decision to block the aids delivered to Azerbaijan. He also writes that the Armenian claims of genocide are quite inaccurate since relocation of the Ottoman Armenians could never be deemed as genocide. Towards the latter parts of his prologue he described the activities of the Armenian lobbies in the United States to suppress any claim that depicts the events of 1915 as something other than a genocide. He further enlisted several e-mails that he received from Armenians most of which threatened him. However still, he writes that there are righteous Armenians who found these quarrels meaningless.

Following this long prologue, in a relatively shorter introduction, Weems provided a historical background of the Armenian question by referring to the interference of the Great Powers to the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century. He perceives Armenian relocation as a must condition for the survival of the Ottoman Empire. What is more, he claims that the Armenian relocation is just one side of the story. While observing the losses of the Armenians during the first decades of the twentieth century, the world public opinion generally disregards the losses of the Muslim population. He informs that just between 1827 and 1878, almost one and a half million Muslims were deported by the Russians from their homelands. He criticized the international academic opinion, which just focuses on the Armenian losses while ignoring the Muslim sufferings.

In the first chapter, entitled as the ‘Holy Terror’, Weems tries to put forward the interrelationship between the Armenian Church and the Armenian state; and historically examines the role of Armenian Church in revolutionary Armenian activities in the nineteenth century. While making this analysis he refers to some American and British archival documents, which articulates the relationship between the Armenian Patriarchate and the foreign representatives in Istanbul. He concludes that from the very beginning the Patriarchate was very successful in using Christianity to provoke Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, as well as in attracting the attention of European and American peoples through agents, who made a strong propaganda by telling stories about the Armenian sufferings in the Ottoman Empire.

The second chapter mainly examines the Armenian terrorist activities organized by the Armenian revolutionary committees, particularly by Hinçak and Ta?naksutyun. Founded in the last quarter of the nineteenth century these two organizations were responsible for many rebellions in Anatolia. In a chronological sequence, Weems enlists these terrorist activities as well as the Muslim casualties, and depicts these events as one of the most significant reasons of the relocation. He further claims that this process of relocation was not free from problems. Both natural conditions, such as hunger, lack of hygiene and climate, and attacks towards the convoys resulted in many Armenian casualties; however, this does not necessarily mean that there is an organized intent to eliminate a group of people just because they are members of that group. Weems also argues that the punishment of some Ottoman officials because of their incapability to provide the security of the Armenians proved that the relocation could not be perceived as genocide.

The third chapter is on the establishment of the Armenian Republic in the aftermath of the World War I. Here, Weems analyzes the ruling elite of this new state and defines them as ‘despotic rulers’ who pursued an aggressive foreign policy towards their neighbors. In this chapter, he examines the Armenian attack towards Georgia and Azerbaijan and its subsequent defeats. Armenians were also defeated by the Turkish army in that period. What is more, the government failed to control the internal dissidence and chaotic uprisings, as well as it failed to cope with financial crisis. Thus, the Armenian government tried to unify the Armenians through the perception of an external threat. This partially explains the Armenian belligerency in that period.

Following two short chapters on the Armenian abuse of statistical information for producing exaggerated numbers of Armenian casualties and the Armenian-Georgian war in 1918-1919, the sixth chapter examines the Admiral Bristol Report on the conditions of the Armenian in the Ottoman Empire. Admiral Bristol, who served as the Commander of the U.S. Naval Detachment in Turkish waters and as the U.S. High Commissioner to Turkey during the years 1919-1927, prepared a report in which he criticized the Armenian demands from the Allies in establishing an Armenian state in Eastern Anatolia. He also mentioned the fallacy of many reports arguing that thousands of Armenians were slaughtered by the Ottoman government.

The seventh chapter mainly deals with the recent Armenian terrorist activities, particularly towards Turkish diplomats and towards some American scholars who argued that the events of 1915 could not be labeled as genocide. In this chapter, Weems severely criticizes the silence of the Armenian Church as well as the Armenian state regarding these terrorist activities.

In the eighth chapter, Weems writes about the sufferings of the Armenian citizens of the first Republic of Armenia because of belligerent foreign policy pursued by the Armenian ruling elite and the subsequent financial crisis. He argues that the credits provided from the US and Russia in late 1910s and early 1920s were spent to finance this aggressive policy towards the neighbors of Armenia and it was the Armenians that suffered the most from this situation.

Ninth, tenth and eleventh chapters elaborate further on the Armenian terrorist activities and Armenian rebellions against the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century. The twelfth and thirteenth chapters, on the other hand, examine the Armenian lobbying activities and propaganda as early as 1920s in the United States. Accordingly, Weems writes about the establishment of the Armenian Central Committee in the United States for influencing the main American policy makers on behalf of the Armenians. What is more, he analyzes the activities of Armenian agents in the United States who tried to raise American public opinion against Turkey by producing fake testimonies and documents. Weems also explains the reports prepared by some American officers who were sent to Anatolia to examine the Armenian claims, such as Emory Niles and Arthur Sutherland. The report prepared by these officers claimed that it was the Muslim population that suffered the most from the events that had taken place in these regions.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters, Weems examines the perceptions of the Allied Powers of the First World War about the Armenians. He claims that neither the British, nor the French were counted on the Armenians. What is more, he analyzes the British stance in a more detailed way and concludes that, in reality, the British were convinced of the inexistence of genocide.

The sixteenth and seventeenth chapters are mainly on the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 1920s and its subsequent implications for both Armenia and Armenia-US relations. Accordingly, as a result of the defeat by the Azeri army, economic conditions of the Armenians were worsened and to remedy this economic crisis Armenian government applied the Unites States for credit. Even in this application, they did not hesitate to use propaganda of the so-called Armenian genocide. The American authorities began to react these demands. As the eighteenth chapter reveals, American Senate refused to send military as well as economic aid to Armenia in 1920. In this chapter Weems provided the reader with the records of the Senate and the speeches of some Senators against the Armenian demands.

The nineteenth and twentieth chapters examine the Armenian politics in the interwar period and in the World War II. Here Weems analyzes the accession of Armenia to the Soviet Union and the relationship between the Armenian committees in Europe and the Nazis of Germany. Weems made some quotations from some Armenian newspapers which supported Nazi policies against the Jews.

In lieu of conclusion, the last chapter of the book is devoted to contemporary Armenia. Here, Weems writes that Armenia is still acting as a terrorist state in the new millennia. Particularly, its relations with Azerbaijan and its unlawful occupation of Karabagh are referred in this chapter. What is more, Weems argues that there is no freedom of speech in Armenia and one reason for that is the suppressive influence of the Armenian Church. In the final pages, Weems analyzes the works of the Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Committee and writes that the reason of its failure was the uncompromising, even aggressive, stance of the Armenian side.

All in all, this book provides the reader with significant documents regarding Armenian genocide allegations, as well as lobbying activities in the United States. However, as Weems himself admitted, it can not easily be labeled as an academic study. The book is very difficult to follow, since the chronological sequence is sometimes broken. What is more, it is full of repetitions, which makes the book too voluminous. It is almost 400 pages, but it can be rewritten in 200 pages or so. Despite these technical problems, the book is quite interesting and presents useful documents for a more sound understanding of the Armenian state as well as the genocide allegations. What is more, it contributes to the literature by assessing the influence of the Armenian lobbying activities in the United States; and this is a valuable contribution, since there is not much work on that matter.