!� face="Verdana" size="2">Turkey has never accepted the allegation that the Ottomans had massacred the Armenians. This is because those members of the security forces that abused the Armenians and the bandits that massacred the Armenians were court martialled and sentenced

  Le Monde devoted more than two pages of its April 24 issue to news reports and articles on the Armenian issue. It also gave a background along the following lines (p. 6):

  “While the war that led to the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire was taking place the ruling Young Turks Party decided to deport the Armenian population (those in the West as well as those in the East) to Mesopotamia and the Syrian deserts in order to ensure ethnic homogenization and also because it suspected of Armenians cooperation with the Russians. The operation that began on April 24, 1915 put on the road women, children and men over 45 in a way that would lead them slowly but certainly to their death. Males under 45 (?) and the representatives of the (Armenian) elite were arrested and killed. Haroutioun Raymond Kevorkian, a historian, says, ‘The large majority of males over 12 were destroyed by the end of May 1915.' On the basis of the official Ottoman figures that historian says that between July and November 1916 197,000 people were massacred at the concentration camps set up at Zor, Syria.

  “Two million Armenians once lived in the Ottoman Empire. Historians prove, on the basis of the archival documents, including those of the Ottomans, that 1.6 million of these people were deported and that 1.5 million were annihilated in the course of that pre-planned operation. Turkey admits the massacres and the deportation while making references to the war conditions but it lowers the total death toll (to between 250,000-500,000) and rejects the genocide thesis.”

  These untruthful allegations were first put forth in 2001 when the French parliament was debating the Armenian genocide bill. Later these came to be repeated on various occasions by the members of media and politicians almost without any change.

  If the background given by Le Monde had been correct the Armenian incidents would definitely be deemed genocide. However, almost all of the information provided by the newspaper in this issue is wrong. The Armenian population was not two million. The number of those that were forcibly relocated was not 1.6 million. It is not true that 1.5 million people, mostly males, were massacred during the relocation. Not even a single massacre took place at the camps in Syria. And it is a big lie that these pieces of, “information,” were taken from the Ottoman documents. Why did the Armenians fail to present these documents at the Vienna meeting?

  Most of the deaths resulted from factors other than the relocation: the main causes of the deaths were the migrations caused by the progress and retreat of the Russian Army, the rebellions, the clashes between groups of civilians and diseases. Although they were not relocated the Turks lost more people due to the same causes during the period in question.

  There is no doubt that the armed Armenian militiamen were collaborating with the Russians. In fact, did not the Paris Peace Conference grant the Armenians the status, “one of the warring parties,” at the instigation of Bogos Nubar Pasha?

  The forcible relocation of the Armenians was not planned in advance. The relocation was not staged with the intent to destroy. The relocation decision was taken in haste when the Armenian rebels killed some 30,000 Turks in Van and the Ottoman Army met with a disaster at Sarikamis.

  Forcible relocation and deportation are different things. “Military requirement,” has always been a legitimate cause for forcible relocation (see Article 17 of the Supplementary Protocol No. 2 of the Geneva Convention). Relocation began in eastern and southern Anatolia and then, after the ground war began in Gallipoli, was extended to Armenians living in some of the western regions as well.

  Turkey has never accepted the allegation that the Ottomans had massacred the Armenians. This is because those members of the security forces that abused the Armenians and the bandits that massacred the Armenians were court martialled and sentenced.

  In the April 24 issue of Le Monde Vincent Duclert pointed out that “there is a difference between historical research and judicial judgments” and advised the Armenian diaspora not to persist in using the term, “genocide,” (p. 12). In other words, he is telling them, “Continue to say anything you like about the past but avoid the law.”

  When one looks at the Le Monde of the previous day from the window of the analysis of content method developed by the Historical Psychology school, one discerns the intention of the French thanks to a key sentence: “China is exploiting Japan's feelings of guilt.” The article that had that title brings to mind the possibility that the French are trying to inspire similar feelings in our, “intellectuals.” Duclert says that “great novelist” Orhan Pamuk has taken “an enormous step” and that (while all of Turkey is against that) it is an honor for the Turkish intellectuals to admit the Armenian genocide.

  Bravo, France!