Its simply good to hear such a voice, I felt I could breathe some oxygen, thank you
According to historian Thomas M. Franck, writing in a volume published by Cambridge University Press:
Once its objective had been achieved by the collapse of the Greek junta, however, Turkey went on to occupy a disproportionate part of the island, precipitating large-scale ethnic cleansing The UN system, although of necessity positioning its peacekeepers along the resultant line of demarcation forged by events beyond its control, firmly rejected – and, almost three decades later still rejects — the island's forcible partition in violation of the "territorial integrity" endorsed both by the Council and Assembly.
Since the Turkish invasion, a large number of Turks have been brought to the north from Anatolia in violation of Article 49 of the Geneva Convention and hence a war crime, to occupy the homes of the Greek Cypriot refugees.
Maybe some wrong information is coming to that part of the world, because I remember like today that Greeks in the island were violating the rules and making ethnic cleansing. Turkey demanded UK to get involved in the situation, and stop raids and murderers, but because UK didnt give any chance that Turkey would get in Cyprus, they left Greek part loose, and they went on and on to arm the Greeks of Northern region. So Turkey had to get involved in the situation directly and had to invade. The invasion happened with all of a sudden attack and it was impossible to make an ethnic cleansing, even if Turks would want to do it(I dont say that they wanted to do it, the point was to keep the Turks in the island safe). I still remember the bodies of kids in a bathtub in blood. We were watching those pictures of dead Turks a lot then. Later the Greeks and Turks got separated, but not in violence. At that phase maybe Turks occupied Greeks homes, I dont know, but even if they have done so, Greeks too must have occupied everything Turks left behind. But I am not clear about the details.
The point is that, we werent fond of invading around. It was really a bleeding scar for the whole Turkish society and we had to, otherwise we were watching murderers of Turks in the island.
It is estimated that one and a half million Armenians perished between 1915 and 1923. There were an estimated two million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire on the eve of W.W.I. Well over a million were deported in 1915. Hundreds of thousands were butchered outright. Many others died of starvation, exhaustion, and epidemics which ravaged the concentration camps. Among the Armenians living along the periphery of the Ottoman Empire many at first escaped the fate of their countrymen in the central provinces of Turkey.
Turkey continues to deny that this occurred.
"We did not commit a crime, therefore we do not need to apologise." - Erdogan in 2008
Those numbers are not clear, some say one million, some 500 tousand, some 1,5 million. The point is that, it was cruel and unbearable even now. But there are multiple factors:
1) Armenians got organized for decades in various cities of the empire, mainly in eastern region, but also in western cities as well, and they were cooperating with Russia, UK and France. The official archives tell the background relations. The operations of those organizations were raids, murderers and ethnic cleansing.
2) During WW I Ottoman Empire fighted against Russia at eastern front, and Armenians helped Russia from inside by cutting the logistics to the front, cutting the communication, making raids and fighing against Ottoman forces. There are archive materials about it. They had a serious role in losing the war at that front.
3) During a war it was impossible both to fight against enemies outside and fight against Armenians inside. Only in 1914-1915 they found an opportunity to make a wide ethnic cleansing of 20.000 only in one location. We still have mass graves from that period. It was a need to relocate them, because just like todays Palestinians, they were dissolving in civilians and it was impossible to clearly see who was who.
4) The ruling power then was PUP (Party of Union and Progress), which has been established by some part of military officers. They were too much enthusiastic and unqualified for such a position. That streak didnt only caused devastation of all those Armenians, they killed all colours of Turkish society other than the only one at center. It was like a communist regime for all of us and we all suffered from them.
That power ruined everything by exposing Armenians to danger and devastation.
5) Even after the relocation there were at least 10 Armenian parliamentarians in Ottoman Parliament and the criminals who were responsible in Armenian relocation question were brought to court and, if I am not wrong, 67 were hung.
Its not an easy question, but definitely not a systematic ethnic cleansing as well. I think it was rather trying to get rid of "those insurgents", especially while they were fighting against enemies at three fronts. It was definitely unfair, but wartimes are always cruel. With a great probability the same question would be cruelly handled in US or in other countries too.
Desmond Fernandes, who has worked on the Kurdish Genocide extensively, continued the seminar with a powerful discussion of the persecution of Kurds in modern Turkey. Fernandes pointed out that the Turkish government adopted a much more sustained genocidal program against Kurds, aimed at the assimilation of this community as ethnic Turks. Often the engineers of the destruction of Kurds were the same people who destroyed Armenians a few years earlier. Fernandes outlined the Turkish genocidal policy under the following categories:
(1) forced assimilation program—banning of the Kurdish language in Turkey, denying the existence of Kurdish history, the forced resettlement of Kurds in non-Kurdish areas of Turkey for assimilation, the indoctrination of Kurds through the Turkish education system, radio and television channels;
(2) banning of any legitimate opposition to the Turkish government's programs—e.g., Kurdish cultural organisations, political parties, media outlets, etc.; and
(3) the violent repression of any Kurdish resistance. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds have been murdered by Turkish state authorities over the past eighty years—the Sheykh Said and the Ararat uprisings in the 1920s, the bloody suppression of the Dersim in the 1930s, as well as the PKK campaign in recent years. The Turkish state has imprisoned Kurdish members of the Turkish parliament, various human rights activists, as well as many academics advocating Kurdish rights such as the Turkish sociologist Ismail Besikçi. The Turkish government has also assassinated scores of journalists and intellectuals over the years.
Until the late 1990s, the Kurds were unable to speak their own language publicly and there are still restrictions defined in the Turkish constitution restricting use of the language in public and political institutions. Today, while cultural rights are still mostly withheld, a seemingly unending economic problem exists in the Kurdish southeastern region of Turkey with unemployment levels reaching as high as 70%. A prime contributor to this problem may be the millions that have been displaced as a result of the ongoing conflict between Kurdish rebels and the Turkish military. In the late 20th century, as many as 4000 villages were destroyed by the Turkish military – according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre – causing over 3 million to be displaced with no government compensation.
The same totalitarian streak is again responsible of Kurdish problem as well. I have told you, we suffered from them too much. But in last decade Kurds (and many others as well) gained their rights more than anytime of republican regime. For years they have a 24-hour operating Kurdish television and radio, in the regions populated heavily by Kurds the official signboards are both in Turkish and Kurdish, now we will have Kurdish as an elective in secondary education etc etc.. It was simply impossible to criticize Dersim Genocide before, today we talk and criticize it in every tv channel. A couple of months ago our Prime Minister apologized from Kurds for Dersim Genocide. There are great differences in the state of minds, those totalitarian Turks are gone from power and the real voice of the society could take their place.
I don't think all Turks are bad though. Most are probably great people. I have met some great Turkish people and am a fan of Orhan Pamuk.
I criticize Turks more than you, I know my own people and respect the parts respectable, and dont respect the parts irrespectable. This goes for US history and Americans too and I never put all in one single pot in my mind.
But recently, I observed a specific characteristic too much and from everybody around that I felt overwhelmed : They dont care anything out of their scope. The social texture in American society looks so flimsy. Then you ask, if they dont care each other, why do "I" care them?
