Black Propaganda Against Turks During WWI

Wellington House launched an intense propaganda war against Turkey, as it had done so many times before against others. Many famous writers and politicians were mobilized to this end and numerous books, articles and brochures were written, including the one by the famous British historian and expert on international relations, Arnold J. Toynbee. The goal was showing Turks as cruel, oppressive, evil people and accusing the Ottoman Empire with completely baseless allegations.

The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1915-1916, also known as The Blue Book co-written by Toynbee and James Bryce, another British historian and politician, was pure propaganda material laden with lies and defamation against Turkey. Designed to elicit feelings of hatred and anger in the reader, the book consisted of imaginary stories of how the Turks supposedly massacred Armenians.

However, no evidence was offered for the said allegations and stories and there was no solid proof for the claims. Onur Öymen writes the following about the people, alleged to be the sources of many claims in the book:

The people mentioned [in the book] are named X, Y, Z etc. Who are these X, Y, Z? The detailed investigations of American researcher Prof. Justin McCarthy finally gave a satisfactory answer to this question. Most of them were American missionaries that were active in Turkey during those years, who badmouthed Turkey in every opportunity they got. Some others were the members of violent Armenian rebel groups. 59 out of 150 accounts were penned by the missionaries, 52 of them were sent by Armenians. Armenian Dashnak party's reports, which considered Ottomans as their arch-enemies, were also used in the book. The rest were taken from Dashnak-sympathizing or Armenian cause sympathizing newspapers. In other words, Armenian newspapers of the time were also used as a propaganda weapon.²⁷⁰

Another book published by Wellington House during the same days was a book called Martyred Armenia claimed to be written by Faiz El-Ghusein. El-Ghusein was presented as a bureaucrat and district officer that worked in the Ottoman Empire. However, historians found no trace of a person with that name and title in any period of Ottoman history.²⁷¹ This book, written by an imaginary name, was just more propaganda material of the British deep state.

As explained in the previous chapter, it is true that some Armenians were provoked by the British deep state during WWI against the Ottoman Empire. Consequently, some assumed an anti-Turkish stance due to such incitement. However, it would clearly be a mistake to ascribe this approach to all our Armenian brothers. As a matter of fact, Hovhannes Katchaznouni, who was a member of the Dashnak Party and the first prime minister of the Republic of Armenia, said during a speech in Dashnak Party Congress in 1923 that Dashnak party was directly responsible for the disaster that befell the Armenians. He said that Armenians, primed by the Russians, massacred Muslim populations during those days and the Dashnaks built a dictatorship in Armenia while Armenian terrorism was set in motion to win over Western public opinion. He also mentioned that in the face of all these developments, Turkey acted with a justified sense of self-defense. According to him, there was no one to blame other than the Dashnak administration.²⁷²

The British deep state repeatedly used the fake accounts of alleged genocide that it fabricated against the Turks. This plot that was devised in the beginning of WWI is still being used as leverage against the Turks in the first quarter of the 21^st century. The most effective weapon to counter this plot is 'love'. If we love and stand by our Armenian brothers more than ever, if we make sure that they feel at home in Turkey and build close relations with the Armenian State, this sinister British deep state plot will be foiled once and for all.

Another important point is the danger of confusing the missionaries mentioned here with the true clergy tasked with spreading Christianity. True Christians are kind-hearted and sincere people full of love. They will never allow themselves to be used as pawns in such filthy propaganda, which is meant to sow seeds of hatred. The said missionaries were in truth spies directly linked to Wellington House. They entered Ottoman lands in the guise of missionaries and carried out spying and provocation activities. The statements in the reports prepared by these so-called missionaries clearly prove this fact:

In all of the writings of the missionaries, ... The Turks hated education and always persecuted the educated. No Christians had ever been part of the Ottoman government. Turks needed Christians because the Turks were racially incapable of being "doctors, dentists, tailors, carpenters, every profession or trade requiring the least skill." And the missionaries wrote that, now that the Turks had killed the Armenians, Westerners who were going to have to govern the Ottoman Empire, because the Turks had rid themselves of the only people with brains, the Armenians, and the Turks could not run the country themselves.²⁷³

These missionaries sent a dozen reports with similar content to Toynbee, which were then sent to the US via Wellington House. It must be noted that the reports contained the instruction, "Under no circumstances reveal source."²⁷⁴