The Evidence Speaks the Truth

There are many historians and politicians who tell the truth about what happened during the Armenian relocation. Especially, many unbiased observers who were present in the region during the time, revealed how the Ottoman government acted extremely sensitively and carefully about the issue. Edward Nathan, the US Consul in Mersin stated, "Although there are some problems due to the crowd, the government is undertaking this matter very carefully, in a systematic manner, doesn't allow violence or disorder, provides sufficient tickets to the migrants, and helps the ones that need aid".²³⁸ However, the news that was served to the Western public was very different from the truths. Despite these unbiased accounts of witnesses, Henry Morgenthau, US Ambassador to Istanbul, reported the events to his country in a completely distorted manner and some American media outlets used this against the Turks.

Clearly, the Armenian riots and events leading up to the relocation of the Armenians were orchestrated by the British deep state. Many sensible people are aware of this fact and made clear statements in response to the baseless allegations against the Ottoman Empire:

Renowned British Historian Norman Stone

Leaders of the Dashnak and Hunchak parties are responsible for all of these incidents. They plotted conspiracies like lead character in Dostoyevsky's "Demons" in an attempt to secure political interests. However, they only brought destruction to Armenian people.

However, the following truth must be kept in mind: there were seven million Turks in Caucasus, Crimea and the Balkans and most of them lost their lives. We don't remember them at all. Because of that, we are being accomplices to racism.²³⁹

British Ambassador Sir Philip Currie's Letter to the Foreign Office, March 28, 1894

The aim of the Armenian revolutionaries is to stir disturbances, to get the Ottomans to react to violence and thus to get the foreign Powers to intervene...

The aims of the revolutionary committees are to stir up general discontent and to get the Turkish government and people to react with violence, thus attracting the attention of the foreign powers to the imagined sufferings of the Armenian people, and getting them to act to correct the situation.²⁴⁰

Admiral Mark Lambert Bristol, American High Commissioner to Turkey and Battalion Commander in US Navy between 1919-1927

…I see that reports are being freely circulated in the United States that the Turks massacred thousands of Armenians in the Caucasus. Such reports are repeated so many times it makes my blood boil. The Near East Relief has the reports from Yarrow and our own American people which show absolutely that such Armenian reports are absolutely false. The circulation of such false reports in the United States, without refutation, is an outrage and is certainly doing the Armenians more harm than good. I feel that we should discourage the Armenians in this kind of work, not only because it is wrong, but because they are injuring themselves…²⁴¹

Hovhannes Katchaznouni, the First Prime Minister of the First Republic of Armenia, and the Leader of the Dashnak Party

… We had embraced Russia whole-heartedly without any compunction. Without any positive basis of fact we believed that the Tzarist government would grant us a more-or-less broad self-government in the Caucasus and in the Armenian vilayets liberated from Turkey as a reward for our loyalty, our efforts and assistance. We had created a dense atmosphere of illusion in our minds. We had implanted our own desires into the minds of others; we had lost our sense of reality and were carried away with our dreams. …

However, it is important that we couldn't find suitable measures to improve our situation from inside and outside before and after the War we participated with the promises given to us (World War I.)… We couldn't take the administrative measures to establish order in the regions we occupied, and obliged to take up arms. We sent armies, set on fire and demolished, and massacred…²⁴²

H. A. Arslanian

Demonstrably, British pledges regarding Armenia, like those given to Arabs regarding Syria, Mesopotamia and Palestine, were primarily a device to encourage the Armenian war efforts, favorably impress the neutral countries and ensure that the enemy, the Ottoman Empire, fell from within by appealing to the national aspirations of ethnic minorities living under its control.²⁴³

The Statement by American Scholars and Historians Addressed to the US House of Representatives (May 19, 1985)

The weight of evidence so far uncovered points in the direct of serious inter communal warfare (perpetrated by Muslim and Christian irregular forces), complicated by disease, famine, suffering and massacres in Anatolia and adjoining areas during the First World War. Indeed, throughout the years in question, the region has been the scene of more or less continuous warfare, not unlike the tragedy which has gone on in Lebanon for the past decade. The resulting number of deaths among both Muslim and Christian communities of the region is immense.²⁴⁴

The Message of Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the events of 1915 (April 23, 2014)

Millions of people of all religions and ethnicities lost their lives in the First World War. Having experienced events which had inhumane consequences - such as relocation - during the First World War, should not prevent Turks and Armenians from establishing compassion and mutually humane attitudes towards one another.²⁴⁵

The Message of Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Archbishop Aram Ateshian, the General Vicar of the Armenian Patriarchate of Turkey (April 23, 2016)

In the lands of Anatolia, where humanitarian duties are never neglected and happiness and grief are sincerely shared, the sense of conscience and justice are held above all. 

In accordance with this understanding, as well as our sense of history and humanistic vision, we will continue to embrace the memories of the Ottoman Armenians.

We will always remind and remember the culture of cohabitation between Turks and Armenians which has a history of almost one thousand years. 

We will never give up working for amity and peace against those who try to politicize history through a bitter rhetoric of hate and enmity and strive to alienate the two neighboring nations, who are bound with their common history and their similar traditions.²⁴⁶

The Speech of the Israeli Researcher Tal Buenos at Australia's New South Wales State Parliament (November 24, 2014)

Going by my own growing familiarity with the facts, what happened may be characterized as a tragedy because the Armenians were set up for a big painful fall by the British, and by presumptive Armenian leaders, the so-called Armenian representatives who met with British officials – headed by Bryce – in London hotels, and acted irresponsibly toward the many innocent Armenians who were – as a result – fated to suffer the consequences of the actions of these so-called Armenian representatives. These representatives were fed by British hubris as they strove to advance the political quest for an Armenian independent state on Ottoman land, their personal ambition to be leaders of this state, but mainly on behalf of British imperialist agenda. There is no question that these actions, namely colluding with the British and agreeing to lead an intensified riot, meant selling out the safety of the Armenian people in eastern Anatolia who were not the majority in any of the provinces there, and would be subject to an escalation in violence similar to what followed Bryce's previous campaigns to excite Armenian riot in the 1890s.²⁴⁷