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Armenianreality

The Truth about 1915 Incidents

It is unjustified to label as “genocide”, the events that took place within the Ottoman State of 1915, which
caused great loss of life for both the Turkish and Armenian communities and resulted with the forced relocation of the
majority of the Armenian people to other provinces of the Empire. Moreover, to base this allegation on falsified
documents, faked pictures and exaggerated figures only distorts history and the definition of ‘genocide’.

With a view to weakening and dismembering the Ottoman State, Russia and Great Britain instigated one of the main
ethnic groups of the Ottoman State, the Armenians to uprise in the eastern parts of the Empire. The Armenian gangs,
which were created earlier, intensified their actions, and as a result, sporadic clashes were seen between the Muslim and
Armenian settlements. When the Russian army invaded Eastern Anatolia in 1915, the Armenian terrorist gangs, side by
side with the Russian army, started launching systematic attacks against not only Ottoman troops, but also their civilian
Muslim fellow countrymen. In addition to these attacks, the Armenian gangs also assisted the Russians by cutting supply
lines of the Ottoman army, which was fighting with an invading force. Under the circumstances, the Ottoman Government
decided to relocate the Armenians that were living in the war theatre to the other provinces in the Empire. The rationale
for this decision was twofold: to prevent the inter-communal massacres, and cut the support extended by the Armenian
towns to the Russians. During the period in discussion, hostilities, famine, ailments and brigandage heavily affected all of
the communities living in Eastern Anatolia. Innocent civilians lost their lives during this migration, which took place under
difficult winter conditions and in a general environment of hostility.

These are the consequences of a war of unprecedented magnitude. Neither the distress of the Turks nor of the
Armenians can be singled out. These painful experiences were only part of the tragedy to which the whole Anatolian
population was subjected.

Indeed, the fact that the same events did not affect tens of thousands of Armenian subjects of the Ottoman Empire, living
in Ýstanbul is the strongest evidence why this incident cannot be labelled as ‘genocide’. It is also worth
mentioning, in order to underline the falseness of the allegations, that 22 ethnic Armenians served as Ministers in
Ottoman Governments during the 19th century, and that in the time frame subject to those claims, an Armenian,
Noradounghian Efendi, served as the Ottoman Foreign Minister.

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