THE STRATEGIC REGIONAL REPORT
published by the Western Policy Center
January/February 2001
Volume 6, Issue 1
Armenians, Turks, and Resolutions: The Historical Context Matters
By Col. Stephen R. Norton, USA, Ret.,
Senior Policy Advisor, Western Policy Center
Excerpts:
"Just as a sense of enmity was building against Turks by Greeks, Armenians, Arabs, and other subjects, so too were Turks becoming less tolerant of these peoples who, in their view, were traitors and ingrates."
"By mid-1915, [Enver Pasha] decided to rule out any future use of the Armenians by Russia by moving over 1 million people out of the war zone. Deportation had begun."
"At the same time and in the same region [as the Armenians], Turkish and Kurdish deaths were also very high"
"Ottoman officials clearly failed in their responsibility to protect the deportees from attacks by Kurds, deserters, and others. While famine, disease, severe weather, and a general lack of supplies seemed to affect everyone along the eastern frontier, it was the Armenians who, once unarmed, faced added perils from marauders, bandits, and undisciplined Ottoman officials and constabularies."
"'where Armenians advanced and retired with the Russians [the Armenians] retaliatory cruelties unquestionably rivaled the Turks in their inhumanity.'"
"The massacre of the Armenians, Armenian collusion with Russian forces, the aggressive policies of Russia, and the plight of the Turks and Kurds in the eastern provinces are important, emotional, and far-reaching questions that should be further researched. It is to the Library of Congress rather than the halls of Congress that we should turn to find answers surrounding the great tragedy that befell the Armenians and others."
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Contact information for the Western Policy Center:
John Sitilides
Executive Director
The Western Policy Center
1990 M Street, N.W., Suite 610
Washington, D.C. 20036
Tel.: (202) 530-1425
Fax: (202) 530-4444
info@westernpolicy.org
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