Letter to National Public Radio

The following is in response to “Biden Calls the Massacres of Armenians Genocide” (April 24) by Peter Kenyon and Krishnadev Kalamur. There are certain parts of this news report that should not go unchallenged. For example, the report expresses concernabout damage to “already strained ties with Turkey.” Why should relations with Turkey be a concern for the United States? The Turkish Government is a collaborator and partner with murderous terrorist organizations such as Al Quada and ISIS. The Turkish regime has become a partner of modern day jihadists who share the genocidal tendencies of the Young Turks and Mustafa Kemal who committed genocide against Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians. 

Indeed, according to Israeli historians Benny Morris and Dror Ze’evi in their masterfully researched “The Thirty Year Genocide” three successive Turkish regimes were instrumental in the systematic slaughter of these three Christian populations that culminated in the plan to exterminate them. All Turkish regimes from the time of Mustafa Kemal who took over from the Young Turks have been playing western governments and media for suckers through a carefully orchestrated public relations campaign combined with outright threat sand intimidation should the democracies recognize the reality of Turkey’s genocidal past. There should be no concern whatsoever about strained ties with Turkey. 

Turkey should be targeted as an enemy for being an aggressor against peaceful democracies such as Armenia (with its partner Azerbaijan), Cyprus, Syria, and the Kurdish community living within Turkey itself. The assertion that Turkish leaders have voiced regret for the killings is a false statement. Turkish leaders up to the present time have never condemned or repudiated the genocide and crimes against humanity that were perpetrated against the Armenians, Greeks, or Assyrians. Turkish leaders have on occasion referred to their genocidal past by suggesting indirectly that a repetition of past genocide could be directed against Armenia or Greece if these peaceful countries dare to assert their rights against Ankara’s acts of aggression against them. 

Turkish leaders have over the past century presided over smaller scale crimes against humanity against the remnants of Christian populations that managed to survive the genocide and ethnic cleansing campaigns that occurred between 1914 and 1923. Turkish leaders deported thousands of Armenians, Greeks, and Jews to concentration camps in Anatolia during the Second World War. In 1955, Turkish leaders organized a pogrom against the Greek population of Constantinople and during the 1960’s deported thousands more from Turkey in a campaign of ethnic cleansing. 

In 1938, Turkey invaded Syria and in 1974 invaded and occupied the northern part of the Republic of Cyprus which led to the ethnic cleansing of 200,000 ethnic Greeks. Perhaps the gentlemen who compiled this news report could explain when exactly Turkish leaders have ever expressed regret for Turkish sponsored genocide? The late journalist Christopher Hitchens perfectly captured the mindset of Turkish leaders when he wrote about then Prime Minister (now President) Erdogan’s threat of physical violence against the Armenians of Constantinople in response to the efforts of Armenians in the west to achieve formal recognition of the Armenian Genocide. All Turkish leaders have been firmly consistent in denying the reality of Genocide and pursuing policies of continued repression and brutality against both the Christian and Kurdish communities living in Turkey. 

The report says that “many historians” recognize the Armenian Genocide. It would be more accurate to say that ALL historians recognize the Armenian Genocide, along with the Genocide of the Greeks and the Assyrians. Only propagandists and frauds serving as mercenaries at the behest of the Turkish regime such as the despicable Bernard Lewis have ever challenged the reality of Turkey’s murderous and genocidal past. 

The most offensive and outrageous assertion in the news report was to imply that the victims were responsible for their own fate. Accusations are made that Armenians were fighting with the Russians. The historical facts and the political realities of the times were that Russia was a civilized state protecting the Armenians from the murderous Ottoman Empire. The indiscriminate slaughter directed against men, women, and children of Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian ancestry demonstrated that the Ottoman Empire had no moral legitimacy and could not be permitted to rule over these Christian populations that had been systematically massacred, starved, and marched to death. Historical reality demonstrated unequivocally that the Russians were liberators. 

At the end of the first World War, an Armenian Republic was proclaimed and Greece was given parts of Asia Minor following the justified partition of the Ottoman Empire. The subsequent rise of Mustafa Kemal led to the final mass murders of Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians. The western democracies played a shameful and disgusting role in assisting Kemal’s troops as they burned the great city of Smyrna and slaughtered its Christian inhabitants. 

Support for Turkey by the western democracies over the past century has compromised them morally and politically. Up to the present time, Turkish leaders arrogantly presume to dictate to the democracies what they can and should not do. It is long past time that the Turkish question was settled. This necessitates terminating all aid to Turkey and assisting the Kurdish populations of Turkey and Syria who have served honorably and bravely with the United States against the Islamic State.

In addition, the United States should declare Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan a sponsor of terrorism and should unconditionally support Armenian rights to the whole of Nagorno Karabakh. Furthermore, the United States should demand from Turkey the full withdrawal of all Turkish troops and settlers from Cyprus and should back Greece against the aggressive designs being put forward by Turkey on Greek territory. 

President Biden’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide is to be praised. It should be followed up by the formal repudiation of past policies toward Turkey. This could be the dawn of a new era in which the United States does away with Turkey that has contributed nothing to western security but has made the west complicit in its horrific crimes and acts of aggression. 

                                     Theodore G. Karakostas