2007_12 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper December 2007

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Hye Sharzhoom
December 2007
Dr. David Gaunt Introduces Audience to New Findings on Assyrian and Armenian Genocides
Dr. David Gaunt
Staff report
Dr. David Gaunt, Professor of
History at Sodertorn University
College, Stockholm, Sweden, gave
a lecture entitled "Massacres and
Resistance: The Genocide of the
Armenians and Assyrians Based
on New Archival Evidence" on
Tuesday evening, May 8, 2007.
The lecture, part ofthe Spring 2007
Lecture Series of the Armenian
Studies Program, was co-sponsored
with the Assyrian American National Federation (AANF) and the
National Association for Armenian
Studies and Research (NAASR).
The lecture was based on findings from Dr. Gaunt's recently published book Massacres, Resistance,
Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia During
World War/(Gorgias Press, 2006).
Dr. Gaunt spoke about an interesting occurrence that took place in
Turkey two weeks before his lecture. He was invited to Turkey to
see if it would be possible to work
with historians from Turkey in a
scientific way. He thought there
Photo: Barlow Der Mugrdechian
was a window of opportunity so
that cooperation could take place,
but in Dr. Gaunt's words, "It didn 't
work out too well."
The area that was to be jointly
studied was on the Turkish border,
near Syria and Iraq, but in Turkey.
There were formerly Christian (Armenian and Assyrian) villages
there, which were then converted
to Islam by the Ottoman Turks.
Scientists found an opening in the
ground and discovered 38 bodies,
thought to be Armenians and
Assyrians, who had been massacred in World War I. The grave was
in a very isolated place, where it
would have been easy to get rid of
people, since there were many storage holes and other natural caves.
Yusuf Halacoglu, President of the
Turkish Historical Society, who
frequently denies the Armenian
Genocide, had Turkish archaeologists examine the site and then
claimed that "Turks were massacred by Armenians."
Halacoglu challenged Dr. Gaunt
to come to the site, hoping that Dr.
Gaunt would ask for forgiveness
and state that he had misstated his
assertions about the Armenian
Genocide. On April 23 and April
24, they set out to meet in the small
village where the mass grave had
been discovered. The hole was examined by Dr. Gaunt to see what
had been discovered. What he discovered was that there were no
bones at all in the hole. Dr. Gaunt
believed that the site had been manipulated and tampered with before his arrival, but the Turkish
officials became angry with him,
because they thought that he would
agree with their position and statements about the site.
All of this was going to be used
as an example by Halacoglu, that
there was no Armenian Genocide.
The Turkish government is so convinced that nothing happened, yet
they still manipulate evidence.
Dr. Gaunt conducted research
for his book in three Ottoman Turkish provinces-Diarbekir,Bitlis,and
Van, and the Persian province of
Azerbaijan. These are the areas that
he concentrated on and conducted
research in Russian, western European, and Turkish archives.
Dr. Gaunt is a social historian
and for him there were many interesting questions. Who was doing
the killing of Christians in 1915
and what were the reasons behind
the killings? He especially wanted
to understand how it was that neighbor was killing neighbor. How do
you kill someone you know, your
neighbors?
Dr. Gaunt showed the audience
a map ofthe area in question, which
had a mixed Armenian and Assyrian
population. There were Christian
Orthodox Assyrians, Catholic
Chaldean Assyrians, and Assyrians
ofthe Nestorian Church. There were
many Assyrians in the Kharpert
area who spoke Armenian, and who
Solar Energy Prophet Ciamician is Armenian
George B. Kauffman
Professor Emeritus of
Chemistry, California State
University, Fresno
and
Giorgio Nebbia
Professor Emeritus of
Merceology, University of
Bari, Bari, Italy
Special to Hye Sharzhoom
Concern with solar and other
forms of alternative energy, global
climate change, and myriad environmental problems have recently
proliferated in the media. But Al
Gore, Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, and others are not
the first to advocate measures to
mitigate the adverse effects of our
actions on the environment. That
priority belongs to Giacomo Luigi
Ciamician (1857-1922), the Italian-Armenian chemist, several-
time Nobel Prize nominee, Italian
Senator for Life, and founder of
photochemistry (reactions cata-
1 y z e d b y light), who rese arche d an d
lobbied for solar energy in the early
1900s at the University of Bologna, where the 150th anniversary
of his birth was celebrated.
His family claimed descent from
Mikayel Ciamician (Chamchian],
the great eighteenth-century Arme-
Giacomo Luigi Ciamician
nian historian.In 1850,Ciamician's
family moved from Constantinople
(now Istanbul) to the thriving Armenian community of Trieste,
where they had ties with one ofthe
Mekhitarist bishops. This congregation of Roman Catholic Armenian monks contributed to the Renaissance of Armenian philology,
literature, and culture early in the
nineteenth century
and published old Armenian-Christian
manuscripts.
Founded in 1701 in
Constantinople (now
Istanbul) by Mekhitar
Bedrosian  of Sivas
(1676-1749), the order was expelled from
Constantinople in
1703 and settled in
1717 on the island of
San Lazzaro, Venice.
Their community argued over a revised
constitution by Abbot Stephen
Melkonian, and in
1772 a group of dissidents left Venice
for Trieste.
The Ciamician
family was fortunate
by     moving     to
Trieste.        They
avoided extermination during the persecutions of Armenians by the crumbling Ottoman Empire, beginning at the end
of the nineteenth century and culminating in the first genocide ofthe
twentieth century. Thus Giacomo
Ciamician, who was a century ahead
of his time, lived to become the
father of solar energy.
mixed in well with the population.
Dr. Gaunt has also researched
the deportation routes that have not
before been seen on the usual maps-
Erzerum-Diarbekir-Mardin to
Mosul for example. This new information was from Assyrian docu-
mentation-the Assyrians usually
were in place for a little longer than
the Armenians, especially in mixed
population areas. The Armenians
were always arrested first-the notables, clergy, wealthy merchants,
physicians were put into prison and
tortured and killed. Then this would
be extended to other religious
groups. It gave the initial appearance that the Assyrians were not
being deported, but they were deported, only later. Dr. Gaunt's book
Massacres, Resistance, and Protectors documents 250 separate
massacres of Armenians in villages
and towns.
Dr. Gaunt was surprised to find
that a large number of Ottoman
Turkish officials refused to carry
out the orders ofthe massacres and
deportations. Some sent letters to
Constantinople, protesting against
the planned actions against the Armenians. High officials sometimes
were reassigned mdkaimakans (officials) were murdered if they did
not accept the orders. The governor
of the region would report that Armenian rebels hadkilledthesemen-
however the families of the
kaimakans knew what had happened. All of these Turks who protested, were witnesses to what the
c en tral Gov ernmen t w a s p 1 aim in g,
namely the Armenian Genocide.
In Diarbekir, the governor most
responsible for the massacres was
Mehmet Reshid Bey, a military
doctor, one of the first Young
Turks, and a member ofthe "Special Organization" (Teshkilati
Mahsusi). When he was asked why
he, as a doctor, could have committed such a loss of life, he said,
"As a doctor it is my responsibility
to remove microbes from the body
ofthe nation."
Mehmet Reshid was not above
manufacturing evidence. He purported to find a cache of weapons
by going through the Armenian
houses. We actually know the exact number of weapons, because it
was reported to the military-they
found 12 weapons. Rafael de
Nogales, a Venezuelan mercenary
for the Turkish army, when shown
the pictures of the weapons, saw
them as a falsification. De Nogales
had an interview with Reshid,
where Reshid said he had an order
from Talaat Pasha to "Burn. Destroy. Kill." Three words. Reshid
was scaring the government by
constantly talking aboutkaimakans
that were killed by the Armenians
and large numbers of weapons that
the Armenians had. His killing of
Armenians was so extensive, that
even the German government, allies of Ottoman Turkey, tried to
force the government to dismiss
him. Reshid deported or killed
120,000 Armenians from his province by September 1915.
Dr. Gaunt presented much valuable new information to the audience, from a perspective that many
had not heard of before. Following
his lecture there was an opportunity for a question and answer period.
Genocide, From page 1
It is clear that the resolution will
not be brought up soon and may be
delayed until 2008. Under pressure
from lobbyists, House sponsors of
the resolution, that would label as
genocide the 1915 killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks, have asked
Speaker Nancy Pelosi to delay a
vote on the measure.
A letter signed by four primary
sponsors ofthe resolution, California Democrats Adam Schiff, Anna
Eshoo and Brad Sherman, andFrank
Pallone, D-N.J. requested that the
vote be delayed. "We believe that a
large majority of our colleagues
want to support a resolution recognizing the genocide on the House
floor and they will do so, provided
the timing is more favorable," the
lawmakers told Pelosi in a letter.
The group said they would continue to work with leadership "to
plan for consideration sometime
later this year, or in 2008."
Is it expected that Armenians
and supporters of the resolution
will be satisfied with the delay?
When is the right time? The campaign against passage was marked
by persuasion and coercion, with
our own State Department leading
that effort.
Republican Leader John
Boehner (R-Ohio), who opposes
the resolution, called the debate a
"debacle" by Democratic leadership. "This entire situation calls
their judgment into question," said
Boehner. I think that it is Boehner
and like-minded Congressmen
whose judgment should be called
into question .Since when is it right
to avoid having the courage to speak
the truth on such an important question? Political expediency is no
excuse for standing up for the truth.
Efforts to pass such a resolution
are important in the struggle for
admission ofthe Armenian Genocide.
The right time is now.
Fresno State's
Armenian Radio Show
"Hye Oozh"
Every Saturday morning from 9:00AM-noon
KFSR 90.7 FM
On the internet at www.kfsr.org!
Fresno State students who are interested in
volunteering may contact station manager
Joe Moore at 278-2598.