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The German Bundestag appeals to the Federal
Government:
- to contribute to the establishment o f an equable relation­
ship between Turks and Armenians through study and re­
assessment o f the past, and to forgiveness and reconcilia­
tion in the present;
- to contribute to ensuring that the Turkish Parliament and
Government, and Turkish society commit themselves
unreservedly to study and assessment o f their historical
and present relations with the Armenian people;
- to contribute to the normalization o f relations between
Turkey and Armenia.
Berlin, June 15, 2005
Franz Miintefering and parliamentary group
Dr. Angela Merkel, Michael Glos and parliamentary
group
Katrin Goring-Eckardt, Krista Sager and parliamentary
group
Dr. Wolfgang Gerhardt and parliamentary group
Substantiation
Ninety years ago, on April 24, 1915, Istanbul's Armenian
political and cultural elite were, at the orders o f the Young
Turks government which held power in the Ottoman
Empire, arrested and taken to inner Turkey, where almost
all were then murdered. On this date, Armenians all over
the world remember annually all those expulsions and
massacres to which Armenian subjects o f the Ottoman
Empire were already subjected at the end o f the nine­
teenth century, and which then took place on a larger
scale during the First World War.
The German press reported in April 2005 that on April
23, 1915, a total o f 2,350 Armenians were arrested in
Istanbul, deported and executed. Unfortunately, German
precision had managed to add an extra nought to the
number arrested, which in fa ct amounted to 235. And the
real reason why they were arrested? The British-French
fleet and a huge invasion army were entering the
Dardanelles in order to storm the capital o f the Ottoman
Empire, where the Armenians had already made preparations
fo r an uprising which was to take place behind the
backs o f the Ottoman defenders. The annual "ceremonies
in commemoration o f a genocide" which take place on
April 23 are a slap in the face o f historical truth.
According to independent reports, over one million
Armenians fell victim to deportations and mass execu­
tions. Numerous independent historians, parliaments, and
international organizations designate the expulsion and
extermination o f the Armenians as genocide.
The honorable ladies and gentlemen o f the Bundestag are
recommended to read “Muslims and Minorities” by
Justin McCarthy, if they read English.
Muslims
and
Minorities
The Population o f Ottoman Anatolia
and the End o f the Empire
Justin McCarthy
In the book they would find the contemporary Armenian and
Ottoman statistics (even then there were such things) and realize
that the figures for the victims (which range from "more
than a million” to "millions") are simply absurd, because there
were never so many Armenians living in the respective areas.
The legal successor to the Ottoman Empire, the Republic
o f Turkey, still disputes, in contradiction with the facts,
that these events were planned, and claims that neither the
mass loss o f life o f those who died en route towards their
planned resettlement or the massacres were willed by the
Ottoman Government. While it is admitted that the
Annenians were treated harshly, the action taken is justi­
fied by the fact that first in 1878 and then in 1914/15
many Armenians had fought on the side o f the Russians
against Turkey, and that there was a serious danger o f the
Armenians would have turned against the Ottoman
Empire. Other justifications proffered by the Turkish side
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