ARMENIAN - Erevangala500

A Turkish memorial to the Islamic victims o f the Armenian
uprising o f the spring o f 1915. The bodies o f 5000 M oslems lie
beneath the monument in a gully that opens into Lake Van. The
M oslems were rounded up on this spot and massacred.
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One o f the countless Islamic buildings o f Van destroyed during
the Armenian uprising. Whereas demands for the restoration o f
Armenian buildings in eastern Anatolia are made again and
again (and rightly so), the world public has thus far shown no
concern whatsoever for the equally endangered Islamic monuments
o f the region, such as this Ottoman mosque. This lack o f
concern for Moslem buildings is not unlike the prevalent attitude
towards the Moslem victims o f the Armenian uprisings - a
subject which has yet to be raised outside o f Turkey, even
though the loss o f life on the Islamic side was tremendous.
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A few weeks later, on May 19,1331 (June 1,1915), the
Ottoman government published the following decree in
the Takvimi Vakaya (the Ottoman official gazette): Article
1. In time o f war, the Army, Army Corps, and Divisional
Commanders, their Deputies, and the Independent
Commanders, are authorized and compelled to crush in
the most severe way, and to eradicate all signs o f aggression
and resistance by military force, should they
ecounter any opposition, armed resistance and aggression
by the population, to operations and measures relating to
orders issued by the Government for the defence o f the
country and the maintenance o f order. Article 2. The
Army, Army Corps, and Divisional Commanders are
authorized to transfer and relocate the populations o f villages
and towns, either individually or collectively, in
response to military needs, or in response to any signs of
treachery or betrayal.
Article 3. This provisional law will come into effect when
it is published.
It is undoubtedly true that many innocent people lost their
property, their health, and even their lives in the relocation
o f 1915 - many Armenians and even more Moslems.
To try to place blame for a wartime tragedy such as this
is truly senseless, but in light o f the almost universal
assumption that everything was the fault o f the "Terrible
Turks", something must be said about the passive behavior
o f the overwhelming majority o f Ottoman Armenians
at the time. Above all else, they just wanted peace, and
they remained silent because they did not want a confrontation
with the terrorists. For decades, they tolerated
the presence o f a small number o f fanatics among them
who held absurd, impracticable, and completely unjust
ambitions for independence (unjust because the Armenians
did not have a majority anywhere in the Ottoman
Empire). The extremists became more and more powerful;
they terrorized Moslems and Armenians; and eventually,
after the beginning o f the First World War, they were
openly waging civil war.
In the turmoil o f the war, with the Ottoman Empire forced
to fight for its very existence, there remained no other
choice but to carry out the relocation. The events that followed
the end o f the war - when the Allies penetrated into
Anatolia and the Greeks advanced almost as far as
Ankara - prove just how wisely those responsible for the
relocation had acted.
I f the "silent majority" o f Ottoman Armenians had objected
to the insane plans o f the extremists and the "romantic"
visions o f the missionaries, many Armenians and
even more Moslems would have been spared tremendous
suffering. As it was, however, many had to pay for the
offenses o f a minority.
Often - far too often - it is the success o f the rational,
level-headed majority in prevailing over the irrational
minority o f agitators, fanatics, and romantics which
determines whether or not disaster will befall a nation. No
nation that has let itself be seduced or silenced by a
minority has ever been spared. The National Socialists in