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Realities Based on Ottoman Documents"; and KamuranGuri<strong>in</strong>, "Causes and Prevention of Armenian Terrorism." Paul Henze, <strong>in</strong> "The Roots of Armenian Violence:How Far Back Do They Extend?, " articulatesbest the <strong>in</strong>a<strong>in</strong> purpose of the above papers. He beg<strong>in</strong>sby ask<strong>in</strong>g: "Is there someth<strong>in</strong>g unusual about Armeniansas a people, or about their historical experience,that has made them prone to violence?" (p. 179) Hegoes back to the beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g of history to search for ananswer to this question. Henze f<strong>in</strong>ds it <strong>in</strong> the defectsof historiography. "Armenian history has been studiedand written almost entirely by Armenians. The samecan be said, though perhaps not to the same degree,of many other peoples, such as the Georgians, Bulgarians,and Hungarians, who have tenaciously survivedthe vicissitudes of history. But Armenians seem torepresent an extreme case, much more so than Jews,e. g. People [sic] who write their own history tend toglorify their past and avoid objective exam<strong>in</strong>ation ofcontroversial features of it. " (p. 180)~ 5. 19 ~British Documents on Ottoman Armenians, Volume I(1856-1880), Volume Il (1880-1856). Ed. by Bilal N.$imsir. Ankara: Turkish Historical Society, 1982,1983. LC 83-217095. The <strong>in</strong>troduction to volume I wasissued separately as The Genesis of the ArmenianQuestion.This publication conta<strong>in</strong>s a large collection ofBritish documents from the Foreign Office. It <strong>in</strong>cludesreports by consuls <strong>in</strong> the <strong>in</strong>terior of Turkey, dispatchesby the Ambassador <strong>in</strong> Constant<strong>in</strong>ople, and <strong>in</strong>structionsby the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Thedocuments pa<strong>in</strong>t a good picture of the lawlessness <strong>in</strong>the countryside, the shortcom<strong>in</strong>gs of the Ottomangovernment, the venality of the justice system, theextent of brigandage by Kurdish tribesmen, and thehelplessness of the unarmed Christian population <strong>in</strong>general. Yet <strong>in</strong> a transparent exercise <strong>in</strong> selectivity,$imgir writes an <strong>in</strong>troduction to the collection thatrelies solely on reports critical of, or unflatter<strong>in</strong>g to,the Armenians. In a thesis belied by the majority ofthe documents, the editor argues that the reformmeasures the British encouraged were an avenuewhereby the Christian m<strong>in</strong>orities improved their loteconomically to the detriment of the Muslim majority.Still the British purposefully agitated discontent <strong>in</strong> theArmenian communities as an excuse for <strong>in</strong>tervention.As a result of the War of 1877-78, the Armenians alsoentered <strong>in</strong>to secret relations with the Russians. Thelatter encouraged the idea of autonomy for the Armenianswho only formed a m<strong>in</strong>ority <strong>in</strong> the prov<strong>in</strong>ces.Accord<strong>in</strong>g to $imgir, the Armenians "were a merepawn" <strong>in</strong> the "Anglo-Russian rivalry over EasternTurkey. " The Armenian leaders who advocated reformor western patronage were responsible for "br<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>gunrest and suffer<strong>in</strong>g to their own people. " (p. 22) The$imsir volumes are part of a trend <strong>in</strong> revisionisthistoriography which aspires to accomplish two th<strong>in</strong>gs:1) to be credited with objectivity by publish<strong>in</strong>g documents;and 2) to deflect attention from the genocideby widen<strong>in</strong>g the field of controversy to encompass theentire last century of Armenian existence <strong>in</strong> the OttomanEmpire.The Dis<strong>in</strong>formers* 5. 20 *Ataov, Turkkaya. A Brief Glance at the "ArmenianQuestion". Ankara: Ankara Chambre of Commerce,1984. Hitler and the "Armenian Question". Ankara,1984. The Andonian "Documents "Attributedto TalaatPasha Are Forgeries! Ankara: Ankara Universitesi'S iyasal Bilgiler Fakultesi, 1984. A 'Statement WronglyAttributed to Mustafa Kemal Atattirk. Ankara: AnkaraUniversitesi Siyasal Bilgiler Fakultesi, 1984.This set of booklets was written by the chair ofRelations Division of the Faculty ofthe InternationalPolitical Science at Ankara University. Meant forpopular consumption, the publications revisit the themesof denial <strong>in</strong> a condensed form. They were all produced<strong>in</strong> response to the wave of Armenian terrorism and thepublicity surround<strong>in</strong>g it.The first booklet, after quickly summariz<strong>in</strong>g allof Armenian history <strong>in</strong> a few pages and demonstrat<strong>in</strong>gthe extent of Ottoman reliance on Armenian civilservants, beg<strong>in</strong>s discussion of the genocide <strong>in</strong> thefollow<strong>in</strong>g manner: "The events surround<strong>in</strong>g the transfer[sic] of the Armenian population <strong>in</strong> 1915 had to beexam<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong> the light of active Armenian collaborationwith the Tsarist Russian forces, Turkey's enemy dur<strong>in</strong>gthe First World War. " (p. 33)The second pamphlet disputes Hitler's statementon the exterm<strong>in</strong>ation of the Armenians on the groundsthat Hitler was "no historian. " (p. 5) Ataov ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong>sthat by us<strong>in</strong>g the Hitler statement "militant Armeniansare exert<strong>in</strong>g every effort to make the Jews and othersbelieve that they are also another persecuted m<strong>in</strong>ority. "(p. 8) Thereafter Ataov attempts to demonstrate "the<strong>in</strong>cl<strong>in</strong>ations of"[Armenian] anti-semitism, (p. 8)<strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g the charge that "volunteer Armenian troopsunder the w<strong>in</strong>gs of Hitler's Germany dur<strong>in</strong>g the SecondWorld War were used <strong>in</strong> round<strong>in</strong>g up Jews and other'undesirables' dest<strong>in</strong>ed for the Nazi concentrationcamps. " (p. 9)The third booklet reviews the $<strong>in</strong>asi Orel workon the same subject. In the preface, the work isdescribed by Prof. Necdet Ser<strong>in</strong>, Dean of the Facultyof Political Science at Ankara University, as "the firstThe Armenian <strong>Genocide</strong>: Revisionism and Denial 101

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