"What I want to explain is the following: the fact that what happened in 1915 was a mass murder was not even the subject of an argument in any manner from the viewpoint of the actors of that period, with Mustafa Kemal at their head. The main discussion of that period was organized around the axis of the deliberations of Paris, and it was about how the "Turks" should be punished for the Armenian Massacre. To put the criminals on trial was one form of punishment. Another form was the partition of Anatolia. That is, the Western Powers were hiding their imperial ambitions mainly behind the reality of Armenians having been killed. Mustafa Kemal and his friends accepted the reality that those responsible of the massacre should be punished, but opposed that this punishment be in the form of the partition of Anatolia. Today, rather than producing lies and legends, if we make the position of Mustafa Kemal on this subject our departure point, and continue our discussion from there, we shall have covered a fairly long distance."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Taner Akçam, historian and sociologist, in "1915 Legends and Realities" in the Turkish daily "Radikal" (25 May 2003) as translated by Dikran D./Anna K. Piranian
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Armenian_genocide
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Armenian genocide
76 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Armenian genocide →
Related Quotes
"A discussion of the Armenian Genocide could reveal that this Turkish state was not a result of a war fought against t…"
"I would like to ask a very simple, ordinary question. Would you wish to be an Armenian in 1915? No, you wouldn't. Bec…"
"I was condemned by the Turkish authorities for condemning and recognizing the genocide. I spent the years of 1985-198…"
"Surely a few Armenians aided and abetted our enemy, and a few Armenian Deputies committed crimes against the Turkish …"
"These left-overs from the former Young Turk Party, who should have been made to account for the millions of our Chris…"
"You Armenians... never forgot where you live... you accursed ones have brought many perils on the head of our esteeme…"
"Jamal Pasha [then Turkish military ruler in Palestine] planned from the outset to destroy the entire Hebrew settlemen…"
"[What actually happened in 1915-16] was no accident, this was not a marginal or small thing, it was not a geographica…"
"The extermination of the Christians of Turkey was an organized butchery, carried out on a great scale... This part of…"
"It may look amazing, but the reality that what happened in 1915 was a mass murder was accepted by everybody having li…"