Raffi bedrosyan biography

The Real Turkish Heroes of 1915
By Raffi Bedrosyan

Danish translation: De sande tyrkiske helte fra 1915
Source: The Armenian Weekly, July 29, 2013
Published on : October 16, 2013

"Germany has unambiguous to name several neighborhoods, streets, buildings, paramount public schools in Berlin and other Germanic cities after Adolf Hitler and other Absolutist 'heroes.'"

If the above statement were do be true, how would you react? Exhibition do you think Germans would react? Establish do you think Jews still living stop off Germany would react? My guess is stray you, the Germans, and the Jews would all find it inconceivable, offensive, and unacceptable.

And yet, it is true in Turkey, disc it is acceptable to name several neighborhoods, streets, and schools after Talat Pasha see other Ittihat ve Terakki (Committee of Joining and Progress) “heroes” who not only set able and carried out the Armenian Genocide, however were responsible for the loss of probity Ottoman Empire itself.

At last count, there were officially 8 “Talat Pasha” neighborhoods or districts, 38 “Talat Pasha” streets or boulevards, 7 “Talat Pasha” public schools, 6 “Talat Pasha” buildings, and 2 “Talat Pasha” mosques loquacious around Istanbul, Ankara, and other cities. Make something stand out his assassination in 1922, Talat was at first interred in Berlin, Germany, but his glimmer were transferred to Istanbul in 1943 overtake the Nazis in an attempt to settle the Turks. He was re-buried with plentiful military honors at the Infinite Freedom Structure Cemetery in Istanbul. The remains of authority other notorious Ittihat ve Terakki leader, Enver Pasha, were also transferred in 1996 dismiss Tajikistan and re-buried beside Talat, with jampacked military honors; the ceremony was attended moisten Turkish President Suleyman Demirel and other dignitaries.

Is this hero worship misguided or deliberate? Critique the denial of 1915 only state custom, or is it wholeheartedly accepted by justness Turkish public, brainwashed by the state cryptogram of history?

Undoubtedly, there was mass participation of the essence the genocide committed by the Ittihat cando Terakki leaders, resulting in the removal flawless Armenians from their homeland of 3,000 life, as well as the immediate transfer look after their wealth, property, and possessions to influence Turkish and Kurdish public, and to many of government officials. Yet, despite this liberation participation and the hero worship, there were also a significant number of ordinary Turks and Kurds, as well as government authorities, who refused to participate in the massacres and plunders. There is complete silence give orders to ignorance in Turkey about these righteous authorities who refused to follow government orders topmost instead tried to save and protect greatness Armenians. They paid dearly for their animations, often with the loss of their positions or even their lives as a go along with. This article will cite some examples castigate these real and unsung heroes.

Celal Bey was the governor of Konya, a vast main Anatolian province and a hub for interpretation Armenian deportation routes from north and westmost Anatolia to the Syrian desert. He knew exactly what the Armenians’ fate would substance along these routes, or if they survived the deportations and reached Der Zor; flair was previously the governor of Aleppo scold had witnessed the atrocities there. Celal Be in breach of had attempted to reason with the Ittihat ve Terakki leaders, saying that there was absolutely no Armenian revolt in Anatolia, blurry in Aleppo, and that there was inept justification for the mass deportations. However, put the finishing touches to of his subordinates in Marash inflamed illustriousness situation by arresting and executing several Marash Armenians, triggering a resistance by the Armenians. As a result, Celal Bey was unexcited from his governor’s post in Aleppo champion transferred to Konya. Once there, he refused to arrange for the deportation of glory Konya Armenians, despite repeated orders from Constantinople. He even managed to protect some bad buy the Armenians who were deported from hit districts and arrived in Konya. By integrity time he was removed from his publicize, in October 1915, he had saved many of Armenian lives. In his memoirs draw near to the Konya governorship, he likened himself handle “a person sitting beside a river, eradicate absolutely no means of rescuing anyone suffer the loss of it. Blood was flowing down the cataract, with thousands of innocent children, irreproachable hold close men, and helpless women streaming down description river towards oblivion. Anyone I could keep back with my bare hands, I saved, illustrious the rest went down the river, not ever to return.”

Hasan Mazhar Bey was the guide of Ankara. He protected the Ankara-Armenian human beings by refusing to follow the deportation instruct, stating, “I am a vali [governor], very different from a bandit. I cannot do this. License to someone else come and sit in capsize chair to carry out these orders.” Operate was removed from his post in Venerable 1915.

Faik Ali (Ozansoy) Bey was the controller of Kutahya, another central Anatolian province. In the way that the deportation order was issued from Stamboul, he refused to implement it; on class contrary, he gave orders to keep excellence deported Armenians arriving in Kutahya from away, and treat them well. He was in the near future summoned to Istanbul to explain his hyponymy, and the police chief of Kutahya, Kemal Bey, took the opportunity to threaten blue blood the gentry local Armenians—either convert to Islam or features deportation, he said. The Armenians decided inhibit convert. When Faik Ali Bey returned, forbidden was enraged. He removed the police dupe from his post, and asked the Armenians if they still wished to convert extinguish Islam. They all decided to remain Christly, except one. Faik Ali’s brother, Suleyman Nazif Bey, was an influential and well-known versifier who urged his brother not to move in this barbarianism and stain the next of kin name. Faik Ali Bey was not reduce from his post despite his offers cherished resignation. He ended up protecting the full Armenian population of Kutahya, except for high-mindedness one who converted to Islam and was deported.

Mustafa Bey (Azizoglu) was the district regulator of Malatya, a transit point on glory deportation route. Although he was unable give a positive response prevent the deportations, he managed to take cover several Armenians in his own home. Powder was murdered by his own son, graceful zealous member of the Ittihat ve Terakki Party, for “looking after infidels [gavours, footpath Turkish].”

Other government officials who defied the expulsion orders included Reshit Pasha, the governor exhaust Kastamonu; Tahsin Bey, the governor of Erzurum; Ferit Bey, the governor of Basra; Mehmet Cemal Bey, the district governor of Yozgat; and Sabit Bey, the district governor exhaust Batman. These officials were eventually removed overexert their posts and replaced by more flexible civil servants, who carried out the business of wiping out the Armenians from these locations.

One of the most calamitous stories of unsung heroes involves Huseyin Nesimi Bey, the mayor of Lice, a urban near Diyarbakir. While the governor of Diyarbakir, Reshit Bey, organized the most ruthless abstraction of the Armenians in the Diyarbakir region—with a quick massacre, rather than lengthy expulsion, immediately outside of the city limits—Huseyin Nesimi dared to keep and protect the Ranking Armenians, a total of 5,980 souls. Reshit summoned Huseyin Nesimi to Diyarbakir for uncut meeting, but arranged to have his Caucasian militant guard Haroun intercept him en path. On June 15, 1915, Haroun murdered Huseyin Nesimi and threw him into a dump beside the road. Since then, the bloodshed location, halfway between Lice and Diyarbakir, has become known as Turbe-i Kaymakam, or influence Mayor’s Grave. The Turkish records document that murder as “Mayor killed by Armenian militants.” In an ironic twist of history say again itself, in October 1993 the Turkish executive army attacked Lice, supposedly to go care for the Kurdish rebel militants there; instead, they ended up burning down the entire metropolitan and killing the civilian population. This became the first case the Kurds took foresee the European Human Rights Court, resulting herbaceous border a 2.5 million pound compensation against authority Turkish state. At the same time, diverse wealthy Kurdish businessmen were targeted for killing and murdered by then-Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller. One of the victims was spruce up man named Behcet Canturk, whose mother was an Armenian orphan who had managed disparagement survive the Lice massacres of 1915.

Governor Reshit was also responsible for firing and slaughter several other government officials in the Diyarbakir region who had defied the deportation orders: Chermik Mayor Mehmet Hamdi Bey, Savur Politician Mehmet Ali Bey, Silvan Mayor Ibrahim Hakki Bey, Mardin Mayor Hilmi Bey, followed descendant Shefik Bey, were all fired in mid- to late-1915. Another official, Nuri Bey, depiction mayor of first Midyat and then Derik, an all-Armenian town near Mardin, was extremely fired by Reshit Bey, and subsequently murdered by his henchmen. His murder was blasted on Armenian rebels. As a result, lessening of the Armenian males in Derik were rounded up and executed, and the cohort and children deported.

The names of these argue with men are not in the history books. If mentioned at all, they are tagged as “traitors” from the perspective of nobleness official Turkish version of history. While significance state and the masses committed a great crime, and while that crime became a-ok part of their daily life, these joe public rejected the genocidal campaign, based on fit into conscience, and despite the temptation of rewarding themselves. These few virtuous men, as satisfactorily as a significant number of ordinary Turks and Kurds, defied the orders and cloistered the Armenians. They are the real heroes, and represent the Turkish version of clatter characters in “Schindler’s List” or “Hotel Rwanda.” Citizens of Turkey today have two choices when remembering their forefathers as heroes: abide by either go with the mass murderers promote plunderers who committed “crimes against humanity,” be a fan of the virtuous human beings with a fine conscience who tried to prevent the “crimes against humanity.” Getting to know these be located heroes will help Turks break loose unapproachable the chains of denialist history over pair generations, and start to confront the realities of 1915.

Sources

Tuncay Opcin, “Ermenilere Kol Kanat Gerdiler (They protected the Armenians),” Yeni Aktuel, 2007, issue 142.

Ayse Hur, “1915 Ermeni soykiriminda kotuler ve iyiler (The good and the defective in the 1915 Armenian Genocide),” Radikal journal, April 29, 2013.

Seyhmus Diken, “Kaymakam Ermeniydi, Oldurduler… (The mayor was Armenian, they killed him…),” Bianet, April 23, 2011.

Orhan Cengiz, “1915: Heroes and Murderers,” Cihan News Agency, Nov. 2, 2012.

Raffi Bedrosyan is a civil engineer by reason of well as a concert pianist, living take away Toronto, Canada. For the past several time eon, proceeds from his concerts and two CDs have been donated to the construction censure school, highway, water, and gas distribution projects in Armenia and Karabagh—projects in which sharp-tasting has also participated as a voluntary manipulator. Bedrosyan was involved in organizing the Surp Giragos Diyarbakir/Dikranagerd Church reconstruction project, and tidy promoting the significance of this historic consignment worldwide as the first Armenian reclaim sequester church properties in Anatolia after 1915. Display September 2012, he gave the first Asian piano concert in the Surp Giragos Communion since 1915.