16.07.2020THE TURKISH CRIMINAL RECORD
In March 2020, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared the Greek police forces protecting the Greek borders with the Nazis of the concentration camps during World War II. These preposterous comments are part of the Turkish Goebbels - like propaganda regarding the situation at the Greco-Turkish land borders of Evros.
In this article I will not try to prove that the Turkish State has started a disinformation campaign against Greece. That is obvious. Instead, I would like to substantiate what the Greek Prime Minister claimed when he stated that Turkey has no right to lecture Greece on human rights and humanism.
Historically, Turkey has repeatedly and outrageously violated International Law and human rights while committing the 20th century’s first mass genocide, that of the Armenians.
In the late 19th century, the last Ottoman Sultan, Abdul Hamid II – whose ideological principles inspired Erdogan’s neo-Ottomanism – tried to promote Pan-Islamism. In this context, he incited mass anti-Armenian (and anti-Christian) massacres, known as the Hamidian massacres. From 1894 to 1896, 100,0001 to 300,0002 Armenians and approximately 25,000 Assyrians were slaughtered3.
Later, in 1908, a coup occurred, staged by the Young Turk revolutionaries with the support of the religious minorities’ political organisations to overthrow the Sultan. In 1909, however, after a countercoup Abdul Hamid II returned to power. The Sultan again mobilized popular support in order to persecute the Christians. As a result of the state sponsored anti-Armenianism, in April 1909, a Muslim mob in the city of Adana, including paramilitary forces, slaughtered a great number of the Christian Armenian population of the city. The massacre expanded to a series of anti-Armenian pogroms throughout the Adana Vilayet which used to compose the historical Armenian Region of Cilicia. These massacres resulted in the death of a further 30,0004 Armenians (plus 1,200 Assyrians5).
In the period 1912-1913, the Ottomans lost their European territories (except Eastern Thrace) as the result of their defeat in the Balkan Wars. In retaliation, in 1913 the Turks proceeded to the ethnic cleansing of Thracian Bulgarians. More than 50,0006 Bulgarians died during these massacres. After the 1913 coup d'état the Young Turks returned to power. Despite their “democratic” and “liberal” agenda, the Young Turks promoted ultra-nationalism and Pan-Turkism as the state’s ideology.
The Turks participated in the Great War pledging allegiance to the Central Powers. Following the announcement of the Turkish participation in the War in 1914, the government of the Young Turks planned the deportation of the Greek populations of Asia Minor and Eastern Thrace.
In 1915, the Turkish state organised the Armenian Genocide, the first massive genocide of the 20th century. From 1915 to 1923, more than 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the Six Armenian Vilayets, in Cilicia, in northwestern Persia, in the western parts of the Ottoman Empire and in the Syrian Desert, while more than 500,0007 took refuge in other countries.
Moreover, during the Caucasus Campaign, the Turkish “Army of Islam”, with the support of Azerbaijani irregulars, killed a great number of Armenians in the Russian Governorates with heavy Armenian population (Erivan, Elisabethpol and Baku Governorates), as well as in the Kars Oblast.
At this point, it would be expedient to remind Mr. Erdogan of Hitler's Obersalzberg Speech. In this speech, Hitler revealed his plans to eradicate the Poles during the pending German invasion of Poland. In this context, he stated: “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”.
In the meantime, the Young Turks committed genocide against the Assyrians resulting, in the death of more than 250,000 of them8.
Furthermore, in 1919, Mustafa Kemal, the leader of the Turkish insurgents during the Greco-Turkish War, organised the mass – killing of the Christian Greeks of Pontus, thus continuing the Turkish plan for the extermination of the Christian populations of Asia Minor. According to various sources the Greek death toll in the Pontus region of Anatolia was 350,0009.
Kemal fought against Greeks, French and Armenians to regain control of Ionia and the rest Western Asia Minor, Cilicia and Western Armenia. During the Turkish – Armenian War of 1920, according to estimates, tens of thousands10 of Armenian civilians were slaughtered by the Turkish forces. Regarding the Greco – Turkish War (1919 – 1922) the Kemalist forces massacred the Greeks while regaining Ionia. According to Western sources, more than 100,00011 Greeks and Armenians were killed on that occasion.
After the dechristianisation of Anatolia, the Kemalist regime started targeting the Kurds, who made up the majority of Eastern and Southeastern Turkey as a result of the genocides of the Armenians and Assyrians. In this context, in 12 July 1930, the Turkish security forces slaughtered 5,000 – 15,00012 Kurds in the Zilan Valley, in an attempt to suppress the Kurdish “Ararat” Rebellion in the Ağrı Province.
Moreover, in the period 1937 – 1938, during the Dersim Rebellion the Turkish forces slaughtered thousands of Alevi Zaza Kurds. The killings have been condemned as an ethnocide or genocide considering the government’s plan for the Turkification of Asia Minor13.
During World War II, the Republic of Turkey remained the expedient neutral, as the title of a relevant book has it. This is because Turkey and Nazi Germany had friendly relations; these friendly relations explain Turkish neutrality during the War and were emphasized by the German–Turkish Treaty of Friendship which was signed in 1941.
Greece on the other hand, fought against the Axis Powers. In 1942, after the occupation of Greece by Germany, Italy and Bulgaria, the Turkish government levied a wealth tax known as “Varlık Vergisi”. This particular tax targeted the non-Muslim (Greeks, Armenians and Jews) citizens of the Turkish Republic. The main reason for the tax was to nationalise the Turkish economy by reducing the influence and control of minority populations over the country's trade, finance, and industry.
Turkey continued its process of Turkification that started with the decline of the Ottoman Empire. In 6-7 September 1955 the Istanbul pogrom occurred, organised by the Turkish state. A mob assaulted the Greek community of Istanbul. During the assaults over a dozen Greeks died. Armenians and Jews were also harmed. The pogrom greatly accelerated emigration of ethnic Greeks from Istanbul to Greece leading thus to the significant decline of the Greek population in Turkey.
In the following years the Turkish “deep state” targeted the religious Alevi minority by organising a number of pogroms and massacres: the Maraş (1978), Çorum (1980) and Sivas (1993) massacres as well as the 1995 Gazi Quarter riots are some examples of the persecution of the Alevi minority from Turkey.
Turkey, not only constantly violates the rights of its minorities, but also violates international law in its relations with other countries. In 1974, Turkey invaded a UN member state, the Republic of Cyprus, violating the sovereignty and integrity of the island country. To this day, Turkey occupies 36.2% of the island.
In fact, Ankara’s perspective of foreign policy is inconsiderate of international law! Turkey has chauvinist claims over the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean Seas and constantly violates the Greek and Cypriot territorial waters and airspace. Furthermore, Turkey illegally conducts military operations in Syria and Iraq and violates the UN arms embargo in Libya. Turkish security services have abducted Gülenists, ignoring regulations, in Kosovo, Azerbaijan, Ukraine even in Gabon.
Meanwhile, the actions of the Turkish State have serious geopolitical impacts which definitely exacerbate the existing instability of the wider region.
It is clear that Turkey follows a strategy of expanding not only its economic but also its political and military influence in areas which formerly constituted the Ottoman Empire. Turkey plays an actively destabilizing role in the Middle East, the Caucasus, the Balkans, the Maghreb and the Horn of Africa. It increases the number of military bases at key points in three continents and has illegally used military force – or the threat of it - to meet its neo-Ottoman political designs.
Turkey also builds a network of proxies – in the political and military meaning of the word – using its cultural and historical ties with Muslim and Turkic minorities in the areas I referred to. Another factor of concern is Turkish support for Islamist parties and other similar organisations in the Middle East. The support of fundamentalist elements allows the strengthening of more hardcore factions in Islam such as the jihadists.
In a few words, Turkey has a strategy of becoming the hegemonic regional power. Neo-Ottomanism is the tool for achieving this ambitious goal. This is inherently aggressive because neo-Ottomanism, including Pan-Islamism and Pan-Turkism, leads to politics of interference in Turkey’s areas of interest.
Moreover, Turkey has internally become into an authoritarian state. Erdogan has jailed journalists and has massively arrested his political opponents. The government controls the judicial system as well as the majority of the country’s media while it censors popular social media. It is apparent, therefore, that Turkey has blatantly become a police state.
In this article, I have tried to summarize the record of Turkish internal inhumanity as well as its violations of international law. The more one studies the last 130 years of Turkish history the more one recoils with horror at the inhumane record of this country. Recalling a good friend’s words I also say “Turkey’s history reminds one more of a criminal record”.
1 Vahakn N. Dadrian, The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus, Berghahn, 1995, p. 155.
2 Taner Akçam, A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility, Metropolitan Books, 2006, p. 42.
3 Michael Angold, The Cambridge History of Christianity, Vol. 5 Eastern Christianity, Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 512.
4 William Armstrong, The 1909 massacres of Armenians in Adana, Hürriyet Daily News. Online at: https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/opinion/william-armstrong/the-1909-massacres-of-armenians-in-adana...
5 David Gaunt, The Assyrian Genocide of 1915, Assyrian Genocide Research Center, 18 April 2009. Online at: https://www.seyfocenter.com/english/38/
6 Nikolai Vukov, Resettlement Waves, Historical Memory and Identity Construction: The Case of Thracian Refugees in Bulgaria, Migration in the Southern Balkans, IMISCOE Research Series, 2015, p. 68.
7 Jay Winter, America and the Armenian Genocide of 2015, Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 198.
8 Gaunt, op. cit.
9 Adam Jones, Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction, Routledge, 2010, p. 166.
10 Dadrian, op. cit., p. 360.
11 Rudolph J. Rummel, Irving Louis Horowitz, Turkey's Genocidal Purges. Death by Government, Transaction Publishers, 1994, p. 233.
12 Yusuf Mazhar, Cumhuriyet, 16 July 1930 (in Turkish)
13 Martin van Bruinessen, Genocide in Kurdistan? The suppression of the Dersim rebellion in Turkey (1937-38) and the chemical war against the Iraqi Kurds (1988), in: George J.Andreopoulos, Conceptual and historical dimensions of genocide, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994, p. 141-170.
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