REMOVING MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT TURKISH-ARMENIAN RELATIONS

Yıl 1997, Cilt: 2 Sayı: 2, 0 - 0, 01.06.1997

Türkkaya Ataöv

Öz

The White House statement, 22 April 1997, on Armenian-Turkish relations during the First World War, apparently publicised on the occasion of what is portrayed as ‘Remembrance Day’, needs comment and correction through academic probing. 24 April was the day when the Ottoman authorities arrested 235 Armenians in Istanbul, then the Ottoman capital. These arrests were made in response to an Armenian revolt in the far eastern Anatolian city of Van. They were followed by the massacre of Muslims in Van and the Armenian cooperation with the approaching Russian army, and the eventual relocation of groups of Armenians believed to have committed seditious acts in what was, after all, wartime—conduct which we call today terrorism or treason.