Ümit Kurt
In Kanunların Ruhu: Emval-i Metruke Kanunlarında Soykırımın İzini Sürmek
(The Spirit of the Laws: Pursuing the Trace of Genocide on the
Abandoned Property Laws), Taner Akçam and I exposed the ways in which
the moveable and unmovable properties of the Armenians who were
displaced and eliminated in 1915 were obtained and distributed, using
all the vehicles provided by the “law,” first by the ruling Committee of
Union and Progress (CUP), and later the Republican regime with the
Abandoned Property Laws (Emval-i Metruke Kanunları) that the government inherited.1
Although all of the laws issued within the scope of the Abandoned
Property Laws noted the Armenians’ entitlement to their property and
assets, and stated that at the very least their value should be handed
over to them, the process was obstructed in many ways. As a result, the
Armenians’ material foundations were eliminated and their physical
annihilation was complete. The measure of existence “granted” to the
Armenians by these laws was reduced to nothingness.
The promise of Lausanne
The goods that were known to be the property of the Armenians and
termed “abandoned” were first distributed by the Treasury and the
Finance Ministry to migrants coming from the Balkans and Caucasus, to
local notables and minor gentry; in the CUP era, to a variety of state
organizations and the army; and again in the Republican era to various
organizations and people providing services to the government. Through
various means, including the citizenship and passport laws, the same
republic that promised in Lausanne to restore the Armenians’ goods,
instead of returning to Turkey the Ottoman citizen Armenians left
outside the country, sold the goods obtained through the
Abandoned Property Laws at a profit, recording the income for this in
the 1928 budget as revenue. At the same time, the CUP issued property
rights to those already in possession of Armenian immovable properties.2
No wonder, then, that of those actively involved in the seizure of
goods and assets during the deportation and annihilation of the
Armenians, many were members of the CUP central committee, and many
Unionist civil servants and officials benefitted from this “remedy.”
Following the signing of the Armistice of Moudros in October 1918, many
CUP members who had not left the country were tried for crimes committed
during the deportation process at the courts martial established in
Istanbul. Among the important CUP names who fled Turkey for Europe
immediately after the war, Talat Paşa, Said Halim Paşa, and Cemal
Paşa, and Dr. Bahaeddin Şakir Bey and Cemal Azmi Bey, were all killed
between June 1920 and July 1922 through “Operation Nemesis,” embarked
upon by the Armenians.
With the rulings made in Istanbul, Kemal Bey, the district governor
of Boğazliyan and provincial deputy governor of Yozgat, and Nusret Bey,
the provincial governor of Urfa, were executed, along with Hafız
Abdullah Avni, an Erzincan hotelier and gendarmerie bureau clerk.
Interestingly, they were later, in a special law issued by the Turkish
Parliament in June 1926, given the title of “national martyr,” and their
families were given income and various goods from the “abandoned
properties” of the Armenians.
Two hundred and twenty documents
This has been a lengthy preamble, I know. Let us come to the book
that is the focus of this long introduction. Coming six years after his
book Talat Paşa’nın Evrak-ı Metrukesi (The Abandoned Paper of Talat Paşa), Murat Bardakçı’s İttihatçı’nın Sandığı
(The Unionist’s Chest) has now been published, and contains documents
and letters of considerable importance that only he was able to access,
by entering the personal archives of the Unionist leaders.
Published by İş Bankası Yayınları, the book also includes 19
documents from the Prime Ministry’s Republican Archives relating to the
goods of the deported Armenian that were given to the above-mentioned
Unionist members and civil servants recognized as “national martyrs” by
parliamentary decree. In this book based on 220 documents, 198—in
addition to archive documents—are from Bardakçı’s private archives, some
of them provided by Unionist families.
The writings in the second section of the book leave the door open
for works of the upmost importance in the coming period, and include
those of Treasury Minister Cavid Bey (here the correspondence between
Halide Edip and Cavid Bey contains particularly interesting information
on Edip’s services to the Ayn Tura Orphanage), in addition to the
letters of Kürt Şerif Paşa; the documents of Bahriye Nazırı Paşa and
İzmir Governor Rahmi Bey; the Malta letters of CUP Secretary-General
Midhat Şükrü; and a striking CUP members photo album.
The author’s response
Now let’s come to the book’s purpose: In his introduction, Murat
Bardakçı responds to the rightful criticism frequently directed at
him—that “To be an historian it is not enough simply to publish
documents; those documents must also be commented upon.” As far as
Bardakçı is concerned, the criticism comes from those unable to access
the documents of the architects of the events of 1915, and are the
product of jealousy at being unaware of the documents’ existence and
being unable to access them.
Yes, it is true that in terms of access to the documents of
the architects of what in the modern understanding was the first great
genocide and displacement of the 20th century, and of the decisions that
shaped the fate of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 19th century
and during the first quarter of the 20th—it seems it must
have been easy for Bardakçı. For, on his own television programs he has
said countless times that he is a Unionist, and has professed his
admiration for Unionism, and clearly used his close relationships to
access vitally important personal archives and writings.
From an historian’s perspective, what is important here is what sort
of evaluation these first-hand documents have been subjected to within
the historical framework of the period. Otherwise, we could simply
peruse second-hand bookstores, find whatever there was from that period,
and publish “The Chest of This” or “The Cupboard of That.” The essence
and the key point in this matter are the historical conditions and the
flow of events within which these documents and writings were produced.
How sad, then, that Bardakçı has shown neither the inclination nor
efforts with regards to these factors indispensable to historians.
Halide Edip’s letter
As an example, let us look at a letter from the section of Bardakçı’s
book that contains the correspondence between Cavid Bey and Halide
Edip. In this letter, sent from Beirut by Edip, she writes: “In
particular the Armenians; only here do a number of these unfortunate
Armenians find the right to live, swearing on the blessed head of Cemal
Paşa and by Allah… With stomachs swollen from eating grass out in the
desert, some mothers, some fathers, many of them come here after losing
their children… I am occupied with the children and women. We have
opened a classroom for the little ones, and are teaching them there… In
the garden there is another tragedy! An unfortunate struck mute after
his son was killed right next to him, with no idea where his other son
and family have ended up. Barefoot, with sorrowful eyes, screaming
unremittingly of his tragedy. Sometimes in the night, like a woman with a
dead child he sobs and wails with his head in his hands…”
In this letter, Edip refers to the Armenian children orphaned and the
Armenian women widowed by the deportations and genocide. The
description of the services that she provided in the Ayn Tura Orphanage
in Beirut presents us with a cross-section of the Armenian Genocide.
Such writings gain their meaning through a historically contextualized
reading. The point we do not find, and will not find, in Murat
Bardakçı’s book is this.
Let us come, then, to the decision that granted the distribution of
the Armenians’ remaining goods and assets to those with “national
martyr” status. First, let me say this: Anyone who wishes can go to the
Republican Archives in Ankara and, within about half an hour, access the
19 documents that were translated from the Ottoman and published there.
These documents are a confession of how the assets of the Armenians, in
particular their properties, were appropriated by the state via its
legal mechanisms and blatantly distributed to the agents of their
destruction.
Another striking point highlighted by these documents, and by
Bardakçı’s emphasis of the importance of Mustafa Kemal, is how the
transfer and seizure of the Armenians’ assets were transferred from the
CUP to the Republican regime—leading, in this way, to the continuation
and perpetuity of the same mindset. This is because from the moment the
Republican regime was founded, just as a silkworm spins its cocoon, the
laws it created—replicating and thoroughly consolidating the Abandoned
Property Laws constructed by the CUP—provided their perpetuity and
prevented the return of goods to Armenian hands.
Perpetuity in the state
In this sense, Bardakçı has made a crucial point. By referencing
these documents, it can be proven that Mustafa Kemal was not opposed to
the deportations; did not hate the Unionists who gave and applied the
decision for deportation; gave roles in the state to people involved in
this business; did not see the deported Armenians as wronged; and did
not use harsh expressions against those responsible for the
deportations. In this respect, Bardakçı must be given his due credit,
because many bureaucrats involved in the departments responsible for the
Armenian deportations and genocide were promoted to key positions in
the state during the years of Kemal’s presidency. Perpetuity was,
indeed, embraced in the state.
Murat Bardakçı’s The Unionist’s Chest is presented as a
story of destruction and loss, but what emerges from the chest is more
like a “bulging” confession. The documents contained in this book are
the recognition of the destruction and depredation hurled upon the
Armenians. Since the writer was content to simply publish these
documents, let the judgment fall to us.
Notes
(1) Taner Akçam and Ümit Kurt, Kanunların Ruhu: Emval-i Metruke Kanunlarında Soykırımın İzini Sürmek, İletişim Yayınları 2012, Istanbul.
(2) For a detailed analysis of the entire so-called legal system behind
the expropriation of the movable and immovable properties of the
deported Armenians, see Taner Akçam and Ümit Kurt, Kanunların Ruhu: Emval-i Metruke Kanunlarında Soykırımın İzini Sürmek, İletişim Yayınları 2012, Istanbul. The English translation of this book will come out in May 2015: Taner Akçam and Ümit Kurt, The Spirit of the Laws: The Plunder of Wealth in the Armenian Genocide, Berghahn Books, May 2015.
"The Armenian Weekly," October 15, 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment