Sayin Buyuk Elcimiz Oguz Ozge'nin ABC Radio Nat.'da yayýnlanan prog. hakkýnda(2)

Canberra, 20 September 2010


Ms Kate Dundas
Director for Radio
ABC

Ms Dundas,

I take the liberty of writing to you about “Ockham’s Razor” programme broadcast on Sunday, 29th August, on ABC Radio National. I was unable to listen to the programme, but read the text of it as released by ABC.

I regret to say in the first place that I am bitterly disappointed with the programme being so one-sided and prejudiced against the Turkish nation that Dr. Robert Kaplan, being also presented as historian, proves his information of history to be restricted to merely repeating unsubstantiated Armenian allegations of genocide, as if they were historical facts. Were Dr Kaplan’s allegations to be accurate, Turkey would have been long condemned for genocide under the 1948 UN Convention of Genocide at international courts. Quite conversely, just after the First World War, the British forces, who occupied Istanbul rounded up 145 high level Turkish politicians, senior army commanders and civil servants to deport to Malta for them to stand trial for alleged misconduct of Armenian subjects. Armenians and Greeks who collaborated with the British went through all the Empire’s files to adduce evidence against the deportees. The arrest that began in March 1919 resulted in the release of all deportees in 1922 for lack of substantial evidence. Dr Mehmet Nazım, whom Dr. Kaplan holds responsible for “over a million of Armenian deaths”, was one of the deportees that were released in 1922. Dr Tevfik Rusdu, whom Dr. Kaplan accuses of being “precursor of the gas chambers of Auschwitz and Treblinka” served for 15 years, 1923 to 1938, as Minister for Foreign Affairs of the new Turkish Republic, as such attending many bilateral meetings and international conferences.

I do not see any point in taking much of your time with further inconsistencies in Dr. Kaplan’s version of the events of 1915. I intend to write, however, in greater detail to those taking part in the radio programme for the purpose of exposing their responsibility in making ABC Radio National available to a distortion of the events of 1915 in order to suit the needs of Armenian propaganda.




In conclusion, I feel deeply sorry for the concept of impartial, objective and balanced radio journalism which “Ockham’s Razor” grossly neglected on 29th August, even by failing to invite one particular person who might have thrown a little light on the history of the Ottoman Empire in World War I in order that at least the other side of the coin may not remain incomplete.

With deep regards,

Oğuz ÖZGE