Sayin Buyuk Elcimiz Oguz Ozge'nin ABC Radio Nat.'da yayýnlanan prog. hakkýnda (3)

TURKISH EMBASSY
Ambassador
6 Moonah Place, Yarralumla
ACT 2600, Australia
Tel : (02) 6234 0000
Fax : (02) 6273 4402
E-Mail: turkembs@bigpond.net.au

Canberra, 23 September 2010

Mr Robyn Williams AM
Presenter of “Ockham’s Razor”
ABC Radio National

Mr Williams,

I feel compelled to write to you about the “Ockham’s Razor” that was broadcast on 29th August on ABC Radio National. I have already written to Ms Kate Dundas, Director of Radio, about the programme.

It is very distressing to see impartial, balanced and objective radio journalism trampled on in such a way as to show bias and prejudice against the Turkish nation on such a controversial issue as the events of 1915. The content of the programme pertaining to the events of 1915 was presented in a manner totally favouring the Armenian allegations that the right of the Australian public to receiving accurate and impartial information was completely ignored.

That some of Dr Kaplan’s remarks carrying racist overtones is all the more disturbing.

I am also convinced that the content of the programme is in breach of several articles of the ABC Code of Practice.

I draw your attention to Dr Kaplan’s remarks that “… the Ittihadist Party unleashed the mass murder of an innocent people whose sole offence, as far as the Turkish nationalists were concerned, was that they existed…” are not only totally false but also go a long way towards tarnishing the image of the Turkish state in Australia. As presenter, you owe an explanation about how such a shocking allegation without any evidence should be allowed to be made. Further, on what reliable grounds did you let Dr Kaplan equate the Turkish leaders of the First World War with those of Nazi in World War II. In the same vein, Dr Kaplan’s claim that the “genocide” of 1915 set a precedent for Hitler and the Nazis is not only misleading but also unacceptable. Dr Kaplan’s utterance of Hitler’s alleged reference to “who remember the Armenians” is inaccurate too. The original texts of Hitler’s speeches in 1939 and the documents submitted to the Nuremberg Tribunal do not contain such a reference. Consequently, Dr Kaplan’s unsupported remarks and mention of sheer propaganda material in the programme were enough to confound the public’s mind to form impartial opinion about the controversy surrounding the events of 1915.

I call your attention to the fact that Nazi holocaust was legally determined by an international tribunal at Nuremberg in 1946, whereas Armenian allegations for genocide have not been brought to trial because the burden of proving the alleged genocide would fall upon Armenians and contrary to the disinformation that they are engaged in disseminating in Australia, this would necessitate them to produce hard facts. Genocide is a legal term under the 1948 UN Convention of Genocide and in accordance with the provisions of the Convention the events of 1915 cannot be claimed as genocide


for the simple fact that the Armenians rose up against the Ottoman Empire several times prior to the Great War, killing many innocent people and in 1915 the Armenians sided with Russia and attacked to the rear of the Turkish soldiers who were waging war on the Russian army. That is why the Ottoman government had to decide to move the local Armenians away from the theatre of war.

On the other hand, just after World War I, the British forces who were in occupation of Istanbul rounded up about 145 politicians (ministers), army generals and high level administration officials (governors) to deport them to Malta for trial against alleged misconduct of Armenians. Those deportees were held in Malta for more than 2 years in the expectation of finding evidence to convict them. In 1922, however, they were all released, because no substantial evidence could be found in spite of search through the whole files of the Ottoman Empire. Among released was Dr. Mehmet Nazım, whom Dr. Kaplan accuses, in total disregard of the latter fact, of over one million of Armenian deaths.” The paragraph he quoted from Dr Mehmet Nazım during the programme should be looked upon as dubious in light of the above fact.

His remarks about Dr Tevfik Rusdu also are without foundation. Dr Rusdu was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the New Turkish Republic from 1923 to 1938. Had he been really faced charges of the the serious sort that Dr Kaplan saw fit to lay on him, could he have been stayed foreign minister for so long?

The others, Dr Bahaddin Sakir, Dr Ali Said and pharmacist Mehmet Hasan whom Dr Kaplan charged with cruelty against the Armenians were all respected men who served their nation diligently. No wrongful conduct may be attributed to them without any conclusive evidence.

I am not sure if all the above information would interest Dr. Kaplan as “historian” whose principal aim seemed to condemn the Turkish nation and its eminent doctors on spurious arguments as if he had possessed valid documents other than those faked by the Armenians themselves.

As presenter, you must bear responsibility for enabling Dr Kaplan to speak without making any slightest allowance for what he said might be challenged by the other side. Thus you appear to have contributed considerably to the environment of disinformation which the Armenian diaspora deliberately seeks to prevail in Australia.

Finally, I would like to underline that Dr Kaplan’s reference to the Greeks and Assyrians lacks any seriousness. Like Armenians, they are all in desperate need of an enemy in order to prevent their diaspora from losing their identity and from being assimilated by the community they live in.

Yours sincerely,




Oguz Ozge