Falsification de l’Histoire à Bakou par Jiraïr (Gérard) Tutunjian

BAKU, April 3—

"Deputy Chairman of the House of Commons of the Canadian
Parliament and Chairman of the Canadian-Azerbaijan Parliamentary
Friendship Group Barry Devolin will discuss the issue of adopting a
resolution by the Canadian Parliament in connection with the Khojaly
genocide in Baku. Devolin made his statement for [sic] journalists in
Baku. A Canadian delegation began its visit to Azerbaijan today."
— E. Mehdiyev, Trend

From Parliament Hill in Ottawa to the University of Utah, to Texas,
Iowa, and the Carolinas, the descendants of the Seljuks and the
Ottomans are on the move. But unlike their yataghan-wielding ancestors,
contemporary Seljuks and Ottomans (aka Turks and Azeris) are engaged in
a PR war fuelled by Ankara’s economic upsurge and Baku’s
petrodollars.

The Turkic clans, with the expensive input of high-end PR
agencies, are determined to change "Turkbeijan"’s justly deplorable
image. They perceive the Armenian Diaspora as the spoiler of their
cosmetic duplicities and chicanery. Rather than admit their
millennia-long barbarian legacy, Turkbeijan leaders, such as absurd
Baby Aliyev, bray that the Armenian lobby is the real enemy. It would
surprise no one if one of these days a paranoid Baku publishes “The
Protocols of the Elders of Armen”.

To take on the Armenian lobby, Azerbaijan and Turkey have launched a
multi-pronged “information” campaign. One strand of it extols Turkic
“contributions” to history and the other promotes instantaneous
friendship with North Americans. In either case, the idée fixe is to
deny the depredations Turkic people have inflicted upon Arabs,
Armenians, Assyrians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Kurds, Serbs…. The
multifaceted global campaign includes falsification through academia,
vanity press books, letter-writing campaigns, “student” rallies,
receptions at four-star hotels, and the funding of junkets for
politicians with flexible morals.

The University of Utah in Salt LakeCity (pop. 90,000) is the ground
zero of Turkbeijan “scholarly” propaganda. The tertiary campus,
away from the demanding academic standards of metropolitan
universities, has a misleadingly named “Middle East Centre”. Its board
includes Dr. Sukru Elekdag (former Turkish MP), Rifat Hisarciklioglu
(head of the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges),
and the notorious Genocide denier Norman Stone. There are no Arabs,
Iranians, Kurds or other Middle Eastern Muslims on the board.

The University of Utah Press has published—under the duplicitous title
of “Meaningful Middle East Books”—14 books featuring such scabrous
“historians” as Gunter Lewy, egregious Justin McCarthy, and half-a-dozen
Turkish “historians”, including M. Hakan Yavuz who has close ties to
Turkish government intelligence. The infamous Lewy’s opus calls the
Genocide “disputed genocide”. Hired-hand McCarthy pitches in with
“The Armenian Rebellion in Van” and “The Turk in America—The Creation
of an Enduring Prejudice”. Guess who is blamed for the negative image
of the Turks? The books, by Turks or computer-for-hire American
“scholars”, are unofficially commissioned by Ankara which buys most of
the output of the hick university and distributes it, gratis, to
politicians, diplomats, opinion leaders, and through new-fandangle
Turkish organizations.

One such group is the Anatolian Heritage Federation (AHF). It’s an
umbrella entity of Turkish and Azeri organizations. In Canada it hosts
public programs, private events, and sponsors “study” trips to Turkey
and Azerbaijan. In early April, it sent a dozen Canadian members of
parliament and a senator on two tours of Turkey and Azerbaijan. The
date is no accident. When the polls return, gorged on falsehood and
brainwashed with dubious facts, they will—presumably–deny the Genocide
later in the month.

Another tactic is to push for the acknowledgement of the Khojali battle
as genocide by Armenians. In their room-temperature IQs, they hope such
proclamations would neutralize the slaying of 1.5 million Armenians.

Yet another Turkic gimmick is to push for Anatolian Heritage Days in
Canada. What’s the reason for this recherché tribute? Because,
Turkbaijanis say, “the ancient region of Anatolia, which is also known
as ‘Asia Minor’, was the cradle of some of the greatest civilizations
of world history. These include those of the Hittites, Lydians,
Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Seljuks and Ottomans, among
others…” Armenians must be the “among others”.

There you are: after destroying Asia Minor indigenous civilizations and
killing millions of natives, Turks demand credit for being the
descendants of their victims. To paraphrase an Arabic saying: “After
killing the man, he joined the funeral cortege to honor his victim”.
Turks brazenly and risibly claim ownership of the civilizations they
buried and somehow “forget” the Asia Minor’s ur-people—the Armenians.
Also “Anatolia” has become a loaded word in Turkish parlance. Although
it’s an ancient Greek name for Asia Minor, Turkey studiously uses the
word to erase “Western Armenia” from maps and history. According to
pro-Turkish MP Bob Dechert (parliamentary assistant to Canada’s
foreign ministry), Anatolia includes Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, but not Armenia. This must be
news to mapmakers everywhere. The other mendacious Ankara
sleight-of-hand is the corruption of Anatolia’s etymology from its
Greek meaning (“Sunrise”) to the Turkish concoction Ana Dolou
(“Pregnant Mother”). Armenians are familiar with the ploy as Turks have
distorted the toponyms of countless Armenian place names—from Ararad
(“Agri Dagh”) to Sis (“Kozan”).

Through the financial support of the questionable Gulen
movement and the government, the AHF is constructing an $8-million
centre in Ottawa called Intercultural Dialogue Institute. It’s a
meaningless and sham name for an “institute” which will surely promote
Genocide denial.

Two years ago the AHF tried to proclaim March 23 as Anatolian Heritage
Day in Ontario. The bill failed to pass not because of Canadian-Armenian
lobby’s efforts, but because the premier prorogued (postponed) the
session. The Armenian lobby was dormant at the wheel when the Turks
sprung the heritage day stunt on Ontario’s parliament. It’s certain that
Turkbeijanis will revive the project.

The Canadian-Armenian lobby has been tardy and complacent in other ways.
Last year when the Turkish embassy managed to erect, with great
fanfare, its statue in Ottawa, there was no peep from the Armenian
lobby that the statue is anti-Armenian propaganda and has nothing to do
with honoring international diplomats, as the Turkish ambassador
alleged. After the statue was in place our lobby made no attempt to
obtain return concessions from the government.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s consul of Toronto lobbies at the Ontario
legislature, holding receptions for politicians and ethnic leaders,
organizes junkets to Turkey and utilizes the internal mail of the
legislature through Turcophile mercenary politicians. He distributes
pamphlets which deny the Genocide. Our lobby has not protested
against these shenanigans.

How does the Canadian-Armenian lobby combat Turkbeijan propaganda?
By pretending the grey wolf is not there. During the last federal
election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised to establish an Office
of Religious Freedoms. Two months ago the government launched the
promised office. About 300 religious and ethnic group representatives,
including Armenian, were invited to the opening. No Armenian
representative attended the event. Among other goals, the office is to
help the persecuted Christians of the Middle East. The Armenian lobby’s
no-show must be something new in politics: lobbying through
invisibility.

Meanwhile, the “Anatolians”, who have been courting the Liberal Party
for some time, seem to be changing horses as they might have concluded
the rival Conservatives will remain in power for a while. Thus, when
the AHF took seven MPs to Turkey and Azerbaijan on a “study tour”, six
were Conservatives. A second Canadian delegation, including
Pakistani-born Senator Salma Ataullahjan (Conservative), met Aliyev
and Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov. The trips were organized
by the Azeri embassy in Canada, the ruling New Azerbaijan Party
and the Azeri Parliament.

What ails our lobby in Canada is obvious. It’s fragmented, inchoate,
lackadaisical, and suffers from the absence of a full-time information
officer in Ottawa. From 2006 to 2009 we had a full-time officer. He was
effective. Now we have one person who is there two days a week.
PR is not a part-time enterprise. To bear fruit, it includes attendance
of after-hour receptions/dinners, bonding with politicians, civil
servants, and media representatives.

With the centenary of the Genocide around the corner, we can’t afford
half-hearted PR. The centenary is a sacred opportunity to tell our
story with resonance. We have to get serious about our lobbying in
Canada and elsewhere. Half-hearted PR efforts give our communities a
false sense that everything is under control… that is, until one
morning we wake up and learn that the Canadian Parliament has
recognized the Khojalu as genocide.