Turks have founded great states in diverse geographical areas of the world and created great civilizations since they appeared on the stage of history in very primitive times. Beside their political and military achievements and their warrior and reconstructor identity, Turks are remarkable in that they approach the residents on the lands under their rule with tolerance.

Armenians - who had been exiled from a place in Anatolia into another, forced to fight, and often treated as the third class citizens by Romans, Persians and Byzantines – were, however, able to breathe freely and become a part of a peaceful life due to the form of government stemming from the Turks’ fair, humanistic, tolerant and integrative mentality and belief. Armenians were present in the period between the 11th and the 14th centuries under the rule of Seljuk Turks with their mentality of respect for leading a humane life- a mentality which also continued after the Ottoman rule which replaced the Seljuks afterwards.

During the reign of Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror in the 15th century, they were granted the freedom of thought and faith at the maximum level; and the Armenian Patriarchate was established so as to manage the religious and social activities of the Armenian community. The period beginning with the above mention date and extending through the end of the 19th century- the era when they lived with Turks- was recorded in history as the “Golden Age of Armenians”.

The circumstance came to an end with the riots of Armenians – who had been faithful to the state and had no problems with the nation, and therefore had been considered as the “loyal community” – under the inducement of some of the Western countries.

Armenians, trying to split the country where they had been living in wealth, supported the Russian army in the eastern Anatolia, and the French and English armies in the south of Anatolia who occupied the country in the First World War. They ignited new riots in various places of Anatolia, mainly in Zeytun and Musa Mountains, and launched attacks on the convoys carrying ammunition and food to the battlefronts. In order to prevent the activities likely to give harm to the army, the Ottoman government decided to evacuate the Armenians living in the area of riots, mainly in Van, Muş, Bitlis, Çatak and Erzurum. Yet, the Armenians living in Istanbul, Edirne, Kastamonu, Izmir and Antalya were excluded from the decision. Accordingly, plans were made to ensure that the Armenians migrate to Mosul in Iraq. The decision was connected with removing out of the battlefield the Armenians living only in the regions marking the safety line for the Caucasian, Iran and Sina fronts. The aim was not to destroy them, but to maintain state security and to protect the community.

It is evident from documents that the Turkish government sent money to the cities in order to meet the Armenians’ needs during their journey, bakeries were opened to meet their nutrition needs, foreign charity organisations were permitted to help them, and the Ottoman forces were commanded to protect those Armenians against probable attacks in this period- when the war had made itself felt the most severely.

Unfortunately, the casualties occurred in consequence of the attacks that those Armenians, - who created uproars and started riots in the years of war -encountered during their journey to Mosul region in 1915 were exaggerated by governments and groups acting in a biased way, and were stated in a manner unconnected with the truth and according to their political purposes. Despite the claims that there were 1 million casualties, the documents clearly exhibited that the number was approximately 50.000 in reality. While the deaths were caused by epidemic illnesses and hunger, the majority of the losses were experienced due to the Ottoman-Russian war by the Armenians escaping into the Russian side; and besides, the archive records showed that about 2 million Muslims also lost their lives in similar incidents.

The real sufferers of the First World War were the Turks, who had been massacred by Armenians. The Armenian gangs who organised attacks on Turkish troops at the very beginning of the declaration of mobilisation harmed seriously to the civilians by conducting raids on Turkish villages. The number of Turks murdered during the Armenian riots and massacre was 523.955 according to the documents. The number climbs up to 1 million with those incidents in which the date of action was definite but the numbers were not determined for certain.

Armenians, who had been known as the citizens faithful to the Turkish government, massacred 6.000 Muslim Turks in Van, Bitlis, Muş, and Çatak beginning with the date 7 April 1915, when a struggle of life or death was being made in Çanakkale in the First World War. This fact is recorded in French archives.

80.000 Muslims escaped from Van, and the remaining 20.000 were slain, another fact written in Russian archives.

Unimaginable tortures and rapes were experienced. That approximately 2500 Turks who escaped from 7 villages nearby and took shelter in Zeve were murdered ruthlessly without taking gender or age into consideration was just one of such bitter actions experienced in the region. And the deep waters of Lake Van still veils the tears of 50 girls who had committed suicide by jumping into the water to escape from rape and to protect their purity while they were taken to Akdamar Church on boats forcibly by Armenian gangs...

While the Russian forces were retreating from the region in 1918, Kars- just like many other centres- also suffered from the attacks of Armenian gangs. In the Küçük Çatma village of the Arpaçay district of Kars, 183 Turks massacred by the Armenian gangs belonging to the Dasnaksutyun organisation were buried in a mass grave. Another mass grave found near Ani Ruins on the Turkish-Russian border in about 28 km east of Kars is also evidence of the genocide carried out by Armenians. Witnesses’ statements and archive documents made it clear that more than 350 bodies were buried in three separate graves found here.

No place was available in eastern and south-eastern Anatolia during and after the First World War which was not exposed to Armenian terror. The mosques, bakeries, markets, mansions, houses set on fire with full of people inside, and the water wells in Bayburt, Erzurum, Kars, Ardahan, Iğdır, Adana, and Kozan were the witnesses of historical facts and sufferings still carrying the traces of inhuman attacks, savageness, cruelty, tortures and rapes.

Through the victories won under the leadership of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk after all these bitter happenings, Turkish nation founded the Turkish Republic, and preserved its existence. The imperialist countries having plans on Turkish homeland and having failed to attain their targets, on the other hand, have kept feeding and supporting the Armenian terror via “Asala terrorist organisation” up to recent times. In terrorist activities carried out by ASALA (Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia) in the period between 1973-1985, totally 42 Turkish diplomats lost their lives.

Another instance of slaughter committed by Armenians with the aim of exterminating the Turks was encountered in Karabagh Hocalı (Khojali), Azerbaaijani land, in 1992 on the night of February 25. Armenians repeated what they had done in Anatolia at the beginning of the 20th century again at the end of the century in Karabagh. Again Armenians receiving the Russian support attacked the defenceless people ruthlessly on the lands abandoned by the Russians. Khojali Massacre, or rather “genocide in Khojali”, was the time when words failed for the Turkish World...From the genocide in Khojali to the present, 22 years passed by... No longer Turks live in mountainous Karabagh, where the dehumanised ones destroyed humanity... what remains behind is the families destroyed by the massacre, more than one million Azerbaijani Turks who deserted their homelands and became refugees by suffering from pains, separations and yearnings...