Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor:

Recently I read Yucel Guclu's scurrilous review of Grigoris Balakian's Armenian Golgotha in Mediterranean Quarterly (Fall 2009): 102-4. Since I reviewed the book very favorably for Genocide Studies and Prevention (April 2010): 121-3, I was shocked by the reviewer's dismissive tone of Balakian and dismayed by his lack of grounding in the history of the Armenian genocide. Although ordinarily I do not turn to ad hominem arguments to make scholarly points, in this case it is unavoidable. Mr. Guclu is a foreign officer at the Turkish Embassy, representing a government that has since 1923 denied the intended and systematic destruction of the Ottoman Armenian community in the period 1915 to 1918. His views are not those of a scholar but of an official denier of a major crime against humanity in the twentieth century.

Guclu does very little reviewing of Balakian's book. He fails to mention that during the deportations, Balakian spent weeks talking with Captain Shukri, the head of the gendarmes guarding his caravan, which was destined for destruction. He does not mention that Captain Shukri was quite open and even proud of his roles in the murder of the Armenian deportees. Guclu also does not refer to the fascinating episode in which Balakian escapes from the deportation and assumes various identities in order to survive. And he did survive, with the help of Armenian, Greek, and even Turkish people of good will.

Guclu uses the opportunity provided by the review to trot out old and worn Turkish government arguments that there may have been Armenian casualties but these were the result of ethnic tensions and wartime conditions. He avoids noting that if there were such tensions, the Turkish side was represented by a state that had military force to use against the Armenian minority, which it did with devastating effect.

Guclu shows his profound ignorance of the history of the Armenian genocide by citing primary sources including James Barton, Elizabeth Webb, and Aaron Aaron-sohn as supporting his case that Ottoman commanders tried to protect the Armenians; whereas quite to the contrary, Barton, Webb, and Aaronsohn were important witnesses to the Armenian genocide. Indeed, Barton's Turkish Atrocities: Statements of American Missionaries on the Destruction of Christian Communities in the Ottoman Empire, 1915-1917 is one of the major primary evidentiary documents concerning the Armenian genocide. The most famous American contribution is, of course, that of Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, whose Ambassador Morgenthau's Story validates, at the highest level of government, Balakian's testimony and the testimonies of other Armenian survivors.

In all, I regret to say that Guclu's is a precooked government hatchet job and not a scholarly review, and it should never have appeared in a premier journal like Mediterranean Quarterly.

Editor's note:
The reviewer of Armenian Golgotha by Grigoris Balakian, which appeared in the fall 2009 issue of Mediterranean Quarterly, was given an opportunity to respond to this letter but did not reply in time for publication. Mediterranean Quarterly reserves the right to publish Yucel Guclu's response at a later date.