Congressman Reynolds: Will Rock For Cash

TTK President Halaçoğlu responds to Sarafian's claims
President of the Turkish Historical Society (TTK) Yusuf Halaçoğlu said Armenian historian Ara Sarafian was disturbed by the institute's initiative to study the archives of Tashnak, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation political party founded during the Ottoman Empire that now operates throughout the Armenian diaspora.

In a television program he participated in, Halaçoğlu said that they would have to investigate all archives including the Tashnak archives. "Between 1989 and 1992 I was in charge of those archives. I categorized them. Obviously I know which documents are included in the files. As Sarafian claims, there aren't documents about each village and each neighborhood. There are collective documents. There are documents about how many Armenians were transferred from Elazığ, where they went, and how long they stayed," Halaçoğlu said.

"If they are not in the Ottoman archives, they might be in the patriarchate archives. Let's study them. Why are they hesitant to open those archives?" Halaçoğlu asked. "There is someone that does a lot of research there. He would know if such information could be found in them. I said I didn't know of such a list. Surely, if there is, then we can research it together. But why is he backing away? Why is he giving up the study because of what I said without even doing any research?"

The TTK president claimed that Sarafian is interested in finding a list of Armenians living in the region because he wants to file for property rights. Halaçoğlu, who is not authorized to limit access to archives, said "I am a researcher, I am not on the archives administrative board."

Recalling that Sarafian had launched a study in 1991 when Halaçoğlu was the president of the Ottoman archives, Halaçoğlu said he gave 3,000 photocopies to the Armenian historian.

"Doesn't Sarafian know what happened in the region? He does. He is just trying to do demagoguery. What I said was very clear. I said our research should not include only the Ottoman archives but every other archive as well. I think our desire to research the Armenian and Tashnak archives made them hesitant because in those archives there are documents detailing what they did in Tashnak. For example, the names of countries they cooperated with and bought weapons from, which operation they launched and the names of people they killed."

Halaçoğlu said Sarafian was trying to create a commotion instead of cooperating with them. "Their cooperative stance seems like a response to our recent attempts to conduct research," Halaçoğlu said. "This is a serious institute. We invite everyone to be serious. I don't want to start a job by getting into polemics. If he really wants to do research or wants to resolve this problem then he can apply directly to us. We can decide the format of the research and plan out a strategy."

Recalling that Sarafyan believes 12,000 Armenians were killed in the region, Halaçoğlu said that he welcomed any serious research to be conducted regarding the issue.

These polititians must not be making a whole lot ao dough, if they are desperate enough to sell tickets at a fundraiser to gain their own funds. Atleast we noe know were the money must be going when there is a political head figure behind the local car washes and lemonade stands.