KONUSAN TARIH 29FEB2006 2OF5

If you wish, we will discuss...
...what the Armenian Issue has become today.
We will go back to the past from today...
...investigate the historical background.
This won't be a simple matter like...
...You did it. No I didn't. This is a genocide. No it's not.
This will be a platform with all kinds of views being represented.
We will allow every opinion being discussed.
I will speak of the opposite opinions, too.
But of course I will defend the Turkish thesis.
Dear audience...
...the Armenian Issue was brought to Turkish public...
...depicted in a way that there already exists such a problem...
...only after the year 1973.
So Armenian Issue wasn't discussed in this country...
...until the year 1973.
And how did we get aware of the issue?
Let's talk about this, first.
As you must be seeing on the screen now...
...about the insights of the Armenian Issue...
...Turkish public and also the whole world...
...was shaken with this sudden incident in 1973.
In Los Angeles...
...on Jan 27, 1973, Saturday...
...in Biltmore Hotel in Santa Barbara...
...an Armenian murdered our two diplomats.
The murderer Gourgen Yanikian didn't attempt to run away....
...and this wasn't what he had in his mind..
On the contrary...
...he wanted to get caught for canvassing the issue.
And he did good enough.
Of course, he got arrested.
He was sentenced to life.
He was set free in 1983, after he did 10 years...
...and he died shortly after that.
And what was Yanikian's purpose?
He murdered our Consul General of Los Angeles Mehmet Baydar...
...and Consul, who also happens to be...
...my friend from the university, Bahadır Demir.
He invited the both diplomats to this hotel...
...claiming that he was an Iranian-Armenian...
...and he had some pictures and carpets which he was sure that...
...they belonged to Ottomans....
...and Turkey should be the one who should posses this cultural heritage...
...so he wanted to return them back to Turkey.
And he asked two authorized people to come to this hotel.
The diplomats did not suspect anything by no means.
And Yanikian murdered them both...
...right when they sat to the table.
He had a message to deliver the world with this incident.
There wasn't any signature seen under this murder, yet.
If you remember, we had a Cyprus problem back then...
...and people in Turkey thought this was probably a Greek job.
Even though the murderer said he was an Armenian...
...we approached the matter as if we never expected...
...such a thing from Armenians.
So we all believed this was a Greek job.
Later on, we understood that...
...we were against an Armenian issue which was rising constantly.
Two years past by, dear audience...
...and two years later...
...the world started to witness murders one after each other.
The victims were generally Turkish diplomats.
If the diplomats weren't reachable...
...then they were...
...reaching their children who were going to school.
And as you will see on the screen...
...for example, this is Ahmet Benler...
...he is the son of Netherland's consulate Özdemir Benler.
As you see in this incident, he was trapped...
...on his way to university...
...and murdered him.
These murders started to shake the whole world...
...in full speed after the year 1975.
We just couldn't how to protect our diplomats...
...and their wives and children...
...in which country or when.
And here comes the year 1983.
In the year 1983...
...these incidents which have been going on for 10 years...
...was brought to attention of Turkish public.
Daily Sabah was being built back then.
Daily Yeni Asır which was the most selling paper in the Aegean coast...
...had a contest every year on the name of Şevket Bilgin...
...the father of Dinç Bilgin.
The subject in 1983 was...
...International Terrorism and the Armenian Terror.
The existance of the Armenian terror in the world...
...was brought to attention of the world...
...by the media.
I entered this contest in that way you see.
There was a jury as you on the screen.
I made a research on this subject...
...in 4 or 5 months, using the archives of Foreign Ministry...
...and I won the contest.
And it was published for like 40 days...
...to present the issue for the Turkish people.
So I had started researching on this issue in 1983...
...in this depth.
And the fact that...
...my classmate Bahadır Demir was murdered...
...had am emotional role on my decision.
Later on, we had three more martyrs from our class.
Therefore...
...after the year 1975...
...the world got aware of the situation.
The second incident came two years later.
This time, our Vienna Ambassador Daniş Tunalıgil...
...was murdered.
It was October 22nd, 1975, Wednesday...
...in Vienna, Austria. And the murderer...
...was never found.
I circled in red all those not-found murderers...
...to help you focus on one thing.
A group called ASALA took the responsibility.
But the murderer was never found.
Only two days after that...
...this time on October 24th, in Paris...
...our Paris Ambassador İsmail Erez and his driver Talip Yener...
...were killed.