Abdulilah Firat:'Thousands of Armenians Converted to Islam'

[Vladimir]

'Thousands of Armenians Converted to Islam'

By Ahmet Dinc

Abdulilah Firat, grandson of Sheik Sait, asserted that thousands of Armenians converted to Islam and became Kurds during the Ottoman era.
More than 500 Armenian villages converted to Islam during his great-grandfather’s lifetime alone, Firat stated and in doing so, instigated a new debate.

Speaking to Zaman, the former Erzurum deputy recalled that those who had converted remained ambivalent during the 1915 incidents. Firat asserted that they chose neither side, but tried hard to prevent the events.

He further claimed that their offspring supported the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), when the separatist Kurdish movement gained momentum. Reacting to Hrant Dink’s remarks implying that the genocide was actually committed by the Kurds, Firat said Armenians first attacked Muslims.
European countries and Russia have been provoking Armenians since the eighteenth century, Firat said. “We only protected our lives and honor. The homeland of Armenians is Palestine. They were exiled by the Byzantines to Anatolia. Kurds called the Armenians ‘Fille’ in a special reference to Palestine. Those ‘Filles’ were sent back to their homeland during deportation. The number of Armenians who died during the armed conflict is not more than a few thousand.”

Firat further noted that Armenians and Turks lived in urban residential areas, while Kurds inhabited rural areas. He asserted that when Armenians began slaughtering Turks, the Kurds sent armed forces to the urban areas in an effort to protect their Muslim brethren. Because they had lived together in urban areas, Armenians mostly killed Turks rather than Kurds, he said.

Stressing that the incidents were triggered by the Armenians, Firat also stated that Hamidiye units were founded for the purpose of protecting Muslims from the Armenians.

His grandfather, Sheik Sait, was an influential figure, Firat said, and claimed that Sait urged Armenian leaders at the time not to give in to Western provocations and attack the Muslims.

Firat regretfully noted that Sheik Sait’s efforts were not fruitful and Armenians initiated a large scale campaign of massacre and slaughter, and that the Ottoman administration armed Kurds as the European countries armed Armenian guerrillas.

Firat also added that the majority of Armenian casualties were caused by famine and illnesses during deportation, and not by direct armed conflict.
Those who Armed Armenians Also Claim Genocide

Firat claimed that Armenians possess an inherent feeling of resentment against Kurds. According to Firat, this feeling was first created by Western countries, which offered the Kurds to a chance separate from the Ottoman state and form an independent country to be inhabited by both Kurds and Armenians.

Asserting that Europe has continued this conspiracy, Firat concluded that those who had provoked and armed the Armenians in the past are now in a similar fashion attacking Turkey with the genocide laws.

[Gudea]

[zurderer]

Most probably this is true, but I dont see any benefit to mention this now


now some fasist will say infact half of the kurds are armenians, and will try to enhance hate against kurds.

I am realy curious about his motivation about this words

[Vladimir]

Is "Abdulmelik Firat " a different person? I heard he is going to stop with politics.

[zurderer]

I dont think we have a second Abdulmelik Fırat who is grandson of sheik said.

By the way, dont you find It is ironic, kurds like sheik said or said nursi were, are respected turks much.

[Vladimir]

Said Sait is not respected by Turks. Maybe his grandson is, because he is anti-PKK.

Said Nursi is seen as a Turk by the Nurcu movement. They don't even talk about his "Kurdish deeds" and his involvement in an Kurdish organisation.

[zurderer]

everyone.(Religious people.) who respect said nursi also respect seyh sait.

But of course respecting seyh sait is more dangereous than said nursi. After all officially he is traitor.

Said Nursi is seen as a Turk by the Nurcu movement. They don't even talk about his "Kurdish deeds" and his involvement in an Kurdish organisation.

First one is wrong, his kurdishness is known by people.(You cannot hide someone ethnicity, If he is so famous.)

I agree, his kurdish deeds did not take much interest.(did he supported kurdish nationalism? I think not.)

also should mention zaman is only somehow(not much.) kurdish-friendly turkish newspaper.

[Vladimir]

I think The New Anatolian and Turkish Daily News is more friendlier. Or CNN-TUrk and NTV are objective. Zaman is so Islamic and often reports negatively about Kurds in Kuzey Iraq (South-Kurdistan). I also know Kurds reading Zaman and voting AKP. They are from the border regions between Turks/Kurds (Malatya, Elaziz, etc).

And you say: You can not hide his identity. Recently I spoke with a Nurcu follower and he said that Nurci is Turkish. I said isn't he Kurkish? He said you don't understand me: Kurds are Turks too! Fethallah Gulen also promotes Turkish nationalism as a ex-Nurci. He don't speak about Nurci's Kurdish identity right? But it's true that everybody knows he is Kurdish.

Btw, I would like to see some more info about Turks respecting Said Nursi lol.

[Raxumahn]

This article looks like typical Turkish propaganda crap.

There were indeed Armenians that converted to Islam in Ottoman times, yet these Armenian Muslim populations preserved their Armenian identity and language. And even the Muslim Armenians that lost their language and began to speak Turkish are still (somewhat) recognizable as Armenians.

According to the sources I found, about half of the Hamsheni Armenians are Muslims, and most of them still live in Turkey.
According to one source, there are about 300,000 of them, over half of them still in Turkey.

And most of these Hamsheni Muslim Armenians lived in rural area's,
and this is propably also why they retained their culture and language.

Armenians tend to stick to their culture and identity even if they convert to Islam, so claiming that half the Kurds in Turkey are actually Kurdified Armenians is indeed propably an attempt to bring up hate againest the Kurds, just like Zurderer said.

(another interesting thing; many of these Armenian Muslim communities claim to have suffered from the Armenian Genocide as well...)

Besides, this article is making some horrible historical mistakes (as Turkish propaganda crap usually does...) such as that claim that Armenians would originally come from Palestine!

I mean, that just pretty much contradicts just about the whole actual history of the Middle East, and there definitely were Armenians in the southern Caucasus long before the Roman Empire even existed, just look at this article for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Armenia

PS: even the map of Gudea posted in this thread ( http://northerniraq.info/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1888 ) shows Armenia in the southern Caucasus/eastern Anatolia...

[Vladimir]

Yes.. his words are a bit strange. I wonder if he really said this.

[Diri]

This is MIT's work... He must either have been tortured or simply: this is bullshit...

[Vladimir]

No, it's Zaman's work. Firat have said more strange things. So I am not suprised.

[Diri]

No, it's Zaman's work. Firat have said more strange things. So I am not suprised.

I would be a bit more critical...

In this article - the following can be concluded:

1) Armenians started the "war" (which by 99% of the world is known as "The Armenian Genocide")

2) The Kurds stood up to defend themselves from Armenian attacks..

3) Armenians mostly attacked Turks - because they used to have good relations with Kurds...

4) Kurds slaughtered the Armenians... In defence of course...

So the article makes the Turks look like poor victims - while there was no Armenian Genocide and the Kurds killed and murdered and raped whomever that was killed...

Great article...

[zurderer]

According to the sources I found, about half of the Hamsheni Armenians are Muslims, and most of them still live in Turkey.
According to one source, there are about 300,000 of them, over half of them still in Turkey.

Hemshani armenians were fleed from russians, they have no relation with armenians who lived at eastern Turkey.

Infact If these armenians were turkified, now where are there? Absolutely not eastern Turkey.

Besides, this article is making some horrible historical mistakes (as Turkish propaganda crap usually does...) such as that claim that Armenians would originally come from Palestine!

It is fırat stupidness.

I think The New Anatolian and Turkish Daily News is more friendlier.

isnt new anatolian a kurdish newspaper?

Zaman is so Islamic and often reports negatively about Kurds in Kuzey Iraq (South-Kurdistan). I also know Kurds reading Zaman and voting AKP. They are from the border regions between Turks/Kurds (Malatya, Elaziz, etc).

I agree, they talk bad about iraqian kurds(who is not talking bad about iraqian kurds.), but they dont talk bad about Turkey Kurds.

If I am not wrong, AKP does get fine votes from kurdish areas too.

am I wrong or van, agrı and some kurdish cities have akp deputies.

He said you don't understand me: Kurds are Turks too!

That is not anyone guilt, but this guy. If I am not wrong, they didnot call kurds as turk

Fethallah Gulen also promotes Turkish nationalism as a ex-Nurci. He don't speak about Nurci's Kurdish identity right?

He dont speak about his turkish identity too, why do you think he should talk about Said Nursi kurdish identity?

But I agree, he have some mild type of Turkish nationalism, but dont you think his turkish nationalism is not more than your kurdish nationalism?

[Vladimir]

http://www.collectifvan.org/article.php?r=4&id=5174

This is also an interesting article on Zaman.