Honourable Prime Minister, Senators and Members of Parliament,

We write to you to express our concerns at the recent declaration by the American President regarding the events of 1915. Our concerns are echoed by His Holiness, Patriarct Mashalyan, the Armenian Archbishop. As the most venerable member of the Armenian community, His Holiness has rejected to label the unfortunate events as “genocide”. In his widely telecasted message, he urged the global community to stop providing a platform to the divisive narrative and he reaffirmed that Armenians and Turks have coexisted in peace.

The events that took place in the Eastern Ottoman territory of Anatolia during and around 1915 have been completely distorted and only show the plight of one side. Below is a list of well-documented facts from credible sources that shed light on the objective facts highlighting the suffering of both sides: 

- The final years of the Ottoman Empire constituted a tragic period for the people that made up the Empire. 

Turks, Armenians and many others suffered immensely. We do not deny the sufferings. 

However, presenting the tragic events of 1915 as a “genocide” perpetrated by one side against the other is nothing but a distortion of the history. More than 2 million people in Anatolia, comprised of Armenians, Turks, Kurds, Jews and various other ethnic Muslim groups perished as a result of the conflict. 

The overwhelming majority who died were in fact non-Armenian Muslims.

·    Between 1893 and 1915, groups of Ottoman Armenians in Eastern Anatolia rebelled against a weakened Ottoman state by creating two-armed terrorist factions backed by expansionist Russia. One of these groups was called the Dashnaks and the other the Hunchaks.  

Both these Terrorist groups incited violence by murdering over a million ethnic Muslims with the intent to ethnically cleanse the region and create a rogue Armenian state

-The Armenian claims regarding the tragic events in 1915 are not based on any historical evidence or a decision by a competent international court and reflect a completely one-sided presentation of historical events.

“Genocide” is a very narrow legal concept and denotes a clearly defined crime, which is required to be proven. 

In order to incriminate a person with the crime of genocide, a competent court must ascertain that the crime has been committed exactly as defined in the 1948 Genocide Convention. There is no judgment in which a competent court has made such an assessment regarding the 1915 events to date.

The decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, as well as the decisions of the French Constitutional Council have clearly confirmed the controversial nature of the events of 1915.

On the other hand, there is no consensus among historians regarding the allegations by the Armenian diaspora.

Turkey as of recent has called on Armenia over a dozen times to open the archives of 1915 and establish a joint history commission to investigate the events. 

Even though Armenia has never responded to this proposal it is still on the table. Until recently, over 30 Turkish diplomats were murdered in cold blood by Armenian Terrorist groups. Although many more ethnic Muslims and Turkish civilians died at the hands of Armenian terror campaigns, it is extremely disappointing to see Canada being misled into supporting the false narrative of the Armenian factions while turning a blind eye to the many more ethnic Muslims and Turks who perished as well.

By choosing to remain silent on the atrocities carried out against ethnic Muslims and Turkish civilians, 

Canada has espoused a facile and equivocal faith in history against evidence and reason. 

As concerned citizens, we do not want Canada to be on the wrong side of the history and call for appropriate action in this regard. Canada’s actions as a global leader must reflect its values of honesty, fairness, and equity.

Your willingness to act now will demonstrate your support for the Canadian Turkish community and the vital first step towards a peaceful resolution of any differences among Canadians, particularly of Turkish and Armenian origins.

Thank you for your commitment.

We look forward to receiving a response from you.