Purge of Ottoman archives can be used against Ankara, expert says

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish media may use WikiLeaks cables, suggesting “purge” of Genocide-related incriminating documents from the Ottoman Archives, to counterpoise Ankara’s statements of opening its archives as opposed to Armenia, a Turkologist said.

As Anush Hovhannisyan told a news conference in Yerevan, Armenia repeatedly announced the Genocide-related archives to be open for examination.

The expert expressed confidence for WikiLeaks reports to silence Turkish authorities who insist on examining Turkish archives to prove the fact of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, which is indisputable, in view of extensive body of evidence.

As Ms. Hovhannisyan concluded, purge of Ottoman Archives has been a known fact even before the whistle blowing website’s publications.

A Turkish Professor told U.S. Consul General in Istanbul that there were efforts to “purge” the Ottoman Archives of incriminating documents on the Armenian Genocide, according to a cable recently released by the whistleblower site WikiLeaks.

In a cable dated July 12, 2004, Sabanci University professor Halil Berktay told then U.S. Consul General to Istanbul David Arnett that “there were two serious efforts to “purge” the archives of any incriminating documents on the Armenian question.”