Correspondent: The Betrayed Tx Date: 26th January 2003 This script was made from audio tape - any inaccuracies are due to voices being unclear or inaudible 00.00.00 Correspondent Theme Music 00.00.10 Music 00.00.15 Fergal Keane They were victims of one of the worst crimes of our age. 00.00.19 Rahan Kachian Some of them people went run to the church. But they burn the church and the people in it. 00.00.25 Music 00.00.28 Aram I The genocide, it's not a sad event belonging to our history; it's part of our daily life. 00.00.38 Music 00.00.42 Fergal Keane The tragedy happened in what is now Turkey - but to this day Turkey goes to great lengths to deny there was a genocide. 00.00.51 Ambassador Solmaz Unaydin There has not been a genocide and if people for political motivations want to use it, they can go ahead and use it but they take the risk of, of course influencing their relations with Turkey 00.01.06 Fergal Keane This is the story of what happened when the most powerful nation on earth was on the verge of recognising the Armenian genocide. 00.01.13 Music 00.01.16 Fergal Keane It is a story of massacre and betrayal. 00.01.19 Music 00.01.21 Graphic "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" ADOLF HITLER 1939 00.01.29 Title Page THE BETRAYED 00.01.40 Music 00.01.41 Fergal Keane From the beginning America was the Armenians land of hope. Driven from their ancient homeland they found shelter here. 00.01.49 Music 00.01.52 Fergal Keane Rahan Kachian was a young girl when she arrived in New York. 00.01.55 Music 00.01.57 Fergal Keane She'd witnessed the destruction of her family by Turkish troops. 00.02.00 Music 00.02.03 Rahan Kachian In Turkey we afraid for our lives because you never know second minute they gonna kill you or they're gonna take you. But when I came to United States everybody they don't afraid to walk in the street. 00.02.22 Music 00.02.27 Fergal Keane The Armenians who reached Ellis Island were the lucky few. They built a new community from the remnants of shattered villages. 00.02.36 Rahan Kachian This is all my family. 00.02.39 Rahan Kachian We were only small village, maybe fifty families, but each family maybe had twenty-five members because they all live together. The brothers and the father and the children, they all live together. And we had a school and we had a church. 00.02.59 Music 00.03.04 Fergal Keane Down the generations, survivor's stories are passed on. 00.03.07 Music 00.03.12 Fergal Keane It is their weapon against forgetting and denial. 00.03.15 Rahan Kachian Michael, this is my room, when I came I slept on top of the, there. 00.03.21 Michael So you slept on top of the, on the top there. 00.03.25 Rahan Kachian Yeah. I slept for one night. 00.03.29 Michael The beds were like this? 00.03.30 Rahan Kachian Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00.03.36 Aston RAHAN KACHIAN Survivor I remember, even I was so young but I remember it...I imagine my house and I see they were all surrounded with Kurdish men and Turkish soldiers and they all rush in the house in the village. They took everything what they could carry, everything and animals and whatever it was in the house and some houses they burnt and some people they run to the church, they burn the church. 00.04.16 Music 00.04.18 Fergal Keane The Armenians were a threatened minority in Ottoman Turkey. 00.04.21 Music 00.04.22 Fergal Keane They were prosperous, Christians with a distinct and separate culture. They'd experienced massacre before but nothing like what would happen in 1915. 00.04.32 Music 00.04.41 Rahan Kachian My family was all massacred. 00.04.43 Music 00.04.46 Rahan Kachian After they finished they all killed them and put them in a mass grave. And whoever was left, the children and animals... we run away and my father was home that time, he run to the woods. Army soldiers they went after him and they killed him and they cut his own head off. Oh we cried, we cried, what can we do? We, we took the head and we cried. And with our hands we dig the ground, we buried him. 00.05.45 Music 00.05.54 Fergal Keane But travel to the land from which the Armenians were driven and you hear a different history. For the Turks, no less than the Armenians, are haunted by the past. 00.06.04 Music 00.06.11 Fergal Keane Turkey defends the Ottoman rulers accused of genocide as if they were still alive. 00.06.20 Aston Dr YUSUF HALAÇOGLU President, Turkish Historical Society Voice over A nation can only be hurt by being accused of something it hasn't done and its children and grandchildren will be psychologically affected. There is no point in acknowledging something that didn't happen. 00.06.34 Music 00.06.40 Fergal Keane To use the word genocide about the events of eighty- five years ago is to be accused of damning an entire nation. 00.06.48 Aston TAYYIBE GÜLEK Turkish MP, April 1999-Nov 2002 Accusing a people of a genocide, of wanting to eradicate a whole group of people because of who they are and these are people that we've lived together for hundreds of years is absolutely incorrect, inaccurate and we feel very insulted. 00.07.01 Music 00.07.04 Fergal Keane Almost everywhere I went in Turkey the refrain of official denial was the same. 00.07.09 Music 00.07.13 Aston Ambassador SOLMAZ UNAYDIN Turkish Diplomat This so called genocide is certainly unfounded, has no factual basis and there is certainly not enough evidence and case for those who are promoting it. 00.07.38 Music 00.07.40 Fergal Keane There is in this battle for truth a vital American connection; a man revered by Armenians, a Jewish New Yorker. 00.07.49 Music 00.07.52 Fergal Keane The American ambassador here in Istanbul, Henry Morgenthau, gathered together evidence of massacre and rape and passed it on to the State Department in Washington. 00.08.01 Aston FERGAL KEANE He was basing his reports on evidence being sent in from missionaries around the country. Here's just one example of the kind of thing he was being told: 00.08.09 Fergal Keane 'There appears, in short, to be a steady policy to exterminate these people but to deny the charge of massacre. Their destruction from so-called 'natural causes' seems decided on.' 00.08.23 Music 00.08.27 Fergal Keane The militant nationalists who ruled Turkey in 1915 had long regarded the Armenians as a treacherous minority. It was the entry of Turkey into World War I, which created the conditions in which they could be removed. 00.08.43 Fergal Keane Thriving Armenian communities would vanish from the face of the earth. 00.08.51 Fergal Keane Neither women nor children would be spared. 00.08.55 Fergal Keane Some Armenian nationalists had sided with the invading Russians - an entire people were declared enemies. 00.09.04 Voice over reading Henry Morgenthau extract Whatever crimes the most perverted instincts of the human mind can devise and whatever refinements of persecution and injustice the most debased imagination can conceive became the daily misfortunes of this devoted people. I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. 00.09.26 Music 00.09.32 Fergal Keane But Henry Morgenthau wasn't alone. Even some who were Turkey's allies were horrified. 00.09.40 Fergal Keane One young German risked execution to compile a photographic record of what he was witnessing. 00.09.45 Music 00.09.50 Fergal Keane Armin Wegner was a medical officer in the German army. 00.09.54 Fergal Keane He wrote: 'I was seized by terror, overcome by dizziness as if the earth were collapsing on both sides of me into an abyss'. 00.10.04 Music 00.10.13 Fergal Keane One of the few Turkish historians to challenge the official view, says the state used starvation as well as execution to kill the Armenians. 00.10.24 Aston Professor HALIL BERKTAY Sabançi University The Armenians were rounded up, organised into to convoys, men, women, children, old men, old women and began to be deported in huge convoys under conditions of horrible squalor and oppression. 00.10.43 Music 00.10.49 Professor Halil Berktay On the way they began to be attacked, not just by spontaneously operating bandits but by death squads and vengeful vindictive tribes organised by the unionists special organisation. 00.11.06 Fergal Keane In other words the government's agents. 00.11.08 Professor Halil Berktay The government's agents. 00.11.12 Fergal Keane For the first time in the twentieth century cattle trucks would be used to carry people to desolation. 00.11.18 Music 00.11.28 Voice over reading Henry Morgenthau extract The real purpose of the deportation was robbery and destruction. It really represented a new method of massacre. When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race. They understood this well and in their conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact. 00.11.55 Fergal Keane Turkey says none of this proves there was any intention to destroy the Armenians. 00.12.06 Aston Dr YUSUF HALAÇOGLU President, Turkish Historical Society Voice over You may think it was genocide but that doesn't change the historical facts. Genocide is a legal term and its definition has many requirements to classify an act as genocide. First of all, if your intention was to exterminate a nation, no matter whether you killed hundreds or just a single person, your action would be considered genocide. But the Ottoman state never had such an intention. 00.12.38 Fergal Keane Turkey points to its archives as proof that there's no written evidence of genocide. 00.12.46 Fergal Keane No piece of paper, which says; 'kill the Armenians'. 00.12.52 Fergal Keane But amid the millions of files in the Ottoman archives lies a remarkable document. 00.13.00 Fergal Keane Agreed by the cabinet in late Spring 1915, it is a piece of paper ordering the deportation of the Armenian population. 00.13.10 Fergal Keane Men, women and children were designated a threat to state security. 00.13.15 Music 00.13.22 Archivist Voice over This is not a decision by a single individual or a group, it's an order made by the state. It says here that this decision has been taken to protect the army during the war from being stabbed in the back. 00.13.39 Fergal Keane Can I just ask you as a Turkish person who also is a historian how you feel looking at this document now? 00.13.48 Archivist Voice over I am an archivist, for me all documents are the same; it's for the historians to assess them. I'm not very much interested in what the historians say but there is such an order that was issued and implemented during the war. 00.14.08 Music 00.14.23 Fergal Keane In Turkey I travelled in search of a vanished people. I'd heard the official history but now I was travelling to the places where Armenians had once formed vibrant communities. 00.14.33 Music 00.14.40 Fergal Keane This is the area near Van in Eastern Turkey, which was at the heart of Armenian life. 00.14.44 Music 00.14.51 Fergal Keane Armenian families once crossed this lake to attend mass at one of the most sacred Christian sites in the middle east. 00.14.58 Music 00.15.03 Fergal Keane Here on Akhtmar Island evidence of a rich Armenian heritage. 00.15.08 Music 00.15.10 Fergal Keane An Armenian king built the first church here in the tenth century. 00.15.13 Music 00.15.22 Fergal Keane The Church of the Holy Cross is a cultural treasure. 00.15.26 Music 00.15.33 Fergal Keane Yet the church interior has been allowed to lapse into ruin. 00.15.37 Music 00.15.42 Fergal Keane And so time and the weather do their work. 00.15.45 Music 00.15.49 Fergal Keane There hasn't been an Armenian mass here since the First World War yet this church is the most tangible reminder of an Armenian presence in this area stretching back two millennia. The Turkish government has allowed the church to fall into ruin. It's perhaps too uncomfortable a reminder of a vanished people. 00.16.08 Music 00.16.14 Fergal Keane We met some Turkish sightseers - a young couple from nearby Van. They were citizens of a modern secular republic. I wondered what they'd been taught about the past. 00.16.28 Fergal Keane Do you know what happened to the Armenians in this area? 00.16.32 Man What happened? 00.16.33 Fergal Keane Yes. 00.16.38 Man When they were here we and they like a brother or like a sister, friendship together. But I don't know what happened, they went their countries and we stayed here. 00.17.03 Music 00.17.07 Fergal Keane This area is full of villages once occupied by Armenians. 00.17.11 Music 00.17.13 Fergal Keane Today the population is largely Kurdish. 00.17.16 Music 00.17.19 Fergal Keane From 1915 onwards as the Armenians were driven out, their homes were taken over by Kurds. 00.17.24 Music 00.17.27 Fergal Keane I wanted to know what history the people of these villages have been taught - at school, by their parents. 00.17.32 Music 00.17.38 Fergal Keane In this village how was the deportation of the Armenians explained? 00.17.46 Fergal Keane So when you were growing up in this village did you hear from your forefathers, did you learn at school, about how the Armenians were massacred? Did you learn any of this? 00.18.00 Man Voice over We never heard anything like that. Our fathers say there were no massacres against the Armenians. But we do hear about massacres now. 00.18.14 Man Voice over We never heard anything bad about the Armenians at school. We were told they were advanced technologically and in human rights and things like that. They were a civilised people. I went to school for eleven years and never heard anything bad about Armenians. Turkey doesn't complain about the Armenians. 00.18.37 Music 00.18.43 Fergal Keane If I was going to get any sense of what had happened I would have to speak to one of the older people. 00.18.48 Music 00.18.52 Fergal Keane Hello, how are you? We'd like to ask you if you remember anything about the Armenians who used to live here? Did you learn anything about them? 00.19.02 Old man Voice over When we arrived here the Armenians were leaving. I was young then like these children. They were leaving when we arrived and we settled here. 00.19.16 Fergal Keane What did your parents tell you about what happened to the Armenians? 00.19.21 Old man Voice over They killed many of us and we killed many of them. My grandfather and father used to talk about it. Then they left. 00.19.30 Fergal Keane People speak nowadays of a great slaughter of the Armenians; that the Turks tried to slaughter them. What do you remember of that time? Is that true, was there a great slaughter? 00.19.45 Old man Voice over I don't know about that. We came from Russia fighting on the way. We came here and they left. It was war. 00.19.59 Music 00.20.06 Fergal Keane Here in the east, bands of Armenian rebels joined the invading Russian forces. 00.20.12 Fergal Keane They attacked Turkish civilians and committed atrocities. 00.20.15 Music 00.20.20 Fergal Keane When the Ottomans recaptured Van the entire Armenian population was targeted. They only had themselves to blame, one Ottoman leader said. 00.20.34 Aston Professor HALIL BERKTAY Sabançi University There has sprung up this enormous gap between what the world knows and what the Turkish public generally knows about the Armenian question and the events of 1915. For decades and decades nothing has been said internally. I think that by being very defensive and protective about 1915 the modern republic is actually under, you know, undermining its own claims and credentials of authenticity and differentness. 00.21.06 Aston TAYYIBE GÜLEK Turkish MP, April 1999-Nov 2002 People feel very strongly of being accused of such a huge humanitarian crime that we do not feel we committed, we did not commit and I think there's something to be said for raising future generations in a peaceful way and try to co-operate with neighbours and looking forward rather than digging up difficult memories where we also lost a lot of family. 00.21.28 Music 00.21.33 Fergal Keane In all of this it is the witness of those who endured that challenges denial. 00.21.37 Music 00.21.40 Fergal Keane In Beirut there is a community founded by survivors. 00.21.46 Fergal Keane Their forefathers were victims of the death transports. 00.21.49 Music 00.21.54 Fergal Keane The Armenians of Lebanon want the world to recognise the genocide. 00.21.57 Music 00.22.03 Fergal Keane And there are still voices here who can speak of what happened on that terrible journey into the desert. 00.22.10 Fergal Keane Bedros Gezoulian is a ninety-six year old survivor of the slaughter. 00.22.15 Fergal Keane He still speaks in Turkish; the language of the country he was banished from as a boy. 00.22.27 Bedros Gezoulian Voice over Our family was a large family; very large. There were about seventy people in my family, only seven or eight survived. Sixty-one of our family were killed during deportation. 00.22.51 Aston BEDROS GEZOULIAN Survivor Voice over As for my mother she cried all the time and died crying. She already knew about my sister's death. My brother died of hunger on the road. What could my mother do? She had to give away my other sister and other brother for adoption. 00.23.23 Bedros Gezoulian Voice over I have seen death. But I was so young then, only nine or ten, I felt completely broken. All I've seen around me is death; death and nothing else. I hardly saw any people alive. We were hungry and miserable; we walked forever. If you did not walk you were beaten and killed and burnt. What have I seen? I've seen death. 00.23.57 Music 00.24.02 Fergal Keane The world was told of these horrors but did not intervene, even though the accounts sent back to America by diplomats caused public outrage. 00.24.10 Music 00.24.15 Voice over reading Henry Morgenthau extract Greater misery could not be imagined. The dead and the dying are everywhere. Two or three small children may be seen weeping over the dead body of their mother. Other children are lying sprawled upon the ground, dead or in convulsions. One sees dead bodies in all directions and on every road. The whole country is one vast slaughterhouse. 00.24.46 Fergal Keane Turkey denies the central government authorised any massacres. As for those who starved to death or died from disease there is this explanation. 00.24.58 Aston Dr YUSUF HALAÇOGLU President, Turkish Historical Society Voice over The deaths of women and children on the roads was just the result of problems due to a relocation on a large scale. The state took every measure to prevent this but of course it's not easy to relocate a large population. 00.25.14 Music 00.25.16 Fergal Keane Relocation. From village, town and city they were forced south towards the mountain ranges and deserts. 00.25.22 Music 00.25.25 Fergal Keane On the way they were attacked by bandits and Turkish troops and policemen. 00.25.29 Music 00.25.36 Fergal Keane The refugees travelled vast distances. 00.25.41 Fergal Keane We've now left Beirut and are heading into the Bekaa Valley and right, all the way up here through Syria was part of the trail of desolation, along which Armenian families thrown out of Turkey had to come. And of course thousands, tens of thousands died along the way. 00.25.58 Singing 00.26.07 Fergal Keane The voice sings of a people destroyed. Countless numbers of Armenian women and children were abducted. They only survived by abandoning their identity, taking Turkish names and converting to Islam. 00.26.22 Fergal Keane Elizabeth Simounian lost her parents and would spend her childhood in orphanages. 00.26.27 Singing 00.26.34 Elizabeth Simounian Voice over When we were exiled, instead of killing us, the order was; 'take them like sheep to the mountain and let them die from thirst and hunger themselves'. 00.26.51 Aston ELIZABETH SIMOUNIAN Survivor Voice over I remember two girls, when they died they threw them to the side of the road under the rain, into the street. 00.27.01 Music 00.27.12 Dr Yusuf Halaçoglu Voice over Of course relocation of such a big population is very difficult and I wish it had never happened. But you had to bear the circumstances in mind. What is important here is that the Ottoman government did not have the intention of killing those four hundred and fifty thousand Armenians who were being relocated. 00.27.33 Professor Halil Berktay I have no doubt whatsoever that they were responsible. They were conscious, they were deliberate, they knew what they were doing. 00.27.41 Music 00.27.55 Fergal Keane For eighty-five years the Armenians have campaigned to have the genocide acknowledged. 00.28.01 Fergal Keane They're frustrated that powerful countries like America and Britain join Turkey in denial. Each new generation is taught the stories of 1915. 00.28.11 Singing 00.28.15 Fergal Keane It is a national obsession born of loss and frustration. 00.28.22 Aston ARAM I Catolicos of Cilicia The genocide, it's not a set event belonging to our history, it's part of our daily life; it's with us. We live it as a painful experience in the schools, in the churches, in the families. It's not something pertaining to our history we carry with us, the genocide and its implications. You cannot imagine an Armenian life, in all its manifestations, dimensions and aspects, without this impact making presence of the Armenian genocide. 00.29.08 Music 00.29.21 Fergal Keane There is a saying among survivors, that to have the genocide denied is to die twice. 00.29.28 Music 00.29.37 Fergal Keane The slaughter of the Armenians took place more than three quarters of a century ago in a crumbling empire. Yet today, eighty-six years on, the battle to have the genocide recognised has been waged with passionate intensity. It's being fought out in the corridors of power all over the world and forever there's an Armenian community. 00.30.01 Music 00.30.12 Fergal Keane The key battleground is the United States, which welcomed so many survivors. 00.30.16 Music 00.30.18 Fergal Keane If the genocide is ever to be recognised by the rest of the world Armenians believe America must lead the way. 00.30.24 Music 00.30.30 Fergal Keane Central to the Armenian case are America's own historical records. The documents sent by the American ambassador warning that Armenians were being exterminated. 00.30.41 Music 00.30.47 Rouben Adalian What we're asking for is an affirmation of the historical record of the United States from that era that clearly records and substantiates the fact that a genocide was committed against the Armenian people. 00.31.01 Music 00.31.07 Aston ROUBEN ADALIAN Armenian National Institute Well America owes it to itself to recognise its own record, the diplomatic files are so extensive and so thorough that we base our knowledge of the Armenian genocide in the main on what the American diplomats reported. And in this respect affirming the Armenian genocide as a historical event is nothing more than recognising ones own history, piece of American history. 00.31.35 Music 00.31.38 Fergal Keane To try and make that happen, the Armenians pressed Congress to vote to recognise the genocide. 00.31.45 Fergal Keane The Armenian lobby had a strong weapon. 00.31.47 Music 00.31.50 Fergal Keane Votes in some key congressional districts. 00.31.55 Aston GEORGE RADANOVICH Congressman (Rep.) The November elections were coming up and there were some hotly contested races and in particular one in southern California where the local Armenian American community could have made a difference. 00.32.07 Music 00.32.08 Fergal Keane The Clinton White House was known to oppose the move, despite the fact that Bill Clinton had at one time promised to use the word 'genocide'. 00.32.16 Fergal Keane But Congress pressed on. 00.32.18 Music 00.32.20 Rouben Adalian The house clearly had moved to the point where the majority of US representatives had come to recognise the facts for what they were and were quite ready by that point to adopt a resolution affirming the US record and recognising the Armenian genocide. 00.32.39 Music 00.32.41 Fergal Keane Whether they accepted the facts or wanted the votes, there was now growing momentum for genocide recognition. The news was met with anger in Turkey which despatched a cross party delegation of MPs to lobby Congress. 00.32.57 Aston TAYYIBE GÜLEK Turkish Delegation to Washington We told them that this was an absolutely unjust, inaccurate and unfair resolution, no business of parliaments to pass a resolution like this. We went into the... 00.33.10 Fergal Keane What was their response when you said that? 00.33.12 Tayyibe Gülek They, a lot of them actually confessed and admitted that parliament's, that a Congress should not be dealing with something that deals with history. 00.33.21 Fergal Keane The Congressmen may have listened to the Turkish arguments but with the first important vote at sub- committee level approaching, those pushing genocide recognition were increasingly optimistic. 00.33.32 George Radanovich I think the longer that the members of Congress heard the Turkish MPs talk about the fact that in their opinion there was no genocide or this did not exist, it never happened, the more the votes swung toward those of us that were wanting the recognition. And so in what they had hoped to be a very close vote ended up being a larger, quite a swing in favour of the genocide recognition bill that we were seeking as a result of the Turkish testimony because they, they really are in denial. 00.34.03 Music 00.34.05 Fergal Keane The sub-committee voted in favour of the resolution - paving the way for a vote before the full Congress. 00.34.12 Tayyibe Gülek I was very upset of course, I thought it was really pathetic that legislators who clearly didn't even have a passport and had never travelled anywhere in their lives were voting on something that they knew nothing about. 00.34.27 Music 00.34.31 Fergal Keane On the morning of the vote the Congressmen sponsoring the bill did their final tallies. 00.34.38 Aston FRANK PALLONE Congressman (Dem.) It was optimistic the atmosphere because we'd essentially were whipping, which means we go to individual members and ask them how they're going to vote and I was convinced that we had well over three hundred members on a bi-partisan basis that were going to vote for this which is a huge maybe even two thirds majority. 00.34.55 Music 00.34.59 Fergal Keane After years of campaigning it looked as if the slaughter and deportation of the Armenians was at last going to be recognised as genocide by the legislators of the most powerful nation on earth. And then with literally minutes left on the clock something extraordinary happened. 00.35.16 Music 00.35.19 George Radanovich The vote was coming up in the evening and we were heading over with our staff to begin the debate and, which would lead to this vote. 00.35.25 Music 00.35.27 George Radanovich And as we were walking up the steps to Capital one of my staff members got a phone call from the Speaker's office. 00.35.33 Fergal Keane That morning the White House caved in to Turkish pressure. 00.35.36 Music 00.35.39 Fergal Keane President Clinton called the House Speaker and asked him to withdraw the bill. 00.35.43 Music 00.35.46 Fergal Keane Clinton's message to the Speaker was extraordinary. He cited 'grave national security concerns'. He believed passing the resolution 'could endanger American lives'. 00.36.02 George Radanovich By the time we got to the top of the stairs and into the House chamber they were already into other business. 00.36.06 Fergal Keane And your genocide resolution was gone? 00.36.08 George Radanovich Never happened, no. 00.36.12 Music 00.36.13 Fergal Keane So what exactly scared the leader of the Free World? 00.36.17 Music 00.36.23 Fergal Keane The answer lies in the dangerous politics of the Middle East. Here the Turks are allies who provide air bases vital for patrolling the skies over Saddam Hussein's Iraq. 00.36.34 Fergal Keane So what was it, do you think was said by the Turkish government to make him cite 'grave national security concerns'? 00.36.39 Aston Ambassador SOLMAZ UNAYDIN Turkish Diplomat Well, I don't really want to say that it was really what we have said. Of course we have said the same things. 00.36.51 Fergal Keane National security; I think they also talked about American lives potentially being at risk. 00.36.57 Ambassador Solmaz Unaydin That, that detail I do not remember but certainly grave consequences or implications and security rights were there. But you know, I thought... 00.37.07 Fergal Keane So what do you think, what do you think it meant 'grave national security concerns'? 00.37.11 Ambassador Solmaz Unaydin To me, if you really want my personal point of view, I think it was President Clinton's very good foresight and appreciation and evaluation of Turkey's position in the region and the value that they attach to our friendship and collaboration as a NATO ally. 00.37.38 Frank Pallone Well they were making all kinds of threats, they were saying that American soldiers were going to be in jeopardy in Turkey, you know that they, the Turkish government always acts as if they're benign and their citizens are about to revolt over this issue. In other words it's not that we have a problem if you bring up the resolution but there are going to be demonstrations in the streets and American tourists and American soldiers in Turkey are not going to be safe any more. Which is, to me, total garbage, I don't buy that. It's the government that is taking the position not to recognise the genocide. 00.38.15 Fergal Keane But with a new president the Armenians would have another chance. George W Bush had made a campaign promise. 00.38.21 Music 00.38.25 Fergal Keane 'The Armenians were subjected to a genocidal campaign', he'd said. 00.38.28 Music 00.38.31 Fergal Keane 'If elected president I would ensure that our nation properly recognises the tragic suffering of the Armenian people.' 00.38.37 Music 00.38.41 Fergal Keane That was before he came to power. And before his campaign against Saddam Hussein. 00.38.47 Music 00.38.51 Fergal Keane George Bush badly needs the help of the new Turkish government. 00.38.55 Soldiers USA! USA! USA! 00.38.57 Fergal Keane America wants to launch a land invasion of Iraq from Turkey. 00.39.03 Aston December 2002 00.39.02 George W Bush You're a strategic ally and friend of the United States...and we look forward to working with you to keep the peace. 00.39.14 Aram I On the one hand he speak about the human rights, their commitment to human rights and on the other hand you see they fail for political reasons to recognise the genocide. 00.39.29 Tayyibe Gülek The smarter countries and the smarter people in those countries realised co-operating with Turkey and achieving stability and balance in this region was really important for all of our mutual common good. Unfortunately others with small petty concerns didn't realise this. 00.39.47 Frank Pallone The West has traditionally encouraged Armenia and then not been there when they need help. So there's, there's no reason why they shouldn't feel betrayed, they were betrayed. 00.39.58 Music 00.40.04 Fergal Keane The last survivors are scattered far from their homeland. 00.40.07 Music 00.40.08 Fergal Keane They know there's little likelihood the world will recognise the genocide while they're alive. 00.40.13 Music 00.40.17 Fergal Keane What is left for them? Anger and bewilderment. 00.40.21 Music 00.40.25 Rahan Kachian Sometimes I stay over night and think that why a people do like the things like they way they do. We didn't harm anybody, we build the country, we worked for them, I mean we paid taxes, why they did that to us? 00.40.44 Music 00.41.00 Bedros Gezoulian Voice over I will wait for the day they acknowledge it. I pray for other governments to help us, nothing else. What else can I do? After I die I will be finished. But I wait for that day. I will wait till I die to hear them say; 'yes, we did it'. 00.41.20 Music 00.41.28 Fergal Keane The campaign against the Armenians was the first in a century that will be defined by genocide. 00.41.32 Music 00.41.38 Fergal Keane The very law on genocide was framed by a man who'd been profoundly affected by the tragedy of the Armenians. 00.41.44 Music 00.41.46 Fergal Keane Raphael Lemkin believed genocide was a wound against all humanity. 00.41.51 Fergal Keane It is denial, which ensures the wound can never heal. 00.41.55 End Music 00.42.06 Voice over You can comment on tonight's programme by visiting our web site at: www.bbc.co.uk/correspondent Credits 00.42.09 Reporter FERGAL KEANE Camera DANIEL MEYERS 8mm Photography JAMES MILLER VT Editor BOYD NAGLE Dubbing Mixer PHITZ HEARNE Graphic Design STEVE ENGLAND Production Team ALEXANDRA CAMERON SARAH EVA MARTHA O'SULLIVAN AGNES TEEK Production Manager JANE WILLEY Unit Manager SUSAN CRIGHTON Film Research NICK DODD Web Producer ANDREW JEFFREY Research DEBORAH DWEK PHILIP WEARNE Picture Editor SIMON GREENWOOD Directed and Produced by JAMES MILLER Executive Producer SIMON FINCH 00.42.16 Voice over Correspondent's back next Sunday but this Wednesday there's a special edition on abuse in the Irish catholic church. How one man's story for Correspondent led to a bishop being sacked and a crisis in the Church. That's at eleven twenty on Wednesday night. 00.42.35 CORRESPONDENT 00.42.36 Editor KAREN O'CONNOR (c) BBC MMIII 00.42.41 End BBC Correspondent 1 1