THE MALTA TRIBUNALS

1915 olaylarını soykırım olarak nitelendiren ulusal veye uluslararası bir mahkeme kararı bulunmuyor. Tam aksine, soykırım iddialarını çürüten bir uluslararası mahkeme kararı vardır. Birinci Dünya Savaşı sonu itibariyle, 144 Osmanlı görevlisi İngilizlerce “Ermenilere yönelik toplum katliamlar” yapmak suçlamasıyla tutuklanmış ve Malta’da Britanya’nın en yüksek hukuki otoritesi olan Londra’daki İngiliz Kraliyet Başsavcılığı’nca bir soruşturma yürütülmüştür. İngiliz hükümetinin Malta’daki Türk tutukluları yargımaka ve mahkum ettirebilmek için verdiği tüm uğraşlara ragmen, İngiliz Kraliyet Başsavcılığı’nın yürüttüğü soruşturma “bir İngiliz mahkemesi önünde bu tür suçlamaların kanıtlanması mümkün değildir” gerekçesiyle hiçbir suçlama yapılmadan sonuçlanmıştır. Ermeni soykırımı iddialarını hukuki ve tarihi açıdan tamamıyle çürüten bulguları ile Malta yargılamaları tarihimizde çok önemli bir yer tutmaktadır. Ancak bu ya unuttuğumuz ya da bize unutturulmuş bir olaydır.

(MALTA YARGILAMALARI)

There is no national or international court ruling characterizing the 1915 events as genocide. On the contrary, there is an international court ruling in hand which refutes the genocide claims. By the end of the First World War, 144 Ottoman officials were arrested by the British on the grounds that they had “perpetrated mass killings against Armenians,” and a legal investigation was initiated on Malta conducted by Britain’s highest legal prosecution authority, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in London. Despite the British government’s every effort to try and sentence the Turkish detainees on Malta, the CPS inquiry resulted in no charges being filed, on the grounds that “it was unlikely that such charges could be proven in a British court of law.” The Malta Tribunals, with their judicial and historical findings that refute the Armenian genocide claims as a whole, constitute an important chapter in our history. Yet it is a chapter that we have forgotten and were made to forget.

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“Letter dated 29 June 2001 from the Permanent Representative of Turkey to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General” United Nations General Assembly Security Council http://www.un.org/documents/ga/docs/55/a551008.pdf

FO 371.4174.129560: CPS report dated 07.08.1919 enclosed in a letter from British FM to British Chief Prosecutor. No. 1270 of 10.07.1919

FO 371/4172:Cypher telegram from the Foreign Ministry to Admiral Calthorpe, British Hıgh Commissioner at Constantionople, very urgent No. 33, London, 05.02.1919

FO 371/6502/E.5845: FM’s letter to His Majesty’s Procurator-General’s Department, 31.05.1921

FO 371/6504/E.10023: From Harrington to Rumbold, 08.24. 1921

FO 371/6504/E.10662: Telegram from Curzon to Rumbold. Tel. No. 539 0f 27.09.1921 –

FO 371/6504/E.8519:- Letter from Craigie, British Charge d’Affaires at Washington to Lord Curzon, No. 722 of 13.07.1921

FO 371/6504/E.8745: From Dept. of H.M. Procurator General to Under Secretary of State, Foreign Office, 29.07.1921

FO 371/6504/E.8745: Telegram from FM to Rumbold. Tel. No 851 of 08.10. 1921

FO 371/6505/E.10870: Telegram from Rumbold to Curzon.Tel. 639 of 29.09.1921 –

FO 371/6505/E.11011: Telegram from Rumbold to Curzon. Tel. No 645 of 04.10.1921 –

FO 371/6505: From Plummer to War Ministry, No.4133(A) of 29.10.1921

Full text in Turkish: “Soykırım Suçunun Önlenmesine ve Cezalandırılmasına Dair Sözleşme” (Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide) http://www.tbmm.gov.tr/komisyon/insanhaklari/pdf01/33-36.pdf

Official website of the UK Parliament, House of Lords debates, Publications and Records, 14 Apr 1999: Column 823 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199899/ldhansrd/vo990414/tex t/90414-09.htm

“Was there an Armenian Genocide: Geoffrey Robertson’s QC Opinion” Policy Memorandum, Foreign & Commonwealth Office to Minister Full text: http://groong.usc.edu/Geoffrey-Robertson-QC-Genocide.pdf ECtHR Perinçek-Switzerland decision (Official French and unofficial Turkish): http://www.avim.org.tr/analiz/tr/AIHM-PERINCEK-ISVICREKARARI—RESMI-FRANSIZCA-VE-RESMI-OLMAYAN-TURKCE-M ETIN-/3066

Secondary Sources

Ericson, Edward J. Ottomans and Armenians, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Gürkan, Uluç. Ermeni Sorunu’nun Anlamak, İstanbul: Destek Yayınları, 2012- 2.baskı (Understanding the Armenian Question)

Gürkan, Uluç. Malta Yargılaması, İstanbul: Kaynak Yayınları, 2014. (The Malta Tribunals)

Hamparian, Aram “Confronting a Pre-Genocial Turkey”, Armenian Weekly, 02.09. 2012 - http://www.armenianweekly.com/2012/02/09/hamparianconfronting-a-pre-genocidal-turkey

Sarınay, Yusuf. “Ermeni Tehciri ve Yargılamalar: 1915-1916”, Türk-Ermeni İlişkilerinin Gelişimi ve 1915 Olayları Uluslararası Sempozyumu Bildirileri, Ankara, 11.23-25. 2005. (Armenian deportation and proceedings: 1915-1916,” Declarations of International Symposium on the Course of Turco-Armenian relations and 1915 events)

Schabas, William A. “Crimes Against Humanity as a Paradigm for International Atrocity Crimes,” Middle East Critique, Vol. 20, No. 3, 20.11.2011.

Şimşir, Bilal. Malta Sürgünleri, Ankara: Bilgi Yayınevi, 1985-2. Edition. (Malta Deportees)

Tacar, Pulat Doğu Perinçek-İsviçre Davası İstanbul: Kaynak Yayınları, 2002. (Doğu Perinçek-Switzerland Case)