Perhaps a trio of Fresno business groups made the right decision to cancel a meeting with a delegation of Turkish agricultural exporters. It appears that the organizer of the trip denies the Armenian genocide of 1915 ever happened.
The Fresno Chamber of Commerce, Economic Development Corporation and Farm Bureau were slated to meet with the West Mediterranean Exporters Association (known by the acronym BAIB) on Tuesday (Jan. 15).
Following complaints from the Armenian community, the three groups on Thursday (Jan. 10), along with the Honorary Armenian Consul of the Republic of Armenia based in Fresno, announced the meetings would no longer take place.
Fresno Chamber CEO Nathan Ahle would not comment further than the original news release. EDC and the Farm Bureau did not respond to GV Wire’s requests for comment by the time of publication.
Trip Organizer Responds
The trip is being organized by Trelodex, a consultant group based in Irvine that focuses on opening up Turkish-U.S. markets. When asked for reaction to the cancellation, Trelodex President Gurkan Suzer said the meeting was canceled because of a tight schedule.
Asked further for reaction, Trelodex sent this email (edited for grammar):
“I cannot comment on behalf of other people or organizations.
“It is not the issue of our trip, however, I need to tell you something about the Armenian community concerns. I can only say structures built on lies will collapse someday.
“Russian archives and Turkish archives are open to researchers; German, French and English archives as well. Armenians like to use war propaganda material as facts (like Saddam’s nuclear bombs and the reality, every war creates a reason for itself). And they are increasing the number of casualties every 10 years. The total population of Armenians (was) around 1.5 to 2 million before war. Calculate their population today and compare with other people’s population check the difference. Turkey lost 4 million lives and in 90 years the population increased from 15 million to 80 million, 5 times. There are more than 6-7 million Armenians and it is also 5 times of 1.5 million.
“There were Armenian casualties, of course, mainly from starvation, and disease, which caused millions of Turkish lives and European lives as well. In the first Great War, more people killed by disease and starvation than war. Some people were killed by others, due to the civil war Armenians created during the war and mutual massacre happened. Everybody killed each other. So government of Ottoman Empire found a solution by sending some of the Armenian population to another Ottoman region. … most of the Turks were on many frontiers of the war, some in Gallipoli with their Armenian fellows against ANZACs (the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.)
“We do not like to promote hatred like them. If they need the truth, ask them (to) research the archives.
Sincerely.
P.S. Please do not write the things about Armenian issues, this is not related with the delegation and I just wanted to give a friendly advice.
Other Meetings Planned
According to a news release prior to the Fresno controversy, BAIB had meetings planned with groups in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
One of those organizations was the California Milk Advisory Board. A CMAB spokesperson said the groups may have met during this past weekend’s San Francisco Fancy Food Show, but nothing formal was set up.
No details were available about other specific meetings.
Armen Lousakian
January 17, 2019 at 1:06 am
What was Suzer’s lame excuse for the millions of Assyrians, Greeks and Kurds that were slaughtered between 1890-1923? The most outrageous is Suzer’s typical new Turkish denialism is to admit that YES Armenians were killed but so were Turks and their numbers could not have been that high, thereby dismissing off killings as just minimal. Better than 20 years ago when the Republic of Turkey flatly denied any deaths/Genocide. So here the Turkish minds are making progress, except they are not very popular in the world today especially in the USA for the Russia partnering and the human rights abuses against the dangerous Gulen Cult.
The ironic part of this is America has the records of the first hand witnesses and photos in the Library of Congress of killing fields, of over 134,000 Armenian Orphans that were cared for by the Armenian Near East Relief voted into Congress to help feed the “Starving Armenians” these were our grandparents, and great grandparents the very same people that came to Fresno with seeds in the pockets to START the agriculture empire that we are today. Any books and research anyone should do is start with non Turkish, non Armenian books /research. Start with Henry Morganthau the American Ambassador to Constaniople (Istanbul) at the time of the mass deportations and killing fields. The Archives effendi Suzer speaks of are NOT accessible to anyone and much has been removed in Turkey., the archives he mentions in Russia sound like the narratives the Kemalists / Grey Wolves were trying to push with a series of talks in the USA & Worldwide with guest speaker Perchinek who is a #1 Armenian hater.
The very farmland that BAIB is farming on is no doubt Armenian land that was confiscated and stolen by criminals supported by the corrupt young Turk Regime and their German Collaborators. It wasn’t for hate, it was for good old fashion greed. land, jewelry, live stock even our daughters were taken.
The demonizing was started by state propaganda toward Armenians years in advance with the reign of Sultan Hamid (Bloody Sultan Hamid) that made slaughtering less than human Ermeni’s (Armenians) as simple as slaughtering a lamb. But when you fight back and give the facts you are labeled a “treacherous liar that left the back door open for Russia”
Turks should get their story straight, or at least come to terms with true history, any building in Turkey that is over 100 years old was built by Armenian, Greek, Assyrian hands the true indigenous people hell even Topaki Palace was built by the Balian family. Turkey embrace your history the good, the bad and the ugly.
As an Armenian American I can say without a doubt the USA performed Genocide on Native Americans for much of the same reasons, land and resources. Good old fashion greed it’s so much easier to kill, steal, plunder and rape for it than to actually work for it.
Lastly, the Turkish pride got in Suzer’s way, he has to say “They cancelled” due to a schedule conflict when the facts are they simply are not wanted, what would they bring Fresno County that we don’t already grow (over 350 crops) not to mention 20% of our jobs related to AG could be jeopardized.
I will leave you with a persian proverb
“Let no tree bare fruit were a Turk has been”