Exhibit 1 To Letter Of October 23, 2001 To Gov. John G. Rowland

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The following commentary addresses the factual inaccuracies and omissions in the ten WHEREAS clauses of Governor John G. Rowland's Official Statement commemorating August 30, 2001 in Connecticut as a "Day of Remembrance of the Turkish Zafer Holiday."

1. WHEREAS, the Turkish Zafer Holiday recognizes the cessation of a tragedy, where millions of Ottoman Empire citizens, from different religious and ethnic backgrounds, died from inter-communal violence, forced migration, disease and starvation during World War I and the collapse of the Empire;

   Comment: False.

   1. The "millions" died primarily from the actions of the Turkish military and government. They were primarily Greeks and Armenians.
   2. The "forced migration" was carried out by the Turkish military. It involved primarily the Armenian community.
   3. The Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923, and the Pontian Genocide of the 1930s by the Turkish military are both well-documented by historians and American officials, including Ambassador Henry Morgenthau and American missionaries who testified to the atrocities committed by the Turkish government. (See Morgenthau's book Ambassador Morgenthau's Story. Full text and photos available online at http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~libsite/wwi-www/morgenthau/MorgenTC.htm).
   4. Turkey fought on the side of the Germans and against the U.S. in World War I.
   
   
2. WHEREAS, Turkish Americans bear a great burden of sorrow from the tragic events which befell their ancestors from 1912-1922;

   Comment: False.

   The ancestors of Turkish Americans caused the atrocities against Christians in Turkey during this period, including the Armenian Genocide, the first Holocaust of the 20th century, and the ethnic cleansing of 1.5 million Greeks from Asia Minor. If they bear such a "great burden" why not acknowledge the Armenian Genocide?

3. WHEREAS, under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the Turkish people valiantly fought a long War of Liberation to safeguard their sovereignty and independence and founded the Republic of Turkey, October 29, 1923;

   Comment: Misleading.

   Mustafa Kemal Ataturk led the assault against the Christians in Turkey and was responsible for his army sacking and burning Smyrna (Izmir) in 1922 and the slaughter of more than 100,000 Greeks and 30,000 Armenian civilians. (See Marjorie Housepian Dobkin's book Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of a City.)

4. WHEREAS, recognition of the Turkish tragedy is crucial to ensuring against the repetition of future civilian wartime tragedies;

   Comment: False.

   The events of 1912-1922 were not caused by civilians. It was the Turkish military that caused the atrocities. Recognition of the Turkish atrocities is crucial in helping to prevent their repetition. Unfortunately, Turkey continues her conduct against its Kurdish minority and in Cyprus.

5. WHEREAS, Turks enjoy a long history of friendship by living in harmony with different ethnic groups and sharing a geographic and cultural heritage;

   Comment: False.

   1. Turkish history in the 20th century includes a long list of well-documented atrocities against its Greek and Armenian Christian populations and abuses against its Jewish population.
   2. In the 1930s, Turkey under its dictator Kemal Ataturk committed genocide against its Pontian Greek citizens.
   3. Kemal Ataturk also initiated the human rights abuses against Turkey's Kurdish citizens. For the past two decades, the Turkish military has committed ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and genocide against its 12 million Kurdish minority. Since 1984, the Turkish military has killed 35,000 innocent civilian Kurds, assassinated 17,000 and destroyed 2,500 Kurdish villages, creating more than 2.5 million Kurdish refugees. (See the former French Ambassador Eric Rouleau's article in Foreign Affairs, November/December 2000, titled "Turkey's Dream of Democracy")
   4. In 1955, the Turkish government organized a pogrom of horrendous proportions against its Greek citizens in Istanbul.
   5. Turkey does not allow full religious freedom for Christians, including the Ecumenical Patriarchate of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church. In 1971, Turkey illegally closed the Halki Theological School of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and it has remained closed ever since.
   
   
6. WHEREAS, Turkey has the only secular democracy in the Muslim world and has made significant contributions to U.S. foreign policy in the Balkans, Middle East, Central Asia and Caucasus and has played a crucial role in international efforts for peace, prosperity and stability;

   Comment: False.

   1. Turkey is not a western-style democracy. Under the Turkish constitution, the military controls foreign affairs and national security policy, not civilians, and dominates domestic affairs (see Rouleau article). The Turkish military are not under civilian control. They are above the constitution. No western democratic state has such an arrangement.
   2. What "significant contributions?"
   3. What "crucial role in international efforts for peace, prosperity and stability?"
      • Turkey's actions in the region do not serve the cause of stability -- for example, the occupation of Cyprus, the challenge to the legal status quo and Greece's sovereignty in the Aegean and the economic blockade of Armenia.
      • Turkey's illegal invasion of Cyprus in 1974 with the illegal use of American-supplied arms violated U.S. laws, the UN Charter, the NATO Charter and international law. Turkey's continuing illegal occupation of 37 percent of Cyprus these past 27 years with 35,000 troops and 300 tanks is a stain on the honor and credibility of the U.S. and NATO.
      
      
7. WHEREAS, Turkey has been a staunch ally of the United States and has supported the U.S. in every major conflict since the Korean War and has become an integral part of Europe through its membership in NATO and the Council of Europe;

   Comment: False.

1. Turkey fought against the U.S. in World War I and remained pro-German "neutral" in World War II until the eve of the Yalta Conference in 1945.
2. During the Cold War, Turkey was an unreliable ally who aided the Soviet military. Examples of Turkey's unreliability for U.S. strategic purposes include:
   1. During the 1973 Mid-East War, predating the Turkish invasion of Cyprus by one year, Turkey refused the U.S. military overflight rights to resupply Israel and granted the USSR overland military convoy rights to resupply Syria and Iraq, and military overflight permission to resupply Egypt. See E. Luttwak, The Political Uses of Sea Power 60-61 (1974). A member of the Turkish Foreign Policy Institute in Ankara wrote: "During the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, Moscow's overflights of Turkish airspace were tolerated. On the other hand, during the same Middle East conflict, Turkey refused to allow the U.S. refueling and reconnaissance facilities during the American airlift to Israel." Karaosmanoglu, "Turkey's Security and the Middle East," Foreign Affairs 157, 163 (Fall 1983).
   2. In the 1977-1978 conflict in Ethiopia, Turkey granted the Soviets military overflight rights to supply the pro-Soviet Ethiopian communists under Col. Mengistu, who eventually prevailed. C. Meyer, Facing Reality -- From World Federalism to the CIA, 276-80 (1980).
   3. Over NATO objections, Turkey allowed three Soviet aircraft carriers, the Kiev on July 18, 1976, the Minsk on Feb. 25, 1979 and the Novorosiisk on May 16, 1983, passage rights through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits into the Mediterranean in violation of the Montreux Convention of 1936. See generally Wash. Post, July 19, 1976, at A16, col. 1; New York Times, Feb. 26, 1979, at A13, col. 1. The Soviet ships posed a formidable threat to the U.S. Sixth Fleet.
   4. In 1979, Turkey refused to allow the U.S. to send 69 marines and six helicopters to American military facilities at Incirlik in Turkey for possible use in evacuating Americans from Iran. New York Times, Feb. 13, 1979, at A8, col. 3.
   5. Again, in 1979 Turkey refused to allow the U.S. request to allow U-2 intelligence flights (for Salt II verification) over Turkish airspace "unless Moscow agreed." New York Times, May 15, 1979, at A1, col. 3. This position was voiced over a period of months by Turkish officials, the opposition party and the military Chief of Staff, Gen. Kenan Evren. See id.
   6. In May, 1989, Turkey rejected and American request to inspect an advanced MIG-29 Soviet fighter plane, flown by a Soviet defector to Turkey. New York Times, May 28, 1989, at A12, col. 1.
   7. Turkey further damaged NATO by vetoing NATO's effort to put military bases on various Greek islands in the Aegean for defensive purposes against the Soviet navy.
3. Turkey broke its agreements with Britain, France and Greece and proclaimed "neutrality" in World War II during which she aided Nazi Germany by providing Hitler with chromium needed for the production of armaments. This chromium aid to Hitler prolonged World War II by seven months. (See Albert Speer Inside the Third Reich.)
4. The Korean War was fought under UN auspices and a number of countries sent token forces of 5,000 troops.
5. Turkey did not join the U.S.-led Coalition in the Persian Gulf War.
6. Even though a member of the Council of Europe, Turkey has been found guilty of major violations of the European Convention on Human Rights (i.e. Loizidou Case and Interstate Application by Cyprus). The European Court of Human Rights in its decision of May 10, 2001 in the case of Cyprus v. Turkey found Turkey in violation of 14 human rights provisions of the Convention in its continuing occupation of Cyprus.
7. In 1973, Turkey lifted unilaterally the ban on the cultivation of opium and is a major trafficker of drugs to the U.S.


8. WHEREAS, residents of Connecticut are highly sensitive to the need for consistently remembering and openly condemning the loss of all civilians due to war and ethnic strife to prevent future civilian tragedies;

   Comment: A truism. I believe and hope they are also sensitive to historical truth, and stand firmly against historical revisionism.

9. WHEREAS, Americans of Turkish descent in Connecticut have played a significant role in the educational, cultural, economic and civic development of our community;

Comment: I have no information on the accuracy of this Whereas clause.

THEREFORE, I, JOHN G. ROWLAND, Governor of the State of Connecticut, do hereby proclaim August 30, 2001, as Day of Remembrance of the Turkish Zafer Holiday in the State of Connecticut.

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