ADVOCACY

OPPOSE  HOUSE  RESOLUTION  106

NEW RESEARCH: U.S. ARMY INTELLIGENCE OFFICER NOTES ARMENIAN  MASSACRES OF TURKS
                                                                                                                    
COL. CHARLES FURLONG CRITICIZES THE U.S. GOVERNMENT FOR
WILLFULLY IGNORING TURKISH LOSSES AT THE HANDS OF THE ARMENIANS

                                     
Charles W. Furlong:  U.S. ARmy Intelligence Officer 1917-1919,
U.S. delegate to the paris peace conference
                                                               

• Charles W. Furlong was one of the great American explorers of distant lands and observers of foreign peoples.  During WWI as a U.S. Army intelligence officer he spent significant time in the eastern Ottoman Empire.  President Woodrow Wilson found his contributions so valuable that he appointed him to the U.S. Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference.    

• In a March 23, 1920 letter to President Wilson, Furlong criticizes America’s susceptibility to pro-Armenian propaganda, he writes:  “We hear much, both truth and gross exaggeration of Turkish massacre of Armenians, but little or nothing of the Armenian massacres of Turks.”                                                                 

• In the same letter, Furlong provides evidence that some alleged massacres of Armenians were based on poor or politically motivated reporting:  “The recent so-called Marash massacres [of Armenians] have not been substantiated, in fact, in the minds of many who are familiar with the situation, there is a grave question whether it was not the Turk who suffered at the hands of the Armenian and French armed contingents which were known to be occupying that city and vicinity.”

• In a July 25, 1921 speech, Furlong declared, “I know of no country today that is having more unjust propaganda put over against it [than Turkey].  Turkey has its faults, but half truths are worse than none.  We hear half the truth when we hear of the massacres of Armenians in Turkey; we’ll have the other half when we hear of the massacres of Turks by Armenians and Greeks.”

• In his March 23, 1920 letter to President Wilson, Furlong worried that the U.S.’ overt favoritism toward Christian pleas would harm our ability to carry out policy in the Muslim world.  Furlong said, “[O]ur opportunity to gain the esteem and respect of the Moslem world … will depend much on whether America hears Turkey’s untrammeled voice and evidence which she has never succeeded in placing before the Court of Nations.”  A right decision on the treatment of Turkey, Furlong continued, “will bind closer … the eastern and western world …,” while a wrong decision, Furlong warned, “will be a calamity and may again set aflame an infinitely greater fire than that which seems to be smothered.”

This material is distributed by The Livingston Group, LLC on behalf of The Republic of Turkey.
Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.


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