Ottoman archives not open to intellectually honest scrutiny, Ara Sarafian reports in Armenian Forum
But records made available by Turkey do corroborate Western accounts of Armenian Genocide

Princeton, N.J. (3 November 1999)—After shielding Ottoman archives from the scrutiny of critical scholars for decades, the Turkish government took a new tack in 1985: it claimed that it was finally opening Ottoman archival materials on Armenians; that nothing can be known about Armenians in Asia Minor in 1915 without reference to those archives; and that, consequently, everyone must withhold judgment about the veracity of the Armenian Genocide until such archives are fully mined.

Armenian Forum coeditor Ara Sarafian, who has spent many a month in Ottoman archives, argues that these claims were a ruse to distract attention from other readily available records and that contrary to the claim of openness, the Turkish state withholds compromising records from critical scrutiny.

Sarafian makes the important revelation that in spite of these limitations, the available Ottoman records actually corroborate Western accounts of the Armenian Genocide.

For the full text of Ara Sarafian's article, click here.  The freely available Adobe® Acrobat® Reader is required to view and print the article.

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