HARUT SASSOUNIAN … HALF - BAKED IN THE OVENS OF SCIENTIFIC METHODOLOGY

Harut Sassounian had published several articles in various Armenian publication outlets early February discussing the same old theme with minor variations among them.

The subject is the personal interview which is claimed to be granted to Aubrey Herbert in 1921 by Talaat Pasha just before he was assassinated.  According to Sassounian, Talaat  Pasha had agreed with the “Genocide Accusations”, etc…etc..

For the archive-based researchers, the references given and commentary outlined in the Sassounian articles regarding Talaat Pasha are full of contradictions.

Mr. Sadi Dinlenc, an activist on the subject, had written a rather innocent article criticizing the contradictions in the Sassounian article which was published on February 9, 2016, in his California Courier newspaper. Mr. Dinlenc’s criticism was  based on the credible Armenian as well as the Western resources and references on the subject.

The interesting part of this reciprocating correspondence is not the Sadi Dinlenc’s archival references or Sassounian’s select wording he used in his articles.  The affinity of the Turks about the articles and the propaganda material written in the Western media outlets using select and specific information about themselves goes back several decades.

This is not the point.

The entertaining and interesting part of the subject starts with the appearance of Sadi Dinlenc’s response in the Facebook pages of the “ Armenian Genocide Resources Center “ where Sassounian was informed that he could respond to Dinlenc article in his own Facebook pages. Not wishing to waste a chance, Sassounian declared :

“ I usually don’t dignify genocide denialists with a comment. I did make an exception in the case of Dinlenc and shamed him for lying about the Armenian Genocide which was acknowledged even by Atatürk. “

Upon reading this response in Sassounian’s own Facebook page, I decided to get into the picture, by telling him that it is important for both Turks and the Armenians to learn the truth and that nobody is after any unfair recognition or moral benefit and did ask him to whom did Atatürk admit about the genocide, when and where.  And I kindly expected Sassounian to tell me the source of this knowledge, concerned that either someone was not telling the Turks the truth or  someone was lying to the Armenians on the same subject.


I have read quite a bit about 10 years ago about the research done on the alleged Emile Hildegrand interview

Los Angeles Examiner
1 August 1926

with Atatürk, published in the Los Angeles Examiner. So, I expected and hoped that Sassounian, who has been writing so strongly in his own newspaper as well as his own Facebook pages about Talaat Pasha and Atatürk, making impressive statements with comprehensive accusations, frankly, I thought I would benefit from him.

But, soon, I realized that Sassounian had a very limited information about the interview that appeared in his Facebook pages and that he was not even aware of the book written by Prof. Dr. Türkkaya Ataöv, containing the in-depth research of that particular interview.

When reminded about Ataöv’s book, Sassounian claimed that Ataöv, too, was a denialist similar to Sadi Dinlenc and that his research was comical and suggested that I should not help him gain recognition by dropping his name around.

Ataöv Research about Emile Hildebrand

Ataöv Reserach about Emile Hilderbrand

Türkkaya Ataöv researched in depth the Atatürk interview with the Swiss artist and reporter Emile Hildegrand, published on Aug. 1st, 1926 in Los Angeles Examiner newspaper of the Armenian publisher Nersessian,  He contacted the Swiss Embassy and corresponded with the Hildegrand family in Switzerland, finding out that there was in fact no newspaper reporter by the name of Emile Hildegrand during those years, that there was no departure from Switzerland of someone with name and finally learned from the Turkish archives  that there was no newspaper reporter with that name visiting Turkey at that time. A non-existent artist and newspaper reporter, left his non-existent country to travel to a country he never went to conduct an interview which he never did with Atatürk whom he never saw and claimed that Atatürk told him “ CUP leaders allowed mass-killing of Christians “ which Atatürk never did.

When all of these details were reminded, Sassounian made such non-congruous claims as “You (me) were not there at the Embassy when Ataöv made the research, and that Ataöv did not speak the German language and that I should rely only on large U.S. newspapers and that if I do not trust big newspapers and believe Ataöv instead, it would render me senseless and illogical.”

The answer I delivered to these strange claims and accusations might have driven Sassounian and types like him wild.

Sassounian, not only has not opened the cover of Ataöv’s subject book, he is also unaware of the common knowledge that in addition to German language, French is also spoken widely in Switzerland.   Not only that, Ataöv has published in his subject book the letters he wrote and received in French language to and from the Swiss Embassy.  Equally strange and comical is his demand for believability that I was not there next to him when Ataöv was conducting his research.  I was not next to Einstein when he declared his famous Theory of Relativity or  I was not under the same apple tree when an apple fell off the tree branch giving Newton the idea of Law of Gravity. Does Sassounian know any mathematician who was next to Pythagoras when he found out the Theory of Pythagoras ?

His particular advice that I should trust big American newspapers is really heartbreaking.

What and how much news does he know related with Armenians published in the big  American papers ?.

Alternative articles from Major American Newspapers about Armenians
http://armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2007/09/1961-new-series-innocent-armenians.html

In all these conversations I conducted with Sassounian in Facebook pages, the important thing was not whether Talaat Pasha’s Atatürk claim was true or not. The importance here was a being methodical researcher. Anyone who is acting as a role model and informing the public-at-large by writing essays and articles and giving conferences in the very debatable subject of Armenian genocide claims must, before anything else, have a sense and obligation of moral responsibility.   It is a moral inferiority to claim that Armenian people will have a better and healthy future based on the information fed by improper methodologies. This is true for any nation, including the Turks.

A hundred years ago, killing people was the way to go in order to gain material or moral victory. Today, it is killing the minds.

Here we go Harut Sassounian…The biggest American newspaper…

New York Times, August 04, 1907
http://armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2007/10/2020-evolution-of-armenian-hunchakist.html
Evolution Of The Armenian Hunchakist; Secret Society, Starting in Caucasus Mountains, Said to Bear Close Resemblance to Mafia or Black Hand. Crimes Recently Committed in This Country by an Organization Originally Founded by Patriots. Secret Society in America. The Demand for Money. Paying Toll to Hunchakist.
THE mild-mannered quiet-spoken Armenian has suddenly been thrust into an unwelcomed publicity. He forms such a small unit in the racial patchwork that makes up the population of this big city that his existence is easily overlooked. . .

Everyone is a denialist !
Everyone is a denialist !
Dear Sassounian !

Full screenshot from Harut Sassounian's Facebook Page!