A Swedish officer who was tasked in the region during the Armenian relocation denies the Armenian genocide claims in an article published in a Swedish newspaper in 1917.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The newspaper \u201cNya Dagligt Allehanda\u201d gave place to the article by Major Hjalmar Pravitz who was commissioned in the region between 1915-1917. Pravitz said that he had decided to write that article after reading Marika Stjerstedt\u2019s book \u201cPiteous Situation of the Armenians\u201d on genocide claims and mentioned that he threw that book that was \u201centirely full of lies\u201d to the garbage can.
\nMajor Pravitz reveals his observations on the Armenian relocation as follows: \u201cI have always witnessed misery. But I have never witnessed a pre-planned massacre anywhere. It was necessary to comprehend the reasons why the unreliable Armenians were expelled from the northern parts of the Ottoman Empire and that Ottomans did this for inevitable reasons. I am telling that the ones who said or wrote that Armenians lived under a kind of Turkish captivity and were under continuous pressure are lying. On the other hand, as to the large Armenian relocation, I also have to admit that efforts spent by the authorized Turkish institutions to reduce the difficulties for the migrants were so incomplete and insufficient. But I never saw any Turkish attack against these ill-fated people. As an eye-witness, I extremely oppose the claims suggesting that the Turkish gendarmerie units that oversaw the migrants conducted a massacre against the Armenians\u201d.
\nThe Swedish officer, who stated that the ones who claimed that Armenians lived under a kind of Turkish captivity and were under continuous pressure were just having illusions, notes the following: \u201cFor instance, what can be said to the Indian kulis and Bengalis that live under the British colony, nationalists that live in Iran Azerbaijan under the Russian policy of \u201cpenetration pacifique\u201d (entering into the country without being perceived), the black people in the Belgian Congo, and the local people living in the Kaucuk (Rubber) region of the French Guana! I believe all these nations have undergone a lot more pressure than the continuous pressure that allegedly Armenians experienced and more than the number of victims they gave.\u201d
\nStating that that efforts spent by the authorized Turkish institutions to reduce the difficulties of the migrants were so incomplete and insufficient, Pravitz adds that \u201cHowever, to tell the truth, I would like to underline once again that given the difficult conditions that Turkey was experiencing, namely taking into consideration the fact that she was under attack by three powerful enemies, it has became impossible for Turkey to carry out an organized aid campaign. But I never saw any Turkish attack against these ill-fated people.\u201d
\nThe Swedish officer, who mentioned that Armenians whom he was with in those days, too, did not say a word about massacre, said the following: \u201cI traveled on River Euphrates for fourteen days. According to the information that Ms. Stjernstedt gave, during this trip I should have seen at least one attack carried out against Armenians. In such a case many Armenians should have been floating dead on the River Euphrates. We were together with Dr. Schacht (German Pyhsician Major Dr. Roland Schacht) on this trip. Then we met with him again in Baghdad and talked. He never told me such things.\u201d
\nThe Swedish Major clearly suggests also in his book \u201cIran between Calmness and Storm\u201d that Armenian genocide claims are lies. (*)
\nA Swedish Major comes up with an article in which he explains what he had personally experienced in 1917, but it is taken as a fairy tale…
\nThe Swedish Consul-General to Istanbul Ingmar Karlsson said the following in October 2006: \u201cthe Swedish policy about this subject is very clear: History is written by historians, not by politicians. The Swedish parliament has not adopted a law on this subject until now, and will not adopt one hereafter\u201d. What will happen then? It will become a lie.<\/p>\n