Şükrü Server Aya has taken on a thankless but extremely valuable task. Generations of scholars, politicians, and internet bloggers will make use of his work, often not citing the source. Othersthose who do not want what Aya has uncovered ever to be seenwill excoriate him. Heedless of both supporters and detractors, Aya has continued to collect and analyze the documents and assertions that underlie the Armenian Question. He may not ever be properly thanked for his labors, but those of us who appreciate his discoveries know their great value. -

Justin A. McCarthy

Justin McCarthy is Professor of History and Distinguished University Scholar at the University of Louisville.

Among his works on related subjects: Muslims and Minorities (1983), Death and Exile (1995), The Ottoman Turks (1997), The Ottoman Peoples and End of Empire (2001), The Armenian Rebellion at Van (2006), and The Turk in America (2010).



Although clearly not a trained and scholarly historian, Sukru Server Aya has offered over many years a monumental service in collecting documents unmistakably illustrating the exaggerated, inconsistent statements about the treatment of the Ottoman Government, and Turks generally, of Armenians during WWI. The evidence here is of a prejudicial, one-sided and venomous anti-Turkish stance characteristic of a time when the defeated Turks were fair game. Ayas collection of the words of influential Armenian advocates cannot be ignoredand yet it has been and most likely will continue to be. Yet if the world listens to the facts Aya so passionately presents, a step forward will have been taken to interrupt the continuous cycle of murderous Insatiable rage based on the events of a century ago.