Nutuk (speech delivered by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk from 15 to 20 October 1927), at the second congress of Republican People's Party. 

 

“There should be no doubt that the statements about the Armenian continent are not in line with the truth. On the contrary, in the southern regions, the Armenians, who were armed by foreign forces, were encouraged by the protection they saw and attacked the Muslims in their places. With the idea of ​​revenge, they were pursuing a policy of ruthless killing and destruction everywhere. This is why the disastrous event in Maraş broke out. The Armenians, who united with the foreign forces, had destroyed an old Muslim city like Maraş with artillery and heavy machine guns. Thousands of helpless and innocent mothers and children were tortured to death. It was the Armenians who committed this atrocity, which was unprecedented in history. The Muslims resisted and defended themselves only to protect their honor and their lives. The telegram sent by the Americans, who stayed in the city with the Muslims during the Maraş genocide, which lasted for twenty days, to their representative offices in Istanbul, revealed in an undeniable way those who created this disaster.

The Muslims in Adana were in danger of being killed every minute under the pressure of the bayonets of the Armenians, who were armed to the teeth. While this policy of cruelty and extermination against Muslims, who wanted nothing more than the preservation of their lives and independence, would attract the attention of the civilized world and bring them to their mercy, how could an offer to ask him to be abandoned by claiming that the opposite was true?"

Nutuk, Volume I: 1919-1920 (Ankara: Turkish Historical Society Press, 1989) pages 508, 510.

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