(The noble Turkish nation is above all these accusations and allegations.)

Black Propaganda Rages on as the Ottoman Empire Begins to Lose Ground

In the beginning of this chapter, it was explained how the British deep state chose the Ottoman Empire and the Turks as its primary targets beginning in the mid 19th century. During those years, the British deep state started a systematic propaganda war against the Ottoman Empire. Vilifying the Ottoman army with imaginary tales of violence, and insulting Sultan Abdul Hamid II with disrespectful names like the ‘Red Sultan’ were among the methods employed.

However, the longest and fiercest propaganda targeted the Turkish people, the main body of constituents and the rulers of the Ottoman Empire. The leading British figures of the time sought to prepare the background for their goal of colonializing the Turkish people and therefore called the Turkish nation ‘backward, barbarous and primitive’ as a part of their plan.

According to Cyrus Hamlin, the founder and first president of the American Robert College in Istanbul, the anti-Turkish propaganda of the British began prior to WWI. A ‘propaganda bureau’ was set up in 1870 in London, with the duty of spreading news against Turkey in other countries and managing the relevant propaganda.249 This propaganda was the first step toward the British deep state’s dream of ‘a divided Ottoman Empire’.

PROPAGANDA POSTERS THAT DO NOT REFLECT THE TRUTH

The British deep state, in the process of dismembering the Ottoman lands, resorted to propaganda on a frequent basis. Black propaganda caricatures, intended to depict Muslims as supposedly savage and barbaric, was a commonly employed method

William Ewart Gladstone, who served as the British Prime Minister from 1880 to 1885, was among the inventors of this policy. Gladstone uttered numerous insults against the Turkish nation and sought to use those insults to support his imperialist projects that involved aspirations such as to drive the Turks back to the steppes of Central Asia for the continuation of their civilization. Once he said that the so-called evil actions of Turks can be eliminated only when they are eliminated.250 (The Noble Turkish nation is above such words)

Ahmet İhsan, a member of the Committee of Union and Progress, also mentioned Gladstone’s approach in his memoir:

Notorious Gladstone held up a Qur’an in British parliament and said that as long as Turks walk with this Book, they are harmful to civilization.251 (The Qur’an is above such remarks)

As anti-Turk propaganda raged on in the West, different ethnicities were living together in peace under Ottoman rule. (Above) A painting of festival celebrations where people from different faiths were spending time together in the Ottoman Empire.

In addition to such outrageous remarks, Gladstone didn’t refrain from producing propaganda material against the Turks. In his book Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East that was widely disseminated in London, he actively sought to provoke the British people against the Turkish nation. For instance, he said, “Let the Turks now carry away their abuses in the only possible manner, namely by carrying off themselves.”

The anti-Turkish propaganda was so intense, even the Conservative government that had previously been amicable to Turkey, changed its stance. André Maurois writes in his book A History of England, “Gladstone kindled British opinion against them [the Turks] by pamphleteering and speech-making…”252

A PROPAGANDA POSTER THAT DOES NOT REFLECT THE TRUTH

Gladstone remained in power between 1880-1885 as Prime Minister and, during his term of office, the anti-Turkish sentiment spread immensely. The media, in particular, carried out an intense indoctrination with regards to the Turkish and Ottoman identities. Fake news of ‘Turkish barbarity’ and ‘Turkish violence’ spread like wildfire. Sir Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, the British MP who observed the Turkish-Greek war of 1897 at the battlefield, mentions the hostile policy that the British suddenly unleashed against the Turks in his memoirs:

The most violent denunciations and the most vituperative epithets were indulged in during the ten months after December, 1894, and were based upon journalistic fictions… These stories either had no existence whatever in reality, or rested on the most slender basis of fact.

By atrocity-mongering and sham sentiment, I mean two things: first, the charge against a nation or power of atrocities which do not exist… For nine months the Sultan, the Turkish Government, the Turkish army, and the Turkish people were vilified and attacked in England for alleged atrocities… which never had any existence at all. … These horrible atrocities never existed; the stories were absolute fiction…253

Lord Salisbury	Albert Sorel

While the British tried to show Ottomans as a barbarous, backward, primitive and violent society using absurd lies, they were also giving the subliminal message that the Ottoman Empire had to be brought down. Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith said in a speech that the Ottoman Edmpire was on its deathbed and maintained that the sick man would not revive again.254

This entire propaganda operation was carried out in tandem with the British deep state’s operation to dismember the Ottoman Empire. In 1898, the British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury sent a telegram to the British ambassador at St. Petersburg suggesting a ‘partition of preponderance’255 between Russia and Britain in the Ottoman Empire confirming the existence of this strategy.

Underneath this relentless anti-Ottoman propaganda of the British deep state lay the glaring truth that they promoted enmity towards the Turks. The leaders of the British deep state, as a reflection of their imperialist way of thinking, sought to justify their actions by labeling the nations they targeted as “backward, primitive and barbarous”. A letter written by British Sir Edward Grey on August 11, 1908, following the declaration of the Second Constitutional Period, reflects this sentiment clearly:

What has happened already in Turkey is so marvellous that I suppose it is not impossible that she will establish a Constitution, but it may well be that the habit of vicious and corrupt government will be too strong for reform and that animosities of race … will again produce violence and disorder.256

Frederick Gustavus Burnaby

Lord Salisbury wrote the following about the Turks in a confidential document of 1911:

Even Mr. Buxton seems to recognize the absurdity of a nation in this state of barbarism claiming to be treated as a European State and to abolish capitulations and so on.257

The British deep state wanted faster results, and stepped up the psychological pressure on the Ottoman Empire and the Turks and extended the scale of its black propaganda against them. For that they turned to the US administration and the US media for support, and rubbed their anti-Turkish sentiment on to the American people. The following words of US senator Henry Cabot Lodge clearly display this hatred and fanaticism:

In the days of their success [the Ottoman Turks] were a scourge to Europe and Christendom. In the long centuries of their decay they have been the pest and the curse of Europe, the source of innumerable wars, the executioners in countless massacres…Such a… government as this is a curse to modern civilization. … My earnest hope is that among the results of the war… one of the great results I pray for will be the final extinction of the Turkish Empire in Europe.258

When Colonel House suggested Henry Morgenthau as ambassador to Turkey in 1912, the US President Woodrow Wilson said, “There ain’t going to be no Turkey,” to which House replied, “Then let him go look for it”.

Wilson revealed the prevalent anti-Turkish stance in the USA during those days when he said that what the American public will approve would be the defense of Armenians or any other nations against Turks.259

French historian Albert Sorel, on the other hand, said the following:

This is the policy some civilizations pursue in the East. They snatch parts of Turkish, Indian, Chinese lands, seize their wealth, kill them and then tell them ‘don’t get angry, we’re not fighting with you. We are your best friends.’260

Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The White Man’s Burden”, published in The New York Sun on February 10, 1899, implied that John Bull –the symbol of Britain– and Uncle Sam –the symbol of the USA– ruled the non-white peoples of the Earth.

Ahmed Rıza in his book La Crise de L’Islâm (The Crisis of Islam) explained the black propaganda of the British deep state against the Turks in the words of a Westerner:

Enduring the presence of Turks in Europe, who maintain their classic barbarous and tyrannical character, is a stain for the European civilization; Turks must be kicked out of Europe.261(The Noble Turkish nation is above such words)

Let’s remember at this point that prior to WWI, the British deep state had heavily focused on the United States and easily manipulated it into alignment with its goals. The Turkophobia that developed in the United States during this time was due to the efforts of the British deep state and the relevant media propaganda in the country.

The British deep state’s influence on the US was referred to as the Great Rapprochement. There were propaganda posters everywhere, in which John Bull and Uncle Sam personifications- symbolizing the UK and the US respectively – were joining forces.

However, there were many sensible people at the time who refused to give into this racist trend in Britain and Europe, and could appreciate the Turkish people. For instance, the British officer Frederick Gustavus Burnaby who travelled to Turkey at the end of 19th century is one of those rare personalities. His descriptions in his book On Horseback Through Asia Minor give an unbiased and accurate account of the Ottoman Empire at the time. At a time when Turkophobia was at its peak in Britain, this British officer was in Anatolia and explained what he saw:

People in this country who abuse the Turkish nation, and accuse them of every vice under the sun, would do well to leave off writing pamphlets and travel a little in Anatolia… many writers who call themselves Christians might well take a lesson from the Turks in Asia Minor.262

Likewise, many unbiased foreign war correspondents who had been in Turkey during the Balkan wars, wrote the truth about the Turks:

Since there are in Europe armchair philosophers who write that the Turkish soldiers are looters and murderers, it is our duty to protest with energy. We have always found the Turks showing great endurance and restraint; we have never witnessed any act of cruelty.263

The Propaganda Bureau of The British Deep State: Wellington House

The British deep state used its propaganda tools most effectively and extensively during WWI. War was being fought not only in battlefields, but also in newspaper headlines. So much so that the black propaganda operations to malign the enemy and exonerate the allies contributed greatly to the British success in WWI. The sinister propaganda campaign probably dealt one of the deadliest blows to the Ottoman Empire. It is important to reveal the sinister policies the British deep state followed during WWI, because only then can we understand the current strategies used today. The British deep state continues to carry out intense propaganda using media and various organizations to bring the countries they target closer to downfall, to spread lies easily and to add new countries to its empire of colonies. Needless to say, the said propaganda network is more effective and widespread today than ever before.

Britain’s propaganda bureau, under the guidance of the British deep state, carefully designed the anti-Turkish propaganda during WWI. American institutions and leaders also joined in the process, urged on by the same deep organization. Let us reiterate that the similar propaganda efforts of American institutions during those days were largely carried out at the instigation of the British deep state. During the two world wars, the USA got its information and intelligence solely through British sources. This enabled the British deep state to carry out its provocation using such propaganda and to determine the friends and foes of the USA for her.

During WWI, the British Foreign Office was responsible for the British deep state’s propaganda operations. So much so, the Foreign Office set up a ‘War Propaganda Bureau’ in Wellington House building at Buckingham Gate, London in 1914, and appointed Charles Masterman from the House of Lords as its director. From that point on, although its institutional structure and leaders changed, British deep state propaganda continued through ‘Wellington House’.

Since then, many people and agencies have worked according to the instructions and directives of Wellington House, including politicians, businessmen and even leaders of media outlets. The people who carried out the propaganda behind closed doors were called the ‘invisible government’. The goal was to manipulate the masses in line with the desired direction by means of propaganda. To achieve this, words, phrases and rhetoric were carefully developed to appeal to the emotions, beliefs and expectations of people. Lies were repeated as if they were simple truths.

Wellington House didn’t only manipulate British public opinion during WWI, but carried out projects for the people of other countries, as well. On September 19, 1916, the British PM Lloyd George confirmed this truth with the following words:

The public know only half the story. They read of the victories; the cost is concealed.264

During WWI, Wellington House propaganda bureau published 400 articles weekly, printed in 17 languages, and produced countless books, booklets, and brochures. By June 1915, the number of materials printed and distributed reached some seven million. When the war ended, the bureau had distributed 106 million pieces of material. Wellington House never had any budget problems as the British deep state sufficiently provided it with funds. While the initial budget was only £ 10,000 when the office was first established, it swiftly went up and reached £ 145,000 by 1917.265

Towards the end of the war, some British MPs began to criticize this exploitation of the media. For instance, British statesman Austen Chamberlain said that press lost its freedom and with its freedom, it also lost its power.266

Wellington House was not only carrying out anti-Turkish black propaganda, it was also making sure that the British people got all the war news after they were heavily censored and presented in a highly-biased manner. There were many calls to arms, but no one knew what was really happening at the front.

During WWI, the main targets of this ugly propaganda were Germans and Turks. After the war ended, both British and Belgium authorities denied the reports that German soldiers had hung priests by church bells in Holland, or that they had stabbed babies with bayonets.267 The source of this wartime propaganda was once again Wellington House.

Wellington House wasn’t only disseminating propaganda-laden publications. It was also acting as a censorship authority overseeing the information offered by the media. For instance, the news from the battlefield could reach the public only after it was filtered by Wellington House’s censorship system. It assigned two official photographers and a few painters to depict the situation at the fronts. Their work had to strictly comply with the directives of Wellington House. No other photographer or painter was allowed to provide material; Wellington House had banned it.

Certain British journalists and newspapers were chosen and were given the duty to report the news in line with the instructions of the propaganda bureau. Naturally, these people wrote as requested, presenting only the approved photos. Anyone daring to stray out of these lines to interpret and photograph the war in any other way was sanctioned.268 In other words, the British media presented the world in the way the British deep state portrayed it. Today, the situation is not very different except that the media influenced by the British deep state has expanded and spread around the world, with more journalists doing its bidding.

Wellington House’s anti-Turkish activities represent a broad network of black propaganda that continues even today. The so-called ‘Armenian genocide’ this institution fabricated during WWI, was particularly used to provoke the American public opinion against the Turks and to ensure US participation in the war as a British ally. These claims and Wellington House propaganda are still used as leverage against Turkey.

Now, let’s examine the reasons why a fiction like ‘Armenian genocide’ was made up in the first place:

The British alliance with Russia during WWI wasn’t something the USA was willing to accept. Russia was notorious at the time, and the American public was mistrustful of it. However, Britain needed to keep Russia’s support while getting the USA to join the war. For that, it had to find a commonality that could bring these two giants together. According to the plan, a new enemy was going to be forged and that enemy must have looked like it had committed even bigger crimes than Russia. This common enemy was chosen as the Ottoman Empire. Turkish politician Onur Öymen explains the situation:

This was one of the most important reasons why British propaganda bureau Wellington House used the so-called claim of Turkish genocide of Armenians as one of its main propaganda points. In fact, Turks were held with great esteem in the Islamic world at that time. The British decided to use this allegation of genocide to tarnish the image of the Ottoman Empire in the world and in the Islamic world. What country would follow a leader that supposedly massacred more than one million people? This is what the British had planned.269

This black propaganda that Wellington House initiated against Turkey did produce the results the British deep state longed for. As a result of a systematic campaign, the propaganda managed to build an anti-Turkish public opinion in the US. Strangely enough, just like today, some people from Turkey lent their support to this black propaganda, trading their country for petty gains offered by the British deep state, not caring at all if they became traitors or not in the process.

Black Propaganda Against Turks During WWI

Wellington House launched an intense propaganda war against Turkey, as it had done so many times before against others. Many famous writers and politicians were mobilized to this end and numerous books, articles and brochures were written, including the one by the famous British historian and expert on international relations, Arnold J. Toynbee. The goal was showing Turks as cruel, oppressive, evil people and accusing the Ottoman Empire with completely baseless allegations.

The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1915-1916, also known as The Blue Book co-written by Toynbee and James Bryce, another British historian and politician, was pure propaganda material laden with lies and defamation against Turkey. Designed to elicit feelings of hatred and anger in the reader, the book consisted of imaginary stories of how the Turks supposedly massacred Armenians.

However, no evidence was offered for the said allegations and stories and there was no solid proof for the claims. Onur Öymen writes the following about the people, alleged to be the sources of many claims in the book:

The people mentioned [in the book] are named X, Y, Z etc. Who are these X, Y, Z? The detailed investigations of American researcher Prof. Justin McCarthy finally gave a satisfactory answer to this question. Most of them were American missionaries that were active in Turkey during those years, who badmouthed Turkey in every opportunity they got. Some others were the members of violent Armenian rebel groups. 59 out of 150 accounts were penned by the missionaries, 52 of them were sent by Armenians. Armenian Dashnak party’s reports, which considered Ottomans as their arch-enemies, were also used in the book. The rest were taken from Dashnak-sympathizing or Armenian cause sympathizing newspapers. In other words, Armenian newspapers of the time were also used as a propaganda weapon.270

The propaganda book The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire authored by Arnold J. Toynbee (top) together with James Bryce (bottom), the British historian and statesman. Toynbee later felt remorse for the false allegations he included in the book.

Another book published by Wellington House during the same days was a book called Martyred Armenia claimed to be written by Faiz El-Ghusein. El-Ghusein was presented as a bureaucrat and district officer that worked in the Ottoman Empire. However, historians found no trace of a person with that name and title in any period of Ottoman history.271 This book, written by an imaginary name, was just more propaganda material of the British deep state.

As explained in the previous chapter, it is true that some Armenians were provoked by the British deep state during WWI against the Ottoman Empire. Consequently, some assumed an anti-Turkish stance due to such incitement. However, it would clearly be a mistake to ascribe this approach to all our Armenian brothers. As a matter of fact, Hovhannes Katchaznouni, who was a member of the Dashnak Party and the first prime minister of the Republic of Armenia, said during a speech in Dashnak Party Congress in 1923 that Dashnak party was directly responsible for the disaster that befell the Armenians. He said that Armenians, primed by the Russians, massacred Muslim populations during those days and the Dashnaks built a dictatorship in Armenia while Armenian terrorism was set in motion to win over Western public opinion. He also mentioned that in the face of all these developments, Turkey acted with a justified sense of self-defense. According to him, there was no one to blame other than the Dashnak administration.272

The British deep state repeatedly used the fake accounts of alleged genocide that it fabricated against the Turks. This plot that was devised in the beginning of WWI is still being used as leverage against the Turks in the first quarter of the 21st century. The most effective weapon to counter this plot is ‘love’. If we love and stand by our Armenian brothers more than ever, if we make sure that they feel at home in Turkey and build close relations with the Armenian State, this sinister British deep state plot will be foiled once and for all.

The propaganda book Martyred  Armenia supposedly written by Faiz El-Ghusein. However, historians found no record in Ottoman sources of a person with this name that held an official position in the Ottoman Empire.

Another important point is the danger of confusing the missionaries mentioned here with the true clergy tasked with spreading . True Christians are kind-hearted and sincere people full of love. They will never allow themselves to be used as pawns in such filthy propaganda, which is meant to sow seeds of hatred. The said missionaries were in truth spies directly linked to Wellington House. They entered Ottoman lands in the guise of missionaries and carried out spying and provocation activities. The statements in the reports prepared by these so-called missionaries clearly prove this fact:

In all of the writings of the missionaries, … The Turks hated education and always persecuted the educated. No Christians had ever been part of the Ottoman government. Turks needed Christians because the Turks were racially incapable of being “doctors, dentists, tailors, carpenters, every profession or trade requiring the least skill.” And the missionaries wrote that, now that the Turks had killed the Armenians, Westerners who were going to have to govern the Ottoman Empire, because the Turks had rid themselves of the only people with brains, the Armenians, and the Turks could not run the country themselves.273

These missionaries sent a dozen reports with similar content to Toynbee, which were then sent to the US via Wellington House. It must be noted that the reports contained the instruction, “Under no circumstances reveal source.”274

Turkish Proponents of Wellington House

Oddly enough, the hateful anti-Turkish rhetoric developed during WWI found support among some Ottoman journalists known for their anglophile nature. These people accepted serving the British deep state and betraying their country in exchange for petty gains, which sometimes were nothing other than being linked to the British deep state. Such people have always existed throughout the history of this structure and they still do today. For instance, a Turkish journalist Refi Cevat Ulunay from Alemdar wrote the following shocking lines in his piece dated April 21, 1919: “We are waiting for the British. Turks cannot straighten themselves up on their own.” And on July 14, 1919 he made the following outrageous remark:

It is imperative that Turkey leans its back to a foreign country. And that cannot be any other than Britain. There is no danger for the Islamic world in delivering the keys of Islam to the reliable hands of the British.275

Various newspapers in the Ottoman Empire exposed and condemned the propagandists who worked to make people accept British mandate.  1. Alemdar and Sabah newspapers, which desire British mandate [in Turkey], are condemned 2. The sole salvation is supposedly the British mandate!

A couple of years after the publication of The Blue Book and other anti-Turkish books of Wellington House, certain media organizations that supported the Armistice of Mudros began shouting in unison that handing over the country to the British is the best thing to do. During the years of Istanbul’s occupation, they continued to praise the British. Today, some media groups and journalists with a similar mindset and acting under the wings of the British deep state continue this mission.

(1) Grand Vizier Mehmed Emin Ali Pasha, who enforced the Imperial Reform Edict of 1856. With the Edict of Reform in effect, non-Muslim constituents in the Ottoman Empire obtained the same rights as Muslim constituents. Following the edict, Armenians were assigned to the highest positions in the administration, became Ministers and Parliament Members and represented the Turkish people.

Provocation of the so-called missionaries and some violent, rebellious Armenians was based on the unfounded allegations that Armenians and Christians were persecuted by the Ottoman Empire and that they were treated as second-class citizens. However, it is a well-known historical fact that the non-Muslim population of the Ottoman Empire enjoyed completely the same rights as Muslims, particularly after the Edict of Reforms. By the end of the 19th century, non-Muslims were given voting rights, represented in the Parliament and came to hold important administrative positions.

We are proud to have had Armenian statesmen and pashas. (Above) Armenian members of the Ottoman Parliament

For instance, during the term of Ali Pasha as the Grand Vizier, the Minister of Public Works was an Armenian named Krikor Agaton, and Ohannes Gümüşyan was another Armenian who was assigned the same office. Many Armenians served as Ministers in charge of Trade, Forestry and Mining. After the constitution was declared in 1876, the Ottoman Parliament had 46 non-Muslim MPs and 9 of them were Armenians. In the parliament set up after the declaration of the second constitution, 11 Armenian MPs served while 12 served in the Parliament of 1914. Four of those Armenian MPs were members of the Hunchak and two members of the Dashnak parties. Similarly, Parliament of 1908 had 13 Greek and 5 Jewish members.276

Furthermore, more than 25% of the staff in the Foreign Ministry and more than 10% of the staff in the Ministry of Justice of the Ottoman Empire were non-Muslims. In addition, between 1880 and 1912, 7% of the students of the School of Political Sciences, known to be the school of future administrators, were again non-Muslims.

Historian Justin McCarthy exposes Wellington House

Famous American history professor Justin McCarthy, who is an expert on the Ottoman Empire, Turks and the Middle East, offers the following important details about Wellington House and its anti-Turkish propaganda activities:  Wellington House drew on some of the best minds in the British government. The historian Arnold Toynbee was an adviser to Wellington House from 1914 and sat until 1917 on the committee that met daily and set propaganda policies. … Other private and public figures and members of ostensibly non-governmental patriotic organizations cooperated with or acted under the direction of the official propagandists.1 British Universities provided propaganda pamphlets and expertise. By the standards of the time, the British propaganda effort was a major undertaking. By 1917, Wellington House had a staff of 54 and could call on help from other departments and ministries. … The first report (June, 1915) of Wellington House listed distribution of approximately 2.5 million copies of books, pamphlets, and other written propaganda in 17 languages. The second report (February, 1916) listed 7 million copies circulated. In 1914, British Propaganda distributed 45 different publications; in 1915, 132; in 1916, 202; in 1917, 469.2 Unfortunately no record of distribution beyond 1917 exists. It can be assumed that the numbers continued to grow. All was done in secret and was done creatively. The Wellington House brief was simple, the same brief as that of all propagandists. They were to make the enemies look as bad as possible and make their friends, and especially British themselves, look as good as could be. Their main focus was, naturally, Germany, but much effort was expended against the Turks… … they destroyed all the records of the Propaganda Office immediately after the war. This has made it difficult to reconstruct the activities of the wartime propaganda office. [However], some Wellington House records were sent to other offices in the British Government. Although the originals were destroyed, copies were sometimes kept in relevant Foreign Office departments, especially in the Foreign Office records for the United States. The number of documents is modest, but they indicate some small part of Wellington House operations against the Turks. Despite the effort to blot out the historical record, a good source on the actual publications of Wellington House exists: The record of the propaganda books distributed by Wellington House was kept in a hand-written ledger book, carefully bound. … These books were sent off to the Foreign Office Library, which was eventually opened to researchers. … the ledger affords a picture of British propaganda office activities. … ◉ The publications listed in the ledger are only books or large pamphlets. They do not include press releases, articles, and other materials. The general themes of the propaganda are consistent from work to work: [Noble Turkish nation is above such remarks] ◉ Turks are illegitimate rulers who have destroyed all lands in which they have ruled. European rule over the Middle East would be far preferable. ◉ Turks are Muslims who hate all other religions, particularly Christianity. They have always treated Christians badly. ◉ Turks are guilty of inhuman atrocities against Christians, including mass murder and awful sexual crimes. ◉ The Germans stand behind Turkish evil deeds, either because they ordered the deeds or because they had the power to stop them and refused to do so. ◉The mass of the people of the Ottoman Empire look to the British for salvation. This includes Muslims, who appreciate the good government the British have given Muslims in Egypt and India. British propaganda made special efforts to tie the Germans to the Turks. This was an intelligent ploy, especially in the United States, where there was much pro-German sentiment but Muslims were held in disdain. British propaganda “proved” that the Germans could not be true Europeans, because they consorted with evil Muslim [Muslims are above such remarks] and Asiatic Turks. … The list of publications in the ledger is long, but for the Middle East there are a more limited number of books. The table gives only those volumes, but it provides an idea of the breadth and the scope of the Wellington House interests. They include Palestine, Jews and Zionism, and especially the Turks.3

1. George G. Bruntz, Allied Propaganda and the Collapse of the German Empire, New York: Arno Press, 1972, p. 42  2. M. L. Sanders and Philip M. Taylor, British Propaganda During The First World War, 1914-18, London: Palgrave, 1982, p. 108 3. Justin McCarthy, “Wellington House and the Turks”, Louisville University, Department of History/USA

Anti-Turkish Black Propaganda Intended for Other Muslims

Efforts to show Toynbee’s The Blue Book as a realistic source continued for a long time. Bryce claimed that the people presented as sources in this book were unaware of each other, and tried to prove that independent sources provided reliable information. However, the researches of American historian Justin McCarthy showed that the so-called missionaries compared notes before they sent them to Wellington House, or to put it more accurately, they made them up together. In other words, The Blue Book was nothing other than a script prepared by special agents.

Another anti-Turkish book published by Wellington House told the lie that Turks had massacred 2 million Armenians. However, during that time, the total number of the Armenian population living in the Ottoman Empire was only around 1 million.277

Wellington House propaganda managed to influence some Indian and Arab subjects of the Ottoman Empire. As a result, some Indians joined the fight on the side of the British.

Anti-Turkish propaganda spread not only in Britain and the US, but in other countries as well. The propaganda intended for Indian Muslims was particularly noteworthy. Up to that point, Indian Muslims regarded Turkey as a friend and a leader country. However, the British deep state viewed this sympathy as a serious threat to its interests. It knew that in case of a war with the Turks, these people would without a doubt choose to side with the Turks. Also, Indian Muslims would never accept British pressure on the Turks and the British deep state would lose its influence in this important region. This was a grave risk that the British deep state could not take, especially in India, which had been a long-time colony. Therefore, Indian Muslims and Arabs needed to be convinced that Turks were ‘bad Muslims’. The subsequent propaganda efforts were designed accordingly.

Tonybee summarized the British deep state’s view of the Islamic world saying that South Islam (from Morocco to Arabia), or the Ashari school, was no longer a threat as one could just buy a sheikh and control them all. But he considered North Islam (the Turkish region from Istanbul to Bukhara), or the Maturidi school, a threat because they were at peace with science and therefore, a revolutionary like Atatürk might come up any time, for which reason, he said, precautions should be taken in advance.278

PROPAGANDA POSTERS THAT DO NOT REFLECT THE TRUTH

The Armenian issue still highly debated today was first introduced to the world through propaganda posters, illustrations and systematic provocative efforts. The architect of this black propaganda was the British deep state.

Clearly, Atatürk completely dashed the sinister plans of the British deep state for Turkey.

After the end of WWI, all the evidence exposing the facts about the Wellington House propaganda efforts was destroyed. This is very suspicious, especially considering that Britain keeps a very systematic archive on history, which is commonly used for research purposes. However, the Wellington House publications had to be destroyed in a mysterious fashion. Nevertheless, Wellington House had sent certain documents to various ministries and institutions during the war for propaganda purposes. Currently, the only information about the Wellington House activities consists of these very limited documents. However, even this limited information reveals that around forty books were published, which included false claims that Turks exterminated Jews, Slavs, Albanians, Arabs and particularly Armenians.279

Turks and Armenians have lived together in peace for centuries. They have mixed and become one. The British deep state broke that unity.1. An Armenian family in the Ottoman Empire 2. Armenian doctors in the Ottoman Empire

After the war, Arnold Toynbee travelled to Turkey as a journalist, studied the region and witnessed Turkey’s losses due to war. What he saw made him change his mind completely and he admitted that The Blue Book was a book of deception written for propaganda purposes. This time, he wrote books with favorable views of Turkish people. However, The Blue Book that is full of lies is still popular today.

In 2005, the Turkish government, with support from the main opposition party, demanded that Great Britain apologize to Turkey for The Blue Book. The Turkish government emphasized the following points in making this request:

◉ this book included baseless allegations and was used for black propaganda during WWI,

◉ it was produced by the Bryce commission,

◉ many people including Toynbee himself later admitted that it was deliberately produced as an anti-Turkish propaganda.

Interestingly, the British government did apologize for its black propaganda against Germany, but never extended the same courtesy to the Turkish government. The apology to Germany amounted to an admission that Wellington House had been a propaganda institute, but such an apology wasn’t made to the Turkish government, which should have been the first one to receive it.280 Despite all the efforts, this apology never came and The Blue Book kept its popularity amongst certain circles.

As previously explained, the Armenian issue was an extensive plot of the British deep state prepared as leverage against the Turks. It is important to remember that the plans of the British deep state to divide the Ottomans haven’t fully succeeded yet, and the Turkish lands are still being targeted with similar policies. For this reason, the British deep state, in its bid to weaken, divide and control Turkey, will never retract its respective scenarios nor will it end its respective black propaganda. The best way to thwart such plans will be reinforcing and strengthening our bonds of brotherhood and friendship with the Armenians.

Many brave people who witnessed the events that took place during this era of intense black propaganda fearlessly spoke the truth. For instance, a French officer who was present in the region during the incidents involving Armenians, gave the following account:

They fooled us with stories of gangs. In truth, there had never been an Armenian genocide… Turks, in self-defense position, had to take some precautions… For a warring nation, the noblest cause is the effort to save the country and that cause required Turks to take action. We were fooled. Turks are good people. Talks of genocide are just myths invented to lure us and to provoke us against the Ottomans.281

Another French author, Claude Farrére, criticized the French press that quickly passed judgments under the influence of the British deep state and sent the following message to Turkish youngsters:

Turks don’t fear bullets… But I’m calling on to the Turkish youth. They should know that they are not fighting the enemy only on the battlefield. Sometimes there is a far more important war than that is fought by the armies. It is the political war. The enemies of Turks are trying to deceive, trying to fool the European public… Open your eyes and beware of this propaganda.282

It is a pleasant surprise that there were sensitive foreigners that told the truth for what it was when there were people even in the Ottoman Empire that chose to back anti-Turkish British deep state propaganda. This shows that the criticism here is not directed at the mentioned countries or their peoples, but only the mafia-like deep states present in those countries. Nations are innocent, guiltless and have always and will always be our friends. The criticism of the British deep state is only intended to unmask the said plots, to show the irrationality of what was done and to urge those people and institutions to do the right thing.

Wellington House Influence in the US

During WWI, the British deep state cut the telegram cable that linked Germany to the US. For this reason, the American public was getting all its news from British sources and through a British filter. Similarly, the British heavily censored the accounts of the American journalists in Europe. Even though the American administration was partly aware of the censoring, the American people were completely unaware that all of this was a part of British deep state propaganda effort. The propaganda bolstered by such methods lent serious support to the deep state.

This is how Sir Gilbert Parker, the head of the propaganda campaign, explains the effects of his efforts:

We have an organisation extraordinarily widespread in the United States, but which does not know it is an organisation. It is worked entirely by personal association and inspired by voluntary effort, which has grown more enthusiastic and pronounced with the passage of time… Finally it should be noticed that no attack has been made upon us in any quarter of the United States, and that in the eyes of the American people the quiet and subterranean nature of our work has the appearance of a purely private patriotism and enterprise…283

Clearly, the deceitful -as much as deep- propaganda of the British deep state created the desired effect on the American public. Well-meaning Americans failed to see the nefarious plans behind the propaganda and were guided in the direction shown by the British deep state.

Propaganda illustrations that depict the world reign of Uncle Sam and John Bull were frequently used during WWI. The British deep state took the US under its control and managed it as it desired

Viscount Bryce’s reports, one of the co-authors of the notorious The Blue Book, was prepared with the specific purpose of creating an anti-Turkish sentiment in the American public. Here are some of the outrageous remarks of Bryce against Turks in the Bryce Report:

Turkish government has been the very worst which has afflicted humanity during the last fifteen centuries. The Turks have always been what a distinguished European historian of the last generation called them—”nothing better than a band of robbers encamped in territories which they had conquered and devastated.” They have never become civilized, they have never imbibed or tried to apply any of the principles on which civilized government must be conducted. So far from progressing with the progress of the years, they have gone from bad to worse. Savages they were when they descended into Western Asia from the plains of Turkistan, savages they were when Edmund Burke [British statesman and author] so described them one hundred and thirty years ago, and their government still retains its savage and merciless character.284

The British deep state used propaganda as a weapon also during WWII. By means of provocative news, it was able to goad the US into joining the war, which resulted in the victory of Britain.

Bryce then penned a book entitled The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and continued his defamation campaign through this book. Historian McCarthy explained that the real author of the book was Toynbee. According to McCarthy, all the techniques visible in the said Armenian report were identical to the later falsified report that detailed the German violence in Belgium. This report also included anonymous information gathered from unreliable sources but there was no conclusive evidence that the people mentioned in the report had really said or written those things.285

In time, it was revealed that none of the accounts of violence that Bryce’s report on Germans included were true. This is what author H. C. Peterson writes about the said report:

His [Bryce’s] report is one of the most extreme examples of the definition of propaganda as “assassination by word.” It was in itself one of the worst atrocities of the war.286

The very same method was used against the Turks; the very same black propaganda campaign was directed at them using the same methods by the same people. Germany years later received an apology from Britain for the injustice done, but Turks still had to deal with the same defamation campaign.

The British deep state sent highlights from the Bryce Report to American newspapers for publication. This is what McCarthy writes about it:

Gilbert Parker reported “The New York Times, Philadelphia Public Ledger, and the Chicago Herald … devoted much space to the advance sheets of ‘these Armenian horror stories’.” Current History a monthly magazine feature of the New York Times made the Bryce Report the centerpiece of a series on anti-Turkish articles, quoting the entire lengthy introduction of the Bryce Report and summarizing supposedly the most ghastly portions of the book. The New York Times itself devoted three pages to extracts from the Bryce Report. The New Republic praised Bryce on his selection of sources and evidence, without mentioning that most of the sources were anonymous, then went on to summarize the material and condemn the Turks. Other papers and magazines did the same, summarizing or quoting directly from the report.287

In other words, no sources were provided in the British deep state publications, and the Turks were unfairly targeted as these fake allegations were blindly served to the American public. It must be remembered that the true target of the British deep state propaganda was the masses that were unaware of the truths about WWI and the Middle East. Almost all news reports read by the American and British public during those days were penned by the British deep state propagandists. British and American people were deceived with these untrue accounts. This is how the American historian McCarthy, who exposed the unfair treatment of Turks, expresses his astonishment that the said deceitful propaganda continues today:

More astonishing is the fact that British propaganda against the Turks has been ignored in scholarly publications on wartime propaganda. Every serious scholarly study of British propaganda during World War I rightly labels British propaganda against the Germans as a carefully constructed attack on the truth in the interests of victory. The same studies do not even consider British propaganda against the Turks, except when it also was an attack on the Germans. What British propagandists did to the Germans they also did to the Turks, yet no one has seemed to care. Propaganda against the Germans has been condemned while the calumnies against the Turks live on. The infamous Bryce Report on the Armenians is republished and quoted … It has acquired a patina of respectability as an “Accepted and Reliable Source,” while the Bryce Report against the Germans properly lies unread on dusty library shelves. Annotated bibliographies on World War I or on genocide as a topic prominently feature the Report and other British propaganda publications directed against Turks, without any identification of them for what they were. The common rules of historical criticism, which include verification of sources, have not been applied. In fact, the Bryce Report on the Ottoman Armenians should be consigned to the same historical dustbin as the Bryce Report on the Germans. It is only a reliable source on the history of propaganda, not on the history of the Middle East.288

A Propaganda War: World War II

Sir Gilbert Parker	Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister

As in the case of WWI, the propaganda skills of the British deep state had a huge impact on the course of WWII. Such efforts made the greatest contribution to Britain’s success. The deep British media, particularly its extensions in the BBC, played their part skillfully during and after the war. Interestingly enough, the BBC still continues its task today almost as a propaganda machine of the British deep state.

Even the German Nazi Party, that set up a propaganda ministry and effectively used propaganda methods laden with lies, couldn’t come close to matching the British deep state’s skills in black propaganda. Joseph Goebbels, who was the propaganda minister of Hitler, described Prime Minister Churchill, an important member of the deep state of the time, with the following words in his article ‘Churchill’s Lie Factory’:

The astonishing thing is that Mr. Churchill … holds to his lies, and in fact repeats them until he himself believes them. … They made good use of the trick during the World War, with the difference that world opinion believed it then, which cannot be said today.… The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.289

Needless to say, it is important to keep the public morale high during wartimes. However, the effective propaganda policy and the manipulation of the press by the British deep state during the First and Second World Wars is important in that it shows how it is able to control the media and present lies as facts, whenever it deems fit. As a matter of fact, even after the war ended, the British deep state influence on the media persisted, especially with respect to vilification of certain countries. As a result, unrest, civil wars, and coups took place in many independent countries.

The British deep state thus managed to establish its influence over other countries, and mainly due to this black propaganda policy, many countries’ administrations became indebted to deep structures. The propaganda weapon, which was the main contributing factor to Britain’s last minute victory in WWII, has been and still is one of the most prominent and destructive forces of the British deep state.

The British deep state used propaganda as a weapon also during WWII. By means of provocative news, it was able to goad the US into joining the war, which resulted in the victory of Britain.

The Ugly Propaganda Continues

British deep state propaganda, which reached its peak during the world wars, continues, albeit through different methods. The effects of Wellington House propaganda haven’t been limited to that period but rather persist even today. Propaganda publications of Wellington House during WWI were systematically reprinted, and many books and researches referred to them for citations. Many of those books were posted on the Internet and spread around the world.

Today, Wellington House books are still suggested as textbooks for history classes in American and European colleges and universities. The issue of Turkey and Armenia has been a topic of particular interest to Wellington House and its many publications, including those of Toynbee and El-Ghusein (an imaginary person), are used by many historians and certain Armenian scientists as basic historical reference books. New editions of deceitful propaganda material from WWI, like The Blue Book, are printed and distributed around the world as if they are historical facts. The sinister British deep state propaganda continues as if nothing has happened, as if its plots were never revealed. The goal is trying to deceive those that haven’t heard and are not aware of this black propaganda.

A major part of world public is currently brainwashed with these made-up stories. Everything that the people learn from these sources is not fact, but what the propaganda office of the British deep state likes them to believe.

The breadth of the British deep state’s lies and defamation during that time was so extensive, even some British figures rose in protest:

British Foreign Minister Chamberlain admitted in his speech at House of Commons in December 1925 that all of those were propaganda lies. Four years after the war, the Belgians announced that all the claims in the said publications were untrue. British MP Arthur Ponsonby gave a detailed account of false news reports prepared by the British propaganda offices during WWI… In 1938, British author and diplomat Harold Nicolson said the following during his speech at the Parliament: ‘We lied damnably during the war’.290

Most information in The Blue Book came from Henry Morgenthau, who had stayed only 26 months in Istanbul during WWI as the American ambassador. In his book, Morgenthau told the lie that Ottomans were persecuting Armenians. Years later, the Associated Press declared these claims in Morgenthau’s book untrue. American Professor Heath W. Lowry said the book was a record of “crude half-truths and outright falsehoods”.291