The Turkish American National Steering Committee (TASC) remembers Sukru Server Aya, who dedicated his wealth and 50 years of his life to humanitarian causes, including seeking truth and reconciliation on the Armenian controversy. Mr. Aya passed away on Saturday, January 26, 2019, in Istanbul. TASC offers its deepest condolences to the Aya family and friends, and the Turkish American community.
Aya was a graduate of Istanbul Robert College. He was an engineer by profession. He was a WWI history buff and extensively researched the relevant archives. He took particular interest in discerning the objectivity of “pro-Armenian and neutral writers” in the media and academia regarding the Armenian Revolt of 1885-1919. He found threads of continuity in the anti-Turkish, pro-interventionist articles of the late 1800s and early 1900s, and the current treatment of the controversy by Western media today. He wrote that the majority of the serious academia tended to disagree with the Armenian narrative of the events of 1915.
Aya wrote that while nationalist revolts carved out dozens of countries out of the falling Ottoman Empire, the Armenian Revolt failed. "Why?”, asked Aya. The Armenian Revolt was among the most tragic of internal conflicts. Due to the privations of WWI and the Armenian Revolt, more than 1.1 Million Muslim and Jewish Ottoman loyalists perished, and over 600,000 Ottoman Armenian rebels died or were displaced in Eastern Anatolia alone. In WWI, more than 4 Million Muslims and Jews Ottoman loyalists perished and many millions more were displaced.
In addition to numerous articles on the historical and legal controversy of the Armenian allegation of genocide, he published three books:
"Genocide of Truth", ("Soykirim Tacirleri ve Gercekler”) (2009)
"The Genocide of Truth Continues, but Facts Tell the Real Story" (2010)
"The Big Lie" ("Buyuk Yalan”) (2017).
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