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[Aratta-Kingdom]

AZG
CULTURAL GENOCIDE: 'THEY DESTROYED THE CHURCH TO BUILD A MOSQUE'

Under this title Milliyet daily of Turkey informed on October 19 that in Argun village of Kulp province of Diarbekir an Armenian church was pulled down to build a mosque in its place. Construction of the mosque was suspended after a few citizens' complaint. According to Milliyet the historic Armenian church of Argun was partially destroyed in the time of republic to build houses with its stones thus making it useless for religious services.

But the Council of Protection of Cultural Heritage and Ecology included the semi-ruined church and the Armenian graveyard into the list of historic monuments needing protection. But builder Kerem Emre, resident of the village, pulled the church down together with part of the graveyard by approbation of his fellow villagers and used the stones of the church to lay foundation of the mosque.

The construction of the mosque began on May 10 but it was stopped after the complaint of several citizens that made the mayor of Kulp and the Diarbekir museum administration intervened.

Head of the village administration, Sadek Turan, told Milliyet on occasion of the illegal construction: "I tried to stop the construction. I provided them with another area for the mosque and told that there are already two mosques functioning in the village. Then builder Emre gathered his fellow villagers and came to me. They accused me of being against the mosque and therefore concluded that I must be an Armenian. I could not stand the pressure any more and gave in."

The village of Kulp was formerly Armenian village Khulp that administratively belonged to province of Mush before 1915.

By Hakob Chakrian

[Aratta-Kingdom]

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY MUST PREVENT RECURRENCE OF GENOCIDES: YURI BALUYEVSKY

ARKA News Agency
Oct 20 2005

YEREVAN, October 20. /ARKA/. The international community must do all
in its power to prevent the recurrence of events like the Armenian
Genocide of 1915, Chief of the General Headquarters, RF Armed Forces,
RF First Deputy Minister of Defense Yuri Baluyevsky stated during
his visit to the Memorial to the Genocide Victims in Tsitsernakaberd.

"Culprit are difficult to find among the contemporary Turkish people,
but the crime must be denounced," he said. "The Armenia people,
who experienced horrible events of the Genocide, lost a third of its
population, deserves respect on the part of us all," Baluyevky said.

During his visit to Armenia, Yuri Baluyevky is to visit the Institute
of Ancient Manuscripts "Matenadaran."

[Aratta-Kingdom]

PRESS RELEASE
Gomidas Institute (UK)
Garod House
42 Blythe Rd.
London W14 0HA

Contact Person: Roland Mnatsakanyan
Email: info@gomidas.org.uk<mailto:info@gomidas.org.uk>

14 November 2005

British Foreign and Commonwealth Office rejects Turkish Parliament's
letter against 1916 British Blue Book

In a further development in the on-going Blue Book saga, the British
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has responded in kind to the
Turkish Parliament's criticism of the 1916 British Parliamentary Blue
Book The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-16. The
Turkish letter of 28 April 2005 claimed that the Blue Book was British
propaganda fabrication and that it vilified Ottoman Turks and continues
to harm Turkish interests today.

However, in a letter dated 8 July 2005, the British Ambassador to
Turkey, Sir Peter Westmacott, informed the Speaker of the Turkish
Parliament that the Turkish Parliament's letter and enclosures
criticising the Blue Book had been placed "in the Library of the House
of Commons where they are available to all Members of Parliament" and
where "it would act as a comment on the Blue Book itself and one to
which historians have access."

There has been no formal response from British MPs and Peers because
they were not told of the existence of the Turkish letter, even though
it was addressed to all members of the Houses of Parliament and
solicited a response.

In his opening remarks, Ambassador Westmacott explained that the 1916
Blue Book, The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-16, was
a Parliament-owned document and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
could not make a statement on it. "However," Sir Westmacott added, "the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office understands that whilst the publication
of the Blue Book may have been regarded as desirable at the time in the
context of the war effort, none of the individual reports has been
refuted; and few have suggested moral or intellectual dishonesty on the
part of the authors, Lord Bryce and Arnold J. Toynbee."

Sir Westmacott's words are significant because they represents a careful
rejection of the Turkish position.

1/ Despite Sir Westmacott's statement that the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office cannot say anything about the Blue Book because it is "a
Parliament-owned document," he actually made such a statement on behalf
of the British Foreign Secretary. His words were not an oversight but a
warning to Turkish Parliamentarians that the FCO could engage the Blue
Book issue if need be.

2/ Sir Westmacott clearly chose to disagree with the two cardinal points
of the Turkish letter when he pointed out that (a) truth and propaganda
are not necessarily mutually exclusive and do not appear to be so in the
blue book; ( Bryce and Toynbee remain in good standing, and their
roles in formulating the Blue Book have not been seriously challenged.
This was a further suggestion that the British were able to dispel the
Turkish criticism if need be.

3/ Finally, when making these statements, Sir Westmacott did not credit
the offending Turkish letter and its assertions about the Blue Book with
any weight at all. In fact his blanket rebuttal of Turkish criticisms is
a measure of the British government sentiment regarding the Turkish
position.

According to Ara Sarafian, who edited the "uncensored edition" of the
1916 Blue Book, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's response was a
skilful effort to defuse the Armenian issue before it became a
self-inflicted debacle for Turkish Parliamentarians. By burying the
Turkish letter in the House of Commons library, the FCO has prevented
British Parliamentarians from defending their own document in a
forthright manner. It also answered allegations against Great Britain by
Turkish Parliamentarians, and threatened to examine the 1916 Blue Book
in a forthright manner, should the Turkish side insist on their
allegations.

To date, there has been no response to the British ambassador's letter

[Aratta-Kingdom]

Raw Story, MA
Aug 3, 2006

Thursday August 3, 2006

A Republican senator who has called on Democrats to give President
Bush's controversial pick for UN Ambassador John Bolton an up or
down vote is now voting to block the nomination of another ambassador
picked by President Bush, RAW STORY has learned.

Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota announced his intention to vote
against recommending confirmation of Richard Hoagland to be President
Bush's ambassador to Armenia. Coleman intends to block the nominee
because he refused to term Turkey's early 20th century of Armenians
living in the country a 'genocide.' Coleman declared in an interview
with the Associated Press "My problem isn't with Hoagland...I continue
to be troubled by our policy that refuses to recognize what was a
historical reality."

The article goes on to explain that the US will not call Turkey's
killing of Armenians in the early 1900s an act of genocide, a position
Hoagland hewed to during his confirmation hearing in June.

Senator Coleman has been a loud voice in favor of Ambassador John
Bolton's confirmation by a Senate vote. In one statement on Tuesday,
Coleman declared that "Blocking the nomination of Ambassador Bolton
is a case study in partisan excess....We must have an up or down vote
on Ambassador Bolton in the Senate."

During Bolton's confirmation hearing last month, he also said "if
you really look at the opposition at times to this nomination...it's
opposition to U.S. policy." He then added "But I think what we do
fundamentally agree with is the belief that the president has the
right to have his voice and his representation, somebody he trusts,
representing us at the United Nations."

[Aratta-Kingdom]

KALONSKA: GERMANY SHOULD RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Yerkir
21.08.2006 16:22

YEREVAN (YERKIR) - Germany should recognize the Armenian
Genocide unreservedly, Hans Kalonska, the director of Germany's
Marborg-Bidenkopf Red Cross said when speaking to reporters in Yerevan.

The German Red Cross delegation visited Sunday the Armenian Genocide
Memorial to pay homage to the 1915 Genocide victims.

Kalonska said the Armenian Genocide resolution passed by the German
Bundestag should have had described the events of the past century
in more precise legal terms.

"The resolution has not found adequate resonance in the German society
though Germany shares a responsibility for the crime," Kalonska
said. He added that only 10 percent of the German youth have some
idea of Armenia and even less are aware of the Armenian Genocide.

Kalonska also said that Turkey cannot join the European Union until
it has recognized the Armenian Genocide.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

Armenian Assembly of America
1140 19th Street, NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-393-3434
Fax: 202-638-4904
Email: info@aaainc.org
Web: www.armenianassembly.org


PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 18, 2006
CONTACT: Christine Kojoian
E-mail: ckojoian@aaainc.org


THE ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA
STATEMENT ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIAL CASE

Washington, DC - The Armenian Assembly of America has released the
following statement in the case of Griswold v. Driscoll et. Al. (the
Armenian Genocide Denial Case), which will be heard in U.S. District
Court in Boston today. The lawsuit, filed last year by the Assembly of
Turkish American Associations (ATAA), asserts that the Massachusetts
Department of Education's decision to remove denialist materials in
the school curriculum amounts to "censoring" and therefore would be
a violation of the First Amendment.

PRESS STATEMENT
OF THE ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA
AND OTHER ARMENIAN AMERICAN AMICUS CURIAE
FOR HEARING BEFORE CHIEF JUDGE MARK WOLF
OF THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS
SEPTEMBER 18, 2006

The Armenian Assembly of America and the Armenian-American individuals
who have filed an Amicus Curiae Memorandum for today's hearing on the
Motion to Dismiss the Complaint in the case of Griswold v. Driscoll
et al will point out to the Court in the oral argument scheduled
today that:

1. The Armenian-Americans who have filed this Amicus brief are
affronted that the Turkish interests and other plaintiffs who have
brought this lawsuit are seeking to have students in Massachusetts
schools be referred to websites which characterize the Armenian
Genocide as a "myth" and "as bogus as a three dollar bill." In fact,
there is no credible argument that the massacres of Armenians during
and after World War One were not genocide and the overwhelming
historical and legal records supports the finding of genocide of the
Armenian population in Ottoman Turkey during and after World War One.

2. The choice of the Massachusetts Board of Education, in a sound
educational decision, to exclude the Turkish sponsored websites in
recommending what should be taught to students in Massachusetts
public schools without reference to the so-called denialist or
"contra-genocide" theory, fulfills the mandate of G.L. c. 276 of the
Acts of 1998;

3. When the Massachusetts Board of Education issued its curriculum
guide on teaching about the Armenian Genocide, it was government
speech and there is no First Amendment right to challenge such
government speech;

4. If the plaintiffs succeed with this lawsuit, there will be no
stopping point for the demands anyone can make for inclusion in
curriculum recommendations, no matter how flawed or outrageous.

5. No one's First Amendment rights to receive information have been
denied since the plaintiffs, and anyone else, can obtain whatever
information they want about the Armenian Genocide from sources outside
the curriculum guide.

CONTACTS: Arnold R. Rosenfeld, Esq.
Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham LLP
(617) 951-9125
arosenfeld@klng.com

Van Z. Krikorian
Attorney-at-Law
(914) 439-4333
vkrikorian@verizon.net

The Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based
nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of
Armenian issues. It is a 501©(3) tax-exempt membership organization.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

The New York Times
September 15, 2006 Friday
Late Edition - Final


Turkey, a Touchy Critic, Plans to Put a Novel on Trial


By SUSANNE FOWLER; International Herald Tribune



''If there is a thief in a novel,'' said Elif Shafak recently, ''it
doesn't make the novelist a thief.''

Yet, Ms. Shafak is due in court here on Sept. 21 to defend herself
against charges that she insulted ''Turkishness'' because a character
in her latest novel, ''The Bastard of Istanbul,'' refers to the
deaths of Armenians in 1915 as genocide.

Ms. Shafak, a Turkish citizen who was born in Strasbourg, France, is
being sued under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, the same law
that ensnared Turkey's best-known contemporary author, Orhan Pamuk,
in 2005.

She is scheduled to give birth to her first child the week of the
trial. A conviction carries a possible penalty of up to three years
in jail.

The plaintiffs are vocal nationalists who she says oppose the
government's efforts to gain admission for Turkey, the only member of
NATO with a largely Muslim population, into the European Union.

''I believe they want to derail the E.U. process because that would
change many things in the structure of the state and the fabric of
Turkish society,'' Ms. Shafak, an assistant professor of Near Eastern
studies at the University of Arizona, said in an interview. ''They
would rather have an insular, enclosed, xenophobic society than an
open society.''

Ms. Shafak, 34, initially escaped a court date by successfully
arguing that the statements over which she was being sued were made
by fictional characters who could not be prosecuted. In June, a
public prosecutor in Istanbul agreed and dismissed the charges.

But Kemal Kerincsiz, a lawyer who is also the leader of a rightist
group opposed to European Union membership for Turkey, filed a new
complaint. In July, a high criminal court in Istanbul overruled the
lower court decision, paving the way for the trial.

''Article 301 has been used by ultranationalists as a weapon to
silence political voices in Turkey,'' Ms. Shafak said. ''In that
sense, my case is not unusual. But for the first time, they are
trying to bring a novel into court. The way they are trying to
penetrate the domain of art and literature is quite new, and quite
disturbing.''

The European Union agrees.

Olli Rehn, the European Union's commissioner for enlargement, said in
July that such cases were evidence that Turkey had failed to align
its laws with the union's standards. He urged the Turkish authorities
to amend Article 301 ''in order to guarantee freedom of expression,''
which he called ''a key principle at the core of democracy.''

Mr. Pamuk, at the time of his trial, said he hoped the charges
against him would not hurt Turkey's chances of entering the union. He
was prosecuted for saying during an interview that ''a million
Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in these lands and nobody but
me dares talk about it.'' Eventually, with a groundswell of support
from the West, the charges were dropped.

But more than 60 similar cases have been brought against writers and
artists in Turkey, although no one has served time in prison yet. The
person potentially most at risk is Hrant Dink, a Turk of Armenian
descent who edits a bilingual Turkish and Armenian newspaper. In
July, an appeals court upheld a suspended six-month prison sentence
against him in connection with a column he wrote, and he faces new
charges based on remarks he made in an interview, according to
Reporters Without Borders.

''The Bastard of Istanbul,'' Ms. Shafak's novel, was published in
Turkish and has sold 60,000 copies, a best seller in Turkey. It is to
be published in English in January. Its plot centers on two families
with a common past: Turkish Muslims living in Istanbul and
Armenian-Americans in San Francisco.

Among the excerpts opposed by the lawyers' group is a passage in
which a man of Armenian descent worries about which version of
history his niece will accept as she is raised by her Turkish
stepfather. He wonders aloud if she will state, ''I am the grandchild
of genocide survivors who lost all their relatives to the hands of
the Turkish butchers in 1915, but I myself have been brainwashed to
deny the genocide because I was raised by some Turk named Mustapha!''


Turkey says that the deaths of as many as 1.5 million Armenians were
not the result of genocide, but rather of a war in which many Turks
also were killed as the Ottoman Empire was collapsing.

As a writer, Ms. Shafak has shown a penchant for provocative topics.

Her previous novels have touched on suicide, the intersection of
Islamic and Jewish mysticism, and even love between a Sufi dervish
hermaphrodite and a Greek man. She has angered critics in the past
by, in their view, eschewing Turkishness by writing in English and by
using what Turks today call ''old words'' from the Ottoman vocabulary
that preceded the reforms of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the
Turkish republic in 1923.

Ms. Shafak also took part in a controversial conference in Istanbul
last year on the Armenian question (the first such conference in
Turkey, and one that Mr. Kerincsiz and his group, the Unity of
Jurists, tried to prevent).

So while Europe struggles to define the idea of Europe and who is
European, Turkey is in the midst of its own debate about what defines
Turkishness and whether Turks even want to be considered European.
''There is a clash of opinion in Turkey,'' Ms. Shafak said. ''On the
one hand are the people who are very much pro-E.U., sometimes for
economic reasons, sometimes for political reasons.'' On the other
hand, she said, are factions, including nationalists, who fear that
Turkish autonomy will be weakened by membership in the union.

''Fear is a powerful element,'' Ms. Shafak said. ''We were taught
ever since we were little kids that Turkey is a country surrounded by
water on three sides and enemies on all sides and that you can never
trust outsiders.''

The charges of ''insulting Turkishness'' seem particularly galling to
Ms. Shafak, whose mother was a Turkish diplomat and whose husband,
Eyup Can, is the editor of Referans, a respected Turkish daily
business newspaper.

''I was thinking of going back to the States to give birth, but
because of the trial I will stay here,'' Ms. Shafak said. ''And I am
happy to be giving birth in Istanbul. This city is very dear to me,
even though it suffers from a sort of collective amnesia.''

[Aratta-Kingdom]

THE MORE TURKS TRY TO DENY ARMENIAN GENOCIDE THE GREATER NUMBER OF STATES RECOGNIZE IT

PanARMENIAN.Net
08.01.2007 15:02 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On the New Year's eve Harut Sassounian, the editor
of The California Courier, commented on the brightest events and
publications of the year 2006 on the Armenian Genocide issue. "The
Foreign Minister of Turkey, Abdullah Gul, announced this week that the
Turkish government is planning to launch in 2007 a new comprehensive
propaganda campaign to deny the Armenian Genocide. All previous Turkish
government attempts to bury the facts of the Armenian Genocide have
ended in failure, after wasting millions of dollars on lobbying firms
and books by phony "scholars." Ironically, the more the Turks try
to deny the crime committed by Ottoman Turkey in 1915, the greater
the number of countries, international organizations and individuals
that recognize it. In recent weeks, after the Argentinean Parliament
recognized the Armenian Genocide, Ankara warned that country's Senate
not to follow suit. Despite the Turkish warning, and maybe because of
it, the Argentinean Senate adopted the Armenian Genocide resolution
unanimously! A couple of months ago, when the French Parliament adopted
a bill that would make it a crime to deny the Armenian Genocide, the
Turkish government gave a similar warning to the French Senate," he
says. " Several Turkish newspapers reported last week that the Armenian
American lobby scored a major victory when Pres. Bush could not get
the Senate to confirm Richard Hoagland, the Ambassador-designate
for Armenia. The Turkish press quoted an analyst as saying that the
blocking of Hoagland's nomination was a major success for Armenians:
"The Armenian lobby has never been this strong," he continues.

"The Turkish Culture Minister announced last week that the official
opening ceremonies for the renovated Aghtamar Armenian Church would
take place on April 24.

The Patriarch of Constantinople, Archbishop Mesrob Moutafian,
issued an uncharacteristically bold statement, saying that holding
the ceremony on that date would be exploiting Armenian people's
suffering for political gain. He said that neither he nor any other
Armenian would participate in such a ceremony on April 24. It has
been obvious to me from the very beginning that Turkish officials were
planning to exploit the renovation of Aghtamar for political purposes,
independently of the date of the ceremony.

Maybe the Patriarch, instead of objecting, should have accepted that
date and turned the ceremony planned for April 24 into a commemoration
of the Armenian Genocide -- which would have been a first in Turkey
since 1915," Sassounian says.

"Sylvester Stallone announced last week that he is interested in
making Franz Werfel's famous novel, "The Forty Days of Musa Dagh,"
into a blockbuster movie.

Turks went into total panic and organized a worldwide e-mail
campaign urging Stallone not to be "an instrument of Armenian
lobbies." Armenians on the other hand were so excited that they
started celebrating as if the movie was already made.

Surprisingly, neither Turks nor Armenians seem to remember that
Stallone has made this same announcement several times in the past
with nothing to show for.

However, should Stallone end up making this movie someday, he can
count on the Turks to provide a lot of free publicity, ensuring its
success!" he goes on.

"Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan, told the editors of the New
York Times last week that they had become "a tool in the hands of
the Armenians." He was unhappy that the N.Y. Times had decided that
the newspaper would refer to the Armenian Genocide as a historical
fact. This is the second time that the Turkish Prime Minister has
personally complained to the N.Y. Times on this issue in the past
couple of years. Maybe it's about time that Erdogan realized that
the N.Y. Times, true to its noble calling, is a tool for the truth
and not a tool for Turkish denialism," Sassounian remarks.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

TWO BILLS ON RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AT US CONGRESS AND NORTH DAKOTA

The bill on Recognition of the Armenian Genocide of April 24 will be submitted to the consideration of the legis;ative bodies of the North Dakota, USA. In particular, the draft law stated that in 1915, the Turkish authorities were not only killing the Armenians, but also destroying the Armenian churches, schools, libraries, pieces of art, cultural monuments, i.e. they tried to destroy a civilization that lasted for over three tousand years. In case, the legislative bodies of the North Dakota recognize the Armenian Genocide, the number of states that did so will amount to over 40.

At the same time, Adam Schiff, member of the Commission for Armenian Issues at the US Congress, is going to submit a formula on the Armenian Genocide issue to the Congress. The formula will be submitted to the House of Representatives.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

"MY STATEMENT ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE WAS NOT A SLIP OF THE TONGUE"- JOHN EVANS


/PanARMENIAN.Net/ John Evans’s, US previous ambassador to Armenia statement on the Armenian Genocide ‘was not a slip of the tongue’, stated John Evans himself in the interview to the Los Angeles Times. "I knew it was not the policy of the United States to use the word ‘genocide’. But ninety years is a long time and at some point you have to call a spade a spade,” said John Evans. It is worth mentioning that the diplomat departed from Armenian on September and last month officially left the State Department. In his words, by July 2005, it was absolutely clear that he would be forced out. It is worth mentioning that during his meeting with San Francisco Armenian Diaspora on February 19, 2005 John Evans said, ”Today I’ll call it Armenian Genocide.” Later, on February 28, 2005, speaking in US Embassy to Armenia, Evans wanted to introduce clarity into his February 19 statement. “I used the word ‘genocide’, which reflects personally my, John Evans’s viewpoint, and not of a political figure.” he said.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

SAME CANDIDATE NOMINATED FOR POSITION OF US AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA

US President George Bush submitted the issue of Richard Hoagland’s candidacy for the position of US Ambassador to Armenia to the consideration of the US Congress again on January 9. Hoagland’ s denial of the Armenian Genocide committed in the Ottoman Turkey in 1915 aroused the indignation of the Armenian community, especcialy from the viewpoint of his candidacy of the ambassador’s position. It’s worth mentioning that nothwithstanding the indignation of the Armenian community of America, Hoagland’s candidacy was discussed and approved. Later, Hoagland’s candidacy was isolated and withdrawen from the agenda of the Congress.

AZG
By Nana Petrosian

[Aratta-Kingdom]

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today law on recognizing the Armenian Genocide came into force in Argentine. The law was ratified by Argentinean Parliament and Senate. President Nestor Kirchner could use his veto power on that law till January 10. “Since the president did not do that, today, on January 11, the law came into force.” RFE RL was told in the presidential administration of Argentina. According to the law, April 24 is proclaimed as Day of Tolerance and Respect among Nations and Comemoration for the Victims of the Armenian Genocide. Also it allows ethnic Armenians not to attend lessons and work and take part in actions in memory of the victims of Genocide. Just the other day Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has turned to the President of Argentina asking him to interpose a veto on the bill, since “it creates bad image of Turkey and implants lie.”

[Aratta-Kingdom]

The Globe and Mail (Canada)
Feb 3 2007


BOOK REVIEW; Pg. D15

"We are all Armenian';
The murder of a journalist in Turkey has reopened the discussion
about genocide and its denial, filmmaker ATOM EGOYAN says

by ATOM EGOYAN

The first book I ever read about the Armenian genocide was written by
an Austrian Jew. Franz Werfel's epic novel Forty Days of Musa Dagh
(Viking Press, 1934) created a sensation when it was published.
Meticulously researched and written with an astute sense of
psychological detail, the novel was intended as a wake-up call to
European Jewry. If it could happen to Armenians in 1915, it could
happen anywhere.

But what exactly happened to Armenians in 1915? The enduring value of
Werfel's great book is his ability to render all aspects of Armenian
life in the Ottoman Empire with a startlingly vivid clarity and
nuance. Very much in the tradition of the works of Thomas Mann (they
were contemporaries), every character is observed with a sense of
psychological magnification and kaleidoscopic vision.

Faced with certain death at the hands of the Turks, an Armenian
village mobilizes itself into action. Five thousand are led into the
impenetrable mountain area of Musa Dagh, where they heroically defend
themselves. The plot is linear and straightforward, yet each of the
main characters is infused with marvellous complexity. Werfel
presents the terrible events of 1915 with grandeur and scope, yet
fills every detail with precision and tenderness.

A defining aspect of the Armenian genocide is the methodical and
highly efficient denial of its perpetrators. Many scholarly works
have been published on this subject, including the Turkish academic
Taner Akcam's A Shameful Act (Henry Holt, 2006). The most succinct
and compelling explanation of this history is offered in Robert
Fisk's recent The Great War for Civilization (Fourth Estate, 2005).

Fisk has been in the forefront of the Middle East's conflicts for 30
years, and this monumental work is a passionate and heartfelt
indictment of the lies and deceit that have defined the politics of
the region. In many ways, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire - and
the subsequent dividing of its spoils by the West - set the stage for
the instability of the entire region. Fisk devotes an entire chapter
(titled The First Holocaust) to the Armenian Question.

In fewer than 50 pages, Fisk brilliantly sets out the brutal
machinery of genocide, chronicling Hitler's familiarity with the
mechanics and - just as ominously - its denial. He clearly explains
how the issue of the Armenian genocide began to fade from European
and U.S. attention after the First World War, despite the huge amount
of attention the massacres received at the time.

Hrant Dink, the Armenian journalist who was murdered in Turkey three
weeks ago, used this point as a way of explaining the event to his
Turkish countrymen. Turkey has been able to suppress "the Armenian
Question" because the West has allowed it to do so. Even with a
growing number of countries (including Canada) recognizing the
genocide, it still runs counter to general Western interests to
pursue the matter.

When MGM tried to make a film of Forty Days of Musa Dagh in the
mid-thirties, the Turkish ambassador filed a protest with the U.S.
State Department. If the film were to be made, Turkey would ban all
U.S. films from entering the country. After a year of exchanges
between the two governments, the State Department acquiesced to the
Turkish demand, and the project was dropped.

Peter Balakian, in his highly charged memoir Black Dog of Fate
(HarperCollins, 1997), wonders how Franklin Roosevelt's State
Department could care so little about artistic freedom, especially in
light of what was about to happen to the Jews of Europe. Like Fisk,
Balakian is obsessed with the question of how a catastrophe that
loomed so large in the U.S. consciousness could slip from collective
memory (his most recent book, The Burning Tigris: The Armenian
Genocide and America's Response, explores how and why the Armenian
crisis became for the United States, its first international
human-rights movement.

Balakian is a wonderful poet, and if I were to suggest one book that
combines carefully researched history with an emotionally charged
journey into the contemporary Armenian soul, this is certainly the
one to read.

Black Dog of Fate presents Balakian's upbringing in the optimistic
years of 1950s and '60s U.S. suburbia. With warmth and affection,
Balakian describes an adolescence of athletic seasons (football,
basketball, baseball), Sunday feasts of Armenian food and beautiful
evocations of his family and relatives. Balakian is a great lover of
carpets, and he weaves his words and highly charged imagery in a
masterful way. The unexpected discovery of how his grandmother made
an actual legal claim against the Turkish government after the First
World War is unforgettable. Balakian sets up his beloved
grandmother's fragmented dreams and whispered stories, disarming the
reader with a poetic sense of melancholic reverie.

Balakian then presents a dry legal document he discovers that lists
the family she lost to the genocide (husband, brothers, sisters,
nieces and nephews), as well as a complete itemization of the
plundered goods of the family business. The plaintive claim for
compensation is simply devastating.

Balakian's grandmother, signing this legal document on Jan. 31, 1920,
states, "The Turkish government is responsible for the losses and
injuries. . . . I am a human being and a citizen of the U.S.A. and
under the support of human and International law." Needless to say,
there was no response to this claim.

Last month, thousands of Turks poured into the streets of Istanbul
after Hrant Dink's murder, yelling, "We are all Hrant Dink. We are
all Armenian." In the face of such confusion, pain and hatred, there
is an urgent human need to find empathy. Great literature strives for
this generosity of spirit, and these three authors will leave a
lasting impression on the reader.

Atom Egoyan is working on Auroras, a meditation on the Armenian
genocide. This installation will be exhibited during Luminato,
Toronto Festival of Arts & Creativity, in June, 2007. Among his many
films is Ararat, about the 1915 massacre of Armenians in Turkey.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

Swedish Expert Wants to Examine Mass Grave in Turkey from April 23 to 25

YEREVAN (Yerkir Media)--Swedish historian David Gaunt, who is set to lead an international expedition to a mass grave discovered in October in Turkey, indicated that the excavation should take place between April 23 and 25.

Gaunt has said that the remains in the grave in Nusaybin, Turkey belong to 270 Armenians or Assyrians who resided in the village and were killed under orders from the Young Turk government during the Armenian Genocide.

Upon the discovery of the grave, which the Turkish government attempted to suppress, Swedish member of parliament Hans Dinden urged the legislature to further explore this discovery. In response chairman of Turkey's scientific and historical association Yusuf Haladjoghly proposed a joint Turkish-Swedish expedition, to which Gaunt agreed but demanded complete freedom. Gaunt also asked for the opportunity to speak with anyone who might have further information about the mass grave.

Villagers from Xirabebaba were digging a grave for one of their relatives when they came across a cave full of skulls and bones. The Xirabebaba residents assumed they had uncovered a mass grave of 300 Armenian villagers massacred during the Genocide of 1915. They informed local military unit in Akarsu about the discovered remains. Turkish army officers instructed the villagers to block the cave entrance and make no mention of the remains buried in it. The officers said an investigation would take place.

Journalists, who had arrived to obtain more information, were denied access to the cave. As the mass grave became news, local military made another visit to the villagers, who were pressed to report the name of the person who leaked the mass grave discovery to the press. The villagers were warned not to show anyone directions to the cave.

According to Gaunt, who is a history professor at Sodertorn University, the remains most likely are of the 150 Armenian and 120 Assyrian males from the nearby town of Dara (now Oguz) killed on June 14, 1915.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

DEPORTATION AND ANNIHILATION OF ARMENIANS WASN'T CAUSED BY RELIGION

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.02.2007 18:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The idea of deporting Armenians from Anatolia
occurred to Turkish leaders in 1913 after suffering a defeat in
the Balkan war. At those times Turks concluded they can't live with
Christians, Turkish historian Taner Akcam said in an interview with
Minneapolis Star Tribune. "In October 1912 the Ottoman Empire lost
69% of its territory, a homeland for young Turks. They lost because
of Christians.

Armenians made 45% of the population of Anatolia," the Turkish
historian said. According to him, in 1914 the Ottoman government
proceeded to elaboration of a plan for deploying troops in
Anatolia. "However, I do not think that religion was a cause for
deportation and annihilation of Armenians. Majority of Armenians
received education in Europe and were atheists.

Religion was used for uniting the Muslim population against Armenians,"
Taner Akcam said, reports RFE/RL.

Taner Akcam is one of the first Turkish historians to recognize the
Armenian Genocide. In 1978 he immigrated to Germany and was granted
the status of a political refugee. Presently he is a professor of
history at the Minnesota University.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

358 GENOCIDE SURVIVORS RESIDE IN ARMENIA

ArmRadio.am
20.02.2007 15:40

358 survivors of the Armenian Genocida reside in Armenia
today. Armenpress was told from RA Social Security Fund that as of
July 1, 2006 there were 410 Genocide survivors.

It's worth mentioning that starting January 1, 2007 the financial aid
to Genocide survivors increased. The additional payment to persons
who were born in Western Armenia and other parts of Ottoman Turkey and
survived the Armenian Genocide has increased from 5 to 25 thousand AMD.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

Polish FM on Armenian Genocide: Barbarisms of past impossible to forget

27.02.2007

YEREVAN (YERKIR) - Today, Polish Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga laid a wreath on the 1915 Armenian Genocide Memorial, PanARMENIAN.Net reported.

The Polish FM left a record in the Memory book and attended Armenian Genocide Museum-institute, as well as acquainted with brief history of the tragic events in 1915. “It is impossible to forget barbarisms of past,” A. Fotyga wrote in the Memory book, “Novosti Armenia” reports.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

http://www.dutchnews...isit_update.php



QUEEN ARRIVES IN TURKEY FOR STATE VISIT (UPDATE)

DutchNews.nl, Netherlands
Feb 27 2007

Queen Beatrix began a four-day state visit to Turkey today on the
direct invitation of Turkish president Ahmet Sezer. The Netherlands
has a 350,000-strong Turkish community and there are strong links
between the two countries.

The queen, who is accompanied by crown prince Willem-Alexander and
princess Maxima, first laid a wreath at the mausoleum of Ataturk,
the founder of modern Turkey. This evening she will give a speech at
a gala dinner.

The Volkskrant says the queen will be confronted by two contentious
issues during her visit: the Armenian genocide question, which
has taken on political dimensions in the Netherlands, and Turkish
membership of the EU.

'I hope the queen will find an opportunity not only to strengthen the
bonds of friendship but .. to encourage Turkey to continue introducing
democratic reforms and move ever closer to us in terms of freedom
and tolerance,' transport minister Camiel Eurlings, who as an MEP was
responsible for monitoring Turkey's progress, told Radio Netherlands.

VVD MP Hans van Baalen said the queen should not avoid difficult issues
such as the Armenian question. 'It will make Turkey stronger,' he said.

On Wednesday, the queen will host a concert by the Dutch Blazers
Ensemble at the private Bilkent university in Ankara. Sezer will
reportedly not attend because, as Turkey is a secular state, he does
not go to functions where women may wear headscarves.

[Zartonk]

358 GENOCIDE SURVIVORS RESIDE IN ARMENIA

ArmRadio.am
20.02.2007 15:40

358 survivors of the Armenian Genocida reside in Armenia
today. Armenpress was told from RA Social Security Fund that as of
July 1, 2006 there were 410 Genocide survivors.

It's worth mentioning that starting January 1, 2007 the financial aid
to Genocide survivors increased. The additional payment to persons
who were born in Western Armenia and other parts of Ottoman Turkey and
survived the Armenian Genocide has increased from 5 to 25 thousand AMD.

I hope that the recollections of every single one of them that were old enough to have memories are recorded.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

Yes Zartonk, it's been done already.