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[Yervant1]

Armenpress.com

 

‘Entire Christian world must feel ashamed for sacrifice of Armenians’ – ACK Chairman Radu Constantin Miron

 

 

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 13:35, 24 April, 2021

YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. More than 100 years after the Armenian Genocide the Christians of Germany are ashamed for this suffering of the Christian Armenians, the Chairman of the Association of Christian Churches of Germany (ACK) Radu Constantin Miron said in a video message to ARMENPRESS on the occasion of the 106th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

Radu Constantin Miron quoted American author Katharine Lee Bates’ poem in the beginning of his statement: “Armenia! The name is like a sword in every Christian heart. O martyr nation, eldest of all the daughters of the Word, exceeding all in bitter tribulation.”

 

 

“The poem was written shortly before the genocide. It was originally published in the New York Evening Sun, and then in 1918 it was published in the Boston-based English-language The Armenian Herald newspaper. The author is American writer Katharine Lee Bates, who lived from 1859 to 1929. Every American knows her for her America the Beautiful poem, which in some sense is the unofficial national anthem of the United States. Yes, this is the song that Jennifer Lopez sang at Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony.

Few people know that the author of this poem raised her voice of protest against the 1915 Armenian Genocide and especially expressed her deep concern on the occasion of the West’s indifference towards the fate of the martyred nation. The above-mentioned poem, which she had written for the New York Evening Sun, was a desperate call and cry for help aimed at her countrymen and the entire world, on the background of the tragedy which the Christian Armenian nation had appeared in,” Radu Constantin Miron said.

“She wrote another poem which begins with the “What is Christ?” question. “Oh, what is Christ, that we should call on Him? Wasted Armenia, in her utter woe, Dies in the mocking desert, calling so.”

The main motive in both poems is the West’s indifference for the Armenian nation’s suffering.

“All Christendom, shamed in her sacrifice,” – Bates wrote in Armenia!.

“Indeed, the entire Christian world must feel ashamed for the Armenians’ sacrifice. One hundred years later, we, Christians of this country, are ashamed for this suffering of the Christian Armenians,”  Radu Constantin Miron said, expressing  the ACK’s solidarity to Armenians and as well as admiration for “the Armenian nation and their Christian testimony.”

[see video]

 

 

https://armenpress.a...diNoaUI_dozDyYA

[Yervant1]

In my opinion the rest of the countries that were hesitant to do so, will do it without fearing Turkey!

Washington Post

April 24 2021


To Armenians, Biden’s recognition of the genocide means the world

The president’s affirmation of history and moral truth was long overdue.

By Peter Balakian
Peter Balakian is a professor at Colgate University and the author of several books, including “Ozone Journal,” winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for poetry and “The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response,” winner of the 2005 Raphael Lemkin Award.

April 25, 2021 at 12:02 a.m. GMT+3

In his Saturday statement commemorating the slaughter of the Armenian people on their indigenous lands by the Ottoman Empire, President Biden said the word “genocide,” marking a moment for which Armenian communities across the globe have been clamoring for decades.

Until Biden, no American president has had the courage to use that term for fear of angering modern-day Turkish leaders and damaging relations with a powerful ally, even one with an abominable human rights record. But when Biden said “We remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring,” his words affirmed historical fact and embodied moral truth.

Beginning in 1915, more than a million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Turks. Over a period of several years, property was confiscated, land stolen, women and children were abducted and raped, and many Armenians were forced to convert to Islam. Armenian cultural institutions, including more than 2,000 irreplaceable, architecturally unique churches were destroyed. Armenians have sought justice for these atrocities for over a century.

For decades, successive Turkish governments have denied the reality of the Armenian Genocide, pressuring other nations to deny this history: Ankara has tried to stop movies about it from being made, tried to stop the words “Armenian Genocide” from being included in museum exhibits and tried to prevent the history of this tragedy from being taught in schools. This assault on the truth has been, as international lawyer and scholar Richard Falk has said, a “major, proactive, deliberate government effort to use every possible instrument of persuasion at its disposal to keep the truth about the Armenian genocide from general acknowledgment, especially by elites in the United States and Western Europe.”

Be as brave as Kim Kardashian and the pope, Mr. President: Call the Armenian Genocide a ‘genocide.’

These efforts represent the final stage of genocide, in which a perpetrator attempts to rehabilitate itself — a double killing, as Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel explained — because if we allow victims of genocide to be forgotten, “the dead will be killed a second time.” And the long battle against Turkey’s denial has been psychologically damaging to Armenians, myself included, in incalculable ways. With empathy, my Jewish friends often say: We can’t imagine how we would feel if Germany did to Jews what Turkey is doing to Armenians today.

In “Trauma and Recovery: The aftermath of violence — from domestic abuse to political terror,” Judith Herman notes that “After every atrocity, one can expect to hear the same predictable apologies: it never happened; the victim lies, the victim exaggerates … and in any case, it is time to forget the past and move on.” In the case of mass violence, culpable regimes often quickly manufacture narratives to falsify their human rights abuses, defend their actions and blame their victims and, in doing so, strive to create a false reality in which to entrap the survivor culture and smash it into silence.

The Turkish government’s export of its denial of the truth has been virulent and protracted. Its behavior has continued to abuse people of Armenian descent around the world by preventing the process of healing for survivors and their communities. It is an assault on the rituals of commemoration necessary for burial of the dead, who, because of their violent deaths, never had their last rites. Ankara’s denial has robbed generations of Armenians of a chance at restoring moral order. And beyond the tragedy for the Armenian community, this denial paves the way for future genocides by sending the message that governments won’t be held accountable for atrocities.

In recent years, however, Turkey’s campaign has been rebuffed and eroded by the dedication of activists around the world and the work of scholars of many nationalities.

And the record is overwhelming: As the International Association of Genocide Scholars wrote to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2005: “We want to underscore that it is not just Armenians who are affirming the Armenian Genocide but it is the overwhelming opinion of scholars who study genocide.” Countries in Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America have passed Armenian Genocide resolutions, among them, Germany, France, Russia, Syria, Argentina and Canada. In doing so, they have made a statement about the importance of accountability in the wake of human rights crimes. The United States joined this group with Congress’s passage of Armenian Genocide resolutions at the end of 2019, though President Donald Trump rejected the nonbinding measures.

Germany’s acts of apology and reparation to the Jewish people and Israel are benchmarks. The message is powerful and simple: Genocide demands acknowledgment, accountability, and acts of repair and reparation.

Decades of service to China’s government didn’t save my Uyghur dad from prison

The Turkish government has stalked the Armenian people for over a century to prevent their healing and to rob them of their dignity. It has stooped low to try to stop other nations from acknowledging and representing the truth of the Armenian Genocide in their various educational and cultural arenas. The denial has been poisonous, holding Armenians hostage in a wilderness of grief and shutting them out of their place in history.

Because Armenians are not politically powerful, and because Armenia has struggled against continued Turkish and Azerbaijani assaults on its very foundations, Armenia needs the support of powerful leaders, and Biden is such a leader. Armenian Americans are passionate, hard-working, patriotic citizens, and it means a great deal to the Armenian community to finally see our president affirming the truth.

By naming the Armenian Genocide, Biden is affirming that America stands for moral order and historical truth; he is confirming the human dignity of the survivor culture; and his acknowledgment is a major step toward real justice — which is as necessary as air for those who have been violated, harmed and wronged. His words acknowledge that not only is genocide a scourge, but that failure to reckon with past wrongs endangers us all by emboldening would-be genocidaires. Indeed, just before invading Poland in 1939, Hitler said, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”

In his landmark April 24 statement, Biden has confirmed the Armenian people’s tragic past, and has spoken to the necessity of human rights and justice for all people. His moral leadership reverberates around the world.

Peter Balakian

Peter Balakian is a professor at Colgate University and the author of several books, including “Ozone Journal,” winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for poetry and “The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response,” winner of the 2005 Raphael Lemkin Award.

https://www.washingt...enocide-turkey/

 

 

[Yervant1]

Jerusalem Post

April 25 2021

 

 

 

Turkey’s genocide blackmail: Threats to work closer with Iran and Russia The Biden administration has called Turkey’s bluff: that it might leave NATO because it is angry to hear the word “genocide” – and that Ankara should never be offended, but can do what it wants.

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN   

APRIL 25, 2021 11:14

 

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia March 5, 2020.

(photo credit: PAVEL GOLOVKIN/POOL VIA REUTERS)

 

The US decision to finally recognize the Armenian genocide comes after decades in which Turkey and its lobbyists in Washington threatened the US. Their narrative was that if Washington would just use the term “genocide” – for a crime committed 106 years ago by a former government in what is now Turkey – then Ankara would rapidly move to sanction the US, close its bases, threaten its citizens and ally with Iran, China and Russia, or other US enemies.

 

This bizarre, mafia-like threat is the same one that Tehran used regarding the Iran deal. It is because non-Western countries learned that the way to deal with Western countries was to prey on their fears. For instance, today Pakistan is threatening to expel France’s ambassador because far-right religious extremists in Pakistan claim to be offended by cartoons published years ago in a French magazine.

 

Ankara’s attempt to hold countries hostage regarding the Armenian genocide worked well for many years. It prevented many countries, including Israel, from “offending” Ankara by mentioning the genocide. It’s unclear if this same blackmail would have worked had Germany in 1946 also told countries that they can’t mention the Holocaust or Germany would be “offended,” so that Western countries would have denied the Shoah the way some continue to deny the Armenian genocide.  

 

Turkey was coddled for many years because it sold itself as a key to helping the West confront the Soviets. When the Soviets were gone in 1989, Turkey shifted its pattern of denial to claims that it wanted to be part of the European Union, was somehow a bridge between the West and Asia, and that if it was offended it might aid Islamist extremism or something.

 

That claim has now grown to arguments in Turkey that openly bash the West, calling Western countries and Israel “Nazi” and then asserting that Ankara will position itself with Russia, China and Iran against Western democracies.

 

THE TURKEY that is running to embrace Russia and Iran is the same one that still talks about the myth of joining the European Union. It’s unclear how a Turkey that has an authoritarian regime and where there are almost not critical journalists allowed and where people are put in prison for decades for tweets, could ever join an EU that is ostensibly democratic.

 

NATO was also supposed to be about values and democracy, and yet it has empowered Ankara for years to become more authoritarian, including excusing Ankara’s invasion of Kurdish Afrin in 2018 and the ethnic cleansing of Kurds.

Now the crescendo of threats has risen again. Those who opposed genocide recognition argued that Turkey would drift away from NATO – which it was already doing. They argued that it will work with Russia – a country it already buys S-400s from. They argue it would work with China – a country Turkey already openly works with and to which it plans more overland truck and rail links via Russia, Central Asia and Iran.

 

The argument against America recognizing the genocide was that the US must think “geopolitically” and not use a “stunt” to hurt Turkey’s feelings. This is the same Ankara that openly opposes NATO countries like Greece and France and which often slanders various countries in the West. It was unclear why Turkey wasn’t held to the same standard: If Ankara wanted the West to refrain from just mentioning “genocide,” why Turkey wasn’t required to also do what Western countries want and also be polite in international relations. Instead, the argument went that Ankara should never be offended, but that it can do whatever it wanted.  

 

THE BIDEN administration has called Turkey’s bluff. The idea that just recognizing a genocide from 106 years ago would somehow lead Turkey to close US bases and rapidly work with Russia, Iran and China seems strange considering the fact that Ankara must think “geopolitically” as well. The argument was always that the West needs Turkey more than Turkey needs the US and the West. This seems to turn “geopolitics” on its head. If “geopolitics” requires appeasement and always begging a country and isn’t a two-way street based on respect and strength, then it’s unclear what the US ever achieved over the last decades by placating Turkey.

 

The theory is that Turkey might leave NATO because it is angry it heard the word “genocide.” If it was just mentioning genocide that causes it to leave, then it means the NATO alliance wasn’t worth more than one word: not worth the training, the German tanks, the intelligence sharing and everything else. Turkey would bury itself because it was offended about being asked about what happened in 1915?

 

Never in history has a country left a massive military alliance worth billions of dollars because someone used one word to refer to something that happened 106 years ago. Only Turkey used this blackmail to prevent any mention of the fact that the modern day country is largely built on hundreds of thousands of homes of Greeks and Armenians and other minorities who were expelled and murdered, sold into slavery and and suffered genocide between 1915 and 1955.

 

The modern Turkish AKP Party, which is rooted in Islamist thinking, could have blamed the atrocities on previous Turkish governments.  

 

ANKARA'S SUPPORTERS sometimes argue that Turkey could recognize the US genocide of Native-Americans. But unlike Turkey, it's not very controversial in the US to say that Native Americans suffered genocide. Turkey has already accused other countries of genocide, including claiming Israel is like the Nazis and has committed genocide. So if Turkey was so afraid of the word “genocide” why does it accuse Israel of “genocide”?

 

Turkey’s policy was to pretend it was above history, above ever being held to account or even critiqued. Many US diplomats went along with this; for years they appeared almost more pro-Turkey than Turkey’s own diplomats. Ankara cast a kind of spell over Western policymakers, usually through quiet or open threats. The ability of Turkey to spread real-world threats has also grown. Last year it engineered a crisis with France over cartoons published years ago, and its rhetoric likely led to at least one terror attack in France.

 

Turkey will continue to try to leverage Islamist extremism in Europe to its own ends. It has already threatened at various times to use refugees against Europe unless the EU pays it more money. Meanwhile, it radicalizes the refugees and uses them as mercenaries. Turkey played a key role as a conduit for ISIS members from Europe, including providing a base for radicalization.

 

It is entirely possible that Turkey could end up doing for the next Al-Qaeda what Pakistan and Afghanistan did for the Al Qaeda of the 1990s: providing a base and conduit for extremism. That trajectory is one that Turkey will ride regardless of whether the US recognizes the genocide.

 

Supporting extremism comes with its own negatives though, because extremist countries usually suffer economic decline. Turkey’s confrontation with the US over the term “genocide” will be weighed against its desire to have economic power, which underpinned its claims in the past to being of “geopolitical” importance. If it cares about “geopolitics,” as Western analysts claim it does, then it will have more to lose from confrontation. The trend in Ankara was to work with Iran, China and Russia anyway.

 

Whether the Biden administration finally standing up to Ankara will lead it to work with authoritarians more is a question Ankara has to weigh against its own claims of wanting “reconciliation” with countries it has attacked in the last few years. There is no evidence that denying the genocide helped keep Ankara more liberal, tolerant, democratic and open minded and more close to the West. 

 

https://www.jpost.co...d-russia-666263

[Yervant1]

The Christian Post
April 25 2021




Christian group praises Biden for ‘standing up’ to Turkey in recognizing Armenian genocide

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor| Sunday, April 25, 2021



A U.S.-based Christian group has commended President Joe Biden for “standing up” to Turkey and becoming the first president since Ronald Reagan to recognize the 1915 Armenian genocide on Saturday, the 106th anniversary of when the Ottoman Empire (modern Turkey) began to massacre its Armenian Christian minority, resulting in 1.5 million deaths.

“President Biden is the only president since Ronald Reagan to refer to this mass atrocity perpetuated by Ottoman-era Turkish authorities against Armenian Christians as a genocide,” persecution watchdog group International Christian Concern said in a statement.

Biden’s predecessors have chosen not to use the word genocide in annual statements on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day “due to pressure from the Turkish government,” ICC charged.

Biden, ICC said, discussed his decision to make the designation on a call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, the first call between the two since Biden took office in January.

The designation is significant, ICC suggested, because the “Turkish government has failed to take responsibility and has actively denied their role in this, allowing them to pursue genocidal policies against Armenians such as in Nagorno-Karabakh,” a conflict that started in the 1980s when the Soviet Union began to fall apart.

The Nagorno-Karabakh region, a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, is recognized internationally as part of Muslim-majority Azerbaijan even though it has a majority Armenian population and is controlled by ethnic Armenians. Turkey supported Azerbaijan’s aggressions against Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh, ICC noted.

“Azerbaijani troops alongside Turkish-paid Syrian mercenaries invaded the region and took control after a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement in December,” ICC added. “Evidence of violence against Armenian civilians and destruction of religious sites during this conflict suggests some religious and ethnic hatred towards Armenian Christians still held by many, reminiscent of the genocide over a century ago.”

While Russia brokered a ceasefire in 1994, clashes reignited last September, with both sides accusing each other of targeting civilian communities. The fighting ended in November with Armenia agreeing to a peace deal brokered by Russia.

Speaking to PBS, Alex Hinton, director of Rutgers University’s Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, called the recognition “absolutely momentous for the victims.”

He added, “But I think more broadly, it's something that's momentous for all of us, you know, in terms of human rights. One of the principles that guides us and guides our countries, it's centered around respect for the dignity of the person.”

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom also welcomed Biden’s move.

“As we remember and commemorate the many lives lost, we also recognize the tireless efforts of survivors, their descendants, and so many others to finally and firmly place the United States on the right side of that terrible history,” USCIRF Chair Gayle Manchin said in a statement.

USCIRF Vice Chair Tony Perkins added, “While we hope that this brings some solace and consolation to Armenians around the world who have fought for this day, we also hope that it will portend greater reflection and a renewed commitment to speak up and stand against the perpetration of crimes against humanity everywhere.”

ICC’s Advocacy Director, Matias Perttula, explained that “Armenian Christians continue to suffer because of the systematic Ottoman campaign of 1915, and the United States owes it to the Armenian community to stand with them in solidarity by recognizing their suffering.”

“As heirs to the oldest Christian nation, Armenians are an integral part of the global community of Christians and ought to enjoy freedom from persecution,” Perttula added.

Turkish officials condemned Biden’s statement.

“We have nothing to learn from anybody on our own past. Political opportunism is the greatest betrayal to peace and justice. We entirely reject this statement based solely on populism,” Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs tweeted.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had said in a television interview Tuesday that such a declaration by Biden would only harm ties, The Wall Street Journal reported.


https://www.christia...n-genocide.html

[Yervant1]

Times of Israel

April 25 2021

 

 

After Biden acknowledges Armenian genocide, Israel stops short of doing the same Jerusalem recognizes ‘terrible suffering’ of Armenians in early 20th century killings by Ottomans, says nations of world must ‘ensure events like this do not again occur’

By TOI staff and Agencies

 

After Biden acknowledges Armenian genocide, Israel stops short of doing the same | The Times of Israel

Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday said it recognized the “terrible suffering and tragedy of the Armenian people,” but stopped short of recognizing the early 20th century massacres carried out by the Ottoman Empire as a genocide.

“In these days in particular, we and the nations of the world have the responsibility to ensure that events like this do not again occur,” it said in a statement.

 

The statement came after US President Joe Biden recognized the Armenian genocide, the first American president to do so.

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Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid praised the move, saying that it was “an important moral statement by Biden.”

“I will continue to fight for Israeli recognition of the Armenian Genocide, it is our moral responsibility as the Jewish state,” Lapid added.

Biden’s move was a watershed moment for descendants of the hundreds of thousands of dead as he defied decades of pressure by Turkey.

Biden had informed Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the decision a day earlier.

“We remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring,” Biden said. “We affirm the history. We do this not to cast blame but to ensure that what happened is never repeated.”

The statement is a massive victory for Armenia and its extensive diaspora. Starting with Uruguay in 1965, nations including France, Germany, Canada and Russia have recognized the genocide, but a US statement has been a paramount goal that proved elusive under previous presidents.

Members of the Armenian- American community join religious leaders at a religious ceremony remembering the victims of the Armenian Genocide at the Montebello Armenian Genocide Monument in Montebello, California, Saturday, April 24, 2021 (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Erdogan, in a statement to the Armenian patriarch in Istanbul, said debates “should be held by historians” and not “politicized by third parties.”

“Words cannot change or rewrite history,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted moments after Biden’s statement. “We will not take lessons from anyone on our history.”

Turkey’s foreign ministry on Saturday night summoned US Ambassador David Satterfield to protest Biden’s use of the term.

Meanwhile, Armenian Americans celebrated the news, saying the recognition was long overdue.

His action came after decades of activism, most of which was centered in California, home of the largest Armenian community in the nation.

“He’s the first American president to have the guts to talk about it. I never understood why the US waited this long when they knew the truth about what happened. It’s amazing and I’m very happy he did what he did,” said Varoujan Kioudjian, 74.

He was among hundreds of people who streamed to a hilltop monument in Montebello, about 10 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, to mark Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.

Armenian-Americans hold a rally to commemorate the Armenian genocide in Beverly Hills, California, Saturday, April 24, 2021 (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Dressed in black for the solemn ceremony, they laid flowers around a tomb and said prayers for the estimated 1.5 million Armenians who were killed in the events beginning in 1915 known as Metz Yeghern.

Kioudjian said for as long as he can remember his late father, whose parents were killed in the genocide and who grew up in an orphanage, took him to memorials and demonstrations every April 24. That was the day in 1915 when Ottoman authorities began arresting Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople, now known as Istanbul.

“The day April 24 comes around, tears flowed from his eyes, from his heart. It was that sad,” he said.

The White House had avoided using using the term genocide for decades for fear of alienating Turkey, a NATO ally and important power in the Middle East. Biden followed through on a campaign promise to make human rights a central guidepost of his foreign policy. He argued last year that failing to call the atrocities against the Armenian people a genocide would pave the way for future mass atrocities.

Biden’s call with Erdogan was his first since taking office more than three months ago. The delay had become a worrying sign in Ankara; Erdogan had a good rapport with former president Donald Trump and had been hoping for a reset despite past friction with Biden.

Armenian-American march to a rally to commemorate the Armenian genocide in Beverly Hills, California, Saturday, April 24, 2021 (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Erdogan reiterated his long-running claims that the US is supporting Kurdish fighters in Syria who are affiliated with the Iraq-based Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the PKK. The PKK has led an insurgency against Turkey for more than three decades. In recent years, Turkey has launched military operations against PKK enclaves in Turkey and in northern Iraq and against US-allied Syrian Kurdish fighters. The State Department has designated the PKK a terrorist organization but has argued with Turkey over the group’s ties to the Syrian Kurds.

According to the Turkish government statement after the call, Erdogan also raised concerns about the presence in the United States of cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is accused by Turkey of orchestrating a failed 2016 coup attempt. Gulen, who has lived in Pennsylvania since the late 1990s, denies involvement in the coup.

Biden, during the campaign, drew ire from Turkish officials after an interview with The New York Times in which he spoke about supporting Turkey’s opposition against “autocrat” Erdogan. In 2019, Biden accused Trump of betraying US allies, following Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from northern Syria, which paved the way for a Turkish military offensive against the Syrian Kurdish group. In 2014, when he was vice president, Biden apologized to Erdogan after suggesting in a speech that Turkey helped facilitate the rise of the Islamic State group by allowing foreign fighters to cross Turkey’s border with Syria.

https://www.timesofi...-term-genocide/

[onjig]

Park Asdoudozoh ```

 

Thank God ,,,,,, at Last ```

Edited by onjig, 27 April 2021 - 05:24 PM.

[Yervant1]

The Hindu, India

April 28 2021

 

 

Editorial: True name: On Armenian genocide

APRIL 28, 2021 00:15 IST

• 
  

 

 

Turkey should not live in denial of the atrocities committed against Armenians

 

U.S. President Joe Biden has fulfilled a long-pending American promise by recognising the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in 1915-16 as “an act of genocide”, but the move has clearly infuriated Turkey, a NATO ally. In 2019, both Houses of the U.S. Congress passed resolutions calling the slaughter by its true name, but former President Donald Trump, like his predecessors, stopped short of a formal recognition of the genocide, mainly because of Turkish opposition. Ankara has challenged the “scholarly and legal” basis of Mr. Biden’s announcement and warned that it will “open a deep wound”. Up to 1.5 million Armenians were estimated to have been killed during the course of the First World War by the Ottoman Turks. When the Ottoman Empire suffered a humiliating defeat in the Caucasus in 1915 at the hands of the Russians, the Turks blamed the Armenians living on the fringes of the crumbling empire for the setback. Accusing them of treachery, the Ottoman government unleashed militias on Armenian villages. Armenian soldiers, public intellectuals and writers were executed and hundreds of thousands of Armenians, including children, were forcibly moved from their houses in eastern Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) to the Syrian desert. Many died during this exodus and many others, after reaching the concentration camps in the deserts. Turkey has acknowledged that atrocities were committed against Armenians, but is opposed to calling it a genocide, which it considers as an attempt to insult the Turks.

Mr. Biden’s move comes at a time when the relationship between the U.S. and Turkey has been in steady decline. In 2016, Ankara accused the U.S.-based Turkish Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen of being the mastermind of a failed coup, and asked the U.S. government to extradite him, a demand Washington paid no attention to. Turkey’s decision to buy the S-400 missile defence system from Russia, despite strong opposition from the U.S., prompted American leaders to oust Turkey from the F-35 fighter jet training programme and impose sanctions on their ally. When Mr. Biden assumed office, Turkish President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan had sent feelers for a reset, saying Turkey needed help from the West to resolve the Syrian crisis. But Mr. Biden’s move on the Armenian killings appears to have widened the cracks. For Turkey, this overreaction to anyone calling the Armenian massacre a genocide is not doing any good in foreign policy. Instead of being defensive about the crimes of the Ottoman empire, the modern Turkish republic should demonstrate the moral courage to disown the atrocities. It shouldn’t allow the past to ruin its present interests.

 

 

https://www.thehindu...ticle34424836.ece

[Yervant1]

PressWire

April 28 2021

 

 

 

TGTE Celebrates US Recognition of the Armenian Genocide in 1915-16

News Provided By

Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, TGTE

April 28, 2021, 14:38 GMT

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NEW YORK, USA, April 28, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) congratulates the Biden Administration for recognizing the Armenian Genocide which took place from Spring 1915 to Autumn 1916. Approximately 1.5 million Armenians were physically annihilated through massacres, starvation, ill treatment and displacement. We, the Eelam Tamils stand in solidarity with the Armenians in their search for justice.

The recognition of the Armenian genocide by the U.S. government is long overdue. The recognition is thanks to the resilient activism of the Armenian diaspora in the United States. We applaud the Biden Administration’s moral courage to put human rights at the center of their foreign policy even when there are adverse geopolitical consequences.

The Ottoman Empire’s “rationale” that Armenians might side with Russia during the First World War does not vitiate the specific intent to wipe out the Armenians. The Ottoman Turk’s “justification” that their barbaric massacre was a “necessary measure” against Armenian separatism does not mitigate the cruelty and the barbarism of the crime of genocide.

The primary purpose of the recognition of genocide is not to simply pass blame on evil actions, but to serve as a proactive measure. As President Biden noted, the remembering of the lives of the victims of genocide is to recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from occurring ever again. The President emphasized that, “We do this not to cast blame but to ensure that what happened is never repeated”. Article 1 of the Genocide Convention mandates that State Parties have a duty to prevent genocide in time of peace or in time of war. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Bosnian genocide case affirmed this legal obligation.

Let’s try together to create a genocide-free world.

ABOUT THE TRANSNATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL EELAM (TGTE):

The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is a democratically elected Government of over a million strong Tamils (from the island of Sri Lanka) living in several countries around the world.

TGTE was formed after the mass killing of Tamils by the Sri Lankan Government in 2009.

TGTE thrice held internationally supervised elections among Tamils around the world to elect 135 Members of Parliament. It has two chambers of Parliament: The House of Representatives and the Senate and also a Cabinet.

TGTE is leading a campaign to realize the political aspirations of Tamils through peaceful, democratic, and diplomatic means and its Constitution mandates that it should realize its political objectives only through peaceful means. It’s based on the principles of nationhood, homeland and self-determination.

TGTE seeks that the international community hold the perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against the Tamil people to account. TGTE calls for a referendum to decide the political future of Tamils.

The Prime Minister of TGTE is Mr. Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, a New York based lawyer.

Twitter: @TGTE_PMO
Email: pmo@tgte.org
Web: www.tgte-us.org

Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam
TGTE
+1 614-202-3377
r.thave@tgte.org
Visit us on social media:

https://www.einnews....cide-in-1915-16

[Yervant1]

The Greek Reporter

April 24 2021

 

 

 

The Unexpected Reference of Joe Biden to Constantinople

 

ByTasos Kokkinidis

April 24, 2021

In recognizing the Armenia Genocide, US President Joe Biden referred to Constantinople, today’s Istanbul, in a move that raised eyebrows in Greece and beyond.

The relevant section of the statement by Biden reads:

 

“Beginning on April 24, 1915, with the arrest of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople by Ottoman authorities, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in a campaign of extermination.”

Analysts point out that at the time, the city was still officially known as Constantinople.

However, Biden could have found a way to rephrase, by including its modern name, or even to omit the reference altogether.

Some believe that the reference to Constantinople was another intended jibe directed against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Others claim that it is the result of Biden’s enormous respect for Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the Orthodox Church whose spiritual center has been Constantinople for centuries.

Because of its historical location as the capital of the former Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire and its role as the mother church of most modern Orthodox churches, Constantinople holds a special place of honor within Orthodoxy.

It serves as the seat for the Ecumenical Patriarch, who enjoys the status of primus inter pares (first among equals) among the world’s Eastern Orthodox prelates and is regarded as the representative and spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians.

Biden and Constantinople

Biden has met Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew several times, including in America, Greece and Constantinople.

US Vice-President Joe Biden and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in the Phanar in 2014. Photo courtesy of N. Manginas

 

He has described the meetings as “one of the greatest honors of my life.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Biden has said, is the “most Christ-like figure I have ever met.

“I’ve never met anyone like His All-Holiness. He radiates grace, conviction, and faith in every movement,” Biden had said before assuming office.

The relationship between the two leaders should bode well for numerous concerns of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, reports say.

In January, Bartholomew praised Biden for his actions regarding the lifting of a travel ban from some predominantly Muslim nations and the rejoining of the Paris Climate Agreement.

In an official communique the Patriarch stated:

“The Ecumenical Patriarchate expresses its delight over two highly symbolical executive orders of the new U.S. President.

“The Ecumenical Patriarchate congratulates the new President of the United States, Joseph Biden, on assuming his duties, and expresses its delight regarding two highly symbolical executive orders signed immediately after his inauguration.”

Biden sent a letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in response.

In a handwritten postscript, Biden wrote to the Ecumenical Patriarch: “Stay well. We need your leadership.”

 

https://greekreporte...constantinople/

[Yervant1]

Madison, WI

May 4 2021

 

 

 

Biden’s recognition of Armenian genocide is a victory for truth over a vicious lie

• John Nichols

I have waited my entire life for an American president to speak a full measure of truth about the Armenian genocide.

Then, as his still new presidency approached its 100th day, Joe Biden did.

I’ve had my differences with Biden in the past, and I will surely have them in the future. But I will always remember that he put America on the right side of history when, on this year’s Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, he used the word that his predecessors had eschewed.

 

Successive presidents of the United States, Democrats and Republicans, have issued statements on April 24, recognizing the Meds Yeghern, the great calamity, as Armenians historically have referred to the horrific events of more than a century ago. But they resisted using the term jurist and legal scholar Raphael Lemkin coined to describe this crime against humanity: genocide. They did not want to offend an American ally, the Turkish government, which has a long history of denying the mass murder of Armenians — and of pressuring other governments to do the same.

 

Biden ended the lie of omission.

 

“Each year on this day,” he said, “we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring.”

It is necessary to amplify the language of truth about this genocide and others throughout history because the language of denial is so insidious.

I learned that as a child. For me, there was never any question that the Armenian genocide was real, because I grew up with Armenians who had survived it — and who then made their way to a city of refuge in the middle of the United States.

I was born in that city: Racine. For more than a century, Racine has been a place of entry for Armenian immigrants and a home to their children and grandchildren. They built churches, formed clubs and community groups, opened stores and coffee shops, and became CEOs and doctors and lawyers. Yet they never forgot where they came from, or why they had to come to the United States.

 

 

 

I came of age in the Racine County Courthouse, where my father was an assistant district attorney and practiced law with a number of Armenian-Americans, including Vartak Gulbankian, who was born in the village of Talas, in what is now Turkey, on Sept. 17, 1913. She came to the U.S. at age 6 with her parents, who settled in Racine. A remarkable woman, she graduated from high school at 14. At 21 she graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School as the only woman in the class of 1935. She went on to practice law for more than 50 years and was a proud member of the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups that placed an emphasis on civil rights and civil liberties.

Gulbankian and her fellow immigrants taught us the true history of the Armenian genocide, which began on April 24, 1915, when hundreds of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders were murdered by the Turks. With that, according to the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the “Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire began a systematic genocide of its Armenian citizens — an unarmed Christian minority population.

 

 

More than a million Armenians were exterminated through direct killing, starvation, torture, and forced death marches.” Henry Morgenthau Jr., the US ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, said at the time, “The great massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when compared to the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915.”

As a child, I learned to recognize the denial of the genocide as an assault on truth and memory that has extended more than a century. There was never any question in my mind that Colin Tatz, the founding director of the Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, was right when he observed, “The Turkish denial (of the Armenian genocide) is probably the foremost example of historical perversion. With a mix of academic sophistication and diplomatic thuggery … the Turks have put both memory and history into reverse gear.” Or that Stanley Cohen, the great professor of criminology at Hebrew University, was right when he explained, “This denial has been sustained by deliberate propaganda, lying and cover-ups, forging documents, suppression of archives, and bribing scholars.”

The denial has been so rigid and rigorous that, when Pope Francis acknowledged the 100th anniversary of the genocide in 2015, The New York Times reported that the papal statement “caused a diplomatic uproar with Turkey.”

Biden knew that the Turkish government would respond angrily to his use of the word “genocide,” and it has.

But the president chose to break the silence. In doing so, he acknowledged a bitter truth.

“While Armenian immigrants have enriched the United States in countless ways,” he said, “they have never forgotten the tragic history that brought so many of their ancestors to our shores.”

 

I understand there are more truths that this president must speak. I am not naive about how much of our own history must be reexamined and set right. And I am abundantly aware of the fact that acknowledging the truth is not the same as achieving justice for Armenians — or for other peoples who have been the targets of genocide.

 

On April 24, though, I knew that Joe Biden had done something that mattered, something righteous.

I thought of Vartak Gulbankian when the president declared, “We honor their story. We see that pain. We affirm the history.”

I imagined how much that ACLU lawyer from Racine who so valued civil rights and human rights would have appreciated a president who boldly declared that, “We honor the victims of the Meds Yeghern so that the horrors of what happened are never lost to history. And we remember so that we remain ever-vigilant against the corrosive influence of hate in all its forms.”

 

John Nichols is associate editor of The Capital Times. jnichols@madison.com and @NicholsUprising. 

Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less.

John Nichols

 

Associate Editor John Nichols has been with The Capital Times since 1993 and has become one of Wisconsin's best-known progressive voices. He is the author of seven books on politics and the media and he also writes about electoral politics and public policy for The Nation magazine.

 

https://madison.com/...9a8cd5f903.html

[Yervant1]

May 17 2021

 

 

Erdogan Calls On Biden To Reverse Armenian Declaration

• Carolina
• May 17, 2021
•  

On Saturday, April 24, Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, U.S. President Joe Biden made a historic declaration that the 1915 massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were a genocide. In response, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan urged Biden to reverse his statement as it is disturbing their bilateral relationship. The 1915 massacre resulted in the death of at least 664,000 to possibly 1.2 million Armenian Christians. This event is often considered the first genocide of the twentieth century as Armenians were killed individually, massacred, or died of ill-treatment and starvation. According to Armenian-Genocide, there are at least thirty countries that recognize the Armenian genocide including France, Germany, Venezuela, and now the U.S. Global resistance to recognizing the massacres of 1915 may be a result of Turkey’s military power. For the U.S. at least, Turkey’s influence as the second-biggest military power in NATO and its strategic location was too important to risk tensions with their ally, according to the BBC. Biden’s decision to risk tensions with Turkey likely stemmed from his campaign promise to formally acknowledge the atrocity as a genocide once elected. The Biden administration’s move to centre human rights in its international policy agenda is a crucial step in the right direction. The U.S has often remained complicit in human rights violations for the sake of maintaining economic relations and military alliances.

Erdogan’s response to Biden’s human rights-centred policy agenda is unsurprising. Since the statement, Erdogan has stated that this “wrong step” would harm ties, telling the U.S. to “look in the mirror,” and that the country still wished to establish “good neighbourly” ties with Armenia. While Erdogan is not wrong in telling the U.S. to “look in the mirror” in regard to its indigenous people, his comments continue to distract from the reality of what happened to Armenians in 1915. He continued to remain staunch with his stance, doubling down that “The U.S. president has made baseless, unjust and untrue remarks about the sad events that took place in our geography over a century ago.” He then criticized the U.S. for having been unable to successfully mediate the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh, alleging that the U.S. stood by as massacres unfolded. As mentioned, it is just as crucial to demand that the U.S. address its own complicity in human rights violations, however, tensions between Turkey and Armenia will persist if its state actors continue to resist acknowledging the genocide. Erdogan has often claimed that the killings were not systematically orchestrated and that the death toll was exaggerated. His comments demonstrate a blatant disregard for the barbarity that occurred a little over a century ago. Erdogan’s combative responses to international recognition of the genocide are bound to increase new and existing tensions among nations. There will be no ability for Armenia and Turkey to move forward unless tangible effort is demonstrated by Turkey to provide redress for the violence committed against the Armenian people.

Part of Turkey’s resistance to recognizing the 1915 events stems from the country’s belief that there is no “scholarly or legal basis” to declaring the massacres a genocide, according to its foreign ministry. To address this, Erdogan has called for Turkish and Armenian historians to form a commission to investigate the events. Personally, I see this as a redundant way to waste time and divert people’s attention. Many historians have already conducted studies on the event and declared it a genocide. One scholar, Raphael Lemkin, the Polish-Jewish attorney that created the term “genocide,” refers to both the Holocaust and the massacres of Armenians when describing his investigations. Turkish officials and some scholars, however, do argue that the killings were not systematic, barring it from being a genocide. The main concern with Erdogan’s investigation is that there will be no consensus due to the risk of personal bias and agendas. I do recognize that this is a contested matter and a sensitive subject, so perhaps unbiased countries can offer their own historians to assist in the research and act as mediators. Ultimately, there is no guarantee that Erdogan and the Turkish government will acknowledge the massacres as genocide regardless of the findings.

In an ideal world, Turkey would commit to its moral obligation and confess to the crimes committed against Armenians during the Ottoman Empire. Turkey should also listen to the wishes of the Armenian people. Vera Yacoubian, director of the Armenian National Committee of the Middle East Office, says that Turkey has a “great historical legacy” it needs to return to Armenia, including “church endowments, monasteries, schools, [and] hospitals” after confiscating money, title deeds, jewellery, and savings that Armenian citizens have in European and Turkish banks. There are many ways to compensate for the atrocities committed through recognition and reparations. Turkey needs to begin with the most direct form of action, confessing and apologizing for the genocides, before seeking avenues to provide restitution. Turkey should work in collaboration with Armenian organizations to generate potential means of providing this, ideally including the suggestions made by Yacoubian. While there is no certainty these outcomes will come to be, at least under Erdogan, perhaps Biden’s declaration is a step in the right direction. If more countries join in recognizing the atrocity as genocide, then international pressures may escalate enough to warrant more direct action from Turkey. Hopefully, Armenians will be able to receive the recognition and reparations they need to heal from their painful history.

• Author
•  

 

 

Carolina

 

Carolina is a senior at Cornell University studying English and Government. She is interested in human rights, particularly issues regarding gender-based violence and immigration.

 

https://theowp.org/e...d41lDjjcpA0PaRY

[Yervant1]

Responsible Statecraft

May 20 2021

 

 

 

Biden arms waiver is ‘slap in the face’ of Armenian-Americans

Azerbaijan is just one of many client governments whose war crimes the U.S. ignores to keep military assistance flowing.

MAY 20, 2021

Written by
Daniel Larison

 

The U.S. has a habit of ignoring its own laws when it comes to arming and supporting authoritarian regimes. The latest example of this came last month when the Biden administration waived Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, which was created to block U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan during and after the first Karabakh war. 

One administration after another has issued this waiver since it became available in 2002 in the name of counter-terrorism cooperation, but events in the last year have made the usual rubber-stamping of supplying weapons to the Aliyev regime much more controversial, and rightly so. Azerbaijan’s aggressive military campaign in Karabakh last year was exactly what the original cutoff in military assistance was intended to discourage, and the assault on Karabakh proved that Baku’s commitment to diplomacy was a lie. Issuing the waiver in the wake of the second Karabakh war is indefensible. Doing so shortly after recognizing the Armenian genocide is a slap in the face to the Armenian-American community, and it makes a mockery of the Biden administration’s pretensions to making human rights central to its foreign policy. 

Azerbaijan is just one of many client governments whose war crimes the U.S. has ignored in order to keep military assistance flowing. Enabling further aggression against the people of Karabakh and Armenia is a particularly obnoxious and shameful example of how our government’s partnerships with corrupt authoritarian states puts innocent lives in jeopardy. 

Within weeks of the administration’s decision, there were already reports of new incursions by Azerbaijan’s forces into Armenian territory. These incursions come on the heels of reports that as many as 19 Armenian prisoners held in captivity by Azerbaijan have been tortured and executed. Instead of holding Aliyev’s government accountable for these outrages and the many other war crimes committed during the war, the Biden administration acts as if nothing has happened and everything is business as usual.

To issue the waiver, the Secretary of State had to certify that U.S. military assistance will not “undermine or hamper ongoing efforts to negotiate a peaceful settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan or be used for offensive purposes against Armenia.” Blinken’s decision to make that certification was a terrible mistake. Letting Azerbaijan off the hook for its recent war crimes against Armenian civilians and prisoners is bound to hamper efforts at reaching a peaceful settlement, and it is likely to encourage Azerbaijan to launch another attack. Azerbaijan was the aggressor in last year’s war, and now they are being rewarded for that aggression. It is not hard to imagine that Aliyev could interpret this as tacit approval for starting another war in the future. At the very least, it sends the message to Aliyev and other authoritarian clients that the U.S. privileges supporting them over upholding the requirements of our own laws and international law.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has criticized the Biden administration’s decision to issue the waiver: “We should not be providing military funding to a nation that habitually engages in human rights violations and violates the sovereignty of its neighbors.” 

Congress should demand that the Biden administration justify the decision to waive the restriction on military assistance. Specifically, members of Congress should insist that Secretary Blinken explain why he signed off on this when the government of Azerbaijan is putting its war crimes on display in its appalling Military Trophies Park, complete with “ghoulish displays of helmets and caricatured mannequins of Armenian soldiers.” The dehumanization of Armenians has become a major feature of Azerbaijan’s official ideology, and by supporting Azerbaijan’s government the U.S. is giving its stamp of approval to a regime that both denies the Armenian genocide and threatens to commit another one.

Another condition for issuing the waiver requires that it is deemed necessary to support U.S. efforts to counter international terrorism. Blinken’s decision to issue the waiver doesn’t make much sense here, either, since it is well-documented that Azerbaijan was recruiting mercenaries from among Syrian jihadists to support its attack on Karabakh. Far from being a reliable partner in counter-terrorism, Azerbaijan has been recruiting terrorists so that it can commit acts of aggression against its neighbors. 

It is no accident that the amendment that created the waiver for Section 907 was passed just a few months after the September 11 attacks. Our government’s “war on terror” has spawned a host of destructive policies, and establishing a closer security relationship with the dictatorship in Azerbaijan in the name of combating terrorism was one of them.

We need to consider carefully why the U.S. provides military assistance to Azerbaijan in the first place. Azerbaijan is not a treaty ally. The U.S. does not owe their government anything. The country has been an important route for logistical support for the war in Afghanistan, but now that U.S. involvement in the war is drawing to a close that will no longer be necessary. There might be extraordinary circumstances where the U.S. is forced to work with an abusive and corrupt dictatorship like Azerbaijan as a temporary expedient, but that isn’t the case here. The U.S. doesn’t benefit from this relationship enough to justify a long-term partnership with such an odious government. The U.S. has no compelling reason to continue providing military assistance to Azerbaijan. It is time for our government to follow the law and put an end to it.

There are some hard-liners in Washington that were cheerleading for Azerbaijan during its aggressive war in Karabakh, and they are no doubt pleased with the Biden administration’s decision to ignore Azerbaijan’s many crimes. According to the hard-liners’ view, backing Azerbaijan is not only tolerable but necessary to counter Russian and Iranian influence in the region. This is a warped view that has nothing to do with U.S. interests, but this latest indulgence by the Biden administration will give the hard-liners’ position a boost in Washington. 

As a candidate, Joe Biden liked to call out the Trump administration and Donald Trump personally for his indulgence and flattery of dictators around the world. Biden gave everyone reason to expect that he would not simply cater to authoritarian regimes and do them favors once he was president. Since taking office, however, Biden has made a series of wrong decisions that have rewarded authoritarian clients and allowed some of Trump’s worst policies to remain intact. 

Presented with the opportunity to undo Trump’s decision to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, Biden has demurred, and it now appears that no reversal of that decision will be forthcoming. Given the chance to block an unjustifiable $23 billion sale of advanced weapons to the United Arab Emirates, Biden has let it go ahead. Issuing the waiver for military assistance to Azerbaijan makes the same kind of mistake.

If Biden and Blinken want to make good on their rhetoric about emphasizing the importance of human rights in their foreign policy, they should begin by cutting off all military assistance to Azerbaijan. U.S. and Turkish support for Azerbaijan have served to create a menace in the Caucasus. The least that the U.S. can do is to stop aiding that menace as it threatens the stability of the region. 

 

https://responsibles...nian-americans/

[Yervant1]

May 29 2021

 

 

What Lies Beneath: President Biden’s Deceptive Acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide by Guest Contributor

 

President Biden’s April 24 statement acknowledging the Armenian Genocide (1915–1923+) carried out by Turkey was welcome but flawed.

Indeed, “Turkey” appears nowhere in the document.

Moreover, the State Department swiftly undermined Biden’s virtuous-sounding words.

American acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide isn’t even new.

The U.S. House has passed several resolutions on the Genocide, and a nearly unanimous Congress did so in 2019.

Presidents going back to Woodrow Wilson have described the Armenian ordeals with language such as: an effort to exterminate all Armenians; terrible massacres; mass killings; death marches; and an ancient [Armenian] homeland was erased.

If these don’t describe genocide, the word is meaningless.

In 1951, the State Department cited the Armenian “massacres [as a] crime of genocide” in a filing at the International Court of Justice.

In 1981, President Reagan included “the genocide of Armenians” in a Holocaust proclamation.

Genocide acknowledgments should not — like car insurance — lapse if not renewed annually.

Will the Holocaust become a non-genocide next year if the White House happens to overlook it?

Still, Biden’s statement is noteworthy. It could even reinvigorate several Armenian American lawsuits against Turkey.

But his statement has problems.

Biden tries to take the heat off today’s Republic of Turkey by blaming only “Ottoman-era … authorities” for the Genocide.

After the Allies defeated Ottoman Turkey in WWI (1918), Ottoman General Mustafa Kemal’s (Ataturk) forces continued to massacre Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks.

Kemal also ordered that Armenia be “politically and physically eliminated.”  When he established the Turkish Republic in 1923, Kemal appointed Ottoman genocidists and continued to persecute Christians.

Thus, as President Erdogan himself has confirmed, his country is a “continuation” of Ottoman Turkey. Knowing this, the Turkish Republic has always tried to evade accountability for the Genocide.

Disgracefully, though, Biden tries to assist Turkey in that regard by writing, “We do this not to cast blame” [on Turkey].”

The president has no right to hand Turkey a “Get Out of Jail Free card.”

Just two days later, American Ambassador to Armenia Lynne Tracy tried to help Turkey duck accountability.

“The Armenian Genocide took place in 1915, the [UN] Genocide Convention did not come into force until 1951 … from the legal perspective the Convention is not being applied retroactively.”

Tracy’s reasoning — disputed by experts — suggests that Jews should have received no restitution or reparations because the Holocaust (1933–1945) also occurred before 1951.

Turkey’s genocidal threats against Armenians continue to this day, something the president’s declaration ignores.

In 1993, Turkey was going to invade Armenia were the coup against Russian President Boris Yeltsin to succeed.

President Erdogan has branded Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks “Leftovers of the Sword.”  It’s an obvious, existential threat against Christian populations who survived Turkey’s 20th century genocides.

In 2020, Turkey, its Turkic ally Azerbaijan, and jihadist mercenaries successfully attacked Armenian-populated Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabagh and Armenia.

Erdogan gleefully likened these attacks to Ottoman Turkey’s genocidal invasion (1918) of Armenia. “Today, may the souls of [General] Nuri Pasha, [Minister of War] Enver Pasha, and the brave soldiers of the Caucasus Islam Army, be happy.”

An analogy would be Germany’s denying the Holocaust, threatening Israel, arming its foes, calling Jews “leftovers of the concentration camps,” and glorifying Nazi Germany.

Azerbaijani President Aliyev simultaneously claimed huge chunks of Armenia, including its capital Yerevan.

Turkey and Azerbaijan’s military assaults and threats are all reminiscent of the Genocide.

Biden’s vow that America must “ensure that what happened [the Armenian Genocide] is never repeated,” therefore, rings hollow.

Moreover, Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act conditionally prohibits U.S. aid to Azerbaijan if the latter supports terrorism or engages in aggression against Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabagh/Armenia.

However, the White House just waived Section 907 despite Azerbaijan’s flagrant use of ISIS and other terrorists against Armenians.

Let’s not be deceived by the Biden’s April 24 statement and the State Department’s unprincipled actions.

David Boyajian writes about Caucasus issues. His work can be found at Armeniapedia.

 

https://greekcitytim...enian-genocide/

[Yervant1]

Your Central Valley

May 30 2021

 

 

 

Exclusive – Is U.S. taxpayer money aiding a modern day genocide against Armenia? Armenian Caucus chair says Biden admin. has ignored requests to restrict military aid to Azerbaijan 

 

by: Alexan Balekian

Posted: May 30, 2021 / 07:00 AM PDT / Updated: May 28, 2021 / 05:42 PM PDT

 

 

 

 

A week after President Biden became the first U.S. sitting president to formally recognize the Armenian genocide, his administration waived a restriction to extend military aid to Azerbaijan. In an exclusive interview with Valley congressman David Valadao on Sunday Morning Matters, the Armenian caucus co-chair says his bipartisan letter to Secretary of State Blinken has not received a response. Meantime, nearly 200 Armenian POWs have been reportedly tortured or killed by Azerbaijani forces. Valadao says $100 million in U.S. taxpayer money was sent to Azerbaijan by the Biden administration by issuing a waiver not to uphold section 907 of the Freedom Support Act. The Biden administration has failed to answer multiple bipartisan requests for $100 million in aid to help rebuild Artsakh after most of it was destroyed in a bloody war back in September of 2020.

 

https://www.yourcent...-to-azerbaijan/

[Yervant1]

Thomas de Waal does what he does well, put doubt about the Armenian Genocide!

 

 

 

Agos - Armenian Weekly Published in Turkey

June 15 2021

 

 

 

Carnegie Europe and Thomas de Waal under critique

 

 

 

 

 

06.15.2021NEWS

A group of academics and human rights lawyers penned a public response to the think tank Carnegie Europe after the publication of an article by the British journalist and writer Thomas de Waal on 30 April 2021 entitled “What Next After the US Recognition of the Armenian Genocide?”

The text undersigned by fourteen scholars including Henry Theriault, Bedross Der Matossian, Elyse Semerdjian, and Marc A. Mamigonian, argues that de Waal's article, with its "inaccuracies and minimizations have (...) contributed to denial of the Armenian Genocide":

CARNEGIE FATIGUE

June 14, 2021

Think-Tank Tribalism, Historical Revisionism, and Immunity to Criticism

Think tanks impact human lives by shaping public opinion and influencing policy. When think tanks publish work that distorts facts and neglects to name the beneficiaries of violence and dispossession, however, they abuse their power and undermine efforts that advocate for truth and human life. Think tanks should be held accountable for disseminating falsehoods that have real-world ramifications.

It is in this spirit of accountability that we, a group of academics and practitioners, initially contacted the influential think tank Carnegie Europe after the publication of a problematic article by Thomas de Waal on 30 April 2021 entitled “What Next After the US Recognition of the Armenian Genocide?”

On 18 May 2021, some of the signatories of this letter sent a protest letter requesting a retraction or a published response from our group of signatories to Thomas de Waal’s article. While de Waal’s article had already been corrected by Carnegie Europe three times for its inaccuracies, we pointed out that it still contained falsehoods and a minimization of the intentional, centrally planned, and organized genocide of Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks. We affirmed that these inaccuracies and minimizations have, in essence, contributed to denial of the Armenian Genocide, and could be used to do so in the future. 

This is not an abstract intellectual debate. Think tanks that cannot admit mistakes perpetuate the oppression of the very people who are the subjects of their articles. Currently, Azerbaijan is engaging in ethnic cleansing, the destruction of millennia-old monuments, a gradual invasion of Armenia, and the torture and execution of illegally held POWs. At a time when denialists, propagandists, and governments are waging a literal war, think tank pundits who gloss over and distort facts are complicit in the enactment of real violence. 

Think-Tank Tribalism

Carnegie Europe’s Director, Dr. Rosa Balfour, responded to our cordial, well-reasoned, and research-backed letter by defending the institution through trivializing our criticisms as "emotional.” She opened her letter by thanking us for "deciding to write to [her] politely," in effect ascribing incivility to our group before she even read our letter.

In discounting our legitimate criticisms as “emotional” because of who we are—a group of largely Armenian scholars, lawyers, and journalists—Carnegie's response to our protest letter is emblematic of Western Orientalist bias. Orientalists objectify and deny indigenous peoples a role in their own portrayal, resulting in political and epistemic subjugation. The condescension of Balfour’s communication is characteristic of the lack of diversity among those in decision-making positions in such institutions in the West, unchecked biases, and an unwillingness among higher-level staff to acknowledge, let alone learn from, expertise outside of their in-group. What Balfour’s letter affirms is think-tank tribalism.

In her response, Balfour asserted that de Waal writes with empathy––empathy that is perhaps best illustrated by his claim that genocide is a "badge of honor" in a retracted section of the article. This cynical phrasing implies that the descendants of genocide are using the murder and violent dispossession of their ancestors for political aims. This is a common genocide denialist propaganda point. Our letter clearly highlighted that de Waal’s piece had offended those whom it described. In asserting that de Waal’s article was “sensitive” and written with “empathy,” Balfour casts herself as the expert of our own experience. She insists on the empathetic character of her institution while simultaneously ignoring our legitimate objections. 

Our experience with Carnegie Europe suggests that some think tanks swiftly respond to challenges to their authority by reproducing power dynamics that affirm their privileged positions. 

A Pattern of Historical Revisionism and Denialism

Balfour’s reference to empathy in her response was a dodge to avoid the substance of our scholarly critiques regarding the inaccuracy of the claims de Waal presented and the methodology he followed in asserting them. De Waal’s response to our letter similarly evades our legitimate objections by doubling down on his flawed methodology while reasserting his authority to make errors of argumentation in chronology, historiography, and context.

De Waal confirms that he chooses chronologies and sources only when they suit him. According to him, the valid dates of the Armenian Genocide are not 1915-1923 as most scholars assert, but rather 1915-1916 (although in his response he cites Ronald Suny to claim the dates of 1915-1917; where the missing year went, he does not say). The timeframe de Waal chose for overall losses in the Ottoman Empire—in which he seeks to contextualize, and therefore dilute, the annihilation of the Armenians—is 1914-1922. Thus, de Waal selected the narrowest possible window for the Armenian Genocide (1915-1916) and the widest possible one for Ottoman population losses (1914–1922). Unmentioned by de Waal was that his number for losses includes influenza, the Turkish civil war, the forced removal of Greeks, and the Armenian Genocide. Most disingenuously, de Waal falsely claimed that these losses were deaths, while his source, the Schuman Centre, is clear that the number includes migration. His entire premise is deceitful. Further, the Schuman Centre is not a specialized research center for genocide nor for history. The Centre's focus is European policy issues—it is an inappropriate source for historical data. De Waal’s selective use of dates and disuse of evidence equivocates Armenian suffering.

Not only does de Waal make errors of chronology and evidence, he also ignores the historiography of Armenian Genocide scholarship. When he calls for "more historical research" regarding the Armenian Genocide, de Waal is not only devaluing the substantial body of research done before, especially prior to the mid-2000s, he is failing to disclose that this is the official position of the denialist state of Turkey. Vaguely calling for "more research" serves to shift attention from what has been said on the record––another denialist position. Scholarship on the Armenian Genocide has reached a level of proof rare for any historical event—calls for more research are evasion.

Elsewhere, de Waal ignores context. He cites the importance of "Armenian-Turkish dialogue" without acknowledging Turkey's well-known instrumentalization of the term or the reality of the intense anti-Armenian sentiment and legal penalties that preclude honest dialogue today. In addition to ignoring the fact that "dialogue" has resulted in imprisonment and death in Turkey, de Waal omits the extensive literature on dialogue between victim and perpetrator groups. Including this would be a responsible way to introduce the topic rather than implying a Turkish talking point: "Armenians will not talk to us."

Most egregiously, de Waal asserts that Raphael Lemkin, the coiner of the term “genocide,” did not believe that recognition of and prosecution for genocide can be retroactive. To reveal the inaccuracy of his assertion, we need only to point to the fact that Lemkin built the Armenian Genocide into his very definition of the term genocide.

De Waal reaches his conclusions and assessments through out-of-date or uncritically analyzed evidence, but when confronted with his mistakes, he does not admit any wrongdoing.

Immunity to Criticism and Refusal of Accountability 

Why does this matter? There is a great deal more at stake than the pride of a marginalized group. Overworked journalists, editors, policymakers, and members of the general public do not have time to study complex issues in depth. These groups often turn to recognized experts at think tanks for accurate and substantive coverage to inform their opinions and actions. 

When otherwise credible entities such as Carnegie Europe use their authority to elevate inaccurate, harmful analyses and brush off valid critiques, these organizations become tools of oppression and violence and encourage public indifference and ignorance. Truth, clarity, and nuance are critical for those facing a resurgence of eliminationist mass violence and a global propaganda attack funded by oil money. 

Signatories:

Henry Theriault, PhD, President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars and Co-Editor of Genocide Studies International
Karena Avedissian, Ph.D., Fellow, Royal Society of Arts
Bedross Der Matossian, PhD, Hymen Rosenberg Associate Professor of Judaic Studies
and History, University of Nebraska
Elyse Semerdjian, Ph.D., Professor of History, Whitman College
Marc A. Mamigonian, Director of Academic Affairs, National Association for Armenian Studies and Research
Lisa Gulesserian, Ph.D., Preceptor on Armenian, Harvard University
Harout Ekmanian, Esq., LL.M., Harvard Law School 
Alison Tahmizian Meuse, Senior Fellow, Regional Studies Center
Carina Karapetian Giorgi, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Sociology, Antelope Valley College
Philipp Lottholz, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Giessen
Polina Manolova, Ph.D., Research Associate, University of Tuebingen
Judith Saryan, Member of the Board, National Association for Armenian Studies and Research
Mark Youngman, Ph.D. Lecturer, University of Portsmouth
Hourig Attarian, Ph.D., Associate Professor, American University of Armenia
Laurent Leylekian, General Secretary of the France-Artsakh Friendship Circle

 

 

 

http://www.agos.com....r-critique?s=03

 

 

[Yervant1]

June 25 2022

 

 

Reality undermines Biden's virtue-signaling on genocide

 

 

JUNE 25, 2022 06:00 AM  

BY 

MICHAEL RUBIN

Just two months ago, President Joe Biden commemorated the Armenian Genocide with a pledge "to remain vigilant against the corrosive influence of hate in all its forms." He added, "We recommit ourselves to speaking out and stopping atrocities that leave lasting scars on the world."

Unfortunately, the president's words were empty.

Azerbaijan unabashedly promises to finish the job against Armenia as the U.S. ambassador signals to the Azeri government that it should not worry about cuts to military aid. Biden threw a generation of Afghanistan’s women to the Taliban wolves. John Kerry, who plays an outsize role in Biden’s administration as climate envoy, has dismissed prioritizing action against China’s wholesale eradication of the Uyghur people if it means obstructing climate cooperation. "Life is always full of tough choices in the relationship between nations," Kerry said . For Kerry, "never again" only matters if it does subordinate to his agenda.

Ethnic cleansing continues wholesale in Ethiopia. While Biden initially talked tough, his administration has done little to affect change, with perhaps 500,000 dead on the Biden team’s watch solely because of their Tigrayan ethnicity. They were slain by a Nobel laureate . Biden might plead helplessness in Ethiopia, but the same cannot be said for Nigeria, where the State Department took Nigeria off the religious freedom watch list in order to ensure greater comity when Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the country. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari interpreted the move as a green light to accelerate anti-Christian pogroms .

Nor was Nigeria the only country in which the Biden administration green-lighted genocide. A decade ago, Turkey demanded many Kurds relocate to Syria as part of a peace process. Today, Turkey cites their presence as a reason to attack. As war looms, Biden endorsed the sale of F-16 jets to Turkey, the main weapon with which the Turkish state kills Kurds. After hearing the White House's position, Turkey no longer believes the warnings against further encroachment into Syria. As for the Kurds now living in Syria? They have no place else to go. The ethnic cleansing that occurred under the Trump administration now appears a dry run for something far more sinister: Turkey appears intent on forcing the Kurds into the desert to die, just as they did the Armenians more than a century ago.

Neglect also matters.

Just as Biden bashed Saudi Arabia before reality forced an about-face, so too has his administration never missed an opportunity to trash Rwanda, perhaps the most successful country in Africa’s Great Lakes region. Rwanda is not only a symbol of rebirth from genocide, but it is also the world’s primary example of triumph over dysfunctional corruption. In recent weeks, though, the Biden team has subordinated Rwanda’s counterterrorism fight to Hollywood myth-making . For Rwanda, the crisis is real as the United Nations never disarmed the Genocidaires who escaped to refugee camps in the Congo. Now, those same forces are on the rampage in Congo’s South Kivu region, in a situation eerily reminiscent of the 1994 anti-Tutsi genocide across the border.

Because the electorate saw Biden as less noxious than former President Donald Trump and any alternative among the progressive Left in the primaries, he found himself as the leader of the free world.

What a betrayal it has been, however, to see Biden embrace the trappings of office but not its spirit and to engage in rhetoric but not deal with reality. It is the perfect storm for those from Ankara to Addis Ababa and from Beijing to Baku who would normalize genocide in the face of American weakness.

Michael Rubin ( @mrubin1971 ) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential. He is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

https://www.washingt...ing-on-genocide