114 replies to this topic

[Yervant1]

Eleven German MPs under police protection in 'genocide' row

12 June 2016

People have protested at the German embassy in Ankara, but German MP
Cem Ozdemir and others have also received threats and abuse

Eleven German MPs of Turkish origin have been put under police protection.

They received death threats after supporting a move to describe the
1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.

Germany's foreign ministry has warned MPs of Turkish origin against
travelling to Turkey, saying their security there could not be
guaranteed.

The German parliament's move outraged the Turkish government, which
does not recognise the killings as genocide.

Germany's genocide vote inflames tensions with Turkey

The 11 MPs of Turkish origin who voted for the resolution have faced a
backlash of negative opinion from the Turkish government and from
within Germany's sizable Turkish community.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan castigated them, saying: "What
sort of Turks are they?"

Image copyrightAPImage captionPresident Erdogan questioned the
Turkishness of the 11 Turkish-origin German MPs

Ankara's mayor showed the 11 MPs in a tweet, saying they had "stabbed
us in the back". According to German media, it was retweeted by many
Turkish nationalists, some of whom made death threats.

And a group of Turkish lawyers has reportedly filed a complaint
accusing the MPs of "insulting Turkishness and the Turkish state".

Earlier this month, Turkey recalled its ambassador from Berlin in fury
after the German parliament voted overwhelmingly for the Armenian
"genocide" resolution.

The leader of Germany's Green Party, Cem Ozdemir - who initiated the
debate on the Armenian massacres in the Bundestag - told a newspaper
he had been sent emails saying things like: "We will find you
anywhere."

He said well-informed friends in Turkey had told him to take the
threats seriously.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their people died in the atrocities
of 1915, during the Ottoman Empire's collapse in World War One. Turkey
says the toll was much lower and rejects the term "genocide".

Armenian genocide dispute

Image copyrightAFPImage captionArguments have raged for decades about
the Armenian deaths in 1915-16

Hundreds of thousands of Christian Armenians died in 1915 at the hands
of the Ottoman Turks, whose empire was disintegrating
Many of the victims were civilians deported to barren desert regions
where they died of starvation and thirst. Thousands also died in
massacres
Armenia says up to 1.5 million people were killed. Turkey says the
number of deaths was much smaller
Most non-Turkish scholars of the events regard them as genocide - as
do more than 20 states including France, Germany and Russia, and some
international bodies such as the European Parliament
Turkey rejects the term "genocide", maintaining that many of the dead
were killed in clashes during World War One, and that many ethnic
Turks also suffered in the conflict

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[Yervant1]

Deutsche Welle, Germany
June 12 2016


German MP calls for a travel ban on Erdogan


Sevim Dagdelen has urged action after receiving death threats over the
Armenian genocide vote in Germany's parliament. She said she wants
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to be prevented from entering
Germany.

Sevim Dagdelen, a member of the Bundestag, demanded that "anyone in
Turkey who calls for violence against members of the German parliament
should get an entry ban" to Germany. "This includes President
Erdogan," she told the German newspaper "Bild am Sonntag."

The Duisburg-born politician has a 100,000 euro ($112,000) bounty on
her head, the paper reported, following a resolution adopted by the
German parliament on June 2 calling the massacre of Armenians
genocide.

German lawmakers voted to join 29 other countries in interpreting the
killings of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 as
genocide. Turkey, which was formed out of the Ottoman Empire, insists
the killings were a collective tragedy in which equal numbers of Turks
and Armenians died but denies it meets legal requirements to be termed
a genocide.

Erdogan, personally, reacted furiously to the decision, taking ties
between the Berlin and Ankara governments to new lows.

Personal threats

Since the vote, Dagdelen and 10 other German MPs of Turkish origin
have faced the ire of Turkish nationalists, receiving death threats
and even having their personal details published in newspapers and in
mosques.

Dagdelen, who is the Left party's migration policy spokesperson, told
the paper that German Chancellor Angela Merkel should respond more
forcefully to Erdogan's attacks.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

The politicians are now under 24-hour police protection after Erdogan
compared them to terrorists and demanded they have blood tests to
prove their Turkish origins.

The lawmakers have also been warned not to make trips to Turkey for
the time being, as their safety cannot be guaranteed.

Tolerance urged

Aydan Özoguz of the Social Democrats (SPD) called on Turkish groups in
Germany to unequivocally denounce the Turkish response. Özoguz, who is
the government's integration commissioner, has also received death
threats.

"I expect Turkish associations in Germany to clearly condemn the
threats against MPs," she told the "Bild am Sonntag" weekly paper,
adding that Turks can remain committed to their origins without being
an extension of Turkey.

Her comments were backed up by Green Party leader Cem Özdemir, who was
one of the initiators of the Bundestag's Armenian resolution.

"You may not agree with the resolution, but Turkish organizations must
issue unqualified denouncements of the death threats," he told the
"Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung."

Earlier, Özdemir had told the paper that Erdogan's response to the
issue was "unworthy of a head of state," adding that he was worried:
"What if someone goes crazy?" Özdemir asked, referring to threats
against him and his family.

Germany's Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB)
supported German politicians and called the threats made against
lawmakers inacceptable.

"No one should be dehumanized or threatened," DITIB national
spokesperson Murat Kayman said. "This is not up for discussion and
there is no justification for it. That's the basic agreement of
civilized societies."

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[Yervant1]

NJ.com, NJ
June 12 2016


N.J. Turkish community has an opportunity to lead in debate over
Armenia | Opinion


By Linda Stamato | Star-Ledger Guest Columnist The Star-Ledger


Members of the German Parliament adopted a resolution last week that
formally recognizes the Turkish massacre of Armenians during World War
I as genocide, a move that Turkey vigorously opposed, as it has done
on other fronts, relentlessly, for decades.

The Turkish government recalled its ambassador and issued a statement
intended to admonish and provoke Germany by asserting that the
parliament's action was hardly a "way to close the dark pages of your
own history."

In fact, it is precisely the way not to "close its dark pages," but to
be open and honest about them. As Germany has been. German textbooks,
for example, account for its history as most of us would recognize it,
unsanitized, unvarnished. (Take a look here and read this account
about how Germans students learn about the Holocaust.)

Here in New Jersey, in Paterson no less, the Turkish Institute for
Progress spends its time trying to alter American textbook accounts of
the genocide to bend history to its own ends and eliciting negative
reaction.

Creating realities that comport with one's desired narrative delays
the necessary reckoning, undermines credibility and legitimacy and
prolongs conflict.

Turkish-Americans here in New Jersey and elsewhere have an opportunity
to lead the discussion by acknowledging history, ending the negative
representations of Armenians in its narratives — particularly in U.S.
textbooks.

Let Germany serve as an example, not as a scapegoat for avoidance. In
a highly visible manner, leaders of the nation have made a concerted
effort to acknowledge its nation's dark past.

Former Chancellor Willy Brandt went to Warsaw in December, 1970, to
honor those who died in the Warsaw Ghetto where Nazis rounded up, and
later deported or killed, 300,000 Jews, and to atone for the sins of
the Nazis. He knelt down on the wet asphalt in front of the memorial
and remained there with his head bowed and his hands folded. As he
did, he symbolized the weight of suffering and death and the
responsibility of Germany's history.

He said later that he was taken by the enormity of the moment:

"On the abyss of German history and carrying the burden of the
millions who were murdered, I did what people do when words fail
them."

It was an act of sorrow, of repentance, and it moved the world.

Chancellor Angela Merkel went to Dachau, the former concentration
camp, in August, 2013. She was invited by a member of the
International Dachau Committee. This was some 80 years after the camp
was founded, just a few weeks after Adolf Hitler had been appointed
Reich chancellor. During its twelve years, it held 200,000 people. At
least 41,500 people were either killed or died of starvation or
disease before American soldiers liberated the camp on April 29, 1945.

Standing on the wide plaza where inmates once assembled daily for roll
call, a somber Merkel spoke to a group of Holocaust survivors and
emphasized the importance of learning from Germany's past:

"How could Germans go so far as to deny people human dignity and the
right to live based on their race, religion, their political
persuasion or their sexual orientation? Places such as this warn each
one of us to help ensure that such things never happen again."

When the leaders of Germany stand in places where Nazi evil became
manifest and when they acknowledge the burden their nation bears for
the wrongs done and the harm inflicted, they are reaching for
reconciliation, and, as they do, they are restoring hope and advancing
prospects for peace.

What an example for Turkey to follow.

Nations of the world have been tip-toeing around the use of the term
genocide for the Armenian massacre for long enough — the United States
has taken no official stance although many individual states and
cities have.

In fact, only two nations of the world affirmatively deny the Armenian
killings as genocide. Still, stand-offs on the use of the term have
prevented intelligent, constructive, forward-looking engagement.

It's not just a battle over a term, however, it is a battle between
competing narratives, and how they are being presented, interpreted
and applied.

The narrative that surfaces in Turkey's history textbooks distorts and
it demonizes:

"Firstly, the textbooks characterize Armenians as people 'who are
incited by foreigners, who aim to break apart the state and the
country, and who murdered Turks and Muslims."' Meanwhile, the Armenian
Genocide—referred to as the 'Armenian matter' in textbooks—is
described as a lie perpetrated in order to meet these goals, and is
defined as the biggest threat to Turkish national security."

Historians, for the most part, support this account: Beginning in
1915, and extending through 1923, more than 1.5 million
Armenians—Christians living under Ottoman Turkish rule—were
exterminated through direct killing, starvation, torture and forced
marches into the Syrian desert. While Turkey admits that atrocities
occurred, its official position is that the death toll among Armenians
was much lower, about 300,000, and that many Turks were also killed
during the period of civil war and famine. (An overview of the history
is here.)

Armenians from around the world have pressed relentlessly for an
acknowledgement that the death and destruction stemmed from a
premeditated government policy. Turks deny it. No new facts are likely
to be uncovered. And yet Turks and Armenians work to gain adherents
for their view of history as if gaining points, now, matters.

In a statement issued in 1998, a group of 150 distinguished scholars
and writers, while honoring the 50th anniversary of the U.N. genocide
convention, named and condemned the Armenian genocide. They affirmed
the importance of acknowledging this tragic event:

"Denial of genocide strives to reshape history in order to demonize
the victims and rehabilitate the perpetrators. Denial murders the
dignity of the survivors and seeks to destroy remembrance of the
crime. In a century plagued by genocide, we affirm the moral
necessity of remembering."

In April, 2015, as the 100th anniversary of the genocide approached —
as more than 20 nations found the massacres to be genocide and as the
pope declared it to be the first genocide of the 20th century — the
Turkish prime minister at the time, Ahmet Davutoglu, struck a chord
that could still provide an opening: He offered condolences to the
descendants of the Armenian victims; and while he avoided the use of
genocide, he said it was important to face the past with honesty.

Perhaps he is not alone in recognizing that the Turkish government's
refusal to abandon the "official" view of the past poisons its effort
to gain credibility and standing in the world community.

To cease being imprisoned by its past, Turkey must face its moral
responsibilities, including reconciliation with its Armenian neighbors
so that together they can construct a future where there is mutual
respect and regional harmony.

Germany has shown the way.

Linda Stamato is a guest opinion writer for The Star-Ledger. She is
co-director of the Center for Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at
the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and a
Faculty Fellow at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.


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[Yervant1]

Serj Tankian: I personally thank all 11 German MPs of Turkish origin

09:29, 13.06.2016

Famous musician Serj Tankian, who is lead singer of the world-renowned
American Armenian rock band System of a Down (SOAD), thanked all
German Bundestag deputies of Turkish origin, who courageously voted
for the resolution recognizing Armenian Genocide.

“I would like to personally thank all 11 German MPs of Turkish origin
for bravely voting their conscience recognizing the Armenian Genocide
in Germany’s Parliament. As a world community we should never allow
truth tellers to be harassed by thugs associated with tyrants,”
Tankian wrote on his Facebook account.

On June 2, the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament,
formally recognized the Armenian Genocide, with the aforesaid
resolution and with only one vote against and one abstention. The
resolution also notes that the Bundestag regrets that the German
government at the time did nothing to stop this crime against
humanity, and therefore the Bundestag also acknowledges the respective
historical accountability of Germany.

Eleven Bundestag MPs of Turkish also voted in favor of the resolution.
And in this connection, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated
that the blood of these deputies should be sent for analysis to find
out whether they truly are Turks.

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[Yervant1]

Germany should next criminalize the Armenian Genocide denial

18:12, 13 Jun 2016
Siranush Ghazanchyan

The adoption of an Armenian Genocide resolution by the German
Bundestag should be followed by a bill criminalizing its denial, Armen
Marukyan, Head of the Department for the History of the Armenian Cause
and Armenian Genocide of the National Academy of Sciences, told
reporters today.

“If Germany accepts there was genocide, it will be very logical to
criminalize the denial of that genocide,” Marukyan noted. He said the
bill is especially important for Germany, which is home to about 3-3.5
million Turks, who keep denying the Armenian Genocide.

Armen Marukyan offers to translate the text of a similar bill
submitted to the French National Assembly and address an official
letter to the Bundestag leadership.

“Germans have to adopt this law if there are truly guided by
democratic values. They may even reject the bill, but we have to try,”
he said.

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[Yervant1]

Germany’s century-long struggle with the Armenian genocide
By STEFAN IHRIG \

06/13/2016 20:39

The Armenian genocide and the German dimension of it should make us
rethink our perception of humanity – what does it mean that people
knew of genocide and mass atrocities in progress? And did so already
in the years before the Holocaust?

SUPPORTERS WAVE Armenian and German flags earlier this month in front
of the Reichstag, as they protest in favor of the resolution that
declares the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a ‘genocide.
(photo credit:HANNIBAL HANSCHKE/REUTERS)

Perhaps Germany’s recent vote to recognize the Armenian genocide as a
genocide as well as its own role in it might come as a surprise to
many there as well as abroad. But the Armenian genocide has a long
German history. Already over a hundred years ago, in January 1916, the
agenda of the German parliament featured a question about the Armenian
genocide.

A month earlier the socialist parliament member Karl Liebknecht had
submitted a written question to the German chancellor in which he
mentioned that Armenians had been “butchered in the hundred
thousands”: would Germany would do something for the remaining
Armenians now? Liebknecht’s question had come on the heels of a
similar request made a few weeks earlier by the Catholic and
Protestant Churches of Germany to the chancellor. He had replied that
Germany would ensure that nobody suffered from persecution on
religious grounds. Political Germany, the Churches and Liebknecht knew
that this answer was an outright rejection. People at the time
understood what was happening not so much as a religious matter, but
rather in terms of national or racial persecution.

When Liebknecht’s question was finally answered in parliament, it
turned into a rather disgraceful performance by Germany’s
parliamentarians.



After having received another evasive answer, Liebknecht responded
that some experts after all spoke of the “extermination of the
Armenians.” He was laughed off the stage and treated like a buffoon.

And yet, behind closed doors political Germany knew Liebknecht was
right. Since May 1915 German diplomats in the Ottoman Empire had
bombarded their Constantinople embassy and Berlin with reports of
genocide in progress; many of these diplomats begged their superiors
to intervene for the Armenians, to stop genocide, in vain.

After the end of World War I, the German Foreign Office published a
collection from precisely this diplomatic correspondence on the
Armenians to fend off accusations of German guilt during the Paris
peace treaty negotiations. This attempt failed – not least because
Germany had done nothing of real import for the Armenians, all the
while enabling the Ottoman leadership to carry out genocide – but it
kicked off a debate in Germany itself about this “murder of a nation”
or “annihilation of the Armenians” which continued in some form until
1923.

This debate took shocking twists and turns: condemnation and denial,
trivialization and shock, and finally broad acceptance of the charge
of “murder of a nation,” i.e. genocide – only then to have some
far-right voices, including the Nazis, to go on to outright justify
genocide. All this merely a decade before Hitler came to power – and
yes, already then (Jewish) commentators warned of the possible future
implications of this shocking genocide debate for the Jews of Germany
under Nazi or other radical far-right rule.

Germany’s own checkered history with the violence against the Ottoman
Armenians (from the 1890s) is indeed and itself the link between the
Armenian genocide and the Holocaust. But this link is not at all
necessary for recognizing the Armenian genocide for what it was, and
neither are the comparisons to the Holocaust, which have often
obscured the unique, intrinsic significance of the Armenian genocide.
And often enough these have been used to fend off the application of
the label.

The German diplomatic documents, first published in selection in 1919
and now available in expanded editions in German and English (2005 and
2013), edited by former Der Spiegel editor Wolfgang Gust, are the
greatest advocates of the label “genocide.” Denialists generally
choose to simply ignore the existence of these documents.

This is mainly because there is no easy way to dismiss them and no
sensible (denialist) explanation as to why German diplomats would make
up reports of genocide, continually so, when these caused such great
anxiety in Berlin about the political fallout of genocide right from
the start.

Thus a hundred years later, with the Bundestag’s resolution on the
Armenian genocide Germany has found a (first) conclusion to its very
own hundred-year conflict over the Armenian topic. Thus German
parliament did not only deliberate on the history of another country,
but made a statement about its own Armenian history. The Armenian
genocide is, to some extent, also a German story. It cannot be
relegated to the obscurity of specialist historical writing and
historiographical debate; it is part of the core experiences and
themes of our bloody and traumatic 20th century.

The Armenian genocide and the German dimension of it should make us
rethink our perception of humanity – what does it mean that people
knew of genocide and mass atrocities in progress? And did so already
in the years before the Holocaust? It has long been assumed that there
had been silence on the Armenian genocide in interwar Germany and that
this silence had been “a signal for the Shoah” – but it turns out the
opposite was true. There had been a debate, a real genocide debate
(about the extent, intent and implications of this murder of a
people). What does this mean for our understanding of the Holocaust?
This latest recognition should also make us discuss when and where
this bloody 20th century really began. In Eastern Anatolia during the
Armenian genocide? In the sands of Libya during the Italo-Turkish War
of 1911-1912? Or in German Southwest Africa during the genocide of the
Herero and Nama people (1904-07)? Was there not, historically, a
trajectory of large-scale violence which led from colonial spaces to
the Middle East and Anatolia and from there back to Europe?
Parliamentary recognition is not enough (and the Herero and Nama are
still waiting for it), but it can be a starting point for coming to
terms with a past that is vaster, more complex and so much bloodier
than often assumed.

And nothing of this relativizes the Holocaust or minimizes Germany’s
guilt and responsibility – quite the contrary.

The author is a historian at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and the
University of Haifa. His most recent books include: Justifying
Genocide – Germany and the Armenians from Bismarck to Hitler (Harvard
University Press, 2016) and Atatürk in the Nazi Imagination (Harvard
University Press, 2014).

https://urldefense.p...9ZDu5UQvpxA8&e=

[Yervant1]

Jewish Scholar: German Recognition of Armenian Genocide is Strong Moral Signal to Israel and United States

 

POLITICS 11:23 14/06/2016

“The German Parliament's recognition of the Armenian Genocide is a wonderful and memorable step forward, in its own right and as a communiqué to other democratic countries – such as my two countries, Israel and the United States that have cowardly avoided recognition. The German recognition certainly is a strong moral signal to other governments”, – said renowned Jewish scholar of Genocide studies Israel Charny in an interview with Nvard Chalikyan commenting on the Armenian Genocide resolution adopted by the German Bundestag on 02 June 2016.
       
Dr. Charny emphasized that the decision by Germany is all the more powerful given the fact that it contains “a degree of honest revelation of Germany's own role in the Armenian Genocide”.

“For years now, scholars have been assembling slowly but surely the information about Germany as a facilitator, enabler, and in some respect even a direct participant in the genocide, and this self-disclosure by Germany itself establishes permanently the factual correctness of Germany's complicity”, – noted the scholar.

Referring to the fact that there is a consensus in the international scholarly community on that the events of 1915 constitute Genocide, Dr. Charny added, “And as for the comic Turkish refrain that ‘scientists and historians need to reach a conclusion’, let them know that the conclusion has been reached resoundingly”.

Given the huge Turkish population in Germany today Dr. Charny considers it “both honorable and brave on the part of the Parliament to break the taboo that Turkey has succeeded to some extent in imposing on many parts of the world”.

Recognizing the Armenian Genocide as such justifies paying some price in a loss of relationships with Turkey, said Dr. Charny, who has long been advocating for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Israel. At the same time he thinks that the resolution will not impact the relations between Germany and Turkey and notes with irony that “it will not be that long at all before Turkey orders its next supply of German beer”.

Criticizing Turkey’s current regime and its policies on the minorities, Israel Charny said, “it is dictatorial Erdogan these days who is more and more cut off from the rest of the world and lost in the web of his own suppression of freedom and injustice to so many Turkish writers, policemen and others – not to speak of his dangerous ethnocentrism towards non-Turkish people such as the Kurds”.

Dr. Israel W. Charny is the Director of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem;
he is the author of many books on the Armenian Genocide and Holocaust; his forthcoming book is titled The Genocide Contagion: How We Commit and Confront Holocaust and Genocide - a book for learning about ourselves.

Interview by Nvard Chalikyan

http://www.panorama....Scholar/1595965

[Yervant1]

AINA - Assyrian International News Agency
June 19 2016


Germany Becomes a Battleground in Turkey's Refusal to Acknowledge the
Armenian Genocide


By Erik Kirschbaum
Los Angeles Times


Cem Oezdemir, a leader of the opposition Greens party, speaks during a
debate this month in the German Parliament on recognizing the Armenian
genocide. ( Odd Andersen/AFP-Getty)Arzu Canoglu was born in Turkey 48
years ago, grew up in Germany, loves both countries and speaks both
languages fluently.

That places the dual citizen in the middle of a bitter debate that
erupted this month when the German Parliament passed a resolution
declaring that the slaughter of some 1.5 million ethnic Armenians by
Ottoman Turks a century ago was a genocide.

Canoglu, a travel agent in Berlin, had no trouble choosing sides.

"Why are Germans sticking their noses in our history?" she said. "They
should come to terms with their own past. Every country has its own
dark past."

Her anger appears to be widespread among the 3.5 million Turks living
in Germany. While the resolution was introduced and championed by
German legislators with Turkish roots, some are now facing death
threats. The Turkish government has also been lashing out at the
politicians -- and fanning more anger.

Turkey has long rejected the term genocide to describe the massacres
in 1915 and 1916, arguing that the killings cannot be separated from
the historical context of global upheaval during World War I and that
many Turks were also killed. But most historians outside Turkey
describe a state-organized campaign of ethnic cleansing that
unambiguously meets the definition of genocide.

In recognizing it as such, Germany was joining more than 20 other
countries that have already done so. While California -- with a large
Armenian population in the Los Angeles area -- and some other U.S.
states recognize the genocide, the federal government has not because
it does not want to alienate Turkey, an important ally in the Middle
East.

Germany, too, has a strong interest in maintaining good relations with
Turkey, especially as Europe deals with a flood of refugees from Syria
and elsewhere, helping explain why the government of Chancellor Angela
Merkel at first tried to prevent the resolution from reaching
Parliament. In the end, it passed with only one "no" and Merkel and
hundreds of legislators skipping the vote.

The resolution was spearheaded by Cem Oezdemir, a leader of the
opposition Greens party who has Turkish roots. He is now facing death
threats in Germany and has been assigned police protection.

Back in Turkey, his father's hometown stripped Oezdemir of his
honorary citizenship. The greatest wrath has come from Turkey's
president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"Traitors" is how he has described the 11 members of German Parliament
with Turkish roots, all of whom supported the resolution.
State-controlled media in Turkey published "wanted" posters with their
mugshots.

"What sort of Turks are they?" Erdogan asked. "Their blood must be
tested in a lab."

The comment was especially disturbing in Germany, where it was taken
as a reference to the Nazi obsession with Aryan blood lines.

Erdogan accused Oezdemir of lacking character and playing "a leading
role in accusing his own country of genocide."

Oezdemir fired back, telling a German newspaper: "It doesn't matter
what Erdogan says. I'm not going to cave in on the question of
Armenian genocide. His threats are only raising my determination to
stick with this."

Another Parliament member with Turkish roots, Oezcan Mutlu, told a
German television network he was worried that Erdogan's attacks could
inspire "some insane person taking actions into his own hands."

Sevim Dagdelen, another of the legislators, said she was proud to have
voted for the resolution but was taking the threats seriously: "For
the fanatics out there, Erdogan's words are a call for violence."

Mitri Sirin, a German TV anchorman with Turkish roots, said the fears
are legitimate. Not only were the legislators themselves vulnerable,
he said, but so were their relatives back in Turkey.

"Erdogan is hugely popular in Turkey and among a lot of Turks in
Germany, who mostly follow Turkish media," he said.

Merkel eventually rebuked the Turkish president for his comments: "The
accusations and statements coming out of Turkey are incomprehensible,"
she said.

To Germans, who have embraced their own genocidal history, Turkey's
refusal to come to terms with its history is jarring.

As Christians in a predominantly Muslim empire, Ottoman Armenians were
declared enemies of the state at the start of World War I on the
suspicion that they were collaborating with Russia. Village-by-village
mass killings followed, along with expulsion from eastern Anatolia
that pushed hundreds of thousands into the Syrian desert, where they
died for lack of food, water or shelter.

Last year, the Turkish government offered condolences to descendants
of Armenians killed. But Turkey has continued to reject the term
genocide.

Many Turks only learn the other side of the story outside of Turkey.

"I grew up never hearing a word about the genocide of the Armenians
until I went away to college and was enlightened by other students,"
said one woman who was raised in Germany by Turkish immigrant parents.
"I was shocked, and started asking my father about it. But it was
never discussed. No one wanted to talk about it."

Now 45 and a banker in Berlin, she agreed to be interviewed on the
condition that she be identified only by her first name, Ayse.

Publicizing her acknowledgement of the genocide, she said, could
create problems for her relatives in Turkey.

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[Yervant1]

WBUR.org Boston, MA
June 22 2016


Though The Heavens May Fall: It's Time To Recognize The Armenian Genocide

June 22, 2016
By Nir Eisikovits and Timothy Phillips

Between 1915 and 1916, the Turkish government of the Ottoman Empire
orchestrated the murder of approximately 1 to 1.5 million Armenians in
what was to become the 20th century’s first genocide.

Earlier this month, the Bundestag, Germany’s Parliament, officially
recognized the Armenian Genocide, joining more than two dozen other
nations that have already done so. The decision deeply angered the
Turkish government, which promptly recalled its ambassador from
Berlin.

The Turks, defying the consensus among historians, have always claimed
that the killings were limited in scale and occurred in the course of
civil unrest occasioned by World War I. Predictably, Turkish officials
argued that the German resolution was meant to deflect attention from
Germany’s own dark past. Thus, the Turkish foreign minister lashed out
at Germany, saying, “The way to close the dark pages of your own
history is not by defaming the histories of other countries with
irresponsible and baseless decisions.”

Germany’s courage throws unflattering light on three other democracies
that have, so far, refused to recognize the Armenian Genocide: the
U.S., Great Britain and Israel.

Such reactions are nonsensical. Germany has made an honest effort to
face its history. From postwar trials to numerous memorials, to public
apologies to reparations, Germany is a shining example of a nation
owning up to a horrific past. Far from trying to deflect attention
from Nazism’s shadow, the Bundestag’s resolution reflects how Germany
has internalized its own guilt; it has committed to rectifying and
preventing the kinds of wrongs it once perpetrated.

The Bundestag’s decision was an act of political courage. Its timing
was, of course, sensitive: In the past few years, Germany has taken an
especially active role in the absorption of refugees fleeing war in
Syria and other parts of the Middle East. The flood of human misery
and trauma has created political and economic difficulties for Germany
as well as for many of its neighbors. And the EU has been negotiating
with Turkey, often a first stop for many of the refugees, to keep more
of them in Turkish territory. The Bundestag must have known that
recognizing the genocide would destabilize the agreement with the
Turks. It acted in spite of this, repudiating the old realist axiom
that decency and justice have no place in international politics.

Germany’s courage throws unflattering light on three other democracies
that have, so far, refused to recognize the Armenian Genocide: the
United States, Great Britain and Israel. The Americans and the British
do not want to offend the Turks, an important member of NATO. Israel,
a nation founded on the ashes of the Holocaust, has repeatedly helped
the Turks subvert official American recognition of the Armenian
Genocide. Israel’s stance was initially animated by a hope of
maintaining Turkey’s friendship in a region hostile to the Jewish
State. More recently, as the relationship between the two nations
frayed, Israel threatened to change course. Ultimately, though, it
opted to stay quiet about the genocide, hoping that its ties with the
Turks could be repaired.

Turkey is an important and relatively moderate force in the Middle
East. The U.S., U.K. and Israel have weighty interests in keeping it
happy. Recognizing the Armenian Genocide would make Turkey very
unhappy. That is why President Obama is breaking his election promise
to recognize the genocide.

That is why the British openly admit that “recognizing the genocide
would provide no practical benefit” for them. That is why the Israelis
are willing to make an exception to their founding, fundamental
promise to “remember and never forget.”

...we hear that prudence has to temper justice when it comes to
foreign policy. But there are rare cases when prudence has to take a
bow. Slavery is one. Genocide is another.

Germany may pay a hefty price for its decision. From now on, Turkey
will be far less motivated to help Germany in tackling the challenges
created by the refugee crisis. And yet, the most important and most
powerful country in Europe has decided it would do the right thing.

In 1772, Lord Mansfield, chief justice of the court of King’s Bench in
England, freed James Sommerset, a slave from Virginia, who argued that
he could not be kept in bondage after arriving in England. Mansfield
understood that the consequences of his decision would be massive --
economically as well as politically. Yet, slavery was a wrong that
required ignoring the fallout. “Fiat justitia, ruat coelom, "
Mansfield warned the parties in pre-trial proceedings. Let justice be
done, though the heavens may fall.

It is not always possible to do what is right in international
relations. From Machiavelli to Bismarck, from Kissinger to Obama, we
hear that prudence has to temper justice when it comes to foreign
policy. But there are rare cases when prudence has to take a bow.
Slavery is one. Genocide is another. Prudence cannot negate the
responsibility to acknowledge the worst things we do to each other.
Mansfield, though uneasy, understood that. So did the German
Parliament. Now, it is Obama’s, Cameron’s and Netanyahu’s turn.

This opinion piece was co-authored by Timothy Phillips, chair and
co-founder of Beyond Conflict, an international organization that
advocates for peace and reconciliation. This spring, Timothy Phillips
and co-author Nir Eisikovits co-taught a course on how nations come to
terms with their past.

https://urldefense.p...SC8ABOz1PMJo&e=
 

[Yervant1]

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
June 26 2016


German minister says will visit Turkey base after Ankara criticism

BERLIN – Agence France-Presse

German Defense Minister said June 26 that she would personally visit
an air base in Turkey after Ankara barred a German political
delegation from making the trip next month.

Germany’s Defense Minister, Ursula von der Leyen, told the German Bild
am Sonntag newspaper that she would go to the İncirlik Air Base in
southern Turkey that is used to launch coalition air raids against the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadists in Syria and
Iraq.

She blasted a decision announced by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt
Çavuşoğlu June 23 that Germany’s State Secretary for Defence, Ralf
Brauksiepe, and other lawmakers would not be welcome at İncirlik for a
July visit because it would be “not appropriate.”

“I have never experienced anything like this. It goes without saying
that the leadership of the defense ministry should be able to visit
German soldiers in the field,” she said.

“That is why I will be travelling to İncirlik in the coming days to
discuss the situation on the ground with our soldiers.”

A German Defense Ministry spokesman declined to provide further
details on von der Leyen’s travel plans.

The minister said she would also use her visit “to explain to Turkey
what it means to have a military under parliamentary control.”

“These are the same members of parliament who raised their hands for
the Patriot mission of the German military to protect Turkey from
Syrian missiles,” she said, referring to a three-year deployment of
NATO anti-missile systems in southern Turkey that ended last year.

Germany last December agreed to send Tornado surveillance jets and
tanker aircraft to İncirlik to aid the multinational coalition
fighting ISIL in Syria. It has about 250 soldiers stationed at
İncirlik.

However, Berlin angered NATO ally Turkey when its parliament passed a
resolution this month calling the World War I killings of Armenians by
Ottoman forces a “genocide.”

Çavuşoğlu refrained from linking the government’s denial of the visit
with the genocide resolution, although German media reported that
Turkey had said it blocked the visit because of the Armenia vote.

June/26/2016

https://urldefense.p...lVl0F948a5dw&e=
 

[Yervant1]

Erdoğan to Merkel: Turkey frustrated by German parliament’s ‘Armenian genocide’ bill

WARSAW

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressed his discomfort with a German parliament’s resolution on the mass killings of Armenians at the hands of the Ottomans a century ago when he met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Warsaw on July 9.

“The Turkish president expressed Turkey’s frustration and discomfort with the resolution, while the German chancellor vowed to show the necessary sensitivity required for the move to not cast a shadow over bilateral relations,” Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency said. 

A source close to the Turkish Presidency said Merkel stressed she would do her utmost to ensure this event would not harm German-Turkish relations, Reuters reported.

In a press conference after the meeting, Merkel said she had talked through German-Turkish differences in a constructive spirit with Erdoğan but the issues had not disappeared.

“We discussed all outstanding issues. The atmosphere was constructive... and very businesslike in an effort to solve the existing conflicts,” Merkel told reporters.

Asked whether they had been resolved, she said: “The differences don’t just disappear through such a discussion. But I believe it was important that we talked them through.”

The German parliament passed the resolution on June 2, causing outrage in Turkey, which denies the accusation. Relations between the two countries have been strained since then, with Ankara withdrawing its ambassador from Berlin.

In apparent retaliation, German parliamentarians were denied access to the İncirlik Air Base in southeastern Turkey, where some 250 German troops are participating in NATOoperations against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants in Iraq, prompting protests from the Berlin government.

The Turkish source said Merkel had raised the issue and asked Erdoğan to restore access to İncirlik for lawmakers, who approve all military spending and investment.

Erdoğan had replied that the air base was not a place for “public shows and marketing” but Turkey would consider the request in the light of German statements on relations, the source said, according to Reuters. 

The source close to the Turkish Presidency said Merkel also expressed satisfaction with the way Turkey was keeping its word in preventing refugees and migrants crossing the Aegean Sea to Greece after more than 1 million flooded into Europe last year, most ending up in Germany.

The two leaders also discussed intelligence cooperation in the fight against foreign fighters recruited by ISIL in Syria, some of whom have returned to carry out attacks in Europe.

Meanwhile, Erdoğan conveyed his condolences to U.S. President Barack Obama over the tragic events unfolding in the U.S. recently during the course of the summit.        

Separately, the Turkish president told U.K Prime Minister David Cameron he respected the vote of the British people to exit from the European Union.

Erdoğan also met with the presidents of Ukraine, Finland, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Azerbaijan.

July/10/2016

http://www.hurriyetd...6&NewsCatID=510

[Yervant1]

 Bundestag’s Turkish Member: ‘Young Turks

        Are Traitors; Talat & Enver Criminals’

        By Harut Sassounian

        Publisher, The California Courier

        www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

 

Cem Ozdemir, co-chair of the Green Party, delivered a passionate speech in the German Parliament (Bundestag) on June 2, 2016, in support of the resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide by Ottoman Turkey, while acknowledging Germany’s complicity in this mass crime.

Ozdemir, born in Germany, is son of Turkish-Circassian (Cherkess) migrant parents. He was the first person of Turkish descent elected to the Bundestag (1994-2002). He reentered the German Parliament in 2013, after serving in the European Parliament from 2004 to 2009.

With support from all political parties in the Bundestag, the Armenian Genocide resolution, which Ozdemir had long championed, was adopted by the German Parliament almost unanimously, with one no vote and one abstention.

Below are translated excerpts from the remarkable speech Ozdemir delivered in German in the Bundestag on June 2nd, while wearing on the lapel of his suit the ‘forget-me-not’ button symbolizing the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide:

“There can be no question about the appropriateness of time when talking about unimaginable savagery like genocide. We know that after lengthy and tiresome back and forth, Germany, as an accomplice to the crime, is openly calling the event by its proper name…. This constitutes a chapter of German history.” Ozdemir recalled the callous and cruel words of German Imperial Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg: “Our whole purpose was to keep Turkey on our side during the entire course of the war. Whether Armenians were to be destroyed or not, made no difference.”

In a powerful statement, Ozdemir directly addressed the Armenian guests attending the Bundestag’s session on June 2^nd: “Just because we were complicit in this horrible crime in the past does not mean that today we are going to side with the deniers.”

Ozdemir went on to urge the millions of Turkish residents of Germany to be proud of the “heroic Turks” who rescued Armenians during the Genocide, and not “criminals like Talat and Enver.”

The Turkish-German Parliamentarian then declared that the ugliest _expression_ which causes him great pain is that ‘Armenian’ is used as a ‘swear word’ in Turkey. “They ask me if I am Armenian. I don’t view someone being an Armenian as an insult. Being a descendant of a Sunni Muslim family, Eastern Christianity does not make me uncomfortable.”

Ozdemir quoted his Turkish Armenian friend Hrant Dink who was assassinated in Istanbul by an extremist Turk: “If Armenians lived in Van today, that city would be the Paris of the Orient.” During his visit to Armenia in March 2015, Ozdemir elaborated on Dink’s statement in an interview with Civilnet: “I went to the Genocide museum and read the names and professions of the people we have lost. They were the most forward looking and brightest intellectuals of Istanbul and they were killed starting with architects, intellectuals, journalists, writers…. The Ottoman Empire exterminated the most progressive citizens in its history. The Ottoman Empire lost immensely. I think one of the reasons why Turkey isn’t among the most developed countries today is because the Young Turks were not heroes, but traitors. They harmed Armenians, Assyrians and Turks as well.”

The Turkish German Parliament member ended his nine-minute speech, which was repeatedly interrupted by thunderous applause, by stating that “members of Bundestag should not be threatened for expressing their thoughts. I am sure that I will not be arrested on my way home from the Parliament or that my parliamentary immunity will not be lifted; I will not be beaten up or killed. I cannot say the same thing about my colleagues in Turkey!”

Nevertheless, Ozdemir did not anticipate that after Bundestag’s approval of the Armenian Genocide resolution, he and ten of his Turkish colleagues in the German Parliament would be placed under police protection after receiving numerous death threats from Turkish extremists.

In an announcement reminiscent of Hitler-era racial profiling, Pres. Erdogan advocated that the 11 Turkish members of the German Parliament who had supported the Armenian Genocide resolution undergo a blood test to prove their ‘Turkishness.’ Meanwhile, officials of Tokat, Turkey, Ozdemir’s father’s hometown, stripped his name from the list of honored sons of that city.

However, after making bombastic threats of retaliation against Germany, Pres. Erdogan was forced to restrain himself, realizing that such irresponsible steps would only lead to a devastating effect on the faltering Turkish economy!

[Yervant1]

Deutsche Welle, Germany
July 13 2016


Germany to recall troops from Turkish base if Ankara blocks MPs' visit



Germany has said it will recall troops at its Incirlik airbase in
Turkey if Ankara continues to block German MPs from visiting them.
It's perhaps the clearest sign yet of escalating tensions between the
two NATO members.

Ankara, angered by a resolution passed by Germany's parliament in June
that terms the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces as
genocide, has denied German MPs access to the Incirclik base.

"The German army answers to parliament," Social Democrat leader and
Deputy Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told the regional newspaper
"Mitteldeutsche Zeitung."

"And if parliament cannot visit its army, then the army cannot stay
there. This is absolutely clear," Gabriel said, adding that all 250
soldiers at the base - part of NATO operations against "Islamic State"
(IS) militants in Iraq - could be pulled out.

Crucial partners in efforts to stem mass migration to Europe, Germany
and Turkey have fallen out in recent months, with Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan angry over various satirical broadcasts targeting
him on German television, most notably an insulting "poem" by comedian
Jan Böhmerrmann. The Armenian resolution, which prompted Ankara to
recall its ambassador to Germany, has deepened the rift.

Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel.

German forces are currently on missions in 13 countries, including
Afghanistan and Kosovo, as well as monitoring in the Mediterranean.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that German MPs must be
allowed to visit soldiers at the base, adding that she would try to
resolve the issue with the Turkish government.

Chairman of the Armed Forces Association Andre Wüstner also warned
against withdrawing German troops from Incirlik. "It is completely
clear that MPs need to be allowed to travel," Wüstner said on
Wednesday as published in the ARD "Morning Magazine."

A withdrawal of German soldiers fighting IS would be "extremely
detrimental," Wüstner added.

https://urldefense.p...83-fmz3PB5zQ&e=
 

[Yervant1]

Hurriyet, Turkey
July 14 2016


Let’s get real on Germany

by SEMİH İDİZ


The German Bundestag is not likely to revoke its Armenian genocide
resolution, which has angered Ankara. Turkey wants German Chancellor
Angela Merkel to at least come out and declare that this resolution is
null and void for her. That won’t happen either.

Unable to respond in any effective way to Berlin, Ankara has chosen
the meaningless path of “niggling retaliation.” It is blocking
visitations by German politicians and medium-level government
officials to Turkey’s İncirlik Air Base, where German military
personnel are deployed against the Islamist State of Iraq and the
Levant (ISIL).

German Defense Undersecretary Ralf Brauksiepe and a group of
parliamentarians were denied entry to İncirlik recently. President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu are adamant
that this ban will continue. Not surprisingly, Berlin is up in arms.

German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen has gotten clearance from
Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım to visit the base. Yıldırım of course
has no other choice but to give this clearance. Blocking this visit
would put Ankara at loggerheads with other NATO allies and fuel their
general mistrust of Turkey’s current leadership.
Meanwhile, German deputies are quoted saying this affair could result
in the withdrawal of the German presence at the base. It was announced
at the recent NATO summit in Warsaw that Germany would provide key
support for Turkey’s air defense.

If Ankara insists on its “niggling retaliation,” and this results in
the Germans pulling out of Incirlik it would be a disastrous
development for Turkey, not Germany. It was Turkey that called on NATO
for help after the Syrian crisis started spilling over into its
territory.

During the first and second Gulf wars and the conflicts in the region
following the Arab Spring, Germany was among the countries providing
support for Turkey against missile attacks. Preventing German deputies
and medium-level government officials from visiting İncirlik appears,
therefore, to be just another one of Ankara’s ill-considered foreign
policy tactics which rarely, if at all, produce any results.

We see today where these tactics have left Turkey internationally, and
how the government is trying to come out of the hole it dug for itself
in this respect. Erdoğan and the ruling Justice and Development Party
(AKP) clearly want to show their supporters how determined Turkey is
in responding to things like the Armenian resolution.

This may convince some but many will be asking why Ankara doesn’t
chuck the whole German military contingent out if it is so angry and
as principled as it claims to be, rather than fooling around in this
manner.
The simple answer is that Ankara, while flexing its muscles with
regard to German deputies and medium-level officials, does not have
the capacity to do this against the German state. If it did NATO would
start factoring in this possibility with regard to other allies that
Ankara is angry at over this or that issue, and make its plans on the
basis of the assumption of Turkey’s unreliability.

Veteran Turkish foreign policy analyst Cengiz Çandar argued in his
piece for Al Monitor this week that one of the reasons behind Ankara’s
drive to reconcile with Israel and Russia is to shore up its positon
against the West.

Given how ties with Russia and Israel hit rock-bottom overnight,
however, there is no reason why this can’t happen again with these
countries, leaving Turkey with zero friends once more. We know that
Erdoğan and his supporters hate all things associated with the West,
but they are learning the hard way how much Turkey actually depends on
its ties with Europe and the U.S., loath this as they may.

If what Çandar said is true, it means Ankara still has not understood
the lessons of its past foreign policy mistakes. Relying on Russia
and Israel as a counter-balance to the EU and NATO would simply be the
latest example of a less-than-clever (to put it nicely) move by
Turkey’s current leadership.

July/14/2016

https://urldefense.p...7TvuP6-c693A&e=
 

[Yervant1]

Germany FM rejects Turkey demand to denounce Armenian Genocide resolution

14:44, 31.08.2016

Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier rejected Ankara’s demand that official Berlin distance itself from the Bundestag’s Armenian Genocide recognition as a precondition for German lawmakers to gain access to the Incirlik airbase to visit German soldiers stationed there.

“I don’t think this has anything to do with the matter and I have told this to my Turkish counterpart,” Steinmeier was quoted by the German Deutsche Welle (DW) TV and radio company.

Steinmeier added that if Turkey continues denying German lawmakers access to the airbase, German troops dispatched there to fight ISIS will be withdrawn.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu had said that Turkish permission for German lawmakers to visit the Incirlik airbase will depend on the German government distancing itself from a resolution recognizing the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide.

http://news.am/eng/news/344077.html

[Yervant1]

As before stupid leaders of turkey advertises the Armenian Genocide for our benefit, please keep dragging it.

Rudaw- Kurdistan, Iraq

Aug 30 2016

 

 

 

Turkish FM: Germany can visit Incirlik if backtrack on Armenian genocide vote 

 

  By Rudaw yesterday at 10:30

German planes at Turkey’s Incirlik airbase. Photo: Tobias Schwarz/AFP

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Turkey will grant permission to German lawmakers to visit its Incirlik airbase, where German planes partaking in the international coalition’s campaign against Islamic State (ISIS) are stationed, if the German government distances itself from its parliament’s resolution recognizing the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide. 

“It depends on the steps taken by Germany. If they take the necessary steps, we will enable this visit,” said Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s Foreign Minister, in a press conference in Ankara on Monday. 

“But unfortunately, I have to say that those that mingle and manipulate our history in an unfair manner cannot be allowed on this visit,” he said. 

Foreign ministry officials confirmed to Reuters that “necessary steps” meant a clear indication from the German government that it did not support the parliament’s resolution on the genocide. 

In early June, the German parliament, with a large majority vote, recognized the Armenian genocide. Turkey, which accepts that many Armenians were killed, denies that genocide took place. Ankara reacted to the vote quickly and angrily, withdrawing its ambassador in Berlin. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned at the time that the decision would have a serious impact on relations between the two countries and later that month, Turkey blocked the visit of a senior German delegation to Incirlik airbase, originally scheduled for July. 

Germany is now readying to withdraw its planes from the airbase. “We would like to continue the mission from Turkey, but there are alternatives to the base in Incirlik,” the German Defense Ministry told Der Spiegel magazine last week. 

Germany has six Panavia Tornado reconnaissance jets, an aerial refueling tanker, and 250 soldiers deployed to Incirlik. 

 

http://rudaw.net/eng...turkey/29082016

 

[Yervant1]

Germany’s Merkel not distancing herself from Armenian Genocide resolution

13:24, 02 Sep 2016
Siranush Ghazanchyan

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the parliamentary leader of her conservative party that she is not distancing herself from a Bundestag resolution on the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces that has strained ties with Turkey, according to sources briefed on the matter, Reuters reports.

Volker Kauder, the head of the Christian Democrats in parliament, told a meeting of party members that he had spoken with Merkel and she emphasized her position, said the sources, who attended the meeting.

Kauder said Merkel also noted that she had voted to support the resolution during a party meeting before the vote, although she was not present when the vote took place in June. Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier were also not present, the sources said.

The German news magazine “Der Spiegel” reported earlier today that Germany’s government has plans to distance itself from a resolution recognizing the historic Ottoman slaughter of Armenians as genocide to appease Turkish government anger.

http://www.armradio....ide-resolution/

[Yervant1]

Daily Sabah, Turkey
Sept 2 2016


German government will not distance itself from Bundestag vote on ‘1915 events’

DAILY SABAH WITH AGENCIES
ISTANBUL


German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesperson Steffen Seibert said on
Friday that the German government will not distance itself from a
parliamentary resolution labeling the 1915 events as "genocide."

Seibert's comments came after weekly magazine Der Spiegel reported,
without identifying sources, that he would distance himself from the
June 2 vote in a gesture to end a diplomatic standoff over lawmakers'
access to German military personnel at İncirlik Air Base in Adana,
Turkey.

Ankara had said that the German parliamentarians were using the visit
as a political tool and that they will need to be authorized by the
Turkish authorities before the visit.

Seibert said there can be "no talk" of distancing the government from
its decision. He said the government "supports and defends"
parliament's right to express its opinion on any matter.

Meanwhile, a German foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday that
German officials have told Turkey that German lawmakers must be
allowed to visit the 250 German soldiers stationed at İncirlik Air
Base. Spokesperson Mathias Schaefer said that the visit is planned for
October and that the Turkish and German officials remained in talks on
the issue.

German magazine Der Spiegel had reported earlier on Friday that
Seibert will announce new steps, including suggesting the German
Federal Parliament (Bundestag) revisit its decision on the 1915
events. The decision by the government is reportedly taken as
a"gesture" amid demands made by Turkey in exchange for allowing German
parliamentarians to visit the İncirlik Air Base in Adana.

On Aug. 29, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said that Turkey would
authorize German parliamentarians to visit to the air base; however,
Germany will need to take the necessary steps.

''We do not permit those who irresponsibly play around with our
history to visit our exclusive zones,'' Çavuşoğlu had said, in
reference to a recent motion passed by the German parliament on the
1915 events.

On June 2, the lower house of the German parliament approved a
non-binding resolution recognizing Armenian claims of "genocide"
during the 1915 events.

The resolution accused the Ottoman government of 1915 of allegedly
carrying out "systematic genocide" against Armenians, as well as other
Christian minorities. Turkey denies the alleged Armenian "genocide,"
but acknowledges that there were casualties on both sides during the
events, which took place in World War I. According to Turkey's
viewpoint, the deaths of Armenians in eastern Anatolia in 1915
occurred after some sided with invading Russians and revolted against
Ottoman forces. A subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in
numerous casualties. Turkey describes the 1915 events as a tragedy for
both sides.

https://urldefense.p...ZFHCNbOR2JZs&e=

[Yervant1]

Germany Armenians outraged by Berlin view on genocide

12:14, 03.09.2016

Region:World News, Armenia
Theme: Politics

 

Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that the German government does not distance itself from the Bundestag resolution on Armenian Genocide recognition.

Merkel noted this on Friday, speaking with the German RTL Television. She “categorically denies” all other allegations, reported the German Deutsche Welle (DW) TV and radio company.

But moreover, according to the Chancellor, no resolution should be considered “legally binding,” as they are solely political positions.

Samwel Lulukyan, a representative of the Central Council of Armenians in Germany, however, harshly criticized this stance of Berlin.

“This is even beyond refusal,” Lulukyan told the Rheinische Post newspaper. “This is disgraceful and chaotic.”

He also asked how can an Armenian Genocide resolution not be legally binding, and he called this “wordplay.”

Raffi Kantian, Chairman of the German-Armenian Society, also expressed a similar view. Among other things, he expressed concern that, now, German schools will have less chance to discuss the Armenian Genocide, whereas the said Bundestag resolution advises the contrary.

This view of Berlin, however, has received a positive reaction within the Turkish government circles.

http://news.am/eng/news/344550.html

[Yervant1]

Ozdemir: Resolution on Armenian Genocide cannot be overruled  

September 6, 2016 14:05

exclusive

445 views

 

 

Yerevan/Mediamax/. Co-chairman of the German Bundestag’s Alliance ‘90/The Greens political party Cem Ozdemir said that the Bundestag resolution on the Armenian Genocide cannot be overruled.

“In an almost unanimous decision the German Bundestag acknowledged the genocide against the Armenians. Since the German Bundestag decided on this resolution as a constitutional body, only the German Bundestag itself could overrule it,” German parliamentary of Turkish descent told Mediamax.

Photo: REUTERS

He stressed that German Federal government shares the assessment expressed in the resolution.

Cem Ozdemir emphasized that with this resolution the German parliamentaries intended to admit the German Empire’s own guilt and failure in the year of 1915.

“It was never intended to point the finger at present-day Turkey. We hope for an open and respectful debate in Turkey about the crimes of the (so called) Young Turks, and furthermore, we hope that Turkey and Armenia develop and intensify their good-neighbourly relations,” Co-chairman of Alliance ‘90/The Greens told Mediamax.

Cem Ozdemir is the author of “Remembrance and Commemoration of the Genocide of Armenians and Other Christian Minorities 101 Years Ago” resolution. The resolution was approved by a majority of votes on June 2, 2016.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated recently that she “is not distancing herself from a Bundestag resolution on Armenian Genocide”.  

- See more at: http://www.mediamax....h.FUYzRq1U.dpuf