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Germany & the Genocide


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#101 Yervant1

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Posted 20 September 2016 - 01:35 PM

Hurriyet, Turkey
Sept 19 2016


Turkish government allows German MP’s to visit İncirlik in October

ANKARA


The Turkish government has allowed German lawmakers visit to the
İncirlik Air Base in the southern province of Adana in October upon
their request, Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said on Sept.
19.

“We had not allowed their visit to İncirlik base due to decisions
taken by the German parliament regarding the 1915 incidents. We had
implemented that politics due to such absurd, meaningless and delusive
decisions. However, Merkel announced later that this was not a
judicial but a political decision. This is an announcement that meets
our expectations. Therefore, from now on we will allow German
parliamentarians to visit in line with their demands. They had
requests on the issue. A permission has been given to them to enable
their visit in October. It is on their own discretion to visit or
not,” Canikli told reporters after a cabinet meeting in Ankara.

Strained relations between Ankara and Berlin due to the Armenian bill,
labeling the World War I-era killing of Anatolian Armenians as
“genocide,” worsened after Turkey rejected a German parliamentary
delegation’s visit in late June to İncirlik Air Base, which hosts 250
German troops, six surveillance jets and a refueling tanker.

Berlin had threatened the removal of its military presence at the base
to another regional country in response. The German troops and jets at
İncirlik contribute to the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq and Syria.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu had said the government had
given permission to visit German parliamentarians’ visit after
authorities met Ankara’s expectations.

September/19/2016

https://urldefense.p...mF3akbiU9QOQ&e=
 



#102 Yervant1

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Posted 05 October 2016 - 08:05 AM

Bundestag decision on Genocide ‘final and unchangeable’ – German lawmaker  

13:03 • 05.10.16

 
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A senior German lawmaker shared his comments on the Bundestag’s resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide as he met with reporters in Yerevan’s Genocide commemoration park (Tsitsernakaberd) on Wednesday morning.

In comments to the state news agency Armenpress, Vice President of the Bundestag Johannes Singhammer described the move as the right decision by his country’s chief lawmaking body.

“Yes, we have decided to submit the resolution on the Genocide in the German Parliament, and after long discussions we adopted it. I think it was a step towards the truth, and the truth is a step forward towards the peace; in other words, this was a step aimed at achieving peace. 100 years have already passed: I think time has come for doing that. We will be able to go to the future if we remember the past. It is a necessity”, he said.

Asked to comment on Turkey’s reaction to the measure, the German legislator said, “Our decision in the German Parliament is final and we will not change it”.

Germany’s parliament adopted the resolution on the "Remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915 and 1916" on June 2, 2016.  

http://www.tert.am/e...ndestag/2153529


#103 Yervant1

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Posted 06 November 2016 - 09:25 AM

Deustche Welle, Germany
Nov 3 2016
 
 
Cash fines for hate speech directed at German-Turkish officials

Two people have been fined for hurling online abuse at two German politicians of Turkish origin. Both officials had backed the parliament's "Armenia Genocide" resolution, angering many Turks and Erdogan supporters.

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A Berlin court handed financial fines to two people who directed online abuse at German parliamentarians of Turkish origin, according to media reports on Thursday.

A Turkish national was handed a fine of 600 euros ($665) for comments aimed atBundestag member Sevim Dagdelen, of the Left party, on Facebook.

Another man was fined 700 euros for verbally abusing the co-leader of Germany's Green Party, Cem Özdemir. In return, charges against him were dropped, at least provisionally.

Dagdelen and Özdemir had backed the German parliament's Armenian genocide resolution in July, which formally labeled the Ottoman Empire's killing of 1.5 million Armenians and other Christian minorities during World War I as  "genocide." Both officials were subsequently bombarded with online abuse from Turkish nationalists, including those residing in Germany.

Both targeted officials welcomed the court's decision. "It is good that the internet is not a lawless environment," Dagdelen told the "Berliner Zeitung" newspaper. "I hope that the judgment has a deterring effect." However, there remain outstanding threats of violence and murder that must be curtailed, she said. "I intend to pursue these civil claims."

 
 
Watch video 02:01
Bundestag stands by MPs of Turkish descent

Özdemir said that he welcomed the court's decision to punish online insults and threats. However, "some state prosecutors are reacting too cautiously," he said. "Some take the issue seriously within our formidable democracy. Others are somewhat more lenient."

The German parliament's Armenia resolution sparked anger in Turkey and Germany alike among supporters of Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Following the vote, Erdogan even questioned the Turkish roots of the German-Turkish parliamentarians who supported the resolution, saying they should be blood-tested.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel hit back at Erdogan's comments, calling the accusations "incomprehensible." German-Turkish politicians are elected freely, she said, and do not have to see eye-to-eye with the Turkish leader.

Turkey also promptly recalled its ambassador to Germany following the vote, reassigning him back to Berlin in October.

dm/msh (epd, dpa, AFP)

 


#104 Yervant1

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Posted 20 December 2016 - 11:46 AM

FederalNewsRadio.com
Dec 19 2016


German court rejects suits against Armenian ‘genocide’ vote

By The Associated Press December 19, 2016 5:26 am


BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s highest court has rejected a string of
complaints against a decision by the country’s parliament to label the
killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago as genocide.

The Federal Constitutional Court threw out eight complaints against
the resolution approved by lawmakers in June.

It published one of the decisions Monday, in which judges said the
plaintiff had failed to provide sufficient evidence that his
fundamental rights had been violated and that no such violation was
obvious.

3-day work week for DC area feds due to inauguration.

The parliamentary vote infuriated the Turkish government and prompted
it to withdraw its ambassador from Berlin for a few months.

Advertisement

Ankara also refused to let German lawmakers visit German military
personnel stationed at Turkey’s Incirlik air base, but relented after
the German government stressed the resolution isn’t legally binding.

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



#105 Yervant1

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Posted 03 January 2017 - 10:50 AM

German Reich and the Armenian Genocide
by Rolf Hosfeld and Christin Pschichholz
 
ISBN: 978-3-8353-1897-7
 
ca. € 29,90
 
 
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During the First World War, the Ottoman Empire was a crucial ally of Germany’s. With the beginning of the Armenian persecution by Turkey, which, through extensive deportations and massacres, had been launched into a genocide by the spring of 1915, the German Reich was inevitably involved in the events. This affected the military, the German Embassy, ​​consular personnel and German civilians on the ground, as well as the national political and military power centers of the German Reich. How deeply was Germany entangled in the Ottoman/Armenian situation? Was there German responsibility involved in the genocide? Was there any significant contradiction in placing the entire fault with the Ottoman Empire, or did Germany deserve some blame as well?

The authors show how civilian populations have increasingly become the target of military and radical measures of population policy. There were advocates and opponents. In summary, a moral-free obligation can be diagnosed by means of a war-related "realpolitik," which did not remain without consequences for the German post-war mentality.

 

With contributions from, among others: 

Aschot Hayruni, Rolf Hosfeld, Isabell Hull, Stefan Ihrig, 

Hilmar Kaiser, Hans-Lukas Kieser, Carl Alexander Krethlow, 

Mark Levene, Christin Pschichholz, Thomas Schmutz 

and Ronald Gregor Suny.

 

 

http://www.wallstein...-armeniern.html


#106 Yervant1

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Posted 06 January 2017 - 10:19 AM

Drawing conclusion: six months after the recognition of the Ottoman Genocide against Armenians and other Christians

21:11 • 05.01.17

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Tessa Hofmann
Professor,  scholar of Armenian studies and sociology,
Free University of Berlin


It took 101 years until the German lawmakers formally recognized the genocide against one and a half million Ottoman Armenians, several hundred thousand Aramaic speaking Christians and more than a million Greek Orthodox Christians, the latter being victims both of the subsequent Young Turkish and Kemalist regimes during 1912-1922. The recognition came not only against a longstanding tradition of indifference and ignorance of official Germany, but also amidst highly troubled Turkish-German relations on governmental levels. How ambivalent the position of the German government was (and is), showed only three months later on September 2nd, 2016, when the Government’s speaker during a press conference by the Federal Government repeatedly emphasized that the Bundestag’s resolution of June 2, 2016, was of non-legislative character and subsequently did not bear any legally binding character, but simply expressed the opinion of the German parliament.

It was obvious to all observers that such statements were mainly caused by the Federal Government’s fear that Erdoğan might cancel the EU-Turkey agreements on refugees. It is noteworthy in this context to understand that in German media the genocide recognition of 2 June is usually quoted as the ‘Armenia resolution’ (“Armenienresolution”), as if there is no connection between this resolution and Turkey or the Ottoman Empire, at least. It is one of many, albeit minor indicators of continuing German evasiveness.

As a democracy, Germany is characterized by the functional division of power and an independent legal system with constitutionality. Whereas the Federal Government attempts to downplay the relevance of the parliamentary genocide recognition, the highest German court, the Constitutional Court, rejected on 7 December 2016 the constitutional complaint of several Germany based Turkish NGOs against the parliamentary resolution. The Constitutional Court ruled that the applicants had not proven in which way the resolution violates the applicants’ basic rights; furthermore, the Court did not allow any revision against its decision.

Coming to conclusions, we have the following positive effects of the German recognition campaign, as started in 1999 by several German and Germany based Armenian NGOs: Numerous publications in German media and by German publishing houses have significantly increased the overall awareness of the Ottoman genocide, in particular of the Armenian case. The peak of this cultural and publicist recognition was naturally in 2015. Under the impression of intense and immense media coverage, the Bundestag commemorated on April 24, 2015, the genocide against the Armenians, and in June 2016 issued an according resolution.

In this resolution, the German lawmakers commissioned the government with precise tasks to foster the Armenian-Turkish dialogue and reconciliation. It is now time to interpret and implement these measures, not only in foreign, but also in domestic policies. First of all, the Ottoman genocide(s) should be incorporated into the school curricula and textbooks for genocide awareness education and history. However, in school education, the 16 German Federal States (“Land”) are autonomous. So far, only two Federal states – the Land Brandenburg and the Land Sachsen-Anhalt – developed and published instructions for implementing the Armenian/Ottoman Genocide(s) into history education, albeit on a voluntary and not on a mandatory base.

The public discourse about such inclusion is polarized: While several education politicians of the “Länder” articulated that a pluralist post-migrant society should include the commemoration of the various immigrant communities, including genocide commemoration, the umbrella organizations of Turkish and Turkey born immigrants announced fierce resistance should the Armenian genocide ever be ‘imposed’ on Turkish school children in Germany.

Subsequently, there remains still a lot to do for Armenian and first of all German NGOs to overcome such rejection; as a German scholar on history and memory politics has noted, it is always the ethnic majority of a country that eventually determines what and in which way will be remembered. In other words: Interested Armenian self-organizations will have to convince German decision-makers why it is necessary to include the case of the Ottoman genocide(s) into school teaching. Useful allies in this forthcoming discourse might be the two German educationalist trade unions, but also individual scholars and educationalists who published on according topics.

September 2017 brings new parliamentary elections in Germany. It is a good occasion for all stakeholders to ask candidates, parties and factions about their positions on an inclusive genocide awareness education in German schools.

http://www.tert.am/e...5/tessa/2240951



#107 Yervant1

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Posted 13 February 2017 - 10:09 AM

German Court bans Party founded by Turks
ADD-620x300.jpg
 

The Court in Cologne has banned the Allianz Deutscher Demokraten (Alliance of German Democrats) Party, TRT reports.

The Court has justified the decision with the similarity of the party logo with the logo of the right-wing AfD party, which could lead to confusion in the vote.

The Alliance of German Democrats was founded 7 months ago by entrepreneur Remzi Aru, lawyer Ramazan Akbas and Halil Ertem to prevent the adoption of the Armenian Genocide reolution adopted by the German Bundestag.

http://www.armradio....unded-by-turks/



#108 Yervant1

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Posted 16 February 2017 - 12:35 PM

Germany's Constitutional Court not to accept claim for cancelling bill about recognition of Armenian Genocide


00:03, 16.02.2017

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Germany's Constitutional Court refused to accept the appeal for cancelling the bill that recognized the events of 1915 as the Armenian Genocide.

As the Turkish BirGun reports, the German Constitutional Court did not accept the appeal, stating that there are not sufficient evidences that the recognition of the Armenian Genocide violates any laws. The Turkish representative, Ramazan Akbash, announced that they will submit the appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in two days.


https://news.am/eng/news/373627.html


#109 Yervant1

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Posted 14 December 2017 - 02:56 PM

Public Radio of Armenia
Dec 14 2017
 
 
Turkish AKP politician linked to protests against Armenian Genocide Resolution in Germany
 
 

A Turkish parliamentarian has provided money to a boxing gang in Germany to buy weapons, organize protests and go after critics of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Deutsche Wellereports.

Metin Kulunk, a member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and close confidant of Erdogan, directly and indirectly provided money to the Turkish nationalist Osmanen Germania, according to research by Frontal 21, an investigative news program on public broadcaster ZDF and the daily Stuttgarter Nachrichten.

The investigation was based on German police phone taps and surveillance of the group leaked to the news organizations.

It suggests a relationship between Osmanen Germania and Kulunk, as well as the Turkish intelligence agency MIT, the AKP’s European lobby and Erdogan himself.

Osmanen Germania describes itself as a boxing club and “brotherhood,” but authorities have long suspected it of being involved in criminal activity and violence. It is estimated to have 20 chapters and 2,500 members in Germany.

According to police investigations, Osmanen Germania was instructed by Kulunk to go after Kurds and critics of Erdogan living in Germany. He also allegedly organized protests against last year’s Armenian genocide resolution passed by the German parliament.

According to the source, in June 2016, specialists from the Hamburg criminal office observed Kulunk personally hand Bagci two envelopes in Berlin. The envelopes were believed to be full of money.

Moments later Kulunk called Erdogan and organized protests against the Armenian genocide resolution in the German parliament. Osmanen Germania participated in the protests.

https://www.armradio...ion-in-germany/



#110 Yervant1

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Posted 29 March 2018 - 08:56 AM

Massis Post
March 26 2018
 
 
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German MP Cem Özdemir Awarded Mkhitar Gosh Medal by Armenia
March 26, 2018

BERLIN — German Bundestag Greens party Co-Chair Cem Özdemir was awarded Armenia’s Mkhitar Gosh Medal for significant contribution for the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. The awarding ceremony took place March 23 in the Armenian Embassy in Berlin.

Ambassador of Armenia Ashot Smbatyan delivered remarks at the event, mentioning that Özdemir has proved with his work that in the present days tolerance and courage have greater significance in establishing mutual understanding between peoples, rather than nationalist calls or isolation from other countries.

Several high ranking German government officials were present at the event, as well as MPs and foreign envoys.

On 12 March 2015 Özdemir visited the Armenian Genocide memorial in Yerevan, Armenia and declared his formal recognition of the Armenian Genocide and called on Turkey to recognize it as well. In an interview he stated: “I think that Germany should obviously refer to the Armenian Genocide issue. As a friend of two countries, we should help to open the Armenian-Turkish border. As a friend of both countries, we should exert effort, so that the Armenian-Turkish relations become like the French-German or Polish-German relations.”

In 2016 Özdemir initiated a resolution in the Bundestag that would formally classify the 1915 massacres as genocide. The resolution passed on 2 June 2016 with what Speaker Norbert Lammert called a “remarkable majority.” At the time, Özdemir emphasized that the resolution was not designed to point fingers at others but rather to acknowledge Germany’s partial responsibility for the genocide. In 1915, the German Empire was an ally of the Ottoman Empire and failed to condemn the violence. After the Bundestag’s approval of the resolution he received multiple death threats.

https://massispost.c...-medal-armenia/



#111 Yervant1

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Posted 29 March 2018 - 08:58 AM

News.am, Armenia
March 27 2018
 
 
Der Spiegel: Tape shows Erdoğan ordered protests in Germany
20:28, 27.03.2018
                  
 
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A phone conversation recorded by German police has revealed that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan may have personally ordered protests against an Armenian genocide bill in Germany via one of his parliamentarians, Ahval News reported quoting German news magazine Der Spiegel.

As it was noted, Erdoğan may have been controlling the protests personally. His interlocutor, Metin Külünk, a parliamentarian for Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), already stands accused of organising the protests.

The magazine printed a description of one of the telephone calls, which took place on July 1, 2016. During the talks, the parliamentarian said: “I await your orders”. Erdoğan said he would get back in touch with Külünk.

The magazine added that an investigation was ongoing into links between Külünk and Turkey’s secret services after it emerged that Külünk had provided funding to the Osmanen Germania boxing gang several times last year.

https://news.am/eng/news/443286.html



#112 Yervant1

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Posted 29 March 2018 - 08:58 AM

Panorama, Armenia
March 27 2018
 
 
Who is behind Germany's Armenian Genocide recognition protests?

President of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been linked to the self-proclaimed boxing gang, Osmanen Germania, whose members had reportedly organized rallies against the German parliament's resolution condemning the Armenian genocide in 2016.

Ermenihaber reports. Metin Kulunk, a member of the Turkish ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and close confidant of Erdogan, directly and indirectly provided money to the Turkish nationalist gang. 

The investigation based on German police phone taps and surveillance of the group suggests a relationship between Osmanen Germania and Kulunk, as well as the Turkish intelligence agency MIT, extracts of recordings have been published by Der Spiegel.

According to the report, on June 1, 2016 when the German Parliament was debating the Armenian Genocide recognition bill, Kuluk had a telephone conversation with Erdogan discussing the possibility of staging protests against the resolution.

"I am waiting for your instructions," the tape leaked to the media said, followed by Erdogan's response he would contact him later.

To note, more than 1,000 police in Germany are pursuing the self-proclaimed boxing gang, whose members are accused of murders, manslaughter and pimping, Sputnik agency reported.

German police have started a nationwide raid and are searching dozens of properties of a Turkish biker gang registered as Osmanen Germania boxing club, on suspicion of numerous illegal violent actions. Storage devices, drugs and weapons have been seized in the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Baden-Württemberg and Hessen, as well as in major western German cities:Essen, Cologne, Duisburg and Wuppertal.

Founded in 2015, the gang is one of the fastest-growing groups of its kind in Germany, with 22 branches across the country and 300 members, many with Turkish roots.

Other allegations, which brought the Osmanen Germania members public attention, are their connections to Turkey's leadership, buying weapons, going after Kurds, Erdogan's critics

Metin Kulunk had also reportedly tried to recruit Osmanen Germania to punish German comedian Jan Böhmermann, who criticized Erdogan with a poem.

https://www.panorama...enocide/1925240



#113 Yervant1

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Posted 01 April 2018 - 11:21 AM

ArmenPress, Armenia
March 30 2018
 
 
Armenian Genocide shouldn't be denied: Bundestag MP considers unacceptable Erdogan's interference in Germany's domestic affairs



YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s initiative to provoke protests in Germany on the occasion of the adoption of the Armenian Genocide recognition resolution by Bundestag is totally unacceptable, Evrim Sommer – member of the Left group in the German Bundestag, lawmaker of Kurdish origin, told ARMENPRESS.

The Bundestag lawmaker said interest-guided influence of foreign governments on domestic political decisions of the Federal Republic of Germany must be rejected in general. She stated that the “Osmanen Germania Rocker” apparently acts as an extension of the Turkish government in Germany.

“As far as the media reports are showing, it was attempted to stir up a protest mood among the people of Turkish origin living here, against the passing of the Bundestag-resolution on the recognition of the Genocide of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915/16. The Genocide of the Armenians is a historically well-researched historical fact which shouldn’t be denied anymore. Historical facts must be recognized, even if they question state founding myths. The state denial policy preserves an ideological life lie, on which the Turkish Republic was built and is still based”, the MP said.

Evrim Sommer emphasized that it is totally unacceptable to try to impose the Turkish historical doctrine with its denial of mass public crimes immediately before and during the nation-state foundation of modern Turkey in Germany.

The lawmaker said the Turkish state and politics in Turkey still didn’t break with this past, which is why many of the social problems that raised during this period, such as state-imposed nationalism, continue to this day and continue their disastrous work.

Earlier the German Der Spiegelnewspaper reported that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan personally ordered to organize protests in Germany in connection with the adoption of the Armenian Genocide recognition resolution by the Bundestag in June 2016.

A phone call recorded by the German Police reveals how Erdogan calls ruling Justice and Development Party’s lawmaker Metin Kulunk on June 1 (day before the adoption of the Bundestag resolution), who was in Berlin at that time and was engaged in organization of protests.

Interview by Araks Kasyan

English –translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan



#114 Yervant1

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Posted 06 April 2018 - 10:39 AM

Deutsche Welle, Germany
April 5 2018
 
 
New report details Germany's role in Armenian genocide

The German Reich provided the Ottoman Empire with the weapons to carry out the Armenian genocide, a new report claims. Prussian officers also laid the "ideological foundations" for the massacre, according to the author.

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Turkish forces mainly used German rifles and other weapons to carry out the 1915-16 genocide of the Armenian people, a new report has found.

Mauser, Germany's main manufacturer of small arms in both world wars, supplied the Ottoman Empire with millions of rifles and handguns, which were used in the genocide with the active support of German officers. Historians have estimated that between 1 and 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the two-year genocide.

"German officers who served in Turkish-Ottoman military staff actively helped carry out individual murders," the report by Global Net - Stop the Arms Trade (GN-STAT) said. "The majority of the aggressors were armed with Mauser rifles or carbines, the officers with Mauser pistols." Many German officers witnessed and wrote about the massacres in letters to their families.

The report represents the first "case" being researched and developed by Global Net, a new multilingual worldwide network of over a 100 organizations, and a database for activists, whistleblowers, journalists, artists, and others interested in arms exports. It is already preparing new case studies about the illegal G36 deal that Heckler & Koch made in Mexico, and which is about to go to trial in Stuttgart, and the $110 billion (€90 billion) arms deal that the United States struck with Saudi Arabia last year.

43268374_404.jpg

Wolfgang Landgraeber says Prussian officers provided both material and ideological support

Accessory to murder

The Turkish army was also equipped with hundreds of cannon produced by the Essen-based company Krupp, which were used in Turkey's assault on Armenian resistance fighters holding out on the Musa Dagh mountain in 1915.

In 2015, German President Joachim Gauck acknowledged Germany's "co-responsibility" for the Armenian genocide, while a book published in the same year by journalist Jürgen Gottschlich detailed the political collusion of Turkey's most important European ally in the first world war, which provided military advice and training for the Ottoman Empire throughout the Wilhelmine period. But the new GN-STAT report is the first to detail the sheer extent of the material support provided by Mauser and Krupp.

"Mauser really had a rifle monopoly for the Ottoman Empire," said the report's author Wolfgang Landgraeber, a filmmaker who has made several films about German weapons exports. Mauser is now defunct as a company, but Krupp's successor, German steel giant ThyssenKrupp, has never publicly acknowledged the part it played in the genocide.

Read more: Pressure grows on Germany in legal battle over colonial-era genocide

"The question of who actually supplied the weapons, not only for the genocide but also for the First World War in Turkey, no one has really addressed that question before," said Landgraeber. "And to what extent German officers took part in murders by actually picking up the rifles and firing them themselves — that wasn't known before."

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The German parliament voted to recognize the Armenian genocide in 2016

Many of the first-hand German accounts in the report come from letters by Major Graf Eberhard Wolffskehl, who was stationed in the southeastern Turkish city of Urfa in October 1915. Urfa was home to a substantial Armenian population, which had barricaded themselves inside houses against Turkish infantry. Wolffskehl was serving as chief-of-staff to Fahri Pasha, deputy commander of the fourth Turkish army, which had been called in as reinforcement.

"They (the Armenians) had occupied the houses south of the church in numbers," the German officer wrote to his wife. "When our artillery fire struck the houses and killed many people inside, the others tried to retreat into the church itself. But … they had to go around the church across the open church courtyard. Our infantry had already reached the houses to the left of the courtyard and shot down the people fleeing across the church courtyard in piles. All in all the infantry, which I used in the main attack … acquitted itself very well and advanced very dashingly."

Ideological support

While German companies provided the guns, and German soldiers the expert advice on how to use them, German officers also laid what Landgraeber calls the "ideological foundations" for the genocide.

Read more: What you need to know about German arms exports

That the German Reich shared the Ottomans' mistrust of the Armenians was no secret — both feared they were colluding with mutual enemy Russia, while Gottschlich's book quotes navy attache Hans Humann, a member of the German-Turkish officer corps and close friend of the Ottoman Empire's minister of war, Enver Pasha, as saying, "The Armenians — because of their conspiracy with the Russians — will be more or less exterminated. That is hard, but useful."

43268366_404.jpg

Global Net will provide a new database for arms deals

Another figure the report focuses on is the Prussian Major General Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz, a key figure who became a vital military adviser to the Ottoman court in 1883, who saw himself as a lobbyist for the German arms industry and supported both Mauser and Krupp in their efforts to secure Turkish commissions. (He once boasted in his diary, "I can claim that without me the rearmament of the army with German models would not have happened.")

"Not publicly, but among his friends and relatives, von der Goltz would show himself an Armenia-phobe," said Landgraeber. "Several witnesses heard him describing them as 'a greasy trader people.' He helped persuade the Sultan to try and end the Armenian question once and for all."

Read more: Remembering Himmler's 'Auschwitz decree' to exterminate Roma and Sinti

Landgraeber also considers von der Goltz a source for later Nazi ideology. The Prussian officer published a military book in 1883 entitled "Das Volk in Waffen" ("The People Armed"), in which, as Landgraeber puts it, "he adopts positions that Hitler would take up later — for example, the aim of a military campaign should be to destroy the enemy totally, not just to fight and force a capitulation. He believed in total war. That was also the ideological foundation that he gave the Ottomans, and which they used in the Armenian issue." 

Landgraeber is keen to underline that the new research does not absolve the Ottoman Empire of its guilt — but simply fills in the gaps in the historical record. "It happened as we have researched it, and nothing should be sugarcoated — but the entire picture should be more complete."

http://www.dw.com/en...cide/a-43268266



#115 MosJan

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Posted 04 June 2018 - 05:00 PM






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