2215 replies to this topic

[Yervant1]

It seems everyone is using the AG as a political tool in order to get votes, just like in the US. Will they sing the same song after election or advise the justice department to use the free speech and stop it, then use it all over again in the next election?

EuroNews, EU

April 24 2017

 

Macron vows to fight on for Armenians  

 

        

about 2 hours ago The American left's free speech reversal

 

 

last updated: 24/04/2017

French presidential hopeful Emmanuel Macron has marked the 102nd anniversary of the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in a brief ceremony in Paris.

Macron laid a wreath and observed a minute’s silence in memory of the victims.

If elected president of France in the second round of the country’s election, Macron has vowed to continue the fight for full international recognition of the atrocity as a genocide.

Current French President Francois Hollande was also at the ceremony. He was joined by the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo.

What happened?

It is generally agreed that hundreds of thousands of Armenians died when they were deported by Ottoman Turks en masse from eastern Anatolia to the Syrian desert in 1915 and 1916.

Turkey denies the deaths amount to genocide but France recognised it as such in 2001.

The number of deaths is also disputed. Armenians say 1.5 million perished while Ankara estimates the total to be 300,000.

http://www.euronews....n-for-armenians

 

 

[Yervant1]

The bastion of human rights and democracy strikes again, sarcasm intended!

Forward Magazine

April 24 2017

 

 

Trump’s Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day Statement Continues Tradition Of Denial Jake RommApril 24, 2017Vitaly Armand/ Getty Images

Today is not only Yom HaShoah, but also Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. As I have previously discussed, the Armenian Genocide, a crime for which the term “genocide” was coined by Raphael Lemkin, has gone unacknowledged by Turkey, which perpetrated the genocide, and also by countries such as Israel, the U.K., and the United States. In accordance with the longstanding American tradition of genocide denial, President Trump issued this statement:

Statement by President Donald J. Trump on Armenian Remembrance Day 2017Today, we remember and honor the memory of those who suffered during the Meds Yeghern, one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century. Beginning in 1915, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in the final years of the Ottoman Empire. I join the Armenian community in America and around the world in mourning the loss of innocent lives and the suffering endured by so many. As we reflect on this dark chapter of human history, we also recognize the resilience of the Armenian people. Many built new lives in the United States and made indelible contributions to our country, while cherishing memories of the historic homeland in which their ancestors established one of the great civilizations of antiquity. We must remember atrocities to prevent them from occurring again. We welcome the efforts of Turks and Armenians to acknowledge and reckon with painful history, which is a critical step toward building a foundation for a more just and tolerant future

•  

This statement, like all previous statements by sitting U.S. Presidents, is woefully inadequate. Starting with the title – this is an “Armenian Remembrance Day” statement. The word “genocide” has, unsurprisingly, been scrubbed (instead, Trump uses the phrase Meds Yeghern which literally translates to “great calamity” – the equivalent of exclusively referring to the Holocaust as the Shoah), but the resulting phrase makes it sound as if Armenians had been erased from the earth – they have not. Indeed, the importance of today, both in terms of Yom HaShoah and Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, is to remember not that Jews or Armenians still exist (this much is obvious), but to remember that, at one point in history, there was an attempt to eradicate them from the earth – we remember the dead, but it is equally important that we remember the murder as well.

This, of course, can be chalked up to bad copywriting. But the rest of the statement, with its carefully crafted denialism, can not. Notice how when Trump writes, “I join the Armenian community in America and around the world in mourning the loss of innocent lives and the suffering endured by so many” the suffering and loss of innocent lives are abstracted from any cause, that is, any perpetrator. Who caused the suffering, who committed the murder? We know, but we will not say.

 

The only mention of the perpetrators of the genocide – The Turks – comes at the end of the statement in which the Trump administration welcomes “the efforts of Turks and Armenians to acknowledge and reckon with painful history” which would be a welcome effort if an effort were indeed being made on the part of Turkey which still officially prosecutes those who would acknowledge the genocide within its borders and still actively works to stifle discussion in the international community (ask yourself why, before the release of “The Promise” on April 21st, you have not seen a big budget film about the Armenian Genocide).

 

According to a statement issued by the Armenian Assembly of America, “On April 10th, 84 Members of Congress signed a bipartisan letter to President Trump urging him to affirm the Armenian Genocide. Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Representative Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) spearheaded the letter asking the White House to honor the United States’ historic leadership in defending human rights and to properly characterize the events of 1915 as a genocide in this year’s presidential statement on April 24th.” Efforts like this occur every year, to no avail. The degradation of denial is by no means limited to the Trump Administration (at a Q&A following a screening of “The Promise” in New York City, director Terry George pointed out that Trump, as opposed to previous presidents, never promised to acknowledge the genocide in the first place – thus sparing him the hypocrisy, at least), but just as the genocide goes unacknowledged every year, every year we must hold our leaders to account and demand, again and again, the proper memorialization of the first genocide of the 20th century.

http://forward.com/c...tradition-of-d/

 

 

[Yervant1]

Worcester Telegram, MA

April 23 2017

 

 

Two Turks join Armenians in Worcester to recall genocide

By Mark Sullivan
Telegram & Gazette Staff

WORCESTER - They were breaking the silence, they said.

Two Turks - one Muslim, the other Christian - spoke at a commemoration Sunday of the Armenian Genocide, the mass killings of 1.5 million Armenians that began 102 years ago at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.

 

“We have a duty to face our past,” said Burcin Gercek, a journalist and author from Istanbul who is a doctoral student at Clark University’s Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

“Of course, justice cannot be done for killed people,” she said. “It’s too late for that. But at least a recognition, an official apology, and some steps concerning the Armenian cultural heritage in Turkey could be positive steps.”

Ms. Gercek was a guest speaker at the Worcester Area Armenian Genocide Commemoration held at the Armenian Church of Our Savior Cultural Center on Boynton Street.

The event recalled the estimated 1.5 million Armenian Christians killed by the Muslim Turks of the Ottoman Empire in a bloody campaign that began on April 24, 1915.

Monday is observed as Armenian Martyrs Day.

The successor to the Ottoman Empire, today’s Republic of Turkey, has rebuffed calls to formally recognize the mass slayings as “genocide” or apologize.

For the descendants of survivors of what has been called the Armenian Holocaust, the crimes committed by the Turks a century ago remain closely felt.

Indeed, when Sunday’s master of ceremonies, state. Rep. David K. Muradian Jr., R-Grafton, made reference to the campaign of obliteration waged against the Armenians, he referred to the perpetrators as “those who are not named.”

So the presence of a pair of Turks as guest speakers at the Armenian commemoration was remarkable.

Both speakers are graduate students at Clark’s Strassler Center.

“May God bless all victims who did not even have a gravestone,” said Emre Can Daglioglu, 31, an Orthodox Christian from Antakya, in southern Turkey, on the Syrian border.

Mr. Daglioglu said his research at Clark focuses on the Armenian experience in a Turkish community on the Black Sea coast where, during an earlier campaign of oppression in 1895, Armenian shops were looted, hundreds were killed, and thousands were forced to emigrate.

“We have to apologize for what’s happened in the Ottoman Empire, not only in 1915 but at the end of the 19th century,” he said. “I am trying to pay my debt in that sense to the Armenians.”

He was asked why, as a member of Turkey’s Christian minority, he felt compelled to do so.

“I am the product of that silence prevalent in Turkey,” he said. “I am part of this denial. (As a citizen of Turkey) I have that privilege to be in Turkey unlike Armenians or Greeks who were killed or deported from Turkey. That’s why I think I have to apologize.”

Ms. Gercek, 40, attended with her 5-year-old daughter. The former journalist for the French magazine L’Express recently authored a book, “Against the Current,” telling the stories of more than 200 “righteous people” in Turkey who tried to stop the massacres and prevent the deportations of Armenians.

She said she wrote the book with the idea that offering positive role models could be a way to make it easier for Turkish society to raise and confront the subject.

Raised in secular Muslim family in Istanbul, she said the Armenian Genocide was taboo as a discussion topic when she was growing up in Turkey, and it was only when she traveled to study and work in France that she learned the history.

As a journalist she wrote articles on the denial of the Armenian massacres and the difficulty Turkish society has in facing the past, she said.

“I wanted to do something about it,” she said. “I was so shocked over such a big lie that was told to us by the government and media and schools.”

An organizer of the Sunday commemoration, George Aghjayan, of Westminster, board chairman at Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church in Worcester, wore a button identifying him as the grandchild of an Armenian Genocide survivor.

 

He said the story of his grandmother, Margaret Garabedian Dermanuelian, was typical of many Armenians. And a terrifying story it was.

She was eight when the massacres began in 1915. “She experienced all the horror of the Genocide,” he said. “She saw her father beheaded and left by the side of a river. Her mother and two of her sisters were sent on a death march and never heard from again.”

An older sister married a Turk to try to rescue her young son, but they killed the boy anyway, he said. A younger sister was taken as a slave to a Turkish family, then to orphanage, where she starved to death. His grandmother herself was taken as a slave to a Turkish family and lived that way for six years, until one surviving sister found her and rescued her.

Rescued in 1921, she emigrated to Providence, where she married another Armenian survivor, raised a family, and lived to the age of 93.

The ones who survived were lucky, physically strong, and more important, mentally strong, given the horrors they endured, said Mr. Aghjayan, who regularly travels to Turkey, documenting the Armenian diaspora.

Sadly, the echoes of the Armenian slaughter of a century ago are still being felt today in the Middle East.

“We eyewitnessed the Yazidi genocide (in Iraq) just two years ago,” said Mr. Daglioglu. “ISIS really have a genocidal process.”

 

Mr. Aghjayan said the Armenian Christian community in Aleppo has been decimated in the current civil war in Syria.

“The problem for us as Armenians is the security of being able to live as Armenians freely, without fear of persecution, without fear of death, without fear of losing land and places you’ve lived your entire lives,” he said. “That’s always at the forefront. That’s why the genocide has relevance for us today, because there’s still the threat that goes on.”

Worcester’s Armenian community dates to the 1890s. The Armenian Church of Saviour, dating to 1891, claims to be the first Armenian church established in the Western hemisphere.

The Worcester area today is home to an estimated 5,000 people of Armenian descent and four Armenian churches, which hosted Sunday’s event.

 

http://www.telegram....recall-genocide

[Yervant1]

Below are the remarks for MPP Patrick Brown, PC party Leader and The Leader of the Official Opposition in Ontario,  during the Armenian Genocide Commemoration in Toronto, April 23.

  

Statement 

Armenian Genocide

April 23^rd, 2017 

 

 

·        The Ontario PC Caucus stands with the Canadians of Armenian Heritage in Ontario to commemorate the 102^nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

 

·        The systematic deportations and massacres of Armenians from their historic homelands that began on the 24th of April, 1915, by order of the Ottoman Empire was a tragic event. 

 

·        The loss of hundreds of Armenian public figures – politicians, clergymen, educators, artists – who were arrested and executed in the capital Istanbul or sent into exile had a long and lasting impact.

 

·        A horrendous series of events took the lives of over one and a half million Armenians.

 

·        On this day, people of Armenian descent all over the world reflect on the Armenian Genocide. They gather around the many memorials that have been erected across 25 countries to commemorate this tragedy.

 

·        This somber occasion is an opportunity to come together to remember the victims of the genocide and express solidarity with their descendants. This tragic history must never be forgotten and it must never be denied.

 

·        The Armenian people were dispossessed of countless generations of cultural heritage. But they survived. They formed organized communities all over the world, including the province of Ontario.

 

·        We stand shoulder to shoulder with our province’s Armenian community as you observe this most solemn occasion.

 

[Yervant1]

Deny, deny year after year and then say you're sorry, what a hypocrisy! Shame on you!  

Washington Free Beacon

April 24 2017

 

 

Obama’s UN Ambassador Apologizes for Admin Not Calling Mass Killings of Armenians a Genocide

 

 

Barack Obama and Samantha Power / Getty Images

 

BY: Andrew Kugle

April 24, 2017 5:10 pm

Former President Barack Obama's ambassador to the United Nations apologized Monday for the Obama administration not recognizing the century-old massacre of more than a million Armenians as genocide.

Samantha Power issued the apology via Twitter on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, which commemorates the mass killings of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks in 1915 and 1916.

According to the U.S. Holocaust Museum, as many as 1.2 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman authorities over those two years.

Back in 2008, then-candidate Obama promised that if he were to become president, he and his administration would officially recognize the killings as genocide.

"I also share with Armenian Americans–so many of whom are descended from genocide survivors–a principled commitment to commemorating and ending genocide. That starts with acknowledging the tragic instances of genocide in world history," a 2008 Obama campaign statement said.

Obama failed to follow through on his promise year after year of his presidency.

The United States has not recognized the mass killings largely because doing so would anger Turkey, a longtime U.S. ally and NATO member.

President Donald Trump has followed in his predecessors' footsteps. In a statement released by the White House on Monday to recognize Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, the Trump administration did not use the word "genocide."

 

"Beginning in 1915, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in the final years of the Ottoman Empire," Trump said in the statement. "I join the Armenian community in America and around the world in mourning the loss of innocent lives and the suffering endured by so many."

Trump referred to the massacre of Armenians as "one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century."

http://freebeacon.co...enian-genocide/

 

 

[Yervant1]

Radio Canada

April 24 2017

 

 

Canada commemorates 102 anniversary of 1915 Armenian genocide

By Levon Sevunts | english@rcinet.ca
Monday 24 April, 2017 , No Comments ↓

 

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Thousands of Canadian Armenians marked the 102 anniversary of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey with public gatherings and marches in cities across the country today.

The largest event was held in Ottawa where several hundred people gathered at a ceremony on Parliament Hill and then walked down the streets of the national capital to the Turkish embassy to demand that Turkish authorities stop their campaign of denial of the genocide.

Simon Izmirian, an executive member of the Armenian National Committee of Canada and one of the organizers of the march in Ottawa, said as a great-grandchild of a genocide survivor he felt compelled to participate in the commemoration not only to pay tribute to his ancestors but also to demand justice.

“The reason why we are here today and the reason why it’s important for us to be here today is to stand collectively together to fight for a political cause,” Izmirian said in a phone interview from Ottawa. “That cause is the cause of solidarity where we’re going to stand together to voice our desire for justice and for the perpetrators to be held accountable for what they’ve done in 1915.”

#Ottawa Canada #Armeniangenocide demonstration#April24 #KeepThePromise pic.twitter.com/HJyIW9nLvF

— apraham niziblian (@abenizib) April 24, 2017

 

Brutal history

Historians estimate that as many 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a brutal campaign of massacres and death marches into the Syrian desert organized by the government of Young Turks during WWI.

Within a short span Turkey’s millennia-old Armenian community was essentially wiped out from its historic homeland with survivors scattered around Diaspora communities in the Middle East, Europe, North and South America.

An Armenian woman kneeling beside a dead child in field near Aleppo, 1915.

April 24 marks the symbolic beginning of the genocide when 234 of prominent Armenian intellectuals, politicians and community leaders were rounded up by Turkish police in Istanbul and sent to camps in the interior of the country where most were executed.

To this day Turkish authorities deny that genocide occurred and wage a high-stakes diplomatic and public relations battle to oppose its international recognition.

Canadian recognition

The Canadian government recognized the events of 1915 as genocide in 2006, under then Prime Minister Stephen Harper. In addition, the Senate and the House of Commons of Canada have also adopted resolutions recognizing the events of 1915 as genocide.

In 2015, the House of Commons unanimously passed a motion declaring April 24th as Armenian Genocide Memorial Day.

“This day honours the memory of those who unjustly lost their lives and suffered during the genocide. We pay tribute to them and their descendants, many of who now reside in Canada,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement. “On this occasion, Canadians – regardless of faith or ethnic background – stand together in solemn remembrance and reaffirmed dedication to ensuring that we never stand indifferently in the face of hate or violence in any form.”

Rona Ambrose, the interim leader of the official opposition Conservative Party, said April 24 is “a day to remember, but also to ponder about the events that left a deep trace on the modern world.”

“Every year Canada and other countries make use of this anniversary to shed light on the existing conflicts and to say that they cannot have a similar tragic ending,” Ambrose said in a statement. “We do that also to support the global efforts aimed at peaceful coexistence.”

‘Last stage of genocide’

Kyle Matthews, Senior Deputy Director of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University and a Fellow at the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, echoed Ambrose’s sentiment.

“I think it’s important to commemorate these large scale mass killings, in this case genocide, because it’s important to remember so that we don’t make the same mistake in the future,” Matthews said.

“Armenians do feel that the terrible tragedy that struck and almost destroyed their community over 102 years ago is not being acknowledged, that there is still a lot of denialism out there, that there are forces at play that want to minimize their suffering.”

(click to listen to the full interview with Kyle Matthews)

Listen

Denial is the final stage of genocide and Turkey is a long way from coming to terms with its past, he said.

“People are imprisoned for talking about the Armenian genocide, there have been political assassinations in Turkey of public intellectuals and journalists writing and talking about this,” said Matthews. “People say the last element of genocide is denying it, that’s the final stage.”

The Turkish government is also actively trying to dissuade other governments from following in Canada’s footsteps.

“This is part of a longer issue that Turkey has been continuing on and it’s really a battle for facts,” Matthews said.

There is a vast amount of scholarly literature that has been produced in the last 100 years that makes it very difficult to deny that what happened to Armenians was genocide, he said.

“I think the history books do tell us that it was much more than a ‘civil war,’ that [there was] a dramatic population decrease of Armenians, dispersions around the entire region, fleeing the Ottoman Empire and Ottoman Turkey,” Matthews said. “I think it’s pretty clear idea of what really took place.”

March for Humanity

Matthews is also involved in organizing an annual march that began around the commemoration activities of the Armenian genocide centennial in 2015.

At the time different human rights activists in Montreal met with the Armenian community and decided that on the centennial of the Armenian genocide it would be very important to organize a public display bringing together the Armenian community and with other diaspora groups in Montreal who fled genocide in their homelands and became refugees and sought protection in Canada, Matthews said.

That’s when the idea of the annual March for Humanity and Against Genocide was born.

The first march in 2015 attracted about 10,000 people including then Liberal leader Justin Trudeau who then went on to win the federal election and become Canada’s prime minister.

This year on May 27^th organizers are hoping to attract the biggest crowds ever, Matthews said.

“It’s part of a wider human rights weekend for Montreal’s 375^th anniversary and we’ll be marching with people from Amnesty International, human rights leaders from around the world are coming to Montreal to participate in this and other events,” Matthews said. “So it’s important that we don’t forget the Armenian genocide.”

http://www.rcinet.ca...enian-genocide/

[Yervant1]

Garo Paylan: Every crime that goes unpunished causes recurrence of this crime

14:35, 24.04.2017

Region:Armenia, Turkey
Theme: Politics

 

Garo Paylan, Istanbul Armenian MP of the opposition pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) of Turkey, issued a statement on the 102nd anniversary of Armenian Genocide.

In his statement, Paylan noted that even though 102 years have passed since this tragedy, people still have not faced Armenian Genocide, the great crime against humanity. 

“Facing the Genocide, the past and the truth in our country will be a support to peace. Let us not forget that every crime that goes unpunished causes the recurrence of this crime.  

“Let us all together prevent this denialism. Let us see to it that the truth is revealed. 

“I pay tribute to the Armenian Genocide victims. May God rest their soul,” Paylan noted, in particular, in his statement.

https://news.am/eng/news/386237.html

[Yervant1]

Julian Assange: Turkey tries to cover up Armenian Genocide

21:17, 24.04.2017

Region:World News
Theme: Politics, Society

 

Founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, on Monday stated that he knew about the Armenian Genocide and investigated the facts related thereto.

“The #ArmenianGenocide killed up to 1.5 million people. I know, I investigated it and Turkey tried to cover it up,” he wrote on his Twitter page.

He also posted a link to the archive of materials related to the Armenian Genocide.

 

https://news.am/eng/news/386353.html

[MosJan]

Czech Republic Parliament Recognizes Armenian Genocide

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (ArmRadio)—The parliament of the Czech Republic on Tuesday passed a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide. The resolution passed with 104 votes.

The Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic has approved a resolution, condemning the genocide of Armenians and other religious and national minorities in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War.

The resolution was proposed by MEP Robin Bönisch from the CSSD. “I think it was the Czech Republic’s debt to formally recognize the genocide. And because yesterday it was the 102nd anniversary of the Armenian genocide, I think it was very symbolic to recognize the genocide of the Armenians today,” Bönisch said.

President Milos Zeman also called the killing of Armenians genocide. On the occasion of the anniversary, the President sent a letter to Barsega Pilavchian, the spiritual  leader of the Armenian community in the Czech Republic.

“I agree that history is not meant to be interpreted by politicians. At the same time, however, I believe that the events that cost 1.5 million innocent people represent a tragic chapter in the history of not only the Armenian nation but also of the entire civilized world,” Zeman wrote in a letter published on Tuesday

 

http://asbarez.com/1...enian-genocide/

[Yervant1]

Sundial, CSUN, CA
April 25 2017

 

 

L.A. County announce April as “Armenian History Month”

By Joanna Rosales

-

Apr 24, 2017

 

 

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors appointed April as Armenian History Month. The motion was brought forth by supervisors Janice Hahn and Kathryn Barger.

Biayna Ayvazian, president of the Armenian Students Association (ASA), said Armenian History Month will be extremely beneficial to other ethnic and cultural communities besides the Armenian community.

“It’s important to be educated and culturally sensitive,” Ayvazian said. “I think it’s going to be super important for other people to be aware of our culture.”

According to Ayvazian, the ASA will be having an Armenian Genocide Awareness week starting April 24.

“We passed a resolution in the AS senate to come around and educate the senate about the genocide,” Ayvazian said.

After their presentation, ASA will be placing 102 crosses on the lawn behind the Oviatt Library in front of the Arbor Grill. The crosses represent the amount of years since the genocide occurred, according to Ayvazian.

Ayvazian said that they will be placing roses in front of the matador statue to honor the victims of the genocide.

Raffi Kassabian, a member of the Board of Directors for the Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region (ANCA-WR), said having recognition of the Armenian genocide will help the cycle of future genocides.

“The Armenian genocide is important for everybody because history repeats itself,” Kassabian said. “If we don’t properly acknowledge and demand justice for genocides that have happened earlier, it is bound to happen again.”

Kassabian said the Republic of Turkey has not taken responsibility for the genocide and continue to deny it.

The ANCA started a movement called “America We Thank You,” which is a program to educate public officials, journalists and the public, about the work Americans did to help Armenians and Armenian orphans during the genocide, according to Kassabian. Americans in today’s dollars raised about a billion dollars to donate to the cause, Kassabian said.

ANCA is also actively promoting the movie “The Promise” which is the first major Hollywood film about the Armenian genocide, which released on April 21.

In honor of the Armenian Genocide, ANCA will be participating in the March for Justice on April 24, starting at Pan Pacific Park to the Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles at 12 p.m., according to Kassabian.

“It’s not only about recognition, it’s about seeking justice,” Kassabian said. “Our job is to educate and motivate the community. It’s not just something specific to April 24, it’s non-stop, 365 days a year.”

On April 27, ASA will be having a genocide vigil. The vigil will include guest and student speakers, Ayvazian said.

http://sundial.csun....-history-month/

[Yervant1]

CTV News, Canada

April 25 2017

 

 

'Smoking gun' telegram offers evidence of Armenian genocide: professor

The coded telegram was found in a microfilm archive. It was written in a code in which Arabic four-digit numbers represented words.

     

 

     

     

     

     

 

     

     

Sonja Puzic, CTVNews.ca 
Published Tuesday, April 25, 2017 1:20PM EDT 

A Turkish historian has unearthed a “smoking gun” telegram he says is evidence of an Armenian genocide during the First World War.

After many years of trying to access crucial Ottoman Empire documents related to the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians, Taner Akcam, a history professor at Clark University in Massachusetts, finally discovered a photographic record of atelegram dated July 4, 1915.

The telegram, written under Ottoman letterhead and coded in Arabic numbers, reads: “Are the Armenians who were deported from there being liquidated? Are the troublesome individuals whom you have reported as having being exiled and expelled being eliminated or merely sent off and deported? Please report back honestly.”

 

 

This March 2, 2005 file photo shows the memorial to the victims of the "Great Slaughter," where 1.5 million Armenians were massacred between 1915 and 1923 by the Ottoman Empire, in Yerevan, Armenia. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze, File)

 

Taner Akcam, a history professor at Clark University in Massachusetts, has been studying the Armenian genocide for decades. (Photo: Clark University)

Akcam said he compared the Arabic codes written in the telegram with other known codes used by the Ottoman interior ministry at the time, and found matches.  

The existence of that message, quoted as part of the evidence presented at post-war military tribunals in Turkey, was long known to historians. But the original telegram remained elusive for scholars like Akcam.  And the fact that most of the original documents from the tribunals vanished in the years since has been used to support the arguments of genocide denialists, Akcam told CTVNews.ca.

He vividly remembers the day last summer when he finally got his hands on the microfilm copy of the telegram – the closest he’s gotten to the original document, which remains in an archive held by the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

“It was a rainy day,” Akcam recalled in a telephone interview from his office at Clark University. “It was pouring rain, and I saw this telegram in the archive. I ran outside and I stayed under the rain for 15 minutes maybe, opening my hands in the sky, (saying) ‘Thank God I found it.’”

Akcam was finally able to analyze the document after years of sleuthing. Priest Krikor Guerguerian, a survivor of the Armenian genocide, had photographedthe original documents at the Armenian Patriarchate in the 1960s and then brought the microfilms to the United States.  Akcam eventually gained access to the entire microfilm archive in 2015, thanks to Guerguerian’s nephew, and then began the painstaking task of cataloguing everything.

Akcam doesn’t believe that his discovery will lead to any immediate changes in Turkey’s stance on the issue. For more than a century, the Turkish government has denied that the genocide took place, saying that the Armenian deaths were simply part of the chaos and brutality of the First World War.

And even though many countries around the world, including Canada, have recognized the Armenian genocide, Turkey hasn’t felt enough global pressure, especially from the United States, to do the same, Akcam said.

He hopes the discovery of the damning telegram will change all of that. For decades, U.S. presidents, including Barack Obama and current President Donald Trump, have avoided using the word “genocide” to describe what happened.

“This is like a stone that you throw in the water,” Akcam said. “The waves slowly, slowly come to the shores…The waves will hit sometime.”

Akcam said he hopes to publish Krikor Guerguerian’s microfilm archive, which contains many other important documents, online sometime in the fall. 

http://www.ctvnews.c...essor-1.3384214

[Yervant1]

India’s Vice-President on Armenian Genocide: No two opinions regarding killings of innocent people

18:03, 26 Apr 2017

Siranush Ghazanchyan

 

 

 

 

 

“There cannot be two opinions regarding the killings of the innocent people, be it in this region, Asia, Africa or in Latin America. We are obliged to adopt the universal values,” India’s Vice President

India’s Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari met with students and faculty of the Yerevan State University today and visited the Matenadaran Institute of Ancient Manuscripts.

On a three-day official visit to Armenia, Vice President Hamid Ansari visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Tuesday to pay tribute to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims. Speaking about the feelings, the Vice-President said “any killing of humans by other human beings can generate only one feeling.” He said “it’s part of history no one can be proud of.”

“There cannot be two opinions regarding the killings of the innocent people, be it in this region, Asia, Africa or in Latin America. We are obliged to adopt the universal values,” he added.

Hamid Ansari also revealed the message he left in the guestbook of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute. “These materials are witnesses to the terrible violence that befell the Armenian people. Only through values like tolerance and mutual understanding can we hope for a peaceful and harmonious future,” he wrote.

Born in the city of Kolkata so dear to Armenians, India’s Vice-President emphasized the centuries-old Armenian-Indian ties and hailed the role of Armenians in the development of his country.

“I’ve come to a country far from India, but close to the individual and collective memory of Indians,” Hamid Ansari stressed. “This year we celebrate the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations and I hope high-level visits will contribute to the further deepening of relations,” he said.

http://www.armradio....nnocent-people/

[Yervant1]

Genocide continues, it never stopped in so called democratic (Not) Turkey! 

 

 

April 24 in Turkey: Still No Justice for the Murdered Armenian Serving in the Turkish Army

By Uzay Bulut on April 26, 2017 in Headline, New, Turkey // 0 Comments //  // 

Special for the Armenian Weekly

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s message was read at the commemoration mass that was held at the Feriköy Surp Vartanants Church in Istanbul on April 24—the 102^nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

Armenian member of Turkish Parliament Garo Paylan attending a commemoration dedicated to Sevag Balikci on April 24 (Photo: Garo Paylan/Facebook)

The message said, in part:

“On this occasion, I would like to emphasize that the peace, security and happiness of our Armenian community are of special importance to us. We have no tolerance for the alienation and exclusion of our Armenian citizens and for a single Armenian citizen to feel second-class… With these thoughts, I once again pay tribute to the memories of the Ottoman Armenians who lost their lives in the beginning of the 20th century. May millions of Ottoman citizens deceased under the difficult conditions of the First World War rest in peace.”

Can this message be interpreted as a “positive development” in Turkey’s recognition of the genocide? And do these words reflect the reality of the Armenian lives in Turkey?

Not really, for genocide denial is still the norm in the country.

Turkey does not deny that “Ottoman Christians died” during World War I. What Turkey claims is that Armenians and other people in the Ottoman Empire died due to the “circumstances of the war” or the wrongdoings or crimes of their fellow Armenians. This position does not recognize any Turkish responsibility in the Armenian massacres or forced deportations.

One Turkish reader commented on an article on Facebook on April 24, “the Armenian Genocide is a fiction made up by Western powers to cover up their own bloody history.”

A scene from the 2017 commemoration dedicated to Sevag Balikci on April 24 (Photo: Garo Paylan/Facebook)

Turkey never seems to run out of excuses to deny, whitewash or even take pride in the genocide.

April 24 is also the anniversary of the death of Sevag Balıkçı, an Armenian citizen of Turkey. Private Balıkçı was shot to death during his compulsory military service in the Turkish army on April 24, 2011—the 96^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Six years later, the trial is still ongoing. And the murderers of Sevag are still walking around free.

A court in Turkey recently decided to pay a “ridiculous” amount of compensation to Balıkçı’s family, the newspaper Agos reported on April 21.

The court declared that 40,000 Turkish liras (around $11,000 USD) shall be paid to Balıkçı’s family in compensation. İsmail Cem Halavurt, the family’s lawyer, objected to the Court of Cassation, declaring that the amount is too low compared to other damages paid in similar trials.

The Ankara military high court decided that 16,000 Turkish liras shall be paid to each of Sevag’s parents—his mother, Ani, and his father, Garabet—and 8,000 liras to his sister, Lerna, in non-pecuniary damages.

Agos also reported that the details of the trial that have not yet been finalized. The trial began at Diyarbakir military court, which announced its ruling on March 26, 2013. The defendant, Kıvanç Ağaoğlu, was sentenced to four years, five months and 10 days in prison for “intentionally killing someone” and the defendant, Sergeant Sadrettin Ersöz, to five months for “neglecting his duty.” The ruling was then taken to the Military Court of Cassation, which returned the case file to a regional court, citing “procedural deficiencies.”

The trial was re-opened, but when a decree was announced by the government to close military courts across Turkey, on Feb. 2, the military court sent the case file to the penal court of first instance in the town of Kozluk, where the killing took place. The trial will now continue in a civil court.

Ani and Garabet Balıkçı hold a photograph of their son Sevag (Photo: Elsa Landard)

Halil Ekşi, a witness to the incident, first said Ağaoğlu killed Sevag deliberately, but then changed his testimony and said that “there was no discussion or fighting, and the incident took place as a result of joking around.” Upon the objection of the Balıkçı family’s lawyers, Ekşi testified once again, saying that he “has been under pressure concerning his testimony.” He was then sentenced to two years and one month in prison for “perjury” and Bülent Kaya, Ağaoğlu’s uncle, to two years and 13 months in prison for “instigating perjury.”

This ruling as well as the entire prosecution process once again reveal that even 102 years after the genocide, Armenian lives still do not matter in Turkey.

http://armenianweekl...e-turkish-army/

 

 

[Yervant1]

Never ending saga! Enough already just do it for Gods sake! How long will you fool the Armenians, it's getting tiresome.

US Senator submits bipartisan bill on Armenian Genocide recognition 

 

 

19:17, 26 April, 2017 

 

YEREVAN, APRIL 26, ARMENPRESS. U.S. Democrat Senator for New Jersey Bob Menendez submitted to the Congress a bipartisan bill on April 24, suggesting recognizing the Armenian Genocide. 

 

“Armenpress” reports the bill suggests guaranteeing that the foreign policy of the USA will reect a relevant understanding towards human rights issues, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleanings, and genocides with the example of the Armenian Genocide documented by the USA. 

 

The co-authors of the bill are senators Ted Cruz and Tom Udall. 

 

“102 years after the tragedy that took place in the Ottoman Empire, we must name it by its real name – genocide. I think that our continues incapability to do that step creates room in the modern world for barbarism. Therefore, I call on my senator colleges to put an end to this shameful reality. This bill clearly defines that we will always respect the memory of those innocent Armenian men, women and children who have been killed or deported from their fatherland, and will always remember this as a lesson which will always counteract any form of crime against humanity”, Bob Menendez said. 

 

ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian thanked senator Menendez and his colleges for submitting the bill. “It goes without saying that for Armenian-Turkish reconciliation it’s first of all necessary that Turkey recognizes facts and the consequences of the Armenian Genocide”, Hamparian said.

 

https://armenpress.a...ecognition.html

 

 

[Yervant1]

Robin Bohnisch on Armenian Genocide resolution: Czech MPs showed they cannot be blackmailed
00:30, 27.04.2017


Czech MPs have shown that Czechia is a sovereign country that cannot be blackmailed, MP Robin Bohnisch said in response to Armenian News-NEWS.am inquiry about adoption of the resolution condemning the Armenian Genocide.

A total of 104 deputies voted for the resolution, which was introduced by Mr. Bohnisch from the Czech Social Democratic Party.

“I am happy and satisfied by this step of the Chamber of Deputies.  Regarding relationships between Czechia and Armenia, they are already at a great level. Formal recognition of genocide is just a premium,” said Bohnisch, Chairman of the Czech Republic-Armenia Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group.

Asked whether a call for the world community to prevent violations of human rights all over the globe refers to the situation with the minorities, especially Christians, in the Middle East, MP replied: “Formulation is general and is meant seriously. It represents the tradition of Czech foreign policy, focused on the defense of human rights.”

https://news.am/eng/news/386765.html

[Yervant1]

Same childish reaction from the childish country!

 

 

Turkey slams Czech parliament resolution on Armenian Genocide

12:43, 27 Apr 2017

Siranush Ghazanchyan

 

 

The Turkish Ministry of Foreign affairs has issued a statement, condemning and rejecting ‘in strongest’ terms the resolution adopted by the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic on Armenian Genocide and other crimes against humanity.

“We are also disappointed by President Zeman’s letter of 24 April 2017 addressed to the Armenian diaspora in his country with regard to the events of 1915, as it includes serious inconsistencies,” the Ministry said in a statement.

“President Zeman, while stating in his letter that history should not be interpreted by politicians, and exposing the fact that politicians abuse history for their political interests, and that the past should first and foremost be analyzed and interpreted by historians; contradicts his own words as he makes political assessments with regard to the events of 1915,” the Ministry said.

The Ministry of Foreign affairs has conveyed the reaction to these political actions to the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Ankara.

The adopted resolution accused the Ottoman Empire of carrying out systematic genocide against Armenians, as well as other Christian minorities.

http://www.armradio....enian-genocide/

 

 

[Yervant1]

Armenian Genocide resolution adopted in Colorado Legislature

16:17, 27 Apr 2017

Siranush Ghazanchyan

 

 

The Colorado State Legislature adopted a resolution recognizing the 102nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Members of both the House of Representatives and Senate voted unanimously to adopt the resolution at the capitol on Wednesday.

The Armenian genocide killed 1.5 million men, women, and children of Armenian descent from 1915 to 1923.

The resolution states:  “We express support for efforts toward constructive and durable relations between the country of Armenia, the homeland for the 22 Armenian people, and its neighbors, based upon acknowledgment of the facts and ongoing consequences of the Armenian genocide, and a fair, just, and comprehensive international resolution of this crime against humanity.”

Members of the Armenians of Colorado organization and the Armenian National Committee of America Western Region (ANCA-WR) attended the adoption.

Armenians of Colorado began with a group of 15 Armenian members around 1980. At least 125 families are involved in the organization today.

http://www.armradio....do-legislature/

[Yervant1]

Turkish historian publishes new records on Armenian Genocide
17:11 • 27.04.17

 

Turkish historian Taner Akcam has unveiled new records shedding light on the Genocide-era killings and deportations.

The archival document, dated July 4 1915,  is a telegram addressed to Sabit Bay, the provincial governor of Elazig (Kharberd), who was in turn asked to submit it to Nazim Bey, a local representative of Ittihat ve Terakki (Party of Union and Progress, a secret society founded in 1889).

The Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos has published the document. 

“Are those harmful elements being only displaced or are they also being annihilated? Please, give me an outright response, brother!” reads the message.

The publication does not question the document's authenticity.

Soykırımın şifresi çözüldü

'Ermeni' sözcüğünün şifrelenmesi 

'sevk' sözcüğünün şifrelenmesi

 

 

http://www.tert.am/e...archive/2354166

[Yervant1]

Commemoration of the 102º Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in the Legislative Palace of Uruguay

 

26.4.17

An academic ceremony commemorating the 102º anniversary of the Armenian Genocide was carried out in the Legislative Palace of Uruguay in the afternoon of Tuesday April 25 and in the presence of dozens of Uruguayan Legislators and other authorities.

In addition to political representation, the event organized by the Presidency of the House of Representatives and the Armenian National Committee of Uruguay was attended by the archbishops of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Hagop Kelendjian, and the Catholic Church of Montevideo, Cardinal Daniel Sturla. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uruguay Rodolfo Nin Novoa, Minister of Tourism Liliam Kechichian, and Senator Luis Lacalle Pou, among others, sent an adhesion to the commemoration.

The event was headed by House Speaker Jose Carlos Mahia who said that "it is impossible under the characterization of genocide by the UN and the ample evidence presented, that the events in 1915 do not have its just qualification and recognition."

Deputy Gloria Rodriguez analyzed the way in which Turkish denialism operates, stating that "the price that the whole humanity pays for the denial of the Armenian Genocide is very high."

Uruguayan historian and political scientist Gerardo Caetano, who co-chairs the Nagorno-Karabakh Forum in Uruguay, coincided with Rodriguez in the current weight of denialism. "In the denialist practice of Turkey there is a continuation of the crime," he said. He also added: "Those who undermine memory and justice regarding past traumatic are mortgaging the future."

"No investment of Turkey or Azerbaijan is more valuable than the recognition of truth, than the defense of international law or than the claim for justice. And that's not idealism, it's realism," concluded the renowned academic.

The human rights lawyer Oscar Lopez Goldaracena, who in February participated as an observer in the constitutional referendum of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, chose as a central theme of his speech the cultural genocide committed against the Armenians. Lopez Goldaracena stated that it is imperative to put an end to the cultural genocide that Turkey continues to perpetrate and urged to avoid further atrocities in those places where the Armenian population remains exposed to xenophobic ideologies, citing the case of the Armenian community of Syria against the "Islamic State" or what the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh face.

In his view, Uruguay can prevent the Armenian people from being subjected to attacks if it "advocates for peace in the Caucasus, recognizing the legitimate right of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh to independence." Noting that this does not imply a violation of any principle of international law, he concluded that "if Uruguay moves on principles and values ​​at the political level, it should be the first country in the world to recognize the State of Nagorno-Karabakh."

To conclude, Shushanik Boyadjian expressed on behalf of the Armenian National Committee of Uruguay that "it is time that Turkey's recognition of its criminal responsibility light a new stage in Turkish society and to the descendants of the victims of the Armenian Genocide."

She also denounced that Turkey not only "puts unbearable pressure on the small Armenian community that still resists in the country and on the Republic of Armenia, which suffocates economically through the unilateral blockade of its borders", but also "explicitly or implicitly supports any attack on Armenian civilians, whether in Syria, on the borders of Armenia or in Nagorno-Karabakh."

On the morning of April 24, during the opening of the Open Council of Ministers held in Montevideo, the President of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, Dr. Tabare Vazquez, adhered to the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide. "We adhere to sadly commemorate one of the most nefarious episodes that mankind lived, as it was 102 years ago the Armenian Genocide," said President Vazquez in a ceremony broadcast by official TV and with extensive press coverage. 

 

http://www.prensaarm...versary-of.html

[Yervant1]

LifeZette

April 2672017

 

 

Dean Cain Is Taking on the Armenian Genocide As the actor's new project makes clear, the persecution of Middle Eastern Christians is no longer being ignored April 27, 2017

by Zachary Leeman | Updated 27 Apr 2017 at 1:16 PM

 

Former Superman Dean Cain is taking on a much more serious subject than most men in tights these days. The actor has produced a new film, “Architects of Denial,” which delves into the Armenian genocide and the denial by the Turkish government and other authoritative bodies that atrocities ever took place.

“Armenians have been persecuted for centuries. It’s unreal,” Cain told “Fox & Friends” recently when discussing his upcoming project. “They were the first bastion of Christianity. They were the first country to, I think, recognize Christianity, and they are the only bastion of Christianity in the Middle East.”

It was during and after World War I that the Ottoman Empire carried out the killing of what is estimated by many to be 1.5 million Armenian citizens, including women and children. To this day, the Armenian people are persecuted in the Middle East for their beliefs — and many are kept from their true home.

 

Turkey, which was the successor state to the Ottoman Empire, denies using the word genocide to describe the historical deaths of Armenians, and many other governments officially deny the atrocities as well, likely due to political pressure.

"Turkey has gone around the world aggressively lobbying to make sure there are no references to the Armenian genocide," said Wikileaks Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange in the recently released trailer for "Architects of Denial."

"Architects of Denial" not only digs into the persecution of Armenians and Christians in the Middle East, both past and present, but it also sheds light on those politicians who refuse to acknowledge an event many historians and scholars accept as a sad reality.

The trailer shows camera crews confronting two Democratic members of Congress, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas and Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee.

"Do you deny that the Armenian genocide happened?" asks one of the filmmakers of Rep. Johnson.

She replies, "I do deny that."

Though both the historical and modern-day persecution of Armenians and Christians is relatively uncovered in the mainstream media and not on the radar of many average Americans, it is a subject that has gotten far more attention in recent years.

Along with Cain's upcoming film — set for release in October — there is also "The Promise," a $90 million epic starring Christian Bale and Jason Isaacs, which is currently in theaters. It takes place during the Armenian genocide and was completely financed by the late Kirk Kerkorian, a businessman of Armenian descent, who had reportedly donated more than $1 billion to Armenian charities during his lifetime.

http://www.lifezette...enian-genocide/