Armenian Holocaust Media Coverage 2008

[Aratta-Kingdom]

Armenians march on killings anniversary

 

THOUSANDS marched in the streets of Yerevan today on the eve of the 93rd anniversary of mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire, demanding Turkey recognise the massacres as genocide.

 

More than 10,000 marchers, mostly youths and students, carried torches and candles to commemorate the killings, which began in 1915 and which many countries have termed genocide.

 

Turkey strongly rejects the genocide label and the issue has often been a flashpoint in relations between Turkey and the West.

 

After burning a Turkish flag in Yerevan's Freedom Square, participants marched to a monument to the victims of the killings, where they laid wreaths and flowers.

 

Many carried flags of the 23 countries whose governments or parliaments have recognised the killings as genocide, including Canada, France, Switzerland and Poland.

 

Others held banners reading: "Save Europe! Keep Turkey out of the EU!" and "93 years since the Armenian genocide."

 

"They tell us: forget this tragedy, move on with your life. But how can we forget? The pain of this tragedy is passed from generation to generation," said 19-year-old Dvin Titizian, a Canadian who was among the many from Armenia's widespread diaspora who took part in the march.

 

"We will continue to condemn Turkey for denying the genocide because we must believe that one day it will recognise the genocide and ask our forgiveness," she said.

 

Thousands more, including Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian, were expected to attend official ceremonies marking the anniversary tomorrow.

 

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated killings during the final years of the Ottoman Empire.

 

Turkey rejects the killings constituted genocide, saying that 300,000 Armenians and at least an equal number of Turks were killed in civil strife in 1915-1917 when the Christian Armenians, backed by Russia, rose up against the Ottomans.

 

The dispute has been a major obstacle in relations between Turkey and Armenia, which have no diplomatic ties and whose border has remained closed for more than a decade.

 

It has also complicated relations between EU-aspirant Turkey and many Western countries, especially those with large ethnic Armenian communities.

 

 

The Australian

 

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...0-12335,00.html

 

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

 

 

Rep. Royce: U.S. should go on record officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide

 

 

 

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Representative Ed Royce (R-CA), member of the U.S. Congressional Caucus of Armenian Issues addressed an open letter to Congress calling to pass the Armenian Genocide Resolution.

 

The letter reads,

 

“It is far past time when the United States Congress should go on record officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide. As a State Senator, with the help of Governor George Deukmejian, I authored the first resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide, which passed the California Legislature.

 

In Congress, George Radanovich, Jim Rogan and myself, along with bipartisan support, were able to successfully pass the first Armenian Genocide Resolution through the foreign affairs committee. Later, Adam Schiff, with the support of myself and others, was able to do the same. But, regardless of whether the President was Bill Clinton or George Bush, and whether the Speaker was Dennis Hastert or Nancy Pelosi, the impact of the Government of Turkey’s protests has had the same effect. The Genocide Resolution, which we have passed through the Foreign Affairs Committee, has consistently been checkmated by the Government of Turkey. The reason the Government of Turkey can’t be allowed to halt passage of this resolution is because of the gravity of the subject of genocide.

 

On April 24, 1915, the Ottoman Empire set out on a campaign to exterminate the Armenian people. Between 1915 and 1923, the numbers were horrific. One and a half million Armenians were murdered and 500,000 deported from their homelands. At the end of these eight years, the Armenian population of Anatolia and Western Armenia was virtually eliminated, becoming one of the 20th Century’s darkest chapters.

 

While acknowledging the role played by the Ottoman Empire in killing Armenians, some have laid doubt to the claim of genocide, citing the subsequent deportation of the survivors as merely a movement of a people from one land to another. Henry Morgenthau, the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913-1916, saw it much differently. In his memoirs, Morgenthau recalls that the Turks, "never had the slightest idea of reestablishing the Armenians in (a) new country" knowing that "the great majority of those would...either die of thirst and starvation, or be murdered by the wild Mohammedan desert tribes."

 

I recall Morgenthau’s words here because he saw first hand the atrocities wrought on the Armenians, and he had been told by Turks that they understood quite well that they had handed down a death sentence to the Armenian people. The Turks not only knew of what they were doing, but spoke quite freely of it. Eighty years later, however, many are still unwilling to recognize the killing for what it was: genocide.

 

The U.S. has long been a global leader in promoting human rights around the world. On the issue of the Armenian genocide, however, we lag behind. The French, Swiss, Swedish, Germans, and even the Russian governments recognize the Armenian genocide properly. As a global leader in human rights, it is imperative for the U.S. to stand on principle and recognize the annihilation of the Armenians.

 

However, it is no less important today to recognize the Armenian genocide for what it is. The deafening silence that came in its wake set the stage for a century that saw genocides occur in Europe, Africa, and Asia. While the Armenian genocide was the first of the 20th century, the blind eye cast to the slaughter of Armenians was a point used by Hitler who asked his joint chiefs of staff, "Who…speaks today of the [their] annihilation?"

 

To the critics who say that we should not dwell on history, I say it’s much harder to get tomorrow right if we get yesterday wrong. The world’s strength to oppose killing today is made greater by accountability, for actions present, but also past. It’s weakened by denial of accountability of past acts. Not recognizing the Armenian genocide, as such, does just that.

 

Rep. Ed Royce is a Republican from California. He is the Ranking Member of the Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Terrorism Subcommittee and is a senior member of the Armenia Caucus,” Yerkir reports.

[elle]

It's only 9:30am in Armenia and people are still waking up from their beds, so how did those 10,000 people already manage to march to Tsitsernakaberd? At what time was this article writen? People mostly gather there around afternoon from what I remember. I have a feeling that this article was written in Autralia the night before because how would they figure out that 10,000 people already marched in the streets when there's such a big time difference between Australia and Armenia.

 

 

<H1 class=section-heading>Armenians march on killings anniversary</H1>

 

THOUSANDS marched in the streets of Yerevan today on the eve of the 93rd anniversary of mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire, demanding Turkey recognise the massacres as genocide.

 

More than 10,000 marchers, mostly youths and students, carried torches and candles to commemorate the killings, which began in 1915 and which many countries have termed genocide.

 

Turkey strongly rejects the genocide label and the issue has often been a flashpoint in relations between Turkey and the West.

 

After burning a Turkish flag in Yerevan's Freedom Square, participants marched to a monument to the victims of the killings, where they laid wreaths and flowers.

 

Many carried flags of the 23 countries whose governments or parliaments have recognised the killings as genocide, including Canada, France, Switzerland and Poland.

 

Others held banners reading: "Save Europe! Keep Turkey out of the EU!" and "93 years since the Armenian genocide."

 

"They tell us: forget this tragedy, move on with your life. But how can we forget? The pain of this tragedy is passed from generation to generation," said 19-year-old Dvin Titizian, a Canadian who was among the many from Armenia's widespread diaspora who took part in the march.

 

"We will continue to condemn Turkey for denying the genocide because we must believe that one day it will recognise the genocide and ask our forgiveness," she said.

 

Thousands more, including Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian, were expected to attend official ceremonies marking the anniversary tomorrow.

 

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated killings during the final years of the Ottoman Empire.

 

Turkey rejects the killings constituted genocide, saying that 300,000 Armenians and at least an equal number of Turks were killed in civil strife in 1915-1917 when the Christian Armenians, backed by Russia, rose up against the Ottomans.

 

The dispute has been a major obstacle in relations between Turkey and Armenia, which have no diplomatic ties and whose border has remained closed for more than a decade.

 

It has also complicated relations between EU-aspirant Turkey and many Western countries, especially those with large ethnic Armenian communities.

 

 

The Australian

 

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...0-12335,00.html

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

It's only 9:30am in Armenia and people are still waking up from their beds, so how did those 10,000 people already manage to march to Tsitsernakaberd? At what time was this article writen? People mostly gather there around afternoon from what I remember. I have a feeling that this article was written in Autralia the night before because how would they figure out that 10,000 people already marched in the streets when there's such a big time difference between Australia and Armenia.

 

The article is about covers the event that took place last night. Beside, as of now, I'm watching LIVE Tv from Armenia and people by thousands are already in Tsitsernakaberd.

Edited April 24, 2008 by Aratta-Kingdom

[Aratta-Kingdom]

Live from Tsitsernakaberd

 

http://www.artn.tv/streaming/

[Aratta-Kingdom]

http://www.alalam.ir/english/en-NewsPage.a...120080424092926

 

 

Armenia Marks Ottoman Mass Killing

 

 

 

 

YEREVAN, April 24--Armenians on Thursday mark the 93rd anniversary of mass killings of their compatriots under the Ottoman Empire, an event many countries have recognized as genocide despite Turkey's angry rejection of the label.

 

Thousands were expected to attend ceremonies in the Armenian capital Yerevan and in other countries to commemorate the killings, which began in 1915 and lead to a mass exodus of Armenians from what is now eastern Turkey.

 

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian and other officials were to lead a ceremony on a hilltop memorial in central Yerevan, where an eternal flame has burned since its construction in 1965, when Armenia was part of the Soviet Union.

 

On Wednesday night, more than 10,000 young people carrying torches and candles marched through the streets of Yerevan demanding Turkey recognize the killings as genocide.

 

Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated killings during the final years of the Ottoman Empire.

 

Turkey rejects the killings constituted genocide, saying that 300,000 Armenians and at least an equal number of Turks were killed in civil strife in 1915-1917 when the Christian Armenians, backed by Russia, rose up against the Ottomans.

 

The dispute has been a major obstacle in relations between Turkey and Armenia, which have no diplomatic ties and whose border has remained closed for more than a decade.

 

It has also complicated relations between EU-aspirant Turkey and many Western countries, especially those with large ethnic Armenian communities such as the US and France.

 

More than 20 countries, including Belgium, Canada, Poland and Switzerland, have officially recognized the killings as genocide.

 

In 2006, French lawmakers voted to make it a criminal offense to deny that Armenians were victims of genocide.

 

But many countries, including Britain and the US, refuse to use the term to describe the events, mindful of relations with Turkey.

 

The US House Foreign Affairs Committee's endorsement of a resolution labeling the killings as genocide last October sparked fury in Ankara, which recalled its ambassador to Washington.

 

Under intense pressure from the White House, the authors of the bill later asked Congress not to hold a debate on the issue.

 

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

http://media.sundial.csun.edu/media/storag...e-3345380.shtml

 

 

Enough is enough: Recognize the Armenian genocide

Eileen Mansoorian

 

 

 

 

 

 

After 93 years of fighting for recognition, there still seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Exactly 93 years ago today, soldiers from the Ottoman Empire were given orders to execute high-ranking males of the Armenian community in Constantinople. They went into the homes of religious leaders, educators, and artists and said to come with them. There was no remorse, no warning, and no chance to fight back. It was, what the United States government has not recognized, a genocide.

 

It is no secret that the Armenian Genocide happened. There are pictures and documentations on the atrocities that can fill up a museum. If a person has done their research, there is no way they can deny the inhumane acts of the Ottoman Empire in the beginning of the 20th century as an act of genocide.

 

The U.S. government, on the other hand, still has not come forth and declared to the world that they, as a nation, recognize the crimes committed upon the Armenian people by the Ottoman Empire. There have been governors and senators that publicly recognized the incident as genocide, but the nation as a whole has failed to do so.

 

In October 2007, there seemed to be some hope for Armenians to the genocide recognized by the U.S. government. House Resolution 106, which was introduced by Rep. Adam Schiff [D-CA] on Jan. 30, called for the President "to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide, and for other purposes."

 

There were petitions and rallies in support of the legislation, which resulted in a 27-21 win and the House Foreign Affairs Committee adopting the resolution. The support for the resolution seemed astounding, and the Armenian community believed recognition was on the horizon after all these years.

 

Unfortunately, once the momentum for the passage of this resolution began to pick up speed, the voting on the bill was postponed until the timing for the recognition of the resolution was more favorable, as was said in a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on October 25, 2007 by lead author of the resolution Rep. Schiff and others.

 

At the rate the U.S. government is going, the chances of the resolution being brought back onto floor doesn't look so good. When is the timing right to bring this resolution into discussion? When there is world peace and all relations between the U.S. and the Middle East are friendly?

 

If that is the case, then I suppose the resolution will never be brought back into the light if politicians are waiting for the world's political climate to be at a stable temperature.

 

Excluding the U.S., other countries have recognized the atrocities committed on the Armenian people as genocide. France and Canada both recognized the Armenian Genocide in 1998. When will it be the U.S.'s turn to do so?

 

Even though having other countries publicly recognize the genocide will always be one step closer to having worldwide recognition, if the U.S. doesn't pass legislation that announces to the world that the events that occurred in the beginning of the 20th century were an act of genocide, then the Armenians have a long way to go.

 

The fact that a world power such as the U.S. still has not recognized the Armenian Genocide shows their moral compass is not pointed towards truth, but in the direction of political agenda. Their inability to do the right thing gives the connotation that we should forget about the 1.5 million lost lives and concentrate on the all to important naval base Turkey holds in the palm of their hands.

 

I suppose the reasoning behind the U.S. stalling action towards recognizing the Armenian Genocide is to prevent any political strains with their relationship with Turkey.

 

The Los Angeles Times writer Richard Simon reported on October 26, 2007 that Turkey was threatening the U.S. if they passed the resolution that recognized the Armenian Genocide there would be serious repercussions that would affect the U.S. military efforts in Iraq.

 

Since the situation in Iraq was and still is highly sensitive, support for the resolution quickly subsided. This came to the satisfaction of the Turkish government, who do not recognize the killings of the Armenians as an act of genocide.

 

The withdrawal of support for the resolution could have legitimately prevented any further damage to the War in Iraq. With direct threats coming from Turkey, the U.S. would naturally do everything necessary to keep their political relationship with Turkey on good terms. By not having the resolution pass, the U.S. can continue sending supplies to Iraq through Turkey and not have to worry about any military attacks that would worsen the War in Iraq.

 

But when does it become right to put human rights on the back burner?

 

Due to the political state of the world, the passage of this resolution could have had a negative effect on the U.S. But how long can our government continue making excuses for not recognizing a genocide that is as real as the genocide occurring in Darfur?

 

As human beings, the U.S. owes it to the 1.5 million perished lives to recognize the Armenian Genocide in hopes of it bringing the Turkish government's moral compass into focus, recognizing the killings of the Armenian people as an act of genocide and not casualties of war.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

The Office of Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill

MaryAlice Kaloostian, District Director

4974 East Clinton Way, Suite 100

Fresno, CA 93727

Tel: 559.253.7122

Fax: 559.253.7127

Email: maryalice.kaloostian@sen.ca.gov

 

 

Ninety-Three Years of Waiting

 

By Senator Dave Cogdill

Senate Republican Leader

District 14

 

 

In a few days, Armenians all over the world will once again come

together in observance of April 24th. This year marks the 93rd

anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, which was perpetrated by the

rulers of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. It is a melancholy commemoration

that is made even more painful by the ongoing denial of history by the

Republic of Turkey and those who are complicit in its revisionism.

 

The Armenian people lived in their 3,000-year historic homeland in Asia

Minor. They became the first Christian nation-state in 301 A.D.

Throughout their rich history, including a period with a thriving

empire, Armenians were subjects of successive conquerors. Yet they

prospered as a people - adding abundantly to the economic, political,

academic, religious and cultural life of the governments under which

they lived and successfully survived. That all changed under the

oppression of state-sponsored atrocities by the Ottomans in the late

1890s and into the turn of the 20th Century. The culmination of the

Ottoman's plan of ethnic cleansing began a few years later.

 

On hideous orders from the "Young Turk" regime, as the rulers of the

Ottoman government were known, the entire Armenian population of

Anatolia was at risk and came under systematic, brutal assault. On

April 24, 1915, hundreds of Armenian intellectual, political, religious

and business leaders were rousted from their homes at dawn and arrested,

exiled, and murdered. Thus began what would become known to historians

around the world as the "First Genocide of the Twentieth Century."

 

Armenians were subjected to torture, starvation, death marches in the

Syrian Desert and other unspeakable atrocities that resulted in the

murder of 1,500,000 Armenian men, women and children over a period of

eight long years ending in 1923. Hundreds of thousands of young

Armenian orphans spent the remainder of their lives haunted by the

memory of the torture and mayhem inflicted on their loved ones before

their eyes.

 

Adolph Hitler, in persuading his army commanders on the eve of World War

II that the merciless persecution and killing of Poles, Jews, and other

peoples would bring no retribution, asked, "Who, after all, speaks today

of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

 

I hope that we will soon reach the point where the denials of

revisionists will be universally repudiated. I look forward to a time

of reconciliation that can only occur when the Republic of Turkey finds

it futile to spend millions of dollars scheming to distort history and

threatening American political, military and business leaders with

reprisals. As stated by John Evans, who served as U.S. Ambassador to

Armenia a few years ago: "...When an official policy diverges wildly

from what the broad public believes is self-evident, that policy ceases

to command respect." These words express a challenge to all who would

cede ideals to the wretched whims of a foreign power.

 

Public service offers wonderful opportunities to forge positive

relationships, work on issues of importance to constituents, and gain

knowledge. I am so honored to have become well-acquainted with so many

Californians of Armenian heritage (as well as Assyrians, Greeks and

others whose forebears were also victims of massacres) who make such a

great contribution to our state's economic and cultural vitality and

civic leadership. I strongly align myself with the cause of justice for

the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide. I stand with them

because it is simply the right thing to do.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_9033024

 

Hip-hop, rap tunes convey tragedy of Armenian Genocide to young

By Rick Coca, Staff Writer

 

 

GLENDALE - As a woman's haunting voice sings in Armenian about the need for hope and lost lands, Armin Hariri raps:

 

We gather around/We light our candles in crowds/These tears land on the ground/Each year standing so proud.

 

"We were taught about the genocide early on," said Hariri, who as rap artist R-Mean penned "Open Wounds," a genocide-theme tune that has become popular with Armenian young people.

 

"Hip-hop and rap have become the voice of the youth. ... It's more interesting to them than long speeches by old people."

 

With bass-heavy rap and rock songs, YouTube videos and social-networking Internet sites, a new generation of Armenians is discovering unique ways of expressing the horrors they say their ancestors endured during the Ottoman Empire's brutal reign.

And today, with Armenians all over the world commemorating the day in 1915 when roughly 300 Armenian leaders were killed by Turkish forces - which they believe led to the extermination of 1.5million Armenian men, women and children through 1922 - the stories of the Armenian Genocide still resonate, they say.

 

"It gives you goose bumps because you go, `Wow, this really happened. It was real,"' said Ramela Ohanian, 18, a Hoover High School student, about Hariri's rap song. "It's very chilling."

 

Armenians and their supporters in Los Angeles will be out in force today in front of the Turkish Consulate, demanding recognition of the genocide and reparations.

 

For its part, the Turkish government has long denied that a genocide occurred, saying that any lives lost, while "tragic," were part of a civil war.

 

On Wednesday, an official with the Turkish Consulate would not say how many Armenian people lost their lives during that conflict, but he disputed the claims made by Armenians.

 

"One and a half million is a highly exaggerated number," said Batu Kesmen, vice council of the Turkish consulate general.

 

Armenian-Americans had their hopes dashed in October, when after the House of Representatives appeared poised to vote on condemning Turkey for the genocide, the issue was abandoned after pressure from the White House and Turkey, with Turkey's position as a key military U.S. ally in the Middle East in jeopardy.

 

"Turkey is of the view that parliament, elected bodies and other political institutions are not the appropriate forum to debate and pass judgment on this disputed period of history," Kesmen said.

 

Like their parents and grandparents before them, for young Armenians, the lack of progress on the recognition front is difficult to swallow.

 

Some have answered back through music, with artists such as R-Mean and, to a larger extent, System of a Down, a Glendale-based rock band made up of four Armenian-Americans who brought their people's plight to the masses through songs, advocacy and the 2006 documentary "Screamers."

 

Vigen Sayadian, the founder of the fourth annual Armenian Genocide Commemoration Concert - which is at 8 tonight at the Derby in Los Feliz - said a bounty of artistic expression has come out of the tragic events of 1915.

 

"There's just a plethora of talent now," he said. "It needs to be recognized, just like the genocide needs to be recognized."

 

Besides artistic expression, some Armenians have gone to the Internet to get the word out. At YouTube.com, there are more than 2,000 hits for "Armenian Genocide," although some aim to debunk its existence.

 

With 4,000 "friends" on his MySpace page, Art Gazaian provides links to events and rallies commemorating the genocide and other related events.

 

The 23-year-old Hollywood man also uses his page to highlight the work of hip-hop songs that focus on that dark period in Armenian history.

 

"It's a better way to deliver your message," he said. "Kids nowadays don't like to watch documentaries, so I think the best way to deliver your message is music."

 

And while some young people of Armenian heritage are using newer technologies and music to express their views, others are sticking to more traditional means.

 

With about 500 people in attendance Tuesday at Glendale High School, students from Armenian clubs throughout the school district read poems, performed skits, danced and sang traditional songs at the Eighth Annual Armenian Genocide Remembrance Program.

 

"If we forget, it's going to happen again and again," said Andranik Ghevandyan, 18, a student at Glendale High who read an excerpt from Armenian writer William Saroyan's work. "Like what's going on in Darfur, it's not just for Armenians."

 

Dressed in a dark suit and red tie, 10-year-old Vagharshak Grigoryan moved the crowd with a stirring performance in Armenian of a father speaking to his child on his deathbed.

 

"I don't have anything to give you, so I'm going to give you Mount Ararat," said Grigoryan, referring to what many consider the most important geographic symbol of Armenian identity. "Keep it in your heart for life - as you would keep your father's house, your homeland."

 

 

 

 

 

[elle]

Pravda Russian newspaper has a long article about the Armenian genocide posted on their main website today!

There's another article they posted few days ago about Israel's double standards when it comes to the Armenian genocide. Both articles are written in Russian.

 

www.pravda.ru

Edited April 24, 2008 by elle

[Aratta-Kingdom]

Геноцид армян: продолжится ли большая геополитика на крови?

 

Pravda.ru

24.04.2008

 

Лина Вискушенко

 

 

В мире отмечается очередная годовщина геноцида армян в Османской империи 1915-1923 гг. Многие страны, в том числе Россия, признали факт злодеяния, но Турция отказывается это сделать, хотя без этого её не возьмут в ЕС. Отношений между Турцией и Арменией практически нет, а в вопрос о геноциде вмешалась большая международная геополитика. На бытовом уровне отношения двух народов постепенно налаживаются. Почему же политики так непреклонны?

 

24 апреля армяне по всему миру отмечают очередную годовщину геноцида армян в Османской империи. Традиционно торжественно-траурные мероприятия проходят в Ереване у Мемориального комплекса на холме Цицернакаберд. Монумент представляет собой 12 склоненных к центру плит, символизирующих 12 вилайетов (провинций) Османской империи, на территории которых проживали армяне до геноцида. В центре монумента горит вечный огонь. В армянских церквях в этот день служат поминальный молебен.

 

Кроме того, многочисленные траурные мероприятия проводятся в разных городах мира: в Москве, Тбилиси, Париже, Марселе, Кельне, Берлине, Лос-Анджелесе, Буэнос-Айресе и др.

 

Между тем сам факт признания геноцида армян Турцией, которая считается правопреемницей Османской империи, давно стал камнем преткновения не только во взаимоотношениях между Анкарой и Ереваном. Турция стремится в ЕС, однако большинство стран Евросоюза требуют сначала от Анкары признать геноцид армян. Эксперты и аналитики размышляют: "Станет ли вопрос об ответственности Турции за геноцид армян вопросом мировой политики?"

 

Нужно отметить, что на сегодняшний день геноцид армян Факт геноцида признали 15 стран, в том числе Россия, Франция, Италия, Швейцария, Канада, Литва и более 30 американских штатов. В прошлом году Комиссия по международным делам конгресса, несмотря на рекомендации Белого дома не принимать резолюцию в связи с возможным обострением отношений с Турцией, одобрила резолюцию, признающую геноцид армянского народа со стороны Турции. Правда, резолюция не является обязательной и не является законом.

 

Турция заявила, что в ответ не исключает возможности сокращения помощи в обеспечении американских войск в Ираке. Как сказал заместитель председателя правящей в стране Партии справедливости и развития Эгемен Багис, "американские войска в Ираке во многом зависят от организационной помощи Турции, и в случае принятия в США закона по армянскому геноциду Анкара будет обязана сократить размеры этой помощи".

 

Так почему вопрос о геноциде армян стал вопросом мировой политике? Дело не только в упрямстве Анкары и собственных взглядах на историю армян и турок. Так, по данным армянских источников, в результате геноцида погибли полтора миллиона человек. В ночь на 24 апреля 1915 года правительство "младотурок" арестовало в Стамбуле, а затем уничтожило фактически всю армянскую интеллигенцию. Затем последовала массовая депортация армян из всех провинций Османской империи.

 

У турецких властей — своя версия событий. Они называют депортацию армян "вынужденным переселением", так как армяне выступали против турецкого правительства во время наступления русских войск. Турецкие историки заявляют, что в результате операции погибли не "не более 300 тысяч армян".

 

Ереван и Анкара находятся в состоянии «холодной войны» уже почти 100 лет. Не тронулся лед и в постсоветские годы . Хотя Турция была первой страной, признавшей Армению как независимое государство после распада Советского Союза. границы между странами остаются закрытыми. Турция не только не признает геноцид, но требует снять с нее обвинения в геноциде, но также вступает в поддержку Азербайджана в вопросе Нагорного Карабаха. Чем больше Европа настаивает на важности признания геноцида, тем сильнее Анкара укрепляется в своем отказе, граничащим с отрицанием самого факта.

 

Робкие шаги к нормализации отношений остаются нереализованными. Анкара предложила Армении принять участие в работе смешанной комиссии, которая имела бы свободный доступ к архивам для расследования обстоятельств массовых убийств – далее не последовало никаких конкретных шагов. Армения высказывала желание участвовать проекте строительства дороги Карс-Ахалкалаки, но и это вопрос так и повис в воздухе.

 

После того, как Франция в 2001 году признала геноцид армян, в Турции развернулась общенациональная кампания бойкота французских товаров, а фирмы из "недружественной страны" не допускались до участия в наиболее заманчивых проектах. В результате товарооборот между Парижем и Анкарой упал за год более чем на миллиард долларов.

 

Так почему вопрос геноцида армян в начале прошлого века вызывает столько споров и превращается в глубокое противостояние между Анкарой и Западом? Вопрос геноцида армян не так прост, как кажется. Да, безусловно, имеет место все более набирающее в последнее время противостояние между Европой и мусульманским миром, но как ни странно, вопрос, уходящий в историю, ныне и важный «геополитический оттенок» в обострившейся борьбе за энергоресурсы.

 

За признанием геноцида следуют последствия – как в случае с Германией и Австрией, которые признали факты геноцида евреев во время Второй мировой войной и издевательства над славянами и представителями ряда других народов. Обе страны выплачивают компенсацию пострадавшим.

 

В случае с Турция Армения может потребовать как материальной, так и территориальной компенсации – ведь символ армянского народа гора Арарат находится в Турции. Правда, прежний президент Армении Роберт Кочарян заявил, что даже если Турция и признает геноцид, то это вовсе не означает выдвижения Арменией территориальных и материальных претензий Турции. Однако турки этого боятся, ведь экономика их страны не выдержит подобного «натиска».

 

Однако, вполне вероятно, что вслед за признанием геноцида армян, может встать вопрос геноцида курдов, с которыми Анкара борется уже ни один год. Некой иллюстрацией такого сценария может служить интервью писателя Орхана Памука одному швейцарскому журналу, в котором он упомянул о миллионе жертв армянского геноцида, а также о 30 тысячах курдов, погибших в 1984-1999 годах. Орхан Памук был атакован националистической прессой и заклеймен агрессивно настроенными манифестантами.

 

Но вернемся к вопросу геноцида. Да, трагические события имели место, да, народ не должен забыть своих предков, предавать забвению боль и кровь. Да, мы почтим память погибших в 1915 г вместе с теми, кто пойдет к памятнику в Ереване, зажжем свечи в память об ушедших. Но время лечит – и уже армянки, чьи предки бежали от резни в Карсе, выходят замуж за турок и счастливо живут. При этом 24 апреля они приедут в Ереван и поставят свечу к памятнику жертвам геноцида. И турецкие мужья ничего им за это не говорят.

 

Хочется надеяться, что история не сыграет очередную злую шутку с этим регионом, и Анкара и Ереван не позволят из искры раздуть пламя. Тем более, этого не должны позволить сделать дети, родившиеся в смешанных армянско-турецких семьях. Но для этого политики с обеих сторон должны быть благоразумными. И армянские, и турецкие, и тех стран, которые ведут большую геополитическую игру на Кавказе

 

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?ed...rticle_id=91433

 

Armenian-Lebanese mark 'Genocide Day'

Thousands attend vigil to remember massacres

By Anthony Elghossain

Daily Star staff

Friday, April 25, 2008

 

BEIRUT: "History has not yet witnessed a more terrible crime - a crime against humanity - than that of genocide," the Tashnak Party said Thursday in a statement issued to commemorate the 93rd anniversary of "Genocide Day," which marks the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces during World War I.

 

Nerses Bedros XIX, the Armenian Catholic patriarch, in a ceremony held at an Achrafieh cemetery for victims of the massacre, said that "we are here today to plead the conscience of the global [community] in hopes of bringing wider recognition of the massacre of Armenians."

 

The patriarch emphasized "our [the Armenian population's] commitment to the Armenian struggle and to the active role we have played in the Christian struggle in Lebanon and the world."

 

The Armenian Apostolic (Orthodox) Church in Lebanon held a Wednesday-evening gathering in the mountain town of Bikfaya to remember the victims of the killings and reflect upon the meaning of those events on the Armenian community today.

 

Aram I, archbishop of Cilicia, sought to convey the need for remembrance and unity in the Armenian Lebanese experience, touching upon memory, the assertion of rights and unity as a source of force.

 

"Memory is one of the more important facets of human existence - indeed, human beings live in memory," the archbishop said. "The Armenian genocide, organized and executed by the Ottoman state, will forever remain etched in the Armenian memory."

 

The archbishop added that "peoples have, alongside their duties, rights that must be asserted in case of marginalization [of those rights]."

 

Referring to divisions that have plagued the Armenian community and stressing the need for communal unity, Aram I urged Armenians in Lebanon to coalesce around their "national struggle," saying that "a people can only grow strong through the unification of its sons and placing common cause above all differences."

He also linked the Armenian and Lebanese "struggles" to one another, stressing that "while Turkey oppressed the Armenian people, Lebanon embraced [them] ... Turks butchered Armenians, but in Lebanon we found a nation of renaissance, life, and continuity."

 

Despite an intensifying political standoff, both the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement issued statements "on this painful commemoration" condemning the "massacre of the Armenian people."

 

During World War I, beginning in 1915, Ottoman Turks executed over 1.5 million Armenians in present-day Turkey, and prompted thousands of others to flee to neighboring areas in the region, including Lebanon.

 

Several states recognize the killings as genocide, but Turkey neither recognizes the killings as genocide nor assumes legal responsibility for their execution.

 

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/24/...enian-March.php

 

 

International Herald Tribune

 

Thousands march in Hollywood in annual remembrance of Armenian killings

 

Thousands of people are marching in Hollywood to mark the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in the former Ottoman empire.

 

Los Angeles police said Thursday there were no arrests or citations during the march.

 

The demonstration was organized by the Armenian Youth Federation as part of annual remembrances of the killings of Armenians in the Turkish territories during World War I.

 

Armenians and others refer to the killings as genocide while Turkey contends there was no organized slaughter and the deaths occurred during the chaos of a civil conflict.

 

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

http://www.euronews.net/index.php?page=inf...82804&lng=1

 

'Genocide`protest angers Ankara

 

EuroNews

 

 

Thousands of Armenians have taken to the streets of the capital Yeravan to commemorate the deaths of one and a half million people killed during the fall of the Ottoman empire.

 

Turkey refutes Armenian claims the massacres, carried out during the First World War, amounted to systematic genocide. But the issue is casting a shadow over Turkey`s bid to join the European Union and it`s become a source of tension complicating Ankara`s relations with the United States.

 

March organiser Fatul Aratunyan vowed to carry on fighting, pledging he said, "to go on with this march until the whole world learns about this tragedy and we get our historic land back."

 

The protesters, marching by torch and candle-light, demonstrated outside foreign consular buildings chanting "recognise genocide" before burning a Turkish flag.

 

In the morning thousands laid wreaths of carnations and tulips at a memorial for those who perished in the killings which took place between 1915 and 1923.

 

Ankara says large numbers of both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks were killed during the violent and chaotic break-up of the Ottoman Empire.

 

The tiny ex-Soviet republic is sandwiched between Turkey and Azerbaijan.

 

A law in Turkey makes it illegal to refer to the killings as genocide although the Turkish President recently called for new dialogue to normalise ties.

 

Until this day the land border between Armenia and Turkey remains closed.

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...icle%2FShowFull

 

 

Armenia's 'Christian holocaust'

 

The Jerusalem Post

 

 

In late August 1939, the day before his invasion of Poland, Adolf Hitler gathered his commanders at his home and informed them he had placed "death's head" military formations in the east with orders "to send to death mercilessly and without compassion men, women and children of Polish derivation and language."

 

He assured his commanders the world would not long condemn them, justifying his brutality by asking rhetorically, "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" Hitler was referring to the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces beginning in April 1915. Until today, the Turkish government denies the authenticity of both Hitler's statement and the genocide itself.

 

Tel Aviv University professor Israel Charny, chief editor of the Encyclopedia of Genocide, insists the statement was recorded by "an indisputably serious" Associated Press correspondent, and that other remarks were made by Hitler that "confirm that the Armenian genocide was an active guiding concept in the monster's mind."

 

Kevork Kahvedjian, son of Jerusalem photographer and Armenian genocide survivor Elia Kahvedjian, explains his father was personal testimony to the genocide and its savagery. "When it started, he was only five years old, but he remembered it very clearly. Especially the last year of his life he remembered it..." Kevork continually slipped into the first person while recounting his father's story, as if it had happened to him: "I used to see lots of dead people, piles of them. Some had been burned. Until today I remember the smell of burned flesh," he narrated, detailing the death march through the desert.

 

He remembered the sound of the German cannons pounding the city, then a lull of about a month before the Turkish soldiers entered his home and took Elia, his mother, a sister and two brothers - one brother was just a few months old. Two older brothers had already been hanged.

 

"Soldiers came and started pushing my mother. She tried to go back to the house but the soldiers hit her with rifle butts and she had to take the children and start walking." The Armenians were allowed only what they could carry. They walked for weeks through the desert of Deir Zor with soldiers on both sides. The soldiers offered neither food nor water, but the prisoners ate some plants and drank brackish water on the way.

 

After weeks of carrying her six-month-old baby, Elia's mother, exhausted, set the infant in the shade of a tree and abandoned him, hoping some kind person would find him. The older sister, about 12 years old during the march, was abducted. Elia found her 18 years later and discovered she had been forced to serve in a harem.

 

In a wadi, near the end of the trek, "I heard my mother say, 'Today, I think they're going to kill us.'" It happened that that a Kurd was passing by. She called the Kurd and told him, "Take this boy and go." The Kurd took Elia and the boy remembered, "At the top of the hill we turned around and saw the soldiers killing everyone." The Kurd took Elia, burned his clothes, gave him medicine for dysentery, and sold him to a blacksmith, who eventually sent him away. Elia sought refuge in a Syrian convent. In 1918, when the war was over, the American Near East Relief Foundation began to gather Armenian orphans and distribute them in its orphanages throughout the Middle East.

 

Elia was transferred to Lebanon, then to Nazareth in 1920. There, one of the teachers was a photographer and Elia worked for him. Elia learned the photography trade and became a prominent photographer. Many beloved pictures of early 20th-century Jerusalem were taken by Elia; the album, Through My Father's Eyes, celebrates his work.

 

Turkish authorities strive to discredit accounts such as Elia's, although his testimony is confirmed by an abundance of contemporary journalism, eyewitness accounts by statesmen such as American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau, as well as German and Austrian documentation.

 

Charny claims there was "most certainly" a religious element in the persecution of the Armenians, the first empire to embrace the faith. (Armenia officially adopted Christianity as the state religion in 301 CE, about 25 years before the Roman Empire did so.) "There are even some who want to refer to this period overall as 'The Christian Genocide,' because the victims of the Turks' genocide were not only Armenians but also Assyrians and Greeks," he explains. Still, he is reticent to use that term as it "could seem to remove from the Armenian community their hard-won gains for recognition of the genocide of their people."

 

According to Charney, "What stands out about the denials of the Armenian genocide is that for many years, the full power of the Turkish government has been devoted to denials of the genocide. Turkey literally spends millions on advertising agencies and on publicity efforts. It also throws the considerable weight of its government behind coercing denials from other countries, with threats to the United States of not allowing American military planes to use Turkish air space or threatening to pull out of joint NATO military exercises, as well as with threats of major economic retaliation should or when a country, such as France, confirms recognition of the Armenian genocide.

 

"Israel is regularly the object of threats by the Turks and, regrettably to say the least, for many years has kowtowed to these threats. But then too so has the stronger United States"

 

MK Haim Oron (Meretz) proposed in March that the Knesset appoint a committee to consider recognizing the Armenian genocide, adding, "It is unacceptable that the Jewish people is not making itself heard." Although the measure passed, MK Shalom Simhon (Likud) responded, "this has become a politically charged issue between Armenians and Turks, and Israel is not interested in taking sides."

 

Many Israelis are eager for their country to recognize the genocide. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem will hold an event titled "A Symposium in Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide" at its Givat Ram campus on April 29 at 6:30 p.m. Both Kevork Kahvedjian and Charney will speak.

 

Israel will eventually recognize the genocide, insists Kevork, who manages his father's business, Elia Photo Service, in Jerusalem's Old City. Kevork, named for the baby left under a tree in the desert, believes, "One day they are going to say, 'Yes, it happened.' If not now, then in 50 years!"

 

Otherwise, Armenians worry, states that refuse to recognize the genocide risk rendering Hitler's rhetorical question a reality.

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

Iranian people share Armenian pain

 

 

24.04.2008

 

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ People of Iran share the Armenian pain, said Seyed Ali Saghaeyan, the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Republic of Armenia.

 

“Working jointly in the name of justice and humanism, we will assure recognition and condemnation of all genocides. We express our sympathy and understanding with the Armenian people,” he said after laying a wreath to the Memorial to Armenian Genocide victims today.

 

The Armenian Genocide is the first genocide of the 20th century. Over 1.5 million of Armenians living in villayets of the Ottoman Empire were slaughtered during the period of 1915-1923.

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/id...484858920080424

 

Reuters

 

By Hasmik Mkrtchyan

 

YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenia's new president said on Thursday he will seek "historic justice" for 1.5 million ethnic Armenians killed by Ottoman Turks, claimed as a genocide by Yerevan and which still affects relations with Turkey.

 

Turkey strongly denies Armenian claims, backed by many Western historians, that the massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One amounted to a systematic genocide.

 

The issue has evolved into a source of tension that has complicated Ankara's relations with the United States and the European Union, which Turkey is seeking to join.

 

President Serzh Sarksyan, who was sworn into office this month, said in a speech to mark Armenia's annual Genocide Day that securing international condemnation of the killings nearly a century ago would be a priority for his administration.

 

"As a result of the genocide that was planned and carried out by the state in Ottoman Turkey, a vast number of Armenians were annihilated on their native land and lost their living space," Sarksyan said in a statement.

 

"International recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide is an appropriate and inevitable part of Armenia's foreign policy agenda," he said in the statement. "The Motherland of all Armenians, the Republic of Armenia, should redouble its efforts for the restoration of historic justice."

 

Thousands of Armenians -- some with tears in their eyes -- laid wreaths of carnations and tulips in Yerevan at a memorial that honours those who perished in the killings, which took place between 1915 and 1923.

 

The tiny ex-Soviet republic of Armenia is sandwiched between Turkey and Azerbaijan in a region that is emerging as an important transit route for oil exports from the Caspian Sea to world markets, although Armenia has no pipelines of its own.

 

Armenia insists the killings should be declared a genocide and the massacres have been recognised as such by some Western lawmakers.

 

But Ankara says large numbers of both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks were killed during the violent and chaotic break-up of the Ottoman Empire. A law in Turkey makes it criminal offence to call the killings a genocide.

 

Armenia and its neighbour Turkey have no diplomatic links, although Turkish President Abdullah Gul this month sent a letter to Yerevan calling for dialogue to normalise ties.

 

Turkey has kept its land border with Armenia closed since the early 1990s in protest at Yerevan's occupation of Nagorno-Artsax, a slice of territory belonging to ally Azerbaijan which is populated by ethnic Armenians. Turkey also objects to Yerevan's claims on some of its land.

 

(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Catherine Evans)