LIBERAL PARTY OF DENMARK (VENSTRE) DEMANDS DANISH CULTURE MINISTRY TO

[Yervant1]

LIBERAL PARTY OF DENMARK (VENSTRE) DEMANDS DANISH CULTURE MINISTRY TO BAN TURKISH EMBASSY'S ANTI- ARMENIAN EXHIBITION

 

http://www.arminfo.am/index.cfm?objectid=BCE6ACD0-3ED0-11E2-918EF6327207157C

Wednesday, December 5, 14:41

 

The biggest oppositional Liberal Party of Denmark (Venstre) has

demanded the Danish Culture Ministry to ban Turkish Embassy's

anti-Armenian exhibition at the Royal Library in Copenhagen, Simon

Bentsen, Berlinske Weekly correspondent, writes. The journalist brings

the words by Armenian Ambassador to Denmark Hrachya Aghajanyan,

who expressed hope that the Royal Library will prevent the Turkish

Embassy's anti-Armenian events. Bentsen writes that during the opening

of exhibition titled "Armenian Genocide and Scandinavian Response",

Turkish Embassy in Denmark offered to hold an exhibition titled

"so-called Armenian Genocide." The author quotes Danish People's

Party Spokesman Soren Espersen who said the suggestion sounded so as

if neo-Nazi organized an exhibition on Holocaust.

 

Danish historian and expert on genocides, Matthias Bjornlund,

said, in turn, that the Armenian Genocide is a fact and any other

interpretations are not scientific.

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ARTICLE ABOUT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN DANISH REVIEW CAUSED A FLUSTER

 

10:02, 5 December, 2012

 

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. An article about the Armenian

Genocide by Simon Bendtsen, which has been published in Berlingske

newspaper in Copenhagen on December 4, became the most discussed

topic of the socio-political circles in Denmark. This issue appeared

in the centre of attention of Danish reviews, electronic newspapers,

radio and television.

 

As reports "Armenpress" the journalist introduced in the article

a suggestion, which was announced during the opening of temporary

exhibition entitled "Armenian Genocide and Scandinavian Response". The

suggestion by the Embassy of Turkey in Denmark was about organizing

an exhibition entitled the so-called "Armenian Genocide". Danish

People's Party Spokesman of Foreign Issues Søren Espersen expressed

an opinion according to which this is the same, as the Neo-Nazis

organize an exhibition dedicated to the Holocaust.

 

Prominent Danish historian, who is engaged in the studies of genocide,

Matthias Bjørnlund hinted that if the initiative of the Turkish

Embassy is allowed, Royal Library of Copenhagen, as a scientific

organization, will balance the position of the two countries in the

history. The Armenian Genocide is a reality and any other argument

is not scientific. The author of the article cited words of the

Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to Denmark Hrachya Aghajanyan,

who said that he is hopeful that Royal Library of Copenhagen will not

succumb to the possible pressures of the Turkish Embassy and will not

allow the organization of such event. According to the media largest

Danish opposition party Venstre demanded from the Minister of Culture

not to allow the Turkish Embassy to organize such event in the Royal

Library of Copenhagen.

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ROYAL LIBRARY UNDER FIRE FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE EXHIBITION

 

The Copenhagen Post

Dec 4 2012

Denmark

 

Christian Wenande

 

But library director has brushed aside the criticism, saying that a

Turkish version of the events will go ahead as planned

 

The Royal Library has attracted heavy criticism after agreeing to

let Turkey co-arrange an alternative exhibition about the Armenian

Genocide.

 

The library has complied with the wishes of the Turkish ambassador

to Denmark to be involved with the exhibition, 'The Armenian Genocide

and the Scandinavian response', which is currently on display at the

University of Copenhagen.

 

The Turkish Embassy has been granted the opportunity to stage a

Turkish version of the historical events in a move that has generated

criticism from a number of circles, including politicians, historians,

and the Armenian Embassy in Copenhagen.

 

"This is giving in to Turkish pressure and it won't do. Without

comparing the two events, it's like asking neo-Nazis to arrange

a Holocaust exhibition," Søren Espersen, a spokesperson for Dansk

Folkeparti (DF), told Berlingske newspaper.

 

Turkey refuses to to use the 'genocide' to describe the deaths of

over an estimated one million Armenians who died during the mass

extermination carried out by the Ottoman Empire between the years of

1915-1923. Turkey counters that the deaths were a by-product of the

First World War and that the issue should be left to historians.

 

But Matthias Bjørnlund, a historian and leading Danish expert on the

Armenian Genocide, is perplexed over the Royal Library's decision in

the case.

 

"If you believe that all versions of history are equal, then you've

undermined your role as a research institution," Bjørnlund told

Berlingske. "It was genocide and not all interpretations of this

history are correct."

 

The Armenian ambassador to Denmark, Hrachya Aghajanyan, who is a

co-host of the original exhibition, is disappointed by the move.

 

"I hope that the Royal Library will reconsider their decision and not

give in to the possible Turkish pressure," Aghajanyan told Berlingske.

 

But Erland Kolding Nielsen, the director of the Royal Library, denied

that the institution buckled under pressure from Turkey.

 

"One can't pressure us, and we have not spoken about removing the

Armenian exhibition. We have simply given them the opportunity to

show their alternative exhibition," Nielsen told Berlingske.

 

Currently, 24 nations - including France, Germany and Russia -

officially consider the killings as genocide, but Denmark has yet to

make that assertion.

 

Earlier this year, Turkey condemned the French senate's adoption

of a law criminalising those who refuse to recognise the killing

of Armenians in 1915 as genocide in France. The Turkish government

froze political and military ties with France after the law passed

in late January 2012, which would impose a fine of 335,000 kroner

and a one-year jail sentence on those found guilty of denying that

the deaths amounting to genocide.

 

It is not yet know when the Turkish exhibition version will debut,

but the Turkish embassy said that preparations were underway.

 

http://cphpost.dk/news/international/royal-library-under-fire-armenian-genocide-exhibition

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TURKEY PUSHES GENOCIDE DENIAL

by Ben Cohen

 

Commentary Magazine

Dec 5 2012

 

In 1915, when stories of the systematic extermination of the Armenian

minority in Anatolia by the Ottoman authorities started to surface in

the Western press, Turkish diplomats were rapidly mobilized to deny

the reports. "All those who have been killed were of that rebellious

element," the Turkish consul in New York, Djelal Munif Bey, told

the New York Times, "who were caught red-handed or while otherwise

committing traitorous acts against the Turkish Government, and not

women and children, as some of these fabricated reports would have

the Americans believe."

 

As the sun began to set on the Ottoman Empire, its leaders-and their

secular successors-laid the foundations of a gruesome template that

remains with us today. Ever since the slaughter of the Armenians, each

episode of genocide and mass killing has been accompanied by voices

who willfully deny that such horrors actually took place. Genocide

denial is a phenomenon most commonly associated with the Shoah, but

it also raised its head in Bangladesh in 1971, in Cambodia in 1979,

in the former Yugoslavia and in Iraq during the 1990s, in Rwanda in

1994 and in Syria in the present day.

 

As the original pioneers of genocide denial, the Turks remain its

most aggressive practitioners. That, perhaps, is to be expected;

far less understandable is the willingness of certain countries and

institutions to collude in this trampling of history and memory. In

that regard, this item from Denmark's Copenhagen Post is nothing less

than astounding:

 

The Royal Library has attracted heavy criticism after agreeing to

let Turkey co-arrange an alternative exhibition about the Armenian

Genocide.

 

The library has complied with the wishes of the Turkish ambassador

to Denmark to be involved with the exhibition, 'The Armenian Genocide

and the Scandinavian response', which is currently on display at the

University of Copenhagen.

 

The Turkish Embassy has been granted the opportunity to stage a

Turkish version of the historical events in a move that has generated

criticism from a number of circles, including politicians, historians,

and the Armenian Embassy in Copenhagen.

 

Genocide scholars in Denmark have reacted angrily. "If you believe that

all versions of history are equal, then you've undermined your role as

a research institution," said the historian Matthias Bjørnlund. "It was

genocide and not all interpretations of this history are correct." But

the director of the Royal Library, Erland Kolding Nielsen, denied

having caved to pressure from the Turkish Embassy. "One can't pressure

us, and we have not spoken about removing the Armenian exhibition. We

have simply given [the Turks] the opportunity to show their alternative

exhibition," Nielsen said.

 

Clearly, this sets an extremely dangerous precedent. No longer does it

seem far-fetched to think that an exhibition about, say, Auschwitz, or

the North Korean gulags, might be "balanced" with a "counter-narrative"

from the perspective of the perpetrators of these atrocities.

 

The current Danish controversy also speaks volumes about the extent

to which Turkey is prepared to go in enforcing its state doctrine of

genocide denial upon its ostensible allies. Earlier this year, Ankara

temporarily froze ties with France after that country's Senate passed

a law officially recognizing the Armenian massacres as a genocide.

 

Responding to similar efforts by American lawmakers, Turkey's Islamist

prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told President Obama in March

that he was "tired" by the constant reminders of Turkey's historic

crime, adding that the U.S. administration should "not ... mistake U.S.

 

senators, lawmakers and politicians for historians."

 

For decades, Turkey has acted on the premise that Western acquiescence

toward its regional bullying-whether that involves its assaults on

Kurdish civilians or its continued occupation of northern Cyprus-means

that it will never be obliged to reckon with the monstrous crimes

committed against the Armenians. If the authors of Washington's policy

toward Turkey want us to believe that Erdogan and his cohorts share

not just our strategic goals, but our core values too, then Ankara

must be told that the practice of genocide denial, inaugurated by

Djelal Munif Bey in 1915, is no longer acceptable almost 100 years on.

 

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/12/05/turkey-pushes-genocide-denial/

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TURKISH CITIZENS SIGN PETITION AGAINST DENIALIST EXHIBIT IN DENMARK

 

http://www.armenianweekly.com/2012/12/18/turkish-citizens-sign-petition-against-denialist-exhibit-in-denmark/

December 18, 2012

 

ISTANBUL, Turkey (A.W.)-In response to official statements that the

Royal Library of Denmark has agreed "to balance" an Armenian genocide

exhibition by allowing the Turkish government to mount its own,

"alternative" exhibit, a group of Turkish citizens-including academics,

writers, Members of Parliament, and mayors-have signed an open letter

to the Royal Library, which the Armenian Weekly publishes below in

full. (For a news report from Denmark on the matter, click here.)

 

The Royal Library of Denmark Don't Stand Against Turkey's

Democratization and Confrontation with its History!

 

The individuals whose signatures appear below have been distressed

to learn that the Royal Library of Denmark has given the Turkish

government the opportunity to present an "alternative exhibit" in

response to the Armenian Genocide exhibition.

 

It is incorrect to suggest that two different views of what happened

in 1915 are possible. Over one million Ottoman Armenian citizens

were forced out of their homes and annihilated in furtherance of an

intentional state policy. What exists today is nothing other than

the blatant denial of this reality by the Turkish government.

 

An honest reckoning with history is the non-negotiable precondition

of a true democracy. The Turkish government has been suppressing

historic truths and following a policy of denial for more than 90

years. In response to the many intellectuals in the nation who have

urged the government to confront history honestly, this systematic

suppression and intimidation policy, which reached its zenith with

the assassination of journalist Hrant Dink in 2007, continues unabated.

 

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled in several cases on this

subject against Turkey's position and actions.

 

By giving the Turkish government the opportunity to present an

"alternative exhibit", you support their policy of suppression and

intimidation. The support that you are extending to a regime that

has made opposition to confronting history and denial of the truth

a fundamental principle is equivalent to supporting a regime of

apartheid. We want to remind you that your support constitutes an

obstacle to democratization efforts in Turkey today.

 

There is a regional aspect of this policy also. Peace, democracy and

stability in the Middle East will only come about through regimes

that are willing to confront history honestly. Through its position

of denying historical truths, Turkey represents an obstacle to the

development of peace, democracy and stability in the Middle East. We,

citizens fighting for a democratic Turkey, urge you to reconsider your

decision to grant the Turkish government the opportunity to present an

"alternative exhibit" and withdraw the offer immediately and we invite

you to join and support the democratic civil initiatives demanding

that Turkey confront its history honestly.

 

Fikret Adanır (professor of history), Taner Akcam (professor of

history), Ayhan Aktar (professor of sociology), Cengiz Aktar (professor

of political science), Cengiz Algan (The DurDe civic initiative),

Ahmet Altan (Chief Editor Taraf Newspaper), Maya Arakon (professor

of political science), Oya Baydar (Writer), Yavuz Baydar (Columnist

Todays Zaman Newspaper), Osman Baydemir (mayor of Diyarbakır),

Murat Belge (professor of litterature), Halil Berktay (professor of

history), Ä°smail BeÅ~_ikci (professor of sociology), Hamit Bozaslan

(professor of political science), Ä°pek CalıÅ~_lar (Writer), Oral

CalıÅ~_lar (Columnist Radikal Newspaper), Aydın Engin (founding

Editor T24 webnews), Fatma Muge Göcek (professor of sociology),

Nilufer Göle (professor of sociology), Ä°Å~_tar Gözaydın (professor

of law and politic), Gencay Gursoy (professor of medicine) AyÅ~_e Hur

(historian, columnist Radical newspaper), Ahmet Ä°nsel (professor

of economics), AyÅ~_e Kadıoglu (professor of political science),

Gulten Kaya (music producer), Umit Kıvanc (writer), Omer Laciner

(chief Editor Birikim Review), Roni Margulies (Poet), Baskın Oran

(professor of political science), Cem Ozdemir (Co-chair German Green

Party), Esra Mungan (professor of psychology), Sırrı Sakık (MP),

Betul Tanbay (professor of mathematics), Zeynep Tanbay (choreographer),

Turgut Tarhanlı (professor of international law), Ufuk Uras (Former

MP), Å~^anar Yurdatapan (Initiative for Freedom of Expression).

[Yervant1]

An Incomprehensible Silence Trivializing The Crime Of Genocide

 

 

 

http://asbarez.com/App/Asbarez/eng/2012/12/419405_10150501834988981_2024846402_n.jpg

Suzanne Khardalian

BY SUZANNE KHARDALIAN

Ashes from Majdanek in Sweden, and The Danish Royal Library’s alternative exposition.

Two very strange yet appalling events took place in Scandinavia last week.

The first took place in the Danish capital, Copenhagen. It all started when the Armenian Genocide Museum & Institute in Yerevan began putting together a small exhibition on Scandinavia and the Armenian genocide about two years ago. Then the exhibition began touring the Scandinavian capitals this year. It came to Copenhagen about a month ago and was set up in a room belonging to the Royal Library, yet located at the University of Copenhagen. The surprise came when the director of the Royal Library, Erland Kolding Nielsen in his opening speech at the exhibition announced that there would be a “complementary” exhibition arranged by the Turkish Embassy, entitled “The so-called Armenian Genocide.” What to do? Of course, protest. And indeed the Royal Library has attracted heavy criticism from the media and historians. But Erland Kolding Nielsen, the director of the Royal Library, denied that the institution buckled under pressure from Turkey.

“We have simply given them the opportunity to show their alternative exhibition,” he said.

So for now, it is business as usual. The exhibition is still scheduled.

The second story is even stranger, and this time it took place in the city of Lund in southern Sweden famous for its prestigious university. A Swedish art gallery decided to organize a special exhibition displaying the works of an artist, Carl Michael von Hausswolff. The artist had used ashes that he collected at Majdanek, a Nazi extermination camp in Poland, to paint his monochrome work. There you have a painting made from the ashes Holocaust victims for you to enjoy…

The controversial exhibition of the ashes of concentration camp prisoners soon was taken down after protests from the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Jewish community of Malmoe. The Simon Wiesenthal Center called the painting a “desecration” and “abomination.”

But the alternative exhibition, arranged by the Royal Library in Copenhagen, not only is still scheduled, but also has given rise to important questions pertaining to denial and revisionism.

Yet somehow these two incidents have received very little attention in the media—especially the Armenian media.

But why the silence in Lund, in Copenhagen, in Yerevan and in the world?

What is happening?

Why?

Here the target is two crimes—two Genocides. And, an unending effort to trivialize these crimes.

The watercolor painter who used ashes from the concentration camp at Majdanek is also keeping silent. Probably Mr. von Hausswolff ran away with his tail between his legs. Or, what do I know? Maybe he is enjoying the noise he created with his art. But one thing is certain: he can not have missed the burning attention it received in the world press.

A number of Polish media have highlighted the debate, like most Israeli newspapers, the Telegraph, as well as the French and Spanish press. Immediately there was talk about repercussion and a course of action. Others were bringing up important questions. Will von Hausswolff stand trial in Lund?

Should the police be confiscating the “watercolor”? Should the police investigate whether this was a desecration of “a grave”? Was this illegal?

Yet official Sweden kept silent. Not only the painter was silent, but also all the political, religious organizations and artists’ unions. Apparently it is not repulsive in Sweden to desecrate victims of Genocide.

If the silence in Sweden has upset me, the story from Copenhagen out aged me. The silence was even more deafening when it comes to the alternative exhibition in Denmark.

What I found were low-key protests and an attitude of “it is best to ignore it.”

But denial is not new to Scandinavia.

Back in 2005, a similar situation had come about when Mr. Uffe Østergaard, the director of the Department for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Copenhagen, for several years kept his denialist views publicly and unequivocally known. Mr. Østergaard regularly insisted that he held a “neutral” position about the “Armenian” and the “Turkish” points of view vis-à-vis the “Armenian question.

Back then he too was involved in the planning of creating a “neutral” institution or “place of dialogue,” where the “question” of what Mr. Østergaard sometimes referred to not as genocide, but as “the tragic events of 1915″ could be discussed by Armenian and Turkish scholars. This initiative was also being supported by the Turkish Ambassador in Copenhagen, Mrs. Fügen Ok.

The package as it was presented sounded perfectly innocent for those willing to turn a deaf ear. The words “neutral” and “dialogue” indeed seemed very attractive. So too was the “alternative “story to the Armenian genocide. But as it was back then, now too there are major problems associated with that.

Back then genocide scholars Torben Jørgensen and Matthias Bjørnlund had written in an open letter that “… Any assumption that there is a ‘neutral ground’ between an ‘Armenian’ and a ‘Turkish’ side of the ‘question’ of the Armenian genocide is plain wrong. When it comes to the historical reality of the Armenian genocide, there is no ‘Armenian’ or ‘Turkish’ side of the ‘question,’ no more than there is a ‘Jewish’ or a ‘German’ side of the historical reality of the Holocaust: There is a scientific side, and an unscientific side—acknowledgment or denial.”

There is fundamentally something wrong with the aforementioned forced symmetry. What we are witnessing is total lack of courage and moral attitude. In the name of objectivity we are seeing revisionism and denial.

But first the question: What is objectivity? The Simple answer is: to openly account for the basis for a certain choice, a standpoint. But I would add the following for more clarification: Objectivity is not the same as not judging or not condemning.

Among historians there is widespread skepticism about politicized and ideological interpretations. For many of us history is there “to describe, to explain and understand the past.” I guess many of us share the above outlook.

I will be borrowing some ideas form Martin Wiklund, a researcher from the University of Gotheburg, and the author of the book “History as a court of Justice.” In his book Wiklund convincingly argues that historians should have the moral courage to take a stand, suggesting that the Court as model of justice could be a guiding reference for science that can never be judgment-free.

Both history and a court share characteristics that should inspire the administering of justice, says Wiklund. Perhaps he has a point.

In a regular court hearing all parties are heard, all relevant facts are presented and then duly taken into account concerning the circumstances of an offense. A judicial review means that an acknowledged authority (judges and jurors) balance the interests of all involved parties. (the plaintiff/counter defendant prosecutor/law). We expect not only that the trial is fair and impartial, but also that it leads to a verdict and not just end with the mere understanding of circumstances.

In other words, in a court objectivity is not a problem and does not an impede justice.

At the same time, a historian has no requirement to pronounce verdict, but he or she should not avoid doing it when it is needed. There is a widespread perception in academic circles that the present generation should not sit in judgment over previous generations, in part for the reason that our modern standards are bound by time. Yet this view is unreasonable. If that were the case, then our courts would not be able to do justice as laws too are expected to change over time.

Historians have no laws in their disposal by which to judge, but with justice as a guiding principle, we can incorporate both past conditions and present knowledge in our evaluations.

Now, when we speak of justice we must talk about guilt and responsibility as well. Questions about guilt are closely related to living memory. Whether it is the Russian occupation of Finland in 1809 or the Israeli occupation of the West Bank or the Armenian Genocide, all belong in the same moral universe.

The fair aspect, perhaps, is not the only aspect to take into consideration, but it’s always the most relevant.

I am not saying that a historian should always identify the guilty and the innocent, the perpetrators and the victims. However, the historian has a responsibility to always make a fair trial based on the relevant facts of each case.

To understand historical matters only as an issue of the past, as if it were merely a question of interpretation of conflicts, is an obstacle to our cultural self-understanding and thus our historical course. There is no knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Historians should bring to light the complexity of the history, but they should do it not only to bring to light the truth but also to improve and develop the collective memory and historical awareness.

Martin Wiklund’s approach should become the guiding force in finding a way out, both in Denmark, Sweden and, most importantly, in Turkey.

 

Suzanne Khardalian is a documentary filmmaker based in Stockholm, Sweden. Her films include “Back to Ararat,” “I Hate Dogs,” and “Grandma’s Tattoos.” She contributes regularly to Asbarez.

[Yervant1]

TRUTH ABOUT GENOCIDE

 

http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/12/25/3112513/truth-about-genocide.html#storylink=cpy

Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012 | 12:00 AM

 

Copenhagen was the latest stop, last week, for a travelling exhibition

throughout Scandinavia on the Armenian genocide. Shortly after

its arrival, the curator of the museum that hosted the exhibition

announced that Turkey would be permitted to stage an "alternative"

exhibition entitled, "The so-called Armenian genocide."

 

The Danes aren't exactly a stupid people (they are actually the

tenth-smartest in the world), but one must question this ranking

if they actually believe that there is another side to the complete

annihilation of the Armenians. The other, more plausible, theory is

that the Danes buckled under Turkish pressure.

 

What has our world come to when a strong, civilized, and educated

country like Denmark caves in to the obvious self-serving lies, and

no doubt threats, of one of history's most notorious criminal nations?

 

Perhaps it is too difficult to stand up to a belligerent nation,

or perhaps it is easier to not. Objectivity is one thing; denial

is another.

 

The curator's actions deserve not only condemnation, which has

already been strong, but also criminal prosecution, because denial

only encourages more violence and misery. Copenhagen is a beautiful

city, but it is clear that it now has an ugly side.

 

Marshall D. Moushigian

 

Fresno