Armenian Genocide Commemorations List and related articles

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Saudi Arabian woman defends thesis on Armenian Genocide with distinction

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17:38, 17 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 17, ARMENPRESS. In Saudi Arabia, master Tauasif bint Hamid bin Muqbil al-Unzi defended a thesis on the topic of the Armenian Genocide with distinction, reaffirming the historical fact that the Armenian Genocide really happened. She also spoke about the reasons behind the denial of this fact by some states.

She defended her master's thesis on "Great Britain's policy regarding the Armenian massacres of 1915" at the Department of History and Civilization, Faculty of Sociology, King Saud University, Riyadh.

In a conversation with ARMENPRESS, Tauasif bint Hamid bin Muqbil al-Unzi spoke about the motives for choosing the topic, the process and results of the study.

“I am ambitious and eager to delve into controversial historical issues such as massacres and atrocities, which are often avoided by historians due to their sensitivity. My interest in studying these topics stems from the following reasons:

Firstly, there is a scarcity of critical analytical studies specialized in Britain's policy towards the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

Secondly, there is a lot of debate and mystery surrounding the motives behind Britain's stance on the Armenian Genocide of 1915, which necessitates clarification and interpretation based on sources.

Thirdly, I am interested in exploring this complementary topic to previous studies that focused on European history, which has had a lasting impact to this day. It is important to interpret it objectively for future generations.

Fourthly, Britain's contemporary relevance and leadership in important historical events during that time cannot be ignored, as it played a prominent role more than any other neighboring country.

Finally, there are numerous important documentary materials related to Britain's policy towards the Armenian Genocide of 1915, and their connection to most aspects of this policy, especially military attaché and officer correspondence”, she told ARMENPRESS.

The purpose of her study is to uncover Britain's policy towards the Armenian Genocide of 1915. The study has several objectives, the most important of which are:

- Clarifying whether the Armenian Genocide of 1915 is attributed to the Ottoman Empire during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid or the members of the Union and Progress Party.

- Tracing the historical policy of the Ottoman Empire towards the Armenians.

- Identifying the motives that led Britain to take a stance towards the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

- Revealing and documenting Britain's policy towards the Armenian Genocide of 1915 in both its political and military aspects.

According to Tauasif bint Hamid bin Muqbil al-Unzi, the study is based on a critical analytical historical approach that aims to observe, analyze, and criticize historical events to understand their course. It relies on documents to analyze them and interpret the reasons behind the events and positions taken, and then criticize them.

The author attaches importance to the thesis since it sheds light on a significant historical event and its impact on international relations. It also provides insight into the policies of major powers towards human rights violations and their role in shaping the world order.

“One of the most significant findings is that it is difficult to attribute the Armenian Genocide solely to the Ottoman Empire or the Union and Progress Party. This is due to two fundamental reasons:

Firstly, there were a series of minor massacres committed by some Ottoman Empire sultans before the occurrence of the major genocide during World War I.

Secondly, there was a Turkish nationalist tendency towards non-Turkish ethnic groups since the days of the Ottoman Empire, which was characterized by superiority. This tendency continued until the Union and Progress Party came to power.

Secondly, the international intervention to protect Christian ethnic groups from the oppression of the Ottoman Empire was based on political pretexts. The ethnic groups that had a cause or demand for self-determination and independence paid the price for this intervention peacefully in their geographical and historical regions.

Thirdly, British motives towards the Armenian Genocide can be summarized in two important factors:

Firstly, the strategic motives, as the Armenian issue's continuity for Britain may have caused other European countries competing with it to refrain from intervening in Egypt and its attempts to impose protection on it. The strategic location of Armenia enables Britain to control the trade routes that connect it to Asia, reaching India, which may create many competitors for it, such as France and Russia. This motive led Britain to take a position towards the Armenian Genocide in 1915/1333 AH.

Secondly, the natural resources that Armenia is characterized by, which made Britain take a motive and position towards the Armenian Genocide, as well as the Armenian crisis since its inception. Britain also aimed to counter Russian competition in the region, which would affect British areas of influence and, therefore, its domination in general”, she says.

Speaking about political motivations behind the Armenian Genocide, the author of the thesis notes,

“The British motivations towards the Armenian Genocide were not impulsive, but rather had strategic and political roots that shaped their varied reactions towards the crisis. The governing principle of all these motivations was the application of the end justifies the means principle, according to the requirements of the international political circumstances.

The deeper political motivation, which is considered the cornerstone of Britain's stance towards the Armenian Genocide of 1915, was not to be challenged by any of the great powers in the region and to dominate the scene by adopting complex and thorny issues such as the Armenian issue. This policy left the issue to become more complicated through the policy of ebb and flow towards this crisis, and never sought to achieve independence for the Armenians or to find a radical solution for them.

It became clear that international colonial competition had a negative impact on the Armenian people. Hence, the Armenian issue clearly demonstrated the conflicting interests of the major European powers in a way that made their agreement against the Ottoman Empire unattainable. Therefore, we found that positions varied from time to time towards the Armenian crisis.

From Britain's political stance, it became clear that they used the Armenian issue as a pretext to intervene in the affairs of the Ottoman Empire with irregularity and according to their political and military interests. They pushed the Armenians to bear the tragedies of war and benefited from those tragedies, leaving them to their miserable fate. It is evident that the British press and public opinion played an active role in the crisis, forming a pressure factor on British politicians. They had varied reactions due to the influential public opinion within Britain, which reached the point of adopting some Armenian newspapers' publications.

It became clear from the British military position towards the Armenian Genocide that the British viewed Armenia as a strategic location that should not be dominated by rising great powers such as Russia. Therefore, Armenia was geographically a gateway for Britain to achieve its interests and cut off the road for the Russians who were aspiring for economic and political domination towards the Middle East and India.

The clarity of Britain's deep strategy towards the Ottomans was to make them drown in the largest number of crimes and then use them later for political blackmail and other purposes. One of the results of Britain's policy towards the Armenian issue was the occurrence of the Armenian Genocide during World War I in 1915, which resulted in the dispersion of Armenians around the world.

The important and influential role of embassies during World War I, especially military attachés, led to deep intelligence efforts that created many strategic opportunities and contributed to achieving the interests of the Allied forces, led by Britain.

There was a well-organized arrangement years before the trials by the Allied powers regarding the trial of many war criminals, including the Turks. Although the war itself was a crime, during World War I, it seems to me that the classification of massacres and atrocities as war crimes emerged due to their heinousness.

One of the most important results of Britain's policy towards the Armenian Genocide was the entry of the United States into World War I”.

Noting that the massacre did indeed occur historically, the author adds that the denial arises due to the involvement of multiple superpowers in this heinous incident. Therefore, they cannot admit to it because of this entanglement.

Speaking about Armenia, Tauasif bint Hamid bin Muqbil al-Unzi noted that Armenia is one of the oldest regions in the Middle East, stretching from the western shores of the Black Sea to the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean. The Armenian ethnicity can be traced back to the Indo-European race, and they are considered one of the oldest peoples in western Asia. Some claim that they are descendants of Japheth, the son of the prophet Noah, and that Hayk is the father of the Armenians. He was the first to establish a state in Armenia, called the Haykian state, and was blessed with a son named Armen or Armenak. The Armenians were named after him.

“To obtain scientific material, several scientific expeditions were conducted between 2019 and 2021 to a number of countries where Armenian communities exist. These communities are descendants of those who fell victim during the First World War genocide. These countries include Lebanon, the Arab Republic of Egypt, and the United States of America. I faced many difficulties during my trips, especially in Lebanon, where I visited the Haigazian University in Beirut and met with Armenian professors and specialists in politics and history. The most prominent of them was Dr. Antranik Dakessian, who provided me with support. I also went on a scientific trip to Egypt, where I visited the Armenian Studies Center in Cairo, Armenian national committee office and met with Dr. Armen Mazloumian, the head of the Armenian National committee of Egypt, who provided me with all the support I needed. During my scientific visits, I had the opportunity to meet Christian clerics from different sects and visit historical Armenian cemeteries. Despite the difficulties I faced during my travels, I was determined to gather as much scientific material as possible to shed light on the rich history of Armenia and its people.

Overall, the Armenian people have a rich history and culture that deserves recognition and respect. It is important to acknowledge the atrocities they have faced and work towards justice and reconciliation”, the author of the thesis concluded.

 

 

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Neos Kosmos - The Hellenic Perspective

Australia - March 23 2023

Unearthing the truth: Recognition of indigenous Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Genocides gains momentum

Joint Justice Advocacy Week sees leading genocide scholar Dr. Melanie O’Brien, rally support for Australian recognition of indigenous Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Genocides

Momentum is building for Australian parliamentary recognition of the indigenous Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek genocides ahead of the annual commemorations of the three catastrophes.

Associate Professor Dr Melanie O’Brien, president of International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) participated in the Joint Justice Initiative (JJI) Advocacy Week held at the Commonwealth Parliament.

The commemorations of the three genocides serve as a reminder of the mass atrocities committed against indigenous Hellenic, Assyrian and Armenian communities by the Ottoman and Republican Turkish authorities in the early 20th Century.

Approximately 1.5 million Armenians, 300,000 Assyrians, and 350,000 to 500,000 Greeks (including Pontic Greeks) were killed during the genocides committed by the Ottoman Empire between 1914 and 1923.

Dr O’Brien, a global historical authority on genocide studies spoke to parliamentarians about the atrocities.

“We are delighted Dr O’Brien was our inaugural guest for the JJI Advocacy Week this year,” said Michael Kolokossian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU).

Dr O’Brien talked to parliamentarians about her book From Discrimination to Death: Genocide Process Through a Human Rights Lens.

Dr O’Brien has worked closely with Australian Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek organisations and was a keynote speaker at the 2018 National Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, including the commemoration for the centenary of the holocaust of Smyrna in Sydney, in September 2022.

“Being part of this Joint Justice Initiative delegation is an important way that I can represent the International Association of Genocide Scholars.”

“Our members conduct scholarly work with the goal of preventing and punishing genocide and aim for our work to influence policy and lawmakers,” said Dr O’Brien.

“It is crucial that Australia recognise the genocide of the indigenous Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic populations of the Ottoman Empire by the Ottoman and Republican governments.”

“It is important to acknowledge the reality of the crimes committed against the victims, survivors and their descendants – some of whom are Australian citizens – and to contribute to the prevention of future genocides.” O’Brien said.

Peter Stefanidis the president of the Federation of Pontian Associations of Australia said that a key factor in the success of JJI’s Advocacy Week was the involvement of youth leaders.

“Combining our resources on the key issue of genocide recognition continues to expand as the Hellenic, Armenian and Assyrian communities of Australia together develop the leadership skills of the next generation.”

The inaugural JJI Advocacy Week was held before Armenian Australians commemorate the 108th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and as Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Republic of Artsakh nears 100 days.

Formed in March 2020, the JJI is a joint advocacy effort aimed at achieving parliamentary recognition of the genocides of the Armenians, Assyrians and Hellenes from Australian Commonwealth, state and territory parliaments.

https://neoskosmos.com/en/2023/03/23/news/australia/unearthing-the-truth-recognition-of-indigenous-armenian-assyrian-and-greek-genocides-gains-momentum/

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March 28 2023

Recognition of Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Genocides Gains Momentum in Australia

https://neoskosmos.com

Posted 2023-03-28 08:01 GMT

Momentum is building for Australian parliamentary recognition of the indigenous Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek genocides ahead of the annual commemorations of the three catastrophes.

Associate Professor Dr Melanie O'Brien, president of International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) participated in the Joint Justice Initiative (JJI) Advocacy Week held at the Commonwealth Parliament.

The commemorations of the three genocides serve as a reminder of the mass atrocities committed against indigenous Hellenic, Assyrian and Armenian communities by the Ottoman and Republican Turkish authorities in the early 20th Century.

Approximately 1.5 million Armenians, 750,000 Assyrians, and 350,000 to 500,000 Greeks (including Pontic Greeks) were killed during the genocides committed by the Ottoman Empire between 1914 and 1923.

Dr O'Brien, a global historical authority on genocide studies spoke to parliamentarians about the atrocities.

"We are delighted Dr O'Brien was our inaugural guest for the JJI Advocacy Week this year," said Michael Kolokossian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU).

Dr O'Brien talked to parliamentarians about her book From Discrimination to Death: Genocide Process Through a Human Rights Lens.

Dr O'Brien has worked closely with Australian Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek organisations and was a keynote speaker at the 2018 National Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, including the commemoration for the centenary of the holocaust of Smyrna in Sydney, in September 2022.

"Being part of this Joint Justice Initiative delegation is an important way that I can represent the International Association of Genocide Scholars."

"Our members conduct scholarly work with the goal of preventing and punishing genocide and aim for our work to influence policy and lawmakers," said Dr O'Brien.

"It is crucial that Australia recognise the genocide of the indigenous Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic populations of the Ottoman Empire by the Ottoman and Republican governments."

"It is important to acknowledge the reality of the crimes committed against the victims, survivors and their descendants -- some of whom are Australian citizens -- and to contribute to the prevention of future genocides." O'Brien said.

Peter Stefanidis the president of the Federation of Pontian Associations of Australia said that a key factor in the success of JJI's Advocacy Week was the involvement of youth leaders.

"Combining our resources on the key issue of genocide recognition continues to expand as the Hellenic, Armenian and Assyrian communities of Australia together develop the leadership skills of the next generation."

The inaugural JJI Advocacy Week was held before Armenian Australians commemorate the 108th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and as Azerbaijan's blockade of the Republic of Artsakh nears 100 days.

Formed in March 2020, the JJI is a joint advocacy effort aimed at achieving parliamentary recognition of the genocides of the Armenians, Assyrians and Hellenes from Australian Commonwealth, state and territory parliaments.

http://www.aina.org/news/20230328030149.htm

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March 30 2023

When my family was disarmed: Armenian genocide perpetrated against defenseless populace

OPINION:

The Armenian genocide during World War I was perpetrated against a disarmed populace, whose own government took advantage of a registry of guns to confiscate the weapons from Christian minorities who would use them to defend themselves.

My family hails from the region of present-day Turkey that was ethnically cleansed of nearly all Christian minorities during the First World War. Thankfully, most of my direct ancestors escaped to the United States. But others were not so lucky.

While bigotry, nationalism and other factors contributed to the genocide, the gun registry was one of the most consequential reasons the Turks effectively carried out this barbaric act.

We know from the Ottoman Penal Code that the firearm registry was universal and instituted before the genocide. In addition to a gun registry, there were specific penalties put in place for Christians if they were caught openly bearing arms. Despite these restrictions, I’m proud that people in my ancestors’ village of Tomarza were known to openly carry guns in direct defiance of the tyrannical Turkish government.

Unfortunately, their defiance did not stop the Turks in the long run. My great-grandfather’s brother, an eyewitness, wrote in a letter that after the Turks declared that all registered guns would be confiscated, it resulted in “all weapons, even hunting guns, [being] surrendered to the government.” If anyone refused to do so, they would be put to death.

Recently, another relative uncovered a personal testimony from his father, John Armaganian, a survivor and another eyewitness to the Armenian genocide. In his recounting of events, not only did the Turks seek to confiscate “all military supplies and guns” but also “their knives and revolvers.”

In his testimony, Mr. Armaganian says his own father (my relative’s grandfather) was asked by the police how many guns and rifles he had, and he responded:

“’The ones I had were rusty and I turned them in already, and I haven’t anymore,’ but the officer didn’t believe him. He proceeded to ask about some buried underground. When he denied he had any, he was mercilessly beaten. Twice he was hauled into the police station and both times he was beaten worse than before, preventing him from walking for three weeks. Eventually, he was forced to work in a labor battalion and was never heard from again.”

Most Armenians were sent on death marches through the Syrian desert to die. The stated reason by the Ottoman Empire is because of the war, they needed to move “for their safety” — a common phrase also used as justification by gun control advocates to this day.

This recent historical example cannot paint a clearer picture of the immense danger of a gun registry and how gun confiscation would play out. Even without mass compliance, the authorities would know exactly who to target.

If the existence of a small minority within the Ottoman Empire could elicit such overwhelming violence from the regime, one can only imagine the lengths a modern regime would resort to against an armed minority here in America.

Some would argue that such an action would never happen here, but the groundwork is already being laid. Thanks to extensive Freedom of Information Act requests from Gun Owners of America, we can confirm that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the federal agency charged with regulating guns, has amassed nearly 1 billion firearm transaction records into a digitized, searchable database. These records contain several personally identifiable data points, and the compiling of these records, in direct contradiction to federal law, absolutely constitutes a registry of many guns in America today.

Alarmingly, the current administration is actively working to expand the records the ATF collects though both the “frame and receiver” rule, which will add homemade firearms into the registry, and via the zero-tolerance policy, which is aggressively shutting down lawful gun dealers, whose records will then be added to the registry.

Just as was done to my ancestors, our own government right now has the tools to enact a mass gun confiscation. The same excuse will be given: It’s being done in the name of safety or under emergency authority.

My family’s greatest tragedy should be our country’s greatest warning. Do not give the government an inch — not just because it’s a constitutional right, but because gun registration opens the door to unspeakable government-imposed tragedy.

Right now, some in Congress are actively working to destroy the registry. Ultimately, however, it’s up to the people to ensure our government swiftly and wholly destroys these records and erects further barriers to prevent this from ever occurring in the future.

• Alex Madajian is a federal affairs assistant for Gun Owners of America, a nonprofit grassroots lobbying organization with over 2 million members nationwide.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/mar/29/when-my-family-was-disarmed-armenian-genocide-perp/

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We will never forget. The members of the Sweden-Armenia friendship group visited the Tsitsernakaberd memorial complex

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17:04, 1 April 2023

YEREVAN, APRIL 1, ARMENPRESS. On April 1, the delegation led by Björn Söder, head of the Sweden-Armenia friendship group of the Swedish Parliament, accompanied by MP Lilit Minasyan, a member of the Armenia-Sweden friendship group, visited the Tsitsernakaberd memorial complex, ARMENPRESS was informed from the parliament of Armenia.

The guests laid flowers at the eternal flame eternalizing the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims, honored the memory of the holy martyrs with a minute of silence.

The members of the friendship group also visited the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, got acquainted with the documents about the Genocide, viewed the exhibits.

"We should always remember and never forget. Educating the younger generation, we must always remember what happened in the past to prevent genocides in the future”, Björn Söder, head of the Sweden-Armenia friendship group, wrote in the memorial book of honored guests.

Anri Karapet, a member of the Swedish Parliament of Armenian origin, is also part of the delegation, who also made a note in the memorial book. "We will never forget, we must always remember and demand."

 

 

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Ottoman Parliament and Senate in 1918

Acknowledged ‘the Armenian Massacres’

By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

 

I wrote an article in January 2016, titled: “Turkey was first country to recognize the Armenian Genocide in 1918.” However, most people are still unaware that ‘the Armenian Massacres’ were discussed and acknowledged by the Ottoman Parliament and Senate in 1918.

More recently, two Armenian members of the Turkish Parliament, Selina Dogan and Garo Paylan, raised the issue of the Armenian Genocide in the Parliament on January 14, 2016. Earlier, in November 2014, Parliament member Sebahat Tuncel submitted a resolution on the Armenian Genocide to the Turkish Parliament, asking Erdogan to issue an apology, declare April 24 as an official Day of Mourning, make public the documents in the Turkish archives about this mass crime, and pay material and moral restitution to the descendants of the victims. The proposed resolution was ignored by the Turkish Parliament.

Since writing my 2016 article, I came across a detailed analysis written by Prof. Ayhan Aktar in the History Workshop Journal, titled: “Debating the Armenian Massacres in the Last Ottoman Parliament, November – December 1918.” That debate took place following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WWI and occupation of Constantinople (Istanbul) by the victorious allied countries.

In the last two months of 1918, the Ottoman Parliament discussed over several days the Armenian Genocide, described at the time as massacres. A motion was presented which stated: “A population of 1 million people guilty of nothing except belonging to the Armenian nation were massacred and exterminated, including even women and children.” In response, Interior Minister Ali Fethi Okyar declared: “It is the intention of the government to cure every single injustice done up until now, as far as the means allow, to make possible the return to their homes of those sent into exile, and to compensate for their material loss as far as possible.... Yes, Gentlemen, I also say that our officials butchered many Armenians, including women and children and that their properties were plundered.”

A Parliamentary Investigative Committee was set up to collect all relevant documents showing the actions of those responsible for the ‘Armenian deportations and massacres.’ The evidence was turned over to the Turkish Military Tribunal, and those found guilty were hanged or given lengthy prison sentences.

Here are some excerpts from Aktar’s article: “Discussion of the Armenian massacres in the Ottoman Parliament began with motions calling the Union and Progress governments to account. When on November 4, 1918 the Ottoman Parliament convened in Istanbul the political attempts to find the perpetrators started with the first motion, tabled by Baghdat-Divaniye Deputy Fuat Bey a few days earlier. This demanded that members of the Sait Halim ***** and Talaat ***** cabinets be tried by the High Court…. Clause 10 [of the motion] made direct reference to the Armenian deportations and to the Teshkilat-i Mahsusa (the Special Organization), an irregular military force organized by the CUP [Committee of Union and Progress] leadership that had carried out deportations and massacres.”

Some of the parliamentarians who belonged to the old guard of Unionists, which were the majority in the parliament, without denying the Armenian massacres, made excuses similar to today’s Turkish Government, stating that Turks were also killed during this period.

Six Armenian deputies of the parliament submitted a motion demanding that “the deportation decision of May 27, 1915 and the decree of September 27, 1915 concerning expropriation of abandoned properties and real estate should be revoked, and that those deported from their native land be permitted to return. It further asserted that the administrative measures facilitating the sharing out among local notables of properties which had belonged to deported Armenians went absolutely against the spirit of the Ottoman Constitution of 1876.”

In response to accusations that some Armenians on the Eastern front had rebelled against the Ottoman Empire, Armenian Deputy Matyos Nalbandian responded: Even if some Armenians had committed illegal acts, it does that justify “the removal and extermination of all Armenians” and “the confiscation and plunder of their properties.” Nalbandian also made a distinction between the Turks killed at the warfront and the innocent Armenian civilians who were massacred.

A similar discussion took place in the Ottoman Senate on Nov. 21, 1918. Ahmet Riza Bey made a motion demanding that “‘the atrocities committed under the name of deportation’ be investigated; that the negative impact throughout the country be determined; and that those involved in these affairs be prosecuted.”

Former Governor and Minister of Interior, Reshit Akif *****, stated that his investigation indicated that “these orders of deportation had been given by the well-known Minister of Interior [Talaat *****] and officially communicated to [governors in] the provinces.”

On December 9, 1918, Minister of Justice Haydar Molla told the Ottoman Senate that the crimes against Armenians were committed by state officials, politicians and ordinary Turks.

Importantly, none of the deputies, regardless of their party affiliation or background, denied the occurrence of the deportation and massacres of Armenians.

On December 21, 1918, the Ottoman Parliament was dissolved by Mehmed Vahdettin, the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. “When the Parliament finally reconvened with the newly-elected deputies on January 12, 1920, it was dominated by supporters of the resistance movement which had developed in Anatolia, under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal ***** (later Ataturk),” wrote Aktar.

The Turkish Military Tribunals in 1919–20 tried and sentenced to death in absentia the masterminds of the Armenian massacres, Enver, Djemal and Talaat, the Young Turk leaders who had fled the country.

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Armenpress.am

Times Square Commemoration of 108th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide

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11:47, 4 April 2023

YEREVAN, APRIL 4, ARMENPRESS. The 108th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide taking place in Times Square, New York, on Sunday, April 23, 2023 at 1:30 pm, will feature headline speakers David L. Phillips, Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights and founder of the Artsakh Atrocities Project - who will be presented with the Knights and Daughters of Vartan Humanitarian Award - and Robert Avetisyan, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh to the U.S.

Hosted by the Knights and Daughters of Vartan, the impactful event, now in its 39th year, will feature remarks by elected officials and a musical interlude by Huyser Ensemble, accompanied by the Holy Martyrs Armenian Day School and the Brooklyn Armenian School.

In conjunction with the Times Square Commemoration, the Knights and Daughters of Vartan will sponsor its annual global student essay contest that gives Armenian youth the opportunity to express their voices and concerns regarding genocide awareness and human rights. Winners will be announced at the Commemoration and selections from each essay will be read.

The momentous Armenian Genocide Commemoration will reinforce the memory of the first genocide of the 20th century that claimed the lives of 1.5 million Armenian martyrs by the Young Turk Party of the Ottoman Empire. Thanks to the overwhelming support by Members of Congress, both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate unequivocally stated U.S. affirmation of the Armenian Genocide in 2019, preceding President Joe Biden's acknowledgement on April 24, 2021.

The Armenian Diaspora will continue its vigorous efforts to remember, to honor, and to educate the world about this devastating chapter in world history that continues to be denied today by the Turkish government, and will not rest until Turkey recognizes the Armenian Genocide.

"As the next generation of Armenian Americans, we strive to continue bringing awareness to the Armenian Genocide here in the U.S., while ensuring the strength and vitality of the Armenian people," said Co-Chairs Haig Gulian and Christopher Artun. "We appreciate the ongoing support from our diasporan communities to hold our annual Armenian Genocide Commemoration year after year in such an influential location as Times Square, in New York City. We look forward to gathering together once again to honor our ancestors and utilize our collective efforts towards global recognition."

The annual Armenian Genocide Commemoration in Times Square is sponsored by the Knights of Vartan and Daughters of Vartan, a national fraternal organization, and co-sponsored by the Armenian General Benevolent Union, Armenian Assembly of America, Armenian National Committee of America, Armenian Democratic Liberal Party, Tekeyan Cultural Association, Armenian National Council of America, Armenian Bar Association, and the Armenian Missionary Association of America; participating organizations include the Diocese of the Armenian Church, Prelacy of the Armenian Church, Armenian Presbyterian Church, Armenian Evangelical Union, Armenian Catholic Eparchy, Armenian Network of Greater New York, Homenetmen Scouts of NY & NJ, Armenian Youth Federation, and national Armenian youth organizations.

The Armenian Radio Hour of New Jersey and Knights of Vartan will livestream the event.

 

 

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San Diego designates April 24 as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day

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13:50, 6 April 2023

YEREVAN, APRIL 6, ARMENPRESS. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a proclamation on Tuesday designating April 24, 2023 Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, Asbarez reports.

The proclamation ceremony was led by San Diego County Supervisor Joel Anderson, who was joined by President of the Board Nora Vargas. The event also included remarks by St. Sarkis Armenian Church pastor Very Rev. Pakrad Berjekian, community activist and advocate John Dadian, St. Sarkis Armenian Church Board member Kathy Kassardjian, and San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan.

In his remarks, Very Rev. Berjekian thanked the San Diego County Board of Supervisors for marking the Armenian Genocide, particularly in light of the imminent threat of ethnic cleansing and genocide of Artsakh’s Armenian population resulting from Azerbaijan’s ongoing blockade and aggression.

The vocal San Diego Armenian community joined Very Rev. Berjekian in welcoming this effort by the Board of Supervisors.

 

 

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ArmenianWeekly.com

 

Rhode Island designates April as Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Month

April 5, 2023 Weekly Staff Diaspora 2

Members of the Armenian community pictured with resolution co-sponsors (missing from photo is Sen. Joshua Miller). Pictured in front (l. to r.): Hrag Arakelian, Rep. Jennifer Boylan, Commissioner Kristine Donabedian, Michele Kazarian, Shahen Attarian, Sen. David Tikoian, Commission vice-chair Pauline Getzoyan, Anoush Arakelian, Steve Mesrobian, Ani Arakelian and Carol Mesrobian. Pictured in the back row (l. to r.): Levon Attarian, Steve Elmasian, Rep. Katherine Kazarian, Malcolm Varadian and Melkon Megerdichian.

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Dozens of local community members helped the Rhode Island Holocaust and Genocide Education Commission mark the inauguration of Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Month. Held in the impressive State House Library on March 30, the program included remarks from members of the RI General Assembly who have been ardent supporters of genocide education legislation, including Rep. Katherine Kazarian and Sen. Joshua Miller, as well as Rep. Jennifer Boylan and Sen. David Tikoian, both newly elected and actively engaged with the work of the commission. Also present was longtime supporter Rep. Rebecca Kislak.

The crowd in the State House Library as Sen. David Tikoian offers remarks

The program focused on readily available resources and materials about genocides for students and the general public through local libraries across the state. In keeping with the theme, the commission displayed a wide selection of books related to various genocides, including the Native American, Cambodian, Rwandan and Armenian Genocides and the Holocaust. Copies of the book list were available for those in attendance and were distributed to public and school libraries across the state.

Commission chair Marty Cooper

Commission chair Marty Cooper opened the program with grateful acknowledgement to Governor Dan McKee and the General Assembly for their support of both the 2016 legislation requiring Holocaust and genocide education in the state’s secondary schools and the formal establishment of the commission in 2021. Cooper explained the commission’s purpose of supporting “school districts with development of curricula and professional development to enable the incorporation of genocide-related topics into their program of studies.” He noted that Rhode Island is one of the first states in the country to designate a full month to Holocaust and genocide awareness.

Cooper went on to discuss the reasons for an April genocide awareness month, including the need to remember and educate about these atrocities, to honor those who perished and those who survived, “to remember and to never forget” and to appropriately coincide with the commemoration days for Rwanda (April 7), Cambodia (April 17), the Holocaust (April 17-18) and Armenian Genocide (April 24).

“Today as we kick off April Holocaust and Genocide Awareness month in our great state, we will focus on what Rhode Island’s public libraries, including those in our schools have available to learn more about this issue,” stated Cooper. “That is why today we are meeting at the State House Library as a symbol of the state’s commitment to ‘Never Again.’”

Commission vice-chair Pauline Getzoyan

Commission vice-chair and Weekly editor Pauline Getzoyan read a special citation from Governor McKee, which reads in part: “In commemoration for your commitment and emphasis for the need of more Rhode Islanders to learn about the history of genocides, as well as discussion on how such atrocities can be greatly reduced or ended.” As a descendant of Armenian Genocide survivors, Getzoyan said her work with the commission is inspired by her maternal grandmother—Margaret Garabedian DerManuelian. Getzoyan, who was recently elected as the next chair of the commission, said her grandmother’s story of resilience, resistance and survival motivates her commitment to expanding genocide education. “Her story is nothing short of miraculous…I know she would be very proud of the work that’s being done here in the state of Rhode Island, which became her home,” said Getzoyan.

Sen. Joshua Miller

Sen. Miller offered his continuing commitment to Holocaust and genocide education in the state. He invited attendees to the introduction of the resolution, which he co-sponsored with Sen. Tikoian, in the Senate chamber designating April as Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Month.

Rep. Katherine Kazarian

Rep. Kazarian also promised her continuing support for the work of the commission, remembering how she felt during the Armenian Genocide centennial commemoration events in 2015. “There was really a buzz about us reliving through our trauma the stories of our ancestors in order to hopefully get some type of recognition,” shared Kazarian. “I remember attending those events in 2015. I remember reliving the stories and the tragedies. And I remember there being no recognition and how gut-wrenching it was. It made me feel so hopeless.” But then she recalled one of her mother’s favorite Mister Rogers quotations about looking for the helpers. She said that the helpers in 2016 were members of the current commission and the Armenian National Committee (ANC) of RI, many of whom were in attendance. These dedicated individuals and the Rhode Island legislature realized that “there was something far more powerful than recognition and that was education,” said Kazarian. This realization ultimately led to the law requiring genocide education in the state.

[Yervant1]

Rep. Jennifer Boylan highlighting the House resolution designating April as Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Month

Rep. Boylan introduced a similar resolution in the House the previous day recognizing April as Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Month and presented an official copy of it to the commission. In keeping with the special designation of April, the resolution strongly encourages “Rhode Island’s history and social science educators to incorporate lessons on past and current genocide atrocities into their curriculum and classroom discussions in order to encourage and foster a new generation with insight and the pledge to work to eradicate bigotry, prejudice, brutality and injustice.” As a Jewish American, Boylan said she has spent her entire life learning about the Holocaust. She recalled the influence of a family friend Helen Sperling, who dedicated her life to teaching tens of thousands about the Holocaust. She explained how Sperling was transported by cattle train to Buchenwald concentration camp, where she worked for years before being liberated in 1945. She would tell her audiences, “Moses brought you Ten Commandments; I am going to give you the eleventh: Thou shall not be a bystander.” Rep. Boylan wears a bracelet with those words to honor her friend and the memory of those lost in the Holocaust.

Sen. David Tikoian, Rep. Katherine Kazarian and Rep. Jennifer Boylan

“The work of the Holocaust and Genocide Commission is very personal to me,” began Sen. Tikoian, a grandson of Genocide survivors. “My grandparents Garabed Topalian and Tarvis Mesrobian arrived in America from Armenia in 1920. They arrived here as orphans – orphans because their entire family was massacred during the Armenian Genocide in 1915. It is because of their survival that I stand before you today,” he shared. Sen. Tikoian noted the forces of denial that continue to try and erase the Armenian Genocide from history, underscoring the need for education about past atrocities as the way to prevention and a more humane society. He concluded with gratitude and admiration for Cooper’s “many years of tireless advocacy on this education initiative” and his leadership of the commission. He also congratulated Getzoyan and highlighted her dedication to “carry on the important educational work and fine leadership of the commission.”

Coordinator of adult services at the Cranston Public Library Dave Bartos

Coordinator of adult services at the Cranston Public Library Dave Bartos brought the program to a fitting conclusion, highlighting the commission’s partnership with the state’s libraries. Bartos is a member of the RI Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee, which he said works to address “the rise in censorship and book challenges taking place across the nation.” He said the American Library Association has “documented 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources in 2022,” the highest number since data compilation began more than 20 years ago and the forces against which Rhode Island has not been immune.

“The same forces that are gaining purchase elsewhere are also at work here, seeking to restrict what students can read, the history they can learn and the representation they can see,” said Bartos. “Frankly it’s becoming increasingly difficult not to feel the echoes of the past reverberating in our present.” He invoked genocide education as critical to be able to say “never again,” an active phrase. “It is not something that will just happen without building education, understanding and empathy in ourselves and our communities,” he said. Bartos expressed gratitude to the commission for its work with the libraries providing resources, including book lists and curriculum materials. He stressed the need to build community solidarity – “to commit to a society where everyone is afforded the freedom to be their authentic selves, without fear of persecution or violence.”

The Senate monitor as the resolution is introduced

Following the program in the library, attendees headed to the Senate gallery for the introduction of the Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Month resolution mentioned by Sen. Miller, which he ensured was read on the floor. Senate President Pro Tempore Hanna Gallo, also a longtime supporter of genocide education legislation, introduced the members of the commission present on the Senate floor: Cooper, Getzoyan, Barbara Wahlberg and Anne Ejnes, as well as the commissioners in the gallery: Kristine Donabedian and Steve Flynn.

Introductions of Commission members (l. to r.) Marty Cooper, Pauline Getzoyan, Barbara Wahlberg and Anne Ejnes by Senate President Pro Tempore Hanna Gallo (pictured in front of the commissioners)

“Over the last 23 years, I have seen our Rhode Island Armenian community move from fighting for inclusion of the Armenian Genocide in a Genocide Education Curriculum Bill introduced by then State Rep. Aram Garabedian to having one of our own, Pauline Getzoyan, elected as the new chairperson of the Rhode Island Holocaust and Genocide Education Commission,” shared Steve Mesrobian. “This welcome change underscores how far organizations like the ANC of Rhode Island have been able to advance our cause.”

Shahen Attarian, a student at the event, was happy to witness the passage of the Genocide curriculum. “Now I have a chance to teach my friends about the Armenian Genocide and talk about it at school,” he said. “Now people can learn about my history.”

A proud Rhode Islander, Hrag Arakelian brought his young family to the event. “It was a historic moment to witness the state I live in take such an important action towards educating our children on the worst acts of humanity, in order to stop the cycle of genocide.”

A view of the Senate gallery during the reading of the resolution

https://armenianweekly.com/2023/04/05/rhode-island-designates-april-as-holocaust-and-genocide-awareness-month/?fbclid=IwAR1JfzqlivO0eSUuhhmmLTfhpU2254EZXveZTP9QtWqpBVG5igIoSx_TiDc

[MosJan]

was at her memorial in Solvang CA,


was opened iin 2016.

 

Armenpress.am

Yerevan renames street in honor of Maria Jacobsen, Danish missionary who saved Armenian children during genocide

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15:15, 27 January 2023

YEREVAN, JANUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. The City of Yerevan named a street after Maria Jacobsen, the Danish missionary who saved thousands of Armenian orphans during the Armenian Genocide.

The 51 Street in Arabkir district was officially renamed Maria Jacobsen street.

Vice Mayor of Yerevan Tigran Avinyan said in his remarks at the ceremony that having unnamed streets is a luxury when the Armenian nation has devotees and friends in its history, one of whom is Maria Jacobsen.

“We value the people who stood by the Armenian people during the most difficult moments. Maria Jacobsen is one of the people who saved and educated thousands of Armenian children during the years of the genocide, and I think this is a small opportunity of commemoration that our city can and must give to Maria Jacobsen. We must remember and record such people in the pages of our history, so that our children and grandchildren know them,” Avinyan said.

The new Ambassador of Denmark to Armenia Anne Toft Sørensen said that this is the first event she is participating in as Ambassador to Armenia.

Descendants of Maria Jacobsen were among the participants of the event.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1102712.html?fbclid=IwAR1DHwIhDrtdisx7EyrOf1m9RXmJczXNCZA4RlkOvk0hjA-_RivwEMNTEVA

 

[Yervant1]

1945

April 21 2023

Biden Must Go Beyond A Cut-And-Paste Job On Armenian Genocide Recognition

Genocide happens most easily in darkness. If Biden truly understands the lessons of the Armenian Genocide, on Monday, when the White House releases its annual declaration, he will call out those who would continue the genocide through a deliberate campaign of starvation, harassment, incitement and murder.

By Michael Rubin

On April 24, Armenians will commemorate the 108^th anniversary of the genocide they suffered in the last years of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey still denies the genocide was deliberate; many Turkish nationalists question if it occurred at all.

For too long in Washington, promises to affirm the Armenian Genocide were akin to promises to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem: Every major candidate made them, but none followed through. Donald Trump disrupted that pattern with regard to Jerusalem. Rather than undermine peace, it catalyzed it. Joe Biden did the same with Armenian Genocide. He not only promised as a candidate but also followed through. On April 24, 2021, he stated clearly, “We remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring.” Today, not only the White House, but also the Senate and House of Representatives, all 50 states, and the District of Columbia officially recognize the Genocide.

Despite Turkey’s bluster, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did nothing. He showed himself to be a paper tiger. Biden and many other world leaders showed that truth trumped spin and propaganda. Unfortunately, Secretary of State Antony Blinken tarnished Biden’s moral clarity. Without forewarning Congress, whom he had briefed just days earlier on the Armenian issue, he quietly decided to waive Section 907, which enforced a weapons embargo on Azerbaijan. That section of the Freedom Support Act ties military assistance to Azerbaijan to its commitment to solve its dispute with Armenia through diplomacy alone. Blinken simply ignored the facts not only that Azerbaijan’s surprise attack had killed thousands, but also that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev openly declared he sought to take his conquests further.

In April 2022, Biden issued another statement about the Armenian Genocide on Armenian Remembrance Day. It was a good declaration and addressed all the key points. “As we reflect on the Armenian genocide, we renew our pledge to remain vigilant against the corrosive influence of hate in all its forms. We recommit ourselves to speaking out and stopping atrocities that leave lasting scars on the world,” he said. Once again, the State Department waived Section 907.

As White House speechwriters craft a statement for Monday, Biden must go further. For five months, Azerbaijani militias have blockaded the only route into Artsakh, the Armenian-governed enclave in Nagorno-Karabakh. Earlier this week, Aliyev called for population transfer of the region’s 115,000 remaining Armenians. He has cut off food, water, and gas. Genocide looms.

Blinken and the State Department meanwhile wring their hands and counsel against holding Aliyev accountable for his crimes. After all, Blinken tells Congressmen privately, the United States needs Azerbaijan’s compliance for anti-Iran operations. What Blinken fails to understand is that keeping Iran in check is an Azerbaijani interest. That Aliyev extorts Blinken for something Azerbaijan would do anyway humiliates Washington. Regardless, a millennia-old Armenian community should not die as a concession to the dictator.

Genocide happens most easily in darkness. If Biden truly understands the lessons of the Armenian Genocide, on Monday, when the White House releases its annual declaration, he will call out those who would continue the genocide through a deliberate campaign of starvation, harassment, incitement and murder. He will not simply cut-and-paste from his previous two declarations. There is nothing cheaper and more morally corrupt than condemning a genocide from a century ago while enabling its continuance today.

Now a 1945 Contributing Editor, Dr. Michael Rubin is a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Dr. Rubin is the author, coauthor, and coeditor of several books exploring diplomacy, Iranian history, Arab culture, Kurdish studies, and Shi’ite politics, including “Seven Pillars: What Really Causes Instability in the Middle East?” (AEI Press, 2019); “Kurdistan Rising” (AEI Press, 2016); “Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes” (Encounter Books, 2014); and “Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos” (Palgrave, 2005).

https://www.19fortyfive.com/2023/04/biden-must-go-beyond-a-cut-and-paste-job-on-armenian-genocide-recognition/

[Yervant1]

Massachussettes - April 22 2023

MASSACHUSETTS

Armenians of Massachusetts honor those lost during the genocide

by: Ellen Fleming

BOSTON (WWLP) – A solemn event at the State House Friday for the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.

April 24, 1915, marked the start of the Armenian Genocide, and 108 years later, Armenians from around the state gathered to honor those lost. In 1915, the Ottoman Turkish government arrested and executed around 200 Armenian leaders, this marked the beginning of the genocide.

Ultimately, 1.5 million Armenians died during the genocide and many more were displaced from their homelands.

Armenian museum reopens in Jerusalem’s Old City

Today, lawmakers, clergy, and members of the Armenian community filled the House Chamber to not only remember this tragic event but to also honor their culture and express appreciation.

“If the Armenians forget, then we can’t expect anyone else to remember either so, first and foremost, the Armenians of Massachusetts and of the entire United States have to make it a point to remember and to really not only remember but to give thanks to the country which really received many Armenian immigrants, which came to America with really mostly nothing.”

“They suffered a lot, they didn’t speak about it a lot, that generation, because they didn’t want to burden the next generation with those sad memories. So it’s up to the next generation and these generations, to remember this, never let the world forget what happened to the Armenians from 1915 through 1922.”

Thirty-two countries, including the United States, have recognized the Armenian Genocide, Turkey still refuses to accept any responsibility.

During the event, a proclamation from the governor was read marking April 24, 2023 as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth.

https://www.wwlp.com/news/massachusetts/armenians-of-massachusetts-honor-those-lost-during-the-genocide/

[Yervant1]

April 21 2023

Armenian genocide commemoration set for Saturday in Montebello

BY KCAL-NEWS STAFF

A commemoration will be held in Montebello Saturday to mark the 108th anniversary of the start of the events that are widely viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century.

The commemoration at the Montebello Armenian Genocide Monument in Bicknell Park will begin at 11 a.m. and include a religious ceremony, cultural program, speeches by elected officials and placement of flowers.

The event is organized by the United Armenian Council of Los Angeles.

A rally seeking an immediate end to Azerbaijan's blockade of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region is planned for 6 p.m. Sunday outside the Azerbaijan Consulate in Brentwood, organized by Unified Young Armenians, which is also organizing an "Armenian Genocide Commemorative Rally for Justice" at 10 a.m. Monday at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue in Little Armenia.

Glendale will conduct its 22nd annual Armenian Genocide Commemorative Event at 7 p.m. Monday at the Alex Theatre, with the theme, "The Armenian Experience Through the Lens," celebrating the 100th anniversary of Armenian cinema.

On April 24, 1915, Ottoman authorities arrested Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople, leading to an estimated 1.5 million people being killed. Turkey denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/armenian-genocide-commemoration-set-for-saturday-in-montebello/

[Yervant1]

New York - April 21 2023

Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day

by: Roy Santa Croce

BINGHAMTON, NY (WIVT/WBGH) – Monday the 24th, is Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day and members of the local Armenian community gathered outside of Binghamton City Hall this morning to raise the tri-color flag as a sign of hope.

The Armenian Genocide, often referred to as the first genocide of the 20th century, occurred from 1915 to 1923.

Binghamton Mayor Jared Kraham says that today’s flag raising honors the over one million Armenians that were killed due to religious persecution and is meant to spread awareness the forgotten tragedy.

The Pastor at Saint Gregory the Illuminator Church, Kapriel Mouradjian says that the flag represents the hard work and determination of his ancestors to escape religious persecution.

Pastor at Saint Gregory the Illuminator Church, Reverend Kapriel Mouradjian says, “In the upcoming days, when this flag flies high outside Binghamton City Hall, there will be people with Armenian roots who will drive by and otherwise maybe not look at City Hall, but will see that flag, will recognize what the tri-colored flag represents and give thanks.”

Mayor Kraham presented Mouradjian with a proclamation that declares Monday, April 24th as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day in the City of Binghamton.

He calls on residents to commemorate and remember the tragedy and to acknowledge the contributions of Armenian community here locally, and across the country.

https://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/news/top-stories/armenian-genocide-remembrance-day/

[Yervant1]

April 21 2023

MONDAY 24 APRIL: FEDERAL AND STATE PARLIAMENTARIANS TO JOIN AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COMMEMORATION AT CHATSWOOD CONCOURSEFriday, 21 April 2023

SYDNEY: The National Armenian Genocide Commemoration Evening on Monday 24th April 2023 - which will honour the 108th anniversary of the 1.5 million Armenians, as well as the 1 million Assyrians and Greeks, who were massacred by Ottoman Turkey in 1915 - will feature strong representation from Federal and New South Wales parliamentarians, reported the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU).

Federal Parliamentarians, Jerome Laxale MP - Member for Bennelong and Chair of the Australia-Armenia Inter-Parliamentary Union; Paul Fletcher MP - Member for Bradfield and Vice Chair of the Australia-Armenia Inter-Parliamentary Union and Kylea Tink MP - Member for North Sydney will lead the list of Federal representatives at the commemoration.

Laxale and Tink will be attending their first National Commemoration as Federal Members of Parliament since their election to the House of Representatives in May 2022.

Steve Kamper MP - Member for Rockdale and NSW Minister for Multiculturalism - will attend his first National Armenian Genocide Commemorative event, and will be joined by NSW state parliamentary colleagues, including Hugh McDermott MP - State Member for Prospect; Tim James MP - State Member for Willoughby, Mark Coure MP - State Member for Oatley, Jordan Lane MP - State Member for Ryde, Matt Cross MP - State Member for Davidson and Michael Regan MP - State Member for Wakehurst.

There will be several elected officials from the Willoughby, Ryde, Northern Beaches and Fairfield local governments also in attendance, led by the Mayor of the City of Willoughby, Tanya Taylor and Mayor of the City of Ryde, Armenian-Australian Sarkis Yedelian OAM.

“Many of our political guests will be joining us for the first time for an in-person commemoration to honour our fallen ancestors and pay tribute to their memory. It is an honour to have them join us for such a solemn occasion marked on the calendar of all Armenian-Australians,” said Kolokossian.

Middle East studies historian Dr. Ümit Kurt, who is an ethnically Kurdish citizen of Turkey, will keynote the first in-person National Armenian Genocide Commemoration evening since the Covid pandemic.

Dr. Kurt, is a historian of the modern Middle East. His research is on the social, cultural, and economic history of the late Ottoman Empire and the early Turkish Republic in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a special focus on the Armenian Genocide and dispossession of Ottoman Armenians at large, imperial interests, ethnic politics, forced migrations and infrastructural transformations.

Dr. Kurt completed his dissertation in the Department of History at Clark University in the United States in 2016. He has since held several postdoctoral positions at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, and the Polonsky Academy in the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, and worked as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Armenian Studies Program at California State University (CSU) in Fresno.

Currently, Dr. Kurt is an Assistant Professor in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences (History) at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He has also been serving as a Vice Executive Secretary for the International Network of Genocide Scholars (INoGS) since March 2020, and is the author of several books, including "The Armenians of Aintab: The Economics of Genocide in an Ottoman Province" and “Antep 1915: Genocide and Perpetrators” (2018).

He is also the co-author of “The Spirit of the Laws: The Plunder of Wealth in the Armenian Genocide” (Berghahn, 2017), the co-editor of "Armenians and Kurds in the Late Ottoman Empire" (The Press at California State University, Fresno, 2020), "The Committee of Union and Progress: Founders, Ideology, and Structure" (The Press at California State University, Fresno, 2021), and "The State of the Art of the Early Turkish Republic Period: Historiography, Sources and Future Directions" (The Press at California State University, Fresno, 2022).

The event is organised by the Armenian Genocide Commemorative Committee, under the auspices of His Eminence Archbishop Haigazoun Najarian, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, and the Armenian Evangelical Church.

The member organisations of the Armenian Genocide Commemorative Committee are the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party, the Armenian General Benevolent Union, the Armenian Missionary Association of Australia, Hamazkaine, Nor Serount, Homenetmen, Tekeyan, Armenian Relief Society, Dkhrouni, AGBU Youth and the Armenian Youth Federation.

https://www.anc.org.au/news/Media-Releases/MONDAY-24-APRIL--Federal-and-State-Parliamentarians-to-Join-Australian-National-Armenian-Genocide-Commemoration-at-Chatswood-Concourse

[Yervant1]

Kurdish Press - April 22 2023

Memorial for Armenian Genocide victims in Wuppertal

24 April is International Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide. The Wuppertal alliance "Gathe for everyone" is organizing a memorial in Gezi-Gathe-Park.

On the international day of remembrance of the genocide of Armenians, 24 April, the alliance "Gathe for everyone" will organize a memorial in the Gezi-Gathe-Park (Gathe / corner of Markomannenstraße) in Wuppertal.

The organizers said about the memorial that “on 24 April 1915, the deportations and massacres of the Armenian civilian population in the Ottoman Empire began on the orders of the young Turkish Minister of the Interior, Talat *****. The crimes happened with the knowledge, toleration and partial support of the German Reich, which was allied with the Young Turk rulers, and culminated in the expulsion of the last Armenian survivors into the Mesopotamian desert, where they died in agony of thirst, hunger and exhaustion.”

The organizers continued: “Most of the Ottoman army's Armenian soldiers were murdered; Women, children and the elderly were sent on death marches across the Syrian desert. On the way, special units massacred the deportees; the last survivors were killed in camps in the desert near Deir ez-Zor. According to calculations by independent historians, at least one million, probably more than 1.5 million Armenians fell victim to the deportations and mass murders. In addition to the Armenians, around 600,000 Aramaic, Chaldean, Assyrian and Greek Christians were also affected by the murderous measures.”

https://anfenglish.com/news/memorial-for-armenian-genocide-victims-in-wuppertal-66767

[Yervant1]

SFGATE

San Francisco - April 20 2023

Opinion: Armenian genocide could be repeating itself

Harry N. Mazadoorian

April 20, 2023

One hundred and eight years ago, the world witnessed one of the most shameful examples of inhumanity ever seen.

In the shadow of World War I, the Ottoman government embarked on a program to eliminate an entire ancient culture and population. In full view of the entire world, more than 1.5 million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire perished through starvation, forced deportation and outright murder. The circumstances of the killings involved horrific and repeated instances of bestiality and depravity. Men women and children were stripped of their property, their dignity and ultimately their lives. Theodore Roosevelt referred to the atrocities as “the greatest crime of the war.” The brutalities were witnessed and reported by high ranking U.S. officials.

The world watched but did not intervene as the genocide, a word which did not yet exist, unfolded. Years later, in 1944, a young scholar named Raphael Lemkin coined the word and cited the Armenian atrocities as a primary example.

Humanitarian relief support was generous, the U.S. Near East Relief effort being a shining example. But acknowledgment of what had happened was slow to come. Despite a large and highly respected core of genocide scholars who amassed endless incontrovertible evidence of inhumane actions and eyewitnesses from numerous countries, the Ottoman Empire and the succeeding Republic of Turkey denied it. The killings were characterized in ludicrously fantasy filled descriptions. Even the United States was paralyzed in its fear of offending a valuable NATO ally and declined using the “G” word to describe the crimes. That changed in 2019 and 2021 when the Congress and then President Biden bravely acknowledged the events as genocide. Armenian Americans and Armenians throughout the diaspora were elated, Finally, the long awaited acknowledgment and official recognition of the genocide by the United States.

What would be next? Would it be an apology from Turkey? Even the unthinkable return of long ago seized land and other property?

Unfortunately, the euphoria was to be short lived. Genocide no longer appears to be a past historical event, but is looming once again over Armenians in the present. This time, it is in the mountainous region of Artsakh buffering Armenia and a long-time enemy and Turkish satellite, Azerbaijan.

Artsakh, also referred to as Nagorno-Karabakh, has an overwhelmingly ethnic Armenian population and is steeped in Armenian tradition and history. It was ceded to Azerbaijan in the Stalin era in 1921 but emerged as an independent self-proclaimed state after years of conflict. In the recent past, following a referendum with exceptionally high voter turnout, Artsakh declared independence. Azerbaijan contests this.

The past several decades have witnessed continued fighting between the forces of Artsakh and Azerbaijan with on again off again cease fires. Most recently, Azerbaijan’s war efforts were orchestrated by Turkey with highly effective weaponry and drones. (Turkey boasts “one nation two states” about its relationship with Azerbaijan.) Incursions into Artsakh produced brutality, continued desecration of centuries-old Armenian religious and cultural treasures, and highly inflammatory racist and genocidal language. After the latest war, Russian peacekeepers entered the area to curtail hostilities, but have not been successful.

In December, 2022, Azeri citizens posing as environmental activists imposed a noose-like blockade of the Lachin Corridor, thus severing Artsakh’s ties with the Republic of Armenia, its only viable supply of food, fuel, medicine and other life sustaining materials. Except for some relief provided by the International Red Cross and peacekeepers, Artsakh became isolated.

Whatever might be said about the pros and cons of competing claims from Artsakh and Azerbaijan about rights to the region, the blockade which threatens the very existence of 120,000 men, women and children in Artsakh violates terms of an existing trilateral agreement as well as basic principles of humanity and international law.

The blockade has been widely condemned internationally. Specifically, the International Court of Justice ordered unimpeded movement along the corridor both ways. Pope Francis has expressed his concerns about the “serious humanitarian situation” in the corridor and urged peaceful solutions. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken urged reopening the corridor to avoid risks of a humanitarian crisis. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged a peaceful settlement to resolve a worsening situation. The European Union urged a monitoring mission to the area. And on and on. But the blockade continues.

Yet, despite the dire circumstances in the area, the mainstream U.S. press remains eerily silent about reporting on the situation. Perhaps it is considered a mere “territorial dispute” between two long-time enemies. Perhaps there is so much else going on in the world that the potential loss of a “mere” 120,000 lives is not considered newsworthy. Perhaps it is just too much to wade through.

But make no mistake, the cauldron is boiling and near spilling over into the world community. Many countries have a major potential stake in the conflict and the area: The United States, Turkey, Russia, Iran and many others. Several opportunities for meaningful Interventions exist, but time is running out. Just one example: U.S. removal of the current waivers of the Freedom Support Act, resulting of suspension of major military aid to Azerbaijan, would have a powerful impact. Dozens of members of Congress have already advanced a resolution calling for this remedy

But while the world watches and ponders, 120,000 lives are at stake. The natural consequences of the blockade are clear.

Without immediate intermediation, it would appear that the Armenian genocide is destined to continue.

Harry N. Mazadoorian, of Kensington, Conn., has had a career as attorney and mediator. He is the son of Genocide survivors; three of his grandparents perished in the 1915 genocide.

https://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/opinion-armenian-genocide-could-be-repeating-17908826.php

[Yervant1]

India - April 23 2023

Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day 2023: Date, History, Facts and Activities Hundreds of thousands of individuals visit the Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, to lay flowers at the memorial's eternal flame. On April 24 we remember the Armenian notables who were exiled from the Ottoman capital in 1915

Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day 2023: The 24th of April marks Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, also known as Genocide Memorial Day, is a public holiday in Armenia that Armenians around the globe observe to mourn and commemorate the genocide. It is observed annually to remember the victims of the Armenian Genocide, which took place between 1915 and 1923.

Hundreds of thousands of individuals visit the Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, to lay flowers at the memorial’s eternal flame. On April 24 we remember the Armenian notables who were exiled from the Ottoman capital in 1915, including numerous Armenian scholars and community leaders, the majority of whom were slain. This deportation was a precursor to the subsequent events.

HISTORY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE DAY

World-wide, ethnic Armenians observe April 24 as a day of profound grief. It commemorates the day on which authorities of the Ottoman Empire, the ancestor of modern Turkey, gathered up and murdered hundreds of Armenian community leaders in what would become Istanbul. Previously, it was known as Constantinople. This resulted in the fatalities of more than one million Armenians.

Since the 15th century, Armenia was a component of the Ottoman Empire. The Armenian population flourished and increased throughout the Ottoman Empire, and it had reached a sizeable proportion by the time the majority of modern-day Armenia came under Russian rule in the late 19th century. The Ottoman Empire joined the German and Austro-Hungarian empires in World War I in 1914. The religious authorities declared a religious war against all Christians, with the exception of those who took their side. This was terrible news for Christian Armenians, as the Turkish government viewed the Armenian community as an enemy to be vanquished.

Consequently, Armenians were persecuted and killed. Approximately 400 thousand Armenians remained in Turkey in 1923, compared to more than two million at the time of the persecution. On Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, crowds of Armenians gather at the Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial to honour the victims of the genocide and to lay flowers at the memorial’s eternal flame. Following the 1965 Yerevan demonstrations, in which one hundred thousand people marched for 24 hours through the streets of Yerevan to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the deportations, construction of the memorial commenced. They requested that the Soviet authorities officially recognise it as genocide. In 1988, Armenia designated April 24 as a national day of remembrance.

HOW TO REMEMBER THE DAY

View a documentary.

One may view a documentary. Educate yourself on the Armenian Genocide to gain a deeper understanding of the genocide’s history and its effects on the Armenian people.

Become enlightened

You must educate yourself and those around you on the Armenian Genocide and other related issues. You can also post on social media about what you’ve learned or give presentations to your peers in order to share your knowledge.

Discuss with Armenian descendants

Some of the Armenians in the neighbourhood may be the children or descendants of survivors. You can speak with them to find out how the genocide affected them and their families.

FIVE FACTS CONCERNING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Forget-Me-Not

This flower represents the Armenian Genocide.

Frequent instances of violence

The Armenian Genocide occurred between 1915 and 1918, with recurrent acts of violence occurring between 1920 and 1923.

The Convention of the United Nations

1948 marked the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, nearly 30 years after the Armenian Genocide.

Successions of survivors

The overwhelming majority of Armenians in the United States are survivors’ children and grandchildren.

Quantity of victims

Between 1914 and 1923, between 300,000 and two million individuals perished in the Ottoman Empire.

WHY ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE DAY IS IMPORTANT

It elevates consciousness

Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day highlights the genocide that occurred. Additionally, it permits the Armenian people to analyse and discuss the genocide from their perspective.

Never forgotten

The genocide’s victims have passed away but will never be forgotten. In commemoration of them, flowers are placed at the eternal flame with the eternal flame.

It is a day of commemoration

It reminds us not to replicate certain historical events. Even though some deny its existence, these days serve as a reminder for humanity to be more compassionate.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE DAY DATES YEAR DATE DAY 2023 April 24 Monday 2024 April 24 Wednesday 2025 April 24 Thursday 2026 April 24 Friday 2027 April 24 Saturday



https://newsd.in/armenian-genocide-remembrance-day/

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Spain: April 23 2023

On the 108th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide

April 23, 2023

in Tribune

Ricardo Ruiz de la Serna

Professor of Strategic Communication / CEU-San Pablo University

This year marks the 108th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the destruction of Armenian communities in the Ottoman Empire from the Mediterranean coast to Eastern Armenia, including the six provinces of historical Armenia within the Ottoman Empire: Van, Erzurum, Harput, Bitlis, Diyarbekir and Sivas. The massive raid against Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople – among them, for example, the great musician Komitas Vardapet – and the burning of Smyrna, symbolically mark the beginning and the end of what Armenians have called the “Aghet” or “the catastrophe”. The Young Turk regime, and in particular the triumvirate of the Union and Progress Committee formed by Enver *****, Kemal ***** and Talat *****, put an end to the cultural, economic and political life of the first people to convert to Christianity. The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute puts the death toll at 1.5 million. The consequences – for example, the demographic imbalance caused by the massacre – persist to this day.

The path that led to the Genocide started with the “Hamidian Massacres” between 1894 and 1896 and went through the Adana Massacre of April 1909. The rise of nationalist doctrines such as Pan-Turanism and Pan-Turkism paved the way for genocide. Propaganda portrayed Armenians as traitors, enemies of the homeland and conspirators. The Syriac Christians and the Greeks of Pontus suffered similar fates. In the empire dreamed by the military and nationalist poets, the Christian minorities and, in particular, the Armenians were regarded as foreign bodies.

The entry of the Ottoman Empire into the Great War provided an opportunity to accelerate the process of destruction of the Armenians. In a combination of public and secret instruments, the means to exterminate a people were arranged: laws depriving them of their heritage under the pretext of “protecting” it, paramilitary units executing orders to kill, forced transfers of civilians who were then abandoned in the desert to die of hunger and thirst, massacres of intellectuals who could sustain the Armenian national identity, slavery and forced marriages for women, forced conversions to Islam… The Armenian Genocide prefigures the imaginary of the horrors of our time: platoons of soldiers razing villages to the ground, trains driving victims to certain death, detentions without guarantees or trial, starvation and thirst as effective forms of mass murder.

But the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire did not go to their deaths like sheep to the slaughter. Wherever they could resist, they fought bravely. The Armenian resistance in the summer of 1915 inspired Franz Werfel’s great novel “The Forty Days of the Musa Dagh” (1933). There were witnesses who recorded the horror that unfolded before their eyes; for example, German soldiers in the service of the Ottoman Empire, Christian missionaries and diplomats. There were also heroes who refused to witness the crime without acting. For example, Al Husayn Ibn Ali, hierife of Mecca, issued a decree calling for protection and aid to the Armenians. In Eastern Armenia, where resistance stopped the final Ottoman offensive at the battle of Sardarapat (1918), Armenian life was sustained.

In the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, in Persia, in France, in Argentina and in the United States, the survivors did not forget their suffering.

The Armenian Genocide, perpetrated 108 years ago, continues to cast its shadow over our times. It is the responsibility of the democracies of our time to prevent the history of genocide from repeating itself with this people or with any other.

https://thediplomatinspain.com/en/2023/04/on-the-108th-anniversary-of-the-armenian-genocide/

[Yervant1]

Kurdish Press - April 22 2023

Armenian genocide victims commemorated in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority Diyarbakır

Demonstrators in Diyarbakır (Amed) on Saturday remembered the life of Tanile Varujan, an Armenian poet killed in 1915. Varujan was one of an estimated 1.5 million Armenian victims of mass killings committed between 1915 and 1917.

Victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide were commemorated on Saturday in a vigil organised by the Human Rights Association in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Diyarbakır (Amed).

Each week relatives of Diyarbakır’s enforced disappearance victims come together to demonstrate. However, Saturday’s vigil focused on the annual 24 April Armenian genocide remembrance day.

The demonstrators recounted the life of Tanile Varujan (Daniel Varoujan), an Armenian poet killed in 1915.

In 1914 Varujan had founded a group called ‘Mehian’ with fellow writers in Istanbul. A year later he was deported towards the central Anatolian province of Çankırı and, at 31 years old, was tortured to death.

Varujan was one of an estimated 1.5 million Armenian victims of mass killings committed between 1915 and 1917.

On 24 April 1915 over 200 Armenian intellectuals were arrested in Istanbul and deported. The date now marks the annual remembrance day.

Armenian genocide commemorations were banned in Istanbul for a second time this year.

Istanbul’s governor’s office announced that the commemorative events planned in the district of Kadıköy were “not deemed appropriate to be organised”.

“By banning our commemoration event, the Governor’s Office has clearly shown that it is against the dynamics of democratisation. We call on the governorship to abandon this decision,” the organisers announced.

“There is no reasonable justification for the banning of our commemoration this year as it was last year. It is unacceptable to ban this event, in which we commemorate those we lost in 1915 with respect and tranquillity,” the organising platform continued.

“Confronting 1915 is a compulsory step that must be taken today in order to build democracy, equality and sisterly coexistence on solid foundations,” it added.

Despite the ban, the Human Rights Association’s (IHD) Commission Against Racism and Discrimination plans to make a press statement on 24 April in Istanbul’s Taksim.

https://medyanews.net/armenian-genocide-victims-commemorated-in-turkeys-kurdish-majority-diyarbakir/

[Yervant1]

Impunity and Indifference for Past Crimes Fueling Present Day Violence Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day

April 24, 2023, Toronto: On the occasion of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, the Zoryan Institute commemorates the victims of all genocides and are reminded that indifference and impunity for tragedies of the past embolden nations to commit acts of violence, ethnic cleansing and even genocide in the future.

Since December 12, 2022, Azerbaijan has blocked the Lachin Corridor, the main road that serves as a lifeline between Artsakh and Armenia. This blockage has led to serious humanitarian concerns, with little gas, supplies, and medical equipment available. Despite the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering provisional measures to ensure that Azerbaijan ends the blockade of the Lachin Corridor on February 23, 2023, the Lachin Corridor remains closed and Azerbaijan has yet to face any consequences for their actions. The international community's overwhelming silence on the matter has only emboldened Azerbaijan to prolong the blockade for over four months, which is deeply concerning.

Turning a blind eye to acts of violence paves the way for future genocides and mass-atrocity crimes, as impunity begets impunity. Throughout history, there have been numerous instances that exemplify how Turkey has benefitted from impunity. Past instances of violence against Armenians fueled future crimes against Armenians and many other ethnic or religious minorities in the country. This was evident in the case of the Hamidian massacres of the 1890s, which were then followed by the Adana massacres of 1909. These massacres then led to the 20th century’s first genocide, the Armenain Genocide of 1915. Approximately 1.5 million Armenian citizens of Ottoman Turkey were killed in this genocide, and the remaining were deported from their ancestral homelands between 1915-1923.

Turkey’s example of acting with impunity for crimes of genocide may have also inspired Nazi officials, suggesting the proliferating trend of impunity across state borders. In the conclusion of Hitler’s 1939 Obersalzberg Speech, he famously stated: Wer redet heute noch von der Vernichtung der Armenier? [in English: “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?“].

More than one hundred years later, the Turkish government continues to deny the Armenian Genocide. Emboldened by impunity for these crimes, it continues to inflict harm towards its minorities, and even extends to those located in neighbouring nation-states, without consequences. Turkey’s impunity for its past and ongoing acts of violence also demonstrates to other nation states of the region that the international community will not condemn them for their actions.

As we commemorate Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, we must learn from the lessons of the past and acknowledge the danger of indifference and inaction. With reports of human rights abuses already occurring in Artsakh, genocide and ethnic cleansing could manifest quickly if the global community continues to turn a blind eye to this serious issue. The ongoing blockade in the Lachin Corridor is a stark reminder of the atrocities that led up to the Armenian Genocide, and a warning that history may repeat itself.

The Zoryan Institute is steadfast in its commitment to raise awareness through scholarship and education on this critical issue. On the occasion of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, please consider purchasing a copy of the Zoryan Institute’s book, Collective and State Violence in Turkey: The Construction of a National Identity from Empire to Nation-State, and listen to the Institute’s webinar, How Impunity for Past Crimes of Genocide Magnifies Violence Internationally: A Case Study of Turkey. A donation of $25 to Zoryan Institute will also help fund research and an upcoming special issue of the Institute’s academic journal, Genocide Studies International, dedicated to the Blockade of the Lachin Corridor.

Zoryan Institute, a non-profit organization, serves the cause of scholarship and public awareness relating to issues of universal human rights, genocide, and diaspora-homeland relations. This is done through the systematic continued efforts of scholars and specialists using comparative and multidisciplinary approach and in accordance with the highest academic standards.

[Yervant1]

Biden says never again and waives 907. Supplies fake sultan with weapons' for another genocide! Go figure this if you can.

AL ARABIYA, UAE

April 24 2023

Biden remembers Armenian genocide, Turkey slams ‘worthless opportunist politicians’

“We reject these statements, which we consider null and void, and condemn in the strongest terms those who persist in this mistake,” a statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry read.

US President Joe Biden commemorated the Armenian genocide of 1915 on Monday, praising the “resilience” of the Armenian people, but drawing a swift condemnation from Turkey.

Two years ago, Biden became the first US president to recognize the genocide despite persistent lobbying against the move from NATO ally Turkey.

For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

Armenia says the genocide took place beginning in 1915. Turkey, meanwhile, admits that Armenians were killed but denies that it was genocide.

“Today, we pause to remember the lives lost during the Meds Yeghern—the Armenian genocide— and renew our pledge to never forget,” Biden said in a statement on Monday.

He recalled that Ottoman authorities arrested Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople on April 24, 1915, “the start of a systematic campaign of violence against the Armenian community.”

Biden went on: “In the years that followed, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths—a tragedy that forever affected generations of Armenian families.”

The US president made a campaign pledge to recognize the genocide and, on Monday, vowed to ensure that such an atrocity “never again” takes place.

“So many of those who survived were forced to begin new lives in new lands—including the United States. Here and around the world, the Armenian people have met the evil of hate with hope,” Biden said.

Turkey blasted Biden’s decision to recognize the genocide two years ago, saying his statement had no legal basis and would “open a deep” wound in bilateral ties.

On Monday, Ankara launched a diatribe against “political charlatans,” adding that “those who insist on this biased approach will go down in history as worthless opportunist politicians.

“We reject these statements, which we consider null and void, and condemn in the strongest terms those who persist in this mistake. Turkey does not need to be lectured about its own history by anyone,” a statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry read.

In recent years, the Biden administration has also tried to exert diplomatic efforts to resolve a yearslong land dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

On Sunday, the State Department criticized Baku, backed by Turkey, for putting up a checkpoint on the Lachin corridor.

Azerbaijan has been blocking the Lachin corridor since December 2022, but Baku has claimed that environmental activists are the ones blocking the road due to what they say is illegal Armenian mining in the area.

The corridor is a vital road linking Armenia with Nagorno-Karabakh, the only route for food, medicine and fuel supplies. “The United States is deeply concerned that Azerbaijan’s establishment of a checkpoint on the Lachin corridor undermines efforts to establish confidence in the peace process,” the State Department said over the weekend. “We reiterate that there should be free and open movement of people and commerce on the Lachin corridor and call on the parties to resume peace talks and refrain from provocations and hostile actions along the border.”

https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2023/04/24/Biden-remembers-Armenian-genocide-Turkey-slams-worthless-opportunist-politicians-

 

[Yervant1]

The Print

India - April 24 2023

Why can’t India recognise Armenian Genocide? Turkey doesn’t hesistate in offending New Delhi

MK Gandhi’s view of Armenia was shaped by a combination of ignorance, anti-colonial machinations, and myopia—but not malice.

KAPIL KOMIREDDI

On this day in 1915 Ottoman Turkey initiated the annihilation of its most industrious minority. What ensued was a protracted operation to slaughter an entire people out of existence. Its meticulousness, presaging the bloodiest century in human history, drove the outstanding Polish Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin to coin the term “genocide” and enshrine it as a crime in international law.

Thirty-four countries will today remember the Armenian Genocide. India will not number among them. Russia and the United States, effectively at war in Ukraine, will unite briefly to mourn the organised murder of more than 1.5 million Armenians by imperial Turkey. The world’s most populous democracy, however, will keep its lips sealed in order not to displease the genocide-deniers in Ankara.

High officials in New Delhi whom I’ve canvassed on this matter rationalise India’s position as being merely “status quoist”. That phrase sounds increasingly like a convenient euphemism for an official attitude animated by cravenness and senselessness. India, home to Armenian communities for more than two thousand years, has a special obligation not only to acknowledge but perhaps even to atone for one of history’s gravest crimes.

Gandhi blinded to truth

At the summit of the atrocities against the Armenians, Mahatma Gandhi took great pains to contrive mitigations for Turkish genocidaires. Having sought to recruit the most hidebound Indian Muslims into the freedom movement by staging a ruinous agitation to preserve the Caliphate, Gandhi became captive to it. Indian Muslims, he wrote, “must resist the studied attempt to humiliate Turkey and therefore Islam, under the false pretext of ensuring Armenian independence”. He refused to regard the Ottoman Empire as an imperial enterprise, doubted whether its Arab and Christian subjects sincerely wished to part company with Turkey, and expressed scepticism about the reports of Armenian massacres and imputed their proliferation to “Armenian-financed propaganda”.

Gandhi had blinded himself to the truth. The carnage that began in 1915 was not an aberration—it was the culmination of a long homicidal yearning. As Christians in the Muslim empire, Armenians were subject to special taxes. As a people with a glorious past, they invited resentment and suspicion. That Armenians thrived in spite of such prejudice is a tribute to their ingenuity, and not the tolerance of the Ottoman authorities.

Defeat, death and betrayal

In the late 19th century, Sultan Abdul Hamid II, a vicious Armenophobe, banned the use of the word “Armenia” in textbooks before presiding over the killing of tens of thousands of Armenians. The apparently “progressive” Young Turks who deposed him proceeded to finish what he had begun.

On 24 April 1915—citing the Ottoman rout at Sarikamish, where a small minority of “treasonous” Armenians had picked up arms for Russia—Turkey detained the most eminent members of Istanbul’s Armenian community, banished them to distant places, and had them killed. In the months that followed, this savage exercise—detention, deportation, murder—was replicated against Armenian communities elsewhere in the empire.

Hundreds of Armenians were bound by chain or rope, bundled into carts, and carried into the desert, where Kurds and Turkish gendarmes enacted horrifying brutalities. Men were knifed, shot dead or dropped from great heights. Children’s heads were smashed against rocks. Women were stripped, molested, and then beheaded with axes.

“When our mother came for the last time and kissed us madly, I remember she was clad only in her white underwear; there were no ornaments, no gold and no velvet clothes,” Mkrtich Karapetian, a survivor, recorded. “We, the children, were unaware of the events happening there. In reality, they had taken off their clothes, one after the other, had arranged the garments on one side, had stripped the women completely, had cut their heads with axes and had thrown them into the valley.”

The Turkish government, having long depicted Armenians as a grasping and greedy people, attempted to claim the life insurance benefits of the Armenians it had killed. In the aftermath of the Turkish defeat in World War I, Allied powers proposed to partition the Ottoman Empire and restore Anatolia to the Armenians. But the promise of justice was shattered by Mustafa Kemal’s Nationalist rebellion. The man now revered as Ataturk, the father of the Turks, aimed then to destroy Armenia as a viable entity before its admission to the League of Nations.

In the summer of 1919, the only force that stood between Kemal’s revanchist Nationalists and the First Republic of Armenia—founded the year before—were two battalions of Indian soldiers who patrolled the ancient Armenian city of Kars under British command.

Once the Indians were relieved, Kemal’s invasion forces punched in, lining the streets and filling the rivers with more Armenian bodies—a continuation of the genocidal campaign begun in 1915—and reducing the young Armenian republic into an infeasible geopolitical anomaly.

For Armenia, defeat and death were braided together with betrayal. Moscow, having persuaded Armenia to submit to Soviet rule in return for guarantees of Russian protection, traded away Armenian lands to Turkey, which was reconstituted in 1923 as a modern secular state. Ottoman war criminals went on to serve its government.

India’s silence

A century ago, Gandhi’s view of Armenia was shaped by a combination of ignorance, anti-colonial machinations, and myopia—but not malice. The Armenians, who erected his statue in their capital, seem to agree. Gandhi’s reflexive mistrust of western advocates of “self-determination” was vindicated by their express abandonment of Armenia—the only nation in the Caucasus that remained loyal to the Allied cause—at the Treaty of Lausanne, which returned Anatolia to Turkey.

What is harder to fathom and abide is the benightedness of contemporary India’s position on the Armenian Genocide. What conceivable benefit does India accrue by refusing to add its voice to the nations that memorialise it? Turkey and its client states certainly do not evince any hesitation in offending India and challenging its sovereignty. Even if they were deferential to India’s feelings, what really is the worth of any advantage obtained by persisting with this shameful silence about genocide?

Those who invoke the sanctity of “status quo” as an excuse for their silence seem not to appreciate that the Turkish—and Turkic—effort to exterminate Armenians is not an antique event. It is an ongoing endeavour. For the past five months, Azerbaijan has blockaded the breakaway Armenian republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. At least 1,50,000 Armenians are cut off from the world beyond—hostages to a dictatorial regime that feels sufficiently emboldened by the silence of major powers to raze irreplaceable Armenian heritage and threaten endless aggression against a defenceless democracy.

By recognising the Armenian Genocide, India may help foster a slow but certain reconciliation with the past; by staying quiet, it will become complicit in its swift repetition.

Kapil Komireddi is the author of Malevolent Republic: A Short History of the New India. Follow him on Telegram (https://t.me/KapilKomireddi) The views expressed here are personal.

(Edited by Ratan Priya)

https://theprint.in/opinion/why-cant-india-recognise-armenian-genocide-turkey-doesnt-hesistate-in-offending-new-delhi/1536340/

[Yervant1]

April 24 2023

Christians Continue to be Purged: Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day

 

by Raymond Ibrahim

April 24, 2023 at 5:00 am

 

• The evidence is overwhelming.

• "Each girl had been nailed alive upon her cross, spikes through her feet and hands..." — Aurora Mardiganian, Ravished Armenia.

• Often overlooked... is that this was less a genocide of Armenians and more a genocide of Christians. Thus the opening sentence of U.S. House Resolution 296, which passed on the hundredth anniversary of the genocide (2019), correctly mentions "the campaign of genocide against Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs, Arameans, Maronites, and other Christians."

• Christianity is what all of those otherwise diverse peoples had in common, and therefore it — not nationality, ethnicity, territory, or grievances — was the ultimate determining factor concerning who the Turks would and would not "purge."

• "Christians were considered infidels (kafir). The call to Jihad... was part of the plan." — Joseph Yacoub, author of Year of the Sword: The Assyrian Christian Genocide

• An eyewitness recalled that... "outrages" [were] committed against "even children"....

• "The opportunity [World War I] presented itself for clearing Turkish soil of a Christian race." — Winston Churchill.

• "Turkey is taking advantage of the war in order to thoroughly liquidate its internal foes, i.e., the indigenous Christians, without being thereby disturbed by foreign intervention.... The question is settled. There are no more Armenians." — Talaat *****, the de facto leader of the Ottoman Empire during the genocide, June 1915.

• Turkey, in 2020, sent sharia-enforcing "jihadist groups," from Syria and Libya.... These Muslim groups committed numerous atrocities. These included raping an Armenian female soldier and mother of three, before hacking off all four of her limbs, gouging her eyes, and sticking one of her severed fingers inside her private parts. — Greek City Times, September 25, 2020.

• Not only has it gone unpunished; NATO ally Turkey has resumed the genocide against the very descendants of those whom the Turks nearly exterminated over a century ago — namely Armenians and Assyrians.

• More recently, in late 2022, Turkey launched thousands of attacks — air, mortar, drone, artillery, etc.—several miles deep into Syria's northern border. This is, of course, where most of the religious minorities live — Christians, Yazidis, and Kurds, who a few years earlier experienced a genocide at the hands of the Islamic State ("ISIS").

• "These military attacks by Recep Tayyip Erdogan's regime are part of a wider Turkish policy of annihilation of the Kurdish and Assyrian [Christian] people in northern Syria and Iraq. Turkey has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including bombing, shelling, abduction, torture, and extrajudicial killings. The attacks are part of Turkey's genocidal policies towards Kurds, Christians, and Ezidis." — Genocide Watch, December 7, 2022.

• "This genocide is a pattern we see, and it's certainly nothing new.... For those who say 'Not on our watch!' or 'Never again!'— here it is, happening again!" — Charmaine Hedding, president of the US-based Shai Fund, webinar on Turkey's genocidal assault on Christians in Syria, rumble.com, December 15, 2022.

Today, April 24, is Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. The Genocide Education Project offers a summary of that tragic event which transpired during World War I (1914-1918):

"More than one million Armenians perished as the result of execution, starvation, disease, the harsh environment, and physical abuse. A people who lived in eastern Turkey for nearly 3,000 years [and two thousand years before the invading Turks arrived] lost its homeland and was profoundly decimated in the first large-scale genocide of the twentieth century. At the beginning of 1915 there were some two million Armenians within Turkey; today there are fewer than 60,000.

"Despite the vast amount of evidence that points to the historical reality of the Armenian Genocide, eyewitness accounts, official archives, photographic evidence, the reports of diplomats, and the testimony of survivors, denial of the Armenian Genocide by successive regimes in Turkey has gone on from 1915 to the present."

The evidence is overwhelming. As far back as 1920, a report to the U.S. Senate by the of the American Military Mission to Armenia stated that "[m]utilation, violation, torture, and death have left their haunting memories in a hundred beautiful Armenian valleys, and the traveler in that region is seldom free from the evidence of this most colossal crime of all the ages."

In her memoir, Ravished Armenia, Aurora Mardiganian described how she was raped and thrown into a harem (consistent with Islam's rules of war). Unlike thousands of other Armenian girls who were discarded after being defiled, she managed to escape. In the city of Malatia, she saw 16 Christian girls crucified: "Each girl had been nailed alive upon her cross," Mardiganian wrote, "spikes through her feet and hands, only their hair blown by the wind, covered their bodies." (Such scenes were portrayed in the 1919 documentary film Auction of Souls.)

Often overlooked, however, is that this was less a genocide of Armenians and more a genocide of Christians. Thus the opening sentence of U.S. House Resolution 296, which passed on the hundredth anniversary of the genocide (2019), correctly mentions "the campaign of genocide against Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs, Arameans, Maronites, and other Christians."

That last word — Christians — is key to understanding this tragic chapter of history: Christianity is what all of those otherwise diverse peoples had in common, and therefore it — not nationality, ethnicity, territory, or grievances — was the ultimate determining factor concerning who the Turks would and would not "purge."

As one Armenian studies professor asked:

"If it [the Armenian Genocide] was a feud between Turks and Armenians, what explains the genocide carried out by Turkey against the Christian Assyrians at the same time?"

According to another professor, Joseph Yacoub, author of Year of the Sword: The Assyrian Christian Genocide,:

"This suicidal policy of ethnic cleansing was stirred up by pan-Islamism and religious fanaticism. Christians were considered infidels (kafir). The call to Jihad... was part of the plan."

According to Yacoub (p.19), several key documents including a Syriac one from 1920, confirm that "there was an Ottoman plan to exterminate Turkey's Christians."

Yacoub recounts many "atrocities carried out by Turks and Kurds from town to town and from village to village without exception." In one instance, Turks, Kurds, and other "Sunnis," selected "eighteen of the most beautiful young girls" and hauled them into a local church, "where they were stripped naked and violated in turn on top of the Holy Gospel." An eyewitness recalled that the "outrages" committed against "even children" were "so horrible that one recoils; it makes the flesh creep."

The genocide is often conflated with the Armenians because many more of them than other Christians were killed—causing them to be the face of the genocide. According to reports, the Turks massacred 1.5 million Armenians, 750,000 Greeks, and 300,000 Assyrians. Relative their numbers, more Assyrians — half of their total population of 600,000 — were massacred.

Because all of these genocidal atrocities occurred during WWI, some, especially Turkey, argue that they were, ultimately, a reflection of just that — war, in all its death-dealing destruction. In reality, war was a factor, but only because it offered the Turks the necessary cover to do what they had apparently long wanted to do.

After describing the massacres as an "administrative holocaust," Winston Churchill observed that "The opportunity [World War I] presented itself for clearing Turkish soil of a Christian race." Or, in the unequivocal words of Talaat *****, the de facto leader of the Ottoman Empire during the genocide:

"Turkey is taking advantage of the war in order to thoroughly liquidate its internal foes, i.e., the indigenous Christians, without being thereby disturbed by foreign intervention.... The question is settled. There are no more Armenians."

Henry Morgenthau, the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and personal witness of the atrocities, attested that "I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this." He added that what the Turks were doing was "a carefully planned scheme to thoroughly extinguish the Armenian race." In 1918, Morgenthau wrote:

"Will the outrageous terrorizing, the cruel torturing, the driving of women into the harems, the debauchery of innocent girls, the sale of many of them at eighty cents each, the murdering of hundreds of thousands and the deportation to, and starvation in, the deserts of other hundreds of thousands, the destruction of hundreds of villages and cities, will the willful execution of this whole devilish scheme to annihilate the Armenian, Greek and Syrian [or Assyrian] Christians of Turkey—will all this go unpunished?"

Not only has it gone unpunished; NATO ally Turkey has resumed the genocide against the very descendants of those whom the Turks nearly exterminated over a century ago — namely Armenians and Assyrians.

In late 2020, Muslim Azerbaijan initiated hostilities against Christian Armenian in a continuation of the 35-year-old landlocked, mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh land dispute. Turkey quickly joined its Azerbaijani co-religionists and arguably even spearheaded the war against Armenia, although the dispute clearly did not concern it. As Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan rhetorically asked, "Why has Turkey returned to the South Caucasus 100 years [after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire]?" His answer: "To continue the Armenian Genocide."

Turkey, in 2020, sent sharia-enforcing "jihadist groups," from Syria and Libya, including the pro-Muslim Brotherhood Hamza Division—which kept naked women chained and imprisoned — to terrorize and slaughter the Armenians. These Muslim groups committed numerous atrocities (here, and here). These included raping an Armenian female soldier and mother of three, before hacking off all four of her limbs, gouging her eyes, and sticking one of her severed fingers inside her private parts.

More recently, in late 2022, Turkey launched thousands of attacks—air, mortar, drone, artillery, etc.—several miles deep into Syria's northern border. This is, of course, where most of the religious minorities live —Christians, Yazidis, and Kurds, who a few years earlier experienced a genocide at the hands of the Islamic State ("ISIS"). Dozens more were killed, and buildings and infrastructure destroyed. In response, Genocide Watch issued a Genocide Emergency Alert on December 7, 2022:

"These military attacks by Recep Tayyip Erdogan's regime are part of a wider Turkish policy of annihilation of the Kurdish and Assyrian [Christian] people in northern Syria and Iraq. Turkey has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including bombing, shelling, abduction, torture, and extrajudicial killings. The attacks are part of Turkey's genocidal policies towards Kurds, Christians, and Ezidis."

A later webinar (summarized here) featured several experts who determined that Turkey's conduct had been genocidal. Charmaine Hedding, president of the Shai Fund, a humanitarian organization, said that Turkey's ground forces consisted of former ISIS, al-Qaeda, and Tahrir al-Shams jihadists who "are committing massive human rights abuses and have an agenda to create a caliphate, and they will eradicate the religious minorities in this area." Gregory Stanton, president of Genocide Watch, concluded by saying:

"Turkey is a genocidal society... Turkey has conducted so many genocides in history... Going back many centuries, it [Turkey] has been anti-Christian, and has tried to slaughter as many Christians as possible."

In the end, what Turkey has done and is doing to Christians must be seen in the broader context of what Muslims have done and continue to do to Christians. An estimated 360 million Christians are currently being persecuted, mostly in the Muslim world.

Four centuries before the Turks invaded and conquered formerly-Christian Asia Minor, Arabs conquered and Islamized all of North Africa and the Middle East. Centuries of persecution and outright jihads (holy wars) saw Christians go from an overwhelming majority to a tiny minority. In some areas there is the extinction (for instance, in Algeria, home of Saint Augustine), or near-extinction, of Christians, especially in the oldest Christian regions, such as Iraq and Syria, where Christians still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus.

In Nigeria, which seemingly, apart from Islam, has little in common with Turkey, at least one Christian is massacred for his/her faith every two hours, even as the world adamantly ignores that genocide.

Today, therefore, on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, it is crucial to remember the true background and significance of that tragic event — Muslim hate for Christians — and to know that it is still ongoing. As Charmaine Hedding said during the webinar on Turkey's genocidal assault on Christians in Syria:

"This genocide is a pattern we see, and it's certainly nothing new.... For those who say 'Not on our watch!' or 'Never again!' — here it is, happening again!"

Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West, Sword and Scimitar, Crucified Again, and The Al Qaeda Reader, is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19593/armenian-genocide-remembrance