Crossbearing Turkish Agent

[gamavor]

https://ahvalnews.com/us-turkey/new-turkey-patriarch-criticises-us-senate-armenian-genocide-resolution?fbclid=IwAR1x12qfw-Rf5AclVQ-1BaxmUKarNW-Gt0OQ7mK5-Yr6W8vVPPOqrgBFgF8

 

This Turkish Cretin must be excommunicated immediately.

 

 

 

New Turkey patriarch criticises U.S. Senate Armenian genocide resolution

 

Dec 14 2019 03:46 Gmt+3

Last Updated On: Dec 14 2019 03:50 Gmt+3

The U.S. Senate resolution that recognised the Armenian genocide was an immoral move said on Saturday the newly-elected Armenian patriarch Bishop Sahak Maşalyan, as it aimed to corner Turkey over the Armenian issue.

Such things should not be taken seriously, Maşalyan said in an interview with Turkish daily Sabah. There is nothing that pertains to us directly that we should get involved with, he said in relation to the resolution approved by the U.S. Senate on Thursday.

As Armenians, we are saddened to see the suffering that took place on these lands 100 years ago be used by parliaments of foreign countries as a tool for strategic, economic, political pressure, the 85th Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul said. We see it as an inappropriate situation against our ancestors.

Maşalyan said he had hoped the people in Turkey could resolve the issue themselves and Turkey and Armenia could improve their relations.

When the two sides cannot talk, third parties, fourth parties, those overseas claim a right to speak, he said. All of these are issues we should handle. But since this is postponed, it is used as leverage to pressure Turkey, he said.

I do not find this to be very moral, the patriarch said.

[onjig]

These Armenians are under the knife ~ living in occupied western Armenia is not easy I'm sure ```

[Yervant1]

I don't know who Bishop Sahak Maşalyan is, but all Bishops before him did the same thing. I guess it's a necessity to lie to the bastards!

[gamavor]

There is no moral dilemma here. Either you are a decent human being, or you are not. There is no excuse for being an asshole.

[onjig]

Gamavor Jan ~ the furkish insane are everywhere there ~ they can take everything out on they who are at their mercy and they do ```

[Yervant1]

Newly-Elected Patriarch of Turkey

Lashes Back at his Armenian Critics

By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

After giving a series of interviews to the Turkish press since his
election on December 11, 2019, the new Armenian Patriarch of Turkey,
Sahak II Mashalyan, responded to his Armenian critics on January 15,
2020, by issuing an official “Clarification” to Turkish-Armenian
newspapers.

It is important to point out that the Patriarch’s critics were not
simply those who live outside Turkey, unjustly accused of being
unaware of the repressive treatment of Istanbul Armenians by the
Turkish government. In addition to criticisms from Armenians in
Armenia and the Diaspora, the Patriarch was attacked by Armenians
living in Turkey as well as the Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos.

The Patriarch’s interview to the Turkish newspaper Aksham generated
the most controversy as he not only distanced Istanbul Armenians from
Diaspora Armenians, but also belittled the massive tragedy of the
Armenian Genocide. His Beatitude complained that a few of the
sentences in his interview with Aksham, drawing the most negative
interpretations and exceeding the limits of understanding, reached a
campaign of tarnishing his name.

The Patriarch made the excuse that in his 40-minute interview, he “had
provided lengthy explanations and details which naturally were not
included in the article. The words appearing in the newspaper were
filtered from those explanations which were given as answers for a
particular question. That style was the choice of the editor. Without
considering the questions, when only answers are provided, a change in
the meaning takes place, which is placed successively, one after
another. In this case, they become unclear expressions and failed
statements, which make the transmitted idea meaningless.”

The Patriarch then stated that he had given the following answer to
the question about Turkish Armenians: “Armenians of Turkey, unlike
Armenians in the Diaspora and Armenia, form a third segment. From the
point of view of administration and economy, the Armenian Diaspora has
no ties with us; we are self-sufficient.”

When his Beatitude was asked about the irreconcilable attitude of
Diaspora Armenians toward Turkey and the reasons for its negative
position, he claimed that the given answer does not belong to him, but
is a simple sociological correction—familiar to all—expressed as such:
‘One hundred years ago, the people who left these lands with a great
tragedy have transmitted the trauma they lived to future generations
and realized that for the Armenian identity and its preservation it is
beneficial and necessary to form a consciousness of the Genocide. They
continued to live for more than a hundred years in a status quo away
from Turkey and Turks. But, we—Armenians who have remained in
Turkey—continued to share our lives with Turks in these lands and
gained the experience of living together. In that sense, we are
distinct Armenians in the Armenian world.”

The Patriarch continued: “In such super sensitive subjects, the
priority of the people has been that they listen to what they want,
and not what the Patriarchs of Turkish Armenians say and under what
conditions. The fate of the Armenian Patriarchs of Turkey is like the
captain of a ship that is being crushed between two non-melting
icebergs. In that circumstance, it is not always possible to secure
harmony and errors appear to occur according to one of the sides.
Sahak Patriarch too, like his predecessors, has tried to give answers
regarding Armenian issues that are satisfactory to all sides. It is
never acceptable to any of the sides to take a rejectionist and
disregarding position. Each person must first understand correctly,
what in reality has been expressed in the uttered words and then
criticize.”

Some in the Diaspora may agree with the Patriarch’s words, emphasizing
the dire conditions that he and the Turkish community are in. Any
Armenian who is familiar with those repressive conditions can be
somewhat sympathetic to the Patriarch’s situation.

Our intent was never to urge the Patriarch to antagonize the
authorities in Turkey. After all, he is responsible for the safety of
his community. All we ask from the Patriarch is to be cautious in his
words, not to alienate his followers in Turkey and not insult the
memory of 1.5 million Armenian martyrs by engaging in outright
denialism. Whenever possible, the Patriarch should avoid giving
interviews to the Turkish press. He should appoint a press spokesman
who is capable of avoiding difficult and sensitive questions,
particularly on political issues. If the spokesman makes a mistake, it
is less consequential than if the Patriarch himself makes a mistake.
Spokesmen can be fired, but the Patriarch’s position is life-long.

Finally, it is unacceptable for the Patriarch to blame the Turkish
newspaper for allegedly misinterpreting his words. First of all, we do
not know what exactly the Patriarch told the Turkish newspaper and if
it was really misinterpreted. For example, in his above
“Clarification,” the Patriarch claims that he had used the word
“Genocide” in his interview with the Turkish newspaper. This is not
credible!

Secondly, the Patriarch is someone who is born and raised in Istanbul.
He knows the Turkish media well. He should have known that the Turkish
press often distorts the words of those they interview. Therefore,
giving an interview to the Turkish press and then complaining that his
words were distorted is not sincere. The Patriarch should have known
that in advance. Complaining about Turkish media distortions after the
interview is published is foolish!

[Yervant1]

EurasiaNet.org

Jan 30 2020

Election of patriarch leaves Turkey’s Armenians without a voice The controversial vote, along with new genocide-recognition resolutions in the U.S., has Turkey’s Armenian community feeling caught in the crossfire between a hostile Turkish majority and an assertive Armenian diaspora.Killian Cogan Jan 30, 2020

The election of Sahak Mashalyan in December (Armenian Public Radio)

In a bustling beauty shop in Istanbul’s traditionally Armenian neighborhood of Kurtuluş, the topic of conversation was the recent election of the Patriarch of Constantinople.

Sesil, a 53-year-old beautician, paused from doing a customer’s nails to weigh in: she hadn’t bothered casting a ballot. “The patriarch is a puppet of Tayyip Erdogan,” she said with a shrug, referring to Turkey’s president. (Her name has been changed at her request.)

The Armenian Patriarch – a position established by the Ottomans in 1461 – is the top spiritual and symbolic leader of the Armenians in Turkey. That community was once an integral part of the Ottoman Empire, but following the 1915 genocide it has dwindled to about 60,000, concentrated mostly in Istanbul.

In the late Ottoman Empire, Armenians chose their patriarch relatively freely under the “millet” system of self-rule for non-Muslims. But that system was abolished in 1923, following the founding of the Turkish Republic, and since then successive Turkish governments have been able to manage the elections through a variety of interventions.

The Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople (Wikipedia)

The last patriarch, Mesrob Mutafyan, suffered from dementia and had been unable to carry out his duties for 12 years. Over that time the church was governed by a cleric appointed by the Turkish government, Aram Ateshyan. In 2017, the patriarchate held an election to elect a locum tenens, or temporary leader to organize and a vote for a replacement for Ateshyan. The winner was Karekin Bekchiyan, a Germany-based archbishop, but the governorate of Istanbul annulled the election.

Mutafyan died in March 2019, and the following month the patriarchate asked the governorate for permission to hold an election for a replacement. Finally, in the fall, the governorate approved the election for December 2019.

While in previous elections candidates born in Turkey but serving abroad had been permitted to run for patriarch, this time the Ministry of Interior introduced a new rule: candidates had to be based in Turkey. That effectively blocked 10 candidates from abroad, including Sebuh Shouldjian, a popular cleric based in Armenia, and left only two: Ateshyan and Sahak Mashalyan.

The latter won handily in a two-round election held in early December. Voting stations were set up across Istanbul and in the provinces of Hatay, Kayseri, Diyarbakir and Mardin, though turnout was reportedly low.

Many Armenians saw the residency requirement as a cynical ploy by Ankara to install its favored candidate.

“I shall not partake in the elections of the Armenian patriarchate [...]. I will not consider the elected person as my patriarch. The civil servants, administrators and those who collaborated with them who tarnish our honor will go down in the dark pages of history,” Garo Paylan, a prominent ethnic Armenian opposition member of parliament, said ahead of the vote.

Nor Zartonk, an Armenian rights group, boycotted the elections and filed a complaint to overturn the results. “The state didn’t want candidates that could speak freely about the 1915 events. It wanted someone who would adopt its discourse,” Murad Mıhçı, the head of the group, told Eurasianet. “That’s why it forbade people from abroad.”

Not everyone agreed: Ara Koçunyan, the editor-in-chief of Jamanak, Turkey’s only daily still printed in the Armenian language, argued that it was the Armenians’ own lack of a unified position on how to conduct the elections that led to the authorities’ meddling in their affairs. He argued that a patriarch close to the government is best positioned to bring benefits to the community, and called objections to the election “demagoguery.”

“Why is America putting this on the agenda?”

While this controversy was brewing, another was percolating in Washington: The U.S. Congress approved a resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide, sparking a furious reaction in Turkey.

Days after his election, the new patriarch told Turkish media that he regretted the U.S. resolution, and sought to differentiate Turkey’s Armenians from those in the diaspora. The comments were seen by many of Turkey’s Armenians as a needless act of sycophancy toward Ankara.

Nevertheless, many Armenians also agreed with the patriarch.

While genocide recognition is often a raison d’être for the Armenian diaspora – most of whom are the descendants of those who fled the 1915 massacres – many of the Armenians who stayed behind see it as a burden.

“The recent bill in the U.S. was passed to upset Turkey. It had nothing to do with us,” Nor Zartonk’s Mıhçı said.

“When the diaspora pushes for the recognition of the genocide in foreign parliaments, we suffer the backlash here,” said Sesil, the beautician. “Each time this debate is brought onto the international agenda, we fear for our children.”

Fifteen years ago, she said, her nephew was shot while carrying out his mandatory military service. He survived, but in 2011 another conscript, 25-year-old Sevag Balıkçı, died as the result of a similar attack. Four years earlier, an ultranationalist teenager assassinated Hrant Dink, a famous journalist and advocate of Turkish-Armenian reconciliation.

A recent report from the Hrant Dink Foundation, an organization set up following Dink’s death to promote inter-cultural dialogue and tolerance, found that in 2018, Armenians were the second most common target of hate speech in Turkey, after Jews.

In the salon, a bright crescent-and-star Turkish flag is planted in a flickering Christmas tree, as if to signal the Armenians’ loyalty to the state.

“There is no question the genocide happened. My grandfather lost his entire family. He told me this story every day, like a tale,” Sesil said. “But why is America putting this on the agenda right now? It happened 100 years ago.”

 

Killian Cogan is a freelance journalist based in Istanbul.

https://eurasianet.org/election-of-patriarch-leaves-turkeys-armenians-without-a-voice

[Yervant1]

News.am, Armenia

Feb 3 2020

Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople on the Armenian Genocide

18:18, 03.02.2020

Another Turkish media outlet has taken an interview from newly elected Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, Archbishop Sahag Mashalian.

In an interview with Mashalian, the Turkish Hurriyet’s correspondent tried to ask the Armenian Patriarch about his opinion on the Armenian Genocide, and Patriarch Mashalian tried to answer this sensitive question diplomatically once again.

“Our hope is that the Turks understand the losses and sufferings of the Armenian people. We Armenians know them since we experienced them. However, the Turks don’t know much about them. In Turkey, things are portrayed in such a way that people believe national minorities are rich and live happily, but this isn’t the way it is at all and hasn’t been this way in the past either. When you lose a person, you can’t bring him or her back, but you want to keep mourning. People need to respect each other’s mourning and share the sorrow because when you share the sorrow, there is less sorrow, and when you share joy, there is more joy,” Mashalian said.

https://news.am/eng/news/558156.html