Kurdish Mayor of Diarbeqir called Armenians to return back to their lands
Artist Mustafa Ilhan performed Armenian musical song yesterday in Diarbeqir art center, Haberturk reported. Paper reported that Kurdish Mayor Osman Baydemir of Diarbeqir also attended the event.
The Mayor stated that once Diarbeqir was significantly populated by Armenians.
“Unfortunately we’ve lost those values. It wasn’t only them, who had been removed, to lose or those who stayed and was brutally tortured. We’ve also lost things. It seems they have taken the success with them. Please, return back to your lands,” Mayor of Diarbeqir released a speech to Armenians.
Source: Panorama.am
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
KURDISH MAYOR APPEALS TO ARMENIANS--COME BACK TO YOUR LANDS
Kurdish Mayor of Diarbeqir called Armenians to return back to their lands
Artist Mustafa Ilhan performed Armenian musical song yesterday in Diarbeqir art center, Haberturk reported. Paper reported that Kurdish Mayor Osman Baydemir of Diarbeqir also attended the event.
The Mayor stated that once Diarbeqir was significantly populated by Armenians.
“Unfortunately we’ve lost those values. It wasn’t only them, who had been removed, to lose or those who stayed and was brutally tortured. We’ve also lost things. It seems they have taken the success with them. Please, return back to your lands,” Mayor of Diarbeqir released a speech to Armenians.
Source: Panorama.am
Artist Mustafa Ilhan performed Armenian musical song yesterday in Diarbeqir art center, Haberturk reported. Paper reported that Kurdish Mayor Osman Baydemir of Diarbeqir also attended the event.
The Mayor stated that once Diarbeqir was significantly populated by Armenians.
“Unfortunately we’ve lost those values. It wasn’t only them, who had been removed, to lose or those who stayed and was brutally tortured. We’ve also lost things. It seems they have taken the success with them. Please, return back to your lands,” Mayor of Diarbeqir released a speech to Armenians.
Source: Panorama.am
TURKISH LAWYER FILES SUIT TO RECOGNIZE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
A Turkish lawyer has submitted a claim to an Ankara court, demanding recognition of the Armenian Genocide, reports Turkish local daily Milliyet. The claim filed by attorney Bendal Celil Ezman demands the Turkish state recognize the Armenian Genocide in the waning days of Ottoman Empire in 1915, to condemn Talat Pasha and rename all the streets that have been named in his honour. This court case is the first of its kind, said Ezman, “Turkey must settle its history and past.”Ezman is one of few Turks who signed the online campaign launched in Turkey called “I Apologize to Armenians.” With that campaign, Turks were apologizing to Armenians for the genocide their ancestors committed in the early 20th century. Asked whether he wasn’t afraid of possible counteractions he might face, Ezman said: “If anything happens to me, it’ll be God’s will.”
Tert.am
Tert.am
TURKISH LAWYER FILES SUIT TO RECOGNIZE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
A Turkish lawyer has submitted a claim to an Ankara court, demanding recognition of the Armenian Genocide, reports Turkish local daily Milliyet. The claim filed by attorney Bendal Celil Ezman demands the Turkish state recognize the Armenian Genocide in the waning days of Ottoman Empire in 1915, to condemn Talat Pasha and rename all the streets that have been named in his honour. This court case is the first of its kind, said Ezman, “Turkey must settle its history and past.”Ezman is one of few Turks who signed the online campaign launched in Turkey called “I Apologize to Armenians.” With that campaign, Turks were apologizing to Armenians for the genocide their ancestors committed in the early 20th century. Asked whether he wasn’t afraid of possible counteractions he might face, Ezman said: “If anything happens to me, it’ll be God’s will.”
Tert.am
ARMENIA TO PARTICIPATE IN THE GLOBAL NUCLEAR SECURITY SUMMIT IN D.C.
April 12, RA President Serzh Sargsyan will leave for U.S. at the invitation of U.S. President Brack Obama to participate in the Global Nuclear Security Summit to be held in Washington, D.C., April 12-13, the RA Presidential Press Secretary Armen Arzumanyan informed NEWS.am.
A letter addressed to Serzh Sargsyan, says that, taking into account Armenia’s commitment to the objectives of fighting against nuclear security and struggle against terrorism, the Armenian leader has been invited to participate in the Global Nuclear Security Summit to be held at Walter E. Washington Convention Center, April 12-13. The goals of the Nuclear Security Summit are to come to a common understanding of the threat posed by nuclear terrorism, to agree to effective measures to secure nuclear material, and to prevent nuclear smuggling and terrorism.
As people responsible for nuclear materials, the world leaders must assume responsibility for reducing their availability where possible and to apply the highest standards of safe storage of the nuclear waste, the U.S. leader’s letter says.
L.A.
News from Armenia - NEWS.am
A letter addressed to Serzh Sargsyan, says that, taking into account Armenia’s commitment to the objectives of fighting against nuclear security and struggle against terrorism, the Armenian leader has been invited to participate in the Global Nuclear Security Summit to be held at Walter E. Washington Convention Center, April 12-13. The goals of the Nuclear Security Summit are to come to a common understanding of the threat posed by nuclear terrorism, to agree to effective measures to secure nuclear material, and to prevent nuclear smuggling and terrorism.
As people responsible for nuclear materials, the world leaders must assume responsibility for reducing their availability where possible and to apply the highest standards of safe storage of the nuclear waste, the U.S. leader’s letter says.
L.A.
News from Armenia - NEWS.am
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COVER UP CONTINUES--NO END IN SIGHT
Erdogan’s meeting with Sirinoglu a PR move, expert says15:29 / 03/31/2010
The fact whether U.S. President Obama will use the word “genocide” during his speech depends on the arrangement reached in the course of the Sargsyan-Obama meeting in Washington, Turkish studies expert Artak Shakaryan told journalists on Wednesday. He deems the Presidents are likely to discuss Obama’s April 24 speech and the vote on a Genocide Resolution in the U.S. Congress.
According to the expert, in Washington, Serzh Sargsyan will try to play a withdrawal card. “It is the only chance for Armenia and we must take it,” he added. Shakaryan thinks that, after achieving certain arrangements with Obama, RA President will make a statement on Armenia’s freezing negotiations or withdrawing from the process.
Commenting on Turkish Premier Recep Erdogan’s recent meeting with the Istanbul-based Armenian community leader Bedros Sirinoglu, the expert called it a “PR move”. He said that Erdogan’s statement about deportation of illegal Armenian immigrants was severely criticized both in and outside Turkey. Thus, he needed to improve his image. “Sirinoglu is one of Premier’s friends and he was invited to show that Ankara is holding a dialogue with the local Armenian community,” Shakaryan said.
Artak Shakaryan also added that Sirinoglu is not the leader of the Istanbul Armenian community, as the Patriarch has been considered leader since 1400s.
A.G.
News from Armenia - NEWS.am
The fact whether U.S. President Obama will use the word “genocide” during his speech depends on the arrangement reached in the course of the Sargsyan-Obama meeting in Washington, Turkish studies expert Artak Shakaryan told journalists on Wednesday. He deems the Presidents are likely to discuss Obama’s April 24 speech and the vote on a Genocide Resolution in the U.S. Congress.
According to the expert, in Washington, Serzh Sargsyan will try to play a withdrawal card. “It is the only chance for Armenia and we must take it,” he added. Shakaryan thinks that, after achieving certain arrangements with Obama, RA President will make a statement on Armenia’s freezing negotiations or withdrawing from the process.
Commenting on Turkish Premier Recep Erdogan’s recent meeting with the Istanbul-based Armenian community leader Bedros Sirinoglu, the expert called it a “PR move”. He said that Erdogan’s statement about deportation of illegal Armenian immigrants was severely criticized both in and outside Turkey. Thus, he needed to improve his image. “Sirinoglu is one of Premier’s friends and he was invited to show that Ankara is holding a dialogue with the local Armenian community,” Shakaryan said.
Artak Shakaryan also added that Sirinoglu is not the leader of the Istanbul Armenian community, as the Patriarch has been considered leader since 1400s.
A.G.
News from Armenia - NEWS.am
ARMENIANS IN TURKEY DEMAND APOLOGY
No CommentsTue, Mar 30 2010 Published in News Email This Post
Weekly Editor’s Conversation with Gul Highlighted in Turkish Media
By: Weekly Staff
ISTANBUL, Turkey (A.W.)—Armenian Weekly editor Khatchig Mouradian’s “Dispatches from Turkey,” a series of five blog posts he wrote during his trips to Istanbul, Ankara, Kars, and Ani in March, have received a significant amount of attention not only in Armenia and the diaspora but also in Turkey.
Aydintasbas's column dealt with highlights and controversies from the U.S. delegation's meeting with President Gul.
Mouradian, who was part of a nine-member delegation of U.S. commentators and analysts visiting Turkey at the invitation of TEPAV (Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey), wrote about his conversation with Turkish President Abdullah Gul, the reactions to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statement about deporting Armenians from Turkey, and several related issues in his dispatches, which were cited in the mainstream Turkish papers Zaman, Milliyet, and Hurriyet, among others.
***
In an article in Today’s Zaman titled “Harsh rhetoric heralds gloomy spring for normalization,” which appeared on March 21, an entire section discusses Mouradian’s “Dispatch #2.” This section is reprinted here.
Spirit, hearts and politics
And yet, damage has been done here and there, and the government should make clear whether it wants to make peace with only with citizens of Armenia or the entire Armenian nation, despite the Armenian Diaspora’s actions, which are hampering the normalization process—without forgetting its own Armenian citizens, who are not guests, but people of this country.
Khatchig Mouradian is an Armenian writer who arrived in Turkey on Wednesday as part of a delegation of U.S. commentators and analysts visiting the country at the invitation of the Ankara-based Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV).
In an article posted on the Armenian Weekly website titled “Memleketine Hosgeldin” (Welcome to Your Country), Mouradian said the title was inspired by what a Turkish journalist told him when she learned of his arrival in Turkey.
Recalling Erdogan’s recent remarks, Mouradian argues, “Turkish diplomats and commentators do not view Armenians as a single monolithic block, but as three supposedly homogeneous blocks.”
Mouradian lists those groups: “The Armenians living in Turkey [mainly in Istanbul] comprise the first group. … In Turkey, these Armenians are regarded as ‘our Armenians,’ or the ‘good Armenians,’ as long as they do not speak out about the genocide and the continued discrimination they face. … The citizens of Armenia, the second group, are, according to the dominant rhetoric in Turkey, the ‘neighbors’ (the ‘poor Armenians’), who are under difficult economic conditions and do not mind forgetting the past and moving on, if the Armenian diaspora leaves them alone. The diaspora Armenians, the third group, are the ‘bad Armenians’.”
Mouradian’s arguments are controversial, but this doesn’t change the fact that many hearts have been broken.
***
On March 29, Milliyet published an article titled “Cankaya’da neler konusuldu?” by Asli Aydintasbas, where the author devotes a section to Mouradian’s conversation with Gul about the Armenian Genocide following the official meeting.
A shorter version (in English) of the same article appeared in Hurriyet Daily News under the title “What was really talked about in Cankaya”? The article begins:
At a meeting with former U.S. Ambassador to Ankara Morton Abromowitz and the Forbes magazine’s Claudia Rosett, whose statements were denied over the weekend by the Presidential Office in Cankaya, and with numerous American commentators, President Abdullah Gul talked about the pain and sorrow felt during the 1915 Armenian events and of Turks living in the Balkans. As leaving, he said “I salute your elderly in the family,” to the Armenian decent journalist Khatchig Mouradian who told the story of his family left Turkey in 1915.
***
On March 19, in a column by Amberin Zaman in Taraf about Erdogan’s threat to deport Armenians, there was a reference to an earlier trip taken by Mouradian and Zaman to the Der Zor desert. Below is the English translation of the concluding paragraph of the column (the entire column will be published by the Weekly later this week):
I recommend to those who are interested in our history that they go to the Der Zor desert in Syria. You know, the desert to which the Committee of Progress and Union sent hundreds of thousands of Armenians, women, elderly, and children alike. There are other horrible truths that shine as bright as the sun there. There are mass graves that the Armenians claim to belong to their ancestors and bones breaking out of the soil. I saw those bones. I am not in a position to prove whom they belong to. That is not the main issue anyway. The main issue is what those bones mean to millions of Armenians. My Armenian friend Khatchig Mouradian, who was there with me, said that his biggest dream was to one day pray, mourn, with his Turkish friends, for his relatives who died in that desert. I can almost hear the whispers of those tormented souls wandering on Der Zor: “It is you who are distorting the past…”
Weekly Editor’s Conversation with Gul Highlighted in Turkish Media
By: Weekly Staff
ISTANBUL, Turkey (A.W.)—Armenian Weekly editor Khatchig Mouradian’s “Dispatches from Turkey,” a series of five blog posts he wrote during his trips to Istanbul, Ankara, Kars, and Ani in March, have received a significant amount of attention not only in Armenia and the diaspora but also in Turkey.
Aydintasbas's column dealt with highlights and controversies from the U.S. delegation's meeting with President Gul.
Mouradian, who was part of a nine-member delegation of U.S. commentators and analysts visiting Turkey at the invitation of TEPAV (Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey), wrote about his conversation with Turkish President Abdullah Gul, the reactions to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statement about deporting Armenians from Turkey, and several related issues in his dispatches, which were cited in the mainstream Turkish papers Zaman, Milliyet, and Hurriyet, among others.
***
In an article in Today’s Zaman titled “Harsh rhetoric heralds gloomy spring for normalization,” which appeared on March 21, an entire section discusses Mouradian’s “Dispatch #2.” This section is reprinted here.
Spirit, hearts and politics
And yet, damage has been done here and there, and the government should make clear whether it wants to make peace with only with citizens of Armenia or the entire Armenian nation, despite the Armenian Diaspora’s actions, which are hampering the normalization process—without forgetting its own Armenian citizens, who are not guests, but people of this country.
Khatchig Mouradian is an Armenian writer who arrived in Turkey on Wednesday as part of a delegation of U.S. commentators and analysts visiting the country at the invitation of the Ankara-based Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV).
In an article posted on the Armenian Weekly website titled “Memleketine Hosgeldin” (Welcome to Your Country), Mouradian said the title was inspired by what a Turkish journalist told him when she learned of his arrival in Turkey.
Recalling Erdogan’s recent remarks, Mouradian argues, “Turkish diplomats and commentators do not view Armenians as a single monolithic block, but as three supposedly homogeneous blocks.”
Mouradian lists those groups: “The Armenians living in Turkey [mainly in Istanbul] comprise the first group. … In Turkey, these Armenians are regarded as ‘our Armenians,’ or the ‘good Armenians,’ as long as they do not speak out about the genocide and the continued discrimination they face. … The citizens of Armenia, the second group, are, according to the dominant rhetoric in Turkey, the ‘neighbors’ (the ‘poor Armenians’), who are under difficult economic conditions and do not mind forgetting the past and moving on, if the Armenian diaspora leaves them alone. The diaspora Armenians, the third group, are the ‘bad Armenians’.”
Mouradian’s arguments are controversial, but this doesn’t change the fact that many hearts have been broken.
***
On March 29, Milliyet published an article titled “Cankaya’da neler konusuldu?” by Asli Aydintasbas, where the author devotes a section to Mouradian’s conversation with Gul about the Armenian Genocide following the official meeting.
A shorter version (in English) of the same article appeared in Hurriyet Daily News under the title “What was really talked about in Cankaya”? The article begins:
At a meeting with former U.S. Ambassador to Ankara Morton Abromowitz and the Forbes magazine’s Claudia Rosett, whose statements were denied over the weekend by the Presidential Office in Cankaya, and with numerous American commentators, President Abdullah Gul talked about the pain and sorrow felt during the 1915 Armenian events and of Turks living in the Balkans. As leaving, he said “I salute your elderly in the family,” to the Armenian decent journalist Khatchig Mouradian who told the story of his family left Turkey in 1915.
***
On March 19, in a column by Amberin Zaman in Taraf about Erdogan’s threat to deport Armenians, there was a reference to an earlier trip taken by Mouradian and Zaman to the Der Zor desert. Below is the English translation of the concluding paragraph of the column (the entire column will be published by the Weekly later this week):
I recommend to those who are interested in our history that they go to the Der Zor desert in Syria. You know, the desert to which the Committee of Progress and Union sent hundreds of thousands of Armenians, women, elderly, and children alike. There are other horrible truths that shine as bright as the sun there. There are mass graves that the Armenians claim to belong to their ancestors and bones breaking out of the soil. I saw those bones. I am not in a position to prove whom they belong to. That is not the main issue anyway. The main issue is what those bones mean to millions of Armenians. My Armenian friend Khatchig Mouradian, who was there with me, said that his biggest dream was to one day pray, mourn, with his Turkish friends, for his relatives who died in that desert. I can almost hear the whispers of those tormented souls wandering on Der Zor: “It is you who are distorting the past…”
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
ARMENIAN GIRL ONE OF THE VICTIMS IN THE RECENT MOSCOW BOMBINGS
There are no RA citizens among the Moscow subway blast victims, according to the preliminary data, RA Foreign Ministry informed NEWS.am.
A 17-year-old Armenian girl, Yeghiazaryan Valentina, whose death was confirmed on March 30, is a citizen of the Russian Federation. The girl died in Moscow City Hospital #1.
RA Armenian Embassy in Russia will provide necessary assistance to the victims’ families.
On Monday morning, two powerful blasts rocked the Lubyanka and Park Kultury subway stations in Moscow. According to latest data, the death toll reached 39. Seventy-two injured are in hospitals.
L.A.
A 17-year-old Armenian girl, Yeghiazaryan Valentina, whose death was confirmed on March 30, is a citizen of the Russian Federation. The girl died in Moscow City Hospital #1.
RA Armenian Embassy in Russia will provide necessary assistance to the victims’ families.
On Monday morning, two powerful blasts rocked the Lubyanka and Park Kultury subway stations in Moscow. According to latest data, the death toll reached 39. Seventy-two injured are in hospitals.
L.A.
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION----POUTING TURKEY SENDS AMB BACK
Turkish Ambassador to Sweden Zergun Koruturk, who was recalled after the adoption of Armenian Genocide Resolution by Swedish Parliament, returned to Stockholm 19 days later and resumed her activities.
Before leaving for Sweden, the Ambassador met with journalists, the Turkish Hurriyet daily reports. According to her, the withdrawal of the Ambassador is a sign of protest in diplomacy, and Turkey made that step after the resolution was approved. As regards the reason for her return to Sweden, Koruturk replied: “After Swedish and Turkish FMs’ meeting in Finland, the Swedish side declared it opposed the adoption of the resolution. Thereafter the Swedish Premier talked on the phone with his Turkish counterpart and apologized. We have already held necessary consultations with Mr. Ahmet Davutoglu. So, it is time to return to Sweden.”
L.A.
News from Armenia - NEWS.am
Before leaving for Sweden, the Ambassador met with journalists, the Turkish Hurriyet daily reports. According to her, the withdrawal of the Ambassador is a sign of protest in diplomacy, and Turkey made that step after the resolution was approved. As regards the reason for her return to Sweden, Koruturk replied: “After Swedish and Turkish FMs’ meeting in Finland, the Swedish side declared it opposed the adoption of the resolution. Thereafter the Swedish Premier talked on the phone with his Turkish counterpart and apologized. We have already held necessary consultations with Mr. Ahmet Davutoglu. So, it is time to return to Sweden.”
L.A.
News from Armenia - NEWS.am
Monday, March 29, 2010
ISRAEL TO DISCUSS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Firstly, the process is affected by increasing Israel-Turkey tension. Other regional processes, such as Ankara’s shift in foreign policy line, namely change from close ties with West to convergence with Muslim world, Armenia-Turkey reconciliation, strengthening of Armenian-Iranian strategic partnership, as well as intensification of Azerbaijani-Israeli cooperation play role as well. Washington’s aspiration to resume Israeli-Palestinian talks by all means urged some officials to recall “Armenian factor” in the context of final determination of Jerusalem final status. The point is Armenian Apostolic Church fully or partially controls many Christian sanctuaries in the city (including part of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher). Besides, Armenian block is located in the heart of Old City, thus western actors of “negotiation process” consider that Jerusalem’s future redivision might to some extent depend on stance of Armenians, the source reads
SERBIAN GOVERNMENT WILL CONSIDER RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE OFFICIALLY
Following the lead of the U.S. and Sweden, a number of European states activated discussions over the recognition of Armenian Genocide.
Armenian Genocide resolution is pending to be included in the Serbian parliament agenda, Turkish Internethaber informs. Serbian Radical party (SRS) press secretary Zoran Krasi stated in Belgrade that their party has drafted the motion officially recognizing the massacres in Ottoman Empire in 1915 as Armenian Genocide.
Krasi also noted that the resolution will be discussed in Serbian parliament shortly.
S.T.
Armenian Genocide resolution is pending to be included in the Serbian parliament agenda, Turkish Internethaber informs. Serbian Radical party (SRS) press secretary Zoran Krasi stated in Belgrade that their party has drafted the motion officially recognizing the massacres in Ottoman Empire in 1915 as Armenian Genocide.
Krasi also noted that the resolution will be discussed in Serbian parliament shortly.
S.T.
PM OF TURKEY AGAIN THREATENS TO DEPORT ARMENIANS
Shortly before the German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s current visit to Ankara, Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave an interview to German “Der Spiegel” newspaper.
Asked about Armenian Genocide, Erdogan replied: “The genocide is off the question.”
The source says that numerous Armenians were killed and deported during the World War I in the Ottoman Turkey."
Referring to President Obama’s campaign pledge to Armenians, Turkish premier said: “If last year Obama said the word &‘genocide’, it would be a mistake. That word cannot be true just because the President said it. As for the Armenian Genocide, adopted by the U.S House Committee on Foreign Affairs, it all was induced by the pressure from Armenian Diaspora.”
Besides, Erdogan interlineary again threatened to deport illegal Armenians from Turkey. “We appeal to Armenian Diaspora in each country, that defends it – there are Armenians in our country that are Turkish citizens, but also illegals. To date, we were turning a blind eye to this, but if Armenian Diaspora carries on, we will take measures.”
S.T.
News from Armenia - NEWS.am
Asked about Armenian Genocide, Erdogan replied: “The genocide is off the question.”
The source says that numerous Armenians were killed and deported during the World War I in the Ottoman Turkey."
Referring to President Obama’s campaign pledge to Armenians, Turkish premier said: “If last year Obama said the word &‘genocide’, it would be a mistake. That word cannot be true just because the President said it. As for the Armenian Genocide, adopted by the U.S House Committee on Foreign Affairs, it all was induced by the pressure from Armenian Diaspora.”
Besides, Erdogan interlineary again threatened to deport illegal Armenians from Turkey. “We appeal to Armenian Diaspora in each country, that defends it – there are Armenians in our country that are Turkish citizens, but also illegals. To date, we were turning a blind eye to this, but if Armenian Diaspora carries on, we will take measures.”
S.T.
News from Armenia - NEWS.am
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
TURKISH AMERICAN CULTURAL ALLIANCE--GUILTY OF GENOCIDE DENIAL
Newly Released FBI Documents Support Explosive Claims by Former FBI Translator Sibel Edmonds
From BoilingFrogPosts.comRecently released FBI documents prove the existence of highly sensitive National Security and criminal investigations of “Turkish Activities” in Chicago prior to September 11, 2001. These documents add further support to many of the allegations that former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds has claimed, in public and in Congress, since 2002. The documents were released under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request into an organization called the Turkish American Cultural Alliance (TACA), an organization repeatedly named by Ms. Edmonds as being complicit in the crimes that she became aware of when she was a translator at the FBI.
The documents released under FOIA are almost completely redacted, but they do support many of Edmonds’ claims, including:
There were a number of very serious FBI investigations into “Turkish activity in Chicago” involving a number of targets, including TACA
These investigations were related to “National Security” among other things.
These investigations were regarded as so sensitive that no files were to be uploaded to FBI’s computer system.
Congressional corruption was involved.
The FBI repeatedly conducted actual “physical surveillance” against Turkish and American targets.
Some of these investigations were shut down in 2001.
The documents comprise primarily of internal FBI ECs (Electronic Communications) between FBI offices. Most of the ECs are titled “Turkish American Cultural Association” although one from Feb 2000 is titled “Turkish Investigations in Chicago” which indicates that there were at least seven different pending investigations into Turkish activity in Chicago, and another later document from July 2001 indicates that there were at least ten investigations into TACA alone.
The earliest document is a November 1999 EC from the FBI’s National Security Division (NS-2D) to FBI field offices in Chicago, Washington DC, Los Angeles and New York (although there is a referenceto a September 1999 EC from NSD.) The timing is significant. In an article in The American Conservative by Phil Giraldi, Ms. Edmonds notes that although there were investigations into Turkish activity dating back to 1996, most of that activity was being monitored by Counter-Intelligence based on FISA warrants because the main targets were foreigners, however in 1999 investigations were opened into ‘US Persons‘ and “they wiretapped the congressmen directly.”
The FBI was obviously concerned about ‘campaign donations’ being paid to Congressional Representatives by these groups. Ms. Edmonds has repeatedly referred to certain groups making “different kinds of campaign contributions – legal and illegal, declared and undeclared” to various congressional members. Two days after an EC from the National Security Division, Chicago reviewed the Federal Electoral Commission (FEC) database which contains details of donations to congressional campaigns. Chicago was apparently interested in donations made by “three individuals who attended the meeting at TACA.”
The FBI was also interested in the leadership of TACA. One EC notes that TACA held elections in 2000 and provides a list of all the newly elected officials. The EC states “Most pertinent to the above investigations was the fact that REDACTED had been REDACTED.” We know that Mehmet Celebi was elected President of TACA at that meeting. Ms. Edmonds has previously referred to Celebi as a key player in the Turkish mafia in the US, noting that the Celebi family is involved in arms and heroin trafficking. Celebi was also Vice-President of the Assembly of Turkish-American Associations (ATAA), another organization named by Ms. Edmonds and others as being involved in various criminal activities.
In 2008, Celebi briefly received some attention when he was key fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, and was nominated as one of Clinton’s Chicago delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. He was eventually kicked out of the Clinton campaign because of the scrutiny.
At the time, Ms. Edmonds said:
“In 2005, Vanity Fair reported that Dennis Hastert had been bribed by Turkish interests. If people want to investigate this further they should FOIA the FBI’s Chicago Field Office for information regarding Mehmet Celebi going back to 1997. If the FBI is honest, there will be boxes and boxes of files responsive to these FOIA requests.“
Famed whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg once said that “Sibel says that suitcases of cash have been delivered to the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, at his home, near Chicago, from Turkish sources, knowing that a lot of that is drug money.”
The aforementioned Vanity Fair article, apparently trying to dodge some potential legal liability, suggested that “the reported content of the Chicago wiretaps may well have been sheer bravado, and there is no evidence that any payment was ever made to Hastert,” however a July 2001 EC regarding the “Statistical Accomplishments” of the TACA case notes that there were thirteen separate instances of actual ‘Physical Surveillance’ in the TACA case alone, suggesting that the FBI may very well have first-hand evidence of some of these crimes.
One fascinating feature of many of these documents is that many of them ominously warn about the sensitivity of the investigation. A typical warning reads:
“Extreme caution must be exercised in the handling of sensitive information contained within. No material pertaining to this investigation is to be computer uploaded. Information concerning this REDACTED investigation is not to be shared with CID (Criminal Investigation Division) absent FBIHQ/DOJ concurrence.“
Ms. Edmonds has often stated that these investigations into illegal Turkish activity were shut down by the White House and State Department in 2001 and 2002, but that the FBI Chicago Office fought to keep them open. Two of the ten cases related to TACA were officially closed by Chicago in July 2001, however even the documents relating to these ‘closed’ cases still warned that the information required ‘extreme caution’ and were not to be uploaded or shared with CID.
Asked to comment on these new documents, Ms. Edmonds replied:
“Finally! I’ve been saying this for years, and now we finally have documented proof from the FBI of this Turkish criminal activity based in Chicago.
This is fantastic, but even this is only the tip of the iceberg. The main question is this: Why has the White House and the State Dept been so determined to shut these investigations down? They shut down these investigations at the FBI, they shut me down with the State Secrets Privilege.
What are they hiding? Chicago was the center of it all, Chicago was the center of the foreign espionage activity, and the center for money laundering, and also a major heroin distribution center. Celebi was a key player, but Dennis Hastert, Mayor Daley, Robert Creamer and other US officials also helped facilitate these activities. When will we see some accountability?“
That is the ultimate question. We now have even more evidence of these crimes – but there is still no sign of any accountability. What will it take?
1 Response for “Official Documents Confirm Major Criminal Investigations of Turkish Operatives in Chicago”
From BoilingFrogPosts.comRecently released FBI documents prove the existence of highly sensitive National Security and criminal investigations of “Turkish Activities” in Chicago prior to September 11, 2001. These documents add further support to many of the allegations that former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds has claimed, in public and in Congress, since 2002. The documents were released under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request into an organization called the Turkish American Cultural Alliance (TACA), an organization repeatedly named by Ms. Edmonds as being complicit in the crimes that she became aware of when she was a translator at the FBI.
The documents released under FOIA are almost completely redacted, but they do support many of Edmonds’ claims, including:
There were a number of very serious FBI investigations into “Turkish activity in Chicago” involving a number of targets, including TACA
These investigations were related to “National Security” among other things.
These investigations were regarded as so sensitive that no files were to be uploaded to FBI’s computer system.
Congressional corruption was involved.
The FBI repeatedly conducted actual “physical surveillance” against Turkish and American targets.
Some of these investigations were shut down in 2001.
The documents comprise primarily of internal FBI ECs (Electronic Communications) between FBI offices. Most of the ECs are titled “Turkish American Cultural Association” although one from Feb 2000 is titled “Turkish Investigations in Chicago” which indicates that there were at least seven different pending investigations into Turkish activity in Chicago, and another later document from July 2001 indicates that there were at least ten investigations into TACA alone.
The earliest document is a November 1999 EC from the FBI’s National Security Division (NS-2D) to FBI field offices in Chicago, Washington DC, Los Angeles and New York (although there is a referenceto a September 1999 EC from NSD.) The timing is significant. In an article in The American Conservative by Phil Giraldi, Ms. Edmonds notes that although there were investigations into Turkish activity dating back to 1996, most of that activity was being monitored by Counter-Intelligence based on FISA warrants because the main targets were foreigners, however in 1999 investigations were opened into ‘US Persons‘ and “they wiretapped the congressmen directly.”
The FBI was obviously concerned about ‘campaign donations’ being paid to Congressional Representatives by these groups. Ms. Edmonds has repeatedly referred to certain groups making “different kinds of campaign contributions – legal and illegal, declared and undeclared” to various congressional members. Two days after an EC from the National Security Division, Chicago reviewed the Federal Electoral Commission (FEC) database which contains details of donations to congressional campaigns. Chicago was apparently interested in donations made by “three individuals who attended the meeting at TACA.”
The FBI was also interested in the leadership of TACA. One EC notes that TACA held elections in 2000 and provides a list of all the newly elected officials. The EC states “Most pertinent to the above investigations was the fact that REDACTED had been REDACTED.” We know that Mehmet Celebi was elected President of TACA at that meeting. Ms. Edmonds has previously referred to Celebi as a key player in the Turkish mafia in the US, noting that the Celebi family is involved in arms and heroin trafficking. Celebi was also Vice-President of the Assembly of Turkish-American Associations (ATAA), another organization named by Ms. Edmonds and others as being involved in various criminal activities.
In 2008, Celebi briefly received some attention when he was key fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, and was nominated as one of Clinton’s Chicago delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. He was eventually kicked out of the Clinton campaign because of the scrutiny.
At the time, Ms. Edmonds said:
“In 2005, Vanity Fair reported that Dennis Hastert had been bribed by Turkish interests. If people want to investigate this further they should FOIA the FBI’s Chicago Field Office for information regarding Mehmet Celebi going back to 1997. If the FBI is honest, there will be boxes and boxes of files responsive to these FOIA requests.“
Famed whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg once said that “Sibel says that suitcases of cash have been delivered to the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, at his home, near Chicago, from Turkish sources, knowing that a lot of that is drug money.”
The aforementioned Vanity Fair article, apparently trying to dodge some potential legal liability, suggested that “the reported content of the Chicago wiretaps may well have been sheer bravado, and there is no evidence that any payment was ever made to Hastert,” however a July 2001 EC regarding the “Statistical Accomplishments” of the TACA case notes that there were thirteen separate instances of actual ‘Physical Surveillance’ in the TACA case alone, suggesting that the FBI may very well have first-hand evidence of some of these crimes.
One fascinating feature of many of these documents is that many of them ominously warn about the sensitivity of the investigation. A typical warning reads:
“Extreme caution must be exercised in the handling of sensitive information contained within. No material pertaining to this investigation is to be computer uploaded. Information concerning this REDACTED investigation is not to be shared with CID (Criminal Investigation Division) absent FBIHQ/DOJ concurrence.“
Ms. Edmonds has often stated that these investigations into illegal Turkish activity were shut down by the White House and State Department in 2001 and 2002, but that the FBI Chicago Office fought to keep them open. Two of the ten cases related to TACA were officially closed by Chicago in July 2001, however even the documents relating to these ‘closed’ cases still warned that the information required ‘extreme caution’ and were not to be uploaded or shared with CID.
Asked to comment on these new documents, Ms. Edmonds replied:
“Finally! I’ve been saying this for years, and now we finally have documented proof from the FBI of this Turkish criminal activity based in Chicago.
This is fantastic, but even this is only the tip of the iceberg. The main question is this: Why has the White House and the State Dept been so determined to shut these investigations down? They shut down these investigations at the FBI, they shut me down with the State Secrets Privilege.
What are they hiding? Chicago was the center of it all, Chicago was the center of the foreign espionage activity, and the center for money laundering, and also a major heroin distribution center. Celebi was a key player, but Dennis Hastert, Mayor Daley, Robert Creamer and other US officials also helped facilitate these activities. When will we see some accountability?“
That is the ultimate question. We now have even more evidence of these crimes – but there is still no sign of any accountability. What will it take?
1 Response for “Official Documents Confirm Major Criminal Investigations of Turkish Operatives in Chicago”
Deir ez Zor is Auschwitz of Armenians: RA President
Deir ez Zor is Auschwitz of Armenians: RA President17:03 / 03/24/2010
RA President Serzh Sargsyan arrived in Deir ez Zor in the frames of his visit to Syria.
NEWS.am posts remarks by RA President.
“Your Eminencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am here today since I could not but be here. It is the greatest grief of my nation that has brought me here, the grief of the first genocide of the 20th century and the greatest disgrace of the civilized humanity. Up to this moment, in the 21st century, the stigma of that disgrace still remains on the foreheads of all those who have turned the denial of the evident facts into their policy, turned it into their bargaining chip and into their lifestyle and norm of behavior.
In the desert of Deir ez Zor the most monstrous acts of the tragedy had taken place, and it is neither possible to articulate the particulars of that tragedy in the language of human beings, nor am I going do that since these particulars are well-known even to those who publicly deny the veracity of the Genocide. Bereft of home and property, bereft of children and parents, bereft of health and the last hope, and finally bereft of the most important – their homeland, these people were doomed to lose the last thing they had – their life in accordance with the state orchestrated and meticulously developed plan of extermination.
Quite often historians and journalists soundly compare Deir ez Zor with Auschwitz saying that &‘Deir ez Zor is the Auschwitz of the Armenians’. I think that the chronology forces us to formulate the facts in a reverse way: &‘Auschwitz is the Deir ez Zor of the Jews’. Only a generation later the humanity witnessed the Deir ez Zor of the Jews. Today, as the President of the Republic of Armenia, the homeland of all Armenians, I am here to ask: &‘Where and when will be held our Nuremberg?’
I’m here to commemorate and to pray for the vast majority of my slaughtered nation that had suffered both physical and cultural extermination. I will elaborate neither on the quality, nor on the quantity of the loss. Let me recall a single fact: as a result of the Genocide the greatest share of the dialects of one of the most ancient Indo-European languages — the Armenian – had been irreversibly eradicated along with its speakers.
In spite of all that happened, we say that we are ready to establish normal diplomatic relations with the modern Turkey, we are ready to have open borders and economic relations, we are ready to make efforts towards building confidence between the peoples of Armenia and Turkey, we are ready to bring closer the two societies by breaking stereotypes and myths that have nothing to do with the reality and developed in decades of dearth of any sensible contacts.
We do this sincerely since we believe that there is no alternative to the living and development between the neighbors through implementation of what is proposed and still at the table, at least to start it up. The signing of the Armenian-Turkish protocols presented us with an historic opportunity that should have a logical destine.
We, however, do not accept the style of references to the Armenian-Turkish dialogue in attempts to avoid the recognition of the Genocide. I do not think it helps the process. Moreover, it is irrelevant to cite some Commission of Historians, since the Armenian-Turkish protocols provide for merely a governmental sub-commission on historic dimension. I assume everyone understands what it means and what the difference is. I ask all those who will have an occasion to elaborate or express themselves on the topic of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide: remember of this dessert, millions of ruined human fortunes and this ancient people deprived of their motherland and with pain in their hearts, before you make up your minds.
In 1915 the greatest Armenian poets of the 20th century — 35 years old Daniel Varuzhan and 37 years old Atom Yarjanian (Siamanto) had also been slaughtered. Before being tortured to death, they were undressed, because they wore European clothes. In those times and places European clothes were quite expensive. The executioners dressed up into the European clothes — stolen from the Armenian geniuses encompassing millennia old civilization, stolen from ordinary Armenians.
I would not interpret symbols signified in these images but I am unequivocally convinced: while preaching European apparel, manners or values no one has a right to cast these images in oblivion.
I am here to remind of the well-known words: &‘It is impossible to kill a nation that does not want to die’. We mean to live and to grow. It is no more possible to intimidate or blackmail us since we have seen the most horrible. We shall continue to live and create with double vigor for us and for our innocent victims. We look forward since we have a lot to say and to share with each other, a lot to say and to share with the world: the brightness and glow that Daniel Varuzhan and Atom Yarjanian had no chance to share.
And here, in Deir ez Zor, we firmly and loudly say over and over again that we are, shall exist and will flourish.”
News from Armenia - NEWS.am
RA President Serzh Sargsyan arrived in Deir ez Zor in the frames of his visit to Syria.
NEWS.am posts remarks by RA President.
“Your Eminencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am here today since I could not but be here. It is the greatest grief of my nation that has brought me here, the grief of the first genocide of the 20th century and the greatest disgrace of the civilized humanity. Up to this moment, in the 21st century, the stigma of that disgrace still remains on the foreheads of all those who have turned the denial of the evident facts into their policy, turned it into their bargaining chip and into their lifestyle and norm of behavior.
In the desert of Deir ez Zor the most monstrous acts of the tragedy had taken place, and it is neither possible to articulate the particulars of that tragedy in the language of human beings, nor am I going do that since these particulars are well-known even to those who publicly deny the veracity of the Genocide. Bereft of home and property, bereft of children and parents, bereft of health and the last hope, and finally bereft of the most important – their homeland, these people were doomed to lose the last thing they had – their life in accordance with the state orchestrated and meticulously developed plan of extermination.
Quite often historians and journalists soundly compare Deir ez Zor with Auschwitz saying that &‘Deir ez Zor is the Auschwitz of the Armenians’. I think that the chronology forces us to formulate the facts in a reverse way: &‘Auschwitz is the Deir ez Zor of the Jews’. Only a generation later the humanity witnessed the Deir ez Zor of the Jews. Today, as the President of the Republic of Armenia, the homeland of all Armenians, I am here to ask: &‘Where and when will be held our Nuremberg?’
I’m here to commemorate and to pray for the vast majority of my slaughtered nation that had suffered both physical and cultural extermination. I will elaborate neither on the quality, nor on the quantity of the loss. Let me recall a single fact: as a result of the Genocide the greatest share of the dialects of one of the most ancient Indo-European languages — the Armenian – had been irreversibly eradicated along with its speakers.
In spite of all that happened, we say that we are ready to establish normal diplomatic relations with the modern Turkey, we are ready to have open borders and economic relations, we are ready to make efforts towards building confidence between the peoples of Armenia and Turkey, we are ready to bring closer the two societies by breaking stereotypes and myths that have nothing to do with the reality and developed in decades of dearth of any sensible contacts.
We do this sincerely since we believe that there is no alternative to the living and development between the neighbors through implementation of what is proposed and still at the table, at least to start it up. The signing of the Armenian-Turkish protocols presented us with an historic opportunity that should have a logical destine.
We, however, do not accept the style of references to the Armenian-Turkish dialogue in attempts to avoid the recognition of the Genocide. I do not think it helps the process. Moreover, it is irrelevant to cite some Commission of Historians, since the Armenian-Turkish protocols provide for merely a governmental sub-commission on historic dimension. I assume everyone understands what it means and what the difference is. I ask all those who will have an occasion to elaborate or express themselves on the topic of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide: remember of this dessert, millions of ruined human fortunes and this ancient people deprived of their motherland and with pain in their hearts, before you make up your minds.
In 1915 the greatest Armenian poets of the 20th century — 35 years old Daniel Varuzhan and 37 years old Atom Yarjanian (Siamanto) had also been slaughtered. Before being tortured to death, they were undressed, because they wore European clothes. In those times and places European clothes were quite expensive. The executioners dressed up into the European clothes — stolen from the Armenian geniuses encompassing millennia old civilization, stolen from ordinary Armenians.
I would not interpret symbols signified in these images but I am unequivocally convinced: while preaching European apparel, manners or values no one has a right to cast these images in oblivion.
I am here to remind of the well-known words: &‘It is impossible to kill a nation that does not want to die’. We mean to live and to grow. It is no more possible to intimidate or blackmail us since we have seen the most horrible. We shall continue to live and create with double vigor for us and for our innocent victims. We look forward since we have a lot to say and to share with each other, a lot to say and to share with the world: the brightness and glow that Daniel Varuzhan and Atom Yarjanian had no chance to share.
And here, in Deir ez Zor, we firmly and loudly say over and over again that we are, shall exist and will flourish.”
News from Armenia - NEWS.am
Majority of British MPs support Armenian Genocide motion
13:57 / 03/24/2010
“UK Justice Minister, the ‘Man of Straw’ appeases Turkish Prime Minister who proposes to deport 100,000 Armenians from Turkey,” reads the press release by Wales-based “Armenia Solidarity” NGO. NEWS.am posts the full text.
“Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan used his recent visit to London to threaten 100,000 Armenians in Turkey with collective deportation in order to make a political point on the 1915 Genocide. That a government of a candidate to join the EU might propose the forced collective expulsion from its territory of a specified nationality ought to be unthinkable in the 21st century. Yet that course was casually advanced on 16th March by the Turkish Prime Minister, against Armenian migrants, many of them grand-children of Armenian Genocide survivors deported during 1915-23 from their homeland.
The visit came a few weeks before debate scheduled in the House of Lords (29 March) initiated by Baroness Cox asking the British government to reconsider its stance on the Armenian Genocide, and in the House of Commons (30th April) to consider an Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day proposed by Andrew Dismore MP.
The response of Justice Minister Jack Straw on Tuesday 16th March defies belief in its naivety and cynicism. He suppressed any comment on the threats of deportations that would befit a cabinet minister of a Western democracy with any claim to ethical standards. He then presumed the outcome of the House of Commons bill by assuring Turkey's prime minister that the UK Parliament would not pass a resolution commemorating the Ottoman-era killings of Armenians as genocide, (CNNTurk reports).
”The chance of this becoming law is zero," Straw said, (according to CNNTurk website). “I can assure everyone on this issue.” “Even If it is approved, an Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day will not be established in the country.” “The English government and the opposition do not support this draft,” Straw said.
What Straw failed to mention is that a majority of Labour MPs support the motion, as well as a majority of all MPs who are eligible to express their opinions freely. This is known from signatures to previous Early Day Motions recognizing the Genocide. Sources close to the government say that the Cabinet is much divided on the issue. Even the Foreign & Commonwealth Office describe the behavior of the Turkish government as “neuralgic”, yet a British minister can only comfort a government with such a frame of mind. The contrast between the US and Swedish fortitude and the Man of Straw's pliability could not be starker.
The Justice Minister apparently is prepared to ignore the recent legal opinion of Geoffrey Robertson QC as well as the collective view of the International Association of Genocide Scholars and the pronouncement of the presidents of the International Network of Genocide Scholars.
We appeal to MPs and Peers to put pressure on the Prime Minister to clearly repudiate the disreputable statement of the Justice Minister and to reprimand him for Armenian Holocaust Denial. We know of course that this was not simply a faux-pas, as Mr Straw's is influenced by the Turkish embassy in the UK (source: FCO) and a strong pro-Turkish Israeli lobby in Parliament (source: Channel 4).
Another of Straw’s outrageous comments was “Our biggest mistake after the First World War was to dismember the Ottoman Empire” ignoring the death and destruction of entire ethnic groups in the Empire at that time.
Anyone of any decency, let alone a government minister, should better understand the consequences of genocide denial. Not confronting the truth ensures that the old problems fester and make the resolution of current relationship issues between Turkey and Armenia even more difficult. Relationships between countries and peoples cannot be built on lies.
Trying to change history by denial inevitably means that the lessons being promoted for example through Holocaust Memorial Day cannot prevent future atrocities.
In addition, not less important is the fact that Mr. Straw dishonors the memories of the civilian victims of 1915.
The possible date of an election, 6 May, will play into Jack Straw’s hands as the bill may not complete its parliamentary course. This could mean that his deplorable behavior stands as the official stance of this country, and that clearly is unacceptable. Parliament should assert itself unequivocally to reverse this gift to Turkish propaganda that is already being deployed. In so doing, Parliament should have due regard to the original British Government position in 1915 on the genocide, a “Crime against Humanity and Civilization,” and “Holocaust” in the words of David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, Their first opportunity for Parliament to remove the stain of Genocide Denial will be a positive response in the Genocide debate in the House of Lords on the 29th March.
News from Armenia - NEWS.am
“UK Justice Minister, the ‘Man of Straw’ appeases Turkish Prime Minister who proposes to deport 100,000 Armenians from Turkey,” reads the press release by Wales-based “Armenia Solidarity” NGO. NEWS.am posts the full text.
“Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan used his recent visit to London to threaten 100,000 Armenians in Turkey with collective deportation in order to make a political point on the 1915 Genocide. That a government of a candidate to join the EU might propose the forced collective expulsion from its territory of a specified nationality ought to be unthinkable in the 21st century. Yet that course was casually advanced on 16th March by the Turkish Prime Minister, against Armenian migrants, many of them grand-children of Armenian Genocide survivors deported during 1915-23 from their homeland.
The visit came a few weeks before debate scheduled in the House of Lords (29 March) initiated by Baroness Cox asking the British government to reconsider its stance on the Armenian Genocide, and in the House of Commons (30th April) to consider an Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day proposed by Andrew Dismore MP.
The response of Justice Minister Jack Straw on Tuesday 16th March defies belief in its naivety and cynicism. He suppressed any comment on the threats of deportations that would befit a cabinet minister of a Western democracy with any claim to ethical standards. He then presumed the outcome of the House of Commons bill by assuring Turkey's prime minister that the UK Parliament would not pass a resolution commemorating the Ottoman-era killings of Armenians as genocide, (CNNTurk reports).
”The chance of this becoming law is zero," Straw said, (according to CNNTurk website). “I can assure everyone on this issue.” “Even If it is approved, an Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day will not be established in the country.” “The English government and the opposition do not support this draft,” Straw said.
What Straw failed to mention is that a majority of Labour MPs support the motion, as well as a majority of all MPs who are eligible to express their opinions freely. This is known from signatures to previous Early Day Motions recognizing the Genocide. Sources close to the government say that the Cabinet is much divided on the issue. Even the Foreign & Commonwealth Office describe the behavior of the Turkish government as “neuralgic”, yet a British minister can only comfort a government with such a frame of mind. The contrast between the US and Swedish fortitude and the Man of Straw's pliability could not be starker.
The Justice Minister apparently is prepared to ignore the recent legal opinion of Geoffrey Robertson QC as well as the collective view of the International Association of Genocide Scholars and the pronouncement of the presidents of the International Network of Genocide Scholars.
We appeal to MPs and Peers to put pressure on the Prime Minister to clearly repudiate the disreputable statement of the Justice Minister and to reprimand him for Armenian Holocaust Denial. We know of course that this was not simply a faux-pas, as Mr Straw's is influenced by the Turkish embassy in the UK (source: FCO) and a strong pro-Turkish Israeli lobby in Parliament (source: Channel 4).
Another of Straw’s outrageous comments was “Our biggest mistake after the First World War was to dismember the Ottoman Empire” ignoring the death and destruction of entire ethnic groups in the Empire at that time.
Anyone of any decency, let alone a government minister, should better understand the consequences of genocide denial. Not confronting the truth ensures that the old problems fester and make the resolution of current relationship issues between Turkey and Armenia even more difficult. Relationships between countries and peoples cannot be built on lies.
Trying to change history by denial inevitably means that the lessons being promoted for example through Holocaust Memorial Day cannot prevent future atrocities.
In addition, not less important is the fact that Mr. Straw dishonors the memories of the civilian victims of 1915.
The possible date of an election, 6 May, will play into Jack Straw’s hands as the bill may not complete its parliamentary course. This could mean that his deplorable behavior stands as the official stance of this country, and that clearly is unacceptable. Parliament should assert itself unequivocally to reverse this gift to Turkish propaganda that is already being deployed. In so doing, Parliament should have due regard to the original British Government position in 1915 on the genocide, a “Crime against Humanity and Civilization,” and “Holocaust” in the words of David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, Their first opportunity for Parliament to remove the stain of Genocide Denial will be a positive response in the Genocide debate in the House of Lords on the 29th March.
News from Armenia - NEWS.am
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN TURKEY
SEROUJ APRAHAMIANLOS ANGELES – While a 15-year-old Kurdish girl gets sentenced to eight years in Turkish prison, here in the US, a longtime civil rights lawyer waits to hear from the Supreme Court on whether his advocacy for Kurdish rights will land him in jail. This Wednesday, a coalition of Armenian and Kurdish human rights activists will bring these travesties of justice to light with a mid-day protest in front of the Turkish Consulate.
“They want me not to speak out even for peace for this group of people [Kurds] who have been so woefully oppressed,” said Ralph Fertig, a well-known nonviolent activist and professor at USC, whose current U.S. Supreme Court case will determine whether speaking out on behalf of the Kurds constitutes support for terrorism under U.S. law. “They’re not going to stop me. I’ll speak out no matter what.”
Mr. Fertig is schedule to speak at Wednesday’s protest, which is set to begin at 2:00 p.m. on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and McCarthy Vista. The United Human Rights Council (UHRC) and several Armenian and Kurdish youth organizations are organizing the demonstration, to demand the release of a 15-year-old Kurdish girl named Berivan, jailed in Turkey for eight years on charges of “supporting an illegal organization.”
Berivan was detained this past October at a pro-Kurdish rally in Turkey and charged with shouting slogans and throwing stones. Despite denying these accusations and explaining that she was not part of the rally—but was merely watching out of curiosity on her way to visit an aunt—Berivan was sent to jail for eight years. There are currently hundreds of other Kurdish children in Turkish jails for similarly false accusations and minor offenses.
In addition to erecting an eight-by-eight makeshift “children’s cell” to represent the unjust jailing of Berivan, demonstrators will release doves into the sky and call for the freeing of the more than 2,600 minors currently in Turkish prisons.
“We plan to expose the human rights violations Turkey is committing against Kurdish children,” said Sanan Shirinian, Chairwoman of the UHRC. “These kids should be going to school and playing with their friends, not being thrown in jail because of their nationality.”
The case of Berivan and Mr. Fertig are emblematic of both the ongoing repression of the Turkish government and its attempts to curtail discussion of its abuses here in the United States. “Our right to speak out against the systematic effort to eliminate an ethnic group on the soil it has occupied for 6,000years is now being tested in the U.S. Supreme Court,” explained Fertig. “It is mandatory that we exercise free speech rights before they are curtailed and our appeal is rendered criminal.”
Now in his eighties, Mr. Fertig has a long history of nonviolent activism on behalf of the oppressed and downtrodden. He was jailed and beaten as a Freedom Rider during the Civil Rights movement and has fought for social justice as a federal administrative judge. More recently, he has taken on the cause of the Kurds in Turkey.
“I will speak not only for the Kurds but for America, for the right to tell my fellow Americans that others suffer because we are silent,” said Mr. Fertig.
The United Human Rights Council (UHRC) is a committee of the Armenian Youth Federation. By means of action on a grassroots level the UHRC works toward exposing and correcting human rights violations of governments worldwide, and aims to foster dialogue and collaboration between peoples who share this common vision.
“They want me not to speak out even for peace for this group of people [Kurds] who have been so woefully oppressed,” said Ralph Fertig, a well-known nonviolent activist and professor at USC, whose current U.S. Supreme Court case will determine whether speaking out on behalf of the Kurds constitutes support for terrorism under U.S. law. “They’re not going to stop me. I’ll speak out no matter what.”
Mr. Fertig is schedule to speak at Wednesday’s protest, which is set to begin at 2:00 p.m. on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and McCarthy Vista. The United Human Rights Council (UHRC) and several Armenian and Kurdish youth organizations are organizing the demonstration, to demand the release of a 15-year-old Kurdish girl named Berivan, jailed in Turkey for eight years on charges of “supporting an illegal organization.”
Berivan was detained this past October at a pro-Kurdish rally in Turkey and charged with shouting slogans and throwing stones. Despite denying these accusations and explaining that she was not part of the rally—but was merely watching out of curiosity on her way to visit an aunt—Berivan was sent to jail for eight years. There are currently hundreds of other Kurdish children in Turkish jails for similarly false accusations and minor offenses.
In addition to erecting an eight-by-eight makeshift “children’s cell” to represent the unjust jailing of Berivan, demonstrators will release doves into the sky and call for the freeing of the more than 2,600 minors currently in Turkish prisons.
“We plan to expose the human rights violations Turkey is committing against Kurdish children,” said Sanan Shirinian, Chairwoman of the UHRC. “These kids should be going to school and playing with their friends, not being thrown in jail because of their nationality.”
The case of Berivan and Mr. Fertig are emblematic of both the ongoing repression of the Turkish government and its attempts to curtail discussion of its abuses here in the United States. “Our right to speak out against the systematic effort to eliminate an ethnic group on the soil it has occupied for 6,000years is now being tested in the U.S. Supreme Court,” explained Fertig. “It is mandatory that we exercise free speech rights before they are curtailed and our appeal is rendered criminal.”
Now in his eighties, Mr. Fertig has a long history of nonviolent activism on behalf of the oppressed and downtrodden. He was jailed and beaten as a Freedom Rider during the Civil Rights movement and has fought for social justice as a federal administrative judge. More recently, he has taken on the cause of the Kurds in Turkey.
“I will speak not only for the Kurds but for America, for the right to tell my fellow Americans that others suffer because we are silent,” said Mr. Fertig.
The United Human Rights Council (UHRC) is a committee of the Armenian Youth Federation. By means of action on a grassroots level the UHRC works toward exposing and correcting human rights violations of governments worldwide, and aims to foster dialogue and collaboration between peoples who share this common vision.
GENOCIDE DENIERS ARE AS GUILTY AS THE ONES WHO COMMITTED GENOCIDE
BY LUCINE KASBARIANRecent articles in the mainstream media would have us believe that governments around the world somehow question the factuality of the 1915 Armenian, Assyrian and Greek genocides committed by Turkey. These articles would also have us believe that the Turkish government’s latest temper tantrums over these genocides are justified. Turkey, of course, just recalled its ambassadors to protest the passage of resolutions by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee and the Swedish Parliament that acknowledged Turkish culpability for these genocides.
Despite what today’s mainstream media are declaring, the evidence proving the 1915 genocides is overwhelming. And formal resolutions affirming these unpunished crimes against humanity made appearances around the world long before 2010. Regardless of what pro-Turkish apologists would have us believe, the issue has never been about whether the Turkish regime carried out genocide. Rather, it has always been about when Turkey would be punished and deliver reparations and restitution to the rightful, indigenous inhabitants.
Powerful media elites would have us believe that the mainstream media universe has been devoid of criticism for Turkey’s unpunished crimes because such voices are either non-existent, marginal, irrelevant, fabricated or some combination thereof.
What the media elites fail to tell us is that when these critical voices – from victim ethnic groups or elsewhere – come forward to submit letters, opinion pieces, or quotes, they are usually denied access.
Media elites also neglect to tell us that opinions that do not reflect the official narrative spun by Turkey — not to mention Israel and the U.S. — largely go unpublished. Authoritative voices that would discredit mainstream media’s official narrative of the genocide issue are removed from the elite’s “golden rolodex” — the name given to describe the small group of establishment-approved “experts” who are most frequently quoted in news stories or asked to appear on television.
The absence of dissent in the mainstream media and in the halls of power does not mean that the victims of the genocides and their descendants are insignificant, apathetic or deceitful. No, we are alive, awake and infuriated.
The media are also telling us that we should sympathize with Turkey because it feels “humiliated” by accusations of genocide. Turkey uses this word to describe its anger that its national honor has somehow been injured by such accusations. Do Turkish, Israeli and American officials know what “humiliation” means to the survivors and descendants of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek genocides who experienced debasement and degradation during the genocidal ordeals and are forced to endure denials and demeaning treatment right up to the present day?
And how did humiliation of the victims occur? By order of the Young Turk regime, unarmed civilian subjects — Armenian, Assyrian and Greek men, women and children — were raped in broad daylight, in front of their families and neighbors. The tortures and violations were beyond one’s wildest imagination. Innocents were skinned and burned alive. Their tongues and fingernails were torn out. Horseshoes were nailed to their feet. They were stripped naked and sent on death marches into the desert. Women’s breasts were cut off and their pregnant bellies bayoneted. Fetuses were thrown up into the air and impaled on swords and bayonets for sport. Men were tied to tree limbs that were bent towards one another. When the tree’s limbs were released, the men’s bodies were torn in half. Women were tied to horses and dragged to their deaths.
Those Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks who were not exterminated, enslaved in harems, or kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam were driven from their indigenous lands. Those who survived the death marches spent the rest of their lives in exile, uprooted from their culture and civilization, grieving for their slaughtered families and yearning for their ancestral homeland.
Media elites are giving voice to embroidered Turkish “humiliation” and not to the real humiliation of the victims, survivors and heirs who live with constant anguish in the face of torture, dispossession, contempt and indifference. Media elites are defending Turkey when it is the martyrs and their heirs who deserve mercy and compassion.
In spite of Turkey’s efforts to humiliate the victims at the time of the genocides — and to prolong this humiliation up to the present day with cultural theft, trivialization and scape-goating — the dignity of the victims and their descendants has, remarkably, remained intact.
Turkey’s genocidal crimes have gone unpunished. While continually profiting from the homes, farms, lands, properties, institutions and possessions confiscated in 1915, Turkey even accuses the victims and survivors of the crimes that it itself committed. And media elites portray ongoing survivor grievances as nuisances that impede “progress.”
It is the genocide deniers – the rulers and lobbies of the U.S., Turkey, Israel, and Azerbaijan — who are the ones impeding progress. Their denial, duplicity and audacity do not mean that the genocides’ victims and their heirs have been defeated. Denying the truth does not invalidate it. Fictional Turkish “reconciliation” initiatives foisted upon Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks will never take the place of genuine atonement and restitution, which are necessary for true progress to be made.
To these deniers and obstructionists we say: “Your tactics are transparent. The perpetrators, beneficiaries and enablers of the ongoing genocide against the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek peoples will be brought to justice. You can hide from the truth, but you can’t hide the truth. We will persist, and the truth will prevail.”
Despite what today’s mainstream media are declaring, the evidence proving the 1915 genocides is overwhelming. And formal resolutions affirming these unpunished crimes against humanity made appearances around the world long before 2010. Regardless of what pro-Turkish apologists would have us believe, the issue has never been about whether the Turkish regime carried out genocide. Rather, it has always been about when Turkey would be punished and deliver reparations and restitution to the rightful, indigenous inhabitants.
Powerful media elites would have us believe that the mainstream media universe has been devoid of criticism for Turkey’s unpunished crimes because such voices are either non-existent, marginal, irrelevant, fabricated or some combination thereof.
What the media elites fail to tell us is that when these critical voices – from victim ethnic groups or elsewhere – come forward to submit letters, opinion pieces, or quotes, they are usually denied access.
Media elites also neglect to tell us that opinions that do not reflect the official narrative spun by Turkey — not to mention Israel and the U.S. — largely go unpublished. Authoritative voices that would discredit mainstream media’s official narrative of the genocide issue are removed from the elite’s “golden rolodex” — the name given to describe the small group of establishment-approved “experts” who are most frequently quoted in news stories or asked to appear on television.
The absence of dissent in the mainstream media and in the halls of power does not mean that the victims of the genocides and their descendants are insignificant, apathetic or deceitful. No, we are alive, awake and infuriated.
The media are also telling us that we should sympathize with Turkey because it feels “humiliated” by accusations of genocide. Turkey uses this word to describe its anger that its national honor has somehow been injured by such accusations. Do Turkish, Israeli and American officials know what “humiliation” means to the survivors and descendants of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek genocides who experienced debasement and degradation during the genocidal ordeals and are forced to endure denials and demeaning treatment right up to the present day?
And how did humiliation of the victims occur? By order of the Young Turk regime, unarmed civilian subjects — Armenian, Assyrian and Greek men, women and children — were raped in broad daylight, in front of their families and neighbors. The tortures and violations were beyond one’s wildest imagination. Innocents were skinned and burned alive. Their tongues and fingernails were torn out. Horseshoes were nailed to their feet. They were stripped naked and sent on death marches into the desert. Women’s breasts were cut off and their pregnant bellies bayoneted. Fetuses were thrown up into the air and impaled on swords and bayonets for sport. Men were tied to tree limbs that were bent towards one another. When the tree’s limbs were released, the men’s bodies were torn in half. Women were tied to horses and dragged to their deaths.
Those Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks who were not exterminated, enslaved in harems, or kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam were driven from their indigenous lands. Those who survived the death marches spent the rest of their lives in exile, uprooted from their culture and civilization, grieving for their slaughtered families and yearning for their ancestral homeland.
Media elites are giving voice to embroidered Turkish “humiliation” and not to the real humiliation of the victims, survivors and heirs who live with constant anguish in the face of torture, dispossession, contempt and indifference. Media elites are defending Turkey when it is the martyrs and their heirs who deserve mercy and compassion.
In spite of Turkey’s efforts to humiliate the victims at the time of the genocides — and to prolong this humiliation up to the present day with cultural theft, trivialization and scape-goating — the dignity of the victims and their descendants has, remarkably, remained intact.
Turkey’s genocidal crimes have gone unpunished. While continually profiting from the homes, farms, lands, properties, institutions and possessions confiscated in 1915, Turkey even accuses the victims and survivors of the crimes that it itself committed. And media elites portray ongoing survivor grievances as nuisances that impede “progress.”
It is the genocide deniers – the rulers and lobbies of the U.S., Turkey, Israel, and Azerbaijan — who are the ones impeding progress. Their denial, duplicity and audacity do not mean that the genocides’ victims and their heirs have been defeated. Denying the truth does not invalidate it. Fictional Turkish “reconciliation” initiatives foisted upon Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks will never take the place of genuine atonement and restitution, which are necessary for true progress to be made.
To these deniers and obstructionists we say: “Your tactics are transparent. The perpetrators, beneficiaries and enablers of the ongoing genocide against the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek peoples will be brought to justice. You can hide from the truth, but you can’t hide the truth. We will persist, and the truth will prevail.”
TURKISH PM IS STARTING TO BELIEVE HIS OWN LIES--TRUE HYPOCRISY
ANKARA (RFE/RL)–Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday claimed that Armenians in the Ottoman Empire never faced genocide and, on the contrary, themselves plotted to exterminate Turks.
Erdogan was reported to angrily deny the historical record of Genocide as he marked the 95th anniversary of a rare Turkish military victory during World War One.
“In 1915 and before that, it was the Armenian side that pursued a policy aimed at exterminating our people which led to hunger, misery and death,” he said in a speech delivered in the city of Canakkale. “Forgetting all that is unfair and heartless. Our warriors always respected ancestral laws and did not kill innocent people even on the battlefield.”
“I should underline that this country’s soldier is bigger than history and that this country’s history is as clean and clear as the sun. No country’s parliament can tarnish it,” Erdogan said, in a clear reference to U.S. and Swedish lawmakers’ latest resolutions recognizing the annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.
“There is no genocide in our civilization. Our civilization is the civilization of love, tolerance and brotherhood,” he added, according to “Today’s Zaman” daily.
Erdogan followed a similar line of reasoning last November when he stated that the universally condemned massacres of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Darfur, Sudan were not a genocide. “Muslims don’t commit genocide,” he said.
The Turkish premier did use the word “genocide,” however, when he condemned the deaths of several dozen Turkic-speaking and Muslim Uighurs during unrest in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region last July. “The killings of Uighur Turks by the Chinese police during demonstrations constitute genocide,” he said at the time. “I use this term intentionally.”
Erdogan was reported to angrily deny the historical record of Genocide as he marked the 95th anniversary of a rare Turkish military victory during World War One.
“In 1915 and before that, it was the Armenian side that pursued a policy aimed at exterminating our people which led to hunger, misery and death,” he said in a speech delivered in the city of Canakkale. “Forgetting all that is unfair and heartless. Our warriors always respected ancestral laws and did not kill innocent people even on the battlefield.”
“I should underline that this country’s soldier is bigger than history and that this country’s history is as clean and clear as the sun. No country’s parliament can tarnish it,” Erdogan said, in a clear reference to U.S. and Swedish lawmakers’ latest resolutions recognizing the annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.
“There is no genocide in our civilization. Our civilization is the civilization of love, tolerance and brotherhood,” he added, according to “Today’s Zaman” daily.
Erdogan followed a similar line of reasoning last November when he stated that the universally condemned massacres of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Darfur, Sudan were not a genocide. “Muslims don’t commit genocide,” he said.
The Turkish premier did use the word “genocide,” however, when he condemned the deaths of several dozen Turkic-speaking and Muslim Uighurs during unrest in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region last July. “The killings of Uighur Turks by the Chinese police during demonstrations constitute genocide,” he said at the time. “I use this term intentionally.”
TURKS APOLOGIZE FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
In a letter to the editor published in Turkish daily Taraf today, a group of readers criticized Turkish state policy to refute the fact of the Armenian Genocide and Turkish PM Recept Tayyip Erdogan’s threats last week to deport Armenians living illegally in Turkey .
The letter signed by Taraf readers C. Murat Özgünay, Ömer Faruk, Hürriyet Karadeniz, Yeter Özdemir Şahin, Adnan Genç, Erdal Karayazgan, Serap Kaya, Nesrin Aslan, Ayla Şeşan, Ali Şenalp, Erdal Karayazgan, Muhteşem Özdamar, Necmi Demirci, and Nedim Arul reads:
“We cannot remain indifferent to the 1915 ‘Medz Yeghern’ [Great Calamity] under the Ottoman Empire; our conscience doesn’t allow its denial. We dismiss that injustice, [we] sympathize with our Armenian brothers. We condemn Prime Minister Erdogan’s statement on ‘keeping needy Armenians hostage,’ deeming it to be heartless.”
A number of Turkish media have republished the Taraf letter, labelling it “shocking.”
Tert.am
The letter signed by Taraf readers C. Murat Özgünay, Ömer Faruk, Hürriyet Karadeniz, Yeter Özdemir Şahin, Adnan Genç, Erdal Karayazgan, Serap Kaya, Nesrin Aslan, Ayla Şeşan, Ali Şenalp, Erdal Karayazgan, Muhteşem Özdamar, Necmi Demirci, and Nedim Arul reads:
“We cannot remain indifferent to the 1915 ‘Medz Yeghern’ [Great Calamity] under the Ottoman Empire; our conscience doesn’t allow its denial. We dismiss that injustice, [we] sympathize with our Armenian brothers. We condemn Prime Minister Erdogan’s statement on ‘keeping needy Armenians hostage,’ deeming it to be heartless.”
A number of Turkish media have republished the Taraf letter, labelling it “shocking.”
Tert.am
HUMAN RIGHTS REFERRED TO THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
CE Commission for Human Rights referred to Armenian Genocide Issue
Historical controversies should not hold human rights hostage. One-sided interpretations or distortions of historical events have sometimes led to discrimination of minorities, xenophobia and renewal of conflict. It is crucial to establish an honest search for the truth, CoE website quotes Thomas Hammarberg, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, as saying.
“Coming to terms with history is always essential, but particularly crucial in cases of massive atrocities and human rights violations. Such crimes cannot be ignored without severe consequences. Prolonged impunity or lack of acknowledgment over several generations tends to create bitterness among those who identify themselves with the victims. This, in turn, can poison relations between people who were not even born when the events in question took place” said the Commissioner.
Highlighting past events whose interpretation is still controversial, the Commissioner stresses that more efforts are needed to disclose the truth. “Establishing true accounts of previous human rights violations is indeed essential for building the rule of law in all post-conflict situations. In the immediate aftermath this is crucial to bring those responsible to justice, to compensate the victims and to take actions to prevent the recurrence of these crimes.”
The Commissioner also underlines the importance of a proper education and the need to further those initiatives aimed at fostering multi-perspective history teaching.
Source: Panorama.am
Historical controversies should not hold human rights hostage. One-sided interpretations or distortions of historical events have sometimes led to discrimination of minorities, xenophobia and renewal of conflict. It is crucial to establish an honest search for the truth, CoE website quotes Thomas Hammarberg, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, as saying.
“Coming to terms with history is always essential, but particularly crucial in cases of massive atrocities and human rights violations. Such crimes cannot be ignored without severe consequences. Prolonged impunity or lack of acknowledgment over several generations tends to create bitterness among those who identify themselves with the victims. This, in turn, can poison relations between people who were not even born when the events in question took place” said the Commissioner.
Highlighting past events whose interpretation is still controversial, the Commissioner stresses that more efforts are needed to disclose the truth. “Establishing true accounts of previous human rights violations is indeed essential for building the rule of law in all post-conflict situations. In the immediate aftermath this is crucial to bring those responsible to justice, to compensate the victims and to take actions to prevent the recurrence of these crimes.”
The Commissioner also underlines the importance of a proper education and the need to further those initiatives aimed at fostering multi-perspective history teaching.
Source: Panorama.am
TURKS AND ARMENIANS: ECONOMIST
Turks and Armenians: Economist
From The Economist print edition
It takes many hands to reconcile two peoples so divided by history
So near but yet so far
FOR centuries, a stone bridge spanning the emerald green waters of the Akhurian River connected the southern Caucasus to the Anatolian plains: a strategic pivot on the Silk Road, running through the ancient Armenian kingdom of Ani. Today the bridge would have linked tiny, landlocked Armenia to Turkey. But war and natural disasters have reduced it to a pair of stubs—a sad commentary on the relations between the two states.This grim image prompted an Ankara-based think-tank, called Tepav, to devise a plan to rebuild the bridge and in so doing to reopen the long-sealed land border by stealth. “The idea is to promoter conciliation through cross-border tourism,” explains Tepav’s director, Guven Sak. Turkey’s doveish president, Abdullah Gul, has embraced the plan. The Armenian authorities and Diaspora Armenians with deep pockets are also interested. If all went to plan, the bridge’s restoration would only be the start of a broader effort to repair hundreds of other Armenian architectural treasures scattered across Turkey.This semi-official stamp on a relationship in the absence of diplomatic ties (foreseen in an accord signed last October, but yet tomater ialise) would be a first. Yet academics, artists and journalists are striking peace on their own terms. Hardly a day passes without Turks and Armenians hobnobbing at a reconciliation event.It is a tricky business because true reconciliation means confronting the ghosts of the past. For decades Turkey denied the mass extermination of the Ottoman Armenians in 1915. Under Turkey’s draconian penal code, anyone who dares to describe the Armenian tragedy as a genocide can end up in jail or even dead. In 2007 an ultra-nationalist teenager murdered Hrant Dink, an Armenian-Turkish editor who often wrote about the genocide. Although Ogun Samast pulled the trigger it is widely assumed that rogue security officials from the “deep state” gave him the gun. Dink’s death was a turning point. More than 100,000Turks of all stripes showed up at his funeral bearing placards that read: “We are all Armenians.” Indeed if the murder was intended to stifle debate it had the reverse effect. A growing number of Turks are uttering the-word. Ugur Umit Ungor, a young Turkish academic is one of them. His research aims to show how many Young Turk cadres involved in the massacres continued to thrive after the republic was founded in 1923. Others allude to history in more subtle ways. Take Mehmet Binay, a Turkish film director. His documentary “Whispering Memories” tells the story of ethnic Armenians in a village called Geben, who embraced Islam (presumably to avoid death at the hands of Ottoman forces).Sobs were heard during a recent screening of the film in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital. Although today’s inhabitants of Geben hesitate to call themselves Armenians, a growing number of “crypto-Armenians” (people forced to change identity) do just that. Their stories were collected and recently published by Fethiye Cetin, a Turkish human-rights lawyer, whose grandmother revealed her own Armenian roots shortly before her death. Meanwhile, an army of humble if accidental Armenian ambassadors are helping to melt the ice. Turkey says that as many as 70,000 illegal Armenian migrant workers, mostly women, eke out a living as servant sand nannies in Istanbul. A recent study by Alin Ozinian, an Armenian-Turkish researcher shows that such women arrive full of fear of the Turk” only to return with stories of kindness. If the land borders were to be reopened some day, their wages would not have to be spent on long, pricey bus rides through Georgia.
From The Economist print edition
It takes many hands to reconcile two peoples so divided by history
So near but yet so far
FOR centuries, a stone bridge spanning the emerald green waters of the Akhurian River connected the southern Caucasus to the Anatolian plains: a strategic pivot on the Silk Road, running through the ancient Armenian kingdom of Ani. Today the bridge would have linked tiny, landlocked Armenia to Turkey. But war and natural disasters have reduced it to a pair of stubs—a sad commentary on the relations between the two states.This grim image prompted an Ankara-based think-tank, called Tepav, to devise a plan to rebuild the bridge and in so doing to reopen the long-sealed land border by stealth. “The idea is to promoter conciliation through cross-border tourism,” explains Tepav’s director, Guven Sak. Turkey’s doveish president, Abdullah Gul, has embraced the plan. The Armenian authorities and Diaspora Armenians with deep pockets are also interested. If all went to plan, the bridge’s restoration would only be the start of a broader effort to repair hundreds of other Armenian architectural treasures scattered across Turkey.This semi-official stamp on a relationship in the absence of diplomatic ties (foreseen in an accord signed last October, but yet tomater ialise) would be a first. Yet academics, artists and journalists are striking peace on their own terms. Hardly a day passes without Turks and Armenians hobnobbing at a reconciliation event.It is a tricky business because true reconciliation means confronting the ghosts of the past. For decades Turkey denied the mass extermination of the Ottoman Armenians in 1915. Under Turkey’s draconian penal code, anyone who dares to describe the Armenian tragedy as a genocide can end up in jail or even dead. In 2007 an ultra-nationalist teenager murdered Hrant Dink, an Armenian-Turkish editor who often wrote about the genocide. Although Ogun Samast pulled the trigger it is widely assumed that rogue security officials from the “deep state” gave him the gun. Dink’s death was a turning point. More than 100,000Turks of all stripes showed up at his funeral bearing placards that read: “We are all Armenians.” Indeed if the murder was intended to stifle debate it had the reverse effect. A growing number of Turks are uttering the-word. Ugur Umit Ungor, a young Turkish academic is one of them. His research aims to show how many Young Turk cadres involved in the massacres continued to thrive after the republic was founded in 1923. Others allude to history in more subtle ways. Take Mehmet Binay, a Turkish film director. His documentary “Whispering Memories” tells the story of ethnic Armenians in a village called Geben, who embraced Islam (presumably to avoid death at the hands of Ottoman forces).Sobs were heard during a recent screening of the film in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital. Although today’s inhabitants of Geben hesitate to call themselves Armenians, a growing number of “crypto-Armenians” (people forced to change identity) do just that. Their stories were collected and recently published by Fethiye Cetin, a Turkish human-rights lawyer, whose grandmother revealed her own Armenian roots shortly before her death. Meanwhile, an army of humble if accidental Armenian ambassadors are helping to melt the ice. Turkey says that as many as 70,000 illegal Armenian migrant workers, mostly women, eke out a living as servant sand nannies in Istanbul. A recent study by Alin Ozinian, an Armenian-Turkish researcher shows that such women arrive full of fear of the Turk” only to return with stories of kindness. If the land borders were to be reopened some day, their wages would not have to be spent on long, pricey bus rides through Georgia.
Monday, March 22, 2010
AKCAM:OPEN LETTER TO THE TURKISH PRIME MINISTER
Akcam: An Open Letter to the Prime Minister and Bulent Arinc
By: Taner Akcam
The Turkish version of this letter was published in Taraf on March 13.
There is something I have difficulty understanding. How is it that you, who put an end to 95 years of the state’s policy of “There are no Kurds, they’re just Turks who wander around the mountains”… You, who removed the military’s guardianship over politics—the same military that since the beginning of this Republic has decided who would live and who would die. You, who initiated coups at the drop of a hat. How is it that you, who made such important inroads in this democracy, can insist on continuing the 95 years of denialist policies when it comes to the subject of 1915?
All of us believed that when you signed those protocols with Armenia in October 2009, that the lies surrounding 1915 were coming to an end, just as they were on the Kurdish issue. Could it be that when you signed those protocols, you believed that you could come to a resolution continuing the 95-year-old policies of denial? It doesn’t seem possible… Could you have found a way out of the Kurdish problem by continuing to insist that “There are no Kurds, they’re just Turks who wander around mountains”? If you had stayed loyal to the logic of the problem-solving methods of the military when it comes to the Kurds, whereby they were equated with terrorist organizations, treating the Kurds as “nails” and themselves as the “hammer,” would you have found a way out of the impasse?
Well, it appears that you seriously think you are going to find a resolution to the Armenian problem by continuing these lies. Anyone opposing this view on the Armenian issue is the “nail” and you are the “hammer,” trying to intimidate the U.S., posturing like a bully… Is this how you’re going to remove a 95-year-old gangrene? Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. Arinc, if it could have been fixed this way, don’t you think it would have been so, long ago? Heck, who even needs you then? Sukru Elekdag would have fixed it; Veli Kucuk would have found a neat solution, right?
So, what happens if tomorrow Obama decides it’s time to call your bluff and gives you a taste of your own medicine? What if he comes out with a statement basically saying, “You want to shut me up or get me to tell a lie by threatening me? You’re trying to force me to deny what I believe to be true with threats? Shame on you! Aren’t you the slightest bit embarrassed to be threatening me like that? I’m not lying any more. I am going to state what I believe about 1915. It was genocide.” What are you going to do then?
When the protocols were signed in Switzerland, we believed that it marked the end of the lies and that it was the death knell for the Gunduz Aktan, Sukru Elekdag, and Yusuf Halacoglu era. Not only was the border going to be opened, but commissions were going to be established to make recommendations on how to resolve the issues stemming from history. It seems likely that while Switzerland was mediating the agreement, it tried to convince both you and Armenia by pointing to the “Bergier Commission,” which it had established in 1996, as an example of a “Commission of Independent Experts.” This commission had been formed to research the role that Switzerland had played in the Jewish Holocaust. After five years of work, it presented a final report in 2001; but during those five years, 25 research papers were published covering almost 11,000 pages of information.
There is a fact that is even more important than this, however. One year before the commission was formed, in 1995, the Swiss government apologized to all Jews in the world for its policies during World War II. Actually, the commission was formed as a result of that apology. It’s impossible that you didn’t know that one of the conditions for the establishment of the commission was an apology to the Jews. Even if the Swiss hadn’t mentioned it to you, it is a well-known fact. And we believed that you signed the protocols with full knowledge of this, and heralded the beginning of a change in 95 years of denial policies. “An apology to the Armenians is on its way,” we thought. Apparently that wasn’t the case; instead you had some “oriental inscrutability” in the works. You were going to continue the policy of denial while fabricating a resolution to the problems that have plagued our relationship with Armenia. This is hard to believe, but it is apparent from everything that you have done thus far.
Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. Arinc, I ask that you put this bit of information somewhere in the corner of your minds: You will never resolve the problem of 1915 by repeating a lie that’s been memorized over 95 years. If it could have been resolved by rote repetition, there were those before you who were much louder and who would have achieved. A black stain was smeared on the brow of the Turkish nation in 1915. The ones who did this were the Unionist murderers. If you don’t identify that stain and if you don’t put some distance between yourselves and those who placed that stain upon the brow of the Turkish nation, you won’t be able to take a single step forward on this issue. Don’t even bother trying.
Mr. Prime Minister, you’ve called what happened in 1938 in Dersim a massacre. It’s true we don’t know exactly how many were killed, but you are acting like a bully towards those who condemn what happened in 1915, an event that involved at least 10-15 times more human beings than those who perished in Dersim. On the subject of war crimes committed by Israel against the residents of Gaza, you have shown your displeasure and lifted your voice in opposition, with justification. But when the subject of 1915 comes up, an event that involved killings on a level that can’t even begin to be compared with the violations of human rights in Gaza, you’ve made absurd remarks like, “No one can force me to admit that Muslims commit murders. My forebears were not murderers.” Don’t you think others are going to look at that and say, “Who is he kidding?”
You are the ones who have changed the traditional line that’s been followed on the “Kurdish Question,” who have fought to push the military out of political life. Why are you parroting the same old lies that have been told by this military and this bureaucracy? Let me give you an example. You weren’t able to make any progress on the Kurdish and military matter by siding with the officer who called those involved in the Semdinli event “one of our boys.”1 You were only able to make progress after so many painful experiences, once you put distance between those “good boys” and yourselves. The subject of 1915 is no different.
“Our boys” are the ones who continue to deny that Armenians were annihilated in 1915. They’re the ones forming the Talat Pasha Committees and organizing the memorial meetings for Kemal, the murderous mayor of Bogazlayan. And let’s not forget, they are the same ones who have planned assassinations against you and have tried to overthrow your administration. Don’t you realize that you will never be able to solve anything regarding 1915 by holding onto the same position of those who want to dig your graves?
Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. Arinc, the answers to the problems that are the legacy of 1915 can’t be found in the denialist policies of Veli Kucuk, Dogu Perincek, Sukru Elekdag, and Yusuf Halacoglu. Don’t search for the answers there. You won’t get anywhere repeating the chorus they’ve been singing for 95 years. They are your adversaries on the issue of 1915, just as they are when it comes to the Kurdish issue and the issue of the military’s place in politics. You cannot construct your response to 1915 by holding rank with those who want to drag the country into chaos; with those who murdered Hrant Dink; with those who have planned massacres against Christians and who have been plotting coups against you.
If you are going to respond to 1915, you need to search for that answer in a place that is different than the answers given by Ergenekon or by the ones who plotted the coups. For this you should follow your Muslim roots in Anatolia that have risen alongside your party, and take a closer look at what these roots did during 1915.
Mr. Arinc, these words are for you. With reason, you were angered by the way the women of the CHP in Mersin tore up the Muslim veil.2 Do you realize, however, that with the position that you have taken, you have torn the deep fabric of Anatolian Islam and have ripped apart the cultural legacy of Anatolian Muslims who can walk head held high for bravely challenging the murders of 1915? Do you know that when the Unionist gangs were murdering Armenians in 1915, the ones who put up the biggest fight, who challenged them the most were the Muslims of Anatolia? Did you have any idea that it was the Muslim community of Kastamonu that marched upon the governor’s office demanding, “We won’t stand for our neighbors being murdered”? Or that it was the Muslims of Yozgat who opposed Killer Kemal of Bogazlayan, yelling, “There’s no place in the Koran for the murder of innocents”? Have you never heard of the important role played in the hanging of Killer Kemal by the written testimony of the Grand Mufti of Bogazlayan, Abdullahzade Mehmed? Did you know that in opposing the murders being committed by Killer Kemal, this Muslim Mufti said, “Allah stands above us all. I fear his wrath”?
Mr. Arinc, are you aware of the order given by Commander Kamil Pasha of the Third Army in 1915? He stated, “Whoever tries to hide Armenians in their homes will be executed before his front door and his home will be burned to the ground.” Despite this order, do you know that Haji Halil, a Muslim from Urfa, hid an Armenian family of eight in the attic of his home, in the market of Urfa, for one full year despite threats of death and burning? Go to eastern Anatolia and ask the members of parliament from your own party. They’ll tell you dozens, hundreds of stories like this.
I don’t need to make a point that when the Unionists were massacring Armenians in Anatolia, pious Muslims were opposing what was happening and saying that the murder of innocents has no place in the Koran. Whichever conference I attend and whenever I’m talking with Armenians, I hear, “If we are alive today, it is without a doubt because of the aid of some Muslims.” But they’ll also add, “because of your government’s policy of denial, we can’t talk about it openly.”
Mr. Arinc, you can’t build a future on the backs of murderers. You can build a future on the backs of those righteous Muslims in Anatolia who challenged the murderers. In the same way that you can’t resolve today’s problems by supporting Hrant Dink’s murderers—the “Samats” and the “Veli Kucuks”—you won’t get anywhere supporting the murderers of the Hrants of the past. The answers to 1915 can’t be found in the answers of Dogu Perincek or Veli Kucuk. They are members of the Ergenekon gang that killed Hrant Dink; it’s natural that they defend the murderers of the Hrants of the past. Let the Veli Kucuks defend the murderer Samat of today and the murderers Talat, Enver, and Kemal of yesterday. Your place is not at the side of Veli Kucuk. Your duty is to stand by the side of the Haji Halils, to stand up for those Muslims who put themselves and their families at risk by opposing the massacres.
I would like you to recognize one more thing. Because of the 95 years of denialist policies and defense of murderers, from an international perspective there’s a second stain on the brow of Turkishness and Islam, next to the one created by 1915. Because of the policies followed by the Sukru Elekdags and the Veli Kucuks, Turks are perceived as a people who enjoy murdering, who defend murders. We need to rescue Turkishness and Islam from the Talats and the Envers of yesterday and the Samats of today, and not allow the Elekdags and Kucuks to define it. Turkishness and Islam are identities that are too honorable to be left at the hands of murderers and their defenders. I have an Armenian friend and he has said to me, “Until yesterday, when I heard Turkish, I felt a hatred for it. I called it the language of my enemy. But since getting to know you, I’ve begun to say it’s the sound of my friend, a Turk.”
We need the honest and honorable cry of Turkishness and Islam. Let Dogu Perincek, Veli Kucuk, and the ones who planned your assassination defend the murderers of yesterday and today. You need to see by now that the ones who defended Talat, Enver, and Dr. Nazim in the past are the same people who defend Ogun Samat today.
If we can walk with a shred of self-respect today, heads held high, it’s because we can point to Hrant’s killer and call him what he is. You need to see that once we acknowledge the murderers of the Hrants of 1915, we will walk with our heads held high, self-respect intact. Nazim Hikmet has the best words for describing what needs to be done in connection with 1915. I’d like to conclude this letter with him.
Grocer Garabed’s lights are onHe hasn’t forgiven, this Armenian citizen,The way his father was slaughtered in the Kurdish mountainsBut he loves you because you haven’t forgiven eitherThe stain that’s been drawn on the brows of the Turkish people
Mr. Prime Minister, I know that you like to read poetry. The Turkish person and the Muslims of the Middle East want to hear these verses from you.
*** [1] This references an incident where a bookstore in a Kurdish city was bombed. Officers in the Turkish military were suspected of having planned and/or executed the deed. The chief of the General Staff was quoted as saying the officers were “our good boys”.[2] This is in reference to an incident during International Women’s Day when women members of the CHP (Republican People’s Party) tore up the headscarf of a Muslim woman.
By: Taner Akcam
The Turkish version of this letter was published in Taraf on March 13.
There is something I have difficulty understanding. How is it that you, who put an end to 95 years of the state’s policy of “There are no Kurds, they’re just Turks who wander around the mountains”… You, who removed the military’s guardianship over politics—the same military that since the beginning of this Republic has decided who would live and who would die. You, who initiated coups at the drop of a hat. How is it that you, who made such important inroads in this democracy, can insist on continuing the 95 years of denialist policies when it comes to the subject of 1915?
All of us believed that when you signed those protocols with Armenia in October 2009, that the lies surrounding 1915 were coming to an end, just as they were on the Kurdish issue. Could it be that when you signed those protocols, you believed that you could come to a resolution continuing the 95-year-old policies of denial? It doesn’t seem possible… Could you have found a way out of the Kurdish problem by continuing to insist that “There are no Kurds, they’re just Turks who wander around mountains”? If you had stayed loyal to the logic of the problem-solving methods of the military when it comes to the Kurds, whereby they were equated with terrorist organizations, treating the Kurds as “nails” and themselves as the “hammer,” would you have found a way out of the impasse?
Well, it appears that you seriously think you are going to find a resolution to the Armenian problem by continuing these lies. Anyone opposing this view on the Armenian issue is the “nail” and you are the “hammer,” trying to intimidate the U.S., posturing like a bully… Is this how you’re going to remove a 95-year-old gangrene? Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. Arinc, if it could have been fixed this way, don’t you think it would have been so, long ago? Heck, who even needs you then? Sukru Elekdag would have fixed it; Veli Kucuk would have found a neat solution, right?
So, what happens if tomorrow Obama decides it’s time to call your bluff and gives you a taste of your own medicine? What if he comes out with a statement basically saying, “You want to shut me up or get me to tell a lie by threatening me? You’re trying to force me to deny what I believe to be true with threats? Shame on you! Aren’t you the slightest bit embarrassed to be threatening me like that? I’m not lying any more. I am going to state what I believe about 1915. It was genocide.” What are you going to do then?
When the protocols were signed in Switzerland, we believed that it marked the end of the lies and that it was the death knell for the Gunduz Aktan, Sukru Elekdag, and Yusuf Halacoglu era. Not only was the border going to be opened, but commissions were going to be established to make recommendations on how to resolve the issues stemming from history. It seems likely that while Switzerland was mediating the agreement, it tried to convince both you and Armenia by pointing to the “Bergier Commission,” which it had established in 1996, as an example of a “Commission of Independent Experts.” This commission had been formed to research the role that Switzerland had played in the Jewish Holocaust. After five years of work, it presented a final report in 2001; but during those five years, 25 research papers were published covering almost 11,000 pages of information.
There is a fact that is even more important than this, however. One year before the commission was formed, in 1995, the Swiss government apologized to all Jews in the world for its policies during World War II. Actually, the commission was formed as a result of that apology. It’s impossible that you didn’t know that one of the conditions for the establishment of the commission was an apology to the Jews. Even if the Swiss hadn’t mentioned it to you, it is a well-known fact. And we believed that you signed the protocols with full knowledge of this, and heralded the beginning of a change in 95 years of denial policies. “An apology to the Armenians is on its way,” we thought. Apparently that wasn’t the case; instead you had some “oriental inscrutability” in the works. You were going to continue the policy of denial while fabricating a resolution to the problems that have plagued our relationship with Armenia. This is hard to believe, but it is apparent from everything that you have done thus far.
Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. Arinc, I ask that you put this bit of information somewhere in the corner of your minds: You will never resolve the problem of 1915 by repeating a lie that’s been memorized over 95 years. If it could have been resolved by rote repetition, there were those before you who were much louder and who would have achieved. A black stain was smeared on the brow of the Turkish nation in 1915. The ones who did this were the Unionist murderers. If you don’t identify that stain and if you don’t put some distance between yourselves and those who placed that stain upon the brow of the Turkish nation, you won’t be able to take a single step forward on this issue. Don’t even bother trying.
Mr. Prime Minister, you’ve called what happened in 1938 in Dersim a massacre. It’s true we don’t know exactly how many were killed, but you are acting like a bully towards those who condemn what happened in 1915, an event that involved at least 10-15 times more human beings than those who perished in Dersim. On the subject of war crimes committed by Israel against the residents of Gaza, you have shown your displeasure and lifted your voice in opposition, with justification. But when the subject of 1915 comes up, an event that involved killings on a level that can’t even begin to be compared with the violations of human rights in Gaza, you’ve made absurd remarks like, “No one can force me to admit that Muslims commit murders. My forebears were not murderers.” Don’t you think others are going to look at that and say, “Who is he kidding?”
You are the ones who have changed the traditional line that’s been followed on the “Kurdish Question,” who have fought to push the military out of political life. Why are you parroting the same old lies that have been told by this military and this bureaucracy? Let me give you an example. You weren’t able to make any progress on the Kurdish and military matter by siding with the officer who called those involved in the Semdinli event “one of our boys.”1 You were only able to make progress after so many painful experiences, once you put distance between those “good boys” and yourselves. The subject of 1915 is no different.
“Our boys” are the ones who continue to deny that Armenians were annihilated in 1915. They’re the ones forming the Talat Pasha Committees and organizing the memorial meetings for Kemal, the murderous mayor of Bogazlayan. And let’s not forget, they are the same ones who have planned assassinations against you and have tried to overthrow your administration. Don’t you realize that you will never be able to solve anything regarding 1915 by holding onto the same position of those who want to dig your graves?
Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. Arinc, the answers to the problems that are the legacy of 1915 can’t be found in the denialist policies of Veli Kucuk, Dogu Perincek, Sukru Elekdag, and Yusuf Halacoglu. Don’t search for the answers there. You won’t get anywhere repeating the chorus they’ve been singing for 95 years. They are your adversaries on the issue of 1915, just as they are when it comes to the Kurdish issue and the issue of the military’s place in politics. You cannot construct your response to 1915 by holding rank with those who want to drag the country into chaos; with those who murdered Hrant Dink; with those who have planned massacres against Christians and who have been plotting coups against you.
If you are going to respond to 1915, you need to search for that answer in a place that is different than the answers given by Ergenekon or by the ones who plotted the coups. For this you should follow your Muslim roots in Anatolia that have risen alongside your party, and take a closer look at what these roots did during 1915.
Mr. Arinc, these words are for you. With reason, you were angered by the way the women of the CHP in Mersin tore up the Muslim veil.2 Do you realize, however, that with the position that you have taken, you have torn the deep fabric of Anatolian Islam and have ripped apart the cultural legacy of Anatolian Muslims who can walk head held high for bravely challenging the murders of 1915? Do you know that when the Unionist gangs were murdering Armenians in 1915, the ones who put up the biggest fight, who challenged them the most were the Muslims of Anatolia? Did you have any idea that it was the Muslim community of Kastamonu that marched upon the governor’s office demanding, “We won’t stand for our neighbors being murdered”? Or that it was the Muslims of Yozgat who opposed Killer Kemal of Bogazlayan, yelling, “There’s no place in the Koran for the murder of innocents”? Have you never heard of the important role played in the hanging of Killer Kemal by the written testimony of the Grand Mufti of Bogazlayan, Abdullahzade Mehmed? Did you know that in opposing the murders being committed by Killer Kemal, this Muslim Mufti said, “Allah stands above us all. I fear his wrath”?
Mr. Arinc, are you aware of the order given by Commander Kamil Pasha of the Third Army in 1915? He stated, “Whoever tries to hide Armenians in their homes will be executed before his front door and his home will be burned to the ground.” Despite this order, do you know that Haji Halil, a Muslim from Urfa, hid an Armenian family of eight in the attic of his home, in the market of Urfa, for one full year despite threats of death and burning? Go to eastern Anatolia and ask the members of parliament from your own party. They’ll tell you dozens, hundreds of stories like this.
I don’t need to make a point that when the Unionists were massacring Armenians in Anatolia, pious Muslims were opposing what was happening and saying that the murder of innocents has no place in the Koran. Whichever conference I attend and whenever I’m talking with Armenians, I hear, “If we are alive today, it is without a doubt because of the aid of some Muslims.” But they’ll also add, “because of your government’s policy of denial, we can’t talk about it openly.”
Mr. Arinc, you can’t build a future on the backs of murderers. You can build a future on the backs of those righteous Muslims in Anatolia who challenged the murderers. In the same way that you can’t resolve today’s problems by supporting Hrant Dink’s murderers—the “Samats” and the “Veli Kucuks”—you won’t get anywhere supporting the murderers of the Hrants of the past. The answers to 1915 can’t be found in the answers of Dogu Perincek or Veli Kucuk. They are members of the Ergenekon gang that killed Hrant Dink; it’s natural that they defend the murderers of the Hrants of the past. Let the Veli Kucuks defend the murderer Samat of today and the murderers Talat, Enver, and Kemal of yesterday. Your place is not at the side of Veli Kucuk. Your duty is to stand by the side of the Haji Halils, to stand up for those Muslims who put themselves and their families at risk by opposing the massacres.
I would like you to recognize one more thing. Because of the 95 years of denialist policies and defense of murderers, from an international perspective there’s a second stain on the brow of Turkishness and Islam, next to the one created by 1915. Because of the policies followed by the Sukru Elekdags and the Veli Kucuks, Turks are perceived as a people who enjoy murdering, who defend murders. We need to rescue Turkishness and Islam from the Talats and the Envers of yesterday and the Samats of today, and not allow the Elekdags and Kucuks to define it. Turkishness and Islam are identities that are too honorable to be left at the hands of murderers and their defenders. I have an Armenian friend and he has said to me, “Until yesterday, when I heard Turkish, I felt a hatred for it. I called it the language of my enemy. But since getting to know you, I’ve begun to say it’s the sound of my friend, a Turk.”
We need the honest and honorable cry of Turkishness and Islam. Let Dogu Perincek, Veli Kucuk, and the ones who planned your assassination defend the murderers of yesterday and today. You need to see by now that the ones who defended Talat, Enver, and Dr. Nazim in the past are the same people who defend Ogun Samat today.
If we can walk with a shred of self-respect today, heads held high, it’s because we can point to Hrant’s killer and call him what he is. You need to see that once we acknowledge the murderers of the Hrants of 1915, we will walk with our heads held high, self-respect intact. Nazim Hikmet has the best words for describing what needs to be done in connection with 1915. I’d like to conclude this letter with him.
Grocer Garabed’s lights are onHe hasn’t forgiven, this Armenian citizen,The way his father was slaughtered in the Kurdish mountainsBut he loves you because you haven’t forgiven eitherThe stain that’s been drawn on the brows of the Turkish people
Mr. Prime Minister, I know that you like to read poetry. The Turkish person and the Muslims of the Middle East want to hear these verses from you.
*** [1] This references an incident where a bookstore in a Kurdish city was bombed. Officers in the Turkish military were suspected of having planned and/or executed the deed. The chief of the General Staff was quoted as saying the officers were “our good boys”.[2] This is in reference to an incident during International Women’s Day when women members of the CHP (Republican People’s Party) tore up the headscarf of a Muslim woman.
ITS TIME THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT OWES UP TO THEIR DARK PAST
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Haberturk channel’s TV program guest, Turkish actress Pelin Batu characterized the 1915 events as Genocide. Later in the program, the actress acknowledged to being threatened because of her earlier statements on the Armenian Genocide. “I do not advocate either Armenians or Turks. I only call on people to tell the truth about past events,” Pelin Batu said, criticizing the intolerance of Turkish people and referring to recent statement by Turkish Prime Minister on the eviction of 100 000 Armenians from the country, habervitrini.com reported. The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million. The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.
THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IS AN IMPORTANT ISSUE
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Republican presidential ex-candidate, U.S. Senator John McCain characterized the Armenian Genocide as an important issue.“We must condemn the Genocide, but on the other hand, we must look to the future. Nobody can blame the present-day Turkey for the Armenian Genocide,” he said “Of course, the Genocide issue is important but Turkey is our partner and ally and we need its support in combating the Islamic movement," the senator said, adding that democracy is gradually evolving in Turkey, Haberturk.com reported
HOWEVER WHEN YOU DENY A GENOCIDE YOURE COMMITTING ANOTHER GENOCIDE.....ITS VERY DANGEROUS.......TURKEY CANT GET AWAY WITH JUST A SLAP ON THE WRIST............FROM RAFI TOPALIAN CELL 810-5018
HOWEVER WHEN YOU DENY A GENOCIDE YOURE COMMITTING ANOTHER GENOCIDE.....ITS VERY DANGEROUS.......TURKEY CANT GET AWAY WITH JUST A SLAP ON THE WRIST............FROM RAFI TOPALIAN CELL 810-5018
Sunday, March 21, 2010
TURKEY ONCE AGAIN PROVES TO BE AN UNRELIABLE ALLY TO U.S.
The annual conference of the American-Turkish Council (ATC) will not take place this year. The reason? The recent adoption of a US congressional resolution (H.Res.252) which recognizes the Armenian Genocide. According to Turkish daily Milliyet, it’s already been 30 consecutive years that ATC, one of the most important institutions symbolizing American-Turkish relations, has been holding such conferences that are always attended by high-ranking Turkish and American officials, including prime ministers and officials from the defense and foreign ministries. This year, the ATC had planned to hold the conference from April 11-14 with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expected to attend.
Turkish press considers the cancellation of the conference as a very serious counter-response to the US administration, in retaliation for approving a bill that recognizes the Armenian Genocide.
Tert.am
Turkish press considers the cancellation of the conference as a very serious counter-response to the US administration, in retaliation for approving a bill that recognizes the Armenian Genocide.
Tert.am
TURKEY ONCE AGAIN AN UNRELIABLE ALLY TO U.S.
The annual conference of the American-Turkish Council (ATC) will not take place this year. The reason? The recent adoption of a US congressional resolution (H.Res.252) which recognizes the Armenian Genocide. According to Turkish daily Milliyet, it’s already been 30 consecutive years that ATC, one of the most important institutions symbolizing American-Turkish relations, has been holding such conferences that are always attended by high-ranking Turkish and American officials, including prime ministers and officials from the defense and foreign ministries. This year, the ATC had planned to hold the conference from April 11-14 with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expected to attend.
Turkish press considers the cancellation of the conference as a very serious counter-response to the US administration, in retaliation for approving a bill that recognizes the Armenian Genocide.
Tert.am
Turkish press considers the cancellation of the conference as a very serious counter-response to the US administration, in retaliation for approving a bill that recognizes the Armenian Genocide.
Tert.am
Saturday, March 20, 2010
WARNING TO ALL U.S. CITIZENS IN TURKEY
U.S. Department of State issued a warning message to U.S. citizens in Turkey about the menace to their safety, terrorist acts and violence. The statement was posted on the State department website yesterday, March 19 and is valid till April 30.
Under the statement, U.S. citizens should particularly be careful with the campaign “America, go away, this is our country!”
Besides, U.S. citizens were warned against the celebration of Novruz Bayram on March 21.
U.S. State Department urges visitors to Turkey or local American citizens to refrain from demonstrations and rallies, as the peaceful meetings may turn into clashes and acts of violence. “We urge the U.S. citizens to be far off the areas, where rallies are organized. It is necessary to exercise caution particularly in the places where Americans usually go.”
L.A.
News from Armenia - NEWS.am
Under the statement, U.S. citizens should particularly be careful with the campaign “America, go away, this is our country!”
Besides, U.S. citizens were warned against the celebration of Novruz Bayram on March 21.
U.S. State Department urges visitors to Turkey or local American citizens to refrain from demonstrations and rallies, as the peaceful meetings may turn into clashes and acts of violence. “We urge the U.S. citizens to be far off the areas, where rallies are organized. It is necessary to exercise caution particularly in the places where Americans usually go.”
L.A.
News from Armenia - NEWS.am
Thursday, March 18, 2010
DOES TURKEY WANT TO FINISH WHAT THEY STARTED 95 YEARS AGO--ARE WE SURPRISED??--WE MUST SPEAK UP AGAINST GENOCIDE
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The head of Turkey’s opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Deniz Baykal protested the statement by the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the expulsion of 100 thousand illegally working Armenians from the country . “That terrible statement is doubly frightening when uttered by the Prime Minister. It is extremely undemocratic. One must not use people coming to Turkey for work as blackmail instruments,” Mr. Baykal said. He also warned one of his party members, MP Canan Arytman, who also made a call to expel Armenians from Turkey. “We adhere to democratic values, and it is inappropriate to make such statements,” he said. Mr. Baykal called for to held discussion on Turkish-Armenian relations at the parliament. Ozturk Turkdogan, chairman of Association for Human Rights Protection in Turkey, stressed that Erdogan's statement is blackmail and discrimination. He said the statement violates the human right to freedom of movement and work, and added that there are many Turkish workers across the globe, the Turkish media reports say. DOES TURKEY WANT TO FINISH WHAT THEY STARTED 95 YEARS AGO--ARE WE SURPRISED??--WE MUST SPEAK UP AGAINST GENOCIDE........................JOIN OUR CAUSE CONTACT RAFI TOPALIAN 810-5018
TURKISH JOURNALIST SPEAKS UP--COMPARES TURKISH PM TO A NAZI
Turkish news source Hürriyet Daily News and Economic Review correspondent Yýlmaz Özdil, referring to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan’s recent statements on deporting Armenians living in Turkey, said that Turkey mustn’t be allowed to become Nazi Germany.
We mustn’t allow the issue to get to the point where, in Turkey, they begin to say, “Our citizens are unemployed, why are you giving foreigners work?” That’s the most dangerous. If we say, “the Armenians came, they took our work from our hands,” we will turn into Nazi Germany, said Özdil in an interview with CNN Turk, while calling Erdoðan’s statements a joke”
“To prove that we’re not oppressing Armenians, we deport them. To prove that we haven’t initiated an eviction, we’re initiating a contemporary eviction. That’s simply mockery,” said the Turkish journalist.
Tert.am
We mustn’t allow the issue to get to the point where, in Turkey, they begin to say, “Our citizens are unemployed, why are you giving foreigners work?” That’s the most dangerous. If we say, “the Armenians came, they took our work from our hands,” we will turn into Nazi Germany, said Özdil in an interview with CNN Turk, while calling Erdoðan’s statements a joke”
“To prove that we’re not oppressing Armenians, we deport them. To prove that we haven’t initiated an eviction, we’re initiating a contemporary eviction. That’s simply mockery,” said the Turkish journalist.
Tert.am
CANT COVER UP A GENOCIDE--ARMENIANS UNITE TO FIGHT THE INJUSTICE
It is a well-known fact that Turkish leaders are exceptional diplomats. However, as soon as they hear the words Armenian Genocide, Greece, Cyprus, or Kurdistan, these diplomats lose their “cool” and resort to emotional outbursts and undiplomatic actions that harm their own interests.
Realizing that this is the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Turkish officials have been nervously preparing themselves for the upcoming tsunami of commemorations that would remind the international community of the crimes against humanity committed by the Ottoman Turks.
The first unexpected shot was fired on Feb. 26 by the Parliament of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia, Spain, when it unanimously recognized the Armenian Genocide. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu immediately contacted his Spanish counterpart and Catalonian officials to vent his anger and demand an apology.
Two days later, an expose of the Armenian Genocide was aired by CBS’s “60 Minutes” showing bones of Armenian victims still protruding from Syrian desert sands, almost a century later. The Turks were livid, accusing Armenians of unduly influencing the CBS network and questioning, as usual, the authenticity of the bones and the sand.
Four days later, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a resolution acknowledging the Armenian Genocide. Turkey lost despite:
1. Pressuring the Obama Administration to oppose the resolution;2. Hiring multi-million-dollar lobbying firms;3. Sending teams of Turkish parliamentarians to Washington;4. Email campaigns by Turkish and Azeri Americans; and5. Threatening to boycott U.S. defense contractors if they did not oppose the resolution.
Immediately after losing that vote, Turkey recalled its ambassador from Washington, indicating that he may be kept in Ankara until after April 24. State Minister Zafer Caglayan postponed his U.S. visit intended to develop economic ties “until the United States corrects its mistake.” A scheduled trip by the executive board of the Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association to Washington on March 16 and 17 was also canceled, and anti-American protests were held in Turkish cities. More importantly, Prime Minister Erdogan indicated that he might cancel his planned participation in the global summit on nuclear security to be held in Washington next month.
Before Turkish passions had cooled down, the Swedish Parliament dealt a second devastating blow to Ankara on March 11, by reaffirming the genocide of Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks by a vote of 131-130. Once again, Turkey recalled its ambassador, and Erdogan canceled his upcoming trip to Stockholm, which was to be accompanied by a large trade delegation. And, anti-Swedish demonstrations were held in several Turkish cities.
These overly dramatic reactions prompted Turkish and foreign commentators to have a field day, speculating that if more countries recognize the Armenian Genocide, Turkey won’t have ambassadors left anywhere in the world, and Turkish officials won’t have to visit other countries, having to cancel their overseas trips. Furthermore, Turkey would be left without any imported goods and a weakened military, having canceled all purchases from the outside world. Turkey’s isolation is a just retribution for its denialist policy. By trying to punish others, Turkey is simply punishing itself.
Vahe Magarian of Cincinnati, Ohio sent a pointed letter to the New York Times last week, suggesting that Turkey’s recalled ambassadors “rather than flying home, should be made to march home on foot. Forced marches were the preferred means of travel during the dying days of the Ottoman Empire.”
Prominent Turkish commentator Can Dundar wrote in Haber1 an article titled “Are we going to recall all our Ambassadors?” He stated that, at this rate, by the time the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide rolls around in 2015, there won’t be a single country left not accusing Turkey of genocide. Isn’t it about time that we search out what dirty work our fathers did 95 years ago? Shouldn’t we ask what did we do wrong, Dundar implored.
The main reason why Turkish officials panic every time the Armenian Genocide is acknowledged by yet another country is their fear of being asked to pay compensation for Armenian losses and return the occupied lands. Erdogan and his colleagues don’t seem to understand that genocide recognition by itself does not lead to legal claims. How many inches of land have Armenians managed to liberate from Turkey as a result of such recognition by more than 20 countries? If Turkish leaders would only understand that parliamentary resolutions have no legal effect, maybe they would not get so excited over them.
Nevertheless, there should be no doubt that Armenians still demand the return of their ancestral lands located in eastern Turkey. Such claims have to be pursued in various courts, unless an unexpected cataclysmic event occurs first, causing the collapse or dismemberment of the Turkish state.
In the meantime, we advise Erdogan to continue denying the genocide at every opportunity in order to encourage Armenians to persist in their efforts to expose Ankara’s lies. Were it not for Turkish officials’ vehement denials, there would not have been a worldwide outcry to reaffirm the facts of the Armenian Genocide by airing TV documentaries and adopting genocide resolutions.
Mr. Erdogan, please keep up the good work. Armenians need your kind assistance to pursue their cause until justice is done
Realizing that this is the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Turkish officials have been nervously preparing themselves for the upcoming tsunami of commemorations that would remind the international community of the crimes against humanity committed by the Ottoman Turks.
The first unexpected shot was fired on Feb. 26 by the Parliament of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia, Spain, when it unanimously recognized the Armenian Genocide. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu immediately contacted his Spanish counterpart and Catalonian officials to vent his anger and demand an apology.
Two days later, an expose of the Armenian Genocide was aired by CBS’s “60 Minutes” showing bones of Armenian victims still protruding from Syrian desert sands, almost a century later. The Turks were livid, accusing Armenians of unduly influencing the CBS network and questioning, as usual, the authenticity of the bones and the sand.
Four days later, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a resolution acknowledging the Armenian Genocide. Turkey lost despite:
1. Pressuring the Obama Administration to oppose the resolution;2. Hiring multi-million-dollar lobbying firms;3. Sending teams of Turkish parliamentarians to Washington;4. Email campaigns by Turkish and Azeri Americans; and5. Threatening to boycott U.S. defense contractors if they did not oppose the resolution.
Immediately after losing that vote, Turkey recalled its ambassador from Washington, indicating that he may be kept in Ankara until after April 24. State Minister Zafer Caglayan postponed his U.S. visit intended to develop economic ties “until the United States corrects its mistake.” A scheduled trip by the executive board of the Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association to Washington on March 16 and 17 was also canceled, and anti-American protests were held in Turkish cities. More importantly, Prime Minister Erdogan indicated that he might cancel his planned participation in the global summit on nuclear security to be held in Washington next month.
Before Turkish passions had cooled down, the Swedish Parliament dealt a second devastating blow to Ankara on March 11, by reaffirming the genocide of Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks by a vote of 131-130. Once again, Turkey recalled its ambassador, and Erdogan canceled his upcoming trip to Stockholm, which was to be accompanied by a large trade delegation. And, anti-Swedish demonstrations were held in several Turkish cities.
These overly dramatic reactions prompted Turkish and foreign commentators to have a field day, speculating that if more countries recognize the Armenian Genocide, Turkey won’t have ambassadors left anywhere in the world, and Turkish officials won’t have to visit other countries, having to cancel their overseas trips. Furthermore, Turkey would be left without any imported goods and a weakened military, having canceled all purchases from the outside world. Turkey’s isolation is a just retribution for its denialist policy. By trying to punish others, Turkey is simply punishing itself.
Vahe Magarian of Cincinnati, Ohio sent a pointed letter to the New York Times last week, suggesting that Turkey’s recalled ambassadors “rather than flying home, should be made to march home on foot. Forced marches were the preferred means of travel during the dying days of the Ottoman Empire.”
Prominent Turkish commentator Can Dundar wrote in Haber1 an article titled “Are we going to recall all our Ambassadors?” He stated that, at this rate, by the time the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide rolls around in 2015, there won’t be a single country left not accusing Turkey of genocide. Isn’t it about time that we search out what dirty work our fathers did 95 years ago? Shouldn’t we ask what did we do wrong, Dundar implored.
The main reason why Turkish officials panic every time the Armenian Genocide is acknowledged by yet another country is their fear of being asked to pay compensation for Armenian losses and return the occupied lands. Erdogan and his colleagues don’t seem to understand that genocide recognition by itself does not lead to legal claims. How many inches of land have Armenians managed to liberate from Turkey as a result of such recognition by more than 20 countries? If Turkish leaders would only understand that parliamentary resolutions have no legal effect, maybe they would not get so excited over them.
Nevertheless, there should be no doubt that Armenians still demand the return of their ancestral lands located in eastern Turkey. Such claims have to be pursued in various courts, unless an unexpected cataclysmic event occurs first, causing the collapse or dismemberment of the Turkish state.
In the meantime, we advise Erdogan to continue denying the genocide at every opportunity in order to encourage Armenians to persist in their efforts to expose Ankara’s lies. Were it not for Turkish officials’ vehement denials, there would not have been a worldwide outcry to reaffirm the facts of the Armenian Genocide by airing TV documentaries and adopting genocide resolutions.
Mr. Erdogan, please keep up the good work. Armenians need your kind assistance to pursue their cause until justice is done
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
CANT TRUST TURKEY--AN UNRELIABLE ALLY TO THE U.S.
Istanbul, Turkey
Raising the stakes in Turkey’s rejection of the genocide label by US and Swedish lawmakers for the mass deaths of Armenians a century ago, Turkey says it might send home up to 100,000 Armenians currently living in Turkey without citizenship.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, angry over the decision earlier this month by a US congressional committee and by the Swedish parliament to call the 1915 deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians a “genocide,” has said the issue could disrupt a nascent Turkey-Armenia reconciliation process started last year.
Mr. Erdogan is now unlikely to attend an energy summit hosted by Barack Obama in April, Hurriyet newspaper reported. Erdogan already pulled out of a top-level meeting in Sweden, and Turkey withdrew ambassadors from both Washington and Stockholm after the two votes.
The issue of deaths during the expulsion of Christian Armenians by forces of the crumbling Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I are sensitive in Turkey, which argues that killing took place on both sides.
More broadly, NATO member and European Union candidate Turkey does not want to be lumped with Nazi Germany, Cambodia, or Rwanda as perpetrators of genocide in the 20th century.
“There are currently 170,000 Armenians living in our country,” Erdogan told the BBC Turkish service in London on Tuesday, according to Reuters. “Only 70,000 of them are Turkish citizens, but we are tolerating the remaining 100,000. If necessary, I may have to tell these 100,000 to go back to their country because they are not my citizens. I don’t have to keep them in my country.”
Most of those Armenians live in Istanbul, where they have lived since a 1988 earthquake in their own country and from which they send remittances home.
They have been caught up in a political and emotional tug-of-war over well-documented history that still rankles both sides. The US and Swedish votes were a result of steady lobbying for years by the powerful Armenian disapora, which has pushed for similar genocide resolutions in other countries.
The latest votes knocked the Turkish government “off balance, so there is a certain anger and concern that they need to deter upcoming votes in [other] parliaments by making a strong stand against this,” says Cengiz Candar, a columnist for Radikal newspaper and Hurriyet Online in Istanbul.
“It seems a very careless statement,” says Mr. Candar. He adds that Erdogan's comments may appeal to some nationalists in Turkey but have also prompted a “very negative response” by many who normally support the policies of the Islamist-rooted government.
“I don’t think that he will be implementing that — sending Armenians working here back to Armenia,” says Candar. “But it is a signal sent to Armenia to deter them from supporting [such] genocide resolutions out loud.”
Erdogan was explicit on that point in the interview. “Armenia has an important decision to make,” he said. “It should free itself from its attachments to the diaspora. Any country which cares for Armenia, namely the US, France and Russia, should primarily help Armenia to free itself from the influence of the diaspora.”
Raising the stakes in Turkey’s rejection of the genocide label by US and Swedish lawmakers for the mass deaths of Armenians a century ago, Turkey says it might send home up to 100,000 Armenians currently living in Turkey without citizenship.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, angry over the decision earlier this month by a US congressional committee and by the Swedish parliament to call the 1915 deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians a “genocide,” has said the issue could disrupt a nascent Turkey-Armenia reconciliation process started last year.
Mr. Erdogan is now unlikely to attend an energy summit hosted by Barack Obama in April, Hurriyet newspaper reported. Erdogan already pulled out of a top-level meeting in Sweden, and Turkey withdrew ambassadors from both Washington and Stockholm after the two votes.
The issue of deaths during the expulsion of Christian Armenians by forces of the crumbling Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I are sensitive in Turkey, which argues that killing took place on both sides.
More broadly, NATO member and European Union candidate Turkey does not want to be lumped with Nazi Germany, Cambodia, or Rwanda as perpetrators of genocide in the 20th century.
“There are currently 170,000 Armenians living in our country,” Erdogan told the BBC Turkish service in London on Tuesday, according to Reuters. “Only 70,000 of them are Turkish citizens, but we are tolerating the remaining 100,000. If necessary, I may have to tell these 100,000 to go back to their country because they are not my citizens. I don’t have to keep them in my country.”
Most of those Armenians live in Istanbul, where they have lived since a 1988 earthquake in their own country and from which they send remittances home.
They have been caught up in a political and emotional tug-of-war over well-documented history that still rankles both sides. The US and Swedish votes were a result of steady lobbying for years by the powerful Armenian disapora, which has pushed for similar genocide resolutions in other countries.
The latest votes knocked the Turkish government “off balance, so there is a certain anger and concern that they need to deter upcoming votes in [other] parliaments by making a strong stand against this,” says Cengiz Candar, a columnist for Radikal newspaper and Hurriyet Online in Istanbul.
“It seems a very careless statement,” says Mr. Candar. He adds that Erdogan's comments may appeal to some nationalists in Turkey but have also prompted a “very negative response” by many who normally support the policies of the Islamist-rooted government.
“I don’t think that he will be implementing that — sending Armenians working here back to Armenia,” says Candar. “But it is a signal sent to Armenia to deter them from supporting [such] genocide resolutions out loud.”
Erdogan was explicit on that point in the interview. “Armenia has an important decision to make,” he said. “It should free itself from its attachments to the diaspora. Any country which cares for Armenia, namely the US, France and Russia, should primarily help Armenia to free itself from the influence of the diaspora.”
HERE WE GO AGAIN--TURKEY HASNT CHANGED--STILL LOOKS AT ARMENIANS AS A THREAT OR ENEMIES
ANKARA - Turkey's prime minister has warned that he might deport up to 100,000 Armenians living in Turkey without citizenship after resolutions passed by U.S. and Swedish lawmakers defining World War One-era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.
Earlier this month, Turkey withdrew its ambassadors to Washington and Stockholm after a U.S. congressional committee and the Swedish parliament passed the non-binding resolutions.
It also warned that the resolutions could affect progress in fragile reconciliation process between Turkey and Armenia.............TURKEY KILLED 1.5 MILLION ARMENIANS FROM 1915-1923...........NOT ONLY DO THEY NOT WANT TO ADMITT IT BUT THEY WOULD BE HAPPY IF THE REST OF THE ARMENIANS WERE KILLED OR DEPORTED............A LEOPARD NEVER CHANGES ITS SPOTS
Earlier this month, Turkey withdrew its ambassadors to Washington and Stockholm after a U.S. congressional committee and the Swedish parliament passed the non-binding resolutions.
It also warned that the resolutions could affect progress in fragile reconciliation process between Turkey and Armenia.............TURKEY KILLED 1.5 MILLION ARMENIANS FROM 1915-1923...........NOT ONLY DO THEY NOT WANT TO ADMITT IT BUT THEY WOULD BE HAPPY IF THE REST OF THE ARMENIANS WERE KILLED OR DEPORTED............A LEOPARD NEVER CHANGES ITS SPOTS
YOURE ALL INVITED--FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC--SIENA LECTURE/RECEPTION MARCH 25TH 7PM
The Reinhold Niebuhr Institute of Religion and Culture
in conjunction with
The Foundations Sequence
and
The Capital District Armenian Genocide Committee
presents
present
Peter Balakian, Ph.D.
“Witness to the Armenian Genocide:
Grigoris Balakian Armenian Golgotha”
Dr. Peter Balakian is currently Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities in the department of English, and Director of Creative Writing. In addition to his five books of poems, and works include his memoir Black Dog of Fate, winner of the PEN/Albrand Prize for memoir and a New York Times Notable Book, and The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response, winner of the 2005 Raphael Lemkin Prize and a New York Times Notable Book and New York Times and national best seller.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
7:00 PM
Sarazen Student Union
A reception featuring Armenian desserts will follow at 8:30PM.
Book Signing:
Dr. Balakian will be signing copies of his recent book, Armenian Golgotha: A Memoir of the Armenian Genocide 915-1918,.Grigoris Balakian at 3:00 PM on March 25th at the BARNES AND NOBLE located at 131 Colonie Center, Albany, NY 12205 CONTACT MARISA, the B &N Manager at 518-438-1728 or crm2275@bn.com
New Book Translation ARMENIAN GOLGOTHA A MEMOIR OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE, 1915-1918 BY GRIGORIS BALAKIAN Translated by PETER BALAKIAN with Aris Sevag Published by
Alfred A. Knopf.
This event is free and open to the public. Please join us!
For more information contact
Rafi Topalian 810-5018 rafitop@aol.com or
Peter Ellard at pellard@siena.edu
in conjunction with
The Foundations Sequence
and
The Capital District Armenian Genocide Committee
presents
present
Peter Balakian, Ph.D.
“Witness to the Armenian Genocide:
Grigoris Balakian Armenian Golgotha”
Dr. Peter Balakian is currently Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities in the department of English, and Director of Creative Writing. In addition to his five books of poems, and works include his memoir Black Dog of Fate, winner of the PEN/Albrand Prize for memoir and a New York Times Notable Book, and The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response, winner of the 2005 Raphael Lemkin Prize and a New York Times Notable Book and New York Times and national best seller.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
7:00 PM
Sarazen Student Union
A reception featuring Armenian desserts will follow at 8:30PM.
Book Signing:
Dr. Balakian will be signing copies of his recent book, Armenian Golgotha: A Memoir of the Armenian Genocide 915-1918,.Grigoris Balakian at 3:00 PM on March 25th at the BARNES AND NOBLE located at 131 Colonie Center, Albany, NY 12205 CONTACT MARISA, the B &N Manager at 518-438-1728 or crm2275@bn.com
New Book Translation ARMENIAN GOLGOTHA A MEMOIR OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE, 1915-1918 BY GRIGORIS BALAKIAN Translated by PETER BALAKIAN with Aris Sevag Published by
Alfred A. Knopf.
This event is free and open to the public. Please join us!
For more information contact
Rafi Topalian 810-5018 rafitop@aol.com or
Peter Ellard at pellard@siena.edu
Saturday, March 13, 2010
TURKEY IS HURTING ITSELF DENYING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
“With the adoption of the House Resolution on Thursday, March 4, in the United States House of Representatives’ Foreign Relations Committee regarding the Armenian Genocide, along with the adoption of a motion Thursday in the Swedish Parliament, Turkey’s official denialist positions have been hard hit,” Turkish Hurriyet Daily News reports.
“But the worst casualty of all is the death of the Protocols signed between Armenia and Turkey in order to normalize relations. The adoption of the House Resolution in the U.S. subcommittee was already the last nail in the coffin of the Protocols. Now with the Swedish motion they can be considered as definitely dead. The result means Armenia, Turkey and the remaining Caucasus countries actually all lost,” the daily emphasizes.
“When the Armenian and Turkish foreign ministers showed up in the Swiss city of Zurich last fall, signing the Protocols was extremely important for the parties and sponsor countries. The blueprints were remarkable examples of diplomatic style that didn’t set any preconditions nor spell out any contentious issue specifically. But politicians got involved in them immediately,” the source says.
“The ratification process was hard hit first thanks to remarks by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who, despite his poor insight on foreign affairs, cannot help himself but speak out exactly like at home. He tied up the Protocols’ ratification in Turkish Parliament with finding a solution to the Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. So it became clear that no ratification could take place in the Turkish Parliament before the U.S. voting. That undoubtedly played a role in the Genocide Bill being passed in the Foreign Relations Committee and now in the Swedish Parliament. Before the voting in U.S., Turkish politicians got completely involved in the issue. Delegations armed with excessive self-confidence, sure of their denialist certitudes but basically unfamiliar with the issue, headed to Washington. The meaning of the voting was exaggerated; Turkish public opinion was ill-informed to a degree that today people in Turkey think that &‘the U.S. has approved the Armenian Genocide,’ the daily reads.
”Today, in the eye of the U.S. administration, Turkey gives the image of an unreliable partner that is compelled to increase the dose of its blackmail every time to impress lawmakers. The national outburst coupled with the Swedish vote will probably add to that. Secondly, in a wider perspective, the main aspect of the answer to the hot question of recent times “Is Turkey turning its face to the East, to the Islamic World?” was the Armenian initiative. Since this no longer exists, we are left with the images of the Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir’s visit to Turkey and connections with Hamas and the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Concurrently, the prestige of Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who has received praise from every quarter for his various initiatives, has suddenly fallen apart. While opening embassies in far-off capitals, Turkey is calling back its envoys from the capitals of its allies and friends," the daily underlines.
“Thirdly, Turkey, eager to play the mediator for every single conflict around the world, appears to grossly failing in its attempt to settle its domestic problems, i.e. the Armenian, Kurdish and Cyprus conflicts,” the source informs.
“Turkish government is a shrewd, visionless, conservative one that only tries to make advantage of the situation but never compromises. Owing to its geopolitical position, Turkey remains a critical country. Contrary to what Foreign Minister Davutoglu claims, Turkey is still not the one who takes the initiatives and is in control of developments around itself. The Protocols fiasco is a proof of continued passiveness,” the daily concludes.News from Armenia - NEWS.a
“But the worst casualty of all is the death of the Protocols signed between Armenia and Turkey in order to normalize relations. The adoption of the House Resolution in the U.S. subcommittee was already the last nail in the coffin of the Protocols. Now with the Swedish motion they can be considered as definitely dead. The result means Armenia, Turkey and the remaining Caucasus countries actually all lost,” the daily emphasizes.
“When the Armenian and Turkish foreign ministers showed up in the Swiss city of Zurich last fall, signing the Protocols was extremely important for the parties and sponsor countries. The blueprints were remarkable examples of diplomatic style that didn’t set any preconditions nor spell out any contentious issue specifically. But politicians got involved in them immediately,” the source says.
“The ratification process was hard hit first thanks to remarks by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who, despite his poor insight on foreign affairs, cannot help himself but speak out exactly like at home. He tied up the Protocols’ ratification in Turkish Parliament with finding a solution to the Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. So it became clear that no ratification could take place in the Turkish Parliament before the U.S. voting. That undoubtedly played a role in the Genocide Bill being passed in the Foreign Relations Committee and now in the Swedish Parliament. Before the voting in U.S., Turkish politicians got completely involved in the issue. Delegations armed with excessive self-confidence, sure of their denialist certitudes but basically unfamiliar with the issue, headed to Washington. The meaning of the voting was exaggerated; Turkish public opinion was ill-informed to a degree that today people in Turkey think that &‘the U.S. has approved the Armenian Genocide,’ the daily reads.
”Today, in the eye of the U.S. administration, Turkey gives the image of an unreliable partner that is compelled to increase the dose of its blackmail every time to impress lawmakers. The national outburst coupled with the Swedish vote will probably add to that. Secondly, in a wider perspective, the main aspect of the answer to the hot question of recent times “Is Turkey turning its face to the East, to the Islamic World?” was the Armenian initiative. Since this no longer exists, we are left with the images of the Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir’s visit to Turkey and connections with Hamas and the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Concurrently, the prestige of Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who has received praise from every quarter for his various initiatives, has suddenly fallen apart. While opening embassies in far-off capitals, Turkey is calling back its envoys from the capitals of its allies and friends," the daily underlines.
“Thirdly, Turkey, eager to play the mediator for every single conflict around the world, appears to grossly failing in its attempt to settle its domestic problems, i.e. the Armenian, Kurdish and Cyprus conflicts,” the source informs.
“Turkish government is a shrewd, visionless, conservative one that only tries to make advantage of the situation but never compromises. Owing to its geopolitical position, Turkey remains a critical country. Contrary to what Foreign Minister Davutoglu claims, Turkey is still not the one who takes the initiatives and is in control of developments around itself. The Protocols fiasco is a proof of continued passiveness,” the daily concludes.News from Armenia - NEWS.a
US SHOULD BE CAREFUL WITH TURKEY
Famed PLO terrorist-turned-Christian Walid Shoebat is warning that the United States needs to be watching not Iran, Syria or even Hamas and Hezbollah as closely as it needs to follow the actions of the Islamic leaders of Turkey. It was just a few months ago when Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin reported Turkey appeared to be seeking the restoration of the old Ottoman Empire. Turkey's Tayyip Recep Erdogan The report said Turkey's increasing disinterest in the European Union combined with its efforts to re-establish its influence in Turkic countries of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and its outreaches to Russian, Syria and Iran are cause for concern. At the time, the shift by Tayyip Recep Erdogan, Turkey's leader, from West to East was obvious, because Turkey announced it was cutting Israel out of annual military exercises involving NATO forces while it sought out military exercises with Syria. Now Shoebat, the grandson of the Muslim Mukhtar of Beit Sahour-Bethlehem and a friend of Haj-Ameen Al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem and notorious friend of Adolf Hitler, is worried about what Turkey is saying and doing. Get the inside story on the clash over freedom, get "God's War on Terror." As a young man, Shoebat was part of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and participated in acts of terror and violence against Israel. After moving to the U.S., he worked for the Arab Student Organization at Loop College in Chicago and continued his anti-Israel activities. In 1993, Walid studied the Tanach (Jewish Bible) in a challenge to convert his wife to Islam, finishing up by changing sides. "Turkey is the biggest threat," he told WND in an interview. "Turkey is the strongest military power in the region, and it's the second largest army in NATO. The statements coming out of Turkey should be of great concern to Americans." "Erdogan is saying 1.5 billion Muslims are waiting for the Turkish government to arise. This is pretty scary. Turkey rules only 70 million people so why are they talking about 1.5 billion Muslims?" continued Shoebat, who has written "For God or For Tyranny: When Nations Deny God's Natural Law" as well as "God's War on Terror." About 98 percent of Turkey's estimated 74 million people are Muslim."Erdogan has made the statements, and he's impacting a youth movement in Turkey that is calling for the glory days of the Turkish rule through the Caliphate. Let's not forget the history," he said. Ex-PLO member Walid Shoebat on Fox News "It was Turkey that lost the power of Islam when the Caliphate was dismantled and Shariah law was no longer the law of the land," Shoebat said. At the end of World War I, Mustafa Kemal, who became Kemal Ataturk, dissolved the Ottoman Empire and moved to form a secular Turkish state. "The youth movement believes that Turkey is the hub from which Islam must rise again," Shoebat said. "We need to look at Turkish activities to see the danger. "It is the political agenda of these [Islamic] governments that we need to be aware of and not just the military apparatuses," Shoebat said. He said the creation of the worldwide Muslim Brotherhood – and all the terror it sponsors – was spawned by the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. "In 1924, the Caliphate was dismantled by the West, and this is why Muslims hate the West. Americans don't understand why Muslims hate us so much. In 1928, four years later, the Muslim Brotherhood was born. This is the umbrella of all the Muslim terrorist organizations," he said. "The Muslim Brotherhood is the mother, and it was established four years after the dissolution of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. This really answers the whole question when people ask about the roots of Islamic terrorism," he said. "They ask if it's because we invaded Iraq or because Israel occupies their territory. That's not true, because in 1928, there was no occupation of Iraq, and there was no occupation of 'Palestine.' This Islamic movement has never ceased to attempt to establish a Shariah hegemony in that region," he said. So what's going on at this point? "So we see now the metastasizing of the Muslim Brotherhood into all parts of the Muslim world from Algeria to Syria to Lebanon to Egypt everywhere, even in the United States of America," Shoebat said. "All the Islamic organizations in the United States of America, no exception, are branches of the Muslim Brotherhood and they have made their declarations of their plans publicly. So, we have ample evidence to recognize that this is an old threat, this is an old war," he said. A recent crisis confronted Turkey when a number of top army commanders were arrested after being accused of plotting to bomb mosques and overthrow the "increasingly Islamic-oriented" government. The army commanders reportedly feared a growing fundamental Islamic influence across the country. Shoebat also warned it is dangerous for freedom-loving interests to announce a date for a coalition pullout of Iraq. "If we create that vacuum, and in the Middle East vacuums are always filled up, this vacuum, I guarantee you, will be filled by Iran. They see the writing on the wall that America is going to pull out. 'Just be patient and lay low. We move in and we take that country in the future,'" Shoebat said. He said if that happens, Islamic interests will have the region "all the way to the border of Israel." "Iran is definitely working on a nuclear weapon and we definitely need to have a presence in the region to keep Iran at bay," Shoebat said. There have been reports of increasing Shariah-related violence within Turkey. Agence France-Presse reported just weeks ago how a 16-year-old girl was buried alive by relatives in a gruesome honor killing just because she reportedly befriended boys. Police reported finding the body of Medine Memi in a hole outside her house in Kahta about six weeks after she disappeared. Authorities reported her father and grandfather were arrested. Shoebat now lives in the U.S. with his family, but keeps his location secret for protection. He's spoken at Harvard, Columbia, Concordia, UCLA, USC, the University of Georgia, Washington University, Penn State and other universities. Media outlets worldwide have reported on his life's work.
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Friday, March 12, 2010
SPANISH PARLIAMENT TO CONSIDER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION
The motion on Resolution on Armenian Genocide was introduced to Spanish Parliament. The sponsors of the document are representatives of Republican Left of Catalonia and three MPs of Initiative for Catalonia Greens.
They also proposed to include in the resolution a provision that Spanish Government supports Armenia-Turkey normalization process and calls EU to back Yerevan-Ankara dialogue.
February 26, the Catalonian Parliament, unanimously voted for the Armenian Genocide approval.
L.A.
They also proposed to include in the resolution a provision that Spanish Government supports Armenia-Turkey normalization process and calls EU to back Yerevan-Ankara dialogue.
February 26, the Catalonian Parliament, unanimously voted for the Armenian Genocide approval.
L.A.
SWEDISH PARLIAMENT RECOGNIZES THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE --TURKEY GUILTY OF GENOCIDE
Majority of Swedish parliament voted in favor of resolution describing the mass killings of Armenians and other Christian minorities in modern Turkey by the end of World War I as genocide, Swedish media say.
Thus, parliament went against the government, having the red-green opposition suggesting the resolution for discussion. The non-socialist parties threw the proposal reasoning that politicians are not going to write the history. However, a number of conservative MPs voted for the resolution, which resulted in motion passing by a casting vote — 131 against 130.
“Now I assume that Foreign Minister Carl Bildt respects the decision of Parliament and to the Turkish leadership position in front of Parliament, that what happened in 1915 was a genocide. There have been reports that Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan visit Stockholm next week. If it is true, I think it goes without saying that Bildt will address the issue,” said Riksdag member Hans Linde.
According to the experts, it may have been up to 2.5 million people lost their lives, while Turkey negates that there was a genocide.
S.T.
News from Armenia - NEWS.am
SWEDISH PARLIAMENT RECOGNIZES THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE --TURKEY GUILTY OF GENOCIDE
Majority of Swedish parliament voted in favor of resolution describing the mass killings of Armenians and other Christian minorities in modern Turkey by the end of World War I as genocide, Swedish media say.
Thus, parliament went against the government, having the red-green opposition suggesting the resolution for discussion. The non-socialist parties threw the proposal reasoning that politicians are not going to write the history. However, a number of conservative MPs voted for the resolution, which resulted in motion passing by a casting vote — 131 against 130.
“Now I assume that Foreign Minister Carl Bildt respects the decision of Parliament and to the Turkish leadership position in front of Parliament, that what happened in 1915 was a genocide. There have been reports that Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan visit Stockholm next week. If it is true, I think it goes without saying that Bildt will address the issue,” said Riksdag member Hans Linde.
According to the experts, it may have been up to 2.5 million people lost their lives, while Turkey negates that there was a genocide.
S.T.
News from Armenia - NEWS.am
Thus, parliament went against the government, having the red-green opposition suggesting the resolution for discussion. The non-socialist parties threw the proposal reasoning that politicians are not going to write the history. However, a number of conservative MPs voted for the resolution, which resulted in motion passing by a casting vote — 131 against 130.
“Now I assume that Foreign Minister Carl Bildt respects the decision of Parliament and to the Turkish leadership position in front of Parliament, that what happened in 1915 was a genocide. There have been reports that Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan visit Stockholm next week. If it is true, I think it goes without saying that Bildt will address the issue,” said Riksdag member Hans Linde.
According to the experts, it may have been up to 2.5 million people lost their lives, while Turkey negates that there was a genocide.
S.T.
News from Armenia - NEWS.am
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