Turkish State Minister calls Christians “gavur” (unfaithful)

Turkish State Minister calls Christians “gavur” (unfaithful)
October 15, 2010 11:19
The Chair of the Syriac Culture Association Yuhanna Aktas stated Turkish State Minister Faruk Celik should apologize to Christians for calling them gavur (an offensive ethnic slur used by Muslims in Turkey to describe all who are non-Muslim) in one of the TV programs several days ago.
Aktas sharply criticized Turkish Minister’s cynical statement, saying Celik insulted Christianity and should apologize to all Christians in Turkey.
This irresponsible statement proves what the Turkish Minister thinks of non-Muslims in Turkey. We fiercely criticize his attitude,” Aktas stressed.


FYI, THIS IS THE TERM THAT WAS USED AGAINST THE UNPROTECTED ARMENIAN WOMEN AND CHILDREN DURING THE FIRST GENOCIDE OF THE 20TH CENTURY BY RUTHLESS OTTOMAN TURKS....HISTORY IS DOOMED TO REPEAT IF GOOD PEOPLE REMAIN SILENT...EVIL EXISTS AND PROSPERS IF WE LET IT HAPPEN

CHECKOUT www.armenian-genocide.org......

PLEASE DONT LET TURKEY RE-WRITE HISTORY......DONT REMAIN SILENT...WHO WILL BE NEXT.....DONT FORGET THE GENOCIDE IN SUDAN TAKING PLACE ......TURKEY IN RECENT MONTHS HAS WELCOME AL BASHIR THE WAR CRIMINAL AND PRESIDENT OF SUDAN--CONVICTED OF GENOCIDE......ERDOGAN AND AL BASHIR ARE TWO PEAS IN A POD.....THEY PROTECT THEIR OWN
News from Armenia - NEWS.am

Armenia Blasts Turkey On Accord Anniversary

Armenia Blasts Turkey On Accord Anniversary

Armenia -- Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, undated
12.10.2010
Emil Danielyan
Armenia has used the first anniversary of its ill-fated agreements with Turkey to again accuse Ankara of reneging on them and urge it to drop “preconditions” for normalizing bilateral relations.
In an op-ed article published by “The Wall Street Journal” on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian also claimed that the Turks have “hypocritically” exploited the rapprochement with Armenia to try to prevent a broader international recognition of the Armenian genocide. “Unfortunately Turkey has backtracked from the agreements,” he wrote, referring to the two “protocols” which he and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu signed in Zurich one year ago. “Not only has it refrained from ratifying the protocols, but Ankara has returned to the language of preconditions that it had used before the beginning of the process.”Nalbandian pointed to the Turkish government’s linkage between parliamentary ratification of the protocols and decisive progress in international efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “Any Turkish attempts to interfere in the Karabakh process or to link the normalization of its relations with Armenia upon its own perception of progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh talks, harms both processes,” he said. “This is a position that … the whole international community have emphasized several times.”Armenian leaders have repeatedly argued over the past year that the protocols, which commit the two neighboring states to establish diplomatic relations and open their border, make no reference to the Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute. Turkish officials claim, however, that the deal implicitly links the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations with a Karabakh settlement. “It seems we speak in different languages,” said Nalbandian. “Turkey pretends that all problems in the region must have a ‘comprehensive solution’ once and for all. This is a beautiful phrase, but how realistic is it? It is a mere rhetoric, all words and no performance,” he added. The Turkish-Armenian protocols and President Serzh Sarkisian’s broader conciliatory line on Turkey have been strongly criticized by Armenia’s leading opposition groups as well as Armenian Diaspora leaders. They have said, both before and after the signing of the protocols, that Ankara will not unconditionally normalize ties with Yerevan and is using the process to deter more countries from recognizing the 1915 massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide. Nalbandian effectively acknowledged that in his article. “Hypocritically Turkey also uses the normalization process as a smokescreen for baseless argument that the adoption of resolutions on the Armenian Genocide in various countries can damage the normalization process,” he said. The minister also reiterated that Yerevan will be ready to kick-start the stalled process if the Turkish government abandons its “preconditions.” “Today various world capitals recall that the ball is in the Turkish court, that Armenia has done its part and that Turkey should take the steps that it promised to take,” he said, echoing statements made by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in July.Visiting Yerevan, Clinton hailed as “very statesmanlike” Sarkisian’s April decision to freeze Armenian parliamentary ratification of the protocols, rather than annul them altogether.

Armenians in Jerusalem: The Politics of Survival in the Holy Land

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Tuesday, October 12th, 2010 Posted by Asbarez Staff
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Armenians in Jerusalem: The Politics of Survival in the Holy Land
RAFI GO READ THE ISREALI JEWS WANT THE ARMENIAN QUARTER.
STORY & PHOTOS BY MATTHEW KARANIAN
The Armenians of Jerusalem form one of the oldest Armenian communities outside of Armenia. The Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem may be one of the most Armenian places in the world, too.
But this community is more than just old and Armenian. The community also controls, through the Armenian Church, at least a part of every major Christian Holy Site in the region, including the birthplace and crucifixion of Jesus, and the Tomb of the Virgin Mary.
With such a rich cultural legacy, one might guess that the Armenians of Jerusalem are strong and thriving. They are not. If the Old City were divided up today, the Armenians might barely command one street. They certainly would not lay claim to an entire Quarter, as they have for centuries.
The survival of the community is today in peril. The population is dwindling. Armenian property rights are under attack. Even Armenian pilgrims are fewer in number.
Matthew Karanian—a Pasadena lawyer and the author of several books about Armenia—traveled to Jerusalem earlier this year as part of a research and photography project. Karanian is the co-author, with Robert Kurkjian, of the best-selling travel guide Armenia and Karabagh: The Stone Garden Guide. This article is one in a series about the Jerusalem Armenians that Karanian has written and photographed for Asbarez.
POLITICS OF SURVIVAL IN JERUSALEMArmenians have 17 centuries of history in the Holy Land, and they share or own most of the major Christian sites, including the sites where Jesus was born, crucified, and buried.
There’s also a distinct geographical area in the historic walled city of Jerusalem known as the Armenian Quarter.
This should be enough to make any Armenian feel proud. But after I had spent several days living among the Armenians of this sacred Armenian place, those 17 centuries of history instead felt like they were crushing down on me. I felt as weary as if I had been breathing too much church incense.
The Holy Land induces awe and inspiration for some. I felt this, too. I was awed. And I was inspired.
But as I became increasingly aware of the greatness of the Armenian legacy here, I also became increasingly aware that the survival of this legacy is in peril.
George Hintlian is a Jerusalem historian and a prominent member of the Armenian community. He had been my introduction to the Armenian community when I arrived earlier this year.
He sensed that I had become weary, rather than uplifted, by all that I was seeing and learning about the Armenians of Jerusalem. “This place doesn’t work only by prayer,” he said. “There’s a lot of politics.”
Unfortunately, the politics appear to be working against the Armenians. This “politics,” I feared, could one day turn the Armenian Quarter into another Aghtamar—another sacred gem of Armenian culture that is now just a “museum” that’s owned and operated by others.
WHAT’S AT RISK
The walled Old City of Jerusalem has a dense population of nearly 40,000 living in an area of less than one square kilometer.
The Armenian Quarter occupies one-sixth of this tiny walled-city, yet it has a population of only about 500 Armenians. As a result, the Quarter is a highly coveted piece of real estate. The other quarters are bursting with residents who need more room. This is especially true for the Jewish Quarter, which is adjacent to the Armenian Quarter.
“The Israelis want to take over the Armenian Quarter,” says Hintlian. Worshippers headed to the Western Wall—sometimes also called the Wailing Wall—often pass through the public streets of the Armenian Quarter. “Every day they see what we have,” he says. “They want it.”
These worshippers frequently walk directly past the home and office of Kevork Nalbandian, an attorney with a law practice in the Armenian Quarter.
Nalbandian says he is also concerned about the future of the Armenian community. “We already live in a museum,” he says, alluding to the dwindling Armenian population. “Twenty years from now, how many of us will there be?” he asks.
There had been 35,000 Armenians—some say more—in the region prior to 1948. There are about 2,000 in the region today, of whom 500 live in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City.
The population decline has several causes. Finding work is difficult, especially for educated professionals. This forces many of the most highly educated Armenians to leave Israel. Job prospects are better for an Armenian who wants to operate his own office, or work as a merchant.
So, an Armenian can make a living selling jewelry or ceramics, says Hintlian, but careers in the professions are scarce. This is because the politics of the region dictate that Arabs hire Arabs and Jews hire Jews, he says.
There’s also the intangible difficulty of simply living in Jerusalem. “People are psychologically crushed,” says Hintlian. Israeli policies—Hintlian calls it “harassment”—work to encourage Armenians to leave. And, government policy also prevents immigration to Israel by Armenians, he says. The “Law of Return,” the law that guarantees to Jews anywhere in the world the right to immigrate to Israel, also prevents immigration by non-Jews. The result is a community that cannot sustain itself, and that can only shrink.
ARMENIA’S LINK TO THE HOLY LAND
For centuries, groups have competed for control of the region’s holy sites.
These groups, including the Armenian Church, have fought—sometimes literally—for the right to hold religious rites at places such as the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. These are the sites where many in the Christian community believe that Jesus was born, crucified, and buried.
In an effort to impose law and order on the religious groups, the Ottoman Empire negotiated a so-called “Status Quo” agreement with them back in 1852. The Ottomans were sovereign over Jerusalem and much of the Middle East at the time.
This agreement dictated that the ownership and rights status that existed for each of the holy sites in 1852 would be the set of rights that would exist in perpetuity. This agreement remains in effect today and is enforced by the Israelis in Jerusalem, and by the Palestinians in Bethlehem.
Negotiating this Status Quo agreement was one of the benevolent acts of the Ottomans during their four centuries of rule in the Holy Land. It has been effective in allowing the Armenians to continue to control or share ownership of most of the major Christian holy sites today. The Greek and Catholic churches are the only other religious groups that rival the Armenians in their extent of ownership and control of Christian Holy Land shrines.
Father Goruin is a member of the St. James Armenian Brotherhood. He became a priest in the Armenian church at age 23, and this year, at age 30, he was elevated to the rank of Vartabed.
The Armenian Church is able to maintain control of these sites because it has been strong over the centuries, says Father Goruin. “And the church can only be strong if there is a large community,” he says.
There are today about 100 students enrolled in the Quarter’s Armenian elementary school. This school, Saint Tarkmanchatz, or The Holy Translators, was established in 1929 and the success of its pupils is one of the keys to the survival of the community, he says.
If the community survives, it will be able to help the Armenian Church maintain its co-stewardship of sites such as the Tomb of St. Mary, as well as the Church of the Ascension, the Church of the Nativity, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Each of these shrines is built upon the site of a significant event in the life and death of Jesus.
The Tomb of St. Mary is where the Virgin Mary was laid to rest before she ascended to heaven.
The Church of the Ascension is built on the hilltop outside the city walls of Jerusalem where Jesus ascended to heaven.
The Church of the Nativity is built atop the site in Bethlehem where Jesus was born.
And the Church of the Holy Sepulcher occupies the sites within the Old City of Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified and was anointed and laid to rest.
The Armenian Church either shares ownership of these sites, or shares the right to hold religious services there, with either Greeks, or Catholics, or both. “When you consider how few Armenians there are in the world, and how many Latins [Catholics] there are, it’s extraordinary that our rights are the same or greater than theirs,” says Hintlian.
There are several additional significant religious sites that are owned or controlled by the Armenian Church, as well.
At the moment, the more immediate focus of the community is on preserving the building and the sacred relics of the St. James Cathedral, which forms the heart of the Armenian Compound within the Armenian Quarter.
The current edifice of St. James dates back to the twelfth century, and it contains a treasure trove of artwork and priceless antiquities. The monastery of St. James is even older, having been established in the fourth century by St. Gregory the Illuminator.
It was here, on a recent afternoon, that Archbishop Nourhan Manoogian of the Armenian Patriarchate presided over the elevation of four priests—four members of the St. James Brotherhood—to the rank of Vartabed. The cathedral was alight only with the flames of candles and oil-fed lamps. The mood was mystical, and the community had turned out in large numbers to witness this rare and sacred rite of the church.
Thirty students from the St. James Convent, all of them young men, filled the gallery and sang hymns from the pages of books that were lighted only by candles. There was no other music—no organ, no choir—except the singing and chanting of these 30 young men.
Back in the 1930s, the military governor of Jerusalem, Ronald Storrs, had famously stated that the Cathedral of St. James “embodies the misery and the glory of the Armenian nation.” On this evening, I understood only the glory.
_______________
Matthew Karanian traveled to Jerusalem earlier this year as part of a research and photography project documenting the Armenian community and the Old City’s Armenian Quarter. His Jerusalem photography will be included in a large format photography book to be released in 2012 with co-author Robert Kurkjian.
Karanian practices law in Pasadena, Calif., and is a former Associate Dean and member of the law faculty at the American University of Armenia in Yerevan. He is also the co-author with Kurkjian of several books about Armenia, including the best-selling photo-based travel guide Armenia and Karabagh: The Stone Garden Guide. This book is available from Borders, from Armenian booksellers in Glendale, and from the online bookseller Amazon.com.
Karanian’s photography has appeared in such magazines as CNN Traveler, Photo Life, and Photo District News (PDN). He has photographed leaders such as former Presidents Bill Clinton and Robert Kocharian, in the Oval Office of the White House, and several Miss Armenia beauty queen.

Justice for genocide should have no expiry date Colin Tatz

Justice for genocide should have no expiry date Colin Tatzhttp://theage.com.au/October 1, 2010Victims of genocide should be able to receive justice irrespective oftime passed or who they were. Photo: Andrew MearesAfter World War II, the Germans gave us their new term for reparationpayments to be made to Holocaust survivors ‹ wiedergutmachung. Atfirst, the English translation, making good again, sounded profoundand exotic ‹ until I realised that dead husbands, wives, parents,children and the half-alive survivors can't be restored in the way theterm suggests.So what kind of justice is there for victims of genocide? In the longroad towards some moral standard, one that includes the victims aspart of the atrocity, an admission of responsibility by theperpetrator is a start, if not the start. The Germans readily admittedtheir role in killing 30 million people, including 6 million Jews, 3.5million Poles, 8.2 Russian civilians, 5.7 million Russian prisoners ofwar, 5.9 million Ukrainians and 500,000 Gypsies. The next milestone iscriminal trial of both the architects and the mechanics of mass murderin the pursuit of both punishment and a sense of retribution. Mostpeople know a little something about the Nuremberg Trials of the 22leading Nazis; few know that since then, more than 110,000 domestictrials have taken place in both Germany and Austria, albeit with lowconviction rates. They continue, without an expiry date, as this iswritten.But justice, of any kind, appears to exist only for "worthy" victims:very few prosecutions were for crimes against Gypsies (Romany people)for example. And it took just over a century for Germany to admit thatit committed genocide against the native Nama and Herero peoples ofwhat was once German South-West Africa (now Namibia). The crime wasadmitted in 2006, but with the rider that no reparations would bepaid.Advertisement: Story continues belowAdmission of responsibility,trial, apology, restitution, reparations, reconciliation (of sorts)enable a pathway to that dearly beloved cliche of our time ‹ "movingon". (Moving on is just fine, provided one knows what it is one ismoving on from.) Restitution can involve giving back the giveable andrestoring the restorable (like the thousands of Nazi-looted artpieces). Reparations means money for civil wrongs, however tokenistic,when physical restitution isn't possible. The Germans have paidreparations money to Israel and to individuals, but the sum for eachsurviving slave labourer has averaged about $10,000. Romany people gotnothing, not even a "token nothing". Their requests to the Germangovernment were deemed "unreasonable" and "slanderous" and in 1980 theMayor of Darmstadt refused their participation in a ceremonycommemorating the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen camp because it"insulted the memory of the Holocaust".A decade ago, Roy Brooks edited an acutely titled volume, When SorryIsn't Enough. A singular omission was an Australian entry among thedozens of cases of apology and reparations for the victims of humaninjustice from around the world.The Australian path has been lamentable. In 1992, prime minister PaulKeating's Redfern speech about our treatment of indigenous Australiansadmitted the murders, dispossessions, the alcohol, diseases, theremoval of children, the smashing of traditional life and theirexclusion from society and its benefits. This was one kind of balm forthe victim people. The Howardites saw this moral inculpation as aslide towards costly economic reparations, refusing to admit or toapologise for just that specific reason. The Ruddites apologised in2008, with some reluctant and even truculent bipartisan support ‹ buteveryone was happy enough that the rider to the apology was that therewill be no reparations. And so only Tasmanian Aborigines, who receiveda state apology in 1997, now have a state-initiated $5 million fund todisburse to the surviving stolen generations.The ultimate negation is, of course, the Turkish denial of itsgenocidal campaigns against Armenians, Pontian Greeks and ChristianAssyrians between 1915 and 1922. There is no admission, noaccountability, no responsibility, no apology, no restitution, noreparation and no justice. There is only a paranoid denialism and thecounter-claim that more Turks than Armenians died in a "civil war":Turks were simply and only defending themselves against a traitorousand fifth-columnist minority who were aiding their enemies. Turkey istotally dedicated, at home and abroad, to having every hint or mentionof an Armenian genocide contradicted, countered, explained, justified,mitigated, rationalised, relativised, removed or trivialised. Theentire apparatus of the Turkish state is tuned to denial, withofficers appointed abroad for that purpose.In September this year, Turkey allowed Armenians to conduct areligious service in a former major church at Akhtamar on an island inLake Van, one they turned into a museum. In what was intended as apublic relations exercise, the Turks banned the erection of a cross onthe dome for this momentary revisiting of some grim history. And foras long as Turkey denies that anyone died at their hands, and refusesto release any death records, descendants of the dead can't claim themillions in insurance policies taken out by parents and grandparentswith American and French companies.Rwanda, Burundi, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Bosnia-Herzegovina andIndonesia have acknowledged, in their way, that "something happened"in their domains this past century. For the perpetrators, admission,even apology, is usually about a regret, however fleeting, passing orsuperficial, that they were once the sort of people, or the sort ofnation, that they now wish they had not been at those points in time.But Turkey will neither concede such blots on their escutcheon noradmit their homicidal treatment of Christians over a very long time.Their victims have died twice: physically in the killing fields andthen obliterated from the history books.Colin Tatz is a visiting fellow at the Australian National Universityand a director of the Australian Institute for Holocaust and GenocideStudies. He was part of a panel yesterday, Genocide: Does justice havean expiry date, at the Jewish Museum of Australia in Melbourne.

Turks dug 43-meter tunnel to find Armenian treasure

Turks dug 43-meter tunnel to find Armenian treasure
October 08, 2010 10:30
Four Turks tried to find “Armenian treasure”, digging a tunnel of 43 meters in the Maras province of Turkey that used to be Armenian-populated before 1915.
Three treasure hunters thought they had found a place of historic church under Karaelbistan cemetery in Maras and started digging a tunnel to the church from the house of their friend, Milliyet reported.
Turks dug a 43-meter tunnel within 3 months, reached the door with a cross but failed to open it as they were scared to find a trap or toxic gas inside.
As a result of an argument between the diggers, owner of the house called gendarmerie. All participants of a “secret operation” were taken to police and released after giving testimony.
News from Armenia - NEWS.am

Editorial: Dolma…and Some Music: The Turkish Foreign Ministry’s Newfound Pastime

Editorial: Dolma…and Some Music: The Turkish Foreign Ministry’s Newfound Pastime
By: Weekly Staff
Ever since the Turkish government failed to secure the ratification of the Turkey-Armenia protocols and essentially froze the so-called “normalization process,” it has been desperately looking for alternative ways to give the semblance of progress where there is none.

The protocols aimed at creating a schism between Armenia and the “bad Armenians” of the Armenian Diaspora, thus stalling the process of genocide recognition worldwide. But after Ankara tried to impose further preconditions, even official Yerevan—which seemed very keen to ratify the protocols—was defiant and stated that the Armenian Parliament was ready to vote on the protocols, but only when its Turkish counterpart did so. With the ball in its court, official Ankara failed to deliver and the process was halted.

With little (if any) prospect of securing the ratification of the protocols in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) before the general and presidential elections in the next two years, Ankara is now, more vigorously than before, looking for PR victories elsewhere. The Akhtamar Mass in September was supposed to serve such a purpose, but again, domestic politics interfered and, with the heads of Armenian churches and major organizations boycotting the Mass, little was accomplished.

Now, across the Atlantic, here in New York, the Turkish Consulate General is holding a concert at Carnegie Hall on Oct. 7 to celebrate what is being touted as the “re-opening” of the Holy Cross Church in Akhtamar. Mind you, the church has not been re-opened; it is a museum where visitors are not allowed to pray. Pianist Shahan Arzruni will be performing during this celebration. He has ignored calls from the community to withdraw from the event and to not become a pawn in the Turkish government’s PR campaign.

Several months ago, a Weekly columnist coined the expression “dolma diplomacy” referring to those who try to create dialogue between Turks and Armenians on the premise of “We used to be neighbors, we eat the same food and listen to the same music, so let’s leave the past aside and speak about everything else.” The Carnegie Hall event is yet another expression of this dolma diplomacy, and is an insult to the intelligence of Armenians, Turks, and others who are striving to make justice the bedrock of any conciliation between Turks and Armenians.

Armenian schools in Istanbul face grave problems

September 24, 2010 14:48
In his interview with the Bianet news website, Garo Paylan, Coordinator of the Education Commission formed by the funds run by Armenian schools, Headmaster of the Yeşilköy Armenian school, told about the education problems of the Istanbul-based Armenian community and about the critical situation of the Armenian schools.
According to him, the new school year has brought a number of unsettled problems. “Since universities have no Armenian-language departments, schools lack Armenian language teachers. Another problem arose after Hrant Dink’s murder, when Armenian schools began to receive threats – it is grave problem as well. Children are forgetting the language. Many people are now in doubt as to whether they should send their children to Armenian schools,” Paylan said. He said that an Armenian language department has been opened at the Ercis University. However, it has not so far employed an Armenian language specialist nor is it clear whether lectures will be delivered in eastern or western Armenian.
Paylan pointed out that only a few people have a good knowledge of western Armenian in Turkey. He is concerned over the fact that Istanbul-based Armenians do not speak their native language as often as before.
Paylan said they demand the dismissal of Turk deputy directors of Armenian schools.
“Before admitting an Armenian child to Armenian school, the Government demands proofs of his national identity. We raised the issue and demanded that it be up to the directors. However, the Ministry of Education delegated this authority to their Turk assistants, which is evidence of the government’s mistrust towards us,” Paylan said. He welcomed fee distribution of textbooks among Armenian schools.
As regards government financing of Armenian schools, Paylan pointed out that the Turkish Government had allocated some funds for this purpose until 1974. However, the situation is different now. “We presented the problem to the minister of education, and the issue is under consideration. We hope for a favorable decision. Three thousand Armenian children attend 16 Armenian schools in Istanbul. The Armenian schools can only survive due to charity. The Armenian Diaspora does not provide any support, and schools are sponsored only from external sources,” Paylan said.