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Scout Tufankjian tells about Armenain Diaspora, Genocide recognation and years of work with Obama,

May 20, 2013 By administrator

 

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Scout Tufankjian tells about Armenain Diaspora

KRAKOW, Poland: Nalbandian, Mammadyarov Meet,

May 20, 2013 By administrator

KRAKOW, Poland—The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijanand international mediators met again on Friday to discuss ways of breaking the deadlock in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

2391_hqThe U.S., Russian and French diplomats co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group said they discussed with Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov in the Polish city of Krakow “possible ways to advance the peace process.” “The Ministers exchanged views on the current situation and reaffirmed their commitment to promoting peace in the region,” they said in a joint statement.

“The Co-Chairs reiterated the need to avoid actions or rhetoric that could raise tensions or damage the peace process, and discussed with the Ministers a number of confidence building measures to help create an atmosphere conducive to reconciliation,” added the statement.

The mediators also announced that they will again tour the Karabakh conflict zone later this month “discuss these issues further with the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia.”

The Armenian Foreign Ministry issued a virtually identical statement on the meeting.

Nalbandian said late last month that President Serzh Sarkisian and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev could meet soon for the first time in more than a year. It is not clear whether the possibility of such a summit was discussed during the Krakow talks.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: KRAKOW, Mammadyarov Meet, Poland: Nalbandian

“Azerbaijan: cemetery of nations” film screens in Stepanakert (video)

May 20, 2013 By administrator

PanARMENIAN.158947Net – “Azerbaijan: cemetery of nations” documentary was screened in Stepanakert, the capital of Artsakh.

The film tells a story of the occupation of indigenous peoples’ historic lands by Azerbaijan. Similar fates of the nations enable to acknowledge the course of the historic developments and the peoples’ aspiration for statehood.

Unique archival materials are documented in the film.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: “Azerbaijan: cemetery of nations” film screens in Stepanakert (video)

Denmark wins Eurovision Song Contest, Dorians finish 18th

May 19, 2013 By administrator

PanARMENIAN.Net – Denmark has triumphed at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, held in the Swedish city of Malmo.

158888Emmelie de Forest, 20, had been the overwhelming favorite among the 26 entries, with her song Only Teardrops. Azerbaijan finished second.

Ukraine came third and Greece was fourth with the rabble-rousing Alcohol Is Free, with Russia finishing 5th, foreign media reported.

Armenia’s Dorians rock band came 18th, with their song Lonely Planet written by Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi.

Filed Under: Articles

Lithuanian media expose Azeri fraud to buy Eurovision votes (video)

May 19, 2013 By administrator

PanARMENIAN.Net – The journalists of the 15min.lt Lithuanian information agency exposed a fraud orchestrated by Azerbaijan to take a top spot in Eurovision Song Contest.

The agency videotaped a meeting with two Russian-speaking men offering money to Lithuanians for their votes in favor of a contestant. On Sunday, 158889May 18 morning a group of students came to the agency’s editorial office. The students said they were approached by men who offered them 20 euro each to vote multiple times for a contestant.

To investigate the matter, the 15min.lt journalists met the recruites armed with hidden cameras and dictaphones. In a mere 10 minutes, the recruiters divulged the whole “operation.” As the journalists were told, the same scheme worked in other countries. The goal was to recruit groups of 10 people to vote for Azerbaijan. Those recruited were given SIM-cards to vote as many times as possible within 15 minutes.

The recruiters confessed to having found 8-10 groups. A supervisor was assigned to every group to check the results and give the payment. To prove the above, the recruiter pulled a wad of money from his pocket, noting he could make the payment in lits.

As the man noted, the same scheme works in 15 countries, with Azeri victory costing millions.

This was the way Azerbaijan got 12 points from Lithuania at Eurovision 2013.

The full conversation with the recruiters is featured in video below.

Beside Lithuania, Austria, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Ireland, Malta, Montenegro and Russia gave Azerbaijan the highest points.

 

 

Filed Under: News

By: Zeynep TOZDUMAN Not allowed on the Feast of youth, MAY 19. (GENÇLİKLERİNE İZİN VERİLMEYENLERİN BAYRAMIDIR 19 MAYIS)

May 18, 2013 By administrator

By: Zeynep TOZDUMAN

Translated from Turkish to English see Turkish version following this page.

Tomorrow, May 19 Youth and Sports Day celebrated in all the homes. However, someone (Kemalists) Samsun footing. Yet after 1915 changed the fate of this country every national holiday, a slaughterhouse rear garden. Has always been a pain / or children or young people, or to cover up the Zeynep_Tozduman2massacre of victory / salvation to us as a gift by the official ideology of the holidays, in essence, hiding the fact that the blood and tears. So how much of the national holiday, it means so much carnage. What got our dark history. Signed up to match the massacres almost every day. Maybe that’s why Turkey is the land of misery and destruction.

Samsun, once just Smyrina (Izmir), Mardin, multi-lingual, multi-religious, multi-ethnic center of a region. From the period of 1915 until 1924, starting with the one sacrifice of the Samsun tipçiliğe, once yaşardı.1924 Armenians and Pontic Greeks from almost none in the complete destruction of these peoples is minimized. Kemalism wants to destroy social memory, a fascism applied to other cultures outside the Turkish culture. These days, all right Samsun those who know that the Greek and Armenian culture resisted stubbornly against fascism, the scars are still there today.
Measures for the citizens of the Ottoman Sultanate of Rum is a long period of time, ie, 1912, 1922/1923 ‘s The Pontus or the Black Sea in the proceedings are spread far and destruction, after the establishment of the republic that lasted until 1924.

In proceedings for the Greeks began in 1919. In 1915, which is very similar to the method applied by Talat Pasha, Mustafa Kemal and his companions, in early 1920, and Cilicia Marash Hadjn slaughtered nine thousand Greeks. The Greeks were forced into exile in 1922, Europeans and Americans are the same as in 1915, could not witness relocation routes have been selected.

Istanbul weakening of government defense law, National Association of the people in committees, the victorious powers and their resistance against the occupation objectives calls. Who deserted the Ottoman army soldiers involved in these gangs. 16 May 1919 Sultan Vahid, General Mustafa Kemal, Istanbul, Samsun, so that roads send you, but this will be the end Sultan’ında. Sultan, the biggest reason for sending Kemal, the British military alliance çıkarmalarıydı Samsun on March 9, 1919. Atatürk in Samsun on May 19 beraberindekilerle out.
Atatürk in Samsun, and he changed the destiny of the country as well. And he speaks to the youth with the release of Samsun:
” Young minded to say, the truth is and who understands the real-minded. ‘Yet, even if the truth is not allowed to see the youth of ancient peoples did not hear this call / could not hear. Ölüleriydi they kefensiz 1915 genocide.

From 1919 to Samsun, the so-called nationalist government in Ankara and the ongoing War of Independence, subjecting the administration of penal servitude As soon as the Greeks, re-enacted in 1921. The first victims of this country, the idea of ​​nationalization Greeks.
Deportation of the Greeks from Anatolia to the West, especially the Christians began in 1913, although Ionia (Aegean), but the final decision to prevent ethnic cleansing carried out at the end of the Balkan war and the fact that the Minister of War Enver Pasha in 1914, were then. Talat Pasha, 14 May 1914, the architects of the genocide, Dardenel’den (Çanakkale) Fountain of up to eliminate all the Greek settlements by means of terror and placed in the interior parts of the country decided to bring the Turks and Muslim refugees.
1914, from the Eastern and Central parts of the proposed Ionian Greece or the Ottoman Empire, the Thracian and the total number of Pontic Greeks from 500,000 to 773.00 as a given. Ottoman Government, July-August 1914, 18 – 40 years old Greek men of the “Workers Battalions” them by creating systematically dragged to death. Greeks of Pontus in the proceedings of the winter of 1916 faces, deportations and destruction, was launched.
Not protest the deportations of the civilized world, and the arrival of the Ottoman Empire and the new republic ignore these sanctions, Armenians, Assyrians, Ezidis, Alevis and the Kurdish people, the last thirty years, in short, all the oppressed peoples practiced. The Young Turks, Armenians, Greeks practiced what uyguladılarsa the same method. Greek convoys lived a great privations, but they have a general massacre of the Armenians tutulmadılar subject. This is not the time for the Greeks acıdıkları next to the German Entente Allies, Greece is not included.
Once upon a time the Aegean, Thrace, the Black Sea, Central Anatolia, Rum Where now are the ancient people? This is one out of every five non-Muslim peoples of the ancient land of what happened. These days, the Greek Cypriots, Turkey pressures experienced by the general population, which unfortunately homeland in Anatolia (Anatolia) decreased in the three thousand. This is a crime against all of us. Bloody legacy of our ancestors, of 98 years standing pomegranate stains on us Temizlenmedikçe democracy nor what this country come in peace.
Samsun 13 years of age and over in 1915, as well as history remembers especially the idea of ​​boys were murdered en masse. M.Kemal of the importance given to the youth, it is exactly here reserved. Not a result of the massacres of the Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, EZiD youth these days that’s the only reason that we can not mention such a fascist insights. April 24th, as the day on May 19, so the national genocide. And to this day, May 19, with the people of Rum in us share the same grief. On this day the color tears, Greek, Armenian, Syrian, Alevi.
Zeynep TOZDUMAN

In Turkish:

GENÇLİKLERİNE İZİN VERİLMEYENLERİN BAYRAMIDIR 19 MAYIS

Yarın bütün yurtta 19 Mayıs Gençlik ve Spor Bayramı kutlanacak. Yine birileri (Kemalistler) Samsun’a ayak basacak. Oysaki bu ülkenin kaderini değiştiren 1915 sonrası her milli bayram, bir mezbahanın arka bahçesidir. Hep bir acıyı/katliamı örtmek için ya çocuklara ya gençlere ya da zafer/kurtuluş adıyla bizlere resmi ideoloji tarafından armağan edilen bayramlar, özünde kanın ve gözyaşının gizlenmesi gerçeğidir. Yani ne kadar çok milli bayram, o kadar çok katliam demektir. Ne karanlık tarihimiz var bizim. Hemen hemen her güne denk düşecek kadar katliamlara imza atmışız. Belki de bu yüzden acının ve yok oluşun ülkesidir Türkiye.

Samsun, bir zamanlar tıpkı Smyrina (İzmir), Mardin gibi çok dilli, çok dinli, çok etnikli bir coğrafyanın merkeziydi. 1915 ile başlayan 1924’e dek devam eden süreçte tek tipçiliğe kurban edilen Samsun’da, bir zamanlar Ermeniler ve Pontus Rumlar da yaşardı.1924’ten sonra bu halklar tamamen yok edilmese de yok denecek kadar aza indirilmiştir. Toplumsal belleği yok etmek isteyen Kemalizm, Türk kültürü dışında diğer kültürlere tam bir faşizm uygulamıştır. Bu gün Samsun’u görenler pekâlâ bilirler ki faşizme karşı inatla direnen Rum ve Ermeni kültürünün izleri hala günümüzde vardır.
Osmanlı sultanlığında Rum vatandaşlarına yönelik önlemler uzun süren bir zaman dilimine, yani 1912’den 1922/1923’lere kadar yayılmakla birlikte Pontus ya da Karadeniz bölgesindeki takibatlar ve imhalar cumhuriyetin kurulmasından sonra da yani 1924 yılına kadar sürmüştür.

Rumlara yönelik takibatlar ise 1919’da başlamıştır. 1915’te Talat Paşa’nın uyguladığı yöntemle büyük benzerlik içinde olan Mustafa Kemal ve yoldaşları, 1920’nin başlarında Kilikya Maraş’ta ve Hacin’de 9 bin Rum katletmiştir. 1922’de sürgün edilen Rumlar aynı 1915’te olduğu gibi Avrupalıların ve Amerikalıların tanıklık edemeyeceği güzergâhlar seçilerek tehcir edilmiştir.

İstanbul hükümetinin zayıflamasıyla müdafai hukuk, milliye cemiyetleri komiteler halinde halkı, galip güçlere ve onların işgal amaçlarına karşı direnişe çağırır. Osmanlı ordusundan firar eden askerler de bu çetelere katılır. 16 Mayıs 1919’da Sultan Vahdettin, General Mustafa Kemal’i, İstanbul’dan Samsun’a yollar yollamasına ama bu Sultan’ında sonu olur böylece. Sultan’ın, Kemal’i göndermesinin en büyük nedeni, İngilizlerin 9 Mart 1919 tarihinde Samsun’a askerî birlik çıkarmalarıydı. Atatürk, 19 Mayıs’ta beraberindekilerle Samsun’a çıkar.
Atatürk’ün Samsun’a çıkması, hem ülkenin hem de kendisinin kaderini değiştirmiştir. Ve Samsun’a çıkmasıyla birlikte gençliğe şöyle seslenir:
‘’Genç fikirli demek, doğruyu gören ve anlayan gerçek fikirli demektir.’ Oysaki doğruyu görmesine bile izin verilmeyen kadim halkların gençliği bu çağrıyı duymadı / duyamadı. Çünkü onlar 1915 soykırımının kefensiz ölüleriydi.

1919’da Samsun’a çıkarak başlayan, sözde Kurtuluş Savaşı ile devam eden Ankara’daki ulusalcı hükümet, yönetimin başına geçer geçmez Rumların angaryaya tabii tutulmasını, 1921’de tekrar yürürlüğe koydu. Bu ülkede ulusallaştırma fikrinin ilk kurbanları Rumlardır.
Hıristiyanların özellikle de Rumların Batı Anadolu’dan sürülmeleri 1913’te başlamış olmasına karşın, İyonya’da (Ege’de) etnik temizlik yapılmasını engelleyecek nihai karar ancak balkan savaşının bitiminde ve Enver Paşa’nın 1914’de Harbiye Nazırı olmasından sonra alındı. Soykırımın mimarlarından Talat Paşa 14 Mayıs 1914’te, Dardenel’den (Çanakkale) Çeşme’ye kadar olan tüm Yunan yerleşim birimlerini terör yoluyla ortadan kaldırmayı ve yerlerine ülkenin iç kısımlarına yerleştirilecek Türkleri ve Müslüman mültecileri getirmeyi kararlaştırdı.
1914’ten itibaren, Yunanistan’a veya Osmanlının Doğu ve İç kısımlarına sürülen İyonyalı, Trakyalı ve Pontuslu Rumların toplam sayısı 500.000 – 773,00 olarak verilmektedir. Osmanlı Hükümeti Temmuz – Ağustos 1914’te, 18 – 40 yaş arası Rum erkeklerinden “Amele Taburları” oluşturarak onları sistematik olarak ölüme sürükledi. 1916 yılı kış ortalarında Pontus Rumlarına dönük takibatlar, sürgünler ve imhalar başlatıldı.
Medeni dünyanın bu sürgünleri protesto etmemesi ve görmezlikten gelmesi yüzünden Osmanlı ve yeni cumhuriyet bu yaptırımları, Ermenilere, Süryanilere, Ezidilere, Alevilere ve son otuz yıldır Kürt halkına, kısacası boyunduruk altındaki halkların hepsine uyguladılar. Jön Türkler, Ermenilere ne uyguladılarsa aynı yöntemi Rumlara da uyguladılar. Rum kafileler de büyük mahrumiyetler yaşamış, ama onlar Ermeniler gibi genel bir katliama tabi tutulmadılar. Bu, Rumlara acıdıkları için değil o dönemde Alman müttefiklerin Yunanistan’ın itilaf devletlerinin yanında yer almaması içindir.
Bir zamanlar Ege’nin, Trakya’nın, Karadeniz’in, Orta Anadolu’nun kadim halkı olan Rum’lar neredeler şimdi? Her beş kişiden birinin gayrı Müslim olduğu bu topraklarda kadim halklara ne oldu?. Bu gün Rumların, Türkiye geneli nüfusları yaşadığı baskılardan ne yazık ki anayurtları olan Anadolu’ (Anatolia) da 3 bine düşmüştür. Bu, hepimizin suçudur. Dedelerimizin kanlı mirasıyla, 98 yıldır üzerimizde duran nar lekeleri temizlenmedikçe bu ülkeye ne barış gelir ne de demokrasi.
1915’de olduğu gibi Samsun’da 13 yaş ve üstü özellikle erkek çocukları geçmişi hatırlar düşüncesiyle topluca katledildi. M.Kemal’in gençliğe verdiği önem, işte tam da burda saklıdır. Katliamlar sonucu yok edilen Ermeni, Süryani, Rum, Ezidi gençlikten bu gün söz edemiyorsak bunun tek nedeni işte böylesi faşizan anlayışlardır. 24 Nisan gibi, 19 Mayıs’ta bu yüzden ulusal soykırım günüdür. Ve bu gün 19 Mayıs, Rum halkıyla birlikte bizlerde aynı yası paylaşıyoruz. Bu günde gözyaşlarımızın rengi Rum, Ermeni, Süryani, Alevidir.

ZEYNEP TOZDUMAN

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: GENÇLİKLERİNE İZİN VERİLMEYENLERİN BAYRAMIDIR 19 MAYIS, MAY 19., Zeynep TOZDUMAN Not allowed on the Feast of youth

Kani Xulam: Who Speaks for Kurds? The “Islamic flag” is another name for Turkish imperialism.

May 18, 2013 By administrator

By Kani Xulam

“Beware, lest you lose the substance, By grasping at the shadow.” –Aesop
If a car is white when it enters a tunnel—and comes out black on the other end, you can be pretty sure something happened inside the tunnel.
It’s probably the same thing in a prison.

f2993f4f56af4d01260f6a706700540dAbdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)—who has bitterly fought Turkey for years—was suddenly and inexplicably allowed to address a Kurdish New Year’s Day (Newroz) crowd of one million. That traditional Kurdish celebration is usually marked by clashes between Kurdish fighters and Turkish soldiers
This year, it wasn’t.

From his prison cell, represented by two members of the Turkish parliament, a woman and a man, a Kurd and a Turk, Mr. Ocalan was voiced in Kurdish and Turkish: “Today, a new era is dawning. A new door is opening: we are moving from armed struggle to the democratic politics.”

I couldn’t help but be reminded of a Turkish saying, apparently, originally voiced by an attractive young woman, who was overtly courted, “Bayram değil seyran değil eniştem beni niye öptü,” which translates as, “It is not a party, and it is not a special occasion, so I wonder why my brother in law kissed me?”

The answer has nothing to do with beauty, but crudeness—the repulsive Imrali Island prison, a Devil’s Island hell-hole, whose hideous savagery was highlighted in the Hollywood’s blockbuster about its most famous inmate, Bill Hayes, in the film, Midnight Express. (Mr. Hayes, of course, should count his blessings that he was not assigned to the Diyarbakir Military Prison where he would have been tortured to death.)

A lot of Kurds, among them this writer, were less than impressed when the Kurdish leader offered a roadmap, Missak-i Milli, which translates as “National Pact,” and made a sympathetic reference to the “Islamic flag” as a way out of the age-old Kurdish struggle for freedom. He even declared a river in Kurdistan, the Tigris, as a sister of a river in Turkey, the Sakarya.

The origins and meaning of “National Pact” adopted by the old Ottoman parliament in 1920 may have faded over time, but Kurds certainly understood them to mean a respect for Kurdish way of life,www.ekurd.net while supporting the nationalist movement led by Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk), the father of modern Turkey. In Ataturk’s interpretation of the covenant, the Kurdish lands that became part of Iraq and Syria belonged to the “Turkish homeland” and he strived hard to get them. England and France stopped him.

Has Erdogan now taken up where Ataturk left off, trying to gobble up new Kurdish lands under a new “Islamic flag” with the help of a Kurdish prisoner, an old Marxist, as a Judas goat? Is this the hidden part of the “peace” plan—the fine print in the devil’s contract—of the Turkish prime minister, the sultan wannabe of Turkey?

Words alone can’t change realities, as Shakespeare said of sweet smells and roses by other names.

The Sakarya River still flows into the Black Sea and Tigris into the Persian Gulf. The order of nature does not change, any more than the path taken by nations.

Turkey has spent $450 billion trying to destroy the PKK, killing 30,000 Kurdish fighters in 30 years, costing $15 million per person. The goal was to make Kurds look in the direction of Turks. They didn’t. Neither will attempting to fashion a phony, sanctimonious sisterhood of the Sakarya with the Tigris.

Notwithstanding my skepticism, I am all for peace (with justice) if it ever takes root. The violence that the Turks have inflicted on the Kurds and the little bit that we Kurds have inflicted on the Turks makes me wary of the future. Both peoples deserve a better future.

At least with a semblance of “peace,” the Kurdish divorce could take the path that was traveled in Czechoslovakia as opposed to Yugoslavia. The amicable relations that exist between Prague and Bratislava can be duplicated by Ankara with Diyarbakir. Turks who felt deeply for the sufferings of Muslim Bosnians in Bosnia don’t need to inflict the same on the Muslim Kurds in Kurdistan.

The “National Pact” turned out to be a tool in the hands of Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) to disenfranchise the Kurds of their birthrights. The road it took left a trail of tears, blood and death. In 1937 alone, in Dersim, a Kurdish province, thousands of civilians were bombed from the air and many more were gassed in mountain caves.

The “Islamic flag” is another name for Turkish imperialism.

Both bode further ill for the Kurds.

The second President Bush leaned on the Turkish military to elevate Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the prime minister of Turkey.

Will President Obama midwife Turkey’s expansionism into the Kurdish areas of Syria and Iraq when he meets with Mr. Erdogan in the White House?

If he does, some future Gibbon might note how the man from the “Land of Lincoln” started his political journey by promising “morality in politics” ended up introducing politics into morality and instead of uplifting humanity corrupted it to the delight of bigots in the Middle East and status-quo-huggers in Washington, DC.

 

* Kani Xulam is a political activist based in Washington D.C. He is the founder of the American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN) www.kurdistan.org.

Kani is a native of Kurdistan. He has studied international relations at the University of Toronto and holds a BA in history from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was recently awarded an MA by the International Service Program at American University. At the University of Toronto, he represented Kurdistan at the Model United Nations. In 1993, at the urging of Kurdish community leaders in America, he left his family business in California to establish the American Kurdish Information Network in the nation’s capital. He is the founder of the American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN)

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: “Islamic flag” is another name for Turkish imperialism.

Largest academic conference on genocides held in Illinois (Armenian, Assyrian and Greek genocides)

May 18, 2013 By administrator

May 18, 2013 – 10:55 AMT

The largest academic conference ever held in Skokie, Illinois, focusing on the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek genocides concluded on Saturday, May 11, after two days of presentations by more than a dozen scholars from Armenia, Australia, England and across North America.

158777The event, titled The Ottoman Turkish Genocides of Anatolian Christians: A Common Case Study, was organized by the ANCA of Illinois, the Assyrian Center for Genocide Studies and the Asia Minor and Pontos Hellenic Research Center, and was held at the prestigious Illinois Holocaust Museum and Educational Center in Skokie on May 10 and 11.

With more than 120 participants each day, the conference was filled to capacity with an enthusiastic audience.

“There was a great deal of new and interesting research presented during the conference,” said ANC of Illinois activist Greg Bedian. “This conference clearly demonstrated the many shared aspects of the Greek, Assyrian and Armenian genocides and helped to drive home the concept that these three tragic events were conceived by Turkish government to destroy the native Christian population and all traces of their existence from Anatolia.”

The conference was opened by Master of Ceremonies John Davis, Emmy award winner and long-time reporter and anchorman for CBS affiliate WBBM-TV in Chicago.

Davis then introduced conference moderator George Shirinian, Executive Director of the Zoryan Institute of Toronto, Canada. Shirinian’s introductory remarks focused on the importance of these types of conferences in the advancement of genocide research, and provided an outline of how the conference would proceed. He then opened the first session of the conference by introducing Dr. Paul Bartrop, the Director of the Center of Judaic, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University. Dr. Bartrop presented the topic “Considering Genocide Testimony: Three Case Studies.”

Dr. Anahit Khosroeva, senior researcher at the Institute of History at the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, spoke on the topic “The Assyrian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire,” discussing the massacres of Assyrians, and Christians in general, as a continuum from the time of Abdul Hamid to the Young Turks and into the Republican period, with the purpose of eliminating the Assyrian, Greek and Armenian populations from Anatolia.

Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) National Board Chairman Ken Hachikian said in his address that the ANCA has been able to make important strides in its lobbying activities because “we have the truth on our side.”

The other speakers at the event were: Dr. Hannibal Travis, Associate Professor of Law at Florida International University College of Law; Dr. Robert Shenk, Professor of English at the University of New Orleans; Thea Halo, author of the book Not Even My Name; Georgia Kouta, a PhD candidate at King’s College in London; Steven L. Jacobs, Associate Professor and Aaron Aronov Endowed Chair in Judaic Studies at the University of Alabama; Dr. Gevorg Vardanyan of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan; Professor Dikran Kaligian of Worcester State University; Dr. Suren Manukyan, a Fulbright Scholar on Sociology of the Armenian Genocide at Rutgers University and Deputy Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Largest academic conference on genocides held in Illinois

The ‘exact translation’: how ‘Medz Yeghern’ means genocide

May 17, 2013 By administrator

Here, we present an article by Vartan Matiossian, a historian, literary scholar, translator and educator, published in The Armenian Weekly on May 15. The article is presented in abridged form.

Yes, until World War II, the Medz Yeghern of 1915 was unprecedented not only in the history of our people, but in the entirety of humankind. An g_image.php25entire people, an entire nation coming from the depths of millennia was killed, was dying.

We condemn genocide [genotsid] or zhoghovrtasbanutiun with all our heart and soul.

There is and there cannot be either juridical justification or any motion of prescription for genocide.

Genocide, be it the horrifying slaughter of Armenians in Der or in the banks of the Euphrates in 1915, or the torturing death by massacre of the other peoples during World War II in Majdanek and Büchenwald, must always be condemned without reservations, and its perpetrators must be condemned by all of humankind.

Nagush Harutiunian (1965)

The president of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic proclaimed these words at the official commemoration of the genocide on April 24, 1965 in Yerevan. Harutiunian did not hesitate to pair “genocide” (he used the Russian loanword genotsid and the Armenian translation zhoghovrtasbanutiun, literally “democide”; tseghasbanutiun was not yet commonly used in Eastern Armenian) and “Medz Yeghern.”

Almost 50 years later, the official use of Medz Yeghern and genocide as synonyms would show ideological continuity regardless of time and political situation. Serge Sarkisian, the president of the Republic of Armenia, in a speech given in Marseilles in December 2011, said: “We were strong enough to survive the Medz Yeghern [Great Calamity], and we are just as strong now to demand justice.” After routinely inserting the translation “Great Calamity,” Armenian American commentator Harut Sassounian did not make any further comment on its use and reported that Sarkisian had employed “Armenian Genocide” six times in other parts of his speech.

The organized annihilation of 1915 was an unprecedented eruption of pure evil that encompassed not only the wholesale killing of people, but also the devastation of their culture and civilization, the dispossession of their property and ancestral territory, and the dehumanization and traumatization of the survivors and their descendants. That evil component ensured the use of Medz Yeghern (“Great [Evil] Crime”) as the name for a crime of such catastrophic and unprecedented proportions, superseding the more pedestrian Medz Vojir (“Great Crime”). An editorial published in 2005, on the 90th anniversary of the genocide, in “Hai Sird,” the official periodical of the Armenian Relief Society (ARS), even asked “whether the word ‘genocide,’ coined decades later, can begin to describe what we, Armenians, call Metz Yeghern, ‘The Great Crime.’” The legitimacy of the word was not questioned; rather, its insufficiency to describe the dimensions of the event.
Deconstructing Obama’s April 24 statements

The phony polemics around Medz Yeghern have been exacerbated by a remarkable ignorance of its profound historical meaning and a willful adoption of the Turkish-fueled “Great Calamity” hoax. This has led to an inability to accurately interpret the relation of President Barack Obama’s “Meds Yeghern” of April 2009 (and subsequent years) to presidential candidate Barack Obama’s promise on Jan. 19, 2008—“as President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.” Consequently, the powers that be have chosen “to send a message to the president and all politicians that if you make a promise to the people, you have to keep your promise,” as Sassounian stated in May 2010. On the eve of the 2010 congressional elections, a privately paid “political ad” even appeared in the Armenian-American press with the following title: “President Medz Yeghern is a liar. Liars must be punished. On November 2, give him a Republican Congress.”6 Around a month before the 2012 presidential elections, Sassounian reportedly issued the following warning: “Pres. Obama has about 30 days to make good on his pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Otherwise, Armenian-Americans will not vote for him for a second term.”

We have chosen a rather different path: to read together the five presidential statements between 2009 and 2013. The analysis showed a constant repetition of several key phrases and/or ideas:

1) “Meds Yeghern,” non-translated (eleven times)

2) “I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915…” (five times)

3) “…And my view has not changed” (five times)

4) 1.5 million Armenians (five times)

5) Massacred or marched to their death (five times)

6) “In the final days of the Ottoman Empire” (five times)

7) One of the “worst” (four times) or “great” (one time) atrocities of the 20th century;

8) “Full, frank, and just acknowledgment of the facts” (five times)

9) Armenian contribution “to the world” (two times), “to our nation” (one time), “to our society, our culture, and our communities” (one time)

Reconstructing Obama’s April 24 statements

Here is the reconstruction of the key phrases deconstructed above, namely, the essentials of what Obama has said for the past four years: “I have consistently stated [and I repeat] my own view of that history: the Meds Yeghern was one of the worst atrocities of the twentieth century [that caused] 1.5 million victims massacred or marched to their death in the final days of the Ottoman Empire. [I want] the achievement of a full, frank, and just acknowledgement of the facts [and I recognize] the Armenian contribution to the world.”

This paragraph repeats the facts of history that are opposed to Turkish denial—that there were 1.5 million victims of massacre or deadly deportation in the Ottoman Empire, one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. Turkish counterfactual history was exemplified by one of its most notorious spokespersons, Yusuf Halaçoğlu, the former president of the Turkish Historical Society and a current member of parliament, back in 2005: 1) “Most Armenians who died, died of disease, whereas most Muslims who died were killed by Armenian gangs”; 2) “Those who keep talking about the nonsense of 1.5 million dead are politicizing this issue. Can you imagine where one would bury 1.5 million people? If you put 300 in the same grave, that would make 5,000 mass graves.”

The rationale of the reconstructed paragraph lies in the “view of that history” that Senator Barack Obama had stated in his June 28, 2006 letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (“The occurrence of the Armenian genocide is not an ‘allegation,’ a ‘personal opinion,’ or a ‘point of view.’ Supported by an overwhelming amount of historical evidence, it is a widely documented fact”),9 re-stated as a presidential candidate on Jan. 19, 2008 (“…my firmly held conviction that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. The facts are undeniable”), and reaffirmed four times in a row that it had not changed.

A unique paragraph

Obama’s 2009 statement also contained a unique paragraph: “Nothing can bring back those who were lost in the Meds Yeghern. But the contributions that Armenians have made over the last 94 years stand as a testament to the talent, dynamism, and resilience of the Armenian people, and as the ultimate rebuke to those who tried to destroy them.” Its legal intent was correctly assessed by the Council of the Bar Association of the Republic of Armenia in early 2010; while stating that it is “time to call things by their proper names,” it did recognize that “Obama the lawyer…has already clearly acknowledged the events of the Armenian Genocide”:

“President Obama used the historical Armenian term ‘Meds Yeghern,’ which is synonymous to ‘genocide,’ a more contemporary term. The term ‘Meds Yeghern’ was used by President Obama twice, and was clearly described as an attempt to destroy the Armenian people. It is obvious that the ‘Meds Yeghern’ term was referred to by President Obama in exactly the same meaning, as we, Armenians, refer to it. The terms ‘Meds Yeghern,’ ‘Hayots Tseghaspanutiun,’ and ‘Armenian Genocide’ have been always absolutely identical. From the legal point of view, President Obama has described a genocide, because an attempt to destroy a people is, by definition, a genocide.

Even though Obama the politician did not use the term genocide, Obama the lawyer, the graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, has already clearly acknowledged the events of the Armenian Genocide. On behalf of the Bar Association of the Republic of Armenia, we would like to express our gratitude to President Obama for his historic statement.

Taking into account the significance of international recognition of genocide in preventing the crime of genocide in the future, we believe that it is the time to call things by their proper names and to condemn the Medz Yeghern defining it as genocide in unequivocal terms.”

The underlined phrase did not appear again in the next presidential statements. We are inclined to believe that it was not sheer coincidence.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: The ‘exact translation’: how ‘Medz Yeghern’ means genocide

Germany fears return of European jihadists in Syria

May 17, 2013 By administrator

Up to 700 Europeans are fighting the Assad regime in Syria mainly as militant Islamists, the German government has said, warning that the militants could return as “homegrown terrorists” and calling for a controversial new policy that would temporarily bar them from re-entering Europe, the Guardian reported.

g_image.php24In the first disclosures of western intelligence from an EU government about Europeans fighting in Syria, senior officials in Berlin said they knew of up to 40 people who had left Germany for the battlefields since last summer. Most of them had German passports.

While German security services monitor the situation closely – the German interior ministry has banned three Salafist organisations in the past year – the fighters could not be stopped from leaving Germany because it could not be proved that they were going to Syria, the officials said. Their passports could be confiscated, but frequently it was possible to travel to the Syrian border simply using an ID card.

“You can’t mark their ID cards Jihadist or Salafist,” a senior official said.

The interior ministry is worried that the fighters will return to Germany where they could operate as “homegrown terrorists” and is pushing for pan-European action to diminish that risk. The chances of success, however, look limited.

Hans-Peter Friedrich, the German interior minister, will raise the issue at a meeting of EU governments next month, calling for a two-year re-entry ban to the EU for the suspected Islamists. However, it may be difficult legally to keep them out as most of them carry passports from EU countries, many will often have families in the countries concerned and may have had jobs and entitlements in the EU.

Altogether there were 400-700 Europeans fighting in the opposition in Syria, around 10% of up to 6,000 foreign militants apparently fighting the Assad regime.

In addition to the Syrian fighters, up to 60 militants had also left Germany for Egypt, officials said. The fighters had been traced to training camps in Somalia where they were taught to use explosives and car bombs, officials said. “Most have joined the Islamists. The dangers are growing for us,” said the senior government figure.

A year-long survey by King’s College London of more than 200 martyrdom posts on jihadist-linked websites and hundreds of Arab and western press reports found last month that up to 600 individuals from 14 countries including the UK, Austria, Spain, Sweden and Germany had taken part in the conflict since it began more than two years ago.

The largest contingent, the study found, came from the UK, with estimates of fighters running between 28 and 134. Based on their populations, the figures for Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland –with about 200 fighters between them – made these countries the most significant, said the lead researcher, Professor Peter Neumann from the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College.European fighters made up to between 7% and 11% of the foreign contingent in Syria, which ranged between 2,000 and 5,500 people. The researchers also said there were likely to be at least 110 named Europeans engaged in fighting currently.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Germany fears return of European jihadists in Syria

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