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On December 22, at the initiative of the Union of Armenians of Italy, the City Council of the city of Mirano, Venice area, recognized the Armenian genocide by a unanimous vote, reports Hayern Aysor Italy.
In 2016, the Union of Armenians of Italy launch petitions to be presented in three different cities whose purpose is the recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide.
Jean-Pierre Kotchian
The Jean-Pierre Etienne Kotchian Prize winner Lucien Neuwirth on the feast of the Book of Saint-Etienne with “Red Mountains”, in this first novel tells the story of his family of Armenian origin. Portrait.
“I wrote this book for my family, so that we never forget where we come from.” When Jean-Pierre Kotchian discusses his Armenian roots, has a sob in his voice. “I have no animosity, my only desire is to be recognized as genocide.”
This genocide which his father’s family has suffered so much that has led to the departure of his father his homeland. He says in this first novel, The Red Mountain, the story of a father born in 1912 in Ankara.
“His words were like music”
“My father sold shoes Badouillère street in Saint-Etienne, he had a small stall cobbler.” Jean-Pierre Kotchian evokes with great sensitivity his childhood and the genesis of his book.
“Often he would tell me stories of the past, I was 11 and I was a real pleasure to listen. He had narrative gifts, a vivid imagination. With a very good auditory memory, I recorded his words. His words was like music that resonated and was printed in my head. Much later, in the late 90s, I slept on paper all these memories, and then I forgot these sheets slipped into a book on the history of Armenia. There is a little over two years, while I was chatting with a friend at home, I took the book to tell him about Armenia and the leaves have fallen. I saw a sign. I took these notes, I did historical research on the internet. My mother, of Greek origin, who is 94 years old today, had also collected the words of my father telling his adventures. It was then that I began to shape the story I wanted to bring novel. “
“The price-Lucien Neuwirth, very proud”
Later, Jean-Pierre Kotchian owes a Friend Bruno Testa writer, who put him in contact with Utopia editions. The book is published in 600 copies at the beginning of last summer.
Presented at the festival of the Book of Saint-Etienne, he was selected among the many manuscripts which are eligible for prizes. And it is to his surprise that Jean-Pierre Kotchian learns he has the Lucien Neuwirth price.
“I was at the awards evening at St. Stephen Convention Center, never imagined that I would be called on stage. When I heard my name I was stuck, it is as if I had received a big blow on the head. I thought of my father, to Armenia and I felt very proud to receive this award. “
Presented by the directors of France Bleu, the Tribune-The Progress in the presence of the President of the Press Club and communication of the Loire Editor of France 3 Loire, the price fills our author Etienne.
“From the outset, the next day people came to meet me in the tent of the book festival, it was great. Today I seek a publisher in Turkey. I want the book to be translated into Turkish and Armenian “adds the author who never ceases to both historical research but also genealogical.
“I found the Kotchian in Syria there are few, I’m in the footsteps of all those people, those cousins and friends, including my father spoke to me and all of which were scattered by the exodus.”
Martine Goubatian
http://www.leprogres.fr/sortir/2015/11/20/jean-pierre-kotchian-ecrire-pour-ne-pas-oublier
ANCA Graphic urging US to properly characterize ISIS attacks against Christians as ‘genocide’
WASHINGTON — With Christmas just a day away, 30 U.S. Representatives, led by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA), have called on the Obama Administration to condemn the ongoing Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) attacks against Christians and other Middle East minorities as ‘genocide,’ reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
The December 23rd letter, addressed to Secretary of State John Kerry comes in response to reports that the Obama Administration is set to characterize the ISIS attacks on Yezidis as genocide, but will stop short of similarly referencing the murder and destruction of Christians and other minority groups. “While it is hardly possible to overstate the brutality of ISIL’s attempts to destroy the Yezidis, an overly narrow finding would wrongly discount similar violence directed against other minorities in the region, with likely dire consequences for those minorities,” noted the letter. The Congressional letter cited the recent U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report which, “call[ed] on the US government to designate the Christian, Yazidi, Shi’a, Turkmen and Shabak communities of Iraq and Syria as victims of Genocide by ISIL.”
The effort is part of a broad outcry of concern by Congressional leaders, genocide experts and rights groups, including the ANCA, to secure a clear U.S. genocide determination regarding the anti-Christian atrocities, including calls for passage of various U.S. House and Senate genocide measures and Obama Administration’s determination.
Hovsepian: “It’s Deja Vu All Over Again”
ANCA Western Region Chairwoman Nora Hovsepian outlined why the ANCA and the Armenian Americans are working hard with Assyrian-Chaldean, Greek and an array of human rights groups on securing the proper characterization of the ISIS genocide against Christians in this recent interview with the LA Daily News. “With respect to what’s happening in the Middle East now, it’s deja vu all over again. It’s like chapter two,” Hovsepian said. “Unfortunately, the United States’ policy at this point is baffling to us. Of course it’s a genocide against (Christians) as well. One of the reasons why it’s happening now is because it happened 100 years ago. (Turkey) got away with it then, with zero accountability.”
Last week ANCA Legislative Affairs Director Raffi Karakashian joined In Defense of Christians (IDC) Executive Director Kirsten Evans, A Demand For Action Executive Director Steve Oshana, and renowned genocide expert Greg Stanton for a meeting with White House officials to make the case for the proper genocide designation. On the same day, ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian participated in a White House briefing on Syrian refugees, urging the US to close gaps in aid to Armenian and other Christian victims of ISIS and other Islamic extremist groups.
In Defense of Christians Press Conference Spotlights Need for Immediate Action
The December 16th Capitol Hill press conference, organized by In Defense of Christians (IDC), a nonpartisan organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of Christians and Christian culture in the Middle East, brought the issue of the ongoing ISIS genocide front and center.
“When genocide has been committed or is looming the President and Congress should publicly say so and take robust actions to end it and ensure accountability,” explained Helsinki Commission Chairman Chris Smith (R-NJ), speaking at the press conference. “Any failure by President Obama to recognize the ongoing genocide against Christians would be irresponsible, indefensible, and unconscionable.”
Armenian and Assyrian American Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, who, along with Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) serves as Co-Chair of the House Caucus for Religious Minorities in the Middle East said, “This is history for my family that is repeating itself all over again. […] Future generations will look at us and ask ‘did they do anything?’”
“We cannot underestimate the moral authority the United States has when we simply utter what is true,” stated Rep. Fortenberry, holding a photo of Christians shackled by ISIS abductors prior to their murder.
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) refuted arguments that labeling the slaughter of Christians ‘genocide’ is a form of religious bias. “It is not about a test of religion. It is about special protection for victims of targeted and systematic persecution.”
Internationally reknowned Genocide and human rights expert, Dr. Greg Stanton outlined how the ISIS actions against Christians meets the internationally agreed UN definition of ‘genocide’ and went on to explain why that designation is important.
“‘Genocide’ is a much more powerful word that ‘crimes against humanity,’ war crimes, ‘ethnic cleansing,’ or ‘atrocity crimes,’” noted Stanton, citing a 2007 study he and colleagues had conducted on the words used in The New York Times to describe the Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo and Darfur genocides. “We discovered that as long as ‘ethnic cleansing’ was used, there was no forceful action to stop it. As soon as the situations were called ‘genocide,’ forceful action resulted and ended the killing, except in Darfur where a UN Commission of Inquiry rejected the ‘genocide’ word.”
Stanton went on to identify the two most important reasons for the ‘genocide’ designation, explaining first that the word “more strongly justifies our broad coalition military support for Kurdish and Iraqi forces to defeat ISIS;” and second, “members of such groups are much more likely to receive preferential treatment as bona fide refugees under the UN Convention and Protocols on the Status of Refugees.”
Nina Shea, Director of the Hudson Institute Center for Religious Freedom, cited the importance of political advocacy by Christians and all Americans of good conscience in support of passage Congressional legislation characterizing the ISIS attacks as Genocide, and finished her remarks with a simple question: “To Secretary Kerry, Samantha Power, and President Obama I ask, ‘Where are you?’”
“In August of 2014 the Iraqi parliament decried the atrocities and crimes against humanity targeting religious minorities under ISIS as a genocide. Many others have done the same, including Pope Francis, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, and the world’s leading international association of genocide scholars. In Defense of Christians has been working hard to ensure that the United States government, both Congress and the State Department, do the same,” stated IDC Executive Director Kirsten Evans when opening the conference.
Other experts offering remarks at the press conference included Dr. Randel Everett, President of the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative; Dr. Chris Seiple, Chairman of the Board at the Institute of Global Engagement; Louay Mikhael, IDC Special Advisor on Iraq and Mr. Mark Tooley, President of the Institute on Religious and Democracy.
Broad Coalition in Support of Designating ISIS Anti-Christian Attacks ‘Genocide’
Over the past months, a diverse group of religious, civic and ethnic groups have petitioned the White House to include Christians in their ‘genocide’ designation when describing ISIS atrocities.
On November 25th, the ANCA joined Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac rights group “A Demand for Action,” IDC and over 20 organizations in urging swift Obama Administration action. “Calling genocide by its proper name cannot wait for a ruling by a court of law. Under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide we have an obligation to work toward prevention and punishment,” stated the letter.
On December 4th, the Knights of Columbus and Hudson Institute Center for Religious Freedom led a similar effort urging Secretary Kerry to take action. “The United States is rightly viewed the world’s leading defender of vulnerable minorities, and as an historic safe-haven for those fleeing religious persecution. A declaration of genocide by the State Department is thus a unique opportunity to bring America’s religious communities together to pursue the truth, to support the victims, and to bear witness to the noble principle of ‘Never Again,’” noted the letter, cosigned by the ANCA and a number of Armenian American leaders including the His Eminence Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, Prelate, Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America (Eastern); and Archbishop Vicken Aykazian Ecumenical Director and Legate, Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern).
In a September, 2015, appeal, over 40 respected experts in the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), called on Congress to designate the ISIS crimes against Christians and other minorities ‘genocide’ and went further to call for concrete international action to prevent future atrocities. “ISIS leaders should be prosecuted in the International Criminal Court (ICC) for their crimes. The U.N. Security Council should refer ISIS crimes to the ICC for investigation and prosecution. The UN and Regional Organizations should act swiftly and firmly, and follow-up with police force to arrest ISIS leaders,” stated the letter by Genocide scholars.
Prior to Chairman Royce’s joint Congressional letter, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) sent his personal appeal to Secretary Kerry, questioning the distinction being placed between the plight of Yezidis as opposed to Christians and other minorities targeted by ISIS in the Middle East, stemming primarily from a recent U.S. Holocaust Museum report which focused primarily on Iraq’s Nineveh province as opposed to Iraq and Syria overall. “ISIS targets Christians on the bases of their religious identity, without regard to where they are located. It is imperative that the State Department approach its decision for genocide designation in terms of which religious minorities are being persecuted, rather than where they live,” stated Rep. Pompeo. View Rep. Pompeo’s letter here:
Congressional Resolutions Condemning Christian Genocide Abound; Votes Yet to be Scheduled
Senators and Representative have introduced a number of resolutions referencing the ISIS actions against Christians, Yezidis and other minorities ‘genocide,’ though no vote has yet been scheduled on any of these pieces of legislation.
The resolution with the greatest Congressional and grassroots support is led by Congressman Fortenberry and Congressowman Eshoo. With over 160 cosponsors, H.Con.Res.75, which the IDC supports, expresses the “sense of Congress that those who commit or support atrocities against Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities, including Yezidis, Turkmen, Sabea-Mandeans, Kaka‘e, and Kurds, and who target them specifically for ethnic or religious reasons, are committing, and are hereby declared to be committing, ‘war crimes,’ ‘crimes against humanity,’ and ‘genocide.’”
The ANCA has teamed up with IDC to set up an action alert urging Congressional support for H.Con.Res.75.
Earlier this week, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) introduced S.Res.340, a resolution “expressing the sense of Congress that the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS or Da’esh) is committing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, and calling upon the President to work with foreign governments and the United Nations to provide physical protection for ISIS’ targets, to support the creation of an international criminal tribunal with jurisdiction to punish these crimes, and to use every reasonable means, including sanctions, to destroy ISIS and disrupt its support networks.” The resolution, cosponsored by Republican Presidential Candidate Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Senators Mark Kirk (R-IL), Joe Manchin (D-WV), and Roger Wicker (R-MS), notes that “communities of Assyrian Chaldean Syriac, Armenian, Evangelical, and Melkite Christians; Kurds; Yezidis; Shia and Sunni Muslims; Turkmen; Sabea-Mandeans; Kaka‘e; and Shabaks have been an integral part of the cultural fabric of the Middle East for millennia.”
Congressman Rohrabacher has introduced H.R. 4017, a bill which would expedite the processing of immigrant and refugee visas for Christian and Yezidi victims of ISIS genocide. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) had earlier introduced a similar resolution (H.Res.435).
A number of Senate and House resolutions have noted that ISIS has “threatened genocide” against Christians and other minorities including, S.2377, introduced by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and H.R. 4208, introduced by Rep. Scott Rigell (R-VA).
H.Res.440, spearheaded by Rep. David Trott (R-MI) and Brad Sherman (D-CA), calls for for “urgent international action on behalf of Iraqi and Syrian civilians facing a dire humanitarian crisis and severe persecution because of their faith or ethnicity in the Nineveh Plain region of Iraq and Khabor, Kobane, and Aleppo regions of Syria.” The resolution, which has over 15 cosponsors, specifically notes that Islamic extremist attacks “have had a particularly severe effect on ethnic and religious minority communities such as Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac Christians, Armenians, Yezidis, Shabak and other minorities in the region.”
Turkish 1915 Dictator Enver Pasha, the Minister of War of the Ottoman Empire (Armenian Genocide) instigator
To those who know Russian history, Ankara’s hostile move in Syria has come as no surprise: over the past hundred years Turkey and Russia have been involved in a longstanding geopolitical competition.
Incredible as it may seem it was Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany who urged Sultan Mehmed V of Turkey to unleash a “Holy War” (Jihad) against the Russian Empire, Britain and France during the First World War (1914-1918).
On November 14, 1914, Mehmed V declared Jihad against the enemies of the German Reich and the Ottoman Empire.
Besides religious matters, the Ottoman Empire had certain geopolitical interests in gaining control over Russia’s Caucasus, the Central Asian and the Volga regions.
Interestingly enough, the Turkish spiritual emissaries made every effort to engage Russian Muslims in the “jihad” against the Russian Empire, but largely in vain. Turkish pan-Islamists had been repeatedly spotted in the Caucasus on the eve of the First World War promoting the anti-Russian sentiment. They also tried to convince the Russian Tartar population to take the side of the Ottoman Empire.
The German leadership in its turn also added fuel to the fire by launching an ideological propaganda campaign and publishing “El-Jihad” newspaper. The outlet addressed Russian Tatars POWs and urged them to join Kaiser Wilhelm II, the self-proclaimed protector of all Muslims.
However, only 1,500 of almost 50,000 Russian Tatar POWs enlisted in German diversionary battalions.
Meanwhile, Enver Pasha, the Minister of War of the Ottoman Empire, developed an ambitious plan aimed at capturing Russia’s Kars province.
On December 22, 1914 a 150,000-strong Turkish military group launched an offensive against the Russian Caucasian Army in the Kars region. Unfortunately for Enver Pasha, the Turkish advance resulted in the disastrous defeat of the Ottoman military forces at the Battle of Sarikamish in January 1915. Russia’s victory brought the Turkish dream to stir up the Turkic inhabitants of Russia’s southern regions to an end.
However, it is only a part of the story. Russo-Turkish relations thawed in the early 1920s after the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia in October (November) 1917. The First World War dealt a heavy blow to the Ottoman Empire leading to the country’s partitioning. In April 1920 Turkish national leader Mustafa Kemal Pasha (dubbed later Ataturk) sent an official request to Vladimir Lenin, the head of the Bolshevik Party, asking to establish diplomatic relations between Soviet Russia and Turkey. Needless to say, Lenin met the proposal with enthusiasm — the Soviet government was at the time seeking new geopolitical allies.
The Soviets helped the Turkish state to delineate the borders between Turkey and Armenia and Iran.
In accordance with the Kars Treaty signed on October 13, 1921, between Turkey, Soviet Azerbaijan, Soviet Armenia and Soviet Georgia, Kemal Pasha received the infamous Kars region, Ardagan and Artvin. The treaty was preceded by a similar agreement signed by the Kemalists and Soviet Russia. The Soviet government also provided the Turks with considerable financial aid in gold. In August 1921 General M.V. Frunze assumed the post of a Soviet Ambassador to Turkey and became Ataturk’s close military adviser.
In order to support Turkey in its war against “imperialist powers” the young Soviet Russian Republic supplied to the country about 39 000 rifles, 327 heavy machine guns, 54 big cannons, 63 million bullets, 147 000 artillery shells as well as necessary raw materials and powder. Soviet military experts and instructors were deployed to Ankara.
However, relations between the states started deteriorating in 1936 during negotiations over the status quo of the Bosporus Straits and the Dardanelles. The Straits were placed back under the control of Turkey. Moscow believed that Ankara would provide it with additional preferences given the close cooperation between the countries during the Turkish War for Independence. Alas, the Soviet government’s wishes had not been met.
Indeed, in the late 1930s, after the death of Ataturk, Turkey adopted a new political course and turned to its old ally — Germany. In the 1930s Nazi Germany became Turkey’s major trading partner.
On June 18, 1941, after the Second World War began, the German-Turkish Non-Aggression Pact was inked in Ankara by German ambassador to Turkey Franz von Papen and Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Sukru Saracoglu. Under an agreement signed in September 1941 Ankara sold Chromite ore, a strategic metal, to Nazi Germany up until 1944. Furthermore, Ankara allowed German warships to cross the Straits under the official guise of commercial vessels during the course of the war.
Although then-Turkish president Ismet Inonu proclaimed a policy of neutrality, a considerable number of Turkish senior nationalist policymakers raised their voices urging Ankara to start “crusade” against the USSR and Bolshevism.
The supporters of the so-called Pan-Turanian movement dreamt of establishing control over Soviet Central Asia and the Volga region inhabited by Turkic population and most notably the rich oilfields of the Caucasus. In a word, nothing had changed much since the First World War. Needless to say, Nazi Germany courted the Turkish Pan-Turanists.
Interestingly enough, the Turkish “wish list” included not only the USSR’s territories, but also northern Syria, Aleppo and Mosul.
Historians call attention to the fact that according to an additional secret agreement to the Turkish-German non-aggression pact Turkey was expected to enter the war against the USSR when Nazi Germany captured the Soviet strategic city of Stalingrad. In mid-1942 twenty-six Turkish divisions were concentrated on the border with the Soviet Union.
Turkish 1923 the Ethnic cleansing Dictator Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
However, the Soviet advance against Nazis dealt a blow to Pan-Turanists’ plans. In 1944, Ankara changed its political vector again, and cracked down on Nazi-supporters inside the country. Furthermore, in February 1945 Turkey officially declared war on Nazi Germany, however not taking part in any fighting.
During the Cold War era Ankara continued to pursue anti-Soviet policies. In 1952, Turkey joined NATO and took part in the CIA’s clandestine Operation Gladio aimed against the USSR and the Warsaw Pact countries. Turkey’s Counter-Guerilla forces, including Turkish nationalists Grey Wolves (Bozkurtlar), carried out paramilitary training of the Turkish youths, conducted terror acts against the Kurdish left parties and spread anti-Soviet sentiment. Turkish nationalists proclaimed the creation of Great Turan and the dissolution of the USSR as their primary objective.
After the collapse of the USSR, Turkish nationalists once again attempted to spread their influence over former the Soviet Republics and regions — the Caucasus, the Central Asia, the Volga region and Crimea. As for Ankara’s Middle Eastern policies, its ambitious plans predictably include the Iraqi Mosul, where Turkish troops have been recently deployed, and northern Syria.
History clearly shows that Turkey’s principal geopolitical agenda has not changed.
Witnesses of the Armenian Genocide recognized their houses 100 years later. These moments were captured by Diana Markosian, an Armenian-American photographer. In her exhibition held at New York University’s Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, one can see the excitement of the people, who are over 100, Huffington Post reports.
On October 2014, Markosian began looking for Genocide witnesses. She found 10 survivors, but only three of them “still had memories predating the genocide”.
“In an attempt to retrieve pieces of their lost homelands, she brought back mural-sized panels capturing potent landscapes from Turkey, and displayed them in the places these survivors now live in Armenia,” the newspaper writes.
When Movses Haneshyan, 105, looked at the photo of his childhood home, “he paused and started dancing towards this image.”
“A century later they are being confronted with their home, and they are recognizing it,” Markosian said
When asked what she remembers from 1915, Yepraksia Gevorgyan said: “You’re lucky you didn’t see it.”
Mariam Sahakyan, 101, had only one request: “Go to my village and bring back soil for me to be buried in.”
A group of Socialist-Revolutionary deputies introduced a bill to Russia’s State Duma, seeking to criminalize public denial of genocide against the Greeks, Assyrians and Yezidi Kurds perpetrated between 1915 and 1922 in Turkey.
It is proposed to introduce a penalty of up to 200.000 rubles or a sentence of forced labor or imprisonment for up to three years.
According to one of the authors of the bill, head of the faction Just Russia Sergei Mironov, a bill on outlawing the denial of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1922 is currently under consideration at the Duma.
“Our bill has a simple and obvious logic,” Mironov said. “Not only Armenians, but also representatives of other nations were affected by Turkey’s genocide of 1915-1922: millions of people fell victim, starved to death, lost their homeland. It is necessary to recognize the crimes of the Turkish regime to restore historical justice.”
Movses Haneshyan, 105, approaches a life-size landscape of his hometown, Musa Dagh. (Photo copyright: Diana Markosian)
BY Sara Elkamel Associate International Editor, The Huffington Post,
The 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide this year has been an opportunity for historians, writers and artists to revisit the memory of the massacres and deportations carried out by the Ottomans beginning in 1915. Exhibitions around the world revisited the archives, exploring Armenian culture, resistance during the genocide and the immediate aftermath of the genocide.
Diana Markosian, an Armenian-American photographer whose work has included topics such as the lives of young Muslim girls in Chechnya and the legacy of the Virgin Mary, took the retrospective moment to stage confrontations between the past and the present. Her project, “1915,” currently exhibited at New York University’s Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, profiles three living survivors of the genocide as they revisit memories of what they left behind, and what they lost.
In October 2014, Markosian set out to find genocide survivors residing in Armenia. She met 10 survivors, but only three — Movses Haneshyan, Mariam Sahakyan and Yepraksia Gevorgyan — still had memories predating the genocide.
Markosian retraced their steps, traveling back to sites they fled and still remembered. In an attempt to retrieve pieces of their lost homelands, she brought back mural-sized panels capturing potent landscapes from Turkey, and displayed them in the places these survivors now live in Armenia.
When Haneshyan, who is now 105 years old, looked at the photograph of his childhood home, “he paused and started dancing towards this image,” Markosian recounts. It was the sort of moment the photographer had hoped to capture when embarking on this project. She went on to photograph all three survivors’ encounters with images from their past.
Hovnanian School students at the Dec. 9 event
By Anahid M. Ugurlayan
On Dec. 9, the Armenian Relief Society (ARS) participated in an historic day for the Armenian people. It marked the first United Nations (U.N.) observance of the International Day for the Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime. This commemoration, which will take place every year on Dec. 9 going forward, was established pursuant to a U.N. General Assembly Resolution (69/323), passed on Sept. 11, 2015, that was sponsored by Armenia and co-sponsored by 84 nations.
Dec. 9 is not an arbitrary date—it also marks the date on which the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide went into effect 67 years ago. Raphael Lemkin, a legal scholar and Polish-Jewish refugee, was the catalyst behind the convention, coining the word “genocide” after studying the horrors of the Armenian Genocide and before losing 49 members of his family during the Holocaust.
The program began with a moving performance by the U.N. Symphony Orchestra of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Air.” In their welcoming remarks, Mogens Lykketoft, president of the 70th Session of the U.N. General Assembly, and Jan Eliasson, deputy secretary-general of the U.N., delivered a powerful message—one that was echoed by all of the speakers—that stressed the importance of honoring victims of genocide while also redoubling efforts to prevent genocide altogether by, in the words of Eliasson, “catching the tremor before the earthquake.” Indeed, the promise of “never again” has been repeatedly broken and continues to be broken around the world.
Ambassador Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, permanent representative of Armenia to the U.N., thanked the 84 nations who co-sponsored U.N. General Assembly Resolution 69/323, making this observance possible. Mnatsakanyan stressed that this day calls on all nations to remember the victims of genocide as well as the “admittance of past inaction” and “reclaiming justice.” He applauded the efforts of civil society, the media, and academia in raising awareness and knowledge of the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Mnatsakanyan also noted that Dec. 9 was a “shameful reminder” that the international community cannot claim the elimination of genocide or genocidal tendencies despite the fact that there are many early warning signs in every instance, from violation of rights affecting vulnerable groups to hate speech to incitement to violence. He ended his remarks by stating, “We commemorate to prevent.”
The keynote address was delivered by Adama Dieng, U.N. special adviser on the prevention of genocide. He congratulated Armenia for its hard work in bringing the commemoration to fruition. Dieng stated that the seeds of genocide are being sown as we speak, citing the example of the Yazidis and other migrant groups, communities that are being destroyed simply because of their beliefs. He stressed the importance of acting now to stop genocide from being part of the present and future.
The keynote speech was followed by three panel presentations. The first, delivered by Pablo de Greiff, special rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, explained that a multi-pronged approach must be adopted to prevent genocide, most notably by strengthening civil society, on which serious constraints have been placed by 60 countries as of late.
The second presentation was delivered by David Tolbert, president of the International Center for Transitional Justice. Specifically mentioning the Armenian Genocide, he noted that the list of genocides is long and that genocide can only end if states take responsibility for their actions and end denialist practices. Tolbert explained that transitional justice requires that truth tellers be immune from prosecution and that reparations be given as a form of redress. He stressed the importance of creating memorials to the victims of genocide and modifying curricula in schools to teach children about genocides.
Lastly, Elisa Von Joeden-Forgey, Assistant Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Stockton University, stated that there is no society that is not complicit in genocide and that there is no society that is not vulnerable to it. She explained that there are distinct patterns to genocide (e.g., targeting reproductive symbols of group life), and that education is key in preventing genocide. Remarks were also delivered by the chairs of General Assembly Regional Groups, specifically by representatives from Cyprus and Israel, both of whom echoed earlier remarks about commemorating genocide by preventing it.
The program ended with the U.N. Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Einekleine Nachtmusik.”
The timing of the International Day for the Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime at the U.N. on the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide is a powerful reminder of the commitment of Armenia and the Armenian people to genocide awareness and prevention efforts. The ARS was honored to be present on this historic day and thanks the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the U.N. for its leadership in making this commemorative day a reality. The ARS also thanks the Hovnanian School for allowing many of its students to attend the momentous event.
Source; Armenian weekly
Aslı Erdoğan Turkish Intellectuals
By: Hambersom Aghbashian,
Aslı Erdoğan (born 1967) is a prize-winning Turkish writer, human rights activist and former columnist for Radikal newspaper. Born in Istanbul, she graduated from Robert College in 1983 and the Computer Engineering Department of Boğaziçi University in 1988. She worked at CERN* as a particle physicist from 1991 to 1993 and received an MS in physics from Boğaziçi University. She began research for a PhD in physics in Rio de Janeiro before returning to Turkey to become a full-time writer in 1996. Her first story “The Final Farewell Note” won third prize in the 1990 Yunus Nadi Writing Competition. Her first novel, Kabuk Adam (Crust Man), was published in 1994 and was followed by” Mucizevi Mandarin” (Miraculous Mandarin) a series of interconnected short stories in 1996. Her short story Wooden Birds received first prize from Deutsche Welle radio in a 1997 competition and her second novel “Kirmizi Pelerinli Kent” (The City in Crimson Cloak), received numerous accolades abroad and has been published in English Language translation. Aslı Erdoğan was the Turkish representative of International PEN‘s** Writers in Prison Committee from 1998 to 2000. She is widely traveled and has an interest in anthropology and Native American culture. From December 2011 to May 2012, at the invitation of the Literaturhaus Zurich and the PWG Foundation, Erdoğan was Zurich’s “writer in residence”. (1)
On Feb. 2, 2007, “www.icorn.org” wrote: ” The Turkish writer Asli Erdogan was a friend of Hrant Dink and, deeply affected by his murder, she wrote to her friends, . . . today my name was listed on the death list because I sold Agos newspaper on the streets with a handful of intellectuals, but it is more important for my voice to be heard.” ICORN also published Asli Erdogan’s letter entitled ” We left a deep, invisible mark behind us” where she wrote” … It was a long, silent walk. Thousands and thousands of people were slowly walking, side by side, under an unexpected winter sun, a luminous sky, reminiscent of spring. A compact, homogeneous crowd was filling the avenues, the streets, the squares. There were blood-red carnations. Black signs spelling out the same message in three different languages.’ We are all Hrant, we are all Armenians.’ Hrant’s face emerges above arms, above heads, an intact face, bearing no signs of aging, with his gentle, comforting smile… Thousands of people, in mourning, heartbroken, intently turned to that face with a sense of loss even deeper than if he had been one of them. (2)
In December 2008, two hundred prominent Turkish intellectuals released an apology for the “great catastrophe of 1915”. This was a clear reference to the Armenian Genocide, a term still too sensitive to use so openly. The signatories also announced a website related to this apology, and called on others to visit the site and sign the apology as well. This is the complete, brief text of the apology: My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in 1915. I reject this injustice and for my share, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers and sisters. I apologize to them. Aslı Erdoğan was one of the Turkish intellectuals who signed the apology.(3)
According to http://setasarmenian.blogspot.com, under the title “24 April, the anniversary of the 1915s events, will be remembered this year in Turkey, too.”, Taraf Newspaper of 20th April 2010 wrote ” A group of intellectuals as Ali Bayramoğlu, Ferhat Kentel, Neşe Düzel, Perihan Mağden, Sırrı Süreyya Önder, for the first time in Turkey, will commemorate this year on 24 April as the anniversary of the events of 1915, under the leader-ship of “Say Stop!” group. The commemoration will start in front of the tram station in Taksim Square. The group will be dressing in black and carry photos of massacred Armenian intellectuals who were deported from that station.” the following abstracts are from the text of the commemoration activity, “This pain is OUR pain. This mourning is for ALL of US. In 1915, when our population was just 13 million, 1,5 to 2 million Armenians were living in these lands…. In April 24, 1915 it was started “to send them”. We lost them. They are no longer available. They have not even graves. But the “Great Pain” of the “Great Disaster” , with its utmost gravity EXISTS in our pain”. Aslı Erdoğan, was one of the Turkish intellectuals who signed the text. (4)
Asli Erdogan was invited to Yerevan-Armenia to give readings from her work . She was chosen as the first Turkish writer to be invited by the Armenian Writers for a conference. (5)
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*CERN: The name CERN is derived from the acronym for the French “Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire”, or European Council for Nuclear Research, a provisional body founded in 1952 with the mandate of establishing a world-class fundamental physics research organization in Europe. Today, CERN is often referred to as the European Laboratory for Particle Physics.
**PEN: PEN International promotes literature and freedom of expression. It is a forum where writers meet freely to discuss their work; it is also a voice speaking out for writers silenced in their own countries.
1- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asl%C4%B1_Erdo%C4%9Fan
2- http://www.icorn.org/articles.php?var=56
3- http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=200_prominent_Turks_apologize_for_great
4- http://setasarmenian.blogspot.com/2010/04/good-thoughtful-and-ugly-from-turks-on.html
5- http://aslierdogan.com/haberler.asp?ssid=162
Hürriyet Photo
ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency,
An indictment of the investigation into negligence of public officials in the killing of prominent Armenian-Turkish journalistHrant Dink in Istanbul has been approved by the court.
A total of 26 police officers, including both current and former police chiefs, will be tried as the indictment in the nine-year-long investigation into negligence of public employees in the shooting death of Dink was recognized by the Istanbul 14th Court for Serious Crimes on Dec. 15 following its Dec. 9 approval by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The 26 police officers were charged with one count each of “forming or heading an armed terrorist group,” “membership of an armed terrorist group,” “power abuse on duty,” “manipulating, destroying and/or concealing official documents,” “deliberate murder,” “fabricating official documents by public employees” and “deliberate murder on negligence” in the case filed into negligence of public officials at the time of the assassination. All of the 26 were on duty at the time of Dink’s murder.
The move comes a week after the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on Dec. 9 approved the indictment prepared against the 26 police officers into “negligence on public duty” in the shooting death of Dink, the editor-in-chief of weekly Agos, who was shot dead outside his office in Istanbul’s Şişli district on Jan. 19, 2007.
The indictment prepared by prosecutor Gökalp Kökçü was presented to the Istanbul 14th Court for Serious Crimes after it had been rejected by deputy chief prosecutor Orhan Kapıcı twice.
Having been rejected twice before, lawyers representing the Dink family expressed the reaction against the indictment in the investigation returning to Kökçü. The return means that cases will likely not be opened against the suspects.
The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office returned the indictment to Kökçü in early November, arguing that “evidence of voluntary manslaughter concerning some of the suspects was not revealed.”
However, Hakan Bakırcıoğlu, a Dink family lawyer, said on Nov. 4 that not opening a case against former police chiefs Ahmet İlhan Güler, Celalettin Cerrah, Reşat Altay, Engin Dinç and other suspects, would exclude their integral responsibility in Dink’s murder.
Recalling the first two versions of the indictment, the latest one drafted in late October, Bakırcıoğlu said the two indictments charged former police chiefs Ali Fuat Yılmazer, Ramazan Akyürek, Tamer Bülent Demirel and Osman Gülbel each with “voluntary manslaughter,” Engin Dinç, Reşat Altay and Ahmet İlhan Güler each with “voluntary manslaughter due to negligence” and Sabri Uzun and Celalettin Cerrah each with “malpractice.”
“Despite resistance and barriers in front of the interrogation and investigation of public servants who took part in Dink’s murder, they were interrogated and investigated by the prosecutor [in charge of the case],” Bakırcıoğlu said.
All the names of the suspects implicated in the investigation were reported to have been on duty in police departments in Istanbul, Ankara and the Black Sea province of Trabzon at the time of Dink’s murder.
Dink was shot dead outside his office building in Istanbul’s Şişli district on Jan. 19, 2007, by 17-year-old Ogün Samast.
Relatives and followers of the case have claimed government officials, police, military personnel and members of Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency (MİT) played a role in Dink’s murder by neglecting their duty to protect the journalist.
December/16/2015