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The site of the Armenian Weekly Canada, “Horizon”, horizonweekly.ca indicates that in a house in the Ayintap region (Turkey), was found photography Heghine, widow of timeliness in fedayi (Armenian fighter) Kevork Tchavouche . This photograph discovered in 2005 during the renovation of a house is the only one known to date wife Kevork Tchavouche. The Turks, who laid hands on this photograph has not grasped the meaning of Armenian characters entered
by Krikor Amirzayan / Radiolur
Syria’s northern city of Raqqa Tel Abyad district of Urfa in the war-affected refugee families living in one of them. Sense of hundreds of thousands of refugees separated from his family roots reserved. Nearly 100 years ago, ‘Great Disaster’ during migration from Mardin they still carries the memories of my grandmother. One request was injured by sniper fire while restoring the health of their son …
February 4, 2014 Tuesday
SERDAR GUARDS
My serdarkorucu@hotmail.com
Syria’s northern city of Raqqa Tel Abyad district of Urfa in the war-affected refugee families living in one of them. Sense of hundreds of thousands of refugees separated from his family roots reserved. Nearly 100 years ago, ‘Great Disaster’ during migration from Mardin they still carries the memories of my grandmother. One request was injured by sniper fire while restoring the health of their son …
Known as the Auschwitz of Armenians in Der Zor family coming. Other Sunni them at first sight – apart from Arab families do not have any properties. Women cover their heads, as they’re obviously apart from their piety with prayer.
11 Fazi mother is not afraid to tell the Christian roots. When asked about the city’s history begins they came to tell her grandmother’s history. That the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Armenians say that one of the first. Come from Mardin know. But there is a life that has no idea how. Grandparents become acquainted with “love” as the story describes. “They love each other so much,” he says, adding if after “Maybe I felt safe with him, who knows?” Today was a hundred years ago to the land of her grandmother took refuge in case of relocation to escape the war. The mind of the 11 children in the future, especially in the past.
Mazin middle child of the family, Raqqa, in June of the year 2012 goes to get the family’s belongings in October of the same year he returned to Der Zor. Turkey now aim to conduct their lives when they have to provide the money. But when you hear the conflicts that come out on the balcony, exposed to sniper fire. The other brother in the city has tried to take her to the hospital. However, difficulties in finding a place to treat him in battle.
Regime forces detained due to take to the hospital … Search for 7 hours at a field hospital at the end of their doctors have found. However, referral for treatment were asked to Gaziantep, because keeping shoulders down. Following this decision before Mazin and his brother was on his way to Turkey, then the entire family.
Last stop Urfa
They met at the hospital opened their homes to the family of a Turkish family. They have been guests of 20 days. If the disconnect from the hospital after their son moved to the town of Urfa and Harran. Most recent stops in the neighborhood of Urfa became the Ayyubid dynasty. Today, only requests in the battle of their lives healing of the past. Every week from home with Life Support Association physiotherapist Abdurrahim laughing faces. With each passing power weakened muscles, re-melting of the sons are praying to God to stand up together. In 1915, my grandmother today, perhaps in the removal of the soil spilled from his mouth, they’re the same prayer: Now Let there be peace!
PHOTO: Kerem Yucel
February 3, 2014 – 16:41 AMT
French Minister of Justice confirmed that the country’s government is working on a legal instrument condemning the denial of the Armenian Genocide.
CCAF also presented a series of events to be implemented in the framework of “Mission 2015” action, with ringing of church bells throughout France on April 24, 2015, among them.
On January 23, 2012 the French Senate passed the bill making it a crime to deny the Armenian Genocide. The bill envisaged a 45,000 euro fine and a year in prison for anyone in France who denies this crime against humanity committed by the Ottoman Empire. However, the French Constitutional Council ruled the bill as anti-constitutional. In a statement the Council said the document represented an “unconstitutional breach of the practice of freedom of expression and communication
Later, President Hollande pledged to redraft the law criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial in France, stressing the need to ensure the legal framework to avoid censorship by the Constitutional Council.
——————————– Armenian Genocide —————————
The Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.
The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors & Orphans.
Present-day Turkey denies the fact of the Armenian Genocide, justifying the atrocities as “deportation to secure Armenians”. Only a few Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and scholar Taner Akcam, speak openly about the necessity to recognize this crime against humanity.
The Armenian Genocide was recognized by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, the Italian Chamber of Deputies, majority of U.S. states, parliaments of Greece, Cyprus, Argentina, Belgium and Wales, National Council of Switzerland, Chamber of Commons of Canada, Polish Sejm, Vatican, European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.
The Swedish authorities have granted permission to erect a memorial to the Armenian Genocide and Assyrian-Chaldeans under the Ottoman Empire, in the district of Botkyra in Stockholm. The Turkish news agency “Cihan” reports that it is at the request of a group of Assyrian-Chaldean associations, the Committee “Seyfo” the Swedish capital the city council voted in favor Botkyra with 54 votes and 5 against the authorization of the erection of this dedicated to the Armenian Genocide and Assyrian-Chaldeans memorial. Shortly before the vote, Azeris and Turks had shown to asked council not to vote the resolution authorizing the memorial. In vain. Remember that Sweden has recognized the 2011 genocide of Armenians and Assyro-Chaldeans in the Ottoman Empire carried out between 1915 and 1923.
By: Krikor Amirzayan
Rivasi, MEP (Europe Ecologie Les Verts) and Patrick Royannez presented last Friday at the “Drum” in Valencia before more than 200 people, the list of the 47 running mates “Succeeding together Valence” group for municipal Valencia. Rivasi and Patrick Royannez also gave the first 14 proposals-90 – 2014.
Patrick Royannez face the public has also expressed its commitment to the recognition of the Armenian genocide and the law penalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide in particular with the Collective Memory and Future. Also recall that Rivasi as MP has always supported the law on genocide by France in 2001. As an MEP she also supported the actions of the Armenian community for the criminalization of denial of the Armenian genocide. In October 2010 she went to Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh and gave an interview to Armenian News Magazine in which the MEP stated “Nagorno-Karabakh is in danger.”
By:Hambersom Aghbashian
Ragıp Zarakolu is a Turkish human rights activist and publisher who has long faced legal harassment for publishing books on minority and human rights in Turkey. He was born in 1948 (Büyükada island close to Istanbul), and grew up with members of the Greek and Armenian minorities in Turkey. In 1968 he began writing for “Ant” and “Yeni Ufuklar” magazines. He was sentenced in 1972 to 2 years imprisonment for his article in “Ant” (Pledge) on Vietnam War and was released in 1974.
The Belge Publishing House, established in Istanbul in 1977 by Zarakolu and his wife Ayşenur, has been a focus for Turkish censorship laws ever since. Charges brought against the couple resulted in imprisonment for both of them and the wholesale confiscation and destruction of books and the imposition of heavy fines. In 1979 Zarakolu was one of the founders of the daily (Demokrat) which was banned with the military coup of 12 Sept. 1980. He was shortly imprisoned in 1982 and was banned from leaving the country between 1971 and 1991. In 1986 he became one of 98 founders of the Human Rights Association of Turkey (HRA). Since 2007, he chairs the Committee for Freedom of Publication in the Union of Publishers.(1)
After the military coup of 12 Sept.1980, (Belge) started to publish a series of 35 books which included more than 10 books (translations) of Greek literature, 10 books on the Armenian Question and 5 books related to the Jews in Turkey. Also a number of books dealing with the Kurds in Turkey. He also has published several books on the Armenian Genocide, which brought new criminal charges in 2005. In November 2007 he published a book about the Assyrian Genocide. The Belge Publishing House offices were firebombed in 1995.
Ragip Zarakolu’s Belge Publishing House, has challenged publishing taboos on subjects such as the Armenian Genocide and minority rights in Turkey for more than three decades (2). In 2012, Jean Rafferty (England) petitioned Erdogan (more than 750 signatures) to release Ragip & Deniz Zarakolu. She mentioned that Ragip Zarakolu, has been judicially harassed for over 30 years by the Turkish authorities. She said that “The books Belge publishes often discuss either Kurdish human rights or the Armenian massacre of 1915 when over a million Armenians were slaughtered by the Ottoman Empire in one of the first modern genocides. To discuss either of these subjects is a criminal act in today’s Turkey under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. This clearly breaches the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention of Human Rights.”(3). In 2011 , after he was arrested ,The International Publishers Association (IPA) and the worldwide association of writers PEN International criticized the arrest of Zarakolu. IPA said Turkish Publisher Zarakolu deserves the Nobel Prize, not prison(4). On Feb.3, 2012 Zarakolu was nominated for Nobel Price (3).
Ragıp Zarakolu was awarded the Novib/PEN Free Expression Award in 2003,and in 2008, the IPA Freedom to Publish Prize and in March 2012 the Assyrian Culture Award (Sweden). In May 2012 he received an Armenian state award for what President S. Sarkisian called a “remarkable contribution” to international recognition of the 1915 Armenian massacres in the Ottoman Empire as GENOCIDE. He added that “His struggle for conveying historical truth to the Turkish society is a brilliant example of high civic stance and courage.” In his speech at the ceremony, Zarakolu reaffirmed his belief that the World War I-era mass killings and deportations of Armenians were a genocide that must be acknowledged by modern-day Turkey. “Turkey must accept historical truth,” he said. “Only in this way can Turkey regain its self-respect.”(5) ————————————————————————————————————–
Sources:
1-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rag%C4%B1p_Zarakolu
2-http://www.armenianweekly.com/author/ragip-zarakolu/
3- http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/prime-minister-of-turkey-release-ragip-deniz-zarakolu
4-http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2011/11/turkey3542.htm
5-http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Ragip_Zarakolu
Also published in
Nor Or No.5 – Jan. 30, 2014
Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian with Czech President Milos Zeman in Prague, Czech Republic. Jan. 30, 2014.
PRAGUE—In a meeting with Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian, reported on Thursday by Asbarez, Czech Republic President Milos Zeman referred to the events of 1915 as genocide, acknowledging the upcoming centennial in 2015.
“Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. In 1915 1.5 million Armenians were killed,” said Zeman.
Czech Senator to introduce Genocide bill
Czech Senator Jaromír Štětina welcomed the recent statement by the President of the Czech Republic about the Armenian Genocide, reported Armenpress. The Senator has regularly been in favor of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide in the course of his career.
In a conversation with Armenpress, Jaromír Štětina said that he intends to introduce a declaration on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide to the foreign relations and defense committees of the Czech Parliament in the lead up to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
“The declaration will be introduced in 2015 ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. I would like the Czech Senate to join the civilized parliaments which have recognized the Armenian Genocide. Preparatory work towards the declaration will be launched in late 2014,” the Czech Senator stated.
Jaromír Štětina strongly hopes that the planned official visit by the President of the Czech Republic to Armenia at the invitation of the Armenian President will greatly contribute to the adoption of a Genocide recognition bill.
Senator Štětina also praised the meeting of the Armenian President with the spiritual leader of the Czech Republic, Cardinal Archbishop of Prague Dominik Duka, who supports the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
January 31, 2014 – 17:19 AMT
#ArmenianGenocide awarenes campaign in Twitter
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/recognize-armenian-genocide/2c7DKB78
http://www.banman.am/2014/01/armeniangenocide-awarenes-campaign-in.html
A petition demanding the Obama administration to recognize the Armenian Genocide was posted on We the People White House petitions webpage.
The petition reads, “99 years of denial. 1.5 m
illion Armenians massacred. 1915 Genocide still not recognized.”
With 100000 signatures to be collected by March 1, 2014, the petition will be submitted to the U.S. authorities.
As Armenian information security expert Samvel Martorosyan noted in his blog, on the same day the petition was posted (January 30), the U.S. Armenians launched an educational initiative on Twitter, with the participants tagging their posts #ArmenianGenocide. As a result of the initiatives hash tag #ArmenianGenocide was named among the most discussed in the U.S.
We the People is a section of the whitehouse.gov website, launched September 22, 2011, for petitioning the current administration’s policy experts. Petitions that meet a certain threshold of signatures will be reviewed by officials in the Administration and an official response will be issued. The choice of the webpage name was not random: ‘We the People’ are the first words of the U.S. constitution.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama continues calling the 1915 Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey “one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century,” again and again breaking a 2008 campaign promise to label the tragedy a “genocide.”
In 2013, the Obama Administration urged the Supreme Court not to hear the appeal of the Ninth Circuit’s 2012 decision striking down a California law extending the statute of limitations on Armenian Genocide-era life insurance claims.
“President Obama, rather than filing a brief based on the merits of this case, chose instead – on the eve of Prime Minister Erdogan’s visit to Washington, DC – to send Ankara a political gift by both deepening his Administration’s complicity in the denial of the Armenian Genocide and also obstructing justice for American citizens seeking redress through the U.S. courts,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “We will, despite the President’s retreat from principle, persevere in the pursuit of the justice owed the Armenian nation.”
In a 27-page brief submitted to the Supreme Court, the U.S. Solicitor General argues that the California law improperly allows courts “to issue judgments based on politically contentious events that occurred in the Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago, with no substantial basis to claim that it is regulating in an area of its traditional authority.”
It also makes reference to selective Executive branch opposition to Armenian Genocide legislation, but not the U.S. record of recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a crime of genocide, including:
1) The U.S. Government’s May 28, 1951 written statement to the International Court of Justice regarding the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, in which the “Turkish massacres of Armenians” is cited among other “outstanding examples of the crime of genocide”
2) President Ronald Reagan’s April 22, 1981 Proclamation number 4838; in which he stated, in part, “like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and the genocide of the Cambodians, which followed it – and like too many other persecutions of too many other people – the lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten.”
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/recognize-armenian-genocide/2c7DKB78
#ArmenianGenocide awarenes campaign in Twitter
http://www.banman.am/2014/01/armeniangenocide-awarenes-campaign-in.html