18:30, 25 April, 2013

YEREVAN, APRIL 25, ARMENPRESS: An annual demonstration commemorating the Armenian genocide was greeted by a group of Turkish protesters at Turkey’s embassy in Ottawa Wednesday.

As reports Armenpress, referring to Ipolitics.com, a group of approximately 1,400 Armenian-Canadians, mostly from Ontario and Quebec, marched from Parliament Hill to the embassy, calling on the Turkish government to recognize the Armenian Genocide. As the sea of Armenian-Canadians marched toward the Turkish embassy holding signs and flags, they were greeted by a much smaller gathering of approximately 200 Turks. The groups exchanged some booing and verbal confrontation, but no clashes broke out. Police, who lined a barrier positioned between the two groups, said there were no problems during the event.

The mass killing by the Ottoman Turks commenced in 1915 and continued for a decade, leaving an estimated 1.5 million Armenians dead. The Turkish government has never recognized the mass killings as genocide, saying those killed were victims of a civil war. Turkey also says the death toll of the 1.5 million people around the time of First World War is an exaggerated number.

Shahen Mirakian, a member of the Armenian National Committee of Canada who traveled from Toronto for the demonstration, said that until the Turkish government recognizes the mass killings as a genocide, the Armenian-Canadian community will continue to protest in front of the Turkish embassy every April 24.

“More than anything else, the reason that we come is there’s a policy of state-sponsored denial by the current Republic of Turkey. They don’t want to recognize the genocide,” said Mirakian.

Canada’s House of Commons recognized the killings as genocide in 2004. Today, more than 20 countries have done the same.

Mirakian said this is the first time in recent memory that Turkish-Canadians have organized a demonstration during the Armenian genocide commemoration in Ottawa. He has attended the annual event since the 1980s.

“I guess this is a recent development. I’m not sure why they’re here,” said Mirakian.

While Mirakian said the Turks technically had the right to come to the demonstration, he pointed out that, unlike the Armenian-Canadian marchers, their permit to demonstrate was denied by the city.

The Armenian-Canadian marchers waved the orange, blue and red Armenian flag as they listened to music and speeches commemorating the genocide. They had their backs to the Turkish protesters, who occasionally booed, for the duration of the demonstration.

David Warner, former speaker of the Ontario Legislative Assembly and outspoken supporter of recognition of the genocide, wrapped up the event with a speech.

“What I can’t understand is what on earth Turkey is waiting for. It’s not as if other countries haven’t had to apologize for atrocities,” said Warner to the crowd of cheering Armenian-Canadians. “It takes courage, it takes fortitude, it takes commitment to human rights to stand up and say when you’re wrong.”

The event ended with a somber ceremony in which hundreds of red flowers were laid under a statue recognizing the genocide.

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FROM: ZEYNEP TOZDUMAN – IZMIR, TURKEY  April 24, 2013

I apologize for every single day that we have remained silent since the days of genocide.
I apologize for our grandfathers who cooperated with the murderers carrying out the brutal massacre of 1.5 million people in Anatolia.
I apologize from your young girls for permanently burying their hopes into their dowry chests.
I apologize from all your people left dead without a proper burial, shroud or cemeteries.
I apologize for causing you to add the word ‘converted – Donme’ to your vocabulary.
I apologize from all your girls and women abused and raped, forcefully converted to Kurd, Turk, Alevi or Islam.
I apologize for forcing you to become the Diaspora and scatter like pomegranate seeds to all corners of the world.
I apologize for forcing you to long for your homeland with broken hearts from the faraway deportation points.
I apologize for preventing you from giving your children proper names and education in your mother tongue, a basic human right.
I apologize for confiscating your houses, properties, lands, farms, orchards, and shops to create our national economy, based on a disease of racism in this country.
I apologize for denying even the very existence of the original peoples of thes lands after subjecting them to economic, cultural and political genocide.
I apologize for confiscating your places of worship (monastery, church, sinagogue, Jem house, etc.), and converting them to mosques, museums, community centres or stables.
I apologize from the survivors of the genocide for even forbidding them from dreaming in their own language.
I apologize for forcing racism on you by making you repeat every morning ‘So happy to be a Turk’.
I apologize for presenting your properties as gifts to your own murderers.
I apologize for transforming the Anatolian garden of different peoples to a cemetery of different peoples.
I apologize for realizing too late that the sorrow expressed in the song ‘Sari Gelin’ was in reality the sorrow of the genocide.
I apologize for wiping out the various original peoples of Anatolia living on these lands long before the arrival of the Turks, and for trying to create a single nation state.
I apologize for creating a hell of murders in this country, instead of a heaven of humanity.
I apologize for burying all the people named Agop, Kiriakos, Samuel, Ani, Maria or Sarkis in my city Smyrna (Izmir) as well as the rest of the country, and also burying our humanity in the process.
I apologize for committing crimes against humanity for one thousand and four hundred years in these lands.
I apologize for not realizing that fascism would eventually arrive and start killing us as well in these lands.
I apologize for not being able to put a stop to the denial and assimilation policies for one hundred years.
I apologize especially for our inhumane behaviour during the genocides of the Armenians, Assyrians, Pontic Greeks, Yezidis and Alevis.
And I apologize once again on this April 24 genocide commemoration day, for our inability to protect you and preserve our humanity.

Turkish Version

17:29, 27 April, 2013

YEREVAN, APRIL 27, ARMENPRESS: Hanover Park Regional High School students took two years worth of hard work and turned it into a pop-up genocide museum, filling classrooms with detailed accounts of humanity’s horrors- Armenian Genocide and from Holocaust to Darfur, reports Armenpress referring to Daily Record.

Whippany Park High School held their “Voices from the Dark” Genocide Studies Gallery Walk Thursday night. Students from both Hanover Park High School and Whippany Park High School took part in the extension of the district’s Genocide Studies class, which first entered the curriculum in fall 2011.

15:59, 27 April, 2013

YEREVAN, APRIL 27, ARMENPRESS: House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released a statement marking the anniversary of the Armenian genocide, reports Armenpress referring to The statements reads as follows:

 “I join in remembering the 1.5 million victims of the Armenian genocide, which began on this day 98 years ago with the persecution of political leaders, clergy, journalists, and other leading figures in Armenian society. In the United States and throughout the world, Armenian communities mourn those lost and resolve never to forget – as do all who are committed to justice and human rights.”

Ermenihaber.am news website presented excerpts from an interview of world- renown Turkish-Armenian photographer Ara Guler with Haberturk.

First, Ara Guler told interesting stories from his past and told about his achievements.

“I attended the Cannes Festival for 10 years in a row. There have been interesting incidents during my career. You know Sophia Loren, don’t you? Once I saw her waiting for the elevator and hurried to it. We went up together in the elevator. There was a bed in the middle of her hotel room. Sophia Loren was tired. She took off her shoes and sat down on the bed. I asked if I could take photos of her. She said I could. I took several photos and sent them to Turkey. The next day posters appeared in Turkey reading “Our correspondent Ara Guler in Sophia Loren’s bedroom.”

Guler said that although he was the son of rich people, he concealed his name. Asked if he has ever been bothered for his nationality, Ara Guler said, “No, in essence, no one ever knew that I was Armenian.”

Explaining why he concealed his identity, he said, “This is a strange country, it is full of bastards, they could make trouble if they knew it. But I am the most indigenous person here.”

16:28, 26 April, 2013

YEREVAN, APRIL 26, ARMENPRESS. The deputy of the sole Kurdish Party of the Turkish Parliament, “Peace and Democracy”, Ertuğrul Kürkçü delivered a speech at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which marked the 98th anniversary of Armenian Genocide, and laid a heavy emphasis on their determination to unfold the historical realities. As reports “Armenpress” Turkish Demokrathaber.net stated this.

Among other things the Kurdish MP tried to draw the attention on the fact that on the order of ruling party “İttihad ve Terakki” 240 Armenian intellectuals, including deputies of the Parliament, were arrested without questioning on April 24, 1915 and 2, 345, 761 Armenians were exiled. Notwithstanding the party was not condemned for those deeds.

10:00, 25 April, 2013

YEREVAN, APRIL 25, ARMENPRESS. The European society must know what happened in 1915 and the years following that date and who is responsible for the Genocide. The Head of the newly established EU-Armenia Friendship Group Eleni Theocharous stated this in a conversation with “Armenpress”. In her opinion it’s not so important to cling to the formulations in case of the Armenian Genocide recognition. Notwithstanding the issue of legal formulations is also significant. The most important is for the people in Europe to know what really happened in 1915, who is responsible for that Genocide. Eleni Theocharous also underscored that nobody wants to punish the Turks of nowadays, but they have to accept the responsibility for the crime committed by their fathers, it’s of a certain importance. And everyone must know to avoid such atrocities against humanity and human nature.

Among other things she noted that unfortunately we see that Turkey proceeded to more crimes after 1915. It’s the genocide of the Pontic Greeks, genocide against the Greeks in Smyrna and the crime against the Kurdish population, so they did not get any lesson from the Armenian Genocide. So it’s important for us to let all the European nations, all the human beings in Europe and everywhere that we have to avoid such crimes in future.

Interview by Arusik Zakharyan

18:08, 25 April, 2013

YEREVAN, 25 APRIL, ARMENPRESS: Mass killing of the Armenians in the former Ottoman Empire is one of the most shameful pages in the modern history, as reports Armenpress  referring to FOCUS News Agency, this  said Bulgarian interim Prime Minister Marin Raykov on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923, April 24.

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