Genocide Archives

Names of Lost Armenian Villages Read in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet Square

April 26, 2013 By administrator

BY AYSE GUNAYSU
From The Armenian Weekly

ISTANBUL—It’s April 24, 2013. In Sultanahmet Square in Istanbul. People have gathered in front of the Turkish-Islamic Arts Museum which, in 1915, served as the Central Prison that held Armenian intellectuals kept before they were sent to their deaths. But something very unusual is happening. From a loudspeaker, people hear some Armenian names of places. The names of lost Armenian villages. The voice says: “Vaspuragan province… Avants… Lezk… Shahbaghi… Akhzia… Shoushants… Kouroubash… Gentanants… Pertag… Dzevestan… Ardamed… Tarman… Vosgepag…”

There are big panels on the wall, showing these names and the provinces or districts they are connected to. People come and take photographs. I recognize some of them; Armenians from abroad with a delegation are visiting Istanbul for the commemoration activities, taking photographs of these names from a certain province. I guess these are the provinces of their ancestors.

Eren Keskin starts to speak as the volume of the sound and voices goes down.

“These names you are hearing now are the names of the Armenian villages in Asia Minor before 1915, together with the provinces and districts they belong to—a total of 2,300 settlements. In fact, they are more in number. The work to compile the names of all the Armenian settlements before the genocide is still under way. Our guest, Historian Ara Sarafian, the director of the Gomidas Institute based in London, will give more details of this work.

Egypt’s Armenians mark Genocide 98th anniversary

April 26, 2013 By administrator

April 25, 2013 – 20:49 AMT

Egypt’s Armenian community marked the Armenian Genocide 98th anniversary on April 24, with liturgies held in Cairo, Alexandria and Heliopolis.

Prelate of the Egyptian-Armenian Diocese,Bishop Ashot Mnatsakanian and RA ambassador to Egypt Armen Melkonian laid flowers at the khachkar in the yard of Saint Gregory the Illuminator Church, followed by a concert and screening of a documentary.

Armenian Genocide victims commemorated in Serbia

April 26, 2013 By administrator

April 25, 2013 – 21:30 AMT

On April 24, Serbia’s Armenian community held an event in commemoration of the 98th anniversary of the Genocide.

A liturgy was further held beside the khachkar in Belgrade, with representatives of NGOs and Belgrade’s Armenian community present.

Turkish scholar talks policy at Glendale’s Armenian genocide event (Umit Kurt )

April 25, 2013 By administrator

Turkish scholar from Clark University Umit Kurt speaks during the annual Armenian genocide commemoration, which took place a the Alex Theatre in Glendale on Thursday, April 24, 2013. (Cheryl A. Guerrero / Staff Photographer / April 24, 2013)

April 25, 2013 | 1:25 p.m.

For the first time, a Turkish scholar addressed a crowd of more than 1,400 people at the city’s annual event to commemorate the genocide of about 1.5 million people in 1915 by Ottoman Turks, a tragedy still denied by modern-day Turkey 98 years later.

“The principle was not giving the Armenians not even a single inch,” said Umit Kurt, a Turkish scholar at Clark University, as he discussed how the Ottoman Empire deported Armenians before the genocide began and sold their property.

Although initial laws regarding the abandoned property seem to require Armenians be reimbursed at a later date, that never came to fruition, Kurt said before the sold-out crowd at the Alex Theatre Wednesday evening.

The committee that organizes the annual Armenian Genocide Commemoration typically invites prominent Armenian figures and scholars to speak at the popular event, but this year, a Turkish scholar was invited “to showcase a trend towards enlightenment by Turkish academics,” said Councilman Ara Najarian.

“It’s a slow trend, but a trend nonetheless,” he said before the event began, adding that the few Turkish scholars that give credence to the genocide face challenges when they return to Turkey.

While the United States–including President Obama— continues to avoid labeling the slaughter of Armenians a genocide, local lawmakers called on the country’s leadership to change course, despite the political consequences of upsetting Turkey, an ally.
“Your presence is a testament to the fact that the Ottomans did not win,” said Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Silverlake), asking officials in Washington, D.C. to “once and for all recognize the Armenian genocide.”
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) agreed in a prepared video. Earlier Wednesday, Schiff addressed his colleagues in the House of Representatives in Armenian, calling on them to remember the lives lost during the genocide.

“Our government must not continue to maintain this shameful silence,” Schiff said.

Councilman Zareh Sinanyan said the event commemorates a historic tragedy, but also a living memory.

“It’s just something that lives with us,” Sinanyan said.

Pasadena Armenian genocide commemoration: ‘The scars are not healed’

April 25, 2013 By administrator

April 24, 2013

Hundreds gathered under cloudy skies on Wednesday morning in Pasadena for a pair of solemn outdoor ceremonies commemorating the Armenian genocide and calling for official recognition of the tragedy around the world.

A crowd of about 400 at Pasadena City Hall assembled for the event organized by the local chapter of the Armenian National Committee of America, where Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca was among those officials who spoke at the event.

At the same time, nearly 200 others convened at Memorial Park for a ceremony sponsored by the Pasadena Armenian Community Coalition.

At Memorial Park, participants laid white carnations at the proposed site of a genocide memorial and offered song and prayer in Armenian after performances the Marshall Fundamental School orchestra and choir.

“We all know the story of this crime against humanity,” said Kevork Halladjian, an adjunct Armenian language and culture professor at Pasadena City College, “but we must also work to stop others from committing genocide.”

Both groups are proposing designs for a city Armenian genocide memorial to be erected in 2015. The occasion will mark the 100th anniversary of massacres that claimed the lives of some 1.5 million people between 1915 and 1918 at the hands of the Ottoman government in what is now modern-day Turkey.

“The scars are not healed,” former Pasadena Mayor Bill Paparian said during the event at City Hall. “We are still haunted by the emptiness that comes from losing entire families. When a loved one disappears, the disappearance lasts forever.”

Paparian was critical that the Armenian and American governments have failed to press the Turkish government for official recognition of the genocide, saying “the struggle for justice falls on the shoulders of Armenians in the [post-genocide] Diaspora — us.”

He also called for solidarity with all victims of terrorism, genocide and intolerance.

“If [Armenians] ever, even for a moment, close our eyes to the suffering and persecution of any minority anywhere on this globe, we dishonor our own martyred families,” Paparian said.

Armenian Genocide Commemorated in Istanbul (Video)

April 25, 2013 By administrator

Hundreds of Armenian from Istanbul and Armenian diaspora groups from Europe also attended the ceremony gathered in Istanbul to commemorate the 1915 Armenian genocide Wednesday, also Turkish protestor divided by Turkish police

“Ten years ago, such an event was impossible in Turkey,” said Benjamin Abtan, president of the European Grassroots Anti-racist Movement (EGAM).

Turkish student: For first time in my life, I felt guilty towards Armenians

April 25, 2013 By administrator

Ermenihaber.am news website presents the story of a Turkish student which was also published on several Turkish websites. In the story, Baris Mumakmaz told how much things changed in his worldview after he learnt Armenian.

Below we present the main part of the article.

“People decide to learn a foreign language for different reasons. Some do it for business, others for fun or for getting acquainted with girls. I did it for “feeling.” I was working on my Master’s thesis on conflict resolutions in Boston in 2009 when I decided to study the Armenian cause. I was informed about the Armenian cause but I felt as if it was insufficient and I decided to learn Armenian. I decided to attend Armenian language classes.

“Hello, Baris,” a woman told me in native Turkish on the first day when I came to classes. “My name is Anahit. You are welcome to Armenian classes.” For a moment I thought I was dreaming, but I understood everything later, when I knew that Anahit was a descendant of an Armenian who fled the Armenian massacres for America in 1915.

I was doing well in classes. At one of the final lessons, Anahit told us to make up sentences with the Armenian names we knew. I mentioned all Armenian names I could recall – Hrant, Rachel, Nora, Sevan, Sayat.

Anahit got surprised and asked how I can know those old-style Armenian names. Then I told them about Constantinople. I told them what happened on January 19 and that HRANT is not an old-style name in Turkey. I told them how a great number of people who felt pangs of conscience took to the streets chanting: “We all are Hrant Dink.”

Everybody was looking at me thinking “he will speak out this time.” But I was not able to tell them that I acknowledge the events of 1915 as genocide, that I share their pain, though as a student who studied conflicts I knew what to say to the aggrieved party. But I could say nothing just because for a moment I felt so guilty that my tongue failed to move. For the first time in my life, as a Turk, I felt guilty towards the Armenians.

The classes finished and for a long time I could not work on the Armenian cause. I was shocked. I understand it now that I had to feel the shock to be able to understand many things.”

“Turk that committed Genocide is now killing Hrant Dink” – Iranian Armenians stage protest in Tehran (Video)

April 25, 2013 By administrator

The Iranian Armenians, approaching the Turkish embassy, shouted such slogans as “Look at the face of the Turk that committed Genocide and is now killing Hrant Dink, hold up your fist and let them hear our voice from behind closed windows.”

Then they chanted “Death to fascist Turkish government” in Persian.

A declaration condemning the Armenian Genocide was read at the end of the protest.

Source: Panorama.am

PACE delegates call to recognize Armenian Genocide

April 25, 2013 By administrator

April 25, 2013 | 11:24

Several delegates of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe signed a joint declaration, calling to recognize the 1915 Armenian Genocide. They said recognition will lead to the normalisation of relations between Armenia and Turkey.

The full text is provided below:

“Recognition of genocides is an act which contributes to the respect for human dignity and the prevention of crimes against humanity;

The fact of the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire has been documented, recognised, and affirmed in the form of media and eyewitness reports, laws, resolutions, and statements by the United Nations, the European Parliament and Parliaments of the Council of Europe member States, including Sweden, Lithuania, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Switzerland, France, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Cyprus, the Russian Federation, as well as the US House of Representatives and 43 US States, Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, Canada, Uruguay and Lebanon.

The undersigned, members of the Parliamentary Assembly, call upon all members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to take the necessary steps for the recognition of the genocide perpetrated against Armenians and other Christians in the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century, which will strongly contribute to an eventual similar act of recognition by the Turkish authorities of this odious crime against humanity and, as a result, will lead to the normalisation of relations between Armenia and Turkey and thus contribute to regional peace, security and stability.”

Armenian Genocide 98th anniversary commemorated in Lithuania

April 25, 2013 By administrator

April 25, 2013 – 18:01 AMT

On April 24, an event in commemoration of the Armenian Genocide 98th anniversary was held in Lithuania, with MPs, journalists and representatives of the country’s Armenian community present.

Armenian ambassador to Lithuania Ara Ayvazyan, Lithuanian MPs, deputy head of Lithuania-Armenia inter-parliamentary group Algis Kašėta and others came up with reports.