By Harut Sassounian,

I just found a video in which two Turkish scholars are advocating the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the Republic of Turkey. The discussion took place in 2015 on the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The conversation between Erdogan Aydin and Aydin Chubukchu is in Turkish with English subtitles on the video. The name of the one hour and 37 minute-long program is Tower of Babel. The title of the program is “Facing the Genocide.”

The unnamed Turkish moderator started the program with the following questions: “What really happened in 1915; what people lived through? was it a genocide? was it a deportation?”

Here are excerpts from that discussion:

Erdogan Aydin: “Let’s remember that the deportation in 1915, when one focuses on the details, means the same thing as the genocide of 1948…. If the deportation is not carried out by the consent of the people who are exiled for their own security — by the way, deportations are not carried out for this [reason]. It is done to enlarge sovereignty of states, punish society, settle others if the land is productive. So, if it is done against the will of the people, if all of them, including women, children, and the elderly are sent away, then this is a Crime Against Humanity.”

Moderator: “Davutoglu (former Prime Minister of Turkey) says so. He says, he repeats everywhere that deportation is a Crime Against Humanity. He accepts it as such.”

Aydin Chubukchu: “…But when we examine the articles of the 1948 Genocide Convention, we see that they in fact define this practice….”

Erdogan Aydin: “The documents that historians examine are not so important. What is important is the way of interpretation of those documents and how a final report would be penned and to serve which policy. The historian is not someone like a physician in a laboratory. History is not definite or closed to interpretation. It cannot be explained by strict cause and effect relations. All those who have studied the documents and made claims until today are already historians. Ultimately, those who will settle the question under the light of facts that historians present are the politicians. Of course, it is political. When it comes to politics, what historians say is not so important. Documents, statistics, laws showing the state practice on the abandoned properties have already showed that the Armenian people have reached the zero point as they had consisted of a large population in this country. Where did this people go? Where did this pedigree go to? The question is so simple. If they were not massacred then what happened to them? They did not vaporize, did they? As very well-known facts show, war and the Russian invasion in the region of Van, Bitlis, etc., until Erzincan were a pretext to exile Armenians from those lands. How? By being deported. Yes, villages were emptied. People, including children on foot, bare and hungry, were forced to walk to Syria. They were deported from Erzurum, Kars, Erzincan and Van to Syria under the transportation conditions of the time. They could not reach [Syria] because, according to the plan, unarmed miserable, naked, hungry civilians, women with their babies, as we see in the photos behind us, were also attacked by gangs along the way. They were robbed on the way, held as captives, massacred. Eventually, only one fourth of the Armenians who were deported from Turkey reached Syria. Three fourths died on the way. Ottoman documents also accept these deaths due to epidemics or assaults, [but] they say they had nothing to do with it. Historical documents are clear. The critical point is how the state politically will handle and what it will infer from them. Historians have already done what they should do. Telegram sent from someone to someone – thousands of documents like this. Thousands of documents are exposed. No secret document remains. If there is any secret document, it is a part of the documents transferred from the Ottoman Empire to Turkey. The documents that prove the genocide by saying ‘massacre them on the roads while deporting’ are being hidden of course. We can never see them. As [Turkish journalist] Veysi Sansozen said yesterday, we demand the evidence of the murder from the murderer. Does he give? No, he does not. It will never show up. Documents that Armenians have are rather based on testimonies and reports prepared by clergy, foreign diplomats, and journalists. Most of them obviously reflect the entire tragedy. There are photos and films shot at that time despite very limited opportunities. The annihilation of the Armenian people is doubtless. They were annihilated. This is the point.”

Aydin Chubukchu: “Let me add this. This was not done by historians, but by politicians. Cleaning it is also their job. Secondly, as my brother Aydin mentioned, the perpetrators of these kinds of jobs usually delete the documents, use expressions that are not possible to decipher. So, when a felon oppresses, he tries to fabricate a cover for it. In fact, the most important document is the actual and physical eradication of a people from their historical land.” 

Erdogan Aydin: “After 100 years have passed from the event, the 100th anniversary of the genocide should be a turning point. This is how world public opinion looks at it. Why couldn’t this question be solved for 100 years? This is a problem. On the other hand, considering Turkey’s foreign policy and its relations with the West and the US, we can talk about cornering Turkey. Undoubtedly, this issue is now a political card. It also has that aspect. But this does not change the fact that Armenians were annihilated. When one says that the French, Germans, the Pope want this [recognition], our domestic public opinion perceives it as if all Christians of the world, all ‘giavours’ [infidels] have united and attacked us. It is obvious that as long as this crime sticks on them, all Turkish governments and the state will have trouble. That part interests the state, but the same thing is also a shame for us and a shame for the Turkish people. We want to get rid of this. Whoever wants this. But we want it. We are all today guilty and responsible for the ignominious murder against the Armenian people. We should feel this. So we want to get rid of this. Undoubtedly, there is another aspect. Facing the genocide is an important chapter of our struggle for democracy. If we defend the ideals of fraternity of peoples and peaceful cohabitation, we should perform our duties retrospectively too. Additionally, the Armenian Question is a topic that continuously nurtures fascism and bigotry. Animosity against Armenians is an essential part of fascist propaganda. Therefore, in the struggle for democracy, this question should be settled; genocide should be recognized to break and bury the arms of fascism, bigotry and chauvinism.”

(Next week, part II)

Colorado Governor Jared Polis has signed a law that mandates the teaching of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust, among other cases of genocide, as a requirement for High School graduation in the Centennial State. 

“Armenian Genocide education has been a long-standing goal of the ANCA-WR and was included in the language of the recent congressional resolutions recognizing the Genocide. After years of hard work and persistence, we are thrilled that Armenian Genocide education has become a reality in yet another state,” remarked Nora Hovsepian, Esq., chair of the Armenian National Committee of America Western Region (ANCA-WR).

“We are grateful to Governor Polis, the legislative sponsors, and our community partners who championed this important bill and brought it to the finish line despite the challenges posed by the pandemic. This is yet another accomplishment for the Armenian Cause by our grassroots and Colorado’s vibrant Armenian community in a state that boasts America’s only Capitol Khachkar memorial that was recently referenced by the White House and a highway honoring the Battle of Sardarapat. We will continue this movement State by State and at all levels of government until public schools throughout the country are taught the valuable lessons of the Armenian Genocide and the pride as Americans of the Near East Relief rescue effort,” concluded Hovsepian.

At a socially-distant signing ceremony hosted outside the Jewish Community Center and across from the Assumption of the Theotokos Greek Orthodox Cathedral on Wednesday, July 8, Gov. Polis was joined by the primary cosponsors of House Bill 20-1336, as well as representatives of the organizations that championed the law and community leaders.

In remarks broadcast live on his official Facebook page, Gov. Polis announced that “This bill… will make sure that every Colorado child including my son Caspian who is here will learn about Holocaust and Genocide, including the Armenian Genocide….” He then acknowledged Colorado’s oldest Holocaust survivor and education advocate Fanny Starr before stating, “I also want to thank the Armenian National Committee Western Region and Armenians of Colorado, and I want to thank you, Simon Maghakyan, for you work on this issue, and I want to thank the sponsors Rep. [Dafna] Michaelson Jenet, Rep. [Emily] Sirota, Sen. [Stephen] Fenberg, and Sen. [Dennis] Hisey… This bill will make sure that we will honor the words ‘never again’ in our time and in our children’s time.”

Following the Governor’s opening statement, remarks were made by the legislative sponsors and community leaders, including Coalition Against Global Genocide’s Roz Duman and Armenians of Colorado’s Sona Hedeshian.

                      
“Today is a dream come true,” remarked ANCA’s Colorado representative Simon Maghakyan following the bill signing ceremony. “It was exactly a year ago tomorrow when we held the very first capitol meeting on what became Colorado House Bill 20-1336. I am very proud of my state for requiring genocide education in public schools, because teaching about the worst choices that humans are capable of making is a critical lesson for our children. Today’s victory is a testament to decades of activism and a celebration of the strong bond between Colorado’s Armenian and Jewish communities. As Governor Jared Polis said today upon signing the law, Hitler and Turkey have failed,” continued Maghakyan, whose full statement acknowledging all stakeholders of the bill can be read here.

Introduced in early March, HB20-1336 was initially among majority of bills that were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, even though it received unanimous support in the March 12 House Committee on Education, where Armenian community members Anahid Katchian, Kim Christianian, and Simon Maghakyan joined many others in testifying in support of the bill. However, in part because ANC-WR, Armenians of Colorado, Jewish Colorado, and the Anti-Defamation League, among others, committed to privately funding the administrative implementation of the law by making donations to the Department of Education, the bill was passed unanimously in the House of Representatives on June 5 and the Senate on June 10.

The law requires Colorado’s state board of education to adopt standards related to Holocaust and genocide studies by July 2021, after which each school district board of education and charter school must incorporate those standards into an existing course that is already a condition of high school graduation for school years beginning in July 2023. The standards will be supported with a resource bank of materials pertaining to Holocaust and genocide courses and programs created and maintained by the Colorado Department of Education.

Besides Colorado, one dozen other states across the USA require genocide education, with specific mandates to teach the Armenian Genocide in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, Rhode Island. Other states, like Texas, have established commissions that encourage genocide education.

The policy of the White House administration has not changed in the issue of the Meds Yeghern (Great Crime—meaning the Armenian Genocide). The White House told this to VOA, adding that the US president has reaffirmed that the Meds Yeghern was a historic crime and that the United States stood with the Armenian people.

White House spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany’s reference to the Armenian Genocide monument in Denver, Colorado,  has been actively discussed in the American press.

On Monday, McEnany used the term “Armenian Genocide,” referring to the Armenian Genocide monument in Denver, which has been the target of vandalism. It was attacked a few weeks ago during the protests against racial discrimination.

“There seems to be a lack of understanding and historical knowledge when the Armenian Genocide Memorial, remembering victims of all crimes against humanity, including slavery, is vandalized,” the White House spokesperson had said.

The source recalls that the position of the US administration on the issue of recognition of the Armenian Genocide differs from the resolutions of the US Congress, which were adopted last year by its two chambers—the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Armenian-American organizations have reacted to the White House spokesperson’s aforesaid words. The Armenian Assembly of America thanked—through the press—the US administration for commemorating the Armenian Genocide Memorial, while the Armenian National Committee of America  said that Kayleigh McEnany’s words could be the first step towards Armenian Genocide recognition by all the bodies of US authorities.

by David Boyajian,

Hardly anyone — Jewish or otherwise — believes that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) genuinely cares about the welfare of Christian, Muslim, and other non-Jewish minorities in the Middle East.

After all, contrary to its claim to be a civil/human rights champion and “secure … fair treatment for all,” the ADL is essentially a political organization.

So when it launched its so-called “Task Force on Middle East Minorities” (TFOMEM) in late 2018, I suspected a political con job.

TFOMEM says it will spotlight “human rights offenses committed against minority communities in the Middle East.”

That sounds bizarre given that the ADL has itself committed human rights offenses against minorities and others right here in America.

Spying on Minorities

In 1992-3, police raided ADL offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The ADL had a “private spy operation that authorities alleged crossed the line into illegal territory,” reported the L.A. Times.

ADL operatives were surveilling hundreds of minority, civil rights, labor, and media organizations and associated individuals.  Among the targeted minority groups: NAACP, Asian Law Caucus, Latin American Support Committee, Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, Filipino Organization Committee, and Young Koreans United.

ADL spy Tom Gerard was a rogue San Francisco police officer linked to Latin American death squads.  His undercover ADL sidekick, Roy Bullock, called themselves “the kings of garbage” for scouring people’s trash for private material.

ADL agents spied on American opponents of Apartheid in South Africa and passed information to its government — hardly the conduct of a civil/human rights organization.

Narrowly escaping indictment by the San Francisco D.A. — who was reportedly under political pressure — the ADL still had to pay $50,000 to the city.

The ADL also settled civil rights lawsuits brought by victims of its snooping.

ADL Genocide Hypocrisy

In friendlier days, Israel and Turkey recruited the ADL and organizations such as the American Jewish Committee to deny/diminish the Armenian Genocide committed by Turkey from 1915-23.

These Jewish organizations and Israel also colluded with Turkey to defeat Armenian Genocide resolutions in the U.S. Congress.

Disgusted by the ADL’s genocide/Holocaust hypocrisy, in 2007-8 a dozen Massachusetts cities and the umbrella Massachusetts Municipal Association expelled the ADL’s sanctimoniously-named No Place for Hate program.  This made national and international headlines.

The ADL has never apologized to Armenians.  ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt’s 2016 acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide came in a mere blog post and only after decades of deceit.

The ADL, promised Greenblatt, “would support” (not will support) an Armenian Genocide resolution in Congress.  That alleged “support” apparently came only in a belated letter three years later, one day before the resolution was already assured of passage.

Just as No Place for Hate is a fig leaf for the ADL’s domestic political agenda, TFOMEM appears to be a smokescreen for the ADL and Israel’s Middle East political agenda.

That agenda: Weaken Israeli adversaries such as Iran, Syria, Shiite Muslims, and Turkish President Erdogan by any means possible.

TFOMEM will help by telling Americans that Israel’s adversaries, among their other wrongdoings, mistreat minorities.

Revealing Press Releases

TFOMEM’s three press releases since its launch are revealing.

Two welcomed Congressional resolutions on the plight of minorities in war-ravaged Syria and Iraq.  That aligns with Israeli policy.  Tel Aviv seeks to topple Syrian President Assad who is aligned with Iran and Hezbollah, the anti-Israeli Shiite militant organization.  Majority-Shiite Iraq is an Israeli target too.

TFOMEM’s third press release tried to bewitch American Christians by condemning Iran’s “arrest of over 100 Christians.”  Fewer Christians will be fooled, however, after the ADL’s attack on Christian Armenians.

Tel Aviv seeks, of course, to destabilize Iran by stirring its minorities, which include Arabs, Azeris, Bahais, Kurds, and others.

An Awkward Event

I attended a TFOMEM panel presentation at Tufts University, “Restoring Armenian Heritage in Turkey: Displaced Stakeholders of Sacred Heritage Sites,” on September 25 of last year.  It focused on three renovated Armenian churches in eastern Turkey — Armenians call it Western Armenia — and a Greek monastery.

Tufts was probably chosen because of its longtime relationship with Greater Boston’s Armenian American community and Armenia.

Also discussed was the 2007 assassination by a Turkish extremist of Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian journalist and Turkish citizen.

The presentation contained little new for the Armenian Americans who comprised half of the some thirty attendees.

The panelists were Tugba Tanyeri Erdemir, PhD, an archeologist/historian and TFOMEM’s  Coordinator; Cly Wallace Aramian, MA, a communications/public affairs specialist and Tufts graduate; and Elizabeth H. Prodromou, PhD, a Greek American political scientist at Tufts and human rights advocate.

Despite her last name, Aramian is not even a token Armenian.  Her former husband is Armenian.

Erdemir is an ethnic Turk and Turkish citizen, like her husband and fellow TFOMEM member Aykan Erdemir, PhD.  A noted author on Turkey’s mistreatment of minorities and indigenous non-Turks, he’s a senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a pro-Israel think tank.

He served in Turkey’s parliament from 2011-15 as a member of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) founded by Kemal Ataturk, who continued the Armenian Genocide after 1918.

Israel and CHP despise President Erdogan and want to topple him and his Justice and Development Party (AKP).  Israel hopes a post-Erdogan/AKP Turkey would restore the countries’ warm relations.

Might hostility to Erdogan/AKP, rather than human rights considerations, partly explain why the ADL invited the Erdemirs into TFOMEM?

Other Members

TFOMEM members change but include two Iranian Jews, undoubtedly because Iran is an Israeli target.

One is Sharon Nazarian, PhD, Senior ADL VP for International Relations. She reportedly opposes “racial hatred.”  Perhaps she’ll look into the ADL’s record on Armenians.

The other is Marjan Keypour Greenblatt, MA, wife of Jonathan Greenblatt who authored the ADL’s half-baked blog post referenced above.

Other members include a Christian Egyptian Copt and several Muslims.  But no Armenians, Assyrians, Kurds, or Palestinians.

The other Christian is Rev. Johnnie Moore, a public relations guru, Trump campaign manager, and member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.  When the latter recommended the State Dept. put autocratic Azerbaijan on its “Special Watch List” for religious repression, Moore was Azerbaijan’s lone defender.  He has visited Azerbaijan, an Israeli ally, twice.

Israel sells the latter billions in advanced weapons while Azerbaijan sells oil to Israel.

Might these facts, rather than human rights considerations, partly explain why the ADL invited Rev. Johnnie into TFOMEM?

Fatally Flawed

TFOMEM members are surely aware of the ADL’s appalling record on minorities.

TFOMEM’s non-Jews probably hope, nonetheless, that the ADL’s money and muscle can somehow help their ethno-religious compatriots.

Exposing a country’s mistreatment of its minorities is certainly noble.

But TFOMEM will ultimately be of little or no benefit to minorities anywhere as long as it’s a tool of the duplicitous ADL.

The author is a Massachusetts-based freelance journalist.  Many of his articles can be found at www.Armeniapedia.org/wiki/David_Boyajian.

GLENDALE, CA — The Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region (ANCA-WR) and coalition partners slammed Turkish President Erdogan and his government’s renewed attempts to deny the veracity of genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish government against the indigenous Christian Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian nations from 1915-1923, whereby over 3 million innocent people were massacred or deported. Republic of Turkey, the legal heir to the Ottoman Empire and its Turkic proxy Azerbaijan, are the only two countries to actively deny this crime against all of humanity. 
On June 16, 2020 the Directorate of Communications of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey issued a statement sharing details from a five-hour closed-door meeting of the High Advisory Board chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, where they discussed the next steps of Ankara’s century-old genocide denial policy.

“The recent 5-hour closed door meeting chaired by President Erdogan on a new strategy to deny the Armenian Genocide firstly speaks to the overwhelming success our community and our partners have been able to achieve worldwide, with the most recent addition of the unanimous passage of genocide affirmation resolutions by both chambers of U.S. Congress,” remarked ANCA-WR Chair Nora Hovsepian, Esq. “This also highlights the importance of our work ahead aimed at rejecting denialism as well as unequivocally affirming the historical truth and seeking full justice for this crime.” 
The following national organizations joined the ANCA Western Region in endorsing the statement, immediately following the reports emerging of the infamous meeting in Ankara: 

1. A Demand For Action
2. American Hellenic Council
3. Assyrian American Association of Southern California
4. Assyrian Genocide and Research (SEYFO Center)
5. Genocide Watch
6. Greek Genocide Resource Center
7. Hellenic American Leadership Council
8. In Defense of Christians
9. Israeli-American Civic Action Network
10. Israeli-American Civic Education Institute
11. Jewish World Watch
12. Philos Project
13. Together We Remember

Full text of the statement is provided below: 
On June 16, 2020 the Directorate of Communications of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey issued a statement sharing details from a five-hour closed-door meeting of the High Advisory Board chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, where they discussed the next steps of Ankara’s century-old genocide denial policy.

The first modern case of genocide perpetrated against the indigenous Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian nations was a centrally planned and systematically executed deportation and murder of over 3 million innocent people by the Ottoman Turkish Government from 1915 to 1923. The Armenian Genocide is fully documented in the U.S. archives and through an overwhelming body of first-hand, governmental, and diplomatic evidence as well as thousands of real-time mainstream media reports. Aside from Turkey and its Turkic ally Azerbaijan, no other country actively denies the veracity of this international crime against humanity.

Despite overwhelming documentation by historians and condemnation by over 30 countries worldwide, an unrepentant Turkey seeks to both enforce an international gag-rule against truthful affirmation of the Armenian Genocide and to obstruct a just international resolution of this still unpunished crime.

Recognizing that silence and denial of genocide creates a veil of impunity by which states avoid responsibility for not only their historic crimes, but contemporary human rights abuses, we condemn in the strongest possible terms the continued genocide denial policy by the Turkish government and its proxies, calling on all who are committed to upholding and ensuring the protection of universal human rights to fight against genocide denial and commit to exposing genocide, confronting denialism wherever it occurs, deny a public platform for hate, and empower communities that have experienced or are suffering genocide.

Understanding that denial is the final stage of genocide, enforcing the erasure of a peoples’ history and suffering, we call on people of good conscience to bring awareness to the plight of the victims of genocide both past and present, to hold accountable those who seek to distort historical truth, and ensure that never again will the world watch on in silence while genocide is perpetrated.  —