WASHINGTON, D.C. – New Members joined the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues and more members co-sponsored the bipartisan Armenian Genocide resolution as a result of successful meetings led by the Armenian Assembly of America.

The Armenian Assembly, along with its state chairs and grassroots activists, met with a host of congressional offices to discuss strengthening U.S.-Armenia relations, co-sponsoring House Resolution 296, and joining the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues. As a result of these meetings, Representatives Nanette Barragan (D-CA), Gil Cisneros (D-CA), Kevin Hern (R-OK), Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ), Katie Porter (D-CA), and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) joined the Armenian Caucus, bringing it to 116 Members, and over 100 Members supporting H.Res.296.

“For years, the Armenian community’s vibrant culture has been an integral presence in Los Angeles and across the country. I’m honored to be a member of the Armenian Caucus and look forward to joining my colleagues in working on issues that matter to Armenian-Americans,” Rep. Barragan told the Armenian Assembly.

“As a new member of the Congressional Armenian Caucus, I look forward to working with this bipartisan group of lawmakers as we build stronger economic, cultural, and diplomatic ties with the people of Armenia,” Rep. Spanberger said to the Armenian Assembly. “I’m also proud to represent many Armenian Americans across Virginia’s 7th district.”

Throughout April and May, the Assembly met with numerous offices on Capitol Hill as well as in their districts, including Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Judy Chu (D-CA), Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), John Curtis (R-UT), Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ), Ann Kuster (D-NH), Debbie Lesko (R-AZ), Mike Levin (D-CA), Grace Meng (D-NY), Seth Moulton (D-MA), Richard Neal (D-MA), Joe Neguse (D-CO), Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ), Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Chris Pappas (D-NH), Katie Porter (D-CA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), David Schweikert (R-AZ), Ross Spano (R-FL), Norma Torres (D-CA), and Rob Wittman (R-VA), among others.

Assembly’s State Chairs Herman and his wife Laura Purutyan from Massachusetts, Armineh Ghazarian from Maryland, Paul Sookiasian from Pennsylvania, Meganoosh Avakian from Virginia, along with members and supporters such as Terjenian-Thomas Assembly Internship Program participant Armen Kaprelian from Arizona and Drs. Alice and Ara Apkarian from Orange County, California were instrumental in encouraging U.S. Representatives to join the Armenian Caucus and co-sponsor the Armenian Genocide resolution.

Rep. Susie Lee, who also joined the Armenian Caucus earlier this year, stated: “Nevada’s Third District is unique thanks to our diversity and strong ties among different communities that call Southern Nevada home. I’m proud to join the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues so that we can continue advocating for the unique issues facing Armenia and continue to support Nevada’s Third District Armenian people.”

“Thanks to the efforts of our state chairs and activists, we are gaining momentum with more Representatives joining the Armenian Caucus and co-sponsoring the bipartisan Armenian Genocide resolution,” said Mariam Khaloyan, Director of Congressional Relations at the Armenian Assembly. “To support the Armenian Assembly’s efforts, we encourage everyone to reach out to their elected officials as well as plan to attend the Armenian Assembly’s National Advocacy Conference this year, set for September 16-17,” Khaloyan added.

The Dutch House of Representatives on Tuesday, June 11 adopted a resolution condemning Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s April 24 comments concerning the victims of the Armenian Genocide, lawmaker Alen Simonyan said in a Facebook post.

Erdogan said back then that the deportation of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century was “appropriate at the time.”

The “deportation of Armenian gangs who were massacring Muslims including women, children and elderly people in the Eastern Anatolia region was the most appropriate act at that time,” Erdogan said. “No group or state has been able to prove their claims on the Armenian issue with archive documents.”

The document adopted by the parliament of the Netherlands obliges the government to inform the Turkish authorities on the lawmakers stance.

April 24, 1915 is the day when a group of Armenian intellectuals was rounded up and assassinated in Constantinople by the Ottoman government. On April 24, Armenians worldwide commemorated the 104th anniversary of the Genocide which continued until 1923. Some three dozen countries, including the Netherlands, hundreds of local government bodies and international organizations have so far recognized the killings of 1.5 million Armenians as Genocide. Turkey denies to this day.

The first ever Armenian Genocide Commemoration event was held on Wednesday, June 5 in Australia’s national capital Canberra, featuring the Vice Chair of the Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Dr. Panayiotis Diamadis as keynote speaker.

The event, organised by the Armenian National Committee of Australia – Canberra Branch (ANC-AU Canberra Branch), was held at the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Legislative Assembly’s Reception Hall and attracted over 50 guests. They included ACT parliamentarians, representatives from embassies and government departments, as well as NGOs, Jewish, Greek, Cypriot and Armenian organisations along with academics and media.

Diamadis’s keynote underlined that the recognition of the Genocides of Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians constitutes payment of due honour and respect to the Anzacs and other Australians and New Zealanders who sacrificed money, food, clothing, raw materials, sometimes even their lives, to rescue oppressed people.

ANC-AU Canberra Branch Chair, Dr. Diana Antonosyan was the MC, who welcomed guests before an Acknowledgement of Country was delivered by Sarine Soghomonian. The Primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Australia & New Zealand, His Eminence Archbishop Baliozian began with opening prayer, before Galstaun College student, Hagop Levonian performed a rousing rendition of ‘Bid Bashdbanem’.

Michael Pettersson MLA expressed his condolences on behalf of the ACT Government, while Ms Elizabeth Kikkert MLA delivered remarks on behalf of the ACT Opposition.

Armenian-Australian filmmaker Shahane Bekarian’s ‘Boghos Tavrayan Testimony’ left the gathered in tears, while ANC-AU Executive Director Haig Kayserian closed proceedings with his words of thanks, where he stated that “only justice will cure the wounds of the Armenian Genocide”.

A French commission of experts is taking a fresh look at France’s role in the Rwandan genocide twenty five years ago. To come up with a fair assessment of the mutual recriminations will be no easy task.

The times in which France and Rwanda were on the best of terms are long gone. There have been too many accusations since France sent its troops to Rwanda during the genocide. France had close ties to the old Habyarimana regime, led by the Hutu political elite of the time. Many of the main orchestrators of the genocide fled Rwanda to neighboring Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) by crossing French protection zones.

For years relations between France and President Paul Kagame’s government have been cool at best and often kept to a minimum. The past two years have, however, seen a relaxation of tensions between the two countries.

French president Emmanuel Macron was invited to this year’s 25-year genocide commemoration – a first sign of reconciliation. When Macron instead sent Herve Berville, a young French lawmaker of Rwandan descent who represents the country’s parliamentary friendship group for relations with Rwanda and Burundi, many people were appalled.

Rwanda’s foreign affairs minister, Olivier Nduhungirehe, however, denied relations had been further strained. “It’s not a problem,” Nduhungirehe told DW. Berville had been a worthy respresentative of the French president. “The Franco-Rwanda relationship has experienced a fresh start on many levels. We will continue to work on improving the relationship. We’re especially focusing on a number of specific problems that still exist – but we’re working on those.”

France’s role in the genocide

Those specific problems could include France’s military operation “Turquoise.” Between June and August in 1994, France controlled a humanitarian safe zone in the southwest of Rwanda. The zone did actually help in saving the lives of Tutsis and other victims of the genocide. But even in the “Zone Turquoise” people were killed. For Rwanda’s government, this implied that France was helping its former Hutu allies. “Operation Turquoise protected genocidaires when the genocide was almost over,” Nduhungirehe insists. But, he says, they didn’t stop the killings.

This line of argument also has prominent support in France. Guillaume Ancel, a French army veteran who served in Rwanda, published his memoirs last year under the title: “Rwanda, la fin du silence” or “Rwanda, an end to the silence.” His take: that France portrayed its military operation as a humanitarian mission in order to hide its support of the genocidaires.

The non-governmental organization Survie, which often criticizes what it calls France’s neo-colonial endeavors, goes even further. It says that France played an active role in the genocide by continuing to arm the perpetrators at a time when there were enough indications of planned killings. Survie bases its arguments on publicly available documents from the time.  

In April 2019, President Macron established a commission of experts to examine archived documents that had previously been under lock and key. It’s a move that the Rwandan government has welcomed and has offered its assistance, on condition that the commission strictly focuses on the aspect of the role played by France. 

One-sided criticism of France

But is it fair to highlight France’s role in the conflict and ignore the roles of other actors? Rwandan diplomat and politician Jean-Marie Vianney Ndagijimana believes that critics must look further than France. Ndagijimana was the Rwandan ambassador to France between 1990 and 1994, the decisive years leading up to the genocide. When Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) took over, he became Rwanda’s foreign minister. He later fell out with Kagame’s government and now lives in exile in France.

“France wasn’t the only country which was involved, supporting one side or the other,” Ndagijimana told DW. There should also be an examination, he said, of the kind of support the Tutsi forces received from Uganda, the UK and the US. “The RPF has very modern weapons. We must speak about those who helped the RPF, those who helped the Rwandan government at the time, why and in how far that was legitimate.”

Questioning the role of the RPF

Ndagijimana also believes that the efforts of the French soldiers should be recognized. “It is the greatest injustice that the people who saved so many Rwandans are now blamed for having failed in their mission,” he said. When the genocide was over, the survivors from “Zone Turquoise” composed songs in praise of the French. For years there was no mention of France sharing the blame for what happened — until the day when a French judge opened a probe into the role of Kagame and the RPF. That was in 2006. The aim was to establish whether the Kagame camp shot down the plane of then-president Habyarimana. The attack on April 6, 1994 is seen as the starting point of the genocide. In 2010, a Rwandan commission found that the Hutu regime was responsible for shooting down the plane.

The issuing of an arrest warrant by a French judge against Kagame and other senior officials of his ruling party marked the beginning of the Franco-Rwandan diplomatic standoff. Understandably, as those who defend this version of the story argue that Habyarimana’s killers condoned the escalation of the conflict and the genocide in order to make way for the RPF’s offensive. The RPF, on the other hand, views itself as having liberated the country and having ended the genocide. 

By Harut Sassounian,

In recent years and months, Arab countries have been liberating themselves from the nefarious political influence of the Turkish government and are beginning to take an honest position on the Armenian Genocide.

The Arab governments, despite their long-standing sympathy and support for survivors of the Armenian Genocide who sought shelter in various Middle Eastern countries, had been reluctant to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide due to their shared Islamic faith with Turkey.

The first Arab state to break the yoke of the Turkish blockade to acknowledge this genocidal crime was Lebanon. On April 3, 1997, the Lebanese Chamber of Deputies (Parliament) adopted a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide. A second resolution was adopted by the Lebanese Parliament on May 11, 2000, stating that it “recognizes and condemns the genocide perpetrated against the Armenian people and expresses its complete solidarity with demands of its citizens.”

Since then, Syria’s President and various Parliament members have spoken about the Armenian Genocide several times, but have yet to adopt an official Parliamentary resolution recognizing it as genocide.

There have been similar moves in Egypt where a lawsuit was filed against Turkey on the Armenian Genocide. However, no formal resolution has been adopted by the Egyptian Parliament.

In March, the Interim Libyan government that is attempting to overthrow Libya’s central regime issued a statement recognizing the Armenian Genocide. This came as a complete surprise since there is no Armenian community in Libya.

Another Arab country is rumored to be considering the acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide, but I prefer not to name it in order not to alert the Turkish government and prevent it from lobbying against it.

More recently, an unexpected acknowledgement was made on April 25, 2019 when The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) issued its first official statement recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

According to its website, “ADC is a civil rights organization committed to defending the rights of people of Arab descent and promoting their rich cultural heritage. ADC was founded by former U.S. Senator James Abourezk in 1980. Today, ADC is the largest Arab American grassroots organization in the U.S. ADC supports the human and civil rights of all people and opposes racism and bigotry in any form.”

Here is the full text of ADC’s sympathetic statement: “Over 100 years ago, the Ottoman Empire systematically massacred 1.5 million Armenians and forcibly displaced the Armenian people from their historic lands. Today, we remember the Armenian Genocide and commemorate all of those who lost their lives and homes. The ADC stands in solidarity with the Armenian people. Following the systematic massacre that took place between 1915-1918, many Armenian survivors fled to nearby Arab lands to seek refuge to later build new homes. Over the centuries, Armenians established thriving communities in Arab countries, particularly in the Fertile Crescent. The Armenian community has been an intrinsic part of Arab society, existing in Palestine for centuries, as well as in Lebanon and Syria. As we mark our moral stain on our global society, the ADC stands shoulder-to-shoulder with our Armenian brothers and sisters. Our communities know too well the price of systematic dispossession and oppression, and together we will continue to defend those facing injustice and persecution.”

I am sure Armenians worldwide thank ADC for its compassionate stand. In response to an email I sent to ADC, Abed Ayoub, ADC’s legal and policy Director, wrote that this is the first time that ADC has issued an official statement on the Armenian Genocide.

In response to my question as to what prompted ADC to issue such a statement this year, Mr. Ayoub stated: “Over the course of the past couple years we have had the privilege of working with young Armenian-Americans on issues that impact us all, and as a result of this relationship we began exploring the idea of issuing a statement as a show of solidarity. Additionally, many of our members have connections and roots to the community. Finally, with the rise of hate and bigotry across the world we felt now is an important time to issue a statement.”

When I asked if ADC is planning to issue a similar statement on next April 24, Mr. Ayoub responded affirmatively.

I also asked Mr. Ayoub if ADC had received any criticism for its statement from the Turkish government, and Turkish or Islamic groups in the United States, he stated that ADC had received no such criticism. However, “our membership was overwhelmingly supportive of the statement.”

Finally, when I asked what ADC thought about Pres. Trump’s refusal to use the term Armenian Genocide, Mr. Ayoub answered: “Most of what President Trump does is troubling, however, his refusal to use the term Armenian Genocide is in line with prior Administrations. Failure to use the term is a failure to recognize the pain and suffering inflicted on millions of innocent lives.”

Naturally, I welcome ADC’s statement on the Armenian Genocide and Mr. Ayoub’s answers to my questions. I suggest that Armenian organizations send ADC’s statement to Embassies of all Arab countries in Washington, D.C., asking them to urge their governments to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.

PHILADELPHIA, PA – Armenian National Institute (ANI) Director Dr. Rouben Adalian was the featured guest speaker at the Armenian Inter-Communal Committee of Philadelphia’s Genocide Commemoration on April 24th where he presented on “The Decisive Role of the YMCA and American Relief in Armenia a Century Ago.” Based on John Elder’s photographs and testimony, as well as additional material from other archives, the exhibit pays tribute to the extraordinary efforts of two YMCA volunteers who went to Armenia during the first years of the newly-formed republic, John Elder and James O. Arroll, and whose philanthropic accomplishments were widely recognized at the time.  Executive Director of Greater Philadelphia YMCA Dave Mullin, Director of Information Technology of Greater Philadelphia YMCA Jean Scutt, and retired Director General of the Jerusalem International YMCA Leonard Wilson with his wife Joyce attended the presentation. “Thank you for the great honor paid to the YMCA workers during the horrific events a century ago in your homeland,” retired Director General of the Jerusalem International YMCA Len Wilson stated. “I felt privileged to be in attendance during the very moving church service in your beautiful sanctuary, and to be in attendance for an excellent lecture by Dr. Adalian. I appreciated the opportunity to increase the awareness of your attendees to the role of John R. Mott and the Christian mission work he inspired via John Elder and James Arroll.”
Wilson added: “I was most impressed by the scholarly work accomplished by Dr. Adalian. I only wish more research was accomplished on the hundreds of World Service workers inspired by John R. Mott. Dr. Mott’s career and accomplishments need to be illuminated for persons outside the YMCA organization to appreciate the goals of our organization that is not a church or a religion, but acts to achieve cooperation and reconciliation embodying the true spirit of our Lord among persons of all faiths.”

John R. Mott, who is also featured in the exhibit, was the longtime General Secretary of the International Committee of the YMCA in the early 20th century and an early advocate for U.S. humanitarian relief for Armenians, who inspired Elder and Arroll to take on the challenge of going to Armenia.

The community-wide gathering was organized by Steven Keytanjian and fellow leaders of the Armenian Inter-Communal Committee of Philadelphia, which consists of representatives from the five area churches, their clergy, and the Armenian Sisters Academy. The presentation took place at St. Sahag & St. Mesrob Armenian Apostolic Church in Wynnewood, PA, and Andrew Kzirian served as Master of Ceremonies.
The ANI exhibit titled “The First Deportation: The German Railway, the American Hospital, and the Armenian Genocide” was dedicated to Steven Keytanjian’s grandfather, Dr. Charles Mahjoubian. The First Deportation exhibit concludes with testimony from Dr. Mahjoubian, a native of Konya who resettled in Philadelphia. As a survivor, he committed himself to testifying to the events he witnessed in his hometown.

“Thank you to the entire Armenian American community in Philadelphia for welcoming the Armenian National Institute’s exhibit on the YMCA, and participating in the shared history of Armenia and the United states that dates back over a century,” ANI Director Dr. Rouben Adalian stated. “It was especially encouraging and a true honor to have in attendance representatives of the YMCA, and be able to thank on this day of remembrance the deeply committed and selfless YMCA volunteers who put themselves in harm’s way and helped so many survivors of the Armenian Genocide,” he added.

By Harut Sassounian,

Pres. Donald Trump issued last week his third April 24 statement “on Armenian Remembrance Day.” And for three years in a row he did not muster the courage to use the correct term — genocide — to describe the annihilation of 1.5 million innocent Armenian men, women, and children by the Ottoman Turkish government!

Pres. Trump basically repeated the same words that he used in the past two years, with very minor changes. Again he used the Armenian term “Meds Yeghern” (Great Crime) to avoid calling the mass killings a genocide! Meds Yeghern is simply a description that Armenians used before the word genocide was coined by Raphael Lemkin in the 1940’s, whereas genocide is a term of international law and has legal consequences. Besides, if Pres. Trump insists on using an Armenian word, he should have said “Tseghasbanoutyoun” (genocide)!

Many Armenians had been hoping ever since his election that Pres. Trump would rely on his unpredictable impulses to describe the Armenian mass killings as genocide, ignoring the counsel of his advisors and the position of his predecessors. Unfortunately, Pres. Trump knows very little about Armenian-Americans and can care less about their interests. The only time Pres. Trump will pay attention to the genocide issue is when Armenian-Americans gain more political clout.

It should not take much courage for Pres. Trump to use the term Armenian Genocide since Pres. Ronald Reagan already used it in his Presidential Proclamation on April 22, 1981. In fact, Armenian-Americans do not need Pres. Trump to say anything on April 24, if he cannot call it genocide. The Armenian Genocide has been already recognized by the United States several times. In addition to Pres. Reagan’s statement, the US House of Representatives adopted two resolutions in 1975 and 1984 acknowledging the Armenian Genocide, and the US government sent an official document to the International Court of Justice (World Court) in 1951 recognizing the Armenian mass killings as a case of genocide.

Nevertheless, Pres. Trump’s inadequate statement has a couple of secondary benefits to the Armenian Cause:

1) It irritates the hell out of Turkish leaders who seem to be ashamed and outraged that the President of the United States is reminding the world of “one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century,” and asserting that “beginning in 1915, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in the final years of the Ottoman Empire.” Both Turkish President Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu reacted with indignation and denial to Pres. Trump’s April 24 statement.

2) The statements of Pres. Trump and his predecessors cause each year a major political reaction around the world, generating mass publicity in the international media which is further fueled by the Turkish leaders’ denials.

On April 24, 2019, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan issued an important statement on the 104th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Surprisingly, his statement did not mention Turkey or the Ottoman Empire as the perpetrator of the Armenian Genocide! This must have been an unfortunate oversight on the part of the Prime Minister and his aides. I do not think it was done intentionally, particularly since the statement does include a strong reference to Armenians losing their homeland in addition to the human losses. In the past, Armenia’s leaders have refrained from raising the issue of Armenian territorial demands from Turkey.

Meanwhile, Pres. Erdogan issued a particularly disgraceful statement on April 24, speaking at a Symposium in Ankara: “The relocation of the Armenian gangs and their supporters, who massacred the Muslim people, including women and children, in eastern Anatolia, was the most reasonable action that could be taken in such a period.”

Erdogan is shamefully accusing the Armenian victims of committing a mass crime against the victimizing Turks. This is an outrageous lie which is the equivalent of accusing Jews of killing Germans during the Holocaust! Erdogan must be suffering from a serious mental illness!

In a surprising development, Prime Minister Pashinyan responded forcefully to Erdogan’s pathetic lies. Pashinyan described Erdogan’s statement as “hateful” and called on the international community to respond: “On the day when Armenians around the world mourned the innocent victims of the Ottoman Genocide, Turkey, this country’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated a statement denying the greatest crime of the 20th century, calling it only, ‘the deportation of Armenians.’ To call the extermination of the entire Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire, as well as the massive forced deportation of Armenians (death caravans) ‘Armenian bandits and their accomplices,’ and the massacre of 1.5 million indigenous people, ‘the most logical behavior’ is not only a new level of denial of the Armenian Genocide, but also an excuse for the destruction of an entire nation. Such a statement on April 24, on the day of the anniversary of the Genocide, is a deep insult to the Armenian people and all of humanity, and an expression of extreme hatred personally by Erdogan. The world should not be silent.”

We are heartened that Prime Minister Pashinyan raised the issue of the Armenian territorial demand from Turkey, a demand that the Armenian government should pursue officially at the International Court of Justice!