Armenia is currently restoring economic ties with Turkey, and according to an unspoken precondition set by the Turkish authorities, the Armenian side removed from its agenda the issue of recognizing the Armenian Genocide carried out by the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

In a conversation with RUSARMINFO, Russian political scientist Jacob Kedmi stated that no kind of political conjuncture can replace the national self-awareness and memory of the people. “Whatever the politicians do, the Armenian people will never turn that page throughout their history,” said Kedmi. He also said that such national tragedies have no statute of limitations and there is no forgiveness for those who actively or passively participated in the genocide.

Genocide happens most easily in darkness. If Biden truly understands the lessons of the Armenian Genocide, on Monday, when the White House releases its annual declaration, he will call out those who would continue the genocide through a deliberate campaign of starvation, harassment, incitement, and murder.

On April 24, Armenians will commemorate the 108^th anniversary of the genocide they suffered in the last years of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey still denies the genocide was deliberate; many Turkish nationalists question if it occurred at all.

For too long in Washington, promises to affirm the Armenian Genocide were akin to promises to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem: Every major candidate made them, but none followed through. Donald Trump disrupted that pattern with regard to Jerusalem. Rather than undermine peace, it catalyzed it. Joe Biden did the same with Armenian Genocide. He not only promised as a candidate but also followed through. On April 24, 2021, he stated clearly, “We remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring.” Today, not only the White House, but also the Senate and House of Representatives, all 50 states, and the District of Columbia officially recognize the Genocide.

Despite Turkey’s bluster, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did nothing. He showed himself to be a paper tiger. Biden and many other world leaders showed that truth trumped spin and propaganda. Unfortunately, Secretary 

of State Antony Blinken tarnished Biden’s moral clarity. Without forewarning Congress, whom he had briefed just days earlier on the Armenian issue, he quietly decided to waive Section 907, which enforced a weapons embargo on Azerbaijan. That section of the Freedom Support Act ties military assistance to Azerbaijan to its commitment to solve its dispute with Armenia through diplomacy alone. Blinken simply ignored the facts not only that Azerbaijan’s surprise attack had killed thousands, but also that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev openly declared he sought to take his conquests further.

In April 2022, Biden issued another statement about the Armenian Genocide on Armenian Remembrance Day. It was a good declaration and addressed all the key points. “As we reflect on the Armenian genocide, we renew our pledge to remain vigilant against the corrosive influence of hate in all its forms. We recommit ourselves to speaking out and stopping atrocities that leave lasting scars on the world,” he said. Once again, the State Department waived Section 907.

As White House speechwriters craft a statement for Monday, Biden must go further. For five months, Azerbaijani militias have blockaded the only route into Artsakh, the Armenian-governed enclave in Nagorno-Karabakh. Earlier this week, Aliyev called for population transfer of the region’s 115,000 remaining Armenians. He has cut off food, water, and gas. Genocide looms.

Blinken and the State Department meanwhile wring their hands and counsel against holding Aliyev accountable for his crimes. After all, Blinken tells Congressmen privately, the United States needs Azerbaijan’s compliance for anti-Iran operations. What Blinken fails to understand is that keeping Iran in check is an Azerbaijani interest. That Aliyev extorts Blinken for something Azerbaijan would do anyway humiliates Washington. Regardless, a millennia-old Armenian community should not die as a concession to the dictator.

Genocide happens most easily in darkness. If Biden truly understands the lessons of the Armenian Genocide, on Monday, when the White House releases its annual declaration, he will call out those who would continue the genocide through a deliberate campaign of starvation, harassment, incitement and murder. He will not simply cut-and-paste from his previous two declarations. There is nothing cheaper and more morally corrupt than condemning a genocide from a century ago while enabling its continuance today.

Now a 1945 Contributing Editor, Dr. Michael Rubin is a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Dr. Rubin is the author, coauthor, and coeditor of several books exploring diplomacy, Iranian history, Arab culture, Kurdish studies, and Shi’ite politics, including “Seven Pillars: What Really Causes Instability in the Middle East?” (AEI Press, 2019); “Kurdistan Rising” (AEI Press, 2016); “Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes” (Encounter Books, 2014); and “Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos” (Palgrave, 2005).

‘It’s unfathomable that on the heels of the Armenian Genocide anniversary on April 24, Armenians are terrorized by flyers around schools and churches that call for the extermination of Armenians’ — Vic Gerami, Founder, TAAL

Los Angeles — Truth And Accountability League (TAAL), in partnership with the LA County Commission on Human Relations’ LA vs. Hate, will hold an in-person Town Hall, ‘Stand Hall to Hate,’ on Thursday, May 4, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. This free event with RSVP is open to the public and is being held at the Glendale Central Library, 222 East Harvard Street, Glendale, 91205. It will feature an open panel discussion with city officials, experts, and community leaders, including the Executive Director, L.A. County Commission on Human Relations Robin S. Toma, Esq., Glendale Mayor Daniel Brotman, Police Chief Manuel Cid, Chief of Staff Joseph F. Iniguez from the LA County District Attorney’s Office, and State Commissioner Sam Kbushyan. 

Moderated by TAAL’s founder & Chair, Vic Gerami, the goal of the meeting is to bring awareness, educate the public, and discuss solutions to the rising anti-Armenian racism, Armenophobia, and propaganda through questions and discussion with participants.

‘The recent anti-Armenian flyers posted around LA County, home to hundreds of thousands of Armenian-Americans, remind us that we must be vigilant about racism, hate acts, and propaganda. It’s unfathomable that on the heels of the Armenian Genocide anniversary, Armenians are terrorized by flyers around schools and churches that call for the extermination of Armenians,’ said Vic Gerami, founder of TAAL.  

He added, ‘But we mustn’t allow the hate of a few to create division, pin us against each other, and get us stuck in the problem. The Truth And Accountability League is focused on the solution. We want to bring together, not only members of the Armenian community, but everyone to create awareness, educate, and find answers. Our panel of leaders and experts will discuss ways to handle malice that aims to victimize, dehumanize, and diminish us. Hate acts affect everyone, regardless of ethnic background, race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity. TAAL’s Town Hall is a forum to empower everyone.’ 

The two-hour event is a part of TAAL’s comprehensive and integrated Community Outreach Campaign to address the rise in anti-Armenian hate crimes the last three years, including the anti-Armenian flyers posted in Glendale on March 31 and similar ones in Beverly Hills in January and that called for the massacre of Armenians. 

‘The Armenian American community is such an essential part of our L.A. County community, but the amount of discrimination and negative stereotyping they’ve experienced is too often understated because it is underreported,’ said Robin S. Toma, Executive Director of the L.A. County Commission on Human Relations. ‘I look forward to sharing the data we collect on acts of hate in our county, and most importantly, what we are doing with LA vs Hate to increase reporting and eradicate hate in all our cities and neighborhoods.’ 

‘Stand TAAL to Hate’ is a Town Hall to benefit every group that has experienced racism, been subject to hate crimes, and defamation, along with LA’s Armenian community, which has been a target of such acts more frequently in recent years. With its nearly 40% Armenian community, Glendale is the perfect crossroad for such an event.

Glendale Mayor Daniel Brotman said, ‘I am proud to be the Mayor of Glendale, a city rich with diversity, including one of the largest Armenian diaspora communities in the world. The Jewel City has zero tolerance for racism, hate acts, and defamation. I strongly condemn the recent anti-Armenian flyers and work with Glendale Police and community leaders to find the perpetrator.’

He continued, ‘I’m honored to be a panelist for the Truth And Accountability League’s Town Hall. I applaud Vic Gerami and his team for launching a community outreach campaign to create awareness, educate, and empower not only the residents of Glendale but all of LA County.’

We’ve also witnessed the former president of the LA City Council, Nury Martinez, make a racist statement about a colleague that was caught on tape. The prevalence of the problem led the Burbank Board of Education to revise its anti-racism statement and update the board policy to stand in solidarity with Armenians. 

‘I look forward to participating in the Truth and Accountability League Town Hall in May. Coming together to discuss hate, accountability, and transparency is a powerful act of solidarity and progress. This will be a great opportunity to educate our community on the efforts law enforcement is making to address these challenges, as well as to learn, share, and work together towards a more equitable future,’ said Manuel Cid, Chief of Police, Glendale Police Department.

The audience will have a chance to submit questions in writing before the start of the town hall. RSVP is required and can be sent through Eventbrite: TAALTownHall.Eventbrite.com

‘As district attorney of Los Angeles County, home to more than 200,000 Armenians, I’m immensely proud to represent the largest Armenian population in the United States and the greatest number outside of Armenia itself,’ District Attorney George Gascón said. “Our Armenian community makes tremendous academic, artistic, altruistic, and many other contributions to our region.’ 

He continued, ‘These hate-filled flyers that incite violence are abhorrent and must be condemned. My office takes hate crimes very seriously, filing 86 percent of the hate crime cases referred to us, far above the statewide average of 54 percent. I commend TAAL for becoming an antidote for the poison that is racism and holding this important Town Hall to promote equality and protect human rights.’

CA State Commissioner Sam Kbushyan, an Armenian-American, believes in tackling the problem head-on. He’s been a long-time community organizer and member of Mayor Karen Bass’ Transition Team.

‘It’s been shocking to see anti-Armenian flyers advocating Genocide against Armenians in Glendale and across LA County. We must all condemn this bigotry in the strongest terms. While our families and loved ones in Armenia and Artsakh are under assault by Azerbaijan, LA County’s Armenian community is being terrorized by hate, defamation, and propaganda,’ said State Commissioner Sam Kbushyan.

He added, ‘Vic Gerami and his team at the Truth And Accountability League have taken a proactive step in organizing a Town Hall in Glendale to create a safe place for the community to address this ongoing matter. I look forward to being on the panel and serving the greater LA community.’

Elected officials who would like to attend and have special requests and members of the media interested in interviews should contact Vic Gerami at 310.880.8563 (or) vic@thebluntpost.com. For additional information, visit TAAL’s website, TruthAndAccountabilityLeague.org.

Please click here for photos and see the attached invitation. 

About TAAL

TAAL is a 501©3 non-profit advocacy organization founded in 2020 due to a significant increase in anti-Armenian racism, defamation, hate crimes, and Armenophobia. We monitor and confront bias, disinformation, propaganda, and slander of the Armenian people and culture at the media level, including social media, academics, intelligentsia, and public policy.

Our Mission

To protect human rights, promote equality, combat racism where it appears and exists, stop the defamation and threats of violence against people of Armenian ethnicity, educate the community about racism, bias, and discrimination, achieve worldwide recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and end the crime of Genocide for all people across the world.

About the LA County Commission on Human Relations

The Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations is dedicated to promoting positive human relations in our richly diverse, multicultural county. The Commission works to develop programs that proactively address racism, homophobia, religious prejudice, linguistic bias, anti-immigrant sentiment, and other divisive attitudes that can lead to intercultural tension, hate crimes, and related violence. Partnering with law enforcement, schools, cities, community-based organizations, youth, academics, policy makers, businesses, and other leaders, the Commission brings key players together to resolve immediate intercultural conflicts and to work toward the longer term aim of eradicating bias and prejudice.

LA County’s Human Relations Commission has a legacy that dates back more than 75 years to shortly after the so-called “Zoot Suit Riots” displayed serious, long-standing human relations concerns. This incident, during which large numbers of mostly White young men in the military clashed with local young men of color for three days in the streets of LA, served as a wake-up call to county residents. In January, 1944, the County Board of Supervisors established a Committee for Interracial Progress. Two years later it was renamed the Committee for Human Relations. Following national recognition for its effective work to improve intergroup relations, the Committee became an official agency of County government in 1958 and was renamed the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations. The Commission is among the oldest and largest of its kind in the U.S.

Each County Supervisor appoints three Commissioners who serve multi-year terms. The 15-member Commission meets each month. A staff of professional and support personnel in the County’s Department of Workforce Development, Aging, and Community Services executes the Commission’s programmatic work. The Commission’s signature projects include the annual Hate Crime Report and the annual John Anson Ford Human Relations Awards which recognize exemplary practices and exceptional leadership in human relations work.

About Vic Gerami

Vic Gerami is an award-winning journalist and the editor + publisher of The Blunt Post. Gerami is also the host and co-producer of the national headline news + politics program, THE BLUNT POST with VIC on KPFK 90.7 FM (Pacifica Network). 

Most recently, Gerami wrote, directed, and produce the journalistic documentary feature film, ‘Motherland,’ about Azerbaijan’s, Turkey’s unprovoked genocidal attack on Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in 2020 and the massacre of 5,000+ people, and the two nations’ ongoing campaign of hate, violence, and disinformation against the indigenous Armenians. Here is a sneak peek at the film’s 5-minute sizzle.

Today reaching national and international audiences, Gerami first built a foundation of knowledge and skills by learning the media industry during his years at Frontiers Magazine, followed by positions at LA Weekly and Voice Media Group. 

Gerami’s radio program, TBPV, covers national, regional, and local headline news, politics, and current events, and Gerami offers analysis and commentary. He also interviews a high-profile member of Congress or other high-profile public figures on each show. His recent guests include Congressman Adam Schiff, Senator Bob Menendez, Congresswoman Jackie Speier, Governor Howard Dean, Congresswoman Katie Porter, Congressman Brad Sherman, Congressman Mike Levin, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Congresswoman Judy Chu, LA District Attorney George Gascon, among many others. You can listen to all the interviews here. 

Gerami is also a contributor to some of the most prominent publications in the nation, including Windy City Times, Bay Area Reporter, Armenian Mirror-Spectator, The Advocate, The Immigrant Magazine, GoWeHo, Destination Luxury, OUT Traveler, The Fight, and among others.

The Wall Street Journal featured Gerami as a “leading gay activist” in its landmark 2008 coverage of opposition to Proposition 8, the ballot measure that for years denied same-sex couples in California the freedom to marry. In addition to his years of volunteer work as a leading advocate for marriage equality, Gerami served as a Planning Committee member for the historic Resist March in 2017. 

In 2015, Gerami was referenced in the landmark Supreme Court civil rights case, Obergefell v. Hodges, in which the Court held in a 5–4 decision that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process and the Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

By Harut Sassounian,

Prof. Taner Akcam of UCLA wrote a revealing article in Turkish, in Istanbul’s Armenian Agos newspaper on March 31, 2023, regarding the Turkish government’s brutal massacre of tens of thousands of minorities in Dersim, an Eastern province of Turkey, in 1938. The article was titled: “[President] Mustafa Kemal and [Prime Minister] Ismet Inonu ordered the use of poison gas during the Dersim massacre.”

While this is not the first time this information has been revealed, Prof. Akcam uncovered additional Turkish documents that confirm the details of this horrible massacre ordered by Ataturk and Inonu. The two Turkish leaders issued a secret decree in 1937 for the purchase of 20 tons of poisonous mustard gas and 24 twin-engine airplanes from Germany to exterminate through aerial spraying and the bombing of Kurdish Alevis and Armenians who were living in hiding in the mountainous caves of Dersim. The thousands of Armenian inhabitants of Dersim were survivors of the Armenian Genocide who had fled and converted to Alevism to save their lives.

Many articles and books have been published in recent years, documenting Hitler’s admiration of Ataturk. The cooperation between the Turkish government and Nazi Germany is another indication of the criminal partnership of these two states. Even today, the Turkish military continues to use poisonous gas purchased from Germany in recent years, in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, to exterminate Kurds in Turkey and allegedly in Northern Iraq and Syria.

One of the ironic twists of the Dersim massacre is the participation of Sabiha Gokcen, an Armenian girl orphaned during the Genocide of 1915 and subsequently adopted by Ataturk as his daughter. She became the first female pilot in Turkey and participated in the bombing of Dersim, renamed Tunceli. It is not known if she was aware that she was taking part in killing her fellow Armenians who were survivors of the Genocide, just like her. One of the two Istanbul airports is named after her, as a ‘War Hero.’

A Turkish court ruled in March 2011 that the Turkish government’s massacre in Dersim could not be considered genocide according to the law because they were not directed systematically against an ethnic group. However, Rejep Tayyip Erdogan, while Prime Minister in 2011, issued an apology for the 1938 Dersim massacre. Erdogan’s apology was viewed with suspicion as an opportunistic move to win the votes of the large Kurdish population in Turkey from the government’s main opposition political party, CHP, which is a continuation of Ataturk’s Republican Party. Erdogan described the Dersim massacre “as the most tragic event in our recent history.” He added that, while some sought to justify the killings as a legitimate response to events on the ground, it was in reality “an operation which was planned step by step…. It is a disaster that should now be questioned with courage. The party that should confront this incident is not the ruling Justice and Development Party. It is the CHP, which is behind this bloody disaster, who should face up to this incident.” These comments were pointedly directed at opposition leader Kemal Kılıcdaroglu, who in fact is from Tunceli, and Erdogan’s main opponent in the May 2023 presidential election. One wonders if Erdogan would have also apologized for the Armenian Genocide if there were millions of Armenian voters living in Turkey now.

In one of the footnotes of his article, Akcam referenced a document of the German Parliament where several members asked the German government in 2019 for the details of the Turkish purchase of poisonous gas and airplanes from Nazi Germany. German chemical weapons experts were also brought to Turkey in 1938 to train the military in the use of the poisonous gas. In its reply, the German government acknowledged “the suffering of the [Dersim] victims and their descendants” and added: “the federal [German] government is ready if the events of that time are processed by Turkey to examine German participation.”

While these mass killings cannot be justified under any circumstance, the Turkish government was trying in the 1930’s to suppress domestic opposition and impose its rule in the Dersim region. During a speech in parliament on Nov. 1, 1936, Ataturk described Dersim as “Turkey’s most important interior problem.” Pursuing a policy of Turkification of ethnic and religious minorities, the Turkish government adopted in 1936 the “Law on the Administration of the Tunceli Province” which aimed to resettle the local population to other parts of Turkey. Over 50,000 Turkish soldiers were dispatched to Dersim. They captured and hanged the ringleaders of the local rebellion and indiscriminately bombed and killed thousands of its inhabitants. Even though the Turkish government admitted that 13,806 inhabitants of Dersim were killed, some put the casualties much higher at 70,000 or more. Many of the survivors were moved to other parts of the country and Kurdish girls were given to Turkish families for adoption.

Regrettably, Turkey is still in denial about its past mass crimes. The Dersim massacre is just one example of the exterminations of various minorities beginning in the Ottoman Empire and continuing in the Republic of Turkey era.

By Harut Sassounian,

I wrote an article in January 2016, titled: “Turkey was first country to recognize the Armenian Genocide in 1918.” However, most people are still unaware that ‘the Armenian Massacres’ were discussed and acknowledged by the Ottoman Parliament and Senate in 1918.

More recently, two Armenian members of the Turkish Parliament, Selina Dogan and Garo Paylan, raised the issue of the Armenian Genocide in the Parliament on January 14, 2016. Earlier, in November 2014, Parliament member Sebahat Tuncel submitted a resolution on the Armenian Genocide to the Turkish Parliament, asking Erdogan to issue an apology, declare April 24 as an official Day of Mourning, make public the documents in the Turkish archives about this mass crime, and pay material and moral restitution to the descendants of the victims. The proposed resolution was ignored by the Turkish Parliament.

Since writing my 2016 article, I came across a detailed analysis written by Prof. Ayhan Aktar in the History Workshop Journal, titled: “Debating the Armenian Massacres in the Last Ottoman Parliament, November – December 1918.” That debate took place following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WWI and occupation of Constantinople (Istanbul) by the victorious allied countries.

In the last two months of 1918, the Ottoman Parliament discussed over several days the Armenian Genocide, described at the time as massacres. A motion was presented which stated: “A population of 1 million people guilty of nothing except belonging to the Armenian nation were massacred and exterminated, including even women and children.” In response, Interior Minister Ali Fethi Okyar declared: “It is the intention of the government to cure every single injustice done up until now, as far as the means allow, to make possible the return to their homes of those sent into exile, and to compensate for their material loss as far as possible…. Yes, Gentlemen, I also say that our officials butchered many Armenians, including women and children and that their properties were plundered.”

A Parliamentary Investigative Committee was set up to collect all relevant documents showing the actions of those responsible for the ‘Armenian deportations and massacres.’ The evidence was turned over to the Turkish Military Tribunal, and those found guilty were hanged or given lengthy prison sentences.

Here are some excerpts from Aktar’s article: “Discussion of the Armenian massacres in the Ottoman Parliament began with motions calling the Union and Progress governments to account. When on November 4, 1918 the Ottoman Parliament convened in Istanbul the political attempts to find the perpetrators started with the first motion, tabled by Baghdat-Divaniye Deputy Fuat Bey a few days earlier. This demanded that members of the Sait Halim Pasha and Talaat Pasha cabinets be tried by the High Court…. Clause 10 [of the motion] made direct reference to the Armenian deportations and to the Teshkilat-i Mahsusa (the Special Organization), an irregular military force organized by the CUP [Committee of Union and Progress] leadership that had carried out deportations and massacres.”

Some of the parliamentarians who belonged to the old guard of Unionists, which were the majority in the parliament, without denying the Armenian massacres, made excuses similar to today’s Turkish Government, stating that Turks were also killed during this period.

Six Armenian deputies of the parliament submitted a motion demanding that “the deportation decision of May 27, 1915 and the decree of September 27, 1915 concerning expropriation of abandoned properties and real estate should be revoked, and that those deported from their native land be permitted to return. It further asserted that the administrative measures facilitating the sharing out among local notables of properties which had belonged to deported Armenians went absolutely against the spirit of the Ottoman Constitution of 1876.”

In response to accusations that some Armenians on the Eastern front had rebelled against the Ottoman Empire, Armenian Deputy Matyos Nalbandian responded: Even if some Armenians had committed illegal acts, does that justify “the removal and extermination of all Armenians” and “the confiscation and plunder of their properties?” Nalbandian also made a distinction between the Turks killed at the warfront and the innocent Armenian civilians who were massacred.

A similar discussion took place in the Ottoman Senate on Nov. 21, 1918. Ahmet Riza Bey made a motion demanding that “‘the atrocities committed under the name of deportation’ be investigated; that the negative impact throughout the country be determined; and that those involved in these affairs be prosecuted.”

Former Governor and Minister of Interior, Reshit Akif Pasha, stated that his investigation indicated that “these orders of deportation had been given by the well-known Minister of Interior [Talaat Pasha] and officially communicated to [governors in] the provinces.”

On December 9, 1918, Minister of Justice Haydar Molla told the Ottoman Senate that the crimes against Armenians were committed by state officials, politicians and ordinary Turks.

Importantly, none of the deputies, regardless of their party affiliation or background, denied the occurrence of the deportation and massacres of Armenians.

On December 21, 1918, the Ottoman Parliament was dissolved by Mehmed Vahdettin, the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. “When the Parliament finally reconvened with the newly-elected deputies on January 12, 1920, it was dominated by supporters of the resistance movement which had developed in Anatolia, under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha (later Ataturk),” wrote Aktar.

The Turkish Military Tribunals in 1919–20 tried and sentenced to death in absentia the masterminds of the Armenian massacres, Enver, Djemal and Talaat, the Young Turk leaders who had fled the country.