“We want justice”
Harut Sassounian, president of the United Armenian Fund in the US
Friday, January 23, in the 16th arrondissement restaurant
Harut Sassounian is one of the bugbears of Turkish diplomacy. In 1985, this native of Aleppo (Syria) has played an important role in a UN agency recognizes that the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1916 was genocide (see below, ” to go further “). During the First World War, at least 1.2 million Armenians disappeared due to deportations and mass executions ordered by the government in power in Istanbul. But since then, the Turkish authorities reject the description of genocide and lobbying hard for the international community did not return to his account.
The Armenian diaspora, in contrast, is welded to obtain this recognition, with a determination strengthened this year, which marks the centenary of the massacres. Harut Sassounian for, however, the campaign needs to be complemented by another. A leading figure of the diaspora in the United States, he believes that Armenians should demand justice, including increased judicial procedures for spoliation. A strategy decrypted Friday, January 23 during an interview about an orange juice at Le Murat, and has brought in a gathered audience Saturday, January 24 at the City Hall of Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine).
“Compensations for justice”
“My struggle now is to obtain justice for the Armenians,” he says. “In 1915, a terrible crime was committed. We lost 1.5 million people, but also all our properties, our properties, our churches … Let us returns: for compensation, with respect to goods, and the return of the churches under the administration of the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul. “
“Erdogan said that a good Muslim can not commit genocide”
“Turkish leaders do not want to recognize the genocide,” Harut Sassounian denounces. “Their current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that a good Muslim can not commit genocide. Last year, he released a statement on April 23 in which he expressed his regret for all the war dead, including Armenians. He tries to mislead international public opinion. “
“A government that had an extermination plan”
“Let us make a parallel with the Second World War there were about 7 million Germans killed during the conflict and 6 million Jews,” he says. “But it would not occur to anyone to put them on the same level: the Germans were the victims of a war they had triggered; Jews were the victims of a genocidal project. Same during the First World War the Turks died because their government had declared war on France, the British Empire, Russia; Armenians were massacred by a government that had an extermination plan. “
“The Turks will try to cover their tracks”
“This year, at least until April 24 is the date set by the Armenians to commemorate the genocide, the Turks will try to cover their tracks”, reads activist, editor of a weekly dedicated to the cause, The California Courier. “Already, they advanced the date of the commemoration of the Battle of Gallipoli. So far, the ceremonies were held on 25 April. This year, they sent invitations for April 24, the day the genocide commemorations will be held in Yerevan. The Turks even sent an invitation to Serzh Sargsyan, the President of the Republic of Armenia! Everyone understood the maneuver. “
“The Turkish authorities will seek to show benevolent”
“The Turkish authorities will also multiply the ads to show humanistic, caring, reconciled with the Armenians,” he adds. “The Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was to say that the Armenian diaspora was a Turkish diaspora, since it was part of Turkey! He could consider giving Turkish citizenship to those who would come back! How is it possible to say that? We are the diaspora of an occupied historic Armenia! And we do not want to return. So be careful not to be trapped by a soothing rhetoric. “
“At the UN, the balance of power is too unfavorable”
“For a hundred years that Turkey refuses to recognize the genocide. We will maintain this requirement, but we will not stay again wait a hundred years, “Harut Sassounian resumes. “We want justice. We will go through multiple channels: the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the European Court of Human Rights, the national courts. For the ICJ, it’s complicated because only the state can seize. The Republic of Armenia could do it but it would be a fateful decision for her. It is a small landlocked country with few international allies against Turkey, which has the second largest army in NATO, which is the fifteenth largest economy. It’s like at the UN: it is not realistic to consider a campaign for the recognition of the genocide at the general meeting. The balance of power is too unfavorable. Turkey can count on the support of Muslim countries and the countries of NATO. And this is not a place to tell the truth. This is the rule of the law of the strongest. “
“Zuart Sudjian, 94, brought an action against the Turkish state”
“However, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) can be captured by a single individual, when all the remedies in the State have been exhausted,” he continues. “I recently wrote an article about a woman of 94, Zuart Sudjian, who has brought an action against the State in Turkey because of the confiscation of land on which stands Diyarbakir airport, which once belonged his family, Basmajian. She claims compensation. If the Turkish Justice does not decide in his favor, it will go before the ECHR. And if it finds that it should be compensated, it will open the way for tens of thousands of Armenians. “
“At Incirlik, the NATO base on the grounds of a former Armenian village”
“We also know that one of the most prestigious buildings of the Turkish Republic, which resided there is little the president, was the property of Kasapyan, a family of rich Armenian merchants,” says the activist. “Documents also show that the Istanbul Ataturk Airport was developed in part on land that belonged to the family Kevork Sarian, a native of Van. As for the main air base of NATO in Turkey, it is located on village land Incirlik, who was an Armenian community. Families have brought an action against the Turkish government in a US federal court. So even if Turkey refuses to recognize that there was genocide, court decisions will ensure this function. It will be an indirect recognition that there was mass murder. “
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