Turkey Must Recognize Genocide, French President Says in Yerevan

May 14, 2014 By administrator

YEREVAN (ArmRadio)—“Turkey must recognize the Armenian Genocide,” French President Francoise Hollande said at a joint press conference with Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian on Tuesday in Yerevan.

The French President reaffirmed that he will visit Armenia on the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

“This is a call to the world to prevent the recurrence of such tragedies in the future,” he said.

“With this visit, France will once again reiterate its position that all genocides should be condemned,” Hollande said.

Speaking about the Karabakh issue, President Hollande said: “As a Minsk Group co-chairing country, France is ready to do its best to find a solution to the issue. Although there is a ceasefire agreement, it’s not enough. A thorough resolution is needed,” he said.

Francois Hollande added that France is ready to host a meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to help find confidence-building measures.

There have been fears in the recent period that the confrontation between Russia and the West could negatively affect the cooperation between the Minsk Group Co-Chairs and their shared stance on the issue, which would, in turn, result in the reconsideration and change of their positions.

Commenting on this, Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian said: “The Co-Chairs have said on many occasions that they have a united stance, which implies that the status of Nagorno Karabakh conflict should be determined through a legally binding free expression of will of the people. There is no alternative to the realization of the principle of self-determination,” President Sarkisian said.

He added that the approach was recently reiterated by US Co-Chair James Warlick. “He didn’t say anything new. He reconfirmed what his President had said on many occasions.” Sarkisian said. “The same approach was reflected in the statement of the Co-Chairs on the 20th anniversary of the ceasefire agreement,” he said, adding that “Azerbaijan’s attempts to interpret the approaches in a different way are doomed to fail.”

France ‘Understands’ Armenia’s Pro-Russian Stance
French President Francois Hollande pointedly declined to criticize Armenia for backing Russia’s intervention in Ukraine and voiced support for an Association Agreement with the European Union sought by the Armenian government during the press conference on Tuesday, RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) reported.

Hollande, whose country has imposed economic sanctions on Moscow together with other Western powers, said he understands the motives behind Armenia’s de facto recognition of the Russian annexation of Crimea. President Serzh Sarkisian opted for it “in a certain political and geographic context” reflecting the traditionally close Russian-Armenian relations, he said.

“I don’t want to judge. I want to understand, which is what I have done during this visit,” Hollande told a joint news conference with Sarkisian held at the end of his two-day trip.

Obama listens to repeated references to Armenian Genocide at Shoah gala

May 14, 2014 By administrator

By Harut Sassounian
Thecaliforniacourier.com

On May 7, I attended a very impressive benefit gala at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the USC Shoah Foundation which archives the testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Jewish Holocaust, the Armenian, Cambodian and Rwandan genocides, and the 1937 Nanjing Massacre.

Internationally acclaimed Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg, after filming Schindler’s List, established the Shoah Foundation to collect and preserve the personal accounts of survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust. In 2006, the Shoah Foundation became part of the University of Southern California and currently holds 52,000 video testimonies in 34 languages, representing 58 countries. It is the largest archive of its kind in the world.

The gala was attended by Pres. Obama who received the “Ambassador for Humanity” award. Also in attendance were Samuel Jackson, Octavia Spencer, Barbra Streisand, Liam Neeson, and Bruce Springsteen who performed two of his poignant songs, “Promised Land,” and “Dancing in the Dark.”

In 2010, the Armenian Film Foundation and J. Michael Hagopian signed a historic agreement with the Shoah Foundation to digitize, preserve, and disseminate filmed interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Armenian Genocide. Last month, 400 digitized copies of the Armenian testimonies were delivered to USC Shoah Foundation’s Institute for Visual History and Education. By the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide on April 24, 2015, the Armenian testimonies, after they are translated, subtitled, and indexed, will be made available along with eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust and other genocides to 50 institutions (including the US Holocaust Museum) in 30 countries.

Nearly 100 Armenian-Americans attended the May 7 gala, raising over $100,000 for the Armenian collection at Shoah. During the evening’s program, several speakers made references to the Armenian Genocide. Spielberg was the first to announce that the Armenian Genocide testimonies were to be included in the Shoah archives. A video shown to the attendees featured several photographs of J. Michael Hagopian, genocide survivor Paul Andonian, and Armenian deportees on a death march. Shoah Foundation Executive Director Stephen Smith also spoke about the Armenian Genocide, acknowledging the presence of Yevnige Salibian, a 104-year-old genocide survivor from Aintab. Banquet host comedian Conan O’Brien, after acknowledging Mrs. Salibian’s presence from the podium, walked over to her table when the gala ended and had a picture taken with her.

As an honored guest, Salibian was seated next to TV celebrity Kim Kardashian. The following day, Kardashian posted on social media her photograph with Salibian, adding the following message: “Honored to be at the USC Shoah Foundation event to support Armenian Genocide testimonies. I’m sitting next to the most inspiring 100-year-old Armenian Genocide survivor.” Within few days, her posting received close to 400,000 ‘likes’ and almost 5,000 comments on Instagram, and 110,000 ‘likes’ on her facebook page.

Despite repeated references to the Armenian Genocide from the podium, Pres. Obama did not make any direct references to Armenians or the Armenian Genocide in his 18-minute speech — nor was he expected to do so! However, the President made indirect references to genocides other than the Holocaust, without specifying them:

– “I want to say a special word to the survivors who are with us this evening, not just of the Holocaust, but as Steven [Spielberg] noted, survivors of other unimaginable crimes.”
– “If the memories of the Shoah survivors teach us anything, it is that silence is evil’s greatest co-conspirator. And it’s up to us — each of us, every one of us — to forcefully condemn any denial of the Holocaust.”
– “You [Spielberg] …documented the experience not only of the Holocaust, but of atrocities before and since…. To you and everybody at the Shoah Foundation, and for all that you’ve done, for setting a light, an eternal flame of testimony, that can’t be extinguished and cannot be denied, we express our deepest gratitude.”

Armenians do not need to press Pres. Obama to explicitly refer to the Armenian Genocide. Another US President, Ronald Reagan, has already acknowledged it in his Presidential Proclamation of April 22, 1981. It is unnecessary to insist that every US President make the same acknowledgment year after year. Pres. Obama may consider using the term Armenian Genocide not for the sake of Armenians, but to uphold his own integrity by keeping the solemn pledge he made as a presidential candidate. Only then could he fully qualify as an “Ambassador for Humanity.”

U.S. Congressman talks about Genocide with Turkish leadership

May 14, 2014 By administrator

May 14, 2014 – 11:59 AMT

As part of a Congressional Delegation to the Middle East and Asia focused on terrorism, homeland security and the war in Syria, Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) had separate meetings with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, President Abdullah Gul and other high-ranking government officials.

In his meeting with the Prime Minister, Schiff challenged the notion expressed by Erdogan in a recent interview that because there are Armenian survivors still living in Turkey, there could have been no genocide. This is the equivalent, Schiff argued, of saying that because some Jews in Europe escaped death, there was no Holocaust.

Schiff also questioned whether it was possible to have the open discourse in Turkey about the events of 1915-1923 that Erdogan called for in his statement of April 23, if Turkish professors, historians, journalists and ordinary citizens still faced demotion, intimidation, potential prosecution or violence for expressing the conviction that the Armenian Genocide is a historic fact.

In his meeting with President Gul, Schiff said that he wanted to speak for the many tens of thousands of his constituents of Armenian descent who may never get the chance to address the President directly.

“You will not find one of my 80,000 Armenian constituents untouched by the Genocide,” he said. “Each of them has lost a parent or grandparent, their cousins, brothers or sisters, or their entire family. Their pain is real, their wounds are open, this is no distant relic of the past. To say, as you and the Prime Minister have, that yes, Armenians suffered but so too did Turks during World War I, is akin to saying that the Germans also suffered during World War II. It is true that many German civilians died, many noncombatants, but that does not negate the Holocaust any more than the fact that many Turks died could negate the Genocide. To propose, as you have, that a historic commission be established to ascertain the facts of the Genocide is not unlike suggesting that a commission needs to be established to determine whether the Holocaust took place.”

Schiff also raised the issue of Kessab, and his concern over the forced evacuation of the historic Armenian community there and the wellbeing of those residents who are now refugees in Turkey.

Photo: Getty Images

Israel Knesset discusses Armenian Genocide recognition

May 14, 2014 By administrator

May 14, 2014 | 13:01

The Knesset plenum held a special session on Tuesday to discuss the Armenian Genocide, this following a motion to the agenda by MK Zahava Gal-On ( calling for the government to recognize the genocide, which is attributed to the Ottoman Turks, before its 100th anniversary next year, Knesset press service reported.

During the session, Knesset Speaker Yuli-Yoel Edelstein mentioned that during his tenure as a minister he laid a wreath at the memorial dedicated to the victims of the genocide of 1915, which was built on the hill of Tsitsernakaberd in Yerevan, Armenia, and expressed his stance regarding ”the need to remember the massacre of the Armenian people.”

The discussion at the Knesset ”does not blame any modern country, rather it shows that we identify with the victims of the massacre and its terrible outcome,” Edelstein said, adding ”we are not placing blame; we are acting like Jews and being faithful to the truth and the suffering of another people. We cannot deny history and hold back human values out of diplomatic or political caution.”

MK Gal-On told the plenary session, ”Next year the world will mark 100 years since the massacre, and it is time that the government of Israel recognize the massacre of the Armenian people. This recognition is not an attempt to foilur relations with Turkey, which are very important for the State of Israel.”

”The government should not sacrifice the recognition in the name of temporary interests,” the Meretz leader continued. ”Every time there’s a different diplomatic situation. When we’re for relations with Turkey, we don’t recognize the genocide and then there’s the Marmara [Turkish Gaza protest ship in 2010] and we change our mind.”

”Many of those who are sitting in the Knesset plenum are second-generation Holocaust survivors. As a nation that experienced the Holocaust, we cannot continue to ignore the Armenian genocide because of irrelevant considerations,” she said.

MK Reuven Rivlin said, ”We the Jews were next in line after the Armenians [to be killed]. Whoever thought of the Final Solution got the impression that, when the day comes, the world will be silent, as it was about the Armenians. It is hard for me to forgive other nations for ignoring our tragedy and we cannot ignore another nation’s tragedy. That is our moral obligation as people and Jews.”

Tourism Minister Uzi Landau responded to the motion on behalf of Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, saying that ”as Jews and Israelis, we have a special sensitivity and even a moral obligation to recognize human tragedies, including the Armenian genocide.”

“It is a good thing that the Knesset marks these tragedies. The State of Israel never denied what happened,” Landau said.

However, the tourism minister added, in recent years the topic became a political one between Turkey and Armenia and each side is trying to prove it is right.

“We hope these two countries will implement the agreement they signed several years ago and will continue to have an open, deep dialogue that will allow them to heal from the wounds that remained open for decades,” the minister said.

The Road from Diyarbakir: A Call to Deepen Kurdish Commitment to Genocide Justice

May 13, 2014 By administrator

By Khatchig Mouradian on May 13, 2014

BERLIN, Germany (A.W.)—On May 10, a conference on “The 1915 Genocide: Collective Responsibility and Roles; Kurdish, Armenian, Assyrian Relations” was held in Berlin. It brought together two generations of Kurdish intellectuals to discuss inter-communal relations before and after the genocide and the responsibilities of Kurds in the process and conciliation and making amends.

Armenian Weekly Editor Khatchig Mouradian delivered the following speech, in Turkish, calling on Kurdish opinion-makers and politicians to expand and deepen their role in bringing justice to the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

For the Turkish version of the speech, click here.

***

I pass through Diyarbakir on all my trips to Turkey.

In January 2013, I was scheduled to speak at a conference in Ankara dedicated to Hrant Dink, and once again I decided to first make a stop in Diyarbakir.

It was Jan. 17 when I landed in Diyarbakir. Some of you here will remember that day. Hundreds of thousands had gathered for the funeral of activist Sakine Cansiz and her comrades.

As I stood in the crowd listening to the speeches, my mind wandered from Dersim to Diyarbakir to Ankara…

Two days later, in Ankara, I delivered my first speech in Turkish.

I started like this:

How did Turkish come to me?

I did not learn it to add one more foreign language to my CV.

Turkish came to me the day I was born. I had not asked for it, yet I could not reject it, either.

It came to me in the voice of my grandmother.

For you, Turkish is the mother tongue. For me it’s my grandmother’s language.

My grandparents survived the genocide and ended up in Lebanon with practically nothing. They rebuilt their lives from scratch, and gave my parents the gift of life.

And when I was born, they gave me one of the few things they were, in fact, able to bring with them from Kilikia: the Turkish language.

For you, Turkish is the language of parental love.

For me, it is the burden of death and dispossession.

My Turkish has memories of death and dispossession from Adana, Kilis, Konya Eregli, and Hasanbeyli. The villages and towns of my grandparents.

And today, for the first time, I speak that language from a podium.

Today, for the first time, I return that gift of death and dispossession to the lands it came from…

At the end of the speech, I said:

But asking others to open their eyes and acknowledge the suffering of Armenians can never be enough.

What is necessary is justice.

So today, I return the language of death and dispossession to you.

And instead, in the name of my grandparents, Khachadour and Meline Mouradian, Ardashes and Aghavni Gharibian, I demand a language of justice.

Today, as we discuss “The 1915 Genocide: Collective Responsibility and Roles,” I once again think about the funeral and my speech. And my mind wanders from Dersim to Diyarbakir to Ankara. Because I believe the road to justice passes through Diyarbakir.

can hear the sound of justice, albeit faint, in the ringing of the Sourp Giragos Church bell, in the voices of Islamized Armenians learning the Armenian language, and—sometimes—in the statements of Kurdish leaders.

And that sound must be amplified, so that it reaches Van, Hakkari, Şırnak, Dersim, Batman, Bitlis, and Ağrı.

And eventually Ankara.

Let us not talk about brotherhood and peace. I am tired of the incessant use, misuse, and abuse of these words in Turkey.

Let us not talk about shared dolma, shared pain, an Anatolian diaspora, Turkish passports, lobbies, condolences, and other absurdities.

The road to conciliation passes through justice. There are no shortcuts.

Ankara keeps the border with Armenia shut, but Diyarbakir can open another border: The border with the diaspora.

And that border can only open with justice.

As we approach the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, let our minds, together, wander from Dersim, to Diyarbakir, to Ankara.

Many of you here know that Sakine Cansiz was from Dersim, and that her nom de guerre, Sara, was her Armenian grandmother’s name.

Hundreds of thousands gathered to pay their respect to Sakine Cansiz in January last year. But that respect has not been paid to Sakine’s grandmother, and the million and a half who perished during the genocide.

That respect has not been paid to my grandparents.

So let hundreds of thousands gather in Diyarbakir on April 24, 2015, to commemorate the genocide of the Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontic Greeks.

And to make the voice of justice stronger.

RUSSIA: Turkish Boxer refuses to fight because of a banner remembering the Armenian Genocide

May 11, 2014 By administrator

World champion boxing free David Khachatryan, nicknamed “the Emperor”, a man who did not shy, appeared yesterday on the ring of Yaroslavl (Russia) against a Turkish boxer, former judo champion who refused, according to his coach, to combat this Armenian star May 11 Why? Because David Khachatryan had put in his corner a banner denouncing the genocide of 1915. Eve, his opponent said he would break the arms of the Armenian.

Today, the Turkish boxer and his coach refused to fight. A meeting that was supposed to be broadcast in Turkey.

This was the last fight of David Kachatryan under Armenian banner due to a conflict with the federation. He then fight for Russia.

Kim Kardashian speaks about acknowledgment of Armenian Genocide

May 11, 2014 By administrator

May 10, 2014 | 13:55

Kim Kardashian continues raising the issue of acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide.

This week Kim attended the USC Shoah Foundation 20th Anniversary Ambassadors For Humanity Gala in Los Angeles.

In an exclusive interview with People, Kim said she has been passionate about getting people to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, “ and the foundation here has acknowledged 400 Armenian genocide survivors and gotten their testimony, and I’m really proud of that”. Kim said she was there to represent the Armenians.

As reported earlier, during the event Kim posted a photo with Yevnige Salbian, a 100-year-old genocide survivor.

“Honored to be at the USC SHOAH Foundation event to support Armenian genocide testimonies. I’m sitting next to the most inspiring 100 year old Armenian genocide survivor,” Kim wrote on Instagram.

Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide. 9 – Zeynep Tanbay

May 10, 2014 By administrator

By:Hambersom Aghbashian

Zeynep Tanbay is a Turkish prominent modern Dancer, Choreographer, Teacher and Human Rights activist. She started dance education at the Swan Ballet Studio in Ankara. In 1981, she went to New York and studied at Joffrey Ballet School. She continued her training at Alvin Ailey Ballet School, Cleveland Ballet School and San Francisco Ballet School as a scholarship student. In 1983, she began dancing as a soloist dancer, later as a primary soloist dancer at the Minnesota Dance Theatre. After her education at the Martha Graham Dance Company in New York, Tanbay began working as a teacher at the Martha Graham Dance Company. She performed with them in New York, Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Athens and Buenos Aires. In 1995, she performed with the Eliza Monte Dance Company in Turkey for the first time. She returned to Turkey in 1997.

Tanbay founded the “Zeynep Tanbay Dance Project” and performed in the Cemal Resit Rey Concert Hall (2000), the İş Sanat Concert Hall (2001) and at the 18th International Ankara Music Festival. In 2002, she performed as a guest dancer in the 2nd Istanbul International Dance Festival. She participated in the 31st International Istanbul Music Festival (2003), the 1st Bodrum International Ballet Festival (2003) and Stuttgart Festival (2005). Tanbay is the director of Dance Workshop in the Akbank Art, and serves as a dancer and choreographer in the Zeynep Tanbay Dance Project.(1)

On April 25,2011, Bianet.org published an article headlined “We Have to End the Policy of Denial” where it mentioned that “Armenians who were forced to emigration, lost and killed in 1915, were commemorated with flowers and candles at Taksim Square, Istanbul”. Zeynep Tanbay was there , she said “As the official policy to deny this crime continues, the bleeding scar at the hearts of the people of this land deepens”. The prominent modern dancer and human rights activist added “April 24, 1915 marks the start of a disaster that tore the Armenian people from this land where they lived side by side with others since centuries, that left hundreds of thousands dead and subject to all kinds of atrocities for nothing but being Armenians”. She added “Since then, governments and state authorities tried to play down, if not to cover up and legitimize this history. Yet, this lethal exile is clearly a crime against humanity. We have to end denying, now. We have to declare that the heavy crime that’s symbolized by April 24 is our common pain”.(2)

On December 11,2012, Turkish RTV Corp. mentioned that the Turkish embassy in Denmark will open an alternative exhibition at the Royal Library in Copenhagen, where the exhibition “The Armenian Genocide and the Scandinavian Response” opened on November 6 and has amazed the Armenian Diaspora. Zeynep Tanbay with other Turkish Intellectuals sent a letter to Danish authorities saying “Don’t Stand Before Turkey’s Democratization and Confrontation with its History”. The letter mentioned that ” Over one million Ottoman Armenian citizens were forced out of their homes and annihilated in furtherance of an intentional state policy. What exists today is nothing other than the blatant denial of this reality by the Turkish government”.(3)

According to ARMENEWS (February 26, 2014), Zeynep Tanbay with other hundreds of Turk, Armenian and European Intellectuals , politicians, Human Rights activists, Doctors, Professors, community leaders etc., signed a call ” To the Commemoration of Armenian Genocide in Turkey” on April 24,2014.(4)

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1-http://www.turkishculture.org/whoiswho/dance-ballet-opera/zeynep-tanbay-1122.htm

2-http://www.bianet.org/bianet/print/129521-we-have-to-end-the-policy-of-denial

3- http://www.armeniapedia.org/wiki/The_Armenian_Genocide_and_the_Scandinavian_Response

4- http://recordarmenews.blogspot.com/2014/02/call-to-commemoration-of-armenian.html

Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide. 8- Kemal Göktaş 8- Kemal Göktaş

May 10, 2014 By administrator

By:Hambersom Aghbashian

Vatan newspaper journalist Kemal Göktaş faced a five years prison sentence for writing and publishing his book “The Hrant Dink Murder: Media, Judiciary, State”. The book revealed background

information on the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007.(1)

On July 10, 2009, Vercihan Ziflioğlu wrote in Hurriet Daily News ” A book written by journalist Kemal Göktaş delves into the bigger picture behind the assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in front of his office in Istanbul in 2007. Göktaş explores the role of the media in turning Dink into a target and how the state and judiciary also played their part in the incident leading to Dink’s murder. Dink was gunned down in front of the Agos newspaper office, where he was editor-in-chief, in central Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007. At the time he was being tried for “insulting Turkishness” under the infamous Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. Other authors such as novelist Elif Şafaf and Nobel winner Orhan Pamuk have also faced prosecution under the same article and widespread media coverage of their trials forced Pamuk to seek refuge abroad fearing for his life while Şafak opted for silence”.(2)

On February 17, 2010 , Mustafa Turan wrote in Today’s Zaman “Kemal Göktaş, a correspondent for the Vatan daily in Ankara, said in an Istanbul court yesterday that the Istanbul Police Department knew that Turkish-Armenian writer Hrant Dink was to be killed but did not take any precautions. In a hearing at Istanbul’s 2nd Court of First Instance, Göktaş, who is being tried for revealing secret documents and jeopardizing the state’s police department, said in his defense that the Trabzon Police Department had informed the Istanbul Police Department about the plans for Dink’s murder. In his book, Hrant Dink’s Murder — Media, Judiciary and State, Göktaş had revealed how the Istanbul Police Department ignored warnings from the Trabzon Police Department about Dink’s murder. Göktaş said in his own defense that Intelligence Chief Ramazan Akyürek and the Istanbul Police Department filed a criminal complaint against him for publishing the document which showed how Hrant Dink was going to be murdered and [proved that] police knew it beforehand. It shows that a group headed by Yasin Hayal was to kill Dink”. (3)

Göktaş was among the 10 Turkish journalists that traveled to Armenia in a joint venture by the International Hrant Dink Foundation and the Heinrich Böll Foundation. “I went to Armenia for the first time. It was a very impressive trip. The Armenians are experiencing a trauma and mourning passed on from generation to generation. Most of the people I’ve met had their roots in Anatolia; they were very friendly to us,” Göktaş said.(2)

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1- http://www.bianet.org/english/freedom-of-expression/120102-two-journalists-at-court-for-pursuing-dink-murder

2- http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/domestic/11831179_p.asp

3- http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action;jsessionid

Letter: Armenian Genocide commemoration was disturbed by Turkish protesters

May 10, 2014 By administrator

By Aram Adjemian, Montreal Gazette

April 24 is a sacred day for Armenians. On that Sunday night in 1915, 250 Armenian intellectuals from Istanbul were rounded up and deported, most were killed. Thousands of Armenian community leaders, businessmen and intellectuals from elsewhere within the Ottoman Empire suffered the same fate in the following few weeks, and the genocide and forced deportation of nearly all Ottoman Armenians soon followed.

As has been done for nearly 50 years, the Armenian community commemorated the Armenian genocide on April 24 by rallying on Parliament Hill, and then marching, symbolic of the deportations, to the Turkish Embassy. However, this year we were shocked that a counter-demonstration was allowed to take place, at both locations, with numbers substantial enough that the Ottawa police (of which there were many) had separated and fenced off both groups. I was horrified that deniers of the genocide were given permission to demonstrate on the same day and at the same time, with the obvious objective of hijacking our genocide commemoration.

The protesters on the Turkish side were fresh faced and young, and seemingly angry. I was especially disturbed when a young Armenian musician playing a mournful tune on stage was being drowned out by the blasting of very loud dance or metal-type music, seemingly to drown out our sound, to shut us up. But I was also shocked that this group was granted the right to be there in the first place. Can anyone imagine a rally on Parliament Hill commemorating the Holocaust, the Rwandan or Cambodian genocide, and separating the grounds in half to accommodate apologists for the genocide perpetrators? Can anyone imagine that on Remembrance Day, a group of protesters be given a permit to shout down or disturb the ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier? I found it morally reprehensible that this group was allowed to disturb such a painful and solemn commemoration.

Frustrated, I decided that I needed to do something. I have been part of a wonderful Turkish, Kurdish and Armenian dialogue group since 2007 called Voices in Dialogue, and wrote them an open letter, parts of which are reproduced here. I am convinced that any acknowledgment of the genocide will come through Armenian-Turkish cooperation and through gradual dissent on this and other issues related to democracy in Turkey. In the last decade or so, the Armenian genocide has been publicly spoken about in Turkey, often angrily but other times in the hopes of understanding the past we all share but which Turks are only recently coming to grips with. Acknowledgment would be a testament to those many Armenian grandmothers that some Turkish people are discovering they have always had, now voicing their experiences, sometimes on their deathbeds. On this year before the symbolic centenary of the genocide, I remain hopeful.

Source: Panorama.am