Obama breaks promise (again) to commemorate Armenian ‘genocide’

April 25, 2014 By administrator

Demonstrators attend a torch-bearing march marking the anniversary of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, in

During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama could not have been clearer about what he thought of the mass killings of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks in 1915.

“My firmly held conviction (is) that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence,” he said in a statement. “The facts are undeniable,” Obama wrote. “As President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.“

Once in office, though? Not so much. Not at all, in fact.

President Obama on Thursday called the slaughter “one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.” But for the sixth straight year, he did not use the word “genocide” — a move that Armenians would have cheered but would also have risked profoundly angering Turkey, a crucial NATO ally.

“I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view has not changed,” Obama said in his 2014 statement. “A full, frank, and just acknowledgement of the facts is in all of our interests.

“Peoples and nations grow stronger, and build a foundation for a more just and tolerant future, by acknowledging and reckoning with painful elements of the past,” the president added. “We continue to learn this lesson in the United States, as we strive to reconcile some of the darkest moments in our own history.”

The issue highlights the chasm between the demands of domestic politics — magnified by a presidential campaign — and those of foreign policy. A better-known version is the aspirant to the White House who promises on the trail to take a hard line on China but bends in the face of managing what is one of the most complex and important American relationships in the world.

As a senator, Obama co-sponsored a resolution calling for the use of the term “genocide” when discussing the Armenian tragedy. A similar proposal cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 10 by a 12-5 vote. The only member of the panel not to vote was potential 2016 Republican presidential hopeful Rand Paul.

Turkey fiercely disputes the genocide charge and has warned that formal U.S. steps to use the term will hamper relations. Turkey’s then-ambassador to Washington, Namik Tan, sharply criticized a similar statement from Obama in 2011, taking to Twitter to denounce it as inaccurate, flawed and one-sided.

And Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a statement this week declaring that “using the events of 1915 as an excuse for hostility against Turkey and turning this issue into a matter of political conflict is inadmissible.”

“It is indisputable that the last years of the Ottoman Empire were a difficult period, full of suffering for Turkish, Kurdish, Arab, Armenian and millions of other Ottoman citizens, regardless of their religion or ethnic origin,” said Erdogan, who called for a scholarly analysis of the events 99 years ago.

Obama’s statement drew a sharp rebuke from Armenian National Committee of America Executive Director Aram Hamparian, who deplored the “sad spectacle” of Obama bowing to Turkey’s “gag rule.”

“President Obama continues to outsource his policy on the Armenian Genocide, effectively granting Turkey a veto over America’s response to this crime against humanity,” Hamparian said.

Twenty-two countries have recognized the events of 1915 as genocide, and 42 U.S. states have done so as well, either by legislation or proclamation. Congressional resolutions aimed at doing the same at the national level have never become law. Successive presidents have objected on grounds that doing so risks angering Turkey.

The Armenian genocide, 99 years ago 24.4.2014

April 24, 2014 By administrator

April 24, 2014

Today Armenians around the world remember their dead.

Adolf Hitler is quoted as saying, eight days before invading Poland in 1939, “Who today, after all, speaks of the annihilation of the Armenians?” He was speaking of being inspired by the 1915 genocide of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as he began his own systematic campaign of destruction. Today, the Armenian genocide remains fresh and relevant in the minds of Armenians around the world.

On the night of April 24, 1915, the Turkish government placed under arrest over 200 Armenian community leaders in Constantinople. Hundreds more were apprehended soon after. They were all sent to prison in the interior of Anatolia, where most were summarily executed. The Young Turk regime had long been planning the Armenian Genocide and reports of atrocities being committed against the Armenians in the eastern war zones had been filtering in during the first months of 1915.

The Ministry of War had already acted on the government’s plan by disarming the Armenian recruits in the Ottoman Army, reducing them to labor battalions and working them under conditions equaling slavery. The incapacitation and methodic reduction of the Armenian male population, as well as the summary arrest and execution of the Armenian leadership marked the earliest stages of the Armenian Genocide. These acts were committed under the cover of a news blackout on account of the war and the government proceeded to implement its plans to liquidate the Armenian population with secrecy.

Therefore, the Young Turks regime’s true intentions went undetected until the arrests of April 24. As the persons seized that night included the most prominent public figures of the Armenian community in the capital city of the Ottoman Empire, everyone was alerted about the dimensions of the policies being entertained and implemented by the Turkish government. Their death presaged the murder of an ancient civilization. April 24 is, therefore, commemorated as the date of the unfolding of the Armenian Genocide.

The Armenian Genocide was centrally planned and administered by the Turkish government against the entire Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. It was carried out during W.W.I between the years 1915 and 1918. The Armenian people were subjected to deportation, expropriation, abduction, torture, massacre, and starvation. The great bulk of the Armenian population was forcibly removed from Armenia and Anatolia to Syria, where the vast majority was sent into the desert to die of thirst and hunger. Large numbers of Armenians were methodically massacred throughout the Ottoman Empire. Women and children were abducted and horribly abused. The entire wealth of the Armenian people was expropriated. After only a little more than a year of calm at the end of W.W.I, the atrocities were renewed between 1920 and 1923, and the remaining Armenians were subjected to further massacres and expulsions. In 1915, thirty-three years before UN Genocide Convention was adopted, the Armenian Genocide was condemned by the international community as a crime against humanity.

It is estimated that one and a half million Armenians perished between 1915 and 1923. There were an estimated two million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire on the eve of W.W.I. Well over a million were deported in 1915. Hundreds of thousands were butchered outright. Many others died of starvation, exhaustion, and epidemics which ravaged the concentration camps. Among the Armenians living along the periphery of the Ottoman Empire many at first escaped the fate of their countrymen in the central provinces of Turkey. Tens of thousands in the east fled to the Russian border to lead a precarious existence as refugees. The majority of the Armenians in Constantinople, the capital city, were spared deportation. In 1918, however, the Young Turk regime took the war into the Caucasus, where approximately 1,800,000 Armenianswww.Ekurd.net lived under Russian dominion. Ottoman forces advancing through East Armenia and Azerbaijan here too engaged in systematic massacres. The expulsions and massacres carried by the Nationalist Turks between 1920 and 1922 added tens of thousands of more victims. By 1923 the entire landmass of Asia Minor and historic West Armenia had been expunged of its Armenian population. The destruction of the Armenian communities in this part of the world was total.

Source: ekurd

Never again, never forget: Remembering the Armenian genocide

April 24, 2014 By administrator

Posted by Maral Margossian on Thursday, April 24, 2014
William Saroyan, an Armenian-American writer, wrote in his short story “The Armenian and the Armenian,” “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are not more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia. See if you can do it.”
The timeline of the 20th century bears the scars of some of the ugliest and most brutal events in human history. World War I, the “war to end all wars,” proved anything but, as brilliant minds devised brilliant means of murder and discrimination-fueled crimes against humanity were committed indiscriminately, beginning with the Armenian genocide.
On April 24, 1915, hundreds of Armenian intellectuals were arrested and killed in Istanbul by Ottoman officials, marking the beginning of the first genocide of the 20th century. An estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottomans, if not straight away, then during mass deportations.
Hostility toward Armenians began to mount increasingly toward the end of the Ottoman Empire. In the late 19th century, Sultan Abdul Hamid II grew increasingly wary of Armenians’ demands for civil rights and instituted pogroms to quell their protests. In 1908, a group called Young Turks overthrew Hamid and re-instituted a constitution, instilling hope in the Armenians for reform.
However, the Young Turks had a vision to “Turkify” the empire. In 1914, they sided with Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire during World War I. Perceiving Armenians as a threat to the empire, the Young Turks were already skeptical of them. These suspicions were confirmed after Russian forces with Armenian soldiers defeated the Young Turks during a confrontation in the Caucasus.
As a result, the Young Turks launched a campaign against Armenians, thereby initiating the 1915-1923 Armenian genocide. In 1914, about 2 million Armenians lived in the empire. By 1922, less than 400,000 remained.
After the murders of Armenian intellectuals, the Ottomans next targeted Armenian men who were rounded up and forced to join the Ottoman army. Soon after, their arms were seized and those who had not already died from brutal labor were slaughtered.
Without any Armenian intellectuals and leaders to plant seeds of revolt in the minds of Armenians, and without the men to try and fight back, they were left weak and helpless. Accordingly, the Ottomans then turned to their last target: women and children. Women and girls were raped, beaten and some were forced into slavery to work in harems. Armenian children were kidnapped, forced into converting to Islam, and then given to Turkish families with new, Turkish names.
In an article from The Independent, Robert Frisk describes the methods Turks undertook to “Islamize” Christian Armenian children, writing that, “some of the small, starving inmates stayed alive only by grinding up and eating the bones of other children who had died.”
The largest number of deaths resulted from the mass deportations of Armenians out of Western Armenia (Eastern Anatolia). Ottoman officials ordered Armenians out of their homes under the guise that they were being resettled in non-military zones for their safety. In reality, they were sent on death marches across the Syrian Desert to concentration camps. Once food supplies finished, the Ottomans refused to provide more. They were not permitted to stop for a rest, and those too weak to continue were shot on the spot. Ottoman officials oftentimes forced Armenians into caravans to strip, then walk naked under the blistering sun, thereby hastening their deaths.
About 75 percent of Armenians on these marches died, and countless unburied bodies scattered the Syrian Desert. In fact, there were so many bodies that even today, in the Syrian town Deir ez Zor, the bones of Armenians can still be found by merely scratching at the surface of the desert sands.
The Armenians were also gassed. Crude gas chambers were created by herding them into caves and asphyxiating them by lighting bonfires at the entrances. Other atrocities that took place include burning Armenians alive, crucifying them, drowning them and throwing them off cliffs.
Every year, on April 24, the Armenian Diaspora and Armenians living in Armenia commemorate the genocide. They gather together and rally for international recognition of the events as a genocide because, shamefully, some countries have yet to identify the massacres as genocide, despite overwhelming evidence.
Since the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish government has denied these events as genocide, attributing the deaths to byproduct casualties of WWI. They argue that genocide involves the systemic and premeditated massacre of a group of people and that the deaths of Armenians during the early 1900s were not premeditated but a consequence of war. However, more and more Turkish historians and scholars are beginning to accept the reality of the events of 1915.
Though American leaders have used the word “genocide” in speeches, the United States has yet to officially pass a bill recognizing the massacres as genocide. However, earlier this month, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a resolution that called to classify the events in 1915 as genocide. The resolution currently awaits a 100-member floor vote.
With nearly 100 years passed since the genocide, some ask why it matters if the genocide is recognized, and why we can’t just move on. We learn about history in order to not repeat the mistakes of the past. But what happens when a people are denied their past? When our history is denied from us, how can we move forward? How can we learn? How can we make sure these horrendous crimes never happen again?
Adolf Hitler understood the importance of wide recognition of the past when he asked, in a speech impending the invasion of Poland, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” The crimes of our past serve as warnings for our future. Well, just about a century later, we are speaking today of the genocide of Armenians. No matter how hard one tries to edit history or censor truth, the ghosts of our past will haunt us until they are resolved. The current population of the Armenian Diaspora is estimated to be around 10 million people, forming Armenian communities all around the world.
Saroyan concludes his poem, “Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.”
Maral Margossian is a Collegian columnist and can be reached at mmargossian@umass.edu.

Source: http://dailycollegian.com

Fresno CA, Armenian genocide commemoration events in the Valley (Video)

April 24, 2014 By administrator

Events in the Valley marking the 99th anniversary of the Armenian genocide:

At 9:30 a.m. Thursday, there will be a commemoration and flag raising at Fresno City Hall, 2600 Fresno St. Among the speakers will be Mayor Ashley Swearengin and Reps. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, and David Valadao, R-Hanford. Special attention will be paid to recent attacks by Syrian rebels on the city of Kessab, where many Armenians were living and have been uprooted in the fighting.

A commemoration of the genocide will start at 7 p.m. Thursday at St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Church, 220 Third St. in Fowler. Fresno County Superior Court Judge Debra Kazanjian will be the featured speaker.

And for the months of April and May, there is a photo exhibition at the UC Merced Center, 550 E. Shaw Ave. in Fresno, called “The Living Martyrs,” which shows children who survived the genocide.

Clerics from Armenian churches in the Valley gathered at Ararat Cemetery in Fresno on Wednesday, April 23, 2014, to bring attention to the 99th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. Story: Valley Armenians say Turkish leader’s words fall short in easing pain of genocide MARK CROSSE — THE FRESNO BEE

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/04/23/3892054/armenian-genocide-marked.html#storylink=cpy

Armenian genocide: Turkey has lost the battle of truth An empowerered Turkish society is now challenging the state’s denialist paradigm on the tragic events of 1915.

April 24, 2014 By administrator

By: Cengiz Aktar

Cengiz Aktar is Senior Scholar at Istanbul Policy Center. As a former director at the United Nations where he spent 22 years of his professional life, Aktar is one of the leading advocates of Turkey’s integration into the EU.

“In actuality, how Turks and Armenians, as the owners of this common history, can together, through dialogue and empathy, reach a just memory of the tragic events of 1915, which occurred during the great human sufferings of World War I, is already being examined thoroughly and in all its dimensions. In this context, our proposal to establish a Joint Historical Commission, also reflected in the Turkish-Armenian Protocols, remains on the agenda.”

The quotation is from the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s press release regarding the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s recent resolution on the Armenian genocide. In the wake of its centenary, this is the uttermost point reached by the Turkish state in the perception of the annihilation of the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian citizens: A “just memory” and a “joint historical commission”. The just memory is a euphemism to recall revenge killings of Muslims in some areas by Armenian avengers once their people were decimated by the state and their neighbours. And the commission is a sort of face-saver to equate the pains.

In 2009 though, the above-mentioned Protocols came as a brave project aiming at normalising Turkish-Armenian relations. For the first time in almost a century, it meant that the Turkish state took the initiative to follow a different approach than the eternal enmity based on the denial of the “genocide”. Hopes were high for a new era. However in the final tally, Turkey’s superior energy needs and the overwhelming nationalist rhetoric forced the state to choose Armenia’s arch-enemy, the Turkish-speaking and oil-rich Azerbaijan and to revert to its traditional policy over normalising relations with Armenia. So came to a grinding close Turkey’s first innovative Armenia policy before it even began.

The Azeri factor

Before the Protocols, Azerbaijan was asking for a clear reference in the text to the solution of the Karabakh stalemate which didn’t occur. But following the failure of the Protocols, the Azeri factor emerged compellingly on the Turkish political and public scenes. Now it is the determinant in Turkey’s Armenia and Armenian policy overall.

Today, three patterns emerge in Turkey’s traditional policy towards the events of 1915. First, denialist lobbying activities abroad and efforts to influence the lawmakers, especially in the US are now co-sponsored by Azeris. Secondly, denials cloaked in scientific covers aimed at persuading the Western academic world have become prominent, replacing the vulgar denialism. And thirdly, there is a clear attempt to substitute other events for 1915. Dardanelles battle victory in the west and the military debacle of Sarikamis in the east, are being flogged in the official narrative as the historical substitutes to what occurred to Armenians in 1915.

Despite these endeavours, Turkey has long lost the battle of truth. The destruction of the Armenian population on its ancestral land is a sheer fact, whatever else you might call it.

April 24, 1915 was the dark day when the decision to erase Armenians from Anatolia began to be implemented by the Ottoman government of Young Turks, or the Ittihadists. The rationale behind it was to engineer a homogeneous population composed of Muslims designated to form the backbone of the “yet to be invented” Turkish nation. Thus, there was no place for Christian populations despite their historic presence on those lands.

According to the report commissioned in May 1919 by the Ottoman government that came to power in 1918 after the demise of the Young Turks, the number of Armenian citizens who had lost their lives was 800,000. A book published in 1928 by the Turkish General Staff detailing losses during World War I notes: “800,000 Armenians and 200,000 Greeks died as a result of massacres, forced relocations and forced labour.”

When one adds those who died after 1918 in the Caucasus region due to hunger, illness and massacres, the figure surpasses one million. The “cleansing” work of Ittihadists was completed by Kemalists by obliging those throughout Anatolia whose lives were spared to take shelter in Istanbul and simultaneously by suppressing their places of worship and schools throughout Anatolia.

In Turkey, thorough knowledge of what really happened and the consequences of the countrywide disaster is cruelly lacking. The memory was scrupulously distorted and minimised by the state. For the sake of comparison, there is over 26,000 volumes published abroad on the genocide against less than 20 serious accounts in Turkey.

No one is capable of evaluating the consequences to human, political and economic relations throughout Anatolia once the Armenians were eliminated. It is, however, quite certain that the effects of such a wide-reaching elimination operation were enormous.

Denialist paradigm vs empowered society

Today, there is an ever growing awareness regarding the bad as well as the good memory. Public actions, perhaps not so numerous, but certainly momentous, are building up at all levels. So far unhampered by the authorities, they primarily rely on voluntary citizens’ initiatives. These memory works take place in four major areas: academia and publishing; individual and collective memory search; public awareness and visibility; religious and cultural discovery.

Regarding academic interest, following pioneering publishers, many publishing houses now produce works in connection with the painful memory, but also in relation to the rich cosmopolitan past of the Ottoman Empire.

On the individual and collective memory search, many people proudly seek, discover or rediscover ancestors of non-Muslim origin in their families.

Public awareness and visibility is growing by the day. Non-Muslims literally discover themselves and are “discovered” by the society.Since 2010, April 24 is commemorated in more and more cities. Moreover, accounts on righteous people who saved their neighbours’ lives, descendants of Armenians who had to convert to Islam to save their lives are made public.

On religious and cultural area, remnants of monuments that survived are painstakingly taken care of, masses are celebrated again in Anatolia and the cultural heritage is dealt with.

It should be noted that the emergence of this process wasn’t due exclusively to the external push and the government’s early reformism. The society has paid a substantial price for it, probably symbolised by the murder of Armenian Turkish journalist Hrant Dink. Social maturation and empowerment is Turkey’s key to facing the challenges of the aching past.

Thus, even the slow and lengthy process – understandably forcing the limits of one’s patience waiting for a due recognition of century-old crimes – in the development of policies growing out of a painstaking, yet convulsive societal recollection, is a healthy and perennial endeavour.

The genie is out of the bottle. When and how it will affect state policy is difficult to predict. But the civilian activism and awareness remains the sole sustainable asset before any normalisation of relations. Although the road for civil activism is mostly clear, the ‘state highway’ is much obstructed by structural roadblocks.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

Source: Al Jazeera

ANCA statement on President Barack Obama’s continued retreat from his pledge to recognize Armenian Genocide

April 24, 2014 By administrator

Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Executive Director Aram Hamparian issued the following statement regarding President Obama’s April 24th “Armenian Remembrance Day” message, which once against stops short of properly characterizing the crime as ‘genocide.’

“President Obama continues to outsource his policy on the Armenian Genocide, effectively granting Turkey a veto over America’s response to this crime against humanity.”

“It’s a sad spectacle to see our President, who came into office having promised to recognize the Armenian Genocide, reduced to enforcing a foreign government’s gag-rule on what our country can say about a genocide so very thoroughly documented in our own nation’s archives.”

“The fact remains that any durable improvement in Armenian-Turkish relations will require that Ankara end its denials, accept its moral and material responsibilities, and agree to a truthful and just international resolution of this still unpunished crime against all humanity.”

“While we do note that the President chose to join in today’s national remembrance, we remain profoundly disappointed that he has, once again, retreated from his own promises and fallen short of the principled stand taken by previous presidents. For our part, we remain committed to aligning U.S. policy on the Armenian Genocide – and all genocides – with the core values and humanitarian spirit of the American people.”

Obama addressed Armenians on April 24 again avoided using the word genocide

April 24, 2014 By administrator

April 24, 2014 | 16:52

U.S. President Barack Obama issued a statement in connection with the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day where he once again avoided using the word genocide.

The statement posted by Armenian Weekly reads:

“Today we commemorate the Meds Yeghern and honor those who perished in one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. We recall the horror of what happened ninety-nine years ago, when 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their deaths in the final days of the Ottoman Empire, and we grieve for the lives lost and the suffering endured by those men, women, and children. We are joined in solemn commemoration by millions in the United States and across the world. In so doing, we remind ourselves of our shared commitment to ensure that such dark chapters of human history are never again repeated.

I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view has not changed. A full, frank, and just acknowledgement of the facts is in all of our interests. Peoples and nations grow stronger, and build a foundation for a more just and tolerant future, by acknowledging and reckoning with painful elements of the past. We continue to learn this lesson in the United States, as we strive to reconcile some of the darkest moments in our own history. We recognize and commend the growing number of courageous Armenians and Turks who have already taken this path, and encourage more to do so, with the backing of their governments, and mine. And we recall with pride the humanitarian efforts undertaken by the American Committee for Syrian and Armenian Relief, funded by donations from Americans, which saved the lives of countless Armenians and others from vulnerable communities displaced in 1915.

As we honor through remembrance those Armenian lives that were unjustly taken in 1915, we are inspired by the extraordinary courage and great resiliency of the Armenian people in the face of such tremendous adversity and suffering. I applaud the countless contributions that Armenian-Americans have made to American society, culture, and communities. We share a common commitment to supporting the Armenian people as they work to build a democratic, peaceful, and prosperous nation.

Today, our thoughts and prayers are with Armenians everywhere, as we recall the horror of the Meds Yeghern, honor the memory of those lost, and reaffirm our enduring commitment to the people of Armenia and to the principle that such atrocities must always be remembered if we are to prevent them from occurring ever again”.

Iranian MP of Armenian origin: Recognition of Genocide is not enough anymore

April 24, 2014 By administrator

“Recognition of Armenian Genocide is not enough anymore. We demand justice and compensation,” Robert Beglaryan, the MP of IRI Majlis of Armenian origin has stated, reports Armenian – Iranian “ALIK” daily.

According to the article, at the “Armenian Club” of Tehran a meeting titled “Unpunished crime” has been held. The meeting was attended by Armenian activists and Iranian officials.

The Iranian ISNA news agency has reported that Robert Beglary has attached importance to recognition and condemnation of Armenian Genocide. He has noted in particular, “It is the silence about the past that the Genocide goes on till now.”

Participants of torchlight vigil to Armenian Genocide Memorial gathering in Liberty Square (Video)

April 24, 2014 By administrator

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am

April 23, 2014 | 19:17
YEREVAN. – The participants of torchlight vigil to Armenian Genocide Memorial are already in Liberty Square. (photo)

The action is organized by youth branches of ARF Dashankstutyun, Nikol Aghbalyan student union.

The participants have brought the flags of Turkey and Armenia, the Armenian News-NEWS.am correspondent reports.

The flags of countries that had recognized Armenian Genocide are brought to the square. The participants are holding “ Recognize Armenian Genocide,1.5 mln” poster.

As reported earlier, the participants will head to the president’s residence to hand over a letter demanding withdrawal of signature from Armenia-Turkey protocols for the sake of justice, condemnation and continuation of the efforts aimed at Armenian Genocide recognition ahead of the 100th anniversary next year.

Serj Tankian sends open letter to Turkish people

April 23, 2014 By administrator

April 23, 2014 | 02:19

Famous American-Armenian rock musician Serj Tankian has send an open letter to the Turkish people, and told the story of his forebears who survived the Armenian Genocide.

In the beginning of the letter, which Agos Armenian weekly ofIstanbul published, Tankian wrote that he was born in Beirut, Lebanon, but all four of his grandparents had come from modern day Turkey.

“My grandfather Stepan hailed from Efkere in Kayseri, while my grandmother Varsenig came from Tokat.

“My other grandparents were from Dortiol and Ourfa. None of them left on their own free will.

“They were all survivors of the horrible Genocide committed by the Ittihad government during the last days of the Ottoman Empire,” Tankian wrote.

Describing the sad story of his forebears, Serj Tankian stressed that, “These are not some stories in the archives of Turkey or other nations. These are the true stories of my family.”

Towards end of his open letter, the Armenian musician thanked, “all of the amazing people I’ve met from Turkey who have shared their stories with me while on tour and online and have given me hope of a rapprochement based on truth and justice.”

“My wish, Dear People of Turkey, is for you to truly find yourself,” Serj Tankian wrote in closing.