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Turkey should face the past. Yavuz Baydar

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20:18, 19 September, 2012

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 19, ARMENPRESS: Apology, in my opinion, is secondary. First and foremost, the emphasis should be on this society’s courage to face the sins of the past. We were deprived of it until today. This is a frightened society. I am not ashamed to say this: We were fed this fear, we were scared throughout all our lives. Our ruling system has been based on fear. We have to change that. The only way is to confront our past. As Armenpress reports citing Huffington Post, these are the words of İshak Alaton, a prominent octogenarian Turkish businessman of Jewish origin. After releasing his memoirs not so long ago, Alaton has become more and more vocal, calling endlessly for an end to the bloody Kurdish conflict as one of the “wise men” ready to be part of a dialogue on reconciliation, asking for the courage to face the crimes that were committed during the collapse of Ottoman rule and asking citizens to speak out. When a ship called the Struma was dragged to the port of Old İstanbul in 1941, Alaton was a 15-year-old witness to the agony onboard. The 60-year-old vessel was the last hope of 769 Romanian Jews fleeing the Nazis, but its engines had stopped at the Black Sea end of the Bosporus. The issue led to pressure on Ankara from Adolf Hitler’s regime, and after 72 days of despair, the Struma was sent by Turkish authorities back into the Black Sea, where it was torpedoed by the Soviet navy. Only one person survived. “Those responsible for this in Ankara are, to my mind, murderers. This society, of which I am a part, has a problem with hiding from its past. We pretend that if we lock them away the problems will be gone. But the corpses that rot in there poison the air that we breathe. Is any serenity possible without confrontation? Let us do it, so that we can make peace with the past.” The Struma disaster, a hidden episode in the republic’s history, is the subject of a new book written by Halit Kakınç, and its preface is written by, yes, Alaton himself. It is not for nothing the subject of “genies out of the bottle.” is to persist on the agenda of Turkey, opened up in a sort of “Turkish perestroika” by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the past decade.  And, only days after the release of the Struma book, another hit the shelves — a potential intellectual bombshell. “1915: Armenian Genocide” is its title and, not only due to its cover but also its groundbreaking content, it overwhelms many others on the subject that have been published. What makes the book outstanding and unique is that it was written by Hasan Cemal, an internationally renowned editor and columnist who is the grandson of Cemal Pasha. This kinship is key to understanding the book’s historic significance: Cemal Pasha was a member of the triumvirate, whose other parts were Talat and Enver Pasha, responsible for the Great Armenian Tragedy, which started with a mass deportation of Ottoman Armenians from their homelands and ended with their annihilation between 1915 through 1916. In his account, Hasan Cemal concludes it was genocide. He does not intend, or pretend, to argue his case like a historian would. His is a painful intellectual journey that takes us through his own evolution, a rather ruthless self-scrutiny of his intellectual past that amounts to an invaluable piece of private archeology. He has done this before. In other books, he questioned his “militarist revolutionary” past, confronting boldly his own mistakes his deep disbelief in democracy, plotting coups, his experience as newspaper editor, etc. But this one is even more personal. “It was the pain of Hrant Dink which made me write this book,” he told the press. Dink was a dear Turkish-Armenian colleague to many of us, as he was to Cemal. He was assassinated in broad daylight on a street of Istanbul by a lone gunman in January 2007, sending shockwaves around the world. “Look at my age; it’s been years and years that I have defended the freedom of expression. But should I keep secret some of my opinions, only for myself? Should I still have some taboos of my own? Should I still remain unliberated? Is it not a shame on me, Hasan Cemal?” In the preface, he writes: “We cannot remain silent before the bitter truths of the past. We cannot let the past hold the present captive. Also, the pain of 1915 does not belong to the past, it is an issue of today. We can only make peace with history, but not an ‘invented’ or ‘distorted’ history like ours, and reach liberty.” The pain of Dink’s memory,  which scarred many of us so eternally may have been a crucial point for it, but by turning a “personal taboo-breaking” into a public one, Cemal opened a huge hole in the wall of denial of the state. It broke another mental dam. This bold exercise in freedom of speech will, in time, pave the way for the correct path. It is up to the individuals of Turkey to do the same, and bow before their consciences. Perhaps this is why there has been such silence over this book in the days since its publication. It is also very difficult to find in bookstores. There are rumors that some chains are refusing to sell it. This may be true, but it cannot now be unpublished. The genie is out of the bottle but the ghosts of the past are also very much alive. The “silent treatment” is proof of that. If anything, it shows how frightened people are. Not only does the state owe an apology for the past, but an even bigger apology is necessary for enforcing, decade after decade, a mass internalization of denialism in this country

Arsine Khanjyan: Turkey will recognize Armenian Genocide when it is able to look at its own “bloody” history

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11:21, 17 September, 2012

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS:

Turkeywill recognize the Armenian Genocide only when it finds strength in itself to look at its own “bloody” history and realizes that their actions were nothing but a crime. It is necessary also that the members of the Turkish society ask themselves, who am I in reality with my bad and good qualities and genetic memory. This was reported to Armenpress by the Canadian Armenian famous actress and producer Arsine Khanjyan. According to her, this all will come true, when the Turkish people themselves begin clarifying the history and exert pressure.

“They should understand that they have lived in lie for so many years and each of them will feel that in their families there is a part of that “crime”, that their grandfather was one of the implementators of the crime of the year of 1915”, – said Arsine Khanjyan. The actress is certain that the denial policy is to the detriment of the current generation. “This very denial makes them a part of that continuous crime”, – said the actress.Armeniashould pay a great attention to the Armenians living inTurkey, notwithstanding the fact if they are still Christians or forcibly made Muslims. They should join the other minorities living inTurkeyand make concrete actions. “I hope that we will come to a certain result in that case. At least, I hope”, – said Arsine.

In this issue the actress highlights the role of the international community as well. “The international community is responsible for the denial as Turkey. The international community should cease all the discussions and negotiations on this issue and look at this problem without political interest”, – said Arsine emphasizing that not only Armenians should cry about it but also the allies. According to her, notwithstanding that Holocaust was recognized byGermany, the Turkish cannot find strength in them to accept the reality. There is only one reason,Turkeylacks civilized society. “People never forget about a crime, genocide. The further generations ofArmeniaandTurkeywill always face this part of the history of their countries and it will never be forgotten. And for the sake of the Armenian and Turkish generations the international structures should exert pressure to settle the issue”, – said Arsine.

In the years of 1892-1923 the Turkish government organized the Armenian Genocide, during which mass deportation and massacre of more than 1.5 million people from the Western Armenia, Cilicia andOttoman  Empirewas carried out. Conditionally the beginning of the Genocide is considered to be the April 24 1915, when 600 Armenian intellectuals were arrested and then killed inConstantinople.

Owen, Cemal and 1915

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By: Orhan-Kemal-Cengiz

The article was quite interesting for a number of reasons. The first was obvious: A country known as a bastion of democracy is being invited to face its past. And from this article we understood that “facing history is still a hot debate,” even in a place like the UK.Owen started his article with a few quotes from British Foreign Secretary William Hague: “We have to get out of this post-colonial guilt. … Be confident in ourselves.” Jones’s article is a challenge to the “lets forget everything and reach eternal peace” mentality. Hague’s way of relating to the past is quite popular in Turkey, as you probably know. Interestingly, Owen was criticizing Hague’s approach to history by making a comparison with British expectations of Turkey. Owen said, “A foreign country such as Turkey can rightly be berated for failing to come to terms with an atrocity like the Armenian Genocide, but the darkest moments of our own history are intentionally forgotten.”

After reading Owen’s piece in The Independent, I came across a few interviews with Hasan Cemal in different newspapers, all of which were about his new book titled “1915: Armenian Genocide.” The book has not yet been published, but it is already quite famous in Turkey. Some criticize Cemal while some praise him for his soon-to-be-published book.

Cemal is quite a well-known figure in Turkey. He is a journalist and writer, writing a regular column for the Milliyet daily. He is the grandson of Cemal Paşa, one of the three leaders of İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti (Committee of Union and Progress [CUP]), which organized the massacres of the Armenians in 1915.

I think his book is quite timely and meaningful. So far I have only seen the cover of the book and read a few sentences from its preface. On the cover, Cemal’s photo appears; in it, he lays flowers at the site of the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan. Obviously, the book will spark quite an intense debate in the coming days, and the discussion has already begun.

Like Owen, Cemal emphasized the importance of facing the past in the interviews he gave. He said: “We cannot move forward without confronting and taking into consideration the events of the past. We cannot keep an eye on the anguish of the past. Moreover, the pain of 1915 is not a story, it is a current day issue.”

I want to conclude this piece with some words I underlined in the preface to Cemal’s new book:

“I cannot forget that Yerevan morning in September 2008. In the first sunlight of the morning, the peak of Mount Ağrı [Ararat] would emerge and then vanish in the fog. ‘The hand of history,’ I had written that morning, ‘will show the way for those who wish to see.’ In 1919, the colonial army of England had opened fire on people in India, committing a crime against humanity by bloodying its hands with the Amritsar Massacre. In 1997, Queen of England Elizabeth II, while apologizing to the people of India, had said that what happened in Amritsar was a tragedy, but ‘history cannot be rewritten, however much we might sometimes wish otherwise.’ Surely we cannot change history; however, facing history is in our hands. Without facing the grim realities of the past, how can we ever move forward? We cannot remain silent in the face of pain! We cannot allow yesterday to take today hostage. … Real peace and democracy can unfortunately only be arrived at by passing through intolerable pain, as in the case of Hrant Dink, through paying a big price. It is evident that some stones in the lives of certain societies don’t happen without the paying of a price, or they don’t sit where they are supposed to.”

While Muslim Turks where using Islam for massacring millions of Armenians, on the other hand Muslims of the Arab Countries where opening their homes to the Armenian Orphans and refugees.

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Our great appreciation to GARO Yogurtjian of Costa Mesa CA. for providing these pictures.

While Muslim Turks where using Islam for massacring millions of Armenians on the other hand Muslims of the Arab countries where opening their homes to the Armenian Orphans and refugees. Photos showing General Austins interest in the welfaer of the Orphons, click on the image to see all the pictures and expend the video to see the full pictures.
You will see View of the 17000 Armenian Orphanage at Baqubah Iraq refugee Camp.

The promising future generations of Armenians, one battalion of Armenian Orphans, who being eye-witnesses of their parents massacre, can never forget what they have been allowed to enjoy under the auspices of the British,

His grace Moushegh Seropian, Archbishop Prelate of Mesopotamia Diocese, discussing with sheikh Fehed bay of Enezch Tribe, the liberation of the Armenian Orphans and refugees.

You will see photo showing General Austin’s interest in the welfare of the Orphans.  The photos showing the deplorable pitiful state of newly rescued refugees and the Orphans.

Also A group of Armenians Refugees and Orphans transferred to Port Said, on the 25th August 1918. And photos of Armenian refugees leaving Mosul for Baqubah, Iraq.

It is the same orphans who, if given a fair chance, will be able to raise our small but victories flag and hoist it upon the other unredeemed part of our fatherland, which, although demolished but still beautiful, embittered but sweet, razed to the ground but is still charming home of our greater Armenian.

 

France is to study the new draft law criminalizing Genocides denial

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19:30, 7 September, 2012

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS: France is examining the new draft law criminalizing Genocides denial. This was declared by the director of France’s presidential office Pier Benour from the name of Francois Hollande as a response to French Armenian Arman Mkhitaryan’s letter who tried to clarify the readiness of Hollande to keep his campaign promises concerning the new draft law criminalizing the denial of Armenian Genocide.

AS reports Armenpress citing French Nouvelle d’Armenie the director of France’s presidential office Pier Benour highlighted in the letter that ,, Francois Hollande is to fulfill his commitment” and that the text of the draw is being examined.

As you know, France’s Constitutional Commission has decided that the project presented in the form of a draft law does not comply with the Constitution. Therefore, it is necessary to find another solution which corresponds to “duty of memory” and to the laws of republic so that it will not be denied by the Constitutional committee again”.

The Sandcastle Girls: Book on Armenian genocide is in New York Times Best-Seller list

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The Sandcastle Girls, a novel on the Armenian Genocide by Chris Bohjalian, will debut on the New York Times Best-Seller List on the newspaper’s website today, as reported by  the Armenian Weekly.
The Sandcastle Girls is currently seventh on the best-seller list, which will appear in the published August 5 issue of the New York Times. On July 23, it was announced the Book of the Week on Oprah.com.
The novel has received stellar reviews from dozens on publications nationwide, including the Washington Post, USA Today, the Boston Globe, the Associated Press, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, Entertainment Weekly, and People Magazine.
50-year-old Bohjalian is a popular writer in the United States, with works that have been “best sellers” over a 20-year career

Was Atatürk an Armenian?

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Write:
Orhan Kemal Cengiz is a Turkish lawyer, journalist and human rights activist. He graduated in law from the University of Ankara in 1993. From 1997 to 1998 he worked in London.
o.cengiz@todayszaman.com
The Radikal daily has started quite an interesting discussion about the family origins of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic. Radikal reported, according to the forthcoming book “From Mustafa to Kemal: Atatürk’s Big Secret” by Fatih Bayhan, that the family origins of Atatürk do not lie in Thessaloniki, as is commonly believed, but instead in the eastern province of Malatya. Bayhan claims that Atatürk’s family immigrated to Thessaloniki from Malatya.
According to this new version of his life, Atatürk’s true father and mother were people who lived in Malatya and Atatürk’s acknowledged mother, Zübeyde Hanım, was actually his aunt. The writer claims that Atatürk was sent to Thessaloniki when his actual father died and was adopted by Zübeyde Hanım when his mother died. The book is said to be based on official governmental records and documents that are set to be made public for the first time.

I do not want to bother you with all these details any more. This allegation of course needs to be proven. However, I would not be surprised if it turns out to be true. Much of history in Turkey is based on so many lies and legends, all of which were created to deny some fundamental facts in our past. Turkish official history “writers” never hesitated to bend history according to the needs of our official ideology and the state’s so-called “higher interests.”

Malatya was one of the provinces which were heavily populated by Armenians in the past. If this new version of Atatürk’s origins is true, the first question to come to mind is why the history writers fabricated the well-known version of his life. Did they write the official version to disassociate Atatürk from Anatolian Armenians? If the new story is true, there must be a reason.

The facts of Turkish history are still surrounded by many taboos, some of which have caused loss of life. You know how the tragic events leading to the assassination of Hrant Dink began. He simply dared to say that Atatürk’s adopted daughter Sabiha Gökçen was indeed an Armenian orphan. And this revelation was followed a lynching campaign and he was killed after that.

Nowadays the walls around the taboos which surround our history seem to be weakening. Ayhan Aktar keeps writing about some taboos in our history. One of the stories he tells is about the Dardanelles wars. According to Aktar, one of the heroes of this war was Cpt. Sarkis Torosyan, a citizen of Armenian descent in the Ottoman Empire. Torosyan’s story is a heartbreaking one. Torosyan was a much-decorated gunner wounded while defending the Dardanelles. He was later transferred to the area where his family had been deported, modern-day Palestine. There he discovered his sister in rags and heard his fiancée was dying of tuberculosis. He learned that his parents had been killed along the way. While he was defending his country to the death, his family and loved ones had been forcefully evicted from their homes.

This story is of course not written in any schoolbooks, nor is it known by many people in Turkey. Some may think this story is just a tiny detail in Turkish history, but I think it’s a very significant and important one. The real story of an Armenian captain who fought a heroic war in the Dardanelles is a huge burden on the Turkish conscience. This is because this one single event has the capacity to bring up all of our painful memories about our long-lost neighbors and about our past.

As I repeatedly said in this column before, people confront their past by opening their hearts to the stories of others, by feeling the pain and anguish they suffered — a process which has already started in Turkey and in which we have a very long way to go.

Knesset to Discuss Genocide Bill Tuesday

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JERUSALEM—The chairperson of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, on Sunday has permitted the discussion of a bill recognizing the Armenian Genocide. The debate is scheduled for Tuesday, reported the Haaretz newspaper.

Knesset chairperson Reuven Rivlin decided to permit the debate for Tuesday after Meretz party leader Zehava Gal-On asked for the issue to be discussed in the Knesset last week but it was delayed due to deliberation on another bill.

Israel’s foreign ministry asked to postpone the discussion until after the Knesset hears a report on Israel’s interception of Turkish ships bound for the Gaza Strip. Gal-On refused and pressed for the Armenian Genocide bill to be placed on the agenda.

Gal-On said she did not want to cause problems with Turkey and she wanted relations with the country to improve. But she said she believed the Foreign Ministry was using the comptroller’s report as an excuse to avoid dealing with the controversial Armenian issue, reported the Jerusalem Post.

In December, the Knesset’s Education Committee hosted an unprecedented discussion of the Armenian Genocide and the need for Israel to officially recognize the matter.

At the time, a representative of the Foreign Ministry relayed the ministry’s opposition to the bill. “This subject, given the current atmosphere, could deteriorate our ties with Turkey. Our relationship with Turkey is very fragile and sensitive right now, and we cannot cross the line – we must approach the subject intelligently. Such a decision could have very serious strategic consequences,” said the representative.

Rivlin also commented during the discussion in December. “The subject doesn’t come up in the Knesset because of events that take place between Israel and Turkey, nor because we are trying to take advantage of the political situation to get even. I first entered the Knesset in ‘88, and a year later we made a suggestion for a day concerning the Armenian tragedy. We were prevented from speaking about it as a ‘holocaust,’ though we most definitely felt that as humans, as Jews, as citizens of Israel that aren’t Jews, we must bring this subject up, and flood the public with the questions that arise, because we are obligated to prevent denial of the tragedy,” said Rivlin.

“We are standing in front of all the peoples of the world, and saying that denial of a holocaust is something that Humanity cannot agree with. We didn’t come to discuss something political, rather moral,” continued Rivlin.

Gal-On said at the time that “this is an exciting moment, in my opinion, that the Education Committee is holding an open discussion, with a great deal of participation. For years, Israel always considered relations with Turkey. That is the central issue in terms of recognition of the murder of the Armenian people, which has yet to take place in Israel’s Knesset.”

“Unfortunately, relations with Turkey are very tense, and I think that it is in our interest not to make them worse. Israel’s government must advance relations regardless of the Armenian issue; it is a historic and moral obligation,” said Gal-On.

Otniel Schneller, also among the upcoming discussion’s sponsors, was the only one who expressed outright opposition to an official recognition by Israel of the Armenian genocide in December. “We cannot disconnect the discussion from the fact that we must rehabilitate our ties with Turkey – it’s an existential necessity,” he said. “We need to fit in the Middle East even if it is difficult,” said Schneller, in December.

Romney nominated a pro-Armenian activist in the USA vice president position

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17:30, 11 August, 2012

Yerevan, August 11, ARMENPRESS: The Republican Mitt Romney fighting for the position of the USA president made a decision to nominate a member of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan from the Virginia state as a vice president. Ryan is famous for his pro-Armenian positions. He was one of the NO 252 resolution supporters of the House of Parliaments in the Armenian Genocide recognition and condemn, he is a member of the Congress committee on the Armenian issues. The Armenian trial committee in the USA marked him A. Senator Biden has also been assessed with such a mark. “A member of the House of Representatives Ryan was highly appreciated from A to F due to the legislative and political positive activity in the Armenian Genocide Recognition. He positively displayed himself also in the human rights the American Armenians are concerned about and other foreign political issues”, ANCA informed in response to the question raised by “Armenpress”.

Romney will officially represent the vice president on August 11 during the visit to Norfolk. Romney’s candidature for the presidential position will be officially nominated in the republican Congress to be held in Florida August 27-30.

The Young Turks’ Crime Against Humanity:

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The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire:

By, Taner Akçam, the first scholar of Turkish origin to publicly acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, holds the Kaloosdian and Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University. His many books include A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility (Metropolitan Books).

http://www.amazon.com/Young-Turks-Against-Humanity-ebook/dp/B007BP3BIU

Introducing new evidence from more than 600 secret Ottoman documents, this book demonstrates in unprecedented detail that the Armenian Genocide and the expulsion of Greeks from the late Ottoman Empire resulted from an official effort to rid the empire of its Christian subjects. Presenting these previously inaccessible documents along with expert context and analysis, Taner Akçam’s most authoritative work to date goes deep inside the bureaucratic machinery of Ottoman Turkey to show how a dying empire embraced genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Although the deportation and killing of Armenians was internationally condemned in 1915 as a “crime against humanity and civilization,” the Ottoman government initiated a policy of denial that is still maintained by the Turkish Republic. The case for Turkey’s “official history” rests on documents from the Ottoman imperial archives, to which access has been heavily restricted until recently. It is this very source that Akçam now uses to overturn the official narrative.

The documents presented here attest to a late-Ottoman policy of Turkification, the goal of which was no less than the radical demographic transformation of Anatolia. To that end, about one-third of Anatolia’s 15 million people were displaced, deported, expelled, or massacred, destroying the ethno-religious diversity of an ancient cultural crossroads of East and West, and paving the way for the Turkish Republic.

By uncovering the central roles played by demographic engineering and assimilation in the Armenian Genocide, this book will fundamentally change how this crime is understood and show that physical destruction is not the only aspect of the genocidal process.