Armenians Archives

“An Ordinary Genocide” project manager: Many Armenians of Baku were thrown into the Caspian Sea: the death toll remains unknown

January 20, 2017 By administrator

The project “An Ordinary Genocide” is making videos entitled “I accuse Azerbaijan” where the eyewitnesses are telling the horrible incidents that occurred in Baku, Sumgait and Maragha. One of those videos was presented during today’s press conference. The video showed one of the eyewitnesses telling about the tragedy in Baku. “An Ordinary Genocide” project manager Marina Grigoryan told reporters, Panorama.am reports.

She noted that over 30 videos have been translated into English and they are to be released in the international platform in the coming days.

“All the testimonies collected within the project come as a real accusation against the criminal and genocidal policy of Azerbaijan,” she noted.

M. Grigoryan informed that the project “An Ordinary Genocide” is implemented by the Public Relations and Information Centre of the RA President’s Office and throughout the year a number of events will be held to mark different incidents. “Throughout the entire year we are going to hold events in different languages in various, including in international media platforms and to release materials aimed at revealing the lies and the falsification of the Azerbaijani propaganda and presenting the reality. To carry out these activities we cooperate with different state bodies, namely with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora,” she noted.

Speaking about the pogroms of Armenians in Baku on 13-20 1990 M. Grigoryan noted that the Azerbaijani people mark January 20 as a tragedy day when the Soviet troops entered Baku.

“The turmoil Azerbaijan is raising on every 20 January in the last 27 years aims at silencing and making forgotten all the events that took place in Baku during 13-19 January, 1990. In a week they killed, tortured, robbed, burnt alive, raped and forcibly deported the Armenians in Baku. However Baku has forgotten the fact that the eyewitnesses of those incidents are still alive: thousands of people who have faced that tragedy, lost their relatives and property,” project manager of “An Ordinary Genocide” said.

She noted that few documents are available on the Baku pogroms to compare with the Sumgait massacres. Within the program “An Ordinary Genocide” it was decided to fill this gap by the testimonies of the eyewitnesses of the massacres. They initiated a sub-project entitled “A Century-long Genocide” within the framework of which they have listened to and recorded all the stories and memories of the eyewitnesses as an evidence of the genocide against the Armenians of Baku.

“For that purpose we departed for the US twice, as over 60.000 Armenians moved to the country from Baku in 1990s. We have videotaped 150 Armenians of Baku. As a result we produced the movie entitled “A Century-long Genocide: Black January of Baku”. It was screened in 2015 making up a part of the events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,” she said adding that on the basis of that interviews they have published a book featuring 50 testimonies of the Armenians of Baku. They are already working on the second book which will include some 60 memories of the eye witnesses.

In her words they have revealed a series of facts and details completing the atrocities committed by Azerbaijan. “For instance we did not know that started from the January of 1990 Armenians were held as hostages in Baku. A fugitive woman told us that she had been held as a hostage in horrible conditions in a year. Different families were held together with her. She managed to survive due to a miracle. Another new revelation referred to the fact that those Armenians who were trying to flee from the Baku massacres by ferryboats, were simply thrown into the Caspian Sea. I guess many Armenians of Baku ended up in the sea. We will never know the exact number of those victims.

We have also collected documents the refugees managed to take with them. We have revealed a unique document issued by Baku’s military commandership. The document reads that the family had to be evacuated as their lives were in danger in that city.

We also revealed the fact that criminal cases have been launched in Baku upon the legal claims of many Armenians. However the cases were not completed which once again proves that the massacres of Baku were state-sponsored and the Azerbaijani leadership ordered the law enforcement bodies to drop all the cases and halt the investigations,” M. Grigoryan added.

She said that on the basis of their evidences they assume that a total of 500-600 Armenians were killed during the pogroms of Armenians in Baku.

“All the incidents that happen in the recent years, particularly the murder of an Armenian commander in Budapest, the murders of the Armenian servicemen on the Line of Contact, the April war, the Azerbaijani aggression unleashed near Armenian village Chinari, come as a continuation of Azerbaijan’s policy resumed still in Sumgait in 1988. Having no Armenians left in their territory to commit massacres against they continue running their policy in Artsakh and Armenian borders,” M. Grigoryan concluded.

Political scientist Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan who participated in the press conference, noted that at least three pre-planned genocides were committee against the Armenians of Baku in 1905, 1918 and 1990 respectively.

In his words the policy of eliminating Armenians was a well-developed one which initiated in the last years of the Soviet Union and continued so long as Azerbaijan has had a potential to take steps.

“Now we have testimonies, fact-finding activities are carried out which will become a serious ground for the revelation of Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian policy. These activities will promote the further establishment of diplomatic relations and will enhance our position in the talks, as we base ourselves on the clear facts.

We can observe that such facts are missing from the negotiating table. The most important issues people are concerned about are not included in the talks and the regional political developments,” he said.

Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan informed that they are going to produce a film about the blockade of Stepanakert when 50.000 inhabitants were under the daily danger of extinction being deprived of food, water, medication as the city was under shelling from all directions.

The Plight of Hidden or Islamized Armenians in Turkey

November 20, 2016 By administrator

islamased-armenian By Raffi Bedrosyan, Special for the Armenian Weekly

What a difference a year makes…

It was August of last year, when Project Rebirth organized trips to Armenia for a large group of hidden Islamized Armenians from Diyarbakir, Urfa, Dersim, Sason, Van, and the Hamshen regions of Turkey, to help them find their roots, language, culture, and history.

It seems like decades ago, but it was last April, that a piano concert took place at the recently reconstructed Surp Giragos Church in Diyarbakir, to commemorate the Armenian Genocide Centennial—a concert attended by more than a thousand hidden Armenians.

The regular monthly breakfast meetings of the hidden Armenians of Diyarbakir at the Surp Giragos Church have now become a distant memory. The Armenian language classes so enthusiastically attended by Islamized Armenians in Dersim and Diyarbakir have long been suspended.

As the organizer of the trips to Armenia, it was gratifying for me to receive emails from some of these no-longer hidden Armenians.

“Before I went to Armenia I was a Kurd, and I returned as an Armenian,” read one. “For years I fought for the rights of Kurds before I found out I was an Armenian at the deathbed of my father. Now I want to go fight in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabagh/NKR),” read another.

It was doubly gratifying to see youngsters from Diyarbakir attending university in Yerevan, already speaking Armenian and acting as guides to tourists. It was also a pleasant surprise to find out that the last trip to Armenia resulted in marriage between a hidden Armenian from Hamshen and a hidden Armenian from Diyarbakir, who wouldn’t even know about each other’s existence before last year.

In ever growing numbers, the hidden Armenians had started making contact with one another within Turkey, establishing links with people in Armenia and Diaspora.

And now? The past year has been a living hell for the hidden Armenians of Turkey. The civil war between the Kurdish resistance guerrillas and the Turkish army has resulted in massive destruction in southeastern and eastern Turkey. Most of the buildings in the region have been bombed or burnt by the army and police forces, followed by complete demolition and razing of the damaged buildings, creating vast open areas in many urban centers, with only a few mosques, police stations, or government buildings left standing.

Entire neighborhoods have disappeared, reduced to rubble. The Surp Giragos Church in Diyarbakir has escaped the fighting relatively intact structurally, with only broken windows and a large hole in one of the exterior walls. But the Turkish security forces have used it as an army base, desecrating the church, burning some of the pews as firewood, with garbage and smell of urine everywhere. The attached gift and souvenir shop is destroyed.

Several stores and houses in the adjacent blocks to the church, which were originally owned by the church and only recently returned to church ownership after years of negotiations, have now been demolished by the government, along with many of the historic narrow streets and buildings leading to the church.

At present, the church stands in the middle of a vast open area. But worst of all, in March 2016, the Turkish government passed legislation, expropriating the church and all of the properties belonging to it. The church is now closed to public. The Armenian church foundation has taken the expropriation to the Turkish courts, and in the case of an unsuccessful outcome at the Turkish courts, the intention is to take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights.

More than a million people have been displaced in the region, forced to flee to safer areas. Thousands of people have been killed or injured, including children and elderly, some burnt alive in the basements of apartment buildings while being bombed by the government forces. Thousands more have been fired from their jobs, arrested and jailed for “supporting terrorist Kurdish organizations,” especially intellectuals, teachers, lawyers, and journalists.

The democratically elected Kurdish mayors of most towns and cities in the region have been removed from their posts, arrested and jailed. The co-leaders of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), as well as several members of parliament, have also been arrested and jailed.

Following the failed coup attempt against President Erdogan in July, dictatorial powers and the state of emergency in Turkey have resulted in silencing of all opposition, media, intellectuals, and opinion makers.

The situation is worrisome and continues to get worse in Turkey, especially in the southeastern regions, with military operations within Turkey as well as across the border within Iraq and Syria. Although Turkey has pledged to fight against ISIS, it seems that their main fight is against Kurdish forces within Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. The Turkish army and police forces taunt the Kurdish guerillas with the ultimate insult, calling them “Armenian bastards.”

Our hidden Islamized Armenians living in the region suffer the same fate as the rest of the population, perhaps even worse. They are discriminated against, no matter where they go. The Kurds discriminate against them for not being “real” Kurds. The Turks discriminate and harass them even more, as they are brainwashed to hate and fear Armenians as perpetrators of genocide. If the hidden Islamized Armenians choose to go to Istanbul, they are discriminated against by the Armenians there. Until they satisfy the unreasonably strict requirements of the Istanbul Armenian Patriarchate and get baptized as Christians, they are not well received well by the Armenian community.

Naturally, the efforts of Project Rebirth to help the hidden Islamized Armenians find their Armenian roots, culture, and language by organizing Armenian language classes in places like Diyarbakir and Dersim, as well as planning trips for them to Armenia, are now on hold.

Instead, the efforts are now geared toward helping the hidden Armenians relocate away from the war zones into safe areas, and arranging lawyers for people who are arrested, jailed, or unfairly dismissed from work.

There have been major setbacks this year, with great human suffering and material losses. We have lost control, for now, of Surp Giragos Church in Diyarbakir, which was beautifully reconstructed after years of painstaking effort, sacrifice, and hard work. But we must remind ourselves that it has already served its main objective—the re-awakening of the hidden Islamized Armenians. This church has acted as a magnet, bringing together once hidden Armenians—the grandchildren of the living victims and orphans of the Armenian Genocide—who continue surviving and living on our own ancestral lands, albeit under very difficult conditions.

Los Angeles: Intersections: Armenians sign on to help homeland

October 29, 2016 By administrator

By Liana Aghajanian,

The dispersion of any people from their original homeland” is the dictionary definition of diaspora, but it doesn’t do much to capture the complexity, challenges, nuance and difficulty of what it means to function outside of the place you originally came from.

When you’re involuntarily dispersed across the world, forcibly losing culture, you sometimes spend a lifetime trying to get it back. Sometimes there is success, but you often end up with more questions. You try to find your grounding, but end up permanently stuck in limbo.

It is not easy being part of a diaspora, no matter your background. Things feel fragmented — your identity, your loyalty, your language and family.

Armenians have been part of the American fabric for centuries, having contributed to society in ways that are often unseen — from medical advancements, law, art, entertainment and politics. These contributions are often ignored or unknown, but important. They offer a complex, three-dimensional glimpse of our legacy in this country.

Our story does not begin, nor end with Glendale, a place so synonymous with Armenian identity that even a hotel owner in the disputed territory of Abkhazia had told me he had heard of the city as the place to be for Armenian Americans.

But while Armenian Americans have adapted, assimilated and absorbed their American identity as much as their Armenian one, this involuntary displacement, sometimes two or three times over several decades, has added immense challenges to our experience.

Not only are we separated by dialect, food, class and political affiliation, we carry another country in the back of our minds, that for many, feels like a conundrum, even alien: Armenia.

We have projected much on to this young republic — barely 25 years independent, a piece of land where many were cut off for so long, a small country the size of Rhode Island coated in the sweet, sticky paste of blind nostalgia.

But in the last few years, access to real-time information has given Armenians in the United States and across the world a glimpse into a country that cannot and should not be neatly contained into a postcard, should not be confined to black tufa-stone souvenir key chains or bottles of brandy.

We have come to find out that Armenia is a real place, as real of a place as America. A place that has problems — from poverty to domestic violence to corruption and human rights violations. A place where Syrian-Armenian refugees have relocated to and faced challenges, but also shown resilience in the face of extraordinary hardship. A place that has more pressing concerns than just genocide recognition.

This realization has created an atmosphere of potential unity, an atmosphere that defies the very definition of diaspora.

A letter published in the New York Times on Friday confirmed this. As the Armenian General Benevolent Union, one of the oldest nonprofit organizations in the United States celebrated its 110th anniversary, a group of signatories linked to the “IDeA Foundation of Armenia,” a charitable organization dedicated to socioeconomic development have called on worldwide Armenians to use their collective energy as an opportunity to “pivot toward a future of prosperity, to transform the post-Soviet Armenian Republic into a vibrant, modern secure, peaceful and progressive homeland for a global nation.”

The group includes French-Armenian singer Charles Aznavour, Carnegie Corp. President Vartan Gregorian, London-based Lord Ara Darzi, one of the leading surgeons in the world and Edward Peter Djerejian, a former U.S. diplomat who served in eight administrations — from John F. Kennedy to Bill Clinton.

Collectively, it calls for a pooling of resources, commercial investment, innovation, expertise and active involvement dedicated to the advancement of Armenia.

Except for Salpi Ghazarian, head of USC’s Institute of Armenian Studies and whose commendable involvement in and outside of Armenia is vast, noticeably absent from the group of 23 signatories are women.

As Armenia and segments of its diaspora struggle with gender-equality issues and a growing cohort of feminist activists fight for legislative changes in the country, the equal representation of women in a letter as meaningful as this is not just important, but absolutely necessary. They, too, need to be included at the forefront of this fight.

Despite these shortcomings, this message feels unprecedented, surprising even — a chance, as the letter says, to not just have survived genocide, but to “reconstitute and thrive.”

“Diaspora” is a loaded word. It tends to simplify and group people together who often only have their heritage and nothing else as a connection.

Caring about a country 7,000 miles away isn’t a requirement, it’s a choice, a choice that should be embraced wholeheartedly, not just when it feels convenient, a choice that embraces both beauty and blemishes and works to heal the latter. For a scattered diaspora, it’s a choice whose timing has never felt so right.

—

LIANA AGHAJANIAN is a Los Angeles-based journalist whose work has appeared in L.A. Weekly, Paste magazine, New America Media, Eurasianet and The Atlantic. She may be reached at liana.agh@gmail.com.

Edition in Yerevan Armenian Book “Islamized Armenians force” of the Turkish historian Taner Akçam

August 24, 2016 By administrator

Islamaix=zed Armenian A Yerevan recently published book in Armenian Turkish historian Taner Akçam on Islamized Armenians force. Under the title “Islamized Armenians force” Akçam’s book consists of three parts. The first refers to the denial of the Armenian Genocide by Turkey and the maneuvers of the Turkish State to not open these dark pages of history.

The second part discusses the denial of Turkey and censorship of the writings and testimonies of Armenian Sarkis Torossian, an officer in the Ottoman Army. Finally, the third section discusses the Islamization force Armenians in the years 1915 to 1918. Akçam details this page of history relatively unknown in the Armenian genocide of the process. The book was translated from Turkish into Armenian by Meline Anoumian under the direction of editor Haïgazoun Alvratsyan. The book is published by the Centre for analysis and study of Armenians of Western Armenia.

Krikor Amirzayan

Turkey MFA says astonishing things about Armenians

June 3, 2016 By administrator

Turkish MFA The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Turkey issued a ridiculous statement following the German Bundestag’s passing of the resolution that recognizes Armenian Genocide.

“Turkey tries to honour the memory of the Ottoman Armenians, shares their sufferings, preserves Armenian cultural heritage and takes significant steps for paving the way for reconciliation between the two neighbouring nations. In this respect, there is nothing that Turkey will learn from the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany,” the Turkish MFA statement specifically reads.

It is unknown whom the Turkish MFA wants to deceive with such statement, since even those in Turkey do not believe in such words.

And after the Turkish PM’s remarks that something commonplace, which can happen in any country, occurred with the Armenians in 1915, the Turkish MFA should have remained silent.

The Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, on Thursday formally recognized the Armenian Genocide, with the aforesaid resolution and with only one vote against and one abstention. The resolution also notes that the Bundestag regrets that the German government at the time did nothing to stop this crime against humanity, and therefore the Bundestag also acknowledges the respective historical accountability of Germany.

Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr’s Grandparents to be Honored for Saving Armenians

June 1, 2016 By administrator

Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr’s Grandparents will be Honored for Saving Armenians (Source: ArmRadio)

NEW YORK (ArmRadio)—The Board of the IRWF has unanimously resolved to award the Raoul Wallenberg Medal to the late Dr. Stanley E. Kerr and his wife, Elsa, for their devoted work in favor of Armenian women and children in the 1920’s who had managed to survive the Armenian Genocide unfolded in 1915.

The relief effort was organized and provided by the Near East Relief (NER) and among the American volunteers was the 21 year old Stanley Kerr, at that time, a junior officer with the US Medical Corps. After having served in Aleppo he was transferred to Marash, in Anatolia, where he headed the American assistance operations at a great risk, for the Turks regarded the Americans as collaborators of the Armenians. In 1922, he moved to Beirut where he and his wife Elsa established the Near East Relief Orphanage for Armenian children at Nahr Ibrahim, Lebanon. In this position, the couple was instrumental in aiding a significant number of Armenian mothers and children.

In 1925, Stanley Kerr earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, a field where he distinguished himself, and returned to Beirut to chair the Department of Biochemistry of the American University of Beirut. In 1965, he retired with the rank of Distinguished Professor and was awarded the Order of Merit from the Republic of Lebanon.

Besides their actual help to Armenian orphans, Stanley wrote a remarkable memoir documenting his experiences in Marash – The Lions of Marash: Personal Experiences with American Near East Relief, 1919-1922), providing a first-hand account of the plight suffered by the Armenian people.

One of the couple’s sons, Dr. Malcolm Kerr, an acclaimed scholar specialized in Middle Eastern Studies, became the President of the American University of Beirut and was tragically assassinated in Beirut by extremists in 1984.

Malcolm’s son, Steve Kerr, was a prominent Basketball player and currently head coach of the Golden State Warriors. In a recent interview, Steve told about how proud he feels about his grandparents.

The Raoul Wallenberg Medal will be posthumously bestowed to Stanley and Elsa Kerr, in the hands of their grandchildren and it will be coordinated with them, together with other commemorative initiatives such as a special stamp dedicated to the heroic couple.

Mr. Eduardo Eurnekian, Chairman of the IRWF, said that “Dr. Stanley Kerr and his wife Elsa are an example of pure humanitarianism and as such, they should be recognized and remembered. They should serve as role models for the young generations.”

FRANCE-MUSADAGH The film “SHELTERS ARMENIANS” screened on May 24 at 8:30 p.m. in Paris

May 24, 2016 By administrator

On the extraordinary story of the 7 villages of Musa Dagh

“SHELTERS ARMENIANS”

with the participation of Mathieu Proust, director of the documentary film Cordelle Jean, a descendant of a French sailor who participated in the rescue of the Armenians in 1915

Aram Kartun, from Vakif in Musa Dagh, the last Armenian village in Turkey, Saro Mardiryan, President of France – Musa Dagh

TUESDAY 24 MAI 2016 20:30

in the presence of Bishop Vahan Hovhanessian, Primate of the Diocese of France of the Armenian Apostolic Church

At the Armenian Cathedral of Saint-Jean-Baptiste 15 rue Jean Goujon – 75008 PARIS

FRIDAY 17 JUIN 2016 at 19:30

Under the Armenian Film Festival,

organized by the Armenian Youth of the French Riviera (ACAD) from June 5 to 20

to-School Complex Barsamian

281 Boulevard de la Madeleine – 06000 NICE

Free admission – Cocktail

Information: francemusadagh@gmail.com / 0678732582

Click to access musa_dagh_reportage.pdf

Tuesday, May 24, 2016,
Ara © armenews.com

In Islamist Turkey, Even Dead Armenians Can’t Lie Peacefully

May 16, 2016 By administrator

Demolition of historic Armenian houses in Mus, Turkey (Photo: Video screenshot)

What Ottomans did during the 1915 genocide (and what Turkey is still doing today) is very similar to what the Islamic State is doing.

BY UZAY BULUT Mon, May 16, 2016,

While much of the world has been shaken by the atrocities committed by the Islamic State against non-Muslim communities in Syria and Iraq, a non-Muslim community in Turkey, the Armenians, has for decades been suffering – mostly forgotten and abandoned by the world.

What Ottomans did during the 1915 genocide (and what Turkey is still doing today) is very similar to what the Islamic State is doing. Drawing parallels between the past and the present is of great significance to understand the continuity, universality and horridness of Islamic jihadi genocide.

Even though it has been 101 years since the 1915 genocide befell the Armenian Christians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, the few remnant homes, churches and even cemeteries of the victims are still being targeted by both the state authorities and locals in Turkey. Much of the public is also complicit by staying completely silent in the face of these injustices.

Today, the Armenians in their ancient homeland inside Turkey’s boundaries have become almost extinct. But in Turkey, even the dead Armenians are not allowed to rest in peace.

“Dozens of graves have been dug and bones have been taken out,” said Aziz Dagci, the head of the Armenian Minorities Association, who filed a criminal complaint in the city of Muş (pronounced Mush) about the destruction of the graves that date back to the 1800s.

“They should stop digging our graves. There is nothing but our dead in our graves,” he said. “And they should also stop destroying our monastery.”

Much of the world media, however, fails to cover the human rights abuses Armenians and other Christians are subject to in Turkey. Their sole focus seems to be the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL). Sadly, they fail to see what is done to Armenians and other Christians inside Turkey, a NATO-member nation.

For example, in 2013, 500 historic Armenian houses in the Kale neighborhood of Mus were demolished within the government’s project of “urban renewal.” (See a video of the demolished houses.)

“This obliteration of a culture,” wrote researcher Varak Ketsemanian, “is a consistent policy of the Turkish government; it uses it as a tool of counter-propaganda against any Armenians claims that assert the pre-1915 existence of Armenians on these lands. Although this policy does not include any actual massacres or deportations, it is a continuation of the same policy adopted in 1915.”

Apparently, Armenian cemeteries are intentionally chosen as targets by Turkish authorities or locals.

Again, in 2013 a restaurant was built on the Armenian cemetery in the city of Tekirdag in eastern Thrace.

“During the construction, the bones in the cemetery were scattered all around and some were thrown into trash bins. The gravestones, stolen from the cemetery, were used in the construction of a manhole and Armenian gravestones were found in another infrastructure work,” reported the newspaper Taraf.

Taraf also reported that in the central Anatolian city of Sivas “the Armenian cemetery in the city had been looted during a road construction and human bones were scattered to the roadsides. What happened to the gravestones is still unknown.”

Mus had a vivid Armenian community before 1915. Statistics show that before the genocide, 140,555 Armenians lived in Mus’ 339 villages. There were 299 churches, 94 monasteries, 53 holy sites and 135 schools with 5,669 students. The city is also subject to many Armenian folk songs and stories, including the love song “Gulo,” performed here by the Armenian singer, Hasmik Harutyunyan.

According to the 1917 Ottoman census, however, 99 percent of the Armenians in the region had become “lost.” Apparently, the word “lost” in the Ottoman-Turkish dictionary means “slaughtered” or “deported” – and by the most brutal methods imaginable.

“Some of the children were burnt alive; the others were poisoned or drowned, died from lack of food, or succumbed to diseases,” according to the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute.

“I am confident,” said Henry Morgenthau, the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (1913-16), “that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when compared with the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915.”[i]

Most Armenians have been wiped out from Mus, as well as the rest of Turkey. “[Officially] there are 3,000 Armenians in Mus now, but the locals say that there are more,” said the director of the Study Center for Western Armenian Issues, Haykazun Alvrtsyan in 2014, who added, “There are at least 2.5 million ‘Muslim Armenians’ in Turkey, half of whom are hiding.”

Given the boundless intolerance against everything reminiscent of Armenians in Turkey, the “hidden” Armenians seem to have justifiable reasons not to reveal their ethnic or religious identity.

In a country where even the bones and cemeteries of Armenians are not respected, being an Armenian is a considerable hardship to live with every day.

[i] “The Armenian Genocide: The Essential Reference Guide”, by Alan Whitehorn, Publisher: ABC-CLIO, 2015.

Uzay Bulut is a Turkish journalist formerly based in Ankara. She is presently in Washington, D.C. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/uzayb

Get a preview of Clarion Project’s upcoming film, Faithkeepers, about the violent persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East. The film features exclusive footage and testimonials of Christians, Baha’i, Yazidis, Jews, and other minority refugees, and a historical context of the persecution in the region.

Why Pope Francis’ visit matters to Armenians

May 14, 2016 By administrator

Pope_Francis_prepares_to_greet_Queen_Elizabeth_II_at_the_Vatican_April_3_2014_Credit_Daniel_Ibanez_CNA_CNA_4_3_14

By Mary Rezac and Elise Harris

Vatican City, May 13, 2016 / 04:45 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis’ visit to Armenia this summer comes at a poignant time in the country’s history.

The Holy Father’s June 24-26 visit comes just after the close of the 100-year anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and during the Year of Mercy, a significance not lost on the Armenian people, said Mikayel Minasyan, Armenian Ambassador to the Holy See.

The Armenian people have learned to be strong because of their history, Minasyan said, referring to the genocide that occurred at the hands of the Ottoman empire during and after World War I and which left as many as 1.5 million Armenians dead.

“It’s strong to remember their own history, it’s strong to understand their own history, it’s strong to accept their own history,” he said of his people.

The centenary anniversary has been a time to recognize the healing and progress that has been made, he added.

“(T)he Armenians made the whole world see what it is to overcome an injustice. They gave the possibility to the world to understand what a genocide is, what the denial of a genocide is. Let’s not forget that the term ‘genocide’ was created above all based on the study of the Armenian genocide.”

The ambassador also said the year has been a time to recognize everyone who has supported the Armenians and raised awareness of the genocide, including Pope Francis, who has recognized the genocide as religiously motivated.

During Mass on Divine Mercy Sunday on April 12, 2015, Pope Francis referred to the mass killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks starting in 1915, as a genocide, a term used in a common declaration signed by both Saint John Paul II and Supreme Armenian Patriarch Karekin II in 2001. That day, Francis offered the Mass for faithful of the Armenian rite in commemoration of the centenary of the “Metz Yeghern,” or Armenian “martyrdom,” which is historically held to have started April 24, 1915.

“We are also very grateful, very grateful to the people from the smallest to the greatest, from Pope Francis, who did something historic celebrating Mass for the Armenian martyrs April 12…calling things as they are, creating another term, ‘ecumenism of blood.’ An ecumenism founded on blood, because the Armenians were exterminated also because they were Christians.”

“Certainly Pope Francis made one of the most fundamental steps in celebrating this Mass in St. Peter’s inviting the hierarchy of the Apostolic Armenian Church and of the Armenian Catholic Church, and proclaiming St. Gregory of Narek as a doctor of the Universal Church,” he added.

The Pope has kept strong ties with the Armenian community since his time as Archbishop of Buenos Aires. A large portion of Armenians immigrated to Argentina following the deportations and killings of World War I, and today the country has one of the largest populations of Armenians in the world.

The Pope’s visit this summer includes a stop at the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex, which was built in memorial of those who perished in the genocide, as well as time for ecumenical meetings with leaders of all faiths, and prayers for peace, according to the schedule released by the Vatican.

The Armenian people are “full of joy” that Pope Francis is coming, the ambassador said, and are looking forward to his visit, since he has been so supportive of the Armenian people.

“…the Armenian people are waiting with a great excitement to manifest their own remembrance. Pope Francis is going to Armenia to fulfill this visit in full respect and love for the Armenian people and for their history. And also the recognition of what the Armenian Republic represents now in that region,” he said.

“We await him, everyone is waiting for him. Certainly it will be a very significant moment, also because it’s a very busy trip. The fact that His Holiness goes to Armenia in the Year of Mercy is also another fact that we appreciate a lot.”

The Holy Father’s recognition and remembrance of the Armenian genocide is especially meaningful amid ongoing denials of the event or denial of responsibility for the event on the part of some Turkish politicians and other political leaders, Minasyan noted.

“We are not closing this year, turning a page. We are opening another book and this new book is titled ‘The fight against denialism,’ and it is yet to be seen.”

While most people no longer deny the Armenian genocide, “the politicians do,” Minasyan said. “In private they say yes, but in public, for political reasons, they deny it. Political denial is the most hideous denial that there is.”

It is also important for people to remember the Armenian genocide because of what it has meant for the Middle East, Minasyan said.

“Now we see that in the past 100 years the quantity, speaking in percentages, of Christians is drastically diminishing. In the past five years it has been something truly dramatic. I don’t want to put it into a box, but all of it started with the Armenian genocide.”

Armenians to hold march in support of Garo Paylan

May 11, 2016 By administrator

Armenian civic activists are planning to hold a march in Yerevan later today to extend their solidarity and support to Garo Paylan, the Turkish-Armenian lawmaker who has severely been beaten in parliament,
They activists have announced the event on Facebook.
They are planning to gather outside the central headquarters of Haypost to head to the UN Office.
In a speech at the Turkish Grand National Assembly in April (days before the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day), Paylan resurrected the Armenian intellectuals and public figures, killed, arrested and exiled in the Genocide, calling for efforts to create a special commission investigating the circumstances behind their deaths and disappearance.