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Glendale: Atrocity on exhibit in ‘Armenia: An Open Wound’ #ArmenianGenocide

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tn-gnp-photo-gallery-armenia-an-open-wound-gallery-at-brand-library-20160418By  Bradley Zint Contact Reporter,

Glendale city officials and community leaders recently unveiled an exhibition at the Brand Library and Art Center that explores the history of the Armenian people as well as the context and aftermath of the Armenian Genocide.

“Armenia: An Open Wound,” which opened Saturday to a crowd of about 500 attendees, runs Tuesdays through Saturdays until June 11. Admission is free.

The exhibition — presented by the city’s Library, Arts and Culture Department in partnership with the Armenian American Museum — takes between 30 to 45 minutes to walk through. It comes to Glendale after a one-year run in Mexico City’s Museum of Memory and Tolerance, where it was created.

Erdogan Atrocity NEWS Around Turkey

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Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan addresses members of parliament from his ruling AK Party during a meeting at the Turkish parliament in AnkaraTurkish president vows ‘treasonous’ academics will pay the price

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has stepped up his harsh rhetoric against academics who called for an end to military operations in Turkey’s southeast, warning that they would pay the price for “falling into a pit of treachery.”

Speaking at his regular meeting with neighborhood and village heads (muhtars) at his presidential palace on Jan. 20, Erdoğan said the signatories had given their “consent” to the killing of public servants by the PKK.

“I’m saying frankly: This mindset which gives a self-styled fatwa to the terror organization’s attacks on public servants, which simply says ‘it would be better if it didn’t do so’ in response to the killing of civilians, disgusts me,” Erdoğan said.

Woman sentenced to 11 months in jail for ‘insulting Erdoğan’

İZMİR – Doğan News Agency

A Turkish woman was sentenced to 11 months in prison on Jan. 20 for “insulting” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan by shouting and directing a hand gesture toward him in the Aegean province of İzmir in 2014.

An Izmir court sentenced economist Filiz Akıncı to 11 months and 20 days in jail for the offence, made while Erdoğan was departing from a rally in Gündoğdu Square on March 16, 2014, when he was still prime minister and leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Erdogan,

Erdogan vows No more talks with PKK,  

Ankara will no longer engage in contact with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and will instead “liquidate” all PKK militants through ongoing security operations, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has vowed.

“We know that the only goal of the separatist terror organization is to fulfil the duty it has been tasked with by its master and completing the contract it has been given,” Erdoğan said on Jan. 20.

“So in the coming period, neither the separatist terror organization, nor the party under its control, nor other structures will ever be accepted as counterpart. That affair is over,” he added, addressing a large group of neighborhood and village heads (muhtars) at a regular meeting at his presidential palace in Ankara.

3 prominent journalists targeted in Erdoğan insult cases

Three prominent journalists — Oktay Ekşi, Ahmet Altan and Koray Çalışkan – are facing long prison sentences for insulting then-Prime Prime Minister and current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Former Hürriyet daily columnist Ekşi testified to the court on Tuesday in a trial launched against him for allegedly insulting then-Prime Minister Erdoğan and state ministers in a column published in 2010.

Ekşi testified to the Bakırköy 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance in İstanbul, saying he never intended to insult with his words, “This mindset can even sell their mothers,” in his column about hydroelectric power plants. Ekşi said he used those words in order to increase the impact of his column, but not to insult anyone.

200,000 Kurds Fleeing Turkey Amid Increased Violence – German Media

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10148722521Europe may soon face a new wave of migrants. About 200,000 Kurds are fleeing from the southeastern parts of Turkey amid armed clashes in the region, German newspaper Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten (DWN) reported.

The situation in the region deteriorated after serious clashes between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Turkish security forces. In the middle of October, about 100 people died as result of a bomb attack in Ankara on the Kurdish peace demonstration.

According to the newspaper, the local population describes war-like conditions and significant number of victims. One of the local residents told the newspaper Today’s Zaman that they have no running water and that electricity transformers have exploded.

“I have seven children, they can no longer attend school. We have to drink the water, which we normally use in the toilet,” the woman said.

Another local resident said in an interview with Today’s Zaman that his 11-year-old daughter was hit by a bullet when she went to buy bread. People no longer dare to go to the streets and that is why her body lied on the ground for about 15 minutes before anyone could go and help her, but it was too late.

“Now I have only two children left. We are in a poor situation,” the man said, adding that he managed to take his family away from the conflict zone, but lacks money and can’t make ends meet.

The operation Ankara is carrying out in southeastern Turkey is war against its own people, a German journalist wrote earlier in an article for Neues Deutschland.

The main goal of the operation, according to Ankara, is to eliminate Kurds who seized towns, constructed barricades and dug trenches.

The so called anti-terrorist operation started last week and has involved nearly 10,000 military and police forces. As result of the offensive, over 100 PKK militants have been destroyed.

 

When Turkish Gov, can’t find Armenian or Kurd to commit atrocity it turn on it own people

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DHA Photo

DHA Photo

More than 1,500 people injured by Turkish security forces in 2014, says report,

Some 1,539 people, including 112 children, were injured by Turkey’s security forces at protests in 2014, while 11,262 people were detained, including 241 refugees, a recent report has revealed.

The Human Rights Association’s (IHD) report, titled the 2014 Human Rights Breaches Report, revealed that a total of 3,401 people were victims of torture, ill treatment, humiliation, or unjust punishment in Turkey in 2014, while 1,021 of those people were subjected to torture or ill treatment while in custody.
Documentation from the İHD also once again displayed the perilous extent of violence against women in Turkey.

“In 2014, 296 women were killed, 39 women committed suicide, 191 women were victims of sexual assault or rape, 585 women were taken to hospital after being beaten or injured and six women were victims of honor killings, while 13 women died in suspicious circumstances,” Songül Erol Abdil of the İHD said on March 5.  report Hurriyet

Some 44 children were killed, while 219 children were injured in violent incidents.

Honor killings, which remain a serious problem in Turkish society, also took place last year. While six women were reportedly killed in honor killings, two men were killed in “honor attacks.” Six people were killed in hate crimes, while 17 were injured in hate crimes.

The report was prepared by gathering personal applications to İHD branches, reports from İHD branches’ human rights watch and research commissions, news that appeared on local and national media outlets, and reports from other NGOs and state institutions.

Some 64 out of the 1,021 people who were subjected to torture or ill treatment while in custody were children, while 23 out of a total 213 people who were tortured or ill-treated in places outside of custody were children.

The report also showed that 235 convicts were tortured or victims of maltreatment in jails, 54 of whom were underage children.

Special security officers also applied torture and maltreated 19 people.

The number of refugees and immigrants detained in 2014 was 241, of whom 22 were children.

Aleppo Photographer Brings Syrian Reality to the United Nations

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dscn6768Hagop Vanesian’s exhibition, “My Homeland,” ran at the United Nations Headquarters from January 8-16.

by Eva Bartlett,

Twenty-six distinct photos, in black and white. Scenes of a ravaged city and the human beings within struggling to exist, let alone to find hope for the future. Gravestones of rubble. Homes looted, trashed. Civilians defending their country. Children aged beyond their years by the horrors they’ve lived.

Hagop Vanesian, a 44 year old Syrian-Armenian photographer from Syria’s second-largest city, Aleppo (Halab), was meticulous in his choice of photographs for the exhibition, “My Homeland,” which opened at the United Nations Headquarters on January 8 and runs until January 16.

“I chose the photographs showing the destruction, and children. I have many photographs of children, maybe 25-30 percent are of children, these little angels suffering. They are innocent, they don’t understand about politics, they suffer a lot.”

Vanesian, a silversmith by trade, started taking photos twelve years ago, and very early on started documenting his city, building by building.

“Before the war, I was doing documentary photography all over Aleppo. Everyday, I took my camera and photographed people, how they were living,” Vanesian said. “When the war started, I decided to document it. It was very hard at first. For the first couple of days, I couldn’t take a single photograph. This was my birth place, where I grew up. I have memories there, but even my memories were destroyed, especially in Old Aleppo.”

Iman Tahan, from Aleppo, spoke of her feelings after seeing the photos. “These photos, I wish they weren’t real, I wish nothing like this had happened to my country. I remember every street in these photos. I feel so sad, a lot of memories there.”

One of the memories she spoke of was the murder of her father, in his home, by terrorists.

“We have a well in our house, and since there’s no water—because the ‘rebels’ broke the pipes—my father was giving water to neighbours. He was in his house when a sniper entered the garden and shot him, killed him. Those ‘rebels’ don’t represent the Syrian people. Syrian soldiers aren’t fighting against normal people, they’re fighting against people equipped with the most advanced weapons and trained just to come to Syria. They destroy our homes, churches, mosques. But what makes me happy, our people, because they love Syria so much, decided not to leave. Even my dad, he knew he lived in a very dangerous area, but he decided not to leave, and he paid for it with his life.”

Narrating to those around him, Vanesian explained the significance of and story behind each photo. Of one photo, a smiling woman holding a photo of a young man, he said: “When she saw me photographing, she started to cry. She said, ‘please, don’t photograph this, let us remember Aleppo as it was.’ Then she asked me to photograph she and her son. From her purse she took a photograph of her son, with a big, proud smile. Her son was martyred. Brave woman, Syrian woman.”

For Vanesian, the stories behind the photos need to be told. “Some photographers have come and taken photos, stayed one week, two weeks… They photographed the camps, photographed the war from the other side. Maybe they got more powerful photographs than me. But what I got, I got the stories of the people. Because I lived there, I suffered like them. As they were living, I was living. Without water, without electricity.”

Until about eight months ago, Vanesian was living the life of an average Syrian in Aleppo, except that he was also documenting it.

“One day, I was walking in the Old City, drinking sahlab (made of milk, with cinnamon),” he said. “After I finished, I threw my cup on the ground… there was no trash can. I saw a child, maybe four years old, pick up the cup and start licking the remainders of the sahlab. I couldn’t bring myself to photograph him. When I saw this child licking my cup, I thought, ‘where is the humanity?’ I can’t forget him.”

Pointing at his photographs, he noted two “residential graveyard” photos: one, a group of children and women sitting amongst the gravestones, and the second, a young girl standing near a tombstone.

“Residential areas in Aleppo, and children’s playgrounds, have turned into graveyards. The tombstones of these graves are made from stones from collapsed buildings. I asked the girl in the second photo, ‘What are you doing?’ It was a snowy day. She said she wanted to know where they were going to put the body of her aunt, she wanted to see the place.”

Regarding the photo of a sombre-faced boy, dressed in a suit jacket for ‘Eid holiday, he commented: “That boy, his father is kidnapped, his mother killed. He’s living with his aunt, near the front line of the fighting. Did you see his eyes? I didn’t find any children smiling. They’ve lost their smiles.”

Other photographs show the expected bullet-ridden walls and bullet-shredded metal doors, including one photo with two children, likewise sombre-faced, standing next to a warped metal door.

“If you look closely at the children’s eyes, you see the anger. They’re not smiling, they’re like adults. They grew up, they saw what adults see. They’re around 10 and 13 years old. Before, children in Syria were smiling, but these last few years, you don’t see that. They will need psychological treatment in the future. The psychological damage is worse than the physical damage.”

One particularly poignant photograph—a man with one leg missing, on crutches, gun slung over shoulder—shows the determination of the man, reflects the determination of Syria, to fight back and survive.

“He’s defending his neighbourhood in Aleppo, but actually he was displaced from Nubool, the village where he lost his leg during fighting. He is still fighting, even with one leg. He will fight to the end,” said Vanesian.

Two photos of homes looted and destroyed, one Christian, one Muslim, speak of Syria’s multi-religious fabric, that most Syrians I’ve spoken with maintain was never sectarian.

“I intentionally put these photos side-by-side. It’s not only Muslim houses that are looted, Christian homes are too. They don’t differentiate, doesn’t matter whose house, they’re going to loot it.”

Unsurprisingly, the anti-Syrian group, the so-called “National Syrian Coalition” issued a letter accusing the exhibition as being propaganda, and calling for the display to be shut down.

Syrians attending the exhibition felt otherwise.

Rana Nasrallah, a Syrian from the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, now living in New Jersey, was among Syrian expats attending the exhibition.

“Each picture talks, speaks of the different problems in Syria. These photos show the truth exactly as it is in Syria. I was in Syria a month and a half ago, I saw with my eyes. I had a good life there. I feel broken for what has happened to my country.”

Fadi, from Midan, what he describes as a mixed Armenian-Muslim area of Aleppo near the front line of the fighting, agreed that the exhibition was representative of the reality.

“One hundred percent, the photos tell the truth. I’m Muslim. We never had any sectarian problems. We lived together, doesn’t matter what you believe, who you pray to. Now…”

Al-Akhbar and al-Mayadeen correspondent Nizar Abboud attended, reporting on the exhibition but also pointing out the need for such an exhibition. “The world is hearing one point of view on Syria, and this is not by coincidence. I think this is premeditated. Also, there is self-censorship in the media, including my colleagues who work at the United Nations. They like to play the tunes those who pay them would like to hear. “

Earlier, in a private interview, the Syrian Ambassador to the UN, Dr. Bashar al-Ja’afari—who organized and attended the exhibition—told me: “For four years I have been trying very hard to do something inside the UN. Every time we attempted to do something, we were confronted by a huge amount of bureaucracy and excuses.” He, too, said the intent of the exhibition was not political. “It’s about Syria and the Syrian people. It’s about what happened in Aleppo, through undeniable photos. Any honest, objective Syrian who loves his homeland should have a great interest in showing what is going on in Syria. All Syrians should push for organizing more exhibitions, not only at the United Nations but all over the world.”

One of the accusations thrown at Vanesian is that he had photographed only from areas where the Syrian army was present.

“I photograph the front lines, so I need protection, like most photojournalists in areas of war. Transportation is no longer safe in Syria. Some of my friends and relatives have been kidnapped and we haven’t heard about them for over a year.”

That said, Vanesian took risks with many of his photos, including one shot from the side of the terrorists, unbeknownst to their snipers.

“Most front line lanes are covered with fabric, to block the view of snipers and prevent them from shooting the other side. When I took this photo, my back was to the snipers, but I was hiding behind a stone. The other side of the fabric is the safe area, but I came to this side to take the photo. If I had moved my head, I would have gotten shot. If you put your finger up, they’ll shoot right away.”

While the photographs and the issue of Syria under war from the NATO-Gulf-Turkish-Zionist alliance are inherently political, Vanesian maintains that his objective is solely humanitarian.

“I’m not doing this for political reasons, I just take the photos to let people see what is happening. With my photographs, I just want one thing: for people to remember there are people suffering in Syria. Just let them think, for a moment, about the suffering. I can’t bring back Aleppo as it was. I lost it, as I lost friends, relatives… I can’t bring my city back. The market in Aleppo was the longest enclosed market (in the world). It is burned completely. The destruction of Aleppo is a shame for humanity. The heritage has been destroyed; it belongs to all the world.

All those people in my photos, I didn’t just click the shutter, didn’t just take their photographs, I got their stories. I didn’t make money from their photos. I wanted to show these photos for humanitarian reasons, nothing else.”

Hagop Vanesian’s website is: http://www.hagopvanesian.com

Eva Bartlett is a Canadian freelance journalist and activist who has lived in and written from the Gaza Strip, Syria, and Lebanon. Her blog is https://ingaza.wordpress.com/