Photo: Photolure

Czech President Milos Zeman wants his country to follow the example of Germany in officially labeling the Ottoman-era massacres of Armenians as genocide. He said this before paying an official visit to Armenia, Czech media report.

According to the parlamentnilisty.cz website, Zeman, who arrived in Armenia late on Tuesday, stated: “After visiting Armenia I want to make an appeal to the government and parliament of the Czech Republic to follow the example of not only the German Bundestag and the French parliament, where corresponding laws were adopted, but also Russia, Poland, Slovakia, Italy and other countries, because I consider that in this issue we are somewhat behind.”

During his June 7-9 visit to Armenia Czech President Zeman is expected to meet with the top Armenian leadership, including President Serzh Sargsyan, Parliament Speaker Galust Sahakyan and Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan.

Presidents Zeman and Sargsyan are expected to sign documents after high-level Armenian-Czech negotiations as well as make a joint statement on the results of the negotiations in front of media.

In Yerevan, the two countries’ presidents will also attend the opening of an Armenian-Czech business forum.

By:Hambersom Aghbashian

Ayşe Gül Altınay received her Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Duke University and has been teaching at Sabancı University since 2001. ( B.A. in Sociology and Political Science, Boğaziçi University -1994, and Women’s Studies Certificate, Duke University -1997). Her Ph.D. research and writing have focused on militarism, nationalism, violence, memory, gender, and sexuality (1). A well known Turkish intellectual and the director of Hrant Dink Foundation which was established in 2007 in order to keep alive the dreams, struggle, words and cause of assassinated Turkish-Armenian journalist and editor-in-chief of Agos newspaper, Hrant Dink, who was a prominent member of the Armenian minority in Turkey.

Ayşe Gül Altınay has many published articles and researches. Her article “Gendered silences, gendered memories: new memory work on Islamized Armenians in Turkey”, (L’homme: European Journal of Feminist History, Vol.24, No.2) is a study concerning the Islamized Armenians in Turkey during the Armenian Genocide at the beginning of the 20th century. She was one of the main organizers and the speakers in The Conference on Islamized Armenians which was organized by Hrant Dink Foundation with the cooperation of Boğaziçi University History Depa

Screen Shot 2014-02-07 at 2.42.32 PM

rtment and Malatya HAYDer and with the support of Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Chrest Foundation and Olaf Palme International Center took place at Boğaziçi University’s during 2-4 November 2013. In her speech she focused on Islamized Armenians in Turkey and stated that “These stories, which started out as whispers, are now turning into flowing waters, into increasing numbers of memoirs, litera

Ayşe Gül Altınay is the author of many books and the co-author of many others, the lists are too long. Some of her books are translated into English, French and other languages. (Torunlar-Altınay, Ayşe Gül and Çetin, Fethiye , Istanbul – October 2009), is Translated into English by Freely Maureen, New Jersey, and titled (The grandchildren: the hidden legacy of lost Armenians in Turkey), also into Armenian by Gasparyan Lilit and HratarakchatunTigran , Yerevan, May 2011, and titled (Torner-Grandchildren).ture, research and documentaries”, and in her “The Historical and Historiographical Silence on Islamized Armenians and New Memory Work along the Axis of Ethnicity, Nation, and Gender” she emphasized the necessity for a new academic language, and she maintained that Turkey has remained deaf and blind to this important topic for the past century (2).

Through her articles, researches, books and other activities concerning the Islamized Armenians in Turkey during the deportation, massacres and finally the GENOCIDE era, Ayşe Gül Altınay is supporting the Armenian cause by describing the existence and emergence of the hidden Armenians in Turkey, carried from one generation to the next, all originating from the 1915 Armenian orphans ,those who are defined in Turkey today as the ( ‘remnants of the sword’ -kilic artigi) (3).
—————————————————————————————————————–

1- http://socialdifference.columbia.edu/people/ay%C5%9Fe-g%C3%BCl-alt%C4%B1nay

2-http://www.hrantdink.org/?Detail=753&Lang=&Home&Lang=en

3- http://www.reporter.am/index.cfm?furl=/go/article/2013-05-24-time-to-consider-the-hidden-armenians-of-turkey&pg=3

this Article also featured in Nor Or, No.(6)Feb 7, 2014

Zeman: Czech Rep. should follow German example in Armenian Genocide recognition

Ayşe Gül Altınay a Turk Intellectuals Who Recognized The Armenian Genocide.