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Istanbul: ‘Recognize, Apologize, Compensate,” Say Turks During Istanbul Commemoration

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During a commemoration event in Istanbul Monday, participants called on Turkey to recognize the Genocide and apologize and make compensations for the crime.

ISTANBUL—During an event on Monday to commemorate the 102nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide at the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum located in Sultanahmet district organized by Human Rights Association Commission against Racism and Discrimination, participants called on Turkey to recognize the Genocide and apologize and make compensations for the crime.

Organized by “April 24 Commemoration Platform,” the commemoration event was held with a poster reading “Armenian Genocide, recognize, apologize, compensate,” while participants carried carnations and photographs of the victims of the Armenian Genocide, reported the Istanbul-based Agos newspaper.

A group chanting “We are the soliders of Mustafa Kemal” and “We are the soldiers of Erdoğan,” attempted to interrupt the event but was prevented from provoking participats.

“We are trying to fight against the inherent hatred and vengeance of the state. We are talking about an annihilation that is going on for 102 years,” said Benjamin Abtan, Head of European Grassroots Antiracist Movement, during whose remarks the group attempted the interruption.

Abtan said that commemorating the victims of genocide is to defend democracy. “Fighting against denial of genocide and genocide itself are not peculiar to Turkey. That is why we, non-Armenians, are a part of this struggle.”

Following Abtan’s speech, Meral Cıldır, member of Human Rights Association Commission against Racism and Discrimination, read a written statement on behalf of April 24 Commemoration Platform, which also mentioned the Ottoman Turkish massacres of Syriacs and Pontus Greeks.

Below is the text of the statement:

“Today is April 24. The symbolic beginning of Armenian Genocide. We have to remind that Syriac people had been subjected to genocide in Asia Minor between 1914 and 1923, and Pontus Greeks were subjected to genocide both by Ottoman state and Kemalist movement.

Rule of darkness trivializes even the most horrific evils. It makes criminal actions and situations ordinary. People get used to the injustices to which they have to resist and they experience them as a part of daily life.

Talat Pasha planned Armenian Genocide with a cold-blooded precision; he executed the plan, followed its course and meticulously recorded its results. Today, Talat Pasha and Enver Pasha are buried in mausoleum. They are honored with the place that is given to them in Monument of Liberty.

We invite all people who object against genocide denial to protest the naming of schools after Talat Pasha and his grave in the Monument of Liberty. Anatolia is a land of genocide. Turkey is a land of genocide denial. Today, the mentality of genocide and denial still prevails.”

A second event, a silent vigil commemorating the victims of the Armenian Genocide, took place in Taksim Square and was attended by the Armenian member of the Turkish Parliament Garo Paylan and the parents of Sevag Balıkcı’s an Armenian soldier who was killed on April 24, 2011 in his barracks.

The event, which was organized by the Commemoration of Armenian Genocide Victims Committee, issued a statement, which was read by one of the group’s members Murat Celikkan.

Below is the statement, which did not use the word genocide but called on Turkish authorities to apologize for the crime and referenced Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan “condolence” message to “Ottoman Armenians.”

“We expect an apology, instead of condolence messages talking about the suffering of both sides. It’s been 102 years; don’t wait for 103rd year. Apologize!”

“While a people was annihilated with its entire culture, culture of coexistence was damaged fatally. Anatolia became barren without its cultures and peoples, making all of us, all people who lived in Anatolia for generations alone. This barrenness that influenced, surrounded and sickened all generations can only be ended with confrontation.”

Saying that “In fact, barrenness and loneliness is not the only problem,” Celikkan added: “Confronting the events of 1915 would contribute to adoption of the essence of democracy as the norm.”

The pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), of which Paylan is a member, also issued an announcement on the occasion of the 102nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

Having Admitted Complicity in Genocide, Germany Should Now Compensate Armenians

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harut-sassounianBY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

Despite ‘Sultan’ Erdogan’s insults and threats, the German Parliament went boldly forward last week and recognized the Armenian Genocide. In retaliation, Turkey immediately withdrew its ambassador from Berlin.

The historic Bundestag resolution, adopted with a near unanimous decision (1 vote against and 1 abstention), is titled: “In remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire 101 years ago.” According to ARD television, 74% of the German population agrees that genocide was committed against Armenians. Another revealing survey cited by “Der Spiegel” magazine found that 91% of the German public does not trust Erdogan!

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, fed up with Erdogan’s repeated blackmails, decided to put Turkey’s megalomaniac dictator in his place, while Pres. Obama has to muster the courage to do so! The German leadership had to fend off not only the Turkish regime’s attacks but also sharp criticism from many of the three million Turks living in Germany.

After the Parliament’s decision, Erdogan arrogantly declared: “We have nothing in our past to be ashamed of, but those countries that often accuse Turkey of ‘Armenian genocide’ have the blood of millions of innocent victims.” Turkey’s minister of justice Bekir Bozdag was just as brazen, as he told Germans: “First you burn the Jews in ovens, and then you come and accuse the Turkish people of genocide.” Erdogan and Bozdag must be reminded that Germany, unlike Turkey, long ago admitted the Nazi-era crimes, apologized for the Holocaust, and paid billions of dollars in compensation.

It remains to be seen if ‘big mouth’ Turkish leaders would dare to take punitive actions against Germany, besides the routine withdrawal of their ambassador, as they do each time another government acknowledges the Armenian Genocide. Should Erdogan decide to go beyond making empty threats, such steps would backfire on Turkey as Germany is its largest trading partner. Turkey’s economy is already in serious trouble after Russia banned the import of Turkish goods and discouraged its citizens from going to Turkey as tourists because of the downing of a Russian jet by the Turkish military near the Syrian border last year.

Turkish leaders have already damaged their country’s interests by making provocative and scandalous announcements which have helped to publicize worldwide the German Bundestag’s action on the Armenian Genocide. Thousands of newspapers, websites, TV and radio stations covered the German decision and the Turkish outbursts. It is noteworthy that the international media paid particular attention to the German Parliamentarians’ admission that their country, a military ally of Turkey during World War I, was complicit in the Armenian Genocide.

The New York Times and The Times of London, two of the most prestigious newspapers in the world, published powerful editorials on June 3 reaffirming the facts of the Armenian Genocide, supporting the German’s Parliament’s decision, and urging Turkey to confront its dark past.

In an editorial titled, “Yes, It’s Genocide,” The New York Times wrote: “… It was a genocide, the first of the 20th century…. The Armenians are fully justified in their quest for a historical reckoning…. President Obama, who as a candidate in 2008 pledged to recognize the events of 1915 as a genocide, has failed to do so…. The Germans, who have admirably confronted the terrible genocide in their own history, did the right thing in defying Mr. Erdogan’s threats.”

The London Times’ editorial, “Genocide Denial: The mass slaughter of Armenians needs to be acknowledged by Turkey,” was just as impactful: “The German resolution is right not only in its message but also in diplomacy. Turkish pique is regularly directed at allies who recognize the Armenian genocide. That response is worse than undignified and ahistorical: it is a denial of suffering on an unspeakable scale that poisons the politics of Europe to this day, and it needs to be challenged. The slaughter of Armenians was not, as Turkish apologists maintain, one of the unplanned but inescapable tragedies that happen in wartime. It was a specific campaign of deportation and mass killing by the Ottoman regime.… Modern Germany and its statesmen have expressed repeatedly their nation’s remorse for genocidal barbarism in the last century. It is long past time for Turkey to do the same.”

Having recognized the Armenian Genocide and acknowledged its own share of responsibility and complicity, Germany now has to make appropriate amends to Armenians, thus setting a venerable example for Turkey, not only in recognition, but also in restitution!