Polish-Jewish journalist: By forgetting about genocides, we open doors to them

March 13, 2016 By administrator

default The forgotten crimes of the past can revive in the present, Polish journalist of Jewish descent, Konstanty Gebert , also known as David Warszawski, told Armenian News – NEWS.am correspondent.

Mr Warszawski regularly publishes articles about the position of modern Turkey (including the Armenian Cause) in leading Polish newspapers (including Gazeta Wyborcza).

Warszawski visited Turkey as early as in his childhood. He has kind acquaintances among Turks and Turkish Armenians, and overall he has very warm memories about Turkey.

According to him, the Armenians’ slaughter in the Ottoman Empire over a century ago was one of the first genocides of the 20th century. The Turkish government still doesn’t want to acknowledge it, deeply insulting the memory of the victims and harming the interests of the Turkish nation itself. The protection of the historical lie is considered as protection of the honor of nation and state, but actually everything is the other way round: the conscience of modern Turks doesn’t ache from the Turks’ crime in 1915. But defending these crimes, they lose respect from outside and encourage national hysteria, which impedes solving the other problems of the Turkish society, starting from the Kurdish issue, the journalist said.

“But the memory on the Armenian Genocide is not only a Turkish-Armenian problem. This is the issue of the entire humanity, since knowing how the society got to the genocide and what its repercussions were will help prevent new crimes. The absence of the public attention to the Armenian Genocide untied the hands of Nazi Germany in deciding on the Genocide of the Jews, during which the significant part of my family died. That’s why I feel pain and anger about the fact that Israel, which grew in flames of Shoah, still refuses to acknowledge the slaughter of Armenians as Genocide.

I understand certain motives of the Turkish authorities: it’s clear that they don’t want the Ottoman Empire to be compared with the Third Reich. I also understand certain motives of the Israeli authorities: they still count on good relations with a strong Middle East neighbor. I also understand what the international community thinks: how long can they deal with the history of the killed, regardless of whether they are herero, Armenians, Jews, Roma, Tutsi or others, annihilated or persecuted nations. People of good will think that we can no longer deal with the past.

But if we stop, the foreign past can become our present. The memory about the victims stems from not only fundamental moral duty – although this is enough – but also own well-realized interest. By forgetting a crime, we open doors to it,” David Warszawski said.

US State of Georgia senate recognizes Armenian Genocide

March 10, 2016 By administrator

state of Georgia WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Georgia State Senate adopted SR 991, a resolution “Recognizing the month of April, 2016, as Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month” in this US state, reported the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly).

The resolution states that “when coining the term ‘genocide,’ Raphael Lemkin was moved to investigate the forced assimilation, deportation, and near eradication of the Armenian population and other Christian communities, beginning in April, 1915, prompting Adolf Hitler to remark in 1939, ‘Who after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?’”

“The resolution had bipartisan support and we will continue our efforts to broaden genocide recognition and human rights education in our school curriculum,” stated Dr. Vahan Kassabian, Armenian Assembly Georgia State Chair, who was present at the capitol to witness the bill’s passage.

The resolution goes on to reference the Holocaust of European Jews during World War II, as well as the genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia, Iraq, Rwanda, Sudan, and the current brutality of the Islamic State (aka ISIS/ISIL/Daesh) in Syria and Iraq as outstanding examples.

SR 991 was sponsored by State Senators Elena Parent (D-GA), David Shafer (R-GA-), Renee Unterman (R-GA), Joshua McKoon (R-GA), Nan Orrock (D-GA), and Harold Jones II (D-GA).

“The Assembly appreciates the work of the Georgia State Senate, particularly Senators Parent, Shafer, Unterman, McKoon, Orrock, and Jones, as well as our state chair Dr. Vahan Kassabian,” stated Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny. “These anti-genocide activists in Georgia and across the U.S. are playing a major role in advancing human rights education and we look forward to the day when all 50 states incorporate the teaching of the Holocaust and Armenian Genocide in our schools.”

To note, 43 of 50 US states have formally recognized the Armenian Genocide.

California: Armenian Genocide Commemoration to be held at Montebello Genocide Monument on April 23

March 9, 2016 By administrator

MONTEBELLO — In this 101st year of the Armenian Genocide, plans are in place for the Armenian community of Southern California to gather on April 23, 2016, at 1 p.m., at the Montebello Armenian Genocide Martyrs Monument to remember and demand justice for the 1,500,000 martyrs of the Armenian Genocide. Traditionally, the memorial event in Montebello has taken place on April 24th, the day Armenians world-wide formally commemorate the horrific tragedy. This year, the event will take place on April 23rd, because the community-wide “Rally for Justice” event in front of the Turkish Consulate will be held on April 24^th.

The ceremony at the Montebello Armenian Genocide Martyrs Monument will feature a full program which includes political messages and a religious service officiated by all religious denominations of the Armenian community and cultural presentations to honor the memory of those lost.

The United Armenian Council of Los Angeles (UACLA) which is comprised of close to 50 Armenian religious, political, compatriotic, and other active community associations is the organizer of the commemorative event. The UACLA is also organizing other events dedicated to the 101^st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. More details about these events will be presented to the general public through subsequent press releases of the UACLA and at the UACLA website www.uacla.com. The UACLA is also active throughout the year by organizing educational events about the Armenian Genocide.

The Montebello Armenian Genocide Martyrs Monument is located at Bicknell Park, 910 Via San Clemente, Montebello, CA, 90640.

The UACLA invites all community members to attend the commemorative event at the Montebello Armenian Genocide Martyrs Monument on April 23rd. The United Council also calls upon everyone to take part in great numbers in all 101st anniversary commemorative events.

Tufts University to host Armenian Genocide commemoration

March 5, 2016 By administrator

Tufts University, the Darakjian-Jafarian Chair in Armenian History, the Department of History, the Armenian Club at Tufts University, and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) will sponsor the Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide at Tufts on Wednesday, April 6, 2016, Massis Post reports.

The Tufts event will feature a lecture by Marc A. Mamigonian, Director of Academic Affairs at NAASR, entitled “Scholarship and the Armenian Genocide: The State of the Art and the State of Denial.” The evening will be hosted by Ina Baghdiantz McCabe, Professor of History and Darakjian-Jafarian Chair of Armenian History at Tufts University. The commemoration and lecture will take place in Goddard Chapel on Tufts’ Medford, MA, campus. A reception will follow in the Coolidge Room in nearby Ballou Hall.

The past two decades have witnessed a dramatic increase in the quantity and quality of scholarship on the Armenian Genocide, with a significant number of important works of documentation and interpretation. The development of ever-increasingly compelling scholarly works has been paralleled by the evolution of traditional strategies of denial practiced since World War I and advanced during the Cold War era. While scholars have moved beyond simplistic questions of whether or not what occurred was a genocide, like tobacco industry lobbyists of the 1950s or today’s so-called global warming skeptics, apologists for the “Turkish position” labor to construct denialism as a legitimate intellectual position within a historical debate through the publication of ostensibly scholarly publications and presentations. Such manufactured controversy is a time-tested and often effective method of means of generating academic credibility.

This lecture will offer an overview of the current state of the art in Armenian Genocide scholarship as well briefly survey the development of Armenian Genocide denial and focus on more recent refinements and the penetration of denial into American academia, with an emphasis on the fundamental challenges of denialism, debate, and the quest for intellectual integrity.

Marc A. Mamigonian has served as NAASR’s Director of Academic Affairs since 2009, having from 1998 to 2008 acted as the organization’s Director of Programs and Publications. An alumnus of the University of New Hampshire (BA, 1990) and Tufts University (MA, 1992), Mamigonian is the editor of the book The Armenians of New England and the Journal of Armenian Studies, and is the co-author of annotated editions of James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses published by Alma Classics in the United Kingdom. His most recent publication, “Academic Denial of the Armenian Genocide in American Scholarship: Denialism as Manufactured Controversy,” appeared in the journal Genocide Studies International in 2015.

Related links:

Massis Post.

ITALY The Armenian Genocide told by an exhibition

March 4, 2016 By administrator

arton122720-480x305 Saturday, March 5 at 16:30 will be inaugurated at the Regional Library Bruno Salvadori, the exhibition dedicated to the Armenian Genocide on the occasion of its centenary. The event is organized by the Institute of History of Resistance and Contemporary Society in the Aosta Valley, in collaboration with the Association Italiarmenia, Deutsches Literaturarchiv di Marbach, Unione degli Armeni d’Italia, with the sponsorship of President of the autonomous region of Valle d’Aosta.

The exhibition is open to the public from 2 to 17 March.

Tuesday, March 8 and Tuesday, March 15 will be organized guided tours for schools.

Friday, March 4, 2016,
Stéphane © armenews.com

History The first country to recognize the Armenian Genocide was Turkey – 1918

March 4, 2016 By administrator

By Harut Sassounian The California Courier editor

The Armenian Genocide is discussed in the Turkish parliament rarely, and fewer still there are calls for its recognition.

On 14 January 2016, two of the three Armenian members recently elected to the Turkish Parliament have simply dared to raise the issue of the Armenian Genocide in their speeches in the Assembly.

Selina Dogan, representing the opposition party Kemalist CHP (Republican People’s Party), had made the following statement in Parliament: “Since this issue concerns not only Armenians but also Turkey, and therefore it should involve the Turkish parliament and not the other parliaments. Otherwise, every April 24 will continue to make statements always the same and we will promptly quickly cast it on our minds; I am convinced that none of us has any interest in doing so. I must remind you that during a public event in 2015 in Erzurum, the Prime Minister made it clear that deportation is a crime against humanity. “

Garo Paylan, representing the Kurdish opposition party HDP, then mounted the rostrum and also spoke of the Armenian Genocide. “One hundred years the Armenian people have been uprooted and destroyed by order of the state. My family – my grandfather and his family – has suffered also during these events. My grandfather lost both parents and became thereby orphan. I am a descendant of a generation of orphans and survivors of the sword, that live on these lands. My race was massacred. “

While Paylan spoke, several members of parliament shouted to express their disapproval. Baki Shimshek, member of the ultra-nationalist opposition party MHP, shouted in a threatening tone: “We are here in the Turkish National Assembly. Nobody can say that genocide was committed. Such behavior is unacceptable! “.

Despite the unusual nature of this debate is not the first time that statements on the Armenian Genocide were made in the Turkish parliament.

3 Armenian MPs: Selina Dogan, Markar Yesayan, Garo Paylan

In November 2014, Sebahat Tuncel HDP party proposed a resolution condemning the Armenian Genocide. Tuncel Erdogan asked insistently come before parliament to recognize the genocide and other massacres and ask forgiveness. The text of the resolution also asked Erdogan publicly reiterated his apology on one of the sites of the massacres, and he declares April 24 day official mourning. In addition, parliament should undertake to establish a Truth Commission that would make public all the public archives documents relating to the massacres. Finally, the proposed resolution addressed the issue of moral and material compensation for the descendants of victims. As expected, the resolution Tuncel was quickly removed to never see the day.

As I reported it a year ago, the proposed Tuncel was not the first resolution submitted to the Turkish parliament for recognition of the Armenian Genocide. On 4 November 1918, the new Ottoman Turkish parliament discussed at length the crimes committed by the Turkish government Young, after the presentation of a motion stating: “A population of a million people guilty of nothing except their belonging to the Armenian nation were massacred and exterminated, including women and children. “ In response, Interior Minister Fethi Okyar said: “The government’s intention is to repair all the injustices until now, within our means, to make possible the return home of those who were exiled, and to compensate them for their material losses as much as it can. “

As a result of this motion, a parliamentary commission of inquiry was created to gather all documents relating to the actions of those responsible for what was called “deportations and massacres of Armenians”. The proofs were delivered to the Turkish Military Tribunal and those who were found guilty were hanged or sentenced to long prison terms.

In addition to this parliamentary motion, we must remember the words of Kemal Ataturk, the first president of the Republic of Turkey, quoted in the Los Angeles examinator of August 1, 1926 to have said: “These survivors of the former party Youth Turkish expected accountable for the death of millions of our Christian subjects, brutally driven from their homes and massacred en masse “.

Together, the motion of the 1918 parliament, convictions by the Turkish Military Tribunals and the words of President Kemal Ataturk on the responsibility of the Turkish government of the time, characterize the genocide and make Turkey the first state to have recognized the Armenian Genocide!

Therefore, rather than wanting Turkey to recognize the Armenian Genocide, Armenians should reclaim their lands as his interior minister Fethi Okyar promised 98 years ago!

Gilbert Béguian translation for Armenews

Fethi Okyar was military attaché in Paris at the age of 29, from 1909 to 1911

Friday, March 4, 2016,
Jean Eckian © armenews.com

Austrailan MP Zimmerman calls Turkey recognize Armenian Genocide during maiden Parliamentary speech

March 2, 2016 By administrator

Trent Zimmerman MP calls for recognition of Armenian Genocide

CANBERRA: On Wednesday, 2nd March 2016, newly-elected Federal Member for North Sydney, Trent Zimmerman gave his maiden speech in the Australia’s House of Representatives, calling on Turkey to recognise and atone for the Armenian Genocide.

Zimmerman was elected at a recent by-election, taking the seat vacated by Joe Hockey MP (now Australia’s Ambassador to the United States), a long-time advocate for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

The Armenian National Committee of Australia’s (ANC Australia) Executive Administrator, Arin Markarian commented: “We thank Mr. Zimmerman for proving he will continue Mr. Hockey’s fine work on the advancement of recognition and justice for the Armenian Genocide.”
In his speech, Zimmerman acknowledged the “great historical injustices” that the Armenians have suffered, particularly through the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

He said: “The Armenians are a people who have suffered great historical injustices. They are one of the few people against whom genocide has been attempted, and the awful legacy of those events of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire is deeply felt in their community today.”

Zimmerman added: “We know such horrific events are best healed through reconciliation, recognition and atonement. I hope that we will see a day when Turkey, indeed the global community through the United Nations, properly recognises the Armenian Genocide.”

ANC Australia has written to Zimmerman, congratulating him on his maiden speech, wishing him a fruitful career representing the electorate of North Sydney and the greater Australian community.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE PORTION OF MR. ZIMMERMAN’S MAIDEN SPEECH

Moscow: 4,500 Guests Attend Special Armenian Genocide Program in Kremlin Hall

March 1, 2016 By administrator

Harut-Sassounian BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

The 10th annual Armenian Music Awards (AMA) program was held on February 27, at the Kremlin’s Kevorkiev Hall in Moscow, with 4,500 guests in attendance. Many of Armenia’s top stars entertained the large crowd with patriotic songs and musical performances for more than four hours.

This year’s program, organized by Valeriy Saharyan, recognized the important contributions made by 12 individuals and organizations on the occasion of the Armenian Genocide Centennial, including:

— Vladimir Zhirinovsky (member of the Russian Parliament),

— Harut Sassounian (Publisher of The California Courier and President of Armenia Artsakh Fund),

— Armenia Futura,

— Sergey Smpatian (conductor).

Other honorees, some of whom could not be present, appeared by video or through a representative:

— Valerie Boyer (member of the French Parliament),

— Vigen Sargsyan (Armenian President’s Chief of Staff and Coordinator of Programs organized by the State Centennial Committee of the Armenian Genocide),

— Armenia’s Minister of Culture,

— Archbishop Ezras Nercessian (Primate of Moscow and Nor Nakhichevan),

— Serj Tankian (System of a Down),

— Rouben Vartanian (benefactor and businessman),

— Artur Janipekyan (Gazprom Media Holding),

— Ara Vartanyan (Hayastan All-Armenian Fund).

In receiving his award, Zhirinovsky had strong words for Turkey. Here are excerpts from his remarks:

“The day will come when Armenians will celebrate their festivals in the territory of liberated Western Armenia. That could be a festival bearing the name of your holy mountain — Mount Ararat — and could take place in Kars, Ardahan, Sassoun or Trabizon…. After the downing of the Russian jet, I would have ordered a powerful attack on Turkey. Today, very little would have remained of Turkey…. I wish the dream of Armenians worldwide would become a reality; that those who committed that horrible genocide on April 1915, during World War I, would be punished.”

Zhirinovsky continued his aggressive words stating that Turkey attacked the Armenians who “were living in their homeland, in their land. But the Turks were nomads; their homeland is in Central Asia, in Tashkent. They should go there and leave Anatolia to Armenians, Kurds, and Greeks. And Constantinople should be a free city. Times are changing. It is possible that shortly this would become a reality. Armenians, no one will bother you. Therefore, the descendants of Western Armenia should prepare their documents to get back their lost lands and properties. I am not talking a lot of ‘hot air.’ I am convinced that Armenians will shortly commemorate not the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, but celebrate the liberation of Western Armenia. And the Armenian flag will fly in Kars, Ardahan, on Ararat, Sassoun, and Trabizon.”

I had a hard act to follow after Zhirinovsky’s powerful words. In accepting my award, I made the following brief remarks:

“Genocide is a monstrous crime which has no statutes of limitations. The Turkish government should well know that the Armenian nation will never give up its just rights. Although 100 years have passed, even if 1,000 years should pass, we will continue to demand, and struggle to regain everything that we lost. Turkey must return all our personal and communal properties — and more importantly — our historic lands of Western Armenia. In other words, we demand our confiscated possessions, and compensation for the murder of our 1.5 million holy martyrs.”

I then urged the audience not to despair: “One hundred years ago, the powerful and vast Ottoman Empire collapsed and broke apart, turning into the Republic of Turkey within much smaller borders. With God’s help and our persistent efforts, I am convinced that the day will come when today’s Turkey would also collapse due to internal and external pressures. We must be prepared to take advantage of such an opportunity to liberate our historic lands. Until then, Armenia, Artsakh and the Diaspora should be united into one fist, so that our homeland would become a strong economic, political, and military power. Only such a powerful Armenia can take ownership of its just rights rather than begging for them.”

This uplifting four-hour program was broadcast live by Armenia’s public television to Armenian communities throughout the world. I am confident that the 4,500 guests at the Kremlin Hall and millions of TV viewers felt a renewed sense of determination to pursue their national goals until their eventual realization.

HDP: Davutoglu remark on Kurds reminiscent of Armenian Genocide

February 29, 2016 By administrator

207084 Co-leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas commented on Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s statement, suggesting that “the Kurdish party cooperates with the Russians, just like Armenian gangs did once.”

“When they say things like that, they actually mean “We’ll do to you what we did to the Armenians in 1915.” This implies nothing but policy of mass slaughter and death. But we are confident in our unity,” Demirtas stressed, according to Ermenihaber.am.

Also, the pro-Kurdish official blamed Davutogly for deriving no lessons from history.

Fresno State to host int’l conference on Armenian Genocide

February 27, 2016 By administrator

206990 The Armenian Studies Program of California State University, Fresno is holding a major international conference on “Empire, Politics, and War: The Armenian Genocide within the Context of the Ottoman Empire” on Friday, March 18 and Saturday, March 19, 2016, Asbarez reports.

The Conference will bring an international group of scholars to explore new facets of the Armenian Genocide.

The Conference is co-sponsored by the Society for Armenian Studies, the College of Arts & Humanities of California State University, Fresno, with the support of the Thomas A. Kouymjian Family Foundation, the Leon S. Peters Foundation, and the M. Victoria Kazan Fund for Armenian Studies.

Conference organizers Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian, Armenian Studies Program Coordinator, and Ümit Kurt, Kazan Visiting Scholar at Fresno State, expect the Conference to attract great interest among both scholars and the public.

On Friday, March 18, the Conference will begin with welcoming addresses from Dr. Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval, Dean of the College of Arts & Humanities and Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian, Director of the Armenian Studies Program. Dr. Stephan Astourian, Director of the Armenian Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley, will follow with a keynote address “Armenian Genocide Studies: Development as a Field, Historiographical Appraisal, and the Road Ahead.”

The Conference will take place in the University Business Center, Alice Peters Auditorium, Room 191, on the Fresno State campus. An hors d’oeuvres reception will take place from in the University Business Center Gallery, just prior to the Conference.

The Conference will reconvene on Saturday, with a session chaired by Dr. Sergio La Porta, Berberian Professor of Armenian Studies at Fresno State. The session will take place in the Whitten Room of the Fresno State Smittcamp Alumni House (Matoian Way on the Fresno State campus-enter at Shaw and Maple) and will be divided into two parts.

All sessions and the reception are free and open to the public.