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Perihan Mağden: Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide

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turkeish intelect 99

Perihan Mağden: Turkish Intellectuals

By: Hambersom Aghbashian,

Perihan Mağden (born in 1960 in Istanbul ) is a Turkish writer. After graduating from Robert College of Istanbul, she studied psychology at Boğaziçi University. She is One of the most famous writers in young Turkish literature. Perihan Mağden was a columnist for Taraf and in addition to writing editorial columns for Turkish newspapers (including Radikal, 2001 – 2008), she has also published fictional novels and a collection of poetry. Her novels have been translated into 19 languages including English, French, German, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Greek and Russian. Mağden is one of several journalists and writers charged for “threatening Turkey’s unity or the integrity of the state. She was tried and acquitted for calling for opening the possibility of conscientious objection to mandatory military service in Turkey, and after the assassination of Hrant Dink, she was offered security protection. (1)

            According to” http://www.armeniapedia.org “, “In December 2008, two hundred prominent Turkish intellectuals released an apology for the “great catastrophe of 1915”. This was a clear reference to the Armenian Genocide. The brief text of the apology was ” My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in 1915. I reject this injustice and for my share, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers and sisters. I apologize to them.” Perihan Mağden was one of the Turkish intellectuals who signed the apology. (2)

            Taraf Newspaper of 20th April 2010 wrote “ …. the anniversary of the 1915s events, this year will be remembered in Turkey, too. The commemoration organized by the “Say Stop!” Group, will start and held at Taksim tram stop. A group of intellectuals, which will be joined also by intellectuals as Ali Bayramoğlu, Ferhat Kentel, Neşe Düzel, Perihan Mağden and Sırrı Süreyya Önder, for the first time in Turkey will commemorate this year on 24 April as the anniversary of the events of 1915.” “This pain is OUR pain. This mourning is for ALL of US.” was part of the groups campaign. (3) 

            According to “Today’s Zaman”, A group of academics, journalists, artists and intellectuals have released a statement condemning in the harshest terms what they define as expressions that include “open hatred and hostility” towards Armenians in Turkish schoolbooks, which were recently exposed by the newspapers Agos and Taraf. A letter accompanying the text of the condemnation, written by historian Taner Akçam, notes that including such expressions as lesson material to teach children is a disgrace. The signees said textbooks in schools should seek to encourage feelings of peace, solidarity and living together over inciting hatred towards different religious and cultural groups, Akçam said. He further wrote: “Standing with integrity in the face of history is the prerequisite for establishing the future on the foundations of friendship and peace. Perihan Mağden was one of the Turkish intellectuals who signed the statement. (4)

              The high- profile trials of in 2006 of Elif Shafak, Perihan Mağden and Orhan Pamuk for “Insulting Turkishness” by discussing the Armenian genocide, under Article 301 in the Turkish code, drew worldwide attention to the Turkish attitude of silencing critics on the issue. (5)

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1- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perihan_Ma%C4%9Fden

2- http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=200_prominent_Turks_apologize_for_great_

3- http://setasarmenian.blogspot.com/2010/04/good-thoughtful-and-ugly-from-turks-on.html

4- http://asbarez.com/127448/turkish-intellectuals-condemn-anti-armenian-textbooks

5- Guardian Unlimited, online, Aug. 3, 2006

Turkey shamefully to send ambassador back to Vatican after POPE recognized Armenian Genocide

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239725Paçacı was recalled last April to Ankara over Pope Francis’ comments describing the killings of Armenians by the Ottomans a century ago as “genocide.”

On April 12, 2015, Pope Francis marked the 100th anniversary of the killings of Armenians during World War I by calling it “the first genocide of the 20th century,” a pronouncement that drew ire from the Turkish government.

Turkey summoned the Vatican’s ambassador in Ankara on the same day over the pope’s comments.

Turkey, a majority of whose population is Muslim, accepts that many Christian Armenians died in clashes with Ottoman soldiers beginning in 1915, when Armenia was part of the empire ruled from İstanbul, but denies hundreds of thousands were killed and that this amounted to genocide.

Genocidaire Talaat’s Last Interview Shortly Before his Assassination

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Mehmet_Talat_Pasha

mastermind of the Armenian Genocide, Talaat

BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

Aubrey Herbert, British diplomat, adventurer, intelligence officer, and Member of Parliament, conducted a rare interview with Talaat Pasha, in February 1921, just days before his assassination in Berlin by Soghomon Tehlirian.

As all-powerful Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, its despotic ruler and mastermind of the Armenian Genocide, Talaat had fled Turkey in November 1918 to avoid prosecution by the new regime. The 23-page interview with Talaat was published in 1924 (London) and 1925 (New York) in Herbert’s memoirs titled, “Ben Kendim: A Record of Eastern Travel.”

Herbert first met Talaat in 1908 while stationed at the British Embassy in Constantinople (Istanbul). Eleven years later, Herbert received an unexpected letter from Talaat seeking a meeting with him “in any neutral country.” Desperately seeking to rehabilitate his diabolical image in the West, Talaat claimed that “he was not responsible for the Armenian massacres, that he could prove it, and that he was anxious to do so.” Herbert turned down Talaat’s request telling him: “I was very glad to hear that it was not he who was responsible for the Armenian massacres, but that I did not think any useful purpose could be served by our meeting at that time.”

However, Herbert reversed his decision in February 1921, after Sir Basil Thomson, Director of British Intelligence, ordered him to leave immediately for Germany and meet Talaat. The secret rendezvous took place on February 26, in the small German town of Hamm.

Talaat told Herbert again that “he himself had always been against the attempted extermination of the Armenians.” More incredibly, Talaat claimed that “he had twice protested against this policy, but had been overruled, he said, by the Germans.”

Forgetting his own claims of innocence in the massacres, Talaat justified the mass killings by accusing Armenians of stabbing his country in the back during the war. Contradicting himself again, Talaat declared his support for Armenians by claiming that “he was in favor of granting autonomy to minorities in the most extended form, and would gladly consider any proposition that was made to him.”

Talaat then switched the blame to the British for the Armenian killings: “You English cannot divest yourselves of responsibility in this matter. We Young Turks practically offered Turkey to you, and you refused us. One undoubted consequence has been the ruin of Christian minorities, whom your Prime Minister has insisted on treating as your allies. If the Greeks and Armenians are your allies when we are at war with you, you cannot expect our Turkish Government to treat them as friends.”

Herbert and Talaat then decided to move to Dusseldorf, Germany, where they continued their discreet conversation for two more days. Herbert reported Talaat’s paradoxical attempt to cover up his role in the Armenian Genocide, while justifying this heinous crime. Talaat stated that “he had written a memorandum on the Armenian massacres which he was very anxious that British statesmen should read. Early in the war, in 1915, the Armenians had organized an army, and had attacked the Turks, who were then fighting the Russians. Three Armenian deputies had taken an active part; the alleged massacres of Moslems had taken place, accompanied by atrocities on women and children. He had twice opposed enforced migration, and he had been the author of an inquiry which resulted in the execution of a number of guilty Kurds and Turks.”

Ironically, Talaat boldly told Herbert that he was not afraid of being assassinated. “He said that he never thought of it. Why should anyone dislike him? I said that Armenians might very well desire vengeance, after all that had been written about him in the papers. He brushed this aside.” Two weeks later, Talaat was assassinated in Berlin by Soghomon Tehlirian!

Concluding his interview of Talaat, Herbert observed: “He died hated, indeed execrated, as few men have been in their generation. He may have been all that he was painted — I cannot say. I know that he had rare power and attraction. I do not know whether he was responsible or not for the Armenian massacres.”

Only experts of that time period can verify the authenticity and accuracy of this lengthy interview. If true, what exactly were Talaat’s aims in proposing “an Anglo-Turkish alliance” and why was the British government so anxious to talk to him?

Intervention Özgüden during the day on genocide and Holocaust denial

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arton121442-454x293As part of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of victims of the Holocaust, the cell Democracy or barbarism of the Ministry of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation organized 25 January 2016 in Brussels a day of reflection dedicated to genocide deniers and revisionism.

In the first part of the day, Laurence Schram (Doctor of History) and Mr. Eric David (Professor Emeritus of International Law) spoke about the denial and the laws in force in Belgium and Europe. Mr. Yves Ternon (Doctor of History, Paris IV-Sorbonne) made a presentation on the Armenian genocide and the Tutsis.

In the second part of the day, first Özgüden Dogan, chief editor of Info-Türk, presented the Turkish denial about the 1915 genocide and its impact in countries hosting immigrants from Turkey.

Then a panel of M.Elias Constas (scientific collaborator MRAH) and representatives of the three resources Centres spoke concrete examples of situations or about whether they experienced themselves or that have been reported by their field actors (teachers, educators …)

The intervention of Dogan Özgüden

Ladies and gentlemen,

First of all I must make a clarification. Frankly, I’m not an expert on issues of genocide and denial … For cons, I’m a witness, both in my private life that in all my professional activities and social policies, including for over forty years ‘exile.

I just listened to the speech of dear Yves Ternon which is one of the foremost authorities on the subject of the first genocide of the 20th century. I had the honor of serving as an intermediary between him and my friend Zarakolu, there are more than twenty years, for publication in Turkey of the Turkish translation of his work, Armenian Tabou .. .

Indeed, until 1993, the genocide of Armenians in 1915 was a taboo in Turkey … Turkish public opinion has never known or recognized that the most bloody and shameful episode in its history.

All generations, including mine, have been raised in the schools of the Kemalist republic which inculcates the superiority of the Turkish race … As neighboring peoples such as the Russians, Arabs, Bulgarians, Greeks, Persians, non-Turkish peoples of Anatolia, as Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, Kurds were considered enemies of the Turkish nation.

Genocides, massacres, pogroms committed against these people appeared nowhere in the curriculum or in the Turkish media.

Fortunately, despite the brainwashing, as the child of a family of itinerant railroad, I had the chance to know in the Anatolian steppes or in the neighborhoods of cities such as Ankara, Izmir and Istanbul, some descendants of genocide survivors.

However, despite sharing the same social fate that my Armenian friends, they never raised this issue, because it was a taboo which forced the non-Turkish families to keep silent to not suffer harassment by official authorities or even by their neighbors proud of being Turkish and Muslim.

They were right, after the extermination and deportation, there were only a few tens of thousands of Armenians and Greeks in Turkey. But Turkish nationalism was not entirely satisfied with the ethnic cleansing done by the Ottoman power. During the Republican period, repressive operations against non-Turkish communities continued incessantly.

During the first year of the republic, in 1923, over one million Greeks were deported to Greece.

In 1934, after an anti-Semitic campaign in the Turkish media, Jews from the cities of Tekirdağ, Edirne, Kırklareli and Çanakkale were victims of pogroms.

From 1923 to 1937, the Turkish army has carried out several genocidal operations against the Kurdish population in the southeast provinces.

And it continues: during the second world war, many Armenians, Greeks and Jews were sent to forced labor camps in the east of the country under the pretext that they did not pay a tax on their property.

And pogroms and atrocities on 6 and 7 September 1955 against the Greek community in Istanbul and Izmir … I was personally eyewitness rampages in Izmir as a young journalist.

Of course, I have to add to the blacklist pogroms against Alevis in the 70, 80 and 90 in the cities of Kahramanmaras, Corum and Sivas.

While these pogroms were sometimes criticized by opposition parties and media, the 1915 genocide was never discussed in the media until recent years.

Even the 50th anniversary of the genocide in 1965, while the Armenian diaspora launched a genocide recognition campaign, the Turkish media remained deaf and dumb.

Neither the parties of the left or progressive unions have made no comment on this black page of history. All this despite the fact that there were Armenians, Greeks and Jews who were active in these organizations.

When someone dared to ask a question about this subject, we preferred to just say that during the first world war, imperialism sow hostility among the peoples to weaken the Ottoman Empire and share these territories.

About this silence, I remember an anecdote of my professional life with bitterness … In 1967, when I ran a week left, we hired a young academic as assistant technical director Inci Tugsavul.

He was wearing a Turkish name. After several months of collaboration, one day he told me: “I must confess one thing that bothers me since day one. Yes, my name Yasar Uçar, but I’m not Turkish. My family was forced to hide his real identity and wearing a Turkish name. I do not want you to have problems working with an Armenian then you already have dozens of lawsuits and threats … “

I reassured … “No Yasar, nothing to fear … This is an honor for me to work with an Armenian origin colleague. “

A second anecdote which I always remember with bitterness … After the second coup in 1971 … At the beginning of our exile with my wife Inci Tugsavul. We were organizing a protest campaign against the regime of generals in Turkey. One evening we were with our friend Marcel Croës with another guest. When I related violations of human rights in Turkey, this guest asked me a direct question: “What do you think of the genocide of Armenians in 1915? “

After a few seconds of hesitation, I tried to repeat the same argument that progressive organizations in Turkey, “Yes, there have been dramatic episodes in the history of our country, but they are the consequence of imperialist provocations. “

My interlocutor was not happy with this evasive answer, me neither!

It is from that time that I got into a closer study on the subject … It is above all thanks to the documents provided by the diaspora that my work team and I are better informed about this happened in 1915.

When the Armenian Asala organization launched in 1975 its violent actions against Turkish targets in order to force the Ankara regime for the recognition of the 1915 genocide, the subject is nilly entered the agenda of democratic organizations Turkey.

When these actions aroused anti-Armenian campaign in the media in the service of the Ankara regime in 1981 in an opposition newspaper that we were heading to Brussels, we published the first article calling on the Turkish democratic forces to seriously on the issue of the Armenian genocide.

In 1987, we published a voluminous black book on the violations of human rights in Turkey in which devoted a chapter about the oppression of Kurds and Christians in the country. To date, we are not alone in the search for historical truth.

Late 70s and especially after the third hit of 1980 state, the influx of Armenians, Assyrians and Kurdish political refugees fleeing repression is a real turning point in the community life of Turkish citizens in Europe.

While almost all Turkish immigrant associations were subject to the repressive policies of the military junta, the Armenian, Assyrian and Kurdish have set up their own organizations in all host countries in Europe.

The historical struggle of the Diaspora for the recognition of the 1915 genocide has gained a new dimension with the support of these new associations that have always kept their narrow organizational relations with Turkey.

It was at that time that we expanded continuing education activities and expression and creativity within our intercultural association Les Ateliers du Soleil. This center is frequented since tens of years by citizens from more than fifty backgrounds, including Armenian, Assyrian, Kurd from Turkey.

In the 90s, the Association of Democrats Armenians of Belgium, the Belgian Institute of Assyrian, Kurdish Institute of Brussels and the Info-Türk Foundation have established a platform for the defense of human rights and peoples in Turkey.

It is this platform that, with the European Armenian Federation, organized in 2005 a series of academic and cultural activities to mark the 90th anniversary of the genocide of Armenians and Assyrians.

Enraged by these developments, the Turkish lobby has not hesitated to provoke Turkish ultranationalist groups against Armenian organizations, Kurdish and Assyrian.

Already in 1994, the Grey Wolves had attacked a hundred Kurds participating in a peaceful march. I remember with horror from firing, in 1998, the premises of the Kurdish Institute of Brussels and another Kurdish association in the Bonneels street in front of the Brussels police!

In 2007, the offices of a Kurdish Association in Saint-Josse were ravaged by arson. That same year, an Armenian trade in Saint Josse was sacked twice by the Grey Wolves.

Same year, the Turkish journalist Mehmet Köksal who had achieved a critical work of communalism and denial was the victim of a physical assault under the cries of “traitor”.

A year later, in 2008, a call to lynching campaign was launched against the leaders of Info-Türk because of our criticism against Holocaust denial. The Belgian government had to place me under protection.

A turning point in the fight against Ankara’s denial was the assassination of the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007 by the sinister forces of the Turkish state. It is for the first time in Turkey, tens of thousands of Turkish democrats have mobilized to protest against this last step of the Armenian Genocide while chanting “We are all Armenians … We are all Hrant Dink ! “

The recognition of the 1915 genocide has since become a key demand of Democratic Forces of Turkey

However, the Ankara regime, despite the fact that he is a candidate for decades in the EU persists in its denial. Not only in Turkey but in all the countries hosting Turkish immigrants, denying the 1915 genocide is one of the red lines of the Turkish state.

Organizations subject to Turkish lobby are forced at every opportunity to protest against the recognition of the 1915 Genocide … Even politicians from the Turkish community and belonging to the Belgian political parties manifest as burning during the genocide deniers elections …

Among them, there are some who promised the voters of Turkish origin to demolish the monument in Ixelles dedicated to the victims of genocide and to erect a monument in Brussels to honor the Ottoman Empire.

To my disappointment, the Belgian political leaders have preferred to close their eyes to this submission to negationist lobby of the Turkish state in order to attract votes in the municipalities inhabited by Turkish nationals.

That is why the resolution adopted last year by the Belgian parliament is not a real recognition of the 1915 genocide, because it absolves all the leaders of the Turkish Republic.

But several officials of the Ottoman genocide of 1915 were incorporated into the Republican politicians as ministers, MPs or military commanders.

In addition, the resolution praised the two main current leaders, Erdogan and Davutoglu, while they still deny the Armenian genocide.

Obviously, it was a game to keep politicians elected some deniers of Turkish origin in their ranks, giving them a chance to vote a version “soft” resolution.

Even more disturbing … Last year was commemorated in the world the 1915 genocide centennial Meanwhile, in Belgium, the head of denial and despotic regime was welcomed with full honors, red carpet the occasion of the inauguration of Europalia-Turkey.

Valuing the Belgian home as a diplomatic victory in its propaganda in the elections of November 1, Erdogan has strengthened its parliamentary majority.

Worse, this prestigious festival program was devoted solely to the promotion of the greatness of the Ottoman Empire without making any reference to the Armenian civilization, Assyrian, Greek or Kurdish that existed there even before the Turkish conquest.

After his conquest of Brussels and its electoral victory, Erdogan has launched a new campaign of repression against its opponents in order to establish a despotic presidential system and adapt all public institutions of Turkey to Islamic standards.

Is it not that Erdogan who, in the name of religious solidarity, provided logistical support Daech?

Currently, the Kurdish people in Turkey is subjected to an unprecedented bloodbath by Turkish security forces and Kurds in Syria are the only forces fighting against the Islamic state and they are constantly threatened by the power of Erdogan.

In Turkey today, not only the Kurdish politicians but also journalists, academics, artists who dare to protest against this repression suffer every day new threats, insults and searches.

More than a thousand scholars are accused of treachery to the fatherland by the media at the service of the Erdogan government.

Why ?

Because they have discovered that most of these academics had said: “We are all Hrant, we are all Armenians! “After the assassination of Hrant Dink.

Here are some testimonials from me in the time limit allotted to each speaker.

I believe that the Belgian democratic forces always have vis-à-vis duty of the peoples of Turkey and vis-à-vis the Turkish democrats, victims of repression by the leaders of this country which is a member of the Council of Europe , NATO member and candidate to the European Union.

Erdogan and his accomplices never deserve the red carpet, but a red light as they do not respect the universal and European conventions on human rights and peoples.

Thank you for your patience…

http://www.info-turk.be/449.htm#Intervention

Wednesday, February 3, 2016,
Stéphane © armenews.com

Death toll rises among Kurds trapped in Turkey’s southeastern Cizre district amid govt crackdown

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Kurd Genocide

Kurd Genocide

Over 20 injured people have been trapped in a basement for over a week in the Cizre district of Turkey’s Sirnak Province, where the Turkish military is fighting Kurdish militants. Reports say ambulances have been denied access and six people have died.

Faysal Sariyildiz, Sirnak deputy of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the third biggest in the Turkish parliament, told the Cihan news agency on Saturday that 31 people had been trapped in a basement of a building in the Kurdish town of Cizre for over a week, with 6 already succumbing to their injuries.

On Friday, Sariyildiz told the German dpa news agency that the death toll was rising almost daily, as ambulances dispatched to help those trapped had been denied access on 11 separate occasions.

“The wounded are confined in a tight space along with those who have died,” Sariyildiz told the agency.

Nedim Turfent, English news editor for the Dicle News Agency, told RT that seven of the wounded have died and 15 others are suffering from injuries, “some in critical condition.”

“No news has been received from the basement since yesterday afternoon. Dozens of people including women and children remain trapped,” he said. “The wounded are waiting to die without any available means,” he said, adding that there is lack of water or other “basic means to survive.”

HDP’s Sariyildiz has been in contact with the people in basement via text and has been updating his Twitter with the names of the trapped Kurds and posting photos of the injured.

Some HDP members went on a hunger strike on Thursday to protest the actions of the Turkish government, which has imposed curfews and cut off passage to medics. Cizre has been under curfew for the past six weeks.

On Sunday, a group of volunteer medical workers from the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) and the Trade Union of Public Employees in Health and Social Services (SES) were denied entry to the district.

A physician from the group told the media that the volunteers had been denied entry to the area because they lacked an official document.

“We were denied entry despite explaining to them that the prevention was in violation of the Geneva Conventions, of which Turkey is a signatory, and that vehicles and volunteer personnel carrying the symbol of the Red Cross need to be allowed into conflict zones,” Dr. Vahhac Alp said, as quoted by the Hurriyet Daily.

Armenian Genocide Committee Plans Rally for Justice on April 24

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12524207_10153336407013201_8207091778319964090_nWe call upon all segments of our community to join together in a RALLY FOR JUSTICE on Sunday, April 24, 2016, at 1:00 p.m. at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Crescent Heights in Los Angeles in front of the Turkish Consulate as we continue to fight for a just resolution and against denial of the Armenian Genocide.

As we enter the second century of denial of the Armenian Genocide, and following the worldwide uprising of the Armenian People on the occasion of last year’s Centennial, including the 166,000 thousand who marched through the streets of Los Angeles, organizational leaders in Southern California call upon the Armenian-American community to remain vigilant and active as we continue to voice our collective demands for justice.

It is our belief that our voices are most loudly and effectively heard when they are unified, and to that end, we proudly announce the continued cooperation of community organizations to organize and execute the commemorative activities for this year under the banner of the newly formed Armenian Genocide Committee (“AGC”) consisting of the organizations and entities listed below.
Further details will be forthcoming in the coming weeks.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COMMITTEE

Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America
Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church
Armenian Catholic Church of North America
Armenian Evangelical Union of North America
Armenian Democratic Liberal Party
Armenian Revolutionary Federation
Social Democratic Hunchakian Party
Armenian General Benevolent Union – Western District
Armenian Relief Society – Western USA
Armenian Youth Federation
Armenian Assembly of America
Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region
Armenian Council of America
Armenian Rights Council
Armenian Bar Association
Organization of Istanbul Armenians

Hollande: France to draft new law criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial

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armenian genocide crimilizingPARIS. – The discussions, and with respect to the preparation of  a draft law that criminalizes the denial of the Armenian Genocide, have resumed in France.

President François Hollande stated the aforesaid during the annual dinner, which was held this year on Thursday evening in Paris, by the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations in France (CCAF).

Hollande added that he has entrusted French jurist Jean-Paul Costa, the former President of the European Court of Human Rights, in the drafting of this law, French Armenian journalist Jean Eckian told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The French president said he has instructed Costa to find in this bill a clear and incontestable way which will enable to defend the memory of the genocide victims, and that this should be done in a very short time.

Also, François Hollande reflected on the failure of a similar draft law in France in 2012, and noted that in this case, the bill needs to be invulnerable in terms of constitutionality.

Gülten Kaya: Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide

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Gülten Kaya is a Turkish music producer and an actress

Gülten Kaya is a Turkish music producer and an actress

By Hambersom Aghbashian,

Gülten Kaya is a Turkish music producer and an actress well known for (Yusuf ile Kenan -1979), (Memnu meyva -1979) and (Aklin durur -1975). She is the widow of late Kurdish singer Ahmet Kaya ( born in 1957 in Malatya, Turkey – died in 2000  in his de facto exile in Paris). Gülten Kaya is a political activist and a member of “The Friends of Hrant Dink organization.” 

Gülten Kaya was one of the main speakers during “The Friends of Hrant Dink organization” gathering to mark the seventh anniversary of the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink on January 19, 2014, where tens of thousands gathered in Istanbul and marched from Taksim Square to Agos newspaper’s office building in the Pangalti neighborhood of Sisli. In her speech, Gülten Kaya, commemorated not only Dink, but also those who were killed during the Gezi Park Resistance last year. “We are here not only to remember Hrant, but also Ethem [Sarisülük], Abdullah [Cömert], Medeni [Yildirim], Ahmet [Atakan] and those who

died in the Gezi protests,” Kaya said. “You have left mothers and fathers devoid of their children. Sons of this country were shot with treacherous bullets. How can we forget how many homes were broken?” she said. “What is your truth? This is 2014: You are carrying guns in your trucks instead of peace, democracy and human rights,” Kaya added, addressing Turkey’s security forces. (1)

“Taraf” Newspaper wrote on 20th April 2010, “ The anniversary of the 1915s events, this year will be remembered in Turkey, too. The commemoration organized by the “Say Stop!” Group. A group of intellectuals, for the first time in Turkey will commemorate this year on 24 April as the anniversary of the events of 1915. Under the leader-ship of “Say Stop!” group, the commemoration will start in front of the tram station in Taksim Square.

The text of the commemoration activity is as follows: “This pain is OUR pain. This mourning is for ALL of US. In 1915, when our population was just 13 million, in these lands were living from 1,5 to 2 million Armenians. In Thrace, in the Aegean, in Adana, Malatya, Van, Kars … Samatya, in Sisli, Galata … Our neighborhood grocery men, our dressmakers, our jewelers, our carpenters, our shoemakers, our classmates, our teachers, our officers, our orderlies, our deputies, our historians, our composers …They were our Friends. In April 24 1915 it was started “to send them”. We lost them. They are no longer available. The vast majority are no more between us. They have not even graves. But, the “Great Pain” of the “Great Disaster” , with its utmost gravity EXISTS in our conscience. It is growing since 95 years. We are calling all the people of Turkey, who [the people] feel in their hearts this “Great Pain”, to respectfully prostrate in front of the 1915s victims’ remembrance. In black dresses, silently.Lightening candles for their souls, bearing flowers .Because this pain is OUR pain. This mourning is for ALL of US. “(2) Gülten Kaya was one of the prominent intellectuals who participated in the commemoration.

“Today Zaman”, wrote on April 20, 2011, “Armenians who lost their lives in the Armenian displacement that took place in 1915, during the final days of the Ottoman Empire, will be commemorated through a variety of events for a second time this year. This year’s commemoration ceremonies will be held in İstanbul’s Taksim Square, Ankara, İzmir, Diyarbakır and Bodrum. A statement with the headline, “This pain is ours,” has been opened up for signatures. More than 100 people including intellectuals, writers and journalists including Ahmet İnsel, Ali Bayramoğlu, Alper Görmüş, Bekir Berat Özipek, Cafer Solgun, Ferhat Kentel, Gülten Kaya, Leyla İpekçi, Mehmet Bekaroğlu, Oral Çalışlar, Orhan Miroğlu, Oya Baydar, Şebnem Korur Fincancı and Ümit Kardaş have already signed the statement. Deputies from the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and independent candidates supported by the party will be supporting the commemoration ceremony to be held in Diyarbak?r.” (3)

In response to official statements that the Royal Library of Denmark has agreed “to balance” an Armenian Genocide exhibition by allowing the Turkish government to mount its own “alternative” exhibit, a group of Turkish citizens–including academics, writers, former members of parliament, and mayors–have signed an open letter to the Royal Library,where they said ” It is incorrect to suggest that two different views of what happened in 1915 are possible. Over 1 million Ottoman-Armenian citizens were forced out of their homes and annihilated in furtherance of an intentional state policy. What exists today is nothing other than the blatant denial of this reality by the Turkish government.” They added “ Don’t Stand Against Turkey’s Democratization and Confrontation with its History!” Gülten Kaya (music producer) is one of the intellectuals who signed the petition. (4)

According to “TodayZaman,” September 26, 2014, “A group of academics, journalists, artists and intellectuals have released a statement condemning in the harshest terms what they define as expressions that include “open hatred and hostility” towards Armenians in Turkish schoolbooks, which were recently exposed by the newspapers Agos and Taraf.” Gülten Kaya was one of the intellectuals who signed the petition. (5)

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1- www.mirrorspectator.com/pdf/012514.pdf

2- http://www.taraf.com.tr/haber/ 48851.htm

3- http://www.todayszaman.com/news-241521-1915-tragedy-to-be-commemorated-for-second-time-in-turkey.html

4- http://armenianweekly.com/2012/12/18/turkish-citizens-sign-petition-against-denialist-exhibit-in-denmark/

5- http://www.todayszaman.com/anasayfa_group-of-intellectuals-condemn-anti-armenian-statements-in-textbooks_359935.html

HISTORY LESSON: How the Armenian Genocide Shaped the Holocaust

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genocide images(thedailybeast.com) Nowhere was the debate over what was going on in Turkey to the Armenians more heated than Germany—and the conclusions drawn would change history.

One day in the winter of 1941, as he “walked through the streets of the Warsaw Ghetto,” Hermann Wygoda, “Ghetto smuggler,” tried to make sense of what was happening to him and the people around him: “I wondered whether God knew what was going on beneath Him on this troubled earth. The only analogy I could find in history was perhaps the pogrom of the Jews in Alexandria at the time of the Roman governor Flaccus … or the massacre of the Armenians by the Turks during World War I.”

Wygoda was not the only one seeing this parallel. The German Social Democrats in exile reported continuously on the situation in Germany in their “Germany reports”. In February 1939 they warned, “At this moment in Germany the unstoppable extermination of a minority is taking place by way of the brutal means of murder, of torment to the degree of absurdity, of plunder, of assault, and of starvation. What happened to the Armenians during the [world war] in Turkey is now being committed against the Jews, [but] slower and more systemically.”

We could also mention the famous German-Jewish writer Franz Werfel who in 1932/1933 wrote his most well-known novel about the Armenian Genocide, his Forty Days of Musa Dagh, mainly to warn Germany about Hitler. The book was later extremely popular in the Nazi-imposed ghettos of Eastern Europe.

There seems to be something obvious connecting both great genocides of the 20th century. Yet, in its hundredth year, the Armenian Genocide is still a peripheral object in the violent history of the 20th century. Most of the new grand histories of World War I marginalize the topic, if they mention it at all. It seems as if the topic is an exclusively partisan affair of the Armenian diaspora and a few confused others (like me). But the Armenian Genocide is an integral part of the history of humanity’s darkest century. There can be no doubt that it is an important part of the prehistory of the Holocaust, even if history books suggest that the two genocides were separated by a great distance in time and space.

Mainstream history writing has not only been reluctant to discuss the Armenian Genocide at all, but even more so to even think about the possible connections. The alleged and imagined controversy over the factuality of the Armenian Genocide—or more correctly the denialist campaign sponsored by Turkey—have contributed to this impression of a great distance separating this genocide from the Holocaust.

Many problems surround the topic and Turkish denialism is but one of them. Claims to the uniqueness of the Holocaust and a lack of Nazi sources referring directly to the Armenians are others.

In fact the sentence attributed to Hitler, and the most famous Nazi quote on the matter, apparently epitomizes just that: “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” But this is something of a dead end, if not a distraction from the deeper connections between the two genocides. For one, it is not entirely clear whether he said it or not. Some sources of the meeting have it, others don’t (which, however, does not have to signify that he did not say it). Also, it means something different than some understand it. It is more about the fact that nations at war can commit horrible atrocities and get away with it.

The relationship between the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust is apparent in two periods of history. The first is the debate that raged in Germany regarding the slaughter of Armenians by its ally the Ottoman Empire in the early 1920s. The debate came down in favor of genocide, and by the time the Nazis came to power, violence against the Armenians had been understood and even outright justified, already for decades. The second period is when the Nazis were in power and looked to the post-ethnic cleansing Turkey as a role model.

Strangely enough, not only does Germany connect the two genocides in its own history very closely, it is also Germany that offers some historical clarity on the debate of whether it was a genocide or not.

It has been claimed that interwar Germany did not “come to terms” with the Armenian Genocide and that this somehow made the Holocaust possible. However, the opposite is true: Germany not only came to terms with it, but probably had the greatest genocide debate up to that point in human history. It was rather that the outcome of this genocide debate was particularly problematic: it had ended in justifications of genocide and even with calls for the expulsion of Jews from Germany. And despite a drawn-out debate there had been a marked failure to produce a deeper religious, humanist, or philosophical analysis, appreciation, and condemnation of what genocide meant. While most of the political spectrum had found solace in the fact that this had been an “Asian thing,” only the political extremes on both ends of the spectrum, radical Socialists, and Nazis realized that this was potentially also a “European thing.”

To understand all this one has to take a look at Germany’s very own Armenian history. Germany was not only an ally of the Ottoman Empire during World War I—at the time the genocide was committed—but had been a quasi-ally as early as the 1890s. And already since Bismarck’s times it had often acted as the Ottomans’ European shield when it came to the Armenians. In the 1890s when tens of thousands of Armenians were killed in the Hamidian massacres (1894-1896), this was also a “problem” for Germany, but also an opportunity to further ingratiate itself with the Ottomans (economic concessions were the immediate results). But it was problematic mainly vis-à-vis its own public at home. Pro-Armenian activists and papers were raising awareness of what had happened in the Ottoman Empire and the pro-Ottoman elites were disquieted; the result was a propaganda war between both sides waged in the German newspapers. The pro-Ottoman (and anti-Armenian) side seemed to be winning, but the massacres simply did not come to an end. During the last massacres (in 1896) a series of essays reporting on the atrocities of the last years was published in Germany and for a moment pro-Armenian sentiment seemed to have carried the day.

But then, merely two years later, the German Emperor Wilhelm II travelled to Istanbul. This obvious show of friendship with the “bloody” sultan necessitated a revisiting of the Armenian massacres in Germany and produced discourses that not only justified the violence against the Armenians but also the German government’s silence and continued support for the Ottomans. The preeminent German liberal thinker, imperialist, and Protestant pastor Friedrich Naumann even went one step further and argued for an ethic-free German foreign policy, devoted solely to national self-interest. This was a dynamic that would play out two more times in German history, during the genocide as well as after World War I in a great German genocide debate (1919-1923).

During World War I Germany, now officially an ally of the Ottomans, again acted as a shield for violent Ottoman policies vis-à-vis the Armenians. However, now this violence reached unprecedented, genocidal heights. While official Germany continued to back their Ottoman ally and even continued to spew violent anti-Armenian propaganda and justifications for whatever was actually happening to the Armenians, behind closed doors Germany started to become anxious. Official Germany now feared that what was happening in Anatolia and Mesopotamia would be used against Germany after the war. And so already in the summer of 1919 the German Foreign Office published a collection of documents from its internal correspondence on the Armenian Genocide. It was meant to show the world that Germany was innocent of the charge of co-conspiracy in the murder of the Armenians, but it inadvertently kick-started a genocide debate in Germany that would continue for almost four years.

The publication of this documental record of the Armenian Genocide, with all its gory details, provoked an outcry and condemnations in the liberal and left press in Germany, including attacks on Germany’s wartime leaders. At this point large sections of the press already acknowledged what we, today, would term “genocide” and what they called “annihilation of a nation” or “murder of the Armenian people.” But then followed a long year of backlash in which nationalist and formerly pro-Ottoman papers minimized what had happened, focused on the alleged Armenian wartime stab in the back, and justified what the Young Turk leadership had done as “military necessities.”

The debate could have ended here, but then, in March 1921, Talât Pasha, former Ottoman Grand Vizier and Minister of the Interior as well as the widely perceived author of the genocide, was assassinated in a crowded Berlin shopping street. Three months later the assassin stood trial in Berlin and was acquitted by a jury – the trial had been completely turned around and focused rather on the Armenian Genocide and Talât Pasha’s role in it than on the actual assassination.

Not only shocked by the outcome of the trial but also by all the evidence and testimony produced in the Berlin court, the German press again focused on the Armenian Genocide in depth. Discussing the trial, the German papers reproduced a horrifying liturgy of genocidal suffering. Now the whole German press landscape, including the formerly denialist papers, came to accept the charge of “genocide” against the Young Turk leadership. Again, the debate did not come to an end here, another backlash followed. Nationalist papers again offered justifications, but now for what even they understood as genocide. And this after the German genocide debate had already gone on since 1919 and after it had included all the ingredients needed for a true genocide debate: detailed elaborations on the scope, intent for, and ramifications of this “murder of a people.” And it was on this note that the debate simmered for another two years until the Treaty of Lausanne was signed (establishing modern Turkey).

All this would perhaps not be that important, had Germany not been merely ten years before Hitler’s rise to power: A genocide debate had not only taken place, but had ended in justifications for genocide. Even then, the true saliency of the topic lay in the racial and national view of the Armenians held by many of the German commentators: they were seen as the (true) “Jews of the Orient,” either as equivalent to the Jews of Europe or even “worse.” This German anti-Armenianism was as old as Germany’s tradition of excusing violence against the Armenians (especially since the 1890s) and was a carbon copy of modern, racial Anti-Semitism. In this logic, it had been no surprise that in 1922, when another two Young Turks were assassinated in Berlin, the nationalist press connected the Armenian assassins to the German Jewish question. Consciously confusing the two categories, the (hyper-)nationalist press called for an “ethnic surgeon” to cut out what was eating away at Germany’s flesh.

So, who was still talking about the Armenians in the Third Reich? Surprisingly, almost nobody. The Nazis were remarkably silent on the topic, but were very vocal on what had followed the Armenian Genocide. The rise of the New Turkey and all the accomplishments of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk were important ingredients in the Nazi political imagination. In the German interwar and Nazi discourses on the New Turkey, one finds a chilling propagation of what a post-genocidal country, one cleansed of its minorities, could achieve: To the Nazis, the New Turkey was something of a post-genocidal wonderland, something that Germany would have to emulate. The Nazis were discussing the Turkish model already in the early 1920s. A German-Jewish newspaper reader and critic of Anti-Semitism, Siegfried Lichtenstaedter, understood the “Turkish lessons” formulated in Nazi articles (in 1923 and 1924) to mean that the Jews of Germany and Austria should be, and had to be, killed and their property given to “Aryans.” He wrote this in his 1926 book Anti-Semitica.

In the end it does not matter how important we find the possible influences exerted from the Armenian Genocide on the Nazis—they surely did not need to learn their murderous business from others. What they did learn was that there were many people, even in an open pluralistic society who would ignore, rationalize, or even outright justify genocidal violence. Even the Churches did not significantly intervene for fellow Christians. To paraphrase the impression of a Jewish reader of Werfel’s book in the ghettos during World War II: If nobody would save Christians, who would intervene for the Jews? And if German nationalists could find it in themselves to justify the genocide of Christians and were not met with much opposition in the German public, who would speak out for the Jews?

There are no easy and automatic casual connections from one genocide to the next, but the Armenian Genocide and its close proximity to the Holocaust illustrate the importance and the pitfalls of how we come to terms with the past. They also illustrate that we are far from done with struggling to understand the tragic 20th century. This is why the Armenian Genocide finally needs to take its place, and be allowed to take its place, in the bloody history of the 20th century, not only generally in world history, but specifically in European and German history.

Stefan Ihrig is the author of Justifying Genocide: Germany and the Armenians from Bismarck to Hitler published by Harvard University Press.

Girardin: Bill criminalizing denial of Armenian Genocide considered in France

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genocide-franceYEREVAN. – Currently both the French Senate and National Assembly are holding debates concerning the bill criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide. Minister of State for Development and Francophonie of France, Annick Girardin, said the aforementioned today, touching on the question at which stage is the bill on criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial in France.

She reminded that France has acknowledged the Armenian Genocide, two president-level visits to Armenia took place, and France also took part in the events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

“The issue of the Armenian Genocide was touched on the sidelines of the International Organisation of La Francophonie, whose chairman condemned the Armenian Genocide. Apparently, we acknowledge this realia, but it’s necessary to understand that this is one of the pages of history, which must be turned. We are here to provide efficient support to Armenian in different spheres – economy, tourism and education –  so that the youth of Armenian is able to properly use their knowledge in favor of the country’s development,” Annick Girardin said.

On December 3 last year, the French parliament considered the bill on criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.  The bill was drafted by the French opposition MP of the Republican Party Valérie Boyer. On November 25, the draft was debated in Senate’s Justice Committee.

The abovementioned bill was adopted by the Lower Chamber of the French parliament in December 2011, and by the Senate in January 2012. In response, Turkey froze its diplomatic and economic ties with France. However, President Sarkozy refused to sign the law, giving time for its contestation in the Constitutional Court.

On 29 February 2012, the law was ruled to contradict the French Constitution. Later it turned out that one of the French Constitutional Court members was in correspondence with the Turkish ex-FM Yaşar Yakış and had assured him that the bill wouldn’t be adopted.