This unsung hero who rescued 250,000 people during the genocide of Armenians

January 16, 2016 By administrator

arton120970-450x254 Despite his rescue acts that command respect, history was not recognized as it should be, not only around the world but also in the US and Armenia. The Board of Directors of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation has decided to pay tribute to his life in a series of events that will soon be made public. Jennings, a native of upstate New York, was a Minister of Disabled Cult of a small town. At the turn of the twentieth century,

Despite his rescue acts that command respect, history was not recognized as it should be, not only around the world but also in the US and Armenia.

The Board of Directors of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation has decided to pay tribute to his life in a series of events that will soon be made public.

clip_image003_2_-300x145-300x145 Jennings, a native of upstate New York, was a Minister of Disabled Cult of a small town. At the turn of the twentieth century, he worked as a clerk at the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) in the prosperous city of Smyrna, Turkey.

Asa Kent Jennings, an American hero who rescued 250,000 people during the Armenian Genocide.

In September 1922, the Turkish Nationalist army entered the city with the intent to massacre all Christians residents, Armenians and Greeks for most. A huge fire broke out in the city on September 13, trapping countless refugees in a narrow band near the sea. Hundreds of thousands were doomed to die on the shore of the city. Many of them succumbed to epidemics, hunger or thirst, besieged by the Turks.

Made aware of their plight, Jennings created a first aid center for pregnant women in an empty building on the coast. He then organized a fleet of boats with the help of the US Navy in a bold and creative bailout.

The evacuation and organized by Jennings transported 250,000 refugees from Smyrna to the Greek islands and the cities of Thessaloniki and Piraeus.

This blitz will be made only seven days, only Turkish city amid peril and deportations. His courage and imagination have saved a quarter of a million people a terrible death.

Published January 11, 2016

By Siranush Ghazanchyan

Translation Gilbert Béguian

http://www.armenianlife.com/2016/01/11/an-unsung-american-hero-to-be-honored-for-saving-250000-people-during-the-armenian-genocide/

Book on Dersim Armenians is published in Turkey

January 13, 2016 By administrator

Book dersim A book by Kazım Gündoğan, and entitled Grandchildren of the Priest: Dersim Armenians, was published in Turkey, Akunq.net reported.

According to the source, this book comprises the stories of the Armenians who had survived the massacres that took place in 1937 and 1938 in Turkey’s Tunceli—then Dersim—Province.

At present, these Christian Armenians live in Turkey, Germany, and France. The author of the book met with them, and he wrote down their stories about their lives before the genocide, recollections of the genocide, and memories of Turkification and Islamicization.

The author wrote in the book that Dersim was a problem for the Ottoman Empire, and the Republic of Turkey likewise continues considering Dersim a problem.

Armeni Genocide must be acknowledged before it can be stopped

January 9, 2016 By administrator

By Kathryn Jean Lopez
The Herald

A sign with a flower outside a cathedral at what has to be one of Manhattan’s busiest intersections on 34th Street and Second Avenue stands as a subtle reminder of genocide. One wonders how many diplomats on the way to and from the United Nations headquarters, tourists and commuters have passed it this year without noticing the banner for the centennial year of the Armenian genocide outside St. Vartan Cathedral.

2015 marked the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, even as the massacre still goes unacknowledged throughout the world. As Philadelphia archbishop Charles J. Chaput put it in a speech: “Starting in 1915, Turkish officials deliberately murdered more than 1 million members of Turkey’s Armenian minority. The ethnic and religious cleansing campaign went on into the 1920s. [The victims] were overwhelmingly Christian. Turkey has never acknowledged the genocide. It’s one of the worst unrepented crimes in history.”

And there could be other such crimes on the way. By way of a brief tour, Chaput said: “Today we have our own tragedies, from church bombings in Pakistan to the beheadings of Christians in North Africa. More than 70 percent of the world now lives with some form of religious coercion. Tens of thousands of Christians are killed every year for reasons linked to their faith.”

I was heartened to see President Obama issue a statement just before Christmas recognizing “brutal atrocities” being committed against Christians in Iraq and Syria. “In some areas of the Middle East where church bells have rung for centuries on Christmas Day, this year they will be silent; this silence bears tragic witness to the brutal atrocities committed against these communities by [ISIS].”

In the weeks preceding Christmas, it was reported that the White House soon would issue a statement labeling the slaughter of the Yazidi people in Iraq genocide. While applauding that move, an ecumenical coalition urged that the administration include Middle Eastern Christians in the designation.

As the letter sent to Secretary of State John Kerry signed by pastors, scholars and activists put it: “We have extensive files supporting a finding that ISIS’ treatment of Iraqi and Syrian Christians, as well as Yazidis and other vulnerable minorities, meets this definition. They include evidence of ISIS assassinations of church leaders; mass murders; torture; kidnapping for ransom in the Christian communities of Iraq and Syria; its sexual enslavement and systematic rape of Christian girls and women; its practices of forcible conversions to Islam; its destruction of churches, monasteries, cemeteries and Christian artifacts; and its theft of lands and wealth from Christian clergy and laity alike.”

In testimony before Congress shortly thereafter, Carl Anderson, head of the Knights of Columbus, which has an emergency aid campaign supporting church efforts in the region, urged: “The United States is rightly viewed as the world’s leading defender of vulnerable minorities, and it is critically important that the State Department consider the best available evidence before issuing a statement that would exclude Christians. An official government declaration of genocide is an opportunity to bring America’s religious communities together to pursue the truth, to support victims, and to bear witness to the noble principle of ‘Never Again.’”

The White House could listen to its own ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, Rabbi David Saperstein. He was in Rome in December, where he said that the West “cannot remain silent” about what is happening to Christians, who are in danger of being “wiped out.” President Obama, not for the first time, said something beautiful about religious freedom. Acknowledging the fact of genocide against Christians in the world today would put some teeth to his words.

Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review Online and founding director of Catholic Voices USA.

Lebanon Armenian: Genocide recognition is anachronism

January 8, 2016 By administrator

Armenian genocide demond Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Dashnaktsutyun Party member, Lebanese Armenian Yervant Pamboukian, believes that Armenian Genocide recognition is now an anachronism.

“We [i.e. Armenians] are only spiritually comforted when we hear that a country has recognized the Genocide,” Pamboukian told Armenian News-NEWS.am. “It’s important that Turkey, US, [and] Great Britain recognize the Genocide, since the state sources of these very countries have documents on the Genocide. The ambassadors of these very countries were the first to gather the materials of that period.

“But we know that they will never recognize the Genocide. [And] the recognition by other countries will not give us anything.”

In the ARF member’s words, Armenians need to move ahead and demand not solely financial reparations, but also the lands they have lost.

“Today, the Armenian authorities and the [Armenian] diaspora organizations need to develop and submit a [respective] joint resolution,” Yervant Pamboukian added. “Otherwise, the rest is a consolation of a burned heart.”

Alper Öktem: Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide

January 7, 2016 By administrator

Alper Öktem, Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide

By Hambersom Aghbashian,

Dr.Alper Öktem (born on 11 March 1954 in Dikili- Turkey) is a Radiologist and Human Rights activist. he finished his primary education in Burdur. He started to pursue his secondary education at the Maarif Koleji in Eskişehir, continued in Konya and finished it in Istanbul at the Kadıköy Maarif Koleji. In 1978, he graduated from Faculty of Medicine at Hacettepe University in Ankara. He went to Germany for specialization in radiology. In the 1980s he helped Turkish refugees who underwent torture. He has been supporting the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey for more than twenty years. Moreover, he is a board member of the Democratic Turkey Forum in Germany. Dr. Öktem has been assisting Cem Özdemir, Co-Chairman of the Unity Green Party, especially on the topics of human rights, peace and democracy in Turkey, ever since Özdemir was first voted into parliament in 1993. In 2000-2001 he published the weekly supplement Perşembe for the German daily newspaper “Die Tageszeitung”. Perşembe aimed at bringing together German society and migrants on equal ground in the same media platform, making migrants equal members of society, especially through deepening the dialogue in the media, and reporting human rights violations in Turkey. Dr. Alper Öktem is married, has two children and lives in Bielefeld, Germany, where he works as a radiologist. ⁽¹⁾

According to www.hrantdink.org , “The Fund for the Support of Historical Studies, created with the kind assistance of Dr. Alper Öktem, one of the supporters of the Hrant Dink Foundation, promotes research on humanistic acts during 1915, with the aim to search and find people who with a clear conscience serve as an example for mankind, and consequently to disclose an insufficiently investigated aspect of history. Through the Fund, support will be given to research, academic work and biographies on people – in modern parlance; human rights defenders – who through their humanist acts in Anatolia during 1915 influenced other people’s lives. Such people and their acts may already be known or not known yet. In the latter case, the research should help to reveal these people and that their acts be exposed to public knowledge. ⁽²⁾

On March 14, 2015, Hrant Dink Foundation hold its conference ” Conscience and responsibility in the Armenian Genocide: New research and survivors,” at Cezayir Meeting Hall, Istanbul. The Hrant Dink Foundation’s “History and Memory Research Fund,” which was created with the assistance of Dr. Alper Öktem in 2010, supported the conference. The conference opened with speeches by the coordinators Ayşe Gül Altınay from Sabancı University and Betül Tanbay from Boğaziçi University. Alper Öktem, the sponsor of the fund, underlined the notion of conscience and added: “Today, I still have difficulty talking about the genocide. However, talking is very important to understand it. I think that making it clear that ‘there were righteous people’ could contribute to the acknowledgement process in a pragmatic fashion.” Abdullah Demirbaş, a former mayor of the Sur district of Diyarbakır province, spoke about the experiences of “multicultural municipalism” that he implemented in Sur between 2004 and 2014. “In 1915, they had Armenians for breakfast and in 1924 and 1938, they had Kurds for lunch. That’s why we need to apologize and I as a Kurd apologize on behalf of my ancestors for crimes they committed against people.” Burçin Gerçek, a researcher and journalist, presented the officers who defied orders in Diyarbakır province. Adnan Çelik, a Ph.D. candidate at Paris-EHESS, presented the results of his oral history research on the collective memory of Kurds about the Armenian genocide, conducted with researcher and historian Namık Kemal Dinç. Öykü Gürpınar, a Ph.D. student at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, spoke about the transformation of an Armenian village, Pokr Armıdan, into a Muslim-populated village. Melis Behlil from Kadir Has University presented “The Armenian Genocide and its aftermath in non-fiction film”. ” Özlem Galip from the University of Oxford discussed the policies of remembering in the context of Kurdish novels. Wendy Hamelink from Leiden University spoke about cultural memories of Armenians from Sassoun. Armen Marsoobian from Southern Connecticut State University started his presentation by asking: “Why were some Armenians not deported? Who were the chief actors in the deportation decisions? What criteria were used to exempt families? How many were exempted?” and explained his points. George Shirinian from the Zorian Institute drew a theoretical framework for the narrative of rescuers. “There were many Muslims who welcomed Armenian orphans from the genocide in their houses,” Shirinian said, but added, “This can also be seen as a form of slavery because the overwhelming majority of children above the age of 13 became servants in the houses of Muslims and were Islamized.” Ümit Kurt, a Ph.D. candidate at Clark University, then told the story of Cemil Bahri Könne, a Kurdish officer who helped Armenians exiled from Aintab. Neslihan Sarıhan traced the footsteps of Armenians in Fatsa by examining the life story of an Islamized Armenian.Finally, Ishkhan Chiftjian from Hamburg University presented the story of Hoca Çamurdan, the mufti of Sis (today’s Kozan), who saved six members of the Armenian Faracyan family, including the father.⁽³⁾
____________________________________________________________________________________

1- http://www.hrantdink.org/Index.php?Detail=724&Lang=en

2- http://www.hrantdink.org/Index.php?Detail=724&Lang=en

3- http://www.turkishreview.org/reviews-briefs/a-door-from-the-past-to-the-future_552737

Wave of Armenian Genocide acknowledgement on the rise in South America

January 6, 2016 By administrator

genocide recognition The issue of the international acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide is part of Argentine’s policy and not a fragmentary demand. ARF Dashnaktsutyun member and Vice President of the Socialist International’s (SI) Committee for the CIS, the Caucasus and the Black Sea, Mario Nalbandian, told the aforementioned to Armenian News – NEWS.am correspondent.

“We have been struggling for many years and can now definitely say that any party and politician in Argentine takes the issue of the Armenian Genocide very seriously. The newly-appointed president used to be the Mayor of Buenos Aires and always supported us over the 8 years of work. The wave for the acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide has risen in South America and it must continue,” Nalbandian said.

According to him, after the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide it’s necessary to shift to a new stage, where legal requirements will be presented. According to Nalbandian, the struggle of Armenians served as an example for other nations.

NEWSPAPER: Hocine Ait Ahmed: the Algeria must respond in the same way that Turkey against Armenians

January 3, 2016 By administrator

arton120522-231x300 Tens of thousands of people welcomed, Friday, January 1, the body of the opponent Hocine Aït Ahmed in his native village, 160 kilometers southwest of the capital. He who was one of the fathers of the independence of Algeria was to be buried early in the afternoon.

The body of Hocine Aït Ahmed, died December 23 in Lausanne, Switzerland, was repatriated on Thursday in Algiers, where the entire government honored him. A wake was held in the capital at the headquarters of his party, the Socialist Forces Front (FFS), which he founded in 1963 after breaking up with his brothers in arms who fought the French colonial power up independence in 1962.

On arrival of the funeral procession in the village of Ait Ahmed, the ambulance carrying civil protection body was greeted with shouts, in Kabyle or Arabic, for “today and tomorrow, Hocine remain alive! “And” Algeria, free and democratic! “. Many people were trying to touch the coffin, wrapped in the national flag.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, himself a veteran of the War of Independence, declared a national mourning eight days and funerals worthy of those of a head of state. These were broadcast live on national television, which contrasts with the fate of the man who was often bullied by the official media for his opposition to the regime.

Following the death of Hocine Aït Ahmed, the president of Algeria paid tribute to the “great man” who has “accomplished with abnegation and dedication to his duty and militant Mujahid”. Francois Hollande, President of France, hailed “one of the great historical figures [of Algeria], a leading architect of its independence and committed actor of political life.”

Ait Ahmed was the last survivor of the nine “son of All Saints’ heads that triggered the war of Algeria against the French colonial power, on 1 November 1954.

Hocine Ait Ahmed, warned in humanist, had particularly said in the June 2005 issue of the journal Together organ of the Cultural Association of popular education:

“Hunt the Blackfoot was more than a crime, a fault because our beloved country has lost its social identity. “

“Do not forget that religions, Jewish and Christian cultures were in Africa long before the Arab-Muslims, too colonizers, now hegemonic. With the Blackfoot and dynamism – and I mean the Blackfoot and not the French -, Algeria today would be a great African Mediterranean power. Alas ! I recognize that we have committed political and strategic errors. There was towards Blackfoot unacceptable faults, war crimes against innocent civilians and which Algeria must respond in the same way that Turkey against the Armenians. “

Sunday, January 3, 2016,
Stéphane © armenews.com

Neşe Düzel : Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide

December 30, 2015 By administrator

Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide
Neşe Düzel

By Hambersom Aghbashian,

Nese Duzel (born in Aydin-Turkey) is a Turkish writer and journalist, very well known for her interviews with outstanding intellectuals and political activists. Nese Duzel is a graduate of Izmir’s Ege University and started to work in journalism in 1979 . She was a reporter and writer for Milliyet and Hurriyet newspapers and for Taraf. On 14 December 2012, she followed the founding editor-in-chief of daily “Taraf” Ahmet Altan, his assistant editor Yasemin Çongar, columnists Murat Belge, and stepped down from her post at the newspaper*. Taraf patron Başar Arslan appointed the former managing editor Markar Esayan “temporarily” to take over its editorial chair. On February 1, 2013, Oral Çalışlar was appointed as editor-in-Chief, but he also resigned and Nese Duzel became the new editor-in- chief . Nese Duzel published many books among them “Deleted to a desired memory Pursuit” (sells Books/2012), where she compiled her interviews, “Fearless History” (Alkim Publications/2011) and “Turkey’s Hidden Face” (Communication Publications/2002).

According to “Radikal newspaper, Istanbul, June 30, 2000,” Nese Duzel interviewed Professor Halil Berktay, a historian of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Turkey, who has taught at Birmingham University (UK), Harvard, Middle East Technical University (Ankara), and Bogazici University (Istanbul), and currently is a member of the faculty at Sabanci University (Istanbul). Nese Duzel, through her questions about the Armenian genocide, the history of it, the reasons, the execution, the consequences and many other aspects, could reveal lot of facts concerning the Armenian Genocide, an issue which was a taboo in Turkey at that time, but professor Berktay explained, analyzed and unfolded the files of 1915 Armenian Genocide. ₍₁₎

Neşe Düzel interviewed late Hrant Dink ,(Radikal, 23 may 2005), where she reminded him asking in an interview before years “What happened to the civilization, the wealth, created by thousands of years old society, i.e. the Armenians? And asked him to whom did it go? Dink explained whom did it go and continued “….Because a law called ‘Abounded Properties’ was issued, a dead line was given to the Armenians. It was said ‘let them come; we will give them their goods’. The goods of Armenians who didn’t come within the prescribed period of time went to the Treasury.” Hrant Dink was assassinated on January 19, 2007, and after 10 years from the interview , in 2015, Tanier Akcam and Umit Kurt published a book titled “The Spirit of the Laws: The Plunder of Wealth in the Armenian Genocide”, they said” We only cracked the door open slightly with the hope of making small contribution to the shock and transformation, which was awaited, predicted, and hoped for…” ₍₂₎

The “I Apologize Campaign” is an initiative that was launched in December 2008 in Turkey by numerous journalists, politicians, and professors that calls for an apology for what they considered as the “Great Catastrophe that Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in 1915”, through a form of a signature campaign.That which is an expression used to avoid using “Armenian Genocide” and the consequences of using it. The stated “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. I apologize to them.” The campaign was signed by 30,000 signatories by January 2009. The campaign, which some interpreted as in direct reference to the Armenian Genocide, created widespread outrage in Turkish society. Neşe Düzel was one of the notable signatories. ₍₃₎

Taraf Newspaper wrote on 20th April 2010 “A group of intellectuals, among them 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, under the leader-ship of “Say Stop!” group. The commemoration will start in front of the tram station in Taksim Square. The following abstracts are from the text of the commemoration activity, “This pain is OUR pain. This mourning is for ALL of US. In 1915, when our population was just 13 million, 1,5 to 2 million Armenians were living in these lands…. In April 24, 1915 they started “to send them”. We lost them. They are no longer available. They have not even graves. But the “Great Pain” of the “Great Disaster”, with its utmost gravity EXISTS in our pain”. Ümit Kıvanç was one of the intellectuals who signed the text. ₍₄₎

_______________________________________________________________________

* Daily Taraf, was the source of the many agenda-setting reports in recent Turkish history, and it also became the first Turkish partner of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, joining internationally known publications in signing a contract to publish the site’s leaked documents firsthand. The daily published a series of highly controversial stories that revealed the involvement of the Turkish military in daily political affairs. In his well-honed daily columns, Altan attacked Erdogan as a “hollow bully,” ready to adopt ultranationalist policies to further his own ambitions. The prime minister won a libel suit against Altan for calling him “arrogant, uninformed, and uninterested.”

1- http://www.atour.com/~aahgn/news/20010105d.html

2- https://books.google.com/books?id=os2dBAAAQBAJ&pg=PP5&lpg=PP5&dq=Nese+duzel+and+the+armenian+genocide

3- http://www.latimes.com/la-oe-ozyurek5-2009jan05-story.html

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

Turkish historian: Something like Armenian Genocide is occurring in Turkey

December 26, 2015 By administrator

Somthing like armenian YEREVAN. – A force that considers the Kurds an internal enemy currently rules in Turkey, stated renowned Turkish historian Ayşe Hür.

Hür commented on the Turkish authorities’ policy conducted in the country’s Kurdish-populated regions, and stressed that PM Ahmet Davutoğlu’s statement—“We will clean up in each home”—is a mafia terminology and contains a hint of genocide, reported the Kurdish DIHA news agency.

“The developments unrolling today [in Turkey] are similar to the 1915 Armenian Genocide,” Ayşe Hür said. “In 1915, the Armenians also were in a political awakening and were making political demands, which ended with the deportation and genocide.”

IT’S GENOCIDE: Congressional Leaders Urge Obama To Properly Characterize ISIS Attacks On Christians

December 25, 2015 By administrator

ANCA Graphic urging US to properly characterize ISIS attacks against Christians as ‘genocide’

WASHINGTON — With Christmas just a day away, 30 U.S. Representatives, led by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA), have called on the Obama Administration to condemn the ongoing Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) attacks against Christians and other Middle East minorities as ‘genocide,’ reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

The December 23rd letter, addressed to Secretary of State John Kerry comes in response to reports that the Obama Administration is set to characterize the ISIS attacks on Yezidis as genocide, but will stop short of similarly referencing the murder and destruction of Christians and other minority groups. “While it is hardly possible to overstate the brutality of ISIL’s attempts to destroy the Yezidis, an overly narrow finding would wrongly discount similar violence directed against other minorities in the region, with likely dire consequences for those minorities,” noted the letter. The Congressional letter cited the recent U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report which, “call[ed] on the US government to designate the Christian, Yazidi, Shi’a, Turkmen and Shabak communities of Iraq and Syria as victims of Genocide by ISIL.”

The effort is part of a broad outcry of concern by Congressional leaders, genocide experts and rights groups, including the ANCA, to secure a clear U.S. genocide determination regarding the anti-Christian atrocities, including calls for passage of various U.S. House and Senate genocide measures and Obama Administration’s determination.

Hovsepian: “It’s Deja Vu All Over Again”
ANCA Western Region Chairwoman Nora Hovsepian outlined why the ANCA and the Armenian Americans are working hard with Assyrian-Chaldean, Greek and an array of human rights groups on securing the proper characterization of the ISIS genocide against Christians in this recent interview with the LA Daily News. “With respect to what’s happening in the Middle East now, it’s deja vu all over again. It’s like chapter two,” Hovsepian said. “Unfortunately, the United States’ policy at this point is baffling to us. Of course it’s a genocide against (Christians) as well. One of the reasons why it’s happening now is because it happened 100 years ago. (Turkey) got away with it then, with zero accountability.”

Last week ANCA Legislative Affairs Director Raffi Karakashian joined In Defense of Christians (IDC) Executive Director Kirsten Evans, A Demand For Action Executive Director Steve Oshana, and renowned genocide expert Greg Stanton for a meeting with White House officials to make the case for the proper genocide designation. On the same day, ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian participated in a White House briefing on Syrian refugees, urging the US to close gaps in aid to Armenian and other Christian victims of ISIS and other Islamic extremist groups.

In Defense of Christians Press Conference Spotlights Need for Immediate Action
The December 16th Capitol Hill press conference, organized by In Defense of Christians (IDC), a nonpartisan organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of Christians and Christian culture in the Middle East, brought the issue of the ongoing ISIS genocide front and center.

“When genocide has been committed or is looming the President and Congress should publicly say so and take robust actions to end it and ensure accountability,” explained Helsinki Commission Chairman Chris Smith (R-NJ), speaking at the press conference. “Any failure by President Obama to recognize the ongoing genocide against Christians would be irresponsible, indefensible, and unconscionable.”

Armenian and Assyrian American Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, who, along with Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) serves as Co-Chair of the House Caucus for Religious Minorities in the Middle East said, “This is history for my family that is repeating itself all over again. […] Future generations will look at us and ask ‘did they do anything?’”

“We cannot underestimate the moral authority the United States has when we simply utter what is true,” stated Rep. Fortenberry, holding a photo of Christians shackled by ISIS abductors prior to their murder.

Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) refuted arguments that labeling the slaughter of Christians ‘genocide’ is a form of religious bias. “It is not about a test of religion. It is about special protection for victims of targeted and systematic persecution.”

Internationally reknowned Genocide and human rights expert, Dr. Greg Stanton outlined how the ISIS actions against Christians meets the internationally agreed UN definition of ‘genocide’ and went on to explain why that designation is important.

“‘Genocide’ is a much more powerful word that ‘crimes against humanity,’ war crimes, ‘ethnic cleansing,’ or ‘atrocity crimes,’” noted Stanton, citing a 2007 study he and colleagues had conducted on the words used in The New York Times to describe the Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo and Darfur genocides. “We discovered that as long as ‘ethnic cleansing’ was used, there was no forceful action to stop it. As soon as the situations were called ‘genocide,’ forceful action resulted and ended the killing, except in Darfur where a UN Commission of Inquiry rejected the ‘genocide’ word.”

Stanton went on to identify the two most important reasons for the ‘genocide’ designation, explaining first that the word “more strongly justifies our broad coalition military support for Kurdish and Iraqi forces to defeat ISIS;” and second, “members of such groups are much more likely to receive preferential treatment as bona fide refugees under the UN Convention and Protocols on the Status of Refugees.”

Nina Shea, Director of the Hudson Institute Center for Religious Freedom, cited the importance of political advocacy by Christians and all Americans of good conscience in support of passage Congressional legislation characterizing the ISIS attacks as Genocide, and finished her remarks with a simple question: “To Secretary Kerry, Samantha Power, and President Obama I ask, ‘Where are you?’”

“In August of 2014 the Iraqi parliament decried the atrocities and crimes against humanity targeting religious minorities under ISIS as a genocide. Many others have done the same, including Pope Francis, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, and the world’s leading international association of genocide scholars. In Defense of Christians has been working hard to ensure that the United States government, both Congress and the State Department, do the same,” stated IDC Executive Director Kirsten Evans when opening the conference.

Other experts offering remarks at the press conference included Dr. Randel Everett, President of the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative; Dr. Chris Seiple, Chairman of the Board at the Institute of Global Engagement; Louay Mikhael, IDC Special Advisor on Iraq and Mr. Mark Tooley, President of the Institute on Religious and Democracy.

Broad Coalition in Support of Designating ISIS Anti-Christian Attacks ‘Genocide’

Over the past months, a diverse group of religious, civic and ethnic groups have petitioned the White House to include Christians in their ‘genocide’ designation when describing ISIS atrocities.

On November 25th, the ANCA joined Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac rights group “A Demand for Action,” IDC and over 20 organizations in urging swift Obama Administration action. “Calling genocide by its proper name cannot wait for a ruling by a court of law. Under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide we have an obligation to work toward prevention and punishment,” stated the letter.

On December 4th, the Knights of Columbus and Hudson Institute Center for Religious Freedom led a similar effort urging Secretary Kerry to take action. “The United States is rightly viewed the world’s leading defender of vulnerable minorities, and as an historic safe-haven for those fleeing religious persecution. A declaration of genocide by the State Department is thus a unique opportunity to bring America’s religious communities together to pursue the truth, to support the victims, and to bear witness to the noble principle of ‘Never Again,’” noted the letter, cosigned by the ANCA and a number of Armenian American leaders including the His Eminence Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, Prelate, Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America (Eastern); and Archbishop Vicken Aykazian Ecumenical Director and Legate, Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern).

In a September, 2015, appeal, over 40 respected experts in the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), called on Congress to designate the ISIS crimes against Christians and other minorities ‘genocide’ and went further to call for concrete international action to prevent future atrocities. “ISIS leaders should be prosecuted in the International Criminal Court (ICC) for their crimes. The U.N. Security Council should refer ISIS crimes to the ICC for investigation and prosecution. The UN and Regional Organizations should act swiftly and firmly, and follow-up with police force to arrest ISIS leaders,” stated the letter by Genocide scholars.
Prior to Chairman Royce’s joint Congressional letter, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) sent his personal appeal to Secretary Kerry, questioning the distinction being placed between the plight of Yezidis as opposed to Christians and other minorities targeted by ISIS in the Middle East, stemming primarily from a recent U.S. Holocaust Museum report which focused primarily on Iraq’s Nineveh province as opposed to Iraq and Syria overall. “ISIS targets Christians on the bases of their religious identity, without regard to where they are located. It is imperative that the State Department approach its decision for genocide designation in terms of which religious minorities are being persecuted, rather than where they live,” stated Rep. Pompeo. View Rep. Pompeo’s letter here:

Congressional Resolutions Condemning Christian Genocide Abound; Votes Yet to be Scheduled

Senators and Representative have introduced a number of resolutions referencing the ISIS actions against Christians, Yezidis and other minorities ‘genocide,’ though no vote has yet been scheduled on any of these pieces of legislation.

The resolution with the greatest Congressional and grassroots support is led by Congressman Fortenberry and Congressowman Eshoo. With over 160 cosponsors, H.Con.Res.75, which the IDC supports, expresses the “sense of Congress that those who commit or support atrocities against Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities, including Yezidis, Turkmen, Sabea-Mandeans, Kaka‘e, and Kurds, and who target them specifically for ethnic or religious reasons, are committing, and are hereby declared to be committing, ‘war crimes,’ ‘crimes against humanity,’ and ‘genocide.’”

The ANCA has teamed up with IDC to set up an action alert urging Congressional support for H.Con.Res.75.

Earlier this week, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) introduced S.Res.340, a resolution “expressing the sense of Congress that the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS or Da’esh) is committing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, and calling upon the President to work with foreign governments and the United Nations to provide physical protection for ISIS’ targets, to support the creation of an international criminal tribunal with jurisdiction to punish these crimes, and to use every reasonable means, including sanctions, to destroy ISIS and disrupt its support networks.” The resolution, cosponsored by Republican Presidential Candidate Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Senators Mark Kirk (R-IL), Joe Manchin (D-WV), and Roger Wicker (R-MS), notes that “communities of Assyrian Chaldean Syriac, Armenian, Evangelical, and Melkite Christians; Kurds; Yezidis; Shia and Sunni Muslims; Turkmen; Sabea-Mandeans; Kaka‘e; and Shabaks have been an integral part of the cultural fabric of the Middle East for millennia.”

Congressman Rohrabacher has introduced H.R. 4017, a bill which would expedite the processing of immigrant and refugee visas for Christian and Yezidi victims of ISIS genocide. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) had earlier introduced a similar resolution (H.Res.435).

A number of Senate and House resolutions have noted that ISIS has “threatened genocide” against Christians and other minorities including, S.2377, introduced by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and H.R. 4208, introduced by Rep. Scott Rigell (R-VA).

H.Res.440, spearheaded by Rep. David Trott (R-MI) and Brad Sherman (D-CA), calls for for “urgent international action on behalf of Iraqi and Syrian civilians facing a dire humanitarian crisis and severe persecution because of their faith or ethnicity in the Nineveh Plain region of Iraq and Khabor, Kobane, and Aleppo regions of Syria.” The resolution, which has over 15 cosponsors, specifically notes that Islamic extremist attacks “have had a particularly severe effect on ethnic and religious minority communities such as Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac Christians, Armenians, Yezidis, Shabak and other minorities in the region.”