Gagrule.net

Gagrule.net News, Views, Interviews worldwide

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • GagruleLive
  • Armenia profile

U.S., UK should regard Armenian Genocide as a crime: Robertson

October 30, 2017 By administrator

The Armenian Genocide should not be regarded as only a tragedy, but as a crime, human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson said at a book launch in Sidney last week.

The presentation of “Genocide Perspectives V: A Global Crime, Australian Voices” was headlined by Robertson and senior crown prosecutor for NSW Mark Tedeschi.

The latest volume in this important series is dedicated to the lifelong contribution to genocide research by Australia’s Professor Colin Tatz, who penned a chapter about genocide education and received a standing ovation on the night, the Jewish News reports.

Co-edited by researchers Nikki Marczak and Kirril Shields from the Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, it features a collection of essays by Australian scholars that not only explore international perspectives and pressing questions related to genocide, but also Australia’s own history of genocide against its Indigenous peoples – which Robertson described as “the mote in our own eye”.

At the event, Robertson spoke about the growing problem in the International Criminal Court of judges defining too specifically what constitutes intent to commit genocide, “making it more difficult to prosecute”.

He also touched on the “massive problem of genocide denial by governments” – particularly Turkey regarding the Armenian Genocide, and said countries including the USA, UK and Australia should not continue to refer to that Genocide only as a tragedy, but as a crime.

Related links:

Jewish News. Perspectives on genocide

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: armenian genocide, geoffrey robertson

Los Angeles Geoffrey Robertson Confirms the Right to Self-determination of the Nagorno Karabakh

May 15, 2016 By administrator

arton126420-480x321May 13, 2016,

USA Armenian Life Magazine

Los Angeles – Last Wednesday, 20 April, the Assembly welcomed the successful presentation of the book An Inconvenient Genocide: Who Remembers the Armenians Now? [An Embarrassing Genocide: Who to Present Remembers the Armenians?] Written by the eminent advocate of human rights and author Geoffrey Robertson QC; This presentation was held in Universal City, California. The event attracted many people, and the hall was packed. “The Armenian Assembly of America was proud to present a giant field of international human rights, to talk about the results of his historical research on the facts that led to this unquestionable genocide” and said Anthony Barsamian, “the Armenian Assembly wishes to maintain momentum while for its part, the Office of the Assembly of the Western Region is continuing its efforts to the same end. Mihran Toumajian and Aline Maksoudian spared no effort to make this event a success. “ During the discussions, Barsamian described the work of the Assembly in Washington DC, the right to self-determination of the people of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh, and spoke of the irresponsible initiatives of Turkey in the region, addressing directly to the Turkish President Erdogan Erdogan, stop killing your own people. Stop killing the Kurdish people, stop killing Christians in the region, and stop promoting violence against the Armenians of Karabakh. “ Co-Chair introduced Robertson, who spoke of the latest edition of his book An Inconvenient Genocide.? Who Now Remembers the Armenians was first published in 2014 and circulated for a second printing in 2015, to reflect the successes of the Armenian community and its advances under the commemorations of the centennial of the Armenian Genocide. He paid tribute to the tireless efforts to include the Armenian Genocide in the curriculum. “If we do not understand the Armenian Genocide, we will not understand the Holocaust and the genocides that followed,” said Robertson.

Robertson also spoke about the rights of citizens of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh and thinks that “independence is possible.”

“The Armenians worldwide are grateful to Mr. Robertson for his straight talking, face the systematic denial and distortion of historical facts by Turkey and Azerbaijan. Mr. Robertson holds the language of truth not only about the reality of the Armenian Genocide and the legitimacy of the demands of Armenians repairs but also the right to self-determination and inviolability of fundamental rights of the proud and heroic Armenians Artsakh “, said the Director of the Western Region of Assembly, Mihran Toumajian.

“It is an honor to welcome Mr. Robertson and listen present his book, but also to hear their thoughts and feelings about the current conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, which worries so our community,” added the Director of the Western Region and Relations Coordinator of Aline Maksoudian Community.

Among the distinguished guests in attendance were the well-known designer Michael Aram, Honourable Deputy Consul of the Republic of Armenia in Los Angeles Valery Mkrtumyan. The director of the Los Angeles office of Facing History and Ourselves (Face to face with the story) Liz Vogel and Charlene Achki-Repko Advisory Committee, Pamela Marcel, representative of Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA).

Translation Gilbrt Béguian for Armenews

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Confirms, geoffrey robertson, Nagorno-Karabakh, right, self-determination

Geoffrey Robertson confirms Karabakh’s legal right to self-determination

April 23, 2016 By administrator

Jeffry RobertsonLOS ANGELES, CA – The Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) on Wednesday hosted a successful book presentation of “An Inconvenient Genocide: Who Now Remembers the Armenians?”  written by United Kingdom’s leading human rights attorney and author Geoffrey Robertson QC in Universal City, CA. The event sold out, reaching over capacity.

“The Armenian Assembly of America was proud to feature a giant in the field of international human rights to speak to us about his findings while researching the history that led to the indisputable Armenian Genocide,” Assembly Board of Trustees Co-Chair Anthony Barsamian said. “The Armenian Assembly is eager to keep this momentum going as the Assembly’s Western Region office continues to do similar substantive work. Mihran Toumajan and Aline Maksoudian went above and beyond to ensure this event was a success.”

During the event, Barsamian discussed the Assembly’s work in Washington, D.C., the Nagorno Karabakh Republic’s right to self-determination, and Turkey’s irresponsible actions in the region, with a direct message to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“Mr. Erdogan, stop killing your own people. Stop killing your Kurdish population. Stop killing Christians in the region, and stop promoting violence against Karabakh Armenians,” Barsamian stated during his speech.

The Assembly Co-Chair introduced Robertson, who spoke about the latest edition of his book. “An Inconvenient Genocide: Who Know Remembers the Armenians”  was originally published in 2014, and then released for a second printing in 2015 to reflect the Armenian community’s achievements and developments as a result of the centennial year commemorations of the Armenian Genocide. He applauded the Armenian American community’s tireless efforts to incorporate the Armenian Genocide in school education.

 

“Unless we learn from the Armenian Genocide, we will not understand the Holocaust and genocides that follow,” Robertson explained.

Robertson also spoke about the rights of the citizens of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic and believes “independence is possible.”

“Armenians, the world over, are grateful for [Mr. Robertson] for bravely speaking the truth in the face of systematic denials and obfuscation of historical facts by Turkey and Azerbaijan not only on the veracity of the Armenian Genocide and the Armenian nation’s rightful case for restitutive justice, but also as a champion for the self-determination and inviolability of the basic human rights of the heroic and proud Armenians of Artsakh,” Assembly Western Region Director Mihran Toumajan said.

“It was an honor to host Mr. Robertson and to not only hear his presentation about his book but also his thoughts and feelings regarding the current conflict in Nagorno Karabakh, which so many in our community are concerned about,” Western Region Manager and Community Relations Coordinator Aline Maksoudian added.

Special guests in attendance include well-known designer Michael Aram, the Honorable Deputy Consul General of the Republic of Armenia in Los Angeles Valery Mkrtoumian, Facing History and Ourselves Los Angeles Office Director Liz Vogel and Advisory Board Member Charlene Achki-Repko, and Congressman Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) District Representative Pamela Marcello.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: geoffrey robertson, Karabakh, legal right

Human Rights Advocate Geoffrey Robertson to be Featured at ANCA-WR Grassroots and Honored at Annual Gala Banquet

October 1, 2015 By administrator

Geoffrey Robertson seen here with Amal Clooney. They both represented Armenia at the European Court of Justice in January

Geoffrey Robertson seen here with Amal Clooney. They both represented Armenia at the European Court of Justice in January

GLENDALE—Attorney and renowned human rights advocate Geoffrey Robertson, QC, will pull double-duty later in October, when he will be a featured panelist during the Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region’s Grassroots Road to Reparations panel and will also receive the ANCA-WR Advocates for Justice Award at the organization’s annual Gala Banquet.

The ANCA-WR Grassroots Conference will take place on October 23 and 24 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel, with the centerpiece Gala Banquet, celebrating the organization’s accomplishments on Sunday, October 25 at the grand ballroom of the same hotel.

Robertson will be joined by international legal expert Karnig Kerkonian, Esq., to discuss the issue of the Armenian Genocide in the international legal arena, as well as explore legal avenues to pursue the Armenian Cause in the post Genocide centennial phase. Kerkonian is a member of the Armenian Bar Association’s Board of Governors and currently serves as co-chair of its Armenian Rights Watch Committee. The panel, which will take place on October 24, will be co-sponsored by the Armenian Bar Association and moderated by ANCA National Board member Steven Dadaian, Esq., who has a long and impactful involvement in the ANCA family. Attorneys who attend the Road to Reparations panel are eligible to receive 1.5 hours of Continuing Legal Education general credit through the Armenian Bar Association.

Robertson is an international jurist, human rights lawyer, and academic. His latest book is An Inconvenient Genocide: Who Now Remembers the Armenians? In recent years, he has been particularly prominent in the defense of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. He also represented author Salman Rushdie, and prosecuted General Augusto Pinochet. In 2008, the United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon appointed him as a “distinguished jurist” member of the UN’s Justice Council, which nominates and supervises UN judges. His memoir, The Justice Game, has sold more than 150,000 copies.

Robertson is a founder and joint head of Doughty Street Chambers, a prestigious law firm in England that has dealt with numerous international legal cases. Among the associates of the law firm is human rights advocate Amal Alamuddin Clooney, who along with Robertson will be recognized as a recipient of the ANCA-WR “Advocates of Justice” Award, with Robertson set to accept the award on her behalf.
In January of this year, Robertson and Clooney represented Armenia at the European Court of Human Rights during an appeals hearing on the court’s ruling in 2013 in favor of a Turkish Armenian Genocide denier, in the case entitled Perinçek v. Switzerland.

The case concerns the criminal conviction of Doğu Perinçek, Chairman of the Turkish Workers’ Party, for publicly challenging in Switzerland the existence of the Armenian Genocide. The government of Switzerland has also joined the appeals process, as have two Turkish human rights organizations that have submitted legal briefs in favor of Armenia.

During the arguments at the ECHR, Robertson presented a compelling case for Armenia by stating that Perincek specifically went to Europe to deny the Genocide, adding that the Turkish politician was an admirer of the Talaat Pasha, whom Robertson called the “Ottoman Empire’s Hitler.”

“It [the statement] was made by a man who only came to Switzerland in order to be convicted. That was his purpose. He went to Germany, France, at the end of the day he tried to go Greece to expostulate but was turned away. He is genocide denier forum shopper. He is an incurable genocide denier, a criminal and a vexatious litigant,” said Robertson.

In her presentation before the ECHR, Amal Clooney accused the court of being “simply wrong,” stating, “It [the court] casts doubt on the reality of Genocide that Armenian people suffered a century ago.”
“Armenia must have its day in court,” she added. “The stakes could not be higher for the Armenian people.”

“Having Geoffrey Robertson as a panelist during this year’s ANCA-WR Grassroots conference is sure to set a higher bar for any future such discussions, since he can present a first-hand account of a current case about the Armenian Genocide that is being heard in an international tribunal,” said ANCA-WR Grassroots committee co-chairman Ayk Dikijian, Esq.

“The issue of reparations for the Armenian Genocide has taken on renewed urgency after the centennial this year, and Robertson’s expertise can shed light and inform that discussion,” added Dikijian.

“One of the turning points of this year—the Armenian Genocide Centennial—was the hearing at the European Court of Human Rights and the adept manner in which the attorneys representing Armenia, Geoffrey Robertson and Amal Clooney, argued the case, bringing international attention to the issue of Genocide denial and justice for this crime against humanity,” said ANCA-WR Chairwoman Nora Hovsepian.

“It is only fitting that as the foremost Armenian-American advocacy group, the ANCA-WR would honor these two legal trailblazers during its annual gala. In addition to her legal expertise and impressive professional resume as a human rights champion, Ms. Clooney brought her notoriety as an international celebrity to the issue of the Armenian Genocide and joined forces with Mr. Robertson as a formidable legal team on behalf of the Armenian Cause, for which we are deeply grateful,” added Hovsepian.

The ANCA-WR Grassroots conference will take place on October 23 and 24 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel. Admission to the conference is $85 and $50 for students. However, the committee is offering early registration incentives of $55 and FREE admission for students if registration is completed by October 1. Visit www.ANCAWRGrassroots.org to register online or learn about sponsorship and booth display opportunities.

This year’s ANCA-WR Gala Banquet will be one of the largest the organization has hosted. The event, which has become one of the most anticipated events of the calendar year, will be held on Sunday, October 25 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel. For information about purchasing tickets, corporate and tribute message sponsorship opportunities, please visit www.ANCAWRGala.org or call 818.839.1918.

The Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region is the largest and most influential Armenian American grassroots advocacy organization in the Western United States. Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the Western United States and affiliated organizations around the country, the ANCA-WR advances the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of issues.

Filed Under: Events, News Tagged With: ANCA-WR, Gala, geoffrey robertson

AYF Australia Gets Robertson Book on Genocide into Libraries

December 23, 2014 By administrator

robertsonSYDNEY—The Armenian Youth Federation of Australia (AYF Australia) has announced it has succeeded in getting libraries around the country to purchase and display “An Inconvenient Genocide,” which is Geoffrey Robertson’s recently-released book on the Armenian Genocide.

Over the past month, AYF Australia worked closely with libraries in Sydney and Melbourne, writing letters and making phone calls, to ensure this book — which unequivocally proves the legal case of the Armenian Genocide — is available to be borrowed by community members, as well as students who study the Armenian Genocide as part of the New South Wales syllabus. AYF Australia advises the community to read the book and make the authorities of the country change their position on the Armenian Genocide. The Head of the Armenian National Committee of Australia, Vache Kahramanian, stated that the book will pave a great way to change the country authorities’ position on the Armenian Genocide.

Australia’s largest Armenian youth organization was pleased to announce that 13 local and university libraries have purchased the book.

Filed Under: Articles, Books, Genocide Tagged With: armenian genocide, Australia, book, geoffrey robertson, library

Appalling silence over Turkey’s 1915 genocide against Armenians

November 7, 2014 By administrator

 

By GEOFFREY ROBERTSON The Australian November 08, 2014 12:00AM

322920-b3821e68-661f-11e4-8055-994d0fcdd7f1Armenians bring flowers to a Yerevan memorial marking the genocide launched by Turkey on April 24, 2015, on the eve of the Gallipoli landings. Source: AFP

JUST before the invasion of Pol­and, Adolf Hitler urged his generals to show no mercy towards its people — there would be no retribution because “after all, who now remembers the annihilation of the Armenians?”

As the centenary of the Armenian genocide approaches — it began on April 24, 1915, the night before the Gallipoli landing, with the rounding up and subsequent “disappearance” of intellectuals and community leaders — remembrance of the destruction of more than half of the Armenian people is more important than ever. Yet, as Hitler recognised in 1939, the crime the Ottoman Turks committed against humanity by killing the major part of this ancient Christian race has never been requited or, in the case of Turkey, been the subject of apology or reparations.

The Young Turks who ran the Ottoman government did not use gas ovens but they did massacre the men and sent the women, children and elders on death marches through the desert to ­places we hear of now only because they are overrun by Islamic State. They died en route in their hundreds of thousands from starvation or attack, and many survivors died of typhus in concentration camps at the end of the line. The government ordered these forced deportations in 1915, then passed laws to seize the Armenians’ lands, homes and churches on the pretext that they had been abandoned.

The destruction of more than a million Armenians was declared a “crime against humanity” by Britain, France and Russia in 1915, and these allies formally promised punishment for what a US inquiry at the end of the war described as “a colossal crime — the wholesale attempt on a race”. But the Treaty of Sevres, designed at the end of World War I to punish the Young Turks for the colossal crime — now called genocide — was never implemented.

Modern Turkey funds a massive genocide denial campaign, claiming that the death marches were merely relocations required by military necessity and that the undeniable massacres (the Euphrates was so packed with bodies that it altered its course) were the work of a few “unruly” officials. In Turkey today, you can go to jail — and some do — for affirming that there was a genocide in 1915: this counts as the crime of “insulting Turkishness” under section 301 of its penal code.

Ironically, in some European countries, it counts as a crime to deny the Armenian genocide. The parliaments of many democracies — France, Germany, Spain, The Netherlands, Russia, Greece and Canada, for example — recognise it explicitly, as do 43 states of the US. The problem is that Turkey, “neuralgic” on the subject (the word used privately by the British Foreign Office to describe its attitude), has threatened reprisals and is too important geopolitically at present to provoke by stating the truth, lest it carries out threats to close it air bases to NATO and its borders to refugees.

Thus Barack Obama, who roundly condemned the Armenian genocide in 2008 and promised to do so when elected President, dares not utter the G-word. Instead, he calls it Meds Yeghern (Armenian for “the great crime”) and asserts that his opinion has not changed.

The same double standard has been adopted by the Australian government. Tony Abbott, when opposition leader, did not hesitate to condemn the Armenian genocide. But when the NSW parliament formally recognised it, Turkey threatened to ban MPs from Gallipoli for next year’s Anzac centenary.

That doubtless explains Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s bizarre statement in June that the events of 1915 were “a tragedy” but “we do not recognise the events as genocide”. She added: “The approach of the Australian government has been not to become involved in this sensitive debate.” A sure-fire way of becoming involved in the debate is to refuse to recognise the genocide, and she was duly hailed in Turkey as a genocide denier. “Australian Foreign Minister: Armenians not victims of genocide” screamed the newspaper headlines in Istanbul.

Telling the truth about this genocide has, for the Australian government, never been more inconvenient. Although many of its members will be at the dawn service at Gallipoli on April 25 next year, nobody has yet been appointed to represent Australia at the international commemoration in Armenia’s capital Yerevan on the day before.

This is shameful because the Dardanelles landings were the trigger for the start of the genocide, and (together with Russian military activity on Turkey’s eastern front) were used as an excuse for the destruction of the Armenians, on the pretext that they might support the allied invasion.

Even today, Turkey defends the death marches on grounds of “military necessity”, as if the destruction of civilians far from the front, and the ethnic cleansing of women, old men and children, could ever be necessary to gain a military advantage.

The evidence of the government’s genocidal intent, in any case, is overwhelming, coming as it does from appalled German and Italian diplomats and neutral Americans, to whom the Young Turk leaders admitted that they were going to eliminate “the Armenian problem” by eliminating the Armenians.

There can never be justification for genocide. This was understood by Raphael Lemkin, the Polish lawyer who coined the word and worked tirelessly between the wars to have the annihilation of the Armenians recognised as an international crime. The Holocaust soon provided another example of the need for a convention to bind the world to act against governments that seek to destroy racial or religious minorities.

It is sometimes forgotten that Australia was first to take up Lemkin’s cause, through the foresight of Doc Evatt, who bonded with Lemkin and introduced the Genocide Convention in 1948 during his presidency of the UN General Assembly. Its definition of the crime, applied to the undisputed facts of 1915, produces a verdict of guilt that is beyond reasonable doubt.

It was, of course, a century ago: does it still matter? A century is just within living memory: this year a 103-year-old woman, once a small child carried by her mother across burning sands, took tea with Obama and the world’s most famous Armenian (Kim Kardashian). The mental scars and trauma for the children and grandchildren of survivors throughout the diaspora will continue until Turkey makes some acknowledgment of the crime and offers an apology.

International law may provide some assistance: there are assets expropriated in 1915 that can still be traced, and many ruined churches that can be restored and returned. Armenians want restoration of their historic lands in eastern ­Turkey, which is asking too much ­(although I have suggested that the majestic Mount Ararat, overlooking Yerevan, could be handed over by Turkey as an act of ­reconciliation).

But what they want most of all is what they are plainly entitled to have: an acknowledgment from Turkey, and for that matter from the Australian government, that what happened to their people in 1915 was not a tragedy but a crime.

Geoffrey Robertson QC is author of An Inconvenient Genocide: Who Now Remembers the Armenians?, published this month by Random House.

 

 

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: armenian genocide, geoffrey robertson

An Inconvenient Genocide: Who Now Remembers the Armenians? by Geoffrey Robertson (Video)

November 6, 2014 By administrator

9780857986337The most controversial issue left over from the First World War – was there an Armenian Genocide? – comes to a head on 24 April 2015, when Armenians throughout the world commemorate the centenary of the murder of 1.5 million – over half – of their people, at the hands of the Ottoman Turkish government. Turkey continues to deny it ever happened – or if it did, that the killings were justified.

This has become a vital international issue. Twenty national parliaments have voted to recognise the genocide, but Britain equivocates and President Obama is torn between Congress, which wants recognition, and the US military, afraid of alienating an important NATO ally. In Australia three state governments have recognised the genocide (despite threats to ban their MPs from Gallipoli), but the Abbott government has told the Turks that Australia does not.

Geoffrey Robertson QC despises this mendacity. His book proves beyond reasonable doubt that the horrific events of 1915 – witnessed by Australian POWs – constituted the crime against humanity that is known today as genocide. In this book he explains how democratic countries can combat genocide denial without denying free speech, and makes a major contribution to understanding and preventing this worst of all crimes. His renowned powers of advocacy are on full display, as he condemns all those – from Sri Lanka to the Sudan, from Old Anatolia to modern Gaza – who try to justify the mass murder of children and civilians in the name of military necessity.

– See more at:

http://www.randomhouse.com.au/books/geoffrey-robertson

Filed Under: Books, Genocide, News Tagged With: Genocide, geoffrey robertson, Inconvenient

A famous Australian lawyer Geoffrey Robertson presented in Canberra his book on the Armenian Genocide

October 22, 2014 By administrator

arton104542-400x300The famously known for the Defence of Human Rights Australian lawyer, Geoffrey Robertson, who also works at the UN on legal cases has just written a book on the Armenian genocide. Geoffrey Robertson presented his book “An iconvenient genocide” (an inappropriate genocide) subtitled “Who now remembers the Armenians” (who today remembers the Armenians?) At the National Press Club in Canberra (Australia). The author presents compelling evidence of the reality of the Armenian genocide and claims that under international law and knowledge, qualification of “genocide” is irrefutable.

Krikor Amirzayan

Filed Under: Articles, Books, Genocide Tagged With: book, geoffrey robertson, iconvenient genocide

Support Gagrule.net

Subscribe Free News & Update

Search

GagruleLive with Harut Sassounian

Can activist run a Government?

Wally Sarkeesian Interview Onnik Dinkjian and son

https://youtu.be/BiI8_TJzHEM

Khachic Moradian

https://youtu.be/-NkIYpCAIII
https://youtu.be/9_Xi7FA3tGQ
https://youtu.be/Arg8gAhcIb0
https://youtu.be/zzh-WpjGltY





gagrulenet Twitter-Timeline

Tweets by @gagrulenet

Archives

Books

Recent Posts

  • Armenia: Letter from the leader of the Sacred Struggle, political prisoner Bagrat Archbishop Galstanyan
  • U.S. Judge Dismisses $500 Million Lawsuit By Azeri Lawyer Against ANCA & 29 Others
  • These Are the Social Security Offices Expected to Close This Year, Musk call SS Ponzi Scheme
  • Breaking News, Pashinyan regime has filed charges against public figure Edgar Ghazaryan,
  • ANCA’s Controversial Endorsement: Implications for Armenian Voters

Recent Comments

  • administrator on Turkish Agent Pashinyan will not attend the meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State
  • David on Turkish Agent Pashinyan will not attend the meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State
  • Ara Arakelian on A democratic nation has been allowed to die – the UN has failed once more “Nagorno-Karabakh”
  • DV on A democratic nation has been allowed to die – the UN has failed once more “Nagorno-Karabakh”
  • Tavo on I’d call on the people of Syunik to arm themselves, and defend your country – Vazgen Manukyan

Copyright © 2025 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in