Gagrule.net

Gagrule.net News, Views, Interviews worldwide

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • GagruleLive
  • Armenia profile

German scholar: April war was Azerbaijan act of aggression against Karabakh

September 15, 2016 By administrator

german-expertThe Youth Parliament, which is under the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic National Assembly (NKR/Artsakh NA), on Wednesday hosted international law expert, Professor Otto Luchterhandt from the University of Hamburg, in Germany.

Professor Luchterhandt delivered a presentation, entitled “Azerbaijan’s Blitzkrieg against Artsakh, and International Law,” the NKR NA informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The German scholar noted that despite having no international legal recognition, the Artsakh republic fully meets all the criteria for defining a country, and it has proved its vitality all through the years of its independence.

Otto Luchterhandt stressed that the fundamental principles of international law apply to all subjects of international relations, regardless of their status of recognition. He added that, with the war it unleashed against Nagorno-Karabakh in April, Azerbaijan has flagrantly violated several fundamental principles of international law, especially the principle of non-threat and non-use of force.

In Professor Luchterhandt’s words, the four-day war in April was an act of aggression by Azerbaijan against the people of Artsakh, and the entire accountability for this aggression falls squarely on the political leadership in Baku.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: aggression, Azerbaijan, german, scholer

Germany: Berlin not distancing itself from Armenia Genocide resolution

September 2, 2016 By administrator

genocide and turkeyA German government spokesman denied claims made in a news report that Berlin was going to tone down a resolution calling the murder of Armenians a genocide. Leaders pointed out, however, that it is not legally binding.

The German news magazine “Der Spiegel” had reported on Friday that Berlin planned a gesture to appease Turkish government anger over the Bundestag’s Armenia resolution. That report, however, was denied by German government spokesman Steffen Seibert.

He said there could be no talk of Germany distancing itself from the parliamentary resolution.

The report in “Der Spiegel” said Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government hoped to resolve a dispute that has seen German parliamentarians barred from visiting Bundeswehr troops stationed at the Incirlik airbase in eastern Turkey.

Germany’s lower house unanimously backed a resolution in early June that explicitly declared the ethnic slaughter of Armenians by the Ottoman regime during World War I to have been a genocide.

In response, Ankara blocked German parliamentarians from visiting German troops stations at Incirlik, where the Bundeswehr is engaged in operations against “Islamic State” (IS). Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced the vote, recalled his ambassador to Berlin for consultations and threatened further action.

The head of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union in parliament said the chancellor would not distance herself from the resolution. Volker Kauder told a committee meeting on Friday that she had called him personally to make it known that she was in favor of the resolution.

Diplomatic hot potato

Germany’s Foreign Ministry has sought to resolve the dispute in recent weeks, with officials reportedly being told that Ankara wanted the German government to distance itself from the legislature’s vote. According to “Der Spiegel,” a spokesman would reiterate that the resolution had no legal effect on the actions of the German government.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier pointed out on Friday that the Bundestag resolution was non-binding.

“The German Bundestag naturally has every right and the freedom to express itself on political issues,” Steinmeier said. “But the Bundestag itself said that there is not a legally binding basis for every resolution.”

Even when it passed the Bundestag, it was clear to lawmakers that the resolution was non-binding.

Both Steinmeier and Merkel are reported to privately support the parliament’s position.

Seibert said on Friday, however, that there could not be any talk of Germany distancing itself from the Armenia resolution.

Call for redeployment

Steinmeier is a member of Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), which has said Germany should redeploy its troops to another support base in the Middle East, should German parliamentarians continue to be barred from visiting personnel.

Although Germany is not directly engaged in combat operations against IS, it has deployed a number of surveillance aircraft to assist the US-led coalition. The German parliament is scheduled to decide on a mandate to extend the mission in December.

The topic of the murder of some 1.5 million Armenians and other Christians by the Ottomans during 1915-16 is a particularly sensitive one in Turkey, which claims the figures are inflated and that the killings do not constitute genocide.

Source: http://www.dw.com/en/berlin-not-distancing-itself-from-armenia-resolution/a-19521960

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: A conference in Turkey dedicated to 100th anniversary of Armenian Genocide, armenian genocide, distancing, german, government, No, Turkey

Germany FM rejects Turkey demand to denounce Armenian Genocide resolution

August 31, 2016 By administrator

German fm 1Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier rejected Ankara’s demand that official Berlin distance itself from the Bundestag’s Armenian Genocide recognition as a precondition for German lawmakers to gain access to the Incirlik airbase to visit German soldiers stationed there.

“I don’t think this has anything to do with the matter and I have told this to my Turkish counterpart,” Steinmeier was quoted by the German Deutsche Welle (DW) TV and radio company.

Steinmeier added that if Turkey continues denying German lawmakers access to the airbase, German troops dispatched there to fight ISIS will be withdrawn.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu had said that Turkish permission for German lawmakers to visit the Incirlik airbase will depend on the German government distancing itself from a resolution recognizing the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide.

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: Armenian, FM, Genocide, german, reject, Turkey

German Bundestag Members Awarded by Armenian Parliament

August 30, 2016 By administrator

Armenia’s National Assembly Speaker Galust Sahakyan (right) met with Bundestag MP Albert Weiler on Monday, August 29. (Photo: Parliament.am)

Armenia’s National Assembly Speaker Galust Sahakyan (right) met with Bundestag MP Albert Weiler on Monday, August 29. (Photo: Parliament.am)

YEREVAN—On Monday, August 29, Armenia’s National Assembly Speaker Galust Sahakyan received German Bundestag MP and President of the German-Armenian Forum Albert Weiler.

Welcoming the guest, Sahakyan thanked Weiler’s contribution to the furthering and development of interparliamentary and interstate relations between the two countries.

The Head of Parliament evaluated the intensification of cooperation and contacts between Armenia’s National Assembly and the Bundestag. Sahakyan welcomed the German lawmakers’ promotion of regional cooperation, sustainability of peace and stability, formation of atmosphere of confidence in the region. In this context, Sahakyan highlighted Buntestag MPs’ visits to Artsakh.

Sahakyan expressed gratitude to the German Bundestag for adopting the bill on June 2, 2016 condemning the Armenian Genocide. “I am confident that only through recognition and condemnation of these crimes it is possible to prevent them the future,” he said.

Weiler, thankful for the reception, attached importance to his visit to Armenia after the adoption of the bill condemning the Armenian Genocide. Touching upon the bilateral relations, the Bundestag MP emphasized the mutual visits and the deepening of relations between the two countries especially in the economic sphere. Referring to the regional issues, Weiler noted that Germany strives in its turn to do its best for the maintenance of regional peace.

According to the Parliamentary press, Sahakyan expressed confidence that through support by Weiler, the traditional relations between Germany and Armenia will continue and develop.

At the end of the meeting, Sahakyan awarded Weiler an honorary medal for his significant contribution to the strengthening of the Armenian – German relations and advancement of interparliamentary ties.

On the same day, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received Weiner.

Nalbandian praised the work of the German-Armenian Forum as well as the high-level cooperation established between the two countries, discussing steps to deepen ties.

During the meeting, Weiner briefed Nalbandian on the current activities and plans of the Forum.

Nalbandian then commended the German Parliament for recognizing the Armenian Genocide in June.

The meeting discussed Armenia-EU relations and the ongoing negotiations on a new legal framework with the European Union.

The Armenian Foreign Minister also briefed the German lawmakers on efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group targeted at the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh issue.

Filed Under: Articles, Genocide Tagged With: Armenian, awarded, Bundestag, Genocide, german, member

Germany may pull out troops from Turkish airbase in Incirlik

July 12, 2016 By administrator

incirlik gemanyGermany may withdraw its troops from the Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey after its delegation was barred from visiting the facility, parliamentary speaker Norbert Lammert told local media, Sputnik News  reports.

“It should probably be underscored again that Bundestag only allows sending German soldiers on international missions abroad when they are needed and welcome there,” Lammert told the German newspaper Sueddeutschen Zeitung on Monday.

The lawmaker, who presides over Bundestag, the lower house of the national parliament, added that German troops “will not stay for long where they are not welcome”.

The German parliament’s decision in June to label the 1915 massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide soured relations between NATO allies, prompting Ankara to bar German lawmakers from visiting the Incirlik airbase last month.

 

Source Panorama.am

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: german, incirlik, troops, Turkey

Hitler, Ataturk and the Turkish-German Relations by Edward Kanterian

July 10, 2016 By administrator

hitler ataturkThe following interview with Stefan Ihrig, author of Justifying Genocide: Germany and the Armenians from Bismarck to Hitler [Justify Genocide: Germany and the Armenians of Bismark Hitler], whose publication was held in December 2015, was conducted by Edward Kanterian, Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Kent. Ihrig is a member of the Teachers College at Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.

Edward Kanterian- Mr. Ihrig, we know that Mussolini was truly a model for Hitler. But much less known, Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish Republic, was another major source of inspiration for Hitler. You recently published a book that explores this topic. Why Hitler is it interested in Ataturk?

Stefan Ihrig- all goes back to the early 1920s; Germany was still reeling from the lost war and the fear of a punitive treaty imposed by the Agreement. In an atmosphere of nationalist depression, events began to move into Anatolia that inspired passion and dreams to German nationalists. Led by Mustafa Kemal, the Turks resisted “their” particular Versailles Treaty, the Treaty of Sevres. They faced the Agreement and the Greek army up to challenge their own government in Constantinople. What happened in Anatolia was like a dream come true for many in the nationalist Germany, and especially for the Nazis, who thought that Germany should copy what were the Kemalists. Hitler was much inspired by Ataturk and the idea of a ‘government of Ankara’ for its project to create a government against Munich, he would impose his coup of 1923. In retrospect Beerhall in 1933, he recalled Ataturk and the Kemalists as the ‘shining star’ in the dark 1920s the Nazis and Hitler, in a political sense, grew up with Turkey and Ataturk. It was a fascination that will never disappear and that turned into a kind of cult during the Third Reich.

EK: The main attraction was the fact that Ataturk had withstood the Entente?

If yes. Resist the Agreement and revise a peace treaty of Paris fascinated the Nazis. But that was not all. There was also the fact that Turkey was stripped of most of its minorities, first the Armenians during the First World War, and secondly, most Greeks by the population exchange the Treaty of Lausanne . And in the end, to the Nazis, what happened in Turkey in the 1920s and 1930s was a successful restructuring of the country to the nationalist and racial lines. For them it was an example of what a purely national state could succeed with a strong leader.

EK – Turkey who “got rid” of the Armenians was of course Turkey Turkish Young, whose regime ended in 1918 and in which Ataturk played only a minor role, she was going up the Nazi fascination young Turks? Can we think they were impressed by the design centric Turkish Turkish state Turkish Youth and Kemal, an opposite conception to the idea of multi-ethnic society which had hitherto existed in the Ottoman Empire? Is there a direct link between population policies and exclusion of Ataturk and those of the Nazis?

SI- The Young Turks did not matter much to the Nazis. But ‘ethnic cleansing’ and the Armenian Genocide before the War of Independence had been for the Nazis, a major precondition for the success of Ataturk in this war. And the expulsion of the Greeks was the vision of the Nazis, a second prerequisite for further success Turkey reconstruction on a national basis. Wholesale and somehow it was for the Nazis a whole provisions’. For them, it was important that ethnic minorities – those that they and other German nationalists saw as “the Jews” – are eliminated. In the vision of the New Turkey for the Nazis, this would not have been possible if Turkey had not stripped of minorities. In this way, the Nazis and other German nationalists were able to make Nova Turkey Ataturk, the idea of a racial ethnic full-scale reconstruction of a test that allowed them to measure the power of a new national state purged of minorities, a test that not only reaffirmed their own belief in the power of the states after ethnic cleansing, but taught different methods on how to do so.

EK: To what extent the ideology of Kemalist state she was an inspiration for the Nazis? Presumably they ignored the fact that Ataturk was the creation of a republic in which a parliament representing the people, was the main source of power?

The SI-Nazi vision of the New Turkey Ataturk was very selective. Almost everything found himself in conflict with the ideals and objectives Nazis was either mitigated or ignored. The emancipation of women was one of these points; it was mentioned, but it was considered unnecessary to linger. The rather peaceful foreign policy of Ataturk was deliberately misinterpreted. Regarding method of government, under Ataturk, the Nazis saw him as a strong leader supported by a single party, which for them was the only viable alternative to what they perceived as a decadent Western democracy.

EK: What was the position of the Nazis has vis-à-vis the “Armenian Question” in Turkey?

SI- In the discussion of the Turkish war of independence, the Armenians did not take a large square. Again, the Nazis had their own vision of the power and the time of Ataturk. Which exceeded in importance for them everything was Turkey after 1923, they were only to mono-ethnic paradise image. They simply refused to see them still remaining minorities such as the Kurds, and conflicts still existed within the Turkish state. What gave the Armenians, by cons, this importance in the Nazi speech on the New Turkey Ataturk was the specifically German tradition of seeing in them “the Jews of the East”.

EK: Can you give some examples of the manifestations of this vision of Armenians as the Jews of the East in the German discourse? Is that a fact emerged after World War II or were there before?

SI- This German tradition appeared in the late 19th century. At about the same time that appeared modern anti-Semitic racism, the perception of Armenians as racially similar or equivalent to the Jews of Central Europe, as they were described in the antisemitic discourse developed. In this perception, the Armenians were typically described as merchants exploiters enjoying the nice and hardworking Turkish population. This perception portrayed through the parasite, cheater, and non-productive Armenians. Armenians are in all kinds of crafts and trades – many of them, for example, are fermiers- was simply ignored in these speeches. In racial and racist literature increasingly large between the late 19th century until the 1930s, the Armenians were described as a parent or sister race of the Jews, often of them were said to be ” worse than the Jews. “ This creates a particular base course for the German perception of the 1915-1916 events, especially when we know the way things take history in Germany.

EK: That brings us to your last book you just finished, Justifying Genocide, to be published by Harvard University Press later this year. How did you decide to write this book?

SI- During my research on the Nazis and Turkey, I discovered that a great debate took place on the Armenian Genocide. This debate began in the early 1920s and it is totally forgotten today. But it was still one of the biggest debates on the genocide of the twentieth century. It was truly a debate on the “genocide” even before Raphael Lemkin coined the word has, because he was on the intent and scope of the “annihilation of a nation.” I tried to reconstruct this debate and why it lasted so long. Consider a discussion of four and a half years, including the first discussions after the war what had happened, the lively reception given to the Foreign Office documents published on the Armenian Genocide already in 1919, a heated exchange between those condemning what had happened, the “murder of a nation,” and the other denying it. In addition, there were murders, that of Talaat the first in 1921 and then those two prime Young Turks in 1922, all of which took place in Berlin and resumed extensively in the press of the time. Jai held to establish which came from the bottom of critical analysis employed in these discussions, and that is how I explored the German relations Ottoman Armenians since the late 1870. It appears, from the already time of Bismark, that Armenians suffered a foreign policy very cynical Germany [the real politik, already! ndt]. They were regularly sacrificed to allow Germany to obtain political advantages and a more favorable position in the Ottoman Empire. This continual sacrifice of another Christian people led a German discourse that justified the massacres already in the 1890s, and reached the tops with the propaganda of the Great War and the sickening justifications of the early 1920s.

EK: The rhetorical question Hitler “Who after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians”, asked in August 1939 in a speech on the war of annihilation that he would commit to the east, is well known. She suggested that Hitler was at least inspired by the Armenian Genocide. In your new book, you cling to demonstrate that the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide were linked far more than previously thought. Is it correct ?

SI- The ongoing debate on recognition and denial held the Armenian Genocide hostage for almost a century and has also led to reduced often to a footer mark in the history of accounts and analysis European and world of that time. But it was immensely important at this time, also, and perhaps particularly in Germany. Not only Germany was tied there as close as state and ally of the Ottoman, but it was the case of many people, diplomats, officers and soldiers. The fact that the Ottoman Empire had to this point concerned the German public and the German political sphere already before 1915 Germany joined the Armenian Genocide more. And finally the great debate on the genocide in Germany in the early 1920s brings this topic to a single decade of the rise to power of Hitler. The Armenian Genocide was chronologically and geographically closer to Germany and the Third Reich as is usually assumed; my book is an example in many aspects.

EK Few German historians worked on the Armenian Genocide. What could be the reasons?

SI- continuously is attributed to the subject of the difficulties and potential dangers. If you are a historian working on the Turkish and Ottoman history, you do not want to offend the people you need to reach your sources. Another reason is that many sources of German military archives were lost during World War II. Then there was the suspicion that many of the discussions on the Armenian Genocide and its links with Germany might be used to relativize the Holocaust. And finally, the official Turkish denial campaign has created a lasting impression or rather created confusion by suggesting that the subject is too difficult and unapproachable. However, in recent years many have worked on the German side, proposing new studies on particular aspects and also providing new evidence. I am sure that we will reach a critical mass in this area and that soon a broader reassessment of the Armenian Genocide will be made in history, German, European and world.

Edward Kanterian

October 30, 2015

Interview with Stefan Ihrig To Armenian Weekly

Translation Gilbert Béguian

Sunday, July 10, 2016,
Stéphane © armenews.com

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: ataturk, german, hitler, relation, Turkish

Germany’s century-long struggle with the Armenian genocide – Jerusalem Post

June 14, 2016 By administrator

f575ffdf6747a7_575ffdf6747e2.thumb

By Stefan Ihrig,  historian at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, book Atatürk in the Nazi Imagination (Harvard University Press, 2014).

The Armenian genocide and the German dimension of it should make us rethink our perception of humanity – what does it mean that people knew of genocide and mass atrocities in progress? And did so already in the years before the Holocaust?

Perhaps Germany’s recent vote to recognize the Armenian genocide as well as its own role in it might come as a surprise to many there as well as abroad. But the Armenian genocide has a long German history. Already over a hundred years ago, in January 1916, the agenda of the German parliament featured a question about the Armenian genocide.

A month earlier the socialist parliament member Karl Liebknecht had submitted a written question to the German chancellor in which he mentioned that Armenians had been “butchered in the hundred thousands”: would Germany would do something for the remaining Armenians now? Liebknecht’s question had come on the heels of a similar request made a few weeks earlier by the Catholic and Protestant Churches of Germany to the chancellor. He had replied that Germany would ensure that nobody suffered from persecution on religious grounds. Political Germany, the Churches and Liebknecht knew that this answer was an outright rejection. People at the time understood what was happening not so much as a religious matter, but rather in terms of national or racial persecution.

When Liebknecht’s question was finally answered in parliament, it turned into a rather disgraceful performance by Germany’s parliamentarians.

After having received another evasive answer, Liebknecht responded that some experts after all spoke of the “extermination of the Armenians.” He was laughed off the stage and treated like a buffoon.

And yet, behind closed doors political Germany knew Liebknecht was right. Since May 1915 German diplomats in the Ottoman Empire had bombarded their Constantinople embassy and Berlin with reports of genocide in progress; many of these diplomats begged their superiors to intervene for the Armenians, to stop genocide, in vain.

After the end of World War I, the German Foreign Office published a collection from precisely this diplomatic correspondence on the Armenians to fend off accusations of German guilt during the Paris peace treaty negotiations. This attempt failed – not least because Germany had done nothing of real import for the Armenians, all the while enabling the Ottoman leadership to carry out genocide – but it kicked off a debate in Germany itself about this “murder of a nation” or “annihilation of the Armenians” which continued in some form until 1923.

This debate took shocking twists and turns: condemnation and denial, trivialization and shock, and finally broad acceptance of the charge of “murder of a nation,” i.e. genocide – only then to have some far-right voices, including the Nazis, to go on to outright justify genocide. All this merely a decade before Hitler came to power – and yes, already then (Jewish) commentators warned of the possible future implications of this shocking genocide debate for the Jews of Germany under Nazi or other radical far-right rule.

Germany’s own checkered history with the violence against the Ottoman Armenians (from the 1890s) is indeed and itself the link between the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust. But this link is not at all necessary for recognizing the Armenian genocide for what it was, and neither are the comparisons to the Holocaust, which have often obscured the unique, intrinsic significance of the Armenian genocide. And often enough these have been used to fend off the application of the label.

The German diplomatic documents, first published in selection in 1919 and now available in expanded editions in German and English (2005 and 2013), edited by former Der Spiegel editor Wolfgang Gust, are the greatest advocates of the label “genocide.” Denialists generally choose to simply ignore the existence of these documents.

This is mainly because there is no easy way to dismiss them and no sensible (denialist) explanation as to why German diplomats would make up reports of genocide, continually so, when these caused such great anxiety in Berlin about the political fallout of genocide right from the start.

Thus a hundred years later, with the Bundestag’s resolution on the Armenian genocide Germany has found a (first) conclusion to its very own hundred-year conflict over the Armenian topic. Thus German parliament did not only deliberate on the history of another country, but made a statement about its own Armenian history. The Armenian genocide is, to some extent, also a German story. It cannot be relegated to the obscurity of specialist historical writing and historiographical debate; it is part of the core experiences and themes of our bloody and traumatic 20th century.

The Armenian genocide and the German dimension of it should make us rethink our perception of humanity – what does it mean that people knew of genocide and mass atrocities in progress? And did so already in the years before the Holocaust? It has long been assumed that there had been silence on the Armenian genocide in interwar Germany and that this silence had been “a signal for the Shoah” – but it turns out the opposite was true. There had been a debate, a real genocide debate (about the extent, intent and implications of this murder of a people). What does this mean for our understanding of the Holocaust? This latest recognition should also make us discuss when and where this bloody 20th century really began. In Eastern Anatolia during the Armenian genocide? In the sands of Libya during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-1912? Or in German Southwest Africa during the genocide of the Herero and Nama people (1904-07)? Was there not, historically, a trajectory of large-scale violence which led from colonial spaces to the Middle East and Anatolia and from there back to Europe? Parliamentary recognition is not enough (and the Herero and Nama are still waiting for it), but it can be a starting point for coming to terms with a past that is vaster, more complex and so much bloodier than often assumed.

And nothing of this relativizes the Holocaust or minimizes Germany’s guilt and responsibility – quite the contrary.

The author is a historian at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and the University of Haifa. His most recent books include: Justifying Genocide – Germany and the Armenians from Bismarck to Hitler (Harvard University Press, 2016) and Atatürk in the Nazi Imagination (Harvard University Press, 2014).

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: Armenian, Genocide, german, struggle

Germany: German MP calls for a travel ban on Erdogan

June 12, 2016 By administrator

mp erdogan ban(DW) Sevim Dagdelen has urged action after receiving death threats over the Armenian genocide vote in Germany’s parliament. She said she wants Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to be prevented from entering Germany.

Sevim Dagdelen, a German member of the Bundestag, demanded that “anyone in Turkey who calls for violence against the German parliament to get an entry ban (to Germany). This includes President Erdogan,” she told the German newspaper “Bild am Sonntag.”

The Duisburg-born politician has a 100,000 euro ($112,000) bounty on her head, the paper reported, following a resolution adopted by the German parliament on June 2 calling the massacre of Armenians genocide.

German lawmakers voted to join 29 other countries by interpreting the killings of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 a genocide. Turkey, which was formed out of the Ottoman Empire, insists the killings were a collective tragedy in which equal numbers of Turks and Armenians died but denies it meets legal requirements to be termed a genocide.

Erdogan, personally, reacted furiously to the decision, sinking ties between the Berlin and Ankara governments to new lows.

Personal threats

Since the vote, Dagdelen and 10 other German MPs of Turkish origin have faced the ire of Turkish nationalists, receiving death threats and even having their personal details published in newspapers and in mosques.

Dagdelen, who is the Left Party’s migration policy spokesperson, told the paper that German Chancellor Angela Merkel should respond more forcefully to Erdogan’s attacks.

The politicians are now under 24-hour police protection after Erdogan compared them to terrorists and demanded they have blood tests to prove their Turkish origins.

The lawmakers have also been warned not to make trips to Turkey for the time being as their safety cannot be guaranteed.

Tolerance urged

Aydan Özoguz of the Social Democrats (SPD) called on Turkish groups in Germany to unequivocally denounce the Turkish response. Özoguz, who is the government’s integration commissioner, has also received death threats.

“I expect Turkish associations in Germany to clearly condemn the threats against MPs,” she told the “Bild am Sonntag” weekly paper, adding that Turks can remain committed to their origins without being an extension of Turkey.

Her comments were backed up by Green Party leader Cem Özdemir, who was one of the initiators of the Bundestag’s Armenian resolution.

“You may not agree with the resolution, but Turkish organizations must issue unqualified denouncements of the death threats,” he told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.”

Earlier, he told the paper that Erdogan’s response to the issue was “unworthy of a head of state” adding that he was worried that “what if someone goes crazy,” referring to threat against him and his family.

Germany’s Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB) supported German politicians and called the threats made against lawmakers inacceptable.

“No one should be dehumanized or threatened,” DITIB national spokesperson Murat Kayman said. “This is not up for discussion and there is no justification for it. That’s the basic agreement of civilized societies.”

 

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: ban, Erdogan, german, MP, Travel

German Turkish minister: We expressed our view as MPs #ArmenianGenocide

June 9, 2016 By administrator

Turkish-German MP defaultWe realized that the resolution in connection with 1915 is a sensitive issue for Turks, but we should not expect everyone to have the same opinion, said German Turk Aydan Özoğuz, who is a Minister of State at the Federal Chancellery of Germany.

Speaking to German Deutsche Welle (DW) TV and radio company, the German Turkish minister stressed that they, as MPs, have expressed their view during the Bundestag voting of the aforesaid resolution.

“This resolution was adopted after long debates,” added Özoğuz. “You may disagree with the resolution, but it’s not right to threaten and insult those who voted for [this resolution]. Those in Turkey think that we, being Turks, represent Turkey in the German parliament; this is a wrong approach. We are the MPs of Germany, and, of course, we defend the local Turks, too. I want to stress again: I am not an MP of Turkey; I am an MP of Germany and of Turks living in Germany.”

On June 2, the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, formally recognized the Armenian Genocide, with the aforesaid resolution and with only one vote against and one abstention. The resolution also notes that the Bundestag regrets that the German government at the time did nothing to stop this crime against humanity, and therefore the Bundestag also acknowledges the respective historical accountability of Germany.

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: armenian genocide, german, minister, Turkish

Agos’ archive: “a German treat” from Hrant Dink

June 6, 2016 By administrator

archivesToday, in Agos’ archive, we go back to 2005, when Germany brought the Armenian Genocide to the parliamentary agenda for the first time. Here is Hrant Dink’s article “a German treat”*.

The unanimous decision on the Armenian question made by Bundestag is different from the ones made in French or other parliaments.

It is a distinct decision.

It causes serious confusion.

That is why Turkey, which reacted against such decisions with the same old attitude, cannot reacted in the same way this time. We saw the same attitude only on the first day, but Turkey had a hard time sustaining it.

Though we witnessed the anger in the protests in front of German Embassy in Ankara and then Prime Minister Erdoğan’s accessing Schröder of being “a spineless politician” on the first day, we came around very quickly on the next day.

We realized that the same old attitude doesn’t mean anything this time.

Because the German decision is really different than the others.

It is a German treat after all.

***

The previous decisions were only against Turkey. Their target was Turkey alone.

They were accusing Turkey and urging Turkey to recognize the genocide.

They were enforcing the acknowledgment of the history. However, German decision wasn’t like that.

I guess this is what they call “a German treat”.

Probably out of their selfishness (!), they divided the responsibility fifty-fifty.

They haven’t laid the whole burden on Turkey.

They took the half of it.

They say, “We are guilty, too.”

***

Well, what will Turkey do in face of this treat?

Which treat will they use in response to it?

Saying “Armenian lobby in Germany influenced the Bundestag” is not credible even for themselves, because there are at most 25.000 Armenians living in Germany. And officially, over 3 million Turks live in Germany.

Saying, “Germany treats us as an enemy” would be showing ingratitude. Germany is an eternal ally to Turkey.

And especially during the blood-soaked days of 1915, they were like “buddies.”

***

They could have said, “Merkel doesn’t want us anyway, she did this”, if it wasn’t a unanimous decision. They could have pulled off such a trick, but they cannot do it, since this decision hasn’t made only by Merkel’s party; there is a complete unanimity.

Greens and Social Democrats, who support Turkey, agree on the decision as well.

Some people say, “Germans are genociders anyway, they try to find genocider partners with this decision”, but this is nonsense.

Because people would say, “Now that you know they are genociders, why are you an eternal ally to them?”

After all, there is a saying: “Rotten apple spoils the barrel.”

***

For good and all, these people betrayed Turkey.

They didn’t use the term “genocide”, bu they caused an even worse situation.

The worst part is that they broke the routine in Turkey.

And Turkey is at a loss.

If they said “You committed genocide”, it would have been better.

Since they know how to respond to that.

They could say, “No, we didn’t do such a thing. Armenians killed us, here are the mass graves.”

But now, Germans say, “We also have a hand in it.”

What could you say to those genociders?

Is it possible to say, “No, you are good people, please reconsider it, you cannot have a hand in it”?

In short, betrayal of “the buddy” is the worst of all indeed!

*This article was published on June 24, 2005 on Agos.

** “German treat” is a term used in Turkish indicating that each person participating in a group activity pays for themselves, rather than any person paying for anyone else, particularly in a restaurant bill. In English, it is called “Dutch treat” or “going Dutch”.  

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Agos, Archive, german, Hrant dink, hrant dink murder, treat

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • …
  • 7
  • Next Page »

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

  • 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
  • (MHP), Devlet Bahçeli, has invited Kurdish Leader Öcalan to the Parliament “Ask to end terrorism and dissolve the PKK.”

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