Harut Sassounian Archives

Harut Sassounian: Better to Support Armenian Activists than Criticize Azeri & Turkish Lobbying

March 29, 2016 By administrator

For years, many critical books and articles have been written about foreign countries and domestic groups for hiring lobbying firms or making campaign contributions to influence government officials.

One such article was published last week by L. Michael Hager in the Foreign Policy Journal titled, “The Best Congress AIPAC Can Buy.” AIPAC is the acronym for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.The author acknowledges that “there is nothing illegal or morally wrong with lobbying Congress or candidates for office. In fact, it can serve a useful purpose in educating members and candidates about matters subject to legislation. The problem comes when the lobbyists use money to secure access or buy support for proposed bills and resolutions.” After that benign introduction, however, Hager concludes that “for the sake of our democracy, the flow of interest group money that is buying off our elected lawmakers must be stopped.”|

Hager states that “nowhere is the influence and power of a political lobby more evident than in the annual Policy Conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)” held on March 22-24 in Washington, DC.

Conference speakers addressed “more than 15,000 pro-Israel Americans (including 2/3 of the current Members of Congress). Among the speakers were 30 members of the U.S. Congress, 25 of whom received 2016 contributions from pro-Israel PACs and individuals, averaging $36,000 per recipient ($908,000 in total). From each of those speakers, AIPAC gains a public expression of high level support for Israel.”

Hager reported that the AIPAC conference attracted nearly 400 speakers, including “Vice President Joe Biden and Presidential candidates Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz and John Kasich.” According to the writer, “AIPAC generated contributions in the amount of $212,927 for Hillary Clinton and $203,850 for Ted Cruz. Marco Rubio received $132,552 and Lindsey Graham $74,200. No surprise that all of those candidates have pledged ‘full support’ for Israel.”

The author considers “The AIPAC-led pro-Israel lobby” as “probably the strongest, best organized and most effective lobby network in Washington, DC. For the 2015-2016 election cycle, the pro-Israel network has already dispensed $4,255,136 in contributions. The largest single amount ($259,688) went to Senator Charles Schumer of New York.”

Hager explains that “AIPAC itself does not make political contributions and is in fact legally prohibited from doing so. Instead it uses its considerable resources ($3 million annual lobbying budget) to link current and aspiring members of Congress with pro-Israel donors. AIPAC’s projection of invincibility encourages political candidates and officeholders to accept pro-Israel contributions or risk seeing those funds go to their opponents. For example, former Congressman Paul Findley and former Senator Charles Percy lost their seats for failure to adhere to the AIPAC line.”

The author’ criticisms emanate from his concern that “the appearance of conflict of interest erodes citizen trust in government. Given the critical importance of money for reelection campaigns, political contributions such as mentioned above have the potential to corrupt or create the appearance of corrupting otherwise honest officials.”

Hager acknowledges that AIPAC is “only one part of a larger picture, dominated by congressional fundraising and lobby contributions,” such as “Defense, pharmaceuticals, the NRA and other lobbies….”

In my view, it is justified to criticize lobbying firms and their paymasters when they violate U.S. laws. However, it is more important to strengthen one’s own lobbying efforts than disparage what others are doing. While it is necessary from an Armenian perspective to monitor closely the lobbying firms hired by Turkey and Azerbaijan, Armenians should focus on what they can do to support their two public affairs organizations in Washington — The Armenian Assembly and Armenian National Committee of America. Despite their limited staff and resources, these Armenian-American groups have been successfully countering the activities of major lobbying firms hired for millions of dollars by Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Fortunately, Armenian-American groups do not need such exorbitant sums to pursue their political goals in Washington because it costs much less to present the truth of their just cause, unlike Turkey and Azerbaijan which have to spend huge amounts of money to deceive the politicians and the public!

By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

It’s often difficult to distinguish fact from fiction on the Internet

August 12, 2015 By administrator

By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier

It is ironic that in this modern age of technology and abundance of information at the fingertips of everyone with an electronic device, it is becoming increasingly difficult, and sometimes impossible, to distinguish fact from fiction.

The Internet, with its vast resources on every conceivable subject, can be a blessing or a curse when one is trying to discern the authenticity of a particular article.

There is no way of knowing if what is being read is true or false, unless the reader is an expert in that specific topic or checks websites like truthorfiction.com or snopes.com to distinguish rumors from reality.

Here are two recent examples of such misinformation that were circulated on the Internet to millions of Armenians and others.

The first is an article supposedly from The Moscow Times, titled: “Russian President to Turkish Ambassador: ‘Tell your dictator President he can go to hell along with his ISIS terrorists; I will make Syria a Big Stalingrad for him!” This article was posted on thousands of websites, e-mailed around the globe, and reprinted in countless newspapers.

Pres. Putin was quoted telling Umit Yardim, the Turkish Ambassador to Moscow, that Russia will cut off diplomatic relations with Turkey immediately unless Erdogan stopped supporting ISIS terrorists in Syria. The article cited “leaked information” as the source of a “two-hour long closed door meeting,” during which Putin reportedly called the Turkish President a “hypocrite” and threatened to turn Syria into a “Big Stalingrad for Erdogan and his Saudi allies,” whom he compared to Hitler.

I received via e-mail several dozen copies of this forged article from Armenians around the world with cheerful exclamations, such as “good for Putin,” “finally someone dared to put Erdogan in his place.” It became tiring to respond to everyone, telling them that this was a fake news story!

Readers and even newspaper editors apparently did not bother to check that there was no such article in The Moscow Times. Furthermore, hardly anyone seems to have wondered how a Russian newspaper could have misspelled Pres. Putin’s name as ‘Purin’?

The second example of misinformation concerns the world famous singer Beyonce who supposedly sang a song dedicated to the Armenian Genocide. The video of the song “I was here,” which opens with the words “Armenian Genocide 1915 April 24,” was posted on YouTube on April 24, 2015 by someone with the nickname ‘Yakosamo.’ The video then displays the words “Never Forget” in bright red letters, followed by footage of visitors at the Armenian Genocide Monument in Yerevan. For the next four minutes, the screen shows three armed Turkish soldiers killing an entire Armenian family and abducting a group of young Armenian girls. The video and the singing end with the words in bright red letters, “1915 April,” right after a Turkish soldier shoots with a pistol, in point blank range, an Armenian boy in the head!

Thousands of Armenians were probably tricked into thinking that this was indeed a Beyonce song dedicated to the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide. The link to the video along with hundreds of appreciative comments were posted on countless facebook pages and YouTube.

I just learned about this song last week. At first, I was somewhat embarrassed that as a newspaper editor I was hearing of such an important song on the Armenian Genocide several months after its release. I checked the lyrics of the song and quickly discovered that it had absolutely nothing to do with Armenians or the Genocide. The singer kept repeating, “I was here, I lived, I loved, I was here….” The words Armenian, Genocide or Turkey were nowhere to be found!

I finally realized that someone had taken a Beyonce song and added to it film footage from a movie on the Armenian Genocide. Regrettably, many Armenians were ecstatic that a world famous singer was publicizing the facts of the Armenian Genocide!

I have no magical formula on how to distinguish fact from fiction for every Internet posting. It may be useful to remember the popular saying: “if something is too good to be true, it probably is” too good to be true! Readers should have a healthy dose of skepticism, without going overboard — by being either too suspicious to believe anything or too gullible, blindly swallowing everything on the Internet!

Source: Panorama.am

SASSOUNIAN, A Personal Tribute on the Passing of Kirk Kerkorian: an Extraordinary Man

June 23, 2015 By administrator

BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

Since his passing on June 15, thousands of journalists have highlighted Kirk Kerkorian’s amazing business accomplishments and substantial charitable contributions. However, these journalists had never met this great man, as he rarely gave interviews to the media.

Having worked with Mr. Kerkorian for almost three decades as Senior Vice President of The Lincy Foundation and President of the United Armenian Fund, I would like to offer a personal tribute about this compassionate Armenian-American and wonderful human being.

I remember vividly the first time I met Mr. Kerkorian. It was at a Beverly Hills restaurant in the mid 1980’s during a small gathering of wealthy Armenians who supported Gov. George Deukmejian’s reelection. I was there as editor of The California Courier newspaper. When I walked over to introduce myself, Mr. Kerkorian recognized me right away and told me that he was a regular reader of my weekly columns. I was greatly surprised and flattered….

The next time I met Mr. Kerkorian was in his Beverly Hills office on November 1, 1989, eleven months after the devastating earthquake in Armenia. We discussed the possibility of forming a coalition of seven major Armenian-American organizations, including The Lincy Foundation, to airlift humanitarian aid to Armenia. Mr. Kerkorian offered to pay the full cost of transportation and went on to generously pledge to cover not only the cost of one airlift, but “all future airlifts as long as Armenia needed assistance.” Within a few days, the United Armenian Fund was born which successfully delivered over the next 25 years $700 million of relief supplies to Armenia and Artsakh, on board 158 airlifts and 2,250 sea containers.

In 1998, Mr. Kerkorian invited me to travel with him to Armenia, his first trip during which he pledged to Pres. Kocharian to allocate $100 million (raising it later to $242 million) to build or renovate tunnels, bridges and dozens of schools throughout Armenia and one in Artsakh; hundreds of miles of highways, roads and streets; 34 cultural institutions and museums; 3,700 apartments in the earthquake zone; and $20 million of loans to small businesses. These projects not only dramatically improved Armenia’s infrastructure, but also provided much needed employment to over 20,000 workers. Mr. Kerkorian asked me to supervise these projects, in my capacity as Senior Vice President of The Lincy Foundation.

Over the years, Mr. Kerkorian’s Lincy Foundation contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to Armenians worldwide, including $14 million to provide heating oil for Armenia’s freezing population during the harsh winter of 1993, $4.5 million in 2006 to all 28 Armenian schools in Lebanon, and millions of dollars to Hayastan All-Armenia Fund’s projects in Artsakh. It is estimated that from 1989 to 2011, The Lincy Foundation contributed over $1 billion, split equally between Armenian and non-Armenian charities.

In 2011, when The Lincy Foundation closed its doors, unfounded and false rumors began circulating about the supposed reasons for its closure. The fact is that Mr. Kerkorian had planned all along that at a certain advanced age he would no longer deal with the deluge of daily requests for funding from around the world and distribute the bulk of his wealth after his passing.

I would like to conclude by mentioning some of the likes and dislikes of this remarkable Armenian-American:

— Mr. Kerkorian detested the divisions among Armenians. It upset him to no end that Armenians could not get along with each other. He often said: “Why can’t they unite and march in the same direction?” He was pleased to see seven major Armenian-American organizations working together under the umbrella of the United Armenian Fund.

–He cared deeply about the destitute condition of the people in Armenia and was constantly worried about emigration. He sought to create jobs so Armenians won’t have to leave their homeland.

— He hated the limelight and never lent his name to any building or institution.

— He was extremely wealthy, yet lived very modestly and spoke gently and politely. He preferred that people address him as Kirk rather than Mr. Kerkorian.

Finally, no one had to prompt Kirk to donate money to worthy causes. He often volunteered to make large contributions without being asked.

The Armenian nation and the world owe him a great debt of gratitude.

One hundred years after the genocide, the Armenians against Turkey

January 31, 2015 By administrator

“We want justice”

Harut Sassounian, president of the United Armenian Fund in the US

Friday, January 23, in the 16th arrondissement restaurant

Harut Sassounian is one of the bugbears of Turkish diplomacy. In 1985, this native of Aleppo (Syria) has played an important role in a UN agency recognizes that the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1916 was genocide (see below, ” to go further “). During the First World War, at least 1.2 million Armenians disappeared due to deportations and mass executions ordered by the government in power in Istanbul. But since then, the Turkish authorities reject the description of genocide and lobbying hard for the international community did not return to his account.

The Armenian diaspora, in contrast, is welded to obtain this recognition, with a determination strengthened this year, which marks the centenary of the massacres. Harut Sassounian for, however, the campaign needs to be complemented by another. A leading figure of the diaspora in the United States, he believes that Armenians should demand justice, including increased judicial procedures for spoliation. A strategy decrypted Friday, January 23 during an interview about an orange juice at Le Murat, and has brought in a gathered audience Saturday, January 24 at the City Hall of Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine).

“Compensations for justice”

“My struggle now is to obtain justice for the Armenians,” he says. “In 1915, a terrible crime was committed. We lost 1.5 million people, but also all our properties, our properties, our churches … Let us returns: for compensation, with respect to goods, and the return of the churches under the administration of the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul. “

“Erdogan said that a good Muslim can not commit genocide”

“Turkish leaders do not want to recognize the genocide,” Harut Sassounian denounces. “Their current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that a good Muslim can not commit genocide. Last year, he released a statement on April 23 in which he expressed his regret for all the war dead, including Armenians. He tries to mislead international public opinion. “

“A government that had an extermination plan”

“Let us make a parallel with the Second World War there were about 7 million Germans killed during the conflict and 6 million Jews,” he says. “But it would not occur to anyone to put them on the same level: the Germans were the victims of a war they had triggered; Jews were the victims of a genocidal project. Same during the First World War the Turks died because their government had declared war on France, the British Empire, Russia; Armenians were massacred by a government that had an extermination plan. “

“The Turks will try to cover their tracks”

“This year, at least until April 24 is the date set by the Armenians to commemorate the genocide, the Turks will try to cover their tracks”, reads activist, editor of a weekly dedicated to the cause, The California Courier. “Already, they advanced the date of the commemoration of the Battle of Gallipoli. So far, the ceremonies were held on 25 April. This year, they sent invitations for April 24, the day the genocide commemorations will be held in Yerevan. The Turks even sent an invitation to Serzh Sargsyan, the President of the Republic of Armenia! Everyone understood the maneuver. “

“The Turkish authorities will seek to show benevolent”

“The Turkish authorities will also multiply the ads to show humanistic, caring, reconciled with the Armenians,” he adds. “The Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was to say that the Armenian diaspora was a Turkish diaspora, since it was part of Turkey! He could consider giving Turkish citizenship to those who would come back! How is it possible to say that? We are the diaspora of an occupied historic Armenia! And we do not want to return. So be careful not to be trapped by a soothing rhetoric. “

“At the UN, the balance of power is too unfavorable”

“For a hundred years that Turkey refuses to recognize the genocide. We will maintain this requirement, but we will not stay again wait a hundred years, “Harut Sassounian resumes. “We want justice. We will go through multiple channels: the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the European Court of Human Rights, the national courts. For the ICJ, it’s complicated because only the state can seize. The Republic of Armenia could do it but it would be a fateful decision for her. It is a small landlocked country with few international allies against Turkey, which has the second largest army in NATO, which is the fifteenth largest economy. It’s like at the UN: it is not realistic to consider a campaign for the recognition of the genocide at the general meeting. The balance of power is too unfavorable. Turkey can count on the support of Muslim countries and the countries of NATO. And this is not a place to tell the truth. This is the rule of the law of the strongest. “

“Zuart Sudjian, 94, brought an action against the Turkish state”

“However, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) can be captured by a single individual, when all the remedies in the State have been exhausted,” he continues. “I recently wrote an article about a woman of 94, Zuart Sudjian, who has brought an action against the State in Turkey because of the confiscation of land on which stands Diyarbakir airport, which once belonged his family, Basmajian. She claims compensation. If the Turkish Justice does not decide in his favor, it will go before the ECHR. And if it finds that it should be compensated, it will open the way for tens of thousands of Armenians. “

“At Incirlik, the NATO base on the grounds of a former Armenian village”

“We also know that one of the most prestigious buildings of the Turkish Republic, which resided there is little the president, was the property of Kasapyan, a family of rich Armenian merchants,” says the activist. “Documents also show that the Istanbul Ataturk Airport was developed in part on land that belonged to the family Kevork Sarian, a native of Van. As for the main air base of NATO in Turkey, it is located on village land Incirlik, who was an Armenian community. Families have brought an action against the Turkish government in a US federal court. So even if Turkey refuses to recognize that there was genocide, court decisions will ensure this function. It will be an indirect recognition that there was mass murder. “

Foreign Minister’s excellent commentary in Le Figaro, with some shortcomings

September 10, 2014 By administrator

By Harut Sassounian
TheCaliforniaCourier.com

Even though it is not an easy task to unify Armenians around a common set of restitutive demands from Turkey, it is critical to do so on the eve of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

It is imperative that Armenians speak with one voice, telling the world what exactly they want from Turkey, because divergent demands would send a confusing message. Some Armenians would be satisfied with a simple acknowledgment of the Genocide and apology from the Turkish government. Others are after financial restitution, open borders, Black Sea access, and the return of Mount Ararat. Maximalists, including this author, demand everything that Armenians lost during the Genocide: restitution for the murders of 1.5 million Armenians, and recovery of their properties, bank accounts, churches, schools, cemeteries, and territories of Western Armenia. In previous columns, I have advocated the use of the general term — seeking justice — to summarize all Armenian demands from Turkey.

Being a ‘maximalist’ implies not only reclaiming everything Armenians lost during the Genocide, but also employing an optimum negotiating strategy. Why ask for the minimum and end up with even less? Wouldn’t it be wiser to begin with maximal demands and strike the best possible bargain?

These were some of my thoughts as I read the well-written commentary of Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, published in Le Figaro last week: “Turkey should reconcile with its own past.” He correctly labels as ‘fabricated’ and ‘misleading’ the recent use by Pres. Erdogan and other Turkish officials of the terms ‘common pain’ and ‘just memory’ in reference to the Armenian Genocide. Nalbandian also rejects the Turkish proposal for a “commission of historians in order to find the truth” about the Armenian Genocide. Unfortunately, this sinister proposal was included in the Armenian-Turkish Protocols of 2009 which the Foreign Minister continues to support in his article. Furthermore, rather than simply castigating Turkey for denying the Armenian Genocide and seeking ‘reconciliation’ through ‘recognition and condemnation of the Genocide,’ the Foreign Minister should have asked for ‘justice’ that encompasses all Armenian demands.

At the end of his in depth commentary, Nalbandian reminds Le Figaro readers that Pres. Sargsyan had invited Pres. Erdogan “to visit Armenia on April 24, 2015, on the occasion of the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. We hope it will not be a missed opportunity and Turkey’s President will be in Yerevan on that day.”

Clearly, Armenia is trying to put the Turkish President in a difficult corner: he will either reject the invitation, making him look bad in the eyes of the world, or come to Armenia on April 24, 2015, and acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.

To pursue this clever scheme, the Foreign Minister of Armenia took the unusual step of attending Pres. Erdogan’s August 28 inauguration to hand over Pres. Sargsyan’s formal invitation. Nalbandian’s Ankara visit came right after Erdogan insulted Armenians by complaining on Turkish television that some people called him Georgian, and “even worse, they called me an Armenian.”

I seriously doubt that Erdogan would show up in Yerevan on the Armenian Genocide Centennial. If he does not, Armenian officials would be elated that their ploy worked, making Erdogan look like an obstructionist. But, what if the Turkish President does come to Armenia on April 24, 2015? Erdogan may say and do a lot of outlandish things, but he is a wily politician who can easily evade the Armenian trap and turn the tables on his hosts. He could go to the Genocide Memorial Monument in Yerevan and announce that he has come to ‘share the pain’ of all victims of World War I, including Turks and Armenians. That would be a great public relations coup for Erdogan!

Just last week, Pres. Erdogan took a tough stand against Armenia during his visit to Azerbaijan. He told Pres. Aliyev (for the thousandth time) that Turkey will not open its borders with Armenia until the latter withdraws from Karabagh (Artsakh). The newly-appointed Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu made similar harsh anti-Armenian remarks. In return, Pres. Aliyev pledged to support Turkey in ‘exposing the fictional Armenian genocide.’

It is clear that Turkey and Azerbaijan are escalating their rhetoric and planning joint efforts against Armenia rather than looking for reconciliation. Under these circumstances, Armenia should take an equally tough stand against the two hostile Turkic states, starting with the immediate withdrawal of Armenia’s signature from the Armenian-Turkish Protocols.

Why Turks Were Capable of Exterminating Armenians, But Not Jews

April 9, 2014 By administrator

BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

Endless comparisons are made between the Armenian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust. However, there is yet another comparison that is rarely made: the Turkish ability to carry out the Armenian Genocide and inability to eliminate the Jewish settlers from Palestine during the same period. Such a comparison has not been made because hardly anyone has studied the Turkish deportation plans of Jews during World War I in relationship to the Armenian Genocide.

My preliminary analysis is based on information gleamed from Prof. Yair Auron’s book, “Zionism and the Armenian Genocide: The Banality of Indifference,” Vartkes Yeghiayan’s “Pro Armenia,” and other archival materials. I would like to detail the circumstances of deportations of the Jews and how they were mostly spared, while Armenians were not! More importantly, what steps did the Jewish Diaspora and settlers in Palestine take to avoid suffering Armenians’ tragic fate?

Armenians and Jews, as minorities in the Ottoman Empire, were convenient scapegoats for the whims of ruthless Turkish leaders. Interestingly, the Young Turks used the same arguments for deporting both Armenians and Jews. The Turks had accused Armenians for cooperating with the advancing Russian Army, while similarly blaming Jews for cooperating with British forces invading Ottoman Palestine. Furthermore, Jews were accused of planning to establish their own homeland in Palestine, just as Armenians were allegedly establishing theirs in Eastern Turkey. In yet another parallel, Jamal Pasha, one of the members of the Young Turk triumvirate, had cynically commented that he was “expelling the Jews for their own good,” just as Armenians were forcefully removed “away from the war zone” for their own safety!

In 1914, when Turkey entered World War I on the German side and against the Allied Powers (England, Russia, and France), Palestine became a theater of war. Turkish authorities imposed a war tax on the population, which fell more heavily on the Jewish settlers. Their properties and other possessions were confiscated by the Turkish military. Some Jewish settlers were used as slave labor to build roads and railways. Alex Aaronsohn, a Jewish settler in Zichron Yaacov, wrote in his diary: “an order had recently come from the Turkish authorities, bidding them surrender whatever firearms or weapons they had in their possession. A sinister command, this: we knew that similar measures had been taken before the terrible Armenian massacres, and we felt that some such fate might be in preparation for our people,” as quoted in Yeghiayan’s “Pro Armenia.”

In Fall 1914, the Turkish regime issued an expulsion order for all “enemy nationals,” including 50,000 Russian Jews who had escaped from Czarist persecutions and settled in Palestine. After repeated intercessions by German Ambassador Hans Wangenheim and American Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, these “enemy nationals” were allowed to stay in Palestine, if they agreed to acquire Ottoman citizenship.

Nevertheless, on December 17, 1914, Jamal Pasha’s subordinate, Bahaeddin, governor of Jaffa, implemented the expulsion order, deporting 500 Jews who were grabbed from the streets and dragged to police headquarters, and from there forced to board ships docked in the harbor. Homes of Jewish settlers were searched for weapons. Hebrew-language signs were removed from shops and the Jewish school of Jaffa was closed down. Zionist organizations were dissolved, and on January 25, 1915, the Turkish authorities issued a declaration against “the dangerous element known as Zionism, which is struggling to create a Jewish government in the Palestinian area of the Ottoman Kingdom….”

In response to protests from Amb. Morgenthau and the German government, Constantinople reversed the deportation order and Bahaeddin was removed from his post. According to Prof. Auron, the condition of the Jewish settlers could have been much worse had it not been for “the influence of world Jewry on Turkish policy…. The American, German, and Austrian Jewish communities succeeded in restraining some of its harsher aspects. Decrees were softened; overly zealous Turkish commanders were replaced and periods of calm followed the times of distress.”

Back in 1913, Pres. Wilson had instructed Amb. Morgenthau upon his appointment: “‘Remember that anything you can do to improve the lot of your co-religionists is an act that will reflect credit upon America, and you may count on the full power of the Administration to back you up.’ Morgenthau followed this advice faithfully,” according to Isaiah Friedman’s book, “Germany, Turkey and Zionism: 1897-1918.” After arranging for the delivery of much needed funds from American Jews to Jaffa, Morgenthau wrote to Arthur Ruppen, director of the Palestine Development Association: “I have been the chosen weapon to take up the defense of my co-religionists….”

In spring 1917, the Turkish authorities issued a second order to deport 5,000 Jews from Tel Aviv. Aaron Aaronsohn, leader of the Nili group – a small Jewish underground organization in Palestine working for British intelligence – immediately disseminated the news of the deportation to the international media. Aaronsohn secretly met with British diplomat Mark Sykes in Egypt and through him sent an urgent message to London on April 28, 1917: “Tel Aviv has been sacked. 10,000 Jews in Palestine are now without home or food. Whole of Yishuv [Jewish settlements in Palestine] is threatened with destruction. Jamal [Pasha] has publicly stated Armenian policy will now be applied to Jews.”

Upon receiving Aaronsohn’s reports from Palestine, Chaim Weizmann, a key pro-British Zionist in London, transmitted the following message to Zionist leaders in various European capitals: “Jamal Pasha openly declared that the joy of Jews at the approach of British troops would be short lived as he would them share the fate of the Armenians…. Jamal Pasha is too cunning to order cold-blooded massacres. His method is to drive the population to starvation and death by thirst, epidemics, etc….”

American Jews were outraged hearing of the deportations in Palestine. News reports were issued throughout Western countries on “Turkish intentions to exterminate the Jews in Palestine,” according to Prof. Auron. Moreover, influential Jewish businessmen in Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire demanded that their governments pressure Turkish leaders to abandon their plans to deport Jews. Jamal Pasha was finally forced to rescind the expulsion order and provided food and medical assistance to Jewish refugees in Tel Aviv.

(To be continued)

Turkey claims non-Turkish antiquities by intimidating foreign museums

January 22, 2013 By administrator

The Turkish government has recently embarked on an aggressive campaign, pressuring a large number of European and American museums to return antiquities that were taken out of the country during Ottoman times.

While it is understandable that nations would want to recover ancient relics that were part of their patrimony, in the Turkish case there are certain anomalies that merit closer scrutiny.

If these valuable relics were taken out of Turkey in recent times without proper authorization, one could argue that the Turkish government is perhaps entitled to them, even though they emanate from ancient civilizations that predate the conquest of that part of the world by Ottoman Turks.

It is ironic that the country claiming these antiquities is one of the history’s biggest looters and pilferers of other nations’ cultural heritage such as churches, monasteries, monuments, and schools belonging to Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks. One must have clean hands before having the audacity of accusing others of theft.

Most shocking of all, the Turkish government is preparing a lawsuit against the British Museum in the European Court of Human Rights based on Article 1 of the First Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights which states: “Every natural or legal person is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions.”

According to an article by Ceylan Yeginsu in the International Business Times (IBT), using human rights laws to recover antiquities is a novel concept never before used by any country. It is incredible that one of the biggest violators of human rights in the world is getting ready to sue the British Museum ostensibly for violating the rights of Turkish citizens.

Turkey is planning to file this lawsuit on January 30 to reclaim the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, “one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.” The British Museum, however, argues that it had not misappropriated this ancient relic. Olivia Rickman, press and PR manager of the Museum, told IBT that the sculptures from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus in the Museum’s collection were acquired in 1846, 1857 and 1859. Rickman further states that “these pieces were acquired during the course of two British initiatives, both with firmans [legal permits issued by the Ottoman authorities] that granted permission for the excavation of the site and removal of the material from the site (1857 and 1859) and Bodrum Castle (1846) to the British Museum.”

IBT quoted Charlotte Woodhead, an expert in cultural heritage law at the University of Warwick in England, stating that she was not aware of human rights legislation ever being used before to reclaim such objects. “If a claim is brought before the European Court of Human Rights, it will be interesting to see on what basis it is argued and also to see what the outcome is,” Woodhead stated.

Turkey has also used an Ottoman law banning the export of artifacts in order to claim ownership of ancient artifacts from major museums around the globe, such as the Louvre in Paris, the Getty in Los Angeles, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Harvard’s Dumbarton Oaks. If Turkey can claim Ottoman-era assets, then it must be held responsible for Ottoman-era liabilities such as plunder, territorial conquest, and genocide!

By filing such questionable lawsuits, Turkey’s real intent is to intimidate foreign museums into returning the claimed artifacts. If the museums do not cave in to Turkish pressure and refuse to turn over these items, it would be interesting to see if the Turkish government would still go ahead with its threatened lawsuits. The big risk for Turkey is that if the courts reject its claims, no museum would ever agree to return any of the demanded antiquities.

However, should a foreign museum wish to return an ancient relic to Turkey, it should make it conditional on the Turkish government officially identifying the true origin of the object, such as Hittite, Roman, Greek, Armenian or Assyrian. This is necessitated by the fact that Turkey has omitted all references to the origin of ancient Armenian churches and monuments from inscriptions presently affixed to the entrance of these sites.

Turkish efforts to reclaim antiquities from the world’s great museums provide a unique opportunity for Armenians to publicize the Turkey’s misuse and outright destruction of thousands of Armenian churches, monasteries, schools, cemeteries and castles.

Armenians should petition the European Court of Human Rights, objecting to the return of any artifacts to Turkey, unless its government makes a legally binding pledge to preserve and identify all remaining Armenian monuments on its territory. The next step would be to demand that Turkey return the more than 2,000 churches to the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul.

Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier