Silopi Urgent Call from Women in Turkey: Help Us Prevent Massacre

August 20, 2015 By administrator

The following statement was issued by the Women’s Freedom Assembly in Turkey on Aug. 18.

Urgent Call from Women in Turkey: Help Us Prevent Massacre!

Last week Silopi, a city close to the Iraqi and Syrian borders of Turkey, was placed under siege by the Turkish military. Many civilians were wounded and killed with no accountability whatsoever; neighborhoods were set on fire by the police and military. A delegation organized by the Women’s Freedom Assembly was on its way to Silopi in order to investigate what happened there last week and stand with the women and peoples of Silopi who are under attack. Upon hearing the troublesome news coming from Silvan—a town in the Diyarbakır province, however, this delegation changed its route, deciding to go to Silvan instead, and to stay in Silvan if necessary.

This decision was made because we have seen what happens when entry into a town is forbidden by the military. We witnessed the results of this kind of isolation in Silopi last week, in Varto on Sunday [Aug. 16], and today the same is happening in Silvan. Whenever towns are closed down, the Kurdish people living there are left face-to-face with the threat of massacre. The 15-person delegation of the Women’s Freedom Assembly is in Silvan today in order to prevent this from happening again. This delegation includes activists from various parts of the women’s movement, journalists, and members of parliament.

According to the information we receive from our friends, the town is completely shut off. Nobody is allowed to enter or exit. Internet and phone lines are cut off. It is impossible to communicate. There are people gathering at the entrance of Silvan in the hopes of preventing a massacre from taking place in secret; but these people are not being allowed in. Members of parliament from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) were also initially denied entry, but, after negotiations conducted by MP İdris Baluken, they were finally let in.

These MPs entered the town in order to survey and monitor the events, as well as to look for solutions to alleviate the situation people are in, while heavy clashes continue in three separate neighborhoods. However, it has become impossible to hear from these members of parliament for the past couple of hours, since phone lines are down. A barrage of explosions and gunfire are heard coming from the town center. It is said that there is intense military build-up taking place in Silvan, as tanks, various types of armored cars, military vehicles, and special operations units are being dispatched to the area.

The sub-governor of the district and the governor of Diyarbakir have been contacted by members of parliament. The response has been that these operations are being directed by Ankara itself. The governor said that this issue is therefore above them, and that any intervention must be made directly through Ankara. A group of MPs are now carrying out the necessary communications in Ankara.

We call on all women to raise their voices against this massacre attempt, in the most urgent manner possible!

Source: Armenian Weekly

Thousands commemorate 1993 Turk massacre of 33 Alevi artists and intellectuals

July 2, 2015 By administrator

A large group marched through Sivas and ended at the site of the infamous Madımak Hotel, where they laid carnations and gave speeches in memory of the victims. (Photo: DHA)

More than 10,000 people gathered in front of the Madımak Hotel in Sivas and marched, amid strict security precautions taken by the police, to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the 1993 massacre of 33 Alevi artists and intellectuals who were killed when an angry mob set fire to the hotel.

A number of representatives from various nationwide Alevi associations, 60 deputies from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) — including Zeynep Altıok, daughter of poet Metin Altıok who was killed in the tragedy and CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s spouse, Selvi Kılıçdaroğlu — joined the memorial service. Joining them were Sivas Governor Alim Barut, acting Sivas Mayor Erdal Karaca, Cumhuriyet University rector Prof. Faruk Kocacık and the head of the Cem Foundation, Ali Dağ.

Those public figures who participated in the commemoration demanded that the hotel be converted into “museum of shame” and penalization of the perpetrators of the attack in order to see justice served.

In July 1993, an angry mob broke through police barricades after Friday prayers and set fire to the hotel — where Alevi artists, musicians and authors had assembled to participate in the festival of Pir Sultan Abdal, a 16th-century Alevi poet — causing most of them to be killed.

Remembering the victims of the massacre, in which 33 Alevis, two hotel workers and two of the assailants died, those who took part in the march and the memorial service held placards with the demands for the improvement of the Alevi rights.

Prior to the ceremony, police set up checkpoints to search participants entering the site and all intercity buses coming in were stopped and searched in an effort to ensure security.

After the delegation laid carnations in front of the photos of the victims in the hotel, Governor Barut made a statement, saying that the tragic incident has been imprinted on the memories as a dark day full of pain and added: “Those provocateurs achieved their goals by creating divisions in our society. Our unity [between Sunnis and Alevis] was targeted. It will go down in history as one of our darkest days since it helped undermine the unity people who have lived in peace for centuries. The fire set in the hotel also set Sivas’ future on fire. The grief caused by the tragedy continues to tear our hearts out. However, living in the past is an obstacle to improvement. For sure, we will not forget the pain but we will turn to the future to prevent similar tragedies and to maintain brotherhood between the various segments of the society.”

Source: ZAMAN

The Dersim Massacre: Turkish Destruction of the Kurdish People in the Dersim Region

May 12, 2015 By administrator

By Shakhawan Shorash:

Dersim 1937 – victims of Turkish brutal repression

There are many accounts of mass killings, ethnic cleansing, and genocide against defenseless minorities committed by state authorities and military forces in the multiethnic states in the twentieth century. Long term ethnic tensions and conflicts during the colonial period and after the end of colonialism continued in many countries, including Turkey, Iraq, Sudan, Rwanda, Nigeria, Indonesia, Cambodia etc. These resulted in mass killings and destruction campaigns committed by the states at different times. Ethnic conflict and the factors behind the conflict make the risk of mass killings and genocide higher and more possible in multiethnic states. Ethnic conflict factors have the ability to promote a genocidal mentality and can result in the crime of genocide when extreme leaders and ideologies take political and military power.

The tension between the oppressed Kurds and the Turks goes back to the nineteen century under the Ottoman Empire and continued after the birth of the Republic of Turkey in 1923. In Turkey, close to the end of the Ottoman Empire, there were many internal, negative factors at play, including legitimacy problems, weak national identity, internal security concerns, demographic changes and bias, the dominance of an ethnic mosaic and multiethnicity inside the country, border problems, discrimination, marginalization, historical injustice, exclusionary ideas and leaders, secession trends, and external concerns. In response to these internal problems, which weakened the Ottoman Empire, some radical nationalist groups emerged. The extant negative factors created a suitable ground for the rise of Turkish radical nationalism, which developed and progressed quickly and created the right circumstances for the elevation of a rigid and intolerant mindset toward non-Turkish minorities. The nationalist political organization Itihad u Teraqi (Committee of Union and Progress) and young Turkish officers and the thinkers, such as Ziya Gokalp the author of The Principles of Turkism, influenced the Turkish society. The nationalist trend focused on the creation of a strong Turkish national state based on Turkish identity.

The extreme nationalist movement, which focused on Turkishness, laid the groundwork for the promotion of genocidal factors, such as dehumanization of the unwanted ethnic groups and rationalization of the ethno-nationalist genocidal aims. Non-Turkish ethnic groups rejected the rigid Turkish nationalist mentality and continued to support the plurality and multiethnicity of the society. However, according to Turkish nationalism, those ethnic groups could not fit into a national Turkish state, as they constituted a serious problem for Turkish national identity and were a real threat to Turkish unity and sovereignty. Therefore, they were unwanted, and Turkish nationalism legitimized the ultimate solution—the cleansing of Turkish society of the impure ethnic elements via expulsion, assimilation, ethnic cleansing, or genocide. The unwanted ethnic groups were the Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Kurds, Qizikbash, and other small ethnic groups.

When the radical nationalist group took control and had authority over the military power and resources, the realization of ethnic cleansing and genocidal aims became likely. This nationalist government of The Young Turks, wiped the Armenians out in an organized and systematic destruction campaign in 1915. Nevertheless, the genocide of the Armenians was not the last destruction campaign committed by Turkish ethno-nationalist leaders. In fact, Turkish nationalists cleansed the country of non-Muslim ethnic groups of Greeks, Assyrians, Qzilbash (Shia-Muslims), and Ezidi Kurds.

In 1923 Mustafa Kamal, the founder of the new Turkey, took power as the first Turkish president of the Republic of Turkey. He too was an extreme nationalist, inspired by the Young Turks and nationalist thinkers. Like the other nationalist officers, he believed in a pure Turkish ethnic state. He and three other officers established the political organization called Motherland and Freedom in 1905, and, in 1908, he was among the first members of the nationalist organization of Itihad u Teraqi. Thus, the extreme nationalist wave continued its power after the birth of the new Turkey.

Turkish leaders had another policy concerning the Kurds in general and the Alevi Kurds of Dersim in particular. Turkish leaders, especially Mustafa Kamal, used the loyal Kurds in the independence wars against the Greeks and the Armenians in exchange for political rights (Beshikchi, p. 3). Mustafa Kamal was aware of Kurdish separatist tendencies and this policy aimed at weakening the Kurdish resistance. Mustafa Kamal stressed Kurdish-Turkish unity and regarded the Kurds as brothers and the Turks and Kurds as an undivided people. In September 1919, he stated: “Turks and Kurds will continue to live together as brothers around the institution of khilafa, and an unshakable iron tower will be raised against internal and external enemies.” When the Ankara authority under the leadership of Mustafa Kamal became stronger in 1921, he removed the Kurds in his statement:

Source: kurdistantribune

‘Shout it out loud’: Armenian Turks prepare for commemoration of 1915 massacre

April 24, 2015 By administrator

By Arwa Damon and Zeynep Bilginsoy, CNN,

Armenians mark 100th anniversary of mass killings

Hidden Armenian

(CNN)It wasn’t until her 20s that Fethiye Cetin discovered her Armenian ancestry. Her grandmother, 90 years old at the time, told Cetin that her real name was Heranus. Like many other survivors of 1915, Heranus assimilated and kept her identity hidden. Many feared a repeat of the horrors they witnessed and barely escaped.

In a crowded reception before a memorial concert in Istanbul this week, people rushed to greet Fethiye Cetin. A strong, soft-spoken woman now in her 60s, Cetin is a prominent lawyer who represented Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink. Dink was a strong proponent of reconciliation between Turks and Armenians who was tried for “insulting Turkishness.” He was assassinated in 2007.

Saved from death march

The shocking discovery of her true heritage would change Cetin’s life. She tells Heranus’ story in an evocative memoir titled “My Grandmother.” Heranus and her family were among a massive stream of women and children being forcibly marched by Ottoman soldiers, not knowing where they were going or why they were torn away from their male relatives. Echoing throughout the procession were morbid whispers that the men and teenage boys had all been killed.

Heranus was 9 at the time. An officer spotted her and her brother and wanted to take them away. Her mother protested but she was told by others, “The children are dying one by one. No one will make it out alive from this march. If you give them, their lives will be saved.”

Heranus and her brother were scooped up onto the officer’s horse and taken to a garden packed with other children and fed the first warm meal they had had in days. But soon reality set in and Heranus began to cry and beg to see her mother.

Heranus was separated from her brother, adopted by the officer and his wife, who could not have children of their own. Her name was changed to Seher and she was raised Muslim. And so she survived, had children and grandchildren.

Fighting the silence

Cetin was in law school when her grandmother revealed her secret and painful memories of her Armenian roots. It shattered all that she knew to be real. The 1915 forced deportations and massacres were not taught in Turkey’s schools.

“There was a huge silence” Cetin said. “It was not just the victims that were silent; it was all of society.”

Cetin felt rebellion welling up inside her.

“I wanted to go on the streets and scream that they are lying to us,” she remembers, “a cruelty like this happened, and I wanted to shout it out loud.”

Armenia and the Armenian diaspora have been doing exactly that and demanding that the “Great Catastrophe” be recognized as genocide by Turkey and the world. Armenian President Serzh Sargysan said earlier this year that “impunity paved a path to Holocaust and genocides in Rwanda, Cambodia and Darfur.”

The survivors of 1915 and witnesses remember massacres, bloodied rivers, concentration camps, rape and death marches into the Syrian desert.

A new tone

The Republic of Turkey has always rejected the term “genocide.” Rather, the Ottoman Empire’s Committee of Union and Progress believed Armenian nationalists to be collaborating with the Russian army, which was at war with the Ottoman Empire. To prevent this alliance and stop violence against civilians, the committee undertook a policy of “relocation” to move Armenian populations residing in or near the war zone to southern provinces. Turkey argues that wartime conditions, famine and internal conflicts led to the death of millions of Ottomans, including Armenian subjects.

But it’s only in the last decade that public dialogue in Turkey began.

“We just started breaking the silence recently”, Cetin said. “People were quiet for 90 years in this country.”

Turkish leaders have recently taken a more reconciliatory tone. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered Turkey’s condolences last year to the descendants of the Armenians who lost their lives. He called for the establishment of a joint historical commission in order to study the “events” of 1915.

But Pope Francis’ use of the word “genocide” and the European Parliament’s resolution last week angered Turkish leaders. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the resolution “selective and one-sided,” claiming it repeated “anti-Turkish clichés.” Erdogan deemed it a “hostile campaign against Turkey.”

This week, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu repeated the call for a historical inquiry and the need for an approach based on “just memory” for a “common peaceful future.” He asked that third parties, such as Pope Francis, refrain from “aggravating age-old wounds.”

Unfulfilled journey

A century on, Cetin says the dynamism surrounding the 100th anniversary excites her, bringing together artists, musicians, scholars and intellectuals as well as Turkey’s citizens of all ethnicities and Armenians from across the world. If the government were to acknowledge 1915 as a genocide, it would speed up the reconciliation and healing process, she says. “But if it does not face genocide, then it does not matter. Society coming face to face with it is more important.”

Still Cetin remains hopeful that Turkey will accept its moral obligation towards history and its people. As an Armenian Turk, Cetin has helped others retrace their roots and look for long lost answers. But for many, the emotional journey remains unfulfilled as long as Turkey denies the cause of their pain.

Vatican Pope Francis calls Armenian slaughter ‘genocide’ (Video)

April 12, 2015 By administrator

Pope Francis calls Armenian massacre ‘genocide’

Pontiff’s comments are likely to anger Turkey, which denies that the killings 100 years ago during the fall of the Ottoman empire constituted genocide.

Pope Francis has described the mass killing of Armenians 100 years ago as a genocide, a politically explosive pronouncement that could damage diplomatic relations with Turkey.

During a special mass to mark the centenary of the mass killing, the pontiff referred to “three massive and unprecedented tragedies” of the past century. “The first, which is widely considered the first genocide of the twentieth century, struck your own Armenian people,” he said, quoting a declaration signed in 2001 by Pope John Paul II and Kerekin II, leader of the Armenian church.

“Bishops and priests, religious women and men, the elderly and even defenceless children and the infirm were murdered,” the pope said.

Historians estimate that as many as 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a wave of violence that accompanied the fall of the Ottoman empire. Despite the massacre being formally recognised as a genocide by Italy and a number of other countries, Turkey refuses to accept it as such.

Reports in Turkey on Sunday said the Vatican’s ambassador to Ankara had been summoned to the foreign ministry to explain the pope’s remarks.

Although the pope chose to quote a predecessor rather than speak in his own words, he told Armenians there was a duty to remember to killings.

“We recall the centenary of that tragic event, that immense and senseless slaughter whose cruelty your forebears had to endure. It is necessary, and indeed a duty, to honour their memory, for whenever memory fades, it means that evil allows wounds to fester,” he said in St Peter’s Basilica.

During the mass Pope Francis also declared a 10th-century Armenian monk, St Gregory of Narek, a “doctor of the church”. The mystic and poet is celebrated for his writings, some of which are still recited each Sunday in Armenian churches.

The pope was joined at the Vatican by a number of Armenian dignitaries, including the president, Serž Sargsyan, and the head of the Armenian Apostolic church, Karekin II.

Theo van Lint, a Calouste Gulbenkian professor of Armenian studies at the University of Oxford, said allowing Armenian leaders to speak in St Peter’s Basilica was a strategic move.

“I think it’s very important to realise he gave space to the leaders, the heads of the Armenian church and Armenian Catholics, to fully give their view of events. It’s very clear that the pope accepts that it is a genocide,” van Lint told the Guardian.

He said the pontiff’s decision to refer to the mass killing of Armenians along with crimes perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism gave the Vatican’s “highest sanction” to genocide recognition.

Igor Dorfmann-Lazarev, a researcher on Armenian history and culture at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, said the ceremony demonstrated the pope’s efforts to put periphery Christian groups at the centre of the Catholic church.

“This is the first time that Armenia is the centre of attention of Catholic life and the Christian world. It’s meant to draw attention to the Christian east,” he said.

Francis’s use of the word “genocide” was unlikely to change relations between Armenia and Turkey, Dorfmann-Lazarev said, although it would raise diplomatic concerns at the Vatican.

106. The facts behind the Adana massacre anniversary #ArmenianGenocide

April 11, 2015 By administrator

Emre Can Dağlıoğlu

BERCAR FENERCİ PHOTO ARCHIVE

1909 Adana Massacre, a rebellion that will shake the fate of the Ottoman next year March 31, the same day Vakası’yl started and days during the wave of violence against the Armenians spread around Adana, had left behind huge losses. 106 years ago this massacre began April 13, from Boğaziçi University Department of History Professor Toksöz’l breeze talked to.

Çukurova enrichment live on agriculture coincides with this period. Port of Mersin, is emerging as an important port in the eastern Mediterranean during this period. The construction of the railway at the end of the 1880 Adana-Mersin, Mersin Port is gaining serious attention and becomes almost Beyrut’l the race. Therefore, many expanding trade network. 1905 in Adana is experiencing growth as well as throughout the world. Cotton prices rise with the Port of Mersin, in terms of export volume comes out on top even in Beirut. As well as port and rail foot, the third leg of nomadic peoples, goes quickly become entrenched in this period. State is experiencing as a result of the settlement policy followed since the 1860s. My Upper Plains and around the Ceyhan I also made agricultural production for export. It also put the population migration-related settlement there. Thus Cukurova is growing literally and large farms are starting to be installed. Thus obtained a large income is invested back in the soil. This completely changes the face of the Çukurova.

What is the share of the Armenians in this face change?

Unfortunately not so easy to work with property in Ottoman history. So exactly bilemesek also essential share in the commercial development of the non-Muslims, non-Muslims in the emerging with 1890 as the Armenians. But I’m not talking about an overwhelming majority. Muslims always have in this development. But I can tell the owners of land on a large scale that many of the Armenians in the Ottoman context. But we are talking about a very large geographical area. The presence of Armenians in the Lower Plain and Feke I Haçin more netk that, across the plain, it is not clear enough. In addition to cotton, as well as gardening and the area is well developed in the same period can be said to belong to the majority of Muslims.

Met to nervously by Muslims. League of Muhammadiyah, an important component in this regard. But I do not want to overstate this anxiety too, because there is no indication that overall we have to be worried about. In 1908, often depicted with enthusiasm in the streets. That it occurred in Adana and Mersin in the city center and only non-Muslims should be noted that this enthusiasm for life. In July 1908, but still up to the period from March 31 Incident, already a troubled period of time. We can say it was the same for Cukurova. Economic terms in 1908, the region does not lead to a big change. Therefore, it is yet too early to talk about a social explosion could bring such a change.

Adana in April of 1909 before have such an ethnic conflict environment can be envisaged?

I tried to take much of the track that, but look ahead to what is written in an environment or can anticipate such carnage seems to be something in the air. But it is not possible to clearly see such a plan. The atmosphere is rising dramatically in 1908 as the city’s article. The revolutionary enthusiasm of the Armenian bothers Muslims. This enthusiasm is interpreted as the Armenians do not trust them too much. In March League of Muhammadiyah’s -31 in March just before the Incident because of the Ittihad-i Muhammadiyah community gathered around the volcano newspaper another name- new establishment in Adana made the meeting on the establishment of branches and provocative out there. This massacre, we need to evaluate more than 1908 in the atmosphere. Even allowing the massacre plan but it is still a few weeks before the April.

Armenian massacres of 1894-96, followed by the Adana Massacres of 1909 and the end of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, we think, we can mention the constantly rising wave of violence against the Armenians?

Looking at this question in terms of violence to say yes. However, the need to separate these, 1909 Adana Massacre, similar to the 1894-96 massacres more. After the Constitutional Revolution in 1908. Although there is the case. Because 1909 is a year where there is still in the throes of revolution. However, when examined in terms of regional characteristics, which of course is divided into 1915.

Serbia makes first arrests in 1995 Srebrenica massacre

March 18, 2015 By administrator

Serbian authorities on Wednesday arrested eight people in connection with the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed at a UN safe haven when the shelter fell to Bosnian Serb forces.

“This is the first such case involving people directly suspected of taking part in the Srebrenica massacre,” Bruno Vekaric, Serbia’s deputy war crimes prosecutor, told Reuters.

Arrested at multiple locations across Serbia, the men are accused of killing more than 1,000 Bosnian Muslims at the Kravica warehouse just outside Srebrenica and in the process committing “war crimes against the civilian population”, the prosecutor said in a statement.

Vekaric said seven suspects were arrested early on Wednesday while an eighth was detained later in the northern city of Novi Sad. Other suspects remain at large.

“He (the eighth suspect) is on his way to Belgrade … There are another five suspects still at large in the region, we are after them as well,” he said.

The accused are former members of a Bosnian Serb special wartime police unit that operated under the interior ministry.

An official involved in the investigation said those detained included unit commander Nedeljko Milidragovic, known as “Nedjo the Butcher”, who became a successful businessman in Serbia after the war.

“He and others are suspected of bringing some 15 busloads of men from a prison camp in Srebrenica to Kravica, where they were summarily executed,” the official said.

Peacekeepers overrun

The tiny Muslim enclave of Srebrenica was under UN protection until July 11, 1995, when it was seized by ethnic Serb forces under the command of Ratko Mladic, who is currently on trial for genocide and war crimes at The Hague in connection with the war in Bosnia.

Mladic’s troops overran the lightly armed Dutch peacekeepers guarding the safe area, where thousands of Muslims from surrounding villages had gathered to seek UN protection.

The bodies of the 7,000 to 8,000 victims were dumped in mass graves. Nearly 90 percent of the victims have so far been exhumed and identified through DNA analysis.

Serbia arrested Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic in 2008 near Belgrade, where he was working as a doctor during more than a decade on the run. Mladic, his military commander, was arrested in 2011 after more than 16 years of evading capture.

Both are currently facing trial at the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague for war crimes, including those that occurred at Srebrenica.

The arrests of Karadzic and Mladic were key to unblocking Serbia’s bid to join the European Union. But Belgrade remains under pressure to go after those responsible for war crimes committed during the 1992-1995 collapse of Yugoslavia, when some 100,000 people – most of them Bosnian Muslims – were killed.

Dutch ruled liable

An ICTY trial chamber issued the tribunal’s first genocide conviction in August of 2001 in ruling that the Srebrenica massacre constituted genocide, which refers to acts committed with the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

In 2007 the UN’s highest court, the International Court of Justice, concurred in ruling that the acts committed at Srebrenica were genocide.

The suspects will most likely stand trial in Serbia and not at the ICTY in The Hague, where Serbia’s late president, Slobodan Milosevic, faced trial.

July will mark the 20th anniversary of the massacre, which the ICTY says was Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II.

The Dutch Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that the Netherlands was liable for the deaths of three Bosnian Muslim men during the Srebrenica massacre, even though its forces there were part of a UN peacekeeping mission. The decision upheld a 2011 appeals court judgment that was seen as setting a worrying precedent because it held the Dutch state responsible for events that happened during a multinational UN mission.

A Dutch court ruled last year that the Netherlands was also liable for the deaths of more than 300 others at Srebrenica. The families of those killed had filed suit against the Dutch government, accusing the nation’s UN peacekeepers of failing to protect the victims.

The Mothers of Srebrenica group, representing some 6,000 widows and other victims’ relatives, have been seeking justice for years for the massacre.

(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and REUTERS)

Thousands of demonstrators in Stepanakert for 27 anniversary of the anti-Armenian pogroms in Sumgait

February 28, 2015 By administrator

protesters marched in the streets of Stepanakert Nagorno Karabakh)

Last February 28, thousands of protesters marched in the streets of Stepanakert (capital of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh) to visit the memorial of the Armenian victims of Sumgait. Demonstrators wore many posters accusing Azerbaijan in its racist and anti-Armenian policy. Slogans such as “We demand justice! “,” Sumgait was genocide carried out by criminals, “or” Never again! “. In the crowd, many citizens of Nagorno Karabakh, MPs, government officials, President Bako Sahakyan and 1200 members of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun came from Yerevan. He is 27 years old, from 27 to 29 February 1988 in Sumgait (Azerbaijan) several hundred Armenians were victims of pogroms carried out by the Azerbaijani authorities to counter the uprising of Armenians in Karabakh.

Krikor Amirzayan

Today marks the 27th anniversary of the Sumgait Pogroms of Armenians by Azerbaijani forces

February 27, 2015 By administrator

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27th anniversary of the Sumgait massacre

WASHINGTON, DC – House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) was joined by fellow Committee colleague Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Representatives Tony Cardenas (D-CA), Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Katherine Clark (D-MA) in commemorating the 26th anniversary of the Azerbaijani pogroms against the Armenian population of the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait, and condemning the ongoing violence and intimidation fostered by the government of President Ilham Aliyev, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“Twenty-six years ago, violent mobs surrounded the sea-side village in Sumgait, Soviet Azerbaijan and terrorized its inhabitants through a violent and brutal pogrom. In the following days, these roving bands systematically targeted ethnic Armenians on the streets and in their homes, viciously attacking and killing hundreds,” stated Chairman Royce. “On this tragic anniversary, when we mourn the loss of those innocent lives, we are mindful of the ongoing conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh and recurrent incidents of inciting rhetoric by Azeri political leaders and continued military clashes along the border. It is critical that Azerbaijan’s leaders refrain from provocative statements and commit to fruitful negotiations for a lasting peace in Nagorno-Karabakh.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) Brad Sherman (D-CA) Tony Cardenas (D-CA), Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Katherine Clark (D-MA

Rep. Sherman explained the imperative of commemorating the pogroms in Sumgait, Kirovabad, and Baku, stating, “If we hope to stop future massacres, we must acknowledge these horrific events and ensure they do not happen again.” Rep. Sherman went on to note, that “Recognizing the ethnic-cleansing of the Armenians from Azerbaijan is an important step. However, we need to do more–we need to demonstrate to Azerbaijan that the United States is committed to peace and to the protection of Artsakh from coercion.”

Rep. Cardenas noted that “the failure to act by the Azerbaijani authorities and our failure to compel action has resulted in a tidal wave of animosity towards the Armenians, which manifests itself in several ways. Azerbaijani forces east of Karabakh continue to disregard the ceasefire established after the Karabakh war in 1994. Ramil Safarov, who decapitated an Armenian Lieutenant while he slept during a NATO-sponsored training program in 2004, returned home as a hero and was held up as ‘an example of patriotism for the Azerbaijani youth’ by the Commissioner for Human Rights of Azerbaijan, Elmira Suleymanova. All the while, Ilham Aliyev continues his brazen rhetoric; consistently declaring Armenians as the national enemy in an effort to unite the Azeri public.”

Rep. Eshoo explained that “without our recognition and our forceful condemnation, the cycle of violence will continue. Even today, Christians and other minority groups are being driven from Syria by extremists, and the once large and diverse ethnic mosaic there is all but eradicated. Without our attention and action by the world community, there will be no end in sight.”

Rep. Clark noted that “like the persecution of too many peoples before it, the lessons of Sumgait must not be forgotten. As diverse families of the Commonwealth, and as Americans, we have a moral obligation to promote tolerance and justice, and we have a duty to recognise the atrocities that have kept us from our common goal.”
The complete statements by the Representatives are provided below.

Congresswoman Chu Condemning Baku, Sumgait, Girovabad Massacres, Anti-Armenian Pogroms

February 27, 2015 By administrator

Rep. Judy Chu delivers remarks on Armenian Pogroms

Offers Powerful Remarks on the House Floor Condemning Baku, Sumgait, Girovabad Massacres, Defending Artsakh’s Right to Freedom

WASHINGTON—Representative Judy Chu (D-Calif.) took to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives today to commemorate the Sumgait, Baku, and Girovabad massacres, condemn ongoing Azerbaijani aggression, and call for freedom for the people of Nagorno Karabakh, reported the Armenian National Committee of America.

“The ANCA welcomes Congresswoman Chu’s powerful moral stand in remembrance of those lost to anti-Armenian massacres in Azerbaijan, profoundly values her efforts to educate her colleagues about Baku’s ongoing aggression, and deeply appreciates her defense of freedom for Nagorno Karabakh,” said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA.

The full text of Congresswoman’s Chu’s February 26, 2015 speech is provided below:

“Twenty-seven years ago, as the lines of the Soviet Union were fading, the people of Nagorno-Karabakh were united in a call for a say in their own futures and greater independence from Azerbaijan. This peaceful movement for self-determination and freedom was followed by premeditated and government-sponsored attacks.

“Over the next two years, the Armenian population in the territory of Artsakh was repeatedly victim to brutal and racially motivated pogroms, darkly reminiscent of the days of the Armenian Genocide. Hundreds were murdered, thousands were displaced, and the Armenian community – both in Artsakh and in exile – continues to bear the scars from the brutal attacks in Sumgait, Kirovabad, and Baku.

“When the people of Nagorno-Karabakh officially declared independence on December 10, 1991, they were met with full-scale war lasting until 1994. Even today, the people of Nagorno-Karabakh are still forced to live under constant ceasefire violations by Azerbaijan.

“As we commemorate the somber anniversary marking the struggle of the Nagorno-Karabakh people, we wish for the peaceful resolution of this conflict and hope that its citizens will be free to determine their own future.”