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Unsuccessfully photoshopped picture of former PM Ahmet Dvutoglu and the current PM Binali Yildirim went viral in Turkey.
The poster was installed on the wall of the Justice and Development party’s branch in Yozkat district.
The poster was mocked by media and social network users, and finally the party decided to remove it.
Lebanese magazine Audio Kultur has released a series of posters and a limited-edition version of its April issue printed using human blood to mark the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Calvert Journal reports.
The project “Still here, Still Bleeding”, named after the slogan printed across the covers and posters, was developed by the Beirut-based independent magazine to celebrate the contribution that Lebanon’s Armenian population have made to the country’s cultural landscape.
“In Lebanon these contributions have been especially substantial, and a lot of the contributors are friends, colleagues and even family members,” Tres Colacion, editor-in-chief of Audio Kultur, said. “It’s a community that is really fully integrated into Lebanese society and, with the occasion of the 100-year anniversary, it was a project that our editorial team felt compelled to take on.”
Audio Kultur approached five Lebanese-Armenians working in creative industries and asked them each to donate a vial of blood, which was mixed with red ink and used to print the words “Still Here, Still Bleeding” on the front cover of each special edition magazine.
“The donors were all very taken aback when we approached them,” Colacion said. “I think it holds a significance that is not easy to describe. We heard stories of rape, murder, torture…and of survival. It was a very emotional process in ways none of us have ever experienced. Obviously it was a somber experience, but it was also really inspiring.”
Lebanon has one of the highest Armenian populations in the world, many of which are grandchildren of Armenians who took refuge in Lebanon after the genocide in 1915.
BY ARA KHACHATOURIAN
Timothy Rose, the photographer responsible for a poster depicting women in Armenian traditional garb under the Turkish crescent and star, issued an apology to the Armenian community on his website Thursday, saying his intentions were not to offend.
“To all the Armenian community, I wish to apologize for the photograph taken for Starbucks from 2011. Neither I nor the photographer knew the dancers were Armenian. We were traveling around the world shooting photojournalistic images for the brand and captured this image during a festival in 2011 for Ataturk. There was no Photoshopping or models used. Once it came to my attention that this was rightfully offensive to the Armenian community, I took the image down. I am in full support of their plight and would never have knowingly supported any action that would hurt either them or cause unnecessary pain. My deepest apologies,” Rose posted on his web site.
The poster, which sprung up on several Starbucks locations around Southern California and elsewhere in the country, angered Armenians and prompted them to take to social media to voice their disappointment at the largest coffee retailer in the world. The Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region immediately launched a social media campaign urging followers to document locations and call Starbucks to complain with #BoycottStarbucks message.
Starbucks issued an apology and pledged to remove all posters from stores.
In an email to Asbarez, a Starbucks spokesperson said: “Serving as a place for the community to connect is core to our business and we strive to be locally relevant in all of our stores. We missed the mark here and we apologize for upsetting our customers and the community. We have removed this art in our Mulholland & Calabasas store in Woodland Hills and are working to make this right,” a Starbucks spokesperson told Asbarez via email. The spokesperson said that the company was “looking into this to ensure this image is not in any other Starbucks locations.”
After the apology and during the entire process one question remained unanswered: Why did Starbucks, a corporation known for its ethical positions, opt to put up the posters? Another mystery is why didn’t the posters show up in any of Starbucks’ Glendale locations, which have high concentration of Armenian clientele. Several inquiries to Starbucks on this matter were not answered.
Apologizes for upsetting customers
ARA KHACHATOURIAN
While ordering their morning drinks on Wednesday, many Starbucks customers were shocked to see posters depicting women wearing Armenian traditional costumes under the Turkish Crescent and Star.
After inquiries from Asbarez, a spokesperson said that Starbucks has already begun the removal of the offensive posters and apologized for upsetting their customers.
“Serving as a place for the community to connect is core to our business and we strive to be locally relevant in all of our stores. We missed the mark here and we apologize for upsetting our customers and the community. We have removed this art in our Mulholland & Calabasas store in Woodland Hills and are working to make this right,” a spokesperson told Asbarez via email. The spokesperson said that the company was “looking into this to ensure this image is not in any other Starbucks locations.”
Starbucks did not comment about what prompted the company to display the posters.
The swift response to this matter can also be attributed to a wave of protests on social media from Armenians who were insulted and taken aback by what appeared to be lack of sensitivity from Starbucks, a company that prides itself on social justice and social issues.
Starbucks was facing a “Venti” debacle, when angry posts began to circulate on Facebook and Twitter, some calling for a boycott of the largest coffee retailer in the world. This was yet another sign of collective grassroots activism on the part of the Armenian community.
In addressing the issue with Starbucks, Asbarez pointed to many actions by the Turkish government that were in stark contrast to the company’s standards of ethics.
“Why would Starbucks promote a country that in the last year was deemed as the largest jailer of journalists; has shut down Twitter and YouTube in its campaign to oppress freedom of speech; has jailed demonstrators for reform; whose president has called for legislation to categorize women as second class citizens; and continues to deny the Armenian Genocide, which killed more than 1.5 million people in 1915 among other things, which include calling Israel a terrorist state,” Asbarez inquired from Starbucks corporate communications.
If readers spot more of these posters, please alert Starbucks customer service at 800.792.7282.
Ankara’s public Gazi University, in collaboration with the Embassy of Azerbaijan, has announced the launch of a poster competition that encourages participants to design artworks on the theme, “Everyone Sleeping: Armenian Persecutions from Anatolia to the Caucasus, International Poster Competition.”
The winner(s) will be announced on Jan 19, the anniversary of the assassination of Hrant Dink, the Turkish-Armenian journalist and editor of Agos who was murdered by an ultra-nationalist Turkish youth in Istanbul in 2007, the Armenian Weekly reports.
In introducing the competition, a lengthy, fictionalized account of Turkish history is provided—an account in which Armenians committed genocide against Turks and Azerbaijanis. Under the rule of Seljuk Turks, and later the Ottoman Empire, Armenians lived in peace, which brought about the “Golden Age” of the Armenians. Armenians were offered religious and other freedoms, human rights, and a general attitude of benevolence. This all changed when Armenians, instigated by Western powers, began to rebel and ceased to be the once “loyal nation.”
Painting a treacherous portrayal of Armenians, the organizers go on to describe how Armenians tried to “dismantle” the country, supported by Russian, British, and French forces. In order to “prevent damage,” an effort to relocate them came about. “The aim was not to destroy the Armenians; the purpose was to protect them and to ensure the security of the state,” the competition organizers claim, though conceding that some deaths did occur—around 50,000 (the 1.5 million number is a gross exaggeration they claim). Muslims, on the other hand, were killed in greater numbers—around two million. As to the matter of genocide, the true victims of WWI were the Turks, they say. It was the Turks who suffered genocide—around one million Turks were killed at the hands of Armenian gangs—in Van, Mush, Bitlis and elsewhere.
The organizers “remind” potential participants of the “Unimaginable tortures and rapes,” the suicides of women hoping to preserve their chastity, the slaughters of young and old alike at the hands of the Armenians, as well as the mass graves, and the massacres at the hands of “Dashnag gangs.” Armenians are portrayed as conduits of “savagery, cruelty, torture, rape…”
Despite “these painful events of the Turkish nation,” Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (who also happened to establish Gazi University) founded modern Turkey, which managed to survive despite “Armenian terrorism.”
But apparently Armenian crimes do not end here. The organizers evoke the Karabakh war, where they claim yet “another genocide” took place in 1992, that of Azerbaijanis in Khojalu, the Armenian Weekly says.
“The Turkish world suffered genocide… silence continues… Everyone is asleep… and while everyone was asleep, the Turks were massacred again. Everyone is asleep despite the historical facts that are attacked by the narrative of Armenians and their supporters and the so-called genocide allegations,” write the organizers. Furthermore, the Armenian allegations amount to “slander,” “injustice,” and “defamation.”
The organizers invite international artists and designers “who care for human rights and want the world to wake up to the genocide and massacres committed by Armenians, to participate in this poster competition.”
Exhibition of submitted works will take place at the Gazi University Museum of Painting and Sculpture beginning on Feb 26, 2015. The grand prize is an exhibition of the winning work in Baku.