Armenian professor sworn in as new president of University of Sao Paulo

January 31, 2018 By administrator

Professor Vahan Agopyan

Professor Vahan Agopyan of Armenian origin took over as new president of the University of Sao Paulo. The solemn ceremony of the university council took place on January 29 at the Bandeirantes Palace, the seat of state government.

As foreign ministry reported in a release, Sao Paulo governor Geraldo Alckmin, present at the ceremony, expressed confidence the university led by Agopyan will continue recording new achievements for the sake of the city and Brazil.

In his speech Professor Agopyan stressed his Armenian origin and acclaimed the Armenian Ambassador of Brazil and representatives of the Armenian community present at the event.

To note, Vahan Agopyan, is an engineer and a full professor at the Polytechnic School (Poli/USP) and holds a doctorate from King’s College London. He formerly directed Poli/USP and the São Paulo Institute for Technological Research (IPT). He served as chair of the Board of Trustees of the Nuclear and Energy Research Institute (IPEN) and was a member of Sao Paolo Research Foundation’s (FAPESP) Board of Trustees. Professor Vahan Agopyan previously served as deputy president of the university.

After Coup Attempt, Turkish Scholar Boldly Speaks on Armenian Genocide

August 31, 2016 By administrator

Harut sassounian 740 BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

On July 13, two days before the coup attempt in Turkey, Professor Halil Berktay of Istanbul’s Sabanci University answered six written questions on the Armenian Genocide posed by El Pais, Spain’s largest newspaper. But when El Pais did not publish his answers, Dr. Berktay decided on August 15 to post his interview on a Turkish website, Serbestiyet, under the title: “With or without the coup, genocide was and is genocide.”

Berktay, a liberal Turkish scholar, told El Pais that he has repeatedly recognized the Armenian Genocide ever since 2002. He described the genocide as “the near-complete extermination and annihilation of Ottoman Armenians.” acknowledged that for his honest views on the Armenian Genocide, “especially before 2002, and even afterwards (though no longer by the government), there has been a huge amount of informal, extra-legal pressure, blackmail, threats or other forms of psychological terror brought to bear on people like me, which I and others have all had to face.”

Answering a question from El Pais: “why does Turkey refuse to review the past?” Dr. Berktay responded: “Back in the 1980’s and 90’s… the denialism of the past was based on ancestor worship or ideological allegiance to Unionism and Ataturkism. What had happened to the Armenians in 1915 was seen as a black blot for Turkish nationalism. Also, while it was not committed by or under the Kemalist Republic, because the Republic had ended up inheriting the mantle of a territory ethnically cleansed of the Armenians, it was in the nature of an inadmissible impurity for the desired lily-white legitimacy of the Kemalist Revolution. So a taboo was placed on it; it became part of the unmentionable and undiscussable. Here and there a few academics, mostly living and working abroad, did speak up. They were lonely voices in the wilderness.” Berktay then added: beginning in 2000, “things began to change,” with an increasing number of Turkish scholars speaking out on the Armenian Genocide.

The most interesting part of Bertkay’s interview is his stated reason for the Turkish government’s reluctance to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide: “It may be that the Turkish government does not know what might happen if it were to go ahead and say yes, it was genocide. What would Armenia likely do or demand? Is it going to ask for material compensation, or even land? That is what the Dashnaks as radical Armenian nationalists have been saying all along: Three R’s, as they put it, Recognition, Reparation, Restitution (of land). Certainly the last is something that no Turkish government can possibly ever concede. It is very likely, therefore, that before they take any further step, they would like Armenia to show its hand. Conversely, as long as Armenia keeps its cards close to its chest, recognizing the genocide as genocide will have to wait.”

A careful reading of the Professor’s above statement indicates that he finds the return of lands to Armenia by Turkey not possible, but does not rule out reparations. In my view, while Armenians rightly claim their historic lands, they are willing to accept reparations as an initial step.

Perhaps the most controversial aspect of Berktay’s answers is his explanation of Turkey’s reasons for refusal to face its sordid past: “Faced with the peculiar challenge of recognizing the Armenian genocide, large sections of the Turkish public as well as the AKP keep asking, and will keep asking: Why us? And why only us? Are all nations being asked to atone for their past equally stringently? Or is it just Turkey? Meanwhile, what about what ‘they’ did to ‘us’ in the first place? If we recognize the Armenian genocide, will they, too, ever so slightly recognize the tragic plight of the Muslim Turks of Crete, mainland Greece, Bulgaria or Serbia? Who speaks for the Turk? Do we have any friends in the world?”

While I do not agree with some of Berktay’s explanations, I cannot expect him to have the same position on Armenian issues as I do. After all, he is a Turk, but a righteous Turk, which is not what one can say about Turkish leaders and large segments of Turkish society that still deny the historical facts of the Armenian Genocide!

Berktay has taken a great risk by posting his answers on the Armenian Genocide on the internet, particularly in the current brutal atmosphere since the July coup attempt when tens of thousands of innocent Turkish citizens have been summarily arrested and thrown into jail!

Three sons of Turkish professor join ISIL

March 20, 2015 By administrator

Fevzi Kızılkoyun – ANKARA

“Promised Heaven,”

Before they crossed the border, Süleyman Bengi İ., the eldest of the three brothers, shared pro-ISIL material on his Facebook account. “I will come to disturb your gods,” one visual he shared reads. Report Hürriyet

Three sons of an assistant professor at a Turkish university have joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Hürriyet has learned.

The assistant professor, whom Hürriyet identifies only as M. Şefik İ. to avoid possible repercussions that may risk his safety, has appealed to the government for help, but security forces determined that his sons have already crossed to Syria.

According to the investigation, 19-year-old Hacettepe University student Süleyman Bengi İ. led his 16-year-old twin brothers, Dilar and Dilşat, in their venture to join ISIL. After crossing Turkey’s border with Syria, the three teenagers continued to Iraq to join the ranks of ISIL there, Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency (MİT) revealed.

“We have found peace here, don’t worry about us,” Süleyman Bengi İ. sent in a message to his family after they crossed the border.

The family, on the other hand, have called on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, the MİT and the police to bring their sons back to Turkey.

‘Promised Heaven’

Turkish authorities continue diplomatic efforts to bring back the three brothers who are still in an ISIL-controlled area of Iraq. Meanwhile, police and intelligence officers are investigating whom Süleyman Bengi İ. contacted in Ankara to cross the border.

Before leaving his dorm in Ankara, Süleyman Bengi İ., a dentist candidate, left a note for his family, urging his mother to distribute the belongings he left behind to the poor.

Those who know him told Hürriyet he was a successful student who was radicalized after he started to visit Islamist bookstores. The change in his personality became more dramatic after he read a book titled “Promised Heaven,” which he also distributed to his friends.

A billboard poster prepared by the family says that Süleyman Bengi went missing in Ankara, while his brothers went missing in Diyarbakır, on March 10.

Dire situation in numbers

A Hürriyet investigation in September 2014 revealed a number of Islamic associations and bookstores which had popped up across Turkey had become one of the main recruiting tools of ISIL in the country.

Turkish intelligence recently sent a report to Turkey’s associations watchdog, determining that seven associations and foundations should be scrutinized for their suspicious activities.

So far 2,307 Turkish citizens have joined ISIL, according to official figures, with some 700 more linked to the group. Around 1,500 of them still live in the ISIL-controlled areas of Syria and Iraq and most of them are fighting in the ranks of the jihadists.

In 2014 and the first three months of 2015, 680 families in Turkey reported their children went missing to join ISIL.

Officials say 11 Turks have died so far while fighting for the group.

Sweden’s leading expert: It Was Genocide against Armenians in Ottoman Empire, not just deportation

February 23, 2015 By administrator

Professor Emeritus Ove Bring, Sweden’s leading expert in international law

YEREVAN, February 23, Armenpress, on February 19, the Radio Sweden broadcasted an interview with professor Emeritus Ove Bring. Professor Bring is one of Sweden’s leading expert in international law, who authored a number of monographs and publications on genocide.

As reports “Arenpress” Professor Bring introduced the situation in the ottoman Turkey during the years of the Armenian Genocide. He noted that the Ottoman Government faced the issue of assimilating the Armenians and other Christian minorities living on the territory of the Empire, and did it through the annihilation, availing itself of the opportunity provided by the World War First.

The Professor introduced the process of the genocide, highlighting its phased character, due to which first the Armenian intellectuals were arrested and killed, after which the other part of the population (mostly women, children and elders) was deported and killed.

Among other things, Ove Bring underscored that happened in the Ottoman Empire with the Armenians was Genocide, not just deportation, as deportation implies re-settlement of group of people, provision of necessary conditions and dwelling beforehand, but contrary to this, it was ordered to kill as many Armenians as possible on the way of deportation.

Turkish professor assigns students to deny Armenian Genocide at exam

December 19, 2014 By administrator

Professor of the history of Turkish Dokuz Eylül University Turkan Basigit assigned his students to come to the exam prepared to deny the fact of Armenian Genocide, Armenian News – NEWS.am reports.

According to the Turkish Radikal newspaper, the homework assigned by the Turkish professor to the students caused active stir in social networks. Turkan Basigit demanded that all students come to the exam with written paper that professionally and from the historical point of view denies the basis of documents supporting the fact of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey. Students have scanned the assignment and spread it in social networks, where many users joined the protest and expressed dissatisfaction with such an assignment.

In particular, many users of social networks asked the Turkish professor, what he would do if some students will come to the conclusion in their academic papers, which support the fact of the Armenian Genocide.