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Armenia Calls for Ireland to recognize Armenian ‘genocide’

April 26, 2015 By administrator

Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson gave sermon at the service.

Armenia has called on Ireland to recognise as ‘genocide’ – the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians by the Turkish authorities.

The call was made by the Armenian Consul to Ireland at a service of remembrance in Dublin today, organised by the Irish parish of the Armenian Apostolic Church to mark the beginning of what Armenians call the ‘genocide’ against their race; perpetrated by the Ottoman authorities between 1915 and 1923.

Clergy from seven Christian denominations and a representative of the Jewish Community were among those in attendance at the service, which took place in Taney Church of Ireland in Dundrum, Co Dublin.
Turkey has said the killings and forced removals were the result of fighting against neighbouring Russia in World War I and reject the term ‘genocide’.

However the European Parliament and the Vatican has been joined this week by Austria and Germany – the Ottoman’s main allies in World War I- in branding the violence as ‘genocide’.

Similar ceremonies have taken place in independent Armenia and throughout the globe where the Armenian Diaspora is scattered.

The Turkish government has for the first time sent a minister to the Armenian Church’s commemoration in Istanbul however it withdrew its ambassadors from the Vatican and Vienna over their use of the term ‘genocide’.

Kim Kardashian urges Obama to call Armenian massacre a genocide

April 25, 2015 By administrator

Reality TV star criticises president’s choice of words in Time magazine op-ed, saying she will ‘fight for the genocide to be recognized for what it was’
An influential voice has joined critics of President Barack Obama’s decision not to refer to the deaths of as many as 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 as genocide: Kim Kardashian West.

“I would like President Obama to use the word ‘genocide’,” the reality TV star, who is married to the rapper Kanye West, wrote in an op-ed piece for Time magazine. “It’s very disappointing he hasn’t used it as president. We thought it was going to happen this year.

“I feel like we’re close – but we’re definitely moving in the right direction.”

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks in 1915. Turkey, however, disputes the use of the word “genocide” to describe the killings and says the death toll has been inflated.

On Tuesday, the White House announced that the US would use the 100th anniversary of the genocide “to urge a full, frank and just acknowledgement of the facts”. Obama’s statement, however, did not include the word “genocide”.

On Saturday, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said France, Germany, Russia and Austria – whose leaders or parliaments have recently described the killings as genocide – supported “claims constructed on Armenian lies”. Erdogan also accused the US of siding with Armenia, despite Obama’s omission of the contentious word.

“They should first, one by one, clean the stains on their own histories,” Erdogan said.

Despite having previously described the events of 1915 as genocide, Obama has yet to do so as president. In 2008, Samantha Power, now US ambassador to the United Nations and then a campaign surrogate for Obama, recorded a campaign video urging Armenian-Americans to vote for him because he would “call a spade a spade and speak truth about it.

“I hope you in the Armenian community will take my word for it, but if not, I hope you will just pay attention in the coming days to everything that comes out of that person’s mouth, Barack Obama’s mouth, because he is a person who can be trusted,” Power said.

Kardashian, whose great-great-grandparents left Armenia in 1914, plans to increase awareness of the genocide and has called on other celebrities with an Armenian background to do so as well.

“So many people have come to me and said, ‘I had no idea there was a genocide,’” she wrote. “There aren’t that many Armenians in this business. We have this spotlight to bring attention to it, so why would we just sit back?

“I will continue to ask the questions and fight for the genocide to be recognized for what it was.”
Analysis The Armenian genocide – the Guardian briefing
Turkey has never accepted the term genocide, even though historians have demolished its denial of responsibility for up to 1.5 million deaths
Read more

This is not the first time Kardashian has called for the genocide to be recognized. In 2011, she wrote a similar blogpost to urge the US government to recognize it.

Kardashian and her family have spent the last month visiting Armenia. While Armenians might have been uneasy about her visit at first, it has changed the way Armenia is covered in the mainstream media, said historian Vahram Ter-Matevosyan.

“This discourse shows that Armenian identity is still alive,” he said. “I am sure Turkey is having nightmares about it. Some there said that Kim Kardashian was the latest weapon the Armenians are using. Once she leaves, she will be missed.”

Internationally renowned lawyer Robertson urges Australia to recognize Armenian ‘genocide’

April 25, 2015 By administrator

High-profile human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC has addressed members of the Australian Armenian community in a solemn night of commemoration.
Source: AAP
Internationally renowned human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson has called on the Australian government to recognise the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in modern-day Turkey 100 years ago as genocide.

As Australians prepared to commemorate the centenary of the Gallipoli landings, more than 2000 members and supporters of the Australian Armenian community gathered at Sydney Town Hall to remember the victims of mass killings that began in the Ottoman Empire on April 24, 1915.

Turkey has consistently denied the deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians amounted to genocide.

“Isn’t it ironic that here we are, 100 years after (Gallipoli), celebrating the courage of young Australians in facing Turkish bullets, and we have a government that lacks the courage to stand up to Turkey?” Mr Robertson said in his keynote address.

“I can’t refute what is obvious to every honest scholar, that what went on in 1915 was genocide.”

Mr Robertson said the key difference between the original Anzacs – including his great-uncle Bill Robertson, who was among the first to die in sniper fire at Anzac Cove – and the Armenians, who were killed only hours earlier and in the years that followed, was that the diggers had volunteered to fight.

“They were victims of a crime,” he said of the Armenians.

“They deserve not just mourning, they deserve a particular concern and commemoration. Not just a remembrance, but a demand.”

(updated) German parliament overwhelmingly approve a resolution branding the mass killings of Armenian Genocide

April 24, 2015 By administrator

The German parliament overwhelmingly approved on Friday, April 24, a resolution branding the mass killings of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces a century ago as Genocide, Reuters reports.

The vote marks a significant change of stance for Germany, Turkey’s biggest trade partner in the European Union and home to a large ethnic Turkish diaspora. Unlike France and some two dozen other countries, Berlin has long resisted using the word.

The term ‘Genocide’ also has special resonance in Germany, which has worked hard to come to terms with its responsibility for the murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust.

In a parliamentary session to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the killings, all parliamentary groups in the Bundestag lower house backed the resolution in a vote likely to infuriate Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

“What happened in the middle of the First World War in the Ottoman Empire under the eyes of the world was a genocide,” Bundestag president Norbert Lammert said at the start of German lawmakers’ debate on the resolution.

It was earlier reported that the discussion was delayed till April 30.

Speaking at a church service in Berlin, President Gauck said: “The fate of the Armenians stands as exemplary in the history of mass exterminations, ethnic cleansing, deportations and yes, genocide, which marked the 20th century in such a terrible way.”

Gauck, added that Germans also bore some responsibility “and in some cases complicity” concerning the “genocide of the Armenians”. Germany was an ally of the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

Reuters: German lawmakers call massacre of Armenians ‘genocide’, defying Turkey

US Congressman Schiff disappointed by Obama’s failure to recognize Genocide

April 22, 2015 By administrator

Rep Adam Schiff (D-CA), the lead sponsor of the Armenian Genocide Truth and Justice Resolution in US Congress, has released a statement expressing his disappointment with President Barack Obama’s failure to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

“I’m deeply disappointed that the President, once again, will fail to properly describe the extermination of 1.5 million Armenians from 1915 to 1923 for what it was – genocide. How long must the victim’s and their families wait before our nation has the courage to confront Turkey with the truth about the murderous past of the Ottoman Empire? If not this President, who spoke so eloquently and passionately about recognition in the past, whom? If not after one hundred years, when?

“The United States has long prided itself for being a beacon of human rights, for speaking out against atrocity, for confronting painful chapters of its own past and that of others. This cannot be squared with a policy of complicity in genocide denial by the President or Congress. Last week, the Pope spoke powerfully of the need to bind the wound that continues to bleed in the absence of recognition – I only wish Washington had been listening.”

Germany Defies Turkey, Recognizes Armenian Genocide

April 20, 2015 By administrator

Germany abruptly shifted its policy Monday from a steadfast refusal to use the term “genocide” to describe the massacre of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces 100 years ago.
BERLIN (Reuters)—The German government backed away on Monday from a steadfast refusal to use the term “genocide” to describe the massacre of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces 100 years ago after rebellious members of parliament forced its hand.

In a major reversal in Turkey’s top trading partner in the European Union and home to millions of Turks, Germany joins other nations and institutions including France, the European parliament and Pope Francis in using the term condemned by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said the government would support a resolution in parliament on Friday declaring it an example of genocide.

Germany had long resisted using the term “genocide” even though France and other nations have. But the coalition government came under pressure from parliamentary deputies in their own ranks planning to use the word in a resolution.

“The government backs the draft resolution…in which the fate of the Armenians during World War One serves as an example of the history of mass murders, ethnic cleansings, expulsions and, yes, the genocides during the 20th century,” Seibert said.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had rejected using the word genocide in an ARD TV interview on Sunday, denying any suggestion it was being avoided to avoid upsetting Turkey.

“Responsibility can’t be reduced to a single term,” he said.

Members of parliament in the conservative Christian Democrats and their Social Democrat (SPD) allies forced the change.

Analysts said that the reluctance until now from Germany, a country that works hard to come to terms with the Holocaust it was responsible for, was due to fears of upsetting Turkey and the 3.5 million Germans of Turkish origin or Turkish nationals living in Germany.

The German government also did not want to use the word due to concerns the Herero massacres committed in 1904 and 1905 by German troops in what is now Namibia could also be called genocide — leading to reparation demands.

“It’s a striking contradiction by the German government that Germany is denying the genocide of Armenians,” said Ayata Bilgin, a political scientist at Berlin’s Free University.

“Research has shown that external pressure on countries can have a considerable influence and Germany could play a very important role in this discussion on Turkey.’

Basque Country parliament condemns Genocide, urges Turkey for recognition

April 17, 2015 By administrator

The Parliament of the Basque Country condemned the Armenian Genocide and urged Turkey for recognition. It also called for peace between Armenia and Turkey, stressing the need for the latter to face its own history.

The parliament-adopted statement expressed solidarity and respect for the families of the Genocide victims who to this day suffer repercussions of the tragedy, Abc.es reports.

The parliament called for a transparent dialogue between Armenia and Turkey for a better future which can become a possibility through justice, understanding and recognition.

German Jewish leader urges government to recognize Armenian Genocide

April 17, 2015 By administrator

The Central Council of Jews in Germany has called on the German government to recognize the Armenian Genocide, the Council’s website reported.

“One hundred years ago, in the government of the Ottoman Empire ordered the deportation of one million Armenians. They were murdered directly, or died of starvation and dehydration in the desert,“ Central Council President Josef Schuster told the newspaper ‘Der Tagesspiegel’. He added: “These terrible events should be called what they were: a genocide.”

Schuster said the Armenian genocide later served Adolf Hitler and his Nazis as a blueprint for the Holocaust.

USA: The State of Nevada recognizes Armenian Genocide

April 16, 2015 By administrator

The Assembly and Senate of Nevada on Tuesday adopted a resolution to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

The lawmakers recorded crime committed against Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 – 1923 as the first genocide of the 20th century and called on the U.S. President and Congress to recognize the historical fact, Armenian MFA’s press office reported.

Deputy Consul General of Armenia Valery Mkrtumyan, members of the Armenian community were present at the sessions.

Consulate General of Armenia in Los Angeles, Honorary Consul of Armenia in Las Vegas Adrushan Armenyan, local structure of the Armenian Cause office contributed to the adoption of the document.

The Jerusalem Post: Israel should recognize the Armenian Genocide

April 14, 2015 By administrator

Ahead of April 24, the Armenian Day of Remembrance, the State of Israel should follow the pope’s lead and recognize the premeditated massacre for what it was – genocide, The Jerusalem Post writes.

Official Israeli recognition of what happened – essentially the destruction of a civilization built up over four millennia – is important for a number of reasons, the news outlet says.

As Francis pointed out, failing to honor the memory of those Armenians systematically murdered because of who they were amounts to concealing and denying evil. Denial allows this evil to fester, like a wound that remains untreated.

Beyond the moral obligation to acknowledge and denounce genocide, which applies equally to all humanity, Israel has a special duty, the article says.

Founded in the shadow of the Holocaust, the State of Israel is a living testament to the failure of the international community to prevent genocide. It was in large part out of international recognition of this failure that legitimacy for a uniquely Jewish state with its own armed forces and sovereignty was born. Israel has an obligation to live up to that legacy by using its political sovereignty to prevent genocide not just against Jews but against any group, the article says.

As a minority religious group living in a predominantly Muslim Middle East, the Jewish people are the natural allies of the region’s Christians. The Armenian Genocide is a chilling reminder of the dangers that Christians, Jews and other religious and ethnic minorities face in this part of the world. The chances of a future genocide are greater in the Middle East than anywhere. Those who deny genocide tend to be those who want to see one happen again. Pope Francis has publicly recognized the Armenian Genocide. Now it is Israel’s turn, the article concludes.