Recognized Archives

Spanish City of Benalmadena Recognizes Armenian Genocide

August 16, 2016 by administrator

BENALMADENA, Spain— The city of Benalmadena, Spain officially recognized and condemned the Armenian Genocide on Friday, August 12, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said. According to the ministry, Benalmadena’s city council voted unanimously for the declaration.

“Benalmadena has joined to more than twenty cities in Spain that have recognized the Armenian Genocide,” the ministry said.

The first country to recognize the Armenian Genocide was Uruguay in 1965. Thirty countries have since recognized the Armenian Genocide, of which include Russia, France, Italy, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Canada, Venezuela, Argentina, and 43 U.S. states.

It is recognized also by the Vatican, the European Parliament, the World Council of Churches and other international organizations and coalitions.

EU Frank Engel: KARABAKH independence should be recognized

April 23, 2016 by administrator

“I once again declare that the independence of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic should be recognized,” said member of the European Parliament, Frank Engel during a briefing after his speech at the Second Global Forum against the Crime of Genocide.

He said that Artsakh is an independent country and the international community should recognize it as such.

“I’m going now to meet the President of Armenia and express my position,” Engel said.

Kerem Öktem: Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide

February 18, 2016 by administrator

By Hambersom Aghbashian

This is article No. 101 of this serial.

The first article was published in “Nor Or” on January 9, 2014, ( Orhan Pamuk, one of Turkey’s most prominent novelists, screenwriter, academic and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature). Since then ” Nor Or ” continued publishing this serial weekly, except during newspaper’s yearly vacations, where it highlighted 100 of courageous Turkish intellectuals, advocates of justice and human rights, who have recognized the reality of the Armenian Genocide. Many of them were threatened, others were sentenced for different periods of imprisonment or fines, many imprisoned, some suffered financial loses , others fled the country, etc., but they continued and still continue asking for justice and demand their government to recognize the Armenian Genocide. The first 50 articles were compiled in Part-1 of our published book “Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized the Reality of the Armenian Genocide” and the second 50 articles will be included in Part-2 , and the list goes on.

Kerem Öktem is a Professor of Southeast Europe and Modern Turkey and Deputy Director at the Centre of Southeast European Studies, the University of Graz, Austria which he has joined in September 2014. Before that, he was Open Society Research Fellow at the European Studies Centre, University of Oxford, where he earned his Master degree in Modern Middle Eastern Studies at the Faculty for Oriental Studies in 2001, and completed his PhD at the school of Geography, Oxford in 2006, with a thesis on nation building in Turkey as a socio-spatial project (Geographies of Nationalism). He is a longstanding research associate of the program for Southeast European Studies at Oxford (SEESOX), and alumni of the Mercator-IPC Fellow at Sabanci University, Istanbul. In addition to his academic publications, he is also a regular contributor to Open Democracy and several media outlets. Prof. Öktem’s main interests lie in the connection between domestic politics and foreign policy, nationalism, and the politics of ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities and social movements in Turkey. He is an expert in Middle Eastern Studies, Turkish Politics, and International Relations. ^{(1) (2)}

In his paper titled “The Nation’s Imprint: Demographic Engineering and the Change of Toponymes in Republican Turkey,” Kerem Öktem mentioned:”When the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) declared the deportation law for ‘those opposing the government in times of war’ on 27 May 1915, more than a million Armenians, Syriac Christians, and some Kurdish communities were forced into exile and destruction. In only a few weeks, the government initiated the name change of evacuated villages (Dündar 2001: 65). At the same time, some of these villages were swiftly resettled with Muslim refugees, pouring into the country from the Balkans and the easternmost provinces under Russian occupation. In a directive, the Chief of the General Staff and one of the three leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), Enver Pasha, declared that: “It has been decided that provinces, districts, towns, villages, mountains and rivers, which are named in languages belonging to non-Muslim nations such as Armenian, Greek or Bulgarian, will be transformed into Turkish.”⁽³⁾

On June 25, 2014, Kerem Oktem and Christopher Sisserian wrote an article under the title “Turkey’s Armenian opening: towards 2015″, the following are some abstracts: ” In recent years, an increasing number of individuals and civil-society organizations has begun to engage with the heritage and history of the country’s once substantial Armenian communities and their violent end. This had little impact on government policy until 23 April 2014, when the office of PM Erdogan released a letter offering condolences to the grandchildren of those that perished. This statement was significant; it was the first time a Turkish PM had addressed the issue of Armenian suffering and loss. Turkey’s breach with Israel, whose camp in the United States was once enlisted to do the dirty work of lobbying against recognition of the genocide, meant that this route was no longer open to Ankara. Hence Erdogan’s letter. It is a masterly work that manages to appear to talk about the Armenian genocide without actually recognizing it; that insinuates reconciliation without acknowledging injustice; and that uses words of condolence, while warning its recipients not to establish “a pecking order of suffering” (i.e. not to insist on recognition). ⁽⁴⁾

Under the title ” Professors discuss denial of Armenian Genocide, ” Aaron Lewis wrote on November 8, 2015, in” The Daily Northwestern”: ” In remembrance of 100 years since the Armenian Genocide, professors from four different universities spoke out against denial of the genocide as part of “Denial and Memory,” a conference held at Northwestern on Friday at the Northwestern University campus in Evanston, Illinois, USA, by the Buffett Institute of Global Studies’ Keyman Modern Turkish Studies. Mustafa Aksakal, Rachel Goshgarian, Kerem Ӧktem and Barbara Lyons, where the main speakers. Kerem Ӧktem, a professor at the University of Graz in Austria, discussed memory versus recognition of the genocide and ideas like the Turkish government’s denial of the genocide. He also talked about the connection between societal power groups and recognition of the genocide. “With very little reach out in society, it is important to see how many sides can exist in society,” he said. “Denialists are losing ground.” ⁽⁵⁾

Prof.Kerem Ӧktem is the author and co-author of many books including “World War I and the End of Ottoman Empire: From the Balkan War to the Armenian Genocide“, “Angry Nation: Turkey since 1989”, (2011), “Turkey’s Engagement with Modernity (2009)”, “Another Empire? Turkey’s new foreign policy in the 2000s”, (2012) and many others.

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1- http://www.suedosteuropa.uni-graz.at/en/people/univ-prof-drkerem-%C3%B6ktemUniv

2- http://ipc.sabanciuniv.edu/en/fellow/kerem-oktem/

3- https://ejts.revues.org/2243#tocto1n2

4- https://www.opendemocracy.net/kerem-oktem-christopher-sisserian/turkeys-armenian-opening-towards-2015

5- http://dailynorthwestern.com/2015/11/08/campus/professors-discuss-denial-of-armenian-genocide/

Perihan Mağden: Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide

February 4, 2016 by administrator

Perihan Mağden: Turkish Intellectuals

By: Hambersom Aghbashian,

Perihan Mağden (born in 1960 in Istanbul ) is a Turkish writer. After graduating from Robert College of Istanbul, she studied psychology at Boğaziçi University. She is One of the most famous writers in young Turkish literature. Perihan Mağden was a columnist for Taraf and in addition to writing editorial columns for Turkish newspapers (including Radikal, 2001 – 2008), she has also published fictional novels and a collection of poetry. Her novels have been translated into 19 languages including English, French, German, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Greek and Russian. Mağden is one of several journalists and writers charged for “threatening Turkey’s unity or the integrity of the state. She was tried and acquitted for calling for opening the possibility of conscientious objection to mandatory military service in Turkey, and after the assassination of Hrant Dink, she was offered security protection. ⁽¹⁾

According to” http://www.armeniapedia.org “, “In December 2008, two hundred prominent Turkish intellectuals released an apology for the “great catastrophe of 1915”. This was a clear reference to the Armenian Genocide. The brief text of the apology was ” My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in 1915. I reject this injustice and for my share, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers and sisters. I apologize to them.” Perihan Mağden was one of the Turkish intellectuals who signed the apology. ⁽²⁾

Taraf Newspaper of 20th April 2010 wrote “ …. the anniversary of the 1915s events, this year will be remembered in Turkey, too. The commemoration organized by the “Say Stop!” Group, will start and held at Taksim tram stop. A group of intellectuals, which will be joined also by intellectuals as Ali Bayramoğlu, Ferhat Kentel, Neşe Düzel, Perihan Mağden and Sırrı Süreyya Önder, for the first time in Turkey will commemorate this year on 24 April as the anniversary of the events of 1915.” “This pain is OUR pain. This mourning is for ALL of US.” was part of the groups campaign. ⁽³⁾

According to “Today’s Zaman”, A group of academics, journalists, artists and intellectuals have released a statement condemning in the harshest terms what they define as expressions that include “open hatred and hostility” towards Armenians in Turkish schoolbooks, which were recently exposed by the newspapers Agos and Taraf. A letter accompanying the text of the condemnation, written by historian Taner Akçam, notes that including such expressions as lesson material to teach children is a disgrace. The signees said textbooks in schools should seek to encourage feelings of peace, solidarity and living together over inciting hatred towards different religious and cultural groups, Akçam said. He further wrote: “Standing with integrity in the face of history is the prerequisite for establishing the future on the foundations of friendship and peace. Perihan Mağden was one of the Turkish intellectuals who signed the statement. ⁽⁴⁾

The high- profile trials of in 2006 of Elif Shafak, Perihan Mağden and Orhan Pamuk for “Insulting Turkishness” by discussing the Armenian genocide, under Article 301 in the Turkish code, drew worldwide attention to the Turkish attitude of silencing critics on the issue. ⁽⁵⁾

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1- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perihan_Ma%C4%9Fden

2- http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=200_prominent_Turks_apologize_for_great_

3- http://setasarmenian.blogspot.com/2010/04/good-thoughtful-and-ugly-from-turks-on.html

4- http://asbarez.com/127448/turkish-intellectuals-condemn-anti-armenian-textbooks

5- Guardian Unlimited, online, Aug. 3, 2006

Kemal Yalcin Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide

June 4, 2015 by administrator

By: Hambersom Aghbashian,

Kemal Yalcin

Kemal Yalçın (born 1952 in Turkey’s southwestern Denizil province), is a bilingual German-Turkish writer who has won several awards. After earning degrees in education and philosophy, Mr.Yalcin went on to become a journalist and was the editor of the Halkin Yolu (The way of the people) newspaper in Turkey until he was forced to flee in 1981 for political reasons to Germany. Currently he works as a teacher in Bochum. He was also for some time a lecturer in the Department of Turkish Studies at the University of Essen. He is the author of many book, including books for children.
Kemal Yalcin is the author of “You Rejoice My Heart”. This book is based on a quest made by the author to find Turkey’s hidden Armenians, those who survived the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and remained in Turkey. Yalcin is a very sympathetic observer, which make his account all the more powerful. His account finds crypto-Armenians and donmes, people who survived discrimination and anti-Armenian riots in Istanbul, as well as others who eloped with Muslim Turks.(1)
The translation of “You Rejoice My Heart”, was published by the Tekeyan Cultural Association, and according to “http://agbu.org/news”, The Tekeyan Cultural Assn. welcomed Turkish author Kemal Yalcin back to the AGBU Chicago Center in collaboration with a host of other Armenian organizations and churches, in celebration of the release of the English edition of his book, “You Rejoice My Heart”, which was produced by Tekeyan.”
On March 16, Kemal Yalcin, in the Glendale Public Library auditorium, explained how he embarked on a project to seek out Armenians living in Turkey as Muslims or Turks, and wrote his book “You Rejoice My Heart”. His journey took him on a trajectory that started with his native Honaz and included Amasya, Erzurum, Askale, Kars, and ended in the ancient city of Ani. Through the story of a woman called Safiye (her Armenian name was Zaruhi), he reflected the lives of other Armenians living in Amasya after 1915. Amasya once had a thriving Armenian population. The community, along with its churches and schools, was utterly devastated during the Genocide. After 1915, only about 60 Armenian families remained. All they knew was that they were Armenians and their religion was different. “We didn’t let a lot of people know about it,” Madame Safiye says”. “Even so, we were so afraid!” Armenians tried their best to marry within their tiny community. They prayed in secret and adopted Armenian orphans who had survived the massacres. While some Armenians eventually fled, most of those who remained stopped speaking their native tongue and denied ever being Armenian. “There is big work to do,” Mr. Yalcin added. “As humans we have to address and expose this inhumanity.” You Rejoice My Heart has been published in English, Italian, Armenian, Spanish, French, in addition to Turkish.(2)
According to www.news.am, April 4, 2011, “In his speech delivered at a conference in Brussels, Turkish writer Kemal Yalcin addressed the participants in Armenian, Assyrian and Turkish. He said if there was no Genocide, non-Muslims population could have been 15 million today.” History will never forgive the crimes against humanity. Let our grief become basis for peace and justice. As a Turkish writer I apologize to Armenians and Assyrians. I wish that Silk bridge on the border between Armenia and Turkey [the historical bridge in Ani] was renovated and became a symbol of brotherhood between the Armenian and Turkish nations,”. (3)
“A Century of Silence: Terror and the Armenian Genocide” was published in Volume 79, Number 3, September 2010 of The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, where the author Jack Danielian wrote ” If rape, torture, sex slavery, massacre, and ethnic cleansing are on a continuum of major human rights violations, then genocidal impulse occupies the extreme pole of that continuum. Crimes of genocide involve psychogenic and psychodynamic underpinnings that can be terrifying to contemplate.” Many specialists, historians and others were quoted or interviewed and the following is an abstract from the research, ” The fear and terror such linkages can bring to an already traumatized people is obvious. It was with great difficulty that Kemal Yalçin got Armenian interviewees to speak to a hugely sympathetic Turkish chronicler like himself. He describes a conscious or unconscious drive amongst Armenian survivors to hide their past, above all in any contact with a Turk, the survivors bury their secret. Historic memory tells them that those who stood out in any way were the first to be selected for torture and liquidation.” (4)

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1- http://www.amazon.com/You-Rejoice-Heart-Kemal-Yalcin/dp/1903656729
2- http://armgenocide.blogspot.com/2008/03/kemal-yalcin-speaks-in-glendale.html
3- http://www.aina.org/news/20110411205940.htm
4- http://araratmagazine.org/2010/10/terror-and-armenian-genocide/

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Bulgaria MP: Our country recognized events of 1915

May 24, 2015 by administrator

Bulgaria, in fact, has recognized the events in 1915, said Bulgarian MP Yanaki Stoilov, speaking to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

In Stoilov’s words, actually, this fact is more important for the modern Bulgarians than the external formulation of the word “genocide.”

He recalled that on April 24, the Bulgarian parliament passed, with a majority of votes, a resolution on the Armenians’ large-scale slaughter in the Ottoman Empire.

The resolution is important as a confirmation of Bulgaria’s great contribution in saving thousands of Armenians in various phases of history,” Yanaki Stoilov added.

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Mehmet Polatel Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide

March 26, 2015 by administrator

By:Hambersom Aghbasian

Turkish Intellectuals Mehmet Polatel

Mehmet Polatel is a Turkish historian focusing on the late Ottoman history and early Turkish republic. His research interests are in the fields of power, state formation, social change, nationalism and genocide. He has conducted research on the fate of Armenian property in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey. Currently he is a PhD candidate at Bogaziçi University and a research assistant at the History Department of Koç University in Istanbul. He is also a researcher at the International Hrant Dink Foundation.(1)

“Confiscation and Destruction: The Young Turk Seizure of Armenian Property” by Ugur Ungor and Mehmet Polatel is the first major study of the mass sequestration of Armenian property by the Young Turk regime during the 1915 Armenian genocide. It details the emergence of Turkish economic nationalism, offers insight into the economic ramifications of the genocidal process, and describes how the plunder was organized on the ground. The interrelated nature of property confiscation initiated by the Young Turk regime and its cooperating local elites offers new insights into the functions and beneficiaries of state-sanctioned robbery. Drawing on secret files and unexamined records, the authors demonstrate that while Armenians suffered systematic plunder and destruction, ordinary Turks were assigned a range of property for their progress.(2)

The Argentine capital of Buenos Aires was host to the International Congress on the Armenian Genocide, held from April 9 to 11, 2014. The event was organized by the National University of Tres de Febrero (UNTREF), Argentina’s Center for Genocide Studies, and the Memory of the Armenian Genocide Foundation, with the collaboration of the Armenian National Committee of South America (CNA) and the Luisa Hairabedian Foundation (FLH) as well as the sponsorship of the Armenian Embassy in Argentina and the Archbishop of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Argentina. The opening day featured important speakers like Chancellor of UNTREF Anibal Jozami, Director of the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism Pedro Mouratian, Minister of the Supreme Court of Justice Eugenio Zaffaroni, President of the General Audit Office Leandro Despouy, and Director of the Center for Genocide Studies Daniel Feierstein, along with Nelida Bulgourdjian, coordinator of the Congress. Dr. Richard Hovannisian, Gabriel Sivinian, from the University of Buenos Aires, Historian Heitor Loureiro, and many others participated in the Congress. Mehmet Polatel, from Bogaziçi University in Turkey, presented a detailed report on property confiscated by the Turkish state and individuals, that was appropriated from the victims of the Armenian Genocide.(3)

“A History of Destruction: The Fate of Armenian Church Properties in Adana” is Mehmet Polatel’s article in which he examines the fate of religious buildings in Adana after the Armenian Genocide of 1915, in a process of destruction that aimed to erase the proof of Armenian existence in the region. According to him ” The motivation behind the genocidal processes is always related to the destruction of a certain group of people. However, the idea of the community is also related to shared values, everyday routines, culture, literature, and religion. Thus, genocidal processes not only target certain groups of people, but also the symbols, buildings, and monuments that belong to them.” He added “Following the deportation decision, the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) carefully controlled the state of Armenian properties then allocated them to immigrants from the Balkans and Caucasus. The CUP aimed to de-Armenize the Adana province, which included the plain of Adana, Mersin, Sis, and Tarsus, and fill them with Muslim immigrants from the Balkans and Caucasus. Armenians were to be “deported without exception” (bilâ-istisna teb’id), and according to Talat Pasha’s own notebook, 699 buildings were confiscated in Adana province.”(4)

In her article entitled ” What do people mean in Turkey by Armenian Genocide recognition?”, Burçin Gerçek wrote on 3 November, 2014 in “REPAIR”, “In spite of many initiatives to develop awareness of the Turkish society regarding what happened in 1915 and appeals to ask for official forgiveness, a deeper reflection needs to be carried out in Turkey about how to render justice a hundred years after the genocide.” she continues then about “Facing 1915, the growing awareness of Turkish civil society” then about “Requesting State recognition” and finally about “Asking for justice and reparations” where she mentions that “Taner Akçam, Ümit Kurt, Mehmet Polatel, Sait Cetinoglu and Nevzat Onaran are some of the few researchers working on the subject of properties belonging to Armenians which were confiscated during and after the genocide. As for the government, its sole proposal for “reparations” has so far consisted in granting a right of return to the country and citizenship to the descendants of the genocide victims.(5)

According to AUA Newsroom, “On February 4, 2015, the American University of Armenia (AUA) hosted a talk by Turkish Historian Mehmet Polatel on ‘Armenian Property Confiscation During and After the Genocide.’ The lecture was part of AUA’s 1915 Centennial series. Polatel’s presentation covered the seizure of Armenian property in three main ways: transfer of ownership by the Ottoman State, extortion and abuses by civil servants and military personnel, and the seizure and looting of Armenian properties during the massacres. Throughout the presentation, Polatel utilized historical documents and texts, including the notebooks of Talaat Pasha and other archival materials, to analyze the process and mechanisms underpinning the seizure of Armenian churches, monasteries, cemeteries, lands, and other goods during the genocide.” Polatel also stated that ” The seizure of properties was not just a transfer of ownership; it was a crucial part of the genocide policy for the destruction of Armenians and Armenianness.”(6)

————————————————————————–————————————————-1- http://armenianweekly.com/author/mehmet-polatel/

2- http://www.amazon.com/Confiscation-Destruction-Seizure-Armenian-Property/dp/162356901

3- http://asbarez.com/121947/int.-congress-on-armenian-genocide-held-in-buenos-aires/

4- http://hyetert.blogspot.com/2011/10/history-of-destruction-fate-of-armenian.html

5- http://repairfuture.net/index.php/en/armenian-genocide-recognition-and-reparations-standpoint-

6- http://newsroom.aua.am/2015/02/05/mehmet-polatel-turkish-historian-discusses-property-confiscation-during-and-after-the-armenian-genocide/

Pınar Selek Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide

March 21, 2015 by administrator

By: Hambersom Aghbashian

Pınar Selek, Recognized The Armenian Genocide

Pinar Selek is one of the Turkish intellectuals who always tackles the Armenian genocide subject , and according to Cem Sey, who writes for the liberal newspaper Taraf, “the Turkish judiciary often cracks down on artists and writers who tackle taboo subjects like Kurdish rights and the Armenian genocide.” (3)

According to “www.france24.com”, January 24, 2013, ” Pinar Selek, cleared three times of complicity in a 1998 explosion in Istanbul, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Turkish court. She told France 24 that ” the authorities want to silence her research on Armenian and Kurdish issues.” Pinar Selek, lives in self- imposed exile in France.(4)

Pinar Selek, a political refugee in France, who is currently carrying out research into the transformation of the militant Turkish sphere and its influence on movements of the Armenian Diaspora, lunched her new book ” Parce qu’ils sont arméniens” (Because They’re Armenians). On this occasion, “www.lianalevi.fr” wrote on February 5, 2015, ” April 2015 will mark the centenary of the Armenian genocide—a dark chapter in Turkish history, still controversial, still taboo. What might a Turk born in the 70s make of this community and this period of history? Pinar Selek responds with this personal and engaged account woven from memories, observations, and encounters. We learn along with her, from the inside, what it means to be formed by reciting slogans at school proclaiming national superiority, studying from misleading textbooks surrounded by fearful and silent classmates, wandering through a city where Armenian names have been expunged from public signs, campaigning in extreme-left movements having accepted this denial. The sensitive and controversial testimony of a woman of conviction whose personality and writing continues to be influenced by the Armenian question.”(5)

Pınar Selek (born October 8, 1971) is a Turkish sociologist, feminist, and author. She attended the French-language high school Notre Dame de Sion Fransız Lisesi in Istanbul and completed her undergraduate and graduate studies in the sociology department at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. She is currently pursuing doctoral studies in political science at the University of Strasbourg. Pınar Selek is known for her work on the rights of vulnerable communities in Turkey, including women, the poor, street children, sexual minorities, and Kurdish communities. She is the author of several books published in Turkish, German, and French, and is one of the founding editors of Amargi, a Turkish feminist journal. She currently resides in France. Selek has been prosecuted over a 15-year period in Turkey in connection to an explosion that occurred at the Spice Bazaar*, Istanbul in 1998. Tried and acquitted of all charges on three occasions (in 2006, 2008, and 2011), her most recent acquittal was amended in November 2012 by the Istanbul Heavy Penal Court No. 12, which sentenced her to life in prison on January 24, 2013. Selek’s lawyers have appealed the verdict and announced plans to bring her case before the European Court of Human Rights.(1)

In December 2008, two hundred prominent Turkish intellectuals released an apology for the “great catastrophe of 1915”. This was a clear reference to the Armenian Genocide, a term still too sensitive to use so openly. The signatories also announced a website related to this apology, and called on others to visit the site and sign the apology as well. The brief text of the apology is: ” My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in 1915. I reject this injustice and for my share, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers and sisters. I apologize to them.” Pınar Selek was one of the signatories.(2)

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*The Spice Bazaar (Turkish: Mısır Çarşısı, meaning Egyptian Bazaar) in Istanbul, Turkey is one of the largest bazaars in the city. Located in the Eminönü quarter of the Fatih district, it is the most famous covered shopping complex after the Grand Bazaar.

1- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C4%B1nar_Selek

2- http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=200_prominent_Turks_apologize_for_great_

3- http://www.dw.de/turkish-human-rights-activist-pinar-selek-faces-third-trial/a-14809844

4- http://www.france24.com/en/20130124-pinar-selek-turkey-france-pkk-kurds-armenian-genocide-justice/

5- http://www.lianalevi.fr/f/index.php?sp=liv&livre_id=517

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Ugur Üngör Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide

February 13, 2015 by administrator

By:Hambersom Aghbashian

Professor ugur-umit-ungor

Uğur Ümit Üngör was born in 1980, in Erzincan, Turkey and raised in Enschede , in the Netherlands. Currently, he is Assistant Professor at the Department of History at Utrecht University and at the *NIOD, which is an Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam.. He specializes in genocide, mass violence and ethnic conflict. Dr. Üngör gained his Ph.D. in 2009 (cum laude)** at the University of Amsterdam. In 2008- 2009, he was Lecturer in International History at the Department of History of the University of Sheffield, and in 2009-10, he was Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for War Studies of University College Dublin. His main area of interest is the historical sociology of mass violence and nationalism and his most recent publications include “Confiscation and Destruction: The Young Turk Seizure of Armenian Property” (New York/London; Continuum 2011) and the award-winning “The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia, 1913-1950” (Oxford; Oxford University Press 2011).(1)(2)
“Confiscation and Destruction: The Young Turk Seizure of Armenian Property” by Ugur Ungor and Mehmet Polatel is the first major study of the mass sequestration of Armenian property by the Young Turk regime during the 1915 Armenian genocide. It details the emergence of Turkish economic nationalism, offers insight into the economic ramifications of the genocidal process, and describes how the plunder was organized on the ground. The interrelated nature of property confiscation initiated by the Young Turk regime and its cooperating local elites offers new insights into the functions and beneficiaries of state-sanctioned robbery. By drawing on secret files and unexamined records, the authors demonstrate that while Armenians were suffering systematic plunder and destruction, a range of properties were assigned to ordinary Turks for the purpose of their progress.(3)
Uğur Üngör’s book “The making of modern Turkey. Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia, 1913-1950” is a study which highlights how two successive Turkish-nationalist regimes, from 1913 to 1950, subjected Eastern Turkey to various forms of nationalist population policies aimed at ethnically homogenizing the region and including it in the Turkish nation state. Moreover, it examines how the regime used technologies of social engineering such as physical destruction, deportation, spatial planning, forced assimilation, and memory politics, in order to increase ethnic and cultural homogeneity within the nation state. The province of Diyarbakir, the heartland of Armenian and Kurdish life, became an epicenter of Young Turk population policies and the theater of unprecedented levels of mass violence. These violent processes of state formation often destroyed historical regions and emptied multicultural cities, clearing the way for modern nation states(4). The book was the winner of the Erasmus Research Prize (Praemium Erasmianum – 2010) and of the Keetje Hodshon Prize, awarded by the Royal Netherlands Society of Sciences and Humanities. Besides, he was awarded by the 2012 Heineken Young Scientist Award in History by the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. (5)
In his article entitled “Prolific Young Scholar on Armenian Genocide in Holland”, Aram Arkun wrote in “The Armenian Mirror-Spectator”, Feb. 7, 2012, Ugur Ümit Üngör is one of a new generation of scholars emerging from Turkey who deal forthrightly with the Armenian Genocide. Üngör was led to his interest in the Armenian Genocide by reading about the Holocaust, and in particular, “Rethinking the Holocaust”, a book by Yehuda Bauer , and he made comparisons with other genocides, including the Armenian one. Despite his own family origins in the same region as this genocide, Üngör said, “I had never heard about such an event and it sparked my curiosity. When I did my research, I was amazed by the difference between the denial of official histories in Turkey versus what the ordinary population in Eastern Turkey knew about the Genocide. I traveled around Eastern Turkey and did many interviews with old people, who openly spoke about the Armenians as having been massacred by the government.”(6)
“Turkey Has Acknowledged the Armenian Genocide” is Uğur Üngör article in The Armenian Weekly ( April 27, 2012), where he wrote “Turkey denies the Armenian Genocide” goes a jingle. Yes, the Turkish state’s official policy towards the Armenian Genocide was and is indeed characterized by the “three M’s”: misrepresentation, mystification, and manipulation. But when one gauges what place the genocide occupies in the social memory of Turkish society, even after nearly a century, a different picture emerges. Even though most direct eyewitnesses to the crime have passed away, oral history interviews yield important insights. Elderly Turks and Kurds in eastern Turkey often hold vivid memories from family members or fellow villagers who witnessed or participated in the genocide. There is a clash between official state memory and popular social memory: The Turkish government is denying a genocide that its own population remembers.(7)
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*NIOD: Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam , Neterlands, is an organization which maintains archives and carries out historical studies into the Second World War. The institute was founded as a merge of the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (Nederlands instituut voor oorlogs documentatie, NIOD) and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS).
**Cum laude is an honor added to a diploma or degree for work that is above average. (with honor).

1- http://www.niod.nl/en/staff/ugur-%C3%BCng%C3%B6r
2- http://armenianweekly.com/2011/04/22/confiscation-and-colonization-the-young-turk-seizure-of-armenian-property/
3- http://www.amazon.com/Confiscation-Destruction-Seizure-Armenian-Property/dp/162356901
4- http://www.niod.nl/en/projects/making-modern-turkey-nation-and-state-eastern-anatolia-1913-1950
5- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U%C4%9Fur_%C3%9Cmit_%C3%9Cng%C3%B6r
6- http://www.mirrorspectator.com/2012/02/07/prolific-young-scholar-on-armenian-genocide-in-holland
7- http://armenianweekly.com/2012/04/27/ungor-turkey-has-acknowledged-the-armenian-genocide/

Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide Alper Görmüş

December 24, 2014 by administrator

By: Hambersom Aghbashian

Ahmet Alper Görmüş (born 21 November 1952) is a Turkish journalist and writer. He is a columnist for Taraf (since 2007) and for Yeni Aktüel. He was the editor-in-chief of the weekly Nokta (2006-7), and was previously a contributor to Aydınlık (1977 – 1980). Following the 1980 Turkish coup d’état Aydınlık was closed down and he worked outside journalism in a variety of roles . Görmüş resumed journalism at Nokta (1986 – 1990), and was then editor-in-chief of Yeni Aktüel (1991 – 1995). He received the Hrant Dink International Award* in 2009, with Amira Hass**. (1)

In December 2008, (200) prominent Turkish intellectuals released an apology for the “great catastrophe of 1915”. This was a clear reference to the Armenian Genocide, a term still too sensitive to use so openly. The signatories also announced a website related to this apology, and called on others to visit the site and sign the apology as well. The complete, brief text of the apology says ” My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in 1915. I reject this injustice and for my share, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers and sisters. I apologize to them.” Alper Görmüş was one of the Turkish intellectual who signed the petition which in few days was signed by over 13,000 signatories.(2)

The Armenian genocide was commemorated for the first time in Turkey on April 24,2010, where Intellectuals gathered in Taksim Square to commemorate the killings of Armenians in 1915. A sit-down strike organized by the “Say No to Racism and Nationalism Initiative” in Taksim Square was attended by a group of public figures including Professor Ahmet Insel, columnists Ali Bayramoglu, Roni Marguiles, Alper Görmüş, Ferhat Kentel, Erol Katýrcýoglu , Ümit Kývanç and many others.(3)

www.panarmenian.net (April 20, 2011 ) quoted Turkish Zaman newspaper reporting that “Armenians who lost their lives in the Armenian displacement that took place in 1915, during the final days of the Ottoman Empire, will be commemorated through a variety of events for a second time this year. Commemoration ceremonies will be held in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, Ankara, Izmir, Diyarbakir and Bodrum. The ceremonies are being organized by the “Say Stop to Racism and Nationalism”. Spokesman Cengiz Algan said what took place in 1915 is “a hurt we all share”, and added “We need to confront the realities that have been hidden by the official ideology for 100 years”. A statement with the headline, “This pain is ours,” has been opened up for signatures. More than 100 people including intellectuals, writers and journalists, among them Alper Görmüş signed the statement. “(4)

According to www.noravank.am , July 11,2013, and under the title (Turkey on the threshold of 2015) , it was mentioned that “The representative of the Turkish intelligentsia who writes critical articles for “Taraf” newspaper , Alper Germus, expressed an opinion in connection with assaults against the Armenians in Samatia district of Istanbul saying that the assaults against the Armenians were direct in consequence of “anti-missionary” movement which had been initiated in early 2000s in Turkey, which could be considered as purposeful actions directed to the intimidation of the Armenians on the threshold of 2015. (5)

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* The International Hrant Dink Award is presented by the HDV every year on Sept. 15, Dink’s birthday. The foundation states on its website: “The award will be presented to people who work for a world free of discrimination, racism, and violence, take personal risks for their ideals, use the language of peace and by doing so, inspire and encourage others. With this award, the Foundation aims to remind to all those who struggle for these ideals that their voices are heard, their works are visible and that they are not alone, and also to encourage everyone to fight for their ideals.”Each year, the award committee selects one recipient from Turkey and one from abroad.

**Amira Hass is an Israeli left-wing journalist and author, mostly known for her columns in the daily newspaper Ha’aretz

1- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alper_G%C3%B6rm%C3%BC%C5%9F

2-http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=200_prominent_Turks_apologize_for_great_catastrophe_

3- http://www.network54.com/Forum/248068/thread/1272245708/Armenian+genocide+

4- http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/world/news/67693/

5- http://www.noravank.am/eng/articles/detail.php?ELEMENT_ID=12258

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