Turkey’s targeting of Ankara human rights statue a ‘reflection of fascism’

May 22, 2018 By administrator

Turkey reflection of fascism

One year ago, Turkish police erected barriers around a monument in Ankara dedicated to human rights. The statue has become a symbol of the country’s state of emergency — and the erosion of human rights it brings.

On one of Ankara’s busiest streets stands a bronze statue of a woman holding a human rights declaration in her hand. Police in the Turkish capital guard the monument around the clock. No one is allowed to approach it, and photos and videos are forbidden. Police say the monument has been barricaded off for security reasons.

The statue was erected in 1990 and people of all political convictions have gathered there ever since. It has been a meeting point for protests and a place to address the media. It was a gathering point for Ankara citizens during Istanbul’s 2013 Gezi Park protests, too.

Things changed after the failed coup on June 15, 2016. Turkey has been under a state of emergency since then, and it was extended for the seventh time in April. Since that failed coup, 228,000 people have been arrested and a further 116,000 dismissed from public service, according to the Turkish Interior Ministry.

‘Reflection of fascism’

Scientist Nuriye Gulmen and grade school teacher Semih Ozakca were among the thousands of people who lost their jobs. They spent months after their sackings sitting beside the Ankara human rights monument, demanding their jobs be reinstated. On May 23, 2017 police cordoned off the bronze figure with a metal barrier and arrested Gulmen and Ozakca.

Lawmakers from Turkey’s largest opposition faction, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), called for their immediate release. Party members sat beside the monument in protest. “Other people joined us, but the police tried to keep them away,” CHP politician Ali Haydar Hakverdi told DW, explaining how the police set up a metal barrier. He described the situation as “utter despotism.”

When people knocked over the barrier, police added two rows of barriers the next day, Hakverdi said.

Daily protests followed, which the police countered with violent force that was documented on social media. Protesters were detained in the morning and let go in the evening. Ankara’s governor declared the barriers a “security measure” stemming from Turkey’s state of emergency.

“As far as I am concerned, the barriers are a reflection of the fascism in our country,” the scientist Gulmen told DW a year after the incident, arguing that the acts of state repression only show the government’s powerlessness. “It doesn’t make sense to ‘detain’ a monument,” she said. “But the message to the people is clear: ‘Look, this is a dangerous place!'”

That’s what the government is trying to convey, Gulmen added.

The teacher Ozakca was released roughly half-a-year after his arrest. Gulmen was charged with membership in a terrorist organization, but also ultimately released. The two went on a 324-day hunger strike after losing their jobs. They ended the strike in January, when Turkey’s State of Emergency Commission rejected their demand that their employment be reinstated. Now they are both protesting again, not far from the Ankara monument.

‘Symbol of the state of emergency’

Turkish sculptor Metin Yurdanur gifted the bronze figure to Ankara’s Cankaya district 28 years ago. Like all of his works, this monument belongs to humankind, he told DW. “I want all of my works to find a place in a peaceful world.”

Hakverdi said the CHP petitioned for the barriers to be removed but it was denied for security reasons, and he doesn’t believe those circumstances are likely to change anytime soon. “The barriers are completely arbitrary, a symbol of the state of emergency,” he argued, adding that the Turkish government wants to make it clear that it will not lift the state of emergency, and will continue to rule the country in that manner.

It is under the cloud of this controversial state of emergency that Turkey is headed for presidential and parliamentary elections on June 24.

Reflections on the 24th anniversary of Armenia’s independence

September 21, 2015 By administrator

By Harut Sassounian

On the occasion of the 24th anniversary of Armenia’s independence, I had the honor of delivering the keynote address at the celebration organized by the Armenian Consulate in Glendale, California. Here are excerpts from my remarks reflecting on some of the accomplishments since independence, and the challenges that still lie ahead.

The most remarkable achievement in the early years of the Armenian Republic was the liberation and establishment of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabagh). As a result, a whole generation of Armenians under age 20, born and raised in independent Artsakh, has not spent a single day under Azerbaijan’s oppressive regime — and God willing — never will! Artsakh’s independence is an irreversible reality. Artsakh will never again be a part of Azerbaijan!

However, our challenges in Artsakh are not yet over. While it is true that we sacrificed much to win the war, we must now win the peace! This is not the time to let our guard down. Armenia’s border towns come regularly under attack from Azeri bombardment.

Armenians must take a series of important steps to ensure that Artsakh’s independence is secured. Artsakh must not only survive, but thrive! To accomplish this imperative necessity, we must first bolster Artsakh’s defenses. The best way to avoid war is to have a good defense.

For Azerbaijanis, recovering Nagorno Karabagh is a hollow luxury; but for Armenians, Artsakh is an existential necessity!

Besides reinforcing Artsakh’s defenses, Armenians need to replenish its population. We must create new facts on the ground so that the Azeri regime is convinced that Armenians, rather than abandoning Artsakh, are relocating there in larger numbers, thus making the return of that territory practically impossible.

Another key objective is putting Artsakh’s independence on firm legal grounds and gaining international recognition! The Armenian-American community has successfully countered the massively financed Azeri lobby in Washington and all 50 states.

Lastly, we must create better living conditions in Artsakh, by providing housing and jobs, so Armenians currently there, and those planning to relocate, can enjoy safe and comfortable lives.
However, none of these burdens should be borne alone by the people of Artsakh, but by the collective will of all Armenians and their supporters throughout the world.

To ensure Artsakh’s survival, we need a strong Armenia, which is also a necessity for the preservation of Armenian communities worldwide.

Now, almost a quarter century after independence, we must do everything in our power to ensure that the homeland is secure and prosperous.

Regardless of our ideological, political and religious differences, we must ALL unite under the banner of the Yerakouyn — the Tricolor. It matters not whether we agree or disagree with any particular leader. Government officials come and go, but the Armenian people and the homeland are everlasting!

However, we must keep in mind that the relationship between citizens and their government is a two-way street. Government officials are duty bound to create a social environment that is fair, conducive to a prosperous life, free of discrimination and intimidation. Citizens must have the chance and the choice, through democratic processes, to elect their preferred representatives without any interference from the authorities.
The political opposition, on the other hand, has the responsibility to hold the government accountable for its actions through constructive criticism and peaceful means, without risking the country’s stability and security.

Unfortunately, there is still widespread poverty and unemployment in Armenia. Immediate solutions must be found to feed the hungry, help the needy, and heal the sick, which will stem the tide of emigration — an existential threat to the homeland!

Despite the hardships that many Armenians continue to suffer from — some man-made, and others due to circumstances beyond government control, such as blockades by Turkey and Azerbaijan — we must acknowledge that there has been, over the past 24 years, a gradual progress in the living conditions of Armenia’s population.

Another successful accomplishment was the worldwide commemoration of the Armenian Genocide Centennial earlier this year. Thanks to the persistent efforts of the Diaspora in the last 100 years, and the Armenian government’s international diplomatic contacts in the past quarter century, the recognition phase of the Genocide is pretty much accomplished. We must now seek justice through restitution. The Turkish government must return everything that was confiscated during the Genocide and pay compensation for whatever cannot be returned.

The challenge ahead is creating a more efficient mechanism for coordinating the efforts of all 10 million Armenians from Armenia to Artsakh, and throughout the Diaspora.

One such approach would be to rename and transform the existing Centennial Committees in various countries as well as the Central Centennial Committee headquartered in Yerevan into permanent bodies responsible for:
1) Managing all pan-Armenian issues and crises affecting Armenian communities such as Syria;
2) boosting Artsakh’s security, economy, and autonomy;
3) halting and reversing emigration from Armenia; and
4) seeking restitution from Turkey for all human and material losses suffered by Armenians during the Genocide.

Vatican Holds ‘Moment of Reflection’ on Armenian Genocide

March 13, 2015 By administrator

Armenians in prayer. (Photo: AFP)

VATICAN CITY (Vatican Radio)—The Pontifical Oriental Institute on Thursday held a “moment of reflection” to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the “Metz Yeghern, the Great Evil: Ter voghormia, Lord have mercy.”

Metz Yeghern is the traditional expression used for the Armenian genocide, when ethnic Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were systematically put to death by the government. Between one and one and a half million people are believed to have been killed between 1915 and 1918.

Thursday’s event centered on the presentation of the work of Father George Ryssen, S.J., and on the commemoration of alumni of the Pontifical Armenian College who were killed in the genocide. Father Ruyssen’s work, of which four of a projected seven volumes have been published, collects all the documents pertaining to the Armenian Genocide to be found in the different archives of the Holy See.

The Prefect for the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri – who is also Chancellor of the Institute – attend the event, and addressed the participants.

In his remarks, Cardinal Sandri said the “moment of reflection” was not only an academic exercise, but was also “a Christian gesture of justice and mercy.” The event, he said, shows that we are untiring seekers after the Truth that is Christ; collaborators [working for] the coming of the city ‘in which dwells righteousness’; and supplicants invoking the intercession of the witnesses, the martyrdom of the Armenian people” who made the supreme profession of faith by shedding their blood.

Cardinal Sandri also noted the gratitude of the Armenian people to the Pope of the time, Benedict XV. He said the work of Father Ruyssen “allows us to understand how the Holy See was diligent in attempting to stay the hands of the executioners, and to bring possible relief and aid to those who escaped the massacres that took place one hundred years ago.”

“We are still saddened,” he continued, “for those who rose up to kill their neighbors, but even more, astonished by the silence of so many nations and so many powerful people, as we are still astonished to day on the part of others to speak with objectivity, to arrive at the longed-for goal of reconciliation, in truth and in justice.”

“The mystery of evil,” he said, “mysterium iniquitatis, that is able to flow from the heart of man, and that is made manifest in the destruction that every sin brings with it, compels us to get down on our knees, and pray, as we say in the subtitle of our meeting: ‘Ter voghormia… Lord have mercy!’ Have mercy on man whom you have created, but who now is wounded, is far from you, poor, a sinner, capable, as Cain was, of conceiving death for his brother, capable of nourishing hatred and seeking vengeance.”

Cardinal Sandri concluded his remarks with the words of Benedict XVI during the former Pope’s visit to the extermination camp at Auschwitz: “We cannot peer into God’s mysterious plan – we see only piecemeal, and we would be wrong to set ourselves up as judges of God and history. Then we would not be defending man, but only contributing to his downfall. No – when all is said and done, we must continue to cry out humbly yet insistently to God: Rouse yourself! Do not forget mankind, your creature! And our cry to God must also be a cry that pierces our very heart, a cry that awakens within us God’s hidden presence – so that his power, the power he has planted in our hearts, will not be buried or choked within us by the mire of selfishness, pusillanimity, indifference or opportunism. Let us cry out to God, with all our hearts, at the present hour, when new misfortunes befall us, when all the forces of darkness seem to issue anew from human hearts: whether it is the abuse of God’s name as a means of justifying senseless violence against innocent persons, or the cynicism which refuses to acknowledge God and ridicules faith in him. Let us cry out to God, that he may draw men and women to conversion and help them to see that violence does not bring peace, but only generates more violence – a morass of devastation in which everyone is ultimately the loser.”