Cyprus archbishop tells Turkish Cypriots to give up land

September 19, 2014 By administrator

Archbishop Chrysostomos II

Archbishop Chrysostomos II called on migrants from Turkey to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) to leave the island. ‘Only those married to Turkish Cypriots should stay,’ he said.

World Bulletin / News Desk

The head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Cyprus, Archbishop Chrysostomos II, has cast doubt on the Cyprus peace process after he said that giving the Turkish Cypriots more than 25% of the island’s territory would be a ‘red line’ for the church.

Speaking to the Greek Cypriot Fileleftheros newspaper, the archbishop said that he didn’t believe the Cyprus problem would be solved.

‘The Turks are not the only ones with red lines,’ he said, adding ‘we too have red lines. For the church, the red line is giving the Turks – who only make up 18% of the population – mpre than 25% of the land.’

He also said that should more than 25% be granted to the Turks, we would call upon the Greek Cypriots to vote ‘no’ on any referendum regarding the re-unification of the island.

‘If the Turks continue with their demands, it is certain that the peace talks will end,’ he warned.

Chrysostomos II, who has been partaking in a number of religious dialogue events with the Turkish Cypriot Religious Affairs Minister Talip Atalay and deputy Sakir Alemdar, additionally called on migrants from Turkey to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) to leave the island. ‘Only those married to Turkish Cypriots should stay,’ he said.

NO CHANGE

‘So far there has been no progress in the peace talks. The main points remain unchanged,’ said the archbishop.

‘We are 82% of the population and they are 18%. They want 50% of the power. Where is the justice?’ he asked.

The issue of Turkish Cypriot representation was also a hotly disputed issue in the run up to the establishment of the 1960 Cyprus constitution in which both Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots formed a joint government upon the island gaining its independence from 82 years of being a British colony.

During the Ottoman times, Turkish Cypriots were at one point said to make up almost half of the island’s population. However, during the British occupation, a large proportion of the Turkish Cypriot population migrated to Turkey to flee from poverty which was inflicted upon them by high taxes and the seizure of the Turkish Cypriot Foundations’ (Evkaf) assets by the British authorities.

Although the constitution – which stipulated that Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot leaders would rotate the presidency and vice-presidency positions every two years – was originally accepted by the Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots were expelled from the government in 1963.

While efforts continued to revive the constitution, the rise of the Greek extremist militant group EOKA, which sought to unite the island with Greece, forced Turkish Cypriots into enclaves to flee from mass killings.

A coup conducted by EOKA on the government in 1974 led to Turkey exercizing its constitution-given right as a guarantor. Turkey landed its troops in the north of the island, where Turkish Cypriots sought refuge.

Failure to reunify the island led to the TRNC declaring independence in 1983, which is today only recognized by Turkey.

A 2004 referendum saw Turkish Cypriots vote ‘yes’ to reunify the island, but plans failed when the vast majority of Greek Cypriots voted ‘no’. Nonetheless, the Greek Cypriot administrated southern Cyprus was accepted into the EU while the TRNC remained under international embargoes.

The sheer, brutal efficiency, ISIL closest analog Turkish Talat Pasha and Adolf Hitler

August 13, 2014 By administrator

ISIL is several steps above Boko Haram or even the Taliban. The closest analog is Turkish Talat Pasha The young Turks massacring 1.5 million Arminians, Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian movement that killed more than two million people in the mid-1970s. There was a reminder of those horrors this week, when two top Khmer Rouge leaders were finally sentenced for their crimes. In their remorseless advance through eastern Syria and northern Iraq, ISIL’s fighters have demonstrated the same iron will and discipline that Khmer Rouge deployed against the Cambodian army and the Cambodian people. In territory Al-Baghdadi controls, he uses the same tactics of intimidation and public punishment that Pol Pot used to cow his fellow Cambodians.

In its appetite for genocide, ISIL seems to borrow from Turkish Talat Pasha and Adolf Hitler’s Nazis. It, too, has identified for extermination entire categories of people. Its fighters have systematically rounded up groups of “unbelievers”—and remember, that can mean anybody, including their fellow Sunnis—and slaughtered them in a manner Heinrich Himmler would have approved of. If the disturbing photographs (and be warned, they are very disturbing) in this Washington Post story were in grainy black-and-white, they could have come from a Nazi death camp. And online videos of these mass killings clearly show miss the zealous glee with which the executioners go about the work.

The Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.
The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.
Present-day Turkey denies the fact of the Armenian Genocide, justifying the atrocities as “deportation to secure Armenians”. Only a few Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and scholar Taner Akcam, speak openly about the necessity to recognize this crime against humanity.

The Armenian Genocide was recognized by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, the Italian Chamber of Deputies, majority of U.S. states, parliaments of Greece, Cyprus, Argentina, Belgium and Wales, National Council of Switzerland, Chamber of Commons of Canada, Polish Sejm, Vatican, European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.

some of the information from Bobby Ghosh article. photo gagrulenet

More than 1,000 Turks fighting for the Islamic Caliphate (surprise Surprise)

August 1, 2014 By administrator

Serkan Demirtaş

This undated file image posted on a militant website on Tuesday, Jan 14 which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows fighters from the al-Qaida linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) marching in Raqqa. AP Photo

Hurriyet daily news: The number of Turkish citizens fighting under the umbrella of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is slightly more than 1,000, according to Turkish officials, who admit that they are unable to learn the exact number. The estimated number of armed ISIL fighters is around 12,000 to 15,000, which shows that Turks make up just less than 10 percent of the jihadist group.

Turkey has long been accused of not efficiently controlling its borders to prevent those foreigners joining the jihadist extremist groups and stop the flow of weapons into Syria. In response to these criticisms, Turkish officials have noted the difficulty of controlling a nearly 900-kilometer-long border while blaming Western countries for not sharing intelligence on potential recruits for the jihadist groups.

However, when it comes to Turkish citizens’ participation in one of the world’s deadliest groups, these explanations are unconvincing. Who organized the recruitment of these people for ISIL? What organizations sponsored these recruitments? Which routes have been used? Assuming the security forces and the intelligence are closely following the jihadist movements in Turkey, how did they fail to realize that more than 1,000 Turks have joined ISIL? Could it be because security forces and intelligence skipped their main duties and responsibilities as they are chasing what the government calls the “parallel state”?

Whatever the answers to these questions are, there is one absolute reality: Turkey is facing the danger of the jihadist structure, both inside and outside. In Iraq, 49 Turkish citizens have been in ISIL captivity since early June. Due to the sensitivity of the issue, mainstream media does not frequently write on the issue, but one thing is certain: Somebody will have to answer some very disturbing questions once our citizens, including Turkey’s consul general in Mosul, return home safe.

Inside Turkey, there is enough evidence to get concerned about increasing extremism. First, we have seen some Sunni groups attacking a mosque belonging to the Caferis, a branch of Shiite Islam. With ISIL making new advances, their sympathizers have become more visible in a bid to display their contentment with the developments. It was on July 31 when the Hürriyet Daily News reported about an Istanbul-based Islamic charity organization that had to suspend its activities after it was criticized for using an insignia adopted by the ISIL.

There were also allegations that the charity was recruiting militants for the fight in Syria and Iraq.
In separate news, Turkish media broadcast a few days ago pictures of hundreds of men with long beards in Taliban-style dress gathering for Eid al-Fitr somewhere in Istanbul. The group was allegedly linked with ISIL, and they dedicated their Eid al-Fitr prayers to ISIL fighters in Iraq and Syria.

Another development that has boosted the public showcase of these jihadist groups is the Israeli attack on the Palestinians. Israeli brutality deserves all sorts of reactions, but demonstrations staged by groups, especially in Ankara and Istanbul soon became violent. These are obviously the best moments for such groups to gain more supporters in society and reach out to different segments of the society. The government has the full responsibility to keep these demonstrations in check without causing any unwanted, irreparable incident.

Bedrosyan: The Genocide of the Pontic Greeks

July 3, 2014 By administrator

By Raffi Bedrosyan

The annihilation of the non-Turk/non-Muslim peoples from Anatolia started on April 24, 1915, with the arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals in Istanbul. Within a few months, 1.5 million Armenians had been wiped out from their historic homeland of 4,000 years in what is now eastern Turkey, as well as from the northern, southern, central, and western parts of Turkey. About 250,000 Assyrians were also massacred in southeastern Turkey during the same period. Then, it was the Pontic Greeks’ turn to be eliminated from northern Turkey on the Black Sea coast, sporadically from 1916 onward. The ethnic cleansing of the Pontic Greeks got interrupted when the Ottomans ended up on the losing side of World War I, but their real destruction resumed in a well-organized manner on May 19, 1919. This article will summarize the tragic end of the Pontic Greek civilization in northern Turkey—a series of events less researched and documented than the Armenian Genocide, but equally denied and covered up by the Turkish state.

Pontic Greeks continuously inhabited the southern coast of the Black Sea in northern Anatolia since pre-Byzantine times. The ethnic cleansing of the Pontic Greeks followed the same pattern as the Armenian deportations and massacres: Citing security threats and suspicions of possible cooperation with the Russians, in the spring of 1916 the Ottoman government ordered that all Pontic Greeks be removed from the Black Sea coastal towns to 50 kilometers inland. Of course, in the case of the Armenians, the deportation orders were not only in the eastern war zone, but applied to every region in Turkey. The Pontic Greek deportations were carried out by the Special Organization (Teskilat-i Mahsusa), the same governmental organization that carried out the Armenian massacres, manned by convicted killers released from prisons. Documents show that the longer the prison term, the higher the rank given by the government for these criminals in carrying out their destructive tasks. Naturally, the Greek deportations soon transformed from relocation to robbery to mass murders. But because the Pontic Greeks had observed the fate of the Armenians a year ago, they got their defenses organized and resisted the deportations by taking to the mountains wherever they could. As a result, the deportations and massacres in this “First Phase Massacre” resulted only in 150,000 deaths, eliminating a third of the Pontic population until the end of the war.

The “Second and Real Phase of Massacre” that saw the organized destruction of the Pontic Greeks started in earnest with the arrival of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in Samsun on May 19, 1919. He met with the well-known mass murderers of the Armenians of the Black Sea region, such as Topal (Lame) Osman and Ipsiz Recep, and secured their cooperation in starting a terror campaign to get rid of the Pontic Greeks from northern Turkey. These two murderers, originally smugglers of illegal goods, had gained notoriety in 1915 when they rounded up Armenian men, women, and children in large boats, took them out to sea, and dumped them overboard to drown, then boasted that the “smelt season will be bountiful this year with lots of food for them.” As the Pontic Greek men had taken to the mountains, these two murderers went after the Greek women and children who had remained in the villages. Various methods of mass murder were implemented. It was common to take the entire population of villages to caves nearby, seal the entrance of the cave, and burn them alive, or use gas to suffocate them inside. Any male Greeks caught were thrown, alive, into the coal furnaces of steamships through the funnels. Churches became incinerators to burn alive as many Greeks as could be stuffed into the building. The extent of the tortures and massacres the Greeks endured even disturbed the local Muslim population, who petitioned the Ankara government to remove these murderers from the region. Eventually Ataturk brought them to Ankara, where Osman became his personal bodyguard. Yet, when Osman shot a member of parliament for criticizing Ataturk, and then threatened Ataturk himself, he was executed.

There were also the so-called “Liberation Courts” (Istiklal Mahkemeleri) set up in cities across the Black Sea region to try Greek rebels. These courts passed arbitrary decisions that almost invariably resulted in death sentences, with no defense or appeals allowed, and hangings carried out immediately. Among the victims of these courts were hundreds of Greek teachers in the American and Greek schools of the region, prominent community leaders, clergymen, and, tragically, entire members of the Merzifon Greek high school football team, only because the team was named Pontus Club, which was deemed sufficient reason to label them a rebel terrorist organization. Ataturk then appointed Nurettin Pasha as commander of the Central Army to mop up any resisting Greeks from the entire Black Sea region. This man, also known for his sadistic tendencies, destroyed thousands of defenseless Greek villages. Among his “accomplishments” was the arrest of a Turkish opposition journalist who had criticized Ataturk; Nurettin Pasha then had his soldiers tear the journalist alive limb by limb. He was also at the head of the army units that entered Izmir (Smyrna) in 1922, where he arranged for the lynching of the Greek head of the clergy in the same manner, and then began the Great Fire that destroyed the entire city.

Between May 19, 1919, and the end of 1922, the Pontic Greek population was decimated by 353,000 in the following cities:

Amasya, Giresun, Samsun: 134,078

Tokat: 64,582

Trabzon: 38,434

Niksar: 27,216

Sebinkarahisar: 21,448

Macka: 17,479

There was also a violent campaign to Islamize the Greeks; quite a number of them converted to Islam under threats and torture, followed by Turkification. With the 1924 Lausanne Treaty, the few remaining Pontic Greeks were included in the 1,250,000 Anatolian Greeks “exchanged” for Muslims in Greece, thereby completely emptying the Black Sea region from its historic Greek civilization. All the names of the Greek villages and towns were changed into new Turkish names. Turkish language was forced upon all the converted Greeks, Hamshen Armenians, Laz, and Georgian minorities.

And thus began a century-long brainwashing campaign of single-state, single-nation, single language, single-language policy. The May 19, 1919 date of Ataturk’s arrival in Samsun as a national holiday celebrating Youth and Sports Day was adopted in 1937, copying the German Nazis’ superior race policies, to demonstrate the athleticism and beauty of the Turkish race. The extent of racism was evident in the statement of then-Justice Minister Mahmut Esat Bozkurt, who said, “Turks are the masters in this country. The remaining peoples have only one right in this country, to be the maids and slaves of the real Turks.”

As recently as in 2008, then-Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul echoed the same racist sentiments in Turkey: “If the Greeks had been allowed to exist in the Aegean and Black Sea regions, and the Armenians all over Anatolia, would we be able to have a powerful national state today?” The chief murderer of the Pontic Greeks, Topal (Lame) Osman, is still regarded as a hero by nationalist Turks. His statue was recently erected in Giresun by one of the Eregenekon deep-state leaders, retired general Veli Kucuk, himself responsible for the “mysterious disappearance” of dozens of Kurds, and the assumed mastermind behind the organized assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. Kucuk was arrested and sentenced to life in prison for plotting the overthrow of the Erdogan government as part of the deep-state trials, but was recently released from prison by Erdogan (following the falling out between Erdogan and the religious leader Fethullah Gulen, whose followers were among the prosecutor team and police forces who had arrested Kucuk).

It has now become clear that the Turkish state’s policy to create a single nationalist state with a single religion and language has failed miserably. Within Turkey, Kurds could not be assimilated, and the grandchildren of the hidden Islamized Armenians and Pontic Greeks are starting to “come out” to find their roots. Outside Turkey, the Armenians continue to demand justice and restitution for the 1915 genocide. Assyrians have also started to get organized in various European states to demand their rights. In 1994, the Greek Parliament recognized the Pontic Greek Genocide on the 75th anniversary of the 1919 events. There is now a vast body of common knowledge regarding the true facts of the genocidal events that took place in Turkey from 1915 to 1923, and they can no longer be covered up by the denialist policies of the Turkish state.

source: the armenian weekly

About Raffi Bedrosyan is a civil engineer as well as a concert pianist, living in Toronto, Canada. For the past several years, proceeds from his concerts and two CDs have been donated to the construction of school, highway, water, and gas distribution projects in Armenia and Karabagh—projects in which he has also participated as a voluntary engineer. Bedrosyan was involved in organizing the Surp Giragos Diyarbakir/Dikranagerd Church reconstruction project, and in promoting the significance of this historic project worldwide as the first Armenian reclaim of church properties in Anatolia after 1915. In September 2012, he gave the first Armenian piano concert in the Surp Giragos Church since 1915.

Ex-general urges Turks, Qataris to leave east Libya, “supporting “terrorism,”

June 22, 2014 By administrator

BENGHAZI, Libya – Reuters

Ex-general Khalifa Haftar speaks during a news conference after surviving an assassination attempt, in Al Marj, east of Benghazi June 4, 2014. REUTERS Photo

A Libyan Ex-general general has called on all Turks and Qataris to leave volatile eastern Libya, accusing the two countries of supporting “terrorism,” his spokesman said June 22.

Retired General Khalifa Haftar has declared war on Islamist militants in eastern Libya, part of growing turmoil in the oil producer where the government is unable to control armed groups which helped oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but now defy state authority.

The Tripoli government says Haftar has no authority to act but its orders are routinely ignored in much of the oil-producing country, especially in the east where Islamists, tribes and militias vie for control.
“All citizens of Turkey and Qatar should leave Libya within 48 hours. The deadline started last night,” Haftar’s spokesman, Mohamed El Hejazi, said.

“They should leave the part of Libya from Imsaid [at the Egyptian border] to Sirte [in central Libya] and we are not responsible for these two nationalities on the Libyan land.”

A Turkish embassy official declined to comment. Turkey moved staff of its Benghazi consulate to Tripoli this month. Qatar’s mission could not be immediately reached for comment.

Turkey and Qatar both have supported the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist movement which has been declared a “terrorist” organization by Egypt and Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia.

There has been speculation among analysts that Haftar has the support of neighboring Egypt and of Gulf states such as the United Arab Emirates, which like the West are worried about Islamist militants exploiting the chaos in Libya.

Haftar had last week accused Qatar of supporting armed militias in Libya.

The latest fighting in Libya comes days before a parliamentary election that ordinary citizens hope will ease the chronic political infighting that has paralyzed decision-making since the last vote in the summer of 2012.

June/22/2014

Allain Delon Genocide movie meets Turks’ counteraction

June 6, 2014 By administrator

The Turkish Grand National Assembly’s committee on “Armenian Genocide allegations” has conducted a special meeting to consider counter-measures to the Armenian Diaspora’s genocide centennial preparation events.

Referring to the Armenian lobby’s plans to produce a movie starring Allain Delon, the committee’s members decided to undertake a similar initiative on their own part. Haberturk reports that they agreed to launch the production of a film entitled, Our Heart’s Wound.

Opposition lawmaker Sinan Ohan said the movie’s title is unrelated to the Armenian issue. “It reminds of a love film,” he told the parliament members.

American film director Steve Spielberg has already received the Armenian lobby’s proposal to produce the film, The Wounded, says the publication.

According to the Turkish media, Delon will portray Komitas, the great Armenian composer Komitas (1869-1935) who experienced a serious mental breakdown in the wake of Genocide.

Dustin Hofman is also expected to play in the movie. The author of the music will be the popular US-Armenian rock musician Serj Tankian.

Why the Turks were able to exterminate the Armenians but not the Jews

June 4, 2014 By administrator

Harut Sassounian

Armenian Life Magazine No 1418

May 29, 2014

This second article supplements that I wrote last month, analyzing the reasons which allowed the Turks to exterminate the Armenians and prevented them from implementing a simultaneous elimination of the Jewish population of Palestine map.

May 9, 1917 Reuters broadcast information transmitted by the settler Aaron Aaronsohn “an order was given to deport all Jews from Tel Aviv, even citizens of the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary), within 48 hours. During the previous week, 300 Jews were expelled from Jerusalem, Jamal Pasha who reported that their fate would be that of the Armenians. The 8,000 deportees from Tel Aviv had permission to take no stock, and after the expulsion of their house had been looted by packs Bedouin. “

Shortly after these events, Oskar Cohen, a socialist Jewish member of the German Parliament, asked the Chancellor to urge the Turkish government to “vigorously oppose repetition in Palestine,” the Jews, “atrocities” comparable to those committed against the Armenians.

June 8, Aaronsohn noted in his diary: “The cry that we pushed was effective. Turks and Germans soon realized we could not, without suffering the consequences, massacring Jews as were massacred Armenians, the financing of the war by Germany may suffer from the reaction of the Jews. They ended, therefore, any new deportation. “

Palestine, the official journal of the British Zionist movement, had described the significant differences between the capabilities of influence between the Jews and the Armenians: “The German government knows that the Jews do not compare to the Armenians on their power in the world, and the weight of the Jews in Germany is therefore different from that of the Armenians. “

Mordecai Ben-Hillel Hacohen, renowned chronicler of Jewish history in Palestine, March 30, 1917 wrote in his diary: “the reputation of the Turkish government has been tainted in the eyes of the whole country, because of the crime against the Armenians, and perhaps the government he would reconsider his plans to take similar action against the Jews. “

Moshe Smilansky, a leader in agricultural villages of Palestine, having realized the terrible massacres of Armenians, concluded: “The stories of eyewitness spread terror and panic among the Jews. Who knows what our fate would have been without Morgenthau, the U.S. representative at Constantinople, and without the fear inspired by the world press is ‘controlled’ by the Jews. “

Yair Auron recalls in his book that Meir Dizengoff, a leader of the Jewish refugees in Palestine, throughout the First World War, “had worked closely collaborating with the Zionist delegation to Constantinople, which was pro-German and pro-Turkish . According Dizengoff relations were also excellent with the German consul in Palestine … The consul, who acted as an intermediary for the transfer of funds to the Yishuv [the Jewish community] was under the orders of the German ambassador in Constantinople “. Dizengoff had also said that it was thanks to the Germans that the Yishuv had been been helped and saved. “The fact that Djemal Pasha became more sympathetic to the Jews was to the credit of Germany.” Dizengoff remembered the threats that Jamal Pasha and Enver had made against the Jews: “Be careful, Zionists! If you pitch against us, we will do what we did to the Armenians. “

When October 1917, the Turkish authorities discovered the Nili spy network, a new threat took shape on Jewish settlers in Palestine, providing another excuse to oppress the Turks. They were afraid that such anti-Turkish conducted can cause horrific reprisals as those suffered by the Armenians. The Turkish governor of Haifa Jewish leaders met village 2ichron Yaakov October 4, 1917 and threatened unless access to its applications to them what he had done to the Armenians. He told them he “killed with bare hands several Armenians, and that his soldiers had killed thousands.” Chaim Kalvarisky-Margalit, the representative of the Jewish Colonization Association in the Galilee, wrote in his diary the following note: “I learned from a reliable source that the high command [Turkish] was very angry against the Jewish colony, and was considering a possible general deportation of Jews from Palestine to the most distant provinces of the empire [Eastern Anatolia]. “ Kalvarisky recorded verbatim the words of Jamal Pasha after a heated exchange with him: “May Heaven help those whose are these spies son cursed. We gave the Armenian people a lesson for such acts, and will not hesitate to take the same measures in this case. “

Having witnessed the brutality of the Turks against the Armenians who were accused of insubordination and rebellion, Jewish settlers decided to fully submit and does not challenge the Turkish authorities. Professor Auron observed that “He had not a single attack on a Turkish soldier by a Jewish settler.” What saved at the end of the Jews was the occupation of Palestine by the British forces, preventing brutality and massacres by the Turkish authorities.

In total, 1.5 million Armenians were annihilated, while Jewish settlers in Palestine suffered only minimal losses. During the war years, the Jewish population of Palestine was reduced from 86 000 to 55 000. IN spite of the fact that the Armenians themselves as defenders in Europe and the United States, Jewish settlers benefited from the double protection of powerful countries in the two warring camps: the Western countries, including the United States, and Germany’s ally Turkey. Vahakn Dadrian, in his book, The History of the Armenian Genocide, said that Hans Wingenheim, German ambassador to Turkey, told the Ambassador Morgenthau U.S.: “I will help the Zionists … but I will not do anything for Armenians “.

While Germany saved the Jewish settlers in Palestine, she helped Young Turkish regime to exterminate the Armenian people.

Turks return Armenians’ property with one hand and seize it with another – review

May 29, 2014 By administrator

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party returns the one-time Armenian buildings to their original owners with one hand while trying to seize it with another, reports the Istanbul-based bilingual weekly Agos.

The publication says that the earlier decision to return the community’s property symbolized a kind of new approach to the historical injustice, which could not be ignored despite the remarkable differences between the buildings’ original appearance and current look.

“In the run-up to 2015, the ‘just memory’ of the Armenian Genocide is turning into state policies, so the property return may have a certain value in terms of reinstating that justice.

“But to heal and repair the injustice of the past it is necessary to find permanent rather than transient solutions,” reads the article.

It says further that the local authorities in Istanbul’s Zeitinburnu neighborhood have filed a lawsuit to reinstate the ownership right to the land lot returned to the Armenian church of Sourb Prkich (Holy Savior).

A namesake hospital is said to be the building’s owner, but the city authorities reportedly appeal against the decision to return it to the Armenian community.

The property is thought to be of vital importance for the hospital which offers aid to not only Armenians but also any individual regardless of religion or ethnic identity.

“That move by the Zeitinburnu mayor’s office will hopefully be remembered as an unpleasant step tomorrow. To avoid such problems it is necessary to return the entire property without preconditions and take steps towards reparation,” says the publication.

Analysis Why the Turks they massacred the Armenians?

May 18, 2014 By administrator

By John V. Gureghian *

Before answering this key question, we note that there has been in recent decades, an important fact. To quote the countries located to the west of the Republic of Armenia and current which was the historical homeland of the Armenian people for nearly 3,000 years, most do not say “Armenia”, but “Anatolia”, “Eastern Anatolia” “Asia Minor”, “eastern provinces”, “Eastern Turkey”, etc..

Article 16 of the Treaty of San Stefano of 1878, concerning reforms in Turkish Armenia, called the “Armenia” good. Even in 1966, when a massive earthquake whose epicenter was Varto between Mush and Erzerum, northwest of Lake Van, an English newspaper had headlined the event: “Earthquake in Armenia.” That would surely be the case today.

It is true that everything has been done since 1915 by various Turkish authorities to erase forever the word “Armenia”. After emptying Armenia its lawful inhabitants, we removed all Armenians. Since the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), the Turkish authorities have repeated the story in their own way. The names of towns, villages, rivers, mountains (Armenian Taurus became eastern Taurus), etc.. have been changed. The list would be very long if we had the list. We even lately, changed the names of animals. Indeed, in 2005, the Turkish Ministry of the Environment has rechristened the breed of sheep Ovis Armeniana renaming Ovis Orientalis anatolicus, same for the deer, its scientific name Capreolus Capreolus Armenius, which was renamed … Capreolus Caprelus Capreolus!

What is amazing is that even when commemorative evenings on the Armenian Genocide, the terms used by historians and specialists Genocide, to quote the country during the discussions are again: “Anatolia”, “Anatolia Eastern “,” Asia Minor “,” eastern provinces “,” Eastern Turkey “, etc.. Consequently, when we put the legitimate and fundamental question, “but why the Turks they massacred the Armenians? “Responses are often next to reality. It would seem it for reasons of “religious, ethnic, racial, financial, etc.. “While the main reason that is often overlooked is territorial. I remember it was at a formal dinner, someone had asked this key question, addressing a political leader of the diaspora. His answer was very detailed about “religious, ethnic, etc. …” reasons. I pointed out to him after his speech, he had to forget to mention the territorial reasons.

Do not forget that in 1914 Armenia was on the verge of independence. On the eve of the war, the reforms in Armenia had a breakthrough. Despite the reluctance of Germany and Austria, the European powers, under pressure from the Russians and French, reached a compromise settlement which included seven Armenian provinces in the form of two large autonomous administrative regions (north : Redfish, Trabzon, Erzurum, south Van, Bitlis, Diyarbakir, Kharput), all under the supervision of inspectors general European neutral countries, Dutch and Norwegian Westenenk Hoff (who will be expelled a few days before the declaration of war by Turkey). Thus, Armenia, after so many years of suffering and massacres (especially between 1894-1896) had reached the threshold of independence. The issue was crucial to the nationalist Turks, as Western Armenia (without Cilicia), with its seven provinces had a total area of 328,800 km2 (about the size of Romania). Alone, the province of Sebaste (Armenia Minor), with its 83 700 km2 was three times greater than the Fed. current of Armenia (or Belgium). Faced with a large predictable independence Armenia, which would once again cut the territory of the former Ottoman Empire, Turkish leaders wanted to stop this “shrinking” process. In addition, the Turkish leaders, probably nostalgic for the past glory of the Ottoman Empire, wanted to recreate a vast empire (pan-Turkic movement), but this time turning to the East, by the junction with the “brotherly peoples” Azerbaijan and the vast Central Asian Turkic all (hence the war with Russia), as opposed to previous multiracial empire. Again this is Armenian space that would have prevented the future junction.

The logic of young Turkish leaders was simple to Stop the foreseeable independence of Armenia, it was necessary to liquidate the Armenian Question … by liquidating all Armenians of the Empire (except Constantinople). The (First) World War was to them a unique opportunity. To Talaat, the principal cause of Genocide of 1915, it was a “question concerning Turkish interests and the country,” as he confided to his friend Vartkes.

Vartkes Serenkulian, heroes and MP had escaped the raid on April 24, 1915, the day of initiation of Genocide in Constantinople, where 650 intellectuals were arrested. He took advantage of this time to go check with his friend Talaat. Excerpt from Hayk “Future of the Armenian Diaspora” (capital letters are due to the author): “- So you [the Young Turks] will continue the work of Sultan Hamid? – Yes! We will do what is required by TURKISH INTEREST! – Pacha as friendship between us, I have a family, have mercy on her, if I am in danger tell me that I digress.

Vartkes, we need you to understand, it is a QUESTION CONCERNING THE HOMELAND, friendship and personal relationships have no place here. Do not rest, go away! – And Vartkes kissed her hand. “

The great writer and member Krikor Zohrap, had also escaped the first roundup of 24 April. He had escaped the first wave of arrests because … he was at the club that night, and playing cards with his friends MPs Young Turks! A few days before his friend Talaat had kissed on leaving (as a last farewell!), Which had also surprised the writer. Before coming to power (in 1908) of the Young Turks, Talaat wanted by the police of the Sultan had found refuge with his best friend, Zohrap, where he was hiding.

Krikor Zohrap and Vartkes Serenkulian will be arrested and deported shortly after. After torturing the killers will complete Zohrap crushing his head with rocks, near Urfa. Vartkes will also tortured and murdered near Urfa, in Garakeupri. The Young Turks leaders believed that even losing the war, they succeed in permanently get rid of the Armenian Question. Proof, Mustafa Kemal turned defeat into victory in 1918, driving the Armenian survivors (excluding new massacres organized by Topal Osman). He appropriated all national and individual properties of the Armenians and imposed current borders of the Turkish Republic on the ruins of Armenia. Moreover, at a time when U.S. President W. Wilson traced by an official document, the future border between Armenia and Turkey, according to the mission that had been entrusted to the Treaty of Sèvres of 1920, Kemal crushed the new Republic of Armenia, in a bloodbath, to cancel any boundary constraint imposed by the treaty and still scrape some 20,000 km2 (as large as the State of Israel) in the former Russian Armenia. This was granted and endorsed by Lenin treaty of Kars and Moscow him. As in Nakhchivan, the Turks surrendered to the Soviets provided they do not make it but the Armenians to Azerbaijan and by keeping a veto.

A small anecdote illustrating how a tiny territory of several tens of hectares had importance in the eyes of Turkish nationalists when signing the Treaty of Kars (October 1921), the Soviets (who apparently had a bad conscience) asked the Turks to keep the ruins of Ani, the historic former capital of Armenia, the Armenian side, since it was adjoin the future border. This was flatly refused! The annihilation of Armenia and its people, but especially the non condemnation of this crime by the international community, serve as an example to Hitler told his generals (to encourage them to barbarism), August 22, 1939 before attacking Poland: “… Who remembers the annihilation of the Armenians? “.

Hitler failed (thankfully) to remove Poland from the surface of the planet, as did Talaat for Western Armenia, however there is still exterminated six million Poles, three million Jews.

This is definitely to grab Armenia (Cilicia and) … that the Turks massacred Armenians. Hranouch Kharatyan …

Reproduced with permission of the author

* John V. Gureghian immigrated to Soviet Armenia in 1947 and returned to France in 1965. He is the author of several books including the “Golgotha of Lesser Armenia” and “Armenian easily.” Architect graduated from the Polytechnic Institute of Yerevan (Armenia), it is also a jazz musician and painter. Jean Gureghian is one of the pioneers of abstract painting in the USSR. With his wife, he began to translate the Armenian Tintin (Sigest editions). In 1970, registered with the College of Architects of France, he is the author of many accomplishments in Armenia, France and Africa, including: residential buildings, industrial buildings, hospit, See also HERE

Turks, Greeks, Brazilians join in protests in US (calling Erdoğan “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,)

June 23, 2013 By administrator

NEW YORK – Anatolia News Agency

Protesters from Turkey, Greece, Brazil and Mexico jointly demonstrated in New York in support of the ongoing protests in their countries.

Around 300 people, mostly Brazilians, gathered at Zucotti Park in New York’s Manhattan neighborhood to chant slogans, shouting, “We are the public, we are strong, we will not be defeated,” and “This is just the beginning, resistance goes on.”

A group called the Turkish-Greek Solidarity carried banners declaring joint resistance, while some of the Americans and tourists were seen showing support for the protests. The group dispersed peacefully after posing for the media with their flags and banners.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had likened the Gezi Park protests in Turkey to the demonstrations in Brazil on June 22, arguing that the same thing was at stake in both countries.

“The same plot is being laid in Brazil. The symbols, the banners, Twitter and the international media are the same. They are doing everything they can to accomplish what they couldn’t achieve in Turkey,” said Erdoğan.

Thousands of people marched against Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Germany’s Köln on June 22, calling Erdoğan “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” German daily Die Zeit reported.

The protesters in Köln demanded Erdoğan’s resignation and early elections, while they held a minute’s silence for all the people who had lost their lives for the sake of freedom and democracy.

June/23/2013