INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE DEDICATED TO THE CENTENNIAL OF THE ARMENIAN MASSACRES IN ADANA DISTRICT OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

ArmInfo
2009-04-20 15:11:00

The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute organizes an international
conference on April 20-21, 2009 dedicated to the centennial anniversary
of the Armenian massacres in Adana district of the Ottoman Empire.

Historians from Armenia, Italy, Hungary, Austria, France, USA
and Sweden specialized on these issues will make speeches at the
conference.

The speakers will have the opportunity to present their papers and
share their knowledge about the massacre in Adana district and in
the city of Adana itself in spring 1909 in the main reverting on the
motives of massacres as well as international responses. Welcoming the
participants on April 20 Director of Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute
Hayk Demoyan said the Adana massacres of April 1909 became a symbolic
prelude for the state orchestrated and executed policy of genocide
against the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. Due to the
conference, the participants will get an opportunity to pay homage
to the victims of Adana.

For her part, Diaspora Minister Hranush Hakobyan said April is a
crucial month for the Armenian people. It is a month of Revival and
victory over death. ‘The massacre in Adana killed dozens of thousands
of Armenians. Many were forced to deport leaving their homes. However
the Armenian public and the international community are not enough
aware of those terrible events that have remained in the shadow of
Armenian Genocide of 1915’, H. Hakobyan said. He hopes the conference
will fill this gap and inform the world of those tragic events. He is
sure that fighting for recognition of Genocide Armenia will prevent
such crimes in future. ‘Turkey "has taken the truth hostage" but
I am sure it will win at last’, the minister said. In his speech
Minister of Science and Education of Armenia said Adana is one of
the very black pages in the history of Armenia. The minister hopes
the conference will contribute to developing the study of genocide
as science and help learning more details of that tragedy.

The official address of the Catholicos of All Armenians His Holiness
Karekin II on occasion of the centennial of Adana massacre was read out
at the conference. In particular, His Holiness Karekin II says that
general recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide in the
Ottoman Empire will become a display of desire to prevent national
discrimination, infringement of rights, international intolerance,
and crimes against humanity. ‘Marking the centennial of the massacre in
Adana, we once more urge the world to recognize the Armenian Genocide
for peaceful, prosperous world free of violence’, His Holiness says.

In 1908, the Young Turkish revolution brought some hope for change
for the Empire’s Christian minorities. However, the initial euphoria
and hopes for equal rights for Muslims and Christians were dashed in
brutal slaughtering of Armenian population in Cilicia and its center
Adana. This massacre revived the fears of Christian minorities,
particularly of Armenians towards the traditional Ottoman policy
against them. The Adana massacres of April 1909 became a symbolic
prelude for the state orchestrated and executed policy of genocide
against the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire.

Ethnical cleansings and large-scale massacres were carried out even
earlier; during the Hamidian massacres in 1894-1896 about 300.000
Armenians were annihilated and evicted.

The study of Adana massacre reveals several important issues,
particularly in terms of crime investigation, reparation and
involvement of Turkish regular army in the massacre. These tragic
events resonated with the events of the earlier attacks on the
Armenians and brought back the feeling of the coming catastrophe.

The Adana massacres heralded a large-scale extermination policy,
which was implemented shortly after the breakout of the WWI. This
resulted in the genocide of Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire
during 1915-1922, and expulsion of several hundred thousand people
from their homeland.