Author: Andres-Papazian

DU MEDZ YEGHERN AU GENOCIDE ARMENIEN : UN SIÈCLE DE DEBATS ET DE REVENDICATIONS

Turquie-Armenie-genocide-anniversaire

Tout a commence par une maree humaine dans les rues d’Erevan. Ce
24 avril 1965, plus de 100.000 personnes battent le pave de la
capitale de la “Republique socialiste sovietique” pour reclamer la
reconnaissance du “genocide” armenien. Le debut d’un mouvement de
revendication jusque-la discret.

Pendant des decennies, les Armeniens ont parle de “Medz Yeghern”,
la “grande catastrophe”, pour evoquer les massacres dont ont ete
victimes des centaines de milliers d’entre eux entre 1915 et 1917. Et
jusqu’aux manifestations de 1965, le mot “genocide” etait tabou en
Union sovietique, dont l’Armenie etait une des quinze republiques.

Dans la foulee, et surtout avec l’independance du pays a la chute
de l’URSS en 1991, la lutte pour la reconnaissance internationale du
genocide armenien est devenue le fil d’Ariane de la politique etrangère
du pays. Pour Ankara, en revanche, le massacre des Armeniens n’etait
qu’une page noire de plus dans le livre du chaos de la Première
guerre mondiale.

“Pour les Armeniens, le mot +genocide+ resume ce qu’on a fait a
leurs ancetres en 1915 mais elève aussi leur experience a celle de
l’holocauste”, explique Thomas de Waal, specialiste du Caucase pour
la fondation Carnegie.

“C’est precisement pour cette raison que la Turquie a toujours rejete
ce terme : cela mettrait leurs grands-parents sur le meme pied que
les Nazis, et genère des craintes qu’on entame des poursuites contre
la Turquie”, ajoute-t-il.

La bataille des mots se double d’une bataille des chiffres : l’Armenie
estime que jusqu’a 1,5 million des siens ont ete systematiquement tues
entre 1915 et 1917 quand la Turquie affirme qu’il s’agissait d’une
guerre civile, doublee d’une famine, dans laquelle 300 a 500.000
Armeniens et autant de Turcs ont trouve la mort.

– Lutte pour la reconnaissance –

Les Armeniens se sont longtemps referes a ces massacres en parlant
de “Grande catastrophe”. Ce n’est qu’en 1944 que le juriste polonais
Raphaël Lemkin inventa le mot genocide, derive du grec “genos” (race)
et du suffixe latin -cide (du latin “caedere”, tuer). La Convention
des Nations unies le reconnut quatre ans plus tard : celle-ci enumère
une serie de crimes, dont le meurtre, qui le constituent a condition
d’etre commis “avec l’intention de detruire en tout ou en partie un
groupe national, ethnique, racial ou religieux”.

En Armenie, les manifestations d’avril 1965, a l’ampleur jamais vues
auparavant, forcèrent l’URSS a ouvrir le debat. “C’etait comme si un
genie etait sorti de sa bouteille”, se souvient Rolan Manoucharian,
un professeur de physique descendu dans la rue.

Les annees 1980 virent plus tard l’emergence d’un mouvement
international pour la reconnaissance du genocide armenien, largement
alimente par la diaspora armenienne des Etats-Unis, dont une
minorite radicale se rendit coupable de l’assassinat de plusieurs
haut-responsables turcs.

Si 22 pays ont a ce jour reconnu le genocide, parmi lesquels la France,
la question a en revanche toujours ete delicate pour les presidents
americains. Barack Obama, qui avait plaide avant son election pour
la reconnaissance du genocide armenien, ne fait pas exception a la
règle en utilisant desormais le terme armenien de Medz Yeghern.

– Retour a la terre ? –

Cent ans après la tragedie, les relations diplomatiques entre l’Armenie
et la Turquie sont toujours gelees.

“Le mot ‘genocide’ n’est pas qu’un concept. Il signifie aussi qu’un
crime a ete commis, qui merite punition et demande reparation”,
souligne Ruben Safrastian, le directeur de l’Institut d’etudes
orientales d’Erevan. Le gouvernement armenien n’insiste plus sur
ses revendications territoriales mais le procureur general armenien,
Aghvan Hovsepyan, avait jete un froid en 2013 en affirmant que les
Armeniens devaient recuperer leurs “territoires perdus”, dans l’est
de la Turquie.

Peu d’analystes croient pour autant en une telle possibilite. “Pour
un dirigeant politique armenien, affirmer que l’Armenie n’a aucune
revendication territoriale serait difficile (…) mais les hommes
politiques occidentaux ne prennent pas au serieux” la possibilite
d’une querelle territoriale, analyse Svante Cornell, directeur de
recherche a l’Institut d’Asie centrale et du Caucase.

En Armenie, certaines voix minoritaires estiment meme que l’insistance
des autorites a faire reconnaître le genocide armenien devie le pays
de sa priorite : le developpement economique.

“La memoire du genocide force les Armeniens a rester prisonniers de
leur passe”, estime l’analyste armenien Ruben Hovsepian, dont la mère
avait pu echapper aux massacres quand elle etait enfant. “En gaspillant
tant d’energie a forcer la Turquie a reconnaître notre genocide, nous
n’arrivons pas a nous construire notre propre avenir”, ajoute-t-il.

Par Mariam HAROUTYUNYAN

AFP

mercredi 22 avril 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

________________________________

Erevan 1965

From: A. Papazian

DETERMINED TO STATE “NEVER AGAIN” LET’S PREVENT THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE: SERZH SARGSYAN

11:28, 22 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Address by H.E. Serzh Sargsyan, President of the Republic of Armenia,
at the International Social and Political Global Forum against the
Crime of Genocide

Distinguished guests, Dear participants of the global forum,

I welcome you at the International Social and Political Global Forum
against the Crime of Genocide. Thank you for accepting our invitation,
and your most important contribution. The impressive and venerable
list of this forum’s participants gives us hope that the forum will
become an important platform to comprehensively discuss, and further
improve the mechanisms for the prevention of genocide that is the
crime of all crimes. I strongly believe that the remarks delivered,
and the views expressed here will trigger a broad international
reaction that in its turn may produce an invaluable impact on the
raising of global awareness on this key issue.

The international organizations’ agendas, diplomatic efforts exerted
by the small and large states alike, international media’s headlines
have recently been specifically addressing one of the tremendous
challenges humanity faces. I speak of the Middle East, the modern
civilization’s cradle, where the surging extremism and intolerance
resulted in violence and, at some places, even in genocidal acts
against a number minorities. This is yet another warning to the
international community alerting that the threat of the crimes of
genocide, and other crimes against humanity, has not been eliminated,
and requires consolidated and consistent efforts by the international
organizations, states and civil society.

Dear participants,

This forum is one of the central events to mark the Armenian Genocide
Centennial. As you are aware, commemoration events are being held in
different countries of the world, supported by the four fundamental
pillars. Those are remembrance, gratitude, prevention, and revival.

These are also the messages that the Republic of Armenia, and Armenian
Diaspora communities that emerged because of the Genocide in different
countries wish to deliver to the international community and coming
generations upon the Centennial. These four notions are also deeply
symbolic for the commemoration of all other crimes of genocide
committed throughout the human history.

One of the topics to be discussed during the forum refers to the role
of the memory and truth in overcoming the consequences of genocide.

That is, truly, the most accurate way to pin it down since, as far as
the crimes of genocide are concerned, the remembrance and contemporary
reality are unavoidably interlaced. Genocide is a crime of such a vast
scale, with such a severe damage inflicted that even many decades
later its impact is felt by the descendants of both the victims and
perpetrators, as well as by the entire international community.

For us, Armenians, remembrance is a moral obligation and, at the same
time, inalienable individual and collective right. It is our moral
duty and right to commemorate the one and a half milion of victims,
inhumane sufferings endured by the hundreds of thousands, loss of the
material and spiritual heritage accumulated by our people throughout
millenia, extermination of the substantial part of the early 20th
century Armenian intelligentsia, who mainly resided in Constantinople,
that led to the mass slaughter. It is because of this cohesion of the
right and duty that we have adopted the motto “I remember and demand”
for the commemoration events.

It is impossible to disagree with the Holocaust survivor and Nobel
Prize winner Elie Wiesel, who notes that “to forget the dead would be
akin to killing them a second time.” Remembrance, meanwhile, is the
best remedy for the descendants of those who perpetrated genocide to
face their own history, and the best oportunity to restore the justice.

The crimes of genocide – Medz Yeghern, Shoah, those commited in
Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur and elsewhere, shall be commemorated by
both the successors of the victims and perpetrators. The path to
reconciliation is not paved by denial, but rather by the consciousness
of memory.

Dear participants,

Perpetration of genocide is both an aftermath of the inner developments
in a given state or society, and failure of the entire system
of international relations. It has been demonstrated on numerous
occasions that impunity is a prerequisite to the recurrence of the
crime of genocide. The Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust were
committed in the course of, respectively, the World War One and Two.

The international community proved unable to prevent them and other
crimes of genocide. Remembrance is the only possible way to reveal
nowadays the enormous losses that the global civilization has suffered
as in the aftermath of the crimes of genocide. It is impossible to
describe by words the scope and level of the distortion of human
values that resulted in the initiation of such a heinous crime.

In our recollections of the crimes of genocide a specific significance
has been reserved the notion of gratitude in order to acknowledge the
human virtue that saved thousands of living souls. There have been
numerous narratives, such as the activities of Irena Sendler and Raoul
Wallenberg during the Holocaust, Paul Rusesabagina during the Rwandan
Genocide, Van Chhuon during the Cambodian Genocide; they all ensured
the physical security of the people they rescued, and inspired hope
at the times of overwhelming domination of cruelty and hatred.

The Armenian people has not forgotten and is grateful to those Kurds
and Turks, who covertly saved lives of their Armenian neighbors. We
are indebted to the Arab people, who gave shelter to those, who
had narrowly escaped the Turkish yataghan, as well as the Russians,
Americans and Europeans, who took care of the Armenian orphans or
partook in the humanitarian efforts.

Equally, our gratitude is well-earned by the public figures,
clergymen, missionaries, diplomats, and those nations that demonstrated
righteousness and civic courage since their actions had been guided
by the noble ideas of humanism.

Dear participants,

Alongside with our consistent efforts toward the recognition,
condemnation of the Genocide and elimination of its consequences, the
prevention of the crimes of genocide is yet another key mission on our
foreign policy agenda. Needless to say, these efforts are interrelated
since the recognition and condemnation of the past crimes of genocide
play invaluable role in the prevention of the crimes against humanity.

For that reason we attach utmost importance to the genocide prevention,
and emphasize once again our firm resolution and political will in
combating crimes incompatible with the human civilization.

Armenia’s active engagement with the international community’s efforts
toward the prevention of the crime of genocide has been time and
again demonstrated through the relevant UN resolutions adopted by
consensus throughout years upon our initiative. The most recent one
was adopted in March of this year by the United Nation’s Human Rights
Council. The resolution, inter alia, condemned the international public
denial of crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity since public
denials created a risk of further violations and undermined efforts
to prevent genocide.

Denial, in conjunction with the creation of genocidal environment and
extermination itself, is a vertex of that very triangle. The denial
of genocide is fraught with inciting a new xenophobic wave, and is
often accompanied by intolerance and justification of the already
commited crimes of genocide. However, under strong international
pressure denial aqcuires a seemingly softer yet eqaually dangerous
nature overshadowed or dissolved in the history revision campaigns.

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

It is unambiguous that considerable contribution has been made so
far by the international law experts and historians toward the
legal definition of the term “genocide,” and development of the
punishment mechanisms for this crime. Likewise unambiguous has been
the contribution of the social and political circles, journalists, and
parliamentarians, who without any hesitation very often took the lead
in that respect. The aforesaid is absolutely applicable also to the
case of the Armenian Genocide. In 1915-16 the world press was replete
with horrendous articles describing the Armenian massacres. The New
York Times covered the issue extensively publishing some 145 articles
in 1915 alone with headlines like “Appeal to the Ottoman Empire to
Stop Massacres.” The newspaper characterized the crime perpetrated
against the Armenian people as “systematic,” “authorized,” and
“organized by the government.”

On May 24, 1915 the Allied Powers, Great Britain, France, and Russia
jointly issued a statement, describing the crime perpetrated against
the Armenian people as a “crime against humanity and civilization”,
which was the first time ever that definition was aired on such a
high level.

Subsequently, these notions were introduced into the fundamental
language to define that crime – the Convention on the Prevention
and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court, and other most important documents of
the international law.

The recurrence of the crimes against humanity and genocide has also
been caused by the lack of adequate adequacy, consistency, unity and
determination of the international community for the recognition,
and condemnation of the committed crimes of genocide, as well as for
the elimination of the genocidal environment and denial. Parliaments
and their members, as cornerstones of the democratic values, have a
significant role to play in that regard.

I deem it important that in the framework of this conference a special
discussion will be held on the invaluable role of the legislators.

Their messages, decisions and statements are significant both for
the restoration of justice, and for the emancipation of the given
societies, especially the coming generations from the clutches of
the consequences of the evil of genocide.

I welcome and value the two documents adopted by the National Assembly
of the Republic of Armenia this year – the Statement Condemning the
Genocide of the Greeks and Assyrians Perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkey,
and the amendments introduced in the Law on Holidays and Memorial
Days. In accordance to the latter December 9 is designated as the day
for condemnation and prevention of the crimes of genocide, which is
highly symbolic, as the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of Genocide had been adopted on the very that day.

Ladies and gentlemen,

In this context revival is the last one amongst the most important
messages of ours. A hundred years ago the Armenian people survived
through the darkest and brutal page of their history. The calamity
that befell upon our ancestors was indeed unprecedented by its scale.

Today, a hundred years thenceforth, the Armenian people commemorates
its martyrs, and presents itself to the world with the independent
state, emancipated Artsakh, and viable Diaspora that strives to
preserve the Armenian identity and to develop Armenia proper. Now
our overarching objective is to contribute anew to the development
of universal civilization.

All those achievements have been based upon the revival of the Armenian
people. Perhaps, it has been the demonstration of the most salient
feature of our people – upholding the faith toward the universal
human values, in spite of all the complications and calamities,
and the ability to find the strength within to build and create
anew. Yet in 1918 the Armenian statehood, lost centuries ago, had
been restored. Later on, during the Soviet times the Armenian people
created numerous spiritual and tangible values thus partaking in
the enrichment of the world scientific and cultural repository. The
revival of the Armenian people culminated in the 1991 national
awakening with the accession of the newly independent Republic of
Armenia to the international family of sovereign states.

The Armenian nation revived not only in the homeland, but also in
Diaspora. The sons and daughters of Armenia, who had found refuge
in many countries of the world because of the Armenian Genocide,
successfully integrated in the societies that adopted them, and
meanwhile preserved their Armenian identity, their sense of deep bond
with the Armenian homeland.

Therefore, on the Armenian Genocide Centennial we declare confidently
in broad daylight that the perpetrators of the Genocide failed to
achieve what they planned. Moreover, our response to the attempt to
annihilate the Armenian nation is the state building, our ongoing
revival that is now no longer reversible.

Dear participants,

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that today’s Forum, along
with the discussions to be held, shall send the following powerful
and pragmatic message to the international community: the crimes of
genocide have not in the least ceased to be a threat to the humanity,
and the overcoming of their consequences, and prevention shall become
a top priority. The lessons of the past simply oblige us to do so. The
civilized humanity shall joint its efforts to eradicate eventually
the evil of genocide, and its underlying circumstances.

It is a well-known truth that everything is interconnected in
the universe. It is also true for the civilization since humanity
establishes itself as a harmonious and complete continuum within the
patchwork of its diverse races, nations, cultures, and religions.

Genocide is a crime that is intended to tear a branch off from the
tree of the global civilization. The loss of any branch may be fatal
to the rest that tree.

Hence, being determined to state “Never again” let’s make our modest
contribution towards the universal objective that unites us all –
a more adequate accomplishment of the international community’s
mission to prevent the crime of genocide.

Once again, I thank you for being with us in Yerevan these days,
and wish you a fruitful work.

Thank you.

From: A. Papazian

GENOCIDE CENTENNIAL: TURKISH POLICIES POWERLESS AGAINST GLOBAL ANTI-DENIAL CAMPAIGN

11:35 * 22.04.15

The world countries’ negative stance on Turkey’s policy of denial marks
a major turning point in the Armenian Genocide recognition campaign,
according to a Turkologist.

Commenting on the recent developments around the process (including
the European Parliament’sresolution and the joint statement adopted by
the Austrian Parliament’s lower house), Vahram Ter-Matevosyan said he
believes that they raise a great wave of protest against the country.

“My approach is that we have crossed one landmark boundary, that is,
Turkey’s state policy of denial is rejectable to the world. This is an
important, landmark phase asserting the non-denial,” he told Tert.am.

Highlighting the value of recognition by any country or international
organization, Ter-Matevosyan said he thinks that it is necessary to
thank them all for faithfulness to universal human principles.

“It is necessary to also admit that Turkey’s denial has assumed large
scales over the recent years and to appreciate the dedication that
those countries’ parliaments and societies demonstrate in this period.

That contains a very important moral and civilization potential for
the Armenian people,” he added.

Asked what scenario he expects in the Turkish-German relations in
case Germany recognizes the Genocide, the Turkologist said he doesn’t
think that the future developments will cause the two countries to
revise attitudes to each other. He noted that Germany is a key ally
for Turkey in the European Union.

“First, Germany will have made the right step in terms of
re-establishing historical justice; Germany’s complicity in the
Armenian Genocide is a known fact as it is. So it will be perceived
as a right and timely step. The recognition and affirmation of the
fact of Genocide by Germany will be yet another contribution to this
important endeavor which has gained momentum over the recent period.

And it will tighten the circle that has developed around Turkey
recently,” he noted.

From: A. Papazian

GENOCIDE ARMENIEN : SHAMIRAM SEVAG TEMOIGNE POUR SON PERE, UN POETE ARMENIEN PENDU EN 1915 – PHOTOS

GENOCIDE DES ARMENIENS

Un siècle après cette nuit d’avril 1915, quand les policiers turcs
sont venus chercher Roupen Sevag, medecin, poète et collaborateur du
journal Azadamard a son domicile de Constantinople, les larmes montent
encore aux yeux de sa fille, Shamiram Sevag, une emouvante centenaire,
habitant près de Nice.

>.

Depuis la petite chambre coquette que cette centenaire, nee le 10
juillet 1914, occupe aujourd’hui dans une maison de retraite de
Cagnes-sur-Mer, elle paraît revivre encore la scène. >.

Son père, Roupen, un grand poète considere en Armenie comme un
heros national -un musee lui est consacre a Sainte-Etchmiadzin,
le Saint-Siège armenien, près d’Erevan-, rencontre sa future epouse,
une Allemande, lors de ses etudes de medecine a Lausanne. .

Roupen s’engage dans l’armee comme medecin. Jusqu’a son arrestation
puis sa deportation et son execution a l’ete 1915. Sur le mur de sa
chambre, Shamiram a accroche l’agrandissement d’une photo où elle pose,
avec un bonnet d’enfant et un gros ruban sous le menton, en compagnie
de son frère et de sa mère, deja en deuil. >, montre-t-elle.

>-

Retournes après la guerre dans la famille paternelle pour y recevoir
une education armenienne, Shamiram et son frère connaîtront un nouvel
exode en 1922.

From: A. Papazian

LE REVEIL DES ARMENIENS DE TURQUIE

REVUE DE PRESSE

> : c’est ainsi que le grand journaliste
armenien de Turquie Hrant Dink, assassine en 2007 par un sicaire
ultranationaliste, appelait les descendants des Armeniens rescapes du
genocide et restes en Turquie, le plus souvent en se convertissant
a l’islam. Ils sont un million au moins, peut-etre le double. Ils
sortent de l’ombre revendiquant leur >. L’Heritage du
silence raconte le parcours de quatre d’entre eux, dont le chanteur
rock Yasar Kurt et l’avocate Fethiye Cetin qui, avec le Livre de ma
grand-mère, leva le voile sur les dizaines de milliers de jeunes filles
enlevees ou adoptees par des familles turques pendant les tueries
de 1915. >,
rappelle-t-elle, racontant le choc de la decouverte de ses origines a
25 ans. Certains ont fait le choix de se faire baptiser, comme Armen
qui a participe a la restauration de la grande eglise armenienne de
Diyarbakir. D’autres sont restes musulmans, a la charnière entre les
deux mondes, et passeurs d’une possible reconciliation.

From: A. Papazian

HORROR’S 100TH ANNIVERSARY UNITES ARMENIAN-CANADIANS AT RALLY

Toronto Star. Canada
April 20 2015

Turkish 1915 genocide brings thousands together at Queen’s Park,
with dissenters not far away.

By: Bruce DeMara Entertainment, Published on Sun Apr 19 2015

Photos View photos

zoom

Several thousand Armenian-Canadians gathered at Queen’s Park on Sunday
for a sombre commemoration of the darkest chapter in that nation’s
history, the 100th anniversary of 1915 genocide by Turkey.

Armen Yeganian, Armenian ambassador to Canada, noted that April 24 —
when Turkish authorities arrested 300 Armenian intellectuals who were
later murdered or exiled — is historically considered the beginning
of Medz Yeghern, during which an estimated 1.5 million Armenians
were killed.

“Medz Yeghern the first genocide of the 20th century, a fact
acknowledged by the world. The genocide did not leave any Armenian
unaffected. Believe me, you will not find an Armenian who did not
lose a member of the family in the genocide,” Yeganian said.

“It set the practice of racial extermination as a tool of policy
in the modern world,” he added, noting other 20th-century genocides
followed, including the Holocaust and waves of atrocity in Rwanda,
Darfur, Cambodia and elsewhere.

For Armenians around the world, the cataclysmic event has been made
even more distressing by the refusal of the government of Turkey to
acknowledge that a genocide took place, Yeganian said.

“The state denial of the Turkish republic is unacceptable and should
not be tolerated by the international community,” he added.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne also criticized the Turkish government’s
intransigence on the issue.

“The Armenian genocide was a dark moment in human history and the
passage of a century has not diminished the horror of those events.

Nor has it diminished the importance of recognizing the atrocity in
Armenia as genocide,” Wynne said.

Wynne noted that the term, genocide, was coined by Polish lawyer
Raphael Lemkin coined the term genocide in 1943 “to describe the
organized mass killing of members of a specific nation or ethnic group
and he was moved to do so by reading about the massacres in Armenia.”

Armenian-Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan said the Turkish government
continues to engage in “virulent state denial” for the Armenian
genocide in large part because Western governments have only recently
began to demand accountability.

“We (Armenians) are taught to forgive. But in order to properly
forgive, we need to feel a genuine remorse. We need a clear and
unequivocal apology (from Turkey),” Egoyan said.

But Egoyan noted that the Armenia community, particularly in places
like Canada, has managed to prevail despite the events of 1915.

“A hundred ago, our culture was nearly decimated. A hundred years
later, we are strong, we are united, we are determined, determined
that justice will prevail, determined that we will use our experience
as Armenians to seek justice for those around us,” Egoyan added.

The event was also attended by members of the Jewish, Greek and
Assyrian communities, whose ancestors also suffered under Turkish rule.

A small group of Turkish-Canadians, many waving Turkish flags, held
a protest a short distance from the Queen’s Park event and as the
thousands streamed down University Avenue to the Metropolitan United
Church on Queen St. E., Toronto Police set up a cordon of officers
to keep the two sides apart.

Dr. Mehmet Bor, president of the Federation of Canadian Turkish
Associations, said he and others in his community held the protest
to have their “side of the story” heard as well.

Bor said the collapse of the Ottoman Empire — the predecessor to
the Turkish republic — during the First World War, caused widespread
misery and death to many communities, including Armenians.

“It wasn’t a genocide, it was a civil war,” Bor said.

Bor also criticized politicians who spoke at the larger event for
seeking “political gain.”

“Politicians shouldn’t get involved in historical issues and harm
Canada’s interest with their NATO ally, Turkey,” Bor said.

But Hratch Aynedjian, 50, said it’s time for the people of Turkey to
acknowledge their forebears nearly wiped out the Armenian people.

“The wound has not healed. It’s been 100 years and if the Turkish
people were smart, they would understand that the wound will not
heal unless they do what they have to do, which is to recognize (the
genocide). If they did that, that would be a big first step,” he said.

From: A. Papazian

REVELATION OF ARMENIAN FIGHTER IN GALLIPOLI BATTLE STIRS CONTROVERSY

The Voice of America
April 21 2015

Dorian Jones

April 21, 2015 1:31 AM

ISTANBUL–

Turkey commemorates on Friday the 100th anniversary of the World War
One battle of Gallipoli, when Ottoman Turks defeated a British-led
invasion force.

On the same day, Armenians around the world will mark the 100th
anniversary of the mass killings – which Armenians describe as genocide
– by the Ottomans of its Armenian minority.

The calamitous events are captured in the story of a Turkish Armenian
army officer, Captain Sarkis Torossian; but, the publication of his
memoirs of fighting in the Battle of Gallipoli has stoked controversy
in Turkey.

Torossian’s story deals with many taboos and dark chapters in Ottoman
history.

Mass deportation

Even though he was a decorated Ottoman army officer, that fact did not
save his mother and sisters, who perished during the mass deportation
of Armenians by the Ottoman rulers. The mass deportation has since been
dubbed as a genocide by many – a label that Ankara vehemently denies.

Bilgi University professor Ayhan Aktar said the most contentious part
of Torossian’s story is that he fought at the crucial World War One
Battle of Gallipoli.

Aktar said Torossian’s story contradicts both Turkey’s official version
of events that only Turks fought at Gallipoli as well as the latest
Islamist interpretation of the battle.

“When you form a Turkish republic based on ethnic nationalism,
you rewrite history. In the last 15 years, an Islamic narrative
started.They started to talk about the kinds of saints coming from
the sky, protecting the glorious Islamic army against the infidel,”
Aktar said.

“In both narratives – in the Turkish and Islamic narrative – poor
Captain Torossian is persona non grata, he does not have any place,
he is not Turk to take place in the Turkish narrative and he is not a
Muslim. He is Christian and therefore he does not fit in the Islamic
narrative,” Aktar added.

The importance of Torossian’s story, Aktar said, is why publishers were
persuaded to print it in Turkey. While Aktar said he was aware the
book was controversial, he was surprised by the unlikely alliance of
Turkish secular nationalists, Islamists and even the army attacking it.

“I mean, I was not expecting such a debate, such a fury,” he said.

“They told me that I was naïve. I was cheated by the text and tried
to discredit the book by finding details, saying, this guy is a
systematic liar.

“When the Torossian debate started, the Turkish chief of staff made
an official declaration saying that there was no officer called Sarkis
Torossian on the Gallipoli front in 1915,” Aktar said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged the veracity of
the story, citing it in a communique to his Armenian counterpart,
Serzh Sargsyan, in a bid to persuade him to attend Gallipoli
commemorations. The offer was refused.

Worrying atmosphere

Aktar said the controversy over the book has created a worrying
atmosphere for Turkey’s tiny Armenian minority.

“An Armenian Facebook friend wrote me a personal message saying that
my grandfather, Hacik Bey, was wounded at Gallipoli. I wrote to him
saying can I use this account, he said please do so, but don’t give
my name,” Aktar said.

“This upsurge of nationalism against an Armenian officer who
fought in the army created a kind of uneasy feeling in an ordinary
Turkish-Armenian citizen, who still has the trauma of genocide and
I never forgive this,” he added.

Aktar said the controversy has opened the door to other accounts of
Armenian officers who fought at Gallipoli becoming known.

“This debate on Captain Torossian initiated another upsurge in research
about who were these officers in the Ottoman Army. Actually, I am
very proud of it,” he said. “While we are commemorating a battle
or resistance or heroism, we should never forget the ones who are
fighting with us. This is very important and we should pay respect.”

From: A. Papazian

CENT ANS APRES, LE RETOUR AUX SOURCES EN TURQUIE D’UN ARMENIEN DE FRANCE

Turquie-Armenie-genocide-anniversaire-France

Istanbul (AFP) – C’etait une promesse. Un devoir. Comme une evidence.

Cent ans après le massacre de ses grands-parents armeniens, Gerard
Bodigoff a fait le voyage dans leur pays d’origine, la Turquie, pour
honorer leur memoire et, aussi, nourrir l’espoir d’une reconciliation.

“Mes grands-parents ont ete tues ici. Ma mère y est partie sur les
chemins de l’exode avec ses deux frères. Alors je m’etais dit que
si j’etais encore en vie pour le centenaire, je viendrais pour la
commemoration de ce genocide. Je devais au moins ca a ma mère…”

A quelques jours de la date-anniversaire du 24 avril retenue pour
celebrer la “grande catastrophe”, Gerard Bodigoff, 70 ans, a donc pose
le pied pour la première fois a Istanbul, avec son epouse Jacqueline
et un couple d’amis. Pas inquiet, non. Tout au plus un peu mal a
l’aise. Et surtout la tete pleine de questions.

“Je viens voir ce pays qui aurait pu etre le mien. Ce pays qui n’a pas
voulu de moi, ni de mes parents”, dit-il. Face a lui, le Bosphore. Et
juste a côte, Dolmabahce. Le palais des derniers sultans de l’Empire
ottoman, ordonnateur des deportations et des tueries qui ont vise sa
communaute pendant la Première guerre mondiale en 1915.

“Aujourd’hui, je vis en France et je suis a 120% francais. Mais
une partie de mon sang est d’ici. Alors je ne sais pas, il y a une
douleur, un mal-etre”, ajoute l’ancien boucher de la region parisienne,
“tant de sentiments qui me passent dans la tete”.

Il y a un siècle, la famille de Gerard Bodigoff vivait a Erzincan,
dans l’est de l’actuelle Turquie. Ses grands-parents maternels y ont
ete assassines en 1915. Sa mère, Siranouche, a ete precipitee sur
les routes avec ses deux oncles. Elle a abandonne le plus petit au
bord d’un chemin parce qu’elle n’avait plus la force de le porter.

Dans des conditions qu’elle a toujours tues, elle a survecu en
travaillant dans une famille turque. Avant d’emigrer pour Marseille
en 1924 et d’y demarrer sa deuxième vie.

“Tout etait armenien a la maison, mais on devenait francais dès qu’on
franchissait le pas de la porte”, s’amuse Gerard Bodigoff.

“On nous appris que la France etait le pays qui nous avait accueilli,
protege et instruit, c’etait notre education”.

– ‘Ils en sortiraient grandis’ –

La memoire des evenements de 1915 n’en a pas ete oubliee, bien sûr.

Mais sans outrance, ni exageration. “Tout ce qu’ils ont subi, on
nous l’a transmis”, se felicite le retraite, “ca fait partie de moi,
je ne peux pas l’evacuer, mais je ne me lève pas non plus tous les
matins en pleurant dessus”.

(c) BULENT KILIC / AFP Gerard Bodigoff avec son epouse Jacqueline
dans l’eglise armenienne d’Istanbul, dimanche dernier.

“Ma belle-mère nous a toujours laisse une belle image du pays où
elle a vecu”, s’empresse d’ajouter son epouse, Jacqueline, “il y a
beaucoup de zones d’ombre sur ce qu’elle y a vecu mais elle nous en
faisait toujours l’eloge”.

Malgre ce passe lourd, etouffant, omnipresent, Gerard Bodigoff assure
aujourd’hui n’eprouver aucune haine pour la Turquie. “Ce n’est pas le
pays qui etait un ennemi, c’etait le regime de l’epoque qui l’etait”,
estime-t-il, “ce n’est pas non plus la faute des Turcs d’aujourd’hui,
ils n’y sont pour rien, ils n’etaient pas la”.

Son seul souhait, ce n’est meme pas un pardon de la part du
gouvernement d’Ankara, juste la reconnaissance de ce qu’il considère
comme la verite historique.

“La seule chose que je leur dis c’est +ca s’est passe,
reconnaissez-le+. C’est tout ! C’est tout ! Je n’irai pas demain
recuperer les terres de mes ancetres. Moi, mon pays, c’est la France”,
s’enflamme le septuagenaire. “Tout le monde serait apaise. Nous, parce
qu’on pourra enterrer nos morts. Eux, parce qu’ils en sortiraient
grandis”.

A ce jour, la Turquie s’est toujours obstinement refusee a qualifier de
genocide les evenements de 1915. Elle reconnaît la mort de centaines
de milliers d’Armeniens, victimes de combats ou de famine, mais nie
le caractère planifie de leur elimination.

Meme epidermique, ce refus turc ne decourage pas Gerard Bodigoff.

Optimiste, il veut croire aux vertus de l’instruction et du lent
rapprochement des cultures. Comme dans cette ecole armenienne qu’il
a tenu a visiter pendant son sejour stambouliote.

“Il n’y a que par l’education qu’on se rendra compte de ce qu’il
s’est passe”, professe-t-il. “Tôt ou tard, tout se sait. Un jour,
meme si ce n’est pas dans cinq ans ou dans dix ans, ils (les Turcs)
sauront. A ce moment-la, peut-etre qu’ils le reconnaîtront”.

mercredi 22 avril 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

A 21ST CENTURY PROBLEM: LESSONS FROM THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Berkeley Blog
April 20 2015

Stephen Menendian, assistant director, Haas Institute for a Fair and
Inclusive Society | 4/20/15

On April 24th, Armenians worldwide will solemnly commemorate the 100th
anniversary of one of the first modern genocides, the massacre of more
than one million ethnic Armenians in eastern Turkey in 1915. This
occasion is an opportunity to consider not only the legacy of this
specific event, but the larger questions of ethnic and religious
conflict, international response, the failure of political will
to prevent and punish such acts, and the long-term consequences of
that failure.

The convulsion of Empires during World War I, including the
destruction of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires, are events
that reverberate today. In his best-selling book, Laurence in Arabia,
Scott Anderson persuasively argues that the root cause of much of the
unrest now evident in the Middle East, including the Arab Spring, can
be traced to the Sykes-Picot agreement, a secret treaty that helped
conclude the war. Other scholars have argued that the destruction of
the Austro-Hungarian Empire may have also contributed to much of the
ethnic and religious conflict that emerged in the Balkans in the 1990s,
though temporarily quelled during the Cold War.

The disintegration of these empires left remnant nation-states less
effective at tamping down ethnic and religious conflict or perhaps more
susceptible to political demagoguery against minority and marginalized
populations. This is what happened in eastern Turkey. As the Ottoman
Empire began to unravel, political leaders in the new Turkish state
initiated a program that would ultimately exterminate most of the
ethnic Armenian population, often on grounds that they would be
sympathetic to the Russians, while seeking to build a more ethnically
and religiously homogenous Turkish state.

Perhaps the most important lesson of the Armenian Genocide was the
lack of political will to stop or punish it. The massacre of more
than one million Armenians raises serious questions about the ability
of the international community to prevent or punish acts of genocide
nearly a century later. The disasters in Rwanda, Bosnia, and the Sudan
illustrate how political willpower – including geopolitical interest
– in the international community is probably a chief determinant of
whether attempted genocide will be resisted.

To some extent, it may be impossible to prevent genocides. In the
course of wars, territorial conflict or regional disputes, minorities
become vulnerable targets, especially if those minorities may be
suspected of sympathy with an enemy (the Japanese internment during
World War II is an appalling domestic example). Ethnic clamoring
for greater freedoms and rights in conjunction with conflict with
a neighboring state predominantly composed of that minority may be
a chief predictor of sectarian violence. If two or more sectarian
identities also overlap, as was the case with ethnic Armenians in
Turkey, who were also predominantly Christian, then the ingredients
for ethnic conflict and even genocide are most potent.

If the political will to intervene in the midst of a war zone is
lacking, the least that can be done is the provision of a strong
judicial mechanism to punish the perpetrators in order to curtail
subsequent denial and recalcitrance as well as to deter future crimes.

It is clear that prevention and punishment are matters of will,
not just ability. As is the case with many such conflicts, Turkey is
sensitive to accusations that the massacre of Armenians during World
War I constitutes a genocide, and recent remarks by Pope Francis have
triggered a diplomatic row. At a recent press conference, Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that “It is out of the question
for there to be a stain or a shadow called genocide on Turkey.”

Perhaps most importantly, denialism – the inability to accept and
address the realities of the Armenian genocide – has distorted Turkish
politics, serving as a third rail and arguably bolstering autocratic
forces within Turkey, just as the issue of slavery and Jim Crow did
in the American South, even leading to the so-called gag-rule in
Congress. Without exercising the will to prevent or punish such acts,
the international community risks perpetuating cycles of denial,
violence and a distorted politics will continue to haunt us for
generations to come.

In 1903, W.E.B Dubois wrote that “the problem of the 20th Century is
the color line.” It’s not going too far to assert that the problem of
the 21st Century is the problem of “Othering.” Othering occurs wherever
human beings are marginalized or discriminated against on the basis of
a group-based identity. Although genocide may be the most extreme form
of Othering, too many conflicts or instances of violence across the
globe seem organized around one or more dimension of human difference,
ethnic, religious, racial, national origin, gender, sexual orientation,
and more. There is an endless stream of new stories of violence,
conflict and tension along these and other societal cleavages.

In Myanmar/Burma, militant Buddhists have massacred members of the
Muslim minority. In India, anxiety is growing that resurgent Hindu
nationalists, emboldened by the election of Modi, may lead to violence
or oppression for other ethnic and religious minorities. In Iraq,
former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was pushed from office partly
on grounds that built an insufficiently inclusive government that
exacerbated sectarian tensions between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds,
which have led to the rise of the Islamic State. Europeans are
wondering whether discrimination, segregation and alienation among
immigrant and Muslim youth may be contributing to social polarization.

In the United States, mass incarceration and police violence,
disproportionately impacting black and brown men, has sparked a
national movement, #BlackLivesMatter.

The Armenian Genocide illustrates the fundamental dynamics of Othering
in its most horrific and extreme expression. The failure, more than
a century later, to acknowledge it, let alone begin to address it and
build a more inclusive, open and democratic Turkish state and region,
is an abject lesson for the 21st Century. This weekend, the Haas
Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society is holding a conference
that will examine the larger questions of Othering and Belonging and
attempt to discern possibilities and develop practices for generating
more inclusive institutions, narratives, and identities that impede
Othering and promote Belonging.

From: A. Papazian

LA TURQUIE ET LES ETATS-UNIS VEULENT CROIRE A UNE REUNIFICATION EN 2015

CHYPRE

La Turquie et les Etats-Unis ont fait part mardi de leur espoir de
voir une solution diplomatique ouvrir la voie a la reunification de
Chypre dès cette annee, après plusieurs decennies de separation.

“Ce problème dure depuis trop longtemps et exige des efforts
internationaux pour aider a trouver une solution, un accord durable”, a
declare le secretaire d’Etat americain John Kerry lors d’une rencontre
avec son homologue turc a Washington.

Chypriotes-turc et Chypriotes-grecs sont separes par une “ligne verte”
gardee par les Nations unies. Au debut du mois, l’envoye special
de l’ONU Espen Barth Eide avait indique que les pourparlers sur la
reunification de l’île, a l’arret depuis plus de six mois, devaient
reprendre dans les prochaines semaines.

“Les Etats-Unis et la Turquie soutiennent les negociations sous l’egide
de l’ONU en vue de la reunification de l’île dans une federation
bi-zonale et bi-communautaire”, a poursuivi M. Kerry. “Nous pensons
que les parties sont en mesure de faire de veritables progrès durables
pendant l’annee 2015”.

Le territoire de la RTCN, Republique turque de Chypre nord, est une
entite non reconnue par la communaute internationale. Il represente
environ un tiers de l’île mediterraneenne et est occupe depuis 1974
par la Turquie, en reaction a un coup d’Etat de nationalistes visant
a rattacher l’île a la Grèce et orchestre avec l’appui d’Athènes.

La Republique de Chypre est membre de l’Union europeenne et seule
entite reconnue par la communaute internationale. Depuis Washington,
le ministre turc des Affaires etrangères Mevlut Cavusoglu a appele les
Etats-Unis a jouer un rôle actif dans toute reprise des negociations.

“La Turquie et les Chypriotes-turcs ont la volonte politique de trouver
une solution et nous nous tenons prets, a la table des negociations”,
a-t-il dit a son homologue americain. “Nous esperons trouver une
solution avant la fin de l’annee”. La Republique turque de Chypre
nord (RTCN) a vote dimanche pour elire son “president”. Le sortant,
Dervis Eroglu, est arrive en tete et le second tour doit avoir lieu
dimanche. Le vainqueur tentera de negocier la paix avec la Republique
de Chypre.

Washington, 21 avr 2015 (AFP) –

mercredi 22 avril 2015, Ara (c)armenews.com

From: A. Papazian