Author: Babajanian Karo

GENOCIDE : DAVID NALBANDIAN EXHORTE LE MONDE A SE SOUVENIR

ARMENIE

David Nalbandian, un joueur de tennis argentin de renommee mondiale
d’origine armenienne, a appele le monde a reconnaître le genocide
des armeniens a l’occasion de son centenaire.

Avec plusieurs autres athlètes argentins le joueur de tennis de 33
ans a parle dans une video qui a ete postee sur YouTube le 15 Avril.

Dans la video de cinq personnalites sportives, y compris un autre
athlète d’origine armenienne Carlos Hairabedian, parlent du premier
genocide du 20e siècle, sur les deportations des Armeniens de Turquie
et la formation de la communaute armenienne en Argentine.

L’Argentine, selon diverses estimations, abrite entre 70 000 et 135
000 Armeniens aujourd’hui.

Plus tôt cette semaine, la presidente de l’Argentine Cristina Kirchner
a rencontre des representants de la communaute armenienne d’Argentine
afin d'”exprimer sa solidarite a l’occasion du 100e anniversaire du
genocide armenien.”

vendredi 17 avril 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

BANNER IN WEST HARTFORD MARKS ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

10:16, 17 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Between April 13-20, residents of may notice a large red, blue and
orange banner stating “We Remember the Armenian Genocide” at the
intersection of Main St. and Farmington Ave. in West Hartford, West
Hartford News informs.

The banner commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,
when more than 1,500,000 Armenian men, women and children living in
the Ottoman Empire died through a systematic government program of
mass deportation, starvation and outright murder.

This past Sunday, Pope Francis conducted a special memorial service for
the victims of the Armenian Genocide committed by the Ottoman Turks.

This year the Armenian Genocide will be commemorated at a solemn
ceremony in Hartford, Saturday, April 18 at 11 a.m. The key-note
speaker will be the accomplished writer Chris Bohjalian, author
of multiple New York Times best sellers including “The Sand Castle
Girls.” All are welcomed to attend.

WHY THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MATTERS – AN EKKLESIA HARECOURT EVENT

Ekklesia
April 16 2015

Submitted by Press Office on 16 April 2015 – 11:15am

Why the Armenian Genocide matters – an Ekklesia Harecourt event

On Thursday 23rd April a very important public conversation
is taking place, entitled ‘Against Genocide: faith, hope
and Armenia’. If you are in the London area, we hope
you will come along and extend the invitation to others
()

This year marks the centenary of Europe’s ‘hidden genocide’ – the
Ottoman government’s systematic extermination of its minority Armenian
subjects inside their historic homeland which lies within territory
constituting present-day Turkey. It has still not been recognised by
the UK and many other governments.

International lawyer and writer Dr Harry Hagopian, in conversation
with Ekklesia co-director Simon Barrow, explains why recognising
and understanding this terrible episode in history is fundamental to
establishing reconciliation, human rights, peace and justice in the
world today. He also looks at the vital role faith communities can
play in the quest for hopeful truth-telling and bridge-building in
the face of ethnic and religious exclusivism.

Details: 6.30 – 8.30pm, Thursday 23 April 2015, Harecourt URC, St
Paul’s Road, Islington, London, N1 2LR. Refreshments available.

The event, which is also supported by Bloomsbury Baptist
Church, is FREE. Contributions welcome, however. Location:

WHITE HOUSE SHOWS NO SIGNS OF SAYING ‘GENOCIDE’ -THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

11:54 * 17.04.15

The White House signaled Thursday that President Barack Obama won’t
use the word “genocide” to describe the killing of 1.5 million
Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Empire — continuing to break a
longstanding pledge.

As a candidate for office, Mr. Obama said he would use the word
“genocide” to describe the killings. In a strongly worded statement
in 2008, Mr. Obama said: “The Armenian Genocide is not an allegation,
a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented
fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence.

He added: “As president I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.”

But since taking office, geopolitical concerns about the strategic
relationship with Turkey have kept the Obama administration from
fulfilling that 2008 promise. Turkey, a key U.S. ally in the Middle
East, has long opposed legislative efforts around the world to address
whether the killings were in fact genocide.

The White House has been under pressure to use the term this year —
the 100th anniversary of the killings — but a spokesman said Thursday
that there was no shift in its longstanding policy to eschew the
term genocide.

“The president and other senior administration officials have
repeatedly acknowledged as historical fact that 1.5 million Armenians
were massacred or marched to their deaths in the finals days of the
Ottoman Empire,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.

“We’ve further stated that we mourn those deaths and that a full,
frank, and just acknowledgement of the facts is in the interest of
everybody, including Turkey, Armenia and the United States,” he added.

But Mr. Earnest said the longstanding position of the U.S. of avoiding
the term would likely remain in place when the White House puts out
a statement later this month.

“I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and
my view has not changed,” Mr. Obama said last year, without using term
“genocide.”

Turkey says the issue of whether the killings were genocide isn’t
for modern-day governments to decide, contests the number of deaths,
and argues those killed were casualties of a larger armed conflict.

On Sunday, Pope Francis referred to the mass killings as the “first
genocide of the 20th century,” angering Turkey.

QAHWAJI MEETS ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTER, ITALIAN CHIEF OF STAFF

National News Agency Lebanon (NNA)
April 14, 2015 Tuesday

NNA – Lebanese Army Chief, General Jean Qahwaji, on Tuesday met at
his office in Yarze with Armenian Minister of Defense, Siran Ohanian,
on top of a delegation, in presence of Armenian Ambassador to Lebanon,
Ashot Kotcharian. Talks touched on the current general situation and
the means to bolster the relations of cooperation between the two
countries. Qahwaji later met with Italian Chief of Staff, General
Claudio Grazziano, on top of a delegation, accompanied by Italian
Ambassador to Lebanon, Giuseppe Morabito. The pair discussed the
bilateral relations between the two armies and the mission of the
Italian contingent operating within the UNIFIL. ========R.A.H.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE THEN AND NOW

US Official News
April 14, 2015 Tuesday

Religious Freedom Coalition has issued the following news release:

Armenian-Canadian writer Raffi Bedrosyan sees Middle Eastern “history
repeating itself” in modern Christian suffering in the centennial of
the Ottoman Empire’s 1915 genocide of Armenians and other Christian
populations. Bedrosyan and other participants of an all-day, March 28
Institute of World Politics (IWP) conference concerning the Ottoman
1915 genocides showed a disturbing continuity of Islamic human rights
violations by various actors across a century.

Before over 50 audience members filling IWP’s conference room,
Institute of World Politics Professor Marek J. Chodakiewicz indicated
the confessional nature of 1915’s slaughter in his presentation
on forms of “democide” or governmental mass murder. Descended from
“Christendom’s eldest kingdom,” most Armenians in 1915 had a pre-modern
understanding of nationality, he said. Despite recent secular legal
reforms in the Islamic Ottoman Empire, Armenians still suffered the
“scourge of sharia and the whims of the caliphate.”

ArmenianGenocideProtestThe East Coast premiere of Turkey, the Legacy
of Silence, a French documentary about Turkish citizens uncovering
their hidden Armenian heritage, also featured a Christian-Islamic
confessional divide. A Turkish man, for example, recounted how
authorities in 1915 told one man concerning Armenians that “kill seven
and you will go to heaven,” but instead he hid a boy who was later
raised a Muslim under the name Abdullah. After another woman’s death,
relatives found a Bible in a ceremonial case that usually contains a
Quran in Turkish homes. Such individuals, the film noted, were hidden
survivors of a brutal attempt to create the fiction of Turkey as a
land that has been purely Turkish for millennia.

Concerns for physical survival and social acceptance caused many of
these individuals to keep secret their Armenian ancestry even if they
knew about it. A woman in the film narrated how Turkish nationalists
in the army killed her son on April 24, the day commemorating since
1915 the genocide, 17 days before he completed his military service.

Another man whose Armenian heritage became known faced the animosity
of his school classmates who read in Turkish textbooks that Armenians
betrayed the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Some individuals
nonetheless embraced their heritage like the man who accepted baptism
and rejected being an “Islamicized Armenian” after learning of his
true origins.

Bedrosyan elaborated upon “The Hidden Armenians of Turkey” following
the screening and during a subsequent interview. Islamization
of Armenians began in 1915 when the Ottoman government initially
allowed Armenians to convert to Islam and avoid ultimately deadly
deportations. Turkish army orphanages transformed orphan boys of
Armenian genocide victims into rabid Muslim Turks while orphan girls
became sex slaves or entered forced marriages. One Kurdish chieftain
took as his child bride a girl from among the 13 survivors of over
10,500 massacred Armenians from a suburb of southeastern Turkish
town Diyarbakir. Bedrosyan expressed amazement at how jihadists in
the Islamic State (IS) or Nigeria’s Boko Haram displayed today the
same patterns of behavior.

Ottoman efforts to obliterate Armenian culture encompassed property
as well as persons. Bedrosyan cited 4,000 churches in Turkey that
after 1915 were destroyed or converted to other uses, including one
that became a brothel. He noted a destroyed Diyarbakir church used as
a government warehouse until its 2011 restoration by private groups
as a genocide memorial. Its official opening saw many individuals
disclose their Armenian ancestry.

An earlier presentation by stolen property expert Dr. Tania C.

Mastrapa elaborated that the Turkish government had closed certain
archives as a “national security threat.” Their publication could
facilitate property claims by Armenians and others stemming from
1915 calculated in the trillions of dollars. Her co-panelist Kate
Nahapetian from the Armenian National Committee of America stated that
police today will investigate in certain Turkish villages visitors
suspected of searching for lost Armenian property.

Bedrosyan explained that Turkish government actions demonstrated how
the Turkish republic throughout its history has assiduously upheld
the myth of a homogenous Turkish and Sunni Muslim population. An
interviewed Genocide Watch President Gregory H. Stanton, whose
morning presentation concerned genocide denial, analogized between the
Khmer Rouge and Turkish Republic founding father Kemal Ataturk. Like
Cambodia’s genocidal Communists who “wanted to start at year zero,”
Ataturk’s “utopian vision for a new Turkey” sought cultural erasure
of even Christian populations like the Assyrians who predated Turkish
presence in Anatolia.

In this environment, Bedrosyan stated, Armenian/Christian affiliations
entail discrimination, meaning that many of Turkey’s estimated 2.5
million people with Armenian descent do not recognize or reveal
their heritage and remain “Islamicized.” Christians de facto “cannot
even become a garbage man” in the public sector, he stated while
discussing one public school teacher who broke a taboo by accepting
baptism after discovering Armenian roots. Individuals serving in the
military sometimes learn of the ineligibility for sensitive positions
such as fighter pilots when the government suddenly reveals records
of Armenian descent.

Individuals who know of their Armenian heritage therefore often
resort to subterfuge in a society where Armenian is a swear word
and graffiti like “1915 was a blessed year” vandalizes Istanbul
churches. Bedrosyan recounted how one hidden Armenian prayed to Jesus
at home while serving as a Muslim imam, while others secretly accepted
baptism in Europe before returning to Turkey. Amongst themselves,
hidden Armenians often know, and marry their children to, each other.

Steven Oshana, executive director of the Middle East minority advocacy
group A Demand for Action, reflected during an interview on the
historic continuity of Muslim repression suffered by his Armenian and
Assyrian ancestral communities. Assyrians, for example, fled Ottoman
genocide to areas of modern Iraq, only to endure the August 1933 Simele
massacre by Iraqi troops and another flight to Syria, where Assyrians
today are targets of IS. “The genocide just keeps following,” the
“methods are the same, the brutality is the same,” stated Oshana.

Oshana and other conference speakers noted how Islam played a role
among pious and non-pious alike in conflicts with Christian and
other minorities. While IS differed from the Ottomans in publicly
claiming credit for atrocities against non-Muslims, he stated that
“faith is always a pretext” for political calculations seeking to
stimulate violence against non-Christians. Bedrosyan concurred that
Ottoman leaders who saw during World War I threats in Armenians and
other Christians “were using Islam as an instrument” of mobilization
among Muslims like Kurds. This role of Islam was “very, very direct”
in the actions of Ottoman leaders, Stanton noted. They cynically urged
Muslim authorities such as muftis to call for the killing of Christians
considered allied with the Ottoman Empire’s “infidel” enemies.

Institute of World Politics’ Armenian genocide conference instructively
brought to light a past that has not passed, but rather remains
depressingly relevant today. Time and again Islamic doctrines have
repeatedly incited the same patterns of death, destruction, and
cultural cleansing against Christians and other non-Muslims. George
Santyana’s dictum that “[t]hose who cannot remember the past are
condemned to repeat it” is hardly more relevant than here. Forewarning
of these past lessons is necessary for policymakers who want to be
forearmed against future dangers.

ARMENIA KILLINGS A GENOCIDE: POPE

Illawarra Mercury (Australia)
April 14, 2015 Tuesday

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis has used the word “genocide” to describe
the mass murder of Armenians in a move likely to severely strain
diplomatic ties with Turkey.

“In the past century our human family has lived through three massive
and unprecedented tragedies,” he said on Sunday during mass in Saint
Peter’s Basilica to mark the centenary of the Ottoman Turk killings
of Armenians.

“The first, which is widely considered ‘the first genocide of the
20th century’, struck your own Armenian people,” he said, citing a
statement signed by John Paul II and the Armenian patriarch in 2001.

Though many historians describe the killings as the 20th century’s
first genocide, Turkey hotly denies it.

If the Pope did not use his own words to describe the murders as
genocide, John Paul II’s use of the term provoked a sharp reaction
from Turkey at the time, and citing the beloved former pope will do
more than ruffle feathers.

“It is necessary, and indeed a duty, to honour their memory, for
whenever memory fades, it means that evil allows wounds to fester,”
Pope Francis added.

The 78-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church had been under
pressure to use the term publicly to describe the murders, despite
the risk of alienating an important ally in the fight against radical
Islam.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were killed between 1915
and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart, and have long sought
to win international recognition of the massacres as genocide.

But Turkey rejects the claims, arguing that 300,000 to 500,000
Armenians and as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose
up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

Pope Francis said the other two genocides of the 20th century were
“perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism. And more recently there have
been other mass killings, like those in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi and
Bosnia. It seems that humanity is incapable of putting a halt to the
shedding of innocent blood.” AFP

TURKEY’S INCREASINGLY ISOLATED ON SINKING BOAT OF DENIALISM, SAYS NALBANDIAN

NEWS | 17.04.15 | 10:40

RELATED NEWS

European Parliament adopts resolution on Armenian Genocide

Turkey finds itself more and more isolated on the sinking boat of
denialism, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said commenting
at the RFE/RL Armenian Service’s request on Turkey’s reaction to
the European Parliament’s resolution on the 100th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide.

“It has been clear for a long time that the policy of denial has no
perspectives. By recalling ambassadors, by harshly criticizing those
states, organizations, which pay tribute to the memory of 1.5 million
innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide, and which are raising their
voices against denial for prevention of new crimes against humanity,
Turkish authorities find themselves more and more isolated on the
sinking boat of denialism,” Nalbandian said.

“Turkey attempts to put pressures, I would say to blackmail
international structures, numerous countries. But hardly they can
succeed in this regard, maybe with the exception of those countries,
where human rights and fundamental freedoms are not respected, where
democracy is on a shaky ground,” he continued.

The Armenian foreign minister also commented sardonically on Ankara’s
decision not to recall its ambassadors from EU member states. “What
is the meaning of recalling the Ambassadors? We remember very well
that after each recall they were obliged to send them back. It is the
Parliament representing 28 European countries that adopted a resolution
yesterday. It is good that Ankara at least realized, not to recall
their ambassadors from 28 countries. Otherwise that would create a
serious unemployment problem for Turkish Ambassadors,” he said.

“The reaction of Turkish authorities is reminiscent of a zugzwang in
chess game, where each of the following steps further deteriorates
player’s positions.

“As the European Parliament resolution states without truth there
can be no reconciliation, and I would add, with the international
community.”

LA VILLE DE RYDE VOTE UNE MOTION DE RECONNAISSANCE DU GENOCIDE DES ARMENIENS

Australie

10 ans après, en date du 12 avril 2005, la ville de Ryde, renouvelle,
a l’unanimite, sa reconnaissance du genocide des Armeniens sous
l’impulsion deSarkis Yedelian*, premier elu d’origine armenienne
d’Australie.

Cette motion fait suite a un niveau sans precedent de la couverture
mediatique sur le genocide des Armeniens en Australie.

Motion

Le Conseil municipal se joint a la communaute armenienne d’Australie
pour marquer le centenaire du genocide des Armeniens en decidant de :

(A) d’honorer la memoire des innocents, hommes, femmes et enfants
qui ont ete victimes du premier genocide moderne ;

(B) condamner le genocide des Armeniens ; et tous les autres actes
de genocide comme acte ultime de l’intolerance raciale, religieuse
et culturelle ;

(C) reconnaître l’importance de se souvenir et apprendre de ces
chapitres de l’histoire humaine afin de s’assurer que de tels crimes
contre l’humanite ne puissent se repeter ;

(D) condamner et empecher toutes les tentatives d’utiliser la marche
du temps a nier ou a falsifier la verite historique du genocide des
Armeniens et autres actes de genocide commis au cours de ce siècle ;

(E) rappeler les temoignages de prisonniers de guerre australiens de
la Première guerre mondiale, temoins du genocide des Armeniens ;

(F) souligner l’importante contribution humanitaire apportee par
les habitants de l’Australie aux victimes et survivants du genocide
armenien ; et

(G) appelle le Commonwealth d’Australie a reconnaître et condamner
tous les genocides dont le genocide des Armeniens.

Sarkis Yedelian le jour de son election comme Conseiller municipal
et le Maire de Ryde Ivan Petch

* 55 ans, marie, père d’un garcon et d’une fille, Sarkis Yedelian,
ne au Liban, est le premier australien elu d’origine armenienne.

Contrairement a la grande majorite des armeniens, la famille de Sarkis
Yedelian a pu echapper au Genocide. Originaire d’Aintab, ancien vilayet
d’Alep, son père naît en 1918 sur l’itineraire de la deportation a
Ourfa, comme il le dit lui-meme “actuellement situee dans la region
occupee de l’Armenie en Turquie”. Sa mère est originaire de Kessab,
en Syrie, proche de la frontière turque.

Après avoir suivi toutes ses etudes a Beyrouth (1) jusqu’a l’Universite
americaine, section Technologie Electronique, Sarkis Yedelian et sa
famille sont contraints de quitter le Liban pour cause de guerre
civile. Ils rejoignent alors oncles et tantes, deja installes en
Australie.

1979, fraichement debarque en terre australienne, Sarkis Yedelian
trouve un job dans la photo et s’investit d’emblee au service de la
communaute armenienne de la ville de Ryde (2) situee a environ 12 kms
au Nord-Ouest de Sydney. C’est ainsi que l’une de ses principales
preoccupations sera de fonder l’ecole Hamazkain Arshag & Sophie
Galstaun “pour perpetuer l’identite armenienne” , regrettant de
constater que “les parents paressent a envoyer leurs enfants dans
les ecoles armeniennes”.

Un destin forge a la force du poignet

Avec un bagage lui permettant de communiquer en cinq langues parmi
lesquelles l’armenien, le francais, l’arabe, le turc “parce que
c’etait la seule facon de pouvoir communiquer avec mes grand-parents”
, et l’anglais, dont il dit, non sans humour, qu’ayant ete la dernière
langue qu’il ait apprise, il a garde l’accent armenien. “Ils savent
que je suis etranger, mais cela ne m’a pas decourage” dit-il, evoquant
les australo-australiens de Ryde. “J’ai toujours affronte les defis
et particulièrement lorsqu’ils sont difficiles”. C’est ainsi que
deux ans après que le Parlement (3) de la Nouvelle Galles du Sud
ait reconnu la realite du Genocide des Armeniens, en 1999, Sarkis
Yedelian se presente pour la première fois en tant que candidat
independant aux elections du Conseil municipal de Ryde. Recale par
“manque d’experience”, il est elu Conseiller le 6 avril 2004 (4) .

Dans le meme temps, toujours dans l’objectif de reunir et d’informer
la communaute armenienne, il fonde Armenian Sydney TV. Fonctionnant
uniquement sur la base du volontariat, des dons et du sponsoring,
Armenian TV Sydney emet depuis Gladesville, gratuitement, 3 heures
par jour .

Objectif et Strategie

Sous son impulsion, le 12 avril 2005, la ville de Ryde reconnaît
unanimement le Genocide des Armeniens. L’intention avouee de cette
reconnaissance a en realite un autre dessein. En effet, Ryde abrite ni
plus ni moins que le Premier ministre du gouvernement federal en la
personne de l’honorable John Howard. “La etait la raison principale
de la decision du Conseil” avoue Sarkis Yedelian. Influer sur sa
personne au niveau federal par cette reconnaissance locale.

Jean Eckian

1- Dipôme de l’Ecole Hamazkaine Nishan Palanjian Djemaran de Beyrouth

2- Avec ses 110 000 habitants, Ryde fait partie de Sydney. Elle est la
cite d’Australie où est implantee la plus forte communaute armenienne
sur les 38 000 vivants en Nouvelle Galles du Sud.

3- Un Memorial commemorant le Genocide des Armeniens est installe
dans l’enceinte meme du Parlement de la Nouvelle Galles du Sud.

4- En Australie le vote est obligatoire. La ville de Ryde a 60 000
electeurs divises en trois secteurs de 20 000 votants : Est – Centre –
Ouest . Quatre Conseillers sont elus par secteur.

vendredi 17 avril 2015, Jean Eckian (c)armenews.com

EU PARLIAMENT ARMENIA RESOLUTION “MUTILATES HISTORY AND LAW” BLASTS TURKEY

Merco Press
April 16 2015

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry slammed the European Parliament’s decision
to adopt a resolution that urges all EU member states and Turkey to
recognize the 1915 events as ‘genocide’ and accused the resolution
of mutilating history and law, Daily Sabah reports.

“The European Parliament known for contriving obstacles to the
development of Turkey-EU relations aspired once again to rewrite
history regarding the 1915 events,” said the statement published on
Wednesday on the ministry’s official website.

The statement also said that the parliament repeated the exact mistake
it had made in the past in an incompatible way with international law
and exceeding its competence, recalling another resolution passed by
the parliament in 1987 that recognizes the 1915 events as”genocide”.

“We do not take seriously those who adopted this resolution by
mutilating history and law. The participation of the EU citizens
with a rate of 42% in 2014 elections already implies the place that
this Parliament occupies in the political culture of the EU,” the
statement reads.

Saying that the parliament’s selective and one-sided approach on the
1915 events has the potential to harm the relations between Turkey
and EU, it will also fail to bring a solution to the issue between
Turkey and Armenia.

The ministry reiterated that Turkey has assiduously fulfilled its duty
on the 1915 events and called on Armenia to achieve such a level of
maturity as soon as possible.

During its plenary session on Wednesday the European Parliament adopted
a resolution on the centennial of the Armenian Genocide calling the
massacre a century ago of up to 1.5 million Armenians a genocide,
days after Pope Francis used the same term.

Muslim Turkey agrees Christian Armenians were killed in clashes
with Ottoman soldiers that began on April 15, 1915, when Armenians
lived in the empire ruled by Istanbul, but denies that this amounted
to genocide.

Armenia, some Western historians and foreign parliaments refer to
the mass killings as genocide.

Pope Francis sparked a diplomatic row last Sunday by calling the
killings “the first genocide of the 20th century.” His remarks
prompted Turkey to summon the Vatican’s ambassador to the Holy See
and to recall its own. The European Parliament sprang to the Pope’s
defense, commending the message the pontiff delivered at the weekend.

In the statement MEPs invite Armenia and Turkey to “use examples of
successful reconciliation between European nations” by ratifying and
implementing, without preconditions, the protocols on the establishment
of diplomatic relations, opening the border and actively improving
their relations, with particular reference to cross-border cooperation
and economic integration.

MEPs also commend the statement by Pope Francis of 12 April “honoring
the centenary of the Armenian genocide in a spirit of peace and
reconciliation”.

They welcome statements by the President and Prime Minister of
Turkey offering condolences and recognizing atrocities against the
Ottoman Armenians and encourage Turkey to “use the commemoration of
the centenary of the Armenian genocide as an important opportunity”
to open its archives, “come to terms with its past”, recognize the
genocide and so pave the way for a “genuine reconciliation between
the Turkish and Armenian peoples”.

They also ask Turkey to conduct “in good faith” an inventory of the
Armenian cultural heritage destroyed or ruined during the past century
within its jurisdiction.

MEPs pay tribute to the memory of the one-and-a-half million Armenian
victims who “perished in the Ottoman Empire” a hundred years ago.

Finally, they propose that an “International Remembrance Day for
Genocides”, be established to “recall again the right of all peoples
and all nations throughout the world to peace and dignity”.