Author: Babajanian Karo

EUROPEAN PARLY VOTES ON ARMENIA MASSACRE

Independent, South Africa
April 15 2015

April 15 2015 at 09:43pm
By Adrian Croft and Ayla Jean Yackley

Brussels/ISTANBUL – The European Parliament backed a motion on
Wednesday calling the massacre a century ago of up to 1.5 million
Armenians a genocide, days after Pope Francis used the same term.

Although the resolution repeated language previously adopted by
the parliament in 1987, it could raise tensions with Turkey, whose
President Tayyip Erdogan said even before the vote took place that
he would ignore the result.

After the vote, the Turkish Foreign Ministry accused the parliament
of attempting to rewrite history.

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.

Voting by show of hands, European lawmakers overwhelmingly backed the
motion stating that the “tragic events that took place in 1915-1917
against the Armenians in the territory of the Ottoman Empire represent
a 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 defence, commending the
message the pontiff delivered at the weekend.

Turkey is a candidate country to join the 28-nation EU but accession
talks have dragged on for years with little progress.

Earlier, Erdogan told a news conference that “whatever decision the
European Parliament takes on Armenian genocide claims, it would go
in one ear and out the other”.

“It is out of the question for there to a stain, a shadow called
‘genocide’ on Turkey,” he said at Ankara airport before departing on
a visit to Kazakhstan.

Then prime minister Erdogan last year offered what his government
said were unprecedented condolences to the grandchildren of Armenians
killed in World War One.

The parliament’s resolution said such statements were a step in the
right direction, but legislators urged Turkey to go further and to
recognise the events as genocide.

“We shouldn’t forget that people were murdered and that these
particular events are rightly described as a genocide … I believe
this should lead to a further recognition by Turkey that there was a
genocide under the Ottoman empire,” German Christian Democrat Elmar
Brok said.

In a statement after the vote, Turkey’s foreign ministry said lawmakers
who backed the resolution were in partnership with “those who have
nothing to do with European values and feeding on hatred, revenge
and the culture of conflict”.

LAWYERS: VERDICTS TO TAKE FOUNDING PARLIAMENT MEMBERS INTO CUSTODY TO BE CONTESTED AT ECHR

POLITICS | 16.04.15 | 10:09

By GAYANE MKRTCHYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

RELATED NEWS

Founding Parliament’s “Declaration”: Embattled group seeks to establish
“New State”

Lawyers of the five arrested members of the radical opposition Founding
Parliament group believe their clients are being subjected to political
persecution. They say the legal grounds for their detentions and
subsequent arrests of the activists are too poor.

Speaking to media on Wednesday, the lawyers representing Jirair
Sefilian and other prominent members of the group seeking regime
change in Armenia announced their intention to appeal the court
decisions regarding the custody of their clients at the European
Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg.

The Founding Parliament activists, including the group’s chairman
Garegin Chukaszyan, Sefilian and others, were detained on April 7 and
were later charged with attempting to organize “mass disturbances”
at an April 24 rally. All were taken into two-month custody pending
trial. Another Founding Parliament activist was charged with keeping
arms and ammunition, but was released on bail pending trial.

Lawyer Lusine Hakobyan reminded that Sefilian has been a target of the
authorities for already 10 years. In 2006, he was accused of calling
for a violent overthrow of the constitutional order and for illegal
possession of weapons. Today, the lawyer reminds, there is a European
Court judgment in the case, by which the State has paid 6,000 euros
(about $6,400) to Sefilian in compensation for the wrong decision.

“I think the authorities will drop these charges as well. If they
don’t, we will have another judgment against the Republic of Armenia,
and both the State and we, the taxpayers, will bear the negative
impact,” she said.

Lawyer Ara Zakarian stressed that the items confiscated from the homes
of the accused are not enough grounds for their detentions and arrests.

“The law-enforcement bodies have confiscated wooden and metal rods,
knives, tasers and other similar items. Anyone could keep such items
at home,” he said. “There is no logic between finding all these things
and saying that preparations have been made for mass disturbances.”

After the investigation body shown the confiscated items on television,
a number of political and civil activists have posted videos on social
media, presenting similar numerous items at their homes.

“If the investigating committee finds that a person who has such
items at home is preparing riots, then we will have to arrest several
million people,” political analyst Daniel Ioannisyan told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service.

The lawyers also reminded that the Yerevan municipality allowed the
opposition group to hold its April 24 rally in the territory adjacent
to the Erebuni Museum on the outskirts of Yerevan. Meanwhile, they
said, if the authorities had information about “mass disturbances”
being prepared, they would not have approved that rally.

The lawyers also commented on the statement by Ombudsman Karen
Andreasyan, criticizing him for not presenting a legal assessment.

“The Ombudsman’s assessment is not only insufficient, but it also
contains false information,” Lusine Hakobyan suggested.

The lawyers said it was difficult to fight in a “politically motivated
case” with legal mechanisms, but stressed that they would use up all
national procedures in order to take the case to the European court
in Strasbourg.

ARMENIAN CHURCHES OBSERVE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF GENOCIDE WITH CANONIZATION OF MILLION VICTIMS

MassLive
April 15 2015

By Anne-Gerard Flynn , The Republican

SPRINGFIELD – On April 23, the Armenian Apostolic Church will canonized
more than a million Armenians who died during a forced evacuation,
that began in 1915, from their ancestral homeland by the Ottoman Turks.

The event, during the 100th year of the start of the displacement,
will be recognized locally, and comes after Pope Francis’s April 12th
address referred to their deaths as the “the first genocide of the
20th century.”

“The Armenian people were most gratified with the remarks of Pope
Francis and his recognition of the atrocities of 1915 in the Ottoman
Empire committed against the Armenians as a genocide. We need more
spokesmen who are not afraid to tell the truth. The Turkish government
has repeatedly denied that a genocide took place,” said the Rev. Fr.

Sevak Gabrielyan of St. Mark Armenian Church, 2427 Wilbraham Road,
in reaction to the pope’s address.

Turkey has refused to recognize the slaughter during which hundreds of
thousands of Armenians were made homeless. Some 22 nations recognize
the mass killings as genocide. The United States, a close ally of
Turkey, does not. More than half the Armenian population at the time,
most of them Christian, died in the forced evacuation. In 2013, Francis
canonized 800 martyrs who refused to convert to Islam and were killed
by Ottoman Turks in the 15th century. They are known as the “martyrs
of Otranto.”

“The Turkish government suggest that the Armenians were revolting
and uprising against the Ottoman government,” Gabrielyan said. “The
intent of the Ottoman leadership to eliminate another people is
the most horrific act humans can do, and if not acknowledged, it
can only lead to similar acts in the future – and there have already
been many examples, starting with the Jewish Holocaust, and many more
there after.”

Scholars have pointed to Hitler’s remark,”Who still talks nowadays of
the extermination of the Armenians?,” reportedly made to his generals
prior to to the 1939 invasion of Poland, as his awareness that little
was done by nations to stop the slaughter of the Armenians.

Gabrielyan added, “Human rights violations can be stopped if nations
world-wide put aside political alliances and support human rights.”

The Armenian people were most gratified with the remarks of Pope
Francis. – Father Gabrielyan

“Recognition will bring closure to the wounds of millions of families,
whose loved ones from one or two generations back perished in horrific
ways during forced marches and in the Syrian desert of Der Zor,”
Gabrielyan said.

The April 23 canonizations are to take place during a liturgy
at Echmiadzin Cathedral at Vagharshapat in Armenia, and bells are
scheduled to ring at Armenian churches around the world. Springfield
churches are planning to ring their bells around 7:15 p.m.

On April 24 at 5:30 p.m. St. Mark and St. Gregory Armenian churches
jointly will conduct a special mass at St. Gregory Church, 135 Goodwin
St., Indian Orchard.

On May 3 at 1 p.m. the two will hold an ecumenical service at St.

Mark, in recognition of the canonization and the memory of the newly
sainted.

Following the service, Herand Markarian, author of the anthology,
“The Martyred: Armenian Writers 1915-1922,” will give a presentation.

On April 26, there will also be a bus from Springfield to St. Vartan
Cathedral in New YorkCity for a Divine Liturgy, and a Centennial
Commemoration of the Genocide at Times Square. For further information,
contact Gabrielyan at (914) 888-4836 or email at [email protected].

Members of St. Mark’s will be present for the broadcast of “The
Armenian Genocide” on WGBY/Public Television for Western New England
on April 18 at 7:30 p.m.

LESSON IGNORED: THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

TBO.com
April 15 2015

by Manoug Manougian
Published: April 15, 2015

Man’s inhumanity to man continues unabated, from Islamic State rebels
to terrorists the world over. The onslaught on innocent people in
Europe, Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and other places
seems to be endless. People are being targeted solely on account
of their faith. Tens of thousands of human beings live with fear,
subjugation, humiliation, starvation and brutal murder.

Obviously, we have not learned from experiences of the past.

Beginning at sunset today and continuing Thursday, Jews around the
world observe Holocaust Remembrance Day — a day to remember an event
in history that saw the murder of some 12 million human beings. About
6 million were Jewish men, women and children who were sent to the gas
chambers or shot in cold blood simply because they were Jews. Leading
this carnage was Adolph Hitler, the personification of evil, who early
in his rise to power declared that his actions “were in accordance
with the will of the Almighty Creator.”

Clearly, it takes more than a leader such as Hitler to commit these
acts of horror. Are humans a herd of sheep who too often follow a
leader no matter what? Where were the highly educated citizens of
Germany? Apparently, with a highly effective propaganda machine and
the Brown Shirts, Hitler was able to control and manipulate his people
through fear, intimidation and misinformation.

We still don’t appear to have learned the lessons of history.

On April 24, Armenians around the globe commemorate the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, when well over a million
Armenians were massacred and forced out of their homes to walk through
the forbidding Syrian Desert. In the process, thousands died of thirst
and starvation. The genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire during
World War I, represents the largest number of Christians in history
targeted and massacred because of their religion and ethnicity.

Is the Armenian Genocide fact or fiction? The government of Turkey
rejects this fact of history. Why the denial? For the right to use
bases in Turkey, and political expediency, even our government does
not officially recognize this dark side of history. However, the
evidence is overwhelming. For example, when Hitler was planning his
takeover of Poland and the murder of Jews, to his critics he said,
“Who after all speaks of the annihilation of the Armenians?”

As a child growing up in Jerusalem I heard many accounts of brutality
experienced by Armenian survivors perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks at
the beginning of the last century. To this day, I recall with horror
the tale of one woman who lived in an Armenian village in present-day
Turkey. Soldiers broke into their home, shot her husband on sight,
then turned on her six children and beheaded each in front of her.

She, along with other women, with no food or water, was forced to
leave her home and march through the Syrian Desert. She was among
the few who survived and, with tears in her eyes, would ask, “Why?”

Did the Armenian Genocide take place? Newspapers of the era, including
The New York Times, as well as Western diplomats, were reporting on
the “massacres” and “slaughter” of Armenians being committed by the
Ottoman Empire under the Young Turk regime. “800,000 Armenians Counted
Destroyed” read a headline on October 7, 1915. Arnold J. Toynbee,
the renowned British historian, wrote about the massacres in a book
titled “The Armenian Atrocities: The Murder of a Nation.”

Why, then, the denial?

When the Young Turks assumed power, their policy to rid Ottoman Turkey
of its Christian population intensified in 1915. Armenian men of all
ages were murdered, young and old women were raped, priests and their
parishioners were herded into churches and burned alive, and hundreds
of thousands were forced to march through the desert with no food or
water. In the words of Talaat Pasha, the Turkish minister of interior
at the time, “We are ensuring their eternal rest.”

Why, then, the denial? Instead, I suggest we learn from past mistakes.

During Woodrow Wilson’s presidency, the U.S. Department of State
instructed Henry Morgenthau, U.S. ambassador to Turkey, to deliver
a message warning the Young Turks that they would be held liable for
crimes against humanity for their treatment of the Armenians. Theodore
Roosevelt, in a letter to Cleveland H. Dodge, Wilson’s adviser, dated
May 11, 1918, stated, “The Armenian massacre was the greatest crime
of the war and the failure to act against Turkey is to condone it.”

In 1919 and 1920, the Turkish Courts-Martial, with a unanimous vote,
found the leadership of the Committee of Union and Progress Party
guilty of the massacres of the Christians. Talaat Pasha, Enver Pasha
and Cemal Pasha were sentenced to death. But Pasha sought asylum in
Germany. Why the denial?

An Armenian survivor, Soghomon Tehlirian, who witnessed the rape
of his 15- and 16-year-old sisters and the beheading of his older
brother, caught up with Talaat. On a street in Berlin, Soghomon took
out his revolver and shot Talaat dead. He was quickly apprehended,
tried and found guilty of murder.

A Jewish law student in Poland, Raphael Lemkin, saw the headlines
about Soghomon and asked his professor: “Is it a crime to kill a man,
but it is not a crime for his oppressor to kill more than a million?”

His professor answered: “There is no law against mass murder.”

Thus began Lemkin’s relentless journey appealing to the world community
to address and hold responsible perpetrators of mass murder.

Using the Greek term “geno,” meaning “race,” and the Latin “caedere,”
meaning “killing,” Lemkin created the word “genocide” — the murder
of a tribe or race. It took Lemkin decades to finally help establish
the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime
of Genocide.

With this evidence, why the denial?

Just last Sunday at Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis said:
“Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding
without bandaging it.” And he called the massacre of the Armenians
by its rightful name — the “first genocide of the 20th century.”

It is time for President Obama and the U.S. Congress to recognize this
fact of history, and hopefully the Israeli government and Turkey will
boldly step forward and officially recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Sadly, man’s inhumanity to man shows no signs of slowing down, be it
beheadings at the hands of ISIS to the rampant killings on our streets.

There was a time in history when Muslims, Christians and Jews worked
together on the Iberian Peninsula promoting art, architecture,
medicine, mathematics and science, and they enjoyed peaceful
coexistence. If it happened then, it can be done again.

The solution to our global problems of violence depends on educating
youth. Peace through education will provide a catalyst by which
young people will learn to treat each other with respect and develop
a spirit of cooperation, tolerance and peaceful coexistence. In the
words of Mahatma Gandhi, “Peace is the way.”

Manoug Manougian, Ph.D., is professor/director of the STEM Education
Center, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, at the University
of South Florida in Tampa.

FRANCIS CAUSES CONTROVERSY BY REAFFIRMING ARMENIAN ‘METZ YEGHERN’ AS GENOCIDE

The Tablet, UK
April 15 2015

15 April 2015 14:56 by James Roberts

In the centenary year marking the start of the systematic slaughter by
the Ottomans of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915, Pope Francis delivered
a special message in which he reaffirmed that the “Metz Yeghern” or
“Great Evil”, was in fact a genocide.

Speaking before a special Mass for the Armenians at St Peter’s in Rome
on Divine Mercy Sunday, Francis said the Christians’ faith sustained
them 100 years ago “in what is generally referred to as the first
genocide of the twentieth century”. The congregation included the
President of Armenia, Serž Azati Sargsyan, Catholicos Karekin II,
supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Aram I,
Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia in that Church, and Patriarch
Nerses Bedros XIX of the Armenian Catholic Church.

Francis’ reference to the genocide was taken from a common declaration
signed by both Pope St John Paul II and Supreme Armenian Patriarch
Karekin II in 2001. Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy,
Russia and Uruguay are among the 22 nations that formally recognise
the extermination programme as a genocide. Britain does not.

At the same Mass the Pope also proclaimed the tenth-century Armenian
monk St Gregory of Narek a Doctor of the Church.

The witness of victims expressed “the ecumenism of blood”, Francis
said on Sunday, making explicit his view that contemporary persecution
and martyrdom can bear ecumenical fruit by promoting solidarity across
the different Christian denominations.

After Francis made his comments, the Turkish Foreign Ministry released
a statement expressing their “great disappointment and sadness” at
Francis’ remarks, while Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the Pope’s
remarks were “inappropriate” and “one-sided”. In Ankara the foreign
ministry summoned the nuncio to tell him the remarks had caused a
“problem of trust”.

On Monday Francis responded to criticism in his morning Mass at Domus
Sanctae Marthae, saying “people should say things with frankness …

We cannot keep silent [about] what we have seen and heard.”

Looking forward to other commemorations this year, Francis told
the Armenians, “I assure you of my closeness on the occasion of the
canonisation ceremony of the martyrs of the Armenian Apostolic Church,
to be held this coming 23 April in the Cathedral of Etchmiadzin, and
on the occasion of the commemorations to be held in Antelias in July.”

PRESIDENT ERDOGAN SAYS 100,000 ARMENIANS ENJOY LIFE IN TURKEY, RECALLS RIGHTS GIVEN

Daily Sabah, Turkey
April 15 2015

AYÃ…~^E Ã…~^AHIN
ISTANBUL

President Erdogan responded to pressure on Turkey for not defining
the 1915 incidents as genocide with indifference, saying the matter
became overly politicized. He also said there are currently 100,000
Armenians living under good conditions in Turkey

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday rejected any possibility
of Turkey caving in to pressure over Armenian and Western efforts
to label the 1915 incidents – which Turkey describes as a mass
forced deportation of Armenians to Anatolia during World War I –
as “genocide,” given their highly political causes. Erdogan said
since Turkey hosts nearly 100,000 Armenian nationals in peace and
provides them with scores of opportunities, there is no grounds for
it to be exposed to such pressure. As the Armenian diaspora ratchets
up pressure on Western countries to label the 1915 incidents as
“genocide,” experts believe the recognition of the incidents as
a genocide will bring no gains in terms of ameliorating sour ties
with Armenia. Turkey has suggested various solutions to resolving
the definition problem, which has purportedly become a political
tool exploited by the diaspora, by unveiling its historical archival
resources to shed light on the matter, which is often appraised in a
biased and one-sided manner. Referring to the European Parliament (EP),
which is to vote on a draft resolution that recognizes the incidents
as genocide, Erdogan said he will receive it with indifference since
he is confident on how well the nearly “100,000 Armenians” are treated
in Turkey.

Erdogan firmly rejects the definition of the 1915 incidents as
“genocide,” and deems the attempts of Armenians to label them as such
to be trivial so long as Turkey is hosting 100,000 Armenian citizens
and non-citizens by reinstating their rights, which have been taken
from them since the founding of the Republic. Ankara has already put
into practice policies like the returning of confiscated properties,
the assigning of bureaucrats of Armenian origin and bringing life back
to their places of worship as part of its democracy initiatives. These
policies undermine the efforts of the Armenian diaspora, Armenia and
other Western countries, however, which have taken the 1915 issue to
their parliaments with the aim of isolating Turkey.

On Wednesday, the EP issued a draft resolution urging EU member
states to recognize the events in Armenia and Ottoman territories
in 1915. In response to the move, Erdogan said: “I don’t know what
decision they have made or will make, but there is something that I
know: Why our nation or the media acts so defensively over the matter,
which is hard for me to understand. I don’t have any concern to defend
[Turkey] as the President,” Erdogan said, confident that the genocide
accusations levied at Turkey had not been committed by his ancestors.

He added: “I have nearly 100,000 Armenians in my country. Has there
been any wrongdoing to our Armenian citizens, or ill treatment? We
have been hosting those who are using every opportunity provided to
them by our country [with content].”

The government has been exerting major efforts to normalize the
conditions for minorities, which includes Armenians, by giving back
their rights and doing away with discrimination they have long faced
after decades of apathy. Within the context of reforms toward different
faith groups in Turkey, 1,014 confiscated foundation properties have
been returned and more have been promised.

Recalling that the expenses of the restoration and renovation works
of the Armenian Orthodox church on the island of Akdamar in Van Lake
were paid for with state funds, Erdogan said that Divine Liturgies
are currently being celebrated at the church. He also said that such
similar demands were being responded to by the state and added that it
was “so wrong” to show such an attitude to Turkey despite such favors.

“I do not know what kind of a resolution the European Parliament will
adopt, but for Turkey, it will surely go in one ear and out the other,”
Erdogan was also quoted as saying before he departed for his two-day
visit to Kazakhstan on Wednesday.

Turkish officials have been exerting considerable efforts to improve
relations with Armenia. Erdogan also made an attempt to thaw tensions
between the two countries by issuing a message ahead of the 99th annual
commemoration of the 1915 incidents last year. In an unprecedented
move, while he was prime minister, Erdogan extended condolences to
the grandchildren of Armenians who lost their lives in the 1915 events.

However, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, in a purported refusal to
reconcile with Turkey, said he had withdrawn the peace accords with
Turkey from parliament. The two countries’ then foreign ministers,
Ahmet Davutoglu and Eduard Nalbandyan, had signed protocols to
establish diplomatic ties between their respective countries in 2009
in Switzerland. Mediated by the U.S., the protocol had presupposed
the opening of the border between Turkey and Armenia, but it failed
to be ratified.

Following the incident, Erdogan complained that Armenia had failed to
reciprocate Turkish peace efforts, but said that Ankara will still
pursue a settlement with Armenia. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Tanju
Bilgic also said: “Turkey will remain committed to the normalization
process it pursues as the main purpose of the protocols.”

The official government stance on the claims of genocide is that it
acknowledges that a tragedy occurred with great suffering on the
part of the Armenians, but that Muslim Turks also suffered during
the event. They have repeatedly called on Armenia to check unbiased
historical sources to bring the matter to light.

LA CHANTEUSE CHER APPELLE LA TURQUIE A RECONNAITRE LE GENOCIDE DES ARMENIENS

GENOCIDE DES ARMENIENS-100 ANS

La celèbre chanteuse armeno-americaine, Cher (Cherilyn Sarkisian La
Pierre) a appele la Turquie sur son compte Twitter a reconnaitre le
genocide des Armeniens. ecrit-t-elle.

Krikor Amirzayan

jeudi 16 avril 2015, Krikor Amirzayan (c)armenews.com

POPE FRANCIS RECALLS TURKISH ‘GENOCIDE’ OF 1.5 MILLION ARMENIANS

Christian Times
April 15 2015

Jonah Hicap
15 April, 2015

Photo: Pope Francis blesses the missal as he leads a mass on the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian mass killings, in St. Peter’s Basilica at
the Vatican on April 12, 2015.Pope Francis sparked a diplomatic row
on Sunday when he publicly called the 1915Turkish massacre of up to
1.5 million Armenians as “the first genocide of the 20th century,”
prompting Turkey to accuse him of inciting hatred.At a Mass in St.

Peter’s Square commemorating the massacre Sunday, Pope Francis
underscored the “three massive and unprecedented tragedies” in the
past century. “The first, which is widely considered ‘the first
genocide of the twentieth century,’ struck your own Armenian people,
the first Christian nation, as well as Catholic and Orthodox Syrians,
Assyrians, Chaldeans and Greeks. Bishops and priests, religious,
women and men, the elderly and even defenseless children and the
infirm were murdered,” the Pope said.Ankara immediately summoned the
Vatican ambassador for a dressing down and recalled its own envoy.

“The Pope’s statements, which are far from historical and judicial
facts, cannot be accepted,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said
on Twitter. “Religious offices are not places to incite hatred and
revenge with baseless accusations.”

Muslim Turkey accepts that many Christian Armenians died in clashes
with Ottoman soldiers starting in 1915 when Armenia was part of the
empire ruled from Istanbul but denied that hundreds of thousands
were killed.

The late Pope John Paul II and Armenian Apostolic Church Supreme
Patriarch Kerekin II also called the massacre “the first genocide of
the 20th century” in 2001, but it was in a joint written statement,
the report said.

In 2013, Pope Francis said the same phrase in a private meeting at
the Vatican with an Armenian delegation, that also sparked protest
from Ankara.

“It is the responsibility not only of the Armenian people and the
universal Church to recall all that has taken place, but of the entire
human family, so that the warnings from this tragedy will protect
us from falling into a similar horror, which offends against God and
human dignity,” the Pope said of the massacre.

“Today too, in fact, these conflicts at times degenerate into
unjustifiable violence, stirred up by exploiting ethnic and religious
differences. All who are Heads of State and of International
Organizations are called to oppose such crimes with a firm sense of
duty, without ceding to ambiguity or compromise,” he said.

It was not the first time that Turkey reacted strongly to the mention
of the alleged genocide that took place a century ago. When the French
parliament voted in 2011 to make Armenian genocide denial a crime,
Turkey withdrew its ambassador, suspended joint military maneuvers
and stopped political contacts with France.

Armenians contend that Turkey has not yet fully owned up to its
wartime past.

Turks, on the other hand, saw the Pope’s remarks as foreign
interference by foreigners and wondered whether the U.S, a traditional
ally of Turkey, would eventually use the word “genocide” to refer to
the 1915 massacre.

Unlike most European and South American states that use the term,
Washington has been avoiding its use, even warning legislators that
Ankara could cut off military cooperation if they voted to adopt it.

“I believe Obama will call it a genocide as well, considering the
influence of the Armenian population in the United States,” said
Serhat, a university student in Ankara. “It would surprise me if no
one else called it a genocide.”

TURKEY: EU PARLIAMENT’S RESOLUTION ‘PREPOSTEROUS’

World Bulletin, Turkey
April 15 2015

World Bulletin / News Desk

Turkey has strongly rejected a European Parliament resolution that
recognizes the 1915 events affecting Armenians as “genocide.”

Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday that the
European Parliament, “which is known for contriving obstacles to the
development of Turkey-EU relations aspired once again to rewrite
history regarding the 1915 events, as it has attempted to do so
previously.

“This aspiration has resulted in a preposterous text of resolution
dated April 15, 2015 which literally repeats the anti-Turkish cliches
of the Armenian propaganda,” the statement said.

The ministry accused the European Parliament of repeating “exactly
a mistake it has made in the past in an incompatible way with
international law and exceeding its competence.”

The European Parliament first recognized the 1915 events as “genocide”
in a 1987 resolution, which the parliament recalled in a vote –
the centenary of the 1915 events.

“We do not take seriously those who adopted this resolution by
mutilating history and law,” the statement said. “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 ministry also said: “Those adopting this text may perhaps recall
that the EU was established on the pillars of reconciliation and
peace culture, and on the basis of principles such as democracy,
human rights and free market economy.

“We wish success to the politicians who supported the adoption of
the resolution today in the European Parliament, in their entrenched
partnership with those who have nothing to do with European values
and feeding on hatred, revenge and the culture of conflict.

“As a matter of fact, contrary to the values constituting the essential
reason for the existence of the European Parliament, this selective
and one-sided approach of the European Parliament with regards to the
1915 events has the potential to harm relations between Turkey and
the EU, and falls far behind from bringing a solution to the issue
between Turkey and Armenia.

“Naturally, this resolution cannot merely be explained away by either
lack of knowledge or ignorance.

“Unfortunately, what lays behind is a religious and cultural fanaticism
and indifference towards others regarded as different.

“If the European Parliament wishes to contribute to building a common
future for European peoples, it should realize that this cannot be
achieved by excluding different religions and cultures.

“As for 1915 events, it is evident that Turkey has assiduously
fulfilled its duty with regards to memory. We hope that Armenia also
achieves such a level of maturity as soon as possible.

“Members of the European Parliament may better encounter their own
past and remember especially their roles and responsibilities in the
most abhorrent calamities of humanity such as World War I and World
War II, well before dealing with the 1915 issue,” the statement added.

The European Parliament resolution said that the importance of keeping
alive the memories of the past was paramount, since there could be
no reconciliation without truth and remembrance.

Wednesday’s vote comes a day after the European Union urged Turkey
and Armenia to normalize their relations following a spat prompted
by remarks made by Pope Francis over the 1915 events.

– 1915 incidents

The 1915 events took place during World War I when a portion of
the Armenian population living in the Ottoman Empire sided with the
invading Russians and revolted against the empire.

The Ottoman Empire relocated Armenians in eastern Anatolia following
the revolts and there were Armenian casualties during the relocation
process.

Armenia has demanded an apology and compensation, while Turkey has
officially refuted Armenian allegations over the incidents saying that,
although Armenians died during the relocations, many Turks also lost
their lives in attacks carried out by Armenian gangs in Anatolia.

The Turkish government has repeatedly called on historians to study
Ottoman archives pertaining to the era to uncover what actually
happened.

The debate on “genocide” and the differing opinions between the
present-day Turkish government and the Armenian diaspora, along with
the current administration in Yerevan, still generates political
tension between Turks and Armenians.

Turkey’s official position against allegations of “genocide” is that
it acknowledges the past experiences were a great tragedy and that both
parties suffered heavy casualties, including hundreds of Muslim Turks.

Ankara agrees that there were Armenian casualties during World War I,
but says that it is impossible to define these incidents as “genocide.”

In 2014, then Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed
his condolences for the first time to all Ottoman citizens who lost
their lives in the events of 1915.

“May Armenians who lost their lives in the events in the early
20th century rest in peace, and we convey our condolences to their
grandchildren,” Erdogan said.

Dr.Ara Caprielian (1943-2015)
April 15, 2015 in Obituaries

The Armenian Weekly

Dr.Ara Caprielian, 72, passed away on Tues., April 14, in New York. He
was anactive and dedicated member of the Armenian community.

Unger Caprielian was a formermember of the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (ARF) Eastern Region CentralCommittee, and a longtime
member of the ARF `Armen Garo’ Gomideh of New York. He was one of
thefounding members of the New York Hamazkayin Chapter, as well as a
longtime supporterand contributor to the Hairenik and Armenian Weekly
newspapers (his most recentarticle in the Armenian Weekly, titled
`Thoughts as We Approach the Centennialof the Armenian Genocide,’ was
published on March 7, 2015).

Dr.Caprielian leaves behind his beloved wife Arevik, and his son
Armen.

The wake will take place on Sun., April 19, at the St. Illuminator’s
ArmenianCathedral at 221 East 27th St. in Manhattan, from 6-9 p.m. A
religious servicewill be held at 7 p.m. The funeral service will be
conducted on Mon., April 20,at 10 a.m., at the St. Illuminator’s
Cathedral, followed by the burial serviceat the Cedar Grove Cemetery,
located at 130-04 Horace Harding Expressway,Flushing, N.Y.

The ARF Eastern Region Central Committee mourns the death of former
CentralCommittee member Unger Ara Caprielian on Tues., April 14, and
extends its deepestcondolences to his loved ones.

The ARF New York `Armen Garo’ Gomideh extends its heartfelt
condolencesto Arevik and Armen Caprielian on the passing of their
husband, andfather, Unger Ara Caprielian.

The Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society of Eastern
USA extends itsdeepest condolences to the family of Dr. Ara
Caprielian, a longtime member andsupporter of the organization.

The editors and staff of the Hairenik and Armenian Weekly newspapers
extend theirdeepest condolences to Arevik and Armen Caprielian, for
the loss of theirhusband, and father, Unger Ara Caprielian, a longtime
contributor of the newspapers.