Author: Babajanian Karo

EU PARLIAMENT ADOPTS RESOLUTION CALLING ON TURKEY TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Russia Today
April 15 2015

The EU Parliament urges Turkey to recognize the Armenian genocide and
pave the way for “a genuine reconciliation” between the two nations.

Prior to the vote on a resolution, the Turkish President said Ankara
would disregard any of Brussels’s decisions.

In the resolution put to the vote on Wednesday, MEPs called on Armenia
and Turkey to “use the centenary of the Armenian genocide” to
normalize diplomatic relations, open the border and pave the way for
economic integration.

Using “examples of successful reconciliation between European
nations,” the EU parliamentarians voted that Armenia and Turkey
“without preconditions” should ratify and implement, “the protocols on
the establishment of diplomatic relations, opening the border” as well
as improve their relations, “with particular reference to cross-border
cooperation and economic integration.”

The EU parliament has encouraged Ankara 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” as well as recognize
the genocide. By doing so, Turkey would pave the way for a “genuine
reconciliation between the Turkish and Armenian peoples,” the MEPs
said.

The European Parliament has welcomed the statements of President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in their offering of
condolences and recognizing the atrocities as a step in a right
direction.

It has also been proposed to establish an “International Remembrance
Day for Genocides” to “recall again the right of all peoples and all
nations throughout the world to peace and dignity.”

Turkey was outraged by Pope Francis’ statement in which the pontiff
honored the 100th anniversary of the slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks and called it “the first genocide of the 20th century.”

Prior to the vote, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said
that Ankara would disregard “whatever decision” Brussles passes.

“I cannot say what the European Parliament will decide today, but
whatever decision it passes, for us it will go in one ear and out the
other,” Erdogan said in Ankara. “It is impossible for Turkey to accept
this accusation…the stain of genocide on our nation is out of the
question.”

Scholars and historians estimate that as many as 1.5 million Armenians
were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of the First World War.

Turkey, which does not admit the killing were genocide and insists
that Christians Armenians were slayed in war, accused Pope Francis of
spreading hatred and recalled its ambassador to the Vatican for
consultation.

In its Wednesday resolution, Brussels commended the Pope’s statement
“honoring the centenary of the Armenian genocide in a spirit of peace
and reconciliation”.

USA TODAY: OBAMA, MAKE GOOD ON ARMENIA

12:25 16/04/2015 ” IN THE WORLD

By Gregory J. Wallance
USA Today

On April 24, 1915, in the midst of World War I, the Ottoman Empire
began systematically massacring its Christian Armenian subjects. At
Sunday’s Mass in Rome, Pope Francis described the massacres as “the
first genocide of the 20th century.” Turkey, which emerged from the
rubble of the defeated Ottoman Empire and has long fiercely denied
that a genocide took place, angrily recalled its ambassador to the
Vatican. “The pope’s statement, which is out of touch with both
historical facts and legal truths, is simply unacceptable,” tweeted
Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Will President Obama follow Pope Francis’ lead?

Contrary to the foreign minister’s tweet, there is a solid factual
and legal foundation for calling the massacres a genocide, defined
as killing or other acts intended to destroy, in whole or in part,
a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

At the outbreak of the war, there were approximately 2 million
Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. Tens of thousands of Armenians
were serving in the army of the empire, then at war with Britain and
Czarist Russia. Seizing on the acts of a few Armenian sympathizers
with Russia, the Ottoman government began systematically eliminating
the Armenian leadership in Constantinople (now Istanbul) and sent
Armenian men, women and children, many orphaned by the slaughter, on
death marches into the Syrian desert, where they were left to die. One
of the Ottoman leaders, Talaat Pasha, wrote that by “continuing the
deportation of the orphans to their destinations (in the desert),
we are ensuring their eternal rest.” Ultimately, about 1.5 million
Armenians died in the massacres which, together with Armenians who
fled the Ottoman Empire, decimated the Armenian community.

In fact, as a senator, Barack Obama strongly supported the passage of
the 2007 Armenian Genocide Resolution, which called the massacres
a genocide. As a presidential candidate, he condemned the Bush
administration for dismissing John Evans, the U.S. ambassador
to Armenia, after Evans said the word “genocide” in public. “As
president,” vowed Obama, “I will recognize the Armenian genocide.”

Not even close. On his first major foreign tour, President Obama
visited Turkey and, while speaking in the Turkish Grand National
Assembly about how “each country must work through its past,” including
the “terrible events of 1915,” the word genocide did not then, and
has not since, been publicly used by the president or members of
his administration to describe the massacres. (As a senator, Hillary
Clinton supported the Armenian genocide resolutions, but as Obama’s
first secretary of State, she opposed them.)

The Obama administration has been hardly alone in its timidity. For
example, aside from a brief reference in a 1981 Holocaust proclamation,
the Reagan administration avoided calling the Armenian massacres a
genocide. The historic reason is rooted in the perceived strategic
importance of Turkey, first in the Cold War and now in the war on
terror. Turkey, a member of NATO, has threatened to curtail operations
at the U.S. Air Force base at Incirlik in Turkey whenever momentum
built for a congressional resolution on the Armenian genocide.

For Turkey, its national identity is at stake. Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan has gone so far as to acknowledge the “shared pain”
and “inhumane consequences” of World War I, referring to the deaths of
both Ottoman Muslims and the Armenians, but he categorically disputes
that the Armenians died in a genocide by the Ottomans.

Erdogan, who seems to exist in a state of near clinical paranoia, has
warned against “new Lawrences of Arabia,” read, the Western countries
who he claims are working to destroy the Middle East. He can hardly
afford to admit that modern Turkey was built on the greatest crime
a government can commit.

There are important U.S. interests at stake in relations with Turkey,
but there is also something unseemly in a president breaking a firm
campaign pledge rooted in moral considerations. Confronting a terrible
past is essential to avoiding a repetition in the future. Or as the
pope said Sunday, “Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a
wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it.”

President Obama, who has prided himself on breaking foreign policy
orthodoxy, as witness his opening to Cuba and nuclear negotiations
with Iran, should do likewise with the Armenian genocide and finally
make good on his own campaign pledge.

Gregory J. Wallance, a lawyer and writer in New York City, is a board
member of Advancing Human Rights.

POPE CALLS ARMENIAN MASSACRE GENOCIDE

The Irish Times
April 13, 2015 Monday

Mass in St Peter s recalled slaughter of 1.5m Armenians by Ottoman
Empire

by Paddy Agnew

Pope Francis yesterday sparked anger in Turkey when he called the first
World War massacre of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire,
“the first genocide of the 20th century”.

Turkey responded by summoning the papal nuncio in Ankara, Archbishop
Antonio Lucibello, to express its “deep sorrow and disappointment”
about the pope’s remarks.

The comments were made during a commemorative Mass in the Basilica
of St Peter’s, held to recall the centenary of the “Metz Yeghern”
(the Great Evil), as the massacres or “mass deportations” are called
by Armenians.

Among those attending were many Armenian faithful as well as Armenian
Orthodox and Catholic patriarchs and the Armenian president, Serzh
Sargsyan.

Stating that “our time” is “a time of war”, the pontiff not only
called the Armenian massacres one of “three massive and unprecedented
tragedies” of the last century but compared them to much more recent
mass killings, saying:

“The first genocide … struck your own Armenian people, the first
Christian nation, as well as Catholic and Orthodox Syrians, Assyrians,
Chaldeans and Greeks …

“The remaining two 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. It seems that the enthusiasm generated at the end
of the second World War has dissipated and is now disappearing.”

Senseless slaughter Calling it a duty to recall “that immense and
senseless slaughter”, Pope Francis said that to conceal or deny it
would be like “allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it”.

Diplomatic sources in Ankara said the statement contradicted the
message of peace and friendship the pontiff delivered during his
three-day visit to Ankara and Istanbul last November.

The interpretation of the Metz Yeghern or mass deportations has
long prompted bitter differences. Armenian and other historians have
argued that 1.5 million Armenian Christians, Catholic and Orthodox,
were slaughtered during the first World War as the Ottoman government
embarked on a systematic extermination of its minority Armenian
population.

Not only were able-bodied Armenian males killed but women, children and
the infirm were also driven into the Syrian desert on death marches,
historians claims.

Turkey, the contemporary successor state to the Ottoman Empire, has
always rejected the term “genocide” in relation to the Armenians,
arguing that the death toll during “mass deportations” has been
inflated. It claims the majority of those killed in 1915 and 1916 were
victims of civil strife and general unrest during the first World War.

Yesterday was not the first time a pope has used the word “genocide”
in relation to the Armenian massacres. In September 2000, John
Paul II issued a common declaration with Orthodox Armenian patriarch
Karekin II which referred to the “extermination of a million and a half
Christians”, calling it “the first genocide of the 20th century”. That
statement, too, prompted serious Vatican-Turkey tensions.

Patriarch Karekin II, who attended yesterday’s Mass, said in a message
that “the universal recognition and condemnation of the Armenian
Genocide … will benefit the creation of a safe and just world”. He
said the 100th anniversary of the genocide was an invitation to the
world “to stop and prevent crimes against humanity”.

Meanwhile, last Saturday Pope Francis formally confirmed next year’s
Holy Year with a Papal Bull of Indiction. Due to run from December 8th,
2015 to November 20th, 2016, the Holy Year of Mercy should “reawaken
our conscience, when faced with the drama of poverty”, he said.

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.”

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.

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.

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

Daily Sabah, Turkey
April 15 2015

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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.

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.

POPE PRAYS FOR RECONCILIATION BETWEEN ARMENIANS AND TURKS

Anadolu Agency, Turkey
April 13 2015

13 April 2015 08:43 (Last updated 13 April 2015 09:01)

Pope prays for ‘path of reconciliation’ after calling 1915 events
‘genocide,’ drawing fierce criticism from Ankara.

ANKARA

After saying “The first ‘genocide’ of the 20th century” struck
Armenians, Pope Francis prayed Sunday for “reconciliation” between
Armenians and Turks.

“May God grant that the people of Armenia and Turkey take up again the
path of reconciliation, and may peace also spring forth in Nagorno
Karabakh,” Pope said in his message delivered to all Armenians on
Sunday, after the liturgy.

“Despite conflicts and tensions, Armenians and Turks have lived long
periods of peaceful coexistence in the past and, even in the midst of
violence, they have experienced times of solidarity and mutual help,”
Pope said.

“Only in this way will new generations open themselves to a better
future and will the sacrifice of so many become seeds of justice
and peace.”

Earlier on Sunday, Pope said at the St. Peter Basilica: “In the
past century, our human family has lived through three massive and
unprecedented tragedies.

“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 and, more recently, there have been other mass killings,
like those in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi and Bosnia.”

Pope made these remarks during a service held in Vatican City for
Armenians who lost their lives in the 1915 incidents.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, Catholicos Karekin II, the current
Catholicos of All Armenians and also the head of the Armenian Apostolic
Church, and Aram I Keshishian, the head of the Armenian Catholicosate
of the Great House of Cilicia, also attended the rite.

The Vatican first used the term “genocide” for 1915 incidents on
September 27, 2001 when Pope Jean Paul II signed a joint declaration
with the Armenian Patriarch. In Sunday’s liturgy, Pope Francis also
used this joined declaration as reference.

Popes declarations drew criticism from Ankara, with the Turkish Foreign
Ministry summoning Vatican’s Ambassador to Turkey, Antonio Lucibello.

Later on Sunday, Turkey recalled its own Ambassador to Vatican,
Mehmet Pacaci, to Ankara for consultations.

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.

The Ottoman Empire relocated Armenians in eastern Anatolia following
the revolts and there were some 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 in order to uncover what
actually happened between the Ottoman government and its Armenian
citizens.

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.

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

EXECUTIVE OF NEVADA STATE, USA, RECOGNIZES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

14:20, 16 April, 2015

YEREVAN, APRIL 16, ARMENPRESS: The executive of the 46th state of
the USA recognized and condemned the Armenian Genocide on April 14,
Armenpress reports, citing the 1st Public TV Company of Armenia. The
resolution considers the first genocide of the 20th century to be a
historic fact and highlights the necessity to condemn it.

Before the step of recognition and condemnation of the Armenian
Genocide by Nevada’s two chambers of parliament was the declaration
of the governor and state Senate President. In it the politicians not
only call the President of the USA and the Congress to follow their
example but also urge Turkey to accept their own past.

“Today we touch upon the events, which took place hundred years ago,
on these days, in another part of the world. In several days the
100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide will be marked. In 1915 the
Turkish government, using force and violence, seized the properties
of the Armenians, arrested a part of them and sent the other part to
deserts, condemning them to inevitable death. Due to it, 1,5 million
Armenians fell martyrs”, – told the member of the State’s Parliament
James Oscarson. The Congressman stated that the Armenian Genocide is
a part of the US history as well, presenting the story of activities
of the Near East Relief Fund, established by the instruction of the
former US President Woodrow Wilson.