Serge Sarkissian Prend La Parole Contre Le Negationnisme

SERGE SARKISSIAN PREND LA PAROLE CONTRE LE NEGATIONNISME

Forum international des crimes contre l’humanite

Serge Sarkissian a critique la Turquie pour avoir refuse de reconnaître
le genocide armenien de 1915 alors que l’Armenie etait invite hier
au forum international sur les crimes contre l’humanite.

Le Forum mondial contre les crimes contre l’humanite, qui a reuni
environ 600 participants de plus de 50 pays, a commence ses travaux
a Erevan dans le cadre des evenements dedies au 100e anniversaire du
genocide des Armeniens.

“La negation du genocide est lourde d’incitation a une nouvelle
vague xenophobe et est souvent accompagnee par l’intolerance et
la justification des crimes deja commis de genocide”, a declare
Sarkissian dans un discours a la conference. “En cas de forte pression
internationale, le deni acquiert une nature apparemment plus douce
mais tout aussi dangereuse.”

Il a clairement fait reference a l’assouplissement de la politique
turque qui nie depuis toujours le genocide des Armeniens. Plus
tôt cette semaine, le gouvernement turc a de nouveau offert ses
condoleances aux descendants d’Armeniens massacres par les Turcs
ottomans pendant la Première Guerre mondiale. Mais il a insiste pour
dire que les massacres ne constituaient pas un genocide.

Sarkissian a dit qu’une plus grande reconnaissance internationale
de la tragedie de 1915 rendrait non seulement justice aux Armeniens,
mais previendrait aussi de futurs crimes contre l’humanite. “Une des
raisons de la recidive des crimes contre l’humanite a ete le manque
de coherence, d’unite et la determination a reconnaître et condamner
les genocides commis.”

A egalement assiste et pris la parole lors de ce forum Thorbjorn
Jagland, secretaire general du Conseil de l’Europe. “Il y avait un
potentiel en chaque homme, femme et enfant”, a t-il declare. “Il y a
cent ans, de trop nombreux Armeniens se sont vu refuser la possibilite
de realiser ce potentiel quand ils ont ete brutalement assassines.

“Des centaines de milliers d’autres ont ete condamnes a la pauvrete.

Et ce n’etait pas seulement une perte pour l’Armenie, c’etait une
perte pour le monde … Mais nous pouvons – nous devons – essayer
que cela ne se reproduise pas “.

Jagland a pris soin de ne pas appeler ces massacres “genocide” pour
ne pas heurter la Turquie, membre du Conseil de l’Europe. Il a salue
la place des contacts croissants entre les societes civiles turque
et armenienne et a exprime l’espoir que les gouvernements des deux
Etats voisins finiront par normaliser leurs relations.

jeudi 23 avril 2015, Claire (c)armenews.com

http://www.armenews.com/article.php3?id_article=110768

Steve Jobs Took The Armenian Genocide Personally

STEVE JOBS TOOK THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE PERSONALLY

15:58, 23 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Nina Strochlic
The Daily Beast

Friday is the date of the Apple Watch launch–but also the anniversary
of a terrible genocide that sent Steve Jobs’ adoptive grandparents
fleeing to safety in America.

On Friday, wrists around the world will welcome the most anticipated
gadget since the iPad came to our fingertips five years ago. The Apple
Watch has stirred breathless speculation, imitation and excitement
long before its reveal last September. But the date chosen for its
release has caused a too-bizarre-to-be-true historic collision that
Apple’s founder would likely never have allowed to happen.

One hundred years after Steve Jobs’ adoptive family escaped the
Armenian genocide, the company he created is releasing its biggest
new product on the 100th anniversary of a mass killing that left 1.5
million dead at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.

And activists are worried that Apple’s latest masterpiece will distract
an audience from an anniversary that they hope will finally force
the Turkish government–which has long refused to call the slaughter
a genocide–into accepting its bloody past.

Steve Jobs’ birth parents weren’t Armenian, but he was raised in the
shadow of that heritage by an adoptive mother whose family escaped the
killings for safety in America in the 1910s. And Jobs, though he never
spoke publicly about his ties, appeared to feel a deep connection with
his family’s heritage and the historic bloodshed they experienced. He
even spoke conversational Armenian.

In 1955, Clara Hagopian and Paul Jobs, a young couple who spent
nearly a decade trying to have children of their own, adopted a
Syrian-American baby and named him Steve. Steve Jobs never met his
birth father and often spoke about the strong connection he shared
with his adoptive family. “They were my parents 1,000 percent,” he
told Walter Isaacson for his 2013 biography. “[My biological parents]
were my sperm and egg bank. That’s not harsh, it’s just the way it was,
a sperm bank thing, nothing more.”

Hagopian’s mother, Victoria Artinian, was born in the port city of
Smyrna in the 1890s. Smyrna, an ancient biblical town and possible
birthplace of Homer, had enjoyed relative calm until the early 1920s.

Filled with diplomats and citizens of high social ranking, the world
was shocked when, in 1922, the city was pillaged and burned to the
ground. Images of fiery deaths and charred buildings was seared into
the historical imagination. Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time, which was
written three years later, begins with an ode to the fated town: “The
strange thing was, he said, how they screamed every night at midnight.

I do not know why they screamed at that time.”

Artinian arrived in the United States on the Greek boat Megali Hellas
in 1919, and soon after met Louis Hagopian. He had made the same trip
seven years earlier, lucky to escape his hometown of Malatya. Mass
murders began there in the late 1800s and a few years after Hagopian
came to America, nearly the entire population of 20,000 Armenians
living in Malatya was wiped out.

“Anybody with family coming from those two places would have been
really branded by the genocide,” says Peter Balakian, a humanities
and English professor at Colgate University and author of two books
on the Armenian Genocide.

As the newlyweds settled down briefly in Newark, New Jersey, tens of
thousands of genocide survivors were fleeing the killings and making
their way to the United States. A web of Armenian refugees had begun
to spread out across the world. They settled in major cities, from
Aleppo to Newark, which is where Victoria and Louis Hagopian had a
daughter named Clara in 1924.

A few years later the family moved to California. According to
the 1930 U.S. Census, Clara was raised by her mother and elderly
grandmother in San Francisco, where she met and married Paul Jobs,
a freshly decommissioned Coast Guard mechanic, in 1946.

The Armenian refugees were, for the most part, welcomed by Americans,
many of whom felt a shared Christian identity with the refugees and
were impressed by the newcomers’ entrepreneurial spirit. Indeed,
the refugee cause was the most famous of its time.

“It’s the largest NGO relief movement in U.S. history,” Balakian says.

“The Armenians were really a celebrated minority group.” Scholars
estimate that the American Committee for Relief in the Near East raised
the equivalent of $1.5 billion to assist the new refugees. And a film
about the genocide grossed a whooping $2 billion in today’s currency.

Future president Herbert Hoover was put in charge of relief efforts
for Europe, and was particularly passionate about the Armenians’
plight. “Probably Armenia was known to the school child in 1919 only
a little less than England,” Hoover wrote in his memoirs.

Not so much today. When Apple announced it would release its newest
product on April 24, leaders of the Armenian community were taken
by surprise. It seemed that the watch, which has spurred years of
breathless speculation, could easily overshadow news of the genocide
commemoration events. Apple did not respond to request for comment
for this article.

Jobs was viciously private and didn’t make public his ancestry or
engage in the genocide classification debate that Turkey continues to
dig its heels into. The Armenian church in Cupertino said that despite
multiple invitations, Jobs never got in touch with the area’s expat
community. But Jobs’ feelings about the killings became apparent on a
tense standoff during a luxurious Turkish vacation, according to the
tour guide who led the visit, and who later blogged about the incident.

In 2007, Jobs and his family traveled around Turkey on a private
yacht tour and spent 10 days visiting the country’s sites with guide
Asil Tuncer. It went smoothly until the last day, Tuncer told The
Daily Beast, when the group visited the Hagia Sophia. Once a Byzantine
church, it was later converted into a mosque during the Ottoman Empire,
and is now one of Istanbul’s must-see tourist destinations.

“What happened to all those Christians, suddenly gone like that?”

Tuncer recalls Jobs asking him as they gazed at the minarets. Then,
he reframed the question: “You, Muslims, what did you do to so many
Christians? You subjected 1.5 million Armenians to genocide. Tell us,
how did it happen?”

Tuncer says he felt trapped, unsure whether to answer with his opinion
or evade an argument in the polite manner he was trained to use as
a guide.

“To expect from a Turkish guide to accept that [question], even if
true, it’s not very good. For example, it’s like if I come to U.S. and
ask, ‘Tell me how, you killed the Indians?'” But he says Jobs insisted
he respond.

“First I said, ‘Sir, maybe these are not good things to talk on
Istanbul tour. Let’s have fun–this is your real purpose, to learn
about the buildings and history.’ He said, ‘No, no, no, I want to
hear your answer.”

“I said, ‘People kill each other, of course, this is a war, but it
is not deliberately genocide,'” he says he told him. “Then I tried
to be nice. So I did my best.”

Tuncer says Jobs’ face fell, and he looked “miserable.” Earlier in the
trip Tuncer says Job had described Apple’s vision for a tablet and
showed him the new laptops. But now his previously amiable demeanor
had changed.

Jobs cut the day short, deciding to return to the boat docked in
Istanbul’s port, and not finish out the last day of the visit. “He
was not happy with my answer, and maybe he didn’t feel very good
after. I can’t exactly say. He didn’t tell me. He just said I want
to go back to port.” (Jobs’ family has not publicly responded to
Tuncer’s account of the tour.)

Tuncer, who now works for a tour company called Legendary Journeys,
says the goodbye was chilly when he put the Jobs family on their
plane home. “This person coming from the diaspora, I don’t expect
he will say, ‘Oh yes you are right, I am wrong,'” he says. “He was
disappointed in my answer.”

“He didn’t have Armenian blood himself, but because of his mother,
he felt a great pull and affinity toward the fact she was, for all
intents and purposes, a genocide survivor,” says Phil Walotsky, the
spokesman for the Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee of America.

The Apple Watch release has rattled those who’ve spent months planning
for a commemoration they hope will finally bring about recognition
of the widespread killings by the Turkish government, which has
suppressed its ghost against a flood of international condemnation.

“Do we think Apple did this intentionally? Of course not,” says
Walotsky. “If Steve was still around or if this was brought to their
attention earlier–I’m sure there were folks in leadership who knew
about Steve’s background–would they have picked April 24? Probably
not.”

But he doesn’t blame Apple for the date overlap. The anniversary date
doesn’t carry the same weight as other dates do, and hasn’t sparked
any outcry as if the watch was being released on, say, Holocaust
Remembrance Day. “It doesn’t have same stickiness in American psyche
as other dates do,” says Walotsky.

Not everyone feels so benevolent. Benjamin Abtan, president of the
European Grassroots Antiracist Movement, is organizing a weekend
of events to commemorate the anniversary. “It cannot be by chance,”
he says of the Apple Watch release date. “It doesn’t mean there as
an intention to overshadow the Armenian genocide, but for all people
who know even little about the Armenian genocide, they know it’s a
very big day that everybody’s been expecting for a long time. The
date is very symbolic of this trauma.”

Abtan doesn’t expect the watch’s release will push out news of his
efforts to get the Turkish government to recognize the genocide,
but he’s already been disappointed by the American media’s coverage
of the tragedy.

Still, Walotsky says he considers it lucky that Apple decided not
to release the watch with its typical line-around-the-block shopping
frenzy. “In terms of being the second story that day, at least that
gives us a chance of having a little equal footing in terms of being
able to educate people about this and ensure the mainstream media is
reporting on this,” he says.

Walotsky hopes that tomorrow, Apple will make an effort to pay tribute
to its founder’s heritage and the strangely aligned anniversary. With
Tim Cook’s advocacy around LGBT issues, and Apple’s environmentally
conscious campaigns, he says it’s not difficult to imagine the
image-conscious company paying tribute.

“Maybe in a strange way the launch of the watch brings more attention
to the anniversary,” he says.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/23/apple-s-armenian-genocide-problem.html
http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/04/23/steve-jobs-took-the-armenian-genocide-personally/

If A Person Cannot Recognize Genocide, He Cannot Be Called Human: Gi

IF A PERSON CANNOT RECOGNIZE GENOCIDE, HE CANNOT BE CALLED HUMAN: GIANLUCA MARCIANÃ’

12:59, 23 April, 2015

YEREVAN, 23 APRIL, ARMENPRESS: If a person cannot recognize genocide,
he cannot be called human. The famous director Gianluca Marcianò is
certain that all the people are first human beings and have values
and if the concert of 24/04 band is considered political, he is not
afraid of anything.

“This concert is very important not only for Armenia, but also for the
whole world, as we commemorate the first genocide of the 20th century.

We all should remember it. I am taking part in the concert by the
invitation of my good friend, maestro Smbatyan. I cooperated with the
orchestra, conducted by him and invited the State Youth Orchestra of
Armenia to Beirut to take part in my festival “Al Bustan”. This year
we devoted the concerts to the centennial of the Armenian Genocide”,
– stressed Gianluca Marcianò, Armenpress reports.

http://armenpress.am/eng/news/802969/if-a-person-cannot-recognize-genocide-he-cannot-be-called-human-gianluca-marcian%C3%B2.html

Exhibition Titled "Armenians On Front Pages Of World Press: 100 Year

EXHIBITION TITLED “ARMENIANS ON FRONT PAGES OF WORLD PRESS: 100 YEARS AGO” HELD IN PACE

14:08, 23 April, 2015

YEREVAN, APRIL 23, ARMENPRESS. On April 22 within the framework of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) the opening of
the exhibition titled “The Armenians in the First Pages of the World
Press: 100 Years Ago” was held. The collection of the photos presents
the reflection of the world press of the beginning of the last century.

The Information and Public Relations Department of the National
Assembly of the Republic of Armenia informed “Armenpress” that the PACE
President Anne Brasseur, the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers
of the Council of Europe, the Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium Didier
Reynders, the PACE Secretary General W. Sawicki, Heads of delegations
of numerous countries: R. Rouquet (France), M.

Nicoletti (Italy), R. Walter (United Kingdom), M. Mateu Pi (Andorra),
the Chairman of the PACE Monitoring Committee Stefan Schennach,
heads of other Committees, political groups, representatives of
numerous countries from Greece, Spain, Lithuania, Poland, Serbia,
Norway and others, from the PACE Staff, Secretariat, European Court
of Human Rights, Armenian community in Strasbourg took part in the
opening of the exhibition.

The PACE President Anne Brasseur and the Head of the Armenian
Delegation to the PACE, the NA Deputy Speaker welcomed the attendees
with opening remarks, after which the participants observed the
materials of the exhibition, which were provided by the Armenian
Genocide Museum. The exhibition was organized on the initiative of
the RA NA Delegation and the RA Representation.

In the exhibition from the distance of hundred years the truth
about the tragic events of the beginning of the century once again
was voiced and presented, which as some people seek to characterize
in other words, not using the term genocide, nevertheless, numerous
countries and international organizations call the things with their
name. Its evidence is also the statement signed by about 190 PACE
members which today the RA Delegation has already officially handed
to the PACE Office and after being revised in accordance with the
requirements of the statute it will be posted in the PACE website.

The Head of the Armenian Delegation to the PACE, the NA Deputy Speaker
Hermine Naghdalyan has addressed her gratitude to all the states and
colleagues who are next to Armenia and with their presence confirm
that they are the apologists of the principles and goals declared by
the CoE, but also of their implementation.

We present Hermine Naghdalyan’s full speech below:

“Dear Madam President,

Honorable Members of the Assembly,

I want to express my deep gratitude to Madam Brasseur, the Secretariat
of the Parliamentary Assembly and all those who have contributed to
the organization of this exhibition.

Today, we have gathered here, under the PACE roof to open the
exhibition – ‘Armenians on the Front Pages of the World Press.’ But I
want to believe and assure you that the photos , reflecting Armenians
on the front pages of the world press of the last century , will
not be an ordinary and serial exhibition. These photos, in reality,
have a tragic and explosive story; they represent the history of the
tragedy of my nation from the distance of 100 years – sometimes in
an obvious manner, sometimes with pretext. This is a tragedy , which
puts the world into two parts up to present. We are grateful to those
international organizations and countries, who had the courage to
name the massacres and deportations of the 1.5mln Armenian s on the
territory of the Ottoman Empire , from 1894 to 1923 in the right way .

They name these acts as genocide; they condemned and still condemn
not only the first genocide committed in the last century, but also
the denial of the genocide , which we face during this century. We,
the Members of th e A ssembly, who declared human rights to be the
supreme value, have no right to ignore the natural right of nations
and people s , their right to life, the forcible violation of which
is genocide, including deprivation of the homeland and property,
harassment against the identity, let alone the physical destruction.

I am grateful to all my colleagues who are here today, with the D
elegation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia . Y
our presence proves the fact that you are not only mere apologists
of the principles and objectives declared by the Council of Europe ,
but you are also apologists for the realization of these principles and
objectives. You defend your views not only by words, but also through
certain activities. Of course, I do not think that these photos with
100 years of history will have a revolutionary impact, will change
the world view and perceptions of those who treat the history as a
tool for their daily interests and objectives, as well as of those
who manipulate and change the history adjusting it to their problems.

However, I do believe that those who have eyes and the desire to see
will see the real history in these photos and will also understand
what is missing in them.

We are grateful to all those states who during the most severe days
of our tragedy, through their humanitarian foundations, benefactors
and governmental authorities, saved the Armenian orphans from death,
famine and turning into Turks by becoming a motherland for them. We
are grateful to those few Turks and Kurds , who se names are kept
or not in the records of history , who , risking their lives , acted
against the instructions of their state power and government and lent
a helping hand to Armenian people.

The history of the G enocide is a painful chronicle and we all should
have enough strength and political will to read its pages. When Hasan
Cemal, the grandson of one of the main organizers of the G enocide,
Ahmet Cemal, writes and publishes a book entitled “1915. Armenian
Genocide,” it gives hope that such exhibition s can be held in Turkey
as well. This will be a step towards the recognition of own history
which, first of all, need the citizens of Turkey.

Several days ago Pope Francis spoke on the Armenian killings as
the first genocide of the 20th century and urged the international
community to recognize it as such. This is an important signal.

More than 190 members of our Assembly also commemorated the Genocide,
joining the statement on the Genocide Centennial in written form. We
are grateful.

This exhibition reveals that no matter how long time shall pass,
we will remember and we will demand.

Crimes committed against humanity cannot be statute-barred.”

http://armenpress.am/eng/news/802991/exhibition-titled-armenians-on-front-pages-of-world-press-100-years-ago-held-in-pace.html

Notre Dame Cathedral Of Paris, Christ The Savior Cathedral Of Moscow

NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL OF PARIS, CHRIST THE SAVIOR CATHEDRAL OF MOSCOW TO JOIN ‘100 BELL TOLLS OF REMEMBRANCE’ CEREMONY

Notre Dame Cathedral of Paris and Christ the Savior Cathedral of
Moscow will also join the ‘100 Bell Tolls of Remembrance’ ceremony
dedicated to the Armenian Genocide centenary on Thursday, Haykakan
Zhamanak reports citing well-informed sources.

Hundreds of churches all over the world, together with the Armenian
churches, will toll their bells 100 times on Thursday evening in memory
of the victims of Armenian Genocide. The famous Cologne Cathedral is
also likely to participate.

23.04.15, 13:46

http://www.aysor.am/en/news/2015/04/23/Notre-Dame-Cathedral-of-Paris-Christ-the-Savior-Cathedral-of-Moscow-to-join-100-Bell-Tolls-of-Remembrance%E2%80%99-ceremony/940087

Nouvelles Reconnaissances Du Genocide Armenien

NOUVELLES RECONNAISSANCES DU GENOCIDE ARMENIEN

ARMENIE

La presse armenienne continue de commenter la messe celebree au
Vatican le 12 avril, se demandant si les propos du pape Francois
ayant qualifie le Genocide armenien de > aura un effet de >, donnant lieu a de
nouvelles reconnaissances du Genocide armenien. Sont rapportes les
propos du President turc Erdogan, qui a denonce les propos du pape en
evoquant des > : . Les deputes tchèques condamnent egalement la negation des
genocides. Le Comite tchèque se base egalement sur la reconnaissance
du Genocide armenien par les parlements de divers pays au monde dont
l’Uruguay, le Canada, la France, la Suède etc.

Ce 15 avril, le Parlement europeen devait debattre et mettre au vote
une resolution visant a commemorer le 100ème anniversaire du Genocide
armenien. Pour memoire, le 12 mars, le Parlement europeen avait
appele et encourage tous les Etats membres a contribuer davantage a
la reconnaissance du Genocide armenien.

Extrait de la revue de presse de l’Ambassade de France en Armenie en
date du 15 avril 2015

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

http://www.armenews.com/article.php3?id_article=110338

Genocide Was Loss Not Only For Armenians – European Official

GENOCIDE WAS LOSS NOT ONLY FOR ARMENIANS – EUROPEAN OFFICIAL

13:35 * 22.04.15

The Council of Europe’s secretary general expressed his deep sorrow
for the tragedy of the Armenian Genocide committed 100 years ago,
considering the condemnable crime a loss not only for Armenia but
also the entire world.

“I am sad, I am thinking about those people who lost their lives
during that tragedy. I am excited to be here. I am from Fridtjof
Nansen’s country, and I am even more excited in this connection,”
Thorbjørn Jagland said at the International Social and Political
Global Forum against the Crime of Genocide.

He called for active efforts by the international community towards
reaffirming the responsibility in the campaign against the violation of
human rights. He said world countries’ efforts towards the prevention
of genocides and the international community’s support to the process
should be based upon the core principles and values of the United
Nations.

Commenting upon the developments in Syria, the European official
said it is incredible for them to see that such a violence is still
possible in a country in the 21st century.

He said that the Council attaches a high values to Armenia’s support in
the global anti-xenophobia campaign, especially in the fight against
racism. Mr Thorbjørn said he sees that the Armenian people do exactly
what people in the other countries expect.

Describing Armenia as a state inspiring great hope, the European
official noted that the nation managed to turn its suffering into
something powerful which the world eye-witnessed over the past week.

http://www.tert.am/en/news/2015/04/22/Thorbjorn-Jagland/1653902

Turquie : Genocidaire Et Sans Remords

TURQUIE : GENOCIDAIRE ET SANS REMORDS

REVUE DE PRESSE
Alors que de très nombreux pays dans le monde s’appretent a souligner
le 24 avril le 100e anniversaire du genocide armenien, l’attitude
de la Turquie montre pourquoi ce crime contre l’humanite doit etre
puni sevèrement.

Pendant que les petits enfants des survivants du genocide de 1915
perpetre contre les Armeniens organisent une commemoration pacifique
a Istanbul le 24 avril, le premier ministre turc Ahmet Davutoglu
nie que l’Empire ottoman ait organise le massacre systematique de sa
population armenienne pendant la Première Guerre mondiale. Pourtant,
les preuves du genocide qui a lieu d’avril 1915 a juillet 1916 sont
ecrasantes et indeniables. Le ministre de l’Interieur, Talaat Pacha,
avait alors utilise les tout derniers developpements technologiques
du temps, soit le telegraphe pour envoyer a tous les gouverneurs
ottomans des provinces d’Anatolie l’ordre de deporter ou de massacrer
sa population armenienne. Les hommes son assassine dès que les
convois sont suffisamment loin des villages et leurs corps sont jetes
dans l’Euphrate ou brûles dans des grottes. D’autres Armeniens sont
obliges de faire des marches forcees dans le desert et y meurent de
la manière la plus atroce. Si le gouvernement ottoman s’est employe
a systematiquement eliminer toute preuve du genocide, les rapports
des survivants, de nombreux temoins et diplomates qui sont presents
sur les lieux des massacres montrent le processus genocidaire.

Ce n’est pas pour rien que le 24 avril a ete choisi pour celebrer ce
centenaire. C’est qu’a cette date en 1915 sont arrete et assassines
froidement a Constantinople plus de 2300 intellectuels Armeniens. Bien
que les exactions contre les Armeniens aient commence a moindre echelle
a la fin du 20e siècle, cette date marque cependant le commencement
d’un genocide structure et execute avec precision. Le Pape Francois
a designe au cours d’une messe solennelle a Rome, ce massacre des
Armeniens comme le premier genocide du 20e siècle.

Quelques jours plus tard, soit le mercredi 15 avril, le Parlement
europeen adoptait a son tour une resolution sur le centenaire
du genocide armenien. Cette resolution venait a la suite de deux
precedentes interventions dans ce dossier. Le 18 juin 1987, ce meme
Parlement avait vote une resolution qui demandait une solution
politique a la question armenienne et voyait comme un obstacle a
l’examen d’une eventuelle adhesion le refus du gouvernement turc de
reconnaître ce genocide. Une autre resolution sur l’ouverture des
negociations d’adhesion avec la Turquie votee le 28 septembre 2005
l’appelait aussi a reconnaître le genocide des Armeniens comme un
prealable a l’adhesion a l’Union europeenne. Ce refus de regarder la
realite en face vient de loin. L’historien turc, Taner Akcam, montre
que le père de la Turquie moderne creee en 1923, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk,
a decide de proteger des tribunaux locaux les dirigeants qui avaient
fait ce massacre des Armeniens.

Entre 1,2 million et 1,5 million d’Armeniens de l’Empire ottoman
seront assassines lors de ce genocide. Sa commemoration n’est pas
l’affaire uniquement des Turcs et des Armeniens, mais de l’humanite
entière. Pourtant, la Turquie semble croire qu’il lui suffit de lancer
quelques insultes sur la scène internationale pour faire oublier
le passe. Un editorialiste d’un quotidien proche du regime a meme
accuse les Europeens de mener une guerre contre la Turquie en parlant
de guerres de religion et rappelant la sanglante histoire coloniale
de plusieurs pays europeens. Cette situation n’est pas nouvelle et
se perpetue dans le temps. Rappelons qu’un journaliste et ecrivain
turc d’origine armenienne Hrant Dink a ete assassine le 19 janvier
2007 par un nationaliste turc de 17 ans. Dire que de reconnaître le
genocide armenien de 1915 symbolise la montee du racisme en Europe est
pourtant une insulte a l’intelligence humaine. En arrivant a triturer
les chiffres au maximum, la Turquie est tout de meme obligee d’admettre
qu’elle a ete la cause de la mort d’un demi-million d’Armeniens. Selon
les dirigeants de ce pays, ces decès seraient survenus sans intention
malveillante. Cette question depasse desormais la seule question
turco-armenienne. C’est un signe du racisme qui persiste parmi une
certaine classe de citoyens en Turquie face aux Armeniens.

Par chance, les commemorations commencent a s’organiser dans le monde
entier. Près de 170 000 membres de la communaute armenienne de Los
Angeles devraient manifester le 24 avril pour souligner ce centenaire.

À l’heure actuelle, 23 pays ont d’ailleurs officiellement reconnu
le genocide armenien. D’autres comme l’Allemagne reconnaissent le
massacre sans cependant le considerer comme un genocide. Pourtant,
les Nations unies definissent le terme de genocide comme un acte
commis dans l’intention de detruire en tout ou en partie un groupe
national, ethnique, racial ou religieux. Le meurtre calcule de plus
d’un million d’individus entre pleinement dans cette definition. La
Turquie a pu s’en tirer jusqu’a maintenant sans avoir a affronter les
consequences de cet ignoble crime contre l’humanite. Dire qu’il faut
laisser l’Histoire aux historiens comme le fait le president turc
Recep Tayyip Erdogan est refuser qu’elle puisse aider a prendre de
meilleures decisions dans le futur. Pourrait-on voir dans l’aide de
ce pays a l’Etat islamique et dans son attitude actuelle face a ses
Kurdes une consequence de cette impunite que ses dirigeants croient
avoir face aux droits de l’homme ?

Michel Gourd

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

http://www.lematindz.net/news/17224-turquie-genocidaire-et-sans-remords.html
http://www.armenews.com/article.php3?id_article=110622

La Negation Du Genocide Des Armeniens Brutalise Le Monde Entier

LA NEGATION DU GENOCIDE DES ARMENIENS BRUTALISE LE MONDE ENTIER

1915-2015

Publie le 17 avril 2015

The World Post

par Stefan Ihrig

Traduction Gilbert Beguian

Jerusalem – J’ai cette petite soeur armenienne imaginaire. En fait,
elle est votre petite soeur a vous aussi – tout comme nous en avons
tous une âgee de 8 ans dans cette Syrie qui craint pour sa vie, toutes
ces dernières annees. Après tout, nous sommes tous des etres humains.

Ma petite soeur imaginaire a quatre ans et demi ; elle n’arrete pas
de parler ; se perd souvent dans ses pensees ; pour des raisons qui
m’echappent, elle n’aime pas les pains au raisin ; et pour des raisons
que je comprends encore moins, elle est morte au debut de 1916.

Personne ne lui a mis un pistolet sur la tempe, ne l’a executee ; elle
n’avait tout simplement rien a manger, ne recevait aucun soin ou ne
pouvait nulle part etre a l’abri. Elle a juste ete balayee. Je ne peux
me defaire de l’idee de sa mort et de ses souffrances, meme si je le
veux, meme s’il le faut. Je dois me rappeler d’elle et je dois honorer
sa memoire, sa vie et sa mort. Et il y a aussi cet enfant syrien dont
il faut se soucier – a moins que volontairement, on l’ignore.

Le problème est que je n’arrive pas en faire le deuil parce que
ma petite soeur armenienne n’en finit pas de mourir encore et
encore. Nous – nous et notre soeur armenienne – en sommes restes
aux annees 1915-1916. Le negationnisme turc – et celui de ses amis
internationaux ne nous laisseront pas en paix, elle et nous (Il n’y
a qu’a visiter le site du Ministre des affaires etrangères turc sur
ce sujet). D’après le negationnisme turc, “Il n’est pas sûr qu’elle
soit morte. Bon, peut-etre est-elle morte mais c’est de sa faute
parce que les Armeniens etaient en rebellion contre l’etat “.

Il a dû y avoir une forme de guerre particulière parce que des enfants
de quatre ans et les vieillards allaient jusqu’a menacer l’existence
meme d’un empire qui avait ete puissant, au point qu’il est apparu
legitime de les tuer, en “legitime defense”. Et deja a partir de la,
on discerne la futilite du discours negationniste. Il ne s’agit pas
ici de l’excuse militaire a la mode de “dommage collateral”. Non,
ma soeur armenienne, ensemble avec les autres soeurs, frères,
grands-pères et grands-mères, ont ete rassembles et deportes afin
qu’ils puissent mourir. Je ne cesse de regarder les images connues
qu’Armin T. Wegner, ecrivain allemand et ancien medecin militaire de
l’Empire ottoman, nous a laissees – des images qui sont aujourd’hui
autant de symboles du Genocide des Armeniens. Et dans mes oreilles,
resonnent ces voix inquietantes qui me disent qu’il est parfaitement
justifie de tuer ma petite soeur armenienne…

En tant qu’historien travaillant sur les informations et les debats
qui eurent lieu a propos de Genocide des Armeniens pendant la Première
Guerre Mondiale et dans les annees 1920, je ne comprends toujours pas
que les debats, cent ans plus tard, aient si peu progresse – en fait,
ils ont regulièrement regresse. Une preuve flagrante s’est manifestee
cette semaine par deux avancees improbables : le Pape Francois et Kim
Kardashian. Que les reconnaissances du genocide par le pape et par
le voyage de Kim Kardashian en Armenie soient a ce point mediatisees
et soient qualifiees de grand “desastre de relations publiques pour
la Turquie” demontre que quelque chose etait terriblement faux tout
au long du siècle passe.

Au lieu de simplement interpreter comme une victoire le fait d’y avoir
consenti, il faut se demander pourquoi cela a pris autant de temps au
Vatican, pourquoi il a cede pendant aussi longtemps au negationnisme,
et pourquoi sur ce point, il a abandonne le monde et les Armeniens. Et
en outre, il faut insister sur le fait que Kim Kardashian s’etait
deja employee a faire connaître le Genocide des Armeniens – marquant
des points moraux bien avant le Vatican. Nous, ma soeur armenienne, le
monde et les negationnistes – avons joue ce jeu pervers qui consistait
a tolerer et a nier pendant aussi longtemps ; beaucoup trop longtemps.

“Le Genocide des Armeniens est un evenement de l’histoire non admis
dans l’histoire. Il affleure en permanence dans le present sans que
l’histoire lui menage une place en propre”.

Prenons par exemple, l’Allemagne du debut des annees 1920, où il y
eut, un temps, une large acceptation de l’allegation du “meurtre d’une
nation” commis par les dirigeants ottomans pendant la Première Guerre
Mondiale. Une partie des documents diplomatiques allemands concernant
le Genocide des Armeniens ont ete rendus publics dès 1919. Dans leur
forme developpee, ils ont ete rendus publics a nouveau et peuvent
facilement etre traduits en anglais ou lus en ligne. Ne serait-ce
qu’au vu de ces documents, issus de l’allie ottoman de la Première
guerre Mondiale, il est impossible de ne pas employer le mot “g”.

Mais revenons sur les annees 1920 et l’Allemagne : ces documents
diplomatiques ont ete largement discutes. Beaucoup d’experts ont ecrit
leur propre article pour des journaux, et après quelque resistance
d’anciens militaires et de commentateurs de droite, le constat
et l’accusation – “meurtre d’une nation” – se sont affirmes. Mais
par la suite, les anciens negationnistes (des Allemands) lancèrent
ne nouvelle contre-attaque, et le debat pris fin dans son ensemble
avec la publication d’essais justifiant le genocide (en soi). Puis,
plus tard, arrivèrent Hitler, une autre guerre mondiale et un crime
contre l’humanite encore plus grand.

Le Genocide des Armeniens est un element d’histoire auquel l’entree
l’histoire est interdite. Il fait constamment surface dans le
present sans que l’histoire ne l’intègre. Le negationnisme turc
empeche constamment – evenements de la Première Guerre Mondiale dans
l’empire ottoman, les victimes et les auteurs, leurs descendants, leurs
etats successeurs et leurs diasporas – de trouver quelque paix. Non
seulement les Armeniens et les Turcs aujourd’hui, mais aussi le
premier grand genocide du 20ème siècle – une part particulière de
notre histoire du monde – est encore tenu en otage dans une lutte
perverse pour etablir des verites les plus elementaires qui ont ete
deja ete etablies maintes fois.

Pour quelques universitaires, la negation est la dernière etape d’un
genocide. Mais dans le cas armenien, il est une partie integrante
de son deroulement. Depuis 1915, le monde a assiste a un combat
morbide sur la “verite”, qui en fait est un combat sur le droit de
commettre un genocide, le negationnisme turc ayant enormement depasse
son objectif. Il diffère des autres negationnismes de genocide en ce
qu’il objecte en justifiant tout ce qui a pu se passer. Pendant cent
ans – periodiquement, dans la presse de toutes les principales nations
autour du monde, lorsque quelqu’un d’important osait le mot “g”, on
donnait a des generations entières d’humains les raisons expliquant
en quoi le premier genocide important du 20ème siècle ne meritait pas
qu’on s’en rappelle, qu’il etait tout simplement necessaire qu’il soit
commis, et que les victimes etaient responsables de leur propre sort.

La culpabilite des auteurs de 1915-1916 est claire ; la culpabilite
de ceux qui perpetuent la justification du genocide devant l’humanite
est au-dela de tout entendement.

Après les horreurs contre les Armeniens de 1894-1896 sous Abdul
Hamid II (sultan de l’Empire Ottoman a ce moment-la), Martin Rade, un
militant allemand protestant pro-armenien, avait reflechi sur la facon
dont la presse allemande avait excuse et justifie la violence contre
les Armeniens. Certains avaient meme recouru au terme allemand employe
pour “genocide”, bien avant que Raphaël Lemkin ait cree son terme.

Rade etait inquiet des effets que le recours systematique aux
justifications de massacres de masse dans la sphère publique pourraient
avoir sur les Allemands ordinaires, exposes pendant des annees aux
articles de la presse allemande. Il ecrivait :

Il est impossible d’evaluer quel effet aura sur les generations
d’hommes a venir, la facon dont la societe et la presse traitent des
horreurs subies par les Armeniens. Ils apprennent a adorer une idole
d’opportunisme et de realisme politique, qui, investie du pouvoir,
se sentira libre de toute consideration noble.[1]

Presque 120 ans après les avertissements que Rade avait exprimes, il
nous faut marquer une pause et reflechir sur ce qu’une confrontation
avec le negationnisme du genocide et les justifications de genocide
ont fait a toutes les generations d’humains qui se sont succedees
entre-temps. Cela a ete un bruit de fond permanent tout au long
du sanglant 20ème siècle, chuchotant dans nos oreilles qu’on peut
s’affranchir d’un genocide, qu’il peut meme etre accepte de le
commettre.

Chaque fois que dans le monde, quelqu’un de quelque importance
emploie le mot “g”, le negationnisme turc y repond, et ma petite
soeur armenienne doit mourir a nouveau. Englues pendant un siècle
dans le cycle infernal du genocide, il est plus que temps pour nous
tous d’employer le mot “g” et de conjurer le sort une fois pour toutes.

[1] Martin Rade dans Christliche Welt (1896) tel que cite dans Axel
Meissner, “Martin Rades ‘Christiche Welt’ und Armenien” (Berlin 2010),
p. 80

mercredi 22 avril 2015, Jean Eckian (c)armenews.com

http://www.armenews.com/article.php3?id_article=110685

Vatican To Be Absent From Gallipoli Events

VATICAN TO BE ABSENT FROM GALLIPOLI EVENTS

13:18, 22 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

The Holy See will not be represented at the commemoration ceremonies
for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli on April 24-25,
officials from the Vatican Embassy in Ankara told daily Hurriyet on
April 21,

Vatican Embassy officials cited “the cardinal’s unwellness” as
the reason the Vatican would be absent. The name of the Cardinal
President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace had been
on the participant lists for the ceremonies updated by the Turkish
Foreign Ministry on April 10.

Bilateral relations between Turkey and the Vatican were strained when
Pope Francis defined the 1915 mass killings of Anatolian Armenians as
“genocide” during a Sunday mass earlier this month.

http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/04/22/vatican-to-be-absent-from-gallipoli-events/