MARONITE PATRIARCH AL-RAHI TO TRAVEL TO ARMENIA FOR GENOCIDE CENTENNIAL
11:14, 21 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi is scheduled to travel to Armenia on
Tuesday to attend the centenary commemoration of the Armenian genocide,
Nahmet reports.
Delegations from more than 60 countries are expected to attend the
centennial commemoration events in Armenia.
TURKEY ‘LOST BATTLE WITH TRUTH’ OVER GENOCIDE – ACADEMIC
10:45 * 21.04.15
Turkey has lost the battle with truth over its refusal to acknowledge
the mass killings of Armenians during World War I as genocide, a
Turkish academic who helped break a long-standing taboo on the issue
said, according to AFP.
Cengiz Aktar was one of four Turkish intellectuals who in 2008 launched
a campaign known as “Ozur Diliyoruz” (“I Apologise”) calling for a
collective apology for the “great catastrophe” inflicted on Armenians
from 1915.
Armenians in Armenia and the diaspora will on April 24 mark the 100th
anniversary of what they see as the start of a campaign of genocide
by Ottoman forces in World War I to wipe them out of Anatolia.
But Turkey to this day has vehemently denied any genocide took place
and the Turkish state can in theory under the penal code prosecute
anyone who dares to do so.
“I think that Turkey has lost its battle with truth,” Aktar, a
political scientist at the private Sabanci university in Istanbul
told AFP in an interview.
“No-one believes any more in this primitive negationism. The skeleton
is so big that it just won’t go back in the cupboard.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last year presented Armenians with
unprecedented condolences for a shared tragedy but Aktar said it does
not seem that the government is prepared to go any further.
“This was better than nothing but it is still very far from what the
crimes committed in 1915 requires.”
Aktar credits Erdogan, who has dominated Turkey for over a decade,
with ending many of the taboos in Turkey but said that on the Armenian
issue “he stopped on the way”.
“What is lacking in Turkey is a visionary person who is prepared to
tackle this question head on.
“The sole aim of the government in the year 2015 is to limit its
losses,” he said.
Aktar said that one of the main problems was with education, saying
many Turks do not know what happened and some use the word “Armenian”
as an insult.
“And when there is some education it is so misguided and falsified
that it is an insult,” he added.
AFTER 100 YEARS, TURKEY SHOULD ACKNOWLEDGE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
12:39 21/04/2015 >> SOCIETY
Thestar.com editorial
After 100 years, it is now widely accepted as the first genocide of
the modern era. The killing of as many as 1.5 million Armenians in
Ottoman Turkey that began in April, 1915, was a stain on the conscience
of humanity, the first such horror in a century that would sadly see
many more.
Here in Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government recognizes
the genocide, and Parliament passed resolutions more than a decade
ago condemning it as a crime against humanity.
As Armenians the world over mark the 100th anniversary on Friday of
the beginning of the “great catastrophe,” they know that the mass
slaughter and expulsion that their community suffered as the First
World War raged has gained iconic status as a crime of monstrous
proportions. Nazi leader Adolph Hitler may have believed that few
would remember the Armenian tragedy, but history has proved him wrong.
Just this past week Pope Francis used his powerful pulpit to urge
world leaders to recognize the genocide, saying that “concealing
or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without
bandaging it.” The Pope alluded, as well, to the current persecution
of Christians by Islamic State jihadists and other radicals in places
such as Syria, Iraq and Nigeria. Even so, his remarks predictably
infuriated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government. It
recalled its envoy to the Vatican and accused the Pope of fanning
hatred with baseless claims.
As the Star’s Olivia Ward wrote on Saturday, the Turkish government
has always maintained the claim that the Armenian “tragedy,” while
terrible, has been exaggerated, and was a byproduct of an ugly civil
war as the Ottoman Empire disintegrated. But diplomats at the time were
shocked by the sheer scale of the suffering of two million Christian
Armenians in what is now eastern Turkey. They faced mass deportation,
death marches, starvation, executions, torture and rape.
To one American diplomat it looked like a systematic bid to crush
the Armenian race.
The Armenian tragedy proved to be just the first of several in a 20th
century drenched in the blood of two world wars and state-sanctioned
mass slaughter.
The singular evil of the Shoah, the Holocaust, towers above the rest.
Hitler’s Nazi killing machine murdered 6 million Jews seeking to
annihilate an entire people. But millions of Ukrainians died in
Joseph Stalin’s man-made famines. In Cambodia the Khmer Rouge killed
millions. And nearly a million perished in Rwanda and Bosnia.
Modern Turkey is a democratic, advanced state and a valued ally
of Canada and the rest of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
alliance. The Ottoman Empire is long gone and Turkish people today
have no such blood on their hands. With the hindsight of a century,
they should be able to come to terms with past events, however painful.
Yet, discouragingly, the Turkish government continues to attack any
and all who dare utter the word genocide. In Erdogan’s mind, “it
is out of the question for there to be a stain or a shadow called
genocide on Turkey.” That perversely casts Turkey in the role of
victim. That simply doesn’t stand serious scrutiny. Modern scholarship
has documented a campaign by Mehmed Talat Pasha and his regime against
the Armenians, who were regarded as pro-Russian enemies from within,
at a time when Turkey was allied with Germany against Russia.
Turkey’s current leadership, innocent of century-old crimes, should
recognize that their country’s international standing is suffering by
their corrosive refusal to come to grips with the past. The European
Parliament has just made that very case, urging Turkey “to come to
terms with its past, to recognize the Armenian genocide and thus to
pave the way for a genuine reconciliation between the Turkish and
Armenian peoples.” That reconciliation is long overdue. It’s time to
look history squarely in the face, or be haunted by a terrible wrong.
TERM “GENOCIDE” USED SEVERAL TIMES IN BUNDESTAG’S TEXT NEW ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION DRAFT
19:27, 21 April, 2015
YEREVAN, 21 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. The term “genocide” is mentioned
several times in the text of the new Armenian Genocide Centennial
Resolution posted on the official website of the German Bundestag. As
“Armenpress” reports, the preliminary agenda and schedule for the
April 24th session has also been posted.
The plenary session devoted to the discussion on the Armenian Genocide
will start on April 24 at exactly 9:00 in Germany. The session will
last an hour, during which members of the German Bundestag’s largest
political parties (Christian-Democratic Union/Christian-Socialist
Union, Social-Democratic Party of Germany and the Left-Wings Party).
The speeches will be followed by a voting for the draft of the Armenian
Genocide Resolution with the term “genocide” and with a justification
stating the point of the Convention by which the massacres perpetrated
in the Ottoman Empire will be referred to as “genocide”.
Unlike France and other countries having recognized the Armenian
Genocide, Germany had been opposing usage of the term “genocide”
for a long time. The change of Germany’s position comes after the
statements that Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic
of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s
speaker Steffen Seibert made on April 20. On April 20, the Chancellor’s
speaker announced that the government would support the resolution
to be submitted to the Bundestag on April 24, declaring the events
of 1915 as an example of genocide.
IRI MAJLIS MP OF ARMENIAN ORIGIN CALLS ON IRANIAN AUTHORITIES TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
17:41 21/04/2015 >> REGION
The Armenians of Iran call on the Iranian authorities to recognize
the Armenian Genocide, said the IRI Majlis MP of Armenian origin,
Karen Khanlaryan, according to the Iranian news agency IRIB.
During his speech in Majlis, the Armenian MP referred to the policy of
denial that Turkey conducts regarding the Armenian Genocide. “Turkey
has committed genocide against Kurds and Muslim Alevis over the past
years. Today Iran is one of those few countries in the region, where
no massacre or encroachment has been committed. Various ethnic groups
and religious minorities live peacefully in this country,” he said.
Karen Khanlaryan also spoke about the Centennial of the Armenian
Genocide and presented the demands of the Iranian Armenian community
adding that the Armenians of Iran call on the Iranian authorities to
officially recognize the Armenian Genocide.
Earlier, the IRI Majlis Iranian-Armenian MP told the Iranian
information agency ISNA that the most important objective of the
Armenian community in Iran is the issue of the Armenian Genocide. He
said that 40 per cent of the Iranian Armenians are the descendants
of the Genocide victims.
As regards the number of the adherents of the Armenian Apostolic
Church, he said, “98-99 per cent of the Iranian Armenians are adherents
of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and 1-2 percent are Catholic and
Protestant Churches’ adherents. Today, 13-14 million Armenians live
all over the world, including the population of Armenia. There are
about 100 thousand adherents of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Iran.”
The Armenian Apostolic Church in Iran comprises three dioceses:
those of Atrpatakan, Tehran and Isfahan. The interests of the
Iranian Armenians in the IRI Majlis are represented by two MPs –
Karen Khanlaryan and Robert Beglaryan.
Related:
Iranian Turkic-speaking Azaris condemn Turkish government for not
recognizing Armenian Genocide
Iranian-Armenian students send open letter to Hassan Rouhani urging
to recognize Armenian Genocide
EXPOSITION > A LA MAIRIE DU 9E A PARIS – PHOTOS
CENTENAIRE DU GENOCIDE
Delphine Burkli Maire du 9e arrondissement, Conseillère de Paris
Alexis Govciyan Premier adjoint charge du respect de l’espace public,
de la securite publique, de la mediation, de la memoire et du monde
combattant.
et Alain Kremenetzky Delegue general d’Europe de la Memoire
vous invitent au vernissage de l’exposition
“Temoigner de ces vies” de Francine Mayran
Mercredi 22 avril a 18h30 dans les Salons Aguado de la Mairie du Neuf
6 rue Drouot – Paris
?u=ce4878e33770adfe30e066849&id=6c97fbca46&e=3c52a8a7a4
Exceptionnellement enrichie de nouvelles toiles memoires de la Shoah,
des genocide armenien et Tutsi cette exposition se situe dans la
continuite du parcours europeen entrepris par l’artiste.
du 16 avril au 2 mai
en presence de survivants
Mairie du 9̬me arrondissement- Salons Aguado 6 rue Drouot Р75009 Paris
Elle y dedicacera son livre “Temoigner de ces vies -Peindre la memoire”
(Places limitees. Inscription necessaire chez [email protected]
ou au 0171377502)
________________________________
l’artiste sera aussi presente pour vous accueillir et vous faire
partager son travail
jeudi 23 avril de 10h a 17h et samedi 2 mai de 9h a 13h
D’autres oeuvres sur son site :
mardi 21 avril 2015, Ara (c)armenews.com
JOURNAL DIE WELT : NI UN ACCIDENT, NI UNE COINCIDENCE, MAIS UN GENOCIDE
ALLEMAGNE
Extrait du journal Die Welt
“il y a deux semaines pour l’ambassadeur de Turquie a Berlin, tout
etait en ordre. Après de nombreuses discussions avec les secretaires
d’Etat, de hauts fonctionnaires et des membres des partis de la
coalition Huseyin Avni Karslioglu a ete rassure qu’au niveau de
la “question armenienne” rien n’allait bouger. Karslioglu a eu
l’impression que le gouvernement federal et le Bundestag etaient
determines a ne pas toucher le plus grand tabou historique turc et
la politique etrangère allemande.
Au lieu de qualifier l’assassinat de plus d’un million de chretiens de
>, les termes “massacre et l’expulsion” etaient preferes
par respect pour les sensibilites turques et tant la chancelière
Angela Merkel et le ministre des Affaires etrangères Frank-Walter
Steinmeier en convenaient.
Mais ni la grande coalition ni les Turcs s’y sont attendus : Le Pape
Francois a declare dans une messe commemorative dimanche dernier que la
destruction des Armeniens etait ” le premier genocide du 20e siècle “.
Le President turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan a retire avec indignation
son ambassadeur au Saint-Siège et a critique les remarques du Pape
Francois comme de >.
Mais cette attaque frontale contre le Pape a mise la politique
allemande en detresse. Soudain, les tactiques du langage de la
politique etrangère allemande pour le jour du Souvenir armenien
ressemblaient a soutenir Ankara contre le pape.
Ce developpement, en particulier pour la coalition a ete une mauvaise
surprise.
Desormais Les deputes de tous les groupes politiques et les dirigeants
politiques de la CDU refusent toute allegeance linguistique a Merkel
et Steinmeier . “Le pape est quelqu’un de bien >>, a dit Armin Laschet,
chef de la CDU NRW et l’adjoint de Mme Merkel au sein du Parti federal
: >, a prevenu Cem Ozdemir, president des Verts. Il ne croit
pas que
TURKEY RIGHTS GROUPS DEMAND APOLOGY, COMPENSATION, AND RESTITUTION FOR GENOCIDE
10:08, 20 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan
Armenian Weekly – Human rights organizations in Turkey, under
the umbrella group “100th Year – Stop Denialism,” have issued the
following statement:
An indelible, massive crime was committed in these lands, 100
years ago–a crime that will remain irreversible, irremediable,
and unforgivable. During the genocide of 1915, Armenians and other
Christian peoples of Asia Minor, among them Assyrians and Rums, were
targeted by a systematic politics of extermination, and destroyed
along with their social organizations, economy, arts and crafts,
and historical and cultural heritage.
Our initiative “100th Year – Stop Denialism” was established to
commemorate the genocide on April 24, in Istanbul and Diyarbakır. The
initiative brings together (in alphabetical order) the Anatolian
Cultures and Research Association (Aka-Der), Human Rights Association
(HRA) – Committee against Racism and Discrimination, Nor Zartonk,
Platform for Confronting History, Turabdin Assyrians Platform, and
Zan Foundation for Social, Political, and Economic Research. Our
initiative is also supported by the Gomidas Institute (London),
the Armenian Council of Europe, and Collectif Van (Paris), whose
representatives will be joining us.
Shame and responsibility are the basis of the “100th Year – Stop
Denialism Initiative’s” conceptualization of the commemoration. We
believe that any commemoration of the crime of genocide on these lands
will have to express the responsibility of genocide denial itself,
and the shame felt by the descendants of the peoples who have had the
opportunity for growth, development, and enrichment in the absence
of-due to the absence of-the peoples who fell victim to genocide.
While this understanding constitutes the ethical core of our acts of
commemoration on April 24, our concrete demands are for recognition,
apology, compensation, and restitution.
Our initiative’s commemorations begin at 11 a.m. on April 24, in
front of the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts on Sultanahmet Square,
where we will hold a moment of silence in memory of the victims. This
building was known as the central prison in 1915; individuals from
the Istanbul Armenian community, including intellectual leaders,
were arrested in their homes, detained here, and then sent off to
the HaydarpaÃ…~_a train station.
After the moment of silence, we will begin our “Genocide March,”
walking in silence from Sultanahmet to Eminönu, and then crossing
over to HaydarpaÃ…~_a by sea. The detainees of April 24, 1915, were
deported from HaydarpaÃ…~_a to the depths of the country–in actual
fact, to their deaths. Here, our “Genocide March” will end with
another commemoration.
>From HaydarpaÃ…~_a, we will proceed to the Ã…~^iÃ…~_li Armenian
Cemetery to commemorate Sevag Å~^ahin Balıkcı, who fell victim to
a ethnic-hate murder on April 24, 2011, while on mandatory military
duty in Batman, and express our support to the Balıkcı family in
their pursuit of justice.
Before and after the events of the “100th Year – Stop Denialism
Initiative,” the constituents of the initiative will participate in
two other events. Representatives of the Armenian Council of Europe,
who were invited to Istanbul by the HRA Committee Against Racism and
Discrimination, will hold a commemoration on Beyazıt Square at 10 a.m.
on the same day, April 24. Members of the HRA Committee Against Racism
and Discrimination, human rights defenders, and activists against
genocide denial will participate in the commemoration of 20 Henchak
Party leaders and members who were executed by hanging on June 15,
1915-yet another mass execution, of symbolic import, during the period
of the Armenian Genocide.
A protest march organized by Nor Zartonk will start out at 6:30 p.m.,
from Galatasaray Lycée and head toward Taksim Square, followed by a
100th year commemoration event led by the Platform for Commemorating
the Armenian Genocide, at 7:15 p.m., at the Taksim end of Istiklal
Street.
Concurrently, in Diyarbakır, the Human Rights Association Diyarbakır
branch and the Gomidas Institute are jointly organizing a commemoration
of Armenian and Assyrian victims in the ruins of Surp Sarkis Church
at noon on April 24, with support from the Diyarbakır Bar Association
and the Zan Foundation.
The struggle for genocide recognition and against denialism will
end neither on April 24, 2015, nor on Dec. 31, 2015. Until the
state of the Republic of Turkey and the majority following official
ideology recognize the crime and take steps toward compensation for
the irreversible and irremediable losses, we will persevere in our
pursuit of justice for the genocide victims of Asia Minor and for
their descendants, who are dispersed around the world or who continue
to live under the conditions of genocide perpetuated by denial.
INAUGURATION D’UN KHATCHKAR A VALENCE A L’OCCASION DU 100EME ANNIVERSAIRE DU GENOCIDE DES ARMENIENS – PHOTOS
VALENCE (DRÔME)-GENOCIDE DES ARMENIENS-100 ANS
Dimanche 19 avril près de 400 personnes etaient reunies au parc Idjevan
de Valence (Drôme) pour l’inauguration du khatchkar, don de genereux
bienfaiteurs d’Armenie, presentes lors de la ceremonie inaugurale par
Vaner Harutyunyan le vice-consul d’Armenie a Lyon ainsi que les hommes
d’affaires et donateurs Armen Chahazizian et Garen Gaguikian. Une
ceremonie qui beneficiait du double soutien du Ministère armenien de
la Diaspora et de l’Eglise armenienne d’Etchmiadzine.
Dans le cadre du centenaire du genocide des Armeniens, ce sont les
associations de l’amicale des Armeniens d’Ourfa (presidee par Georges
Rastklan) et France-Achtarak (presidee par Levon Chatikyan) qui ont
pris l’initiative de cette manifestation.
Tour a tour Georges Rastklan puis Levon Chatikyan se sont exprimes sur
l’objectif de l’inauguration du khatchkar. Puis Jacques Abrahamian
(vice-president de l’Amicale des Armeniens d’Ourfa) detaille le
message que vehiculait le khatchkar. J. Abrahamian dit
Après l’intervention de Vaner Harutyunyan, le Maire de Valence Nicolas
Daragon prit la parole pour affirmer l’importance du khatchkar pour sa
ville et l’importante communaute armenienne. Il a en outre rappele
que sa Valence multiplie les manifestations liees au centenaire
du genocide des Armeniens. Il a salue les referents de Mission 2015
Drôme-Ardèche > avec la conseillère
communautaire Annie Koulaksezian-Romy. Etaient egalement presents
près d’Annie Koulaksezian-Romy, les autres elus d’origine armenienne,
Nathalie Iliozer et Franck Daumas-Diratzonian, adjoint au Maire.
Après la ceremonie de l’inauguration du khatchkar, l’Amicale des
Armeniens d’Ourfa a invite le public a une reception a la Mairie de
Valence. Lors de cette reception, Vaner Harutyunyan, Armen Chahazizian
et Garen Gaguikian remirent au Maire de Valence, Nicolas Daragon des
livres souvenirs ainsi que des timbres-poste representant le myosotis
edites par la Poste armenienne a l’occasion du 100 ème anniversaire du
genocide. Le groupe musical Sheram accompagne par Levon Chatikyan au
duduk donna une prestation musicale avec Ankine Rastklan qui chanta
quelques chansons armeniennes liees a la douleur du peuple armenien
victime du genocide il y a un siècle.
Krikor Amirzayan texte et reportage-photo
lundi 20 avril 2015, Krikor Amirzayan (c)armenews.com
RETRANSMISSION EN ARMENIE ET EN DIRECT DU THEATRE DU CHATELET DE PARIS DU CONCERT EXCEPTIONNEL DU CENTENAIRE DU GENOCIDE
ARMENIE
Le mardi 21 avril 2015,en partenariat avec le Ministère de la culture
et Orange Armenie, l’Ambassade de France en Armenie organise un
evenement exceptionnel, la retransmission sur ecran geant a l’Opera
d’Erevan et en direct du Theâtre du Châtelet de Paris, du concert
exceptionnel du centenaire du genocide.
Compte tenu du decalage horaire avec la France, cette retransmission
sur ecran geant aura lieu a 22h.
Ce concert, place sous le haut patronage des Presidents francais
et armenien, comprendra en première partie des oeuvres d’Aram
Khatchatourian, Komitas et une oeuvre specialement creee pour le
centenaire par Michel Petrossian, jeune compositeur francais ne en
Armenie. En deuxième partie sera donne le Requiem de Mozart.
L’Orchestre du centenaire, regroupant les meilleurs musiciens et
une pleiade de solistes d’origine armenienne venus du monde entier
ainsi que le choeur de la Fondation Gulbenkian, sera place sous la
direction du chef Alain Altinoglu.
lundi 20 avril 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com