Author: Badalian Vardan

Starr 103.5 FM
April 12 2015

Pope Francis calls Armenian WW1 killings ‘genocide’

Apr 12, 2015 at 8:47am

Pope Francis has used the word “genocide” to describe mass killing of
Armenians under Ottoman rule in WW1 100 years ago, at a Vatican church
service.

Armenia and many historians say up to 1.5 million people were
systematically killed by Ottoman forces in 1915.

But the Pope’s statement is expected to anger Turkey, which has
consistently denied that the killings were genocide.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan is attending the service, to honour
a 10th century Armenian mystic.

The dispute has continued to sour relations between Armenia and Turkey.
‘Bleeding wound’

The Pope first used the word genocide for the killings two years ago,
prompting a fierce protest from Turkey.

At Sunday’s Mass in the Armenian Catholic rite at Peter’s Basilica, he
said that humanity had lived through “three massive and unprecedented
tragedies” in the last century.

“The first, which is widely considered ‘the first genocide of the 20th
Century’, struck your own Armenian people,” he said.

The other two were the Nazi Holocaust and Stalinism, Associated Press
reported him as saying.

He said it was his duty to honour the memories of those who were killed.

“Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding
without bandaging it,” the Pope added.

On Sunday, Pope Francis was also to honour the 10th Century mystic St
Gregory of Narek by declaring him a doctor of the church. Only 35
people have been given the title, reports AP.

Armenia marks the date of 24 April 1915 as the start of the mass
killings. The country has long campaigned for greater recognition of
what it regards as a genocide.
‘Political conflict’

In 2014, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered condolences to the
grandchildren of all the Armenians who lost their lives for the first
time.

But he also said that it was inadmissible for Armenia to turn the
issue “into a matter of political conflict”.

Armenia says up to 1.5 million people died in 1915-16 as the Ottoman
empire split. Turkey has said the number of deaths was much smaller.

Most non-Turkish scholars of the events regard them as genocide. Among
the other states which formally recognise them as genocide are
Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Russia and Uruguay.

Turkey maintains that many of the dead were killed in clashes during
World War I, and that ethnic Turks also suffered in the conflict.

Channel News Asia
April 12 2015

Pope riles Turkey by calling WWI slaughter of Armenians ‘genocide’

While many historians describe the cull of Armenians as the 20th
century’s first genocide, Turkey hotly denies the accusation.

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis uttered the word “genocide” on Sunday (Apr
12) to describe the mass murder of Armenians 100 years ago, sparking
fury from Turkey which slammed the term as “far from historical
reality”.

In a solemn mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica to mark the centenary of
the Ottoman killings of Armenians, Francis said the murders were
“widely considered ‘the first genocide of the 20th century’,” quoting
a statement signed by Pope John Paul II and the Armenian patriarch in
2001.

Many historians describe the World War I slaughter as the 20th
century’s first genocide, but Turkey hotly denies the accusations.

“The pope’s statement, which is far from the legal and historical
reality, cannot be accepted,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut
Cavusoglu said on Twitter. “Religious authorities are not the places
to incite resentment and hatred with baseless allegations,” he added.

The foreign ministry summoned the Vatican envoy to Ankara to explain
the pope’s comments. It accused the pontiff of engaging in a
“one-sided narrative” that ignored the suffering of Muslims and other
religious groups at that time.

While Francis did not use his own words to describe the killings as
genocide, it was the first time the term was spoken aloud in
connection with Armenia by a head of the Roman Catholic Church in
Saint Peter’s Basilica.

“It was a very courageous act to repeat clearly that it was a
genocide,” Vatican expert Marco Tosatti told AFP. “By quoting John
Paul II, he strengthened the Church’s position, making it clear where
it stands on the issue,” he added.

‘EVIL WOUNDS FESTER’

The Argentine pope described the “immense and senseless slaughter” and
spoke of the duty to “honour their memory, for whenever memory fades,
it means that evil allows wounds to fester.”

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

Before becoming pope, Jorge Bergoglio used the word several times in
events marking the mass murders, calling on Turkey to recognise the
killings as such.

As pope, Francis is said to have used it once during a private
audience in 2013 – but even that sparked an outraged reaction from
Turkey.

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

But Turkey rejects the claims, arguing that 300,000 to 500,000
Armenians and as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose
up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian
troops. More than 20 nations, including France and Russia, recognise
the killings as genocide.

Vatican expert John Allen said ahead of the mass that the “truly bold”
thing for Francis to do was “show restraint” – something the pope may
feel he has achieved by uttering the word “genocide” but only while
quoting his Polish predecessor.

When Francis visited Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered
the pontiff a pact under which he would defend Christians in the
Middle East in exchange for the Church tackling Islamophobia in the
West, Allen said – describing it as “a potential game-changer”.

‘MUFFLED AND FORGOTTEN CRY’

In 2014, Erdogan, then premier, offered condolences for the mass
killings for the first time, but the country still blames unrest and
famine for many of the deaths.

Francis said the other two genocides of the 20th century were
“perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism”, before pointing to more recent
mass killings in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi and Bosnia. “It seems that
humanity is incapable of putting a halt to the shedding of innocent
blood,” he said.

The Armenian victims a century ago were Christian and although the
killings were not openly driven by religious motives, the pontiff drew
comparisons with modern Christian refugees fleeing Islamic militants.

He referred once again to the modern day as “a time of war, a third
world war which is being fought piecemeal”, and evoked the “muffled
and forgotten cry” of those “decapitated, crucified, burned alive, or
forced to leave their homeland.”

“Today too we are experiencing a sort of genocide created by general
and collective indifference,” he said.

Vatican watcher Marco Politi said the address was typical of a pope
who “uses language without excessive diplomatic cares” and whose aim
was to “stimulate the international community” to intervene in
modern-day persecutions.

– AFP/ek/ec

Independent Catholic News
April 12 2015

Pope Francis: Opening address to Armenian Christians during Mass on
Divine Mercy Sunday

Posted: Sunday, April 12, 2015 4:11 pm.

“On a number of occasions I have spoken of our time as a time of war,
a third world war which is being fought piecemeal, one in which we
daily witness savage crimes, brutal massacres and senseless
destruction. Sadly, today too we hear the muffled and forgotten cry of
so many of our defenceless brothers and sisters who, on account of
their faith in Christ or their ethnic origin, are publicly and
ruthlessly put to death – decapitated, crucified, burned alive – or
forced to leave their homeland.

Today too we are experiencing a sort of genocide created by general
and collective indifference, by the complicit silence of Cain, who
cries out: “What does it matter to me? Am I my brother’s keeper?” (cf.
Gen 4:9; Homily in Redipuglia , 13 September 2014).

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” (JOHN PAUL II and
KAREKIN II, Common Declaration , Etchmiadzin, 27 September 2001),
struck your own Armenian people, the first Christian nation, as well
as Catholic and Orthodox Syrians, Assyrians, Chaldeans and
Greeks.Bishops and priests, religious, women and men, the elderly and
even defenceless children and the infirm were murdered.

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. It
seems that the human family has refused to learn from its mistakes
caused by the law of terror, so that today too there are those who
attempt to eliminate others with the help of a few and with the
complicit silence of others who simply stand by. We have not yet
learned that “war is madness”, “senseless slaughter” (cf. Homily in
Redipuglia , 13 September 2014).

Dear Armenian Christians, today, with hearts filled with pain but at
the same time with great hope in the risen Lord, we recall the
centenary of that tragic event, that immense and senseless slaughter
whose cruelty your forebears had to endure. It is necessary, and
indeed a duty, to honour their memory, for whenever memory fades, it
means that evil allows wounds to fester. Concealing or denying evil is
like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it!

I greet you with affection and I thank you for your witness. With
gratitude for his presence, I greet Mr Serž Sargsyan, the President of
the Republic of Armenia. My cordial greeting goes also to my brother
Patriarchs and Bishops: His Holiness Kerekin II, Supreme Patriarch and
Catholicos of All Armenians; His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the
Great House of Cilicia, His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX, Patriarch of
Cilicia of Armenian Catholics; and Catholicosates of the Armenian
Apostolic Church and the Patriarchate of the Armenian Catholic Church.

In the firm certainty that evil never comes from God, who is
infinitely good, and standing firm in faith, let us profess that
cruelty may never be considered God’s work and, what is more, can find
absolutely no justification in his Holy Name. Let us continue this
celebration by fixing our gaze on Jesus Christ, risen from the dead,
victor over death and evil! ”

Source: VIS

Pope Francis calls mass killings of Armenians ‘genocide’ (video)

16:03 | April 12,2015 | Politics

Pope Francis today used the word “genocide” to describe mass killings
of Armenians under Ottoman rule in WW1 100 years ago, at a Vatican
church service dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide.

At Sunday’s Mass in the Armenian Catholic rite at Peter’s Basilica, he
said that humanity had lived through “three massive and unprecedented
tragedies” in the last century.

“The first, which is widely considered ‘the first genocide of the 20th
Century’, struck your own Armenian people,” he said, in a form of
words used by a declaration by Pope John Paul II in 2001.

He said it was his duty to honour the memory of the innocent men,
women, children, priests and bishops who were “senselessly” murdered
by Ottoman Turks.

“Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding
without bandaging it,” the Pope he said at the start of Sunday’s Mass.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan attended the service to honour a
10th century Armenian mystic.

It is estimated that up to 1.5 million Armenians were systematically
killed by Ottoman forces in 1915.

On Sunday, Pope Francis also honoured the 10th Century mystic St
Gregory of Narek by declaring him a doctor of the church. Only 35
people have been given the title, reports AP.

REVUE DE PRESSE
Le pape parle de > arménien
A l’occasion de la commémoration des cents ans du massacre des
Arméniens, le Pape François a utilisé dimanche le terme de >.

Le pape François a utilisé dimanche, dans le cadre solennel de la
basilique Saint-Pierre de Rome, le terme > pour le massacre
des Arméniens il y a cent ans. Cette déclaration pourrait perturber
les relations diplomatiques entre Rome et la Turquie.

>, a déclaré le Saint-Père en citant un document signé en 2001 par le
pape Jean Paul II et le patriarche arménien.

en 2000
dans le document commun et que Jorge Bergoglio l’avait utilisé
plusieurs fois avant de devenir pape et même au moins une fois en
privé depuis, c’est la première fois que ce mot est prononcé
publiquement par un pontife.

Les Arméniens estiment que 1,5 million des leurs ont été tués entre
1915 et 1917, à la fin de l’empire ottoman. La Turquie affirme pour sa
part qu’il s’agissait d’une guerre civile dans laquelle 300 à 500 000
Arméniens et autant de Turcs ont trouvé la mort.

(afp)

dimanche 12 avril 2015,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

REVUE DE PRESSE
Europe 1 : Le pape parle de génocide à propos du massacre des Arméniens

Le pontife s’est exprimé à l’ouverture d’une messe à la mémoire des
Arméniens massacrés entre 1915 et 1917.

L’INFO. C’est la première fois qu’un pontife prononce publiquement ce
mot pour parler du massacre des Arméniens il y a 100 ans : génocide.
Et le pape François a choisi le cadre solennel de la basilique
Saint-Pierre de Rome pour le faire, à l’occasion d’une messe à la
mémoire des Arméniens massacrés entre 1915 et 1917, concélébrée avec
le patriarche arménien Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni et en présence du
président du pays, Serzh Sargsyan.

1,5 millions de morts. “Au siècle dernier, notre famille humaine a
traversé trois tragédies massives et sans précédent. La première, qui
est largement considérée comme ‘le premier génocide du XXe siècle’ a
frappé votre peuple arménien”, a déclaré le pontife en citant un
document signé en 2001 par le pape Jean Paul II et le patriarche
arménien. “Les deux autres ont été ceux perpétrés par le nazisme et
par le stalinisme. Et plus récemment d’autres exterminations de masse,
comme celles au Cambodge, au Rwanda, au Burundi, en Bosnie”, a-t-il
ajouté.

Les Arméniens estiment que 1,5 million des leurs ont été tués entre
1915 et 1917, à la fin de l’empire ottoman. Nombre d’historiens et
plus d’une vingtaine de pays, dont la France, l’Italie et la Russie,
ont reconnu un génocide.

dimanche 12 avril 2015,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

Pope Francis on Armenian Genocide: Concealing or denying evil is like
allowing a wound to keep bleeding

11:34, 12 April, 2015

VATICAN, APRIL 12, ARMENPRESS. It is necessary, and indeed a duty, to
honour the victims’ memory, for whenever memory fades, it means that
evil allows wounds to fester. As reports “Armenpress”, Pope Francis
stated this in his sermon during the Divine Liturgy dedicated to the
100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide offered in St. Peter’s
Basilica. The full address by Pope Francis runs as follows:

“On a number of occasions I have spoken of our time as a time of war,
a third world war which is being fought piecemeal, one in which we
daily witness savage crimes, brutal massacres and senseless
destruction. Sadly, today too we hear the muffled and forgotten cry of
so many of our defenseless brothers and sisters who, on account of
their faith in Christ or their ethnic origin, are publicly and
ruthlessly put to death – decapitated, crucified, burned alive – or
forced to leave their homeland.

Today too we are experiencing a sort of genocide created by general
and collective indifference, by the complicit silence of Cain, who
cries out: “What does it matter to me? Am I my brother’s keeper?” (cf.
Gen 4:9; Homily in Redipuglia , 13 September 2014).

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” (JOHN PAUL II and
KAREKIN II, Common Declaration , Etchmiadzin, 27 September 2001),
struck your own Armenian people, the first Christian nation, as well
as Catholic and Orthodox Syrians, Assyrians, Chaldeans and Greeks.
Bishops and priests, religious, women and men, the elderly and even
defenceless children and the infirm were murdered. 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. It seems that the human family has refused to learn from
its mistakes caused by the law of terror, so that today too there are
those who attempt to eliminate others with the help of a few and with
the complicit silence of others who simply stand by. We have not yet
learned that “war is madness”, “senseless slaughter” (cf. Homily in
Redipuglia , 13 September 2014).

Dear Armenian Christians, today, with hearts filled with pain but at
the same time with great hope in the risen Lord, we recall the
centenary of that tragic event, that immense and senseless slaughter
whose cruelty your forebears had to endure. It is necessary, and
indeed a duty, to honour their memory, for whenever memory fades, it
means that evil allows wounds to fester. Concealing or denying evil is
like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it!

I greet you with affection and I thank you for your witness.

With gratitude for his presence, I greet Mr Serzh Sargsyan, the
President of the Republic of Armenia.

My cordial greeting goes also to my brother Patriarchs and Bishops:
His Holiness Kerekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All
Armenians; His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of
Cilicia, His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX, Patriarch of Cilicia of
Armenian Catholics; and Catholicosates of the Armenian Apostolic
Church and the Patriarchate of the Armenian Catholic Church.

In the firm certainty that evil never comes from God, who is
infinitely good, and standing firm in faith, let us profess that
cruelty may never be considered God’s work and, what is more, can find
absolutely no justification in his Holy Name. Let us continue this
celebration by fixing our gaze on Jesus Christ, risen from the dead,
victor over death and evil! ”

Civilians killed in Aleppo as rebels attack Armenian neighbourhood

22:30, 11 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Syrian rebels shelled a government-held neighbourhood in the northern
city of Aleppo early on Saturday, killing at least nine people and
wounding dozens, the Associated Press reports quoting Syrian state
television and an activist group reported.

Hours after the shelling, helicopter gunships struck a market in
Aleppo’s rebel-held neighbourhood of Maadi in apparent retaliation,
according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and
the opposition-run Aleppo Media Center.

The Observatory said the airstrike killed eight people and wounded
dozens, some seriously. The Aleppo Media Center reported casualties
but did not provide a precise toll.

The violence came as the head of the UN agency for Palestinian
refugees planned to undertake an “urgent mission” to Damascus later on
Saturday amid concerns over the situation in the Palestinian refugee
camp of Yarmouk, most of which has been captured by Islamic State
(Isis).

State media said the shelling on the predominantly Christian and
Armenian neighbourhood of Sulaymaniyah in Aleppo early on Saturday
killed nine people, wounded another 50 and damaged several buildings.

The Observatory, which has a network of activists around the country,
said the shelling killed 10 people and wounded “tens”.

Syrian rebels have shelled residential areas in government-held parts
of the contested city in the past, killing hundreds of people.
Government aircraft have dropped explosives-filled barrels on
rebel-held neighborhoods in Aleppo and other cities, killing
thousands.

State media reported the rebels shelled the neighborhood with a
so-called Hell Cannon, a crude, locally made weapon that fires gas
cylinders filled with explosives. The projectiles cause widespread
damage and cannot be precisely targeted. State television showed a
building with its top three floors collapsed.

Mohave Valley News
April 12 2015

Armenians cast close eye on papal mass: Turkey said to discourage
pope from using term ‘genocide’

Sunday, April 12, 2015 12:22 am

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis today will declare a little-known
10th-century Armenian mystic a doctor of the church, one of the
highest honors a pope can bestow. More attention, though, is likely to
be on whether Francis utters the word “genocide” during his homily.

Francis is marking the 100th anniversary of the killing of an estimated

1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire by celebrating a Mass in
the Armenian Catholic rite in St. Peter’s Basilica. The Armenian
patriarch, Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni, will concelebrate and the Mass
will be attended by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan.

It’s a big deal for the Armenians, who in the run-up to the centenary
have been campaigning for greater recognition that the slaughter
constituted genocide. It’s also a big deal for Turkey, which has long
denied that the deaths constituted genocide, insisted that the toll
has been inflated, and that those killed were victims of civil war and
unrest.

Francis avoided the word on Thursday when he met the visiting Armenian
church delegation, but said that what transpired 100 years ago
involved men “who were capable of systematically planning the
annihilation of their brothers.”

“Let us invoke divine mercy so that for the love of truth and justice,
we can heal every wound and bring about concrete gestures of peace and
reconciliation between two nations that are still unable to come to a
reasonable consensus on this sad event,” he said.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by
Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed
by genocide scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century.
Several European countries recognize the massacres as such, though
Italy and the United States, for example, have avoided using the term
officially given the importance they place on Turkey as an ally.

According to reports in the Turkish media, Turkey has been working
behind the scenes to discourage Francis from uttering the term
“genocide” and reportedly successfully campaigned to prevent the papal
Mass from being celebrated on April 24, which is considered the actual
anniversary of the start of the slaughter.

Last year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a message of
condolences to descendants of Armenians killed and said Turkey was
ready to confront the history of the killings. More recently, Erdogan
has accused Armenians of not looking for the truth but seeking to
score points against Turkey, saying numerous calls from Turkey for
joint research to document precisely what happened had gone
unanswered.

The Armenians have found a willing supporter in Francis, who as
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was particularly close to the Armenian
community in Argentina and referred to the “genocide” of Armenians
three times in his 2010 book, “On Heaven and Earth.”

As pope, Francis provoked Turkish anxiety — and a minor diplomatic
incident — when in June 2013 he told a delegation of Armenian
Christians that the killing was “the first genocide of the 20th
century.”

The Vatican spokesman subsequently said the remarks were in no way a
formal or public declaration and therefore didn’t constitute a public
assertion by the pope that genocide took place.

But St. John Paul II referred to the “genocide” both before and during
his 2001 trip to Armenia, even signing an official document with the
Armenian church leader Catholicos Karekin II noting that that the
episode “is generally referred to as the first genocide of the 20th
century.”

Today, Francis will declare the revered mystic St. Gregory of Narek a
doctor of the church. Only 35 people have been given the title, which
is reserved for those whose writings have greatly served the universal
church.

Gregory, who lived around 950 to 1005, is considered one of the most
important figures of medieval Armenian religious thought and
literature. His “Book of Prayers,” also called the “Book of
Lamentations,” is his best-known work, a mystical poem in 95 sections
about “speaking with God from the depths of the heart.”

Syrian President finally recognizes the Armenian Genocide

April 6, 2015 By administrator Leave a Comment

17:20, 29 Jan 2014
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Pres. Bashar al-Assad

In a lengthy interview last week with Agence France Presse (AFP) on
the tragic situation in Syria, Pres. Bashar al-Assad made an
unexpected reference to the massacres of 1.5 million Armenians. This
is the first time that any Syrian head of state has acknowledged the
Armenian mass murders and identified the perpetrator as Ottoman
Turkey. Report armradio.am

During the interview, Pres. Assad compared the Armenian Genocide of
1915 to the brutal killings of civilians by foreign fighters nowadays
in Syria: “The degree of savagery and inhumanity that the terrorists
have reached reminds us of what happened in the Middle Ages in Europe
over 500 years ago. In more recent modern times, it reminds us of the
massacres perpetrated by the Ottomans against the Armenians when they
killed a million and a half Armenians and half a million Orthodox
Syriacs in Syria and in Turkish territory.”

Not surprisingly, two days later, Bashar Jaafari, Syria’s Ambassador
to the United Nations in Geneva, made a similar remark: “How about the
Armenian Genocide where 1.5 million people were killed?”

The only other high ranking Syrian official who has acknowledged the
Armenian Genocide was Abd al-Qader Qaddura, Speaker of the Syrian
Parliament, when he inscribed a poignant statement in the Book of
Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide Monument and Museum in Yerevan on
July 16, 2001: “As we visit the Memorial and Museum of the Genocide
that the Armenian nation suffered in 1915, we stand in full admiration
and respect in front of those heroes that faced death with courage and
heroism. Their children and grandchildren continued after them to
immortalize their courage and struggle…. With great respect we bow our
heads in memory of the martyrs of the Armenian nation — our friends —
and hail their ability for resoluteness and triumph. We will work
together to liberate every human being from aggression and
oppression.”

While the Parliament Speaker’s 2001 statement was a candid and
heartfelt message with no political overtones, the same cannot be said
about Pres. Assad’s words on the Armenian Genocide as he clearly
intended to lash back at the Turkish government’s hostile actions
against the Syrian regime. It is well known that Turkey has played a
major role in the concerted international effort to topple Pres.
Assad, by dispatching heavy weapons and arranging the infiltration of
foreign radical Islamist fighters into Syria.

Relations between Syria and Turkey were not always hostile. Before the
start of the Syrian crisis in 2011, the two countries were such close
political and economic allies that the Assad regime banned the sale of
books on the Armenian Genocide, and did not permit foreign film crews
to visit Der Zor, the killing fields of thousands of Armenians during
the Genocide. Mindful of possible Turkish backlash, Pres. Assad’s
staff cancelled my courtesy meeting with the President in 2009 after
they discovered on the internet my countless critical articles on
Turkey. Moreover, during the honeymoon period between the Syrian and
Turkish governments, Pres. Assad advised the visiting Catholicos Aram
I that Armenians should maintain good relations with Turkey and not
dwell on the past!

In his recent interview with AFP, Pres. Assad also complained about
the failure of Western leaders to comprehend developments in the
Middle East: “They are always very late in realizing things, sometimes
even after the situation has been overtaken by a new reality that is
completely different.” Frankly, one could make the same criticism
about Pres. Assad for realizing at his own detriment only too late the
dishonesty and duplicity of Turkey’s leadership.

Regrettably, the Syrian President is not the only head of state who
has failed to decipher the scheming mindset of Turkey’s rulers.
Countless Middle Eastern, European, and American leaders have made the
same mistake, trusting Turkey’s feigned friendship, only to be let
down when the time came for Turkey to keep its end of the bargain.

In recent months, with the increasing dissatisfaction of the
international community with Prime Minister Erdogan’s autocratic
policies and belligerent statements, it has become crystal clear that
no one knows the true face of Turkey better than Armenians, Assyrians,
Greeks and Kurds, who have suffered countless brutalities, massacres
and even genocide under despotic Turkish rule.

Despite Pres. Assad’s political motivations, Armenians should welcome
his belated statement on the Armenian Genocide. After refraining from
acknowledging the Genocide for all the wrong reasons for so long, at
least now the Syrian President is on record telling the truth about
past and present Turkish atrocities!