Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

TURKISH NATIONALISTS THREATEN AGOS NEWSPAPER, PLACE BLACK WREATH IN FRONT OF AGOS

19:07 | April 24,2015 | Politics

This morning, on April 24, at 7.15 am, MTP (the Nationalist Turkey
Party) and Turan Ocakları (the Turan Hearths) came and laid a black
wreath in front of the new building of Agos, ermenihaber.am reports.

Two people representing MTP and Turan Ocakları made a statement
in front of the building. The Istanbul branch of Turan Ocakları
published a video of the statement on its Facebook page with the title
‘One unexpected night we will turn up at Agos Newspaper.’

From: Baghdasarian

GENOCIDE DENIAL IS AN INSULT AND THREAT: NICOLAS SARKOZY

17:43, 24 April, 2015

PARIS, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS: The former French President Nicolas
Sarkozy stated that 100 years after the Armenian Genocide, Turkey
should face the own history. Le Figaro reports that Sarkozy stated
about it in the interview to the Politique Internationale Monthly.

To the question if Turkey will ever recognize the Armenian Genocide,
Sarkozy answered that he believes it, though he cannot say how much
time it would take.

“I think finally the clarity will prevail. For me denial is not an
opinion. It is an insult and threat. The genocide denial disrupts the
social order and the fundamental values of our republic. That is why, I
adopted an Armenian Genocide denial criminalizing document, when I was
a president”, – said the former French President, Armenpress reports.

From: Baghdasarian

TURKEY UNEASY AS ARMENIANS COMMEMORATE GENOCIDE CENTENARY

Foreign Policy
April 24 2015

By J. Dana Stuster

Armenians are commemorating the 100th anniversary of the genocide that
killed 1.5 million Armenians during civil conflict within the Ottoman
Empire during World War I. Ankara’s sensitivity to the use of the word
“genocide” has prompted diplomatic tensions over the past week in the
lead-up to today’s events: The Turkish government recently recalled
ambassadors to Vatican City and Austria for their use of the word,
and sent diplomats to Washington to lobby against including the word
in President Obama’s remarks. President Obama said in his comments
that the deaths in 1915 were “terrible carnage,” but avoided the
controversial term. More than 20 nations have used the term, most
recently Germany. German President Joachim Gauck said yesterday
in Berlin that Germany shares responsibility for the deaths as the
Ottoman Empire’s ally in World War I.

At a memorial in Yerevan, Armenia, today, foreign leaders called on
Ankara to acknowledge the genocide. “Important words have already been
said in Turkey, but others are still expected, so that shared grief
can become shared destiny,” French President Francois Hollande said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also spoke today in Yerevan, saying
“There is no and cannot be justification for mass murder of people.”

Ankara’s aversion about acknowledging the events of 1915 may stem
from not only nationalism, but concerns about reparations, writes
the New York Times.

From: Baghdasarian

ARTIST DRAWS ON FAMILY HISTORY IN PAINTING COMMEMORATING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

WLS-TV – ABC
April 22 2015

By Frank Mathie
Wednesday, April 22, 2015 04:45PM
CHICAGO (WLS) —

It happened almost exactly 100 years ago – the systematic extermination
of 1.5 million Armenians by the Turkish rulers of the Ottoman
Empire. Now, a Chicago artist is remembering that terrible time in
a very big way.

In an old Pilsen warehouse now occupied by Mana Art Center, artist
Jackie Kazarian is showing us her latest creation, and it’s a big one.

It’s part of her family’s story about very dark times in Armenian
history.

“It’s a large monumental painting called ‘Armenia’ and it’s marked,
created to mark the 100th year anniversary of the Armenian genocide
when one and a half million Armenian, Assyrians and Greeks were
killed,” Kazarian said.

It was April 24, 1915, near the beginning of World War I. The Christian
Armenians were considered a threat to the new young Turkish leaders
of the Ottoman Empire. And in a preview of what would happen in World
War II, the genocide began.

“The government of the Ottoman Empire took it upon themselves to rid
their country of Armenians, and especially those in Eastern Armenia,”
Kazarian said.

A million and a half men, women and children were killed. Kazarian
doesn’t show that in her painting; she takes a much more subtle
approach using just names.

“The names are the villages and cities involved in the genocide,”
Kazarian said.

At 12 feet high and 26 feet wide, this is a huge painting. And you’re
probably wondering, how did she do it?

First of all, it was hard work. It took five and a half months to
complete. And then she invented something she calls the boardwalk.

“The boardwalk was a large plank on wheels that would roll over the
canvases while they were on the ground, so I could reach every surface
of the painting,” Kazarian said.

She said she did it to honor her grandparents who survived the
genocide. Now she will travel the world with her painting so everyone
remembers.

From: Baghdasarian

PRESIDENT SARGSYAN’S SPEECH ON 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

12:15, 24 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Today – the day of the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
– RA President Serzh Sargsyan, Chairman of the State Commission
on Coordination of the Events for the Commemoration of the 100th
Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, accompanied by heads of numerous
senior-level delegations and heads of state who have arrived in
Armenia, visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex and took part
in the commemorative ceremony of the Armenian Genocide Centennial.

President Serzh Sargsyan delivered a speech.

Statement by Serzh Sargsyan, the President of the Republic of Armenia,
in Tsitsernakaberd

Honorable Presidents, Distinguished representatives of states and
international organizations; Your Holiness, Eminences, Esteemed Guests,
My fellow compatriots,

We stand on Tsitsernakaberd Hill today to commemorate the victims
of the Armenian Genocide. On the 24th of April, this day a hundred
years ago, the extensive enactment of one of the gravest crimes of the
20th century began with mass arrests of the Armenian intellectuals in
Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and other cities of
the empire. It had been preceded by the disarmament and massacre of the
Armenian servicemen. What subsequently happened in 1915 and the years
that followed was unprecedented in terms of volume and ramifications.

The Western part of the Armenian people, who for millennia had lived
in their homeland, in the cradle of their civilization, were displaced
and annihilated under a state-devised plan with direct participation
of the army, police, other state institutions, and gangs comprised
of criminals released from the prisons specifically for this purpose.

Human language is not capable of describing all that was experienced
by a whole nation. Around 1.5 million human beings were slaughtered
merely for being Armenian, as unimaginable atrocities of the human
race became concealed in eternal silence. Some survived, with their
life stories conveyed as historical testaments to generations to come.

Yesterday, the Armenian Apostolic Church canonized the martyrs of the
Armenian Genocide. They are victims no more. They are saints, whose
blood was shed, victorious over death and evil, heavenly soldiers
calling for justice.

Dear Attendees,

Unfortunately, April left a black trace in the history of not only
the Armenian people, but humankind as whole. April is also the month
in which the perpetration of the Holocaust, and crimes of genocide
in Rwanda and Cambodia commenced. We stand here today, in the very
month of April, in Tsitsernakaberd — the Armenian Genocide Memorial,
to proclaim: May there never again be a need to erect a memorial to
commemorate new disgraceful chapters of history anywhere in the world!

May there be no more need for a new Tsitsernakaberd, Yad Vashem,
Killing Fields, and Gisozi!

May this message rise to the skies, intertwining with the profoundly
symbolic liturgy served yesterday at the Mother See of Holy
Etchmiadzin, and the consonant peals of the Sister Churches in all
corners of the world, may it dispel the hundred-year-long darkness
of denial, and put an end to the suffering of people experiencing the
horrors of genocide even in the modern day, in the 21st century. This
is the testament that reached us, and it is our duty to convey it to
the generations to come.

The goal of our policy, anchored in memory and responsibility, is
to form effective mechanisms for preventing future crimes against
humanity. As Pope Francis justly said, “concealing or denying evil
is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it.” The
wound is bleeding, because there is too much neutrality, silence,
and denial around the world, and there is still too little humanity.

We shall not forget that for centuries humanism and benevolence have
been the engine that led the formation of international human rights
mechanisms. Moral aspirations and universal values were what inspired
Henry Dunant to lay the ground for creation of the International
Committee of the Red Cross. Moral values and the horrifying reality of
the Armenian Genocide were what urged Raphael Lemkin to coin the term
“genocide,” which would unfortunately have to be used over and over
again. As a matter of fact, when Lemkin was asked what genocide was,
he answered that it was what happened to the Armenians.

As we speak, there are still too many instances of denying universal
values and contorting history, which pave the way to the recurrence
of these crimes: we can all see the situation in the Middle East.

We must find solutions before humankind once more breaks its “never
again” vow. It seems that the Armenian Genocide Centenary has become a
new milestone in the international fight against these crimes: in the
last period, countries around the world and international organizations
recognized the first Genocide of the 20th Century, some reaffirmed
their recognition, and others criminalized attempts of its denial,
all sharing the belief that it is the only way to shed light on the
dark pages of the world history and to prevent such pages from being
written ever again.

Distinguished Guests,

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians perished in the Deir-ez-Zor desert
after suffering displacement and exile. A monument and a church were
built in Deir-ez-Zor, and the remains of our martyrs were laid to rest
there. A few years ago, I stood near that Church and said these words:
“We plan to live and multiply. It is no longer possible to intimidate
or to blackmail us, because we have experienced the most horrible. We
shall live and create twice as vigorously–for us, and for our innocent
victims. We look to the future, because we still have much to say
and to share with one another, we have much to say and to give to the
world.” When I stood near the Deir-ez-Zor church and said these words,
I was, like today, looking to the future. Last year, the church and
the monument were simply blown up. To this very day, there are some
who are yet at unease with the remains and bones of our victims.

This is the reality today. This is why the issue is pressing.

Human memory is a unique sieve of history. Global history shall
always remember and cherish all the individuals, countries, and
international organizations that came to help at the hardest times
and saved not only the physical existence of millions of people,
but also the ruined faith in humanity.

Around the world, conscience and probity are withstanding the cruel,
but retreating machine of the Armenian Genocide denial. Conscience
and probity are the antipodes of denial. Recognition of the Genocide
is not the world’s tribute to the Armenian people and our martyrs.

Recognition of the Genocide is the triumph of human conscience and
justice over intolerance and hatred.

Hence, on behalf of all Armenians, I am grateful to you, President
Anastasiades, President NikoliÄ~G, President Hollande, President Putin.

I am grateful to the whole international community, represented here by
many of your states and international organizations. I am grateful to
all those that stand by our side, to all those that wish to be by our
side. We are grateful to the global civil society and international
press representatives that have been voicing the importance of the
Armenian Genocide recognition. We are grateful to all people of good
will — all those who stood by the side of the Armenian people in the
course of commemoration events around the world this year. We are
grateful to those who gathered at Taksim Square in Istanbul today:
they are strong people who are standing for the right cause for
their fatherland.

The Armenian people will always remain standing by the side of those
who suffered from crimes against humanity. The unyielding international
struggle against crimes of genocide will remain an integral part of
our foreign policy.

I am grateful to all of you for being here to reiterate your commitment
to universal values, to say that nothing has been forgotten, and to
say that, a hundred years past, we remember and we demand.

From: Baghdasarian

EL CENTRO CULTURAL HAROLDO CONTI INAUGURARA UNA MUESTRA DE FOTOS POR EL CENTENARIO DEL GENOCIDIO ARMENIO

23.4.15

El viernes 24 de abril, día en que se conmemora simbolicamente el
inicio del Genocidio Armenio, se inaugurara una muestra de fotos sobre
el genocidio en el Centro Cultural de la Memoria Haroldo Conti (Av.

Del Libertador 8151, ex ESMA) a partir de las 19hs.

El director del Centro Cultural, Eduardo Jozami, y el interventor del
INADI, Pedro Mouratian, hablaran en el acto de apertura, al que se
espera que asistan una importante cantidad de organismos de derechos
humanos y dirigentes políticos. Con la colaboracion del Consejo
Nacional Armenio de Sudamerica, la muestra fotografica “Memoria del
Genocidio Armenio. 100 años contra la negacion y el olvido” inaugurara
una “serie de actividades que se realizaran durante abril, mayo y
junio”, según anunciaron desde la organizacion. “La muestra presenta
una cronología que explica los acontecimientos historicos, los reclamos
de la diaspora y el reconocimiento por parte del Estado argentino a
partir de la ley 26.199, sancionada en 2006, que reconoce el genocidio
sufrido por el pueblo armenio y declara al 24 de abril como el Día
de Accion por la Tolerancia y el Respeto entre los Pueblos”.

“La sociedad argentina que comienza a mirar con ojo crítico su propia
historia comprende, cada vez mas, que no existe argumentacion ninguna
que pueda justificar la anulacion de los derechos que corresponden
a todos los seres humanos”, indicoJozami.

El viernes se espera una amplia convocatoria de la comunidad armenia,
ya que la tradicional marcha de protesta que se realiza todos los
años ese día, y que se replica en todo el mundo, se hara el proximo
martes 28 de abril.

From: Baghdasarian

NOT RECOGNIZING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MIGHT BE ONE OF OBAMA’S MORE DEFENSIBLE POLICIES

National Review Online
April 22 2015

by Patrick Brennan April 21, 2015 7:38 PM President Obama won’t
recognize the mass killing of Armenian civilians during World War I as
a genocide when he remarks upon the 100th anniversary of that event,
according to Politico. President Obama’s three immediate predecessors
have not referred to those killings as a genocide (President Reagan
did), and Congress as a whole has not, either. The expectation, it
appears, was that Obama might break from contemporary U.S. policy
now because the 100th anniversary of the events had occasioned a
big increase in pressure on the issue from Armenian leaders. It’s
self-evidently wrong for Obama to break, as he has, a campaign promise
to recognize the genocide. But on its own, a president’s refusal
to use the term “genocide” to describe the horrible suffering the
Armenians underwent is quite defensible. During the Iraq War years,
conservatives argued it was incredibly irresponsible to for the U.S.

to speak out on this question because it would anger Turkey, whose
cooperation we needed. The stakes are definitely lower, though not
negligible, now, but that doesn’t make recognition obligatory. What
the Turkish government and local militias did to the country’s Armenian
Christians in 1915 and following was horrific — a great evil.

But it is also a matter of legitimate historical dispute whether it
amounted to state-directed genocide. The Turkish state maintains a
great deal of baseless historical fictions, including some about its
brutal treatment of Armenians during World War I and in decades prior.

But the idea that the Armenian deportations did not amount to
state-directed genocide is not one of them. Indeed, there are a number
of eminent historians who believe that the horrors either did not
amount to genocide or that the evidence is too unreliable to say. (And
this doesn’t even get into the worry that putting it on part with the
Nazi Holocaust doesn’t make sense and risks cheapening the term.) The
U.S. president’s view of history shouldn’t be dictated by the Turkish
government. But it seems quite reasonable for a president to refrain
from pronouncing on a complicated, controversial historical question
in a way that would offend an ally, and instead just stick to offering
his sympathies to the Armenian people over the great suffering they
endured. President Obama is sending a relatively high-level official
(Treasury secretary Jack Lew) to the commemorations in Armenia this
week — maybe there’s more he could do, but it shouldn’t have to
involve arbitrary historical categorization.

From: Baghdasarian

MR. PRESIDENT, SPEAK TRUTH TO THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BY ADAM SCHIFF

Los Angeles Daily News
April 22 2015

Dear Mr. President:

Last week, the Pope caused an international incident by speaking
the truth.

At a Mass at Saint Peter’s Basilica celebrated for Christians of
Armenian heritage, Pope Francis spoke plainly about the Armenian
Genocide, the extermination of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman
Empire 100 years ago. When Pope Francis said that “concealing
or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without
bandaging it,” it set off a sad but predictable reaction by a Turkish
government that has made the denial of the Armenian Genocide one of
its defining national characteristics.

Within hours of the Pope’s remarks, Turkey recalled its ambassador to
the Vatican and its minister for European Relations was so incensed
that he did not limit his criticism to the Pope, but lashed out at
the entire nation of Argentina as well, the Pope’s place of birth.

The Pope’s remarks were moving and courageous, and they were in the
best tradition of his faith’s commitment to peace and justice. And,
as you understand from your own experience on this issue, his remarks
were also undeniably accurate.

One hundred years ago, as the Ottoman Empire was in its dying throes,
it began a systematic effort to exterminate the Armenian, Assyrian and
Christian people during World War I. They did so through a campaign
of mass killing and displacement that saw 1.5 million Armenians killed
and millions more forced to flee from their ancestral homes. There is
no serious historical debate that the Turkish government set out on
a campaign to kill and displace its minority Armenian population, and
that its actions amounted to the crime we now call “genocide.” In fact,
the coiner of the word “genocide,” Holocaust survivor Raphael Lemkin,
specifically cited the campaign of murder against the Armenians as
an example of why he created the term.

Your administration has now said that you will again refrain from
using the word “genocide” to describe the campaign to exterminate
the Armenian people. I urge you to reconsider.

As a senator, you spoke eloquently of the Armenian Genocide, and
promised to be the type of president who speaks “truthfully about
the Armenian Genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides.” Your
commitment was reflective of the reality that we cannot speak credibly
about human rights today — whether it is the mass killings in South
Sudan or the campaign of brutality by the Islamic State against
religious minorities in Syria and Iraq — if we pick and choose
which atrocities we are willing to recognize or allow ourselves to
be complicit in a campaign of genocide denial.

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America’s silence on the first genocide of the last century is a
bitter irony, considering that American diplomats from the period,
including our ambassador Henry Morgenthau, were some of the chief
chroniclers of what the ambassador termed the “Destruction of the
Armenian race.” Our country also did more than any other to alleviate
the suffering of the victims of the genocide.

Learning of the millions of Armenians who had fled into destitution
and despair, Americans reacted with a level of generosity never before
seen in the world. In response to the carnage, the Congress passed and
President Calvin Coolidge signed legislation establishing the Near
East Relief Foundation, a public-private humanitarian relief effort
that would go on to raise the modern equivalent of $2.7 billion in
funds to build orphanages, provide food and shelter, and ensure the
survival of the Armenian people.

I recognize, of course, that many will urge you to refrain from
anything that might antagonize an important ally in the fight against
Mideast extremism. They will argue that “now is just not the right
time.” In fact, genocide deniers been making this argument long before
the world was plagued by the likes of the Islamic State. The reality is
that Turkey will do what it considers to be in its national interest
in the fight against terror, no more and no less and regardless of
whether we commemorate the genocide.

As we have already seen, and despite your best efforts, Turkey has
taken only modest steps to stem the flow of foreign fighters into
Syria, to halt revenues from the sale of Syrian oil from going back
to Islamic State fighters, or to assist Kurds and other minorities at
risk across the border. Our willingness to be complicit in Ankara’s
campaign of silence will have little impact on Turkish actions against
the Islamic State, but will say a great deal about whether we are
willing to speak the truth about genocide to friend and foe alike.

Mr. President, you are a man of great principle and one who does not
make commitments lightly, and certainly not on a subject as weighty as
genocide. Our government’s silence over the genocide is a continuing
wound to the Armenian people and all others who have suffered such
cruelty, an injury that cannot heal without recognition. As Pope
Francis implored, “it is necessary, and indeed a duty, to honor
their memory, for whenever memory fades, it means evil allows wounds
to fester.”

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,
and on behalf of the families of the millions who were lost, I ask
you to call the deliberate campaign to annihilate the Armenian people
what it was, genocide.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, is one of the primary sponsors of the
Armenian Genocide Truth and Justice Resolution.

From: Baghdasarian

PRESIDENT SARGSYAN THANKS RUSSIA’S PUTIN FOR BEING WITH ARMENIANS ON THIS ‘IMPORTANT’ DAY

YEREVAN, April 24. / ARKA /. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan thanked
today his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for his statement on
the centenary of the Armenian genocide saying they are the words of
the leader of the fraternal country.

Putin arrived in Armenia in the early hours of today morning to join
leaders of France, Cyprus, Serbia and Armenia to pay tribute to the
1.5 million Armenians killed by the Ottoman Turks in the last years
of World War I.

Sargsyan thanked Putin also for being with Armenian people on this
important day, for finding the words in his message yesterday and in
his today’s speech at Tsitsernakaberd Memorial that touched the soul
of every Armenian, Sargsyan’s press office said.

Sargsyan singled out Putin’s words that the Russian state a hundred
years ago recognized together with the governments of France and
Great Britain the atrocities committed by the Ottoman government
against the Armenians are crimes against humanity.-0-

From: Baghdasarian

NETHERLANDS MINISTERS UNLIKELY TO ATTEND ARMENIA GENOCIDE CEREMONY

NL Times, the Netherlands
April 22 2015

Posted on Apr 22, 2015 by Janene Van Jaarsveldt

The government will very likely stick to its earlier decision not to
send ministers to the commemoration of the Armenian genocide on Friday.

Minister Jeanine Hennis Plasschaert said this to the Tweede Kamer,
lower house of parliament, NOS reports.

A memorial will be held in the Armenian capital Yerevan. There were
motions to have the Netherlands represented by the king and prime
minister, but these failed. The Netherlands will now be represented
by an ambassador. ChristenUnie faction leader Arie Slob therefore
asked the government to consider sending someone from the cabinet to
attend the commemorations in the Netherlands.

Hennis told the Tweede Kamer that she will share the request with
Minister Bert Koenders of Foreign Affairs, but she assumes that the
“government will act as previously decided.” According to Hennis there
will be enough senior officials present at the commemorations in Assen
and Almelo to express a “very appropriate level of compassion”. The
ChristenUnie called this decision disappointing.

On Friday the 100 year anniversary of the start of the Armenian
genocide will be commemorated. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians
were killed by Ottoman forces.

From: Baghdasarian