Author: Nahapetian Lilit

Armenian Genocide: Recognition and Reparation
The discussion on the web

Dear readers, you are invited to take part in the “Armenian Genocide: Recognition and Reparation” discussion on the web.
Dear readers,
Between April 15 and 25, you had an opportunity to express your views
on Yerkir Weekly’s website about the topic “Armenian Genocide:
Recognition and Reparation.” Below are the opinions express.

Thank you for your active participation: Spartak Seyranian,
editor-in-chief of “Yerkir” Weekly.

John – If the Ottoman Empire was the home to citizens belonging to
different nationalities, including Armenians, the question remains how
did the Turks become the sole owner of those lands and simply call it
Turkey? Don’t the Armenians, Kurds, Greeks and Assyrians, all Ottoman
citizens, have a legitimate land claims from the Turks?

Raffy Ardhaldjian/Graduate mid career scholar at the Fletcher School
of Diplomacy – 1) Do you think that Armenians should have an internal
dialogue on the topic of the Genocide -just like the Turks are having
it nowadays- to harmonize and organize their positions on this
issue. If yes, do you think a global referendum amongst Armenians on
this issue is possible in the age of the Internet ? 2) How should the
issue of “Armenian property” lost or confiscated during the 1915-1918
period be dealt with? Many Armenian families still hold deeds that
document their property rights. While there could be a statute of
limitations issue involved, the property issues should technically
have nothing to do with the Genocide. Thoughts ? 3) Is it important
that if the Genocide is recognized by Turkey, that all reparations
come from the Turkish treasury? Since Genocidal violence is a
humanitarian issue, do you see a scenario, where the International
community assumes part of the responsibility of paying reparations?
Do you have any benchmarks for what amounts Armenian demands should
be? Recently an International Court was looking into claims made by
Kurdish families against the Turkish state, where the lives of each
family member killed by the state in the 1980s were valued at $ 45,000
each. 4) While the government of Armenia recognizes the borders of the
Turkish Republic, do you think that if the ARF and others renounced
territorial demands from Turkey, there would be a shift in the Turkish
position on the issue of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide?

Steffan Sarkisian – Today Japanese PM apologized to all nations of
what Japan had caused them during the World War II. When will the
Turkish PM do that? 22.4.05

Zareh – Will the world ever be ready to address or back our demands
for financial or territorial claims even if Turkey is forced to
acknowledge the Armenian Genocide? On what capabilities can we depend
to successfully force such demands? On the other hand, how can we ever
forego the land that gave birth to our nation, taken away from us in
such a criminal manner? Will “we are sorry” alone be enough?

PEACE AGREEMENT IS OUT OF QUESTION

Pan Armenian News

04.05.2005, “PanARMENIAN Network” analytical department

Yalim Eral’s information concerning the document to be signed for the
regulation of Karabakh conflict is far from the truth.

The sensational announcement of the former OSCE ambassador in Turkey
Yalim Eral did not bring to a scandal, because it was immediately
denied. It is worth reminding that speaking on “CNN – Turkey” TV
channel, the Turkish diplomat stated that on May 10, Azerbaijan
and Armenia would sign an agreement on the settlement of Karabakh
conflict. According Eral, the agreement was to be based on the
stage-by-stage approach.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Neither Yerevan nor Baku found Eral’s information
reliable, since his version looked too unreal. Both the co-chairmen
of the Mink group and the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan
have more than once said that the negotiations have not reached a
proper stage to sign any document. By the way, the Turkish diplomat
did not mention who exactly were going to sign the document on the
10th of May. If he meant the presidents who will be in Moscow, then
they will have the chance to see each other on the 9th and not on
the 10th of May. Anyway, the latest announcement of Ilham Aliev makes
believe that he does not intend to meet with Robert Kocharyan during
the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of victory. Moreover, it is
doubtful whether the presidents will meet in Warsaw, where on May 15
they will take part in the summit of the leaders of EC member-states.

If the former OSCE ambassador in Turkey meant the possibility of
signing a document by the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia,
then that version is also absurd. The thing is that the co-chairmen
of the Minsk group have not yet informed Vardan Oskanyan about the
content of the meeting with Elmar Mamedyarov. So even if we suppose
that the Frankfurt meeting has really brought some progress, no one
has agreed on any details with the political leadership of Armenia. In
this case who is going to sign the document if neither the presidents
nor the foreign presidents of the two countries are aware of that?

There is still another strange thing in the announcement of the
Turkish diplomat. According to the former ambassador, the document
is going to be based on the principle of stage-by-stage settlement
of the conflict. It should be reminded that Yerevan and Stepanakert
have twice rejected that way of conflict settlement. Nevertheless,
the mediators still continue suggesting various settlement schemes,
which again suppose several stages of mutual concessions from the
two parties. However, Yalim Eral has another version. He clarifies
that according to the agreement reached, the Armenian party will let
Azerbaijan have five from the seven controlled security zones, but
he does not mention what will Azerbaijan do. This comes to prove once
again that the information of Eral is far from the truth. The latest
announcements of the defense and foreign ministers of Armenia confirm
that Yerevan excludes the possibility of any unilateral concessions.

It should be only be added that the official sources of Armenia and
Azerbaijan expressed rare unanimity in denying the information of the
Turkish diplomat. It is a pity that the opinions of Yerevan and Baku
coincide only in such kind of questions.

Artyom Yerkanyan

04.05.2005, “PanARMENIAN Network” analytical department

Armenian-Turkish relations are a sensitive issue, EU official says

06.05.2005 11:19

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – Presently, the Armenian-Turkish dialogue is in
its preliminary stage, an EU official said in Yerevan on Thursday,
Armenpress reported.

“There will be a positive development after the opening of the border
between Armenia and Turkey. We understand it is a very sensitive
issue and will take some time to iron out,” said Heiki Talvitie, EU’s
special representative to the South Caucasus, told a news conference,
held jointly with Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian.

Talvitie has discussed Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s proposal to
set up a joint commission with the Armenian FM. He, however, noted
that the EU has no official position toward that proposal.

Oskanian, in turn, said that by such moves, Turkey is trying to
settle its own issues. He also informed that no talks have begun to
set a date for a possible meeting of Armenian President Kocharian
and Turkish PM Erdogan.

ANTI-ARMENIAN INCIDENTS IN RUSSIA INSPIRED BY RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES TO SOME DEGREE

Pan Armenian News
07.05.2005 04:33

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian incidents in Russia are not only
left without opposition by the Russian authorities, but also
are inspired by them to a certain degree, editor-in-chief of the
Yerkramas newspaper of Armenians of Russia Tigran Tavadian stated
in the course of an on-line interview at OpenArmenia.com. However,
in his words, it is necessary to reach a clear understanding what
is meant by «Russian authorities» – the President, the Government
or the Governors. Today there are regions in Russia that are rather
successful in the inter-ethnic respect, however those like Krasnodar
Territory are also available. At present there is no strong and stable
authority in Russia that can prevent events like the latest incident
in Novorossiysk or even simply punish those guilty. Tigran Tavadian
also reminded of another case. In his words, October 17 past year
Budennovsk funded in 1799 by Karabakh Armenians celebrated a jubilee
and a complex devoted to Armenian founding fathers of the town was
opened there. However, it did not go without incidents there either –
the monument was damaged by vandals that were never found. However, the
monument is restored today. «In that situation the zeal displayed by
officers of Krasnodar Territory State Department of Internal Affairs
is surprising, as they literally terrorized our editor’s office,
trying to find out whether we plan «aggressive actions» in front
of the Turkish Consulate General in Novorossiysk on the day of the
90-th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,» he added. Meanwhile,
Tavadian noted that people in Russia know that Armenia is a strategic
partner of Russia, however they clearly differentiate Armenia and
Armenians of Armenia from Armenians in Russia, who in their opinion
«have come in large numbers.»

–Boundary_(ID_XbQhNW0As90MbWT6u6iy1Q)–

Armeni, da novant’anni l’Europa li dimentica
By Frediano Sessi

18/04/2005 | Corriere della Sera | ARMENIA |

24 aprile del 1915 iniziava a Costantinopoli il genocidio di un
milione e mezzo di persone

La mattina del 24 aprile 1915, nella città di Costantinopoli, allora
capitale dell’Impero Ottomano, vennero arrestati 650 notabili armeni.
Prese inizio così il primo genocidio del XX secolo, che porterà
alla deportazione e allo sterminio di un milione e mezzo di civili,
con un picco delle persecuzioni tra il 1915 e il 1916 e uno
stillicidio continuo di crimini fino al 1923, quando all’Impero
subentrò la repubblica turca.

Minoranza cristiana, in uno Stato controllato dai turchi musulmani
integralisti, gli armeni hanno sempre avuto lo statuto di cittadini
di seconda classe e subito leggi che via via li hanno privati dei
diritti più elementari. Condotti a forza verso i deserti della Siria
e della Mesopotamia, sottoposti a marce di per sé estenuanti, gli
armeni vennero perlopiù massacrati lungo il tragitto e sepolti in
fosse comuni. E sebbene il giovane storico inglese Arnold Toynbee,
già nel 1916, denunciasse «lo sterminio sistematico e crudele di un
intero popolo», l’Europa in conflitto, ormai assuefatta ai massacri
e alle devastazioni di quella che sarà definita la prima guerra di
annientamento, assisté quasi indifferente a quel tentativo di
cancellare ogni traccia di un’intera comunità dal suolo turco.

Sono trascorsi novant’anni da quel lontano 24 aprile e ancora si è
portati a trascurare o dimenticare la memoria di quello che, oggi, la
maggior parte degli storici europei considera il genocidio
«matrice» dei futuri assassini di massa che sconvolgeranno la
geografia dell’Europa e del mondo. Un passo avanti nel segno del
riconoscimento di questo genocidio e nella direzione di una
«necessaria» comparazione di memorie è stato fatto due anni or
sono dalla rivista francese Le monde juif (rivista di storia della
Shoah, n.177-178). «L’oblio nel quale è caduto questo crimine
contro il popolo armeno â~@~T scrive il suo direttore Georges
Bensoussan nell’ editoriale â~@~T evoca la fase di silenzio che ha
riguardato la distruzione degli ebrei d’Europa, negli anni tra il
1945 e il 1970». A questo silenzio quasi assoluto, vissuto di per
sé come un’offesa dai pochi sopravvissuti e dai loro figli, «gli
armeni aggiungono l’oltraggio supplementare della negazione del
crimine da parte della Turchia». E aggiungiamo noi, la dimenticanza
troppo spesso reiterata e inspiegabile dell’Italia che pur annovera
un «parco» memoriale assai ampio, che va dal ricordo della Shoah,
all’esodo e alle foibe, fino alle feste canoniche della Repubblica,
tra le quali quella del 25 aprile.

Conflitti di memorie? Concorrenza delle vittime che tende a
esacerbare primogeniture, tensioni e risentimenti? O incapacità di
ricostruire una storia comune dell’ Europa, che metta in evidenza una
necessaria solidarietà tra le vittime e i sopravvissuti, senza
timore che il ricordo di un genocidio rappresenti una diminuzione o
semplificazione della memoria di un altro crimine? Intanto il governo
turco, che si appresta a fare parte della comunità europea, continua
a organizzare attivamente la negazione del genocidio. Teme che il
riconoscimento del crimine commesso contro il popolo armeno possa
provocare rivendicazioni territoriali o economiche.

Per chi rifiuta la logica della concorrenza tra le vittime, i silenzi
e le negazioni, resta un simbolo, tra i tanti, di questa tragedia: un
bambino armeno di una decina d’anni, a cui è stata tagliata la
lingua, sfuggito alla deportazione e nascosto sotto la sabbia. Quando
passa un convoglio di deportati, in sprezzo del pericolo, a gesti
avverte la sua gente che nel deserto saranno nassacrati. Poi si
nasconde ancora sotto la sabbia e aspetta altre colonne di deportati.
Questo bambino è l’Armenia che da novant’anni rivolge il suo appello
al mondo intero senza ottenere un giusto riconoscimento del suo
dramma.

–Boundary_(ID_EtkhK6cJ6RFzpoxw+MY9Cg)–

From: Sebouh Z Tashjian <[email protected]>
Subject: Minsk Group Cochairmen get ready for meeting with Oskanian

MINSK GROUP COCHAIRMEN GET READY FOR MEETING WITH OSKANIAN

Armenpress

BAKU, MAY 4, ARMENPRESS: Russian Minsk Group cochairman Yury Merzlyakov
told an Azerbaijani APA news agency that he and two other Group’s
cochairmen from France and USA a were getting prepared for a separate
meeting with Armenian foreign minister Vartan Oskanian.

Merzlyakov specified that that the date and the venue of the meeting
were considered. “The meeting may take place either in Moscow, Warsaw
or in some other European city a day or two ahead of the Council of
Europe summit in Poland,” Merzlyakov was quoted as saying.

The Russian diplomat said the cochairmen’s earlier separate meeting
with Azerbaijani foreign minister Elmar Mamedyarov in Germany’s
Frankfurt was “useful and productive.”

Merzlyakov said Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents are very likely to
have another round of talks over the Karabagh conflict on the fringes
of the Council of Europe summit on May 16-17. He said the negotiation
process would resume after the presidents’ meeting in the format of
foreign ministers.

Merzlyakov also downplayed allegations that a PACE ad hoc commission
on Karabagh could replace the Minsk Group, which is the main team of
peace brokers mandated to help the sides to find a mutually acceptable
peace formula.

“Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis said the commission
could not replace the Minsk Group. Its main activity will be based
on protection of human rights,” Merzlyakov quoted Davis as saying.

Remembrance of things past

South China Morning Post
May 2, 2005

Perspective in history is a necessary but elusive goal. Comments in my
last article about Japan and its textbooks endeavoured to put them into
a wider historical context. But that clearly touched a very raw nerve,
and I received a flood of letters, some remarkably abusive. So here, I
will look at some other aspects of history – but steer clear of China.

It is a truism that some episodes of history acquire symbolic
importance out of all proportion to their practical importance at
the time. Let us look back to 1915, whose anniversaries are producing
plenty of examples.

Last Monday was Anzac Day, which commemorates the Australian and
New Zealand Army Corps’ losses in the Gallipoli campaign against
Turkey during the first world war. Gallipoli, where more than 8,000
Australians died during a nine -month campaign, is deeply embedded in
the Australian psyche and national mythology. Heroism was embellished
by some flamboyantly inaccurate accounts by the father of newspaper
baron Rupert Murdoch, and later, fact and fiction merged to become
a touchstone of nationalist sentiment. More French and twice as many
Britons died there as Australians, and more Australians were killed
the following year on the Somme and again in Flanders in 1917 than
at Gallipoli. But Gallipoli was symbolic because it was the first
bloodying of the new nation in a major battle and was one in which
Australia and New Zealand played roles out of all proportion to
their size.

For non-Australian history, Gallipoli was a less important encounter
than one which occurred at the very beginning of 1915, but which few
people in the west or Australia have heard of – let alone seen fit to
commemorate. That was the Battle of Sarikamis when, in a few days,
80,000 Turks lost their lives to Russian forces and frostbite in
midwinter in the mountains of eastern Anatolia.

More important still, Sarikamis led to the Russian advance, and
Russia’s creation of a (Christian) Armenian state on Turkish soil.
This last advance of Tsarist Russia, in turn, sparked massacres of
Armenians throughout the Turkish part of the Ottoman empire. The
Gallipoli invasion by western Christians the same year added fuel to
Turkish Muslim communal violence and perhaps 500,000 deaths.

Genocide of Armenians or not, the aftermath of Sarikamis has left
a wound as deep as the Nanking massacre and continuing rows over
Turkish guilt and Turkish textbooks. This issue may yet decide the
crucial question of Turkish membership of the European Union.

Did Australian Prime Minister John Howard and his British counterpart
Tony Blair, who attended last week’s Gallipoli commemoration, know
about Sarikamis? Or were their school books also selective in the
choice of heroism and cruelty?

Judging by recent editorials, Southeast Asian textbooks may have some
gaps, too. How honest are the Thai ones about their wartime alliance
with Japan? In the Philippines, many members of the nationalist elite,
including then president Corazon Aquino’s future father-in-law, were
in the puppet government of president Jose Laurel. He fled briefly
to Japan but Laurel was never prosecuted, returned to politics and
was nearly elected president in 1949.

It is hard to blame the Filipinos, who had to exchange one yoke
for another. Japanese occupation was unpleasant, but the biggest
losses came with liberation in 1945 when “American Caesar” General
Douglas MacArthur ordered an all-out assault on Japanese-occupied
Manila. It cost 100,000 lives, mostly Filipinos, from air and
artillery bombardment in what was the bloodiest city battle of the
second world war after Stalingrad. Maybe it is best for people to
forget some history, but historians should not.Philip Bowring is a
Hong Kong-based journalist and commentator

`ROUND DANCE OF UNITY’ ACTION TO BE HELD IN ARMENIA ON MAY 28

YEREVAN, April 29. /ARKA/. An unprecedented action, Round Dance of
Unity , is to be organized in Armenia on May 28, Day of Declaration of
the First Independent Republic, for national unity, good and
happiness. According to the information reported to ARKA, a 15-minute
155-km-long dance around Mount Aragats is to start at 3:00 p.m. local
time. Over 170,000 people will take part in the round dance. `The
action will be a national festival with concerts,shows, fireworks,
festivals and hundreds of fires. An application for the registration
in the Guinness record book has been made,’ the organizers report.
The action has been organized by the Nig Aparan charity compatriotic
association. RA President Robert Kocharyan supported the initiative,
but does not intend to take part in it. The President accounted for
his decision by his unwillingness to make the action an occasion for
idle gossip and political speculations. P.T. -0–

Pan Armenian News

AWARDS FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE INVESTIGATIONS

29.04.2005 09:02

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today Armenian President Robert Kocharian handed awards to
the Armenian cultural and scientific workers. During his speech the Armenian
leader informed that a new award for the investigations of the Armenian
Genocidewas instituted, RA President’s press service reports.

Turkish woman’s discovery of grandmother’s Armenian roots leads to
taboo-breaking book
AP Worldstream
Apr 29, 2005

SUZAN FRASER

Before her death, Fethiye Cetin’s devout Muslim grandmother let her in
on a dark family secret: the old woman was born an Armenian Christian
who was stolen from her parents by a Turkish cavalry soldier who went
on to raise her.

The revelation stunned Cetin, who like most Turks knew little about
the slaughter of Armenians during the collapse of the Ottoman Turkish
Empire, a chapter of history so troubling it is barely taught in
schools or even discussed.

Hoping to help shatter those taboos, Cetin wrote a book that tells of
her grandmother’s sufferings and Cetin’s efforts to reconcile her
Turkish identity with the tragic past.

The book `’My Grandmother” has encouraged other Muslim Turks to step
forward and is one of the few examples of Turks struggling in a
personal way to come to grips with the massacre of Armenians during
World War I.

It comes as Turkish intellectuals and newspapers _ partially prodded
by demands from the European Union that Turkey face up to its past if
it wants to join the bloc _ have increasingly been addressing the
Armenian massacres.

Armenians say some 1.5 million of their people were killed as the
Ottoman Empire forced them from eastern Turkey in what they say was a
deliberate campaign of genocide by the theocratic state’s rulers.

Turks say the death count is inflated, and insist that both Armenians
and Turks were killed or displaced as the Ottoman Empire tried to
quell an Armenian insurrection. Turkish accounts of the massacres have
almost exclusively focused on Turkish casualties and suffering.

Turks have faced prosecution in the past for backing the Armenian
claims and many Turks regard it as anti-Turkish to speak of the
slaughter of Armenians.

And there are still deep prejudices between the two sides.

A recent poll conducted jointly by research foundations in Turkey and
Armenia showed that 68 percent of Turks would object to their daughter
marrying an Armenian. Ninety-four percent of Armenian respondents said
they would be against their daughter marrying a Turk.

Cetin, a lawyer, says in the book she felt ashamed when she first
learned that her grandmother was born an Armenian, writing: “I could
not tell anyone, I could not share my shock with anyone.”

“It was an eye-opener, I began to see things I hadn’t before,” Cetin
said in an interview in her small office on the Asian side of
Istanbul.

Some 50 people with similar Armenian backgrounds quickly contacted her
after the November 2004 publication of the book, which has sold 12,000
copies, a considerable amount in a country where book readership is
low.

Some called to say the book encouraged them to be open about their
ancestry.

“In time, I was able to somewhat digest what I had learned and to some
extent quell the internal turmoil,” Cetin wrote in the book.

The numbers of Armenian children taken by Turks and raised as their
own is deeply disputed and could range from the thousands to far
higher.

Most Turks with an Armenian heritage still take pains to hide their
background.

“If talking about the issue stopped being a matter of courage in
Turkey, I believe that the numbers (of people who would come forward)
would be incredible,” said Hrant Dink, an Armenian-Turkish journalist
based in Istanbul.

Cetin grew up knowing her grandmother as Seher, a devout Muslim who
prayed five times a day, fasted for the holy month of Ramadan and wore
a traditional headscarf.

Then one day when Cetin was in her mid-20s, the grandmother called her
into her room and imparted a chilling story.

Seher said the name given to her at birth was Heranoush. When she was
nine, paramilitary police came to her village in eastern Turkey and
rounded up all of the Armenians, forcing the women and children into a
churchyard.

The group stayed huddled in the yard, with no idea what was happening
to the men until one girl climbed on the shoulders of another, looked
over a wall and told them what she saw: soldiers slitting the throats
of the men and tossing their bodies into a river.

The women and children, including Heranoush and her two brothers were
forced to march more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) to the Syrian
border with little food or water.

At one point, Turkish soldiers came. One took Heranoush while another
took her brother Horen and ran off with them. Heranoush was renamed
Seher and raised as her abductor’s daughter.

The story led Cetin to search for the Armenian side of her family.

That search only bore fruit after Seher died in 2000. Cetin wrote an
obituary for her grandmother for an Istanbul-based Armenian newspaper
which caught the eye of a France-based Armenian bishop, who helped
unite the families.

Last year, Cetin traveled to New York to meet with Margaret Bedrosian,
Seher’s sister who was born in the United States, and Margaret’s son,
Richard.

“Richard and I hugged each other and sobbed loudly,” Cetin said of the
meeting at the airport. “It was indescribable.”