Author: nina hovnanian

AZERBAIJAN CONFESSES ABOUT SUBVERSIVE ACT AND OSCE MG CO-CHAIRS KEEP SILENCE: ARMENIA’S MOD

14:33, 23 April, 2015

YEREVAN, 23 APRIL, ARMENPRESS: The silence of the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairs, after the factual confession of Azerbaijan about the
subversive act, is inexplicable. Armenpress reports that touching
upon the video of explosion of a military car of the Defense Army of
the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, spread by the Azerbaijani media, the
Spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia
Artsrun Hovhannisyan expressed such an opinion.

“In fact Azerbaijan confesses to have implemented a subversive act.

Why do not the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs react? This video is a
factual confession, is not it? On the eve their minister was praising
in the presence of Andrzej Kasprzyk. And today Azerbaijan violates
the ceasefire regime and implements a subversive act, on which we do
not see any response by the OSCE”, – said Hovhannisyan.

RICHARD HOVHANNISIAN: DIASPORA HAS A BIG ROLE IN THE RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE (VIDEO)

16:06 | April 23,2015 | Politics

American Armenian historian, Academician Richard Hovhannisian considers
the speech of the Pope Francis to be big progress. The Pope called
the Armenian Genocide the first genocide of the 20th century.

“We also learn that Germany is ready to recognize the Armenian
Genocide. This year the recognition of Genocide has been more
widespread than ever,” Richard Hovhannisian told “A1+”.

Mr. Hovhannisian thinks that the Diaspora has a big role in the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and if the Diaspora didn’t exist,
the Genocide would be forgotten, “With its limited capabilities the
Diaspora fights against the denial policy and has had much success.”

As to the Turkish policy, Richard Hovhannisian says that Turkey
doesn’t want to take responsibility, which is unacceptable for us.

WHY HAS OBAMA SENT SECRETARY OF TREASURY?

Naira Hayrumyan, Political Commentator
Politics – 23 April 2015, 16:00

Yesterday the members of the American presidential delegation to visit
Yerevan on April 24 were announced. The presidential delegation is
headed by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew. The other
members are mostly Congress representatives.

Why the minister of finance? After all, Obama could have chosen a more
“political” official.

Interestingly, the government approved the sales agreement on Vorotan
Hydro Cascade to Contour Global. At any rate, choosing Lew is a little
strange. What did Obama mean to convey? Is this a response to the
“requests” of the Armenian government which eventually end up in
begging for money? What have the Armenians asked Obama for? Since
his choice stopped on the Treasurer, the Armenians must have asked
for money.

During Against Genocide Crime forum Serzh Sargsyan mentioned 4 pillars
of the centenary of the Genocide. It turns out that all this noise
is about four goals: memory, recognition, prevention and rebirth.

During the talks and the other events everyone diligently avoid the
“claims” word. It turns out that nobody demands anything from Turkey,
everyone is happy, and everything the Armenians want is to save the
world from future genocides.

It is possible that this stance has determined Obama’s choice. To
put it in more simple terms, the United States hinted at the waiver
of claims to Turkey by Armenia and generally the nature of Armenian
claims.

RUSSIAN MP: RUSSIA HAS NEVER CHANGED ITS STANCE ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

17:02 23/04/2015 >> POLITICS

Russia has never changed its stance: the Russian State Duma has
twice adopted statements condemning the Armenian Genocide, member of
Russian State Duma Galina Karelova said at the International Social
and Political Global Forum against the Crime of Genocide in Yerevan.

“Regretfully, some states call into question the fact of the Armenian
Genocide due to their political interests,” she said.

The MP said that Russia has supported the Armenian people in the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

Karelova noted with regret that nationalist sentiments are increasing
in some countries again and added, “We must do everything possible
to jointly fight against genocides.”

HIDDEN ARMENIANS OF TURKEY SEEK TO RECLAIM THEIR ERASED IDENTITIES

16:09 * 23.04.15

For the first 25 years of his life, Armen Demirjian thought he was
Kurdish. Then the elders in his village told him his family’s secret:
His grandfather was Armenian, a survivor of the genocide carried out
by the Ottoman Turks a century ago.

“I was completely confused,” said Mr. Demirjian, who is now 54. “I was
very sad as well. I was raised with the Kurdish culture and history.”

White House Acknowledges Armenian Genocide, but Avoids the Term
President Obama’s continued resistance to the word stood in contrast
to Pope Francis, who recently called the massacres “the first genocide
of the 20th century” and equated it to mass killings by the Nazis
and Soviets.APRIL 21, 2015.

Turkish Premier Says European Stance on Armenian Genocide Reflects
Racism

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu urged Europe to look in its own
backyard after the European Parliament asked Turkey to recognize mass
killings of Armenians as genocide.APRIL 17, 2015 Mr Demirjian, whose
grandfather was sheltered by a Kurdish family as a child, held on to
his secret. In recent years, though,as Turkey has allowed minorities
to identify themselves more freely, he embraced in full his family’s
truth. He changed his name to his family’s Armenian one, participated
in the restoration of a church in this city, took Armenian language
lessons and started delivering Agos, an Armenian newspaper published
in Istanbul, to others in this area with a similar past. When his
cellphone rings, it blares a song by the Armenian-Syrian singer and
songwriter Lena Chamamyan.

“From now on,” he said, “I want to carry on with my Armenian heritage
and culture.”

The genocide and expulsion of Armenians from eastern Anatolia in World
War I, an atrocity whose centennial will be commemorated this week with
ceremonies around the world, is largely a story of the dead: Historians
estimate that nearly 1.5 million Armenians were killed. But there
are also the stories of the tens of thousands of survivors, mostly
women and children, who were taken in by local Turkish families. They
converted to Islam and took on Kurdish or Turkish identities.

Now, a growing number of their descendants are identifying as Armenian,
and their personal experiences contrast with the perennial denial by
the Turks and the lasting pain and anger of the Armenians.

The

Turkish government has long denied that the massacres amounted to
genocide — they say the killings were a tragic consequence of war,
not a planned annihilation. Armenians, both in a vast international
diaspora as well as inArmenia itself, have long demanded an apology
and recognition from Turkey.

The Armenians in southeast Turkey, whom historians have called
“hidden Armenians” or “Islamized Armenians,” want those things, too,
but for the most part they are less beholden to the painful past.

“If you compare our anger to the anger in the diaspora and in Armenia,
ours would be like 1 percent of their anger,” said Aram Acikyan, who
works as a caretaker here in Diyarbakir at the Surp Giragos Church,
the largest Armenian church in Turkey and the Middle East. The church
was restored in recent years with the help of the local Kurdish
authorities, and now symbolizes efforts at reconciliation.

Those efforts have largely been possible because the Kurds were willing
to acknowledge their role, as agents for the Ottoman Turks, in the
genocide a century ago. That the Kurds themselves suffered under
the Turks, who have long denied the existence of a separate Kurdish
identity, made reconciliation between Kurds and Armenians easier.”The
freedom we have here to say, ‘I am Armenian,’ is all thanks to the
Kurdish movement,” said Mr. Acikyan, 48, whose grandfather survived
the genocide and was taken in by a Kurdish shepherd and his wife.

Many of the hidden Armenians here who are rediscovering their roots
have found it easier to discard their Kurdish or Turkish identities,
and to embrace an Armenian one, than to relinquish their religion.

Most have remained Muslim rather than converting to Christianity,
the religion of their ancestors, and so the restored church here in
Diyarbakir feels more like a cultural center than a house of worship.

Easter at the Surp Giragos Church this year was a splendid affair, with
the sun shining brightly and plenty of colored eggs and traditional
braided breads. A priest flew in from Istanbul to celebrate Mass.

Yet when the service began, many of the few hundred people who had
gathered preferred to stay outside, under the sun in the courtyard,
chatting and smoking, or eating a breakfast of cheese and olives and
eggs at the cafe. And when holy communion was administered, roughly
a dozen people, maybe fewer, lined up.

“I love coming to the church,” said Ozlem Dikici, who was sitting in
the courtyard. “But I am Muslim. I pray five times a day.”

Ms. Dikici’s husband, who recently took an Armenian name, Armenak
Mihsi, sat next to her and repeated the story he was told by his
grandfather: The family was wealthy and had connections with the
Ottoman elite, and so was warned about killings and deportations.

“Only five years ago did I really accept this,” Mr. Mihsi said. “For 20
years, it was confusing. It’s not just being Armenian, but there is the
Christian side of it, too. It’s very difficult to change religions.”

Many of the Armenians who converted to Islam became even more religious
than their fellow countrymen, as if to prove that they were good
Muslims and to overcome prejudice and suspicion.

Mr Mihsi, for example, has made the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca,
in Saudi Arabia, 10 times.

Through the generations, even while living as Muslims, many were aware
of their Armenian heritage. “It was all anyone talked about in this
region,” said Aziz Yaman, 58, but only within the family, in private.

Even today, he added, his family keeps to one old Armenian custom —
making wine, and drinking it.

“Everyone has their own story,” he said.

Mr Demirjian, a man of good cheer, smiled broadly when speaking
recently about coming to terms with his Armenian identity. Sitting
at a cafe here, he arrayed in front of him some of the relics of
his family’s past. A government document listed his grandfather as a
Christian. He showed his father’s passport, stamped by Saudi Arabia
from a long-ago pilgrimage to Mecca. There was also a magazine article
about a relative who became an antiques dealer in New York.

Each item represents a chapter of his family’s story: a Christian
identity erased, conversion to Islam, flight and exile, and, more
recently a rediscovery.

Turkish officials say that there are most likely several hundred
thousand people in eastern Turkey with some Armenian blood, but that
few have traveled the path that Mr. Demirjian and others at the church
here have. One local official said there were only 200 to 300 Armenians
in Diyarbakir.

Many are still hiding their heritage, Mr. Demirjian said, because
they are frightened. The word Armenian is used as an insult in Turkey,
as a suggestion that someone is a traitor.

“There are many other stories like mine, in all the cities and towns
around here,” he said. “In this region, when you pick up a stone,
under it is a story of an Armenian.”

TURKEY ‘LOST BATTLE WITH TRUTH’ OVER ARMENIA GENOCIDE: ACADEMIC

Yahoo! News
April 20 2015

By Philippe Alfroy April 20, 2015 2:24 PM

Istanbul (AFP) – 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.

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.”

View gallery People lay flowers at the monument to Armenians killed
by Ottoman forces during World War I in Yerev …

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.

View gallery People hold candles to commemorate the 99th anniversary
of the Ottoman Turkish mass killing of Armen …

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.

– ‘Foundations of the nation’ –

Armenians say that 1.5 million of their ancestors were killed in the
massacres, but Turkish government officials claim that hundreds of
thousands of Muslims and Christians were killed on both sides in a
shared wartime tragedy.

Aktar said there was also a genuine fear in Turkey that the descendants
of Armenians who were killed or expelled could return to reclaim
assets or land that were taken from them in 1915.

Recalling also the expulsion and killing of Orthodox Greeks up to
the foundation of modern Turkey in 1923, he added:

“There is above all the fact that modern Turkey is built on the
expulsion and annihilation of the non-Muslims who lived in Anatolia.

“Putting that in question is to put in question the foundations of
the Turkish nation and for now it is impossible.”

But Aktar said he had been encouraged by signs of an evolution in
Turkish civil society, with seminars and publications assisting the
work of memory.

“A recent opinion poll showed that nine percent of Turks are in
favour of recognising the genocide. But I am sure this is much more
than just five years ago.”

“The genie is out of the bottle. The evolution will be slow but will
happen, I believe it.”

BERLIN RECONNAIT LE GENOCIDE ARMENIEN

Publié le : 22-04-2015

Info Collectif VAN – – Le Collectif VAN vous
propose cette information publiée sur le site EurActiv le 21 avril
2015.

Légende photo : Vendredi (le 24 avril), une cérémonie de
commémoration des victimes devrait avoir lieu au mémorial de
Tsitsernakaberd a Erevan. [Stefan Krasowski/Flickr]

EurActiv

Berlin s’est longtemps opposé a utiliser le terme ” génocide ”
pour définir le massacre des Arméniens en 1915, mais la chancellerie
et son gouvernement de coalition ont finalement cédé aux pressions
des députés de leurs partis.

Le lundi 20 avril, Steffen Seibert, le porte-parole d’Angela Merkel, a
annoncé que le gouvernement soutiendrait une résolution du Bundestag
visant a commémorer le massacre des Arméniens qui s’est déroulé
il y a 100 ans.

Une annonce qui intervient alors que la polémique faisait rage en
Allemagne : le président, Joachim Gauck, allait-il prononcer le mot ”
génocide ” lors d’un événement de commémoration a la cathédrale
de Berlin auquel il participe le 23 avril ?

Depuis des semaines, l’alliance de centre-droit et le Parti
social-démocrate (SPD), les partis du gouvernement de coalition,
débattent eux-aussi de la manière de définir le massacre des
Arméniens commis par l’Empire Ottoman en 1915.

Utilisation du mot génocide

Erika Steinbach, qui dirige l’Union chrétienne-démocrate (CDU) et
préside le groupe de travail parlementaire sur les droits de l’Homme
dans la section de centre-droit du Bundestag, devrait être ravie de
ce revirement. Elle estimait ” très humiliant ” que le Bundestag
se refuse a utiliser le mot ” génocide ”. Elle a expliqué au
Tagesspiegel que, selon elle, la ” crédibilité de la politique
allemande des droits de l’Homme ” est en jeu.

Frank Schwabe, porte-parole du SPD pour la politique des droits de
l’Homme, était lui aussi loin d’être convaincu par les consignes de
l’administration du ministre des Affaires étrangères, Frank-Walter
Steinmeier. ” Le gouvernement allemand doit pouvoir nommer clairement
le génocide arménien ”, a-t-il déclaré. ” Sinon, nous nous
empêchons également de définir les génocides actuels et futures. ”

Les membres des partis de la coalition au pouvoir ont présenté la
proposition de résolution au Bundestag et fait pression sur leurs
collègues du gouvernement afin qu’ils acceptent de qualifier les
événements de génocide. Un débat sur la résolution devrait avoir
lieu le 24 avril.

” Le gouvernement soutient la proposition de résolution […] qui
fait du sort des Arméniens durant la Première Guerre mondiale
un exemple des meurtres collectifs, des nettoyages ethniques, des
expulsions et, oui, des génocides du 20ème siècle ”, a déclaré
Steffen Seibert.

Jusqu’ici, le gouvernement de coalition avait soigneusement évité
de mot ” génocide ”.

Suite aux avertissements recus d’Ankara, le ministre des Affaires
étrangères, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, s’était bien gardé d’utiliser
le mot ” génocide ” lors d’un entretien télévisé le 19 avril. Il
avait cependant nié l’existence d’un tabou dicté par la Turquie.

L’Allemagne a une responsabilité particulière

Le 15 avril, le Conseil central des juifs d’Allemagne n’a laissé
aucun doute sur sa position vis-a-vis du génocide arménien.

” Il y a 100 ans, plus d’un million d’Arméniens ont été déportés
a la demande de l’Empire Ottoman. Ils ont été froidement assassinés
ou sont morts de faim et de soif dans le désert ”, a rappelé Josef
Schuster, président de l’association, au Tagesspiegel.

” Ce terrible événement devrait être appelé comme il se doit
: c’était un génocide ”, assure-t-il. Josef Schuster estime
que le gouvernement allemand a une responsabilité particulière,
étant donné que des officiers allemands ont été complices de
ces événements.

” Plus tard, Hitler a virtuellement utilisé le génocide arménien
comme modèle pour l’extermination des Juifs ”, argue-t-il.

Selon des sources arméniennes, 1,5 millions de personnes ont été
victimes du génocide. Les historiens s’accordent depuis longtemps
sur le fait que les atrocités de 1915 devraient être considérées
comme un génocide.

Ankara ne veut pas entendre parler de génocide

Le président turc, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a condamné l’utilisation
du terme a de nombreuses occasions. ” Notre pays n’est sali par
aucun génocide ”, a-t-il affirmé.

” Nous ne permettrons pas que des événements historiques soient
sortis de leur contexte et utilisés comme outils de propagande
contre notre pays ”, a-t-il déclaré le 14 avril, en réaction a
un discours du Pape Francis, qui a qualifié les événements de 1915
de ” premier génocide du 20ème siècle ”.

” Je condamne le Pape et voudrais le prévenir qu’il ne devrait pas
faire ce genre d’erreurs a l’avenir ”, a souligné le président turc,
qui a immédiatement rappelé l’ambassadeur turc au Vatican a Ankara.

La Turquie refuse de considérer que les massacres, perpétrés
alors que les forces ottomanes combattaient les Russes, constitue
un génocide.

Les autorités admettent que des chrétiens arméniens ont été
tués lors des massacres et déportations de 1915 et 1916, mais pas
qu’il y a eu des centaines de milliers de victimes.

Selon la Turquie, il n’y a jamais eu de campagnes visant a éliminer
les Arméniens ou d’ordre dans ce sens prononcé par les autorités
de l’Empire Ottoman.

Un génocide déja reconnu par le Parlement européen, la France et
d’autres nations

Le Bundestag devrait adopter la résolution de reconnaissance du
génocide arménien le 24 avril, date du centenaire du massacre d’1,5
million d’Arméniens par les troupes ottomanes.

Steffen Seibert souligne que la proposition de résolution indique
l’Allemagne reste ” consciente du caractère unique de l’Holocauste,
dont elle porte la responsabilité ”.

Plus d’une douzaine de pays, donc la France, la Suisse et les Pays-Bas,
ont déja qualifié de génocide les déplacements, viols et massacres
qui ont eu lieu a cette occasion. L’ONU et le Parlement européen
partagent tous deux cet avis.

Le centenaire du début du génocide est une occasion important
d’accepter le passé, indique une résolution adoptée le 15
avril. Cette résolution rend hommage aux victimes du génocide et
exhortait Ankara a reconnaître la nature de ces atrocités.

Les eurodéputés ont invité l’Arménie et la Turquie a ” s’inspirer
des exemples de réconciliations entre les pays européens ”
en ratifiant et en exécutant, sans préconditions, les protocoles
d’établissement de relations diplomatiques, en ouvrant la frontière
et en améliorant activement leurs relations, notamment en ce
qui concerne la coopération transfrontalière et l’intégration
économique.

Un article adapté d’EurActiv Allemagne et du Tagesspiegel.

Article en allemand :

Bundesregierung in Bedrängnis

Source/Lien : EurActiv

LOCAL ARMENIANS MARK CENTENARY OF THEIR DARKEST MOMENT

Waterloo Record, Canada
April 20 2015

Waterloo Region Record
By Anam Latif

CAMBRIDGE — Levon Sarmazian may be young, but there is one story
his family always tells.

“There were 78 people in my family, with my last name, in Armenia,”
Sarmazian said.

“After 1915, there were only 18 of us left.”

Sarmazian, along with about 150 other local members of the Armenian
community, gathered at the Armenian Community Centre in Cambridge
Sunday to commemorate the coming centenary of the Armenian genocide.

Friday will mark the event that claimed 1.5 million lives at the turn
of the century.

What is described as the darkest moment in Armenian history has tied
together one of the largest diasporas in the world.

Many historians estimate 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the
Ottoman Empire during the First World War. The Turkish government
denies the genocide, claiming the deaths were a consequence of war
and unrest and not systematic ethnic cleansing.

Only a handful of survivors are still alive, but Vahe Poladian said
he thinks every single living Armenian is a survivor.

“Because we are still here, Turkey failed,” he said.

They gather every year with only one demand: recognition from their
perpetrators.

Last week, Pope Francis took a bold stand and condemned the Armenian
genocide, an action which drew ire from Turkish officials.

Poladian was relieved when he heard the news. “It’s a step in the
right direction,” he said.

Those who survived the genocide were forced to leave their homeland and
marched across the Syrian Desert where many more died of starvation.

Most of the Armenian diaspora settled in Lebanon and Syria. But
they take pride in preserving their culture, language, food, values,
religion and way of life.

After a wreath was placed at the memorial outside the community centre,
there was a ceremony inside where poetry and speeches were recited. In
the backdrop a large purple forget-me-not was displayed as the chosen
symbol for the 100th anniversary.

It represents the past, present and future of Armenia and almost
every person in the room wore a purple forget-me-not pin or sticker.

“We will not forget,” Poladian said.

FROM ARCHIVES EMERGES A CATHOLIC WHO AIDED ARMENIANS’ PLIGHT

Catholic Philly
April 20 2015

By Lou Baldwin

Some Armenian refugees such as these did survive the genocide that left
up to 1.5 million Christian Armenians dead. It has has been called
the first genocide of the 20th century. (Philadelphia Archdiocesan
Historical Research Center)

At a time when Christians of all denominations are being attacked by
radical Muslims in many first parts of the world, it is the centenary
of what has been called the first genocide of the 20th century: the
slaughter of between 1 million and 1.5 million Christian Armenians
by Muslim Turks and Kurds in 1915, with sporadic violence against
the remaining Armenian refugees for the next decade.

“Men, women and children were turned out of their homes, marched
to exhaustion and starved, beaten and burned to death by the tens
of thousands,” Archbishop Chaput wrote in his March 5 column on
CatholicPhilly.com.

Pope Francis, during a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday, April
12 to commemorate the massacre, used the term “genocide,” to which
the Turkish government strenuously objected.

To put it in context, in 1915 Turkey’s Ottoman Empire, of which Armenia
was part, was along with Germany and Austria at war with the United
Kingdom, France and Russia, among others. The United States was then
neutral, although after it entered the war it opposed only Germany
and Austria, not Turkey.

Although the Turkish Empire was largely Muslim, most Armenians were
Christian, members of the Armenian Apostolic Church with a history
they believe traces back to the Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus.

Armenia also bordered Russia, which was Christian, and the Turks feared
the Armenians would rebel and fight for the Russians, and some did.

In retaliation Turkey put in place a ruthless policy that saw most
Armenian men in the area near Russia killed and the women and children
sent on what was a virtual death march to other parts of the empire.

While Turkey to this day continues to deny a genocide took place,
eyewitnesses from that era testified otherwise.

In a dispatch to the American ambassador in Constantinople, the
local American Consul Leslie Davis wrote in July 1915, “It has been
no secret that the plan was to destroy the Armenian Race as a race,
but the methods used have been more cold-blooded and barbarous if
not more effective than I had at first supposed.”

The massacres did not end in 1915, and for the next decade people of
good will from around the world contributed vast sums of money for
the relief of the large number of now-scattered Armenian refugees.

Walter George Smith, shown in 1923, was a prominent Catholic lawyer
in Philadelphia who raised money and awareness of the Armenians.

(Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center)

Walter George Smith was a prominent Catholic Philadelphia lawyer who
engaged in the relief efforts and visited the region from November
1920 through February 1921.

“In the long history of human government,” Smith would later write,
“there can scarcely be found a parallel to the tragic fate of this
gallant people. Of Aryan race though seated for centuries in Asia,
they have never lost their national characteristics. We of the Western
world have been slow to realize their value to the cause of Christian
civilization.”

At the end of the war and the capitulation of Turkey, the Treaty of
Sevres signed by Turkey dissolved the Ottoman Empire and stipulated
the borders of an independent Armenia were to be set by the President
of the United States, even though the U.S. had not been at war
with Turkey. It was even suggested the U.S. accept Armenia as a
protectorate.

Ultimately President Woodrow Wilson did nothing, probably because (as
today) he was a Democratic president with a Republican Congress that
wanted no parts of further foreign entanglements to the point that
Congress even prevented the U.S. from joining the League of Nations.

Nevertheless, with hundreds of thousands of Armenians in refugee
camps around the Middle East and Eastern Europe, private citizens
in the U.S. raised more than $100 million for Armenian relief, a sum
that would translate into more than $1.3 billion today. Some of the
donors were from the Armenian diaspora, many others were members of
churches, mostly Protestant, that had missionaries in the region but
there were Catholics also.

Possibly the most prominent American Catholic to champion the plight
of the Armenian Christians was Smith. He was the son of a Civil War
general, a former president of the American Bar Association, a former
president of the American Catholic Historical Society, a 1923 winner
of Notre Dame University’s Laetare Medal and a brother-in-law to St.

Katharine Drexel.

He was very active with Armenian Relief especially in the early
1920s, and served as president of the Armenian Relief Society. The
now Sovietized Russia occupied that section of Armenia that bordered
with it and the rest remained under control of the new government in
Turkey headed by Mustafa Kamal (Ataturk).

Although secular, Turkey ignored the terms of the Sevres Agreement.

Neither the European powers nor the United States did anything to
enforce the peace agreement. It would not be until 1991, with the
collapse of the Soviet Union, that the section of Armenia that was
under its control became a free and independent republic.

Smith, whose personal papers are held in the archives of the
Archdiocese of Philadelphia, could not know this future and by 1924
was pessimistic for Armenia.

Writing in New Armenia magazine that year he described the Armenians,
“…to their eternal glory there remains the truth that among all
Christian peoples they stand unique or nearly so in accepting death
rather than treason to their Christian faith. Men, women and children
have gone through fire and water, have literally sacrificed everything
that this world counts as good rather than trample on the Cross.

Surely, under the Providence of God, justice will one day be done
to them.”

SYRIAC ORTHODOX PATRIARCH CALLS ON GERMANY TO RECOGNIZE ASSYRIAN, GREEK, ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Assyrian International News Agency AINA
April 21 2015

Posted 2015-04-20 23:30 GMT

Archbishop Vicken Aykazian (L) and Archbishop Khajag Barsamian (R)
with His Holiness Ignatius Aphrem II Karim in New York.Berlin (AINA) —
In an open letter to the German government, Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem
II, the supreme head of the Syriac Orthodox Church, has called on
Germany to recognize the genocide of Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks
perpetrated by Ottoman Turks during World War One. The letter was
addressed to German President Joachim Gauck, Chancellor Angela Merkel,
and Parliament President Norbert Lammert.

In the letter the Patriarch expressed astonishment that the term
Genocide should be avoided for political reasons in a resolution
prepared by the governing coalition parties and planned for adoption on
Friday, April 24th in the German parliament. The Patriarch appealed to
the conscience of the German people, saying 1.5 million Armenians and
more than 500,0001 Assyrians of different denominations fell victim
to the first genocide of the 20th century. Monasteries, churches,
villages and houses were systematically wiped out.

“By denying this genocide,” said the Patriarch in his letter, “one
contributes to the fulfillment of the evil plan of those who executed
this genocide…Germany, like no other state and society in the world,
faced the sad truths of its history paving the way for reconciliation
between peoples.”

Here is the full text of the letter:

It is with great interest that we follow the ongoing debate in Germany
concerning the Genocide that occurred in the Ottoman Empire starting
from the year 1915. However, we are greatly astonished to hear that
the word “Genocide” is being avoided due to political reasons.

During these dark years, our church lost the majority of its faithful.

The wound caused by this Genocide which we call in our Syriac-Aramaic
language “Sayfo”, was never healed due to the persistent denial of
the very fact of the Genocide by the Turkish state until today.

The result of this first Genocide of the20th century was the loss of
1.5 million Armenians, about 500.000 Syriac speaking Christians and
thousands of Christians of different ethnicities and denominations.

Our monasteries, churches, villages and houses fell prey to the
systematic attempt to erase Christian life from its cradle. Today only
few thousand Christians remain in Turkey, while many monasteries and
churches are destroyed or confiscated.

We are writing to you because Germany, like no other state and society
in the world, faced the sad truths of its history paving the way for
reconciliation between peoples. When we ask for recognition, we ask
for the beginning of a reconciliation process. To us, as well as to our
Armenian brothers and sisters, this chapter of our history has become
part of our identity. By denying this genocide, one contributes to the
fulfillment of the evil plan of those who executed this genocide. Our
people did not pose any threat to the Ottoman Empire.

They were victimized based on racist policies and a political will to
exterminate Christianity in the former Ottoman Empire in what amounts
to a religio-ethnic cleansing of our people.

Today, as the Head of the Syriac Orthodox Church, we call upon the
living consciousness of the German people not to turn a blind eye on
truth, but to open their hearts to the suffering of an entire people.

We also call upon you as the highest representatives of this people
to show that values of democracy have to be defended and promoted
globally and not selectively.

May the spirit of truth and courage guide you in your decision.

Ignatius Aphrem II Patriarch of Antioch and All the East Supreme Head
of the Universal Syrian Orthodox Church

1 Editor’s note: the actual figure is 750,000 Assyrians (75%), as
well as 500,000 Greeks and 1.5 million Armenians.