Armenia 1915 -1920

Armenians commemorate the massacre of their people in what was then
Constantinople, and across Turkey, on April 25 every year. Here is a
selection of articles chronicling how the Manchester Guardian reported
the events in Turkey and Armenia between the massacre in 1915 and
Armenia becoming a socialist republic in 1920. Two years later Armenia
would become part of the USSR.

Tuesday December 21, 2004
The Guardian

April 25 1915 Turkish Army’s Plight

A Terrible Picture

Cities Turned into Cemeteries

Plague-ravaged towns

The “Corriera della Sera” (Milan) publishes a terrible account, sent
from Hoppa (Black Sea) of the sufferings of the Turkish army which has
been defeated in the Caucasus. It is, says the writer, a colossal
unknown tragedy. All Eastern Armenia is stricken with woe:
devastation, massacre, carnage, epidemics, misery, misery, misery! The
cities are cemeteries and hospitals. Trebizond, sweet voluptuous
Trebizond, which saw the glory of Alexis Commenus and which
degenerated under the corruption of the Empire risen on the dark
shores of the Black Sea, Trebizond is now half destroyed and its
inhabitants are fleeing. The disasters of the Turkish army in the
Caucasus campaign have sent survivors flocking here; a bloody spectre
of the Turkish army that was dispatched to the Russian frontier. Four
thousand sick or wounded soldiers have been sent to Trebizond from
Erzerum and from the frontier, and almost every day new and dolorous
convoys arrive from the interior. The authorities calculate that
Trebizond will be able to accommodate eight thousand patients, and so
from Eastern Armenia hundreds continue to arrive. They do not appear
to be men, but rather remnants of humanity. But however many are sent
it is unlikely that the figure mentioned will ever be reached, for
Death sees to the daily elimination among those already arrived. With
sickening regularity it frees the places for newcomers and those on
their way. There are more than a hundred deaths every day at
Trebizond. Typhus, small-pox and an infinity of other diseases play
havoc. Nearly all the doctors and chemists have contracted
illness. And there are only just five doctors to attend to the needs
of this entire city which lately counted a population of sixty
thousand souls, and to look after the thousands of wounded as
well. Sanitation material is nearly exhausted. There are no more
disinfectants. The best use is being made of whatever expedients can
be devised in order to keep going on.

The Spread of Plague

The Typhus spreads with amazing rapidity. Wounds not sufficiently
attended to become gangrenous. It is an infinite trial; a
slaughter. Until twenty days ago it was thought possible that the
epidemics might be confined to the encampments, but this has proved
and ingenuous illusion. When hospitals were improvised in the centre
of the city how could one believe that the epidemic would not spread
and become general! Hospitals rise beside the schools, the mosques,
the churches and near the Consulates. At the present moment there is
one on each side of the Italian Consulate. Naturally the plague
spreads among the citizens. A daughter of the German Consul is
suffering from typhus. Many families flee, terrified. But journeys
cost money and are disastrous. It is necessary to have or find means
of getting far away and there are no ordinary communications, because
in the interior there is not a single mile of railway, and the sea
route is closed – or else to resign oneself to a dangerous journey by
brief and painful stages. But towards what region! Where can safety be
found?

Caravan Column’s Fate

A column of a thousand camels was sent from Constantinople for the
caravan service between Trebizond, Erzerum and the interior. Eight
hundred are already dead, stricken by diseases that kill them in a few
hours. The grotesque and precious beasts drop down by the wayside and
nobody troubles about them. Carrion hover over them and help to
augment the elements of infection. The sea route barred by the Turkish
fleet, which arrives here now and again to bombard, the communications
with the interior rendered difficult and extremely slow, Oriental
Armenia is now threatened with yet another scourge – hunger. Flour is
becoming scarce, there is no sugar and the deficiency in the supply of
coffee is beginning to be felt. And already there is no more
petroleum! The situation is even worse at Erzerum, in the interior,
320 kilometres from Trebizond. Erzerum is a fortress and chief town of
the vilayet. It has a hundred thousand inhabitants and is almost
completely Armenian. But the Ottoman Government has always neglected
it, only troubling about its military position, and then close up,very
little. The city is without sewerage or drainage. Around the outlying
quarters there are putrid, stagnant waters; they surround the city so
that it lies enclosed as in a purulent wreath of ill. Erzerum is full
of sick and wounded. >From eight hundred to a thousand die there
every day. It is something fantastic. The Ottoman Army had been
organised for the invasion of Russia from the Caucasus is now here or
in the surrounding districts. It comprises 350,000 men in the most
deplorable condition, and discouraged and afflicted. When the city is
considered to be too full of sick, convoys are organised and sent to
Trebizond. But the distance is too far, and hundreds die on the
way. Entire columns of soldiers, already infected, are obliged to
undertake the journey on foot, as there are not sufficient carts and
animals. Every now and again one falls out. Secure him. With what and
how, when the others, who endeavour to push along somehow, are in the
same plight? Trebizond was bombarded on January 24 and 28 and February
3. The military zones were hardly damaged at all, but the city has
suffered enormously, especially the Christian quarters. The Turks,
following their old and favoured practice, always occupy the Christian
quarters when they fire on the warships, with the result that these
quarters suffer most from the bombardment of the latter. Half of
Trebizond lies in ruins.

April 27 1915

The War in the Caucasus

Armenians enthusiasm for Russian cause

At the beginning of the war with Turkey the Russian Armenians of the
Caucasus petitioned the Russian Government to allow them to form
Armenian volunteer regiments. Armenians of Russian nationality are, of
course, subject to compulsory military service and contribute their
quota to the Caucasian regiments. But, in addition to this, the
Armenians of the Caucasus desired to form purely Armenian regiments of
volunteers, with Armenian officers and commands in the Armenian
language. The Russian Government consented, and several battalions
were formed. There are from 80,000 to 90,000 Armenians in the
Caucasian regiments, and in addition some 15,000 Armenian volunteers
have joined. It is hoped to raise this number to 20,000 men in special
Armenian regiments. When one considers that the Russian Armenian
population altogether is only 1,700,000, one has proof of the
enthusiasm with which they have supported the Russian cause. The
Armenian regiments were equipped as to clothing &c. with money
subscribed by the Armenian community in the Caucasus. The Government,
of course, armed them, but they receive no pay either for themselves
or their families – only food and maintenance in their field. Over and
above this special effort, the Russian Armenians have contributed to
various war charities – hospitals, hospital trains, and so on – some
1,500,000 roubles. This, with the cost of raising the voluntary
regiments, will total probably 3,000,000 roubles altogether – a huge
sum for so small a community. In addition to this, thousands of
Armenian refugees have fled to the border before the advance of the
massacring Turks. These refugees have been distributed through the
Armenian villages of the Caucasus and are being supported by the
Armenian community. The regiments of the Armenian volunteers have been
of the greatest service in the operations against the Turks and have
won the warm approval of the Russian commanders. They are hardly
mountaineers accustomed to the country and familiar with the methods
of warfare of the Kurds. They are more lightly dressed and equipped
than the Russian troops and perform the mountain marches more
quickly. In the operations against the Turks from the Caucasus they
always formed the vanguard of the Russian army.

The Present Position

The advance into Turkish Armenia was made at four points, by one route
westward from Northern Persia towards Lake Van, and southward along
three routes from the territory of Kars. The advance was very
rapid. Though they were outnumbered three to one at least, they drove
the Turks back before their swift advance, fighting day and night. But
a Turkish force operating to the westward of all the lines of advance
threatened towards Tiflia and menaced the Russian lines of
communication. The Russians therefore withdrew all their forces from
Turkish territory. Afterwards they outflanked the Turkish force in
their turn. The position remains so at present, and must remain so for
some three or four weeks. Desultory fighting goes on but a general
advance is impossible because the melting of the snow makes the passes
impracticable. The Turks will mass at Erzerum and there will be a
secondary concentration at Bitlin. Much depends on the command of the
Black Sea. If the Turks could bring their transports to Trebizond ,
that would be the easiest way of getting their army to Erserum. The
big battle will be there.

May 21 1918

The Turks in Armenia

Massacres at Van

A telegram from Tiflis states that pourpariers for a separate peace
between the Caucasus and Ottoman Governments have been broken off
owing to the monstrous demands of the Turks. The latter at once began
an energetic offensive on the whole front, and occupied the town of
Van, massacring the Armenian population.

September 30 1920

Atrocities by Red troops in Armenia

An appeal to Chicherin Reuter’s Agency learns that the Armenian
Government has sent the following telegram, dated September 17, to Mr
Chicherin, the Bolshevik Commissary for Foreign Affairs. “The Red
troops of Soviet Russia, followed by Tartar marauding bands, are
laying waste the peaceful Armenian villages in Karabagh and
Zangezour. General Vasilenko, the Commander of the Second Red division
operating in this region has taken no notice of the preliminary peace
treaty signed between us at Tiflis on August 10. “Fifty important
Armenian villages have already suffered heavily, and the peasants are
leaving their homes in Zangezour in order to avoid the brutality of
your troops. “For the sake of our future co-operation and good
neighbourliness we request the Russian Soviet Government to stay the
advance of Red troops into Armenian territory and prevent further
atrocities.”- Reuter

November 29 1920

Armenia and Turkey

Peace Negotiations to Begin

Difficulty with Georgia

Fresh arrangements between the Armenians and the Turks were concluded
yesterday. The Armenian delegation, with M. Khatissian as president,
proceeds to Alexandropol in a few days to begin peace
negotiations. Half Armenia has been overrun, and the reconstruction
work of the past two years has been destroyed. Tens of thousands of
refugees, famished and frost-bitten, are struggling towards Delijeh,
Karaklis and Erivan. Georgia, quite excusably, has closed her
frontiers. The toll of human suffering equals the worst during the
Great War. Armenia has permitted Georgia to occupy the neutral zone
for three months. Georgian troops have now advanced and occupied
Djellalbuglu, against which Armenia has formally protested. This
incident, however, is not expected to impair amicable relations
between Armenia and Georgia.

Mr Conwil Williams, secretary of the British Armenia Committee, adds
the following explanatory note: The neutral zone to which your Tiflis
correspondent refers consists of the Sanahin district,
north-north-west of Erivan. It contains the important copper mines of
Maverdi. When the British evacuated the Caucasus they failed to decide
between the opposing claims of Armenia and Georgia in regards to this
area. The Armenians who number 80 per cent of the population, were in
favour of inking a plebiscite, but the Georgians failed to agree. Its
occupation by Georgia may be a necessary military measure in view of
the Turkish advance. It is to be hoped, however, that the taking of
Djellalbuglu, in Armenian territory, does not indicate that Georgia is
taking a mean advantage of her neighbour’s desperate plight.

Armenian president meets Italian counterpart in Rome

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
27 Jan 05

[Presenter] The Italian president is ready to help Armenia integrate
into Europe, Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi said in Rome today
during a meeting with Armenian President Robert Kocharyan.

Italy also intends to aid the economic development of Armenia,
increasing bilateral trade and investment in the country.

Ciampi and Kocharyan touched on the Karabakh settlement process. The
Caucasus is a region of strategic importance for Europe and the danger
of instability in the region reduces the development prospects for the
region as a whole, the Italian president said.

President Kocharyan met today in Rome the chairmen of the Italian
senate and parliament and attended the Armenian-Italian business forum
organized by the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade.

[Correspondent Lilit Setrakyan from Rome] The official reception for
the Armenian president took place in the afternoon at the Italian
presidential residence. After the ceremony, the two presidents
discussed Italian-Armenian relations. They also discussed regional and
international issues and Armenia’s integration into Europe.

During a short meeting with journalists, the Italian president noted
that Armenia was a country close to Italians’ hearts. The Italians
were the first to render assistance to Armenia in the 1988 earthquake.

President Ciampi said that Italy was ready to assist the economic
development of Armenia, to increase trade and Italian investment in
Armenia.

Ciampi called for the continuation of constructive talks on the
peaceful settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict.

For his part, Kocharyan expressed confidence that the Armenian
president’s first official visit to Italy would promote the
development of bilateral relations and would be a convenient
opportunity to transfer political relations into the business
sphere. The president stressed the importance of the Armenian-Italian
business forum gathering in Rome, during which Italian and Armenian
businessmen were able to assess and discuss cooperation potential. The
Armenian president also noted that the development potential for
Armenian-Italian relations was large as regards integration into
Europe.

Kocharyan outlined to Ciampi Armenia’s relations with the European
Union and the importance of this organization’s “Expanded Europe: New
Neighbours” programme for Armenia.

Ciampi promised his country’s assistance on this issue and stressed
that the Caucasus was of strategic importance to Europe, which wishes
to develop democracy and the economy in this region.

The Armenian president discussed interparliamentary cooperation with
the president of Italy’s Chamber of Deputies, Pier Ferdinando Casini.

During a meeting with Italy’s Senate Speaker Marchello Pera, Kocharyan
discussed the two countries’ cooperation in the legislative
sphere. Pera said that Italy was ready to assist in the reform of
Armenian legislation.

Tomorrow [28 January] Kocharyan will meet Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi and Pope John Paul II.

Azeri pressure group says Council of Europe resolution on Karabakh imperfect

ANS TV, Baku
27 Jan 05

[Presenter] The initiative to recognize Nagornyy Karabakh as a party
to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict should draw a sharp response, the
Karabakh Liberation Organization [KLO] said at a news conference
today. The KLO also regards as imperfect the resolution on the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe [PACE].

[Correspondent, over video of the news conference] The OSCE
fact-finding mission that is to visit Baku tomorrow [28 January]
cannot be expected to deliver objective results in the Nagornyy
Karabakh settlement, KLO chairman Akif Nagi said. He added that to
commission the OSCE to resolve the conflict was in the interests of
Armenia, but not Azerbaijan.

[Akif Nagi, speaking in the news conference] It is in the interests of
Armenia to hold endless, pointless and fruitless talks within the
framework of the OSCE Minsk Group.

[Correspondent] The KLO chairman said that the organization would
react to the fact-finding mission’s work after closely monitoring its
activities. Nagi said that popular euphoria over the PACE resolution
was wrong. The KLO chairman said that some points in the resolution
were harmful to Azerbaijan.

[Nagi] An amendment was made to the resolution demanding that
Azerbaijan start negotiations with political representatives of
Nagornyy Karabakh over the status of Nagornyy Karabakh. I think this
strikes a very serious blow to Azerbaijan’s position. I believe
Azerbaijan should not agree with this stance.

[Passage omitted: KLO to stage a series of protest actions]

Baxtiyar Salimov, Azar Qarayev, ANS.

OSCE fact-finding mission visits Azeri Foreign Ministry

ANS Radio, Baku
28 Jan 05

The OSCE’s fact-finding mission, which is to investigate claims that
Armenia is illegally settling the occupied Azerbaijani territories,
and the OSCE Minsk Group cochairmen started their meetings at the
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry half an hour ago. The Baku government
will submit to the mission its information about the settlement of
Armenians in Azerbaijan’s occupied lands at the meeting. The briefing
to be held today with the cochairmen and the mission’s members will
clarify whether the mission is going to conduct monitoring in Agdam
and Fuzuli Districts.

The OSCE’s fact-finding mission will leave Baku for Yerevan and
Yerevan for the occupied territories tomorrow.

[Passage omitted: minor details]

Washington Times
Jan 28 2005

Kurdistan and Iraq

By Nechirvan Barzani

With elections in Iraq only days away I believe it is important to
inform people outside our region how the citizens of Kurdistan in
Iraq see the future of their homeland. It is especially important to
do this now because of rumblings in some circles that we covet Kirkuk
for its oil wealth and that our true aim is complete independence.
However, let me state clearly, the leadership of Iraqi Kurdistan is
firmly committed to full participation in a free, federal,
pluralistic and democratic Iraq.

These are not just words. These principles were declared by the
Kurdistan National Assembly, which was formed in 1992 following free
and fair regional elections. Kurdistan did not choose to separate
from Iraq at that time. We have repeated these words with utmost
sincerity to our colleagues in the interim Iraqi government, to our
neighbors, to our close friends and allies of the multinational
coalition and to others. We are happy to be held to our declaration
because we expect to abide by it in a free, democratic and federal
Iraq.
Everyone naturally desires to live in an environment of freedom
and security where their families can grow and prosper. In saying
this I speak not only of the Kurdish people, but of all the people
who live in Kurdistan – Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, Christians,
Assyrians,Armenians,and Chaldeans, Shia, Sunni, Yezidis – all of whom
have lived in genuine peace and with warm respect for each other
since long before Iraq became an independent and sovereign country.
Kurds have learned much over the past 13 years, living and
working in our developing democracy while under the protection of
international security forces. We have learned to appreciate and
cherish our freedom and our autonomy. Our people have begun to enjoy
the progress of a secure environment and a growing economy.
During Saddam Hussein’s rule, more than 4,000 Kurdish villages
were totally destroyed. Chemical weapons were used against more than
200 communities spanning from our northwest border with Turkey to our
southeast border with Iran, and culminating in the infamous chemical
attack on the city of Halabja.
Living in freedom since 1991, we have reconstructed more than
3,000 destroyed communities and resettled over 50,000 displaced
families. We have constructed tens of thousands of homes, along with
roads and water systems. We have also built hundreds of schools and
health centers and added two new universities. And now, Sunday’s
election is an important step toward fully achieving our goals.
The oil in Kirkuk, an area that is historically and culturally an
integral part of Kurdistan, prompted the forcible displacement of
Kurds, Turkmen and others. Families who were forcibly displaced have
the undeniable right to return. Ironically, however, the families
that were forcibly removed because of the oil wealth are not being
supported due to fears about how oil proceeds might be allocated in
the future.
It is important to repeat two positions that have been clearly
stated by the leadership of Kurdistan in Iraq. First, those who were
displaced from Kirkuk have the right to return. All families who
settled in Kirkuk and do not occupy property forcibly taken from
others are encouraged to remain, regardless of their ethnic and
religious backgrounds. It is regrettable that what is clearly a
property issue is being promoted as a conflict between people based
on their ethnic heritage. Second, the oil of Kirkuk is a national
asset to be shared with the people of Kurdistan. We seek guarantees
that this wealth will be fairly shared for peaceful economic
development.
Also, our regional security contributes to Iraq’s national
security. We have developed capabilities since 1991 that have been
crucial in maintaining a relatively safe and stable security
environment in our region. Many of those who promote violence
elsewhere in Iraq are the same criminals who, in earlier times,
killed and maimed many of our citizens.
In developing our peshmerga military forces and civil security
services to protect our freedom and autonomy, not only have we been
able to secure our region but we have also been ready, willing and
able to fight alongside U.S. and other coalition forces in order to
extend freedom to our brothers and sisters throughout Iraq. We are
proud of our contribution and welcome the presence of friends and
forces that are helping to build a free and democratic Iraq.
The elections on Jan. 30 are the first in a series of long and
difficult steps scheduled to be completed by the end of this year to
reach a free, pluralistic, federal and democratic Iraq that we
wholeheartedly support. Through these elections we hope to preserve
and expand the gains we have sacrificed to achieve. Our long and
hard-fought struggle compels us to accept no less. Following these
elections, the citizens of our region will see their aspirations
embodied in the principles of the Transitional Administrative Law,
which we seek to be incorporated into a permanent constitution that
we will proudly be obliged to uphold and defend.
We thank the American people for their sacrifice on our behalf
and we thank President Bush for his steadfast leadership in support
of our freedom. We are proud to be your allies.

Nechirvan Barzani is prime minister of the Kurdish Regional
Government.

WorldNetDaily
Jan 28 2005

‘Genocide? What genocide?’

David Kupelian
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com

When my father was three years old, he was sentenced to a brutal
death, along with his mother and infant sister, by the Turkish
government. Along with hundreds of thousands of other Armenians, they
were earmarked to be herded into the Syrian desert where they would
die of starvation, disease, or worse — torture and death at the
hands of brutal soldiers or hordes of roving bandits.

It was 1915, and the grisly and premeditated genocide of the Armenian
people was at its peak. The Armenians in that area that were not
butchered outright — the men were often killed immediately — were
herded together and deported by force into the Derzor, the Syrian
desert east of Aleppo, to perish. My father’s father, a doctor, had
been pressed into the Turkish army against his will, to head a
medical regiment.

“One of my earliest recollections, I was not quite three years old at
the time,” my father, Vahey Kupelian, told me a year before he died
in 1988, “the wagon we were in had tipped over, my hand was broken
and bloody, and mother was looking for my infant sister who had
rolled away. The next thing I remember after that, mother was on a
horse, holding my baby sister, and had me sitting behind her, saying,
‘Hold on tight, or the Turks will get you!”

The three of them took off, and ended up in Aleppo, which was one of
the gateways to the desert deportation and certain death.

Once they arrived, my grandmother asked around to find out who was in
charge. She managed to bluff her way into getting an audience with
the governor general of Aleppo. Since her husband was in the service
of the Turkish army — albeit by force — she boldly said to the
governor general, “I demand my rights as the wife of a Turkish army
officer!”

“What are those rights?” he countered.

“I want commissary privileges and two orderlies,” she answered.

“Granted.”

In this way, through sheer chutzpah, my grandmother Mary Kupelian
managed to fast-talk her way out of certain death, not only saving
her own life and those of her son and daughter, but also the lives of
her husband’s two brothers, whom she immediately deputized as
“orderlies.” The group managed to sneak several other family members
out of harm’s way, and my grandmother kept them all from starving by
obtaining food from the commissary. Thus was my family spared,
although little Adolphina, my father’s infant sister, was unable to
survive the harshness of those times, and died shortly thereafter.

As for my grandfather — after an unusually bloody battle between the
Turks and the British, he and the other doctors, all Armenians, had
just finished tending to the Turkish wounded as best they could.
Immediately after this, a squadron of Turkish gunmen came and killed
them all, including my grandfather.

In all, one and a half million Armenians perished in those years, at
the hands of the Turkish regime.

Yet to this day the government of Turkey denies that any genocide
ever took place — despite thousands of eyewitness accounts, despite
the over 24,000 documents compiled from the U.S. National Archives of
State Department records from 1910 to 1929 detailing the
extermination of the Armenians. Despite the New York Times’ over 194
articles from 1913 through 1922 outlining the hideous manner in which
Armenians died in Turkey.

The U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1916, Henry
Morgenthau, tried desperately to stop the slaughter, and said that
the treatment of the Armenians by the Turks “surpasses the most
beastly and diabolical cruelties ever before perpetrated or imagined
in the history of the world.”

“One day I was discussing these proceedings with a responsible
Turkish official,” Morgenthau later wrote, “who was describing the
tortures inflicted. He made no secret of the fact that the government
had instigated them, and, like all Turks of the official classes, he
enthusiastically approved this treatment of the detested race. This
official told me that all these details were matters of nightly
discussion at the headquarters of the Union and Progress Committee.”

The former ambassador continued, “Each new method of inflicting pain
was hailed as a splendid discovery, and the regular attendants were
constantly ransacking their brains in the effort to devise some new
torment. He told me that they even delved into the records of the
Spanish Inquisition and other historic institutions of torture and
adopted all the suggestions found there.”

I will not recount the unspeakable things the Turks did to the
Armenians, but rest assured they exceed the darkest and foulest
imaginings of your mind.

This barbaric and massive extermination of 1.5 million Armenians by
the Ottoman and Turkish military and paramilitary forces effectively
eliminated the presence of the Armenian population from Turkey. After
inhabiting the Armenian highlands for three thousand years, this
ancient people, historically the first Christian nation, was driven
from its historic homeland and forced into exile. Like the modern
state of Israel, modern Armenia had a new birth after the breakup of
the Soviet empire.

Today, the entire Turkish government and establishment is, on a
national scale, reminiscent of the Nazi war criminals who turn up now
and again, living in middle America, 70-something, working as a shop
foreman somewhere, tending their flower gardens, smiling to their
neighbors and living a “normal” life — their beastly past neatly
buried in the dark corners of their mind — and perhaps the minds of
a few Nazi-hunters.

A troubled nation, Turkey can pretend to be a civilized nation among
other civilized nations, but its every move, every policy, its
strategic cooperation with NATO and the West, is designed — like the
former Nazi tending his garden, smiling at his neighbors — to bury
forever the truth of the ferocious crimes it committed.

There is no room in official Turkey today for recognition of the
Armenian holocaust. The hatred is still there. Indeed, after the
devastating earthquake that decimated Armenia in 1988, Turkey
blockaded aid to Armenia, delaying trains so long that food and
medicines went bad.

And just last month a group of computer hackers calling themselves
the “Green Revenge Group” hijacked the Armenian National Institute’s
website and redirected visitors to a propaganda site denying the
Armenian holocaust ever happened.

The ANI website features comprehensive documentation of the Turkish
genocide against the Armenian people, including historic documents,
records of international affirmation, bibliographies and a unique
collection of documentary photographs.

ANI’s Board of Governors Chairman Robert A. Kaloosdian called it “a
stark reminder that deniers will resort to any means to cloud,
obscure and erase the memory of the Armenian Genocide.”

But all of us deniers need our enablers, don’t we? Helping the
Turkish government live in this state of perpetual denial of its past
crimes is the United States government. After freely acknowledging
the reality of the Armenian holocaust for decades — just as the U.S.
has always recognized the Jewish holocaust — the U.S. government has
changed its tune in recent years.

The U.S. and NATO have decided that since Turkey is strategically
important, located as it is on the edge of the Middle East, our
ability to locate military bases there and rely on Turkish
cooperation is more important than truth. So we now soften our
condemnation of Turkey, often referring to the “alleged” and
“disputed” Armenian holocaust.

Living in denial, Turkey is a fragile country today, full of internal
conflict — between secularists and fundamentalists, between Kurds
and Turks. Its economy is weak. If the U.S. did not prop it up, it
would probably collapse.

Is there any hope?

Yes, I believe there is. Sometimes good things happen. It may be my
imagination, but there are signs.

“With the people of Israel watching, I bow in humility before those
murdered, before those who don’t have graves where I could ask them
for forgiveness.” So spoke German President Johannes Rau in an
historic address to the Israeli Parliament earlier this week.

“I am asking for forgiveness for what Germans have done, for myself
and my generation, for the sake of our children and grandchildren,
whose future I would like to see alongside the children of Israel.”

Although the Germans have, of course, openly acknowledged the Jewish
holocaust for decades, Rau’s poignant address before the Knesset was
profoundly important. Indeed, one of the finest, most inspiring
things a human being can do in this deeply imperfect world is to
apologize — sincerely, completely and without guile, for past
wrongdoing. It is, all by itself, healing.

Confession is good for the soul, says the Good Book. If Turkey would
openly confess its great sins, as Germany did after World War II and
as its new president did on Wednesday, Turkey also would have a
chance to heal not only itself and its national soul, but also the
thousands of descendents of those massacred Armenians. It’s the least
they can do.

When it comes right down to it, there are only two kinds of people in
this world. Not black and white, rich and poor, free and unfree,
faithful and infidel, or Christian and pagan. I’m talking about
getting down to the level that God really cares about:

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any
two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and
spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart.” — Hebrews 4:12

The intents of the heart. There are people who, when confronted with
their error, can sincerely acknowledge it and apologize. And then
there are people who, when confronted with their wrongdoing, deny it,
deny it even to the death. On the spiritual level, these are the two
types of people who populate this planet.

Sincere, honest apology is the very epitome of moral courage, and
evidence of a secret faith in divine providence.

About once every generation a leader emerges who can rise above the
muck. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was one. He rose above the
ancient cultural and religious hatred of his people for the Jews, and
in the end embraced Menachem Begin and Israel as a man of peace.

May Turkey raise up such a leader. One man could lead that nation —
or at least all the decent souls in that nation, and every land has
its share — to national repentance and healing.

Turkey has suffered for centuries under a dark, cruel and inhuman
culture. Today’s Turks are not responsible for the atrocities
committed by their ancestors — they weren’t even alive then. But
today’s Turks are responsible, as individuals and as a nation, for
confronting the harsh reality of their nation’s past, admitting it to
the world, and apologizing to the Armenians — not only for the
horrors of the genocide, but for having denied it ever since.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and
hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those
who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who
spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your
Father in heaven.” — Matthew 5:43-45

OK, I’ll tell you what. I will not only pray for Turkey, but I will
ask every Armenian reading these words, and all believers as well, to
pray for Turkey, that a leader might truly lead that dark nation into
the light — a painful journey indeed, but one that leads ultimately
to true humanity and redemption.

Prof. Ronald G. Suny has announced a major conference on the Armenian
Genocide in which a number of Turkish scholars will participate, at
the University of Chicago on March 17-19. Most Armenians are
skeptical, saying it’s foolishness to talk seriously about the
genocide with Turkish scholars, whose sole aim for decades has been
obfuscation, historical revisionism and outright denial. Yet Prof.
Suny apparently is determined to facilitate a truthful dialogue with
Turkish and Armenian scholars. Although he may be naïve, as some
Armenians suggest, or falsely optimistic as others believe, he is
making an effort, a beginning, in what could be a long road toward
national redemption for Turkey. Godspeed.

David Kupelian is vice president and managing editor of
WorldNetDaily.com and Whistleblower magazine, and author of the
forthcoming book, “The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and
Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom.

KVBC TV, NV
Jan 28 2005

Sisters Could be Separated From Family in America

Maria Silva Reporting

They’re not a threat to national security, but federal immigration
authorities have two teenage sisters in custody and want to send them
back to their home country of Armenia . But their family is here, and
now thanks to the media and Senator Harry Reid, their struggle is
attracting national attention.

The Sarkisian sisters are used to helping around their father’s pizza
shop, but for the past couple weeks work has been especially
difficult. “My dad, he’s just going crazy. He doesn’t eat, sleep. He
can’t do anything anymore.” For the past 12-days, the girl’s two
older sisters, Emma and Miriam have been in custody — locked up,
waiting possible deportation to their home country of Armenia .

“I love my sisters. And I really miss them. And I want them to come
back.”

The younger girls were born here in the U.S. , but Emma and Miriam
were not. Their father has become a legal resident, but while trying
to comply with American laws, he says the teenagers were arrested by
federal authorities. The youngest sister, Patricia doesn’t quite
understand the details, but knows her family is at risk of being torn
apart.

“Cause how would the immigration people feel if they took their kids
— and put them in the holding cell.”

While we were conducting our interview, Emma called from her jail
cell. It was a brief conversation that consisted of mostly tears.

“Okay. Bye I love you.”

Now, the girl’s only hope may lie with high power politicians. Like
Nevada senator, Harry Reid who is pleading with the Department of
Homeland Security.

“I think secretary Ridge will find a way to keep these two young
women in Nevada .” Meantime, the family is doing what they can to
stay busy, praying the ordeal will end soon. So the family can be a
family, once again.

I did get to speak to Emma — the oldest sister on the phone. She was
calling from her jail cell. She was crying and scared. She says the
hardest part is not knowing when they’ll be able to come home — if
at all. Right now they are waiting for a decision from a federal
magistrate.

Frankfurter Allgemeine, Germany
Jan 28 2005

State removes reference to genocide from lesson

28. Januar 2005 POTSDAM. In response to a Turkish request, officials
in the state of Brandenburg have removed a passage in a history
lesson about a controversial event in Turkish history – the deaths of
thousands of Armenians in the early 20th century. The lesson focused
on genocide and mentioned the Armenian case as the only example. The
decision was made two weeks ago after Turkish General Counsel Aydin
Durusay raised the issue. Turkey maintains the Armenians were killed
as the Ottoman Empire fought civil unrest. Part of the empire became
Turkey in 1923. Armenians say 1.5 million people were killed between
1915 and 1923 as part of the empire’s campaign to push them from
eastern Turkey. pra

Muslim WakeUp!, United Arab Emirates
Jan 28 2005

Remembering Auschwitz: Comparing Palestinians’ Unique Suffering with
Holocaust Leads Nowhere

By Ayman S. Ashour

The horrible genocide committed against the Jews by Nazi Germany,
with the collaboration of other Europeans, during WWII was one of the
worst events of the 20th century. To be sure, the last century had
many other horrible episodes of genocide: the Gypsies, the Armenians,
the Hmong, the Tutsis, and others. Horrors perpetrated by the likes
of Stalin, Pol Pot, and the Chinese Cultural Revolution make the 20th
century a very bloody one indeed.

Meanwhile, some Muslims and other sympathizers of the Palestinian
cause have taken to comparing the ongoing suffering of Palestinians
to the Holocaust.

The mass killing of millions of people from the very old to newborns
with industrial efficiency for the sole purpose of exterminating a
whole race is beyond words in its cruelty, criminality, abhorrence
and indeed in its uniqueness. The road towards peace and
reconciliation does not go through denial of the suffering of Jews;
understanding the narratives of the “other” is a prerequisite for any
real reconciliation. Those Muslims and other supporters of the
Palestinians who deny or minimize the Holocaust do major disservice
to the Palestinian cause and cause more Jews and Israelis to turn a
blind eye to the suffering of the Palestinians.

Indeed, Palestinian suffering is unique as well and should not be
compared to anything else. The courage of ordinary Palestinians
living under a brutal occupation, the non-violent Palestinians who
suffer in the refugee camps generation after generation, the
Palestinian families living in New Jersey or Michigan, leading their
new lives but remembering ..still remembering, writing, demonstrating
is unique. The ability of Palestine to remain a viable dream in the
hearts of millions despite its very powerful foes is unique! For over
a hundred years now, Zionism has enjoyed the backing of the world’s
most powerful powers; it has captured the imagination of the world’s
so-called liberals and progressives then moved on to capture the
imagination and support of its conservatives and evangelicals.
Throughout this time, the ordinary people of Palestine have continued
to struggle, and the word Palestine is now again an accepted part of
the vocabulary.

In Tibet, the suffering, destruction and colonization were brutal,
yet the world’s liberals, intellectuals and celebrities spoke out
against China and raced for a piece of the Dali Lama. The suffering
of the Tibetans is recognized by the world. In certain respects, the
eradication of their culture has been more complete than that of the
Palestinians. In much of the world, Tibetans are seen as peaceful and
spiritual, while Palestinians are portrayed as militant
double-talking terrorists.. Whose suffering is greater? Which wound
is more painful? When is a killing by one brutal occupier less
painful than the killing by another brutal occupier? Comparisons and
more senseless comparisons lead nowhere.

For Palestinians, where else are there such overwhelming odds against
a people, people who have sadly not been blessed with wise leaders
but who have an abundance of courage and perseverance? The suffering
of Palestinians should not be compared to the suffering of others,
and in the process be belittled by those who support them.

Let’s not compare, all suffering is unique, and the suffering of the
Palestinian people is no different. Let us today join the Germans,
the Russians, the French and pray for the souls of the countless Jews
who perished in the horrible ovens of Auschwitz – let’s honor and
respect their memory, and please, let us not compare!

News24, South Africa
Jan 28 2005

Friday, January 28
28/01/2005 07:12 – (SA)

Washington – Today is Friday, January 28, the 28th day of 2005. There
are 337 days left in the year.

Highlights in history on this date:

1990 – Life in Azerbaijani capital of Baku returns to normal as
Armenian and Azerbaijani separatists withdraw from border regions.

1547 – England’s King Henry VIII dies and is succeeded by his
9-year-old son, Edward VI.

1596 – English navigator Sir Francis Drake dies off Panama’s coast
and is buried at sea.

1689 – Britain’s Parliament declares that James II has abdicated;
Germany’s Baron Melas devastates the Palatinate.

1846 – East India Company troops defeat Sikhs at Aliwal in India.

1871 – France surrenders in the Franco-Prussian War.

1885 – British relief force reaches Khartoum, and the Sudan is
evacuated.

1902 – The Carnegie Institute, a non-profit organisation to conduct
basic research and advanced education in biology, astronomy and earth
sciences is established in Washington, DC.

1909 – US control in Cuba is ended.

1912 – A lynch mob drags former President Gen Eloy Alfaro and his
lieutenants through the streets of Quito, Ecuador, and burn them to
death.

1915 – The USCoast Guard is created by an Act of Congress.

1916 – Louis D Brandeis is appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to
the Supreme Court, becoming its first Jewish member.

1932 – Japanese troops occupy Shanghai in China.

1945 – First US truck convoy reopens Burma Road in World War 2.

1949 – UN Security Council adopts resolution to establish a
cease-fire in Indonesia, then known as the Dutch East Indies.

1961 – Rwanda’s provisional government proclaims republic.

1962 – US unmanned spacecraft, Ranger III, fails to hit moon and
passes it at distance of 35 200km.

1964 – Riots break out in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia.

1980 – Six US diplomats who avoided being taken hostage at their
embassy in Tehran fly out of Iran with the help of Canadian
diplomats.

1983 – Labour group Solidarity’s underground leaders call on Poland’s
factory workers to prepare for nationwide general strike as “the only
way to break down the existing dictatorship.”

1986 – Space shuttle Challenger explodes moments after lift-off from
Cape Canaveral, Florida, killing all seven crew members.

1990 – Life in Azerbaijani capital of Baku returns to normal as
Armenian and Azerbaijani separatists withdraw from border regions.

1991 – Soviet troops seize and shut down two Lithuanian customs
posts.

1992 – Leadership of National Liberation Front, which won Algeria’s
independence and ruled for three decades, resigns.

1993 – France’s ambassador to Zaire is killed by a stray bullet as
soldiers riot and loot shops and foreigners’ homes in Kinshasa.

1994 – Three Italian journalists are killed by a mortar shell in
Mostar, Bosnia.

1995 – In the bloodiest day so far in Egypt’s Islamic insurgency,
police shoot to death 14 suspected militants, and extremists kill two
policemen and two civilians.

1996 – In Sarajevo, three British soldiers are killed when their
armoured personnel carrier hits a land mine and a Swedish soldier
dies when his vehicle slides off the road.

1997 – In Algiers, an assassin shoots and kills the leader of
Algeria’s largest labour union – a key presidential ally and an
opponent of the Islamic insurgency.

1998 – A judge in Poonamallee, India, convicts 26 conspirators linked
to Sri Lanka’s separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in the 1991 suicide
bombing assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and
orders all to be hanged.

1999 – India and Pakistan meet in their first cricket match in the
subcontinent in 12 years. Pakistan walks away with a 12-run victory
after a nail-biting finish.

2000 – A plane brings 19 sick and weak-looking adolescents home to
Uganda after months – or possibly years -of captivity under Ugandan
rebels based in southern Sudan. Some 5 000 children are believed to
have been kidnapped by the rebels over the past decade according to
Unicef.

2001 – A Ukrainian vessel sinks in the Black Sea, killing at least 14
people. Five were reported missing and 32 were rescued.

2002 – An Ecuadoran jetliner carrying 92 passengers crashes in the
Andes mountains in southern Colombia leaving no survivors; Afghan
troops and US special forces end a nearly two-month standoff in a
burning hospital with six al Qaida gunmen.

2003- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s right-wing Likud party
wins the parliamentary elections, soundly defeating the centre-left
Labour Party and extending Sharon’s leadership for another four-year
term. The Labour Party suffered its worst-ever defeat at the polls.

2004 – John Kerry overpowers Howard Dean to win New Hampshire’s
primary, scoring a second-straight campaign victory to establish
himself as the front-runner in the Democratic race that will decide
who will challenge George W Bush for the presidency in November.