Month: February 2015

SYMPHONIC WINDS ENSEMBLE TO SHARE MUSICAL TALENT

Vidette Online – Illinois State University
Feb 4 2015

By Gianna Annunzio on February 3, 2015

The ISU Symphonic Wind Ensemble rehearses Monday, Wednesday and
Friday from 4-6pm under the direction of Dr. Martin Seggelke. They
are preparing for their concert this Friday February 6. (Paige
Meisenheimer, Photographer)

As ensembles of Illinois State University’s finest instrumentalists
prepare to perform their first concert of the spring semester,
supporters of live music will soon bare witness to the epitome of
refined musical talent.

The culprits of this melodious mastery: ISU’s Wind Symphony and
Symphonic Winds ensemble. Performing four distinctly different concerts
every semester, the band’s webpage describes the group’s musicality
as at an extreme caliber.

Both ensembles are dedicated to showcasing a new repertoire and
concert cycle with each concert production.

Martin Seggelke, the school of music’s director of bands, will be
conducting the Symphonic Winds concert from 8-10 p.m. on Feb. 6 in
the Center for Performing Arts alongside co-conductor Joe Manfredo,
a music education professor.

“Each concert is programmed in a way that a large variety of styles,
composers, genres and time periods is featured. Someone who attends
this concert will at least find one or two pieces that will really
resonate with them,” Seggelke said.

Both Seggelke and Manfredo have selected pieces of their choice to
be performed by Symphonic Winds.

“My selection is a large piece [that is] almost a half hour long,
it’s called ‘Poema Alpestre,’ the Alpine poem by composer Franco
Cesarini,” Seggelke said.

“[The piece is] very much in a Neo-Romantic tone language. All
selections are very different in their approaches, and provide very
challenging music.”

Manfredo will be performing three shorter pieces ranging from Percy
Granger’s “Gum Sucker’s March,” to the second part, third movement
of Alfred Reed’s “Armenian Dances.”

“[Gum Sucker’s March] is an upbeat, bouncy, very positive piece.

Reed’s ‘Armenian Dances,’ is very fast and furious, with minor modes
typical to Armenian folklore,” Seggelke said.

Glenn Block, the orchestra conductor, will guest conduct the Wind
Symphony cycle on Feb. 8. His program selections include a variety
of pieces ranging from Georg Friedrich Handel’s “Music for the Royal
Fireworks,” all the way to Schonberg’s “Theme and Variations.”

Seggelke said the pieces contain “very different language” furthering
the concert’s diversity.

Even while considering the vast musical demand included in
these pieces, they present no obstacle for the ensemble’s skilled
performers. While every school holds their own band program, ISU’s
is one of the top 40 in the country.

Seggelke strongly invites the community to take a bigger role in the
ensemble’s high-caliber talents, urging students to participate by
attending and supporting.

“It is one of the crowned jewels we have, not just in the college of
fine arts, but really on the entire campus,” Seggelke said. “Every
year, the top band even puts out an international CD release, with
major labels like Naxos and Albany Records.”

As both band director and conductor, Seggelke invites all attendees
to become invested in the music and use the inspiration to create
themselves. He also embraces more unconventional responses to the
concerts.

“[One attendee] remained in the concert hall after it was being
cleared out, just sitting looking a bit pale,” Seggelke said.

“They said, ‘the music just overwhelmed me, just let me be. I’ll
probably sit here for another 10 minutes, I’m fine.’ Those are so
much stronger reactions than ‘the concert was great,” Seggelke said.

“I love those too, don’t get me wrong, but those [unconventional
reactions] come from clearly altered, moved people who had a strong
reaction to what just went on.”

“That performance aspect, that uniqueness of the moment, is what’s
always wonderful,” Seggelke said. “It really has the chance to emote
in that very moment and leave you changed. Minimally so, but it does
alter you.”

Ultimately, Seggelke strives for these ensembles to appeal to their
audiences.

“We hope to every time present a large variety so you will always
find something that you like. Maybe you’ll find something that
challenges you, or surprises you, hopefully in a way that triggers
you to come again.”

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REFLECTED, SPREADING AWARENESS DURING RECENT CONFERENCE

Daily Sundial, CSUN, California
Feb 4 2015

News

By Michael J. Arvizu and Diana Jimenez

As a little boy — maybe 5 or 6 years of age — Vahram Shemmassian,
a CSUN professor of Armenian Studies, remembers going with his
grandparents to attend the yearly Armenian Genocide commemorations
on April 24.

Placed along the stage during those presentations, he recalls, were
the skulls and bones of those who had perished in what is considered
to be the first genocide of the 20th century.

“People would cry. I used to look around me without understanding
what was going on,” Shemmassian said. “I knew it was something sad
and traumatic. But at that age, I didn’t know what was going on.”

By the time he became a man, Shemmassian grew more conscious of the
genocide. He started asking questions. He became a researcher and
today is able to perceive the depth of the “tremendous tragedy the
Armenians went through,” he said.

“Every single day as I grow older, I see the depth of this tragedy,”
he said. “You grow and mature as you are in the field.”

By the time the genocide ended in 1917, over 1.5 million Armenians
had lost their lives at the hands of the Turkish Ottoman Empire.

On Saturday, the CSUN Armenian Studies Department hosted a conference
focusing on the Armenian Genocide in an effort to raise awareness
of the historic event. Most who attended the conference were older
generation adults, many who had relatives that survived the genocide.

“I have this burning desire not to let this be a dying language nor
a dying culture,” said Sara Chitjian, 81, whose parents survived
the genocide. “I want us to be more recognized — not only for the
genocide but I want something done about it.”

Chitjian has spent the last 20 years translating and digitizing her
father’s papers into English.

The conference, titled “The Armenian Genocide: Accounting and
Accountability,” featured a variety of panelists who expressed their
scholarly works that spoke to different events that took place during
the Armenian Genocide. Each of the four moderated panels revolved
around a common theme such as language, teaching the genocide, those
who were forced to assimilate, and legal responses to the genocide.

Each panel featured four or five individual speakers who each
introduced an idea or scholarly work based on that theme.

“It’s obviously very important. It helps brings awareness,” said
Shant Yeretzian, a junior animation studies major. “Even though I’m
Armenian, I’m sad to say I don’t really know much about my culture,
so I hope to know more about today.”

As the 100th anniversary of the genocide approaches in April, the
panelists shared the common idea that the Armenian Genocide needs to
be acknowledged because of the innocent lives that were taken.

“The topic of the Armenian Genocide deserves more awareness, and maybe
that can prevent future genocides,” said Hasmig Baran, an Armenian
Studies professor at CSUN, who was among 13 panelists who participated.

Dr. Elyse Semerdjian, director of Global Studies from Whitman college,
during the panel themed “Those Who Were Forced to Assimilate,” in
her talk, titled “The Girl With the Cross Tattoo: Field Notes on
Crypto-American,” spoke of the practice of women receiving tattoos
during the genocide.

According to Semerdjian, during the Armenian Genocide, some girls and
women received tattoos by the Turks as a sign of possession. Armenian
women were also forced to convert to Islam, and that would be the
only way they would survive during the Genocide.

Khatchig Mouradian, the editor of Armenian Weekly, speaking during
the same panel in his talk titled “Un-Hinding the Past: Myth-Making
and the ‘Hidden Armenians of Turkey,'” expressed the importance
of Armenians staying true to their roots and not being ashamed of
expressing their identity.

Mouradian told the story of a little boy grandmother who survived the
Armenian Genocide. Today, how he goes to his local Armenian church
and picks up trash every week. Mouradian states that this is a way
the little boy connects with his Armenian roots.

“Worldwide, the Armenians are commemorating with new zeal, with new
drive, in order to bring the attention of the world to his horrible
crime against not just the Armenians, but against humanity,” said
Vahram Shemmassian, CSUN Armenian Studies professor. “Because the
Armenians are part of humanity, so this is considered a crime against
humanity.”

Panelists spoke of death marches, the fate of captive Armenian Genocide
survivors, Armenian women and children during the genocide, Armenian
Genocide education in schools today, and language, among other topics.

“No matter what the topic is, there is an intrinsic value in knowing
history in an accurate way,” said Levon Marashlian, a professor
of history at Glendale Community College and panel moderator. “In
the Armenian case, it becomes doubly important, because there’s an
official government denial.”

Armenian Studies student Aleen Arslanian stated how she feels this
event affects her as a student.

“I feel that this event can help educate the Armenian youth in order
for us to keep the memory of the Armenian Genocide alive for future
generations to come,” she said.

>From 12:30 to 3 p.m. on Feb. 5, there will a silent protest in front
of the Oviatt Library in commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA, TURKEY CONTINUE RSVP-FIGHT

EurasiaNet.org
Feb 4 2015

February 4, 2015 – 3:54am, by Giorgi Lomsadze

Not being invited to a big occasion usually causes bad blood, but,
in Turkey and Armenia’s case, it was actually mutual invitations that
started the trouble. After trading invites to anniversaries of two
major historic events, the two countries’ leaders are waging a war
of letters larded with testy remarks and history lessons.

Armenia on February 2 described as a “petty trick” Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s invitation to President Serzh Sargsyan to
attend Turkey’s April 23-24 centennial commemoration of the Battle of
Gallipoli, a critical World-War-I campaign in which Ottoman Turkey
repulsed an Allied invasion. The invitation is “amoral” and runs
counter to all norms of protocol, declared Deputy Foreign Minister
Shavarsh Kocharian.

Sargsyan earlier had invited Erdogan to come to Yerevan on the same
date to attend Armenia’s commemoration of Ottoman Turkey’s 1915-16
slaughter of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Armenians; deaths it
condemns as genocide.

As Yerevan no doubt knew, the chances were less than remote that the
increasingly sultanesque Erdogan would shuttle on over to see Turkey’s
Ottoman forbearers condemned for genocide.

His response was to ask Sargsyan to attend the Gallipoli memorial.

But Sargsyan, a chess-player who knows an attempted checkmate
when he sees one, angrily threw out the counter-invitation and
accused Erdogan’s administration of deliberately timing Turkey’s
battle-centennial to overshadow Armenia’s genocide-centennial.

In an open letter to Erdogan, the Armenian president wrote that it’s
not an Armenian custom to accept an invitation from someone who has
not yet responded to an invitation from the intended guest.

Batting the ball back, Erdogan’s office sniped in a lengthy
invective.that Armenia apparently cannot “appreciate Turkey’s sincere
steps.”

And so the rhetoric is likely to continue. While this exchange
may sound familiar, it again underlines that earlier attempts at
reconciliation have fallen flat and that, historic opportunity or no,
the neighbors are back to square one.

MAN WHO ROBBED, KILLED GOLD STORE OWNER GETS 19 YEARS

The Slovak Spectator, Slovakia
Feb 4 2015

IN THE BEGINNING of last year, a goldsmith’s shop in Bratislava
was robbed and its owner killed, with two other people injured. On
February 3, the perpetrator was sentenced to 19 years in prison.

The owner Tagvar Spartakian was of Armenian origin, aged 66. He died
during the robbery and his wife was another person injured.

The robber, identified as Ján K., aged 53, shall serve his sentence
in a prison with maximum security, and afterwards he will serve three
years of probation.

“The defendant committed two crimes, of which one was extraordinarily
grave,” head of the panel of District Court Bratislava I said, as
quoted by the TASR newswire. “Thus, the lower limit of the potential
sentence, and also the upper maximum limit, was increased,” explaining
the length of the sentence.

The verdict is not yet effective, and as both the lawyer of the
defendant and the prosecutor can still appeal it, both have taken
time to consider this possibility.

“I regret the deed I perpetrated,” Ján K. said at the end of session.

“I am sorry.” The man was already twice tried for similar robberies.

The motive of the crime was allegedly not a lack of finances, the
robber told the court on January 30, trying to get a milder sentence.

He claimed he had deliberately lied to psychiatric and psychological
experts that he wanted to gain money.

The expert Denisa Mesárošová reacted by saying that the conclusions
of the expertise cannot be influenced by the statement that the
motivation was not greed, as psychiatrists did not comment on the
motive.

Last December, Ján K. pleaded guilty. He allegedly suffered no grave
mental illness, and no aggressive feature was found. They concluded
that him being at liberty would be no menace to the society, and so
no protective treatment after serving the sentence was proposed.

The robbery took place on January 14, 2014 at around 17:00; and he
was conditionally released from prison about six months earlier. The
owner of the shop suffered an arm injury due to which he bled to death.

His wife, Rozalia was shot in the hip, while her ear and head were
also injured. Rescuers tried to save her husband but to no avail. The
entire busy street in downtown Bratislava was closed down temporarily.

From: A. Papazian

ARSENAL AND LIVERPOOL TOLD £24M DORTMUND STAR MKHITARYAN READY TO MAKE SUMMER MOVE

Express, UK
Feb 4 2015

ARSENAL and Liverpool have been told that Armenian international
Henrikh Mkhitaryan will look to leave Borussia Dortmund at the end
of the season.

Published: 00:00, Wed, February 4, 2015 By Ben Jefferson

The former Shakhtar Donetsk star became Dortmund’s record signing
when he joined in a £23.6m deal last summer.

But with Jurgen Klopp’s side in free fall and currently propping up
the Bundesliga, Mkhitaryan has well and truly fallen out of favour
at the Signal Iduna Park.

Juventus were linked with a move for the 26-year-old during the
January transfer window but a deal failed to materialize.

And now the player’s agent – Mino Raiola – says he will revisit the
situation in the summer.

He told Bild: “Henrikh wants to leave Dortmund at the end of the
season.

“We will have to wait and see what we can do.”

Both Arsenal and Liverpool have been credited with an interest in
Mkhitaryan in the past and could now look to step up their efforts
to land the player at season’s end.

HENRIKH MKHITARYAN EYEING EXIT FROM THE RELEGATION THREATENED BORUSSIA DORTMUND, PUTTING ARSENAL AND LIVERPOOL ON ALERT

Daily Mail, UK
Feb 4 2015

Attacking midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan wants to leave Borussia
Dortmund Jurgen Klopp’s side are bottom of the Bundesliga after a
sudden decline Armenia international Mkhitaryan chose Dortmund over
Liverpool in 2013

By Jack Bezants for MailOnline

Henrikh Mkhitaryan wants out of relegation threatened Borussia
Dortmund at the end of the season, according to the playmaker’s agent,
Mino Raiola.

Jurgen Klopp’s team have been on an alarming slide this season and
are stranded at the bottom of the Bundesliga, two points from safety.

The 26-year-old Armenia international elected to join the German club
over Liverpool in 2013 and has since established himself as one of
Europe’s most prominent attacking midfielders.

But Dortmund’s form has left Mkhitaryan disenchanted and eyeing a
departure from the Westfalenstadion, something which will alert the
likes of Liverpool and Arsenal.

‘Henrikh wants to leave Dortmund at the end of the season,’ his
representative Raiola is reported as saying in Bild. ‘We will have
to wait and see what we can do.’

Dortmund paid a reported £21million to Shaktar Donetsk for Mkhitaryan,
whose deal expires in 2017.

From: Baghdasarian

LIVERPOOL & ARSENAL TARGET HENRIKH MKHITARYAN WANTS TO LEAVE BORUSSIA DORTMUND, SAYS HIS AGENT

Squawka Football News
Feb 4 2015

By Jack Watson

Liverpool and Arsenal target Henrikh Mkhitaryan wants to leave Borussia
Dortmund at the end of the season, his agent Mino Raiola has revealed
(Bild via Daily Star).

Mkhitaryan, 26, joined Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2013
after being strongly linked with a move for Anfield with Liverpool
(BBC). He has been a regular starter for the Germans this season as
they have struggled in the Bundesliga, but the Armenian has tried to
hold the attack together without the injured Marco Reus by creating
19 chances in the German league so far.

Shakhtar boss claims: Henrikh Mkhitaryan is a better player than
Wesley Sneijder

Despite being a huge goal threat for Shakhtar Donetsk prior to joining
Dortmund, he has struggled in Germany this season and failed to hit
the back of the net in the Bundesliga.

During his final season in Ukraine, Mkhitaryan scored 25 league
goals but has just nine since moving to Germany and now Raiola –
who is also Mario Balotelli’s agent – has stated that the attacking
midfielder wants to leave in the summer after growing fed up with
the direction the club is moving.

Raiola told German newspaper Bild: “Henrikh wants to leave Dortmund
at the end of the season.

“We will have to wait and see what we can do.”

That has, allegedly, alerted both Arsenal and Liverpool, says the
Daily Star, as the Premier League pair would be interested in taking
the Armenian in the summer should Dortmund be willing to let him have
his way and leave.

It will come as little surprise to Dortmund supporters with the club –
still competing in the Champions League – currently sat bottom of the
Bundesliga, despite traditionally over recent seasons being the main
rivals of reigning Champions Bayern Munich.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan has completed 44 out of 83 take-ons in the
Bundesliga.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BAKU WARNS NGO OVER HOLDING CONCERT IN OCCUPIED LANDS

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
Feb 4 2015

4 February 2015, 18:28 (GMT+04:00)

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has warned Music 4 Peace NGO over the
planned concert in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories, saying its
activity is contrary to its name.

Hikmet Hajiyev, Spokesman for the Azerbaijani foreign ministry made
the remark on February 4 commenting on the information that Music 4
Peace NGO will hold a concert on February 6 in Azerbaijan’s territories
occupied by Armenia.

“More than one million Azerbaijani people were subjected to the
ethnic cleansing and military strikes in the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan,” Hajiyev said.

Stressing that holding a concert in the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan promotes aggression and occupation, rather than serves the
peace, he said it also violates the rights of more than one million
refugees and internally displaced persons.

Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally
recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent
regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus
neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s. As a result
of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were
killed, 4,866 are reported missing and almost 100,000 were injured,
and 50,000 were disabled.

Hajiyev further said Music 4 Peace NGO must realize its responsibility
and give up such provocative actions. “Otherwise, the individuals,
who will visit the occupied territories illegally, will be included
in a list of undesirable persons in Azerbaijan,” he said.

Hajiyev also said the issue of using UNESCO’s logo on the website of
this NGO’s project will be raised for UNESCO.

Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry and diplomatic missions pay special
attention to the illegal activity in the occupied areas of Azerbaijan.

The work is constantly carried out to prevent such illegal actions.

Unauthorized visits to Nagorno-Karabakh and other regions of Azerbaijan
occupied by Armenia are considered illegal, and the individuals
who pay such visits are included in Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s
“black list”.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly warned foreign officials and diplomats of
unauthorized visits to its territories that are occupied by Armenia,
calling them contradictory to international laws.

From: A. Papazian

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CLOSING OF TURKISH-ARMENIAN BORDER

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Feb 5 2015

Maxime Gauin

A growing campaign, inside and outside Turkey, is advocating the
opening of the Turkish-Armenian border, without asking anything of
Armenia, as if the Turkish government was the only, or at least the
main, actor responsible for the current situation. To understand the
real causes of blockade, we can begin with two recent events. This,
month, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan invited his Armenian counterpart
to the centennial of the Canakkale (Gallipoli) battle. Mr. Serge
Sarkisian answered negatively. After all, he had the right to refuse,
but his letter was unsophisticated and aggressive. He stressed the
Armenian sufferings only.

Yet, nobody can expect the vast majority of the Turks to deny the
very existence of the war crimes committed by Armenian volunteers
of the Russian army, crimes that begin months before the forced
relocation of 1915-16, as proven by complaints of Russian officers
and even verdicts of Russian martial courts. Mr. Sarkisian also used
more than questionable arguments, such as the misleading memoirs of
Sarkis Torossian, submitted years ago to a devastating analysis, even
by Turkish historians who are notoriously critical of the traditional
stance of Turkey on the Armenian issue (a detailed rebuttal was written
by Hakan Yavuz in Daily Sabah). Nobody can expect being taken seriously
by using debunked hoaxes.

Another incident, much less covered by media, was the visit of
Hasan Cemal in Yerevan. In spite of his acceptance of the “Armenian
genocide” label, Mr. Cemal was vehemently attacked by the audience,
because he called ASALA terrorists, who planted bombs in Orly and
Esenboga airports, and because he called the occupation of western
Azerbaijan by Armenia since 1992-94 an occupation. The audience
was surprised: Indeed, at the request of the Hrant Dink Foundation,
the Armenian translator had suppressed these parts of the book. Even
extreme nationalists of the diaspora, such as the former spokesman
of the ASALA in France, Jean-Marc “Ara” Toranian, did not dare to
attack Mr. Cemal – far from that. Armenian nationalists did.

The reason is actually simple. In western democratic countries,
nationalists have to care about their image – even more after the
trials won against some of them in France, and after I sued Mr.

Toranian himself for defamation last year. In Armenia, they do not care
at all. In 1998, the “moderate” President Levon Ter-Petrossian asked
Jacques Chirac for a presidential pardon for the main perpetrator of
the Orly attack, Varoujan Garabidjian. After Mr.

Garabidjian was released in 2001 by a court decision, he was welcomed
as a national hero by the prime minister and by the mayor of Yerevan –
just try to imagine the reactions in the world if an Islamist terrorist
was welcomed by the prime minister in a Muslim country. Even more
concerning, the Republican Party in power in Armenia openly claims
they find inspiration in the writings of Garegin Nzhdeh, who, after
having practiced ethnic cleansing of the Azeris (1918-1920) and
theorized (during the 1930s) a “religion of race,” went to Germany at
the beginning of the World War II and was a member of the Armenian
National Council established in Berlin in 1942. In February 2013,
Nzhdeh was celebrated in Yerevan State University, the place where Mr.

Cemal was attacked, and last year, the municipal council of Yerevan
decided to unveil a new statue of this Nazi.

According to Armenian media, such as armenianow.com, there was
certainly a controversy, including in the municipal council, but
about the place for the statue. To put the problem very directly,
a society where the only apparent debate on the statute of a Nazi
war criminal is a dispute about its location is not a society ready
to make peace with her neighbors.

So, you are warned: the Turks are requested to open the border
without pre-conditions, namely to say nothing about the territorial
claims included in the Armenian Constitution, to stop any support to
its main regional ally, Azerbaijan, whose percent of the territory
is occupied by Armenia, and not to worry about the celebration of
anti-Turkish terrorists and Nazis in Yerevan. It would be interesting
if the proponents of this solution clearly explained how peaceful,
democratic and realistic it is.

*Maxime Gauin is a researcher at the Center for Eurasian Studies
(AVIM) and a PhD candidate at the Middle East Technical University
history department.

February/05/2015

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE MURDERS OF HRANT DINK AND NIHAT KAZANHAN

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb 4 2015

EMRE USLU
February 04, 2015, Wednesday

The murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, the killing
of the priest Andrea Santoro and the massacre of missionaries at
the Zirve Publishing House in Malatya are the most famous of the
unresolved murders that have been committed during the Justice and
Development Party’s (AKP) rule. Only the hired killers who committed
the murders were caught, and the people who masterminded the attacks
could not be found.

Dink’s murder was very dramatic. Hired killers are still being actively
used. Many years after the murder the killer contacted the prosecutor’s
office and gave information on several police officers whom he claimed
“had a hand in the murder.” Some police officers were arrested, but
there was something those behind the murder had not calculated. They
had promoted the person who was the head of the intelligence branch at
the Trabzon security directorate at the time of murder and assigned
him as the head of the National Police Department’s Intelligence
Unit. They had appointed his assistant as a “reliable” man to Cizre,
the center of recent skirmishes.

As the investigation led to the head of the Intelligence Unit, they
stalled the investigation once again. They tried to save face with
campaigns to manipulate the public’s perceptions on the matter.

Let us proceed with the correct analysis of what happened. After
an investigation was launched into Ergenekon — a clandestine
organization nested within the state trying to overthrow or manipulate
the democratically elected government — unresolved murders came to
an abrupt halt in Turkey. The defendants in the Ergenekon case were
released from prison and the murders resumed. The recent incidents
of tension in Cizre can hardly be seen as mere coincidence.

I wouldn’t have noticed this if one of my sources hadn’t drawn
attention to the interesting link between Dink’s murder and the
Cizre incidents.

A number of books note that Veli Kucuk, who was accused of being the
head of the Ergenekon organization, had conducted certain activities in
Trabzon in the run up to Dink’s murder. Two critical people in Trabzon
were mentioned as being involved in the preparations for the murder:
Trabzon gendarmerie commander Col. Ali Oz and Ercan Demir from the
Trabzon Police Department’s Intelligence Unit.

Much was written about Oz. My source draws attention to the interesting
ties held by Police Chief Demir, who was arrested in connection with
Dink’s murder.

My source claims that Demir had contacted Kucuk on the phone 26 times
before Dink’s murder.

My source further argues that at the time, Demir had prevented
his staff from gathering intelligence in the gendarmerie’s area,
particularly in the town of Pelitli, where Ogun Samast, the hitman
in the Dink murder, lived.

It is claimed that while Yasin Hayal, who was eventually convicted of
Dink’s murder, was being pursued by the police and went to Pelitli,
Demir told his team not to pursue him, citing previous problems with
the gendarmerie over jurisdiction.

My source also explains that Demir has close relations with Oz at
that time. This piece of information was also verified by one of my
sources from the military, who worked in Trabzon in the past.

For my source, it is not a coincidence that tensions in Cizre
skyrocketed after Demir was appointed to a position in Cizre. Of
course, he also does not believe that it is a coincidence that the
timing of the release of the Ergenekon defendants and the start of
incidents in Cizre coincide.

After Demir was assigned to Cizre, there was a sharp rise in mass
demonstrations. We all observed what happened this year in Cizre when
a 12-year-old boy, Nihat Kazanhan, was shot dead on Jan. 14.

Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputy Altan Tan was the first
politician who argued that incidents in the district skyrocketed
after Demir was appointed.

Of course the court will investigate if there was a link between Kucuk
and Demir. It is the duty of the court to find out if this link had
something to do with the murder.

But I don’t think it is a coincidence that the incidents halted
abruptly when the Ergenekon defendants were jailed in 2007, but resumed
after they were released from prison; and that children were being
killed by the police and the prime minister and interior minister
try to conceal this fact.

Given the rumors that Ergenekon had made a deal with the government,
I believe these incidents are expected.

My source is of the same opinion. “Ergenekon has become extremely
successful with the minor efforts it exerted in previous governments’
terms and it has secured its former position in the state thanks
to the agreement it made with the ruling party. Our country is in a
difficult position compared to the past, and we now face the risk of
division of our territory.”

Previously, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) had chosen Yuksekova
as its pilot area. Now, it has picked Cizre as a more suitable place
for Serhildan (rebellion in Kurdish). Is it a coincidence that Demir
was appointed to Cizre? Perhaps Demir has nothing to do with these
incidents, but others may be laying a trap for him. The court must
investigate it…