Author: Andres-Papazian

Rudaw, Iraqi Kurdistan
Oct 19 2014

Europe’s Kurds stand up for ‘Kurdish Stalingrad’

By Deniz Serinci

STOCKHOLM, Sweden – The fate of Kobane, whose bitter struggle has been
relayed live to television screens around the world, has spurred
Europe’s Kurds to action in support of the besieged town.

The defenders of the small Syrian border town have, with forgivable
hyperbole, dubbed it the “Kurdish Stalingrad”, and in rallies across
Europe their fellow Kurds have sought to cast the outcome of the
battle as a turning point in Kurdish history.

“This is the first time in 30 years that our fight drew so much
positive attention from the European public,” Yüksel Koc of the
German-Kurdish Federation told Firatnews. “It is thanks to Kobane’s
resistance.”

One element in the worldwide attention on Kobane is the fact that the
town is hard by the Turkish border where international camera crews
have lined up, alongside motionless Turkish tanks, to cover the nearby
conflict.

The battle has included a daily and growing number of U.S.-backed
coalition air strikes that have contributed to holding off what once
looked like the town’s inevitable fall to its ISIS attackers.

Kurds in Europe also claim credit for having established Kobane
internationally as a symbol of resistance.

Across Europe, Kurds have been staging protests at parliament
buildings, announcing hunger strikes, and lobbying politicians to take
action to save Kobane.

“At the rallies and demonstrations, the whole world stood up for the
Kurds,” Jiyan Behrozy from Kermanshah in Iran, told Rudaw.

“The whole world saw in black and white who is right and who is wrong
in this war,” said Behrozy, who now lives in Stockholm.

But she wants the world to do more. “I am here today to send the
outside world a message that it should act tougher against the
fundamentalists in ISIS, who opposes democracy and freedom,” she said
during a rally in the Swedish capital.

With slogans such as “Stop IS Terror in Kurdistan”, “Save Kobane” and
“Long live Chairman Apo”, a reference to Abdullah Ocalan, jailed
leader of Turkey’s banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the
protesters called on the international community to arm Kobane’s
defenders.

These are mainly the Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG), the armed
militia of Syrian Kurdistan’s PYD, itself an offshoot of the PKK.

At a demonstration in the Swedish city of Goteborg, Shadiye Heydari, a
Kurdish Social Democratic member of the Swedish Parliament, said she
wanted to see a United Nationa mandate to provide humanitarian and
military assistance to those fighting to halt ISIS.

“The UN Security Council has responsibility for international peace
and security,” she said. “Sweden has provided humanitarian assistance
and will continue to do so.”

In the Finnish capital Helsinki, Finns joined Kurds in a march to the
foreign ministry to demand military support to the YPG. In London,
protestors entered the lobby of Parliament and lay down to represent
the dead of Kobane. In Paris, French, Armenian and Algerian protesters
joined Kurds in a rally at the Place de la Bastille.

With the resistance of Kobane against the ISIS onslaught now in its
second month, the level of support among Kurds in Europe shows no sign
of flagging.

From: A. Papazian

i24 News YV
Oct 19 2014

Activists publish rare video of IS capital Raqqa

Islamic State jihadists execute man for ‘filming HQ’ in Syria, crucify body

A group of Syrian activists uploaded rare footage of the Islamic State
headquarters in a former Armenian church in the group’s de-facto
capital city of Raqqa to Youtube late Saturday night.

Abo Ward, 23, who secretly filmed the clip while walking through the
city, spoke to i24news moments after he uploaded the video he had shot
earlier in the day.

Ward, who hopes to one day make it to Germany or Australia, told
i24news that he is part of a group of young activists in Raqqa that
are fighting both the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as
well as the Islamic State.

The group, which calls itself “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently,”
has close to 7,000 followers on Twitter and posts daily on life in the
city as well as updates on IS activities and coalition airstrikes in
the area.

When asked if he was scared to post the video, Abo Ward told i24news
that he “is no longer afraid of anything.”

IS jihadists execute man for ‘filming HQ’ in Syria

A monitoring group said on Saturday that IS jihadists executed a man
in northern Syria they accused of filming their headquarters and
displayed his body on a cross.

The man was put to death in the Aleppo province town of Al-Bab on
Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

His body was then strapped to a makeshift metal cross and hung with a
sign reading “Abdullah Al-Bushi. Crime: filming Islamic State
headquarters for 500 Turkish lira ($222) per video,” the Britain-based
group said, citing witnesses on the ground.

“Judgment: execution and crucifixion for three days,” the sign hung
around the man’s neck added.

IS has carried out repeated executions of those it accuses of spying
or diverging from its harsh interpretation of Islam.

It has publicly beheaded suspects and hung their bodies from crosses
in its own version of crucifixions.

Members of the Liwa Thuwar al-Raqa rebel group carried out the
executions in an area west of Kobane, which IS has been trying to
seize for more than three weeks.

The prisoners were shot in the head from behind, then their bodies
riddled with gunfire, said the Britain-based Observatory, which has a
wide network of sources inside Syria

The IS fighter who begged for death… and got it

Kurdish grocer Cuneyt Hemo remembers the moment he crossed paths with
a jihadist IS prisoner inside the besieged Syrian town of Kobane.

“He begged us to kill him so he could go to paradise and be rewarded,”
Hemo told AFP, in a rare glimpse of life inside the town which has
been fought over street by street for nearly a month.

Hemo, 33, is one of an estimated 200,000 mainly Kurdish Syrians who
have fled the onslaught of IS militants on Kobane to the relative
safety of Turkey.

The jihadist was captured by Kurdish fighters during fierce
close-quarters fighting for control of the town on the Turkish border.

He was held for a day and, according to Hemo, was ultimately killed by
his captors.

“We captured him in the street,” said Hemo, dragging on a cigarette in
the Turkish border town of Suruc, where along with other Kobane
refugees, he has found sanctuary.

“He said he came from Azerbaijan. He was in his 20s and spoke to us in
Arabic,” he added. The fighter was dressed in full camouflage gear.

The extraordinary encounter — which AFP cannot independently verify
— marked a rare moment that a Kurdish civilian stood face-to-face
with an IS fighter, who have been glimpsed by the outside world
largely only as distant figures seen from the Turkish border.

Hemo stayed in Kobane longer than most civilians, only moving over the
Turkish border last week, some three weeks after the attack by the
jihadists begun.

He said he was not one of the fighters battling with the Kurdish
People’s Protection Units (YPG) against the IS extremists.

Before the conflict, he worked at a grocery store in Kobane. But as a
man of fighting age, he helped with supplies.

It was in that capacity that Hemo had the encounter with the jihadist,
who was captured by the YPG during the street fighting for the western
part of the town.

The bearded jihadist explained at length to his captors how he had
come to Kobane to “deliver it from the kuffar” (the infidels).

“We asked him him why the jihadists were attacking us. He replied that
we were kuffar (the infidels) and they had received the order to put
us on the path of true Islam,” he said.

‘Not scared of dying’

Attempting to show the captured man that they were all adherents of
the same religion, Hemo said that the YPG fighters took the man to a
mosque in Kobane.

But even as a captive, the man remained inflexible, he said.

“We tried in vain to help him find reason. But he did not want to know
anything,” said Hemo.

“He said again and again that we were the infidel and he wanted to go
to paradise to find the 40 women who had been promised to him,” he
added.

When his captors offered him something to eat and drink, the man
refused and said that should he manage to escape he would blow himself
up like his “brother” suicide bombers.

Hemo said he had still not understood the stubbornness of the jihadist
and his disdain for death.

“He told us several times that he was happy for his brothers who had
become martyrs and he would join them in paradise.”

The jihadists are reported to have repeatedly used suicide bombing as
a tactic in the standoff, with a young woman fighting for the YPG
having reportedly used the same tactic against them.

Hemo said that in the end the prisoner was killed by his captors with
a shot to the head, although it has not been possible to independently
verify the account.

He said that there had been no initial plan to kill the jihadist but
concern had grown among the YPG fighters as the extent of his
fanaticism became clear.

“He was not scared of death,” Hemo said, adding he was shot in the
street the day after he was captured.

(with AFP)

View the video at ²rF_QrPYyg

From: A. Papazian

Turkey is challenged on multiple fronts: PKK, ISIS and Cyprus

Friday, 17 October 2014
Sinem Cengiz

Turkish foreign policy has been in a state of turbulence for a while
now but is facing the toughest period as the fight in the Kurdish
Syrian border town of Kobane between the Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria (ISIS) and the Syrian Kurds intensifies and the countrywide
street protests against the government escalate.

Over the past few years, Turkey has been facing challenges in its
foreign policy from multiple fronts, ranging from Iraq to Syria, Egypt
to Israel, from Armenia to Gulf countries. However, with the recent
developments in Kobane, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and ISIS
have taken the top position in the list of fronts that Ankara is
trying to cope with.

A series of street protests have resulted in the deaths of around 40
people, including police officers. In the past week, such protests
managed to turn the crisis in Kobane from a foreign policy issue into
a domestic policy issue in Turkey. Protesting against the government
for not providing military assistance to the Kurds fighting against
ISIS in Kobane, protestors vandalized the streets in Turkey’s eastern
and southeastern provinces.

It was indeed not a coincidence to see Greek Cypriots leaving the
negotiation table while Turkey is challenging serious problems on its
doorsteps

Sinem Cengiz

I feel that the protests may pose a serious risk to Turkey’s domestic
stability if they persist and could harm the already fragile ongoing
settlement process aimed at ending the decades-old Kurdish conflict.

Turkey should be careful to prevent a Kurdish insurgency in Turkey
after these protests. Turkey’s fight with the PKK, which have a
separatist political agenda and fought with the Turkish army for more
than 30 years before participating in a settlement process with the
government, has claimed about 50,000 lives. The fight between the PKK
and the government has taught several lessons to both sides and the
settlement process to end the conflict was launched with great hopes
in 2012.

The Cyprus issue

At the time while Turkey is facing serious threats from the street
clashes throughout the country and from both ISIS and the PKK, Greek
Cypriots halted peace talks on Tuesday on reunifying the divided
island in protest of Turkey’s attempts to search gas and oil in the
divided island.

The Cyprus issue was seemingly the only foreign policy area where
there has been progress; however, the issue now emerged as another
front for Turkey to face in addition to ISIS and the PKK.

It was indeed not a coincidence to see Greek Cypriots leaving the
negotiation table while Turkey is challenging serious problems on its
doorsteps. It was a suitable time for the Greek side to pressure
Turkey at a time when Ankara has focused its efforts on Kobane and the
streets where the impacts of Syrian war are directly felt.

The issue of Cyprus has always been a tough nut for Turkey to crack. A
historic development occurred in February when Greek and Turkish
Cypriots resumed peace talks after a nearly two-year hiatus; however
no progress has been made in talks due to disagreement on deeply
divisive issues. Cyprus has been divided between the Greek Cypriot
south and the Turkish Cypriot north since 1974, when Turkey sent
troops to the island in the aftermath of a coup that sought to unite
the island with Greece. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC)
is recognized only by Turkey, which does not recognize the Greek
Cypriot administration.

The suspension of talks, which was denounced by Turkey, is a setback
for U.N.-mediated negotiations. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt
ÇavuÅ?oÄ?lu stated in a recent interview that Greek Cyprus
administration was insincere in its approach to negotiations and that
they left the negotiation table by using the natural gas survey as a
pretext. `However, if this subject continues to be seen as a domestic
political material for both Greek Cyprus and Greece, making progress
will be challenging,’ added ÇavuÃ…?oÄ?lu.

Cyprus and the PKK are the two ongoing problems of Turkey. Turkey has
been dealing with the Cyprus issue for 40 years, while with the PKK
for 30 years. From time to time, the problems affected Turkey’s
relations with the European Union and the U.S.

Indeed, Turkey and the whole region would benefit from a settlement on
the both issues because the risk of the escalation of these two
problems simultaneously may provoke Turkey’s insecurities and lead to
domestic chaos. The main task for Turkey is to secure the peace talks
with both the Kurdish side and the Greek side; but how this task will
be handled is still in question.

__________________________

Sinem Cengiz is an Ankara-based Diplomatic Correspondent for Today’s
Zaman Newspaper, which is the best-selling and the most circulated
English daily in Turkey. Born and lived in Kuwait, Cengiz focuses
mainly on issues regarding Middle East and Turkey’s relations with the
region. Cengiz is also a blogger at Today’s Zaman’s blog section where
she provides fresh and unusual accounts of what’s going on in Ankara’s
corridors of power. She can be found on Twitter: @SinemCngz

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIE
Ghapan fête aujourd’hui son 76e anniversaire en tant que >

Aujourd’hui la ville de Ghapan (sud de l’Arménie) fête le 76e
anniversaire de son classement en >. Ghapan était jadis un
village, connu et signalé dès le 5e siècle dans les manuels d’Histoire
écrit le site de l’Agence officielle de presse en Arménie,
armenpress.am. Après la messe en l’église Sourp Mesrob Machdots de
Ghapan et le dépôt de gerbe au mémorial du souvenir des victimes de la
guerre de libération nationale et de Karékine Njdéh l’un des
libérateurs de la région du joug azéro-turc, des manifestations
festives se dérouleront dans la ville. Des concerts, danses et
diverses manifestations culturelles au parc Vazken Sarkissian de
Ghapan avec expositions de peintures et créations artistiques. Une
exposition intitulée

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIE-ECONOMIE
Les travaux de rénovation de l’hôtel > >
selon le journal >

Le journal > rappelle que l’hôtel > à Erévan -qui
était jadis la fierté de la capitale- est en état de délabrement,
malgré l’avis des responsables de l’établissement qui affirment avoir
investi 860 000 dollars l’an dernier pour les travaux de réfection.
Cette année, les propriétaires devaient également investir 4 millions
de dollars. Selon les accords -avec le gouvernement arménien- les
travaux de rénovation et d’aménagement de l’hôtel > devaient se
terminer en 2016. En cas de non respect de ces obligations, les
propriétaires de l’hôtel seraient soumis à des amendes. > écrit > qui met ainsi en doute ces investissements des
propriétaires du >.

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 18 octobre 2014,
Krikor Amirzayan (c)armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

LE NUMERO DEUX MONDIAL DES ECHECS LEVON ARONIAN INAUGURE SON ECOLE DES ECHECS A EREVAN (ARMENIE)

ECHECS

A Erevan dans le secteur de Malatia-Sebastia, Levon Aronian le numero
deux mondial des echecs vient d’ouvrir vendredi 17 octobre, une ecole
des echecs. Etaient presents a cette inauguration, le president
armenien Serge Sarkissian (egalement president de la Federation
armeniennes des echecs), le maire d’Erevan Taron Margaryan ainsi que le
president de la Federation internationale des echecs (FIDE) le russe
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. L’ecole des echecs couvre une superficie de 400
mètres carres et peut accueillir de 300 a 350 elèves. Le president de
la FIDE est en Armenie a l’occasion d’une conference internationale
consacree >. L’Armenie etant a ce jour
le seul pays a integrer les echecs dans l’enseignement des ecoles.

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 18 octobre 2014, Krikor Amirzayan (c)armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN VIRTUAL AND REAL EDUCATION: 3500 PEOPLE STUDIED AT VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY WITHIN 5 YEARS

11:13, 18 Oct 2014

Sona Hakobyan

Aida Avetisyan

“Radiolur”

Armenian virtual university is one of the leading institutions
providing high-level online education. It offers armenological studies
through modern technologies. According to the Founder and President of
the university, Yervand Zoryan, during the 5 years of its activities
the university had over 3500 students from 73 countries.

Mr. Zoryan mentioned that currently the majority of students (21%) are
from the U.S.A. “The University provides opportunity to choose whether
to learn the Armenian language in Western or in Eastern. Initially the
percentage of students preferring the education of Western Armenian
was higher, however later the number of those interested in Eastern
Armenian increased thus bringing the share of students almost to
50-50%”.

This virtual university opens wide perspectives for all those who
are interested in relevant education irrespective of age, place of
residence or the level of knowledge. The university’s mission is to
establish a virtual society, which will unite the Armenians worldwide.

Touching upon the issue of the language by which the Syrian-Armenians
undergo their studies not in virtual but in real educational
institutions and whether they face any problems related to the
language, the President of “Commission Coordinating Syrian-Armenians’
Issues” NGO, Lena Halajyan mentioned that the language problems and
barriers are mainly erased. “I am glad to mention that the school
children are getting adapted to the Eastern Armenian and overcome
problems during their study quite easily. The only major problem for
them still remains the scientific vocabulary; however the solution
to this issue is just a matter of time.”

From: A. Papazian

AZERBAIJAN SLAMS U.S. INTERFERENCE IN ITS INTERNAL AFFAIRS

Interfax, Russia
Oct 16 2014

: BAKU. Oct 16

Baku considers Washington’s insistent attempts to interfere in
Azerbaijan’s internal affairs unacceptable, Azeri Foreign Ministry
press secretary Hikmet Hajiyev said in a statement in response to an
October 15 commentary by the U.S. Department of State’s spokesperson
criticizing human rights observances in Azerbaijan.

“Azerbaijan fully ensures the rule of law and independence of its
judicial system. And this groundless interference by the American side
grossly violates the rule of law and U.S. commitments,” Hajiyev said.

Attempts to use human rights as a foreign political instrument
and a way to put political pressure have long lost their power and
credibility, he said.

Hajiyev stressed that politicization of human rights and a biased
approach toward the matter with the use of double standards is
unacceptable to Azerbaijan.

“It would be laudable if countries acting as heralds of human
rights, particularly the U.S., paid attention to the violation of the
fundamental rights of Azeri refugees and displaced persons resulting
from Armenia’s occupation and facts of bloody ethnic cleansing
committed on the occupied territories of Azerbaijan,” he said.

From: A. Papazian

LEARNING MATTERS: TODAY’S GUSD STUDENT BODY FEATURES MORE DIVERSE MIX

Glendale News Press, CA
Oct 16 2014

By Joylene Wagner

October 16, 2014 | 4:20 p.m.

A few years ago, a French-Armenian graduate student came to Glendale
to gather research for her dissertation on Armenian communities in
Glendale and Hollywood. I had the pleasure of spending several hours
with her at the invitation of my City Attorney friend, Lucy Varpetian.

As we toured the school district, I introduced her to administrators
and other staff, including many Armenians, who shared their experiences
in our district. After that, I drove her to an intersection in
Hollywood’s Little Armenia, where she stayed to count pedestrians
crossing the street into or out of the officially designated cultural
neighborhood.

As she explained to me, she came expecting to observe a community
fitting Webster’s “ghetto” definition: “A quarter of a city in which
members of a minority group live, especially because of social or
economic pressures.” What she found did not match her expectations.

As Aylin Gharabighi, one of the many Glendale Unified graduates
who now teach in our district recently said, “There’s not as much
segregation now,” as when she was a newly-arrived immigrant student
at Wilson Middle School.

Less segregation, she told me, both among differing groups of Armenian
immigrants and among the student population as a whole.

According to the most recent Language Census Report, the district
currently serves students of 38 native languages other than English,
with 66% of students having a primary language other than English.

The numbers tell some of the story, though they’re always a bit
confusing. Armenian students learning English and those who have
learned enough to be designated as fluent in English represent
approximately 24.3% of the 54.7% of students reported as Caucasian.

Within the remaining 30.4% of Caucasian students are some “initially
designated fluent English proficient students” whose families
immigrated years, if not generations ago.

That leaves about 45% of the student population representing
non-Caucasian races and ethnicities: Hispanic, Asian (including
Filipino), African American, Native American, Pacific Islander and
“Multiple Response/Decline to State” (1.78%).

In short, there’s quite a mix of people here, and the numbers tell only
part of the story. Students and parents tell us more about a district
that has evolved from a predominantly “English-only” population to
one which embraces and includes languages and cultures from across
the globe.

One example comes from our daughter’s experience when, as part of
a tour of colleges, she visited a small New England college. Her
cousin, who was the same age and lived in a rather homogeneous town
nearby, toured the campus and is reported to have exclaimed, “It’s
so diverse!” Our daughter, on the other hand, came away sighing,
“It’s so white!”

Former Assistant Supt. Alice Petrosian many years ago advised
parents to see the diversity of cultures as a salad bowl rather
than a melting pot. She encouraged us to appreciate each culture’s
distinct characteristics even as we worked toward the familiar motto,
“E pluribus unum,” or “From many, one.”

>From what I’ve seen, our students, for the most part, follow
Petrosian’s advice without having to be told. They know their friends’
families’ cultural practices. They enjoy their classmates’ foods and
appreciate the parents and grandparents who so often prepare them.

They cheer for local teams and world teams.

A few weeks ago, I was reminded that cultural diversity goes even
deeper for many of our families. Working in the concession stand at
a football game, I found myself in the company of three women whose
families are cultural blends.

Rachel Imperio came to the United States from Finland to attend
college. Her husband is Filipino. Her children eat both pickled
herring and chicken adobo.

Sara Medina, the PTA chairperson whose emails entice me to volunteer,
is a Latina who married an Iranian. Her oldest child is a graduate
student in physics, now studying in Texas, where he’s experiencing
yet another culture.

Yuri Clingerman came to the United States from Japan and married
“a homegrown Californian.” She shared with me that her husband died
when her oldest child was 9 years old, so her children “really had no
choice” but to be influenced by her and her culture. Through trips
to Japan and visits by friends and parents, “…They got a lot of
exposure.” As a result, she thinks they are very accepting and open
to cultural differences.

Our community’s children are poised to move beyond the melting pot
and the salad bowl. They’re living the motto, “From many, one.” They
come from a place where many of the many are already more than one.

—

JOYLENE WAGNER is a former member of the Glendale Unified School Board.

,0,126925.story

From: A. Papazian

TURKISH, ARMENIAN JOURNALISTS WANT GREATER INTERACTION

Cihan News Agency, Turkey
Oct 16 2014

ISTANBUL – 16.10.2014 18:52:47
by Osman Unalan

A group of Turkish and Armenian journalists and bloggers traveling
across Turkey and Armenia via Georgia between Oct. 13-26 in order
to gain firsthand insight on their neighbors say the closed border
between Turkey and Armenia is negatively affecting relations between
the two countries, advocating for the reopening of borders which will
improve the normalization process.

The journalists started out from Ä°stanbul on Oct. 13 and will
travel to different cities including Ä°zmir, Denizli, Fethiye,
Antalya, Cappadocia and Ankara to observe Turkey’s economic and social
development. They will continue their tour in Armenian cities including
Dilijan, Yerevan, Lake Sevan, Sisian and Garni.

Vazgen Karapetyan, the deputy director of the Armenian-based Eurasia
Partnership Foundation (EPF), the main organizer of the Turkey-Armenia
Media Bus Tour, told Today’s Zaman that the official purpose of the
tour is to establish human and professional relations between a group
of Turkish and Armenian journalist and bloggers. Karapetyan said the
organizing consortium partners — four from each country — decided
to have Turkish and Armenian-based participants re-explore their own
country and their neighboring country through the lives of everyday
Turks and Armenians. The participants’ one-on-one interactions will
open more doors for their future readers and viewers who can then
better understand what their neighbors are truly thinking about,
Karapetyan added.

The Hrant Dink Foundation, one of the members of the consortium,
and the Agos daily, an Armenian newspaper published in Turkish
and Armenian, hosted the group in their offices in Ä°stanbul. The
journalists visited the office of Hrant Dink, the editor-in-chief of
Agos who was killed on the street in front of his office in 2007.

Speaking on the approaches of the Armenian and Turkish governments to
the program, Karapetyan said it is being implemented by a consortium
of eight civil society organizations from Armenia and Turkey with
financial assistance from the European Union under the Instrument for
Stability (IfS). The EU delegations negotiated with the governments
of both sides to finalize the program of the project and the bus tour.

Karapetyan said the states are not taking part in the schedule of the
trip as the present political conditions do not allow them to be seen
in the program.

The very first Media Bus Tour was implemented by Internews-Armenia in
the summer of 2011 and EPF has been organizing the tours for the last
two years, the EPF deputy director said. “We have good personal and
professional-level interactions between the journalists and bloggers
from the two countries which is embodied in many media platforms in
both countries. And we believe that the governments of Turkey and
Armenia cannot keep turning a blind eye to the good developments on
this level,” Karapetyan noted.

When asked about the programs for the 100th anniversary of the 1915
events, Karapetyan said Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan
had extended an invitation from the Armenian president to Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during Erdogan’s oath-taking ceremony
in August to participate in the 100th anniversary programs in Yerevan.

“There is no hope of a positive reply,” Karapetyan said, as Turkish
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu later announced a commemoration of
Gallipoli on the same day as the programs in Yerevan.

“We are entering a complicated period as both governments will try
to override the other.” Karapetyan also stated civil society will
always keep its hopes of a normalization of relations between the
two communities alive despite the political developments.

Kenton TV and Radio Van reporter Lusine Badalyan said it is really
difficult for an average Armenian to have a good impression of a
Turk due to the 1915 events. Because of that, they don’t think too
kindly of Armenians in Turkey who serve the Turkish state or have
Turkish friends who Armenians believe killed their ancestors in
1915. Badalyan said the journalists who participated in the Media Bus
Tour from Armenia aim to at least soften the views of the Armenian
public to start community-level talks or interactions between Turks
and Armenians. Thus it is important to open the border gates to start
interactions between the two nations.

The Armenian-language Haykakan Jamanak daily’s correspondent Taguhi
Hovhannisyan told Today’s Zaman that state-level interactions between
Turkey and Armenia are very limited because of Azerbaijan as Turkey
stands on the side of Azerbaijan on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue,
the main problem between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Armenia occupied
Nagorno-Karabakh after an armed conflict between 1988 and 1994 and
the occupation remains a source of diplomatic and social problem
between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Hovhannisyan believes one of the main obstacles ahead of
the normalization process between Armenia and Turkey is the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. People in Armenia and Turkey were hopeful
when Turkey successfully implemented its “zero problems with neighbors”
policy under then-Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and when then-Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered his condolences to the Armenians
who lost their family members and comrades in the 1915 events on
Ottoman soil.

The Turkish and Armenian states offered to open their archives to
an academic council including sociologists, historians and political
scientist from both countries to study the 1915 events and illuminate
the truth. But these processes also broke down due to political
reasons, says Hovhannisyan. The political leadership of both nations
must let scientists study the archives if they want normalization at
the state and society levels, Hovhannisyan added.

Armenian youths more concerned about 1915

Eurasia Partnership Foundation Program Development Manager Marina
Ayvazyan talking on support for the Armenia-Turkey normalization
process told Today’s Zaman that the program doesn’t have any
preconditions as the Armenian side is ready for talks with Turkey
unless Ankara insists on bringing Nagorno-Karabakh to the agenda
which brings Azerbaijan in between. Ayvazyan said that it will bring
the normalization of Armenia-Turkey relations off track.

When asked about recognition of the 1915 events as a genocide,
Ayvazyan said there has been no specific public survey to discern
the opinion of the Armenian community on the 1915 events but as far
as civil society initiations and nongovernmental organizations are
concerned, they are insistent on a state apology from the Turkish
state. Ayvazyan added that the new generation is more knowledgeable
on the issue compared to the older people in Armenia because people
living in the Soviet Union had limited resources to learn but today’s
generation has more access to information.

Speaking about the 100 year anniversary of the 1915 events, Ayvazyan
said people will continue to work and lobby as before if even there is
no state apology. A normalization and interactions between the people
of the two countries will help the political leadership normalize
state-level relations as well, Ayvazyan summarized.

Anna Muradyan, a freelance journalist who participated in the Media
Bus Tour, told Today’s Zaman that there are many similar things in
the daily life of an Armenian and a Turk as there are many common
names in dishes, names and surnames, street and location names or
terms that are used in daily life. For instance surnames like Demircan
and Kafescan are very common in Armenia. The Armenians who fled from
the Ottoman Empire in 1915 still use the older names of their towns,
streets or neighborhoods in Armenia like Malatya Sebasia in Yerevan.

Many words Armenian and Turkish words in their daily life are similar
or have similar pronunciations. The word “bardak” in Turkish is
“bajak” in Armenian, both of which refer to a glass. Baklava, the
famous Turkish desert, is called Pahlava in Armenian, hazelnut is
pronounced as “fındık” in Turkish and “pinduk” in Armenian while
the word faster is “cabuk” in Turkish and “cabuk” in Armenian.

From: A. Papazian