Author: Babajanian Karo

GERMAN PRESIDENT DIDN’T DO HIS HOMEWORK BEFORE CRITICIZING TURKEY

Daily Sabah, Turkey
April 30 2014

Turkish society demands equal and honest dialogue from European
countries

Melih Altınok 01 May 2014, Thursday

German President Joachim Gauck’s criticisms about the government
during his visit to Turkey have resulted in broad repercussions on
the agenda. President Abdullah Gul responded to Gauck’s criticisms
on matters that he had not mastered, kindly but firmly and implicitly
indicating Germany’s democratic problems.Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said the information that Gauck shared with the media was
different from the content of their private bilateral talks. A majority
of Turkish popular opinion agrees with the reaction that was given to
Gauck by Gul and Erdogan.And they are not wrong either. Gauck found
Erdogan’s offer of condolences, which shared the sorrow of Armenians
about the 1915 incidents, inadequate. This raised some question marks
in people’s minds:

You are so maximalist concerning Turkey’s confrontation with its past.

You are even more demanding than the Armenians who expressed their
gratitude to Erdogan because of his courageous statements about the
1915 incidents. Taking all of these into consideration, then why did
you excoriate the politics of your former chancellor Willy Brandt when
he knelt down in front of the Holocaust Memorial in your own country?

Or do you fail to see the Holocaust to be as critical a matter as
the 1915 incidents?

Why don’t you look back at your recent past instead of giving advice
to Erdogan who has maintained a successful Kurdish reconciliation
initiative and who was appreciated by British and Spaniard leaders,
who have struggled against similar problems previously?

Actually, are you in a position to criticize a government that has
reached the highest level in its history in terms of initiating
social reconciliations about minorities and disadvantageous
sections? I suppose not. Remember the statements of Mehmet Kılıc
who is a Turkishborn Member of Parliament for Germany’s Green
Party. Although he supported you, he did not vote for you in the
presidential elections.Kılıc explained the reason for this and said:
“When Joachim Gauck was nominated for the presidency one-and-a-half
years ago, he delivered an influential speech. He said they would not
alienate immigrants from society and expose them to clashes as well as
accepting them as a part of German society.Just three months later,
Thilo Sarrazin, a former central banker of Germany, said Turkish
children were good for nothing just because of their genes. During an
interview, Gauck spoke highly of these provocative words of Sarrazin
and confirmed them. What is worse, he said it was a courageous act and
these discussions were required.” (Deutsche Welle) I do not even want
to elaborate on the fact that you applauded Turkey’s Gezi protests
while harshly criticizing Germany’s “Occupy Now” demonstrations.

(Birgun)

It is possible to ask more questions about Gauck’s political career and
its feedback. As Turks, we are not indifferent to European politics. I
wish you too had studied Turkey before you visited it, at least about
the subjects that you criticized.

If only you had referred to various information resources and had
not been an instrument of those who want to interfere in Turkey’s
domestic politics through you. I also wish you had not spoilt these
important talks between Turkey and Germany.

I suppose your problem does not merely results from your knowledge
on Turkey, which has been manipulated. It seems that you also
have a problem with terminology.If this were not the case, you
would not have praised Middle East Technical University (ODTU),
where you presented a speech, for its liberal atmosphere because no
liberal journalists and authors are allowed to give lectures at this
university. Even worse, Erdogan, who is accused of authoritarianism,
is not allowed to enter it. As far as I know, you describe yourself as
a radical anti-communist, and you changed your stance in Turkey. ODTU
is considered as a stronghold of orthodox leftism in Turkey. What do
you think about checking the meanings of “liberal” and “authoritarian”
in the dictionary once more?

The Turkish people want European countries to warn and observe
each other with objective criteria. International solidarity is a
factor that consolidates democracy. However, Turkish society is fed
up with European prototypes, which give maximalist indoctrination
with imperfect information and a bossy attitude, forgetting their
own democratic problems. They righteously demand an equal and true
dialogue that is free of orientalist prejudices. I think this is not
an unrighteous aspiration.

I WAS MISGUIDED, SAYS JOACHIM GAUCK

Daily Sabah, Turkey
April 30 2014

by Daily Sabah
Published : 30.04.2014 23:18:09

ISTANBUL — In a televised interview on Turkish news channel a
Haber, German President Joachim Gauck surprised the audience with
remarks that markedly differed from the ones he made at Middle
Eastern Technical University (ODTU) earlier this week. Praising the
Turkish government’s initiatives in terms of Armenian citizens in
Turkey, the Kurdish question, the European Union and other topics,
Gauck indicated there has been significant progress in the country,
which contradict the statements he made at ODTU, where he slammed the
government for restricting rights and freedoms in Turkey and said he
was concerned about the current situation of democracy and rule of
law in the country.

Attributing his negative statements to a number of nongovernmental
organizations, Gauck stated these organizations had influenced him
to speak in such a manner.

Gauck’s statements were criticized by Erdogan, who stated Gauck had
conveyed misguided information at ODTU after his meeting with Erdogan,
when he spoke otherwise.

BERKSHIRE JAZZ: ARMEN DONELIAN’S NEW CD TAKES JAZZ ARTIST BACK TO HIS ROOTS

The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts)
April 25, 2014 Friday

By Richard Houdek, Special to The Eagle,

GREAT BARRINGTON — In live performances and a multi-faceted
discography, Armen Donelian, the much admired pianist and composer,
has fused a solid foundation in the music of the classical masters
with his pursuit of the jazz genre.

And he has embarked on a fresh recording adventure close to his heart
— and to his roots.

“Sayat-Nova: Songs of My Ancestors” was released this month on the
Sunnyside label. “You might be hard pressed to categorize this music
because it’s so deeply influenced by classical, jazz and Armen’s
Armenian folk heritage,” observed Edward Bride, chairman of Berkshire
Jazz, Inc., “so the safest category is probably improvisational music.”

Indicative of Bride’s esteem for Donelian, Berkshire Jazz is presenting
a recording release party at 4 p.m. Sunday in Castle Street Cafe’s
Celestial Bar, where the Armen Donelian Trio — Donelian, David Clark,
bass, and George Schuller, drums — will offer three sets of music
to celebrate the occasion as part of National Jazz Appreciation Month.

Born in 1712 in a small northern Armenia village, Sayat-Nova was a
notable troubadour eventually summoned as an entertainer to the royal
court of Georgian King Irakli II.

“He was a self-taught musician, and a great poet, as well as a singer,”
explained Donelian in a phone conversation earlier this week from
his home and studio in Hudson, N.Y. “His poetry is amazing in its
complexity and beauty. He wrote hundreds of love songs and odes.”

Donelian who suggests in liner annotations that Sayat-Nova’s verses
often are compared to Shakespeare and the beauty of his melodies rank
with those of the greatest European composers.

Donelian, whose ancestors migrated to this country after escaping the
brutal Turkish genocide in 1915, obviously was influenced by Armenian
culture. But his early, stronger influences involved his father’s
record collection of classical music — Beethoven, Bach and Mozart —
and of the giants of jazz.

He remembers first playing by ear on what he calls “a derelict
upright piano,” which led to lessons from a local teacher, followed by
enrollment at the Westchester Conservatory in White Plains, N.Y., where
an Austrian Jew named Michael Pollon, who was trained in Berlin and
escaped the Holocaust in 1939, provided a strong classical background.

“Thanks to him, when I was 17, in 1968, upon graduation from high
school, I gave a recital of works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy
and Prokofiev,” Donelian said.

A major factor in Donelian’s life was his study with the great
jazz pianist Richie Beirich, “whose formidable grasp of classical
and 20th-century music and their application to jazz improvisation
expanded my sonic horizons,” said Donelian. Thereafter, he performed
with such luminaries as Sonny Rollins, Chet Baker and Paquito D’Rivera
before forming his own ensembles and initiating his successful series
of recordings.

Donelian, who confessed being confounded earlier by the odd
rhythms and the modes of Middle Eastern music, said he was drawn
to it beginning in his 30s, performing with a number of Armenian
musicians and groups, which led to a defining journey to Armenia for
performances. While there, a colleague recommended a rare 1946 Soviet
volume of Sayat-Nova’s unabridged poems, which served as a basis for
his selections on “Sayat-Nova: Songs of My Ancestors.”

The recording has two parts, the first devoted to piano solos, Disk 2,
with the Trio. “The process for arranging happened very organically,
over quite a bit of time,” Donelian explained. “I strove to preserve
both the content and the character of the original melodies, imbuing
them with my jazz sensibilities, my jazz harmonies and rhythms.

“There were those that just naturally felt they needed treatment by
the trio; others felt more personal and reflective. The music just
decided it for me.”

Turkish Government News
April 29, 2014 Tuesday

REVERBERATIONS CONTINUE ON ERDOÐAN’S 1915 MESSAGE

Ankara

Turkish Government has issued the following press release:

One of the prominent figures of the Armenian community in Turkey,
Bedros Þirinoðlu thanked Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan for his
message on April 24 -the anniversary of the 1915 incidents.

Yedikule Surp Pýrgç Armenian Hospital Foundation Executive Board
President Bedros Þirinoðlu issued a newspaper ad, in which he defined
Prime Minister Erdoðan as “The honorable good man, who presented us
the firsts.”

Þirinoðlu says “I present my heartfelt gratitude for your condolence
message, and I and my family offer our condolences to the
grandchildren of our Muslim brothers, who lost their lives”.

For more information please visit:

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
May 1 2014

US terror report: Turkey used for transit by radical groups in Syria

Rebel fighters walk along a street in the Armenian Christian town of
Kasab March 31, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

May 01, 2014, Thursday/ 18:10:48/ TODAYSZAMAN .COM/ WASHINGTON

The US State Department has said in its annual global terrorism report
that Turkey was often used as a transit country in 2013 for foreign
fighters seeking to join al-Qaeda and its affiliates in Syria.

Released in Washington on Wednesday, `Country Reports on Terrorism
2013,’ said: `Largely because of the ongoing conflict in Syria, Turkey
has voiced increasing concern about terrorist groups currently near
its border. These groups include al-Qa’ida in Iraq/Islamic State of
Iraq and the Levant [ISIL] and al-Nusrah Front. Turkey was often used
as a transit country for foreign fighters wishing to join these and
other groups in Syria.’

The report said that terrorist violence in 2013 was fueled by
sectarian motivations, marking a worrisome trend, in particular in
Syria, Lebanon and Pakistan, where victims of violence were primarily
among civilian populations. Thousands of extremist fighters entered
Syria during the year. Among them, a large percentage were reportedly
motivated by a sectarian view of the conflict and a desire to protect
the Sunni Muslim community from the Alawite-dominated regime of Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad regime.

The State Department report underlined that the key terrorism trend in
2013 developed in Syria, which continues to be a major battleground
for terrorism on both sides of the conflict and remains a key area of
longer-term concern. It said thousands of foreign fighters traveled to
Syria to join the fight against the Assad regime — with some joining
violent extremist groups — while Iran, Hezbollah and other Shiite
militias provided a broad range of critical support to the regime.

The report added that some of the thousands of fighters from around
the world who are traveling to Syria to do battle against the Assad
regime — particularly from the Middle East, North Africa, Central
Asia and Eastern and Western Europe — are joining violent extremist
groups, including the al-Nusra Front and ISIL. A number of key partner
governments are becoming increasingly concerned that individuals with
violent extremist ties and battlefield experience will return to their
home countries or elsewhere to commit acts of terrorism, it said,
adding that the scale of this problem has raised concerns about the
creation of a new generation of globally committed terrorists, similar
to what resulted from the influx of violent extremists to Afghanistan
in the 1980s.

A major challenge to Europe, the report highlighted, was the
increasing travel of European citizens — mostly young men — to and
from Syria seeking to join forces opposing the Assad regime. The
report argued that these `foreign fighters’ sparked increasing
concerns, and actions to address them, by European countries worried
about the growing number of their citizens traveling to battlefields
and possibly returning radicalized.

In 2013, the report said, Turkey continued to face significant
internal terrorist threats and has taken strong action in response.
Increased activity by the Revolutionary People’s Liberation
Party/Front (DHKP/C), a terrorist Marxist-Leninist group with anti-US
and anti-NATO views that seeks the violent overthrow of the Turkish
state, threatened the security of both US and Turkish interests. A
number of attacks occurred, including a suicide bombing of the US
Embassy in February 2013 that killed the bomber and a Turkish guard
and injured a visiting Turkish journalist.

In its annual global terrorism report the State Department describes
as prominent among terrorist groups in Turkey the Kurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK). According to the report, the PKK has spoken more often
about autonomy within a Turkish state that guarantees Kurdish cultural
and linguistic rights. Following three decades of conflict with the
PKK terrorist organization, the government and PKK leader Abdullah
Ã-calan began talks in late 2012 for a peace process. The PKK called
for a cease-fire in March, which both sides largely observed, apart
from small-scale PKK attacks in late 2013.

The report pointed out that approximately 20 terrorist attacks
occurred in Turkey in 2013. It said the ones that garnered the most
attention were: Feb. 1, a DHKP/C suicide attack against the US Embassy
in Ankara; Feb. 11, a car bomb at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing
between Turkey and Syria that killed 13 people; March 19, a
DHKP/C-coordinated hand grenade attacks on the Ministry of Justice and
on the headquarters of the ruling party; May 11, a twin car bombings
in Reyhanlı that killed at least 53 people — the deadliest terrorist
attack in Turkey’s modern history — and Sept. 20, a DHKP/C attack at
the National Police Department headquarters and police guesthouse with
light anti-tank weapons (LAWs).

According to the report, the State Department continued to provide
counterterrorism assistance to the Turkish national police that
focused on institutionalizing advanced skills into Turkey’s law
enforcement infrastructure and included training in terrorist
interdiction and crisis management. It said Turkey increased its
cooperation with European countries regarding the status of members of
the DHKP/C and also worked closely with European, North African and
Middle Eastern countries to prohibit the travel of potential foreign
fighters planning to pass through Turkey to Syria, although it remains
a transit route for these fighters.

Los Angeles Daily News
May 1 2014

Armenian Orphan Rug to be displayed, Rep. Adam Schiff says

By Susan Abram, Los Angeles Daily News
Posted: 04/30/14, 6:30 PM PDT |

A historic rug that was made by orphans of the Armenian Genocide will
be displayed publicly for the first time in nearly a century, after
the White House reversed an earlier decision and agreed to release it
from storage.

The Armenian Orphan Rug had been the subject of controversy when the
Obama administration in October refused to allow it to be released for
a planned exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute in December. The reason
was never disclosed publicly but critics felt it was out of
sensitivity to Turkey, a NATO ally that is blamed for the genocide.

The announcement was met Wednesday with gratefulness and optimism but
also caution by Armenian-American groups who had pressed the White
House to release the rug.

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank along with Rep. David Valadao,
R-Hanford, and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., were among those who urged the
White House to reconsider its stance on making the rug available for
public view.

Schiff said Wednesday he was pleased with the decision but was
uncertain why the White House reversed course.

“We’ve been working with the White House to find an appropriate
venue,” Schiff said. “It was time to get a yes on it, and I’m pleased
we have.”

It’s still unclear if it will appear at the Smithsonian or elsewhere,
and when, he said.

The nearly century-old rug was made for and delivered to President
Calvin Coolidge on Dec. 4, 1925, as a thank-you gift to America.
Orphaned girls who survived the Armenian Genocide worked on the
approximately 19-by-12-foot rug for 10 months. Its intricate design is
made up of more than 4 million individual knots.

Coolidge kept the rug and it was passed down in his family until it
was presented again to the White House in the 1980s. Since then, the
rug was pulled from storage in 1984 and 1995, but only for private
viewing.

The rug itself has become a symbol of the tug of war between the
Armenian diaspora and the desire for both the American and Turkish
governments to recognize the genocide. Both governments continue to
refuse to call it such.

An estimated 1.5 million Armenians died from 1915-23 in what has been
called the first genocide of the 20th century. The Turkish government
maintains the deaths were a consequence of betrayal and civil unrest
in what was then the Ottoman Empire. Armenians, however, say the
killings involved the systematic cleansing of Christians, which
included Assyrians and Pontic Greeks.

Armenian-American activists have said the U.S. government won’t
officially recognize the killings as genocide because it would hurt
relations with Turkey.

Schiff said he believes a shift may be occurring.

“I think things are slowly changing,” he said. “The hope is that
Congress and the administration will formally recognize the genocide
this coming year when it marks a century. If not now, when?”

Aram Hamparian, executive director for the Armenian National
Committee, said his group is grateful for the leadership from Schiff
and others, but will remain vigilant.

“We’re going to follow this policy closely to make sure the White
House follows on their commitment,” Hamparian said.

Hilton Head Island Packet, South Carolina
May 1 2014

Controversial Armenian rug will go on display

By Michael Doyle
McClatchy Washington Bureau
April 30, 2014

WASHINGTON — A lobbying campaign led in part by California lawmakers
has borne fruit, with a White House agreement to allow display of the
politically contentious artifact known as the Armenian Orphan Rug,
though where has not yet been determined.

Lawmakers with large Armenian-American constituencies pressed
administration officials to liberate the 89-year-old rug from storage.
Their success marks the latest turn in the conflict over remembering
an Armenian catastrophe.

“We’ve been in a constant course of discussion,” Rep. Adam Schiff,
D-Calif., said in an interview Wednesday. “It’s been a long process.”

That’s because the rug surpasses mere decoration.

Measuring somewhat more than 11 feet by 18 feet, the rug contains more
than 4 million hand-tied knots. Armenian girls in the Ghazir Orphanage
of the Near East Relief Society, located in what is now Lebanon, took
10 months to complete it before it was presented in 1925 to President
Calvin Coolidge.

The rug was meant to thank the United States for relief provided to
victims of what President Barack Obama last week called the Meds
Yeghern, which is Armenian for “great calamity.”

By some estimates, 1.5 million Armenians died at the end of the
Ottoman Empire, between 1915 and 1923. Historians and governmental
bodies have characterized the catastrophe as genocide, a term first
recognized in international law in 1948 as referring to actions
intended to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or
religious group.

Diplomatically and militarily, the term is loaded.

Turkey, a key NATO ally, vigorously disputes the accuracy of the
genocide term and pays lobbyists a lot of money to fight perennial
congressional efforts to pass an Armenian genocide resolution.
Pentagon and State Department officials likewise have raised concerns
about antagonizing Turkey.

Last fall, the conflict seemed to stain the rug, after the Washington
Post reported that the White House would not allow it to be displayed
at the Smithsonian Castle for the launch of a 75-page book titled
“President Calvin Coolidge and the Armenian Orphan Rug.” At the time,
a White House spokeswoman said it would be “inappropriate” to bring
out the rug for a private book event, but many saw other influences at
work.

“I was concerned that the holdup was related to Turkish concerns,” Schiff said.

Like his White House predecessors, Obama has steered clear of the term
“genocide” in the annual commemorative statements issued April 24. In
light of all this history, Armenian-Americans consider the decision to
display the rug, with its vivid associations, as progress.

“The display of this tangible expression of gratitude for America’s
humanitarian intervention to save the survivors of the Armenian
genocide is a positive development,” said Bryan Ardouny, executive
director of the Armenian Assembly of America.

Working with allies like Schiff and Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., the
organization helped rally more than 30 House of Representatives
members to sign a letter urging the White House to display the rug.
Schiff followed up with the White House congressional liaison, while
the Armenian Assembly ramped up pressure by displaying a “sister rug”
in Boston and Boca Raton, Fla.,

>From Massachusetts, a state whose notable Armenian-American population
includes Hagop Martin Deranian, the author of “President Calvin
Coolidge and the Armenian Orphan Rug,” freshman Democratic Sen. Edward
Markey weighed in as well.

On Wednesday, Markey declared in a statement that the rug’s display
will “serve as reminder that we will never forget the Armenian
Genocide and highlight the continued need to work towards its proper
recognition.”

The rug has previously been displayed in the White House in 1984 and
1995. It could be shown as early as the fall, Schiff said. The precise
Washington location remains uncertain, though both Schiff and Markey
used nearly identical language in saying the location would be
appropriate, sensitive and open to the public.

LEARNING TO SAY SORRY IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Christian Science Monitor
April 30 2014

In the past week, not one but two leaders – Turkish and Palestinian –
made rare acknowledgements of the suffering of the ‘other.’ Critics
have called the gestures opportunistic.

By Christa Case Bryant, Staff writer / April 30, 2014

In a region better known for harboring old hatreds than saying,
“I’m sorry,” this was a seminal week.

On the eve of the 99th anniversary of the deportation and massacre
of Armenians under Ottoman rule, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan conveyed the country’s “condolences” to the grandchildren of
the 600,000 to 1.5 million killed in what many regard as a genocide.

And just as Israel began marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called the killing of 6 million Jews
“the most heinous crime” of the modern era and expressed “sympathy
with the families of the victims and many other innocent people who
were killed by the Nazis.”

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Both Armenians and Israelis dismissed what they saw as opportunistic
statements by leaders under pressure. But whatever their motives, Mr.

Erdogan and Mr. Abbas’s willingness to express empathy for the
suffering of their adversaries represents a significant break from
the region’s obdurate public diplomacy in the name of honor.

In other regions, apologizing became “a very fashionable tool”
beginning in the 1990s, says Alon Liel, a veteran Israeli diplomat
whose postings have included Turkey. “But not in the Middle East…I
think because this element of honor in diplomacy is much more prominent
[than in Western democracies],” he says. “Everything is a matter of
scoring points.”

Uncertain motives stir criticism

To be sure, both Erdogan and Abbas’s statements came as they were
facing international and domestic pressure.

Abbas is caught in a blame game with Israel after US-mediated peace
talks fell apart last week. And Erdogan is increasingly under fire
for his repression of street protests, alleged government graft,
and lack of progress on Turkey’s bid to join the European Union.

But that doesn’t undermine the value of such gestures, says Orhan
Kemal Cengiz, a columnist and human rights lawyer.

“It is the first time a Turkish prime minister talked about the
grievances of Armenians,” says Mr. Cengiz, who has worked extensively
with minority groups in Turkey. “He’s an authoritarian leader, he
may have so many defects, but … he dares to take risks. He’s a doer.”

Cracking open doors

Turkey for decades has denied Armenian claims of a genocide that began
during World War I, when Ottoman deportations and massacres led to the
death of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians. The deportations came
in response to a sporadic Armenian uprising in support of invading
Russian troops.

Even as Turkish academics began challenging that narrative of denial
around 2000, using the word “genocide” remained highly controversial.

But they steadily pushed the envelope in Turkish media and academia,
and commentators began using the term on TV.

Now with Erdogan’s statement, “everybody has more space to discuss” the
issue, says Hugh Pope of the International Crisis Group in Istanbul.

The same is true in Palestinian society, where Abbas’s statement cracks
open the door to discussing historical truths that are largely avoided
for fear of justifying Jewish claims to the land and thus undermining
Palestinian nationalism.

Israel dismissed the statement, however, and the Armenian diaspora
likewise rejected Erdogan’s comments, saying Ankara was simply
“repacking its genocide denials.”

“Typically the response of a diaspora is, ‘This is not enough, we
need you to get on your knees and beg for forgiveness and repent of
your sins,’ ” says Mr. Pope.

But both sides have a role to play in overcoming the rift, he suggests,
comparing the process to water locks, in which the lock gates can’t
be opened until the water level is equal on both sides.

“Hiding behind your highly polished version of events, and refusing
to acknowledge another version of events – it doesn’t work.”

WE WILL LIVE TO REGRET OUR INDIFFERENCE TO GENOCIDE

Derby Telegraph, UK
April 25, 2014 Friday

Soapbox Russell Pollard

NINETY-NINE years ago, on April 24, 1915, the Turks of the dying
Ottoman Empire started arresting Armenians in Constantinople. This
led very quickly to a programme of mass deportation and massacre which
resulted in the first genocide of the 20th century. Around 1.5 million
Armenians were killed, and those who survived fled to many countries
throughout the world, creating one of the largest forced diasporas.

In his decision to embark on his expansionist policy throughout Europe,
Adolf Hitler is quoted as saying: “Who, after all, speaks today of
the annihilation of the Armenians?” A chilling reminder from the
past of the horrific consequences of not accepting, and recognising,
such terrible events. The term genocide was coined by Raphael Lemkin
in 1944 – largely based on the massacre of the Armenians.

It was 50 years before any country (Uruguay) in the United Nations
formally recognised that the Armenian genocide actually took place,
and since then only a further 20 countries have followed suit. Notable
exceptions are the UK and the US. The remaining countries only
stepped forward after the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the
early 1990s, where the Azerbaijanis tried to ethnically cleanse the
Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Genocide recognition for the Armenians is not about correcting
a historical point in a textbook or scoring political points, it
is fundamentally more profound than that. On an individual level,
it is about unresolved personal grieving that persists through the
generations. It is also about getting justice and closure, through
acceptance, and giving them the opportunity, finally, to lay people
to rest.

To this day, Turkey does not countenance any discussion of the Armenian
genocide. Azerbaijan has a declared anti-Armenian policy with a
published strategy to prove that the Armenian genocide was a myth.

Locked between these two adversarial countries, in the South Caucasus,
is Armenia and the unrecognised Nagorno-Karabakh. They exist in a
world where 170 countries don’t accept that their genocide took place
in 1915, or that the underlying conditions were evident in the 1990s
or that the implications of it are ever present today. When I see
what is happening in the region, I fear so much that one day we will
live to regret our indifference – such is the lifeblood of genocide!

MARCHING AGAINST GENOCIDE

Orange County Register (California)
April 25, 2014 Friday

BY LAUREN JOW, STAFF WRITER

‘1915 never again’ echoes in East Hollywood which, with Glendale,
have U.S.’s highest concentrations of Armenians.

The streets of Little Armenia in East Hollywood erupted in chanting
as thousands of people marched Thursday to commemorate the 99th
anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

Starting in 1915, the Ottoman Empire killed able-bodied Armenian men
and exiled women, children and the elderly to concentration camps in
the Syrian desert. An estimated 1.5 million Armenians died as a result.

Shouting “1915 never again, genocide never again,” the marchers
demanded Turkey’s recognition of the genocide.

On Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan unexpectedly
offered condolences to the descendants of those affected and
commiserated with their “shared pain” from World War I. Erdogan’s
comments were the most frank yet from the Turkish government, but
the country’s leaders do not call the episode a genocide.

While campaigning in 2008, President Barack Obama said he would
recognize the genocide as such, but since becoming president, he has
not done so.

Glendale and East Hollywood are home to the highest concentration
of Armenians in the United States. Every year, students and staff
take off school to participate in the protests. Many Armenian-owned
businesses close for the day.

The march was one of several such events throughout the city. The
Armenian Youth Federation staged its annual protest outside the
Turkish Consulate on Wilshire Boulevard in the afternoon, followed
by an evening commemoration sponsored by the city of Glendale.