Tuesday
Armenian Judges Demand Say On Court Reform
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Yervand Khundkarian (second from left), chairman of the Court of
Cassation, and other judges meet with the press, Yerevan, .
Armenian judges have voiced support for a thorough reform of the national
judicial system, while saying that the authorities must consult with them and
“strictly” adhere to Armenia’s laws and international commitments.
In a statement issued on Monday night, they also deplored attempts to disrupt
“the normal work of courts” and lambasted a state body overseeing the Armenian
judiciary.
The statement was adopted at an emergency “general assembly” in Yerevan
attended by 163 of the country’s 229 judges. They discussed recent days’
dramatic developments that followed the Armenian government’s strong criticism
of the judiciary.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian urged supporters to block the entrances to all
court buildings after a Yerevan district court ordered his bitter foe and
former President Robert Kocharian released from custody on May 18. Pashinian
demanded a mandatory “vetting” of all judges on May 20, saying that many of
them remain linked to Armenia’s “corrupt” former leaders and cannot be
independent. He reaffirmed his plans for a far-reaching judicial reform at a
May 24 meeting with foreign diplomats.
The judges acknowledged the need for a major court reform. They said none of
them objects to public access to information about their incomes and assets,
which is expected to be one of the criteria in the planned vetting.
At the same time the judges urged “relevant bodies” to “stand above parochial
interests” and ensure that the resulting legislative changes conform to
Armenia’s constitution and international obligations.
“The General Assembly of Judges welcomes any measure to strengthen confidence
in the judicial authority which would be taken in strict compliance with the
law,” said their statement read out to reporters by Yervand Khundkarian, the
chairman of Armenia’s Court of Cassation.
Armenia -- Supporters of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian block the entrance to a
district court building in Yerevan, May 20, 2019.
The statement stressed that a “constructive dialogue of all branches of
government” is essential for the success of the planned reform. In that
context, it described judges’ involvement in reform-related discussions as
“mandatory.”
The statement went on to condemn the “inactivity” of the Supreme Judicial
Council (SJC), a body nominating new judges and monitoring courts. “In effect,
that body does not guarantee the independence of judges,” it declared.
It was not clear whether the judges are unhappy with the SJC’s cautious
reaction to the May 20 court blockade. In an apparent reference to the
blockade, they denounced actions “hampering the normal work of courts.”
The SJC chairman, Gagik Harutiunian, resigned on May 24. In a letter to other
members of the judicial watchdog, Harutiunian cited his concerns over “ongoing
developments relating to the judicial authority.”
The resignation was announced the day after the European Union expressed
readiness to help the Armenian authorities reform the domestic judiciary with
“technical and financial assistance.”
Incoming CSTO Head Visits Armenia
Armenia -- Stanislav Zas (R), secretary of Belarus's Security Council, meets
with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Yerevan, .
A senior Belarusian official met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Yerevan
on Tuesday one week after Armenia dropped its objections to his appointment as
secretary general of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization
(CSTO).
The CSTO’s previous, Armenian secretary general, Yuri Khachaturov, was sacked
in November after being charged by Armenian authorities over a 2008 crackdown
on opposition protesters in Yerevan. Khachaturov’s three-year tenure was due to
end in 2020.
Pashinian’s government demanded late last year that another Armenian official
be named to run the organization until that time. The demand was rejected by
other CSTO member states and Belarus in particular.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko nominated the secretary of his
Security Council, Stanislav Zas, for the vacant post. Zas’s candidacy was
backed by Russia and all other members of the defense alliance except Armenia.
Meeting in Bishkek on May 23, Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian and
his counterparts from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan
agreed that Zas will take over as CSTO secretary general on January 1, 2020.
The appointment will almost certainly be formalized at a CSTO summit due in
November.
Pashinian expressed his satisfaction with the agreement when he met with Zas.
“The CSTO is one of the most important elements of Armenia’s security system,
and Armenia is interested in the effective work of that organization,” he said.
The Belarusian official also met with Mnatsakanian on Monday. According to the
Armenian Foreign Ministry, he assured Mnatsakanian he “will consistently act
from the position of protecting security interests of all CSTO member states.”
Kazakhstan - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko (L) and Armenian Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian talk at a CSTO summit in Astana, 8 November 2018.
The dispute over who should run the CSTO seriously strained Armenia’s relations
with Belarus. In November, Pashinian condemned Lukashenko for publicly
questioning Yerevan’s role in the CSTO while meeting with a senior diplomat
from Azerbaijan.
Lukashenko claimed afterwards to have apologized to Pashinian. Still, he
insisted that Yerevan should agree to the appointment of a Belarusian secretary
general.
“The problem was created by [Pashinian,] not us,” the Belarusian strongman
said, adding that the Armenian prime minister should have consulted with fellow
CSTO leaders before bringing criminal charges against Khachaturov for
“political reasons.”
Press Review
“Haykakan Zhamanak” rejects allegations by “opposition propaganda outlets” that
the authorities are deliberately spreading tensions between people in Armenia
and Nagorno-Karabakh. “In this information tumult, ordinary citizens in Armenia
and Artsakh cannot understand what is going on in reality,” writes the
pro-government paper. It accuses former President Robert Kocharian of
“exploiting the Armenians-versus-Karabakhis theme.” “After all, Kocharian has
achieved everything his life by exploiting the Karabakh issue,” it says.
“Aravot” carries a photograph of expensive cars belonging to Armenian judges
which were parked outside a court building in Yerevan where they met on Monday.
The paper says judges attending the gathering insisted that they are ready to
undergo a vetting process involving a scrutiny of their assets because “they
have nothing to hide.”
Arman Grigorian, a U.S.-based Armenian political scientist, tells “Zhamanak”
that Armenia’s former ruling regime retains strong influence on the judicial
system as evidenced by a Yerevan court’s controversial decision to release
Kocharian from custody and suspend his trial. “This branch of government has
clearly taken on the role of an instrument for the restoration of the former
regime,” he says. “What happened is a conspiracy against the democratic
revolution in Armenia. This could plunge Armenia into a serious constitutional
and political crisis.” Grigorian also condemns Karabakh President Bako Sahakian
and his predecessor Arkadi Ghukasian for signing formal “guarantees” that led
to Kocharian’s release.
(Sargis Harutyunyan)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2019 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org
Author: Babken Chilingarian
Issues related to pension reforms were discussed with the Prime Minister
- 20.05.2019
- Armenia:
- arm
58
Today, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received Bernard de Witt, Deputy CEO of French Amundi, the main shareholder of Amundi-ACBA Asset Management, one of the two pension fund managers operating in Armenia, and the delegation led by him. This was reported by the Prime Minister’s press service.
Welcoming the guests, the Prime Minister noted that pension reforms are important for Armenia, and the meeting is a good opportunity to discuss the progress and prospects of cooperation. Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that the government is interested in the development of cooperation with the partners involved in the process, including “Amundi-AKBA Asset Management”, which will contribute to the successful implementation of pension reforms, as well as increasing the level of public awareness about the pension accumulation system.
Bernard de Witt noted that “Amundi-ACBA Asset Management” company cooperates effectively with the representatives of the RA government and the Central Bank and is ready to continue the joint work.
The interlocutors discussed issues related to the effective implementation of economic, social and financial components of pension reforms in Armenia. In particular, there was a reference to the steps to be taken in the direction of the development of the capital market, raising public awareness, as well as the implementation of investment programs.
Armenian Cultural Week in Tehran to help deepen ties: Diplomat
Iran Daily
Saturday
Armenian Cultural Week in Tehran to help deepen ties: Diplomat
He pointed to longstanding amicable ties between Iran and Armenia, saying, “Armenia’s Cultural Week will be held in Tehran with the aim of deepening and enhancing relations between the two countries, Mehr News Agency reported.
Located northwest of Iran, Armenia has a special significance in economic, political relations and longstanding cultural ties, he said.
Khachaturian expressed his satisfaction with strengthening bilateral relations in every field, adding that political, economic and cultural ties between the two sides were gradually boosted after the independence of Armenia in 1991.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran last year, at the head of a high-ranking political and economic delegation, is solid evidence behind good and amicable ties between Iran and Armenia, Khachaturian added.
He expounded on the cultural activities of Cultural Division of Armenian Embassy in Tehran, and added, “We hope that the first Cultural Week of Armenia will be held in Tehran by year’s end, which is a good opportunity for the two countries to broaden their cultural ties in particular.”
Speaking in an interview with IRNA, Khachaturian pointed to his recent meeting with Deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohsen Javadi, saying that both sides agreed to hold Cultural Week, but it still needs preparatory work.
The event is to include an Armenian film festival, art and historical exhibits.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Khachaturian referred to the making of the Armenian drama, ‘Yeva,’ directed by Anahit Abad, as one of the best examples of cultural cooperation between Iran and Armenia.
‘Yeva’ was selected as the Armenian entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards.
The movie was jointly made by the Farabi Cinema Foundation and the National Cinema Center of Armenia.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Khachaturian called for Armenian cultural figures’ presence in Iran, saying some of them, like Sayat-Nova, are famous in the Caucasus and in the world.
He said that the Armenian diplomatic mission is to hold a concert in Tehran and Tabriz.
Kocharyan’s attorney comments on court’s decision to release 2nd President from pre-trial detention
Kocharyan’s attorney comments on court’s decision to release 2nd President from pre-trial detention
16:25,
YEREVAN, MAY 18, ARMENPRESS. Aram Orbelyan, attorney of 2nd President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan, commented on the court’s today’s decision to release Kocharyan from pre-trial detention.
“The optimistic scenario would be if the case was dropped, and the pessimistic scenario the approval of the guarantee. But the pessimistic scenario occurred. In any case, we continue stating that there is a risk to undermine justice, we want to see the state’s actions for eliminating this risk. Robert Kocharyan will be released within few minutes”, the attorney told reporters.
The Yerevan Court today approved the personal guarantees from Artsakh’s president Bako Sahakyan and ex-president Arkadi Ghukasyan to release president Robert Kocharyan from pre-trail detention.
Robert Kocharyan is charged with “overthrowing Constitutional Order” during the 2008 March 1-2 events in Yerevan and “accepting particularly large bribe”.
Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Damascus: President al-Assad to Catholicos Aram I: Syria was and always will be the home of all its people, regardless of religion or ethnicity
Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
Tuesday
President al-Assad to Catholicos Aram I: Syria was and always will be the home of all its people, regardless of religion or ethnicity
Hazem al-Sabbagh
Damascus, SANA – President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday received Catholicos Aram I Keshishian, head of the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
President al-Assad affirmed that Syria was and always will be the home of all its people, regardless of religion or ethnicity, lauding the patriotic role of Armenian Syrians who embody the values and meanings of citizenship, belonging, and national unity in the face of the divisive projects which the barbaric terrorist on Syria had sought to push, a war whose brutality brings to mind the massacres committed by the Ottomans against the Armenian people.
For his part, Catholicos Aram I said that Syria has been a safe haven and sanctuary for those who fled the horrors of the Ottomans’ massacres, and that the Syrian people have set a magnificent example of confronting dark mentality and terrorist and exclusionist projects by adhering to their national identity and to Syria’s message of love, peace, and moderation.
The Catholicos asserted that the steadfastness of Syria’s people, the sacrifices of its army, and the wisdom of its leadership will doubtlessly result in victory and eliminating terrorism.
“Nazi” Azerbaijan wants to commit genocide, says Artsakh
“Nazi” Azerbaijan wants to commit genocide, says Artsakh
13:55,
YEREVAN, MAY 11, ARMENPRESS. It’s been 25 years since the trilateral ceasefire agreement brought an end to the active war operations between Nagorno Karabakh Republic (Artsakh) and Azerbaijan, however numerous lives are still claimed by the latter’s ceasefire violations across not only the Karabakh-Azerbaijan border, but also the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.
“This agreement factually stipulated that Artsakh does exist as a state, as a party to the conflict, as a party to negotiations, because this agreement was signed also by representatives of the Republic of Artsakh and eventually it is thanks to this agreement that today we have a relatively stable and peaceful region,” Artsakh’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Director of Communications of President Sahakyan’s Administration David Babayan told ARMENPRESS. He emphasized the humanitarian perspective, noting that the ceasefire deal brought end to war operations and saved lives.
Babayan says the region also greatly benefited from the agreement, as well as the international community in general.
According to him, if Azerbaijan is conveying an offensive nature to the war, than Azerbaijan itself is becoming offensive. “We’ve never been an aggressor, but if needed we will shift the warfare into the enemy’s territory and will impose peace. It’s another thing that we do not adopt such strategy, because we are not aggressors or terrorists, but if needed we must fight against aggressors and terrorists with force,” Babayan said, emphasizing that Azerbaijan is conducting an offensive, subversive, Nazi strategy, while the Armenian side is doing the complete opposite.
He noted that the imperatives are also different for the two sides.
“We do not seek to destroy Azerbaijan’s statehood, but they seek to destroy the Artsakh and Armenian statehood, overall they want to commit genocide. We must always be strong, united and carry out correct geopolitics – this is the key to peace and stability. We must view the current configuration in our region this way,” he said.
The trilateral ceasefire agreement, signed between Azerbaijan, Armenia and Artsakh, come into force May 12, 1994.
Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
Speaker of Parliament of Armenia takes part in divine liturgy dedicated to Artsakh Defense Army in Shushi
Speaker of Parliament of Armenia takes part in divine liturgy dedicated to Artsakh Defense Army in Shushi
15:08,
YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan attended a divine liturgy dedicated to the Defense Army of Artsakh in Holy All-Saviour Ghazanchetsots Church of Shushi in the morning of May 10, the Armenian Parliament told Armenpress.
Speaker Mirzoyan was accompanied by Speaker of Parliament of Artsakh Ashot Ghulyan and high-ranking military officials.
Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
ACNIS reView
Analytical
MAY 03 2019
“Zvartnots” airport. when the plane of sovereignty arrives
There is no lack of opportunities for discussions on Armenian-Russian relations in Armenia. In recent days, two such incidents have occurred. The first was the ban on the entry of Ukrainian Parliament member Mustafa Nayemi to Armenia by the border guards “at the request of a third country” during the border crossing at the “Zvartnots” airport, and the second was the outburst of laughter of the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev after the RA Prime Minister asked a question during the EAEU intergovernmental council session. Such public discussions regularly held on various occasions in relation to Armenian-Russian relations prove that there are significant concerns among citizens in this matter. Therefore, the government should take serious steps to get rid of them.
If the second incident can be explained by the lack of trust of a large mass of the public towards Russia, then the creation of unnatural obstacles by the Russian border guards who control the RA border in connection with the visit of a member of parliament of another country to Yerevan, is a direct blow to Armenia’s international credit. It is noteworthy that thousands of people responded to Mustafa Nayem’s post on his Facebook social network page, and hundreds of people posted the post on their own pages. In the comments under the post, the citizens of Ukraine, Russia, Armenia and other countries debate on the issue of our country’s dependence on Russia in the context of the achievements of the “velvet” revolution.
By the way, Hovhannes Igityan, deputy chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Foreign Relations, also responded to Nayem’s post. Asking for forgiveness and expressing regret for the incident, he also noted that what happened to Nayem at Zvartnots airport is not the first case against Ukrainian citizens and is related to the existence of a list by the Russian authorities prohibiting the entry of certain individuals. Armenia has to take into account the practical effect of the latter for now, because the principle of reciprocity applies. According to Igityan, if our country stops responding to such “lists”, then Russia will not respond to Armenia’s inquiries either and will turn into a country that shelters corrupt and criminal elements. “Recently, in Russia, the General of Justice of RA, accused of embezzlement and other abuses and on the run, was arrested. We hope that he will be extradited to us,” says Igityan.
What happened to Mustafa Nayem has caused intense reactions, because it is related to a problem to which Armenian officials find it difficult to give any clarification or avoid answering. And the problem is that the presence of the Russian border guards at the Zvartnots airport has never been argued and cannot be argued as a situation or reality arising from the interests of Armenia. In the case of the Armenian-Turkish border, where the existence of Russian border guards is justified by many as a factor of restraining Turkish military aggression, the presence of Armenia’s state interests along with geopolitical or other regional interests finds at least some reasonable explanation. In spite of all that, in the case of “Zvartnots” airport, we have been talking for years about the harmfulness and groundlessness of the presence of the Russian border guards, and the fact of the presence of the border guards themselves – violation of the sovereignty of our country, desubjectification, undignified attitude, etc. No logical explanation has ever been given as to why border guards from other countries should be standing at Armenia’s largest civil international airport and their country’s law enforcement agencies and special services should monitor the movement of people entering and exiting our country with entry ban lists.
It is obvious that after the “velvet” revolution, Armenia is trying to become an independent regional factor. From the point of view of the current government, the fact that Armenia is currently in the same foreign-political environment, under the same geopolitical realities and challenges, as it was a decade or two ago, should be taken into account. There is a place for the claim that, being politically insignificant and in the orbit of Russia, which is not subject to transformations, and in the situation of global confrontation between Russia and the West, Armenia can change the tactics of solving the same problems and achieving the same goals in the same situation.
However, the current problematic situation at the “Zvartnots” airport already forces everyone to pay attention to the somehow difficult Armenian-Russian relations and to speak out about the existence of a serious problem that has been burdened for decades in the country’s sovereignty. It seems that the RA leadership has a wide field to dodge the request to replace the Russian border guards with Armenian border guards. When fixing the presence of the Russian border guards in “Zvartnots”, they can justify their position by the inadmissibility of a new strategy to solve the problem and achieve the goals in the given situation, and in case of wanting to solve the problem, by changing the tactics. However, such explanations have no value in all cases when the phenomena surrounding us are the expression of objective reality, internally endowed with the power to develop independently.
From that point of view, the incident with the member of the Ukrainian Parliament showed once again that the problems of sovereignty accumulated in Armenian-Russian relations for years are self-sufficient and cannot be taken under the control of any superpower or force. Neither Russia nor Armenia can position themselves as if there is no problem of the unnatural presence of the special service of a foreign country at the Zvartnots airport. This problem exists and needs an urgent solution. The more the RA government tries to keep its distance and hide it, the more it will hit not only the credit of Armenia, but also the reputation of the RA political leadership in the eyes of our citizens, proving that not fulfilling the requirement of the RA Constitution to build a sovereign country becomes a threat to national security.
Of course, the “blockade” of “Zvartnots” airport will not be easy for us. There will be resistance either inside the country, with the silent or open intervention of the 5th column, or in the form of threats and obstacles from an external beneficiary. But we have no alternative, the state must recover by gaining sovereignty. And in that case, “Zvartnots” airport is the first stop of the Armenian plane of sovereignty.
Saro Saroyan
Innovate Armenia Comes to USC on May 18
For Immediate Release May 7, 2019 USC INSTITUTE OF ARMENIAN STUDIES University of Southern California Los Angeles, California, USA Contact: Syuzanna Petrosyan, Associate Director [email protected] | 213.821.3943 Innovate Armenia Comes to USC on May 18 Innovate Armenia -- the festival of ideas, music and action -- will once again burst on to the USC Campus on Saturday, May 18, from 10 am to 6 pm. Want to know what to expect? Imagine you walk into USC at 10:00 am on Saturday, May 18. Parking is easy. You grab a (free) cup of coffee from Serj Tankian's Kavat Coffee or Henry's House of Coffee from the DIALECTS OF COFFEE station. Maybe you stop and record a conversation with journalist Liana Aghajanian about your memories of coffee, family, immigration and different traditions of making coffee. Then you head inside to Bovard Auditorium and listen to six different scholars talk about connecting to identity and memory in old Armenian towns and routes throughout Turkey. You get ready to listen to a conversation with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan live via Skype about HOW TO BUILD A COUNTRY. You decide it's time for some jingyalov hats, kabob tacos or some other innovative mix of familiar food from Z's. You grab a bite while you listen to Garabala (from Beirut), the Nur Qanon Ensemble (from Yerevan), or Richard Hagopian (from Fresno) on the day-long music stage. You walk back into Bovard just in time for SOUND STORIES -- a surprise collaboration between the Institute and Element Band -- presenting the stories we don't know about the music we love. Now you're ready for an afternoon of talks on HOW TO BUILD A COUNTRY, POST-REVOLUTION -- by ministers and policy makers from the Government of Armenia. It’s been a really stimulating day and you could use a glass of beer, so you head outside and sample (free) craft Armenian beer while you listen to the beer guru himself, Charlie Papazian, talk about the 4,000 traditions of Armenian craft beer. Then you walk around the various booths where organizations from Armenia can work with you to discuss how you can connect. You make sure to stop by the Institute’s booth to say hello to the staff and student workers, and to learn about what it is that the Institute does. Innovate Armenia is at the intersection of innovation and engagement. Come play your part. About the Institute Established in 2005, the USC Institute of Armenian Studies supports multidisciplinary scholarship to re-define, explore and study the complex issues that make up the contemporary Armenian experience—from post-genocide to the developing Republic of Armenia to the evolving diaspora. The institute encourages research, publications and public service, and promotes links among the global academic and Armenian communities. For inquiries, write to [email protected] or call 213.821.3943.
How to Counter 7 Lies in Turkey’s Denial of the Armenian Genocide
American Thinker
How to Counter 7 Lies in Turkey’s Denial of the Armenian Genocide
By David Swindle
Next week, on the 24th, is the commemoration of the Armenian genocide, 114 years after the Ottoman Empire started systematically murdering 1.5 million Armenians, as well as Greek and Assyrian minority Christians.
One man and the state he leads will not be participating in this important recognition of historical truth. Turkey’s anti-Semitic, Islamist president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, fancies himself the reviver of a neo-Ottoman Empire and has undertaken to spread his ideological influence globally. That includes Armenian genocide denial.
While Turkey has long fought the recognition of the Armenian genocide internationally, the situation under Erdoğan’s Islamist ideology has led him into an alliance with the international Muslim Brotherhood and its American affiliates. This has given Turkish propaganda a reach into the United States that didn’t exist at these levels before. Samantha Rose Mandeles wrote at The American Spectator in February on how Turkish diplomats have spoken at and influenced prominent Muslim groups since 2014. One such organization officially embracing Turkey’s genocide denial is the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), an umbrella group of over 30 Islamist charities and mosques, which published a “Statement on 1915 Turkish-Armenian Events” that forwards Turkey’s denialism.
American Muslim organizations that founded the USCMO include American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), ICNA, Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), MAS, Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA), Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA), and The Mosque Cares (Ministry of Imam W. Deen Mohammed). Today, 32 Muslim organizations and mosques affiliate with the group.
Now Turkey has gone a step farther: actively distributing Armenian genocide denialist propaganda to American Muslims. Last year, MAS’s 21st annual West Coast convention took place from November 22 to 24 at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, California. The conference featured booths from Muslim charities and businesses. But Turkey was the only Muslim government present, represented by two booths. There, amid complimentary Turkish flags, hats, and t-shirts, they distributed free books and pamphlets challenging the regime’s enemies, including the Armenian people.
A good example of the Turkish propaganda on offer is Our Neighbours of a Thousand Years: The Armenians, a slick, 52-page book filled with pictures and even a miniature CD in the back with folk songs. While the title seems friendly and inviting, the book contains questionable historical claims and shaky arguments about Armenian-Turkish relations.
These falsehoods include the following:
- The book quotes Erdoğan at the beginning demanding that all death and suffering of the period be treated the same, ignoring the historical question of who was responsible: “a fair humanitarian and conscientious stance requires an understanding of all the pain experienced in this period regardless of religion or ethnic origin.” This is akin to insisting that equal historical weight be given to the Jews murdered in the Holocaust and to the Nazis responsible for their deaths.
- The book claims that the Ottoman Empire did not seek to exterminate the Armenians — that it sought only to relocate them. The decision to forcibly relocate Armenians was supposedly the result of a “life or death struggle,” and had it not been done “to secure both fronts during this time [sic] war,” then there would have been “heavy casualties among Muslims.”
- The book alleges that Armenians and Turks “lived side by side, amicably” for centuries; the conflict allegedly started with “the armed actions by the Armenians.” Thus, Turkey claims that rising Armenian nationalism provoked the conflict. This ignores the fact that pogroms against Armenians occurred in 1894, 1895, 1896, and 1909.
- It alleges that Armenians collaborated with Turkey’s enemies during the war and committed violent crimes: “they were involved in manslaughter and looting incidents in cities and towns, that there is a need for a radical measure for the security of the state and that on this account, it had been decided to transfer the Armenians rioting from the war zones to other regions.”
- The pamphlet asserts that the Ottoman government did have a plan to feed and support the Armenians who were forced to relocate; however, there were “certain setbacks and abuses in implementation” that “caused many Armenians to have bitter memories of this period etched in their brains.”
- Any abuses of Armenians were supposedly done by “disobedient state officials,” and documents proving that such events occurred supposedly disprove genocide claims because “they also prove that the Ottoman Government did not intend for such incidents to occur, on the contrary, penalized those who committed such crimes.”
- Finally, the pamphlet asserts that in the 1970s, Armenian terrorists murdered Turkish diplomats and that it was around this time when “forged documents and photographs” and “dubious memoirs” emerged supporting the idea of the genocide. This historical revisionism collapses by doing the most basic historical research into the period. The truth of the genocide was affirmed in the 1918 memoir by Henry Morgenthau, who served as the United States’ ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1918, and Winston Churchill’s 1929 history of the First World War, The World Crisis. It is evidenced even by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkish president from 1923 to 1938. Ataturk named the nationalist group responsible for the genocide: “These leftovers from the former Young Turk Party, who should have been made to account for the lives of millions of our Christian subjects who were ruthlessly driven en masse from their homes and massacred …”
To summarize: Today, Turkey claims that the Ottoman Empire’s policy was one of relocation, not extermination, and that it was both morally justified and existentially necessary because it was provoked by alleged Armenian nationalism, violence, and treason.
Where to begin? All of these historical points and arguments may seem like a lot to unpack. However, the book skips something that should be obvious in any document purporting to tackle a controversial historical subject: there are no sources whatsoever to back up any of these dubious claims.
“This booklet is publication of Prime Ministry of Republic of Turkey,” the book notes on the last page in the poor English that characterizes much of the text. How is it that a state with the resources of Turkey cannot manage to produce a book that would earn a college freshman a passing grade?
The Turkish-backed USCMO’s insistence that what is needed is a “proper investigation of these events by independent historians” rings hollow, given that substantive historical work has been done for generations now, and an abundance of contemporaneous evidence from 1915 makes the denialist position so untenable that it almost starts to make sense that Turkey would not even bother with standard academic conventions like a works cited page.
Where do we find clear evidence affirming the Genocide? The New York Times’ archives going back to 1915 are a good place to start. An article summarizing the Times coverage and evidence of the genocide notes how “extensively” it was covered, with “145 articles in 1915 alone by one count — with headlines like ‘Appeal to Turkey to Stop Massacres.’ The Times described the actions against the Armenians as ‘systematic,’ ‘authorized,’ and ‘organized by the government.'”
The pamphlet’s claim that the Ottoman government’s policy was relocation, not extermination, and that atrocities were isolated incidents by officials acting on their own, is not tenable when the sheer numbers are considered. The Times notes, “The University of Minnesota’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies has compiled figures by province and district that show there were 2,133,190 Armenians in the empire in 1914 and only about 387,800 by 1922.” Likewise, the vastness of the numbers missing engulfs Turkey’s suggestion that any meaningful number of the Armenians killed were done so in reasonable self-defense.
The historical truth of the genocide and the mendacity of its present-day Islamist deniers are dark and disturbing subjects to process. However, history has offered a silver lining in the form and people of the Armenian diaspora. In countries around the world, over the generations since the genocide, Armenians have built prosperous communities, in harmony with their neighbors.
Living well is indeed the best revenge, and it is this sense of peace that Turkey is now striving to disrupt among Armenian-Americans. But we can fight back together.
I will continue to advocate for recognition of historical truth, clear-eyed resolve in confronting Erdoğan’s imperial impulses, and a unified opposition to the threat of Islamist totalitarianism both abroad and right here in sunny Southern California. It’s time for Armenians, Jews, Christians, women, moderate Muslims, and everyone with a moral conscience to come together to recognize the common threat Islamism poses to the peace of all our communities.
David M. Swindle is Southern California associate for the Counter-Islamist Grid and director of research for The Israel Group. Follow him on Twitter at @DaveSwindle.
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