Author: Badalian Vardan

TURKOLOGIST: RASH MEASURES OVER “GALLIPOLI INITIATIVE” UNVEIL ANKARA’S PANIC AHEAD OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CENTENNIAL

by David Stepanyan

ARMINFO
Monday, February 23, 12:12

Rash measures over “Gallipoli initiative” and its cancellation have
unveiled Turkey leadership’s panic ahead of the Armenian Genocide
centennial, Ruben Safrastyan, Director of the Oriental Studies
Institute, National Academy of Science of Armenia, told ArmInfo.

According to Today’s Zaman the centennial commemorations of the
Gallipoli Campaign of World War I initiated by the Turkish government
and to be celebrated on April 24 of this year — the same date as
the centennial commemorations of the “Armenian genocide” — have been
cancelled due to the unwillingness of international leaders to visit
Ankara and overshadow the genocide ceremonies in Yerevan.

“If confirmed, Zaman’s reports will become a shame to the Turkish
authorities, given that the Gallipoli commemorations were cancelled
for lack of international interest in Ankara’s initiative,” the
Turkologist said. Safrastyan believes that the world community has
adequately responded to the cynical and immoral idea of Ankara, and
the leaders of most of the invited countries refused to participate in
the Gallipoli comedy. The reports disseminated by Zaman, inherently,
belong to Fethullah Gulen and shows how deep are the discrepancies in
the Turkish elite. On the other hand, Gulen and his movement still
remain part of that elite. “I think, we should not disregard that
the United States might stand behind that story,” the Turkologist said.

The Gallipoli celebrations have been cancelled. All preparations
have been suspended as the number of RSVPs to the invitation is not
positive. Only five countries have accepted the invitation and they
will not be represented by high-level officials, Ankara has not made
any official statement on the cancellation of the Gallipoli event yet.

Breaking: Gallipoli Commemorations Canceled in Turkey

By Weekly Staff on February 21, 2015

Disinterest by World Leaders Reason for Cancellation

ANKARA (A.W.)–The commemoration ceremonies marking the centennial of
the Gallipoli Campaign of World War I have been canceled, according to
Today’s Zaman. The paper reveals that the reason for cancellation is
the low number of heads of states who agreed to attend Ankara for the
ceremonies that were scheduled to take place on April 24–Armenian
Genocide commemoration day.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan greeted Azeri President Ilham
Aliyev on Jan. 15, in the presence of 16 soldiers dressed in
ceremonial costumes representing various Turkic people in history.
(Photo: Official website of the President of Turkey)

The paper quoted a government official, who wished to remain
anonymous, as saying, “The Gallipoli celebrations have been cancelled.
All preparations have been suspended as the number of RSVPs to the
invitation is not positive. Only five countries have accepted the
invitation and they will not be represented by high-level officials.”

Leading up to the Gallipoli commemorations, Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan had sent official invitations to more than 100 world
leaders, including Armenian President Serge Sarkisian, to partake in
the ceremonies. The date designated for these commemoration
events–April 24–created uproar among Armenians worldwide, while
Turkish human rights groups urged world leaders to boycott the
Gallipoli events.

On Jan. 16, Sarkisian responded to Erdogan’s invitation to Turkey on
April 24, in a strongly worded letter. “Turkey continues its
conventional denial policy and is perfecting its instrumentation for
distorting history. This time, Turkey is marking the 100th anniversary
of the Battle of Gallipoli on April 24, even though the battle began
on March 18, 1915 and lasted until late January 1916, while the
Allies’ operation started on April 25,” he wrote, adding, “What is the
purpose [of this] if not to distract the world’s attention from the
100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide?”

AdnKronos- Italia
19 feb 2015

Siria, l’arcivescovo armeno-cattolico di Aleppo: “La vita va avanti,
anche se le condizioni sono drammatiche

Articolo pubblicato il: 19/02/2015

Ad Aleppo “la vita va avanti, nonostante le circostanze drammatiche”.
E’ questa la testimonianza dell’arcivescovo di Aleppo per gli
armeno-cattolici, Boutros Marayati, che in un’intervista ad
Aki-Adnkronos International racconta la vita quotidiana nella città
assediata e devastata da quasi quattro anni di guerra.

“Le condizioni sono drammatiche, la città è sotto assedio, solo un
terzo è sotto il controllo dello Stato”, spiega monsignor Marayati,
che si trova a Roma per partecipare a un convegno organizzato dalla
Comunità di Sant’Egidio. “Mancano l’acqua e l’elettricità, che ci
arrivano un’ora al giorno, o a volte non arrivano proprio”.

Anche i combustibili mancano, e questo comporta “molta sofferenza ora
che è inverno, soprattutto per i bambini”, aggiunge il prelato,
sottolineando che “la gente ha molta paura” e questo è il primo
movente a spingere la popolazione ad emigrare. “Circa la metà della
diocesi è emigrata e il fenomeno è aumentato dopo la caduta di un
razzo sulla sede del vescovado alcuni mesi fa”, ricorda.

Vi è poi la crisi in Iraq e la situazione a Mosul, occupata dallo
scorso giugno dalle milizie dello Stato islamico, che fanno temere ai
cristiani di Aleppo di finire sotto lo stesso giogo. “A tutto questo
si aggiunge la mancanza di medicinali”, sottolinea Marayati, il quale
esprime la speranza che si raggiunga “un cessate il fuoco o un
congelamento dei combattimenti ad Aleppo”.

Il governo di Damasco ha accettato la richiesta dell’inviato speciale
dell’Onu in Siria, Staffan De Mistura, di congelare le ostilità ad
Aleppo, ma l’arcivescovo mette in evidenza che “tra il dire e il fare
c’è molta strada da percorrere”. Attualmente la città è divisa “in due
parti: la prima, pari a due terzi, è nelle mani dell’opposizione che
oggi si è trasformata in movimento jihadista, e l’altra è controllata
dal regime”, ma entrambe subiscono bombardamenti.

Secolo Trentino- Italia
15 feb 2015

ARMENI: IL GENOCIDIO NEGATO

Di Luca Dalle Mese il 15 febbraio 2015 –

Ad inaugurare la nuova “età buia” dopo il medioevo fu il genocidio
degli Armeni, il primo tra i massacri compiuti nel ‘900, accomunati
tutti dagli stessi fini e quasi totalmente dissociati dai motivi che
causarono lo scoppio delle due guerre. Proprio per questa mancanza di
un collegamento diretto tra le guerre e gli stermini il ‘900 può
essere considerato un periodo buio, come fu il Medioevo, anche se i
motivi che spingono a questa etichettatura sono molto diversi. Se da
una parte il Medioevo è stato un secolo di numerosissime guerre,
epidemie, crisi economiche, e arresto del progresso tecnologico, il
‘900 ha subito una profonda crisi dei valori etici dell’Uomo. Il fine
comune a tutti i genocidi del Novecento infatti è la volontà di
sterminare un’etnia, in maniera metodica e senza eccezioni:
un’eliminazione storica, politica, culturale.

Nello specifico caso armeno, questo popolo fu eliminato dalla Turchia
tra il 1915 ed il 1923, comportando la morte di un milione e mezzo di
persone. Inizialmente gli uomini armeni venivano costretti
all’addestramento militare, poi arruolati coattamente nell’esercito.
Successivamente toccò alla popolazione civile, che subì un violento
massacro. I superstiti venivano espropriati di tutto e condotti nel
deserto per una lunga marcia, dalla quale nessuno tornava. I
pochissimi fortunati a scampare alla morte furono dei bambini, educati
dal partito secondo i canoni islamici.

A fomentare le persecuzioni fu il partito dei Giovani Turchi, mosso da
estremizzati ideali di nazionalismo; essi volevano riformare la
nazione turca con criteri di omogeneità etnica e religiosa. La nazione
armena, oltre a non essere di fatto turca, e quindi colpevole anche
solo per questo motivo, era anche cristiana: questo significa che era
una pericolosa finestra aperta sull’occidente, il quale poteva
contaminare il progetto dei Giovani Turchi.

Ad oggi la Turchia non ha ancora ammesso alcun genocidio; le
informazioni in nostro possesso derivano soprattutto, come in molti
altri casi di genocidio, da alcuni Giusti, tra i quali l’Italiano
Giacomo Gorrini.

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 21 2015

50 Armenian citizens become Russian border guards

21 February 2015 – 6:15pm

50 Armenian citizens have become members of the FSB Border Guards of
Russia in Armenia today in the framework of the intergovernmental
agreement “On the procedure of recruitment and military service of
Armenian citizens in Russian border troops on the territory of the
republic.”

According to the head of the Russian FSB Border Guards, Major General
Vyacheslav Biryukov said there are no incidents on the border between
the countries and that Russia and Armenia have very friendly
relations.

Peninsula Online, Qatar
Feb 21 2015

Armenian troops kill Azerbaijani soldier: Baku

February 21, 2015 – 6:29:11 pm

Baku—Armenian troops on Saturday killed an Azerbaijani soldier in a
fresh border clash, Azerbaijan officials said, as tensions mounted
over a separatist region.

The soldier “was killed in action as the Armenian forces attempted to
attack Azerbaijani army positions,” the defence ministry in
Azerbaijan’s capital Baku said.

“Armenia’s military and political leadership bears responsibility for
the provocations along the frontline,” the ministry said. “From now
on, our retaliatory measures will be even tougher.”

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a decades-long conflict over
Nagorny Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan.

Despite years of negotiations, the two sides have not signed a final
peace deal, with Karabakh internationally recognised as part of
Azerbaijan.

Clashes between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces intensified again in
January following an unprecedented spiral of violence last year.

At least 12 people from both sides were reported killed and 18 wounded
this year in similar incidents on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, and
along the Karabakh frontline.

Ethnic Armenian separatists backed by Yerevan seized control of
Karabakh during a 1990s war that left some 30,000 dead.

Baku, whose military spending exceeds Armenia’s entire state budget,
has threatened to take back the region by force if negotiations fail
to yield results.

Armenia, which is heavily armed by Russia, says it could crush any offensive.

AFP

Literary Armenian needs special endearment today – publicist

11:42 * 21.02.15

Today marks the International Mother Language Day, an observance held
annually worldwide to promote multilingualism and cultural diversity.

On this occasion, Tert.am talked to Vachagan Sargsyan, an Armenian
writer, publicist, translator and editor who shared his ideas and
concerns over the general attitude towards the Armenian language
today. He noted with regret that the literary language, as a valuable
heritage bequeathed by ancestors, does not receive the necessary
attention and care nowadays.

Sargsyan said it is surprising to him that the local television
channels do not have any special broadcasts devoted to the Armenian
language, with no wealthy businessman or benefactor ever seeming to
think about funding such a project.

“What we received from our grandfathers is a wonderful heritage, the
literary Armenian, which is a brilliant language arousing the world’s
biggest nations’ envy. So it is the biggest omission today that there
is no state care, no endearment and reverence. Let us not forget that
the literary language is the bridge uniting us; Once it is seized from
our mouths, we will start quarreling with one another. We do not feel
the literary language’s unifying potential which makes everybody an
Armenian. It’s a very important thing,” he noted.

Sargsyan, who is the author of an Armenian ABC book for secondary
schools, stresses the importance of dedicated efforts to enrich the
language every day instead of making allegations that it has detached
itself from our lives.

“And it is important to be in contact with, and enrich, the living
language instead of reading its obituaries. We have never had
compassionateness, never preserved what we have created. We had a
motherland but did not manage to preserve it, handing it over to
others because of internal wrangles,” the publicist noted.

He further criticized the frequently occurring habit of sharing
transliterated messages in Latin letters, considering the practice
tantamount to “engraving scripts on a mound”.

In the meantime he noted that foreign nations are often perplexed by
the design and graphics of the Armenian letters.

“The Armenian letters live in the God’s heart; they were born from a
divine spirit, from the stone and from pomegranate corns,” he said,
also highly valuing the Armenian alphabets’ sound perfection.

As for the language in legislative drafting, Sargsyan said he finds it
neither good nor bad, with the State Language Inspection never issuing
special recommendation to legislators to encourage them to build a
linguistically correct language. Sargsyan said he regrets that
coarsened language traditions today do not leave room for such
recommendations or corrections.

Armenia MFA: Azerbaijan has rejected all proposals by Co-Chairs so far

19:41, 20.02.2015

YEREVAN. – Azerbaijan is trying to present their own ideas aimed at
simulation of the negotiation proces as the proposals suggested by the
Co-Chairs, spokesperson for Armenian Foreign Ministry Tigran Balayan
told Panarmenian.net commenting on Azerbaijani FM’s remarks.

In this context he reminded about the five statements of the
Co-Chairs: “As repeatedly stated, unlike Azerbaijan, Armenia is ready
to continue negotiations to resolve the conflict based on these
proposals”.

It is first of all necessary to accelerate reaching agreement on the
basic principles to make it possible to start drawing of a peace
agreement, Balayan stated.

Foreign Ministry spokesman also noted that in the latest statement
made by the Co-Chairs, the mediators said they had presented proposals
that could strengthen the ceasefire.

“Is Azerbaijan really ready to accept these proposals? Such proposals
have been rejected by so far,” Balayan said.

Armenia News – NEWS.am

Yerevan Bestseller encourages love towards reading

16:57, 21 February, 2015

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 21, ARMENPRESS. The Yerevan Bestseller exclusive
project introduced by “Armenpress” News Agency encourages love towards
reading. The Director of “Armenpress” News Agency Aram Ananyan stated
this at the end of the award giving ceremony held at the press centre
of “Armenpress” on the symbolic day of the Armenian Language, which is
marked on February 21.

“The idea of launching the project came, when Yerevan was declared the
World Book Capital. We developed the methodology of the project, so
that we could have the standards, due to which we make selection and
after we began the relevant activities. Then the number of bookstores
was expanded and the interest towards the project increased. This is
the second time that on February 21 we hold the ceremony of
appreciation of the books and authors, which occupied their unique
place at the literary process of the previous year,” Ananyan
underscored.

The Director of “Armenpress” News Agency found it difficult to give an
unequivocal answer to the question whether the project managed to
dictate taste or not.

Among other things, Aram Ananyan noted: “I guess the publishers and
those directly involved in selling books can answer that question, as
they can clearly see that shift. Notwithstanding, in my opinion, we
managed to introduce some trends in the literary process.” Ananyan in
convinced that reading must be a significant characteristic of the
Armenian people, if it is not so yet.

“Such projects are held all over the world and people calculate the
most demanded books. It was necessary to have such a project in
Armenia as well. It gave impetus to love towards reading,” Aram
Ananyan concluded. In addition, Ananyan noted that the national news
agency next year will also award those media, which will touch upon
the topics of book and literature and encourage publishing.

Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide AyÃ…?e Berktay

By MassisPost
Updated: February 20, 2015

By Hambersom Aghbashian

AyÃ…?e Berktay is a translator, scholar, author, cultural and women’s
rights activist. Her publications include `History and Society: New
Perspectives, 2008³, and `The Ottoman Empire and the World Around with
Suraiya Faroqhi’; moreover, she is the editor of `Women and Men in the
75th Year of the Turkish Republic’. Her translations include `The
Imperial Harm: Gender and Power in the Ottoman Empire, 1520-1656³ by
Leslie Penn Pierce; and `The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922 ,New Approaches
to European History’ by Donald Quataert.

Over the past decade, AyÃ…?e conducted work at the History Trust, where
she was part of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Board on Human Rights.
In Dec. 2009 AyÃ…?e became a member of the pro-Kurdish Peace and
Democracy Party (BDP), which has 36 elected representatives in the
Turkish Parliament. In March 2010 she was elected to the BDP Istanbul
Province Executive, where she worked in the Press Committee, then in
Oct. 2010 she was elected to the BDP Central Women’s Committee,
Foreign Relations Office. AyÃ…?e Berktay was arrested on October 3,
2011, and seized personal papers and materials. Eventually, she was
charged under Turkey’s anti-terror legislation of `membership in an
illegal organization’. She was released from Prison in Istanbul on
Dec. 20, 2013 and still faces a lengthy trial process, where she could
face up to 15 years in prison. (1)

In December 2008, two hundred prominent Turkish intellectuals released
an apology for the `great catastrophe of 1915³. This was a clear
reference to the Armenian Genocide, a term still too sensitive to use
so openly. The signatories also announced a website related to this
apology, and called on others to visit the site and sign the apology
as well. The complete, brief text of the apology says `My conscience
does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the
Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in
1915. I reject this injustice and for my share, I empathize with the
feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers and sisters. I apologize to
them.’ AyÃ…?e Berktay was one of the Turkish intellectual who has signed
the petition. (2)

AyÃ…?e Berktay was one of the Turkish intellectuals who signed a
petition against Denialist Exhibit in Denmark, an exhibition which was
planned by the Turkish embassy to support their point of view
concerning the Armenian Genocide .’ Don’t Stand Against Turkey’s
Democratization and Confrontation with its History!’ was the message
to the Royal Library of Denmark who has given the Turkish government
the opportunity to present an `alternative exhibit’ in response to the
Armenian Genocide exhibition.(3)

In the 99th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the members of the
24 April Commemorating Armenian Genocide Platform came together in
front of the historical HaydarpaÃ…?a Railhead to commemorate the
Armenian intellectuals who were put in trains from HaydarpaÃ…?a Railhead
in 1915 and sent to death. The citizens left red carnations on the
placards writing in both English and Armenian reading `We are
remembering the victims of Armenian genocide’ and they carried the
photos of Armenian intellectuals. The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)
Central Executive Board (MYK) member Garo Paylan, Author AyÃ…?e Berktay,
Academiscian Fatmagül Berktay, Human Rights Association (Ä°HD) Ä°stanbul
Branch Head Ã`mit Efe, Ä°HD executives, Armenians coming from Diaspora;
and lots of citizens joined in the commemoration activity.(4)
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