Author: Badalian Vardan

I AM ARMENIAN: ‘AGHET – EIN VOLKERMORD’

US Official News
April 12, 2015 Sunday

The University of California has issued the following news release:

I Am Armenian: ‘Aghet – Ein Volkermord’

Tuesday, April 14, 2015 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm, UCLA Hammer Museum –
Billy Wilder Theater

Hammer Screenings

See below for additional information.

Admission

Free and open to the public.

Contact

Hammer Museum (310) 443-7000 [email protected] Website

Additional Information

Although there is an international consensus that up to 1.5 million
Armenians died in the Ottoman Turkish Empire between 1915 and
1918, the Armenian genocide is still not recognized by Turkey as a
historical fact. ‘Aghet – Ein Volkermord,’ acclaimed German director
Eric Friedler’s award-winning documentary, deals with the political
motives for this continuing silence. A Q&A with Eric Friedler follows
the screening. (2010, Dir. E. Friedler, 90 min).

I Am Armenian: A Year of Armenian Culture and History on Film In
commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,
we dedicate 2015 to an exploration of multiple facets of Armenian
culture, history, and landscape through film.

ARMENIA CALLS FOR EXPANSION OF ECONOMIC TIES WITH IRAN

FARS News Agency. Iran
April 12, 2015 Sunday

TEHRAN (FNA)- Armenia’s new Ambassador to Tehran Artashes Tumanyan in
a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif voiced
his country’s willingness to broaden economic ties with Iran.

“During my mission in Iran I will pursue the further expansion of
bilateral economic ties,” Tumanyan said during the meeting.

The Iranian foreign minister, for his part, pointed to Iran-Armenia
close relations and the two countries’ abundant cultural and historical
commonalities, and said, “It is necessary for Iran and Armenia to
broaden their relations in different areas.”

In late January, Zarif in a meeting with Armenian Prime Minister
Hovik Abrahamyan in Yerevan underlined that Tehran sees no boundary
for the expansion of relations with Armenia.

“Iran is ready to cooperate with Armenia in different areas, including
telecommunications, railway, energy, gas, electricity and cleaning
of Aras River,” Zarif said during the meeting in the Armenian capital.

The Iranian foreign minister underlined that Tehran sees no limitation
for broadening relations with Yerevan.

Zarif pointed to the visit of Abrahamyan to Tehran, and thanked the
Armenian prime minister for his efforts to develop mutual cooperation
with Iran.

The Iranian foreign minister voiced his pleasure in the membership
of Armenia in the Eurasia alliance, and expressed the hope that the
membership would help to the expansion of Yerevan’s bilateral ties
with Tehran.

The Armenian prime minister, for his part, pointed to the status quo
of Armenia-Iran relations, and said, “The two countries are having
high-level political relations, but we should also try to expand the
level of economic ties.”

Abrahamyan also vowed to do his best to remove the problems of the
Iranian prisoners in Armenian jails.

He referred to the role of Iranian businessmen in the expansion of
Iran-Armenia relations, and said, “We can have joint agricultural
products and export our goods to the Euro-Asia member-states.”

Iran and Armenia have taken major strides towards widening and
deepening of their relations in recent years, particularly in the
economic sector.

In October, Abrahamyan, heading a high-ranking delegation, visited
Iran to confer with senior officials of the country on ways to develop
all-out ties.

Abrahamyan held meetings with a number of high-ranking Iranian
officials, including Zarif, during which they exchanged views on the
growing trend of the development of bilateral relations in all areas,
specially in economic, trade, infrastructures and tourism fields,
and underscored the necessity for removing the existing obstacles.

They also called for continued reciprocal visits by Iranian and
Armenian officials to consult and exchange views on the bilateral
relations and other issues of mutual interest.

MAY DAY: COMMUNISTS TO HOLD MARCH AND SDHK TO HOLD RALLY IN YEREVAN

13:34 | April 15,2015 | Politics

The Yerevan Municipality has accepted a notification by Tachat
Sargsyan, First Secretary of the communist Party of Armenia (HKK),
on holding a march in downtown Yerevan at 12.00, May 1.

The march will start from the statue to prominent painter Martiros
Saryan.

The Municipality has also authorized a rally to be held by the Social
Democrat Hunchakian Party (SDHK) at Charles Aznavour Square in Yerevan
at 6pm on May 1.

BROOKDALE COMMEMORATES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE 100TH ANNIVERSARY WITH EXHIBITS, BOOK RELEASE

NJ.com, NJ
April 14 2015

By Ashley Peskoe | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com The Star-Ledger

MIDDLETOWN – Brookdale Community College commemorated the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian genocide Sunday with the opening of two
exhibits and a book release.

The Center for Holocaust, Human Rights and Genocide Education (CCHANGE)
at the school featured the interactive exhibit “A Journey to Life:
Armenia,” which included stories of local Armenian survivors and
their families, and a student art exhibit called “Illuminating Images:
A Hundred Year Remembrance.”

“Genocide is the most terrible crime a people can undergo, or another
people can commit,” said U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-4th Dist.), who
attended the event. “It must never be forgotten-to forget it would be
to dull our consciences and diminish our own humanity. It must never
be denied, but fully acknowledged – otherwise any meaningful attempt
at reconciliation will be thwarted.

The book, “Hundred-Year Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide:
Celebrating the Lives of Armenian Genocide Survivors in Our Community,”
which details 54 survivors of the genocide who now live in Monmouth
County was also released.

Smith said he would also be chairing a congressional hearing on April
23, the day before Armenian Remembrance day.

“When political leaders fail to lead or denounce violence, the void is
not only demoralizing to the victims but silence actually enables the
wrongdoing,” Smith said in a statement. “Silence by elected officials
in particular conveys approval–or at least acquiescence–and can
contribute to a climate of fear and a sense of vulnerability. History
has taught us that silence is not an option. We must do more.”

TURKEY PROTESTS TO POPE FRANCIS AFTER HE BRANDS ARMENIAN KILLINGS ‘GENOCIDE’

The Telegraph, UK
April 12 2015

Pontiff’s run-in with Ankara comes two weeks ahead of 100th anniversary
of start of Armenian killings

By Alice Philipson Rome

Pope Francis has sparked a diplomatic row with Turkey ahead of the
100th anniversary commemorations of the mass killings of Armenians
under Ottoman rule, after describing the events as “genocide”.

The Pontiff’s comments, made in an address to Armenian politicians
and Orthodox church leaders in Rome on Sunday, led to the Turkish
foreign ministry summoning the Vatican’s envoy to Ankara for an
official dressing down.

There had been intense speculation over whether the Pope would use the
controversial term during yesterday’s service, which came two weeks
ahead of what Armenia regards as the anniversary of the killings on
April 24. Doing so risks alienating a potential ally in the Catholic
church’s efforts to stop radical Islamists persecuting Christians in
the Middle East.

However, the Pope made his intentions clear just minutes into the
service on Sunday, labelling the slaughter “the first genocide of
the 20th century”.

His comments will be seen as a clear decision to ignore previous
diplomatic protests from Ankara after he spoke about Armenian genocide
in an unofficial capacity two years ago. On that occasion, a Vatican
spokesman was forced to deny that the pronouncement signified his
official stance.

Armenia and many historians believe that up to 1.5 million people
were systematically killed by Ottoman forces in 1915. The deaths are
regarded by Turks as casualties from a civil war .

At Sunday’s Armenian Catholic rite honouring the centenary – also
attended by Serzh Sargsyan, the Armenian President, Pope Francis said
that humanity had lived through “three massive and unprecedented
tragedies” in the last century, the other two being Nazism and
Stalinism.

“The first, which is widely considered ‘the first genocide of the
20th Century’, struck your own Armenian people,” he said: “Concealing
or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without
bandaging it.”

He told the audience that it was his duty to honour the innocent men,
women, children, priests and bishops who were “senselessly” murdered
by Ottoman Turks.

More than 20 countries around the world, including Italy, France,
Russia, Germany, Argentina and Cyprus formally recognise the
massacre as genocide. Britain says the evidence is not “sufficiently
unequivocal” to do so.

Turkey’s foreign ministry reportedly told the Vatican’s envoy that
it was “disappointed” by the Pope’s comments, and that they caused a
“problem of trust” between Turkey and the Vatican.

Andrea Gagliarducci, a Vatican expert, told The Telegraph that Pope
Francis had always been close to the Armenian community and that it
was not unusual for the Pontiff to risk “diplomatic implications”
for issues he cares deeply about.

Pope Francis has already linked the deportation of Armenians from
Turkey to the plight of Christian refugees in the Middle East today,
many of whom have been forced to leave their homes by Isil militants
and other militant forces.

“I think with sadness about those regions such as Aleppo [Syria],
which a hundred years ago were a safe harbour for the few survivors,”
Pope Francis said last week during a meeting with 20 bishops of the
Patriarchal Synod of the Armenian Catholic Church. “Recently these
regions have seen the endurance of Christians, and not only Armenians,
put at risk.”

AZNAVOUR, CABALLE, SPIVAKOV TO FEATURE IN A VIDEO DEDICATED TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CENTENNIAL

16:27, 15 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

World-famous celebrities will feature in a video “Millions of Lives”
to be released on the threshold of the 100th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide, April17. Three friends Karen Margaryan, Tigran
Petrosyan and Grisha Aghakhanyan together with KMsounds Production
have initiated the project to once again remind the world about the
verity of the Genocide.

The video has been shot in different countries of the world, including
the US, Russia, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Germany, etc.

The lyrics are about the destiny of a little girl, who lost her family
and stayed alone in this world.

The video features outstanding Armenian and international artists,
who are friends of the Armenian nation and who share the sorrow of
the little girl and millions of families whose dreams vanished in
the desert sand.

Involved in the project are Charles Aznavour, Montserrat Caballe,
Armen Jigarkhanyan, Patrick Fiori, Vladimir Spivakov, Sebu Simonian,
Dmitry Kharatyan, Garik Martirosyan, Mariam Mehrabova, Erna Yuzbashyan
and others.

We can’t let the history be repeated. We don’t want any other nation to
experience the horror the Armenians went through. KMsounds Production
and each artist in the video address their message to the World:
“The violence of 1915 was Genocide. It must be recognized by the
whole world to prevent the repetition of the history.”

For details visit

ERDOGAN CHASTISES POPE FRANCIS FOR OBSERVING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: ‘I CONDEMN HIM’

Breitbart News
April 14 2015

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he “condemns” Pope
Francis for his use of the expression “genocide” when referring to
the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenian Christians by the Ottoman Empire
from 1915-1917.

“Whenever politicians, religious functionaries assume the duties of
historians, then delirium comes out, not fact,” Erdogan said at a
meeting of the Turkish Exporters Assembly on Tuesday.

“I want to warn the pope to not repeat this mistake and condemn him,”
he said.

At a Mass with representatives from the Armenian Catholic church on
Sunday, Pope Francis referred to the event as an “immense and senseless
slaughter” and called it “the first genocide of the twentieth century,”
ending speculation whether the pontiff would risk alienating Turkey
by using the term “genocide.”

Francis said that remembering and honoring the victims of the massacre
was “necessary, and indeed a duty,” because “whenever memory fades,
it means that evil allows wounds to fester.”

“Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding
without bandaging it!” he said.

The same day, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu responded via
Twitter, claiming that the Pope’s words lacked legal and historical
credibility.

On Monday, the Pope seemed to justify his decision at his morning Mass,
insisting in his homily that Christians must be ready to proclaim the
truth boldly, imitating the first Apostles of Jesus who spoke “without
fear.” The way of the Church is that of “openness and speaking freely,”
he said.

President Erdogan said he greatly regretted the pontiff’s remarks.

Recalling the pope’s visit to Turkey in 2014, the president said he
thought Francis was “a different politician,” adding, “I don’t say
a religious functionary.”

“I won’t let historical events be brought out of their own course
and turned into a campaign against our country and nation,” he said.

Meanwhile, the European Parliament will vote on a resolution Wednesday
regarding the claims of an Armenian genocide. The body will decide
whether to officially name the year 2015 as the centennial of the
Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire.

The motion noted that an increasing number of EU member states and
national parliaments recognize the Armenian genocide. If passed,
the Parliament would “pay tribute, on the eve of the Centenary, to
the memory of the one-and-a-half million innocent Armenian victims
who perished in the Ottoman Empire.”

TURKISH PROFESSOR CONCLUDES THERE WAS AN ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

New Hampshire Public Radio
April 14 2015

Turkish officials reacted in anger on Sunday to Pope Francis’s
description of the slaughter of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks as
the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey has acknowledged the
killing of Armenians occurred around the time of World War I, but
has resisted the notion that this was part of a systematic genocide.

Fatma Muge Cocek is Turkish, and a professor of sociology and
women’s studies at the University of Michigan. She tells Here &
Now’s Robin Young about the social and political backdrop that led to
the persecution and killing of Armenians during the Ottoman Empire,
and why she now uses the term genocide to describe the killings.

Interview Highlights: Fatma Muge Cocek

On whether religious differences made Armenians a target

“Religion is one factor that impacts the way in which society itself
is structured because non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire lived under
a system called the millet system, where they had pretty much self
governance, but no access to arms and armaments, and in turn had to pay
also a special poll tax. And because of that, especially because of the
fact that there was no intermarriage, one can say that they existed
in Ottoman society, but they were not fully integrated into Ottoman
society. And probably was a more important factor than religion alone.”

Was it a civil war or a genocide?

“In our history textbooks, there was no reference whatsoever to what
had happened, to the violence.”

“Well for a civil war to occur, on both sides you have to have two
armies or two armed forces fighting each other. In this case it was
the Ottoman military or paramilitary organizations that basically took
out not only the males, but also the women, children and the elderly.

That is not a civil war when you include, and I think destory, your
own subjects. That is why I think it’s not a civil war.”

On the Turkish people’s understanding of the war

“I was born and raised in Turkey and I got all my education there,
and in our educational system, in our history textbooks, there was
no reference whatsoever to what had happened, to the violence. Turks
were always portrayed as very patriotic, innocent and noble people,
and the only reference I had was that a group of Armenian terrorists
killed diplomats from ’74 to ’85, so that was my only experience. I
knew nothing about why these Armenian terrorists were taking out the
Turkish diplomats, and I think that is also the only reference the
Turkish public has in Turkey. They only remember those murders. They
don’t know anything that happened in their own past. I had to learn
that later when I came here to the United States to do my Ph.D.”

Guest

Fatma Muge Cocek, professor of sociology and women’s studies,
University of Michigan, author of “Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past,
Turkish Present, and Collective Violence against the Armenians,
1789-2009.”

ARTSAKH VET GROUP CALLS ON COMRADES TO SUPPORT SEFILYAN AND OTHERS ARRESTED ON APRIL 7

13:23, April 15, 2015

Thirty Artsakh War vets have called on other freedom fighters to
participate in a public rally scheduled for April 17 at Yerevan’s
Liberty Square in support Jirayr Sefilyan and four other members of
the Founding Parliament who were arrested on April 7.

In a public statement the thirty signatories, operating under the name
“Shoushi Special Unit Freedom Fighters Union”, call on their comrades
“for whom the future of the homeland and nation is dear, who are not
indifferent to the plight of our peacetime heroes, for whom the honor
and repute of Armenian fedayees is dear” to participate in the rally.

The five arrested on April 7 are Jirayr Sefilyan (Commander of the
Shoushi Special Unit), freedom fighter Pavlik Manukyan, Garegin
Choukaszyan (Founding Parliament president), Varuzhan Avetisyan
(Founding Parliament VP), and Gevorg Safaryan (Founding Parliament
board member).

TURKISH HACKERS TARGET VATICAN WEBSITE AFTER POPE’S GENOCIDE COMMENT

Assyrian International News Agency AINA
April 14 2015

Posted 2015-04-14 19:11 GMT

Turkish hackers have brought down the official Vatican City website,
following Pope Francis’ statement in which he referred to mass killings
of Armenians by Turks as ‘genocide’.

According to reports, the website was first taken
offline on Monday evening with a Turkish hacker, named @THTHerakles,
announcing that he would continue to target the website should an
official apology not be issued from the Vatican City.

The hacker said that the Pope’s comments were “unacceptable” for
a respected religious figurehead. “Taking sides and calling what
happened with the Armenians genocide is not true […] We want Pope
[Francis] to apologise for his words or we will make sure the website
remains offline,” he added.

The site was restored within a number of hours, however according to
the apparent perpetrator the main server remained offline.

Turkish hacking groups are not the only community looking to target
the Vatican over the Pope’s recent comments. Both the Turkish and
Armenian government have even expressed their upset. Turkish foreign
minister Mevlut Cavusoglu argued that the statement was “out of touch
with both historical facts and legal basis.”

“Religious offices are not places through which hatred and animosity
are fuelled by unfounded allegations,” he added.

Hacking group Anonymous also claimed to take down the Vatican
website three years ago in protest against the ‘church’s crimes’,
namely controversial Catholic doctrines and the recently uncovered
sexual abuse of children by priests. During the same year, hackers
shut down the website of World Youth Day, an international Catholic
youth festival which took place in Madrid, Spain. The website was
intermittently available on the festival’s first day as Pope Benedict
XVI arrived to take part in the event.

At the time of publishing this article, the official Vatican City
website was not available.