Author: Kajoyan Gevork

“TO FORGET THE DEAD WOULD BE AKIN TO KILLING THEM A SECOND TIME”

12:21 | April 22,2015 | Politics

The international forum “Against the Crime of Genocide” started today
at Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concerts Complex in Yerevan.

The event has brought together more than 500 participants from all
over the world, including political, religious and public figures,
journalists and editors.

Before the start of the forum, a documentary about the Armenian
Genocide by the Ottoman Turkey was screened for the participants.

In his speech, Serzh Sargsyan stressed that the forum could become
an important platform for discussions on prevention of genocides.

“This forum is one of the central events to mark the Armenian Genocide
Centennial. Perpetration of genocide is both an aftermath of the inner
developments in a given state or society, and failure of the entire
system of international relations. Impunity is a prerequisite to the
recurrence of the crime of genocide. It is impossible to disagree with
the Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel, who notes
that “to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time,”
Serzh Sargsyan said.

He stressed that Armenia’s active engagement with the international
community’s efforts toward the prevention of the crime of genocide has
been time and again demonstrated through the relevant UN resolutions
adopted by consensus throughout years upon our initiative. “The most
recent one was adopted in March of this year by the United Nation’s
Human Rights Council. The resolution, inter alia, condemned the
international public denial of crimes of genocide and crimes against
humanity since public denials created a risk of further violations
and undermined efforts to prevent genocide.

Serzh Sargsyan also welcomed the two documents adopted by the National
Assembly of the Republic of Armenia this year – the Statement
Condemning the Genocide of the Greeks and Assyrians Perpetrated
by the Ottoman Turkey, and the amendments introduced in the Law on
Holidays and Memorial Days. “In accordance to the latter December
9 is designated as the day for condemnation and prevention of the
crimes of genocide, which is highly symbolic, as the Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide had been adopted
on the very that day,” he stressed.

“On the Armenian Genocide Centennial we declare confidently in broad
daylight that the perpetrators of the Genocide failed to achieve what
they planned. Moreover, our response to the attempt to annihilate
the Armenian nation is the state building, our ongoing revival that
is now no longer reversible. I would like to reiterate that today’s
Forum, along with the discussions to be held, shall send the following
powerful and pragmatic message to the international community: the
crimes of genocide have not in the least ceased to be a threat to the
humanity, and the overcoming of their consequences, and prevention
shall become a top priority. The lessons of the past simply oblige us
to do so. The civilized humanity shall joint its efforts to eradicate
eventually the evil of genocide, and its underlying circumstances,”
Serzh Sargsyan said.

Catholicos Karekin II said in speech that humanity has a moral
obligation to fight against genocide because impunity gives rise to
more atrocities.

L’ARMENIE REJETTE LES FAUSSES CONDOLEANCES DE LA TURQUIE

Genocide

Le gouvernement armenien et les principaux partis politiques ont
rejete hier les “profondes condoleances” de la Turquie.

Ils ont fait valoir qu’Ankara continue de nier avec vehemence que 1,5
million d’Armeniens a ete victime d’un genocide orchestre et perpetre
par le regime ottoman des >.

Dans un communique publie hier, le Premier ministre, Ahmet Davutoglu,
a declare que les Turcs “comprennent ce que les Armeniens ressentent”
sur les 1915 massacres et deportations.

Davutoglu a en meme temps exhorte l’Armenie et sa diaspora a travers
le monde a arreter leur campagne pour une plus grande reconnaissance
internationale du genocide, en disant que les Turcs ont egalement
ete massacres au cours de la Première Guerre mondiale.

Le ministère armenien des Affaires etrangères s’est moque hier de
la declaration de Davutoglu. “Le veritable auteur de la declaration
negationniste de l’an dernier, enoncee par Erdogan, a ete publie cette
annee sur son propre compte,” a ecrit sur Twitter le porte-parole du
ministère, Tigran Balayan.

“L’Etat successeur de l’Empire ottoman doit reconnaître et condamner
le genocide”, a rappele quant a lui Vahram Baghdassarian, leader
parlementaire du Parti Republicain.

“Le genocide est un fait historique et leur incapacite a le voir ne
fait que les discrediter”, a declare Baghdasarian.

“C’est une continuation de la politique du deni”, a declare Raffi
Hovannisian, le chef de l’opposition du Zharangutyun. “Donc, notre
lutte se poursuivra. Nous esperons qu’un jour, un representant
de l’Etat turc n’utilisera pas seulement publiquement le terme de
“genocide” mais prendra aussi des mesures pour retablir les droits
du peuple armenien “.

Giro Manoyan (FRA) a meme vu des arrière-pensees derrière les
condoleances turques. Il a dit qu’Ankara essaye ainsi d’eviter que
plusieurs pays, notamment l’Allemagne, ne reconnaisse le genocide.

mercredi 22 avril 2015, Claire (c)armenews.com

ARAB AND AMAZIGH HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS CALL ON TURKEY TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

12:37, 22 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

On the eve of the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, leading Arab and
Amazigh human rights organizations called on the Turkish government
to recognize the truth of the historic events, issue an unequivocal
apology, and move towards accountability and reparations.

The concerted campaign by Ottoman leaders a century ago resulted in
the deaths and exile of the vast majority of their Armenian citizens,
but successive Turkish governments have failed to recognize or take
responsibility for the deliberate and systematic mass extermination
of the ethnic group.

Signatories to the statement calling on recognition of the Armenian
Genocide include the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, the Cairo
Institute for Human Rights Studies, the Arabic Network for Human Rights
Information, the El Nadim Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of
Violence, Tamkeen for Legal Aid, Lawyers Without Borders, the World
Amazigh Assembly, the National Federation of Amazigh Associations in
Morocco, and the Aleppo Compatriotic Charitable Organization.

“We call on President Erdogan and Prime Minister Davutoglu to recognize
the Armenian genocide and the responsibility of Turkey’s predecessor
government for the terrible crimes against the Armenian community,”
said Ziad Abdel Watab, Deputy Director of the Cairo Institute for
Human Rights Studies.” As human rights organizations, we reiterate
our call for unequivocal truth, justice, and accountability for the
victims of this Genocide.”

“The historic record is well-settled, and it is well past time for the
Turkish government to end its denials and come to terms with its past,
for the benefit of Turks, Armenians, and all of humanity,” said Khaled
Mansour, board member of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

“By recognizing the massive crimes and human rights abuses that took
place within its own nation, even if a century ago, Turkey could
initiate a unique path in a region whose political conflicts have
degenerated into bloody ethnic and sectarian conflicts.”

A full copy of the statement appears below:

This year, on the occasion of the centennial of the Armenian Genocide,
we join in extending our condolences to the global Armenian community
for the mass extermination campaign against them in 1915, which is
commemorated annually on April 24th. We call on President Erdogan
and Prime Minister Davutoglu to recognize the genocide and the
responsibility of Turkey’s predecessor government for the terrible
crimes against the Armenian community. As human rights organizations
in the Middle East and North Africa region, we reiterate our call for
truth, justice, and accountability for the victims of this Genocide.

The facts of the Armenian Genocide are well known. Encouraged by the
cloak of war and alarmed by the crumbling of the Ottoman Empire,
the Young Turk leadership saw the Armenian population as a threat
to the Empire’s future survival, and decided to exterminate their
Armenian subjects. Beginning in the spring of 1915, in one of the
first genocides of the twentieth century, the Young Turk regime
and its state officials presided over the mass deportation and
annihilation of up to a million and a half Armenians from different
parts of the Empire. Despite wide-scale global recognition of these
facts, successive Turkish governments have refused to acknowledge the
events of 1915 as genocide or to make any reparations or amends to the
survivors. Discussion of the Armenian Genocide remains controversial
inside Turkey, and the vast majority of Turks are ignorant about the
history and facts of the genocide.

The government of Turkey today presents itself as a model for nations
around the world, often championing human rights throughout the region
and in the Muslim world. By recognizing the massive crimes and human
rights abuses that took place within its own nation, even if a century
ago, Turkey could initiate a unique path in a region whose political
conflicts have degenerated into bloody ethnic and sectarian conflicts.

As activists and representatives of human rights organizations in the
Middle East and North Africa, we call upon the Turkish government to
now, one hundred years later, acknowledge the scale and magnitude of
the atrocities committed against the Armenian people. Without truth,
recognition and accountability for past crimes, it is difficult to
change course and set a new path for respect, tolerance and protection
for minorities in the world today, and especially in the Middle East
and North Africa.

Signatories:

Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights

Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies

Arabic Network for Human Rights Information

El Nadim Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence

Tamkeen for Legal Aid

World Amazigh Assembly

Aleppo Compatriotic Charitable Organization

National Federation of Amazigh Associations in Morocco

Lawyers Without Borders

LE PATRIARCHE COPTE ORTHODOXE TAWADROS II EST ARRIVE EN ARMENIE – PHOTOS

ARMENIE

Le Patriarche copte orthodoxe Tawadros II est arrive a Erevan, capitale
de l’Armenie, pour prendre part aux evenements les plus significatifs
programmes pour commemorer le centenaire du Genocide armenien.

Erevan

Erevan

mercredi 22 avril 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

UNE DECLARATION SUR LE GENOCIDE ARMENIEN VA ETRE AUJOURD’HUI EXAMINEE DEVANT LE PARLEMENT AUTRICHIEN

AUTRICHE

Les six factions presentes au Parlement de l’Autriche ont uni leurs
forces pour publier une declaration commune qui devrait condamner le
genocide armenien qui s’est produit en 1915 dans l’Empire ottoman,
a rapporte le journal autrichien Der Standard.

Le document note que l’ancien Empire Autro-Hongrois, qui etait un
allie de l’Empire ottoman pendant la Première Guerre mondiale, porte
egalement la responsabilite historique pour ce qui etait arrive.

La proposition de declaration commune des factions parlementaires
autrichiennes rappelle egalement les genocides des autres communautes
chretiennes comme les Assyriens, les Arameens, et les Grecs pontiques
dans l’Empire ottoman.

La declaration note que l’Autriche est tenue de decrire ce qui se
etait passe comme un genocide et de le condamner.

Le document sera debattu aujourd’hui devant le Parlement autrichien.

mercredi 22 avril 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

BELGIQUE : LE CDH SOUHAITE ETENDRE LA RESOLUTION SUR LE GENOCIDE ARMENIEN

REVUE DE PRESSE

On sait que les Armeniens ont ete les victimes entre avril 1915 et
juillet 1916 d’un genocide qui a fait près d’1,2 million de victimes.

On oublie souvent que d’autres minorites, vivant de longue date
dans l’Empire ottoman finissant, ont elles aussi ete pourchassees
et exterminees.

Ce fut egalement le cas de 500 000 Arameens, Assyriens, Syriaques et
de 500 000 Grecs pontiques. Mais l’histoire ne retient que le genocide
des Armeniens.

Pour reparer cet oubli, le depute CDH Georges Dallemagne vient de
deposer une “proposition de resolution” pour etendre a ces autres
minorites chretiennes la resolution qui avait ete adoptee par le
Senat belge le 26 mars 1998.

La resolution – adoptee a 49 voix pour et 9 abstentions – considerait
“que les Armeniens de Turquie furent victimes en 1915 d’un genocide
perpetre par le gouvernement ottoman de l’epoque”. Le vote belge
s’inscrivait en droite ligne d’une decision en ce sens prise par le
Parlement europeen dès 1987.

Georges Dallemagne s’appuie sur l’avis de plusieurs experts qu’il a
reunis le 25 mars dernier a la Chambre, en compagnie de la Federation
des Arameens de Belgique.

L’historien specialiste des genocides Joël Kotek (ULB) y a notamment
rappele que c’est dans l’idee prônee par les dirigeants ottomans
“d’un Etat-nation ethnique que se trouve l’explication première
du genocide de 1915″. En appelant a limiter le nationalisme turc
moderne aux seuls Turcs musulmans,”les Armeniens, Arameens et Grecs
pontiques ne pouvaient apparaître que comme des obstacles majeurs a
l’unification ethnique des Turcs autour de cette Anatolie”, a-t-il dit.

Timing parfait

Le centenaire du genocide armenien sera commemore par un concert a
Istanbul ce 22 avril et par d’immenses manifestations et concerts,
le 24 avril a Erevan, la capitale de l’Armenie. A Ankara, en cette
annee electorale, le gouvernement turc se montre très nerveux sur
ce sujet sensible, malgre les avancees faites par la societe civile
turque en vue d’une reconnaissance du genocide par la Turquie. Le
bureau du Premier ministre Ahmet Davutoglu a indique lundi que son
pays “partage les souffrances des enfants et des petits-enfants”
des Armeniens et souhaite de meilleures relations avec l’Armenie.

Georges Dallemagne demande au gouvernement belge d’inviter son
homologue turc a reconnaître le genocide des Armeniens mais aussi
des autres minorites. Et d’aider ces minorites qui sont aujourd’hui
la cible de l’Etat islamique en Irak et en Syrie.

mercredi 22 avril 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

ADAM BARRO, BARYTON-BASSE CHANTE POUR LES ARMENIENS ET LE CENTENAIRE DU GENOCIDE

FRANCE

Le jour où je dois rencontrer Adam Barro pour qu’il me parle du
concert dont il est a l’initiative, salle Gaveau, en commemoration du
centenaire du genocide des Armeniens, samedi 25 avril prochain, nous
nous sommes donne rendez-vous devant l’Eglise Apostolique Armenienne,
rue Jean Goujon. J’arrive en avance, l’eglise est ouverte, j’entre. Le
pretre vient m’accueillir, croyant que je suis la mariee. Euh … non,
je reponds. Il m’explique qu’il attend un couple, pour celebrer leur
mariage prevu a 15 heures. Il est 15 heures, et force est de constater
qu’il n’y a aucun passage dans la rue, deserte et au repos. Sur ce,
Adam Barro arrive. Il salue le père Houssik Sargsyan. Les deux hommes
se connaissent, Adam Barro chante souvent ici, a l’occasion de messes.

Le pretre lui explique la situation. En somme, resume-t-il, nous
avons l’eglise Saint-Jean-Baptiste eclairee et silencieuse pour nous…

Pendant que le pretre va fermer les portes, Adam se met a interpreter
en armenien >, les yeux fermes, emporte.

Moment de grâce et de communion inestimable. Voila comment je rencontre
le jeune baryton-basse d’origine armenienne, installe en France suite
au tremblement de terre de Gumri.

pour lire la suite cliquer sur le lien

mercredi 22 avril 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

POUTINE ARRIVE EN ARMENIE

ARMENIE

La visite du President russe pour participer aux evenements de la
commemoration du centenaire du Genocide armenien, qui, >,
a ete enfin confirmee par le Kremlin, ecrit 168 Jam, estimant que la
raison de cette hesitation residait dans les efforts de la Russie pour
ne pas > la Turquie. La preuve en etait la declaration de
son porte-parole, Dmitri Peskov, selon lequel la visite du President
russe ne pouvait pas avoir un impact negatif sur les relations entre
la Russie et la Turquie.

TURKEY’S HEAD OF RELIGIOUS AUTHORITY, MEHMET GORMEZ, CALLS POPE ‘IMMORAL’ FOR ARMENIA COMMENTS

Daily Sabah, Turkey
April 20 2015

REUTERS
ANKARA

Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs, Mehmet Gormez, on Monday
described comments by Pope Francis that the 1915 mass killing of
Armenians was genocide as immoral and said the Vatican should look
to its own history before levelling accusations of casting stones.

Francis this month became the first head of the Roman Catholic church
to publicly call the killing of as many as 1.5 million Armenians
“genocide”, prompting a row with Turkey, which summoned the Vatican’s
envoy and recalled its own.

“The Vatican will come out as the biggest loser if we are all giving
account for past sufferings and pain caused,” Mehmet Gormez told
Reuters in an interview.

“Is the current situation of millions of Syrian refugees much less
cause for concern to the Vatican than what happened during the Armenian
deportation?” he said, referring to refugees from Syria’s civil war
being sheltered in Turkey.

“I find the Pope’s statement immoral, and can’t reconcile it with
basic Christian values.”

Gormez said Europe’s weak economy and its difficulties integrating
immigrants were the root causes of rising Islamophobia on the
continent.

“Islamophobia should be considered a crime against humanity, just
like anti-Semitism,” he said.

Gormez also said violence carried out by groups such as the
self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), Boko Haram,
Al Shabaab and al Qaeda was a consequence of ignorance and poverty,
as well as of the exploitation of the Middle East and Africa for
two centuries.

He called on Islamic scholars and clerics to be self-critical about
how they were raising new generations.

“Islam was a religion creating civilisation throughout history. When
educating Muslim children, clerics should reflect on the comparison
between that and today’s Koranic interpretations that incite violence,”
he said.

HAYRAPETYAN RE-ELECTED IN ARMENIA

UEFA
April 20 2015

Published: Monday 20 April 2015, 10.11CET Ruben Hayrapetyan has been
re-elected as Football Federation of Armenia (FFA) president for a
fourth term, and says youth development and football infrastructures
are key priorities.

Football Federation of Armenia (FFA) president Ruben Hayrapetyan has
been unanimously re-elected for a fourth term.

The 52-year-old graduate of the Armenian State University of Economics
continues in the role he first assumed in 2002, and emphasised the
development of youth football and football infrastructures as major
priorities. Football academies have been built in recent years,
and facilities have been modernised and continue to progress. New
pitches will be opened in the country in the near future.

“Although many things are already done, we still need to work a
lot for the development of football in Armenia,” Mr Hayrapetyan said
after his re-election. “The development of youth football and football
infrastructures are our main goals.”