Author: Kajoyan Gevork

LA CONFERENCE DE MIKAEL NICHANIAN

Toulouse
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Mardi 7 avril avait lieu a l’Universite Toulouse 1-Capitole une
conference de l’historien Mikaël Nichanian. Conservateur a la
Bibliothèque nationale de France et animateur d’un seminaire sur le
genocide armenien a l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
(EHESS), il a publie un ouvrage intituleDetruire les Armeniens.

Histoire d’un genocide*.

Dans ce livre, dont il est venu discuter a Toulouse dans le cadre
des manifestations commemoratives de ce mois d’avril, il tente de
comprendre l’origine du processus genocidaire de 1915 et en retrace
les evènements, afin de mettre en lumière les ressors de la politique
du parti Jeunes-Turcs.

Revenir sur l’Histoire

. .

Commemoration du centenaire

Relayer la memoire des faits, c’est bien aussi l’objectif de l’Amicale
des Armeniens de Toulouse, qui organise durant le mois d’avril des
expositions a l’Universite de Toulouse 1-Capitole sur l’histoire
de l’Armenie et sa culture. Pour Stephane Kojayan, president de
l’association, le but est de partager et d’echanger autour de la
culture armenienne. Ces manifestations visent a attirer l’attention
sur l’histoire armenienne donc, mais permettent aussi de se rencontrer
et se connaître, afin de lutter contre l’ignorance.

*Detruire les Armeniens. Histoire d’un genocide, Mikaël Nichanian,
PUF, 21 euros.

jeudi 16 avril 2015, Claire (c)armenews.com

UN KHATCHKAR ARMENIEN PLACE A COPENHAGUE (DANEMARK) MET EN COLORE L’AMBASSADEUR DE TURQUIE

GENOCIDE DES ARMENIENS-100 ANS

L’Ambassade de Turquie au Danemark par la voix de son ambassadeur
Mehmet Donmezi a vivement reagi auprès des autorites danoises pour
l’exposition d’un khatchkar armenien durant 10 jours sur l’une
des plus importantes places de la capitale danoise Copenhague. Le
khatchkar oeuvre du sculpteur armenien Alen Sayeghi etant dedie a la
commemoration du 100ème anniversaire du genocide des Armeniens.

L’ambassadeur turc a Copenhague dans une lettre adressee au journal
danois Politikan est > que les autorites danoises aient
accorde l’autorisation de placer ce khatchkar dans le centre-ville
de la capitale du Danemark.

Krikor Amirzayan

jeudi 16 avril 2015, Krikor Amirzayan (c)armenews.com

TURKEY’S MAIN OPPOSITION PARTY BLAMES RULING AKP FOR ‘GENOCIDE DEFEAT’

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
April 15 2015

Serkan DemirtaÃ…~_ – ANKARA

The reason for the growing international tendency to recognize the
mass killings of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire in
1915 as genocide is the Sunni Islamist policy pursued by the ruling
Justice and Development Party (AKP), a senior main opposition party
leader has claimed.

“This has turned into a Turkey-bashing campaign. And this is because
of the AKP and its policies drifting Turkey towards being a Sunni
Islamist country,” Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deputy Head Murat
Ozcelik told the Hurriyet Daily News on April 14.

Armenia says up to 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians were killed in a
genocide starting in 1915. Turkey denies that the deaths amounted
to genocide, saying the death toll of Armenians killed during mass
deportations has been inflated and that those killed in 1915 and 1916
were victims of general unrest during World War I.

Recalling that Pope Francis described the 1915 incidents as “genocide”
and that the European Parliament will likely vote in favor of
recognizing the genocide, calling on EU member countries to do the
same, Ozcelik criticized the government for underestimating the impact
of the 100th anniversary of 1915.

“In the past, Turkey had certain arguments against genocide claims that
worked until now. But it was well-known that there would be dynamism
[in efforts to let it be recognized as genocide] in the centennial
of the incident. Turkey should have carried out its work based on
this fact,” Ozcelik said.

By using the word genocide, the Pope issued an indirect call on
Christian countries to recognize the Armenian genocide, said Ozcelik,
who is also retired ambassador.

“It’s a very important development. The European Parliament will also
call on EU countries to do so [recognize the events as genocide].

Another question is whether the United States will now also use the
same word,” he said.

The reason why Western countries are no longer hesitant to recognize
the Armenian genocide at the expense of angering Turkey and putting
their interests in danger is the fact that the government is speedily
drifting east and becoming an Islamist country, Ozcelik claimed.

“EU countries and the West in general have recently realized how
radical Islam can be threatening. They also observe that Turkey,
once a secular and democratic country aligned with the West and often
introduced as a model country is parting ways,” he added.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ambition to become a super-president
and his “efforts to turn Turkey into an Islamist country” through the
upcoming elections were also being watched by the West, Ozcelik said.

Criticism of the Pope

Although very critical of the government for the “defeat against
Armenian claims,” Ozcelik also slammed Pope Francis for his words.

“Seven million Jews were slaughtered during the Holocaust in an
unprecedented systematic way with the aim of demolishing an entire
race. Therefore it’s very wrong to compare this by describing
[the 1915 incidents] as the first genocide of the 20th century. A
primary pleasure of the Christians is to shift responsibility over
its genocide crime by highlighting another suffering. They cannot
evade responsibility this way,” he said.

Every historical incident should be assessed within its own context,
Ozcelik said.

“These things are not comparable. The deportation of Armenians had
a historical background. What Turks did cannot be put in the same
equation with what Stalin or the Nazis did,” he said.

April/14/2015

TURKEY: THE TRUTH HURTS

The Jawa Report, Island state of Niue
April 13 2015

Sandcrawler PSA: Anyone who tells the truth about what the Turks did
to the Armenians is a hateful bigoted Islamophobe.

Turkey has recalled its envoy to the Vatican after Pope Francis
described the mass killing of Armenians under Ottoman rule in WW1 as
“genocide”.

Turkey has reacted with anger to the comment made by the Pope at a
service in Rome earlier on Sunday.

Armenia and many historians say up to 1.5 million Armenian Christians
were killed by Ottoman forces in 1915.

But Turkey has always disputed that figure and said the deaths were
part of a civil conflict triggered by WW1.

The row has continued to sour relations between Armenia and Turkey.

Because the Muslim genocide of 1.5 million Armenians was 100% approved
by Allah you racist bastards!

The only thing worse is pretending the Turks aren’t in the bag for ISIS
and letting them remain in NATO. I mean you wouldn’t have appointed
Nikita Kruschev Easter Bunny would you?

ERDOGAN CONDEMNS, WARNS POPE FRANCIS OVER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMARK

NBCNews.com
April 15 2015

ISTANBUL — Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan condemned Pope Francis
on Tuesday for comments that the 1915 mass killing of Armenians was
genocide, warning him not to make such a statement again.

The pope became the first head of the Roman Catholic church to publicly
call the killing of as many as 1.5 million Armenians “genocide” on
Sunday, prompting a diplomatic spat with Turkey, which summoned the
Vatican’s envoy and recalled its own.

Muslim Turkey agrees Christian Armenians were killed in clashes with
Ottoman soldiers that began on April 15, 1915, when Armenians lived
in the empire ruled by Istanbul, but denies hundreds of thousands
were killed and that this amounted to genocide.

“We will not allow historical incidents to be taken out of their
genuine context and be used as a tool to campaign against our country,”
Erdogan said in a speech to a business group. “I condemn the pope
and would like to warn him not to make similar mistakes again.”

EUROPEAN LAWMAKERS CALL FOR BALANCED RESOLUTION AHEAD OF ‘GENOCIDE’ VOTE

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
April 15 2015

Members of the European Parliament take part in a voting session in
Strasbourg. (Photo: Reuters)

April 15, 2015, Wednesday/ 09:38:04/ TODAYSZAMAN.COM / ISTANBUL

Lawmakers from the Friends of Turkey group have called on the European
Parliament (EP) to adopt a “balanced resolution,” as the MEPs brace
to vote on a resolution to commemorate the centennial of the so-called
Armenian genocide.

The group’s co-chairs, Artis Pabriks and Ä°smail Ertug, said
in a statement on Tuesday that MEPs should adopt a language of
reconciliation and focus their efforts on issues that would create
bridges between the two societies by encouraging freedom of speech,
rule of law and free discussion.

The co-chairs acknowledged in the statement that the massacres,
deportations and other atrocities committed against Armenians are
“incontestably a terrible human tragedy that must not be forgotten.”

They continued by saying however, that the impact of external pressure
for the recognition of an Armenian genocide in Turkey has not helped
so far to bring about reconciliation between Turks and Armenians. “On
the contrary,” according to the Friends of Turkey group, external
interventions have fueled reactionary nationalism and hindered dialogue
between Turks and Armenians.

On Sunday, Pope Francis described the mass killings of Armenians under
Ottoman rule at the end of World War I as “the first genocide of the
20th century” during a mass, prompting a furious reaction from Ankara.

Turkey summoned the Vatican’s ambassador to the Turkish Foreign
Ministry to scold him for the remarks and recalled its own ambassador
from the Vatican for “consultation” — a euphemism for a diplomatic
protest.

Turkey accepts that many Armenians died during the World War I years
but says the death toll offered by the Armenians, up to 1.5 million
people, is inflated, and denies that the deaths resulted from an act
of genocide. Ankara says Turks were also killed when Armenians took
up arms in pursuit of an independent state in collaboration with the
Russian forces that were invading eastern Anatolia at the time.

Armenia, on the other hand, accuses the Ottoman authorities at the
time of systematically massacring large numbers of Armenians, then
deporting many more, including women, children and the elderly and
infirm in terrible conditions on so-called death marches.

The Friends of Turkey group said Turkey has started a more open
and free debate on the Armenian issue in recent years and that
the European lawmakers should encourage the Turkish government to
continue its process of reconciliation, allowing for a frank and
open discussion of past events. They noted that the European Union
accession negotiations have undoubtedly contributed to more honest
and open discussions of historical events in Turkey.

“In this regard, the accession process remains the most effective tool
in influencing Turkey’s democratization course,” the statement said.

EP PASSES RESOLUTION CALLING ON TURKEY TO RECOGNIZE ‘ARMENIAN GENOCIDE’

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
April 15 2015

Members of the European Parliament take part in a voting session in
Strasbourg. (Photo: Reuters)

April 15, 2015, Wednesday/ 20:58:49/ TODAYSZAMAN.COM / ISTANBUL

European Parliament in a vote on Wednesday adopted a resolution that
refers to the killings of Armenians during the final years of the
Ottoman Empire as genocide and calls on Turkey to recognize that
‘genocide.”

The non-binding resolution which was approved by a show of hands of a
large majority, said “Armenia and Turkey should use the centenary of
the Armenian genocide to renew diplomatic relations, open the border
and pave the way for economic integration.” European also MEPs stress
the need for Turkey to recognize “the Armenian genocide”, so as to pave
way for “genuine reconciliation”. They also commended the statement
by Pope Francis on 12 April honoring the centenary of the “genocide.”

The resolution also invites Armenia and Turkey to “use examples of
successful reconciliation between European nations” by ratifying and
implementing, without preconditions, the protocols on the establishment
of diplomatic relations, opening the border and actively improving
their relations, with particular reference to cross-border cooperation
and economic integration.

Armenians say 1.5 million people were killed during the First World
War years in eastern Anatolia as part of a systematic genocide campaign
against the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey disputes
that claim, saying both that the death toll is inflated and that the
Armenians were killed while the Ottoman Empire was trying to quell
unrest caused by Armenian attacks on the Turkish population while
they were trying to establish an Armenian state in eastern Anatolia.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute and normalize relations
between Turkey and Armenia have produced no result after protocols
signed to that effect were shelved amid disagreements over Turkish
demands that a settlement should also include a resolution on the
Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is occupied by
Armenia.

Armenians are preparing for commemorations on centennial of the
killings on April 24, the date they say marks the beginning of the
alleged genocide campaign in 1915. The annual commemoration is also
an opportunity for increased lobbying for greater recognition of the
alleged genocide worldwide.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said the resolution adopted by the
European Parliament “literally repeats the anti-Turkish clichés
of the Armenian propaganda.” “The European Parliament repeated
exactly a mistake it has made in the past in an incompatible way with
international law and exceeding its competence,” a statement released
after the vote said.

“We do not take seriously those who adopted this resolution by
mutilating history and law. The participation of the EU citizens with
a rate of 42% in 2014 elections already implies the place that this
Parliament occupies in the political culture of the EU.

We return this text, which is an unprecedented example of incoherence
in all its aspects, verbatim to the abovementioned institution so
that the text finds its place among the documents that the European
Parliament will shy away from remembering in the future,” the Foreign
Ministry said.

It added that lawmakers who backed the resolution were in partnership
with “those who have nothing to do with European values and feeding
on hatred, revenge and the culture of conflict”.

Turkey’s European Union Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkır said the
resolution cannot be explained with legal and historical reasons,
adding that such decisions are “null and void for Turkey and the
Turkish nation.”

Turkey is a candidate country to join the 28-nation EU but accession
talks have dragged on for years with little progress.

Earlier on Wednesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a news
conference that “whatever decision the European Parliament takes on
Armenian genocide claims, it would go in one ear and out the other”.

“It is out of the question for there to a stain, a shadow called
‘genocide’ on Turkey,” he said at Ankara airport before departing on
a visit to Kazakhstan.

Then prime minister Erdogan last year offered what his government
said were unprecedented condolences to the grandchildren of Armenians
killed in World War One.

The parliament’s resolution said such statements were a step in the
right direction, but legislators urged Turkey to go further and to
recognize the events as genocide.

“We shouldn’t forget that people were murdered and that these
particular events are rightly described as a genocide … I believe
this should lead to a further recognition by Turkey that there was a
genocide under the Ottoman empire,” German Christian Democrat Elmar
Brok said.

TURKEY SAYS POPE’S REMEMBRANCE OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IS ISLAMAPHOBIA

Patheos
April 15 2015

April 15, 2015 by Rebecca Hamilton

Murderers and rapists demand silence.

They will use any means to coerce agreement that they did not do what
they, in fact, did. This is part of getting away with it. It is an
extension of the original crime.

Every Turk who participated in the Armenian genocide is dead and gone.

But by refusing to tell the truth of the thing, and by using the power
of government to try to hide it and cover it up with lies, today’s
Turkish citizens are allowing their shame to make them cooperators
with the murderers of their nation’s past.

The only way to heal this terrible crime against humanity is to admit
that it happened and publicly disown it. Lies will not cleanse. Only
the truth can do that.

The blood of the dead cries out to us, demanding the justice of truth.

Pope Francis has courageously stood up for the suffering and murdered
Christians who were victims of the first genocide of the 20th Century.

Turkey has responded with denials, official bullying and lies which
would be laughable, if the crime in question was not so grave.

No one wants to conflate modern Turkey with their past. The Turks
themselves are doing this by aligning themselves with the murderers
and against the truth.

I pray that they will face facts and resolve that never again will
such crimes against humanity occur in their nation. That is the way
out of this. Nothing else and nothing less will resolve it.

DENMARK POLITICIANS ADVISE TURK COLLEAGUES NOT TO MEDDLE IN COUNTRY’S AFFAIRS

11:45, 16.04.2015
Region:World News, Armenia, Turkey
Theme: Politics

Ankara, angered by the idea of placing a monument in Copenhagen and
in memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide, has sent a letter
of protest to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Denmark.

The Turkish MFA believes that this monument, which will be placed
for ten days, offends the Turks living in Denmark.

Danish politicians, on the other hand, advised their Turkish
colleagues not to interfere in Denmark’s affairs, reported the BBC
Russian Service.

To note, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had harshly criticized
Pope Francis for describing the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Armenia News – NEWS.am

POPE SPARKS FURIOUS ROW WITH TURKS OVER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

The Times (London), UK
April 13, 2015 Monday

by Tom Kington

The Pope has described the murder of Armenians by Ottoman Turks 100
years ago as genocide, sparking a diplomatic crisis with Turkey,
which denies that it took place.

Speaking yesterday before a Mass at St Peter’s Basilica to mark the
centenary of the killings, the Pope defined the slaughter of as many
as 1.5 million Armenians as “the first genocide of the 20th century”,
quoting a statement by Pope John Paul II in 2001.

“The remaining two were perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism,” he said.

“And more recently there have been other mass killings, like those
in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi and Bosnia.” Though he is not the first
pope to use “genocide” to describe the Armenian massacre, his speech
carried extra weight since it was given on the anniversary of the
slaughter, in St Peter’s, and in the presence of President Sargsyan
of Armenia and Armenian church leaders, who attended the service.

In response, Turkey summoned the Vatican’s ambassador to complain
about the remarks, citing “great disappointment and sadness”,
and recalled its ambassador from the Holy See. The Turkish foreign
ministry accused the Pope of “ignoring the atrocities suffered by
the Turkish and Muslim peoples who lost their lives”.

Turkey claims that half a million Armenians died in the fighting when
they rose up against their Ottoman rulers during the First World War.

The Pope now risks losing Turkey’s support as he seeks to defend
Christian communities that are being persecuted by Isis in Syria
and Iraq.

Describing those communities yesterday, the Pope spoke of the “muffled
and forgotten cry of so many of our defenceless brothers and sisters
who, on account of their faith in Christ or their ethnic origin,
are publicly and ruthlessly put to death – decapitated, crucified,
burnt alive – or forced to leave their homeland”.

The Pope has criticised governments for turning their backs on
Christians in the Middle East, and suggested that playing down the
Armenian slaughter 100 years ago had in part led to the present
killing.

“It is necessary, and indeed a duty, to honour their memory,” he
said of the Armenians killed, “for 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.”

In a speech at St Peter’s before the mass, Karekin II, the patriarch
of the Armenian Church, used the word “genocide” 13 times.

“With a deliberate plan, with horrific atrocities, one and a half
million Armenians were slaughtered,” he said.

“Our ancient people were uprooted from their cherished cradle of life –
their historic homeland – and scattered over different countries.

Our centuries-old Christian heritage was ruined, obliterated and
seized.”

While 3.2 million Armenians live in Armenia today, another eight
million live outside the country.