Address Of Artsakh Republic President On Armenian Genocide Remembran

ADDRESS OF ARTSAKH REPUBLIC PRESIDENT ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE DAY

11:02, 24 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Dear compatriots,

Today the entire Armenian nation, all the Armenians in different
parts of the world commemorate the memory of 1,5 million innocent
victims of the Armenian Genocide.

Today bells are ringing in all Armenian churches throughout the world
notifying the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, each ringing
reviving our 100-year-old pain and sorrow.

The wounds of 1915 are still fresh in our national memory and cannot
be cicatrized as long as this villainous atrocity, committed against
the Armenian nation by the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the 20th
century in plain view of the world does not receive proper acclaim,
as long as this criminal policy continues nowadays, each time acquiring
new forms and names.

We appreciate very much and are grateful to all the peoples and states,
who lent their helping hand to our compatriots having miraculously
escaped from the Turkish scimitar, granting to tens of thousands
Armenian families and orphans shelter and opportunity to live. They
eventually became deserving citizens of those countries, substantially
contributing to the development of their second homelands. We are
grateful to all those who raised their voice against barbarians,
offering their humanitarian support, countenance and political aid
to our people, recognized and condemned the Armenian Genocide.

The Armenian people, being one of the oldest bearers of civilization,
have underwent many calamities throughout its millennia-old history,
suffered indescribable privations and faced countless challenges, but
never lost hope and faith, each time becoming even more steadfast,
stronger and wiser. Being subjected to Genocide and losing almost
everything the Armenians have preserved and protected their faith
and language, culture and national identity. This has helped us forge
glorious victories years later and restore the independent Armenian
statehood.

Today Mother Armenia, free and resolute Artsakh, patriotic Diaspora
together, hand in hand carve their life path. This is the path of
the Armenian nation towards eternity, justice and victory.

http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/04/24/address-of-artsakh-republic-president-on-armenian-genocide-comemmoration-day/

Obama’s Playing Word Games Falls Beneath The Dignity Of The American

OBAMA’S PLAYING WORD GAMES FALLS BENEATH THE DIGNITY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, ANCA SAYS

YEREVAN, April 24. / ARKA /. The Armenian National Committee of America
(ANCA) Executive Director Aram Hamparian offered the following comment
on President Obama’s April 24th ‘Armenian Remembrance Day’ statement.

“The sad spectacle of President Obama playing word games with genocide,
so obviously dodging the truth at the direction of a foreign power,
falls beneath the dignity of the American people,” said Hamparian.

“Candidate Obama was right when he said that ‘America deserves a
leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian Genocide and responds
forcefully to all genocides.’

He has, regretfully, proven to the world today that he is not that
president. In fact, it’s now clear that President Obama’s misguided
attempt to appease Ankara has only isolated Washington,” he added.

In his annual address to American Armenians president Obama used the
Armenian words Meds Yeghern to refer to the first mass atrocity of
the 20th century, recognized by more than two dozen countries and
most prominent experts as genocide.

‘Beginning in 1915, the Armenian people of the Ottoman Empire were
deported, massacred, and marched to their deaths. Their culture and
heritage in their ancient homeland were erased. Amid horrific violence
that saw suffering on all sides, one and a half million Armenians
perished,’ Obama said.-0-

http://arka.am/en/news/politics/obama_s_playing_word_games_falls_beneath_the_dignity_of_the_american_people_anca_says/#sthash.5duGwnnx.dpuf

Armenian Genocide Victims Commemorated In Abkhazia

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE VICTIMS COMMEMORATED IN ABKHAZIA

15:50 24/04/2015 >> SOCIETY

Armenian Genocide Centennial events have started in various districts
of Abkhazia since April 22. Fifty thousand Armenians live there thus
making up one of the three largest ethnic groups in the country.

Representatives of 91 nations live in this country, RIA Novosti
reports.

An Armenian khachkar (cross-stone) opened in the Armenian village
Pshap, Abkhazia, and 20 Armenians were awarded the title of Hero
of Abkhazia. In the evening of the same day, a concert dedicated to
the Genocide victims’ commemoration was held in Sukhumi conducted by
David Terzyan and with musicians from Yerevan taking part in it. The
President of Abkhazia, Raul Khajimba, was present at the concert.

Today a prayer was conducted at St. Amenaprkich (St Holy Savior)
church in Gagra, followed by the bells of the church ringing 100
times and 100 white balloons being released into the air.

Commemorative evenings have been held in all 34 Armenian schools
in Abkhazia. A procession and a rally are planned to take place in
Sukhumi at the presence of the leadership of Abkhazia.

http://www.panorama.am/en/society/2015/04/24/abkhaz/

Famous Footballer Dani Alves Demands Armenian Genocide Recognition

FAMOUS FOOTBALLER DANI ALVES DEMANDS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION

14:25 24/04/2015 ” SOCIETY

Brazilian national and Barcelona FC footballer Dani Alves has demanded
the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, the Facebook page of the
Armenian Embassy in Spain reports.

The Brazilian defender of the Catalan club Barcelona has called
on Turkey to recognize the Armenian Genocide, holding a poster on
the topic.

http://www.panorama.am/en/society/2015/04/24/daniel-alves/

Torchlight Procession Heading To Armenian Genocide Memorial

TORCHLIGHT PROCESSION HEADING TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MEMORIAL

April 24, 2015 – 23:04 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The traditional torchlight procession started from
the Republic Square on April 24 and is heading to Tsitsernakaberd,
the Armenian Genocide memorial.

This annual procession is the symbolic part of struggle for the
recognition of Armenian Genocide. The number of countries whose
citizens arrive to join the march honoring the memory of Genocide
victims grows every year.

Starting from the Republic Square, the rout includes Amiryan street,
Mashtots avenue, France Square, Baghramian avenue, Barekamutyun Square,
Kiyevyan street, Kiyevyan Bridge, Karen Demirchian Sports/Concert
Complex and the final destination Tsitsernakaberd.

People place torches and candles on the window sills in their houses.

http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/191170/

Armenia And Politics Of The Word ‘Genocide’

ARMENIA AND POLITICS OF THE WORD ‘GENOCIDE’

Voice of America
April 22 2015

Sharon Behn

Last updated on: April 23, 2015 10:44 PM

Most historians agree that the massacre, deportation and death of
more than 1 million Armenians in the Turkish Ottoman Empire that
began 100 years ago this month was a genocide. But mention the word
“genocide” in Washington, in the context of Armenia, and the level
of discomfort is palpable.

Administration officials decline to comment, pro-Armenia politicians
rush to the podium, scholars refer to books, Armenians tell
heartbreaking stories of trauma, and the Turkish government rejects
the issue altogether.

Hope Harrison, a history professor at George Washington University,
said Washington has avoided using the word “genocide” in order to
keep its strategic relations with Turkey as smooth as possible.

It is, Harrison said, “one of many debates in the U.S. government of
principles and beliefs versus realpolitik and security.”

>From 1915 to 1923, Armenians of the Ottoman empire – from which
rose today’s Turkey – were deported or massacred in the hundreds of
thousands, and their culture was almost erased from the land where
they had lived for thousands of years. It was a trauma that many
Armenians have never forgotten.

‘Part of their identity’

“It’s something that’s absolutely part of their nature and part
of their identity,” explained Ronald Suny, professor of social and
political history at the University of Michigan, referring to the
Armenian diaspora. “I think it’s unavoidable.”

But Thomas de Waal, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, said 100 years later, all those involved in the
debate have become hostage to the word “genocide” itself.

“As a result of that, people have lost sight of the bigger issue,
which is: what justice is owed to the Armenians in 1915? How do we
promote normalization between Armenia and Turkey? How do we persuade
Turkey to open up to its past and look at these issues?” de Waal asked.

The word genocide was invented in 1944, almost 30 years after the
massacres happened. In 1948, the United Nations passed the Convention
on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and the
word entered the world’s political vocabulary.

Armenians believe it defined the experience of their people.

The U.S. government has recognized that more than 1 million Armenians
died, but State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf this April again
stopped short of using the word “genocide.”

“The president and other senior administration officials have
repeatedly acknowledged as historical fact and mourned the fact that
1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their deaths in
the final days of the Ottoman Empire,” Harf said.

President Barack Obama called the centennial “a solemn moment,”
in a statement released by the White House late Wednesday.

“It calls on us to reflect on the importance of historical remembrance,
and the difficult but necessary work of reckoning with the past. I
have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915,
and my view has not changed,” Obama said. “A full, frank, and just
acknowledgement of the facts is in all our interests. Peoples and
nations grow stronger, and build a foundation for a more just and
tolerant future, by acknowledging and reckoning with painful elements
of the past.

“We welcome the expression of views by Pope Francis, Turkish and
Armenian historians, and the many others who have sought to shed
light on this dark chapter of history,” his statement continued.

Diplomatic spat

In contrast, Pope Francis this year became the first leader of
the Roman Catholic Church to publicly declare what happened as a
“genocide,” sparking a diplomatic spat with Turkey.

As de Waal points out, the word itself has become so problematic
and so politicized, it has aggravated Armenian-Turkish relations and
other nations’ relations with both.

The United States at one time did use the word genocide in reference to
the Armenian experience. That changed under President Ronald Reagan,
when a Turkish consul to the United States was killed by an Armenian
terrorist in Reagan’s home state of California in 1982.

>From then on, de Waal said, as far as Reagan was concerned, the
Turks were on America’s side on the three issues that he cared about:
terrorism, the Soviet Union and Israel.

“Ronald Reagan, therefore, embraced the Turks on those issues and
pushed away the idea of an Armenian genocide, and that I think has set
U.S. policy ever since,” he said. “Even though many, many people call
it a genocide, that line was drawn back in 1982, and the United States
has found it very difficult to reset the policy ever since then.”

For Armenians in the diaspora, the 1915 experience is a key issue
and an essential political question. For Armenians in the newly
independent Republic of Armenia, the perception is different.

‘Bit of a rift’

“I think that what we may see already is a bit of a rift, or at least a
distinction between what the government of the country of Armenia would
like to see on the one hand, and what the Armenia diaspora would like
to see on the other hand, because there is some significant impulse
in the region to normalize relations between the country of Turkey
and the country of Armenia,” said David Pollock of The Washington
Institute of Near East Policy.

Turkey recently has become much more open to admitting that a terrible
thing happened to the Armenians.

And compromise is emerging in Washington, too: While Republican
Representative Robert Dold has called for a full recognition of the
Armenian masacres as genocide, his colleague, Representative Curt
Clawson, has reached out to fellow lawmakers to support a resolution
that would promote “peace and understanding” between the nations.

De Waal, who has written extensively on Armenia, said the focus should
be less on how the United States describes the historical facts,
and more on restoring relations between Turkey and Armenia.

“The focus should really be on facilitating that, and if you want
to do that, I don’t think you start with the word genocide. You
start by discussing the histories, the massacres, maybe you come
round eventually to the word genocide, but at the moment, the word
genocide is so toxic that it shuts down the conversation. You can’t
really start a conversation with the word genocide,” he said.

More than 20 nations around the world have recognized the mass killings
as genocide.

Vivian Chakarian contributed to this report.

http://www.voanews.com/content/armenia-and-politics-of-word-genocide/2729180.html

Marie-Christine Arnautu Fait Part De Son Soutien A Tous Les Armenien

MARIE-CHRISTINE ARNAUTU FAIT PART DE SON SOUTIEN A TOUS LES ARMENIENS DE FRANCE

FRANCE

Communique de Marie-Christine Arnautu, Depute francais au Parlement
europeen, Vice-presidente du Front National, Conseiller municipal et
metropolitain de Nice

Le 24 avril, nous commemorerons le centenaire du debut du genocide des
Armeniens et de tous les chretiens, Syriaques, Assyro-chaldeens ou
Grecs pontiques, en Turquie. En deux ans, plus d’un million et demi
d’Armeniens seront extermines, soit les deux tiers de la population
armenienne de l’Empire ottoman, avec des villages entiers rayes de la
carte et des exactions abominables. Plus de 80.000 survivants armeniens
ont alors trouve refuge en France, et notamment a Nice dans la cite de
La Madeleine. Ils sont aujourd’hui environ 5.000 a Nice. Le refus de
la Turquie de reconnaître ce genocide est une agression supplementaire
contre les peuples qui en ont ete victimes come si le massacre de
leurs ancetres n’avait jamais existe. Le Front National a vote au
Parlement europeen en faveur d’une resolution demandant a la Turquie
de reconnaître enfin ses crimes et approuve toute initiative allant
dans ce sens. Marie-Christine Arnautu fait part de son soutien a tous
les Armeniens de France et notamment de Nice, mais aussi a toutes les
communautes chretiennes victimes de la barbarie turque entre 1915 et
1917, Syriaques, Assyro-chaldeens et Grecs pontiques.

vendredi 24 avril 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

http://www.armenews.com/article.php3?id_article=110756

Genocide Armenien : Le PS A Les Plus Fervents Negationnistes Dit Le

GENOCIDE ARMENIEN : LE PS A LES PLUS FERVENTS NEGATIONNISTES DIT LE FDF

BELGIQUE

Les chefs de groupes des partis representes dans l’hemicycle sont
invites par le bureau du parlement bruxellois a deposer, vendredi,
ensemble, une gerbe de fleurs au monument bruxellois erige en memoire
des victimes du genocide armenien. Mais les deputes n’observeront
pas de minute de silence. Ce qui suscite un debut de polemique, Ecolo
accusant le PS d’avoir fait pression pour que cette minute de silence
n’ait pas lieu. Emmanuel De Bock, depute bruxellois et chef de groupe
FDF affirme quant a lui que certains membres du parti socialiste ont
un “problème par rapport a la reconnaissance du genocide armenien”,
parlant meme de “negationnisme” pour certains.

Il y aurait eu beaucoup d’energie deployee dans les rangs socialistes
pour ne pas que les deputes socialistes d’origine turque (auxquels le
terme “genocide” deplaît fortement) doivent faire etalage au grand
jour de leur inconfort, estiment certains. En effet, ces derniers
se sont absentes lors de la minute de silence propose par le groupe
Ecolo au bureau du Parlement bruxellois mercredi. Le PS a ete suivi
par ses allies de la majorite FDF et cdH ainsi que par le MR, d’après
Zoe Genot qui s’exprimait sur le plateau de notre 13 heures.

“Il nous paraissait que 100 ans après, c’etait l’occasion pour
l’ensemble des representants de la population bruxelloise de rendre
hommage aux victimes via cette minute de silence. Malheureusement,
il y a eu un blocage, un refus et on le regrette vraiment”, a declare
l’elue ecologiste sur le plateau de notre JT de 13h00.

Pour Philippe Close, chef de groupe PS au parlement bruxellois, il n’y
a pas lieu de polemiquer. “Je trouve qu’un genocide comme celui-ci
merite bien plus qu’une polemique et que le geste extremement fort
qui est pose (le depôt d’une gerbe) merite que l’on revienne a un peu
de solennite”, a-t-il declare au micro de la RTBF. “Vouloir se faire
une petite ‘manip’ politique la-dessus, ce n’est pas très malin. Il
est temps de grandir”, lance-t-il a l’adresse d’Ecolo. “Je le repète,
le PS reconnaît depuis de nombreuses annees le genocide armenien et
mettre cela en doute est indigne”, a-t-il encore precise.

Deux minutes de silence differentes ? Ce ne serait pas possible,
selon le PS

Le refus d’organiser une minute de silence au Parlement n’a,
selon lui, nullement ete dicte par des raisons “politiques” mais
“techniques”. Deux propositions de minutes de silence ont ete faites
au bureau du Parlement : l’une pour rendre hommage aux victimes
du genocide armenien, l’autre aux victimes des naufrages recents
d’embarcations a bord desquelles avaient pris place des centaines de
migrants fuyant des zones de conflits en Afrique. Or, “il ne faut
pas opposer des drames. Comme il n’etait pas envisageable de meler
les deux hommages, ni d’organiser deux minutes separees, le bureau a
decide d’une part d’ecrire a la Commission europeenne au sujet de la
necessite de prendre des mesures face au drame vecu par les migrants,
et d’autre part de proposer aux chefs de groupe de prendre part au
depôt d’une gerbe au monument commemorant le genocide armenien”,
a explique le chef du groupe PS au parlement bruxellois mercredi soir.

Zoe Genot, elle, s’etonne que l’on oppose ces deux hommages et ne
voit pas en quoi il n’est pas possible d’organiser deux minutes de
silence differentes, l’une pour les candidats refugies decedes en
mer Mediterranee, l’autre pour commemorer le centenaire du genocide
armenien. Il est vrai que l’argument de l’incompatibilite apparaît
egalement difficilement comprehensible a l’observateur exterieur.

“Et quand je vois que le ministre des Affaires etrangères, Didier
Reynders (MR), envoie un ambassadeur aux ceremonies de commemoration
en Armenie, on voit qu’il n’y a pas que le PS qui est mal a l’aise”,
rencherit l’elue bruxelloise.

“J’espère que cela ne restera pas seulement notre parole”, contre
celle des autres, a avoue Zoe Genot face a Nathalie Maleux.

Le FDF dit avoir ete d’accord avec la minute de silence

La parole d’Ecolo est en effet rejointe par le FDF selon le chef de
groupe et depute bruxellois, Emmanuel De Bock. Ce dernier confirme
que son parti etait d’accord avec la minute de silence, car “c’est
la moindre des choses que l’on peut faire pour la reconnaissance
de ce genocide historique envers la communaute armenienne. Je crois
qu’on ne peut pas etre Charlie le mois passe, et ne pas etre armenien
ce vendredi”.

Des negationnistes au PS ?

Mais le chef de groupe FDF va plus loin en denoncant l’attitude
generale du parti socialiste par rapport a la reconnaissance du
genocide armenien : “Il y a très clairement un problème au parti
socialiste qui a du mal avec un certain nombre de ses membres, et
c’est le parti socialiste qui a les plus fervents negationnistes par
rapport a la reconnaissance du genocide armenien”, annonce-t-il, sans
livrer des noms precis. “Je ne vais pas vous faire de confidences,
mais je sais que, meme au sein du parti socialiste, certains ont
utilise ce mot a l’egard de leurs propres collègues”, ajoute-t-il.

Le depute bruxellois regrette egalement qu’il n’y ait pas un large
consensus en faveur de la minute de silence : “Dans un debat comme
celui-la, la reconnaissance du genocide armenien, on ne peut pas avoir
une attitude “majorite contre opposition”, il faut un large consensus.

La gerbe, c’est très bien. Par contre, je crois qu’une reconnaissance
explicite au sein de notre assemblee serait plus que bienvenue pour
l’ensemble des survivants de ce genocide”, conclut Emmanuel De Bock.

RTBF

?id=8962960

vendredi 24 avril 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

http://www.rtbf.be/info/belgique/detail_genocide-armenien-un-depot-de-gerbe-plutot-qu-une-minute-de-silence-pour-le-parlement-bruxellois
http://www.armenews.com/article.php3?id_article=110831

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: Inland Residents Attending Montebello Commemorati

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: INLAND RESIDENTS ATTENDING MONTEBELLO COMMEMORATION

The Press Enterprise
April 22 2015

April 22nd, 2015, 10:53 am

One hundred years ago Friday, Ottaman Turks began what Armenians mark
as the beginning of the 20th Century’s first genocide.

On Saturday, about 10 Inland people of Armenian descent will be in
Montebello at the Armenian Genocide Martyrs Memorial Monument for
a ceremony commemorating the murder of up to 1.5 million Armenians
during the waning days of the Turkish-led Ottoman Empire, said the
Rev. Stepanos Dingilian, pastor of the Armenian Apostolic Church of
Riverside. Dingilian is among those attending.

The commemoration is one of several planned over the next few days in
Los Angeles County, home to the nation’s largest Armenian population.

On Friday, a “march for justice” will set off from Little Armenia
inEast Hollywood and end six miles later at the Turkish consulate
on Wilshire Boulevard “to protest the Turkish government’s continued
denial of the Armenian Genocide.”

Dingilian said Turkey’s refusal to recognize the slaughtering of
Armenians as genocide makes it even more important to commemorate
the tragedy.

“This is a living situation, a living reality,” Dingilian said.

He said Ottoman Turk soldiers shot his grandparents to death in
1915 and his mother then fled the area in central Turkey where her
ancestors had lived for centuries.

There were two million Armenians living in what is now Turkey before
World War I began. Today there are only 50,000.

“They tried to eradicate the Armenian presence there,” Dingilian said.

Dingilian said the annual commemorations of the genocide are especially
important to Armenian-American youth – such as his 17-year-old and
21-year-old daughters and 13-year-old son – so they never forget
not only the murder of their ancestors but the brave resistance of
many Armenians.

“They have great-grandparents who had character, faith, family values,
and a culture, language and way of life that they stood up for,”
he said.

Here’s a story I wrote in 2007 in which Dingilian and other Inland
Armenian-Americans talk about the murders of their ancestors during
the genocide and previous massacres.

I wrote that story after one of many congressional efforts over the
past few decades to officially call the murders “genocide” failed
after intense lobbying against the designation by Turkey.

As I wrote here, genocide-studies scholars are virtually united in
terming the murders genocide. To deny the Armenian genocide “is like
Holocaust denial,” Gregory Stanton, vice president of the International
Association of Genocide Scholars, told me.

Yet the fear of alienating Turkey, a key U.S. ally, has prevented U.S.

presidents and many members of Congress from calling the slaughter
a genocide.

President Barack Obama again this year will not use the word “genocide”
to describe the massacres when he commemorates the murders.

He is following in the footsteps of the administration of President
George W. Bush, which in 2007 quashed the congressional move to
officially use the “genocide” designation.

As a senator and presidential candidate in 2008, Obama forcefully
criticized the Bush administration’s actions.

“Armenian genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a
point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an
overwhelming body of historical evidence,” Obama said then. “The
facts are undeniable. An official policy that calls on diplomats to
distort the historical facts is an untenable policy.”

http://www.pe.com/articles/genocide-765436-inland-montebello.html

Police In Istanbul Attack Participants Of Armenian Genocide Centenni

POLICE IN ISTANBUL ATTACK PARTICIPANTS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CENTENNIAL EVENT (VIDEO)

21:42 | April 24,2015 | Politics

Participants of a demonstration in commemoration of the Armenian
Genocide were attacked by police officers in Istanbul, News.am reports.

The event was organized by the students of the Istanbul Technical
University. The students installed the posters of Hrant Dink, Sevak
Balikci and Armenian intellectuals who were arrested and killed on
April 24.

The security guards of the university and police officers tried to
remove the posters, with some police officers using force against
the participants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSPKujrpOoQ
http://en.a1plus.am/1210406.html