Author: Kalantarian Kevo

119 VOTERS IN ONE YEREVAN APARTMENT – NEWSPAPER

news.am
April 24, 2012 | 07:22

YEREVAN. – In the lead-up to Armenia’s parliamentary elections, there
are new discoveries concerning the voter list at capital Yerevan’s
Constituency No. 11, which encompasses the Shengavit community.

According to the list, 119 voters are registered in one address alone,
Zhoghovurd daily writes.

Another 52 people are registered in another address.

To note, another similar fact was discovered in this
constituency. The 101 people, who were registered in one apartment,
were residents of the Nardevan village of Javakhk [Georgian name:
Javakheti-is an Armenian-populated part of Georgia’s southeastern
Samtskhe-JavakhetiProvince], Zhoghovurd writes.

US, FRANCE IN MEDS YEGHERN REMEMBRANCE

Hurriyet
April 25 2012
Turkey

U.S. President Barack Obama avoided using the term “genocide” yesterday
in his annual message marking the events of 1915, dubbing the mass
killings a “great disaster” (Meds Yeghern), while French President
Nicolas Sarkozy was set to attend commemorations in Paris.

April 24, the day Armenians mark the beginning of the mass killings
of their kin during the Ottoman Empire, was marked around the world,
including Turkey.

Thousands of Armenians staged a procession to a hilltop memorial in
Yerevan yesterday to mark the anniversary.

“Today we, just as many, many others all over the world, bow to the
memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian genocide,” Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan, who led top officials laying wreaths at
the monument, said in a statement.

Sarkozy’s challenger for the French presidency, Francois Hollande,
was also expected to participate in ceremonies in Paris.

But Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu played down the memorial
day, saying, “There is no difference between April 23 and April 24.”

“Giving such importance to this day is not right,” Davutoglu said.

“Enjoy April 25.”

Commemoration in Istanbul Turkish activists staged a series of
commemoration events in Istanbul to mark the day and sent a letter to
prominent Armenian religious authorities to express their sentiments.

“We are penning this letter to your Catholicos office, which represents
the spiritual leadership of all the world’s Armenians, to express
our shame and respect before the memory of Ottoman-Armenians who were
massacred in the process of the genocide, whose properties and wealth
were seized and even whose past traces [authorities] have expended
considerable efforts in wiping out,” they said.

The activists sent the letter to Etchmiadzin, the religious center of
all Armenians in Armenia, and the Catholicos of Cilicia in Lebanon,
which was exiled from Anatolia.

“We are penning this letter to you to express our belief that the
denial of a genocide, which represents a crime against humanity,
amounts to a human rights violation that paves the way for other
violations and which fosters enmity and hatred,” the letter said.

The Committee Against Racism and Discrimination of the Human Rights
Association (Ä°HD) staged yesterday’s first rally before the Turkish
and Islamic Artifacts Museum in Sultanahmet Square. The museum was
once used as a prison where around 250 Armenian intellectuals were
briefly held in 1915 before being deported.

US Americans accuse Obama of betrayal for 1915 Umit Enginsoy – ANKARA

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry has said Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor
Lieberman’s visit to Baku is focused only on “bilateral relations
and is not directed against” Iran or any other country, Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty reported on its website. Lieberman’s visit on
April 23-24 came amid reports that Israel and Azerbaijan have been
strengthening their ties ahead of a possible Israeli military action
against Azerbaijan’s neighbor Iran. Lieberman also denied on April
23 that Israel had gained access to air bases in Azerbaijan.

“Such reports are from the sphere of science fiction and do not
correspond with the truth,” Lieberman told reporters in the Azeri
capital Baku.

OBAMA AVOIDS G-WORD IN APRIL 24 STATEMENT

Today’s Zaman
April 24 2012
Turkey

US President Barack Obama avoided using the word “genocide” in an
annual statement commemorating Armenians who perished during World
War I in Anatolia, referring to the killings as “Meds Yeghern” —
meaning Great Tragedy in Armenian — instead.

“Today, we commemorate the Meds Yeghern, one of the worst atrocities of
the 20th century. In doing so, we honor the memory of the 1.5 million
Armenians who were brutally massacred or marched to their deaths in
the waning days of the Ottoman Empire,” Obama said in his statement.

Obama was widely expected to avoid the word genocide in his annual
message, the fourth since he came to the office in 2009. Turkey,
a key US ally, has repeatedly warned in the past that referring to
the World War I events during the Ottoman Empire as the “Armenian
genocide” would cause irreparable damage to ties.

Turkey denies Armenian claims of genocide, saying there were deaths
on both sides as Armenians revolted against the Ottoman Empire in
collaboration with the Russian army, which was then invading eastern
Anatolia, to establish an independent Armenian state.

Obama had promised Armenian voters to recognize the World War I events
as genocide during his election campaign, but later backtracked,
saying efforts aimed at Turkish-Armenian reconciliation should not
be undermined.

In his message on Tuesday, Obama said: “I have consistently stated
my own view of what occurred in 1915. My view of that history has not
changed.” He also called for “a full, frank, and just acknowledgement
of the facts” about the history, saying that “moving forward with the
future cannot be done without reckoning with the facts of the past.”

“Some individuals have already taken this courageous step forward. We
applaud those Armenians and Turks who have taken this path, and we hope
that many more will choose it, with the support of their governments,
as well as mine,” said Obama.

STEWART BREWSTER OF LOS GATOS IS LIVING IN ARMENIA AS A PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER

San Jose Mercury Times

April 23 2012

I’m freezing, adjust the thermostat; I’m bored, drive to the mall;
I’m hungry, I order some take-out; my roof leaks, so I call the
building manager.

These are simple problems to remedy in Los Gatos, but I guarantee my
self-reliant neighbors in Armenia take little for granted. In rural
Armenia, there is no central heating, no mall and no ordering out.

Water through frozen pipes does not flow, and if your roof leaks,
grab a ladder and call a limber relative.

Ten months ago, at age 63 old after 41 years in the insurance
business, I retired, said good-bye to my family, friends and Los Gatos
neighbors and flew off to start an adventure serving as a community
development Peace Corps volunteer in a remote Armenian mountain town
at a 6,800-foot elevation.

Landlocked Armenia sits in the South Caucus region between the Black
Sea and the Caspian Sea. Armenia is the size of Maryland, and has less
than 3 million people. Armenia takes pride in being the first sovereign
country to adopt Christianity (in 301 AD). Armenia’s 2,600-year-old
culture is rich in art, literature and dance. For centuries, goods
heading west from Asia traveled the famous Silk Road not far from
my town.

Skill at “shakmat” (chess) has long been a source of national pride,
with Armenia winning the 2011 World Team Chess Championship, edging
out China and Ukraine. Its star player, Levon Aronian, is now ranked
second in the world. Chess is a mandatory class in the Armenian
schools, and in village squares men pass the time huddled over boards.

Armenia today is about 10 percent the size it was at its zenith in the
first century, when it controlled land from the Mediterranean Sea to
the Caspian Sea. From Yerevan, the Armenian capital, volcanic Mount
Ararat is clearly visible as it rises to its snow-peaked majestic
16,854 foot height. Mount Ararat, sacred to Armenians, is considered
the landing place of Noah’s Ark. Scores of businesses use its name,
including the famous “Ararat Cognac” favored by Winston Churchill.

However, Mount Ararat is also a source of great frustration for
Armenians as it is now within the borders of Turkey.

With a modern capital and 98 percent literacy, Armenia is considered a
developed country. However, the per capital income is only 10 percent
of the U.S., with 36 percent living below the poverty level. After
the breakup of the USSR in 1991, Armenia gained independence and
is gradually shifting its ideology from Soviet-style autocracy to a
“democratic-like” parliamentary republic. The 70-year Soviet reign,
with its welfare system, became an institutional crutch and change to
a market-based economy has been painful. Older Armenians wistfully
reflect on fond Soviet memories when jobs were guaranteed, even if
freedom of expression was not. While older Americans might muse about
simpler days of old, our steady 235 years of democratic self-government
is reassuring.

My town of 4,600 residents is relatively vibrant because of its
mountain water bottling companies and its reputation as a beautiful
holiday destination drawing visitors to its hot mineral springs.

During Soviet times, the community was a popular vacation spot for
Russian elite. In 1985, the population was double its current size,
with 25,000 tourists each year. After 1991, tourism dramatically fell
off, the town shrank by half and the local airport closed.

Sadly, political clouds hang over Armenia. My community closely follows
the long-standing dispute with Azerbaijan, only 14 miles away, and
sniper shootings are common here. A heavily fought three-year war over
the break-away ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, situated
within Azerbaijan, ended in 1994 with a tenuous cease fire–36,000
died in the hot war, including 26 men from my town. I often walk
by the town’s Karabakh War Memorial, where the young heroes’ faces,
etched into granite, stare out with a solemn countenance. To the west,
the Armenian-Turkish border has been closed for 20 years as Turkey is
politically aligned with Azerbaijan. This leaves landlocked Armenia
with two open borders, Georgia to the north and Iran to the south,
resulting in higher costs and limited goods.

In modern times, Armenia has had two periods of independence, from
1919, when the Ottoman Empire of which it was a part, broke up, until
1921 when it joined the USSR. Then, with the breakup of the USSR in
1991, Armenia was suddenly an independent republic, but with little
experience with democratic institutions. In the void, groups rushed
in to dominate key commodities, resulting today in monopolies that
control much of the commercial trade.

All Armenian males must serve a mandatory two-year stint in the army
when they turn 18, leading most male students, by the time they’re in
high school, to focus more on their service, not their studies. Not
surprisingly, Armenian universities are 70 percent female. Families
hold extravagant parties as army recruits depart their hometowns;
army life is not only dangerous, but living conditions are notoriously
harsh.

Much of Armenia’s energy focuses on formal recognition of the
Armenian Genocide as the 100-year anniversary approaches in 2015. The
genocide is well documented with firsthand accounts of the systematic
removal and killing of millions of Armenians, Greeks and Kurds from
eastern Turkey, as well as Ottoman Turkey’s organized confiscation of
personal and Armenian Church property. Besides demanding world-wide
condemnation of Ottoman Turkey, Armenia’s ruling party, supported by
the diaspora, is resolute in seeking reparations and return of all
Armenian territorial land unilaterally confiscated by Turkey just
after WWI. Importantly, Armenia seeks return of sacred Mount Ararat.

Both the Karabakh war and the genocide issue drain national energy
from other important quality-of-life needs. Recently, concern has
heightened about its southern neighbor, Iran, as well as the long-term
impact of the Arab Spring on the region. While in Los Gatos we are
concerned about the war in Afghanistan and terrorism in general,
this pales next to Armenia’s collective worries.

One million Armenians have migrated in the last 10 years, seeking
jobs and opportunity elsewhere–Russia, former Eastern Bloc countries
and the U.S. California has 450,000 Armenian diaspora, many in the
Bay Area. Worldwide, 7 million diaspora send money to relatives,
bolstering the economy. This brain-drain is a serious problem, and
my Peace Corps mission is, in part, to embed confidence to stay.

With the stark economic collapse following independence, Armenia’s
middle class contracted. The oligarchs desire to keep the status quo,
while the patient poor live day-to-day living frugally in typically
cold, decaying Soviet-style apartment buildings. Rural unemployment
exceeds 30 percent, with the average rural family living on $190
per month.

Part of my mission is to promote civic capacity–a challenge where
apathy is rampant and to be optimistic is to tempt fate. There is
wide distrust of all things government. After hearing suggestions for
more civic involvement, a respected town member advised me twice, “The
people are not ready for democracy or any type of civic involvement,
so don’t try.” However, 17- to 25-year-olds are showing signs of
energized activism, particularly on environmental issues.

I lived with a hardworking host family my first 10 weeks in town,
living in their Soviet-era apartment. Wives clearly run households
while men are in charge outside, huddled in small groups debating the
daily issues. One day I noticed my host dad (many years my junior)
rubbing his jaw because of a toothache. I gave him ibuprofen from
my Peace Corps medical kit and encouraged a dental visit. The next
day, when he smiled, his front tooth was gone. Sadly, he could not
rationalize dental excessive repair costs over other family needs.

My Armenian neighbors are all jacks-of-all-trades, skilled in making
do. Little of value is discarded. If repairing an item proves
difficult, then a relative or a friend will succeed in repairing
cars, plumbing, electrical, walls, sewing–you name it. Common are
homemade snow shovels, just a broom handle and a plywood base. Value
is stretched, whether it is twice soaking tea bags or again using
soda bottles for raw milk delivery or bottling homemade wine.

American-style restaurants are few outside of cities; restaurant food
cannot be as healthy or tasty as Armenian women can cook at home. Why
waste money?

Subsistence farm plots surround every village, cultivated with care
for maximum yield. Armenians are good farmers and take pride in the
variety of vegetables and fruit they grow. Every male dreams of owning
a car, and if so lucky, will spend many hours under the hood to keep
it running.

In Los Gatos, with Safeway, Whole Foods, Nob Hill, Lunardi’s and Trader
Joe’s, we have an abundant choice. In contrast, rural Armenians have
few shopping choices, and the price of commodities is surprisingly
uniform in Khanuts, or stores.

The cost of staples, relative to income, is much higher here. Meat
is served twice a week, if the family is fortunate. Cheese, often
homemade, is a main protein staple. Breads or “hats” and the famous
Armenian clay-oven baked unleavened flat bread “lavash” are offered in
abundance at meals. Armenians have reverence for bread, their symbol
of life. It would be culturally shameful to discard stale bread in
the trash; rather stale bread is fed to birds to continue the cycle
of life.

We can learn much from Armenia. Loyalty and familial support is
paramount; young married couples start off living with the husband’s
parents, grandmothers take care of grandchildren, allowing the mother
to work or look for work. Sometimes, the greatest threat to misbehaving
children is to threaten to tell their “tatiks,” or grandmothers.

Serious crime is almost nonexistent in rural Armenia because shame to
the family is a greater punishment than anything the criminal justice
system could hand out. I have never felt safer than I do living in
my mountain town. I now rarely count my change. Politeness abounds
with particular sensitivity to the old, as seats are automatically
surrendered to the elderly in a public van, or “marshrutni.” Students
stand up when teachers enter their classroom. Armenians cherish their
children and make sure their sons and daughters are dressed in freshly
ironed clothes for school each morning.

Armenians truly take pride in believing they are the most hospitable
people on Earth. My experience living in both a rural town and a
village bears this out. Strangers are treated as honored guests almost
to a painful level, with precious food heaped on the plate. They
are proud of their beautiful mountainous country and often ask me to
agree that Armenia must be prettier than California.

As I said up front, the Peace Corps is not for everyone. I am the only
native English speaker in my town. Volunteers must accept hand-washing
clothes, bucket baths, not driving cars (prohibited by Peace Corps
rules), no English newspapers, no American coffee, little heat,
treacherous winter ice, few sidewalks, different food, no sports or
watchable TV (unless one is fluent in Armenian or Russian), walking
and more walking, and perhaps the toughest adjustment, being alone
more than any other time in your life.

The Peace Corps is highly supportive and methodically prepares each
volunteer. Volunteers know they will eventually return to their cushy
American life, their family, friends, communities and most importantly,
opportunities.

Armenia needs a helping hand. The modest amount of taxpayer money
spent on the Peace Corps is vitally important at a time when Armenia
is walking a political tightrope in this unstable region.

Sometimes we need to pause to appreciate our supportive infrastructure,
highly invested civil capacity and developments such as our new Los
Gatos library and police building.

But Armenians demonstrate important values as well–faithfulness
to their ancient culture and history, strong family loyalty,
trustworthiness, resourceful self-reliance and their magnificent
love of children. As for material things, Armenians take pride in
their version of the old saying, “Use it up, wear it out, make do or
do without.”

ARMENIA: LOCAL ELECTION OBSERVERS FEAR RISK OF PROSECUTION
By Gayane Abrahamyan

Eurasia Review

April 24 2012

With less than two weeks to go until Armenia’s parliamentary vote,
election observers are becoming an issue. Rights activists are voicing
worries that a change to the Armenian election code could leave
observers potentially vulnerable to defamation suits over statements
made about the polling and vote-counting processes.

Fifteen observer organizations with a total of 12,778 observers have
been registered to monitor the May 6 election, the first national
poll since the disputed 2008 presidential vote, an event that was
marred by the deaths of 10 people in post-election violence.

The changes made to the election code in 2011 were supposed to address
inadequacies with the presidential vote three years earlier. One
electoral code amendment involved the removal of Chapter 6, Article
30, Section 6, which stated: “Observers and representatives of mass
media shall not be prosecuted for their opinions about the course of
the elections or the summarization of their results.”

Without that provision in the election code, observers who have
information that might displease authorities may “simply be silenced,”
said Harutiun Hambardzumian, head of The Choice is Yours, Armenia’s
largest election observer group, which is deploying 4,000 monitors
to watch the polls.

“Before, it was possible for observers to give testimony at police
stations about election violations, which … is not a pleasant task
in Armenia, [and] I was able to at least encourage my observers
by showing them that article and telling them to honestly report
what they had witnessed because they were immune from prosecution,”
Hambardzumian said. Now, lacking such protection, observers are more
likely to be guarded in reporting potential violations.

Opposition leader Vahan Hovhannisian, head of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation’s parliamentary faction, expressed concern
that reticence on the part of domestic observers could distort the
overall picture that the outside world receives about the voting,
since local monitors, given their familiarity with the language and
the culture, “can observe more” than their international counterparts.

Representatives of the governing Republican Party of Armenia insist
that observers will be able to express their opinions freely. One
Republican Party MP who worked on the election code amendments
maintained that concerns about a chilling effect were “absolutely
ungrounded.”

“The provision was removed because it had lost its point with the
decriminalization of … defamation two years ago,” asserted David
Harutiunian, chair of parliament’s Standing Committee on State-Legal
Affairs. “Naturally, nobody can be prosecuted for an opinion, and
that goes not only for observers, but for everyone.”

The decriminalization of defamation cannot shield a monitor from
potential retribution, asserted attorney Lusine Stepanian, a former
election observer who decided not to monitor the vote this year.

Without explicit safeguards in place, observers may be vulnerable
to civil suits that could result in hefty fines. “It doesn’t matter
whether . . . slander has been decriminalized or not,” she argued. “If
the election code doesn’t say that an observer is not legally liable
for his or her opinion, it means that he or she can be” embroiled in
a suit.

One local civil liberties watchdog, the Committee to Protect Freedom of
Speech, reports that in 2011, the year defamation was decriminalized,
roughly 35 civil suits were filed involving charges of slander and
insult, involving damage claims totalling up to 6 million drams (more
than $15,000). “I agree that decriminalization [of defamation] seemed
a step forward, but it turned out to be a disaster for news outlets,”
commented Committee Chairperson Ashot Melikian. “I can’t exclude that
it might become the same for observers as well.”

The overwhelming majority of observers covering the May parliamentary
vote are locals. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights plans
to deploy 250 observers, while the Commonwealth of Independent States
mission is expected to have about 100 observers on the ground.

OSCE/ODIHR spokesperson Giuseppe Milazzo told EurasiaNet.org that the
OSCE has “concerns” about what the amended election code will mean
for local observers, but will refrain from giving an opinion until
after the publication of the organization’s second interim report on
April 27.

Two other amendments also have stirred local worries, though on a
lesser scale.

The first requires observers to pass an exam and receive a Central
Election Commission certificate to act as an official observer. The
second change allows the CEC to revoke a group’s observer mandate
“if any observer supports a candidate or party.” Previously, the
stipulation applied to the group as a whole. Local monitors fear
that the latter amendment could be used to revoke the mandate of any
outspoken observer group.

With an eye to the international outcry over the 2008 election
violence, the government, for its part, insists that it will do
its utmost to guarantee that the May 6 vote is free and fair. Two
members of the governing coalition, the Republican Party and Prosperous
Armenia, have agreed with the opposition Armenian National Congress and
Armenian Revolutionary Federation to run an “intra-party headquarters”
for monitoring the elections.

Gayane Abrahamyan is a reporter for ArmeniaNow.com in Yerevan.

BRUSSELS ARMENIAN MINORITY DEMONSTRATES FOR GENOCIDE RECOGNITION
Stanislava Gaydazhieva

New Europe

April 24 2012

Marta van Genderen Armenians around the world on 24 April marked 97
years of the 1915 massacre of around 1.5 million of their people by
the Ottoman Empire.

The Armenian minority in Brussels was also part of the worldwide
campaign, and a crowd of around 300 people demonstrated for about
two hours in the centre of the city.

The protest was organized by the Associations des Armeniens Democrates
de Belgique (AABD). The crowd commenced the commemoration in the
Armenian Church with a prayer and later slowly moved from the monument
memorial in Ixelles to the Schuman roundabout.

‘Turks assassins!’, ‘Turks barberians!’, ‘Justice pour les Armeniens!’
and ‘No silence for the Armenian genocide!’ were the slogans of
the protestors.

A young man from the crowd outlined the demands of the Brussels
minority. He said that they were protesting in front of the building
of the European Commission because they want to see that the whole
European Union, not only the European Parliament, recognises the
massacre.

The man also stated that the Union should oblige Turkey to recognize
the genocide as a prerequisite for its future accession to the Union.

So far, the position of the Turkish authorities on the issue is a
denial that the massacres took place.

Armenians around the world expect to receive an official apology,
in addition to the recognition. Furthermore, they claim this to be
the first genocide of the 20th century which happened long before
the holocaust.

However, they say, Germany recognised it and took the whole
responsibility. This is what Armenians expect from Turkey.

The demonstrator also explained that the people from Armenia understand
that these events happened a long time ago and none of the today’s
Turkish citizens is to be blamed about the massacres.

Nevertheless, he said he was angry because Turkey lied to its own
people, while being in possession of proves in support of the killings’
episode. Moreover, according to the man’s point of view, once the
US recognizes the massacres as genocide, this would automatically
facilitate its recognition also in other countries and possibly
by Turkey.

New Europe also spoke to a Belgian citizen who said he supported the
Armenian claim and demands. He shared his disappointment that almost
no media coverage was offered by the Belgian broadcasters on this
demonstration and on the issue in general.

OBAMA MARKS ANNIVERSARY OF ‘ATROCITIES’ AGAINST ARMENIANS
by Naharnet Newsdesk

NaharNet

April 24 2012
Lebanon

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday commemorated the 1915 massacre
of Armenians by Ottoman Turks, calling for “a full, frank, and just
acknowledgment of the facts” of the “brutal” killings.

While denouncing the massacre of 97 years ago as “one of the worst
atrocities of the 20th century,” Obama did not use the term “genocide,”
but he implicitly called for Turkey to acknowledge its role.

“I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915. My
view of that history has not changed,” the president said in a White
House statement issued on Armenian Remembrance Day.

“A full, frank, and just acknowledgment of the facts is in all of
our interests. Moving forward with the future cannot be done without
reckoning with the facts of the past,” he said.

The White House statement came as thousands of Armenians staged a
procession to a hilltop memorial above the capital Yerevan to mark
the anniversary.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million people were killed during World War I
as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart, a claim supported by several
other countries.

Turkey strongly denies the genocide allegations, saying 300,000 to
500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife
when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with
invading Russian troops.

Obama said the anniversary should “honor the memory of the 1.5 million
Armenians who were brutally massacred or marched to their deaths in
the waning days of the Ottoman Empire.”

“As we reflect on the unspeakable suffering that took place 97 years
ago, we join millions who do the same across the globe and here in
America, where it is solemnly commemorated by our states, institutions,
communities, and families,” the U.S. leader said.

“Through our words and our deeds, it is our obligation to keep the
flame of memory of those who perished burning bright and to ensure
that such dark chapters of history are never repeated,” the White
House statement added.

APRIL 24TH: REMEMBERING THE ARMENIAN DEAD

Huffington Post

April 24 2012

Christopher Atamian.Writer, director, producer and translator

On April 24, Armenians across the world will march, give speeches,
attend church services and otherwise commemorate the official beginning
of the terrible events known as the Armenian Genocide. On April 24,
1915, Turkish authorities in the Ottoman Empire rounded up close to
one hundred leading Armenians in Constantinople (today’s Istanbul) and
deported them to Ayash and Chankari — concentration camp equivalents
to Auschwitz and Treblinka some thirty years later.

Many were killed along the way in the most gruesome manner: beaten,
stoned, tortured. Komitas Vartabed, Armenia’s leading musicologist who
recorded forever the folk and church music of Anatolia, went mad after
barely escaping with his life. Led by the triumvirate of Talaat, Enver
and Djemal Pasha over the next eight years, the so-called Young Turks
— a horde of thugs, killers and thieves that would not be seen again
until the Nazis came to power in Germany in the 1940s — deported,
raped, set on fire and other murdered three million Christians —
almost the entire Christian population of the Ottoman Empire: 1.5
million Armenians, 1 million Pontic Greeks and 500,000 Assyrians
perished in the conflagration that Armenians call the Medz Yeghern
or Great Calamity.

The goal of the Young Turks was simple: to complete the eradication of
the empire’s Christians, which had begun some twenty years earlier
under the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid and to expropriated their
considerable wealth, in the process creating a pure purely Turkish
state. As was the case with the Jews in Western Europe, Christians
in the Ottoman Empire were allowed to trade money and charge interest
on it and hence — for this reason and others — they quickly became
the most advanced group financially and educationally, which bred
huge resentment from the Muslim majority. The Ottoman Ballet, the
Ottoman Opera and many of the Empire’s finest cultural institutions
were in fact founded by Armenians and the wealthy Amira group which
controlled among other things the Ottoman mint, munitions, bread
factories and other key institutions, while the Greeks handled much
of the empire’s foreign diplomacy, for example.

After the Armenian intellectuals had been eradicated — the
community’s symbolic head — the Turks were particularly ruthless
in their eradication campaign: in village after village throughout
what remained of the Ottoman Empire, Armenian men were separated from
their women and either shot at close range or lit on fire in sulfur
caves-primitive gas chambers. Entire congregations were burned alive
inside churches during Sunday services. The women who managed to
escape being raped and killed were sent on deportation marches with
their remaining children into the Syrian desert — a sure road to
death that few escaped.

Today Turks continue to deny en masse that anything ever happened
to its Christian minorities, even though pogroms against Christians
and Jews occurred throughout the 20th century including after the
imposition in 1942 of the Varlık Vergisi or wealth taxes on Jews
and Christians which set exorbitant rates of over to 100 percent on
minority wealth. The remaining Jews, Armenians and Greeks in Istanbul
— none of whom could pay such ridiculous fines — were sent to a
labor camp known as AÅ¡kale where most either perished or returned
broken and unable to function anymore.

To return to 1915: During the Armenian Genocide, trillions of
dollars of Armenian property and goods were expropriated and an
entire ethnically Turkish and religiously Muslim middle class was
formed. For Armenians, this was just a repeat of past events and
attempts to genocidally remove them from their native lands. The
Adana Massacre of 1909 and the killings instigated by Sultan Abdul
Hamid — otherwise known as the Bloody Sultan — took place all over
the Armenian Plateau from 1894-1895.

Most recently Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu has gone on a
charm offensive to try to convince the rather large and influential
Armenian Diaspora to drop its claims against Turkey in a misguided
effort at reconciliation. There can be no true reconciliation or
friendship between the Armenian and Turkish people until the Turkish
government publicly and officially apologizes to the Armenians —
following in the footsteps — albeit belatedly — of Germany towards
Israel and the Jews and the recent Australian prime minister’s public
apology to the Aborigines. This apology must be followed by proper
monetary restitution to Armenians in Armenia and the Diaspora, and a
complete return of lands, property and churches to Armenians. Turning
the famed church of Aght’Amar on Lake Van into a museum owned by the
Turkish government and flying Turkish flags around the church — as the
Turkish government recently did — is a degrading insult to Armenians
everywhere, even if the church has been renovated. Aght’Amar and
the thousands of other Armenian churches across Anatolia — including
those in the famed Armenian capital city of Ani — belong to Armenians,
period. Turkey should also push for the killer and planners of Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink’s murder several years back to be jailed for
life and begin a campaign in Turkish schools to tell the Turkish
people the truth about what happened to their Christian minorities.

If Turkey does so, it can also set an example for other countries
the Middle East such as Iraq, and Egypt where Christians continue to
be persecuted and forced to leave their ancestral lands. Anything
less is unacceptable. Turkey can delay, it can hem and haw and try
to dissimulate, but the reality is that Armenians — and their Greek
and Assyrian counterparts — have truth on their side; and as we have
seen before in the course of human history, truth has a strange way
of winning out, eventually.

ARMENIAN MARTYRS DAY 2012: ARMENIAN-AMERICANS INSULTED BY TEPID OBAMA STATEMENT

Exmainer.com

April 24 2012

Philadelphia Jewish-Armenian Relations Examiner

Barack Obama, in a “Statement by the President on Armenian
Remembrance Day” earlier today referred to the murder (by the Muslim
Turkish-controlled Ottoman Enpire) of up to 1.5 million Armenian
Christian citizens [this writer’s phrasing; not Obama’s of course]
between 1915 and 1923 as “one of the worst atrocities of the 20th
century.”

However, Obama did not at any point in the statement use the term
“genocide.”

That did not, to put it mildly, go over well with the Armenian-American
community.

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) took Obama
particularly to task because of promises he had made while running
for President in 2008.

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According to an ANCA statement released earlier today: “President
Obama, once again, used euphemistic language and verbal gymnastics to
characterize the murder of 1.5 million Armenians in his annual April
24th Remembrance Day statement, breaking his pledge as Senator and
Presidential candidate to properly recognize the Armenian Genocide
as President.”

The statement continued:

“President Obama today completed his surrender to Turkey, shamefully
outsourcing U.S. human rights policy to a foreign state, and tightening
Ankara’s gag on American recognition of the Armenian Genocide,”
said ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian. “The President’s capitulation to
Turkey – on this, the last April 24th of his term – represents the
very opposite of the principled and honest change he promised to
Armenian Americans and to all the citizens of our nation.

President Obama’s pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide stands
today as a stark lie, a painful promise etched on the hearts of
all who had hoped and worked for change, but who, today, have been
betrayed by a politician who failed to live up to his own words.”

Local Armenian-Americans had harsh words for Obama.

According to Philadelphia attorney Antranig Garibian, “It is
extremely disappointing to all Armenians that President Obama has so
blatantly broken his campaign promise to put truth ahead of political
conveniences. He stands in direct contrast to the co-chair of his
campaign, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, who has been a
courageous and steadfast supporter of Armenian Genocide recognition.”

“The finessed statement issued today by President Obama on the occasion
of Armenian Martyr’s Day is nothing but a dissapointment and a far cry
from his campaign promises,” said Kim Yacoubian, Co-Chair of the 2012
Philadelphia Armenian Genocide Walk (which takes place from noon-3
PM this Sunday in Center City).

Yacoubian added: “On the solemn occasion of the 97th anniversary
of the start of the Armenian Genocide, when 1.5 million Armenian
souls perished, we expect more from the United States Government. The
Armenian-American community regrettably, though, has become accustomed
to American politicians kowtowing to the Turkish government, and this
is more of the same.”

It should be noted that, notwithstanding the insult of failing to use
the term “genocide,” Obama did offer hopeychangeysunshiney language
that might, for readers who are familiar with The Godfather Part II,
bring to mind the character Senator Pat Geary.

According to Obama: “… the legacy of the Armenian people is one
of triumph. Your faith, courage, and strength have enabled you to
survive and prosper, establishing vibrant communities around the world.

Undaunted, you have preserved your patrimony, passing it from
generation to generation. Armenian-Americans have made manifold
contributions to the vibrancy of the United States …”

ARDOUNY: ARMENIANS STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH JEWISH PEOPLE

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 24, 2012 – 10:58 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – U.S. President Barack Obama’s remarks at the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum on the eve of the 97th anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide reminds about the importance of learning
from the lessons of the past and thus give true meaning to the words
“never again,” the Armenian Assembly of America (AAA) said.

“As we mark the anniversary of the Holocaust, the Armenian Assembly of
America stands in solidarity with the Jewish people by remembering the
victims, paying tribute to the survivors, and rededicating ourselves
to genocide affirmation, education and prevention,” emphasized Assembly
Executive Director Bryan Ardouny.

Introduced by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie
Wiesel, the U.S. President highlighted the fact that “preventing mass
atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a
core moral responsibility of the United States,” and that awareness
without action changes nothing.

Wiesel, who has also consistently recognized the Armenian Genocide,
reiterated the importance of prevention, and stated that one of the
greatest tragedies of the Holocaust was that it was preventable.