Author: Kalantarian Kevo

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Jan 19 2015

Hrant Dink commemorated on 8th year of murder

ISTANBUL

Police chief arrested in Dink murder case

Mourners have marched in Istanbul to commemorate Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink, on the 8th anniversary of his killing.

The march started 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 19 from Taksim Square and ended
with a homage to Dink in front of the Armenian weekly Agos newspaper’s
office building in the Pangaltı neighborhood of the Å?iÅ?li district.

The marchers observed one minute of silence and then chanted slogans
in front of the Agos office.

Writer and poet Murathan Mungan gave a speech to the gathered crowd
from the window of the office.

`This country not only lost a precious son, but also a prominent
journalist. The absence of him and journalists like him is felt more
in a period when journalism is suffering a huge loss of dignity. Even
if only for this reason, we must look after Agos, which is Hrant
Dink’s fourth child and his legacy,” Mungan said.

People have been waiting for justice for 12 years in a country ruled
by a party that includes `justice’ in its name, Mungan added.

`Hrant Dink spoke in the language of peace, as a person who had
believed in the equality and brotherhood of all nations,’ he said,
adding that Dink was the 62nd person in Turkey who had paid the price
of his words with his life.

`He was not the spokesperson of Armenians but the voice of all people
of Turkey who were oppressed, excluded and exploited. His fight and
the fight of those like him is not a fight that can be interrupted by
their deaths. The crowds gathered on these squares show this,’ Mungan
said.

The parents of Berkin Elvan, who died in March 2014 after spending 269
days in a coma after being hit by a tear gas canister during a police
crackdown during the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, also attended the
ceremony.

Dink, the highly esteemed former editor-in-chief of weekly Agos, was
murdered in broad daylight in front of his newspaper’s building on
Jan. 19, 2007 by a 17-year-old Turkish nationalist.

The triggerman, Ogün Samast, was convicted of premeditated murder and
sentenced to 22 years and 10 months of prison after a two year-trial.

The trial into the murder resumed Sept. 17, 2013 after the Supreme
Court of Appeals ruled that all suspects in the case had acted as part
of a criminal organization, rather than individually.

Istanbul’s 5th High Criminal Court, which is overseeing the case,
announced on Oct. 30, 2014 that it will focus on the `criminal
organization’ allegations against suspects, a move that lawyers
representing the victim’s family have demanded since the start of the
retrial.

Yusuf Hayal and Erhan Tuncel are accused of convincing Samast in the
Black Sea province of Trabzon to shoot Dink.

Civil servants and institutions allegedly implicated in the murder of
Dink should be investigated, Turkey’s Constitutional Court stated in
its detailed ruling on the case on Nov. 12, 2014. The court had
earlier stated that the case had not been probed efficiently and the
victim’s rights were violated, in a ruling issued in July 2014.

The ruling became a milestone in the case that has been lingering
since the killing in 2007. It came after the Justice Ministry cleared
the path for investigations into nine civil servants, including senior
police officers occupying key posts at the time of the murder. The
officials have been accused of negligence and threatening Dink before
his death.

Before his killing, Dink had been called to a police department and
warned about a possible plot against him. It is therefore thought that
the murder plot was known about within some state institutions before
it happened.

In a recent development, Muhittin Zenit and Ã-zkan Mumcu, two police
officers on duty at the police department in Trabzon when Dink was
killed in Istanbul, were arrested.

Former Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah, former Trabzon police
chief ReÃ…?at Altay, former Trabzon Police Intelligence Chief Faruk
Sarı, former Istanbul Deputy Governor Ergun Güngör and former Istanbul
Police Intelligence Chief Ahmet Ä°lhan Güler have also testified as
suspects in the case.

January/19/2015

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Jan 19 2015

Former Cizre police chief arrested as part of Dink murder trial

An Ä°stanbul court arrested former Cizre Police Chief Ercan Demir, who
turned himself in on Monday after an arrest warrant had been issued
against him on Jan. 16, in the ongoing trial into the 2007 murder of
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

Demir had been questioned as a suspect as part of the Dink murder
investigation by prosecutors at the Ä°stanbul Courthouse on Jan. 12,
but a court released him pending trial. Ä°stanbul prosecutors appealed
the court’s decision and Ä°stanbul’s Penal Court of Peace issued an
arrest warrant for Demir on Jan. 16 on charges of “negligence in
preventing the murder.”

Demir, who went to the Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office to turn
himself in, was brought to Ä°stanbul for his detention early on Monday.

The Radikal daily reported that Demir was dismissed from his post as
police chief on Jan. 16, when the court ordered him to be detained.
Demir was recently reassigned to his former position as the head of
the Information Technologies Office at the Information Technologies
and Communications Authority (BTK).

He had only been assigned to his post as the police chief of Å?ırnak
province’s Cizre district on Dec. 30, sparking controversy because he
is among the suspects in the Dink murder case accused of negligence.

Cizre is a southeastern district where tensions have been running
high. Both Interior Minister Efkan Ala and imprisoned leader of the
outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ã-calan warned against
“provocations” in the district. A total of seven individuals have been
killed in the troubled town since Dec. 27, 2014. The town has been on
edge since deadly clashes erupted between pro-PKK and Islamist Kurds
last month. Those clashes left three people dead and five injured in
Cizre’s Nur neighborhood.

Dink, the editor-in-chief of the Agos newspaper, was assassinated in
broad daylight outside his office on Jan. 19, 2007. He was shot and
killed by an ultra-nationalist teenager. The hit man, Ogün Samast, and
18 others were brought to trial. Since then, the lawyers for the Dink
family and the co-plaintiffs in the case have presented evidence
indicating that Samast did not act alone. Another suspect, Yasin
Hayal, was given life in prison for inciting Samast to murder.

After the Supreme Court of Appeals partially reversed a lower court’s
verdict, which said there were no criminal rings behind the murder, a
re-trial kicked off in October 2014, in which the suspects are charged
with being members of a criminal ring.

On Jan. 12, the prosecutor of the case issued arrest warrants for
Trabzon Police Department Assistant Commissioner Ã-zkan Mumcu and
another police officer, Mühittin Zenit, on charges of negligence and
misconduct in Dink’s murder.

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Jan 19 2015

Hrant Dink commemorated on 8th anniversary of murder as calls for justice grow

by ARSLAN AYAN / ISTANBUL

Thousands of people marched from Taksim Square to the headquarters of
the Agos newspaper to commemorate slain Armenian-Turkish journalist
Hrant Dink, who was shot dead outside his newspaper’s office in Ã…?iÃ…?li,
Ä°stanbul, on Jan. 19, 2007, on the eighth anniversary of his
assassination.

The large crowd gathered in Taksim at 1:30 p.m. on Monday and began to
march to the Agos weekly headquarters in Ã…?iÃ…?li, as they have done
every year on Jan. 19 since Dink’s murder. They march to express
support for Dink’s family and demand justice. Dink’s family, friends
and human rights organizations welcomed the crowd on the spot where
Dink was shot dead in Ä°stanbul outside the office of Agos, the
Armenian newspaper where he was editor-in-chief.

Speaking to the crowd from the balcony of Agos, Murathan Mungan, a
famous Turkish poet and author, stated that those who murder Dink
actually murdered the voice of the peace of which they could not
understand. `Hrant spoke a kind of Turkish and Armenian that they [who
murdered him] somehow could not understand. He spoke the language of
peace,’ Mungan told the crowd.

`One of the dreams of Hrant Dink was to see the opening of the
Turkish-Armenian border because reopening the border would develop the
two nations’ relations and bring misunderstandings to an end.
Reopening of the border would mean the opportunity to start over.
Today, as well as remembering Hrant’s memory, we will also remember
his dreams and do everything to bring them to fruition,’ Mungan added.

Speaking to Today’s Zaman just before the commemoration ceremony
started, Dink’s widow, Rakel Dink, stated that although it has been
eight years without Hrant, justice has not yet been served. Rakel Dink
also said that what keeps her strong is knowing that hundreds of
thousands of people share her pain every year on Jan. 19 since her
husband’s murder.

The parents of Berkin Elvan, a teenager who died after being hit by a
teargas canister fired by the police during the Gezi protests of 2013,
also attended Dink’s commemoration ceremony and greeted the crowd that
gathered outside the Agos headquarters.

Hrant Dink’s widow, Rakel Dink (3rd from L) walks with parents of
Berkin Elvan and lawmakers from the CHP and the HDP. (Photo: Today’s
Zaman, Turgut Engin)

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Sezgin
Tanrıkulu also participated in the march and spoke with the press
following the ceremony in front of the Agos headquarters. Tanrıkulu
stated that Dink was murdered during the reign of the Justice and
Development Party (AK Party), and therefore the government was guilty
of negligence. `Unfortunately, instead of bringing this murder to
light, the government is trying to lay its responsibility on others,’
Tanrıkulu said in reference to the government’s recent efforts to
associate the Dink assassination with the faith-based Hizmet movement,
which is inspired by the teachings of prominent Turkish Islamic
scholar Fethullah Gülen.

Many at Monday’s march wore badges and carried placards declaring `We
are here Ahparig!, We are all Armenians. We will not forget.’ Ahparig
means `my brother’ in Armenian.

A woman looks out of a window near a banner marking the eighth
anniversary of the killing of Hrant Dink in Ä°stanbul. The banner
reads: “We are here, my brother. 8th year” (Photo: Reuters)

Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was shot by a 17-year-old boy,
Ogün Samast, on Jan. 19, 2007, in front of the Agos office, where he
served as editor-in-chief. In January 2012, Samast was sentenced to 22
years, 10 months in prison by a juvenile court while a court ruled on
life imprisonment for Yasin Hayal on charges of instigating the
murder. Another suspect, Erhan Tuncel, was acquitted of murder
charges.

In May 2013, the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the court’s
original ruling, which dismissed the existence of an organized
criminal network in the case. The lower court, which found no evidence
that a terrorist organization was involved in Samast’s assassination
of Dink in 2007, had acquitted the suspects of claims that they had
formed a terrorist organization. The court did, however, say they were
guilty of forming an illegal and armed organization to commit a crime,
prohibited under Article 220 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK).

Thousands of protesters gather outside the Agos newspaper. (Photo:
Today’s Zaman, Hüseyin Sarı)

Journalists’ unions commemorate Hrant Dink

Leading journalists’ unions, including the Turkish Journalists
Federation (TGF) and the Turkish Journalists Association, also
released statements on Monday to commemorate Dink.

Turkish Journalists Federation (TGF) Chairman Atilla Sertel said the
case launched to find the perpetrators of Dink’s murder has not
reached a conclusion that satisfies the public even though a long time
has passed since the murder. Noting that justice has not yet been
served despite eight years having passed since Dink was shot to death
in the middle of the street, Sertel said they want the real
perpetrators to be revealed and that they want them to suffer the
consequences of their deeds.

The TGF stated in its commemoration message on Monday: `The murderers
and the dark powers behind the Dink murder have not yet been punished,
although years have passed. Hrant Dink, a journalist who was defending
the unity and peaceful co-existence of communities in Turkey, and thus
fighting against racism, was killed by a fascist mindset.’

In its commemoration message, the Turkish Journalists’ Society (TGC)
highlighted that the real criminals behind the murder have not yet
been revealed. It said the public conscience, which was damaged by the
murder, can only be recovered after the real perpetrators are punished
in a fair trial.

The Turkish Journalists Association (TGD) stated in its commemoration
message on Monday: `The murderers and the dark powers behind the Dink
murder have not yet been punished, although years have passed. Hrant
Dink, a journalist who was defending the unity and peaceful
co-existence of communities in Turkey, and thus fighting against
racism, was killed by a fascist mindset.’

In its commemoration message, the Turkish Journalists’ Society (TGC)
highlighted that the real criminals behind the murder have not yet
been revealed. It said the public conscience, which was damaged by the
murder, can only be recovered after the real perpetrators are punished
in a fair trial.

Dink was shot and killed by an ultra-nationalist teenager. The hit
man, Ogün Samast, and 18 others were brought to trial. Since then, the
lawyers for the Dink family and the co-plaintiffs in the case have
presented evidence indicating that Samast did not act alone. Another
suspect, Yasin Hayal, was given life in prison for inciting Samast to
murder.

Hurriyet Daily news, Turkey
Jan 19 2015

Remembering through projects of dialogue Hrant Dink

by Emrah Güler

The same year Turkish-Armenian journalist and editor-in-chief Hrant
Dink was assassinated, a foundation was established in his name to
carry out his dreams of peace and dialogue. Here is a look at some of
the Hrant Dink Foundation’s projects on the anniversary of his death

It has been eight years today since Hrant Dink, Turkish-Armenian
journalist and editor-in-chief of the bilingual newspaper Agos, was
assassinated by a young nationalist. Dink was an advocate of
Turkish-Armenian reconciliation and wrote ardently about human and
minority rights. At his funeral, two hundred thousand marched,
chanting `We are all Armenians’ and `We are all Hrant Dink.’

Soon after, a foundation was established in his name to foster and
normalize the relationship between Turkey and Armenia, with the motto,
`The border will first be opened in our minds.’ The activities and
projects at the heart of the Hrant Dink Foundation lie in furthering
cultural dialogue and serving peace and empathy between the two
cultures. Here is a look at some of the foundation’s projects.

The foundation’s most popular project is a film competition called
Films About Conscience, which is much more than a competition. For the
last five years, the short film project is offering an interactive
platform for amateur and professional filmmakers to become part of a
community and talk about conscience through film. The
project/competition is inspired by Dink’s words, `The voice of
conscience has been sentenced to silence. Now, that conscience is
searching for a way out.’

Filmmakers are invited to upload videos of no more than five minutes
to the project’s website. Visitors are encouraged to vote for their
favorite films and publish comments on the films. Films are uploaded,
comments are welcome, votes are encouraged and at the end of a period
of six months, a jury selects the final 20 submissions. There are no
technical criteria. If your films are less than five minutes and are
on the theme of conscience, you are eligible for the competition.

Between March 31 and Nov. 30, 2014, a total of 59 films were uploaded
to the website, both from Turkey and abroad. The winners were
announced on Dec. 10, 2014, World Human Rights Day. The winning films
were selected by a jury including Mexican filmmaker Amat Escalante,
Director of Istanbul Film Festival Azize Tan, actor and writer Ercan
Kesal and writer Ã…?ebnem Ä°Å?igüzel, as well as Dink’s wife, Rakel Dink.

The winning films are collected in a DVD, and recommended to
international film festivals, while the first-place winner is awarded
an incentive scholarship. You can watch this year’s winner, Burkay
DoÄ?an’s short `Ã…?em’ (Candle), on the story of a candle trying to
flicker the burned-out wishes of others, as well as others on the
project’s website (filmsaboutconscience.org).

Beyond Borders

Another project run by the Hrant Dink Foundation, in partnership with
the Civilitas Foundation in Armenia and funded by the European Union,
is the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant. Hoping to increase direct contacts
and to promote cooperation between the peoples of the two neighboring
countries, the grant has been supporting the travels of 200 people
between the two countries. Other supporters of the project include the
Community Volunteers Foundation (TOG) in Turkey and the Youth
Initiative Centre (YIC) in Gyumri, Armenia.

The grant requires specific goals and activities, such as partnership
building and networking, cross-border cooperation projects, exchange
programs, academic cooperation and joint productions of culture and
arts, among others, from individuals and non-profit civic initiatives.
You can check the Beyond Borders Turkey-Armenia website
(armtr-beyondborders.org) for the visitors’ experiences and
impressions.

Currently, one visitor is set to travel to Armenia to carry out
archival research on the Armenian press during the post-genocide
period as part of his PhD thesis, while another is going to interview
descendants of the 1915 events, associations and institutions for a
daily newspaper and later a book.

Coming to Turkey, a photographer will take photos of Armenian-Turkish
mixed couples living in Turkey and another visitor will work on a
project to create a public online map showing the Armenian heritage in
Istanbul. The travel grant is currently open to applications, with the
next deadline on March 1, to a selection committee deciding on 25
beneficiaries from Turkey, and 15 from Armenia. Check hrantdink.org
for more information on the foundation’s activities.

January/19/2015

Global Voices Online
Jan 19 2015

Eight Years After His Politically Motivated Death, Hrant Dink Still
Cannot Rest in Peace

Posted 19 January 2015

On January 19, 2007, Hrant Dink, an Armenian journalist, was murdered
by 17-year-old Ogün Samast, an ultra-nationalist from the Turkish city
of Trabzon. After a trial spanning half a decade, Samast was sentenced
to nearly 23 years in jail in 2011.

Dink was viewed by many as a leader of the Armenian community in
Turkey, that pressed for a recognition of the 1915 Armenian Genocide,
while also being a proud citizen of Turkey.

Supporters of Dink, who edited the bilingual Turkish-Armenian
newspaper Agos, believe that the murder was an organized act, which
included officials in the upper echelons of the government. In order
to answer these claims, another trial was held in Istanbul lasting
five years. Despite all the evidence compiled by Dink’s legal team,
only one other man faced an aggravated life sentence for soliciting
the murder, while 19 suspects were acquitted of being members of a
terrorist organization. The verdict was met by public outcry as the
Turkish state was once again shown incapable of shining a light on
political murders.

In May 2013, the Istanbul court’s verdict was found to be
unsatisfactory by Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals in Ankara. This
court argued that the government had bungled and eliminated evidence
that could lead to the arrest of officials, and ordered a retrial.

Nationalism’s Nest in the Turkish State

The idea that nationalism is welcome in Turkey is nothing new, but,
the initial arrest of Ogün Samast was a particularly ugly sort of
confirmation of its pervasiveness: when taken back to the station
after being detained Samast posed for photos with police officers and
a Turkish flag.

Ogün Samast, assasin of Hrant Dink, and police taking a picture in
front of the Turkish flag after his arrest in Samsun, 2007. Widely
shared.

The five years following this arrest witnessed false statements from
different state officials, disappeared evidence, and a reluctance on
the part of officials to question and punish highly ranked officials.

Writing in 2012, just as a separate investigation into an
ultranationalist group — Ergenekon – believed to be plotting the
overthrow of the ruling Justice and Development (AKP) party was being
carried out very thoroughly, one blogger, Gün Zileli, railed against
the seeming hypocrisy of the situation:

Translation
Original Quote

Ogün Samast and couple of his friends were on trial for five years.
Hrant Dink’s friends and lawyers made an enormous effort to reveal the
instigators of the murder inside the state, their relationship [to the
killing], and the identities of the state and police officials who
organized the murder. Yet, both public prosecutors and the court
itself tried very hard to limit the case to people that had already
stood trial. For example, while the ‘Ergenekon case’ was widened to
the maximum in the name of ‘finding various connections’ and
[targeting] everyone opposed to the government, the Hrant Dink case,
was, with a conscious effort, limited only to the already prosecuted,
and the court decision itself obstructed anyone wanting to follow the
obvious connections.

Ogün Samast ve birkaç arkadaþý beþ yýl boyunca yargýlandýlar. Hrant
Dink’in arkadaþlarý ve avukatlarý, katillerin devlet içindeki
azmettiricilerini, iliþkilerini, cinayeti örgütleyen devlet ve polis
görevlilerini ortaya çýkartmak için beþ yýl boyunca büyük çaba
gösterdiler. Buna karþýlýk, Hrant Dink davasýnýn savcýlarý ve mahkeme
de, cinayeti sadece yargýlananlarla kýsýtlý tutmak için büyük çaba
gösterdi. Örneðin, “Ergenekon” davasý, “çeþitli baðlantýlarý bulmak”
adýna azami ölçüde geniþletilir ve bu davaya, hükümete muhalif herkes
sokulurken, Hrant Dink davasý, çok bilinçli bir çabayla, sadece
yargýlananlarla kýsýtlý tutuldu, ayan beyan ortaya çýkan baðlantýlara
gidilmesi bizzat mahkemenin kararlarýyla engellendi.

Nationalist sentiment surrounding the Hrant Dink case has been visible
on the street as well as in the courtroom. The day after his
commemoration last year, the website of Dink’s Agos newspaper was
hacked by nationalists who superimposed Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a
powerful symbol of Turkish homogeneity. Police officiating the 2014
commemoration ceremony wore white berets, similar to the one Ogün
Samast had worn the day he murdered Hrant Dink. This year hateful
tweets appeared glorifying the murder and congratulating Samast.

January 19, 2014, Hrant Dink’s commemoration. Police wearing white
berets. Widely shared.

Hopes for justice, or just more political retributions?

The retrial has offered hope that important state officials might face
prosecution. So far Istanbul city’s then-commissioner Celalettin
Cerrah, deputy governor Erol Güngör, and the intelligence chief of
Istanbul’s police intelligence unit at the time of Dink’s murder,
Ahmet Ýlhan Güler, have all been summoned to court to testify.

On the day of Dink’s commemoration this year, Commisioner of Cizre
Ercan Demir, also turned himself in in Ankara.

But many fear the government is now using the retrial to prosecute
members of the so-called ‘parallel state’ Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdoðan believes is being supported by US-based scholar and
acrimonious political rival Fethullah Gülen, and support a purge of
the government.

Using the ‘cemaat’ term that refers to followers of Gülen, one tweep despaired:

They are trying to say that #HrantDink’s murderer is “cemaat”. They
are trying to wash away 12 years long AKP tyranny with “cemaat”. If
you buy it.

Agos’s headline for tomorrow [“This Case Does Not Fit with
‘Parallel’-2”) Anyone disagrees?

Indeed, Hrant Dink’s case does not quite fit in with the ‘parallel
state’ narrative, since Gülen and Erdoðan were seen as political
allies during this time. As Ümit Kývanç writes on the Riya Tabirleri
blog:

Translation
Original Quote

It is time for me to remind the whole government, especially the
president, of a truth they are trying to make us forget: While
[Gülen’s] armed bureaucrats were acting at the time, unlike today,
they did not consider themselves as members of a ‘parallel
organization’ in conflict with the government. Government [at the
time] perceived them as its own men as well.

Baþta cumhurbaþkaný, bu hükümetin özellikle unutturmaya çalýþtýðý bir
hakikati hatýrlamanýn tam da yeri burasý: Cemaat’in silahlý
bürokratlarý bu iþleri yaparken, þimdiki gibi, hükümetle kavga
halindeki bir “paralel yapý”nýn elemanlarý saymýyorlardý kendilerini.
Hükümet de onlara kendi adamlarý gözüyle bakýyordu.

January 19, 2015 is the eighth year since Hrant Dink’s death, while
2015 marks the 100th year of Armenian genocide.

Like the previous years, the walk started from Taksim and ended in
front of Agos, where he was murdered. Thousands have gathered at his
commemoration and demanded justice for his murder and recognition of
the Armenian genocide.

As was the case last year, people have come together under the
hashtags #HrantIcinAdaletIcýn (For Hrant, for Justice),
#FasizmeInatKardesimsinHrant (You are my brother in spite of fascism),
#BuradayýzAhparig (We are here my brother) and #HrantDink.

One of the most poignant tweets ahead of Dink’s commemoration focussed
on the journalist’s popular appeal to people of all creeds and
cultures living in Turkey:

He was one of the very rare ones that we all found meaningful and
created a real bond with. “We are all Hrant”
#Buradayýzahparig
#HrantIcinAdaletIcin

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Jan 19 2015

Gerard Araud: “Armenian genocide” is an opinion, not a fact

19 January 2015 – 3:33pm

The Holocaust is a fact, the “Armenian genocide” is just an opinion,
the French Ambassador to the US Gerard Araud said in an interview with
US cable channel MSNBC.

The diplomat recalled that in France there is no law criminalizing
denial of the Armenian interpretation of the events of the First World
War. The denial of the Holocaust as a fact is a criminal offense.

The European Court of Human Rights imposed a sentence with similar
content on December 17th 2013 in Dogu Perincek’s suit against
Switzerland. The ECHR considered that the Armenian version of the
events of 1915 was not only deprived of the verdict of an
international tribunal as a condition for establishing the fact of
genocide, but even a consensus in the academic environment, AzerTac
reported.

After the verdict the Swiss government filed an appeal under pressure
from the Armenian lobby, which will be considered by the supreme
authority of the ECHR on January 28 this year.

Breitbart News
Jan 19 2015

Armenians Decry Erdogan’s Gallipoli Celebration as a “Provocation”

by Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.19 Jan 20153

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has invited world leaders,
including Armenian President Serzh Sarkysian, to participate in
festivities to be held in Turkey to celebrate the anniversary of the
Battle of Gallipoli on April 24. Coincidentally, that is the very day
when Armenians are preparing to commemorate the hundredth anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks.

Christian Armenians living in Turkey have dubbed Erdogan’s move a
“provocation.” According to the newspaper Agos, the bilingual Armenian
weekly published in Istanbul, local sources have defined Erdogan’s
invitation as “the dishonest action of an ill-mannered person.”

For some time now, Armenia has been planning an international event
dedicated to the memory of the Armenian victims, for April 24, 2015,
the centennial of the genocide.

Armenians observe April 24, 1915 as the start of the Armenian
Genocide. On that day, several hundred Armenian intellectuals were
rounded up, arrested, and later executed.

Figures compiled by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Holocaust
and Genocide Studies show that there were 2,133,190 Armenians in the
empire in 1914 and only about 387,800 by 1922, a loss of some 1.75
million lives.

In a sternly worded letter, Armenia’s President has responded to
Erdogan, condemning Turkey’s “traditional policy of denialism” and
assuring him that before he organizes commemorative events, he should
publicly recognize and denounce the genocide.

“Leaving aside the well-known meaning of the Battle of Gallipoli or
the questionable role of Turkey in World War I and World War II,”
Sarkysian writes, “one shall recall that peace and friendship first
and foremost shall be based on the courage to confront the past, on
the historical justice, as well as on recognition of full-fledged
universal memory but never on selective approach.”

Why suddenly commemorate the Battle of Gallipoli on April 24, when “it
began on March 18, 1915 and lasted till late January, 1916”? Sarkysian
asks.

Moreover, Sarkysian notes, the allies’ land campaign–the Gallipoli
land battle–took place on April 25, 1915.

“What purpose does it serve if not a simple-minded goal to distract
the attention of the international community from the events dedicated
to the centennial of the Armenian Genocide?” he asks.

According to Sarkysian, “before organizing a commemorative event,
Turkey has a much more important obligation towards its own people and
the entire humanity, namely the recognition and condemnation of the
Armenian Genocide.”

In a “PS” to the letter, Sarkysian reminds Erdogan that already “a few
months ago I invited you to join us in commemoration of memory of the
innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide in Yerevan on the 24th of
April.” Sarkysian retorts that it is not “common practice” to receive
back an invitation for the same date “without receiving a response to
our invitation.”

Tasnim News Agency, Iran
Jan 19 2015

Tehran’s Armenians Rap Charlie Hebdo’s Insulting Cartoon

January 19, 2015 – 19:21

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Armenian Diocese of Tehran condemned French
weekly Charlie Hebdo for printing an insulting cartoon of Islam’s holy
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Speaking in a cultural ceremony in Iran’s capital on Monday, Sahak
Khosravian, representative of the Archbishop of Armenian church in
Tehran, lashed out at the French satirical magazine for its
sacrilegious move.

“The Armenian Diocese of Tehran, for its part, condemns such a move.
We condemn insults to any dear prophet as a shameful action, and hope
that such moves would not occur anywhere in the world,” Khosravian
stressed.

The French magazine has repeatedly aroused Muslim ire by publishing
cartoons mocking holy Prophet Muhammad.

Known for its caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as critical
depictions of other religions and French politicians, the magazine
regularly stirred controversy.

The Wednesday’s edition of Charlie Hebdo, which sold millions of
copies, shows a cartoon of Prophet Muhammad holding a “Je suis
Charlie”(“I am Charlie”) sign, a slogan widely used following the
January 7 attack on the magazine.

Andrey Malakhov visits Gyumri, extends his condolences over Gyumri family murder

10:07 | January 19,2015 | Social

Russian TV journalist, showman and TV presenter Andrey Malakhov was
spotted in Armenia’s Gyumri city on Sunday when he was entering the
Municipality, Aravot.am reports.

The source says the TV presenter extended his condolences to Gyumri
Mayor Samvel Balasanyan over the brutal murder of the Avetisyan family
and apologized for the offensive remarks and expressions said about
Armenians during his talk show “Let them Talk”(“ðÕÓÔØ ÇÏ×ÏÒÑÔ” in
Russian).

On the day of the funeral of the Avetisyan family members when the
entire Armenia was mourning the slaughter of innocent people and
calling for justice outside the Prosecutors Office and the Russian
Consulate in Gyumri, Andrey Malakhov was discussing [in his show] an
incident in Krasnodar Krai during which three Armenian men beat one
another for a Russian woman and saying disgraceful things about
Armenians. This aroused great indignation among the residents of
Gyumri who wrote a letter to the Russian TV personality reprimanding
him for his tactless behaviour.

Six members of the Avetisyan family – Seryozha Avetisyan, his wife
Hasmik, daughter Aida, son Armen, daughter-in-law Araksya, and
two-year-old granddaughter Hasmik, were murdered in their home on
January 12. Only the six month-old Seryozha Avetisyan survived, who
was hospitalized with stab wounds in his chest. The six murders that
occurred in Gyumri shocked residents of Armenia. Later on the same day
Valery Permyakov, a Russian soldier stationed at military base No. 102
in Gyumri was arrested by Russian border guards and Armenian security
forces when attempting to cross the border with Turkey. Permyakov
confessed to the murders.

Heritage Party qualifies attack on civic activist Vilen Gabrielyan as
vendetta backed by Armenia’s authorities

by Tatevik Shahunyan
Monday, January 19, 16:10

Heritage Party has disseminated a statement wherein it condemns the
attack on Vilen Gabrielyan, a civic activist with oppositional views.

The Party qualifies Gabrielyan’s beating as a direct or indirect
vendetta – backed by the authorities of Armenia – against people for
their political views and protests against the outrage in the country.

Four unknown in masks attacked and beat up activist V. Gabrielyan
approximately at 10:00pm on January 18 in Yerevan. Gabrielyan is known
in social media as “Navak Chochogh” (“Boat Shaker”). Gabrielyan
received first aid at the University Hospital No.1 and left home.