Author: Kalantarian Kevo

“Gradual Radicalization: The Decision ­Making Process for the Armenian Genocide” will be the topic of a lecture by Prof. Taner Akçam on Wednesday, May 6 at UC Davis. Taner Akçam is professor of history and the Robert Aram, Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marian Mugar Chair in Armenian genocide studies at Clark University, reports.

A closer look at the Armenian genocide in 1915 is the focus of the free program, presented by the UC Davis history department, UCD Middle East/South Asia Studies Program and the Turkey Studies Research Cluster of the UCD Humanities Institute, will take place at the Odd Fellows Hall, 415 Second St. in downtown Davis.

Debates around mass murders boil down to two central questions: What happened? Why and how did it happen?

In the Armenian genocide research, the “what happened” question got answered at least in broad terms, Akçam says. Although historians still do not have all the details of what was experienced at the local level, they do have a general picture of how the genocide was launched and how it was developed as a state policy.

However, this is not true for the “why” and “how” questions, Akcam says, which are mostly explained with the answers of either “premeditated continuum” or “wartime radicalization.”

“The debate in question is really an offshoot of several peripheral questions regarding the intentions, motives, ideologies and motivating anxieties of the decision­makers,” a news release said.

“If in fact there was a final formal decision for the genocide, we have to answer a list of questions: What stages did it pass through before it reached its final conclusion? When and how did the decision take the shape of a plan?”

Akçam argues that we are still very far from such a level of sophistication, given that much of the debate is driven by speculation rather than documentation. In this talk, he aims to reconstruct the decision­making process based on Ottoman documents.

The fact of the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman government has been documented, recognized, and affirmed in the form of media and eyewitness reports, laws, resolutions, and statements by many states and international organizations. The complete catalogue of all documents categorizing the 1915 wholesale massacre of the Armenian population in Ottoman Empire as a premeditated and thoroughly executed act of genocide, is extensive. Uruguay was the first country to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide in 1965. The massacres of the Armenian people were officially condemned and recognized as genocide in accordance with the international law by France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Greece, Slovakia, Cyprus, Lebanon, Uruguay, Argentina, Venezuela, Chile, Canada, Vatican, Australia and Bolivia.

ARMENIA WELCOMES GERMAN PRESIDENT’S STATEMENT ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

11:32, 24 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Armenia has welcomed the statement of German President Joachim Gauck
on the occasion of the 100tha anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

“With this step Germany pays tribute to the memory of the innocent
victims of the Armenians killed in the Ottoman Empire under the cover
of the World War First,” Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian
said in a statement.

“President Gauck’s statement is important not only from the point
of view of recognition and commemoration of the Armenian Genocide,
but is also a contribution to the joint efforts of the international
community to prevent crimes against humanity.

In his speech at the Berlin Cathedral, Gauck said “Germany condemns
the massacre a century ago of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman
forces as a genocide,” adding that Germany bore partial blame for
the bloodletting.”

ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT SPEAKER HOSTS DELEGATES FROM ARGENTINA

20:19 * 24.04.15

President of the Armenian National Assembly Galust Sahakyan on Friday
received a delegation of Argentinean lawmakers who visited the country
to participate in the Genocide centenary commemorations.

Welcoming the guests and thanking them for being next to the Armenians
on the important anniversary, the parliament speaker said that the day
saw the progressive mankind stand by the nation to share the big grief.

Remembering the history of the crime, committed at the beginning of
the 20th century, Mr Sahakyan thanked the Argentina for giving asylum
to Armenian survivors. He noted that Argentinean-Armenians are now
full-fledged exemplary citizens of that country.

Thanking the Armenian parliament speaker for the reception, Norma
Abdala de Matarazzo, First Vice President of the Argentina’s Chamber
of Deputies who led the delegation, said they were now leaving the
country very impressed. She conveyed to Mr Sahakyan greetings by
his counterpart, Julian Domínguez, and submitted to him a copy of
a declaration adopted by Chamber on April 8. Under the document,
Argentina’s chief lawmaking body expresses support and solidarity to
the Armenian community in connection with the 100th anniversary of
the Genocide.

L’AUTRICHE INDIFFERENTE AUX CRITIQUES ET MENACES D’ANKARA

AUTRICHE

Le ministre autrichien des affaires etrangères Sebastian Kurz a
rejete jeudi 23 avril les violentes critiques adressees a Vienne par
la Turquie après la declaration symbolique du Parlement autrichien
de reconnaître les deportations et massacres des Armeniens de
l’Empire ottoman comme un fait de genocide. Le gouvernement turc
avait rappele la veille son ambassadeur en Autriche peu après la
mesure parlementaire autrichienne. “Il faut savoir que la Turquie
et la nation turque n’oublieront pas cette atteinte et cette insulte
contre leur histoire” avait declare dans un communique le ministère
turc des affaires etrangères, ajoutant que la decision “affectera
de manière permanente l’amitie turco-autrichienne”. Ankara a aussi
deplore que ce texte ne mentionne pas les musulmans qui ont peri durant
cette epoque, et a denonce

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

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.

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-

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.”

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.

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.