Author: Kalantarian Kevo

TURKEY’S ERDOGAN: ‘I CONDEMN THE POPE’ OVER ARMENIA GENOCIDE COMMENT

Assyrian International News Agency AINA
April 14 2015

Posted 2015-04-14 19:18 GMT

Turkey’s President Erdogan takes part in a welcoming ceremony in Kiev
(Thomson Reuters).ISTANBUL (Reuters) — Turkish President Tayyip
Erdogan said he condemned Pope Francis on Tuesday for comments that
the 1915 mass killing of Armenians was genocide and warned him not
to make such a statement again.

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

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

“We will not allow historical incidents to be taken out of their
genuine context and be used as a tool to campaign against our country,”
Erdogan said in a speech to a business group.

“I condemn the pope and would like to warn him not to make similar
mistakes again.”

While other Turkish politicians, and now Erdogan, have lashed out at
the pope, some ordinary Turks have dismissed the row as empty politics
and voiced a desire to leave history be.

Erdogan’s comments are likely to put a focus on whether the United
States, a traditional ally of NATO-member Turkey, will eventually
use the term “genocide” for the mass killings.

Unlike almost two dozen European and South American states that use
the term, Washington avoids it and has warned legislators that Ankara
could cut off military cooperation if they voted to adopt it.

Pope Francis appeared to refer to his use of the term “genocide”
on Monday, saying in a sermon that “today the Church’s message is
one of the path of frankness, the path of Christian courage”.

Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by David Dolan and Louise Ireland.

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRINCE CHARLES

13:02, 15 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Ara Papian, Head of Modus Vivendi Centre, has addressed an open letter
to His Royal Highness Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Wales.

The full text of the letter is below:

Your Royal Highness,

There is unequivocal truth in that the lives of kings and princes
are full of responsibilities. Paying respect to the memory of the
subjects of their own country is, without doubt, one of the most
commendable responsibilities. Hence, Your and Prince Harry’s planned
visit to Istanbul this year on April 24-25 and participation in the
commemorative ceremony of the Centenary of the Gallipoli Campaign,
which is dedicated to the memory of the victims of around 35 thousand
British subjects, is perfectly understandable. However, the issue is
not as straightforward as it appears to be at first sight.

The military actions in Gallipoli or Canakkale, as Turks refer to it,
commenced on 18 March, 1915. Consequently, Turkey has traditionally
been commemorating it on 18 March. It would be wise to question as
to why this year Turkey has decided to commemorate it on 24 April? No
notable event has taken place on April 24 in the Gallipoli Campaign.

If the change in the calendar for the commemoration by Turks is
conditioned by the fact that Turkey wishes to give importance to
the intended landing of the British-French navy on the shores of the
peninsula (although it is not clear why Turkey would give importance
to it), then it should be noted that this took place on April 25. The
change in the calendar by the Turkish authorities (the change of
Canakkale celebration from 18th to 24th of April ) pursues only one
aim – to obscure and even ridicule the memory of the victims of the
Armenian Genocide, which has always been commemorated on 24 April.

Sir, By making such changes in the calendar, the Turkish authorities
are using You as a means to their end in a distorted game of
propaganda.

By participating in the theatrical performance organised by the Turkish
authorities on April 24, the day of the commemoration of the victims
of the Armenian Genocide, you will not only disrespect the memory
of the British victims of Gallipoli, but you will also forever stain
the British throne and Bonae Memoriae of your ancestor George V.

After all, the liberation of the Armenian people from the oppression
of the Ottoman Empire was one of the principal reasons and officially
announced objectives of the British Empire, its Monarch and the
Government, in joining the First World War. At the time, the British
Empire failed to carry out its mission, and as a result, millions
of innocent victims paid with their blood. At least now, do not
desecrate the memory of your soldiers, who fell for the freedom of the
Armenians, and the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide. A
representative of the British monarchy should not be coerced into
being a puppet in the political games of a state with such an agenda.

In fact, recognizing their own culpability in the massacres of the
Armenians, which was a result of their failure to land onshore during
the Gallipoli Campaign, the Government of George V, together with
Russia and France, made a joint statement on 24 April, 1915 and
promised to bring to justice those responsible for the Armenian
massacres. Alas, neither Your country, nor Russia or France kept
their promise. I find it necessary to mention, that the righteous
offsprings of my homeland did not forget the promises of the great
powers, and a considerable number of the perpetrators of the Armenian
Genocide received their deserved punishment.

Sir, Your Highness and Prince Harry are visiting Istanbul to take part
in the Anzac Day Commemoration, which has always been remembered on
April 25. I do believe that it is Your duty to remember the British
subjects. However, it must be acknowledged that is also Your duty to
remember the Armenians, who became victims of the policy of the British
Empire. If the British Empire had not prevented the collapse of the
Ottoman Empire on various occasions, the Armenians would have not
been massacred; instead they would happily live in their millennial
homeland and would not mourn their losses every year on April 24. If
you are going to take part in the commemorative ceremony in Istanbul
on the dawn of the 25th of April, then it is your duty to also pay
tribute to the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

The flight from Yerevan to Istanbul will only require 3 hours and
40 minutes, given the two-hour time zone difference between the
two cities.

AZERBAIJAN BLACKLISTS NYT REPORTER FOR VISITING NAGORNO-KARABAKH

Interfax, Russia
April 10 2015

: BAKU. April 10

A New York Times reporter has been declared persona non grata in
Azerbaijan for visiting Nagorno-Karabakh without the go-ahead from
Azeri authorities, according to the Azeri Foreign Ministry.

“Seth Kugel, who has written an article for the New York Times, has
made an illegal visit to occupied territories of Azerbaijan, thereby
violating the law of the Azerbaijani Republic ‘On the State Frontier.’
This man’s name will be put on the list of personae non gratae,”
ministry spokesman Hikmet Haciyev said in a statement.

Kugel’s article “distorts the objective situation in the occupied
territories” and shows disrespect for the New York Times audience and
for refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, Haciyev said.

“The publication of such an article in the New York Times is
regrettable. The article, sponsored by the Armenian lobby, fails to
mention instances of plundering of Azeri property in the occupied
territories and destruction of items of the cultural legacy of the
Azeri people, including destruction of monuments and Islamic worship
sites,” the spokesman said.

Moreover, the lands that “are under occupation” are “used for the
production and sale of drugs, illegal trade in weapons, and the
training of terrorists,” he said.

Kugel’s article, “A Warm Welcome in the Caucasus Mountains,” appeared
in Wednesday’s issue of the daily. Kugel shared his impressions of a
trip to Nagorno-Karabakh and assessed it from a tourist’s point of
view.

POLEMIQUE A L’AN SUR LES ACCORDS GAZIERS ARMENO-RUSSES DATANT DE 2013

ARMENIE

Les quotidiens rendent compte de la presentation a l’Assemble Nationale
du compte-rendu d’une commission ad hoc parlementaire formee il y
a un an a l’initiative de l’opposition en vue d’etudier la legalite
des accords signes entre l’Armenie et la Russie en decembre 2013, a
l’occasion de la visite d’Etat du President Poutine en Armenie. [Pour
memoire, en vertu de ces accords, le Gouvernement armenien avait
cede a Gazprom sa participation residuelle de 20% des actions de la
societe Azmrosgazprom, qui est devenue par la suite une societe a 100%
russe. Le Gouvernement armenien avait explique cette transaction par
la necessite de rembourser a Gazprom une dette de 300 M USD, dont les
parlementaires armeniens et la societe ignoraient l’existence. D’après
une enquete de l’opposition, cette dette aurait ete constituee
entre 2011 et 2013, la Russie ayant augmente le prix du gaz pour
l’Armenie en 2011, sans que le Gouvernement armenien en ait informe
la societe. Afin d’eviter une augmentation du prix du gaz a la veille
de consultations electorales legislatives et presidentielles en 2012
et 2013, le Gouvernement aurait lui-meme subventionne secrètement
cette augmentation, en accumulant egalement une dette de 300 M USD
vis-a-vis de Gazprom. Par ailleurs les accords signes avec la Russie
en decembre 2013 accordaient a Gazprom 30 ans de droits exclusifs sur
le marche armenien de l’energie. Ces privilèges accordes a Gazprom
avaient suscite un tolle auprès des principaux groupes d’opposition.

Meme l’ancien president Robert Kotcharian avait ajoute sa voix aux
condamnations, en disant que l’affaire pourrait prendre en >
le secteur energetique armenien par la Russie]. D’après le compte-rendu
de la commission ad hoc presidee par le membre du parti Republicain,
Vardan Ayvazian, l’operation aurait ete legale et economiquement
benefique pour l’Armenie. >, a declare M. Ayvazian. Cependant, le rapport de la
commission a ete denonce comme frauduleux par le Congrès national
armenien, dont les deputes ont insiste pour dire que le document est
nul et non avenu parce qu’il n’a jamais ete formellement adopte par
la Commission et que les deputes de l’opposition n’ont pas participe
a sa redaction. L’opposition a par ailleurs accuse le Gouvernement
armenien d’avoir cache pendant deux ans l’augmentation du prix du gaz
par la Russie, en commettant ainsi une > par rapport a
la societe armenienne.

Extrait de la revue de presse de l’Ambassade de France en Armenie en
date du 8 avril 2015

mercredi 15 avril 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

WORLD’S LARGEST MEDIA OUTLETS RESPOND TO POPE FRANCIS’S STATEMENT ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

by Marianna Lazarian

Tuesday, April 14, 00:39

World’s leading mass media have responded to Pope Francis’s statement
on Genocide of Armenians during a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on
April 12.

Pope Francis on Sunday marked the 100th anniversary of the slaughter
of Armenians by calling the massacre by Ottoman Turks “the first
genocide of the 20th century” and urging the international community to
recognize it as such. His Holiness called the Genocide of Armenians,
Nazism, and Stalinism as three massive and unprecedented tragedies
of 20th century.

German Deutsche Welle writes: “On the 100th anniversary of the
slaughter of Armenians, Pope Francis has described the mass killing
by the Ottoman Empire as “the first genocide of the 20th century.” The
move could strain diplomatic ties with Turkey.”

Tagesschau, in turn, writes Pope Francis expressed a strong stand on
an explosive political issue by calling the pogroms of Armenians in
Ottoman Turkey as the first genocide of the 20th century.

According to Reuters, Pope Francis described the massacre of as many
as 1.5 million Armenians as “the first genocide of the 20th century”
at a 100th anniversary Mass on Sunday, choosing words that could draw
an angry reaction from Turkey.

AFP writes: “Pope Francis uttered the word “genocide” on Sunday to
describe the mass murder of Armenians 100 years ago, sparking fury
from Turkey which slammed the term as “far from historical reality.”

Commenting on the Pope’s statement, Le Monde writes Turkey offered
its hand to Armenia but did it quite poorly. The liturgy has aroused
a heated response of the Islamic conservative government of Turkey.

Referring to Turkish media, Le Figaro wrote that after Pope Francis’s
statement on Genocide of Armenians, Turkey summoned papal nuncio
for explanations.

Italy press also reflected on the event. Repubblica quotes the Pope
as saying: “It seems that humanity is incapable of putting a halt to
the shedding of innocent blood.”

The Times of Israel writes: ” Pope Francis on Sunday honored the 100th
anniversary of the slaughter of Armenians by calling it “the first
genocide of the 20th century,” a politically explosive declaration that
will certainly anger Turkey. Turkey’s embassy to the Holy See canceled
a planned news conference for Sunday, presumably after learning that
the pope would utter the word “genocide” over its objections.”

“The blunt-speaking Pope on Sunday set off a diplomatic row by calling
the slaughter of Armenians during World War I “the first genocide of
the 20th century.”

While some 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by Ottoman Turks
between 1914 and 1918, politicians including George W. Bush and
Barack Obama — who during his 2008 campaign vowed to call the
slaughter a genocide — have refrained from using the word, fearing
political fallout. Pope Francis, however, had no such fears,” The
Truth Revolt said.

According to CNN, “Pope Francis risked Turkish anger on Sunday by
using the word “genocide” to refer to the mass killings of Armenians
a century ago.”

Fox News says Pope Francis’ comments again show that he is willing to
take diplomatic risks for issues he feels strongly about. In 2014,
he invited the Israeli and Palestinian presidents to pray together
for peace at the Vatican.

Acconrding to NBC, “Pope Francis sparked a diplomatic incident with
Turkey on Sunday by calling the slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks
“the first genocide of the 20th century.”

“Francis, who has close ties to the Armenian community from his days
in Argentina, defended his pronouncement by saying it was his duty
to honor the memory of the innocent men, women and children who were
“senselessly” murdered by Ottoman Turks 100 years ago this month,”
NBC said.

Pope Francis described the 1915 mass killings of Armenians by Turks
as the “first genocide of the 20th century” on Sunday, touching off
a diplomatic furor with Turkey and entering into a tense historical
debate with wider implications for the Vatican’s relations with Islam,
the Wall Street Journal writes.

Los Angeles Times: “A number of countries have issued statements
over the years condemning Turkey’s actions as genocide. Although
President Obama, before his 2008 election, referred several times to
the deaths as genocide, he has not done so as president, maintaining
his predecessors’ reluctance to alienate Turkey, a highly valued ally
in the Middle East.”

USA Today: “The killings are recognized as genocide by a number of
countries around the world, but Turkey’s allies Italy and the United
States have avoided using the contentious term. The United Nations
defined genocide as acts intended to destroy a national, ethnic,
racial or religious group, in whole or in part.”

Russia media also responded to the issue: “Turkey is disappointed at
Pope Francis’s statement on the Genocide of Armenians,” TASS writes.

According to RIA, religious leaders should create environment for
peace and unity of people, but not stir up hatred and confrontation.

Lenta.ru writes Turkey is outraged with Pope Francis’s speech on
Genocide of Armenians. Azerbaijani, Lithuanian, Moldavian, Arab press
have also reflected on the Pope’s statement on Genocide of Armenians.

FOUNDING PARLIAMENT’S “DECLARATION”: EMBATTLED GROUP SEEKS TO ESTABLISH “NEW STATE”

POLITICS | 14.04.15 | 10:54

By GAYANE MKRTCHYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

With a week’s delay caused by arrests of its leading members, Armenia’s
radical opposition group, Founding Parliament, has published its
declaration on “Forming and Developing the Armenian State”, stressing
that the main goals of the 1990 Independence Declaration and the 1995
Constitution of the Republic of Armenia have not been fulfilled.

Five members of the group, including its chairman Garegin Chukaszyan
and leading member Jirair Sefilian, were arrested on April 7 and
were later charged with attempting to organize mass disturbances at
an April 24 rally. All were taken into two-month custody pending trial.

Another Founding Parliament activist was charged with keeping arms
and ammunition, but was released on bail pending trial.

Hayk Grigoryan, deputy chairman of the Founding Parliament, says
despite the developments they are determined to initiate a process
aimed at “removing the anti-national regime”.

Alek Yenigomshyan, the temporary coordinator of the group, adds
that they have a program for the transitional stage after “removing
the regime”. In particular, he says, they plan to submit a draft
Constitution to be approved in a referendum, after which, if they get
sufficient votes, they will undertake to implement preterm nationwide
and local elections.

“And if not, then the elections will be held under the current
Constitution. The citizens who sign contracts with us commit themselves
to accepting the ideas of the Founding Parliament, while the Founding
Parliament assumes the obligation to building a State of a new
quality,” Yenigomshyan says.

The Founding Parliament’s temporary coordinator says they are not
“Utopists”, but they believe in the idea of solidarity. He gives
assurances that the arrests of Sefilian and other leaders of the
movement have not thwarted the group’s plans and that the struggle
will continue.

The Founding Parliament’s rallies held in provinces so far have failed
to attract any significant number of supporters. Even fewer people
appear to support the radical opposition group’s plans for launching
a non-government push specifically on April 24 – the day when public
events attended by high-level foreign delegations are due to be held
in Yerevan to mark the centenary of the Armenian Genocide. Only two
of the parliamentary opposition parties, namely the Armenian National
Congress and Heritage, publicly condemned the arrests of the Founding
Parliament activists last week.

The group’s Yenigomshyan says that they have no expectations of
cooperation with anyone, as, he emphasizes, they are “going to create
a new State”, nor are they preparing for the next general elections
“as the Founding Parliament’s philosophy is to find a system solution
outside the current system.”

The Founding Parliament says it plans to hold a march and a rally in
Yerevan’s Liberty Square on April 17, which has been approved by the
city authorities. The group also reminds that its plans for holding
a rally near the Erebuni Museum on the outskirts of Yerevan on April
24 have also been approved by the Municipality.

KIM KARDASHIAN ET KANYE WEST A JERUSALEM POUR LE BAPTEME DE LEUR FILLE

Israel-USA-celebrites-Armeniens-christianisme

La vedette de tele-realite americaine Kim Kardashian et son epoux,
le rappeur Kanye West, etaient a Jerusalem lundi pour le bapteme de
leur fille dans la cathedrale armenienne de la ville sainte.

Des centaines de fans ont accueilli l’arrivee du couple dans les
ruelles etroites du quartier armenien de Jerusalem, criant et sifflant
lorsque Kim Kardashian, d’origine armenienne, est sortie de sa voiture,
sa fille North, 21 mois, dans les bras.

“La fille de Kim Kardashian va etre baptisee, et elle va officiellement
devenir chretienne, et membre de l’Eglise armenienne”, a declare
l’archeveque Aris Shirvanian a la foule de journalistes presses devant
son eglise.

La star, celèbre entre autres pour ses formes voluptueuses,
etait drapee dans une robe beige et doree, son epoux et sa fille
integralement vetus de blanc.

La famille, entree dans l’eglise pour la ceremonie, en est sortie 90
minutes plus tard.

Elle devait ensuite visiter la basilique du Saint-Sepulcre bâtie a
l’endroit où, selon la tradition chretienne, Jesus a ete crucifie
avant d’etre mis au tombeau et de ressusciter, puis se rendre au Mur
des Lamentations, le site le plus sacre du judaïsme.

Le couple a ete ensuite recu par le maire de Jerusalem Nir Barkat qui a
profite de l’occasion pour leur demander de “devenir des ambassadeurs
de Jerusalem et de transmettre au monde que Jerusalem est ouverte a
tous”, a indique un communique de la municipalite.

Kim, Kanye et North West, sont arrives lundi en Israël, après un sejour
en Armenie. Les ancetres du côte paternel de la famille Kardashian
ont emigre aux Etats-Unis depuis l’Armenie pour fuir les massacres
de 1915-1917.

Durant sa visite de huit jours en Armenie, Kim Kardashian a ete recue
par le Premier ministre et a visite le memorial du “genocide” a Erevan.

Les Armeniens s’appretent en effet a marquer le 24 avril le 100e
anniversaire du “genocide”, commis pendant la Première guerre mondiale.

A la veille de ces celebrations, le pape Francois a, pour la première
fois dimanche, utilise le mot “genocide”, provoquant la fureur de la
Turquie qui a toujours recuse ce qualificatif.

AFP

mardi 14 avril 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

AZNAVOUR : UN JOUR LA JEUNESSE VA SE REVOLTER

1915-2015

Nikos Aliagas * a recu Charles Aznavour, sur EUROPE1, pour la
promotion de son nouvel album Encores qui sortira le 4 mai. Il en
a profite pour l’interroger sur la declaration du pape Francois
reconnaissant explicitement le genocide des Armeniens. Selon lui,
les choses devraient changer, sinon “la jeunesse va se revolter”.

Charles Aznavour se rendra en Armenie le 24 avril et donnera 6
representations au Palais des Sports de Paris entre le 15 et le 27
septembre 2015. Le 22 mai, il entrera dans sa 91ème annee. Mais ne
lui souhaitez pas un heureux anniversaire, il n’aime pas trop…

* Sortez du cadre : tous les samedis de 11h a 12h30 sur Europe1

mardi 14 avril 2015, Jean Eckian (c)armenews.com

OBAMA’S HYPOCRISY ON THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Algemeiner
April 14 2015

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Last week, Thomas Friedman of The New York Times interviewed
President Obama about the Obama Doctrine. After two weeks of watching
the President appease the Iranians and then publicly legitimize
dictator Raúl Castro – all while continuing to assail Israel’s
democratically-elected leader Binyamin Netanyahu – we might define
the Obama Doctrine thus: a steadfast refusal to be repulsed by evil.

There seems to be almost no dictator on earth whom the President will
punish for their cruelty to their own people, no autocrat to whom
he will not reach out in the naïve belief that his recognition will
change their behavior. A powerful case in point of the President’s
refusal to identify evil is his broken promise to recognize the
Armenian genocide, the 100th anniversary of which is this month.

Last Sunday, Pope Francis showed moral courage in openly calling for
recognition of “the first genocide of the twentieth century.” Turkey,
run by the increasingly brutal dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
immediately recalled its Ambassador, as befits a bully. Why won’t
President Obama recognize the genocide, especially since he promised
as a presidential candidate that he would do so?

CNN’s Chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper captured the
President’s failure succinctly: “For the sixth year in a row President
Barack Obama has broken his promise to the Armenian community, made
when seeking their votes as a senator and a presidential candidate,
to use the word “genocide” to describe the massacre of an estimated
1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire a century
ago. He did this in deference to the government of Turkey, which –
historical revisionism aside – the Obama administration regards as
a more crucial ally.”

President Obama won’t recognize the genocide of the Armenian people
for fear of provoking the Turkish tyrant.

It was back in January of 2008 that then-Senator Barack Obama said:
“Two years ago, I criticized the Secretary of State for the firing
of U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, after he properly used
the term ‘genocide’ to describe Turkey’s slaughter of thousands of
Armenians starting in 1915. I shared with Secretary Rice my firmly
held conviction that the 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. The
facts are undeniable. An official policy that calls on diplomats to
distort the historical facts is an untenable policy. As a senator,
I strongly support passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution
(H.Res.106 and S.Res.106), and as President I will recognize the
Armenian Genocide”

It doesn’t get much clearer than that. The President’s emphatic
promise that he would recognize the Armenian genocide was followed
by six years of broken promises and obfuscation.

But, the best part is this: President Obama won’t even acknowledge
having broken his commitment. On the contrary, he does verbal
summersaults to show that he has honored it, as he did in April of
2009: “I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915,
and my view of that history has not changed. My interest remains the
achievement of a full, frank and just acknowledgment of the facts.”

And yet, all it would take to acknowledge those “facts” is to simply
use the word “genocide” to describe the Armenian slaughter. Just one
Presidential speech with the word genocide would do it. But Obama
steadfastly refuses to do so.

President Obama later said: “On this solemn day of remembrance, we
pause to recall that ninety-five years ago one of the worst atrocities
of the 20th century began. In that dark moment of history, 1.5 million
Armenians were massacred or marched to their death in the final days
of the Ottoman Empire.”

We hear the word “massacre.” We hear the words “marched to their
death.” But still, he won’t call it what it was and what he promised
to acknowledge: genocide.

“It’s a sad spectacle to see our President,” said Armenian National
Committee of America executive director Aram Hamparian, “who came into
office having promised to recognize the Armenian Genocide, reduced to
enforcing a foreign government’s gag-rule on what our country can say
about a genocide so very thoroughly documented in our own nation’s
archives. We remain profoundly disappointed that he has, once again,
retreated from his own promises and fallen short of the principled
stand taken by previous presidents.”

But Hamparian should not be surprised. An inability to call out evil
has been the hallmark of this presidency. From the President’s recent
visit to Saudi Arabia where he made no mention of the kingdom’s
vast human-rights abuses, to his reconciliation with Cuba without
any demands that they stop the grotesque persecution of political
dissidents, to turning a blind eye to Erdogan’s destruction of Turkish
democracy, to refusing to enforce his red line against Syria when
Assad gassed Arab children –President Obama is the quintessential
leader who hears no evil and sees no evil.

The bigger question about Obama’s refusal to recognize the Armenian
genocide is how this sits with American Ambassador to the United
Nations Samantha Power. I offered significant public support to
Samantha for the position of Ambassador when she was being assailed
by American Jewish leaders for being anti-Israel, and I did it because
of my reverence for her as one of the world’s strongest voices against
genocide. Samantha won the Pulitzer Prize for her 2002 book A Problem
from Hell where she condemned successive American presidents for
doing next to nothing when it came to calling out genocide.

Now that she is an actual part of an Administration that refuses
to acknowledge a genocide, will she speak out? Has she challenged
President Obama about his broken promises on Armenia? Will she pressure
the Administration to do the right thing, or risk becoming part of
the same “problem from hell” for not confronting genocide?

The next few weeks, as the centenary is commemorated, will be telling.

In the final analysis, it was President Obama himself who said in
2008 that “America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about
the Armenian Genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides. I
intend to be that president.” Intentions are meaningless. Action
is everything. Keep your word, Mr. President. More than 1.5 million
victims are waiting.

Shmuley Boteach, “America’s Rabbi” whom the Washington Post calls “the
most famous Rabbi in America,” is the international best-selling author
of 30 books, including The Fed-up Man of Faith: Challenging God in
the Face of Tragedy and Suffering. Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.

SYRIA CONFLICT: A CENTURY AFTER THE ‘GENOCIDE’, ARMENIANS FLEE WAR AND RETURN TO LAND OF THEIR ANCESTORS

Thousands of refugees with Armenian roots are returning, hoping
to start a new life in the shadow of Mount Ararat. 100 years after
the Armenian ‘genocide’, Andrew Connelly, in, speaks to some of the
diaspora who have come home

ANDREW CONNELLY

YEREVAN

Monday 13 April 2015

In his flat on the outskirts of the Armenian capital, Yerevan, Hovig
Ashjian squints through a microscope as he plucks a minuscule shard
of diamond and gently sets it into a silver ring. Originally from
Aleppo, the jeweller moved to Armenia when fighting between militants
and government forces intensified.

“I came here with nothing,” he recalled. “One day I saw the tanks
outside my home and people shouting so I said to my wife: ‘Come on,
better run’.”

They raced to the airport in a drive that was normally 25 minutes
but took three hours as they navigated the myriad roadblocks. They
were just in time to catch what proved to be the last direct plane
from Aleppo to Yerevan.

Mr Ashjian is one of around 15,000 Syrians of Armenian descent the
United Nations estimates have sought refuge in the country since the
Syrian conflict erupted in 2011.

At the end of next week, on 24 April, Armenia – a landlocked former
Soviet nation of three million in the South Caucasus region bordering
Iran and Turkey – will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1915
massacres by the Ottoman Empire of Armenians living in what is now
eastern Turkey. Armenia and some other countries consider those events,
during the First World War, a genocide that led to the deaths of 1.5
million of their people, although Turkey denies this and disputes the
numbers killed. Those not slaughtered escaped, or were marched into
the deserts and beyond, and survivors built sizeable communities in
Syria, Lebanon and across the Middle East.

Yerevan, with a population of one million, is often called “the Pink
city” due to the abundance of rose-coloured volcanic rock used in many
of its buildings, adding a flash of colour to the sea of ramshackle
Soviet-era apartment blocks.

The crowning glory of the city’s skyline is the snowy peaks of Mount
Ararat, believed by Christians to be the final resting place of
Noah’s Ark. Its name is omnipresent in Armenia, from football teams
to cigarette brands and brandy companies, and is a rallying cry to
the global diaspora – made all the more potent by the fact that it
is located just inside Turkey, whose border with Armenia has been
closed for three decades.

As Mr Ashjian speaks, jets can be heard sporadically whooshing
overhead. Russia maintains 3,000 troops at a base in Armenia’s second
city, Gyumri, and also provides Armenia’s air defences. “It’s like
being back in Syria. Sometimes we wonder if they are coming for us!”

says Mr Ashjian with a wry smile. The planes used by the Syrian
regime of Bashar al-Assad, sometimes to bomb its people, are mostly
Russian built.

Around 15,000 Syrians of Armenian descent are estimated to have sought
refuge in the Armenia since the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011(EPA)

Not that everything in Armenia is happy for the refugees from Syria who
have arrived. Finding work is difficult in a country with unemployment
at 21 per cent; the average wage is just £200 a month.

Even aside from the cultural contrasts, there are language problems
for the new arrivals: many diaspora communities speak Western Armenian,
a dialect spoken by their ancestors in the Ottoman Empire.

Although it is fundamentally the same language deep down, it is as
if Britons were welcoming visitors from Shakespearean England.

For Mr Ashjian, however, it is a cautious but hopeful beginning of a
new chapter in his family’s life. “It’s very different because we are
in our land, the land of our ancestors,” he said. “We drew pictures
of Mount Ararat in school but now we can see it with our eyes. Yes,
now it is in Turkey, but it’s a more beautiful view from our side.”

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their forebears were killed in a
1915-16 genocide by Turkey’s former Ottoman Empire; Turkey has the
figure at 500,000 (AFP/Getty)

Beneath Yerevan’s stylish Northern Avenue, in a chilly converted
garage of block of flats mainly populated by Syrian-Armenians,
Ani Balkhian runs the Aleppo NGO. Founded by women from the city,
it assists refugees with housing, employment, children’s education
and language classes. They keep regular contact with Armenians still
living precariously in Syria.

Ms Balkhian and her colleagues recently raised funds for families
in Kessab, an ethnic Armenian town in north-western Syria that was
attacked by al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadists in March last year.

Villagers were kidnapped, churches set alight and cemeteries
desecrated. Kessab was previously the scene of a massacre by Ottoman
forces in 1915 and there is a widespread view amongst Armenians that
last year’s incursion had the assistance, if not direct involvement,
of Turkish authorities – claims vigorously denied by Turkey.

“Armenians were happy in Syria,” she said. “Now everything has
changed. The culture of killing is inside the people now, so how can
you go back, how can you send your children there? We used to dream
that someday we would go to our homeland of Armenia, but then we were
forced to come here. It’s like a second genocide for us.”

Like all those who fled, Ms Balkhian had to leave most possessions
behind. Her home and her family’s textile factories in rebel-controlled
areas were looted, she said, and belongings she tried to ship out have
been stuck at the Syrian port of Tartus for six months. One item she
managed to rescue and transport, a bookcase of carved walnut wood,
dominates her office yet stands bereft of books – emblematic of her
vanished life back in Syria.

Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan ‘meets the Kardashians’,
who are Armenian, in Yerevan this month (AP)

Even so, refugees have begun to transform Yerevan’s cultural life. Its
cuisine has been infused with lamajoun (Arabic-style flatbread pizza),
and sweet-smelling smoke clouds around pavement cafes as Yerevanites
have taken to smoking nargile water pipes. On a Saturday night in
an underground cocktail bar, Aleppo-born singer Rena Derkhorenian
and her all-Syrian band Shiver blast out jazz and soul rhythms to a
writhing crowd.

Ms Derkhorenian thinks the displacement is a chance to build something
new. “Syrian-Armenians and the locals still need to integrate more
but this was our chance to come here and make something of this
land called Armenia,” she said. “A hundred years have passed and now
we need to think differently. This is the time to start something,
especially when we have all the diaspora coming. We need to make room
for each other… and we need to stay.”