Author: Kanayan Tamar

PRESS RELEASE
Sara Corning Centre for Genocide Education
CONTACT: Raffi Sarkissian
TELEPHONE: 647-206-4769
E-MAIL: [email protected]

April 26, 2013

Sara Corning Centre for Genocide Education Launched in Toronto

TORONTO – March 26, 2013, saw the public launch of the Sara Corning Centre
for Genocide Education, a Toronto-based institute founded in September 2012.

The centre is named after Sara Corning, a Nova Scotian nurse best known for
saving 5,000 Armenian orphans when Turkish troops set fire to the port city
of Smyrna in 1922. In appreciation for her humanitarian work, Greece’s King
George II awarded Corning one of his country’s highest civilian honours a
year later.

Continuing in Corning’s tradition, the centre was established to conduct
and promote research on human rights- and genocide-related issues for
elementary and secondary school students and educators.

`We believe that education in these fields is effective in ensuring
Canadian students become engaged in civic life, advocate for their own
rights and those of others, and remain aware of the consequences of
discrimination,’ explained Founder and Chair Raffi Sarkissian. `Education
is the most effective means for fostering a society with a strong sense of
social justice and respect for human rights. We have an obligation to
ensure that our students learn to play their part in upholding human rights
in Canada and abroad,’ he continued.

Daniel Ohanian, Director of Research, said of the centre’s two-pronged
approach, `Our research on issues surrounding equity and discrimination
seeks to keep Canadians informed and aware of issues – both historical and
current – that shape and affect our world. Our educational initiatives
focus on developing teacher training and workshop opportunities, program
development for schools, classroom visits, public lectures and
presentations, and the development of teacher and student resources.’

The organization has already led a teacher training workshop, made several
classroom visits, published a commemorative poster, and presented an
exhibit titled 90 Years: The Arrival of the Georgetown Armenian Boys. The
latter celebrated the 90th anniversary of the arrival of the first
contingent of a group of 109 child survivors of the Armenian Genocide who
were brought up in and around Georgetown, Ontario.

The Corning Centre’s public launch was accompanied by the publication of
its Facebook page (), Twitter feed (
), and website (), which
can be used to access teacher resources, book classroom visits, arrange
public presentations, and subscribe to the institute’s mailing list.

PHOTO CAPTIONS
Canada We Thank You – Georgetown Armenian Boys thanking Canada
Corning Centre Logo – Sara Corning Centre for Genocide Education logo
Sara_Corning – The centre’s namesake, nurse Sara Corning

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

“WE DEMAND THET TURKEY RETURN OUR CHURCHES AND ALL OTHER CONFISCATED
PROPERTIES”
SAYS HIS HOLINESS ARAM I

On Wednesday 24 April 2013, after the Holy Liturgy and the Memorial Service
in front of the Martyr’s Chapel, His Holiness Aram I addressed the thousands
of people who had come to honour their martyrs.

The Catholicos said, “The memory of our one-and-a-half million martyrs of
the 1915 Genocide, organized and implemented by Ottoman Turkey, calls us
today to break our silence and demand that Turkey return all property
belonging to our church, our nation and our people, including homes, lands,
religious and cultural artefacts and other valuable objects, to their legal
owners.” He then asked, “How can we remain silent in front of such a tragedy
and injustice?”

The Catholicos then continued, “According to the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, all international and regional covenants and instruments, and
the Convention on Genocide, genocide is a crime against humanity, and its
perpetrators must be punished. We have already seen the response of the
international community to the Holocaust and the genocide in Rwanda and
Bosnia Herzegovina..”

Referring to the Armenian case, His Holiness said, “We should adopt a
three-pronged approach: historical, political and legal. Historically, the
Armenian Genocide need not be proven any more. However, we should continue
to identify new documents that governments open to the public for study and
documentation. Politically, our institutions, Armenian Cause committees and
research institutions should continue their valuable advocacy work. We
should now focus on our legal claims. The Catholicosate of Cilicia owns a
large number of Churches: 12 in Adana, nine in Alexandretta, six in Ayntab,
10 in Fernouz, 26 in Gurun, eight in Hadjin, 23 in Malatya, 24 in Marash, 11
in Payas, seven in Sis, 43 in Yozgat and 14 in Zeytoun. The Catholicosate of
Cilicia also owns 15 Monasteries, more than a hundred schools, cultural
centres, farms, shops and agricultural lands. The current list does not
include the properties owned by our people. Catholicos Aram I then asked:
How could Turkey believe that it could gain access to the European Union in
the face of such a blatant injustice? How could it defend democracy and
people’s rights? How could it speak of interreligious and intercultural
dialogue when it denies the Genocide and transforms churches into mosques?

Aram I added, “Our people, the government of Armenia, our religious
institutions and our political organisations should combine their efforts to
demand the legal rights of our people to their confiscated properties. This
is our inalienable right and the legacy we inherited from our martyrs.” His
Holiness then announced that the Catholicos of All Armenians, Holy See of
Etchmiadzin, and the Catholicos of Cilicia, in a joint statement, have
demanded the following::

1. That Turkey recognize the Armenian Genocide
2. That Turkey compensate Armenians for all their losses in human lives
and human rights
3. That Turkey return the Armenian churches, monasteries, church
properties and all spiritual and cultural monuments to their rightful and
legal owners, the Armenian people.”

The Catholicos concluded, “The late Catholicos Sahak was forcefully removed
from his See in Cilicia; our people were massacred, subjected to all forms
of violent acts, deported from their homes and deprived of their churches,
schools and family properties. Therefore, as the Catholicos of Cilicia, it
is my moral responsibility to demand, through political and legal channels,
that Turkey return our churches and church properties. Turkey is the
successor of the continuing state of the Ottoman Empire that committed the
Genocide against one-and-a-half million Armenians and appropriated our
properties and possessions. Therefore, Turkey is responsible for the acts of
the Ottomans.”
##
Photos:

ISRAELI OFFICIAL: WE HAVE MORAL OBLIGATION TO REMEMBER HUMAN TRAGEDIES

April 24, 2013 – 09:18 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Both coalition and opposition members of the Knesset
on Tuesday, April 23 commemorated the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman
Turks, despite Israeli government’s efforts to patch things up with
Turkey over the raid on the Gaza flotilla three years ago in which
eight Turkish nationals died, Haaretz reports.

During and after World War I, about 1.5 million Armenians died;
the anniversary of the killings is marked on April 24. Because of
Jerusalem’s past close relations with Ankara, the government has
never officially recognized the events as genocide, Haaretz says.

“How many of us are really familiar with the Armenian holocaust? Why
are we indifferent when Turkey does not take responsibility?” said
MK Ayelet Shaked (Habayit Hayehudi). “We must confront our silence
and that of the world in the face of such horrors. No country stood
by the Armenians. No one cared about the genocide in Rwanda.”

MK Israel Hasson (Kadima) called on his colleagues to support
the Armenian people. “We’ve formed an Israeli-Armenian friendship
association, and I call on any MKs who want to express solidarity
to join it, even if the government has difficulty formulating a
statement.”

MK Reuven Rivlin (Likud), a former Knesset speaker, said “Turkey is and
will be an ally of Israel. The talks with Turkey are understandable
and even necessary from a strategic and diplomatic perspective. But
those circumstances cannot justify the Knesset ignoring the tragedy
of another people.”

MK Zahava Gal-On (Meretz) referred to the reconciliation talks with
Turkey as “an important and strategic process that I wholeheartedly
support, but it needn’t influence recognition of the massacre of
the Armenian people. It’s not that we have to either recognize the
genocide or have relations with Turkey; we can do both. The link
between the two harms Israel and its foreign relations.”

Ofir Akunis, a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, said
that “as Jews and Israelis we have a moral obligation to remember
human tragedies. One of them was the massacre of the Armenian people.

The State of Israel has never denied these terrible events.”

According to Akunis, “Investigating the related events must be done
through open debate, not by political declarations.”

In the end, the MKs decided that the Knesset House Committee would
choose which committee would conduct a broader debate on the issue.

APRIL 24: ARMENIANS MARK 98TH ANNIVERSARY OF GENOCIDE

Genocide | 24.04.13 | 13:59

Photolure

Armenians in Armenia and around the world today remember the victims
of the Genocide committed in Ottoman Turkey nearly a century ago.

More than 1.5 million Armenians were massacred in 1915-1918 in what
became the first genocide of the 20th century.

Tens of thousands of people have marched silently to the hilltop
Genocide Memorial at Tsitsernakaberd in Yerevan today to pay respect
to the memory of innocent victims of the slaughter and deportations
that have been recognized as genocide and condemned by more than two
dozen world governments and many leading international organizations.

Turkey’s successive governments, however, have refused to admit that
their ancestors committed genocide against Armenians.

“It is our duty to realize and to bring the attention of the
international community to the fact that denial of the Genocide
constitutes direct continuation of that very crime and that very crime
is being carried out in modern Turkey,” said Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan in a message addressed to the nation on the 98th anniversary
of the Genocide.

“We, as a state and as a nation, in every corner of the world have
been and will be fighting against all and every manifestation of the
most horrendous crime against humanity – genocide, be it xenophobia
or extermination, nonchalant silence or denial. We will fight with
fervor because our standing as the people who had survived compels
us to,” the Armenian leader emphasized.

Sargsyan as well as many representatives of the Armenian government,
members of the opposition, other statesmen and church dignitaries
have also visited Tsitsernakaberd to lay wreaths and flowers at the
memorial and pay homage to the Genocide victims.

GROUP OF YOUNG PEOPLE BURNT TURKISH FLAG IN ALEPPO

18:53, 24 April, 2013

YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS: A group of young people has burnt
the Turkish flag in Armenian populated Nor Gyugh district of Aleppo,
expressing their protest against the denial policy of Turkey regarding
the recognition of Armenian Genocide. Armenpress was informed from
Press Secretary of the Armenian National Prelacy Jirair Reisian.

“Armenian Genocide victims’ commemoration ceremony is taking place
at the moment in Aghajanian Hall with participation of Armenian
community. In Nor Gyugh district a group of young people had an
opportunity to show their protest against Turkey, burning the flag
of the country,” Reisian said, underlining it was a preplanned event
and that youth made it on its initiation.

He also informed that events dedicated to 98th anniversary of Armenian
Genocide had been concluded in Aleppo. On April 24 all Armenian shops
and workplaces have been closed, in order to respect the memory of
the victims of Armenian Genocide.

The crime committed against Armenians in 1915 was the first Genocide
of 20th century. 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, and Australia.

ARMENIANS OF BEIRUT URGED TURKEY TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

18:48, 24 April, 2013

YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS: During the march on occasion of Armenian
Genocide anniversary thousands of Armenians in Lebanese capital Beirut
urged Turkey to recognize Armenian Genocide. As reports Armenpress,
referring to dailystar.com, participants of the event were holding
anti-Turkish posters and singing Armenian songs. “Turkey has to
recognize Armenian Genocide and make some compensation steps,” Paul
Halebian said.

There is an Armenian community of 200,000 people living in Lebanon
with 5 Armenian ministers in the country.

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, and Australia.

AZERBAIJANI WRITER ISSUED CONDOLENCES OVER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ON BEHALF OF “REASONABLE AZERBAIJANIS”

18:05, 24 April, 2013

YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS: Azerbaijani writer Eduard Bagirov
expressed his condolences over the victims of Armenian Genocide. As
reports Armenpress, Bagirov wrote in his web site.

“On behalf of reasonable Azerbaijanis living in Moscow I express my
deepest condolences on the occasion of Armenian Genocide anniversary
committed in 1915,” writer noted.

The crime committed against Armenians in 1915 was the first Genocide
of 20th century. 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, and Australia.

EVENTS DEDICATED TO 98TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ARE HELD IN KAZAKHSTAN

16:30, 24 April, 2013

YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS: On April 22-24 different events
dedicated to the 98th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide were held
in all the 14 Armenian communities of Kazakhstan. As Armenpress was
reported by the Department for Press, Information and Public Relations
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, wreaths
were laid at the cross stone in the area of the Armenian Luys Center,
located in Almaty, and a burial service was organized in the Saint
Karapet Church.

Commemoration events were held also in Astana, Qostanay, Oskemen and
other cities of Kazakhstan.

Events dedicated to the Remembrance Day of the Armenian Genocide
were organized also in Bishkek, attended by the Armenian community
of Kyrgyzstan.

On April 24 it is the 98th anniversary of the remembrance of the
innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide. On the international
political level it will be clearer, what developments to expect
from the capitals of the world before the 100th anniversary in the
recognition and condemnation issues of the Armenian Genocide, which
occurred in 1915 and to what results the Armenia’s policy might bring.

The entire series of the documents, proving the fact of the mass
massacres of the Armenian people in 1915-1923 in the Ottoman Turkey
as a premeditated and thoroughly executed act of genocide, is enormous.

The Armenian Genocide was recognized by different organizations, such
as the European Council, the European Parliament, some commissions
of the UN Organization, the World Church Union, etc.

The Armenian Genocide was recognized by many states. The first
country to officially recognize the Armenian Tragedy was Uruguay in
1965. The massacres of the Armenian people were officially condemned
and recognized as a genocide, in accordance with the international
law, by France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland,
Sweden, Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Greece, Slovakia, Cyprus, Lebanon,
Uruguay, Argentina (2 laws and 5 draft bills), Venezuela, Chile,
Canada, Vatican, and Australia.

SHARMAZANOV: POSITION OF TURKEY DOES NOT INSPIRE OPTIMISM

Wednesday,
April 24

“Turkey will recognize the Armenia Genocide sooner or later, they
cannot lie endlessly,” the vice speaker of Armenian parliament Edward
Sharmazanov told reporters at Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex.

In his words, only 15 years ago nobody in Turkey spoke about the
Armenian Genocide, whereas today this issue is discussed by Turkish
intelligentsia.

He underlined the necessity of fighting for human rights so that such
crimes will not be committed anymore. “Yet the position of Turkey does
not inspire optimism,” Sharmazanov said, adding that any changes in the
thinking of the Turkish authorities will hardly occur within two years.

He expressed an opinion that Turkish statesmen should follow the
example of their intelligentsia who accepted the dark pages of their
history.

TODAY, 15:13

Aysor.am

ITALY’S AMBASSADOR HOPEFUL TURKEY WILL RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

April 24, 2013 | 15:03

YEREVAN.- Italy’s Ambassador to Armenia Bruno Scapini said a country
striving for democracy and universal values must recognize the crimes.

On Wednesday Ambassador Scapini visited Memorial to the Armenian
Genocide victims. Talking to reporters, he expressed hope that Turkey
will recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Ambassador noted that every year on this day he pays tribute to the
innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide and shares Armenians’ pain.

The fact of the Armenian Genocide is recognized by many states. It was
first recognized in 1965 by Uruguay. In general, the Armenian Genocide
in Ottoman Turkey has already been recognized by Russia, France,
Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia,
Switzerland, Sweden, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Canada, Venezuela,
Argentina, and 42 U.S. states. Armenian Genocide was recognized by
the Vatican, European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am