Author: Kanayan Tamar

POPE FRANCIS USES ‘GENOCIDE’ TO REFER TO MASS KILLINGS OF ARMENIANS BY TURKS

CNN Wire
April 12, 2015 Sunday 9:01 PM GMT

By Jethro Mullen, CNN

(CNN) — Pope Francis risked Turkish anger on Sunday by using the word
“genocide” to refer to the mass killings of Armenians a century ago
under the Ottoman Empire.

“In the past century, our human family has lived through three
massive and unprecedented tragedies,” the Pope said at a Mass at
St. Peter’s Basilica to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the
Armenian massacres.

“The first, which is widely considered ‘the first genocide of the 20th
century,’ struck your own Armenian people,” he said, referencing a 2001
declaration by Pope John Paul II and the head of the Armenian church.

His use of the term genocide — even though he was quoting from the
declaration — upset Turkey.

The nation summoned its ambassador to the Vatican for “consultations”
just hours after Francis’ comments, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.

Earlier, Turkey summoned the ambassador from the Vatican for a meeting,
Turkish state broadcaster TRT reported.

Turkey’s former ambassador to the Vatican, Kenan Gursoy, told CNN
in a telephone interview that while it is the first time Turkey has
summoned its ambassador home from the Vatican, “This does not mean
that our diplomatic ties with the Vatican are over.”

“Since this is a situation that we do not approve of, as a first
reaction, (the ambassador) is summoned to get consultation,”
Gursoy said, adding that the Pope’s use of the word “genocide” was
“a one-sided evaluation.”

In a tweet Sunday on his official account, Turkey’s Foreign Minister
Mevlut Cavusoglu called the Pope’s use of the word “unacceptable”
and “out of touch with both historical facts and legal basis.”

“Religious offices are not places through which hatred and animosity
are fueled by unfounded allegations,” the tweet reads.

More than a million massacred

Armenian groups and many scholars say that Turks planned and carried
out genocide, starting in 1915, when more than a million ethnic
Armenians were massacred in the final years of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey officially denies that a genocide took place, saying hundreds
of thousands of Armenian Christians and Turkish Muslims died in
intercommunal violence around the bloody battlefields of World War I.

The Armenian government and influential Armenian diaspora groups have
urged countries around the world to formally label the 1915 events
as genocide. Turkey has responded with pressure of its own against
such moves.

Pope Francis said Sunday that “Catholic and Orthodox Syrians,
Assyrians, Chaldeans and Greeks” were also killed in the bloodshed
a century ago.

He said Nazism and Stalinism were responsible for the other two
“massive and unprecedented tragedies” of the past century.

CNN’s Gul Tuysuz in Turkey, Nimet Kirac and Karen Smith in Atlanta
contributed to this report.

US CALLS FOR ‘FULL, FRANK’ RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN MASSACRES

01:10, 15 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

The U.S. on Tuesday called for a complete and fair acknowledgement
of the facts surrounding the 1915 events.

“The president and other senior administration officials have
repeatedly acknowledged as historical fact, and mourned the fact,
that 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their deaths
in the final days of the Ottoman Empire,” State Department acting
spokeswoman Marie Harf told a daily briefing.

“A full, frank and just acknowledgement of the fact is in all our
interests, including Turkey’s, Armenia’s and America’s,” she said.

“Nations are stronger and they progress by acknowledging and reckoning
with pretty painful elements of their past,” she said.

LOS ANGELES PRAYER SERVICE TO COMMEMORATE ARMENIAN KILLINGS

Oroville Mercury Register
April 14 2015

Posted: 04/14/15, 6:44 AM PDT |

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Roman Catholic Archbishop Jose Gomez will host
a multi-denominational prayer service in Los Angeles to commemorate
the 100th anniversary of the killings of an estimated 1.5 million
Armenians under the Ottoman Empire.

The Los Angeles archdiocese says Mayor Eric Garcetti will be the
keynote speaker at the service Tuesday evening at the Cathedral of
Our Lady of the Angels.

The service will include church leaders from around the state and
feature a procession of Armenian children carrying a lantern into
the cathedral.

The event comes days after Pope Francis described the killings a
century ago as “the first genocide of the 20th century.”

Turkey denies the killings were genocide and contends those who died
were victims of civil war and unrest. Turkey also insists the death
toll has been inflated.

KANYE WEST PLONGE DANS UN LAC EN ARMENIE POUR SES FANS

ARMENIE

Kanye West qui plonge dans le lac de Erevan au cours d’un concert. Le
rappeur est sur place depuis mercredi afin de commemorer les cent
ans du genocide. Il voyage en compagnie de son epouse Kim Kardashian,
dont les ancetres sont armeniens et qui prevoit de travailler sur un
documentaire sur l’histoire de son pays d’origine.

>

C’est cette dernière qui raconte sur son compte Instagram comment
Kanye West a voulu faire un concert gratuit a Erevan, la capitale du
pays, et qui a attire des milliers de personnes. >,
a explique Kim Kardashian, heureuse de cette >.

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

EU URGES TURKEY, ARMENIA TO NORMALIZE RELATIONS

Journal of Turkish Daily
April 14 2015

14 April 2015

The European Union has urged Turkey and Armenia to normalize their
relations following a spat prompted by remarks made by Pope Francis
over the events of 1915.

EU foreign affairs spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told reporters in
Brussels on Tuesday: “It is very important in our view for relations
to be normalized as soon as possible between Turkey and Armenia.”

“The (European) Commission encourages both sides to take extra measures
to open the way towards a complete reconciliation,” Kocijancic said.

Pope Francis said on Sunday that “the first genocide of the 20th
century” had struck Armenians – a move that prompted Turkey to
recall its ambassador in Vatican and also summon the Vatican’s envoy
in Ankara.

Turkey and Armenia disagree on what happened between 1915 and 1923,
with Armenia saying that 1.5 million were deliberately killed and
Turkey saying the deaths did not constitute genocide but were a result
of deportations and civil strife.

“In the context of Turkey’s status as a (EU) candidate country we are
following the issue of reconciliation and normalization of relations
with Turkey,” Kocijancic said.

The European Parliament is set to mark the centennial of said 1915
events in Brussels on Wednesday.

14 April 2015

AA

NATIONS THAT RECOGNISE THE ARMENIAN ‘GENOCIDE’

Agence France Presse
April 12, 2015 Sunday 2:20 PM GMT

Vatican City, April 12 2015

Pope Francis on Sunday became the first pontiff to publicly utter
the word “genocide” to describe Turkey’s mass murder of Armenians
100 years ago, following the example of France, Russia and Canada.

Speaking at a mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica to mark the centenary of
the Ottoman killings of Armenians, the pope quoted a written document
signed by John Paul II in 2001, branding the killings as the “first
genocide of the 20th century”.

Immediately afterwards, Ankara summoned the Vatican envoy to Turkey
to request an explanation.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were killed between 1915
and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart, and have long sought
to win international recognition of the massacres as genocide.

Some 20 countries have recognised it as genocide as well as the
European Parliament.

But Turkey rejects the claims, arguing that 300,000 to 500,000
Armenians and as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose
up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

– Recognition –

France was the first major country to recognise the genocide, while
denying it happened is illegal in Switzerland and Slovakia.

However, in December 2013 the European Court of Human Rights said
an arrest over denying the Armenian genocide constituted a breach of
freedom of expression. That decision is now under review.

In April 2014, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — then prime
minister — offered his condolences for the mass killings for the
first time.

In January this year, he said Turkey was ready to “pay the price”
if found guilty of the massacre.

According to Armenian sources, 200,000 people were killed in clashes
with Turks from 1894 to 1909.

In October 1914, the Ottoman Empire was drawn into World War I,
siding with Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

On April 24, 1915, Turkey arrested thousands of Armenians suspected
of hostility to the government.

Two days later a special law was enacted authorising mass deportations.

The Armenian population of Turkey — now branded as “the enemy within”
— in the regions of Anatolia and Cilicia were forced into exile,
and they herded towards the Syrian desert.

Many Armenians were killed on the road and in detention camps.

The Ottoman Empire was dismantled in 1920, two years after the
establishment of a short-lived independent Armenian state in May 1918
that was eventually swallowed up by the Soviet Union and Turkey.

Uruguay recognised the Armenian genocide in 1965, as have the
parliaments of Russia in 1994, Greece in 1996, Italy in 2001,
Switzerland in 2003, Canada in 2004, the Netherlands in 2004, Sweden
in 2010 and Bolivia in 2014. Argentina’s senate recognised it in 2005.

In March this year, 44 US lawmakers introduced a resolution urging
President Barack Obama to recognise the mass killings as genocide.

Armenia is home to some 3.2 people. Eight million others live in the
diaspora, mainly in Russia, the Middle East, Canada, the United States
and France.

burs-ser/fg

GENOCIDE AND ETHNIC CLEANSING IN GREATER EUROPE, 1875-1945

US Official News
April 12, 2015 Sunday

The University of California has issued the following news release:

Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in Greater Europe, 1875-1945

Thursday, April 16, 2015 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm, Bunche Hall Meeting Room
– 6275

A lecture by Donald Bloxham, History, University of Edinburgh

See below for additional information.

Admission

Free and open to the public.

Contact

Center for Near Eastern Studies (310) 825-1181
[email protected] Website

Additional Information

This paper will address some of the most important patterns in
intergroup violence in the title’s spatiotemporal ‘Raum’. It will focus
in particular on the ethno-religious element of such violence, against
the backdrop of the modernisation of Europe and adjacent regions.

The narrative broadly follows the decline and fall of the old
multinational empires, the rise of new nation-states, and then the
rise of new empires in Soviet and especially Nazi form. Eschewing
a directly comparative approach between, for instance, the Armenian
genocide and the Holocaust, it tries to place those events and others
in a broader framework in which geopolitics, economics and the role of
‘great powers’ is to the fore.

Donald Bloxham is Richard Pares Professor of European history at
the University of Edinburgh. He is author of The Final Solution:
a Genocide (Oxford University Press, 2009); Genocide, The World
Wars, and the Unweaving of Europe (Vallentine, Mitchell, 2007), the
Raphael Lemkin-prizewinning The Great Game of Genocide: Imperialism,
nationalism, and the destruction of the Ottoman Armenians (OUP, 2005)
and Genocide on Trial (OUP, 2001). He is co-editor of The Oxford
Handbook of Genocide Studies (OUP, 2010) and Political Violence in
Twentieth Century Europe (Cambridge UP, 2011). He is in the final
stages of completing a manuscript on the role of moral thought in
historianship.

LA REACTION D’EDOUARD NALBANDIAN A LA PRISE DE POSITION DU PAPE

Genocide

L’Armenie a critique la reaction publique de la Turquie vis-a-vis des
propos du pape qui a reconnu officiellement le “premier genocide du
XXe siècle”.

Le ministre des Affaires etrangères, Edouard Nalbandian, a declare que
le pape Francois a prononce un “important message de solidarite et de
soutien au peuple armenien” a la basilique Saint-Pierre dimanche. Le
souverain pontife a egalement exprime son soutien aux efforts
internationaux visant a prevenir de nouveaux crimes contre l’humanite,
a releve Nalbandian dans des commentaires ecrits publies lundi.

Nalbandian a assiste a la messe avec d’autres membres d’une importante
delegation gouvernementale armenienne dirigee par le president Serge
Sarkissian. Les principaux membres du clerge de l’Eglise apostolique
armenienne, les dirigeants des organisations de la diaspora armenienne
ainsi de fidèles armeniens catholiques etaient egalement presents.

Sarkissian a remercie Francois Ier pour la liturgie au cours de leur
courte conversation qui a suivi la ceremonie de 2h30 retransmis en
direct par la television d’Etat.

Le gouvernement turc a, lui, condamne le pontife et a rappele son
ambassadeur au Vatican en signe de protestation.

“Ce sont les mots du chef spirituel de 1,2 milliard de catholiques
dans le monde”, a declare Nalbandian. “Si la Turquie est en desaccord
avec lui, qui rejoint le point de vue de nombreux pays et structures
internationales qui ont reconnu le genocide armenien, c’est le problème
de la Turquie et non de la communaute internationale.”

“Cela montre que la Turquie et la communaute internationale parlent
des langues differentes”, a charge Nalbandian. “C’est une preuve
supplementaire que la Turquie poursuit sa politique negationniste au
niveau de l’Etat, assumant ainsi la responsabilite du crime perpetre
par les autorites ottomanes.”

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

GENOCIDE ARMENIEN : SIGNEZ LA PETITION#REMEMBER24APRIL1915

Publie le : 15-04-2015

Info Collectif VAN – – Une petition en huit
langues, a l’initiative de l’UGAB, l’EGAM et DurDe, est mise en ligne
sur le siteRemember24April1915. En la signant, vous encouragez les
associations et militants turcs des droits de l’homme qui organisent
les commemorations du genocide armenien a Istanbul, Turquie. Le
Collectif VAN apporte son soutien a cette petition et a la delegation
antiraciste europeenne qui se rend a Istanbul le 24 avril 2015. Notre
Association est par ailleurs partenaire officiel des evenements
organises, en cette annee du Centenaire, par l’Association turque
des Droits de l’Homme (IHD), en souvenir du 24 avril 1915, date de
la rafle de 250 intellectuels armeniens a Constantinople. L’IHD,
qui a lance cette annee la Plateforme ‘100e Anniversaire – Mettre
fin au negationnisme’, porte depuis plus d’une decennie le combat en
faveur de la reconnaissance du genocide armenien en Turquie, contre
le negationnisme de l’Etat turc, et a ouvert la voie de la verite,
de la justice et des reparations. Soutenons les democrates turcs
et kurdes qui lancent toutes ces initiatives, sources de progrès et
d’evolution au sein de la societe civile turque.

Remember24April1915

1915-2015 : Commemorons en Turquie le genocide armenien !

Europeens, Armeniens et Turcs s’engagent ensemble

1915-2015. Cela fait cent ans qu’a debute le genocide des Armeniens
dans l’Empire ottoman. Un massacre au cours duquel un million et demi
d’Armeniens ont ete assassines.

Cela fait cent ans, cent ans de trop, que le negationnisme de ce
crime se situe au coeur de la politique et de la diplomatie de l’Etat
turc, qui a ete fonde notamment sur la spoliation des Armeniens et
la destruction de leur culture.

Cela fait cent ans que le negationnisme continue de faire des
victimes, nourrit le nationalisme, alimente des conflits et empeche le
deploiement de la liberte d’expression et de la democratie en Turquie.

Cela fait quelques annees que des voix, de plus en plus nombreuses
et soutenues par la societe civile europeenne, s’elèvent au sein de
la societe civile en Turquie pour reconnaître la realite du genocide
et commemorer en Turquie sa perpetration. C’est dans ce cadre que se
tiennent, depuis 2010, les commemorations en Turquie.

Cette annee, l’Etat turc a cyniquement planifie les commemorations de
la bataille de Gallipoli pour le 24 avril, dans une nouvelle tentative
d’eclipser le genocide armenien. De plus, les autorites turques sont
engagees dans une offensive de charme afin d’eviter un engagement
international pour les commemorations du genocide armenien.

Nous, Europeens, Armeniens, Turcs et Kurdes, qui avons initie,
organise, soutenu ou participe a ces commemorations, appelons tous les
individus epris de verite a commemorer, ensemble et pacifiquement,
a Istanbul le 24 avril prochain le genocide perpetre contre les
Armeniens.

En effet, la commemoration de ce genocide n’est pas l’affaire
uniquement des Turcs et des Armeniens mais de l’humanite entière, et
c’est au sein notamment de la societe turque que se situe aujourd’hui
la ligne de front du combat contre le negationnisme.

Notre demarche partagee est universaliste. C’est une demarche de
solidarite, de justice et de promotion de la democratie, donc d’avenir.

C’est une demarche de solidarite entre tous ceux qui se battent pour la
verite historique. La ligne de clivage n’est pas entre les Turcs et les
Armeniens, mais entre ceux qui combattent le negationnisme et ceux qui
le promeuvent, quelles que soient leurs origines et leurs nationalites.

C’est une demarche de justice. Le genocide est l’acte politique le plus
violent auquel le racisme puisse aboutir et le negationnisme en est
le prolongement. Lutter contre le negationnisme, c’est ainsi lutter
contre le racisme, donc pour une societe plus egalitaire et plus juste.

C’est une demarche de promotion de la democratie. Se souvenir des
disparus est un acte d’humanite et de reparation symbolique qui
s’impose a tous. Le faire en Turquie, c’est y accroître la liberte
d’expression, c’est remettre en cause les fondements-memes du caractère
non-democratique du pouvoir turc.

Ainsi, commemorer en Turquie le genocide armenien permet a tous,
en particulier aux jeunes generations, rassembles autour des valeurs
partagees de la democratie, de se confronter a la verite historique,
donc de pouvoir se projeter ensemble vers l’avenir.

Nous appelons tous ceux qui partagent ces valeurs et cette vision
a nous rejoindre et a commemorer, le 24 avril prochain a Istanbul,
le centième anniversaire du genocide armenien.

Signez la Petition ICI

Lire aussi :

Genocide de 1915 : Programme des commemorations en Turquie

Genocide armenien : Initiatives 2015 a Istanbul et Petition

Istanbul : Concert “In memoriam | 24 avril”

Rejoignez-nous a Istanbul en Avril 2015 !

Projet 2015 : Commemoration internationale du genocide armenien
a Istanbul

Agenda – Reportages sur l’identite armenienne en Turquie : “Aksor,
le retour des enfants armeniens”

Agenda – Blood For Memory : 1.5 millions de dons de sang pour le
Centenaire du genocide armenien

Dossier Collectif VAN : Commemorations du genocide armenien en Turquie
– Avril 2015

Source/Lien : Remember24April1915

LEBANON DEFENSE MINISTER HOSTS ARMENIAN COUNTERPART, ITALY ARMY CHIEF, STL HEAD

The Daily Star, Lebanon
April 14 2015

BEIRUT: Defense Minister Samir Moqbel held separate meetings Tuesday
with the Italian Army chief of staff, the head of the Special Tribunal
for Lebanon, and Armenia’s defense minister.

Moqbel discussed with Lt. Gen. Claudio Graziano military coordination
between the two countries and the activities of UNIFIL’s Italian unit
in south Lebanon, a ministry statement said.

Later in the day, Moqbel met with Ivana Hrdli?kov?, the newly-elected
head of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon investigating the 2005
assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Hrdli?kov? was accompanied by STL deputy chief Judge Ralph Riyashi,
the statement added.

Moqbel’s last visitor was Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian,
who was accompanied by the country’s ambassador to Lebanon and a
military delegation.

Ohanian told reporters that the meeting was “unique and very
important,” saying the discussion was focused on a new defense pact
between the two countries.

The Armenian official invited Moqbel to visit Armenia to continue
talks over possible military cooperation.