Author: nina hovnanian

PRESS RELEASE
Stockholm, 26 April 2014

Union of Armenian Associations in Sweden, UASS
Email: [email protected]
Web:

The Azeri Disinformation Attempts Hits New Desperate Lows

In a news article, published on April 25, the AzeriNews.az site made the
sensational disclosure that the `Armenians’ planned protest in Sweden
fails.’ The scoop was verified with an image showing an seemingly empty
Sergels Torg in Central Stockholm where the UASS had set up the exhibition
posters for `Armenian Genocide and the Scandinavian Response’ together
with the flags of the countries who have recognized the genocide a book
stand etc. The article can be found here

The article confidently citing the State Committee for Work with Diaspora
of Azerbaijan sates that `The protest didn’t take place due to the fact
that no one came to participate in it.’ However, the reporter of the news
seem to have been so eager to send the article that he or she had turned
up on site moment after the organizers set up the posters, the flags, the
banners, the table with the information brochures and books on the
genocide early in the morning hours. Had he or she waited a few more
minutes, he or she would have instead confirmed that the 2014
commemoration was one of the biggest and more diverse in the history of
the Swedish Armenian community history.

Thus, it is our pleasure to comfort the AzeriNews.az editorial board with
the correct information along with the some selected images of each
activity: the commemoration program started with the gathering of several
hundred protesters at Karlaplan (11:00) listening to divine service
performed by Father Yeghise Avetisyan, before moving towards the Turkish
Embassy in Stockholm and holding a rally until 14:30. At the same time,
the members of the clergy, together with the Armenian Ambassador and
members of the UASS Board continued to the Skogskyrkogården Cemetery for
the annual wreath-laying at the grave of the Swedish missionary Alma
Johansson in the memory of her deeds in Western Armenia during and after
the genocide. Then the party travelled to the Vantör Church in Stockholm
where a concert was given to the memory of Komitas Vartapet (13:00). At
16:00, the main program begun when the rally returned from the Turkish
Embassy while other protesters joined at the Sergels Torg to listen to a
number of speakers, among others the Chairman of the UASS Board, Mr.
Garlen Mansourian, the Armenian Ambassador, Mr. Artak Apitonian, The Vice
Chairman of the Union of Assyrian Associations in Sweden, Mr. Tony Meshko,
Father Yeghise Avetisyan and the Swedish Member of the Parliament Hans
Linde (Left), Fredrik Malm (Liberal) and Mats Pertoft (Greens). During the
entire rally at Sergels Torg (11:00 – 19:00) a steady flow of passing by
people visited the exhibition, the book and brochure stand reading,
enquiring information about the genocide and its related events.

Along the commemoration activities in Stockholm, similar commemorations

CBC: ARMENIAN CANADIANS RALLY TO REMEMBER KILLINGS

April 25, 2014

Hundreds of Armenian Canadians rallied in Ottawa Saturday for Turkey
to recognize the killing of 1.5 million Armenians nearly a century
ago as a genocide.

The mass killings by Ottoman Turks began in 1915 and continued for
a decade.

“We are not able to forget that, so we’re going to repeat that each
year,” said Robert Kouyoumdjian, executive director of the Armenian
National Committee of Canada, about the rally. Beginning at noon on
Parliament Hill, the rally led into a march to the Turkish Embassy.

Similar events will be held annually until Turkey stops claiming that
the deaths took place during a civil conflict, Kouyoumdjian said.

“We didn’t fight any war against Turkey. We were part of Turkey,”
said Kouyoumdjian, whose grandfather fought in the Turkish army. He
added that Turkey had created its own version of history — “To make
[us] forget the truth and anything else.”

Turkey has long said the estimated death toll of 1.5 million people
around the time of the First World War is an inflated figure. It also
maintains that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest,
not genocide.

Canada recognized genocide in 2004

Nevertheless, Canada’s House of Commons voted in 2004 to recognize
the killings as genocide. The U.S. foreign affairs committee
endorsed a similar resolution this past March, even though the Obama
administration had urged Congress not to offend Turkey by approving it.

Ottawa police had expected about 1,000 people to turn out for
Saturday’s rally. Speakers included Ottawa-Orleans MP Royal Galipeau
and Scarborough-Agincourt MP Jim Karygiannis, who brought forward
the 2004 private member’s bill leading to Canada’s recognition of
the genocide.

The crowd sang and chanted while waving the red, blue and orange
Armenian flag.

Demonstrators placed flowers around the Eternal Flame before marching
to the Turkish Embassy.

Some of the demonstrators said Armenians today are still strongly
affected by the deaths and by Turkey’s refusal to recognize them as
a genocide.

“We need to fight,” said Cécile Kozadjian, who described herself as
a member of the fourth Armenian generation after the war. “We need
to say that it really did happen and they shouldn’t be in denial
’cause it’s the truth.”

“We need to remember,” agreed Raffi Sarkissian. “That’s the only way
we can end the cycle of genocide and prevent future cases of genocide
anywhere else.”

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

TURKEY WILL RECOGNIZE GENOCIDE ONLY IN CASE ITS STATEHOOD IS ENDANGERED – EXPERT

14:36 25/04/2014 ” REGION

Turkey will recognize the Armenian Genocide only in case its statehood
is endangered, head of the Center of Western Armenian Studies Haykazun
Alvrtsyan told reporters on Friday.

Referring to the Turkish Prime Minister’s statement made on the eve
of the 99th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the expert noted
that the PM’s condolences were addressed to all the peoples that
lived in the Ottoman Empire, including Armenians, who were killed
during World War I.

“Once again, Erdogan voiced the viewpoint of Turkey that there is no
issue of recognizing the Armenian Genocide and that it were citizens
of the Ottoman Empire that died during World War I,” he said.

Alvrtsyan added that Turkey is forming a tradition of denying the
Armenian Genocide every year on April 24.

Source: Panorama.am

ARMENIAN ENVIRONMENTAL NGOS TO HOLD PROTEST AMID CONCERNS OVER SEVAN

11:09 â~@¢ 25.04.14

Several environmental NGOs are organizing a protest later today
to voice concerns over draft legal proposals for increasing the
permissible limits of water release from Lake Sevan and launching
trout fishing industries in the area.

The NGOs, including S.O.S. Sevan, have fears that permission to add
annually 5,000 tons of artificial food to the lake may turn Sevan
into an aquarium.

Speaking to Tert.am, Satik Badeyan, an environmentalist representing
the Territorial Development and Research Center, said the first bill
proposes increasing the amount of the annual permissible water release
limit from 170 million to 240 million cubic meters, with the second
draft justifying the need of using artificial food to grow annually
up to 50,000 tons of trout in the lake.

“Eight scientific-research institutions worked for two years to
elaborate the law ‘On Lake Sevan’. It was decided, as a result, that
170 cubic meters was the maximum permissible water quantity that
could be released; a higher quantity was thought to contributed to
the acceleration of bogging. And Sevan’s level finally increased over
these years, with the bogging process being stopped,” she explained.

The environmentalist said they would not object to the growth of
trout with natural food out of the lake.

“The bogging threat today comes from the organic substance in Sevan,”
she said, adding that the plans for filling the lake with artificial
food could contribute to bogging.

“They are going to fill annually 5,000 tons of artificial food which
contains also modified substances. Anyone having an aquarium will
understand that,” Badeyan added.

Inga Zarafyan, an environmentalist who is also going to join today’s
protest, said in further comments to Tert.am that both legal proposals
are likely cause a big damage to Sevan. She expressed concerns over
a possible decrease of the water level.

“We saw something of the kind in 2012; official records revealed a
decrease by 2 cm. And a decrease in the water level causes bogging. We
say that it has to rise at least to a minimal level every year,”
she noted.

The National Assembly is to debate the controversial bills at its
upcoming session next week.

The protest action will starting Friday noon. The participants will
head to the Sevan-Hrazdan canal and the Sevan National Park from the
town’s ring-shaped square of the. The event will continue on Monday
outside the National Assembly’s building in Yerevan.

ARMENIA’S ‘NONPOLICY’ HELPS RUSSIA’S MIGRATION POLICY – COLUMNIST

14:59 â~@¢ 25.04.14

Columnist Karine Hakobyan believes that while changing its tactics,
Russia is not changing its policy.

Armenia’s response to Russia’s migration policy is “nonpolicy.”

“We are facilitating their policy by our ‘nonpolicy.’ Every time
when people are disappointed with their own country, a new wave of
emigration is recorded,” Hakobyan told journalists on Friday as she
spoke of Russia’s new law on facilitated naturalization.

With respect to Russia’s “Compatriots” program, which allowed tens
of thousands of people to settle down in Russia, Hakobyan said:

“We cannot change Russia’s policy. We must accept them. And we should
look at the map to understand what helped them reach this territory.”

According to her, Russia is pursuing its own territorial interests.

The new law is aimed at developing Russia’s population.

“We need Russia for a certain period, but they are doing their utmost
for people to settle down there,” Hakobyan said.

According to her, Russia needs the best of Armenia’s population.

Armenian News – Tert.am

ADRIEN BRODY, DUSTIN HOFFMAN AND ALAIN DELON TO STAR IN A FILM ABOUT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

YEREVAN, April 25. / ARKA /. A Russian Armenian movie producer Valery
Saharyan is going to make a film about the Armenian Genocide starring
Adrien Brody, Dustin Hoffman and Alain Delon, LifeNews says.

Valery Saharyan is the CEO of Armenia Production. His grandmother
was a genocide survivor.

“She jumped into the burning tandoor (a cylindrical clay oven dug in
the earth used in cooking and baking) being confident that she would
die. But she survived and lived for 111 years, telling all the horrors
she saw with her own eyes to me,’ Saharyan says.

He plans to make Delon a main character of his film titled “Patient”,
which takes place in a psychiatric clinic in Paris. The protagonist is
the Armenian composer Komitas, who after witnessing the horrors of the
genocide, was not able to recover from the shock he experienced. He
died after staying in the clinic for 20 years.

Saharyan recalls a trip to Armenia with Alain Delon, where near a
monument to the victims of genocide the actor was so overcome with
emotion that he broke into tears.

Saharyan recently contacted Serj Tankian, the winner of Grammy and
former head of the System of a Down, who willingly agreed to write
the soundtrack for the future film. The Oscar winner Adrien Brody is
supposed to play the main part in the film. -0-

– See more at:

RESPONSE TO ERDOGAN: A BASELESS DENIAL, REPHRASED

By Contributor on April 24, 2014

Garo Ghazarian, chairman of the Armenian Bar Association and co-chair
of the Armenian Genocide Centennial Commemoration Committee of Western
U.S., wrote the following in response to Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan’s statement on the 99th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide:

The statement by Mr. Erdogan is woefully inadequate. It is nothing
other than a baseless denial, yet again, albeit rephrased.

First, I suggest Mr. Erdogan reviews the elements of the corpus
delicti of the crime as defined by Article 2 of the Convention for
the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Next, I suggest Erdogan evaluates the Turkish government’s policy of
extermination of the Armenian Nation throughout all the provinces.

Following the same pattern, prominent Armenians were arrested and on
the pretext of transferring them to another location, were killed on
the side of the road, then, it was the men’s turn, followed by the
women and children.

Perhaps Mr. Erdogan can explain how the Turkish plan was anything
other than an intentional act to exterminate the Armenian nation.

Specifically, acts such as the destruction of the Armenian male
population; acts such as the tortures Armenians were subjected to
during the Armenian Genocide; acts such as skinning Armenians alive
or having their skin torn off by tongs or skewers; burning Armenians
alive, treating Armenian clergy with particular severity; and killing
Armenian priests through brutal tortures, by tearing out their beards,
blinding their eyes, and cutting off their tongues and noses. Perhaps
he can explain all possible means and instruments which were used
in killing the Armenians: rifles, bayonets, swords, knives, axes,
pitchforks, sickles, spades, ropes, and stones.

All this, in addition to having the Armenians thrown into pits,
drowned in rivers, burned, and buried alive, expose the deliberate
intention and perpetuation of the Armenian Genocide by his ancestors!

In the face of all indisputable historical and documented facts,
Erdogan’s remarks today remind us of the Armenian Proverb: “even a
cooked hen would laugh”–(meaning: his statement is ridiculous).

The statement is a remark by a wolf disguised as sheep, in a desperate
effort to appear to be sensitive, all the while being insensitive,
insulting, patently dishonest, and morally bereft.

As we enter the 100th year of the Turkish Regime’s denialist policy,
Erdogan’s remarks are not fooling the international community.

As for us Armenians, they serve to empower us to press ahead, to
continue to remember, to remind the world, and to demand and strive
for Justice for our Grandparents, the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

Just like the Armenian Proverb aptly states: “the sun won’t stay
behind the cloud,” so too, the truth of the Armenian Genocide,
despite all efforts to deny it by Turkey.

Erdogan and Turkey should try to pull their heads from the sand and
face the truth, if they can muster the intestinal fortitude to abide
by the universal moral compass.

We shall never forget. What our minds know, our hearts will forever
draw from, and we will pass it on to our children and our grandchildren
for eternity.

We remain resolute to seek and achieve our objectives:

Recognition, Restitution, Reparations, and Respect for the memory of
the Martyrs of the Armenian Genocide at the hands of Genocidal Turkey
99 years ago.

Garo Ghazarian Chairman, Armenian Bar Association Co-Chair, Armenian
Genocide Centennial Commemoration Committee of Western U.S.

SHIRINIAN: TEXT OF ERDOGAN’S STATEMENT WAS WRITTEN IN BRUSSELS AND US

Friday,April 25

The text of the statement that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan made on the eve of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day was
written in Brussels and the U.S., political scientist Levon Shirinian
said.

“It is naïve to think that Turkey will recognize the Armenian
Genocide. Turkey will not recognize the Genocide as long as it
poses no threat to superpowers. It is not advantageous to them now,”
Shirinian noted.

According to him, Turkey will take such a step if ‘the balance around
that country changes”.

GENOCIDE ARMENIEN : DES EXCUSES EN DEMI-TEINTE

REVUE DE PRESSE

Les condoléances présentées par le Premier ministre turc sont bien
loin d’une reconnaissance du génocide, regrettent les associations
de défense de la cause arménienne.

Le Premier ministre turc, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a présenté mercredi
23 avril les condoléances de la Turquie ” aux petits-enfants des
Arméniens ” victimes des massacres survenus sous l’empire ottoman,
entre 1915 et 1917. Pour le Bureau francais de la cause arménienne
(BFCA), il s’agit d’une déclaration stratégique, qui intervient a la
veille des commémorations du génocide arménien. C’est la première
fois que la Turquie parle de ” condoléances ”, ” mais il n’y a
pas du tout de revirement dans le fond ”, d’après le BFCA. ” Quand
on lit en détail le contenu du communiqué, on se rend compte que les
propos d’Erdogan restent inchangés. Erdogan ne fait jamais référence
au génocide. Il parle seulement de massacres de populations. On ne
qualifie jamais le crime de guerre comme tel ”, surenchérit Tania
Babanazarian, responsable au Bureau francais de la cause arménienne,
dans le Nouvel Observateur. Cette déclaration intervient a la veille
des commémorations du génocide, et a un an du centenaire. Après
les troubles a l’ordre public survenus dans le pays l’an dernier,
Erdogan tente d’apaiser la société civile, ” surtout que demain,
il y a une commémoration place Taksim a Istanbul ”.

Le génocide est reconnu par 21 pays dans le monde, dont la France,
les U.S.A et la Russie.

vendredi 25 avril 2014, Stéphane ©armenews.com

PARTI COMMUNISTE FRANCAIS : ” LE PROGRES EUT ETE DE RECONNAITRE LE CRIME DE GENOCIDE ”

Erdogan/Génocide

Le 24 avril 1915 débutait le génocide de la communauté arménienne
de l’empire ottoman. Les conséquences en furent dramatiques : 1,5
million de tués, des milliers de déportés et la totalité de leurs
biens confisqués.

Ce génocide n’a toujours pas été reconnu par le gouvernement
turc qui l’a perpétré. Il n’a pas été sanctionné et il connait
aujourd’hui encore une campagne de communication négationniste.

Cette absence de reconnaissance continue a alimenter les haines
contre les Arméniens mais aussi contre toutes les minorités comme
les Kurdes ou les Alévis.

En dépit de cette posture, les communautés arméniennes, les forces
démocratiques et notamment une part croissante de la société civile
turque organisent des commémorations pour faire face au discours
officiel. Le clivage n’est pas entre les peuples arménien et turc
mais entre le négationnisme et la démocratie.

Le premier ministre R. Erdogan a présenté les condoléances de la
Turquie aux petits enfants des Arméniens tués en 1915. Si l’approche
se veut moins agressive, elle ne constitue pas une nouveauté. Le
progrès eut été de reconnaitre le crime de génocide.

Le PCF, constant dans son engagement, salue la mémoire des victimes
et s’associe a la douleur de toute une communauté. Il continuera
a Ŕuvrer pour que vérité et justice soient rendues au peuple
arménien.

vendredi 25 avril 2014, Stéphane ©armenews.com