Author: nina hovnanian

HUNDREDS OF ARMENIANS PROTEST GENOCIDE AT TURKISH CONSULATE

Los Angeles Times, CA
April 24 2013

By Alene Tchekmedyian
April 24, 2013, 6:23 p.m.

Hundreds of Armenians chanted outside the Turkish Consulate in
Los Angeles on Wednesday to commemorate the massacre of about 1.5
million of their ancestors 98 years ago – a genocide that has yet to
be officially recognized by the U.S.

Chanting “We will fight, we will fight, until the end!” in Armenian,
the large crowd decried decades of denial by modern-day Turkey that
a genocide occurred during the time of the Ottoman Empire.

Among them was Glendale resident Armen Aroutiounian, 19, who called it
“pathetic” that the United States and Turkish governments refuse to
recognize the genocide.

“Armenian people need closure,” he said, adding that he takes part
in the annual protests almost every year. “More voices means more
opinions, and more opinions means more leniency toward recognition.”

Dozens of “Hye Riders” motorcycle club members roared their engines
on Wilshire Boulevard, while cyclists with the Armenian Cycling
Assn. – clad in red, blue and orange cycling suits – sat nearby on
their bicycles.

“We just want our youth to remember and understand it’s part of our
history,” cyclist Edmond Aslanian said.

Also on Wednesday, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) – who for years
has unsuccessfully introduced legislation in the House that would
officially recognize the massacre as genocide – addressed his
colleagues on the floor in Armenian.

His remarks came on the same day President Obama once again did not
use the word “genocide” in his annual statement about the tragic event.

The demonstration in Los Angeles was organized by the Armenian Youth
Federation. Calls to the Turkish Consulate were not returned.

Frustration over the U.S.’ resistance to recognizing the genocide –
and angering a key NATO ally in the Middle East – was prevalent at
a number of commemoration events in the region Wednesday, including
Glendale and Pasadena.

For some, the history and ongoing struggle of the Armenian community
has made them stronger, Aroutiounian said.

“Through bloodshed of innocents is when society grows a lot stronger,”
he said.

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OBAMA REPEATS CALL FOR RECOGNITION OF ARMENIA MASSACRE

Global Times
April 24 2013

US President Barack Obama on Wednesday repeated a call for recognition
of the massacre of 1 million to 1.5 million Armenians at the hands
of Ottoman Turks in 1915.

Despite his past promises, the president again shunned the word of
genocide in his latest observance of what he called “one of the worst
atrocities of the 20th century.”

“Ninety-eight years ago, 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or
marched to their deaths in the final days of the Ottoman Empire,”
he said in a written statement.

“We pause to reflect on the lives extinguished and remember the
unspeakable suffering that occurred,” he noted. “We also remind
ourselves of our commitment to ensure that such dark chapters of
history are not repeated.”

“I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915,
and my view has not changed,” he added. “A full, frank and just
acknowledgement of the facts is in all of our interests.”

The Turkish government has denied the genocide allegations, calling
the perished victims of widespread chaos and governmental breakdown
as the 600-year-old Ottoman Empire collapsed before modern Turkey
was born in 1923.

According to Armenian historians, several hundred Armenian
intellectuals were arrested overnight by the Ottoman Empire on April
24, 1915, most of whom were executed summarily while others were sent
into exile.

Mass deportation of Armenians followed from the eastern regions of
Turkey, and an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed from 1915
to 1923, historians say.

More than 20 countries and 43 US states have officially recognized
the Armenian genocide.

In his past statements to mark the occasion, Obama never delivered
on his 2008 campaign pledge to label the massacre as a genocide,
mindful not to anger a key NATO ally in a volatile region.

He again used Meds Yeghern, an Armenian term, to describe the first
mass killings in the 20th century.

“Today we stand with Armenians everywhere in recalling the horror of
the Meds Yeghern, honoring the memory of those lost, and affirming
our enduring commitment to the people of Armenia,” he said.

CHRISTIAN ARMENIANS VOICE DEEP AFFILIATION TO SYRIA

China.org
April 24 2013

While marking the 98th anniversary of the Armenians’ Martyrs Day,
Scores of Christian Armenians participated in the prayers ceremony
that was held Wednesday in the Syrian capital of Damascus to stress
their deeply- rooted affiliation to Syria.

“The Christians are the sons of this country and our duty is to
encourage dialogue and promote the coexistence between the sons of
Syria and we carry such responsibilities over our shoulders,” Armash
Nalbandian, primate of the Armenian Church of Damascus, told Xinhua
at the Armenian Church in the old quarter of the capital Damascus.

“We are also keen to stay here and also to remember our martyrs across
Syria,” Nalbandian said.

On April 24, 1915, the Ottoman Empire arrested more than 600 Armenian
intellectuals, poets, diplomats and leading figures in Istanbul and
slaughtered them due to growing unrest at that time.

The Armenians have been pushing for Turkey to acknowledge the genocide,
however, Turkish officials acknowledged the death of large numbers of
Armenians but said the overall death toll was exaggerated and that
the deaths occurred in the civil unrest during the collapse of the
Ottoman Empire.

Currently, around 100,000 Armenians live mostly in Syria’s northern
city of Aleppo and about 7,000 others live in Damascus.

After two-years of deadly conflict in Syria, a small portion of
Armenians have chosen to go back to Armenia due to the deteriorating
situation in the war-torn country. “About 6,000 Armenians went back to
Armenia last year and are waiting for the situation in Syria to clam
down and they are determined to come back because Syria for is a home
country the Armenians and they are Syrians of an Armenian origins,”
Arshak poladian, the Armenian ambassador to Syria, told Xinhua during
the ceremony Wednesday.

Vartan Kogahitan, a participant told Xinhua that “every year in
this time, the Armenians and other Christian factions join us in a
prayer for the peace of the martyrs. I would love to go to Armenia,
but here is my country and Armenia comes next.”

The small-scale return of Armenians to their original country has also
come as Syria has engulfed into a sectarian violence with reports of
targeting Christians and Churches as well as other minority groups
in Syria by radical groups.

On Monday, two bishops were abducted while traveling outside Aleppo
city when gunmen cut off their car, killing their driver and snatching
them to unknown location.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday submit a complaint to the UN
Security Council about the kidnapping and accused an armed group
affiliated with the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front of being behind
the abduction.

The ministry underscored that Syria is determined to confront the
organized Takfiri terrorism “which targets its national unity and the
cohesion of its society which is culturally, religiously and ethnically
diverse,” adding that this diversity has been a characteristic of
Syria for hundreds of years and represents a model of coexistence in
the region.

The kidnapping has also raised the ire of Christian communities
nationwide amid conflicting reports about the whereabouts of the
two priests.

Syria’s Christians, who pose 10 percent out of Syria’s Sunni- majority
populations, still showing unwavering support to embattled Syrian
President Bashar Assad after more than two-year of deadly conflict.

Observers believe that the Christians’ backing to Assad emanates
from fear that a regime change could deprive them of the veneer of
protection Assad has long ensured for them.

Damascus still contains a sizeable proportion of Christians, with
churches existing in various areas of the city, mainly in the district
of Bab Touma.

KIM KARDASHIAN: NEVER FORGET THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

GossipCenter.com
April 24 2013

Posted Wednesday April 24, 2013 2:35 PM GMT

Enjoying the spring time weather, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West headed
out for a day in New York City on Wednesday (April24).

Continuing to pull off chic maternity wear, the soon-to-be first time
mom sported a black summer dress and studded sandals while her main
man opted for jeans and a grey button up.

Although Kim’s schedule is always packed with plenty of work
commitments, the Armernian beauty is still making sure to remember
the things that mean most to her.

Taking to her Twitter page earlier in the day, Kardashian wrote,
“April 24, 1915, 1.5 Mil Armenians were massacred! Let’s all please
recognize this day in history! Never forget!

#RecognizeArmenianGenocide.”

Hoping to make the Twitterverse well aware of this sacred day for her,
Kim then added, “Please help me get this trending today! It means a
lot to me! #RecognizeArmenianGenocide Everyone RT.”

ARMENIANS MARK 98TH ANNIVERSARY OF 1915 MASS KILLING

Denver Post, CO
April 24 2013

Armenian communities around the world mark the killing of up to 1.5
million Armenians, on April 24 each year with marches, vigils and
rallies to demand recognition from the world community, and reparations
from Turkey. Wednesday, April 24, 2013 is the 98th anniversary of the
mass killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. Turkey claims
the number of deaths is inflated and says the victims were killed in
civil unrest. Twenty one countries worldwide, including Greece, Russia,
and France as well as the European parliament recognize the mass
killings as an act of genocide, despite strong objections from Turkey.

See photos at

HISTORICAL COMMITTEE UNDER ARMENIAN-TURKISH PROTOCOLS HARM TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION – MP

Gagik Jhangiryan, an Armenian National Congress (ANC) parliamentary
group member, believes that the point on a historical committee in
the Armenian-Turkish protocols affected the process of recognition
of the Armenian Genocide.

“I do not think we are going to see any progress on the 100th or
110th anniversary,” he said.

The Armenian-Turkish protocols afforded many states legal opportunities
to claim the inadvisability of addressing the problem because Armenia
and Turkey signed documents.

“I think that precluded the internationalization of the process,”
Jhangiryan said.

The recognition of the Armenian Genocide by a number of states did
not produce any essential results.

With respect to compensations, he said: “I cannot even say that
recognition will result in territorial claims,” he said.

No one denies the importance of Armenian-Turkish relations.

“Armenia needs good-neighborly relations will all the neighboring
states ” trade ties and an end to blockade,” Jhangiryan said.

THOUSANDS MARK GENOCIDE ANNIVERSARY IN ARMENIA

Channel News Asia, Hong Kong
April 24 2013

Thousands flocked on Wednesday to a hilltop memorial above Yerevan
to mark the 98th anniversary of the mass killings of Armenians in
the Ottoman Empire during World War I which Armenia wants recognised
internationally as a genocide.

YEREVAN: Thousands flocked on Wednesday to a hilltop memorial above
Yerevan to mark the 98th anniversary of the mass killings of Armenians
in the Ottoman Empire during World War I which Armenia wants recognised
internationally as a genocide.

In the annual ceremony broadcast by all national television channels,
huge crowds headed to the memorial that commemorates the massacres
to lay flowers at the eternal flame.

“Today we bow to the memory of innocent victims,” President Serzh
Sarkisian said in a statement.

He attacked modern-day Turkey for refusing to accept that the killings
were genocide — a term strongly rejected by Ankara.

“It is our duty to realise and to bring the attention of the
international community to the fact that denial of the genocide
constitutes direct continuation of that very crime,” said Sarkisian.

On Tuesday night, activists of the nationalist Dashnaktsutyun party’s
youth wing burned Turkish flags and led a 10,000-strong torch-lit
procession in Yerevan.

“Each torch symbolises our eternal fight. The blood of innocent
victims will never be forgotten,” one of the march participants,
23-year-old Ashot Kazarian, told AFP.

Using both diplomatic levers and its influential diaspora abroad,
Armenia has long sought to win the massacre’s international recognition
as genocide.

Last year, a diplomatic row erupted between Ankara and Paris when
France’s then-president Nicolas Sarkozy initiated a law criminalising
denial of the mass killings as genocide.

France’s top court later struck down the law on the grounds that it
infringed freedom of expression.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million people were killed during World War I
as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart, a claim supported by several
other countries.

Turkey argues 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks
died in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman
rulers sided with invading Russian troops.

Over 20 countries have so far recognised the massacres as genocide.

– AFP/sb

SHARING A STORY FROM MY FATHER: IN COMMEMORATION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Current TV
April 24 2013

I. Introduction

Growing up I was always reminded of the Armenian genocide, of my
ancestral history. It was so normal to hear the elders talk about it
that it didn’t really faze me, not until I wrote a research paper on
it in university. That’s when it hit me, and it was devastating.

It became real when I read documented accounts of what had happened
and saw photos of the atrocities. It became real when I came across
a historical novel detailing parts of what had transpired. The
deportations, the concentration camps, the death marches, the
massacres; it all became real when I realized that it wasn’t just
stories my elders were sharing; it was what they lived through. It
was their life story.

I was confused at first. I couldn’t grasp it. I was wounded. Grief,
anger, and frustration took over. I couldn’t focus on anything else
for quite some time. The sense of bonding that I felt with other
Armenians was perplexing. I had never been one to connect with a
certain group. I liked diversity, but delving deep into my community
comforted me. It healed me. It brought me back to life and allowed me
to appreciate the opportunities I was given. Opportunities I tended
to take for granted. It healed me from procrastination.

Slowly I began to let go of the hate. I began to understand that the
people of an entire nation could not be held accountable for what those
in power orchestrated – that would be foolish and irresponsible of
me. I owed more than that to my forefathers, to myself. It took me a
while, but I forced myself to learn the details; that the reasons for
the genocide and the denials, not just of the perpetrators of these
crimes but also of their allies, were just politics and economics;
business as usual in the world of the corrupt, a topic that I do not
wish to discuss in this post.

Today, April 24th, is Genocide Remembrance Day, the day that we
commemorate the victims of the Armenian Genocide from 1915 to 1923.

Today I’ll share with you a short story that my father shared with me.

Today I’ll tell you about what his grandmother shared with him. Today
we’ll take a glimpse into her life. Today I’ll reflect on the
circumstances that made me who I am and set into motion the events
that have brought me to this place at this time.

II. The Story

The story begins in 1915-1916 during one of the death marches from
that period. Inhabitants of certain regions, totaling over a million
Armenians, were ordered to pack up their belongings and head south
towards the Syrian Desert. The pretext was that they were being
relocated for their own safety. The reality was genocide.

These death marches, like all others before and after them, started
off small. Villages were emptied; some would be re-inhabited by a
different ethnicity, some would be razed. Occupants from neighboring
villages were merged into large convoys. The procession would grow.

Days, weeks, and at times months would go by. Countless would drop
dead. Families would be shattered. Children would be lost. Many would
be slaughtered.

My great grandmother’s group was fortunate. At first they were under
the supervision of English and French soldiers. They were safe for
a while. She was 25 years old, had 5 children; 2 boys and 3 girls,
and her husband was still alive.

One night she awoke and saw people running and screaming. Within
minutes she found out that the English and the French were gone,
and that the Turks were coming. Everyone knew what that meant.

She woke-up her husband and gathered the children. They began to
march again, this time without protection. There was no time for rest
anymore. Food and water were in short supply. Stragglers and those
left behind would die.

She was lucky. They were alive and her family was still together. A
few days into the journey though, her luck would change. Her husband
got sick. He carried on for as long as he could but he was slowing
them down, which meant death for him and the children, and rape and
servitude for his beloved.

The story goes that he sat down at a foot of a tree and told her to
leave. There was no other choice. His time had come to an end but
theirs mustn’t. They had to live. They left him some food and water
and continued with their march.

That was the last time that he saw them. It was the last time that the
children saw their father. It was the last time she saw her husband.

Before the death marches began they lived in Nakhchivan Tepe, a village
12 miles north of Urmia, Iran. We don’t know how far towards Syria
they were driven, but after things settled down they went back home,
less one person. They were lucky.

My great grandmother never remarried. She worked and raised the five
children by herself, an amazing achievement for the time. She also
raised many of her grandchildren, my father being one. He called her
mother and remembers her with great fondness, love, and admiration. He
refers to her as the peacekeeper, and from the way I have heard
other family members and family friends describe her, she deserves
the title. Her name was Tarlan, and she was an amazing woman. I feel
sad for not knowing her. I feel sorrow for her pain. I feel pain for
my father’s loss. I feel powerful for being a part of this family.

And that is just one story from the Armenian Genocide.

source:

TIME IN THE WILDERNESS: REMEMBERING THE ARMENIANS

Huffington Post
April 24 2013

Rev. Michelle L. Torigian.

Pastor, St. Paul United Church of Christ, Old Blue Rock Rd., Cincinnati

My grandfather, Azad Torigian, was 6 when the Armenian Genocide began.

He came from Darmon, Keghi, in the area of Ezermun. Sometime in high
school, my family, including my grandfather, began to tell me the
story of his childhood, the nightmare of living through a genocide.

Azad told me of the death around them, of being marched and being
hungry. He spoke of the women throwing themselves and their children
into the Euphrates River to escape the hands of the persecutors. He
told me about his flashbacks from trauma: every time he crossed the
Mississippi River close to where he settled in Illinois, disturbing
visions continued to rush back into his mind, never to completely
disappear.

While attaining my undergraduate degree, I completed further
research into the atrocities of the Armenian people. It went beyond
just displacing an ethnic group. This was ethnic cleansing. People
were marched to their death — toward a hole in the ground in the
wilderness. Women were assaulted. Some were even crucified. People
were killed as they marched to their graves.

In my research and listening to stories, I heard the complexities
of experiences. In my great-aunt and great-uncle’s story, a family
of Kurds who knew my great-grandfather welcomed them into their
home. In a number of stories, unlikely neighbors, some Turkish and
Kurdish families, stood against the oppressive system in love for
their neighbors.

Unfortunately, like so many genocides and atrocities around our world
and even our country, we don’t speak out when seeing people tortured,
mostly because of fear. Azad’s son, my father, taught his social
studies students the quote by George Santayana, “Those who do not
remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” How many genocides have
we heard of in the past 98 years? How does remembering one genocide
stop further massacres from happening?

Because people in our world stopped speaking of the Armenian Genocide,
Adolf Hitler thought he could get away with the Holocaust: “Who,
after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”

When we choose not to remember or share stories, other groups of
people, from Jews in Europe to Muslims in Bosnia, experience the
trauma of exile and annihilation. As time goes on, more survivors of
these genocides die. Without their stories, more and more people deny
these massacres ever happened.

The Armenian Genocide started April 24, 1915. Each year, on or around
that date, I take time to remember the Armenians and the story of my
grandfather. I fellowship with other Armenians to share our common
story.

Remembering stories of genocides connects us to all of humanity. No
group of people should ever be oppressed, beaten and killed for
any reason: for their religion, ethnicity, race, gender, sexual
orientation or disability. When we are able to speak out loud the
stories of those who survived the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and other
violent situations, we stop the spread of oppression in our world.

Speaking the stories of the Armenian and other genocides isn’t
about holding on to hate. Granted, I find myself disappointed when
I hear people denying this genocide happened. But the children and
grandchildren of the oppressors were not the ones committing these
crimes. Like us, they are also children of God.

I believe that we can stand up for the voices of those who survived and
perished in the genocide AND still love those who outright disagree
with us. Matthew 5 recalls Jesus saying, “You have heard that it
was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But
I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute
you, so that you may be sons of your father in heaven.” If we build
relationships with those who disagree with us, maybe they will learn
something from our stories. We will grasp the power to end the cycle
of hate in our world. The power is no longer in the hands of those
who have oppressed but those of us who seek reconciliation.

Even when groups of people or individuals in our society continue to
deny that genocides happen, this will never keep survivors in exile.

Every time we remember, the wilderness is left behind. God is the God
of justice, hope and restoration. As it says in Isaiah 40:4 “Every
valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.”

To those who have survived traumas and those of us who love them,
let us strive to keep stories alive. Let us make sure that our fellow
Armenians and fellow humans never find this wilderness again.

TURKEY’S MUSLIM ARMENIANS COME OUT OF HIDING

Yahoo News
April 24 2013

AFP April 25, 2013, 1:11 am

TUNCELI, Turkey (AFP) – They dropped their language and religion to
survive after the 1915 genocide, but close to 100 years on Turkey’s
“hidden Armenians” want to take pride in their identity.

Some genocide survivors adopted Islam and blended in with the Kurds
in eastern Turkey’s Dersim mountains to avoid further persecution.

Several generations down the road, the town of Tunceli hosted a
landmark ceremony Wednesday for Genocide Remembrance Day, something
which has only ever happened in Istanbul and the large city of
Diyarbakir.

The massacre and deportation of Ottoman Armenians during World War
I, which Armenians claim left around 1.5 million dead, is described
by many countries as genocide although Ankara continues to reject
the term.

Speaking in front of the ruins of the Ergen church — one of the few
remnants of Christian Armenian heritage in the region — Miran Pirginc
Gultekin, president of the Dersim Armenian Association, explained it
was still rare to declare oneself openly as Armenian in Turkey.

“We decided that we had to get back to our true nature, that this
way of living was not satisfactory, that it was not fair to live with
another’s identity and another’s faith,” he said.

Despite converting to Alevism, a heterodox sect of Islam, and taking
Turkish names, the ethnic Armenians who stayed on their ancestral land
suffered from continued discrimination and the elders often struggle
to summon their memories.

“My mother told me how her family was deported. She was a baby at the
time and her mother considered drowning her in despair,” said Tahire
Aslanpencesi, a sprightly octogenarian from the village Danaburan.

“My mother used to say all the misery that came after would have been
avoided had her mother drowned her,” she recalled.

After converting to Islam, many of the so-called “crypto-Armenians”
said they still faced unfair treatment: their land was often
confiscated, the men were humiliated with “circumcision checks”
in the army and some were tortured.

Hidir Boztas’ grandfather converted to Islam, gave his son a Turkish
name and the clan intermarried with a Kurdish community in the village
of Alanyazi.

“We feel Armenian nonetheless and in any case the others always remind
us of where we come from. No matter how many of their daughters we
marry, and how many of ours we give them, they will continue to call
us Armenians,” he said.

The Armenian community shared the Kurds’ suffering when the regime
cracked down on Kurdish rebellions, from the 1938 revolt to the
insurrection started by the PKK group in 1984.

For a long time, only those who had left the ancestral homestead
dared to make their Armenian roots known.

“Armenians in Istanbul are in a big city, they have their
neighbourhoods, their churches, nobody can do anything to them. But in
these villages, there’s rejection and insults,” said Hidir Boztas, 86.

Human rights campaigners gathered Wednesday in downtown Istanbul
carrying portraits of genocide victims.

There were fewer than 200 people there but the protestors stressed
such an event would have been unthinkable only a decade ago.

One of Hidir’s nephews, 42-year-old Mustafa, a businessman, is one
of a growing number of Muslim Armenians who want to be proud of
their identity.

Mustafa has decided to name his construction firm Bedros after Hidir’s
grandfather, who was deported during the genocide.

“It symbolised my past. My great-grandfather was called Bedros, and
I wanted his name to live on. I am against radicalism, and I don’t
do this through racism or religious extremism, but I don’t deny my
origins — everyone knows them.”

He said he hoped the unprecedented ceremony in Tunceli Wednesday
would encourage more members of the community to come out in the open.

“The aim is to allow people to assert their identity more freely and
also to generate more interest for the little Christian heritage left
in the region,” said Miran Pirginc Gultekin.

His society was created three years ago and has around 80 members.

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