Author: nina hovnanian

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE DAY AND THE PRESIDENT’S NEW INITIATIVE
By Nina Shea

National Review Online

April 24 2012

Yesterday, at a commemorative event at the Holocaust Museum here in
Washington, President Obama announced a new initiative – the creation
of a committee to be named the “Atrocities Prevention Board.” This
group is supposed to build on the president’s 2011 directive to
prevent and stop genocide and other mass atrocities.

As Mark noted below, today, Obama’s resolve will be put to an
immediate test, because it’s Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. Will
the president or his new committee dare to speak up? This is the
fourth chance Obama has had as president to acknowledge this other
holocaust. As a presidential candidate, he excoriated the Bush
administration for failing to speak up about the Armenian genocide,
yet his administration has also remained silent.

Some 1.5 million Armenians are estimated to have been slaughtered in
Turkey as Ottoman rule collapsed between 1915 and 1923. About 750,000
Arameans or Assyrians and 350,000 Pontic Greeks are also thought
to have perished during this period. (For an unforgettable account
of the ordeal of this last group, whose story is not generally well
known, read Thea Halo’s Not Even My Name.) These Christian populations
were victimized under a radically secular movement of “Young Turks”
that had risen up and set in motion a “Turkification” program which
shaped in no small part Ataturk’s government and is reflected in some
of Turkey’s current laws and policies.

Today, Christians, who have been reduced to a mere 0.15 percent of
Turkey’s population, are treated as a fifth column by the state,
thwarted in their ability to preserve their churches. All of Turkey’s
Christian traditions still face tight restrictions: rules against the
possession of churches, bans against seminaries to train new clergy,
and prohibitions from wearing religious garb in public. And while
the government recently gave back a Greek Orthodox orphanage (though
there are no longer orphans to reside there), and allowed liturgies
to be carried out once a year in a few long-confiscated churches,
last year it also oversaw the strategic continuation of oppressive
patterns: the state confiscation of part of a 1,600-year-old Syriac
monastery and the conversion of the Nicean Saint Sophia church,
where the first Christian Ecumenical Council met in 325, into a mosque.

After ten years in power, the Islamist AKP government has failed
to rescind the onerous regulations that are contributing to take
a toll on the country’s 2,000-year-old Christian church. Not only
has Turkey never acknowledged the genocide of a hundred years ago,
it still criminally punishes those who even try to raise it.

The late Armenian editor Hrant Dink was one example. Dink’s writings
criticizing Turkey’s treatment of its Christians and other minorities
brought him a conviction under Article 301 of the criminal code for
“insulting Turkishness.” Also, his widow told me, Dink received over
6,000 death threats before being murdered in 2007. Last January, most
of the defendants in the murder trial were acquitted, and many in
the international human-rights community concluding that the court’s
failure to find a broader plot defied the evidence.

These facts, and others, led the congressionally established U. S.
Commission on International Religious Freedom to issue last month
a recommendation to the Obama administration to designate Turkey
as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) under the International
Religious Freedom Act. Revealingly, the three commissioners appointed
by President Obama all voted against this non-binding recommendation.

Furthermore, a political appointee in the State Department “reached
out” to influence another member of the “independent” Commission to
change his vote, though it came too late. (Since the Uscirf vote
stirred some controversy, it bears noting that the Commission’s
General Counsel issued a legal opinion upholding the vote for the CPC
recommendation. It found: “In the absence of a quorum, the Commission
cannot revise the previously-agreed upon schedule for submitting
comments and/or dissents and cannot re-open the previously-adopted
country designation for Turkey.”)

At Monday’s Holocaust Museum ceremony, President Obama uttered fine
words about a noble goal – preventing genocide. Michael Abramowitz,
director of the Committee on Conscience at the Holocaust Memorial
Museum, responded that the steps Obama outlined “are potentially –
and I stress the word potentially – very important.” He is right to
be cautious. This cause is too critical to be exploited as a campaign
tactic. The president must be willing to take action on the hard cases,
including Turkey.

Instead of embittered words and acts of denial – which include
threatening other countries whose legislatures and parliaments wish to
recognize the Armenian genocide – Turkey, an emerging leader in the
Muslim world, needs to face up to the horrors that were unleashed a
century ago and offer apologies. President Obama should take the lead
in encouraging Ankara to cooperate in an open, impartial investigation
into what exactly occurred during this period, not least because those
historical events cast a shadow over Turkey’s religious minorities
even now. Today would be a good day to start.

– Nina Shea is the director of Hudson Institute’s Center for
Religious Freedom and a former commissioner on the U.S. Commission
on International Religious Freedom.

NEWSMAKER: MHEIR KARAKACHIAN ON THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

CTV.ca

April 24 2012
Canada

MONTREAL – Every year Armenians and those of Armenian descent around
the world use April 24 to mark the anniversary of a genocide.

On this day in 1915 the Ottoman Empire, now known as Turkey, arrested
hundreds of intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople.

Soon after more than one million Armenians had perished, either
because of executions, or deaths during forced marches.

Mheir Karakachian is a history teacher and vice-president of the
Armenian National Committee of Canada.

“Today 20 states have recognized the Armenian genocide,” said
Karakachian.

“It’s not the recognition of the state that matters. We’re working
everywhere. We have advocacy groups.”

For the full interview, click the video player to the right.

PASADENA MAYOR BILL BOGAARD: ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ‘ONE OF THE WORST ATROCITIES OF THE 20TH CENTURY’

Pasadena Sun

April 24 2012
CA

Armenian Community Coalition chairman Patrick Chahinian gets a
proclamation… (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)April 24, 2012Nearly 200
people came to Pasadena City Hall Tuesday to commemorate the Armenian
genocide and to make the memory of the human rights atrocity a force
for greater peace and tolerance.

Pasadena was one of several cities to host a ceremony on April 24,
the date when communities with a large Armenian presence honor the loss
of more than one million lives to Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1923.

This year marks the 97th anniversary of the start of the violence.

ARMENIANS AT HOME AND AROUND WORLD MARK GENOCIDE ANNIVERSARY
by Naharnet Newsdesk

NaharNet

April 25 2012
Lebanon

Armenians around the world Tuesday marked the 97th anniversary of the
World War I massacre of their ancestors by Ottoman Turks, rekindling
anger at Turkey for denying the deaths were genocide.

Thousands took part in an annual procession to a hilltop memorial
in the Armenian capital Yerevan, carrying candles and flowers to lay
at the eternal flame at the center of the monument commemorating the
mass killings in what was then the Ottoman Empire.

“Today we, just as many, many others all over the world, bow to the
memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian genocide,” President
Serzh Sarkisian, who led officials laying wreaths at the monument,
said in a statement.

“This day is one of those moments when the entire nation rallies
around the unification of our homeland,” he said.

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 many
historians and several other countries.

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

U.S. President Barack Obama called for “a full, frank, and just
acknowledgment of the facts” of the “brutal” killings.

While denouncing the 1915 massacre as “one of the worst atrocities
of the 20th century,” Obama did not use the term “genocide,” but he
implicitly called for Turkey to acknowledge the role of its Ottoman
forefathers.

In Yerevan, 75-year-old Tsovinar Tumasian was among those in the
procession.

She said her father had fought to save women and children from Turkish
attacks and urged other countries to pressure Turkey to accept the
killings as genocide.

“If they are not forced to do so, they will not recognize the genocide
as fact. They think that with time, everyone will forget about it,”
Tumasian told Agence France Presse as her relatives helped her make
her way up the hill towards the monument.

The annual commemoration comes after the dispute between Armenia and
its neighbor Turkey was reignited by French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s
recent attempt to bring in a law criminalizing denial of the genocide.

After a diplomatic row erupted, France’s top court struck down the
law in February on the grounds that it infringed freedom of expression.

Both Sarkozy and his rival presidential candidate Francois Hollande
marked the Armenian anniversary in Paris by attending a ceremony and
expressing support for the passage of a newly-worded bill that would
outlaw genocide denial. France is home to a large Armenian community.

In Lebanon, meanwhile, thousands demonstrated in a suburb of the
capital Beirut and denounced Turkey’s efforts to expand its influence
in the Middle East.

“Can a nation that fills its prisons with human rights advocates and
journalists lecture others on the imperative to champion democratic
principles and human rights?” asked Patriarch Aram I at a ceremony
at the main Armenian church in the suburb of Antelias.

Lebanon has the largest Armenian community in the Arab world, the
majority of whom are descendants of those who survived the mass
killings.

In Turkey’s largest city Istanbul, hundreds of Turkish, Armenian and
Kurdish protesters demonstrated in the central Taksim square.

“We are here to say this pain belongs to all of us … We are trying
to share the pain of Armenians,” said Senol Karakas, a spokesman for
the group.

The Yerevan procession was broadcast throughout the day on all
Armenia’s national television channels, accompanied by sombre music,
documentary footage about the massacres and eyewitness accounts
from survivors.

The night before the commemoration, more than 8,000 people led by the
youth wing of the nationalist Dashnaktsutyun party held a torch-lit
march through central Yerevan, where a group of activists staged
their now-traditional burning of a Turkish flag.

“Our action is a protest, a cry of indignation,” said one of the
marchers, student Hamayak Serobian, demanding that Turks recognize
“the brutality of their ancestors”.

In Jerusalem, hundreds of Armenians marched to the Turkish consulate.

They carried the red, blue and orange national flag of Armenia,
and held up placards bearing black and white photographs of piles of
dead bodies, and slogans reading: “Turkey guilty of genocide,” and:
“Fight to stop the Turkish denial machine.”

SOAR OPENS CHAPTER IN JAVAKHK

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 24, 2012 – 10:24 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – A Chapter of the Society for Orphaned Armenian Relief
(SOAR) opened in Javakhk in April 2012 as a first SOAR division in
the former soviet republic of Georgia.

Armenian-populated Javakhk is the most underdeveloped and impoverished
region of Georgia. It has the highest rate of unemployment and the
lowest rate of state investment in the country. There is no industry,
and agriculture is primitive. The roads and infrastructure in the
region are non-existent, and it is easier to reach Armenia (to the
South) than Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital.

The Javakh Chapter will serve as a liaison to the local population
SOAR supports. The Javakhk Summer Day Camp is directed by Very Rev.

Fr. Babken Salibyan of Holy Cross Armenian Church and is located in
the Diocese Center of the Holy Cross Armenian Church in Akhakalaki,
Georgia. The camp serves approximately 250 healthy Armenian children,
who are mostly social orphans, living at or below poverty level in
the nearby villages.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COMMEMORATED IN INDIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 24, 2012 – 11:19 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – On April 24, the Armenian community of India, Church
Committee Members, students, teachers and staff of Armenian College
and Philanthropic Academy assembled at the Armenian Holy Church of
Nazareth, Kolkata, India, to commemorate the 97th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide, when 1.5 million innocent victims were massacred.

Very Rev. Fr. Khoren Hovhannisyan, Pastor of Armenians in India and
Manager of Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy presided over
the requiem service which was offered for the ‘repose of souls’
of the martyrs of the Genocide, at the marble memorial erected in
memory of the genocide victims in the churchyard.

The faithful prayed for the peace of the souls of myriads of martyrs
and bowed to lay flowers at the memorial, which was erected in India
in 1965 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Armenian

GENOCIDE COMMEMORATED AT MASSACHUSETTS STATE HOUSE (SLIDESHOW)
by Nanore Barsoumian

April 23, 2012

BOSTON, Mass. (A.W.)-On April 20, hundreds commemorated the
97thanniversary of the Armenian Genocide at the Massachusetts State
House in Boston. Guests included legislators, human rights activists,
and members of the Armenian American community.

A scene from the commemoration (Photo by Aaron Spagnolo) Rep. Jon Hecht
(D-Watertown) co-hosted the event, together with Sen.

Will Brownsberger (D-Belmont) and Rep. John Lawn (D-Watertown). “This
legislature and this state remain firmly committed to the purposes of
this event: to honor the victims and the survivors of the Armenian
Genocide, to recognize the crimes committed against the Armenian
people by the Ottoman Empire, to thank those who have made special
contributions to the world’s understanding of the Armenian Genocide and
the advancement of the Armenian culture, and to rededicate ourselves
to upholding the truth of those tragic events and preventing their
recurrence anywhere in the world,” said Hecht.

Following a prayer by Rev. Gregory Haroutunian, Rep. James Miceli
(D-Wilmington) led the “Pledge of Allegiance.” Miceli noted that
his maternal grandmother was a survivor of the Armenian Genocide,
and remembered the late Speaker George Keverian, who had initiated
the commemoration event at the State House back in 1985.

Students from the St. Stephen’s Armenian School and the Armenian
Sisters’ Academy, clad in their school uniforms, sang “America the
Beautiful” and the Armenian national anthem.

Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo welcomed the guests. “We’ll never
forget the million-and-a-half Armenians killed, and we must not allow
the world to forget,” said DeLeo. He, too, remembered Keverian’s
efforts in starting the annual commemoration ceremony at the State
House. DeLeo noted that in his office he keeps a book by Peter
Balakian, in which the author discusses the advocacy of a group
of vocal Americans who raised awareness about the crimes committed
against the Armenians as they were happening at the end of World War
I. “Those Americans included President Theodore Roosevelt, who called
the genocide the greatest crime of the war. His words are as moving
today, as they were then… As human beings we must strive to allow
the human spirit to outshine the acts of epic infamy,” said DeLeo.

Brownsberger took the podium next. He commended Playwright Joyce
Van Dyke for her play “Deported/A Dream Play” and presented her
with a resolution from the Massachusetts General Court honoring her
contributions to commemorate the Armenian Genocide. The play tells
the story of Van Dyke’s grandmother and her friend, both survivors
from the genocide. Van Dyke accepted the resolution, and thanked the
committee for recognizing her work. She spoke about the role of art in
politics. “Why should politics and political movements care about art?

… What we all need is recognition and justice. Here is what the
theater can do: The theater broadcasts our story in a public forum at
a uniquely emotional and personal level. It makes our story visceral.

It makes it come alive,” she said.

Brownsberger also presented a resolution to AFL-CIO president and
former state legislator Steven Tolman, who was unable to attend. The
resolution recognized Tolman’s lifelong “diligent” and “tireless”
efforts in advocating for and ensuring that “the historical lessons
of the genocide will never be forgotten,” by supporting the victims
of the Armenian Genocide and honoring them through resolutions;
by co-hosting the annual commemoration event at the State House;
by supporting the construction of the Armenian Heritage Park in
Boston; and by helping pass a law in 1998 that required elementary
and secondary schools to teach about the Armenian Genocide.

Homenetmen Scouts hold their place in the gathering. (Photo by Tom
Vartabedian) Next, the former regional director of the Anti-Defamation
League (ADL), Andy Tarsy, who was fired from his post for publically
recognizing the Armenian Genocide, greeted the attendees with the
Armenian words, “Paree louys paregamner” (“Good morning friends”). “We
must be candid about history,” he continued. “To withhold the use
of the term ‘genocide’ to describe the war on the Armenian people in
the Ottoman Empire is a deliberate calculation that values short-term
political stability over truth. Make that bargain once or twice in a
few extreme situations, and maybe we will be safer for the moment,
but before long we will undermine the foundation of everything
else we believe in, and our safety with it. At that point, nothing
important to us will be safe at all,” said Tarsy. “The world knew
what was happening in 1915,” he said, underlining the fact that in
that year there were 145 articles in the New York Times about the
atrocities occurring in the Ottoman Empire. He then read the names
of the organizations and individuals who recognized and supported
the quest for justice in the case of the Armenian Genocide.

The keynote address by Armenian Weekly editor Khatchig Mouradian
focused on the choices people are faced with every day: taking a stand
during the present versus postponement and inaction. He spoke about
the empty seats left behind by the victims of the genocide. “These
commemorations are reminders of the empty seats, the shattered dreams,
the destroyed communities, and the loss of a homeland,” he said.

Mouradian emphasized the importance of being present, of taking
a stand and fighting for justice in the present. “We will be
able to achieve that day when those [empty] seats in the Turkish
Parliament are acknowledged, and the victims who occupied those
seats are acknowledged,” he said, referring to the murdered Armenian
Parliamentarians of the Ottoman Empire. Choices are faced by all of
us, he said. “A similar choice faces Turkish civil society today:
of moving on or confronting their reality. The past is demanding an
explanation. It is not an issue of memory, but about justice.”

Rep. Jon Hecht welcomes the gathering. (Photo by Tom Vartabedian)
Anahis Kechejian, a young woman who this year began a new tradition,
“Stand Up for your Survivor,” introduced Sherriff Peter Koutoujian.

(Kechejian has collected the pictures and the dates and birthplaces
of survivors, and printed posters that were held by the students of St.

Stephen’s Armenian School and the Armenian Sisters’ Academy.)
Koutoujian then read an address by Governor Deval Patrick, who
was unable to attend the commemoration event. He also read the
proclamations that he then passed to the survivors present, during
a moving performance of Yervant Sardarian’s “Armenian Sketches” by
13-year-old violinist Haig Hovsepian, accompanied on the piano by
Ani Hovsepian.

Fr. Antranig Baljian offered the Requiem prayer, which was followed
by a moment of silence. Hecht gave the closing remarks. Guests then
sang the “Hayr Mer” (“The Lord’s Prayer”), led by the clergy.

FRENCH ELECTION CONVULSION OR HOW SARKOZY WILL PLAY ARMENIAN CARD

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 23, 2012 – 20:41 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – This year outgoing French President Nicolas Sarkozy
resolved to participate in mourning ceremony in commemoration of
Armenian Genocide victims.

As independent journalist Jean Eckian told PanARMENIAN.Net Sarkozy
will deliver a speech at Memorial to Komitas and victims of Armenian
Genocide in Paris, followed by a wreath laying ceremony.

An impression is created that Sarkozy resolved to oppose the famous
proverb ‘there’s no way to make up for lost time’, thus trying to
win the votes of the French Armenian community.

The key intrigue implies the following: on April 22, two days before
the Genocide Remembrance Day, presidential elections were held in
France. Socialist Francois Hollande won most votes in the first round,
estimates showed.

They suggest he got more than 28% of votes against about 26% for
center-right incumbent Sarkozy.

No secret that the current French President counted on the Armenian
community votes, with the whole performance titled “Adoption of the
bill criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial” organized for the purpose.

Back in October 12, 2006, the French Nationally Assembly with 106
votes for and 19 against adopted a bill on criminalization of the
Armenian Genocide denial. Then too, the draft law stipulated a 45,000
euro fine and a year in prison for anyone in France who denied this
crime against humanity committed by the Ottoman Empire. The bill
passage, however, was followed by threats from Turkey and its younger
brother Azerbaijan regarding breaking ties and freezing military,
trade cooperation with France. Proposals to take “austerity measures”
towards France were heard.

Then, too, Presidential Candidate Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to foster
passage of the bill penalizing Armenian Genocide denial.

In May, 2007, Sarkozy was elected president of France with Armenian
community members having backed his candidacy.

However, on May 4, 2008, French Senate with 196 votes against and 74
for blocked the Genocide bill passed by National Assembly in 2006.

The legislative saga of 2011-2012 developed almost the same way, too.

In fall, 2011, President of France Nicolas Sarkozy, now deprived of the
Armenian community’s sympathy, threatened Turkey with adopting a bill
criminating the Armenian Genocide denial if it doesn’t recognize the
Armenian Genocide. This won back Armenian community’s sympathy with
Sarkozy. On December 22, 2011, the French draft law criminating the
Armenian Genocide negation was adopted by the French National Assembly.

On January 23, the French Senate passed the bill with 127 votes for
and 86 against. If signed into law by the President, the bill would
impose a 45,000 euro fine and a year in prison for anyone in France
who denies this crime against humanity committed by the Ottoman Empire.

Pro-Turkish senators immediately addressed the Constitutional Council
to consider the constitutionality of the bill. In response, Sarkozy
pledged to raise the issue of constitutionality of the Holocaust bill.

On February 29, the Council issued its ruling: unconstitutional. The
French President hasn’t kept his promise up until now, though he
has instructed to draft a new bill that would penalize the Armenian
Genocide denial.

In contrast to the years of 2007-2006, this time the Armenian community
didn’t believe in fairy tales that easily, especially given the fact
that Sarkozy’s rival Francois Hollande also underscored the need
to pass a bill penalizing Armenian Genocide negation. Armenians in
France have probably realized that candidates’ pre-election pledges
remain unfulfilled.

However, Nicolas Sarkozy has decided to play the Armenian card up to
the end. For this reason, for the first time in his term of office
he decided to partake in the event dedicated to the 97th anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide. With second round of French presidential
elections due May 6, Sarkozy doesn’t give up hopes to win the half
a million votes of the French Armenian community.

IRAN-GEORGIA ROAD WILL BENEFIT ARMENIA – SARGSYAN

Vestnik Kavkaza
April 23 2012
Russia

Construction of the Iran-Georgia road is of strategic significance to
Yerevan and is considered a grand project to link Armenia with ports
of the Gulf and Black Sea, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said on
a visit to Kapan, Business Georgia reports.

Construction of the road would boost trade-economic cooperation in
the Caucasus Region. The Asian Development Bank is assisting in the
process, Sargsyan said.

ARMENIAN COMMUNISTS EXPECT 15% OF VOTE

Vestnik Kavkaza
April 22 2012
Russia

The Communist Party of Armenia expects to get 15% of votes at the
upcoming parliamentary polls, its leader Ruben Tovmasyan said on
April 23, News.am reports.

The official says that social polls stating that the party would get
3-4% of votes were paid for.

An incident happened at Tovmasyan’s conference. Myasnik Patvakanyan,
calling himself a communist, broke into the hall and started
interrupting the communist leader. Tovmasyan said that the incident
was organized as a provocation.