Unprecedented Forgery Of Ancient Mesopotamian History Expected To Tr

UNPRECEDENTED FORGERY OF ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAN HISTORY EXPECTED TO TRIGGER CHAOS
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

American Chronicle
September 25, 2008
CA

In five previous articles, we revealed several recent aspects of the
Anglo-French colonial involvement (by means of gullible local proxies)
in parts of the Asiatic Middle East inhabited by the Aramaean Nation,
which after three (3) millennia of existence became the target
of Western European colonial policies. ("the Ongoing Aramaean
Genocide, the Fabricated Pseudo-Assyrian Nation, and Kurdish
Terrorists" / ;
& quot;Looming End of Oriental Christianity: Unholy Alliance
of ´Kurdish´ Terrorists with Pseudo-Assyrians" /
; "Anti-Christian
Unholy Alliance: the Forged "Assyrian" Pseudo-Nation and the PKK
Terrorists" / ;
& quot;Pseudo-´Assyrians´ and ´Kurdish´ Terrorists: Liars Fostering
Chaos and Genocide" / ;
& quot;Political Hypocrisy and Historical Forgery by Pseudo-Assyrians and
Kurdish Terrorists" / ).

Under the auspices of the Apostate Freemasonic Lodge which controls
the colonial establishments of France and England, a ´holy alliance´
has been forged between the terrorist "Kurdish" organization PKK
(practically speaking a construction of the French secret services)
and the ´Assyrianist´ organizations of the Aramaeans. This further
endangers the survival of the Aramaean Nation, either the nationally
integral and conscious Aramaeans or the disoriented and bamboozled
´Assyrianists´.

In this article, we will continue the re-publication of the
insightful research which was first published in the Aramaean website
More particularly, we republish translated
(by the Aram Nahrin team – from Turkish) excerpts from the Kurdish
newspaper Berxwedan that relate to discussions (lit. proceedings of a
meeting held on 22.4.1993) between the "chairman" APO of the terrorist
organization PKK and the board of Assyrian Democratic Organization.

The brusque falsification of the Ancient and Christian History
of Mesopotamia became apparently the foundation on which the two
terrorist organizations intentionally base their effort for another
Hell in the multi-divided region. We will complete the present series
in a forthcoming article. And in further articles, we will refute the
forgeries and demonstrate on what evil purpose they have composed them.

Translation of Berxwedan

Kurdish Newspaper Berxwedan of 15 June 1993, Page 18

A.D.O (continued): None of these powers have so far recognized us as
a nation with culture and civilization. This problem is so far even
not haven made discussable. All these matters together caused that our
people is being considered as a sort of black (undesired) table. And
this also is the cause for their Diaspora. The previously discussed
issue of Diaspora does not mean that we want to learn something about
Diaspora, but that our people return to their motherland that is what
we want to say. It is difficult to explain this to our people. To
explain the matter more accurately in this regard, it is necessary
also to give account of the in history known Arameans.

Chairman APO: Of course, I wish also to hear about that.

A.D.O: The Arameans are also a part of the Assyrians.

Chairman APO: In which era did they live?

A.D.O: In the history they appear in the year 1500 BC. They were living
in the area of Assyrians, that is to say, the two rivers (Tigris,
Euphrates). Even if the Arameans are considered as a separate people,
they thoroughly were connected with the Assyrians as regards their
culture and civilizations and after that they vanished anyway.

Chairman APO: Okay, what is their origin?

A.D.O: We can say that they are the descendants of the Assyrians of
Mesopotamia. For sure, they are no Arabs. The meaning of the word
"Oromoye" (Aram) in Syriac is "Big", "High". At the same time "Aram"
is also a name. For this reason they apply this name to themselves.

Chairman APO: One of our neighboring village also has a name Aram. In
that case this word must also have been originating from Syriac. In
other words, you say that the Aramean are not Arabs.

A.D.O: Absolutely, they are no Arabs. Their language is also called
Aramaic. Also our language which we now speak is actually Aramaic,
yet in our days it is called Syriac. We can put it like this: in
literature Aramaic is also being called Syriac. In the church still
Aramaic is used.

Chairman APO: I thought that many Arameans lived in Urfa, for there
still traces of civilization can be found.

Page 18, Column 2

A.D.O: Yes. They lived in the area of Hakkaria to Urfa. In particular
they were concentrated in the environs of Midyat. The Syrians have made
this land known as "Aram", that is to say "High", they accepted it
as a holy country. In this sense, it also becomes clear the holiness
of the name Aram. Even in the year 700 BC the Assyrian king Senherib
officially adapted the Aramaic language as the language of the region.

Chairman APO: Is Aramaic much close to Assyrian?

A.D.O: It is the same; it is only a dialect of it.

Chairman APO: Do you understand the survived texts also today?

A.D.O: In the beginning they used the cuneiform (script)

Aramaic is a modern form of Assyriac.

Chairman APO: What I want to say is whether you do understand the
Aramaic words?

A.D.O: Yes, the current language we speak is Aramaic. At the times of
Alexander the Great they called Assyriac "Syriac" language, Aramaic
was officially recognized. Hereafter the Syrian people started to
implement this concept in the area. The Aramaic language has two
dialects: East- Aramean and West- Aramean. In the year 452 AD, at the
times of Byzantines, a meeting was held in Macedonia in the church
most allied to the Byzantine church. In these times the Syrians got
divided into three groups and also in these times the Nestorians
emanated. The Syrian Orthodox also became known as Jacobites. The
Syrians who followed the Byzantine emperor were called Melkites. The
meaning of Meliki (Melko) in Syriac is "principality" or "sultan".

Chairman APO: That is to say that the word Melik originates from there?

A.D.O: Yes. Since the times of Ural, the followers were called so.

Chairman APO: Whom of them is the collaborator?

A.D.O: The Catholics, that is to say those who followed Byzantines
are the collaborators. The Orthodox did make concessions, until today
they are Syrians.

Chairman APO: The Syrian Orthodox still being radical…

A.D.O: Yes.

Page 18, Column 3

Chairman APO: That is to say, who are the collaborators?

A.D.O: The Rum Orthodox who live in Damascus, Aleppo, Lebanon, Hama
and Laodicea. These are the followers of the Melkites. However a part
of them again is Catholic. After this the Catholics also got divided
into two groups. At this moment a part of them is Rum Orthodox and
the other part is Rum Catholic. This division came into being in
the year 1500. Both groups have completely forgotten the Aramaic
language, totally lost awareness of their ethnic origin. The Melkites
believe in the 6th century St. Maron. The Maronites in Lebanon are
their followers, that is to say the Maronite Syrians. Their churches
still bear the name Syrian- Maronite. However as regards their ethnic
traditions they are drawn apart from the Syrians. On the other hand
a part of the Assyrians accepted in the 14th – 15th century the pope
of Rome. A part of the Nestorians becomes Catholic. The pope gives
them a new name. The Chaldeans of Babylon.

This situation caused the people again being divided into two
(groups). The separated Catholics do not consider themselves as
Assyrians, it is sufficient if we "call ourselves Catholics", they
say. Their consciousness of their ethnical origin is completely
being put aside. In short, the truth about our people, culture and
history can be explained in this way. I am hopeful and I again repeat:
Hereafter we have to help extra the country to progress, to improve
the real status, this on the fundament of liberation to blow a new
life in it.

Chairman APO: The Assyrians do not descend from Arabs, do they?

A.D.O: The Assyrians are older than Arabs. The Arabs originate from
southern Mesopotamia. Those who gave the name "Arabic" to the Arabs
were also Assyrians. They called them "Arboye" and the meaning of this
is "southerners". Another meaning of the word "Arabic" in Assyriac
is "Sahra". In this regards the Arabs are called "Sahra People",
"desert people".

Chairman APO: That is to say, this words originates from Assyriac?

Page 18, Column 4

A.D.O: Yes, absolutely. This has two meanings in our language, one
is called "the Southern" and the other one "desert" Arabs and even
the Arabs living in Sahara are still called "Araboye" (Arabs), that
is to say "the people of the desert".

Chairman APO: The Babylonians, Akkadians, Sumerians are absolutely
not Arabs, right?

A.D.O: No……

Chairman APO: But the Arabs appropriate all of them to themselves. They
claim that such a history exists.

A.D.O: They are absolutely no Arabs.

Chairman APO: Is there language different than Arabic?

A.D.O: Yes. Many of their books are written in Syriac.

Chairman APO: They all differ from Arabic?

A.D.O: Yes, that is so.

Chairman APO: There is cuneiform, there is Aramaic; these are not
Arabic, and in those times Arabic did not exist in written form, right?

A.D.O: Yes. In reality Arabic originates from Syriac language.

Chairman APO: Is that so? Arabic originates from Syriac. Okay, is
that definite?

A.D.O: Definitely. The origin of their script is in particular derived
from that. On the other hand the words of these two languages have
many similarities, yet in reality Arabic is being derived from. The
Arabs have derived some of their characters from Syriac.

Chairman APO: Is that so? It is miraculous. In that case the Bible
is to a great extent also written in Syriac, right?

A.D.O: Of course, it sounds like that.

Chairman APO: In that case we eventually can say that a great part
of the Bible originate from Assyrian sources?

A.D.O: Yes, it is from Assyrian sources. Even Jesus Christ is
originally an Assyrian. In these countries, also Assyrians lived
then. Firstly, in those times there were also Assyrians who waged
wars. Also the old testament mentions this, the war between Assyrians
and Jews was fierce.

Page 18, Column 5

After the advent of Islam a major part of the Syrians was forced
to Islam. Along with the Islamisation they also got Arabised. The
Arabised Syrians were considered as those who made a considerable
contribution to the Arabic civilization. The typical indigenous Syrian
working fields were Arts and various other fields.

Chairman APO: Understood. The Arabs have received their knowledge to
a great extent from Syrians. Okay, where do this people live?

A.D.O: In Homs, Damascus, Aleppo, Baghdad, Mosul and in Lebanon.

Chairman APO: In other words, we understand that the Arabic
civilization clearly for an important part originates from the Assyrian
(Syrian) civilization. One may wonder, how did this influence take
place in such a great extent? I want to say that there exists a
great Arabisation.

A.D.O: Yes, that is true. The rich Syrian class accepted for a
important part the Islam to protect they money they had.

Chairman APO: It is exactly the same happened with us, right? Likewise
it happened with the many arabised, Islamized (Kurdish) Sheiks and
Aga´s, in the same way it did happen with the Syrians. There are
also Islamized Syrians, right?

A.D.O: There are. By thousands, even by hundred thousands. The
situation of Syrians in Iraq and Syria is comparable to that of
the Copts in Egypt. When the power of Egypt increased, many Copts
became Muslims.

Chairman APO: The situation of Syrians reassembles also to theirs. They
are not Arabs, but are being arabised. This situation also exists in
Algeria, right?

A.D.O: That is true, this situation also exists in Algeria. Only
the culture, the customs, the language of Syrians differs from that
of Arabs.

Chairman APO: In this case, it is the closest nation living among the
Kurds. When the Assyrians extended their civilizations in the steppes,
the Kurds remained (underdeveloped) behind in the mountains. The
Assyrian questions should be considered as serious matter within
Kurdistan. As far as I understood, the situation of the people
represented by the Assyrian Democratic Organization resembles little
bit with our situation. We also rebelled against groups, denominations,
tribes and (harmful) effects of the faith can be evaluated as follows:
The truth about nationality was annihilated.

The damage caused to the Syrian people by the fake clergy is very
severe. Perhaps did the Orthodox faith gain more ground, however
this should be met with constructive critics. It is not correct to
completely deny the faith. "Faith is culture, is a kind of way of
life", I participate in the meetings, yet I cannot say with certainty
that they are faithful, that is to say, we should also not forget
those who cause damage by taking the fait out of its context and
misusing it. It is necessary to establish within every denomination
a democratic movement. That is to say that it is important that their
acts should be founded on a modern foundation.

Page 18, Column 6

It is also good to prevent Diaspora. That resembles also to our
situation. It is necessary to pay more attention to this, to extra
underscore. However, this is not only a physical Diaspora, it is also
important to revoke as regards the spiritual well-being. That is to
say, it is necessary to improve this. In this matter it is well to be
more open-minded. To my opinion it is also necessary to pay attention
to the issue of denomination. Some of them have interests, they are the
leaders of Diaspora, and again they are the leading figures of faith.

A proper critic towards this kind of people is correct. We can say
that this people are collaborators. I believe that also within your
people in the past treachery was huge. Such as the collaboration with
the Byzantines and Romans. Those whom we are talking about who care
only about themselves, their home, their money and hearth, resemble
to fake Muslims.

All these issues were harmful to the people. Limited kind of
nationalism is also wrong. I consider limited form of nationalism
little bit dangerous. Because there are some who withdraw from the
reality of the region, form the reality of the people. Doubtlessly,
the role of killings and attacks is obvious. However, in spit of all
these matters, we should not give up and hide. For example, in spite
we are being persecuted in Turkey, oppressed, we gave a very detailed
explanation, informed the Turkish people. There are with us also
many Turks. That is to say, the promotion of political explanation,
the political revelation.

This also has a cultural foundation and for this as strong basis
required. The Kurdish issue in particular needs such an explanation
(from your side). I believe that the explanation of Armenians in the
south and of the Assyrians in the north would change (positively)
our fate in the history. Anyhow, the history became in a era of great
darkness by the break of the ties. If we repair again these ties,
than also again light will shine in the history.

It is necessary to build up this tie. It is clear that the Syrian
contribution (to the PKK), to the new building up ( of the region)
in the liberation of the people may play a pronounced role. It is
necessary to consider Kurdistan as a common country. Sometimes I say,
Kurdistan is Armenia, is Assyria.

>From time to time I repeat these words. Because this is a common
country. On places where fife- ten Syrian villages can be found,
in the environs there are also equally Kurdish villages. Such as in
Heseke, in Cezire the Syrians and Kurds live among each other. This
is also the case in the Iraqi part, they completely live

among each other.

In Hakkaria many live among each other. In this matter, it is wrong
to say that we are dealing with two countries. In the same area two
people live among each other, this is the correct approach. We are
considering (within ourselves) that the way you becomes a democratic
movement, it is necessary that the Kurds also in that same way become
democratic. That is to say, it is not only from within, but also
necessary from outside to extend.

Of course we have to remember that the rapprochement according to the
old religions, the limited form of nationalism did not provide extra
opportunity to this. However, our ideologies and politics are in the
end transparent. In particular the Assyrian Democratic Organization
prepares on this a strong reliable foundation. Also the establishment
of PKK movement took place in a such atmosphere; yet I can put it in
this way that it has become a very remarkable and huge movement.

Note

Picture: Shalmaneser III Emperor of Assyria in the middle of the 9th
century BCE: one of the worst enemies of the Ancient Aramaeans with
whom the Assyrians (contrarily with the Babylonians) never intermingled
as this was part of the state policy in Assyria.

–Boundary_(ID_xdAYmjaqKdwLSeUUHa6eyg)–

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/74834
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/74953
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/75010
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/75200
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/75436
www.aranmahrin.org.

Symposium On Adana Massacre Of Armenians To Be Held In London In Mar

SYMPOSIUM ON ADANA MASSACRE OF ARMENIANS TO BE HELD IN LONDON IN MARCH 2009

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.09.2008 14:14 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ To mark the centenary of the Adana Massacres of 1909
a one-day symposium will be held at the London School of Economics on
28 March 2009. The meeting will look back at Adana 1909 to evaluate
the humanitarian activity in the aftermath of the 1909 massacres and
to explore the response, imagery and meaning ascribed to those events.

Since 1909, Adana has continued to resonate as an evocative historic
community in the consciousness of the Armenian Diaspora, and it
has commanded artistic responses in literature, art and film,
Gibrahayer.com reports.

Possible subjects might include, but are not limited to, the following:
the response to Adana 1909 by observers, survivors, humanitarian
organizations and writers; analysis of or new approaches to the
classic texts by authors such as Zabel Yesayian, Souren Bartevian,
Siamanto, Arshagouhi Teotig or Hagop Terzian; analysis of texts by
foreign observers on Adana 1909; Adana in oral narratives or song;
the relationship between art, violence and mourning; literary texts
or film or artwork exploring Adana as lost (or ancestral) home,
images of Adana, memory or Diasporan identity.

Adana Massacre was the second series of large-scale massacres
of Armenians to break out in the Ottoman Empire. The atrocities
committed in the province of Adana in April 1909 coincided with
the counter-revolution staged by supporters of Sultan Abdul Hamid
(Abdulhamit) II (1876-1909)

A prosperous region on the Mediterranean coast encompassing the old
principality of Cilicia, once an independent Armenian state between
the eleventh and fourteenth centuries, the province of Adana had
been spared the 1890’s massacres. The disturbances were most severe
in the city of Adana where a reported 4,437 Armenian dwellings were
torched. The outbreaks spread throughout the district and an estimated
30,000 Armenians were reported killed.

Basketball Players Of Armenia Take Part In All-Armenian Games In Ira

BASKETBALL PLAYERS OF ARMENIA TAKE PART IN ALL-ARMENIAN GAMES IN IRAN

Noyan Tapan

Se p 23, 2008

TEHRAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENIANS TODAY – NOYAN TAPAN. Men’s amd women’s
basketball club teams of Armenia took part in the All-Armenian Games
held in Iran.

According to the Basketball Federation of Armenia, 6 women’s teams,
including the club team of Armenia, competed during the Games. The
rivals of Armenia’ team were "Tabriz", "Ararat", "Ararat-2", "Artsakh"
and "Nairi" teams. Armenia’s team defeated its rivals and reached
the final where it lost to "Ararat" (Tehran).

14 teams competed in the men’s games. During the first matches,
Armenia’s team competed sucessfully but in the final it was defeated by
Ararat (92-99). The team of Armenia was mainly composed of basketball
players of "Polytechnic" club.

http://www.nt.am/news.php?shownews=117660

Yerevan Stands For Karabakh Conflict Resolution Within OSCE MG

YEREVAN STANDS FOR KARABAKH CONFLICT RESOLUTION WITHIN OSCE MG

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.09.2008 14:53 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian Foreign Ministry commented on Iranian
Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Nasir Hamidi Zare’s statement that Iran
opened talks with Baku and Yerevan for mediation in the Karabakh issue.

Armenia stands for resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, RA Foreign Ministry’s
spokesman said.

"Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian reiterated last week that Armenia
supports endeavors of the Minsk Group, which has already proved its
efficiency," Tigran Balayan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

Announcing that Tehran has opened talks with Baku and Yerevan,
Nasir Hamidi Zare said, "Tehran wants a resolution of the Karabakh
conflict within international and legal norms. But it wants a peaceful
resolution."

Author Tells Of Fear And Courage During Armenian Genocide

AUTHOR TELLS OF FEAR AND COURAGE DURING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Ruth Solomon, [email protected]

Wilmette Life
7134,wi-ahnert-091808-s1.article
Sept 18 2008
IL

Author Margaret Ajemian Ahnert is familiar with fear and courage, a
lesson she learned from her late mother, Ester. As a teenager, Ester
survived the Armenian genocide in the years during and immediately
after World War I in what was then called the Ottoman Empire but is
now Turkey.

Ahnert, who relates Ester’s story in the recently published book,
The Knock at the Door (2007, Beaufort Books), has been touring the
nation non-stop during the last year to talk about her book. The
author appeared Sept. 8 at Winnetka’s Book Stall at Chestnut Court,
811 Elm St. Margaret Ajemian Ahnert, author of The Knock at the Door

"The book is very impressive; she has a real story to tell. She is
an excellent writer, the book moves along," said Roberta Rubin, who
invited Ahnert to the Book Stall after hearing her speak last year
at the Women’s Athletic Club in downtown Chicago.

Ahnert said she wrote the 204-page book as a way to pass her mother’s
stories on to her grandchildren, now 16 and 17, stories she had heard
repeatedly told exactly the same way. The book started as a master’s
thesis, which Ahnert earned in 1999 from Goucher College. It received
the New York Book Fair Award as Best Historical Memoir of 2008,
and plans are in the works to publish it in other languages.

Ahnert said she also hoped the book would allow her to work through
complicated feelings she has about the horrors of what happened and
her identity as someone of Armenian heritage. "You think you’re over
it, and you’re not. I want to be rid of it," Ahnert said.

In the memoir, Ester, who was adopted at age 5 after being orphaned,
tells her daughter about growing up in a rural village, Amasia, about
100 miles south of the Black Sea where Muslim Turks and Christian
Armenians got along well. But in May 1915, Ester, then 15, noticed
a change in the attitude of the adults around her, who were talking
ominously of hangings and leaving before it was too late. But in
June, Turkish soldiers came to Amasia and ordered all the Armenians
to leave. The day after the soldiers arrived, Ester saw the body of
a woman she knew, her abdomen, still swollen from pregnancy, had been
cut open, her unborn baby stuck on a sword next to her. Leaving town,
Ester witnessed pits with naked dead bodies of young and elderly men.

On the march, Turkish soldiers attacked the exiting Armenians, charging
into the crowd on horses swinging swords. Ester saw girls being carted
away. Rape was common, and Ester’s grandmother tried to make her look
unattractive by scratching her face and rubbing garlic in the creases.

One by one, starting with her young brother, Ester became separated
from all the members of her family. She never saw them again.

http://www.pioneerlocal.com/wilmette/news/116

Serzh Sargsyan: " I Will Do Everything To Make Courts In Our Country

SERZH SARGSYAN: "I WILL DO EVERYTHING TO MAKE COURTS IN OUR COUNTRY INDEPENDENT"

ARMENPRESS
Sep 18, 2008

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 18, ARMENPRESS: Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
presented today the newly appointed chairman of the Court of Cassation
Arman Mkrtumian.

Presidential press service told Armenpress that noting that the decree
was signed on September 17 taking into consideration the suggestion of
the Council of Justice, the president congratulated A. Mkrtumian on
being appointed in the exclusively responsible office and expressed
wish that with his activity, Mkrtumian will serve as an example for
all the judges of the Republic.

In his speech the president said that it is obvious that the quality
of the justice is being assessed exclusively by the society and if
it is viewed with that point of view the quality of implementation
of justice in our country is not good.

"I have stated for many times and now I repeat that I will
do everything to make courts in our country independent and make
judges not take bribe. Only the wish of the president, efforts of the
executive power, plus the initiatives of the legislative body are not
enough to solve the issues of a such crucial system. We must have
supporters inside, we need your initiatives and express readiness
to help you. You must be able to consolidate the judicial system,"
the president said.

"Together with you we must notice certain changes every month, year
and if we do not notice those changes, it means that we must make
conclusions. My today’s, yesterday’s, the day’s before conclusions
brought me to this gathering. I want that the judges of the Court
of Cassation realize the degree of their responsibility and their
role and all you must help the chairman of the court to continue the
positive which you see on the way of the reforms," S. Sargsyan noted.

The president of the country also expressed assurance that the chairman
of the Court of Cassation will present suggestions on his vision of
changes in the system.

William Burns: Rapprochement Between Armenia And Turkey May Open New

WILLIAM BURNS: RAPPROCHEMENT BETWEEN ARMENIA AND TURKEY MAY OPEN NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR KARABAKH CONFLICT SOLUTION

armradio.am
18.09.2008 15:22

US Assistant Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns
declared during Senate hearings that the United States welcomes
Turkey’s efforts to end the tension in the Caucasus.

According to ITAR-TASS, the American diplomat noted that Turkey
"demonstrates real leadership in the searching for opportunities to
end the tension in the Caucasus."

Reminding about the recent "unprecedented meeting" between the
Presidents of Armenia and Turkey, Burns underlined that the progress
towards normalization of relations between the two countries can
open the trade and transport routes passing through the Caucasus
region. Moreover, it can open new opportunities for the resolution
of the Karabakh conflict," US Assistant Secretary of State declared.

Germany’s History Problem

GERMANY’S HISTORY PROBLEM

e-politik.de
n/artikel/2008/germany%E2%80%99s-history-problem-p art-2/
Sept 17 2008
Germany

Member of Parliament Erika Steinbach (CDU) in her officeEuropean
refugees are once again at the center of identity politics in Germany
and Eastern Europe. Sixty years after the Second World War ended, the
construction of a museum in Berlin for the victims of twentieth century
"expulsions" – including an estimated 15 million ethnic Germans –
is testing what it means for Germans to see themselves as victims and
for postwar Germany to be at peace with their neighbors. Part 2. By
Amanda Rivkin, special to /e-politik.de/

Erika Steinbach leads an organization whose youngest members
were children when they were expelled from their homes across
Eastern Europe. More than sixty years after the fact, they are now
elderly. Many have passed. When Steinbach became head of the Federation
of the Expelled at the age of 52 following a succession of elderly men,
she brought new life and youthful energy into a stodgy postwar German
organization that many see as no longer relevant in the post-Cold
War world. Given the very mortality of her organization, Steinbach
has turned her efforts as head of the Federation of the Expelled
toward the most German of activities: the construction of a museum
to human suffering.

The Center Against Expulsions, as Steinbach has named the museum she
seeks to build, is something she will define only in the broadest
terms. In her office last September, Steinbach said the Berlin Center
Against Expulsions would serve as a place "to document twentieth
century expulsions in Europe". She has lobbied the Bundestag,
prominent German-Jewish leaders and attempted to woo her moderately
opposed critics in neighboring Poland.

She secured funding and support for a pilot exhibition in Berlin in
2006, curated by Wilfried Rogasch. The entrance was a black and white
space containing a borderless map of Europe that spread across the
floor and climbs up the walls like tentacles: Iberian, Scandinavian,
Anatolian. The exhibition catalogue featured historical objects from
twentieth century Europe’s most significant genocides.

Prominent among those was the postwar population transfer – or
expulsion – of German civilians from Eastern Europe. The exhibit
garnered more than 1,000 pages of reviews and critiques in German
and international news media. Rogasch keeps a stack of print-outs
waist-high on a chair in the study of his spacious and sparsely
decorated West Berlin flat.

He told me in his living room that he built his exhibit around "the
unfortunate ideas which caused a lot of harm and violence" in the
last century. The artifacts in the catalogue included instruments of
Ottoman Turkish crimes to Serbian ones. "It’s very obvious that 1933
happened before 1945", Rogasch said.

Most of the German academics and historians I spoke with said Rogasch’s
exhibit was an inoffensive account of twentieth century Europe’s most
significant racist crimes. The accoutrements of Hitler’s effort to
wipe out the Jews and others including the Poles figured prominently
with no distortion, they argued. Many prominent German academics said
the exhibit was remarkable for how unremarkable it was.

Even with the inclusion of two of the most hotly disputed events of
the past century, the Armenian genocide and the expulsion of ethnic
Germans from Eastern Europe, the academics and historians I met in
Germany said they anticipated much more controversy. But the expulsion
of German civilians in the postwar period was more that just part of
the exhibition; it was the occasion for the exhibit.

Should mass atrocities be isolated, or should large-scale human rights
violation be examined comparatively? Over the course of my travels
in both Germany and Poland last fall, I quickly learned the answer
to this question depended on which side of the border I was on.

The divide between victor and victim is acute across Germany’s eastern
border in Poland, which lost every city but Krakow to Nazi and Allied
bombings. After the Second World War, communist authorities rewrote
the Polish future and the Polish past. They chose a system based on
lies, personality cults and distortions. Soviet crimes from the war
years were rewritten as Nazi atrocities, like the massacre at Katyn
where Polish officers and civilians were murdered wholesale in the
forest twenty kilometers west of Smolensk.

The obsession with Erika Steinbach in the Polish media may be a means
of reclaiming a history of wrongs, distortion and manipulation. Her
Polish critics argue that Steinbach picks and chooses her expulsions
in order to make Eastern Europe’s ethnic Germans look good and places
little emphasis on Polish suffering at German hands. More extreme
critics argue that she is the last person who should discuss Polish
suffering as the daughter of a Wehrmacht officer.

When I met Steinbach in her office this past September, she crafted her
proposal like a sculptor, meticulously employing the language of the
new Europe to define her vision for the Center Against Expulsions. At
the end of our hour together, she politely but hurriedly excused
herself and left with an aide to what she described as a "commemoration
ceremony" at the Armenian Embassy, victims of a genocide the Turkish
government denies ever having occurred.

Historian Alfred de Zayas, the most prolific writer on the expulsions
in the English language, has suggested Soviet troops played an active,
participatory role in the murder of Eastern Europe’s ethnic German
civilians. He sits on the board of Steinbach’s unfulfilled Center
Against Expulsions alongside prominent German Jewish intellectual
Julius Schoeps.

"She has great legs!" De Zayas exclaimed over the phone from his
home in Geneva when I asked him about Steinbach in late 2007. He
also boasted of her stellar human rights credentials, citing his own
time working for the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights
in Geneva.

http://www.e-politik.de/lese

Chairman Of Board Of Armenian National Movement Decides To Dedicate

CHAIRMAN OF BOARD OF ARMENIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT DECIDES TO DEDICATE HIS VICTORY AT FORTHCOMING ELECTIONS OF PREFECT OF CENTER COMMUNITY TO IMPRISONED OPPOSITIONISTS

ArmInfo
2008-09-15 18:59:00

ArmInfo. The chairman of the Board of the Armenian National
Movement Ararat Zurabyan has decided to dedicate his victory at the
forthcoming elections of the prefect of Center community to imprisoned
oppositionists.

Zurabyan is going to dedicate his victory to all political prisoners
and is grateful to all oppositionists who continued their struggle
while he was under arrest.

The leader of New Times party Aram Karapetyan, who was under arrest
for several months, is taking part in today’s opposition rally. He
is sure that the Armenian people will win and the present authorities
must know this.

Leader of NKR, US official discuss conflict settlement

ArmInfo News Agency (in Russian), Armenia
Sept 12 2008

Leader of NKR, US official discuss conflict settlement

Stepanakert 12 September: The president of the Nagornyy Karabakh
republic [NKR], Bako Sahakyan, received the US co-chairman of the OSCE
Minsk Group, [Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and
Eurasian Affairs] Matthew Bryza, on 12 September.

Issues concerning the current stage of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict,
the prospects for its settlement and the recent events in the region
were discussed at the meeting, the main information department of the
NKR president has told Arminfo.

The president pointed out that Stepanakert is in favour of a peaceful
solution to the Karabakh-Azerbaijani conflict with the NKR’s direct
participation in the negotiating process.

Sahakyan said that the OSCE Minsk Group format has not exhausted
itself yet and today it is too early to speak about any changes to
this format. Touching on the situation in the region, the president
noted that disputed problems should be resolved peacefully through
direct negotiations.

Sahakyan also noted the importance of the latest steps aimed at
establishing relations between Armenia and Turkey, however, noting
that even the most complicated problems can be solved through a direct
dialogue. The meeting was attended by the NKR foreign minister,
Georgiy Petrosyan.