of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities adopted a report
acknowledging the Armenian Genocide as a case of genocide. Until
recently, there has been no other activity at the UN on this issue.
Unexpectedly, on March 25, 2019, a surprising letter was sent to
Ambassador Sadik Arslan, Turkey’s Permanent Representative to the
United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, by three UN entities: Bernard
Duhaime, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Enforced or
Involuntary Disappearances; David Kaye, Special Rapporteur on the
promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and
_expression_; and Fabian Salvioli, Special Rapporteur on the promotion
of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence.
The joint UN letter asked the Turkish Ambassador to provide answers
within 60 days to the following seven questions:
“1. Please provide any information and/or comment(s) you may have on
the allegations: …violations attributable to Turkey in relation to
the tragic events that affected the Armenian minority from 1915 to
1923, and their consequences for the population concerned.
2. What policies have been put in place by your Excellency’s
Government to respond to these allegations?
3. What measures has Turkey taken to establish the facts, including
the fate or whereabouts of Armenians who were subjected to forced
internal displacement, detention, extrajudicial killings and enforced
disappearances during the period of 1915-1923?
4. What measures have been taken to ensure the right of victims and of
society as a whole to know the truth about these events, and to ensure
the right of victims to justice and reparations for the damage
suffered?
5. What measures have been taken to locate, insofar as possible, the
bodies of Armenians who died as a result of these events?
6. Please provide information about the reasons for the adoption of
the 2017 legislation preventing lawmakers from making certain
expressions. Please explain how this is compatible with international
human rights law, in particular with article 19 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
7. Please provide detailed information about the cases in which
Article 301 of the Criminal Code has been applied to punish
individuals for statements made alleging crimes against Armenians.”
The joint UN letter described in detail the atrocities committed
against Armenians “from 1915 to 1923” by “the Ottoman Empire and its
succeeding Turkish Republic [which] implemented a policy of mass
relocation of the Armenian minority living in the eastern part of the
country. Hundreds of thousands (estimates range between 600,000 and
1,500,000) of persons belonging to that minority were subject to that
policy, which resulted in widespread violence against that population.
Their forced deportation reportedly started in March 1915 mainly in
Anatolia but also in other parts of the country. Armenians were
expelled from their ancestral lands. On the night of 24th April 1915,
hundreds of political and intellectual leaders were arrested in
Constantinople and then transferred to other places. As a result,
Armenian elites disappeared almost completely. This was followed by a
systematic policy targeting the entire Armenian population in each
province and in each Vilayet, the official objective of which was to
displace by force the Armenian population from the eastern provinces
of Anatolia to Aleppo and camps in the Syrian desert. Armenians were
subjected to forced marches. Most of them allegedly died progressively
from exhaustion, starvation, diseases or from massacres, and in most
cases their remains were abandoned. Upon arrival, the few surviving
people were detained in camps in conditions which may have amounted to
torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; most of them were
subsequently killed. The process persisted through 1923. It is alleged
that these actions could constitute enforced disappearances to the
extent that:
(i) Armenians in Turkey were subjected to arrests, detentions, or
abductions or were otherwise deprived of their liberty;
(ii) These acts are reportedly attributable to officials or different
branches or levels of government;
(iii) The Government has not disclosed so far the fate or whereabouts
of the persons concerned.”
The UN letter also criticized Turkey’s denial: “It is also reported
that Turkey not only refuses to acknowledge these events, but also
intentionally engages in denial and obstruction of the truth about the
fate or whereabouts of the victims…. While we do not wish to prejudge
the accuracy of these allegations, we wish to express our concern at
the reported denial, and ensuing lack of progress in establishing the
truth and ensuring justice for the forcible deportation of Armenians
between 1915 and 1923, which resulted in massive suffering,
ill-treatment and deaths. The lack of progress in establishing and
acknowledging the relevant facts, not only affects the dignity of
victims and their descendants, but can also hinder the possibility of
initiating measures aimed at preserving the memory and establishing
the truth.”
On May 17, 2019, within 60 days of the UN request, the Turkish
Ambassador responded with a three-page letter stating that the UN
letter “will be left unanswered by the Government of Turkey.” Amb.
Arslan further stated that “my authorities were rather baffled by the
communication” which he described as “ill-intended and politically
motivated.”
Besides denying the statements contained in the UN letter, Amb. Arslan
also quoted the UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon and his spokesman
Farhan Haq claiming that the UN had never taken a position on events
that took place before the UN was established. Both the Secretary
General and his spokesman are wrong because the UN had set a special
day to commemorate the Jewish Holocaust which had occurred before the
UN was founded in 1945. Furthermore, I interviewed Ban-Ki Moon’s
spokesman Farhan Haq and asked him about the 1985 UN Sub-Commission’s
Genocide Report which had acknowledged several genocides, including
the Armenian Genocide, all of which had taken place before the UN was
established. Haq told me that he was aware of the UN Sub-Commission’s
Genocide Report, but he was referring to the lack of acknowledgment by
the UN General Assembly.
In addition, the UN authors attached to their letter an annex quoting
from the International Humanitarian Law which stated that: “Principle
2 of the updated Set of Principles for the Protection and Promotion of
Human Rights through Action to Combat Impunity establishes the
inalienable right of all persons to know the truth about past events
concerning the perpetration of heinous crimes and about the
circumstances and reasons that led to them. Full and effective
exercise of the right to the truth provides a vital safeguard against
the recurrence of violations. Principle 4 stipulates that victims and
their families have the imprescriptible right to know the truth about
the circumstances in which violations took place and about the
victims’ fate.”
Finally, Amb. Arslan repeated the same untruth about Armenia not
responding to a letter from Turkey in 2005 proposing “to establish a
joint commission consisting of historians and other experts to study
the events of 1915.” This is a lie. Armenia did respond, suggesting
that the proposed commission review all outstanding issues between the
two countries, not just the Armenian Genocide. Turkey was the one that
never responded.
As a next step, now that the Armenian Genocide issue has been raised
at the UN once again, it is incumbent on the Republic of Armenia to
formally place the UN letter and the Turkish denialist response on the
agenda of the UN Human Rights Council and pursue compensation and
justice for the million and a half victims of the Armenian Genocide.
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2- Sara Anjargolian Appointed High Commission of Diaspora
Affairs Chief of Staff
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a decree on Wednesday, June 19
appointing the co-founder and chief executive of Yerevan’s Impact Hub
and a long-ago repatriate to Armenia Sara Anjargolian to serve as the
chief of staff of the newly established High Commission of Diaspora
Affairs.
The news comes on the heels of Pashinyan’s appointment on June 14 of
former Glendale Mayor Zareh Sinanyan to serve as Armenia’s High
Commissioner of Diaspora Affairs.
“I am grateful to be witnessing a time in the history of our nation,
where someone like me, who was born and raised outside of Armenia,
would be asked to join the leadership of our homeland,” Anjargolian
said in a Facebook post after her appointment. “Together with the High
Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs Zareh Sinanyan, I am proud to serve
the Republic of Armenia and the global Armenian Diaspora.” In 2014,
Anjargolian co-founded the Impact Hub Yerevan and served as its chief
executive while serving on the Impact Hub Global Association board.
The international organization bills itself as “a member-based network
of changemakers. Part innovation lab, part business incubator, and
part community center, we offer our members a unique ecosystem of
resources, inspiration, and collaboration to grow impact.”
Through Impact Hub Yerevan, Anjargolian has focused on empowering
Armenians to advance social impact projects that have had a lasting
effect on life in Armenia.
Anjargolian was born in London and grew up in Los Angeles. She
graduated summa cum laude from the UCLA with a degree in Political
Science/Public Policy and received a law degree from the UC Berkeley.
During her legal career she served as a trial lawyer for the U.S.
Department of Justice, Associate Professor/Assistant Dean at the
American University of Armenia Law Department and policy advisor to
the Los Angeles City Attorney.
She has combined her background as an attorney and multimedia
journalist to focus on visual storytelling projects that seek to
inspire social change.
Her work has been recognized and supported by the United Nations,
Fulbright, UCLA School of Art & Architecture, the Tufenkian
Foundation, and the Yerevan Press Association.
Her body of work has been exhibited widely and most recently included
stories such as: non-combat deaths in Armenia’s military; life on the
front lines in Artsakh; refugee life along the Azerbaijani border;
HIV/TB among the Zulu people in South Africa; “How We Live,” a
photography installation, book and film documenting poverty in
Armenia; and “Not Here,” a project focusing on labor migration from
Armenia to Los Angeles.
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3 – Patriarchate Denounces Jewish Report,
Says Armenian Seminarians Were Attacked
Last week, a June 18 article “Report: 60 Armenian-Church Students
Attempted Lynching of 2 Jews on Eve of Shavuot” in The Jewish Press by
David Israel began circulating. In the article, Israel writes that “On
Shabbat, June 8, the eve of Shavuot, 60 students of the Armenian
Church attacked two young Jews who were walking on the Armenian
Patriarchate Street in the Old City of Jerusalem and severely beat
them until they needed urgent medical treatment.” In the article,
attorney Chaim Bleicher says, “The group of Armenians approached them
and began to attack them with murderous blows. My clients were punched
in their faces and kicked all over their bodies while they were lying
on the floor. One of the youths was thrown in the air on his back and
when he lay helpless on the ground many Armenians stood over him and
continued to beat him. The brutal assault lasted a few minutes, until
the priests who led the students began to instruct them to stop the
lynching. My clients escaped wounded and bleeding to the nearby police
station in Qishla. My clients needed medical treatment and one of them
was taken by ambulance to Shaare Zedek Hospital.” Bleicher says “the
youths filed a complaint at the David police station, but have not yet
received any information regarding the arrest of suspects and the
development of the investigation.” Bleicher says, “It goes without
saying that the incident took place in an area covered by police
cameras, which certainly should enable the rapid arrest of the
attackers and the obtaining of evidence against them.” Bleicher says
he asked the district commander to “arrest and interrogate anyone who
appears to be one of the attackers, or that there is information that
he attacked my clients.”
The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem issued a statement on June 20
denouncing this article. According to the Patriarchate, on June 8 it
was a a group of Armenian Seminarians and the dean of the Seminary who
were “attacked by three extremist Jews and their dog.”
“The article in The Jewish Press about the attack is a pure lie and
malicious slander, smearing our good name and harming the outstanding
reputation of the Armenian Patriarchate. The reactions in The Jewish
Press and their Facebook page on this slanderous article are
defamatory and convey hate,” the Patriarchate said in the statement.
The Patriarchate writes that 20 seminarians, accompanied by the dean
of the Seminary, left the Armenian Theological Seminary for the weekly
procession in the Holy Sepulcher when they were attacked.
According to the Patriarchate’s statement, the attackers “spat on the
group of Seminarians and shouted ‘Christians should die’ and ‘we will
wipe you out from this country.’ They then removed the muzzle from
their dog’s mouth and ordered the dog to bite the priest who
accompanied the Seminarians. When their dog charged, the priest fell
down on the ground. Some of the Seminarians took off their clerical
robes, worn on top of regular clothes, to protect the priest from the
attacking dog, in order to distract the dog.”
According to the Patriarchate, “the three extremist Jews themselves
also attacked the group, while the Seminarians were shielding the
priest from the vicious dog. One of the extremist Jews assaulted a
student, and broke the Seminarian’s hand. The extremist Jews then fled
the scene and went to the Kishle, the police station in the Old City,
and complaint against the Armenian clergy.”
According to the Patriarchate, the dean of the seminary went to the
Police Station in the Old City to file an official complaint against
the attackers; the priest who accompanied the group of students as
well as the Seminarian whose hand was broken by one of the extremist
Jews went with him.
“The Armenian Patriarchate has a report of their complaint against the
three extremist Jews, a report of the visit to the emergency
department at the hospital, including diagnosis and treatment,
pictures of the wounded Seminary student in hospital, and the
testimony of the group of Seminarians as eyewitnesses. We live
peacefully in this country and we are entitled of protection when
attacked. We call upon the Israeli government, the Jewish religious
leaders, the Israeli police and all other authorities involved, to
punish the perpetrators and to vehemently condemn this behaviour
against the Christians and especially against our Armenian community.”
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4- Der-Yeghiayan Elected Chair of Rotary ME Initiative Council
The Executive Committee of Rotarian Action Group For Peace recently
elected Dt. Garbis Der-Yeghiayan as Chair of the newly-established
Middle East Initiative Council.
In March 2019, a high-ranking Rotary delegation headed by Dr.
Der-Yeghiayan visited Israel and Palestine meeting with numerous
government officials, leaders of peace-promoting organizations,
university presidents and students. as well as Rotarians. The idea of
establishing a peace council was conceived during the delegation’s
visit to the Holy Land.
“This is a fresh approach led by Rotarians and youth groups to create
a culture of peace. It is based on shared values and desired outcomes
of all concerned to include: Safety and Security; Prosperity; and
Quality of Life. We are committed to full participation in a process
to equitably meeting the needs of current and future generations,”
said Der-Yeghiayan.
The proposed projects of the Council include: Organizing peace
conferences and workshops to address the root causes of conflict among
parties with the participation of Rotarians and international thinkers
with global experience; Offering a summer program for teens to help
them learn about the history, culture and politics of the Middle East;
Publishing position papers authored by Council Members and other
scholars on events in the Middle East; Working collaboratively with
like-minded peace organizations in the region to affect change; and
Organizing annual peace missions to the region to learn and to better
understand the status quo.
The Council will be composed of prominent Rotarians, scholars,
statesmen, peace-builders, former ambassadors, former members of
parliaments and youth representatives.
Dr. Der-Yeghiayan is an experienced Rotary leader. He is the first
Armenian-American elected to serve as a District Governor
(California-Nevada, USA) in the history of Rotary International.
He has held all senior positions in Rotary, including the chairmanship
of Rotarian Action Group For Peace. He is the recipient of Rotary’s
highest honors.
“Every conflict is an opportunity for better understanding. We
encourage openness from people in disputes because direct
communication is the best way to find solutions,” said Der-Yeghiayan.
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5- The Boston Globe’s Anush Elbakyan Wins Third Emmy Award
BOSTON–Anush Elbakyan has received her third New England EMMY Award in
the “Outstanding News Specialty Report Human Interest” category.
Elbakyan won the award for “Why Wasn’t Anyone Able To Save Laura?” as
its editor. The video tells the story of a young woman who went to a
local hospital with asthma attack but didn’t get any help and died in
front of the hospital.
Elbakyan received her second EMMY Award in 2017 for “Spotlight
Investigation: Private Schools, Painful Secrets” in the “Outstanding
Societal Concerns Program/Special” category. The documentary tells the
story of hundreds of students who were sexually abused by staffers at
New England boarding schools, emerging from decades of silence.
In 2016 Elbakyan received an Emmy Award in the “Outstanding News
Report – Serious Feature” category for a documentary short, “A Day in
Life of Leo” about a boy who was badly burned by fire, and has been
transformed by his devoted caregiver.
Additionally, Elbakyan was chosen as one of 28 women globally for the
2018 class of Poynter Institute’s Leadership Academy for Women in
Digital Media.Elbakyan had participated in Boston Globe’s coverage of
the Boston marathon bombings and their aftermath, which won a Pulitzer
Prize and Online News Association’s Online Journalism Award for
Breaking News Coverage.
Elbakyan is an Emmy award-winning producer and multimedia journalist.
Elbakyan is the Video Director and the Senior Video Editor for the
Boston Globe. Elbakyan oversees the production and distribution of the
Globe’s original video content, while also managing video business
operations and leading the digital video strategy. Elbakyan manages a
team of video producers and coordinates the daily video news
operation. She launched and served as executive producer for the
political digital video series “Ground Game,” “Live Political Happy
Hour” and the food series “Smart Cooks.”
New England Emmy Awards are a division of the National Academy of
Television Arts and Sciences, the premier and most recognized
non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of excellence in
television. Every year the Academy awards the Emmy Award, the most
prestigious, peer-judged honor in television, for outstanding creative
achievement.
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