Category: 2020

The Armenian Genocide Was Politicized For 105 Years—Here’s Why

Christine Harutyunian
The National Interest
 
 
 
The Armenian Genocide Was Politicized For 105 Years—Here’s Why
 
It was a ‘decades-long struggle involving Turkey, Israel, Armenian-Americans, the American Jewish community and the U.S. government.’
 
by Eldad Ben Aharon
 
Armenian communities across the globe mark the murderous history of state violence in Turkey with the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day on April 24.
  
That commemoration marks the period between 1914 and 1921, when the Ottoman Empire carried out an extended campaign to expel or kill the Armenians living in Turkey and its border regions. From massacres to death marches, 1.5 million of Turkey’s historic Armenian population was murdered.
 
Since 1923, Turkey has denied perpetrating what came to be called the Armenian genocide. It has pressured its allies to refrain from officially declaring the events a “genocide,” which the United Nations defines as acts committed with the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
 
But in a milestone vote in late 2019, both the U.S. House and Senate defied that pressure and the weight of over 40 years of precedent.
 
They passed a bill declaring that the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks was, in fact, a genocide.
 
Since 1975, numerous efforts were made to pass an Armenian genocide bill. The decades-long struggle involving Turkey, Israel, Armenian-Americans, the American Jewish community and the U.S. government over the commemoration of the Armenian genocide resulted in failure to pass a bill every time – until 2019.
 
Setting the table
 
I am a historian of international relations. I am currently writing a book that focuses on Israeli-Turkish-American relations and the contested memories of the Armenian genocide.
 
The political struggle over U.S. recognition of the Armenian genocide was set in motion during the presidency of Jimmy Carter in 1976. Carter came to the job with a commitment to protecting human rights. That commitment was soon tested by the longstanding strategic relationship between the U.S. and Iran, which was ruled by the Shah with an iron fist. By late 1977, U.S.-Iranian relations were deteriorating after Carter sent mixed signals about the Shah’s dictatorship and his abuse of Iranians’ human rights.
  
In 1978, Carter’s fraught relations with the Shah weakened the Iranian leader’s hold on power. Popular protest movements mounted, culminating in the Shah’s overthrow in 1979, the Iranian fundamentalist revolution and the American hostage crisis.
 
The criticism at home about the Carter-Shah relationship and American Jews’ reluctance to support Carter’s administration convinced the president and his staff members to re-promote human rights through American foreign policy.
 
Their strategy: Use the Holocaust as a universal lesson for genocide prevention to help reinforce ties with Jewish voters.
 
Holocaust remembrance
While the Iran crisis was playing out, on Nov. 1, 1978, Carter launched the President’s Commission on the Holocaust. Carter requested that the commission submit a report addressing the “establishment and maintenance of an appropriate memorial to those who perished in the Holocaust.”
 
The commission included American Holocaust survivors like Elie Wiesel and Benjamin Meed. The commission’s September 1979 report recommended special days of remembrance for the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, a dedicated education program, and the establishment of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as a national memorial.
 
The museum, the report said, should be focused on one specific aspect of the Nazis’ many crimes: the “unique” and unprecedented nature of the murder of the Jews – even over other Nazi victims.
 
“Millions of innocent civilians were tragically killed by the Nazis. They must be remembered. However, there exists a moral imperative for special emphasis on the six million Jews. While not all victims were Jews, all Jews were victims, disdained for annihilation solely because they were born Jewish,” wrote the commission.
 
This approach clashed with Carter’s views on the universal lessons of the Holocaust. It also aroused the opposition of representatives of other victims of the Nazis, such as the Roma and the gay community, who pressed for inclusion in the Holocaust museum.
 
A ‘campaign to remember’
  
Another heated debate was taking place about who should pay for the museum, which was estimated to cost US$100 million.
 
The land allocated on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was a contribution by the federal government. But the remaining funds to build the museum were to be donated mainly by the American public through a “Campaign to Remember.”
 
This was the moment – the convergence of Carter’s vision of human rights protection and the “Campaign to Remember” – that the organized American-Armenian community believed could bring the almost-forgotten memory of the Armenian genocide back to public consciousness.
 
California Gov. George Deukmejian, an Armenian-American, pressured museum leaders to appoint Set Momjian as its American-Armenian community representative. The Armenian community in the U.S. made a donation of $1 million, aiming to be able to include the Armenian genocide in the museum’s focus.
 
In August 1983, the Armenian expectations became reality when the museum commission reached a decision to include the Armenian genocide in the exhibition narrative. Although the decision about the 1915 genocide was informal, it was still a commitment that later would be difficult to reverse.
 
Turkey looks to Israel
 
The Turkish government was extremely anxious about the museum. It turned for help to its regional and Cold War ally, Israel. Turkey pressured Israel to influence the concept of the museum and to make sure the Armenians were left out of the memorial.
 
As part of an oral history project, I interviewed Gabi Levy, who served as Israeli ambassador to Turkey from 2007 to 2011. Levy told me that throughout the history of Israeli-Turkish relations, whenever Turkey had an urgent concern in the U.S., “the Turks carried assumptions regarding the ‘magical power’ of Israel’s foreign policy,” especially their purported ability to use the American Jewish lobby for influence the U.S. political arena.
 
Israel capitalized on presumptions about the Israeli/Jewish “magic power” to convince Turkey that they were taking all “possible measures.” Israeli diplomats tried to persuade the relevant American players to prevent the Armenian experience from being incorporated into the museum, requesting influential Jewish congressmen such as Tom Lantos and Stephen Solarz to convince the museum commission to exclude the Armenian genocide. Lantos and Solarz believed this would serve U.S. interests in the Middle East that included Israel and Turkey maintaining good relations.
 
Ultimately, as a key U.S. NATO ally, it was Turkey’s own pressure on the U.S. Congress and the Reagan administration’s Cold War fears that forestalled any presence of the Armenian genocide in the museum as well as resulted in the failure to pass the Armenian genocide bill.
 
When the memorial finally opened its doors in 1991, its focus was the Holocaust and Jewish victims.
 
What changed in 2019?
 
Internationally, a number of developments supported the dramatic changes in U.S.-Turkish relations in 2019. They include Turkey’s July purchase of a Russian-made air defense system, which angered the Americans, and the October military offensive by Turkey in Northern Syria against the Kurds, who were U.S. allies.
 
In the U.S., the unprecedented condemnation by both Democrats and Republicans of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for his attack on Kurds in Syria, as well as the impeachment process against Erdogan ally Donald Trump, weakened Congress’ adherence to the longtime official position favoring Turkey.
 
Congress passed powerful sanctions against Turkey. The Armenian genocide bill was part of the package.
 
Importantly, the bill passed by the U.S. Congress states the U.S. will “commemorate the Armenian Genocide through official recognition and remembrance.”
 
The U.S. is thus committed to allocate federal resources to build a U.S. memorial to commemorate the 1915 genocide – just as with the the 1978 President’s Commission on the Holocaust. Practically speaking, building a U.S. Armenian genocide museum or memorial will have further negative implications for U.S.-Turkish relations, which might take another 40 years to rebuild.
 
Editor’s note: This is an updated version of an article originally published on March 20, 2020.
 
This article by Eldad Ben Aharon first appeared in The Conversation on March 3, 2020.
 
Image: Reuters.
 
 
 
 

CIVILNET.Media Tycoon and Son in Law of Former President Wanted

Kalashian Nyrie
CIVILNET.AM

22:10 
The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers have held a video conference. The US State Department has redirected $25 million worth of aid to Armenia’s coronavirus response. 72 more cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed. Reports have emerged that a criminal case has been initiated against former Armenian Ambassador to the Vatican Mikael Minasyan. Armenia hovers at 61st place in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index. 
 

While Remembering and Commemorating the Armenian Genocide, Let’s Not Forget the Greeks and Assyrians

Markos Nalchajian
Pappas Post
 
 
 
written by Lou Ureneck
The following contributed article was originally published in 2015 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The Pappas Post re-shares this piece, however, due to its continued relevance and importance.
 
Armenians and others around the world this month are marking the centennial of the genocide that left hundreds of thousands of Armenians dead early in the last century. The date April 24 is typically picked as the centennial day since it was on that day in 1915 that Turkish authorities rounded up Armenian intellectuals and leaders in Constantinople and murdered them.
 
It was the first step in a much broader slaughter. The Armenian centennial is getting the attention it deserves from sources as diverse as Pope Francis and Kim Kardashian. The Pope courageously used the word “genocide” in a mass this past weekend, and the Lord’s Prayer was sung in Armenian at the Vatican. Kim Kardashian, whose grandfather was an Armenian immigrant, traveled to the Republic of Armenia with her husband Kayne West, who put on an impromptu concert.
 
These events are good and an important.
 
What few people know is that the Armenian Genocide was a horrible event that occurred within the context of a wider religious cleansing across Asia Minor that lasted 10 years and included Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians. They were all Christians, and they were subjects of the Ottoman Empire.
 
The religious cleansing was actually the first in modern times, and it fit the pattern of genocides that would follow in the terrible century ahead. It’s worth noting that the Nazis in following decades were transfixed by the events that had occurred in Turkey in those nightmarish years of mass killings and deadly deportations.
 
The Armenians in many way bore the worst of the slaughter, but ethnic Greeks and Assyrians also were slaughtered in similar ways — and for the same reason: They were scapegoats in a crumbling empire that saw Christians as a dangerous and potentially treasonous population inside the country. There was a strong nationalistic impulse to create a “Turkey for the Turks,” and that meant a homogeneous population based on Turkishness and the Moslem faith.
 
Christians had long been second-class citizens in the Ottoman Empire, long before the genocide, and they had been subject to pogrom-like actions. But the systematic uprooting of Christians began about 1912 following the First Balkan War, in which Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria defeated the Ottomans and the city of Salonika passed to the Greeks.
 
Undated photograph: An Armenian woman kneels beside her dead child in a field “within sight of help and safety at Aleppo.”
(Photo / Near East Relief Foundation)
 
It was the nation of Greece that had been part of the alliance that defeated the Ottomans, but it was ethnic Greek subjects of the Ottoman Empire who paid a price in harassment, killing and forced departures. Tens of thousands of ethnic Greeks were forced from their homes along the west (Aegean) coast of Turkey and many were killed.
 
This had the silent encouragement of Turkey’s military ally, Germany. Virulent propaganda spread images of Christians threatening Islam; hatred was fomented between the faiths.One of the witnesses to the killing was the American consul general in Smyrna, George Horton. Smyrna was a prosperous city on the Aegean, and Horton had been posted there to look after American interests. He documented the killing and reported it back to the State Department. Smyrna itself, after WWI, would itself be destroyed in the religious hatred directed toward Christians.
 
The Armenian genocide is typically bracketed by 1915-1916, during World War I. And for sure, this is when most of the killing took place. Armenian civilians were marched out of their towns and cities and segregated by sex and age. Men were killed immediately; women and children were marched long distances until they dropped form disease, thirst or starvation. The first-hand accounts of these treks are numerous and collected in letters, cables and reports in libraries though the world.
 
After WWI, the British made an attempt to bring the Ottoman mass killers to justice, but the effort faltered as Britain’s grasp on the situation inside Turkey faltered. A nationalist movement arose, and the forces of religious hatred were again unleashed. The killing of Christians was renewed with Ottoman Greeks as well as Armenians being shot and marched to their deaths. American and British consuls diplomats in the region provided a first-hand account of the killing.
 
The situation was worsened when the Allied Powers and the United States invited the nation of Greece to occupy Smyrna, a mostly Greek city inside Turkey, to forestall a landing by the Italians who wanted to seize the city as the spoils of war. The powers sent Greece to Smyrna, but when war broke out between the army of Greece and the Nationalist army of Turkey, they did next to nothing to support it.
 
As a consequence, more Christians — people who were Ottoman subjects — were murdered in towns and cities from the Black Sea to the south coast of Turkey. By the end of 1922, about three millions Christians had been killed in the decade-long religious cleansing that operated essentially under two Turkish governments.
 
The burning port of Smyrna pictured on September 14, 1922. The blaze spread and engulfed much of the city after Turkish forces lit four fires around the perimeter of the Armenian neighborhood.
 
The final catastrophe was the Turkish army’s occupation of Smyrna, a prosperous and cosmopolitan city of a half million people. The city was burned, and countless numbers of civilians slaughtered on the city’s streets and in their homes. The occupation of Smyrna was, in an important sense, the last episode of the genocide. It was also a marker of the end of the Ottoman Empire. After Smyrna, a new order arose, led by Turkey’s brilliant, ruthless and secular leader Mustafa Kemal, later called Ataturk.
 
So, as we commemorate the Armenian genocide, and give it the historical standing and label it deserves, let us not forget that many hundreds of thousands of others perished in the 20th Century’s first genocide.
 
 
About the author
 
Lou Ureneck teaches journalism at Boston University. A former Nieman fellow and editor-in-residence at Harvard University, Ureneck worked as a newspaper editor in Maine and Philadelphia. His book, “The Great Fire: One American’s Mission to Rescue Victims of the 20th Century’s First Genocide,” is available for purchase via Amazon.
 
 

Pasadena: Tornek Issues Proclamation Remembering Armenian Genocide

Karakhanian Suren
Pasadena Now
BY ANDRÉ COLEMAN, MANAGING EDITOR
Published on Wednesday, | 1:06 pm

At Monday’s City Council meeting Mayor Terry Tornek issued a proclamation remembering the Armenian Genocide.

“On April 24, 1915, the Turkish government perpetrated against Armenian people what is commonly referred to as the first genocide of the twentieth century, which continued until 1923 and resulted in the death of 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children; and since memories fade with time, it is important to remind ourselves about human tragedies that have taken place.” Tornek wrote in his proclamation.

Also known among Armenians as the Great Crime, the genocide began in 1915 and, by the time it ended eight years later, 1.5 million Armenians had been hanged, poisoned, drowned or marched into the desert to die at the hands of soldiers from the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Along with the Jewish Holocaust and the enslavement of African Americans, it remains one of the darkest episodes in human history.

The Turkish government vehemently denies the event took place.

Typically, the city remembers the Genocide on April 24, but due to the safer at home orders, there won’t be a ceremony this year,

“The time of protesting is over,” said former Mayor Bill Paparian, “this is about our ancestors who deserve a prayer.

“They would want to see us come together, honor them, and celebrate their memory. Let this become a new tradition, an Armenian Thanksgiving.”

In 1984 Paparian’s uncle, Arshag Dickranian, shared with the Shoah Foundation the story how his mother Serpouhi, and other members the family survived the Genocide.

After managing to find a house to hide in, informers turned them in. After the police came, Paparian’s grandfather bribed the driver, and they were taken to another house.

In their first month hiding in Konya, the family stayed in 60 different houses to avoid being caught.

Eventually, the family changed their name and began living as Turkish Muslims in the city.

Dickranian’s father went to mosque, and Dickranian began attending a secret Armenian school in the attic of a house. When he went there each day, the eight students each entered the building separately, so as not to arouse suspicion.

By 1923 the family made its way to America.

“This coming Friday, April 24, the Armenian-American community will pause to remember the Armenian Genocide of 1915.” Paparian said.

In October, the US government finally recognized the 1.5 million lives that were taken during the genocide when the House voted 405-11 to approve a resolution formally recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Pasadena) fought for 19 years to get the government to recognize the Genocide.

“Today, the House decisively voted to commemorate the Armenian Genocide.” Schiff said in a prepared statement. “In so doing, the House declared that it will no longer be party to the cause of genocide denial. This is a vote I have fought for 19 years to make possible, and one that tens of thousands of my Armenian American constituents have worked, struggled, and prayed for decades to see.”



Comment la Suisse aida les rescapés du génocide arménien

Ani Kharatian
 
Catholique, Suisse
22 avril 2020
 
 
 

 

A l’occasion du 24 avril 2020, la communauté arménienne de Suisse veut témoigner de sa reconnaissance envers la Suisse qui s’est montré solidaire de la population arménienne lors du premier génocide du 20e siècle, indique un communiqué du 21 avril.  

C’est à Genève que la communauté arménienne est la plus ancienne et la plus nombreuse. Au début du XIXe siècle les premiers étudiants arméniens arrivent à l’Université de Genève où ils rencontrent des Russes et d’autres ressortissants d’Europe orientale. A la fin du siècle la cité de Calvin devient une pépinière de révolutionnaires.

L’emblème du parti arménien Hentchak fondé à Genève en 1887

En novembre 1887 sept étudiants arméniens y fondent le parti social-démocrate Hentchak (Cloche). En 1892, la Fédération arménienne révolutionnaire Dachnaktsoutioun, fondée en 1890 à Tiflis, s’installe à Genève où elle publie son organe Drochak (Drapeau) jusqu’en 1914. De nombreux intellectuels militants et artistes arméniens fréquentent ses locaux à l’avenue de la Roseraie 29, rapporte le journaliste suisse d’origine arménienne Armand Gaspard.

Les partis Hentchak et Dachnak organisent des révoltes locales en Turquie provoquant une répression généralisée. Entre 1894 et 1896, les persécutions du sultan Abdülhamid II font des dizaines de milliers de victimes dans toute l’Anatolie, le Haut-plateau arménien et jusqu’à Constantinople.

Ces massacres soulèveront une grande émotion en Occident. Notamment en Suisse où en 1896, une pétition demandant l’intervention du Conseil fédéral recueille 454’291 signatures. L’initiative émane d’un comité de secours aux Arméniens (Schweizerischer Hilfsbund für Armenien).

Un mouvement philo-arménien se développe alors, notamment à Genève. On y trouve l’orientaliste Léopold Favre (1846-1922) fondateur de l’hôpital-orphelinat de Sivas, l’égyptologue Edouard Naville (1844-1926), le pasteur Antony Krafft-Bonnard (1869-1945). Dans les années 1920 s’y ajouteront les conseillers fédéraux Gustave Ador (GE) et Giuseppe Motta (TI).

Enfants arméniens déportés au moment du génocide en 1915 | domaine public

En janvier 1915, les armées russes envahissent la Turquie orientale et nombre d’Arméniens voient en elles des «libérateurs». Le gouvernement ottoman décide alors de déporter la population arménienne ou de l’exterminer. Les deux tiers des Arméniens vivant sur le territoire actuel de la Turquie vont périr par les déportations, les famines et les massacres de grande ampleur, planifiés par le parti au pouvoir, le Comité Union et Progrès (CUP), dirigé par les officiers ottomans Talaat Pacha, Enver Pacha et Djemal Pacha. Ce génocide débute le 24 avril 1915, à Constantinople, par l’arrestation et la déportation de 600 notables arméniens. Il fera jusqu’en 1918 plus de 1,2 million de victimes. Les survivants se dispersent à travers le monde. La Suisse en recueille plusieurs centaines.

«Ne pas résoudre la question de l’Arménie serait une souillure, une honte pour la civilisation humaine …»

Giuseppe Motta, Conseiller fédéral

Des négociations entre la nouvelle Turquie de Mustafa Kemal et les Alliés de la Première Guerre mondiale commencent à Ouchy en automne 1922 pour aboutir le 24 juillet 1923 au Traité de Lausanne signé au Palais de Rumine. Il clôt la guerre gréco-turque et instaure un nouvel ordre politique au Proche-Orient. Il remplace surtout le Traité de Sèvres du 10 août 1920 qui créait une grande Arménie indépendante dans des frontières tracées par le président américain Wilson. A Lausanne, l’Arménie, soviétisée depuis le 29 novembre 1920, n’a pas eu voix au chapitre. Elle est totalement sacrifiée.

Au lendemain de la Première Guerre mondiale, la Société des Nations est créée à Genève pour consolider la paix. Dans les années 1921-22 la question arménienne y est évoquée notamment par le conseiller fédéral Giuseppe Motta qui déclare: «Ne pas résoudre la question de l’Arménie serait une souillure, une honte pour la civilisation humaine …».

Câble codé de Sükrü, directeur des affaires tribales et d’immigration, 25 septembre 1915 ordonnant l’extermination des Arméniens.

Le destin de plusieurs personnalités arméniennes passe également par Lausanne. L’écrivain et homme d’Etat Avétis Aharonian (1866-1948) y fait des études de lettres et compose ses premiers œuvres notamment Le village suisse. De retour en Arménie dont l’indépendance est proclamée le 28 mai 1918, il est élu peu après président du Parlement. Après la soviétisation, il choisit l’exil en Occident. Pendant la Conférence de Lausanne, il est à la tête d’une délégation arménienne qui n’a pas droit à la parole. Il termine sa vie à Marseille.

Médecin et poète, Roupen Sevag Tchilinguirian (1885-1915) fait ses études universitaires à Lausanne où il compose ses premières œuvres et rencontre son épouse allemande. De retour à Istanbul, sa ville natale, il est arrêté avec des centaines d’intellectuels arméniens le 24 avril 1915, puis assassiné quelques temps plus tard.

Carte postale du foyer arménien de Begnins | DR

De décembre 1922 à 1936 le village de Begnins, au dessus de Nyon, accueille un orphelinat arménien créé par le pasteur Antony Krafft-Bonnard et l’Œuvre suisse de secours aux Arméniens. L’enseignement y est en arménien dans la perspective d’un retour au pays. Il y a même une imprimerie avec typographie arménienne. Entre 1898 et 1922, près de 2’000 orphelins arméniens au total ont été accueillis en Suisse.

A part Genève et Lausanne, de nombreuses personnalités s’engagent également dans d’autres régions de Suisse.

Médecin zurichoise, Joséphine Fallscheer-Zürcher (1866-1932) fonde à Urfa, en 1897, un hôpital que les Suisses dirigeront jusqu’en 1922.

Au début du 20e siècle des membres de la Mission de Bâle sont actifs dans les provinces arméniennes du Caucase, notamment au Karabagh où ils installent la première imprimerie.

L’Argovien Jakob Künzler (1871-1949) a été envoyé en 1899 en Anatolie par le pasteur allemand Johannes Lepsius pour secourir les Arméniens. Il a dirigé avec sa femme l’orphelinat d’Urfa pendant le génocide et sauvé des milliers d’enfants en les transférant au Liban. Il a raconté son histoire dans un livre Im Lande des Blutes und der Tränen (Au pays du sang et des larmes)

Le Zurichois Johannes Spörri (1852-1923) travaillé à Van de 1905 à 1915 pour l’Œuvre germano-suisse de secours aux Arméniens. Il y a séjourné avec sa femme Frieda Knecht et leurs deux filles. Ils sont revenus en Suisse via la Russie en guerre.

Le médecin bâlois Andres Vischer (1877-1930) reprend en 1905 la direction de l’hôpital de la mission allemande à Urfa. Il y reste jusqu’en 1912. Mais ne peut pas y retourner à cause de l’éclatement de la Première Guerre Mondiale. Jusqu’à sa mort il continuera de s’occuper des réfugiés arméniens.

A Fribourg, le prince Max de Saxe (1870-1951) introduit l’enseignement de l’arménien classique pendant la Première Guerre mondiale à la Faculté de théologie de l’Université. Egalement actif dans l’aide aux réfugiés, il a légué une importante bibliothèque d’arménologie. (cath.ch/mp)

‘Ordres de tuer Armenie 1915’, de Taner Akçam, a été publié en français en 2020

Ordres de tuer
Avec son ouvrage Ordre de tuer, publié en français au début de l’année, l’historien turc Taner Akçam entend démontrer définitivement l’intention et la volonté génocidaire du pourvoir turc envers les Arméniens entre 1915 et 1918.

Pour Taner Akçam, le refus obstiné de l’Etat turc de reconnaître la qualification de génocide pour les massacres des Arméniens s’explique aisément: «Le sujet est trop profondément lié à l’identité nationale. Admettre le génocide remettrait en question ce sur quoi s’est construite la République et annihilerait le récit national. Impossible! Le déni, la destruction de preuves et la fabrication de fausses pièces pour ériger une «fausse histoire» furent inscrits dans la genèse et l’idée même du génocide. Alors…»

Ancien réfugié politique en Allemagne, avant de mener une carrière universitaire aux Etats-Unis, Taner Akçam s’est lancé dans un travail de détective pour retrouver des documents, notamment des télégrammes codés donnant l’ordre explicite d’exterminer les Arméniens. Connus depuis le procès des membres du Comité Union et Progrès en 1920 à Istanbul et celui du meurtrier de Talaat Pacha, à Berlin en 1923, ces documents étaient considérés comme disparus. Une situation commode pour les Turcs qui les ont toujours dénoncés comme des faux.

Après une minutieuse enquête, Taner Akça en a retrouvé la trace dans un fonds d’archives privé aux Etats-Unis. Déchiffrés, ces télégrammes sont accablants. Le 22 septembre 1915, Talaat Pacha écrit que «tous les droits des Arméniens sur le sol turc, tels les droits de vivre et de travailler, ont été supprimés, et aucun ne doit survivre – pas même l’enfant dans son berceau». Une volonté que l’ambassadeur du Reich allemand à Constatinople, Hans von Wangenheim, avait déjà parfaitement identifié en juillet 1915: «La manière de conduire cette déportation montre que le gouvernement poursuit réellement le but d’anéantir (vernichten) la race arménienne dans l’empire turc», écrivait-il dans une note. MP

Taner Akçam: Ordres de tuer, Arménie 1915, Paris, 2020, CNRS éditions

 
 
 

Coronavirus case diagnosed in Lebanon refugee camp

Emil Lazarian

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 11:50,

YEREVAN, APRIL 22, ARMENPRESS.  The first coronavirus case has been reported at the refugee camp in eastern Lebanon.

According to RIA Novosti, a Palestinian refugee displaying symptoms was taken to a hospital in Beirut where the coronavirus was diagnosed.

The camp houses around 60,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria.

Local authorities said they are working to prevent the virus from spreading in the camp.

So far Lebanon has 677 confirmed cases, with 21 fatalities.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan




President-elect of Artsakh presents his position on NK conflict settlement

Elizabeth Jabejian

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 10:41,

YEREVAN, APRIL 22, ARMENPRESS. Newly-elected President of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan reaffirms that without the complete and full engagement of official Stepanakert no effective outcome is possible in the peaceful settlement process of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

The President-elect made a statement on Facebook which says:

“Deeply understanding the concerns of our society conditioned by the regular discussions with the participation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and the leaderships of Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Azerbaijani-Artsakh conflict, I once again want to reaffirm our principled position on the issue that no effective outcome is possible to achieve without the complete and full involvement of official Stepanakert. We are interested in the peaceful and final settlement of the conflict and fully understand that it will have its decisive impact on the establishment of sustainable and lasting peace in the region, but we expect the same understanding and responsibility also from Azerbaijan. Of course, we highly appreciate the unique role of the leadership of Armenia on this issue, but we need to accept that the authorities of Artsakh have received the main mandate to negotiate on behalf of the Artsakh people over any proposal or document presented at the negotiation table.

Highlighting the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group in peacefully settling the conflict and closely following the video conferences held separately with the Co-Chairs and the foreign ministers, as well as involving all sides on April 20 and 21, unfortunately, we once again record that the Azerbaijani authorities continue avoiding to hold direct negotiations with the real side of the conflict. This greatly reduces the level of honesty and credibility of aspirations by official Baku, combined with the regular provocations in the frontline and the anti-Armenian policy.

As a President-elect of the Republic of Artsakh, I announce:

  1. The authorities of the Republic of Artsakh should participate in all stages of the process aimed at the peaceful and final settlement of the conflict on a full and complete basis:
  2. The security of the people of Artsakh cannot be endangered or bargained in any case:
  3. Without the recognition of the Artsakh people’s right to self-determination, no option of the conflict settlement can become a subject of substantive discussion between the sides:
  4. Attempts of using force and threat of force in the conflict settlement process should be ruled out with clear guarantees as the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples deserve living in peace, otherwise, the Republic of Artsakh is ready to give a disproportionate counterattack to Azerbaijan, which initiates the attack, by also transferring the military operations to its territory:
  5. Unilateral concessions or disproportionate, inadequate mutual concessions by the authorities of Artsakh on any option of the conflict settlement are ruled out:
  6. In the settlement of the conflict and its related processes, the Armenian refugees and internally displaced persons should have an equal engagement together with the Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons, and their problems must be solved simultaneously and in a similar way
  7. The international community (firstly, the OSCE and the Co-Chair countries) should rule out the violations and restrictions of the rights of the Artsakh people conditioned by the conflict and the international status of the Republic of Artsakh, including also the factual isolation from international human rights and humanitarian programs which Azerbaijan is trying to use as a mean of pressure contrary to the famous principles of the international law:

The authorities of Artsakh, both in the past and in the future, are ready to make the maximum efforts in an atmosphere of mutual respect to strengthen trust between the sides and demonstrate the necessary will and record a progress in the peaceful and lasting settlement of the conflict”.

 

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan




Police shut down access to Armenian Genocide memorial as precaution ahead of 105th anniversary

Emma Jilavian

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 11:57,

YEREVAN, APRIL 22, ARMENPRESS. All pedestrian and vehicle entry routes and roads leading to the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial will be shut down starting April 21 until April 25, police said. The move is an effort to prevent a potential outbreak of the coronavirus if people were to ignore the lockdown and attempt to visit the memorial on April 24, the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.

“Violating the rules will lead to legal consequences. Dear citizens, in order to avoid irreversible consequences amid the pandemic we are asking you to treat this decision with understanding,” police said in a statement.

As the traditional public commemoration events for the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day on April 24 are cancelled due to the coronavirus lockdown, other events are planned to take place to pay homage to the memory of the victims of the genocide.

At 21:00 on April 23, church bells will ring and simultaneously the street lights in Yerevan and other major cities will be switched off, Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister’s Office Eduard Aghajanyan said at a news conference on April 21.

“We will ask our citizens also to switch off the lights of their homes and use the mobile phone display light out of their windows to symbolize the united presence near the Eternal Flame. The luminous commemoration moment will have its symbolic response from Tsitsernakaberd, where Kamo Seyranyan and Liana Alexanyan will perform the Ari Im Sokhak song,” he said.

Starting 08:00 , citizens in Armenia can send an SMS on the 1915 number, and on 0037433191500 for citizens sending from abroad, with their names to affirm their remote participation in the commemoration. “The names of people sending the messages will be screened on the pillars of the memorial,” he said.

In addition, the Armenian Church had earlier said that all churches in the country will ring the bells at midday on April 24.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan




Armenpress: Armenia Premier, First league football teams undergo testing before re-starting training

Andranik Taslakhchian

Armenia Premier, First league football teams undergo testing before re-starting training

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 11:48,

YEREVAN, APRIL 22, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Premier League Lori FC players have tested negative for the coronavirus, the Football Federation of Armenia said.

The coaches and other staff of the team were also tested, and all results came back negative.

Earlier Ararat FC players and staff were also tested. Results were negative.

The authorities allowed the football federation to resume trainings of Premier and First League teams starting April 23. The football federation was provided with coronavirus test kits and players and coaching staffs of all teams must undergo testing before starting the training.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

Opposition MP urges to provide assistance to all students regardless of GPA

Antonian Lara

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 12:09,

YEREVAN, APRIL 22, ARMENPRESS. Opposition Bright Armenia faction’s lawmaker Karen Simonyan calls on the government to provide assistance to all students regardless of their GPA.

“The conditions set create a problem for those students which really need that. One of the set criteria is the high GPA. This regulation already includes those students who study for free or have discounts. But those students, who really need a discount for their tuition fee, cannot us that”, the MP said at today’s session of the Parliament.

He also noted that this program doesn’t include students of private universities. “I call on the government, also the members of Parliament to revise certain provisions of this project, do not put a discrimination in terms of the GPA, if we assist, then we should assist all. All need that assistance as this crisis [novel coronavirus pandemic] touched all students”, he said.

Earlier Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that within the frames of the government’s 14th anti-crisis measures the state is going to provide assistance to students. The government will pay the tuition fees of students having 90 and higher GPA, as well as the graduates. The tuition fees of non-graduate students, having 90 and higher GPA, will be covered by the state by 75%.

Reported by Anna Grigoryan

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan