Category: News

Massis Post – Prof. Taner Akcam of Clark University will give a lecture entitled “The Memoir of Naim Bey and Talat Pasha Telegrams: Are They ‘Armenian Forgeries’?” on Thursday, October 4, 2016, at 7:30 p.m., at First Armenian Church, 380 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA. The program is sponsored by the friends of the Kaloosdian-Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR). A reception will take place following the program at the NAASR Center across the street from the church.

In 1920-21, author and editor Aram Andonian published a book known in English as The Memoirs of Naim Bey and in Armenian as Medz Vojirì (The Great Crime). It contained the writings of an Ottoman official and telegrams from Talat Pasha containing orders for the killing of Armenians.

In 1983, Turkish authors Sinasi Orel and Sureyya Yuca published a book to establish that the memoir was fake and the telegrams were forgeries.
The argument had three main pillars:
1) there was no such person as Naim Bey;
2) there is no actual memoir, since a non-existing person cannot write a memoir; and
3) the so-called Talat Pasha telegrams, like the alleged memoir, were invented by Andonian.

Although noted researcher Fr. Krikor Guerguerian (Kriger) in 1965 published a detailed examination of Andonian’s published and unpublished materials and Vahakn N. Dadrian in 1986 published a lengthy response to Orel and Yuca, in general the scholarly world ceased using the memoir and telegrams as trustworthy sources. Until now, the claims against Andonian have remained unanswered and became the cornerstone of denialism.

Taner Akcam risked venturing into this highly disputed territory and pursued the matter to its necessary conclusion, seeking out the archival sources and documents needed for a proper scholarly assessment. The first results of his research will be presented in this lecture and in a book to be published in Turkish later this fall. The question must be asked: Is it time to remove one of the last bricks in the denialist wall and watch the façade crumble?

Taner Akcam is the author of From Empire To Republic: Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide and A Shameful Act: the Armenian Genocide and Turkish Responsibility, and The Young Turks’ Crime Against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire as well as other works in the English and Turkish Languages. Since 2008 he has been the Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marian Mugar Professor of Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University in Worcester, MA.

The Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire about 70 times at the line of contact with the Karabakh forces last night.

The rival used firearms of different calibers as it fired over 1,400 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army keep protecting the military positions and resort to response actions in case of extreme necessity.

On 11 September Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan visited the Alashan site of the Martakert region and met there with Talish residents who had left their houses and settled there in the aftermath of the war launched by Azerbaijan from 2 to 5 April of the current year, NKR President’s Press Office reports.

Issues related to the course of programs directed to the improving social and living conditions of the Talish residents were discussed during the meeting.

The President gave corresponding instructions to the heads of the concerned bodies for proper realization of the activities.

Primate of the Artsakh Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan, NKR National Assembly Ashot Ghoulyan and other officials accompanied the President.

Armenia welcomes the  agreements on the Syrian crisis reached between Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, and John Kerry, US Secretary of State.

“We hope that in line with those agreements all sides will maintain the ceasefire in practice and, as an urgent step, an unhindered supply of the humanitarian aid to the regions most affected by the crisis and its distribution to the population will be ensured,” Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

“In this regard we are even more concerned about the humanitarian situation in Aleppo and its neighbourhood, and it is more than urgent to provide humanitarian aid to those areas as soon as possible,” he added.

“We are hopeful that these agreements can serve as a basis for comprehensive negotiations on the peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis,” Balayan stated.

Photo: AP

 

North Korea says it has successfully carried out its fifth nuclear test, the BBC reports.

The announcement on state media came hours after a seismic event was detected near its nuclear test site.

South Korea believes it is the North’s biggest ever test, raising fears the state has made real nuclear advances.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye called it an act of “self-destruction” showing the “maniacal recklessness” of leader Kim Jong-un. The US warned of “serious consequences”.

China’s foreign ministry said Beijing was resolutely opposed to the test and urged North Korea to avoid further action that would worsen the situation.

The North said the test had been of a “newly developed nuclear warhead” and that it was now capable of mounting a nuclear device on ballistic rockets.

South Korea’s military has suggested that the explosive yield of this blast could be almost twice that of the previous nuclear test. Analysts have expressed fears this could mean the North is a step closer to having a useable nuclear weapon.

Turkey and the European Union on Friday agreed to douse tensions that had darkened Ankara’s prospects for joining the bloc in the wake of the failed July 15 coup, AFP reports.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn — making the highest-level EU visit to Turkey since the coup — said that new chapters in Ankara’s long-running accession process should be opened and visa liberalisation was still on the table.

Several Turkish and EU officials had engaged in a war of words after the attempted putsch, with Brussels slamming the crackdown that followed the putsch attempt and Ankara unhappy with an apparent lack of solidarity from the bloc.

“The key element which we agreed to was that we talk more to each other and a little bit less about each other, showing full respect,” Mogherini said after talks with Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and EU Minister Omer Celik.

Mogherini unequivocally condemned the coup aimed at ousting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying: “There is no space whatsoever… for any attempt at a coup.”

She said the sides had an “in depth discussion” in ensuring the rule of law was protected, following criticism of the crackdown that has seen tens of thousands arrested or dismissed over alleged links to the putsch.

She said the main outcome of the meeting was “a strong recommitment to dialogue and common work on all strands of our cooperation.”

Uzbekistan will elect a new president on Dec. 4 following the death of veteran leader Islam Karimov last week, the elections authority said on Friday, Reuters reports.

Political parties will be able to nominate candidates between Sept. 30 and Oct. 20, Central Election Commission Chairman Mirza-Ulugbek Abdusalomov told reporters.

Karimov died of a stroke on Sept.2 aged 78 after ruling the resource-rich country of 32 million people for 27 years.

On Thursday, Uzbekistan’s parliament named Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev as interim president.

Photo: AFP

 

At least 33 tourists who spent a cold Thursday night trapped in several cable cars high above the French Alps have been rescued, officials say, the BBC reports.

The tourists were suspended above the glaciers of Mont Blanc at an altitude of about 3,800m (12,468ft) after wires carrying the cars became tangled.

They were among 110 people initially trapped when the cable cars ground to a halt on Thursday afternoon.

The cars are believed to have stopped after cables tangled in high winds.

Those trapped overnight were freed on Friday after rescuers managed to restart the cars by relaxing the tension of tangled cables.

At least two people were killed when a train derailed near Pontevedra in north-western Spain on Friday, the BBC reports.

About 60 passengers were on the Portuguese train when it derailed at 09:30 (07:30 GMT) near the town’s station, El Pais news website reported.

One carriage came off the tracks completely, the other two partially.

Emergency workers are at the scene. The crash was at O Porrino, on the coast, just south of Santiago de Compostela and north of Portugal.

In July 2013 Spain suffered one of its worst train crashes in the same region, when a high-speed train derailed near Santiago de Compostela, killing 79 people and injuring some 170. The driver failed to brake in time before a bend.