Category: News

Turkey needs to realize that Israel’s debate is only remotely related to ties with Ankara, but rather holds a special place in the broader debate about the Holocaust and Jewish victimhood.

By Louis Fishman

Once again the official day commemorating the 1915 Armenian Genocide, April 24, has passed without Israel issuing a statement of official recognition. As a country that inherited the legacy of the European genocide of Jews — the Holocaust — its recognition of the systematic killing of Ottoman Armenians would not only amount to a historically just move, but would also be an important step in promoting the study of comparative genocides, giving a special meaning to the important motto of “never again.” Further, it could lead to the understanding of how Turkish denial has only prevented the country from moving forward, showing Israel the need to end the denial of its own injustices.
Israel’s choosing not to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide is directly related to its attempts to maintain ties with Turkey, in good days and bad. At the height of Turkish-Israel relations in the 1990s, Israel maintained this policy in order not to risk jeopardizing its strong ties with the Turkish state, not to mention its arms deals. Shamefully, U.S. Jewish lobbies were coopted as a way to block American recognition of the Armenians’ tragedy as well.
Simply, Turkish tank deals trumped the moral and historical obligation of genocide recognition. Despite this, the internal debate surrounding the non-recognition emerged in 2000 when the liberal leftist education minister, the late Yossi Sarid (Meretz), attended Jerusalem’s 85th Armenian Genocide memorial ceremony. There he stated, “The Armenian Memorial Day should be a day of reflection and introspection for all of us, a day of soul-searching. On this day, we as Jews, victims of the Shoah [Holocaust] should examine our relationship to the pain of others.” In this speech he mentioned the word genocide no less than 10 times.
Despite years of strained relations that hit a pinnacle with the 2010 Gaza Flotilla affair, Israel still has not recognized the genocide. Ironically, the new reason was that Israeli policy makers believed this could lead to a full break in relations. However, before reaching this conclusion, U.S. Jewish lobbies had already opted out of taking their usual role in blocking Armenian Genocide recognition, and the Knesset debated the matter. While both groups denied this was related to the Flotilla, the message was clearly one of punishment for Turkey’s role. Even I argued against this, since recognition as a punishment against Turkey equaled no less of a farce than the previous situation.
In the summer of 2014 however, after Reuven Rivlin, a longtime advocate of Armenian Genocide recognition, became Israel’s president, it seemed that Israeli recognition would finally come at the 2015 centennial commemoration of that genocide. However, this too fell through due to pressure from the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Despite this, Rivlin came quite close to offering official recognition, saying “the Armenian people were the first victims of modern mass killing,” and stressing that many Jewish people in Ottoman Palestine witnessed the horrors of the killings, a known fact. Rivlin’s words reiterated the fact that among the Israeli public, few doubt that it was a genocide – it is known in Hebrew as the Hashoah Ha’armenit, the Armenian Shoah (holocaust).
Perhaps now that Israel and Turkey have made numerous statements that they are close to renewing full diplomatic ties, Israel should make clear that its relations cannot be held hostage to Turkey’s intractable stance towards this topic, and that Armenian Genocide recognition is not about being a friend or enemy of Turkey. Further, Turkey needs to realize that in Israel the debate is only remotely related to Ankara, and rather holds a special place in the greater debate of the “uniqueness of the Holocaust” and the question of Jewish victimhood, which hits at the heart of Israeliness and the question on how to memorialize the Holocaust.
With April 24 falling during Passover this year, it also important to remember that denial is also inherent in the Israeli narrative. Passover, a holiday that celebrates the ancient Israelites’ liberation from slavery, embeds within its modern meaning the sense of freedom, and sets into motion the national days of Holocaust Memorial Day, moving on to Memorial Day for its fallen soldiers, and finally culminating in Independence Day. However, for Israel, freedom and independence amounted to the Nakba — the Catastrophe — for the Palestinians.
Even if different in scope, it can be argued that Israel has adopted Turkey’s stance of denial as a model toward the Palestinian Nakba — the 1948 ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians from the land — denying not only the existence of the event itself, which led to the forced expulsion or flight of 750,000 Palestinians, but also subsequently the erasing of the memory of a Palestinian past and the physical erasing of their presence in the geographical landscape of the country. In both countries, this has also included the use of legislation and courts to block the memory.
It is time that Israel take the moral high ground and recognize the Armenian Genocide. No less important is the need to do away with its denial of the Palestinian Nakba. Otherwise, like Turkey, it will remain raveled in conflict. In both cases, the long road to reconciliation starts with the recognition of the crimes that paved the way for the founding of these subsequent nation-states. Only by recognizing this will it allow Israel – and Turkey – the much needed opportunity to move forward.
Louis Fishman is an assistant professor at Brooklyn College who has lived in Turkey and writes about Turkish and Israeli-Palestinian affairs.

President Serzh Sargsyan had a phone conversation with US Secretary of State John Kerry today at the initiative of the American side, President’s Press Office reports.

Issues related to the situation established as a result of gross violations of the ceasefire regime by Azerbaijan earlier this month were discussed.

President Sargsyan stressed that the irresponsible steps of Baku have caused a great harm to the negotiation process.

The US Secretary of States reiterated the full support of the US to the process of peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

The parties agreed there is no alternative to a peaceful solution and noted that it’s necessary to find mechanisms of mutually acceptable solution on the ground of basic principles.

The interlocutors emphasized the role of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, taking into consideration that it is the only internationally recognized format for the settlement of the issue.

Reality star Kim Kardashian took to social media to commemorate the Armenian Genocide and call for its recognition. Kim’s Facebook message reads:

“I can’t believe it has been a year since my cousins, Khloe, Kanye, North and I visited Armenia and learned so much about our family history. Today marks the 101st year of the Armenian Genocide. Over 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman Empire. Today is an extremely important day of memorial for me and millions of fellow Armenians across the world. We need to stand together as one and help get the ‪Armenian Genocide‬ recognized.”

It’s been a year since my cousins, Khloe, Kanye, North &I visited Armenia &learned so much about our family history

— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian)

Today marks the 101st year of the Armenian Genocide. Over 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman Empire.

— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian)

Today is an extremely important day of memorial for me and millions of fellow Armenians across the world.

— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian)

We need to stand together as one and help get the recognized. ??

— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian)

Photo: Civilnet.am

 

A bus exploded on Halabyan Street in Yerevan at 21:51, the Ministry of Emergency Situations reports.

According to preliminary information, one erson was killed, another six were injured in the blast.

The explosion occurred on the 63rd line of the municipal bus route. The injured have been transported to Armenia Medical Center for treatment.

 

 

On 25 April Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan received member of the European Parliament, head of EU-Artsakh friendship group Frank Engel, NKR President’s Press Office reports.

A range of issues related to the Europe-Artsakh relations and regional developments were discussed during the meeting.

Special attention was paid to the large-scale combat operations launched by Azerbaijan from 2 to 5 April and their consequences.

President Sahakyan expressed gratitude to Frank Engel for his high-principled work and sincere friendship, noting that those very ideas are at the basis of the Europe-Artsakh relations.

The Armenian Community of China, commonly known as ChinaHay, organized numerous gatherings across China on April 24 including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong to commemorate the 101st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the reports.

“Hundreds of Armenian survivors from across the Ottoman Empire escaped eastward across the Caucasus and Russia, seeking refuge in China. They not only rebuilt their lives, but reconstituted community life and built a church (Harbin) and community centers in different cities. They established a relief association, youth groups, Armenian language and history classes, and a choir,” said Dr. Khatchig Mouradian, a genocide scholar whose research has also focused on the Armenian communities in China in the 19th and 20th centuries.

“It is particularly moving that 101 years after the genocide, Armenians in some of these very same cities held commemoration events on April 24,” he added.

Small yet vibrant Armenian communities existed primarily in Harbin, Shanghai, Manzhouli, Tientsin, and Hong Kong from the late 19th till the mid-20th century. Most Armenians left for the Americas or for Soviet Armenia by the 1950s. Today’s Armenian community in China is only a few decades old, and is primarily comprised of professionals and business people from the Middle East and North America, as well as university students from Armenia and other CIS countries, noted Mouradian.

Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm has asked Sweden’s TV4 television network to pull a documentary on the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire, urging the channel to “reconsider” because the film “will fail to serve the principle of objectivity,” reports.

Ahead of Sunday evening’s scheduled broadcast of a documentary titled “Seyfo 1915 – The Assyrian Genocide,” TV4 said it received an email from Turkish embassy press officer Arif Gulen, in which he opposes the film’s use of the term “genocide,” used to describe the tragic death of thousands of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks during WWI.

The letter, which was subsequently  on TV4’s official website, asks the station to “reconsider your decision on broadcasting of the… documentary film with a balanced and sensible attitude,” while cautioning that “only a competent international tribunal can determine whether a particular event is genocide.”

His statement provoked a sharp reaction from the broadcaster, which denounced Gulen’s attempt to pressure the channel to cancel its broadcast, while promising to air the documentary on Sunday despite the warning.

“We can never accept this. We will protest against any attempt to exert pressure that threatens freedom of expression,” said TV4’s program director, Viveka Hansson, in a written statement on the company’s website.

Speaking to Expressen, Gulen  that he had “full respect for freedom of expression and for the channel,” but refused to retract his plea to TV4 to withdraw the documentary piece.

“These are my feelings. It is their decision. I don’t know if they will change it. They can transmit it, if they want. But I can say what I feel, too,” he said, as cited by Expressen.

Hanson said that the message’s polite tone should not deceive the public, pointing out that while “the email is polite, the message cannot be mistaken.” She sees the request as an attempt to prevent a Swedish media outlet from broadcasting an opinion that “the Turkish embassy would not appreciate,” according to Expressen.

Swedish MP and Left Party chairman Jonas Sjöstedt also weighed in on the mounting controversy, urging the Swedish government to fend off Turkey’s attack on the national media.

“It is unacceptable that the country [Turkey] is seeking to silence media in Sweden and it [the government] must take a hard stance against such actions,” he said, adding that Stockholm should recall its ambassador from Turkey “to make clear that what you are doing in Turkey, which is very bad for the media, you cannot do in Sweden,” according to Expressen.

Hansson also pointed out in her statement that the attack on TV4 comes just days after Sweden’s Green Party tried to hush up another Swedish station, SVT, which broadcast a story critical of Sweden’ former housing minister, Mehmet Kaplan, who is a Green Party member of Turkish origin. The party’s press officer, Magnus Johansson, reportedly called on SWT to drop the coverage of Kaplan’s case, while offering to provide the station with access to the party’s top bosses for a story on Green Party candidate Yasri Khan, who is under fire for his unwillingness to shake hands with a female host from TV4.

“I did not actually believe my ears. I have never seen anything similar from a representative of a political party in Sweden,” Anders Holmberg, an SVT presenter.

Kaplan resigned last Monday amid allegations that he has ties to the Turkish ultra-nationalist Gray Wolves movement and the retired head of the Turkish National Association of Sweden, Barbaros Leylani, who has previously called on the Turkish people to kill “Armenian dogs.”

Meanwhile, an orchestra in Germany has accused Turkey of forcing it to change the name of a concert it is scheduled to give on April 30, as well as remove a piece from its program that calls the massacre of Armenians a genocide.

The name of the event is “Aghet,” a term commonly used by Armenians to describe the events of 1915 as genocide, whose literal translation in English is “catastrophe.”

The Dresden Symphony orchestra said that Turkey’s delegation to the EU had reportedly asked the European Commission (EC), which is financially supporting the event, to defund the concert and remove its title from the EC’s official website. While the Commission declined to withdraw the €200,000 ($224,500) it had pledged to the musicians, it did remove the announcement of the concert.

“Due to concerns raised regarding the wording used in the project description, the Commission temporarily withdrew it,” a spokesperson for the Commission said.

The orchestra’s director, Markus Rindt, slammed Turkey’s bold interference as an “an infringement on freedom of expression.”

“You have to call it what it was,” said the director. “We cannot quibble when it comes to genocide,” he added, as  by Die Welt.

The project premiered in Berlin last year to mark the 100-year anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

 

 

 

“Following the April developments, the day of recognition of Artsakh by Armenia is not far away,” California Courier editor-in-chief Harut Sassounian told reporters in Yerevan today. He’s a strong believer that Artsakh should be declared an integral part of Armenia.

“Armenia’s earlier position was understandable. Recognition of Artsakh could endanger the negotiation process, but the situation has changed after the April events.

As for the Armenian Genocide recognition, Harut Sassounian said “the US has long recognized it.”

“If Obama refrained from uttering the word ‘genocide’ in his April 24th address, that’s his problem, because he will be remembered in American history as a liar President,” the publisher said.

London-based Mahmud Uzuni, an ethnic Kurd, who served a sentence in Turkey for his pro-Armenian views, also urges Ankara to get rid of historic lies.

He’s visiting Yerevan as representative of the Turkish-German Association “Union Against Genocide,” whose members visit Tsitsernakaberd every April 24 to apologize to Armenians and join the civilized world to call for Armenian Genocide recognition by Turkey.

Uzuni says it’s his obligation to apologize for the crimes committed by Kurds against Armenians.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement in remembrance of one hundred and one years since the beginning of the Armenian Genocide:

“More than a century ago, starting in 1915 and lasting nearly a decade, more than 1.5 million innocent Armenian children, women, and men were systematically slaughtered during the horrific genocide committed by leaders of the Ottoman Empire.  Today, we remember the victims of this brutal, inhumane period of ethnic cleansing.  We honor their memories by acknowledging the past.

“We must never forget this wretched campaign that destroyed lives, upended communities, and attempted to eradicate an entire culture.  Too often the tragic crimes of history have been ignored, minimized, or denied.  We owe it to future generations to confront the painful past so we can create a more hopeful future.

“On this solemn anniversary, we must embrace the truth.  It is our moral responsibility, every day in every community, to work together to speak out against the bigotry, discrimination and hatred of difference that too often fuel acts of violence.”

President Serzh Sargsyan received today the Minister of State for European Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France Harlem Désir, President’s Press Office reports.

Welcoming the guest and his delegation, the President of Armenia noted that he recalls with special warmth his meeting with Mr. Désir in October 2015 in the framework of the Ministerial Conference on Francophonie during which they discussed in detail the agenda of the Armenian-French relations, possibilities to develop the Armenia-EU partnership as well as spoke about the NK peace process. The President noted with disappointment that Azerbaijan’s destructive stance and his predictions of the time regarding the possible consequences came true: at the beginning of April, during the aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan, servicemen of that country committed numerous crimes, targeting also civilian dwellings and peaceful population. The NK Defense Army not only held out but also gave a worthy counterblow to the enemy. Azerbaijan nevertheless continues its provocations, and the situation remains tense. At the request of the French State Minister, the President of Armenia presented his views regarding the causes and motives of the situation established at the NK line of contact, as well as regarding his views on its possible resolution.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Minister of State for European Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France Harlem Désir conveyed to Serzh Sargsyan warm regards and best wishes from the President of France François Hollande and reiterated the position of France, which is also a Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, on the resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh problem. He said that in his country they believe that there is no military resolution to this conflict, and France is interested in the resumption of negotiations for the benefit of a peaceful resolution of the problem.

The parties concurred that in this situation it is necessary to expeditiously establish mechanisms for the monitoring of the violations of the ceasefire regime and introduction of the confidence building measures to prevent aggressive interventions and to create a possibility for reaching at the table of negotiations mutually acceptable solutions.

According to Harlem Désir, presence in his delegation of the French Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Pierre Andrieu proves once again that France spares no effort to find a speedy and peaceful solution to the problem.