Category: News

s – Thousands of Armenian-Americans and their supporters rallied in front of the Turkish Consulate on Sunday, the 101st anniversary of the start of the Armenian Genocide, demanding formal recognition and reparations following a march in Little Armenia.

Some carried large Armenian flags. Others carried signs of a closed fist that read “Justice” or simply “Shame on Turkey.”

“Everybody thought that with the centennial that would be the end of it, but our struggle has only begun,” said Nora Hovsepian, chairwoman of the National Armenian Committee of America’s Western Region, before the Rally for Justice on Wilshire Boulevard.

Many speakers featured at the rally expressed anger not only at Turkey for refusing to acknowledge the genocide by Ottoman Turks that killed up to 1.5 million Armenians more than a century ago but also at President Barack Obama who failed to use the word genocide again this year despite campaign promises to the contrary.

The U.S. Congress has also failed to pass a proposed resolution in recent years that would formally recognize the events from 1915-1923 as a genocide.

“The United States of America has openly condemned the atrocities committed by ISIS as genocide,” Tamar Poladian told attendees on behalf of the Armenian Genocide Committee. “The time has come for the United States of America to recognize the atrocities committed by the Turks against the Armenians as genocide.”

Poladian said they demand from the government of Turkey full compensation for all they have lost. That includes 1.5 million lives, billions of dollars in properties and priceless cultural and religious monuments as well as the return of historical Armenian lands located in eastern Turkey, she said.

Turkey has long denied that there was a systematic killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago.

Organizers estimated that as many as 60,000 people rallied in front of the Turkish Consulate on Sunday. A small plane continuously flew over the protest with a banner of the Turkish flag, which prompted the crowd to chant “Shame on Turkey” several times.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, whose district includes a large contingent of Armenian-Americans, called Obama’s decision not to use the term genocide last week in his final year in office “a grave disappointment.”

“How many administrations must be intimidated into silence before we realize it never changes Turkish behavior for the better and only emboldens their increasingly authoritarian regime?” Schiff asked to loud applause.

Christians in Syria, including Armenians who are descendants of those killed in the genocide a century ago, also are facing genocide today at the hands of “a terrorist scourge in Syria,” Schiff said. Turkey has “aided and abetted” the destruction of these Christians by failing to close its border to weapons, foreign fighters, oil and money, he said.

Meanwhile, the Eurasian country of Azerbaijan — which is aided by Turkey — has instigated “the worst violence in years” with tanks and heavy artillery and aircraft against Armenians struggling for self-determination in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, he said.

In addition to Armenians, a contingent of some 200 Assyrians waved their white national flags in a sea of Armenian flags at the rally.

The ancient Christian community that originally hailed from Mesopotamia, now present-day Iraq, lost some 750,000 of its people at the hands of Ottoman Turks a century ago — which was about three-quarters of its pre-war population, according to historians.

Earlier in the day, many thousands — most of whom were wearing black — also marched in Little Armenia in Hollywood in commemoration of the somber anniversary. Among them was Armenian-American Hermine Chobanyan of Sherman Oaks, who has marched every year here for at least the last four years.

“My mom’s grandmother is a survivor of the genocide,” she said. “We want justice. We want America to recognize (the genocide), Turkey to recognize it and to give our lands back.”

Her aunt Mareta Melkonyan said her grandmother was a child when she witnessed her parents killed with swords before her eyes by Ottoman Turks a century ago. Her family had a lot of wealth that they had buried and had to leave behind, something her grandmother never got to see returned to her before she passed away.

“We want everything back,” Melkonyan said. “We’re going to fight until the end.”

Following the latest controversies, Sweden’s Turkish National Association risks having to pay back millions of krona the union earlier received in government grants; competent bodies question whether the association can be considered democratic at all, reports.

On April 9, Barbaros Leylani, then vice president of the Turkish National Association, raised hell with a speech at a demonstration in Stockholm, where he announced his support for Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Also, a number of flag-waving members of the Grey Wolves, a Turkish supremacist, far-right and neo-fascist organization, were spotted at the demonstration.

“Death to the Armenian dogs! Death! Death!” Leylani shouted, among other things, according to .

This triggered an investigation to find out whether the Turkish National Association reflects the basic requirements of democratic values.

“This statement was not consistent with respect for human equality and human rights, and therefore we [initially] started this investigation on our own initiative,” says Anders Hagquist, communications director at the National Agency for Youth and Civil Society, MUCF.

Barbaros . However, his confrontational statements are not the only thing that is now being investigated, according to Anders Hagquist. Numerous minority organizations and former members of the Turkish National Association have formally the organization’s texts and speeches for being “hateful.”

“We have received many complaints in the past and now we need to examine them again, considering the recent situation,” he said.

Earlier, Sweden’s reported the incident to the police.

“I was very, very worried when I saw the clip. This is very unnerving,” president Garlen Mansourian told TV4.

Despite the frequent complaints, the Turkish National Association has continued to receive state support of over half a million krona per year. According to the news portal , the state aid from MUCF (whose primary aim is to combat racism and promote integration in Sweden) amounted to 630,000 krona (roughly 80,000 dollars) last year alone. Now, MUCF may very see its funding cut, which spells doom.

This would be a disaster for the Turkish National Association, Union Secretary Yasin Ipek told .

“We would probably go out of business and cease to exist as an association,” he said.

Yasin Ipek believes that last week’s debate was unfair.

“We are neither racists nor fascists. You cannot punish the whole union because of one person,” he says.

According to the Swedish , which endorses state aid to minority societies, the Turkish National Organization is a large association, comprising over 12,000 members. At present, over 50,000 Turks are estimated to be living in Sweden.

A German orchestra said on Saturday that Turkey attempted to pressure it and the EU to keep the term “genocide” out of a concert marking the massacres of Armenians by Ottoman forces during World War I, reports.

The controversy centres on texts that will be sung or spoken during the April 30 show in the eastern German city of Dresden, as well as the event’s programme, which uses the word.

“It’s an infringement on freedom of expression,” said Markus Rindt, director of the Dresdner Sinfoniker orchestra.

Rindt said Turkey’s delegation to the European Union demanded the European Commission withdraw 200,000 euros ($224,500) in funding for the concert.

The commission ultimately maintained its financial support, but asked the orchestra to not mention genocide and has removed any mention of the event from its website, Rindt said.

“We find all of this very questionable,” he added.

A commission spokeswoman confirmed that details of the concert had been pulled from the body’s website.

“Due to concerns raised regarding the wording used in the project description, the Commission temporarily withdrew it,” the spokeswoman said. “A new project description will be republished in the coming days.”

Iranian Armenians gathered at a cathedral in Tehran on Sunday to commemorate victims of the killings of ethnic Armenians by Ottoman Turks over a century ago, reports.

Horizon Weekly – Members of the Armenian Youth Federation of Canada gathered in Ottawa on April 23 prior to the official commemoration day of the 101st Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide to raise awareness about the cause.

Earlier the day, more than 100 activists gathered at the busiest intersections of Canada’s capital, distributing over 2,000 informative fliers about the Genocide and the Turkish government’s ongoing policy of denial.

At 6:00 PM, the activists, tied to each other with rope, depicting a typical deportation march, marched down Sussex Dr. while reading historic accounts of the Genocide. The march concluded at the the CF Rideau Centre, where the participants staged a mass die-in to draw the public’s attention, who were provided with further information.

Thousands of Canadians will gather on Sunday, April 24th at the Turkish Embassy to protest against the Turkish government.

“Turkish President was yet another failed expression of denialim, an obvious attempt to lay the responsibility for the genocide on Armenians,” Armenian deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan told a press conference today.

“Turkey maintains efforts to put the victims of war and the victims of genocide planned and perpetrated on a state level,” he added.

“Turkey’s denialist posture further increases the gap between the Armenian and Turkish peoples, acknowledgement of history and penitence is the best way to overcome it,” th Deputy Foreign Minister said.

Photo: Kayana Szymczak

 

The soft sound of the duduk, the national instrument of Armenia, enveloped the Cathedral of the Holy Cross Saturday afternoon at the start of a prayer service held on the eve of the 101st anniversary of the Armenian genocide,  reports.

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley led the ecumenical service that marked the first time the Archdiocese of Boston has formally commemorated the genocide that killed 1.5 million people.

“It is so important that we do not allow the events of the genocide to slip into oblivion,” O’Malley said, addressing nearly 800 people seated in the pews. “The one and a half million lives are not forgotten. . . . One of the fruits of their martyrdom is the accumulation of love that unites us.”

O’Malley was joined by church leaders representing a number of Catholic, eastern Orthodox, Christian, and Armenian churches across the eastern United States and Canada.

Sunday marks 101 years since the beginning of the mass execution by the Ottoman Empire. In a ceremony one year ago, those killed were canonized by the Armenian Apostolic Church.

“We pray for them,” said Archbishop Oshagam Choloyan, leader of the Armenian church in the eastern part of the United States. “They will be remembered for eternity.”

Pope Francis last year declared the mass killing of Armenian Christians in Ottoman Turkey during World War I “the first genocide of the 20th century,” during a Mass in St. Peter’s Square to mark the centennial anniversary of the massacre.

The remark angered officials in Turkey, which does not recognize the wartime killings as a genocide.

O’Malley, a top American adviser to the pope, on Saturday urged people to confront the lessons of the genocide.

“We must ask ourselves if the world had responded differently to the Armenian Genocide, could the Holocaust [have been] averted?” he said.

“No civilization can afford to falsify the historical record,” he said. “To do so is perilous.”

Anthony Barsamian, the cochairman of the Armenian Assembly of America, said present-day Turkey must “account for its past so that they will not repeat the crime of genocide.”

He lauded O’Malley for holding the two-hour prayer service.

“We warmly thank Cardinal Sean O’Malley and the Massachusetts Catholic community for hosting this important event on our behalf,” said Barsamian, who also serves as president of the Massachusetts Council of Churches, an ecumenical organization.

Some Armenians said they were grateful for the chance to pray with people of other faiths.

“It was a beautiful ceremony of unity,” said Sona Topjian Frissora, 87, who lives in the North End. “I can’t tell you how touched I was.”

“It was very memorable for me,” said Lilit Karapetyan of Watertown, during a reception that followed the service. “The most amazing thing is there were people from all religions there.”

Canada is holding a number of events to commemorate the 101^st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

On April 17 a large political gathering was held in Toronto, featuring representatives of the federal, regional and municipal authorities of Canada. The address of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was read out at the event, Armenian Ambassador to Canada Armen Yeganian told

On April 20 a book titled “Armenian Genocide and the Canadian Response” was presented at the Canadian parliament, the Ambassador informed.

Canadian Armenians from Toronto, Montreal Laval, Cambridge and other cities are gathering in capital Ottawa for a rally today. Representatives of the diplomatic corps have also been invited to attend the event.

The participants will march to the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa to demand recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Another march is scheduled for May 8 in Montreal; a number of Canadian Ministers are expected to participate in the event.

On April 30 a cross-stone dedicated to the Armenian genocide victims will be unveiled in the city of St. Catharines, Mr. Yeganian informed.

Some 300 people gathered on Saturday in St. James Monastery in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem and held a ceremony commemorating 101 years to the beginning of the Armenian Genocide, the reports.

The ceremony was held after a mass that was led by Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem Nourhan Manougian, and was attended by the leaders of Armenian community in Jerusalem. The service honored the memory of some 1.5 million Armenian victims whom Ottoman forces killed between 1915 and 1923, mainly in Syria.

Commemorative events will be held throughout the world this year under the shadow of the ongoing violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. Dozens have been killed so far in clashes that started earlier this month.

Harut Baghamian, one of the organizers of the ceremony, a member of the Homenetmen youth movement and a descendant of Armenian Genocide refugees, told The Jerusalem Post that the Armenian community is disappointed from the way Israel deals with the memory of the genocide. “It’s not that they are denying like some countries, they are just not talking about it,” he said.

However, Baghamian sees in the Jewish people a partner of the Armenians. “There were some Israeli politicians that have expressed their feelings about the genocide in the past, and we appreciate that.

But we expect from the government to honor their values before politics,” he said.

“We understand that this is a political issue. We receive a broad support from the Israeli public. There is much resemblance between the Armenians and the Jews all throughout the history, hence we expect from the Jewish state to be the first to acknowledge and to speak out about the issue. The Armenians know about the horrors of the Jewish Holocaust so we hope that the Israeli government will act the same.”

On Sunday, members of the Armenian community and social activists will protest in front of the Turkish Consulate in Jerusalem and the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv.

Ceylan Yeginsu

The Turkish government has seized the historic Armenian Surp Giragos Church, a number of other churches and large swaths of property in the heavily damaged Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, saying it wants to restore the area but alarming residents who fear the government is secretly aiming to drive them out.

The city, in the heart of Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, has been the scene of heavy fighting for nearly a year, since the Turkish military began a counterinsurgency campaign against militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which ended a two-year cease-fire in July. Many neighborhoods have been left in ruins, and hundreds of thousands of people have been forced from their homes. Surp Giragos, one of the largest Armenian churches in the Middle East, was damaged in the fighting and forced to shut its doors.

Both the Armenians, for whom Surp Giragos is an important cultural touchstone, and the Kurds have discerned a hidden agenda in the expropriations. They say the government plans to replace the destroyed neighborhoods they shared with other minorities with luxury rentals and condominiums affordable only to a wealthier, presumably nonminority class of residents.

Some analysts agree, saying even some of the better-off Syrian refugees in Turkey could end up there.

“Solving ethnic and religious strife through demographic engineering is a policy of the Turkish government that goes back well over a century,” said Taner Akcam, a prominent Turkish historian. “The latest developments in Sur,” he added, referring to the historic heart of Diyarbakir, “need to be viewed through this framework.”

Indeed, under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party has displayed a predilection for sweeping projects. It was a proposal to build a shopping mall in place of a razed central park in Istanbul that set off mass antigovernment demonstrations in 2013.

Mr. Erdogan announced the government’s urban renewal plans for Diyarbakir in 2011, saying they would “make the city into an international tourism destination.”

Shortly after that speech, the local housing administration started tearing down decrepit residential buildings in Sur, but opposition soon brought a halt to the demolition. Many of the buildings in Sur are protected, prohibiting big restoration projects. Mass construction can be carried out only if the government declares an urgent expropriation, as it has done now.

 

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said recently that the government would rebuild Sur to look like the scenic Spanish city of Toledo. “Everyone will want to come and appreciate its architectural texture,” he said.

Yet for the Armenians and the Kurds, distrust of Turkey’s intentions runs deep. Armenians still have vivid memories of what historians now call the World War I genocide carried out by the Ottoman Turks, in which 1.5 million of their countrymen died, and the Kurds have fought the Turkish government on and off for generations.

Diyarbakir is a polyglot city that is home to small Christian congregations of Assyrians, Chaldeans and Turkish converts, as well as to Armenians and Kurds.

Surp Giragos (“Surp” means saint in Armenian), which stands in Sur, closed in the 1960s for lack of parishioners but was renovated and reopened in 2011, part of a reconciliation process begun by the Erdogan government that has returned dozens of properties that the Ottoman Turks confiscated during World War I.

To many Armenians in the area, who lost touch with their family histories after the genocide and were often raised as Muslims by Kurdish families, the church has served as an anchor as they rediscovered their identities.

These “hidden Armenians” emerged as Turkey relaxed its restrictions on minorities, but now they say they again feel threatened.

That helps explain why the government’s seizure of the church struck a particularly raw nerve with the Armenian diaspora and rights groups, who say the expropriation of religious properties and 6,300 plots of land in Diyarbakir is a blatant violation of international law.

“This is reminiscent of the events leading up to the start of the Armenian genocide on April 24, 1915, when properties were illegally confiscated and the population was displaced under the false guise of temporary relocation for its own protection,” said Nora Hovsepian, the chairwoman of the Western Region of the Armenian National Committee of America.

“That temporary relocation,” she added, “turned out to be death marches and a permanent disenfranchisement of two million from their ancestral homeland.”

The Turkish government denies that those killings amounted to genocide, saying thousands of people — many of them Turks — died as a result of civil war.

The local governor’s office defended the decision to expropriate the property in Diyarbakir, saying in a written statement that the main aim was to bring Sur’s potential as a historic quarter to light by restoring registered buildings and replacing irregular structures with new ones that fit the city’s historical fabric. Local officials have said the properties will be returned once they are restored.

But many communities in the area have lost trust in the government, and official statements have been dismissed as insincere.

“The government wants to seize the heart of Diyarbakir and singularize it, ridding it of its rich multifaith and multicultural structure,” Abdullah Demirbas, a former mayor of Diyarbakir, said in a telephone interview.

A video distributed by the prime minister’s office to illustrate the government’s vision for the project has also been criticized for its focus on mosques and residential areas over other prominent religious establishments in the area.

One line of narration in particular drew the attention of religious minorities: “The call to prayer that rises from Diyarbakir’s minarets will not be quieted down.”

The Diyarbakir Bar Association has sued the government, claiming that the project is a work of “military and security reconstruction” and that it will not benefit Sur. The Surp Giragos Church is also preparing to take legal action against the order.

The developments in Sur have marred the steps taken by the Turkish government in recent years toward reconciliation with the nation’s Armenian population.

Last year, a historic Armenian orphanage, built by dozens of descendants of people who survived the genocide, was returned by the government to the Gedikpasa Armenian Protestant Church Foundation, after months of campaigning and the intervention of Mr. Davutoglu.

At the time, Armenians worldwide hailed the decision as an example of how activism by Turkish Armenians could bear fruit.

But critics argued that the restitution of the land just before important elections was politically motivated, and said they doubted that other confiscated properties would be returned in a timely fashion.

“How can we have any trust left when the government backtracks on every positive step taken?” asked Anita Acun, a leader in the Armenian community in Istanbul. “But even so, the situation in Sur came as a surprise. We never imagined history would repeat itself.”

That history, and the traumas associated with those bloody events, have been passed down through generations, and continue to reverberate among Armenians.

“We haven’t been able to go to the church for months, and it’s devastating to hear that it has been damaged in the fighting,” said Onur Kayikci, a Kurdish resident of Sur, who recently became aware of his Armenian ancestry. “For us, it’s not just a building or a place of worship. It’s where we would come to put together the pieces of our history and identity together.”