Anatolian Times, Turkey
Sept 23 2005

European Commission On Suspension Of Armenian Conference

BRUSSELS – The suspension of a conference entitled ”Ottoman
Armenians during the Empire’s Fall” will be reflected in the
European Commission’s regular progress report on Turkey (to be
released on November 9th), said Commission spokeswoman Krisztina
Nagy.
During her regular press briefing, Nagy said that the Commission
strongly deplored this attempt, and noted that the suspension
illustrated the difficulties of Turkey, and in particular of the
judiciary.

Stressing that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s and
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul’s statements on this development were
noted down, Nagy said the timing of this decision the day before the
opening of the conference seemed like yet another ”provocation”.

Anatolian Times, Turkey
Sept 23 2005

Bogazici And Sabanci Universities To Object Decision Of Court

ISTANBUL – Istanbul’s Bogazici and Sabanci Universities will object
to decision of a court to suspend an academic conference on
”Armenians in the Late Ottoman Empire: Scientific Responsibility and
Democracy Problems”, it was announced.
Releasing a statement, the Bogazici University indicated that they
would object to the decision later in the day. But some of the guests
who arrived in Turkey from the United States, France and the
Netherlands to assist the conference, have already departed from
Turkey.

Meanwhile, members of the Union of Turkish NGOs held a demonstration
in front of the Bogazici University campus, to protest the
conference. Speaking on behalf of the group, Ramazan Bakkal,
secretary-general of the Union, said, ”we call on organizers of the
conference to hire a hall in Yerevan and hold the conference there.”

A court in Istanbul ordered the suspension of the academic conference
overnight.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

New York Times
Sept 23 2005

Photo Show on a Pogrom 50 Years Ago Is Itself Attacked by a Mob

ISTANBUL – Tucked away for more than 40 years, the 120
black-and-white photographs hanging in a gallery here have the stark
appearance and potential emotional impact of evidence presented in a
legal proceeding.

Karsi Gallery
One of the photographs from the Karsi Gallery collection, from 1955.

This article is exclusive to the Web. And that, it turns out, is what
they are.

One image shows a mob outside a row of storefronts, with some people
watching passively and others cheering as a shop is ransacked. A
young man stands with his half-clenched fist raised in the air, as if
he is egging on the vandals; his other hand rests passively on his
hip, suggesting nonchalance. A boy stares up numbly, as if looking in
vain for answers. Above him, a man in the shell of the shop’s wrecked
building heaves a baby carriage to the street below.

Fifty years ago this month, erroneous reports spread that Greeks had
set fire to the childhood home of Kemal Ataturk, modern Turkey’s
founder, in Salonika, Greece. The rumors prompted an angry mob to
converge on Taksim Square in Istanbul for an anti-foreigner pogrom
that left thousands of houses and many hundreds of shops destroyed.

Gallery officials said about a dozen people were killed, but the
death toll has never been confirmed because of official secrecy.
Cemeteries were desecrated, dozens of churches were burned, and many
schools were plundered.

Fahri Coker, a former assistant military prosecutor, served as a
legal adviser to the military investigation of the events of Sept.
6-7, 1955, an inquiry that historians describe as a whitewash. Coker
had 250 photographs taken by foreign news photographers and
government employees, and even a few by Ara Guler, one of Turkey’s
few internationally known photographers. Judge Coker held on to the
pictures and left word that they could be displayed only after his
death, which occurred in 2001.

To mark the 50-year anniversary of the long night of violence, Karsi,
a gallery in the Beyoglu neighborhood, where the pogrom occurred,
organized an exhibition of the photos to open on Sept. 6. Although
curators were no doubt aware that the pictures would arouse strong
feelings, given the emotion surrounding historical discussions in
Turkey, they have been surprised by the passions unleashed by the
show.

The Sept. 6 opening was disrupted by a group of nationalists who
entered the gallery, carrying a Turkish flag. Chanting slogans like
“Turkey, love it or leave it!,” they vandalized some of the
photographs and tossed others out the window. They also threw eggs at
the pictures, leaving a vivid testimonial to how controversial free
expression remains in Turkey.

“We left it that way, but unfortunately, after a few days it started
to smell,” Ozkan Taner, one of the gallery’s directors, said of the
exhibition, which the gallery then cleaned and restored. It remains
on view through Sept. 26.

News of the attacks spread quickly to the front pages of the Turkish
papers and to television and radio news broadcasts, turning the show
into a national topic of conversation.

Attendance has been heavy, easily exceeding expectations. On a recent
day, dozens of people crowded into the gallery to study the images.
The pictures, as might be expected, show faces riven by anger and
fear, but the photos are also packed with small surprises.

One centers on the familiar monument at the center of Taksim Square,
so crowded with young protesters that some are falling off as others
rise to take their places. At the top of the image, a small group is
working to hoist the Turkish flag, while a young man in a crisp,
clean suit holds unsteadily over his head a small portrait of
Ataturk. But away from the monument, the people in the crowd turning
to face the photographer have blank, uncertain expressions, as if
they are as unnerved by the outpouring as many of the gallery’s
visitors have been.

In the beginning, the photo exhibition was hailed as a major step
forward for a country trying to show a more democratic face in
preparation for possible membership in the European Union.

“For the first time in the history of Turkey, a shameful happening
has been brought out into the open,” said Ishak Alaton, chairman of
the Alarko Holding company and a leader of Turkey’s tiny population
of Jews. “September 6, 1955, was our Kristallnacht.”

Ozcan Yurdalan, a freelance photographer here who took part in a
recent news conference denouncing the attacks on the exhibition, said
the straightforward documentary style of the photos made them more
disturbing.

“They show directly what they saw in life,” he said. “If you take
straight photographs, they show the reality – the faces of the
people, some fearful, some thinking, Yeah, we are doing something
well against our enemy.”

“The pictures showed me this is not the past,” he said. “We are still
living in the same condition today. I am ashamed of that, and also
very fearful.”

Greek-Turkish tensions over the future of Cyprus were running high in
1955, and the future of that island remains unresolved, threatening
to hold up Turkey’s bid to begin negotiations to join the European
Union. More broadly, Western ideas of the rightful role of dissent
have made limited inroads in Turkey. The acclaimed author Orhan Pamuk
has been charged with “public denigrating of Turkish identity” for
telling a newspaper: “Thirty-thousand Kurds were killed here, one
million Armenians as well. And almost no one talks about it.”

Mehmet Guleryuz, an Abstract Expressionist-style painter who helped
organize a protest against the attack on the exhibition, said: “We’re
going through sensitive times. We have to have the ability to open up
hidden parts of our history and deal with it. We have to have the
ability to argue.”

Blabbermouth.net, NY
Sept 23 2005

SYSTEM OF A DOWN To Rally In Front of House Speaker DENNIS HASTERT’s
Office – Sep. 24, 2005

SYSTEM OF A DOWN, one of rock’s most daring and innovative bands,
have just announced that they – along with their fans, the Armenian
National Committee of America, Axis of Justice and the Armenian Youth
Federation – will visit the Batavia office of Rep. Dennis Hastert on
Tuesday, September 27 at noon to ask Speaker Hastert to “do the right
thing” and keep his commitment to hold a vote on the pending Armenian
genocide legislation. If passed, the legislation will officially
recognize Turkey’s destruction of 1.5 million Armenians between 1915
and 1923. The band have invited their fans to join with them in this
effort by attending the rally and have set up a system by which fans
can directly email Speaker Hastert on the issue.

SYSTEM OF A DOWN’s four band members – Serj Tankian, Daron Malakian,
Shavo Odadjian and John Dolmayan – are of Armenian descent and have
made awareness of the genocide, and genocide around the world, a
central message of the band. All have lost family members to the
Armenian genocide.

On September 15, the House International Relations Committee
overwhelmingly approved legislation recognizing the Armenian
genocide, despite objections from both Turkey and the Bush
administration. Despite his previous public support for the measure
in 2000, Speaker Hastert has twice prevented the Armenian Genocide
legislation from coming to a full vote in the House. Today the fate
of this human rights issue rests in the Speaker’s hands. He has two
choices: either allow a vote on the Armenian genocide resolution,
giving the 435 members of the U.S. House a chance to cast their
ballots on this human rights measure or, delay, defer, and ultimately
defeat the Armenian genocide resolution by refusing to bring the
measure to a vote of the full U.S. House. The rally is in support of
a fair and full vote in the House of Representatives, ending U.S.
denial of this crime and opening the doors to justice – to the
restoration, reparation, and restitution owed to the victims of
genocide.

“Dennis, do the right thing,” stated Serj Tankian. `I just visited my
97-year-old grandfather, my only link to the far past, and promised
him that I would go and try to talk to Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the
House, and make sure that he takes this opportunity to bring up the
Armenian genocide resolution to the floor of the House of
Representatives. This is a personal issue to me and SYSTEM.”

The SYSTEM OF A DOWN/ANCA rally will take place at the offices of
Rep. Dennis Hastert – 27 North River Street, Batavia, Illinois (about
an hour from downtown Chicago). The rally is scheduled for 12
noon-2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 27. The Armenian community,
activists, and the band’s fans from across the greater Chicago area
are expected to attend the rally.

IranMania.com , Iran
Sept 23 2005

Iran’s ?Nightingale Papers? published in Armenia

Friday, September 23, 2005 – ©2005 IranMania.com

LONDON, September 23 (IranMania) – The book ?Nightingale Papers?
written by Iranian poet Zia-eddin in the fourteenth century was
published in Armenian language by a translator from Armenia.

According to ISNA, Herans Antonyan completed the translation
following 13 years of intense work. ?I came across the
Russian-language translation of the book for the first time. I read
the book and was impressed. I felt sorry that the Armenian people did
not have such a masterpiece at its disposal.?

In a meeting with Iranian cultural attache in Yerevan, Antonyan said
that he funded the translation and printing of the book without
financial considerations.

?My aim in translating and printing the book was to introduce such a
high quality book to Armenia?s culture and literature.?

Iranian cultural attache Otoufi said that translation of the book was
a great stride towards strengthening cultural ties between Iran and
Armenia.

He described it as a great event for cultural relations between the
two countries.

IranMania.com , Iran
Sept 23 2005

Armenia-Turkmenistan road link via Iran planned

Friday, September 23, 2005 – ©2005 IranMania.com

LONDON, September 23 (IranMania) – Armenia is planning to create a
road transportation network with Turkmenistan via Iran.

According to the Turkmen press, Yerevan and Ashkhabad will use
Iranian territory to establish a road link. The initiative is
expected to significantly boost transit of goods via northern Iran.
Iran has favorable economic relations with both the former Soviet
republics.

Tehran?s permanent trade center, which will be set up in Yerevan,
Armenia at a cost of four mln euros, will present Iran-made goods to
the Armenian market. Goods produced in Iran will be offered in 300
stalls at the center.

Visitors from other Caucasian republics are also expected to visit
the center and purchase goods.

Iran has been trying to bolster bilateral interaction with Armenia in
recent years and plans to build a terminal on its border with Armenia
to transfer oil derivatives to Yerevan.

Armenia views the terminal as important in boosting economic activity
in the Magri region bordering Iran.

Iran and Armenia have also signed a memorandum of understanding to
bolster cooperation in the field of electricity also. Under the MoU,
the two countries reached consensus on implementing the third 400-kw
two-circuit transmission line project, valued at $90 mln.

The two countries are also slated to implement the second phase of
Iran-Armenia pipeline project.

New York Times
Sept 23 2005

Seminar on 1915 Massacre of Armenians to Go Ahead

ISTANBUL, Sept. 23 – After a Turkish court’s decision to cancel an
academic conference on the killing of hundreds of thousands of
Armenians during World War I, the conference’s organizers said Friday
that the event would go ahead at a new location on Saturday. The
organizers were encouraged by a wave of support from the European
Union and senior Turkish government officials.

A court on Thursday blocked Bogazici University in Istanbul from
holding the event, a debate and symposium on the killing of Armenians
by Ottoman forces in the eastern part of what is now Turkey. In its
ruling, the court called into question the credentials of the
scholars taking part.

It was the second time the courts blocked the conference at the
request of nationalist groups. The event was canceled in May as well,
and at that time Justice Minister Cemil Cicek condemned continued
attempts to hold the meeting as “treason” and a “stab in the back of
the Turkish nation.”

But the conference’s organizers said it would go ahead on Saturday,
after Bilgi University in Istanbul agreed to be the new host. One of
the leaders of the conference, Prof. Halil Berktay, said integrity of
scholars was “beyond the judiciary” to decide.

The conference is to be the first time in Turkey that the killings
have been publicly examined. More than 50 intellectuals, scholars and
writers are to analyze the massacres, which took place from 1915 to
1917 and have been recognized as genocide by several European
governments. Turkey has long maintained that the deaths were part of
a war in which an equal number of Turks died.

The court’s action on Thursday came as a blow to supporters of
Turkey’s application for membership in the European Union, who have
considered the conference as an opportunity to prove that the country
had the potential for greater democratization and freedom of speech.

Turkey’s chief negotiator with the European Union, Ali Babacan, said
the decision was part of an attempt by nationalists to sabotage
Turkey’s membership talks, which are to start on Oct. 3. The ruling
also was condemned by Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Gulf Times, Qatar
Sept 24 2005

Summit on Armenian massacres goes ahead

Published: Saturday, 24 September, 2005, 10:37 AM Doha Time

ISTANBUL: A conference on the massacres of Armenians under the
Ottoman Empire will go ahead, despite a delay following a court
ruling that drew criticism from the Turkish government and the
European Union as Ankara seeks to join the bloc.
The controversy came just days before Turkey is to start accession
talks with the EU on October 3, keen to avoid any move that might
cast a pall on its commitment to democracy and human rights.
The conference, already postponed once in May, was to have opened
Friday to question Ankara’s official version of the 1915-1917
massacres, but a court suspended the event late on Thursday following
a complaint by a group of nationalist lawyers who called the
organisers `traitors’.
But the two universities organising the conference, Bogazici and
Sabanci, refused to back down, rescheduling the event for today and
tomorrow.
The conference is to be held at another university which opened its
doors for the event out of solidarity in order to circumvent the
court ruling that barred the event from taking place at the original
venue.
`Our university decided to offer its halls for the conference in the
name of freedom of expression and thought,’ Bilgi University
president Aydin Ugur said.
The academics and intellectuals who would attend the conference
dispute the official version of the killings whose discussion in
Turkey remains largely taboo and which several countries, to Ankara’s
ire, have recognised as genocide.
`The court has cast a shadow on the process of democratisation and
freedoms in my country,’ Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said
late on Thursday.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul put the blame on opponents of Turkey’s
EU bid.
`As October 3 approaches, those at home and abroad who want to
obstruct us are making their last efforts … there are few nations
that can inflict such damage upon themselves,’ Gul said in New York,
Anatolia news agency reported.
The EU also condemned the court decision as a `provocation’.
`We strongly deplore this new attempt to prevent the Turkish society
from discussing its history,’ said the European Commission’s
spokesman on enlargement, Krisztina Nagy.
She warned that if the conference does not go ahead, the situation
would figure in the commission’s annual report on Turkey’s EU
membership aspirations.
Turkey categorically denies that the Ottomans committed genocide
against the Armenians and has reacted angrily against countries which
recognised the killings as such.
The government, however, has encouraged researchers to discuss the
issue, arguing that it is a matter for historians and not
politicians.
Armenians claim up to 1.5mn of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings.
Turkey argues that 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died
in civil strife during World War I, when the Armenians took up arms
for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with Russian troops
invading the crumbling Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of modern
Turkey.
Organisers first postponed the conference in May after Justice
Minister Cemil Cicek branded the initiative `treason’ and a `stab in
the back of the Turkish nation’.
Erdogan, however, called Cicek’s outburst `a personal statement’ and
encouraged researchers to carry out their work.
The ruling against the conference came under fire from the media and
non-governmental organisations.
`Court blow against freedom of expression,’ trumpeted the liberal
daily Milliyet, while the left-leaning Radikal said: `Justice
padlocks science.’
The History Foundation said the significance of the event had now
exceeded its original objective.
`What is being debated is in fact whether Turkey will be governed by
taboos or democracy … whether we will turn to history for peace and
understanding or for rejection and hostility,’ the statement said.
Several nationalist groups backed the court ruling and activists
pasted pictures of Turks killed by Armenians outside the Bogazici
University, Anatolia reported.

Focus News, Bulgaria
Sept 24 2005

Conference on Genocide against Armenians Takes Place in Istanbul

24 September 2005 | 10:16 | FOCUS News Agency

Istanbul. A two-days international conference opened today in
Istanbul on genocide against Armenian people during the Great War,
RIA Novosti reports citing an announcement of the TV channel NTV.
The security measures have been increased in the region of the Bilgi
private university where the conference is taking place. The
authorities in Istanbul don’t exclude possibilities for provocations
from nationalists who announced yesterday that they will block the
building of the university and will not allow the conference to take
place.

Burbank Leader, California
Sept 24 2005

A step forward, two steps back

The fight to prevent future genocides lost one of its greatest
crusaders this week, but inched forward as a bill acknowledging the
genocide of 1.5 million Armenians passed the House International
Relations Committee.

Simon Wiesenthal, the Holocaust survivor who relentlessly tracked
down Nazi war criminals after World War II, once said that “When
history looks back, I want people to know the Nazis weren’t able to
kill millions of people and get away with it.”

Wiesenthal died Tuesday, but his message should resonate in Glendale
and Burbank and beyond to Washington D.C., where last week a
resolution to recognize the Armenian Genocide, moved on to the House
of representatives.

Embedded in Wiesenthal’s message was a need to establish justice and
moral values for humanity.

That is why it is so hard to come to grips with why the United States
government has yet to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, brought on
at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, although the answer is easy to
come by: Politics.

Even with the mark-up last week, passing this resolution will be an
uphill battle, just like past efforts to push such a resolution
through.

The next step in that fight is convincing House leadership to commit
to moving the resolution forward, Rep. Adam Schiff said.

The resolution’s backers will have to convince House Majority Leader
Tom DeLay (R-Texas) to allow the resolution on the House floor for a
vote. That will be difficult given what we know about the politics of
officially recognizing the genocide.

It was DeLay who once released a statement with Reps. Dennis Hastert
(R-Ill) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), saying that such an acknowledgment
would upset the U.S. relationship with Turkey, which has been a
reliable ally of the United States for decades.

Germany, too, has been an ally. Yet, the Holocaust, is recognized,
much because of Wiesenthal’s dogged efforts to bring its perpetrators
to justice, as a specific historical moment with devastating
consequences.

Why is it that this nation’s leaders — who tout freedom of religion,
speech and the need to transform despotic nations states into
democracies — cannot collectively agree that the Armenian Genocide
is just that: a genocide?

What good are Wiesenthal’s efforts against prejudice against all
people if because of politics, the killing of 1.5 million people
cannot be officially recognized by the United States?

Rep. Brad Sherman, who sits on the committee, said the denial of a
genocide is a genocide’s last act.

Wiesenthal must have known that. Why doesn’t our government?

Maybe this time, the push of local representatives, the e-mails, the
faxes and the letters to legislators will make a difference.

Let’s hope so. Unfortunately, no timetable has been set for even the
possibility of a floor vote, leaving the possibility of yet another
push for recognition falling through the cracks.

Recognition of the Armenian Genocide should not be a game of
politics, up for a battle every so often. These killings were real.
And it is a horrific moment in history that needs to stay in living
memory, just as Wiesenthal kept the horrors of the Holocaust in the
collective memory.

“If we pardon this genocide, it will be repeated, and not only on
Jews,” Wiesenthal said of the Holocaust. “If we don’t learn this
lesson, then millions died for nothing.”