Turkish NGOs send letter to 24 embassies denying Armenian genocide claims

Anatolia news agency
24 Apr 05

ANKARA

NGOs (associations and foundations) from Eastern Anatolia have sent
letters on the “Armenian genocide” to 25 embassies in Ankara.

Members of the NGOs came to the Kizilay Mail Office and sent the
letters to embassies of several European Union (EU) countries and to a
few neighbouring countries of Turkish Republics in Ankara.

The Erzurum Economic and Social Research and Assistance Foundation
member of the executive board, Vahdet Nafiz Aksu, indicated that the
Armenian diaspora insists on the biggest lie of the century and has
declared 24 April as a day of remembrance of the so-called Armenian
genocide.

“It is really sad that the modern world considers the Ottoman
government’s decision to re-locate a portion of its Armenian
population as a genocide. The modern world must be aware that those
governments supporting the thesis of a genocide will not be forgiven
by history,” told Aksu.

Aksu mentioned that the residents of Erzurum wish to live in an
atmosphere of good ties and brotherhood with Armenia. History should
be the task of historians and not national parliaments, remarked Aksu.

“We are ready to host all Western friends who want to research the
issue and meet families who experienced the incidents. The Turks, who
have helped the Jewish immigrants in the 15th century, Jews running
away from Hitler in the 1940s, Iraqis from north of Iraq during the
Gulf War and many others, should not be left alone with a huge slander
against their identity and culture,” commented Aksu.

Turkish premier chides Polish envoy over Armenian genocide decision

NTV television, Istanbul
24 Apr 05

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s harsh statement to the Polish
ambassador made a mark during the reception held at the National
Assembly on the occasion of 23 April, National Sovereignty and
Children’s Day. Erdogan told the ambassador: You played into some
people’s hands by recognizing the Armenian genocide. You should not
have done this to us.

As in past years, this year too, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and CHP
[People’s Republican Party] Chairman Deniz Baykal did not attend the
reception. Erdogan, who arrived late and stayed a short time at the
reception, reacted against the ambassador of Poland, which recognized
the Armenian genocide in recent days. Erdogan told the ambassador: You
upset me. Poland supported us greatly with regard to the EU but you
should not have done this to us. Erdogan also claimed that Poland was
deceived by a very small group.

Hundreds hold Armenia massacre protest at Turkish embassy in Moscow

NTV Mir, Moscow
24 Apr 05

[Presenter] Several hundred people staged a rally near the Turkish
embassy in Moscow today. They demanded that the fact of the Armenian
genocide in the Ottoman Empire 90 years ago should be acknowledged.
The protesters held Russian and Armenian flags, placards and
slogans. Several teenagers tried to throw eggs at the embassy. They
were detained by police.

Georgian foreign minister arrives in Moscow for talks on withdrawing
Russian bases

AP Worldstream
Apr 24, 2005

Georgia’s foreign minister arrived in Moscow Sunday for more talks on
the status of Russia’s bases in the Caucasus Mountains nation, an
issue that continues to bedevil relations between the two former
Soviet republics.

Salome Zurabishvili will meet with her Russian counterpart, Sergey
Lavrov, on Monday to discuss the two bases’ status as well as a
Russian-backed proposal to set up an joint anti-terrorism center.

“The Russian side hopes that in the course of meetings of the two
country’s representatives … that a resolution will be found that
meets the interests of both sides,” said Alexander Yakovenko, a
spokesman for the Russia Foreign Ministry.

Georgia, where a pro-West leadership took power last year, wants
Moscow to hand back the bases within two years. But Russia says it
needs at least three years and it also wants millions in compensation.

Observers say Russia fears that pulling its forces from Georgia could
jeopardize its base in neighboring Armenia, a close Russian
ally. Armenia does not share a border with Russia, and all Russian
equipment and personnel have to transit Georgian territory to get
there.

Russia also fears losing influence in the strategic Caucasus region,
which it considers its traditional sphere of influence.

Turkish Press
April 24 2005

Press Scan:

DRAFT SHOCK TO ARMENIANS

TURKIYE- Draft on recognition of so-called Armenian genocide which
was prepared by 32 senators and 175 members of House of
Representatives was not submitted to U.S. Congress. These recent
developments disappointed Armenians.

Voice of America
April 24 2005

Armenia Rejects Proposal From Turkey To Join Study Of WWI Events

WASHINGTON – Last month, Turkey made an unprecedented gesture by
offering its neighbor Armenia to conduct a joint study of the
historic events that took place during World War One in Anatolia, the
Asian part of Turkey. Armenia rejected the proposal.

Peter Balakian, author of several books on Armenian history, says
ample research has already been done. He notes that many studies,
including one by the International Association of Genocide Scholars,
concluded that mass killings and deportations of Armenians from
Anatolia under the direction of the Ottoman government amount to
genocide.

“I think there is a growth in recognition of the Armenian genocide
worldwide – the Canadian government last year, the French government
in 2000, the Swiss government last year, the Danish Parliament, the
Italian Parliament the Vatican and many countries in Latin America
and the Middle East as well. It is the result of education, of the
fact that scholars have done increasingly brilliant work over the
last couple of decades, writing objective, detached histories of the
Armenian genocide.”

According to Armenians, on April 24, 1915, the government headed by
the Young Turks , the ruling political party of the Ottoman Empire,
began to deport and massacre its Armenian Christian minority
population, approximately 2.5 million people. Turkey denies that
there was a planned campaign to eliminate Armenians from Anatolia.
It says that both sides suffered losses in the war. Atrocities may
have occurred, they say, but only at the hands of rogue groups or
individuals, Turkish as well as Armenian. Turkey says no more than
300-thousand Armenians perished in the clashes.

Turkish-born Muge Gocek, a historical sociologist at the University
of Michigan, says ordinary Turks have denied the massacres for many
years because they haven’t had access to their historic documents.

“Turkish society knows very little about what happened in its own
past for two reasons, says Professor Gocek. “One is because of the
alphabet reform that happened in Turkey in 1928, where the Arabic
script was abandoned and Latin script was adopted. Turks cannot read
their own past historical documents. And the second is that things
from the past were selectively translated and therefore very little
scholarly information has been made available to them about the
Armenian question.”

But after World War One, says professor Gocek, there was an
international condemnation of the Turkish atrocities and the allies
conducted trials against the perpetrators.

“They had more than a thousand trials held, but only a couple of
people were punished. The rest were not at all punished for these
crimes because a lot of them joined the nationalist movement, the war
of independence. And as such they became important people who went on
to found the Turkish Republic,” says Professor Gocek.

In the 1920’s, Turkish reformist leader Kemal Ataturk established a
strong and independent Turkey, which was able to use its political
clout to squelch Armenian claims for reparations and return of their
land. Turkey continued to do so later as a strategic US ally and a
member of NATO. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the
government of the newly independent Armenia began a worldwide effort
to gain international condemnation of the World War One massacres as
genocide. Subsequent mass killings of civilians in Bosnia, Kosovo,
Rwanda and Sudan focused international attention on such crimes. And
scholars say, this has renewed interest in the Armenian question
worldwide and among many in Turkey.

Some groups are interested in fostering reconciliation between
Armenia and Turkey. David Phillips, a fellow at the Council on
Foreign Relations in New York, says pre-conditions to reconciliation
would be counterproductive.

“The idea that exists in some ultra-nationalist circles in Armenia
that before you even talk to Turks, they have to admit the genocide,
pay the reparations and give back territory is completely a
non-starter. Ultranationalists in Turkey also oppose any movement on
Armenian issues and try to link that with the restoration of
so-called occupied territories in Azerbaijan.”

David Phillips says both countries need to be moderate while acting
in their national interests. And, he adds, Turkey and Armenia would
benefit from opening their common border for travel and trade. That,
many analysts agree, would be the quickest road to reconciliation.

Jerusalem Post
April 24 2005

J’lem Armenians mark 90th anniversary of Genocide
By SARA FISCHER

Photo: Armenian demonstration in front of Turkish Consulate in
Jerusalem
Sara Fischer

Hundreds of Armenians demonstrated in front of the Turkish Consulate
in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah Sunday, as they marked
the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

A memorial mass service was held earlier Sunday at the Armenian
Catholic Patriarch, followed by a rally at the Turkish Consulate
aimed at placing pressure on the Turkish government to recognize the
atrocities carried out so many years ago.

During World War I, the Turks have reportedly murdered more than 1.5
million Armenians. The Turks have denied the allegations, saying only
several thousands where killed during the war.

A remembrance service and ceremony at St. James Church will take
place on Monday in the Armenian quarter of the Old City, as the
Armenian Orthodox Palm Sunday has lead the Armenian community in
Jerusalem to commemorate the genocide on Monday, April 25th, instead
of the traditional April 24th.

“The genocide is a sign of memory and resurrection and an important
ritual which has been denied,” Armenian historian Albert Aghazarian
told The Jerusalem Post. “What we want is recognition.”

;cid=1114322082590

Aljazeera.net, Qatar
April 24 2005

Armenian genocide issue still haunts Turkey
By Christian Henderson

Sunday 24 April 2005, 21:39 Makka Time, 18:39 GMT

Armenians mark what they call the genocide anniversary

On 24 April 1915 Turkish Ottoman authorities arrested and deported
250 Armenian leaders marking the start of what Armenians say was a
genocide that killed 1.5 million of their kin.

Armenians say they were victims of an ethnic-cleansing campaign
planned by Turkish nationalists as the Ottoman Empire crumbled amid
the first world war.

They say between 1915 and 1923 hundreds of thousands of Armenians
were forcibly marched through the Mesopotamian desert where they died
of dehydration and starvation.

Turkey denies this. It says thousands of Armenians and Turks died in
a civil conflict that erupted after Armenians sided with invading
Russian forces.

To this day, the historical events surrounding the killings remain
hotly contested.

Fierce debate

Many academics say the Armenian version of events holds water.

“Among most bona fide historians this is non-debate. Turkish
nationalist historians still reject this,” Donald Bloxham, a history
lecturer at Edinburgh University, said.

Historian Bernard Lewis (R) has
backed Turkey’s view of events

Bloxham, who has just completed a book entitled The Great Game of
Genocide: Imperialism, Nationalism and the Destruction of the Ottoman
Armenians, said: “The Turkish version just doesn’t stand on any
level.”

On the other hand, there are several historians, such as Middle
Eastern scholar Bernard Lewis, whose works support the Turkish
account of events.

“There is an explainable, understandable history of a two-sided
conflict. It was not genocide,” Justine McCarthy of the University of
Louisville wrote in the Turkish Daily News in 2001.

Pressure growing

However, there is increasing international and domestic pressure on
Turkey to recognise the killings as a genocide, suggesting that, in
this instance, history is not on Turkey’s side.

Last week a record 32 US senators and more than 100 legislators wrote
to US President George Bush asking him to recognise the genocide.

“The memory of the Armenian genocide underscores our responsibility
to help convey our cherished tradition of respect for fundamental
human rights and opposition to mass slaughters. It is in the best
interests of our nation and the entire global community to remember
the past,” the senators wrote.

Armenians hope George Bush
will use the term ‘genocide’

The Armenian lobby in the US is hoping Bush will use the word
genocide in a speech commemorating the anniversary of the 1915
killings.

“The overall aim of the community is to get recognition of the
genocide,” Elizabeth Chouldijian of the Armenian National Committee
of America said.

Whether Bush is willing to offend an important strategic ally in
order to appease a relatively weak domestic lobby, remains to be
seen. Turkey has traditionally been an important Nato ally and a key
military partner with the US.

“The president speaks of moral clarity over international issues and
we ask him to have moral clarity over this issue too,” Chouldijian
told Aljazeera.net.

European voices

Pressure on Turkey is also growing elsewere.

The Polish parliament and the Russian Duma have adopted resolutions
that will call on the international community to recognise the
genocide. In Germany, officials have said they will urge Turkey to
acknowledge the incident as such.

France’s Jacques Chirac visited a
memorial to the dead in Paris

In France, home to the largest Armenian community in Europe, French
President Jacques Chirac accompanied Armenian President Robert
Kocharian to a monument for victims of the killings in Paris on
Friday.

In Belgium, the parliament voted on Saturday to make denying the
Armenian genocide illegal.

In addition to international pressure, there are an increasing number
of Turkish intellectuals and academics who are breaking a taboo and
calling for the events to be recognised as genocide.

The Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk received death threats after he
recently told a Swiss newspaper that “no one dares say that a million
Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in Turkey”.

Tense relations

The issue has strong resonance in the foreign affairs of both Turkey
and Armenia.

Relations between the two countries are tense. Ankara refuses to
establish relations with Yerevan because of the genocide row and
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 because of its war with
Azerbaijan, depriving the tiny, landlocked country of a key trade
route.

Armenia says that as long as Turkey fails to recognise the genocide,
then it will feel threatened by its neighbour.

“Without recognition of the fact of genocide and an admission that it
was wrong, we cannot trust our neighbour, which has a tangible
military weight,” Armenia’s foreign minister, Vardan Oskanyan, said.

Harry Tamrazian, head of the Armenian service at Radio Free Europe,
said: “This is very important for Armenia. The very fact Ankara
refuses to recognise the Armenian genocide is very disturbing for
Armenian security.”

Armenians say they want to seek compensation for the genocide,
something that observers say unnerves Turkey.

“When any genocide is committed, it is a crime and there must be
repercussions. Once the genocide is recognised, then the next step is
looking into what the consequences are according to international
law,” Chouldijian of the Armenian National Committee of America says.

Crucial to EU talks

Tamrazian echoes Chouldijian.

“They are afraid of dealing with the consequences. Once you recognise
the genocide, they think Armenians will ask for compensation,” he
told Aljazeera.net.

As Turkey prepares for EU accession talks, the Armenian genocide is
something Ankara cannot avoid.

Turkey is a key US strategic
partner and Nato ally

“There is a European moral standard that says if you want to be a
member of the Western world, then you have to allow a discussion, a
debate, of the past, and second you have to be ready to rectify the
wrongdoings of the past,” Turkish historian Taner Akcam said at a
recent conference on the genocide in Armenia.

Some EU members say Turkey must examine its past before it joins the
bloc, something that irks Turkey.

To which Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer responds: “It is wrong
and unjust for our European friends to press Turkey on these issues.

“These claims upset and hurt the feelings of the Turkish nation. What
needs to be done is research and investigate and discuss history,
based on documents and without prejudice.”

Turkey has offered to open its Ottoman archives to a joint commission
of Turkish and Armenian historians to research the genocide issue,
something that the Armenian government has dismissed, saying that
incriminating documents have been removed.

Kurdish issue

The Armenian issue also raises questions over the nature of the
Turkish state.

“The Armenian genocide issue is a living one,” says Edinburgh
University’s Bloxham.

“Turkish ethnic nationalism was the ideology behind the genocide, it
is this same ideology that has been behind its problems with the
Kurdish population,” he said.

“So to question this ideology and the genocide would also confront
ethnic nationalism, and Turkey would then have to confront its
relationship with the Kurds.”

Hidden agenda?

For their part, Turks say European countries are using the Armenian
genocide issue to hinder Turkey’s attempt to join the EU.

Pulent Akargly, an MP with the Turkish National Party, says: “Turkey
will never accept genocide allegations just because European and
American parliaments say so.”

Armenians in Yerevan observe
the anniversary of the events

Akargly says Turkey has the strength to dismiss such demands.

“They can make pressure but this will not have any serious impact on
Turkey. Because Turkey is a country of 70 million with a strong army
and a strong market in a strategic area, I believe that more and more
the EU and the US need Turkey more than we need them.”

Akargly also accuses Europe and the US of gross hypocrisy, saying:
“The Western world has to recognise genocide with what they have done
in Latin America. Then what has been done during the Crusader period,
then what has been done in black Africa and Arab Africa and during
Vietnam.”

Different voices

But as Turkey undergoes EU-driven reform, many in the country say
that challenging the nationalist historiography will become easier.

“I think we will hear different voices,” Etyen Mahcupyan, a Turkish
journalist of Armenian descent, recently told Radio Free Europe.

“We will see that at least part of the public thinks differently –
very differently, in fact – from the state. We will then obligatorily
see a discussion take place between state and society. This is, in
fact, democratisation.”

Voice of America
April 24 2005

Armenia Marks 90th Anniversary of Ottoman Empire Massacres
By VOA News

Armenians visit the hilltop memorial in Yerevan
Armenia is marking the 90th anniversary of massacres inflicted on
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire – events Yerevan calls genocide
directed against its people.

Thousands of people marched through the Armenian capital Sunday,
climbing a hill to lay wreaths in remembrance of the 1.5 million
people Armenia says were slaughtered during the final years of the
Ottoman Empire.

Turkey says 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks died during
between 1915 and 1923, as a result of a Russian-backed Armenian
uprising against Ottoman rule. Turkey contends those deaths were not
part of a campaign of genocide aimed at Armenians.

But Ankara has come under increasing international pressure to
acknowledge its actions during those years, especially as it seeks
membership in the European Union.

Several European countries, including France and Switzerland
recognize the event as genocide.

April 22, 2005
Committed to remember
Armenian descendants plan events to spotlight genocide anniversary
By Ed Koch
<[email protected]>
LAS VEGAS SUN
WEEKEND EDITION
April 23 – 24, 2005

Commemoration activities scheduled

These are events planned for The 90th Annual Armenian Genocide
Commemoration Ceremony on Sunday, sponsored by the Armenian-American
Cultural Society of Las Vegas:

Church services: 9 a.m. at the Elks Lodge, 4100 W. Charleston Blvd.

Protest march: 11:30 a.m. from the Elks Lodge to the West Charleston
Library, 6301 W. Charleston Blvd.

Commemoration ceremony: 1:30 p.m. Sunday at the West Charleston
Library. The event will feature a keynote address by Ara Bedrosian, a
board member of the Armenian National Committee of America. Also, Las
Vegas soprano Suzanna Yozgadlian is scheduled to perform a rendition
of the 23rd Psalm composed for the occasion by Michael Canales, music
director of Opera Las Vegas.

Throughout Sunday and on Monday, the UNLV Armenian Student Association
will have at the Moyer Student Union Building a display of documents
and flags commemorating the milestone anniversary of the Armenian
genocide.

Kegham Tashjian, pastor of the Armenian Evangelical Fellowship of Las
Vegas, will be among 150 people marching Sunday to mourn the killing
of 1.5 million Armenians during the first genocide of the 20th century
and honor their fortitude.

“We will declare to Las Vegas and to the world that they will not be
forgotten and signify that there was a victory for the Armenian people
— a victory that we did not lose our identity, our independence or
our Christian faith.”

Local Armenian-Americans and others are expected at the two-mile
protest march at 11:30 a.m. Sunday starting at the Elks Lodge on West
Charleston Boulevard to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the start
of the eight-year genocide suffered at the hands of the Ottoman
Empire.

On April 24, 1915, the genocide began when about 200 Armenian
intellectual and political leaders were arrested in what is now
Istanbul and publicly executed.

An estimated 20,000 people of Armenian descent today live in Southern
Nevada. Generally, people whose last name ends in “ian,” “jian” or
“yan” are of Armenian descent.

Tashjian, 62, lost the entire side of his mother’s family, including
his grandfather, in the slayings at Tarsus, Turkey, birthplace of the
Apostle Paul. His parents and other family members escaped to Latakia,
which now is Syria.

“Professor James Russell of Boston University said his research found
that there were so many bodies of Armenians thrown into the Euphrates
River that it changed the river’s course,” Tashjian said of the extent
of the genocide.

The genocide was so widespread in Turkey it is rare to find an
Armenian-American today who did not lose an ancestor in the slayings,
many during deportation death marches in which they starved or died of
thirst.

Las Vegas attorney Ara Shirinian, 48, says he will march Sunday to
remember the deaths of his ancestors who were killed in Van in Eastern
Turkey.

“A census showed that about 100,000 Armenians lived in Van in 1914,
but after World War I there were virtually none,” said Shirinian, the
grandson of a priest who escaped to Bulgaria after several other
family members were killed.

John Dadaian, coordinator of the Las Vegas march and afternoon
remembrance ceremony at the West Charleston Library and local
spokesman for the Armenian National Committee of America, knows a
witness to the genocide — his mother-in-law Malvine Handjian.

Handjian watched the horror unfold as a 10-year-old refugee on the
streets of Izmir, Turkey, in 1922. That included witnessing Turks
drive nails through the soles of the feet of an Armenian priest and
watching Turkish soldiers burn Armenian homes and carry off teenage
girls to rape and kill them.

Handjian was the subject of the 2002 Armenian genocide documentary
film “The Handjian Story: A Road Less Traveled,” which won best
feature documentary at the 2003 Moondance International Film Festival
in Denver. She is 92 and lives in Las Vegas, where she also was the
subject of an April 2004 story in the Sun.

Dadaian, noting that Handjian survived a death march, says marching is
symbolic and appropriate for this milestone commemoration.

“We are marching here and in other cities to get the U.S. government
to put pressure on the Turkish government to finally get it to
recognize and take responsibility for its actions so we can all move
on,” said Dadaian, who also is a member of the Armenian-American
Cultural Society of Las Vegas.

Sunday’s remembrance march will be led by three local Armenian
religious leaders — Tashjian, Pastor Asbed Balian of the Armenian
Apostolic Church of Las Vegas and the Rev. Vrouyr Demirjian, the
Armenian Apostolic Church of America’s assistant to the prelate.

They are scheduled to be joined at the front of the procession by the
Armenian Scouts of Las Vegas carrying the flags of Nevada, the United
States and Armenia and the banners of the Boy and Girl Scouts of
America.

Armenian-born U.S. citizen Rafael Oganesyan, a junior at UNLV and
president of the Armenian Student Association, says he will march
Sunday in hopes that the world finally will get the message of “never
again.”

“It is important that with the survivors of the Armenian Genocide now
almost gone that we students demonstrate that we will not let them or
those who were killed be forgotten,” Oganesyan, 20, said, estimating
that 30 students from the organization will march Sunday.

“It’s a shame that the world has not gotten the message of never again
and that the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Sudan genocides
have followed the Armenian Genocide.”

Dadaian said one reason the United States has not been enthusiastic
about holding Turkey’s feet to the fire on the genocide issue is
because Americans benefit from oil produced in Turkey.

Tashjian echoed that sentiment.

“Turkey is an ally of the United States and so the United States has
not made this (accountability) an issue with them,” he said. “Why
admit to something if you are not being held accountable for it?

“Turkey long was a strategic point from which the United States kept
an eye on the Soviet Union. But, since the fall of the Soviet Union
and Turkey’s position becoming less strategically important, it
baffles me why the United States has not taken a more reasoned
position on this issue.”

Shirinian says from a legal standpoint, the Turks fear having to pay
millions of dollars in reparations to survivors and descendants,
especially for the loss of ancestral lands in Turkey. But, he said,
there is much more to it than that.

“For 90 years, Turkish students have been taught something very
different in their schools,” he said. “For their government to take
responsibility will be akin to saying ‘we’ve been lying to you all of
these years.’ ”

While the U.S. government has skirted the issue of the Armenian
genocide, many of its leaders from the federal government to state
officials to city mayors have recognized as fact what the Turks
continually deny.

Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, in his proclamation for Sunday’s ceremony,
calls the 1915-23 incidents a “crime against humanity. … (a)
systematic and deliberate massacre of the Armenian people.”

The Turkish government maintains that both the Armenians and Turks
suffered great loss of life during the war, but not because of a
genocide.

Supporters of Turkey’s position say claims of a genocide are part of
efforts to drive a wedge between the Turks, who are Muslims, and
Armenians, who have had Christianity as their state religion since
301.

The Turkish government Web site, turkishembassy.org, says the numbers
of Armenians killed have been inflated because fewer than 1.5 million
Armenians were living in Turkey in 1915. The Web site says more than
2.5 million Muslims died during the same period, which encompasses
World War I.

But Armenian-Americans say there are volumes of proof that a genocide
occurred, including not only eyewitness accounts but also transcripts
from Ottoman court-martial proceedings held at the time to find
scapegoats for the killings — documents that in effect admit
atrocities were committed by soldiers.

———————————
Photo: John Dadaian, Ara Shirinian and Dr. Kegham Tashjian speak
Las Vegas SUN main page