The blog contains articles and thoughts in English, Armenian and Arabic about Armenian issues, Artsakh-Karabakh issue, Armenian Genocide as well as the life of Armenians and Christians in Iraq and the Middle East.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
96 Years Later, Turkey Still Pays A Price for Genocide Denial
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
Almost a century after the fact, the Republic of Turkey continues to be disgraced for its persistent denial of the Armenian Genocide.
During his visit to Armenia earlier this month, French President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned Turkey by declaring that 96 years is long enough for Ankara to come to terms with its genocidal crimes. He also threatened to pass a law punishing denial of the Armenian Genocide, unless Turkey recognized it in the near future.
Rather than heeding Pres. Sarkozy’s sound advice, Turkish leaders retaliated by attacking him and insulting his country. Here are
some of their rejectionist statements:
-- Prime Minister Erdogan: "He should first listen to his own advice. He is different in France, different in Armenia, and more different in Turkey. There cannot be a political leader with so many faces. Politics requires honesty…. You should know that Turkey is not an easy bite to swallow."
-- Foreign Minister Davutoglu: "France should confront its own history. I consider such remarks as political opportunism."
-- Turkey’s European Union Minister Egemen Bagis: "If Sarkozy worked on how his country could come out of economic turbulence instead of assuming the role of a historian, it would be more meaningful for France and Europe."
-- Devlet Bahceli, leader of the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP): The French President is a "rude and ill-mannered" man. "Our advice to Sarkozy is that if he wants to see an example of genocide, he should look back at his history. He will clearly see the atrocities committed in Algeriaand will notice explicit or implicit massacres in North Africa."
The Turkish attacks on France included demonstrations in front of the French Consulate in Istanbullast week, where protesters carried portraits of Pres. Sarkozy with Adolph Hitler’s mustache and denounced alleged crimes committed by France in the Algerian war.
Uncharacteristically, Turkish officials did not go beyond mere words to denounce Pres. Sarkozy’s statements on the Armenian Genocide. Missing were the customary recall of the Turkish Ambassador and threats to boycott French goods. There was no bite in their bark!
The French President was unfazed by the Turkish outbursts. Upon returning to Paris, he sent a letter to Pres. Serzh Sargsyan reconfirming his earlier statements in Armenia: "Rest assured that France will not cease its commitment, as long as the massacres have not been properly recognized by the descendents of the perpetrators." Pres. Sarkozy went on to state that he was "most of all deeply moved at the Genocide Memorial Monument while paying tribute to the memory of the victims of the death sentence carried out against your people on April 24, 1915." When the French President learned of the angry Turkish reaction to his statements in Yerevan, he told his aides that he had no regrets: "The Turks have always hated me, so it’s no problem."
Some French Parliamentarians were incensed, however, upon hearing that Prime Minister Erdogan had accused Pres. Sarkozy of being two-faced. They greeted the Turkish leader’s insulting words with loud and derisive exclamations in the French Parliament.
Former Ambassador Omer Engin Lutem expressed his concern that if France were to ban denial of the Armenian Genocide, it would trigger other European countries to follow suit. He cautioned the Turkish public that such a development on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide would constitute a significant victory for Armenians.
Murat Belge, an outspoken Turkish human rights activist, took issue with the negative reaction of his country’s leaders. He boldly condemned all those who claimed that "Turks are good people; we do not kill or commit genocide." Such statements are "slanderous," Belge stated.
Another prominent scholar and columnist, Ahmet Insel, rebuked Prime Minister Erdogan for telling Pres. Sarkozy to look at France’s own colonial past. Insel wondered if Erdogan would indeed recognize the Armenian Genocide if France faced its own history? And what would Turkey do if the same suggestion came from a country that did not have dark pages in its history? Insel observed that this is the same Prime Minister who was claiming that all Ottoman archives are open, as his government was blocking the posting of these documents on the Internet.
As an Iranian diplomat recently noted: "The Armenian Genocide is a Damoclean Sword hanging over Turkey’s head." Sooner or later, a wise Turkish leader would come to realize that acknowledging the Armenian Genocide is more beneficial to Turkey than its continued denial.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Friday, October 14, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Turkish PM slams Sarkozy for his remarks on Armenian Genocide | Armenia News - NEWS.am
Turkish PM slams Sarkozy for his remarks on Armenian Genocide | Armenia News - NEWS.am
My Comment: Good answer Mr. Erdogan! This will incite France to adopt the law prosecuting the denial of the Armenian Genocide.
My Comment: Good answer Mr. Erdogan! This will incite France to adopt the law prosecuting the denial of the Armenian Genocide.
Pres. Sarkozy Says 'Tseghasbanoutyoun' A Word Obama has yet to Utter
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
Flying to Armenia, French President Nicolas Sarkozy confided to his top aides last week: “I am going to toss a live grenade!” He was revealing his readiness to act firmly if Turkey continued to deny the Armenian Genocide.
Shortly after arriving in Yerevan, Pres. Sarkozy courageously declared before journalists assembled at the Armenian Genocide Monument: “The Armenian Genocide is a historic reality that was recognized by France. Collective denial is even worse than individual denial.” When asked if France would adopt a law to prosecute those who deny the Genocide, the French President stated: “If Turkey revisited its history, faced its bright and dark sides, this recognition of the Genocide would be sufficient. But if Turkey will not do that, then without a doubt it would be necessary to go further.”
As presidential candidate in 2007, Sarkozy promised to support the Senate’s adoption of a law criminalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide. The French Parliament had already approved such a bill in 2006. Yet, despite his pledge, Pres. Sarkozy’s ruling party blocked the bill’s adoption last May. While the French government banned denial of the Holocaust in 1990, it did did not take a similar action on the Armenian Genocide, even though France had recognized it in 2001.
French-Armenians were incensed by Sarkozy’s betrayal. Singer Charles Aznavour publicly warned him that he would lose the support of 500,000 French-Armenians in next year’s presidential elections. Last month, the ARF of France endorsed the probable presidential candidacy of Socialist Francois Hollande after he promised that his party, which had recently gained majority of seats in the Senate, would vote for the bill banning denial of the Armenian Genocide. Hollande is currently far ahead of Sarkozy in opinion polls.
During his visit to Armenia last week, Pres. Sarkozy conveyed several important messages: He reassured Armenians of his intent to keep his initial pledge on the Genocide denial bill; warned Turkey to stop denying the Armenian Genocide; and indicated his clear sympathy for the Armenian position on Artsakh (Nagorno Karabagh).
The French President’s trip to the three Republics of the Caucasus was clearly lopsided in favor of Armenia -- where he stayed overnight, while spending only three hours in Azerbaijan andGeorgia. His brief stops in these two countries were simply an attempt to display a semblance of impartiality. Sarkozy’s first ever visit to Armenia was filled with festive events and dramatic gestures of friendship -- planting a tree in memory of Armenian Genocide victims; laying a wreath at the Genocide Memorial, where he wrote in the Book of Remembrance -- “France does not forget;” warning Turkey to acknowledge the Genocide by the year’s end; uttering the Armenian word “tseghasbanoutyoun” (genocide) which Pres. Obama has declined to use; lighting a candle in Etchmiadzin; rejecting Turkey’s membership in the European Union; opening the Aznavour Museum overlooking Mt. Ararat; and donating a priceless Rodin statue to the Republic of Armenia.
Finally, a world leader has dared to put Turkey’s bullying rulers in their place! Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu reacted angrily by telling the French President to confront his country’s colonial past and not to teach Turkey a history lesson. Azerbaijan’s President, Ilham Aliyev, gave a cold shoulder to the French leader during his visit to Baku. An aide to Aliyev declared that his country does not share Sarkozy’s views on the Armenian Genocide. Davutoglu’s condescending words against France could well incite the French Senate into adopting the new Genocide law.
French Armenians are now in a win-win situation. Both leading presidential candidates are committed to supporting not only the law criminalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide, but also backing other pro-Armenian initiatives. No matter which one of the two candidates wins in next year’s French presidential elections, Armenians stand to gain!
However, given politicians’ long trail of broken promises, French-Armenians should not trust their word. They should make it clear to both candidates that Armenians would support whoever helps pass the genocide denial bill BEFORE next April’s presidential elections. It would be ideal if both candidates instructed their party’s Senators to vote for the bill now, leaving the French Armenian community with the pleasant dilemma of choosing between two supportive candidates in the presidential elections.
French-Armenians and American-Armenians may want to reverse the long-established but failed approach of supporting candidates first by trusting their promises, hoping that they would come through after the election. The new strategy should be: Once the President is elected and carries out his promises, only then the community would reward him with its support.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Sunday, October 09, 2011
Saturday, October 08, 2011
Friday, October 07, 2011
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
Monument of Gratitude to the Arab people
The unveiling of the Monument of Gratitude symbolizing the gratitude of the Armenian people to the Arab people will be held in Yerevan, Armenia on October 19, 2011.
Invitation: https://picasaweb.google.com
Read about the Monument:
http://www.azad-hye.net
Invitation: https://picasaweb.google.com
Read about the Monument:
http://www.azad-hye.net
في أرمينيا بذلت جهود إستثنائية لإقامة نصب عملاق للصداقة العربية ـ الأرمنية مع مجموعة كبيرة من الأرمن في سوريا ولبنان وأرمينيا والولايات المتحدة كرد لدين سابق للشعب العربي النبيل من أحفاد أولئك الضحايا السابقين، ولتعزيز الصداقة الأبدية بين الشعبين، حيث إستقبلت بلاد العرب وضمت أكبر جالية أرمينية مهجرة في فترة القرن العشرين، ويرتفع في العاصمة الأرمينية يريفان، ذلك التمثال الذي رمزاً للصداقة القوية وللأخوة الدائمة بين الشعبين العربي والأرمني. لقد كتب المشرفون على هذا النصب العملاق: "في آب 2002 خُصصت قطعة أرض لتنفيذ المشروع عليها ثم نُقلت الى موقع آخر... وقد حرصت السلطات الأرمينية لإقامة المشروع على قطعة أرض مناسبة... وقد سُجلت قطعة الأرض بإسم بطريركية عموم الأرمن في إيتشميازين بتاريخ 2007 وتم تقديم المخططات الى مجلس مدينة ييريفان في 12 آذار 2008.
وقد كتب صاحب القداسة كاريكين الثاني ـ كاثوليكوس عموم الأرمن: " يتم تشييد نصب تذكاري في يريفان عاصمة أرمينيا، وقد أطلق هذه الفكرة بعض الأرمن الذين يعيشون في المهجر ... ويرمز هذا الصرح الى الإعتراف بالجميل للشعب العربي النبيل لمساندته الإنسانية والراقية للشعب الأرمني في الحقبة التي تعرض فيها للمذبحة عام 1915 ... وهذه المساندة النبيلة أنقذت أرواح عدد كبير من الأرمن ... وأبقتهم على قيد الحياة ... ثمة نصب تذكارية عديدة ترمز الى عطاءات كبيرة والى أعمال خيرية كثيرة وجدت أمكنة لها على التربة الأرمنية، إلا أن لهذا النصب مكانة متميزة، إذ أنه يرمز الى إعتراف الأمة الأرمنية بالجميل للشعب العربي النبيل...".
وكتب البروفور فاهكن ن. دادريان ـ من الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية: " إنني وبغبطة بالغة أحيي مبادرتكم الوطنية وأعبر عن دعمي المطلق لها، حيث أن هذا المشروع. ولو جاء متأخراً. يعتبر مناسباً".
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Dr. Charny Deserves Much Credit Should Israel Recognize the Armenian Genocide
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
Armenians have good reason to be offended by the Israeli government’s failure to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. It is unconscionable that some victims of the Holocaust can be so insensitive about those who have suffered a similar fate. Israel’s callous denial has been motivated by its unethical desire to appease Turkey -- its “strategic ally.”
Dr. Israel Charny, like so many Israeli citizens, vehemently opposes his government’s shameful stand on the Armenian Genocide. He is the longtime Director of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem and former president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. On numerous occasions, Dr. Charny has taken a strong stand against Israeli officials, rebuking them for their deplorable position on the Armenian Genocide.
Earlier this year, the President of Armenia awarded Dr. Charny a Presidential medal and a $10,000 prize for his lifelong efforts to champion recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
Since Dr. Charny did not have the opportunity to make a speech during the award ceremony inYerevan, I wish to present key excerpts from his prepared remarks:
“Denials of genocide are very unfair, unjust and ugly. They are also extremely dangerous not only to the victim people, but to our human civilization. Denials of genocide are disgusting attempts to humiliate the victim people once more, and hurtful reopening of wounds of stigmatizing and persecuting the victim people once again.
“Moreover, denials of genocide are also loud and clear affirmations of the legitimacy of violence; they are retroactive justifications of the specific violent killing that was done in the genocide; and they are warnings and calls for renewal of violence -- whether towards the same victim people or to other peoples. In fact, it has become clear that denials of genocide often are messages from the deniers that they are already engaged in or preparing to be violent once again.
“It is not at all by chance that [Turkish Prime Minister] Erdogan in the last year twice has threatened to expel 100,000 Armenians from Turkey; and it is not at all by chance that Erdogan’s Turkey -- a regime that is bizarrely devoted to denials of the Armenian Genocide -- continues to be violent towards the Kurdish people who have suffered thousands of destroyed villages, tens of thousands of dead, and who are frequently not allowed by the Turkish government to use their language or celebrate their culture.
“Israel has been attempting to have a good relationship with Turkey very much at the expense of the truth of the Armenian Genocide. I am convinced this policy has been deeply wrong. Of course, I do not believe that nations -- especially small ones -- can afford not to evaluate political realities and security risks, but I think that in the long run there must be limits to the extent of realpolitik and that denials of the history of a genocide are beyond the limit that should be acceptable.
“I cannot take leave without a further reference to the State of Israel's recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Israel has been entirely wrong in not recognizing the Armenian Genocide. At the same time, thank heaven I have been able to say now for many years that we have won the battle for recognition of the Armenian Genocide in Israeli culture, our media, and in our public. When a few years ago a delegation of four of us -- Prof. Yair Auron, Prof. Yehuda Bauer, Former Minister Yossi Sarid, and myself -- came to lay wreaths at the Armenian Genocide Memorial [in Yerevan], we indeed represented our larger Israeli society.
“At this very writing we have been informed that the Knesset will hold a major hearing on recognition of the Armenian Genocide. The overall Knesset has already voted -- now for the third time in Israeli history -- to hold hearings on possible recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Each of these votes has represented some progress towards our goal. In the Israeli system a proposal then has to be reviewed and decided by a major committee of the Knesset. Politics are not simple, as you know, and our opponents have succeeded in the past in defeating the recognition at this level.
“This time the proposal will go to the Committee on Education where, unlike proceedings in the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Security where a proposal even can be buried without any discussion at all and no one knows what happened, discussion and voting in the Education Committee will be publicly known to us. My closest colleagues and I have not been too hopeful of success, but now there is more possibility of success than we previously estimated. In truth, the possibility of recognition is greater now that Turkey has shown its vicious side to Israel, and there are many of us who will be ashamed if we now achieve recognition for this reason rather than on the basis of a real correction of Israel's error all these years.”
As Israeli journalist Raphael Ahren accurately pointed out in a recent Haaretz article: “If Israel recognizes the Turkish genocide of over 1 million Armenians in the near future, it may be largely due to the decades long efforts of American-born scholar Israel Charny.”
Monday, October 03, 2011
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