Attacks on the Armenian Nation – and Recognition
Christians are being systematically targeted for genocide in Syria according to Vatican and other sources with contacts on the ground among the besieged Christian community. According to reports by the Vatican’s Fides News Agency collected by the Centre for the Study of Interventionism, the US-backed Free Syrian Army rebels and ever more radical spin-off factions are sacking Christian churches, shooting Christians dead in the street, broadcasting ultimatums that all Christians must be cleansed from the rebel-held villages, and even shooting priests.
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Here is a Turkish professor who is not afraid to speak openly about the Armenian Genocide, unlike most Turks (He is brave because in Turkey it is strictly forbidden to speak about the Armenian Genocide, Turkish Penal Code 301, if you are LUCKY you will just be imprisoned, but will probably be assassinated by turkish nationalists (like what happened to Hrant Dink)
Also watch this, another Turkish professor, Ugur Ungor, speaking openly about the Armenian Genocide
Armenia Remembers Defense of Musa Dagh
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104 Years Old Grandma A Survivor of The Armenian Genocide Sharing Her Memories
Armenian Genocide ABC World news tonight with Peter Jennings
Attack Against the Civilization of Man
Skulls and bones, possibly from the Armenian Genocide, have been found protruding from the soil near a school in the district of Westan (current name, Gevaş) in Van, according to a newspaper report.
Skulls and bones, possibly from the Armenian Genocide, protrude from the soil near a school in the district of Westan in Van, The Armenian Weekly reported, citing a newspaper report. The pro-Kurdish Ozgur Gundem reported that in the village of Ili (current name, Dağyöre) in the district of Westan, a mass grave was unearthed last year during the construction of the Dağyöre Elementary School. The bones remain there, protruding from the soil, to this day. Villagers say the mass grave is likely that of the Armenians who lived in the village a century ago. The village of Ili is southwest of Gevaş (Armenian name Vosdan), and had 21 Armenian households prior to the Armenian Genocide.
What happened to Turkey’s Islamized Armenians?
Back in 2005, a bid to hold Turkey’s first ever “Armenian conference” had sparked nationwide tensions. Then-Justice Minister Cemil Cicek accused the organizers of “stabbing Turkey in the back,” while Sukru Elekdag, a lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People’s Party, branded the organizers as “traitors” in a speech in parliament. Yielding to heavy pressure, Istanbul’s Bogazici University backed down from hosting the conference, and the event had to move to the private Bilgi University. The detractors, however, did not stop there. Furious demonstrators bullied the participants as the conference opened, and the event could barely be completed.
Since then, the atmosphere in Turkey has changed significantly. Commemorations are now being held on April 24 to remember the 1915 Armenian genocide. Scores of books are being published on the issue, which has become also a frequent topic in newspapers and TV programs. Even though the government maintains the official Turkish thesis on the 1915 events, the subject is no longer a taboo in the country.
A conference on Armenians Islamized during the genocide was held Nov. 2-4 in Istanbul, demonstrating that the genocide is now up for a free discussion in Turkey. The venue of the event was the same Bogazici University that had backed down from hosting the first Armenian conference eight years ago. This time, there were neither demonstrators outside the venue nor politicians bashing the organizers. That the event was free of incidents and tension signifies the notable progress Turkey has made in openly discussing the Armenian genocide.
Participants included Turkish, Armenian, American and European academics, intellectuals and descendants of genocide victims from Turkey, Armenia and many other countries. The conference, which attracted huge interest, discussed the fate of the Armenians who survived the genocide as Muslims.
“No one called them by their real names again. They had to destroy and efface themselves to save their existence,” Rakel Dink, the widow of slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, said in her opening speech at the conference, organized by the Hrant Dink Foundation.
About 200,000 Armenians are estimated to have survived the massacres and deportations by becoming Muslims, according to the presentation of academic Ayse Gul Altinay. She estimated that several million people in Turkey are today the children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews and daughters- or sons-in-law of Islamized Armenians.
“For 90 years, those people led an invisible existence outside the family and sometimes even within the family. They completely lost their Armenian names and their bonds with their families and the Armenian community. And even when they kept those names and bonds, they were unable to do so openly,” Altinay said.
Turkey Should Acknowledge the Armenian Genocide
Commemoration in Taksim
Human rights activists sit behind pictures of Armenian victims at Taksim square in central Istanbul, April 24, 2013
Names of destroyed Armenian villages
It’s April 24, 2013. In Sultanahmet Square in Istanbul. People have gathered in front of the Turkish-Islamic Arts Museum which, in 1915, served as the Central Prison that held Armenian intellectuals kept before they were sent to their deaths. But something very unusual is happening. From a loudspeaker, people hear some Armenian names of places. The names of lost Armenian villages. The voice says: “Vaspuragan province… Avants… Lezk… Shahbaghi… Akhzia… Shoushants… Kouroubash… Gentanants… Pertag… Dzevestan… Ardamed… Tarman… Vosgepag…”
There are big panels on the wall, showing these names and the provinces or districts they are connected to. People come and take photographs. I recognize some of them; Armenians from abroad with a delegation are visiting Istanbul for the commemoration activities, taking photographs of these names from a certain province. I guess these are the provinces of their ancestors.
Armenian Schools and Churches in Turkey
Where are these lost or stolen Armenian churches in Turkey? How many were there before 1915, the turning point in the Armenians’ world, when they were uprooted and wiped out from their homeland of more than 3,000 years? How many churches are there now? Considering that every Armenian community invariably strove to build a school beside its church, how many Armenian schools were there in Turkey before 1915, and how many are there now? How many Armenian churches and schools are left standing now in Turkey is the easier part of the issue: There are only 34 churches and 18 schools left in Turkey today, mostly in Istanbul, with about less than 3,000 students in these schools. The challenging and frustrating issue is how many were there in the past.
Recent research pegs the number of Armenian churches in Turkey before 1915 at around 2,300. The number of schools before 1915 is estimated at nearly 700, with 82,000 students. These numbers are only for churches and schools under the jurisdiction of the Istanbul Armenian Patriarchate and the Apostolic Church, and therefore do not include the numerous churches and schools belonging to the Protestant and Catholic Armenian parishes. The American colleges and missionary schools, mostly attended by Armenian youth, are also excluded from these numbers. The number of Armenian students attending Turkish schools or small schools at homes in the villages are unknown and not included. Finally, these numbers do not include the churches and schools in Kars and Ardahan provinces, which were not part of Turkey until 1920, and were part of Russia since 1878.
The two maps show the wide distribution of Armenian churches and schools in Turkey before 1915. The two lists for the Armenian churches and schools are by no means complete, but should be regarded as a preliminary study that can serve as foundation for further research. The place names are based on the old Ottoman administrative system, instead of that of modern Turkey. They are ably assembled by Zakarya Mildanoglu, from various sources such as the Ottoman Armenian National Council Annual reports, Echmiadzin Journal, Vienna Mkhitarists, and studies by Teotig, Kevorkian, and Nishanyan.
Commemoration of Sayfo
April 24, 2013, was the first time that Sayfo, the Assyrian Genocide, was mentioned in the commemorations in Turkey, and that an Assyrian, a representative of the Sweden Assyrian Youth Federation, gave a speech, too. Referring to the ongoing “peace process” in Turkey to put an end to the war between the Turkish Army and the PKK, he said: “To our dismay, these crimes against humanity committed against the ancient peoples of Anatolia have always been denied by all governments to this day. It is clear that the pursuit of peace at the present will be futile without facing the past. A state of peace based on faith and religion will hang like Damocles’ sword on different peoples, just as in the events of the past. Truly establishing peace in these lands will be possible not by the denial of the crimes against humanity committed against the ancient peoples of Anatolia, but by facing them. The establishment of peace will have meaning when it is built not on common faith but on human values.” His speech was translated to the Assyrian language by his colleague. It was the first time the Assyrian language was heard by the people gathered for a commemoration of the genocide.
The co-chair of the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party’s Istanbul Organization then gave a speech, recognizing the Kurds’ involvement in the genocide. “I, as a Kurd and a Kurdish politician, apologize again and again to Armenians and Assyrians for the role played by the Kurds in the genocide,” he said.
After a speech by another Kurd, the owner of the Peri Publishing House, which published a book about Antranig Pasha, said he condemned those Kurds who cooperated with the central government and took part in the massacres and the plunder of Armenian property.
Nor Zartonk’s press statement was also read aloud by a young Armenian, a member of the group.
An international delegation had also come to Istanbul this year within the framework of the program jointly developed by the Turkish group “Say Stop to Racism and Nationalism” (DurDe), the European Grassroots Anti-Racist Movement (EGAM), and the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU). The president of EGAM, Benjamin Abtan gave a short speech expressing the group’s solidarity in the struggle against denialism in Turkey.
Following the commemoration, the delegation and the participants of the event visited the Sisli Armenian Cemetery and the grave of Sevag Şahin Balıkçı.
Before the commemoration at the Sultanahmet Square, Ara Sarafian, accompanied by others, had visited the grave of Ali Faik Bey (Ozansoy), the governor of Kütahya who had refused to obey the central government’s deportation orders and had protected the Armenian community there.
At 6:30 p.m., DurDe’s commemoration took place in Taksim Square. The crowd was bigger in Taksim – numbering about 1,000 – as compared to Sultanahment, where there were about 200. Armenian music played throughout the event, excerpts were read from the memoirs of a number of Armenian intellectuals who were arrested on April 24, 1915, and a press release was read out condemning the genocide.
Commemoration in Diyarbakir
Diyarbakir is the only city in Turkey that officially and publicly recognizes the Armenian Genocide. “Both the conference hosted by the Diyarbakir Bar Association and the commemoration organized by the municipality under the leadership of Mayor Osman Baydemir were very impressive and fruitful,” said Sarafian.
The commemoration took place on the bridge over the Tigris River where the Diyarbakir Armenians were massacred. Participants threw flowers into the river in the memory of the victims. Sarafian was deeply moved not only by the sincere willingness of the municipality, first and foremost Mayor Baydemir, but also by the readiness local Kurds to accept the truth.
“We should not take for granted Osman Baydemir’s promise of wide open doors to Armenians, and should develop new ways of strengthening these ties with Diyarbakir and turn this potential into reality,” he said.
Turkey’s Kurds are taking responsibility
The Sur Municipality of Diyarbakir held the official inauguration of the Monument of Common Conscience on Sept. 12, 2013, with mayor Abdullah Demirbaş apologizing in the name of Kurds for the Armenian and Assyrian “massacre and deportations.”
“We Kurds, in the name of our ancestors, apologize for the massacres and deportations of the Armenians and Assyrians in 1915,” Demirbaş declared in his opening speech. “We will continue our struggle to secure atonement and compensation for them.”
The mayor called upon the Turkish authorities to issue an apology and do whatever needed to atone for the genocide. “We invite them to take steps in this direction,” he said.
The inscription on the monument at the Anzele Park, near a recently restored historic fountain, reads, in six languages including Armenian: We share the pain so that it is not repeated.
“This memorial is dedicated to all peoples and religious groups who were subjected to massacres in these lands,” Demirbaş said. “The Monument of Common Conscience was erected to remember and demand accountability for all the massacres that took place since 1915.”
Demirbaş noted that the monument remembers all the Armenians, Assyrians, Jews, Yezidis, Alevis who were subjected to massacres, as well as all the Sunni who “stood against the system.”
Representatives of the Armenian, Assyrian, Alevi, and Sunni communities also spoke at the opening event. Diyarbakir Armenian writer Mgrditch Margosyan welcomed the opening of the memorial, noting that he awaits the steps that would follow.
Zahit Çiftkuran, head of the Diyarbakir association of the clergy, recounted the story of a man who, while walking by a restaurant, notices the following sign: “You eat, your grandchildren pay the bill.” Enthused by the promise of free lunch, the man goes in and orders food. Soon, they bring him an expensive bill. “But I was not supposed to pay! Where did this bill come from?” the man asks. The owner of the restaurant responds: “This is not your bill. It is your grandfather’s!”
Çiftkuran concluded, “Today, we have to pay for what our grandparents have done.”
The consecration the largest Armenian church in the Middle East
Armenians from around the world flocked to Surp Giragos Church in Diyarbakir on Oct. 22, 2013, to attend both the consecration of the largest Armenian church in the Middle East and the Badarakheld the following day. They were greeted with welcome signs written in Armenian, and with Armenian music playing on the streets, cafes, and hotelsin the city.
Renovated by the Surp Giragos Armenian Foundation, with the support of the local Kurdish-controlled municipality, the church, which had witnessed a century of destruction, neglect, and denial, now stood as defiant as ever to the forces suppressing freedom in Turkey. And as the faithful of different religions prayed in unison, the political message wasn’t lost on anyone.
Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir underlined the importance of confronting the past and seeking justice as part of the process of reconciliation and democratization. In an interview with the Weekly, the Kurdish politician said many view the renovation as an act asking for forgiveness. “You are not our guests. We are your guests,” stressed Baydemir, who heads the Diyarbakir Metropolitan Municipality.
“It’s a bittersweet return for the Armenian nation,” Raffi Hovannisian, the chairman of Armenia’s Heritage Party, told the Weekly. “Here, in this courtyard, you see the great potential and the depth of the loss we as a nation have registered.”
Scott Avedisian, the mayor of Warwick, R.I., who was invited by the Diyarbakir Municipality to attend the opening, concurred. “The faces of people who once worshipped here, were forced out, survived, and have now returned to their church, attest to the fact that they never lost hope and never lost faith,” he said. The renovation constitutes a “powerful message,” he added, as the church is finally “being used for the very purpose it was originally intended.”
Attacks against Armenians in Turkey
In recent years, there have been several attacks against Armenians in Turkey. Earlier in December, another Armenian woman was brutally attacked and robbed. Months earlier, an Armenian woman was called an infidel and attacked in a cab by the driver himself. On April 24, 2011, Sevag Balikci, an Armenian serving in the Turkish Army, was killed by a fellow soldier in what was clearly a hate crime on Armenian Genocide Commemoration Day. In January 2007, Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was murdered in broad daylight in Istanbul.
According to human rights activists, the common thread that runs through all of these crimes is not just their being motivated by hate or being committed in an environment that breeds intolerance against Armenians, but also the efforts of the authorities to play them down and cover them up.
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