Category: Harut Sassounian

New York City, the unofficial Capital of the World, became the hub of major Armenian events last week on the eve of the Armenian Genocide Centennial.

On Tuesday, March 10, the 100 LIVES initiative was launched by Vartan Gregorian, President of Carnegie Corporation of New York, jointly with entrepreneurs Ruben Vardanyan of Moscow and Noubar Afeyan of Boston.

The organizers plan to collect the remarkable stories of Armenian Genocide survivors and their rescuers, including some Turks. The 100 LIVES project is establishing a $1 million annual prize to be given to those who risk their lives to save others in any part of the world. Prominent actor and activist George Clooney will award the inaugural ‘Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity’ in Yerevan on April 24, 2016. The winners of the prize named after Genocide survivor Aurora Mardiganian, who starred in a 1919 film called “Ravished Armenia,” are expected to transfer the $1 million gift to an organization that has inspired them in their humanitarian endeavor.

The selection committee of this special award is co-chaired by George Clooney and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel. The committee also includes former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, UN Secretary-General’s Advisor on Genocide Prevention Gareth Evans, human rights activist Hina Jilani, and Dr. Gregorian.

The initiators of 100 LIVES also plan to take on the monumental task of digitizing millions of Armenian Genocide-related documents stored in the archives of numerous countries.

Present at the launch were Hollywood celebrities, prominent journalists from CNN, CBS 60 Minutes, Time magazine, and PBS, and Who’s Who of New York. George Clooney and Ruben Vardanyan participated in a panel discussion moderated by Gwen Ifill, managing editor of Washington Week and co-anchor and co-managing editor of PBS NewsHour.

Here are brief excerpts from George Clooney’s comments:

“I got to learn about Armenia through a friend of mine named Bob Manoukian, who probably picking on my innocence at the time, said ‘you know some Senators, maybe you can talk to them to see if they can talk about the Armenian Genocide on the floor of the Senate.’ So I tried. That did not play so well, as you can imagine. We have some military bases apparently in Turkey, I did not know about. Incirlik — who knew? I was shocked. So you become sort of informed about Armenia through friendships. I was slow to the game on this one. Genocide — just because the word wasn’t invented for 30 more years, doesn’t mean that it did not happen! … My wife had no idea that I had been meeting with Ruben. She was in the middle of going to Strasbourg to the European Court to fight a real interesting Armenian battle. I went to park my car in L.A., and the valet guys are all Armenian, and they come over and say, ‘I want to kiss your wife … you don’t have to pay for parking.’”

The launch of 100 LIVES was covered by the global media, including the New York Times. I was surprised to find my picture shaking hands with George Clooney on the front page of The Hill newspaper, a major Washington publication. During my conversation with Amal Clooney, I thanked her for representing the Republic of Armenia, along with prominent international lawyer Geoffrey Robertson, at the recent European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

During the last weekend, the ‘Responsibility 2015’ Armenian Genocide Centennial Conference was held in New York City, lasting three days with the participation of over 50 renowned scholars, lawyers, authors, artists, journalists and activists from around the world, covering a wide range of issues related to various genocides. Among the prominent speakers were: David Balabanian, David Barsamian, Eric Bogosian, Chris Bohjalian, Israel Charny, David Gaunt, Aram Hamparian, Richard Hovannisian, Raymond Kevorkian, Charlie Mahtesian, Marc Mamigonian, Khatchig Mouradian, Mary Papazian, Geoffrey Robertson, Roger W. Smith, and Henry Theriault. I was honored to be included in such distinguished company, to speak on “Individual and Group Reparations.”

Among the presenters at the conference were several Turkish scholars who delivered highly informative papers on the Armenian Genocide.

Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan has invited several world leaders to Yerevan on April 24 to commemorate the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

The Presidents of France, Russia, Poland and Belarus have already accepted Pres. Sargsyan’s invitation. The White House has yet to make a public statement on whether Pres. Obama plans to travel to Armenia on this most solemn occasion.

A Century ago, Henry Morgenthau, US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, described the systematic annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians as “The Murder of a Nation.” Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish lawyer, told CBS that he coined the term genocide based on the mass crimes committed against Armenians during WWI and Jews during WWII.

Here are 10 reasons why Air Force One should make an auspicious landing in Yerevan’s Zvartnots International Airport on April 24.

1. Pres. Obama would pay tribute to hundreds of thousands of compassionate American citizens for having raised over $117 million — today’s equivalent of over $2 billion — to aid destitute Armenians in the aftermath of the Genocide. Initiated by Amb. Morgenthau and supported by Pres. Woodrow Wilson, Near East Relief helped rescue and care for 132,000 Armenian orphans. This massive charitable effort was the first international humanitarian outreach in U.S. history.

2. By visiting Armenia on this occasion, Pres. Obama would be reaffirming the longstanding US acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide — a settled historical fact recognized as genocide by:
— The US Government in a document submitted to the World Court in 1951;
— The House of Representatives in 1975 and 1984;
— Pres. Ronald Reagan in a Presidential Proclamation issued on April 22, 1981;
— 43 out of 50 U.S. states;
— Two dozen countries, including France, Italy, Russia, Canada, Holland, Vatican, Switzerland, Sweden, Argentina, Lebanon, Greece, Cyprus, Poland, and Venezuela;
— Several international organizations, including the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities; the European Parliament; and the International Association of Genocide Scholars.

3. The Centennial could well be Pres. Obama’s last opportunity to regain the trust of the Armenian-American community by honoring his solemn pledge as Senator and Presidential candidate to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.

4. Pres. Obama could lay the foundation for improved Armenian-Turkish relations based on truth and justice, in line with a pending resolution in the House of Representatives, and his previous April 24 statements, declaring that “a full, frank, and just acknowledgement of the facts is in all of our interests.” Pres. Obama’s visit would also encourage Turkish human rights activists to continue their arduous task of assisting the Government of Turkey to reckon with the darkest pages of its past.

5. The U.S. President could take advantage of this visit to urge Turkey to lift the blockade of Armenia, while taking a glimpse at the biblical Mount Ararat just across the closed border.

6. In response to mounting attacks by Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), Pres. Obama could stress Washington’s strong support for a peaceful settlement of this thorny conflict.

7. Pres. Obama’s visit would help balance Armenia’s relations with the West, particularly after its membership in the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union, and in view of Putin’s planned trip to Yerevan on April 24. Armenia has enjoyed close relations with Western Europe and the United States, and has participated in international peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and Lebanon. More recently, the appointment of former Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan as Ambassador to Washington, underscores the importance Yerevan attaches to its relations with the United States.

8. Since Pres. Obama, due to the Ukraine crisis, is not planning to travel to Moscow to take part in the World War II Victory Day celebrations on May 9, he would have the opportunity to meet with Pres. Putin in Yerevan, in a less conspicuous atmosphere.

9. Pres. Obama’s visit to Armenia would be a significant gesture of goodwill toward the Armenian-American community. Last week, 16 major Armenian-American organizations sent a joint letter to the President urging him to participate in the Armenian Genocide Centennial events in Armenia.

10. Pres. Obama would be making a historic first US presidential trip to Armenia, preceded by several high-ranking American officials: Secretary of State James Baker III in 1992; Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in 2001; and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2010 and 2012, when she laid a wreath at the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, as all U.S. Ambassadors have done on every April 24, since the country’s independence in 1991.

I reported last week on the Armenian-American community success in securing cancellation of Los Angeles City’s $845,000 contract with the Gephardt Group, for lobbying on behalf of Turkey against adoption of the Armenian Genocide resolution by Congress.

I expressed the hope that Armenians would continue their efforts to have the remaining 200 clients of the Gephardt Group terminate their contracts so that Mr. Gephardt would pay a steep price for his denialist lobbying.

Energized by their major victory in Los Angeles, Armenian-Americans should now expand their political activism to make an example of Cong. Bill Shuster (Republican-Pennsylvania) who has written an outrageous letter to members of Congress asking them not to support the pending Armenian Genocide resolution.

In a “Dear Colleague” letter sent by Cong. Shuster to all 435 House Members last month, he shamelessly urged them “to refrain from cosponsoring a resolution taking sides in a historical dispute concerning events which occurred a hundred years ago on the other side of the world.” I wonder how the Congressman feels about the Holocaust that also took place “on the other side of the world” more than 60 years ago!

In his brazen letter, Cong. Shuster casts doubt on the veracity of the Armenian Genocide, by alleging that there are “two competing narratives about what happened during the First World War to Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire.” In his twisted logic, the Congressman claims that “the events of 1915…did not constitute genocide,” because “over two million Ottoman Kurds, Arabs, and Muslims…also suffered in this conflict.” His reference to the suffering of “over two million Ottoman Kurds” during World War I is the latest lie scripted by one of the many lobbying firms working for the Turkish government.

The Pennsylvania Congressman also falsely claims that the Armenian Genocide resolution “would alienate one of our last allies in the region [Turkey] who is working hand in hand with US soldiers and our allies to combat ISIS.” Cong. Shuster must have been hiding in a cave for the last couple of years not to have known that this “important NATO ally” has orchestrated the infiltration of thousands of ISIS terrorists into Syria and supplied them with arms, ammunition and logistics. The Congressman ridiculously alleges that “adopting this [Armenian] resolution would be cataclysmic and undermine US interests.” If Turkey is such a good U.S. ally, why would it want to undermine America’s interests? Would passing a resolution condemning the Holocaust result in Germany — our other NATO ally — undermining US interests in Europe?

Cong. Shuster ends his letter by calling the mass murder of 1.5 million Armenians a mere “incident,” urging his colleagues “not [to] take sides in a battle to reinterpret history” and “to think twice before signing on to legislation that could cause significant damage to our relations in the region.” No wonder, the incongruously named ‘Turkish Institute for Progress’ immediately issued a statement applauding the Congressman’s letter denying the Armenian Genocide.

The Turkish Sabah newspaper reported on February 27 that two House members from New York, Democrat Yvette Clarke and Republican Lee Zeldin, have also announced their opposition to the Armenian Genocide resolution. It is noteworthy that the Armenian National Committee of America gave an F- grade to Cong. Shuster, and C- to Cong. Clark. Cong. Zeldin has not yet been graded by the ANCA as this is his first term in office.

Armenian-Americans have a year and a half until the next congressional elections to develop an effective plan to make an example of one or more of these three genocide deniers in Congress. If at least one of them is defeated, other members would think twice before playing the immoral game of genocide denialism.

Not surprisingly, Shuster, Clarke and Zeldin are three of the 130 members of the Congressional Turkey Caucus. In addition, Shuster is the Co-Chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus. After one of these three unprincipled politicians is kicked out of Congress, the Armenian community should then devise a strategy to go after all 130 members of the Turkey Caucus, down from its peak of 157 members in 2012. Applying such pressure would cause more of them to leave the Turkey Caucus, and make others reluctant to join, once they realize that they too would be targeted for defeat.

Zero tolerance for genocide denialists in Congress!

I wrote a column last August warning that the Armenian-American community and all people of good will would boycott the products and services of Anheuser-Busch, Boeing, Chevron, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Google, Los Angeles Airport, National Football League, Port of Oakland, and United Airlines, unless these companies cancelled their contracts with the Gephardt Group, one of Turkey’s notorious lobbying firms.

Ironically, former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt had championed recognition of the Armenian Genocide during his long years in Congress. Yet, soon-after his retirement, Gephardt became a staunch opponent of Armenian issues by peddling Turkish denials of the Armenian Genocide. The latest contract on file with the U.S. Justice Department reveals that the Gephardt Group is paid $1.4 million a year to lobby for Turkey in Washington.

Documents filed by the Gephardt Group with the Justice Department under the ‘Foreign Agent Registration Act’ indicate that Gephardt and his colleagues contacted dozens of House and Senate Members last year to lobby against: 1) congressional resolutions on the Armenian Genocide and return of Christian Churches by Turkey, and 2) revelations that Turkey supported Islamic Jihadists during their invasion of the Armenian-inhabited town of Kessab in Syria.

More ominously, Justice Department records show that just before April 24, 2014, Janice O’Connell, Gephardt’s colleague, contacted Brian McKeon, Chief of Staff of the National Security Council at the White House and Chad Kreikemeier, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs, to modify Pres. Obama’s annual statement on the Armenian Genocide, following Prime Minister Erdogan’s deceptive and disingenuous apology for all victims of World War I in Ottoman Turkey.

Justice Department’s records also reveal that Gephardt and O’Connell traveled to Istanbul and Ankara on Turkish Airlines on March 3, 2014 to meet Turkey’s National Security Advisor. Gephardt flew from Paris to Istanbul and Ankara at a round trip cost of $1,513, while O’Connell flew from Washington, DC to Istanbul and Ankara at a round trip cost of $6,986. The two lobbyists stayed at the Conrad Hotel in Istanbul for three nights at the cost of $710 each. While in Turkey, they spent $600 on limousine service.

Last month, the Armenian National Committee of America, Armenian Assembly of America, and Armenian Youth Federation (Eastern and Western U.S.) sent over 200 letters to businesses, universities, and NGOs that are clients of the Gephardt Group and four other lobbying firms for Turkey: Dickstein Shapiro, LLC; Greenberg Traurig; Alpaytac; and LB International. One such letter asked the United Airlines to demand the lobbying firm to end its contract with the Turkish government, if not, the airline should then terminate its own contract with the lobbying firm. If neither action is taken by Feb. 28, Armenian-Americans would carry out a protest campaign against both the lobbying firm and United Airlines.

The efforts to counter Turkey’s lobbying firms already bore its first fruits. On February 23, ANCA-WR announced that Los Angeles World Airports [LAWA], a wholly-owned entity of the City of Los Angeles, has decided to terminate its contract worth over $845,000 with the Gephardt Group, after ANCA called upon Mayor Eric Garcetti last December, “to end any ties between the City of Los Angeles and Dick Gephardt.”

ANCA-WR Chair Nora Hovsepian applauded “LAWA and City of Los Angeles officials for their principled stand enforcing a zero-tolerance policy against deniers of genocide. LAWA’s action reflects the highest standards of good governance and reinforces the proud standing of Los Angeles as a leader — nationally and internationally — on issues of genocide prevention and human rights. As a genocide denier, Gephardt does not deserve a single dollar from the citizens of Los Angeles, and should have no association with our city.”

According to U.S. Government documents obtained by ANCA-WR, the Gephardt Group “had a contract worth over $845,000 with LAWA, which was agreed to in 2012 during the term of former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Since the approval of the contract with LAWA, the Gephardt Group has been drawing over $23,000 a month for its work for the airport, while simultaneously representing the interests of the Turkish Government against the interests of the Armenian-American community.”

After this first major victory, Armenian-Americans should continue urging the remaining 200 companies that are clients of the Gephardt Group and other lobbying firms hired by Turkey to terminate their contracts, because hiring genocide denialists is patently unethical and bad for business!

When the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, its founder, Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared like a devout Muslim seeking to eliminate corruption and improve the standard of living of Turkish citizens.

During the last 13 years, Erdogan gradually turned into a corrupt despot, assuming the airs of a modern-day Ottoman Sultan. Was he a wolf in sheep’s clothing to start with, or was he spoiled by the international community’s blind support and lavish praise? Notably, Pres. Obama had called Erdogan one of five world leaders with whom he felt especially close. Obama and other heads of state have finally realized that the monster they created is out of the bottle and out of control! The primary victim of misplaced trust in Erdogan was none other than Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.

To show how arrogant Erdogan and Turkey’s top leaders have become, here are excerpts from their recent public pronouncements, as documented by The Middle East Media Research Institute:

In a speech on January 21 at the Parliamentary Union of Islamic Countries in Istanbul, Erdogan, sounding like an ISIS leader rather than President of a NATO member state, urged Muslim countries to “unite and defeat the successors of Lawrence of Arabia who seek to disrupt the Middle East.” He went on to accuse the West of plotting against the Islamic world and causing Muslims to kill one another.

During his recent visit to Djibouti, Erdogan boasted: “Turkey is a powerful country. If you [European Union] still see Turkey as a country that would beg at your [EU’s] door, Turkey is not a country to beg.” In response to earlier European criticism of media crackdowns in Turkey, Erdogan told EU leaders to “keep your insights to yourselves,” and added: “Take the trouble to come to Turkey, so that Turkey can teach you a lesson in democracy.”

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus, while accompanying Erdogan on his African trip, shamelessly played the race card, telling the locals: “For the first time since the Ottomans left, Africans are seeing a white hand that does not exploit, enslave or punch them in their heads; a white hand that does not exploit their mines, eliminate their values, assimilate them or see them as subhuman. They are seeing the white hand of Turkey, which sees them as equals and as brothers…. We are trying to help the rebirth of these black-skinned but warm-hearted people.” Kurtulmus was probably hoping that his African listeners would be unaware that Erdogan frequently uses the derogatory and racist term ‘zenci’(black) to describe lower class people!

Not to be outdone by Erdogan and Kurtulmus in arrogance or religious fanaticism, Prime Minister Davutoglu told a large Turkish gathering in Zurich last month: “Islam is Europe’s indigenous religion, and will continue to be so. Despite the roadblocks, prejudices and many provocations, Turkey will continue to walk on the road to EU membership…. With Allah’s grace, we will never bow our heads. We are the grandchildren of the heroes who fought at Gallipoli, who never bowed their heads. In 2002, when we came to power, they [EU] said that Turkey was too poor, too weak a country that would become a burden on Europe. Thank Allah, today Turkey is the rising power of the world…. We are not a burden for Europe. Turkey is the cure for Europe! Turkey is the cure for their disease of racism. We are the cure to their economic slowdown. We are the cure to their loss of power…. From Andalusia [Spain] to the Ottomans, and, half a century ago with the holy march of our people who came here from every corner of Anatolia, the sound of the azan [Muslim call to prayer] brought these heroes to Europe. The domes of the mosques with which they dotted this continent will be protected; we will continue to fight against the hands that reach out to harm them. I kiss the foreheads of my brothers who carried the Tekbir [the prayer call ‘Allahu Akbar’] to Zurich…. How holy those people were who came and sowed the seeds here which will, with Allah’s help, continue to grow into a huge tree of justice in the center of Europe. No one will be able to stop this!”

Davutoglu persisted in making absurd and arrogant statements last week, this time in Ankara, telling minority representatives: “We will teach a lesson to racists in Europe.”

Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin generated a major controversy after his January 28 speech at the UN General Assembly in New York.

As Speaker and member of the Knesset (Parliament), Revlin had led the struggle for many years to have Israel recognize the Armenian Genocide. But, after becoming President, like Pres. Obama, Revlin has been reluctant to reconfirm his principled position on this issue.

Last month, Pres. Rivlin delivered a powerful speech at the UN General Assembly’s annual International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. Regrettably, Israel’s President made two serious errors. He called the Armenian Genocide a massacre and, to balance those comments, referred to the Azeri deaths in Khojalu during the (Karabagh) Artsakh war.

Here is an excerpt from Rivlin’s UN remarks: “In 1915, when members of the Armenian nation were being massacred, Avshalom Feinberg, a leading member of Nili, the Jewish underground which cooperated with the Allies during the First World War, wrote the following, and I quote, ‘My teeth have been ground down with worry, whose turn is next? When I walked on the blessed and holy ground on my way up to Jerusalem, I asked myself if we are living in our modern era, in 1915, or in the days of Titus or Nebuchadnezzar? Did I, a Jew, forget that I am a Jew? I also asked myself if I have the right to weep over the tragedy of my people only, and whether the Prophet Jeremiah did not shed tears of blood for Armenians as well?’Avshalom Feinberg wrote that exactly 100 years ago — 100 years of hesitation and denial! But in the Land of Israel of that time, in the Jerusalem where I was born, no one denied the massacre that had taken place. The residents of Jerusalem, my parents and members of my family, saw the Armenian refugees arriving by the thousands — starving, piteous survivors of calamity. In Jerusalem they found shelter and their descendants continue to live there to this day.”

Distinguished scholar Yair Auron, Professor at Open University of Israel, was irate at his President’s choice of words, despite his personal friendship with him. Auron is a long-time advocate of Armenian Genocide recognition by Israel and author of several books on this subject. He is currently teaching at the American University of Armenia.

On January 31, while I was delivering a lecture on the Armenian Genocide at the newly-opened Komitas Museum in Yerevan, Prof. Auron approached me and asked if he could address the audience. After obtaining my consent, he read a personal statement, titled: “Apology to my Armenian brothers”:

“The President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, made a remarkable speech with very touching sentences, identifying honestly and profoundly with the suffering of the Armenian people. But, intentionally, he did not use the term Armenian Genocide, neither in Hebrew nor in English.” Prof. Auron went on to disclose that Pres. Rivlin had told him personally that “he had not changed his opinion, but that he cannot declare it [genocide] as President of Israel. This, I can understand. But, in the last minute before the speech, somebody, probably from the Foreign Ministry of Israel, maybe even the Foreign Minister of Israel, Avigdor Lieberman, told him to include this terrible sentence: ‘Is our struggle, the struggle of this Assembly, against genocide, effective enough? Was it effective enough then in Bosnia? Was it effective in preventing the killing in Khojalu?’”

Prof. Auron continued his criticism: “Mr. President, you used the name of Khojalu in the context of genocide. You know well the difference between genocide and massacre. … Who proposed to you, Mr. President, who asked that you make this terrible error? You do not use the term genocide regarding the Armenian Genocide itself. Using the term genocide, in the context of one village in Nagorno-Karabagh, as if it was genocide, is unacceptable…. You do not dare to use the term genocide regarding the Armenian Genocide, and you define the massacre of this village, that I am sure you did not know its name just a few minutes before [your speech], as genocide. It is sacrilegious, and by it, you betray the legacy of the Holocaust and its victims.”

The righteous professor concluded his heartfelt remarks by pledging: “Let me, my Armenian brothers, apologize in my name and on behalf of many Israeli Jews. We are with you. We will not stop our struggle till Israel recognizes the Armenian Genocide.”