Category: Armenian Question

“The great Turk is governing in peace twenty nations from different religions. Turks have taught to Christians how to be moderate in peace and gentle in victory.”Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary

  • President Obama’s Armenian dilemma

    President Obama’s Armenian dilemma

    Posted: 05:40 PM ET   President Obama and Turkish President Abdullah Gul hold a joint news conference Monday. President Obama and Turkish President Abdullah Gul hold a joint news conference Monday.

    Dave Schechter
    CNN Senior National Editor

    Armenian-Americans have April 24 circled on their calendars and they’ll be paying close attention to what President Obama says – or does not say – about that day.

    Armenians call April 24 their day of remembrance, marking the day in 1915 that they say Turks began a campaign to destroy their community, a period of several years that resulted in deaths of between 1 million and 1.5 million Armenians.

    The Armenians call it a genocide.

    The Turks reject that language. From the Turkish perspective, there were killings, but on both sides of an ethnic conflict. World War I was underway, this was not a deliberate program to exterminate a people, the Turks say, and they claim that Armenians overstate the number of casualties.

    “Race extermination” is what then-U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Henry Morgenthau Sr. called it in cables to the State Department. The word “genocide” itself did not enter the lexicon until some 30 years later.

    This is a sensitive issue, not only for Americans of Armenian and Turkish descent, but also for U.S. foreign policy. For many of the more than 1 million Armenian-Americans, this is where the rubber of candidate Obama’s campaign promises meets the road of President Obama in the Oval Office.

    As a senator and presidential candidate, Barack Obama repeatedly stated that the Armenian genocide is fact – not myth – and that he supported an oft-proposed but narrowly defeated Congressional resolution recognizing the slaughter as “the Armenian genocide.” In a Jan. 19, 2008, campaign statement, candidate Obama said, “As a senator, I strongly support passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.106 and S.Res.106), and as President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.” Those positions helped Obama win endorsements from Armenian-American organizations and community support measured at more than 80 percent.

    But as President, he avoided use of the word “genocide” in front of his hosts during his recent trip to Turkey. “Well, my views are on the record and I have not changed views,” President Obama said during a news conference with Turkish President Abdullah Gul.

    That left many Armenian-Americans wanting more. Obama “missed a valuable opportunity to honor his public pledge to recognize the Armenian genocide,” Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America, told the Los Angeles Times.

    To understand the passion of Armenian-Americans on this issue, consider this excerpt from a 2007 article by Michael Crowley in The New Republic: “Most Armenian-Americans are descended from survivors of the slaughter and grew up listening to stories about how the Turks, suspecting the Orthodox Christian Armenians of collaborating with their fellow Orthodox Christian Russians during World War I, led their grandparents on death marches, massacred entire villages, and, in one signature tactic, nailed horseshoes to their victims’ feet. . . Turkey’s refusal to acknowledge the guilt of their Ottoman forbears infuriates Armenians, leaving them feeling cheated of the sacred status awarded to Jewish Holocaust survivors.”

    So Armenian-Americans anticipate April 24 and whether, now that he is in the White House, President Obama will repeat what he has said before about the Armenian genocide.

    On that day, “the President has a well-timed opportunity to deliver on the change he promised, to honor the pledges he made and to affirm the U.S. record on the Armenian Genocide,” the Armenian Assembly of America said in a statement. “…we fully expect him to honor his pledge and affirm the historical truth of the Armenian Genocide. We encourage all people of goodwill to help us end the cycle of genocide denial by becoming an Ambassador of Affirmation and send a letter to President Obama,” the Assembly’s Executive Director Bryan Ardouny said in the statement.

    President Obama will face the community’s expectations yet again if the House of Representatives votes in favor of a resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide, a resolution that has been introduced for several years and was re-introduced in March.

    That resolution calls on the President to “accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide.”

    The resolution’s primary backer is Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., whose district includes the largest concentration of the nation’s roughly 1.5 million Armenian-Americans.

    Crowley’s 2007 article dealt with the historical and diplomatic issues attached to the resolution and the money the Turkish government has spent to hire big-name Washington lobbyists, including former leaders of Congress, to lobby against the resolution.

    “The resolution would be insulting to Turkey and would be very poorly received,” James H. Holmes, a retired U.S. ambassador who is now president of the American Turkish Council, told McLatchy newspapers. He added that “some very significant commercial opportunities” might be put at risk.

    The U.S. government wants to maintain good relations with Turkey for reasons that include U.S. military basing in that country, Iraq as its next-door neighbor and its potential role in the Middle East peace process, as well as those trade considerations.

    So keep watch on April 24 or thereabouts as Barack Obama finds himself caught between positions he’s repeated over the years and the challenges he faces as President of the United States.

    Crowley, writing in The New Republic a couple of weeks ago, pointed out that it’s one thing to make such statements as a candidate and something altogether different to do so as President of the United States. “But the question is whether Obama reiterates those views in his official capacity. That’s what the Armenians have been desperate to see him to. And while there are sound arguments against inflaming the Turkish public with such an act, that is what Obama, as a candidate, explicitly promised he would do,” Crowley wrote.

    In 1948, a United Nations convention defined genocide as acts “committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” In 2009, President Obama might have to decide whether this definition fits what happened to the Armenians nearly a century ago.

  • Biden’s Call with Sargsian

    Biden’s Call with Sargsian

    THE WHITE HOUSEFile:Joe Biden, official photo portrait 2-cropped.jpg

    Office of the Vice President

    ______________________________________________________________________

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                             April 23, 2009

    Readout of Vice President Biden’s Call with Armenian President Sargsian

    The Vice President spoke today with Armenian President Sargsian and welcomed Armenia and Turkey’s statement regarding their commitment to normalize their relations.  The Vice President applauded President Sargsian’s leadership, and underscored the Administration’s firm support for both Armenia and Turkey in this process.

    nd Turkey in this process.

  • NEW POLL: ARMENIA-DIASPORA-TURKEY RELATIONS

    NEW POLL: ARMENIA-DIASPORA-TURKEY RELATIONS

    NEW POLL: ARMENIA-DIASPORA-TURKEY RELATIONS

    SHOULD THE ARMENIAN DIASPORA HAVE A SAY IN THE CURRENT ARMENIA-TURKEY DIALOGUE?

    Please take a moment to express your vote by clicking this link:

    HERE ARE THE FINAL RESULTS FROM OUR PREVIOUS POLL: WILL PRESIDENT OBAMA RECOGNIZE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE THIS APRIL?

    VOTE NOW: ARMENIA-DIASPORA-TURKEY RELATIONS
    SHOULD THE ARMENIAN DIASPORA HAVE A ROLE IN THE ARMENIA-TURKEY DIALOGUE?
    ABSOLUTELY YES
    PROBABLY YES
    PROBABLY NOT
    ABSOLUTELY NOT

    Over 1611 people from 72 countries participated in the poll. From day one, the percentages of the responses remained the same: 45% responded with “Absolutely yes,” 31% voted “Probably yes,” 17% voted “Probably no,” and 7% voted “Absolutely no.”

    The results unambiguously show that the Armenians are naturally optimistic people. On the other hand, we will soon know whether we are still naive about American political strategies. President Obama may yet come through and prove that the collective Armenian mind around the globe gauged the president’s methods correctly. Perhaps ethics, morality, and justice might triumph after all. We shall know very soon.

    We thank you for you participation in the poll.
    Please take a moment to vote in our next poll by clicking this link:

    SHOULD THE ARMENIAN DIASPORA HAVE A SAY IN THE CURRENT ARMENIA-TURKEY DIALOGUE?

  • Boyajian Speaks to St. James Men’s                   Club about Genocide Denials by the Anti-Defamation League

    Boyajian Speaks to St. James Men’s Club about Genocide Denials by the Anti-Defamation League

    Boyajian Speaks to St. James Men’s                  
    Club about Genocide Denials
    by the Anti-Defamation League

    press release written by the St. James Men’s Club


    David Boyajian, who initiated the drive against the Armenian genocide denials of the  Anti-Defamation   League (ADL), spoke before a capacity crowd of some 200 people at the St. James Armenian Church Men’s Club dinner in Watertown, Massachusetts on April 13.

    After thanking Boston area activists and the Armenian National Committee of Massachusetts for their efforts in the campaign, Boyajian declared that the human rights battle “has been a spectacular success which took the ADL and Turkey by surprise and shook them to their roots.”

    A freelance writer and political activist, Boyajian described how in July of 2007 he came to write a letter to the Watertown Tab in which he objected to the town’s sponsorship of No Place for Hate (NPFH), an anti-bias program created by the ADL.

    On Turkey’s behalf, the ADL has for years lobbied the U.S. Congress to oppose passage of a resolution acknowledging the Armenian genocide. The ADL has also refused to forthrightly
    acknowledge the Armenian genocide and has used language that casts doubt on whether the mass killings were genocide.

    On August 14, 2007, Watertown became the first Massachusetts city to rebuke the ADL and drop the NPFH program. Had Armenian Americans not appeared before the town council in sufficient numbers on that date, according to Boyajian, it might not have severed ties with NPFH.

    Since then, 13 Massachusetts cities, most recently Easton, have officially terminated their NPFH program in what Boyajian termed one of the “finest Armenian grassroots efforts
    ever.”

    Among the positive results of the campaign, Boyajian cited the “thousands of news reports, editorials, commentaries, letters, and radio interviews in the non-Armenian media.” While he criticized the American Jewish Committee’s national office and B’nai B’rith for having stances against Armenian similar to the ADL’s, Boyajian also praised the many Jewish people who have supported the Armenian campaign and the Congressional resolution.

    He said that the ADL and similar groups support Turkey “on virtually every issue, such as military aid to Azerbaijan and Turkey.” Therefore, by its having “weakened the credibility
    of these organizations,” the campaign against the ADL’s genocide denials has reduced these groups’ overall ability to inflict damage on Armenian American interests.

    Despite the campaign’s ongoing success, Boyajian lamented that “Armenian leaders in politics, academia, business, journalism, law, the church, and in community organizations have done
    little to help this campaign” in Massachusetts.

    The national ADL is a “political,” not a “general human rights,” organization, said Boyajian. The ultimate purpose of its “civil and human rights programs” is to “influence and buy people, getting them dependent on ADL money, and seeing things the ADL way.” As evidence that the ADL is not dedicated to human rights, he cited a 1990’s California case in which an ADL agent conducted illegal surveillance of minority groups such as the NAACP and Latinos.

    Boyajian also explained that wellknown Boston figure Peter Meade, an official of the New  England ADL, has been the “main opponent” of the Armenian Heritage Park on Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway. Meade is the chairman of The Greenway Conservancy.

    Contrary to assertions made by the Boston Globe and Meade, the Armenian park isn’t the only ethnic or memorial project slated for the Greenway, according to Boyajian.

    There are many such projects, including a Jewish affiliated museum, the Memorial Rail, and the Mother’s Memorial Walk.

    Boyajian had informed the Boston Globe that it is a “conflict of interest” for an ADL official to judge an Armenian project that included mention of the genocide. The newspaper “refused”
    to report it, he said.

    Boyajian urged audience members to become more politically active and ask “tough questions” of their leaders.

    Armenian American elected officials, in particular, “are not in office to be adored by us.”
    Boyajian urged people to spend 5 minutes each month engaging in Armenian American political activism, saying, “Armenian political organizations can’t get the job done without you.”

    The program was hosted by Dick Janjigian, president of the St. James Men’s Club, which organizes a dinner with a guest speaker, usually on the first Monday of each month, except
    during the summer.

  • Neo-Cons in French Ministry of Culture Promote Genocidal Turkey in France

    Neo-Cons in French Ministry of Culture Promote Genocidal Turkey in France

    By Appo Jabarian Executive Publisher / Managing Editor USA Armenian Life Magazine

    Friday,  April 24, 2009
    In an April 10 article titled “Ice between Turkey, France to melt during ‘Season of Turkey,’” Ali Pektas of Today’s Zaman reported: “Turkey’s relations with France, which opposes its accession to the European Union, have sustained significant damage in recent days — but an important opportunity lies ahead for both countries, a chance to repair and develop bilateral relations. This opportunity is the nine-month “Season of Turkey in France,” set to run from July 1, 2009, until March 31, 2010.”

    According to various sources, Turkey will be the subject of over 400 events held in France during the nine-month period at a cost of 30 million euros.

    Through the Turkish “invasion” of France, Turkish officials such as Görgün Taner, the event’s Turkish commissioner, have high hopes to eliminate many of the stumbling blocks in the way of Turkey’s EU accession.

    Political observers agree that Turkey’s ties with France have deteriorated in recent years over a French Parliament decision to recognize the Armenian Genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire and its subsequent legislative plans to criminalize any denial of the genocide. Ties are also strained over French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s outright objection to Turkey’s accession to the European Union, proposing instead a Turkish involvement in a separate Union of the Mediterranean with nations having close ties to the EU.

    “The Season of Turkey,” organized in an effort to ease tension between the two nations, will be marked with an official ceremony in October, at which Sarkozy and Turkish President Abdullah Gül will be present.

    Taner said: “What is important is that we represent ourselves correctly, breaking prejudices.”

    Deep down Mr. Taner knows full well that these French and European “prejudices” are really troubling concerns about Turkey’s criminal past and its present unrepentant attitude. Europeans and French along with Italians, Greeks, Serbs, Austrians and Armenians remember very vividly that their common concerns vis-à-vis genocidal Turkey have roots in the bloodied fields of Armenia (through the Turkish invasions in 1071A.D., genocidal campaigns through Hamidian ethnic cleansings of 1890’s; Adana massacres of 1909; and the culminating major genocide of 1915-1923), Serbia (1386), Greece (early 1400’s), Austria (1683).

    It is understandable why in France in particular, doubts remain as to what Turkey could contribute to the EU.

    In order to prevent any negative reaction by the French population, the organizers have embarked on a massive disinformation campaign claiming that “The Armenian diaspora community hasn’t posed any opposition to the project and is, to the contrary, supporting it.”

    Today’s Zaman Turkish daily, the official mouthpiece of the Turkish officials in charge of the “Turkish Season” falsely claimed that “In the cities of Marseilles and Lyon, where many people of Armenian descent live, municipal administrations have provided a significant amount of support and aid to planning efforts.”

    Turkey also attempted to blow dust in the eyes of French Armenians boasting that “Taner evaluates this aid positively, opining that the Turkish president’s trip to Armenia last year played a part in swaying public opinion to make this support possible.”

    Armenians in France and around the world are fully aware of the facts that Turkey continues to use every opportunity to misguide Armenia and Armenians by attempting to lure them into false “dialogues.”

    According to another source, a number of French companies that had pledged sponsorship for a major event in France aimed at strengthening ties with Turkey have withdrawn their contributions due to financial problems stemming from the ongoing global economic crisis.

    Turkey has committed 13 million euros to the event in addition to France’s contribution of around 5 million euros, 2 million of which will be provided through the sponsorship of private French companies with investments in Turkey.

    Yet the “organizers have voiced disappointment, saying they haven’t been able to find as many sponsors as expected, apparently due to the global economic crisis.” French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroën and bailed-out Belgian bank Dexia SA have withdrawn their sponsorship pledges for the event.

    Meanwhile, French businesses such as oil giant Total, energy transmission and distribution company AREVA, Accor hotel group and the nation’s largest bank, BNP Paribas SA along with AXA, EADS, Groupama insurance stand as the largest contributors, while Renault SA, France’s second-largest carmaker, which has made major investments in Turkey, will keep the amount of its contribution relatively low.

    It’s distasteful on the part of the French companies to aid the genocidal government of Turkey and abate its invasion of France through its packs of lies and misrepresentations.

    The French companies and the neo-cons in the French Culture Ministry may do well by remembering that the U.S. predecessor of the “Season of Turkey” in France, the so-called “Anatolian Cultures and Food Festival” in Southern California of early April was met by California wide boycott and worldwide condemnation. The misleading Turkish festival failed to achieve its stated objectives.

    The French companies may gain some business from harboring genocidal Turkey in the midst of France’s population, but may definitely expose themselves to worldwide criticism and even boycotts that may well offset any financial gains secured through going to bed with a criminal state.

    By the way, have they forgotten that Turkey still owes an apology to the countless drug-addicted victims and their families for its century-old state-sponsored exportation of social ills to Europe and the United States?

    Finally, how could they become accessories to Turkish lies about Turkey having a “rich” culture, a “tasty” cuisine, “historically Turkish” lands, and over 70 millions “Turks?” Turkey continues to be a major human rights violator. Ankara continues to suppress the real identity of the forcibly Turkified millions of Arabs, Greeks, Assyrians, Armenians, Kurds, Alevis and others.

  • History overshadows hope on Turkey’s Armenian border

    History overshadows hope on Turkey’s Armenian border

    250px Kohrvirab

    By Daren Butler April 22, 2009

    IGDIR, Turkey (Reuters) – Far below Mount Ararat’s snow-covered peak, history weighs heavy on the shoulders of Turks and Armenians seeking to overcome animosity generated by genocide claims and territorial disputes.

    A recent diplomatic initiative to restore ties between the arch foes has fueled hopes of economic and strategic benefits. It has also stirred up century-old distrust and fears among locals as they watch developments from the militarized frontier.

    The distrust of many in Turkey’s Igdir province is illustrated by a monument near Ararat consisting of five 40-meter-tall swords thrust toward the sky. It commemorates the killing of Turks by Armenians during and after World War One.

    The memorial is a riposte to Armenian claims, supported by many countries and academics, that Ottoman Turk forces killed 1.5 million Armenians in a 1915 genocide which is commemorated across the border in Armenia on April 24.

    “In Igdir there are still living witnesses who tell their descendants about the killings by Armenians here,” said Goksel Gulbeyi, chairman of an association set up to refute Armenian genocide claims.

    Turkey fiercely rejects the genocide charge, saying many were killed on both sides during the conflict.

    “There are people here who still feel resentment. The border shouldn’t be reopened until they are reassured,” he said.

    At the Alican border gate 15 km (10 miles) away, soldiers send journalists away while farmers dig in surrounding land.

    Gulbeyi’s group has launched a campaign to block the reopening of the border, closed by Turkey in 1993 in support of its traditional Muslim ally Azerbaijan, which was fighting Armenian-backed separatists in the breakaway mountain region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

    Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said this month the deadlock over Nagorno-Karabakh, where a fragile ceasefire holds but a peace accord has never been signed, should be resolved before any deal is struck between Turkey and Armenia.

    There are also fears in Igdir, which has a large Azeri population, that Armenia covets Turkish territory. Mount Ararat, which provides a backdrop to the capital Yerevan, is a national symbol of Armenia and is pictured on its currency.

    A breakthrough between Turkey and Armenia could help shore up stability in the Caucasus, criss-crossed by oil and gas pipelines which make it of strategic importance to Russia, Europe and the United States.

    Western diplomats are concerned that in retaliation for the border reopening, Azerbaijan might be unwilling to sell its gas in the future through Turkey to Europe, and instead send most of it to Russia for re-export.

    FRAGILE OPTIMISM

    Despite the concerns, tentative cross-border contacts have generated fragile optimism among many in eastern Turkey, where livelihoods are largely made from farming and where per capita income is around a tenth of levels in affluent western Turkey.Continued…

    “We want peace. I went to Armenia and I was received very well. We show them hospitality when they come here. I think it would be good for our economy and trade if the border opens,” said Ali Guvensoy, chairman of the Kars Chamber of Commerce.

    That optimism is shared in landlocked Armenia. A reopening of the border would provide a huge boost to the economy, having already lost out on lucrative energy transit deals and trade with eastern Turkey.

    Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan has said he expects the border to reopen by the time he attends a football match between the two countries in October.

    Last year, President Abdullah Gul became the first Turkish leader to visit Armenia when he attended the first of the two World Cup qualifying ties between the two countries.

    U.S. President Barack Obama, who visited NATO ally Turkey this month, has urged Turkey to normalize ties with Armenia. The EU has said such ties would help Turkey’s bid to join the bloc.

    Obama, who as a candidate labeled the killings genocide, said during his visit that he stood by his views, but said he did not want to obstruct the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement.

    “I think Mr Obama and the United States must intervene and solve the problems between the two countries so the border can be opened,” Guvensoy said in his gloomy office in Kars, where the architecture tells of the town’s Russian history.

    Above his desk hangs a portrait of Ottoman General Kazim Karabekir, who captured Kars from Armenian forces in 1920.

    South of Kars, the Turkish village of Halikisla illustrates how closely the two countries are bound together despite the deep historical wounds which divide them.

    Set in a tree-filled valley below a rocky hillside, it is a stone’s throw away from an Armenian village across the Arpacayi River. It recalls a time when Turks and Armenians lived side by side. Military installations now frame the picturesque scene.

    “The only contact we have is when sheep stray from one side of the border to the other,” said 55-year-old Kiyas Karadag, a village official, drinking tea with locals on a hill overlooking the Armenian side of the frontier.

    “If the problems are solved we want the border open. It will be good for trade, good for our province, good for our country.”

    (Writing by Daren Butler)

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