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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

Turkey Moves to Deport Armenian Workers after French Vote

BY NANORE BARSOUMIAN

From The Armenian Weekly

ISTANBUL–Turkey is set to amend a law that aims to rid the country of illegal workers. Many view this move as retaliation against Armenians, in light of the new bill criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial in France.

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan (Photo by Nanore Barsoumian)

Different estimates in Turkey put the number of Armenian citizens in the country at as low as 10,000 and as high as 100,000. Many of them are women, and they are employed in low-skill jobs.

“This country, which Mark Levene called ‘the Genocide zone,’ throughout its history has made it a habit to deport, expel, and relocate innocent people as retaliation and punishment for things they did not do, or have no connection to at all,” human rights advocate Ayse Gunaysu told the Armenian Weekly Editor Khatchig Mouradian.

The amendment to Law No. 5683 on Residence and Travel of Foreign Subjects will be ratified on Feb. 1. In the past, people from the region migrated to Turkey on tourist visas, finding employment and becoming illegal workers. After a few months, they would leave and reenter the country on a new tourist visa (a process called “visa runs”). The workers hailed mostly from countries such as Georgia, Azerbaijan, the Ukraine, Indonesia, and Armenia. The new system will force migrants to stay out of the country for 90 days between two entries. Authorities are set to strictly enforce the new law, penalizing visa overstays and runs.

However, the amendment allows for employees who wish to keep their workers to pay a salary of TL 1,330 ($744), and an insurance premium, reported Bianet.org. The minimum wage in Turkey is TL 701 ($392), and it is unlikely that an unskilled worker will make significantly more than that.

Back in March 2010, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan hinted at retaliation against Armenian migrant workers if Genocide resolutions were passed in foreign parliaments. In a discussion about Genocide resolutions in the U.S. and Sweden, he told the BBC’s Turkish Service that of the 170,000 Armenians living in Turkey, only 70,000 are Turkish citizens. “We are turning a blind eye to the remaining 100,000… Tomorrow, I may tell these 100,000 to go back to their country, if it becomes necessary.”

It appears the French bill was the last straw for Erdogan’s government. On Jan. 25, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters that “Turkey’s response to the adoption of the bill had long been decided.”

President of the Migrants’ Association for Social Cooperation and Culture Sefika Gurbuz called the law a “threat to Armenians,” reported Bianet.

Meanwhile, Gunaysu characterized Turkey’s response a “black comedy.” “The ongoing blackmail and threats against France is itself proof of guilt as well as a manifestation of lack of dignity and self-respect, despite—of course—pathetic demonstrations of national pride,” said Gunaysu.

Gunaysu, who is a member of the Committee Against Racism and Discrimination of the Human Rights Association of Turkey, pointed out the country’s history of deporting innocents peoples. In 1915 the Young Turk regime began its systemic deportations of Armenians as a main tool to rid the Eastern provinces of a native population. “They still tell lies that it was because treacherous Armenians, whereas hundreds of thousands of Armenians were not engaged in any political activity whatsoever,” said Gunaysu. Then it was the turn of Turkey’s Kurdish and Greek populations. “The republican period is full of Kurdish deportations, especially in 1938 during and after the Dersim massacres,” she said. “In 1964, the Turkish government expelled 40,000 Anatolian Greeks, forbidding them to bring along any personal belongings over 20 kg and $20, as a retaliation against Greece in connection with the Cyprus issue—a deportation which is still terribly painful in the memories of these people.”

Gunaysu added, “The mindset from which this policy of retaliation originates is racist, inhuman, and brutal. The rulers of Turkey have once more proven that [the government] still follows the same path as that of their predecessors back in 1915 and all along the history of the Republic.”

via Turkey Moves to Deport Armenian Workers after French Vote | Asbarez Armenian News.

January 27, 2012
Clinton sidesteps dispute between Turkey and France over genocide legislation

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday sidestepped a delicate dispute between two allies over the World War I-era killing of Armenians in Turkey.

Clinton was asked why the United States has not matched a move by French lawmakers to criminalize denial that the killings were genocide. The French legislation has enraged Turkey, which has threatened sanctions if French President Nicolas Sarkozy signs the bill.

The U.S. administration has avoided calling the killings genocide despite support for recognition by both Clinton and President Barack Obama when they were senators.

Clinton said the administration was wary of compromising free speech. She said the issue was best left for scholars.

“To try to use government power to resolve historical issues, I think, opens a door that is a very dangerous one to go through,” Clinton said at an event with U.S. State Department employees.

via Clinton sidesteps dispute between Turkey and France over genocide legislation – The Washington Post.

January 27, 2012
Turkey Slams France Over ‘Genocide’ Bill

By JOE PARKINSON and NADYA MASIDLOVER

ISTANBUL—Turkey denounced French lawmakers as racist and vowed to retaliate Tuesday after the French parliament approved a bill making it a crime to deny that the 1915 massacre of Armenians was genocide, marking the latest salvo in an increasingly toxic dispute between Ankara and Paris.

European Pressphoto Agency

Protesters in Paris Monday oppose a bill making it illegal to deny the 1915 killing of Armenians was genocide.

In a speech to lawmakers from his governing AK Party in parliament in Ankara, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the bill as “discriminatory, racist and unjust.” Turkey would take a “step-by-step” approach to calculate its policy response, he added, suggesting Ankara would hold off from immediately imposing a raft of counter-measures to punish the French government.

The bill, which passed in the French Senate late Monday, is set to make genocide denial punishable by as much as a year in prison and a €45,000 ($58,572) fine for those found guilty. Ankara has always denied that the killings of Armenians in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire constituted genocide. Turkey argues the genocide issue should be left to historians to decide, rather than legislated by governments. France’s government says it is important to “take action against negationists.”

“We won’t let France gain credibility through this because their decision means nothing to us. Our sanctions will be disclosed step by step.” Mr. Erdogan said, to rapturous applause.

Analysts said the comments are likely to further strain fast-fraying diplomatic relations between France and Turkey and raise the prospect of a significant diplomatic rift between the two North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies. The dispute is also unnerving European Union diplomats who want to strengthen cooperation with Ankara amid Turkey’s increasingly influential role in relation to Syria’s uprising and Iran’s nuclear program.

“This is going to get complicated. France are usually big players in public tenders and weapons sales and they will now be completely excluded. This could get also get pretty ugly with protests at French companies. Diplomatically, there are a whole range of issues including Syria, Iran and elsewhere where the Turks may now be actively in opposition to the French position,” said Atilla Yesilada, a partner at Istanbul-based research firm Global Source Partners.

Mr. Erdogan’s pledge Tuesday to refrain from immediately unveiling new measures against Paris contrasted with his reaction in December when France’s lower house passed the bill. Within hours of the vote, Turkey withdrew its ambassador from Paris and froze political and military relations.

Despite Ankara’s refusal give details on what counter-measures could be unveiled, Turkish media Tuesday speculated on how sanctions could affect business ties with France, Turkey’s seventh-biggest trading partner with $14.8 billion of goods exchanged last year. Popular daily Milliyet reported that Ankara was mulling moves to stop French companies bidding for government contracts, permanently recalling its ambassador to Paris and close Turkish waters and airspace to French ships and planes.

The prospect of measures that could target business activities appears to be unnerving some of France’s corporate leaders. The number of French companies operating in Turkey has mushroomed in recent years with familiar French businesses like supermarket chain Carrefour SA, insurance firm AXA SA and auto giant Renault SA all holding prominent market positions. Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of Renault, which employs 12,000 workers in Turkey stressed in an interview with French radio Tuesday that; “Turkey has always worked well with French companies; I hope that this will not change.”

Earlier

French Bill’s Passage Sparks Turkish Anger

European Union-candidate country Turkey can’t impose direct economic sanctions on France, because of its membership in the World Trade Organization and customs-union agreement with Europe. But the row could cost France profitable bilateral business contracts.

Some Turkish officials say retaliatory measures are unlikely to be announced until President Nicolas Sarkozy signs the bill into law, which must happen within 15 days. Dissenting French lawmakers could yet successfully appeal to the constitutional court and scupper the bill passing into law, the officials said.

France’s Interior Minister Claude Gueant indicated Tuesday that the passing of the bill, which has the support of Mr. Sarkozy and the leader of the opposition Socialists Francoise Hollande, would be a formality.

“In a republic like ours, when parliament votes a bill, it is signed into law,” Mr. Gueant said in an interview with local cable TV news channel iTele.

There were signs Tuesday that some French policy makers were becoming nervous that the rift was spiraling out of hand. France’s Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, who had earlier voiced opposition to the vote, played down the importance of the bill and urged the Turkish government to remain calm.

But the spat appears to have already aggravated the icy personal relationship between the French and Turkish leaders, embittered by Mr. Sarkozy’s vocal opposition to Turkey’s bid to join the EU. Mr. Erdogan said Tuesday that Mr. Sarkozy’s grandfather was an Ottoman Jew whose ancestors were banished during from Spain during the inquisition.

“Sarkozy cannot forget his past and cast a shadow over Ottoman tolerance,” Mr. Erdogan said.

via Turkey Slams France Over ‘Genocide’ Bill – WSJ.com.

January 25, 2012
Akcam to Talk on Armenian Genocide Trials at NAASR

BELMONT, Mass.—On Thurs., Feb. 16, Dr. Taner Akcam, the Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marian Mugar Professor of Modern Armenian History and Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University, will give a lecture entitled “Judgment at Istanbul: The Armenian Genocide Trials,” at 8 p.m., at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) Center, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Zoryan Institute for Contemporary Armenian Research and Documentation, the Mashtots Chair in Armenian Studies at Harvard University, and NAASR.

Judgment at Istanbul cover 1 190×300 Akcam to Talk on Armenian Genocide Trials at NAASR

The cover of ‘Judgment at Istanbul’

The recently published volume Judgment at Istanbul (Berghahn Books) by Vahakn Dadrian and Taner Akcam is a new, authoritative translation of the Key Indictments and Verdicts and detailed analysis of the Turkish Military Tribunals concerning the crimes committed against the Armenians during World War I.

The authors have compiled the documentation of the trial proceedings for the first time in English and situated them within their historical and legal context. These documents show that Wartime Cabinet ministers, Young Turk Party leaders, and a number of others inculpated in these crimes were court-martialed by the Turkish Military Tribunals in the years immediately following World War I. Most were found guilty and received sentences ranging from prison with hard labor to death.

In this lecture, Akcam will discuss the authors’ new findings and the importance of these trials in the light of recent scholarship, and will address the critiques of and attacks against the validity of the trials and documents discovered through the proceedings.

Until recently our knowledge of the trials was limited to those trials whose indictments and verdicts were published by the Takvim-i Vekayi. Over the course of years of meticulous research, Dadrian and Akcam discovered that there were as many as 62 trials. In Judgment at Istanbul, they not only list these until-now-unknown cases, but also analyze the political conditions of the time and the history of these trials.

Judgment at Istanbul will be available for purchase and signing the night of the lecture.

Taner Akcam is the author of From Empire To Republic: Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide and A Shameful Act: the Armenian Genocide and Turkish Responsibility, as well as numerous articles in Turkish, German, and English. His forthcoming book The Young Turks’ Crime Against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire, will be issued by Princeton University Press in April 2012.

Admission to the event is free (donations appreciated). The NAASR Center is located opposite the First Armenian Church and next to the U.S. Post Office. Ample parking is available around the building and in adjacent areas.

For more information, call (617) 489-1610 or e-mail hq@naasr.org.

via Akcam to Talk on Armenian Genocide Trials at NAASR | Armenian Weekly.

January 25, 2012
Important: Khojaly e-petition

Dear Friend of Azerbaijan,

The 26th of February marks the 20th anniversary of the Khojaly tragedy.

On that dark day 613 unarmed civilians – men, women and children – were killed by the invading Armenian militia.

We hope to gather at least 613 signatures – one for each victim – to commemorate this tragic event.

If you have not signed this petition, please spend 30 seconds adding your name.

Many thanks,

Ulviyya Allahverdiyeva

Political Liaison

The European Azerbaijan Society

2 Queen Anne’s Gate

London, SW1H 9AA

Tel: +44 (0)207 808 1906

Email: ulviyya@teas.eu

January 23, 2012
Turks march in Paris to denounce genocide bill

PARIS (AP) — Thousands of Turks from across Europe marched through the French capital Saturday denouncing a bill that would make it a crime to deny that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago was genocide.

Turks young and old, waving their country’s red flag, or wrapped in it, marched to the Senate, where the bill will be debated Monday after passage in December in the lower house.

They carried banners reading “No to Sarkozy Shame Law,” ”History for Historians, Politics for Politicians” or other slogans denouncing an alleged bid by President Nicolas Sarkozy to “fish for votes” among French Armenians before the two-round presidential elections in April and May.

Critics claim the real aim of the bill is to ensure votes for PresidentNicolas Sarkozy from French Armenians in the two-round presidential elections in April and May. An estimated 500,000 Armenians live in France.

The measure would make it a crime to deny that mass killings of Armenians in 1915 by Ottoman Turks constitute genocide. It sets a punishment of up to one year in prison and a fine of €45,000 ($59,000) for those who deny or “outrageously minimize” the killings — putting such action on par with denial of the Holocaust.

France formally recognized the 1915 killings as genocide in 2001, but provided no penalty for anyone refuting that.

Despite the passing of nearly 100 years since the killings, the issue remains a deeply emotional one for Armenians who lost loved ones and for Turks who see a challenge to their national honor.

An irate Turkey briefly recalled its ambassador to France and suspended military, economic and political ties.

“Politicians who haven’t read an article on this say there was a genocide,” said Beyhan Yildirim, 35, a demonstrator from Berlin. He was among those bused into Paris from Germany and elsewhere for Saturday’s march.

Scores of buses from France, Germany and elsewhere lined the streets of southern Paris where the march began.

Armenians plan a demonstration near the Senate on Monday before the debate and vote.

It was unclear whether the measure would get the easy ride it did in the National Assembly, the lower but more powerful house.

The Senate is controlled by the rival Socialists who had earlier backed the bill. However, the Senate Commission on Laws voted against its passage last week, saying the measure risks violating constitutional protections including freedom of speech. The question is whether the Socialists will heed the recommendations if only because the issue is becoming an electoral hot potato.

Compromising freedom of expression in France, considered the cradle of human rights, has been a key argument of the Turkish government against the measure.

It is unclear whether lawmakers in the National Assembly had an inkling in advance that their vote giving the green light to the bill would trigger a diplomatic dispute. There appeared to be less than 100 lawmakers present for the Dec. 22 vote — out of 577.

Fadime Ertugrul-Tastan, deputy mayor of small Normandy town of Herouville, was among those demonstrating against the bill on Saturday, wearing the blue, white and red sash of French officials.

She said her family hailed from Kars, near the Armenian border, and her grandparents were killed by Armenians.

“I am here to honor their memory,” she said, adding, “There was no genocide because we were in a period of war.”

January 22, 2012