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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

  • Delegation of prominent American Armenians to visit Turkey – PanARMENIAN.Net

    Delegation of prominent American Armenians to visit Turkey – PanARMENIAN.Net

    PanARMENIAN.Net – A delegation of prominent members of the American-Armenian community will arrive in Turkey on Friday, October 21, in an unprecedented visit to various religious sites throughout the country.

    The 25-member delegation, which includes U.S.-based influential businessmen and religious figures, will embark on a six-day tour of key religious sites in Istanbul, Diyarbakir and Van. The visit comes after the completion of restoration work on the 15th-century Surp Giragos Church in Diyarbakir province, one of the largest churches in the Middle East and a historic center of Turkey’s once thriving Armenian population.

    Archbishop Khajag Barsamian and other high level members of the American-Armenian diocese will participate in the church’s reopening which is slated for Oct. 23. The delegation also plans to attend a ceremony at the recently restored Armenian church on Akhtamar Island in the province of Van, Today’s Zaman reported.

    via Delegation of prominent American Armenians to visit Turkey – PanARMENIAN.Net.

  • Turkey tries delaying solution of Armenian Genocide issue – Turkologist

    Turkey tries delaying solution of Armenian Genocide issue – Turkologist

    78434YEREVAN. – With its proposal to form a subcommittee of historians, Turkey is attempting to delay resolution of the matter, so that the parliament of any other country would not express its view on the Armenian Genocide, turkologist Artak Shakaryan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

    “Turkey has no right to make such proposal because, prior to proposing a committee, it should at least provide its historians the right to freedom of speech. No Turkish historian, even if he finds that genocide had taken place, can express that aloud,” the historian stated, adding “[Turkish historian] Taner Akcam is compelled to live in the United States, and he was allowed entrance [into Turkey] only recently.”

    According to Shakaryan, in general, this proposal is unequivocally directed at delaying the issue, so that “the parliament of another country would not express its view on the [Armenian] Genocide, so they (Turkey) may say, ‘we are discussing the matter with the Armenians, and don’t obstruct.’”

    In the analyst’s view, resolution of the matter cannot be brought to a deadline. “Even if Turkish historians begin to become convinced that genocide had occurred, they could change their opinion at the last moment,” Artak Shakaryan concluded.

    via Turkey tries delaying solution of Armenian Genocide issue – Turkologist | Armenia News – NEWS.am.

  • 1915 events were Genocide – Turkish MP

    1915 events were Genocide – Turkish MP

    78205ISTANBUL. – Turkish MP from Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, Altan Tan restated his words recently said in the international scientific conference in Artuklu University in Mardin, Turkey in the interview with Agos Armenian newspaper published in Istanbul.

    Altan insisted that Kurds and Muslims also played a role in the 1915 Genocide implemented against Armenians.

    “Not all Kurds though took a sword. However, Kurds do have their serious share of blame in the Genocide,” Altan stated criticizing also the attitude of the Muslims in rejecting the Genocide.

    Altan Tan had earlier stated that as a political figure he calls the 1915 events Genocide implemented against Armenians. No matter what the conditions were, those people were killed. The proof is the territory and the demographic situation. At that time 13 million people lived in Turkey and Armenians made 10% of the population. Currently the population is 75 million, while Armenians are only 40,000, MP had stated.

    via 1915 events were Genocide – Turkish MP | Armenia News – NEWS.am.

  • Peace, reconciliation not possible unless Turkey faces its own history – French Ambassador

    Peace, reconciliation not possible unless Turkey faces its own history – French Ambassador

    78193YEREVAN.- Peace and reconciliation are not possible unless Turkey faces its own history, France’s Ambassador to Armenia Henri Reynaud told journalist on Monday.

    Commenting on France’s stance on the EU accession, the Ambassador recalled Nicolas Sarkozy’s position. In particular, acknowledging the role and essence of Turkey, President Sarkozy is confident that Turkey should not join the Union. French leader considers that Turkey, a big and strong country, will further strengthen its positions by recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

    via Peace, reconciliation not possible unless Turkey faces its own history – French Ambassador | Armenia News – NEWS.am.

  • Turkey’s Erdogan Slams France Over Armenian Genocide Recognition

    Turkey’s Erdogan Slams France Over Armenian Genocide Recognition

    RFE/RL — Turkish Prime Recep Tayyip Erdogan angrily rejected on Tuesday French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s calls for Turkey to recognize the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide. Erdogan accused Sarkozy of playing the anti-Turkish card to secure reelection and warned of serious damage to relations between France and Turkey.

    erdogan

    Visiting Armenia late last week, Sarkozy repeatedly reaffirmed France’s official recognition of the genocide and urged Ankara to stop denying a premeditated government effort to wipe out Ottoman Turkey’s Armenian population.

    “The genocide of Armenians is a historic reality that was recognized by France. Collective denial is even worse than individual denial,” he said after laying flowers at the genocide memorial in Yerevan.Sarkozy, who will be up for reelection next year, also implicitly threatened to enact, within a “very brief” period, a law that would make Armenian genocide denial a crime in France. Armenia -French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian lay flowers at the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, 06Oct2011. ​​“If Turkey revisited its history, looked it in the face, with its shadows and highlights, this recognition of the genocide would be sufficient,” he said. “But if Turkey will not do this, then without a doubt it would be necessary to go further.”

    The Turkish government was quick to denounce those remarks and link them with the French presidential election. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Sarkozy is thus seeking to gain votes from French citizens of Armenian descent.Erdogan condemned the French leader in even stronger terms as he addressed the Turkish parliament on Tuesday. “This is not political leadership. Politics, first of all, requires honesty,” the AFP news agency quoted him as saying

    .“There are 600,000 Armenians in your country but also 500,000 Turks. You have relations with Turkey,” Erdogan continued, addressing Sarkozy. “Bearing the title of statesman requires thinking about next generations, not next elections,” he said.

    The French parliament officially recognized the slaughter of some 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians as genocide with a special law adopted in 2001. Although the move strained ties between Paris and Ankara, Turkey, remains one of France’s major trading partners outside the European Union.Speaking at a news conference in Yerevan on Friday, Sarkozy also described as “unacceptable” Turkey’s refusal to unconditionally reopen its border with Armenia. He at the same time urged his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian to “continue the dialogue with Turkey.”

    Sarkozy spoke just days before the second anniversary of the signing in Zurich of Turkish-Armenian agreements envisaging the normalization of bilateral ties. Erdogan’s government has made their ratification by Turkey’s parliament conditional on a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Yerevan has rejected this linkage and threatened to formally annul the accords.

    Sarkisian hailed Sarkozy’s calls for genocide recognition in a weekend speech delivered in Echmiadzin, a historic town 25 kilometers south of Yerevan. Sarkisian said they disproved his critics’ claims his Western-backed policy of rapprochement with Turkey will complicate a broader international recognition of what many historians consider the first genocide of the 20th century.

    Copyright (c) 2011. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. Original article:

    via ArmeniaDiaspora.com – News from Armenia, Events in Armenia, Travel and Entertainment | Turkey’s Erdogan Slams France Over Armenian Genocide Recognition.

  • Sarkozy urges Turkey to quickly recognise Armenia ‘genocide’

    Sarkozy urges Turkey to quickly recognise Armenia ‘genocide’

    YEREVAN – French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Turkey on Friday to recognise the World War I-era massacres of Armenians as genocide within a “very brief” period before his term ends in May 2012.

    “From 1915 to 2011, it seems to be enough (time) for reflection,” Sarkozy told reporters in Yerevan on the second day of his visit to Armenia.

    Speaking alongside his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian, he noted however that “it is not up to France to give an ultimatum to anyone”.

    Sarkozy on Thursday urged Turkey to “revisit its history” over the killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, calling its refusal to recognise the deaths as genocide as “unacceptable”.

    The French president said that if Turkey did not make this “gesture of peace” and “step towards reconciliation”, he would consider proposing the adoption of a law criminalising denial of the killings as genocide.

    He said that he was still hoping that Turkey would act before the end of his term in office.

    Sarkozy angered Turkey ahead of his election in 2007 by backing a law aimed at prosecuting those who refused to recognise the massacres as genocide.

    The French lower house of parliament later rejected the measure, infuriating the Armenian diaspora in France which is estimated at around 500,000 people.

    Armenians say that up to 1.5 million of their kin fell victim to genocide during World War I under the Ottoman Empire.

    Turkey counters that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian forces.

    Sarkozy has also indicated his ambition to bring Armenia and neighbouring Azerbaijan forward in the stalled peace process over the tiny Nagorny Karabakh region, the focus of a bitter territorial conflict since the fall of the Soviet Union.

    On the eve of his arrival, the French leader urged the two rivals to “take the risk of peace”.

    At the joint news conference in Yerevan, Armenian leader Sarkisian responded by saying that he appreciated France’s efforts to establish “a durable peace”.

    “President Sarkozy’s personal involvement in this process is particularly important to us,” Sarkisian said.

    But in a sign of continuing tensions along the Karabakh frontline, two Azerbaijani soldiers and one Armenian serviceman were reported to have been shot dead in exchanges of fire the day before Sarkozy arrived.

    Seventeen soldiers have now been reported killed this year around Karabakh, which Armenian separatists backed by Yerevan seized from Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s that left some 30,000 dead.

    Despite years of talks since the 1994 ceasefire, the two sides have yet to sign a final peace deal.

    Sarkozy was due to arrive in Azerbaijan after leaving Armenia and then to end his two-day swing through the Caucasus with a visit to Georgia.

    via Sarkozy urges Turkey to quickly recognise Armenia ‘genocide’ | Pakistan Today | Latest news, Breaking news, Pakistan News, World news, business, sport and multimedia.