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

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.

October 8, 2011
France Urges Turkey to Recognize Armenian Genocide

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged Turkey to recognize the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.

AP Photo/PanARMENIAN, Tigran MehrabyanFrench President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, and Armenian President Serge Sarkisian applaud at the French Square, in Yerevan, Armenia, Friday, Oct. 7, 2011. Sarkozy has urged Turkey to recognize the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide. Sarkozy said Friday during a news conference in the Armenian capital that Turkey's refusal to do so would force France to change its law and make such denial a criminal offense.YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged Turkey to recognize the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.Sarkozy told Friday's news conference in the Armenian capital

Sarkozy told Friday’s news conference in the Armenian capital that Turkey’s refusal to do so would force France to change its law and make such denial a criminal offense.

via France Urges Turkey to Recognize Armenian Genocide.

www.thenationalherald.com/article/52150

October 8, 2011
Sarkozy challenges Turkey to face its history

* Sarkozy visits memorial to Armenian genocide

* Sarkozy to urge Georgia to mend ties with Russia

* Revives memories of mediating role over 2008 war (Adds Russia finalising military base deals)

By Emmanuel Jarry

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, and Armenian President Serge Sarkisian lay flowers at the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, Armenia. -AP Photo

YEREVAN, Oct 6 (Reuters) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on a brief trip to the Caucasus, urged Turkey on Thursday to recognize the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide, threatening to pass a law in France that would make denying this a crime.

Visiting a genocide memorial and museum in Yerevan, Armenia, with Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan, Sarkozy challenged Turkey — which is seeking membership of the European Union — to face up to its past.

“The Armenian genocide is a historical reality. Collective denial is even worse than individual denial,” Sarkozy told reporters.

“Turkey, which is a great country, would honour itself to revisit its history like other great countries in the world have done.”

Armenia was the first stop on a two-day trip to the region by Sarkozy, who is keen to raise his profile on the international stage before an April presidential election. He visits Azerbaijan and Georgia on Friday.

France is opposed to Turkey’s bid for EU membership and his comments on the sensitive subject are likely to be viewed as unwelcome meddling by Ankara.

Turkey denies the deaths of Armenians in 1915 was genocide. It says both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks died in large numbers as the Ottoman empire collapsed.

Sarkozy suggested that the French parliament might consider a law making denial of the deaths of Armenians as genocide a crime, similar to the French law against Holocaust denial.

FROZEN CONFLICT

While in the region, Sarkozy will try to encourage Sarksyan and the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, to resolve a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mainly Armenian-populated enclave in Azerbaijan.

France plays a leading role in the Minsk Group of countries from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which is trying to resolve the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenian-backed forces wrested Nagorno-Karabakh from Azeri control after the Soviet Union collapsed. When the conflict ended in a ceasefire in 1994, 30,000 people had been killed and about 1 million had been driven from their homes.

During a three-hour visit to Georgia, Sarkozy will also urge Georgia to improve relations with Russia, reviving memories of his mediating role when the two countries went to war in 2008.

Sarkozy’s success in brokering a ceasefire in that conflict guarantees a warm welcome in the capital Tbilisi, where he will meet President Mikheil Saakashvili and address a crowd in the central Freedom Square.

Sarkozy will urge Saakashvili to look beyond the countries’ differences, including over how they interpret the ceasefire terms, and rebuild trust in relations with Moscow.

Each side accuses the other of acting provocatively and sabotaging relations. Moscow has angered Tbilisi and the West by recognising Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions as independent states.

In Moscow on Thursday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met Abkhazia’s new president and signed legislation ratifying treaties that enable Russia to operate military bases in the two separatist regions for at least 49 years.

It was not clear whether Sarkozy would discuss Russia’s bid to join the World Trade Organization which Georgia, as a member, could block. Moscow hopes to complete its entry to the 153-member trading body this year.

HOPING TO BOOST RATINGS

Sarkozy mediated the 2008 ceasefire on behalf of the European Union as France held the bloc’s presidency at the time.

That ended the war over Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but Georgia says Russia has violated the terms by not withdrawing troops to the positions they held before the war.

TV images of Sarkozy addressing jubilant crowds will do him no harm as he tries to improve his poor ratings before the two-round election on April 22 and May 6. An opinion poll on Tuesday put Socialist Francois Hollande well in the lead.

Sarkozy will also promote business during his visit to the region but officials gave no details of any planned contracts.

French oil group Total said last month it had made a major gas discovery at Azerbaijan’s Absheron block in the Caspian Sea. French companies could also be in the running to help extend the Baku metro, or subway. (Reporting by Margarita Antidze in Tbilisi and Emmanuel Jarry in Paris, Writing by Timothy Heritage and Alexandria Sage; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

via UPDATE 2-Sarkozy challenges Turkey to face its history | Reuters.

October 7, 2011
Sarkozy tells Turkey to ‘revisit’ Armenia killings

French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Turkey on Thursday to “revisit” its history regarding the 1915 massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, which France views as a genocide but Turkey does not.

“Turkey, which is a great country, would be honorable to revisit its history like the other great countries in the world have done: Germany, France,” Sarkozy told journalists at a joint press conference with Armenian counterpart Serge Sarkisyan.

“The genocide of Armenians is a historic reality that was recognised by France. Collective denial is even worse than individual denial,” he said.

“We are always stronger when we look our history in the face, and denial is not acceptable.”

Sarkozy was speaking after visiting Armenia’s Genocide National Museum to pay respects to Armenians killed in the massacre, an extremely sensitive issue that has kept Armenia and Turkey from establishing formal diplomatic relations.

Asked whether France should adopt a law prosecuting anyone who denies that the massacres were “genocide”, Sarkozy replied that “if Turkey revisited its history, looked it in the face, with its shadows and highlights, this recognition of the genocide would be sufficient.”

“But if Turkey will not do this, then without a doubt it would be necessary to go further,” he said.

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

The French lower house of parliament later rejected the measure, infuriating an Armenian diaspora of some 500,000 people.

Sarkozy was to dine with Sarkisyan later Thursday and continue his tour of Caucasus states Azerbaijan and Georgia on Friday.

© 2011 AFP

October 7, 2011
French-Armenian Citizen Detained in Diyarbakir, Turkey

Epress.am — A French citizen of Armenian descent was taken under police custody during the Mesopotamia Social Forum which took place from Sept. 21–25 in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir. News of his being detained was disseminated only today, when Tigran Yegavian returned to France and contacted the French Consulate in Istanbul to investigate the issue.

Ahead of the forum, police stopped and searched Yegavian, along with others. After they found phone numbers of MPs of Turkey’s main Kurdish party, the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), in his possession, police called him in to be questioned about his meetings with members of Turkey’s Kurdish community, because they, according to police officials, are tied to “the acts of terrorism supported by the European community.”

Yegavian, according to the Epress.am correspondent in Istanbul, is a member of a very important Armenian foundation in France. He had travelled to Turkey to conduct studies on Armenians and had meetings with some public figures in order to write articles, as well as to support dialogue among Armenian, Turkish and Kurdish peoples.

Note, on Sept. 20 members of the French branch of Yerkir Union (Yerkir Europe) met with Diyarbakir mayor Osman Baydemir of Kurdish descent to discuss possible joint intercultural programs between the civil societies of Armenia, Turkey and the Armenian diaspora, which, most likely, was the reason Turkish authorities called forum participants in for questioning.

Updated on 6 pm, same day: “Two French-Armenian citizens” changed to one French-Armenian citizen and his name, Tigran Yegavian, added.

via ArmeniaDiaspora.com – News from Armenia, Events in Armenia, Travel and Entertainment | French-Armenian Citizen Detained in Diyarbakir, Turkey (updated).

October 6, 2011
LEBANON – TURKEY In a letter to Erdogan, Aram I says the Armenian people still waiting for justice

The Armenian Orthodox Catholicos of Cilicia says returning part of the assets seized from Churches by the Turkish government after 1936 is not enough. He wants the return of everything seized and lost after the genocide as well as the recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

Monday, October 03, 2011

Beirut – Recent steps by Turkish authorities to return properties seized from religious minorities after 1936 are “incomplete”, Catholicos Aram I Kechichian said in an open letter to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

For the head of the Armenian Orthodox Church, whose titular see is located in the Turkish province of Cilicia, justice for the Armenian people will come only when Turkey acknowledges the genocide of 1915 and when private and Church assets seized at the time are returned.

Here is the text of his letter (translated by AsiaNews):

By way of the press, we have learnt that your government plans to return properties seized from religious minorities after 1936. Such a decision undoubtedly stems from recent rulings by the European Court of Human Rights as well as inquiries by the US Congress into Turkish pressures on Christian minorities (See Nat de Polis, “Historic decision: Erdogan returns seized property to religious minorities,” in AsiaNews, 29 August 2011).

As spiritual and lawful head of the Holy See of Cilicia (Armenian Orthodox), which was uprooted from its historic see and installed in Lebanon, and as representative of the children of the Armenian Church who were exiled from Turkey and dispersed throughout the world, we consider your decision of 27 August 2011 to be incomplete and unjust.

The Holy See of Cilicia remains the lawful owner of numerous buildings, churches, hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, cemeteries and other properties that belong to the church, seized by Turkish authorities at the time of the Armenian genocide of 1915.

The same is true for the children of the Armenian people, who are the lawful owners of houses, businesses, estates and other assets passed down from their ancestors and lost during the genocide planned and executed by the Ottoman Turkish government.

Your government’s decision may meet the requirements of the European Union, but it may never be considered as just or legally relevant.

Mr Prime Minister, although taken in the name of justice, your decision is biased and selective and denies history and democratic values and principles.

Of course, international institutions like the European Court of Human Rights and the European Parliament and its parliamentary bodies are tasked with defending democratic principles and values and ensure that they are respected; however, the people is the conscience and memory of such principles and values.

As League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Nobel Peace Prize winner for 1922 Fridtjof Nansen said in Armenia and the Near East that the Armenian people never lost hope, bravely working and waiting. “They continue to wait,” he wrote.

Allow me to add that the Armenian people will never cease to demand justice from Turkey for the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian people will never cease to demand the restoration of their human rights.

Mr Prime Minister, your attachment to justice and human rights will gain in credibility only when you recognise the Armenian Genocide.

via LEBANON – TURKEY In a letter to Erdogan, Aram I says the Armenian people still waiting for justice | Spero News.

October 4, 2011