“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
PanARMENIAN.Net – On June 25, Moscow hosted Western Armenians’ convention, with 100 delegates from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov, Sochi, Adler, Krasnodar, Omsk, Petrozavodsk, Vladivostok, Crimea and Abkhazia attending.
39 Russian delegates to participate in The Third Congress of Western Armenians due December 2011 in Paris were selected during the convention, Hyusisapayl Moscow-based newspaper reported.
“National Council of Western Armenians will defend the legal rights of the descendants of Western Armenians in international organizations, negotiate with Turkish authorities and other interested parties to achieve Turkey’s recognition of Armenian Genocide as well as condemnation of 1915 massacres and compensation of moral, material and territorial damages,” the statement issued during the convention stressed.
via Western Armenians demand Turkey’s recognition of Genocide – PanARMENIAN.Net.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) and other advocates for a congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide are taking a new tack this year, seeking both a genocide recognition vote and approval of a measure condemning religious discrimination against Armenian Christians in Turkey.
A strategic ally that allows the U.S. to operate a key military base on its soil, Turkey has been an implacable foe of official U.S. recognition of the death of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks from 1915-23. Schiff has tried for several years to get such a measure passed.
On Tuesday, Schiff and Rep. Robert Dold (R-Ill.) reintroduced the genocide resolution. Separately, Schiff co-sponsored a resolution by Reps. Howard Berman (D-Valley Village) and Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) demanding that Turkey return property that once belonged to the Armenian Church and to end religious discrimination against Christians.
Armenian Christians represent about 1% of the population in Turkey.
“We’re taking a little different approach this year,” Schiff said. “I think this improves our chances of making progress.”
The second resolution may draw support from more lawmakers than the genocide measure has, he added.
Last year, Congress approved a resolution by Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) calling for greater religious freedom in Cyprus. The Turkish military, which occupies about one-third of Cyprus, has been accused of desecrating churches and restricting access to religious sites.
“We think having more than one iron in the fire will be a productive strategy,” Schiff said.
Lincoln McCurdy, president of the Turkish of Coalition of America, said the new resolution is “totally distorted” and that the genocide recognition measure has a smaller chance of passing than it did in the last Congress.
“This is a completely new Congress, more domestically focused,” McCurdy said. “I think our efforts in trying to have balanced dialogue are paying off, and the leadership is not as passionate about it as [former Speaker Nancy] Pelosi was.”
McCurdy said the Turkish resolution fails to recognize historic persecution or disenfranchisement of Muslims in the region, including Armenia and Greece.
“Our position is, we wish there was more effort to bring the Turkish and Armenian people together,” he said.
Schiff said passing the genocide recognition resolution remains a high priority, not only for his Armenian American constituents, but for the United States’ human rights record.
“This is too important a cause to give up,” Schiff said. “We’ll keep fighting for recognition until we’re successful, and we will be.”
Congressman honors Armenian church leader
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) on Thursday honored Archbishop Vatche Hovsepian, former Primate of the Armenian Church of North America, by reading into the Congressional Record comments on Hovsepian’s 60th year in the priesthood.
A native of Lebanon, Hovsepian came to the United States in 1956, and later led the Armenian church in Canada . He became Archbishop of the church, which now has its Western Diocese headquarters in Burbank, in 1971, and launched several Armenian schools in Southern California.
Schiff commended Hovsepian “for his selfless dedication and commitment to the Armenian community.”
Assemblyman takes heat for ‘Soprano’ remark
via Political Landscape: Schiff still fighting for genocide resolution – Burbank Leader.
The Armenian Weekly conducted an interview today with the ANCA executive director Aram Hamparian. The interview focuses on H.Res 306, the Return of Churches resolution, introduced today. Below is the interview.
Aram Hamparian
Alongside the Armenian Genocide Resolution, there was a new resolution recently introduced in the House of Representatives calling upon Turkey to respect the rights of Christians and to return their stolen churches. Can you tell us more about it?
Well, to begin with, we’re very encouraged by the introduction H.Res. 306—the Return of Churches resolution—by two of the most senior members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce and Howard Berman, and gratified by the broad, bipartisan support it has garnered.
This religious freedom measure was launched with several dozen original cosponsors, including the co-chairs of the Human Rights, Hellenic, and Armenian caucuses, and, notably, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
A reading of the resolution’s text shows that it calls, very simply, upon the government of Turkey to honor its international obligations to return confiscated Christian church properties and fully respect the rights of all Christians, among them, of course, Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Pontians, and Arameans (Syriacs) who have lived for thousands of years in what is present-day Turkey.
This legislation speaks to us powerfully as Americans—committed, as we are, to the principle of religious liberty; as Christians—who seek for ourselves and all people the right to worship in freedom; and as Armenians—who are working for a truthful and just resolution of the Armenian Genocide that morally and materially makes whole the victim of this horrific crime. There’s no better place to start this long overdue process than with Turkey returning stolen churches.
Why this resolution now?
This measure is urgently needed to confront—and eventually reverse—the vast destruction visited upon religious sites during the Armenian Genocide as well as Turkey’s official and ongoing, post-genocide destruction of church properties, desecration of holy sites, discrimination against Christian communities, and denial of rights to Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Pontians, Arameans (Syriacs), and others.
It’s adoption would add the powerful voice of the U.S. Congress—and the full moral authority of the American people—to the international defense of religious freedom for the Christian nations residing within the borders of present-day Turkey.
Can you briefly describe the communities and churches this legislation seeks to protect?
Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Pontians, and Arameans (Syriacs) have long lived in what is present-day Turkey. Many thousands of years before the establishment of the Ottoman Empire, these nations gave birth to great civilizations and established a rich civic, religious and cultural heritage. They were, upon these biblical lands, among the first Christians, dating back to the time of the travels through Anatolia by the Apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew. Armenia, in 301 A.D., as is well known, became the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion.
As students of religion worldwide know, the territory of present-day Turkey is home to many of the most important centers of early Christianity—most notably Nicaea, Ephesus, Chalcedon, and Constantinople. These lands contain a remarkably rich legacy of Christian heritage, including thousands of religious sites.
And, of course, the Armenian Genocide nearly wiped out these Christian nations.
It’s true. The Armenian Genocide of 1915 and, more broadly, Ottoman Turkey’s genocidal drive to eliminate its entire Christian population, represents a terrible watershed in the histories of the Christians of these lands, marking, as it does, a genocidal shift from the Turkish leadership’s ongoing policy of violence and oppression to one of an outright, systematic, intentional and state-implemented campaign of race extermination.
And so, during the World War I-era, after centuries of growing intolerance and persecution, Ottoman Turkey perpetrated a government-sponsored campaign of genocide against its Armenian and other Christians subjects, resulting in the murder of over 2,000,000 Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Pontians, Arameans (Syriacs), and the exile of hundreds of thousands others from their homelands of thousands of years.
The Republic of Turkey, heir to the Ottomans, continued these genocidal policies against the remaining Christian population, through ethnic-cleansing, organized massacres, destruction of churches and religious sites, illegal expropriation of properties, discriminatory policies, restrictions on worship, and other means. As a result only a small fraction of the vast Christian population that once populated Anatolia remains today in modern Turkey.
What is the situation today of remaining Christians within Turkey?
The endangered Christian communities within Turkey’s present-day borders, in addition to all the crimes visited upon them and their holy sites throughout their histories, continue, to this day, to endure oppressive restrictions imposed by the government of Turkey on their right to practice their faith in their historic places of worship. These endangered sites are, nearly all, still today in Turkish hands as a direct result of genocide.
What does the U.S. government—Turkey’s ally—have to say about religious freedom in Turkey?
The State Department, which often goes to great and frequently unreasonable lengths to excuse Turkey’s conduct, has criticized the persecution of Christians in Turkey, including the improper confiscation of their properties.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, established by Congress, recently designated Turkey as one of a handful of countries on its watch list for a third consecutive year.
All this reflects the sad reality faced by the remaining Christians in Turkey. They are, all too often, prevented from praying in their historic churches, which have been desecrated, sometimes used as storage sheds—and in some cases, even turned into barns. In very rare instances—such as the Akhtamar Church—Turkey has undertaken repairs, but refused to these return religious properties to their rightful church owners, instead converting them into museums, where prayer, as a rule, is prohibited.
Has Congress taken action on these types of religious freedom issues in the past?
The United States, as a nation that was, quite literally, founded upon a belief in religious liberty, has a long and proud tradition of actively promoting and defending freedom of faith around the world.
Our own Bill of Rights safeguards religious freedom for Americans, and our longstanding leadership in championing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international covenants has helped protect freedom of faith across the globe.
America’s enduring commitment to religious freedom was powerfully reaffirmed in the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, and has been underscored in countless pieces of specific legislation. Here are a few examples:
Just last year, the U.S. House passed H.Res.1631, which called for the protection of minority religious communities and places of worship in the illegally-occupied portion of Cyprus.
S.Res.705, adopted by the U.S. Senate during the 110th Congress, reaffirmed U.S. support for the preservation of religious and cultural sites, and, in particular, called upon the government of Lithuania to halt and, if necessary, reverse the desecration of a Jewish cemetery located in the Snipiskes area of Vilnius.
H.Res.562, passed by the House during the 105th Congress, cited the confiscation of property by foreign governments as a means of victimizing minority populations, and, specifically, urged foreign governments to return wrongfully expropriated properties to religious communities.
H.Res.191, which was adopted by the U.S. House during the 109th Congress, called upon the government of Romania to provide fair, prompt, and equitable restitution to all religious communities for church properties that had been previously stolen by the government.
H.R.3096 from the 110th Congress, put the U.S. House on record pressing the government of Vietnam to respect freedom of religion and to return properties confiscated from churches.
H.Con.Res.371, passed by the House during the 110th Congress, called on foreign governments to return looted and confiscated properties to their rightful owners or, where restitution was not possible, to pay equitable compensation, in accordance with principles of justice and in an expeditious manner that is just, transparent, and fair.
What type of opposition do you expect to this resolution?
Sadly, if history is any guide, we can look to the Turkish government to stridently oppose this effort to end faith-based discrimination, promote religious tolerance, and secure the rightful return of Christian churches.
This bipartisan measure speaks openly and honestly about the real situation in Turkey today, which inevitably runs up against the many Ottoman and Kemalist myths about Turkey as a model of tolerance and pluralism. So, we’re likely to hear that this measure is unnecessary or even counter-productive given all the great strides that the Turkish government is supposedly making. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear the Turkish Embassy trying to spin that its adoption would somehow upset the fragile Turkey-Armenia Protocols process.
What can our readers do to help move this legislation forward?
The quickest and easiest first step is for folks to send a free ANCA WebMail asking their U.S. Representatives to support the Return of Churches resolution (H.Res.306) and work for its adoption.
Another great way to help is to spread the word to friends, family, work colleagues, and people you know who attend churches, mosques, synagogues, and other places of worship – basically anyone concerned about religious freedom and human rights. Send them the link www.anca.org/return or just explain in your own words what this effort is all about.
There are so many ways to engage, from getting involved with your local ANCA chapter and visiting with your local legislators to meeting with the editors of your community newspapers, volunteering for supportive candidates, and building coalitions with friendly groups.
There are as many ways to help as there are people who want to be helpful. If people need a hand, we’re here for you. Just send us an email, call, or post a note to our Facebook page.
TEL AVIV // A plan by Israel’s parliamentary speaker to move the country closer to recognising the 1915 killing of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide worries foreign ministry officials because it threatens to worsen ties with Turkey.
Members of the Jerusalem Armenian community hold placards as they march during commemorations for the 96th anniversary of mass killings of their ancestors under the Ottoman Empire, at Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem's Old City. Gali Tibbon / AFP Photo
The decision by Reuven Rivlin, a member of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, is a break with the years-long Israeli policy to take no stance on the massacre.
On Monday, Mr Rivlin said that the 120-member parliament will begin holding an annual session to mark the massacre.
“It’s my duty as a Jew and an Israeli to recognise the tragedies of other nations,” said Mr Rivlin, in an indirect reference to the Holocaust. “Diplomatic considerations, as considerable as they are, will not allow us to deny the catastrophe of others.”
Israel, like the US, has never acknowledged that the massacre of up to 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks was genocide, saying that the historical dispute should be settled between Turkey and Armenia. Its long-held view, however, is widely attributed to its desire to maintain good relations with Turkey, which has vehemently denied that genocide had taken place.
The Israeli stance has been supported for years by pro-Israel Jewish organisations in the US, which have pressured the US Congress and successive presidents to defeat congressional resolutions marking the killing of the Armenians. Turkey is a key ally that has supported the US in confrontations from Afghanistan to Iran.
Mr Rivlin’s move to conduct an event that would publicly question Turkey’s denial is probably a result of the deteriorating ties between Israel and Turkey.
The allies’ relations have suffered amid Turkey’s growing condemnation of the Jewish state’s approach towards the Palestinians and after Israeli commandos’ killing of nine Turkish activists aboard a Gaza-bound flotilla last year.
Yossi Sarid, a former education minister, said the parliament’s approval of Mr Rivlin’s initiative was due to Israel’s anger at Turkey’s support of an upcoming international aid flotilla that aims to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza’s airspace, territorial waters and all but one of its border crossings.
“The Israelis no longer favour the Turks and are willing to give up the charms and temptations of Antalya,” he wrote in the Haaretz newspaper yesterday, referring to the Turkish resort city that in the past was a major tourism destination for Israelis.
Mr Rivlin’s announcement has also stirred speculation in the Israeli and Turkish press that Israel intended to pressure Turkey to stop the Gaza-bound flotilla expected as soon as this month.
On Monday, a coalition of 22 activist groups aiming to take part in the new flotilla said at a news conference aboard the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, the ship on which last year’s confrontation took place, that 15 ships would be in the new convoy.
Their briefing came a day after Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, warned Israel against launching another raid of the aid flotilla. “We are sending a clear message to all those concerned: the same tragedy should not be repeated again,” he told the Reuters news agency.
Muslim Turkey accepts that as many as 1.5 million Christian Armenians were killed by Ottoman forces but denies the act amounted to genocide, a term employed by many Western historians and some foreign parliaments.
The Israeli government has expressed opposition to Mr Rivlin’s initiative, with Danny Ayalon, deputy foreign minister and a member of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, saying this week it was “impossible” for Israel to officially recognise the genocide.
Mr Rivlin’s announcement comes after the parliament’s vote last week to hold an open, public debate on the Armenians’ massacre.
It is because of my admiration for Turkey that I find it difficult to understand its insensitive position on the Armenian issue. After all, it was not this generation that spilled the blood 100 years ago.
By Yossi Sarid
I have achieved a great success: Finally the Knesset plenum has enabled its Knesset Education Committee to conduct a public discussion of the genocide of the Armenian people. This is the discussion that was prevented for decades. For generations our governments firmly opposed it.
And this, of all governments, is the one that agreed. All the MKs present voted in favor, nobody was opposed, a unanimous decision that exudes a bad smell: too late, too ugly, yuck.
Zahava Gal-On, who returned to the Knesset with renewed strength, made a very nice speech. That is how she assumed her place in the relay race and the mission of her movement, the only one in Israel to avenge the honor of the Armenian people and demand that the historical lesson be learned from an orphaned genocide – victims without murderers. Ahead of time I wished her success where her predecessors – the heads of Meretz – had failed; and my wishes came true.
But it was not my wishes that changed the parliamentary decision, and the reason for the reversal is clear: The Israelis no longer favor the Turks, and are willing even to give up the charms and temptations of Antalya; that’s how angry they are. Now we will demonstrate to you what happens to a country that Israel no longer favors – we will seat it in the low chair; revenge against the gentiles. Now we’ll show them who’s boss.
So we showed them, and how do we look: All the past explanations in favor of the Turks suddenly sank to the bottom of the glass of anger, for which Israel is famous. These, as we recall, were profound explanations from the Sea of Marmara, to which our leaders lent an ethical character, even accompanying them with historiosophical insights.
Eleven years ago, on the 85th memorial day, I went to the Armenian church in Jerusalem, and as “a human being, as a Jew, as an Israeli and as the minister of education of the State of Israel” – that is how I introduced myself – I spoke about the historical justice that must be done, about the special commitment of the Jewish people to the Armenian people, and about my plan to teach our students the universal significance of genocide.
The scandal erupted immediately. My prime minister objected sharply, and Ehud Barak was swiftly joined by Shimon Peres: “These events,” he said, “should be left to historians and not to politicians.”
He was struck dumb last week, when the right thing was done for the wrong reason, and the voice of Shimon was not heard.
At the time the Turks declared me a persona non grata. They, like me, sometimes get confused between rivals and friends, and I consider myself their friend. Turkey is today a developing world power, an example of economic prosperity, which conducts its affairs in the regional and international arena wisely. It is also proof that an Islamic regime is not necessarily Iranian, and that Europe is bitterly mistaken when it locks the gate to Ankara instead of opening it.
The bad guy – Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan – is good for the Turks, and was reelected by an increasingly large majority. This week he said that he tried to convince Hamas to recognize Israel, and will continue to do so.
It is just because of my admiration for Turkey that I find it difficult to understand its insensitive position on the Armenian issue. After all, it was not this generation that spilled the blood 100 years ago; many countries have accepted responsibility for crimes committed in their name a long time ago. Only this week Queen Elizabeth II visited the Irish Republic and offered her hosts regret and identification with all the Irish people who ever suffered at the hand of England. It is not clear why Turkey alone remains intransigent.
But it is quite clear why Israel supported it all these years. In addition to security and financial interests, there is something else concealed here: If everyone begins to acknowledge the tragedy of the other – his own part in the Nakba – what will become of us?
via Too late, too ugly – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.
The Knesset is preparing to give the Turkish government a smack across its arrogant face. With Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan making false accusations against Israel, the Knesset looks like it will finally fight back. After years of succeeding Israeli governments avoiding giving it recognition, the Knesset is on the verge of officially recognizing the Armenian genocide (Hat Tip: Joshua I).
Shortly before the one year anniversary of the Free Gaza Flotilla that marked a low point in Israel-Turkey relations, the Knesset made history Wednesday afternoon when it held its first open discussion on recognition of the Armenian genocide.
With a number of Armenian religious and lay leaders watching in the visitors’ gallery, MKs ranging from Shas to Meretz took the stand to speak in favor of officially recognizing the series of massacres and deportations that killed an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in the years during and shortly after World War I.
For years, consecutive governments had blocked attempts by MKs to raise the subject of recognizing the genocide out of concern that such recognition could damage relations with Ankara. This year, however, the government did not block the hearing.
MKs voted by a unanimous vote of 20-0 following the hearing to refer the subject for a further hearing to the Knesset’s Education Committee, a hearing that will also be broadcast, at least via Internet. In contrast, any previous discussions concerning the genocide had been held exclusively behind the closed doors of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Isn’t this great? In one move, we’re doing the right and moral thing and b**ch-slapping a government that has become a bitter rival.
Here’s hoping the Mavi Marmara sinks the day after Israel officially recognizes the Armenian genocide.
Labels: Armenian genocide, Mavi Marmara, Turkish obsession with Israel
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:23 PM
via Israel Matzav: Knesset preparing to slap Turkey across the face.
PanARMENIAN.Net – On June 25, Moscow hosted Western Armenians’ convention, with 100 delegates from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov, Sochi, Adler, Krasnodar, Omsk, Petrozavodsk, Vladivostok, Crimea and Abkhazia attending.
