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A COMMEMORATION OF THE 4th ANNIVERSARY OF THE ASSASSINATION |
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| Wednesday, January 19, 2011 8:00:00 PM OIA Hall |
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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
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“ARMENIAN CONSTANTINOPLE”-PRAYER AND WREATH PLACING FOR LATE HRANT DINK
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Letter to the Leader of the Ealing Council
To: Honorable Councillor Julian Bell, Leader of the Ealing Council
c/o Labour Group Members’ Room, Ealing Town Hall , New Broadway,Dear Councillor Bell,
We have read your statement to Turkish Times with great sadness and disappointment. It is hard to believe that such an ill advised and ill judged decision can be taken by wise and presumably informed Councillors. Both the Labour and the Liberal Democrat Councillors seem unfortunately to have been persuaded/pressurised by S Pound MP and Councillor Iskenderian, with participation by The Armenian National Committee of United Kingdom. (ANC UK is the main Armenian association which claims the “recognition” of the “Armenian genocide” and is an arm of Armenian Revolutionary Federation, ARF. The ARF controlled one of the two principal Armenian terrorist groups, the so-called “Justice Commandos for the Armenian Genocide/Armenian Revolutionary Army” – Francis P. Hyland, Armenian Terrorism: the Past, the Present, the Prospects – Boulder -San Francisco-Oxford: Westview Press, 1991, pp. 61-62 – this information has already been provided in an email to you by Maxime Gauin 03/01/11).
What is also fundamentally wrong with this action is that the decision has been taken without listening and weighing up the argument on the other side, and holding the discussion/hearing un-announced to all the interested parties. We can not consider this to be an appropriate action by a truly democratic Council.
You may like to read below Mr Ergun Kirlikovali’s comprehensive and authoritative response to this ill judged decision. A new book by SS Aya,The Genocide of Truth Continues, (Derin Yayinlari) is full of documentary information and it is a book which is entirely committed to telling the truth (can be obtained via [email protected]).
We would very much appreciate if you and the other responsible Councillors can reconsider their position and appreciate the feelings of the Turkish Community in London .
Yours sincerely,
Betula Nelson
Media Coordinator
ASOUK
www.ataturk.org.ukOH, EALING COUNCILLORS! HOW COULD YOU?
Ergun Kirlikovali January 6, 2011 Turkish ForumTo: Honorable Councillor Julian Bell, Leader of the Ealing Council
c/o Labour Group Members’ Room, Ealing Town Hall , New Broadway,Re: Decision of Ealing Council to officially recognize the long discredited political claim of Armenian ‘genocide’ as settled history
Dear Honorable Councillor Julian Bell,
It is difficult and painful for me, the son of Turkish survivors on both maternal and paternal sides, to hear of Ealing Council’s unfortunate resolution, based on an Armenian’s misrepresentations—i.e. Councillor Iskendarian—where Armenian war crimes, Armenian hate crimes, and their Muslim, mostly Turkish, victims, are curiously missing. If one excludes half the story, well, even the American civil war can be made to look like a genocide.
I realize that this was not a unanimous decision and that some prudent members considered the motion tabled by an Armenian (Cllr Iskanderian) one sided, without input from responsible opposing views and hence, judged it ill-advised and divisive. I am also aware of at least one councillor saying “…I have never come across a motion in my nine years on the council that so blatantly sought to pitch one community against another – especially on a subject which is highly sensitive and where no member of the council is really able to make a proper and considered judgment…” I truly appreciate those members who thought that way, but I wish they took the trouble to stay on and vote no so that this blatant and malicious fraud could be thwarted.
Those terrible “War Years” of 1912-1922 (known in Turkish as “Seferberlik Yillari”) brought five consecutive wars—Tripoli (North Africa,) Balkan Wars (twice,) World War I, and the Turkish Independence War, in that order— along with wide spread death and destruction on to ALL Ottoman citizens. No Turkish family was left untouched, mine included. Those nameless, faceless Turkish victims are killed for a second time today with politically motivated and baseless charges of Armenian genocide.
Genocide claims are racist because they ignore the Turkish dead: about 3 million during WWI; more than half a million of them at the hands of Armenian ultra-nationalists; and dishonest because genocide charges blatantly dismiss the six T’s of the Turkish-Armenian conflict.
Historians reject the genocide label: This may explain why more than 69 North American scholars categorically rejected Armenian characterizations of genocide, noting that the non-partisan and reliable evidence unearthed so far points to “…inter-communal warfare fought by Christian and Muslims irregulars…” A majority of European historians who specialize on this topic also reject or criticize this label.
The Malta Trials refuted Armenian claims 90 years ago: If you had heard about the Malta Trials by the Crown Courts in 1919-1921, that never got off the ground due to lack of evidence to support the outrageous Armenian claims, you would not have signed that deceptive edict. ( For your information, the British exiled 144 Ottoman leaders to Malta as war crimes suspects, while scouring the Ottoman, British and American archives for proof and came up empty handed. This paper might explain more: The Armenian Issue: Why The “Genocide” Label Doesn’t Fit )
Britain does not recognize Armenian claims as genocide: You would do well to, at least, heed the advice and policy of Her Majesty’s Government when this same issue was raised in the same biased manner, again with total disregard for the other side of the story.
Here is a journey down the history, a collection of brief educational glimpses into the past:
1894
“…The aim of the Armenian revolutionaries is to foment outbreaks, firstly to induce the Ottomans to react to their violence and secondly to encourage the foreign powers to intervene…” Source: Letter of the British Ambassador Currie to the Foreign Office, on March the 28th of 1894, British Blue Book, N°6, p 57
1896
” …The Dashnaks and Hunchaks have terrorized their own countrymen, they have stirred up the Muslim people with their thefts and insanities, and have paralyzed all efforts made to carry out reforms; all the events that have taken place in Anatolia are the responsibility of the crimes committed by the Armenian revolutionary committees…” Source: Williams, The British vice-consul, writing from Van. (March 4, 1896, British Blue Book, Nr. 8 1896, p.108
1915
“…Concerning the Armenian revolutionaries’ tactics, one cannot expect to think up something more diabolic. Killing Moslems in order to punish innocents, robbing in the middle of the night villages that have just paid, the same day, their taxes. (…) The Armenian revolutionaries prefer robbing their own coreligionists rather than fighting against their enemy ; it’s in order to make their compatriots murder that the Armenian anarchists in Constantinople do bomb attacks…” Source: Sir Mark Sykes, “The Caliph’s Last Heritage”, London , 1915, p 409-418
1922
“…I was being employed by His Majesty’s Government to compile all available documents on the present treatment of the Armenians by the Turkish Government in a ‘Blue Book,’ which was duly published and distributed as war-propaganda!…” Source: Arnold Joseph Toynbee, “The Western Question in Greece and Turkey : a Study in the Contact of Civilizations,” Boston , Houghton Mifflin, 1922, p. 50.
1923
“…In some towns containing ten Armenian houses and thirty Turkish houses, it was reported that 40,000 people were killed, about 10,000 women were taken to the harem, and thousands of children left destitute; and the city university destroyed, and the bishop killed. It is a well-known fact that even in the last war the native Christians, despite the Turkish cautions, armed themselves and fought on the side of the Allies. In these conflicts, they were not idle, but they were well supplied with artillery, machine guns and inflicted heavy losses on their enemies…” Source: George M. Lamsa, a missionary known for his research on Christianity, “The Secret of the Near East,” The Ideal Press, Philadelphia (1923), page 133
1928
“…A circular was prepared by the War ministry asking the officers to report on the misdeeds of the enemy. According to this circular, exactness was not an essential condition: probability was enough. (…) The most popular lies in England and in America were those concerning atrocities. No war can do without it. One considers that to libel the enemy is a patriotic duty…” Arthur Ponsoby (British Deputy from 1910 till 1918, his book published in 1928 describes propaganda methods used during First World war), Falsehood in War-Time , New York , 1971, p 20-22
1928
“Few Americans who mourn, and justly, the miseries of the Armenians, are aware that till the rise of nationalistic ambitions, beginning with the ‘seventies, the Armenians were the favored portion of the population of Turkey, or that in the Great War, they traitorously turned Turkish cities over to the Russian invader; that they boasted of having raised an army of one hundred and fifty thousand men to fight a civil war, and that they burned at least a hundred Turkish villages and exterminated their population…It is at least time that Americans ceased to be deceived by propaganda…” Source: John Dewey, American professor, The Turkish Tragedy, The New Republic, November 12, 1928
1936
“…Those who in England are loudest in their sympathy with the aspirations of a(n Armenian) people ‘rightly struggling to be free’ can hardly have realized the atrocious methods of terrorism and blackmail by which a handful of desperados, as careful of their own safety as they are reckless of the lives of others, have too successfully coerced their unwilling compatriots into complicity with an utterly hopeless conspiracy…” Source: Lord Warkworth, after paying a visit to Van. ( William Langer, The Diplomacy of Imperialism.)
1964
“…(The Dashnaks)’ aim was by crimes and assassinations to invite Turkish reprisals and massacres, and thus create an international scandal that would attract the intervention of the other powers…” Source: David Thompson, “ Europe Since Napoleon” (Alfred A. Knopf, 1964, 2nd. Ed.)
1976
“… The deafening drumbeat of the propaganda, and the sheer lack of sophistication in argument which comes from preaching decade after decade to a convinced and emotionally committed audience, are the major handicaps of Armenian historiography of the diaspora today…” Source: Dr. Gwynne Dyer, a London-based independent journalist with global exposure, 1976
1999
“…The British Government had condemned the massacres at the time. But in the absence of unequivocal evidence that the Ottoman administration took a specific decision to eliminate the Armenians under their control at that time, British governments have not recognized those events as indications of genocide… Nor do we believe it is the business of governments of today to review events of over 80 years ago, with a view to pronouncing on them. The events of 1915-16 remain a painful issue in relation to two states with which we enjoy excellent relations…” Source: Foreign Office spokesman, Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale, AP News, April14, 1999
2001
“…The Government, in line with previous British Governments, have judged the evidence not to be sufficiently unequivocal to persuade us that these events should be categorised as genocide as defined by the 1948 UN Convention on Genocide, a convention which was drafted in response to the Holocaust and is not retrospective in application. The interpretation of events in Eastern Anatolia in 1915-16 is still the subject of genuine debate amongst historians.” Source: Baroness Scotland of Asthal, expressing the position of the British Government’s on the alleged Armenian genocide in a written response to a question at the House of Lords, February 7, 2001
2001
“…The British government of that time and those that followed considered the massacres of 1915-1916 as a horrifying tragedy. We understand the strong feelings for this problem, given the human losses of both parties. But we do not believe that proofs put forward give evidence that those events must be classified as “genocide” as defined by the 1948 Convention of the United Nations on genocide. (…) The events of 1915-1916 constitute a big tragedy, during which the two parties underwent very heavy losses…” Source: Official Statement by the Embassy of Great Britain in Ankara , July 23, 2001.
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The Armenian claims of genocide were never brought to court and, therefore, a court verdict a la Nuremberg does not exist. By voting yes on a controversial claim that totally ignores Armenian revolts, terrorism, treason, territorial demands and their Turkish victims during WWI, you are lending credence to unsubstantiated, exaggerated, falsified, and fabricated accusations.
Do you really believe a political body is the place to resolve historical conflicts?
Do you think academia with its research capability and/or legal realm with its “due process” expertise would be better equipped to handle such controversies ?
Do you agree that taking one side in a complex historical conflict is offensive, and unfair to the other side?
Do you see now how grave a mistake it is to honor one side of the story with an official stamp of approval, while totally ignoring the other? Would you like such “lynching” done to your country?
In a democracy, history is made by political institutions but written by historians. The Blois Appeal of 2008 in France , signed by several hundreds of historians, from Europe, North America , and elsewhere, says: “… History must not be a slave to contemporary politics nor can it be written on the command of competing memories. In a free state , no political authority has the right to define historical truth and to restrain the freedom of the historian with the threat of penal sanctions… ”
Muslim, mostly Turkish, victims of Armenian revolutionaries and the treasonous Armenian volunteers of Russian, French and Greek armies are documented in Ottoman archives, Russian archives , American archives (and also Niles & Sutherland,) French archives (Paul Bernard, Six mois en Cilicie, Aix-en-Provence: éditions du Feu, 1929,) and even in Armenian sources
(Haig Shiroyan, an Ottoman Armenian wrote in his Memories: “…The Russian victorious armies, reinforced by Armenian volunteers, had slaughtered every Turk they could find, destroyed every house they penetrated…” Smiling Through the Tears, New York , 1954, p. 186).The alleged “Armenian genocide” was popularized by Armenian terrorism of 1973-1991. The ARF controlled one of the two principal Armenian terrorist groups:
a) “Justice Commandos for the Armenian Genocide/Armenian Revolutionary Army”
(Francis P. Hyland, Armenian Terrorism: the Past, the Present, the Prospects, Boulder-San Francisco-Oxford: Westview Press, 1991, pp. 61-62; br>
Gaïdz Minassian, Guerre et terrorisme arméniens, Paris : Presses universitaires de France, 2002, pp. 28-37 and 106-109; br>Yves Ternon, La Cause arménienne, Paris : Le Seuil, 1983, pp. 218-224.)
Scotland Yard banned Hrair Maroukian, the leader of ARF from 1972 to 1994, from entering British soil in Autumn 1984, because British police considered him as the real chief of JCAG/ARA (Michael M. Gunter, “Pursuing the Just Cause of their People”. A Study of Contemporary Armenian Terrorism, Westport – New York – London , Greenwood Press, 1986, p. 111.)
The JCAG/ARA killed around thirty innocent victims and bombed the offices of Turkish Airlines in London airport, on May 24, 1978 and even the offices of British airways in Madrid airport, on January 20, 1980.
The ARF continues to glorify its terrorists, including Hampig Sassounian, jailed since 1982 for the assassination of the Turkish general consul in Los Angeles , Kemal Arikan.
Vicken Hovsepian, sentenced in 1984 by an US court to six years of prison for an attempt of bombing is a member of ARF the leader of the party in USA .
b) Another Armenian terrorist group, Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), was actively supported by the Union of Armenian students of UK , who published a pro-ASALA newspaper in London , from 1978 to 1988: Kaytzer.
ASALA killed around forty innocent victims (including at least eight Turkish diplomats), and wounded many more;
ASALA terrorist Zaven Bedrosian was sentenced to eight years of prison by a British court in August 1983, for illegal possession of explosives and weapons, and conspiracy. Mr. Bedrosian admitted during his trial that he wanted to take the Turkish ambassador in London hostage with the hope of exchanging him with the ASALA murderer Levon Ekmekjian, one of the two perpetrators of attack in Ankara airport, in August 1982 (nine tourists were killed, more than 70 wounded.)
ASALA claimed his solidarity with Irish Republican Army (IRA) against “British fascism” (sic).
Ara Toranian, former spokesman of ASALA from 1976 to 1983, who shows no remorse for his violent past, is currently co-chairman of Coordination Council of France’s Armenian Associations.
I hope that you will realize what a grave mistake you have made by taking the words of Armenian propagandists, falsifiers, crooks and terrorists at face value.
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In summary, if I could manage to raise a grain of doubt in your mind that the Armenian narrative may not be the whole story and that there might be another side, equally ghastly and genuine, where Armenians are the victimizers not the victims, then I consider my mission is accomplished. Thank you for reading.
Respectfully Yours,
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Obama’s Appointment of Ambassadors To Baku and Ankara Must Be Challenged
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
Armenian-Americans must strongly challenge Pres. Obama’s unilateral appointments of Matthew Bryza as Ambassador to Azerbaijan and Frank Ricciardone as Ambassador to Turkey. The President circumvented the U.S. Senate by taking advantage of the holidays to make these “recess appointments” on December 29.
While Pres. Obama has the legal authority to make such temporary appointments when the Senate is not in session, his unwise decision could have several serious consequences:
— Undermining the legitimacy and credibility of the new U.S. Ambassadors in the eyes of their host countries due to their appointment through an archaic loophole in the law rather than proper Senate confirmation.
— Antagonizing two prominent Senators of his own party – Barbara Boxer of California and Robert Menendez of New Jersey – who had placed a “hold” on Bryza’s nomination. Having already lost the Republican-controlled House, Obama now desperately needs every single vote in a Senate with a razor thin Democratic majority.
— Alienating the entire Senate by depriving the Senators of their mandate to confirm ambassadorial nominees.
— Burning all bridges between himself and Armenian-Americans who were some of his staunchest supporters in the last presidential election, having already broken his pledge on the Armenian Genocide, Artsakh’s self-determination, and financial assistance to Armenia.
Fortunately, Pres. Obama’s recess appointments are of a temporary nature and not considered full-term ambassadorships. They are only valid for one year rather than the usual three years. In order for Bryza and Ricciardone to serve as Ambassadors beyond 2011, Pres. Obama has to resubmit their names to the Senate and have them properly considered.
The Senate and the Armenian-American community have ample time to take all necessary steps to ensure that the President’s slap in their face does not go unnoticed and unchallenged. Both ambassadors should be sent back home by the end of this year.
Here are the steps that could be taken to derail Bryza’s Senate confirmation in the coming months:
— Closely scrutinize Bryza’s public statements, press conferences, and interviews in Baku to ensure that he is properly representing the interests of the United States in Azerbaijan rather than Azerbaijan’s interests in Washington.
— Publicize the documents submitted to the European Court of Human Rights by an Azeri journalist who claims that Azerbaijan’s former Minister of Economic Development had paid the expenses for Bryza’s lavish 2007 wedding in Istanbul. During the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings, Bryza testified under oath that his family had paid for his wedding. Should the European Court find that the government of Azerbaijan had indeed financed Bryza’s wedding, he would be indicted for lying under oath, not reporting to the IRS the gifts as income, and violating U.S. government’s gift acceptance and disclosure policy.
— Investigate all his oral and written statements made to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last year in order to verify their truthfulness.
— Search for evidence of conflict of interest related to the employment of his Turkish-born wife, Zeyno Baran, as Director of the Center for Eurasian Policy at the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based think tank that has received funding from ExxonMobil and other energy companies doing business in the Caspian region. The Armenian National Committee of America has accused Bryza of violating federal ethics rules because of his wife’s connections to Turkish and Azerbaijani business interests.
— Contact Senators Boxer and Menendez who had placed a “hold” on Bryza’s nomination last year, urging them to block his confirmation once again, when Pres. Obama resubmits his name to the Senate. By doing so, the two Senators would be reaffirming their initial conviction that Bryza is not qualified to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan.
The Armenian community had not originally objected to Ricciardone’s nomination. However, since Pres. Obama has opposed several major Armenian initiatives and broken his promises on all of them, Armenian-Americans may consider expanding their opposition to the Obama administration on many fronts. They should support those Senators who may be inclined to place a “hold” against Ricciardione’s confirmation later this year. In view of Republican Senator Sam Brownback’s “hold” on Ricciardone’s nomination last year and the objection of leading conservative spokesmen to his recess appointment, Armenian-American organizations now have a unique opportunity to work closely with Republicans in opposing his confirmation later this year.
Should the Armenian-American community flex its political muscle and show that it is ready and able to defend its interests, it is likely that U.S. government officials would then be more attentive to Armenian issues.
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Turkey to Tear Down Friendship Monument
By MARC CHAMPION
ISTANBUL—Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the weekend ordered a monument to friendship between Turkey and Armenia torn down, signaling the depth of a freeze in efforts to reopen the border and improve relations between the two neighbors.
Mr. Erdogan described the monument as “a freak,” speaking Saturday in the city of Kars in Eastern Turkey. He called on the local mayor, who is from Mr. Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, to pull it down by the time of his next visit and build a park instead, according to Anadolu Ajansi, Turkey’s state-owned news agency.
The prime minister based his objections on artistic grounds. “They put a freak there…it is impossible to think that such a thing should exist next to fundamental works of art,” he said, according to AA.
Mr. Erdogan’s decision is likely to prove good domestic politics ahead of elections in June. It brought a quick response from the main opposition Republican Peoples Party, or CHP.
“The sculpture…is neither strange nor ugly,” AA quoted former culture minister and CHP legislator Ercan Karakas as saying. He described the monument as high art and an antidote to genocide monuments and called on Mr. Erdogan to reverse his decision. There are monuments to claims of genocide by Turks on Armenians in Armenia, and by Armenians on Turks in Turkey.
The statue of two 100 foot-tall (30-meter tall) concrete figures reaching out to each other was built on a rise above Kars, just 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the Armenian border, in 2008. It was commissioned by the former mayor of Kars, who made extensive efforts to build relations with Armenia, believing that reopening the border for trade could only benefit the remote town.
At the time, Turkey and Armenia were in talks aimed at overcoming decades of mistrust fired by the former Ottoman empire’s slaughter of up to 1.5 million ethnic Armenians during World War I, and by Armenia’s occupation since the 1990s of a swathe or territory in Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan. The effort reached a high point in October 2009, when the two governments signed protocols to reopen the border and set up a joint historical commission, among other measures. The protocols were never ratified, however, and the process is moribund.
The statues were controversial from the start. Nationalists and representatives from the city’s 20% ethnic Azeri population objected to the Ministry of Culture, on grounds that no permission had been obtained. The final hand on one statue was never installed, and was abandoned instead on the gravel below.
A stalemate followed as the local administration awaited instructions from Ankara, which saw little benefit in taking steps during efforts at rapprochement with Armenia. This weekend, the stalemate appeared to be broken.
—Erkan Öz
contributed to this article.
via Turkey to Tear Down Friendship Monument – WSJ.com.
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Nevada Governor Proclaims 31 March Azerbaijani Remembrance
Nevada Governor Proclaims 31 March Azerbaijani Remembrance
Wednesday, 05 January 2011 05:30The proclamation is available below as well as directly from Nevada Governor’s official government website.
USAN is proud to announce that Nevada governor did it once again: proclamation of 31 March as the first-ever official US government recognition, designation as Remembrance Day of the 1918 massacres of Azerbaijani civilians.
Washington DC and Carson City, Nevada – To commemorate 31 March the “Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis”, which is officially observed in Azerbaijan since 1919 from the days of the first Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR), activists from USAN have sought and received the first-ever formal recognition of this special date and the tragedy by any US government authority in 2009. The crucial outreach and coordination efforts were spearheaded and led by a USAN Board of Directors member, the Director for the Western Region, himself based in the great State of Nevada. This year, under the relentless guidance and leadership, USAN did it again — the Governor of the State of Nevada issued a second proclamation, designating March 31, 2010 as the “Azerbaijani Remembrance Day”.
The proclamation is available below as well as directly from Nevada Governor’s official government website:
USAN decided to announce this historic event on the New Year Eve and the Azerbaijani Solidarity Day to mark new times and new beginning for our community, and as homage to all of the Azerbaijani patriots in U.S. and worldwide.
This unmatched achievement by USAN that started in 2009 and repeated this year, continues to be the first-ever official government recognition by any high-ranking state authority, outside of Azerbaijan, of March 31 as a day of commemoration of the national tragedy that befell on Azerbaijanis. As such, the Azerbaijani-American and Turkic-American community make an important step forward in having the terrible plight of their ancestors to be properly recognized and acknowledged.
The historic first-ever 2009 proclamation is also available from Nevada Governor’s official website:
The Governor of Nevada is that state’s highest elected official. Nevada has a total land area of 286,367 sq. km., and a GDP of about $130 billion dollars, making it about three times larger than the Republic of Azerbaijan on both counts.
The Governor of Nevada, Mr. Jim Gibbons, and his office, after a thorough check of all the facts, have once again issued an official proclamation (full text and links to the proclamation included with this PR), which commemorates the “deaths of tens of thousands of Azerbaijani civilians”, victims of the genocidal policy pursued by Armenian forces during the “March Massacres” of 1918 in Baku and other cities of Azerbaijan. The proclamation by the Nevada Governor also emphasizes the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan by stipulating that the Karabakh region is a U.S.-recognized part of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
It should be noted that last year, in 2009, the Armenian lobby attempted to discredit the historic proclamation by claiming that it was “fake” and a product of Photoshop. Hundreds of telephone calls, e-mail messages, faxes and even telegraphs from all over the country had flooded Gov. Gibbon’s office, often resorting to threats, intimidation and aggressive language. Undoubtedly, this will happen this year, too.
Previously, over the years, the U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) and its grassroots activists have sought and received dozens of proclamations from Governors and Mayors across the United States (Washington D.C., State of Virginia, City of Alexandria, Country of Arlington, City of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, State of Wisconsin, State of North Carolina, as well as Texas, California, Missouri and others) on the National Day of Azerbaijan (May 28) and Independence Day of Azerbaijan (October 18), which have always stressed the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan by specifically mentioning the Armenia-occupied Karabakh region. To view most of the proclamations received by USAN, please visit out website:
To promote greater knowledge and understanding of the March 1918 events, the USAN and its activists have spearheaded the distribution to the leading public libraries, of the 1951 edition of the Yale University History Professor Emeritus Dr. Firuz Kazemzadeh’s book “Struggle for Transcaucasia (1917-1921)”, London: Anglo Caspian Press, 2008, 440 pp. The book was distributed to all the participants at the USAN conference in Washington DC in October 2008, as well as in Azerbaijani and Turkic diaspora conferences and events in Los Angeles and Houston.
USAN expects that this latest result of diligent work and grassroots activism will become a positive example for an even larger number of Azerbaijani-American and Turkic-American grassroots, who will seek and receive an increasing number of proclamations from their cities and states. USAN stands ready to help facilitate and coordinate such efforts by the community.
Both originals of the historic first-ever proclamation of March 31 as “Azerbaijani Remembrance Day” will be donated as valuable exhibits to the planned Museum of Azerbaijani Genocide. Until then they will remain in possession and on display of USAN.
Full text of the proclamation
State of Nevada
[The Great Seal of the State of Nevada]A Proclamation by the governor
Whereas, the Republic of Azerbaijan has an area of 33,440 square miles, including the Karabakh region, situated in the South Caucasus region, southeastern Europe; and
Whereas, the territorial integrity, state sovereignty and independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan is supported by the United States and its citizens; and
Whereas, in March 1918, ethnic and religious tensions grew and the Armenian-Azeri conflict in Baku began; and
Whereas, as a result of the conflict, the region suffered thousands of casualties in Baku, Shemakha, Guba, Shusha, including the deaths of tens of thousands of Azerbaijani civilians; and
Whereas, every year since 1918, Azerbaijanis and many people around the globe, observe March 31 as a Day of Remembrance, to honor the victims resulting from the fighting that began in March 1918; and
Now, therefore, I, Jim Gibbons, governor of the state of Nevada, do hereby proclaim March 31, 2010 as
AZERBAIJANI REMEMBRANCE DAY
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of Nevada to be affixed at the State Capitol in Carson City, this 3rd day of August, 2010
[signed] Jim Gibbons – Governor
[signed] Ross Miller – Secretary of State
[Seal of the State of Nevada]
Some helpful background materials, memos, quotes and reports:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Decree_of_President_of_Republic_of_Azerbaijan_about_genocide_of_Azerbaijani_people
The U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) ) is a registered 501(c)4 non-profit, non-partisan, non-sectarian genuine grassroots advocacy and voter education network that is facilitating political activism and efforts by the Azerbaijani-Americans and other Turkic-Americans and their associations, organizations, councils, conferences, and other formal, semi-formal and informal groups, on federal, state and local levels. USAN is the first nationwide grassroots organization uniting Azerbaijani-Americans, being created by the grassroots, for the grassroots.
News.Az
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Ara Toranian at Le Monde
Erju Ackman
to turkish-forum-.Ergun Kirlikovali bu cagriyi yapiyor. Ancak makaleye link vermedigi
icin onu da ben asliyla ve Ingilizce tercumesiyle ekledim.EA
Le Monde Provides Platform To Former Spokesman Of An Armenian
Terrorist Organization
MONDAY, 03 JANUARY 2011 05:28
Dear Readers, Friends , and Fair-Minded, Truth-Promoting, Peace-Lovers,As long as there are Armenian falsifiers and Turk-haters around the
world, with or without their white robes and matching conical hats,
bent on demonizing all things Turkish at all opportunities real or
imagined, our work seems to remain incomplete.We need to be alert and react instantly to all kinds of attempts to
defame and misrepresent our proud heritage. We need to remain in
constant vigilance and continue to educate the public about our
thousands of year old culture, history, and heritage.This time, the unprovoked, unjustified, and unfair attack came from
France’s Le Monde newspaper. Le Monde editors, incredibly, are
providing access to the former speaker of a notorious Armenian
terrorist organization, ASALA. The blood of Turkish (and Fench)
citizens have not dried on the hands of these Armenian terrorists who
loved to grin to the TV cameras with their ugly faces, flashing
victory signs after every bombing, assassination, and other such
premeditated murder and planned carnage.What’s more, Le Monde editors seem to lack the decency to at least
give the appearance of seeking responsible opposing views in order to
balance this terrorist’s sick and hateful message and to present a
more objective and fair coverage of a historical controversy.Therefore, I ask you to please sign the protest letter below with your
name, city, country, and day-phone, and email it to these addresses :[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Fax: (00 33) 1 57 28 21 21Street address : Le Monde, 80, boulevard Auguste-Blanqui, 75 507
Paris Cedex 13 France***************
Madam/Sir,
In a shocking move, Le Monde allowed, one more time, Ara Toranian to
publish an opinion in its pages. The promotion, without any warning,
of the views of the former spokesman of a terrorist group (ASALA) is
simply unacceptable in a respectable and democratic newspaper.France was, with Turkey, the country of the world where Armenian
terrorists, especially ASALA, killed and wounded the greatest number
of persons. Mr. Toranian’s newspaper, Hay Baykar, glorified the
murder of Turkish diplomats, justified the bombing of the Marmara
travel agency (which bomb also killed a French secretary) and slammed
the verdict sentencing the perpetrators of Orly attack (8 deaths, 90
wounded, including around 60 seriously).In the U.S.A., ASALA attempted to assassinate a UCLA history
professor, Prof. Stanford Jay Shaw, and his family in 1977 by planting
a bomb in his HOME !ASALA’s inspiration, Gourgen Yanikian, murdered in an ambush the
general consul in Los Angeles Mehmet Baydar and his deputy Bahadır
Demir, in 1973. Mr. Toranian’s newspaper presented the terrorist
Yanikian as a hero.Another Armenian terrorist group, JCAG/ARA assassinated Mehmet
Baydar’s successor, Kemal Arıkan, in 1982.The same attacked by bombs the cultural night celebrating the Turkish
culture (including dance) in California and New York.Both ASALA and JCAG/ARA assaulted even moderate Armenians, like the
Dashnak and the Hunchak murderers did in the Ottoman Empire since
1890s and the USA since 1930’s.Mr. Toranian’s opinion was seen as an insult to the silent memory of
the many victims of terrorism, whatever their nationality or ethnicity
may be.Please accept our expressions of profound disappointment, outrage, and sadness,
[Signatory : Please provide full name, city, state, country, and
day-phone]Point de vue
Paris lâche les Arméniens
Le Monde | 28.12.10 | 14h03 * Mis à jour le 29.12.10 | 13h14La dernière livraison des câbles diplomatiques révélés par WikiLeaks
nous apprend qu’il n’aura même pas fallu deux mois à Nicolas Sarkozy
pour trahir ses engagements envers la communauté arménienne de France
à propos de la loi incriminant le négationnisme du génocide arménien.
Le 24 avril 2007, le candidat de l’UMP promettait d’appuyer la
ratification par le Sénat de ce texte déjà voté par l’Assemblée
nationale.Or selon un télégramme rendu public par WikiLeaks, Jean-David Levitte
(conseiller diplomatique de l’Elysée), en visite à Ankara le 29 mai
2007, a confié à ses interlocuteurs que “Sarkozy s’assurera que le
projet de loi du génocide arménien (pénalisant le négationnisme) meure
au Sénat français.” On comprend mieux l’arrogance de ce négationnisme,
qui se développe notamment sur la Toile française à travers des sites
sponsorisés par le gouvernement d’Ankara. Ainsi ce fléau, qui fait
office de volet politique du génocide, qui constitue sa continuation
par d’autres moyens, ne sera non seulement pas combattu par les
responsables de l’ordre public, mais il bénéficiera de la neutralité
bienveillante du chef de l’Etat.INTÉRÊTS DU PANTURQUISME
Que peuvent bien valoir les belles paroles prononcées à l’endroit de
la communauté arménienne de France, mais également toute la rhétorique
de Nicolas Sarkozy sur l’histoire, et les leçons qu’il convient d’en
tirer ? Etait-il nécessaire de gratifier Ankara de ce type de signal,
au moment même où à l’intérieur du pays, enfin, un mouvement
d’intellectuels turcs se dessine pour demander pardon aux Arméniens ?
Il ne faudra pas s’étonner ensuite qu’éclairées par de tels exemples
les autorités turques fassent des sourires à l’Occident tout en
signant, comme elles l’ont fait, en mai, des accords pour la livraison
d’uranium à l’Iran. Qu’elles combattent le blocus de Gaza tout en
pérennisant, depuis seize ans, celui sur l’Arménie. Qu’elles exigent
des excuses d’Israël pour les neuf morts turcs de la flottille, en
juin, sans jamais avoir prononcé un mot de regret pour le million et
demi d’Arméniens exterminés, en 1915, et en outrageant tous les jours
leur mémoire.Un malheur n’arrivant jamais seul, cette information de WikiLeaks
vient une semaine après une autre dépêche diplomatique rendue publique
par le même site, selon laquelle M. Roland Galharague, haut
fonctionnaire au Quai d’Orsay, explique à William Burns, secrétaire
américain à la défense, que l’existence d’une forte communauté
arménienne, en France, entraverait les propositions susceptibles
d’apporter la paix au Haut-Karabakh, une enclave arménienne
indépendantiste en butte à l’hostilité et aux menaces de guerre du
couple turco-azerbaïdjanais.La question se pose donc de savoir quelles sont ces belles
propositions de paix du Quai d’Orsay qui pourraient bien contrarier à
ce point les Français d’origine arménienne. Tout semble hélas indiquer
que la tradition qu’on croyait révolue du lâchage des Arméniens au
profit des intérêts du panturquisme est en train de reprendre ses
droits dans la République. Nous ne ferons pas ici le compte de
victimes qu’une telle attitude a déjà provoquées. Mais comment ne pas
s’indigner que ce type de pratique soit toujours en vigueur après tant
de malheurs accumulés ?Ara Toranian, directeur de “Nouvelles d’Arménie Magazine”
Article paru dans l’édition du 29.12.10—————————————————————————————————————————-
Point of view
Paris cowardly Armenians
Le Monde | 28.12.10 | 2:03 p.m. * Updated 29.12.10 | 1:14 p.m.The latest issue of diplomatic cables revealed by Wikileaks us that he
will not even take two months to Nicolas Sarkozy to betray its
commitments to the Armenian community in France about the law
criminalizing denial of Armenian genocide. On April 24, 2007, the UMP
candidate promised to support Senate ratification of the text already
passed by the National Assembly.Yet according to a telegram published by Wikileaks, Jean-David Levitte
(the Elysee diplomatic adviser), on a visit in Ankara May 29, 2007,
told his interlocutors that “Sarkozy will ensure that the bill of
Armenian genocide (criminalizing denial) died in the French Senate. “
We can better understand the arrogance of this denial, which grows
particularly through the French web sites sponsored by the Ankara
government. So this scourge, which serves as political aspect of the
genocide, which is its continuation by other means, will not only not
opposed by officials of public order, but it will benefit from the
benevolent neutrality of the head of the State.INTERESTS Turkism
That may well be worth the beautiful words spoken against the Armenian
community of France, but also the rhetoric of Nicolas Sarkozy on the
history and the lessons to be learned? Was it necessary to reward
Ankara this type of signal, just as inside the country, finally, a
movement of Turkish intellectuals in sight to apologize to the
Armenians? It will not be surprising then qu’éclairées by such
examples of the Turkish authorities do smiles while signing the West,
as they did in May, agreements for the supply of uranium to Iran. They
fight the blockade of Gaza while protecting the last sixteen years,
the one on Armenia. They demand an apology from Israel for the nine
dead Turkish fleet in June without ever uttering a word of regret for
the million and half Armenians murdered in 1915, and insulting their
memory every day .Misfortunes never come alone, this information Wikileaks comes a week
after another diplomatic dispatch published by the same site that Mr.
Roland Galharague , a senior official at the Quai d’Orsay , told
William Burns , U.S. Secretary defense, that the existence of a strong
Armenian community in France, obstruct proposals likely to bring peace
in Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave independence subjected to
hostility and threats of war between Turkey and the couple Azerbaijan.The question therefore arises what are these beautiful peace proposals
of the Quai d’Orsay, which might well upset at this point the French
of Armenian origin. Unfortunately everything seems to indicate that
they believed the tradition of dropping the Armenian past in favor of
the interests of Turkism is trying to regain his rights in the
Republic. We will not here on behalf of victims that such an attitude
has already caused. But how can we not be indignant that such practice
is still in effect after so many misfortunes accumulated?Ara Toranian, director of “Armenian News Magazine
Article published in the edition of 29.12.10