A 90-minute documentary on Armenian genocide allegations seems to strain Turkish-German relations.
After German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s official visit proclaimed World of the development in Turkish-German ties, a documentary about so called Armenian genocide prepared by German production directors caused the reaction of Turkish people.
The premiere of the documentary “Aghet-Ein Volkermord” is held in Babylon Cinema in Berlin on April 7. The 90-minute documentary is prepared by German directors in 2009 and 2010. German politicians, diplomats and Armenian community representatives in Germany were present during the premiere of the documentary. Armenia’s ambassador to Germany Armen Martirosyan and director of the movie Erik Fridler made speeches following the premiere. Attendance of German politicians to the event caused the reaction of Turkish people.
The documentary is expected to be shown other European countries besides German
Yerevan—We are at the brink of a pair of wars, civil and regional, and it is better to speak now. Armenia, that ancient civilization deprived by the tragedies of yore of its capacity for contemporary statecraft, needs immediately to put its house in democratic order. Finally responsible for its own record, it also has legitimate expectations of the international partnership.
In this global and so contracted century of ours, where resources and rights often compete for precedence, domestic demeanor and foreign affairs form part of one and the same policy agenda. Nuclear or not, all pieces count.
Armenia has finally to empower its citizenry, ensure due process and accountable government, and hold true elections. The corruption of state and its ill-disguised feudalesque vertical of post-Soviet power must give way to basic liberties and equal opportunities for all. Political prisoners should be released forthwith and those responsible for the deaths of ten citizens on March 1, 2008 brought to account. Justice must begin from within, or else civil strife is sure to ensue.
Modern independent statehood is an immeasurable gift that must not be squandered or ceded to anybody, friend or foe. Armenia’s security and armed forces are functions of its sovereignty, and no one, neither the Collective Security Treaty Organization nor NATO, should be called upon to guard its borders and its interests. Sound mutual relations with Russia, the United States, Europe and China are pivotally important, but Armenia must from now on be in sovereign command of its own frontiers and strategic assets. This choice should be universally respected.
The resetting of regional imperatives requires correlation with Armenia’s vital concerns.
Armenia and its people the world over shall never forget the great Genocide and the dispossession of their homeland. They cannot be expected, through protocols or other avenues of persuasion, to ratify their loss or to legitimize the fruits of genocide. These include an illegal de facto boundary negotiated by the Bolsheviks and Turkish Nationalists, the destruction of a thousand years worth of cultural heritage and architectural treasures, the mass expropriation of homes, schools, academies and other properties, and an abiding official escape from responsibility into the annals of schizophrenic denialism.
There is a growing current in Turkish society which seeks to look their history in the eye and thus to recast the exclusivist foundations of their state. They should be embraced and supported in their long-overdue self-discovery, just as the Turkish family who in 1915 saved my grandmother’s life by risking their own should find their due in the textbooks of tomorrow.
As with the Holocaust and the liberating leadership of postwar Germany, acknowledgment must beget atonement which, if anchored in truth, will lead to redemption, restitution, a right of return to a national home, and ultimate reconciliation between the Armenian and Turkish nations.
Armenia expects the world community to uphold and attach the rule of law, both internally and internationally, without seeking refuge in intellectually and legally false distinctions such as sui generis. Mountainous Karabagh’s case for post-Stalinist decolonization and independence is juridically at least as strong as, if not more than, Kosovo’s, Abkhazia’s, Eritrea’s or East Timor’s. It must formally be recognized—and within its existing constitutional borders—by Armenia and the very same countries that have extended recognition to the aforementioned. Supported by Turkey, Azerbaijan today is trying to breathe bellicose fire into its failed war of aggression, 1988-1994, against Mountainous Karabagh by which it lost any claim it rhetorically might ever have had. Contrary to Baku’s familiar projection of blame upon others, it alone holds in occupation the ancestral Armenian heartlands of Gardmank, Shahumian, Getashen, Artsvashen, and Nakhichevan. Let the refugees of all nationalities, including the local Azeris and the nearly one million Armenians displaced from these territories as well as from Azerbaijan proper, return to their places of origin. That is comme il faut, but there can be no further territorial adjustment without resolving the occupation above.
Georgia would do itself and its firm future relationship with Armenia a favor by defending in full the linguistic, cultural, civil, political and religious rights of its large Armenian community. The historically Armenian region of Javakhk must be given special consideration in terms of its identity, representative self-government, and connection with the Armenian republic. This is fundamental to both Armenia’s and Georgia’s national security, as is the requirement to release all ethnic Armenian prisoners from the injustice of their politically-driven incarceration.
Iran, too, shall change—at its pace and in its way. A long-standing bilateral rapport with Armenia as its basis, the Islamic Republic ought to work to improve its domestic performance and, among other things, to recognize the Holocaust. So too should Israel, as bearer of the Shoah, no longer rest complicit in the denial of the Armenian Genocide. Washington, Moscow and the capitals of Europe have a lot of critical rethinking to do in this connection.
The time, perhaps, has come for all past paradigms to shift their script. Whether classically geopolitical or energy-sourced, the curtain must soon fall on the east-west and north-south axes of yesterday’s cliché.
For the sake of little old Armenia and the grand New World.
Raffi Hovannisian, the Republic’s first foreign minister, is founding director of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies
Turkey and Greece on Thursday announced a series of measures to build confidence between the rival neighbors, including joint military training designed in part to ease years of tension over airspace and sea boundaries and a local arms race.
Turkey’s Foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the new moves ultimately could help limit arms spending.
As well, 10 key ministers, including those in charge of foreign and European Union affairs as well as energy and economy would meet at least twice a year, Davutoglu and Greece’s Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas announced.
The ministers said their armies would increase cooperation through joint training and conferences. The move is designed to encourage Turkish and Greek officers, who have for decades regarded each other as potential enemies, to work with each other.
The countries have been at odds for years over flight procedures over the Aegean Sea border. For decades, their warplanes have often engaged in mock dogfights.
“The measures will boost confidence between the two peoples and armies,” Droutsas told a joint news conference with Davutoglu.
Greece is suffering from a severe economic crisis and plans to cut defense spending in 2011 and 2012. Responding to a question over whether Turkey would follow Greece’s lead, Davutoglu said that there would be no need for arms spending if the neighbors could build a “common future.”
“We have a vision and it is not based on mutual threat but on mutual interests,” Davutoglu said. “If we manage to build a common future, there will be no need for defense spending.”
Davutoglu pointed out that his government has already reduced military spending, saying the government has spent more on education than arms in recent years.
EU-member Greece supports Turkey’s membership bid in the European Union, hoping that it will help solve territorial issues. The largest snag is the divided island of Cyprus where Turkey keeps about 40,000 troops.
Turkey began EU membership talks in 2005, but negotiations on some policy have been frozen over Turkey’s refusal to allow ships and planes from Cyprus to enter its ports and airspace, and the EU says Ankara must open its airspace to the EU member if it wants to get closer to membership itself.
In return, Turkey insists on the lifting of what it says is the unofficial trade embargo on the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the north of the island, which was divided into a Greek Cypriot south and a Turkish Cypriot north following Turkey’s 1974 invasion.
NEW YORK, NY – Harut Sassounian, publisher of The California Courier newspaper, will speak at the 95th commemoration of the Armenian Genocide which will take place on Sunday, April 25, from 2-4 pm, at Times Square, New York.
A seasoned writer whose weekly editorials appear widely in both Armenian and non-Armenian media, Sassounian also authored the book “The Armenian Genocide: The World Speaks Out, Documents and Declarations, 1915-2005,” which has been published in English and Arabic.
As President of the United Armenian Fund, the coalition of seven major Armenian-American organizations, Sassounian has managed the acquisition and delivery of $600 million of humanitarian aid to Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabagh) in the past 20 years. As Senior Vice President of The Lincy Foundation, Kirk Kerkorian’s charitable organization, he has overseen $240 million of infrastructure projects in Armenia and Artsakh. Sassounian has also served as a human rights delegate at the United Nations for 10 years and played a leading role in the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by a U.N. human rights committee in 1985.
In the private sector, Sassounian has extensive background as an international marketing executive for Procter & Gamble in Geneva, Switzerland.
He has earned a Master’s degree from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs and an MBA from Pepperdine University. For his humanitarian work, Sassounian has been decorated by the President and Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, the heads of the Armenian Apostolic and Catholic churches and is a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
The 95th commemoration of the Armenian Genocide in Times Square will pay tribute to the 1.5 million Armenians who were annihilated by the Young Turk Government of the Ottoman Empire (1915-1923). Major political figures will speak as well as civic, humanitarian, and educational leaders.
This event is sponsored by the Knights & Daughters of Vartan, a national fraternal organization, and co-sponsored by the Armenian General Benevolent Union, Armenian Assembly of America, Armenian National Committee of America, Armenian Democratic Liberal Party, and the Armenian Council of America. Participating organizations include the Diocese of the Armenian Church, Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Armenian Missionary Association of America, Armenian Evangelical Union, Armenian Catholic Eparchy, and several national Armenian youth organizations.
New York Commemoration of the 95th Anniversaty of the Armenian Genocide
PRESS RELEASE
Knights of Vartan
558 Hilltop Terrace
Cliffside Park, NJ 07010
Contact: Taleen Babayan
Tel: 201-693-3453
Email: [email protected]
Web: april24timessquare.
wordpress.com
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — On Sunday, April 25, 2010, for the 25th year,
thousands of Armenian Americans and people against genocide will gather in
Times Square from 2-4 PM to commemorate the first genocide of the 20th
Century, the Armenian Genocide (*Medz Yeghern*). The new theme is “Turkey is
the Question, America is the Answer.”
This historic event will pay tribute to the 1.5 million Armenians who were
annihilated by the Young Turk Government of the Ottoman Empire (1915-1923)
and address the consequences which are still with us today. Government
leaders and the news media have recently been preoccupied with
Turkish-Armenians relations and the closed borders in the Caucasus.
Major political figures will speak as well as civic, humanitarian, and
educational leaders.
This event is sponsored by the Knights & Daughters of Vartan, a national
fraternal organization, and co-sponsored by the Armenian General Benevolent
Union, Armenian Assembly of America, Armenian National Committee of America,
Armenian Democratic Liberal Party, and the Armenian Council of America.
Participating Organizations include the Diocese of the Armenian Church,
Prelacy of the Armenian Church, Armenian Missionary Association of America,
Armenian Missionary Association, Armenian Evangelical Union, Armenian
Catholic Eparchy, and several national Armenian youth organizations.
Armenian Genocide Commemoration Essay Contest for High School
and College Students
Co-Sponsored by The Knights & Daughters of Vartan and
Facing History and Ourselves
High School and College students are invited to participate in an essay contest to actively support the 95th Anniversary Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide that will be held in Times Square on Sunday, April 25, 2010 from 2-4 pm. Co-sponsors of the contest include the Knights & Daughters of Vartan, www.knightsofvartan.org, a U.S. fraternal organization of Armenian-Americans and Facing History and Ourselves,www.facinghistory.org, an international educational and professional development organization.
One winner and two runner-ups will be selected by a distinguished panel of judges. First place winner will receive $300, second place runner-up will receive $200 and third place runner-up will receive $100. The winners will also be recognized at the Armenian Genocide Commemoration at Times Square on Sunday, April 25, 2010 and depending on time constraints, may read their essays.
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: Wednesday, March 31, 2010
QUESTION TO ADDRESS IN ESSAY (800 words maximum, double-spaced 11 point Arial type: Please include student’s full name, age, teacher’s full name and subject area, name of high school or college, year in school, hometown/state, phone #, and email address at the top of each page of the essay.)
“As we commemorate the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, why is it critically important to achieve international recognition?”
ANNOUNCEMENT OF WINNERS
The three winners will be contacted directly and announced to the mainstream and Armenian media the week of Monday, April 12.
PLEASE SUBMIT ESSAYS VIA EMAIL BY WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 2010
Armenian Genocide Survivors Tell Their Personal Stories at New York Armenian Home
Three Armenian Genocide survivors recounted their stories of survival at the New York Armenian Home in Flushing, Queens on Sunday afternoon March 21.
While almost a century has passed, Charlotte Kechejian, Oronik Eminian and Arsalo Dadir, residents of the Armenian Home, vividly remembered their tragic past and told their stories to various reporters representing the New York Times, NY1 television channel, Queens Gazette and Queens Tribune.
Born in Nikhda in 1912, 97 year-old Charlotte Kechejian credited her mother in helping her survive the death marches through the Der Zor desert during the Armenian Genocide. Barely six years old, Kechejian’s father was killed during the genocide. “I asked my mother if my father had left because I had done something wrong,” recalled Kechejian, an only child. She remembers walking endlessly through the desert, thirsty for water and hungry for food. “My mother kept saying that we just had to walk a little more, but that `little more’ never ended.”
At the age of 10, Kechejian and her mother moved to New York with the help of an uncle who had already settled in the US. She spoke highly of her mother’s strength to move to a new country barely speaking English and earn a living for her family as a seamstress. Her mother, who insisted her daughter earn her high school diploma, eventually opened her own grocery store on 33rd street in Manhattan, and with her daughter’s permission remarried.
“We went through a lot,” said Kechejian, “but we’re still alive.”
While many survivors’ only scars are emotional, this is not true for 97 year-old Onorik Eminian, who repeatedly pointed to the scar on her forehead, the result of being hit on the head with a rifle butt by a Turkish soldier. Eminian, born in Izmir, witnessed the death of her parents, sister and two brothers who were tortured and then killed by the Turks.
At the age of eight, the Red Cross placed her in an orphanage and she later made her way to Greece and then to the U.S. in 1930 with her grandmother. She lived in Astoria until she moved to the New York Armenian Home a few years ago.
Born in Shabin Karahisar in 1913, Arsaloys Dadir’s father was killed by the Young Turks when he was 25 years old. Her uncle, a doctor, was one of the 300 martyrs killed on April 24, 1915 when Armenian leaders, including members of the Turkish Parliament were rounded up and murdered.
Dadir remembers hundreds of bodies piled on top of each other. Luckily, her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother were able to seek refuge with a wealthy Turkish family. Despite her own family’s wealth, they lost all of their money and land during the genocide. The family eventually moved to Constantinople, where Dadir married and raised two children, moving to the U.S. later in life.
All three survivors are scheduled to be present in Times Square for the 95th Armenian Genocide Commemoration in Times Square, organized by the Mid-Atlantic Chapters of the Knights and Daughters of Vartan, which will take place on Sunday, April 25 from 2-4 pm.
Armenian Home Director Aggie Ellian showing a newspaper clipping of Charlotte Kechejian’s picture in Washington DC when she recently attended the House Foreign Affairs Committee vote on the Armenian Genocide Resolution.
Armenian Genocide survivors Oronik Eminian, Arsaloys Dadir and Charlotte Kechejian
Dr. Papazian explaining the historical facts of the Armenian Genocide to New York-based media
It may surprise some to learn that I had not been to Artsakh (Karabagh) until last week.
Of course, I always wanted to go to Artsakh, but not as a mere tourist. I wanted to visit Artsakh on a special occasion which finally came on March 31. As Senior Vice President of The Lincy Foundation, I participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony of a newly built school in Stepanakert, the capital of Artsakh. Funded mostly by The Lincy Foundation and partially by the Government of Artsakh, the project was successfully implemented by Save the Children.
The Grand Opening of the school was attended by government officials led by President of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan, and other dignitaries. The new school will accommodate 350 students. It was a great day of celebration for the people of Stepanakert, as parents and students expressed their joy and gratitude for this state-of-the-art facility.
Beyond the high quality of construction, what impressed me most was Artsakh’s self-sufficiency! All supplies and materials, including school desks and cabinets, were produced in Artsakh, providing employment and income to the local population. Nothing imported from Turkey!
During my brief stay in Artsakh, I had the opportunity to see some of the ancient cathedrals and majestic mountains of the region, which visitors often compare with the beauty of Switzerland. I met the leaders of the fledgling republic who are doing their utmost to provide prosperity for their 150,000 citizens as well as protection from periodic Azeri attacks.
The people of Artsakh are comforted, knowing that they are not alone. Millions of Armenians around the world support their struggle for survival against all odds in this secluded ancient land.
I had no difficulty relating to the local people, as my grandparents hail from Zeytoun, in Cilicia, a mountainous region, not unlike Artsakh, with a warrior population that successfully fought for five centuries against constant attacks by the powerful Ottoman Army. Zeytoun was known as the “Eagles’ Nest,” an apt name for Artsakh.
It was clear from my conversations with leaders and people of Artsakh that they would never accept to live under Azerbaijan’s yoke again! The young generation was born and raised in Free Artsakh. It is out of question for them to be under Azeri occupation. The older generation, which spilled blood to gain Artsakh’s precious freedom, will never again accept any form of foreign domination.
While the heroic Artsakh people have paid the ultimate price for their independence — sacrificing their lives — they only ask the rest of us to contribute funds, time and energy to support their just cause!
It was a great honor for me to be asked by Prof. Gourgen Melikian, Dean of Faculty of Oriental Studies at Yerevan State University and a devoted Artsakh volunteer, to plant a walnut tree near the village of Berzor, in the Lachin Corridor, linking Armenia with Artsakh.
Prof. Melikian had made all the arrangements for the planting ceremony. He had the walnut tree seedling, a shovel, a watering pot, and an appropriate recitation for the occasion. I noticed that there were many other young trees nearby, indicating Prof. Melikian’s determination not to let any visitor pass through the Lachin Corridor, without planting a tree.
The most touching moment of the ceremony arrived when Prof. Melikian, holding a glass of red wine in his hand, recited a moving Armenian poem about tree planting written by Leon Zaven Surmelian in 1924. Here is my rough translation of that beautiful poem:
Bless this tender tree, O Lord; I plant it here
In crumbling black soil, where my forebears lie
As their mighty progeny, master of this land anew,
I grow under the sun, with their name on my lips.
This grand tree shall extend its arms and soul,
Embracing my forebears’ immortal fiery breath;
O Lord, let this lonesome, graceful tree be a prayer,
And a cuddling object for young lovers.
The olden history of these memorable lands
Brings tears to my eyes. Glory and death aplenty
In my ancient land, whose fierce progeny I am,
With bountiful thoughts, and soothing dreams.
This tree I planted, as a cross for my departed ones.
While listening to this inspiring poem, I made a vow to return often to this cherished land, to water my tree and defend the ground upon which it stands. May this walnut tree grow mighty with deep roots, and bear fruit for generations to come!
• Elland Road protest marked 10 years since death of fans
• MP demands action from foreign secretary
Press Association
guardian.co.uk, Monday 5 April 2010 15.42 BST
Floral tributes were laid by Leeds fans at Elland Road to mark the 10th anniversary of the killing of two supporters in Turkey. Illustration: Dave Higgens/PA
Hundreds of football fans gathered today to mark the 10th anniversary of the killing of two Leeds United supporters in Turkey and called for “justice” in their case.
Christopher Loftus, 35, and Kevin Speight, 40, were stabbed to death in Taksim Square on the night before the club’s Uefa Cup semi-final against Galatasaray on 5 April 2000.
About 300 Leeds United fans gathered outside Elland Road in Leeds today. They laid dozens of bunches of flowers, team shirts, scarves and other tributes around the statute of Billy Bremner and also at the brass plaque a few metres away which commemorates the deaths.
Chris Loftus’s brother, Andy, stood alongside the Leeds North East MP, Fabian Hamilton, who told the crowd Turkey needed to do more to bring those responsible to justice. Hamilton said he had also written to the foreign secretary, David Miliband, to ask him to put pressure on the Turkish authorities.
A number of people were arrested following the deaths in 2000 and four men were found guilty of involvement in the murders by the Turkish courts but all still remain free as they pursue an apparently interminable appeal process.
“There’s a very, very strong feeling, especially amongst the families, that justice has not been done and nor has it seen to be done in Istanbul,” said Hamilton.
“The people arrested and convicted of these dreadful murders have never actually served any time in jail – they’ve been released on bail pending appeal for the last few years. No trial date has been given for that appeal hearing.
“This is absolutely appalling and I’ve been putting pressure on the foreign secretary and on the chief constable of West Yorkshire to take some action to pressurise the Turks to actually so something.”
Asked what influence the UK can bring on Turkey, the Labour MP said: “Turkey has ambitions to join the European Union and I think this could be part of that pressure on the Turks to put their judicial system in order, to see that justice has to be seen to be done especially for the families here who are very angry that nothing’s happened and that the people who are guilty of these crimes have never actually served any time in jail.
“That’s appalling and that’s the pressure we can put on the Turkish government. They want to join the EU. They’d better get their judicial system in order and they’d better ensure that the families here are satisfied that justice has been done.”
After Hamilton addressed the crowd, those who gathered, including many children, observed a two-minute silence.
A one-minute silence was also observed before Leeds United’s 2-1 victory over Yeovil at Huish Park. Both teams wore black armbands in memory of the killed supporters and Leeds fans, in an echo of what happened before the Uefa Cup match against Galatasaray took place on 6 April 2000, turned their backs on the match for the first minute in protest at the lack of justice for the Loftus and Speight families.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2010/apr/05/leeds-kevin-speight-chris-loftus, 5 April 2010
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in Times Square
Attorney Mark Geragos speaking at the commemoration
Members of the St. John University Armenian Club in Times Square
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) in Times Square
Armenian youth commemorating the Armenian Genocide
Armenian youth in Times Square
