Armenian Genocide Information Centre (UK)

Turkey: Repression continues despite so-called ’reforms’

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:19:00 +0000

According to the independent Turkish press, AKP Minister of Justice, Mr. Mehmet Ali Şahin, has authorized the prosecution of Turkish intellectual dissident Temel Demirer under Article 301. During a tribute dedicated to Hrant Dink, Temel Demirer stated: “We live in a country where not shouting the truth makes us complicit in the murder. Hrant was killed not only because he was an Armenian, but because he voiced the truth about the Genocide in this country. If Turkish intellectuals do not commit the crime outlined in Article 301 301 times, then they will be accomplices to this murder. There is genocide in our history. It’s called the Armenian Genocide. […]. Those who massacred Armenians yesterday are attacking our Kurdish brothers today. Those who desire the brotherhood of peoples must reconcile with this history. […]. I ask everyone to commit this crime. Yes, there was Armenian Genocide in this country.”

AVIVA IS 11TH INSURER SUED BY VICTIMS OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:16:00 +0000

Los Angeles, CA--Descendants of the Armenian Genocide filed a class action lawsuit yesterday against Aviva, a British Insurance company that is the successor in interest to Norwich Union and Commercial Union, companies that sold insurance to Armenians in Turkish Ottoman Empire prior to the 1915 genocide (Baghtchedjian and Papazyan et al vs. Aviva et al , U.S. District Court, Central District of Calif.). The lawsuit seeks to recover life and fire insurance benefits that were wrongfully withheld from beneficiaries of those killed during the genocide . AVIVA is the 11th insurance company to be sued on behalf of Armenian Genocide victims and their heirs. Raffi Baghtchedjian and Nisan Papazyan, the lead plaintiffs of the federal class action lawsuit, are suing on behalf of all Armenians who owned Norwich Union life insurance and Commercial Union life and fire insurance policies during the Armenian Genocide, and whose beneficiaries were never paid insurance benefits. Baghtchedjian and Papazyan are represented by attorney Vartkes Yeghiayan of Glendale-based Yeghiayan & Associates, who is co-counsel for similar class action cases, including Marootian v. New York Life Insurance Company, Kyurkjian v. Axa, Movsesian v. Victoria Versicherung AG, and Deirmenjian, v. Deutsche Bank AG. From 1880 to 1915, many Armenians living in Turkey purchased life and fire insurance policies from various European and American Insurance companies. This case involves those who purchased policies from Norwich Union and Commercial union. On April 24, 1915, the Turkish Ottoman Empire launched a systematic campaign to destroy Armenians through a process of massacre and deportation, known as the Armenian Genocide. Between 1915 and 1922, approximately two million Armenians perished as a result. Among the victims were the owners of life and fire insurance policies issued by Norwich Union and Commercial union. "These companies never paid benefits to victims of the Armenian Genocide or their heirs," says Yeghiayan. In the lawsuit, Baghtchedjian and Papazyan are asking the federal court for an order requiring Aviva to identify the insurance benefits that belong to Armenians, identify the rightful heirs and to pay the benefits to them. "For more than 93 years, Aviva and its subsidiary companies have been holding millions of dollars that belong to the heirs of the victims of the Armenian Genocide," says Yeghiayan. " No organization should be allowed to profit from genocide, but until now, Aviva has had no incentive to identify the rightful heirs and pay the money owed to them. With this federal lawsuit, we intend to give them an incentive."

Turkey’s President Makes Historic Visit to Armenia

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:25:00 +0000

Turkey’s president arrived in Armenia on Saturday, the first visit by a Turkish leader in the two nations’ history. The president, Abdullah Gul, was invited by the Armenian president, Serge Sargsyan, to attend a soccer game in Yerevan, the capital, between the national teams.

The trip was widely seen as a symbolic gesture to normalize relations between the countries, which have recognized each other but have not established diplomatic relations. The two nations have deeply held disagreements about what is widely referred to as the Armenian genocide, in which more than one million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Army in the early 1900s.

Many Western countries support the genocide designation, but the official narrative in Turkey is that both Turks and Armenians were killed in warfare as the Ottoman Empire dissolved. The issue remains taboo in Turkey; many writers and intellectuals, including the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, have faced criminal charges for discussing the events that began in 1915.

Robert Fisk's World: A voice recovered from Armenia's bitter past

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:50:00 +0000

It's a tiny book, only 116 pages long, but it contains a monumental truth, another sign that one and a half million dead Armenians will not go away. It's called My Grandmother: a Memoir and it's written by Fethiye Cetin and it opens up graves. For when she was growing up in the Turkish town of Marden, Fethiye's grandmother Seher was known as a respected Muslim housewife. It wasn't true. She was a Christian Armenian and her real name was Heranus. We all know that the modern Turkish state will not acknowledge the 1915 Armenian Holocaust, but this humble book may help to change that. Because an estimated two million Turks – alive in Turkey today – had an Armenian grandparent.

As children they were put on the death marches south to the Syrian desert but – kidnapped by brigands, sheltered by brave Muslim villagers (whose own courage also, of course, cannot be acknowledged by Turkey) or simply torn from their dying mothers – later became citizens of the modern Turkey which Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was to set up. Yet as Maureen Freely states in her excellent preface, four generations of Turkish schoolchildren simply do not know Ottoman Anatolia was between a quarter and a half Christian.

United States: we hold Ottomans responsible for crimes against Armenians

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:52:00 +0000

"In new correspondence with the U.S. Congress on World War I-era killings of Armenians in the Ottoman empire, U.S. President George W. Bush's administration has continued to avoid using the word "genocide," but also says it holds Ottoman officials responsible for crimes against Armenians.

"The administration recognizes that mass killings, ethnic cleansing, and forced deportations of over one and a half million Armenians were conducted by the Ottoman Empire. We indeed hold Ottoman officials responsible for those crimes," Matthew Reynolds, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for legislative affairs said in a letter to Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The letter reached Biden hours before the committee voted Tuesday to support Marie Yovanovitch, Bush's nominee for ambassador to Armenia."

Is Turkey Muzzling U.S. Scholars? (Inside Higher Education)

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:19:00 +0000

Scholars of the Armenian genocide have long accused Turkey of using its financial support to promote the idea that a genocide didn’t take place or that the jury is still out — views that have little credibility among historians of genocide.

An incident in 2006, only recently being talked about publicly, has some scholars concerned that Turkey and its supporters may be interfering in American scholarship. The chair of the board of the Institute of Turkish Studies, which is based at Georgetown University, resigned at the end of 2006, and he says he was given a choice by Turkish officials of either quitting or seeing the funding for the institute go away.

At least one scholarly group that has investigated the matter recently issued a report backing the ousted chair, and at least one other board member has resigned while another has called for more discussion of the accusations. The executive director of the institute, while flatly saying that the ousted chair is wrong, confirmed that he was asked by Turkish Embassy officials to have the scholar talk with the Turkish ambassador to the United States about an article where he used the word “genocide” in reference to what happened to the Armenians. It was after that talk that the chair — Donald Quataert — quit.

The fact that Quataert is at the center of the controversy is significant. A historian at the State University of New York at Binghamton, Quataert is an expert on the Ottoman Empire. In the 1980s, when the scholarly consensus about the Armenian genocide was not as broad as it is today, he signed a statement calling for more research on whether a genocide took place. Quataert says today he never thought the statement would be used as it was by Turkish supporters to question claims of a genocide, but he notes that as a result of his having signed at the time, he was viewed favorably by the Turkish government and with considerable skepticism by Armenians. And it is Quataert who used the word “genocide” in a journal and who says he was given a choice by the Turkish ambassador, Nabi Sensoy, of quitting as the institute’s chair or seeing its financing disappear.

Misrepresenting the issues in Nagorno-Karabakh

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:30:00 +0000

Ambassador Gabrielyan's response to Alexandros Petersen's misleading and biased article in the Guardian.

Armenian Council's response to Alexandros Petersen's article in the Guardian

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:25:00 +0000

Dear Sir,

We were very disappointed to see Alexandros Petersen's misinformed and ill-judged article on Nagorno-Karabakh being published in the Guardian on 7th of June.

Despite his affiliations Mr Petersen shows surprising lack of understanding of that part of the world or what is even more worrying, shows unacceptable lack of impartiality for a scholar. The article gives rise to a number of questions, particularly whether Mr Petersen has ever been to Karabakh and what sources he has consulted before penning his article?

Mr Petersen's article is an example of scholars getting involved in political propaganda and misinformation; is it a coincidence that Mr Petersen was recently a guest of honour at the Azeri Embasy in London for a launch of a propaganda book paid for by the Azeri foreign ministry? His close involvement with the government of Azerbaijan raises serious doubts about his impartiality while writing on this subject.

Despite not being formally recognised, the government of Karabakh is going to great lengths to follow international norms in an effort to demonstrate the country's values and aspirations despite no shortage of bellicose rhetoric and threats from the Azerbaijan. Such one-sided and misinformed articles are not going to contribute to the climate of understanding and peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict.

We join the Rt Hon Baroness Cox and other individuals much better informed about the current state of affairs in Karabakh in stating that Mr Petersen's article has little to do with reality and perhaps more to do with a biased viewpoint.

Yours faithfully,

Edgar Danielyan FRSA FBCS

The Armenian Council
London WC1N 3XX

Baroness Cox responds to misinformed article by A. Petersen

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:50:00 +0000

The Editor
Guardian Newspaper

Your article on 'the Black Hole' of Nagorno Karabakh by Alexandros Petersen (June 7) contains so many false allegations and untruths that it would be laughable if the implications were not so serious.

I was in Nagorno Karabakh last week and I can personally testify to the ridiculous nature of the claims that 'Karabakh is a black hole that attracts arms, drug and human trafficking, money laundering and organised crime. Chances are that heroin on London's streets, illegal weapons in the Paris banlieue, and the underage prostitutes in Berlin either came through a conflict zone such as Karabakh , or were trafficked by a network that uses the area to facilitate its operations.'

These allegations are outrageous. The Armenians in Karabakh had to defend their land against well-documented attempted ethnic cleansing by Azerbaijan in a bitter war from 1991-1994, During that war, Islamist terrorists fought on the side of Azerbaijan against the Armenians of Karabakh, who are now rebuilding their shattered lives and land with laudable commitment to democratic principles (their elections have been declared free and fair by independent respected international observers).

My charitable organisation supports a Rehabilitation Centre for people with disabilities which has become recognised by many professional visitors as a Centre of Excellence, disseminating innovative good practice throughout the South Caucasus. Over the years, I have encouraged as many as a thousand people to visit this historic land; we have travelled widely throughout the small region and every visitor has been inspired by the graciousness, openness and warm hospitality of the people. All would join me in signing this letter of rebuttal of the outrageously absurd and misleading allegations in your article.

Yours faithfully,

The Baroness Cox
House of Lords

State of Denial: Turkey Spends Millions to Cover Up Armenian Genocide

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 11:35:00 +0000

"A lie isn't the other side of any story. It's just a lie. When it comes to the historical reality of the Armenian genocide, there is no 'Armenian' or 'Turkish' side of the question, any more than there is a 'Jewish' or 'German' side of the historical reality of the Holocaust," writes Torben Jorgensen, of the Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. "There is a scientific side and an unscientific side — acknowledgement or denial."

Turkey, Armenia and the Defence of Free Expression

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Sun, 18 May 2008 19:33:00 +0000

Scars in Turkish-Armenian history remain far from healed. Visiting the ICA to discuss the situation in Turkey, and the place of Armenians, will be four figures closely involved with defending the threatened position of free expression there: Fethiye Çetin, author of My Grandmother (Verso 2008), which describes Çetin’s discovery of her Muslim grandmother’s true Armenian Christian identity, translator and writer Maureen Freely, Armenian writer and filmmaker Nouritza Matossian, and Ragip Zarakolu, one of Turkey’s best-known dissident publishers and winner of the 2008 IPA Freedom to Publish Prize. The event will be chaired by Lisa Appignanesi, President of English PEN.

Thursday 19th June, 7pm
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH

£10 / £9 Concessions / £8 ICA Members
TO BOOK TICKETS VISIT www.ica.org.uk OR CALL 020 7930 3647

Armenia Marks Genocide Anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:42:00 +0000

Hundreds of thousands of people silently marched to the hilltop genocide memorial in Yerevan on Thursday to pay their respects to more than one million Armenians massacred in Ottoman Turkey from 1915-1918.

An incessant stream of people of different ages walked up to the Tsitsernakabert hill overlooking the city and laid flowers around its eternal fire throughout the day. It marked the 93rd anniversary of the arrests of hundreds of Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople that were followed by the mass killings and deportations of Armenians from eastern regions of the crumbling Ottoman Empire.

Many historians consider the massacres the first genocide of the 20th century. Modern-day Turkey insists, however, that they did not constitute genocide, saying that Armenians died in smaller number and not as a result of a premeditated government policy.

As always, the annual remembrance of genocide victims began at Tsitsernakabert with a prayer service led by the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Garegin II. The ceremony was broadcast live by national television and attended by President Serzh Sarkisian and other top state officials.

In a written statement, Sarkisian called the mass killings and deportations of Ottoman Armenians a “crime against humanity” that must be recognized and condemned by the entire world. He said Armenia’s government will campaign for that alongside the worldwide Armenian Diaspora.

“There is hardly a family [in Armenia] that was not affected by those tragic events,” Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian told reporters after laying a wreathe at the memorial. “That tragedy directly or indirectly knocked on the doors of every Armenian family. We must learn lessons from history.”

“May God give us the wisdom to learn those lessons and prevent a repeat of such tragedies in the future,” he said.

Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian also spoke of the need to draw such lessons. “Everything must be done to ensure that our country and our people are protected,” he said. “That requires planned steps and hard work.”

“We are duly remembering genocide victims,” said Eduard Sedrakian, rector of the National Academy of Fine Arts. “I hope we will work, build and create things with the same diligence. As they say, the only way to fight against death is to live.”

The April 24 commemoration was also used by opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian and his allies for rallying more than 10,000 supporters in downtown Yerevan despite heavy police presence in and around Liberty Square, the scene of massive opposition demonstrations staged in the wake of the recent presidential election. Ignoring police orders to keep to the sidewalks and chanting anti-government slogans, crowd marched to the Tsitsernakabert hill where it was joined by Ter-Petrosian. Although the latter headed to his nearby house after laying flowers at the genocide memorial, most of the opposition supporters did not disperse and walked back to the city center.

Late Ottoman genocides: the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and Young Turkish population and extermination policies

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 11:18:00 +0000

By Dominik J. Schaller, Jürgen Zimmerer

From 1899 to 1922, the Swiss deacon Jakob Künzler (1871-1949) headed a missionary hospital in Ourfa, an old city in South-Eastern Anatolia. During his time in the Eastern Provinces of the Ottoman Empire, Künzler became an important eyewitness to the Young Turks' project of large-scale ethnic cleansing and genocide. In October 1915, Künzler had to witness the destruction of the Armenian community in Ourfa when the desperate Armenian resistance against the deportation orders was bloodily suppressed by the Ottoman army. Even before this event, the Swiss deacon was well aware of the Young Turks' policy of extermination. Since Ourfa was a significant regional crossroad, many convoys of Armenian deportees on their way to the Syrian desert passed the city. Künzler tried to relieve as much as possible the distress and pain of the Armenian deportees, who were in a deplorable condition. Furthermore, he made sure their fate was not forgotten. In his book In the Land of Blood and Tears, published in 1921 in Germany, Künzler described vividly his horrible experiences in Ourfa during World War I.

As a missionary, Jakob Künzler was very much indebted emotionally to his Armenian coreligionists and felt open sympathy for them. Nevertheless, he understood that the fate of the Armenians was only part and parcel of a wider strategy of population policy by the Young Turkish government. In his above-mentioned report, Künzler stated: "The Young Turks did not only include Armenians and Kurds but also Arabs in their plan of extermination."3 This is a remarkable statement in two respects. First of all, Künzler talks about a policy of extermination and not only about resettlement, as some groups wanted to make the world believe then and now. Second, he did not turn a blind eye to the fate of Muslims like the Arabs and Kurds, but identified them as fellow victims of Christian groups such as the Armenians. In particular, the deportation of Kurds from Erzerum and Bitlis in the winter of 1916 made quite an impression on him, as the following report about these deportations and their consequences shows:

No European newspaper has reported that the same Young Turks, who wanted to exterminate the Armenians, drove the Kurds who had been living in Upper Armenia from their house and home. Like the Armenians, the Kurds were accused of being unconfident elements that would join sides with the Russians. The deportation of the Kurds from the regions of Djabachdjur, Palu, Musch and from the Vilajets of Erzerum and Bitlis was carried out in the winter of 1916. About 300,000 Kurds had to wander southwards. First they were placed in Upper Mesopotamia, especially in the region of Ourfa, but also westward from Aintab and Marasch. Then in the summer of 1917, the transport of the Kurds to the Konya Plateau began. The most horrible thing was that the deportations were carried out in the middle of the winter. When the deportees reached a Turkish village in the evening, the inhabitants were afraid and closed the doors of their homes. Thus, the poor Kurds had to stay outside in the rain and snow. The next morning, the villagers had to dig mass graves for those frozen to death. The suffering of the surviving Kurds who finally reached Mesopotamia was far from being over. The winter of 1917/18 brought new hardship. Despite a good harvest, almost all of the deported Kurds fell victim to a terrible famine.

"State of Israel has Jewish obligation to recognize Armenian Genocide"

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 10:27:00 +0000

The Knesset has recently regained its honor by retracting its old stance and deciding that the recognition of the Armenian genocide must be discussed by parliament. About a year ago, the Knesset plenum rejected a proposal to discuss the same forgotten genocide, which took place during World War I and during which nearly a third of the Armenian people were murdered by the Turks.

...

The Jewish nation has produced the national-Zionist movement, which has no match in terms of moral leadership in recent centuries. How can we, of all nations, forget the catastrophes that have befallen, and that still befall, other nations?

The State of Israel is an eternal memorial for "Thou shalt not forget." The terrible holocaust that has been inflicted on us has etched onto our identity - alongside the national tragedy - the sympathy, sensitivity and cry against the disasters of other people, even when this involves national embarrassment or a certain diplomatic price.

With regards to the Armenian holocaust – the discussion in the Knesset on the question of recognizing it as genocide conveys sympathy and solidarity with the ethnic tragedy, more than an accusation. The Knesset does not wish to condemn modern Turkey, but to act as Jews who are subjected to the judgment of history. We cannot, in the name of political or diplomatic wisdom, suppress such fundamental human values, which touch on the roots of our tragic existence.

Bernard-Henri Levy on the denial of the Armenian Genocide

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:42:00 +0000

The Armenian genocide - why Britain is at fault

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 11:17:00 +0000

Interview by Chris Green

Thursday, 21 February 2008

Donald Bloxham is professor of modern history at the University of Edinburgh. He argues that the extermination of approximately one million Armenian Christians by Ottoman-Turkish authorities during the First World War was genocide, and that Britain is guilty of hypocrisy in its attitude towards the events.

The Kurdish and Armenian Genocides: From Censorship and Denial to Recognition

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:24:00 +0000

Turkey’s repression of the Kurds has been widely documented - and is acknowledged as a major obstacle to Turkey’s accession to the European Union. But what lies behind such repression? Fernandes confronts the issue head on, forcing the reader to probe a question that many in Turkey and elsewhere would rather avoid: does the systematic repression of the Kurds amount to genocide? Open discussion of this issue is critical if a long-term resolution of the Kurdish issue is to be achieved – Nicholas Hildyard, Policy Analyst.

The book is an exceptionally important read for anyone with a broad interest in human rights and social justice. It has a scholarly account of the historical background to the present awful situation of Turkish Armenians and Turkish Kurds. In particular, the book provides a powerful comparative analysis of the policies of the US, Israel and Turkey in terms of their rationale for labelling human atrocities as genocide – Dr. Julia Kathleen Davidson, Research Fellow, Faculty of Education, University of Glasgow and Membership Secretary of Scotland Against Criminalising communities (SACC).

In this important book, Desmond Fernandes exposes the details of the sordid and largely hidden role of Israel and the US Israel Lobby in preventing Congress from recognizing the Turkish genocide of the Armenians – Jeff Blankfort, Former Editor, Middle East Labor Bulletin.

Among its Cold War victories the United States certainly succeeded in its ambition to make the world safe for nationalism. As identity politics is reprocessed as a function of global capital, and rehabilitated as its natural ally, Desmond Fernandes documents the fractured consequences of the ready-made social fantasy - Variant: Cross Currents in Culture.

Desmond Fernandes writes for those who spoke the truth and were murdered, those who spoke 200 days ago and are still imprisoned, and for those who live in terror and in silence, or who meet in nameless buildings, so that the words ‘GENOCIDE’, ethnic cleansing, or the Turkish military word ‘TEMIZLEME’, may be heard as a siren call for the muted victims of the Turkish state - Diamanda Galás, Composer and Performer of Songs of Exile, Vena Cava, Schrei X, Plague Mass and Defixiones, Will And Testament.

Fernandes’ painstaking investigation sheds much needed light on the collusion between the Turkish State and the Israel lobby in preventing recognition of one of the darkest episodes of the past century, the genocide of Ottoman Turkey’s ethnic Armenians - Muhammad Idrees Ahmad, Spinwatch.

[This is] a judiciously assembled vast, syntactic mosaic ‘illustrating’ the total state terror inflicted upon two ancient peoples ... Desmond Fernandes has laboriously integrated a vast amount of historical events, scholarly data, secret documents, live witnesses, relevant literature and even poetry ... [He] has hit the target: mainly encapsulating the enormity of censorship, denial and recognition of that ultimate crime of man’s inhumanity to man - Genocide - Khatchatur I. Pilikian [from the Epilogue].

Desmond Fernandes is a policy analyst and former Senior Lecturer in Human Geography and Genocide Studies at De Montfort University, England. He has published widely in a number of journals and is co-author of Genozid an den Kurden in der Türkei? - Verfolgung, Krieg und Zerstörung der ethnischen Identität (2001, Medico International, Frankfurt). Forthcoming titles by the author include The Kurdish Genocide in Turkey and US, UK, German, Israeli and NATO ‘Inspired’ Psychological Warfare Operations against the ‘Kurdish Threat’ in Turkey and Northern Iraq, due to shortly be released by Apec Press, Stockholm.

Change of name and expansion of activities

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:14:00 +0000

With effect from 14 February 2008, the Armenian Genocide Trust of Great Britain has been renamed the Armenian Council to better reflect broader scope of our current and future activities. More information on the Armenian Council and its activities will be available in due course from the Council's web site at www.armeniancouncil.org.

Decision of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court on the Perincek case (in French)

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:45:00 +0000

Attached is the published decision of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court in the case of Swiss Armenian Association and Ministere public du canton de Vaud vs. Dogu Perincek. The Swiss Federal Supreme Court has upheld the decisions of lower courts convicting Mr Perincek of racism and negationism of the Armenian Genocide. The Court has affirmed the historical fact of the Armenian Genocide which is beyond legitimate historical debate. The decision of the Court is final and is not subject to appeal in Switzerland. We congratulate the Swiss people and the Swiss Armenian community for this victory of justice over intimidation and propaganda.

For Hrant, for Justice: The ongoing struggle for freedom of expression in Turkey

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 10:32:00 +0000

7pm Thursday 28 February 2008
Amnesty International UK - The Human Rights Action Centre

Amnesty International UK, in association with English PEN, the Armenian Institute and Index on Censorship invite you to this special event. It will be one year on from “Sincerity, My Only Weapon”: A tribute to Hrant Dink which was held at the HRAC and marked the fortieth day after the murder of Hrant Dink, Editor in Chief of the bilingual Armenian and Turkish weekly AGOS.

Through his journalism, Dink sought to heal the scars in Turkish-Armenian history. His commitment to full and frank dialogue led to his conviction in 2005 under Article 301 of the Turkish penal code for “denigrating the Turkish state”. He was murdered on Friday January 19th 2007 in front of his Istanbul office.

The event will see the premier screening of a 50-minute documentary by Nouritza Matossian of in-depth interviews with Hrant Dink. This is followed by a panel discussion with:

Nouritza Matossian – Writer and Broadcaster
Ayse Onal - Writer and Broadcaster
Andrew Gardner – AI Turkey Researcher

The event will be followed by a reception.

Booking details

7pm Thursday 28th February 2008 (Doors open at 6.30pm)

Amnesty International UK, The Human Rights Action Centre, 17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA

Tickets are free of charge - Book online at www.amnesty.org.uk/events or call 020 7033 1585

Motion 797 on the Armenian Genocide by Andrew Dismore MP

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 10:26:00 +0000

The following early day motion was introduced in the House of Commons by Andrew Dismore MP following the desecration of the Armenian Genocide Monument in Cardiff:

That this House unreservedly condemns the desecration of the Armenian Genocide Monument in Cardiff on Holocaust Memorial Day 2008; congratulates all bodies which have recognised the truth of the Armenian Genocide including The International Association of Genocide Scholars, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, The Aegis Trust, The European Parliament, The National Assembly of Wales, The Edinburgh, Ealing and Gwynedd Councils, The United Nations Association Wales, The Archbishop of Canterbury, The Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, and the Kurdish parliament in exile; and calls upon the UK Government formally to recognise the 1915 genocide of Armenians and Assyrians.

Armenian Genocide Monument in Cardiff desecrated on Holocaust Memorial Day

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 09:04:00 +0000

The new Armenian Genocide Monument which was recently erected in Cardiff was desecrated in the early hours of the morning before important ceremonies were held today to commemmorate the Holocaust, and to remember Hrant Dink, Turkish-Armenian journalist murdered by a Turkish nationalist a year ago. The ornate Armenian Cross on the monument was smashed to bits by persons unknown using a hammer, which was left at the scene of the crime. One of the Welsh Armenians said of this act of vandalism: "This is our holiest shrine. Our grandparents who perished in the Genocide do not have marked graves. This is where we remember them." Eilian Williams of Wales-Armenia Solidarity said that he blamed the so-called "Committee for the Protection of Turkish Rights" under the leadership of Hal Savas for the crime. The police is investigating. He continued: "I call on Armenians and supporters of justice throughout the world to send messages of support to Wales-Armenia Solidarity (eilian@nant.wanadoo.co.uk) which we will forward to the First Minister of the National Assembly of Wales. We shall repair the cross again and again no matter how often it is desecrated. We also challenge the UK government and the Turkish Embassy to condemn this racist attack".

Another prosecution against Agos journalists

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:27:00 +0000

Reporters Without Borders condemns the charges that have been brought against the owner of the Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos, Serkis Seropyan, and its new editor, Aris Nalci, because of a 9 November editorial criticising the one-year suspended prison sentences passed the previous month on Seropyan, former editor Arat Dink, and two other journalists, Aydin Engin and Karin Karakashli.

According to a press report on 16 January, Seropyan and Nalci were summoned by an Istanbul prosecutor and ordered to pay a fine of 23,500 euros because of the editorial. When they refused, the prosecutor said they would be tried for “attempted obstruction of justice” under article 288 of the criminal code, which carries a maximum penalty of four a half years in prison.

Reporters Without Borders regards this prosecution as yet another case of improper use of the press law.

The one-year suspended sentence was imposed on the four journalists for reprinting an interview that Dink’s father, then Agos editor Hrant Dink, gave to Reuters in 2006 in which he said the massacres of Armenians from 1915 to 1917 constituted genocide. Hrant Dink was murdered in January 2007.

Linguistic analysis of Prime Minister's Office response to petition to recognise the Armenian Genocide

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 16:17:00 +0000

"The British Government acknowledges and regrets the terrible events that afflicted the Ottoman Armenian population at the beginning of the last century, when over a million ethnic Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire were killed. Many were massacred; some were victims of civil strife, starvation and disease, which ravaged the whole population of Eastern Anatolia during the First World War."

Use of the verb "afflict", which is usually used to refer to a problem or an illness is quite interesting. Considering that the genocide was not an illness caused by unknown virii or bacteria, it is difficult to see why the Armenian population is characterised as being "afflicted" by the genocide. One of the possibilities that suggests itself might be the desire to anonymise the well defined and known perpetrators of this crime - many of whom were tried by Ottoman courts martial and condemned for their crimes shortly after they were committed. The next expression which merits consideration is "ravaged the whole population of Eastern Anatolia". This passage is intended, without doubt, to convey the message that it is not only the Armenians that have suffered, and in this sense it is of course completely true - huge numbers of Greeks, Assyrians and other Christian minorities were massacred as well. However no ethnic or religious group was massacred at the scale of the Armenians, and no other nation was robbed of its homeland of over two thousand years as a result of these massacres.

"The massacres were an appalling tragedy, which the British Government of the day condemned. We fully endorse that view. However, neither this Government nor previous British Governments have judged that the evidence is 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 is, in any event, not retrospective in application."

The keywords to be analysed in this paragraph are "judged", "evidence", "sufficiently unequivocal", "persuade", and "in any event not retrospective". Let us deal with these key words in sequence. "Judged", "evidence" and "sufficiently unequivocal" suggest a legal process, where a suspect is brought before a judge and evidence is presented but is not found "sufficiently unequivocal". We are not told why it should be unequivocal and just how unequivocal it should be to be sufficient? However what is crucial is that it is the event, rather than the perpetrators, that is judged, and there is no mention of standard of proof. This begs the question, just how unequivocal should evidence of the crime which almost annihilated a whole nation be to be sufficiently unequivocal? Next keyword which merits our attention is "persuade" - use of this word suggests that one party is trying, is ought to or needs to persuade another (in this case the British Government). The effect of this word is that an objective historical fact is reduced to an arguable point, of which some may be persuaded (perhaps by improper means or due to their gullibility) while others stay steadfast (like the British Government) in not being "persuaded" - and thus staying above the whole artificially created argument. Needless to say, the British Government of the day could not call these massacres "genocide" simply because the word "genocide" did not exist at the time when it was committed. The government called them "crimes against humanity", which is the same category of crime. Finally, the paragraph includes a "grace clause", which seems to say that even if it was a genocide, no legal consequences would ensue. There are two problems with this approach. A crime is a crime regardless of what you call it. A word is used to refer to a concept, it does not create it. The word "genocide" was defined recently, not so the concept or practice of "genocide". As to the applicability of the UN Genocide Convention opinions differ on whether this particular legal instrument - unlike the definition of genocide itself - applies. However, once it is established that the events constitute genocide, the words speak for themselves.

Thousands To Rally In Istanbul On Dink Murder Anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (ED) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:37:00 +0000

By Nicolas Cheviron, AFP

Thousands are expected to gather in Istanbul Saturday in memory of Armenian-Turk campaigning editor Hrant Dink, on the first anniversary of his hate-slaying outside his weekly newspaper's offices.

The grassroots tribute to the Agos founder, gunned down by an unemployed ultra-nationalist on January 19, 2007, comes days before Turkish parliament reform of a controversial law against insulting 'Turkishness' that some hold responsible for his murder.

Already the subject of a series of prosecutions, Dink was given a six-month suspended sentence in October 2005 after a court ruled that one of his pieces described Turkish blood as dirty. An appeal was also rejected.

He had called on Armenians to reject symbolically "the tainted part of their Turkish blood" and "turn now towards the new blood of an independent Armenia, the only thing capable of freeing them from the weight of the diaspora".