Armenian Genocide News
Historical decision or historical mistake of the Knesset?
In their fight against the recognition of the Armenian Genocide the Israeli researchers have taken a rather improper role: they consider the Holocaust a unique phenomenon, incomparable with any genocide in the entire history of humanity.
27.03.2008 GMT+04:00
In the evening on March 26 something that the Armenians wouldn't even dream about happened; those who are for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide managed to have the first success in the Knesset. As the newspaper "Haaretz" writes, instead of the minister of foreign affairs Tsipi Livni ("Kadima"), the government's viewpoint was introduced by the minister of agriculture Shalom Simkhon ("Avod"). He delivered his objections regarding the reconsideration of the given issue at the plenary session, however he unexpectedly agreed with the initiative of the deputy Zeyev Elkin ("Kadima"), the chairman of the Parliamentary Association of the Israeli-Armenian friendship, who suggested bringing out the issue of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ As a result, the deputies unanimously voted for the discussion of this topic at the session of the Parliamentary Commission on Education. True, the deputy Iossif Shagal ("Our Home Israel"), the chairman of the Parliamentary Association of Israeli-Azerbaijani friendship expressed his fears that the discussion of the given issue "will negatively effect on Israeli relations with Turkey, as well as with Azerbaijan, where our compatriots live." However, Zeyev Elkin insisted on his viewpoint, saying: "Today's decision may be considered historical, after all for the first time Knesset included the issue of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide in its agenda. The French Parliament and the American Congress, as well as the Legislative Assembly of many other countries recognized the Genocide of the Armenian people, and it is time for the Israeli Knesset to at least start the discussions of this issue."
In this regard, it is timely to remind, that the history of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Israel started already in the days of the first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Being in isolation in the Near East beginning of the 50's after the first Arab-Israeli war, Israel was extremely interested in finding allies in this region. However, Israel didn't have much choice; among all the Islamic countries, Turkey was the only one who recognized Israel's independence in 1949. Another important factor between these two countries is the military-technical cooperation and water problem. Israel suffers lack of water, and if Turkey forbids the access to the river Ephrat, Israel will simply dry up.
In their fight against the recognition of the Armenian Genocide the Israeli researchers have taken a rather improper role: they consider the Holocaust a unique phenomenon, incomparable with any genocide in the entire history of humanity. Tel-Aviv shares the same viewpoint. And it was best expressed by Shimon Peres, in April, 2001 before his visit to Turkey; then he was the minister of foreign affairs. He announced that "it makes no sense to assure that the Armenians, like the Jews, suffered Genocide. Regarding the Genocide issue, the Armenians and the Jews are incomparable." In fact the same was declared by Rivka Koen, who that time was the Ambassador of Armenia and Georgia to Israel: "the Holocaust a unique phenomenon, incomparable with any genocide in the entire history of humanity." Then these words became the reason of almost a diplomatic scandal between Armenia and Israel.
How the events will develop in future, is not hard to predict: Turkey has rolled mechanisms for this. Sometimes these mechanisms work, for instant with the USA; sometimes - they don't, like it happened with the case of Europe. But the fact that Israel will have to be under strong pressure from Ankara.
Meanwhile, according to the acting director of the Institute Holocaust and Genocide, the editor-in-chief of the Genocide Encyclopedia, professor of psychology Charni, the nation and society of Israel recognize the Armenian Genocide. "In our nation there are three people who openly speak about the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Turkey. They are professor Yair Auron, Iossi Sarid and I. All the others keep silent out of political reasons. Israel is in an Islamic environment and the most important thing is that it depends on Turkey in water issue. For this reason the government doesn't speak out about the event of 1915. True, the general rabbi of Israel Iona Metsger, who has visited the Genocide Memorial in Tsitsernakaberd and who has practically recognized the Armenian Genocide, was in Yerevan in 2006. I think this is a wonderful example. The senior rabbi of Israel has a very important role, but on the other hand doesn't represent the government,' emphasized professor Charni. The Israeli researcher emphasized that it doesn't matter when and against whom the crime was committed. "Genocide is genocide, be it the Holocaust, mass killings of the gypsies by Germany, Darfur or Rwanda. I always ask myself the question: why do people recognize the Holocaust but not the Armenian Genocide?" he said.
The day before the JCRC spoke for the official recognition of the Armenian Genocide in 1915. JCRC confirms the political announcement of 1989, with which the Council expressed its support for the resolution on the Armenian Genocide in the US Senate. According to the Senate Resolution 212, April 24 is announced the national day to honor the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide.
In this regard, it is timely to remind, that the history of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Israel started already in the days of the first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Being in isolation in the Near East beginning of the 50's after the first Arab-Israeli war, Israel was extremely interested in finding allies in this region. However, Israel didn't have much choice; among all the Islamic countries, Turkey was the only one who recognized Israel's independence in 1949. Another important factor between these two countries is the military-technical cooperation and water problem. Israel suffers lack of water, and if Turkey forbids the access to the river Ephrat, Israel will simply dry up.
In their fight against the recognition of the Armenian Genocide the Israeli researchers have taken a rather improper role: they consider the Holocaust a unique phenomenon, incomparable with any genocide in the entire history of humanity. Tel-Aviv shares the same viewpoint. And it was best expressed by Shimon Peres, in April, 2001 before his visit to Turkey; then he was the minister of foreign affairs. He announced that "it makes no sense to assure that the Armenians, like the Jews, suffered Genocide. Regarding the Genocide issue, the Armenians and the Jews are incomparable." In fact the same was declared by Rivka Koen, who that time was the Ambassador of Armenia and Georgia to Israel: "the Holocaust a unique phenomenon, incomparable with any genocide in the entire history of humanity." Then these words became the reason of almost a diplomatic scandal between Armenia and Israel.
How the events will develop in future, is not hard to predict: Turkey has rolled mechanisms for this. Sometimes these mechanisms work, for instant with the USA; sometimes - they don't, like it happened with the case of Europe. But the fact that Israel will have to be under strong pressure from Ankara.
Meanwhile, according to the acting director of the Institute Holocaust and Genocide, the editor-in-chief of the Genocide Encyclopedia, professor of psychology Charni, the nation and society of Israel recognize the Armenian Genocide. "In our nation there are three people who openly speak about the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Turkey. They are professor Yair Auron, Iossi Sarid and I. All the others keep silent out of political reasons. Israel is in an Islamic environment and the most important thing is that it depends on Turkey in water issue. For this reason the government doesn't speak out about the event of 1915. True, the general rabbi of Israel Iona Metsger, who has visited the Genocide Memorial in Tsitsernakaberd and who has practically recognized the Armenian Genocide, was in Yerevan in 2006. I think this is a wonderful example. The senior rabbi of Israel has a very important role, but on the other hand doesn't represent the government,' emphasized professor Charni. The Israeli researcher emphasized that it doesn't matter when and against whom the crime was committed. "Genocide is genocide, be it the Holocaust, mass killings of the gypsies by Germany, Darfur or Rwanda. I always ask myself the question: why do people recognize the Holocaust but not the Armenian Genocide?" he said.
The day before the JCRC spoke for the official recognition of the Armenian Genocide in 1915. JCRC confirms the political announcement of 1989, with which the Council expressed its support for the resolution on the Armenian Genocide in the US Senate. According to the Senate Resolution 212, April 24 is announced the national day to honor the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide.
«PanARMENIAN.Net» analytical department.
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Turkish Daily News, Turkey
April 5 2008
The SS is very angry with the EU on the 'naked king!'
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Orhan Kemal Cengiz
In Turkey, `the system' - because of the double 's' in the word, I
call it, `the SS' - is based on some tendencies that have not changed
over time. The SS, first of all, denies the very existence of some
fundamental problems. Since it denies the problem, it forbids
discussion about the problem and possible solutions for it. The third
and most interesting aspect of the SS in this regard is that its
demand from everyone, whether they are in Turkey or abroad, to see
and to evaluate its denied problem in the same way it does.You can
apply this formula to many different problems in Turkey. The Armenian
question, the Kurdish question, the Cyprus question and so on. In
practice it works like that: First of all there are no such problems
in Turkey; since we do not have these `so called problems' we should
not/cannot discuss them; and finally, the outside world has to see
and evaluate these `non existent' problems exactly like we do.
Interesting, isn't it?
Naked king syndrome:
The latest case in which we have experienced the operation of this
structure is the reaction of the SS against the reaction of the
spokesmen of the European Union to the closure case of the AKP
(Justice and Development Party), taken to the Constitutional Court by
the chief prosecutor of the Court of Cassation. One of the
well-known problems of Turkey is its highly politicized judiciary
system. From freedom of expression to torture, from minority problems
to religious freedom, you can see that the judiciary locates itself
as the last bastion of the SS in Turkey. When the `high interests of
the state are concerned' everything else turns into small details for
our judiciary. Since it acts to protect the `presupposed' interests
of the state, most of the time we come across surprisingly political
judgments and interpretations narrowing the scope of freedoms.
Visible signs of torture are denied, the possessions of minority
foundations are seized for unbelievably absurd reasons, freedom of
expression and speech are always being restricted for absolutely
unacceptable reasons and political parties are closed for nothing.
Our problem is that although we have a deeply rooted official
ideology in Turkey, we act as if the judiciary and other state organs
have no ideological preferences at all.
This official ideology is like some melted sugar in our mental
liquid. It is everywhere but its existence is so natural for us and
we cannot see it, we cannot realize that most of the time what is at
work is our official ideology, not law or rules as we think they are.
Look at the indictment prepared by the chief prosecutor against the
AKP. It is full of ideological assertions, but the judiciary expects
us to accept this `indictment' as a legal opinion, argument
whatsoever! As soon as the indictment was delivered to the
Constitutional Court, the spokespersons of the EU expressed their
concerns. EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn made quite
illuminating comments. "In a normal European democracy, political
issues are debated in parliament and decided in the ballot box, not
in the courtroom,' he reminded. `It is difficult to see that this
lawsuit respects the democratic principles of a normal European
society." What Olli Rehn said is basically that the king, whom we
think wears eloquent clothes, is actually naked. Of course the
spokespersons of the SS are very angry with Olli Rehn and they
protested his remarks strongly. They want the EU and the outside
world to see this indictment and trial process exactly as they see it.
Closing down the EU, too?:
We are talking about an indictment making references to the
`Greater Middle East Project' and `co-chairmanship Erdoðan' to this
`project'. We are talking about a Constitutional Court that has
closed down 24 political parties! The spokesperson of the SS wants
the world to see the case against the AKP as they want to present it.
They want the whole world see Turkey through the lenses of our
`official ideology.'The problem is that things do not work as they
used to work any more. The cold war ended a long time ago, and the
U.S. does not support dictatorial regimes in the Middle East anymore.
So the Western powers do not have to pretend that they respect our
half- democracy and official ideology for the `special circumstances'
we suppose exist in Turkey. So they have started to cry out, `the
king is naked!' What will the SS do now? Will they try to close down
the EU in the same way they are trying to close down the AKP? We are
all going to see together!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April 5 2008
The SS is very angry with the EU on the 'naked king!'
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Orhan Kemal Cengiz
In Turkey, `the system' - because of the double 's' in the word, I
call it, `the SS' - is based on some tendencies that have not changed
over time. The SS, first of all, denies the very existence of some
fundamental problems. Since it denies the problem, it forbids
discussion about the problem and possible solutions for it. The third
and most interesting aspect of the SS in this regard is that its
demand from everyone, whether they are in Turkey or abroad, to see
and to evaluate its denied problem in the same way it does.You can
apply this formula to many different problems in Turkey. The Armenian
question, the Kurdish question, the Cyprus question and so on. In
practice it works like that: First of all there are no such problems
in Turkey; since we do not have these `so called problems' we should
not/cannot discuss them; and finally, the outside world has to see
and evaluate these `non existent' problems exactly like we do.
Interesting, isn't it?
Naked king syndrome:
The latest case in which we have experienced the operation of this
structure is the reaction of the SS against the reaction of the
spokesmen of the European Union to the closure case of the AKP
(Justice and Development Party), taken to the Constitutional Court by
the chief prosecutor of the Court of Cassation. One of the
well-known problems of Turkey is its highly politicized judiciary
system. From freedom of expression to torture, from minority problems
to religious freedom, you can see that the judiciary locates itself
as the last bastion of the SS in Turkey. When the `high interests of
the state are concerned' everything else turns into small details for
our judiciary. Since it acts to protect the `presupposed' interests
of the state, most of the time we come across surprisingly political
judgments and interpretations narrowing the scope of freedoms.
Visible signs of torture are denied, the possessions of minority
foundations are seized for unbelievably absurd reasons, freedom of
expression and speech are always being restricted for absolutely
unacceptable reasons and political parties are closed for nothing.
Our problem is that although we have a deeply rooted official
ideology in Turkey, we act as if the judiciary and other state organs
have no ideological preferences at all.
This official ideology is like some melted sugar in our mental
liquid. It is everywhere but its existence is so natural for us and
we cannot see it, we cannot realize that most of the time what is at
work is our official ideology, not law or rules as we think they are.
Look at the indictment prepared by the chief prosecutor against the
AKP. It is full of ideological assertions, but the judiciary expects
us to accept this `indictment' as a legal opinion, argument
whatsoever! As soon as the indictment was delivered to the
Constitutional Court, the spokespersons of the EU expressed their
concerns. EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn made quite
illuminating comments. "In a normal European democracy, political
issues are debated in parliament and decided in the ballot box, not
in the courtroom,' he reminded. `It is difficult to see that this
lawsuit respects the democratic principles of a normal European
society." What Olli Rehn said is basically that the king, whom we
think wears eloquent clothes, is actually naked. Of course the
spokespersons of the SS are very angry with Olli Rehn and they
protested his remarks strongly. They want the EU and the outside
world to see this indictment and trial process exactly as they see it.
Closing down the EU, too?:
We are talking about an indictment making references to the
`Greater Middle East Project' and `co-chairmanship Erdoðan' to this
`project'. We are talking about a Constitutional Court that has
closed down 24 political parties! The spokesperson of the SS wants
the world to see the case against the AKP as they want to present it.
They want the whole world see Turkey through the lenses of our
`official ideology.'The problem is that things do not work as they
used to work any more. The cold war ended a long time ago, and the
U.S. does not support dictatorial regimes in the Middle East anymore.
So the Western powers do not have to pretend that they respect our
half- democracy and official ideology for the `special circumstances'
we suppose exist in Turkey. So they have started to cry out, `the
king is naked!' What will the SS do now? Will they try to close down
the EU in the same way they are trying to close down the AKP? We are
all going to see together!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MUSEUM TO BE BUILT IN WASHINGTON
ARMENPRESS
April 4, 2008
YEREVAN, APRIL 4, ARMENPRESS: Arpi Vardanian, the Armenian Assembly of
America (AAA) Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh Country Director, said at
a news conference today in Yerevan that construction of the Armenian
Genocide Museum in Washington will start soon.
She said the construction is expected to be over in 2010. The museum
will be in the National Bank building that was built in 1925. The
building is close to the White House.
"It will be not only Armenian Genocide Museum, but also a museum of
Armenian culture and history for foreigners to have better knowledge
of our nation," she said.
She said, " We had a protracted battle for having this museum in the
USA. It was opposed vehemently by the Turkish community."
She said the idea was welcomed also by Armenians of Washington during
public debates on March 27.
She said the museum will have on display documents, photographs,
other material evidence proving the fact of the Armenian genocide. It
will be closely cooperating with Genocide Museum in Yerevan.
She said the construction is funded by different organizations and
individuals.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ARMENPRESS
April 4, 2008
YEREVAN, APRIL 4, ARMENPRESS: Arpi Vardanian, the Armenian Assembly of
America (AAA) Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh Country Director, said at
a news conference today in Yerevan that construction of the Armenian
Genocide Museum in Washington will start soon.
She said the construction is expected to be over in 2010. The museum
will be in the National Bank building that was built in 1925. The
building is close to the White House.
"It will be not only Armenian Genocide Museum, but also a museum of
Armenian culture and history for foreigners to have better knowledge
of our nation," she said.
She said, " We had a protracted battle for having this museum in the
USA. It was opposed vehemently by the Turkish community."
She said the idea was welcomed also by Armenians of Washington during
public debates on March 27.
She said the museum will have on display documents, photographs,
other material evidence proving the fact of the Armenian genocide. It
will be closely cooperating with Genocide Museum in Yerevan.
She said the construction is funded by different organizations and
individuals.
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