Armenian News

Tert.am
Turkish Citizen Sentenced for Sending Threatening E-Mails to Agos Editorial
10:56 - 12.06.10

A Turkish citizen sending threatening e-mails to the editorial of an
Istanbul-based bilingual weekly Agos has been sentenced to 3 years'
and 3 month's imprisonment, according to Turkish daily Taraf.

Yasin Yildiz, 23, pleaded guilty as he testified to the police. He
said he started sending those letters when he read news articles on
Armenian cause that made him nervous.

Earlier in 2009 the Turkish court had sentenced another Turkish
citizen on similar charges. Mehmed Karai, who started sending
threatening letters to the Agos editorial after the assassination of
the then Chief Editor Hrant Dink, was sentenced to 3.3 years of
imprisonment.


PanARMENIAN.Net
U.S. not to punish Turkey through Armenian Genocide recognition
June 12, 2010 - 16:59 AMT 11:59 GMT

The U.S. is not going to punish Turkey for the incident with Freedom
Flotilla through the Armenian Genocide recognition. `I don't think we
should be mixing up issues that don't have anything to do with each
other. We have a wide-ranging relationship with Turkey. We'll be
taking each issue appropriately, one at a time,' U.S. Assistant
Secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs Philip Gordon
said in an interview to BBC.

He went on saying: `The overall relationship is inevitably affected by
the way the countries see each other. That's why we're careful about
that. We want to preserve a favorable image of Turkey in the United
States.'

`Turkey and the United States have never been without their
differences, and we have some important differences now, but we also
have a lot in common that we're working together on,' concluded
Gordon.

On June 11, Spokesman for the U.S. Department of State Philip Crowley
said the U.S. is open to and discussing with Israel potential ways in
which the international community can participate in the flotilla
investigation.

PanARMENIAN.Net learned from its sources in Washington that currently
the Armenian and Jewish lobbies are negotiating on advancement of the
Armenian Genocide Resolution (H. Res. 252.) The Jewish lobby had been
frustrating the resolution adoption due to friendly relations with
Turkey. However, those congressmen, who had been supporting Turkey,
today are revising their stance.

It is also noteworthy that the Israeli-Turkish friendship group has
almost frozen its activity in Israeli Knesset.

HULIQ.com, SC
June 12 2010
French MP Honored To Be Persona Non Grata in Azerbaijan

Today the foreign ministry spokesperson of Azerbaijan Elkhan Polukhov
announced that his country will add seven members of the French
Parliament in blacklist for traveling to disputed Nagorno Karabakh
Republic from Armenia. One of those parliamentarians Francois
Rochebloine said he is "honored" to be persona-non-grata in
Azerbaijan.

Accroding to Day.Az, "this information was confirmed, and members of
the French parliament Arlette Groskost, Pascal Crozon, Richard Mallie,
Rine Ruke, Francois Roshbluan, Michel Diefenbaker and Jean-Pierre
Delannoy are included in the list of persons whose visit to Azerbaijan
is not desirable. These people have been declared persona non-grata in
Azerbaijan," Polukhov added.

On the other hand, Rochebloine, who is on a trip to Armenia, said this
is not news for him. He said Azerbaijan blacklisted him last year.

Rochebloine said that he was glad to visit Nagorno Karabakh by the
invitation of the republic's president Mr. Bako Sahakyan. He was so
impressed by the recent parliamentary elections in Nagorno Karabakh
that said he wished for some of the neighboring countries to hold
elections like those in Nagorno Karabakh.

Speaking of the work that Azerbaijan does in the process of the
Nagorno Karabakh negotiation, the French MP said he would rate it zero
on a 20 point rating system. Rochebloine also added that Azerbaijan
also need to take steps similar that of Armenia to positively
contribute to the peace process between the two countries. Otherwise
currently, Azerbaijan only works against its own people, the French PM
added in a press conference speaking in front of Armenian journalists
in Yerevan.

Azerbaijan has not recognized the parliamentary elections in Nagorno
Karabakh. Armenia has supported it and said if those elections were
not held the field commanders now would have ruled Nagorno Karabakh
instead of civil and elected officials.

Written by Armen Hareyan
Noravank.com
THE GENERATIONS OF THE CONVERTED ARMENIANS IN EUROPE
Ruben Melkonyan
While studying the issues of the forcedly Islamised Armenians, new and
interesting details about their geographic spread are emerging. Particularly,
the issue of generations of the Islamized Armenians living in Europe at present is
interesting and peculiar at the same time. It is known that there is scanty information
about the current condition of the converted Armenians and if over the recent period
some data about the Islamized Armenians in Turkey emerged, there is too little
material about those living in Europe. Just recently some foreign and Armenian
authors have started referring to that issue and presented some information which
is mainly of descriptive character. Firstly, let us turn to the issue of moving of the
converted Armenians to Europe and state that in 1950s in Europe and particularly
in Germany the necessity in cheap labour emerged and that is why the agreements
on foreign labour use with a number of countries were concluded. Such an agreement
was concluded between Germany and Turkey in 1961 which was followed by the
emigration of thousands of Turkish citizens to Germany and later on to other
European countries. As a result of that process the Turkish community, which
numbers several million members, has been formed in Europe. According to some
data among those emigrants there were Armenians, both Christian and converted or
crypto-Armenians. The converted Armenians and their generations have been
emigrating and settling in Germany, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, and France for
decades, and today there are communities or community-like structures of converted
Armenians in those countries.

After moving to a new environment some processes and phenomena, which are
connected with the reclaiming their identity, started taking place among the converted
Armenians and their generations. The reconversion, i.e. the re-adoption of Christianity,
is the most widespread phenomena among the converted Armenians living in Europe.
And today among the converted Armenians in Europe there are many of those who
returned to their roots. According to some sources, the reconversion, the process of
searching of their roots developed in different ways and today it continues. Particularly,
first of all, Christianity was re-adopted by crypto-Armenians who used every occasion
for that purpose. In one of the recent issues of “Hooys” biweekly Tamar Gevonian brings
a story according to which a group of people who looked like Muslims and who arrived
to Germany from Turkey just at the customs office revealed their identity and presented
to the officials not their Muslim names mentioned in their passports but their Armenian
names. This notable example illustrates the desire to return to their true identity, which
had been hidden for decades. As the same source mentions today those Armenians
have their own community and church in Germany.

According to different sources Armenians in Europe who reconverted to Christianity
are more zealous in the matters of religion. This also has its psychological side, i.e. to
prove to their milieu that they are loyal to the Armeniancy. Among the Armenians who
reclaimed their identity some psychological and spiritual problems are also observed.
Some of them even visited psychologists: according to their diagnoses the traumatic
memories about the Genocide, the atmosphere of the fear and threat, in which they had
lived for decades, and the fact that they constantly concealed their true identity had a
significant and even decisive influence on their state of mind.
Today in different cities of Germany there are groups of Armenians who
reconverted to Christianity a part of which has integrated with the local Armenian
communities and the other part facing the estrangement of the old community
continues its isolated mode of life and stays out of community live.

Kemal Yalcin, the Turkish writer living in Germany, brings many facts about
the converted Armenians in Europe and in his letter to us he mentions: “I know
many people in Germany who adopt Christianity and are christened at a mature age.”
The Head of the German Dioceses of the Armenian Apostolic Church archbishop
Garegin Bekchian also touches upon this issue and brings some interesting facts.
According to Hamo Moskofian there is restaurant “Ani” in German Wiesbaden where
Armenians gather. In this city the Armenians who reconverted to Christianity live too.
One of them, Nureddin Gurden, who changed his name to Simon, states that he
descends from the kin of the well-known fedayi Hrayr Djokhq.

An interesting article about the reconverted Armenians in Belgium was presented by
David Zeneian. According to him, today Kurdishized and Kurdish-speaking Armenians
who arrived from Shrnak and Silop, reclaiming their identity, form the core of the local
Armenian community (the adherents of the Armenian Apostolic Church) and are zealous
Christians. Their children study Armenian due to which their parents also begin learning
their mother tongue. One of the founders and the leader of the Kurdishized and Kurdish
-speaking Armenians community in Brussels Mesrop Afshar, speaking about the situation
in their motherland, mentions: “The fear and the feeling of depression constantly
accompanied us. There were many harassments but our parents reminded us all the
time that despite the loss of the language we were Armenians”. Afshar tells some detail
about his mode of live which makes it clear that they were crypto-Armenians and they
secretly preserved their Christian traditions; they secretly christened their children with the
help of the Assyrian priest, performed Christian nuptials and funerals. In Shrnak, as well as
in other places, crypto-Armenians had two surnames – one for home and the other for the
milieu. Serop Afshar tells about that: “Among our people we were Armenians. While
baptizing we gave our children Armenian names – Sargis, Nubar, David, Gevorg and
Saro, but for the rest of the environment we were like other townsmen. We had Kurdish
surnames – Euz, Yalik, Odemish, Bircin”.

It is worth noting that the serious role in saving and reclamation of that group played the
Patriarch of Istanbul Shork Galustian by whose efforts at the middle of the 60s those
splinters of the Armeniancy began leaving Shrnak and Silop for Istanbul and then (in 1980s)
for Belgium, France, Holland.

As it was mentioned above there are also groups of reconverted Armenians in Sweden.
One of such Armenians is Suleiman Faruk, born in Adana. Revealing his true identity he
reconverted to Christianity and changed his name to Haik Aramian. He was one of those
thousands of assimilated Armenians who lived under the cover of Turk or a Kurd. Since
childhood he had doubts about his identity. He was seeking for his roots and in 1983 he
was baptized in the Armenian Church in Damascus, and in two years (in 1985) he moved
and settled in Sweden. While speaking about his identity he said: “Inwardly I always felt
that I am different. I could remain a Kurd but I decided to do in a different way”. Settling in
Stockholm Haik Aramian married an Armenian from Diyarbekir and called his children
Masis and Ani. Children learned and speak Armenian. The most notable is that returning
to his roots Haik Aramian tries to implant in his children the sense of Armeniancy and with
that purpose he brought them to Armenia and Artsakh for several times. “I missed a lot
and I want my children to grow up knowing who they are. I want my son to be proud of his
Armenian descent”, - he said.

Today Aramian is the active member of the Armenian community in Sweden. It should be
mentioned that part of Haik’s family stayed in Adana, i.e. there is some concern that they
may be persecuted there but this did not keep him away from reclaiming his identity. Even
more, several years ago his brother left for Sweden and returned to his roots changing his
name to Aram.

Let us mention that those Armenians living in Europe have problems in revealing their
identity because their relatives living in Turkey may become a target for persecutions,
that’s why sometimes they do not speak openly. There are families, which being
concerned about their relatives living in Turkey, do not speak too openly about their
identity and live double mode of life. One of such families is the Merdjanian family which
moved to Holland from Diyarbekir. Settling in Amsterdam in 1970s they reconverted to
Christianity but they have relatives in Diyarbekir. Turkish researcher Urug Ungor mentions:
“Today when they visit their relatives in Diyarbekir during the flights from Europe to
Turkey you can be the witness of transformation from one religion to the other. Women
cover their heads just in the plane and instead of Armenian they use Muslim names
and in Diyarbekir they behave like Muslims”.

Summarizing, it should be mentioned that the study of the reconverted Armenians living
in Europe is important not only from the point of view of the researches but it is also topical
and of practical significance.


CTV's interview with Robert Fisk

http://watch.ctv.ca/news/latest/armenians-past/#clip293663