Armenian News... A Topalian...

La culture arménienne absente de l'exposition Europalia Turquie 

La plus grande exposition, inaugurée cet après-midi par le président 

turc Erdogan, a été baptisée "Anatolia". Un aperçu de 12.000 ans de 

culture turque mais pas un mot de la civilisation arménienne.

http://www.rtl.be/videos/video/551445.aspx 


AGBU London Branch is pleased to present “ 

Together for Armenia concert 

dedicated to the Centenary of the Armenian Genocide

and the 24 th Anniversary of Armenia’s Independence

with the AGBU London Chamber Orchestra . 

7 November at St John's, Smith Square

This concert will be the biggest concert of the AGBU London Chamber

Orchestra to date and will introduce five international Armenian soloists: 

Nairi Azezian - Flute (Finland), Sylvie Zakarian - Marimba (USA), 

Anais Heghoyan – Mezzo (UK), Ani Batikian – Violin (Armenia) 

and Sarkis Zakarian – Piano (Bulgaria).

The orchestra, whose Patron is the renowned violinist Levon Chilingirian  

and is itself formed by Armenian and non-Armenian professional musicians 

currently residing in UK, will perform under the baton of conductor 

Gustavo Ubeda.

The programme will comprise pieces by Armenian composers Komitas, 

Ganatchian, Alan Hovhaness and Kristina Arakelyan, American composer 

Pasquale Tassone, a specially commissioned work by British composer 

Roland Roberts and concluding with Beethoven’s “Emperor” Piano Concerto.

The concert will be held tomorrow, Saturday 7 th November at 19.30 

in St. John’s Smith Square, London. Tickets are still available on-line a

nd at the box office at St. John's Smith Square (£20, £15, £10).



nytimes.com retrospectives
1915: PANEL IN DEFENSE OF ARMENIANS
New York Times
Nov 4 2015
WASHINGTON -- Responding to a pressing appeal from Mr. Morgenthau,
United States Ambassador in Constantinople, an American committee
has been organized on behalf of the Armenians. Among its members are
such men as Mr. Charles R. Crane, Mr. Samuel T. Dutton and Mr. Oscar
Straus. The committee has just published a report giving conclusive
evidence in regard to the atrocities against the Armenians on the
part of the Turks. Witnesses of these horrors hold the Germans largely
responsible for them because of tacit assent. 

panorama.am
ISRAEL'S PRESIDENT RIVLIN ACKNOWLEDGES THE ARMENIAN 

GENOCIDE AGAIN
05/11/2015 
The President of Israel Reuven Rivlin said that his previously voiced
position on that the events of 1915 were Genocide of the Armenians
remains unchanged.

This is what the President told the participants of the international
conference Genocide: History and Memory - Marking one hundred years
to the Armenian Genocide whom he accepted in his residence on the
last day of the conference (04 Nov).

The meeting was not open to the press but Panorama.am interviewed
the conference participants who attended the meeting. They all said
that the President reiterated his previous position and that he is a
supporter of the Armenian cause; however for some reason he has to
refrain from making an official statement about it. The fact that
the President accepted the participants of a conference that was
on the Armenian Genocide, itself speaks about his support for this
cause and this fact was highly praised by everyone - the organizers,
the president of the Open University of Israel and the participants.

Israel officially continues not to recognize the Armenian Genocide
and remains in the camp of the deniers for one political reason or the
other. Many of the Jewish participants called this stance a "shame".

It can only be hoped that this conference, being the first of its
kind on this topic was a step forward.

Armenians Should Counter Azerbaijan's Pressure on Israel 

to Deny the Genocide
By Harut Sassounian,
Publisher, The California Courier
 
As relations between Israel and Turkey have become increasingly strained
in recent years, shifting from strategic alliance to outright hostility,
many analysts began to wonder about the Israeli government's
uncharacteristically muted reaction to Turkish Pres. Erdogan's anti-Semitic
diatribes and anti-Israeli actions.

Under these circumstances, Armenians and their supporters are puzzled by
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's continued complicity in the Turkish
government's denial of the Armenian Genocide and the blocking of its
recognition by the Knesset (parliament).

Some Middle East experts offer two explanations of Israel's puzzling
stance:
1) Despite the apparent bad blood between Israel and Turkey, the two
countries continue their covert intelligence sharing and arms trade.
2) Azerbaijan, Turkey's junior brother, has taken an aggressive role in
pressuring Israel not to recognize the Armenian Genocide by using as
leverage its purchase of billions of dollars of advanced Israeli weapons,
providing Israel much needed petroleum products, and a base in Baku to
infiltrate and spy on Iran with which it has a 400-mile border.

The Israeli government has become so overly sensitive to Azerbaijan's
diktats that during a recent visit by Armenia's Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian to Jerusalem, Israel's Foreign Minister rudely refused to meet
with him. Only through a last minute intervention, Mr. Nalbandian managed
to meet with the President of Israel.

An article in the November 1 issue of The Jerusalem Post fully
illustrates the extent of Israel's kowtowing to Azerbaijan. At a time when
most Western groups, including the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), refused to monitor Azerbaijan's Parliamentary
elections because of restrictions imposed by Baku, four Israeli Knesset
members rushed to Azerbaijan to show their support for Aliyev's despotic
regime!

The Israeli delegation, led by former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman,
now chairman of the Israel-Azerbaijan Parliamentary Group, included
ex-ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren, Sofa Landver, and Yoel Razbozov.
The Jerusalem Post reported that Lieberman, as Foreign Minister, "worked
to strengthen Israeli ties with Azerbaijan," and quoted him saying in Baku
that it is "an important country and a good friend of Israel.... Even in
the time of the Soviet Union, [Azerbaijan] was known to treat its Jewish
community well, and there is no anti-Semitism there. We must continue
strengthening our relations with Azerbaijan." Azernews also quoted him
telling the Azeri Elections Media Center that Azerbaijan "is an example of
democracy, stability, and successful foreign policy." Most knowledgeable
people would dismiss such ridiculous and false statements.

One wonders why the former Foreign Minister is so anxious to whitewash
Azerbaijan's past and present practices of anti-Semitism? After the four
Knesset members return from Baku, they should be asked to disclose the
lavish gifts they must have received in appreciation for their rubber
stamping of the fraudulent elections in Azerbaijan. Not surprisingly,
Aliyev maintained  its tight grip on power after his ruling party retained
its majority in parliament, while the mainstream opposition boycotted last
Sunday's elections.

The Jerusalem Post reported that "Azerbaijan is considered the Muslim
country friendliest to Israel, and the two countries have close ties and
significant trade. Azerbaijan is Israel's biggest oil provider, and trade
between the two countries reaches $5 billion, more than with France. In
recent years, Lieberman, then-president Shimon Peres, and Defense Minister
Moshe Ya'alon visited Baku."

In pursuing its arms for oil policy, Israeli officials have conveniently
ignored Azerbaijan's gross violations of human rights, lack of freedom of
speech, and jailing of journalists and activists, including Leyla Yunus,
head of the Baku-based Institute for Peace and Democracy, and investigative
reporter Khadija Ismayilova of Radio Free Europe.

While it might be somewhat understandable that Israel and Azerbaijan are
pursuing their self-interests, no matter how reprehensible the means,
Armenia must also pursue its own national interests and counter the actions
of any country that jeopardizes its security and questions the Genocide.
The Armenian government should make crystal clear to Israeli officials that
by selling multi-billion dollar sophisticated weapons to Azerbaijan, they
become responsible for putting at risk thousands of Armenian lives.

Azerbaijani officials have publicly announced that they intend to use the
arms acquired from Israel to attack Nagorno Karabagh (Artsakh) and Armenia.
Lastly, Armenia should warn Azerbaijan that its unwarranted denials of
the Armenian Genocide and pressures on other countries, such as Israel, to
join its denialist cause, would further antagonize Armenians, making it
impossible for them to accept any concessions on the Artsakh conflict. 









JUSTIFYING GENOCIDE; GERMANY AND THE ARMENIANS FROM BISMARCK TO HITLER

Kirkus Reviews (Print)
November 1, 2015, Sunday

SECTION: NONFICTION

This scholarly study reveals how the Germans "received" the events
of the Armenian genocide-and later whitewashed and even found
motivation from it. The attempted extinction of the Armenians by
the Turks constitutes what Ihrig (Van Leer Jerusalem Institute)
calls "the original sin of the 20th century," not only by the
Ottoman perpetrators, but also by the bystanders. In light of the
later Holocaust visited upon the Jews and others by the Nazis, the
Armenian genocide-the word was not actually defined by the U.N. until
1948-poses particular questions about guilt for the Germans, who were
the Ottoman allies.

They were knowledgeable about the massacres (both in 1894-1896 and
in 1915-16) and were "inspired" (during the Third Reich) to use such
methods and justification for purposes of "ethnic cleansing." In
this compelling narrative, Ihrig finds that the so-called Armenian
Horrors were vigorously debated in the government and in periodicals
of the time. Several important events would affect how the German
public and private spheres came to view the "Armenian question":
the rise of the restive Young Turks in 1908; reports of Armenian
rebellion and "treachery"; the strengthening of racial attitudes,
especially during the 1920s; and the sensational assassination of
the former Ottoman grand vizier in Berlin in 1921. Ihrig's deep,
scrupulous research reveals the official pattern set by the Germans
"vis-a-vis the Armenians" as an "enabler" for the Ottomans, later
giving way to open justification, denial, and whitewashing of the
horrors visited on the Armenian people. In the final chapter, the
author reveals how Hitler and the Nazis admired and were influenced by
Ataturk and the new Turkey's policies of ethnic cleansing based on a
"foundation of national purity." A groundbreaking academic study that
shows how Germany derived from the Armenian genocide "a plethora of
recipes" to address its own ethnic problems.

Publication Date: 2016-01-04 Publisher: Harvard Univ.

Stage: Adult ISBN: 978-0-674-50479-0 Price: $35.00 Author: Ihrig,
Stefan