Armenian Genocide News

The British-Armenian All-Party Parliamentary Group
Is Democracy dead in UK?

During his meeting with Mr Raggip Erdogan ( President of Turkey ) ,
Justice Minister Jack Straw appeased the President who was worried
by the Resolutions adopted lately in the US Congress the Swedish
Parliament and the Catalonean Parliament regarding the Armenian
Genocide of 1915-23 by reassuring him that “ … even if the Motion for
recognition of that genocide comes to the floor of the Commons I will
not allow it to be adopted “ .

Was the Justice Minister serving Justice?

We in the UK elect our MPs who sit in Parliament and represent us .
By the democratic process which rules our Country and our Parliament ,
our democratically elected representative casts its vote in Parliament to
adopt or reject a Motion . In the case of a clear majority of votes, a
Motion is either adopted or rejected . It might need a second Reading
or further scrutiny , but once the votes are cast , the Bill is adopted and
becomes Law.

Can one individual alter that process? Is the British Parliament
controlled and run by the will or whims of one individual?

When a Minister ventures to make such statement , he/she insults the
very core of Democracy in our society and in our Parliament and
threatens and endangers the Civil Rights of our Citizens and their
Representatives .

On 12th July 2001, while resigning from Office , in her valedictory
speech , the former Speaker of the House of Commons , Ms Betty
Boothroyd reflected on the disillusionment and cynicism about politics
and urged the House to take steps to improve its effectiveness in
holding the government to account.

A new Parliament ( the 55th since its inseption in Britain and the 16th
since our present Monarch ‘s access to the Throne ) will be formed
after the Elections on 6th May 2010. A new Government will be in

Office soon after that , but will it be held to account?



Armenia Weekly
Minutes of Ankara Symposium on Genocide, Consequences

ANKARA, Turkey (A.W.)—On April 24, as genocide commemoration

events were being held one after the other in different locations in Istanbul,

a groundbreaking two-day symposium on the Armenian Genocide began

at the Princess Hotel in Ankara. It was the first time a conference on the

Armenian Genocide that did not host any genocide deniers was held in

Ankara. Moreover, the conference did not simply deal with the historical

aspect of 1915; for the first time in Turkey, a substantial part of the

proceedings was dedicated to topics such as confiscated Armenian

property, reparations, and the challenges of moving forward and

confronting the past in Turkey.


Below are the minutes from the symposium, prepared by Yucel Demirer

and read at the closing. The minutes are translated from Turkish by the

Armenian Weekly staff.
***
After two days of intense, tiring, but productive meetings, we are at the end.

I want to start by thanking every contributing person, institution, and group,

especially Sait Cetinoglu and Mahmut Konuk, and by emphasizing the

somber excitement we felt at the vigil for the victims of the genocide in

Ankara on April 24, 2010.

It is important to say a few words about the situation our organizers found

themselves in when they were preparing the meeting, in order to understand

the process. Our meeting was organized by volunteers. In November 2009

we made a reservation for a hall, and in December paid the sum. However,

a week before the meeting, we were informed that they wouldn’t let us use

the space because they were “repairing” it. That must have made Teoman

zturk, in whose name the hall is called, turn in his grave. We faced a similar

difficulty regarding the hall we are in today. First we had to announce that we

had canceled the meeting. Then we started it again, and yesterday we were

before you with the participants that we could gather.

I felt I had to say this to underline the continuity in state policies, rather than to

complain.

Our meeting was important, as Fikret Baskaya pointed out, in virtue of

bringing the subject to the level of its real owners—ordinary people like us.

It has been a modest but significant step for contributing to the common

honorable history of peoples against the official historian, whose mission is

to darken and polish.

As Baskin Oran stated in his talk, there are complex but inter-related aspects

of the issue. Even though we are only at the start of the process of understanding

and interpreting the slaughter and raid that advanced by a domino effect

—as Oran expressed, by “whoever was struck in Anatolia, struck the Armenians”

—the Ankara symposium was also important because it pointed to critical

academic and social opportunities.

As it has been stated in the two-day long meeting, to understand the process,

internal and external factors must be examined calmly and separately. The

shameful “one-way passport” example that Adil Okay referred to should not be

seen merely as a problem of the past, in Mahir Sayin’s words; it must be studied

in all the aspects that damage our collective psychology. What underlies this is

the necessity today of keeping our Kurdish brothers away from what the

Armenians faced in the past…

In the second session, Ismail Besikci drew attention to the archive fetish, and

stressed a crucial methodological point by his deduction that the order for two

prison massacres in the 1990’s would not be found in the archives in 2080.
Sait Cetinoglu took the unending issue of continuity and discontinuity in the

Ottoman and the Turkish Republic mentalities, which is usually discussed on

an abstract level, to the level of continuities in the officials with the examples

he provided.

Tuma Celik, from the European Assyrian Union, spoke of the past and present

victimhood of people other than Armenians, and deeply moved us when he told

us how he had to change his name to Tuna at high school.

Besikci’s note regarding how the concept of an archive is used and abused by

official history writing was answered in the third session in the afternoon by young

researchers Mehmet Polatel and Asli Comu. Polatel discussed how emval-i

metruke (abandoned properties) were plundered, to whom they were distributed,

and how the capital was Turkified. Comu discussed, on the basis of archive

material, how and to whom the Armenian properties were distributed in the cases

of Adana, Tarsus, and Mersin.

On the second day, in the panel titled “The Armenian Question: What to Do and

How to Do It?”, Khatchig Mouradian began his talk by stating that it was not

possible to define the Turkish people as a monolithic bloc, and emphasized that

the 1915 genocide should be discussed as an issue of justice rather than an issue

of democracy. He noted that, contrary to customary opinion, apology and reparation

are not divisive of peoples, but rather constitute the beginning of a healthy

relationship.

Ragip Zarakolu started by talking about the people from Maras and Diyarbakir whom

he met in Sao Paulo, and stated that the Diaspora Armenians, who are always seen

as a problem in Turkey, in fact reflect well on Turkey and refute false generalizations.

Zarakolu stated that in Turkey, the institutions and committees that are interested in

the Armenian Question are kept a secret, and that they should be brought to light.
Henry Theriault referred to the many examples of confrontation and apology in the

world, and discussed the negative effects of genocide denial on large sections of the

society. He argued that it was wrong to take the politically influential Armenia and

Turkey as equals, and that the only way to make real political progress was through

reparations for the victims of the genocide.

Eilian Williams discussed the process of public opinion formation in the smaller

European countries, and stressed the prejudices that were entrenched in, and could

be traced from, culture and folklore, which was an important reminder for future

research.

Sevan Nisanyan objected to Theriault’s opinion about reparations, and stated that,

as a tax-paying citizen of Turkey, compensation to great-grandchildren would not be

a solution. Drawing attention to the principle that crime is personal, Nisanyan argued

that such demands would not be conducive to the process, but rather would hurt the

chances of living together in this country. Nisanyan suggested, instead, that symbolic

and moral endeavors such as renaming the Halaskargazi Street as Hrant Dink Street

be taken. He stated that real understanding could be achieved through a socio

-economic reading of the process.

Temel Demirer began his talk with Arat Dink’s words—“a hundred years ago we were

prey, now we are bait”—and claimed that the reality of massacre was a standing

preference in the history of the state and could be only dealt with by confronting the

official ideology. He stated that the republic was founded by the Malta exiles, and that

at the foundation of the capital reserves lay genocide plunders. He described the

denial as an ongoing pro-Ittihad attitude of the Turkish Republic, and concluded that the

source of the solution would be a radical confrontation and the mutual support of the

peoples.

Harry Parsekian, the son of an immigrant to the U.S. in 1911, said that he didn’t blame

the people of Turkey and that mutual understanding was necessary, but that without an

official apology the process would come to a halt.

Sarkis Hatspanian, who is in prison in Armenia, said in his statement that it was

appropriate to view the genocide on the basis of destruction and denial, and that the

genocide was the elimination of the idea of Armenia, which was seen as an obstacle

to Turkish expansion.

Recep Marasli discussed the role of the Kurds in the Armenian Genocide in his poster

statement. Even though the Kurds did not participate in the planning and decision

-making process, he said, they were not mere collaborators, but part of a strategic

alliance with the genocide committers, an alliance that had a historical background.
In a statement by Garbis Altinoglu, it was emphasized that the Turkish-Armenian

problem had deep and highly complex roots, and that it would be impossible to

confront the perpetrators of the genocide without objecting to and fighting with the

manifestations of persecution on the national basis and social injustice.

In the closing session, Tayfun Isci, Ali Ulger from the Kizilbas Journal, Zeynel Sabaz

from the Kaldirac Journal, Barista Erdost from the Socialist Democracy Party, Partizan

representative Kenan Ozyurek, Cemal Dogan from the Federation of Democratic

Peoples, Mustafa Kahya from the Socialist Party, Nur Yilmaz from Alinteri Journal,

Yasar Batman, Huriye Sahin, and Mahmut Konuk from the Ankara Freedom of Thought

Initiative, spoke.

In these two days, even though there have been those who characterized the massacre

of the Armenians as something other than genocide, the majority of the symposium

organizers and speakers described it as genocide, and stressed the need for

decriminalizing the genocide label, for the state to face this reality and fulfill its

responsibilities, and for a democratic constitution that can end single-minded

approaches and treat all differences on an equal basis.

The participants stated that the Armenian Question had an historical background that

went beyond the question “What Happened in 1915?” and that its solution would

originate from the evolutionary dynamics of social history—not by the interference of

the EU or the U.S., but by the peoples themselves and according to the principle of the

fellowship of the peoples. And they expressed their hopes that there be no more

genocides Turkey.

TURKEY'S PARLIAMENT SPEAKER CONDEMNS SWISS AUTHORITIES FOR

IMPOSING PUNISHMENT ON THOSE DENYING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
ArmInfo
2010-05-07 14:35:00

ArmInfo. Turkey's parliament speaker said on Thursday that historians
should solve the conflict over the incidents of 1915. Delivering
a speech during his meeting with Erika Forster-Vannini, speaker of
Switzerland's Council of States, Turkish Parliament Speaker Mehmet
Ali Sahin said that Swiss authorities' imposing punishment on those
denying "the incidents of 1915", was a disappointing act, Anadolu
agency reported.

Referring to Switzerland's hosting an important meeting last October
for the solution of the problems between Turkey and Armenia, Sahin
said, "Protocols aiming at normalization of relations between the
two countries were signed in Switzerland. We are grateful for that.

However, Switzerland is still imposing punishment on those denying
the incidents of 1915 is a disappointment for us. Because, incidents
of 1915 is an issue that needs to be solved by historians".

Expressing the importance of inter-parliamentary relations, Sahin
said countries nowadays used parliamentary diplomacy to improve their
relations and Vannini's visit to Turkey was of great importance in
this respect.

Guest parliament speaker Vannini said in her part that she was proud
to lead the first ever Swiss parliamentary group visiting Turkey.

Noting Turkish and Swiss parliaments should strengthen their relations,
Vannini said a Turkish-Swiss Inter-parliamentary Friendship Group
would soon be established and it would hold its first meeting on June
8. Vannini also said Turkey and Switzerland had certain problems that
could not be neglected. "However, any MP can bring an issue to the
agenda of the parliament or submit a motion on such matter in our
system. Parliamentarians have such a right," she said.

"Orphans of the Genocide" is an 18 minute short documentary dedicated

to over 150,000 Armenian orphans of the Genocide.

The inspiration to this story was a recent article by award winning journalist

Robert Fisk of "The Independent" Magazine depicting
Silicon Valley engineer Maurice Missak Kelechian's scientific research, which

led to the unveiling of an armenian orphanage in Antoura near Beirut-Lebanon,
operated by Ahmad Jemal Pasha and served as a "turkification" center. This

orphanage housed a thousand armenian orphans.

Currently the producers of "Orphans of the Genocide" are working on a 60

minute version of the documentary featuring an exclusive interview by Robert

Fisk.
Please attached find the press release in PDF form that includes a link to a

7 minute trailer of "Orphans of the Genocide".
For more info please contact the Armenoid Team at armenoid@comcast.net

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8dMMifzzdo

The Armenoid Team

Crosstalk on Armenian Genocide

(includes Robert Fisk)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xfrb_sCzDs

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