Armenian News... A Topalian

Bloomberg

Dec 12 2019
Congress Recognizes Armenian Genocide Amid Tensions with Turkey

The Senate adopted a resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide, following House approval of a similar measure, despite opposition from President Donald Trump’s State Department on concerns that it would further complicate ties with Turkey.

The Republican-led chamber cleared the measure Thursday without objection -- the fourth attempt by Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, to seek unanimous consent for the resolution. At the request of the White House, Republican Senators Lindsey Graham, David Perdue and Kevin Cramer blocked previous attempts, saying they didn’t want to anger a NATO ally during a time of high tensions.

U.S. lawmakers were outraged by Turkey’s military offensive in northern Syria after Trump abruptly withdrew troops from the Kurdish-held region in October. They have also been highly critical of Turkey’s purchase of the Russian-made S-400 missile defense system, which should trigger sanctions under existing law.

Republican senators personally expressed their concerns to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan when Trump hosted him in the White House last month. Their complaints weren’t heeded, and Turkey began testing the S-400 shortly thereafter.

Menendez said during a Foreign Relations Committee meeting Wednesday that he was worried the U.S. was being held “hostage to Turkey.” Senator Ted Cruz, the co-sponsor of the legislation, said the administration has given “no good reason” to block the resolution. The Republican-led panel in Wednesday’s session also voted to advance additional sanctions against Turkey.

The House voted in October 405-11 to condemn the Ottoman Empire’s massacre of 1.5 million Armenians early in the last century, ignoring Turkey’s longstanding opposition to the measure. The House and Senate votes on these resolutions amount to the official U.S. government recognition of the massacre and do not require Trump’s signature.

— With assistance by Nick Wadhams, and Firat Kozok


The Hill, DC
Dec 12 2019
Senate passes Armenian genocide resolution
By Jordain Carney 

The Senate passed a resolution on Thursday formally recognizing the Ottoman Empire's genocide against the Armenian people, a move strongly opposed by the Turkish government.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) passed the resolution, which provides "official recognition and remembrance" of the Armenian genocide, by consent.

"We have just passed the Armenian genocide resolution ... and it is fitting and appropriate that the Senate stands on the right side of history in doing so. It commemorates the truth of the Armenian genocide," Menendez said from the Senate floor.

Under the Senate's rules any senator can ask to pass a resolution. As long as another senator doesn't object, the measure will clear the chamber. The Armenian genocide resolution passed the House in a 405-11 vote.

The move comes after three GOP senators previously blocked passage of the resolution amid pressure from the White House, which argued that it would undercut negotiations between Washington and Ankara, which vehemently opposes recognizing the killing of 1.5 million Armenians in the early 20th century as genocide.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) noted that it was the fourth time that supporters have tried to pass the resolution.

"This is the third week in a row we have come to the Senate floor seeking to pass this resolution, and I'm grateful that today we have succeeded," Cruz said. "This is a moment of truth that was far too long coming."

Congress's passage of the resolution comes as relations between the U.S. and Turkey have been tested in recent months over Turkey's purchase of a Russian weapons system and its incursion into Syria.

It comes a day after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed Turkey sanctions legislation, underscoring the rocky relationship between Capitol Hill and Ankara.

In addition to giving "recognition and remembrance" to the Armenian genocide, the resolution also rejects attempts to "enlist, engage, or otherwise associate" the U.S. government with denial of genocide and "encourage education and public understanding" of it.


News.am, Armenia
Dec 12 2019
Full text of US Senate’s resolution recognizing Armenian Genocide                    

The U.S. Senate unanimously adopted resolution calling to commemorate the Armenian Genocide through official recognition and remembrance and to reject efforts to associate the United States Government with denial of the Armenian Genocide.
The full text of the resolution is as follows:

RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Senate that it is the policy of the United States to commemorate the Armenian Genocide through official recognition and remembrance.

Whereas the United States has a proud history of recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide, the killing of an estimated 1,500,000 Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, and providing relief to the survivors of the campaign of genocide against Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs, Arameans, Maronites, and other Christians;

Whereas the Honorable Henry Morgenthau, Sr., United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1916, organized and led protests by officials of many countries against what he described as “a campaign of race extermination,” and, on July 16, 1915, was instructed by United States Secretary of State Robert Lansing that the “Department approves your procedure … to stop Armenian persecution”;

Whereas President Woodrow Wilson encouraged the formation of Near East Relief, chartered by an Act of Congress, which raised approximately $116,000,000 (more than $2,500,000,000 in 2019 dollars) between 1915 and 1930, and the Senate adopted resolutions condemning the massacres;
Whereas Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term “genocide” in 1944 and who was the earliest proponent of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, invoked the Armenian case as a definitive example of genocide in the 20th century;
Whereas, as displayed in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Adolf Hitler, on ordering his military commanders to attack Poland without provocation in 1939, dismissed objections by saying, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”, setting the stage for the Holocaust;

Whereas the United States has officially recognized the Armenian Genocide—
(1) through the May 28, 1951, written statement of the United States Government to the International Court of Justice regarding the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and Proclamation No. 4838 issued by President Ronald Reagan on April 22, 1981; and
(2) by House Joint Resolution 148, 94th Congress, agreed to April 8, 1975, and House Joint Resolution 247, 98th Congress, agreed to September 10, 1984; and

Whereas the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018 (Public Law 115–441) establishes that the prevention of atrocities is a national interest of the United States and affirms that it is the policy of the United States to pursue a United States Government-wide strategy to identify, prevent, and respond to the risk of atrocities by “strengthening diplomatic response and the effective use of foreign assistance to support appropriate transitional justice measures, including criminal accountability, for past atrocities”: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that it is the policy of the United States—

(1) to commemorate the Armenian Genocide through official recognition and remembrance;
(2) to reject efforts to enlist, engage, or otherwise associate the United States Government with denial of the Armenian Genocide or any other genocide; and
(3) to encourage education and public understanding of the facts of the Armenian Genocide, including the role of the United States in humanitarian relief efforts, and the relevance of the Armenian Genocide to modern-day crimes against humanity.


Anadolu Agency, Turkey
Dec 12 2019
US Senate passes Armenia resolution 
Chamber votes unanimously in favor of resolution to recognize alleged killings of Armenians in 1915 
Servet Günerigök   

WASHINGTON 
The U.S. Senate unanimously passed Thursday a resolution that recognizes the so-called Armenian genocide. 

"Our resolution to recognize and commemorate the #ArmenianGenocide just passed the United States Senate," Senator Bob Menendez announced on Twitter. 

The resolution asserts that "it is the policy" of the U.S. to commemorate the alleged genocide "through official recognition and remembrance." 
Last week, the White House asked Republican Senator Kevin Cramer to block voting on the resolution, according to the Axios news site. That marked the third time a Republican senator blocked the measure at the White House's request.

Last month, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham objected to passing the resolution after Menendez sought consent to pass it. Republican Senator David Perdue was also asked to block the resolution.

Cramer said he does not think it is "the right time" to pass the resolution, according to Axios.

The senator reportedly cited U.S. President Donald Trump's meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan at this month's NATO summit in London, saying the resolution could harm the Trump administration's diplomatic efforts. 

In mid-November during his visit in Washington, Erdogan reiterated his call for historians to investigate the issue.

"If the U.S. side really wants to act fairly, it should refrain from taking a political stand on a matter that historians should decide," said Erdogan. 
The president warned that listening to one side would lead to irreparable harms in Turkey-U.S. relations.

On Oct. 29, the anniversary of the Turkish Republic, the House voted 405-11 in favor of the resolution to recognize alleged killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

Turkey's position on the events of 1915 is that the deaths of Armenians in eastern Anatolia took place when some sided with invading Russians and revolted against Ottoman forces. A subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties.
Turkey objects to the presentation of the incidents as "genocide" but describes the 1915 events as a tragedy in which both sides suffered casualties.
Ankara has repeatedly proposed the creation of a joint commission of historians from Turkey and Armenia plus international experts to examine the issue.


The National Herald, Greece
Dec 12 2019
Turkey’s Armenian Orthodox Christian Church Elects New Patriarch
By Associated Press  

ANKARA – Turkey’s Armenian community on Wednesday voted in Bishop Sahak Masalyan as its new patriarch, in an election that critics say was overshadowed by Turkish government intervention.

Delegates elected Masalyan, 57, as the 85th patriarch of the Armenian Orthodox Christians in Turkey, the church announced at the end of a election process that began on Dec. 7. He succeeds Patriach Mesrob II, who died in March at 62.

Masalyan’s rival, Archbishop Aram Atesyan, had been serving as acting patriarch since 2008, when Mesrob became incapacitated and withdrew from his duties.

Atesyan and Masalyan were among only three candidates who were able to stand for the position after Turkey ruled that Armenian clergy currently serving abroad would not be eligible. The third candidate dropped out of the race in protest, while some community members boycotted the election process, according to Turkish media reports.

The patriarch is considered the head of the Armenians in Turkey, which numbers an estimated 70,000, and serves as a go-between the government and the community. Turkish officials often rely on the patriarch’s cooperation for their efforts to counter moves around the world to recognize the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago as genocide.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed around World War I, and many scholars see it as the 20th century’s first genocide. Turkey disputes the description, saying the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of a civil war. Turkey has repeatedly called for a joint committee of historians to investigate the slayings.

Garo Paylan, a legislator in Turkey’s parliament, was among community members who boycotted the election process.

 “I will not consider the chosen one as my Patriarch,” he wrote on Twitter, adding that those who interfered in the election process would go down in the “dark pages” of history.

Last year, the Turkish government intervened to halt elections at the patriarchate on the grounds “that the necessary conditions for the electoral process had not been met” and that Mesrob was still alive.


armenpress.am
11 December, 2019
“Pray for me”, Patriarch-elect Sahak Mashalian vows great changes for Armenian community

Shortly after being elected 85th Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, Bishop Sahak Mashalian addressed the Armenian community of Istanbul at the Armenian church near the patriarchate headquarters, noting that they will shape a new community with the patriarchate’s new composition, new programs and initiatives.

“We need something new, both in our spirits and minds. Our establishments need to be renovated, and my election must be the first step. We have an example of leadership before us – Jesus Christ, who washed the feet of his disciples, showed how to be a good shepherd. Today, you did not elect a patriarch, you elected the first servant of God and nation,” Mashalian said.

The Bishop said he will make his first pontifical address as 85th Patriarch after the inauguration and enthronement. “But now I have to ask you to pray for me”.

“The fact that we elected a patriarch in peace happened thanks to the prayers of thousands of people”, he said. The Bishop thanked the clergy, the delegates, and his opponent in the election, Aram Ateshian.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan


Panorama, Armenia
Dec 11 2019
Archbishop Aram Ateshian congratulates new Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople

Archbishop Aram Ateshian has offered congratulations to Bishop Sahak Mashalian, who is set to become the 85th Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople.

Bishop Sahak Mashalian previously served as the Locum Tenens of the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul.

In a post on Facebook on Wednesday, Aram Ateshian wished him every success.
“As the eldest member of the clergy, I wish that unity and brotherhood be re-established inside the national religious life of the Turkish Armenian community,” Ateshian wrote.

“It is our prayer that a new flourishing period may open before this age-old Patriarchate and that its mission may be enriched with new achievements for the benefit of our Holy Church and our dear people. God bless the 85th Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople!”

The elections of the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople are held in three stages. On 7 December the General Religious Assembly elected the 17 religious delegates.

On 8 December Istanbul Armenians cast their votes for the 103 secular delegates representing the two candidates for the post. 89 out of the 103 secular delegates supported Sahak Mashalian, while the remaining 12 – Aram Ateshian. Today the delegates voted to elected the new Patriarch.