Hyelog

Standing up to be counted

2008-06-02T19:04:00.001-04:00

June 02, 2008
Kevin Cavanagh
The Hamilton Spectator

For all the oratory that erupts when politicians gather, a nation's legislators are ultimately measured more by what they do than what they say. So it was no small statement of principle last week when Canada's House of Commons passed a bill recognizing the 1930s Ukrainian famine as an act of genocide.

The bill refers to a devastating famine of 1932-33 in which shocking numbers of people -- up to 10 million -- were starved to death in a fertile agricultural region known as Europe's breadbasket.

Whether such atrocities should be recorded for history's sake as state-sanctioned homicide is a politically explosive debate, which -- even generations after the fact -- can trigger backlashes from present-day regimes of countries that are implicated in, embarrassed by and/or in denial of said outrage.

As you'd expect in a debate fired with nationalism and pride, there's hot contention over whether such incidents constitute mass murder, or the slightly more benign consequence of politics of the day. In this case, some historians and a lot of Russians reject the notion that the famine was a calculated extermination by the Soviet Union's monstrous dictator Josef Stalin.

But a growing number of countries around the world have come to accept that the denial of food to an entire population was nothing less than a strategy by Stalin to exterminate millions of Ukrainians and silence their clamour for independence.

This was the second time in recent years a Canadian government had the gumption to take a stand on a controversial issue in the global community. Four years ago, our Parliament became one of a very few to stand up and recognize the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 as a genocide, a label that elicits fierce anger from Turkey.

Does it even matter that a country such as Canada takes a stand on something that happened so long ago? Yes. It's a statement of principle seen and heard around the world, and helps shape global consensus about what is tolerable and acceptable in civilized society.

Sensitivity and fear of controversy lead many governments to take the easy way out and simply not have an opinion, one way or the other. Cynics suspect Ottawa's decision last week was done to win favour with a million Canadian voters of Ukrainian descent, considering the feds just last fall said they had no plans to recognize the famine as a genocide. But the fact is this private member's bill received all-party support, as did the 2004 vote on Armenia.

In the end, side-stepping difficult decisions because of fear or intimidation is simply an abdication of responsibility by people who should lead. It's a dangerous step down a path toward submissively swallowing censorship, propaganda and freedom.

The world will never learn from its history if we don't face up to it.

Editorials are written by members of the editorial board. They represent the position of the newspaper, not necessarily the individual author.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Turkish official's claim about closed Armenian archives denied

2008-05-23T14:23:00.004-04:00

May 24, 2008
The Armenian Reporter
by Armenian Reporter staff

Halacoglu put his foot in his mouth again!

The archives of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutiun) through 1925 are open to scholars, confirmed Tatul Sonentz-Papazian, who took responsibility for the archives in Watertown, Mass., in the late 1980s. His statement came in response to a campaign by the head of the ultranationalist Turkish Historical Society, Yusuf Halacoglu, to raise doubts about the Armenian Genocide by claiming that Armenians are suppressing certain records.

"The Dashnak archives in Boston are very important. They contain the answers to many of the questions asked today," Mr. Halacoglu said, according to a May 20 report in the Turkish daily Hurriyet. "The Dashnaks were until now saying that they cannot open their archives because they do not have the money to catalog it. So I said: 'We will give you whatever money you need, just as long as we can have the archives opened.' However, there was no response."

In a phone interview with the Armenian Reporter, Mr. Sonentz-Papazian said that the cataloguingof the archives through 1925 was in fact completed in 1995. Those archives, which include thousands of documents from Asia Minor, the Caucasus, and ARF bodies in the rest of the world, have been microfilmed and have been available for the scrutiny of scholars, Mr. Sonentz-Papazian said.

The archive has been used by various scholars including historians Houri Berberian, Vincent Lima, and most recently Dikran Khaligian.

Five thick volumes of documents from the archives have been published to date. The first four were prepared by the late Hratch Dasnabedian. The fifth was prepared by Yervant Pamboukian. Mr. Pamboukian told the Reporter that he is working on the sixth volume. He added that the entire microfilm collection is being converted to a digital format by an outside contractor.

In the Hurriyet article, Mr. Halacoglu is quoted as saying that he offered $20 million to the ARF to facilitate the cataloging and opening of the archive. "I asked historians Ara Sarafian and Hilmar Kaiser to convey this proposal to our colleagues there."

Reached by the Reporter, Mr. Sarafian denied having been asked to convey such a proposal. "This is obviously a publicity stunt," he said. "Halacoglu thrives on such publicity." He added, however, that issues remain with the accessibility of other Armenian archives outside Armenia.

Mr. Sonentz-Papazian said that he had seen Mr. Kaiser only a month ago and no such proposal had been conveyed.

Genocide Denial Robs us of our Humanity

2008-05-15T12:29:00.000-04:00

Mayıs 15, 2008
Haber: Politika

The recent debate on Toronto District School Board’s (TDSB) decision to develop a Grade 11 ‘Genocide: Historical and Contemporary Implications’ curriculum, which has been approved by the Minister of Education in Ontario, unleashed a sophisticated and deceptive campaign to discredit the curriculum and the TDSB. Any rational, responsible person would applaud the teaching of our students the catastrophic effects of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. That Turkish Government agents and lobbyists are campaigning to deter TDSB from introducing this extremely valuable course is dismaying, but not surprising. The well-funded and aggressive efforts by Turkey to deny the Armenian Genocide have been so prevalent in Turkey and around the world that they have become infamously known as “an industry of denial.” The motives and methods of these history-distorting efforts are well documented and studied by Holocaust and Genocide scholars, historians, educators and psychologists.

The Turkish denial machine employes falsehoods, innuendo, unsubstantiated accusations and revisionist historical discourse to promote its version of history.

What happened during the TDSB Program and Services Committee’s meeting in Toronto on January 16 is another demonstration of the extent the Turkish nationalists will go to silence anyone who does nor share their revisionist narrative of history. The Turkish representatives tried to intimidate and to silence such prominent Canadians as Prof. Frank Chalk, director of the Montréal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies; David Warner, former Speaker of the Ontario Legislative Assembly; Leo Adler, prominent criminal lawyer and human rights advocate; and Hon. Jim Karygiannis, MP, who attended the meeting to show their strong support for the curriculum and the inclusion of the Armenian Genocide in the Grade 11 history course.

To try to curtail freedom of expression of any Canadian and to taunt them with abuses and profanities is shameful and a threat to democracy. The scene was reminiscent of the trials of many righteous Turkish individuals who in recent years have challenged the Turkish Government for its denial of the Armenian Genocide and who have been silenced under Article 301 of the Turkish penal code.

It looks like The Turkish nationalists are trying to import that anti-democratic modus operandi to Canada.

Since it would take volumes to categorically reply to Turkish lobbyists’ falsehoods, I would like to address some of their revisionist historical discourse. We will note their false suggestions and then offer the factual corrections.

Introduction of the curriculum would incite hatred against Turkish children.

It is claimed that if such a curriculum is introduced it would “create hatred against Turkish children.”

Despite Turkish lobbyists’ allegations, there’s absolutely no shred of evidence from any authority–government or educational–that Turkish school children have been bullied by their Armenian classmates in Canada. Raising fears that mentioning the Genocide of Armenians would result in the persecution of Turks is a red herring intended to plant fear among educational institutions in Canada.

Most Armenians and Turks overwhelmingly distinguish between the perpetrators of the genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 and people of Turkish descent today, wherever the latter may live. The January 19 commemoration of the first anniversary of the assassination Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in Ottawa by a group of Armenians and Turks, who are members of the Turkish-Armenian Dialogue Group of Ottawa, is the best illustration of this attitude. Mr. Dink was assassinated in front of his Istanbul office by a member of a nationalist Turkish political group.

It is also possible to teach that genocide is wrong without teaching hatred of the perpetrators. One can explain their motivations and why they were wrong. One can explain the destruction and the suffering they caused. This is being done successfully in our current educational system where the Holocaust is taught without blaming contemporary Germany or Germans.

After a decade of teaching about the Armenian Genocide in schools in 12 American states (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Ohio, Rhode Island, Virginia, and California), there has not been a single registered or documented incident of “bullying, hate, and racism” against Turkish children.

Many righteous Turks during the Armenian Genocide risked their lives to save their Armenian neighbours, friends, and business associates. Furthermore, we value the many Turkish intellectuals, historians, journalists and over 12,000 German-Turks who, despite death threats, persecution, and prosecution challenged the official narrative of the Turkish government on the Armenian Genocide and asked the Turkish government to come to terms with this sad chapter of its history.

Here is what the German Turks wrote:

“What we have learned at school (Turkish) is a forgery of history.” They asked the Turkish Government to repent for the crime of Genocide which “we feel morally obliged to end their (Armenians) disillusions and agony”. Furthermore, the association asked for “international condemnation of the crimes committed against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontian-Greeks.”

While official Turkey denies its responsibility for the Armenian Genocide, Turkish intellectual Taner Akçam wrote in the Turkish newspaper Yeni Binyil (October 1, 2000):

“The manner in which the Armenian question is being discussed is in itself indicative as to what is the main problem of our country. We do not possess the culture affording open debate about mass murders. We are devoid of the moral foundations which enable us to damn such crimes. One needs to have a sense of sorrow in order to be able to speak of the great human tragedies; but we do not possess such a sense of morality. Look at the things that have been written about this topic. In them you don’t find a single sentence, a single word that recognizes the tragedy.”

When Turkish children learn about these righteous Turks, they can be proud of the way these people acted. They will be absolved of any responsibility. As renowned writer Ahmet Altan stated in May 2005: “I have nothing in common with the terrible sin of the past Ittihadists [the government of the day]… instead of justifying and arguing on behalf of the murderers, why don’t we praise and defend the rescuers’ compassion, honesty, and courage?”

Historians are disputing the Armenian Genocide.

After 92 years and numerous history books, government documents (British, French, United States, and even then-Turkish allies Germany and Austria), photographs by war correspondents, massive coverage by Western journalists, missionaries and NGOs, and documentary films, we maintain that it’s redundant to try to prove what has been proven countless times. After all, would anyone demand that a historians’ committee be formed to question whether the Holocaust took place?

The Turkish Government agents cite the same half-dozen historians and writers to back their allegations. Practically everyone listed has taught history at institutions where their chair has been funded by the Turkish government. These historians have close relationships with the government of Turkey; have privileged access to Turkish historic archives and are provided with frequent all-expense paid trips to Turkey. The publication of their books are often funded by the government of Turkey.

Many genocide scholars have questioned the credibility of these half-dozen historians.

Colin Imber, in the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, called Justin McCarthy’s work: “Junk food, junk bonds and now junk history … This is a cruel description, but one which is perfectly appropriate for a book which is carelessly written, is often misinformed, and shamelessly follows a Turkish nationalist agenda.”

Ton Zwaan, in de Volkskrant (Dutch newspaper) wrote: “Among bona fide historians McCarthy is known as one of the professional deniers, subsidized by the Turkish government.” Zwaan continued: “In a groundless, hazy and disorderly argumentation replete with half-truths and complete untruths, McCarthy attempts to persuade his readers that an Armenian genocide never transpired in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 and 1916.”

Many Turkish historians, among them Taner Akcam and Muge Gocek, also questioned McCarthy’s research and trustworthiness.

Guenter Lewy is a well know revisionist. His work–from the killing of Roma Gypsies in the Second World War to the Vietnam War–is well documented. This is what the Journal of Genocide Research wrote: “Lewy’s . . . book which seeks not only to exclude the Nazis’ Romani victims from the Holocaust-which is not anything new-but goes a step further to say that they were not even the targets of attempted genocide. . . ‘The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies’ is a dangerous book.”

After reading Lewy’s biased article on the Armenian Genocide, Prof. Gregory H. Stanton, said: “I am appalled. It is such a blatant denial article . . . As you know, the evidence for the Armenian genocide does not just rest upon the three sources Guenter Lewy attempts to discredit. (He doesn’t even do a good job of discrediting those sources.) It also rests on literally thousands of eye-witness testimonies, eyewitness reports by diplomats and missionaries, and a mountain of other data. Lewy’s article is directly contrary to the official opinion of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, passed by unanimous resolution, declaring that the Armenian massacres were genocide, and that attempts to deny that fact have no basis in sound scholarship.”

Norman M. Naimark from Stanford University recently reviewed Guenter Lewy’s latest book for the jounral Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Naimark concluded that “… if Lewy wishes to maintain his claims to historical objectivity by using accepted judicial definitions of genocide, then the difficulty of finding direct evidence for the Young Turks’ premeditated planning of mass murder should not prevent him from concluding that genocide took place. At its core, then Lewy’s argument is illogical.”

The International Association of Genocide Scholars, in a letter to the Turkish Prime Minister labelled such historians as “scholars who advise your government and who are affiliated in other ways with your state-controlled institutions are not impartial. Such so-called “scholars” work to serve the agenda of historical and moral obfuscation when they advise you and the Turkish Parliament on how to deny the Armenian Genocide.”

One of the historians Turks often cite to buttress their denialist arguments is Bernard Lewis. Mr. Lewis has been convicted in French court for denying the Armenian Genocide. His flip-flopping on the Armenian Genocide is well documented. In an earlier version of his book, “The Emergence of Modern Turkey,” Lewis wrote: “A struggle between two nations for the possession of single homeland, that ended with the terrible holocaust of 1915, where a million and half Armenians perished.”

I have no intention to enter into a “my historian is more credible than your historian” contest here, although the number of international historians who acknowledge the truth of the Genocide of Armenians exceeds the names cited by Turkish lobbyists by a hundred fold. To mention just one group of 126 Holocaust scholars, among them Elie Wiesel, Yehuda Bauer, Israel Charny, Steven Katz, Steven Jacobs, and Irving L. Horowitz, who on March 9, 2000, issued a statement declaring that “The World War I Armenian Genocide is an incontestable historical fact and accordingly urge the governments of the Western democracies to likewise recognize it as such.”

The Turkish archives are open. Armenians refuse dialogue

One of the most disingenuous Turkish arguments is that Turkish archives are open and that Armenian archives are closed on the genocide issue. They use this argument to mislead and to divert attention from the real issue, the crime of Genocide. Furthermore, they try to imply that Armenians have something to hide and do not want to open their archives for inspection or to enter into a dialogue with Turks.

What is the truth?

In regard to the Armenian Genocide, there are four main Turkish sources of archives:

1–The Prime Ministerial Archives

2–The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) [the governing party in 1915] Archives

3–The Special Organization [the organization which carried out the Genocide] Archives

4–The Interior Ministry Archives.

According to the Istanbul Military Tribunal (1919 - 1921), which was established to try Turkish Government leaders who had ordered the implementation of the Armenian Genocide, most of the documents related to the latter three organizations have been either “stolen or destroyed.” During the trial, the Turkish persecutor in his indictment, stated: “Investigation of what had occurred reveals that important documents pertaining to this office [Special Organizations] …have been purloined.”

In the same indictment, he also stated that “all of the documents and ledgers of the Central Committee [CUP] have been purloined.” Furthermore, many witnesses during the trials testified that the documents of CUP had been removed by Central Committee member Dr. Nazim.

In regard to the Interior Ministry Archives, Aziz Bey (former director of General Security), revealed that Talât Pasha, the interior minister, prior to fleeing the country, took suitcases of documents, information and reports, and burned them.

The only archives which are open are the Prime Ministerial Archives. These archives are limited to a small group of selected historians who a priori have demonstrated their support of Turkish government’s genocide denialist narrative. Furthermore, researchers are allowed only 25 documents per day, which severely limits the ability to work there.

Recently, Mehmet Sait Uluisik, a German citizen of Turkish origin, was banned from entering Turkey to carry research in the Prime Minister’s Ottoman archives on the role of Circassians in the Armenian Genocide. The Circassians were armed and funded by the government of Turkey.

Thus to claim Turkish archives are open to scholars is inaccurate. The critical archives pertaining to the Armenian Genocide are not in the archives, while the available ones are of limited access.

The accusation that Armenians refuse to dialogue with Turks is another myth.

Numerous attempts have been made by the Armenian Government and the Armenian Diaspora to dialogue with Turks. These attempts have failed because of the Turkish Government’s intransigent and unreasonable conditions. The Turkish Armenian Reconciliation Commission (TARC) is a prime example. Turkish and Armenian members of TARC agreed to submit the arbitration of the Armenian Genocide issue to a third party–the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ). When ICTJ’s report concluded that what happened to the Armenians in Ottoman Turkey was a classic case of genocide and fulfilled four out of five conditions set by the UN Genocide Convention, the Turkish government pulled the plug on TARC by asking its Turkish members to withdraw from the commission.

In response to the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s letter to the President of Armenia, to establish a “joint group of historians… to study … the events of 1915,” Robert Kocharian, the President of Armenia, on April 25, 2005, replied by saying: “Your [Erdogan[ suggestion to address the past cannot be effective if it deflects from addressing the present and future, in order to engage in a useful dialogue, we need to create the appropriate and conducive political environment..in that context, an intergovernmental commission can meet to discuss any and all outstanding issues between our two nations.”

The Turkish Government did not respond to the Armenian Government’s positive approach to solve this issue. On April 11, 2006, the Foreign Minister of Armenia Vartan Oskanian, reminded the Turkish Government and the international community that “we remain amazed that a letter sent by president Kocharian to Prime Minister Erdogan… remains simply ignored because the Turkish authorities did not like the response contained therein, and do not wish to broaden the scope of dialogue beyond histology.”

More recently, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Armenian Parliament organized a conference in the Armenian Parliament on Turkish Armenian relations. Among the invitees were Turkish professor Yusuf Halacoglu (president of Turkish Historical Society), Sedat Laciner (director of International Strategic Research Institute), former Turkish Ambassador Omer Engin Lutem (head of the Armenian Studies Institute of the Eurasian Strategic Research Center), Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, and Dr. Can Paker (Turkey’s special representative for relations with the European Union). None of the Turkish invitees attended this important and unique conference. The Turkish side missed a golden opportunity to meet Armenian politicians, historians and scholars to discuss relations between the two neighboring nations.

The Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, Tigran Torosian, voiced his concern that Turkey’s decision not to participate in the discussions would not contribute to dialogue between the two nations.

The above examples clearly show that Turkish government’s manipulative offer of dialogue with Armenians is akin to the neo-Nazis’ suggestion of an independent, objective historical commission to determine whether the Holocaust took place or the Flat Earth Society’s offer to hold an academic dialogue with National Geographic about the true shape of the earth.

If the Turkish Government does not allow its citizens, historians and intellectuals to freely discuss the issue of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey, and prosecutes them under article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, how can one take its offer of dialogue with Armenians and the creation of “historians commission” seriously?

The Canadian Armenian community does not bear any animosity towards the Canadian Turkish community. On the contrary, we sympathize with the members of the Turkish-Canadian community and Turks in general, particularly when they have been mislead for too long and denied their own history, by the Turkish Government.

We are hopeful the Turkish Government halts its campaign of falsification of history and focuses on the Genocide issue without hysteria, racism, nationalistic fanaticism and that the Turkish people will acknowledge the misdeeds of their predecessors and extend a hand of friendship to the Armenian people.

Ardash Amroyan

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Traveling across the peace bridges over closed borders

2008-05-13T10:17:00.003-04:00

Monday, May 12, 2008
TDN
Başak Güneş Başat

I certainly welcome this kind of exchange people-to-people promoting understanding. In the same breath I wish to add that among those who visited Armenia there were no Turkish nationalists. However may be through these exchanges the message will get to the nationalists.

A travel agency recently organized the first-ever cultural tour to Armenia, with which Turkey has no diplomatic relations. “The hospitality was great,” one partıcipant said. “During our last dinner, Armenians sitting next to us in the restaurant joined us to dance.” The urbane group, however, could not avoid their hosts’ genocide claims and listened patiently to genocide stories

Despite sour relations between Ankara and Yerevan, a Turkish travel agency decided to organize a cultural tour to Armenia and mustered a group of 30 tourists for a 10-day trip to Turkey's neighbor to the east.

The visit, the first of its kind, was organized by Fest Travel, known for its cultural tours worldwide. “We have organized tours almost everywhere around the world,” said trip leader Faruk Pekin, who is also Fest Travel's general director. “This time, it was Armenia's and Georgia's turn.”

Since the borders between Turkey and Armenia are closed, the group flew to Georgia, then traveled to Armenia by bus.

“Although there are no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey, we encountered no problems with visa procedures except for a few bureaucratic ones on the Armenia-Georgia border,” Pekin told the Turkish Daily News.

Turkey sealed the border in 1993 to protest Armenian forces' occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the South Caucasus, a de facto independent republic that is officially part of Azerbaijan.

The Armenians were pleasant and interested in their group, Pekin said.

“In one church, they opened the treasury room just for us,” he said.

After crossing the Georgian-Armenian border, the group visited the Haghpat and Sanahin monasteries, named world cultural heritage sites by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Tour member Ertan Şerbetçi said he found the mountaintop churches and cathedrals the most fascinating parts of the tour.

He was also impressed by the trip's upbeat tone.

“We experienced nothing negative,” he said.” The conflict is not between the Armenian and Turkish nations.”

Fellow traveler Leyla Çizmeci said she was proud to take part in the agency's first cultural visit to Armenia.

“The hospitality was great,” she told the TDN. “At our last dinner, Armenians sitting next to us in the restaurant joined us to dance.”

Nonetheless, the urbane group could not avoid encountering Armenian genocide claims condemning Turks for the killing of 1.5 million ethnic Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 and saying the whole world should recognize it as "genocide."

“The group patiently listened to stories of genocide,” said Çizmeci. “Talking and listening to each other is the way to get rid of prejudices, and such kinds of trips between two countries may help normalize bilateral ties.”

The greenery she observed throughout the tour and the Georgian and Armenian music that accompanied them on the bus made the trip an unforgettable 10 days, she said.

The tour of Yerevan included visits to the Matenadaran Museum of Ancient Manuscripts, Yerevan Square, Republic Square, Yerevan State University, the Haghtanak (Victory) Bridge, the state historical museum, the city concert hall and opera house and the parliament building.

After Yerevan, the group took in the Ejmiatsin Cathedral, Hripsime Monastery, Surp Guyane Church and Zvartnos Cathedral. The last stop was the Garni Temple and the Geghard Monastery, with its view of Mount Ararat.

The number of participants reflects the sizable demand that exists for visiting Armenia. Another tour is planned for the end of August.

“We also hope to contribute to building warmer ties between our two countries,” Pekin said.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Turk-Armenian Business Council not permitted to open branch in Istanbul

2008-05-09T10:34:00.002-04:00

08.05.2008
PanARMENIAN.Net

If Turkey's government is sincere shouldn't it not walk the talk? This is another evidence of its lack of sincerity.

A Turkish-Armenian business organization is not permitted to open a branch in Istanbul, in total contrast to the government’s willingness to restart political dialogue with Armenia.

While political leaders of both Turkey and Armenia debate ways to "open dialogue," an effort by a Brussels-based association of Turkish and Armenian businessmen has been told that even an Istanbul office for the nongovernmental organization is off the table.

The request began with Brussels-based Turkish-Armenian Business Development Council’s request last year to establish an office in Istanbul. But the request was quietly rejected by the Interior Ministry in February, the Turkish Daily News reports.

Kaan Soyak, co-chairman of the Council, confirmed that four Turkish members of the organization including himself applied last May to open the office supposed to connect the Turkey-EU network in order to foster business opportunities.

"We have received no response for nine months and in February, the Istanbul Governor’s Office sent a letter rejecting our request without any justification," Soyak said.

Until February, he continued, Turkish and Armenian members of the Council had the impression that the Interior Ministry would allow the opening of the office because at round-table discussions in the United States last November, Turkish diplomats heralded the government’s plans to allow the office. However, the letter from the Istanbul Governor’s Office was in total contrast to expectations.

The government’s rejection comes right after calls for dialogue with Armenia in the wake of the elections, a development that raised hopes for the opening of a new chapter in troubled relations.

The Turkish-Armenian Business Development Council is a nongovernmental network of Turkish and Armenian business leaders working since 1997 for the restoration of normal relations between Turkey and Armenia and for the reopening of their common border.

The two neighbors have had no diplomatic links after Turkey took Azerbaijan’s side in the Karabakh war and closed the border with Armenia. Ankara also opposes demands for recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

! Reproduction in full or in part is prohibited without reference to «PanARMENIAN.Net».

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Armenian Orthodox leader urges world to recognize WWI-era killings as genocide

2008-05-07T17:59:00.002-04:00

May 7, 2008
Jerusalem Post
Source: AP

The head of Armenia's Orthodox Church took part in Pope Benedict XVI's public audience on Wednesday and urged all countries to recognize that Turks committed genocide against Armenians early last century.

Karekin II sat at Benedict's side during the traditional weekly audience in St. Peter's Square - part of a visit to the Vatican that is the latest high-level contact between Catholic and Orthodox leaders.

Addressing a crowd of faithful assembled in the square, Karekin appealed "to all nations and lands to universally condemn all genocides that have occurred throughout history."

"Denial of these crimes is an injustice that equals the commission of the same," he said. "Many countries of the world recognize and condemn the genocide committed against the Armenian people by Ottoman Turkey."

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

KENTUCKY BECOMES 41st STATE TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

2008-05-07T17:51:00.001-04:00

Armenian National Committee of America
Eastern Region
122 W 27th St, Ste 412, New York, NY 10001
Tel. (917) 428-1918 * Email. ancaer@anca.org

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release ~ 2008-05-01
Contact: Karine Birazian ~

KENTUCKY BECOMES 41st STATE TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

FRANKFORT, KY - The Armenian National Committee of America- Eastern Region (ANCA-ER) welcomed today a proclamation issued by Kentucky Governor Steven L. Beshear recognizing the Armenian Genocide. The "Bluegrass State" proclamation brings the number of states to formally recognize the Armenian Genocide to forty-one. The full text of the Kentucky proclamation is provided below.

The powerfully worded proclamation designated April 24, 2008, as "Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide" in the state of Kentucky, noting that "recognition of the ninety-third anniversary of this genocide is paramount to guarding against the repetition of future genocides and educating people across the Commonwealth about the atrocities of these horrific events."

"Gov. Beshear's proclamation reflects the growing sentiments of U.S. government officials to speak with moral clarity on the Armenian Genocide," stated ANCA Eastern Region Director Karine Birazian. "The burgeoning Kentucky Armenian community's initiative serves as an inspiration to Armenian American activists across the U.S. to redouble efforts to end Turkey's gag rule on U.S. affirmation of this crime against humanity."

The Armenian National Committee of America is the largest and most influential Armenian American grassroots political organization. Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the United States and affiliated organizations around the world, the ANCA actively advances the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of issues.

#####

TEXT OF KENTUCKY PROCLAMATION MARKING THE 93RD ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Proclamation

By Steven L. Beshear
Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky

To All To Whom These Presents Shall Come:

WHEREAS, One and one-half-million Christian Armenian men, women and children were the innocent victims of a brutal genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish Government from 1915-1923; and

WHEREAS, The Armenian genocide has been recognized as an attempt to eliminate all traces of a thriving, ancient civilization over 3,000 years old; and

WHEREAS, Recognition of the ninety-third anniversary of this genocide is paramount to guarding against the repetition of future genocides and educating people across the Commonwealth about the atrocities of these horrific events; and

WHEREAS, Armenian-Americans living in Kentucky have greatly enriched our state through their leadership in various aspects of society;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, STEVEN L. BESHEAR, Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, do hereby proclaim April 24, 2008, as

DAY OF REMEMBRANCE OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE in Kentucky.

DONE AT THE CAPITOL, in the City of Frankfort this 28th day of April, in the year of our Lord Two Thousand Eight and in the 216th year of the Commonwealth.

STEVEN L. BESHEAR
GOVERNOR

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

CBC Ombudsman Rejects Turkish Government's Denial of the Armenian Genocide

2008-05-05T09:04:00.003-04:00

May 3, 2008
Armenian National Committee of Canada

It is a shame that Turkey resorts to denial tactics in order to project a clean image to the world. As said in this release “By its persistent policy of denial, the present Turkish Government is making itself automatically the inherent target of responsibility for the 1915 Genocide.”

Ottawa – A well-financed campaign to censor CBC Radio's ‘As It Happens’ program, orchestrated by the Turkish government and its agents, has been rejected by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Ombudsman Vince Carlin.

After a professional examination of the Turkish denialists complaint that CBC “did not give sufficient attention to Turkey’s official claim that the events of 1915 did not constitute a genocide,” Mr. Carlin said, “While not ignoring significant dissent from 'mainstream' views, the journalist must not distort the concepts of 'balance' by giving equal weight to any contending theory.”

The ombudsman added, “In the cases at issue, the preponderance of credible academic work has found that the Turkish government took deliberate action against the Armenian population and those actions fit what became the definition of Genocide.”

The ombudsman elaborated on the journalist’s ethical conundrum of “giving voice to those who deny events which were part of the historical consensus.” On this thorny issue, Mr. Carlin said, “the implications of such notion are evident when one thinks of giving substantial time to those who deny that there was a genocide directed against Jews during World War II.”

In the ombudsman’s view, “ while fairness and balance would impel journalists to be on the look-out for credible contradictory evidence, appropriate weight must be given to broad-based conclusion, in this case not only academic-based, but also endorsed by UN agencies and the Canadian Government.”

The CBC ombudsman concluded his findings by noting that “the concept of balance is not mathematical.” Accordingly, he found that “no violation of CBC’s Journalistic Standards and Practices in treatment of theses items.”

The latest campaign of silencing freedom of speech in Canada was launched after CBC's ‘As It Happens’ program interviewed United States Congressman Adam Schiff (Oct. 18, 2007), Turkish historian Taner Akçam (Oct. 12, 2007), and an official from the Toronto District School Board on the proposed Grade 11 Genocide Curriculum (Dec. 14 2007).

The Armenian National Committee of Canada (ANCC) cognizant of the campaign, responded to the Turkish government’s misinformation by making essential presentation (testimonies of historians' and scholars, books, and other relevant documents) to the ombudsman to refute the Turkish denialist fabrications.

Aris Babikian, Executive Director of ANCC, commended the CBC ombudsman's findings and conclusions. 'Once again CBC has demonstrated that it is not willing to compromise its journalistic integrity. We congratulate the CBC ombudsman and ‘As It Happens’ staff for not capitulating to the Turkish government’s propaganda machine, threats, intimidation, and bullying.”

“It is high time the Turkish government recognized that its Armenian Genocide denial policy is a bankrupt one and that Turkey can not muzzle freedom of the press and suppress freedom of expression in the civilized world, as it has done in Turkey,” Babikian said, urging the Turkish people to rise against the “Turkish Deep State” and utranationalists who are running the country's denialist policy.

Dr. Girair Basmadjian, President of ANCC observed that “By its persistent policy of denial, the present Turkish Government is making itself automatically the inherent target of responsibility for the 1915 Genocide.”

Swedish Archives Confirm: It was a genocide!

2008-04-21T08:51:00.003-04:00

Press Release
April 21, 2008
Armenica.org
Uppsala, Sweden
info@armenica.org
www.armenica.org

Swedish Archives Confirm: It was a genocide!

A recently conducted study at the Uppsala University has revealed highly interesting information in the Swedish Archives, which once again confirm the researchers' view of the events in the Ottoman Turkey during the First World War: the Christian minorities, the Armenians in particular, were subjected to genocide.

The massacres in Ottoman Turkey during the First World War claimed the lives of approximately 1.5 million out of a world population of four million Armenians, while over 250,000 Assyrians/Chadeans and equal number of Pontic Greeks. In 1923, for the first time in over 2,500 years, Armenians no longer lived on 85 % of their fatherland. Thus, the Armenian genocide was, in a sense, a successful genocide, acquiring the perpetrators an Armenia without Armenians.

The conducted survey covers the period between 1915 and 1923 and includes, among others, reports which the Swedish Ambassador, Cosswa Anckarsvärd, and the Swedish Military Attaché, Einar af Wirsén, both stationed in Constantinople, sent to the Foreign Department (found in the National Archive) and the General Staff Headquarters (found in the War Archive) in Stockholm, respectively. In total, about eighty documents were found with direct relevance to the so-called Armenian Question, of which some are over-explicit in their message: the Turkish Government conducted a systematic extermination of the Armenian Nation.

On July 6, 1915, Ambassador Anckarsvärd, writing to the Swedish Foreign Minister, Knut Wallenberg, concludes: "Mr. Minister, The persecutions of the Armenians have reached hair-raising proportions and all points to the fact that the Young Turks want to seize the opportunity, since due to different reasons there are no effective external pressure to be feared, to once and for all put an end to the Armenian question. The means for this are quite simple and consist of the extermination [utrotandet] of the Armenian nation [emphasis added]." Anckarsvärd's reports until 1920 persisted in the same insight. At several occasions, the Ambassador points out that "It is obvious that the Turks are taking the opportunity to, now during the war, annihilate [utplåna] the Armenian nation [emphasis added] so that when the peace comes no Armenian question longer exists." In a later report (1917) he underlines that the massacres are not clashes between the Muslim and the Armenian populations, but "that the persecutions of Armenians have been done at the instigation of the Turkish Government [emphasis added]..." As an explanation to the prevailing famine in Turkey during 1917, the Embassy Envoy Alhgren mentions the shortage of workers, which is claimed partly to be a result of "the extermination of the Armenian race [utrotandet af den armeniska rasen] [emphasis added]". Major Wirsén's reports to the General Staff concur with Anckarsvärd's analysis. In 1942 Wirsén published his memoirs, entitled Minnen från fred och krig ("Memories from Peace and War"), reflecting upon his time as Swedish Military Attaché in the Balkans and Turkey. In a chapter entitled Mordet på en nation ("The Murder of a Nation"), Wirsén renders his observations of the Armenian massacres: "Officially, these [deportations] had the goal to move the entire Armenian population to the steppe regions of Northern Mesopotamia and Syria, but in reality they aimed toexterminate [utrota] the Armenians [emphasis added], whereby the pure Turkish element in Asia Minor would achieve a dominating position." In the conclusion of this chapter he recalls his conversation with the Turkish Grand Vizier Talaat Pasha and notes: "The annihilation of the Armenian nation [emphasis added] in Asia Minor must revolt all human feelings.The way the Armenian problem was solved was hair-raising. I still can see in front of me Talaat's cynical expression, when he emphasized that the Armenian Question was solved."

The mentioned quotations are a fraction of the information presented in the study. In addition to the mentioned archives of the Foreign Ministry and the General Staff, the reports from the Swedish missionaries and the Swedish newspapers were also included in the study and concur with the same view. The surveyed documents are mainly in regard to the Armenian Question, but the data bed indicates that other Christian groups, such as Greeks and Syriacs, were affected by the same fate.

The study clearly emphasises the concept of "bystander". While the word itself implies that the bystanders do not participate in the genocide, some contend that they are far from just a neutral viewer to the tragedy, but passive participators in the annihilation. The British statesman and political thinker Edmund Burke's statement captures the essence of the bystanders to genocide: "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." The documents clearly indicate that the Swedish Government was well informed about the state-orchestrated extermination of the Armenians. They also disclose that the Government, fully in accordance with the policy of a small state, consciously chose not to intervene in the matter, neither during the massacres nor after when the League of Nations suggested Sweden as a mandate power in Armenia. While resorting to isolationism during the period of the implementation of the genocide, Sweden followed the general stream, in particular that of the Major Power's, during the post-war period when the question of securing the future of the Armenian Nation was discussed. Sweden, as all other states, chose to secure its national interests rather than standing out from the rest by advocating Armenia's right and the question of punishing the perpetrators of the Armenian genocide. The present-day Swedish Government does not seem to be willing to become involved in the question either. Just last fall, the Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, during an interpellation in the Swedish Parliament, refrained from officially recognising the 1915 genocide, partly by referring to "the need of additional research about what really transpired in the Ottoman Empire." The surveyed documents should at least quench that need; the official reports from the Swedish Ambassador and the Swedish Military Attaché in Constantinople are unambiguous: Armenians were subjected to genocide.

The study in its whole is included in a master thesis paper which will be presented in the Higher Seminar at the Uppsala University's Department of History. It will also be available at http://www.armenica.org . Vahagn Avedian, Editor of Armenica.org and Master Degree Student at Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.

RECOGNIZING THE GENOCIDE

2008-04-20T18:34:00.002-04:00

19 April 2008
Frontier Times, Bulgaria

Another Bulgarian city adopted a declaration recognizing Turkish genocide over Armenians and Bulgarians.

April 17, in Rousse, the Municipal Council approved with 36 in favour, 3 against and 6 abstained a special declaration wherein the town's governors recognize the genocide over Armenians and Bulgarians carried out by the Turkish state and army. Between 1903 and 1913, tens of thousands of Bulgarians were slaughtered by the Turkish in the territories that remained out of the Bulgarian state, and between 1915 and 1918 of over 1.5 MILLION Armenians, having before that, in 1895/6 butchered between 100,000 and 200,000 Armenians.

Besides the recognition of these acts of extreme violence in the beginning of 20th century, the declaration calls for "the Republic of Turkey assuming the responsibility and offer its apologies for the five centuries of enslaving of Bulgarians, for the crimes committed and mass murders perpetrated of all Bulgarians who, under the force of the Berlin Treaty (of 1878), remained within the boundaries of Turkey and to pay indemnities to the heirs of the refugees for their suffering and for the robbing of their properties and possessions that were left on its (Turkey's) territory."

This declaration will be presented to the embassy of the Republic of Armenia in Sofia and also delivered to the Human Rights Commission in the EU Parliament. The declaration was initiated by ATAKA and VMRO representatives and was earlier adopted in the city of Bourgas. Meanwhile, the Turkish consul from Bourgas was reported to have arrived in Rousse and attempted in discussions with the mayor to prevent the adoption of such a declaration. After Bourgas approved the declaration, the Turkish city of Edirne, in a harsh reaction to this, terminated all common projects, and severed all connections between the two cities.

Bulgaria was enslaved by the Turkish between 1396 and 1878. In the first century of slavery alone, the Bulgarian population was diminished from about 2,000,000 to just over 200,000. Mass slaughter was carried over Bulgarians most regularly, with some of the most brutal taking place in 1876 as the April Uprising was crushed, leaving some hundred thousand, including women and children, dead. The modern Turkish state has continually refused to recognize the terror performed over other peoples in its earlier history and has demonstrated especially harsh attitude to the Armenian genocide question.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Naming a Vatican courtyard after Armenia’s patron saint

2008-03-26T18:12:00.004-04:00

February 23, 2008
Catholic News Service

Under a beautifully sunny sky Friday, Pope Benedict XVI presided over the formal naming of the St. Gregory the Illuminator Courtyard on the north side of St. Peter’s Basilica.

The courtyard, between the basilica’s exterior wall and a booth selling tickets to reach St. Peter’s famous dome, is named after the patron saint of Armenia, the evangelizer who brought Christianity to the country in 301.

St. Gregory is no stranger to the courtyard now named after him. In January 2005, Pope John Paul II presided over the unveiling of a statue of the bearded and mitered saint in a niche of the basilica facing the courtyard.

Unveiling the stone tablet with the courtyard’s new name on it, Pope Benedict was joined by officials from St. Peter’s Basilica, from Vatican City’s central government and Armenian Catholic Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni of Cilicia.

The pope told the group, “More than 17 centuries ago, this great saint made the Armenians a Christian people,” the first nation to declare itself officially Christian.

By calling the saint “the illuminator,” Pope Benedict said, Armenians recognize that he led the people from darkness to the light of Christ, but also that through his teaching and preaching he shed light on the truth about human life.

PHOTO: Pope John Paul II blesses the statue of St. Gregory the Illuminator which was placed in a niche on the northern exterior wall of St. Peter’s Basilica in this January 2005 file photo. Pope Benedict XVI officially named the little courtyard which the statue faces after the saint Feb. 22. (CNS/Catholic Press Photo)

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Knesset panel to consider recognition of Armenian genocide

2008-03-26T18:01:00.002-04:00

26/03/2008
Haaretz
By Shahar Ilan, Haaretz Correspondent

The Knesset decided Wednesday that a parliamentary committee will hold an unprecedented hearing on whether to recognize the World War I-era mass murder of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as a genocide.

The decision to hold a hearing, which was proposed by Meretz Chairman Haim Oron, was approved by a 12-MK margin. The government did not oppose the motion.

The Knesset House Committee will decide whether the issue will be handed over to the Knesset Education Committee, as Oron wants, or to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, as requested by Yisrael Beiteinu MK Yosef Shagal. The latter generally holds hearings behind closed doors.

Oron wants the committee to recognize the Armenian genocide, pointing out that similar recognition has been afforded recently by the French parliament and the United States Congress. "It is appropriate that the Israeli Knesset, which represents the Jewish people, recognize the Armenian genocide," said Oron. "It is unacceptable that the Jewish people is not making itself heard."

The Meretz MK added that he raises the proposal every year ahead of Armenian Genocide Day, which falls on April 24.

Minister Shalom Simhon, who represented the government in the Knesset debate, did not object to sending the issue to committee. Simhon said the Jewish people have a special sensitivity to the issue and a moral obligation to remember tragic episodes in human history, including the mass murder of the Armenians.

Nonetheless, Simhon added that, "in the course of time this has become a politically charged issue between Armenians and Turks ? and Israel is not interested in taking a side."

Shagal warned that recognizing the killings as a genocide could have repercussions for Israel's diplomatic relations with Turkey, as well as the fate of tens of thousands of Jews who live in Azerbaijan.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

TURKISH SECURITY OFFICIALS ADMIT COVER-UP IN DINK MURDER CASE

2008-03-23T09:47:00.001-04:00

Friday, March 21, 2008
Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
By Gareth Jenkins

On March 20, two members of the Turkish Gendarmerie admitted receiving detailed intelligence regarding a plot to assassinate Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and then, after Dink’s murder, trying to cover up their knowledge by lying to investigators.

The confessions came as two Gendarmerie officers, known by their initials as O. S. and V. S., went on trial for dereliction of duty after evidence emerged that the security forces in the eastern Black Sea city of Trabzon had been informed of the plot to assassinate Dink months in advance but had failed either to apprehend the plotters or attempt to protect Dink (Anadolu Ajans, CNNTurk, NTV, March 20).

On January 19, 2007, the 52 year-old Dink was shot dead outside the Istanbul office of the Agos newspaper where he worked as editor-in-chief and which serves Turkey’s dwindling Armenian community. Dink was killed by Ogun Samast, an unemployed, poorly-educated 17 year-old who had traveled from Trabzon to carry out the assassination. Minors are often used to carry out murders in Turkey as, under Turkish law, anyone under 18 they can only be sentenced to a maximum of a few years in jail. It later emerged that Samast had been a member of a ultranationalist gang with strong Islamist sympathies led by the then 24 year-old Yasin Hayal. Hayal and his associates were well known to the security forces in Trabzon and some of them worked as police informants. On March 20, the gendarmerie officers admitted that, in August 2006, one of Hayal’s relatives had warned them that Hayal was planning to kill Dink and had given him YTL 500 (around $400) to buy a gun for the assassination. The officers were also told that someone linked to the gang had carried out surveillance of Dink in Istanbul and even drawn up diagrams showing the route taken by Dink as he traveled from his home to the Agos office (Radikal, Milliyet, Sabah, Hurriyet, Cumhuriyet, March 21).

A soft-spoken advocate of reconciliation between Turks and Armenians, in February 2004 Dink wrote a series of articles in Agos calling for dialogue without any preconditions. He maintained that an insistence that Turkey should first recognize the tragic events of 1915 as a genocide was an obstacle to reconciliation. In an article he wrote in Agos, Dink called on Armenians to “cleanse their blood of the poison of genocide” and engage in dialogue with Turks.

However, the mere mention of the word genocide resulted in Dink being prosecuted under the notorious Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which makes it a criminal offence to denigrate the concept of “Turkishness.” In October 2005, Dink was convicted and given a suspended prison sentence of six months. Even though he never served time in jail, the publicity surrounding his trial made Dink a hated figure for many Turkish ultranationalists. Extraordinarily, given the numerous calls for him to be killed in the Turkish ultranationalist press and Internet chat rooms and the telephoned death threats that Dink himself reported to the Istanbul police, and unlike almost any prominent Turkish Muslim who receives similar threats from extremists, Dink was not given police protection. When he was killed by Samast as he left the Agos office to pay some bills at his local bank, Dink was completely alone.

In their statements to the court, both O. S. and V. S. insisted that they had forwarded the intelligence of the plot to kill Dink to their commanding officer, Colonel Ali Oz, the head of the Gendarmerie in Trabzon. They claimed that Oz had not only failed to take action but, during the investigation that followed Dink’s murder, had instructed them to deny any prior knowledge of the plot to kill Dink.

When taken in isolation, it would be possible to attribute the cover-up simply as an attempt to hide incompetence. But, when combined with other evidence that has emerged since Dink’s murder, the conclusions are more disturbing. When Samast was captured, some of the arresting officers took photographs of him posed heroically in front of the Turkish flag. Ultranationalist publications and chat rooms buzzed with praise for the killing. There were even songs written in Samast’s honor and posted on YouTube.

There is little doubt that the majority of Turks, even many Turkish nationalists, were appalled by Dink’s murder. Indeed, one of the most moving tributes to him appeared in Yeni Cag, the main ultranationalist daily newspaper. On the evening of January 19, 2007, thousands of Muslim Turks joined with Armenians to march through the center of Istanbul chanting “We are all Dink” and “We are all Armenians.” On January 19, 2008, Muslim Turks also dominated the numerous ceremonies held to remember Dink on the first anniversary of his murder.

Nevertheless, the confessions by the two gendarmerie officers will reinforce suspicions that racial and religious prejudice remains a serious problem both in Turkish society as a whole and in the country’s security forces. Earlier this year, it emerged that, at the time of his death, Andrea Santoro, a Roman Catholic priest who was shot by Oguzhan Akdin, a 16 year-old youth with ultranationalist and Islamist sympathies, was under surveillance by the police on the ludicrous suspicion that he was plotting to facilitate the annexation of Turkey’s eastern Black Sea coast by Greece. On April 18, 2007, three Christian missionaries in the southeastern city of Mardin were tortured and then had their throats cut by a group of students from a hostel run by an Islamic foundation. During their trial, evidence has emerged that these students too were in contact with members of the local security forces. Lawyers acting for the families of the victims claim that they have been receiving numerous death threats, are being harassed by security officials and that key evidence – such as tape recordings of confessions detailing links between the accused and security officials – that was present at the beginning of the trial, has now disappeared.

There is no suggestion that any high-ranking members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) were involved either in any of the killings or in the subsequent cover-ups. But neither does the government appear to understand the extent of religious and racial prejudice in Turkey or the need to amend legislation that fuels it. The effective protection of minorities is a prerequisite for Turkish accession to the EU, which has long pressed for the abolition of legislation such as Article 301 of the Penal Code (see EDM, January 8). However, since the beginning of the year, the AKP has preferred to focus almost exclusively on trying to push through legislation to lift the headscarf ban that prevents pious Sunni women from attending university (see EDM, February 11, February 25) and, most recently, on legislative changes to circumvent the party itself being outlawed following the public prosecutor’s application for its closure on March 14 (see EDM, March 17).

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Photographs unravel Turkey's ethnic tapestry

2008-03-10T17:54:00.002-04:00

March 10, 2008
International Herald Tribune, France
By Sabrina Tavernise Published:

SAMSUN, Turkey: They were suspected to be missionaries. Then fugitives. But when the motley band of Turkish intellectuals finally arrived in this Black Sea city last month, people seemed to understand that they really only wanted to tell stories.

The group - a Kurdish feminist, an Armenian writer, and an academic and a photographer, both Turkish - were presenting a book of photographs of people from Turkey.

The book counted 44 different ethnicities and sects across Turkey, and captured them in pictures dancing, eating, praying, laughing and playing music. If it sounds innocuous, it was not. Turkey, a country that has had four military coups in its 85-year history, has a very specific line on cultural diversity: Anyone who lives in Turkey is a Turk. Period.

Attila Durak, a New York trained photographer, compiled the book, traveling around Turkey for seven consecutive summers, living with families and taking their portraits.

His intent was to show that Turkey is a constantly changing kaleidoscope of different cultures, not a hard piece of marble monoculture as the Turkish state says, and that acknowledging those differences is an important step toward a healthier society.

People see themselves in the photographs, and they realize they are no different," said Durak, whose book, "Ebru: Reflections of Cultural Diversity in Turkey," was published in 2006. "Those Kurdish people have kids who play together like ours," he said, referring to viewers' reactions. "Look, they dance the same kind of wedding dance."

Ever since Turkey became a state in 1923, it has been scrubbing its citizens of identities other than Turkish. In some ways, that was necessary as a glue to hold the young country together. European powers were intent on carving up its territory, a patchwork of remains from the collapsed Ottoman Empire, and Muslim Turkishness was a unifying ideology.

But it forced families from different backgrounds, who spoke different languages, such as Armenian, Kurdish, Greek, Georgian, Macedonian, Bosnian, to hide their identities. Family histories, such as the crushing events of Turkey's genocide against Armenians in 1915, were never spoken of, and children grew up not knowing their own past or identity.

"Memories like that were whispered into ears behind closed doors," said Fethiye Cetin, a lawyer who learned only in her 20s that her grandmother was Armenian. "There was a big fear involved in this, so the community itself perpetuated the silence."

It is that locked past Durak and his colleagues seek to open. Their method is telling their own stories to audiences across Turkey as an accompaniment to exhibits of Durak's photographs to open a conversation about the past and chip away at stereotypes.

The academic, Ayse Gul Altinay, an anthropology professor from Sabanci University in Istanbul, is a kind of national psychiatrist, identifying the most painful points from the country's past and offering a way to think about them that is most direct route to healing.

She uses the Turkish art form, Ebru, the process of paper marbling that produces constantly changing interwoven patterns, as a metaphor for multiculturalism.

"We're not a mosaic, different from one another and fixed in glass," said Altinay, who earned her doctorate from Duke University. "Ebru is done on water. It is impossible to have clear lines or distinct borders."

In Samsun, a bustling city with a nationalist reputation, the fifth in Turkey to see the exhibition, the audience was small but interested. The Armenian writer, Takuhi Tovmasyan, talked about how she was gruffly banished from a piano recital hall after winning a competition, when teachers learned her last name, which is overtly Armenian.

"I hid this feeling for a long time," said Tovmasyan, who has published a book of family recipes and stories as way to open up a conversation about the past. "But when I saw these photographs, I decided I needed to talk about it."

The discussions have hit a nerve. At a presentation in Kars, an eastern Turkish city, a man in his 50s wearing a suit spoke through tears about discovering that his family had been Molokan, Russian Old Believers. It was the first time he was speaking publicly about it, he said. Others have apologized to Tovmasyan in emotional outpourings.

In Samsun, a young man in a white sweatshirt said, "I personally apologize for 'Get out,' on behalf of all my friends," eliciting applause. "It's really a terrible thing."

Durak's subjects look into his camera with a directness that is startling. A Jewish man sits in a chair in Istanbul. A gypsy in a flower print shirt plays the saxophone. A woman from the Black Sea stands in a doorway, her fingers touching her collarbone.

Each one is labeled for ethnicity and sect, a method of categorization that initially struck the local authorities in Samsun as something close to a seditious act.

"They said, 'we have to investigate, maybe they are wanted by the police,' " said Ozlem Yalcinkaya, an organizer from a student group, Community Volunteers Foundation, who arranged the exhibit. "I said, 'If they are fugitives, why would they be putting their names on the exhibition posters?' "

Another one of their questions went to the heart of what the group is trying to change. When it was revealed that Tovmasyan was Armenian, police officials were stumped.

"What do you mean Armenian," Yalcinkaya recalled an officer saying. "A Turkish citizen, or from Armenia?"

The answer was both - a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent - but because the Turkish state does not recognize mixed identities, the concept was foreign and baffling to the police.

In the end, the authorities relented, and the municipality even allowed use of its lecture hall.

"The genie is out of the bottle," Altinay said. "Too many people are interested in looking into who we are, who lived on this land before us," for the healing process to be stopped.

A young woman in the audience echoed that thought, as she apologized to Tovmasyan. For as gloomy as the past was, the future was more hopeful, she said, because young people are much more flexible and accepting than the older generations.

"In a few years time, a lot of people will be doing a lot of apologizing," she said.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Turkey Blocks EU Funds over Bulgaria's Burgas Recognition of Armenian Genocide

2008-03-10T11:41:00.001-04:00

10 March 2008, Monday
Sofia News Agency, Bulgaria

Turkey's government declined to sign a EU-funded cooperation agreement with Bulgaria because of the decision of the city council in the Black Sea city of Burgas to recognize the genocide of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1922.

The funds blocked by Turkey under the PHARE Trans-border Cooperation Program amount to EUR 32 M, the Bulgarian private TV channel BTV reported. EUR 12 M of these are for the 2007-2009 period.

The agreement was supposed to be signed on March 6 by the district governors of the Bulgarian Burgas District, and the Turkish Edirne District but the meeting was canceled by the Turkish side.

"It is not within the authority of the Burgas City Council to take decisions on political matters, especially with regard to this issue as there is no consensus between Turkey and Armenia over it, and the interference by a third party will not be of any help", declared Turkey's General Consul in the city of Burgas on Sunday, March 9.

The Burgas Mayor Dimitar Nikolov also received Saturday a letter from the Edirne District Governor regarding Burgas City Council's decision to recognize the Armenian genocide stating: "This decision is offensive and we denounce it. Until it is canceled we will discontinue all social, cultural, and economic contracts with your district."

Mayor Nikolov, who is from the Sofia Mayor Boyko Borisov's GERB party, expressed his surprise over Turkey's sharp reaction. He said the City Council was going to discuss the matter during its next session.

The Burgas City Council is dominated by members of the extreme right Ataka Party, and of the GERB party. On February 28 it voted to recognize the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, and declared April 24 Day of Remembrance.

Last week members of the rightist Democrats for Strong Bulgaria party of the former PM Ivan Kostov tabled a proposal for recognizing the Armenian Genocide to the city council in Bulgaria's capital Sofia.

Bulgaria's parliament has rejected similar motions by the rightist opposition several times, allegedly because of the ethnic Turkish part Movement for Rights and Freedoms, which is a junior partner in the governing three-way coalition.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Armenian poll challenge rejected

2008-03-09T16:33:00.002-04:00

19 March 2008
BBC News, UK

The constitutional court in Armenia has rejected opposition claims that the presidential election was rigged.

The court accepted opposition claims there were some violations but said this could not call into question the entire poll.

The original announcement that Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian had won sparked days of protests.

The government declared a 20-day state of emergency on 1 March as eight protestors died in clashes with police.

Public gatherings have been banned and restrictions placed on the media.

Official election results in Armenia gave Serzh Sarkisian 53% of the vote, and the main opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrosian 21.5%.

Mr Ter-Petrosian had alleged there was widespread fraud at the poll, but his legal appeal was rejected.

The outgoing President, Robert Kocharian, has warned that the authorities will not tolerate any more mass demonstrations even after the state of emergency is over.

The BBC's Matthew Collin says a small group of female opposition supporters defied the measures on Saturday when they dressed in black and laid flowers where the clashes had taken place, in memory of those who died.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

'Turkish taboos' and freedom of expression

2008-03-08T10:41:00.002-05:00

Saturday, March 8, 2008
Turkish Daily News
Robert ELLIS

A fortnight ago the Danish section of PEN, the worldwide association of writers, held a panel discussion in Copenhagen on Turkish taboos, freedom of expression and media freedom in Turkey. There was general agreement among the four Turkish panelists, a journalist, a novelist, a poet and the president of Turkish PEN, that the four main taboos were the Armenian genocide claims, the Kurdish question, the military and Atatürk.Two of the panelists pointed out that these taboos are characteristic of Kemalist orthodoxy, but that the advent of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government was accompanied by a freer discussion of these issues. Prime Minister Erdoğan's landmark speech in Diyarbakır in 2005, when he became the first Turkish leader openly to admit there was a Kurdish problem, was also mentioned.

The Armenian issue:

Nevertheless, the first taboo, that surrounding the Armenian "genocide," still remains on both sides of the political divide. For example, three years ago in a party address Tayyip Erdoğan said, “Turkey has never committed genocide throughout its history,” and two weeks ago he added, “the character of this nation does not let it commit such crimes.”Therefore, Orhan Pamuk must have behaved like a bull in a china shop when he claimed in an interview with the Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger three years ago, “30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it.” The official Turkish reaction was not long in coming, as Pamuk was prosecuted according to Article 301 of the Penal Code for “the public denigration of Turkishness,” but the charge was dropped on a technicality.The recent arrest of the ultra-nationalist Ergenekon gang revealed their plan to assassinate Pamuk and linked them to the murder of the Turkish-Armenian publisher Hrant Dink and the three Christians in Malatya. Indeed, these murders, as well as that of Father Andrea Santoro in Trabzon, can be linked to the virulent strain of ethnic nationalism that arose 100 years earlier during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid from 1876 until 1909.

That period was characterized by extensive massacres of Armenians from 1894-96 and again in 1909. As historian Donald Bloxham said in “The Great Game of Genocide,” the perpetrators believed they were acting in accordance with the true interests of the state.This period was also characterized by a rise of Armenian nationalism and the founding of the two leading revolutionary groups, the Hunchaks and the Dashnaks, in 1887 and 1890. In 1913 the Committee of Union and Progress (“the Young Turks”) came to power through a coup d'état, but it was the outbreak of World War I the following year, and Turkey's alliance with Germany, that sealed the fate of the Armenian people.Turkey's defeat at the hands of the Russian army, aided by Armenian volunteer battalions, on the eastern front in January 1915 was widely blamed on the Armenians, but the turning point came with the Armenian uprising in Van in eastern Turkey on April 20 and the Allied landings at Gallipoli on April 25. On April 24 more than 200 prominent Armenians were arrested in Istanbul and sent to the interior, where most were later executed.On May 27, 1915 the Deportation Law (the tehcir law) was passed to provide for the deportation of the Armenian population for reasons of national security.

This is where the facts are hotly disputed, ranging from Ambassador Morgenthau's telegram to Secretary of State Lansing in July 1915, which spoke of “a campaign of race extermination…under a pretext of reprisal against rebellion,” to Professor Özay Mehmet from Carleton University in Canada, who recently claimed, “the Ottoman Armenians committed treason and were relocated out of the war zone.”So far 22 countries have officially recognized the tragic events of 1915-16 as "genocide" and Barack Obama has pledged recognition as a plank of his campaign.

However, the crux of the issue is not international recognition but that the topic is not open to free debate in Turkey.

'Stab in the back' :

On an academic level, scholars who organized a conference at Boğaziçi University in May 2005 on the Armenian question during the Ottoman Empire were accused by government spokesman, Minister of Justice Cemil Çiçek, of “stabbing the Turkish nation in the back.” The conference was postponed, but after an international outcry it reconvened at Bilgi University four months later.The main Turkish fear is that a discussion of the Armenian and Kurdish issues could once again lead to a partition of Turkey. This view was confirmed by a prominent member of the Armenian community in the United States, Harut Sasunian, who stated in December that the ultimate goal of the Armenians was recognition of their claims and getting amends and land from Turkey.As noted, the main obstacle to freedom of expression in Turkey is Article 301 of the Penal Code, which has resulted in the prosecution of a large number of authors, publishers and journalists. In yet another cosmetic change, the government plans to change the wording from “denigration of Turkishness” to “denigration of the Turkish nation,” which brings us back to square one. But as long as Turkish people are denied a full understanding of their past they will be unable to build a firm foundation for the future.

………….

The views expressed by commentator Robert Ellis are the author's own and reflect neither endorsement nor editorial policy of the Turkish Daily News. Mr. Ellis is a regular commentator on Turkish affairs in the Danish press (meltem@get2net.dk).

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Armenia: The United States is Muted on the Armenian Political Crisis

2008-03-05T12:26:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Eurasianet
By Joshua Kucera

The continuing political crisis Armenia stemming from the March 1 violence in Yerevan has unfolded with little comment from the United States, either from the US government or from influential Armenian-American lobbying groups.

The root cause of the crisis is found in the disputed presidential election on February 19, in which Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian was declared the winner. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Asserting that widespread fraud enabled Sarkisian’s victory, the main challenger Levon Ter-Petrossian mounted a permanent protest in Yerevan. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. A government attempt to disperse the demonstrators during the pre-dawn hours of March 1 sparked an escalating confrontation that culminated in armed clashes. Officially, eight people died in the clashes, but witnesses believe the death toll could be substantially higher. Under state of emergency regulations imposed on March 1, the government enjoys broad powers to restrict press freedom, making verification of competing claims next to impossible. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

A statement by Karekin II, the spiritual leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church, urged that both sides compromise. "Let us practice wisdom and reasoning, refraining from fraternal hostility and actions that deepen the discord. All problems and issues which trouble us, shall be solved through peaceful means, respect for the law and the safe paths of dialogue,” Karekin II said in a statement issued March 3. "Each of us must answer for our actions before history and our generations. Let us not risk the stability of our country with further unwise actions.”

Kocharian on March 5 vigorously defended his decision to impose a state of emergency, which in addition to restricting the flow on information, also allows for the limitation of non-governmental organization activity and the roll-back of civil liberties, including freedom of assembly. The president appeared to place all blame for developments on his political opponents, and vowed to “to track down all inciters, masterminds and executors of the unrest,” according to comments distributed by the official Armenpress news agency. Kocharian also stated that he had no intention of extending the state of emergency, which is due to expire on March 20.

The government’s media blackout has silenced at least five Armenian news outlets. And in a move that is sure to create difficulties for US-Armenian relations, President Robert Kocharian’s adminsitration has also suspended broadcasts of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and has blocked the RFE/RL website in Armenia.

There are several reasons for the relative US silence on recent developments in Armenia, analysts say. On a geopolitical level, Armenia is not deemed of vital strategic importance by Washington, as the Caucasus country lies outside the Caspian Basin energy corridor that passes through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

In addition, the Armenian crisis is not viewed in Washington as a struggle pitting democratic forces against an authoritarian regime. It is more of an internecine struggle, in which a dispute among an entrenched political elite over the division of spoils has escalated to the point where it got out of control. Ter-Petrosian and his supporters are generally not seen as being any more democratically oriented than the incumbent Kocharian-Sarkisian team. To substantiate that point, some observers point to the fact that in the 1996 presidential election, Ter-Petroisian, who was running then as an incumbent, was accused of many of the same electoral abuses that he now assails the Kocharian administration for.

Finally, Armenian-American diaspora groups, which wield significant power in Washington’s policy towards Armenia, have chosen not to call attention to the crisis there.

The State Department issued a mildly worded statement on March 1, condemning the violence. The statement implied equal responsibility for both the government and the protesters. “Any unlawful actions such as violence and looting worsen the situation and must stop. We hope that the State of Emergency declared today will be lifted promptly and that political dialogue resumes,” the statement said.

But that is not enough, said Cory Welt, associate director of the Eurasian Strategy Project at Georgetown University. “The United States and the Europeans should certainly do one thing – stop pretending there is democratic progress where there is none. It’s one thing to shy away from giving the street false cause for optimism; it is another to be so patronizing about ‘baby steps’ toward democracy when there are none.”

“What makes the Armenian case so unusual is the willingness of the United States and Europe to move forward with business as usual when there is no business to be done - Armenia is neither a security nor an energy partner for the West,” Welt said.

Given the recent developments, Welt suggested that Washington should suspend aid from the Millennium Challenge Account, which is supposed to encourage Armenia to build democratic institutions. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The flow of Millennium Challenge assistance should not resume until there is a full, independent accounting for the violence on March 1 and 2, Welt added.

There has also been a relatively muted response from Congress, including from the members who are active in pro-Armenian issues. Armenian lobby groups have not pressed Congress to get involved in the crisis in Armenia, according to one Congressional staff member, speaking on condition of anonymity. That is partly because the lobby groups have political ties with the parties in power in Armenia, but partly because they feel that focusing on Armenia’s negatives is bad public relations.

“Frankly, in terms of the Armenian-American lobby, they get really ginned up and energized about the Armenian genocide resolution, but they don't really want to look at corruption, because that doesn't put them in a very favorable light,” the staffer said. “This doesn't help them with their agenda.” [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The Armenian National Committee of America did not release any statement on the crisis, and as of the morning of March 5 its website carried no mention of the situation unfolding in Armenia. The Armenian Assembly of America did post a statement on its website, calling on all sides to “adhere to the rule of law and to refrain from violence, as well as to ensure that the media will cover the events as they take place with fairness and balance.” Neither organization returned calls and emails by a EurasiaNet correspondent seeking comment.

“Without energy or particular strategic importance, Armenia is left in the United States with the politically quite strong Armenian diaspora,” Welt said. “In the end, it is not the lobbies that should be held responsible, but their representatives in Congress who have far greater reason to be troubled by the hypocrisy of avoiding discussion or comparison of the internal state of Armenia when shaping US policy in its confrontations with Azerbaijan and Turkey.”

Part of the diaspora groups’ ambivalence can be explained by the fact that the main opposition candidate, Ter-Petrossian, strove to weaken the political strength of the Armenian diaspora when he was in office. In addition, his willingness to negotiate with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh angered members of the diaspora groups. Ultimately, Ter-Petrosian’s willingness to negotiate on the Karabakh issue initiated a chain of events that led to his resignation in 1998. He was replaced by Kocharian.

The Karabakh contact line dividing Armenian and Azerbaijani troops was the scene of heavy fighting on March 4-5. Azerbaijani officials on March 5 claimed that Armenian forces launched an attack, in part out of a desire to distract attention from events in Yerevan. Armenian officials countered that Azerbaijani forces initiated the clash. The death toll was placed at between eight and 16. Kocharian, in commenting on the fighting, stated that officials in Baku were trying to take advantage of Armenia’s domestic difficulties. "In all likelihood Azerbaijani leaders thought that because of recent events in Yerevan, the army of Nagorno-Karabakh has lost its vigilance or communication,” Kocharian told Armenpress

In addition, the Armenian diaspora groups tend to disengage from Armenian political issues because the corruption and authoritarianism conflict with the American values that they have acquired, said Yossi Shain, a political scientist at Georgetown University who studies the politics of diaspora groups.

“One can argue that in the mind of the diaspora, Armenia as a homeland has served more as a notion, perhaps a mythical vision than as a concrete sovereign state,” Shain said. “If the [Armenian] state represents something hostile to their ideology, they will remove themselves. They will be more keen to identify with Armenia as a whole than to identify with one regime, if it violates what they consider to be the values of America.”

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Street theater scares children, shocks nation

2008-03-05T12:03:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, March 5, 2008
TDN

Celebrations in Aşkale, Erzurum, include workers dressed up as Armenians acting out hanging an imam and murdering a family before being killed themselves by high school students playing the Turkish militia. While the mayor defends the event as educational, experts, commentators and newspapers call for an end to such displays of animosity

ANKARA – TDN with wire dispatches

The 90th anniversary of the liberation of the eastern province of Erzurum's Aşkale region was celebrated there Monday, with municipality workers – in a staged event – dressed as members of an Armenian gang sending the imam to the gallows, torching the mosque and bayoneting a doll in a crib, to the alarm of many locals.

The daily Sabah described the story as “shocking” on its front page yesterday, and Hürriyet's headline read, “The mentality in this day and age.”

The daily Radikal's front page headline was, “This disgrace should end.”

The celebrations began with town administrator (kaymakam) Zeyit Şener, Mayor Ahmet Yaptırmış and Regional Commander Captain Ertuğrul Yavuz laying a wreath at the Atatürk statue in the town square.

Just like in previous years, celebrations continued with municipality workers dressing up as Armenians and playing out a massacre committed by Armenians over 90 years ago. The workers first sat around a table and drank alcohol – actually cold tea – before acting out torching the local mosque. Murat Billur, a barber who played the imam in the play, was hung from the makeshift gallows in the town square as he recited the call to prayer.

The workers then acted out the murder of a family and bayoneted a doll in a crib to screams from the town's children.

The play ended with Aşkale High School students, who played the Turkish militia that freed the town from occupation, attacking and “killing” the workers.

Yaptırmış, of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), defended the play. They repeat the event every year, he said, so children will always remember what happened. “Keeping these sentiments alive will give us an honorable future,” he said.

“There are no bans. I don't think children will be affected adversely,” he said.

‘We are ashamed'

Municipality workers who played the Armenians said the mayor issued orders and they obeyed.

One worker, Celal Akar, said his family, friends and neighbors criticized him for playing an Armenian. “Sometimes they even make fun of us. We don't want to be part of the play, but when the mayor says it we can't object. We have been doing this for at least 20 years,” he said. The municipality is responsible for the organizing the event, but Şener was upset when he saw the play. “Next year's celebrations will be without Armenians,” he said.

Media, experts criticize the event:

Burning and stabbing people in front of children is very harmful for young and impressionable kids, said psychologist Alanur Özalp, speaking to Hürriyet. “We all saw teenagers being exploited in the murder of Hrant Dink and priest (Andrea) Santoro. When asked, these teenage murderers said, ‘He was Turkey's enemy. They told me to go and kill him.' Such scenes should not be repeated when we are trying to rid ourselves of the image of barbarian Turks,” she said.

Celebrations portraying Turkey's neighbors as enemies have ended in many regions in Turkey, said Erdun Babahan, editor-in-chief at Sabah, in his column yesterday. “As long as your children grow up watching things like this, it will never be hard to find teenage triggermen to do bad jobs,” Babahan said.

There is a difference between teaching history to children and becoming ugly and rude while doing so, said Hürriyet's Oktay Ekşi in his column yesterday. “Isn't there a more civilized way of teaching history to children? Which is right? Teaching civilization and peace, or animosity to future generations?”

Ekşi asked how teachers and parents could make their children, who were obviously shocked and scared, watch such scenes. “Now do you see how those who murdered Dink and Santoro grow up? Now do you understand what Rakel Dink meant when she said, ‘Nothing can be done without questioning how a baby can become a murderer,'” he said.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.