Armenian Genocide Information Centre

Geoffrey Robertson QC's legal opinion on the Armenian Genocide

2009-11-03T20:03:00.004Z

"The result of my examination of the advice provided by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to Her Majesty's Government, and reproduced by ministers in parliamentary answers drafted over the past decade by the FCO, is that this advice reflects neither the law of genocide nor the demonstrable facts of the massacres in 1915 - 16, and has been calculated to mislead parliament into believing that there has been an assessment of evidence and an exercise of judgment on that evidence."

"The truth is that throughout the life of the present Labour government and (so the FCO admits) throughout previous governments, there has been no proper or candid appraisal of 1915 events condemned by HMG at the time and immediately afterwards in terms that anticipate the modern definition of genocide and which were referred to by the drafters of the Genocide Convention as a prime example of the kind of atrocity that would be covered by this new international crime. HMG has consistently (at least until 2007) wrongly maintained both that the decision is one for historians and that historians are divided on the subject, ignoring the fact that the decision is one for legal judgment and no reputable historian could possibly deny the central facts of the deportations and the racial and religious motivations behind the deaths of a significant proportion of the Armenian people. HMG has also maintained the fiction that it is somehow contrary to legal practice to apply the description “genocide” to events that occurred prior to 1948. This and other mistaken or illogical arguments have been made, so the internal policy memoranda reveal, in a hitherto successful effort not to upset the “neuralgic” Turkish government. The dubious ethics involved in this approach have been acknowledged (once, back in 1999) but there appears to be no interest in establishing the truth of the matter or re-asserting the position that HMG took at the time, or in understanding (let alone applying) the modern law of genocide as it has emerged from decisions of the ICJ, the ICTY and the ICTR. There is no recognition at all of the importance of nations acknowledging their past crimes against humanity, or of supporting the decendents of victims who still, almost a century later, have to live with the consequences."

"I consider that parliament has been routinely misinformed, by ministers who have recited FCO briefs without questioning their accuracy. HMG’s real and only policy has been to evade truthful answers to questions about the Armenian Genocide, because the truth would discomfort the Turkish government. It can be predicted that any future question on the subject will be met with the same meaningless formula about “insufficiently unequivocal evidence,” disguising the simple fact that HMG will not now come to terms with an issue on which it was once so volubly certain, namely that the Armenian massacres were a “crime against humanity” which should never be forgiven or forgotten. Times change, but as other civilised nations recognise, the universal crimes of genocide and torture have no statute of limitations. Judge Balthazar Garzon, in opening his investigation of the crimes of the Franco era, declared that their perpetrators should have no posthumous impunity: the same might be said of the authors of the Armenian genocide."

Geoffrey Robertson QC is founder and head of Doughty Street Chambers. He is a 'distinguished jurist' member of the United Nations Justice Council, having served as the first President of the Special Court in Sierra Leone. He has argued many landmark cases in media, constitutional and criminal law in the European Court of Human Rights, the House of Lords, the Privy Council and Commonwealth courts. He has recently appeared in the Court of Final Appeal for Hong Kong, the Supreme Court of Malaysia, the Fiji Court of Appeal, the High Court of Australia and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

To download the full text of the legal opinion please click here.

A German Officer during the Armenian Genocide: A Biography

2009-03-27T19:01:00.000Z

BOOK REVIEW

by Gregory Topalian, historian

A German Officer during the Armenian Genocide: A Biography of Max von Scheubner-Richter, translated by Alasdair Lean with a preface by Jorge Vartparonian and a historical introduction by Hilmar Kaiser, (Gomidas Institute), 2009, CXXX + 153 pp., map, photos, index, ISBN 978-1-903656-81-5. Pb. UK£17.00 / US$25.00 plus shipping. For more information please visit www.gomidas.org or write to info@gomidas.org.

This is a fascinating study of a man who is one of the most enigmatic links between the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust. Scheubner-Richter was a founding father of the Nazi Party and one of Hitler’s closest colleagues, deemed irreplaceable by the leader of the Party. The preface by Jorge Vartparonian offers a succinct and potted biography of the man, whilst Hilmar Kaiser’s analysis of Scheubner-Richter’s time in the Ottoman Empire and specifically Erzerum is highly detailed and utterly riveting. Kaiser’s account is so incredibly well researched so as to be able to dismiss some previous studies as lacking in rigour. This book is therefore perhaps the most detailed account of a figure who has remained in the shadows that bridge the gap between the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust.

Scheubner-Richter was both an ambitious man and a career pragmatist, yet he also displayed a sense of moral outrage regarding the massacres he witnessed in both Erzerum and Bitlis where he served as the German Vice-Consul at the height of the Genocide.

Kaiser explains how in 1914, the Armenians were caught between a rock and a hard place due to the presence of Armenians on both sides of the Russo-Turkish border. Consequently, Armenian loyalty to the Ottoman state was brought into question by some, though not by Scheubner-Richter it must be noted. Turkish Armenians of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation committed themselves to defending the Ottoman Empire but could not guarantee the same of their Russian counterparts. Further meetings took place but the ARF were at odds with Talaat (CUP), and this could well have been a contributing factor in the events that unfolded in 1915. Certainly after this series of meetings, Armenians began to redouble their own efforts at self-defence.

Kaiser illustrates through Scheubner-Richter’s writings, that the signs of what were coming were already visible in the early months of 1915 and how he felt that Armenian concerns were justified.

Throughout, Scheubner-Richter suggested there was no threat of an Armenian uprising (and the Ottoman Government’s asserted motive for the ‘deportations’), since all the men had been sent to labour batallions, and he did his utmost to help calm the situation. As things progressed he even took upon himself to personally deliver supplies to the starving Armenians.

On hearing of the decision to deport Armenians to Der Zor, Scheubner-Richter grimly suggested that half of those travelling would not survive the journey, which was something of a conservative estimate. Kaiser also explains how, as far as Scheubner-Richter was concerned, the deportations were based on “racial hatred” and little else.

What makes Scheubner-Richter such an important commentator on the Armenian Genocide is his oft voiced frustration at how the internal butchery taking place was damaging the German war effort, and yet rather than being an impassioned observer, he went further than he need to in his bid to save Armenians.

His horror at the massacres is voiced in his disgust at being an ally of the Ottoman Government when he writes that, “As officers we are compelled to shut our eyes to these things, but as men, the alliance with these people is unbearable”

The euphemisms that the Ottoman authorities used, like those that were a later feature of the Nazi genocide of the Jews, are alluded to when he points out that the word ‘deportation’ is synonymous with ‘extermination’.

On his immediate return to Germany, Scheubner-Richter offered to help Johannes Lepsius save some of these people, who according to the former, no longer looked “human.” However, but by 1922 his sympathy had evaporated, perhaps under the influence of the men with whom he was formulating a manifesto that would bestow a similar fate on the Jews.

Perhaps the most interesting suggestion by Dr. Kaiser here is regarding Armenian property. It would appear that there was no arrangement in place to deal with the property left behind by Armenians, which is suggestive that for the Young Turks, this was a functionalist genocide as opposed to a long standing intentionalist crime.

In Hilmar Kaiser’s piece there is much to suggest that Scheubner-Richter was a pragmatic careerist, but something of a maverick who despite his pursuit of rank could not fully ignore the horrors he witnessed in 1915.

The second part of the book is a biography of Scheubner-Richter translated from German, first published in 1938 and written by Paul Leverkuehn, a friend and colleague.

Armenian Genocide Remembrance Concert - 15 April 2009

2009-03-14T17:02:00.002Z

The annual Armenian Genocide Remembrance Concert at the Wigmore Hall, Wigmore St, London, will take place on 15 April 2009.

The Morgenthau Story: a documentary

2009-02-28T18:34:00.002Z

A film by Apo Torosyan. “If the world had reacted to the Genocide of Armenians, Hitler would have been reluctant to go out and kill Jews in a wholesale fashion.” Robert Morgenthau

From 1913 to 1916, Henry Morgenthau served as U.S. Ambassador in Constantinople (today Istanbul in Turkey). During the Armenian Genocide, which started in April 1915, he appealed to the Turkish Ottoman leaders to stop the killings, without success. He quit his post in 1916, and returned to the United States. From the reports he received and forwarded to the U.S. Government, there are over 30,000 documents still existing in the Library of Congress. He was also the Chair of the Greek Resettlement Commission under the League of Nations in 1923. He ended up with great success with this post, resettling 1,250,000 displaced immigrants in Greece.

President Obama on the Armenian Genocide

2009-02-06T20:08:00.001Z

"I also share with Armenian Americans – so many of whom are descended from genocide survivors - a principled commitment to commemorating and ending genocide. That starts with acknowledging the tragic instances of genocide in world history. As a U.S. Senator, I have stood with the Armenian American community in calling for Turkey's acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide. Two years ago, I criticized the Secretary of State for the firing of U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, after he properly used the term "genocide" to describe Turkey's slaughter of thousands of Armenians starting in 1915. I shared with Secretary Rice my firmly held conviction that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. The facts are undeniable. An official policy that calls on diplomats to distort the historical facts is an untenable policy. As a senator, I strongly support passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.106 and S.Res.106), and as President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide."

Turkey: No more time to waste in providing justice for Hrant Dink

2009-01-20T13:26:00.000Z

The Turkish authorities are nowhere near bringing to justice all those who bear responsibility for the murder of Hrant Dink, said Amnesty International, on the second anniversary of the death of the journalist and human rights defender.

“Hrant Dink was murdered for the expression of his non-violent opinions, apparently with the tacit agreement of elements within the Turkish law enforcement agencies," said Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International.

Twenty suspects accused of planning and carrying out the murder have been brought to trial. In a separate investigation, eight members of the gendarmerie face charges of negligence. However, there has been no progress in investigating and prosecuting police officers for failing to act on warnings that Hrant Dink was being targeted for assassination.

Reporting in July 2008, the Turkish Parliamentary Human Rights Commission found that there was negligence and lack of coordination on the part of the security services in failing to prevent the murder. In addition, leaked details of the Inspectorate of the Prime Ministry’s report into the role of the security forces in the murder of Hrant Dink reportedly revealed that police officers at both the Trabzon and Istanbul Security Directorates failed in their duty to protect Hrant Dink although they had information about the planned murder.

“The authorities should make public the report by the Inspectorate of the Prime Ministry,” Nicola Duckworth said.

“There is now a wealth of evidence upon which the judicial authorities must act. An investigation should be re-opened so that all implicated members of the police forces and gendarmerie are brought to justice.”

Turkey in the European Union: A Bridge Too Far

2008-12-29T19:07:00.001Z

Public debate about admitting Turkey as a full member of the European Union has been vague and late, the details of the matter as well as major decisions being taken by the European Commission and the heads of state. This book sets out to set the record straight, and despite occasional flaws does so with a vengeance.

...

Chapter 9 concerns itself with the Armenian genocide and others, as well as the ethnic cleansings that took place before and after the founding of the modern Turkish state, as documented by Taner Akcam and others. This problem is particular unsettling, for it concerns the very identity of the Turkish state and Turkishness. Debating this is punishable in Turkey under article 301, and, as in the case of the late Hrant Dink, can have serious consequences.

The Turkish attitude to the Armenian genocide can, in principle, be compared to a hypothetical situation where Germany would officially justify the Holocaust by denigrating Jews, ban dissenting opinion, and praise the architects of the Holocaust as national heroes. Respect for and protection of minorities is an explicit item in the Copenhagen Criteria. The Armenians are not getting either.

Chapter 9 also includes this memorable quote, adopted by the European Parliament in 1987:

The European Parliament believes that the refusal by the present Turkish Government to acknowledge the genocide against the Armenian people committed by the Young Turk government, its reluctance to apply the principles of international law in differences of opinion with Greece, the maintenance of Turkish occupation forces in Cyprus and the denial of the existence of the Kurdish question, together with the lack of true parliamentary democracy and the failure to respect individual and collective freedoms, in particular freedom of religion, in that country are insurmountable obstacles to consideration of the possibility of Turkey's accession to the Community.

Not a single of these problems issues had been solved when Turkey was granted candidate status. Even now, at the end of 2008, no solid solution seems in sight for any of these problems.

"Turkish intellectuals issue apology to Armenians"

2008-12-16T09:35:00.001Z

"My conscience does not accept that (we) remain insensitive toward and deny the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected in 1915," read the apology. "I reject this injustice, share in the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers, and apologize to them." The apology is a sign that many in Turkey are ready to break a long-held taboo against acknowledging Turkish culpability for the deaths. Historians estimate that, in the last days of the Ottoman Empire, up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks in what is widely regarded as the first genocide of the 20th century. Armenians have long pushed for the deaths to be recognized as genocide. While Turkey does not deny that many died in that era, the country has rejected the term genocide, saying the death toll is inflated and the deaths resulted from civil unrest during the Ottoman Empire's collapse. Nearly 2,500 members of the public also signed the online apology, giving their support to the intellectuals. Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk was prosecuted after he commented on the mass killings in 2005. Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian journalist was shot outside his Istanbul office in 2007, following his prosecution for comments he made about the killings of Armenians.

Violent nationalism blights Turkey

2008-11-20T18:31:00.001Z

"Writer Hrant Dink was the first victim, killed last year because some in Turkey could not tolerate what he stood for. To nationalists, he was a traitor. In a country where every citizen is defined as a Turk, Hrant Dink defined himself as ethnic Armenian. That was already subversive to some. But Mr Dink went further. He wrote about the expulsion and killing of hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Armenians from eastern Turkey in 1915. To Armenians, and others, that was genocide - a claim Ankara vigorously denies."

After Kemal (by Perry Anderson, London Review of Books)

2008-10-21T20:36:00.000+01:00

"Finally, there is the Armenian genocide, its authors honoured in streets and schools across the country, whose names celebrate the murderers. Talat: a boulevard in Ankara, four avenues in Istanbul, a highway in Edirne, three municipal districts, four primary schools. Enver: three avenues in Istanbul, two in Izmir, three in occupied Cyprus, primary schools in Izmir, Mugla, Elazig. Cemal Azmi, responsible for the deaths of thousands in Trabzon: a primary school in that city. Resit Bey, the butcher of Diyarbekir: a boulevard in Ankara. Mehmet Kemal, hanged for his atrocities: thoroughfares in Istanbul and Izmir, statues in Adana and Izmir, National Hero Memorial gravestone in Istanbul. As if in Germany squares, streets and kindergarten were called after Himmler, Heydrich, Eichmann, without anyone raising an eyebrow. Books extolling Talat, Enver and Sakir roll off the presses, in greater numbers than ever. Nor is all this merely a legacy of a Kemalist past. The Islamists have continued the same tradition into the present. If Talat’s catafalque was borne by armoured train from the Third Reich for burial with full honours by Inönü in 1943, it was Demirel who brought Enver’s remains back from Tajikistan in 1996, and reburied them in person at a state ceremony in Istanbul. Beside him, as the cask was lowered into the ground, stood the West’s favourite Muslim moderate: Abdullah Gul, now AKP president of Turkey.

An integral nationalism that never flinched in exterminating Armenians, expelling Greeks, deporting Kurds and torturing dissident Turks, and which still enjoys wide electoral support, is not a force to be taken lightly. The Turkish left, consistently among its victims, has shown most courage in confronting it. Politically speaking, the ‘generation of 78’ was cut down by the military coup of 1980, years of imprisonment, exile or death killing off any chance of a revival of popular attraction or activism on the same scale. But when the worst of the repression lifted, it was this levy that produced a critical culture without equal in any European country of the same period: monographs, novels, films, journals, publishing houses that have given Istanbul in many respects a livelier radical milieu than London, Paris or Berlin. This is the setting out of which Orhan Pamuk – not exempt from friendly criticism in it – along with other leading Turkish writers, comes."

Switzerland: Turks convicted of denying Armenian genocide

2008-10-21T20:28:00.000+01:00

A Swiss district court has found three Turkish defendants guilty of denying the Armenian holocaust during the Ottoman Empire 90 years ago. They were ordered to pay up to SFr6,500 ($5,630) each for violating Swiss anti-racism legislation, but part of the fine was suspended over three years according to a statement by the Winterthur court on Tuesday. The defence lawyer said he would appeal the verdict, although it is milder than the sentence demanded by the prosecutor. Last year the leader of Turkish Workers' Party, Doğu Perinçek, was ordered to pay a fine of SFr13,000 for a similar offence. During a visit to western Switzerland he publicly denied that the killing of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Armenians amounted to genocide.

Turkey: Repression continues despite so-called ’reforms’

2008-09-18T19:19:00.001+01:00

According to the independent Turkish press, AKP Minister of Justice, Mr. Mehmet Ali Şahin, has authorized the prosecution of Turkish intellectual dissident Temel Demirer under Article 301. During a tribute dedicated to Hrant Dink, Temel Demirer stated: “We live in a country where not shouting the truth makes us complicit in the murder. Hrant was killed not only because he was an Armenian, but because he voiced the truth about the Genocide in this country. If Turkish intellectuals do not commit the crime outlined in Article 301 301 times, then they will be accomplices to this murder. There is genocide in our history. It’s called the Armenian Genocide. […]. Those who massacred Armenians yesterday are attacking our Kurdish brothers today. Those who desire the brotherhood of peoples must reconcile with this history. […]. I ask everyone to commit this crime. Yes, there was Armenian Genocide in this country.”

AVIVA IS 11TH INSURER SUED BY VICTIMS OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

2008-09-18T19:16:00.001+01:00

Los Angeles, CA--Descendants of the Armenian Genocide filed a class action lawsuit yesterday against Aviva, a British Insurance company that is the successor in interest to Norwich Union and Commercial Union, companies that sold insurance to Armenians in Turkish Ottoman Empire prior to the 1915 genocide (Baghtchedjian and Papazyan et al vs. Aviva et al , U.S. District Court, Central District of Calif.). The lawsuit seeks to recover life and fire insurance benefits that were wrongfully withheld from beneficiaries of those killed during the genocide . AVIVA is the 11th insurance company to be sued on behalf of Armenian Genocide victims and their heirs. Raffi Baghtchedjian and Nisan Papazyan, the lead plaintiffs of the federal class action lawsuit, are suing on behalf of all Armenians who owned Norwich Union life insurance and Commercial Union life and fire insurance policies during the Armenian Genocide, and whose beneficiaries were never paid insurance benefits. Baghtchedjian and Papazyan are represented by attorney Vartkes Yeghiayan of Glendale-based Yeghiayan & Associates, who is co-counsel for similar class action cases, including Marootian v. New York Life Insurance Company, Kyurkjian v. Axa, Movsesian v. Victoria Versicherung AG, and Deirmenjian, v. Deutsche Bank AG. From 1880 to 1915, many Armenians living in Turkey purchased life and fire insurance policies from various European and American Insurance companies. This case involves those who purchased policies from Norwich Union and Commercial union. On April 24, 1915, the Turkish Ottoman Empire launched a systematic campaign to destroy Armenians through a process of massacre and deportation, known as the Armenian Genocide. Between 1915 and 1922, approximately two million Armenians perished as a result. Among the victims were the owners of life and fire insurance policies issued by Norwich Union and Commercial union. "These companies never paid benefits to victims of the Armenian Genocide or their heirs," says Yeghiayan. In the lawsuit, Baghtchedjian and Papazyan are asking the federal court for an order requiring Aviva to identify the insurance benefits that belong to Armenians, identify the rightful heirs and to pay the benefits to them. "For more than 93 years, Aviva and its subsidiary companies have been holding millions of dollars that belong to the heirs of the victims of the Armenian Genocide," says Yeghiayan. " No organization should be allowed to profit from genocide, but until now, Aviva has had no incentive to identify the rightful heirs and pay the money owed to them. With this federal lawsuit, we intend to give them an incentive."

Turkey’s President Makes Historic Visit to Armenia

2008-09-07T18:25:00.000+01:00

Turkey’s president arrived in Armenia on Saturday, the first visit by a Turkish leader in the two nations’ history. The president, Abdullah Gul, was invited by the Armenian president, Serge Sargsyan, to attend a soccer game in Yerevan, the capital, between the national teams.

The trip was widely seen as a symbolic gesture to normalize relations between the countries, which have recognized each other but have not established diplomatic relations. The two nations have deeply held disagreements about what is widely referred to as the Armenian genocide, in which more than one million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Army in the early 1900s.

Many Western countries support the genocide designation, but the official narrative in Turkey is that both Turks and Armenians were killed in warfare as the Ottoman Empire dissolved. The issue remains taboo in Turkey; many writers and intellectuals, including the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, have faced criminal charges for discussing the events that began in 1915.

Robert Fisk's World: A voice recovered from Armenia's bitter past

2008-08-25T12:50:00.001+01:00

It's a tiny book, only 116 pages long, but it contains a monumental truth, another sign that one and a half million dead Armenians will not go away. It's called My Grandmother: a Memoir and it's written by Fethiye Cetin and it opens up graves. For when she was growing up in the Turkish town of Marden, Fethiye's grandmother Seher was known as a respected Muslim housewife. It wasn't true. She was a Christian Armenian and her real name was Heranus. We all know that the modern Turkish state will not acknowledge the 1915 Armenian Holocaust, but this humble book may help to change that. Because an estimated two million Turks – alive in Turkey today – had an Armenian grandparent.

As children they were put on the death marches south to the Syrian desert but – kidnapped by brigands, sheltered by brave Muslim villagers (whose own courage also, of course, cannot be acknowledged by Turkey) or simply torn from their dying mothers – later became citizens of the modern Turkey which Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was to set up. Yet as Maureen Freely states in her excellent preface, four generations of Turkish schoolchildren simply do not know Ottoman Anatolia was between a quarter and a half Christian.

United States: we hold Ottomans responsible for crimes against Armenians

2008-08-03T16:52:00.001+01:00

"In new correspondence with the U.S. Congress on World War I-era killings of Armenians in the Ottoman empire, U.S. President George W. Bush's administration has continued to avoid using the word "genocide," but also says it holds Ottoman officials responsible for crimes against Armenians.

"The administration recognizes that mass killings, ethnic cleansing, and forced deportations of over one and a half million Armenians were conducted by the Ottoman Empire. We indeed hold Ottoman officials responsible for those crimes," Matthew Reynolds, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for legislative affairs said in a letter to Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The letter reached Biden hours before the committee voted Tuesday to support Marie Yovanovitch, Bush's nominee for ambassador to Armenia."

Is Turkey Muzzling U.S. Scholars? (Inside Higher Education)

2008-07-08T19:19:00.001+01:00

Scholars of the Armenian genocide have long accused Turkey of using its financial support to promote the idea that a genocide didn’t take place or that the jury is still out — views that have little credibility among historians of genocide.

An incident in 2006, only recently being talked about publicly, has some scholars concerned that Turkey and its supporters may be interfering in American scholarship. The chair of the board of the Institute of Turkish Studies, which is based at Georgetown University, resigned at the end of 2006, and he says he was given a choice by Turkish officials of either quitting or seeing the funding for the institute go away.

At least one scholarly group that has investigated the matter recently issued a report backing the ousted chair, and at least one other board member has resigned while another has called for more discussion of the accusations. The executive director of the institute, while flatly saying that the ousted chair is wrong, confirmed that he was asked by Turkish Embassy officials to have the scholar talk with the Turkish ambassador to the United States about an article where he used the word “genocide” in reference to what happened to the Armenians. It was after that talk that the chair — Donald Quataert — quit.

The fact that Quataert is at the center of the controversy is significant. A historian at the State University of New York at Binghamton, Quataert is an expert on the Ottoman Empire. In the 1980s, when the scholarly consensus about the Armenian genocide was not as broad as it is today, he signed a statement calling for more research on whether a genocide took place. Quataert says today he never thought the statement would be used as it was by Turkish supporters to question claims of a genocide, but he notes that as a result of his having signed at the time, he was viewed favorably by the Turkish government and with considerable skepticism by Armenians. And it is Quataert who used the word “genocide” in a journal and who says he was given a choice by the Turkish ambassador, Nabi Sensoy, of quitting as the institute’s chair or seeing its financing disappear.

Misrepresenting the issues in Nagorno-Karabakh

2008-06-17T09:30:00.001+01:00

Ambassador Gabrielyan's response to Alexandros Petersen's misleading and biased article in the Guardian.

Armenian Council's response to Alexandros Petersen's article in the Guardian

2008-06-11T12:25:00.001+01:00

Dear Sir,

We were very disappointed to see Alexandros Petersen's misinformed and ill-judged article on Nagorno-Karabakh being published in the Guardian on 7th of June.

Despite his affiliations Mr Petersen shows surprising lack of understanding of that part of the world or what is even more worrying, shows unacceptable lack of impartiality for a scholar. The article gives rise to a number of questions, particularly whether Mr Petersen has ever been to Karabakh and what sources he has consulted before penning his article?

Mr Petersen's article is an example of scholars getting involved in political propaganda and misinformation; is it a coincidence that Mr Petersen was recently a guest of honour at the Azeri Embasy in London for a launch of a propaganda book paid for by the Azeri foreign ministry? His close involvement with the government of Azerbaijan raises serious doubts about his impartiality while writing on this subject.

Despite not being formally recognised, the government of Karabakh is going to great lengths to follow international norms in an effort to demonstrate the country's values and aspirations despite no shortage of bellicose rhetoric and threats from the Azerbaijan. Such one-sided and misinformed articles are not going to contribute to the climate of understanding and peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict.

We join the Rt Hon Baroness Cox and other individuals much better informed about the current state of affairs in Karabakh in stating that Mr Petersen's article has little to do with reality and perhaps more to do with a biased viewpoint.

Yours faithfully,

Edgar Danielyan FRSA FBCS

The Armenian Council
London WC1N 3XX

Baroness Cox responds to misinformed article by A. Petersen

2008-06-11T11:50:00.002+01:00

The Editor
Guardian Newspaper

Your article on 'the Black Hole' of Nagorno Karabakh by Alexandros Petersen (June 7) contains so many false allegations and untruths that it would be laughable if the implications were not so serious.

I was in Nagorno Karabakh last week and I can personally testify to the ridiculous nature of the claims that 'Karabakh is a black hole that attracts arms, drug and human trafficking, money laundering and organised crime. Chances are that heroin on London's streets, illegal weapons in the Paris banlieue, and the underage prostitutes in Berlin either came through a conflict zone such as Karabakh , or were trafficked by a network that uses the area to facilitate its operations.'

These allegations are outrageous. The Armenians in Karabakh had to defend their land against well-documented attempted ethnic cleansing by Azerbaijan in a bitter war from 1991-1994, During that war, Islamist terrorists fought on the side of Azerbaijan against the Armenians of Karabakh, who are now rebuilding their shattered lives and land with laudable commitment to democratic principles (their elections have been declared free and fair by independent respected international observers).

My charitable organisation supports a Rehabilitation Centre for people with disabilities which has become recognised by many professional visitors as a Centre of Excellence, disseminating innovative good practice throughout the South Caucasus. Over the years, I have encouraged as many as a thousand people to visit this historic land; we have travelled widely throughout the small region and every visitor has been inspired by the graciousness, openness and warm hospitality of the people. All would join me in signing this letter of rebuttal of the outrageously absurd and misleading allegations in your article.

Yours faithfully,

The Baroness Cox
House of Lords

State of Denial: Turkey Spends Millions to Cover Up Armenian Genocide

2008-06-05T12:35:00.001+01:00

"A lie isn't the other side of any story. It's just a lie. When it comes to the historical reality of the Armenian genocide, there is no 'Armenian' or 'Turkish' side of the question, any more than there is a 'Jewish' or 'German' side of the historical reality of the Holocaust," writes Torben Jorgensen, of the Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. "There is a scientific side and an unscientific side — acknowledgement or denial."

Turkey, Armenia and the Defence of Free Expression

2008-05-18T20:33:00.000+01:00

Scars in Turkish-Armenian history remain far from healed. Visiting the ICA to discuss the situation in Turkey, and the place of Armenians, will be four figures closely involved with defending the threatened position of free expression there: Fethiye Çetin, author of My Grandmother (Verso 2008), which describes Çetin’s discovery of her Muslim grandmother’s true Armenian Christian identity, translator and writer Maureen Freely, Armenian writer and filmmaker Nouritza Matossian, and Ragip Zarakolu, one of Turkey’s best-known dissident publishers and winner of the 2008 IPA Freedom to Publish Prize. The event will be chaired by Lisa Appignanesi, President of English PEN.

Thursday 19th June, 7pm
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH

£10 / £9 Concessions / £8 ICA Members
TO BOOK TICKETS VISIT www.ica.org.uk OR CALL 020 7930 3647

Armenia Marks Genocide Anniversary

2008-04-24T07:42:00.001+01:00

Hundreds of thousands of people silently marched to the hilltop genocide memorial in Yerevan on Thursday to pay their respects to more than one million Armenians massacred in Ottoman Turkey from 1915-1918.

An incessant stream of people of different ages walked up to the Tsitsernakabert hill overlooking the city and laid flowers around its eternal fire throughout the day. It marked the 93rd anniversary of the arrests of hundreds of Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople that were followed by the mass killings and deportations of Armenians from eastern regions of the crumbling Ottoman Empire.

Many historians consider the massacres the first genocide of the 20th century. Modern-day Turkey insists, however, that they did not constitute genocide, saying that Armenians died in smaller number and not as a result of a premeditated government policy.

As always, the annual remembrance of genocide victims began at Tsitsernakabert with a prayer service led by the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Garegin II. The ceremony was broadcast live by national television and attended by President Serzh Sarkisian and other top state officials.

In a written statement, Sarkisian called the mass killings and deportations of Ottoman Armenians a “crime against humanity” that must be recognized and condemned by the entire world. He said Armenia’s government will campaign for that alongside the worldwide Armenian Diaspora.

“There is hardly a family [in Armenia] that was not affected by those tragic events,” Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian told reporters after laying a wreathe at the memorial. “That tragedy directly or indirectly knocked on the doors of every Armenian family. We must learn lessons from history.”

“May God give us the wisdom to learn those lessons and prevent a repeat of such tragedies in the future,” he said.

Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian also spoke of the need to draw such lessons. “Everything must be done to ensure that our country and our people are protected,” he said. “That requires planned steps and hard work.”

“We are duly remembering genocide victims,” said Eduard Sedrakian, rector of the National Academy of Fine Arts. “I hope we will work, build and create things with the same diligence. As they say, the only way to fight against death is to live.”

The April 24 commemoration was also used by opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian and his allies for rallying more than 10,000 supporters in downtown Yerevan despite heavy police presence in and around Liberty Square, the scene of massive opposition demonstrations staged in the wake of the recent presidential election. Ignoring police orders to keep to the sidewalks and chanting anti-government slogans, crowd marched to the Tsitsernakabert hill where it was joined by Ter-Petrosian. Although the latter headed to his nearby house after laying flowers at the genocide memorial, most of the opposition supporters did not disperse and walked back to the city center.

Late Ottoman genocides: the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and Young Turkish population and extermination policies

2008-04-13T12:18:00.002+01:00

By Dominik J. Schaller, Jürgen Zimmerer

From 1899 to 1922, the Swiss deacon Jakob Künzler (1871-1949) headed a missionary hospital in Ourfa, an old city in South-Eastern Anatolia. During his time in the Eastern Provinces of the Ottoman Empire, Künzler became an important eyewitness to the Young Turks' project of large-scale ethnic cleansing and genocide. In October 1915, Künzler had to witness the destruction of the Armenian community in Ourfa when the desperate Armenian resistance against the deportation orders was bloodily suppressed by the Ottoman army. Even before this event, the Swiss deacon was well aware of the Young Turks' policy of extermination. Since Ourfa was a significant regional crossroad, many convoys of Armenian deportees on their way to the Syrian desert passed the city. Künzler tried to relieve as much as possible the distress and pain of the Armenian deportees, who were in a deplorable condition. Furthermore, he made sure their fate was not forgotten. In his book In the Land of Blood and Tears, published in 1921 in Germany, Künzler described vividly his horrible experiences in Ourfa during World War I.

As a missionary, Jakob Künzler was very much indebted emotionally to his Armenian coreligionists and felt open sympathy for them. Nevertheless, he understood that the fate of the Armenians was only part and parcel of a wider strategy of population policy by the Young Turkish government. In his above-mentioned report, Künzler stated: "The Young Turks did not only include Armenians and Kurds but also Arabs in their plan of extermination."3 This is a remarkable statement in two respects. First of all, Künzler talks about a policy of extermination and not only about resettlement, as some groups wanted to make the world believe then and now. Second, he did not turn a blind eye to the fate of Muslims like the Arabs and Kurds, but identified them as fellow victims of Christian groups such as the Armenians. In particular, the deportation of Kurds from Erzerum and Bitlis in the winter of 1916 made quite an impression on him, as the following report about these deportations and their consequences shows:

No European newspaper has reported that the same Young Turks, who wanted to exterminate the Armenians, drove the Kurds who had been living in Upper Armenia from their house and home. Like the Armenians, the Kurds were accused of being unconfident elements that would join sides with the Russians. The deportation of the Kurds from the regions of Djabachdjur, Palu, Musch and from the Vilajets of Erzerum and Bitlis was carried out in the winter of 1916. About 300,000 Kurds had to wander southwards. First they were placed in Upper Mesopotamia, especially in the region of Ourfa, but also westward from Aintab and Marasch. Then in the summer of 1917, the transport of the Kurds to the Konya Plateau began. The most horrible thing was that the deportations were carried out in the middle of the winter. When the deportees reached a Turkish village in the evening, the inhabitants were afraid and closed the doors of their homes. Thus, the poor Kurds had to stay outside in the rain and snow. The next morning, the villagers had to dig mass graves for those frozen to death. The suffering of the surviving Kurds who finally reached Mesopotamia was far from being over. The winter of 1917/18 brought new hardship. Despite a good harvest, almost all of the deported Kurds fell victim to a terrible famine.

"State of Israel has Jewish obligation to recognize Armenian Genocide"

2008-04-12T11:27:00.003+01:00

The Knesset has recently regained its honor by retracting its old stance and deciding that the recognition of the Armenian genocide must be discussed by parliament. About a year ago, the Knesset plenum rejected a proposal to discuss the same forgotten genocide, which took place during World War I and during which nearly a third of the Armenian people were murdered by the Turks.

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The Jewish nation has produced the national-Zionist movement, which has no match in terms of moral leadership in recent centuries. How can we, of all nations, forget the catastrophes that have befallen, and that still befall, other nations?

The State of Israel is an eternal memorial for "Thou shalt not forget." The terrible holocaust that has been inflicted on us has etched onto our identity - alongside the national tragedy - the sympathy, sensitivity and cry against the disasters of other people, even when this involves national embarrassment or a certain diplomatic price.

With regards to the Armenian holocaust – the discussion in the Knesset on the question of recognizing it as genocide conveys sympathy and solidarity with the ethnic tragedy, more than an accusation. The Knesset does not wish to condemn modern Turkey, but to act as Jews who are subjected to the judgment of history. We cannot, in the name of political or diplomatic wisdom, suppress such fundamental human values, which touch on the roots of our tragic existence.