It is now 98 years since 1.5m Armenians were systematically massacred.
By Benjamin Abtan, 20 April 2013
Recognising what happened is the only way to help us all move forward.
It is now 98 years since 1.5m Armenians were systematically massacred. Recognising what happened is the only way to help us all move forward.
It has been 98 years since - following a premeditated plan with a methodic implementation - one million and a half Armenians were massacred in the Ottoman Empire. The Armenian people were the victims of a genocide which would soon serve as a gruesome reference for those that followed. . . .
Today in Turkey, the mere enunciation of this historical fact still provokes ferocious opposition, sometimes even physical threats. Genocide denial serves as an encouragement to racism and hate against Armenians and other non-Muslim minorities. Some want to pretend that acknowledging the reality of the Armenian Genocide [2]is an attack on all Turkish people and on "Turkishness". It is not: it is a step towards justice.
Several years ago, the genocide of Armenians began to be commemorated in Turkey itself. The participants are still few but their number grows every day despite an official discourse of genocide-denial. Today, those among us who have taken part in these commemorations in Turkey are calling for solidarity beyond borders.
This year on 24 April - the widely recognised starting date of the massacre - we ask citizens, civil society leaders, antiracist activists, intellectuals and artists, of Armenian and other diverse origins, in Turkey and across the world, to unite in calling for the historical fact of the Armenian Genocide to be recognised at last.
Our shared initiative is one of solidarity, of justice, and of democracy.
It is an initiative of solidarity between all who fight for historical truth. Today the divide is not between Turks and Armenians, but between those who struggle for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, whatever their origins are and wherever they live, and those who promote denial. In a word, it is not a question of blood, but of ideas; not a question of origins, but of a common goal.
It is an initiative of justice. In the words of writer and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel [3], "Genocide kills twice, the second time by silence." Denial, then, is the perpetuation of genocide. Fighting against denial is trying to quell the trauma in Armenian communities from one generation to another. It is not an end to this part of history - because when it comes to genocide, there is unfortunately no true end - but it offers new generations the opportunity to look together towards the future.
Finally, it is an initiative for democracy. Echoing writer and Buchenwald survivor Jorge Semprun's frequent reminder, democracy requires vitality from civil society. Strengthening Turkish civil society by establishing bridges with the rest of the European civil society is strengthening democratic values, thus combating racism and promoting human rights, in Turkey as well as in the rest of Europe.
In solidarity, for justice and democracy, for the respect of the victims and their descendents, we will commemorate together the Armenian Genocide on 24 April, in Turkey.
Signed by:
Benjamin Abtan, President of the European Grassroots Antiracist Movement - EGAM
Cengiz Algan & Levent Sensever, Spokespeople for Durde! (Turkey)
Alexis Govciyan , European President & Nicolas Tavitian, Member of the Board of the Armenian General Benevolent Union - AGBU (Europe)
Meral Çildir, Member of the Board of Directors & Ayse Gunaysu, Member of the Commission against Racism and Discrimination of the Turkish Association for Human Rights - IHD (Turkey)
newstatesman.com
Reply by Sukru Aya
Link To The Document
Reply to the young Human Rights Activist Mr. Benjamin Abtan and his posting egam-eu.blogspot proving is bias and affiliation with the "genocide fanfare". You can watch his TV interview on:
dailymotion.com/video
where two persons of Jewish and Armenian ethnicity make sev eral comments under the "Human Rights" umbrella, without having read "anything tangible, not even the Armenian historians". More dramatic is the fact that Mr. Abtan does not know even the latest history of the involvement of Dashnakist "Armenian Legion" in wiping his grandfathers viz: “Secrets Of A Christian Terrorist State Armenia” and the fact that Armenians being at War with Turks is confirmed not only by the League of Nations General Secretary Nansen ( if-armenians-fight-with-us-against-turks ) but also by official U.S.A.documents : (U.S.A. Affirms Armenians Were At War). To call any act "genocide", the action of annihilation must be planned and executed by a government. But here again let us see what the League of Nations at that time said which cannot be refuted, since there is no higher authority:
Copy of “Note Verbal” by Secretary-General Sir Eric Drummond, dated March 1st, 1920.
Page 2: “Further, in Turkey, minorities were often oppressed and massacres carried out by irregular bands who were entirely outside the control of the central Turkish Government."
Sukru Server Aya
- Don't they know that the CEO of the Coco-Cola Company, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is a Turk, named Muhtar Kent? He is scheduled to be the luncheon speaker at the ATAA Convention in Washinton D.C, April 27th. ? (E.B.) -
Reply by S.S. Aya: - Of course they know Muhtar Kent, CEO of Coca Cola and his recent affiliation with a joint NGO group to reply the diaspora allegations. May be they imply that the Armenians in USA will boycott drinking Coca-Cola and that will make the company bust! They of course do not know that:
1- Coca Cola has a manufacturing plant in Turkey and several bottling plants, and they would not want to lose the Turkish market of 75.000.000 versus 500.000 Armenians in USA.
What a sick mentality to "bottle the genocide palaver in Coca-Cola container"! Or should they add "Armenian hatred in the formula", so all drinkers hate Turks?
2- See: Necdet Kent or Ismail Necdet Kent (1911 – September 20, 2002) was a Turkish diplomat who risked his life to save Jews during World War II. While vice consul-general in Marseilles, France between 1941 and 1944, he gave Turkish citizenship to dozens of Turkish Jews living in France who did not have proper identity papers, to save them from deportation to the Nazi gas chambers.
3- Muhtar Kent, is the son of Necdet Kent, to whom Jewish Diaspora owes so much for his saving Jews by thousands in France from Holocaust, when "Nazi Armenian Legion" were rounding them up in Europe. Just inform A.F.L. or other Jewish lobbies and let them handle the "treatment of their heros by Armenian Lobby and their pipe blowers". But I am afraid they do not know their own past!
4- ARMENIAN GENOCIDE?: What a Gigantic palaver based on grand-ma stories and hearsays but not a shred of document or logic or reason or numbers or eyewitnesses and most important at all "verdict by an authorized Iternational Court". Can you belie the following document or give me a contradictory documents? No? So why all this palavers and shoutings? Study your history and face realities Ahbariks!
5- Armenian Genocide? Did you read your own history for example: http://armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2011/07/3294-memorandum-presented-to-council-of.html If you do not have the courage to click and see the document, you must observe at least the following statement, which "flushes all GENOCIDE tunes, articles and endless palavers"!
“University of Bradford” Armenia and the League of Nations Documents from the United Nations Library, Geneva; League of Nations Archives Collections
Copy of “Note Verbal” by Secretary-General Sir Eric Drummond, dated March 1st, 1920.
Page 2: “Further, in Turkey, minorities were often oppressed and massacres carried out by irregular bands who were entirely outside the control of the central Turkish Government .
If you are still not convinced sent your comment to newsrush@gmail.com so that the whole world can read your "knowledge, logic and size of your global palavers".
Take Care, good luck,
S.S. Aya
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