I'm a bit late, but this is the first time in five days or so that I am online. I wish all of you a very happy, successful and peaceful 2008!
In Armenia the "holiday season" only really started on the 31st and will last for another week or so. Christmas is celebrated according to the Orthodox calendar on January 6 and then what is called the 'Old New Year' on January 13.
However, the real New Year is much bigger than Christmas and the celebrations last about a week starting from January 1st. So this whole week is a week off for almost everyone, including me. New Year's Eve is usually celebrated at home with family, but from January 1st people visit their friends, neighbors and relatives and eat and drink a lot. In every house there is a table filled with food and drinks standing ready for use because at any given moment guests can show up.
This can be lots of fun, but the downside of this is that many people spend more than they can afford on their New Year's table. A friend who has a shop in a small town in the north of Armenia once told me that all the money he makes in the run-up to New Year has to last him until April, because until then people just don't have money to spend. A taxi-driver in Yerevan told me the other day that for taxi's it is basically the same: For quite some weeks after New Year business is slower than usual, because people just don't have money to spend.
I'm off to another food fest at friends!
Showing posts with label about Armenia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label about Armenia. Show all posts
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Winter has arrived in Yerevan
Last Saturday we had the first snow of this winter in Yerevan. It snowed all day, but in the lower lying parts of the city the snow melted pretty soon. In the highest parts of the city it snowed at least 5cms. Since Saturday we've had a drop in temperature as well: During the day it is just above freezing. Snow seems to have come rather early this year, because usually it doesn't start to snow until mid-December. We'll see what the weather brings in the next weeks.
I am still surprised at how fast seasons change in Armenia, or at least in Yerevan. Usually spring and fall last a few weeks (a few being less than a month). Within two or three weeks the weather can change from winter to summer or the other way around. This year I had the feeling, though that fall lasted longer than usual.
I am still surprised at how fast seasons change in Armenia, or at least in Yerevan. Usually spring and fall last a few weeks (a few being less than a month). Within two or three weeks the weather can change from winter to summer or the other way around. This year I had the feeling, though that fall lasted longer than usual.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Enlightment or sensational journalism
Below you will find an article which is published on Michael his blog., last week.
In my opinion, the heading is wrong, Its all about how to interpret events, and we saw a lot of dilettantism. But...this article is worth reading, since it is written by a witness.
Armenian Atrocities Against Muslim
Turks Part II November 13, 2007
by Michael van der Galiën
Below follows the translation of an article which appeared in the
Dutch newspaper the Algemeen Handelsblad from Tuesday, May 1925, 1920.
Here is the original article algemeen-handelsblad-1920.
------
We have received the following interesting letter from one of our staff members in the Balkans, the content of which gives a different view on the Armenian question from the customary one in Western Europe. We have the greatest trust in the objectivity of this staff member. The way in which he relates his story contains the proof that he is deserving of this trust- and we have therefore printed his correspondence unchanged and without comment. Just as under the reign of Sultan Abdulhamid abhorrent reports of mass slaughtering of the Armenians have been coming in again from Cilicia, as a result of which the nerves of the dulled world are once again shocked.
In absolutely no way is it my intention to justify slaughter, no matter by whom it is performed, and to try and protect the most heinous of all murders, [that is] murder committed on religious grounds. But there are two sides to every truth and when the Armenian press-propaganda manages to exploit the Armenian bloodbath in Cilicia against the Turks in the sense that she thus is trying to realize the complete destruction of Turkey by the Entente, then I am of the opinion that it is in the interest of truth to investigate whether truly only the beastliness of the Turks is to blame for these mass murders. I believe that I have some right to state this since, during the war, I had the opportunity to see Turkey, in a manner of speaking, in her negligee and of all places there where the Armenian and the Turkish tribes fought each other with the bitterest of hatreds.
In the spring of the memorable year 1918, when as a result of the Russian defeat, Turkey started the offensive again and the flag of the Prophet waved victoriously in alien countries, which had not happened since the peace of Kücük Kaynarca, I happened to find myself in the Armenian-Russian border region and so witnessed a part of the Turkish advance in the area that was predominantly inhabited by Armenians.
Whosoever knows what waging war is all about will have to admit that there is no better opportunity for getting to know a country and a people than during a war, where all human passions are expressed with violence, where the thin layer of culture and pretense disappears before the higher necessity of waging war. At the time I happened to find myself the only European in the critical surroundings and so I have been perhaps the only European witness of in what manner the events during the Turkish advance in Russian-Armenia occurred and how these two people related to one another.
Before I started my journey I already favored the Armenian side. During my stay in Constantinople, in the years 1916/17 I had already heard plenty of revolting details on the Armenian mass murders in Turkish Armenia and the Europeans, who were more or less well informed about the events in Armenia, therefore attributed blame to the Turks alone and they regarded the Armenians as the innocent sacrifices to [/victims of] the Turkish religious hatred and to the bestial pleasures of a barbaric people. My relationship with the Turks was good enough to also discuss with them this difficult issue that many a European did not even dare to bring up.
The position taken up by the Turks was to strengthen me in my convictions that the Armenians were innocent and that the Turks were to blame for everything. For with a quaintly brusque rejection I was answered by every Turk whom I had asked for information with regard to the pros and cons of the Armenian question: “Yes, everything is true what people say about us. We have killed millions of Armenians; it was a horrible bloodbath, but we were within our right and we are only accountable to ourselves for that.” I did not succeed in finding out further details, or grounds for these horrible acts.
And so I could only arrive at the conclusion … In the released passions of the war the religious fanaticism towards the Christians was given a free reign wherever there was opportunity. And that happened in the highlands of Armenia, where, cut off from the entire world, the Armenians were entirely in the hands of the Turks.
In the spring of 1918 I arrived in Trabzon from where, as is known, runs the only passable road to the interior of Upper Armenia. In 1915 Trabzon itself was witness to an Armenian bloodbath and three years later the Greek- and the Levantine Europeans still managed to relate to me in every detail the indescribable scenes of horror that occurred within the ancient city walls of Trabzon in 1915. How the streets of Trabzon ran red with the blood of Armenians! How the Armenian quarters went up in smoke and flames and that for days and weeks after the bloodbath the bodies of children continued to wash up against the ancient Constantine Dam in the harbour of Platana. I saw ruined stretches [of the city] and people told me that these had once been the Armenian quarters. People showed me Christian Churches. These were the Churches of the Armenians. People raked over dung heaps and bones and decomposed bodies appeared.
These are the bodies of Armenians, people told me. These are such awful realizations that one is never able to forget them and they evoke the same wish with everyone: God preserve every one of us for this barbarity and for the religious hatred of Muslims!
But a Prior of the Franciscan monks, a simple old priest, who undoubtedly stood on the side of the Christians, shook his head, when I started to curse the Turks. “You are mistaken”, he said, “the Turks are not the only ones to blame.
Yes, someone who comes from Europe and who wishes to judge Asia with a European understanding will [undoubtedly] condemn the crime of the extermination of this people. But it is not the entire truth that you have seen and heard. You ought to look upon these things through Asian eyes and have understanding for the fact that here two peoples have been going to battle with a hatred and bitterness that are centuries old. One has two mentalities here, the Turkish and the Armenian and both mentalities were saying that one of them had to go down. Everything was arraigned against them and they were made to suffer defeat. But are you convinced of it that the Armenians, under the same circumstances, would not have done or in fact did exactly the same!?
I have my reports from missions, sent forth by my order in Beyazit, Van, Erzurum, Erzincan; from the reports I know that in 1915 when the war with Russia started, it was the Armenians who, behind the Turkish Army, were fanning the revolution and who were depopulating Turkish villages and settlements and razed them to the ground. The subsequent events that happened in Turkey afterwards were only the consequences of this first hostile attitude of the Armenians. I admit that horrible things have happened and that never before so much blood was spilt. But the Armenians were not [exactly] innocent in how this bloodbath came about. And when the Turks went further than they had to, then the blame for that does not solely lie with the Turks, but with the mentality of Asia, where the hatred for a people runs deeper than with the European peoples and where war assumes beastly shapes.” Just look at Trabzon, for instance. You have seen the burned down Armenian quarters, but did you also see the burned down Turkish quarters? Did you happen to pay attention to the graves of the Turkish population that were still fresh? No! You can see that when the Armenians found themselves in the same position as the Turks, when they advanced victoriously under the protection of the Russian Army, the same spectacle occurred as in the year of 1915, but that time it was the Turks who got it in the neck. Wherever the Armenians found a Turk he was mercilessly hacked down, wherever they saw a Turkish Mosque it was plundered and set on fire. Turkish quarters went up in smoke and flames just like the Armenian quarters. You are presently about to travel round the country and you will still be able to follow in the footsteps of war: Bayburt, Erzincan, Erzurum, and Kars. You will still see smoldering heaps of rubble; you will still smell blood and corpses, but it so happens that these were Turkish corpses.” The Franciscan Father only told the truth. For months I traveled all across Armenia and Kurdistan and I found confirmation of what people had been telling me.
After the withdrawal of the Russian Army, which followed after the Russian peace, the troops of the so-called Armenian Army, took over the military operations in the occupied Turkish areas. During the Russian occupation the Russians protected the lives and properties of the Turks. What happened after the withdrawal of the Russians is heart rendering. The smallest Turkish settlements were killed down to the last man by the gangs of the Generals Adronits and Murat and Churches were destroyed down to the very last stone. Back then the Armenian expectations were still highly strung. Their plans reached far, encompassed the entire Turkish Empire. And they were hoping that they could settle the score with the old hereditary enemy, down to the last man, the last woman, the last child. I have seen ruins in Erzincan where hundreds of bodies of strangled Turks lay amidst the rubble. I have had light shone down wells that were full of bodies. I have seen with my own eyes that graves were opened in which the bodies of men and women were thrown haphazardly across one another, hundreds of them. Who did this? Those victorious Armenians. These spectacles accompanied me on the distant and long road through Upper-Armenia, Kurdistan right up into Russian-Armenia. And is it a wonder that the Turks, when they in their turn became the victors, exacted revenge, repaid evil with evil? I have to admit that during the Turkish advance to Russian-Armenia the murdering was continued by the Turks. On the other side of the border of the Sarikamish the Armenian settlements, of which there were many, were depopulated with the aid of fire and iron.
The most bitter of racial hatred was raging against the former victors, presently those who were conquered, in a bestial form, a wild country particular to Asia. Our European brains fail to comprehend this unrelenting hatred that sets people against people whipping them into a frenzy in which the worst atrocities are committed. But we should not forget that Upper-Armenia is a country the civilization of which can be compared to the primitive culture of the European peoples.
The peoples there do not form nations, but rather hordes. And just like in the primitive situation of peoples a meeting of two hordes meant the annihilation of one them, thus in the mountains around Great Ararat, people’s minds are still not directed towards coexistence, but rather towards destruction. In the bare mountains of Upper-Armenia there exists no compromise, only a fight to the death. The victor will live all the conquered can do is die. During my stay in Alexandropol (Gümrü) the following happened, which casts a good light on the mentality of the people there. From the direction of the group of mountains, the Alagöz, people one day heard the thunder of canons being fired.
, explained this rumble of canons as that the English were The Armenian population, which lived in fear behind the Turkish front lineadvancing against the Turks. And they were under the conviction that within several hours the Turks would be beaten.
Immediately there arose a rebellion behind the Turkish front line, and the weak Turkish posts in the Armenian villages were tortured to death in an ingenious manner. But the English did not come. A detachment of Kafkas-Armenians had tried to break through the thin Turkish front. Hence the reason for the rumbling canons. And when the fight was over only a couple of hours later there followed the revenge. The villages, in which Turkish soldiers had been murdered, were destroyed.
Can one then say that the Armenians were not to blame? In Alexandropol itself, in a purely Armenian city, where, despite the Turkish occupation, the Armenians quietly continued to do their work, I often came in contact with leading Armenian figures. The were continually living under a terrible fear that one day due to an ill-considered act of Armenian gangs the Turks would take revenge and that they would then be among the first to bear this revenge.
A number of the Armenian people, the best part, were in favor of a peaceful coexistence with the Turks. For it so happened that they were more or less compelled to live together. And in that case only tolerance could put a stop to the murdering. But the greater number of the people and the gangs, the so-called soldiers, did not wish to know of peace. Their slogan was: “Them or us, one will have to go down.”
The men, who preached tolerance and reconciliation, were cursed by the greater part of the Armenian people. People in Armenian circles openly said to me: “At present those Turks are in control. But soon we will be lord and master again and then we will not suffer a single Turk that falls into our hands to live. No agreement is possible between us. We have a score to settle that is centuries old. Our fight is as old as our people. This fight started on the day on which the Turks entered our lands and it will last until the day on which they will be brought down. We do not wish to have reconciliation. Cursed are they who befriend Turks.” Such was the mood in a time in which the Armenians had no hope ever to be freed from the Turks. It looked as if the victorious crescent would be making the whole of Russian-Armenia her own. With this in mind one can judge what happened when the Turks were forced to withdraw and the Turkish settlements once again fell into the hands of the Armenians. A comparison is only possible between civilized peoples.
With the peoples of the wildest [part of] Asia there only exist hatred and destruction. “The Turks are guilty. They have murdered [people].” However, are the Armenians less guilty, who also murdered as soon as they had the power to do so? One can only judge Asia with Asian eyes.
http://mvdg.wordpress.com/2007/11/13/armenian-atrocities-against-muslim-turks-part-ii/
In my opinion, the heading is wrong, Its all about how to interpret events, and we saw a lot of dilettantism. But...this article is worth reading, since it is written by a witness.
Armenian Atrocities Against Muslim
Turks Part II November 13, 2007
by Michael van der Galiën
Below follows the translation of an article which appeared in the
Dutch newspaper the Algemeen Handelsblad from Tuesday, May 1925, 1920.
Here is the original article algemeen-handelsblad-1920.
------
We have received the following interesting letter from one of our staff members in the Balkans, the content of which gives a different view on the Armenian question from the customary one in Western Europe. We have the greatest trust in the objectivity of this staff member. The way in which he relates his story contains the proof that he is deserving of this trust- and we have therefore printed his correspondence unchanged and without comment. Just as under the reign of Sultan Abdulhamid abhorrent reports of mass slaughtering of the Armenians have been coming in again from Cilicia, as a result of which the nerves of the dulled world are once again shocked.
In absolutely no way is it my intention to justify slaughter, no matter by whom it is performed, and to try and protect the most heinous of all murders, [that is] murder committed on religious grounds. But there are two sides to every truth and when the Armenian press-propaganda manages to exploit the Armenian bloodbath in Cilicia against the Turks in the sense that she thus is trying to realize the complete destruction of Turkey by the Entente, then I am of the opinion that it is in the interest of truth to investigate whether truly only the beastliness of the Turks is to blame for these mass murders. I believe that I have some right to state this since, during the war, I had the opportunity to see Turkey, in a manner of speaking, in her negligee and of all places there where the Armenian and the Turkish tribes fought each other with the bitterest of hatreds.
In the spring of the memorable year 1918, when as a result of the Russian defeat, Turkey started the offensive again and the flag of the Prophet waved victoriously in alien countries, which had not happened since the peace of Kücük Kaynarca, I happened to find myself in the Armenian-Russian border region and so witnessed a part of the Turkish advance in the area that was predominantly inhabited by Armenians.
Whosoever knows what waging war is all about will have to admit that there is no better opportunity for getting to know a country and a people than during a war, where all human passions are expressed with violence, where the thin layer of culture and pretense disappears before the higher necessity of waging war. At the time I happened to find myself the only European in the critical surroundings and so I have been perhaps the only European witness of in what manner the events during the Turkish advance in Russian-Armenia occurred and how these two people related to one another.
Before I started my journey I already favored the Armenian side. During my stay in Constantinople, in the years 1916/17 I had already heard plenty of revolting details on the Armenian mass murders in Turkish Armenia and the Europeans, who were more or less well informed about the events in Armenia, therefore attributed blame to the Turks alone and they regarded the Armenians as the innocent sacrifices to [/victims of] the Turkish religious hatred and to the bestial pleasures of a barbaric people. My relationship with the Turks was good enough to also discuss with them this difficult issue that many a European did not even dare to bring up.
The position taken up by the Turks was to strengthen me in my convictions that the Armenians were innocent and that the Turks were to blame for everything. For with a quaintly brusque rejection I was answered by every Turk whom I had asked for information with regard to the pros and cons of the Armenian question: “Yes, everything is true what people say about us. We have killed millions of Armenians; it was a horrible bloodbath, but we were within our right and we are only accountable to ourselves for that.” I did not succeed in finding out further details, or grounds for these horrible acts.
And so I could only arrive at the conclusion … In the released passions of the war the religious fanaticism towards the Christians was given a free reign wherever there was opportunity. And that happened in the highlands of Armenia, where, cut off from the entire world, the Armenians were entirely in the hands of the Turks.
In the spring of 1918 I arrived in Trabzon from where, as is known, runs the only passable road to the interior of Upper Armenia. In 1915 Trabzon itself was witness to an Armenian bloodbath and three years later the Greek- and the Levantine Europeans still managed to relate to me in every detail the indescribable scenes of horror that occurred within the ancient city walls of Trabzon in 1915. How the streets of Trabzon ran red with the blood of Armenians! How the Armenian quarters went up in smoke and flames and that for days and weeks after the bloodbath the bodies of children continued to wash up against the ancient Constantine Dam in the harbour of Platana. I saw ruined stretches [of the city] and people told me that these had once been the Armenian quarters. People showed me Christian Churches. These were the Churches of the Armenians. People raked over dung heaps and bones and decomposed bodies appeared.
These are the bodies of Armenians, people told me. These are such awful realizations that one is never able to forget them and they evoke the same wish with everyone: God preserve every one of us for this barbarity and for the religious hatred of Muslims!
But a Prior of the Franciscan monks, a simple old priest, who undoubtedly stood on the side of the Christians, shook his head, when I started to curse the Turks. “You are mistaken”, he said, “the Turks are not the only ones to blame.
Yes, someone who comes from Europe and who wishes to judge Asia with a European understanding will [undoubtedly] condemn the crime of the extermination of this people. But it is not the entire truth that you have seen and heard. You ought to look upon these things through Asian eyes and have understanding for the fact that here two peoples have been going to battle with a hatred and bitterness that are centuries old. One has two mentalities here, the Turkish and the Armenian and both mentalities were saying that one of them had to go down. Everything was arraigned against them and they were made to suffer defeat. But are you convinced of it that the Armenians, under the same circumstances, would not have done or in fact did exactly the same!?
I have my reports from missions, sent forth by my order in Beyazit, Van, Erzurum, Erzincan; from the reports I know that in 1915 when the war with Russia started, it was the Armenians who, behind the Turkish Army, were fanning the revolution and who were depopulating Turkish villages and settlements and razed them to the ground. The subsequent events that happened in Turkey afterwards were only the consequences of this first hostile attitude of the Armenians. I admit that horrible things have happened and that never before so much blood was spilt. But the Armenians were not [exactly] innocent in how this bloodbath came about. And when the Turks went further than they had to, then the blame for that does not solely lie with the Turks, but with the mentality of Asia, where the hatred for a people runs deeper than with the European peoples and where war assumes beastly shapes.” Just look at Trabzon, for instance. You have seen the burned down Armenian quarters, but did you also see the burned down Turkish quarters? Did you happen to pay attention to the graves of the Turkish population that were still fresh? No! You can see that when the Armenians found themselves in the same position as the Turks, when they advanced victoriously under the protection of the Russian Army, the same spectacle occurred as in the year of 1915, but that time it was the Turks who got it in the neck. Wherever the Armenians found a Turk he was mercilessly hacked down, wherever they saw a Turkish Mosque it was plundered and set on fire. Turkish quarters went up in smoke and flames just like the Armenian quarters. You are presently about to travel round the country and you will still be able to follow in the footsteps of war: Bayburt, Erzincan, Erzurum, and Kars. You will still see smoldering heaps of rubble; you will still smell blood and corpses, but it so happens that these were Turkish corpses.” The Franciscan Father only told the truth. For months I traveled all across Armenia and Kurdistan and I found confirmation of what people had been telling me.
After the withdrawal of the Russian Army, which followed after the Russian peace, the troops of the so-called Armenian Army, took over the military operations in the occupied Turkish areas. During the Russian occupation the Russians protected the lives and properties of the Turks. What happened after the withdrawal of the Russians is heart rendering. The smallest Turkish settlements were killed down to the last man by the gangs of the Generals Adronits and Murat and Churches were destroyed down to the very last stone. Back then the Armenian expectations were still highly strung. Their plans reached far, encompassed the entire Turkish Empire. And they were hoping that they could settle the score with the old hereditary enemy, down to the last man, the last woman, the last child. I have seen ruins in Erzincan where hundreds of bodies of strangled Turks lay amidst the rubble. I have had light shone down wells that were full of bodies. I have seen with my own eyes that graves were opened in which the bodies of men and women were thrown haphazardly across one another, hundreds of them. Who did this? Those victorious Armenians. These spectacles accompanied me on the distant and long road through Upper-Armenia, Kurdistan right up into Russian-Armenia. And is it a wonder that the Turks, when they in their turn became the victors, exacted revenge, repaid evil with evil? I have to admit that during the Turkish advance to Russian-Armenia the murdering was continued by the Turks. On the other side of the border of the Sarikamish the Armenian settlements, of which there were many, were depopulated with the aid of fire and iron.
The most bitter of racial hatred was raging against the former victors, presently those who were conquered, in a bestial form, a wild country particular to Asia. Our European brains fail to comprehend this unrelenting hatred that sets people against people whipping them into a frenzy in which the worst atrocities are committed. But we should not forget that Upper-Armenia is a country the civilization of which can be compared to the primitive culture of the European peoples.
The peoples there do not form nations, but rather hordes. And just like in the primitive situation of peoples a meeting of two hordes meant the annihilation of one them, thus in the mountains around Great Ararat, people’s minds are still not directed towards coexistence, but rather towards destruction. In the bare mountains of Upper-Armenia there exists no compromise, only a fight to the death. The victor will live all the conquered can do is die. During my stay in Alexandropol (Gümrü) the following happened, which casts a good light on the mentality of the people there. From the direction of the group of mountains, the Alagöz, people one day heard the thunder of canons being fired.
, explained this rumble of canons as that the English were The Armenian population, which lived in fear behind the Turkish front lineadvancing against the Turks. And they were under the conviction that within several hours the Turks would be beaten.
Immediately there arose a rebellion behind the Turkish front line, and the weak Turkish posts in the Armenian villages were tortured to death in an ingenious manner. But the English did not come. A detachment of Kafkas-Armenians had tried to break through the thin Turkish front. Hence the reason for the rumbling canons. And when the fight was over only a couple of hours later there followed the revenge. The villages, in which Turkish soldiers had been murdered, were destroyed.
Can one then say that the Armenians were not to blame? In Alexandropol itself, in a purely Armenian city, where, despite the Turkish occupation, the Armenians quietly continued to do their work, I often came in contact with leading Armenian figures. The were continually living under a terrible fear that one day due to an ill-considered act of Armenian gangs the Turks would take revenge and that they would then be among the first to bear this revenge.
A number of the Armenian people, the best part, were in favor of a peaceful coexistence with the Turks. For it so happened that they were more or less compelled to live together. And in that case only tolerance could put a stop to the murdering. But the greater number of the people and the gangs, the so-called soldiers, did not wish to know of peace. Their slogan was: “Them or us, one will have to go down.”
The men, who preached tolerance and reconciliation, were cursed by the greater part of the Armenian people. People in Armenian circles openly said to me: “At present those Turks are in control. But soon we will be lord and master again and then we will not suffer a single Turk that falls into our hands to live. No agreement is possible between us. We have a score to settle that is centuries old. Our fight is as old as our people. This fight started on the day on which the Turks entered our lands and it will last until the day on which they will be brought down. We do not wish to have reconciliation. Cursed are they who befriend Turks.” Such was the mood in a time in which the Armenians had no hope ever to be freed from the Turks. It looked as if the victorious crescent would be making the whole of Russian-Armenia her own. With this in mind one can judge what happened when the Turks were forced to withdraw and the Turkish settlements once again fell into the hands of the Armenians. A comparison is only possible between civilized peoples.
With the peoples of the wildest [part of] Asia there only exist hatred and destruction. “The Turks are guilty. They have murdered [people].” However, are the Armenians less guilty, who also murdered as soon as they had the power to do so? One can only judge Asia with Asian eyes.
http://mvdg.wordpress.com/2007/11/13/armenian-atrocities-against-muslim-turks-part-ii/
Monday, November 19, 2007
Saga of the Armenian Genocide Dispute
Please find below Bea's last article in Arabisto.Saga of the Armenian Genocide Dispute: Turkey and Armenia at the Crossroads of 1915
November 17, 2007
Let revelations begin, any takers? The pursuit of truth calls on strong moral and ethical values when it comes to gathering both Turkish and Armenian historians, academicians and experts to assess the tender subject of Armenian Genocide. The question remains unclear whether or not the 1915 Armenian Genocide is an undisputed fact or a tr tragic consequence of war claiming up to 1.5 million lives.
Since 2005, the ruling Turkish PM Erdogan and President Gul have offered open archives for scholars or historians willing to partner for the benefit of both countries. As yet, the research alliance has not materialized with any takers. I wonder what leaders will emerge ready to step into this darkness.
Why would anyone not want a partnership to explore the history of the past and heal the wounds of those who suffered? When prejudice prevails among nations, all lose part of their humanity. How can we find peace among nations when cut-off communication tells another story? Healing and understanding together could bridge two peoples who share so much history and offer great business possibilities.
When searching online for credible knowledge about the Armenian Genocide, one must discern fact from fiction and truth from propaganda. Not an easy task and one best left to the experts on each side.
To help in this feat are the Ottoman archives in Turkey, Armenian archives in Yerevan, Armenian Revolutionary Federation and the Armenia Republic Delegation Archives in Boston plus British and American National Archives. This would be a good start for experts to peruse the annals of time.
Continue reading
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Good morning Armenia!!!
Lately, a lot of Turkish columnists and writers placed well written, open-minded and with sincere interest in the Armenian-Turkish conflict, columns in Turkish Daily News.
The last one, yesterday, came out the pen of a Turkish researcher who converted to Christianity.
Here the article:
Rehumanizing Armenians and Turks
Monday, November 12, 2007
Ziya MERAL
You are not alone if you have not heard the word ''rehumanization'' before. Unlike its twin sister ''dehumanization,'' rehumanization is not a popular tool in politics and identity construction. We would rather build identities or pursue political power by stripping the other from their humanity in order to legitimize our superiority over them. We are more inclined to demonize, discredit, and humiliate the other in order to win an argument or establish our ''rights'' over theirs. Rehumanization is restoring the other's dignity and humanity and attributing the other the same rights ''we'' have or demand. Without rehumanization, there can never be reconciliation simply because without accepting each other as human beings and acknowledging the other's voice, we can never expect that the other will hear our pain and concerns and be moved by it to act unselfishly. Dehumanization is plentiful in Armenian-Turkish relations as each side still wages war for the exclusive rights to be heard. That is why debating sides tend to channel their energy only to disprove the other's historical account in order to prove the world how ''immoral'' or ''deceptive'' the other is. Continue reading.
In fact, I expected tons of reactions on all these articles. But nothing. Until yesterday when Hovhannes NIKOGHOSYAN gave his opinion:
An Armenian responds to Birand, others.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Hovhannes NIKOGHOSYAN
Well, Armenian-Turkish relations seem to be the urgent issue in regional politics (in the South Caucasus) and even more urgent than the conflicts in this area. Some people think, and I will rank on a par with them, that within the resolution of this old controversy between two nations – Armenians and Turks – lies the key to other conflicts as to the Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) conflict – I will say for sure.
So, what exact prejudices have been preventing the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations? Here I want to reply to some arguments made by Mr. Birand (brought up in the TDN article on 16.10.2007) and other authors who have some judgments over the above mentioned issue.
At least under two statements by Mr. Mehmet Ali Birand I will sign in with no eye open: "Let's get rid of articles like the 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. Let's convince our Azerbaijani brothers. Azerbaijani brothers should be made to change their mind.” These are the first obstacles for Turkish-Armenian reconciliation. Continue reading
When I finished reading the last article, I thought: 'Is this all?', 'is there nothing more to answer, discuss'? Anyway I hope that in the future there will be a lively dialogue.
The last one, yesterday, came out the pen of a Turkish researcher who converted to Christianity.
Here the article:
Rehumanizing Armenians and Turks
Monday, November 12, 2007
Ziya MERAL
You are not alone if you have not heard the word ''rehumanization'' before. Unlike its twin sister ''dehumanization,'' rehumanization is not a popular tool in politics and identity construction. We would rather build identities or pursue political power by stripping the other from their humanity in order to legitimize our superiority over them. We are more inclined to demonize, discredit, and humiliate the other in order to win an argument or establish our ''rights'' over theirs. Rehumanization is restoring the other's dignity and humanity and attributing the other the same rights ''we'' have or demand. Without rehumanization, there can never be reconciliation simply because without accepting each other as human beings and acknowledging the other's voice, we can never expect that the other will hear our pain and concerns and be moved by it to act unselfishly. Dehumanization is plentiful in Armenian-Turkish relations as each side still wages war for the exclusive rights to be heard. That is why debating sides tend to channel their energy only to disprove the other's historical account in order to prove the world how ''immoral'' or ''deceptive'' the other is. Continue reading.
In fact, I expected tons of reactions on all these articles. But nothing. Until yesterday when Hovhannes NIKOGHOSYAN gave his opinion:
An Armenian responds to Birand, others.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Hovhannes NIKOGHOSYAN
Well, Armenian-Turkish relations seem to be the urgent issue in regional politics (in the South Caucasus) and even more urgent than the conflicts in this area. Some people think, and I will rank on a par with them, that within the resolution of this old controversy between two nations – Armenians and Turks – lies the key to other conflicts as to the Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) conflict – I will say for sure.
So, what exact prejudices have been preventing the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations? Here I want to reply to some arguments made by Mr. Birand (brought up in the TDN article on 16.10.2007) and other authors who have some judgments over the above mentioned issue.
At least under two statements by Mr. Mehmet Ali Birand I will sign in with no eye open: "Let's get rid of articles like the 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. Let's convince our Azerbaijani brothers. Azerbaijani brothers should be made to change their mind.” These are the first obstacles for Turkish-Armenian reconciliation. Continue reading
When I finished reading the last article, I thought: 'Is this all?', 'is there nothing more to answer, discuss'? Anyway I hope that in the future there will be a lively dialogue.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Turks Riots in Brussels and Amsterdam; Attack Armenians & Kurds
Update from Brussels Journal: the list of "sensitive urban areas"--a polite term for entire sections of cities where even police dare not go because of Islamic violence--is growing.
In Amsterdam, an Islamic extremist linked to terrorists via both family ties and friends, walked into a police station and began stabbing a policewoman and a colleague.
Barely saving her life, the policewoman shot Bilal Bijacka. The result? Massive Islamic riots because not only an infidel, but an infidel woman, killed an Islamic male.
His attack came two years after his brother was arrested in a terrorist plot to blow up a passenger airliner. And, Bijacka's friends included Mohammed Bouyeri. Bouyeri, one of the Jihadists in the interlinked web of violence and hatred, ritually murdered a Dutch film maker, Theo van Gogh, in 2004.
As both Brussels and Amsterdam grapple with violent immigrants who literally have taken over portions of their cities and sack, loot and plunder them at will, the rest of the western world may want to reconsider immigration. When police simply dare not enforce laws in entire districts, there is no law except that of blood, violence, hatred, and mob rule.
Here's a classic case of how not to get sympathy for your cause. Turks in both Brussels and Amsterdam have been on a rampage as tensions mount on Turkey's borders.
The current riots follow September's Ramadan riots. Brussels was also engulfed in Ramadan riots in 2006.
Last night (Wednesday evening) heavy rioting erupted in Turkish quarters of Brussels, the capital of Belgium. Buses and trams were attacked. Several cars were torched and shops destroyed. Police forces were unable to restore law and order in the boroughs of Sint-Joost-ten-Node and Schaarbeek where since last Sunday the animosity among Turks is running high. Turkish flags are omnipresent. In some streets the Turkish crescent and star adorns almost every house.
The Turks’ anger was provoked by rising tension with Kurds along the Iraqi-Turkish border and by the debate in the American Congress about the Turkish genocide of the Armenians in 1915. On Sunday night Turkish youths in Sint-Joost destroyed the pub of Peter Petrossian, an ethnic Armenian who had to flee for his life.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
The academic side of the issue
Earlier this week an excellent article appeared on Inside Higher Ed. It focuses on the area where the Turkish side would like to see the debate about whether there actually was an Armenian genocide move to, namely that of historians and academic scholars, not that of parliaments and politicians. The "problem" is, that among scholars there is no longer really a discussion about whether it actually was a genocide:
The full article can be found here.
So many experts in the field say that the debate over genocide is settled, and that credible arguments against the idea of a genocide just don't much exist. The problem, many say, is that the evidence the Turks say doesn't exist does exist, so people have moved on.[...]What's happening now [Andras Riedlmayer, a librarian of Ottoman history at Harvard University] said, outside of those trying to deny what took place, "isn't that the discussion has diminished, but that the discussion is more mature." He said that there is more research going on about how and why the killings took place, and the historical context of the time. He also said that he thought there would be more research in the works on one of "the great undiscussed issues of why successive Turkish governments over recent decades have found it worthwhile to invest so much political capital and energy into promoting that historical narrative," in which it had been "fudging" what really happened."
The full article can be found here.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
An open letter to the Armenian Diaspora
Last weekend I had some time to read some books about Armenia, its Diaspora, genocide claims and so on. And interviews and articles by Halil Berktay and Fethiye Cetin. And started to read My Grandmother by the latter. Both persons have refreshing ideas about the Armenian and Turkish history. Totally different than the empty rhetoric which dominates mainstream Turkish newspapers.
But today, my good friend Mustafa Akyol, wrote an excellent column which you can read below:
An open letter to the Armenian Diaspora
Thursday, October 18, 2007
An open letter to the Armenian Diaspora (Mustafa AKYOL )
If we will start listening to your narrative, that will not be because we are pushed into a corner by the politics of a powerful lobby, but because our hearts are touched by the memoirs of a terrible tragedy.
Mustafa AKYOL
Dear all,
A few days ago a new friend of mine who happens to be an American Armenian played some beautiful songs for me that come from the deepest roots of her ethnic tradition. While I enjoyed the numinous rhythms of that magnetic Armenian music, I realized how similar they were to the tunes of the Turkish classical music that I have grown up hearing. “Despite all the political warfare,” I said to myself, “alas, look how similar we are.” I actually have a similar feeling when I drive along the magnificent mosques and palaces of Istanbul, some of which were built by Armenian architects – men in fez who devoutly worshipped Christ and proudly served the Sultan.
Well, we were the children of the same empire, weren't we? We actually lived side by side as good neighbors for centuries until the modern virus called “nationalism” descended upon us. And then hell broke loose.
Continue reading here.
But today, my good friend Mustafa Akyol, wrote an excellent column which you can read below:
An open letter to the Armenian Diaspora
Thursday, October 18, 2007
An open letter to the Armenian Diaspora (Mustafa AKYOL )
If we will start listening to your narrative, that will not be because we are pushed into a corner by the politics of a powerful lobby, but because our hearts are touched by the memoirs of a terrible tragedy.
Mustafa AKYOL
Dear all,
A few days ago a new friend of mine who happens to be an American Armenian played some beautiful songs for me that come from the deepest roots of her ethnic tradition. While I enjoyed the numinous rhythms of that magnetic Armenian music, I realized how similar they were to the tunes of the Turkish classical music that I have grown up hearing. “Despite all the political warfare,” I said to myself, “alas, look how similar we are.” I actually have a similar feeling when I drive along the magnificent mosques and palaces of Istanbul, some of which were built by Armenian architects – men in fez who devoutly worshipped Christ and proudly served the Sultan.
Well, we were the children of the same empire, weren't we? We actually lived side by side as good neighbors for centuries until the modern virus called “nationalism” descended upon us. And then hell broke loose.
Continue reading here.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Sign of life
I know I have gone MIA since I last posted here (well, uh, that was also my first post here). The reason is that I have had too much on my plate in the past month or six weeks, among them moving to my very own apartment and a good friend ending up in hospital as a result of a car-accident (in Armenia lying in hospital means that your relatives are supposed to stay with you and take care of you. I was part of the care-taking brigade so I spent about three days in hospital). And those are only a few of the things I have been dealing with.
I am trying to juggle a lot of balls and that just does not include writing blog posts at the moment. I think that ball dropped to the floor already a while ago, together with following the news and looking for blog-worthy topics. I will be back, hopefully soon, as things are slowly, slowly falling into their places again and I will be able to find my energy and time back. This is not meant as an excuse, just as an explanation why I seem to have disappeared from the face of the earth.
Editor's note, Hans:
Friends of Myrthe were involved in a traffic accident: one died, two badly injured, and one escaped... This can happen to us; where we live, doesn't matter. Drive safely!
I am trying to juggle a lot of balls and that just does not include writing blog posts at the moment. I think that ball dropped to the floor already a while ago, together with following the news and looking for blog-worthy topics. I will be back, hopefully soon, as things are slowly, slowly falling into their places again and I will be able to find my energy and time back. This is not meant as an excuse, just as an explanation why I seem to have disappeared from the face of the earth.
Editor's note, Hans:
Friends of Myrthe were involved in a traffic accident: one died, two badly injured, and one escaped... This can happen to us; where we live, doesn't matter. Drive safely!
Day Opening - October 10
View near Saghmosavank, Armenia, with Mount Ararat just visible in the background in Turkey.
Monday, September 17, 2007
On the same page...
An interview with the Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul, Mesrob II, read it here.
..and an article about the folksinger İsmail Türüt who is praising in his last song (lyrics by Ozan Arif) the people that killed Dink and Father Andrea Santoro, an Italian priest in the Black Sea region. Read it here.
Interesting to start your day and week with...racism...
Friday, September 07, 2007
Who is she?
Some of you may know about me from my comments on this blog or may have even been reading my blog The Armenian Odar. For those who don't I'll just tell you a bit about me.
Like Hans, I am originally from Holland, and like him, I left my native country and ended up living on the other side of Europe, in Armenia in my case. I moved to Yerevan almost three years ago, after traveling back and forth between Holland and Armenia for over four years.
I guess there's something I like about the country and the people, otherwise I wouldn't have stayed and made my home there. ;-) This doesn't mean that I am not critical about Armenia, its people, its leaders and its Diaspora. There is lots of room for change without the country losing its character and culture. But that's for later posts.
When Hans asked me about my profession to put in the sidebar, I send a text message back: That's a good question: What IS my profession? I work part time at an international IT-company, this is the job that pays the bills and that I would trade in any time for something more interesting and less brain-killing. I work part time at an NGO in Yerevan that works on women's (rights) issues as a program manager, website-administrator and general IT-savvy person around. This is the job that I do because I love it, the people are nice, the work is interesting and I learn things and new skills. Finally, I teach Dutch to private students, which is something I rolled into by accident, but I ended up enjoying teaching. I guess Hans picked the right one (even though I am not a practicing lawyer), as that is the job I like best and that is in the direction of what I really want to do for a living.
When Hans asked me to join him, Vasilli and Yasemin as co-blogger, it wasn't hard to say yes. But at the same time part of me was thinking: "What am I getting myself into?" What with all the problems and the history between Turkey and Armenia. I am sure sensitive subjects or discussions will sooner or later come up, but I am not here to impose my opinions on anyone, let alone spread hatred. I just want to share with you pieces of life in Armenia, the way I see things here and issues that are 'in the news' here. Things like that.
So, I hope you'll enjoy my posts here.
Like Hans, I am originally from Holland, and like him, I left my native country and ended up living on the other side of Europe, in Armenia in my case. I moved to Yerevan almost three years ago, after traveling back and forth between Holland and Armenia for over four years.
I guess there's something I like about the country and the people, otherwise I wouldn't have stayed and made my home there. ;-) This doesn't mean that I am not critical about Armenia, its people, its leaders and its Diaspora. There is lots of room for change without the country losing its character and culture. But that's for later posts.
When Hans asked me about my profession to put in the sidebar, I send a text message back: That's a good question: What IS my profession? I work part time at an international IT-company, this is the job that pays the bills and that I would trade in any time for something more interesting and less brain-killing. I work part time at an NGO in Yerevan that works on women's (rights) issues as a program manager, website-administrator and general IT-savvy person around. This is the job that I do because I love it, the people are nice, the work is interesting and I learn things and new skills. Finally, I teach Dutch to private students, which is something I rolled into by accident, but I ended up enjoying teaching. I guess Hans picked the right one (even though I am not a practicing lawyer), as that is the job I like best and that is in the direction of what I really want to do for a living.
When Hans asked me to join him, Vasilli and Yasemin as co-blogger, it wasn't hard to say yes. But at the same time part of me was thinking: "What am I getting myself into?" What with all the problems and the history between Turkey and Armenia. I am sure sensitive subjects or discussions will sooner or later come up, but I am not here to impose my opinions on anyone, let alone spread hatred. I just want to share with you pieces of life in Armenia, the way I see things here and issues that are 'in the news' here. Things like that.
So, I hope you'll enjoy my posts here.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
The Pan-Armenian games
Yesterday I received an update by email from oneworld.blogsome.com in my inbox.
This blog by a British Armenian journalist and blogger is pretty balanced.
Super Hero already posted yesterday a simple post about the Pan-Armenian games on his blog (with a ridiculous comment quick after his posting).
Before jumping to all kinds of conclusions, maybe it's wise to read this blog. And the comments linked to the posts by Odnik.
No need to comment on Sabah's tendentious news article.
Here is the email and the links.
PAN-ARMENIAN GAMES
Pan-Armenian Games Seek Ethnic Unity Amidst Divisions
EurasiaNet has just published my text and photos from the Pan-Armenian Games held last week in Yerevan. Although the idea of the game in itself is great, serious problems continue to emerge in attempts to unite Armenians through this sporting event.
Moreover, although the spectacular opening and closing ceremonies were well-attended and broadcast live, the sporting events themselves appeared to be considered less important -- especially as Armenia has entered into the unofficial campaign period for the 2008 presidential election.
It should also be noted that attempts to portray the event as symbolic of an Armenia-Diaspora unity that many consider does not exist were very draconian in practice.
For example, many teams such as the Argentinian-Armenian one above brought the national flags of their country of origin to proudly display their dual identities, but security and organizers at the opening ceremony confiscated them instead.
In their defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told myself and another journalist covering the games that the of the rules of the Pan-Armenian Games specifically prohibit the display of any flag other than the Armenian tricolor.
Before they were confiscated, however, I saw teams with Argentinian, Lebanese, Australian, Canadian, Spanish, Georgian, German, English and Greek flags, and other teams apparently had theirs as well.
The full post is here.
Other posts from the games accompanied by photographs can be found at the following posts:
Pan-Armenian Games Finale
Vanadzor vs Tehran
Yerevan vs Athens
Tehran vs Istanbul
Doni Rostov vs Istanbul
Fights Mar Pan-Armenian Games Day 2
Istanbul vs Gyumri
Enjoy.
This blog by a British Armenian journalist and blogger is pretty balanced.
Super Hero already posted yesterday a simple post about the Pan-Armenian games on his blog (with a ridiculous comment quick after his posting).
Before jumping to all kinds of conclusions, maybe it's wise to read this blog. And the comments linked to the posts by Odnik.
No need to comment on Sabah's tendentious news article.
Here is the email and the links.
PAN-ARMENIAN GAMES
Pan-Armenian Games Seek Ethnic Unity Amidst Divisions
EurasiaNet has just published my text and photos from the Pan-Armenian Games held last week in Yerevan. Although the idea of the game in itself is great, serious problems continue to emerge in attempts to unite Armenians through this sporting event.
Moreover, although the spectacular opening and closing ceremonies were well-attended and broadcast live, the sporting events themselves appeared to be considered less important -- especially as Armenia has entered into the unofficial campaign period for the 2008 presidential election.
It should also be noted that attempts to portray the event as symbolic of an Armenia-Diaspora unity that many consider does not exist were very draconian in practice.
For example, many teams such as the Argentinian-Armenian one above brought the national flags of their country of origin to proudly display their dual identities, but security and organizers at the opening ceremony confiscated them instead.
In their defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told myself and another journalist covering the games that the of the rules of the Pan-Armenian Games specifically prohibit the display of any flag other than the Armenian tricolor.
Before they were confiscated, however, I saw teams with Argentinian, Lebanese, Australian, Canadian, Spanish, Georgian, German, English and Greek flags, and other teams apparently had theirs as well.
The full post is here.
Other posts from the games accompanied by photographs can be found at the following posts:
Pan-Armenian Games Finale
Vanadzor vs Tehran
Yerevan vs Athens
Tehran vs Istanbul
Doni Rostov vs Istanbul
Fights Mar Pan-Armenian Games Day 2
Istanbul vs Gyumri
Enjoy.
Sunday, September 02, 2007
World Peace Day is on September 21
...but Djivan Gasparyan from Armenia and the Turkish vocalist Yavuz Bingöl already gave together yesterday (Saturday) a concert in Istanbul and today in Ankara.
Peace starts with performing arts together, sports and later, later, in the end...some politicians will follow.
“We have lived together for so long; we don't need a mediator. We are able to resolve our problems if we want to. The time has come to set fighting aside. We should raise the next generations with brotherhood not with enmity. “Identity and sense of belonging are futile. When I blow into the düdük, I feel a heavenly joy of love, peace, serenity and fraternity running through my cells. Politics and borders are far from my magical world.” (D. Gasparyan)
Here is the article.
Friday, August 31, 2007
The 8 stages of Genocide
There are stages through which the causes and conditions for genocide develop and gradually end in manifest genocide, as developed by Gregory H. Stanton. Assuming that the government is authoritarian or totalitarian, such stages are as follows.
1. Classification: People are typed, categorized, and classified into different groups, such as whites, blacks, Asians; or into Christians and Jews; or into communists, leftists, or rightists.
2. Symbolization: Different groups are given names, such as Chinese, Jews, Hindus, or Marxists." Particular clothes, (like a Turban), food eaten (like rice), physical characteristic (like long noses), or behavior (like inscrutable) may become ways of stereotyping the group's members. Classification and symbolization are common to all societies and while necessary for genocide to occur, do not foretell that it will; or that the next stages will follow.
3. Dehumanization: Members of the out-groups are dehumanized, as in calling them apes, monkeys, cockroaches, parasites, rats, vermin, and the like. In this way, members of the out-group are made to appear clearly outside of "our" moral universe. As vermin and such, members of the out-group have been stripped of the moral in-group protection against extermination.
4. Organization: Officials, sympathetic in-group leaders, and intellectuals organize to repress, murder out-group members, or entirely destroy the dehumanized group. Weapons are stacked or handed out; militia, security forces, or military are selected and trained; preliminary plans are made.
5. Polarization: Officials, extremists, propagandists, or demagogues undertake a systematic campaign to maximize the social, psychological, and moral distance between "us" and "them." In this stage, moderate intellectuals and leaders are silenced either through intimidation, beatings, arrests, and outright assassination.
6. Preparation: All is ready for genocide and the final step is to tag those to be killed. They may be forced to wear identifying clothing, symbols on their clothing, or be segregated in ghettos. Lists of those to be killed may be prepared for killing squads, and the out-group may be systematically deprived by law and weapon roundups of any weapons. Those who might lead the resistance to genocide, such as young males, may be conscripted into the military and segregated for subsequent execution, or simply jailed.
7. Genocide: For whatever motive, the final decision is made to attack and destroy those in the out-group, or to destroy the group as such. It may be justified as a righteous campaign to exterminate vermin or cleanse the society of filth, to recover ancient greatness or save the nation's race, to revenge past wrongs, and so on.
8. Denial: The final stage is the perpetrator's denial of their genocide. They destroy or hide the relevant official evidence, burn bodies, leave unmarked graves, or invent a reasonable rational for the killing ("they were in rebellion," "were killed during the civil war," or "were helpmates to our enemies."). Moreover, the perpetrators may harass those who claim that a genocide occurred. The most coherent and far reaching official denial today is that of the Turkish government that the murder of over a million Armenians during World War I was genocide. According to the Turks, they died as a result of a civil war, an invasion by Russia, and the attempt of the Young Turk government to deport potential and actual hostile Armenians to a different part of the country for their own protection.
1. Classification: People are typed, categorized, and classified into different groups, such as whites, blacks, Asians; or into Christians and Jews; or into communists, leftists, or rightists.
2. Symbolization: Different groups are given names, such as Chinese, Jews, Hindus, or Marxists." Particular clothes, (like a Turban), food eaten (like rice), physical characteristic (like long noses), or behavior (like inscrutable) may become ways of stereotyping the group's members. Classification and symbolization are common to all societies and while necessary for genocide to occur, do not foretell that it will; or that the next stages will follow.
3. Dehumanization: Members of the out-groups are dehumanized, as in calling them apes, monkeys, cockroaches, parasites, rats, vermin, and the like. In this way, members of the out-group are made to appear clearly outside of "our" moral universe. As vermin and such, members of the out-group have been stripped of the moral in-group protection against extermination.
4. Organization: Officials, sympathetic in-group leaders, and intellectuals organize to repress, murder out-group members, or entirely destroy the dehumanized group. Weapons are stacked or handed out; militia, security forces, or military are selected and trained; preliminary plans are made.
5. Polarization: Officials, extremists, propagandists, or demagogues undertake a systematic campaign to maximize the social, psychological, and moral distance between "us" and "them." In this stage, moderate intellectuals and leaders are silenced either through intimidation, beatings, arrests, and outright assassination.
6. Preparation: All is ready for genocide and the final step is to tag those to be killed. They may be forced to wear identifying clothing, symbols on their clothing, or be segregated in ghettos. Lists of those to be killed may be prepared for killing squads, and the out-group may be systematically deprived by law and weapon roundups of any weapons. Those who might lead the resistance to genocide, such as young males, may be conscripted into the military and segregated for subsequent execution, or simply jailed.
7. Genocide: For whatever motive, the final decision is made to attack and destroy those in the out-group, or to destroy the group as such. It may be justified as a righteous campaign to exterminate vermin or cleanse the society of filth, to recover ancient greatness or save the nation's race, to revenge past wrongs, and so on.
8. Denial: The final stage is the perpetrator's denial of their genocide. They destroy or hide the relevant official evidence, burn bodies, leave unmarked graves, or invent a reasonable rational for the killing ("they were in rebellion," "were killed during the civil war," or "were helpmates to our enemies."). Moreover, the perpetrators may harass those who claim that a genocide occurred. The most coherent and far reaching official denial today is that of the Turkish government that the murder of over a million Armenians during World War I was genocide. According to the Turks, they died as a result of a civil war, an invasion by Russia, and the attempt of the Young Turk government to deport potential and actual hostile Armenians to a different part of the country for their own protection.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Professor Erik-Jan Zürcher and Turkey
The Medal of High Distinction award of Turkey was presented to him at the Turkish Embassy in The Hague by Ambassador Tacem Ildem.
Erik-Jan Zurcher has been a Professor in the Netherlands of Turkish languages and cultures since 1987. His book: 'Turkey, a Modern history' is well-known in Turkey.
In 2005, he received the Medal of High Distinction from the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an honor which is rarely awarded.
Hürriyet, Turkish mainstream bourgeois newspaper runs a story about R. Fisk, and are misusing the views of Erik-Jan Zurcher about the Armenian Genocide, suggesting that Prof. Zurcher are on the denial side...
Let's have a look at some extracts, links etc. about Erik-Jan:
"But apologies are not a matter for discussion," says Erik J. Zürcher, professor of Turkish linguistics and literature at the University of Leiden. "It is not realistic to make the present Turkish Republic responsible for the murders of 1915. The Turkish government could, however, express finding the events tragic." This is not to be expected. Turkish pride and fear for an Armenian claim to "Wiedergutmachung" come in the way of normalization.
Here is the article. VPRO is an outstanding TV station in the Netherlands.
"At the same time, the feeling that what had happened should never be allowed to happen again; that Anatolia should not go the way of the Balkans and was in a very real sense the “Turk’s last stand” was certainly instrumental in the decisions to embark on the wholesale extermination of the Armenians and the expulsion of the Greek Orthodox"
Here is the article.
Introducing Taner Akcam professor Erik-Jan Zürcher, professor of Turkish language and culture at the University of Leiden, mentioned that Akcam is one of the scholars, who presents “the state of the art” in his field of research. He combines in his research Armenian scientific publications, documents from Ottoman archives and Turkish Military Tribunal of 1919 as well as documents found in the German archives. After Akcam’s speech many Turks stood up to protest rather than ask questions, but Akcam peacefully and effectively managed to give clear response and at the same time tried to pacify the Turks by repeating the statement: “we have to learn to talk”.
Answering a question about the Turkish proposal to Armenia to form a joint commission of Turkish and Armenian historians, professor Zürcher said that a dialogue is necessary, but that the proposal is not as innocent as it seems, because of the conditions put forward by Turkey. Turkey wants the historians to be appointed by the governments and also all political discussion on historical subjects to be suspended during the work of the commission. It should not come as a surprise that Armenia cannot accept the proposal under such conditions.
Here is the article.
I agree with the research of Erik-Jan in contesting misconceptions and prejudices about Turkey. But Hürriyet did a lousy job: Professor Zurcher endorsed the Armenian Genocide claim. But he encouraged in his books, interviews, and seminars etc. reconciliation.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Speech of Ataturk - January 27 - 1920
At the session of the Istanbul military Mustafa Kemal stated the following about the Young Turks:
“Those pashas committed unprecedented, unspeakable and incomprehensible crimes and for their personal interest they brought the country to its present state. They have committed all kinds of violence, they have organized deportations and massacres, they have burnt infants with petroleum, they have raped women and girls in front of their husbands and parents, they have stolen children from their parents, they have confiscated the real estate and property of Armenians, they have exiled Armenians to Mosul in deplorable conditions, they have drowned thousands of innocent people in the sea, they forced people to change their religion, they made starving old men walk for months and work, and they have forced young women to submit to dreadful brothels never encountered in the history of any other nation”.
Source: Britannica, Armenia Genocide Museum, USA Historical archives, and Turkish scholars
“Those pashas committed unprecedented, unspeakable and incomprehensible crimes and for their personal interest they brought the country to its present state. They have committed all kinds of violence, they have organized deportations and massacres, they have burnt infants with petroleum, they have raped women and girls in front of their husbands and parents, they have stolen children from their parents, they have confiscated the real estate and property of Armenians, they have exiled Armenians to Mosul in deplorable conditions, they have drowned thousands of innocent people in the sea, they forced people to change their religion, they made starving old men walk for months and work, and they have forced young women to submit to dreadful brothels never encountered in the history of any other nation”.
Source: Britannica, Armenia Genocide Museum, USA Historical archives, and Turkish scholars
Monday, August 27, 2007
Time to say new things on the ‘genocide’ issue
Time to say new things on the ‘genocide’ issue, by Ömer Taspinar
The Anti Defamation League’s recent decision to acknowledge that the Armenian “massacres” of 1915 were tantamount to “genocide” has created a political storm in Turkey. Seen from Washington, such Turkish resentment is counterproductive. It only confirms the fact that Turkey needs to come to terms with its own history. When you have prominent leaders of the Turkish Jewish community writing letters to the ADL reminding them that the Turkish Jewish community’s well-being is jeopardized, this does not exactly come across as a ringing endorsement of Turkey’s democratic maturity.
What the Turkish body politic and public opinion fail to understand is that the genocide issue is already a lost battle in the West. This battle is lost partly because of Turkey’s own behavior and stern, uncompromising image. The official Turkish narrative on the question of “genocide” displays all the symptoms of an authoritarian state that has created a taboo. The education system, nationalist press and bureaucratic reflex are all symptomatic of a totalitarian way of thinking where even a slight departure from the official line creates mayhem. How else can one explain efforts to undermine academic conferences on this issue, or the disgraceful treatment of Orhan Pamuk by most of the nationalist press after he was awarded the Nobel Prize?
Read the full story here.
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