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"24 APRIL 1915 EVENTS" DEBATED BY ARMENIAN AND TURKISH INTELLECTULAS
BÄA, Turkey
April 28 2008
"What happened on April 24, 1915?". Ara Sarafian of the Gomidas
Institute, debates with Turkish colleagues Keskin, Aydın and
Zarakolu. It's high time to face the past, intellectuals urge.
Speaking at the panel "What happened on April 24, 1915?", organized
by the Human Rights Association (Ä°HD), Ara Sarafian, a historian at
the Gomidas Institute, who specializes in the late Ottoman period,
told that "April 24 was the political act of the Committee of the
Union and Progress. April 24 opened the way for the liquidation of
the Armenians in Anatolia."
The publisher Ragıp Zarakolu, the lawyer Eren Keskin and the writer
Erdogan Aydın participated in the panel held at İstanbul Bilgi
University yesterday. While more than three hundred people watched
the panel, there were many police officers around the university.
April 24 stands for the few days in 1915, during which 220 Armenian
intellectuals in Istanbul were arrested and today this day is
acknowledged as the "genocide commemoration day" by all the Armenians
around the world.
"The same mentality persists"
Giving the opening speech, the IHD branch president Gulseren Yoleri
stated that the genocide claims were still neither discussed nor
accepted and the same was the case regarding the Kurdish problem.
"They could not live in their own land, nor die in it. They made
enemies out of Kurds, Turks, Armenians, Greeks, the neighbors."
Stating "the mentality of the Committee of the Union and Progress
continues", Keskin added that "If we do not discuss the Committee
of the Union and Progress, the Special Organization (TeÅ~_kilat-i
Mahsusa), Å~^emdinli incident, 6-7 September pogrom of 1955 against
Greeks in Turkey and the latest Ergenekon incident, we will not get
very far."
"We have failed to come to terms" Saying "I think that there is a
generation that represents an enlightened conscience, like the hundreds
of thousands who walked behind Hrant", Aydın likewise added that
"Since we did not come to the terms with what Armenians, Assyrians,
Syrians went through, the Kurdish problem, the May First celebrations,
the Alevi problems persist as individual paranoids."
Zarakolu also stated "April 24 also forms a model for the arrests of
the intellectuals."
"There is a visible and an invisible state: there is the Special
Organization and the Ottoman civil servant who could not adjust to
this new method."
Reading an article Hrant Dink wrote about April 24, Zarakolu added that
"This society can emphatize, provided that nobody overshadows it."
Sarafian: There were 2 million Armenians in 1913
Sarafian talked about the historical documents regarding the genocide
claims.
"According to the 1913 census of the Istanbul patriarchate, there
were 2 million Armenians within the borders of the Ottoman Empire. The
great majority of Armenians lived in the country with Turks and Kurds,
intermingling with Muslims. Most Armenians lived in Istanbul and in
the East. Those Armenians not in the war zone were exiled as well."
"40 thousand Armenians lived in Harput, divided into 50 settlement
regions. Not a single village was left after 1915. Harput plain was
not a war zone. The local Armenians were very passive and they could
do nothing against genocide."
"On April 24, 1915, Armenians from various professions in Istanbul
such as intellectuals, politicians, artists, and teachers were
sent to AyaÅ~_ and Cankırı. In AyaÅ~_, 55 out of 70 people were
slained. About the fate of the 150 Armenians who were sent to
Cankırı, no definite information has been discovered.
--Boundary_(ID_tFDkWtReBxfz/nQvyuZ0dw )--
BÄA, Turkey
April 28 2008
"What happened on April 24, 1915?". Ara Sarafian of the Gomidas
Institute, debates with Turkish colleagues Keskin, Aydın and
Zarakolu. It's high time to face the past, intellectuals urge.
Speaking at the panel "What happened on April 24, 1915?", organized
by the Human Rights Association (Ä°HD), Ara Sarafian, a historian at
the Gomidas Institute, who specializes in the late Ottoman period,
told that "April 24 was the political act of the Committee of the
Union and Progress. April 24 opened the way for the liquidation of
the Armenians in Anatolia."
The publisher Ragıp Zarakolu, the lawyer Eren Keskin and the writer
Erdogan Aydın participated in the panel held at İstanbul Bilgi
University yesterday. While more than three hundred people watched
the panel, there were many police officers around the university.
April 24 stands for the few days in 1915, during which 220 Armenian
intellectuals in Istanbul were arrested and today this day is
acknowledged as the "genocide commemoration day" by all the Armenians
around the world.
"The same mentality persists"
Giving the opening speech, the IHD branch president Gulseren Yoleri
stated that the genocide claims were still neither discussed nor
accepted and the same was the case regarding the Kurdish problem.
"They could not live in their own land, nor die in it. They made
enemies out of Kurds, Turks, Armenians, Greeks, the neighbors."
Stating "the mentality of the Committee of the Union and Progress
continues", Keskin added that "If we do not discuss the Committee
of the Union and Progress, the Special Organization (TeÅ~_kilat-i
Mahsusa), Å~^emdinli incident, 6-7 September pogrom of 1955 against
Greeks in Turkey and the latest Ergenekon incident, we will not get
very far."
"We have failed to come to terms" Saying "I think that there is a
generation that represents an enlightened conscience, like the hundreds
of thousands who walked behind Hrant", Aydın likewise added that
"Since we did not come to the terms with what Armenians, Assyrians,
Syrians went through, the Kurdish problem, the May First celebrations,
the Alevi problems persist as individual paranoids."
Zarakolu also stated "April 24 also forms a model for the arrests of
the intellectuals."
"There is a visible and an invisible state: there is the Special
Organization and the Ottoman civil servant who could not adjust to
this new method."
Reading an article Hrant Dink wrote about April 24, Zarakolu added that
"This society can emphatize, provided that nobody overshadows it."
Sarafian: There were 2 million Armenians in 1913
Sarafian talked about the historical documents regarding the genocide
claims.
"According to the 1913 census of the Istanbul patriarchate, there
were 2 million Armenians within the borders of the Ottoman Empire. The
great majority of Armenians lived in the country with Turks and Kurds,
intermingling with Muslims. Most Armenians lived in Istanbul and in
the East. Those Armenians not in the war zone were exiled as well."
"40 thousand Armenians lived in Harput, divided into 50 settlement
regions. Not a single village was left after 1915. Harput plain was
not a war zone. The local Armenians were very passive and they could
do nothing against genocide."
"On April 24, 1915, Armenians from various professions in Istanbul
such as intellectuals, politicians, artists, and teachers were
sent to AyaÅ~_ and Cankırı. In AyaÅ~_, 55 out of 70 people were
slained. About the fate of the 150 Armenians who were sent to
Cankırı, no definite information has been discovered.
--Boundary_(ID_tFDkWtReBxfz/nQvyuZ0dw )--