Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

ISTANBUL: Turks in Istanbul commemorate 1915 killings of Armenians

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • ISTANBUL: Turks in Istanbul commemorate 1915 killings of Armenians

    Hurriyet, Turkey
    April 24 2010

    Turks in Istanbul commemorate 1915 killings of Armenians

    Saturday, April 24, 2010
    ISTANBUL ' Agence France-Presse


    Human rights activists and artists in Istanbul commemorated the
    1915-17 killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks for the first time
    Saturday, breaking with a near century-old Turkish taboo.

    The Istanbul branch of the Human Rights Association, or Ä°HD, organized
    a rally attended by about 100 people on the steps of the HaydarpaÅ?a
    train station from where the first convoy of 220 deported Armenians
    left on April 24, 1915.

    Under the slogan "Never Again" and the watchful eye of the police,
    demonstrators carried black and white photos of some of the deportees,
    most of whom never returned.

    Police kept at bay a group of counter-demonstrators including former
    diplomats waving the Turkish flag.

    Forty-two Turkish diplomats were killed by members of the extremist
    Armenian ASALA organization in the 1970s and 1980s.

    Turkish intellectuals and artists signed a petition calling on "those
    who feel the great pain" to show their sorrow.

    Avoiding an open confrontation over the term genocide 'which the
    Turkish government fiercely rejects ' the petition speaks of the
    "Great Catastrophe" of the 1915-17 massacres.

    But despite this precaution, organizers were afraid of a backlash from
    those who could object to the demonstration.

    "All precautionary measures have been taken but it's always possible
    that someone is losing it," Cengiz Aktar, an Istanbul academic who
    backs the petition, told AFP.

    The unprecedented commemoration came as tens of thousands of Armenians
    marked the 95th anniversary of the killings in the Armenian capital
    Yerevan amid fresh tensions with Turkey over the collapse of
    reconciliation efforts.

    The dispute about the genocide label has poisoned relations between
    the two neighbors for decades.

    Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were systematically
    killed between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of
    modern Turkey, was falling apart. Turkey says many were killed on both
    sides during civil strife.
Working...
X