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Berlin Mosque Honors Genocide Perpetrators
An interview with Dr. Tessa Hofmann
The below interview with Dr. Tessa Hofmann was conducted by Hamo
Moskofian for Keghart.com on October 2, 2012 in Berlin. Dr. Hofmann
is a long-time scholar of Genocide.
HM.- You recently published an important book that was presented in Greece.
TH.- It is the first academic collective mo - - nograph in English
dealing with the Genocide of the Ottoman Greeks. I had always felt,
when I began to study the Armenian Genocide 40 years ago, that it was
the tip of the iceberg, that the real dimension of this state crime
was much larger than against the 2.5 million Armenians of the Ottoman
Empire. It was a genocide against the Christian nationals of the
Ottoman Empire. This holistic approach is necessary to understand that
the Young Turk perpetrators of the Genocide of the Armenians, their
Kemalist successors, and the serial perpetrators committed this crime
to rid the Ottoman Empire of a quarter of its population, every
resident who was Christian. Now the percentage of the Christian
population in Turkey is less than one percent! The Greek-Orthodox
community has 1,200 members only. The Armenian community is the
largest, with 40,000 to 60, 000. So what the Young Turk perpetrators
planned after the revolution of 1908 materialized in the extermination
of the Christians in their second homeland in the Middle East, after
Palestine which is the first homeland of Christianity.
HM.- What are your plans regarding further academic studies and in
publishing books in various languages?
TH.- Besides Genocide studies, I have done related Armenian studies,
including migration studies. It was conducted in an international
research project, which took place in Armenia, Russia and Georgia. It
was a comparative research about migration from Armenia and
neighboring Georgia. This is an urgent issue...the loss of people and
why?
Second, I published in Armenia a long essay on identity. The Armenian
identity is unique and diversified, depending where Armenians are
living and to which generation they belong to. The Armenian identity
in the U.S or France differs from that of Armenians in Moscow, Turkey,
Syria and Lebanon. Of course, it differs from the identity of
Hayasdantsiner, Karabaghtsiner also. I did research on the Armenian
identity. Usually there are five and are differently focused in
different communities: religion, language, Genocide awareness,
culture. In Turkey we have a slightly different, but unique, picture.
Third, I certainly will continue my studies in philology and in
migration issues.
Regarding the Genocide, I am focusing on four groups of participants,
plus the cult of the perpetrators which is acute in Turkey. Imagine,
for comparison, in Germany the main street would be named after Hitler
or Goebbels; or the churches be named after Holocaust perpetrators. In
Ankara a mosque is named after Tal'aat Pasha. Likewise schools and
kindergartens. There's a regional and nationwide cult of Genocide
perpetrators in Turkey. In the Turkish diaspora, in Berlin for
example, you can visit the `Shehidlik Jami' (Martyrs' Mosque), where
two of the Genocide perpetrators--Jemal Azmi and Dr. Behaedin
Shakir--are buried. The Turkish community, with the support of a
Berlin Azeri organization `donated' richly-decorated tombs with marble
and golden inscriptions in three languages which say: `Here are the
martyrs ('shehids') that the Armenian terrorists shot'. They present
these Genocide criminals as martyrs killed by Armenian `criminals'.
Berlin authorities have not responded to complaints about the Turkish
glorification of these mass murderers. The authorities have told
journalists that the mosque is extraterritorial land, like an embassy!
This is the background to the situation: Long ago the Prussians gave
the land, as a gift, to the Ottomans. We have no way of stopping the
cult of these two mass murderers. We don't have a memorial for the
Christian victims of the Ottoman Genocide. We are working on it, but
it seems it is much easier in Berlin to build a memorial for the
Genocide perpetrators.
A second focus will be on the "Oscar Schindlers of the Ottoman
Genocide"-- civilians or administrators, who tried to save victims,
sometimes, successfully. Their names must be commemorated as the true
heroes of Ottoman history...so as to give positive role models for
young people in Turkey and outside.
http://www.keghart.com/Moskofian-Hofmann
An interview with Dr. Tessa Hofmann
The below interview with Dr. Tessa Hofmann was conducted by Hamo
Moskofian for Keghart.com on October 2, 2012 in Berlin. Dr. Hofmann
is a long-time scholar of Genocide.
HM.- You recently published an important book that was presented in Greece.
TH.- It is the first academic collective mo - - nograph in English
dealing with the Genocide of the Ottoman Greeks. I had always felt,
when I began to study the Armenian Genocide 40 years ago, that it was
the tip of the iceberg, that the real dimension of this state crime
was much larger than against the 2.5 million Armenians of the Ottoman
Empire. It was a genocide against the Christian nationals of the
Ottoman Empire. This holistic approach is necessary to understand that
the Young Turk perpetrators of the Genocide of the Armenians, their
Kemalist successors, and the serial perpetrators committed this crime
to rid the Ottoman Empire of a quarter of its population, every
resident who was Christian. Now the percentage of the Christian
population in Turkey is less than one percent! The Greek-Orthodox
community has 1,200 members only. The Armenian community is the
largest, with 40,000 to 60, 000. So what the Young Turk perpetrators
planned after the revolution of 1908 materialized in the extermination
of the Christians in their second homeland in the Middle East, after
Palestine which is the first homeland of Christianity.
HM.- What are your plans regarding further academic studies and in
publishing books in various languages?
TH.- Besides Genocide studies, I have done related Armenian studies,
including migration studies. It was conducted in an international
research project, which took place in Armenia, Russia and Georgia. It
was a comparative research about migration from Armenia and
neighboring Georgia. This is an urgent issue...the loss of people and
why?
Second, I published in Armenia a long essay on identity. The Armenian
identity is unique and diversified, depending where Armenians are
living and to which generation they belong to. The Armenian identity
in the U.S or France differs from that of Armenians in Moscow, Turkey,
Syria and Lebanon. Of course, it differs from the identity of
Hayasdantsiner, Karabaghtsiner also. I did research on the Armenian
identity. Usually there are five and are differently focused in
different communities: religion, language, Genocide awareness,
culture. In Turkey we have a slightly different, but unique, picture.
Third, I certainly will continue my studies in philology and in
migration issues.
Regarding the Genocide, I am focusing on four groups of participants,
plus the cult of the perpetrators which is acute in Turkey. Imagine,
for comparison, in Germany the main street would be named after Hitler
or Goebbels; or the churches be named after Holocaust perpetrators. In
Ankara a mosque is named after Tal'aat Pasha. Likewise schools and
kindergartens. There's a regional and nationwide cult of Genocide
perpetrators in Turkey. In the Turkish diaspora, in Berlin for
example, you can visit the `Shehidlik Jami' (Martyrs' Mosque), where
two of the Genocide perpetrators--Jemal Azmi and Dr. Behaedin
Shakir--are buried. The Turkish community, with the support of a
Berlin Azeri organization `donated' richly-decorated tombs with marble
and golden inscriptions in three languages which say: `Here are the
martyrs ('shehids') that the Armenian terrorists shot'. They present
these Genocide criminals as martyrs killed by Armenian `criminals'.
Berlin authorities have not responded to complaints about the Turkish
glorification of these mass murderers. The authorities have told
journalists that the mosque is extraterritorial land, like an embassy!
This is the background to the situation: Long ago the Prussians gave
the land, as a gift, to the Ottomans. We have no way of stopping the
cult of these two mass murderers. We don't have a memorial for the
Christian victims of the Ottoman Genocide. We are working on it, but
it seems it is much easier in Berlin to build a memorial for the
Genocide perpetrators.
A second focus will be on the "Oscar Schindlers of the Ottoman
Genocide"-- civilians or administrators, who tried to save victims,
sometimes, successfully. Their names must be commemorated as the true
heroes of Ottoman history...so as to give positive role models for
young people in Turkey and outside.
http://www.keghart.com/Moskofian-Hofmann