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Foreign Delegation To Commemorate Armenian Genocide In Istanbul

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  • Foreign Delegation To Commemorate Armenian Genocide In Istanbul

    FOREIGN DELEGATION TO COMMEMORATE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN ISTANBUL

    April 24, 2013 - 14:21 AMT

    PanARMENIAN.Net - On April 24, Turkish people commemorating the 98th
    anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide will be joined for the first
    time by a foreign delegation composed of 20 anti-racist and Armenian
    representatives from 15 countries, Today's Zaman reported.

    "The delegation consists of two main groups; one group is represented
    by people who work in organizations fighting racial discrimination,
    and the other group is from the Armenian diaspora," said Levent
    Å~^ensever from DurDe! (Say Stop to Racism and Nationalism!)

    The organizations include the Armenian General Benevolent Union
    (AGBU) Young Professionals from Bulgaria, the Roma Center in Romania,
    and France's AGBU office. There are also representatives from the
    Netherlands, Czech Republic, Italy, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina
    fighting against racism.

    The delegation came together this week with representatives from
    Turkish civil society organizations in Istanbul, including the
    Association of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed Peoples
    (MAZLUM-DER), the Hrant Dink Foundation and the Human Rights
    Association (Ä°HD).

    "It is historic for the delegation to commemorate April 24 in
    Istanbul. It was unthinkable 10 years ago," said Benjamin Abtan,
    president of the European Grassroots Antiracist Movement (EGAM),
    which was created two years ago to combat racism and anti-Semitism.

    The first commemoration ceremony in recent years was held in 2010 in
    Taksim Square, in İzmir and in Diyarbakır. This year a commemoration
    is planned in Ä°zmir and Adana.

    The Ä°HD will mark April 24 at 12:30 p.m. at the Sultanahmet Museum
    of Turkish and Islamic Arts, which was a prison in 1915 when prominent
    Armenian figures were held before they were imprisoned and then killed.

    Following the commemoration at Sultanahmet, the group will visit the
    grave of Sevag Balıkcı, a young man of Armenian descent who was
    killed on April 24, 2011 while serving in the Turkish Armed Forces
    (TSK) as a conscripted private. His death is believed to be a hate
    crime committed because of the victim's ethnic background.

    Ragip Zarakolu, Turkish human rights activist, publisher and one
    of the founders of the Ä°HD in Turkey, said that the first April 24
    commemoration was held in Ä°stanbul in and that commemorations were
    held until 1922.

    "It is significant that the April 24 commemoration is returning to
    Istanbul," he said.

    Answering questions from Today's Zaman, Zarakolu said that Turkey
    has been having its own "spring" in the 2000s despite its problems.

    "Turkey has been going through a period of detachment from the official
    paradigm for the first time. This official paradigm is Kemalism. Having
    this detachment will increase respect for all the good things that
    the founder of the Turkish Republic [in 1923] Kemal Ataturk did for
    the country. But instead he was made a cult. Turkey cannot go forward
    with the values of the Committee of Union and Progress [Ä°ttihat ve
    Terakki Cemiyeti (CUP), popularly known as the Young Turks] of 100
    years ago," he said.

    http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/155623/Foreign_delegation_to_commemorate_Armenian_Genocid e_in_Istanbul



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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