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FOR FIRST TIME,TURKEY WILL LET ARMENIANS HOLD MEMORIAL FOR 1915 VICTIMS
Asyrian international News agency
April 21 2015
By Roy Gutman
McClatchy
Posted 2015-04-21 02:48 GMT
ISTANBUL -- For the first time ever, Turkey will permit Armenians to
hold a religious service this week to commemorate the massacres and
deportations of a century ago, Turkish officials said Monday. Turkey
will even send a senior government official to attend.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu disclosed the gesture as he issued the
second annual statement of condolences for the deaths of "innocent
Ottoman Armenians" in what Armenia and a score of other countries
call a genocide.
Officials said the government moved up the announcement of the service,
scheduled for Friday, after the German government said it would support
a motion in the German parliament to recognize the 1915 deportation
and massacres as a genocide, something the United States, Britain,
Israel and most of the rest of the world have thus far refused to do.
Armenia will mark the centennial of the mass killings this Friday
in Yerevan, its capital, and Armenians living in Istanbul plan an
informal rally in the city's Taksim Square. But a religious service
in the church of the Armenian Patriarch, with a government official
in attendance, is not only a unique event but also another step by
Turkey toward recognition of claims it has long denied.
April 24, 1915, was the date the Ottoman Empire, at war and nearing
collapse, arrested several hundred Armenian political and cultural
figures in Istanbul and deported them to central Anatolia. That
launched a process of arrests, deportations and mass killings that
all but emptied the Anatolian peninsula, today's Turkey, of its
Armenian population and left at least 1 million dead by late 1917,
according to historical records.
"We, the descendants of nations belonging to different ethnic and
religious origins . . . understand what the Armenians feel," Davutoglu
said in his statement. "We remember with respect the innocent Ottoman
Armenians who lost their lives and offer our deep condolence to
their descendants."
It was both "a historical and a humane" duty for Turkey to "stand up
for the memory of the Ottoman Armenians and the Armenian cultural
heritage," he said. With this in mind, he added that the Armenian
Patriarchate would hold a religious ceremony.
Few here expect a positive response from Armenia, where officials are
still furious that Turkey is staging a commemoration of its own on
Friday, the centennial of the failed allied landing at Galipoli. In
January, when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan invited his
Armenian counterpart to attend the Galipoli commemoration, Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan rejected it in an open letter to Erdogan that
accused him of continuing Turkey's "traditional policy of denialism"
surrounding the Armenian genocide.
Earlier this month, Erdogan labeled as "nonsense" a statement by Pope
Francis that called the events of 1915 "widely considered the first
genocide of the 20th century."
But Turkey's efforts to continue to fight the genocide label for
the Armenia expulsion may be a losing one. The latest setback was
Germany's decision Monday to declare the 1915 events a genocide.
Germany had been reluctant to use the legal term, partly out of
respect for Turkey, a major trading and NATO ally, and also because
it has been slow to judge other countries in light of its role in
the mass killing of Jews during World War II.
As recently as Sunday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier
had rejected using the word in a television interview.
But Germany is in a unique position to reach its own judgment on the
1915 events in Ottoman Turkey, for the two countries were allies
during World War I. German military and diplomatic officials were
closely monitoring Turkey's actions against Armenians and on more
than one occasion urged a change of policy.
MCclatchy special correspondent Duygu Guvenc contributed from Ankara.
http://www.aina.org/news/20150420224823.htm
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Asyrian international News agency
April 21 2015
By Roy Gutman
McClatchy
Posted 2015-04-21 02:48 GMT
ISTANBUL -- For the first time ever, Turkey will permit Armenians to
hold a religious service this week to commemorate the massacres and
deportations of a century ago, Turkish officials said Monday. Turkey
will even send a senior government official to attend.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu disclosed the gesture as he issued the
second annual statement of condolences for the deaths of "innocent
Ottoman Armenians" in what Armenia and a score of other countries
call a genocide.
Officials said the government moved up the announcement of the service,
scheduled for Friday, after the German government said it would support
a motion in the German parliament to recognize the 1915 deportation
and massacres as a genocide, something the United States, Britain,
Israel and most of the rest of the world have thus far refused to do.
Armenia will mark the centennial of the mass killings this Friday
in Yerevan, its capital, and Armenians living in Istanbul plan an
informal rally in the city's Taksim Square. But a religious service
in the church of the Armenian Patriarch, with a government official
in attendance, is not only a unique event but also another step by
Turkey toward recognition of claims it has long denied.
April 24, 1915, was the date the Ottoman Empire, at war and nearing
collapse, arrested several hundred Armenian political and cultural
figures in Istanbul and deported them to central Anatolia. That
launched a process of arrests, deportations and mass killings that
all but emptied the Anatolian peninsula, today's Turkey, of its
Armenian population and left at least 1 million dead by late 1917,
according to historical records.
"We, the descendants of nations belonging to different ethnic and
religious origins . . . understand what the Armenians feel," Davutoglu
said in his statement. "We remember with respect the innocent Ottoman
Armenians who lost their lives and offer our deep condolence to
their descendants."
It was both "a historical and a humane" duty for Turkey to "stand up
for the memory of the Ottoman Armenians and the Armenian cultural
heritage," he said. With this in mind, he added that the Armenian
Patriarchate would hold a religious ceremony.
Few here expect a positive response from Armenia, where officials are
still furious that Turkey is staging a commemoration of its own on
Friday, the centennial of the failed allied landing at Galipoli. In
January, when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan invited his
Armenian counterpart to attend the Galipoli commemoration, Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan rejected it in an open letter to Erdogan that
accused him of continuing Turkey's "traditional policy of denialism"
surrounding the Armenian genocide.
Earlier this month, Erdogan labeled as "nonsense" a statement by Pope
Francis that called the events of 1915 "widely considered the first
genocide of the 20th century."
But Turkey's efforts to continue to fight the genocide label for
the Armenia expulsion may be a losing one. The latest setback was
Germany's decision Monday to declare the 1915 events a genocide.
Germany had been reluctant to use the legal term, partly out of
respect for Turkey, a major trading and NATO ally, and also because
it has been slow to judge other countries in light of its role in
the mass killing of Jews during World War II.
As recently as Sunday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier
had rejected using the word in a television interview.
But Germany is in a unique position to reach its own judgment on the
1915 events in Ottoman Turkey, for the two countries were allies
during World War I. German military and diplomatic officials were
closely monitoring Turkey's actions against Armenians and on more
than one occasion urged a change of policy.
MCclatchy special correspondent Duygu Guvenc contributed from Ankara.
http://www.aina.org/news/20150420224823.htm
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress