Armenian Genocide Reparations Study Group
RESOLUTION WITH JUSTICE – Reparations for the Armenian Genocide
The Twelfth Conference of the International Association of Genocide Scholars took place in Yerevan between July 8 and 12, 2015. The theme of our Twelfth Conference was entitled Comparative Analysis of 20th Century Genocides. On July 12, one concurrent session discussed the “Armenian Genocide Reparations Issue.” Edita Gzoyan, Henry Theriault and Tamar Ankeshian presented papers. These are their papers’ abstracts:
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RIGA, Latvia (Rupen Janbazian / ARMENIAN WEEKLY)—On May 30, Young European Socialists (YES) adopted a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide, condemning Turkey’s denial of the crime, and calling on Turkey to begin a process of reparations for the genocide.
The motion was introduced by representatives of the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) and France’s Young Socialists Movement (MJS) at the YES bureau meeting, which took place May 29-30 in Riga. The meeting was attended by representatives of all full-member organizations, including Aren Kerteshian (France) on behalf of the AYF.
By RICK GLADSTONE
The New York Times
A lawsuit in Turkey filed by the Armenian Church to recover its ancient headquarters, seized a century ago during the Armenian genocide, is the “first legal step” of a goal to reclaim all Armenian property seized by the Turks, a worldwide leader of the church said Monday.
The leader, Aram I, Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia, also said that if the Turkish legal authorities rejected the lawsuit, it would “deepen the divide” between Turkey and the 10-million-member Armenian diaspora.
Aram I spoke in an interview at The New York Times while on a visit to diaspora communities in the Northeast after having participated in genocide centennial events in Washington.
The Armenian Weekly Magazine
April 2015: A Century of Resistance
This paper is an expansion of remarks given by the author at McGill University and the University of Toronto on March 18 and 20, 2015, respectively.
There is an oft-repeated false truism about genocide, that denial is the final stage of genocide. It is so unquestionably accepted that it has even made its way into formal stage-theories of genocide. It is, unfortunately, quite wrong. Denial is not the final stage of genocide, but rather present throughout most of the genocidal process. When they are doing it, perpetrators almost inevitably deny that what they are doing is genocide. For instance, Talaat and his cronies were adamant that their violence against Armenians was not one-sided mass extermination, but instead a response to Armenian rebellion and violent perfidy in Van and elsewhere. They maintained that the deportations were intended to move Armenians to other areas of the empire, not a means of destroying the Armenian population of village after village, town after town.
The sky above the Armenian Cemetery of Diyarbakir (Photo: Scout Tufankjian)
YEREVAN—The International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) World Council unanimously passed a resolution on the Armenian Genocide Centennial, demanding reparations for the crime, condemning its denial and vowing to educate IUSY member organizations about the crime worldwide. The World Council, which took place in Yerevan and was hosted by the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) of Armenia, adopted the resolution on May 9.
YEREVAN (Armenpress) — A prominent Armenian political analyst, Ara Papian, has called for the creation of a governmental body for the development of a legal portfolio of Armenian reparation demands from Turkey. The body, Papian says, should be given the authority to invite experienced specialists of international law from around the world.
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Author Kadri Gursel
TranslatorTimur Göksel
Al-Monitor
Every year on April 24, the day commonly accepted as the beginning of the Armenian genocide, Ankara vehemently refuses to recognize the 1915 massacre and deportation of Ottoman Armenians living in Anatolia as genocide, and focuses on Washington and whether the US president will use the word “genocide” in his April 24 message. As this year was the centennial of the Armenian genocide, Ankara and the Armenian diaspora as well as Yerevan paid special attention to the matter. The general expectation was that even though it is the centennial, President Barack Obama would not want to damage bilateral ties with Turkey. This is in fact what happened, and Obama did not say the word.
Ned Whalley
The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Tashnag leader MP Hagop Pakradounian characterized the centenary of the Armenian genocide as both a memorial service and a call for justice, saying Armenians would never surrender to the ongoing assault on their presence in the region.
“The mere fact that the Armenians are [still] present, that we are still talking about the Armenian question, that we are exerting pressure, that we are remembering and demanding, it means that the Turks couldn’t succeed in their plans.”
Pakradounian said remembrance is particularly important to the Armenians in Lebanon, “because the diaspora is constituted of those who were subject to the genocide. My grandfather was killed in 1915. It’s very logical that I will have this grievance more, and this ‘fight against Turkey’ more, so I can take back my rights.”
By RICK GLADSTONE
The New York Times
Behind the Turkish government’s denials of the century-old Armenian genocide lurks the possibility that survivors and their descendants could be deemed legally entitled someday to financial reparations, perhaps worth tens of billions of dollars or more.
The Turkish authorities take the position that there is nothing that needs to be repaid. Moreover, no judicial mechanism exists in which claims of such magnitude, from events 100 years ago, could be litigated. But Armenian activists have nonetheless increasingly focused on the issue of compensation in recent years.
THE HAGUE – On 5, 6 and 7 March 2015, 22 experts gathered for a conference at The Hague Institute for Global Justice to look at the legacy of the Armenian Genocide from the perspective of law, humanities, media, arts and letters, politics and education. Speakers focused on the influence that the Genocide and its denial have had on research and practice in their disciplines. The conference was organized by Alexis Demirdjian (Centennial Project Foundation), the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (NIOD) and the University of Southern California Institute of Armenian Studies (USC IAS).
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