Month: May 2015

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Professor: Reparations Are a Human Rights Issue

By Kimberly Brothers-Caisse
Worcester State University

Armenian Genocide Memorial ComplexThe Armenian Genocide memorial complex on the hill of Tsitsernakaberd in Yerevan, Armenia.
Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex
The Armenian Genocide memorial complex on the hill of Tsitsernakaberd in Yerevan, Armenia.

After 100 years of denial, Philosophy Professor Henry Theriault hopes the release of the Armenian Genocide Reparations Study Group’s final report marks a turning point for Turkey to finally take responsibility for the atrocity.

This is the first time a comprehensive report on the Armenian Genocide has been published with detailed reparations and parallels to other human-rights struggles, notes Theriault, the chair of the expert panel convened in 2007 for the project, which was funded initially by a grant from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun. The report was a response to advocates asking scholars to “make concrete proposals based on academic points” for policy makers.

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Armenian Church Leader Speaks on Suit to Reclaim Seized Property

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.

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Theriault: 2015 and Beyond

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)

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Socialist Youth World Council, Hosted by AYF, Calls for Genocide Reparations

IUSY delegates paying their respects at the Armenian Genocide Memorial at Dzidernagapert. (Photo: Patil Aslanian)
IUSY delegates paying their respects at the Armenian Genocide Memorial at Dzidernagapert. (Photo: Patil Aslanian)

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.

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Armenians refocus on reparations after genocide anniversary

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.

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