April 24th marked the 95th commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, the systematic annihilation of more than 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman-era Turkish authorities. On March 4, 2010, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs voted in favor of Resolution 252 to recognize the Genocide. The next step is to achieve recognition in the full House of Representatives. The Armenian Genocide, the first of the 20th Century, included massacres, deportations, and death marches where hundreds of thousands were herded into the Syrian Desert to die of thirst and starvation. Without final rites, the remains of these victims lay strewn across the desert in testament to a horrific demise.
Modern-day Turkish authorities sadly have chosen to deny this chapter of Turkish history and have sought every opportunity to discredit the findings of legitimate genocide scholars. Notable scholars and historians who recognize the Armenian Genocide include the International Association of Genocide Scholars and the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity whose opinion is supported by 53 Nobel Laureates. Yet, in the face of all the evidence, Turkey presses on, exporting a legacy of Genocide denial - a legacy ruthlessly enforced within its own borders. In Turkey, anyone who uses the word "genocide" to describe the massacre of the Armenians is subject to criminal punishment under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. The late journalist Hrant Dink was prosecuted under this article, and after being marked as an "enemy of the state," was slain in 2007 by a 17-year old Turkish nationalist. In 2005, Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's first Nobel Laureate, was charged with the crime of insulting Turkishness, because he too made mere reference to the Armenian Genocide during an interview. Thankfully, an international outcry spared him from full prosecution.
Affirmative denial of the Armenian Genocide - as well as denial of similar aggression directed in the past at millions of Greeks, Assyrians and other religious minorities -- compromises Turkey's ability to tell the positive story of its economic and political progress in recent years. It also reinforces international perceptions that Turkey is still governed by a repressive impulse - one that continues to be directed at those of its peoples who do not comply with a rigid definition of "Turkishness." For years, Turkey has discriminated against its largest ethnic minority by outlawing the Kurdish language, suppressing the Kurdish culture, and officially classifying Kurds as Mountain Turks, or Eastern Turks. Even the religious liberties of Turkey's Muslim majority are subjected to discriminatory state controls.
In Congress, there is significant support for recognizing the Armenian Genocide, but sponsors of a resolution to do just that have been thwarted by Turkey's relentless lobbying campaign. Threatening all manner of retaliation should the resolution pass, Turkey has convinced some members that such action would imperil Turkish-American relations. The United States should be confident enough about the mutual stake both parties have in their relationship to know otherwise. Furthermore, the experience of other nations suggests there is every reason to believe that America's recognition of the Armenian Genocide will ultimately enhance, not damage, its relations with Turkey. The European Parliament and the legislatures of more than twenty countries including Canada, France, Italy, and Russia, have officially recognized the Armenian Genocide. Turkey has not halted its attempts to join the European Union, and its political and economic relationship with each of these countries has only grown since their Genocide recognition.
By speaking candidly to our ally, we can encourage Turkey to face the dark chapters of its past and abandon the destructive ventures of its present, such as the ongoing state-sanctioned discrimination against the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the continued occupation of the Republic of Cyprus and the disenfranchisement of the Kurdish minority. Recognition of the Armenian Genocide can serve as a catalyst in securing Turkey's status as a European democracy worthy of full European Union membership.
I have heard the common refrain: "It's just not a good time." That excuse - and it is only an excuse - can always be trotted out based on one or another issue that may be pending between the United States and Turkey. But that excuse ignores the moral imperative to recognize the Genocide and misunderstands that such recognition will actually enhance Turkish-American relations and advance America's strategic interests.
For the sake of its core values and in true furtherance of its strategic interests, the United States must take a deep breath, look its ally Turkey in the eye, and recognize the tragedy of the Armenian Genocide to be an unambiguous fact of history.
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/quran/009.qmt.html
009.029
YUSUFALI: Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.
PICKTHAL: Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.
SHAKIR: Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Messenger have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.
www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/world/europe/09turkey.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/world/europe/09turkey.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1
Hence the crucial question in this controversy is not the huge loss of life experienced by Ottoman Armenians during World War I, in and of itself, but rather whether the Ottoman regime intentionally sought the deaths that we know to have occurred.
The relocation of most Armenians to the interior of the Ottoman Empire was most likely to have been a badly mismanaged wartime security measure, rather than a premeditated program of extermination and hence genocide.
Many aspects of the relocation support this position:
The large Armenian communities of Constantinople, Smyrna and Aleppo were not relocated and survived the war largely intact.
The relocation experienced much variation that depended on geography and the attitude of local officials. In many places Protestant and Catholic Armenians as well as needed artisans were exempted. No massacres took place in Cilicia, and a substantial part of the exiles sent to Southern Syria and Palestine survived.
It is time to acknowledge that we are dealing with a genuine historical controversy that should be resolved by scholars rather than politicians.
http://www.umd.umich.edu/dept/armenian/facts/genocide.html
Please take the time and read (its not that long) and then tell me if you still think that after 95 year s of review it still needs looking into. It doesn't.
Israel officially condemned the Armenian Genocide as Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin proclaimed on the floor of the Knesset (the Israeli legislature), on April 27, 1994, in answer to the claims of the Turkish Ambassador, that "It was not war. It was most certainly massacre and genocide, something the world must remember
That's the great shame of mankind-- so many genocides.
The artist then went on a tirade and said "as educated people you can understand that what they say happened, never did it is all a lie".
I could have said tell that to my father in-law who used to cry at night even at an elderly age his father murdered his mother forced to give up her children or they die. Taken to a strange country as an orphan at young age to forge his way in the world. Or the photo of a proud man and a petite woman that is in our living room. Tell them it never happened.
It is just a simple thing honor the Armenians as they honor the loss of their loved ones every April 24.
By acknowledging it. Considering the population of Armenians in the US it is a slap in the face not to do so. Would they tell Jewish people the holocaust never happened?
http://www.artistikcosmetics.com/lipsticks.html
Here is the right one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3r35ycecjk
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Quran/016-insulters-islam.htm
When author Salman Rushdie published "The Satanic Verses," a 1988 novel deemed offensive to Muhammad, the Ayatollah Khomeini pronounced a death sentence that was supported by a majority of Muslims.
In 2006, when a Danish newspaper published cartoons of Muhammad, an Imam (and immigrant to Denmark), traveled back to the Middle East and whipped up hatred that resulted in deadly rioting on three continents. Demonstrators in London held signs reading "Massacre Those Who Insult Islam."
Qur'an (6:93) - "Who can be more wicked than one who inventeth a lie against Allah?"
Qur'an (33:57) - "Lo! those who malign Allah and His messenger, Allah hath cursed them in this world and the Hereafter, and hath prepared for them the doom of the disdained"
From what ive seen Armenians go both ways when it comes to party affiliation. They voted strongly for Pelosi because she promised to back legislation recognizing the genocide. Then she stabbed them in the back and caved when our crucial ally got annoyed.
It seems to be one part of the same delusional landscape and disdain fro history.
from time to time doing the holocaust some nazi higher up would learn what was going on and approach hitler with criticism of his policy.
hitlers stock answer was "who ever heard of the armenians"
the armenian genocide is the model for all other genocides.
First the internet replaced talk radio
as the cesspool of misinformation
now it is Fox News