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Centennial Of Armenian Genocide Is Marked Across Globe

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  • Centennial Of Armenian Genocide Is Marked Across Globe

    CENTENNIAL OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IS MARKED ACROSS GLOBE

    Friday, April 24, 2015

    A man places a candle in front of the Brandenburg Gate to build
    the year 1915 during a demonstration after an ecumenical service
    yesterday remembering the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians at the
    Berlin Cathedral Church in Berlin, Germany.

    On 100th anniversary, President Gauck condemns massacre as Church
    canonizes 1.5 million dead

    BERLIN -- German President Joachim Gauck yesterday condemned the
    massacre of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces a century
    ago as "genocide", a term that the Berlin government had long rejected.

    Gauck used the word in a speech to mark the 100th anniversary of what
    most Western scholars and two dozen governments regard as a genocide
    against an Armenian population that flourished in what is now modern
    Turkey. Turkey vehemently denies the charge.

    Gauck, a former East German pastor with a penchant for defying
    convention, also suggested Germany itself might bear some of the
    blame because of its actions during WWI.

    "In this case, we Germans must still come to terms with the past,
    as to whether there is in fact a shared responsibility, possibly
    even complicity, in the genocide of the Armenians," said Gauck,
    adding that German armed forces were involved in planning and even
    implementing deportations.

    His determination to use the controversial word prompted members of
    parliament to overcome long-held resistance from Chancellor Angela
    Merkel's government, which until Monday had steadfastly refused to
    use the term.

    In his speech, Gauck quoted a phrase from a resolution which
    lawmakers will debate in parliament today and are expected to
    endorse overwhelmingly: "The fate of the Armenians is exemplary for
    the history of mass destructions, ethnic cleansings, expulsions and,
    yes, the genocides during the 20th century."

    The term "genocide" has special resonance for Germany, which has
    worked hard to come to terms with its responsibility for the murder
    of six million Jews in the Holocaust.

    Analysts say it was previously reluctant to apply the description in
    the case of Turkey for fear of upsetting Ankara and the 3.5 million
    people in Germany who are Turkish nationals or of Turkish origin.

    There are also concerns in Germany that massacres committed in 1904 and
    1905 by German troops in what is now Namibia could also be designated
    genocide, leading to reparation demands.

    The reversal of Germany's stance is significant because it is Turkey's
    top trading partner in the European Union. France, the European
    Parliament, Pope Francis, Canada and Russia are among others who have
    used the term, condemned by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

    Despite US President Barack Obama's campaign promise in 2008 to call
    the killings genocide, in the upcoming weeks to the centennial he
    didn't make any public statements addressing the topic.

    The head of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Argentina says he is
    proud, but definitely not surprised, that his friend Pope Francis
    recently called the 1915 mass killing of Armenians in Turkey
    "genocide."

    Canonization

    In related news, the Armenian Apostolic Church yesterday made saints of
    the up to 1.5 million Armenians at an open-air ceremony to commemorate
    their killing by Ottoman Turks a century ago.

    It was the first time in 400 years that the Armenian Apostolic Church
    had authorised any canonizations.

    "The blood of the Armenian martyred for Christ has placed the seal of
    unshakeable faith and patriotism on the sands of the desert, while the
    one who committed genocide assumed that the Armenian was being lost
    forever in the gales of history," Catholicos Karekin II, the supreme
    head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, said during the ceremony.

    Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Turkey announced it was recalling its
    ambassador to Austria after parties represented in parliament signed
    a declaration recognizing the massacre of Armenians a century ago
    as genocide.

    Turkey denies that the killings, at a time when Ottoman troops were
    fighting Russian forces, constituted genocide. It says there was no
    organized campaign to wipe out Armenians and no evidence of any such
    orders from the Ottoman authorities.

    "Questioning these claims is not up to parliaments or politicians, but
    rather to historians," Erdogan told a peace conference in Istanbul,
    organized as part of the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign during
    WWI, before Gauck's speech.

    Erdogan said: "The Armenian claims on the 1915 events... are all
    baseless and groundless."

    -- Herald with Reuters, AP

    http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/187521/centennial-of-armenian-genocide-is-marked-across-globe

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