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  • Unprecedented collab. between Armenians, Assyrians and Kurds in UK

    Voice of Nor Serount
    1 Marsh Road
    Wembley
    Middlesex
    United Kingdom
    HA0 1ES
    Tel: +44 (0)20 8997 1200
    Fax: +44 (0)20 8997 0900
    email: [email protected]


    Press release

    Armenia Solidarity
    Nor Serount Cultural Association


    Unprecedented collaboration between Armenians, Assyrians and Kurds on
    Genocide day in the UK parliament, London.

    (Establishment of a Permanent People's Commission on 'Reconciliation
    after the Anatolian Genocide' proposed)

    The irresistible ethical arguments for the recognition of the
    Anatolian Genocides as the only ground for Reconciliation between the
    victim groups and the Turkish state, was articulated by scholars on
    Genocide Day in the House of Commons, London, organised by Armenia
    Solidarity & Nor Serount Cultural Association.

    Sabri Atman of the Seyfo Centre delivered a passionate interpretation
    of the Assyrian trauma at the continuing denial of the Genocide of
    their nation. Sara Aziz, also of the Seyfo Centre, put the case for
    the criminal penalisation of Turkey under international Law. Ruth
    Barnett expounded on the psychological effects of Genocide denial
    illustrating the complexities of traumatisation.

    Gregory Topalian, concentrating on the Armenian experience, addressed
    the issue of possibilities of reconciliation, based on recognition
    alone, and how some historians may adversely affect this
    process. Desmond Fernandes showed that Genocide still continues in
    Turkey, and that Denial owes much to US, Israeli and UK
    realpolitik. Professor Khatchatur Pilikian showed in his address, 'A
    bird's eye view on the phenomena of Genocide and the Armenian
    experience of it', that Genocidal intent of the Turkish state can be
    traced back to 1878.

    Some of the speakers emphasised the universal significance of Genocide
    Day, reflecting the increasing adoption of the 24th April as a day to
    dwell on all Genocides. Professor Pilikian, in this vein, claimed that
    the annual deaths from hunger of 14.6 million constituted 'the
    unmentioned Genocide'.

    The organiser proposed the establishment of a Permanent People's
    Commission (to be based in London in co-operation with UK politicians)
    on the Consequences of the Genocides perpetrated by the Turkish State,
    to focus on the search for Reconciliation based on truth and
    honesty. He also reminded the conference of the brutal murder of three
    Christians in Malatya almost a year to the day, as a reminder that
    Christians, as well as other minorities, are still living under a
    sustained threat in Turkey.

    Messages of support were sent from The Halabja Centre London; The
    Kurdish Museum, London; The Foundation For The Kurdish Library and
    Museum, Stockholm; Ms Rosie Malek Yonan, Los Angeles; Mr Ragip
    Zarokulu, Istanbul;
    Dr Tessa Hofmann, Berlin; Canon Andrew White, Baghdad; Barzoo Eliassi,
    Kurdish Ph.D. Student, The Department of Social Sciences, Mid-Sweden
    University; Martin Blecher, member of the Israel Group in Sweden;
    Sukran Kavak, a Kurdish journalist, Sweden; Shoresh Rahem,
    International Affairs for the Kurdistan Student Association and
    Kurdistan Youth Freedom Organization; Hediye Guzel, Press secretary
    for the Left wing party, Sweden; Gurgin Bakircioglu, Stockholm; Haydar
    Isik, Germany, and Greeks from across the world.

    The meeting was chaired by Mr Andrew George MP, Mr Daniel Rogerson MP,
    both Members of Parliament for parts of Cornwall.

    It was also supported by Mr John Marks, on behalf of Baroness Cox, Rev
    Stuart Windsor, of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Mr Andrew
    Stonestreet of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the
    Middle East and The Halabja Centre, London.

    Two Ministers at the Foreign Office, the Rt Hon. Jim Murphy MP
    (minister For Europe) and Lord Maloch-Brown, sent their apologies to
    the conference for their unavoidable absences. The book by Taner
    Akcam, 'A Shameful Act' was given to Mr Andrew George to be presented
    to the Minister for Europe. This was a gift from The Armenian-Turkish
    Studies Group of London.

    Attendees were encouraged to buy the book by Kemal Yalcin, 'You
    Rejoice My Heart' (Taderon Press). The following quote from Mr Yalcin
    was read to illustrate the possibilities ahead:

    'I bow to the memory of the Armenians and Assyrians who lost their
    lives on the road of deportation through planned killings. That is the
    greatest pain of our century, the stigma on the face of humanity. Your
    pain is my pain. As a Turkish writer, I beg forgiveness from you and
    mankind ...'

    [email protected]
    norserount@bt connect.com

    (Speeches delivered at the conference will be published shortly)




    EXCERPTS OF MESSAGES:

    Canon Andrew White - President of the FRRME:

    Blessings from Baghdad

    I am so sorry that I have been unable to be with you today for this
    most important meeting. It is so important as in our life time there
    has still been genocide. The Genocide of the Armenians and Assyrians
    has never even been recognised. So many of the families of my people
    here in Iraq fled to Iraq to find sanctuary in the violence and
    Genocide of the Ottoman Empire. Both Assyrians and Armenians were
    killed in their masses.

    I have dedicated my life to the work of reconciliation. Forgiveness is
    indeed the only thing that will prevent the pain of the past from
    determining the future, but to have forgiveness and reconciliation you
    must have recognition of the evil deeds of the past. We have had clear
    recognition of the evil past of Germany and even the Rwanda's but
    Turkey still refuses to acknowledge past massacres of the Armenians
    and the Assyrians. To me that is totally unacceptable and
    unforgivable. They want to join the EU; people say how a can a Muslim
    nation be part of the EU. I have absolutely no problem with that but I
    do have a huge problem with the nation of Turkey not recognising the
    genocide of it past.

    My prayer is that this horror will not indeed be committed again,
    thank you all for taking this most important issue so seriously.


    Ragip Zarokulu of the Human Rights Association, Istanbul Branch:


    Today, 24th of April, is worldwide recognised as the date signifying
    the Armenian Genocide. Only in Turkey it indicates a taboo. The
    Turkish state mobilises all its resources to deny the meaning of this
    date. At diplomatic platforms Turkish officials and their advocates
    claim that they recognise the `big tragedy' and they only object to
    its being named as a `Genocide'. That's not true. At every occasion
    in Turkey not only the Armenian Genocide, but also the great agony of
    the Armenian people is denied and attempts are made to justify the
    genocide.

    It was only last month that during a Symposium on the Armenian-Turkish
    relations the denialist official theses were voiced one after another,
    offending the Armenians in Turkey and elsewhere and insulting the
    memory of their grandparents. Lies were told in the name of `science',
    like `Armenians have always sold their masters', `deportation was a
    means of crisis management', `death toll of deportation is comparable
    to the death toll of flu epidemic in England that time', `there is no
    other people as noble as the Turkish nation in the world, it is
    impossible for them to commit a genocide', and many more, humiliating
    a people who was one of the most advanced in science, art, literature,
    and in all other aspects.

    Denial is a constituant part of the genocide itself and results in the
    continuation of the genocide. Denial of genocide is a human rights
    violation in itself. It deprives individuals the right to mourn for
    their ancestors, for the ethnic cleansing of a nation, the
    annihilation of people of all ages, all professions, all social
    sections, women, men, children, babies, grandparents alike just
    because they were Armenians regardless of their political background
    or conviction. Perhaps the most important of all, it is the refusal of
    making a solemn, formal commitment and say `NEVER AGAIN'.

    Turkey has made hardly any progress in the field of co-existence,
    democracy, human rights and putting an end to militarism since the
    time of the Union and Progress Committee. Annihilation and denial had
    been and continues today to be the only means to solve the
    problem. Villages evacuated and put on fire and forced displacements
    are still the manifestation of the same habit of `social
    engineering'. There has always been bloodshed in the homeland of
    Armenians after 1915. Unsolved murders, disappearances under custody,
    rapes and arrests en masse during the 1990's were no surprise, given
    the ongoing state tradition lacking any culture of repentance for past
    crimes against humanity.

    Similarly the removal of a public prosecutor and banning him from
    profession just for taking the courage to mention an accusation
    against the military, a very recent incident, is the manifestation of
    an old habit of punishing anybody who dares to voice any objection to
    the army. And today's ongoing military build up of some 250,000 troops
    in the southeast of Turkey is the proof of a mindset who is unable to
    develop any solution to the Kurdish question other than armed
    suppresion.

    Turkey will not be able to take even one step forward without putting
    an end to the continuity of the Progress and Union manner of
    ruling. No human rights violation can be stopped in Turkey and there
    will be no hope of breaking the vicious circle of Kurdish uprisings
    and their bloody suppression unless the Turkish state agree to create
    an environment where public homage is paid to genocide victims, where
    the sufferings of their grandchildren is shared and the genocide is
    recognised.

    Today we, as the human rights defenders, would like to address all
    Armenians in Turkey and elsewhere in the world and tell them `we want
    to share the pain in your hearts and bow down before the memory of
    your lost ones. They are also our losses. Our struggle for human
    rights in Turkey, is at the same time our mourning for our common
    losses and a homage paid to the genocide victims'.

    Rosie Malek-Yonan, Author of The Crimson Field and Board of Advisor at
    Seyfo Center:

    The absence of the negotiation of world peace is the single greatest
    threat to humanity and the future of a violent-free world.

    In order to achieve freedom from war, we must examine the actions that
    continually create the cycle of anger and hatred as the catalyst to
    any conflict between nations.

    World peace will always remain a distant thought when reconciliation
    in the aftermath of genocide is not at the forefront of all
    discussions of human rights violations relative to those crimes.

    When we perpetually allow the practice of genocide and holocaust and
    consent to the denial of such actions to linger for decades as in the
    case of the Assyrian, Armenian and Pontic Greek Genocide, we are in
    essence consenting to denial as a compromise. Denial is not
    compromise.

    To the survivors and the children and grandchildren of the survivors
    of the Assyrian, Armenian, and Pontic Greek Genocide of 1914-1918 in
    Ottoman Turkey and northwestern Iran, there is no valid justification
    for the renunciation of facts.

    With the acknowledgement of past and present genocides we can slowly
    begin to mend the broken bridges that may ultimately lead the human
    race to eradicate bloodshed and violence among nations of this
    world. But so long as we turn a blind-eye to these killings, we are
    sanctioning the ongoing slaughter such as today's modern-day Assyrian
    Genocide occurring in Iraq since the beginning of the 2003 war.

    A formal pronouncement by the Turkish government of the Assyrian,
    Armenian, and Pontic Greek Genocide will bring closure to not only the
    survivors of the genocide, but also to the Turkish people in that the
    nearly century-old hatred can begin to give way to human
    solidarity. Anything short of that will surely continue to threaten
    all hope of peace.

    Dr Tessa Hofmann, Chairperson of the Working Group Recognition -
    Against Genocide, for International Understanding (AGA):

    The Armenian Genocide Day Conference poses a demanding and challenging
    aim. The recognition of historic facts - Truth - and of justice is
    the precondition of any reconciliation and lasting peace, if the
    ultimate crime of genocide was committed. The comparative study of
    genocides of the 20th and 21st centuries reveals that again and again
    survivors and their descendents need legal justice in order to
    re-establish trust and the capability to come to terms with their
    fate.

    The case of the Ottoman genocide against 3.5 million Christian
    citizens is unique in the duration and obstinacy, displayed by
    official Turkey in the refusal to acknowledge the states crimes which
    were committed during the last decade of Ottoman rule. The refusal to
    come to terms with this past and to take responsibility for the murder
    and destruction of Non-Muslim ethnic groups in the process of building
    a Turkish nation-state have long ago turned into severe obstacles for
    democratization and regional stability in international relations. To
    help Turkey to overcome her self-imposed deadlock means the contrary
    of a policy of eye-closing and palliation. It means the exploration of
    the roots of nowadays hate towards ethnic and religious minorities.

    We hope that the Conference will be able to explain the necessity of
    such standards to the political decision-makers in the United Kingdom
    and thus will immediately contribute both to justice and
    reconciliation.

    Foundation For The Kurdish Library and Museum in Stockholm, Sweden:

    The new Turkish Republic which has been rebuilt on the remnants of the
    Ottoman Empire, has to confess once all the history of Turkish legacy
    of their ancestor. It is not possible for Turkey to accept parts of
    Turkish history and reject the other historical occurrences.

    The genocide of Armenians is a historical fact and whole world knows
    who committed these crimes. It is time once for all for Turkey, for
    the candidate of EU membership, to confess all events in Turkey's and
    Turks history. This is necessary for making the peace and democratic
    progress secured in the whole region and in the entire world.

    Barzoo Eliassi, Kurdish Ph.D. student at the Department of Social
    Sciences of Mid-Sweden University:

    The transition from the multicultural Millet system of the Ottoman
    Empire to the Republic of Turkey created an ocean of killing in the
    name of a threatened Turkish nation. It is not an exaggeration to
    compare the Nazi extermination of the Jews with the systematic Turkish
    mass murder, or aptly put, the genocide against the Armenians during
    the First World War. The Turkish governments have been denying this
    event and labelled it as a conspiracy against the existence of the
    Turkish state. Any demand on raising and debating this issue of
    genocide and atrocities against the Armenians is seen as an external
    threat that attempts to undermine the political authority of the Turks
    over the Turkish history. History books in Turkey see surely this
    genocide in other terms and legitimatize it in the name of the Turkish
    nation and its right to existence and its right to use any means to
    protect itself from internal and external `threats'. Using any means
    included also the genocide of the Armenians, an evil crime that
    Turkish history has to pay back to its victims through recognition.

    Martin Blecher, member of the Israel Group in Sweden:

    Today our thoughts go to the one and half million that were killed in
    Ottoman Empire in 1915-1916. Our thoughts also go to the children and
    grandchildren of the survivors who have witnessed the horror by
    survivors passing their story along. The Jewish people and our
    Armenian brothers have experienced one Holocaust upon us ... We deeply
    sympathize with the Armenian nation and encourage them to continue
    their search for national justice. It is our responsibility to forget
    in order to live in the present and move along the path that leads to
    peace. It is also our responsibility not to forget and to tell the
    story that once were told to us.

    Sukran Kavak, a Kurdish journalist in Sweden:

    The legal definition of genocide was found in the 1948 United Nations
    Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
    But the crimes of genocide were committed much earlier then this legal
    definition. The world failed to stop the genocide of the Armenians
    during and after the First World War by the Ottoman Empire. To honour
    the hundreds of thousands of victims and their relatives, the crimes
    against the Armenians must be acknowledged as genocide by the
    world. To not recognize this is a further crime and insult against the
    victims, the survivors and the whole Armenian people.

    Shoresh Rahem, International Affairs for the Kurdistan Student
    Association and Kurdistan Youth Freedom Organization:



    When I came to Sweden at the age of eight, I learnt about Kurdish
    history through my family. The Swedish history classes were limited to
    the European countries and those who Europe had relations with. Few
    people knew that there was a Kurdish genocide in Iraq during
    1980's. Neither did we study that more than one million Armenians were
    victims of genocide in Turkey. There is nothing we can do today to
    get back the victims of the genocide. But we must inform and
    acknowledge the crimes so that it will not be repeated, but also to
    honor the survivors to the victims that they are not forgotten. To
    know that a crime of genocide has been committed but to deny it is
    another serious crime. Therefore, I see as my obligation to the Kurds
    and to our friends, the Armenians, not to keep quiet about the crimes
    of genocide as my teachers and the politicians did when I grew up.



    Hediye Guzel - Press secretary, Left wing party, Kurdish origin:

    Reconciliation must be the leading star, when discussing the Armenian
    genocide. This awful genocide has also affected the Assyrians/Syrians
    and Chaldeans in the Ottoman Empire. But reconciliation must be
    founded on truth, not on manipulation of truth. Without true and
    honest historical research and approaches, we will never reach this
    goal. We must not hesitate to use the right words about happened in
    the Ottoman Empire 1915 and the following years. We cannot be afraid
    of truth! And we cannot deny or hesitate as the Turkish republic does.

    The genocide in the Ottoman Empire is a trauma not only for the
    Armenians, the Assyrians/ Syrians and the Chaldeans, it is also a
    trauma for the Turkish people. Nationalist and chauvinist institutions
    and forces in Turkish society which deny the genocide prevent and
    punish people who recognize the genocide of 1915. They stop the
    development of reconciliation and peace of a whole society. With a
    recognition of what happened in 1915 in the Ottoman Empire, hatred and
    bitterness can disappear and reconciliation can be reached.

    As long as the Turkish state denies the genocide of 1915 it will be
    caught in the past. We have to look at the future and leave the
    past. To reach peace and harmony between people, it is necessary to
    see the truth and condemn the genocide.

    Haydar Isik, Germany:

    I am an Alevi Kurd! Where we lived there were no mosques. In my
    childhood I admired the ruins of the Armenian churches in the
    area. Though their walls had crumbled the domes supported by the
    columns still stood. The marvelous pictures painted on them could
    still be seen. My birth city was called 'Kizilkilise' or 'Red Church'
    in the Kurdish language [it probably had a Syriac or Armenian name
    before]. But later like other Kurdish names the Kizilkilise was
    changed to 'Nazimiye' by the Turkish government.

    My childhood was affected by two important historical events. One was
    the Dersim massacre of the Kurds in 1937/38 , when 70,000 of them were
    killed by the Turkish army which still is very fresh and sorrowful in
    my mind. The other was the Armenian Genocide, of 1915-16 by the Turks
    which exterminated one and half million Armenians and a half million
    Assyrians. During the winter months I often heard about the sorrowful
    fate of our Armenian neighbors and it made me cry.

    To achieve racial supremacy in Anatolia, the Turkish regime wiped out
    first the Armenians and Assyrians and then the Kurds. General Kazim
    Karabekir, who had participated in the killing of the Armenians and
    Assyrians once had said: 'le yandan zo zo lari, doenuence de lo lo
    larin isini bitirecegiz.' 'We will exterminate the Armenians with an
    invasion to the east, on our way back we will do the same with the
    Kurds.'

    It was always the strategy of the Turks to kill or drive out the
    country first the Christian Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks to turn
    the country into an Islamic nation, then to carry out similar genocide
    and ethnocide against the Kurds. To accomplish this Turkish rulers
    promoted hatred and incited one people against the other ... The
    Kurdish feudal chieftains became instrumental in carrying out these
    Turkish policies.

    The Turkish regime used sunni tribes in Northern Kurdistan who lived
    side by side with the Armenians and Assyrians in Mesopotamia to
    implement its policies. The Aschirets (tribe) which lived in Van,
    Urfa, Agri; Mus and Bingöl were known as Hasenen, Cibran, Zirkan,
    Sipkan, Zilan, Milan etc.. These Aschirets were a minority of the
    Kurds. The Aleviti Kurds, the yezidis and the rest of the sunni Kurds
    provided no assistance to the Turks.

    A minority of Kurds was used to kill Christians to prove their loyalty
    to Turkey and Islam. Today's Kurds see the massacre of the Armenians
    [and Assyrians] as a shame on Kurds. I am ashamed that Kurds were
    involved in killing their neighbors in such barbarous manners.

    In the shadow of the 1ST world war, during the rule of Pascha Enver
    Talat and Cemal, Turks organized the Christian pogrom in Anatolia and
    Mesopotamia with the approval and knowledge of Germany. It was the
    first genocide in human history that was carefully planned and carried
    out. However one needs to see the other side of the coin also. The
    rag-tag brigades, recruited by Turkey out of 36 Kurdish tribes, which
    were used to massacre the Christian were also incited against the
    Alevi and the yezidie (moslem) Kurds.

    The regiments were formed exclusively out of the sunni tribes in
    Northern kurdistan which means, the young Turkish regime (Ittihat
    Terakki) intentions were to incite one section of the Kurds against
    the other according to the principle of 'divide and
    conquer'. Consequently animosities between Sunni and Alevi Kurds
    continues to this day.

    The Hamidiyeh regiments was also used against the Kurds to undermine
    the Kurdish aspirations for independence. Their Attacks against the
    Armenians, Assyrians or Kurds remain a blemish in the history of the
    Kurds. Nothing holds back the Kurdish descent bandits who attacked
    Armenian villages yesterday and killed countless people from killing
    their own. One has to ask: is it just for anyone to kill other human
    beings because someone orders them to do so?

    Yes, the story of humanity is full of such events. About 50 years ago,
    German fascism massacred the Jews in industrial fashion. They believed
    that their victims deserved to die! ...

    Now Turkey is using Kurds to fight their compatriots. Like the
    Hamidiyeh brigades of the past which killed 100,000 of their own
    people, Kurdish gangs have been equipped to fight against the Kurdish
    liberation movement, which fights for liberty and well-being being of
    the Kurds living in the mountains.

    The same mentality which massacred the Armenians and the Assyrians
    yesterday, is responsible for the killing of the Kurds today. The
    Kurds in Dersim provided protection for their Armenian neighbors
    despite pressure >From the Turks, however such kindness cost them
    dearly when Turks massacred them in 1937/38, partly for that reason.

    Turkey is a country of various people, Turks, Kurds, Armenians,
    Assyrians and other minorities. Although Turkey has signed almost all
    the international treaties including: The 'General Declaration of the
    Human Rights', the 'European Convention of Human Rights', the 'CSCE
    treaty' , which promises Equal Rights, Self-determination, and rights
    of minorities to teach their mother tongue, Turkey has denied such
    liberties to its non-Turk[ish] citizens, yet it wants to join the
    European Union.

    The Armenians were exterminated by the policy of Turkey in
    Anatolia. We, the Kurds would like to live peacefully together with
    our neighbors, Armenians, Assyrians and Turks in a country, where the
    sound of the church-bells and the call of the Muezzin can be heard
    side by side. We are not any more the Kurds who were used as tool by
    Turkey to exterminate their Christian neighbors. We are ashamed and
    would like to make amend and do well - From: 'Confessions of an Honest
    Kurd: The Assyrian & Armenian Genocide, Past and present' - Translated
    from the German Language. wm.warda;
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