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Prof Alfred De Zayas's Above 4 Lectures & Speeches (2003-2008)
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I do not think that I should comment on any “family type topics of Armenians” since this is their own privacy and decision. However, being a close friend of at least Turkish Armenians, I could not help reading this article, which is nothing but a necklace of contradictions and self-admiration full of bullying!
I leave it to the Armenian diaspora readers, to weigh Sassounian’s directives versus realities.
The author, at the end of his article of Jan.7, 2010, had first buttered the Armenians of Armenia and ended his article with the following (empty) words of courage to serve as “his final solution or relief”!: 
Yet despite economic hardships and outside threats, Armenians’ will to survive is ingrained in their DNA! For several millennia, they have suffered occupation, plunder, wars, massacres, and even Genocide and have endured. Today’s difficulties will also pass…. Armenians will not only survive, but also thrive!
Now the very same author accuses the Armenian Government, as if they are a mandate of diaspora!.
Really I do not wish to interfere in “family or nation privacy” but cannot help myself of pinpointing my counter comments against itemized suggestions or directives since they do not speak trying.:
1. Armenian Government leaders should obtain advance permission from diaspora for any contacts they would make with other countries, and thus behave like “a good behaving children”.(!)
2. “Diaspora-wide Leadership”(?) should…etc! Is there an outside Diasporian Armenian Leadership elected under democracy with rights of sovereignty in the Republic of Armenia? When, How, Why?
3. Empty “ballast words” without any reason or meaning!
4. Armenian Government “can be held responsible for splits in diaspora disagreements”. (!)
5. Armenian President needs to get advice on critical matters from diaspora (and act obediently)!
6. Armenian Government should share her authority with diaspora on protocols or similar foreign affairs! Why? What will be the responsibility and liability of “diaspora experts”? Who are them? Who decides them to be true experts!
7. Armenian officials were totally wrong in agreeing on a historical committee, because the diaspora principle that “there is no need of any discussion for a topic known by overwhelming majority”(?) The truth is that diaspora and Armenian scholars very well know that they have no legal evidences!
The author, by his usual method of bullying or exaggerating, has increased the population of Armenia to 3 millions, when it is known to be very slightly over 2 millions. Likewise, the diaspora Armenian population estimated to be around 5 millions is doubled to 10 millions!
The author makes frequent reference to “Genocide” which is nothing but an unproven hearsay or fabrication, and also “restitution”, for which they even had a tax exemption law in California! Gentlemen, do not lie to your own people who trust you. By this time, if you have still not read the accord between USA and Republic of Turkey which started in 1934 and was settled by written agreement in 1937, then do not expose yourselves “as experts or advisers”! The blog site of Turkish Armenians is full of official irrefutable non-Turkish documentation. Turning your heads and logic elsewhere, will serve nothing, but loss of time and new frustrations. What more, I am shocked to read that Armenians of Armenia “will be hurting you if they do not follow your advices or interests”.
I want to hear it clearly if it is the Armenians of Armenia who need the philanthropic assistance and support since otherwise they are hurt or is it the Diaspora in need of the help coming from Armenia? What a comedy, what logic?
Sukru Server Aya
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By Caleb Lauer & Counter Comments in Italic and Bold
Followed by The Truth Is Not In What The Armenians Say, But In What They Do Not Say by Ergun Kirlikovali
Feb 3 2010
ISTANBUL - Though genocide scholars around the world agree that more than one million Ottoman-Armenian civilians were deliberately killed during World War I when Turkish Ottoman authorities forced them to walk out of Anatolia into the Syrian desert, Turkey has always officially denied this was genocide. Ankara has insisted that a commission to study this tragic history be a pillar of its now fizzling peace deal with neighboring Armenia. .
The idea of the commission has caused much controversy. Armenia, bowing to Turkish pressure and eyeing the prospect of an open border with its much richer European Union-candidate neighbor, has committed itself to something that suggests the facts of the genocide are insufficiently known. But for Armenians, the genocide carried out against them is a fundamental aspect of their modern identity. And likewise for the Turks; denial of the genocide is intimately intertwined with the story of modern Turkey's founding in 1923.
The author is totally unaware of factual documented history and arrives to hearsay conclusions about “scholars around the world agree”, “more than one million Armenians were killed” and alike fabrications.
The author is cordially invited to read “some of the Armenian history” books in the free-E-library and acquaint himself with some reality written back in Oct.1915 by Reno Evening Gazette which he can find in p.662-663 of my book. The author is also advised to read the US RELIEF REPORT of 22.04.1922 which states that 1.414.000 Armenians were alive on 31.12.1921, and more over note from General Harbord’s report that it was “the Armenians doing many refinements of cruelty in large scale to Moslems and they did most of the damage to towns and villages”. Cheap words such as “denial” and alike do not serve as any logic justification, other than use of ballast literature by simple writers who think that the readers would swallow anything!
Suat Kiniklioglu, the governing AKP's (Justice and Development Party) deputy chairman of external affairs and spokesman for the Turkish parliament's foreign affairs committee, said in an e-mail that the Turkish government insisted on a historical commission to "have a fresh look at the evidence [and] documentation surrounding the unfortunate events of World War I. The events of 1915 cannot be understood without situating them in an appropriate historical context."
It is a mishap that such persons knowing nothing but a fraction of some reading, do the representation and speaking for the Republic of Turkey. His words are alike “ballast literature”.
This context, said Kiniklioglu, includes " ... the ethnic cleansing of millions of Turks and Muslims from the Balkans, the Caucasus, and other parts of the crumbling [Ottoman] empire". Many Armenians, genocide scholars and others say this just rationalizes denial of the genocide and is an extension of Turkey's policy of lobbying abroad to prevent its recognition. Some also say it is an affront to historical research and the lessons drawn from it.
Sir, do you have any valid documentation to put on the table? If yes, submit, if not stop the ballast literature “many genocide scholars”… To what extent you can depend on scholars that are paid/fed by certain institutions, where only a small section of the Armenian history books are read!
Roger W Smith, a former president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars and current chairman of the academic board of directors at the Zoryan Institute in Toronto, wrote in a September 30, 2009 open letter to Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian that the proposed commission "in effect dismisses all of the extensive research that has already been conducted for decades and implies that none of it was impartial or scientific". He also wrote that genocide scholars have no confidence "that a politically organized commission would not compromise historical truth, especially considering the imbalanced power relations between Armenia and Turkey". He also argued such a commission would show "how easily genocide can be relativized, especially by the powerful".
But some doubt the commission will be effective enough to warrant fear. Cengiz Aktar, a retired United Nations official and now chair of the European Union Relations department at Bahcesehir University in Istanbul, dismissed the idea that a commission was a threat, saying such a commission would have so little credibility, and would be so dysfunctional, it would be simply impracticable. "It is ridiculous to think for even a second that [such a] commission could even meet, let alone decide about anything [historical]."
Mr. Cengiz Aktar, like Taner Akcam are pipe blowers of genocide, they have done no reading of “complete documents available in English” and deny the thousands of Turkish archival documents. His past employment in United Nations, does not make him an arbiter, and international judge, other than a corner writer and frequent speaker on certain channels, in the same frequency of propaganda! Ask Mr. Aktar if he ever heard of my book, which has been laying in the library of his university and this blog site for over two years! Did he take the trouble to read the authentic documents in the E-library? How can you claim to be a scholar, when you are so biased and uninformed?
Any equally weighted, government-run commission, Aktar imagines, would consist of one side of "denialists" and one side of genocide scholars. "These guys are not capable of even shaking hands," he said.
Aktar is also the creator of an online "I apologize" proclamation addressed to Armenians, so far joined by more than 30,000 Turks. He suggested that unsealing relevant archives in Ankara, Jerusalem and Boston would be a more constructive goal of the commission.
Aktar is the creator of I apologize because his knowledge is crippled and moves on Zorian or diaspora leased crutches! By his evaluation Hrant Dink’s (regrettable murder) is a hero, even greater than Ataturk, but he fails to say that 100.000 Turks walked behind the funeral, in protest of this idiotic shameful murder. However, he never makes mention of over 250 acts of ASALA terrors over 80 deaths or the self-burning of Artin Penik in 1982, protesting the ASALA killings! Aktar is hosted in all meetings, workshops against Turkey and keeps away from meeting any other scholars or persons who disagree with him!
But the prospect of a commission has a significant inverse; it may be a sign of, and end up promoting, Turkey's increasing openness to a less categorical and dogmatic view of its own official history. Turkish schools teach that the genocide never happened; Turks who publicly say otherwise have risked prosecution by the state and vilification in the media.
Armenian diaspora or puppet government will never meet in any commission, because they know that they have no documents to lay on the table, other than plenty evidences of treason!
But the current AKP government, in power since 2002, has been steadily pushing the old guard - especially the military - out of the center of the Turkish state. With major electoral support, there is no doubt that the government's democratic reforms have helped it consolidate power; still, thanks in part to this new environment, many long-sacred taboos of Turkish public life are being challenged and more and more Turks, in newspaper articles, books, and academic conferences, have been questioning the conventional denialist view of the genocide.
Government’s democratic (?) reforms! Kiss my hand… and rid yourself from this “denial-mania” or similar ballast words meaning nothing!
Professor Taner Akcam of Clark University in Massachusetts, a leading genocide scholar and one of the few Turkish historians to unequivocally affirm the Armenian genocide, rejects the Turkish government's argument that more context is needed to understand what happened in 1915 and says Turkey must understand that the historical debate "is over". Still, Akcam argues that the significance of the moment should not be overlooked.
Another pipe blower, paid by Armenian family, originally fugitive of prison, had some schooling on sociology but all of the sudden has become an authority on history! Why not? This is his duty as “his master’s voice”! Mr. Akcam has created many fantasies and empty bragging but no documents whatsoever and stays away from any confrontation with any person that may not applaud him! Mr.
Akcam is a good example of travesty of scholarship based on presumptions but no concrete facts!
"Nobody understands enough the importance of Turkey's readiness for negotiations. For 100 years Turkey denies everything. And now after 100 years, Turkey officially says - 'OK, let's negotiate about our own history' ... There is something seriously changing in Turkey," he said.
"The Turkish republic was established by the same military and bureaucratic elite which organized the Armenian genocide," said Akcam. “We know [from historical study] that a change in the ruling elite is the precondition for facing history."
"There is a huge process of transition in Turkish society from an authoritarian system [of rule] to one more democratic and more European. And within this system, Turkey will, and has to, face its own history."
Mumbo-jumbo ballast words…
The Turkish government may use the commission as a "face-saving operation", that is, to minimize blame as much as possible while communicating unknown, and unwelcome, facts to the Turkish public, said Akcam. "After 100 years of denial, you cannot suddenly say: 'Yes, it was a genocide.' Or, 'Yes, it was a crime.' You need a transition."
There is no need for any commission, the documents are all sitting there on the internet but those who speak are so naïve that they speak without learning or knowing!
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 during Armenia's war with Turkey's ally Azerbaijan. Once the Armenian and Turkish parliaments ratify the protocols signed by their foreign ministers last autumn in Switzerland, the two countries will open their common border and establish normal relations. (Though lately it seems Turkey is willing to let a dispute over the Armenian-controlled province of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan put the whole deal at risk.)
It is expected bureaucrats from Armenia, Turkey and Switzerland, which mediated the peace deal, will comprise the commission, and, according to the protocols, will carry out " ... an impartial scientific examination of the historical records and archives to define existing problems". Despite protests against the commission and other aspects of the peace deal, poor, land-locked Armenia has a clear interest in an open border with Turkey, which could join the European Union in the next decade.
In the end, however, Akcam believes real reconciliation between the two countries cannot come through commissions or legislation. He recalls the words of Hrant Dink, an Armenian-Turkish newspaper editor whose prosecution for comments made about Turkish-Armenian reconciliation made him a target of ultranationalists. He was assassinated outside his newspaper office in Istanbul on January 19, 2007.
a- Will Akcam and alike have the courage to sit at any debate or scholarly workshop table?
b- Why you repeat as a rhetoric Hrant Dink’s (only ONE yet shameful) murder but make no mention of the so many diplomats murdered by ASALA or watch the Video of Murat Topalian, their leader!
"My dear friend Hrant was always saying: when the Armenian and Turkish people come together, see each other, talk to each other, the genocide problem will be solved automatically."
Yes, Hrant Dink spoke the truth and Turkish Armenians are much alike and live in harmony until such time that outside trouble mongers step in. This blog site is full of many articles reflecting the outside intrusions and the on going friendship in Turkey, which the outsiders cannot understand because they are not from Anatolia, the same land who lived a thousand years in perfect harmony. Shame on those who distort this harmony to satisfy their egos or interests!
Caleb Lauer is a Canadian freelance journalist based in Istanbul.
Copyright 2010 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd
The Truth Is Not In What The Armenians Say, But In What They Do Not Say by Ergun Kirlikovali
02 February 2010
Letters to the editor, writeto@atimes.com
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Re: “Turkey changes course on Armenia” by Caleb Lauer, ISTANBUL, Turkey, Asia Times Online, Feb 3, 2010; http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LB03Ak03.html . .
Caleb Lauer’s biased article (“Turkey changes course on Armenia”, Asia Times Online, Feb 3, 2010, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LB03Ak03.html ) is replete with falsifications, omissions, and errors. Reading this article, one would never know that Armenians took up arms against their own government, attacked the rear of their own army, terrorized their Muslim neighbors, joined the invading enemy armies, demanded territory for an apartheid (greater Armenia), and caused the death of 524,000 of their countrymen, women and children. One would never appreciate that the Tereset (temporary resettlement) was a wartime home security measure and that Turks were only defending their home in the face of brutal foreign invasions and equally savage Armenian nationalists and revolutionaries.
Caleb Lauer’s prejudice also shows in the selection of sources to validate claims of genocide; all other sources are ignored. Genocide scholars, for instance, is an Armenian invention created by the notoriously anti-Turkish Zoryan Institute in 1994. These genocide scholars are not even historians. Most are English teachers and sociologists. There are some psychologists and government majors among them. And seventy-five percent of the board of directors are ethnically Armenians. But they all like to pose like authorities in history which they absolutely are not. They vie for winning the confidence of their unsuspecting readers. What the Armenian claims lack in the credibility department, the Armenian lobby tries to fill the gap with new inventions like these so-called genocide scholars and other avenues like films, exhibits, and panels where only the Armenian side is represented and the Turkish side is censored. Anything to avoid history, primary sources, facts, peer review, and debate seem to be fine with the Armenian lobby. They think they are winning on the political side where opinions can be manipulated, political candidates, legislatures, and voters can be convinced without having to deal with legitimate, non-partisan historians and scholars driven by facts only.
Taner Akcam , the poster boy of sorts of the Armenian lobby, for instance, was exposed to be a paid Armenian agent. In a letter dated 17 January 2008, the University of Minnesota legal counsel stated that Akcam’s salary was funded by Cafesjian Foundation (an Armenian institution) and Zoryan Institute (also an Armenian institution.) What’s just as troubling is the fact that that letter said “…Dr. Akcam is currently employed by the University as a Research Associate in the College of Liberal Arts (CLA), Department of History. This is an annually renewable, Professional & Administrative ("P&A") position…” A few days after this letter was written, Akcam was spotted in New Orleans, presenting himself as “associate professor” in history to unsuspecting audiences. He was neither employed as a professor nor historian, as his PhD is in sociology. Is this important? It ought to be, in the name of truth. Why is he posing as a historian then if he is a sociologist? How did he become a professor when he arrived into the U.S. as only a visiting scholar attached to no university only about ten years ago? The more one digs, the more one finds the Armenian lobby lurking ominously underneath all this stink.
Whereas the facts are simple. Armenians revolted to establish an apartheid (i.e. greater Armenia) in Ottoman territories, when the motherland (the Ottoman Empire) was fighting for its survival against multi-front brutal invasions. The Ottoman Empire, as a home security measure, was left with no choice but to tereset (temporarily resettle) the treasonous elements to non-war zones of the empire (hence not even a deportation.) Measures were taken for security and safety of the groups teresetted, perhaps insufficient and at times ineffective, but without intent to destroy as claimed.
Unsubstantiated accusations such as race extermination or over 1.5 million Armenians stand short of truths and the U.S. state archives refute them openly because:
a- “American Military Mission to Armenia” (General Harbord) Report 1920 and Annex Report Nat. Archives 184.021/175 does not mention any “race extermination” but refers to “…refinements of cruelty by Armenians to Muslims…”
b- Joint US-Congress Resolution no. 192, April 22, 1922 relative to the activities of Near East Relief ending 31.12.1921, has unanimously resolved that a total of 1,414,000 Armenians were alive.
c- George Montgomery, a member of the US delegation at the Paris Conference, had presented a detailed tabulation in 1919, showing a total of 1,104,000 Armenians alive, apart from those who had already immigrated to other countries. ( 29 March 1919 report of the Paris Conference subcommittee on atrocities lists Armenian losses as “…more than 200,000…” Who may have jacked this number to the current 1.5 million? Take a guess!)
d- Reliable sources show that THE TOTAL ARMENIAN POPULATION in the Ottoman Empire was less than 1.3 MILLION ( and others saying up to a maximum of 1.5 million) and hence it would be Armenian falsifiers’ liability to defy and annul these official U.S. State Records. You think Armenian lobby can do that? That is, use current pro-Armenian politicians to void the records of the U.S. Congress of 1919 with bogus resolutions?
In case you missed it, it bears repeating: these are the U.S. Congress records of 1919, solidly laying down the situation as it was back then. Can the Armenians change them today?
Unfortunately yes, if “genocide scholars” like Akcam, “journalists” like Lauer, and bogus Hitler quotes fabricated by the ever resourceful Armenian lobby are not confronted by truth-seeking, dispassionate, and genuine scholars… and still closed archives of Armenia and Armenian church(as) are not opened…
If Armenia, the tiny, land-locked, poverty-stricken, violent, and corrupt country, wants to avoid bankruptcy and famine, which would turn it into a distant, inaccessible, and irrelevant province of Russia, then Armenia should stop the military occupation of Azeri lands (including Karabakh), allow the return home of one million Azeri refugees, and agree to opening and scholarly studying all relevant archives of WWI era soon. Nothing short of that will save Armenia… and the time is ticking!
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Some useful reference sites:
www.turkla.com
www.ethocide.com
www.ataa.org
www.tallarmeniantale.com
www.historyoftruth.com
www.turkishjournal.com
www.turkishny.com
www.mediawatchnow.com
www.turkishalert.com
Some PDF Documents:
Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2008/10/2635-genocide-lies-need-no-archives.html (Part 1 & 2)
Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2008/10/2635-genocide-lies-need-no-archives.html (Part 3)
Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2009/04/2813-conditions-in-near-east-report-of.html (General Harbord Report)
Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2008/06/2512-free-e-book-armenian-question.html
Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2007/11/2187-book-excerpts-pastermadjians-why.html
http://www.turkla.com/
Source: http://www.turkla.com/
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2010/02/03
The following article, entitled “Rifts Emerging in Armenian Community, by Ruzan Hakobyan, a political scientist and freelance journalist based in Yerevan, appeared in the February 2, 2009, edition of Business Week.
And the counter comments marked in bold and Italic
A vast diaspora has long supported Armenia, but some locals fret that overseas brethren aren’t concerned enough about the country’s present-day problems.
Since gaining its independence in 1991 Armenia has enjoyed the support of a sizeable and influential diaspora worldwide. The brotherly backing of compatriots abroad has been important materially and psychologically as this small, landlocked country has faced war, earthquakes, trade embargoes, and political strife in the past two decades.. .
The diaspora’s assistance has translated into hundreds of schools and roads being built, houses restored, and infrastructure revived.
But while diasporan Armenians and those in the homeland have long shared a common vision for the country’s future, there have also long been cracks in the relationship. In recent years, those cracks have begun to widen.
Some indications are that the Armenians abroad and at home no longer see the same issues as priorities, including the recognition as genocide of the 1915 massacre of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks. Many Armenians abroad are descendants of survivors of that massacre, and diaspora organizations have invested huge time and effort into achieving worldwide recognition of the genocide – to such an extent that their seeming indifference to the country’s present-day problems has angered some Armenians at home.
Any claims of massacre/genocide must be based on judicial decision of authorized Courts and must be based on factual evidence, and not simple fabrications by rumor! Claimants have not read even their own historians, let alone official documentation such as Memorandum given to Paris Conference in 1919, or Resolution 192, April 22, 1922 attesting that 1.414.000 Armenians were alive on 31.12.1921! What more, US official resolution confirms that it was Armenians who massacred Moslems with “many refinements of cruelty and that they did the largest damage to towns and villages”. If you have a stronger-better-more reliable document attesting the opposite (other than grand-ma stories) please submit it. History needs factual documentation!
Diasporan disconnect
Perj Zeytuntsian, a renowned Armenian writer and himself a former diasporan, has said that the diaspora is too occupied with international recognition of the genocide and called on to diaspora groups to press Armenia’s leaders to protect human rights, respect laws, and hold democratic elections.
“I believe that the diaspora must make demands concerning not only the lands that we lost but also the Armenia that, thank God, exists now,” he said in a 2005 interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. “We must constantly hear friendly statements like, ‘What the hell are you guys doing?’ That’s what is missing.”
This disconnect persists, fueled further by recent events in the homeland, even as Armenia’s problems have become more urgent. Although the country registered impressive economic growth before the worldwide recession, its prosperity has been hampered by a trade blockade by neighboring Turkey and Azerbaijan in place since the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh war in 1994. And parts of the country shaken by a devastating 1988 earthquake have yet to recover.
Why does the writer omit the reason of the blockade, the sudden aggression on Karabagh, occupation of Karabag plus some 20% of Azeri lands, Hocali massacres and expulsion of some 1 million Moslems kicked out from their hoses and living in shacks since then?
Thriving corruption and several rigged elections further exacerbate the political and economic situation in the country. In 2004, when the administration of then-President Robert Kocharian refused to organize a nationwide no-confidence referendum on the government’s performance, a wave of protests followed. In April 2004 opposition supporters were met with water cannons, stun grenades, and electroshock weapons.
Four years later, following the presidential elections, the opposition claimed large-scale fraud and hundreds of thousands of protesters vehemently opposed the election results. On 1 March 2008 peaceful opposition rallies culminated in armed clashes: 10 people were killed, a state of emergency was declared, and almost a hundred opposition leaders became political prisoners. The ensuing political crisis remains unresolved.
Sure, the Armenian Government (!) is run by a handful of ARF revolutionists, who have no respect of democracy, liberty and equality for their own citizens!
The diaspora’s reaction to those dramatic events was rather muted. In 2004 some diasporan organizations issued a few neutral statements urging the opposition and authorities to adhere to the rule of law.
Following the March 2008 events, several prominent Armenian-American organizations, including the Armenian Assembly of America and the Armenian National Committee of America, issued a joint statement condemning violence and calling on all parties to work peacefully within civic and legal structures. But they also stressed their readiness to cooperate with the newly elected president, Serge Sargsyan, disappointing those who were claiming electoral fraud and wrongdoing by the authorities.
Referring to this joint statement, former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, leader of the opposition Armenian National Congress, declared at an opposition rally that major diasporan organizations shared partial responsibility for the failures of the administration because they “supported the position of the ‘newly elected’ authorities who shed the blood of…people who came to express their protest against the electoral fraud.”
Ter-Petrosyan has called the need for reform of traditional diaspora institutions “the topic of the day.”
Turkish reconciliation move causes pain
Analysts point to several reasons why the diaspora is reluctant to criticize the administration. One Armenian politician who wished to remain anonymous says some diaspora organizations, such as the Armenian National Committee of America, have links with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, which was a part of the coalition government until recently and has made genocide recognition a priority.
Richard Giragosian, a prominent diasporan scholar and the director of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies, said in a recent interview with Hetq Online that some in the diaspora tend to see criticism of the Armenian government, no matter how authoritarian, as helping the enemy and weakening Armenia.
Hrach Bayadyan, a writer and lecturer on Armenian culture and identity, said that if Armenia were to get serious about moving closer to Europe and adhering to democratic values, the split between diasporan organizations that attach more value to recognition of genocide than to institutional reform could deepen.
And Vladimir Karapetyan, the Armenian National Congress’ foreign relations director, said, “A lack of information, heavy reliance on official propaganda, and an unwillingness to dwell on painful issues may account for the diaspora’s muted reaction.” He added, “The people of Armenia had a right to expect a less equivocal reaction to the March events. But the diaspora remained silent, thus encouraging violence on behalf of the administration.”
The reaction was far less quiet when Armenia and Turkey began making overtures to re-open diplomatic relations last year.
The government faced a wave of criticism from Armenians abroad with the advent of so-called football diplomacy, initiated by President Sargsyan following his controversial election. Sargsyan invited his Turkish counterpart to attend a World Cup qualification match in Yerevan. The outreach soon bore fruit in the shape of Armenian-Turkish protocols aimed at restoring diplomatic ties between the two countries.
The Armenian-Turkish agreement was widely hailed by the West as a historic moment for two countries with a long list of grievances against each other. But the critics insisted that it introduced inadmissible preconditions, including establishment of a historical commission to examine the genocide issue and recognition of current borders, which are contested by Armenia.
In protest at the agreement, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation party launched rallies and hunger strikes in Yerevan, and prominent diaspora organizations called on Armenian authorities to refrain from signing the protocols.
The agreement was doomed to fail from the very first day, being a two wheel bicycle, instead of 3-wheel tri-porter with inclusion of Azerbaijan or a stable 4-wheel with inclusion of diaspora. Yet it is against the interest of diaspora to reach to any settlement for deprived Armenia surviving on donations, because they will lose their “excuse for victimization and need of cash to save (?)” Borders?: These are the very old borders of 1850, also what the short lived Armenian Democratic State, May 28, 1918 to Dec.2,1920 had accepted, signed and ratified. Gentlemen, 70% of Armenian youth wishes to desert the country! Why is this “thirst of land for strength” when you can “buy anything by earning money by economics” participating in the serious projects.
Haykakan Zhamanak, a daily newspaper in Yerevan, described the protocols as a Dayton-style imposed move, referring to the agreement that ended the Bosnian war, signed in 1995 under great pressure from the United States.
The Armenian National Congress described the signing of the protocols as another sign of the political bankruptcy and diplomatic incompetence of the country’s leaders, and demanded Sargsyan’s resignation.
Voices in the diaspora argued that Armenia had been subjected to pressure from the West and Russia. According to Ara Khachatourian, an ethnic Armenian commentator who lives in Los Angeles, Armenia had submitted to a “full-frontal diplomatic and propaganda attack.” In a commentary in the Armenian-American daily newspaper Asbarez he wrote, “It is quite obvious to all observers…that Armenia has been forced to make concessions and take steps that satisfy the Turkish, the U.S. or Russian agendas.”
Lobbyist, philanthropist, and publisher Harut Sassounian, also writing from California, complained on the Asbarez website that “The Armenian government made no attempt during the lengthy negotiations with Turkey to consult with diaspora Armenians, despite the fact that the protocols addressed vital pan-Armenian issues.”
Armenian Government, knowing the reaction of ARF tried the short-cut, and Turkey thought it to be their success…but the short-cut got stuck in swamp! So simple!
Hambik Sarafian, leader of the U.S. branch of the opposition Social Democrat Hunchakian Party, insisted that the protocols would “alienate Armenia from the diaspora, creating a great wall of distrust.” And Khachatourian, declaring that Armenia needs a new approach, demanded that the Armenian administration “show its teeth or step aside.”
A call for “frankness”
The diaspora’s disenchantment is starting to make itself felt in material ways. In late November, the annual telethon for the California-based All Armenian Fund raised $15.9 million, half the amount raised in 2008. The fund’s organizers played down the depressed takings while trumpeting that more people had participated than ever before.
Hranush Hakobyan, the Armenian diaspora minister, said, the telethon’s success was evidence that “attempts to drive a wedge between Armenia and diaspora have failed. Armenia and the diaspora are united ever more.”
But this optimism wasn’t universal.
Analysts and commentators in Armenia said the results would be even more humble than the sum announced during the telethon, given that many would-be contributors don’t make good on their pledges. They noted, too, that takings from the Los Angeles area, once the most lucrative region for pledges, were down.
As an unsigned article in Hetq Online, a publication of the Investigative Journalists of Armenia, pointed out, “During the 12-hour broadcast, it was often stressed that one’s political views should not prevent anyone from contributing to the welfare of the people in Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] and the border regions of Armenia.” But the publication also acknowledged that the global economic crisis had likely depressed contributions.
Armenians all over the world followed the telethon, commented Suzan Simonyan of the Hraparak daily in Yerevan. But in the wake of the March 2008 violence and the Armenian-Turkish protocols, “they watched halfheartedly, assuming that the amount collected and promised would be small.” Commenting on the fund’s claim that this year’s telethon was the most productive ever, the analyst called for “all-Armenian frankness.”
In an interview, Simonyan said the telethon’s organizers should have admitted that takings were down this year because of the political climate and disagreements between Armenia and the diaspora. “Such a statement could signal a reform both in the fund’s policies and in Armenia-diaspora relations. And today we are in dire need of both.”
Both Armenia and Armenian diaspora should rid themselves of illusions of easy get land (no right or strength to get) or indemnity lottery prize (since this was settled between USA and Turkish Republic in 1937 by agreement). Stop fighting your neighbors which you must live together and do not bully depending on the outside large powers, who pat your back resulting in the deaths of so many for diverse reasons of war conditions. Nevertheless the heroes who led their people into disasters (Antranik, Dro Kanajan, Armen Garo) left their nation in calamities and became heroes on the stages in Paris, London and Washington! Sorry folks but as long as you follow ARF’s impossible ambitions, it will not be them, but the decent-innocent Armenian who pays!
From a true friend….
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The One Hundred And Sixth Annual Report Of
The American Board Of Commisioners For Foreign Missions
"Missions in Turkey" Part
1916, Boston
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