Below is a special report on a mass burial site, found in Mardin (Turkey) last week, believed to be from the Armenian Genocide. Ayse Gunaysu has prepared this special report for Blogian, per my request. Reproduction permitted by a link to www.blogian.hayastan.com. Thank you so much, Ayse!

MASS BURIAL IN A CAVE IN NUSAYBIN (NISIBIN), MARDIN,

FOUND ON 17th OCTOBER 2006

By Ayse Gunaysu, Istanbul
Special for Blogian

There appeared a news item on the first page of the 19th October 2006 issue of the daily Ülkede Özgür Gündem, the Kurdish newspaper published in Turkish, reporting the accidental discovery of a mass burial by villagers in Nusaybin district of Mardin. According to the news item which was accompanied by two photographs showing the skulls and bones, the villagers from Xirabebaba (Kuru) which is said to be an Armenian village formerly, i.e. before 1915, while digging a grave for one of their relatives, came accross a cave and found that there were bones and skulls of around 40 dead bodies. The main entrance to the case had been sealed. The villagers said they believed that those belonged to the 300 Armenians said to be massaccred during the Armenian Genocide. The villagers informed the nearby Akarsu Gendarmerie Headquarters and the army officers there instructed the villagers to cover the entrance to the cave and not to talk anybody, saying that an investigation will be made.

The villagers said there was only a stone pitcher to drink water and there were half a meter deep cavities in the walls of the cave.

In the 22nd October issue of the Gundem the story of the mass burial was covered in the lead news item in Gundem with the headline "found by villagers covered up by the military". Soldiers from Akarsu gendarmerie headquarters came to the site and covered the entrance found by villagers and took photographs.Press people arriving the place for more information were denied access to the cave. No investigation started by the public prosecutor's office 5 days after the news item appeared in Gundem. Officers from the gendarmery headquarters visited the village pressing the villagers to inform the name of the person who leaked the news to Gundem, telling them that the news given by Roj TV and Ulkede Ozgur Gundem were all lies and warning them not to show the way to the cave to anybody coming to the village to learn more about the mass burial.

Prof. David Gaunt, author of “Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia during World War I,” says that the village was neither Armenian nor Syriac and thinks that the victims in the mass burial were very likely the 150 Armenian and 120 Syriac heads of families, thus a total of 270 persons, from Dara (now Oguz) on June 14, 1915.

According to Prof. Gaunt the perpetrators were the death squad based in Mardin, acting on the orders of Halil Adib (Mardin's local CUP leader and criminal court judge) who was acting mutasarrif in Mardin. They were marched out of the town and one person was known to have escaped to tell of what happened. According to this Syriac witness they were murdered and the bodies placed in a well. “The mass burial in this cave suggests that the two groups could have been killed in separate places and that the Armenians were put into this cave while the Syriacs were put in a well” he says.

A few weeks ago I signed a petition at http://www.kashatagh.com/. It calls the Armenian world’s, our, attention to the troubling situation in Kashatagh.

This poor, but strategic Armenian region is dying. About 130 teachers have left Kashatagh just this year, informs Hetq.am on October 23, 2006.

The Hetq editorial is concerned with the low number of people – 500 – that have signed the petition so far.

Why so few?

Leaving Kashatagh… More photos by Onnik Krikorian at http://www.kashatagh.com/

I disagree with Hetq’s explanation for the low numbers, since I don’t want to believe that Armenians are becoming more and more ignorant about the Motherland’s feature. And I want you to prove me right.

But I am not just asking you to visit http://www.kashatagh.com/petition.htm (I am sure you will do this since you already know about it). I am asking you to share this information with every single Armenian that you know in this world. And one more thing: I am asking you to write a check to Hayastan All-Armenian Fund (an organization that I am not affiliated with) mentioning “Kashatagh/Telethon” in the lower left memo.

The Telethon is coming up this Thanksgiving, November 23. By mentioning Kashatagh in your donation you will tell the Armenian Fund that Kashatagh needs immediate attention. By mentioning Kashatagh you will know you have not simply signed a petition.

Why you should do it? For the same reason Nazo, an Armenian from Lebanon, moved to the village of Ditsmayri in Kashatagh. But I am not asking you to go and live in one of the poorest places in the world like Nazo did. I am asking to keep up Nazo’s spirit, who reportedly said today, “It's all hopeless.”

Let us prove that it is not hopeless.

Sign the petition, let others know and send the check. If a student like myself, who makes less than $18,000 a year and pays all the family bills, can do it, you can do it too. Armenia needs you this minute more than ever.

Send checks to:
Armenia Fund, Inc.
111 North Jackson Street, Suite 205
Glendale, CA 91206

818.243.6222 / telephone
818.243.7222 / fax
1-800-888-8897 / toll free
e-mail: [email protected]
www.ArmeniaFund.org

Thanks,

Simon Maghakyan
Littleton, Colorado
Blogian.Hayastan.com

U.S. Senator Barack Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, said today he considers running for the U.S. presidential elections in 2008.

The African-American senator is known for raising awareness about the genocide in Darfur and has been asking for more U.S. involvement.

In 2005, he made a visit to oil-rich Azerbaijan – a country hostile to Armenia and Artsakh. When asked by Azeri journalists to comment on his co-signed letter to President George W. Bush to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide, Senator Obama said, “I believe the letter sent by the Senators to President George Bush to recognize the genocide of Armenians reflects historic facts.”

Obama’s statement was an unprecedented courage in a county where the word “Armenian” is equivalent to the word “Jew” in Nazi Germany. Moreover, it is Azerbaijan’s official policy to deny the Armenian Genocide.

Obama’s visit to Azerbaijan was not widely reported. I mentioned, on the phone, about the Senator’s honorable comment to Harut Sassounian, publisher of the California Courier. Harut asked for the link. The Courier published “Sen. Obama vs. Speaker Hastert:Integrity vs. Immorality” on October 27, 2005.

I actually sent a “Thank You” letter to the Illinois senator in the summer for his comment. Obama reaffirmed his devotion to genocide awareness on Sep. 18, 2006.

Anyhow, the elections are getting closer and closer. So far, people think Kerry, Hillary Clinton and Obama may be the major candidates for the Democratic primaries. Kerry has stated many times the importance of the Armenian genocide recognition. He also pressed the new U.S. Ambassador to Armenia for not using the term “genocide.” As for Hillary, she is Bill’s wife. Bill had promised to proclaim April 24 “Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day” but never did so; thus, no hopes for Hillary.

Let’s see who is on the Republican ballot. So far Obama and Kerry are OK-d on the Armenian checklist.

How one fights anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial when the latter is not a state-sponsored propaganda unlike the Armenian genocide denial?

Just yesterday, the first chapter of a new “research,” titled “The Jewish Genocide of Christian Armenians,” appeared on the anti-Semitic www.jewishracism.com website.

The “research” is written by notorious Holocaust denier Christopher Jon Bjerknes, who, according to Wikipedia, is “best known for his claims that Albert Einstein plagiarized some of his most significant contributions to theoretical physics.”

Bjerknes, who says he has Jewish origin, alleges that Jews are responsible for the Armenian Genocide of 1915, since, according to his interpretation of the Bible, it is Jews’ agenda to eliminate the Armenian blood.

Bjerknes also writes that Jews put Hitler on power to spread communism; basically, Jews are responsible for everything in this world: including for their own extermination by the Nazis. He quotes a Christian priest from the 1890s claiming that Armageddon means Armenia and that the world’s last battle will take place in the latter.

The “amateur historian” makes many quotes from the Bible: “The LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation” (Exodus 17:14-16). Bjerknes goes ahead to quote Encyclopedia Judaica as saying, “Jews often referred to Armenians as Amalekites.”

Well, I happened to be reading the same Encyclopedia Judaica two weeks ago. Apparently, the Holocaust denier missed the part that the holy Mountain where Noah landed is in Armenia, and that Armenia was also referred to as Ashkenaz by the Jews, the name that many of today’s Jews – as did the victims of the Holocaust – identify themselves with. Bjerknes also “forgot” the fact that many, if not most, individuals who worked for the Armenian genocide awareness were of the Jewish faith. To mention a few, Henry Morgenthau (U.S. Ambassador to Turkey), Franz Werfel (author of Forty Days of Musa Dagh), Raphael Lemkin (coiner of the word “genocide”), etc.

I guess I would not pay attention to this lunatic’s garbage unless the title of his “research” reminded me something: another lunatic, called Samuel Weems, whom Azerbaijani and Turkish propagandists call “an American judge.” The latter’s "research" is called “THE NAZI-ARMENIAN GENOCIDE OF JEWS.”

Husband of a Turkish woman [Gulnur Weems], according to Wikipedia, genocide denier Weems “was disbarred as a lawyer for mixing his clients money with his own. A year later he was convicted of arson and conspiring to defraud an insurance firm[1]. In 1977 a jury found Weems guilty of conspiring to commit arson and ordered him to pay $30,000 to an insurance company. Samuel Weems unsuccessfully ran for the position of mayor of Hazen county in 1994 and 1998. Local courts dismissed his appeals questioning the legality of the election outcomes. The Turkish Times reported that Weems travelled to Turkey in 2002 for the 81st anniversary of the death of Talaat Pasha, one of the men most responsible for orchestrating the Armenian Genocide.”

from http://www.armenianreporteronline.com/old/…2/ts-latest.htm

I thought the parallel of two genocide deniers was interesting. And although Weems was on the Turkish payroll, since apparently telling lies to insurance companies was much harder, whose payroll is Bjerknes on? In other words, how one fights anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial when the latter is not a state-sponsored propaganda unlike the Armenian genocide denial?

…And the most frightening part – the Armenian Genocide is used to deny the Holocaust; just the same the Holocaust is used to deny the Armenian Genocide.

p.s. Christopher Jon Bjerknes, as he indicated in his blog, is looking for sponsorship to research more extensively “The Jewish Genocide of Armenian Christians.” Perhaps the Jewish Defense League might be interested.

Ariane Ascaride (Anna) of Robert Guédiguian’s “Le Voyage En Armenie” (2006) drama won the best actress award in the Rome Film Festival on October 21, 2006, BBC reports.

more photos at http://www.armenews.com/article.php3?id_article=25879

According to Hollywood.com’s description of the movie, “Barsam, Anna's father, is seriously ill. Before he dies, he would like to bequeath something to his daughter: a sense of doubt. As he flees to Armenia, he leaves several clues in his wake so that Anna can come after him. For Anna, this journey she is obliged to make in an unknown country, becomes what her father wanted it to be: an initiation, a sentimental journey, a second adolescence. She finds him in a little village, lost in the Caucasian mountains, seated dreaming under a blossoming apricot tree. She will come to doubt her identity, her relationships and her commitments.”

The movie also features Gerard Meylan, Chorik Grigorian, Romen Avinian, Simon Abkarian, Serge Avedikian, Jalil Lespert, Marcel Bluwal, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Madeleine Guediguian and Kristina Hovakimian. Music by Arto Tuncboyaciyan.

Ariane Ascaride, French actor of Italian origin, is also one of the screenplay writers, along with the director, Robert Guédiguian, and Marie Desplechin.

When she received the award, Ascaride said:

Vous ne pouvez pas savoir comme je suis contente de recevoir ce prix. Nous avons tourné ce film dans un petit pays que j’aime beaucoup, qui s’appelle l’Arménie et qui m’a adopté. Recevoir ce prix en Italie, pays de ma famille, me donne la sensation d’être rentrée à la maison", a ajouté l’actrice, filles d’immigrés italiens.

(You don’t know how happy I am to receive this prize. We shot this film in a small country that I like very much: it is called Armenia and it accepted me. To accept this prize in Italy – the country of my family – gives me feeling to have come back to home.)

Bravo Ariane! Bravissimo!

Panorama.am reports of a Swiss meeting at the UNESCO that has discussed possible sanctions against Azerbaijan, such as exclusion from the international organization, for annihilating the last remaining khachkars of the Jugha medieval cemetery in December of 2005.

The meeting with Mr.Kotchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, took place on October 17, 2006 and included legislators Evgenios Haitidis (Greece) Jim Karygiannis (Canada) Ueli Leuenberger (Switzerland) and Scot historian Steven Sim.

The latter is particularly involved in bringing the Azerbaijani state-sponsored vandalism to the world’s attention. His 2005 report on Nakhichevan’s Armenian monuments is available at http://www.nakhichevan.cjb.net/, which we were happy to register after receiving Sim’s report.

CollectifVan also has information on the meeting in French at http://www.collectifvan.org/article.php?r=4&id=4896.

Jugha’s annihilation’s anniversary is close and we need to try our best to make the Azerbaijani government accountable for what it did. I have contacted Zoryan Institute, Peter Balakian and a few others with suggestions and idea-requests, but have not received immediate responses yet. Please e-mail me if you have any ideas or information about events concerning spreading awareness about Jugha’s destruction.

If you are not familiar with the destruction, start with my column published in the California Courier earlier this year. You can also use the block on the right, titled “Remember, Remember the 15th of December,” to access articles and chronological developments on Jugha’s destruction. The movie is still available at www.julfa.cjb.net, again registered by Blogian.

The shocking aspect of the vandalism is its denial: the Azerbaijani government has banned European Council observers from visiting the site.

So far only Archaeology Magazine, the Art Newspaper, Time (England) and a few other publications have covered Jugha’s destruction.

Educate yourselves and let others know about the sinister destruction of the world’s largest Armenian medieval cemetery.

REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE 15th OF DECEMBER…

A Turkish cartoon.

FINE, I will mention this boring news. "17-year-old Armenian super-talent Zaven Andriasian" has become World Junior Champion in Chess earlier today. Why are Armenians so good in chess and so bad in other sports? This is like my 10th post reporting of Armenian chess champions.

Orhan Pamuk’s Nobel Prize

Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish novelist who has won this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature, is not an overtly political writer. But like every serious artist, Mr. Pamuk lives in a world where the freedom to speak the truth has to be reasserted every day against political forces that would rather not hear it.

Mr. Pamuk’s prize is richly deserved. It was awarded for a body of work, fiction and nonfiction, that is driven by the conscience of imagination as well as the conscience of memory. In books like “Snow,” “My Name Is Red” and “Istanbul,” he has made Turkey, past and present, a vital part of the modern reader’s literary atlas. And in turn, it is Turkey that has given Mr. Pamuk his political edge.

Islamists and Turkish nationalists tend to think of Mr. Pamuk as a literary provocateur, especially for his brief but candid remarks about the Armenian genocide quoted in a Swiss magazine last year. But we think Mr. Pamuk was speaking the truth. For the sake of art and conscience, he has resisted any effort to quiet his literary voice.

Some of those efforts, like the offer to become a Turkish “state artist,” which he declined, were flattering. Others, like the recent prosecution against him, since dropped, for anti-Turkish remarks, were not so flattering.

Mr. Pamuk’s Nobel will be a popular one, except, of course, among people who believe that artists should be allowed to work only under political or religious supervision. His prize is also a reminder of how often the Nobel has been given to a writer whose work exposes the tension between the state and the artist.

We read Mr. Pamuk’s books as they should be read ­ for the imaginative and linguistic pleasure in them ­ seldom remembering that every artist’s freedom to speak is our freedom, too. This prize helps us remember that.

First Turkish Nobelist Orhan Pamuk’s mother has commented to Sabah newspaper about her son’s remarks on the Armenian massacres.

She said, “I myself have no idea about this issue,” yet ended up calling her son’s remark “false,” according to Sabah’s October 16, 2006 Online edition.

Şekure Basman said, “Orhan probably knew false things about history. I think he doesn't have much information about the subject. No one teaches these things in school. I myself have no idea about this issue. Orhan told something false to a reporter from a small Swedish newspaper. But the Turkish press has over exaggerated his statements. Although the government tried to veil it, Turkish press has raked it up and took great pleasure for doing it.”

She also noted the media should be blamed for making noise about her son’s Armenian comments.

The old Mummy tried to appease the Turkish public but also noted important things: the Armenian Genocide is not taught at school; she has no idea about it; yet she thinks her son knows false things about history.

I think Sabah should have left the old lady to celebrate her son’s achievement and don’t attack her with questions about the Armenian Genocide. The poor thing has no idea about the issue; she wisely made it clear.

The complete article is available at http://english.sabah.com.tr/3105A05C05A84A…FFD0468E8A.html.