When, in February 2006, the European Parliament officially condemned Azerbaijan’s December 2005 deliberate destruction of the world’s largest Armenian medieval cemetery – Djulfa – the Azeri authorities denied European delegations’ visit to the site.

Azerbaijan, which still claims Djulfa was never destroyed because it didn’t exist in the first place, then said that it would only agree to the visit IF the delegation visited Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan (which is impossible since Nagorno-Karabakh is in a technical war with Azerbaijan and the only real way to visit Nagorno-Karabakh is from Armenia).

In an apparent desperation in the face of Azerbaijan’s continuous tricks to keep the delegation out of Djulfa, Edward O’Hara  – head of the PACE Committee on Culture, Science and Education – has now suggested to drop the idea of visiting all countries at the same time and instead start off by visiting Azerbaijan first.

Azerbaijan’s response? NO WAY JOSE! Read the rest of the post at the Djulfa Blog.

It turns out that Armenian killings continue all over Turkey in patriotic celebrations, and new photographs reveal that Turkey’s president Abdullah Gül participated in a February 12, 2008 ceremony where French soldiers of Armenian descent were killed by the Turkish army in a theatrical play.

Image: Turkish president Abdullah Gül (right) cheers after a Muslim Turk, portrayed by one of the locals in Marash during a February 12, 2008 celebration, kills French-uniformed Armenians for forcing Muslim women to remove their veils. Gül seems to invest on hatred against Armenians in his goal to lift headscarf ban in Turkish schools.

Set to commemorate Turkish nationalists’ “liberation” of Marash, an Ottoman Armenian city under French occupation following the Genocide, the February 12 event recalls Turkish interpretation of the 1919 Marash events in Cilicia, the region of Armenia’s last kingdom currently part of Turkey. In the words of Turkish nationalist historian Ahmet Eyicil:

[…]

Among the French troops that came to Maraş were 40 Muslims from Alegeria and 4000 Armenians. The Armenians patrolling the city in French uniforms began to harass the women and suppress the people . They told to women “will you wander around under veil?” and forced them to “open your veils.” A retired Gendarme Çakmakcı Sait who was trying to prevent the Armenians harassing the women was shot and wounded. He later became a martyer. The Armenians, which came to the city in groups of 500 in French uniforms, asked the people where the whorehouse was. They later chanted the slogans “long live the Clichia Armenia. Down with the people against it.” Furthermore, they trampled on brade they bought from a store.The Armenians started to disturb the people on the streets from 31 October 1919, the second day of the French occupation. The indigenous Armenians gave alcoholic beverages to the newcomers. Some of the Armenian drunken soldiers molested the Muslim women coming out of historical Uzun Oluk baths. They force them to open their veils shouting “this is not a Turkish city any more . You can not walk around with veils. You must open your faces.” The women screamed for help. Upon all these a Turk named Imam who was selling milk in the neighboring shop came out shouting “you infidels! That is enough!” He pulled his gun and killed one and wounded two of them. This incident known as “Sütcü Imam or Uzunoluk incident” in the history spark off a great fight between the Armenians and the Turks . Two more Armenians were killed and fourteen people from both sides got wounded . This increased the Armenian oppression and the atrocities. The Armenians supported by the French started to shot each Muslim they met on the spot saying “this must be from Kuvay-I- milliye.” They started to kill the men and rape the women.

[…]

Interestingly, this celebration not only testifies to the omnipresent and seen-as-normal hatred against Armenians in Turkey, but also President Gül’s attempt to manipulate hatred against Armenians for his Islamic party’s cause to lift headscarf ban in universities.

The Marash celebration where Armenian men are killed after attacking Muslim civilians is only one in a series of theatrical plays in Turkey that have apparently been going on since the Armenian population was exterminated in what is today Turkey during and after WWI. Some Turkish newspapers criticized earlier this year the theatrical killing of Armenians in Van and in Erzurum, both former Armenian cities in modern Turkey. While this is the first year when some Turks are expressing outrage against the theatrical killings – perhaps in the light of Hrant Dink’s assassination – the celebrations, many say, have been going on for 90 years.

According to Asbarez:

Armenian residents from Batman province in Turkey have begun demanding assets–churches and cemeteries–which have been abandoned since 1915.

The Istanbul-based Sassoun Armenian Relief and Cultural Society, whose members are descendents of Armenians from Batman, Bitlis, Moush and Van has begun a movement to reclaims Armenian churches, cemeteries and other assets.

Established in 2006, the organization’s has begun researching real estate deed registries to pinpoint the said assets, announced the organization’s president Aziz Daghc. “The organization was established in Istanbul, since government officials are more willing to work with non-Muslims,” said Daghc.

These abandoned assets have either been confiscated by the state and are being used for various purposes or have been sold to third parties. The organization is meticulously researching each asset to approach the proper entities for their return to the community.

For example, in the Batman province, efforts are underway to have control signed over to the Armenian community of the Gomg Church, which is being used as a barn, atop the Mareto Mountain and the Ardzvig village church and cemetery.

Daghc has sent an appeal to the proper authorities in Batman province pointing out that the region has no mechanism to defend the Armenian population, which regularly is under attack solely because of their national origin.

The appeal also cites provisions of the Lausanne Treaty, which call for the state to protect churches, cemeteries and other assets belonging to minorities and not purpose them for other uses or sell them to third parties.

Turkey has apparently banned an 11-year-old organization that has been promoting Turkish-Armenian reconciliation through business. 

The Turkish-Armenian Business Development Council (TABDC), according to its website, “is the first and only official link between the public and private sectors in each of the two countries’ communities.”

A TABDC press release, received in e-mail, states:

TURKISH-ARMENIAN BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL – EUROPEAN UNION

Brussels, Belgium

May 9, 2008

TABDC-EU calls for Turkish government to reconsider ban On February 26, 2008, the Turkish-Armenian Business Development Council – EU was ordered by the Turkish Ministry of Interior to cease its activities in Turkey.

The TABDC is a unique organization seeking to establish links between Turkey and Armenia. As one of the rare links between the two countries and one working for the common good, TABDC-EU asks the Turkish government to reconsider its unfortunate decision.

Some media organizations have begun to cover this story and expressed an interest which the TABDC welcomes. In apparent contradiction to the recent diplomatic overture by Foreign Minister Babacan to his Armenian colleague, the banning of TABDC-EU is sending mixed signals regarding the Turkish government’s intentions. This is particularly unfortunate at this stage of Turkey’s accession process and on the eve of another European Parliament report on Turkey’s accession.

“The rejection letter by the Ministry of the Interior in Ankara is all the more surprising as this same [AKP] government had sought help from the TABDC a few years ago to establish contact with Armenians in Armenia and the Diaspora”, said TABDC Co-President Kaan Soyak.

The ability of civil society organizations such as TABDC to build contacts and confidence over time and to promote a common understanding in Armenia, in Turkey and in the EU is beyond question. Particularly in such tense relationships as that between the Turkish and Armenian governments, civil society initiatives are indispensible and must be allowed to operate freely.

Kaan Soyak wishes to correct some press misstatements however. TABDC, since its foundation, has never lobbied one way or the other on the genocide issue. Although the organization recognizes the significance of the issue, it has not included it within its remit. This decision came after careful consideration, and we continue to believe that that it is the most appropriate. We call upon all involved to respect this decision.

While TABDC-EU asks the Turkish Government to re-consider its decision, it will continue to act at its level to promote understanding between the two societies and to help reestablish relations between the two countries.

As the press release alludes, the ban might have to do with the group’s de facto recognition of the Armenian genocide, a crime official Turkish and many nationalists vehemently deny. Soyak himself, for instance, refers to the Armenian genocide as such. TABDC, nonetheless, repeatedly makes clear that their work does not deal with the issue of the genocide.

My sister, who lives in Armenia, has ripped her husband’s passoport into many pieces in front of him. Her action has nothing to do with patriotism or anarchy. She just prevented her husband from traveling to northern Europe for five days at a time when she is getting closer to having her second baby.

She had apparently overheard her husband’s friend convincing him to definitely make the trip because they could have fun with women. While my sister had been reluctant about the this business trip, hearing the conversation she knew it was not going to happen. Her husband’s response? He laughed and, well, he is not going.

Although my sister never uses words like feminism or women’s rights, she resembles a not-so-much discussed traditional feminism that exists in some, but not most, Armenian families.

This story reminded me of what I once read in Armenian-American expressionist Arshile Gorky’s biography. Here is an excerpt as posted at 16Beaver:

“Arshile Gorky’s grandmother, the widow Hamaspiur, had brought the family together to hold a vigil for her youngest son, sixteen-year-old Nishan, who had vanished several days earlier. She suspected that he had been abducted by Kurds, for he had fallen in love with a Kurdish girl whose brother took offense. . . .

Only five years earlier, her husband, Sarkis Der Marderosian, the last of a long line of Armenian apostolic priests, had been nailed to the door of the church where he served in Van
City.”

As the family prayed, there was a thud at the door. Outside, they found Nishan’s blood-drenched  body. Months of wild grief later, “to revenge herself against God,” Hamaspiur set the monastery church on fire.

Images: Pope Benedict XVI (L) greets Supreme Patriarch Catholicos Karekin II of the Holy Armenian Apostolic Church during a weekly general audience at the Vatican May 7, 2008. REUTERS/Osservatore Romano (VATICAN)

Although a Turkish columnist criticized the opening of Akhtamar island’s Surp Khach church as “cultural genocide” due to its conversion to a museum, last year’s restoration of Van lake’s ancient Armenian church in eastern Turkey was an unprecedented event in a country where thousands of Armenian monuments have been either deliberately destroyed or neglected.

The one-year-old story of the reopening ceremony of the church is told in detail by VirtualAni in a post accompanied by photographs and speech transcripts.

ArmenianHouse.org, a trilingual virtual library, has posted several old Armenian jokes. As one would expect, these jokes don’t actually seem funny. The closest that gets to being funny, in my opinion, is the following (written by Vartan Aygektsi, 12-13 century):

Մի շատ ժլատ ու հարուստ մարդ մարմար քարից պատրաստել է տալիս իր արձանը։ Ցույց տալով քանդակը բարեկամներից մեկին, նա հարցնում է.

— Ինչպե՞ս է քանդակված, նմա՞ն է արդյոք ինձ։

— Եվ հոգով, և մարմնով շատ է նման քեզ,— պատասխանում է բարեկամը։

[A cheap but rich person has his statue made of marble. Showing the statue to some of his relatives, he asks, “How is It? Does it look like me?”

– It does! Physically and spiritually, answers the relative. ]

Video snapshot: An Azerbaijani truck dumps ancient Armenian gravestones, khachkars, into the River Arax in December 2005. The destruction ammounted to the complete annihilation of the world’s largest medieval Armenian cemetery, Djulfa. For more photos see www.djulfa.com/photos/

Armenia’s ex-presidential candidate Vahan Hovhannisian from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) has said that the December 2005 destruction of Djulfa (Jugha) cemetery by Azerbaijan should have been the point for Armenia to pull out of negotiations with Azerbaijan over the conflict of Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh).

Hovhannisian is quoted in ArmeniaNow as saying: “The day Azerbaijan began to barbarically destroy the monuments in Jugha, we had to leave the negotiation process. You would see what would happen: they would try to keep us, would seek our forgiveness.”

I am not sure whether I agree with Hovhannisyan or not. Although I have devoted the last two years working for Djulfa awareness (and today received my University’s Outstanding Undergraduate Award largely for my work on Djulfa) and am currently writing my honors thesis on its legal implications, Azerbaijan might be looking for an excuse to militarily attack Armenia. 

The deputy is correct in the sense that the destruction and its aftermath should be in the top list of Armenia’s ongoing talks with Azerbaijan.

The April 1, 2008 news by a newsletter from Cyprus informing about the return of an occupied Armenian quarter in Nicosia by the Turks was an April Fools Day joke. But before the newsletter confessed the joke, several online Armenian websites used the information.

On April 1 Gibrahayer sent the following e-mail to its subscribers:

Nicosia April 1, 2008 – Gibrahayer – The opening of Ledra street as agreed by President Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat has brought about prospects for fresh restructuring of the Paphos Gate, that extends a hundred meters from the Ledra street check point.

To that end the Armenian quarter at Paphos Gate – now under Turkish occupation – is being returned to the rightful owners, the Armenian community of Cyprus.

As announced a few years ago the Armenian quarter on Victoria street, comprising of The Sourp Asdvadzadzin Church, The Armenian Prelature, The Armenian Genocide Memorial, the Melikian-Ouzounian elementary school and The Armenian Kindergarten started going through major renovations, funded by the UNOPS which have taken place on quarters on both side of Nicosia.

It is expected that the Armenian quarter on Victoria street will return to our community in a better condition than before the invasion and inter-community troubles.

The following day, the newsletter sent the following e-mail:

April 2, Nicosia, 2008

Dear subscribers,
Instead of our weekly dispatch on Wednesday, we sent out Gibrahayer e-magazine yesterday, because it was April 1, and we wanted to be part of the April Fools Day “celebrations” by sharing these stories with you.

* The Ledra street may be opening today, but Victoria street is not. Nor is the Turkish occupation regime returning the Armenian quarter.

[…]
* Recently, we have all been hearing Turkish voices accepting the Armenian Genocide, but Turkish Cypriots will not be commemorating the 1915 Armenian Genocide at Buyuk Khan on April 24…. well at least this year !

These were the stories that were included in the April Fool’s Day issue and we hope you enjoyed them.

Happy April Fools Day

Gibrahayer e-magazine.

Nice joke. But…

PanArmenian.net, based in Armenia, has just issued the following breaking news:

/PanARMENIAN.Net/The opening of Ledra street in the Cypriot capital of Nicosia, as agreed by President Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, has brought about prospects for fresh restructuring of the Paphos Gate, that extends a hundred meters from the Ledra street check point. To that end the Armenian quarterat Paphos Gate – now under Turkish occupation – is being returned to the rightful owners, the Armenian community of Cyprus.

As announced a few years ago the Armenian quarter on Victoria street, comprising of The Sourp Asdvadzadzin Church, The Armenian Prelature, The Armenian Genocide Memorial, the Melikian-Ouzounian elementary school and The Armenian Kindergarten started going through major renovations, funded by the UNOPS which have taken place on quarters on both side of Nicosia.

It is expected that the Armenian quarter on Victoria street will return to our community in a better condition than before the invasion and inter-community troubles, Gibrahayer Magazine reports.

And HyeTert, based in Turkey, has copy-pasted PanArmenian.net’s above report.