David Gaunt from Södertörn University College (Stockholm) visited the Turkish archives last week to research WWI documents. He has prepared a report, which I am posting at the “comments” section.

According to Gaunt, the Ottoman archives are open, but some documents cannot be “found.” He writes, “Apparently some telegrams sent by Talaat from the Ministry of Interior inquiring about the number of deportees at the end of September 1915 were removed sometime before cataloging in 1991.”

One telegram surprised me and this was an order coming from Talaat to give amnesty to convicted prisoners who would be willing to join the gendarmes and the gangs (he used the term chete) for organizing the deportations. Many of the survivors and other observers mention that criminals were a large part of the taskforces that rounded up Christians in the towns and larger villages, but I did not think that this could be confirmed.

via e-mail communication

A friend from school dropped me off at home around 9:30pm. I don’t usually stay at school that late, but today we had a fascinating lecture at Arapahoe Community College by Daryl Davis, an African-American who has interviewed, converted and studied Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members.

KKK, as Mr. Davis explained, was founded in 1865 by mostly Scottish and Irish Masons. It is due to the Masonic tradition that the overall head of the Klan is called “imperial wizard” (like president), the local leader “grand dragon” (this is like a governor), etc.

“There is no the Ku Klux Klan anymore,” said Mr. Davis. There are many Ku Klux Klans now and some of them are very hostile toward each other.

Davis, who has been to 49 countries but has found racism in his native America only, says, “our ideology needs to catch up with our technology” (referring to the American nationalistic “greatest nation on Earth” slogan).

I do no want to tell all the details of how he got acquainted with Ku Klux Kan (you can find that in his “Klan-Destine Relationships: A Black Man's Odyssey in the Ku Klux Klan” book, which I am planning to read next week), but the ugliest thing I learned about KKK is that they celebrate April 4 (Martin Luther King Junior’s assassination date) with T-shirts saying, “Our Dream Became Reality.”

“Ignorance–> fear–> hate.” – D. Davis

Mr. Davis had brought with him the robe of former KKK imperial wizard Roger Kelly, whose attitude, undoubtedly, had changed due to his encounter with Daryl Davis.

You can visit his official website at http://daryldavis.com/, which also reveals Davis’s other talents.

A newest movie with Armenian name, “The Yacoubian Building,” based on Alaa Al Aswany’s novel, has nothing to do with Armenians (except that the building was built by an Armenian, hence Yacoubian). Saves some life for Turkish hatewriters .

Mat Schulz’s 13 Feb 2006 article (The Sydney Morning Herald) on the Ukrainian city Lviv’s Old Town, which UNESCO has made a World Heritage site, says for him “the most beautiful [church] is the Armenian cathedral, built in 1370.”

(from www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~sedgwick/PhotoGallery.htm)

I hope Schulz will never find out that thousands of similar beautiful churches were destroyed in the Republics of Turkey and Azerbaijan in the last several decades.

Vice President Dick Cheney accepts a rifle from National Rifle Association President Kayne Robinson, right, and NRA Vice President Wayne R. LaPierre.
Photo: Gene J. Puska (from www.smh.com.au)

As AP reports, "US Vice President Dick Cheney… accidentally shot and wounded a 78-year-old man while the two of them were hunting on a ranch in South Texas."

Here again. The “Pro-Armenian” New York Times is reporting on the last Armenian-Azerbaijani meeting in France labeling the Armenian fight for freedom “occupation.”

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, centre with back to camera, and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, center, pose before talks over the disputed Nagorno Karabakh enclave, Friday, Feb. 10, 2006, at the Rambouillet Castle, west of Paris France. Kocharyan and Aliyev to talk about ending an 18-year-old conflict over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Others are unidentified. (AP Photo/Patrick Kovarik, Pool)

Noting that the Paris talk between Armenian President Robert Kocharian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev over Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was not successful, New York Times reporter Katrin Bennhold is summarizing the conflict in the following subjective and oilized paragraph:

Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountainous territory in southwestern Azerbaijan that has been under Armenian occupation since a cease-fire in 1994 ended years of fighting in which at least 18,000 people were killed. The region is strategically important, lying at the crossroads of Russia, Central Asia and the Middle East, and it is a main transit route for oil.

First of all, Nagorno-Karabakh has not been under “Armenian occupation” since 1994. For the last 2000 or so years the region has been populated by Armenians (if this is what is meant by “Armenian occupation”). It has been part of many united Armenian kingdoms and it has been part of the Armenian Republic of 1918-1920 and later signed off to Soviet Azerbaijan by Soviet tyrant Stalin. In 1991 the population of Nagorno-Karabakh held a referendum, within Soviet legal system, voting for becoming an independent country. When Azerbaijan made clear it would not let Karabakh to be free, local Armenians and Armenians from the Republic of Armenia showed that Karabakh’s freedom could be gained by force.

The note of “a main transit route for oil” reminds of a non-popular movie, featuring Omar Shariff, which basically said the war for Nagorno-Karabakh was between America and Russia and was meant to gain the oil of Baku (according to the movie, America/Azerbaijan won the war).

Once upon a time we wrote about the infamous tactics of the Azerbaijani government to justify the murder of Gurgen Margaryan by Azerbaijani lieutenant Ramil Safarov. The latter is on trial in Hungary.

As noted earlier, Azerbaijan has tried to “show” Hungarian society what a victimized but great nation Azerbaijan, hence its “hero” Ramil Safarov, is. For this, “Days of Azerbaijani Culture” were set to be organized in Hungary. After the news, I did not hear about those “Days of Azerbaijani Culture” anymore; perhaps nobody attended it or it has not taken place yet.

Gurgen Margaryan of Armenia, 26, was hacked to death while asleep by Ramil Safarov, a Lieutenant of the Azerbaijani Army on 19 February 2004. Both were participants of an English language training course within the framework of the NATO-sponsored “Partnership for Peace” program held in Budapest, Hungary. More on the murder at http://budapest.sumgait.info/.

Either way, Azerbaijan has switched the tactic to its alternative resource of “pressure”- oil. As the “State Information Agency of Azerbaijan” informs on 11 February 2006, “HUNGARIANS FAMILIARIZE WITH AZERBAIJAN OIL STRATEGY.”

During the “familiarization” with Azerbaijani oil strategy, the Hungarian representatives were again reminded, “that as a result of Armenian aggressive policy, 20% of Azeri territories were occupied and over 1 mln refugees remained without roof.”

In short, want oil for Safarov?

In many forums you will continuously read the question whether ASALA (Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia) still exists. For me ASALA exists, because the Armenian question is still in existence.

A report from Noyan Tapan News agency (7 February 2006), as www.armeniangenocide.com posts, informs that former political prisoners and fighters of ASALA have joint in "Ukht Ararati" (Oath of Ararat) non-governmental organization to peacefully continue their fight for reinforcing the treaty of Sevres, which granted Armenians of modern eastern Turkey the right to have a united republic within a large area of historic Armenia.

Turkish nationalists continue their accusations of “ASALA-terror,” reminding that the fighters of ASALA reportedly assassinated several Turkish diplomats in the 1970s and later.

ASALA stopped its military actions in the early 1980s, but arguably had input in the 1990s’ liberation of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), an Armenian region, that along with Nakhichevan, had been signed off to Soviet Azerbaijan by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

From its birth (1975) until today, ASALA has published dozens of newspapers in different languages.

Last year Armenia Liberty published a few articles regarding the desecration of the Holocaust memorial in Yerevan, capital of Armenia.

This year one did not hear similar news, but it turns out, as Emil Danielyan writes on 2 February 2006 in an Armenian weekly, the memorial was vandalized on 26 January 2006, just a day before Jews throughout the world commemorated their greatest tragedy.

Who would do such a thing in a country like Armenia, where almost every person’s family has been affected by the Armenian genocide? Well, there are idiots everywhere; also Russian anti-Semitism seems to have influence on certain Armenians. Another reason, not justifiable indeed, is Israeli government’s official denial of the Armenian genocide, which is not, however, backed by most Jews.

Archival photo: On September 17, 2004-the last day of the Jewish New Year celebration, anonymous criminals painted a white cross and the “Satan” 666 number on Yerevan's Holocaust memorial (from www.168.am)

Danielyan writes, “The majority of people passing by the ‘Paplavok’ cafe’s round park [in downtown Yerevan] don’t even notice the small monument. Some people who actually see the monument are amazed that David’s star is a little faded. They can see many holes and scratches on the monument. About two months ago, someone had tried to erase the Jewish symbol with a hammer and a sharp metal. But after he saw that it was useless, he left. Now the damage is pretty serious.”

One should also note the response of ordinary Armenians to this horrific vandalism. The workers of the mentioned café, for instance, clean the monument every time whenever it is being vandalized. The head of the Jewish community of Armenia, Rima Feller-Varzhapetyan, says the vandalism “has nothing to do with Armenian politics or the Armenian people.” Ms. Varzhapetyan finds that those who vandalize Armenia’s Holocaust memorial have an agenda “to make everyone believe that there is Anti-Semitism in Armenia. But that doesn’t exist here.”

Even if there is not Anti-Semitism in Armenia, as the Jewish community head says, there is apparently a problem in Armenia. Indeed, there will always be found people who deny the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide, but this does not justify the vandalism.

One will argue that Israel has almost officially denied the Armenian genocide, so why should Armenians act otherwise? Well, shouldn’t the first official Christian nation follow Jesus’ command to “Do unto others as you would have them do to you”?

The Jewish community has decided to replace the raped Holocaust memorial with a larger one, which “will be dedicated to the victims of all the genocides committed in the past century, including the Holocaust…”

I personally think the Holocaust memorial should be placed in Tsitsernakaberd, next to the Armenian Genocide Memorial, because both of these tragedies have many commonalities. I know that Israeli government would never do the same in Tel-Aviv, but I prefer to go with “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.”

According to Ms. Varzhapetyan, “the [Jewish] community has started to make donations for the construction of the [new] monument. Currently, only the Jews have made contributions.”

I have already contacted some Armenian organizations in the U.S. to see whether they would like to sponsor the replacement of the Holocaust memorial with a larger one. Blogian readers, who would like to contribute to the construction of the monument, can contact the Jewish Community of Yerevan at Address: Nar-Dosa str. 23
Yerevan, 375018 Armenia Phone: (37410) 57-16-77 Fax: (37410) 55-41-32 Web: www.fjc.ru/yerevan.

Via group e-mail, I received the list of “73 lawsuits that are currently filed in Turkey on cases concerning the exercise of the right for the expression of freedom of thought” from Turkish professor Fatma Gocek. The list contains the name of the accused, the legal code, the action considered criminal and the court date.

To mention a few “crimes” from the list:

HADEP(Çermik)’s offense is “Kurdish music at the Congress” (I assume he played or sang it), İbrahim Özden Kaboğlu’s crime is publishing “Working Group Report on Minority and Cultural Rights,” Aziz Özer’s crime is writing an article titled “No to Occupational Partnership in Iraq,” Aydoğan İnal’s crime is the writing “405 Turkish soldiers raped a Kurdish Woman: are these the soldiers the Iraqi popualce awaits?” and Mehmet Cemal Kavak’s crime is a talk given at the night organized at Anatolian Folk Culture Music Festival!

I am posting the whole list in the “comments” section of this entry.