As I-Newswire informs, www.Genocide.com, a forum on genocide, writes about the destruction of Old Julfa:

The administration of www.Genocide.com is shocked with the sinister denial of the Azerbaijani party, and is adding its voice to the international community in protesting the destruction of Old Julfa’s ancient cemetery.

The Azerbaijani propagandists are in the hunt for new methods of denying the recent destruction of the ancient Armenian cemetery of Old Julfa. The latest shameless denial states, “Claims on existence of Armenian graveyard in Julfa are historically and ethnically baseless.”

Azer-Press Informsiya Agentliyi, an Azerbaijani source, quotes Dr. Vali Bakhshaliyev, a member of Azerbaijan’s National Academy of Sciences, as saying, “The claims of Armenian[s] are historically and ethnically groundless. There was not any Armenian graveyard in Julfa.” Dr. Bakhshaliyev referred to the publication of photographs and videos from mid-December (2005), which showed about 100 Azerbaijani soldiers destroying the last historic headstones (khachkars) of the Armenian cemetery of Old Julfa (Hin Jugha).

The historic cemetery of Old Julfa is so famous that to deny it ever existed – means to deny that the planet Earth exists. Even Azerbaijani websites enclose information about the cemetery (www.Azerb.com, for instance, writes, “Today you can still imagine Julfa's former grandeur, visiting what's left of… the vast cemetery with thousands of artistically sculpted tomb stones known as ‘Khachkars.’”). The ridiculous lies about Julfa’s nonexistence are hopeless tactics of denial. Before Dr. Bakhshaliyev’s announcements, the Azerbaijani media had fabricated information about “destruction of Azerbaijani holy place in Armenia” with the denialist ideology of “we did – but you did it too.” Apparently, the propaganda of the “destruction of Azerbaijani holy place in Armenia” had not been successful.

The Christian cemetery of Julfa, as stated in a letter of the American congressmen Joe Knollenberg and Frank Pallone Jr. to the Azerbaijani Ambassador, “is known to specialists to have housed as many as 10,000 of these intricately carved khachkar headstones, up to 2,000 of which were still intact after an earlier outbreak of vandalism on the same site in 2002.” Back in 1648, according to Alexander Rodes’ data, there were 10,000 well-preserved headstones in Julfa, many as old as the 8th century. After Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin annexed Nakhichevan from Armenia and signed it off to Azerbaijan in the 1920s, the Armenian population of Nakhichevan (where Julfa is situated) was wiped out. Since then, many Armenian monuments (ancient cathedrals and thousands of beautifully-carved headstones) have been raised to the ground. Steven Sim from Scotland, who visited the ruins of the Armenian holy places in Nakichevan, affirmed in 2005: “a special state policy of destruction is being implemented in Azerbaijan.”

Photographs from the mid-December (2005) destruction of Old Julfa are available at http://www.armenica.org/history/old-jougha/index.html…

– from http://genocide.com/showthread.php?t=59

Due to the denial of the Armenian genocide, the Jewish Holocaust is well taught in Turkey and Turks praise themselves for "saving Jews during the Holocaust." For example, look at the denialist hatesite www.tallarmeniantale.com, where the "mysterious" Hold Water writes about "Turkey's Role as Savior of Many Jews."

Turks accepting Jewish refugees from Spain

The idea is to show that Turks are incapable of genocide, and are very passionate about defending victims. Needless to say, one of the main “arguments” of the Turkish denial of the Armenian genocide is that Turks have saved so many Jews during the Holocaust that Turks could have never committed genocide against the Armenians. But more often is mentioned the fact, that during the Spanish inquisition the Ottoman Turkish Sultan gave refuge to Spanish Jews: thus, stopping a potential genocide to take place.

Well, there is no even need to mention that Turkey was Nazi Germany’s ally during WWII; but it is not the only thing. According to Yad Vashem (the biggest Holocaust memorial and museum in the world), only one Turk saved Jews during the Holocaust. Moreover, on 4 January 2006, Jihad Watch published it’s Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald’s comments, that reveal many things about the Turkish “saviors” of the Jews:

As for the belief of assorted Turkish antisemites that Turkey has always been "good to the Jews," this is nonsense. The Jews who settled in Salonika after their expulsion from Spain replaced a previous community of Jews whom the Ottomans had displaced, and it was not generosity but raison d'etat that prompted this: the Jews were felt to be less of a threat than Christians. What's more, they could dilute the Christian position in Salonika and possibly could be expected, as a weak and isolated community, to more readily do the bidding of the Ottoman government, as grateful and economically active dhimmis (not to mention the fact that the padishahin, or Sultans, always took Jewish doctors, believing them to be superior in their knowledge — you can even find note taken of this in the Topkapi compound).

But Jews in the Balkans were subject to the forced levy of children, or devshirme, though few seem to recall this. And Jews were subject to all the legal disabilities that other non-Muslim populations suffered from. But in the fantasy world of Turkish belief, one in which some Jewish commentators have willingly participated, the Jews of Turkey were treated practically like kith and kin.

For another illustration of the real Turkish behavior, on December 12, 1941 the dilapidated and leaking Struma, a ship loaded with more than 800 desperate Jewish refugees from the Nazis, left the Rumanian port of Constanta. A few days later the engine died. It was eventually towed into the harbor of Istanbul, and then, once more after a brief period, the Turks, not wishing to offend the Germans, towed the ship out into international waters. On February 12, 1942 an explosion — very likely caused by the Soviet navy, which had been ordered by Stalin to attack any ship entering the Black Sea beyond Turkish waters — caused the ship to sink. More than 800 people died. There was one survivor. The Turks might have let those refugees land, but did not. That failure belies the claims of Turks that they have always befriended the Jews.

As for the experience of the Jews of Palestine under Turkish rule, the local Turkish satrap was making plans for genocide on the Armenian model when World War I intervened. Nonetheless, Turkish behavior during the war led half the Jewish population to leave the area that would become Mandatory Palestine. During the war the famous agronomist Aronsohn, his sister Sarah Aronsohn, and others provided intelligence to the British that was far more valuable (as British intelligence agents explicitly recognized) than the few hundred horsemen, exaggerated into a "100,000 men," that Abdullah provided T. E. Lawrence. Those horsemen did little more than harry, ineffectively, the Turks on the Hejaz railway line. The Aronsohns and other members of the Nili Group (as it was called) were caught and killed; Sarah Aronsohn was tortured, but managed to commit suicide to prevent worse.

That a handful of prominent Jewish refugees did spend the war in Turkey, and some — one thinks of Erich Auerbach, who re-wrote his important literary study "Mimesis" from scratch after having lost the first draft — were grateful to the Turkish government. And one can still find, in those used bookstores along Istiqlal Caddesi, the odd volumes belonging to German Jewish scholars who continued to live in Turkey well into the 1960s and even 1970s, and then gradually, died out.
– from http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/arch…74.php#comments

I just watched (4 January 2006) the first part of “Walking the Bible” on PBS (America’s Public TV). I was stunned with the unbelievably ridiculous information provided in the part of the Mount Ararat. I don’t find other words, rather than “complete idiots” to describe the people who shot that “documentary” and wrote the part. Moreover, the “documentary” plagiarized information from a National Geographic article!

The most ridiculous information was that Mount Ararat situated at the “Iranian-Iraqi border, highly populated by the Kurds.” (of course the journalist knows that he was in eastern Turkey, but the information was misrepresented in a way that it alluded the Mount was in Iraq.)

Well, I guess I cannot argue with the journalist that Ararat “means a lot to the Kurds,” (though he could mention that Ararat has been the national symbol of the Armenians for at least 3000 years, and that every Armenian has a picture of Ararat in her/his home) but what is unbelievable is that the words of Frank Viviano’s “Armenia Reborn” was plagiarized (National Geographic, March 2004). Walking the Bible said, “But Ararat beckons. It is officially closed by the Turks.” This sentence does not make any sense, unless you have read Viviano’s article and you know what he means. What Viviano means (and states), is that Ararat still beckons to Armenians, a people to whom Ararat is officially closed by the Turks (because Turkey blockades the Republic of Armenia). But Walking the Bible said that the mount was closed to the Kurds (this is too ridiculous!). So not only Walking the Bible program plagiarized the words of Frank Viviano, but also gave false information.

Is this how PBS spends the money of American taxpayers?

The official website of the program is http://www.pbs.org/walkingthebible/.

Hovik Hoveyan – a not well-known writer, known better for being the Minster (the head) of Armenia's ministry of culture, puts himself in the row of “all-mighty people,” a class of usually low-educated idiots in Armenia, who think they can do whatever they want without being responsible to any laws.

Մնում էր` Հովիկը <<լավ տղա>> դառնար…

The Irish Examiner reports on 4 January 2006, "Armenia’s culture minister attacked and pistol-whipped two utility workers today after electricity was cut off to his flat, police said.

Police were investigating Ovik Oveyan, but no arrests had been made as of this evening, police spokesman Sayat Shirinyan said.

According to a prosecuting official, Mr Oveyan called officials at the Armenian Electric Network sometime before noon when a problem with an electric cable shut off power to his apartment. The official asked to remain unnamed since he was not authorised to speak to the media.

After arguing with an official, Mr Oveyan, his son and several friends drove to the network’s offices and with a pistol attacked at least two officials, who later had to seek medical treatment for head wounds, the official said."

UPDATE: As Armenian Liberty reported on 5 January 2005, Hovik Hoveyan left his job after the incident. bye idioto

As European Jewish Press reports, "On 12 December, 19 historians signed the 'Freedom for History' petition, demanding the removal of legislation on Holocaust denial and denial of the Armenian genocide, as well as a law that condemns slavery as a crime against humanity. They claim the legislation undermines their research work. "

This information was highly published in Turkish newspapers, but, needless to say, for Turks "19 historians" were "French historians" and the talk was not about Holocaust and Genocide denial, but about the removal of "so-called Armenian Genocide claims" (see Zaman's French Historians 'Jointly' Ask Annulment of Armenian Genocide Law ).

What Turkish newspapers are not happy to announce now, is that, according to European Jewish Press, "The call to suppress anti-revisionist laws was dismissed on 2 January by LICRA, the league against racism and anti-Semitism and on 20 December, 32 intellectuals signed a petition entitled 'let’s not mix everything up' to counter the first initiative. "

The year of 2006 for the denialists had a bad beginning… Fortunately!

Samira, a Canadian girl of Iranian heritage whom I met last year in Toronto, wrote from Germany about her experience of visiting a former Nazi concentration camp. Here is what she wrote in the last part of her letter on 3 January 2006:

i am currently in berlin and today visited the sachsenhausen concentration camp
located on the outskirts of berlin…it was exhausting…physically and
emotionally.

particularly traumatic was the pathology rooms where the scientists would do
their experiments…

even the germans do not like to talk about these events…
there is also such a large turkish population here and i can't help seeing
some sort of correlation between the denying genocidiares.

Harut Sassounian, the publisher of the California Courier, called my last letter to an American publication "alleged masterpiece." Since some people liked my alleged masterpiece, I am posting it here for our readers:

A historical photo of alleged victims of the Armenian genocide.

– from http://www.thejewishadvocate.com/this_week…?content_id=689
[a bigger version of the "alleged photo" is available here. – Blogian]

Dear alleged Ted Siefer,

I read your alleged article in the alleged Jewish
Advocate about the alleged Armenian genocide at the
alleged website
http://www.thejewishadvocate.com/this_week…?content_id=689.

The alleged photo of the alleged victims of the
alleged Armenian genocide you posted, shows the
alleged Armenians and some alleged Armenian skulls of
alleged Urfa, where my alleged grandparents were
allegedly murdered during the alleged WWI. My alleged
great-grandfather's alleged name was Gevork Maghakyan,
and he was allegedly shot in the alleged Armenian
cathedral of alleged St. Mary, where many alleged
Armenians, including my other alleged relatives, were
allegedly burnt alive.

Happy Alleged New Year to you and thank you for
calling my family members alleged victims. I hope it
makes you feel special and unique!

With alleged best wishes,

Alleged Simon Maghakyan from alleged Littleton,
Colorado

[2 Jan 2006]

Fabricated Propaganda Seconded

The fabricated propaganda of the “destruction of Agadede – an Azerbaijani sanctuary in Armenia” was “criticized” by the Caucasian Muslim Department (CMA). The Muslim organization, according to www.muslimnews.co.uk , stated that the “sacrilege of Armenians will not stay unpunished.” CMA did not, nevertheless, specify how Armenians would be punished for “destroying ancient Muslim holy site Agadede.”

“Neither in Yerevan suburbs, nor in Masis settlement there has never been any Azeri sanctuary named Agadede,” reported head of Research of Armenian Architecture NGO Samvel Karapetyan… “The reports of the Azeri party on destruction of an Agadede sanctuary situated near Yerevan aim at misleading the international community and conceal the fact of barbaric destruction of Armenian Khachkars (headstones) at Old Julfa cemetery in Nakhichevan,” Karapetyan added, reported IA Regnum.

– from www.panarmenian.net/news/eng/?nid=15926

The allegations of the destruction of “Agadede” (a place that, Research on Armenian Architecture NGO says, never situated in the Republic of Armenia) were published in the Azerbaijani media right after the last remains of the ancient Armenian cemetery of Old Julfa (Hin Jugha) were destroyed by Azerbaijani soldiers in mid-December, 2005. The infamous demolition of Old Julfa’s last Christian remains was photographed and videotaped. Photographs are available at the Web site of the Catholicosate of Cilicia (http://www.cathcil.org/v04/doc/Photos/Pictures109.htm). The video, taped by the Armenian Prelacy of Iran at the Iranian-Azerbaijani border, is available at www.azerivandalism.cjb.net; the same file (clearer view, but larger file) is also available at www.julfa.cjb.net.

Muslims protest against desecration of Muslim relic in Armenia

29-12-2005

Moscow, Regnum:

The Caucasian Muslim Department (CMD) expresses protest against destruction of ancient Muslim holy site Agadede and its cemetery, situated near Yerevan.

As the CMD informed Azeri-Pres, “this sacrilege of Armenians will not stay unpunished, the CMD expresses protest to the Armenian side and will ask international organizations to investigate this case of relic destruction.”

– from the Muslim News: http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=10395

The ridiculous fabrication of “the destruction of Agadede” uses the common denial technique of “we did it – but you did it too.” The Azerbaijani government once again does not desire to stop and, needless to say, accept its vandalistic policy of eliminating the Armenian memory.

Speaking of Myths…

12/29/05

By: Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich

Iran’s president Ahamadinejad created a political tsunami when he stated that the Holocaust was a “myth”. Not a single shore around the world was left immune. Tragically, the epicenter, Iran, is beginning to receive the worst aftershocks imaginable. As the international community reacts to Ahmadinejad’s outrageous rhetoric, they are making plans to embark on punitive measures against the innocent Iranian people – Sanctions and military strike have become common talk – losing site of the real victims, the Iranians.

Of course the Holocaust was not a myth. Humanity must never forget nor repeat its dark history. However, it does beg the question where is the outrage over the Armenian genocide? Why is humanity so mute in light of the Darfur genocide and why are we not stopping it? Surely that is no “myth”. Humanity cannot be selective in its denial of genocide. History is unforgiving.

But back to “myths”, here is another…

The United States is not the world’s superpower. Israel is. The US is at the command of Israel, or at least its foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East is; especially in light of Iran, its regime, and its nuclear program, which AIPAC has insisted that the Bush administration is not doing enough to stop and destroy. As the Christian Coalition president Roberta Combs stated: “Our Heart is with Israel”, and as such, “It is very important for people of faith to know where our legislators stand on support for Israel.” One need only be reminded of the Christian coalition behind President Bush in 2004 to draw the line…

However, life dictates that we dispense with myths and deal with reality.

Maybe Ahmadinejad just wants to be the hero of another war. It may be that it is easier for the US to drop phosphorous on Iraqis than to stop the genocide in Darfur. Perhaps it is convenient to deny the Armenian genocide…

Perhaps myths are more comfortable to live with….

Source: Payvand Iran News: http://www.payvand.com/news/05/dec/1237.html