In William Dalrymple’s “From the Holy Mountain” (Owl Books, 1999), I encountered his dialogue with two Turks converting an Armenian cathedral to a mosque.

During his trip to the Middle East, Dalrymple visited Urfa (now Sanliurfa, Republic of Turkey), a heavily Armenian populated city before the Armenian genocide, where my ancestral family is from. Below is an excerpt from page 78:

This ancient cathedral, where 3000 Armenians were burnt in 1915, functioned as fire station until 1994, when it was converted to a mosque. One of the many photos of Urfa’s Armenian cathedral that my Dutch pen pal Dick Osseman took for me in the fall of 2005.

One my way back to the hotel I passed the old Armenian cathedral. Between 1915 and last year it was a fire station; now, as I discovered, it is being converted into a mosque. The altar has been dismantled, leaving the apse empty. A mihrab has been punched into the south wall/ A new carpet covers the floor; outside lies a pile of old ecclesiastical woodwork destined for firewood. Two labourers in baggy pantaloons were at work on the façade, balanced on a rickety lattice of scaffolding, plastering the decorative stonework over the principal arch. I wondered if they knew the history of the building, so I asked them if it was an old mosque.
‘No,’ one of the workmen shouted down. ‘It’s a church.’
‘Greek?’
‘No,’ he said. ‘Armenian.’
‘Are there any Armenians left in Urfa?’
‘No,’ he said, smiling broadly and laughing. His friend made a throat-cutting gesture with his trowel.
‘They’ve all gone,’ said the first man, smiling.
‘Where to?’
The two looked at each other: ‘Israel,’ said the first man, after a pause. He was grinning from ear to ear.
‘I thought Israel was for Jews,’ I said.
‘Jews, Armenians,’ he replied, shrugging his shoulders. ‘Same thing.’
The two men went back to work, cackling with laughter as they did so.

New York Rep. Anthony Weiner speaks during a news conference Saturday Feb. 25, 2006 in New York. Weiner called on Public Broadcasting Service to cancel a discussion program that will feature Armenian genocide deniers. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II/ AP – Sat Feb 25, 12:56 PM ET )

More from Buffalo News

The famous Israeli periodical Haaretz has published a brave column by Gideon Levy, who condemns the three-year imprisonment of Holocaust denier David Irving.

In “Denial is not a reason for arrest,” Levy writes:

Words do not kill. So there is no statement for which it is permissible to send a person to prison. Freedom of speech is absolute, even when that which is spoken is as despicable and ridiculous as Holocaust denial. Those who start to doubt that principle will not know where to stop. Is denial of the Jewish Holocaust deserving of punishment while denial of the Armenian Holocaust, perpetrated by the Turks, is not? And why not? Because "only" a million and a half people were destroyed there?

And what about the world's racist indifference to the destruction of a million Tutsi in Rwanda or the mass murder of 4 million people in the Congo? After all, the world ignores those holocausts even if it does not deny their existence explicitly, and nobody thinks about punishing someone for that outrageous apathy and indifference. The Danish cartoons, which also hurt millions of people, are not deserving of punishment and neither is the denial of the criminal activities of Israel in the territories, even if they are incomparable, of course, to any holocaust. The Jews had a Holocaust, it was the most horrifying crime in the history of mankind, there is nothing similar to it in its evil, and those who dare deny this deserve to be made pariahs, excommunicated and boycotted, even expelled, but not and never jailed.

[…]

Instead of fighting Holocaust deniers, we should focus on learning the proper lessons from them. One of the important lessons is that racism is racism whether it is directed against Jews and expressed in their systematic destruction or whether it is directed against Palestinians and expressed in their ruthless imprisonment in their own villages behind fences and walls. Ignoring this lesson is also a form of Holocaust denial, with far graver and ruthless consequences than another lecture by Irving.

The Russian version of Forbes magazine (February 2006), according to 168 Hours Weekly, has published an article on the “economics of the Armenian Diaspora” stating that “The money made in the Armenian Diaspora amounts to 100 billion dollars, which is a hundred times more than the state budget of Armenia.”

By no means I argue that 100 billion dollars are not being made by expatriated Armenians. But the article is a reflection of the myth of the “powerful Armenian Diaspora” that in the eyes of many people (mostly Turks and Azerbaijanis) is responsible for everything in the world.

The Armenian Diaspora is not a structure; it is as diverse as the world itself and it has a lot of inter conflicts; and every single person of the “group” who makes 100 billion dollars has his/her own self-interests. By saying that Armenian Diaspora makes 100 billion, there is a presumption that some portion of the money is spent on a particular “pan-Armenian” activity. What is ignored is that the money is made in other countries; therefore at least 20 billion in taxes (if the article means that 100 billion is made annually) is paid to other countries every year.

How does the Armenian nation or the Republic of Armenia benefit from that 100 billion?
Most of Armenia’s population lives in poverty and those who are above the poverty level are generally supported by family members who live abroad. But this is less than 1 billion dollars (the money that is wired to families in Armenia), and what this does is to keep some part of the population out of poverty. Yes, there are also funds provided for construction of highways (or hyeways) and other activities; and Kerkorian alone has given generous donations of about 100-200 millions over several years. But Kerkorian himself has 10% of the “income of the Armenian Diaspora” and what he has donated (thanks him very much!) is only 1% of what he has. So even if “Armenian Diaspora” has 100 billions, no more than 1 billion goes to Armenia.

And the one billion is equivalent to Armenia’s state budget.

The platform of the new Pan-Turanist “Grand Turan Party” includes “expatriation” of Armenian citizens of Turkey.

Pan-Turanism (not too different from Pan-Turkism) is the Turkish nationalist ideology of “uniting” Turkic people around the world, thus establishing an Islamic empire from the Balkans to China. Many believe that the Armenian genocide and the massacres of thousands of other non-Turks were due to these ideologies.

Jews, Armenians and Kurds who became Turkish citizens within the last 25 years will be expatriated and their movable and immovable properties appropriated.

According to the Turkish daily The New Anatolian (25 Feb 2006), “Current political leaders and executive board members, civil servants, former military officers, professors, assistant professors, lecturers, columnists, artists, deputies and bureaucrats are all banned from becoming founding members.” Basically, mostly brainwashed fascists of Bozkurt (Grey Wolves terrorist organization) qualify for membership.

The official website (in Turkish) of the new fascist party is http://www.buyukturanpartisi.com/, and the English translation of the platform is available at http://www.thenewanatolian.com/tna-1541.html.

Western Standard informs on 24 February 2006, “This morning dozens of Armenians, accompanied by many police, were on Albert St. in Ottawa [Canada] with a big float with a figure on top, protesting the destruction of their historic cultural sites by the Azerbaijanis. They were protesting outside of the building housing Ottawa's UNESCO office, and then began to move their protest off to the Azerbaijani embassy.”

Ottawa's protest (from http://www.horizonweekly.ca)


From the 4 January 2006 protest in Germany (source: www.aga-online.org/)

Rupen, an Armenian blogger from Canada, had written about the preparations of the protest earlier; “Tomorrow’s rally in Ottawa is in protest against Azerbaijan's Anti-Armenian Actions, and is (coincidentally) happening exactly 2 months before April 24th, where we will also protest in the capital.”

Similar demonstrations were held in Germany by the Armenian community earlier this year.

From the 4 January 2006 protest in Germany (source: www.aga-online.org/)

It really makes me angry that Armenians have to protest against the vandalism in order to get UNESCO’s attention. I have e-mailed UNESCO officials multiple times requesting a response, but the only person who has answered is my senior Turkish friend Ali, who, nevertheless, does not deal with cultural monuments.

Do you recall the naïve news about Cypriot Turks returning the looted Armenian monastery of Makaravank to the Armenian community?

Well, here you go.

Turks deny plan to return Armenian monastery
[24 Feb 2006]
By Simon Bahceli

RUMOURS the Turkish Cypriot authorities are about to return the Sourp Magar monastery in the north to its Armenian owners were refuted yesterday by Turkish Cypriot ‘foreign ministry’ advisor Kudret Akay.

“We have contacts with the Armenian community in Cyprus and are considering allowing them to use the monastery on religious days,” Akay told the Cyprus Mail. He denied that the building would be handed over to the Armenian community, but said they would likely be consulted over repairs due to take place on the building on the northern sloped of the Pentadaktylos mountains.

Rumours of the handover first appeared in Istanbul-based Armenian weekly Agos, which reported earlier this week that Turkish businessman Ulus Sonmezler was planning to sue the Turkish Cypriot authorities because it had annulled a 49-year lease he signed on the building in 1997.

Sonmezler said he believed his contract was annulled because the Sourp Magar monastery was included in a list of historical buildings the north was planning to hand over to the Republic of Cyprus. Akay, however, denied the existence of such a list.

Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2005

source: http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php?id=24545&cat_id=1

Once upon a time I wrote about the denialist response of Azerbaijanis and Turks regarding the destruction of the Armenian heritage in Azerbaijan and in Turkey.

It is, indeed, unfair to stereotype people. Indeed, there are some individual Azerbaijanis and Turks who have different approaches.

Alas, I have not encountered an Azerbaijani who would condemn the recent destruction of the Armenian cemetery in Nakhichevan. But I certainly have to share a recent letter by Turkish Professor Ali Kazancigil (who has worked for UNESCO for 30 years). After watching a video of the Azerbaijani destruction at www.julfa.cjb.net, Mr. Kazancigil wrote in a personal communication:

I have great sympathy for the Enlightenment philosopher Condorcet
who believed that human progress was possible and humans would become
better through reason and education. On the face of such horrors,
I have to sadly admit that his prediction has not come true, not yet
at least. Let's keep our optimism, it helps…

According to www.forum.nedarm.nl, “the Dutch MP C. G. van der Staaij of the SGP (Reformed Political Party) faction has submitted Written Questions to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and to the Secretary of State for Education, Culture and Science on the destruction of Armenian cross stones (khachkars) of Old Jougha in Nakhichevan by the Azerbaijani soldiers.”

As a reminder, the European Parliament has recently adopted a resolution condemning the mid-December (2005) Azerbaijani destruction of the ancient Armenian cemetery in Old Jougha (Julfa), Nakhichevan.

22 February 2006

1. Is the report correct that by the order of the Azerbaijani authorities in December 2005 graves of particular historic and cultural significance were destroyed and desecrated at the Armenian cemetery in Djulfa in Nakhichevan? Could you inform us of the precise state of affairs?

2. Could the government confirm whether the destruction is related to the dormant conflict of Nagorno Karabagh?

3. To what extend has Azerbaijan been sensitive to international criticism to similar destruction in past years?

4. Is the Dutch government prepared to back the EU statement by condemning the events and reminding Azerbaijan over her obligations vis-à-vis her membership of the Council of Europe and participation in the European Neighbourhood policy.

A group of mostly Spanish cyber pals established “Tlaxcala, the network for linguistic diversity” on 21 February 2006. The literary group also launched its official website, http://www.tlaxcala.es.

According to TLAXCALA'S MANIFESTO, “All languages of the world must, and do contribute to the brotherhood of mankind. Contrary to what many people used to believe, a language is not only a grammatical structure, a set of interconnected words, in agreement with a syntactic code, but also, and especially, a creation of meaning based upon our senses. Thus we observe, interpret and express our world from a specific personal, geographical and political context.”

The group intends to unite writers and translators from around the world. Tlaxcala’s birthday, 21 February, was chosen for a specific reason: “During the years of the 50's, 60's and 70's, 21 February was celebrated as the world anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism day.” Tlaxcala has adopted two civil rights heroes as patronages: Missak Manouchian and Malcolm X, both of whom were killed on 21 February.

It is not a coincidence that we have chosen the date of 21 Februry to make our Manifesto public. During the years of the 50's, 60's and 70's, 21 February was celebrated as the world anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism day.

On that day in 1944, Paris awoke with its walls covered with big red posters that announced the execution at Mount Valérien of 23 “terrorist” members of the Snipers and Partisans-immigrant workers, the first organization of resistance to Nazism in the French territory. The leader of the group, Missak Manouchian, a 36-year-old Armenian, was a survivor of the Armenian genocide, an immigrant. To the French collaborators who attended his summary trial before the Nazi military court, and who labelled him a métèque, Manouchian answered: “You inherited French citizenship, I earned it.”

Nazi poster in France calling upon the destruction of the "the army of crime" (the Manouchian group that mostly included Frenchmen of Armenian, Jewish and other background) and ironically asking "The Liberators?" Chief de Bande" is Missak Manouchian, who was born in Turkey and lost his father during the Armenian genocide. They were captured in November 1943 and executed on February 21, 1944 by the Nazis. (added by Blogian)

“The time of martyrs has come, and if I am one of them, it will be for the cause of brotherhood, the only thing that can save this country.” These were Malcolm X’s last words before being murdered during a meeting in Harlem on 21st February 1965 by three members of the Nation of Islam, which Malcolm had left in 1963 in order to create the Organization of the Afro-American Unity. In April 1966, his assassins were condemned to life imprisonment, but those who plotted his murder – the Masters of the Empire – remained, as in most cases, unpunished.

Malcolm X, alias El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, whose original name was Malcolm Little, was 39. He had returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca, where he discovered universality after meeting pilgrims of all origins. One of the reasons of his breaking with the Nation of Islam was that it had had contacts with the Ku Klux Klan to discuss the establishment of a black independent State in Southern USA, just as the founder of Zionism, Theodor Herzl, had done in requesting the support of the worst anti-Semites for his project of a Jewish State. For Malcolm, whose father had been a victim of the Ku Klux Klan, such collaboration was unthinkable.

On this day of remembrance we put Tlaxcala under the patronage of those two fighters for the struggle of peoples, Missak Manouchian and Malcolm X.