Keep Yerevan clean of hate garbage - social ad by ArmComedy

This is so good that has to be posted on both of my blogs.
...

FYI mayor of Yerevan and residents. Respects to ArmComedy.



Relevant posts from my archive:

Homophobic posters in Yerevan, Armenia 

Council of Europe issues non inclusive anti-discrimination report on Armenia amid rise in intolerance towards minorities 

Hrant Dink Day in London - 19 January 2010

Hrant Dink was a prominent Turkish-Armenian editor who was assassinated in Istanbul on 19 January 2007.
***

The Hrant Dink Society
c/o The Temple of Peace, Cardiff, Wales

invites you to events on

Hrant Dink Day, 19th January 2010,
in the UK Parliament, London

"The Minorities of Turkey"

1. Outside the Turkish Embassy-A Silent Vigil at 1 p.m. with banners: "Turkey respect your Minorities"

2. Meeting in the House of Commons at 5 p.m. (Committee Room 16). "Hrant Dink and Turkish Armenia"
Sponsor: Nia Griffith MP

3. Meeting in the House of Lords Lords (Committee Room 3A at 7 p.m. ) on Minority Rights in Turkey
Soonsor: Baroness Finlay of Llandaff

Opinion: "Bloody Turk!" (by Orhan Kemal Cengiz)

Recommended reading.

***

Today's Zaman

 

I am not a religious person. I am not Kurdish. I am not gay. I am not Christian. I am not Armenian. I am not Roma. But I have spent all my life defending these people's rights.

 

I am a human rights defender. When I describe myself, I say I am a human rights defender, a lawyer and a writer. It was during my first time in London in 1998 that I realized, no matter what I do, I was a "bloody Turk" for some people. Ironically, I was working for the Kurdish Human Right Project there, and we were taking cases to the European Court of Human Rights, as a result of which I felt deeply threatened by the deep state elements in my country. When I met with the Armenian community in London, I turned into a representative of Turkey. It was the first time my "Turkishness" took precedence over all my qualifications. Massacres of Armenians were orchestrated and organized by the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) -- which came to power through a military coup -- while the Ottoman Empire was falling apart. After these massacres and as a result of the lack of confrontation with our past, the CUP and its gangs changed their format and turned into the "deep state" in Turkey. These deep state elements continued their massacres and manipulations and drenched Turkey with blood during the Republican era. We have these deep state elements, but we also have many people fighting against them with or without knowing the history. The Ergenekon trial, in this sense, is a turning point in this endeavor in Turkey. You can think of the Ergenekon gang as the armed wing of the CUP in today's Turkey. The massacres of Armenians were carried out by a certain mindset, by a political movement. Unfortunately, this political movement also created the official Turkish history, one in which there is no place for Armenians. And the state is in complete denial of what happened in Turkey in the past. This denial unfortunately gives strong support to a racist approach toward Turkey and its people. I was in Toronto last year attending an extremely interesting course on genocide. For two weeks we went into all the details of different genocides that took place in various parts of the world. All lecturers gave exemplary presentations, and I felt I had really learned something. However, I also realized that there was a fundamental difference in the way in which the Armenian genocide is being handled. When we spoke about the Holocaust, we spoke of the Nazi regime; when we discussed the genocide in Cambodia, we talked about the Khmer regime; when it came to the Armenian genocide, though, we only heard the word "Turks." Complete and blanket denial feeds complete and absolute labeling. This is a vicious circle. It is very unfortunate that some Armenians, while believing they are seeking justice, have turned into hopeless racists. They do not want to believe that there are many good people in this country. They do not want to remember that there were also Turks who lost their lives while trying to protect Armenians. They hold tightly on to this image of the "bloody Turk." Every Turk, every individual living in Turkey, is just a murderer for them. The pathology of amnesia and the pathology of blind hatred are two sides of one coin. They both serve the same purpose: Both leave Turks and Armenians as deeply neurotic people. In the midst of all this madness, Hrant Dink was a safe haven of reason, wisdom and compassion. He had a deep understanding of Turkey and the trauma we have been suffering for so long. He was killed because he was the hope in the face of this madness. He could have been killed by an Armenian racist. But instead, he was killed by Turkish racists, of course, under the guidance of the deep state. Dink was a bloody Turk for Armenian racists and an Armenian traitor for racist Turks. He was a dangerous figure for all who wanted to continue this vicious circle of hatred. During his funeral, we chanted, "We all are Hrant Dink." We all need to be Dink if we wish to contribute to reconciliation. I bow respectfully before his memory.

18 September 2009, Friday

Adana 100

(Press release) The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute organizes an international conference on April 20-21, 2009 dedicated to the centennial anniversary of the Armenian massacres in Adana district of the Ottoman Empire.

Historians from Armenia, Italy, Hungary, Austria, France, USA and Sweden specialized on these issues will make speeches at the conference.

The speakers will have the opportunity to present their papers and share their knowledge about the massacre in Adana district and in the city of Adana itself in spring 1909 in the main reverting on the motives of massacres as well as international responses.

In 1908, the Young Turkish revolution brought some hope for change for the Empire’s Christian minorities. However, the initial euphoria and hopes for equal rights for Muslims and Christians were dashed in brutal slaughtering of Armenian population in Cilicia and its center Adana. This massacre revived the fears of Christian minorities, particularly of Armenians towards the traditional Ottoman policy against them.

The Adana massacres of April 1909 became a symbolic prelude for the state orchestrated and executed policy of genocide against the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. Ethnical cleansings and large-scale massacres were carried out even earlier; during the Hamidian massacres in 1894-1896 about 300.000 Armenians were annihilated and evicted.

The study of Adana massacre reveals several important issues, particularly in terms of crime investigation, reparation and involvement of Turkish regular army in the massacre. These tragic events resonated with the events of the earlier attacks on the Armenians and brought back the feeling of the coming catastrophe.

The Adana massacres heralded a large-scale extermination policy, which was implemented shortly after the breakout of the WWI. This resulted in the genocide of Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during 1915-1922, and expulsion of several hundred thousand people from their homeland.

Armenian Genocide Museum & Institute

Hrant Dink Day in London

2nd anniversary of Hrant Dink's assassination

Vigil outside the Turkish Embassy
Belgrave Square , London SW1x 8PA
from 1.00 p.m.- 2 p.m.
"Turkey face your past, respect your Minorities!"

Meeting in Committee Room 6 of the House of Commons
at 6.00 p.m. on

The cultural rights of the minorities of Turkey

Speakers:
Des Fernandes (Author of The Kurdish and Armenian Genocides, Apec 2008)
(and others tbc)

Maral Dink, niece of Hrant, will participate too.

Organisers: Armenian Solidarity with the Victims of All Genocides, Nor Serount Cultural Association, Centre of Halabja (CHAK), Seyfo Centre

Armenian Minority Rights Violated by the Georgian Authorities (new facts and statement)

The construction of wall around Norashen church /18.10.2008/


Statement by Yerkir Union of Non-governmental Organisations for Repatriation and Settlement

To All International Organizations, Embassies and Human Rights Structures Operating in Georgia

Despite international obligations assumed by the Georgian government for the protection of the rights of ethnic minorities in Georgia, despite numerous recommendations and appeals by international organizations, including the UN Human rights commission and human rights NGO-s to respect these obligations, the Georgian authorities continue to ignore and disregard issues of concern to the Armenian minority, contributing moreover, by a number of new steps, to the aggravation of tensions and the increase of discontent.

Within this context, the Georgian authorities have not only continued to disregard repeated demands by the Georgian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church asking to be handed over Armenian churches of Georgia and particularly the Norashen church in Tbilisi, confiscated in the soviet era, but have also tacitly encouraged and sometimes even actively helped hostile actions on behalf of the Georgian clergy which is actively embarked for a certain time now in the process of self-appropriation of the Armenian churches in Georgia. In this line of action, the Georgian authorities recently provided once again construction permits to the clergy of the Georgian church neighboring Norashen, allowing it to build around Norashen a surrounding wall carrying Georgian religious ornaments, considerably complicating in this way the access to the Armenian church.

Due to protest actions of the Armenian community of Tbilisi and to appeals emanating from Armenian Apostolic Church authorities, several Armenian NGOs, including “Yerkir” Organization, it was possible to temporarily halt in May of the current year the hostile activities of Georgian priests, but construction works around the Armenian Norashen church resumed on a wide scale a few days ago (see attached photos).

In addition to this hostile policy towards the Armenian Apostolic Church in Georgia, while dealing with the Armenian minority in their country, Georgian authorities continue to violate basic international human rights’ and democratic norms pertaining to this field. Thus, among other shortcomings within this context, they continue to maintain politically-motivated criminal charges against the political activists of the Armenian populated Javakheti region and their family members, lately arrested and imprisoned without real foundations.

Thus, Arthur Poghosyan, an activist of the political movement “Democratic Alliance “United Javakhk”, was recently sentenced to 2.5 years of imprisonment on the basis of fabricated charges. Another activist of the movement, Gurgen Shirinyan, has a search warrant issued against him by the authorities, while his father and aunt are detained and waiting trial. The leader of “United Javakhk”, Vahagn Chakahlyan, in turn, as well as his juvenile brother, are also in detention in Tbilisi, while their father, Rouben Chakhalyan, has been set free on bail.

Other issues which are a matter of concern for the Armenian minority still remain unresolved:
- the Armenian Apostolic Church continues to be deprived of a status of legal entity;
- the Armenian Minority in Georgia, particularly the part of it living compactly in the Javakheti region, continues to be under-represented in all spheres of public life;
- the Georgian central Government continues to enforce the laws obliging minorities to use exclusively the Georgian language in all fields of public activity, and particularly in the local administrations and local educational system within the context of regional self-government.
- posts in the local administration, educational sphere or any other post for the holders of professional diplomas continue to be contingent on the knowledge of the Georgian language.

Under the actual circumstances, while Georgia is still recovering with difficulty from the consequences of the recent armed conflict with Russia and is announcing the launching of a wave of democratization reforms and the enforcement of the rule of law, such a treatment by the Georgian authorities of its Armenian minority looks in fact much more irrational.

Taking into consideration the above mentioned facts, “Yerkir” Union calls upon the appropriate and specialized structures of the United Nations, the European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Council of Europe, as well as of all other concerned international organizations and human rights bodies, to take immediate and direct measures to restrain Georgia’s negative current behavior against its Armenian minority, to put an end to the political persecutions in Javakheti, and to facilitate the emergence of a solution for the Armenian community of Georgia, as far as its minority rights are the issue, and in particular, to ensure this result by obtaining from the Georgian authorities to:

1. Set free all political prisoners recently detained in Javakheti and withdraw all politically motivated criminal charges against them;

2. Implement the rule of law and guarantee the security of the Armenian population of Javakheti;

3. Ensure the freedom of faith in the country and register the Armenian Apostolic Church as a legal entity in Georgia;

4. Return all confiscated places of worship to their legitimate owners;

5. Allow by law the use of the Armenian language in all spheres of public life in the local administrations of all regions where Armenians represent a majority.

The international community must act now to avoid further aggravation of the situation and prevent the emergence of a new seat of conflict.

24 October 2008

Post deleted: (re alleged stabbing incident with Indian students in Yerevan)

Many thanks to all readers of my blog who made comments (Anonymous, Onnik Krikorian, Souren); also to all readers of my blog and my friends who were helping me to establish whether the incident happened and its circumstances.

However, as it was not possible to get confirmation of this story from other sources and taking into account the sensitivity of the subject matter, I decided to delete this post.

Thanks for your understanding!

Global Voices on Armenian LGBT blogs

Armenia: LGBT Blogs

Many thanks to Onnik Krikorian, Regional Editor for Caucasus at Global Voices Online, for this exceptional round up of Armenian LGBT blogs. I am very happy to witness that LGBT Armenians are becoming more active in using blogging tools as means to make their voice heard and increase their visibility in our society. In fact, this visibility is very slowly but increasing, indeed, and contribution of blogs is of great importance here as they are effectively the only sources which report on these issues. Sadly, as Onnik rightly indicated, traditional media remains silent or prejudiced towards gay community but there are some positive signs there too. Global Voices and its Caucasus editor are doing outstanding job in making voices of those under-represented and silenced groups and minorities heard, ensuring their wider exposure and audience.

Aravot newspaper: Routine homophobia on ‘behalf’ of Armenian bloggers

an attempt of an open letter to Armenian bloggers especially within the LiveJournal community

see Unzipped: Gay Armenia

Attacks on minorities: ugly face of Russia’s capital fuelled by its Mayor

Attacks on foreigners or ethnic minorities are becoming frighteningly common in Moscow, Russia.

AP (23 June 2007): Dozens of Russians brawled with people from the Caucasus and Central Asia in what Moscow police said was a coordinated attack by anti-immigrant and right-wing activists. Nearly two dozen people were arrested and one person was hospitalized. The violence Friday night was the latest incident involving hate crimes or attacks on foreigners in Russia, particularly dark-skinned immigrants from poorer regions and republics of the former Soviet Union.


Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov “condemned” the violence, telling the news agencies that "any display of chauvinism, xenophobia or nationalism will be harshly put down." What a hypocrite! Moscow became more intolerant (than ever!) under his governance.

I want to make parallels of this latest news on attacks on ethnic minorities and the very recent attacks on gay activists, which are also becoming frighteningly common. The same Luzhkov called gays “Satanic” and fuelled hate and violence towards LGBT people by extreme right-wing and religious fanatics.

Intolerance towards one minority group generates intolerance towards other. I am not saying that it’s the only reason, but I believe it is an important basis for creating the sort of environment where extreme right-wings, religious fanatics and others find it’s OK to attack foreigners or ethnic minorities, it’s OK to attack gay and lesbians, it’s OK to attack people with different opinions, political opponents, human rights activists, it’s OK to attack journalists… And we never saw any punishment, quite the contrary. As The Armenian Observer Blog recently stated, “It’s safe to kill Armenians”, in reference to the decision of Moscow court to acquit the murderer of 19-year-old Armenian Artur Sardaryan, despite the evidence of witnesses.

Two days ago Russia’s Supreme Court ruled that Moscow Gay Pride ban was “legal”. Mr Luzhkov says he will not allow a gay pride parade "in any form" and that any attempt to march in the streets will be "resolutely quashed." The quashing of resistance applies not just to gay people but to other who protest against the official line or who are simply different.

Reward: it looks likely that Moscow mayor will be re-appointed by president Putin for fifth term in office (!), I suppose, “for services to motherland”…