Genocide

March 13th, 2010

The Swedish Parliament has recognized the Assyrian, Armenian and the Greek genocide.And on the list there are more countries to follow suit…
Just 10 days ago that the United States House of Representatives’ Committee on Foreign Affairs have voted on the recognition of the “Armenian Genocide”. The decision was upheld by just one vote majority.

Yesterday, the Swedish Parliament had debated the motion to recognize the Assyrian Armenian and the Greek genocide for long hours. Once again, the resolution was passed in by one vote majority.

The Turkish Government did not delay to take the expected stand. Soon after the decision became known, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Turkey Mr. Davutoğlu, upon his direction has recalled its Swedish Ambassodor back to Turkey.

İf this trend to continue, soon Turkey will be calling back all its ambassodors one by one. This will continue on untill the moment Turkey will decide to face up with its past acts and start reconcile with them!

The official assertion of Turkey is to leave the matter for history and the historians. In this way, the matter would loose its interest and soon be forgotten! However, what the victims of the genocide were voicing in their claims was well different. The fact is the genocide is a very serious matter. It is a crime committed against humanity.

Such event like this cannot be left alone for the historians. Furthermore, independent historians as well as the genocide scholars and academics attest it with available archival materials in hand. The International Association of Genocide Scholars in 19th December 2007 has issued a sample archive on the Assyrian, Armenian and Greek Genocide. In yesterday’s voting Turkey became the looser.

The winners were the victims of the genocide. In a way justice took place. To deny the fact is twice to be killed! Yesterday’ s voting phenomena that took place in Sweden was conviction to condemn Turkey’s continued denial mentality.Yes, the decision was taken with 131 votes against 130.

However, the one vote majority does not reflect the reality and it may sound to be misleading. The fact is all those who voted against the motion did not claim nor say that the genocide did not happened.

All of them were saying yes the genocide took place however a majority of them said we need to be loyal to the Coalition Government’s decision and others were fearing the yes vote will jeopardize the relations with Turkey and hence will not vote yes.All these developments indicate that Turkey in the International Arena will have more difficulty while it carries heavy load such burden of the genocide. Furthermore it will make it harder for its progress in democracy. Turkey has no other way other than to reconcile with its past acts.

Otherwise, it will end up with pulling its consulates from the European countries everyday and eventually every other country.Yesterday the United States House of Representatives’ Committee on Foreign Affairs has recognized it. Today the Swedish Parliament has conveyed it.

Tomorrow the parliaments of other countries will continue to follow suit till Turkey stops to cover up its guilt and start to recognize the genocide it has committed against the Assyrians, Armenians, Greeks and Yezidis; till she says sorry and start to reconcile with them. Future history will lead it in this trend and it won’t be possible to stop it.

Seyfo Center

The Assyrian Genocide Research Centre

Genocide

March 12th, 2010

Historical decision: Swedish parliament recognizes Assyrian genocide
The Swedish parliament is the first in the world to acknowledge the Turkish genocide on Assyrians. The historical decision was taken after a long debate in the parliament on Thursday. It was an extremely narrow win as 131 parliamentarians voted for and 130 voted against. Hundreds of Assyrians had gathered outside and inside the parliament building in central Stockholm to witness the historical decision.

The Turkish embassador to Sweden was immediately ordered to leave the country and Turkish prime minister Erdogan announced the cancellation of his planned visit to Sweden the coming week.

Swedens pro-Turkish foreign minister, Carl Bildt was very upset by the decision of the parliament and warned it will harm Swedish-Turkish relations and Turkish-Armenian relations as the resolution called for the recognition of not only the Turkish genocide on Assyrians but also the genocides on Armenians and Pontic Greeks.

The Assyrians in Sweden have been lobbying their parliament for many years to recognize Seyfo, as the genocide is called in Assyrian. On Thursday they could finally celebrate their victory.

Seyfo Center

Genocide

March 11th, 2010

Sweden approves resolution on “Armenian genocide”

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish parliament approved on Thursday a resolution that brands the killing of Armenians by Ottoman forces during World War One as genocide.
A U.S. House of Representatives committee approved last week a nonbinding measure condemning killings that took place nearly 100 years ago, in the last days of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey was infuriated and recalled its ambassador after the announcement.
Swedish television programme Aktuellt reported that the Turkish ambassador in Stockholm would be recalled to Ankara.
The issue of the Armenian massacres is deeply sensitive in Turkey. Turkey accepts that many Christian Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks but vehemently denies that up to 1.5 million died and that it amounted to genocide — a term employed by many Western historians and some foreign parliaments.
Copyright © Reuters

Swedish parliament recognizes genocide of Armenians in Ottoman Empire
STOCKHOLM, March 11 (Itar-Tass) – Swedish parliament has adopted a resolution that recognizes the genocide of Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks in the Ottoman Empire in 1915.
The resolution was put up for voting Thursday morning and its discussion continued until almost the end of the workday.
The draft was submitted by opposition forces – the Left Party, the Green Party, the Social Democratic Workers’ Party and several MPs from the Liberal People’s Party and the Christian Democratic Party.
The resolution was endorsed by a slight majority of votes. It recognizes the extermination of 1.5 million Armenians, 250,000 to 500,000 Assyrians and about 350,000 Pontic Greeks in the last phase of Turkey’s imperial history.
The opponents of recognition of the genocide came up with explanations for their position.
One of them, Gustav Blix of the Moderate Coalition Party, told Radio Sweden that it is not politicians that should write history.
He indicated that decisions on such knotty issues should be taken by international law agencies.
Blix fears the recognition of genocide may hamper the incipient process of rapprochement between Armenia and Turkey.
The radio recalled in this connection that a Turkish parliamentary delegation, which made a visit to Sweden a short while ago, warned the recognition of genocide might do a serious blow to Swedish-Turkish relations.
itar-tass.com

FREE MURAD AKINCILAR NOW!

February 7th, 2010

FREE MURAD AKINCILAR

Murad Akincilar, economist, union secretary of the Geneva Industry and Building Union (Syndicat industrie et bâtiment), activist for human rights and alternate member of the Supervisory Board of the Labour Market (Conseil de surveillance du marché de l’emploi ) in Switzerland was arrested in Istanbul at his home by plainclothes policemen, this Wednesday, September 30, 2009. His wife witnessed his arrest. No reason was given to his wife and attempts to make contact with the prison authorities were unsuccessful. His lawyer in Istanbul could not speak with his client and Murad Akincilar was not allowed to contact his family.

In view of the record of executions and torture of opponents and trade unionists which taints the history of modern Turkey, it is right to be worried about the fate of Murad Akincilar. The concern is even greater given that his wife is pregnant and the situation of our colleague could have tragic consequences on the health of the family.

We are fully convinced of the innocence and moral probity of Murad Akincilar and demand the immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Murad Akincilar. Meanwhile Murad should benefit from the most basic rights, namely the contact with his family and his lawyer, knowing the charges against him, have decent conditions of detention in accordance with international commitments of Turkey.

Send your messages of solidarity to:

Alessandro Pelizzari Secrétaire régional Unia Geneva Secretary General : alessandro.pelizzari@unia.ch
Beşir Atalay, Turkish Interior Minister : besir.atalay@icisleri.gov.tr
and the Turkish Chief Police: bphism@egm.gov.tr
affiche-murad-21b6012

Gynenokratia. Greek Thracian history in New York

February 7th, 2010

Astoria’s Thracian Gynekokratia

Astoria’s Thracian Gynekokratia a Big Success

Astoria’s Thracian Gynekokratia a Big SuccessFor Immediate Release: February 5, 2010Contact: Nikolaos Taneris, President, Panthracian Union of America “Orpheus”, New York, Tel. (917) 699-9935

NEW YORK–Mr. Giovanni di Napoli provides a comprehensive report and pictures on the Thracian Gynekokratia organized by the Pan Thracian Union of America “Orpheus” in Astoria, New York. The report is available on the Magna GRECE journal, in the following link: http://magnagrece.blogspot.com/2010/02/astorias-thracian-gynekokratia.html

On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank all participants and supporters of the Thracian Gynekokratia, it was a big success.Respectfully yours,NIKOLAOS TANERIS, President,Pan Thracian Union of America “Orpheus”http://panthracian.blogspot.com/

Astoria’s Thracian Gynekokratia

Joyous celebrants dancing the night away.
Last Sunday I had the great honor to partake in the ancient Thracian celebration of Gynekokratia, or Women’s Day. Around 150 Participants from around the Tri-State area descended on The Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York’s Stathakion Center in Astoria, Queens, for the occasion.
Traditionally, on January 8th the married women of Thrace visited the local midwives and made them offerings of soap and vegetables in gratitude for their invaluable services. Out of deep respect and appreciation, the women ritually washed the midwives’ hands. In some villages the women would visit newborns and anoint them with oil and honey.

Also on this day, the traditional roles between men and women were reversed. Women would take care of the town’s affairs and gather in the cafés while the men folk tended the children and did the housework. Any man unlucky enough to be caught outside during the holiday by the celebrants would be ridiculed or beaten with brooms.
Today, this wondrous tradition is a celebration of motherhood and the strength and nobility of Women. The Thracian women still congregate and respectfully wash the hands of their community’s senior members and the men cook and cater to their wives and mothers.
At 7:00 PM the hall’s doors were opened and we men were finally allowed to join the celebration. It was more than a little amusing to watch the men stall and hesitate entering the hall. These days, instead of beatings, the first ten adult males to arrive are forced to wear an apron symbolizing the role reversals. As much as they wanted to join the party no man wished to don an apron. After some delay the impatient women stormed the hallway and forced their husbands to wear the garments. Everyone had a good laugh at their expense.

Mrs. Eleni Arvanitidis enjoying the fruits of her labor. Secretary, Stacy Seretoudis, and former President of the Pan-Thracians, Ioannis Fidanakis, pose for a picture.
Obviously the women were in good spirits and ready to party. After all, they had a two-hour head start on the ouzo and wine. They danced all night long, only occasionally stopping to eat, drink and mingle with their family and friends.
I couldn’t help but notice the similarity between the Hellenic and Southern Italian folk dances, clearly showing our common heritage and shared origins. The dancers twirled and pirouetted in time with the music, traditional folk songs about love and their ancestral homeland. (In hindsight I regret not taking the ladies up on their offer and joining them on the dance floor; it looked like a lot of fun.)
In modern times, Gynekokratia has been integrated with the traditional New Year’s Day celebration and Saint Basil’s Feast Day, when gifts are traditionally given. For someone like myself who was raised Roman Catholic and grew up celebrating Christmas on December 25th it was interesting to see Santa give children presents in January. However, I never get tired of seeing the joy in a young child’s face when they receive their present.
I especially enjoyed the ceremonial cutting of the Vasilopita, a traditional bread not unlike our own brioche. The giant loaves were ritually cut by Nikolaos Taneris, President of the Pan-Thracian Union of America, in honor of the Thracian people and homeland. The breads are sometimes dedicated to Christ, a king, St. Basil, the memory of a prominent member of the community, etc. Slices are distributed to guest according to age.
President Nikolaos Taneris cutting and serving the Vasilopita.
A gold coin, called a lira, is baked in the Vasilopita. Anyone fortunate enough to receive the slice with the hidden prize is said to win good luck for the entire year. Evidence supporting this belief was seen when this year’s winner of the coin also won the top prize during the raffles. Interestingly, the coin depicts King George V of Great Britain, recalling his reign in 1919.
The gold “Lira” and it’s lucky winner.
Celebrations such as this clearly show the positive characteristics of our ancestors, and through them help us understand ourselves. We are a culmination of our history. I would like to commend the Pan-Thracians for keeping this rich cultural tradition alive, and I was thankful to be a part of it.

Pontus

February 2nd, 2010

BBC NEWS Friday 29 January 2010

Music and politics colour Greek pilgrimage to Trebizond

The Ottoman empire was home to many nationalities and religions - a cultural mosaic that was splintered by nationalism and war in the 20th Century. But a new spirit of tolerance may be emerging in modern Turkey, albeit slowly and unsteadily, reports Thomas de Waal.
For almost 90 years, the monastery of Soumela, situated at eagle-height in a gorge in eastern Turkey, has been an echoing ruin.
Worship ended here in 1923 when modern Greece and Turkey exchanged their Christian and Muslim populations and the local Christian Greeks from this region left en masse.

Musicians lead a group of pilgrims up the path to the monastery
But in the last decade, Greek pilgrims, calling themselves tourists, have started coming back here on the old feast-day of the Virgin Mary.
Last August I was at the monastery, officially a state museum, as a Greek Orthodox service sounded out again outside its walls — but it lasted just 30 seconds.
A black-cassocked monk began to sing the liturgy in deep tones before a Turkish museum curator broke up the service. A fight threatened to break out. The gathering broke up in recriminations and grandstanding speeches.
Old homeland
One step forward, one step back. The story of the-service-that-wasn’t at Soumela is a suitably Byzantine tale that takes in Turks, Greeks and Russians and plenty of different factions amongst them.
The background to it is that the government of the moderately Islamic AK Party is challenging tenets of the modern secular Turkish state and reviving memories of the multi-ethnic Ottoman era.
The new foreign policy of “zero problems with neighbours” is building bridges with old enemies, including Armenians and Greeks and that has been welcome for curious Black Sea Greeks who want to revisit the old homeland which they call the Pontus.
Musicians have led the way. Both the Black Sea Turks and the Pontic Greeks play an instrument they call the kemenje or lyra and in English you might call a lyre.

Adem Erdem, a Turk, has performed and recorded in Pontic Greek
It is small, light and three-stringed, made of cherry-wood, played with a bow and held against the knee. Its visceral music sets the rhythm for the round dances that both Greeks and Turks seem to know instinctively.
Two musicians in particular, the Greek anthropologist and lyre-player Nikos Mikhailides and Adem Erdem, a local Turkish player, have blazed a trail.
The album they recorded together in the Pontic Greek dialect has become a smash hit with Pontic Greeks from Thessaloniki to Tashkent. Although not on sale in Turkey, it has been a hit too in Trabzon in thousands of pirate copies.
One of the secrets of this part of Turkey is that tens of thousands of local Muslims, whose ancestors were once Christian, still speak and understand this archaic version of the Greek language.
Festive frenzy
Trabzon is more famous to English ears as Trebizond, the city of Rose Macaulay’s novel The Towers of Trebizond.

Nowadays Macaulay’s magical city is a functional Turkish Black Sea port. But last August its past stirred into life again. The day before the feast-day of 15 August, half the valley seemed to be talking Greek.
At a Turkish wedding feast we watched a middle-aged blonde woman with a string of pearls round her neck step smoothly into the dance. It turned out she was a professor of law at Athens University. We were the strangers here, not her.
The next morning we ascended the valley to Soumela.
It was a heady Alpine summer’s day. From a distance it could be a Tibetan monastery, a yellowing beehive high above the gorge. Hundreds of people toiled up the path.
The atmosphere was both excited and tense, with watchful Turkish policemen at every corner. Outside the monastery gate, a Greek lyre-player with a fine set of pointed moustaches was whipping a crowd of dancers into a festive frenzy.
The beaming Sotiria Liliopoulos had come from Earlwood, New South Wales - her father, now aged 98, was born in Maçka and came here as a child. In an accent veering from Greek to Australian, Sotiria said, “This is the happiest day of my life.”
But politics was humming in the background.

Greeks stopped to venerate the icon carried by a Russian priest
A wealthy member of the Russian parliament of Greek descent named Ivan Savvidi, who is making a pitch to be the leader of the Pontic Greek community, had chartered a ferry to ship Russian Greeks here across the Black Sea.
The nationalist local authorities in Trabzon were nervous of his intentions. When Savvidi’s Russian party made it to the top of the path, they were an incongruous mix - there were attractive young women in yellow T-shirts and baseball caps with Byzantine eagles on them, and a bearded man dressed in white shirtsleeves and shades (a priest ordered to remove his cassock) carrying a large icon, which Greeks stopped to venerate and kiss.
Radicals
The politician himself waved to the crowd and persuaded a Greek priest to start a service.
The priest began to sing, but the Turkish museum curator had orders to stop any religious ceremony on her territory. She pushed out of her ticket booth into the crowd, shouting in Turkish, and tried to wrest a lighted candle out of Savvidi’s hands.

Ivan Savvidi, in the yellow tie, is making a pitch to be the leader of the Pontic Greek community
Greek and Turkish television cameras whirred. The divides between the Greeks came to the surface. Some of them, the radicals, started a provocative rendition of the Greek national anthem. Others shushed them.
There seemed to be only two winners here, the Turkish curator and the Russian MP, both of whom had played heroes to the cameras.
Standing on a wall, Savvidi told the Greek crowd that the Turks had offended civilisation and he would complain in Brussels.
He said that he had informed the Russian foreign ministry of his plans, but failed to mention if he had permission from the Turkish government.
As Savvidi spoke, other Greeks - ones who have spent years quietly building bridges with the locals - were drifting away, angry at the way the feast day was being taken from them.
At the bottom of the valley, my mood lifted again. The lyra-musicians were performing and a couple were dancing in extravagant rhythms. The crowd clapped and whooped.
Music is irrepressible and it draws people together, even when the politicians cannot manage it.
Tom de Waal presented Songs of Trebizond on BBC Radio 3 on Sunday, 31 January. You can listen to it on iPlayer. He is a specialist on the Caucasus with the Carnegie Endowment in Washington.
Photos by Eleftherios Kostans, staff photographer at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, USA.

Apo Torosyan

February 2nd, 2010

UPCOMING SPRING 2010 FILM AND LECTURE SERIES BY APO TOROSYAN

The Lecture Series February 22-23rd 2010 at Keene State College will be co-sponsored by the Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Awareness Club and they will be in charge of the event which is open to the public.
The president of the Club is Michelle Sigiel
msigiel@ksc.mailcuiser.com.

UPCOMING PRESENTATIONS
Location: Keene State College
229 Main St.
Keene, New Hampshire
03435
Contact Person: Professor Stephanie Wolfe
Telephone: 603-358-2417
Website: www.keene.edu
E-mail: swolfe1@keene.edu

Date: Feb 22 2010
Time: 12 Noon / Room : Cohen Center, Mason Library Room 121
Class : Comparative Genocide
Film and Lecture by Apo Torosyan
Followed by Q&A

Date: Feb 22nd 2010
Time: 4 p.m. / Room : Morrison, Room 203
Class : Genocide
Film and Lecture by Apo Torosyan
Followed by Q&A

Date: Feb 22nd 2010
Time: 7. p.m. / Room : Young Student Center, Mountain View Room
Film The Morgenthau Story and Lecture by Apo Torosyan
Followed by Q&A
Co-sponsored by the Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Awareness Club and they will be in charge of the event
which is open to the public.
The president of the Club is Michelle Sigiel
msigiel@ksc.mailcuiser.com.

Date: Feb 23rd 2010
Time: 8 a.m. / Room : Science Center, Room 101
Class : “The Holocaust”
Taught by Dr. Paul Vincent - pvincent@keene.edu
Film and Lecture by Apo Torosyan
Followed by Q&A

OHIO PRESENTATION
Date: March 11th 2010
Time : 7p.m. Thursday .
Location : Saint John the Forerunner Social Hall
4955 Glenwood Avenue.
Boardman Ohio 44512
Sponsored by AHEPA Lincoln 89
For tickets, contact the office at 330-788-5257,
Presvytera Vasiliki at 330-757-2998, or Jim Denney Esq. at 330-545-4250.
For more unscheduled events, please reach Jim Denney Esq. 330-545-4250

In all these events Apo’s films would be available for sale.

THE MORGENTHAU STORY FILM

The Morgenthau Story tells the story of Ambassador Henry Morgenthau’s commitment to helping humanity. From 1913 to 1916, he served as U.S. Ambassador in Constantinople, and with the beginning of the Armenian Genocide in the spring of 1915 he appealed without success to the Ottoman leaders to stop the killings. In 1923, during the aftermath of the genocide and expulsion of Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians, he helped save thousands of lives by successfully leading the Refugee Relief Committee in Greece. Filmmaker Apo Torosyan illustrates the story of Henry Morgenthau Sr. by interviewing three of his descendants: grandsons Henry Morgenthau III and Robert M. Morgenthau, D.A. and great-granddaughter Dr. Pamela Steiner.

By Chris Bergeron/DAILY NEWS STAFF

FRAMINGHAM 03/29/09 — Descended from survivors of the Armenian genocide, filmmaker
Apo Torosyan hopes his art transforms prejudice and hate into tolerance and
compassion.

Growing up in Turkey, he learned his father’s parents had both starved to
death after the genocidal massacres of 1915. As a teenager in Istanbul, he
saw mobs hang Christian priests and rape Armenian women while his pregnant
sister cowered in their apartment preparing to kill herself if necessary.

Apo Torosyan ,the son of a Greek mother and Armenian father, Torosyan earned his
bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Istanbul Academy of Fine Arts in the
1968.

He has exhibited his rich, moody paintings in more than 100 solo and 200 group
shows in Europe and North America. His paintings are in the permanent
collections of several museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in
Bordeaux, France, the Armenian Library and Museum of America in Watertown,
Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., and the Florida Holocaust
Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Now 67, Torosyan has made seven documentaries, including four dealing with
aspects of the genocide and three others he describes as philosophic
“meditations.”

Since immigrating to the United States in 1968, he fears he can’t return to
Turkey because he expressed ( 2003 ) his opinion about the
Armenian genocide, which puts him in danger of imprisonment.

Torosyan’s documentary incorporates interviews with the three descendants of
Henry Morgenthau Sr., ambassador to Constantinople from 1913 to 1916, and
archival footage about Turkish oppression of the Armenian minority.

He credits Morgenthau for trying to alert the world to the Ottoman massacres
of Armenians and other Christians and later, as chairman of the Greek
Resettlement Commission, saving thousands after the 1922 Smyrna massacre.

While often regarded as the 20th century’s first holocaust, Torosyan fears
Westerners know little about the Ottoman Empire’s murderous policies against
Christians.

He said in April 1915, civilian and military authorities of the then-Ottoman
Empire now present day Turkey launched attacks, massacres and forced marches
to drive Armenians, as well as Greeks and Syrians, off their lands and into
exile. While exact figures remain in dispute, Torosyan said it’s “generally
accepted” that between 1915 and 1923 1.5 million Armenians died and another
2 million, representing nearly half the group’s population, were driven from
the country.

Rather than “play the blame game,” Torosyan said his films present history
objectively so future generations can recognize the symptoms of ethic,
religious and racial prejudice before they take effect. “I believe history
should be known so we don’t forget the past,” he said. “I’m trying to reach
out to youth in high school and colleges. They should know what happened.”

While the Republic of Turkey, which succeeded the Ottoman Empire, refuses to
describe the deaths and forced relocations as genocide, Torosyan insisted he
“holds no prejudice toward Turkish people today.”

Whether painting or making films, he said his art is intimately connected to
his personal history.

“What else is mine? My roots, my family history? Starving family members
dying during the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Genocide, including my
grandparents,” he said. “…I started making my films, which are not all
related to human rights, but to life itself. My documentaries have been
shown in places I’ve never been to and seen by thousands of people I’ve
never met. And through the Internet, I have met a lot of new friends with
the same message: Hope not Hate.”

Please visit www.aramaifilms.com

Below filmmaker Apo Torosyan ( left ) and Henry Morgenthau III ( Grand Son of the Ambassador Morgenthau) 2007

Apo Torosyan
Aramai Films, Inc.
——————————————–
films@aramaifilms.com
www.aramaifilms.com
www.chgs.umn.edu
www.paintingsdirect.com
www.legacy-project.org

Genocide

November 2nd, 2009

Main Swedish Party Recognizes Turkish Genocide of Assyrians
Stockholm (AINA) — Sweden’s largest political party took a decision on Thursday during its annual convention to acknowledge the genocide of Assyrians, Greeks and Armenians during World War one. The genocide, called Seyfo in Assyrian, occurred between the years 1914-1918.

“I was very moved when the decision was taken,” said Yilmaz Kerimo, who is an Assyrian and a prominent member of the Social democratic party. “It is a positive standpoint and a great step forward. The party will now work for the recognition of the genocide within Sweden, in the European Union and the United Nations.”

The recognition by the Social Democrats has raised hopes in the Assyrian community in Sweden of recognition in the Swedish parliament as well. The issue will be voted on in the parliament during spring 2010.

Sweden’s left party, Vänsterpartiet, and the green party, Miljöpartiet, both recognized the genocide more than a year ago.

The work to have the genocide recognized has been long for the Assyrians of Sweden. The Assyrian Federation of Sweden welcomed the decision of the Social democrats on Thursday, saying “It’s the result of years of lobbying, both by Assyrians and non-Assyrians,” said Ilan de Basso, chairman of the Federation. “We have learnt to never give up. The ultimate goal is to have recognition from Turkey itself.”

© 2009, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.

Hellenic Genocide

October 29th, 2009

Theofanis Malkidis: Dr. der Sozialwissenschaften,
Mitglied der internationalen Vereinigung Wissenschaftler zur Erforschung von Genozid www.malkidis.info

Der Genozid ist ein Menschenverbrechen, dessen Verurteilung universell sein sollte. Zusätzlich dürfen, unabhängig vom Zeitabstand, auf keinen Fall weder das Mass des Verbrechens noch das Verschulden verringert werden.
Das 20. Jahrhundert ist eine Zeit, in der der Genozid ununterbrochen und mit grosser Frequenz in Erscheinung trat. Die Genozide an den Armeniern, Assyriern, Griechen aus Pontos und Ioniern (Kleinasien), Thraziern, am jüdischen Volk sowie die Morde und Vertreibungen im ehemaligen Jugoslawien und in Ruanda, die allesamt von totalitären Regimes verübt worden waren, haben die Menschenrechte verletzt, Millionen Leben ausgelöscht und Jahrtausend alte Kulturen zerstört. Der Genozid an den Griechen aus Pontos, bei dem ein grosser Teil der Pontos-Bevölkerung ermordet wurde, stellt eines der grössten Verbrechen an der Menschlichkeit dar, welches aber noch immer nicht verurteilt worden ist. Die Überlebenden wurden teilweise verbannt. Ihre Deportation verlief unter unmenschlichen Bedingungen, die zu einer systematischen Ausrottung der Verschleppten führte. Tausende andere wurden verpflichtet zum Islam zu konvertieren und blieben damit für immer im Gebiet der heutigen Türkei, während sich die Überlebenden der Vertreibungen und des Massenmordes auf der ganzen Welt verstreuten.

Nach den Vorkommnissen der Jahre 1922-23, die zum unfreiwilligen Exodus aller Griechen aus Anatolien geführt haben, wurde dem Genozid, ebenso wie den Verbrechen an den Griechen aus Anatolien, keine Beachtung mehr geschenkt. Dafür gab es mehrere Gründe: zu einem das Abschliessen des Griechisch-Türkischen Paktes von 1930, zum anderen auch die politischen Interessen, die während des Kalten Kriegs verfolgt wurden. Die Wiederherstellung der Demokratie in Griechenland im Jahre 1974 nach sieben Jahren der militärischen Diktatur führte schliesslich zu mehr Interesse an der so genannten pontischen Frage. Jedoch wurden erst während des ersten und zweiten Weltkongresses (1985 und 1988) der Griechen aus Pontos neue Anstösse für die Aufstellung von wichtigen Rahmenbedingungen einer anstrebenden Politik gegeben. Dies geschah hauptsächlich durch die Kinder der pontischen Flüchtlinge von 1922. Somit blieb bis Mitte der Achtziger Jahre der pontische Genozid ein unbekanntes Thema auf der politischen Agenda. Der Hintergrund dafür ist vermutlich in den eventuell brisanten Folgen der Beziehung Griechenlands zur Türkei und zu supranationalen Organisationen zu suchen.
Die Auseinandersetzung mit der sog. pontischen Frage wurde durch die Ankunft tausender pontisch-stämmiger Griechen aus den Gebieten der ehemaligen Sowjetunion anfangs der neunziger Jahre erneut intensiviert. Der Druck auf die damalige griechische Gesellschaft wurde sehr stark. Schliesslich, nach Bemühungen, die fast 10 Jahre hielten, bestimmte das griechische Parlament am 24. Februar 1994 einen „Gedenktag für den Genozid des Griechen in Pontos“. Dieser Tag wurde auf den 19. Mai festgelegt.
(Am 19. Mai 1919 landete Mustafa Kemal Pascha mit dem Schiff ”Bandirma” in Samsun am Ufer des Schwarzen Meeres, um den Widerstand der Türken gegen ihre Besatzungsmächte zu organisieren.)

Im Vergleich jedoch zu den anderen Fällen (jüdischer Holocaust, armenischer Genozid, Massenmorde in Ex-Jugoslawien), wo sich die Aussenpolitik des jeweiligen Opfer-Staates um eine internationale Anerkennung der Gräueltaten bemüht, versuchten dies alle griechischen Regierungen bislang nicht. Somit setzen sich für die pontische Frage heutzutage nur pontische NGOs (Nicht-Regierungsoragnisationen), internationale Menschenrechtsorganisationen und sonstige demokratisch gesinnte Ausländer ein. Bislang ist der pontische Genozid vom Parlament der Republik Zypern sowie von mehreren Staaten, beziehungsweise Gemeinden und politisch engagierten Personen in den Vereinigten Staaten, anerkannt worden: - George E. Pataki Gouverneur, Parlament und Senat von New York, (Mai 2002 und Mai 2005). - James E. McGreevey Gouverneur und Parlament von New Jersey, (September 2002). - Edward G. Rendell Regler Gouverneur von Pennsylvania, (Mai 2004). - Alex A. Knopp Bürgermeister von Norwalk, Connecticut, (Mai 2004). - Janet Wehr Creighton Bürgermeister von Canton, Ohio, (Mai 2004). - Jane L. Campbell Bürgermeister von Cleveland, Ohio, (Mai 2005). - Bürgermeister von Columbia, South Carolina, (Mai 2005). - Charlie Crist Gouverneur von Florida (Mai 2005). - Gouverneur von Illinois (Mai 2005). - Mitt Romney Gouverneur von Massachusetts (Mai 2006). - Stadt von Chicago (September 2006). - Richard Mocchia Bürgermeister von Norwalk, (Mai 2007). - Mitglied des Kongresses Carolyn Manoney (Mai 2007). - Senator von New York George Onorato (Mai 2007). - Abgeordneter von New York Michael Giannaris (Mai 2007). - Senat von New Jersey auf Antrag der Senatoren M. Palaia, T. Corodemus und T. Smith, (September 2002). - Parlament und Senat von Columbia, South Carolina, (Januar 2003). - Gemeinderat der Stadt Cleveland, Ohio (Mai 2003). - Senat von Pennsylvania (Entscheidung Nr. 1988) auf Antrag des Senators Robert J. Thompson, (Mai 2004) - Staat Florida (Entscheidung Nr. 9161). - Staat Florida (Entscheidung Nr. 2742), (Mai 2005). - Generalstaatanwalt von Florida, (Mai 2005). - Staat New York (Entscheidung Nr. 1883) (Mai 2005). Zudem hat Carolyn Maloney am 18. Mai 2006 eine Rede im Bundesparlament der USA für die Pontische Frage gehalten.

In Kanada hat sich der Premierminister Jean Chrétien im Jahre 2001 schriftlich für die Annerkennung ausgesprochen, weiterhin ist ein entsprechendes Postulat vom Mitglied des Senats von Ontario Michael Parue (Mai 2002) eingereicht, während die Regierung von New South Wales den Genozid anerkannt hat. Ferner hat sich für die pontische Frage die Botschaft von Armenien in Athen sehr positiv geäussert. Zuletzt hat sich dieser Thematik der Ökonomie- und Sozialrat (ECOSOC) der UNO, sowie die Organisation für Sicherheit und Zusammenarbeit in Europa (OSZE) gewidmet, und zwar nach Interventionen von Nicht-Regierungsorganisationen. Zudem hat am 6. Mai 2006 die Abgeordnete des Staates von Victoria in Australien Tzeni Mikakou die Frage der Anerkennung des Genozids an das Parlament gebracht. Am 1. Juni 2006 verlangte der Abgeordnete des schwedischen Parlaments, Tassos Stafilidis, vom schwedischen Aussenminister die Anerkennung des Genozids des Griechen von Pontos. Am 20. Juni 2006 folgte der Abgeordnete Steve Pound, der einen entsprechenden Vorstoss in das Parlament von Großbritannien brachte, während der Abgeordnete Hans Linde die Anerkennung vom schwedischen Parlament (13. Oktober 2006) verlangte.

Die pontische Frage wurde im Rahmen des Ausschusses für Europäische Angelegenheiten des Europäischen Parlaments vom 5. September 2006 diskutiert. Dies geschah durch das Einreichen des Berichts des holländischen Parlamentsmitgliedes Camiel Eurlings, der über seine Beobachtungen zum Fortschritt der Türkei auf dem Weg zur europäischen Integration darstellte. Im Artikel 56 des besagten Berichts wurde auf die Notwendigkeit hingewiesen, dass sich die Türkei mit ihrer Vergangenheit auseinandersetzen soll. Ferner soll die Türkei den erleichterten Zugang von Forschern in ihre historischen Archive gewährleisten, damit die Genozide an den Armeniern, Griechen von Pontos und Assyriern, die in den Jahren 1915-1923 erfolgten, untersuchen werden können. Am 27. September 2006 hat das Europa-Parlament den Bericht des Ausschusses für Europäische Angelegenheiten, der vom holländischen Parlamentarier erstellt worden ist, gutgeheissen.

Der Genozid der Griechen von Pontos ist eine Frage, die für mehrere Jahre im Schatten der Geschichte blieb. Es handelt sich um eine politische Frage. Ihre internationale Ausdehnung ist mit der Pflicht aller Institutionen der internationalen Gemeinschaft, der Regierungen und der internationalen Organisationen verbunden, den an den Griechen von Pontos verübten Genozid anzuerkennen, damit sie mindestens für den Schaden, den sie erlitten haben, moralisch entschädigt werden können.

Die Entstehung einer freieren, angemesseneren, gleichwertigeren und harmonischeren Welt ist das Ziel eines neuen Europas, das auf demokratische Werte basiert. Dieses Europa, aber auch der gesamte Planet, den wir neu gestalten wollen, kann sich nicht als ignorant und heuchlerisch präsentieren, wenn es ihre (seine) eigene Geschichte anbelangt. Eine gemeinsame Suche und Beleuchtung der Wahrheit wird sehr viele Völker vereinigen. Damit sich ein derartiges Verbrechen nicht wiederholt, sollten die Verschuldeten aufgedeckt sowie ihre Beweggründe der Öffentlichkeit präsentiert werden. Die öffentliche Meinung kann immer unvoreingenommen urteilen. Heutzutage, wo andere Völker Opfer von Genoziden seitens rassistischer Länder werden, sollte als erster Schritt die Anerkennung des an die Griechen aus Pontos verübten Verbrechens gemacht werden.

Darüber hinaus sollte der türkische Staat die Verantwortung für den an den Griechen von Pontos verübten Genozid übernehmen. Dabei sollte er keine Propaganda betreiben und als Grund für die Entlastung von den Vorwürfen die Diskontinuität des türkischen Staates angeben.

Der Grund dafür ist, dass sowohl die Bewegung Mustafa Kemals, der als Begründer des heutigen türkischen Staates gilt, als auch diejenige der Neutürken an das begangene Verbrechen eine entscheidende Mitschuld tragen.
Jedes Volk besitzt das Recht auf die offizielle Anerkennung der Verbrechen und Gräueltaten, die an seiner Bevölkerung verübt wurden. Je grösser die verübten Verbrechen und je länger diese verhüllt geblieben sind, desto grösser ist der Wunsch für eine solche offizielle Anerkennung. Die Anerkennung ist eine wichtige Methode zur Bekämpfung von neuen Genoziden. Zudem bestätigt die Anerkennung eines Genozids das Recht eines Volkes sein Bestehen fortzusetzen.

Die pontische Frage ist eine lebhafte und komplizierte Thematik, die aufgrund der Entwicklungen inner- und ausserhalb Europas an Aktualität gewinnt. In diesem Zusammenhang geht es beim pontischen Genozid um Demokratie, Menschenrechte, Freiheit, Würde, tatsächliche Freundschaft und Zusammenarbeit – es geht um einen Sieg für die geschichtliche Wahrheit.
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Greek minority in Albania

October 26th, 2009

Visit the website http://www.hellenes.com/NorthernEpirusBook.html with the book of Theofanis Malkidis under the tittle THE GREEK MINORITY IN ALBANIA in (3) Languages, Greek, English and Albania.

The book, edition of Panepirotic Federation of US, deal with a Historic retrospection of Northern Epirus along with all the Pacts and the Human Rights of the Northern Epirotes, as a recognized Minority by the International Community. It, also, includes all the activities of the Panepirotic Federation of America.

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