THE INDEPENDENT TUESDAY 12 MAY 2015 Sign in RegisterApps eBooks i Jobs Dating Shop

News > World > Europe

Advanced search Article archive Topics

Most Shared Most Viewed Most Commented

Search The Independent

Ed Miliband hits Ibiza afterstanding down as Labour Partyleader

Dad takes his first ever selfie,ends up getting accused ofpaedophilia online

David Cameron challenged tolive on minimum wage andvolunteer at food bank tounderstand impact of Tory

welfare cuts

Human Rights Act: What is itand why does Michael Govewant to scrap the policy?

Nicola Sturgeon on how sheplans to counter the detrimentaleffect of the 'vicious' mediascrutiny of her appearance

during the general election

NEWS VIDEO PEOPLE VOICES SPORT TECH LIFE PROPERTY ARTS + ENTS TRAVEL MONEY INDYBEST STUDENT OFFERS

UK World Business People Science Environment Media Technology Education Images Obituaries Diary Corrections Newsletter Appeals

PRINT A A A

They were brave Turks and they were brave Armenians, thedescendants of the murderers of 1915 and the descendants oftheir victims.

They stood together outside the old Istanbul prison where thefirst 250 Armenians – intellectuals, lawyers, teachers, journalists– were imprisoned by the Ottoman Turks exactly 100 years ago,and they travelled across the Bosphorus to sit next to each otheroutside the gaunt pseudo-Gothic hulk of what was once theAnatolia Station.

From here, those 250 men were sent to their fate. Yesterday, theTurks and the Armenians held a sign in their hands and repeatedone word in Turkish: “Soykirim”. It means “genocide”.

How they humbled the great and the good of our Western world,

Armenian genocide: Turkey's day of denial amidremembrance for a genocide in all but name

As#brave#Turks#dared#to#challenge#the#consensus#to#mark#the#anniversary#ofthe#Armenian#genocide,#the#President#chose#to#look#the#other#way

ROBERT FISK ISTANBUL

Friday 24 April 2015

Shares: 621

Will you be richeror poorer under theTories?

Are the Lib Demsdue a rebrand? TimFarron hints at new

1 Here's how the election

results would look under a

proportional voting system

2 7 laws the Lib Dems stopped

the Tories from passing

3 These are the most popular

drugs at music festivals

4 TV show issues apology

after tricking 13-year-old into

thinking she was about to meet

her long lost mother

5 This is not actually a glass of

water

NEWS

NEWS

by TaboolaSponsored Links

INDEPENDENT IMAGES

It is a century since the first 250 Armenians were killed (AFP/Getty)

as they commemorated together the planned slaughter of oneand a half million Armenian men, women and children.

For despite his first pre-election pledge to the contrary, BarackObama once more refused to use the word “genocide” onThursday. The Brits ducked the word again. The Turkishpresident, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, stubbornly maintaining hiscountry’s ossified policy of denial – once more both Armeniansand Turks had to listen to the usual “fog of war” explanation forthe 20th century’s first holocaust – was sitting 180 miles away,next to Prince Charles, to honour the dead of the 1915 battle ofGallipoli.

But Professor Ayhan Aktar, a proud Turk whose familyemigrated from the Balkans in 1912, understood the cynicalhistory of the Gallipoli ceremony. For on 24 April, as the firstArmenians were being rounded up, absolutely nothing happenedat Gallipoli. The battle began the next day, when the Irish andthe Lancashire soldiers landed on the peninsula. The Erdogangovernment in Ankara was using Gallipoli as a smoke screen.“We all know why Erdogan chose 24 April, and of course it was agenocide,” Ayhan Aktar said, his voice booming with indignation.“Ankara will NEVER use the word ‘genocide’. Sixty per cent ofTurks will one day use the word – and still Ankara will say ‘no’.Yes, I have made enemies, but also some very interesting friends.It was all worth it.”

by TaboolaPromoted Links

name for party

Jon Stewart givesan incisive analysisof the UK media'selection coverage

Is Nasa's lightspeed'warp drive' toogood to be true?

Cliffside Malibu

Top 10 Best Website

Builders

Diabetes Care

What Could HaveSaved CoryMonteith’s Life?

Building YourWebsite? Try One ofThese Site Builders

Eggs, Cholesteroland Weight Loss

British expats slamUK s immigrationpolicies ahead ofelection

Andy McSmith: TheDiary 2014

A year of politicalgossip, levity andintrigue from thesharpest pen inWestminster

The outsidersolving chronichomelessnessacross America

Promoted stories from the web

Outsourcing-Pharma.com

Lottosend.com

quotespaper.com

Professor.BUZZ

Researchers call for further ethicaldiscussions of adaptive clinical trials

Can You Believe That? Couple Win TheLottery Twice!

10 Crazy Pictures Taken Just a SecondBefore Disaster

Oh MY GOD! What The Hell JustHappened Here?!

SPONSORED FEATURES

Business videos from commercialthought leadersWatch the best in the business world give theirinsights into the world of business.

Oman Framing FashionInnovationMenorca CompetitionWIN RomeKrakow WinTravelSHU Sports Prizes & offers

WORLD NEWS IN PICTURES

PEOPLE

TECH

EBOOKS

NEWS

DAY IN A PAGE

()

()

()

()

FINANCIAL GUIDES & REPORTS What's this?

Ashdown Group: Mandarin SpeakingMarketing Specialist - London - £35,000£20000 - £35000 per annum: Ashdown Group: Aluxury fashion retailer is looking...

Ashdown Group: Web Analyst / DigitalAnalyst - Berkhamsted - £40K + 5%bonus£30000 - £40000 per annum + 5% Bonus & 25 DaysHolidays: Ashdown Group: Web An...

Ashdown Group: Marketing Executive -Kent - 12 month FTC PT/FT£28000 - £32000 per annum + flexible working andbenefits: Ashdown Group: Mark...

Ashdown Group: Graduate UI Developer -HTML, CSS, Javascript£25000 - £30000 per annum: Ashdown Group:Graduate UI Application Developer - ...

View the latest from iJobs

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

12 May 2015 Go

Turkish soldiers at the Helles memorial in Gallipoli (AFP/Getty)

The professor’s scorn came from deep historical soil. “When myArmenian journalist friend Hrant Dink was assassinated by aTurkish nationalist outside his newspaper office in February2007, I was shocked and deeply depressed,” he said.

“I promised myself that because of Hrant’s death, I would writeabout 1915. With a colleague of mine, we went throughdocuments – and we wrote about the Turkish bureaucrats whoresisted the Armenian deportations. I read more and more and Istarted to use the word ‘genocide’. It was the truth.”

And so two sets of names – all dead – dominated those fewhundred courageous souls who, in what was once the capital ofthe Ottoman Empire, turned their back on the hypocrisy of thosediplomats and prime ministers 200 miles away in Gallipoli.There was Faik Ali, Turkish governor of Kutahya in 1915 and hiscontemporary Mehmet Celal in Konya and there was HuseyinNesimi, the deputy Turkish governor in Lice. “All fed thepersecuted Armenians, all refused to kill them,” the professorsaid. “Faik Ali and Huseyin Nesimi were both dismissed. Nesimiwas murdered on the orders of his senior governor, Dr Reshid.”

These were the good Turks who tried to maintain their country’shonour in its hour of shame. The few hundred equallyhonourable Turks and Armenians who crossed the Bosphorus tothe German-built railway station on Friday then sat down on thesunny steps and held up photographs of the 250 Armenians whowere put aboard the cattle wagons inside.

There was Ardashes Harutunian, Dr Garabed Pasayian Han,Karekin Cakalian, Atom Yercanjian and Siamonto, the pen nameof Atom Yarjanian, a landmark figure of Armenia’s golden age ofpoetry.

Siamonto’s great nephew had arrived from Paris for his first visit– ever – to the land in which his people were destroyed. “Youmust understand the significance of Gallipoli in all this,” ManoukAtomyan explained. “At first, the Turks didn’t kill them (theArmenians) – because they thought the Allies would win atGallipoli and rescue them all. But by July, it was obvious theAllies were losing. So the Turks set about the killing.”

The film that wasthe beginning ofthe end for SteveMcQueen

Nine excuses theLib Dems gave fortheir crushingelection defeat

JK Rowling enragesTwitter... byrevealing acharacter's lastname

Auto errors: Who'sto blame whenGoogle's driverlesscars crash?

Neymar's doubleenough to fireBarcelona intoChampions Leaguefinal

Stephen Hawkingconfirmed for thisyears Glastonburyfestival

Show Me

Between:

Location:

By clicking 'Search' you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.

Women

18 and 30

-- Select --

FILM

i100

BOOKS

MOTORING

FOOTBALL

FESTIVALS

The 250 men, the cream of Armenian Istanbul society, were puton a train which stopped before Ankara. The first carriages weresent on to Ankara, where most of the passengers were executed. Of the 250, 175 were killed, shot in the head beside preparedgraves.

Narin Kurumlu bears a Turkish name and is indeed a Turk, butshe is also Armenian, one of the few people of her race whosefamily clung onto their land – Turkish land – amid their people’spersecution.

“I am a Turk but I call this a genocide,” she said. “It is the truth.I am a tour guide and I was trained by the Turkish tourist people.Yes, I go to Van and the old Armenian areas. I don’t go intodetails and when I’m asked about the genocide, I say the figuresare disputed. I say that some think it was a million and a halfArmenians killed, but that it was at least a million.” I ask her towrite down her original Armenian family name. “I’d rather not,”she says. “There are good reasons for this… they listen to myphone and they read my e-mails.”

These were perhaps the most deeply moving – and distressing –words uttered among the small crowd of truth-tellers outside theAnatolia station yesterday. All were escorted – at a distance, ofcourse – by a small posse of Turkish state police, some inuniform. They were not there to threaten the brave Turks or thebrave Armenians. They were present to ensure that no-one elsethreatened them, the sort of people, for instance, who murderedHrant Dink eight years ago. For that would take the headlinesaway from another ceremony, wouldn’t it? And remind the worldthat the 130,000 Allied and Turkish dead of Gallipoli wereoutnumbered by one and a half million civilian dead whosegenocide we must still obediently deny.

Promoted stories from the web by TaboolaSponsored Links

GoWeLoveIt.info

Professor.BUZZ

Are You Making These 7 Common Networking Mistakes?

Oh MY GOD! What The Hell Just Happened Here?!

These are theCabinet ministerswho voted againstgay marriage bill

Traffic lights 'gogay' ahead ofEurovision

Is the sale ofPicasso's record-breaking paintingall down to goodPR?

'My 10-year-oldmade a bad joke onTwitter, and thereaction has lefther unable to cope'

i100

MUSIC

ART

HEALTH +FAMILIES

Family Holiday OfferKids Fly, Stay And Eat For Free in the Maldives. Book Now!www.alphamaldives.com

Joye E8 sadece 799TL8 Çekirdek 2Ghz Turbo İşlemcili ve 2 GB Rami ile Güç Sendejoye.com.tr/Akıllı+Telefon

Ads by Google

Top 10 Best Website Builders

World Observer

Knowing When To Walk Away From An UnderperformingFundTalkMarkets

15 Most Popular Hybrid CarsCarophile

The hottest website builders of 2015

All But Three of America’s 185 Wealthiest Families Have OneStriking Thing in Common

More from The Independent by Taboola

Mike Tyson has launched an astonishing attack on FloydMayweather

Frankie Boyle's withering putdown for people opposed toScottish independence

'No he didn't...what have my eyes just witnessed' - worldreacts to Messi display

World News in Pictures 1 of 50

Login

61 COMMENTS

TOP NEW OLD

Post a Comment

BIANCA BAGATOURIAN 16 days ago

I echo the words that Prince Charles and Harry should havebeen in Armenia. It is a very sad thing that they chose to be with the perpetratorsand deniers on the day of the 100 year commemoration of thesuffering and loss of 1.5 million souls at the hands of the Turks.

REPLY + 0 –

MICHAELC 16 days ago

There is a need to contextualise this debate without resorting topopular titles...these massacres happened against a backdrop ofan existential war in an ailing state, in a period in which ethniccleansing and killing was prominent

http://londonistani.com/2015/04/26/turks-armenians-a-need-to-look-beyond-popular-histrionics/

is a good analysis of events

REPLY + 0 –

RANTINGRON 17 days ago

Turkey will be in the EU by the end of 2016.

REPLY + 0 –

SAMSWEDEN 16 days ago

Hopefully not, unless Turkey becomes a genuinedemocracy and freeing the many jailed journalists andactivits...

REPLY + 1 –

RANTINGRON 17 days ago

How many women are there in the Turkish government?

REPLY + 3 –

RANTINGRON 17 days ago

Turkey is slipping back into being an extreme Islamic state.

REPLY + 3 –

ROBLUN 17 days ago

The Turks are Muslims . Beyond any form of criticism byWestern cowardly leaders and left wing media .

REPLY + 1 –

ROB DAVISON 17 days ago

Do not be so stupid, bigoted, racist, and otherwiseoffensive. We are talking about the slaughter of morethan a million people, and all you can come up with isracist bigotry.

REPLY + 0 –

GORDON BENNETT 17 days ago

The fact that the Ottoman empire was Islamic ishighly relevant to the fate of the Armenians.

+ 0 –

SJORS123 17 days ago

The Dutch goverment refused to call it even a genocide...letalone a Holocaust..

The reason.. the PM didnt want to take sides!!And the PM is a history teacher...

REPLY + 5 –

JOHN B ELLIS 17 days ago

Fence-sitting from mainstream UK politicians too. Butthen Turkey's a NATO ally and - most importantly of all,here as in the Hague - Washington would disapprove.The Americans still want to see Turkey - even now,under the rule of Erdogan's party - further bound intoUS strategic interests by being admitted to the EU.Fortunately there are EU nations less supine in theirresponse to American pressure than we or the Dutchtend to be.

REPLY + 1 –

AAKAIRON 17 days ago

Tall Armenian Tale! The web site is beingblocked but Armenian Diaspora and Catholicsare scared of discussing facts

http://ww2.tallarmeniantale.com/?folio=9POR7JU99

+ 0 –

HODGEEY 17 days ago

Whilst paying tribute to those who died in the Gallipolicampaign, it is also important to remember the one and a half

million Armenian civilians who were slaughtered by Turkey atthe same time.

Turkey is in good company at Gallipoli today withrepresentatives of the UK and USA, who have also been involvedin slaughtering millions in Palestine, Iran, Egypt, Iraq,Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Ukraine.

REPLY + 1 –

NOBBY 17 days ago

Almost convincing but then you mention Ukraine.You are a friend of Vlad the Shirtless and I claim my 5Roubles.

REPLY + 0 –

EOWYN ROHAN 17 days ago

I would prefer to use the term Holocaust, rather than Genocide,which reflects a far more accurate term. Uber Zionists maydisprove, and/or may profess a sense of ownership of the termHolocaust - but the Armenian Holocaust is a more accurate andethical terms to use.

REPLY + 6 –

CHAMBESHI 17 days ago

What a bizarre paradox that Whitehall is in holocaust denial, yetHM Judiciary convicted the "historian" Irving for this crime?

Now we have to grimace at Prince Charley, St Blair thewarmonger and all the other VIPs competing as to who cangrovel lowest and burrow deepest in anti-morals to maintainnational interests abroad, creeping deeper to empty the pottiesof the bleed-soaked islamic autocracies.

What a sickening corrupt waste of public funds on what passesfor high profile foreign policy.

And one wonders what are the profound words on theArmenians by that other odious gremlin - one Saint "Teflon"Blair saviour of the Middle East (or rather his business interests,including oil therein)?

REPLY + 2 –

AAKAIRON 17 days ago

Tall Armenian Tale

None of us are in a position to judge what exactly happenedduring the collapse of the Ottoman Empire that lead to the CivilWar before 1915 and beyond. One thing is however firmly established by the European Courtof Human Rights, ECHR, in its December 17, 2013 verdict, DoguPerincek vs Switzerland that the events of 1915 can not beproven to be genocide or compared to Jewish Holocaust.European Human Rights Court stated it doubted that therecould ever be a general consensus as to events such as those atissue, given that historical research was by definition open todiscussion and a matter of debate.

When the fact remains that the issue is a matter of legitimatescholarly debate, with reputable historians on both sides, simplypromoting the Armenian views, even when reflecting well-intended attitudes to show solidarity with a group that has apainful past, does not do justice to the grievances experienced by

so many on the other side. Compassion becomes problematic ifit is selective.

Although the matter has an overbearing humanitariandimension, its legal dimension is also central to the debate.Genocide is a clearly defined crime. Genocide is not a genericword to be used loosely to describe some grave atrocity. It is theworst of crimes. Passing judgment on such an accusation can notbe left to the mercy of political considerations.

Politicians and journalists alike should show more respect to thejudgement of ECHR and reflect impartially both sides of thehistorical evidence.

Furthermore, Turks and Armenians should work to rebuild theirhistorical friendship without forgetting the difficult periods intheir common past. But in this endeavor, all sides must behonest and open-minded. Third countries can help this bysupporting the normalization process between Turkey andArmenia and by resisting those who want their version of historybe adopted as uncontested truth.

To do otherwise and persist in these untrue accusations of theTurkish nation simply amount to a fascist racist slur campaignthat all self respecting Turks reject outright

REPLY + -5 –

CHAMBESHI 17 days ago

What drivel you peddle you liar. These are the words ofa David Irving clone.

The above reads like the standard pro-nazi denial of thestark depraved events that shaped the Holocaust.

REPLY + 1 –

AAKAIRON 17 days ago

Liar is you and Robert Fisk, mentally derangedracist fascist scum. If you have proof bring italong.

+ 0 –

AAKAIRON 17 days ago

Drivel and lies belong to you Scum.You want facts these are facts:According to the US State Department.Authority Letter from W.H.Anderson , therewere 817,873 Armenian refugees that leftTurkey in 1922. The number not subject to relocation: 281,000Armenians living with no harm whatsoever inTurkey in 1921: 150,000 In Constantinople(Istanbul) and 131,000 in Asia Minor. Many leftafter the war to join relatives abroad, 70,000Armenians remained in Turkey, mostly inIstanbul.Total:817,873 + 281,000 = 1,098,873 Armeniansurvivors originally living in Ottoman lands.The figures were based upon informationfurnished by the British Embassy,Constantinople, and by the agents of the NearEast Relief Society, in 1921. Simple facts categorically indicate the numbersthat the Armenian allegation based on arenothing but imaginary tall tales.1914 Ottoman census puts the number of

Armenians living in Ottoman Empire as1,219,323. Source among others, Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Armenian_populationTherefore regrettably in excess of 120,000Armenian citizens of Ottoman Empire lost theirlives during forced relocation.Sadly Christian compassion is selective and nomention is made of the 8 million Turks whowere forced to relocate having been exiled fromthe Balkans and hundreds of thousands thatwere killed in this process. Believers of these tales are ostrich heads suchOstrich heads that also did not want to see thegenocide against Bosnians at the end of thesame century.

+ -1 –

SAMSWEDEN 16 days ago

I am afraid "AAKAIRON" the facts you presented haveno bearing to the truth. The following are the correcthistorical facts related to the aftermath of the fall of theOttoman Turkish empire:

The punishment of the crime of the Armenianmassacres by the Ottoman Turks, as well as theobligation to make restitution to the survivors wereenvisaged by the victorious Allies of World War I, andwere included in the Peace Treaty of Sèvres in August1920, signed by the Turks alike. The treaty containednot only a commitment to try the Ottoman Turksofficials for war crimes against the Allied Nationals, butalso for crimes committed against subjects of theOttoman Empire of different ethnic origin, in particularthe Armenians, concluded in the texts as crime againsthumanity.

Furthermore, the so-called "Just Ruling of WoodrowWilson (the US President at that time)" by the Treaty ofSèvres recognized an Armenian state much larger thanthe current Republic of Armenia by determining itsWestern borders in the Armenian Highlands and AsiaMinor. While it was never ratified, there can be foundindividuals, historians, organisations, or politicians thatshare the thoughts of Henry C. Theriault (Ph.D. inPhilosophy from the University of Massachusetts)specializing in social and political philosophy; he thinks:That the present Armenian borders should be enlargedto its origins. Unfortunately the British at that timetogether with the Zionists who already were infiltratedin the British politics of that time, prevented the PeaceTreaty of Sèvres to be implemented as they had alreadya plan how to colonise and rule the Middle East.

I want you also "AAKAIRON" and all who have anydoubt about the Armenian Genocide to listen to thefollowing interesting lecture about the ArmenianGenocide based on historical facts by a TurkishProfessor, Ugur Ungor... One wonders with all thosehistorical facts why the the present Turkish leaderErdogan is stubbornly in constant denial and neverwant to admit that a Genocide did take place to theArmenian people by the Ottoman Turks, in spite thatmany countries in the world have confirmed it,including Israel today !!...

See the video in Google under the title : TurkishProfessor Ugur Ungor Talks About The ArmenianGenocide

REPLY + 1 –

THIRSITES 17 days ago

Hitler certainly seems to have known the truth. "I have sent myDeath's Head units to the east with the order to kill withoutmercy men women or children of the Polish race or language.Only in such a way will we win the Lebensraum that we need.Who after all speaks today of the annihilation of theArmenians?" "Annihilation of the Armenians" looks suspiciouslylike "genocide" to me and the fact that the word didn't exist atthe time is surely pure semantics.

REPLY + 3 –

RANTINGRON 17 days ago

Can we have the source of this quotation, please?

REPLY + 0 –

HAL HUSEYIN 15 days ago

Take you pick:https://www.google.co.uk/#q=%22I+have+sent+my+Death%27s+Head+units+to+the+east+with+the+order+to+kill+without+mercy+men+women+

+ 0 –

HERBERT BANANA 17 days ago

It was Jihadocide and still continues with help from the Turks

REPLY + 1 –

HORNEST 17 days ago

History should be left to historians.When politicians talk about history, it certainly will be distorted.There are historians like Bernard Lewis and Stanford Shawsaying that massacre was neither a government policy nor anykind of a systematic, so it would be wrong to name it as agenocide.

REPLY + -3 –

LENIN&MYCARKEY 18 days ago

Turkey allows the US the site missiles against Russia and the USis duly grateful & supportive. The US has promised to get Turkeyinto the EU and has instructed England to support thisintention. England obediently complies. Fortunately the rest ofEurope recognises England's grovelling for what it is and Turkeywill never be admitted.

REPLY + 4 –

JOHN 17 days ago

you're an idiot

REPLY + -3 –

RAYVISON 17 days ago

Definitely some truth in that.

REPLY + 1 –

SAMSWEDEN 18 days ago

Thank you Robert Fisk for this elaborate article about theArmenian Genocide proving that it really happened which as youmentioned, the present Turkish Authorities keep on denying it.Fortunately there are decent Turks who admit the ArmenianGenocide did happen as stated by the following interestinglecture based on historical facts by a Turkish Professor provingthe Armenian Genocide did happen. One wonders with all thosehistorical facts, why the Turkish authorities today are always indenial and never want to admit that a the Armenian Genocidedid take place instigated by the Ottoman Turks.

Click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_WDJwmxFhY

REPLY + 4 –

CHAMBESHI 17 days ago

hear hear

REPLY + 0 –

WOMBLE 18 days ago

I rarely applaud the French, but Hollande is acting in the TrueSpirit of the French Republic in his denouncement of attitude ofthe atrocities committed by Ottoman Turkey. It was Genocide byany standards and cannot be hidden. Hopefully Turkey willnever be admitted into the EU whilst it insists on turning itsback on integrity and the Laudable Principles of Ataurk, thedangers to Europe of the increasing fundamentalism will be dire.Yes, if they don't like the sound of 'Genocide' then 'MassAnnihilation' is a very apt description

REPLY + 4 –

JOHN 17 days ago

the term henocide was coined from the Armenian andJewish holocaust, as the inventor of the term said

REPLY + 0 –

PREAMBLE ONE'OH-ONE 18 days ago

Merely confirms what we already knew; Obama, Cameron etc.are lying hypocrites.

REPLY + 4 –

NED BALLS 18 days ago

Great article. Turkey admits the killings but refuses to call itgenocide.

Will they accept 'Mass annihilation' instead?

REPLY + 6 –

NED BALLS 18 days ago

The British Government made its position clear on this point ina statement to the House of Lords in 2007:

'My Lords, I start with the most significant part of the rightreverend Prelate’s question. For this Government, recognition ofthe so-called Armenian genocide is not a condition of Turkey’smembership of the EU. I wish to be straightforward and clearabout that. Neither this Government nor previous BritishGovernments have judged that the evidence is sufficientlyunequivocal to persuade us that these events should becharacterised as genocide under the 1948 UN convention ongenocide.'

Lord Triesman Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs forParliamentary Affairs.

REPLY + 0 –

RANTINGRON 17 days ago

Yes, the international financiers said that Turkey had tobe in the EU by 2016.

REPLY + 0 –

JOHNELLISPHARMER 18 days ago

The British government has clearly stated it does not acceptwhat happened to the Armenians be considered genocide.Maybe if they did, they would have to admit to some of theirEmpire's questionable actions in the past too.

REPLY + 4 –

RIO CHICO 18 days ago

What is the point of announcing genocides? It's politicallymotivated with little historical validity. Like holocaust blackmailit does no favours to those who actually suffered and died. MrFisk why are you stirring all this up? So if you deny an Armeniangenocide what happens? Nothing. You could argue that the USAcommitted genocide on the Japanese or that the firebombing ofGerman cities by the British was genocide. Everyone dies in awar not just one side. Semantics.

REPLY + -7 –

MAJSTOR 18 days ago

You pathetic moron, it was the Armenian genocide andthe world's silence on the matter that gave Hitler thejustification for the Holocaust; when Hitler's generalssaid to him you'll never get away with it, his responsewas .....who remembers the Armenian genocide !

REPLY + 10 –

JGHUNTER 18 days ago

http://www.armenian-genocide.org/hitler.html

I have issued the command — and I'll haveanybody who utters but one word of criticismexecuted by a firing squad — that our war aim

does not consist in reaching certain lines, but inthe physical destruction of the enemy.Accordingly, I have placed my death-headformations in readiness — for the present onlyin the East — with orders to them to send todeath mercilessly and without compassion,men, women, and children of Polish derivationand language. Only thus shall we gain the livingspace (Lebensraum) which we need. Who, afterall, speaks today of the annihilation of theArmenians?

+ 4 –

JGHUNTER 18 days ago

People who try and forget history are doomed to repeatit.

If we don't recognize the Armenian genocide for what itwas, the first genocide to be named so, then it does notgive the issue the right gravitas and monstrousunderstanding it deserves.

REPLY + 5 –

UNO GREVBERG 18 days ago

Only victims with influential descendant's get to beremembered. Who remembers or even speaks about all theGypsies and Russian POW killed by the Nazis or the million ofChinese and other Asians killed by the Japanese? But there isone group who's influence and clout is such that we're alwaysreminded of their dead often to justify crimes against humanitycarried out by their descendants and they are not Aramenians.

REPLY + 4 –

COMMONSENSE 18 days ago

Your pain that jews are remembered is best answered bynoting that jewish victims are often ignored

eg the kisinev pogroms and the cossack massacres andthe crusades are forgotton

the holocaust is given context by noting it had precedentin smaller attacks over the years when killing jews wasmore politically eg during the crusades ..

Perhaps israelis note that the practicle responce torockets and to the kilings in a synagague and car attackswas support for palestinians in europe immediatelyafter ..note that the day after each attack in jerusalemanother european country declared support for apalestinian state..

.history repeats itself in europe today and the reason forit has been demonisation of the jewish state and so notonly have jews in europe been marginalised but israel isreducingits diplomatic and economic links with europeas a whole

REPLY + -3 –

JOHNELLISPHARMER 18 days ago

Perhaps you should note that Israel does notconsider what happened to the Armeniansgenocide, along with the british and theamericans. Coincidentally, they all have hadtheir own problems with 'race relations' in thepast, wouldn't you say?

+ 4 –

COMMONSENSE 17 days ago

perhaps if there were no israel today... openly andclearly reminding the world that there was a holocaustin europe the world would have forgotton about theholocaust .

.likewise

if there was no armenain state to day perhaps the fate ofthe armenians in ww1 would be as publically ignored asthe gypsies in ww2

REPLY + 0 –

RAJPUTBHATTI 18 days ago

Sanctimonious twaddle from the West, just look at your ownrecord. Look at how many millions you have murdered andmany millions more whose lives and futures you have ruined.

How many millions of people's lives have you ruined in Libyajust so you can steal the oil. Prior to the attack on Libya, all ofLibyan oil under Libyan control and the benefits used for theLibyan people, following liberation by the West more than 60%of Libyan oil under western control and the benefits being usedto prop up the pensions of westerners and the profits going towestern corporations.

REPLY + 1 –

JGHUNTER 18 days ago

1) Diversary tactics are childish and achieve nothing.2) Just say outright that you refuse to accept theArmenian genocide happened or shush.

REPLY + 0 –

CHAMBESHI 17 days ago

One cannot deny reality. As the apt name for tortue andmurder of millions, the Armenium Genocide ranks inhistory as real as the eruption of Versuvius

Moreover, Robert Fisk is the first to stand up andcondemn foibles of western policy and its actions,especially in the Middle East.

REPLY + 0 –

WARRANTONE 18 days ago

Yes, the world acknowledges the Armenian Genocide but BarackObama does not, preferring to call it something else and insteadspending his time with the Turkish president to open a Turkishmosque. How sad but revealing.

REPLY + 9 –

JGHUNTER 18 days ago

"England" does not.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do, butapparently we do not.

REPLY + 2 –

ZCHABJ5 18 days ago

Very good work as always from Robert Fisk.

I was saddened to hear Al Nusra blowing up an Armenian chrchin Syria with records from the genocide victims and theirremains.

Does the current conflict in Syria and Turkey's role in it in termsof arming, training and free movement and 1915 have anyrelation? Likely not, but an interesting article.

REPLY + 7 –

PRACTO 18 days ago

There will be another incident similar to what happenedto Armenians. The fundamental Islamists will kill allthose who do not agree with them whenever they are inmajority. ISIS is the beginning

REPLY + 4 –

PYOTRGROZNY 18 days ago

I can forgive HMG not using the g-word but Princes Charles andHarry should have been in Yerevan today. As a Briton and aChristian I feel ashamed. I note the BBC only used the g-word ininverted commas, looks like they've had their orders.

REPLY + 17 –

SAMSWEDEN 18 days ago

This is the usual double hypocritical standard by theBritish Government with their policies supportingoppressive regimes like Turkey, Saudi Arabia andIsrael...

REPLY + 3 –

ATSCHI 18 days ago

excellent article. brave people.I am disgusted that Britain doesn't officially recognise thegenocide. They're wrong.

REPLY + 15 –

DEKFAIDIAN 18 days ago

the USA & UK unfortunately shamefully follow Turkeyand allow this besmirchment

REPLY + 9 –

Search The Independent

Advanced searchArticle archiveTopics

JGHUNTER 18 days ago

Not quite so. All of the UK does except England,apparently.

REPLY + 2 –

CHAMBESHI 17 days ago

So Cameron is in denial yet Hitler was not?What a pitiful creature!

And one wonders what are the profound wordson the Armenians by that other odious gremlin -one Saint "Teflon" Blair saviour of the MiddleEast (or rather his business interests, includingoil therein)?

+ 0 –

Terms & PoliciesPrivacy PolicyCookie policyCode of ConductComplaint formEmail newslettersRSSLive BlogsAbout i100

Contact UsSubscriptionsAppsWork for usEvening StandardHomes & PropertyiJobsNews videoSport video

Advertising GuideSyndicationNovaya Gazeta (English)ES Business ConnectionsES RentalsLondon Live

© independent.co.uk

Keep yourKeep yourenemies close...enemies close...David Cameron movesDavid Cameron moves

Was RafikWas RafikHariri'sHariri'sassassination theassassination thework of Presidentwork of PresidentAssad?Assad?A special tribunal atA special tribunal at

The cutting edgeThe cutting edgeof prostheticsof prostheticsHow researchers areHow researchers are

The beginning ofThe beginning ofthe end for thethe end for theKing of CoolKing of CoolRemarkable unseenRemarkable unseen

Auto errorsAuto errorsGoogle's driverlessGoogle's driverless