Four Azeri and Turkish-American organizations launched a coordinated anti-Armenian campaign last week, attacking the integrity of Mark Hoplamazian, the CEO of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, in order to intimidate him and other Armenian-American executives.
In a letter to Thomas Pritzker, executive chairman of Hyatt Board of Directors, leaders of the Assembly of Turkish-American Associations (ATAA), Azerbaijani-American Council (AAC), Federation of Turkish-American Associations (FTAA), and Azerbaijan Society of America (ASA) accused Hoplamazian of being involved in “ethnic propaganda campaigns.”
The Azeri and Turkish groups attacked Hoplamazian for speaking at the Sept. 22 banquet of the “Armenian Assembly of America (AAA), an Armenian-American lobbying group, as a Hyatt executive.” They also expressed their unhappiness that he “serves on the Advisory Board of ‘Facing History and Ourselves,’ a non-profit group that ‘teaches about the Armenian genocide.’”
The four Turkic organizations claimed that “Mr. Hoplamazian’s engagement with ethnic special interest groups that spread antagonisms against Turkey and Azerbaijan may be in violation of the Conflicts of Interest clause of Hyatt’s Code of Business Conduct and Ethics.” However, a review of the hotel chain’s code, posted on its website, does not provide the slightest hint that the Hyatt executive violated any of its provisions.
In their letter, the Azeri and Turkish groups made a series of malicious statements by referring to the Armenian Genocide as an “allegation” and as “World War I-era inter-communal atrocities.” They falsely alleged that these “atrocities” were “never tried in any tribunal and no intent to exterminate Armenians was ever established. No sentences or court verdicts were issued in terms of the 1948 United Nations Convention on Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.”
By making such ridiculous claims, the leaders of these Turkic organizations simply exposed their ignorance of the basic facts of the Armenian Genocide. They conveniently forgot about the Turkish Military Tribunals of 1919 that sentenced the Turkish ringleaders of the Armenian Genocide to death. U.S., Swiss, and Argentinean federal courts have also reaffirmed the veracity of the Armenian Genocide. Furthermore, in 1985 the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities adopted a report classifying the Armenian Genocide as an example of genocide.
The Azeri and Turkish groups also claimed that they represent “over half million Americans of Turkic descent.” This cannot be true simply because there aren’t that many Turkic people living in the United States, according to the latest U.S. census. Even if there were half a million Turkic Americans, it is highly doubtful that all of them would have given their consent to be represented by these organizations for such absurd misadventures. Most probably, these four groups altogether have a tiny fraction of the constituencies they claim.
Clearly, the faulty statements and silly accusations of these Turkic groups are intended to intimidate Hoplamazian and force him to disengage from any involvement in Armenian or genocide-related issues. More ominously, by targeting and making an example of the Hyatt CEO, Azeri and Turkish groups hope to discourage other Armenian-American executives from pursuing similar activities.
In their joint letter, the Azeri and Turkish groups indirectly threatened Hyatt’s corporate interests by indicating that the company “currently runs a total of four successful hotels in Istanbul, Turkey, and Baku, Azerbaijan.” One wonders if the governments of Azerbaijan and Turkey have authorized these two-bit groups to speak on their behalf. Moreover, do these organizations realize that they are undermining the business interests of their native countries by foolishly threatening a global corporation like Hyatt?
It would be highly regrettable if the unwise Azeri and Turkish campaign against prominent Armenian-American executives were to start an undesirable chain of events that leads the Armenian community to take counter-actions against successful Turkish-American businessmen, such as Muhtar Kent, the chairman and CEO of the Coca-Cola Company.
The Azeri-Turkish letter is highly unlikely to bring any tangible benefits to these groups, as Hyatt’s Board of Directors will most probably dismiss their baseless allegations. More importantly, such a racist assault on the integrity of an exemplary Armenian-American executive would energize Armenians on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the genocide to pursue more vigorously their just demands from both Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Lastly, it is outrageous that these Azeri and Turkish groupings kept totally silent when an Azeri officer axed to death a sleeping Armenian in Budapest, Hungary, but are now alarmed when an Armenian-American CEO exercises his right to free speech in Beverly Hills!
Harut Sassounian
Sounds like this will happen again. They’re upping the immaturity of their attacks.
These are obviously despicable actions of desperation. They display the true character of the Turkish and pseudo-Turkish Azerbaijani parasites. There is a pattern here. In the United States and elsewhere, unlike in totalitarian, xenophobic and Armenophobic Turkey and artificial state of Azerbaijan, the Turks and their Azerbaijani slaves are unable to stifle our democratic rights to free expression and our zeal to expose their criminal past, so they resort to such character assassination and smear campaign.
The Turks alone, prior to 1990s, through their ambassadors and a handful of ill-informed and greedy American scholars on Turkish government’s payroll engaged in similar activities and we all know what happened to most of them. Post 1990s and today especially, the pseudo-Turkish Azerbaijani slaves, having been badly beaten and humiliated in the battlefield, suffering from post-traumatic brain disorder, and having no recourse as caged animals, have joined their Turkish pseudo-brothers-in-crime in attempts to exact revenge on us. There is no doubt in my mind their actions are not only sanctioned but paid for by their respective governments. These wolves in sheep’s clothing must be exposed and will be defeated.
The anti-Armenian collaboration between the Turkish and their pseudo-Turkish Azerbaijani slaves can best be described as an unlikely collaboration born out of necessity between the wild carnivores and the scavenging hyenas. The wild carnivores, the Turks, in search for their next prey, entice the scavenging hyenas, their Azerbaijani slaves, to come along for the kill to enjoy the scraps.
Mark is a very good guy.. We should all support him and maybe send letters to Hyatt corporation to counter these Turkish ploys..
Also Mr, Sassounian thank you for informing us that Muhtar Kent runs Coca-Cola Co. Im starting mu own ban of everything that they sell..Everything, and all Armenian organizations need to know this information and hopefully do the same…
Muhtar Kent’s father- Necdet Kent- while working as vice counsel in the Turkish consulate in Marseilles- risked his life to save Turkish Jewish families during the Holocaust.
“Kent approached the Gestapo commander at the station, and demanded that the Jews be released, as they were Turkish citizens and Turkey was neutral. The official refused to do so, saying that the people were nothing but Jews.
Kent and his assistant quickly got on the train, too. The German official asked him to get off, but Kent refused. At the next station, German officers boarded and apologized to Kent for not letting him off at Marseilles; they had a car waiting outside to return him to his office. Kent explained that the mistake was that 80 Turkish citizens had been loaded on the train. “As a representative of a government that rejected such treatment for religious beliefs, I could not consider leaving them there,” he said. Surprised at his uncompromising stance, the Germans ultimately let everyone off the train.
“I would never forget,” Kent later said, “those embraces around our necks and hands … the expressions of gratitude in the eyes of the people we rescued … the inner peace I felt when I reached my bed towards morning.”
Kent’s heroism was not limited to this one action. In contrast to some of other foreign representatives stationed in Marseilles, Kent reached out to the Jewish community, issuing Turkish identity documents to scores of Turkish Jews living in southern France, or those who had fled there and did not hold valid Turkish passports.”
I’m not so sure that man’s son conforms to your understanding of a Turk.
RVDV: While I cannot deny that some individual Turks might have had sympathy towards the oppressed Jews and even Armenians during the Genocide (we know of some stories), look, if you will, at an excellent compilation of facts testifying to the general attitudes of the Turks towards the Jews. The factual material is provided by Keghart.com, Dr. Dikran Abrahamian’s website devoted to community activities and human rights. If you decide to debate, I stand ready to provide you with non-Armenian sources on the topic.
Keghart.com:
“In the years leading to the WWII, 30,000 Jews, who were citizens of Turkey, left for Europe because of Turkish anti-Semitism. During the early months of the war Jews, who were living under the Nazi regime, including Jews who had Turkish citizenship, asked for refuge in Turkey. Ankara revoked the citizenship of some of these Jews and refused them entry. Others, also with Turkish citizenship, were allowed. Jews who were not citizens were refused entry. Turkey often repeats the lie that Turkish diplomats obtained the release of Jews living in Europe. Ankara doesn’t say that it wasn’t for humanitarian reasons but to line their pockets.
On Dec. 15, 1941, SS Struma (a Romanian vessel), packed with 769 Jewish refugees, dropped anchor in Istanbul. The passengers, fleeing the Nazis, were on their way to Palestine. After more than two months of unheeded pleas by the passengers to allow them to continue their journey, Turkish authorities dragged Struma—with its engines almost inoperable—into the open sea. Within hours the ‘Struma’ was torpedoed and sank. Everyone, except one person, perished.
While Winston Churchill was popularizing the “V for victory” sign (1942) Ankara unleashed the double “V”–a new tax called Varlik Vergisi (Wealth Tax). The rich were to pay astronomical taxes on their fixed assets. They had to scramble to assess the value of their properties and pay the tax within 30 days. Although the tax was to be paid by all wealthy citizens, the chief victims were the Jews, Greeks, and Armenians. The clandestine aim of the tax was to arbitrarily eliminate minority population’s presence in the Turkish economy. Around 2,000 non-Muslims who couldn’t pay the tax were sent to labor camps. As a result, another large group of Jews left Turkey, many heading to Palestine. The economic war against non-Muslim minorities was successful as it appropriated much of their wealth.
While the Nazis were killings Jews, Turkish newspapers such as ‘Milli Inkilap’ was publishing anti-Semitic caricatures pinched from the Nazi ‘Der Sturmer’ newspaper. The vilification of Jews became such a national pastime that Jewish community leaders had to plead Ankara to curb the hate campaign.
A decade earlier (1934) there were anti-Jewish pogroms and expulsions in Tekirdag, Edirne, Canakkale, and Kirklareli.
In 1930 Turkey banned the first talkie (“The Jazz Singer” starring Al Jolson) calling it “Jewish propaganda.” In the mid-‘30s when MGM announced that it would produce “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh”(see Keghart’s ‘Open Letter to Steven Spielberg’ in our previous issue), the Turkish media editorialized that since the book’s author (Franz Werfel) and the studio were Jewish, Turkey would boycott not only MGM films but also Jewish businesses around the world.
Soon after Israel was established, Jewish buildings in Turkey, including Neve Shalom and Israel synagogues were bombed. Twenty people were killed and over 300 injured. Meanwhile, the Turkish media continued its racist fulminations against Jews. Some 35,000 Jews, nearly half of the Jewish population in Turkey, left for Israel because of discrimination.
For decades “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and Hitler’s ‘Mein Kamph’ have preened on the Turkish bestseller list. These notorious books were translated as early as the 1930s. Turkey continues to produce highly-popular anti-Jewish feature movies and TV serials. They always get high ratings as they spew anti-Semitic toxins.
Two other Turkish bestsellers in 2004 and 2006 (“Effendi” and “Effendi II” by Soner Yalcin) claimed that all of the important parties in Turkey have been occupied by donmehs (converted Jews).”
A few months ago Recep Erdogan, the Islamist PM of Turkey, called Israel a “genocidal state.”
A few weeks ago Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (Mr. Tezgor’s boss) vetoed Israel’s participation in the May 21 NATO summit in Chicago.
In his recent book (“Model Citizens of the State”) historian Rifat Bali, a Turkish Jew refutes Ambassador Tezgor’s whitewash and exposes Turkish anti-Semitism and the disappearance of the Turkey’s Jewish community. In “Turkey, the Jews and the Holocaust,” German scholar Corry Guttstadt reveals how the pre-First World War 150,000-member Turkish-Jewish community dwindled to fewer than 20,000 in 2012. Bali says elsewhere “Today it is virtually impossible to find someone in Turkey who will give even a neutral view of either Israel or Zionism, much less a favorable one. For public figures in particular, such statement would be tantamount to political suicide… Israel and Zionism are perceived as the source of all evils.”
In Ottoman times, Jews had to pay an extra levy called poll tax. Jews also had to be submissive to Muslims. Many Jews, descendants of Sephardim who fled Spanish persecution and sought shelter in ‘tolerant’ Turkey, converted to Islam to escape discrimination.
In the ‘progressive’ and ‘modern’ Kemalist regime Jews were targets of rigid nationalism and multi-faceted Turkification program. Mr. Bali cites the Ataturk government’s 1928 ‘ten commandments of the Turkification of the Jewish Community.’ Among the commandments were the orders to Turkify Jewish names, speak Turkish, read portions of the Old Testament in Turkish, Turkify Jewish schools or send children to state schools, and rout ‘communal mentality.’
In the ‘30s the Turkish media was replete with anti-Semitic jokes and caricatures. Racist cartoons featured Solomon and Rebecca; the pair had large, bulbous noses and frizzy hair. They spoke Turkish with a “funny” Jewish accent.
Bali in ‘The Slow Disappearance of Turkey’s Jewish Community’ (Right Side News, Jan. 11, 2012) wrote “…in recent years the entire community [Jewish] has become target of much resentment and hostile rhetoric from the country’s [Turkey] Islamist and ultranationalist sectors…Jewish parents counsel their children not to display Star of David necklaces in public, and to remain silent and if possible completely ignore the constant, hateful, often slanderous criticism of Israel in the Turkish public sphere…Despite the demand that they thoroughly behave as Turks, they were never truly considered as such…In the public sphere non-Muslims were unable to obtain employment as public servants, police officers or non-commissioned officers…” and adds that Turkish persecution has “left indelible traumatic memory [on the Jewish community] who suffer it …”
“I’m not so sure that man’s son conforms to your understanding of a Turk.”
Turks/Kurds accusing Armenians of harboring prejudice is the same as whites accusing blacks of being racist. It’s comical in its projection.
RVDV, please dispose of this victimhood strawman that Armenians hate Turks because they are Turks. If this were the case, the Republic of Armenia would not be in the political position to seek to establish relations with Turkey at all, let alone without preconditions, as you know it has.
Muhtar Kent’s father was heroic during the Holocaust. You cannot infer from this that his son would therefore be equally dignified. After all, Henry Morgenthau’s granddaughter denies the Armenian Genocide, while Cemal Pasha’s grandson does not.
And next time you deploy that story, you should omit this language, “…as they were Turkish citizens and Turkey was neutral.” It implies that had the people aboard the train been from a different country, Kent would have turned a blind eye. It’s just like that nefarious saying, “Happy is he who calls himself a Turk,” meaning unhappy is he who doesn’t.
Do you know the Kents’ position on the Armenian Genocide?
It’s about actions, not identities. Armenians deride Turks whose actions warrant derision–those actions being genocide denial. The more people like you cry and pretend you’re being unfairly targeted because of who you are, the more you are deluding yourself, putting your head into the sand, and refusing to acknowledge your own responsibility for how you are received by Armenians. Your courageous words and deeds, for example, have earned you respect on this forum (at least from me). But you threaten to squander this respect when you re-hash the tired Turkish talking point–unproven, mind you–that it is the denying Turks who are the poor recipients of unwarranted hatred.
RVDV,
Too bad there were not more Turks such as Mr. Kent sr. to save the Armenian citizen’s of the Turkish Ottoman empire from total destruction just 25 years before…
Boycotting Coca-Cola simply because the CEO is Turkish is silly. Unless there is something anti-Armenian being done by Coca Cola and Muhtar, there is no justifiable reason. If you personally don’t want to buy CC products again, then that’s up to you. But if you want to make a statement to the rest of the world, a boycott must be justifiable and clear.
RVDV,
Many genocide survivor stories tell how Turkish and Kurdish neighbors saved Armenians.
John: None of that is news to me. There is truth to everything you said. But you also said the GENERAL attitude of Turks, we also know the GENERAL attitude of Germans on Jews during WWII, but the efforts of the hundreds of Germans who risked and gave up their lives to save their Jewish neighbors isn’t voided because the majority of Germans hated Jews.
Here’s a fact of my own: “In fact, according to Serge Klarsfeld’s “Mémorial de la Déportation des Juifs de France”, 1300 Turkish Jews, among which 939 officially recognized as Turkish by the Nazis, were deported.
Their fate depended entirely of the versatile decision of the Turkish bureau staff. According to the restrictive and anti-Jewish laws edicted by Turkey during the 30s, all the emigrated citizens who did not register regularly at the Consulates, or did not fulfill their military duty, lost their Turkish nationality, and this was the situation for the majority of the Jews”
For decades Turkey and Israel were allies and a mutually beneficial relationship. In 2005, PM Erdogan called anti-semitism a crime against humanity. In 2007 Ariel Sharon became the first Jewish Head of State to speak to the parliament of a Muslim nation- Turkey. Governments will come and go. I don’t know how, but Turkey still manages to have what resembles a democracy. Erdogan and Netanyahu didn’t build Turkish-Israeli relations, they sure as hell won’t destroy them.
“Turkish authorities dragged Struma—with its engines almost inoperable—into the open sea. Within hours the ‘Struma’ was torpedoed and sank. Everyone, except one person, perished.”
Just to be clear, Struma was torpedoed by a Soviet sub. But the ship was dragged into the Black Sea where the same sub had sunk a Turkish ship a day earlier.
we need to know what the Armenian community can do – specifically – to assist Mr. Hoplamazian: Turks need to learn that if they attack one of us, they attack all of us.
Donations to civil-rights-violation lawsuit fund, letter writing, what ?
And like most everything else about ‘Azeri’Turks and Turks that are myths, the “over half million Americans of Turkic descent ” is also a gigantic myth: US 2010 Census says there are less than 200,000 of Turkish descent in USA.
Actually the 2010 census total for Turkish Americans is 190.000-200.000. By the way, just so you know, 10 years ago, a Turkish American got super close to being elected to Congress and lost the Democratic primary by a measley 10% points less that his opponent. We would have pushed to get a fair resolution of this Turkish-Armenian comflict if that candidate got elected and the unfair war against Turkey would have ended.
That’s the population of Turkish citizens. The article says “Turkic”. So I assume the organizations were also including those from Central Asia and other Turkic countries to inflate the numbers.
What’s a “fair resolution” Serdar? Turkey decided to ignore Armenians, make part of its history taboo and hold an antagonistic stance towards Armenians for decades. What’s unfair? Does “fair resolution” mean bargaining on what 1915 means?
“That’s the population of Turkish citizens.”
I should have said, “That’s the population of those from Turkey or having parents from Turkey”.
Serdar: What “Turkish-Armenian conflict”?! You mean the Turkish crime of genocidal extermination of the Armenians in which the Turks were criminals and Armenians were victims? Is such crime called “conflict” in Turkish language?
Every so often, when we mention that AxeriTatarTurks and Denialist Turks represent an existential threat to Armenia and Armenians worldwide, our concerns are dismissed by good-hearted, fair-minded Turks as hyperbole. “No need to worry; we are not the Turks of 1915; we are different; we have changed; don’t worry, nothing will happen….” (paraphrased).
Well, here is Exhibit A: Denialist Turks and their ax wielding savage cousins from Axerbaijan (© Sella) , a terrorist autocratic Sultanate headed by Sultan Bash Baltaji Heydar-oglu Aliyev — are after a private US citizen of Armenian descent for nothing more than him exercising his Constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech rights – on the territory of United States.
Not only they murdered 2 million of our people, not only they stole our lands and our wealth, but now they are after us here in the US, where the survivors and progeny of the survivors of the AG found shelter from the murderers.
Should be no surprise really: just last year, the denialist terrorists attempted to organize a march by the Ottoman Military Band in Hollywood, of all places, for the sole purpose of terrorizing the descendants of the AG living in Little Armenia, Hollywood.
After they found out the reception they were going to get from the local community – they ran.
We need to give them the same kind of response in this case also: we need to close ranks around Mr. Hoplamazian and help him however we can. We can’t let the Turkic ax-men get away with another (character) assassination.
The Turks and Azeri’s seem to be unable to put a lid on their unbelievably immature, unintelligent and very dangerous racism against Armenians. I hope that all reasonable people, non-Armenians, can see these idle threats for what they really are, pure hate. They are fomenting so much hate among their own peoples toward us…it is very very scary.
For almost a century Turks successfully kept foreign governments’ hostage to their ultimatums and threaten them from formal recognition of Armenian genocide. Now this is new foolish try by criminals to silence prominent Armenians in the US.
More of similar attempts will backfire harder on themselves and would bring the genocide denial issue to the attention of even those who didn’t know about it.
Look at that decent face! Mark Hoplamazian is a good man who doesn’t deserve
this attack on his character and livelihood. He has done nothing inappropriate and has every right to express his beliefs freely. The Azeri and Turkish pressure is increasing as the 100th anniversary of the genocide approaches. We must push back even harder against this intimidation and effort to silence us.
Proud to know and support Mark Hoplamazian.
It will be nice if we locate these groups and all Turkish Azeri personel in the US and bug the hell out of them. Desropt their businesses and operations. Maybe then they’ll learn not to mess with the Armenians
This is stooping to the lowest level, a deviation propaganda, an attempted smokescreen to cover up the absurd pardon of an AX MURDERER.
American executives must better educate themselves about the middle east history and mentality.
Harut,
Did mr kirlikovali sign this letter? There is a lot of racist statements on the Internet by him against Armenians and Mexicans.
He hates Mexicans too? That’s kind of random. I figured his whole life ambition of hating Armenians was enough.
Yes, he did. Kirlikovali is a major liability for Turks and Azeris!!!
yes he does hate Mexicans (or maybe more accurately Hispanics)..
Kirlikovali made some disparaging remarks directed at the ancestry of Gustavo Arellano of OCWEEKLY.
here are a couple of his endearing words directed at Mr. Arellano:
“This is not Tijuana, Amigo, this is America”
“Well, hold just one minute, Speedy Gonzalez”.
kirlikovali (whose surname means manure bucket, no lie) ,made a series of racist anyti mexican statemerts in print in the oc weekly regarding a hilarious profile of him by journalist Gustavo Arellano. approximately 2008.
Google translate does the following translation:
kirli kova li dirty bucket with
Even his name says he’s full of it :)
Jda: if it is indeed kirlikovalı, and not kırlıkovalı, his name means dirty bucket.
Hpin this recent Safarov exterdition, the turkish denialist are giving a helping hand to their Azeri perpetrators in order to turn tables.
All these Turkish and Azeri-American cooperation against Armenians is suppose to be an extention of the gagging imposed by Turkey on United State’s exacutive branch for decades now. But yet, so far Armenian genocide has successfully been recognized by most states.
The tukish and Azeri denialists, ultra-nationals, and politicians have always had the tendency to demand medel into the freedom of speech in the west. Specially Turks who try to use their NATO position to play decisive role in how the west views Armenian genocide.
Afterall, how can they afford the truth about their history to bare heavy burdon on their shoulder and taint their self assumed Great Ottoman image of heroic WWI personalities, whose statues and images are everywhere in Turkey.
Even due they re wrong, I can understand Turks, but I can’t make sense of their oil bragging, Anti-Armenian friend Azerbaijan always jumping on the band wagon. Unless there is the wrong intention perused by both of them.Turkey has worked hard for decades trying to protect its Armenian genocide denial sceme, and it is reasonable for them to try anything they possibly can to sabotage the truth of their history and the history of Armenian diaspora. But, Azeris are the extra dirt under the denialist Turk’s footprints, whose orders come from Baku’s same criminals who welcomed, rewarded, and promoted the leunetic Safarov who killed Margarian in 2004.
The timing of the Armenian exacutive’s being attracted be American Turkish/Azeri
Institutions clearly shows a step which supersedes early september exterdition of Safarov.
“It would be highly regrettable if the unwise Azeri and Turkish campaign against prominent Armenian-American executives were to start an undesirable chain of events that leads the Armenian community to take counter-actions against successful Turkish-American businessmen, such as Muhtar Kent, the chairman and CEO of the Coca-Cola Company.”
Is this a credible counter-threat? Is it the right way to go? Has Muhtar Kent done anything that actually deserves protests?
I very much approve John´s comment-Short and to the point.All is said-
Elsewhere on this site-a different thread-Mr. Sassounian´s with a heading, like he is doing now and then-Armenian lawyers and LEADERS should do this /that.
For God´s sake Mr. Sassounian who should we consider as our leaders????
Quite a few in Diaspora are probably the valuable ones, but the rest that cannot be said to have been elected by the majority of people are there also upfront!!!
What we need at this ELEVNTH hour now at the General Assembly of UN, in NY is to have Mr. Edward nalbandian declare OUT LOUD AND CLEAR, that after what president of our neighbour Azerbaijan has ioenly declared, give us(RA) the right to declare NK Nagornyii Karabagh ,as an independent Republic-which it has been for the past 21 yrs and RECONIZE IT OFFICIAL AS SUCH.
Otherwise the OSCE Minsk Group will continue its fact finding and leave it as is.If some would think that RA should AGAIN KEEP QUIET and conform with waht that Group or similar carry on, then we should consider Re-organizing the Diaspora well enough to have THOSE LEADERS HAVE OUR VOICE heard through RA, or at least its Ministry of Diaspora(which actually should serve that PURPOSE,not only cultural affairs and visits-sporadically-from both sides without any determined objective.
Time to act is now Mr.Nalbandian and give it to them straight.¨You hate Armenians and yet wish to live with them side by side? for that is what you suggest come and live under our Axeerbaijani protection.Same as big brother great turkley always trumpets..
We do need not only leaders in Diaspora, but also in the Ministry of Diaspora.5 from each of our main Community areas.-N.& S.Americas, EU,RF and the Middle East.That is where clout can be created WITHIN RA AND THEN, passed on to aforementioned 5 continents.
RVDV:
Question for you and others that might know the answer regarding Necdet Kent.
I have heard his story of saving Jews, of course.
But it has always puzzled me why his name is not listed in the YAD VASHEM Righteous Among Nations Database.
There is only one name listed for Turkey: Ulkumen, Selahattin.
Is it possible Mr. Kent’s story could not be independently verified by the Yad Vashem researchers ?
Is it possible there is more (less?) to Mr. Necdet Kent’s story than is commonly known ?
I mean, the very famous Swedish diplomat Raul Wallenberg is listed, so why not Necdet Kent, a famous Turkish diplomat ?
I dont know why he’s not listed, not why Namik Kemal Yolga is not listed. However, not making a list doesn’t change the fact that they risked their lives to save as many Turkish Jews as they could. Both Yolga and Kent were recipients of medals from the Israeli government so their stories must have stood up.
My actual 2 cents;
1. We should all agree that Mr. Kent Sr., and all like him are heroes. In his case he jumped on a Concentration bound train with 80 Turkish Jews, and ultimately caused them to be released. Bravo. There are crimes against humanity, and he would qualify as a hero of humanity.
2. Too bad his son donates to vicious anti Armenian groups.
3.
3. Turkey’s role in WW II is shameful generally and with regard to Jews. There is a book released about five years ago by a female German scholar that debunks the myth she saved Jews out of humane concern. She took money from some rich European Jews, and took Jews who were prominent in academia, in part to build her own backwards universities. However, Turkey refused to allow former Turkish Jews who had once emigrated to return from Europe. And we all know the Struma story.
4. By staying neutral, Turkey allowed Hitler to attack east, wIth untold devastation of Jews and Slavs. You won’t find a peep of protest from the great warriors of the steppe, until about five minutes before Armenian and Georgian Shock Divisions entered the center of Berlin to cut off Hitler’s head. While there is shame to go around for all allied countries, including the US, for failing the Jews and others, no nation was as shameful as Turkey, apart from the direct perpetrators.
5. Read Rifat Bali on Turkey’s perennial persecution f Jews. They are a handy group of hostages unto this day.
jda and others
where can I obtain Bali’s book? I believe it exists in Armenian (translated). but where?
http://www.amazon.com/Model-Citizens-State-Turkey-Multi-Party/dp/1611475368/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348785826&sr=1-11&keywords=model+citizen
You can even read sample pages right there on Amazon by clicking on the book.
“no nation was as shameful as Turkey, apart from the direct perpetrators”
No one? Not even Hitler’s buddy Francisco Franco and Spain?
RVDV,
The Spanish fascists were plenty shameful, if that is what you are driving at, I agree. However, they are at the south western fringe of Europe, and their supposed neutrality did not secure Hitler’s south in the same way Turkey did.
As to her treatment of Jews, Spain did allow a few in, probably in the same pay for play plan Turkey employed.
As poor as all western nations’ records were other perhaps than Denmark’s, yes, I think Turkey was worse.
“ETHNIC PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGNS” is the business of the Assembly of Turkish-American Associations (ATAA), Azerbaijani-American Council (AAC), Federation of Turkish-American Associations (FTAA), and Azerbaijan Society of America (ASA).
Perhaps these groups can shut down the Hyatt Hotels in Turkey and Azerbaijan, then maybe involve themselves with Facing History and Ourselves (to counteract any jealousies), it could be interesting fireworks.
After an Azeri officer who axed to death a sleeping Armenian soldier in Budapest, Hungary was set free, Armenian-Americans can and should write letters to the editor in their local newspaper to present the issue of Safarov’s extradition to Azerbaijan and expose Aliyev’s integrity and deceitful breach of commitment. Safarov’s freedom and hate towards Armenians is a leadership threat against Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenians worldwide that can be likened to Ahmadinejad’s towards Israel.
The noise the Turks make in retaliation for anything that progresses Armenian issues/Hye Tahd is the best advertisement to draw attention for Armenian Genocide recognition.
RVDV
A touching story.
I wonder if this kind man Neldet Kent has told his son, Muhtar Kent about the 1915 Armenian Genocide ? Over 1.5 million Armenians – men, women, children and elderly were brutally murdered, raped, tortured, thousands of small children kidnapped. All their wealth, homes, and lands stollen. By the way, they all were hard working Turkish citizens of Armenian decent and they had Turkish passports. Yet, they were forced to death marches without food nor water. Strangely enough, these people were living on their ancestral land for over 5,000 years. It is known as the Armenian Highland.
Mr. Harut Sassounian, as always excellent work.
the Struma incident that [john] (lime green avatar) ) listed above, presents quite a different picture of true Turkish attitudes towards Jews at the time, than what they want people to believe.
As was noted above, the ship was held at sea outside of Istanbul for about 70 days.
Turkish authorities refused to allow any Jews to disembark.
Turkish authorities refused to provide food or water to the nearly 800 passengers on a cramped ship: for 70 days.
Only food and water were provided by the local Jewish community.
İshak Alaton, a prominent Turkish Jew remembers carrying bread as a 15 year old every morning to Struma while it was anchored off Istanbul.
{“I realized that they were sent to death when a morning came and we did not find the boat where it had been. Only the Jewish community helped out those people who were living in that old boat with diseases and hunger,” Alaton told the Hürriyet Daily News.
Alaton said the Jewish community was in fear due to the fascist atmosphere that had been created by ultranationalist Turks at the time.
“My dad was forced to work in Erzurum’s Aşkale village one year after this incident because of the 1943 Wealth Tax implementations against the minorities,” said Alaton.} (HDN February/25/2012)
KIRLIKOVALI is the right one not Kirlikovali. KIRLIKOVA is a place in Balkan where Mr KIRLIKOVALI’s ancestors lived before the Balkan war
“[…]a place in Balkan where Mr KIRLIKOVALI’s ancestors lived before the Balkan war”, yahya the turk?! It appears that Turks lived everywhere but their original homeland – the steppes of Central Asia and the areas adjacent to the Altay mountains. Balkans were not the Turks’ “ancestral” lands. Balkans were invaded and colonized by the Turks who settled there, just like all other indigenous areas: Byzantium, the Middle East, Arabia, and Western Armenia. Turks are aliens to the region, repeat this over and over again until you, hopefully, learn it!
KIRLIKOVA means Rural plain in Turkish
ridiculing a man’s name is a waste of time and beneath Armenian Highlanders.
if you search for strange English surnames, you’ll be surprised at what’s out there. Repellent Ergun Kirlikovali had no choice in his parents or the name they game him.
He had and has a choice in his Anti-Armenian AG Denialist activities: let’s attack his actions, not his name.
While I agree that the translation of the fascist’s name is not important, I also think that the one thing nationalists and fascists never, ever have is humility or a sense of humor.
By contrast, humor is a very effective tool against seemingly powerful enemies.
After Hitler conquered the whole of the Continent, Spike Jones and Disney came out with “Der Fuhrer’s Face” in 1943, giving our grandparents a laugh and maybe even some assurance that they were not facing Teutonic supermen after all.
Maybe I just hail from lowland Armenians. Making fun of this little Costa Mesa Hitler, with his pig face beet red, or smarmily talking about how Armenians were killed only by Armenians, suits me just fine.
Hope this link works.
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424053111904184504577518974208186512.html#articleTabs_article%3D1
A July 2012 article in Barron’s on Mark Hoplamazian and what a great executive he is.
can you change a lier , no, so Aliyev, won’t change lol. can you make a do-gooder lie, nope. you cannot change the past but the future is in your hands and by the time we figure it all out in our heads there is no way we can even change what’s goin on now and all you can do is, get on to the boat be taken where ever that wind takes you . just sayin my nuetral perspective;).
A Request::-To either or all three or four mentioned below.
Please check on an article that is interesting and at the same time indirectly -depends how you look at- or directly with /Ref to us.
Please go to TIME.com /swampland Oct. 8th Issue JOE KLEIN column that deals with heading describes it(OLD BORDERS,NEW REALITIES) with map .
He fails to mentione about pres.Woodrow Wilson´s map drawn after the Armistice ,WWII ending at Versailles,FR.
Though he mentions about the Kurds in a round about way that may gain independence or become autonomous,no mention is made of the BORDERS,as mentioned above-
I wish to believe that Avery,Sella,Gina or even better Mr. Sassounian ought to address Mr. joe Klein and remind him of the existance of said map,wherein clearly Republic of Armenia´s(1918, i.e.) borders were drawn inclusive of Western armenian territories. Even if none wish to do so,I am glad I brought this to every Armenian´s attn,so as they will be aware of such comments in a prestigious magazine that does not wish to make mention of Armenia´s future borders,as in comparison to Kurdish ones.He does speak of redrawing national borders(inm that REgion,understand great Turkey) and further ahead,¨dares¨ to add and I quote¨There is still no solution to how to dividethe former Ottoman Empire¨…..this bit Joe includes form Robert Kaplan book,¨The Revenge of Geography¨.
May I venture that at a time such as this that Syria is in Turmoil and Turkey next door,this somehow bodes bad tidings…Aleppo is very much an Armenian town near by the border that divideeds Syria from Turkey.