Anti-Armenian Protests Held in Istanbul
ISTANBUL (A.W.)—Anti-Armenian banners celebrating the Armenian Genocide have begun to appear around Turkey and, on Feb. 22, two protests were held under the banner of “Demonstrations Condemning the Khojali Genocide and Armenian Terror,” in the Kadikoy and Beyoglu districts in Istanbul. Some protesters chanted anti-Armenian slogans, while others invoked the name of Ogun Samast, the ultra-nationalist youth who gunned down Agos Editor Hrant Dink in 2007.
The banners celebrating the Armenian Genocide were spotted in different parts of the country. In the southwest province of Mugla, a banner declared, “We celebrate the 100th anniversary of our country being cleared of Armenians. We are proud of our glorious ancestors.” It was signed by “Young Atsizs;” Nihal Atsiz (1905-75) was a leading ideologue of Turkish racism and a proponent of Turanism. The banner was displayed in front of the Provincial Directorate of Youth and Sports in Mugla. The directorate claimed the banner was hung far enough that they had not seen it, but that “responsible citizens” had removed it, according to the newspaper Demokrat Haber.
Similar banners were also displayed in Manisa (north of Izmir) and Ordu (on the Black Sea coast). Demokrat Haber also reports that similar posters were put up by the mayor’s office in Sogutlucesme, Istanbul, as well as on Marmara University’s Goztepe campus.
“The Human Rights Association can only attempt to raise a voice protesting these initiatives. As long as the Turkish public is not upset, and feels no shame by these demonstrations, the discourse, and the slogans, there will be no real response to these rabid anti-Armenian initiatives,” human rights activist Ayse Gunaysu told the Armenian Weekly, adding, “This reality has been haunting me in recent days.”
Protests around Istanbul
In Kadikoy, an anonymous source observed around 1,000-1,500 protesters, many waving Azerbaijani flags. The source said aside from nationalist slogans, and chants about the “Khojali genocide,” anti-Kurdish slogans were also heard, presumably fueled by the recent killing of an ultra-nationalist man who had joined an attack against members of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) in Izmir. The anti-Armenian slogans were more muted than what had been observed during the Feb. 26, 2012 protest, noted the source.
According to Gunaysu, an Armenian Weekly contributor, the protesters in the latest rally might have been deterred from chanting rabidly anti-Armenian slogans for fear of legal repercussions: In 2012, those who had carried banners reading, “You are all Armenians, you are all bastards,” had been sentenced to 5 months in prison, which was later turned to a 3,000 TL (more than US$1,500) fine by the court.
The police were present in large numbers in Kadikoy, and blocked movement to the main streets, including near the offices of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP).
According to Demokrat Haber, buses transported protesters—free of charge—from in front of the governorates of surrounding cities to where the demonstration was being held.
In the days leading up to the protest, the Human Rights Association (HRA) of Turkey’s Istanbul branch issued a statement condemning the protest, calling it a “pretext to incite ethnic hate against Armenians in Turkey.”
The organization also petitioned the Istanbul Governorate, warning officials of the anti-Armenian sentiments that were already on the rise ahead of the planned protest.
According to Demokrat Haber, although the protest organizers had claimed to have the proper permits to stage the rally, the Istanbul Governorate had not been notified about the demonstration, and had not received any permit applications. Furthermore, official sources have said that in keeping in line with clause 6 of the “Law on Rallies and Demonstration Marches,” permits could not have been granted for the location of the rally, since the area is off limits as a public gathering space.
Similarly, the HRA received a fax from the Governorate of Istanbul, stating that their office had neither received a request for permission for the protests, nor granted any such permission.
Meanwhile, according to one source, the Association of Reformist Youth of Azerbaijan has denied involvement in these protests. Earlier the HRA reported that the protests were being organized by the Association of Reformist Youth of Azerbaijan, together with the Turkish Hearths Youth branches and the Turanist Movement Platform.
In Galatasaray Square in Beyoglu, a smaller protest was held with participants from the Nationalist Turkey Party and the Turan Hearths. According to the Turkish news outlet Haberler, the protesters shouted slogans against Armenia, calling Khojali a “part of the homeland” that was “under Armenian invasion.” The protesters also condemned the international community for supporting Armenia. Minor clashes with the police were reported.
The Feb. 20 HRA statement cautioned that anti-Armenian sentiments were on the rise, and that racist graffiti had been spray-painted on and near churches, with such messages as “You are all Armenians, you are all bastards.”
The HRA statement added, “You, officials who refrain from criminalizing racist slogans on church walls, who officially or unofficially permit protests and demonstrations preannounced by such slogans, if you do not enforce the law, you will become partners in the crime…”
Ayse Gunaysu and Burcu Gursel contributed to this report.
Nanore Barsoumian
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Keep it up Turkey! You time is coming soon!
Isn’t this enough to proove that genocide has taken place? What else does civilised world is waiting for?
No suprises here for anyone that understands the turks.
If any Naive Armenian believes that the Turks have changed for the better I am sorry to tell you that in the DNA of the Turkish people is written to “Hate, Murder, rape and Pillage”. Yes there are some voices that we can hear, but all Armenians must remember, 100 years ago we heard similar Voices from the Turks. Remember, Talaat was a great friend of Krikor Zohrab and when He was in trouble, Zohrab kept him in his own Home for Two Months. Look what he did at the end. What about the other intellectual Armenians who had their own Turkish friends 100 years ago and look what happened to them. We can not and MUST not TRUST these BASTARDS because we can’t. WE, Armenians, need to accept the fact that these people cannot change and we should stop really being naive. Its ENOUGH. For God’s sake. Wake up. The Turks need and I mean Nationally 100 years of Psychotherapy and possibly change of their Genes so may be there is a small hope. And I am not laughing.
This is nothing new. Turks have harbored this sentiment forever.
And come to think, ANCA-WR is exhibiting a “America We Thank You” at the Los Angeles Public library. Before thanking anyone, why don’t they take this banner and exhibit it in front of the White House. When the US government wakes up and stops supporting genocidal Turkey, maybe then we’ll have something to say “Thank You” for!
why don’t you gather a few of your Turkbaijani friends living in SoCal under Armenian names and display the banner in Little Armenia in Hollywood.
Turks choose to be viewed as close to the Ottomans as possible
A swine will only be most comfortable waddling in its own feces ……….,
With discussions of the Armenian Genocide becoming easier to discuss openly in Turkey (not where it should be but compared to before 2000, there is a difference), comes also the open show of racism and hatred and justification. When countries have been recognizing it and it’s less of a taboo in Turkey and there are small steps towards understanding 1915, you can no longer deny that anything happened. The next logical step is to demonize and justify what happened.
Turkey tried to hide and erase 1915 from history. It did not work!
You should now, don’t you?..
At least they are admitting the crime happened now.
Our Lord Jesus knew the devil, He confronted him and He came out victorious at the battle with him. To His disciples, He encouraged them saying,”In the world you shall have tribulation, BUT BE OF GOOD CHEER,I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD” John 16:33
Our Lord who knew the devil and dealt with the devil describes the devil in two places of the Gospel of John:
One, in John 10:10 He says,”The thief (the devil) does not come except to STEAL, and to KILL, and to DESTROY.”
Two, in John 8:44 He says,”The devil…was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because THERE IS NO TRUTH IN HIM. WHEN HE SPEAKS A LIE, HE SPEAKS FROM HIS OWN RESOURCES,FOR HE IS A LIAR AND THE FATHER OF IT.”
What did the Turks do 100 years ago? they STOLE the Armenian properties, they KILLED million and a half Armenians, and DESTROYED ALL the churches and sacred places. Hm same characteristics of the devil according to our Lord. No?
What are the Turks doing to this day? They LIE! They lie that Armenian genocide did not take place, even though the word GENOCIDE was coined on the basis of Armenian holocaust, which in turn the Armenian Genocide became the encouragement of the Jewish Holocaust.
So based on the descriptions of the devil given by our Lord Jesus, what do we conclude. The obvious and sole conclusion we come up to is that the Turks and the devil have the same characteristic.
Our prayer should be “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil turks”. Amen.
Avery, what was wrong with what Hratch said? makes sense to me? am i an Turkbaijani too? or is anyone who offers an opinion which differs from yours?
Don’t worry, brother, he has anger issues (as any other troll on the net). Just debunk him with facts – it’s their weak spot.
We should thank these bastards for the banner, thus confirming that Genocide did happen
Whenever a controversial issue is raised, there is sure to be a backlash. There was a time when nobody spoke about the treatment of Greeks in Imvros and the pogroms of 1955. Now there have been TV specials about them. Predictably, ultranationalists didn’t like it, and they stormed an exhibit about the pogroms. But they can’t stop the trend toward openness.
When the Dersim massacres were spoken about freely in Turkey for the first time in Turkey several years ago, it led to discussion of the Marash massacres against Alevis. Many hoped that the Armenian genocide would be next. That has not happened, but as someone who lived 14 years and seen an incredible change in discussion on the issue, I believe it is only a matter of time. The thousands of people publicly expressing solidarity with Hrant Dink and his family would have been unthinkable in the 90s. No longer is every mention of the Armenian genocide necessarily preceded by “sözde” (‘supposed’).
Among most intellectuals in Turkey there is little disagreement that it happened. I recently read an
open letter by writers stating that the conscience of the Turkish people needed to be cleared and that this could not happen as long as the denial continued. And to those who have not seen it already, I share this : http://www.accc.org.uk/your-demands-are-our-demands-turkish-human-rights-group-sends-letters-to-etchmiadzin-
It has to happen.
Sorry, the correct URL is http://www.accc.org.uk/your-demands-are-our-demands-turkish-human-rights-group-sends-letters-to-etchmiadzin-antelias/
I dedicate this article to all those who forget who are the turks. The humankind savages, genociders, terrorists supporters of Isis, and imperialists.
May all the Armenian ‘reconciliationists’ take note of this.
I’d expect nothing less from the descendants of the perpetrators of the genocide. The nuts haven’t fallen far from the tree, and they are doomed to repeat the crimes of the past unless stopped dead in their tracks – the operative word being “dead”!!
Thank you for this valuable news, Ms Barsoumian. Efforts to equate Khojali with the 1915 Genicide is fruitless. In Khojali, the Armenian fighters opened a safe alley for Azeris to escape to safety. There was no Genocide. Misinformation continues to be repeated over the years. Has there been an account of the number of Armenians in Askeran who fell victim, who lost their apartments due to bombardments from Khojali? Truth will illuminate minds.
Just want to remind these ignorant people about their ancestry. They are the descendents of Mongols, Tartars, Seljuks who arrived in Asia Manor on horse backs. They did not bring their wives on horseback along with them. On the contrary, they forcefully settled down and mingled with the locals producing an offspring that were the BUSTARDS. So, these people are calling names to minorities in Turkey who are of pure breed, while they are the true BUSTARDS. Let them learn their history well, at least.
I’m not Armenian. I consider myself Jewish. Can you imagine the reaction if some Germans put up a banner “celebrating” that Germany was “Judenfrei”? Responsible Turks (and there are some) need to make their voices heard. So do non-Armenian-heritage Americans. Please do a follow-up article on how to show our outrage at such behavior.
To Mr. Pat S:
Thank you for your thoughtfulness.
And thus, my faith in humanity goes down another notch.
The anti-Armenian sentiments expressed by the racist and fascist ultranationalist pan-Turkic organizations in Turkey will never cease given the fact that the ardent followers of such organizations have carefully been molded and gone through government-sponsored institutionalized brainwashing into believing that the occupied homeland of the indigenous Armenians is theirs and that the Armenian victims of their past genocidal crimes, the murdered women and children, were deserving of such acts for the welfare of the occupational Turkish nation. In essence, to these Turkish criminals, the end result justified the means.
Having said that, and given the fact that Azerbaijani petrodollars have deeply penetrated into Turkish pockets, and given the fact that the commemoration of the fabricated khojaly incident which was nothing more than a few hundred civilians used as human shields by Azerbaijani Popular Front as a scheme to overthrow the first post-Soviet Azerbaijani president Ayaz Mutalibov is around the corner, these recent show of hatred toward the Armenians has Azerbaijani fingerprints all over it.
On February 26th I will be celebrating the liberation of the ancient Armenian province of Artsakh, falsely known as Karabakh, by the brave Armenian patriots from the criminals of the artificial state of Azerbaijan. Long live Armenia and the liberated Armenian republic of Artsakh.
I would like to remind some of my Armenian compatriots that we cannot hold racist views towards an entire nation (i.e. Turks) and at the same time expect that they respect us. Moreover, we cannot do that and expect non-Armenians to support our cause (which we need). Turks are not genetically savage (at least we have no scientific evidence). Because of the mingling of our peoples (mostly one-way, and forced), they share our genes and therefore cannot be genetically savage. The writer of this article is Turkish, and surely she is not genetically savage. The Genocide happened not because of bad genes, but because their government wanted it and used the fears and prejudices of its subjects to commit it (similar to what Putin the thug is doing in Russia and Ukraine, but on a grander scale). These protesters protest not because “Turks will be Turks,” but because they have been told by their government that the Genocide is a lie, and now they feel threatened. We are not likely to make progress on our cause if we act like those we accuse of hating.
We are not your compatriots, քոչվորoğlu.
Uyguroglar nomads are your compatriots.
[We have corrupt DNA](BELGİN AKALTAN – Hurriyet Daily News. 2014)
{Our genes must have gone through mutations while we were traveling on horseback from Central Asia to Anatolia. It’s a long ride. Something must have gone wrong along the way. I think we are mutant Turks. Like Ninja turtles. We are like a lab accident.
First of all – sorry for the repetition – we carry the “killer DNA” in our souls.}
{We have persistently reserved that killer gene for centuries. Even though we do not conquer and fight in the battlefield anymore, we have the mutant killer gene and its sub-gene that protects the murderer.We have special respect and a secret love for the murderer.}
How extremely ridiculous to try and connect the Armenian Genocide with “what Putin the thug is doing in Russia and Ukraine, but on a grander scale.” And exactly what sort of genocide has Putin committed in Russia and Ukraine that nobody is aware about?
(Gokor Yegnukian // February 24, 2015 at 2:20 am // )
{“ Avery, what was wrong with what Hratch said? makes sense to me? am i an Turkbaijani too? or is anyone who offers an opinion which differs from yours?”}
Hi there Gokor/Koko:
Long time.
How have you been ?
You ask very good questions.
Sadly, I have no answers at this time.
But I’ll try to come up with something later on.
Maybe.
In the meantime, please visit http://asbarez.com/
The Turkbaijani to whom I replied to and for whom you expressed such deep concern, has been posting comments there for a very long time, and quite actively at that.
After you read the exchange of comments between the individual and others, some of your questions might be answered.
Let me know what you think.
Have fun @Asbarez: it’s a great resource.
Avery.
they are proud of their glorious turkey of committing GENOCIDE AGAINST THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE!!!, AND EMPTYING ARMENIANS FROM THEIR LANDS!!!! HOW SICK TO JUSTIFY EVIL, WHERE DOES THIS LACK OF HUMANITY COME FROM!!!! THEY HAVE NO REMORSE!!!!
There are racists and bigots in every country and ethnic group. All one has to do is read some of the comments left with regard to this article to see that the affliction does not effect only the Turks.
The people who opened that banner are racist people and they don’t represent majority of Turkey. There are racist people in every country, even most developed countries such as Germany, USA, France etc. Armenia and Turkey are not the exception, not suprisingly. But the thing irritated me is the absurdity of the way of criticisms in this topic. I read many insulting words (swine, rapist, bastard, murderer, terrorist supporter, savage, genocider evil, etc.) targeting not any specific person or group of people but all people belong to a race (Turkish in this subject). Please do not think you can fight and beat racism with the same attitude. If something will be fixed, this will be done by positive and constructive attempts, not by any racist insults. Otherwise you will be called as racist as well.
The people who put up the banner are the ones that need to be found and punished. Further more the authorities who allowed it to happen (supposedly unaware) have to be found and punished too. These are pure, anti human rights and ethnic bullying. Turkey wants to be like the west in so many ways, crack down on these criminals and it’ll be a good start. But will they??
Dan,
I agree with you. And according to the above news report, Turkey has cracked down on such hate speech in the past:
“In 2012, those who had carried banners reading, ‘You are all Armenians, you are all bastards,’ had been sentenced to 5 months in prison, which was later turned to a 3,000 TL (more than US$1,500) fine by the court.”
Let us hope the local authorities will do so in these instances as well.
But also keep in mind, at what point does hateful speech exceed the boundaries of free speech? You may remember that in this country we have had to tolerate a group of anti-gay religious bigots from the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) who have shown up at the funerals of our fallen veterans yelling that they were killed as punishment by God for America condoning homosexuality, issued a press release following the Boston Marathon bombings thanking God for the bombing and claiming “GOD SENT THE BOMBS! How many more terrifying ways will you have the LORD injure and kill your fellow countrymen because you insist on nation-dooming filthy fag marriage?!”, held signs stating “God Hates Israel”, etc. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church).
Apparently members of that congregation have forgotten Matthew 5:43-44 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”; and that hatred only begets hatred.
I think what most people fail to understand is that asking the Turkish government to crack down on such anti-Armenian activities is like asking the fox to watch over the hen house. Nothing can get past the Turkish government’s radar without its full and prior knowledge. This is the same government which spies on its own citizens and people of influence overseas and will go out of its way to get them extradited back to Turkey to punish them for their acts deemed anti-government.
I strongly believe that the Turkish government is not only fully aware of these hateful activities but it also sponsors and sanctions them secretly. When you realize that Turkish officials are opportunistic master manipulators and that you can bribe your way through anything in Turkey then you will realize these are not isolated incidents. For example, I don’t have the slightest doubt that the Turkish government was fully aware of the plot to murder the Turkish-Armenian journalist and editor Hrant Dink back in 2007 because they were also responsible for enacting into law the Article 301 of Turkish Criminal Code, aka “Insulting Turkishness”, which led to his murder. Now that they have gotten rid of that “threat”, their kangaroo courts and judiciary which serve the government, instead of its citizens, are holding dog and pony shows to deceive people into believing they are doing something about it while never apprehending and putting behind bars the real culprits behind his murder. If they ever, but reluctantly, take such actions rest-assured that will be because those criminals have now turned against the government itself.
To ask the Turkish government and officials to come clean and crack down on such racist activities is to ask them to punish their “loyal” citizens. In Turkey you can’t be considered a loyal and obedient citizen if you speak against the plight of the Armenians and take action in defense of their welfare while considering them “disloyal” and having murdered their population and robbed them of their homeland over which you govern today.
One way to describe these racist events is to equate these hateful criminals as bank robbers who rob a bank using the blueprints of the bank supplied by the government itself and then the government acting like they are totally unaware of this robbery and will do everything in their power to apprehend and punish the bank robbers while secretly sharing the stolen money with them. Don’t expect miracles in Turkey for Turkey’s foundation itself is corrupt.
It is true that under Erdogan, Turkey has seen increase in hatred against minorities, including a sharp increase in anti-Semitism, as noted by my favorite New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/18/opinion/thomas-friedman-democracy-is-in-recession.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fthomas-l-friedman&_r=0
This could explain the behavior of the Turkish protesters. However, we should think about their motives before labeling them (i.e. the protesters) as genocidal murderers. What are these protesters really celebrating? Not the Genocide, because they deny it. They do not say that Armenians should die, nor do they celebrate the murder of Armenians (because, again, they deny it). They celebrate, as pointed in the article, the “liberation” of their land from Armenians. Remember that they have been told by their government (their entire lives) that Armenians helped the Russians, caused a civil war, killed 2 million Muslims, and then left (after inevitably losing many of their own). Now that they feel their country is under attack by what they see a global Armenian propaganda campaign, they celebrate the result of what happened (i.e. Turkey being free of Armenians), not the actual murder and rapes of innocent civilians. This is a typical in-your-face behavior of people who feel to be under siege and react.
Sure, the attitude is reprehensible, but is it really different from how many Armenians feel about the ethnic cleaning of Azeris in Armenia? Sure Armenians didn’t show the same savagery against their own citizens as the Azeris in Azerbaijan. There was some violence, and the worst case that I have heard was stripping an Azeri girl and parading her through an Armenian village (to demonstrate, in an odd fashion, that Armenians do not rape Azeri women). And yet, while Armenians do not openly celebrate it, many are content that Armenia is “cleansed” of its former Azeri citizenry. And sure, the Turkish protesters chant the name of some obscure (to us) Turkish racist. But is it different from Armenians celebrating Nzhdeh, who, despite the solid (over)performance by actor Artashes Aleksanyan, is considered a war criminal (per the Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia) and a champion of racism (the literal translation of his movement “Tseghakron”, as noted by pro-Armenian British historian Christopher Walker).
The points is that these Turkish protesters, as reprehensible as their conduct may be, share the same human nature as Armenians. At the core, we are similar, though above the core (i.e. the environment and propaganda that we have been subjected to), we may be different.
Vahagn – While I agree with the gist of what you have written, I have to take exception with the sentence that reads “…the worst case that I have heard was stripping an Azeri girl and parading her through an Armenian village” with regard to Armenian actions towards the Azeris.
You may wish to google the key words “Khojaly Massacre” and familiarize yourself with how 613 Azeri civilians including 106 women and 83 children were murdered on 25-26 February 1992 by Armenian forces: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khojaly_Massacre
“Remember that they have been told by their government (their entire lives) that Armenians helped the Russians, caused a civil war, killed 2 million Muslims, and then left (after inevitably losing many of their own).”
Many other nations have the syllogistic logic, a form of reasoning in which a conclusion is drawn from several propositions or sources. We have seen throughout history that even in closed totalitarian societies–Soviet, China under Mao, Eastern European nations, etc., people had the ability to question their governments’ propaganda at the time when there was no Internet and social networking. What prevents the nation of Turks to look into the veracity of their government’s propaganda in this era of social technology, in which Internet access grew massively and social networking emerged as a popular social communication? What prevents the nation of Turks to conduct a primitive research as to where they came from and what sedentary nations lived on the lands Turks now occupy? If they do, they will find out, easily, that the phrase “liberation of their land from Armenians” is absurd, because Armenians were one of the autochthonous peoples inhabiting the lands long before the invasion of the Seljuk nomads. I don’t take it that Turks do such reprehensible things because of ignorance or because of some “in-your-face” behavior of people who feel to be under siege and react. Maybe during the World War I they could feel they were “under siege” (but, then, any warring party would feel similarly). But, then, how the Turks reacted back then? Were the Armenians one of the warring sides either on Allied or Central Powers’ side? No. Was it the Armenian fault that Muslims from the Southern Europe were expelled? No. Was it the Armenian fault that the Turks lost all wars to the Russians? No. Was it only the Armenian desire to be either autonomously- or self-ruled? No. Then, Turks, why do you direct your inimitable “reaction” against the Armenians? May I suggest that you do this because you simply don’t tolerate anyone else except Turks. Because you are the descendants of nomadic conquerors. And because you know deep inside that the lands you live on are not originally yours. Ignorance and “in-your-face” behavior have absolutely nothing to do with this. Again, you feel being under siege? Show some open-mindedness and flexibility, if you can, and try to understand why is it that Armenians all over the world demand justice.
“They (Turkish protesters) do not say that Armenians should die, nor do they celebrate the murder of Armenians.” On the contrary, as pointed out in the above article, those Turkish protesters celebrate the murder of Hrant Dink; they celebrate the Armenian Genocide; they celebrate the 100th anniversary of their stolen country being removed of Armenians; and they take pride in their barbaric ancestors for slaughtering the Armenian people. And exactly what does all of this have to do with the 150 thousand Azeris who previously lived in Armenia and Artsakh? They were neither subjected to a genocide nor massacres; they were just forced to leave as a result of the 400 thousand Armenians who barely escaped the Armenian massacres that were taking place inside Azerbaijan.
In regard to the Armenian national hero, Garegin Nzhdeh, he certainly was not a champion of racism as you ridiculously attempt to establish. Contrary to whatever false statements were made by the British (pro-Azeri) Christopher Walker, Nzhdeh’s ideology is an inspiration to many Armenians to fight for the cause of their sacred homeland with the goal of empowering it, along with empowering all Armenians in the homeland and diaspora. This certainly isn’t the definition of racism; this is the definition of patriotism.
@Sadik Duman, khojaly is the biggest fabrication of the war to liberate the ancient Armenian province of Artsakh, falsely known as Karabakh, from the racist Azerbaijani criminals. Khojaly was nothing more than a few hundred people caught in cross-fire and used as human shields by the fascist Azerbaijani Popular Front to force the first post-Soviet Azerbaijani president Ayaz Mutalibov out of power and then blame it on the Armenians. They succeeded overthrowing Mutalibov as he ran for his life and found refuge in Russia. He himself made it very clear khojaly was the work of Azerbaijani Popular Front.
P.S. If you study the banner used by Azerbaijanis to commemorate khojaly fabrication you will realize it was taken from the Balkan war in Kosovo.
A;; I hAve to say my grandmother made it through the genocide because of a Turkish family who save her My aunt made it because a Turkish soldier saved her We must have forgiveness if we expect God to forgive us there are some good Turks and these newer generations are totally ignorant and do not know it happend
It’s only a proof of their genocidal actions (albeit not expressed out loud, utter racism, xenophobia and hatred of Armenians, hatred of other Christians since the establishment of the Turkish Fascist Nazi Republic. The only nation that annihilates millions of its Christian citizens and denies they ever did it. Why did Turkey offer a million dollars to Egypt to have the Egyptian archives pertaining to the Armenian Genocide burned? Why Turkey tries to eradicate all archives all over the World about their crimes? Tell me again now that your Turkish archives are “open” when they are thoroughly eliminated from any incriminating evidences of the Genocide of Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks.
Mani – Let’s deal with facts shall we. Firstly, do you expect people to believe that it never occurred to Armenian historians to check the Egyptian historical archives for evidence of Ottoman genocidal intent in nearly a century preceding the fire?
Moreover, other than an unsubstantiated assertion by the founder of Egypt’s “Jihad” Party Sheikh Nabil Na’eem alleging that the fire at the Egyptian archives which resulted from rioters throwing Molotov cocktails during the Tahrir Square demonstrations was actually due to a secret million dollar payment by the Turks; show us a single shred of evidence that the Turks were behind it. In fact, many other buildings were set ablaze during that time period: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Democratic_Party_(Egypt)#mediaviewer/File:NDP_HQ_on_fire.jpg
Finally, note that Sheik Na’eem’s allegations were made during an Egyptian governmental meeting. If the regime of strongman Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (a true “fascist” in every sense of the word) who is opposed by Turkey, had not condoned the making of such an unproven assertion Sheik Na’eem would have found himself in a prison cell even before the meeting was over.
(Sadik Duman // February 26, 2015 at 4:31 pm //)
{“You may wish to google the key words “Khojaly Massacre” and familiarize yourself with how 613 Azeri civilians including 106 women and 83 children were murdered on 25-26 February 1992 by Armenian forces”}
Sadik, _you_ may wish to Google the key words “Sumgait pogrom”, “Kirovabad pogrom”, “Baku pogrom”, “Siege of Stepanakert”, “Maraga massacre”,….
Familiarize yourself with how 100s of Armenian civilians were massacred in Sumgait (1988), Kirovabad (1988), Baku (1990).
In peacetime. (NKR war started in earnest in late 1991, after Azerbaijan military invaded NKR, which had declared Independence September 2, 1991).
Armenians living in those cities were hunted down in their apartments and savagely murdered: stabbed, axed, thrown off balconies…
Armenian women and girls were gang raped, burnt alive, cut to pieces, their corpses mutilated….
Familiarize yourself with how Azerbaijan military completely sealed off Stepanakert, and how the war-crime Siege of Stepanakert lasted several months, during which an estimated 2,000 Armenian civilians were killed, including women and children.
Also Google “Ramil Sahib oglu Safarov”, a psychopath convicted axe murderer who escaped prison when his daddy, Sultan Aliyev, bribed the Hungarian jailers, and was greeted as a national hero by the Azerbaijani government and people in Baku.
Don’t forget to Google “Akram Aylisli”, and read what was done to this defenseless 75 year old Azerbaijani writer by Musavat Neo-Nazis, after he wrote a book about Baku pogroms of Armenians, which according to official Baku never happened.
As to the Khojaly tragedy.
Even HRW, which for some strange reason called it ‘massacre’, and which btw gave the number of victims at 200-300, not the fake number 613 promulgated by the Azerbaijani government, admitted that there were armed Azerbaijani OMON troops mixed in with the evacuating civilians.
Ask yourself why were there armed men mixed in with women and children, and why were armed Azerbaijani men firing at Armenian troops from behind their women ?
Also ask yourself why would Armenians give a safe corridor to civilians to leave and then allegedly massacre them.
Armenian leaders admit Armenian troops returned fire and killed a number of Azerbaijani civilians: our side is not hiding anything.
A number of civilians were killed by Azerbaijani bullets and shells: probably by mistake; a group of Azerbaijani civilians had gotten lost and appeared from a direction not expected by Azerbaijani troops, and they opened fire thinking those were Armenian troops.
If you are really interested in finding out what actually happened at Khojaly, take some time to read this:
The site is run by an Englishman, Russell Pollard (no Armenian ancestry).
http://artsakh.org.uk/2013/10/30/khojaly-the-deception-of-azerbaijan/
also see:
http://artsakh.org.uk/2014/08/21/khojalykhojalu-propaganda-how-azerbaijan-changed-the-numbers/
https://russellpollard.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/pres-appeal-335-people-killed.jpg
Do come back to ArmenianWeekly and tell us what you think, after you “….deal with facts shall we.”
btw: about that alleged Azerbaijani girl that was allegedly stripped naked and paraded: how about I ask you what you asked us; “… show us a single shred of evidence that Armenians were behind it.”
And the reason you agree with the gist of what that poster wrote is because that poster is either a Turk like you or a Turkbaijani – posting under an Armenian name.
See you soon.
Sadik Duman,
In your earlier comment, you presented the Azerbaijani government’s false claim that 613 Azeri civilians were massacred in Khojaly by the Armenian military forces in February of 1992. That’s actually over 400 more murders than the official count given by Human Rights Watch and Memorial Human Rights Center which list it at 161 to 200 murders. Furthermore, there were no international observers present to witness this particular massacre. When they arrived at the scene, it was already after the killings had taken place. They observed 161 to 200 murdered Azeri civilians and immediately assumed without any factual evidence that they had been massacred by the Armenian military forces. However, there is a large amount of factual evidence which shows that the Armenian military forces never committed this massacre of Azeri civilians, and that instead, it was actually the Azeri military forces who massacred their own civilians in an attempt to frame the Armenians for this particular massacre. The events in Khojaly happened to be the result of a power struggle within Azerbaijan. The real reasons for this massacre are most convincingly shown in the accounts of Azerbaijanis themselves, as participants and eyewitnesses of what really happened, as well as those who knew the whole inside story of the events in Baku. Anyway, make sure to read this article on the true details of Azerbaijan’s massacre of its own civilians:
http://www.nkrusa.org/nk_conflict/khojaly.shtml
Sadik Duman,
Thousands and thousands of European civilians killed during 2-nd world war and none of them constitute, as deliberate killing like the way Turks eliminated indigenous Christian population of Asia Minor (Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians) during WW1, where until today scholars calling First Genocide Of the Century. I wonder if you can google yourself and find more about the truth of Artsakh war and Khojali massacre by Azerbaijani new government (Heidar Aliyev) during and after the fall of USSR, where Armenian pogroms took place in Azerbaijani cities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagorno-Karabakh_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baku_pogrom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumgait_pogrom
Remember we Armenians unlike Turkic tribes never rape weaponless women and children. it is against our fundamental Christian beliefs!
@ Sadik Duman, To your first question, the Armenians have worked not only through the Egyptian archives, but to all archives of european or Middle Eastern nations. Taking into consideration Syrian, Lebanese, Iraqi and also Egyptian archives. You are twisting the assertion of Nabil Naeem to make people think that Armenians never touched upon Egyptian archives, which just like all other archives pertaining to that time, PROVED that the monstrous atrocities that the Turks were accomplishing towards all Christians, Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks between 1915 and 1922. Naeem is not saying we never touched them, he said that the Turkish Government PAID MONEY 1 Million dollars to “cleanse” them, and he is saying this as a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood and founder of Jihad Party, the natural allies of Turkey and its islamist AK party government.
Based on that, and secondly, do not call anyone’s testimony regarding the offered money by Turkey “unsubstantiated assertion” just because it is your wishful thinking, which does not serve your NAZI nation’s plans to have all archives destroyed as a matter of fact. If you think that Nabil Naeem is lying for any reason, you show me any evidence as to his “unsubstantiated assertion” unless, it happens that you personally know him and spoke with him and have thorough knowledge as to what was burned and why.
Third, Turkey which came just 3 years ago with the bogus “Zero problems with neighbors”, has now virtually openly hostile relations with virtually all of its neighbors, save Azerbaijan. Your pan-Turkic, neo-Ottomanist plans caused the irritation and worry of the Muslim nations before even Israel, Greece, Cyprus and Armenia. mark my words, Turkey is a nation that has an appointment with implosion, and President Abdel Fattah al Sisi is neither a dictator, nor a fascist. He is the duly elected president of all Egyptians who love life, democracy, the civilian constitution and rule of law, and not sharia or islamist laws that Morsi was trying to implement. If you think that the Archives in Turkey have not been THOROGHLY cleansed of any evidences of the Genocide orders, details, numbers, reports, charts, and even simple memorandums, you are simply kidding yourself, and to see a true fascist nazi leader in the region look no further than your new FUHRER, SULTAN and DICTATOR Erdogan.