The Turkish Lie

Prime Minister’s 1919 Letter Describes
Armenia as Destitute, Yet Full of Hope

Today, at a time of global economic crisis, conflict and wars, most people are justifiably discouraged and depressed by the deluge of bad news. Armenia and Armenians are no exception.

At the outset of the year 2010, as Armenians assess their own situation, it is instructive to look back at the appalling conditions in the newly-born Republic of Armenia (1918-20). The stark difference — along with some similarities — between life in Armenia today and the first Republic becomes clear as we read the poignant letter of Armenia ’s first Prime Minister Hovhannes Katchaznouni sent to his wife in Tbilisi , Georgia , in January 1919.

The letter was written shortly after Armenia gained independence, as destitute Armenian survivors of the Genocide, dying from starvation and disease, were exposed to freezing conditions without adequate clothing or shelter. Prime Minister’s letter is a compelling document that contains valuable lessons for Armenians today. I have translated from the Armenian original excerpts from his lengthy letter.

Katchaznouni begins his letter by reflecting on his own troubled state of mind: “I see in front of my eyes the hundreds of thousands of people whose leadership has been entrusted to me. Remembering them, thinking of them, drives me to insanity with pain and sorrow.” The Prime Minister describes in agonizing detail, the miserable condition of his people as being “in abject poverty — in the pangs of death. We have no bread to eat; we are starving. We have no shelter. Our villages are destroyed. We don’t have a roof over our heads; living in collapsed buildings under harsh winter conditions. We have no clothes to wear. We are naked. We are freezing in tattered clothes. We are exhausted, sick and near death. Typhus fever has assumed unprecedented proportions. Two thousand out of Yerevan ’s 60,000 inhabitants are bed-ridden with typhus fever. Half of the doctors and nurses are either sick or dead. We have no disinfectants; no fuel to heat up the public baths to bathe the people and rid them of lice; and no soap to do the wash. We have no money. Our [printed] money was confiscated by Georgians in Tbilisi. We have no means of communication. The railroad is destroyed…. We have no horse-driven carriages, as the horses have died of starvation, and we have slaughtered the oxen for their meat.”

Facing abject misery, Katchaznouni believes that Armenians were able to survive only due to their unlimited ability to endure against all odds: “Our troops who chased out the Georgians in Lori are naked and hungry. We have more than 10,000 orphans in state orphanages with no money to feed them. We have 300,000 homeless refugees who are dying in front of our very eyes and we can’t do anything about it. State offices are not functioning, as we have no means of payment. Adding to this misery, we are afflicted with corruption, theft, pilfering, robbery, and blackmail — against which we have no recourse.”

He goes on to describe the complications resulting from clashes with Georgians and Turks. He states that “while Armenia is trying to avoid war at all cost, we cannot make concessions to everyone, to yield, to be patient and retreat, because by doing so we endanger greatly the future of our state, our political situation, our independence, our freedom — everything for which we made such terrible sacrifices, expended superhuman efforts, and survived for generations and centuries. Yet, we are exhausted to such a degree that we are unable to continue to fight, to resist, to endure, and make new sacrifices…. Meanwhile, outside help from the United States and England , on which we placed all of our hopes, is slow and inadequate.”

The Prime Minister next complains about the “lack of talent and inexperience” of government officials, including his own, and laments “internal discord, lack of trust, antagonism, and even mutual hatred.” He describes the weaknesses of each cabinet minister, even accusing one of seeking to enrich himself. Several of his ministers and top aides are either bed-ridden with serious illnesses or have left the country for short trips, but have not returned in weeks. He then turns in despair to the bankrupt status of his government: “The state coffers are empty. Our money is in the hands of the Georgians in Tbilisi . We need to care for the orphans, distribute bread to the hungry, cure the ill, and pay the staff… but how? I get dizzy just thinking about it!”

Before ending his letter, Katchaznouni consoles himself with the hope that “the dawn is near.” He calls upon Armenians “to endure, pull together their last drop of energy, make a final effort, and remain on their feet,” because “we have already sacrificed so much, lost so much blood, and shed so many tears. So many houses are in ruins. All of these sacrifices must receive their just compensation — not so much for ourselves, but for our children. Perhaps another 10,000 will lose their lives, including my own, but at least those who survive will have normal lives, breathe freely, and live like human beings. That will come to pass — shortly!”

Incredibly, despite overwhelming odds, Katchaznouni sees a bright future: “Just five years earlier, Armenia was a mere geographical term and a distant dream as a political unit that no one dared to speak about. Today, the Republic of Armenia is a reality. Let this Republic be tiny and poor. Let the people starve and suffer from epidemics. All these things are transitory. What we have is a proven fact. There is no power on earth that can erase from the pages of history this reality. After 500 years of slavery, a nation is reborn to live a free and independent life.”

Armenia’s first Prime Minister then proudly recounts the establishment of the Republic, expansion of its territory and withdrawal of Turkish troops. “Great powers have recognized Armenia and have included us in delegations for international conferences. Major countries have formal relations with us. They send us their representatives. They correspond with us, addressing us as ‘The Government of the Republic of Armenia , the President, the Foreign Minister.’”

While conditions in today’s Armenia are incomparably better than they were in Katchanznouni’s time — after all, 90 years have passed since then — the Armenian people surely deserve a higher standard of living. The majority still lacks the basic necessities.

Yet despite economic hardships and outside threats, Armenians’ will to survive is engrained in their DNA! For several millennia, they have suffered occupation, plunder, wars, massacres, and even Genocide and have endured. Today’s difficulties will also pass…. Armenians will not only survive, but also thrive!

Armenia Threatens To Annul Agreements With Turkey

President Serzh Sarkisian and visiting Latvian President Valdis Zatlers

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–Armenia on Thursday explicitly threatened to walk away from its landmark agreements with Turkey if Ankara continues to make their implementation conditional on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

President Serzh Sarkisian issued the warning in response to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s latest linkage between the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations and a Karabakh settlement acceptable to Azerbaijan.

“I am stating again that the Republic of Armenia is prepared to properly honor its international commitments. Namely, to ratify the Turkish-Armenian protocols,” Sarkisian told a joint news conference with his visiting Latvian counterpart, Valdis Zatlers.

“But you will recall that I have also stated before that if Turkey drags out the ratification of the protocols, then Armenia will immediately make use of possibilities stemming from international law,” he said. “And so I am declaring now that I have instructed relevant state bodies to prepare amendments to those of our laws that pertain to the signing, ratification and abrogation of international agreements.”

The two protocols signed in Zurich in October commit the two neighbors to establish diplomatic relations and reopen their border within two months of the documents’ entry into force, which in turn is contingent on their ratification by the Armenian and Turkish parliaments.

Although the protocols make no direct reference to Karabakh, Turkish leaders have made clear that Turkey’s Grand National Assembly will not endorse them unless Armenia agrees to a resolution of the Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan. Erdogan, whose government has a clear majority in the assembly, reiterated that precondition after talks with U.S. President Barack Obama in the White House on Monday.

“Turkey’s objective is to link Turkish-Armenian relations with the Nagorno-Karabakh problem,” Sarkisian said, commenting on Erdogan’s statements. “I must once again repeat that those attempts are a priori doomed to failure.”

Sarkisian set no deadlines for the Turkish ratification of the agreements welcomed by the international community. Like Obama and other top U.S. officials, he has previously stressed the need for their implementation within a “reasonable time frame.” According to some pro-government politicians in Armenia, by that Yerevan means the beginning of the next spring.

Controversy Surrounds Plans for Uranium Mine in Armenia

GHAPAN, Armenia (Eurasianet)–A protest movement against a planned Russian-Armenian uranium mine in southern Armenia appears to be picking up steam, with
discussions underway with three political parties about a partnership.

The mine, a 50-50 joint venture between Armenia and Russia, will be located in the mineral-rich region of Syunik, already the home to two copper and molybdenum mining operations.

Soviet-era studies indicated that Armenia could contain up to approximately 60,000 tons of uranium. With uranium prices at roughly $97 per kilogram, that means the Syunik mine could create considerable revenue for Armenian state coffers.

Yerevan plans to export the uranium to Russia, where it would be enriched for nuclear fuel to be used in Armenia’s nuclear power plant. Exploration work in the field is already underway. Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Areg Galstian stated at a late October conference on Armenian-Russian energy cooperation.

The Armenian-Russian Mining Company holds a five-year permit for exploration of uranium ore in Syunik. Company data indicates that exploration is taking place in southern and northern Syunik.

But local residents, including inhabitants of the nearby regional capital, Kapan, and the mining town of Kajaran fear the consequences. Expressing concern about chances for a spike in cancer rates and genetic mutations once uranium mining starts, the head of the Greens’ Union of Armenia, Hakob Sanasarian, called the project “a disaster for both the local and the national population.”

The director of a local Karabakh War veterans’ rights group agreed. “If they start mining uranium, we will fight using all possible methods,” Khoren Harutiunian declared. “We will even block the roads.”

Discussions are being held with three prominent political parties about an alliance to block the mine, Harutiunian said. He declined to identify the parties involved in the discussions.

The anti-mine movement also plans to start a letter-writing campaign to government officials this week; some 2,000 Kapan residents have already joined the protest, they claim.

Geochemist Sergei Grigorian, a member of the National Academy of Sciences who is overseeing the geological survey of the Syunik uranium deposits for the Armenian-Russian Mining Company, called the outcry misplaced.

“[T]his is … caused by some misunderstanding because what we do now is safe,” Grigorian said. “The mining work should be organized so that they will not cause any environmental problems.”

The Soviet-era figures about Armenia’s estimated uranium deposits could be 10 times higher than what exists in reality — a situation that could impact the Company’s plans for Syunik, he continued. Nonetheless, he underlined, Armenia requires fuel for its nuclear power plant and must secure its own supplies.

“[W]hat if we can no longer get uranium from Russia?” Grigorian asked. “We need to have some culture of mining. … We cannot just sit and starve.”

If the project proceeds on schedule, work on the surface of the mine site will start in 2010, and holes will be drilled to reach the uranium ore deposits, he said. But environmentalists question Grigorian’s assurances on the environment. “It’s up to an international independent expert group to decide whether [the uranium mining] is safe or not,” affirmed Inga Zarafian, chairperson of the non-governmental organization EcoLur.

Grigorian stresses that public discussions have been held to explain to some 1,000 local community members how the mine will operate and safety standards maintained.

The head of the Lernadzor community administration, however, contends that public discussions are not enough. “How can I support such activities if all this results in is people wanting to leave the village?” asked Stepan Petrosian. “I don’t know even whether I should finish building my house or not. Will my grandchildren ever live here?”

For now, that question remains unanswered, but the fear about the mines hangs on. One activist pledged: “We will fight till the end.”

Mouths filled with hatred

Father Samuel Aghoyan, a senior Armenian Orthodox cleric in Jerusalem’s Old City, says he’s been spat at by young haredi and national Orthodox Jews “about 15 to 20 times” in the past decade. The last time it happened, he said, was earlier this month. “I was walking back from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and I saw this boy in a yarmulke and ritual fringes coming back from the Western Wall, and he spat at me two or three times.”

Wearing a dark-blue robe, sitting in St. James’s Church, the main Armenian church in the Old City, Aghoyan said, “Every single priest in this church has been spat on. It happens day and night.”

Father Athanasius, a Texas-born Franciscan monk who heads the Christian Information Center inside the Jaffa Gate, said he’s been spat at by haredi and national Orthodox Jews “about 15 times in the last six months” – not only in the Old City, but also on Rehov Agron near the Franciscan friary. “One time a bunch of kids spat at me, another time a little girl spat at me,” said the brown-robed monk near the Jaffa Gate.

“All 15 monks at our friary have been spat at,” he said. “Every [Christian cleric in the Old City] who’s been here for awhile, who dresses in robes in public, has a story to tell about being spat at. The more you get around, the more it happens.”

Turkish Officials Admit To Playing Games With Protocols

With each passing day, the games Turkish officials have been playing with the Protocols are becoming more obvious and ridiculous!

Throughout the long months of negotiations, I repeatedly warned that Turkish officials were not sincere in their announced intention of opening the border with Armenia and establishing diplomatic relations. By acting as if they were seeking reconciliation with Armenia, Turkish leaders simply wanted to prevent further acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide by third countries, extract maximum concessions from Armenia on Artsakh (Karabagh), and block future territorial demands from Turkey.

Turkey first dragged out the negotiations until right before April 24 to preclude Pres. Obama from keeping his promise on recognizing the Armenian Genocide. The Protocols were finally signed on October 10, to ensure that Pres. Sargsyan does go to Turkey to attend the soccer match between the national teams of the two countries.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s leaders were repeatedly announcing that they would not open the border and their Parliament would not ratify the Protocols until Armenia returned Artsakh to Azerbaijan — even though there is no such requirement in the signed documents. More than a month has now passed since the signing of the Protocols in Zurich, but there are no signs that the Turkish Parliament would ratify them anytime soon.

Just before signing the Protocols, Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu traveled to Azerbaijan to pledge once again that they had no intention of opening the border with Armenia until Artsakh was returned to Azerbaijan.

As if these outrageous pre-conditions were not sufficient to shake Armenians’ confidence in the Protocols, Turkish officials made no attempt to hide their deceptive designs.

The October 5th issue of the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet quoted Foreign Ministry officials in Ankara as stating: “The formation of a joint history commission and re-opening the border are included in the documents. However, they can be put into effect only after a solution is found to the Karabakh issue. Without a solution to the Karabakh conflict, these protocols cannot be transferred to Parliament. Even then, Parliament would not adopt it. So, relax.”

To convince the Azerbaijanis that Turkey had no plans to ratify the Protocols, Turkish Foreign Ministry officials boasted about their success in deceiving Europeans on another agreement: “Turkey had to sign a protocol with the European Union on the Cyprus issue. What happened? Did Turkey open its seaports and airports to Cypriot vessels and airplanes, after four years?

We now have solid evidence that these Turkish officials were not making an idle boast when they indicated that signing an agreement means nothing to them. In the Oct. 25 issue of “Today’s Zaman,” commentator Ercan Yavuz cited dozens of examples of agreements signed by Turkey, but not ratified, after the passage of many years! At present, there are 146 agreements with 95 countries, including Argentina, Azerbaijan, Libya, Slovenia, Sweden, and Syria, awaiting the approval of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Commission. The oldest — an agreement signed 26 years ago between Iraq and Turkey — is still pending ratification by the Turkish Parliament. Many other important agreements have been signed since 2004, but still not ratified!

Given the Turkish record of not taking seriously commitments made on behalf of their country, it should not come as a surprise to anyone that the Turkish Parliament would not ratify the Armenia-Turkey Protocols anytime soon. Of course, by not ratifying the Protocols, Turkey would be breaking its written pledge of August 31, to ratify the Protocols in a “timely” manner.

Interestingly, Armenia’s Foreign Minster Edward Nalbandian, in a recent interview with Reuters, asked: “Why sign the Protocols, if they are not going to be ratified?” The answer is obvious: The Turkish government is interested in creating a positive image for itself in front of the international community by appearing to want “good neighborly relations” with Armenia, without actually taking any concrete steps to do so.

Armenia’s officials are sadly mistaken if they believe that Turkey would come under intense international pressure, should it not ratify the protocols. Time and again, Turkey has proven its immunity from pressures applied by other countries, including the United States, as was the case on the eve of the Iraq war when Turkey refused to allow U.S. Troops to cross its borders to enter Iraq.

If pressured from outside, Turkish leaders would simply blame Armenia, by pointing out that it has not made any concessions on Artsakh, thereby making it impossible for the Turkish Parliament to ratify the Protocols.

Armenian officials have repeatedly stated that the Artsakh negotiations are unrelated to the Protocols and that the Armenian Parliament would not ratify the Protocols before Turkey, adding that they would scrap the agreement, if Turkey failed to act in a “timely” manner.

It remains to be seen whether Armenia would keep its pledge of not making any territorial concessions on Artsakh; and should Turkey refuse to ratify the Protocols after the lapse of several months, would Armenia’s leaders have the courage to declare the signed Protocols null and void?

1915CLUB

This is a very interesting site, put the cursor on the red dots on the big map,

it will bring up the name of the town or city,

it will tell you how many Armenians,

and if you double click on the red dot,

it will give you lot more details. I found it very interesting.

http://www.centerar.org/1915club-test/map.php