Genocide Commemoration to Be Held in Istanbul

The Human Rights Association of Turkey, Istanbul Branch, through its Committee Against Racism and Discrimination this week released the following statement in commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.

***

On the 24th of April 1915, the most brilliant representatives of Armenian culture, intellectuals, members of parliament, writers, poets, musicologists, lawyers, around 220 people were rounded up in one night in Istanbul and sent to the inlands of Anatolia from the Haydarpasha Station. Amongst them very few survived. The Istanbul arrests were the signal to the approaching extermination of Armenian existence in the Ottoman Empire in 1915-16.

The Istanbul branch of the Human Rights Association, Turkey, invites everyone who feels the shame of 1915 in their hearts as well as the press to the gathering at the entrance of Haydarpasha Station to commemorate the victims of  the 24th April arrests and to say NEVER AGAIN.

We will be waiting for the participants at 13:30 hours on Sat., April 24 at Haydarpasha Train Station to honor the victims’ memory.

NEVER AGAIN!

Human Rights Association, Istanbul Branch
Committee Against Racism and Discrimination

16 Comments

  1. What a nice idea to commemorate April 24 in that starting place of genocide. I hope large number of people will be there. Good job for the Human Rights Assciation.

  2. I pray for those who will be there, and thank the Istanbul branch of the Human Rights Association, Committee Against Racism and Discrimination.

  3. I wonder how many people would show up given the general antagonistic, Armenophobic climate in Turkey and Article 301 hanging like axe over the heads of honorable Turks…

  4. I was there with over 200 people. It’s suprising that many people do not believe such thing could be held in Turkey. Yes, Turkey has a great problem with freedom of expression however, Turkey moved ahead. The infamous Article 301 was reformed years ago and there has been no case related to that article since then. Turkey is actually a country in which people might gather to say “We Are All Armenians”, it is a country in which people can gather in memorium of Armenian Genocide victims… I wonder if such thing could be done in Yerevan; people gather and protest terrorist acts of Asala or Armenian groups in the 1St World War? We should not be prejudiced against any thing, anyone.

  5. can you hold such an event in Erivan as there were only relocation and no murder happened? or in Paris? or in Zurich?  wrong my friends.. Turks always bared the democracy and human rights but Not other so called Europeans.  
    I as a believer of such inhumane things NOT done by the Turks and not happened in Turkey. can I hold a meeting in Erivan?   I would be killed in 2 minutes..
    Turks opened their hearts and minds to Jewish people when they were kicked out of Spain 500 years ago thenagain in WW II.   Turks brought Armenians to Istanbul and gave them land and Homes and built churches for them. 
    It is NOT so simple that one day people decides we do not like Armenians in Istanbul.  April 24, Armenian terrorists have been sent to Cankiri province just to calm NOT killed them.  This should tell of you something.  You are commemorating something nver took place unfortunately.. Armenian Subjects were not killed rather relocated in to other parts of the empire as those so-called intellectuals ( calentestine terrorists) sent to internal exile.
    Think what you are commemorating dear Armenians.  reality will come out one way or another..

  6. To Kurt:

    I don’t know if they teach you geography at all at schools, but in the English language the modern capital of the Republic of Armenia is spelled “Yerevan” and not “Erivan.” The name comes from ancient Armenian Urartian city of Erebuni (Yerebuni) built by King Argishti I in 782 B.C.

    Just try to remember how georgraphic toponyms are correctly spelled. Or consult English Oxford Dictionary online if you’re unsure, OK?

  7. Kurt, you are ill informed or uninformed. The Genocide is common knowledge of all civilized people.  You are welcome to join us.
    I’m an Armenian who can trace his lineage from Istanbul for almost 400 years.

  8. Kurt and Samon, who cares about the ASALA. The thing was is that our government killed 1.5 Armenians and we have to hand over land back to them. If we do this, human rights will improve in Turkey, as well as Armenia, and all over the region. Thanks to Turkeys endless denial, there are all the wars in the Middle East and no democracy in Turkey and countries neighboring to the East and South of Turkey. Take your head out of your ass and wake up to the realities.

    From,
    A Fellow Turk

  9. Basic question Kurt asked is naturally not answered.  If it were so illegal and 301 was such a threat to free expression on this topic in Turkey, how come such demostrations and commemorations take place every year in Turkey?  I see, you do not want to believe in your lying eyes.

    Where are similar demonstrations for the victims of Karabag in Erivan?  Where are the fringe of the Armenians, those who do not sing from the exact same sheet?  Where is their Akcam? 

  10. Kurt:
     
    Every sentence of your post is a testament to the efficiency of the brainwashing that Turks have been subjected to for decades by their State.
     
    This is the best: “You are commemorating something nver took place unfortunately.. Armenian Subjects were not killed rather relocated in to other parts of the empire as those so-called intellectuals ( calentestine terrorists) sent to internal exile.”

     
    And as to Turks ‘giving’ us something: Turks didn’t, quote, ‘give’ us anything: your ancestors took everything from us Armenians by force, by theft, and by usurpation: culture, architecture, lands, and genes.
     
     
    Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Kurds were living where you Turks now live for 1000s of years.
    Armenians had a thriving civilization on the Armenian Highlands for at least 3,000 years; possibly 4,000-5,000 years.
    Seljuk Turks – an Asiatic, nomadic warrior group –  arrived at Manzakert, Armenia,  in 1071: a precise historical date. Do the math and figure out who gave who what.
     
    [NOTE: pretty hard to carry buildings or heavy objects with you, such as a Church or Khachkars, when you are travelling horseback – wouldn’t you say ?]
     
     
    Every piece of ancient architecture in  present day Turkey is of Armenian, Greek, or Assyrian origin.
    Your modern society exists only thanks  to the Christian West: without massive financial and technological help from the Christian West, Turkey would be as advanced as Afghanistan today.
     
     
    Finally, what exactly have the Turks given to the world that they can be proud of ? Oh, I remember, they invented the modern State-organized mass-extermination of unarmed, defenseless, peaceful civilians: old men, women, children, babies, the unborn – later to be coined  an act of ‘Genocide’.
    The inventive Turkish mind is credited with the invention and  first use of crude gas chambers – which Nazis copied and improved on with typical German efficiency.
     

  11. Murat:
     
    What, quote, ‘victims’ of Karabagh ? You mean the Armenian civilians who your ‘Azeri’ Tatar cousins tried to completely exterminate – and fortunately did not succeed; i.e. succeeded in killing “only” a few thousand, not the entire Armenian population of 200,000 of Artsakh – those victims ?
     
     
    You mean the 100s of civilians that were killed in Stepanakert by indiscriminate raining of Azeri Grad missiles and artillery bombardment  and other  civilian population centers ?
     
     
    You mean the Maraga Village massacre, where Armenian civilians who could not escape from advancing Azeri troops were captured, tortured, murdered, their heads sawn off, corpses mutilated – those victims ?
     
     
    Are you referring to the Kojaly massacre – perpetrated by Azeri military units  themselves and somewhat successfully pinned on Armenians ?
    When Azeris hold commemorations in Baku for the massacre of 100s unarmed Armenians in Sumgait and Baku, then maybe Armenians will hold a vigil at the Blue Mosque   in Yerevan for the souls of the 100s of victims of Kojaly – massacred by their own Azeri troops.
     
     
    Were Azeris civilians killed as an indirect result of  actions  of Armenian military units ? Of course: how many wars do you  know of where civilian bystanders are not killed. But ask yourself: who started the violence and killing ? Azeris or Armenians.
     
     
    As to the Article 301: check this link: http://armenianweekly.com/2011/03/28/nobel-laureate-fined/
    The date is March 28, 2011. After you’ve read the article, you can come back and crow about freedom of anything in Turkey.
     

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