As David Fromkin put it in his widely praised history of World War I and its aftermath, “A Peace to End All Peace”: “Rape and beating were commonplace. Those who were not killed at once were driven through mountains and deserts without food, drink or shelter. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians eventually succumbed or were killed .”

The man who invented the word “genocide”— Raphael Lemkin, a lawyer of Polish-Jewish origin — was moved to investigate the attempt to eliminate an entire people by accounts of the massacres of Armenians. He did not, however, coin the word until 1943, applying it to Nazi Germany and the Jews in a book published a year later, “Axis Rule in Occupied Europe.”

But to Turks, what happened in 1915 was, at most, just one more messy piece of a very messy war that spelled the end of a once-powerful empire. They reject the conclusions of historians and the term genocide, saying there was no premeditation in the deaths, no systematic attempt to destroy a people. Indeed, in Turkey today it remains a crime — “insulting Turkishness” — to even raise the issue of what happened to the Armenians.

In the United States, a powerful Armenian community centered in Los Angeles has been pressing for years for Congress to condemn the Armenian genocide. Turkey, which cut military ties to France over a similar action, has reacted with angry threats. A bill to that effect nearly passed in the fall of 2007, gaining a majority of co-sponsors and passing a committee vote. But the Bush administration, noting that Turkey is a critical ally — more than 70 per cent of the military air supplies for Iraq go through the Incirlik airbase there — pressed for the bill to be withdrawn, and it was.

The roots of the genocide lie in the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

The empire’s ruler was also the caliph, or leader of the Islamic community. Minority religious communities, like the Christian Armenians, were allowed to maintain their religious, social and legal structures, but were often subject to extra taxes or other measures.

Concentrated largely in eastern Anatolia, many of them merchants and industrialists, Armenians, historians say, appeared markedly better off in many ways than their Turkish neighbors, largely small peasants or ill-paid government functionaries and soldiers.

At the turn of the 20th Century, the once far-flung Ottoman empire was crumbling at the edges, beset by revolts among Christian subjects to the north — vast swaths of territory were lost in the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 — and the subject of coffee house grumbling among Arab nationalist intellectuals in Damascus and elsewhere.

The Young Turk movement of ambitious, discontented junior army officers seized power in 1908, determined to modernize, strengthen and “Turkify” the empire. They were led by what became an all-powerful triumvirate sometimes referred to as the Three Pashas.

In March of 1914, the Young Turks entered World War I on the side of Germany. They attacked to the east, hoping to capture the city of Baku in what would be a disastrous campaign against Russian forces in the Caucuses. They were soundly defeated at the battle of Sarikemish.

Armenians in the area were blamed for siding with the Russians and the Young Turks began a campaign to portray the Armenians as a kind of fifth column, a threat to the state. Indeed, there were Armenian nationalists who acted as guerrillas and cooperated with the Russians. They briefly seized the city of Van in the spring of 1915.

Armenians mark the date April 24, 1915, when several hundred Armenian intellectuals were rounded up, arrested and later executed as the start of the Armenian genocide and it is generally said to have extended to 1917. However, there were also massacres of Armenians in 1894, 1895, 1896, 1909, and a reprise between 1920 and 1923.

The University of Minnesota’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies has compiled figures by province and district that show there were 2,133,190 Armenians in the empire in 1914 and only about 387,800 by 1922.

Writing at the time of the early series of massacres, The New York Times suggested there was already a “policy of extermination directed against the Christians of Asia Minor.”

The Young Turks, who called themselves the Committee of Unity and Progress, launched a set of measures against the Armenians, including a law authorizing the military and government to deport anyone they “sensed” was a security threat.

A later law allowed the confiscation of abandoned Armenian property. Armenians were ordered to turn in any weapons that they owned to the authorities. Those in the army were disarmed and transferred into labor battalions where they were either killed or worked to death.

There were executions into mass graves, and death marches of men, women and children across the Syrian desert to concentration camps with many dying along the way of exhaustion, exposure and starvation.

Much of this was quite well documented at the time by Western diplomats, missionaries and others, creating widespread wartime outrage against the Turks in the West. Although its ally, Germany, was silent at the time, in later years documents have surfaced from ranking German diplomats and military officers expressing horror at what was going on.

Some historians, however, while acknowledging the widespread deaths, say what happened does not technically fit the definition of genocide largely because they do not feel there is evidence that it was well-planned in advance.

The New York Times covered the issue extensively — 145 articles in 1915 alone by one count — with headlines like “Appeal to Turkey to Stop Massacres.” The Times described the actions against the Armenians as “systematic,” “authorized, and “organized by the government.”

The American ambassador, Henry Morganthau Sr., was also outspoken. In his memoirs, the ambassador would write: “When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and in their conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact.”

Following the surrender of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, the Three Pashas fled to Germany, where they were given protection. But the Armenian underground formed a group called Operation Nemesis to hunt them down. On March 15, 1921, one of the pashas was shot dead on a street in Berlin in broad daylight in front of witnesses. The gunman pled temporary insanity brought on by the mass killings and a jury took only a little over an hour to acquit him. It was the defense evidence at this trial that drew the interest of Mr. Lemkin, the coiner of “genocide.”

“We are the only two organizations in the world to honour the Righteous in all genocide cases” said Baruch Tenembaum, the creator of International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, in the opening of the encounter – held on March 19 in Milan – with Gariwo founders, Gabriele Nissim and Pietro Kuciukian. Just a few words that convey the reasons that moved him to face the long journey from Argentina with the willingness to pave the way to cooperation between the two organizations.

Born in a community of Jewish refugees fleeing 1880’s Russia pogroms base in the Santa Fe province of Argentina, Tenembaum is an energetic and jovial elderly. He gives the impression of combining a strong pragmatism with a sound humanistic education, and a glance at his biography confirms this. He studied Religious science and taught Yiddish literature and philosophy for many years. In 1964 he organized the Spinoza Congress, with the participation of Israeli prime minister Ben Gurion and writer J. L. Borges; the next year he was one of the promoters of the first visit of a Pope to Jerusalem. In 1966, he founded the international inter-confessional organization Casa Argentina, based in Jerusalem and Buenos Aires. A branch of this will become the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, named after the Swedish diplomat and philantropist passed away in 1945 – apparently captured and sent to a GULag by the Soviets – after rescuing thousands Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary.

IRWF, chaired by the Argentinian enterpreneur of Armenian descent Eduardo Eurnekian, was created with the aim of making the public opinion aware of the values of solidarity and civil courage, which are the ethical bulwarks of Holocaust rescuers. Yet, the founder cares about assessing “It isn’t an exclusively Jewish organization”. “We don’t lament, ours is a commitment towards the future, to the prevention of all cases of genocide and the education of the younger generations”. On his turn Mr. Eurnekian, on whom the Oslo Business for Peace Organization bestowed in 2012 the “Business for Peace Award”, underlines the need for unity – especially between Armenians and Jews – when acting to follow this engagement.

Once the common goals with Gariwo were assessed, after expressing his own enthusiasm for the ideas at the basis of the Garden of the Righteous worldwide of Milan and the European day of the Righteous, Mr. Tenembaum raised with an initial cautiousness the delicate issue which whoever tackles the topic of the Righteous must sooner or later deal with: Yad Vashem. It is a “closure position”, in his opinion, the one of the Memorial of Jerusalem keeps towards the endeavour to work through the concept of Righteous. For example it is paradoxical that “the Jews cannot receive the title of Righteous among nations” and Yad Vashem should not claim to exert its monopoly on a concept – not simply a title, as underlined by Mr. Eurnekian – that appears both in the Bible and in the most ancient European cultural tradition.

But the key element is the discussion on the term Righteous, for which purpose people shall use it and the different meaning nuances that it takes depending on translation. It is not only a matter of terminology – our interlocutors know – and one should speak the same language to understand eachother well and build common projects. Hence are the words righteous, rescuers, giusti, salvadores used to talk about whom? There are Righteous people who, without performing rescue deeds, have opposed moral resistance in the defense of human dignity, or risked their lives to witness to and report crimes. “I agree with you – said Tenembaum in conclusion – that in philosophical terms the salvadores are those who have safeguarded humanity values”.
Pietro Kuciukian, who in Yerevan has raised a remembrance wall to honour the witnesses of truth against Turkish negationism on the Armenian genocide, knows it well.

Peter Malkin, author of the portrait entitled as “With the same hands” (photo), was the Mossad agent who in May 1960 captured “with his hands” Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann. A reproduction of this work was donated from our guests to Gariwo Chairman Mr. Nissim during his visit to our premises.

BUENOS AIRES — Tucked into an alcove of Argentina’s National Cathedral, right beside an icon of the Virgin of Luján, is a wall of yellowed documents written in delicate Hebrew. The pages were rescued from the death camps of Auschwitz, the ruins of Berlin’s synagogue and the remains of this city’s Jewish community center.

The world’s Catholics and Jews have been moving toward reconciliation since the Second Vatican Council. But perhaps nowhere are the two faiths tighter than in Argentina, where many in the Jewish community are celebrating the recent election of their long-time advocate and friend, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, as Pope Francis.

“This was a great event for us,” said Guillermo Borger, president of the AMIA Jewish cultural center, where then-Cardinal Bergoglio was a frequent visitor. “We know this pope very well and I am sure that he is going to look for truth and justice in this world.”

First as archbishop of Buenos Aires, and then as cardinal, Bergoglio, 76, used his office to build ties to Argentina’s estimated 250,000-strong Jewish community, the largest in Latin America.

In 2005, Bergoglio was the first of more than 80 dignitaries to sign a petition asking for justice in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA, which left 85 dead and more than 300 injured. While Iran has been suspected of coordinating the attack, the country denies it. President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has drawn criticism for recently agreeing to team up with Iran to investigate the bombing.

Last year, amid upheaval in the Middle East, Bergoglio organized interfaith prayer services that drew Jews and Muslims to the National Cathedral.

Bergoglio also shared a cable television program with Argentina’s Chief Rabbi Abraham Skorka and they wrote a book together called “Above heaven and earth.”

Interviewed by the AJN news agency in Israel, Skorka said he was eager to “look into the eyes” of his old friend who he said has deep respect for Judaism and Israel.

Waldo Wolff, vice president of the Delegation of Israeli Associations of Argentina, said much of Bergoglio’s work was less formal. Bergoglio had many friends in the Jewish community and was a frequent dinner guest among association members, he said.

“Almost everyone has a picture with him,” Wolff said. “To have a picture with someone who is on their way to being a pope is not easy.”

On Tuesday, this South American nation will be following Francis’ inauguration ceremony, which will be broadcast live on a giant screen erected beside the cathedral. Among the hundreds of delegates in Rome will be 16 Jewish members, from organizations including the World Jewish Congress and the Anti-Defamation League, the Vatican said. The event caps a flurry of activity that began Wednesday when the cardinal conclave surprised the world by electing the first Latin American pope.

On Monday, Kirchner met with Francis for about 20 minutes, the Vatican said. The two figures have often clashed over her administration’s liberal social policies, which include same-sex marriage and birth control. But Kirchner told The Associated Press that the meeting was friendly and that she had asked her old nemesis to intervene on behalf of Argentina in the dispute over the Falkland Islands. Argentina and Britain fought a war in 1982 over the remote islands, which are known as the Malvinas here. While Bergoglio has supported Argentina’s claims in the past, it’s unclear if he will continue his advocacy as the world’s most eminent Catholic.

One of Francis’ first official acts last week was to write a letter to Rome’s Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, saying “I strongly hope to be able to contribute to the progress of the relations that have existed between Jews and Catholics.”

While documentation is scarce, the Jewish community in Argentina is thought to date back to at least the mid-1800s. The first Jewish wedding took place in 1860 and the first synagogue was built in 1897, according to the city of Buenos Aires. A second wave of Jewish immigrants came here after World War II.

In a sense, Bergoglio has been following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Buenos Aires Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, said Baruj Tenembaum, founder of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. Quarracino traveled to Israel and was deeply committed to the Jewish cause, Tenembaum said. It was Quarracino who installed the holocaust memorial in the National Cathedral. Tenembaum said the display is thought to be the only one of its kind in a Catholic church.

Shortly before he died in 1998, Quarracino wrote a letter saying he wanted to be buried at the foot of the memorial so he could continue “striving for [Jewish-Catholic] fraternity like I have been doing my entire life.”

But Bergoglio didn’t focus exclusively on the Jewish community, said Sumer Noufouri, the secretary general of the Islamic Center of Argentina. Noufouri said Bergoglio was a frequent visitor there also and that, in 2009, helped start the Islamic-Christian Dialogue, which sought to bring the two groups together.

“When he told his colleagues in Rome that [the Islamic community here] would visit him at the diocese, he said they were surprised; that they couldn’t believe it,” Noufouri said. “I think he’s going to be good for all of mankind, without exception.”

“I am moved,” said Baruch Tenembaum, founder of the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, an Argentine Jew and longtime personal friend of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis I.
Temembaum, a pioneer of interreligious dialogue amongst Christians, Muslims and Jews since the 1960s, tells Aleteia, “I am very satisfied, because I believe that we will see, in terms of spirituality, a repetition of the what John XXIII did at the service of the Church and of the world.”

“It is a cause for hope. I am certain that he will find the way to dialogue with the Islamic faithful, as well,” he added.
“I have known him well since he was Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires. He defended a memorial that was erected for the first time in a cathedral, dedicated to the victims of the Shoah by the Mutual Israli-Argentine Association” (“AMIA” in Spanish).

“Bergoglio stood out for his closeness to minorities,” adds Tenembaum. “He preserved a very special monument. He would personally go to the market to buy flowers to lay at the tomb of his predecessor, Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, which was in front of the memorial.”

“He is a very simple, humble and spiritual man. He participated like no other with everyone in interreligious encounters. He has many rabbi friends, and has published books together with rabbis. He went to many synagogues. I don’t say it because I am Jewish, but because he is a man with a profound respect for all people, who have a right to be distinct, so long as they are people of integrity.”

“When he came to Buenos Aires as an Auxiliary Bishop in 1992, I said to him, ‘Look, Jorge – we respect the life of anyone who respects everyone in return.’ Not only did he empathize with us; he demonstrated it in his life.”

“It is truly moving that the Cardinals have chosen a true man of the people to be Pope. He wore a normal jacket and used public transportation, but at the same time, he is a very cultured man,” said Tenembaum.

Translated by Alberto Gonzalez

Sir, – The Tel Aviv Family Court ruling on Franz Kafka’s collection of works is of historical proportions (“TA Court: Kafka’s works must be given to National Library, 90 years after his death,” October 15). As a result of the court’s decision, the public will be allowed to access this cultural treasure, a fact which cannot be downplayed.

Having said so, one should not forget the real hero of this saga, Max Brod, who literally acted as a savior, ignoring Kafka’s unequivocal instructions to set his work ablaze.

Faced with the dilemma of fulfilling his friend’s wishes, or bequeathing to the world one of the most precious literary treasuries known by mankind, Brod opted for the latter.

The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation is committed to preserve and divulge the legacies of the saviors, such as Raoul Wallenberg and his likes. As far as we are concerned, saviors are not only those who rescued human lives, but also those, like Max Brod, who rescued cultural assets.

To be sure, saving lives cannot be equated to saving a cultural heritage.

Brod did not face the same perils as those who during the Shoah risked their lives to save others, but nonetheless the transcendence of his decision was far-reaching for generations to come.

Can one imagine what would the world look like without Kafka’s legacy? We cannot. That’s why we have an infinite debt of gratitude to Max Brod.

Baruch Tenembaum
The writer is the founder of The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation

On April 24th, the Armenians in particular and the world at large commemorate the systematic massacre and deportation of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.  The date is somewhat arbitrary, coinciding with an order given on April 24th, 1915, by the Ottoman authorities to arrest some 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders, which by and large, opened the gates of hell.

To be sure, the forced death marches and brutal mass murders resulted in the death of 1,500,000 Armenians.

This unfathomable loss has created a huge void in the collective conscience of the Armenian people.  In Hebrew, the world “chalal” is used to describe a “slain person”, someone who died a “sudden, unnatural death”. “Chalal” also means “space”, or “void”, and this is exactly what all Armenians feel about their murdered ancestors.

As a son of the Armenian diaspora, I can say that each and every Armenian senses a tremendous “void”, which cannot be easily described by words.  I am sure this is something that the Jewish people can easily relate to, after suffering so much persecution, pogroms and the Holocaust. The Israelis too, who face an endless war and have paid such a dear price in terms of fallen soldiers and even civilians targeted by terrorism, would understand this dark sensation.

A few months ago, when I assumed my duties as Chairman of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, I started to learn first-hand what makes this organization so special. Its uniqueness lies in  the emphasis it places on the positive rather than the negative. From its very inception, ever since my friend Baruch Tenembaum, together with the late US Congressman and Holocaust survivor, Tom Lantos,have founded this NGO, they have focused on the saviors of victims of the Shoah, shedding light on their magnificent feats, unveiling their unknown stories of heroism. Others deal with the atrocities of the Nazis, and that is very well, needless to say, but the Wallenberg Foundation dedicates its mission to the saviors, to make their stories know and to thank them for having made a difference.

All my life I have upheld this philosophy. As an entrepreneur, I believe in building a better reality in which prosperity and human values are intimately intertwined.

Do not misunderstand me. The past is of cardinal importance. The souls of the 1,500,000 Armenians who were massacred in the beginning of the previous century, are entrenched in the hearts of all people of good will. Their voices can be heard loud and clear.

Negating the evil is preposterous. But this is not a matter of semantics or of legislation. A definition will not bring them back to life and a law will not punish the perpetrators.

Objective historians, jurists and scholars should analyze the tragic events of 1915 in a scientific fashion. Finger-pointing is a futile exercise. Same as the Germans of today are not to blame for the sins of their forefathers, we should not blame this generation of Turks. At the same time, they – the Turks – should not be afraid of recognizing the wrongs of the Ottoman Empire. This would make a great service not only to the Armenians, but above all to the Turks themselves.

As far as Armenia and Armenians are concerned, dwelling with the past without a clear vision of the future is pointless.  Geography has created a landlocked Armenia whilst its tragic history has given birth to a landlocked people, slave of its past.

The virtual wall separating Turkey and Armenia should be torn down and replaced by millions of bridges. These two neighbors deserve to build up a shared vision of peace, co-existence and prosperity. This is the only way to start healing the wounds and to shatter into pieces the poisoned atmosphere. New relationships will be established in a gradual fashion, leading to a new and common narrative that will replace almost 100 years of mistrust and hatred. New experiences will become a new reality worth living.

Following Raoul Wallenberg’s legacy and example, our foundation has launched a number of grassroots initiatives aimed precisely at creating bridges of understanding, dialog and mutual respect between the peoples of Turkey and Armenia.

At the outset, we have created a literary contest for University students from both countries, who will write essays around this very subject of bridge-building between the two peoples. For obvious reasons, engaging the young generations is of utmost importance.

This will be followed by further projects, involving scientists, artists and professionals from both nations.  They will sit together and exchange views. They will talk to each other like good neighbors do.

This is my personal vision and I am privileged to have the backing of the Wallenberg Foundation.

So if you ask me what is the legacy of the victims of the Armenian genocide, I think the answer is clear: “Remember us, but don’t forget the living.”

The writer is the Chairman of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, a global-reach NGO with offices in New York, Buenos Aires, Berlin and Jerusalem.

The US congressional vote on how to define the tragic events of 1915, scheduled for the last

15 years before April, 24 which commemorates the tragic history of the Armenians, has become a harbinger for spring in Washington. The vote in the House Foreign Affairs Committee on 4 March came less than two months before President Barack Obama is due to make an annual White House statement on April, 24.

The effect of the resolution, though non-binding, in Turkey is entirely counter-productive.

The dominant tone in Ankara is that of contempt. The vote has been slammed as a parody, many pointed out to the absurdity of bringing a historical event to trial with a jury unable to find Turkey or Armenia on a map. In comparison to 2007, reactions have been harsher and almost exclusively targeting the United States. The ire against Washington was commensurate with the degree of political courage that took the Turkish leadership to launch the normalization process with Armenia-hailed as a harbinger of winds of change in South Caucasus where the status quo characterized by conflicts divides, blockades and trade restrictions is far from satisfactory. This new resolution came in a context when positive incentives were most needed in order to rescue the ground of the bilateral intergovernmental consensus for the normalization of the relations. The Turkish-Armenian bilateral dialogue has already suffered enough from third country/third actor involvement.

The degree of disappointment and disillusion in case of a total failure of the rapprochement process will be commensurate with the intensity of hope generated by the visits of the Presidents and the breathtaking signature ceremony in Zurich. The personal re-involvement of the Presidents of both countries can raise the issue of the normalization of bilateral relations and efforts at reconciliation above domestic political concerns. There is a pressing need to keep the momentum alive and support the decision-making process with practical and symbolical steps.

The politicization of history

So much effort goes into passing resolutions from the Armenian side. What are they ultimately trying to accomplish? Otherwise what do Armenian communities hope to accomplish through recognition? Most of the Armenian organizations are looking at regional power balance in a realistic way. The recognition and acknowledgement is seen as a victory for the Armenian moral issue. The recognition is expected to heal the individual and collective emotional wounds of the survivors and the nation as a whole; and is sometimes depicted as a foreign policy issue as a way of maintaining vigilance against the Turkish threat.

23 countries, together with Sweden, are today officially qualifying the tragic events of 1915 as genocide, 11 states of NATO and 42 US states. Uruguay was the first country, the recognition bill was adopted in 1965, followed in 1982 by Cyprus, in 1985 by a subcommission of the UN, in 1987 by the European Parliament, in 1995 by Russia, in 1998 by the Council of Europe. The process speeded up in the 70’s and gained a new momentum after 1998 with the support given to the international campaign under President Kocharian and the launch of the Turkey-EU accession process. The international campaign has started well before the creation of an independent Armenia. Between 1991-1998, President Petrosyan had avoided politicizing history. The turning point with the accession of Kocharian to power gave a boost to the international recognition efforts. Until the creation of the independent Armenian state, the Diaspora perceived themselves as the sole representative of their nation. With the formation of the Republic of Armenia, the Diaspora became the representative of Armenia abroad. The recognition by France in 2001 provoked a strong reaction. Interestingly during the EU enlargement and Turkey-EU accession process, many EU countries join the list. New EU member countries, though with no significant Armenian community, are following suit after their accession.

Search for morality

Turkey has once again launched her Geostrategy versus Morality struggle. Infuriated by the vote of 4 March, she warned that the consequences of the adoption of the resolution would be felt across the range of issues of shared concern to Turkey and the United States. The US can’t ignore the strategic importance of Turkey, a vital American ally and the second biggest army in NATO. The country is home to an important American airbase and is a crucial supply route for America’s forces in Iraq. Turkey helps in stabilizing Iraq and Afghanistan, without of course forgetting the need for Turkey’s constructive approach, as a non permanent UN Security Council, in modeling UN policy towards Iran. Even doubts on Prime Minister Erdogan’s participation to the International Nuclear Security Summit to be held in Washington on 12-13 April were raised. Decisions on such vital issues for Turkey’s national security should be guided by national policy rather than the outcome of a trade-off. Furthermore, the publicity given to the support received by the US defense industry is totally disqualifying Turkey on moral high grounds. And that in a play mainly taking place on moral grounds.

Interestingly the protest at Prime Minister Erdo?an’s statement on March, 16 in an interview with the BBC Turkish service in London, threatening to send back irregular Armenian workers in Turkey in retaliation to the US resolution, brought in the Turkish political debate this much missing moral dimension. No doubt that an administration has the right and indeed the duty to fight with illegal immigration, however the intention to target irregular workers, selected on an ethnic basis, as a bargaining chip in relation with other countries, has been unanimously condemned. Taking the needy Armenians hostage of blackmail appeared profoundly immoral. What might be seen as a second deportation or forced relocation would tarnish Turkey’s international reputation and overshadow her magnanimity. All were acknowledging that arrogance was becoming a nuisance for Turkey.

On the other side, it is doubtful whether the politicization of the unhealed sufferings of the past is serving well the moral aim. An impartial observer could have hardly reached the conclusion at the end of the vote of 4 March that human rights and justice had prevailed.

That spectacle – the vote was this time broadcasting on Turkish news channels – could hardly convince the audience of the strong devotion of the American people to universal human values. That human sufferings can become a chip for cheep political bargaining contradicts with the presumed search for morality.

It is disputable whether the objectives behind the international campaign have ever been met. Can a resolution bring real satisfaction? Resolutions cut communication. Groups advocating on both sides for the normalization of the Turkish-Armenian relations have to focus on damage control. The priority should be to have an impact within Turkey. The struggle for the acknowledgement of the Armenian identity calls for engaging constructively with Turkey.

Building jointly the future to deal with the past

The way forward necessitates a pathway for collaboration between Turkey and Armenia. The intensification of contacts between Turks and Armenians will create opportunities for new experiences, new memories, new interactions to build up alongside the old. Yet it is exactly because Turks and Armenians live right next door that the willingness and preparation to transcend the past is an obligation. We share the burden of the past and bear a joint responsibility for a bright future for our peoples.

Turks and Armenians share five centuries of common history, which the nationalist narratives constructed in the 20th century have almost entirely erased from memory on both sides of the border. On both sides, five centuries of commercial, social and political interaction seem to have been erased. Armenians were an important and visible part of the Ottoman Empire’s economic and cultural life and they prospered in the Ottoman Empire until the last decades of the 19th Century; Istanbul was the main cultural centre for Armenians at a time when Yerevan was a small trading post. Past events must be seen in the context of a far longer period of history and help to unravel the Ottoman-Armenian heritage.

Improving mutual knowledge and rediscovering a shared past would foster reconciliation by eroding stereotypes and enemy images of the other and giving back to both Turks and Armenians a larger share of their collective identities. Architecture acts as powerful testimonials of the common Turkish-Armenian past. Supporting the cultural revival of Armenians in Turkey today would act as a powerful signal of the Ottoman-Armenian heritage, Turkish-Armenian common past, identity and peaceful coexistence. Future restoration projects most notably in the Armenian site of Ani in Turkey carried out in cooperation with Armenian counterparts would further contribute to normalization. Promoting reconciliation by fostering of Turkey’s Armenian heritage would also boost Turkey’s tourism sector, which, while burgeoning and representing an important source of income for the western part of the country, remain highly underdeveloped in the east.

Ani: a three way bridge of peace between Armenia, Turkey and the Diaspora

The acknowledgment of past sufferings, present yearnings and hopes should inspire a confidence-building scheme, aimed at promoting cultural dialogue and cross-border tourism and at preparing the ground to rebuild the ancient Silk Road Bridge at Ani that once spanned the Arpacay-Akhourian river separating Turkey from Armenia. This initiative will prepare the road for the restoration of the Medieval Silk Road Bridge at Ani, support the development of a Turkish-Armenian tourism cluster and open a cultural corridor across the Arpacay/Akhourian river for rebridging the Turkey-Armenia divide.

The rediscovery of the common cultural heritage in Anatolia will help to eliminate the human barrier between the peoples of Turkey and Armenia. The rediscovery through economically relevant projects of the Turkish-Armenian borderland will help to build trust and transcend mental and physical borders. Furthermore the initiative will keep the border opening as a shared objective on the political agenda of both governements. The physical restoration of the Ani bridge should lead to the opening of a cultural corridor between Turkey and Armenia. The ultimate aim of the initiative is to open the bridge for pedestrian crossings: the creation of a free tour zone will allow tourists to cross the Turkish-Armenian border.

PanARMENIAN.Net – Between 1933 and 1945 tens of thousands of people went beyond the line of duty and violated laws and regulations strictly for the purpose of extending a hand to those in desperate need. Their names and actions deserve the permanent reminder, Asbarez reports.

To honor these exceptional people the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation conducts a program that aims at issuing commemorative stamps to promote exemplary behaviors during the Holocaust.

Moreover, the Wallenberg Foundation pays tribute to people who have excelled for their spirit of solidarity, for their righteousness and their performance in their respective occupations.

Therefore, the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation is proud to present a new commemorative stamp dedicated to the memory and literary legacy of Franz Werfel.

Franz Werfel (1890-1945), Austrian poet, modernist playwright, and novelist, was born in Prague, the son of a Jewish merchant. During World War I, Werfel served for several years on the Russian front as a soldier in the Austrian army. A friend of authors Max Brod and Franz Kafka, Werfel later moved to Vienna and Berlin. He was forced to leave the Prussian Academy of the Arts in 1933. His 1933 novel, Die vierzig Tage des Musa Dagh (The Forty Days of Musa Dagh), detailed the mass murder and expulsion of Armenians from eastern Anatolia in 1915 and received much attention in the United States. It stood as a warning against future acts of mass murder and won lasting respect from Armenian communities throughout the world.

Werfel’s books were burned by the Nazis as those of a Jewish author who advocated pacifism, love for all mankind, and hostility to extreme nationalism and Nazism. Werfel had to flee Austria after the German annexation. He then escaped from France by hiding in the Catholic sanctuary of Lourdes, crossing the Pyrenees on foot to safety in Spain, and leaving from there for the United States. With gratitude for his sanctuary at Lourdes in mind, he wrote the best-selling novel, The Song of Bernadette. Though he remained a Jew all of his life, Werfel was attracted to many aspects of Catholicism.

“I’ve been getting hundreds and hundreds of emails and letters,” says Khardalian, who directed and produced the film that chronicles the forgotten story of the fate of women – including that of her own grandmother – who survived the Armenian Genocide.

The letters, some from South Africa, others from India and just about every other country you can think of, relay appreciation and at times shock about the physical, emotional and psychological scars of Armenian women who were distinguishably tattooed, raped and sometimes forced into prostitution at the beginning of the 20th century.
Now living in Sweden and with more than 20 films under her belt, Khardalian spoke to ianyanmag about the sometimes difficult process of talking to genocide survivors, how easily women’s narratives get lost in the vaults of history and how Armenian women today need a big dose of courage.

Q. Why did you decide to make this film?

A. Genocide has been on my agenda for a very long time.  What I wanted to do was do something about the genocide in Rwanda, especially tackling the question of gender and genocide – a topic we’ve only begun to start talking about. Usually, the fate of women is not discussed.  I met some of these Rwandan women in Stockholm at a conference; these were the women who had been undergoing the horrors of the war and the main problematic issue was of course rape, and rape en masse, in hundreds of thousands, having rape as a strategy you use during genocide to complete it. Of course I was thinking about the Armenian Genocide in the back of mind and suddenly I came to realize that when it comes to the Armenian Genocide or to the Holocaust, there’s so little written about the women.

The amazing thing is when you look at the Armenian case, there’s a huge amount of literature on this and all you read is “and the women were raped,” these very very short sentences…but no details, there’s no story about it. Give me an example. Do you happen to know the name of an Armenian woman who was the hero of the genocide? Fighting that and trying to survive? You don’t have that, and it was very discouraging and I was fascinated by that. Once I stumbled upon those photos, the whole thing took on a very different aspect, the story became very very personal, because suddenly I found out my own grandma was a victim, she was there all the time and we had no idea about it.

I’m not a feminist, but let me say but it is very very strange to see how even in tragedy the destiny of women is somehow by selection taken away or forgotten, or  amnesia is organized around it so people will forget.

Q. Often in Armenian history and sometimes literature, Armenian women’s narratives get lost, do you think your film has filled one part of the story, either as a whole or for your family? Do you still have more questions?

A. Oh yes. Look there’s so many questions that very few have been answered. I still feel that my mom is not willing to continue because well look this is something that is associated with shame and feelings of guilt – where in a strange way you are the victim of an atrocity but at the same time you feel you’re responsible for that atrocity. I have been talking to victims of rape, when you talk to these women, very strangely they say the same thing. They’re ashamed, they think they’re responsible for it Everybody thinks that the way to deal with it is just to forget it. If you forget it it will go away,  and of course it doesn’t go away.

So there’s lot to discover, the film is only a fraction of what I have been doing. A film is a film, and you have to limit lots of stories. There’s fascinating things to tell, I hope one day I can make a second film on this, there’s a lot to do.

Q. When you went to Yerevan to meet the 104-year-old Genocide survivor – for me that was the most emotional part of the movie, because unlike your great aunt, she was very honest and raw. How did you feel in that setting?

A. I’ve been working with genocide survivors for such a long time now, so I had been working with these old people all the time, they are all very, very sweet and it’s amazing to see how until the end of their lives that these people remember things, especially in their childhoods, there are certain details. I remember one survivor I was filming in France, he had one fantastic segment of a memory. He said, ‘I remember the feeling of my mom’s blouse, that silk feeling on my face when she used to carry me,’ and that feeling, and I could feel it my self, it’s very very small detail, it is about your mom and what ‘mom’ is to you today, and just that feeling on your face about a piece of silk. It’s very abstract and it’s very human.

When I came to Maria Vartanyan in Yerevan, she was sweet – what is fascinating with Maria is that she is so lucid she remembers quite a lot, and one more thing that was different, when I wanted to talk to her, I told her from the beginning, I want you to tell me the story of women, tell me what happened to the women. Do you have any stories like that? And she said, ‘Come back to me the next day.’  She had a whole laundry list of stories, about women she knew and what happened to them and how they survived the genocide. When you look at the interview, it is the first time I’m discussing a subject about sex or slavery with a woman who is 104 years old. I was sitting there and she was telling me for example, how her menstruation stopped and she was praying to god that she would never get pregnant. Details like that. She was telling me that the Armenian men became infertile, they had no sexual potency left. The men too lose their sexual appetite. The men weren’t able to give children as well. She was referring to this when she came to Armenia,  especially from Turkey to Soviet Armenia.

Q. What happened when  people were reluctant to speak with you about these topics?

A. I remember one case when I was filming in Fresno. I had met this lady, she had a tattooed mother, but she had decided for herself that her mom was not tattooed, people around her, they knew she had been, but she had decided her mom was not tattooed, so it was like talking to a wall, there was no where to go. It as the same with Lucia [Khardalian's great aunt], you talk and there’s a certain barrier when it all stops. Working with survivors needs a technique, I’ve written a book on this, how to film genocide survivors, it takes time to build trust.

A major problem has been the family of survivors -  they’re not willing to bring the issue forward. I didn’t fight against this in this film, it shows it’s symptomatic of the situation we’re in, as a community, as Armenians, it’s a taboo, you don’t want to talk about it, I wanted to show that people are not willing to talk about this. But yet I think we have to talk about it. I’m interested in the process of making this known.  I think knowledge is very important in this aspect, knowledge about the fate of the women is very stereotyped when it comes to the Armenian question and changing that is a challenge.

Some said to me ‘Why are u doing this?’ ‘Why are you bringing this into the open, making it public?’ ‘This is considered dirty laundry, this is disgraceful for our nation.’ No I don’t think so, what is wrong in choosing life, because the way I see it, the women who survived, even if they were tattooed, kidnapped, raped and they gave birth to children of the rapists,  all this for me is that there were people who chose life. I want us when we talk about these women, I want us to remember them, not as women who were raped, but as the real heroes. Who were the one who gave birth, to all the Armenians living around the world today. We are the children of these women, we just need to accept and be proud of it.

Q. When you made the film and people began to view it, did you have anyone else contact you whose grandma had the same tattoos?

A. Very very many. When I was going around screening this film, after each screening, there were at least 10-15 people approaching me saying ‘my grandma was tattooed.’

Some of these girls never came back to their nation, to Armenian society, they had no chance, they stayed behind because they had no possibility.  Today Turkish society has started to talk, about Grandmas that were Armenian. It’s always Grandmas, not Grandfathers, when they’re talking about this…this brings up the issue of identity, what is happening to Turkish identity.  I think when we look at this in this way, it becomes urgent matter to look into ourselves and decide what or who makes an Armenian. And because this brings up the issue, do genetics make you an Armenian? if that is the case, look at these raped women who had children, these Muslim Armenians, hidden Armenians in Turkey today , aren’t we supposed to look at them as Armenians? Are Armenians are only supposed to be Christians?

Making this film brings so many more questions, as a collective , for how much longer every time an Armenian has slightly different religion or identity  are we going to throw them out, not take them as Armenians?

Q. What are some current issues in the Armenian diaspora, or in Armenia in regards to women that are of interest to you?

A. One, when are we going to learn that women are as intelligent, as talented and as motivated as men are? Not only in Armenia, but in diaspora as well. Look at our organizations, how many women do you see around you? All those committees, they create, how many women are there? I think it’s just stupid, ignorant to ignore the women. We are an essential part of the Armenian nation and if the men decide to discard us, then they’re discarding themselves.

Unfortunately the women are as responsible for this too.  There’s a lack of courage, or  interest in political issues especially. I want women to be involved in politics, and politics is not just becoming a member of the parliament. If you’re engaged in environment issues, there’s politics as well, everything we do in our lives is politics at the end of the road. I want us to be courageous enough and push the doors open with your elbows.

It’s unfortunate, look we’re living in the States, we’re living in the Europe, but still our women, when it comes to the community you can hardly hear them. If a woman is responsible for a hospital, or a big dept. somewhere or a physicist, if she has the capacity to do that work, we should be able to trust the women with political missions as well.

Watch Grandma’s Tattoos on Al Jazeera’s Witness series.

The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, whose mission is to research, document and divulge the legacies of the Rescuers, has opened a riveting chapter aimed at unveiling the amazing stories of the brave Armenians who, risked their lives during the Holocaust, in their efforts to save the victims of the Nazi persecution.

This chapter was launched under the helm of the IRWF’s newly appointed Honorary President, Mr. Eduardo Eurnekian, in line with the vision of the Wallenberg Foundation, namely, to stress the positive and to shed light on role models for the younger generations.

Georges Dilsizian feld to France in the end of the 19^th century, following the persecution of Armenians in Turkey. His son, Andre Gustave, born in France, married Lea, a Jewish woman, whose family moved to France from Turkey. During the German occupation of France, the Dilsizian’s (father and son) actively gave shelter to Lea’s relatives.

Armenia is a small country, with some 3 million inhabitants and a large diaspora scattered among several countries. According to the IRWF’s Special Research Committee on Armenian Rescuers, “the actual number of Armenians who were involved in life-saving actions during the Holocaust, is impressive, well beyond the 21 Armenians who have been officially recognized…..Further research will certainly unveil unknown stories of heroism”.

Even the current number of Armenian rescuers is high in relation to the size of its population. Turkey, for instance, with a population of 75 million, has only one recognized rescuer.