Lanzamiento de la Red Informativa de Genocidio y Derechos Humanos

La Fundación Luisa Hairabedian presenta la Red Informativa de Genocidio y Derechos Humanos que tiene como objetivo informar sobre congresos, actualidad, seminarios, publicaciones, conferencias, bibliografía y postgrados relacionados a Ciencias Sociales, Estudios sobre Genocidio, Diáspora Armenia y temáticas afines

miércoles, 30 de noviembre de 2011

Marranos de Armenia

No confundirse. No se trata de judíos convertidos a la fuerza por los cristianos de Armenia, sino de armenios cristianos convertidos por la fuerza al Islam. Y así como varios judíos no aceptaron la coerción e intentaron heroicamente recuperar su identidad, ahora nos encontramos con armenios de ciudadanía turca que protagonizan la misma gesta. El hecho me fue advertido por la Fundación Raúl Wallenberg y enseguida me dediqué a rellenar la información que ahora deseo compartir.
Diyarbakir es una ciudad muy pintoresca en el sudeste de Turquía, próxima a Siria e Irak, con 600.000 habitantes, rica en folklore y famosa por sus sandías. La bordea el río Tigris y se ha convertido en la metrópolis más importante de toda esa antigua región de Anatolia. La mayoría de sus habitantes pertenece a la etnia kurda. A menudo se señala a Diyarbakir como potencial capital política del Estado de Kurdistán que se había reconocido después de la Primera Guerra Mundial, pero que hasta el presente sigue siendo una aspiración incumplida, reprimida y negada. Allí tuvo lugar, el 23 de octubre, un acontecimiento que la prensa no consideró necesario difundir mejor.
En efecto, horas antes del terremoto que zarandeó la zona, como si desde el fondo de la Tierra se quisiese enviar un mensaje de éxtasis, cerca de tres mil personas atiborraron la antigua catedral armenia de San Giragos al ser inaugurada su magnífica restauración. Era domingo y por primera vez en muchísimo tiempo -cargado de profanaciones- se volvió a realizar allí un solemne servicio religioso. El templo fue construido 350 años atrás y es aún la iglesia armenia más grande de todo el Medio Oriente, aunque Diyarbakir ha quedado "limpia" de armenios. El acontecimiento atrajo a peregrinos de países cercanos y hasta de Holanda, Alemania y los Estados Unidos. Los armenios forman una gran diáspora que ha seguido cultivando sus raíces histórica, idiomática, religiosa, culinaria y musical, y se reconocen como miembros de una gran familia destrozada por los guadañazos de un genocidio.
Al finalizar la concurrida misa, el alcalde Osman Baydemir se dirigió a la congregación que ocupaba hasta los últimos ángulos del edificio y declaró en armenio, kurdo, turco e inglés: "¡Bienvenidos a vuestra casa! Ustedes no son huéspedes aquí, sino que éste es su hogar". Fue un instante conmovedor, casi como el reconocimiento de las barbaridades que sufrieron los armenios al principio del siglo XX y antes aún.
El santuario había sido concebido con grandeza. Tiene siete altares, numerosas columnas, arcos de medio punto, angulaciones góticas y reminiscencias románicas. Pero fue virtualmente abandonado luego de las masacres y deportaciones iniciadas en 1915. En un tiempo lo usaron como cuartel para las tropas alemanas; luego pasó a funcionar como un gigantesco establo, y por último lo rebajaron a una sucia fábrica de algodón. El odio irracional y anacrónico no se conformó con estas ofensas, sino que algunas bandas atacaron y saquearon el lugar impunemente. Sólo se mantuvieron firmes las columnas, las paredes y porciones de las bóvedas.
El periodista Esayan se atrevió a publicar: "Cuando vi las condiciones de la iglesia en aquel tiempo, jamás hubiera imaginado esta restauración impresionante". El costo fue cubierto por comunidades armenias de todo el mundo y una parte muy significativa -hay que enfatizarlo- fue aportada por la municipalidad de Diyarbakir.
Y aquí llega el plato fuerte. Al día siguiente, en una ceremonia secreta, diez personas fueron bautizadas en la restaurada catedral. Eran turcos que se consideraban armenios de muchas generaciones y habían sido forzados a convertirse al Islam. La conversión forzada era moneda corriente tanto en los territorios del Islam como en los de la Cristiandad durante penosas centurias. La parte montañosa y más inexpugnable de Armenia pudo resistir heroicamente. Había sido el primer pueblo en hacerse cristiano merced a la fogosa prédica de San Gregorio el Iluminador. Con el enciclopedismo que estalló en Europa, la práctica de las conversiones forzosas empezó a ser cuestionada y aminoró su empuje. Pero según el Patriarcado Armenio de Estambul, a partir de 1915, cuando se inició el genocidio, alrededor de 300.000 armenios tuvieron que aceptar el Islam sunita o alawita para conservar la vida o esquivar una deportación. Si se suma a los que fueron obligados a dar ese paso en las décadas o centurias previas, calcula el Patriarcado que no debe de haber menos de medio millón de armenios que se declaran musulmanes pero se sienten cristianos. Los carcome el dolor de no permitírseles reintegrarse a su fe ni a sus tradiciones. Aunque Turquía es un país oficialmente secular gracias a la revolución progresista de Kemal Ataturk, para los musulmanes el abandono de su religión constituye un crimen imperdonable. Un armenio cristiano que se haya convertido al Islam, aunque sea bajo presión, no puede retornar a su fe originaria porque se transforma en un apóstata, un canalla, alguien que no merece respeto ni consideración alguna.
"-Yo quiero que esta catedral esté siempre abierta -manifestó uno de los recién bautizados «marranos armenios»-. Me resulta increíble estar aquí junto a personas de todo el mundo con quienes comparto el mismo origen.
"-¡Es como volver del exilio! -exclamó otro, sin poder contener las lágrimas.
"-Armenios viejitos -comentó una periodista que no se atrevía a mostrar el grabador ni decir su nombre-, que vivieron en Diyarbakir antes de la expulsión masiva y simulaban haber renunciado a sus raíces, regresaban para recorrer calles, mirar desde afuera sus antiguos hogares, pasar delante de la ruinosa catedral y darle rienda suelta a su nostalgia imbatible. Todos hablaban turco, kurdo y armenio. Y ninguno se atrevía a santiguarse en público."
En muchas zonas de la Turquía moderna aún perdura el pluralismo religioso de las mejores épocas, aunque gobierne un partido islámico que apuesta a la regresión. A poca distancia de la catedral se yerguen la iglesia católica-caldea de San Pedro (en proceso de restauración acelerada), una mezquita, una iglesia protestante modesta y una diminuta sinagoga. El alcalde señaló con un entusiasmo contagioso a los peregrinos que Diyarbakir se convertirá en la Jerusalén de Anatolia, en el objetivo que buscarán las plegarias fervorosas. Utilizó un lenguaje elíptico para referirse a los sucesos que empezaron en 1915: "Que nuestros hijos celebren juntos las próximas realizaciones".
A diferencia de la iglesia Akdamar de la ciudad de Van ("pueblo" en armenio), que fue erigida en el siglo X y se ha convertido en un museo donde sólo una vez al año se permite realizar el servicio religioso, la catedral de Diyarbakir tendrá oficios más regulares y frecuentes, habrá conciertos de música clásica y exposiciones. Tendrá vida. Tanta vida como estos nuevos marranos que regresan a sus fuentes henchidos de gratitud y esperanza.
© La Nacion

Nueva emisora La Voz Armenia

Desde el 3 DE DICIEMBRE*
todos los SABADOS de 14 a 15 hs.
LA VOZ ARMENIA por AM 890 Radio Libre
también podés escucharnos por internet
desde www.am890.com.ar

Ayudanos a difundir la información
del cambio de emisora

--
Desde el 3 DE DICIEMBRE
todos los SABADOS de 14 a 15 hs.
LA VOZ ARMENIA
por AM 890 Radio Libre

Escuchanos por internet, en vivo,
desde www.am890.com.ar
www.lavozarmenia.blogspot.com
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viernes, 25 de noviembre de 2011

Derechos Humanos: X Congreso Argentino de Antropología Social

Los invitamos a participar de las actividades que el Equipo de Antropología Política y Jurídica organiza en el X Congreso Argentino de Antropología Social, que se realizará en Buenos Aires entre los días 29 de noviembre y 2 de diciembre. Todas las actividades se realizarán en la sede de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Puán 480.


Mesa Redonda
Jueves, 01 de Diciembre - 19:00hs - Aula: 108

MR 10 - Experiencias regionales de intervención y activismo en la investigación en políticas de seguridad pública, violencia de estado y derechos humanos.
Coordinadora:
Dra. Carla Villalta (CONICET - Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina).

Expositores:
Dra. Sofía Tiscornia (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina): "El Acuerdo de Seguridad Democrática. La experiencia de la red de investigadores sociales en el marco del Acuerdo". Dr. Roberto Kant de Lima (Universidad Federal Fluminense, Brasil): "La experiencia del INCT – InEAC en la intervención sobre políticas públicas en temas de seguridad y administración de conflictos en el espacio público".
Prof. Víctor Abramovich (Secretario Ejecutivo del Instituto de Políticas Públicas en Derechos Humanos del Mercosur -IPPDH-): "Intercambio y cooperación entre Universidades y Estados del Mercosur en temas de derechos humanos".
Dr. Gabriel Kessler (CONICET - Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina): "Desigualdad y delito: controversias políticas y académicas".


Presentación de libros
Viernes de 11:00 a 13:00Hs - aula 147

Poder Judicial y Dictadura. El caso de la morgue, (Del Puerto, 2011), de María José Sarrabayrouse Oliveira (UBA).


Foro
Viernes 2 de Diciembre de 14:00hs a 18:00hs - aula: 250

F02 – La búsqueda de verdad y la demanda de justicia en los juicios penales por los crímenes cometidos por el terrorismo de Estado en Argentina.
Coordinación:
Dra. María José Sarrabayrouse Oliveira (UBA, Argentina) Lic. Valeria Barbuto (CELS, UBA, Argentina)

Panelistas:
Lorena BALARDINI (CELS), Laura SOBREDO (CELS) Patricia BERNARDI (Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense), Mirna GORNASKY (Representante del Ministerio Público, Fiscal en causas por violaciones a los DD.HH. cometidas durante el Terrorismo de Estado), Carolina VARSKY (CELS) Mario Federico BOSCH (H.I.J.O.S., Regional Chaco) Ana OBERLIN (Abogada querellante, Rosario), Luciano HAZÁN (Abuelas Plaza de Mayo).


Grupos de Trabajo

Grupo de Trabajo 1. Violencia, Derechos Humanos y Procesos institucionales de administración de Conflictos. Perspectivas comparadas.
Miércoles y Jueves de 9 a 17 y viernes de 9 a 13. Aula 233
Coordinadores: Sofía Tiscornia - UBA; Roberto Kant de Lima - UFF; María José Sarrabayrouse Oliveira – UBA.
Comentaristas: María José Sarrabayrouse Oliveira - UBA; María Valeria Barbuto - CELS

Grupo de Trabajo 2. Territorios y mercados de legalidad e ilegalidad: de la ley y el delito a la gestión de los ilegalismos.
Jueves de 9 a 17. Aula 236
Coordinadores: María Victoria Pita - UBA; Lenin Pires - UFF
Comentaristas: María Victoria Pita, Lenin Pires – UFF, Silvina Merenson, Joaquín Gómez y Antonio Rafael Barbosa

Grupo de Trabajo 3. Burocracias, derechos y moralidades. Etnografías sobre procesos de interacción y prácticas jurídico-burocráticas.
Miércoles y Jueves de 9 a 17. Aula 126
Coordinadores: Carla Villalta - UBA y Lucía Eilbaum - UFF
Comentaristas: Carla Villalta - UBA y Lucía Eilbaum, Glaucia Montes Mouzinho, María Josefina Martínez, Eva Muzzopappa.

sábado, 19 de noviembre de 2011

Estela de Carlotto en la UBA Lunes 21/11 18.30hs

LA FUNDACIÓN LUISA HAIRABEDIAN Y EL CENTRO PARA EL ESTUDIO Y LA INVESTIGACIÓN DEL HOLOCAUSTO INVITAN AL CICLO DE CONFERENCIA SOBRE SEGURIDAD DEMOCRÁTICA.


“Seguridad, Democracia y Derechos Humanos:

El rol de los medios de comunicación en las sociedades post genocidas y dictatoriales”



Lunes 21 de noviembre a las 18:30 hs. en el Salón Auditorio, Planta Principal- Facultad de Derecho UBA - Av. Figueroa Alcorta 2263



La Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Buenos Aires abre sus puertas para debatir acerca del rol de los medios de comunicación masiva en la construcción del "problema de la inseguridad”.


Se propone un espacio de debate acerca de la noticia criminal como alarma social, el favorecimiento de medidas autoritarias y represivas, la reproducción de la violencia policial y, como contracara, la escasa importancia dada a medidas de control de la violencia institucional y la escasa visibilidad dada los juicios por delitos de lesa humanidad cometidos durante la última dictadura militar como respuesta de la justicia a delitos graves, entre otros ejemplos.


Para ello convocamos a especialista de primer nivel:


- Martín Granovsky (Periodista)


- Victoria Rangugni (Investigadora del Instituto Gino Germani de la UBA)


- Estela Carlotto (Presidenta de Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo)

Coordinará el panel el Prof. Fernando Susini, del CEIH - UBA.



El acto tendrá lugar en el Salón Auditorio de la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Buenos Aires el día lunes 21 de noviembre del 2011, a las 18:30 hs.


La entrada es libre y gratuita.

viernes, 18 de noviembre de 2011

21 DE NOVIEMBRE, 18.30 HS.:ESTELA DE CARLOTTO Y MARTÍN GRANOVSKY DEBATIRÁN SOBRE DERECHOS HUMANOS Y MEDIOS DE COMUNICACIÓN, EN LA UBA.

La conferencia “Seguridad, Democracia y Derechos Humanos: el rol de los medios de comunicación en las sociedades post-genocidas y dictatoriales” se llevará a cabo el lunes 21 de noviembre, a las 18.30 hs., en el Auditorio de la Facultad de Derecho de la UBA.

El panel estará integrado por la Presidenta de Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, Estela de Carlotto; el periodista- ex Director de Télam- Martín Granovsky y la investigadora del Instituto Gino Germano de la UBA, Victoria Rangugni, con la coordinación del Dr. Fernando Susini.

La jornada -organizada por la Fundación Luisa Hairabedian y el Centro para el Estudio y la Investigación del Holocausto- tiene como objetivo tratar el rol de los medios de comunicación masiva en la construcción del “problema de la inseguridad” y el uso que se le da a la noticia criminal como alarma social, el favorecimiento de medidas autoritarias y represivas, la reproducción de la violencia policial y, como contracara, la escasa importancia dada a medidas de control de la violencia institucional y la escasa visibilidad dada los juicios por delitos de lesa humanidad cometidos durante la última dictadura militar como respuesta de la justicia a delitos graves, entre otros ejemplos.

Esta conferencia se realiza como parte del ciclo de conferencias académicas “Seguridad, Democracia y Derechos Humanos” en la que ya participaron León Arslanian, Raúl Eugenio Zaffaroni y Daniel Eduardo Rafecas oportunidad en la que debatieron sobre el rol de las fuerzas de seguridad en democracia.

La entrada es libre y gratuita. Para más información, contactarse a: info@genocidios.org o visitá : http://www.genocidios.org

jueves, 17 de noviembre de 2011

The Shoah Foundation Widens Scope

LOS ANGELES — Since Steven Spielberg established the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation in 1994, the organization has devoted itself exclusively to the memory of Holocaust survivors. Its archives house more than 50,000 video interviews, in 32 languages, with survivors from 56 countries — the largest such collection in the world.

Stephanie Diani for The New York Times

Mr. Mwizerwa and his team attend a talk on archiving and keywording videofootage. In six weeks they return to Rwanda to record video interviews.

But in a dramatic expansion of its mission, the foundation is now incorporating testimonies from mass atrocities other than the Holocaust into its archives. Five survivors of the Rwandan genocide are learning the organization’s archiving methods at the Shoah Foundation Institute here, part of an effort to add at least 1,000 interviews with Rwandans to the foundation’s archives. Ten testimonies from Rwanda have been recorded already, with at least 50 more expected next year. And the foundation will soon begin adding testimonies about other mass killings, including those of Armenians and Cambodians. “It’s important to be able to hear the voices of those who have experienced genocide in a variety of circumstances over the last hundred years,” said Stephen D. Smith, executive director of the Shoah Foundation.

With the broadened scope, however, the foundation has stepped into a contentious and continuing debate about the historical uniqueness of the Holocaust. Some historians are concerned that the voices of Holocaust survivors could be lost in a deluge of voices from survivors of all sorts of conflicts, its significance and singularity diminished. Menachem Z. Rosensaft, a vice president of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants who also teaches about law and genocide at Columbia Law School, said that one of the responsibilities descendants of survivors have is to maintain “the integrity of memory.”

“I think it is extremely important to record and preserve the first-person accounts of all genocides,” Mr. Rosensaft said. “My concern would be that we not blur the individual experiences of survivors of the Holocaust, or survivors of Rwanda, into one large blur. Every genocide is a separate act, and must be remembered and chronicled as such.”

The Shoah Foundation was born from Mr. Spielberg’s experience making “Schindler’s List,” his 1993 Academy Award-winning film about the Holocaust. Nearly 5o years after the liberation of Auschwitz, Mr. Spielberg felt an urgent need to preserve remembrances of the Holocaust before survivors died.

In 2000, after the lion’s share of the 50,000 interviews with Holocaust survivors had been conducted, the foundation’s leaders began to turn their attention toward teaching lessons from the Holocaust to younger generations. Members of the foundation’s board of councilors said the addition of testimonies about other genocides was a natural next step and something Mr. Spielberg had always intended, which his spokesman confirmed.

(Mr. Spielberg no longer runs the foundation, which became part of the University of Southern California in 2006 and is now called the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education. But he still has an advisory role and is consulted for all major decisions by the foundation.)

“We want to maximize the impact of these testimonies,” Harry Robinson, a longtime member of the foundation’s board, said. “We want to make these Holocaust memories even more relevant than they are by comparing them against ongoing examples of genocide or intolerance.”

At the Shoah Foundation’s office last week, the five Rwandan survivors sat in a video-editing room. They watched an older Jewish man on screen talking about peeling potatoes in a concentration camp, as they practiced indexing and archiving the testimonies.

After their six weeks of training here, they will return to the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center in Rwanda, where they will conduct video interviews with survivors — as well as with witnesses of the genocide, and even some perpetrators — which will be available digitally for scholars worldwide, like the other testimonies at the Shoah Foundation.

The first-person stories from Rwanda could prove especially useful to historians because there are fewer written accounts of those atrocities than there are of Hitler’s “Final Solution.”

Yves Kamuronsi, one of the Rwandan survivors, said the testimonies not only helped piece together the events of the genocide in Rwanda, they also could help survivors recover from the trauma. But he said the Holocaust videos were sometimes difficult for him to watch.

“When I look at Holocaust survivors, I realize that they suffered before I was born,” he said. “I am listening to another generation of survivors as a survivor myself. I hope no other generation will have to listen to us as survivors.”

Rwanda is just the beginning of the Shoah Foundation’s expansion. Plans to add testimonies from survivors of the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey early in the last century (itself a heated topic of debate, as Turkey has vehemently rejected the label of genocide) are also in the works. And several interviews with survivors of the Cambodian genocide during the Khmer Rouge regime have already been recorded.

But even designating the atrocities in Rwanda or Cambodia as genocide can become a flashpoint in discussions about how the Holocaust should be remembered and commemorated.

Some historians argue that the Holocaust — in which the Nazis slaughtered 6 million Jews, many in gas chambers designed specifically for that purpose — was the only genocide in history, the only systematic effort to wipe an entire race of people from the earth. In Rwanda, around 800,000 people were killed during a few bloody months in 1994, many of them with weapons like machetes. Steven T. Katz, a professor of Judaic studies at Boston University, calls the killings in Rwanda “mass murder,” not genocide.

And while Professor Katz, too, supports scholarly efforts to document all cases of mass atrocities, he said the drift toward studying the Holocaust primarily alongside these other mass murders risks misunderstanding the Nazis’ attempt to eradicate the Jews from Europe as just one case of mass murder among many.

“With certain kinds of events, one needs to be able to say, this is new, or singular, or unprecedented,” he said.

Still, the trend to contextualize the Holocaust has continued. Some institutions, like the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, now address other genocides, and the Washington museum has set up a commission devoted to stopping future genocides.

It is this goal — an invocation of the mantra “Never again” — that drives the expansion of the Shoah Foundation’s archives. Mr. Smith, the foundation’s executive director, said he would like to collect testimonies from survivors of the violence in Darfur, Sudan, in hopes of helping bring that conflict to an end.

“There are some very clear indicators on the track to genocide,” he said. “I would like to feel that, at some point, we would be collecting voices of those experiencing exclusionary and genocidal ideology in real-time, and using their voices to warn those who have the ability to intervene.”

Buenos Aires Celebra Armenia en TV


Estimados

Les envío los días y horarios de emisión del micro producido por el Canal de la Ciudad acerca del evento "Buenos Aires Celebra Armenia"
Los horarios que les paso son hasta el domingo próximo incluído pero se seguirá emitiendo rotativo en la tanda del Canal.
Un cordial saludo a todos con el afecto de siempre
Hernán Nogués


Día          Horario  Material
                           
Viernes    03:52     HBA 20 Bs As celebra Armenia
               10:54     HBA 20 Bs As celebra Armenia
               17:52     HBA 20 Bs As celebra Armenia
                           
Sábado    09:36     HBA 20 Bs As celebra Armenia
               05:53     HBA 20 Bs As celebra Armenia
               23:23     HBA 20 Bs As celebra Armenia
                           
Domingo  03:26     HBA 20 Bs As celebra Armenia
               10:56     HBA 20 Bs As celebra Armenia
               18:26     HBA 20 Bs As celebra Armenia
               20:50     HBA 20 Bs As celebra Armenia


Arrest of human rights activist and publisher Ragip Zarakolu in Turkey

Dear Reader,

The following message is to bring to your attention the arrest of human rights activist and publisher Ragip Zarakolu.

Mr. Zarakolu has been a free speech activist for countless years and has been recently arrested and imprisoned in Turkey under anti-terrorism laws.

The Center for Armenian Remembrance (C.A.R.) is extremely concerned and outraged by the imprisonment of Mr. Zarakolu. Two publications by C.A.R. have been translated into Turkish in association with Mr. Zarakolu, including (1) Malta Belgeleri, the trial of the Young Turks responsible for the Armenian Genocide, and (2)Raphael Lemkin’s Dossier on the Armenian Genocide, a compilation of legal contributions made by the ‘father’ of the Genocide Convention.

C.A.R. would like to take this opportunity to keep you informed of the injustice continuing in Turkey to this day and protest Ragip Zarakolu’s arrest and imprisonment.

We would also like to share with you a letter brought to our attention written to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on November 4, 2011 by former City of Pasadena Mayor and attorney William Paparian, and attorney Vartkes Yeghiayan, protesting the arrest of Mr. Zarakolu and demanding a Congressional hearing in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Please see the message below.

Thank you for your attention,

Center for Armenian Remembrance

CenterAR News

November 4, 2011

The Honorable Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Secretary Clinton,

It is with profound distress that we write you regarding the recent news that the prominent Turkish human rights activist, writer, and publisher, Ragıp Zarakolu, along with fifty other individuals, including his son Deniz and Büşra Ersanlı, a professor of political science at Istanbul’s Marmara University, were detained by Turkish authorities. Allegations that these prominent individuals are members of an “an illegal organization,” caught during a sweep-up that has been dubbed the KCK operation, are dubious. The operation, which has yet to conclude, is evidently targeting members of Turkey’s minority Kurdish community, namely those who belong to the political wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, the KCK (Union of Communities in Kurdistan).

Mr. Zarakolu has been charged under the country’s overbroad and vaguely-defined anti-terrorism laws for giving a lecture in Istanbul in 2010 to an assembly of the BDP (Peace and Democracy Party), a pro-Kurdish political party that boasts 36 seats in Turkey’s parliament. According to Zarakolu’s lawyer, Özcan Kılıç, his lecture was not recorded and there is little means of determining its content and what it may have contained to warrant his arrest. Moreover, aside from an article that was published by the online newspaper Dicle New Agency, no documents or other pieces of evidence have been adduced to even suggest that he has committed a crime. It should be borne in mind that the government has tried to link the BDP with the PKK, even though the former has avowed that there is no affiliation between the two.

Mr. Zarakolu has been a leading champion for the advancement of freedom of expression, civil liberties, social justice, and democracy in the Republic of Turkey for more than twenty years. He is a member of the Turkish branch of the PEN literary organization and is the chair holder of the Freedom to Publish Committee based in Turkey. Belge, the publishing house he and his late wife Ayşenur founded in 1977, has translated numerous books and other works that deal with the issues of the Armenian Genocide and the rights of the national minorities of Turkey. Zarakolu’s work has been hailed internationally and in recognition thereof, he has been awarded the NOVIB/PEN Free Expression Award, as well as the IPA Freedom to Publish Prize.

It is for this unfathomable reason that any of the allegations leveled against Mr. Zarakolu hold any water. Moreover, and unfortunately, it is all too clear that he and the others who are currently in custody were targeted in a coordinated campaign by Turkish authorities to crack down on dissenters. Mr. Zarakolu has been subject to this type of harassment for well over thirty years. His permission to travel outside of the country was revoked in 1971 and reinstated only twenty years later. In 1995, a right-wing group was blamed for a firebomb attack that destroyed the offices of his publishing house in Istanbul. In the past decade, the Turkish government has opened a multitude of cases against Zarakolu, charging him for violating the country’s draconian laws, including the notorious Article 301, which makes it a crime to “insult the Turkish nation.”

The United States State Department, as well as other international organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the United Nations, and the European Commission, have amply documented Turkey’s ongoing abuse of human rights and stifling of civil liberties. Your department’s own 2010 report on the status of human rights in Turkey highlighted the hostile political climate ordinary citizens are forced to submit to: “Individuals in many cases could not criticize the state or government publicly without risk of criminal suits or investigation, and the government continued to restrict expression by persons sympathetic to some religious, political, and Kurdish nationalist or cultural viewpoints.” Indeed, the Turkish republic’s repression of the cultural rights of Kurds is particularly egregious, as it has since its establishment in 1923 tried to limit the! use of their language and marginalized the Kurdish national identity.

Several organizations have stepped forward in defense of Zarakolu and the other defendants and condemned the Turkish government’s actions. In a letter published on November 1, Human Rights Watch remarked that the arrests “ the huge deficiencies of Turkey’s criminal justice system” and the detention of Zarakolu and Ersanlı “represent a new low in the misuse of terrorism laws to crush freedom of expression and association in Turkey.” It noted that there is “scant evidence to suggest the defendants engaged in any acts that could be defined as terrorism as it is understood in international law.” PEN International has similarly expressed its concerns over whether fair trial standards are being observed, including unusually lengthy detentions. This is especially significant considering that Mr. Zarakolu’s health is in poor state and it is unlikely! that he will be able to endure the harsh physical conditions of the Turkish prison system.

In light of all this, we call upon you to share precisely what approach will the State Department take regarding these politically motivated arrests. The United States government’s recent decision to sell three AH-1W Super Cobra gunship helicopters and Predator and Reaper pilotless drones to Turkey certainly does not inspire any confidence in the belief that the further supply of U.S. military matériel is contingent upon Turkey undertaking genuine reforms in the area of civil rights and democracy. The United States has silently abetted and thus been complicit in allowing the Republic of Turkey to continue to violate the human rights of its citizens. Because of this deplorable policy of “business as usual” we believe that it is most appropriate to contact the House Foreign Affairs Committee to hold hearings on the matter and have the State Department testify and explain i! ts position.

Thank you Madame Secretary.

/s/

William Paparian, Esq.

Vartkes Yeghiayan, Esq.

martes, 15 de noviembre de 2011

Federal Appeals Court Issues Futile Order on Insurance Lawsuit

By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier

Before the Genocide, thousands of Armenians living in the Ottoman

Empire bought life insurance from American and European companies, so
that after their death, their heirs would receive a lump sum payment.

Regrettably, many of these companies refused to keep their end of the

bargain when Armenian policyholders perished along with their entire
families during the course of the Genocide. In most cases, no next of
kin was left behind to file an insurance claim on behalf of the
victims. A few families who did file a claim were turned down due to
the lack of proper paperwork. Clearly, these companies broke their
contractual obligations and enriched themselves by keeping the funds
owed to the heirs of insured genocide victims.

Almost a century later, the State of California stepped in to restore

justice to the wronged policyholders. Considering the tragic and
unnatural circumstance of these deaths, the State approved two
successive extensions to the statute of limitations in 2000 and 2011,
to allow the heirs of genocide victims additional time to file claims
against delinquent insurance companies.

Recognizing the negative publicity that such a lawsuit would generate,

the New York Life and AXA Insurance companies quickly reached out of
court settlements and paid a total of $37.5 million to the heirs of
Armenian policyholders and charitable organizations. In contrast,
German insurance companies Victoria and ERGO, backed by the Turkish
government, decided to continue ducking their legal and moral
responsibilities towards their ill-fated Armenian policyholders and
refused to settle their long overdue claims. The German firms demanded
that the lawsuit filed against them in 2003 be dismissed because the
California statute included a reference to the Armenian Genocide,
which allegedly conflicts with the foreign policy of the federal
government on this issue.

A highly unusual series of court decisions ensued after Federal Judge

Christina Snyder’s rejection in 2007 of the German insurance
companies’ motion to dismiss. In 2009, a three-judge panel of the
federal appeals court initially sided with the German companies, but
then reversed itself in 2010, finding no legal problems with the
California statute. Earlier this year, the German companies appealed
once again, this time to a larger panel of 11 federal judges. That
hearing, granted on November 7, is to be held in San Francisco during
the week of December 12.

Rehearing this case for the third time is unnecessary because the

California statute does not violate federal government’s stand on the
Armenian Genocide. Indeed, there is no federal policy that bans states
from recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Not a single complaint was
lodged by any federal official, while more than 40 states adopted
resolutions acknowledging the Genocide. In fact the California statute
is in line with the federal government’s clear record on this issue.
One should not forget that the U.S. House of Representatives adopted
two resolutions in 1975 and 1984 recognizing the Armenian Genocide,
and Pres. Reagan issued a Presidential Proclamation on this subject in
1981. In addition, the U.S. Justice Department recognized the Armenian
Genocide in a document filed with the World Court in 1951, citing the
Armenian mass killings as one of the "outstanding examples of the
crime of genocide."

Even though this latest appeal has absolutely no legal merit, the

consequences of a negative court decision would not only harm the
interests of life insurance claimants, but more importantly, the
collective interests of the Armenian people, should the federal
appeals court find California’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide
to be in conflict with the federal government’s foreign policy. Such a
ruling would negate several decades of Armenian-American political
activism by reversing all the resolutions on the Armenian Genocide
adopted by more than 40 American states.

The federal appeals court should rule in favor of the Armenian

plaintiffs. The court could also uphold the California statute by
separating the insurance aspect of the case, which is a prerogative of
the states, from the unrelated issue of State vs. Federal powers on
Genocide recognition. Should the judges rule against the California
statute, however, the Armenian-American community would have no choice
but to appeal that verdict to the U.S. Supreme Court.

There is one issue here that is crystal clear: the federal court

should force the German insurance companies to make good on their
contractual obligations to all policyholders, particularly those who
are genocide victims!

Symposium “The Presence of the Past: Legal Dimensions of Armenian-Turkish Relations.”

Symposium
“The Presence of the Past: Legal Dimensions of Armenian-Turkish Relations.”

Sunday, October 2, 2011
370-371 Dwinelle Hall, U.C. Berkeley
10am-12pm and 1:30pm-5pm

Participants;

Professor Alfred de Zayas (Geneva School of Diplomacy and
International Relations)
Professor Susan Karamanian (Associate Dean for International and
Comparative Legal Studies, Professorial Lecturer in Law; The George
Washington University Law School)
Professor Catherine Kessedjian, BY VIDEO (University Pantheon-Assas, Paris II)
Professor Raymond Kevorkian (Institut français de géopolitique,
Université Paris-VIII-Saint-Denis)
Professor Serge Sur (University Pantheon-Assas, Paris II)

miércoles, 9 de noviembre de 2011

Presentaci​ón del libro “PASADO SIN RETORNO, FUTURO QUE ESPERA” del Dr. Vartán


Un libro de Vartán Matiossián que analiza la migración armenia en el Río de la Plata con énfasis especial en la Argentina se presentará en un acto conjunto de Jóvenes Profesionales de UGAB y la Asociación Cultural Uruguay-Armenia (ASCUA), responsable de la edición.
Comentarán este texto el Dr. Gustavo Zulamián y Daniel Karamanoukián.

El acto servirá de marco para recordar los 150 años del nacimiento de Fridtjof Nansen, Premio Nóbel de origen noruego y creador del documento internacional que lleva su apellido. El "Pasaporte Nansen" permitió que numerosos refugiados indocumentados armenios y de otros pueblos, pudieran viajar y encontrar cobijo fuera de sus patrias de origen. 

Estarán presentes el Embajador de Noruega, residente en Buenos Aires, que hará uso de la palabra, y el Cónsul de dicho país en Uruguay. Se proyectarán imágenes relativas al caso y se exhibirán afiches cedidos  por la embajada noruega. 
A su vez, el autor, Vartán Matiossián, residente en Estados Unidos, tendrá una presencia virtual y saludará a los presentes mediante teleconferencia.

En el intermedio un dúo instrumental integrado por Carlos Kushián y Nshteh Boyadjián ofrecerá música armenia con instrumentos típicos.

El evento tendrá lugar el próximo jueves 10 de noviembre a las 20.30 hs. en la sede de UGAB. (Av. Agraciada 2850 esq. J. Suárez).

martes, 8 de noviembre de 2011

EL JUEZ RAFECAS ORDENO LA DETENCION DE QUINCE REPRESORES POR LA CAUSA DEL PRIMER CUERPO DE EJERCITO

Por Irina Hauser para Página/12
En la zona que rodea el cruce del Camino de Cintura y la autopista Ricchieri había un conglomerado de centros clandestinos de detención que manejaba la Policía Bonaerense aún antes de la última dictadura. A uno de ellos, que funcionaba en 1974 con la Triple A, se lo conoce como Protobanco o Puente 12. Según una resolución del juez Daniel Rafecas, el salvajismo desplegado por sus responsables se evidenció en las “condiciones infrahumanas de existencia” a la que eran sometidas las personas allí detenidas y en la muerte de algunas de ellas en medio de sesiones de picana y golpizas. Por el secuestro y la aplicación de torturas a 120 víctimas, de las cuales unas 30 permanecen desaparecidas o fueron asesinadas, Rafecas ordenó la detención de 15 represores. Algunos ya estaban presos, pero varios aún estaban en libertad, igual que los que dispuso arrestar por crímenes cometidos en la Comisaría de Monte Grande.
Entre los nuevos detenidos figuran los ex comisarios de la bonaerense José Félix Madrid y Guillermo Horacio Ornstein y los suboficiales José Sánchez, Angel Salerno y Carlos Tarantino, alojados en el penal de Marcos Paz. El 5 de noviembre de 1975 desplegaron un operativo ilegal en Palermo donde mataron a María Teresa Barvich, de 22 años, molieron a golpes a una embarazada de siete meses, Noemí Moreno, y lo mismo hicieron con Norberto Rey hasta quebrarle las costillas y con Blanca Becher, hasta dejarla inconsciente, mientras que balearon a Washington Mogordoy. Los cuatro fueron detenidos junto con Julio Mogordoy y Griselda Lazarte y siguieron siendo torturados en la División Cuatrerismo de La Matanza, donde funcionaba Protobanco y aun alberga dependencias policiales. El jefe era el comisario Juan Modesto Carabajal, quien murió en 1977.
Protobanco –que luego sería El Banco– estaba enfrente de El Vesubio e integra la megainvestigación sobre todo lo ocurrido en jurisdicción del Primer Cuerpo de Ejército. Empezó como una suerte de cueva ilegal de la policía donde operaba la banda de agentes de inteligencia liderada por Aníbal Gordon. De hecho, el pedido de detenciones abarca también a dos iconos de ese grupo: Eduardo Ruffo y Raúl Antonio Guglielminetti, ya condenados por los crímenes cometidos en Automotores Orletti. El juez Rafecas llama la atención en su resolución sobre la ferocidad con que actuaban en Protobanco los represores. Señala “condiciones infrahumanas de existencia constitutivas de tormentos, tales como la sujeción e inmovilización, la prohibición del habla, el tabicamiento, la privación de agua y alimento, la frecuente prohibición de ir al baño, la exposición a desnudez, la amenaza constante con ser torturados físicamente, interrogatorios y en casi todos los casos, la aplicación de picana eléctrica, submarino, o golpes; mecanismos que se encaminaban a obtener la despersonalización de las víctimas”.
Por lo menos tres detenidos murieron a causa de los tormentos, señala el juez. Uno de ellos, Jorge Marcelo Scelso, de 26 años, padre de dos niños, detenido el 6 de septiembre de 1976, falleció cinco días después de la tortura. Le habían perforado los pulmones, además de quebrarle las costillas. Murieron en circunstancias similares los hermanos Rubén Gerardo y Jorge Luis Salinas, alojados en Protobanco la primera semana de enero de 1977. Fueron sacados de allí durante algunas horas y al volver no pudieron sobreponerse. Fallecieron con una diferencia de media hora. Los guardias se llevaron los cuerpos.
El juez incluyó las historias de 20 víctimas que estuvieron recluidas en la comisaría de Monte Grande, donde entre 1976 y 1978 se usaron modalidades “equiparables al delito de torturas”. Por estos hechos fue detenido el ex comisario Guillermo Néstor Díaz, jefe de la seccional donde “las víctimas fueron sometidas a un régimen brutal de inanición, en absoluta oscuridad, abstraídos del conocimiento de sus familiares y sin poder mantener contacto con el exterior y con la amenaza de la tortura o de la desaparición”. También fueron responsabilizados los ex suboficiales de la Bonaerense Nildo Delgado, Daniel Mancuso, Alberto Faustino Bulacio y Jorge Gauna.
Por aquella comisaría pasaron tres funcionarios del gobierno bonaerense: Ramón Miralles, Pedro Goin y Alberto Liberman. En el mismo grupo estuvo Juan Ramón Nazar, director de La Opinión, de Trenque Lauquen. Otro grupo, conformado por Jorge Watts, Faustino Fernández, Darío Machado y Ricardo Wejchenberg, llegó allí después de haber estado en El Vesubio.

Raoul Wallenberg Foundation hails Nicolas Sarkozy statements on Armenian Genocide

November 08, 2011 | 20:10 
The Raoul Wallenberg Foundation Honorary Chairman, businessman Eduardo Eurnekian and the Foundation Founder Baruch Tenembaum send a letter to the President of France Nicolas Sarkozy congratulating his statements on the Armenian Genocide.

“On behalf of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, a global-reach educational NGO, allow us to express through these brief lines our heartfelt congratulations for the statements you made during your recent visit to Armenia.

In Yerevan you clearly expressed that the Armenian Genocide is a historic fact that deserves a bigger than just a personal condemnation and that the period that elapsed from 1915 to 2011 represents enough time for reflection. “The Armenian genocide is a historical reality. Collective denial is even worse than individual denial,” you clearly said while, at the same time, you urged to revisit the history about the killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire.

It is also worth underlying here your suggestion that the French Parliament might consider a law making denial of the deaths of Armenians as genocide a crime, similar to the law against Holocaust denial.

Moreover, we are glad to inform you about the latest activities of the Wallenberg Foundation regarding its worldwide campaign of awareness and reconciliation vis a vis the Armenian people, its history and its heritage.

The board of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation unanimously approved the initiative to pay tribute to the Armenian Christian heroes who helped Jews and others persecuted by the Nazis during WWII. A Memorial, the first of its kind in the world, would be erected in several cities around the globe. The guiding concept that inspires us in the search of everlasting pieces may be expressed using the words of the proverb: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”.
At the Wallenberg Foundation we do not deal specifically with the Holocaust victims’ chapter, albeit we consider it decisive and unavoidable, but with what we call the luminous side of the Shoah. The memory of the Saviors’ heroic deeds and the values they stood for must become a daily commitment to upholding humanitarian principles and a stance against prejudices, stereotypes and fallacies.

Our line of thinking always looks for positive conclusions. We consider that even in the most challenging situations it is worth waving the flag of the values of solidarity and civic courage. In this spirit we strive to educate our children and the generations to come.

Hoping to have the opportunity to congratulate you in a private meeting, we remain,”

lunes, 7 de noviembre de 2011

Conferencia sobre medios de comunicación y derechos humanos en la UBA

LA FUNDACIÓN LUISA HAIRABEDIAN Y EL CENTRO PARA EL ESTUDIO Y LA INVESTIGACIÓN DEL HOLOCAUSTO INVITAN AL CICLO DE CONFERENCIA SOBRE SEGURIDAD DEMOCRÁTICA.


 “Seguridad, Democracia y Derechos Humanos: El rol de los medios de comunicación en las sociedades post genocidas y dictatoriales”


Lunes 21 de noviembre a las 18:30 hs. en el Salón Auditorio, Planta Principal- Facultad de Derecho UBA - Av. Figueroa Alcorta 2263


La Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Buenos Aires abre sus puertas para debatir acerca del rol de los medios de comunicación masiva en  la construcción del "problema de la inseguridad”. 

Se propone un espacio de debate acerca de la noticia criminal como alarma social, el favorecimiento de medidas autoritarias y represivas, la reproducción de la violencia policial y, como contracara, la  escasa importancia dada a medidas de control de la violencia institucional y la escasa visibilidad dada los juicios por delitos de lesa humanidad cometidos durante la última dictadura militar como respuesta de la justicia a delitos graves, entre otros ejemplos. 

Para ello convocamos a especialista de primer nivel:   

- Martín Granovsky (Periodista)

- Victoria Ragugni (Investigadora del Instituto Gino Germani de la UBA)

- Estela Carlotto (Presidenta de Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo)

 Coordinará el panel el Prof. Fernando Susini, del CEIH - UBA.


El acto tendrá lugar en el Salón Auditorio de la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Buenos Aires el día lunes 21 de noviembre del 2011, a las 18:30 hs. 

La entrada es libre y gratuita.

viernes, 4 de noviembre de 2011

Juvenile rape appeal causes uproar in Turkey

Istanbul (CNN) -- Turkey's judicial system faced an uproar this week after one of the country's highest courts upheld a decision to reduce sentences against 26 men convicted of having sex with a 13-year old girl. Public outrage stemmed from a court ruling that the 13-year old girl had willingly engaged in "consensual" sexual relations with the 26 men.
Among the growing chorus of critics was Turkey's President Abdullah Gul.
"I take particular care not to make any direct statements on issues that are in the judicial process," Gul wrote in a series of statements on his Twitter account on Friday. "[But] the decision about reducing the punishment related with what happened to a young child of ours made me deeply uncomfortable... there is still the possibility for an appeal. I am hoping for an outcome that will comfort the public conscience."
The case in question dates back to 2002, when 26 men from the southeastern Turkish town of Mardin were accused of repeatedly having sex with a 13-year old girl identified only by the initials "N.C." According to Turkish media reports, the men, who included village 'muhtars' [mayors] and a gendarme officer, were accused of paying money to two adult female intermediaries during a 7-month period for repeated access to the girl.
Turkey's Supreme Court of Appeals has now found itself under fire from women's rights groups, lawyers' associations, and senior government officials.
In response, the head of the Supreme Court's 14th Criminal Office adopted a somewhat contradictory position.
"The evaluations of the court were correct. We made a decision. This decision is not definite, it is also not possible for this decision to be changed by making noise," said Fevzi Elmas of the Supreme Court of Appeals, in an interview with the semi-official Anatolian Agency on Friday.
The courts sentenced the 26 accused rapists' according to an earlier version of the country's penal code, which underwent significant revisions in 2005.
The older penal code entailed lesser punishments for defendants found guilty of sexually assaulting children.
"In the old penal code there was a very clear article which said it didn't matter if you were under 15 [years of age] or over 15... if any rape or sexual assault happened with the consent of the girl or the woman, then the sentence would be reduced," said Pinar Ilkkaracan of the group Women for Women's Human Rights, who lobbied for the 2005 revision of the Turkish criminal code.
"In the new Turkish penal code there is no question of consent, that is incredibly important for us," Ilkkaracan added. "In terms of girls and boys under 15 it says very clearly any violation of the body for sexual purposes is defined as sexual abuse in the new code. Which means that sexual assault or the violation of the body should have a higher sentence."
According to Turkish media reports, some of the 26 defendants were acquitted, while others received jail sentences of one to four years.
"This decision is an outright scandal," said Ilkkaracan, the women's rights advocate.
In his statement to Anatolian Agency, Elmas, the official from the Supreme Court of Appeals, argued that the court had no choice but to sentence the defendants according to the pre-2005 version of the penal code.
"We don't have any other option," Elmas said. "This is an undebatable rule of law."
But that decision was challenged by the Union of Turkish Bar Associations on Friday, which called the ruling "legally inappropriate."

Meanwhile, in a written statement released on her ministry's web-site, Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Sahin argued the ruling violated not only the current criminal code, but also the older version which had been in force in 2002 at the time when the 26 men were accused of having sex with the 13 year old.
"I find the decision of the Supreme Court of Appeals 14th Criminal Office to approve the verdict of the local court that a 13-year old child 'got together with the defendants of her own free will' unacceptable and worrying," Sahin wrote.
"I would like to remind the judiciary that its primary task is to protect the victim and the rights of the one who was sexually abused," she added.