ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Dresden Symphony Orchestra will perform “Aghet”, which is composed on the occasion of the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, in Turkish Embassy to Germany on November 13. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is invited to the concert.

The bill criminalizing the denial of crimes against humanity like the Armenian Genocide is passed by the French Parliament on October 14, by a vote of 156 for and 146 against. The bill will carry a penalty of imprisonment for one year or a fine of 45,000 euros for the denial or trivialization of crimes such as genocide, slave trade and war crimes.

Prof. Dr. Taner Akçam, in his recent book, published the memoirs of Naim Bey, who played an important part in the historiography of the Armenian Genocide and whose existence had been denied. With this book, Prof. Akçam responded the claims and broke a new ground in the historiography of the Armenian Genocide.

The Andean Parliament, formed by Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia, unanimously passed the resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

The US-based Armenian Educational Foundation (AEF) has placed a full page ad to New York Times today. In the ad, there is also a letter by Kim Kardashian, responding to an ad published in Wall Street Journal on April, which denies the Armenian Genocide.

A holiday camp project in Lebanon caused debates due to the sentimental value of the region. The planned location of the luxury holiday site is the coastal Biblos town in Beirut and the region also includes a cemetery, school and orphanage which belong to genocide survivor Armenians and known as “Bird's Nest”.

Shoah Foundation indexed the testimonies about the Armenian Genocide and added them to the visual history archive of the foundation. Project manager Manuk Avedikyan tells about the project.

Israeli Parliament's (Knesset) Committee of Education, Culture, and Sports recognized the Armenian Genocide and urged the government to recognize the genocide officially.

In Caux town of Switzerland, Armenian, Kurdish and Turkish participants discussed the Armenian Genocide, their common past, current situation and ways of reconciliation. As part of “Just Governance for Human Security” conference, people from Armenia, Turkey, Lebanon, Spain and Netherlands discussed historical problems among Armenian, Turkish and Kurdish people, and ways for resolving those problems today.

We talked to Ruben Safrastyan, the Director of Armenian National Academy of Sciences Institute of Oriental Studies, about Pope Francis' visit to Armenia, in the framework of the normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia.