ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION

On April 25, Parliament of Czech Republic unanimously recognized Armenian Genocide.

According to Anadolu Agency's report based on sources from Egyptian parliament, Deputy Mustafa Bekri has presented the resolution to Parliamentary Speaker Ali Abdel-Al. 337 deputies has signed the resolution.

We addressed two questions to two people, historian and former editor of Der Speigel Wolfgang Gust and historian Eric Weitz from City University of New York, who have been researching German complicity to the Armenian Genocide for many years.

We talked to Hilmar Kaiser, one of the prominent researchers who work on the Armenian Genocide, about Bundestag's resolution and Germany's responsibility. Kaiser said: “It was not 'the Ottoman Empire' or 'Turkey' or 'the Turks' or 'the Kurds' who killed the Armenians. Let us identify the culprits and praise the rescuers.

In the headline of this week's Agos, there are reactions of Armenian society toward General Vicar of Armenian Patriarch in Turkey Archbishop Aram Ateşyan's letter to President Erdoğan. The editorial points at an election.

Works of German theologian Lepsius, who sent reports to German politicians for warning them during the Armenian Genocide, revealed the fact that German officials had known the massacres but they hadn't done anything for preventing them. Director of Lepsius House Rolf Hosfeld talked about the influence of Lepsius' works on German society's current recognition and Germany's responsibility in the Armenian Genocide.

Agos responded to Archbishop Aram Ateşyan, General Vicar of Armenian Patriarch in Turkey, who is severly criticized by the Armenian society because of his letter addressed to President Erdoğan: "You define the systematic and almost complete annihilation of a people by the decision of the state itself as 'the events happened during the tragic times of World War I'; this is an affront to the ancestors, victims and the survivors in the eyes of the society to which you also belong.”

Archbishop Aram Ateşyan, General Vicar of Armenian Patriarch in Turkey, sent a letter to President Erdoğan about the Armenian Genocide resolution of Bundestag. In the letter, Ateşyan defined the passing of the resolution as “abuse of Armenian nation by imperialist forces”. Claiming that the decision caused a deep regret in Armenian nation, he said “we submit our regret to your dignified office”.

While the debates on the genocide resolution that was passed in Bundestag on June 2 continues, Cem Özdemir, who made great efforts for passing the resolution, receives death threats.

President Erdoğan, after the Armenian Genocide resolution was passed in Bundestag, threatened to send Armenian citizens living Turkey to Armenia. Erdoğan made a similar statement in 2010.