On Tuesday June 1st, Turkey accused Israel of state-sponsored terrorism while describing Monday morning’s Israeli attack on a fleet of ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. “This action, totally contrary to the principles of international law, is inhumane state terrorism. No one should think we will keep quiet in the face of this,” Erdogan said. He added that this attack openly and in a clear way displayed that Israel does not want peace in the region.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- A Roman Catholic bishop was stabbed to death in southern Turkey on Thursday, a day before he was scheduled to leave for Cyprus to meet with the pope, officials and reports said. Luigi Padovese, 63, the apostolic vicar in Anatolia, was attacked outside his home in the Mediterranean port of Iskenderun. 

ANCT - For the past two years, the Armenian National Committee of Toronto (ANCT) has been working to have the Georgetown Armenian Boys Farmhouse, presently known as the Cedarvale Community Centre, designated as a protected historic and cultural site.

Fellow Armenians;

A year has passed since the Armenian-Turkish-Swiss joint statement on steps to normalize the relations between Armenia and Turkey. During this period, the two Protocols aimed at normalization of the relations have been publicized, discussed in the public domain, and signed. The documents have for quite a lengthy time now been in the parliaments of Armenia and Turkey, awaiting ratification. Armenia has all along demonstrated her commitment to the process of normalization of relations, to the point of including the Protocols in the agenda of the National Assembly.

April is the cruelest month for the people of Armenia, who every year at this season have to suffer a continuing tragedy and a humiliation. The tragedy is that of commemorating the huge number of their ancestors who were exterminated by the Ottoman Muslim caliphate in a campaign of state-planned mass murder that began in April 1915. The humiliation is of hearing, year after year, that the Turkish authorities simply deny that these appalling events ever occurred or that the killings constituted "genocide."

Toronto - More than 200 were in attendance at the colloquium organized by the Armenian Students’ Association at Ryerson University. The colloquium was titled “Genocide and its Aftermath: Education for Prevention” and was organized on the occasion of the 95^th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

YEREVAN—“Auschwitz is the Der Zor of the Jews,” said President Serzh Sarkisian in a speech delivered Wednesday at the historic mass grave-site of Armenian Genocide victims, adding that the details of the atrocities that took place at Der Zor were well known even to those “who publicly deny the veracity of the [Armenian] Genocide.”

STOCKHOLM—The Parliament of Sweden on Thursday, recognized the Armenian Genocide after a long debate with a vote of 131 to 130. The resolution mandates Sweden to officially describe the large-scale murders of Armenians and other ethnic groups in Turkey in the early years of the last century as genocide. The motion was supported by members of five of the seven Swedish parliamentary parties including the Left Party, whose foreign policy spokesperson Hans Linde told The Local newspaper on Thursday that the time had come for Sweden to take a stand on the issue.

WASHINGTON–Against the backdrop of severe opposition and pressure, the Armenian Genocide resolution, H.Res. 252, cleared a critical hurdle Thursday, when the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted in favor of the bill—23 to 22—paving the way for a vote by the entire House of Representatives.

Turkey is now opening up discussion once again on a document called the National Security Policy Document, a resolution that acts as a guideline for the military in situations of domestic conflict.

The passages of time never heal completely when such crimes have been committed and the aggressor refuses to either admit to such barbaric crimes or makes lame excuses all the time. Despite this, Armenia entered talks with Turkey in the hope of solving long held problems and in the need to stabilize the region.

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon's humiliation of the Turkish ambassador earlier this month seriously offended Turkey, but also made it clear to Ankara that it had crossed red lines in its relationship with Israel, according to a report on Israel-Turkey relations prepared by the Foreign Ministry.

ISTANBUL (Today’s Zaman)–Three years after Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was fatally shot outside his office by an ultranationalist teenager, the investigation into his murder has stalled as the suspected perpetrator and his immediate accomplices have been put on trial, but those who masterminded the plot to kill him still wait to be revealed.

YEREVAN (Combined Sources)—A conference dedicated to the 1990 massacres of Armenians in Baku took place at the Armenian National Academy of Sciences on Tuesday. The symposium brought together journalists, scholars and politicians to explore the slaughter of Baku’s Armenians that began on January 13 and continued for a week before Soviet troops were brought into the city to end the violence.

ZURICH, Switzerland (A.W.)–The signing of the protocols between Turkey and Armenia in Zurich took place after a delay of a few hours on Oct. 10. The signing was delayed after Armenian officials expressed reservations over a statement Turkey was to issue after the signing. The two sides eventually agreed on not releasing a statement.

BERNE, YEREVAN, ANKARA (Foreign Ministry Press Service)—The foreign ministers of Armenia, Turkey and Switzerland issued a joint announcement Monday outlining the protocols that will guide the establishment and development of relations between Turkey and Armenia.

ISTANBUL (Today’s Zaman)—The assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was fatally shot outside his office by an ultranationalist teenager, was the work of the secret gendarmerie intelligence unit, know as JITEM, whose existence has been denied by officials, according to a document included in the third indictment into Ergenekon, a clandestine gang accused of plotting to overthrow the government. 

Ergenekon, a clandestine gang charged with plotting to overthrow the government, had devised plots to assassinate tens of people, including bureaucrats, judges, journalists, politicians and writers, which were prepared in graphic detail, including the names of the would-be hitmen, claims the prosecution in the third indictment prepared in the case, which was accepted by the 13th Higher Crime Court of İstanbul on Wednesday...The new indictment also includes details about a plot to assassinate Armenian Patriarch Mesrob Mutafyan, based on documents found in the home of İbrahim Şahin.

ISTANBUL (Today’s Zaman)—Aram Tigran, the Armenian singer who is well-known by Kurds and Turks and who died in Athens last week, had wished to be buried in the southeastern Anatolian province of Diyarbakır, which he said he loved so much.Interior Minister Beşir Atalay told Today’s Zaman on Tuesday that Tigran’s family had applied to the Turkish Foreign Ministry in order to be able to bury Tigran’s body in Diyarbakır. However, due to related legal arrangements, the Foreign Ministry had to refuse this demand, Atalay added.

Launches Online Campaign to Reinstate Google Ads Misinformation Campaign

WASHINGTON—On Aug. 11, the Turkish Coalition of America (TCA) launched an online campaign to pressure internet giant Google into complicity in its denial of the Armenian Genocide, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

WASHINGTON—Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds testified under oath Saturday about shocking details connecting the Turkish government to an intricate network of individuals and organization that bribed, persuaded, and – at least in one case – blackmailed US lawmakers and corrupted American government officials. Corruption. Espionage. Bribery. All to ensure that the US does not recognize the Armenian Genocide ever again

 It is a known fact that numerous documents on the Armenian Genocide were either destroyed or hidden away by the Turkish government. Determined researchers, however, can still discover materials in the Ottoman archives that shed light on important events and personalities of that tragic period.

The article below is based on a speech delivered by Prof. Peter Balakian during a panel discussion on the legacy of Hrant Dink held at MIT on Feb. 1, 2009.

George Santayana, the philosopher who taught at Harvard for decades, wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

The delivery of the Blue Book to the members of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) has been rejected by the Speaker of the TGNA.

 Armenian Weekly columnist Ayse Gunaysu reports from Istanbul on yet another effort by the Turkish Grand National Assembly to stifle discussion about the Blue Book.

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—Washington’s top Nagorno-Karabakh negotiator hinted Friday the OSCE Minsk Group continues to uphold the Karabakh Armenians’ right to determine their status in a referendum.

The Defense Minister of Azerbaijan Safar Abiyev met on Sunday with Defense Minister of Russian Federation Anatoly Serdyukov traveling in Azerbaijan on two-day working visit, the the press service of Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan reported.

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—Former Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian urged the Armenian government to raise the bar in its negotiations around the Karabakh conflict resolution, saying current policies fundamentally differ from that of his administration.

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian paid tribute to the Armenian Armed Forces on Thursday, saying, in a thinly veiled warning to Azerbaijan, that they would successfully fight back any military attack on Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

ANKARA (Combined Sources)–Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Wednesday the Turkish government is still “resolute” in its drive to normalize relations with neighboring Armenia, but reiterated that the Turkish-Armenia border will not open until the Karabakh conflict is solved in Azerbaijan’s favor, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems to have fallen into the bad habit of periodically accusing various countries of committing genocide. By doing so, the Turkish leader is inadvertently creating new opportunities for the international media to raise the issue of the Armenian Genocide.