NEWS

Today’s issues of the daily Cumhuriyet and Özgür Gündem newspapers have been published with Armenian headlines .

Rakel Dink, in the article titled ‘A Century of Genocide’ she wrote for the April 24, 2015, issue of Cumhuriyet newspaper, relates what befell her family and relatives in 1915, how she met Hrant Dink, and the struggles they put up together: Today, first at Balıklı, at my Çutak’s grave, then in Şişli, at Sevag’s grave, and finally, in Taksim Square, to commemorate the ones we lost during the 1915 Genocide, I will silently wait for this country to become free.

The German President Joachim Gauck spoke following mass held at the Berlin Cathedral in commemoration of the genocide of Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. Gauck defined 1915 as genocide, and also underlined Germany’s role in the events.

100 Istanbul Bilgi University academicians have released a statement upon the administrative blocking of the conference titled ‘Armenian Genocide: Concepts and Comparative Perspectives’, declaring that they considered the blocking of the conference unacceptable in terms of academic and democratic freedoms.

President Erdoğan has made a joint statement with Iraq President Fuad Masum: “Armenia speaks as if our 100th anniversary Gallipoli commemorations are in retaliation. We have no such qualms.”

The list of participants has been announced for the Gallipoli ceremony, which have this year been made to overlap with April 24, the beginning of the Armenian Genocide. The ceremony in Turkey will be attended by a total of 79 officials including 21 heads of state and 5 prime ministers.

Group leaders of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU/CSU) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the two parties that form the coalition government in Germany, have reportedly agreed to use the expressions ‘the fate of the Armenians constitutes an example of the history of deportation an genocide’ in the ‘Armenian Resolution’ to be presented on April 24, 2015, Friday, at the German Federal Assembly. The government is also expected to back the resolution.

The Prime Minister’s Office of the Republic of Turkey has published an official statement on the eve of 24 April. The statement concludes with the words “…we once more commemorate with deep respect the Ottoman Armenians who lost their lives during the relocation in 1915 and we share in the grief of their children and grandchildren.”

Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Cemil Çiçek, has made a statement regarding Pope Francis’s words during the commemoration mass held for the victims of the Armenian Genocide, saying “It is unacceptable for someone occupying that seat to cast such slander. What the Pope has done constitutes slander”. President of the Directorate of Religious Affairs Mehmet Görmez, on the other hand, claimed that the Pope had made his statements on the Genocide under the influence of lobbies and PR companies.

President Erdoğan has joined those who have reacted against Pope Francis’s statement that ‘the Armenian Genocide is the first genocide of the 20th century’. Erdoğan said, “I condemn and warn the Esteemed Pope hoping he probably won’t make such mistakes again”.