Yesterday marked the first anniversary of the murder of ethnic Armenian newspaper editor and journalist Hrant Dink in Istanbul, Turkey. Dink was shot outside the office of the Agos newspaper on 19 January 2007. A prolific advocate for civil, human and minority rights in Turkey, Dink was killed by 17-year-old Ogun Samast. His murder shocked the world and marked one of few times when Armenian, Turkish and other bloggers spoke about an event making headline news across the world with one voice.

A year on and the conversation in the blogosphere might be less, but many people the world over — and not least in Armenia and Turkey — remember Dink. A rare voice calling for reconciliation between Armenians and Turks, Dink’s message and legacy is still remembered today. A week ago, Blogian posted information on Hrant Dink memorial events to be held the world over.

Internations Musings makes a short but to the point post consisting of just two photographs taken in Istanbul with the title “I believe darkness will one day reunite with light.” Rastî simply posts various quotes and photographs, including one from the Armenian Foreign Minister, Vartan Oskanian.

The brutality, the impunity, the violence of Hrant’s murder serves several political ends. First, it makes Turkey less interesting for Europe, which is exactly what some in the Turkish establishment want. Second, it scares away Armenians and other minorities in Turkey, from pursuing their civil and human rights. Third, it scares those bold Turks who are beginning to explore these complicated, sensitive subjects in earnest.

The full post is available on Global Voices Online.

With 2008 less than a day away at time of writing, it seems only appropriate to take a look back at the blogging highlights in the Caucasus for 2007. Certainly, although blogging is still largely underdeveloped, the year has seen some major highlights, especially with regards to stories that also made headlines worldwide. In the past this has not been the case, but the signs for Armenian and Georgian blogging look very promising indeed, and not least because the first two months of 2008 will see crucial presidential elections take place in both republics.

Although the same might be true for Azerbaijan as its presidential election scheduled for late next year looms closer, the elections seem to have encouraged citizens, activists and journalists to blog. Other high profile events also seem to have pushed more bloggers to engage in online discussion on key issues, especially in the arguably more evolved Armenian blogging scene. Interestingly, however, the first major blogging event of the year came on 19 January 2007 when journalist and editor, Hrant Dink, was murdered in Istanbul, Turkey.

Although Dink was a Turkish citizen and resident in Armenia’s neighbor to the West, he was also an ethnic Armenian and prolific in his calls for reconciliation between Armenians and Turks. His views might have alienated himself from the larger Armenian Diaspora who consider that Genocide Recognition is the most important issue facing Armenians today, but the point was that his assassination shocked the world, including many Turks in Turkey itself as well as those with no links to Armenian circles at all.

The full post is available on Global Voices Online.

My first entry as Caucasus Editor for Global Voices Online has now been posted and there are no prizes for guessing what it’s about. Even if the title of this post gives the game away, it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to work out. Indeed, House Resolution 106 recognizing the Armenian Genocide is the main topic related to Armenia being covered not only in the blogosphere, but also by the world media.

It’s not often that Armenia makes international headlines across the globe, but when it does it’s usually because of one issue that remains fiercely debated until this day — the massacre and deportation of as many as 1.5 million Armenians from Ottoman Turkey in 1915-17. 22 countries recognize the events that occurred towards the end of World War I as genocide, a charge that the modern-day Republic of Turkey refuses to accept even though the term was devised by Raphael Lemkin in 1943 with the Armenian and Jewish experience in mind.

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Via Amerikan Turk, I stumbled upon an open letter to the Armenian Diaspora by Turkish writer, Mustafa Akyol. Of course, the subject of the letter is not hard to guess. It concerns the Armenian Genocide and is obviously written as a result of House Resolution 106. Before quoting from the letter which was also published by the Turkish Daily News, however, it’s interesting to read up on Akyol.

Mustafa Akyol is a Turkish Muslim writer, who argues both against Islamic extremism and extreme secularism and is an outspoken promoter of intelligent design.

Akyol was born in Ankara in 1972 and had his early education there. He later graduated from the Istanbul Nişantaşı Anadolu Lisesi and the International Relations Department of Bosphorus University. He earned his masters in the History Department of the same university.

[…]

In the past years he has given seminars in several universities in the U.S. and the UK on issues of faith, science, religious tolerance or inter-faith dialogue.

Mustafa Akyol’s articles on Islamic issues, in which he mostly argues against Islamic extremism and terrorism from a Muslim point of view and defends the Islamic faith, have appeared in publications like The Weekly Standard, The Washington Times, The American Enterprise, National Review, FrontPage Magazine and Islam Online. He lives in Istanbul and is currently working on a book titled An Islamic Case for Liberty, which he plans to have published in 2007.

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It should come as no surprise, especially considering the political fallout from the adoption last week of HR 106, that U.S. Congress Speaker Nancy Pelosi is reported to be backtracking from the resolution that would recognize the Armenian Genocide. This always happens, cynics would argue, and The Financial Times reports that now is no different.

As recently as the weekend, Ms Pelosi said she planned to take the bill, denouncing mass killings of Armenians during the Ottoman Empire as genocide, to the full House this year.

Ms Pelosi is a longstanding backer of the measure, despite the anger it has caused in Turkey.

But, on Wednesday, facing increasing criticism and high-profile defections from among the bill’s supporters, she toned down her commitment to take it to a full House vote. “Whether it will come up or not and what the action will be remains to be seen,” she said.

This week declared support for the bill fell below the level needed for House approval – at least 10 members of Congress withdrew their backing, in addition to several others who peeled off earlier this year. As of Wednesday, the bill had 215 sponsors or co-sponsors in the 435-member House.

[…]

The legislation, backed by the House’s foreign affairs committee last week, has sparked concerns that US influence on Ankara could be weakened at a time when the Turkish government is contemplating a large military incursion into northern Iraq, to Washington’s dismay. The US military is also alarmed that the Turkish government could reduce logistical support for its troops in Iraq.

“Congress has more important work to do than antagonising a democratic ally in the Muslim world, especially one that’s providing vital support for our military every day,” said President George W. Bush yesterday. after having made a phone call to Ms Pelosi on the issue the day before.

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2004 Democratic Party Presidential Candidate Nominee, Howard Dean, plants a tree at the Armenian Genocide Memorial, Tsitsernakaberd, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2005

Via Blogian, the New York Times reports that Democratic party support for a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide is waning. According to the paper, a dozen lawmakers have withdrawn their support for the resolution which is expected to be voted on in the U.S. Congress next month. The Armenian lobby shouldn’t be surprised, however. This is what always happens whenever such a resolution gets through. American national security concerns and U.S.-Turkish relations are always the reason and that’s unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.

Until today, the resolution appeared to be on a path to House passage, with strong support from the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California. It was approved last week by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. But this evening, a group of group of senior House Democrats had made it known they were planning to ask the leadership to drop plans for a vote on the measure.

“Turkey obviously feels they are getting poked in the eye over something that happened a century ago, and maybe this isn’t a good time to be doing that,” said Representative Allen Boyd, a Florida Democrat who dropped his sponsorship of the resolution Monday night. .

Others who took the same action said that while they deplored the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire, beginning in 1915, the modern-day consequences in the Middle East could not be overlooked.

“We simply cannot allow the grievances of the past — as real as they may be — to in any way derail our efforts to prevent further atrocities for future history books,” said Representative Wally Herger, Republican of California.

“I think it is a good resolution and horrible timing,” said Representative Mike Ross, Democrat of Arkansas.

The Turkish government has lobbied heavily against the resolution, which is nonbinding and largely symbolic. But lawmakers attributed the erosion in support mainly to fears about a potential Turkish decision to deny American access to critical military facilities in that nation and its threat to move forces into northern Iraq to attack Kurdish rebels.

“This vote came face to face with the reality on the ground in that region of the world,” said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and an opponent of the resolution.

[…]

The biggest fear, several former officials said, is that Turkish forces could push past the border and head for Kirkuk, forcing Iraq to respond and presenting the United States with mediating between two allies and a decision about whether to commit American troops. Such a crisis could also draw in Iran, which has also had growing problems with Kurdish groups crossing into its territory from Iraq.

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As U.S. President George W. Bush reiterates his determination to prevent last week’s House Resolution 106 affirming the Armenian Genocide from being passed by Congress, RFE/RL reports that illegal Armenian immigrants are being deported from Turkey. Meanwhile, the discussion in the blogosphere continues and once again, the main issue seems to be not based on whether the Armenian Genocide occured, but rather one of why the Democrats, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, introduced the resolution now.

This question is specifically raised by a number of American bloggers, especially when the logistics of supplying U.S. troops in Iraq might be affected by the Armenian Genocide resolution. David Aikman at Implications sets the scene.

There seems little historical doubt that the Armenian massacre was indeed genocide. The eye-witness accounts of the time are overwhelming, and Ottoman government documents talking openly about eliminating the Armenians as a people group are plentiful from the period 1915–1917. But with the U.S. dependent on the friendship of Turkey to support a difficult war in Iraq, it seems at the very least an ill-timed notion to rub Turkey’s face in the judgment of history. True, all Armenians and American-Armenians will feel affirmed by official American national recognition of the injustice they suffered. But isn’t it more important that the Turks themselves should finally come to acknowledge the truth of what happened to the Armenians 92 years ago? That may yet take decades to come to pass. Assuredly, it won’t be hastened by this week’s Congressional resolution. And what if resupplying American troops in Iraq is seriously compromised by a Turkish curtailment of U.S. base usage in Turkey? To rephrase Congressman Lantos’ well-stated dilemma: “Is the gratification of wounded Armenian sensibility worth the possibly serious risk that could ensure to American forces in wartime?” Perhaps not.

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90th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide Billboard, Komitas, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2005

Now that the House Committee on Foreign Relations has adopted a resolution calling the massacre and deportation of ethnic Armenians from Ottoman Turkey during and after the First World War Genocide, discussion in the international media and global blogosphere is becoming very interesting. Indeed, while everyone accepts that what occurred was indeed a crime against humanity, the way in which the resolution is being viewed has more to do with either domestic politics or foreign policy concerns.

Before covering the continuing reactions of various bloggers on what is still one of the week’s major stories, here’s how the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper covered House Resolution 106 today.

Imperial delusions die hard - and once again the US Congress is trying to legislate for the world. As most Turks see it, this week’s committee vote in the House of Representatives accusing Turkey of genocide against the Armenians in 1915-17 is an insulting, gratuitous interference in their sovereign affairs. As the 27 Democrats and Republicans who backed the bill see it, it is a matter of putting the world to rights, according to America’s lights.

Congress has a long history of extraterritorial meddling. It regularly slaps unilateral sanctions on “rogue” governments, and orders foreign businesses and individuals to obey its strictures, regardless of nationality. Its attempts to direct US foreign policy are resisted by the executive branch to varying degrees. On Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and Israel, White House and legislature mostly agree. On Turkey, like Iraq, they are at noisy loggerheads.

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Sentimentality and righteousness are never far from the surface of American politics. “Despite President Bush twisting arms and making deals, justice prevailed,” said Democrat Brad Sherman of California, playing to a gallery of elderly ethnic Armenians who attended the vote and the wider Armenian diaspora. “If we hope to stop future genocides, we need to admit to those horrific acts of the past.”

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Another problem is that the Democrats’ motives are up for scrutiny. Turkish media suggest the struggle is less about justice and more about votes and campaign contributions from the powerful Armenian-American lobby, concentrated in the key 2008 election battlefields of California, New Jersey and Michigan.

More pertinently perhaps, Turkish officials ask why, when the US officially believes genocide is occurring right now in Sudan, it is digging up disputed events nearly a century ago. This week saw escalating killings in Darfur and warnings that a beefed-up UN force will not deploy for many months yet. Campaigners say that is partly because Congress has failed to honour US funding pledges.

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Tsitsernakaberd, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2005

Even though the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs has accepted HR106 despite attempts by President Bush to prevent that from happening, there has been surprisingly very little by way of reactions to the news in the blogosphere other than what has already been said in post quoted in the previous entry. However, what is perhaps more interesting now is the reaction in Turkey.

The BBC reports that the Turkish Ambassador to the U.S. has been recalled.

The passing of the resolution by a House committee on Wednesday despite appeals by the Bush administration was denounced by President Abdullah Gul.

Turkey accepts there were mass killings in 1915-17 but denies genocide.

Turkey’s foreign ministry said the ambassador would return to Turkey for a stay of “a week or 10 days”.

“We are not withdrawing our ambassador,” said ministry spokesman Levent Bilman.

“We have asked him to come to Turkey for some consultations.”

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Tsitsernakaberd, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2006

As you can imagine, the news wires, international media sites and blogs have gone into overload regarding the acceptance of House Resolution 106 which if passed by Congress and the Senate would recognize the massacre and deportation of Armenians living in Ottoman Turkey as Genocide. In particular, the fact that the resolution was accepted by a House Committee on Foreign Affairs despite efforts by U.S. President George W. Bush to prevent it makes the story all the more newsworthy.

Writing on Cilicia.com’s Life in Armenia, Raffi Kojian notes the prominence of this story as a leading item in the world media.

What was very interesting for me this morning, was reading all the news articles, and there was definitely no shortage of them. I opened Google News to search for “Armenian Genocide” to see if it passed, but instead was greeted with “Armenian Genocide Resolution Passes Committee” as the top headline, with 650 stories already on the topic. That’s big news! The coverage and points being raised were quite varied, from the sickening editorial in the Washington Post to widespread calls for doing the right thing. Lantos, head of the committee, summarized the vote beforehand as choosing between acknowledging a genocide, and appeasing Turkey for military reasons. Basically, do the right thing, or give in to the questionable arm-twisting of a supposed ally - though he did not put it in those undiplomatic terms.

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While looking for new blogs about Armenia using Google’s excellent Blog search engine I stumbled upon a new one about Yezidis and Kurds in Armenia. Given that I’ve covered Armenia’s largest national minority extensively since 1998 it was certainly interesting to find and nice to see some of my past work on the Yezidis in Armenia being used on the site.

It was also interesting because the blog’s author is of Armenian and Kurdish descent. Fascinating.

My great grandfather was the general Ihsan Nuri Pasha and other kurdish nationalists relatives from my fathers side led the Ararat rebellions until the turkish airforce crushed the republic of Ararat hung them all in open streets and beheaded them in public. They also participated in the Republic of Mahabad during 1946. My mothers relatives suffered from the armenian genocide my grandfather and grandmother was forced to change names and became hidden armenians in turkey my great grandfather was Barzum Aga a well known armenian landlord driven by humanity to both the christians and the kurds. Many of my relatives lost their lives during the genocide. …this is why i am interested in the kurdish-armenian issues and the relations.

The blog, Kurdistan and Hayastan, is here.