Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Armenians in the new Constitution of Kurdistan
New constitution of Iraqi Kurdistan is a model for the nationality and minority politics of the Near-east
The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) has described the new constitution of the autonomous federal state of Iraqi Kurdistan as a shining model for the nationality politics and the solution of the minority problems in the Near-east. “The rights of all large ethnic groups in Iraqi Kurdistan are expressly anchored, including the right to self-government and freedom of religion”, said the President of the GfbV International, Tilman Zülch, on Tuesday in Göttingen. Smaller communities too have the opportunity to develop. (entfalten”) The regional parliament in Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, passed the draft constitution last week. Now it is for the citizens of the federal state to vote for or against the new constitution at the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 25th July [2009].
The wishes of all nationalities have been respected in the new constitution. Article 15 says: “The people of the federal state of Iraqi Kurdistan is made up of Kurds, Arabs, Turkmens, Chaldaic Aramean Assyrians, Armenians and other citizens of Kurdistan /Iraq.”
The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) has described the new constitution of the autonomous federal state of Iraqi Kurdistan as a shining model for the nationality politics and the solution of the minority problems in the Near-east. “The rights of all large ethnic groups in Iraqi Kurdistan are expressly anchored, including the right to self-government and freedom of religion”, said the President of the GfbV International, Tilman Zülch, on Tuesday in Göttingen. Smaller communities too have the opportunity to develop. (entfalten”) The regional parliament in Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, passed the draft constitution last week. Now it is for the citizens of the federal state to vote for or against the new constitution at the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 25th July [2009].
The wishes of all nationalities have been respected in the new constitution. Article 15 says: “The people of the federal state of Iraqi Kurdistan is made up of Kurds, Arabs, Turkmens, Chaldaic Aramean Assyrians, Armenians and other citizens of Kurdistan /Iraq.”
Article 35 says: “This constitution guarantees the national, cultural and administrative rights of the Turkmens, Arabs, Chaldaic Aramean Assyrians and Armenians including their right to regional autonomy in the regions and communities in which these ethnic groups form a majority.”
Article 36 guarantees complete freedom of religion also for the Christian denominations and the religious community of the Yezidi.
Apart from the Kurdish and Arab languages Turkmen, New Aramaic and Armenian are recognized as languages of the smaller nationalities. In communities or regions where these form the majority local or regional autonomy is granted. The right to native language instruction is guaranteed by the constitution from primary school to university.
An electoral law for Kurdistan also sets down that eleven of the 111 seats in the regional parliament are reserved for non-Kurdish nationalities:
Apart from the Kurdish and Arab languages Turkmen, New Aramaic and Armenian are recognized as languages of the smaller nationalities. In communities or regions where these form the majority local or regional autonomy is granted. The right to native language instruction is guaranteed by the constitution from primary school to university.
An electoral law for Kurdistan also sets down that eleven of the 111 seats in the regional parliament are reserved for non-Kurdish nationalities:
five seats each for Turkmens and Christians and one seat for the small Armenian ethnic group. For the provincial councils also a comprehensive quota system has been introduced. In Sulaimaniya one seat has been reserved for the Chaldaic Aramean Assyrians, In Arbil there are three seats for the Turkmens, two for the Aramaic-speaking Christians and one for the Armenians, while in Dohuk two seats are reserved for the Aramaic-speaking Christians and one for the Armenians. The smaller peoples will be having as a result of their guaranteed seats in all bodies more representatives than corresponds to their percentage in the total population.
In Kurdistan/Iraq there is today a Turkmen and a New Aramaic school system with 58 Aramaic, 16 Turkmen and two Armenian schools. Both nationalities have media (press, radio, TV and culture institutes) in their languages. There is also a private Turkish university and a theological seminar of the Chaldaic Catholic Church for the training of priests, which following the recent mass flight of Christians from Baghdad was transferred to the Kurd capital of Arbil.
Pirtûka HECIYÊ CINDÎ: JIYAN Û KAR Û MALBATA CINDÎ
Eta (xwunga mazin) me Frîda Hecî Cewarî qîza navîn a kurdê navdar, qîza pêþengek ji civaka kurdên Qefqazê, qîza nivîsevan û zimannasê (fîlolog) naskirî, qîza hêja Heciyê Cindî (1908-1990) ye.
Frîda Cewarî sala 1934'ân Li Rewan'ê (Erîvan) hatiye dunyayê. Frîda Hecî Cewarî li zankoya (unîvêrsîteya) Moskovayê beþê pêdagogîyê û fakûltêta fîzîk-matêmatîkê biriye serî.
Ji hingê ve, li Rewanê ev e 50 sal e ku mamostetiya matêmatîkê ya Kolêca Rewanê dike. Hozanê navdar ê kurdê Qefqazê, Fêrikê Ûsiv (1934- 1997) ku ji vê çend salan berê çû ber dilovaniya Xwedê mêrê Xatûn Frîda Hecî Cewarî bû.
Frîda Cewarî ji bo yadgariya sedsaliya bûyina bavê xwe (2008) Heciyê Cindî, pirtûka bi navê Heciye Cindî - Jiyan û Kar derhaniye. Vê berhemê du caran jî daye weþandinê. Çapa duduyan bi alîkariya Înstîtuya Kurdî ya Parîsê hatiye derxistin.
Jiyana Heciyê Cindî, ji hêla her kurdekî kurdhez û wêjehez ve baþ dihêt naskirinê. Hecî li saxiya xwe ji ser 80 sernav (title) pirtûk derhanî û pirtûkxaneya kurdî pê dewlemendtir kir. Ev berhem xwedî babetên zaniyarî, wêjeyî yên cihêreng bûn. Hem berhemên ji ber pênûsa Hecî û hem jî berhemên wek karê wî yê wergêrvaniyê ên wek gelêrî (folklorî), perwerdeyî (pedagogî) bûn. Li pey koçkirina wî, li gor Eta Frîda, pênc (5) berhemên wî yên destnivîskî yên çapnebûyî jê mane. Bi xebat û lebata xwe ya xwandina zanistiyê, Heciyê Cindî hilkiþiya qada profêsoriyê.
Heciyê Cindî di sala 1908'ê de, li gundê Amançayirê, girêdayê Qersê ji dayîk bûye. Di salên 1918'an de, ji ber komkujî û hêrîþên leþkerên tirkan, ew koçber dibin û derbasî aliyê Sovyetê dibin. Li wir Hecî bê xwedî dimîne, dikeve sêwîxaneyê.
Li sêwîxaneyê bi sedan zarokên bêxwedî re perwerdeyên sereke û yên navînê wergirtiye. Sala 1929'an, derbasî qursa amadekirina mamostayetiyê bûye. Di sala 1930'an de, ketiye Fakulteya Rewanê (Erîvan) a zimannasiyê. Her wisan jî ew dibe xwendevanê kurd yê yekemîn ku li Ermenîstanê di fakultê de xwandin kiriye.
Heciyê Cindî gorbuhuþt, di sala 1932'an de, li nav civaka kurdî ya li Qefqazê, dest bi berhevkirina materyalên zargotina (folklora) Kurdî dike. Her wiha jî ji sala 1930'an de, di rojnameya Riya Teze û di Radoya Kurdî de (ku tenê nûçe diweþandin) dixebite.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
Panel Discussion on Turkish-Kurdish-Armenian Relations - Cambridge, MA
From: Hairenik.com
On April 20, a panel discussion entitled “Subjects and Citizens: (Un)Even Relations between Turks, Kurds, Armenians” will be held at Bentley University’s Adamian Academic Center, Wilder Pavilion, on 175 Forest St. in Waltham. The event, organized by Bentley University’s Global Studies Department and the Armenian Review, begins at 7 p.m.
The panel is made up of a group of scholars, including Ugur Umit Ungor (University of Sheffield, UK), Bilgin Ayata (Johns Hopkins), Henry Theriault (Worcester State College), and Dikran Kaligian (Regis College). Asbed Kotchikian (Bentley Unversity) will moderate. Weekly editor Khatchig Mouradian will deliver opening remarks.
The panel aims at looking at the history and examining the power relations between Armenians, Kurds, and Turks after the apparent homogenization of eastern Anatolia as a result of the mass killings and deportations of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire.
The panel will discuss these relations and the prospects of rapprochement among the three groups. Ugur Umit Ungor is a lecturer at the University of Sheffield. He was born in 1980 and studied sociology and history at the Universities of Groningen, Utrecht, Toronto, and Amsterdam. His main area of interest is the historical sociology of mass violence and nationalism in the modern world. He has published on genocide, in general, and on the Rwandan and Armenian Genocides, in particular. He finished his Ph.D., titled “Young Turk Social Engineering: Genocide, Nationalism, and Memory in Eastern Turkey, 1913–1950” at the department of history of the University of Amsterdam. Bilgin Ayata is completing her Ph.D. at the department of political science at John Hopkins University, Baltimore. Her research interests include the politics of displacement, trans-nationalism, social movements, and migration. Her dissertation examines the displacement of Kurds in Turkey and Europe. She currently lives in Berlin. Henry C. Theriault earned his Ph.D. in philosophy in 1999 from the University of Massachusetts, with a specialization in social and political philosophy. He is currently associate professor of philosophy at Worcester State College, where he has taught since 1998. Since 2007, he has served as co-editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal “Genocide Studies and Prevention” and has been on the Advisory Council of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. His research focuses on philosophical approaches to genocide issues, especially genocide denial, long-term justice, ethical analyses of perpetrator motivations, and the role of violence against women in genocide. Dikran Kaligian is a visiting professor in the history department at Regis College and managing editor of “The Armenian Review.” He received his doctorate from Boston College. He is the author of Armenian Organization and Ideology under Ottoman Rule: 1908-1914 (Transaction Publishers, 2009). Asbed Kotchikian is a lecturer in political science and international relations at Bentley University. His area of research includes the foreign policies of small states, the modern political history of the post-Soviet south Caucasus, and issues of national identity. The event is free and open to the public.
On April 20, a panel discussion entitled “Subjects and Citizens: (Un)Even Relations between Turks, Kurds, Armenians” will be held at Bentley University’s Adamian Academic Center, Wilder Pavilion, on 175 Forest St. in Waltham. The event, organized by Bentley University’s Global Studies Department and the Armenian Review, begins at 7 p.m.
The panel is made up of a group of scholars, including Ugur Umit Ungor (University of Sheffield, UK), Bilgin Ayata (Johns Hopkins), Henry Theriault (Worcester State College), and Dikran Kaligian (Regis College). Asbed Kotchikian (Bentley Unversity) will moderate. Weekly editor Khatchig Mouradian will deliver opening remarks.
The panel aims at looking at the history and examining the power relations between Armenians, Kurds, and Turks after the apparent homogenization of eastern Anatolia as a result of the mass killings and deportations of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire.
The panel will discuss these relations and the prospects of rapprochement among the three groups. Ugur Umit Ungor is a lecturer at the University of Sheffield. He was born in 1980 and studied sociology and history at the Universities of Groningen, Utrecht, Toronto, and Amsterdam. His main area of interest is the historical sociology of mass violence and nationalism in the modern world. He has published on genocide, in general, and on the Rwandan and Armenian Genocides, in particular. He finished his Ph.D., titled “Young Turk Social Engineering: Genocide, Nationalism, and Memory in Eastern Turkey, 1913–1950” at the department of history of the University of Amsterdam. Bilgin Ayata is completing her Ph.D. at the department of political science at John Hopkins University, Baltimore. Her research interests include the politics of displacement, trans-nationalism, social movements, and migration. Her dissertation examines the displacement of Kurds in Turkey and Europe. She currently lives in Berlin. Henry C. Theriault earned his Ph.D. in philosophy in 1999 from the University of Massachusetts, with a specialization in social and political philosophy. He is currently associate professor of philosophy at Worcester State College, where he has taught since 1998. Since 2007, he has served as co-editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal “Genocide Studies and Prevention” and has been on the Advisory Council of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. His research focuses on philosophical approaches to genocide issues, especially genocide denial, long-term justice, ethical analyses of perpetrator motivations, and the role of violence against women in genocide. Dikran Kaligian is a visiting professor in the history department at Regis College and managing editor of “The Armenian Review.” He received his doctorate from Boston College. He is the author of Armenian Organization and Ideology under Ottoman Rule: 1908-1914 (Transaction Publishers, 2009). Asbed Kotchikian is a lecturer in political science and international relations at Bentley University. His area of research includes the foreign policies of small states, the modern political history of the post-Soviet south Caucasus, and issues of national identity. The event is free and open to the public.
Kurds: ‘We remember, we share your grief’
On April 24 this year, “Gunluk,” the Kurds’ only newspaper in Turkey printed in the Turkish language, featured a big headline above its logo that read: “We remember, we share your grief,” in Armenian with Armenian lettering.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Panel Discussion To Explore Relations Between Turks, Kurds, And Armenians
WALTHAM, Mass. (A.W.)—On April 20, a panel discussion entitled “Subjects and Citizens: (Un)Even Relations between Turks, Kurds, Armenians” will be held at Bentley University’s Adamian Academic Center, Wilder Pavilion, on 175 Forest St. in Waltham. The event, organized by Bentley University’s Global Studies Department and the Armenian Review, begins at 7 p.m.
The panel is made up of a group of leading scholars and commentators, including Ugur Umit Ungor (University of Sheffield, UK), Bilgin Ayata (Johns Hopkins), Henry Theriault (Worcester State College), and Dikran Kaligian (Regis College). Asbed Kotchikian (Bentley Unversity) will moderate. Weekly editor Khatchig Mouradian will deliver opening remarks.
The panel aims at looking at the history and examining the power relations between Armenians, Kurds, and Turks after the apparent homogenization of eastern Anatolia as a result of the mass killings and deportations of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. The panel will discuss these relations and the prospects of rapprochement among the three groups.
Ugur Umit Ungor is a lecturer at the University of Sheffield. He was born in 1980 and studied sociology and history at the Universities of Groningen, Utrecht, Toronto, and Amsterdam. His main area of interest is the historical sociology of mass violence and nationalism in the modern world. He has published on genocide, in general, and on the Rwandan and Armenian Genocides, in particular. He finished his Ph.D., titled “Young Turk Social Engineering: Genocide, Nationalism, and Memory in Eastern Turkey, 1913–1950” at the department of history of the University of Amsterdam.
Bilgin Ayata is completing her Ph.D. at the department of political science at John Hopkins University, Baltimore. Her research interests include the politics of displacement, trans-nationalism, social movements, and migration. Her dissertation examines the displacement of Kurds in Turkey and Europe. She currently lives in Berlin.
Henry C. Theriault earned his Ph.D. in philosophy in 1999 from the University of Massachusetts, with a specialization in social and political philosophy. He is currently associate professor of philosophy at Worcester State College, where he has taught since 1998. Since 2007, he has served as co-editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal “Genocide Studies and Prevention” and has been on the Advisory Council of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. His research focuses on philosophical approaches to genocide issues, especially genocide denial, long-term justice, ethical analyses of perpetrator motivations, and the role of violence against women in genocide.
Dikran Kaligian is a visiting professor in the history department at Regis College and managing editor of “The Armenian Review.” He received his doctorate from Boston College. He is the author of Armenian Organization and Ideology under Ottoman Rule: 1908-1914 (Transaction Publishers, 2009).
Asbed Kotchikian is a lecturer in political science and international relations at Bentley University. His area of research includes the foreign policies of small states, the modern political history of the post-Soviet south Caucasus, and issues of national identity.
The event is free and open to the public.
Monday, April 13, 2009
State University of Yerevan about the Kurdish-Armenian relations
GARNIK ASATRIAN
State University of Yerevan, Armenia
The earliest, irregular and sporadic contacts between Armenians and Kurds date back
approximately to the 11th -12th centuries AD. However, it was not until the movement of Kurds to various parts of Mesopotamia and Armenia had grown into mass migration in the first half of the 16th century that the Armenian-Kurdish relationships became active. Since that period and up until the late 1920s - prior to the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire - these two peoples had been in close and constant contact. As a result, in some Western Armenian provinces a certain Armeno-Kurdish ethno-linguistic situation emerged, characterised by widespread Armenian-Kurdish bilingualism, which could not but leave obvious traces – local dialects of both languages, to some extent, influenced one another.
Judging from the existent linguistic materials, the influence of Armenian on Kurdish appears to
have been much greater as it manifests itself not only in vocabulary, but also in phonetics, and
partially, word formation. Meanwhile, the influence of Kurdish on Armenian, or, more precisely, on the Western Armenian dialects, was limited to vocabulary, and to a lesser degree as well. This can be explained by the fact that Armenian had somewhat become a sort of substrate language for the Kurmanji dialects spoken in the historical Western Armenian areas.
The Armenian-Kurdish linguistic relationships were in the form of direct contacts; they did not
affect other linguistic aspects of public life, and were exemplified only on the dialect level.
The paper presents the analysis of the Armeno-Kurdish linguistic connections, particularly the
interrelations between the Western Armenian dialects and the Kurdish dialects of the same area.
State University of Yerevan, Armenia
Kurdish and Armenian
The earliest, irregular and sporadic contacts between Armenians and Kurds date back
approximately to the 11th -12th centuries AD. However, it was not until the movement of Kurds to various parts of Mesopotamia and Armenia had grown into mass migration in the first half of the 16th century that the Armenian-Kurdish relationships became active. Since that period and up until the late 1920s - prior to the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire - these two peoples had been in close and constant contact. As a result, in some Western Armenian provinces a certain Armeno-Kurdish ethno-linguistic situation emerged, characterised by widespread Armenian-Kurdish bilingualism, which could not but leave obvious traces – local dialects of both languages, to some extent, influenced one another.
Judging from the existent linguistic materials, the influence of Armenian on Kurdish appears to
have been much greater as it manifests itself not only in vocabulary, but also in phonetics, and
partially, word formation. Meanwhile, the influence of Kurdish on Armenian, or, more precisely, on the Western Armenian dialects, was limited to vocabulary, and to a lesser degree as well. This can be explained by the fact that Armenian had somewhat become a sort of substrate language for the Kurmanji dialects spoken in the historical Western Armenian areas.
The Armenian-Kurdish linguistic relationships were in the form of direct contacts; they did not
affect other linguistic aspects of public life, and were exemplified only on the dialect level.
The paper presents the analysis of the Armeno-Kurdish linguistic connections, particularly the
interrelations between the Western Armenian dialects and the Kurdish dialects of the same area.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Turkey Has Three Problems - Cyprus, Kurdish And Armenian
http://www.observercyprus.com/observer/NewsDetails.aspx?id=3656
20.03.2009
France's ex Prime Minister Michel Rochard said that he believes thatTurkey deserves its place in Europe but, on Turkey's road to acceptanceinto the EU, it has to face three major obstacles, namely the Cyprus,Kurdish and Armenian problems. Rochard said that a Cyprus solutionwill be a political decision that would greatly help Turkey move astep closer to the EU. According to a press release from Turkey'sAltogether Development Foundation (IKV), joint work has been carriedout by IKV, Yeditepe University Law School and the University ofParis X Nanterre with there aim being 'To Move on from the fears ofTurkey entering Europe'.
A conference was held in Paris on the 12 and 13 March at which the formerFrench PM made a speech in which he saidthat their main aim was to abolish customs duties between the rest ofEurope and Turkey and after a while for it, like the rest of Europe,to start using the euro. He believed that Turkey deserved a placein the EU, but that they will immediately have to face their threebiggest problems, the Cyprus, Armenian and Kurdish problems. Rochardsaid the current state of the Cyprus problem is the main cause of theset back.
Turkey has taken the right steps under the United Nationssupervision and by the Turkish Cypriots saying 'Yes' to the referendumwas also one step closer to a set solution and EU acceptance.
20.03.2009
France's ex Prime Minister Michel Rochard said that he believes thatTurkey deserves its place in Europe but, on Turkey's road to acceptanceinto the EU, it has to face three major obstacles, namely the Cyprus,Kurdish and Armenian problems. Rochard said that a Cyprus solutionwill be a political decision that would greatly help Turkey move astep closer to the EU. According to a press release from Turkey'sAltogether Development Foundation (IKV), joint work has been carriedout by IKV, Yeditepe University Law School and the University ofParis X Nanterre with there aim being 'To Move on from the fears ofTurkey entering Europe'.
A conference was held in Paris on the 12 and 13 March at which the formerFrench PM made a speech in which he saidthat their main aim was to abolish customs duties between the rest ofEurope and Turkey and after a while for it, like the rest of Europe,to start using the euro. He believed that Turkey deserved a placein the EU, but that they will immediately have to face their threebiggest problems, the Cyprus, Armenian and Kurdish problems. Rochardsaid the current state of the Cyprus problem is the main cause of theset back.
Turkey has taken the right steps under the United Nationssupervision and by the Turkish Cypriots saying 'Yes' to the referendumwas also one step closer to a set solution and EU acceptance.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Armenian participation the Kurdish conference
International Conference
The Kurds and Kurdistan: Identity, Politics, History
2nd and 3rd April, 2009
Centre for Kurdish Studies
Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies
University of Exeter
The Kurds and Kurdistan: Identity, Politics, History
2nd and 3rd April, 2009
Centre for Kurdish Studies
Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies
University of Exeter
- THURSDAY, 2nd APRIL
Notes on the Balochi Tribes of Kurdish Origin
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
President of Kurdish Council of Armenia: Turkey still committing genocide
ArmInfo.
Turkey committed Genocide of Armenians at the state level in 1915. Now it is committing Genocide of Kurds, President of Kurdish Council of Armenia Knyaz Hasanov said at a press conference in Yerevan Tuesday. He said Kurds are severely repressed in Turkey and put against
each other. In particular, thousands of Kurds are forcefully sent to Iraq to fight against their compatriots residing in that country.
As regards the participation on Kurds in the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, K. Hasanov said those were separate Kurds and not the whole nation.
For his part, Chairman of the Public Organization of Greeks of Armenia 'Patrida' Eduard Polatov said Greek have always been for recognition of Armenian Genocide. 'Armenians and Greek are two nations that have always been subjected to pressures in the territory of Armenia. The
purposeful genocide was against Armenians and Greeks, the real masters of today's Turkey. Instead of repenting, Turkey denies the reality', E. Polatov said.
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