INTERNATIONAL GENOCIDE SCHOLARS ASSOCIATION OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZES ASSYRIAN, GREEK GENOCIDES

Date: December 15, 2007
Issued by: Adam Jones, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Political Science
University of British Columbia Okanagan
adam.jones@ubc.ca

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In a groundbreaking move, the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) has voted overwhelmingly to recognize the genocides inflicted on Assyrian and Greek populations of the Ottoman Empire between 1914 and 1923.

The resolution passed with the support of fully 83 percent of IAGS members who voted. The resolution (text below) declares that "it is the conviction of the International Association of Genocide Scholars that the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire between 1914 and 1923 constituted a genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontian and Anatolian Greeks." It "calls upon the government of Turkey to acknowledge the genocides against these populations, to issue a formal apology, and to take prompt and meaningful steps toward restitution."

In 1997, the IAGS officially recognized the Armenian genocide. The current resolution notes that while activist and scholarly efforts have resulted in widespread acceptance of the Armenian genocide, there has been "little recognition of the qualitatively similar genocides against other Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire." Assyrians, along with Pontian and Anatolian Greeks, were killed on a scale equivalent in per capita terms to the catastrophe inflicted on the Armenian population of the empire -- and by much the same methods, including mass executions, death marches, and starvation.

IAGS member Adam Jones drafted the resolution, and lobbied for it along with fellow member Thea Halo, whose mother Sano survived the Pontian Greek genocide. In an address to the membership at the IAGS conference in Sarajevo, Bosnia, in July 2007, Jones paid tribute to the efforts of "representatives of the Greek and Assyrian communities ... to publicize and call on the present Turkish government to acknowledge the genocides inflicted on their populations," which had made Asia Minor their home for millennia. The umbrella term "Assyrians" includes Chaldeans, Nestorians, Syriacs, Aramaens, Eastern Orthodox Syrians, and Jacobites.

"The overwhelming backing given to this resolution by the world's leading genocide scholars organization will help to raise consciousness about the Assyrian and Greek genocides," Jones said on December 15. "It will also act as a powerful counter to those, especially in present-day Turkey, who still ignore or deny outright the genocides of the Ottoman Christian minorities."

The resolution stated that "the denial of genocide is widely recognized as the final stage of genocide, enshrining impunity for the perpetrators of genocide, and demonstrably paving the way for future genocides." The Assyrian population of Iraq, for example, remains highly vulnerable to genocidal attack. Since 2003, Iraqi Assyrians have been exposed to severe persecution and "ethnic cleansing"; it is believed that up to half the Assyrian population has fled the country.

Extensive supporting documentation for the Assyrian and Greek genocides was circulated to IAGS members in the months prior to the vote, and is available at
http://www.genocidetext.net/iags_resolution_supporting_documentation.htm.
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FULL TEXT OF THE IAGS RESOLUTION:

WHEREAS the denial of genocide is widely recognized as the final stage of genocide, enshrining impunity for the perpetrators of genocide, and demonstrably paving the way for future genocides;

WHEREAS the Ottoman genocide against minority populations during and following the First World War is usually depicted as a genocide against Armenians alone, with little recognition of the qualitatively similar genocides against other Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire;

BE IT RESOLVED that it is the conviction of the International Association of Genocide Scholars that the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire between 1914 and 1923 constituted a genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontian and Anatolian Greeks.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Association calls upon the government of Turkey to acknowledge the genocides against these populations, to issue a formal apology, and to take prompt and meaningful steps toward restitution.

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Canadian / Pakistani Khalid Q Awan Facing Unjustice .

Khalid Q Awan detainee is now facing different preplanned, Fabricated charges in NewYork USA during his jail period,Khalid Awan is now looking forward your special attention and help towards this case for saving his innocent life. As we know, he is innocent and you can do further correspondence with him in detention centre NewYork USA and his attorney Khuram and Maher LLP NewYork to find out the reality and truth, and to bring the reality in front of the world that no innocent face that kind of the situation in future.
Khalid Q Awan detainee himself disagree with the charges imposed on him by the FBI, The charges are not related with him by all means. How can be possible a person in jail /custody since 9/11 now become terrorist while he proved not guilty in the same court in the past. So he is looking forward your help to get the justice and Clear and fair investigation in these imposed fabricated charges. It is possible with the involvement of the organizations like your’s, so that the innocent will come back to his normal life This is the mission of the human rights commission that innocents to be protected in all over the world from injustice ,and illegal Custody.
As by the press reports and by governments officials, In the court room only FBI representatives and some press reporters were present and no one else was there to see what is going over.

Help requested from high officials in Canada, U.S.A, and UNO & also from the NGOS who work for the human rights in all over the world.
Once again the request for find out the truth and reality in the above case.
With best wishes and regards
The sisters and whole family of Khalid Q Awan from Canada,pakistan.

The court will announce a decision on 25 may 2007.

Dear Sir / Madam

I am 46 years old, Canadian citizen and native of Pakistan (Muslim). I was an immigration consultant in Canada and as part of my business , I had an office in New York.
During 2001 immediately after the Sept 11, event the US govt arrested me on Oct 25, 2001 on anonymous call, as a material witness for the 9/11 world trade centre terrorist attack. A detail investigation by the FBI and USA Naval intelligence dept was conducted and I was cleared, but even then govt put me in front of Grand jury , and I was cleared and the case was dismissed by the Grand jury of the US Federal Court .
Approximately after 2 weeks , before I was released from custody the US Govt imposed a new charges of Fraud and money laundering , under the advice of my attorney , I pleaded guilty and I was sentenced to prison for five years (which was four years more, what I pleaded). In which I had already spent 3 years in Detention jail, during the case , I had about 14 months left to finishing my sentence ,(instead of appealing, I preferred to applied for Treaty Transfer to Canada, because if the case is in the appeal, defendant is not eligible for transfer back to his home country).
While at prison, I learned from the case manager Miss Mause, that my citizen was incorrect in the FBOP’s (Federal Bureau of Prison) computer system as Pakistani instead of Canadian.
Its important to note , that all of my Canadian identifications (passport , citizenship card , S.I.N , Health card Driving license etc) were under FBI’s possession, with a great deal of concern, I wrote a letter to the Canadian Consulate in Buffalo, N.Y to notify such mistake and requested them to fix this problem. This is especially important for Treaty Transfer back to Canada.
The Canadian Consulate official sent a letter to the jail to correct my citizenship status, however FBOP ignored the request and the citizenship status in the FBOP computer still reflect Pakistani instead of Canadian (Note:- I would be required to obtain visa to visit Pakistan) .In contrast , the deportation letter received from US Immigration dept, Contained the correct citizenship status of Canada.
At the hindsight, I believe that the FBOP intentionally left the citizenship as Pakistani, so that they could retained me at their facility, while the govt is planning to file new charges against me 3rd time.
Approximately six weeks before my released date on Jan 30 ,2006 I was notified by the FBOP that I was being transferred from Ellenwood , PA to MDC (Metropolitan Detention Centre) in Brooklyn N.Y, it was explained to me, that the purpose of this transfer was in preparation for deportation back to Canada, (after few days, I signed the immigration deportation papers, with my consular Miss Chen).
But immediately after my arriving to MDC Brooklyn, I discovered during a phone call with my family in Montreal, that RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) official had contacted my sister and brother-in-law regarding the whereabouts of my wife and my current situation, there was no explanation given by the RCMP official to the purpose of the call and he left his phone number and asked my wife to call him back immediately, my wife called the RCMP official and left messages in his voice mail. Then the official contacted my brother-in-law again and had asked him to tell my wife not to call again, because there is nothing good nor anything bad.
Meanwhile the AUSA ( United States Attorney) office Investigator and FBI brought me to their office to be interrogated without an attorney present, even AUSA told in the court to the judge on March 16, 2006 that he arranged attorney for me before my arrival from Ellenwood PA to MDC Brooklyn, N.Y, on Transcript; page 11, Transcript line No: 14 to 23.

AUSA:- He (Khalid Awan) was writ in the cause of a grand jury investigation. He clearly had criminal exposure. So to protect his interest I made an application to the duty magistrate for counsel to be appointed.
THE COURT:- Initially he was brought here by a Court to testify before the grand jury?

AUSA:- That is correct, Your Honour.

THE COURT:- When he arrived here, you made arrangements for an attorney to be pointed to request him?

AUSA:- Yes, Your Honour.

This interrogation started with the AUSA office Investigator stating that my family will be arrested in Canada if I refused to answer their questions.
At this point I am certain that my family is in great danger for reasons that I am not aware of. I was scared that my family would be harassed by these people along with the Canadian RCMP official, I strongly believe that the RCMP is doing this intentionally in collaboration with FBI official to further harass me to admit charges, that I never committed.
Without knowledge of the reasons why the Canadian RCMP agency was involved. I was surprised that RCMP official directly approached my family instead of me without proper explanation, and its also shocked for me, that how RCMP got the phone number of my family (because before my arrest, I don’t have any single record in any police dept, of any country).
I was intimated and pushed to the edge during this interrogation, I was determined to provide anything these USA officials wanted to make them happy even is the questions made no sense, because I want them to stop the harassment to my family.
On March 15, 2006 I completed the term of my imprisonment and was to be released from American Custody and deported back to Canada. Before that I was arrested again 3rd time, and charged with providing “material support to a foreign terrorist” and money laundering (to a organization and person, which are not designated by the USA govt and belongs to Sikh religion).
These charges emerged while I was still in prison and without the capability of providing any type of support. It was even difficult for me to get enough financial assistance to pay legal fees. I could not have provided any material support while I was in prison for five years and I could not launder any money because I did not have any.
AUSA filed three counts of indictment against me.

Conspiracy to provide material support.
Provide a material support to the foreign terrorist.
Money laundering to support terrorism.

(Please note, that in my previous case govt charged me for money laundering and fraud from Jan 1999 to 2002 and “its mentioned in the plea-agreement by the AUSA that no further money laundering charges will be brought against defendant from Jan 1999 to April 2002” even then govt indict me for money laundering from 1998 to Nov 2001 (Which is double Jeopardy and violation of 5th Amendment of U.S Constitution.)
In Oct 2006, during pre-trial hearing on the motion’s filed by my attorney the first two counts of my indictment were dismissed by the judge, stating that there is a lack of facts and figures.
After two weeks AUSA re-indicted me again. I believe this is a desperate act of the AUSA to cover up a huge embarrassment . Further this hastily drawn indictment was full of factual errors and creative legal theories.

Since I was first arrested by the American govt, I believe that I have been singled out, isolated and discriminated against primarily because of my race and religion, in addition to the fact that I don’t know any information that the American govt is trying to pressure out of me.

I do not understand the American laws and this is what led to my pleading guilty in the first case. I have difficulty understanding the new charges also.

I have been charged under, section 2339(a) of Title 18 of the United States code, which makes it illegal to provide material support to a foreign terrorist.

Please understand, I am not a terrorist, I do not know any terrorist and I have had no connections with or to any known or unknown terrorist. I have been incarcerated for last 5 years and I had no money to provide or launder.

The law enforcement have in America is pressuring me to provide information to them that I really do not have or know. I am a Canadian Citizen and nearly all of my family is in Canada, including my wife and kids. I don’t know any information to tell them to help their investigation.
Because of this , I am being treated unfairly and my rights under the American constitution are being violated. I am being held here in further detention against my will for crimes which I could have never committed, because I was in prison.

I believe, that I am a victim of the discrimination that was outlined in the July 3, 2006 issue of Time magazine (Page 29, column 3). In this article section 2339(a) & (b) are discussed and criticized “as most suspects are charged under these two sections. However, the justice dept here in America admits that of the more than 218 guilty pleas that it has obtained, most are for minor investigation issues that are uncovered deeding the course of their terrorism investigation. This suggest, according to the article that the Attorney General’s office have is not concerned about the rights or fairness or the manner in which it achieves convictions for the people they arrest. Furthermore, criticizes have noted that one of the patterns to emerge from these domestic prosecutions is that suspect seen too incompetent to carry out the deeds they are accused of. The Deputy Attorney General acknowledges that the Dept of Justice’s goal is “ preventions through prosecution’s” and this is done with no regard for an individual’s rights.

I agree that these guilty of terrorism should be prosecuted . But as the above mentioned article suggest , innocent people should not be targeted because of their race or religion.
I am not a terrorist and I should not be targeted and treated unfairly and unjustly.
I need your assistance desperately in my case, as I believe that I am being treated unjustly here. I would like to send you my attorney’s contact information and provide you with legal documents related to my case, so that you may become more familiar with my situation.

Please also note, that I appeared in the court , for no guilty of my 2nd superseding indictment on Aug 02, 2006 and on Aug 03, 2006 FBOP officials placed me in the SHU (Segregation Housing Unit) out of these months, I placed in the SHU isolation from Aug 03, 2006 to March 6, 2007 for unknown “Pending Investigation” in these 215 days of my segregation and isolation, I don’t have a single phone call access to my family, no legal calls to my attorney and Canadian Council, my legal mail opened in my absence, no medical treatment for my injured shoulder (even I went for hunger strike for 3 and half day) I harassed by the various jail officials and lot of other problems too which already been submitted in the attention of the FBOP higher authorities, but no action taken on them, after writing the court, instead of receiving the response or any action on my complaints, jail officials removed /moved me from MDC federal facility to Nassau County Jail .
My suffering has gone on for far too long, and I need your help to bring my suffering to an end. I want to return home to my family, because my imprisonment was injustice and will remain a great injustice forever.

May God bless you and be with you in your efforts to champion the cause of human rights, and the suffering of innocent prisoners and restore hope, faith and love to peoples all over the world.

Sincerely,

KHALID AWAN
FBOP NO. 50959-054

THIS IS SUCH A STUPID CONTROVERSY, INSTEAD MANY INNOCENT TAMILS ARE DYING RIGHT NOW IN SRI LANKA

IN SRI LANKA PEOPLE ARE DYING.HELP THE TAMIL PEOPLE FIGHT FOR AN INDEPENDANY NATION.

THE UN IS STILL SITTING DOWN AFTER AN 175 SCHOOL CHILDREN'S LIVES AND 9 STAFF WERE AT STATE WHEN SLA DROPPED SEVERAL BOMBS OVER A SCHOOL IN TAMIL EELAM. WTF IS THE UN DOING, STILL SITTING DOWN WHEN THIS IS HAPPENING TO INNOCENT PEOPLE.

175 schoolchildren, 9 staff narrowly escape air strike on school

Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir bombers Monday morning bombed a school in Chundikulam, wounding a female teacher and two schoolboys, attending 7th grade and 9th grade at the school, Chundikulam Vidyalayam, located 21 km northeast of Kilinochchi, in the southern part of Vadamaradchi East region in Jaffna district. Three bombs were dropped 25 meters from a class room. A bomb that hit a tree exploded in the air, wounding two children and a teacher. Around 175 schoolchildren, 8 teachers and the principal of the school narrowly escaped from the aerial attack. TamilNet correspondent who visited the site of the attack witnessed a second air strike at 11:45 a.m.
(TamilNEt)

It is the responsibility of any country to not discriminate other people based on their name, religion, nationality or color. It is also responsibility of any country to not suppress forcefully other's identity and should provide the necessary environment for protection of human rights of its citizens (including minorities, immigrants etc).
I believe that the most basis human rights are violated openly in Greece.

For somebody to carry his/her name, speak his/her language, wave his/her flag, worship his/her God it is not too much to ask from a EU member country. Albanians are not asking from Greece to pay for their schools, flags, religious buildings etc; what they are demanding is for Greece to not stop them from having their own schools, speaking their own language, waving their own flag for worshiping their own God. Again, Greece is the only country in the world that forces its immigrants to change their names, their religion and eventually their identity. To verify this please ask any Albanian immigrant in Greece.
And yes, if Greece does not provide the right environment for Albanians to be what they want to be then Greece automatically create an irredentist agenda for a considerable part of its population.

To AMviennaVA:
(whoever you are)

Those who demand that the 'host' country provide them (that is, build for them) custom meeting places and schools, etc. obviously do not wish to be in the 'host' country'.

I am an immigrant to the US. I (humbly?) believe that I am contributing to the US, and I believe that I have gained by my exposure to it. I do NOT however expect the US to provide me, or those of my ethnic and religious group, with schools and meeting places in my original language. Those of us who want to, and consider it sufficiently important, provide it for ourselves.

A poster above stated "It is the responsibility of Greeks to provide schools in Albanian, religion buildings for them to worship, freedom for them to wave their own flag.". With all due respect, I do not have similar demands from the US, and I BELIEVE THAT I WOULD BE WRONG TO DO SO. If I, and my friends, want a school in Albanian, it is incumbent on me and my friends to establish one, and financially support it. Likewise for a mosque(?), etc.

I hope that you appreciate the difference.

Again, with that logic I can rightly say "Judging from what the Greeks want in the USA, Australia, Canada, Germany etc (that is to live as respected citizens honoring the respective countries laws but preserving their identity and not being force to deny their names, nationality, language, flag)than perhaps they have to go back to greece and try to live there.

Hmmm ... Judging by the posts about what Albanians want from Greece, perhaps they should have stayed in Albania.

Actually I do not believe that the posters are representative of anything but their own frustrations.

As for immigration, YES, overall it is beneficial, just as trade is beneficial. The exchange of people, goods, and ideas has always improved the human condition. Not to needle some of the posters here, but the primary reason Greece (devoid of natural resources) is the most prosperous country in the Balkans is that Greeks immigrate freely, and Greece has traditionally traded with everyone. It is a good exercise.

Migration is the war on equilibrium population on the earth. Suppose sustainable pop is 5 billion and current pop is 6 billion. The gap is 1 billion. Suppose that mass extinction is a non-linear function of the gap, say a cubic. 1 billion cubed is 10 to the 27th power.

Thus mass extinction is driven by this huge number. The last time human population didn't cause extinctions was over 10,000 years ago when it was under 10 million world wide.

The more species that go extinct, the lower the sustainable population. Thus increases in human pop lower the sustainable pop. If the sustainable pop reaches zero before the actual pop falls to the sustainable level, then we go extinct.

That is right Vladimir, not only that but greece has not yet recognized the genocide committed against Chamm people after the WWII only because they were Albanians and Muslims.
The author of this article rightly recognizes the added-value that immigrants and especially Albanians have brought to Greece by directly contributing to the development of the country. And what is the response of Greece? Not only they do not recognize their contribution but on the contrary a clear irredentist agenda that aims in converting all Albanians into orthodox by forcing them to change their name, religion, language and eventually their identity. Please ask Albanians in Greece why they carry such names as Vasilis, Kostas, Vangjelis and they will tell you the right reason. Please tell me from +700,000 albanians living in greece, who dares to wave its flag in front of his house, like greeks do in USA. Just last year an Albanian was killed in Greece only because he was wearing a t-shirt with Albanian flag on it.
Unfortunately, Greece is the most backward country in the EU when it comes to respecting the human rights of other nationals. Greece is the only country in the EU, that despite the large number of Muslim immigrants, still has not permitted the building of a religious building for immigrants to worship in their own.

I can't see how Greece will be able to embrace immigrants while practising racism and ridiculous nationalism against the ethnic Macedonians in the northern part of Greece.

Respect for religion, culture and language of the immigrants? How can Greece accomplish that if it is not capable or willing of accomplishing the same rights to its own citizens, e.g. the ethnic Macedonians?

"It is the responsibility of Greeks to provide schools in Albanian, religion buildings for them to worship, freedom for them to wave their own flag."

I beg your pardon, Sir, but it is not the responsibility of any govt. to offer these things to migrants. If migrants want to speak their own language at home or among friends, that's their business. If they want to hang their flag in their living-room, that's their business. If they want to spend a couple of hours a day outside of regular school hours and teach their children their ancestral language, again that's their business.

But the govt. is in no way obligated to offer the migrants anything in terms of cultural benefits. Implicit in the migrants' coming to that country is their desire to become members of the host society. The migrants have to bend, not the other way around.

If I am not wrong, the Albanians in Greece have been there a mere 10-15 years--in most cases they're not even citizens!--and already some poorly behaved individuals in this forum are threating with irredentism and state disintegration unless their ridiculous demands are met. Perhaps they need to pack their bags, go home, and learn some manners.

And in fact, if everyone gains, the citizens should be allowed to vote and such will be allowed. But usually the only folks who want the illegal aliens are the people who sending the illegal aliens to other countries.

So in this case, as is the case in this country, the citizens who own the country, need to vote on the issue.

Old Atlantic what are you talking about? All Greeks that I know in the USA, Australia or other places speak greek when they want, carry their own names (like the author of this article Nikos, I am sure will never want to change his name to if migrates to any place), worship in their own way, build religious building of their own, have schools in their own language. What you are saying is the the USA should suppress all the above activities and if Greeks will not adapt they should be kick out of the country. You are simple wrong my friend, because the chances are that you are a greek living outside greece and enjoying all freedoms to preserve your identity.

"an irredentist agenda will be created whenever Greeks abuse with immigrants by not providing the most basic rights such as their language, religion, culture etc. It is the responsibility of Greeks to provide schools in Albanian, religion buildings for them to worship, freedom for them to wave their own flag." Ilir.

"their language, religion, culture etc."

Wake up Greece. Wake up America. Immigrants want their own language, culture, religion and identity not yours.

Immigration combined with birth rates below replacement is ethnic cleansing. The above are words of invaders and replacers.

There is no correlation with becoming citizen of one country and giving up you basic rights as a human being and a member of a special group of people in the world. With this logic, all the Greeks that have immigrated around the world should have been giving up their greek language, orthodox religion, greek names (mind you one of the requirements for Albanians to be integrated in Greece is to change their names into orthodox ones) and greek flag and should have converted to the religion of the country where they live, and changing their identity in something they are not. I think the point is clear; only full rights for immigrants in Greece can prevent a disintegration of Greece into different parts populated by people that hate each-other.

No, implicit in one's immigration to another country is their desire to become citizens of that country. If one wants to continue actively to be what they were, then they should return to where they came from. A government only has responsibility to provide education etc. to ethnic groups that were around at the formation of that state, not to immigrant groups that arrive later.

Greece, though an EU member, according to all statistics unfortunately remains one of most racist countries in the world. Greeks on one side are happy and satisfied with the development that comes from the immigrants but on the other side they are reluctant to treat them has Greek immigrants have been treated in other countries.
Yes, Mr.Kostandaras, an irredentist agenda will be created whenever Greeks abuse with immigrants by not providing the most basic rights such as their language, religion, culture etc. It is the responsibility of Greeks to provide schools in Albanian, religion buildings for them to worship, freedom for them to wave their own flag. In that case Albanians will feel appreciated and respected for the great contribution to the Greek state. Not only Greece is not doing any of the above things, but on the contrary in its army the officers teach soldiers to sing songs against neigbouring countries. With such an irredentist agenda Greeks should expect the same from other nations living in Greece.

"Everyone gains"? This is a fallacy pushed by immigrationists. No policy results in everyong gaining. When citizenship is eroded, citizens lose.

Another class is made the exclusive club, and the rest are reduced in class when citizenship is reduced.

The ancient Greek city states made citizenship meaningful when they were merchant states creating math. Later citizenship was degraded and so were the states. They stopped being the center of world culture. For Greece to be great it must make its citizenship exclusive and bar others from its lands.