2011
To Be, or Not To Be, a Turk
Reflections on the Inner-Turkish Debate on 1915/1916
Nov/16/2011 Archived in:Turkey
Why does Turkey have such difficulty in dealing with its historical past? Why can the Turkish authorities not acknowledge that in 1915 the Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire was the victim of genocide? If the German post-war political elite was capable of facing up to the Holocaust and establishing relations with the Jewish people, in Israel and elsewhere, why cannot the Turkish leadership do as much? The question was raised during a seminar in Potsdam, Germany on November 5, on “The Inner Turkish Discussion of 1915/1916.”Read Further...
Can Germany Mediate Armenian-Turkish Reconciliation
In 2005, the German Bundestag passed a resolution calling on the German government to facilitate a process of Armenian-Turkish understanding and reconciliation. Now, six years later, scholars and civil society activists are asking: what has been achieved since then? This was the subject of a one-day seminar on “The Armenian Genocide and German Public Opinion” on September 22, organized by the Heinrich Böll Foundation at its Berlin headquarters. Read Further...
Una fantasia orientale: la rivoluzione in Israele-Palestina
Sep/19/2011 Archived in:Middle East
19 Sep 2011 – Le strade di Tel Aviv sono inondate da dimostranti che stanno sventolando la bandiera della Palestina, le sue insegne sovrastano un mare indistinto di altre bandiere, alcune di queste con la stella di Davide.
Al culmine di mesi di proteste di massa, anche qui, come in altre città israeliane e in tutta la Striscia di Gaza e nella Cisgiordania da tanto tempo sotto occupazione, Israeliani, sia arabi sia ebrei, uniscono le loro mani con i rifugiati Palestinesi liberati dai campi, per festeggiare la nascita della nuova Palestina.MRead Further...
Al culmine di mesi di proteste di massa, anche qui, come in altre città israeliane e in tutta la Striscia di Gaza e nella Cisgiordania da tanto tempo sotto occupazione, Israeliani, sia arabi sia ebrei, uniscono le loro mani con i rifugiati Palestinesi liberati dai campi, per festeggiare la nascita della nuova Palestina.MRead Further...
An Oriental Fantasy: Revolution in Israel-Palestine
Sep/12/2011 Archived in:Middle East
The streets of Tel Aviv are overflowing with demonstrators, who are waving the Palestinian flag, its insignia dominating a blurred sea of other flags, including some with the star of David. At the culmination of months of mass protests here as well as in other Israeli cities and across the Gaza Strip and the formerly occupied West Bank, Israelis, both Arab and Jewish, join hands with Palestinian refugees released from the camps, to celebrate the birth of new Palestine.Read Further...
„Die Steine werden aufschreien“
Aug/09/2011 Archived in:Armenia
Mitte Juni kam es bei einer Ausstellung der UNESCO in Paris zu einem Skandal. Die Ausstellung zeigte Bilder traditioneller Steinkreuze der armenischen Kirchenkunst, bekannt als Khachkars. Die einzigartigen Skulpturen und Reliefs waren im November 2010 in die repräsentative Liste des unantastbaren Kulturerbes der Menschheit aufgenommen worden. (1) Die Ausstellung stand unter der Schirmherrschaft des Kultusministeriums der armenischen Republik und war in Anwesenheit zahlreicher Diplomaten, Künstler, Historiker und Kirchenvertretern eröffnet worden. Sie hätte eine Anerkennung und Wertschätzung der Khachkar-Tradition werden können, wenn nicht die UNESCO in letzter Minute die Ortsnamen unter den Fotografien gelöscht hätte, wo sich die Khachkars befinden.Read Further...“The Stones Will Cry Out”
Jul/12/2011 Archived in:Armenia
A scandal erupted in mid-June and marred an exhibit in Paris at UNESCO which featured traditional stone crosses from Armenian church architecture known as Khachkars. These unique sculptures and reliefs had been included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in November 2010. The exhibit, co-sponsored by the Republic of Armenia’s Culture Ministry and inaugurated in the presence of numerous diplomats, artists, historians, and clergy, would have celebrated a magnificent tribute to the Khachkar tradition had it not been for the fact that at the last minute UNESCO erased all mention of where the stone crosses featured in photographs were to be found.Read Further...Wurden Bagdads Museen im Auftrag von US-Händlern geplündert?
Mar/22/2011 Archived in:Interviews
Interview mit Dr. Donny George Youkhanna, dem Direktor des irakischen Antikendienstes. Das Interview führten Muriel Mirak-Weißbach und Ortrun Cramer in Sommer 2003. Die Plünderung und Zerstörung der weltweit einzigartigen Museen und Bibliotheken ist kultureller Völkermord.Warum ließen die US-Truppen die systematischen Plünderungen zu, obwohl amerikanische Archäologen das Pentagon seit Monaten davor warnten?Read Further...World Robbed of Iraq's Museums, Antiquities
Mar/22/2011 Archived in:Interviews
Dr. Donny George Youhkanna, the national Director of Antiquities of Iraq, was in Germany in late May-early June, 2003, for meetings with archaeologists as well as political representatives. On June 3, he spoke with Muriel Mirak-Weissbach and Ortrun Cramer. Read Further...The Birth of the New Egyptians
Feb/15/2011 Archived in:Strategy | Middle East
The victory of the Egyptian revolution has not only forced out a hated regime but has ushered in a new culture for the nation and the region. Whatever develops now politically in the transition to democratic rule, it is important to examine the subjective factors in the process, to try to go inside the mind of those who organized the demonstrations nation-wide, and also penetrate the mindset of President Mubarak and his cohorts. In this way one can grasp the reason why there is no way of bridging the gap between the two, and can appreciate the profound revolution in thinking that has taken place.
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The Armenian Genocide:Hopes for Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation
Feb/08/2011 Archived in:Armenia
Bookreview – In the Land of Blood and Tears: Experiences in Mesopotamia During the World War (1914-1918) by Jakob Künzler. Arlington, Massachusetts, 2007. Translated from the 1999 German edition.Read Further...
Revival of a Military Option: Israel's Covert War Against Iran Is On
Jan/26/2011 Archived in:Middle East
After talks in Istanbul between Iran and the West on its nuclear program broke down on January 22, the danger of revival of a military option looms large. It may not come in the form of a direct, conventional US and/or Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear installations, but rather in the guise of the warfare of the future, with cyber-weapons and terrorism. Political forces opposed to such an escalation in the Iran conflict would do well to examine the reasons why dialogue on the nuclear issue has failed thus far, and reshape their approach to dealing with the Islamic Republic. Read Further...