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They’re throwing eggs and bottles at us,” said Kutsal Kocer, who was standing with the Turkish demonstrators. Kocer told KTLA she and the other Turkish demonstrators were asked to leave the building because police could not protect them from the marchers. “It’s a shame that these people are violent and they are turning this into a Christian/Muslim war,” Kocer said. A group of LAPD officers was seen a short time later moving the two groups further apart, seemingly calming the situation. Thousands of people took part in the mostly peaceful 6-mile march, dubbed the “March for Justice,” from the corner...

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier insisted on Friday that calling Armenian massacres genocide risks belittling the Holocaust, after President Joachim Gauck broke a taboo by using the word on Thursday. Steinmeier stuck to his guns on Friday, arguing in an interview with Spiegel that “We in Germany need to be careful not to give justification to those who follow their own political agenda and say the Holocaust started before 1933.” […] Steinmeier has come in for fierce criticism this week, with one high profile politician comparing him to Germany’s First World War leadership. Both Gauck and Bundestag (German parliament) president Norbert...

The University of Maryland joins the University of Michigan in the ranks of educational institutions with an "American Sniper" controversy. Muslim student protests prompted the University of Maryland at College Park to announce the cancellation of the movie about deceased Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. "American Sniper only perpetuates the spread of Islamophobia and is offensive to many Muslims around the world for good reason. This movie dehumanizes Muslim individuals, promotes the idea of senseless mass murder, and portrays negative and inaccurate stereotypes," the university's Muslim Students Association said in its petition, Fox News reported Thursday.

Aleksandra's Note: Thanks to the efforts of those around the world who care about the crimes committed against Christian men, women, and children, more and more attention is being given to the Armenian Genocide of 1915, during which 1.5 million Christians were murdered by the Islamic Turkish Ottoman Empire during and after World War One. Other Christian victims included indigenous Christian Assyrians and Greeks subjugated by the Turks. It is an understatement to say that crimes against Christians, which are again on the increase now, 100 years later, need to be, and must be, given the official attention they deserve....

Armenians executed by Ottoman authorities in Aleppo, 1916 (Aleppo, where Christians are being exterminated once again 100 years later)This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do the things that I command you. I will not now call you servants: for the servant knoweth not what his lord doth. But I have called you friends: because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you....

Today, April 24, we remember how exactly 100 years ago the last historic Muslim caliphate, the Ottoman Empire, tried to cleanse its empire of Christian minorities — Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks — even as we stand by watching as the new caliphate, the Islamic State, resumes the genocide.And in both cases, the atrocities were and are being committed in the name of Islam.In November, 1914, during WWI, the Ottoman caliphate issued a fatwa, or Islamic decree, proclaiming it a “sacred duty” for all Muslims to “massacre” infidels — specifically naming the “Christian men” of the Triple Entente, “the enemies of...

A world free of genocide will be on their minds — and comfortable shoes on their feet — when people of conscience meet Sunday morning outside of Santa Rosa’s Congregation Shomrei Torah. They’ll take part in the Walk Against Genocide, created seven years ago by a 14-year-old boy who’d become aware of the mass killings in Darfur and felt compelled to act. Since then, the walk Gabe Ferrick founded has raised more than $100,000 for relief to survivors of genocide in Darfur, Congo and elsewhere, and for advocacy to resolve the issues that can lead to mass killings. Participants in...

Many historians call the Armenian Holocaust the first holocaust of the 20th Century, a dress rehearsal for the Nazi nightmare that followed. This April 24 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of roughly 1.5 million Armenian Christians at the hands of Turkish Muslims. That mass slaughter has gone virtually unreported by the broadcast networks. It was a genocide so awful that candidate Barack Obama promised in 2008 he would acknowledge it as such. “As president, I will recognize the Armenian genocide,” he vowed. Obama has violated that promise every year since. This will be the seventh anniversary that Obama...

Several years ago, Germany was the scene of an embarrassing episode when, under pressure from Turkey, the federated state of Brandenburg removed any reference to the Armenian genocide from a school syllabus.

The presidents of Turkey and the U.S. will open the Turkish-American Culture and Civilization Center in Maryland, Turkey’s foreign minister said April 19. Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, who was on a three-day visit to Washington, visited the center that also has a medium-sized mosque, and lunched with representatives from the American Muslim community. “During a phone call, President [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan asked President [Barack] Obama to accompany him in opening the center together and President Obama accepted his offer in principle,’” Çavuşoğlu told the representatives. If Obama’s schedule allows at the time of the opening, he will accompany Erdoğan. The...

A couple of years ago it was reported that Turkey was helping fund the building of a $100 million dollar mega mosque in Lanham, Maryland. In fact Erdogan visited the mosque when he was here in May of 2013, promising to come back for the opening. Well that time has apparently arrived and now Erdogan and Obama will be together at the mosque for the big opening ceremony: ANADOLU AGENCY – The presidents of Turkey and the U.S. will open the Turkish-American Culture and Civilization Center in Maryland, Turkey’s foreign minister said Sunday. Mevlut Cavusoglu, on a three-day visit to...

President Obama will once again avoid using the word “genocide” at a ceremony to designed to memorialize more than a million Armenians murdered by the Ottaman Turks 100 years ago. During his 2008 campaign, then-Senator Obama repeatedly promised he would label the massacre a genocide as president.

resident Obama will once again avoid using the word “genocide” at a ceremony to designed to memorialize more than a million Armenians murdered by the Ottaman Turks 100 years ago. During his 2008 campaign, then-Senator Obama repeatedly promised he would label the massacre a genocide as president. The LA Times reports the decision to avoid using the word genocide was revealed Tuesday after the White House held a meeting with Armenian groups. The ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the deaths of as many as 1.5 million people will be held this Friday. ... Rep. Adam Schiff of California has...

Half of Turkey—44 of 81 provinces, 40 million people including those living in Istanbul and Ankara, suffered a massive power outage that lasted a solid twelve hours. It happened on Tuesday, March 31st. It happened because Iran wanted it to happen. The blackout in Turkey was caused by a cyber hack that originated in Iran. This cyber attack was payback, a taste of what Iran has to offer. Everything went down. Computers, airports, air traffic, traffic lights, hospitals, lights, elevators, refrigeration, water and sewage, everything simply stopped. In an instant, Turkey was transported back to the stone ages.

Turkey's push to carve out an independent foreign policy and purchase arms from countries outside of NATO is raising concerns among members of the defensive military alliance, Emre Peker reports for the Wall Street Journal. "Turkey is recasting itself as a nonaligned country in its rhetoric, which is making NATO very uncomfortable," a Western official in Brussels told the WSJ. Ankara's decision to purchase missile-defense technology from China, as opposed to from NATO member states, is the most visible break between Turkey and the rest of the NATO bloc. Turkey chose to purchase from Beijing due to a matter of...

Pope Francis and Kim Kardashian made headlines recently by calling attention to what happened to the Armenian people 100 years ago. It was genocide at the hands of the Turks in what was then the Ottoman Empire, according to the pope, the reality show star and many historians. In Minnesota, the push to recognize the deaths of Armenians a century ago as the first genocide of the 20th century is being led by a small, new St. Paul church. In the past month, St. Sahag Armenian Church has put up billboards on Interstate 94 in St. Paul and Interstate 494...

[This is from the International Edition of SCMP] China has won the bid to co-produce a multibillion ($3Billion) long-range air and missile defence system in Turkey, in what is its largest and most advanced arms sales to a NATO country. The Turkish defence minister announced the decision to approve the US$3 billion bid by China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp, rejecting rival offers from Russian, US and European firms. The winning Chinese FD-2000 system beat the Patriot, the Russian S-400 and the French-Italian Eurosam Samp-T, it was announced on Thursday. [snip]

Austrian lawmakers' decision to condemn as "genocide" the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I will have "unfavourable repercussions" on Turkish-Austrian relations, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday. "The adoption of this declaration will inevitably have unfavourable repercussions on bilateral relations," he told his Austrian counterpart Sebastian Kurz by telephone, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Turkey on Wednesday recalled its ambassador to Austria over the lawmakers' condemnation. Earlier Wednesday, the leaders of Austria's six major parties issued a statement recognising the killings for the first time as "genocide" and calling on Turkey to...

BEIRUT: Turkey must apologize for the Armenian genocide, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai told reporters Tuesday from the Beirut airport before traveling to Yervan for a ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the mass killings. "The ceremony which will be held [on April 24] in Armenia serves to sanctify the martyrs [of the genocide],” Rai said. “We pray for all the martyrs who were killed, whether they were Armenians, Assyrians or Syriac who were present in this large disaster.” When asked whether those responsible for the massacre should apologize to the Armenian people, the patriarch replied by saying that an...

Turkey, via their Deputy Prime Minister, is putting the word out on the street that it is open to a restoration of ties with Israel, even acknowledging that it is NOT Turkey’s place to criticize the recent Israeli election: snip Wow. The admitted refusal to criticize Israel over the election is definitely a change of pace for Turkey. I mean, when has Erdogan ever missed an opportunity to openly bash Israel? He was just ripping Netanyahu in January for just showing up to the Paris march against ‘radical Islam’, accusing him of killing 2500 Palestinians in the war last year....