Free Republic

A massive brawl broke out among protesters outside a California school board meeting Tuesday night over whether Pride should be included in the curriculum. One person was arrested after about 300 people attended the Glendale Unified School District's protest, the majority fighting against the inclusion of LGBTQ+-related material in the classroom. The clash, which was captured on video, comes just weeks after violence broke out amid a previous school board meeting in Glendale, a largely Armenian community. This time, there was a large police presence who came prepared - equipped in riot gear in case protestors became violent. Barricades were...

The Armenian Genocide, the systematic mass murder and expulsion of 1.5 million ethnic Armenians carried out in Turkey and adjoining regions by the Ottoman government between 1914 and 1923, is commemorated on April 24th every year. The Armenian Genocide was an atrocity that occurred within the context of a wider religious cleansing across Asia Minor that lasted 10 years and included Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians. They were all Christians who were also subjects of the Ottoman Empire. The religious cleansing was actually the first in modern times, and it fit the pattern of genocides that would follow in the century...

Former CA agent helped a man tied to organized crime learn if his associates were under investigation ... A former FBI agent in Northern California who handled national security issues was convicted Tuesday of accepting at least $150,000 in gifts and cash bribes to provide confidential information to a man with organized crime ties, prosecutors said. Babak Broumand, 56, of Lafayette, was found guilty in Los Angeles of conspiracy, bribery of a public official and monetary transactions in property derived from unlawful activity, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement. He could face 15 to 45 years in...

What do you call a country whose prime minister chairs Russia’s six-nation military alliance, hosts a permanent Russian military base, holds a bilateral mutual defense pact with Russia, and whose customs and tariff policy is subsumed within Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union trade zone? The answer is, surely, “Russia’s ally.” Today, Armenia, the nation in question, is more under the control of the Kremlin than at any point since the collapse of the Soviet Union to which it once belonged. But it’s not what Armenians want. Who would? Still, the United States allowed this to happen to a Christian nation whose...

Shut down in 1915, the Üç Horan church in Malatya laid dilapidated. Local authorities contributed to its renovation with public funds. The place of worship is located in the neighbourhood where the late journalist Hrant Dink grew up. He was killed in 2007. The church will see Masses, weddings and baptisms, but also serve as a cultural centre.Istanbul (AsiaNews) – The Armenian Christian community celebrated a Mass for the first time in 106 years in a church in Malatya, eastern Turkey. The place of worship is located in a neighbourhood where murdered journalist Hrant Dink grew up. The editor-in-chief of...

Construction of Europe’s Biggest Mosque (in France) Highlights Turkey’s Expansionist AimsThe project, undertaken by the radical Muslim organization Millî Gorüs in the French city of Strasbourg, headquarters of the Council of Europe, has generated concern up to the highest spheres of French politics. Political and Symbolic StakesPARIS — A national scandal erupted in France after the municipal council of Strasbourg (located in the northeastern region of Alsace) voted March 22 to grant 2.5-million euros in funding to the construction of a mosque led by Islamist movement Millî Görüş.By virtue of the 1918 Concordat, the Alsace-Moselle region is not subjected...

Up to a million and a half Armenians perished at the hands of Ottoman and Turkish military and paramilitary forces and through atrocities intentionally inflicted to eliminate the Armenian demographic presence in Turkey. In April 1915 the Ottoman government embarked upon the systematic decimation of its civilian Armenian population. The persecutions continued with varying intensity until 1923 when the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist and was replaced by the Republic of Turkey. The Armenian population of the Ottoman state was reported at about two million in 1915. An estimated one million had perished by 1918, while hundreds of thousands had...

Today, we join the global community in memorializing the lives lost during the Meds Yeghern, one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century.  Beginning in 1915, 1 and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in the final years of the Ottoman Empire.  On this day of remembrance, we pay respect to those who suffered and lost their lives, while also renewing our commitment to fostering a more humane and peaceful world.Every year on April 24, we reflect on the strong and enduring ties between the American and Armenian peoples.  We are proud of the founders of the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief, a ground-breaking effort established in...

The Senate on Thursday passed a resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide in Turkey more than a century ago — a slap at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has denounced the effort. ... The bipartisan effort could be the first step in a response to Erdogan for buying Russian weapons systems. Erdogan visited the White House this fall and held a meeting alongside Trump with Republican senators, temporarily delaying the Senate’s actions against Turkey. ... The House of Representatives last month voted 405-11 in favor of a resolution asserting that it would be US policy to commemorate the killing of...

On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution to formally recognize the Armenian Genocide, which saw approximately 1.5 million Armenians killed by the Ottoman Empire in 1915. Following the 405-11 vote, the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star, 39 — who has proudly embraced her Armenian heritage — praised the government for its decision in a post on her Instagram. “Yesterday was such a huge victory for the Armenian people when the US House Of Representatives acknowledged the Armenian Genocide!” Kim’s ties to Armenia has been especially evident as of late. Earlier this month, her family traveled to...

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., faced criticism Wednesday after voting "present" on a House resolution to formally recognize the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as a genocide. The measure, H.Res.296, passed the chamber by an overwhelming 405-to-11 margin, representing a forceful rebuke to Turkey following the NATO ally's recent incursion against the Kurds along the Turkish-Syrian border. Two other House members also voted "present" with Omar: fellow Democrat Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, and one Republican, Paul Gosar of Arizona. But it was Omar's vote that drew the dismay of Armenian advocacy groups and political organizations. Omar's "votes and...

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., on Tuesday refused to support a congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide, saying it was important first to condemn the preceding "mass slaughter" of "hundreds of millions of indigenous people," as well as the "transatlantic slave trade." Omar, in a statement explaining her vote of "present" on the resolution, seemingly suggested that the century-old mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks may not have occurred at all.

The British Museum tries to counter an ugly truth long captured in Western art. ... Objectively speaking, the “Slave Market” painting in question portrays a reality that has played out countless times over the centuries: African and Middle Eastern Muslims have long targeted European women—so much so as to have enslaved millions of them over the centuries. The Muslim demand for, in the words of one historian, “white-complexioned blondes, with straight hair and blue eyes,” traces back to the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, who enticed his followers to wage jihad against neighboring Byzantium by citing its blonde (“yellow”) women awaiting...

Ironically, most people, including most Armenians, are unaware that the first genocide of Christian Armenians at the hands of Muslim Turks did not occur in the twentieth century; it began in 1019—exactly one-thousand years ago this year—when Turks first began to pour into and transform a then much larger Armenia into what it is today, the eastern portion of modern day Turkey. Thus, in 1019, “the first appearance of the bloodthirsty beasts … the savage nation of infidels called Turks entered Armenia … and mercilessly slaughtered the Christian faithful with the sword,” writes Matthew of Edessa (d.1144), a chief source...

Egyptian lawmakers Monday urged Cairo to grant political asylum to US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen accused of plotting the failed military coup against Turkish President Erdogan, in a move that would further strain relations between the two countries, reports say. Egypt has refused to condemn the failed military coup which occurred July 15 as diplomatic feud between the two countries plays out. Egyptian lawmaker Emad Mahrous reportedly called on al-Sisi’s cabinet to grant Gulen asylum in Egypt as Turkish authorities called on Washington to extradite the Turkish preacher. “[Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan is giving shelter to hundreds of leaders...

Thousands of people will march through Hollywood and the Mid-City area Wednesday to mark the 104th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, again calling on Turkey — and the United States — to officially recognize that it occurred. Turkey has refused to recognize the killings of 1.5 million Armenians beginning in 1915 as a genocide. Americans presidents also have declined to do so, calling the deaths at the hands of the Ottoman Empire an atrocity but not a genocide. ... The Armenian genocide began in 1915 and resulted in the deaths of as many as 1.5 million Armenians in a campaign...

Liberals call anyone they don't like Hitler, so often that we have to remind ourselves that there really are monsters out there. One of them is Turkey's strongman Recep Erdogan, who marked the remembrance day for the nearly two million Armenians butchered by the Turkish army and their auxiliaries at the end of World War I. Hitler declared in 1939 that he could kill the Jews because, "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" The Armenian genocide was massively reported at the time by U.S. and other foreign diplomats and comprehensively documented by historians. Despicably, Erdogan...

The Turkish state and their allied gangs confiscated the last Armenian who was still in Afrin Harut Kivork’s home and turned it into a mosque. The Turkish state and their allied gangs have continued their robbery, pillaging, rapes and all manner of inhumane attacks since the first day they invaded Afrin. Thousands of families’ homes have been confiscated to date, now including the home and all possessions of the last Armenian who was still living in Afrin, Harut Kivork. Harut Kivork’s family is one of hundreds of thousands who were forced to migrate to Afrin in 1915 during the Ottoman...

Muslim Cleric: Armenian Genocide A Lie Fabricated By The British, The Muslims Never Perpetrated A Racial Massacre.(Full title). Genocide denial. Criminal when non-Muslims do it, tolerated even venerated when Muslims do it. So it stands to reason that the Armenian genocide of millions of Christians by Muslims has not been designated as such by so many Western countries. ... Egyptian Cleric Sheikh Sharif Abadi: The Armenian Genocide Is A Lie Fabricated By The British, The Muslims Never Perpetrated A Racial Massacre ... Egyptian cleric Sheikh Sharif Abadi said that throughout history, the Muslims never fought peoples, never conquered in order...

The Christian genocide in Ottoman Turkey lasted for 10 years -- from 1913 to 1923 and targeted Armenian, Greek, Assyrian and other Christians. It resulted in the annihilation of around three million people. Sadly, Turkish aggression against the remaining Armenians continues. According to Turkish myth, it was actually the "treacherous" Armenians who persecuted Turks; and the Turks were acting in self-defense to rid themselves of murderous Armenians. A widespread Turkish claim is, "They deserved it." The lies and state propaganda, which hold the victims responsible for their own annihilation, are what enable the ongoing Turkish persecution of the country's...