Issued on 21-22 January 2017, Berlin United in Rights Conference and 25-26 February 2017, Paris Round Table
On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the assassination of Hrant Dink, a conference of the Peoples of Asia Minor was held at the Sofitel in Berlin, on the 28 and 29 of January 2017. The motto of the conference was “UNITED in RIGHTS”.
Four members of Parliaments from different countries, representatives of five political parties and 15 civil society organizations participated. They dealt with the following topics; Democracy, Dialogue, and Justice, analysis of losses, aspects of corrective measures. The conference was followed by a roundtable discussion regarding a roadmap and perspectives and appointed a Commission called “THE 19 JANUARY INITIATIVE”.
The Commission will further the efforts to build a constructive dialogue to bring the peoples of Asia Minor closer together in justice, peace, and democracy.
Concerning the “19 January Initiative”
1. The Asia Minor Peoples’ UNITED IN RIGHTS conference held in Berlin on the 28-29 of February 2017, created the “United in Rights, 19 January Initiative”.
2. All participants of the Berlin Conference are members of the Initiative.
3. This Initiative is an independent movement. It will not be registered as an organization.
4. Any organization and individual willing to join the movement has the right to do so.
5. The Initiative was created with the aim of founding the “ASIA MINOR PERSECUTED PEOPLES LEAGUE” or the “AMP League”.
6. Once the “AMP League” established, the Initiative will cease to exist.
7. The Initiative will operate within 5 commissions:
a. Coordination Commission
b. United in History Commission
c. United in legal and human rights Commission
d. United in Rights Online Commission
e. Asia Minor political Commission
8. The Initiative will establish a foundation in order to raise funds
9. The “United in Rights, 19 January Initiative” will create an Experts’ Group that bases on the principles elaborated by the Berlin Conference and the Paris round table (see below). The Experts’ Group will prepare a joint report. Based on the issues discussed during the Berlin and the Paris meetings, this report is a comprehensive documentary résumé of the Asia Minor peoples’ historical and actual situation and problems. In the conclusion of this documentation the problem intersections, as well as individual specifics of the groups concerned will be identified and a roadmap and crucial guideline for the forthcoming activities of the Initiative and the “AMP League” will be given.
a. The key questions that this report must answer are the following:
i. Who are we? Whom do we represent?
ii. Why did we come together?
iii. What does this league want to achieve?
iv. What are our guiding ethics?
b. The work of the Experts’ Group will be reviewed by the “History” and the “Rights” Commissions.
c. Members of the Experts’ Group are all those members of the Initiative capable of participating in the preparation of the report together with the permanent Experts’ Committee of the National Congress of Western Armenians. If specific consultation is needed the group can ask for the services of an independent external expert.
d. Over time the joint report may constitute the base of an alternative history textbook for all the peoples of Asia Minor.
10. The Asia Minor Peoples’ movement must act upon short, medium and long-term action plans;
a. Short-term actions within the coming 4 months are to,
i. Prepare and propose to approval the AMP LEAGUE project
ii. Have face to face meetings with organizations and individuals to brief and invite them to join the movement. Whenever needed, the Coordination Commission will create regional sub-committees for this aim.
iii. Publish in Turkish and in English the material of the Berlin Conference and the decisions concerning the AMP League perspectives of the Paris round table.
iv. Organize a first meeting of the Experts’ Group autumn 2017 in Armenia.
v. Organize regional coordination groups in areas where Asia Minor peoples cohabit
vi. Activate the 5 commissions
vii. Create a foundation to raise funds.
b. Midterm Actions within the coming year are to,
i. Issue the Report of the Experts’ Group
ii. Create and launch the AMP League
iii. Create an information and broadcasting unit
c. Long-term actions will depend on the conclusions of the experts’ report as well as the decisions of the commissions.
The AMP LEAGUE
- The “AMP League” will be a registered non-profit and non-governmental organization for the rights of the Asia Minor Peoples.
- Both associations and individuals can join the League.
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Not only members of Asia Minor descent, but also individuals without such descent and Non-Government Organizations acting in the field of human rights may join the League. Entities invited to join this movement are.
- Individuals and corporative entities of Asia Minor origin.
- Civil society representatives, individuals and corporative entities such as foundations, think-tanks, human rights NGOs, etc. willing to join our movement.
- The “AMP League” will have two bodies: the General Assembly and the Executive. The executive will be formed by the Executive Council and the commissions.
MAIN PRINCIPLES OF DIALOGUE
1. The first common value we all share is our will for justice, democracy, dialogue and peaceful coexistence.
2. Our movement must encourage dialogue both inside the communities and between communities. In this sense we have 3 dimensions of dialogue;
a. Within each community
b. Between several communities
c. Between all communities
3. Shared identity; two main axes
a. Persecuted & discriminated indigenous populations of Asia Minor
b. Erstwhile Ottoman citizens
4. Our movement must create a favorable environment for all identity groups not regarding their quantity. We must be aware most particularly of the use of the words. We must remain under all circumstances a pluralistic & defensive platform with relevant safeguards that will prevent any imposition from big to small identity groups. In this sense, a number of smaller identity groups must be officially established in our Experts’ Report.
5. Our activities cover all ethnic, ethnoreligious, religious and linguistic groups in the shared homeland and country of origin, as well as the related Diaspora(s) of the expulsed from Asia Minor people. Three main groups are linguistic, religious and ethnic groups (Armenians, Greeks and Aramaic speaking Christians, etc.); furthermore, our movement includes Non-Muslim, non-Turkish populations (Hamshens, Dersimis (Zaza, Kizilbash, Kurmanc and Kirmanc), Alevis, Yazidis, Nusayri, etc.) and non-Turkish, non-Kurdish Sunni populations (Circassians, Laz, etc.)
6. Hybrid identities are a bridge for dialogue. They may become accelerators of dialogue between communities.
7. Peoples of Aramaic origin must be represented according to their chosen self-identification, i.e. as Syriacs, (Syrio-) Arameans, Assyrians or Chaldeans. As of today, these communities are in a process of nation-building, which expresses in the absence of a common national identity. There exists linguistic commonality, but denominational segregation:
i. Syriac-Aramaic language speaking people.
ii. Affiliation to 5 churches;
1. Apostolic Church of the East (Assyrian Church; also called Nestorian Church)
2. Syriac Orthodox Church
3. Syriac Catholic Church
4. Chaldean Uniates
5. Protestants
8. Principles concerning the term of Territory
a. The geographical limits of Asia Minor are not internationally agreed. By Asia Minor, we understand the Ottoman part of the South-Western Asia.
b. For us, Asia Minor is both a homeland and an origin. The Turkish nationalist movement has annihilated not only the Asia Minor indigenous populations but also the homeland where these peoples used to live since millennia and the common civilization they created in shared values of coexistence.
c. We have to be very cautious when using the term “Territory”. For this movement, Territory means the shared Homeland, i.e. Asia-Minor.
d. The homeland of Asia Minor is subdivided into geographical and historical regions. We should have exact definitions for each of them, in particular, “Pontos”, “Kurdistan”, “Western Armenia”, “Armenian Highland”, etc.
9. There are 4 main periods of history we crossed. We have suffered during this common past. So we should understand the common denominators of our sufferings and losses.
a. Ottoman Empire
b. Young Turks
c. Kemalists
d. Nowadays Turkey
10. Our shared awareness and conscience of genocide is the main principle.
11. We object policies of ”folklorization” and de-politicization that are applied on the communities of expulsed and refugees in order to prevent them from demanding their rights.
12. The prevention of further destruction and intentional neglect of our cultural and ecological heritage is a major aim.
13. We shall attempt to create international awareness for the fact that many languages of Asia Minor are endangered or even extinct according to the criteria of UNESCO.
14. The distortions of official Turkish history are a shared loss. The continuous denial of historic truth, in particular, the fact of repeated genocide in Asia Minor causes a shared suffering.
15. Our main objective must be establishing justice and initiating reforms within our shared homeland for our shared rights. We must join our efforts in all legal and peaceful means to achieve this objective in unity.
16. We must ensure that international human rights conventions, treaties, and protocols are respected.
17. Shared suffering created compassion between us. Especially the Kurdish case confirms this very important aspect.
18. About the Kurdish historical responsibility we agree on the following positions:
a. Some Kurdish tribes and individuals participated in the decision making and execution of the genocides whereas the main responsibility belongs to the Young Turkish (C.U.P.) government and Ankara authorities.
b. Kurdish people benefited materially from the destruction of the Non-Muslim peoples of Asia Minor.
c. A simple recognition of the historical facts is not sufficient. We, therefore, appeal to the Kurdish political establishment and elites both in and outside Turkey to join us in this movement of rehabilitation of all the concerned peoples of Asia Minor.
19. The actual situation in Turkey – war against the Kurdish civilian populations, totalitarian populist regime and Islamization process – and in the entire Near East is our shared concern. Kurds and all the remaining non-Turkish populations are actually suffering continuous discrimination and persecution that drive them into exile.
20. Cohabitation based on equal rights and the establishment of a democratic, pluralist, secular Turkey is a precondition of our success. Therefore the rights of democratic secular Turks (Both Sunni and Alevi secular democrats) are highly relevant, and we thrive for cooperation with them.
21. Civil societies in the neighboring countries of Turkey are potential partners for our movement and are invited to participate.
22. Shared future on the principles of coexistence in our shared homeland.
PDF version: http://jan19.org/DWNs/J19_conclusions_EN.pdf
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