In an article published on January 19, the Los Angeles Times has said that the “French Senate should reject a bill criminalizing the denial of Armenian allegations pertaining to the incidents of 1915″.

Titled “Speech crimes and France” and written by Timothy Garton Ash, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and professor of European studies at Oxford University, the article says that “On Monday, the French Senate is scheduled to debate and possibly vote on a bill that would criminalize denial of the Armenian allegations pertaining to the incidents of 1915. The bill has passed the lower house of Parliament. Read more…

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Selman Can’s research on 19th century Ottoman architecture reveals the real architects of Ottoman buildings. ‘The Balyans, known as the architects of in the Ottoman, were actually contractors,’ he says

Istanbul’s Çırağan Palace’s history consultant Associate Professor Selman Can said the Balyans, one of the well-known Armenian families of the Ottoman Empire, were not the architects of 19th century Ottoman structures but the architect’s contractors. Read more…

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The Surp Vortvots Vorodman Church in Istanbul’s Kumkapı district, which was recently reopened for worship after 100 years, will host a concert Jan. 22 as part of the “Bach Before and After” events.

The event, organized by the Hakan Erdoğan Production every two months, will feature Czech violinist Jiri Barta and pianist Stanislav Gallin. Read more…

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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that an Armenian resolution at the French Senate may cause great harm to Turkish-French relations if it gets adopted there.

Answering questions of the media at a joint press conference with his Norwegian counterpart Jens Stoltenberg in Ankara, Erdogan said that there were around 550,000 Turks living in France and that there were also circles in France that supported Turkey’s arguments vis-a-vis the incidents of 1915. Read more…

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Amid controversy over a bill accepted last month in the French National Assembly that penalized denial of the “Armenian genocide,” a circle of academics have suggested that the Ottoman Empire’s acts against the Armenian community in Eastern Anatolia cannot be considered “genocide” due to a lack of intention on the part of the Ottoman Empire to destroy the community. Read more…

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