HyeOctane

Haytayan is a survivor of the first genocide of the 20th century — the extermination by Turks of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians — which was the granddaddy, if you will, of all modern genocides, cited sometimes by historians as direct inspiration for Adolf Hitler and indirectly for Pol Pot, Slobodan Milosevic, and the murderers of Rwanda and Darfur. This is the inescapable reality that informs the music and activism of System of a Down, a Los Angeles band whose four Armenian American members are all grandchildren of genocide survivors. Haytayan’s moving accounts of the destruction visited on his family and Tankian’s tender interactions with his frail grandfather lend a hopeful poignancy to the film, helping balance both the images of human annihilation and the band’s hard-edged vibe.

The film’s title has a double meaning: “Screamers” refers both to the band’s propulsive musical style and, as used by Harvard professor Samantha Power, who is interviewed in the film, to people who force the world to acknowledge atrocities that it would often rather ignore. [Read more]

Germany and France agreed Tuesday on a deadline of up to two years for Turkey to fulfill its commitment to open its ports to shipping from Greek Cyprus.

After a trilateral meeting with the French and Polish presidents, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would lobby for the European Commission to issue a report on Turkish compliance by the period beginning with Turkey’s elections next autumn, but no later than the European elections in 2009. This statement confirms reports that Germany and France would like to have a “rendezvous clause” that would set a deadline for Turkey to comply with EU demands. [Read more]

The pope didn’t utter a peep about arriving in a country whose predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire, committed the largest genocide in history against Christians. Of course, it may be that the always-diplomatic Vatican Curia took possession of Benedict’s mind and body, having exorcised the former Cardinal Ratzinger’s well-known views about Turkey and Islam.

It may also be that the murder of more than one million non-Catholic Christians in the Armenian genocide is a non-homefield matter in the Vatican’s current damage-control foreign policy toward Turkey and Islam. [Read more]

Ankara labeled the Argentinean move as being incompatible not only with historical fact but with international law.

The Foreign Ministry in a statement expressed regret over the fact that such bills were being approved by accepting groundless Armenian allegations as historical truths while ignoring — rather than lending support to — the Turkish government’s offer to set up a joint commission of Turkish and Armenian historians to examine the killings of Anatolian Armenians during World War I. [Read More]

Much like the war in Iraq, however, defining the simple concept of “success” has become increasingly like declaring “mission accomplished.” Case in point, the pope’s recent visit to Turkey.

Following the pontiff’s gaffe heard ’round the Muslim world, the fact that larger protests and riots didn’t accompany his visit to Turkey must have certainly elicited a collective sigh of relief from the Vatican and tempted many prognosticators to proclaim the trip a success. [Read more]

The bill overwhelmingly approved by the assembly declared April 24, which sees annual commemorations of more than one million genocide victims in Armenia and its worldwide Diaspora, an official “day of mutual tolerance and respect” among peoples around the world. It gives Argentine citizens of Armenian descent the legal right to be absent from work or university classes on that day.

The bill has to be approved by the Argentine Senate in order to become a law. Officials in Buenos Aires say the upper house could discuss it as early as next week. [Read more]