Istanbul Pogroms of 1955 Not Forgotten: Sirapian Publishes French-Language Book

Now, Sirapian fears, the same mentality is being promulgated in Europe among people of Turkish descent with support by the Turkish government. It certainly poses a threat to European Armenians. Sirapian cites the example of the declarations of an ultranationalist Turk in Décines, France, which were disseminated this summer on YouTube, calling for Turkey’s leaders to provide Turks in France arms and monthly money to “do what is necessary throughout France” and counter the actions of the Armenians. The Committee for the Defense of the Armenian Cause (CDCA) has initiated a lawsuit against the latter.

Ultimately, Sirapian concludes, this Turkish ultranationalism in alliance with Islamism is not just dangerous for Armenians, but threatens the foundations of the French republic and European values.

The Author

Author Sirapian has had an interesting and variegated career. He studied at the Mekhitarist School in Istanbul as a youth and graduated Robert College, an American institution. He studied Byzantine history at Istanbul Edebiyat Universitesi [Literature University] from 1966 to 1970. Sirapian also performed as a guitarist in a band and recorded several records.

Emigrating to Paris in 1970, for the first five years he worked as a translator in an automobile factory (Simca). He then opened a photography store in 1975 or 1976 which lasted till the mid-1990s. He took an interest in personal computers early in their development, in the 1980s, and began selling both software and hardware. When the photography business started to decline, he switched his business focus to the latter, and also did accounting work. Eventually he sold his store and began to work from home. He also taught political communication and geopolitics at the École international d’audiovisuel (EICAR) in Paris.

He has been involved in French and Armenian politics. He was elected municipal council member of Alfortville, a suburb of Paris, from 1995 to 2001. He was president of the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party in France from 1999 to 2001 and vice president of the Conseil de Coordination des organisations Arméniennes à France (CCAF) from November 2001 to November 2002.

He founded and serves as president of the Institut Tchobanian in 2004, which is an independent center for geopolitical research on Turkey, the South Caucasus and the Middle East. It helps Armenia through various projects. He established the publishing house Sigest too, and edits the periodical Europe and Orient, which appears twice a year. Les pogroms de 6-7 septembre 1955 is a special issue of this book-size series (see https://edsigest.blogspot.com/).

Further Work on the 1955 Events and Turkish Ultranationalism

In an interview, Sirapian considered his book only a first step to call attention to the 1955 events, and hoped that other younger writers might prepare more detailed works in French.

As far as the dangers of Turkish ultranationalism spreading its influence, Sirapian exclaimed that France is the soft underbelly of Europe where extremist Turks can strike more easily than elsewhere. Armenians only recently have started treating this situation seriously, according to Sirapian.

Most recently, at the end of August, a monument to the composer Gomidas in Paris which commemorates the Armenian Genocide was defaced with the words “It is false.” Sirapian said, “Armenians have woken up finally. We have to follow events closely.” He pointed out that it is a positive development that Armenian Genocide denier Maxime Gauin for the ninth time lost a lawsuit for defamation against the director of the French-Armenian publication Les Nouvelles d’Arménie and one of his writers, Sam Tilbian.

Sirapian concluded, “Other incidents are going to take place, and we must give an answer to every step they take.” At the same time, he emphasized that what is most important is to attempt to keep Armenia and Artsakh safe.