MEP Frank Engel calls young Turks to come to terms with their history

April 24, 2017 - 13:14 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The European Parliament member, the head of the EP-Artsakh friendship group Frank Engel called for recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

“The Armenian Genocide became the first crime against humanity in the 20th century,” he said urging the young generation of Turks to come to terms with their history.

“We need to take every effort to prevent repetition of such crimes. The European Parliament recognized the Genocide back in 1987, having been promoting the acknowledgement of the crime ever since,” Engel said at Tsisernakaberd, the memorial to Genocide victims, according to Novosti-Armenia.

The Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres and deportations, involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.

The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.

Present-day Turkey denies the fact of the Armenian Genocide, justifying the atrocities as “deportation to secure Armenians”. Only a few Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and scholar Taner Akcam, speak openly about the necessity to recognize this crime against humanity.

The Armenian Genocide was recognized by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, Italy, 45 U.S. states, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Argentina, Belgium, Austria, Wales, Switzerland, Canada, Poland, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, the Vatican, Luxembourg, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Sweden, Venezuela, Slovakia, Syria, Vatican, as well as the European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.