Turkey will remain genocidal country as long as it denies Armenian Genocide

April 6, 2010 - 16:52 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Meetings at any level will prove unproductive unless Turkey alters its position on the Genocide issue, according to political scientist Alexander Manasyan.

“Turkey will remain genocidal country as long as it denies Armenian Genocide,” he said during a joint news conference with Stepan Grigoryan, head of the Analytical Center on Globalization and Regional Cooperation. “Anyway, the international community would raise the Armenian Genocide issue sooner or later.”

For his part, Mr. Grigoryan added that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan should take certain steps before departing for the United States. “First, Armenia should support Kazakhstan’s initiative banning nuclear weapons testing. Second, Armenia should ratify the protocols to put Turkey in an awkward situation,” he said, adding that Erdogan’s threat to deport illegal Armenian workers aimed to prevent Armenia from ratification of protocols. “Turkey drags out the ratification process to gain most not only from Armenia, but also from the United States and European Union.”

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.