AGMI considers events dedicated to 100th anniversary of Genocide

March 25, 2010 - 15:39 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Starting the year 2010, Armenian Genocide Museum Institute will consider events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Genocide, AGMI director Hayk Demoyan said.

During a news conference in Yerevan, Mr. Demoyan announced the list of events to be held in commemoration of the 95th anniversary of Genocide. "On April 19-20, Yerevan will host an international conference on Genocide. On April 22, the museum will hold an exhibition entitled "Armenian Genocide in headlines", featuring foreign newspapers highlighting the issue. Exclusive materials collected over the last year will be demonstrated in one of museum halls on April 23," he stated.

For the first time in the museum's history, the scholarship after Raphael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer of Jewish descent who first introduced the term Genocide, was established for students intending to major in Armenian Studies.

Next year, the museum plans to hold an international conference entitled "Reaction of Scandinavian countries to the Armenian Genocide."

He also informed that the territory of the museum will be enlarged.

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.

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.