Nikolay Hovhannesyan: this book is a strong message to Turkey

PanARMENIAN.Net -
Tekeyan Cultural Center in Yerevan hosted the presentation of “Armenian Genocide” book today, January 27. The book was published in 10 languages, including Turkish.



“My first book, dedicated to the Armenian Genocide, was published in March 1965. For the past year, I worked at a number of problems related to Middle East, Arabian world, Artsakh, yet I always touched upon the issue of Genocide in some way or another,” the author of the book, RA National Academy member Nikolay Hovhannesyan said.



According to him, “Armenian Genocide” book differs from other monographs on the subject. While working at the book, I was guided by a principle “no whining”. I attempted to narrate the most tragic pages of our history and do it in a dignified manner. I believe I managed to avoid the most common shortcoming of our historiography,” he emphasized.



“My friend characterized this book as a strong message to Turkey,” the author noted.



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 date of the onset of the genocide is conventionally held to be April 24, 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities arrested some 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople. Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria. Massacres were indiscriminate of age or gender, with rape and other sexual abuse.



To date, twenty countries and 44 U.S. states have officially recognized the events of the period as genocide, and most genocide scholars and historians accept this view. The Armenian Genocide has been also recognized by influential media including The New York Times, BBC, The Washington Post and The Associated Press.



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