PROBLEM OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RUN TO REVISION OF TURKISH IDENTITY
PanARMENIAN.Net
01.02.2010 16:41 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Problem of Genocide has a serious and devastating
effects in terms of national and state identity of Turkey, Hayk
Demoyan , director of the Institute of Armenian Genocide, historian
told a press conference in Yerevan.
According to him, in recent years the problem of identity deepened in
Turkey, promoting more intensive discussion of the Armenian Genocide
within the country. "Turkey started to review the provisions of
Kemalism, which means to weaken the axis the entire state myth
of Turkey was built. Therefore, to prevent the recognition of the
Armenian Genocide is an urgent issue for Ankara. The question of
Genocide is not only an external challenge, but also a problem that
leads to a revision of the Turkish identity, he said.
"It is clear that the Armenian side can only discuss elimination of
the consequences of the Armenian Genocide: restoration of the Armenian
cultural heritage, etc. In addition, we have every right to raise
issues of compensation. Genocide is a crime against humanity that is
punished, and the Turkish side should bear in mind that we can raise
that question, " the historian said, adding that the discussion of
historical issues can be dangerous for Turkey.
The Protocols aimed at normalization of bilateral ties and opening of
the border between Armenia and Turkey were signed in Zurich by Armenian
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet
Davutoglu on October 10, 2009, after a series of diplomatic talks
held through Swiss mediation. On January 12, 2010, the Constitutional
Court of the Republic of Armenia found the protocols conformable to
the country’s Organic Law.
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
commonplace. The Armenian Genocide is the second most-studied case of
genocide after the Holocaust. The Republic of Turkey, the successor
state of the Ottoman Empire, denies the word genocide is an accurate
description of the events. In recent years, it has faced repeated
calls to accept the events as genocide.
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.