Ensuring recognition of the Armenian Genocide will be a must if Raffi
Hovhannisyan is elected

16:01 19.01.2013

Armenian presidential candidate Raffi Hovhannisian has revealed that
he is the descendant of Armenians who escaped the Genocide of 1915.

`My mother’s family comes from Garin, and my father’s family is from
Harput,’ Hovhannisian recently told the Hürriyet Daily News.

`My grandmother Khengeni was saved from the genocide by a Turkish
family in Erzurum. My grandfather Kaspar was saved by a Kurdish family
in Harput,’ he said.

Speaking about relations with Turkey, Hovhannisian said ensuring that
the 1915 mass killings of Armenians are recognized as `genocide’ would
be a must if he is elected.

`Turkey, based on its own needs and interests, should recognize the
great genocide and national dispossession of the Armenian people, seek
full redemption and effect restitution, restore Armenian cultural
heritage, ensure a secure right of return,’ he said.

Hovhannisian, meanwhile, said Turks who saved Armenians during the
mass killings would be commemorated in Yerevan on the centenary of the
event in 2015.