ARMENIANS TO ESTABLISH ‘GENOCIDE’ MEMORIAL COMPLEX IN SEVRES
30 January 2013 /TODAY’S ZAMAN, Ä°STANBUL
An initiative of the Armenian diaspora in France plans to establish
an “Armenian genocide” memorial complex among the buildings of the
Mekhitarist Congregation’s Samuel-Murad School in the Sevres district
of Paris, known as the place where the Ottoman Empire signed a peace
treaty with the Allies in 1920 following the end of World War I.
The project is to be carried out by the Sevres 2015 Association in
Paris and will include a museum as well as a center for research
and lectures.
“The goal of our project is to institutionalize the Armenian presence
and experience in Sevres,” said Jirair Gergerian, the president of
the Sevres 2015 Association.
The project will begin with the establishment of an independent
foundation that will be provided with the congregation’s lands,
located in the Armenian-populated communities of Paris. The memorial
will open on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the so-called
‘Armenian genocide’ in 2015.
Armenians claim that the 1915 killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians
as the Ottoman Empire broke up was the 20th century’s first genocide,
and several European countries have recognized the massacres as such.
Switzerland has convicted people of racism for denying the genocide.
But Turkey asserts that there was no systematic campaign to
kill Armenians and that many Turks also died during the chaotic
disintegration of the empire. It also argues the death toll is
inflated.