On April 24, the European anti-racist organization EGAM attended the event in Istanbul commemorating the Armenian Genocide. The Company President Benjamin Abtan, in the conversation with Aravot.am, told that he thinks that fighting against racism means fighting against the genocide. “The Armenian Genocide issue is a special one. A powerful country like Turkey denies it for already a century and has placed the denial of the Armenian Genocide at the heart of its education and diplomacy. This means that the state is not so much democratic. A pressure is exerted on the freedom of the expression, journalists appear in jails, there is no equality between individuals, there is pressure on minorities, nationalism is expressed very strongly.
Thus, if you are fighting for equality and human rights, naturally, you should also fight against this phenomenon,” he said. Benjamin Abtan noted that more people than expected went to Istanbul this year on April 24 to attend the commemoration ceremonies. “Approximately 15-20 people attended the commemoration ceremony in 2011, but this year, the number of people reached thousands, there were many women and young people, many of them were Armenians living in Turkey. The atmosphere has been changed too. The government has realized that it cannot interfere with our protest and saying the truth. Therefore, they elaborated a different strategy and marked the Gallipoli on the same day, which is very ridiculous.” He added that in 2016 their organization will attach a great importance to the Armenian genocide. “This year was historic, but we have to think about what will happen in a day or a year after. We’ll be there again. If you are struggling against the genocide, you should be more aware of. We need to constantly fight, maybe for decades, maybe a century, but we are ready to fight. I know that in the end the truth will be revealed and everyone will recognize it.”
Ami CHICHAKYAN
