“In the worst reality, I never could have imagined that Armenian society can discuss what Armenian Genocide recognition will do for us. But, unfortunately, that nightmare has become a reality,” Armen Marukyan, historian and head of the Department of Armenian Issues and the History of the Armenian Genocide at the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences, said today during a discussion on “Armenian Genocide: Turkey’s Responsibility Yesterday and Today” organized by the National Academy of Sciences.
“Some people have the opinion that the issue of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide is being manipulated by the superpowers, and we are becoming victims of manipulation. These opinions should be given a simple answer: what did you want? Of course, it must be manipulated. It has been exploited since the Berlin Congress. In other words, the problem has always been manipulated and it continues to be manipulated. We must realize that,” he said.
In Armen Marukyan’s opinion, international recognition of the Armenian Genocide increases pressure against the criminal state. “No matter how much Erdogan and Cavusoglu claim that it does not bother them, they are lying; it affects them very much. If it didn’t, they would not have organized a conference. If it didn’t bother them, Erdogan’s advisor would not have held a meeting with Joe Biden’s security advisor to present Turkish allegations so that Joe Biden doesn’t use the word ‘genocide’ on April 24th. I must remind my Turkish colleagues that the Turkish state officially recognized the Armenian Genocide in November of 1918 when important decisions were accepted in the Ottoman parliament. The law on deportation was removed, which was what made genocidal policies legal. Then, the new Turkish government did not receive the vote of trust from parliament because it did not provide a clear decision on the large-scale massacres against the Armenians. All of those documents were then transferred to the Turkish military tribunal.”
Then, Armen Marukyan called upon the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that instead of making a statement on how “genocide recognition is on our foreign policy agenda,” we should also make the following important innovation in the field of propaganda and the information war: “We are not fighting for Turkish recognition of the Armenian Genocide, but for Turkey to reconfirm decisions made in the past. “When we make such an emphasis, we force Erdogan to go back to the days of Ottoman Turkey and give explanations to the decisions of the Ottoman Turkish government.”
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Luiza Sukiasyan
