“Our average citizen does not even understand what this is about. Not to mention the other classes when they ask what we will gain when the US President recognizes the Armenian Genocide, or what being persistent in this issue will do for us. These questions have also been raised by state officials,” editor of the Azg weekly newspaper, Hakob Avetikyan, said during a press conference at the Tesaket press club.
Then, he added, “Some people are ignorant- I am referring to officials- and others have a condescending attitude towards everything that is national. Meanwhile, if we dive a little deeper, we see its advantages. Of course, this will also have its disadvantages, but the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, naturally. First of all, when the superpower of the world recognizes the Genocide, it means that other countries that have already recognized it since 1965- the first of which was Uruguay- will consider their act of recognition to be truly accomplished, just, and appropriate. And other countries will follow the United States.”
According to Hakob Avetikyan, Armenian Genocide recognition has the following advantages. “Various people among American-Armenians have tried to present and demand the property documents of their ancestors in Turkey over the years. The court refused to accept their cases because they said, ‘Why did you not defend your interests on the spot based on a document 100 or 50 years ago?’ This is a question from a foreigner’s point of view, especially on a legal level.
The following circumstance comes forth. If the United States recognizes the Armenian Genocide, the deportation of Armenians, and the misappropriation of their property, real estate, and movable property, no American court can reject it saying that we do not understand on what legal grounds, as US citizens, you demand something that your ancestors had 150 years ago and that was not pursued.”
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Hakob Avetikyan brought forth another example. “The Catholicos of Cilicia, Aram I, initiated the issue of the return of the Catholicosate of Sis a few years ago. According to the stages, he first sent it to the Turkish Constitutional Court where the appeal was rejected, and then the issue was frozen because it was necessary to appeal to international courts, the result of which would be doubtful: they either would reject it or it would be 50/50. Moreover, if you try something and the court rejects it, then you find yourself in a much worse situation. But if the United States recognizes the Armenian Genocide, the Antilas Catholicosate can raise the issue in American courts in the United States with its mediating representations.”
Gohar Hakobyan
