Today, the depopulation of Artsakh is given different assessments, from ethnic cleansing to genocide. In response to the question of whether what happened can be described as genocide, the guest of the “Aravot” program “Confrontation” (“Areresum”), Genocide expert and Ph.D. in historical sciences Suren Manukyan said: “Here we should not talk about that term as rhetoric, and we did not give that assessment.
That is not an assessment given by Armenians. We have many reputable international experts who have spoken about it. We have the resolutions and decisions of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, a structure consisting of 700 specialists that is, people who have devoted their whole lives to studying this crime. In the last two years, we have had two statements signed by the members and two statements signed by the board. I don’t have any such precedent in the case of the Rohingya or the Yezidi genocide.
In other words, the specialists prove that everything happening before our eyes is a genocide carried out online. And let me add that our society has the wrong idea that genocide is simply the killing of people. That is not the case in this period. It is one of the 5 acts in the Genocide Convention. Of course, the first one is the most terrible and visible, but there is the second one, which says creating living conditions that can lead to the physical destruction of that group, which we have seen for nine months, and the latest actions just accelerated it.”
During the conversation, in the context of the search for the culprits of what happened, reference was made to the statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry, in which it is claimed that the Armenian authorities have been preparing for a long time to change the foreign policy course, turning from Russia to the West. As a result of the inconsistent position of the Armenian leadership, “instead of rhythmic work with Russia and Azerbaijan, it preferred the escape and the run to the west.’
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Suren Manukyan first noticed that in many cases, we see attempts to “save face.” “Russia is weak today; it cannot direct its resources to other fronts because it is stuck in Ukraine. Naturally, perhaps Russia’s only desire is to leave it alone in other regions and not get involved in new problems. And in that sense, naturally, they can say what they want.
But I somehow don’t remember that, for example, Russia made such statements to Armenia a year ago. They always said that Armenia is constructive; immediately after the war (the President of the Russian Federation) said that Pashinyan is not a traitor; he is a patriotic person, and we are in close contact with him. In other words, if it was planned long ago, at least we have not heard any such message from Russia; it is a new talk of the last half year.”
The entire conversation is in the video
Anna ISRAYELYAN
