The Problem of Genocide has a serious and devastating effects in terms of national and state identity of Turkey, Hayk Demoyan, director of the Institute of Armenian Genocide, historian told a press conference in Yerevan.
According to him, in recent years the problem of identity deepened in Turkey, promoting more intensive discussion of the Armenian Genocide within the country. "Turkey started to review the provisions of Kemalism, which means to weaken the axis the entire state myth of Turkey was built. Therefore, to prevent the recognition of the Armenian Genocide is an urgent issue for Ankara. The question of Genocide is not only an external challenge, but also a problem that leads to a revision of the Turkish identity, he said.
"It is clear that the Armenian side can only discuss elimination of the consequences of the Armenian Genocide: restoration of the Armenian cultural heritage, etc. In addition, we have every right to raise issues of compensation. Genocide is a crime against humanity that is punished, and the Turkish side should bear in mind that we can raise that question, " the historian said, adding that the discussion of historical issues can be dangerous for Turkey.
The Protocols aimed at normalization of bilateral ties and opening of the border between Armenia and Turkey were signed in Zurich by Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu on October 10, 2009, after a series of diplomatic talks held through Swiss mediation. On January 12, 2010, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia found the protocols conformable to the country’s Organic Law.
The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.
The date of the onset of the genocide is conventionally held to be April 24, 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities arrested some 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople. Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria. Massacres were indiscriminate of age or gender, with rape and other sexual abuse commonplace. The Armenian Genocide is the second most-studied case of genocide after the Holocaust. The Republic of Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, denies the word genocide is an accurate description of the events. In recent years, it has faced repeated calls to accept the events as genocide.
To date, twenty countries and 44 U.S. states have officially recognized the events of the period as genocide, and most genocide scholars and historians accept this view. The Armenian Genocide has been also recognized by influential media including The New York Times, BBC, The Washington Post and The Associated Press.
The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.
