After a long interval the 1915 killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians would be again taught in history classes in German schools, Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Matthias Platzeck said on Tuesday. He admitted it had been a mistake to remove all mention of the genocide from school curriculum. The Armenian genocide – which had been used as the only example in history classes other than the Holocaust – will now be returned to high schools along with other cases of 20th century genocide, he said. Platzeck made his announcement after a meeting with Armenia’s ambassador to Germany, Karine Kazinian, who had expressed deep anger over the removal of the Armenian Genocide from the curriculum. Platzeck denied media reports that he ordered removal of the Armenian genocide from his schools after strong pressure from a Turkish diplomat. To note, the row began last month after Turkey’s Consul in Berlin, Aydin Durusay, raised the issue of Armenian massacres with regard to Brandenburg which is so far the only one of Germany’s 16 federal states, which described the killings as “genocide” in its official public school curriculum.
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