SENTENCE ABOUT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE EXCLUDED FROM BOOKS ON HISTORY IN GERMANY

Azg/arm
28 Jan 05

Armenialiberty website informed that under Turkey’s pressure the
statement on the Armenian Genocide was excluded from the school
manuals on history in Germany. Die Welt magazine informed that a
Turkish diplomat sent a letter of protest to Matthias Plazek, head of
Brandenburg region. As a result, the sentence “for example, the
genocide of the Armenian population of Anatolia” was excluded from the
book on history for 9-10 grades. Plazek explained this by the
following excuse: “The genocide is an extremely important issue to be
touched upon in half a sentence.”

The newspaper stated that in Germany the massacre of the Armenians is
mentioned in the books only in the region of Brandenburg. Shavarsh
Hovsepian, chairman of the Central Committee of the Armenian
Organization, told the newspaper that that was a scandal. “it is a
pity that they decide what kind of text-books to have in Brandenburg
under the dictate of Ankara,” he said. The head of this region is a
member of the Social-Democratic Party that is for Turkeyâ=80=99s
membership to EU. At present, almost 2 million Turks are dwelling in
Germany, the Turkish community is the biggest in this country.

By Ruzan Poghosian