SEMINAR “ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS: SITUATION TODAY AND PROSPECTS”
HELD IN YEREVAN

YEREVAN, AUGUST 11. ARMINFO. “For official Ankara to admit Armenian
Genocide in Ottoman Turkey means to agree with the image of
Turk-barbarian”, Advisor of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia
Arsen Avakian stated during the seminar “Armenian-Turkish relations:
situation today and prospects”. To note, Arsen Avakian has been
working in Turkey for several years in the Organization of the Black
Sea Economic Cooperation.

At the same time the reporter mentioned certain progress in
the behavior of official Ankara. So, the continuous denial of the
Armenian Genocide was transformed into attempts to present the events
at the beginning of last century as “mutual problem”, and bilateral
negotiations are necessary for their settlement. Avakian stressed that
the denial of the Genocide is the position of the Turkish government,
which is shared by the most part of the society. The second group
(smaller group) of the Turkish public admits the fact of massacres,
but avoids to define them as a genocide. The third group is ready to
admit the fact of the Armenian Genocide and necessity of reparations,
but they are only a few dozens. European countries’ recognizing the
Armenian Genocide creates necessary atmosphere for bilateral discussion
of this problem, Arsen Avakian thinks.