ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COMPULSORY SUBJECT IN GERMAN SCHOOLS
By A. Hovsepian, Germany

AZG Armenian Daily
09/05/2007

We demand all the Federative Lands to include the Armenian Genocide,
perpetrated by Ottoman Turkey during the First World War, as a
compulsory subject in the school education programs, says the April
24 address of Markus Merkel, vice-spokesman for foreign policy of
the German Social Democratic Party’s parliamentary faction.

"Idea" news agency reports that an evangelist priest, former Foreign
Minister of the German Democratic Republic (DDR) Markus Merkel reminds
in his address that the Detutsch Reich was the ally of the Ottoman
Empire through the World War I, and therefore Germany’s recognition
of the Genocide very important.

It will considerably contribute the process of recognition of the
Armenian Genocide worldwide. The German Parliament, the Bundestag,
condemned the Armenian Genocide already in 2005, phrasing it as
"deportation and massacres ("Massaker" in German) in 1915".

In his message Merkel also emphasizes the construction of J. Lepsius’
house in Potsdam, "which is dedicated to refill the spaces of
forgetfulness and improve the relations between the Armenian, German
and Turkish peoples". He says he is very disappointed that some are
advocating reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey, in the meanwhile
falsifying the history and strengthening the positions of the policy of
denial of the Genocide. Merkel adds that the scandalous murder of Hrant
Dink revealed that certain powers in Turkey still impede the process
of its integration with Europe and hamper establishment of democracy.

Inclusion of the topic of the Armenian Genocide in the education
programs of German schools was also mentioned in Matthias Meisner’s
article, published in "Der Tagesspiegel" on April 25. The article
says that the German-Armenian Company has submitted a correspondent
petition to Chancellor Angela Merkel.