TURKEY HAS TO PASS FROM POLICY OF GENOCIDE DENIAL TO THAT OF REPENTANCE

PanARMENIAN.Net
05.03.2010 17:11 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ We must congratulate US on House Committee Foreign
Affairs passage of Armenian Genocide resolution. US did not act
based on its own political interests but rather took a decision
characterizing it as a civilized state, sociologist Lyudmila
Harutyunyan stated.

As she stated at joint news conference with historian Samvel
Karapetyan, Turkey has to pass from a policy of Genocide denial to
that of repentance.

According to the sociologist, resolution passage won’t lead to any
changes in Turkey-US relations, as the issue of Genocide recognition
is in intermediary position, and could as well be excluded from
Congress agenda.

As Harutyunyan noted, to truly normalize bilateral relations, both
people’s collective memories should be changed; Armenia has to be
ready to accept Turkey’s apologies, should Turkey acknowledge Genocide
and apologize.

Samvel Karapetyan, in turn, noted that we are the ones to determine
what benefits the passage of resolution could bring. "It’s crucial
to me that present generation should know its history, so that even
in 10 years people would be ready to claim their rights for the lost
motherland," he emphasized.

The historian disagreed with Haturyunyan’s statement on Turkey’s
apologies being enough for reconciliation. "Modern Turkey’s territory
was formed after the Genocide; a possible passage of H. Res. 252 in
US Congress can cause upheavals in Turkey, striking at the very roots
of the Turkish state," Karapetyan emphasized.

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 majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the
Genocide survivors.

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.