AzerNews Weekly, Azerbaijan
May 5 2010

Geneva opens bids for `genocide’ monument project: report

08-05-2010 05:43:41

The authorities of Geneva have announced a tender for the
construction of a monument to the victims of the alleged World War
I-era genocide of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey. Along with ethnic
Armenians living in Switzerland, six sculptors will be involved in the
tender, in which 100,000 francs (about $90,000) will be awarded,
Turkey’s Dogan news agency reported.

The proposed landmark locations for the planned monument are
Chantepoulet square, Le Pradier square and `L’esplanade
Theodore-de-Bizet.

Switzerland’s Armenian community has pledged to provide about $360,000
for the project.

The Geneva administration recognized the alleged genocide in June 1998
but did not announce its decision owing to the efforts of Turkey and
the Turkish diaspora. Further, in 2001, the city’s new authorities
both endorsed the decision and made it public.
According to historians, from 1915 to 1923, Armenians had begun an
uprising. They had taken up arms against Turkey and assisted Russia,
one of Turkey’s enemies in WWI. To counter these actions, the Ottoman
Empire decided to resettle the Armenians. However, the latter claim
that their predecessors were subjected to genocide in the process,
while Ankara rejects the allegations and has offered to research the
events through a joint commission of historians.*