Turkey continues to stubbornly refuse to acknowledge its blood-stained past and perpetrating the Armenian Genocide, Armenian representative at the Cyprus parliament Vartkes Mahdessian said addressing the House plenary.

Mahdessian thanked Cyprus which was the first European country to pass a parliamentary resolution recognizing the genocide in 1975, Cyprus Mail reported.

“It is truly unthinkable that civilized states, who appear to be protectors of human rights and democracy, continue to yield to the pressure exerted by Turkey, taking advantage of its geostrategic position and purchasing power, which stops them from recognizing the Armenian Genocide,” said Mahdessian.

He said the genocide was a tragedy that shocked the then civilized world and which created deep wounds like no other event in the long course of the Armenian nation.

As to why Turkey has so stubbornly refused to recognize the Armenian Genocide, while Germany has recognized the Holocaust of the Jews, Mahdessian said that the main reasons were the legal consequences of such a move and its impact on Turkish society.

“Turkey is not willing to pay even one cent to the survivors of the Genocide and their offspring, since it would not be only for the Armenians, but also the Greeks, the Assyrians, and perhaps the Kurds, and the Cypriots,” he concluded.