ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IS DISCUSSED IN THE MIDDLE EAST
PanARMENIAN.Net
04.09.2009 01:50 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A conference to discuss what is termed the Armenian
Genocide will be the first gathering of its kind in the Middle East
to bring together Armenian, Turkish and Kurdish views, The National
reports.
Participants at the two-day event in Beirut will discuss how the
international community and international law should recognise the
First World War events.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in protest against
Armenia’s support for the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh,
previously controlled by Azerbaijan. But this week, Turkey said it
hoped to open the border by the end of the year, and the two countries
have given themselves six weeks to finalise accords over establishing
relations before presenting them to their respective parliaments.
The protocol to establish diplomatic ties does not detail how the
genocide accusations will be dealt with, although one suggestion from
the Turkish side has been that a historical commission is established
to look into the issue.
Issues being focused on at the academic conference, titled The Armenian
Genocide and International Law, include genocide denial in Turkey,
alleviating the consequences of genocide and how the massacres have
affected Kurdish-Armenian relations.
Another subject is the evolution of the Armenian genocide denial in
the Turkish press, which is likely to note that media in Turkey now
more readily use the term genocide than before.
Antranig Dakessian, a conference organiser and executive secretary
of the Haigazian Armenological Review, published by Beirut’s Armenian
university, Haigazian University, said the conference was not debating
whether the massacres were genocide. Instead, it will look at the
reasons behind what Mr Dakessian called "genocide denial".
Also, he said, the impunity of those responsible for the genocide
has encouraged other people to commit genocide.
"The Armenian genocide is an established reality," he said. "We have t
‘re trying to highlight how to deal with the consequences."
Another organiser, Vera Yacoubian, executive director of the Armenian
National Committee Middle East, and the great-granddaughter of
Armenians driven from former Western Armenia, said similar conferences
have been held before in Europe or the United States, but not in the
Middle East.
She said she believed some Turkish participants do not recognise the
killings as genocide, so the conference would see a variety of views
expressed. "They may say there were massacres," she said. "We have
people at the conference [who hold these views], but I’m not sure if
they will say these things at the conference. I hope they do."