INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE ON TURKEY IN ISSUE TO ADMIT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
IS NOT ENOUGH, GERMAN SCIENTIST THINKS
YEREVAN, APRIL 20. ARMINFO. The international pressure on Turkey in
the issue to admit the Armenian Genocide is not strong enough. Tessa
Hoffman, Professor of Berlin’s Freie University told ARMINFO.
According to her, no state, who has perpetrated a genocide, does
not confess to the crime until the international community applies
compulsory measures against it. Germany suffered just such a pressing,
when it admitted the Holocaust. Speaking of the draft resolution
on Armenian Genocide, which was recently discussed in Bundestag,
the scientist mentioned that the initiators of the draft resolution
do not aim to condemn Turkey. According to them, they use terms,
by which German diplomats – witnesses of the events of those times,
describes the Armenian Genocide. “But I’m not sure of the correctness
of selection of words, as German ambassadors and advisors used very
clear language, despite the fact that those times the term “genocide”
was not in use. They used the words and , whereas the draft resolution
speaks of and. The international community mist use exact language for
right qualification of the events. There is a big difference between
the words and. But it was genocide, and the German government is
informed of it rather well, and today the legislators are not in
debt to the Armenian diaspora, Turkish diaspora living in Germany,
as well as to Turkey”, the scientist mentioned.
According to Hoffman, it is not quite right to call on Turkey to
revise the facts of own historiography and try to make it to criticize
its past, avoiding clear definition of events. Germany and Turkey
had specially close allies relations during the World War I. In its
turn, Germany directly benefitted by the Armenian Genocide, using the
Armenian human potential as slave power for unskilled labour. “Armenian
people, including the children, bore the cargos of damaged railway
lines, which linked the main towns with the front during the war,
fulfilling the function of railway cars”, Hoffman stressed.
The scientist mentioned that the adoption of the draft resolution
does not mean yet Germany’s recognizing the Armenian Genocide. She
reminded that the initiative will be considered by the parliamentary
commission for foreign affairs, then will again be put on the agenda
of the sittings of the parliament and a final decision will be made
regarding that before the summer holiday.