Abrahamyan: Armenian genocide fact recognition remains on agenda

YEREVAN, October 17. /ARKA/. The recent signing of the Armenian-Turkish protocols doesn’t remove the demand of Armenian genocide fact recognition from the agenda, Ara Abrahamyan, the president of the Union of Armenians of Russia, said at a press conference on Friday.

On Saturday, Armenian and Turkish foreign ministers – Edward Nalbandyan and Ahmad Davutoghlu – signed protocols on establishment and development of bilateral relations.

The signed protocols need to be ratified by Armenian and Turkish parliaments.

“The whole world is now speaking about Armenian-Turkish talks and the agreements. We shouldn’t miss such a chance of raising the issue of Armenian genocide again to make the world aware of the genocide and to say that this issue has not been removed from our agenda”

Armenian genocide was the first genocide committed in XX century. Turkey rejects the accusation of massacres and the killing of one and a half million Armenians during World War I.

The fact of the Armenian genocide is recognized by many countries, particularly by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, most of the U.S. states, as well as by the parliaments of Greece, Cyprus, Argentina, Belgium, Wales, National Council of Switzerland, Common House of Canada, the Seym of Poland and lower house of Italian parliament.

Abrahamyan thinks that it would be wrong to believe Turkey fully, since Ankara has not taken any step so far to win Armenia’s confidence.

He said that this neighbor keeps Armenia blocked and misses no chance to oppose Armenia.

“But all of us have realized the necessity of a dialogue for opening the boarder. The border opening is a good sign. It is also good that the Genocide will be discussed in Turkey, where even this term was banned.”

There are no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey and the state border has been closed since 1993 on Ankara’s initiative.-0--