ARF youth organization demands that Germany call on Turkey to recognize Armenian genocide

YEREVAN, April 9. / ARKA /. A youth organization affiliated with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation/Dashnaktsutyun (ARF) party protested today outside the German embassy in Yerevan demanding that the German government call on Turkey to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

"We demand that the German government urge Turkey to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Germany’s opinion is important to us since it is the country that has confronted with a dark page in its history and is still paying its price,’ a member of the organization Ani Khachatryan said.

The protesters also called on Germany to express more clearly its position on the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire by adopting a law criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide.

The protesters wanted to hand a letter with their demands to ambassador Rainer Morel, but he did not come out of the embassy. Similar protests are being held in 17 countries around the world. I

In June, 2005 the German Bundestag passed a resolution that "honors and commemorates the victims of violence, murder and expulsion among the Armenian people before and during the First World War". 

The resolution  also states that ‘the German parliament deplores the acts of the Government of the Ottoman Empire regarding the almost complete destruction of Armenians in Anatolia and also the inglorious role of the German Reich in the face of the organized expulsion and extermination of Armenians which it did not try to stop.’

The Armenian Genocide was the first genocide of the twentieth century.  According to Armenian and many other historians, up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed starting in 1915 in a systematic campaign by the government of Turkey. Turkey has been denying it for decades. 

The Armenian genocide was recognized by tens of countries. The first was Uruguay that did so in 1965. Other nations are Russia, France, Italy, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Canada, Venezuela, Argentina, 42 U.S. states. 

It was recognized also by the Vatican, the European Parliament, the World Council of Churches and other international organizations. -0-