Armenia should use every resource in seeking recognition of Armenian Genocide fact

YEREVAN, April 24. /ARKA/. Armenia should use every resource, including political and legal arguments and propaganda, in seeking the recognition of the fact of Armenian genocide, Raffi Hovannisian, the opposition Heritage party leader, said today in an interview with ARKA News Agency.  

“We should concentrate the entire capacity of Armenia and Armenian communities worldwide to go out of the frames of tacky toasts and rhetoric and to do everything to establish diplomatic ties [with Turkey] without any precondition or put own demands to Turkey,” he said in an interview with Novosti-Armenia News Agency.   

There are no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey. The border between the two countries was closed in 1993 at Ankara’s initiative. 

Relations between Armenia and Turkey remain tense because of Ankara’s biased stance on Karabakh problem and its painful reaction to Armenia’s efforts to obtain worldwide recognition of the fact of Armenian Genocide.

Thaw in Armenian-Turkish relations began in 2008 on Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s initiative.  

On October 10, Armenian and Turkish foreign ministers signed the protocols on establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries and development of bilateral relations. The protocols had to be ratified by the two countries’ parliaments, but on April 22, 2010, the Armenian president, seeing that Turkey was dragging its feet, signed a decree ceasing the process of ratification. He said Turkey was not ready to continue the process.  

Hovannisian said if Turkey doesn’t stop denying the fact of the genocide, doesn’t open its border with Armenia and doesn’t establish diplomatic relations within two years, Armenia will start legal procedure to force Turkey and the international community to recognize the fact of the Armenian genocide. 

He also added that something should change inside Armenia – it should become a genuine democratic country.  

“If so, Armenia’s demands will be deeper and will produce more results,” he said. 

Every year on April 24 Armenians all over the world commemorate those killed by Ottomans in 1915.  

The Armenian Genocide was the first genocide of the twentieth century. 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. The Armenian Genocide was recognized by the Vatican, the European Parliament, the World Council of Churches and other international organizations. -0-