Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian’s answer to the question of Radio Liberty.
“The Turkish Foreign Minister qualified the statements made by the French President on the Armenian Genocide as populism. What can you say about it?”.
“Turkey cannot not to realize that the process of recognition of the Armenian Genocide is irreversible. It is clear that a decade-long denialist policy has failed, but Turkey still sticks to its stereotypes.
Ankara does not hesitate to distort not only the historical facts but also the current realities, including the misrepresentation of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.
In an open letter addressed to the Turkish Prime Minister by the International Association of Genocide Scholars, it is noted that the Armenian Genocide is widely documented in thousands of official documents of the United States and other countries, including thousands of official documents of wartime Ottoman allies: Germany, Austria-Hungary, in the testimonies of witness diplomats, missionaries, and the genocide survivors, in numerous historical and legal studies, even in the archives of the Ottoman Military Tribunal.
It is worth mentioning that among many other countries, Germany and Austria have not only recognized the Armenian Genocide but also accepted their share of responsibility as Turkey’s allies at that time. The international community has repeatedly stressed that genocide denial creates fertile ground for the recurrence of crimes against humanity. Instead of calling the Armenian Genocide recognition “populist,” Ankara should abandon the dangerous populism of its denialist policy, to show courage to face its own past.
Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs