KHACHATUR ABOVYAN ARMENIAN STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY

“Modern Turkey is built on the bones of our ancestors. Take away the territory of Western Armenia from Turkey and you will have ‘no country’ there. Considering this very fact, Turkey does not want to recognize the crime it committed and strives to keep its territory at all costs,” Professor Levon Shirinyan, PhD in Political Science, Head of the Department of Political Science and History of Law, Faculty of History and Law, said on April 22 during the political debates held at the ASPU. 

On the threshold of the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, the political analyst presented a report entitled “Armenocide: Results and Prospects (Strategic Issues)”. 

In the report, the professor referred to the use of the term “Armenocide” by Lebanese historian Moussa Prince who characterized it as “the most genocidal genocide.” Mr Shirinyan said the ‘term fully and correctly reflects the Armenian Genocide, its nature and characteristics.’ “The Arab historian compares “Armenocide” with the genocide of different peoples that occurred in the history of mankind and comes to the conclusion that it is the most violent and heinous genocide in the 20th century and we, Armenians, have not received anything during the 100 years of struggle,” Mr Shirinyan stressed in his speech.

He says although there has been some success in historiography in view of the Armenian Genocide but there has been little success in its universal recognition. Besides, Turkey has not offered any compensation to Armenia, nor has it given security guarantees that will ensure the necessary development prospects for Armenian people. 

Mr Shirinyan viewed the recognition of the first genocide of the 20th century by the West in the context of providing security guarantees for Nagorno Karabakh and assisting its establishment. 

Speaking on the geopolitical and strategic position of Turkey, Levon Shirinyan stressed that the country is based on the equilibrium of forces: it is strong as long as the equilibrium is maintained, but once the equilibrium is upset, it weakens and collapses.  

He described Turkey as ‘a culturally genocidal state and nation’ that came and settled in the land of the Greeks and Armenians, developed and prospered by forcefully ‘turkifying’ Armenian women and orphans. This ‘culture’ is unique in the history and is only typical of Turkey. “Turks continues to behave like ‘Grey Wolves’ and as long as the super powers have not forced Turkey to acknowledge the historical reality and recognize the Armenian Genocide we should draft and outline our agenda [with its long-range strategic issues] after April 24.”

Given the geopolitical developments we need to focus on the issues that we can solve ourselves. Those include provision of civil rights and security guarantees to Armenian descendants in the Ottoman Empire, restoration of their citizenship and property, as well as place names in Western Armenia. We should also force Turkey to abandon pseudoscientific concepts and develop an agenda with similar issues. 

Speaking about the position of the United States, the Professor said, through the Armenian lobby in the United States, Turkey should be forced to give security guarantees to Armenia and Artsakh and support them economically and with new technologies.