By Asbarez | Sunday, 11 January 2015
Artak Shakaryan
Shakaryan says students who travel abroad are ill prepared to explain the history of the Armenian Genocide to people who are willing to learn. “It is important that higher schools give deeper knowledge of the period, especially to students who intend to continue their education abroad,” Shakaryan said.
“Turkey has been implementing its denial policy since the 1970s. Their only task is to educate generations so that they believe that their forefathers did not commit genocide against Armenians. Rather, ‘it was Armenians that committed genocide against Turks.’ But we have no such agenda. Our children know the truth at school.”
Asked whether Turkey’s denial policy is as successful now as it was in the 1970s, Shakaryan said, “Globalization and the Internet help young people know about alternative opinions. But an alternative opinion is difficult to disseminate among a 70-million-strong population, especially if people grow up amid this denial policy.
“A change has taken place in society as compared with the past. Evidence thereof is frequent use of the term ‘genocide,’ especially by the press. But it would be wrong to say that the people are resisting the policy of denial because, when Turks admitting the Armenian Genocide are mentioned, they are 2 to 3 percent of the population.”
comments
Aliyev Again Refers to Most of Armenia as Western Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan Blocks Humanitarian Transport To and From Lachin Corridor
#TogetherForSyria Telethon Raises over $110,000 for Armenians In Syria
After Lachin Corridor Blockade, Putin Speaks to Pashinyan and Aliyev
Aliyev Signs Order Declaring Shushi Cultural Capital of Turkic World
Lemkin Institute Voices Support For Artsakh Rights to Self-Determination to Avoid Genocide
Tensions Escalate Between Iran and Azerbaijan
Moscow is Closely Coordinating Peace Treaty with Yerevan and Baku
Aliyev Criticism of Russian Peacekeepers and Iran Elicits Strong Reactions