April 13, 2013 | 11:03
YEREVAN.- The approaching anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire raises questions not only about what titanic efforts have been taken by the Armenian Diaspora to convey information about this tragedy.
For many years the Turkish government has not found courage to recognize the fact of mass extermination of an entire nation, Ukrainian expert, coordinator of international projects at “Politics” analytical center, Oleg Smirnov told Analitika.at.ua.
“It is noteworthy that every year the number of countries, states, regions and cities recognizing and condemning the 1915 criminal acts of the Young Turks is growing,” he said.
The current Turkish leaders are painfully responding to criticism from the international community and trying to actively oppose the recognition process with the use of political and economic leverage.
“In particular, on April 6 during a meeting with the leadership of Crimea, the Speaker of the Turkish Parliament Cemil Cicek, in fact linked the prospects for increasing trade turnover between Ukraine and Turkey with the issue of restoring the rights of Crimean Tatars and the cancellation of the 2005 decision of the Crimean parliament recognizing the 1915 genocide of Armenians the Ottoman Empire,” the expert added.