“Genocide issue is in legal field”
Turkologist Ruben Melkonyan says there have been certain changes in the process of Armenian Genocide recognition over the past year as the issue is moving from the stage of recognition to the legal stage.
"Despite the failure, the process that took place in France, as well as the law criminalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide in Switzerland and the process in Slovakia go to show that Armenia has reached a certain level in terms of recognition and must now place more emphasis on legal issues, including compensation, denial and criminalization," Ruben Melkonyan told "A1+".
According to him, the Armenian people shouldn't be too excited during any discussion on the Armenian Genocide issue. "We were very excited when France was discussing the bill criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial, but then the Constitutional Court led that bill to failure and we were deeply disappointed," says the turkologist.
Ruben Melkonyan says only after 97 years have Armenians realized that the issue has to be moved to the legal field, but has trouble predicting final recognition.
"I think we have to combine all of our efforts, set aside some goals and work toward the accomplishment of those goals so that it doesn't take us another 97 years to achieve the final victory, that is, recognition and compensation," said the turkologist.
