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Assembly Country Director Armina Darbinyan (at podium), Board Member of support program for young scientists Gevorg Vardanyan (seated left), and head of School for Young Leaders Dr. Artak Shakaryan (seated right).
May 1, 2014
The Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly), in cooperation with the School for Young Leaders and the Scientific Analytic Center for Regional Affairs, organized a conference entitled “Genocide of Armenians: Learning from the Past, Leaning to the Future” in Yerevan, Armenia on March 21-22 to discuss various aspects of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Turkish Empire.
Assembly Country Director Armina Darbinyan welcomed the standing-room-only crowd and discussed the Assembly’s work on the recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide in the United States. “This issue is especially important to address today when dangerous developments are occurring across the globe,” stated Armina Darbinyan. “The recognition of the Armenian Genocide is an issue of time; recognition of the Armenian Genocide cannot be traded for improvement of the relations with Turkey for economic interest. We cannot make a choice between interest and morality,” she added.
Head of School for Young Leaders Dr. Artak Shakaryan addresses the audience.
Dr. Artak Shakaryan, a specialist in Turkish studies and Director of the School for Young Leaders, emphasized that a new approach is needed in the recognition process of the Armenian Genocide. “Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs should try to tap into the rich human resources of Armenians abroad, for example, by reaching out to Armenian students at top universities in the U.S. who can invest individual efforts in working for the recognition of Armenian genocide. These young descendants of genocide victims connect the issue with the present and, most importantly, they are future leaders,” stated Dr. Shakaryan. “Turkey and Azerbaijan have a coordinated method of promoting genocide denial for many years. Special instructions have been developed, and vast resources are pouring into anti-Armenian advocacy campaigns in universities and the general American public,” Shakaryan added.
Assembly Country Director Armina Darbinyan addresses the audience.
Conference participants and their topics of discussion included: Anahit Khosroyeva (University of Chicago, USA), “Comparing the Genocide of Armenians and Assyrians;” Sofya Manukyan (Essex University, UK), “Ethnicity, Ideology and Genocide: Interconnection of these Concepts and their Reflection in the Case of the Armenian Genocide;” Meline Anumyan (Western Armenian’s Affairs Research Centre Research Foundation, Armenia), “Irrefutable Testimonies of the Armenian Genocide during Trials of the Deportations and Massacres of the Armenians in Yozghat and Trabzon.”