Armenian PM: international recognition of Armenian Genocide not among foreign policy priorities

YEREVAN, March 13. /ARKA/. Armenia's official position is that international recognition of the Armenian Genocide is not among the priorities of foreign policy today, PM Nikol Pashinyan in an interview with Turkish media.   

He said: 'This is an official formulation, but in this context there are issues the clarification of which is very essential and important, and I mainly constantly talk about these issues in a working mode both in Armenia and abroad, in conversations with our compatriots, and I think this is a good opportunity to talk about it publicly. First of all, I must say that, because these discussions and speculations also take place in Armenia, and not only in Armenia, it is talked about denial, denying or forgetting the Medz Yeghern.

I want to be very clear that in Armenia and among Armenians, this is an indisputable truth. In other words, it is simply impossible to deny or disavow it in our reality, because it is an undeniable truth for all of us, but this is not what we are talking about. I want to tell you directly, if I am not mistaken, about a speech I gave recently during a meeting with Armenians in Munich, when I said the following: dear compatriots, when the parliament or government of a distant country makes a decision, we are very excited about that decision. This is the case in our reality and there is no secret in it, and even those very distant countries, when they make such decisions and when the excitement or joy from that decision fades, the next moment the following question arises: what does that decision give us in our relations with our immediate environment? When we have tensions in our immediate environment, to what extent do those tensions contribute to stability, peace, etc. in our country, in our region, and so on.'

Earlier, at a meeting with the Armenian community in Zurich, Pashinyan offered insight into “what happened during the Armenian Genocide, why it happened and how it was all subsequently perceived.”

This statement caused a wide public outcry, and accusations of denial of the 1915 Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.-0-