Protest Against the 100 Years of Silence of Germany (Special Reportage from Berlin)

• 04.19.2015, 20:43
•  Europe,  Diaspora

On April 18, the demonstrators gathered in front of the Embassy of Turkey in Berlin were demanding to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Then the demonstrators walked to the residence of German’s Chancellor Angela Merkel to give her the special message-letter, "Armedia" IAA journalist reports from Berlin.

It is already three years such demonstrations are being organized in Berlin and is called "Protest for the sake of memory policy." "This year we are protesting against the 100 years of silence of Germany and the denial of Turkey," – the organizer of the demonstration, the head of the NGO "Working group recognition against Genocide and for international understanding", Tessa Hofmann said in a talk with "Armedia" IAA.

The participants of the demonstration were not only the representatives of the Armenian community, but also Germans, representatives of Italian, Kurdish and Turkish national minorities.

"So long as the Armenian Genocide is not recognized, the Turkish society will remain ill," –  a representative of the Turkish society Nyat Kentel said. According to him the growing international pressure should make Turkey at last recognize the Armenian Genocide. He mentioned that 10-20% of the Turkish community in Berlin is ready to recognize the Genocide, while the rest not so much. At the same time, the majority of the Turkish community avoids answering this question.

"The biggest question is that our authorities refuse to call it Genocide, but name it displacement or massacre. However, this is not a legal definition and does not correspond to international conventions, as well as to those what happened during the World War I," – Kentel said.

"This year the Armenians participating in the demonstration are more. It is very important for us to stand in front of the Turkish Embassy in Berlin and then walk to the residence of Chancellor on the eve of April 24 to show that we have not forgotten and we demand," – participant of the demonstration, a lecturer in Free University Jirayr Kocharyan said.

On April 24 in the German Bundestag a discussion will be held on the Armenian Genocide and the German society waits whether in the adopted resolution the word Genocide will be used. According to Tessa Hofmann the representatives of the Government have taken out the word Genocide from one of the resolutions, which is an anti-constitutional step, as the Government intervenes into the activities of legislative body. "Now there seems to be a growing number of dissidents, who oppose such interventions. However, we cannot yet say that their number is enough to change the situation," – Hofmann said.

According to him the results of the resolution to be adopted by Bundestag will depend on the speech of the President a day before the discussions and how the letter will utter the word Genocide.

 On April 23, the President of Germany will participate in the liturgy in Berlin Cathedral dedicated to the memory of the victims of Genocide and will deliver a speech. The Armenian community is not hopeful that the word Genocide will be uttered, but they hope that this will happen quite soon.

"Germany will not utter the word Genocide, as it has been Turkey’s ally for centuries," – a Berlin resident Karine Dilbaryan thinks. According to her people should demand from Germany to psychologically help the Turks to overcome their psychological obstacles and recognize the Genocide.

The other representative of the Armenian Community Jirayr Kocharyan thinks that it is not important whether the Parliament will use the word Genocide or not, it is much more important that this topic is being discussed among the German society, politicians and diplomats.