ARF Youth Delegates Discuss Genocide at IUSY Conference in Turkey

YEREVAN (Yerkir)–Armenian youth who recently attended a youth conference in Turkey–told a news conference in Yerevan on Thursday that they spoke openly about the Armenian genocide and even distributed booklets to participants.

The two Armenian Youth Federation of Armenia participants–Zinavor Meghrian and Karen Mnatsakanian–along with AYF delegates Talline Tachdjian (France)–and Khatchik Mouradian (Lebanon) attended the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) meeting June 16-19–and were interviewed by the Turkish newspaper–Milliyet. "We discussed the Armenian genocide from different angles during the interview," Meghrian told the news conference. "We also spoke of the closed borders and formation of a group of [Turkish] historians–to review Genocide "allegations;" we told the paper we reject this idea–since we have no doubt about facts concerning the Genocide."

Mnatsakanian revealed that Turkish youth wrongly assumed that the Armenian government is not concerned about the Genocide issue–but that only diaspora Armenia’s pursue it. "It is because some young Armenian politicians make such statemen’s," he said. Asked to name those politicians–Mnatsakanian said he was referring to Sargis Asatrian–the chairman of the Armenian Youth Party.

Participants of the IUSY conference–"We all are Minorities," included delegations from Georgia–Russia–Ukraine–Azerbaijan–Turkey–Bulgaria–Moldova–Serbia–Sweden–and other countries.