The Dashnaktsutyun Was the Force That Helped the Young Turks Come to Power, Says Aleksanyan

Prioritization means the following: when you go to a meeting with a representative of some foreign country, the first thing you talk about is your priority, that is, you go and say: recognize the genocide. This was stated today, April 22, by MP Vahagn Aleksanyan of the ruling Civil Contract party during a conversation with reporters in the National Assembly, referencing Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan's announcement that the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide is not among Armenia's priorities.

“Now, for example, when we go to a meeting with France, our priority is what kind of weapons will you sell us, dear French colleagues. Then, when we go to a meeting with India, we say: what kind of weapons will you sell us, dear Indian colleagues,” he assured.

He stated that the authorities of the Republic of Armenia believe that the genocide should be internationally recognized. “Neither Serge Sargsyan nor Robert Kocharyan has ever insisted that Turkey must recognize the genocide before normalizing relations. They have insisted that there should be normalization of relations without preconditions,” he said.

In response to the comment that Nikol Pashinyan had stated in the diaspora that we still need to see how the genocide took place and was speaking about the counting of victims, Vahagn Aleksanyan noted: “For example, do you not want us to understand how the genocide took place? For instance, it is necessary to understand how the Young Turks came to power, how the Dashnaktsutyun helped the Young Turks come to power just before the genocide was committed. Yes, the Dashnaktsutyun was a coalition partner of the Young Turks. The Dashnaktsutyun was the force within the Armenians that helped and supported the Young Turks to come to power.”