In a statement that has sparked controversy, close allies of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan have suggested “verifying” the number of victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey, which is recorded at 1.5 million.
Andranik Kocharyan, a senior member of Pashinyan’s ruling Civil Contract party and chair of the parliament’s defense committee, expressed this view in an interview with Azatutyun. Kocharyan said Pashinyan’s goal is to build “real foundations” concerning the Genocide, striving to “make the entire list of compatriots subjected to genocide more objective.”
He stressed the necessity of having the names of all the Armenians who were killed during the Armenian Genocide and verifying “where, how, and under what conditions” they were killed. During a parliament press briefing, Kocharyan reiterated the importance of this initiative, which critics denounced as advancing a Turkish narrative.
“This is a simple goal for us”to know the addresses and locations of each of our 1.5 million compatriots. It is very important for the building of our relations in the future as well,” said Kocharyan.
As the commemoration of Genocide Day on April 24 approaches, Kocharyan said, “Was it 1.5 million, 2 million, or less? It should be strictly addressed. But if we don’t record it, the other side can always say that no such thing happened. And until today, that has been saying so.”
Diaspora Affairs Commissioner Zareh Sinanyan said, “I really like what Mr. Kocharyan said because this is actually the beginning of a much more scientific and objective realization of the genocide discussion and a deeper recognition process.”
Sinanyan added, “We keep saying a million and a half, a million and a half.” The million and a half “are people; they had names, there is a story behind each of them, each of them was killed in some brutal way, and for more than 100 years, we have united these people into a group, one and a half Armenians. I consider it very important to gather information about everyone.”
Genocide expert Suren Manukyan, who formerly served as deputy director of the Genocide Museum in Yerevan, described this latest government initiative as “very dangerous,” reminding that Turkey has advocated the idea of making lists since the 1960s. Turkey, which denies the Genocide, falsely claims that only about 300,000 ethnic Armenians died.
About three dozen countries, including the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Canada, and others, have recognized the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey. Switzerland has also criminalized the denial of the Armenian Genocide. U.S. President Joe Biden has characterized the Ottoman-era killings of Armenians as Genocide in his statements issued annually on Armenian Remembrance Day since he assumed office in 2021.
Manukyan explained that one of the earliest narratives advanced by Ankara in denying the Armenian Genocide was that the number of 1.5 million Armenian victims was a lie. He said, “They have said that nothing like that happened, and if Armenians are lying about the number, then they are lying about the whole thing. And they demanded to be given a list.” Manukyan and other genocide experts acknowledge that retrieving full records of victims would be an impossible task, considering the Ottoman Empire often kept no records related to its ethnic minorities.
“Consequently, our only source that we can cite are the memories of survivors, most of whom were children who often did not remember even their own family names, let alone the names of other victims,” Manukyan said.
The genocide expert emphasized that Yerevan has always countered the Turkish demand for compiling a list of victims by asserting that the number of people killed is not the core issue because “Genocide is not about the numbers, but it is about being an act intended to destroy a group of people, and it doesn’t matter how many people were in that group.”
Manukyan cited the example of the Bosnian Genocide, during which approximately 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed in the Srebrenica events in 1995, which were recognized as Genocide by an international court. Manukyan said, “Numbers are not important at all in terms of whether what happened was genocide or not.”
The expert lamented that with this latest initiative, the Armenian Government is also questioning the fact that 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the 1915 Genocide.
The Armenian Apostolic Church canonized the 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide, collectively declaring them to be saints, during the centennial of the Armenian Genocide in 2015.