Significant Changes Observed in Behavior of Turks Visiting Armenian Genocide Museum

YEREVAN — Significant changes have been observed in the behavior of Turks visiting the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute (AGMI), the AGMI Director Hayk Demoyan told a press conference on Friday, December 25, Armenpress reports.

“I should say that we watch the reaction of Turkish visitors, not by surveillance cameras and or wiretapping, of course, but by studying their behavior and their attitude to the exhibits,” Hayk Demoyan noted. “If Turkish visitors previously watched the samples with irony and sarcasm, they now keep silent.”

According to Demoyan, the Museum constitutes a part of not only the Armenians’, but also the Turks’ history that one can never get rid of.

The scholar expressed hope that the Turkish visitors’ flow will increase throughout the coming years.

Also, Demoyan stressed the importance of addressing the issue through survivors’ stories, mentioning, in particular, those of Aurora Mardiganian, Sarkis Torossian and foreign missionaries.

72.000 peopel have visited the renovated Museum in 2015, according to AGMI Deputy Director Lusine Abrahamyan, the year was unprecedented in terms of the number of Turkish visitors. “1000 Turkish citizens have visited the museum,” she said.

According to her, 71 delegations from various countries have toured the institution, including those from Russia, France, Cyprus and Serbia led by their respective Presidents who had arrived in Armenia to participate in the Genocide commemoration ceremony on April 24.

Besides, 16.000 students from Armenia and the Diaspora have visited the Tsitsernakaberd memorial and Genocide Museum.

The Museum has organized exhibitions in over 50 cities around the globe, including the one in Paris City Hall on April 28, titled “Armenia 1915: Paris hosts AGMI collection”