El Genocidio Armenio: Author of New Book Optimistic Over Recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Spain

YEREVAN — A documentary book on Armenian Genocide has been published in Spain for the first time. Author of the book “Armenian Genocide” (El Genocidio Armenio), Ricardo Ruiz de la Serna, Associate Lecturer of Current World History at the international degrees of San Pablo CEU-University Madrid, has been studying the 1915 Armenian Genocide for years and advocating the Spanish recognition of the Genocide.

In an interview with ARMENPRESS, Ricardo Ruiz de la Serna said he wrote the book for justice aimed at raising awareness on the Armenian Genocide within the Spanish society.

“This book is just a modest contribution to set the facts and pave the way for a better understanding of the Armenian Genocide among the Spanish general public”, he said.

Ricardo Ruiz de la Serna has no Armenian roots. He says he has been interested in Armenian culture since childhood thanks to his father who loved Armenian music. “After I visited the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in 2012, I decided to focus on the Armenian Genocide and have been reading and researching since then. After 10 years, it was high time to write something targeting the Spanish audience. I wrote something about my personal progress some years ago”, he said.

The author says that the book is a short history of the Genocide. It is covering the road to the Genocide – the Hamidian Massacres, the destruction of the Armenians in Cilicia, the ideological and political roots of political violence against Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, how it was perpetrated (legal framework, military and paramilitary units, etc) and the different stages of the genocide (massive arrests, deportations, confiscations, death marches through the dessert, etc).

“However, I am also interested in the Armenian attempts to resist and fight. Sometimes people think that Armenians remained “silent like a lamb being led to the butcher” and accepted their terrible fate. It was not so. Wherever they could fight and resist, they did it. Probably the most famous example was the Armenian resistance in the Musa Dagh in July 1915”, he added.

In his book Ricardo Ruiz de la Serna has also touched upon the material destruction and confiscation of Armenian-owned estate (houses, churches, businesses) and the unjust laws that made it possible.