As Hrant Dink said, “Every Armenian is a document”. However, we need to remind those who keep insisting, “Show us the documents” of two recent developments.
“Our archives are here. How many documents do you have?” President Erdoğan recently said in a speech addressing the Diaspora and Armenia, echoing the refrain of the official discourse of the Republic of Turkey. Of course, Armenians are not obsessed about presenting documents to explain the Genocide. After all, like Hrant Dink said, “Every Armenian is a document”.
However, if the State and its representatives insist on seeing documents, we can remind them of two recent developments. The first is the public disclosure of the historical documents on the Armenian Genocide in the archives of the Vatican, which include correspondence and the reports of missionaries.
The second is the publication in Turkish of Raymond Kévorkian’s ‘Armenian Genocide’, considered a masterpiece in its field. The book presents in detail and with witness accounts the regions, towns and villages where the Genocide took place. So, there are plenty of documents for eyes that truly want to see.
Ayşen Taşkent Ekmekçi, who translated Raymond Kévorkian’s seminal book ‘Armenian Genocide’ into Turkish, told the story of the book’s translation that took two and a half years: “The difference of this book is that it tells the full story, in the clearest manner… It is also very valuable in terms of the details it provides. It is like a parade of human infamy. Even the most evil act is shown to take a step to the worst, there is no end to evil.”
Previously unreleased historical documents on the Armenian Genocide from the archives of the Vatican are unveiled.
