YEREVAN, April 18. / ARKA /. Ruben Safrastyan, the head of the Institute of Oriental Studies in Yerevan, said to a news conference today that ahead of the centennial of the 1915 Armenian genocide, committed by the government of Ottoman Turkey, the official Yerevan must clearly determine the size and form of compensation by Turkey.
"In addition to the moral aspect of the problem, there is also the material and territorial claims which Armenia should clearly convey to Turkey. It is very important that we should get down to detailing our claims," he said.
According to him, Turkey must indemnify the damages at the state level and Turkish courts must start accepting actions from the victims of the Armenian genocide or their successors.
According to Safrastyan, Armenia must also insist on the return to the status quo at the time of signing the Treaty of Sevres in 1920 November, when the US President Woodrow Wilson draw the boundaries of the Armenian Republic that incorporated the Ottoman provinces of Erzurum, Bitlis, and Van.
This region was extended to the north, up to the west side of Trabzon to provide the First Republic of Armenia with an outlet to the Black Sea at the port of Trabzon ( a total of 160,000 square km).
The Treaty of Sevres was a peace treaty signed between the Western Allied Powers and the defeated government of the Ottoman Empire in August 1920. The treaty was signed but never ratified by the Ottoman Empire.
The Armenian Genocide was the first genocide of the twentieth century. Turkey has been denying it for decades. The Armenian genocide was recognized by tens of countries. The first was Uruguay that did so in 1965.
Other nations are Russia, France, Italy, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Canada, Venezuela, Argentina, 42 U.S. states. The Armenian Genocide was recognized by the Vatican, the European Parliament, the World Council of Churches and other international organizations. -0-