Armenia`s former human rights defender draws parallels between  Armenian, Turkish authorities 

ArmInfo.The authorities [the government] are taking an absolutely unacceptable step against the  Armenian identity and statehood of Armenia, considering the creation of a name list of 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide as "laying the real foundations associated with the Genocide," reads a statement by the ex-Ombudsman of Armenia, head of the Tatoyan Foundation, Arman Tatoyan.

"It is the Turkish government that constantly puts forward the idea  of questioning the number of victims of the Armenian Genocide,  thereby promoting its policy of denial.

Genocide scholars, like the states that recognized the Armenian  Genocide, have never questioned the figure of 1.5 million victims. It  was never even discussed.

Moreover, the number of victims has absolutely nothing to do with the  crime of genocide. Genocide is the deliberate destruction of a group  of people based on racial, ethnic, national or religious hatred, and  not simply the killing or extermination of a certain number of  people," Tatoyan noted.

In this vein, the human rights activist noted that this approach is  also a blatant disrespect for the memory of innocent victims.

"The statement that the concepts "Metz Yeghern" and "Genocide" are  identical is unacceptable. Equating these concepts is unacceptable  both from the point of view of the interests of Armenia and the  process of preventing international genocide. Genocide is a concept  that has international legal recognition, This is an internationally  recognized crime. For this purpose, a specific criminal punishment is  defined, a mechanism of criminal prosecution. Moreover, it is the  implementation of responsibility and punishment for the crime of  genocide that is intended to prevent genocides.

"Eghern is just a word of the Armenian language, of Armenian meaning,  having a predominantly historical and non-international legal  meaning, not causing a crime and, therefore, having no legal  significance," Tatoyan said.

The Armenian authorities, having surrendered Artsakh, began to  undermine the foundations of Armenian identity. The Armenian  authorities, led by Nikol Pashinyan, are promoting the rejection of  their own centuries-old history, the rejection of their own coat of  arms, anthem, and are now trying to conduct an audit of the issue of  the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire, trying to justify the  actions of the Turkish side, promoting Turkish narratives within the  country.

We would like to add that footage recently leaked online showing how  archival documents evidencing the genocide were destroyed at the  Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, on the instructions of the  institution's management.