On March 16, the Ministry of Diaspora of the Republic of Armenia hosted a conference entitled “The Material Damages Borne by Armenians and Caused by the Armenian Genocide: “Abandoned Property” and Deprivation of Homeland”.

In her opening remarks, RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan greeted the attendees and particularly stated the following: “There have been thousands of discussions on recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, but there have rarely been discussions on the material damages that the Armenian people bore and the properties that they lost. In fulfillment of the demands stated in the Pan-Armenian Declaration on the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, we have convened this roundtable discussion devoted to recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide and elimination of the consequences. The losses of the belongings of Armenians caused by the Armenian Genocide are enshrined in the document submitted during the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. I would like to extend thanks to all the scholars, experts and researchers and urge them to continue their studies for the creation of an integrated database.”

In his speech entitled “The Importance of a Historical and Legal Formulation of the Issue of Restitution”, Director of the Institute of History at the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (NAS RA) and academician Ashot Melkonyan expressed his satisfaction with the fact that a state body of Armenia, that is, the Ministry of Diaspora, organized a discussion devoted to this topic. According to the historian, exploring the issue at the state level will help change the type of Armenians with complexities.

Representative of the Bureau for the Armenian Cause and Political Affairs of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun Kiro Manoyan delivered a speech entitled “Issues of Restitution for Genocide: Item on Pan-Armenian Agenda”. In his speech, Minoyan touched upon the Treaty of Sevres and the Arbitrary Verdict of Woodrow Wilson and stated that the Armenian Cause must be solved within the scope of international law.

Adviser of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia Vladimir Vardanyan presented the perspectives of reparations for the material damages caused by the Armenian Genocide in terms of law.

Head of the Armenian Genocide History Section of the Institute of History at the NAS RA Armen Marukyan talked about the mechanisms and the specification of instrumentation for overcoming the material consequences of the Armenian Genocide.

Candidate of legal sciences and co-founder of the Center for International and Comparative Law Taron Simonyan touched upon the possible mechanisms for holding the Republic of Turkey liable for the Armenian Genocide and stated the concrete paths to take to achieve the goal.

Chief archive expert of the Research Department of the National Archives of Armenia Anahit Kocharyan presented the activities of an investigative bureau determining the material losses borne by the Armenian people during WWI and provided a historical background of the activities of the bureau in different eras.

Turkologist and senior scientific worker of the Center for Western Armenian Studies Meline Anumyan gave a speech entitled “Discussion on the Issue of Abandoned Properties according to the Documents of the Trials of the Young Turks (1919-21) and touched upon the results of the studies based on those documents.

The second session of the conference began with the speech by co-founder of the Center for International and Comparative Law Levon Gevorgyan entitled “Issues of Liability of the Republic of Turkey for the Armenian Genocide: Legal Succession and Ascription”. Dean of the Faculty of History at Yerevan State University Edik Minasyan touched upon the issue of loss of cultural heritage during the Armenian Genocide and stated that cultural genocide continues to this day, particularly in the territory of Azerbaijan. In her speech entitled “The Topic of the “Abandoned Territories” of Armenians in the Discourse of Turks”, senior scientific worker of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the NAS RA Anush Hovhannisyan provided details about the developments that have been unfolding in Turkey in regard to the Armenian Genocide, deprivation of homeland and abandoned territories over the past years, the anti-Armenian research of scholars and the books of Turkish historians in which the Armenian Genocide is not falsified. This was followed by speeches by senior scientific worker of the Archives Department of the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts (Matenadaran) Anahit Astoyan (“Deprivation of Belongings of Armenians during the Armenian Genocide”), scientific worker of the Museum of History of Yerevan Ani Voskanyan (Policy on the Deprivation of Lands of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire (late 19^th century to early 20^th century)”) and analyst of the International Research and Education Center for the History of the Holocaust and Genocide at the Russian State University for the Humanities (РБГУ) Armine Antonyan (“Information on Confiscation of the Properties of Anton Papazian in the Documents of the State Historical Archives of Russia”).

After the conference, the participants exchanged ideas and made recommendations.

Summing up the conference, the Minister of Diaspora considered it rather interesting and expressed gratitude to all the speakers for their objective and constructive speeches.