YEREVAN. – This week the world remembers extermination of Armenians and calls it by a term “genocide” introduced by Raphael Lemkin, human rights barrister Geoffrey Robertson said during a global forum in Yerevan.

Annihilation of the half of the nation, murders of men, deportation of women and children without medicine, food, is noting but genocide, he said.

“And today, with the exception of Turkey's paid scholars, all recognize it as genocide,” Robertson said, addressing the participants of “Against the Crime of Genocide” global forum.

The denial had a negative impact on Turkey itself, Robertson emphasized.

He urged to learn a lesson from the past, to join efforts to fight manifestations of racial superiority. 

“They say that there was just a tragedy, it was not a tragedy, it was a crime, international crime, which we now call by an appropriate word,” said the lawyer.

Denial, he added, is the last stage of genocide, while sophisticated nationalism stirs hatred.