YEREVAN. - The fact of the denial by Turkey of what happened with the Armenian people one hundred years ago, is a serious obstacle to the dialogue, Professor Stephan Parmentier  from Leuven Institute of Criminology, Belgium told Armenian News – NEWS.am.    

On the other hand, he said, it’s important to understand why the Turkish side is denying the fact of the Armenian Genocide. According to him, the most important thing to do is to establish a dialogue. “People, institutes and governments must try to talk to each other to create a formula of common understanding regarding what happened in the past. They need to talk to each other, talk directly,” Parmentier said.

According to the Professor, in case of the Armenian Genocide, there are two separate states - Armenia and Turkey - which are quite different countries. “But this was also the case with Yugoslavia, where absolutely different countries attempted to establish two interesting forms of dialogue. The first of them is the regional truth commission, which was made up of the representatives of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia.  The idea was to try to create a common vision of the past,” Parmentier said.

The next thing attempted in the Balkans, the professor said, was to create groups of victims, but victims in wide terms. “For instance, veterans, people who took part in the military actions, are also victims, since some of them had been captured and kept in concentration camps. Thanks to these groups, people could speak to each other,” he said.