YEREVAN. – Turks must free themselves from the feelings of shame and accept their accountability for the Armenian Genocide.

Turkish human rights activist and scholar Sait Çetinoğlu stated the aforesaid in his address Saturday at the second Global Forum Against the Crime of Genocide, which is held in Armenia’s capital city Yerevan.

“Those, who have secured their prosperous life on the account of plunder, have reached until 2016,” Çetinoğlu stressed. “That’s why it’s necessary to speak about genocide.”

He recalled that well-known Istanbul Armenian writer, linguist, journalist, and columnist Sevan Nișanyan has been in a Turkish jail for the past 2.5 years, and that he faces up to 25 years in prison for “illegal construction.”

“When a vivid individual such as Sevan appears, [and] who criticizes Turkey and the Islamic law, a disproportionate response is given to his activities; and this is the main obstacle ahead of Armenian Genocide recognition,” the Turkish human rights activist said. “Each Turk must ask himself what his grandfather did in 1915. Each and every one of us should apologize and build the ‘Never Again’ monument.”