YEREVAN. - Even though not a single country has acknowledged the Armenian genocide during 2011 there is some progress in that process, head of the Oriental Studies Institute of Armenia’s National Academy, professor Ruben Safrastyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

He reminded that on the 96th anniversary of the Genocide the upper house of Argentina’s parliament adopted a condemnation resolution. In 2011 the house of representatives of the U.S. Congress adopted the 306 bill “About the return of religious property to ethnic minorities in Turkey”.

“All of these show that the process of recognizing the Armenian Genocide moves forward, and I think that we should keep in mind that the process has a long-term character and it does not go off its route,” Safrastyan said. “Some flexibility must be shown in the recognition process but that is the work of the Armenian lobby in this or that country and they know how to choose the right time. As it seems knowing beforehand that the recognition of the Armenian Genocide is doomed in this or that country the representatives of the Armenian lobby consider even discussions to be important factors.”

Safrastyan stressed the importance of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s statement that sooner or later Turkey will have a government that will accept the Armenian Genocide.

Talking about the fact that in May 2011 the French Senate did not accept the criminalization of the Armenian Genocide Safrastyan said that position of France on the issue is known.

“We very well know the attitude of the French public towards the Armenian Genocide. The government and political forces do not keep their promises based on short term consideration,” he added.