YEREVAN. – In the political context, a fundamental change occurred in the world in the Armenian Genocide issue; this is about the genocide’s recognition and condemnation by the parliaments of a variety of countries.

Director of the Institute of Orientology of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, turkologist Ruben Safrastyan, stated the aforementioned at a press conference on Thursday.

Safrastyan has virtually no doubt that the number of countries recognizing the Armenian Genocide will increase this year.

In his words, even though Luxemburg—which on Wednesday formally recognized the genocide—is a small country, it is one of the main European Union (EU) member states and the EU founding state.

“According to Turkish press, Turkey appeared to be in shock after Luxembourg recognized the Armenian Genocide,” the turkologist added.

Reflecting on the Genocide Centennial commemorations, he specifically said: “We saw that most of the modern-day civilized world shares with us [i.e. Armenians] our pain. We saw that Armenians are a major factor in the world, that our voice is heard in the world.”

In Ruben Safrastyan’s words, Turkey’s challenge is to counteract the Armenian Genocide recognition by making use of propaganda tools.

“However, as we have seen, it is not being successful,” the turkologist noted. “The [Battle of] Gallipoli [100th anniversary] events [held on April 24] did not yield the result which the Turkish side expected.”