YEREVAN, APRIL 17, ARMENPRESS: The second largest weekly La Republica wrote an article about the book “The Armenian Genocide: 100 years of silence - The extraordinary story of the last survivors”, written by the journalists Alessandro Aramu, Gian Micalessin, Anna Mazzone. The book tells about the century old pain of the Armenian people, and the century old denial of Turkey. The book is sponsored by the Italian Arab Centre Assadakah with the collaboration of the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia in Italy and the national news agency Armenpress.

The publication of the book was assisted by Giancarlo Pagliarini, the Deputy Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Suren Manukyan, the Armenian Ambassador to Italy Sargis Ghazaryan, as well as the Director of the Department for Interchurch Relations of the Holy See His Grace Bishop Hovakim Manukian.

On the night of April the 24th 1915 the horrible and systematic extermination of the Armenian people in the territories of the Ottoman Empire by the Muslim Turks began. In just one-month more than a thousand intellectuals, including journalists, writers, poets, and even delegates to Parliament were deported to the interior of Anatolia and massacred along the way. In death marches, hundreds of thousands died of starvation, disease or exhaustion. Eventually about a million and a half of Christian Armenians were massacred.

After 100 years since that genocide, the first of the last century, an Italian journalist, Alessandro Aramu, and an important photographer of cinema, Romulus Eucalitto, meet in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, the last survivors of a tragedy that Turkey today still refuses to recognize.

Extraordinary evidence, including a photographic documentation, of those who have experienced first-hand the persecution, violence and forced exile, far from their denied home. A report that comes from the past to the present day to understand how the contemporary Armenia, through the new generations, faces the challenge of shared memory as an element of identity and belonging to people.

The volume, edited by Alessandro Aramu, in addition to interviews with the three survivors (Aharon Manukyan, Silvard Atajayn and Andranik Matevosyan), contains also a chapter devoted to genocide in its feminine dimension, with a series of stories and testimonies collected during the journalistic mission in Armenia. The Armenian women, with their courage and strength, are in fact those who kept alive the culture of people that the Turks have failed to erase. Young women met in Yerevan have highlighted the importance of memory for the centenary of the first crime of the modern era.

"This book - Alessandro Aramu and Romulus Eucalitto say - was a journey into the pain of people who have suffered a terrible persecution. It is also a journey in hope, because new generations should never forget what happened in the past. This book is addressed to young Italians who need to know what happened a hundred years ago. That crime cannot prescribe nor forget. For this reason, we will work every day to ensure that genocide is officially recognized in the international scene, starting from Turkey. This book is primarily a work against the denial, wherever it comes from."

Today Armenians are likely to suffer another genocide in the Middle East, by the Islamic fundamentalists of ISIS. In the second part of the volume, Gian Micalessin, Italian war correspondent, talks about his experience in Syria, with a series of reports from the cities of Aleppo and Qamishli, where Christians suffer more than others the fury of violence that has deep roots. The essay is attended by journalists, historians and Italian and Armenian intellectuals, all committed to telling the story of a century of forgotten genocide. Finally, it is told the contemporaneity of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan in a writing of journalist Anna Mazzone.

Alessandro Aramu (1970). Professional journalist. Law graduate, he is director of the Magazine of geopolitical Spondasud. Author of report on the Zapatista revolution in Chiapas (Mexico) and the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, he edited the essay Lebanon. Reportage in the heart of the Lebanese resistance (Arkadia, 2012). He is coauthor of the volumes Syria. What the media do not tell (Arkadia 2013) and Middle East. The policies of the Mediterranean in the background of the war in Syria (Arkadia Publisher 2014). He is part of the Italian Arab Centre Assadakah and vice president of the National Coordination for peace in Syria.

Gian Micalessin (1960). Italian journalist. Since the beginning of the 80s, he began to work as a war correspondent. He has made reportage accompanying Afghan mujahedeen fighting the Soviet occupation, then made documentaries and reportage from the main areas of crisis and conflict in the world. From the late 90s he closely monitors near-eastern issues, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iran. He has partnered with some of the most important international newspapers such as Corriere della Sera, Repubblica, Panorama, Libération, Der Spiegel, El Mundo, The Express, Far Eastern Economic Review. He also worked for national and international televisions including (CBS, NBC, Channel 4, TF1, France 2, NDR, TSI, RaiNews24, Rai Uno, Rai 2, Channel 5, LA7).

Anna Mazzone. Freelance journalist, editor of Formiche and the biannual in English Anthill.eu with Jean-Paul Fitoussi, collaborates daily with Panorama website, the column dedicated to current World news. She studied in Tokyo, specializing in Japanese politics Sociology. In 2011, she made a documentary for Jetlag Sky Italia of Nagorno Karabakh.

Romolo Eucalitto (1949). Photographer, operating since the 70s, he has collaborated with the most important Italian movie directors. He edited the photo section in the book "Lebanon", reportage in the heart of the Lebanese resistance (Arkadia, 2012).