YEREVAN, 20 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. The 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide serves as an opportunity for French media outlets to reinterpret the tragic events. Today’s Parisian has published several interviews with inheritors of victims of the Armenian Genocide. Most of them forcefully continue to live in Turkey after having converted to Islam. Monde has printed the touching article by Charles Aznavour under the title “One Hundred Years of Armenian Loneliness”, as “Armenpress” reports, citing RFI.

“Yes, it is true. I am a particle of the people who died and weren’t buried,” writes the great French singer.

Aznavour begins the article by stating Turkey’s denial. The musician talks about the process of recognition by using musical terms, calling it “mezza voce”. The person who differentiates between sounds better than anyone else explains the meaning of such partial recognition. He first refers to the persecutions that continue. Charles Aznavour doesn’t refer to the events of the past century, but the past couple of years, including how Turkey refuses to ratify the Protocols signed in 2009 for normalization of relations with Armenia and links the ratification to the Karabakh issue. Aznavour also talks about the murders of Christians in the East and the tragedy of the Yazidis. “This is all linked to the Armenian Genocide. Impunity has set a bad example,” Aznavour concludes.

The notable musician remembers his childhood and the stories of his parents whose families had managed to escape the Turks’ pressures and had settled in France. “I wasn't raised to be filled with hatred. I’m not malicious towards the Turks. I know they’ll open their eyes one day and will demand that their government explain why they had been lying to them for so many years and for not knowing their own history,” Aznavour says.

The singer mentions that he doesn’t want to give anyone lessons and that it’s not about showing Turkey what it’s guilty of.

Talking about the current times, Aznavour spoke bitterly about the Turkish authorities. The author of the article says he regrets to see that not much has changed in the past century and scolds “the great powers that taught how to place their own interests above morality”.

“But I would like to end with optimism,” writes Charles Aznavour and recalls the survey conducted at the request of the administration of the Holocaust Memorial Foundation. Based on the results of that survey, despite the taboo in Turkey, nearly 33% of 18-26-year-old Turks support recognition of the Armenian Genocide.