Egypt’s Genocide recognition call politically motivated – opinion

The Egyptian interim president’s call for recognizing the Armenian Genocide is a politically motivated move, an Armenian orientalist has said, commenting on Adly Mansour’s recent tweet revealing the country’s intention.

Ruben Melkonyan, a deputy dean at the YSU Oriental Studies Department, thinks the topic very often becomes a subject of bargains in international politics.

“For us, it is naturally important for an Arab country like Egypt to acknowledge and condemn the Armenian Genocide, given especially that the Armenians have played an essential role in the history of Egypt. But on the other hand, the selection of timing gives grounds for concerns a little bit, especially in the context of these regional political re-arrangements,” he told Tert.am.


Melkonyan said a decision by Egypt to do this earlier would have been more praiseworthy and honest. The expert noted that the proposal was voiced against the backdrop of the deteriorating Egyptian-Turkish relations, proving yet another time that the issue is being considered in a political context.

“There are two countries now that have the Armenian Genocide recognition on the agenda. One of them is Egypt, the other is Israel, with both having problems with Turkey,” he said, noting that Armenia has seen many times before the issue pushed to the foreground once the Turkish-Israeli relations experienced a tension.

“I can predict with confidence that the same will be in the case of Egypt; I mean the issue will be removed from Egypt’s political agenda once the Turkey-Egypt relations normalize,” he added.

Melkonyan further referred to the United States’ repeated remarks concerning the Armenian Genocide. “Once America expect concessions from Turkey and doesn’t get them, it immediately resorts to this method which has turned into a political weapon, as a matter of fact,” he noted.


Twenty-six world countries have so far recognized the Armenian Genocide, with 42 of the 50 US states having officially acknowledged and condemned the crime and 24 having declared Armenian Genocide commemoration days.

“Over two dozen countries, which have recognized the Genocide, have certainly done so considering universal human values. Let’s take Uruguay, for example, or the same France which, you know, had problems with Turkey later. As for Israel and US, which are very important countries for us, they constantly keep the issue on the agenda as a straitjacket for Turkey. Those countries, which have permanently speculated the issue, have not so far recognized and will never recognized the Armenian Genocide as they use the topic for their own interests and goals,” said Melkonyan