Speaker of Slovak Parliament: Armenians survived first Genocide of  20th century 

ArmInfo. Chairman of the National Council (Parliament) of Slovakia, Andrei Danko, condemned the Armenian Genocide in the early 20th century in the Ottoman  Empire. The corresponding statement for journalists, as TASS reported  referring to the Slovak radio, he made on Monday after a meeting in  Bratislava with his counterpart from Armenia Ara Babloyan, who is in  the republic on a visit.

"Armenians survived the genocide, they were the target of attacks and  suffered a lot, because they were an island of Christianity [in the  Ottoman Empire]," the head of the Slovak parliament emphasized. "I do  not hide that I am a person with tremendous respect and respect for  the values of Christianity. with Islamization and were persecuted,  Millions of Armenians were repressed. " According to him, Armenians  became the first people in modern history to survive the genocide.  Danko recalled that the Ottoman Empire from the second half of the  XVI century and almost until the end of the XVII century enslaved  much of the Slovak territory. "Our ancestors described in the  domestic literature the suffering of our people, the Slovaks very  well understand what the Armenians had to endure," the speaker said.

Speakers discussed prospects for the development of the  Slovak-Armenian interparliamentary cooperation.  In 1915, according  to various estimates, 600 thousand to 1.5 million Armenians perished  in the Ottoman Empire as a result of deportation and systematic  killings. The Turkish government recognizes the mass death of  Armenians, but opposes the use of the term "genocide" and considers  the number of victims, which the Armenian side insists, is too high.  According to Ankara, the death of Armenians was not the result of a  purposeful government policy, but a consequence of the civil war in  the Ottoman Empire, of which the Turks were also victims.