On the occasion, the MP and Head of PFG with Armenia Aleksandar Cotric stressed that “the Armenian victims deserve remembrance and compassion, and the perpetrators should be condemned by the democratic public around the world so that these kinds of crimes can be prevented from happening again”.

“100 years ago, the first mass crime of the 20th century was committed and about a million and a half of Armenians were killed, while about half a million were forever exiled from the territories they had lived in for centuries. Serbia understands the suffering of the Armenian people that started on 24 April 2015, because the Serbian people, too, were the victim of genocide in WW2 on the territory of the Independent State of Croatia. The Serbian people has suffered and continues to suffer in Kosovo-Metohija, out of which more than two hundred thousand people were exiled. Two and a half thousand Serbs were killed while 40 thousand of their houses and more than 150 Orthodox churches and monasteries have been completely destroyed”, said Aleksandar Cotric at the global forum “Against the crime of Genocide”, organised to mark 100 years from the beginning of the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

He also stressed that the “centenary of the crime against Armenians should kick off the normalisation of relations between Armenia and Turkey, opening up of their borders, diplomatic and economic cooperation and historic reconciliation between Armenians and Turks”.

The global forum “Against the Crime of Genocide”, opened on 22 April by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, gathers about a thousand participants from around world, representatives of states, governments, parliaments, international organisations, religious communities and NGOs. The central event of the centenary commemoration of the genocide against Armenians will take place on 24 April and is expected to be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President François Hollande.