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The Armenian Genocide Centennial commemorations on April 22-24 were watched live by 1 billion 300 million people worldwide, the Chief of the Armenian Presidential Staff, Coordinator of events dedicated to the100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide Vigen Sargsyan told reporters today before the expert forum ‘I Remember and Demand’ held to summarize the results of the commemorations.

According to him, international channels also provided live coverage of the events, which gave various strata of society an opportunity to get familiar with the contents of the Genocide Centennial commemorative events and get the messages the Armenian people intended to send to the world.

Asked what changes those events made in Turkey, Vigen Sargsyan replied that the Pan-Armenian Declaration, which was adopted in Yerevan on January 29 on the occasion of the 100 anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, expressed support of Turkish society’s part whose representative now have the courage regarding the Armenian Genocide recognition – in defiance of the official position of their authorities.

“My conviction is that civil societies play a special role in the struggle for recognition. I am sure that the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Turkey will be directly related to the formation and progress of civil society in that country,” he stressed.

V. Sargsyan considered a change in self-perception and the reassessment of the passed way as the greatest change in Armenian society in the context of the commemorative events on the Genocide Centenary.

Besides, as the chief of the Armenian Presidential Staff noted, those events contributed to the formation of a completely new model of interaction between Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora. “Success of the events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide proves an enormous, exceptional power of cooperation,” Vigen Sargsyan said.

In his words, a crucial achievement of the implementation of the program of events for this year is that the international community, especially international structures and international human rights organizations, unanimously recognized and voiced Armenia’s obligation to lead the international fight against genocide.

‘We heard this at meetings of Global Forum ‘Against the Crime of Genocide’, at the conference of the International Association of Genocide Scholars,” he said noting that the State Commission is expected to take a decision tomorrow to hold a Global Forum ‘Against the Crime of Genocide’ in Yerevan every second year to address various problems related to genocide and crimes of this kind committed nowadays.

V. Sargsyan said a commission was set up, led by Chairman of Armenia’s Constitutional Court Gagik Harutyunyan, to work out a package of legal demands aimed at elimination of consequences of the Armenian Genocide.

“There will be reports on the course of that process tomorrow at the sitting of the State Commission on Coordination of Events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. There have already been first suits. And the process will go on,” Vigen Sargsyan said.