A Turkish historian said the Turkish government is hiding historic telegrams which could provide information about the Armenian Genocide, based on his findings.

Armenia says the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenian people between 1915 and 1917 was a genocide. The events are recognized as a genocide by 30 other countries, and US Congress passed a measure in December last year to formally recognize the killings as a genocide.

Turkey strongly denies the accusation of genocide and puts the death toll in the hundreds of thousands.

According to historian Tanar Akcam, the Turkish government is deliberately hiding evidence of the genocide even today.

Akcam told Al Arabiya that the Turkish government knew of the existence of telegrams related to the genocide because they were used in state military tribunals in Istanbul in the year 1919.

“In these military tribunals, public prosecutors wrote an indictment and verdicts … they quoted from these telegrams,” he said in a video interview.

Akcam found the documents in a private archive and not in state archives.

There are people in Turkey who are fighting for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, explained Akcam.

“This is part of the Turkish civil rights movement, it’s a part of the Turkish struggle for democracy and human rights,” he said.

Last Update: Wednesday, 20 May 2020 KSA 09:57 - GMT 06:57