Periodic visits by Armenian school students to the Armenian Genocide Memorial and discussions with teachers led experts at the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute and education authorities to conclude that there is a need to teach the subject of the Armenian Genocide.
The opening of the three-day seminar titled the “The Challenges of Armenian Genocide Education the 21st Century,” took place at the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute on April 20.
“We realized that there is a problem for teachers, there is a problem for us, there is a problem in terms of methodology, and this conference is meant to address these issues. This is perhaps the first seminar of its kind in the Armenian reality,” the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Director Harutyun Marutyan said in opening remarks, reported Armenpress.
He said that through discussions with renowned international experts they want to understand how the topic of the Armenian Genocide is being taught abroad, both in Armenian and non-Armenian environments, given the fact that the those experts mostly represent the nations which were subjected to genocide throughout their history as well. These countries include Israel, Rwanda, Cambodia and others.
According to the organizers of the seminar, the main objective is to find out how to avoid the formation of the stereotype of the victim or its risks in the consciousness and psychology of children.
The seminar is organized with support from Armenia’s Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport and the Science Committee.
Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan said in her opening remarks that they hope the seminar would enable them to have a picture of the best strategies for teaching the subject.
Among the speakers at the conference are Genocide Education Project’s Sara Cohan and Dr. Rubina Peroomian.
Cohan’s talk, “The Teaching of the Armenian Genocide in Secondary Level Education in U.S. Schools: Challenges and Achievements,” is one of six-panel sessions including approximately 30 specialists in genocide studies and related fields from Armenia, the U.S., the Russian Federation, Lebanon, Israel, Rwanda, Spain, the Republic of South Africa and Cambodia will take part.
In concert with the conference, the museum is launching the new exhibit, “Tracing the Armenian Schools in the Ottoman Empire: An Enlightened Nation’s Certificates,” about the 2,000 Armenian schools that existed in Western Armenia (within the Ottoman Empire) before the Armenian Genocide.
These institutions, despite the ongoing persecution and violence perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish government, not only persevered but were successful, making significant contributions to the empire’s educational, scientific, and cultural development.
