Serzh Sargsyan receives Israeli historian Yair Auron

President Serzh Sargsyan received today Israeli historian, genocide expert Yair Auron. The presentation of Y. Auron’s book “The Banality of Indifference” translated into Armenian took place in Yerevan recently.

According to the presidential press service, the former member of the Knesset, ex-Minister of Immigrant Absorption Yair Tzaban also took part in the meeting.

Serzh Sargsyan congratulated Yair Auron on the release of the Armenian translation of “The Banality of Indifference” and thanked him for his invaluable work and contribution. He stressed that many representatives of the Jewish intelligentsia always stood by the Armenian people and took interest in their problems. In the words of S. Sargsyan, it is impossible to enumerate all prominent Jewish intellectuals who discussed the Armenian Genocide and the Israeli historian Yair Auron is one of them.

Yair Auron thanked the president for his warm words and for the appreciation and love of the Armenian people he witnessed during his visit to Armenia. In his words, all this gives him strength for the further struggle. The historian stated that he shares the double pain of the Armenian people: first because of the genocide committed, secondly, because of the policy of denial of that heinous crime, noting that he and a number of representatives of the intelligentsia struggle against it.

Yair Auron expressed an opinion that the Jews should have been the first to recognize the Armenian Genocide. He noted that positive changes have occurred in Israel’s civil society in recent years, expressing hope that these changes will have an impact on the policy as well.