April 24 had turned out to be the conclusion and the beginning of many incidents. It is impossible to evaluate this period, -which lacks the sufficient components to make interpretations by itself- by disregarding the background independent from the plots and plans of imperialist powers, where they determined the fate of a nation-state through arbitrary drawings and maps.

We cannot evaluate April 24 by itself, without taking into consideration World War I which started in 1914, when the Ottoman Empire joined the war alongside Germany. It was a time of heavy defeats on all fronts; the perishing of the army due to starvation and disease; the weakness of the government and civil conflicts, the massacres committed by Armenian resistance movements; the arrival of millions of Muslims –who were deported from the Caucasus, Balkans and Crimea- to Anatolian soil; the poverty, epidemics and conditions of occupation. And most importantly, the plots of the imperialists.

Of course the historical designations and records also serve as witnesses to the pains of the Armenians, like the rest of the pains. However history explicitly shows us that the necessary conditions in order for this incident to be defined as “genocide” do not exist. Shouldn't the attitudes and actions of the sides as well as other people and states who were involved in the incidents be explicitly made public?

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When we take a close look at the events which took place towards April 24, 1915, we see the call made by the Ottoman Administration to the Armenian Patriarchate to stop the massacre of Muslims, but we left without a response. On April 24, 1915, history shows that the Armenian organizations in Turkey had been closed and around two-thousand administrators were arrested. The temporary law consisting of two articles, which is shown as “proof” for genocide today, but does not even have a word about it, was actually passed after a month. It is meaningless to race pains when taking a look at the multilateral tragedies which took place. However, it is saliently evident that the generation who wants to charge the cost of what happened in those years to today has economic and political interests rather than searching for a solution. What is the actual problem here? Is it a matter of “Settling a conscientious and historical account” or “An economic or political revenge?”

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Lebanon is one of the places where the Armenian Diaspora is quite strong. However, it is not possible to find net figures regarding the Armenian population living here. It is estimated that there are between 150,000 and 200,000 Armenians here. I say estimated because the last census in Lebanon was conducted in 1932. The Muslims make up 59.7 percent of the country's population, while 39 percent is Christian, 1.3 percent Druze and 4 percent of the population is made up of Armenians.

Bourj Hammoud is known as an Armenian neighborhood in Beirut. The names of the streets, stores and the products sold all have traces of Turkish cities like Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş and Şanlıurfa. People watch Turkish televisions at home. On the streets, you can easily distinguish the Turkish amongst the different languages. Everyone has a memory of and yearning for Turkey.

In their eyes, Turkey is a rich and powerful country.

I had the chance to see this neighborhood years ago when we visited Beirut with a committee in which Hrant Dink (May he rest in peace) –the Armenian journalist who was assassinated- participated. In the following periods, I visited it for numerous times for filming. One time, as I was having a street interview with an old man who had migrated from İskenderun (He was actually complaining about the French and explaining how much he misses Turkey), we experienced interference where he was taken off the camera. The person who prevented the old man who wanted to voluntarily speak with a Turkish television person was an officer from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation.

In Bourj Hammoud, while yearning and memories dominated the feelings of the old generation, the language and feeling of hate increased as with the new generation and the youth. The generation who knew how to speak Turkish was disappearing, as the generations which grow up by making pictures of Ottoman officers killing Armenians on April 24 and make exhibitions out of these are increasing.

These pictures, which were assigned to children as homework, were also present in the Armenian neighborhood in the Iranian city of Isfahan. This way, April 24 1915 is merely being reconstructed in the memories of the children through pictures, poems, and activities. I see that there are new generations growing up with an identity surrounded around hostility towards the Turks in efforts to create an “enemy” by those who are more influential in this matter.

The reason why I particularly mentioned these in Lebanon is because of an email I received from Halid Tadmori, the President of the Lebanese Turkish Association who lives in Tripoli. He says: “The Lebanese Ministry of Education decided to cancel schools on April 24 due to the 100th anniversary of the alleged Armenian genocide. Unfortunately, the Lebanese government supported this decision. In addition to this, numerous activities condemning and denigrating the Ottoman state and Turkey conducted by Armenians in Lebanon and some Maronites is increasing. As the Lebanese Turkish Association, and with the aim to protect the brotherhood between Lebanon and Turkey, we wanted to decorate the streets with Turkish and Lebanese flags on April 24-25-26. We try our best to convey these incidents to the Turkish press and senior authorities.”