November 23, 2015 - 14:23 AMT
Argentina's newly-elected President and Armenian Genocide: review

A candidate of Argentina's conservative party Cambiemos, Mauricio Macri was elected president of Argentina Sunday, November 22, by winning the runoff against Daniel Scioli, the government candidate, Prensa Armenia reports, presenting a review of Macri-Armenian community relations.

During his tenure as Chief of Government of the City of Buenos Aires, Macri rejected the construction of a bust of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, after the intense complaints of the Armenian community and a misunderstanding of the local officials.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called off a visit to the country shortly afterwards.

In April 2012, Macri visited Yerevan for the transfer of the World Book Capital, which in 2011 had been held in Buenos Aires and in 2012 in Yerevan. He visited the Armenian Genocide Museum and stated that "Buenos Aires has received thousands of Armenian citizens who contributed to the development of Argentina and forged our cultural identity as a country."

In June 2014, the City of Buenos Aires allocated some property for the construction of an Armenian Genocide Museum.

This time, the Chief of Staff of the City, Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, said that this museum was "a way to ensure that mankind will not commit atrocities like those committed almost 100 years ago in Armenia."

The next month, in July 2014, Macri met with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in Argentina, handing him the keys to the City of Buenos Aires.

During the centenary of the Armenian Genocide in April 2015, Macri commemorated the Genocide centennial with a post on Facebook: "The Ottoman authorities started the bloody persecution of the Armenian people 100 years ago, on April 24, 1915, killing and rooting out millions of innocent people."

The former President Nestor Kirchner enacted in January 2007 the Law 26,199, approved by Congress in December 2006, which declares every April 24 as the "Action day for tolerance and respect among peoples" in commemoration of the Genocide against the Armenian people. In September 1987 former President Raul Alfonsin made the first recognition of the Armenian Genocide during a ceremony with the Armenian community.