Ruben Melkonyan’s “Islamization of Armenian during the years of Genocide: process and consequences” was published in Yerevan.

“The book is based on researches. Besides, I used Turkish archives,” the author told reporters in Yerevan on Tuesday. “Although written in a language understandable for ordinary readers, the book is a scientific work.”

Dwelling on the problem of the assimilated Armenian population in Turkey, Mr. Melkonyan said it can be divided into two groups: Armenians who practice Christianity secretly and heirs of those who were Islamized during the Genocide. “According to the League of Nation’s database, about 200 thousand of Armenians were Islamized during the years of Genocide in Turkey; 90 thousands of converts managed to return to Christianity later,” he said, adding that Armenians were Ismalized against their will.

“I treat them as Armenians and I call on the public to approach this problem with understanding. Turkey, as an EU aspirant, should be tolerant towards ethnic and national minorities while Armenia should try to reconvert Islamized Armenians,” he concluded.