First Armenian Genocide march at Eleftheria square in Nicosia (1975). Wikimedia. Public domain.The centenary of the Armenian Genocide on 24 April this year comes amidst heightened speculation about a resumption of peace negotiations between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. The timing is coincidental and yet it is telling of how, in Cyprus, the Armenian issue (more so than others) has been mired in the Greco Turkish dispute.
Against this backdrop, the question of Cyprus’ official recognition of the events that almost exterminated the Armenian population of Anatolia in 1915 as being a genocide or not has come to matter more in terms of Cypriot relations with Turkey than with Armenians.
As of April 2015, those who deny the Armenian genocide in the Republic of Cyprus are liable for up to five years imprisonment and/or a €10,000 fine. On 9 April, the Parliament of the Republic of Cyprus passed a legal amendment that was hailed as ‘the criminalization of the denial of the Armenian genocide’.
