May 16, 2020: Today marks the United Nations’ International Day of Living Together in Peace. On this occasion, the Zoryan Institute highlights one of its long-term initiatives to promote truth, reconciliation and dialogue between Armenians and Turks, the creation of the “Common Body of Knowledge.” 

The Zoryan Institute aims to remove the stumbling block of falsified history
andhelpbring Armenia and Turkey together, by developing a common historiography of the period grounded in  truth. To achieve this, the Institute analyzes and publishes archival material from authoritative, mutually recognized Ottoman and Turkish archives and those of their wartime allies – Germany and Austria-  on the Armenian Genocide of 1915. This is done to restore historical accuracy and memory for the benefit of Armenian and Turkish societies. 

One of the Institute’s most invaluable publications from its extensive “Common Body of Knowledge” collection is Wolfgang Gust’s, The Armenian Genocide: Evidence from the German Foreign Office Archives. This book was instrumental in adoptingthe German Bundestag resolution on the Armenian Genocide through providing evidence that acknowledges the German Empire’s partial complicity in the Armenian Genocide. The German Bundestag made the following resolution on June 2, 2016. 

German Bundestag Resolution:
 
“ The Bundestag regrets the inglorious role of the German Empire, which, as a principal ally of the Ottoman Empire, did not try to stop these crimes against humanity, despite explicit information regarding the organized expulsion and extermination of Armenians, including also from German diplomats and missionaries… The German Empire bears partial complicity in the events. ”