Turkey refuses to acknowledge the Armenian genocide of 1915-23, when 1,5 million Armenians in the eastern Anatolia region were massacred or died in forced marches ordered by the Turkish regime of the declining Ottoman Empire.
Turkey insists that the genocide never happened.
In the West, recognition of the atrocity was slow but the UN recognized it in 1985, now the Belgian Senate and the French Parliament have both passed an Armenian genocide resolution. The French decision, in January 2001, led Turkey to cancel many contracts with French companies. The museum will ensure that the past will not be forgotten. Turkey will sooner or later have to come to terms with its own atrocious past, like the rest of us.