An international conference attended by representatives of 18 countries was held in St Petersburg on 29-30 September 2022. The conference was dedicated to the problems of history teaching in school textbooks. Academician Alexander Chubaryan, Academic Director of the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as representatives of the St. Petersburg authorities spoke at the opening of the conference.

The director of the Institute of History of NAS RA, academician Melkonyan spoke in his report about the innovations in the history textbooks created in the republic during the years of independence and the prevention of falsifications during the Soviet period. The speaker elaborated on the blatant distortions of Armenian and Russian history in the post-Soviet school textbooks of Azerbaijan. According to Academician Melkonyan, such falsifications are not accidental and are aimed to justify the territorial claims of Azerbaijan against Armenia, about which the Azerbaijani leadership declares today at state level.

А. Melkonyan posed the following question to Turkish representative Duygu Yeniay Üsküplü: "If, in your opinion, the Republic of Turkey writes objective textbooks, then why are there no references to the genocide of Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks during World War I?" The Turkish speaker was not able to give a definite answer, citing the decision of some international court that there was no genocide. The Academic Secretary of the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Maxim Yakovlev, asked the Turkish representative what she personally thought about the issue, but no answer followed.

On the suggestion of A. Melkonyan, it was decided to include a statement in the resolution about the inadmissibility of falsifications in history textbooks that can lead to tragic consequences.

For more information follow the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coQCe6l9tRE