After finding out that a "researcher and intellectual" from Armenia, too, is participating in a Holocaust denial conference in Iran, I decided to find out who that person is.

A phone call to Armenia's "Aryan Union," the phone number of which I got through an Armenian directory, gave me a not-so-surprising answer: the notorious anti-semite and leader of Armenian Aryans Armen Avetisyan, who was jailed in Armenia for racist comments against Jews, is one of the 67 international participants in the conference that features many denials of the Holocaust, including a Klu Klux Klan leader and a former State Representative from America. The participation of several Jewish rabbis in the event is interesting. The latter acknowledged the Holocaust at the event, but said it should not have been used to establish the current nation of Israel.

One of the 67 international participants of Holocaust denial conference in Iran (file photo from ArmeniaNow.com)

Armen Avetisyan will make a speech in the conference on the "content related topic" (aka, Holocaust denial), informed me a worker of Yerevan's Aryan group. Armen seems to have established good relationships with the Iranian Embassy. Earlier this year, according to a very reliable source of ours, he was planning a Palestinian conference in Armenia that would feature HAMAS leaders with Iran's sponsorhip. The Armenian secret services "gave Avetisyan a lesson," and the idea was dropped. But now Avetisyan's telephone receptionist thinks the Aryan leader will not get into trouble for participating in the conference.

It is surprising but yet makes one feel better to learn that some Iranian students protested the denialist conference and even burned Ahmadenijad's photo while he was giving a talk on the Holocaust. Kudos to these courageous students.

Anyhow, one would wish that the international community reacted the same way to genocide denial conferences in Turkey and in Azerbaijan. And one would wish that Israeli officials did not put themselves on the same table with Iranian officials by denying the Armenian Genocide.

But you know, the Armenian community must speak up against this denialist conference. Because when we say the Holocaust took place because the Armenian Genocide was not punished, we need to mean it.