International law qualifies mass extermination of humans as genocide, the term having been coined by Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1943. Lemkin viewed genocide in the context of 8 types of manifestations: political, social, cultural, economic, biological, physical, religious and moral. Three of these, namely the biological, physical and cultural types, were considered by Lemkin as the most important.

Cultural genocide is the destruction of cultural, linguistic and religious characteristics of a certain group of people. Thus, Lemkin doesn’t consider cultural genocide separately from the context of its two other manifestations.

The words used by Morgenthau to denote genocide should be regarded as a starting point for the Armenian Genocide terminological system. The great humanist qualified Armenians’ horrific tragedy with the words that correspond to the term genocide: calamity, slaughter, massacre, destruction and so on. Actually, these are the words that are used in literature in English to characterize the Armenian Genocide. There arises a question: can these words represent the full content of the phenomenon and become its cognitive codes?

Cognitive linguistics gives the answer to this question.

This linguistic branch considers words, expressions and phrases as a starting point for analysis and interpretation and sees their cognitive value in the content nucleus of the above mentioned linguistic units. This method makes it possible to reveal the ciphered codes in the sound form of terms. These codes have universal value and significance and they foster the modern comprehension of the phenomenon, regardless of linguistic, cultural, ethnic and religious vision.

This approach enables to reach generalization through linguistic units common in cultures of different languages and to qualify “the nameless crime” (Winston Churchill) of the beginning of the 20th century with the term genocide.

We reckon that out of the 8 manifestations of genocide, the cultural one in particular doesn’t totally encompass all the atrocities committed in that province. The summary of the disasters that struck the Armenian nation’s spiritual and cultural heritage clarify the tragic scope of the cultural genocide.

1. annihilation of intellectuals

2. extermination of representatives of the spiritual and religious sphere

3. elimination of written and cultural values

4. desecration and demolition of religious and ecclesiastical buildings (monasteries, temples, chapels)

5. destruction of khachkars (Armenian cross-stones) - religious symbols of worship

6. desecration and demolition of national tombs and cemeteries

7. looting and embezzlement of sacred images, icons, precious ceremonial items

8. arson and elimination of ancient manuscripts, books, parchments, papers with religious content, epistles, manifestos.

9. requisition and arson of the Bible

10. suspense of activities of cultural hearths and their destruction (theatres, schools, educational institutions)

11. arson and demolition of monastic libraries, manuscript repositories.

What were the dangerous outcomes of the cultural genocide within the time and space frame?

12. banishment of Christian religion from the historic homeland

13. alienation and prohibition of mother tongue on historic territories

14. disguised national identity and community

15. termination of cultural and enlightenment activities in the historic homeland, etc.

When on 12 April 2015 Pope Francis served a Holy Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide and qualified the atrocities of Turks as genocide, changes were made in the dictionaries of political, social, diplomatic institutions of the world. Encyclopedia Britannica, having edited the article on the Armenian Genocide, replaced “Armenian Massacre” with the term “Armenian Genocide”. Similarly, on 24 April the German Bundestag formulated the great Armenian tragedy as “genocide”, while an Arab lawyer named it “Armenocide”.

The development of civilization may lead to the word “genocide” becoming an archaic or historical term; however, it will never be erased from peoples’ memory.