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While speaking at the 2019 Munich Security Conference, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi of Egypt mentioned Egypt’s role in welcoming refugees of the Armenian Genocide more than a century ago, to illustrate his country’s storied history in helping people displaced by conflict or war,  Asbarez reports.

“In Egypt, we have 5 million refugees [registered and unregistered], who do not live in camps. They have been treated as we dealt with Armenians [refugees] 100 years ago, when Egypt hosted them after the massacres,” Sisi said during a panel on Saturday.

The Armenian National Committee of Egypt labeled el-Sisi’s statement as a “first step” toward Egypt’s official recognition of the Armenian Genocide, while stressing that Egyptian leader did not mention the word “genocide” in his presentation.

“Although the Egyptian president did not use the term ‘genocide.’ he did however take the first step in this direction, by seeing the need to mention it in light of current realities,” the Armenian National Committee of Egypt said in an annoucement.

“Initially he spoke about Egypt having accepted Armenian refugees, however he did not speak about the reason. The Armenian National Committee of Egypt commends this step of the Egyptian president, assessing it not only as a pre-step towards recognizing the Armenian Genocide, but also as the Middle East’s and Northern Africa’s main actor’s positive response and vow to join the civilized initiative of the Republic of Armenia on preventing and banning future genocides,” added the ANC of Egypt’s statement.

“We join our voice to President el-Sisi, demanding to hold to account those who encourage terror organizations and those who shatter peoples’ fates,” said the statement.

Siran Hartunian, a member of the Armenian Community in Egypt, also commented on Sisi’s statement during the local “90 Minutes” television program on Sunday, saying that “Egypt’s recognition of the Armenian massacres – as other countries have- will return the rights of 1.5 million martyrs killed by the Turks,” reported the Egyptian Street online publication.

Egypt, which has an Armenian community that is rich in history, has not formally recognized the genocide of the Armenian Genocide, but was the first Arab country to recognize Armenia’s independence in 1991.