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THE GENOCIDE: PUNISHMENT, RECOGNITION AND DEMANDS

Declarations of Recognition - Governments

August 1983 - The World Council of Churches on its 6th assembly in Vancouver - Canada, adopts a motion in favor to the recognition by the U.N., of the Armenian Genocide.

January 1984 - The President of France, F. Mitteran, during a speech refers to the Armenian Genocide. It is the first time that a state president recognizes the fact of the Armenian Genocide.

16 April 1984 - The Permanent Peoples' Tribunal finds Turkey guilty of committing the crime of genocide and calls upon the United Nations and its member states to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

10 September 1984 - The United States House of Representatives, approves House Joint Resolution 247, calling on the President of the United States to proclaim April 24,1985 as a "National Day of Remembrance of Man's Inhumanity to Man", with a specific reference to the observance of this day as a memorial to the 1.500.000 Armenians who were victims of the genocide perpetrated in Turkey between 1915 and 1923.

May 1985 - The Congress of Uruguay adopts a resolution about the Armenian Genocide.

June 1985 - The Congress of Argentina adopts a resolution about the Armenian Genocide.

August 1985 - The U.N. sub-commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, adopts a report on genocide, which declares that the extermination of the Armenians in 1915 is an example of genocide. It is the first time that the recognition of the Armenian Genocide is stated in an official U.N. document.

18 June 1987 - The European Parliament adopts a resolution for a political solution to the Armenian Question. Within the resolution the E.P. recognizes the Armenian Genocide.

April 1990 - The Parliament of Cyprus condemns the Armenian Genocide and declares the 24th of April as a national memorial day for the Armenian Genocide.

22 April 1994 - The Russian Parliament unanimously passes a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide as being the "first instance of genocide in this century".

1994 - Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Bilin announces to the Israeli knesset, his government's position that the extermination of the Armenians was "certainly massacre and genocide, something that the world must remember".

14 April 1995 - The Russian State Duma recognizes the Armenian Genocide and unanimously votes a relevant resolution.

20 April 1995 - The Parliament of Bulgaria officially recognizes the Armenian Genocide.

23 April 1996 - The Parliament of Canada, declares the week from 20 to 27 April of every year as a week of remembrance of the inhumanity of people toward one other, with reference to the Armenian Genocide that started on April 24, 1915.

25 April 1996 - The Parliament of Greece recognizes the Armenian Genocide.

5 June 1996 - The United States House of Representatives, adopts a resolution where the economical aid for 1997 to Turkey is reduced from 25 million 3 million US dollars, until the latter recognizes the Armenian Genocide.

April 1997 - The Lebanese Parliament unanimously approved a resolution, calling for the commemoration of the 82nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish government at the beginning of the century. The resolution is the first step toward a complete recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the Lebanese government, and the subsequent condemnation of relentless Turkish denial tactics. 

17 April 1997 - The New South Wales Parliament passes unanimously a Motion commemorating and condemning the 1915 Genocide of the Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish Government. The following is the full text of the motion:

Whereas 24 April 1997 marks the occasion of the 82nd anniversary of the commemoration of the Genocide of the Armenians by the then Ottoman Turkish Government between 1915-1922; This House:- 

1. Join the members of the New South Wales Armenian Community in honoring the memory of the 1.5 million men, women and children who fell victim of the first genocide of the 20th century; 

2. Condemn the Genocide of the Armenians and all other acts of genocide committed during our century as the ultimate act of racial, religious and cultural intolerance; 

3. Recognize the importance of remembering and learning from such dark chapters in human history to ensure that such crimes against humanity are not allowed to repeated;

4. Condemn and prevent all attempts to use the passage of time to deny or distort the historical truth of the Genocide of the Armenians and other acts of genocide committed during this century; 

5. Designate 24 April in every year hereafter throughout New South Wales as a day of remembrance of the 1.5 million Armenians who fell victim to the first genocide of this century; 

6. Call on the Commonwealth Government officially to condemn the Genocide of the Armenians and any attempts to deny such crimes against humanity. 

2l April 1997 - The California State Assembly passes a legislation (ACR-51) designating April 24, 1997 as "California Day of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide of 1915 to 1923." The text of the Resolution follows: 

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 51 

Whereas, The Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923 was the first genocide of the 20th Century, in which 1.5 million men, women, and children lost their lives of the hands of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, and 

Whereas, During the seven decades of the USSR’s existence, the government of Soviet Azerbaijan conducted a systematic policy of removal of Karabakh Armenians from their historic homeland,” and 

Whereas, Armenians in Azerbaijan fell victim to the Sumgait Pogroms in 1988 resulting in 72 deaths, the Baku anti-Armenian riots in 1990 resulting in 68 Armenian deaths, and the mass deportations of 350,000 Armenians from Azerbaijan, and 

Whereas, Recognition of these instances of man’s inhumanity to man is crucial to ensuring against the repetition of genocide and provides the American public with a greater understanding of its heritage; and 

Whereas, Armenians in the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh remain at risk of yet another genocide until the time a peaceful resolution to Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is reached the guarantees the freedom and security for these people while supporting their right to self-determination; and 

Whereas, Despite the abundance of overwhelming and convincing evidence, the government of Turkey persists in denying the occurrence of the Armenian Genocide; and United States, and Armenians living in California have enriched our state through their leadership in business, agriculture, academic, government and the Arts; now, therefore, be it 

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the Legislature of the State of California hereby designates April 24, 1997, as “California Day of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923, and for the victims of the Sumgait Pogroms of 1988 and Baku Riots of 1990”; and be it further 

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the governor and to the Armenian Genocide Commemorative Committee.

April 1997 - The Kurdish Parliament in Exile, passed a resolution recognizing and marking the Armenian Genocide. Below is the entire text of that resolution, which is being reprinted in its entirety and without any editorial posturing.

In Kurdistan, together with the Kurdish people, live Assyrian-Syrians as well as Armenians.

Invasion, occupation and division of Kurdistan, has not only affected the Kurds but also the Assyrian-Syrians as well as the Armenian peoples. Imposed colonialist policies have set these people against the Kurdish people and against each other, have created clashes and forced deportations and exiles. In our country, by setting the peoples against each other, the bloodiest imposed period of colonialist policies is 1915 and the few years following that. 

On April 24, 1915, the decision of mass genocide and annihilation of the Assyrian-Syrian and the Armenian peoples was taken by the Ottoman Empire. 

The blueprints of and the logistics for this genocide being prepared ahead of time, they employed Hamidiye Alaylari from Kurdish tribes (Similar to the present day Village Guards system who kill our people) to commit history’s, until then unknown, Genocide. In this Genocide, millions of Armenians and Assyrian-Syrians were killed, and millions others were deported from their homes and land and scattered to the four corners of the world. 

The Turkish State which practices policies of setting peoples and people of diverse opinions against each other, still pursues the same repulsive policies at the end of the 20th century. Similar to setting-up Alevis and Sunnis against each other, they set-up the Kurdish people against each other through their creation, the Village Guards, which consist of Kurdish Jahshs. Separately, through their diverse assaults to annihilate the Kurdish people, they are registering new pages in the annals of genocides. 

The Turkish State regime, from history to our days, has worked against the peoples, as if a guilty party, and with her committed genocides has changed the demographics of Anatolia causing the demise of many cultures-civilizations. The same policies are being applied in Kurdistan today. I call upon the world public opinion to become aware of this Turkish State policies and vehemently oppose it. 

Today is the 82nd anniversary of the genocide committed against the Assyrian-Syrian and Armenian peoples. Sharing the agony caused by this process, I find the Ottoman State and their collaborators the Hamidiye Alaylari, formed by some Kurdish tribes, responsible for this crime before history and I condemn them with abhorrence. Zubeyir Aydar Chairman of the Executive Committee 

13 June 1997 - The Association of Genocide Scholars during its second international conference, unanimously adoptsa resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide and condemning its denial by the Turkish Government and its official and unofficial agents and supporters.

22 November 1997 - The Municipal Council of Milano, Italy adopts a resolution through which it condemns the Armenian Genocide and asks from the Italian Government to recognize the Armenian Genocide as many other countries and organizations have done.

26 March 1998 - The Belgian Senate passes a resolution calling on the Turkish government to "recognise the reality of the Genocide perpetrated in 1915 by the last government of the Ottoman Empire".

29 March 2000 - The parliament of Sweden passed a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide. The Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Swedish Parliament states in its committee report, which the Parliament accepted as its own:

"An official statement and recognition ot the Genocide of the Armenians is important and necessary. In 1985, the UN and the European Parliament established the fact that the Ottoman Empire had committed genocide against the Armenian People in the beginning of the 20th century. The Committe on Foreign Affairs is of the opinion that the greater openness that Turkey presents, the stronger Turkey's democratic identity will be. It is therefore important that unbiassed, independent and international research on the genocide that affected the Armenian people will be accomplished.

It is of great importance that an increasing openness and historical understanding of the events of 1915 and thereafter can be developed. An improvement in this respect would also be of importance for the stability and the development in the whole Caucaus region."

January 2001 - The French parliament adopted a law stating: "France publicly recognizes the Armenian genocide of 1915." It was signed by President Jacques Chirac, a conservative, and Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.

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