AZG Armenian Daily #072, 22/04/2005
Armenian Genocide
JUAN MENDES TO PLAY MUM
Jews Would not Tolerate Such Offensive Speech from Special Adviser
about Holocaust
One cannot label the speech of Juan Mendes, UN special adviser on the
prevention of genocide, at the international conference dedicated
to the Armenian Genocide anything but offensive and hollow. The
impression from Mendes’ speech was that it was written for general
usage and that he reads that text at other conferences as well.
Participants of “Ultimate Crime, Ultimate Challenge. Human Rights and
Genocide” international conference were also amazed and irritated at
Mendes’ speech. During the break, particularly Armenian historians
and political and state figures said that “Mendes make such a speech
in Turkey” or “he could prepare a better speech”.
If the UN secretary general’s special adviser on the prevention of
genocide have made such a speech on Holocaust, he would have been
immediately silenced. Mendes never mentioned Armenian genocide nor
did he use Armenian massacre, suffering or similar definitions.
Juan Mendes was, by the way, received by RA President on April
20. Without hiding his impudence, the special adviser told Robert
Kocharian that his participation in the Yerevan conference testifies
to the fact that there is great desire to understand and assess
what happened with the Armenian people in the beginning of the last
century. Mendes said that people’s historic memory is a good helper
in this issue and will enable the international community to fully
clarify the events.
According to press service of RA President, Kocharian noted that no
eyewitness of the Genocide casts suspicion on its essence, and the
Armenian people only revives world community’s memory. Kocharian said
that Armenia still pins great hopes on the international community
to make just assessment of the fact of Armenian Genocide.
First foreign speakers of the conference condemned actions against
the Armenian people in Turkey. Alfred de Zayas, former secretary
of UN Human Rights Commission, noted that the Turks massacred 1.5
million Armenians under the veil of military actions during the WW
I. Zayas said that Turkey keeps occupied the Armenian lands, Armenian
cultural legacy remains in the territory of Turkey and the Armenian
nation has the right to take all back. He noted that the Armenian
churches are turning into mosques and then posed a rhetoric question:
what would happen if Germany turned Jewish synagogues into churches?
William Schabas, director of Irish Human Rights Center at the National
University of Ireland, underscored that the pogroms of Armenians
in 1915 fall under term “genocide”. A Japanese professor, Hiroyshi
Segava, noted that the en masse massacre of the Armenians should be
defined as genocide.
By Tatoul Hakobian