Divers Bulletin no. 15 (143) / April 25, 2005
News
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COMMEMORATED IN ROMANIA
BUCHAREST – On April 24, Armenians in Romania celebrated 90 years since
the first genocide of the 20th century, when several hundred thousand
Armenians were killed or forced to leave their homes. “The road was full
of children, starving children, they could not go on, children thrown
away on the fields … This is a very sad story. We will forget about this
once we die and another generation comes along. But the people who
actually lived these moments cannot forget. It is impossible”,
remembered Agop Cividian, an ethnic Armenian in Romania who lived the
drama of the genocide against his people. His memories are included in
the volume “Faces of the city. Life-history in Bucharest” (author Zoltan
Rostas) and is one of the few true testimonies published in Romanian on
the tragedy 90 years ago.
The history of the Armenian genocide is not enough known, not in lack of
enough proofs but because the subject is considered touchy, especially
politically speaking.
The genocide against the Armenians was for the first time acknowledged
by Uruguay in 1965, being followed by other 13 countries, by World
Church Council, by the International People’s Courthouse, by UN
Sub-commission for human rights and by the European Parliament in 1987.
As a symbolic gesture, Holland acknowledged the genocide in December
2004, while being at the presidency of the European Union.
Government of Turkey has repeatedly denied the genocide in the past ten
years and spent important amounts of money to prove this actually had
not taken place. Turkey’s current efforts to be accepted to accede to
the European Union are somehow affected by the refusal to acknowledge
the genocide against the Armenians.
Senator Varujan Vosganian, one of the representatives of the Armenians’
Union in Romania held a speech during Senate meeting on April 18, 2005,
urging Romania to acknowledge the Armenians genocide: “Within this
humanist perspective and of democratization of the international law,
taking the example of other countries in the membership countries of the
European Union, the Parliament of Romania might start-up the procedures
to officially acknowledge the genocide in 1915”. “May this day be for
all an occasion to understand these facts cannot repeat, that nobody,
nowhere should suffer from having born a certain nationality”, concludes
Vosganian.
Author: DIVERS
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