TWENTY YEARS AGO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RECOGNIZED THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

ArmRadio.am
18.06.2007 16:25

Twenty years ago today, on June 18, 1987, the European Parliament
became the first major international body to recognize the Armenian
Genocide, during its plenary session in Strasbourg, voting on a
momentous resolution paving the way "for a political solution of the
Armenian issue." After extensive deliberations and resisting immense
pressures from Turkey and its hired guns, the European legislators
set the record straight on this first genocide of modern times and
delivered a landmark victory for justice that Armenians in Europe and,
indeed, all over the world have been fighting for.

To mark this important anniversary, and to re-think the goals of the
task ahead, the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy
announces the Second Convention of European Armenians, which will take
place on October 15-16, 2007 at the European Parliament in Brussels.

Twenty years after this historic accomplishment, and fifteen years
after the re-birth of Armenian independence, the Convention will
gather European Armenian grass-roots organizations and prominent
personalities from all corners of Europe to focus on the current
political priorities of the European Armenian community ranging from
Turkey’s European ambitions while persistently denying the Armenian
Genocide and persecuting its minorities to Turkey’s continuing blockade
of Armenia, the Karabakh negotiations, the European Neighborhood
policies in the region and the prospects of peace and stability in
the South Caucasus.

The Federation recalls that a key conclusion of the 1987 resolution
made clear in no uncertain terms that "the refusal by the present
Turkish Government to acknowledge the genocide against the Armenian
people committed by the Young Turk government, its reluctance to apply
the principles of international law to its differences of opinion
with Greece, the maintenance of Turkish occupation forces in Cyprus
and the denial of existence of the Kurdish question, together with
the lack of true parliamentary democracy and the failure to respect
individual and collective freedoms, in particular freedom of religion,
in that country are insurmountable obstacles to consideration of the
possibility of Turkey’s accession to the [European] Community."

"Today, twenty years after the passage of the resolution of 18
June 1987, this paragraph could be restated word for word by the
Parliament without the slightest hesitation", declared Hilda Tchoboian,
the Chairperson of the European Armenian Federation. "The European
leadership should take note of the fact that in twenty years Turkey has
shown no evidence of progress on any of the stated issues," she added.

The Second Convention of European Armenians will pay a vibrant tribute
to all the key leaders of 1987 who acted courageously to deliver
the Parliament’s historic decision. Paule Duport, Henri Saby, Ernest
Glinne, Alfred Coste-Floret, René Piquet, Jaak Vandemeulebroucke,
Stan Newens, Francis Wurtz and all others who carried the torch
through painful deliberations. "As citizens of modern Europe, it
is our privilege to honor these MEP’s, visionary men and women, who
voted their conscience on that day and positioned the Parliament at
the most revered ethical standards of European values," concluded
Hilda Tchoboian.

–Boundary_(ID_98P6QVJEkbe1OhTo/SK+AQ) —