U.S. RECOGNIZED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE In 1951, World Court Document Reveals
By Harut Sassounian
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12-06-2008 15:53:07
While President Bush and several of his predecessors
have avoided characterizing the organized mass
killings of Armenians in 1915 as genocide, it has
recently come to light that 57 years ago the United
States government officially recognized the Armenian
Genocide in a document submitted to the International
Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court.
This half a century old reference to the Armenian
Genocide was discovered by Prof. William A. Schabas
who posted it on the website "PhD Studies in Human
Rights," on June 4, 2008. Prof. Schabas, a world
renown expert on genocide and international law, is
director of The Irish Center for Human Rights at the
National University of Ireland, Galway.
This document, filed by the Government of the United
States with ICJ, is included in the May 28, 1951 ICJ
Report titled: "Reservations to the Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide."
The specific reference to the Armenian Genocide
appears on page 25 of the ICJ Report: "The Genocide
Convention resulted from the inhuman and barbarous
practices which prevailed in certain countries prior
to and during World War II, when entire religious,
racial and national minority groups were threatened
with and subjected to deliberate extermination. The
practice of genocide has occurred throughout human
history. The Roman persecution of the Christians, the
Turkish massacres of Armenians, the extermination of
millions of Jews and Poles by the Nazis are
outstanding examples of the crime of genocide."
This is a very significant statement as it was made by
the American government of that time with the sole
intent of telling the truth, without taking into
account any political or other considerations. Neither
Armenians nor Turks had lobbied for or against the
U.S. statement. In other words, it was simply made on
the basis of historical facts.
How different is the situation today when the White
House readily caves in to threats and pressures from
the Turkish government to prevent the House of
Representatives from passing a commemorative
resolution on the Armenian Genocide!
Now that this critical filing by the United States
government before the International Court of Justice
has been discovered, it is no longer necessary to
exert excessive efforts to try and reaffirm the facts
of the Armenian Genocide by the U.S. Congress,
particularly since the House of Representatives
adopted Resolutions 247 and 148 in 1975 and 1984
respectively, to commemorate the Armenian Genocide.
Furthermore, there is no particular reason to insist
that the next President of the United States
acknowledge the Armenian Genocide since President
Ronald Reagan, back on April 22, 1981, issued
Presidential Proclamation Number 4838 which stated:
"Like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and the
genocide of the Cambodians which followed it – and
like too many other such persecutions of too many
other peoples – the lessons of the Holocaust must
never be forgotten."