PRESS RELEASE
UN Department of Public Information, Yerevan Office
14 Petros Adamyan str., First Floor
Yerevan 375010, Armenia
Contact: Armine Halajyan, UN DPI Officer in Charge
Tel.: (374 1) 560 212
Fax/Tel.: (374 1) 561 406
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The International Recognition of Genocides as a Means of Prevention
Yerevan, 14 April, 2009 – `Areg’ Scientific-Cultural Youth Association with
the support of the UN Department of Public Information organized a
round-table discussion entitled `The International Recognition of Genocides
as a Means of Prevention’.
The massacre of Armenians carried out by the Ottoman Turks became a signal
for the international community to prevent people from such crimes; the term
`genocide’ was coined and circulated within historical, political and legal
framework, while on 9 December, 1948 the United Nations Organization adopted
the `Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide’
being convinced that international cooperation for liberating humanity from
that terrible tragedy is an utmost necessity.
A little after the 60th anniversary of the Convention, throwing a glance on
the series of genocides we get persuaded that unpunished crimes have the
habit of being repeated. Thus, the Armenian case became a precedent for the
Jewish Holocaust, the Rwanda Genocide and other similar crimes, while its
international recognition would have probably put an end to this hideous
crime against humanity.
The round-table speakers were the Head of the International Organizations
Department of MFA, Dziunik Aghajanyan, the Deputy Director of the Armenian
Genocide Museum-Institute Suren Manukyan, and the Officer-in-Charge of UN
Department of Public Information Armine Halajyan. They referred to the
efforts of the Republic of Armenia to get international recognition of the
Armenian Genocide, touched upon the struggle against denial, and the role of
the UN in preventing genocide. During the discussion that followed the
participants – representatives of NGOs, mass media and students among them,
expressed their righteous resentment towards crimes against humanity and
expressed their solidarity with the victims of genocide. Indifference and
unwillingness to prevent give way to new crimes culminating in genocides.
Crimes should be named accordingly and the perpetrators should be punished.
The participants also mentioned that to accomplish the above-mentioned
cooperation of all nations is required. That is the means to get away with
genocide.
In these days the 15th Anniversary of Genocide in Rwanda is being
commemorated all around the world. On this occasion the UN Secretary General
said in his message: `=85 The United Nations continues its vital work to
avert
future tragedies. We have intensified our focus on conflict prevention, and
built up our mediation capacity. =85 Preventing genocide is a collective
responsibility. Only by meeting this challenge can we match the resolve of
the survivors and truly honour the memory of those who died in Rwanda 15
years ago.’
Having in mind the above mentioned, and on the threshold of the upcoming
Armenian Genocide anniversary it is quite appropriate to once again bring to
the attention of the international community and especially of youth on the
inhuman phenomenon of genocide to UNDERSTAND, RECOGNIZE and PREVENT it.
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress