ARMENIANS HAVE MORAL DUTY IN PREVENTION OF GENOCIDES

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.02.2010 20:42 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenians, as a people that have survived the
Genocide, have a moral duty towards mankind and history in the
prevention of genocides, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said in
his speech at Chatham House, Royal Institute of International Affairs.

"We have done and will continue to do our best to support the
persistent implementation of the Genocide Convention. Genocide cannot
concern only one people, because it is a crime against humanity,"
he stated.

As Armenian President reminded, Great Britain, Russia, and France
were the co-authors of a joint statement issued in May 1915 that
labelled the massacres and atrocities against Armenians as "crimes
against humanity and civilization."

"Yesterday, I was inquired about how one should present facts related
to the Armenian Genocide to Great Britain, and whether Great Britain,
by recognizing the Armenian Genocide, would not harm security in the
Caucasus. As to my interlocutor’s concern about Genocide recognition
undermining security, I said to him that it would be analogous to
suggesting a choice between security and a system of values. I believe
that lasting security is possible in our region only if it is built
on a deeply-understood system of values," Armenian leader concluded.

The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic
destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during
and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and
deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to
lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths
reaching 1.5 million.

The date of the onset of the genocide is conventionally held to be
April 24, 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities arrested some 250
Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople.

Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes
and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of
food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria.

To date, twenty countries and 44 U.S. states have officially recognized
the events of the period as genocide, and most genocide scholars
and historians accept this view. The Armenian Genocide has been also
recognized by influential media including The New York Times, BBC,
The Washington Post and The Associated Press.

The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the
Genocide survivors.

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime
of Genocide was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in
December 1948 as General Assembly Resolution 260. The Convention came
into effect in January 1951. It defines genocide in legal terms, and
is the culmination of years of campaigning by lawyer Raphael Lemkin,
who coined the term by reference to the Simele massacre, the Holocaust,
and the Armenian Genocide. All participating countries are advised to
prevent and punish actions of genocide in war and in peacetime. The
number of states that have ratified the convention is currently 140.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress