DASHNAKCUTYUN: RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE NOT ANTI-TURKISH POLICY

ARKA
March 5, 2010

YEREVAN, March 5. / ARKA /. The policy of international recognition
of the Armenian Genocide is not anti-Turkish, said a representative of
the Supreme Body of Dashnakcutyun, chairman of the Standing Committee
of the Armenian Parliament on Foreign Relations Armen Rustamyan.

"Turkey must understand that the process of international recognition
of the Armenian Genocide is not an anti-Turkish process. This is
a policy condemning crimes against humanity. No one considers the
recognition of the Holocaust as an anti-German policy," Roustamyan
said on Friday at a press conference at the International Press
Center Novosti.

Committee on Foreign Affairs of the U.S. Congress approved the
resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide on March 4.

For the adoption of the resolution on the Armenian Genocide there
were 23 congressmen, and 22 were against it.

The document, consisting of 30-points document (resolution number 252)
calls upon the U.S. President to accept decent decisions on those
matters that relate to human rights and freedoms, ethnic cleansing
and the genocide of Armenians.

According to the deputy, Turkey considers the process of recognition
of the Genocide as being aimed against the Turkish state and people
and constantly imposes sanctions, including economic ones as well,
against countries that recognize the Genocide, and classifies some
states to the number of its enemies.

As Roustamyan recalled, it is precisely for this reason that some U.S.

corporations fearing multi-billion dollar losses have requested not
to vote on the resolution.

A number of corporate aviation and military industries in the U.S.

have sent letters to lawmakers of the U.S. Congress, urging not to
adopt a resolution on the Armenian Genocide on the eve of voting on
a resolution recognizing the genocide.

Armenian genocide (1915-1923) was the first genocide committed in
XX century.

Turkey rejects the accusation of massacres and the killing of one
and a half million Armenians during World War I.

As a result of massacres and deportations about 1.5 million people
were killed, 350 thousands of Armenians fled to the Caucasus and Europe
and 150 thousand of the 2 million Armenians were left in Turkey living
there at the beginning of XX century.

The fact of the Armenian genocide is recognized by many countries,
particularly by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, 42 of the 50 U.S.

states, as well as by the parliaments of Greece, Cyprus, Argentina,
Belgium, Wales, National Council of Switzerland, Common House of
Canada, the Seym of Poland and lower house of Italian parliament.