ARF SUBMITS BILL TO PARLIAMENT ON GENOCIDE REPARATIONS
By Asbarez
News.am
Apr 26th, 2010
YEREVAN
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation’s parliamentary faction has
submitted a draft resolution to the Armenian National Assembly making
it a crime to deny the Armenian Genocide and raising the issue of
reparations for the crime, committed by the Ottoman Turkish government
nearly a century ago.
The bill also envisages the formation of a special state commission
tasked with pursuing the international recognition of the Armenian
Genocide.
Representatives of key parliamentary forces in Armenia mostly welcomed
the bill. Larisa Alaversyan of the opposition Heritage Party told
news.am that the adoption of the bill would create further precedent
for Armenia’s application to the Court of International Arbitration
on the issue. "At present, we deal with the issue of Armenian Genocide
from the scientific and historical aspects rather than from the legal
one," Alaverdyan said, adding that "the Armenian nation must have
such a law for similar crimes to be prevented in the future."
The head of Prosperous Armenia’s parliamentary faction, Aram Safaryan,
echoed Alaversyan’s sentiments but stopped short of supporting the
criminalizing of genocide denial in Armenia. "It would be a paradox
to deny the fact in Armenia," he said. "I think that it is other
countries’ Parliaments that have to adopt laws providing criminal
responsibility for denying the Armenian Genocide."
Hovhannes Margaryan of the Country of Law faction similarly supported
the initiative, saying that a "relevant law has to be adopted in
Armenia."
In 1988 the Supreme Council of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic
adopted a resolution declaring April 24 a day of commemoration for
the victims of the Armenian Genocide.