ARMENIANS ASK PACE TO RECOGNIZE 1915 EVENTS AS GENOCIDE

Today’s Zaman
April 30 2010
Turkey

A group of deputies at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe (PACE), led by the Armenian delegation, issued a written
declaration on Thursday calling for the recognition of events that
took place in Anatolia in 1915 as genocide.

The statement, signed by 26 deputies, asked members of PACE to
"take necessary steps for the recognition of the genocide perpetrated
against Armenians in the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th
century." The declaration has no binding effect on PACE.

The declaration says, "The year 2010 marks the 95th anniversary
of the Armenian genocide of 1915 and the fact [is] that the act of
recognition of this genocide contributes to respect for human dignity
and constitutes an act of prevention of crimes against humanity."

It claimed that a number of international bodies including the United
Nations, the European Parliament, parliaments of Council of Europe
member states including Sweden, Lithuania, Germany, Poland, the
Netherlands, Slovakia, Switzerland, France, Italy, Belgium, Greece,
Greek Cyprus and Russia, the US House of Representatives and 43 US
states, Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, Canada, Uruguay and Lebanon have
"demonstrated their unequivocal recognition of the Armenian genocide."

Deputies also asked PACE to recognize the genocide and argued
that "this will strongly contribute to an eventual similar act of
recognition by the Turkish authorities." "As a result, [it] will
lead to the normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey,"
the statement maintained. Representatives from a number of countries
including Germany, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, the UK, Ireland,
Bulgaria and Lithuania signed the declaration submitted by the
Armenian delegation.