CYPRUS: ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIAL PENALISED, DESPITE OBJECTIONS
03 April, 2015
The House of Representatives amended a 2011 bill on genocide denial
and crimes against humanity on Thursday, by penalising such acts
without prior conviction by an international court, making Cyprus
the fourth European country after Switzerland, Slovakia and Greece
to criminalise denial of the Armenian Genocide by the Turks in 1915.
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The European Parliament also passed a relevant resolution on March 12.
During an early-day session, House President Yiannakis Omirou, who
was hosting the Armenian National Assembly Speaker Galoust Sahakyan,
called it a historic day, noting that this legislation “allows the
parliament to restore, with unanimous decisions and resolutions,
historical truths.”
While on an official trip to Armenia last November, Omirou promised
his Armenian counterpart that Cyprus would criminalise the denial of
the Armenian Genocide.
He also took the extraordinary decision to chair the House Legal
Affairs committee meeting on Monday, where the amendment was approved
and forward to the plenary session for a vote, after what seemed to
be lobbying against the bill by some diplomatic circles.
Daily Simerini had reported a week ago that the Presidency wanted
to block the amendment, citing conflict with the Republic’s foreign
policy affairs. But reports suggested that the pressure had actually
come from some western diplomatic missions in Nicosia, in an effort
not to upset Turkey.
Omirou’s intervention helped allay fears from the two leading political
parties, ruling DISY and communist AKEL, that criminalising genocide
denial could hamper peace talks with the Turkish Cypriots, that may
resume after a six-month break. Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades
pulled out of the UN-sponsored talks when Turkey sent its exploration
vessel, the Barbaros, into the Republic’s Exclusive Economic Zone. Now
that the vessel has left Cyprus waters, the government in Nicosia
expects UN mediators to help in the resumption of talks, but after
a new Turkish Cypriot leadership has been elected in elections on
April 27.
The Representative of the Armenian Community in the House of
Representatives, Vartkes Mahdessian, welcomed the resolution and
said that on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the massacres
by Ottoman Turks, the Cyprus parliament made a historic decision
unanimously passing a Law making the denial of the Armenian Genocide
a criminal offence.
He remarked that in 1975 the Cyprus House of Representatives became the
first parliament in Europe and the second in the world, to recognise
the Armenian Genocide.
Cyprus recognised the Armenian Genocide in 1975 with a resolution
adopted by the Parliament, which was repeated in 1982, whereas in 1990
the Parliament unanimously adopted another resolution which set the
24th of April as the national day to commemorate the Armenian Genocide.
On January 26, 1965, then Foreign Minister and later Speaker of the
House and Republic President Spyros Kyprianou, raised the issue of
recognition of the Genocide at the UN General Assembly Meanwhile,
DISY sources dismissed the notion, as reported by Simerini, that
Omirou and the presidency were at odds over amending the law.
The only reservations the President had was that the government was
not consulted on the matter, which pertains to foreign policy.
The Cyprus Mail quoted DISY sources as refuting media reports that
MPs had argued in the committee against criminalising denial because
it might anger the Turkish Cypriots and Turkey, particularly at this
juncture when peace talks may resume.
Under the law, the denial or “flagrant downgrading” of recognised
war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, provided the crime
has been recognised by an international court, is punishable by up
to five years imprisonment and/or a fine of EURO 10,000.
International organisations officially recognising the Armenian
Genocide include the European Parliament, the Council of Europe,
and the World Council of Churches.