YEREVAN, APRIL 23, ARMENPRESS. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Edward Nalbandian has delivered an address at the conclusion of the Global Forum “Against the Crime of Genocide”. The Press, Information and Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia informed “Armenpress” that the Minister’s address runs as follows:

“Honarable President of National Assembly,

Your Eminences,

Distinguished guests,

Distinguished participants of the Forum,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to thank all participants of the Forum and express special gratitude to the moderators of all three panels of these two days - Luis Moreno Ocampo, Geoffrey Robertson, Frank Chalk, Patrick Devedjian, Nikolay Rizhkov, and to you - dear Baroness Cox, as well as to those panelists, parliamentarians, spiritual leaders, political scientists, experts who addressed the Forum. The variety, depth and substance of the messages lift even the slightest doubt that the fight of the international community against genocides and crimes against humanity has no alternative.

During the last hundred years the horrible experiences of humanity, the epochal shifts in international politics, novel perceptions of human rights in global political processes reaffirm that prevention of genocides should be one of the prime goals of the mankind. As President Serge Sargsyan stated in his important opening address, this is the reason why, in conjunction with the organization of the events in Armenia commemorating the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, we also give a pivotal importance to our increased involvement to the international efforts towards the prevention of genocides. That is why one of the most important messages that we want to address to the entire world is the imperative of genocide prevention as a noble goal uniting the civilized world, past and present generations. It should not be subjected to any political interests and should not be marginalized, irrespective of the political agendas of the time. Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe in his yesterday’s remarks highly valued the contribution of Armenia to the international prevention efforts and called on for the continuation of those efforts.

It is a common knowledge that if we do not wish to allow the repetition of genocides, we are obliged to identify those preconditions that resulted in committing past genocides. A number of participants of the forum thoroughly touched upon the reasons feeding that horrendous crime. International reaction following the Armenian Genocide contributed to the awareness raising amongst judicial and social circles on the crime of crimes, or as William Schabas put it the most extreme form of the crime against humanity - the genocide. In this regard Daniel Feirstein revealed an interesting fact that the Armenian Genocide lays in the foundational goals of the Association of the Genocide Scholars.

I would like to once again recall, as it was mentioned during the opening of the forum, that the May 24th, 1915 special declaration of Russia, France and Great Britain characterized what had happened to the Armenians as a “crime against humanity and civilization.” In 1919 the Ottoman Tribunal’s indictment held the leaders of the Young Turks personally responsible for organizing the large-scale massacres of the Armenians. In 1929 Winston Churchill characterized the Armenian massacres as a “holocaust” and added that “this crime was planned and executed for political reasons. The opportunity presented itself for clearing these territories of a Christian race.” As one of the participants of our forum - Donna Lee Frieze, presented in a detailed manner, later on Rafael Lemkin invented the term “genocide” referring to what happened to Armenians.

The Armenian Genocide was widely condemned by the international community. That reaction equally resonated in the European states, the USA and Russia, as well as in the Arab world. A number of intellectuals, statesmen, public and religious activists drew attention to the inadmissibility of what had been committed against Armenians, urging the great powers to punish the masterminds of the Armenian Genocide and create conditions conducive to the elimination of the consequences of that calamity. The participants of our Forum Henry Theriault and Patrick Dumberry addressed the legal aspects of this issue. The international reaction testified that what had happened to the Armenians was perceived not only as a grief of one nation, but as a crime committed against humanity. As Yair Auron rightly mentioned the recognition of the Armenian Genocide is not an issue between Armenians and Turks, it is an issue for whole humanity.

However, the atrocities of the 20th century that followed the Armenian genocide were not prevented. The reason for that and the main lesson to be learned is that the international genocide prevention efforts did not exert the necessary determination, consistence and solidarity, and the relevant political and legal conclusions were not made.

Dear participants of the Forum,

On March 27 in Geneva the UN Human Rights Council adopted by consensus the Genocide Prevention Resolution initiated by Armenia and co-authored by 71 states. It occupies an important place within the context of the joint prevention efforts of the international community. It defines the primary measures for genocide prevention, which were reflected also in the Armenia-initiated UN Human Rights Council Genocide Prevention Resolutions of previous years.

The diagnosis of genocidal atmosphere and creation of effective mechanisms of early warning must have their firm place on the agenda of the international and regional organizations. Yesterday Professor Israel Charny, Director of Jerusalem Institute of the Holocaust delivered an impressive presentation on this topic. During the last decade both the United Nations, and specialized Human Rights organizations have made a considerable progress in improving early warning and assessment capacities. The continuity of these achievements should be guaranteed. At the same time it should be accompanied by creation of concrete mechanisms of deterrence. Unfortunately the violence executed by extremists in the Middle East, the brutalities against civilian population which remind us of the past horrors and the vandalism against millennia-old civilizational values demonstrate that the international community still has much to do in this regard. Here I would like to thank Frank Chalk for comprehensively addressing these issues.

The next important dimension of the genocide prevention is the improvement of the human rights protection mechanisms as well as deepening of tolerance both inside societies and in relations among different peoples. Strengthening of democracy, protection of the rights of ethnic and religious minorities and their fair representation are those firm pillars that if fortified and fostered may eliminate the destructive intentions of even the most extremist groups and ideologies. Consistency in countering xenophobia, discrimination, dissemination of hostilities is indispensable to exclude the emergence of genocidal atmosphere because the seeds of the evil of genocide are fed by those gravely negative phenomena.

One of the important dimensions of prevention of genocides is raising awareness through educational programs and remembrance. Remembrance is important also in eliminating the consequences of the genocide, Turkish intellectual Cengiz Aktar made an interesting presentation in this regard. Here, I would like to extend a special gratitude to Madam Esther Mujawayo, survivor of the Rwandan Genocide for her exclusive address on the complications of psychological aspects in eliminating the consequences of genocides. I remember her making a no less touching address a year ago at the High Level meeting of the UN Human Rights Council initiated by Armenia and dedicated to the genocide prevention.

When we speak about raising awareness of genocides we should clearly realize that without the recognition, condemnation and elimination of consequences of past genocides any steps would remain as half-done. In this respect we can state with confidence that today one of the challenges facing humanity is surmounting denial of genocides, about which Michael Bohlander made a thorough speech. The strife against this condemnable issue is as important as countering the creation of the genocidal atmosphere, or as the efforts to prevent the mass atrocities themselves. These issues were thoroughly touched upon by Donald Bloxham. I would like once again to recall the wise words of Pope Francis I during the Mass in St. Peter’s Cathedral on the occasion of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide: “Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it.”

Attempts of denial of genocide and crimes against humanity under the guise of freedom of expression are equally condemnable. Nowadays, the minimization of the suffering of the victims, trivialization of the scale of the losses and equation of the sufferings of the victims and the perpetrators are among the tools applied for denial. Recently we have been often witnessing this new strategy of denial. As Roger Smith correctly noted the tactics of denial are refined while the arguments have remained the same.

Dear participants of the Forum,

One of the main elements of the UN Human Rights Council Genocide Prevention resolution is the condemnation of denial of genocide and crimes against humanity. Denial makes the incumbent authorities accomplices to the crimes committed in the past. Denial is not opening the door to reconciliation, it is opening the door to new crimes against humanity. Yair Auron made valuable observations on this topic. It is noteworthy that Rakip Zarakolu in his yesterday's address compared the policy of the Turkish Government to Janissary March – one step forward, two steps back. 

Dear participants of the Forum,

I am confident that the ideas and recommendations made during the Forum will have an important contribution to the international efforts of the genocide prevention. I would like to extend special thanks to His Holiness Garegin II and the clergy for their valuable participation to the Forum. I would like to express my gratitude to the President of the National Assembly of Armenia Galust Sahakyan and to all parliamentarians from around the world for their important contributions to the work of the Forum.

Concluding my address, I would like to recall with gratitude very important documents adopted in the course of the last month alone - the Genocide Prevention Resolution of the UN Human Rights Council, the European Parliament Resolution, the statement of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and of course the statement of Pope Francis. These important steps give confidence that in the 21st century the humanity will establish a more unified position and will eventually be able to develop really effective mechanisms of prevention of genocides based on the belief that the recognition, condemnation of past genocides and the exclusion of denial are among the guarantees for the harmonious progress of the world civilization. We can already stress that during the discussions of Yerevan Global Forum fresh ideas and constructive proposals have been made, which were summarized in the Draft Declaration of the Global Forum. I believe that it would be accepted as a guide for the implementation of the truly global mission facing us, for the sake of unified determination of preventing the crime of genocide.

Thank you!”