YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. Yerevan will host the 4th Global Forum “Against the Crime of Genocide” on December 12-13, 2022.

This year the Forum is being held under the title “Prevention of Genocide in the Era of New Technologies”.

Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Vahe Gevorgyan told Armenpress that around 250 participants, 30 leading international speakers – scientists, high-ranking officials, representatives of tech companies, will attend the Forum.

“The international security crisis is forming some context regarding the prevention of genocide. In addition, we know well from history that the collapse of the international security system always leads to crimes and other mass atrocities against humanity, and in this context holding a conference and inviting both political and expert figures dealing with prevention of genocide is important in itself”, the deputy FM said.

He informed that the agenda of this year’s Forum focuses on new technologies, on how new technologies contribute to genocide and how they can contribute to the prevention of genocide.

“The main message of our Global Forum is that we must fight against the crime of genocide by uniting international efforts, giving priority to the prevention, but at the same time not forgetting that there are two more important pillars for the fight against genocide, they are the protection of victims, and the exclusion of the repetition of the crime of genocide and reparation”, he stated.

As for the challenges of using new technologies for preventing genocides, the deputy minister said the use of new technologies has led to the implementation of genocide. According to him, the implementation of genocide has never been so easy, as it required a long propaganda of a genocidal idea within different public layers, it required an organized murder of a huge amount of people, and from this perspective the page of genocides opens from the 20th century, and the Armenian Genocide was one of the first from that point of view.

He stated that the fact that the prevention of genocides is among the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy is not a coincidence because it is connected not only with history, but also with present and with the regional realities we are facing.

Vahe Gevorgyan said that the Forum will also address the protection of cultural and religious heritage, which, he said, is also very important in our region. They will try to analyze how the modern and new technologies can contribute to the protection of that heritage.