The State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, recognized the Armenian Genocide on Friday, July 24 by a law that declares all April 24 as “Day of recognition and memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide”, Prensa Armenia reports.
The law was enacted by the governor of Rio de Janeiro, Luiz Fernando Pezão.
Rio de Janeiro is the fourth State in Brazil that recognizes the Genocide, along with Parana, Ceara and Sao Paulo. Months ago, the Brazilian Senate passed a vote of solidarity with the Armenian people for the centenary of the crime against humanity.
The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.
The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.
Present-day Turkey denies the fact of the Armenian Genocide, justifying the atrocities as “deportation to secure Armenians”. Only a few Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and scholar Taner Akcam, speak openly about the necessity to recognize this crime against humanity.
The Armenian Genocide was recognized by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, the Italian Chamber of Deputies, majority of U.S. states, parliaments of Greece, Cyprus, Argentina, Belgium and Wales, National Council of Switzerland, Chamber of Commons of Canada, Polish Sejm, Vatican, European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.