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In 24 days the Armenian people, Yerevan in Montevideo, will collect and ask justice and reparations for the crimes against humanity perpetrated against him by the Ottoman power from 1894 to 1923.
Armenians – Assyrian-Chaldeans, Greeks 3,600 000 victims
Wednesday, April 1, 2015,
Jean Eckian © armenews.com
Representatives from parliaments of francophone countries gathered in Yerevan
YEREVAN (Armenpress)—The chairpersons of the European regional sections of the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie adopted a statement on the Armenian Genocide, according to the Head of the Armenian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie, Margarit Yesayan. The text of the adopted statement is below.
“We, representatives of the parliaments of states using French as a common language, gathering at the conference of sections of the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie for the European Region on 31 March 2015;
– affirming our obligations for the benefit of peace, democracy, human rights, security in the territory of La Francophonie and the universal values thereof;
– encouraging the International Organization of La Francophonie and the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie to be consistent with the implementation of actions aimed at preventing crises and conflicts in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Principles and Norms of International Law;
– highlighting the inadmissibility of lack of international recognition of the actions viewed as crime of Genocide to this day and reminding that such crime has no expiry date; -we condemn the Genocide perpetrated against the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire;
– we commemorate the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and express solidarity with Armenia and the Armenian people in the struggle for international recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the restoration of the rights of persons subject to that genocide;
– we invite Turkey to confront its past and eventually recognize the Armenian Genocide and voice hope that that recognition will become a starting point for the reconciliation between the Armenians and Turks.”
Nevada governor Brian Sandoval, issued a proclamation commemorating the Armenian Genocide, declaring April 19-26 as the “Day of Remembrance of The Armenian Genocide,” Massis Post reports.
Spearheaded by the Armenian Council of America (ACA) Nevada Chapter, the proclamation condemns the systematic murder and deportations of 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, highlighting the plight of the Armenian people and the refuge they sought in the U.S. during that time.
The proclamation also honors the Armenian-American community in Nevada, citing that the “thriving community is a proud reminder of survival and determination even in the face of extreme injustice.”
Calling upon the House of Representatives and the President of the U.S. to recognize the atrocities, the proclamation also reiterates Turkey’s responsibility “to acknowledge the facts of the Armenian Genocide.”
The proclamation says:
WHEREAS, on the night of April 24, 1915, more than 200 leaders in the Armenian community, in the city known today as Istanbul, were arrested. Sent to prison, most were executed, beginning a horrible, systemic killing and forced relocation of the Armenian people that would last until 1923. During these years, the government of the Ottoman Empire claimed the lives of 1.5 million Armenians and forced 500,000 more from their homeland. The Armenian Genocide was a terrible breach of human rights and an event that has outraged the world; and
WHEREAS, the atrocities carried out against the Armenian people were grave and unimaginable, as they were subjected to deportation, abduction, torture, starvation, and more. And as with any violent conflict, Armenian women and children suffered the worst abuses. The bulk of the Armenian population that was displaced from their homes was forced to escape to neighboring as well as faraway countries. Many fled to the United States; and
WHEREAS, today Nevada is honored to be home to a vibrant growing Armenian-American population. This thriving community is a proud reminder of survival and determination even in the face of extreme injustice; and
WHEREAS, as Americans and Nevadans, it is our duty to raise awareness of the Armenian Genocide and to participate in the remembrance and mourning of the loss of innocent lives a century ago; and
WHEREAS, as Americans and Nevadans, we call upon Congress and the President of the United States to recognize the atrocities committed against the Armenian people, and call upon the Republic of Turkey to acknowledge the facts of the Armenian Genocide and work toward a just resolution;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BRIAN SANDOVAL, GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, do hereby proclaim April 19-26, 2015, as “Days of remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.”
According to a press release by the RA Foreign Ministry press office, a similar resolution was adopted by the Lieutenant Governor of Nevada, President of Nevada State Senate Mark Hutchison, who, in turn, called upon Nevada citizens to raise awareness about the Armenian Genocide and attend commemoration events honoring the memory of innocent victims.
A joint Cyprus-Armenia stamp commemorating 100 years since the Armenian genocide is to be launched next week as part of a series of events to mark the anniversary, the Cyprus Mail reported.
The representative of the Armenian Community in the Cypriot House of Representatives, Vartkes Mahdessian, has organized an event for next week presenting the stamp in both countries simultaneously.
The event in Cyprus will also be attended by Armenian National Assembly President Galust Sahakyan, who is due to visit Cyprus.
The stamp will depict the well-known but closed Armenian educational institute, the Melkonian in Nicosia. The school originally functioned as an orphanage for children who survived the genocide and managed to make it to Cyprus.
The Armenian Genocide centenary will be marked in Cyprus, too.
Mahdessian told the Cyprus News Agency that the goal was remembrance for the 1.5 million Armenians who died at the hands of Turkey during the 1915 genocide, and to push for recognition of the genocide by Turkey.
“At the same time it is an appeal to humanity to prevent similar tragedies in the future,” he said.
The commemoration events will include art exhibitions, theatre, lectures, documentaries, and cultural performances.
In addition, a book is published in Greek and English that includes articles on the Armenian Genocide, and which appeared in the Greek Cypriot press between 1914 and 1923.
The Chief of Presidential Staff Vigen Sargsyan, who is also coordinator of events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, presented the calendar of events of 22-24 April on the public television of Armenia.
According Vigen Sargsyan, the 22 to 23 April Armenia will host an international forum “against genocide” with the participation of about 500 scientists, politicians, public figures and religious.
The Armenian Genocide Reparations Study Group on Monday, March 30, issued its final report, entitled “Resolution with Justice—Reparations for the Armenian Genocide,” offering an unprecedented comprehensive analysis of the legal, historical, political, and ethical dimensions of the question of reparations for the Armenian Genocide.
The AGRSG was formed in 2007 by four experts in different areas of reparations theory and practice. The group’s mission was to produce the first systematic, comprehensive, in-depth analysis of the reparations issues raised by the Armenian Genocide. Funded initially by a grant from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, the AGRSG members are Alfred de Zayas, Jermaine O. McCalpin, Ara Papian, and Henry C. Theriault (Chair). George Aghjayan has served as a special consultant.
The AGRSG prepared a preliminary report, which was released for limited distribution back in 2009. Completion of the draft was followed by three symposia. The first was a panel discussion featuring three of the report authors, held on May 15, 2010 at George Mason University in the United States, in conjunction with the university’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. The second was a major day-long symposium featuring the four co-authors and a number of other experts on reparations for the Armenian Genocide, conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law through its International Human Rights Law Association, on October 23, 2010. The third was a panel by two of the report authors held in Yerevan, Armenia, on December 11, 2010.
The AGRSG is now issuing for broad distribution its final report, an extensive revision and updating of the 2009 preliminary report.
The report examines the case for reparations from legal, historical, and ethical perspectives (Parts 4, 5, and 6, respectively), offers a plan for a productive reparative process drawing on transitional justice theory and practice (Part 7), and proposes a concrete reparations package (Parts 3 and 8). The report also includes background on the Armenian Genocide (Part 1) and the damages inflicted by it and their impacts today (Part 2). Through its broad dissemination, this report fills a crucial gap in the scholarly work and policy discourse on the Armenian Genocide. It will give Turkish and Armenian individuals as well as civil society and political institutions the information, analysis, and tools to engage the Armenian Genocide issue in a systematic manner that supports meaningful resolution.
With the Genocide Centennial fast approaching, heightened international political, academic, media, artistic, and public interest in the Genocide has already been witnessed in 2015.
In addition, in the past few years, reparations for the Genocide have gone from a marginal concern to a central focus in popular and academic circles. Much of that focus has been on piecemeal individual reparation legal cases. This report represents a decisive step toward a much broader and all-embracing process of repair that is adequate to resolve the extensive outstanding damages of the Genocide. Furthermore, genuine, non-denialist engagement with the legacy of the Genocide is growing in Turkey. Finally, in the past decade, there has emerged a global reparations movement involving numerous victim groups across an array of mass human rights violations. The Armenian case has a place within that movement.
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.
Cypriot lawmakers on Monday, March 30, agreed to amend current legislation, criminalizing the denial of a genocide if the given crime against humanity has been recognized by the House, Cyprus Mail reports.
The matter is fundamentally about the Armenian Genocide, and resurfaced last week due to the upcoming visit of Armenian National Assembly speaker Galust Sahakyan to Cyprus to mark the 100th anniversary of the first genocide of the 20th century.
As it stands, the law states that denial of crimes against humanity and genocide is a criminal offence only where the crime in question has been recognized by irrevocable decision of an international court. Cyprus is among 22 countries that have recognized the Armenian Genocide. However, because the International Criminal Court has not recognized it, thus far denial of the genocide was not a criminal offence here.
House Speaker Yiannakis Omirou was keen to add a clause to the legislation, making genocide denial a criminal offence whether it has been recognized by an international court or by a resolution of the Cyprus parliament, the report says.
Following debate at the House legal affairs committee on Monday, the parties took on board Omirou’s legislative proposal, but with a modification – denial of genocide will constitute a criminal offence only where the House resolution recognizing that genocide was unanimous.
Sources from the ruling DISY party told the Mail that the House may hold an extraordinary session of the plenum on Thursday morning, before the scheduled plenary, to pass the legal amendment.
Sahakyan, due on the island on Wednesday, is on Thursday afternoon scheduled to address the House of Representatives.
While on an official trip to Armenia last November, Omirou appears to have promised his Armenian counterpart that Cyprus would criminalize the denial of the Armenian Genocide, as other countries – Switzerland, Slovakia, Greece – have done.
The same DISY sources, according to Cyprus Mail, dismissed the notion, as reported by daily 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 sources also refuted media reports that DISY MPs had argued in committee against criminalizing denial because it might anger the Turkish Cypriots and Turkey, particularly at this juncture when peace talks may resume.
Cyprus was the first European country (and the second worldwide, after Uruguay) to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide. On April 24, 1975, Resolution 36 was voted unanimously by the House of Representatives.
Given that decision was unanimous, the criminalization amendment now being proposed should automatically apply to the Armenian Genocide.
Under the law, the denial or “flagrant downgrading” of recognized war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, provided the crime has been recognized by an international court, is punishable by up to five years imprisonment and/or a fine of €10,000.
An Armenian Genocide remembrance ceremony will be held for the first time on April 24 in Surp (Holy) Giragos Armenian Church of Diyarbakir, Turkey.
The Church Foundation, the Human Rights Association (Turkey) Diyarbakir Branch, and the Gomidas Institute (London) will be holding mourning events in the church, reported Haberdiyarbekir website of Turkey.
Following the genocide commemorations in the church, Canadian-Armenian pianist Raffi Bedrosian will perform the known works of Armenian musicians.
Yves Ternon, member of the Scientific Council of the Holocaust
Video recorded March 25 Arto Pehlivanian at the Sorbonne. Inaugural Address of the historian Yves Ternon, member of the Scientific Council of the Holocaust Memorial, President of the International Scientific Council (ISC)
Words fail before the pictorial work that realized the French visual artist Pascale Kolboc in memory of victims of the Armenian Genocide. There are 12 tables around the size of 180cm x 180cm, with a weight of up to 50kg.
Originally from Lyon, the artist then transmits an iconography whose value not only plastic is in any remarkable point, but for the timeless intense emotional charge it offers to look.
In this symbolic year for the Armenian people, it would welcome a gallery is very interested in this work by contacting azad999@free.fr
They are not there
Member of several associations such as IAVI (International Help Victims of incest), WORLD VISION (1st NGO sponsorship of children in the world) …., his first paintings, abstract, refer naturally to suffering against children . In 2010, the need to express 
is stronger, then she introduced the material in his works, mixing soil, clay, wood, ash, fabrics and dolls … Everything gets thick, depth. His paintings on child abuse are then exhibited in New York in the Chelsea neighborhood and Paris. In 2011, she met someone from the Armenian diaspora. He will tell him the reality of the massacre of his people. Affected by the deep horror lived, she left Armenia to meet this earth and its inhabitants, and in Lebanon. It is then obvious … convinced of the need to participate in “open up” his new series of works becomes a reflection of the terrible cruelty and injustice still experienced today by the Armenian people face the denial of the massacre of the 1915 genocide.
Diaspora
Main Trade
– – Agora Gallery 2010 New – York
– – Espace Pierre Cardin, 2010, Paris
– – Carrousel du Louvre, 2010, Paris
– – Grand Palace, Art Capital, 2010, Paris