Police detect 68 crimes in Armenia in one day

August 17, 2018 By administrator

The Armenian Police have detected a total of 68 crime cases in the country over the past one day, according to the latest operations reports.

In particular, from 16 to 17 August, police officers revealed 19 cases of swindling, 13 cases of infliction of bodily injuries, 8 cases of theft of personal property, 5 cases of squandering or embezzlement, 5 cases of detection of narcotics, 3 cases of corruption, 3 cases of abuse of official powers, 2 cases of tax evasion and 2 cases of drug sales.

In the mentioned period, the police also detected 1 case of robbery, 1 case of theft of state or public property, 1 cases of extortion, 1 case of intentional destruction of property, 1 case of hooliganism, 1 case of violence against a government representative, 1 case of Illegal sowing or cultivation of plants containing narcotics and 1 case of official forgery.

One missing person was found over the past one day, which also saw police officers solving 2 robbery cases and 1 case of inflicting injuries.

Over the past day, a total of 11 road traffic accidents were recorded in the country, which left one person dead and 19 others injured.

Source Panorama.am

State lawmakers’ support for Azerbaijan encouraged last month’s anti-Armenian war crimes – US senators

May 22, 2016 By administrator

By Senator Bill Barton and Senator Lois Tochtrop
In early April, while Nevada State Assembly Speaker John Hambrick was in Azerbaijan hobnobbing with its dictator Ilham Aliyev, his host was committing ISIS-like war crimes.

On April 1, Aliyev’s forces attacked the Armenian-populated Artsakh, also known as the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, in part because legislators like Speaker Hambrick have encouraged belligerent behavior by passing absurd resolutions in praise of Aliyev’s oil-rich dictatorship.

One heartbreaking account of Azerbaijan’s barbaric actions during the four-day war in April was the mutilated elders that journalists found in Talish after its recapture from Azeri forces. The bodies of husband and wife Valera and Razmela Khalapyan with chopped-off ears were found inside their home. Photographs released by Azeri soldiers on social media showed beheaded Armenian soldiers, including 20-year-old Yezidi Kurd Kyaram Sloyan. Among the Azerbaijani officers Aliyev honored at a ceremony following the four-day war was the man who had posed with Sloyan’s severed head.

One irony of Aliyev’s war crimes is the official praise of “tolerance” he has acquired from some American lawmakers. New Mexico Senate leader Mary Kay Papen, a frequent flier to the dictatorship, sponsored a nonbinding memorial in 2015 that praised Azerbaijan as a utopia for religious harmony. Incidentally, that year marked the 10th anniversary of Aliyev’s ISIS-like wipeout of the legendary cemetery of Djulfa—the world’s largest collection of medieval cross-stones (khachkars).

Sen Papen is hardly alone. Earlier this year, Utah State Senator Gene Davis similarly praised Azerbaijan as “tolerant,” and the Idaho legislature even introduced—but did not pass—a resolution.

It was no coincidence, these seemingly innocuous statements followed on return of the legislative sponsor’s all-expense paid junkets to Azerbaijan, sponsored by the foreign dictatorship.

Some support for Azerbaijan is outright outrageous. Rep. Joe Towns of Tennessee was accused of taking bribes. Another Aliyev loyalist in Tennessee, Congressman Steven Cohen, has evolved from being a mere mouthpiece for Azerbaijan to copycatting its censorship. In April, Congressman Cohen banned his critics on Twitter after his baseless blame on Armenians as the aggressors of the four-day war caused widespread criticism. Aliyev also has international loyalists, such as UNESCO’s corrupt chief and UN Secretary General candidate Irina Bokova, who has accepted generous donations from Azerbaijan’s bloody dictator then allowed him to use UNESCO platforms to spread propaganda.

Azerbaijan’s lobbying isn’t limited to junkets, gifts, and donations. Azeri officials travel from state to state, asking uninformed politicians for innocuously-sounding statements in support of democracy, cooperation, and respect. Often out of sheer courtesy, state officials grant such privilege to Azerbaijan. Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, Oregon State Representative Val Hoyle, Idaho Governor Butch Otter, Alaska Senate President Kevin Meyer, Alaska House Speaker Mike Chenault, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, among others, recently signed onto innocent-sounding statements requested by Azerbaijan.

In politics, statements are not simply symbolic. Resolutions, even personal statements made by state lawmakers, are overblown in Azerbaijan’s state-controlled media for two reasons. One is to show to the Azerbaijani people that their government has great influence over the United States, thus making it easier to crackdown on dissent in Azerbaijan. The second is to manufacture impression of American support for Azerbaijan, making it easier to rally around the anti-Armenian flag.

For decades, the Aliyev clan has made Armenians as the scapegoat for all that is wrong with Azerbaijan— playing on resentment from the Armenian-Azerbaijan war of the 1990s. The latter broke out after autonomous Artsakh’s democratic decision to become independent, prompting a military attack by Azerbaijani forces aided by Chechen and Taliban mercenaries. In 1994, as Azerbaijan realized that Artsakh had won, a ceasefire was signed. Aided by Armenian volunteers from around the world, Artsakh had actually expanded its Stalin-drawn borders, who had expropriated the historic Armenian region to Soviet Azerbaijan.

The 1990s Armenian-Azerbaijani war victimized both sides but the conflict has since transformed to a clear-cut choice of right versus wrong.

In light of Aliyev’s April war crimes, consistent with Azerbaijan’s persistent belligerent behavior since the 1994 ceasefire, American public servants should stop emboldening Azerbaijan’s bloody regime through resolutions or even letters.

Otherwise, those officials would be responsible for encouraging further mutilation of civilians, beheading of fallen soldiers, and an ISIS-like wipeout of medieval Christian monuments.

EU mission judges jail 11 ex-Kosovo Turkish Albanian guerrillas for war crimes

May 27, 2015 By administrator

EU judges in Kosovo sentenced 11 former Kosovo Albanian guerrillas to prison terms on Wednesday for war crimes committed during Kosovo’s 1998-99 uprising. Judges from the EU police and justice mission said atrocities were committed against Kosovar civilians held in a camp run by the then-Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which fought against Serbian forces. The charges in the two trials also related to the killing in 1998 of a Serbian police officer and a Kosovo Albanian civilian. Two of those convicted were close to ex-Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, Reuters said.

Times of Oman: Turkey should face up to the crimes of past

May 2, 2015 By administrator

By Aryeh Neier
Times of Oman

One hundred years ago, on April 24, 1915, officials of the Ottoman Empire rounded up some 250 Armenian leaders and intellectuals in Constantinople and prepared them for deportation. It was the beginning of a historic massacre, in which as many as 1.5 million of the two million Armenians living in the empire were killed.

In the weeks leading up to the tragedy’s centenary, the debate over whether the killings amounted to genocide has predictably flared anew. Pope Francis and the European Parliament are among those who have lent their voices to those who say they did — drawing the condemnation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and others in his government.

Reactions like Erdogan’s are unfortunate. Turkey has long portrayed the massacre of the Armenians as uncoordinated and unfortunate acts resulting from the chaos of World War I and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. It would be wise to reconsider this position.

The stance taken by Erdogan and others fosters anti-Turkish sentiment in Europe and elsewhere, by encouraging the impression that modern Turkey’s leaders and people, though not responsible for the crimes themselves, are guilty of denying them.

Whether or not the use of the word “genocide” is appropriate, Turkey should recognise that it is not alone among great states with a history of committing great crimes. For nearly a century after the United States was founded, slavery remained legal; untold numbers of Africans and their descendants suffered in bondage or died horrifying deaths.

For another century, legalised racial segregation was maintained in much of the country. Many aspects of the nineteenth-century slaughter of the indigenous population in the US were genocidal in nature.

During World War II, Japanese troops may have murdered as many as ten million civilians in China, Korea, and elsewhere. And, of course, Germany engaged in genocide against the Jews and the Roma during World War II, as well as slaughtering many millions of ethnic Slavs.

Millions of Russians and others died in the Soviet Gulag system during Joseph Stalin’s rule. Millions more died of starvation in Ukraine as a result of his policies. Great numbers of ethnic minorities — “the punished peoples” — died during forced deportations from Western Russia.

In China, Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward is estimated to have killed 36 million people, many of them by starvation. Their suffering was covered up by the communist regime, making it impossible to organise relief efforts. Mao subsequently launched the Cultural Revolution, which devastated China and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths.

When India was partitioned following independence in 1947, perhaps as many as a million Muslim and Hindu civilians were murdered on religious grounds. And in 1971, Pakistani troops and allied militias massacred up to three million Bangladeshi civilians to suppress the Bengali drive for independence.

These countries have taken different approaches in facing up to the crimes of their past. On the far end of the spectrum is Germany. Memorials to the genocide and other war crimes have been given prominent placement in Berlin, the country’s capital, ensuring that residents of the city and visitors alike are constantly reminded of the atrocities committed by the Nazis.

Other countries have done far less to acknowledge the shameful aspects of their history, and many could do much more. But none responds as vehemently as Turkey does when the word “genocide” is used to describe what happened a century ago.

The angry reaction — combined with the government’s diplomatic reprisals against those who use the word — has the perverse effect of stigmatising present-day Turks as deniers of one of the great crimes of the twentieth century.

Turkey would be far better off facing up to the crimes of the past, as Germany has done. Germany’s horrific history is well known, but today few countries are as widely admired. Germany also has excellent relations with the countries whose people suffered most under the Nazis.

The Holocaust is internationally recognised as belonging to a different era and being in no way representative of the country’s current leaders or its people.

The best way for a country to rehabilitate its reputation is to accept the truth about past atrocities and the responsibility, both symbolic and material, that it owes to the victims and their survivors. Only then can it draw a thick line between past and present.

Source: Panorama.am

Impunity begets more crimes – Serzh Sargsyan’s address at global anti-genocide forum

April 22, 2015 By administrator

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has delivered a speech at the International Social and Political Global Forum against the Crime of Genocide, calling for support to the prevention of the universal crime against humanity and considering its impunity a pre-requisite for more crimes.

His full address is presented below:

“Distinguished guests,

“Dear participants of the global forum,

“I welcome you at the International Social and Political Global Forum against the Crime of Genocide. Thank you for accepting our invitation, and your most important contribution. The impressive and venerable list of this forum’s participants gives us hope that the forum will become an important platform to comprehensively discuss, and further improve the mechanisms for the prevention of genocide that is the crime of all crimes. I strongly believe that the remarks delivered, and the views expressed here will trigger a broad international reaction that in its turn may produce an invaluable impact on the raising of global awareness on this key issue.

“The international organizations’ agendas, diplomatic efforts exerted by the small and large states alike, international media’s headlines have recently been specifically addressing one of the tremendous challenges humanity faces. I speak of the Middle East, the modern civilization’s cradle, where the surging extremism and intolerance resulted in violence and, at some places, even in genocidal acts against a number minorities. This is yet another warning to the international community alerting that the threat of the crimes of genocide, and other crimes against humanity, has not been eliminated, and requires consolidated and consistent efforts by the international organizations, states and civil society.

“Dear participants,

“This forum is one of the central events to mark the Armenian Genocide Centennial. As you are aware, commemoration events are being held in different countries of the world, supported by the four fundamental pillars. Those are remembrance, gratitude, prevention, and revival. These are also the messages that the Republic of Armenia, and Armenian Diaspora communities that emerged because of the Genocide in different countries wish to deliver to the international community and coming generations upon the Centennial. These four notions are also deeply symbolic for the commemoration of all other crimes of genocide committed throughout the human history.

“One of the topics to be discussed during the forum refers to the role of the memory and truth in overcoming the consequences of genocide. That is, truly, the most accurate way to pin it down since, as far as the crimes of genocide are concerned, the remembrance and contemporary reality are unavoidably interlaced. Genocide is a crime of such a vast scale, with such a severe damage inflicted that even many decades later its impact is felt by the descendants of both the victims and perpetrators, as well as by the entire international community.

“For us, Armenians, remembrance is a moral obligation and, at the same time, inalienable individual and collective right. It is our moral duty and right to commemorate the one and a half milion of victims, inhumane sufferings endured by the hundreds of thousands, loss of the material and spiritual heritage accumulated by our people throughout millenia, extermination of the substantial part of the early 20th century Armenian intelligentsia, who mainly resided in Constantinople, that led to the mass slaughter. It is because of this cohesion of the right and duty that we have adopted the motto “I remember and demand” for the commemoration events.

“It is impossible to disagree with the Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel, who notes that “to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” Remembrance, meanwhile, is the best remedy for the descendants of those who perpetrated genocide to face their own history, and the best oportunity to restore the justice.

“The crimes of genocide – Medz Yeghern, Shoah, those commited in Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur and elsewhere, shall be commemorated by both the successors of the victims and perpetrators. The path to reconciliation is not paved by denial, but rather by the consciousness of memory.

“Dear participants,

“Perpetration of genocide is both an aftermath of the inner developments in a given state or society, and failure of the entire system of international relations. It has been demonstrated on numerous occasions that impunity is a prerequisite to the recurrence of the crime of genocide. The Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust were committed in the course of, respectively, the World War One and Two. The international community proved unable to prevent them and other crimes of genocide. Remembrance is the only possible way to reveal nowadays the enormous losses that the global civilization has suffered as in the aftermath of the crimes of genocide. It is impossible to describe by words the scope and level of the distortion of human values that resulted in the initiation of such a heinous crime.

“In our recollections of the crimes of genocide a specific significance has been reserved the notion of gratitude in order to acknowledge the human virtue that saved thousands of living souls. There have been numerous narratives, such as the activities of Irena Sendler and Raoul Wallenberg during the Holocaust, Paul Rusesabagina during the Rwandan Genocide, Van Chhuon during the Cambodian Genocide; they all ensured the physical security of the people they rescued, and inspired hope at the times of overwhelming domination of cruelty and hatred.

“The Armenian people has not forgotten and is grateful to those Kurds and Turks, who covertly saved lives of their Armenian neighbors. We are indebted to the Arab people, who gave shelter to those, who had narrowly escaped the Turkish yataghan, as well as the Russians, Americans and Europeans, who took care of the Armenian orphans or partook in the humanitarian efforts.
Equally, our gratitude is well-earned by the public figures, clergymen, missionaries, diplomats, and those nations that demonstrated righteousness and civic courage since their actions had been guided by the noble ideas of humanism.

“Dear participants,

“Alongside with our consistent efforts toward the recognition, condemnation of the Genocide and elimination of its consequences, the prevention of the crimes of genocide is yet another key mission on our foreign policy agenda. Needless to say, these efforts are interrelated since the recognition and condemnation of the past crimes of genocide play invaluable role in the prevention of the crimes against humanity. For that reason we attach utmost importance to the genocide prevention, and emphasize once again our firm resolution and political will in combating crimes incompatible with the human civilization.
Armenia’s active engagement with the international community’s efforts toward the prevention of the crime of genocide has been time and again demonstrated through the relevant UN resolutions adopted by consensus throughout years upon our initiative. The most recent one was adopted in March of this year by the United Nation’s Human Rights Council. The resolution, inter alia, condemned the international public denial of crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity since public denials created a risk of further violations and undermined efforts to prevent genocide.

“Denial, in conjunction with the creation of genocidal environment and extermination itself, is a vertex of that very triangle. The denial of genocide is fraught with inciting a new xenophobic wave, and is often accompanied by intolerance and justification of the already commited crimes of genocide. However, under strong international pressure denial aqcuires a seemingly softer yet eqaually dangerous nature overshadowed or dissolved in the history revision campaigns.

“Dear ladies and gentlemen,

“It is unambiguous that considerable contribution has been made so far by the international law experts and historians toward the legal definition of the term “genocide,” and development of the punishment mechanisms for this crime. Likewise unambiguous has been the contribution of the social and political circles, journalists, and parliamentarians, who without any hesitation very often took the lead in that respect. The aforesaid is absolutely applicable also to the case of the Armenian Genocide. In 1915-16 the world press was replete with horrendous articles describing the Armenian massacres. The New York Times covered the issue extensively publishing some 145 articles in 1915 alone with headlines like “Appeal to the Ottoman Empire to Stop Massacres.” The newspaper characterized the crime perpetrated against the Armenian people as “systematic,” “authorized,” and “organized by the government.”
On May 24, 1915 the Allied Powers, Great Britain, France, and Russia jointly issued a statement, describing the crime perpetrated against the Armenian people as a “crime against humanity and civilization”, which was the first time ever that definition was aired on such a high level.

“Subsequently, these notions were introduced into the fundamental language to define that crime – the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and other most important documents of the international law.

“The recurrence of the crimes against humanity and genocide has also been caused by the lack of adequate adequacy, consistency, unity and determination of the international community for the recognition, and condemnation of the committed crimes of genocide, as well as for the elimination of the genocidal environment and denial. Parliaments and their members, as cornerstones of the democratic values, have a significant role to play in that regard.

“I deem it important that in the framework of this conference a special discussion will be held on the invaluable role of the legislators. Their messages, decisions and statements are significant both for the restoration of justice, and for the emancipation of the given societies, especially the coming generations from the clutches of the consequences of the evil of genocide.

“I welcome and value the two documents adopted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia this year – the Statement Condemning the Genocide of the Greeks and Assyrians Perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkey, and the amendments introduced in the Law on Holidays and Memorial Days. In accordance to the latter December 9 is designated as the day for condemnation and prevention of the crimes of genocide, which is highly symbolic, as the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide had been adopted on the very that day.

“Ladies and gentlemen,

“In this context revival is the last one amongst the most important messages of ours. A hundred years ago the Armenian people survived through the darkest and brutal page of their history. The calamity that befell upon our ancestors was indeed unprecedented by its scale. Today, a hundred years thenceforth, the Armenian people commemorates its martyrs, and presents itself to the world with the independent state, emancipated Artsakh, and viable Diaspora that strives to preserve the Armenian identity and to develop Armenia proper. Now our overarching objective is to contribute anew to the development of universal civilization.

“All those achievements have been based upon the revival of the Armenian people. Perhaps, it has been the demonstration of the most salient feature of our people – upholding the faith toward the universal human values, in spite of all the complications and calamities, and the ability to find the strength within to build and create anew. Yet in 1918 the Armenian statehood, lost centuries ago, had been restored. Later on, during the Soviet times the Armenian people created numerous spiritual and tangible values thus partaking in the enrichment of the world scientific and cultural repository. The revival of the Armenian people culminated in the 1991 national awakening with the accession of the newly independent Republic of Armenia to the international family of sovereign states.

“The Armenian nation revived not only in the homeland, but also in Diaspora. The sons and daughters of Armenia, who had found refuge in many countries of the world because of the Armenian Genocide, successfully integrated in the societies that adopted them, and meanwhile preserved their Armenian identity, their sense of deep bond with the Armenian homeland.

“Therefore, on the Armenian Genocide Centennial we declare confidently in broad daylight that the perpetrators of the Genocide failed to achieve what they planned. Moreover, our response to the attempt to annihilate the Armenian nation is the state building, our ongoing revival that is now no longer reversible.

“Dear participants,

“In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that today’s Forum, along with the discussions to be held, shall send the following powerful and pragmatic message to the international community: the crimes of genocide have not in the least ceased to be a threat to the humanity, and the overcoming of their consequences, and prevention shall become a top priority. The lessons of the past simply oblige us to do so. The civilized humanity shall joint its efforts to eradicate eventually the evil of genocide, and its underlying circumstances.

“It is a well-known truth that everything is interconnected in the universe. It is also true for the civilization since humanity establishes itself as a harmonious and complete continuum within the patchwork of its diverse races, nations, cultures, and religions. Genocide is a crime that is intended to tear a branch off from the tree of the global civilization. The loss of any branch may be fatal to the rest that tree.
Hence, being determined to state “Never again” let’s make our modest contribution towards the universal objective that unites us all – a more adequate accomplishment of the international community’s mission to prevent the crime of genocide.

“Once again, I thank you for being with us in Yerevan these days, and wish you a fruitful work.

“Thank you.”

Eren Keskin: Turkey was founded on a huge range of crimes

February 9, 2015 By administrator

Ali Ozinian 09/02/2015

Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code came to the fore again after a long time the case Eren Keskin kept silent. We talked on the wall was hit by lawsuits and freedom of expression on the Keskin.

After 10 years, Article 301 came up for you again, this time you do not dial the cause of fine penalty?

After the massacre in Kurdistan with his father in 2005, Uğur Kaymaz was due to them talk I gave at a conference in Saray. The same thing I said before, I still continue. 12-year-old child is not a new violent murder, I mentioned that Turkey was founded on a huge range of crimes. “Until today, starting from the date of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, a dirty state, we need to face it. Yüzleşmedik of new offenses will come. “I said, and was sued. Previously there were cases, this time with the permission of the Ministry of Justice Sadullah Ergin and was punished. Now, disclosure or provision of translating this type of penalties or fines for being late; but I have my criminal and crime tends to move as I was not converted into fines on the grounds.

State ‘thought crime’ as well as ‘crime’, is a great crime?

Rogue states actually hitting people that do not want to discuss criminal stamp their crime. Murderers, robbers acquitted while, can be a greater crime than to defend their human rights. We went to appeal, we are now waiting for a response from the Supreme Court. We, human rights defenders, they said in the 1990s, is now telling everyone today. We are what we say but it is true to say that we tried at that time. This state has red lines, in their beginning sounds of the Armenian Genocide. Kurdish issue, military occupation in Cyprus, anti-democratic secularism, on issues such as this state does not want anyone to say anything. Worse, there is no difference between the Kemalists and Islamists in this regard. We’ve seen that in the best case Perinçek; They come together, they were a single punch. Because of this built-in perspective, we considered criminal, while the state itself is criminal in the eyes of humanity.

When you do that you tried to speak in 2005, the AKP was the first year. Passed 10 years, freedom of expression and democratization issues in Turkey where it came from?

Of course social struggles, international relations, something is changing thanks to the European Union and social media. I’d be lying if we did not change at all. 10 years ago, no one could not speak of the Armenian Genocide, but has gradually become the talk, we look at the current in the same Kurdish issue but consideration paid, received very little way. I do not blame only the government here. State government has already dirty and guilty state but extremely internalized as an official ideology associated with totalitarian structure. Today in Turkey, right, left the Unionist derives from an understanding of the very few number of people can overcome it. Everyone should question itself. Even those in the human rights movement must question themselves. Leftists, socialists, liberals all yourself “What I demand from the government?” He should ask. There is no demand, or very little, so resist to change state.

Contrary to the State itself has a punishment mechanism that tries to silence. To replace the 301, which is one of the most simple example of ‘demand’ Will it be enough?

Demand will impact course, but I believe that here will be extremely important in international relations. Let me give you an example, the Court ever once even without penalizing Turkey Article 14, the punishment of discrimination. We have seen in the case Perinchek it. “Genocide is not” to say, we are considering the scope of freedom of expression. This point of view, disaster victims are still dragging how the disaster, the interior of racism is that it never takes into account how they fed and strengthened. In terms of human rights should be quashed the decision. steps can be effective at the ECHR; EU countries can exert pressure for democratization, but they do not. Yes demand significant external pressures, but also important. There are a stereotypical structure in Turkey, it is hard to break, but a place to start and you need to break. This start, continue with the arrival of important.

Source: agos news

Canada to host conference on Genocide & mass crimes in October 1-3

May 22, 2014 By administrator

May 22, 2014 – 15:06 AMT

University of Moncton in Canada will host an international conference on Armenian Genocide and mass crimes timed to the centenary of the 1915 massacres on October 1-3, Fabula said.

The event will focus on the collective memory of the Genocide and mass crimes, as well as Genocide-related historical, cultural, social and political issues.

The conference will also discuss the role of the Ottoman Empire in the World War I and the Genocide, international assistance, charity missions and organizations.

With Armenian Genocide issue as the focus of the conference, the discussions may also have a comparative aspect.

Représentations du génocide des Arméniens et des crimes de masse

http://www.fabula.org

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The Armenian Genocide

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.