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.

By Naira Hayrumyan
ArmeniaNow corresponden

Chairman of the House of Representatives of Cyprus Yiannakis Omirou was recently on a visit to Yerevan. He made an unexpected proposal. In particular, he told Armenian lawmakers about “the destabilizing role of Turkey in the region” and suggested that “a united front” needs to be created against the policy of Turkey.

“Cyprus and Armenia should intensify bilateral relations, combine their efforts in international organizations and take advantage of the Cypriot and Armenian Diasporas, creating a united front against the policy of Turkey. On behalf of the members of the House of Representatives [of Cyprus] and myself I express willingness to work in this direction,” Omirou said.

It is not known yet whether Armenia agreed to coordinate actions in this direction with Cyprus. In the official reports about the meetings of Omirou with the Armenian president, the speaker of the Armenian parliament there are only general phrases and assurances that the historical Armenian-Cypriot friendship will be continued.

Analysts are wondering what “a united front against the policies of Turkey” may mean. Is it simply a diplomatic term or an institutionalized front is emerging? And what role Armenia would have in this front that may also include other countries as well? Would it be a coalition like the one created against the Islamic State, for example?

Because of its notorious “zero problems with neighbors” policy Turkey in the past few years not only deepened its problems with neighbors, but also lost many allies. Turkey’s actions in Syria, its “disobedience” in NATO, its reluctance to help the coalition against the Islamic State leads to the fact that in the Western world they cease to perceive Turkey as an ally.

Political analyst Igor Muradyan believes that a policy of “global containment” of Turkey is being carried out in the world today and a major place is assigned to Armenia in this policy. However, he thinks that a close relationship between Turkey and Russia allow it, to some extent, to offset the pressure from the West and a number of regional countries.

Just in a few months’ time the world will be commemorating the victims of the Armenian Genocide on the 100th anniversary of the crime. A rug woven by orphans of Armenians killed by Ottoman Turks in the 1915 Genocide is on display at the White House Visitor’s Center these days (November 18-23). The rug was gifted to U.S. President Calvin Coolidge in 1925 and is evidence of the predatory policy of Turkey at the beginning of last century. Permission for the exhibition of the rug that has been mostly kept in storage since the Coolidge family returned it to the White House in 1982, was obtained with difficulty amid resistance from Turkey. In the world, many saw this as the first step towards the U.S. affirmation of the Armenian Genocide, which may become the detonator of the revision of relations with Turkey on a global scale.

Apparently, the countries that also suffered much at the hands of Turkey are also preparing for this occasion. Turkey currently occupies the northern part of Cyprus. “Despite the fact that Turkey’s actions are condemned internationally – in particular, on November 13 the European Parliament adopted a special resolution – Ankara’s violations are becoming more and more open and destabilize the entire region. At the same time, government and military leaders of Turkey openly threaten to use military force if the Republic of Cyprus continues to implement its sovereign rights. In these conditions, the Republic of Cyprus had to discontinue its participation in the negotiations on the Cyprus problem and announce political and legal steps against Turkey,” top Cypriot legislator Omirou said in the Armenian parliament.

He said that the refusal of Turkey to ratify the Armenian-Turkish protocols is the manifestation of the same policy.

Cypriot parliament criminalizes Armenian Genocide denial

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