Armenia suggest declaring December 9 the Day of Remembrance of all Genocide victims

Lena Badeyan
Public Radio of Armenia

Sixty-six years ago, on December 9, 1948, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It defines genocide in legal terms, and is the culmination of years of campaigning by lawyer Raphael Lemkin. All participating countries are advised to prevent and punish actions of genocide in war and in peacetime. The number of states that have ratified the convention is currently 146.

The proposal to declare December 9 the Day of Remembrance of victims of all genocides is already on the agenda of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Armenian National Assembly. The resolution will be adopted by May-June, 2015, Vice-President of the National Assembly Edward Sharmazanov said at the parliamentary hearings on the “World without Genocides.” With this document the Armenian Parliament will condemn not only the genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, but also the massacre of other peoples, particularly Greeks and Assyrians.

“Every war comes to an end after the last soldier is buried and the last criminal is punished. I will add that the war comes to an end, when the page of the past is turned and when the guilty repent,” said Vadim Rabinovich, President of the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress and co-founder of the European Jewish Parliament. He said he hopes to contribute to the reconciliation of the two neighbors, and promised to spare no effort towards recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

According to Armenian Diaspora Minister Hranush Hakobyan, “the consequences of the genocide are still there.” “The borders of the Republic of Armenia are closed, as a result of which we suffer a loss of billions of dollars. From the legal point of view, it’s high time for Turkey to answer for the closing the border and imposing an economic pressure on Armenia,” she said.