April 24 may become Genocide commemoration day in St. Petersburg

April 17, 2014 - 15:37 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Draft laws proposing to mark the Armenian Genocide and Holocaust commemoration days in St. Petersburg have been introduced to the city’s legislative assembly. Suggestion to make amendments to the regional law on holidays and memorial days was initiated by MP Vitaliy Milonov, according to ITAR-TASS.

The issue will be studied at the coming session of the city parliament’s legislative committee Friday, April 18.

If approved, the law will declare January 27 and April 24 commemoration days of the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide respectively, starting from the year 2015.

For the first time in nearly a quarter century, a U.S. Senate committee on April 10, adopted an Armenian Genocide Resolution, calling upon the Senate to commemorate this crime and encouraging the President to ensure that America’s foreign policy reflects and reinforces the lessons, documented in the U.S. record, of the still-unpunished genocide.

With a vote of 12 to 5, the Committee voted to condemn and commemorate the Armenian Genocide.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ) spearheaded the effort to have this influential foreign policy panel speak clearly regarding the Ottoman Turkish Government’s centrally planned and systematically carried out campaign of genocide from 1915-1923, which resulted in the deaths of over 1.5 million men, women and children.

Photo: assembly.spb.ru

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, Italy, 45 U.S. states, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Argentina, Belgium, Austria, Wales, Switzerland, Canada, Poland, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, the Vatican, Luxembourg, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Sweden, Venezuela, Slovakia, Syria, Vatican, as well as the European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.