Prevention of genocide remains challenged, Armenia tells UN

PanARMENIAN.Net - The prevention of genocide remains considerably challenged today, Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said in his remark at the 41st session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday, June 24.

"We witness attempts to deny and justify the crime of genocide, which undermine the fight against impunity and risk recurrence of new genocides," the Foreign Minister said.

"Armenia strongly condemns the denialist policies and the offence to the dignity and memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide manifested in the address by the President of Turkey on April 24, 2019.

Erdogan said back then that the deportation of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century was “appropriate at the time.”

The “deportation of Armenian gangs who were massacring Muslims including women, children and elderly people in the Eastern Anatolia region was the most appropriate act at that time,” Erdogan said. “No group or state has been able to prove their claims on the Armenian issue with archive documents.”

"The reference in the address to the victims of the Genocide as “Armenian gangs and their supporters” is insulting and deplorable," said Mnatsakanyan.

"The justification of the Armenian Genocide, planned and perpetrated by the Ottoman government as “relocation” and further qualifying it as “the most reasonable act” attests to the intent to destroy in whole or in part the Armenian population of the Ottoman Turkey, a national, ethnical and religious group as defined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

"The leadership of Turkey continues to blatantly defy the international public opinion and historical reality."

According to the Armenian diplomat, the Council and its special procedures should sustain strong leadership in promoting and strengthening the prevention of genocides at national and international levels.

"There needs to be sustained support to the Office of the UN Secretary General’s Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide," said Mnatsakanyan.

"Further action should be taken to reinforce capacities for early warning and early action mechanisms for situations, which may lead to genocide.

"Resolute action is required to combat hate speech, xenophobia and intolerance. We welcome and support the UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech recently launched by the UN Secretary General.

"Armenia remains a committed and strong contributer to the international efforts for the prevention of genocides."