Zoryan Institute co-organizes conference on Armenian Genocide

PanARMENIAN.Net - On the occasion of the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Zoryan Institute has co-organized a major international conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Organizing this conference is a great opportunity, not only to commemorate an important historical event, but also to raise awareness of the destructive phenomenon of genocide, a gross violation of human rights, Mr. George Shirinian, Executive Director of the Zoryan Institute told PanARMENIAN.Net

This opportunity is particularly important for several reasons:

First, Brazil, one of the upcoming powers, is a country with a population of over 190 million—the fifth largest in the world—with an economy the second largest in the Americas and the ninth globally.

Second, the University of Sao Paolo, with its Laboratory for the Study of Ethnicity, Racism and Discrimination, is a distinguished academic partner, which engages in the study of racism, the various concepts and connotations of race, and the growing importance of ethnicity in contemporary social processes.

Third, Brazil was among the very first countries to vote for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, one of the very first countries to sign the UN Genocide Convention that same year, and one of the first countries to ratify the latter in 1952.

Finally, the State of Sao Paolo has officially recognized this classic case of the gross violation of human rights, the Armenian Genocide, since 1989.

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.

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