An event, devoted to the 65th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, was held on December 15 at the Armenian Club in Tehran, Iran.  

Armenian deputy FM Shavarsh Kocharyan is in Tehran on a working visit, informs the Armenian MFA press service. 

“The Genocide is the pain of every Armenian. And the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, which was perpetrated during the years of the Ottoman Empire, is a binding factor for mankind to avert such a crime,” Kocharyan noted at the event.  

In turn, Armenia’s Ambassador to Iran, Grigor Arakelyan, reflected on the necessity for the adoption of the Convention, and lawyer Raphael Lemkin’s undeniable role in its preparation.  

The ambassador also noted that the Armenian Genocide was the primary evidence for Lemkin’s preparation of the Convention.   

Subsequently, the event’s keynote speaker, law specialist Sevan Petrosian presented the background for the preparation of the Convention, and reflected on Lemkin’s work as well as the applicability of the term “genocide” in times of peace and war.   

Petrosian noted that even though the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted many years after the Armenian Genocide, it still can be applied in condemning the Armenian Genocide.