Serbia’s Parliament MPs proposed a resolution on the recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, Serbian newspaper Blic.rs reports. The draft of the resolution was proposed by the MPs of the New Party, specifically ex-PM Zoran Zivkovic and Vladimir Pavicevic.

According to the party’s statement, the Parliament must adopt a resolution, which will recognize and condemn that crime, considering that April 24 marks the 100th anniversary since the beginning of the Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. This crime has already been acknowledged by over 20 states of the world.

“Recognition would become an expression of solidarity from Serbian people to the Armenian people in its struggle for the rectification of historic injustice and characterization of the mass killings of 1.5 million Armenians as genocide,” the statement reads.

“The intentional and systematic annihilation of the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire was terrible in its scale and became one of the gravest crimes in human history. For this reason the universal moral responsibility is to recognize the Genocide and severely condemn it, paying tribute to the memory of the victims of the horrendous sufferings,” the MPs note in the party’s statement.  

The Party has called on Serbia and other countries, as well as international organizations, to recognize the Genocide and thereby prevent such atrocities in the future. It also urged the government and people of Serbia to mark April 24 as Commemoration Day of Armenian Genocide.

Serbia’s New Party - established in 2013 - has two seats in the Parliament, within the coalition “With the Democratic party for Democratic Serbia.”