YEREVAN. – The first Global Forum Against the Crime of Genocide provided with an opportunity to the world to discuss anew genocide as the gravest crime committed by human beings (PHOTOS).
President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan on Saturday stated the aforesaid in his opening address at the second Global Forum Against the Crime of Genocide, which has kicked off in capital city Yerevan.
“2015 was an important milestone for us to grasp anew the one hundred year-long struggle of our nation for its right to exist and restoration of historical justice,” the President noted. “The Armenian Genocide Centennial was marked not by mourning but the messages of gratitude and revival that we sent out to the world, as well as determination to make the Republic of Armenia one of the pioneering forces to lead the struggle against that crime. Our vision is crystal crisp: it is necessary to instill consciousness of the absolute inadmissibility of genocide in order to prevent such catastrophes unfolding.
“2015 was important in that context since a number of Heads of States, Parliaments, international structures, religious organizations, prominent individuals expressed their solidarity to our joint struggle against genocide by recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide.
“The current logics of the global development unambiguously registers that we are all interdependent, and that interdependence transforms a failure of one into a failure of all, and that is also true for a success or suffering. Today it is difficult to imagine a security challenge that threatens only one nation. Therefore, none of us can consider oneself ensured against the horrors that our ancestors went through in the 20th century, that our contemporaries are surviving in the 21st century unless we decide that we should state ‘never again’ regardless of the price that every one of us should pay.”
The President added that the survivors of the Armenian Genocide are here to register that genocide perpetrators have not won.
“Today, unfortunately, the humankind still lacks humanness. It is demonstrated by the wave of denial by the genocide perpetrators and their successors, Sargsyan added. “Denial imposes constant feeling of fear unto the survivors and their successors since those who deny or justify what had happened do not directly exclude the possibility of recurrence of that very same crime should there be appropriate conditions for that.
“It is critical to understand how to define a special legal status for survivors of genocide and other crimes against humanity through the improvement of the existing legal mechanisms or introduction of new legal norms; otherwise, perhaps, it would be impossible to comprehensively approach this issue.
“Any reasonable adjudication of a crime requires also recognition of the rights of the victims concerning their losses and suffering. Certainly, it is also true for the survivors of genocide and other crimes against humanity. Necessary mechanisms should be installed, which will allow both recognizing that right and implementing it.
“What kind of responsibility should bear a State, a subject of international law, for condoning and carrying out similar crimes? What would you say of a country, a fully-fledged subject of international law, a member of the UN, Council of Europe and various other structures, a signatory of the humanitarian conventions, whose script is not much different from that of the Islamic State? Just a few weeks ago, during the large-scale offensive unleashed by Azerbaijan against Nagorno Karabakh, Azeri soldiers were not content with just shooting their arms: they mutilated elderly people, Armenian soldiers, decapitated them and cut off their ears and presented those actions in the social networks as a manifestation of national heroism. It was all evidently encouraged by the Azerbaijani authorities. Is not it bizarre that a country that pursues such barbaric policy and violates all the norms of civilized conduct, these days is going to host a conference under the rubric of ‘Alliance of Civilizations?’
“We as the international community must swiftly and resolutely eradicate all such instances of genocidal conduct wherever they should occur.”
The second Global Forum Against the Crime of Genocide has brought together representatives from governments and parliaments, major international and human rights organizations, renowned experts of international law, members of the media, and numerous other interested persons.
The attendees include renowned actor, filmmaker and philanthropist George Clooney; The Washington Post editor and reviewer David Ignatius; and co-founder of 100 LIVES and the Aurora Prize and president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, businessmen and prominent philanthropists Vartan Gregorian.
