Four years ago this day, ahead of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, delegates of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) issued a written declaration, paying tribute to the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide and condemning crimes against humanity and genocides. This is what Arpine Hovhannisyan wrote on her Facebook page.

“The declaration was signed by 174 delegates, and what was particularly important was the fact that it was signed by the heads of ALL the committees and ALL the political groups of the PACE. There is almost no such case in the history of the PACE when this many delegates from 41 member states (including Turkey) have signed under a written declaration along with the heads of all political groups and committees. I consider it an honor to have worked and negotiated with each of the delegates to collect nearly 100 of those signatures.

Members of the Armenian delegation to the PACE at the time, including Hermine Naghdalyan, Naira Zohrabyan, Naira Karapetyan, Vahan Babayan, Levon Zurabyan, Armen Rustamyan, Mher Shahgeldyan and the representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who were involved in these efforts, deserve to be commended for their efforts.

While the new authorities are considering whether the PACE has any mandate over the Armenian Genocide issue and to talk or not talk about the issue in the PACE, I consider this written declaration one of the major achievements of Armenia’s parliamentary diplomacy in regard to condemnation of the Armenian Genocide that is a story of success that Armenia has achieved,” wrote Hovhannisyan.