The Armenian Assembly of America is calling on Mr. Abdulla Shahid, President of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and current Foreign Minister of the Maldives, to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Earlier, Abdulla Shahid visited the memorial complex of the Armenian Genocide in Yerevan. However, after he deleted the tweet about visiting Tsitsernakaberd amid Turkey's outrage.

Today, 31 countries and dozens of international organizations recognize the genocide of the Armenian people committed by the Ottoman Turkish Empire in 1915-1923, which resulted in the death of 1.5 million Armenians.

The UN General Assembly codified the crime of genocide by adopting the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in December 1948, taking into account many of the ideas of the famous international human rights lawyer Raphael Lemkin, who introduced the term "genocide" in 1944 and referred to the Armenian Genocide of 1915 as a prime example of an act of genocide.

The actions of the President of the UN General Assembly demonstrate the denial of the genocide, which is the worst form of hate speech.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Genocide Convention in 1998, over 150 eminent scholars and writers issued a statement to commemorate the Armenian Genocide and condemn the Turkish government's denial of this crime against humanity. In a statement, the scholars stressed that genocide denial aims to change history in order to demonize the victims and rehabilitate the perpetrators.

The actions of UN General Assembly head undermine the confidence of the international community and the responsibility for upholding the letter and spirit of the UN Genocide Convention.

The Armenian Assembly of America calls on Shahid to publish a public explanation and retraction of his deleted tweet, and to reaffirm his commitment to recognizing the Armenian Genocide and condemning its denial.