World Recognition

Armenian Genocide Recognition

Armenian Genocide recognition is the formal acceptance that the systematic massacres and forced deportation of Armenians committed by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, during and after the First World War, constituted genocide. The consensus of historians and academic institutions on The Holocaust and genocide studies recognize the Armenian Genocide.  However, despite the recognition of the genocidal character of the massacre of Armenians in scholarship as well as in civil society, some governments have been reticent to officially acknowledge the killings as genocide because of political concerns about their relations with the Republic of Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Imperial authorities which perpetrated the genocide. The governments of Turkey and its close ally Azerbaijan are the only ones that directly deny the historical factuality of the Armenian Genocide, and both are adamantly opposed to the recognition of the genocide by other nations, threatening economic and diplomatic consequences to recognizers.  As of 2020, governments and parliaments of 32 countries, including the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Russia and Brazil have formally recognized the Armenian Genocide. 

International organizations:  Catholic Church: 2015, International Association of Genocide Scholars: 1997, International Center for Transitional Justice:  2002, The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity: 2007, European Parliament:  1987, 2000, 2002 and 2005, 2015, Council of Europe: The Council of Europe recognized the Armenian Genocide on May 14, 2001, The Union for Reform Judaism: 1989, The Anti-Defamation League: 2007, The American Jewish Committee: 2014, The Jewish Council for Public Affairs: 2015 and The Presbyterian Church (USA):  2014.

Other organizations which have recognized the Armenian Genocide include (Unknown Year):

World Council of Churches, European Green Party, Mercosur Parliament, Latin American Parliament, Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy, European Alliance of YMCAs, Andean Parliament, Centrist Democrat International

Parliaments and Governments:

Turkey continues to insist that the mass killings of 1915 were not a genocide, a fact which many Europeans take as casting doubt on the Turkish nation's commitment to human rights, but also as an "excuse" to block European Union membership for a Muslim-majority country, for which Turkish-Armenian intellectual Hrant Dink publicly issued condemnation to some countries before he was assassinated in 2007.

On May 24, 1915, during World War I, the Allied Powers (the United Kingdom, France and Russia) jointly issued a statement in which they said that for approximately a month, the Kurdish and Turkish populations of Armenia had been massacring Armenians, with the connivance and often assistance of Ottoman authorities, and that the Allied Powers would hold all officers of the Ottoman Government implicated in such crimes personally responsible for crimes against humanity. 

As of February 2020, 32 states had officially recognized the historical events as genocide. Sovereign nations (i.e. UN member-states) officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide are: 

Argentina:  1993, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2015; Armenia: 1988 (Recognition extended by the Armenian SSR); Austria:  2015;  Belgium: 1998 and 2015; Bolivia: 2014; Brazil: 2015;  Bulgaria: 2015; Canada: 1996, 2002, 2004 and 2006;  Chile: 2007 and 2015; Cyprus: 1975, 1982 and 1990; Czech Republic: 2017; France: 1998 and 2001; Germany: 2005 and 2016; Greece: 1996; Italy: 2000 and 2019; Libya: 2019; Lithuania: 2005; Lebanon: 1997 and 2000; Luxembourg: 2015; Netherlands: 2004, 2015 and 2018;   Paraguay: 2015; Poland: 2005; Portugal: 2019: Russia: 1995, 2005 and 2015; Slovakia: 2004; Sweden: 2010; Switzerland: 2003; Syria: 2015 and 2020;United States: 2019 (Congress); Uruguay: 1965 and 2004; Vatican: 2000 and 2015; Venezuela: 2005. 

States, regions, provinces, municipalities and parliamentary committees:

Australia: New South Wales: 2007 and South Australia: 2009

Belgium: Flanders

Brazil: Ceará: 2006,  Paraná: 2013, Rio de Janeiro: 2015,  São Paulo: 2003)

Canada: British Columbia,  Ontario: 1980 Quebec: 1980

France: Corsica: 2015, 

Iran: Tehran

Israel: Knesset’s Education, Culture and Sports Committee: 2016

Mexico:  Michoacán: 2019

Spain: Aragon, the  Balearic Islands, Basque Country, Catalonia, Navarre, 35 Spanish cities within 8 regions 

United Kingdom: Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Derby, England: 2018

United States: 49 U.S. States and Washington DC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide_recognition