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
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.