Armenian Cause Foundation

Parliament of Navarre Recognizes Armenian Genocide

(asbarez.com) PAMPLONA, Spain—The parliament of Spain’s autonomous community of Navarre adopted a measure on Monday recognizing the Armenian Genocide. The measure came after a series of visits by members of the Navarre parliament to Armenia and Artsakh. Navarre lies in the north of Spain and has a sizable population of Basque speakers.

The declaration, adopted by the unicameral Parliament on June 23, reads that “in accordance with the resolution of the European Parliament of June 1987, reaffirmed by subsequent resolutions (February 28, 2002 and April 1, 2004), the events suffered by the Armenian people are an authentic genocide.”

“As we are nearing the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, such declarations clearly show European solidarity with Armenian people and their suffering” commented European Friends of Armenia (EuFoA) Director Eduardo Lorenzo Ochoa. “EuFoA is proud that thanks to its extensive network, more and more key European stakeholders are aware of the importance of this issue,” he added.

The declaration denounces the policy of denial developed by the Turkish regime and calls on Turkey “to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia in the spirit of good neighborhood, and to resolve their border dispute peacefully.” In addition, the text underlines that given Turkey’s status as candidate for EU membership, those two issues (the recognition of the Genocide and the normalization of diplomatic relations) should be urgently addressed.

Navarre is a Spanish autonomous region in the north, bordering France, roughly the size of Cyprus, and populated by around 650,000 inhabitants. It is the fourth region in Spain that has recognized the Armenian Genocide, after the Basque Country, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands.

Following is the full declaration in Spanish:

El Parlamento aprueba una declaración institucional por la que recuerda el aniversario del genocidio contra el pueblo Armenio y denuncia la política desarrollada por el régimen turco existente en aquel momento.

Aprobación en Mesa y Junta de Portavoces. Día 23 de junio de 2014

La Junta de Portavoces del Parlamento de Navarra ha aprobado una declaración institucional por la que el Parlamento de Navarra recuerda el aniversario del genocidio contra el pueblo Armenio y denuncia la política desarrollada por el régimen existente en aquel momento, presentada por los Grupos Parlamentarios Bildu-Nafarroa y Aralar-Nafarroa Bai.

La declaración ha sido aprobada con los votos a favor de SN, Bildu-Nafarroa, Aralar-NaBai e I-E; en contra han votado UPN y PP.

La declaración dice lo siguiente:

“El Parlamento de Navarra:

1. Recuerda con dolor el aniversario del genocidio contra el pueblo armenio llevado a cabo por el régimen turco existente en aquel momento, que supuso el asesinato de más de dos millones de personas.

2. Considera, de conformidad con la resolución del Parlamento Europeo de junio de 1987, reafirmada por posteriores resoluciones (28 de febrero de 2002 y 1 de abril de 2004), que los hechos sufridos entonces por la población armenia constituyen un auténtico genocidio, de acuerdo con la Convención de las Naciones Unidas para la prevención y castigo del crimen de genocidio, adoptada en diciembre de 1904.

3. Comparte con el Parlamento Europeo que un país en vías de adhesión a la Unión Europea debe abordar y reconocer su pasado, y solicita a Turquía que establezca con Armenia unas relaciones diplomáticas de vecindad buenas y armoniosas y resuelva sus conflictos fronterizos de forma pacífica.

4. Muestra su simpatía por el pueblo armenio, y apoya sus esfuerzos por consolidar su proceso democrático y asentar en la región del Cáucaso un espacio estable de cooperación y libertad.

5. Solicita al Gobierno de España que, a través del Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores traslade esta declaración a las instituciones competentes en Armenia y Turquía”.

Presbyterian Church Adopts Resolution on Armenian Genocide Centennial

DETROIT—On Friday, June 20, some 600 commissioners to the 221st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), meeting in Detroit, Mich., adopted with near unanimity a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide and adopting the 2015 church calendar designating April 26 as the day for its observance. It also directed the church’s Mission Agency to prepare educational and liturgical resources for member churches in preparation for the event.

This historic resolution, which was the first of its kind for a major American church body, was adopted by the 1.8 million-member church. It originated in the local presbyteries of Los Ranchos (Anaheim, Calif.), Chicago, and Palisades (New Jersey), and was sent on to the national body for adoption. Two overture advocates who played a vital role in this regard were Rev. Dr. Christine Chakoian (Chicago Presbytery) and Rev. Dr. Vartkes Kassouni (Los Ranchos Presbytery). Dr. Chakoian is the senior pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Lake Forest, Ill. Dr. Kassouni is retired, and at present the parish associate of the Tustin Presbyterian Church of Tustin, Calif. Central to the development and writing of the resolution (called an overture) was the staff of the Jinishian Memorial Program (Eliza Minassian, director, and Cara Taylor, coordinator) and the World Mission Agency of the Presbyterian Church (USA), with Greg Allen-Pickett the general manager of operations.

Assisting Rev. Drs. Chakoian and Kassouni was Rev. Fr. Garabed Kocharian, pastor of St. John’s Armenian Church of Southfield, Mich. They spoke on Mon., June 16, before the meeting of the Peacemaking and International Relations Committee, which had to hear, debate, and approve the resolution, and then send it on to the plenary session for final adoption. Their presentations were coordinated, first in an “open hearing” where Chakoian and Kochakian spoke, and then in the action phase where Kassouni spoke calling on the Assembly to take this historic step and recognize the massacres of 1.5 million as “the first genocide of the 20th century.”

The overture includes four key points. One, it urges member congregations to recognize the Armenian Genocide, express deep sympathy to the Armenian people, and designate April 24 every year as the day of remembrance, and honors the provisions of American and international law in this regard. Two, it supports the designation of “genocide” for the death of 1.5 million Armenians and the expulsion of 1 million more from the Ottoman Empire in the years 1915-23.

Three, it directs the stated clerk of the General Assembly to call on the president and the Congress of the United States of America to recognize and condemn the death and expulsion of the Armenians, and to communicate this resolution to our ecumenical partners nationally and internationally. Four, it directs the Presbyterian Mission Agency to encourage appropriate observance of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide (subsequently choosing April 26, 2015) in the churches, with accompanying educational and cultural forms of remembrance, noting the important role played in this endeavor by the Jinishian Memorial Program.

The resolution received great support by the committee during its hearings and action. The Plenary Session affirmed its recommendation and adopted it with no opposition. This was a rare occasion when three Armenian clergy (two Protestant and one Apostolic) stood together in strong cooperative witness and support on behalf of the Armenian people. The process took a long time, starting in January 2014, and worked its way up to the General Assembly in June. It’s a great tribute to cooperative, consistent, intelligent, and dedicated effort on behalf of our Armenian people, past and present.

New Book Recounts Son’s Struggle to Understand Father’s Life after Genocide

(horizonweekly.com) Author Douglas Kalajian believes the title of his new book conveys a dilemma that will be familiar to many Armenian Americans born after the tumult that dislodged their parents and grandparents from their homeland. Stories My Father Never Finished Telling Me: Living with the Armenian Legacy of Loss and Silence, recounts Kalajian’s attempts to draw out his father’s story as a survivor of the Armenian Genocide.

The author’s father, Nishan Kalajian, was born in Dikranagerd (Diyarbakir) in 1912. For him, the genocide was not a distant, historic event but the defining reality of his life. He lost his mother, his home, and everything familiar before being cast into the world alone.

“I knew that much from an early age,” Douglas Kalajian said. “But I desperately wanted to know more: How he survived, how he kept his wits and his faith, how he moved forward without being consumed by bitterness and hate.”

His father volunteered none of it. “He dealt with his most painful memories in a most Armenian way, by pushing them aside,” Kalajian said. “My mother warned me never to ask him about any of it, and I never did—at least, not directly.”

But whenever an opportunity presented itself, he’d approach the topic obliquely and with great caution. The results were often frustrating but occasionally fascinating.

“When he responded at all, my father often shared only a scrap or two before changing the subject or retreating to his books,” Kalajian said. “It was left to me to figure out the importance of each scrap, and to connect it to whatever had come before or that came after.”

This is how the life-long conversation between father and son continued, in fits and starts, yielding scattered pieces of a puzzle that the author is still trying to complete more than 20 years after his father’s death.

“As a writer, I felt compelled to tell as much of my father’s story as I could because I believe it holds important lessons,” Kalajian said. “But I also wanted to tell my own story about growing up in the shadow of a great cataclysm with a father who would not speak about what he had experienced.”

The book’s subtitle “conveys my challenge in learning to appreciate a complex cultural inheritance that is rich and wondrous but also dark and painful to contemplate.”

Most important, Kalajian stressed that he wrote the book for his daughter and her generation, in hopes that they’ll figure out “how to celebrate the best parts of that inheritance while finally vanquishing the pain.”

A retired journalist, Kalajian worked as an editor and writer for the Palm Beach Post, the Miami Herald, and the New York Daily News. He lives in Boynton Beach, Fla., with his wife, Robyn. They produce TheArmenianKitchen.com, a website devoted to Armenian cooking. Kalajian is also the author of the non-fiction book Snow Blind, and co-author of They Had No Voice: My Fight For Alabama’s Forgotten Children.

Stories My Father Never Finished Telling Me is his first book with an Armenian theme, and also the first book Kalajian has published independently. It is available from Amazon.com and other online book vendors, or can be ordered from any bookstore.

Project for Armenian Genocide Museum was announced in Buenos Aires

(Agencia Prensa Armenia).- The City of Buenos Aires will donate a property to the Armenian community for the construction of an Armenian Genocide Museum, according to Undersecretary for Human Rights and Cultural Pluralism Lic. Claudio Avruj.

In dialogue with Prensa Armenia, Undersecretary Avruj stressed the importance of the project “that joins the efforts of both Buenos Aires and Argentina” to recognize the Armenian Genocide and added that it is an initiative that will benefit both the Armenian community and people in general.

Carolina Karagueuzian, director of the Armenian National Committee of Buenos Aires, said that “this will be a collective project that will show the struggle of the Armenian community in the country to keep the memory of the Armenian Genocide alive”, and also “a space for reflection on genocidal practices and the importance of respect for human rights.”

Last April 24 a similar project was launched in Uruguay, with the presentation of the Armenian Genocide Museum Foundation coordinated by the Ministry of Education and Culture together with Uruguayan Armenian organizations in the country .

New Genocide Monument Unveiled in Vancouver

VANCOUVER (Horizon Weekly)—During the commemoration of the 99th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide a new monument dedicated to its victims was unveiled in the middle of Vancouver.

The stainless steel monument, which is shaped like a fingerprint of a survivor, pays homage to the 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide.

More than 350 community members were joined by leaders and political officials for the unveiling, which featured remarks by Archbishop Nathan Hovhannesian, Bishop Anoushavan Danielian, Armenia’s Ambassador to Canada Armen Yeganian, local, provincial and federal government officials, Armenian Revolutionary Federation Bureau member Hagop Der-Khachadourian, ARF Canada Central Committee chairman Raffi Donabedian and filmmaker Atom Egoyan.

Members and leaders of the Armenian community of Vancouver unveil a memorial to the Armenian Genocide in Vancouver

Organized by the Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee of Canada – Vancouver, the event, which was led by Masters of Ceremonies Hagop Der-Hagopian and Varto Papasian, featured a presentation about the history of the monument by George Shahnazarian, and a description of the monument by its designer the artist Matilda Aslizadeh.

The Premier of British Columbia Christy Clark, extended her well wishes to the Armenian community of Vancouver and throughout British Columbia and acknowledged the unveiling of the monument.

“In British Columbia, we honor the victims of this tragedy. By recognizing and remembering these events, we hope to prevent them from ever happening again – anywhere,” said Clark.

“Today I join with you in celebrating the unveiling of the Armenian Genocide Monument. Dedicated to the memory of the victims, this monument and today’s commemoration give us an opportunity to pause, reflect, and renew our commitment to peace, respect, and harmony,” added Clark.

Buenos Aires City Legislature approved two projects on Armenian Genocide

(prensaarmenia.com.ar) The Buenos Ares City Legislature issued on April 3 a statement written by legislators Virginia Gonzalez Gass and Maria Raquel Herrero to commemorate April 24 as the “Day of the First Genocide of the 20th Century”, on the “99th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.”

The Legislature also approved a project submitted by the legislator Pablo Ferreyra to ask the Ministry of Education to perform “the necessary arrangements for individual school districts and schools in the City to carry out curricular activities alluding to the ‘Day of action for tolerance and respect between people'”, referring to the Law 26.199 that commemorates the genocide suffered by the Armenian people every April 24.

“Educating on memory is to educate on the respect and protection of human rights. In this sense, it is essential to promote the inclusion of the issue of genocide in education, not only to remember but also to consider the conditions that made possible such aberrant and savage events”, said Ferreyra in a press statement.

Below is the Buenos Ares City Legislature statement (in spanish)

Por el 99 aniversario del genocidio armenio

Se aprobó con texto consensuado una declaración para conmemorar el próximo 24 de abril el 99 aniversario del que fuera víctima el pueblo armenio, considerado como el “Día del Primer Genocidio del Siglo XX”. Impulsaron la iniciativa las diputadas Raquel Herrero (PRO), Virginia González Gass (PSA) y el diputado Pablo Ferreyra (IP).

El genocidio armenio, también llamado holocausto armenio, fue la deportación forzosa y exterminio de un número indeterminado de civiles, calculado aproximadamente entre un millón y medio y dos millones de personas, por el gobierno de los Jóvenes Turcos en el Imperio otomano, desde 1915 hasta 1923. Se toma el 24 de abril de 1915 como fecha de comienzo del genocidio, día en que las autoridades otomanas detuvieron a 235 miembros de la comunidad de armenios en Estambul.

En el mismo sentido se aprobó otro proyecto de declaración presentada por el diputado Pablo Ferreyra (IP) a través del cual la Legislatura “vería con agrado que el Poder Ejecutivo, a través de su Ministerio de Educación, realice las gestiones necesarias para que los distintos distritos escolares y escuelas de la Ciudad realicen actividades curriculares alusivas al “Día de acción por la tolerancia y el respeto entre los pueblos” incluido en el Cronograma de Conmemoraciones, Celebraciones y Recordaciones de la Agenda Educativa de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires en conmemoración del genocidio sufrido por el pueblo armenio, el día 24 de abril de 2014 y de todos los años subsiguientes”.

Perinçek: Switzerland requests referral to Grand Chamber

Federal Office of Justice

Press Release, FOJ, 11.03.2014

Berne. Switzerland is to request that the European Court of Human Rights have the case of Doğu Perinçek referred to the Grand Chamber for review. The decision was made by the Federal Office of Justice (FoJ). A review would clarify the scope available to the Swiss authorities in applying Swiss criminal law to combat racism.

The European Convention on Human Rights provides for referral to the Grand Chamber in cases including those which raise a serious question affecting the interpretation or application of the Convention. In the present case, Switzerland’s primary interest is in clarifying the scope available to the domestic authorities in applying the criminal anti-racism provision laid down in the Swiss Criminal Code (Art. 261bis CC). Switzerland created this penal provision, which entered into force on 1 January 1995, to close loopholes in criminal law and enable the country to accede to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

On 9 March 2007, Turkish national Doğu Perinçek was sentenced in Canton Vaud to both a financial penalty and a criminal fine under Art. 261bis CC for denying the Armenian Genocide. The Cantonal Court of Canton Vaud and the Federal Supreme Court both rejected appeals against the judgment. In its ruling of 17 December 2013, the competent chamber of the European Court of Human Rights determined that the Swiss courts’ rulings violated the appellant’s right to freedom of expression.

Photo: Federal Councillor Simonetta Sommaruga, Head of the Federal Department of Justice and Police

Azerbaijani Distortion of the Events in Khojaly

WASHINGTON, March 3, 2014 — Azerbaijani diplomacy and propaganda continues to mislead the international community and Azerbaijani people by falsifying the essence and the history of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the facts about the Khojaly events in particular. By distorting the Khojaly events, Azerbaijani regime attempts to escape the responsibility for the Armenian massacres in Sumgait (February, 1988), Kirovabad (November, 1988), Baku (January, 1990), Maragha (April 1992) and against its own population in Khojaly. Azerbaijan strives to portray itself as a victim, thus trying to prepare a moral ground both domestically and internationally to unleash another war against Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan continues to reject international appeals, including by the European Court of Human Rights, to openly debate about the events in Khojaly. In that regard one can only ask why all who have expressed points of views differing from Azerbaijani official version of the events have been either killed, like journalist Mustafaev, or imprisoned like journalist Fatullayev, or politically persecuted like Ayaz Mutalibov, the first president of Azerbaijan?

"Khojaly: The Moment of Truth" by Tatul Hakobyan. Published by the Armenian Cause Foundation https://www.armeniancause.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/N2-final.pdf — (ACF) “Khojaly: The Moment of Truth” by Tatul Hakobyan. Published by the Armenian Cause Foundation.

In reality Khojaly village was one of the Azerbaijani strongholds in the heart of Nagorno-Karabakh which for many months as Human Rights Watch put it “pounded the capital of Nagorno Karabakh, Stepanakert, and other Armenian towns and villages with shells and grenades. The indiscriminate shelling and sniper shooting killed or maimed hundreds of civilians, destroyed homes, hospitals and other objects that are not legitimate military targets, and generally terrorized the civilian population”.[1] Therefore, suppressing the Azerbaijani fire had become a matter of survival for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.

As Azerbaijani journalist Eynulla Fatullayev stated “And even several days prior to the attack, the Armenians had been continuously warning the population about the planned operation through loudspeakers and suggesting that the civilians abandon the town and escape from the encirclement through a humanitarian corridor. According to the Khojaly refugees’ own words, they had used this corridor and, indeed, the Armenian soldiers positioned behind the corridor had not opened fire on them”[2].

However, goes on Fatullayev “… part of the Khojaly inhabitants had been fired upon by our own [Azerbaijani troops]… Whether it was done intentionally or not is to be determined by investigators … [They were killed] not by [some] mysterious [shooters], but by provocateurs from the NFA[3] battalions … [The corpses] had been mutilated by our own …”[4].

Ayaz Mutalibov, then the president of Azerbaijan blamed his political opponents for killings in Khojaly. He stated in an interview that “…the corridor, by which people could escape, had nonetheless been left by the Armenians. So, why did they have to open fire? Especially in the area around Aghdam, where there was sufficient force at that time to get help to the people. As the Khojali inhabitants, who narrowly escaped, say, it was all organized in order to have grounds for my resignation. Some forces functioned for the effort to discredit the president”[5].

The fact that Khojaly inhabitants felt victim of fierce domestic political strife for power in Azerbaijan was confirmed also by then Chairman of Azerbaijan’s Supreme Council Karayev and his successor Mamedov, Azerbaijani Human Rights Activist Yunusov and others.

Heydar Aliyev, then a presidential hopeful in Azerbaijan stated that “…the bloodshed will profit us. We should not interfere in the course of events”[6].

Mr. Fatullayev, the Chief Editor of the Azerbaijani newspaper “Realny Azerbaijan” spent many years in prison for alleged defamation of inhabitants of Khojaly. He appealed to the European court of Human Rights, which ruled that the Azerbaijani government shall immediately release Fatullayev. He was eventually released in 2011 and shortly after confirmed to Radio Liberty that he has not changed his views on Khojaly events and held “Azerbaijani fighters, not Armenians, responsible for the 1992 killings” of Khojaly inhabitants[7].

The Azerbaijani aggressive rhetoric and distortion of history, backed by the billions worth acquisition of offensive weaponry[8], bares serious threat to the security and stability for the whole region and thus should be adequately countered by the international community.
Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to the United States of America

[1] http://www.hrw.org/reports/1993/WR93/Hsw-07.htm#TopOfPage
[2] http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx#{“fulltext”:[“fatullayev”],”itemid”:[“001-98401”]}
[3] National Front of Azerbaijan. In 1992 an opposition militarized party, which came to power after the Khojaly events.
[4] ‘Case of Fatullayev v Azerbaijan’ (Application no. 40984/07) European Court of Human Rights http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx#{“fulltext”:[“fatullayev”],”itemid”:[“001-98401”]}
[5] ‘Nezavisimaya Gazetta’, 2 April 1992 (Russia)
[6] ‘Bilik-Dunyasi Agency’, April 1992 (Azerbaijan)
[7] http://www.rferl.org/content/fatullayev_says_im_still_here/24347732.html
[8] Azerbaijan made the largest real percentage increase (89 per cent) in military spending in the world. “Background paper on SIPRI military expenditure data, 2011” http://www.sipri.org/research/armaments/milex

SOURCE Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to the United States of America

Photo: The Armenian Embassy in Washington, DC.

Genocide Memoirs of Aram and Dirouhi Avedian Published in LA

(armenianweekly.com) LOS ANGELES—Defying Fate, the memoirs of Aram and Dirouhi Avedian and the fifth volume of the Genocide Library, was published recently in Los Angeles.

Dirouhi Cheomlekjian (later Avedian) was born circa 1907 in Izmit. In 1915, she and her family were deported by the Turkish government and marched to the Der Zor desert in Syria, “the mass grave of the Armenian people.” The only one to survive her family’s massacre in Al-Shaddadeh, Dirouhi was adopted by local Arabs. She grew up in the Syrian desert, where years later she met Aram Avedian, her future husband. After spending 13 years in near captivity, she escaped to Aleppo.

Aram Avedian was also born circa 1907, in the Armenian village of Tsitogh, near Erzurum. In 1914, his father froze to death while serving in the Turkish army. At the onset of the genocide, Aram and his family were exiled to the Syrian desert. After being marched for almost a year and witnessing the horrors of the deportation and massacres, Aram and his family reached Al-Raqqah, Syria, where the young boy was kidnapped by an Arab horseman. Aram, too, spent the next 13 years in the Syrian desert, among various Arab families, and he, too, ended up escaping to Aleppo.

Aram and Dirouhi Avedian eventually moved to Los Angeles, where, in the late 1970’s, they wrote down their individual memoirs, wishing to document their experiences of the genocide and survival as testaments for future generations. The couple died within less than three months of each other: Dirouhi passed away in 1987, Aram in 1988.

The Avedians’ handwritten memoirs were later collected and edited by their daughter, Knar Manjikian, who also annotated the resulting volume, Defying Fate, and wrote its introduction. The text was translated into English by Ishkhan Jinbashian. “Whenever my mother spoke of the family members she had lost, she said all she wished was to see them in her dreams,” Manjikian writes.

She adds that after having lived among Arabs for so long and all but forgotten how to speak and write in Armenian, her parents relearned their mother tongue after the age of 20. They achieved this, she writes, by becoming avid readers of Armenian literature and Aleppo’s Arevelk Daily. Her mother further honed her Armenian by corresponding with her brother, who lived in Istanbul, and through public service, as she went on to become a lifelong member of the Armenian Relief Society.

In the foreword to Defying Fate, Hagop Manjikian writes: “Despite the sparseness of [the Avedians’] writings and their humble designation by the authors as a ‘notebook’ and a ‘journal,’ respectively, we had no doubt that they deserved to be published as a full-fledged book, in keeping with our principle of favoring quality over quantity, substance over size, and depth over appearance.”

Copies of Defying Fate can be ordered in the United States by mailing a check to H. and K. Manjikian, 10844 Wrightwood Lane, Studio City, CA 91604. The price of each copy, including shipping, is $15.

A project of H. and K. Manjikian Publications, the Genocide Library was established in 2005 by Mr. and Mrs. Hagop and Knar Manjikian with the goal of publishing key chronicles of the Armenian Genocide. Titles published to date include Passage through Hell by Armen Anush (first and second editions), The Fatal Night by Mikayel Shamtanchian, Death March by Shahen Derderian, The Crime of the Ages by Sebuh Aguni, and Defying Fate by Aram and Dirouhi Avedian. The Genocide Library’s next title is Our Cross, by M. Salpi (Aram Sahakian), slated to be published this year.

WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES: ECtHR judgement an affront to memory of the victims of Armenian genocide

(horizonweekly.ca) – The World Council of Churches (WCC) has expressed “great concern” over the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgment in the case of Perinçek v. Switzerland, recalling that the Swiss National Council and the Federal Tribunal in the past have clearly recognized the Armenian genocide as a historical fact.

The ECtHR judgment in December 2013 ruled in favour of Turkish politician Dogu Perincek in a lawsuit filed against Switzerland. Perincek is known to have repeatedly denied the Armenian genocide and was convicted by a Swiss court in 2008. Switzerland has a right to appeal against the ECtHR judgement.

In an official letter sent to the Federal Department of Justice and Police on 27 February, the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit urged “the Swiss government to make use of its right to appeal the ECtHR judgement, which constitutes an affront to the memory of the victims of the Armenian genocide and their descendants.”

Tveit called this an issue of “ethical and social significance” and a reminder of “working together for the elimination of discrimination and prejudice and for the prevention of genocide and crimes against humanity”.

In the past, the WCC has addressed the need for public recognition of the Armenian genocide, as when it published a document called Armenia: the Continuing Tragedy in 1984. The document helped in making known the history and plight of the Armenian people.

The WCC’s Commission of the Churches on International Affairs also raised the issue of the Armenian genocide at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

A Minute adopted at the WCC’s 6th Assembly in Vancouver in 1983 stressed the need to continue addressing the impact of the Armenian genocide.

“The silence of the world community and deliberate efforts to deny even historical facts have been consistent sources of anguish and growing despair to the Armenian people, the Armenian churches and many others,” the Minute stated.

Read the full text of the WCC general secretary’s letter here.

WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs