Month: October 2015

(panarmenian.net) – The Italian region of Abruzzo on Tuesday, October 27 passed a bill to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

According to Armenia’s Foreign Ministry, in a resolution adopted unanimously, the regional council expressed its solidarity with the Armenian people on the big tragedy’s centennial, thus supporting the nation-wide efforts towards the recognition of historical truth and the protection of human rights.

Council member Luciano Monticelli hailed the move, describing it as a remarkable historic achievement.

“Today, we wrote a very nice chapter in our region’s political history, unanimously adopting this resolution,” he said.

The Abuzzo regional council is the 99th Italian local government body to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Below is the text of the resolution, in Italian.

IL CONSIGLIO REGIONALE

VISTA la risoluzione a firma del consigliere Monticelli recante: Genocido del popolo Armeno;

UDITA l’illustrazione del consigliere Monticelli;

UDITO l’intervento del consigliere Ranieri;

DATO ATTO della non partecipazione al voto del consigliere Monaco;

All’unanimità

L’APPROVA

Nel testo che di seguito si trascrive

«IL CONSIGLIO REGIONALE

VISTO CHE

– nel 2015 ricorre il centenario del genocidio del popolo Armeno;

– la comunità Armena di Roma ha richiesto a tutte le istituzioni un atto ufficiale di riconoscimento del genocidio del popolo Armeno in occasione delle commemorazioni del centenario di tale tragedia;

CONSIDERATO CHE

– è meritevole sensibilizzare la cittadinanza sul genocidio del popolo Armeno avvenuto nel 1915 ad opera del governo Turco dell’epoca. Nel corso di questa autentica operazione di pulizia etnica un milione e mezzo di uomini, donne, bambini ed anziani furono deportati e massacrati per il solo fatto di appartenere ad una minoranza di razza, religione e cultura diverse da quella Turca;

– il genocidio armeno fu precursore di quello purtroppo ben più famoso dell’olocausto ebraico ma fu coperto da una immensa coltre di silenzio e di indifferenza da parte delle potenze occidentali. Solo dopo la fine della seconda guerra mondiale il coraggio e la dedizione di alcuni intellettuali di origine armena hanno permesso di iniziare a far luce su una delle più grandi tragedie del XX secolo;

– ancora oggi il genocidio armeno viene negato ufficialmente dal governo Turco e rimane uno degli ostacoli principali all’ingresso della Turchia nella UE;

– attestati di solidarietà e mozioni di riconoscimento del genocidio armeno sono stati approvati in molti Comuni e Regioni italiane;

– tale dramma storico è stato riconosciuto come genocidio dalla Commissione per i crimini di guerra dell’Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite (ONU) nel 1948, dalla Sottocommissione per la promozione e la protezione dei diritti umani dell’ONU (1985 e 1986), dal Parlamento Europeo nel 1987 e nel 2000, dal Parlamento Italiano (da tutti i gruppi parlamentari) in data 17 novembre 2000 e finanche dalla stessa Corte marziale ottomana nel 1919;

RICORDATO CHE

– il Tribunale permanente dei popoli ha riconosciuto, fra l’altro, che “lo sterminio delle popolazioni armene, con la deportazione e il massacro, costituisce un crimine imprescrittibile di genocidio ai sensi della convenzione del 9/12/1948 per la prevenzione e repressione del crimine di genocidio”;

CONSIDERATO CHE

– recentemente, il Primo ministro del governo Turco ha offerto le sue condoglianze “ai nipoti degli Armeni uccisi nel 1915” ed auspicato che “gli Armeni che hanno perso la vita nelle circostanze dell’inizio del XX secolo riposino in pace”;

RILEVATO CHE

– il genocidio è il più feroce e disumano fra i crimini, in quanto tende all’eliminazione di tutto un popolo, della sua identità, della sua cultura, della sua storia e della sua religione;

RICONOSCIUTA

– la necessità che l’opinione pubblica approfondisca il dramma del popolo Armeno, affinché tali tragedie della storia siano di monito, soprattutto alle giovani generazioni;

ESPRIME

la propria piena solidarietà al popolo Armeno in occasione del centenario del “Grande Male” e nella sua battaglia per la verità storica e per la difesa dei diritti umani.

DISPONE

– la più ampia diffusione della presente risoluzione affinché, l’intera cittadinanza abruzzese sia partecipe del sentimento di solidarietà verso il popolo Armeno;

– di comunicare il presente atto al Consiglio per la Comunità Armena di Roma, affinché la Direzione del memoriale del genocidio della capitale armena Yerevan inserisca il Consiglio regionale dell’Abruzzo nella lista dei “Giusti” per la Memoria del Metz Yeghern (il Grande Male), insieme a tutte le altre istituzioni che hanno adottato simili risoluzioni».

(asbarez.com) — The Jewish public policy umbrella called on the U.S. government to recognize the World War I-era Turkish massacres of Armenians as a genocide, a reversal of years of the Jewish community treading delicately around the issue.

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs at its annual meeting last week called on Jewish community organizations to lobby Congress and the White House to formally recognize the Armenian genocide. A JCPA spokesman on Wednesday confirmed that the resolution was the umbrella group’s first recognition of the Armenian genocide.

The Reform movement has called the massacres a genocide, but many other organizations have resisted such moves.

The JCPA decision, arrived at through consensus, reverses decades of Jewish groups opposing any such recognition, largely to placate Turkey, Israel’s closest ally in the region until the last decade. Key pro-Israel groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, had lobbied against such recognition.

The deterioration in Turkey-Israel relations since Israel’s war against Hamas in the 2009 Gaza War — Turkey backed Hamas — has all but ended lobbying by pro-Israel groups on behalf of Turkey. But because calling the massacres a genocide has precipitated crises between Turkey and other nations, until now there has been little appetite for actively supporting such a recognition.

The resolution calls for the Jewish community to work with Armenian-American groups to advance recognition of the genocide.

“We must not let the politics of the moment, or the U.S. government’s relationship with Turkey, sway our moral obligation to recognize the suffering of the Armenian people,” it says.

Resolution on Armenian Genocide

Adopted October 2015

Historians and scholars tell us that the Armenian people were the victims of the first genocide of the twentieth century at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, the predecessors of modern-day Turkey. Approximately 1.5 million Armenians were killed or expelled from their homes and deported. The year 2015 is the 100th anniversary of the start of the Armenian Genocide. The government of Turkey has, to this day, refused to acknowledge such genocide took place.

The Armenian Genocide is a distant memory in the minds of the children of survivors. However, there is abundant documentation of the atrocities, particularly by former U.S. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau. Nevertheless, Hitler stated in 1939, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”

The Jewish communities, as the targets of one of the worst genocides of the twentieth century, have a bond with the Armenian people here in the United States and abroad. We have a moral obligation to work toward recognition of the genocide perpetrated against the Armenian people.

The word genocide was coined just prior to the end of World War II, and the word Holocaust did not come into common usage to describe what happened to the Jews until after WWII. However, the term “genocide” may be attributed to atrocities that meet the definition of genocide after they have taken place.

The U.S. government has yet to name what happened to the Armenian people for a variety of reasons. The most obvious is the fear that doing so will hurt our relationship with Turkey. Turkey spans the east and west. The United States needs Turkey’s permission to fly over its territory and for support services in the United States’ activities in Iraq, its attempts to keep Iran in check, and to fight ISIS.

After 100 years, it is time for the U.S. to face facts and acknowledge that what happened in 1915 and in subsequent years was genocide.

Since at least 1951 there have been numerous references by U.S. government officials, Congress, and previous presidents to what happened to the Armenians as genocide. These have often been during events held in commemoration of the anniversary of the start of the genocide. But efforts to pass a House resolution officially recognizing it have failed, often as a result of lobbying on behalf of Turkey.

President Barack Obama, as a senator, pledged to support congressional resolutions to recognize the Armenian Genocide. As a presidential candidate, he once again promised to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Yet once he became president, political realities prevented such a move.

At this time, some 23 foreign countries, a number of world organizations, and 44 U.S. states have recognized the genocide that took place against the Armenian people. The Union for Reform Judaism, Anti-Defamation League, and American Jewish Committee have previously taken positions recognizing the genocide, as well as some U.S. church groups.

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs believes:

· The Jewish people have asked the world to bear witness to the Holocaust. As we say Never Again, we must likewise bear witness to other people’s genocide and say Never Again.

· We suffer greatly from efforts to minimize our own suffering and experience of genocide and we have a moral responsibility, as Jews, to name it in others’ experience.

· We must not let the politics of the moment, or the U.S. government’s relationship with Turkey, sway our moral obligation to recognize the suffering of the Armenian people.

· We call upon our the Congress and the President to officially recognize what started in 1915 at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, and resulted in the killing and deportation of approximately 1.5 million Armenians, as the Armenian Genocide.

The community relations field should:

· Consult and work with the national Armenian organizations to further the goal of U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

· Consult and work with the major Jewish organizations to raise awareness of the issue and gain their support in working to gain U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

· Consult and work with our interfaith coalition partners to further the aim of U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

· Urge our congressional representatives to support resolutions in Congress that call for the United States to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

· Call upon the President to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

(Public radio of Armenia) In a letter addressed to Norbert Lammert, President of the German Bundestag, Norbert Röttgen, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bundestag, and the heads of two factions, the International Association of Genocide Scholars urges Germany to recognize the Genocide of Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks in the Ottoman Empire. The letter reads:

“We write to you as the past presidents of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the largest body of scholars who study genocide, concerning the resolution on the Armenian genocide that may be before you now.

The German government’s engagement with the Armenian genocide is vitally important to the international perspective in the aftermath of this history. The German Bundestag’s non-binding resolution of June 2005 concerning the annihilation of the Armenians in Turkey provides an important context for the new proposal that is now being considered in the Foreign Committee of the Bundestag.

In order for progress toward reconciliation to be made between Turkey and the Armenian Republic and the Armenian people, acknowledgement of the historical facts about one of the most devastating human rights atrocities of the modern era must be made. As the Bundestag noted in 2005. “The German Bundestag is painfully aware from its own national experience how hard it is for every people to face the dark sides of its past. But it also believes that facing one’s own history fairly and squarely is necessary and constitutes an important basis for reconciliation.”

Furthermore, the 2005 resolution read: “The German Bundestag honors and commemorates the victims of violence, murder and expulsion among the Armenian people before and during the First World War. The Bundestag deplores the deeds of the Young Turkish government in the Ottoman Empire that resulted in the almost total annihilation of the Armenians in Anatolia. It also deplores the inglorious role played by the German Reich which had made no attempt to intervene and stop these atrocities.”

In the centennial year, the opinions of Pope Francis I, the governments of Austria, Brazil, Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as the European Parliament, were significant and have joined 20 other countries (including France, Russia, Poland, Greece, Sweden) that have called for Turkey to deal with its Armenian past honestly. The front page New York Times headline of April 17, 2015 underscored the importance of this ethical issue: “A Century After A Genocide, Turkey’s Denial Only Deepens.”

The outpouring of world opinion in the spring of 2015 underscored the moral importance of official acknowledgement of the Ottoman government’s genocide because its successor state, the Republic of Turkey, continues to carry on an aggressive campaign of denial and falsification of the historical facts. Not only has there been no restitution, but Turkey’s campaign to pressure foreign governments and institutions (museums, school boards, media) to disallow the representations of the Armenian genocide is a violation of sovereign democratic rights and is ethically deplorable.

German documents on the Armenian genocide are an important part of the historical record. The documentary scholarship of Johannes Lepsius , the collection of eyewitness photographs of Armin T. Wegner, the eyewitness accounts of numerous German diplomats, officers, missionaries, nurses, engineers and railway workers, and the massive collection of German diplomatic correspondence in the archives of the German Foreign Office, and in Wolfgang Gust’s major collection of foreign office records: The Armenian Genocide: Evidence from the German Foreign Office Archives, 1915–1916, all constitute a significant part of the international historical record.

Germany, more than any country in the 20th century, has dealt with the aftermath of genocide with exemplary courage and moral reckoning. Germany has been a world leader in its ability to face its past, create a powerful culture of historical memory and deal with issues of recompense and social justice in the wake of the Holocaust. Thus, a statement from Germany affirming the historical facts and historical record of the Ottoman Turkish genocide against more than 3 million Christians—including more than a million Armenians according to the estimate of the German Embassy in Constantinople in October, 1916—would have great moral significance for this centennial moment.

We call on German legislators in this centennial year of 2015 to officially resolve in written form the forceful legal opinions made by speakers of all parliamentary factions on, April 24, 2015, confirming the genocide against the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek populations of the Ottoman Empire. We believe German leadership will help Turkey to address its own struggles with historical memory and will help support progressive forces inside Turkey, and Turkey’s forward progress as a proud nation.”

(armeniangenocide100.org) The City Council of the Italian town of Ivrea, Piemonte region, unanimously recognized the Armenian Genocide on its October 12 session, according to press and information department of the Armenian Foreign Ministry.

The statement indicates that by recognizing the historical fact the City Council offers it support to the Armenian nation and to the efforts in protecting its rights.

The honorable guests of the session included Armenian writer and director Vazgen Berberyan and representatives of the National Association of the Italian Partisans (ANPI).

The City Council expressed hopes that the European Parliament would take steps to make European Union candidate Turkey officially recognize and condemn the Armenian Genocide.

(panarmenian.net) The regional council of Marche, Italy, has unanimously approved a measure to recognize the Armenian Genocide, Tert.am reports.

In a resolution adopted on Tuesday, October 6, Marche expressed solidarity with the Armenian people on the tragedy’s centennial.

Council members Boris Rapa (Uniti per le Marche), Moreno Pieroni (Uniti per le Marche), Gianluca Busilacchi (Partito Democratico) and Luca Marconi (Popolari Marche-Unioni de Centro) initiated the bill.

Italy recognized the Armenian Genocide back in 2000.

On April 24, 2015, Armenians around the world commemorated the centennial of the Genocide, perpetrated at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.

Following is the text of the motion (in Italian)

ESTRATTO DEL PROCESSO VERBALE DELLA SEDUTA ANTIMERIDIANA DEL 6 OTTOBRE 2015, N. 7

PRESIEDE IL PRESIDENTE ANTONIO MASTROVINCENZO
VICEPRESIDENTI RENATO CLAUDIO MINARDI e MARZIA MALAIGIA

Assiste il Segretario dell’Assemblea legislativa dott.ssa Paola Santoncini
Alle ore 10,20, nella sala assembleare di via Tiziano n. 44, ad Ancona, il Presidente dichiara aperta la seduta dell’Assemblea legislativa.
O M I S S I S
Il Presidente passa alla trattazione del punto iscritto all’ordine del giorno che reca:

MOZIONE N. 12

ad iniziativa dei consiglieri Rapa, Pieroni, Busilacchi, Marconi
“Genocidio del popolo armeno”.
Nessuno chiede di intervenire ed il Presidente la pone in votazione.
L’Assemblea legislativa approva la mozione n. 12, nel testo che segue:“

L’ASSEMBLEA LEGISLATIVA DELLE MARCHE,

VISTA la richiesta dell’Unione degli Armeni d’Italia per un atto ufficiale di riconoscimento del Genocidio del popolo armeno, in occasione delle commemorazioni del centenario di tale tragedia;
CONSIDERATO che tale dramma storico è stato riconosciuto come Genocidio dalla Sottocommissione per i diritti umani dell’ONU nel 1973 e 1986, dal Parlamento europeo nel 1987, dal Parlamento italiano (da tutti i gruppi parlamentari) in data 17 novembre 2000 e financo dalla stessa Corte Marziale ottomana nel 1919;
RICORDATO che il Tribunale Permanente dei Popoli ha riconosciuto fra l’altro che “lo sterminio delle popolazioni armene con la deportazione e il massacro costituisce un crimine imprescrittibile di genocidio ai sensi della convenzione del 9 dicembre 1948, per la prevenzione e repressione del crimine di genocidio”;
TENUTO CONTO che lo stesso Parlamento europeo, il 15 novembre 2000 e il 15 aprile 2015, ha approvato a larga maggioranza una risoluzione sulla relazione periodica 1999 della Commissione europea sui progressi della Turchia verso l’adesione e che tale risoluzione affronta questioni che riguardano il popolo armeno in paragrafi significativi, invitando al riconoscimento del genocidio ai danni della minoranza armena commesso anteriormente alla nascita della moderna Repubblica Turca;
RICORDANDO anche il discorso del Santo Padre Francesco, pronunciato durante la messa dedicata al Genocidio del Popolo Armeno il 12 aprile 2015, nella basilica di San Pietro a Roma;
RILEVATO che il genocidio è il più feroce e disumano fra i crimini in quanto tende all’eliminazione di tutto un popolo, della sua identità, della sua cultura, della sua storia e della sua religione;
RICONOSCIUTA la necessità che l’opinione pubblica approfondisca il dramma del popolo armeno affinché tali tragedie della storia siano di monito soprattutto alle giovani generazioni;
ESPRIME la propria piena solidarietà al popolo armeno in occasione del centenario del Genocidio degli Armeni;

IMPEGNA LA GIUNTA REGIONALE

alla diffusione della presente mozione a mezzo comunicato stampa, affinché l’intera cittadinanza sia partecipe del sentimento di solidarietà verso il popolo armeno;

alla comunicazione dell’approvazione della mozione all’Unione degli Armeni d’Italia, affinché la trasmetta alla Direzione del Memoriale del genocidio della capitale armena Yerevan ed il nominativo della Regione sia inserito nella lista dei “Giusti” per la Memoria del Metz Yeghern (il Grande Male), insieme a tutti gli altri che hanno adottato simili atti”.

IL PRESIDENTE
F.to Antonio Mastrovincenzo
IL VICEPRESIDENTE
F.to Renato Claudio Minardi
LA VICEPRESIDENTE
F.to Marzia Malaigia

(Prensa Armenia) The House of Representatives of the province of Misiones, Argentina, approved a law that adheres to the National Law 26,199, which establishes every April 24 as the “Day of Action for Tolerance and Respect between Peoples” in commemoration of the genocide against the Armenian people.

Law VI-186 was enacted on September 3 in Posadas, and was promulgated on 18 March.

The Law 26,199, enacted on December 13 2006 and promulgated on 11 January 2007, invites provincial governments to “adhere to the provisions of this law,” according to Article 4.

The list of Argentine provinces that adhered to this law are: Buenos Aires, Catamarca, Chaco, Chubut, Córdoba, Corrientes, Jujuy, La Pampa, Neuquén, Río Negro, San Juan, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero and Tierra del Fuego.

Argentina-Misiones-Armenian-Genocide-law.pdf