ArmInfo.A conference on the prevention of genocides and education, organized by the Armenian delegation at the UN office in New York, began with Komitas music, the Voice of America Armenian Service reports.
The representative of Armenia at the UN Mher Margaryan, in particular, emphasized that the Armenian people survived the horrors of the Armenian Genocide at the beginning of the 20th century, and therefore, Armenia has a special responsibility to combine efforts to prevent the crime of genocide. Margaryan noted that the genocide is preceded by events during which the rights of the most vulnerable groups of the country's population are infringed. Speaking at the conference, Simon Adams has served as Executive Director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, who chaired the conference, recalled that in 4 months 105 years will have passed since <Armenians were deliberately killed in the Ottoman Empire on April 24, 1915>. <As a result of these actions, more than one and a half million lives were destroyed. In May 1915, the United Kingdom, France and Russia accused the Ottoman Empire of committing crimes against humanity - for the first time this term was used to describe the scale of atrocities>, - Adams recalled.
According to scientists and psychologists, the denial of genocide is not only disrespectful to the victims of genocide, but also paves the way for the next genocide. <When my students read the works of Ron Sunni, they are really horrified, they are shocked at the level of violence that the Armenian community of the Ottoman Empire has experienced, and they require explanation, "says Eric White, professor of history at New York college. A representative of the Turkish mission at the UN also attended the conference, he asked for a vote, stating that the last years of World War I were a difficult period for the Ottoman Empire, during which all citizens of the empire suffered. <It's the duty of mankind to claim that the Armenians suffered as well as other citizens of the Ottoman Empire, expressing different opinions about the events of 1915 in Turkey is part of a culture of democracy, however, using the events of 1915 as an excuse to express hostility towards Turkey and transform the question into the issue of political conflict is unacceptable>, - said a representative of the Turkish UN mission. The representative of Turkey concluded his speech by saying that international law does not recognize the events of 1915 as genocide. In response, Henry Theriault, President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars said that given all the studies, even a discussion of the denial of the Armenian Genocide is pointless.
<Over the past 50 years, I have never heard such a direct denial of the Armenian Genocide. Thank you for showing this figuratively. However, I would recommend updating your literature, since it has been outdated by about 30 years. The arguments that you cited have been repeatedly refuted, so I urge you to do some work so that what you say can be meaningful. Let me also say that many educated and intellectual people in Turkey fully recognized the Armenian Genocide, but contrary to your statement, many of them are currently in prison or were in prison because of its recognition>, Henry Theriault said.