Wednesday, April 24 2024 17:17

ArmInfo. On April 23, a commemoration ceremony for the 109th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide was organized in the hall of the House of Representatives of Uruguay, which was attended by the country's president Luis Lacalle Pou, Foreign Minister Omar Paganini, and  Deputy Foreign Minister Nicol s Albertoni.

According to the Armenian Embassy in Uruguay, Ana Olivera, President of the House of Representatives of Uruguay, in her opening speech, she condemned those who committed the Armenian Genocide, presenting in detail a number of historical facts of this crime against humanity.

The MP also presented details of the process of recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Uruguay.  She then addressed Azerbaijan's forced displacement of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, adding that tension and uncertainty on the Armenian border due to Azerbaijan's aggressive actions continue.

"The Armenian people are again fighting against hatred. But they are not alone in this struggle, because the international community will be on their side. Armenians in no corner of the world have lost their identity," Ana Olivera noted, during the speech, showing drawings of a child displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh, now living in Kornidzor, which depicted flowers and a house.

"If, after seeing so many atrocities, a child is still able to draw this, then it means that the Armenians will not stop fighting, and we will not abandon the Armenian people," Ana Olivera concluded.

109 years ago, Turkiye  perpetrated the Genocide of the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire.  Over 1.5 million Armenians were massacred based on their nationality. The Armenian genocide is recognized and condemned by many countries of the world and influential international organizations. The parliament of Uruguay was the first to officially condemn the massacres of Armenians (1965). The extermination of the Armenians was officially recognized as genocide (according to international law[177]) and also condemned by France (1998, 2000, 2001, 2006, 2012, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland - National Council (lower house of parliament), Sweden, Russia (1995), Poland , Lebanon (2000), Italy, Lithuania, Greece, Slovakia, Cyprus, Argentina (2 laws, 5 resolutions), Venezuela, Chile, Canada (1996, 2002, 2004), Vatican, Bolivia (2014), Austria (2015), Luxembourg (2015), Brazil (2015), Paraguay (2015), Germany (2016), Czech Republic (2017), Portugal (2019), USA (in 35 states by law), Latvia.  The Armenian Genocide was recognized by the European Parliament (1987, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2015), the parliamentary coalition of South American countries (Mercosur), the UN Subcommission on the Prevention of Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities, the Parliament of Latin America (2015). Recognition of the Armenian genocide is not officially a prerequisite for Turkey's entry into the EU, but some authors believe that Turkey will have to do so on the path to EU membership.

The Turkish Republic spends heavily on PR denial campaigns and donates to universities that provide credibility to the Turkish position. Whenever parliaments or governments of different states discuss the recognition of genocide, Turkey threatens them with diplomatic and trade sanctions and repression of its own minorities.  In order to destroy traces of the physical presence of Armenians in Turkey, monuments of Armenian architecture in the country are systematically destroyed.

Deniers' arguments are usually modifications of one of the following statements: the massacre of Armenians never happened in the Ottoman Empire; the death of Armenians occurred due to negligence from hunger and disease during their expulsion from the combat zone; there was no deliberate policy on the part of the Young Turks to exterminate the Armenians; The death of the Armenians was a consequence of the civil war in the Ottoman Empire, which also killed many Turks.