Genocide can by no means be justified - RA Human Rights Defender 

ArmInfo.  The crime of genocide is not only unjustifiable, but also entails irreversible consequences for all of humanity and the human rights protection system.

This is stated in the statement of the Ombudsman of Armenia Anahit  Manasyan on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of the Armenian  Genocide.

In this vein, she recalled that today, on April 24, the entire  civilized world honors the memory of the holy martyrs of the first  genocide of the 20th century - the Armenian Genocide.

She added that at the beginning of the last century, Armenians living  in the territory of the Ottoman Empire became victims of organized  mass crimes, including brutal murders, forced displacement and  inhuman torture.

"Today we bow our heads in memory of the holy martyrs of the Armenian  Genocide and reaffirm our commitment to condemning this crime,  restoring justice and preventing such acts in the future. Despite the  development of human rights protection mechanisms, the rights of  people forcibly displaced from their homes and subjected to brutal  torture have not yet been restored," Manasyan noted.

According to her, impunity for such actions gives rise to new crimes.  In this regard, the Chief Human Rights Defender of Armenia recalled  that in September 2023, the whole world witnessed the forced  displacement of the entire Armenian population of Artsakh and  numerous manifestations of cruelty towards them.

"Unfortunately, in the modern world, the realities of ethnically  based hatred continue to exist, including the policy of Armenophobia,  which creates favorable conditions for genocide and crimes against  humanity. We must unite efforts to prevent such crimes and develop  appropriate policies in this direction. Effective mechanisms to  combat such acts should be a priority for each of us," Manasyan  concluded.

The Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire was the first genocide of  the 20th century. Armenians remember the victims of the tragedy every  year on April 24. Turkey traditionally denies accusations of mass  extermination of more than 1.5 million Armenians. The fact of the  Armenian Genocide has been recognized by many countries and a number  of authoritative international organizations. The first country to  recognize the Genocide in 1965 was Uruguay. Then this fact was  recognized by Cyprus, Russia, Greece, Canada, Lebanon, Belgium,  France, Paraguay, Argentina, Sweden, Bolivia, Great Britain, Holland,  Slovakia, Germany, Lithuania, Venezuela, Poland, Chile, Switzerland,  Brazil, Luxembourg, Austria, Vatican, Czech Republic, Denmark,  Portugal, as well as the provisional government of Libya, the USA,  Syria, the European Parliament, the World Council of Churches.