BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN
On Sept. 11, after years of persistent
diplomatic efforts, the Republic of Armenia succeeded in having the
United Nations General Assembly adopt by consensus a generic resolution
on all genocides.
Introduced by Armenia and co-sponsored by 83
other nations, the resolution establishes December 9 as the
“International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the
Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime.” Dec. 9 was
chosen since the UN Genocide Convention was adopted on that day in 1948.
Henceforth,
on every December 9, the UN will commemorate and honor the victims of
all genocides. Even though the resolution does not mention any
particular genocide, it is up to Armenians to ensure that their genocide
is included in official UN commemorations on that date. No one will be
surprised should the Turkish government attempt to block such Armenian
efforts!
Ironically, Turkey was one of the co-sponsors of the
genocide resolution, probably out of a concern that opposing it would
have revealed its deep-seated anxiety on the subject of genocide.
Consequently, Turkish officials acted as if this resolution was
unrelated to their country’s past and present genocidal crimes against
Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks and Kurds!
Among the 84 countries
co-sponsoring the resolution were the United States, Russia, United
Kingdom, France, Germany, India, Japan, and Iran. Interestingly,
Azerbaijan and Rwanda did not co-sponsor it. Azerbaijan was reluctant to
support any resolution proposed by Armenia. Rwanda, on the other hand,
felt the resolution was unnecessary, since the UN had designated April 7
as International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda. In
contrast, Israel co-sponsored the resolution, even though the UN had
already set January 27 as International Day of Commemoration in Memory
of the Victims of the Holocaust.
The Global Centre for the
Responsibility to Protect issued a statement last Friday commending the
adoption of the UN resolution, and listing the “significant
anniversaries of the most atrocious crimes of the last century,”
including “the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, 70th
anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, 40th anniversary of the
Khmer Rouge’s atrocities in Cambodia, and the 20th anniversaries of the
genocide in Rwanda and at Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
Amb.
Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, Armenia’s Representative to the UN, spoke of his
“sense of duty,” while presenting the proposed resolution to the General
Assembly on Sept. 11. Paying tribute to Raphael Lemkin who had coined
the term genocide, the Ambassador stated: “For the victims of our past
inaction, the International Day will render dignity. The denial to
millions of the sanctity of life is ultimate injustice. Justice denied
haunts generations of survivors. We speak from experience.”
Another
genocide milestone forgotten by the international community and
Armenians is the 30th anniversary of the adoption of a report by the UN
Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of
Minorities. The historic document titled, “Revised and updated report on
the question of the prevention and punishment of the crime of
genocide,” was drafted by British Rapporteur Benjamin Whitaker. It is
noteworthy that Amb. Mnatsakanyan referred to this report twice in his
speech, while introducing the genocide resolution to the UN.
In
paragraph 24 of his report, Whitaker cited several cases of genocide in
the 20th century, specifically mentioning the Armenian Genocide.
Moreover, in footnote 13, Whitaker added: “At least 1 million, and
possibly well over half of the Armenian population, are reliably
estimated to have been killed or death marched by independent
authorities and eye-witnesses. This is corroborated by reports in United
States, German and British archives and of contemporary diplomats in
the Ottoman Empire, including those of its ally Germany. The German
Ambassador, Wangenheim, for example, on 7 July 1915 wrote, ‘the
[Turkish] government is indeed pursuing its goal of exterminating the
Armenian race in the Ottoman Empire’ (Wilhelmstrasse archives).”
Regrettably,
Whitaker passed away last year. But, there are three other former
members of the UN Sub-Commission — Erica Daes (Greek), Leandro Despouys
(Argentinian), and Louis Joinet (French) — who staunchly supported the
reference to the Armenian Genocide in the Whitaker report which the
Sub-Commission adopted on August 29, 1985, by a 14-1 vote. All three
human rights experts should be invited to the United Nations on Dec. 9,
2015, to mark the 30th anniversary of the Whitaker Report, and recognize
his unique contributions to the cause of prevention and punishment of
the crime of genocide!
Amb. Mnatsakanyan, Armenia’s Foreign
Ministry, and the Armenian government should be commended for their
effective leadership at the UN on genocide prevention!
armenia.com.au
