NO DOUBT, IT WAS A GENOCIDE

This is the conclusion of the International Centre of Justice studying the events of 1915.

Turkish authorities, busy with preparation of the war against Iraq, have not managed to understand the seriousness of consequences which the verdict read on Monday in New York by the leadership of the International Centre of Justice of transitional period will have. This influential organization confirmed that the tragic events taken place in the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1923 are nothing else but genocide of the Armenian people. The study carried out by the Center’s experts, allows to assume that the crimes conducted by the Young Turks’ government, totally concords with the international model of genocide, and is a subject of the Convention on punishment for conducting of a genocide adopted by the United Nations Organization in 1948.

February 13, 2003

PanARMENIAN.Net - We’ll remind that the expertise was initiated by the Armenian-Turkish Reconciliation Commission. It is known that in the beginning the both sides of this structure established two years ago wanted to know the opinion of the specialists of the International Center for Justice. Under the document containing the request to study the problem and express an opinion, there are the signatures of all the 5 Turkish members of the commission. However, unexpectedly, in December 2001 the Turkish party applied to the International Center for Justice demanding to stop the studying of the issue. Protesting against the actions of the members of the commission, the Armenian members announced they were canceling their activity in the commission.

Such a reaction of the Armenian party of the commission representing the non governmental bodies of Armenia and Armenian communities of America, Europe and Russia, was unexpected for Ankara. It became possible to resume the dialogue only thanks to the efforts of the American mediators which probably possessed mechanisms for influencing the sides (It is not a secret that the US department of state had something to do wit the initiatives of establishing the commission). The attempt to restart the contacts was going on in another format. The first - after the fiasco of the commission - meeting of its founders was presented to journalists as a meeting of the “Group of Armenian-Turkish contacts”. However, changing of name does not change the content. The press calls this body with its old name. The dialogue continues, though many representatives of political elite of Armenia and Diaspora believe that the commission has become an instrument for the Turkish government for counteracting against the recognition of the genocide. However, the decision of the International Center for Justice may help those who are against this point of view. Because despite the will of the Turkish side of the commission, its Armenian members managed to make this international structure study the issue of the genocide. It’s evident that the verdict read in New York will complete the list of the factors used by the Armenian lobbyists carrying out explanation works in the Parliaments of European and American countries. It should be noted that the Reconciliation Commission has played a positive role in this issue.