Cyprus on Thursday, April 2, made it a crime to deny that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against Armenians a century ago, Cyprus Mail reports.

The Cypriot parliament passed a resolution penalizing denial of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, modifying existing legislation, which required prior conviction by an international court to make denial a crime.

“Today is a historic day,” parliament speaker Yiannakis Omirou said. “It allows parliament to restore, with unanimous decisions and resolutions, historical truths.”

The island was one of the first countries worldwide in 1975 to recognize the Armenian killings as genocide. It is commemorated on April 24.