Diyarbarkir Bar Association urges to launch criminal case against those guilty of Genocide

April 24, 2011 - 20:25 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Diyarbarkir Bar Association and Human Rights NGO held an event dedicated to the 96th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

During it, lawyer and human rights defender Mehmet Emin told about Armenians' deportation from Diyarbakir vilayet. According to him, the state should apologize to heirs of victims of injustice and oppression.

"We should conceive the past to protect the truth. The right to life was violated during the Armenian Genocide, a forcible deportation was implemented, serving as an additional reason for uncountable deaths. It is necessary to initiate a criminal case, open the national archives for independent researchers and fairly recognize the number of victims," Etkin Haber Ajansı quoted Emin as saying.

The Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres and deportations, involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.

The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.

Present-day Turkey denies the fact of the Armenian Genocide, justifying the atrocities as “deportation to secure Armenians”. Only a few Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and scholar Taner Akcam, speak openly about the necessity to recognize this crime against humanity.

The Armenian Genocide was recognized by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, Italy, 45 U.S. states, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Argentina, Belgium, Austria, Wales, Switzerland, Canada, Poland, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, the Vatican, Luxembourg, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Sweden, Venezuela, Slovakia, Syria, Vatican, as well as the European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.