Earlier today The Duran reported that the 24th of April marks the 102nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the first modern ethnic cleansing in history.
Here is a general summation of the Genocide…
The Armenian Genocide was the Ottoman government’s systematic extermination of 1.5 million Armenians, mostly Ottoman citizens within the Ottoman Empire and its successor state, the Republic of Turkey.
The starting date is conventionally held to be 24 April 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities rounded up, arrested, and deported 235 to 270 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders from Constantinople to the region of Ankara, the majority of whom were eventually murdered. The genocide was carried out during and after World War I and implemented in two phases: the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacre and subjection of army conscripts to forced labour, followed by the deportation of women, children, the elderly, and the infirm on death marches leading to the Syrian desert. Driven forward by military escorts, the deportees were deprived of food and water and subjected to periodic robbery, rape, and massacre.
Other indigenous and Christian ethnic groups such as the Assyrians and the Ottoman Greeks were similarly targeted for extermination by the Ottoman government in the Assyrian genocide and the Greek genocide, and their treatment is considered by some historians to be part of the same genocidal policy.
Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, denies the word genocide as an accurate term for the mass killings of Armenians that began under Ottoman rule in 1915.
To date, 28 countries have officially recognized the mass killings as genocide, as have most genocide scholars and historians.
As of February 2017, 28, here are the 28 countries that have officially recognized the Armenian Genocide (Sovereign nations – UN member-states officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide)
Country
Year(s) of recognition
Notes
Argentina
1993, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2015
Armenia
1988
Recognition extended by the Armenian SSR.
Austria
2015
Belgium
1998, 2015
Bolivia
2014
The resolution was approved unanimously by both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, with the approval of the Foreign Ministry.
Brazil
2015
The resolution was approved by the Federal Senate.
Bulgaria
2015
The declaration was adopted by the Bulgarian parliament on April 24, 2015, using the phrase “mass extermination of the Armenian People in the Ottoman Empire” and declares April 24 as a Victims Remembrance Day.Regarding the usage of “mass extermination” the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov has specified the following: “I said it very clearly: this is the Bulgarian word or the Bulgarian words, or the Bulgarian idiom for ‘genocide,”
Canada
1996, 2002, 2004, 2006
Chile
2007, 2015
Cyprus
1975, 1982, 1990
The first country to raise the issue to the UN General Assembly. Denial of the genocide is criminalized.
France
1998, 2001
The French Senate adopted a bill on October 14, 2016 that made the denial of the Armenian Genocide a crime. The bill was introduced by the French Government and passed by the French National Assembly in July, and stipulates a penalty of a year in prison or a 45,000 Euro fine.
Germany
2005, 2016
Resolution passed first reading in April 2015. On June 2, 2016 German Bundestag almost unanimously (with one vote against and one abstention) passed a resolution qualifying the Ottoman Era Armenian killings ‘genocide’.
Greece
1996
Denial of the genocide is criminalized. Punishable by up to 3 years in prison and a fine not to exceed 30,000 Euros, per 2014 act.
Italy
2000
Denial of genocides is criminalized. It stipulates 3-year imprisonment and a fine.
Lithuania
2005
Lebanon
1997, 2000
Luxembourg
2015
The Chamber of Deputies unanimously adopted a resolution on the recognition of the genocide of Armenian people.
Netherlands
2004, 2015
Paraguay
2015
The Chamber of Senator in Paraguay unanimously adopted the resolution.
Poland
2005
The Sejm of the Republic of Poland (lower house of the Polish parliament) unanimously passed a bill recognizing Armenian Genocide on April 19, 2005.
Russia
1995, 2005, 2015
Slovakia
2004
Denial of the genocide is criminalized. Punishable by up to 5 years in prison, per 2011 act.
Sweden
2010
Switzerland
2003
Denial of the genocide is criminalized.
Syria
2015
Uruguay
1965, 2004
The first country to recognize the events as genocide.
Holy See
2000, 2015
Venezuela
2005
What do you say?
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