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14.04.2009 17:22
 “Areg” Scientific-Cultural Youth Association with the support of the UN Department of Public Information organized a round-table discussion entitled “The International Recognition of Genocides as a Means of Prevention”.
The massacre of Armenians carried out by the Ottoman Turks became a signal for the international community to prevent people from such crimes; the term “genocide” was coined and circulated within historical, political and legal framework, while on 9 December, 1948 the United Nations Organization adopted the “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” being convinced that international cooperation for liberating humanity from that terrible tragedy is an utmost necessity.
A little after the 60th anniversary of the Convention, throwing a glance on the series of genocides we get persuaded that unpunished crimes have the habit of being repeated. Thus, the Armenian Genocide became a precedent for the Jewish Holocaust, the Rwanda Genocide and other similar crimes, while its international recognition would have probably put an end to this hideous crime against humanity.
The round-table speakers were the Head of the International Organizations Department of MFA, Dziunik Aghajanyan, the Deputy Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Suren Manukyan, and the Officer-in-Charge of UN Department of Public Information Armine Halajyan. They referred to the efforts of the Republic of Armenia to get international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, touched upon the struggle against denial, and the role of the UN in preventing genocide. During the discussion that followed the participants – representatives of NGOs, mass media and students among them, expressed their righteous resentment towards crimes against humanity and expressed their solidarity with the victims of genocide. Indifference and unwillingness to prevent give way to new crimes culminating in genocides. Events should be named accordingly and the perpetrators should be punished. The participants also mentioned that to accomplish the above-mentioned cooperation of all nations is required. That is the means to get away with genocide.
In these days the 15th Anniversary of Genocide in Rwanda is being commemorated all around the world. On this occasion the UN Secretary General said in his message: “… The United Nations continues its vital work to avert future tragedies. We have intensified our focus on conflict prevention, and built up our mediation capacity. … Preventing genocide is a collective responsibility. Only by meeting this challenge can we match the resolve of the survivors and truly honour the memory of those who died in Rwanda 15 years ago.”
Having in mind the above mentioned, and on the threshold of the upcoming Armenian Genocide anniversary it is quite appropriate to once again bring the attention of the international community and especially of youth on the inhuman phenomenon of genocide to UNDERSTAND, RECOGNIZE and PREVENT it.
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