The message of the Human Rights Defender on the 108th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
Today marks the 108th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, and
all Armenians and the civilized world are commemorating the memory of the holy
martyrs of the Armenian Genocide, the first genocide of the 20th century.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Armenians living in
Ottoman Turkey were subjected to mass crimes organized by the Young Turks
government: brutal murders, forced deportation and torture. On April 24, 1915,
hundreds of Western Armenian intellectuals were arrested and murdered.
Despite the presence of continuously improving international
frameworks for the protection of human rights and the rule of law, the rights
of people forcibly displaced from their native homes and subjected to inhuman
tortures and atrocities have not been restored to date. Impunity for such acts
inevitably leads to new crimes.
Even though the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
the Crime of Genocide was adopted on December 9, 1948, there is a danger of new
genocides and other crimes against humanity in different corners of the world
today. The threat of ethnic cleansing continues to be relevant for the Armenian
people as well, as evidenced by the 44-day Artsakh war of 2020 and the policy
of Armenophobia of the Azerbaijani state.
Today, we bow to the memory of the holy martyrs of the Armenian
Genocide, and reaffirm our commitment to condemn the crime, recognize the
truth, and to restore justice. We consider it necessary to combine all our
efforts to prevent similar crimes in the modern civilized world, and to
implement adequate policies for this purpose.
The Human Rights Defender of Armenia Anahit Manasyan
Հայերեն
