ASSEMBLY OF WESTERN ARMENIA’S ARMENIANS

08.07.2014

 Human Rights Council

Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

 Seventh Session

 Item 5 on the agenda:

 Continuation of the study on access to justice in the protection and promotion of the rights of Indigenous peoples: restorative justice, indigenous judicial systems and access to justice for women, children and youth, and persons with disabilities

 Mr. Chairperson, as it is the first time that I have taken the floor in this Conference room for the seventh session of EMRIP, allow me to congratulate you on your election!

 Based on true facts and very of tencurrent events, with regard to item 5 of the agenda, I would like to make the following statement.

 2015 will mark the 100th anniversary of the Recognition of the Armenian’s people Genocide, according to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 9^th December 1948, “New Crimes against Humanity and Civilisation” as it was called at the time by the Triple Alliance, France, Great Britain and Russia, dating from 24^th May 1915, holding the Turkish government responsible for the massacres committed by Turkey in Armenia (Western).

 FRANCE, GREAT BRITAIN AND RUSSIA- DECLARATION OF THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE HOLDING THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MASSACRES COMMITTED BY TURKEY IN ARMENIA

ON 24^TH MAY 1915

24 May 2015 - For about a month the Kurdish and Turkish populations of Armenia have been massacring Armenians with the connivance and often with the assistance of the Ottoman authorities. Such massacres took place in mid- April (new style) at Erzerum, Dertchun, Eguine, Akn, Bitlis, Mush, Sassun, Zeitun, and throughout Cilicia. Inhabitants of about one hundred villages near Van were all murdered. The Armenian quarter of that city was besieged by Kurds. At the same time, in Constantinople the Ottoman Government repressed the inoffensive Armenian population. In view of those new crimes by Turkey against humanity and civilization, the Allied governments announced publicly at the Sublime-Porte that they will hold personally responsible for these crimes all members of the Ottoman government as well as their agents who are found to be implicated in such massacres.

The result was the dispossession and illegal appropriation of the territories, land, goods and resources of a whole indigenous population.

 The denial and falsification of history and the very existence of our people,

The destruction of the historic patrimony, sacred sites and places, cemeteries and monasteries…

 According to international law:

 Article 6 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court states:   

 That for the purposes of this Statute, the “Crime of Genocide” means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, such as: 

 a) Killing members of the group;

b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

In this case, the group targeted with physical destruction was the Armenian people of Western Armenia, that is, about two million victims, which transformed our people into a people of orphans.

 The responsibility lies with a State, Turkey, which from 1894 to 1923 through three successive governments planned the crime of genocide with premeditation,

 According to the Philosophy of Law: The genocide of an indigenous people continues until such time as it is the object of restorative justice, and that is why it has endured! 

 According to international law, thus the application of a real, tangible and effective restorative justice, for a century:

 We have not obtained any results, despite the International Treaty of Sevres, despite the arbitral award of President W. Wilson, despite the international texts and conventions and a whole range of political processes without any real restorative consequences up to now, as for example, the condolences this year from the Turkish Prime Minister.

 It is thus important to differentiate between a political act and restorative justice. 

 However, on the 21st March 2014, thousands of Takfiris from Turkey infiltrated the Armenian region of Kessab in Syria, triggering the exodus of thousands of indigenous Armenians. Without this exodus, these harmless Armenians would have suffered mass killings.

 The absence of restorative justice causes crimes to continue, in which the first and principle target is indigenous peoples.

 Which is why, with regard to articles 7 and 22 of the Declaration, I invite the Human Rights Council via the Special rapporteur and the Expert Mechanism, on the basis of an accurate, factual and irrevocable account concerning the abuses committed against indigenous peoples to call upon the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations to intervene  before the International Criminal Court in order to obtain restorative justice for the Armenian people and for all the indigenous peoples, who are victims of genocide and other crimes against humanity.

 Thank you, Mr. Chairperson

 Armenag APRAHAMIAN

Chairman of Western Armenia National Council

 WAN