Approved by the Council of the Bar Association the Republic
of Armenia House Foreign Affairs CommitteeSTATEMENT Yerevan,
Armenia, March 03, 2010
04-03-2010 14:02:00 | Armenia | Politics
YEREVAN, MARCH 4, NOYAN TAPAN-ARMENIANS TODAY. The House
Foreign Affairs Committee of the USA is going to vote a
resolution that will recognize Armenian Genocide on 4 March. For
that case the Council of the Bar Association of the Republic of
Armenia made a statement, in which it's said:
"The Council of the Bar Association of the Republic of
Armenia in view of the US President Barack Obama's
Statement on April 24, 2009 and the forthcoming voting on
Armenian Genocide Resolution in the US Congress states as
follows:
In the conclusive paragraph of his Statement, right after
using the term "Meds Yeghern" for the second time, President
Obama clearly stated that there was an attempt to destroy the
Armenian people: "Nothing can bring back those who were lost in
the Meds Yeghern. But the contributions that Armenians have
made over the last ninety-four years stand as a testament to the
talent, dynamism and resilience of the Armenian people, and as
the ultimate rebuke to those who tried to destroy them".
It is necessary to utterly obliterate the international
public misconceptions that President Obama has not acknowledged
the Armenian Genocide because the term "genocide" was not
spelled out. The Bar Association of the Republic of Armenia
hereby gives its legal assessment to the Statement of President
Obama.
The term "genocide" is relatively new. It was coined in
1944 by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish legal scholar of Jewish
descent. Prior to that, each people subjected to genocide, had
its own way of referring to it. The Jewish people called it
"Holocaust" and we, Armenian, called it "Meds Yeghern".
Article 2 of the United Nations’ Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which was
adopted in 1948 and came into effect in 1951, defines genocide
as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in
part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".
President Obama used the historical Armenian term "Meds
Yeghern", which is synonymous to "genocide", a more contemporary
term. The term "Meds Yeghern" was used by President Obama twice,
and was clearly described as an attempt to destroy the Armenian
people. It is obvious that "Meds Yeghern" term was referred to
by President Obama in exactly the same meaning, as we,
Armenians, refer to it. The terms "Meds Yeghern", "Hayots
Tseghaspanutiun", and "Armenian Genocide" have been always
absolutely identical. From the legal point of view President
Obama has described a genocide, because an attempt to destroy a
people is, by definition, a genocide.
Even though Obama the politician did not use the term
"genocide", Obama the lawyer, the graduate of Columbia
University and Harvard Law School, has already clearly
acknowledged the events of the Armenian Genocide. On behalf of
the Bar Association of the Republic of Armenia we would like to
express our gratitude to President Obama for his historic
Statement.
Taking into account the significance of international
recognition of genocide for purposes of preventing of the crime
of genocide in the future, we believe that it is the time to
call things by their proper names and to condemn the Meds
Yeghern defining it as genocide in unequivocal terms. In this
respect we should greatly appreciate the initiative of the US
Congress and call upon it to approve the Resolution".