“According to the PACE Rules of Procedure, those statements just express the opinion of those members of the PACE who signed that statement. It is not the official position of the PACE; it is just an unsubstantiated statement,” Naira Zohrabyan, a member of the Armenian delegation to the PACE, described the statement on recognition of the Armenian Genocide made in the PACE today during a conversation with www.aravot.am. The statement has been signed by 21 representatives of Armenia, Serbia, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Hungary, Spain, France, Ukraine, and Finland in the PACE. The statement reads: “Recognition of genocides is an act which contributes to the respect for human dignity and the prevention of crimes against humanity;
The fact of the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire has been documented, recognized, and affirmed in the form of media and eyewitness reports, laws, resolutions, and statements by the United Nations, the European Parliament and Parliaments of the Council of Europe member States, including Sweden, Lithuania, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Switzerland, France, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Cyprus, the Russian Federation, as well as the US House of Representatives and 43 US States, Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, Canada, Uruguay and Lebanon.
The undersigned, members of the Parliamentary Assembly, call upon all members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to take the necessary steps for the recognition of the genocide perpetrated against Armenians and other Christians in the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century, which will strongly contribute to an eventual similar act of recognition by the Turkish authorities of this odious crime against humanity and, as a result, will lead to the normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey and thus contribute to regional peace, security and stability.”
Continuing the conversation, Ms. Zohrabyan said: “In the past when I had just become a member, I also was very excited by these statements, I wanted to have as many such statements issued as possible. But unfortunately, it expresses the opinion a group of people, it
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is an impotent declaration. If we can have 70-80 persons, instead of 26, 27, part of which is our members, sign statements like this – i.e. the more delegates are involved, the better – there will be greater probability to include those statements in resolutions. Unfortunately, not more than 30-35 delegates sign statements of that kind at the moment. I personally don’t want to underestimate the value of oral statements, and I repeat that we have to work, and if we lobby correctly, it will be possible to involve more members who will support our opinion. As for the work of the Armenian delegation, I assess the work of the delegation as normal; it is one of the most active and efficiently working delegations to the PACE.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
