During the next session, the NA Committee on Foreign Relations decided to hold the voting of the draft of the NA statement on “Condemning the genocide committed against Iraqi Yezidis”. The draft needed revision and editing. “Guided by the UN General Assembly on 96 (1) Resolution dated December 11, 1946 and December 9, 1948 on the Prevention and Punishment of Crime of Genocide”, the UN Convention on “The Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity” dated November 26, 1968, as well as by relevant principles and provisions of all other international laws on human rights,” – reads the justification of the draft.
The authors and co-authors of the draft are: Naira Zohrabyan, Mikayel Melkumyan, Vahe Enfiajyan, Aragats Akhoyan, Lyova Khachatryan, Vahan Karapetyan, Tevan Poghosyan and Armen Avetisyan. PAP MP Gurgen Arsenyan approach was quite remarkable. The latter believes that by passing such a draft, the RA NA hurries. He does not mind MFA of Armenia to express postures and call the incident with Yezidis in Iraq a genocide but the adoption of such a statement by the National Assembly is a hasty move, he believes. “Germany also waited for a hundred year,” – noted Alexander Arzumanyan in an ironic tone.
Gurgen Arsenyan is worried that we will make the Islamists go against us with such a statement, “They are shooting people.” The draft presenter, PAP faction Naira Zohrabyan, disagreed with Gurgen Arsenyan’s position. She believes that the nation that has survived a genocide and present requirements to the world should not approach the question in this way because new crimes appear as a result of silence, it is a result of silence that more than four thousand Yezidi women and girls were profaned, raped killed or enslaved. Mrs. Zohrabyan told that they have watched a video with the episodes of group-raping, they have seen how the Yezidi women throw themselves down from Sinjar mountains to escape defamation and other horrific scenes. RPA member of the Committee, co-rapporteur of the presentation Shirak Torosyan agrees with her.
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In this case, Mr. Torosyan believes that Armenians must approach the issue purely from moral point of view and do not think that we can make the “shooting people” go against us, especially since they have already done what they should do: they have totally levelled the Armenian churches in Syria to the ground, and during the April war we have just felt the result of their actions. Incidentally, the NA legal department had given a positive conclusion to the draft. It complied with the RA Constitution, laws and signed international acts.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
