At April 16 extraordinary sitting convened on the deputies’ initiative the draft law on Making addendum to the law on Holidays and Memorial Days of the Republic of Armenia authored by the deputy of the NA Civil Contract Faction Rustam Bakoyan was debated in the first reading. It will be debated in the special procedure by the NA decision – the draft will be debated in the second reading after adopting it in the first reading, within twenty-four hours.
The author proposed to complete the Article 11 with the following paragraph: “August 3 is marked as a Memorial Day of the Sinjar Yazidis genocide victims in 2014.
“The genocide is a crime against humanity, accordingly, the greatest crime. This is a direct result of not right and inappropriate condemnation and is a direct consequence of the Armenian genocide happened in 1915. The destinies of the Armenians and Yazidis are rather like each other, and our destinies were always crossed. We have met each other and appeared in the situations on different stages of history. The Republic of Armenia, being faithful to the its adopted policy and priority of the prevention and condemnation process of the genocides, in 2014 condemned the Yazidis’ genocide in Iraq from the UN high tribune. In 2015, the RA NA factions condemned the Yazidi genocide in Iraq, and in 2018 – the RA National Assembly,” Rustam Bakoyan said, adding that this is the first case, when any state in its relevant law fixes the Yazidi genocide as a Memorial Day.
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Rustam Bakoyan informed that in the 21st century, genocide took place before the world, which still continues: more than 2600 women and girls are in the Islamists’ hands, and their destiny is unknown, hundreds of thousands Yazidis are still in the camps. “What happens in the 21st century before our eyes, is unacceptable,” he stressed.
In his co-report the Secretary of the Civil Contract Faction Artur Hovhannisyan presented the endorsement of the NA Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs.
The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Paruyr Hovhannisyan presented the opinion of the Government on the draft.
In particular, the Deputy Minister noted that the prevention of genocide and crimes against humanity is one of the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy. According to him, Armenia actively supports the measures aimed at the prevention and condemnation of the mentioned crimes, the processes of further development of toolkits and mechanisms for the prevention of genocides and other mass crimes, both on bilateral and multilateral cooperation platforms.
“Recently, on April 3, the UN Human Rights Council adopted by consensus the two-year Resolution Prevention of Genocide submitted by Armenia,” the Deputy Minister informed and added that Armenia had been speaking out about the crimes committed against the Yazidis in various international courts for years, adopted the NA statement in 2018.
In their speeches, referring to the genocide committed against the Yazidis of Sinjar on August 3, 2014, the deputies underlined the commitment of Armenia and the Armenian people to fight for the prevention of genocides and other crimes against humanity. It was mentioned that the Armenian Parliament recognized and accepted the genocide committed against the Yazidi people by terrorist groups in Iraq in 2014, condemning the crimes committed against the peoples. In 2015, a monument commemorating the genocide against the Yazidi people was opened in Yerevan.
The participants of the sitting honored the memory of all the peoples subjected to genocide with a minute’s silence.
The RA NA Vice President Hakob Arshakyan pointed out that today’s debate is about solidarity and empathy. “We are sending a message of love and tolerance with our decision today. We want no one in the world to be persecuted for their religion, language, skin color, and even more so, not to be massacred. We speak our word of condemnation. The Republic of Armenia has always acted as a flag bearer of condemnation and prevention of genocides on various international platforms. And we will continue to be like that, because we want the peoples of the world to never suffer the fate of the Armenian, Yazidi, Assyrian, and Greek peoples,” Hakob Arshakyan said.
In his final speech, Rustam Bakoyan emphasized the importance of the initiative, expressing hope that it will prevent the ongoing genocides. The Yazidi deputy noted that the participation of the Yazidis in state building continues today.
The draft law on Making Addendum to the Law on the RA Holidays and Memorial Days authored by the RA NA deputy Rustam Bakoyan was adopted in the first reading.
National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia