In Homage to our 1,500,000 martyrs

Governor Schwarzenegger (California) Proclaims
April 24 Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide (2005)

Dzidzernagapert Memorial (Yerevan, Armenia) President Chirac at the memorial

Each country grows by acknowledging its dramas and errors of the past. Can one say that Germany, which has deeply acknowledged the Holocaust, has as a result lost credit ? It has grown.
French President Jacques Chirac (1995-2007) on September 30, 2006 in Yerevan.

« I apologize »
« As a Kurd, I live at a distance of 90 years far away from the time when one of the greatest massacres of the modern history was committed. I find myself obliged to adopt the courage of apologizing among people who regard the apology as disgrace or an act done only by the weak !!!
I would say to all Armenians that I apologize for the act my ancestors, of whom I am not proud, did with you. My ancestors charged their chests with hate, and their insight was blinded by religious and Kurdish national fanaticism. They were involved in disgraceful acts by looting, raping and butchering their neighbors and friends without any religious or moral restraint.
I apologize to you because the Kurd politicians do not do so. It seems they are not concerned with the matter, or perhaps they do not recognize the massacres, just like the Turks do who managed the Genocide and pushed the Kurds to this stagnant bog to remain in its dirtiness, even after 90 years.
I apologize to you because I, like you, suffered the Genocide and knew the bitterness of ignoring the crime. I apologize because the martyred Halabja city (the Iraqi Kurdish city which was hit by chemical weapons in 1988) taught me the ugliness of crime. I apologize to every child from you whose father was killed at his sight. I apologize to your poet Hwanes (Hovhannes) Shiraz, to poet Awadik (Avedik) Ishakian (Isahakian). I apologize to the mother who was raped at the sight of her children and whose husband was killed by my ancestors. I apologize to the priest who was killed in public by the orders of a molla !! I apologize to the thousands who were lost in the wilderness and died by cold, thirst, hunger and fear of the Kurds, with whom they, some times before, shared the loaf of bread and the dose of water.
... I apologize to you Wanes (Ohannes), Mgrdich, Agop (Hagop), Mary and Zepour (Zepiur). I say to you all: I am a free Kurd who do not believe in parties, but I become ashamed of myself every year when April month comes and people begin to talk about massacres without seeing the Kurds being encouraged to express themselves on this subject, even negatively, when some state these are false charges against us !!! We see the Kurdish satellite channels praising their deceased or living leaders, without airing at least one program about the massacres as horrible events committed by oppressive Turks and not by the miserable Kurds !!! »

Yousif Shikho (Writer, poet, march 20, 2005, Baghdad, Iraq).
Translation of arab in english : Ara S. Ashjian (Baghdad, Iraq)

In their heart and conscience, they look at the truth opposite
Taner Akçam - Halil Berktay - Ali Ertem - Nazim Hikmet - Ahmad Onal - Orhan Pamuk - Kemal Yalcin - Ayché Nour Zarakolu - Ragip Zarakolu - Yektan Turkyilmaz... The next ones arrive...

International Official Recognition of Armenian Tsegasbanootyun
Argentina (1994-2004-2006), Australia (New South Wales – 1997, and Ryde city 2004), Belgium (1998), Bulgaria (1995), Canada (House of Commons - 2004), Cyprus (1990), France (2001), Greece (1996), Italy (2000), The Netherlands (2004), Lebanon (1997-2000), Poland (2005), Russia (1995), Slovakia (2004), Sweden (2000), Switzerland (2003), Uruguay, (1965-2004), Venezuela (2005), Vatican City (2000), and 38 States from United States ( Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin).

BRAZIL
Sao-Paulo Parliament & Americana city recognize the Armenian Genocide (2005).

ITALY
The Council of the Province of Milan by overwhelming majority has adopted a resolution formally recognizing the Armenian Genocide perpetrated in Ottoman Turkey in 1915 (nov 24, 2006).

LITHUANIA
Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas (Parliament) adopt a resolution for the recognition of Armenian Genocide (dec 15, 2005).

NEW MEXICO
have passed bills designating April 24 as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day (2005).

SCOTLAND
Official recognition of the Armenian Genocide by city of Edinburgh Council (nov 17, 2005).

SWITZERLAND
The Great council of Geneva´s canton (2001), and that of Vaud (2005), recognize the Genocide of the Armenian people (1915) and honour the memory of the victims.
The National Council recognized on December 16, 2003, the Genocide of the Armenian people.

UNITED STATES of AMERICA
House of Representatives (1975 & 1984)

WALES, National Assembly :
1. Recognise the genocide of the Armenians, which happened under the Turkish Government in 1915.
2. Call upon Turkey to cease the economic sanctions of the Republic of Armenia.
3. Call upon the British Government not to support Turkey's application for membership of the European Union until they have recognised the genocide in 1915 and have ceased the economic sanctions. (oct 30, 2002).

and...
European Parliament june (june 18, 1987 ‌ 2000 ‌ 2002)
Council of Europe Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 (1998/2001)
Parliamentary Assembly United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities (aug 29, 1985)
Parliament of Kurdistan in Exile (april 23, 1995 ‌ 1997)

Permanent Peoples´ Tribunal (1984)
The Association of Genocide Scholars
The League for Human Rights (1998)
The Turkish Human Right Organization
Union of American Hebrew Congregations
World Council of Churches

PERMANENT PEOPLES TRIBUNAL : SENTENCE (extracts)

a) General rules on Genocide

Under the terms of the prevention and repression of the crime of genocide, adopted by the Assembly General of the United Nations, the 9th of December 1948, genocide is a « crime under international law », « whether committed in times of peace or times of war » (article 1).[...]
This Convention was formally entered in force on January 12, 1951, and was ratified by Turkey on July 31, 1950.

b) Accusation of genocide of the Armenian people

The Armenians constitute beyond doubt a national group as seen by the rule prohibiting genocide.
The conclusion is all the more evident that they constitute a people protected by the right of self-determination, which necessarily implies that they are also a group the destruction of which is prohibited by the rule relative to genocide. [...]
The government of Young Turks is guilty of this genocide, in regards to the acts perpetrated between 1915 and 1917;
The Armenian genocide is also « International Crime », of which the Turkish State must assume responsibility, without being able to use the pretext of discontinuity of thisState in order to excuse itself there from ;
This responsibility requires the primary obligation to recognize officially the reality of this genocide and the consequential prejudice suffered by the Armenian people.
The Organization of the United Nations and each of its members have the right to claim this recognition and to assist the Armenian people to this end.
Paris (France), april 13-16, 1984

(Translate by Andrew Cornelius)

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MUSEUM AND MEMORIAL PROJECT (WASHINGTON D.C.)
Cafesjian Family Foundation, Gerard Cafesjian, Founder / Edgar B. Papazian architect

Upon entry to museum one is confronted with the question: What is genocide? A definition according to Raphael Lemkin and subsequently the United Nations is provided. Raphael Lemkin based his neologism in part on what had happened to the Armenians of Anatolia in 1915-22.