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24.01.2013

WHICH PARLIAMENT RECOGNIZED THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE FIRST?

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Haykaram Nahapetyan
Armenia Public TV correspondent in the United States

International efforts directed to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide have a century-long history. About twenty countries recognized Armenian Genocide over the last 50 years. Over that period documents about the recognition of the Genocide were passed at the local levels either, e.g. by 43 states in the U.S., by Brazil’s biggest state – San Paulo, by the municipality of Rome, in Wales, by the municipality of Edinburg (Scotland), in the Basque Country, Crimea, Australia’s New South Wales state, etc.

Universal recognition of the Armenian Genocide especially in the 21st century reached the extent where considerable growth of awareness has been observed not only at political but also at public levels. Hitler’s words said in 25 years after the Genocide “Who does remember Armenians today?” have become senseless70 years later.

In this aspect words of the Belgian Turk political figure Sait Kose: “There is no political party in Belgium which does not believe in the fact that there was the Armenian Genocide”1 are worth mentioning. The last voting on the Armenian Genocide in the U.S. Congress took place on March 4, 2010 in the Foreign Relations Commission. The document was approved by 23 votes for and 22 against. Hence none of those who voted against the document rejected the fact of the Armenian Genocide in their speeches.

Looking back to the Armenian Genocide recognition campaign many remarkable facts can be seen. The half-century long process of the Armenian Genocide international recognition can really become a subject of special study.

In 1965 the beginning of the process of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide was marked in faraway Uruguay where on April 20, 1965 historical resolution on the Genocide was passed. Of course Uruguay’s decision was not the only initiative coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Even under the totalitarian Soviet regime thousands of Armenians who flooded the street of Yerevan were shouting “Our lands”. After that the legislative body in Montevideo passed first resolution No13.326 titled “The day of Remembrance for the Armenian Martyrs”. On that day neither representatives of the Armenian communities nor the Turkish politicians could imagine what kind of foundation of far-reaching and extensive process was laid by the Latin American politicians.

The Uruguayan resolution is historical. Hence it should be mention that it did not specify the word “genocide”. This historical resolution particularly specified:

The Decree “Declares the following 24th of April "Day of Remembrance for the Armenian Martyrs", in honor of the members of that nationality slain in 1915. The stations of the Official Radio Service must on that date conduct part of their broadcast in honor of the mentioned nation. Armenian descendants who are public servants are authorized to miss work on the mentioned date. Designate with the name of "Armenia", the 2nd Grade School, No. 156, in the Department of Montevideo. Communicate, etc.

President of Senate: Martin R. Echegoyen; secretary: Jose Pastor Salvanach”.

The official text of the decree is placed at the web-site of the Uruguayan parliament2.

The absence of word “genocide” is the resolution does not coincide with today’s logic. Today the head of the White House and different international politicians prefer to avoid using it and substitute word “genocide” with equivalent descriptive formulations or “Mets Yeghern” Armenian phrase as the incumbent U.S. president Barak Obama did. The parliament of Uruguay would not face any difficulties while carrying out this resolution in 1965. Later Uruguay at least four times condemned the Armenian Genocide. On the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide Uruguay appealed to the UN to initiate profound recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Till now there is no Turkish embassy in Uruguay which nullifies possibility of any Turkish opposition. The diplomatic relations with Uruguay are maintained through the Turkish embassy in Buenos Aires. In May 2005 during the meeting with the head of the foreign relations commission of Uruguay the ambassador of Turkey to Argentina Sukur Tufan repeated old statement of Erdogan about the necessity to study history together. On other occasion the Turkish ambassador said in jest that while the ambassador will get from Argentina to Montevideo the law would be passed so any anti-lobby made no sense.

Sometimes the president of Uruguay participates in the events organized in memory of the Armenian Genocide. The correspondents of the Turkish service of BBC accept that the Armenians carry weight in the political life of Uruguay3.

Taking this all into consideration, why is there no formulation “Armenian Genocide” in the 1965 document? It should be mentioned that in those years the process of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide only started. Under the newly formed circumstances there was no distinct idea of what conceptual provisions the Armeniancy would take as a guideline. Even the idea of recognition had not been shaped yet. In practice conceptual gaps can still be observed today and it is natural that in 1960s under the absence of statehood and on the initial stage of the Armenian lobby formation most of the efforts were rather in the reminding phase than in the phase of political recognition.

Another remarkable example: in the same 1965 in Boston by the efforts of the local Armenian community the audio records of the witnesses of the Armenian Genocide were issued. The records were titled “Turks’ Genocide” and not “Armenian Genocide”. At that stage the American Armenian unions took it as a genocide perpetrated by Turkey i.e. Turkish genocide instead of the Armenian Genocide. Nevertheless in our days no such formulation is used though it was possible in 1965 when the process was just initiated.

This is one of the reasons that, in terms of chronology, the facts of the recognition of the Genocide decades ago were not of active character. After the 1965 historical resolution another document condemning the Genocide was carried in 1975, i.e. in a decade, on a 60th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

And which parliament passed a document characterizing what happened in 1915 as the Armenian Genocide?

Here we speak about... the United States of America. On April 9, 1975 the Congress passed document No148 reading the following:

“To designate April 24, 1975, as "National Day of Remembrance of Man's Inhumanity to Man". Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That April 24, 1975, is hereby designated as "National Day of Remembrance of Man's Inhumanity to Man", and the President of the United States is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe such day as a day of remembrance for all the victims of genocide, especially those of Armenian ancestry who succumbed to the genocide perpetrated in 1915, and in whose memory this date is commemorated by all Armenians and their friends throughout the world”.

The similar document containing even more strict formulations was passed in 1984 (resolution No257). By that time the Armenian Genocide had been condemned by the parliament of Cyprus in 1983. So, American legislative body was one of two parliaments which condemned Armenian Genocide first. It is also known that in 1981 president Ronald Reagan characterized the events in which happened in 1915 as genocide. Later on, in 1987 when a draft of the Armenian bill was again on the agenda Reagan wrote in his diary: “August 6. Congress is again considering a bill demanding the Turks take blame for the Ottoman empires persecution of Armenians when it was in power.” 4. In the years to follow the stance of the U.S. became even more evasive and the calling back of the ambassador John Evans for calling the 1915 events Genocide was the climax. And all this happened when a) president George W. Bush promised to recognize the Genocide during his electoral campaign, b) the father of the latter – George Bush Senior – while being vice-president also used term Armenian Genocide, c) during George Bush Senior’s vice-presidency the Armenian Genocide was condemned both on Congress and parliament levels.

It is open question whether today the institutional memory still remembers the aforementioned facts of the Genocide recognition. In 2009 during the meeting with the Armenian community in Washington the then U.S. ambassador to Armenia Marie Jovanovic stated that Barak Obama took it a step further in his April 24 speech as compared to any other president before. On April 27, 2012 I asked Barak Obama’s press-secretary Jay Carney about institutional memory. In his oblique answer Carney mentioned that Barak Obama’s stance on this issue is known. But the pause which followed the question and surprised look leaved an impression that Carney did not even know anything about this fact and this was expectable. Ambassador Jovanovic’s formulation also proved the absence of institutional memory as the ambassador did not even know that before Obama there was recognition on the presidential level. We guess that it is the Armenian party that should underline by means of propaganda and other mechanisms that the Congress of the United States of America was the first legislative body in the history that passed a resolution condemning Armenian Genocide.

Such an information activity may also promote the process of a re-recognition, thus allowing the Genocide recognition process advocates in the American governing system to use the precedent counterargument against the machinations of the Turkish lobby.

1 “Ermeni Soykırımı yasa tasarısına karşı içeriden mücadele ediyoruz”, http://www.binfikir.be, 27.10.2006.

2 Dia de Recordaction de los Martires Armenios, http://www.parlamento.gub.uy/leyes/AccesoTextoLey.asp?Ley=13326&Anchor=

3 1915 olayları ve Uruguay, BBC, 27.01.2012 http://www.bbc.co.uk/turkce/haberler/2012/01/120126_uruguay_armenians_new.shtml

4 The Reagan Diaries, Harper Collins Publishers, NY, 2011, p. 524.

“Globus” analytical journal, #1, 2013

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