Durban : Genocide Denial is the most perverse form of racism

Durban (South Africa) - The anti-racism conference organized by the United Nations from April 20th to 24th has just released its final declaration on the struggle against racism. The declaration tackles the question of genocides and their necessary recognition.

Hence, article 62 of this declaration “recalls that slavery and the slave trade, including the transatlantic slave trade, apartheid, colonialism and genocide must never be forgotten and in this regard welcomes actions undertaken to honour the memory of victims”.

Article 63 “notes actions of [those] countries that have, in the context of these past tragedies, expressed remorse, offered apologies, initiated institutionalized mechanisms such as truth and reconciliation commissions and/or restituted cultural artifacts since the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, and calls on those who have not yet contributed to restoring the dignity of the victims to find appropriate ways to do so”.

“This declaration is a vibrating plea in favour of the necessary contrition of the criminal States - without which there would be neither peace, nor justice, nor reconciliation - and a definitive condemnation of the tortuous and dilatory schemes by which they try to escape from it” declared Hilda Tchoboian, the chairperson of the European Armenian Federation.

The European Armenian Federation recalls that denial partakes to the crime of genocide, and has no link with freedom of expression, though it attempts to wear this disguise in order to hide its racist purpose. In this sense, it constitutes the most perverse form of racism. Several judgments of the European Court of Human rights insisted on the social aim of freedom of expression and, thus, on the limitations which frame it for this purpose.

“In compliance with this final declaration adopted during the anti-racism conference in Durban, we invite the UN Member States to urge Turkey to apologise for the Armenian Genocide and that it sets up the institutional mechanisms which will constitute the premises for its compensation” concluded Hilda Tchoboian.

Turkey is the only State in the world which continues an officially denialist policy directed to the Armenian Genocide. The Turkish State remains legally and politically responsible for this genocide according to the International law.