Pan-Armenian Declaration on the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide as a Crime Against Humanity
MEHMET SUKRU GUZEL
(Switzerland Representative of Center for International Strategy and Security Studies)
On 29 January 2015, Armenian State Commission on the Coordination of Events Dedicated to the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, in consultation with its regional committees in the Diaspora, gave a declaration. [1]
This declaration is in fact a crime against humanity based on racial and religious discrimination. This declaration is a crime against humanity by non-mentioning the killings of more than 500.000 Turks by Armenian non-state armed groups between the years 1914 -1921. As all historian and international politicians knows that for a specific date and specific place of historical events based on religious and racial issues, if only a portion, or one side of the specified events is to be mentioned and only one side is side to be accused of the same actions, this is a discrimination on religion and racial origin. And this is the legitimization of crimes of the other side on religious and racial reasons which is a crime by itself.
No normal person can believe then more than 500.000 civilians Turks could be killed including children, woman and older people on self-defense actions of Armenian non-state armed groups. By not mentioning of the killings of more than 500.000 Turks in the declaration, this should be accepted as the legitimation of the war crime acts of Armenian non-state armed groups and this is a crime against humanity.
International Court of Justice gives the definition of Crimes against Humanity as:
Include any of the following acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack: murder; extermination; enslavement; deportation or forcible transfer of population; imprisonment; torture; rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity; persecution against an identifiable group on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious or gender grounds; enforced disappearance of persons; the crime of apartheid; other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering or serious bodily or mental injury. [2]
Armenian non-state armed groups made many acts of this definition and the Declaration itself is persecution against the Turkish people on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious or gender grounds.
In the paragraph 4 of the declaration, it is written that “recalling the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 10 December 1948, whereby recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”
In the paragraph 5 of the declaration, it is written that “ guided by the respective principles and provisions of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 96(1) of 11 December 1946, the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 9 December 1948, the United Nations Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity of 26 November 1968, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 16 December 1966 as well as all the other international documents on human rights,”
As mentioned in the declaration paragraph 4 and 5, all other human rights international documentations, we can give examples of the International Committee of the Red Cross study on customary international humanitarian law rules made a significant contribution to the process of identifying fundamental standards of humanity by clarifying, in particular, international humanitarian law rules applicable in non-international armed conflict. Furthermore, adoption by the Human Rights Committee of general comment 31 on article 2 of the International Covenant Civil and Political Rights as well as the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and its judgment in the Case Concerning Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo reaffirmed the applicability of international human rights law during armed conflict and addressed the relationship between international humanitarian law and international human rights law. [3]
Also the International Court of Justice in the 1985 Nicaragua case recognized that certain minimum humanitarian standards apply during internal armed conflict. [4]
On February 26, 2007, the International Court of Justice issued its judgment in Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The International Court of Justice did conclude that Serbia, through its continued support of Bosnian Serbs in light of the probability that some of them would commit the crime of genocide, had “violated the obligation to prevent genocide in respect of the genocide that occurred in Srebrenica in July 1995. [5]
We have to remember that Bosnian Serbs were a non-state armed group and they committed crime of Genocide.
In fact, if the word “ Genocide “ is to be used for the 1st World War period, Armenia should accept that the 1st Genocide of the 1st World War was made by non-state armed Armenian groups in the 1877-78 Ottoman-Russian War lost territories of the Ottoman Empire Kars, Ardahan and environs. Ottoman sources reported some 30,000 Muslim civilians killed; more recent scholarship has pointed to an even higher number, as many as 45,000 in the Chorokhi valley alone in. Traveling the Ardahan-Merdenek road in Ardahan province in early January 1915, an Azeri Duma deputy, Mahmud Yusuf Dzhafarov, witnessed “mass graves of unarmed Muslims on both sides of the road.” Whatever the exact number of victims, the wave of Christian vengeance killings against Caucasian Muslims was serious enough that the long-serving viceroy of the Caucasus, Count I. Vorontsov-Dashkov, issued a series of decrees forbidding further atrocities while also ordering the deportation of about 10,000 Muslims from sensitive areas near the front lines to the Russian interior. [6]
When we think of Srebenica and the International Court of Justice confirmed that genocide had been committed in Srebenica. If a single massacre satisfies the criterion of Article 2 of the Genocide Convention, certainly the Armenian massacres against the Turks in Russian control territory before the deportation decision of Armenians in Ottoman Empire would qualify as the 1st Genocide of the 1st World War. Non-state armed Armenian groups made more massacres to the Turks at the back of the war frontier in different parts of Anatolia as well should be recognized as Genocides also.
In the article 8 of the Declaration, it is written that “Calls upon the Republic of Turkey to recognize and condemn the Armenian Genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire, and to face its own history and memory through commemorating the victims of that heinous crime against humanity and renouncing the policy of falsification, denialsm and banalizations of this indisputable fact” forms crimes against humanity.
Article 8 of the declaration was written with the concept of racial and religious discrimination. Armenian State and Armenian Diaspora deny the fact of the war crimes of Armenian non-state armed groups and their genocides to Turks as Genocide and afraid to face in fact their own history and memory through commemorating the victims of that heinous crime against humanity and renouncing the policy of falsification, denialsm and banalization of this indisputable fact forms crimes against humanity.
A demand of blaming only one side for what had happened in the past means a demand from international community to accept acts of so-called in an orientalist understanding as superior civilized Armenian non-state armed groups acts against to Muslims Turks, as a Holy Christian War as was in the old times of the Crusades by which no one can blame the Armenian non-state armed groups acts of genocides against the Turks.
The logic of Armenian State and Armenian Diaspora Declaration is a threat to world peace and security.
Someone can use the same logic of religious and racial discrimination as an example for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and try to legitimize the war crimes acts of ISIS by not mentioning in a written text and blame some wrongful acts Iraqi Government as genocide or war crimes in the same text.
If Armenian State and Armenian Diaspora condemn Ottoman Empire without mentioning war crimes acts of Armenian non-state armed groups, this is a crime against humanity. This is also valid for all other states and other racial politicians or historians. Without mentioning the killings of more than 500.000 Turks by the Armenian non-state armed groups, to recognize so-called Armenian Genocide is a crime against humanity.
Turks and Armenian share a “common pain” inherited from their grandparents. A joint commission composed of Turkish and Armenian historians can be formed to study the events of 1915. The findings of the commission, if established, would bring about a better understanding of this tragic period and hopefully help to normalize the threat to world peace and security. If not, by only blaming the Turks of the past events means approving the killings of more than 500.000 children, women and older Turks by Armenian non-state armed groups can only be described as a crime against humanity.
For example, if US President Obama is to recognize so-called Armenian Genocide without mentioning the killings of the more than 500.000 Turks by Armenian non-state armed groups; this will be a crime against humanity. Turkey can go in such a condition to the United Nations Security Council as this act should be described as a threat to world peace and security as this one sided recognition of the so-called Armenian genocide is illegal according to Article 103 of United Nations Charter.
Mehmet Sukru Guzel
Switzerland Representative of Center for International Strategy and Security Studies
[1] Pan-Armenian Declaration on the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, 01.02.2015
[2] cpi.int/en_menus/icc/about%20the%20court/frequently%20asked%20questions/Pages/12.aspx 01.02.2015
[3] United Nations Document. E/CN.4/2006/87, paragraphe 30
[4] Case Concerning Military and Paramilitary Activities In and Against Nicaragua, pp. 101-102, , 01.02.2015
[5] Dermot Groome, “Adjudicating Genocide: Is the International Court of Justice Capable of Judging State Criminal Responsibility?”, Fordham International Law Journal, Volume 31, Issue 4 2007, pp-912
[6] Sean McMeekin, The Russian Origins of the First World War, Harvard University Press, Cambridge 2011, p.160