UN Sends a Stunning Letter Questioning Turkey on the Armenian Genocide
Posted on June. 27. 2019
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
Thirty four years ago, the United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention
of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities adopted a report
acknowledging the Armenian Genocide as a case of genocide. Until
recently, there has been no other activity at the UN on this issue.
Unexpectedly, on March 25, 2019, a surprising letter was sent to
Ambassador Sadik Arslan, Turkey’s Permanent Representative to the
United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, by three UN entities: Bernard
Duhaime, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Enforced or
Involuntary Disappearances; David Kaye, Special Rapporteur on the
promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and
expression; and Fabian Salvioli, Special Rapporteur on the promotion
of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence.
The joint UN letter asked the Turkish Ambassador to provide answers
within 60 days to the following seven questions:
“1. Please provide any information and/or comment(s) you may have on
the allegations: …violations attributable to Turkey in relation to
the tragic events that affected the Armenian minority from 1915 to
1923, and their consequences for the population concerned.
2. What policies have been put in place by your Excellency’s
Government to respond to these allegations?
3. What measures has Turkey taken to establish the facts, including
the fate or whereabouts of Armenians who were subjected to forced
internal displacement, detention, extrajudicial killings and enforced
disappearances during the period of 1915-1923?
4. What measures have been taken to ensure the right of victims and of
society as a whole to know the truth about these events, and to ensure
the right of victims to justice and reparations for the damage
suffered?
5. What measures have been taken to locate, insofar as possible, the
bodies of Armenians who died as a result of these events?
6. Please provide information about the reasons for the adoption of
the 2017 legislation preventing lawmakers from making certain
expressions. Please explain how this is compatible with international
human rights law, in particular with article 19 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
7. Please provide detailed information about the cases in which
Article 301 of the Criminal Code has been applied to punish
individuals for statements made alleging crimes against Armenians.”
The joint UN letter described in detail the atrocities committed
against Armenians “from 1915 to 1923” by “the Ottoman Empire and its
succeeding Turkish Republic [which] implemented a policy of mass
relocation of the Armenian minority living in the eastern part of the
country. Hundreds of thousands (estimates range between 600,000 and
1,500,000) of persons belonging to that minority were subject to that
policy, which resulted in widespread violence against that population.
Their forced deportation reportedly started in March 1915 mainly in
Anatolia but also in other parts of the country. Armenians were
expelled from their ancestral lands. On the night of 24th April 1915,
hundreds of political and intellectual leaders were arrested in
Constantinople and then transferred to other places. As a result,
Armenian elites disappeared almost completely. This was followed by a
systematic policy targeting the entire Armenian population in each
province and in each Vilayet, the official objective of which was to
displace by force the Armenian population from the eastern provinces
of Anatolia to Aleppo and camps in the Syrian desert. Armenians were
subjected to forced marches. Most of them allegedly died progressively
from exhaustion, starvation, diseases or from massacres, and in most
cases their remains were abandoned. Upon arrival, the few surviving
people were detained in camps in conditions which may have amounted to
torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; most of them were
subsequently killed. The process persisted through 1923. It is alleged
that these actions could constitute enforced disappearances to the
extent that:
(i) Armenians in Turkey were subjected to arrests, detentions, or
abductions or were otherwise deprived of their liberty;
(ii) These acts are reportedly attributable to officials or different
branches or levels of government;
(iii) The Government has not disclosed so far the fate or whereabouts
of the persons concerned.”
The UN letter also criticized Turkey’s denial: “It is also reported
that Turkey not only refuses to acknowledge these events, but also
intentionally engages in denial and obstruction of the truth about the
fate or whereabouts of the victims…. While we do not wish to prejudge
the accuracy of these allegations, we wish to express our concern at
the reported denial, and ensuing lack of progress in establishing the
truth and ensuring justice for the forcible deportation of Armenians
between 1915 and 1923, which resulted in massive suffering,
ill-treatment and deaths. The lack of progress in establishing and
acknowledging the relevant facts, not only affects the dignity of
victims and their descendants, but can also hinder the possibility of
initiating measures aimed at preserving the memory and establishing
the truth.”
On May 17, 2019, within 60 days of the UN request, the Turkish
Ambassador responded with a three-page letter stating that the UN
letter “will be left unanswered by the Government of Turkey.” Amb.
Arslan further stated that “my authorities were rather baffled by the
communication” which he described as “ill-intended and politically
motivated.”
Besides denying the statements contained in the UN letter, Amb. Arslan
also quoted the UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon and his spokesman
Farhan Haq claiming that the UN had never taken a position on events
that took place before the UN was established. Both the Secretary
General and his spokesman are wrong because the UN had set a special
day to commemorate the Jewish Holocaust which had occurred before the
UN was founded in 1945. Furthermore, I interviewed Ban-Ki Moon’s
spokesman Farhan Haq and asked him about the 1985 UN Sub-Commission’s
Genocide Report which had acknowledged several genocides, including
the Armenian Genocide, all of which had taken place before the UN was
established. Haq told me that he was aware of the UN Sub-Commission’s
Genocide Report, but he was referring to the lack of acknowledgment by
the UN General Assembly.
In addition, the UN authors attached to their letter an annex quoting
from the International Humanitarian Law which stated that: “Principle
2 of the updated Set of Principles for the Protection and Promotion of
Human Rights through Action to Combat Impunity establishes the
inalienable right of all persons to know the truth about past events
concerning the perpetration of heinous crimes and about the
circumstances and reasons that led to them. Full and effective
exercise of the right to the truth provides a vital safeguard against
the recurrence of violations. Principle 4 stipulates that victims and
their families have the imprescriptible right to know the truth about
the circumstances in which violations took place and about the
victims’ fate.”
Finally, Amb. Arslan repeated the same untruth about Armenia not
responding to a letter from Turkey in 2005 proposing “to establish a
joint commission consisting of historians and other experts to study
the events of 1915.” This is a lie. Armenia did respond, suggesting
that the proposed commission review all outstanding issues between the
two countries, not just the Armenian Genocide. Turkey was the one that
never responded.
As a next step, now that the Armenian Genocide issue has been raised
at the UN once again, it is incumbent on the Republic of Armenia to
formally place the UN letter and the Turkish denialist response on the
agenda of the UN Human Rights Council and pursue compensation and
justice for the million and a half victims of the Armenian Genocide.
Մեծարգո Պրն. Սասունյան
Բարձր գնահատելով Ձեր տարիների տքնաջան և հետեվողական ուսումնասիրությունները, գոհունակությամբ հետեվում եմ Ձեր պրպտումներին և հանրությանը տրամադրված հետազոտություններին, ,Ջերմորեն ողջունում եմ Ձեզ, և ցանկանում եմ երկար տարիների առողջ կյանք, ամբողջ աշխարհին և մեր ազգին իրազեկելու մեր արդար դատի մանրամասնեը;