EUFOA WELCOMES EPP RESOLUTION ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
17:43, 03 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan
On 3 March, the European People’s Party (EPP) adopted a resolution
recognising and condemning the Armenian Genocide as well as paying
tribute to the victims in the 100th anniversary. The EPP, which is
the largest European political party, has adopted the resolution
following the initiative of its sister parties from Armenia.
European Friends of Armenia (EuFoA) welcomes this resolution. EuFoA
Director, Mr Eduardo Lorenzo Ochoa, comments: “This text is meant
not only as a tribute, but also as a call for both historical justice
and historical reconciliation.”
The text adopted by the EPP political assembly refers to different
aspects of this atrocious crime, such as “…dispossession of
the homeland, the massacres and ethnic cleansing aimed at the
extermination of the Armenian population, the destruction of the
Armenian heritage, as well as the denial of the Genocide, all attempts
to avoid responsibility, to consign to oblivion the committed crimes
and their consequences or to justify them, as a continuation of this
crime and encouragement to commit new genocides…”
Moreover the resolution calls upon Turkey to recognise and condemn the
Genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire as a base for the complete
normalisation and Europeanisation of its relationship along with its
international commitments and European aspirations. It also appeals to
international organisations, specially the EU and CoE member states,
to restore historical justice and pay tribute to the victims. This
political initiative puts also a strong accent on cultural and
religious component of this crime, noting that this heritage should be
repaired and returned to the Armenian and other relevant communities.
“I am particularly pleased to see the accession to EU political
families by Armenian political parties, in which I have invested
myself so intensely, has a mutually beneficial outcome also in such
transcendent matters as the Genocide” adds Mr Lorenzo Ochoa.
The EPP is the largest European-level political party of the
centre-right, which currently includes 78 member-parties from 39
countries (including 3 from Armenia: Republican Party of Armenia,
Heritage and Country of Law) the Presidents of the European Commission
and the European Council, 11 EU and 6 non-EU heads of state and
government, 14 members of the European Commission and the largest
Group in the European Parliament with 219 members.