New Kerala, India
April 4 2015

Cyprus makes it a crime to deny 1915 Armenian genocide

Nicosia, April 4

Cyprus has criminalised the denial of the 1915 genocide of Armenians
by Ottoman Turks in a law published in the official gazette on Friday.

The Cypriot parliament modified an existing law by declaring that no
prior conviction by an international court is required to make it a
crime to deny the genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes,
Xinhua news agency reported.

The modification was made unanimously by parliament on the occasion of
a visit to Cyprus by Galust Sahakyan, the president of the Armenian
National Assembly on Thursday.

Cyprus and Armenia maintain close relations as the eastern
Mediterranean island is home to thousands of Armenians.

They are descendants of refugees fleeing their homes during the
genocide and later during the advance of the Turkish army in 1922 when
millions of Greeks and Armenians fled the western coasts of Asia
Minor.

Cypriot Parliament President Yiannakis Omirou said it was “a historic
day” as the modification allowed restoration of historical truth.

The Turkish foreign ministry dismissed the move as “null and void and
not worthy of comment”.

Turkey vehemently denies the genocide both of the Armenians and of the
Greeks of the Black Sea region, though historians have said that that
up to 1.5 million people, including women, children, elderly and
infirm, perished at the time during death marches and in labour camps
across Turkey.

The issue of the Armenian genocide is also a source of tension between
Turkey and several Western countries, most notably France and the US.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress