Armenians value the role of European parliament in the recognition of Armenian genocide- president Sargsyan says

YEREVAN, March 17. / ARKA /. Speaking at the opening meeting of the fourth ordinary session of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly in Yerevan today president Serzh Sargsyan said this year the whole Armenian nation has been joined by the civilized world in commemorating victims of the Armenian Genocide that took place in the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

He said Armenians recall with gratitude and highly value the role of the European Parliament in the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. It  was the first among pan-European institutions to adopt in 1987 a resolution condemning that crime perpetrated against Armenians in the territory of the Ottoman Empire and calling upon the Turkish government to recognize it.

‘The Armenian Genocide is not only the tragedy of our nation but also a world-scale crime against civilization and humanity, which reminds us of the failure to learn from history, dangers of a genocide denial, as well as the long-term negative consequences of letting this type of crime to go unpunished and unrecognized,” the president said..

“The respect towards human rights is the pillar of the European Union values upon which our cooperation is built. In that context I highly value The Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the world 2013 adopted by the European Parliament on March 12, which contained a separate paragraph addressing the Armenian Genocide Centennial and called upon all Member States to acknowledge it, and encouraged the EU institutions to contribute further to its recognition,’ he said.-0-