We also call on the government of Turkey to respect and realize fully the legal obligations which it has undertaken including those provisions, which relate to the protection of cultural heritage and, in particular, to conduct in good faith an integrated inventory of Armenian and other cultural heritage destroyed or ruined during the past century.
The most substantive manifestation of Genocide victims commemoration is building a powerful state, with lessons learned from history, and finally, will be able to distinguish the enemy and the friend from the one who uses. Otherwise, the only occasion of consolidation and solidarity will remain April 24, slogan of which will become “We remember and retreat” in terms of present-day policy constant development.
“Why should we leave women’s talent? Survey showed, when women are free to choose, governments are more responsive, when people’s rights are equal, more stable and states are at peace. I don’t say women are better, than men, excuse me guys, but in many fields, where there are women, more success is recorded,” Soderberg said.
Callimachi has exposed the horrific institutionalization of sex slavery by ISIS, linked child labor in gold mines in Senegal to banks in Switzerland, and revealed massacres committed by government forces from the Ivory Coast to Mali. At a time when risks to journalists are at an all-time high, Callimachi is driven by a deep-seated motivation to tell these stories.
Muslim Turkey denies that the massacres, at a time when Ottoman troops were battling Russian forces in the east of the empire, constituted genocide. It says there was no organized campaign to wipe out the Armenians, who are Christians, and no evidence of any such orders from the Ottoman authorities.
Launched by the 100 Lives initiative, which aims to create awareness of the Armenian Genocide, the winner of the prize then hands the money to an organisation of their choice.
“How many administrations must be intimidated into silence before we realize that it never changes Turkish behavior for the better and only emboldens the increasingly authoritarian regime? Recognition of the Armenian Genocide could have been a proud part of the President’s legacy; instead this decision will be just another sad milestone in the struggle to prevent genocide by exposing genocide and its perpetrators,” Schiff concluded.
“We were convinced that the problem could be solved through exclusively peaceful means, however today the situation is different. Ceasefire and supporting agreements have been violated, five statements of the Presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair states – US, France, and Russia – were violated, bloodchilling war crimes were committed, and now we are telling everyone – point your finger to the aggressor, expose the aggressor so that lessons are learned, so that we can move forward,” said President Serzh Sargsyan.
Amal Clooney, famous human rights lawyer, wife of the actor George Clooney, did not come to Armenia since she had been busy with a case of one of her clients, George Clooney said, “She’s actually defending her client right now, so she couldn’t be here, she really wanted to be here.”
“Just a few weeks ago, during the large-scale offensive unleashed by Azerbaijan against Nagorno Karabakh, Azeri soldiers were not content with just shooting their arms: they mutilated elderly people, Armenian soldiers, decapitated them and cut off their ears and presented those actions in the social networks as a manifestation of heroism. It was all evidently encouraged by the Azerbaijani authorities. “
