Stepanakert townspeople call on to prevent relapse of genocide

The participants in the torchlight march held in Stepanakert have called on international structures to "raise the bar for fulfilling the requirements" of the international convention on genocide.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 23, a torchlight march was held in Yerevan in memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Turkey. The marchers burned down flags of Turkey and Azerbaijan and demanded from Armenian authorities to abandon the policy of territorial concessions. Similar torchlight marches in memory of genocide victims were also held in Stepanakert and the cities and districts of Nagorno-Karabakh.

After 107 years, the events in the Ottoman Empire have not received a full evaluation of the international community, the torchlight marchers in Stepanakert have stated. "We mark 107 years of the first genocide of the 20th century. More than a century has passed since those tragic events, while the international community has not fully condemned this crime, has not given an impartial evaluation of these events, leaving those who committed the atrocities unpunished," says the statement of the torchlight marchers.

They have appealed to the world community. "We, all the participants in the torchlight march organized in Stepanakert to commemorate the victims of the Armenian Genocide, are asking the world community to raise the bar for enforcing the requirements of the International Convention "On the Prevention of and Punishment for Genocide Crimes"; not to betray the people of Artsakh (...) The impunity for the crimes against Artsakh will become a pretext for new crimes against humanity in different parts of the world," the text of the appeal says.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 24, 2022 at 03:39 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.