President: Prevention of crime of genocide remains on international agenda

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan in his speech at the 70th Session of UNGA among others thanked the Presidents of Russia, France, Cyprus, and Serbia, as well as delegations of numerous other countries that on April 24 paid tribute to the victims of the Armenian Genocide in Yerevan.
"Our determination to keep the prevention of the crime of genocide on the international agenda is testified by the Resolutions we periodically table at the Human Rights Council, and the latest one to that effect was adopted this year. Building further upon it, just a few days ago this Assembly passed a resolution establishing December 9 as "the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime."
The president recalled that last year, on the eve of the Armenian Genocide Centennial, from that very podium he expressed gratitude to the nations that recognized the Armenian Genocide and named them all individually. "I called upon the international community to bolster the struggle against the recurrence of the crime of genocide through recognition and condemnation.  Today, from this very podium, I thank Pope Francis, and acknowledge the historical Mass he celebrated; the European Parliament, and recall the Resolution it adopted; the German President, and, believe me, his well-known statement will thenceforth take part in the pages of our nation's history textbooks. I thank the legislative bodies of Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, numerous provincial and city councils, as well as dozens and hundreds political and non- governmental organizations," the president said. 
On April 12 during a Mass in St.  Peter's Basilica Pope Francis said that the annihilation of 1.5, mln Armenians in Ottoman Empire was the first Genocide of the XX century.  He called Genocide one of the three massive and unprecedented tragedies of the XX century along with Nazism and Stalinism.  The Pope's statement angered Turkey's authorities that summoned the ambassador of Vatican for explanations. The political and religious leaders of Turkey slammed the Pope for the statement.  On September 27 2001, John Paul II, Bishop of Rome and Pastor of the Catholic Church, and Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians made a common declaration wherein the supreme patriarchs said: "The extermination of a million and a half Armenian Christians, in what is generally referred to as the first genocide of the twentieth century, and the subsequent annihilation of thousands under the former totalitarian regime are tragedies that still live in the memory of the present-day generation." On April 23 2015, German President Joachim Gauck condemned the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces a century ago as genocide. :  "The fate of the Armenians is exemplary for the history of mass destructions, ethnic cleansings, expulsions and, yes, the genocides during the 20th century," the German president said.