TEL AVIV, Israel—The World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS) recently formally recognized the Armenian Genocide at its 44th World Congress in Israel. Jewish-Australian advocate Ariel Zohar was among the key speakers in favor of the motion, reported the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU).
Zohar, who played a key role in the recent Victorian Young Labor motion recognizing the Armenian Genocide, was joined in his advocacy of this historic motion by Aaron Meyer and Yos Tarshish.
ANC-AU Executive Director Haig Kayserian thanked the WUJS on this important statement for human rights.
“We thank Ariel Zohar and his colleagues at the World Union of Jewish Students Congress for passing a motion that does not only recognize the genocide committed against the Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians of the Ottoman Empire, it also ‘condemns’ and ‘rejects’ any ‘attempt to deny, distort, or ignore the historical reality of this genocide,'” Kayserian said.
“This sends a strong message to the governments of Israel, and others, like Australia, that human rights are not there to be bargained for diplomatic gain, no matter the circumstance,” he added.
On his Facebook page, Zohar wrote: “Jewish students have a long proud history of perusing on the forefronts of social justice. Today is another important milestone in our activism history…. WUJS will now be formally calling on governments of Israel, Australia and others to join a growing list of 28 countries around the world to formally recognize the sufferings and injustice of the Armenians and other minorities at the hand of the then Ottoman Empire (modern day Turkey).”
The WUJS was founded in 1924 by Hersch Lauterpacht, with Albert Einstein as its first president.
The motion can be read below in its entirety.
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This Congress notes:
That between 1915 and 1923 millions of Armenians, Pontian Greeks and Assyrians were murdered at the hands of the Ottoman Caliphate.
The tragic crime was undisputedly carried out with the genocidal intention of eliminating these Christian communities. This was a premeditated and systematic execution of an estimated 2-3 million civilians; not a legitimate act of war.
This Congress believes:
That it is incumbent upon us as a Jewish organization to fight all forms of racism.
This Congress resolves:
To condemn and reject any attempt to deny, distort, or ignore the historical reality of this genocide.
To recognize the importance of remembering and learning from this genocide, and to join the Armenian, Pontian Greek, and Assyrian communities in honoring the innocent people who fell victim to this crime.
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We anticipate this youth to exert pressure on the Israeli government to recognize the Armenian Genocide.
About time. Some moral issues have no compromise. The Holocust was not fritterred away in favor of economic and political considerations. No, it was presented to the world, the world and Germany acknowledged, financial compensation paid, and Germany and the world is better off for it. Colluding with the Genocydal regime in Turkey, only perpetuates the crimes as now they are continuing in Turkish Kurdistan. The US, Israel and all the business partners of the Turkish Islamic dictatorship will one day be taken to account for their crimes.
We thank the World Union of Jewish Students in Recognizing the Armenian Genocide. We hope the Organization will put pressure on the Israeli Government to finally have it passed in the Knesset.
Madeleine, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, recognized the Armenian Genocide years ago, maybe ten years ago. However, the government through the foreign ministry has not recognized it.
Edward, “Germany acknowledged, financial compensation paid”
How can the Germans ever compensate us for all of our dead, more than 6 million? Certain moneys were paid but they did not even equal a fraction of the Jewish property stolen or destroyed. Since Germany and Austria enabled the Armenian genocide through their alliance in WW One with Turkey, maybe Armenians should demand reparations from the Germans.
Israel has been wary of erdogan and his gang of goons for years. Recall how erdogan reviled Israeli president Peres at the 2009 Davos meeting. He has also directly and indirectly incited violence against the Jews living in Turkey. A number of Jews have died in various terrorist attacks against the Jewish community there. Israel is well aware of all that. On the other hand, Israel did make a few gestures of reconciliation towards Turkey since the 2010 Mavi Marmara affair in which nine or ten Turkish terrorists/jihadis were killed by Israeli naval commandos. However, all of these gestures were done under pressure from Obama.
As for trade, I believe that Armenia too has some trade with Turkey.
I repeat again, the so-called “Armenian Genocide” has been known as one sided story, which for the most part has ignored, dismissed, or forgotten facts about the true story behind these claims: Armenian terrorism, insurgency, revolts, treason, territorial demands and the Turkish and other Muslim losses suffered at the hands of Armenian nationalists.
Nevertheless, the claims and fabricated stories of the Armenian Diaspora have tainted the history. In order to get recognition of their claim they attempted to rewrite history with the help of hired historians, they introduced their falsehood into the educational curricula across the USA with the assistance of the like-minded politicians, and they flooded the media with the support of the duped journalists.
However, being aware of the Armenian propaganda Dr. Gwynne Dyer, a London-based independent journalist in 1976 made the following observation:
“The deafening drumbeat of the propaganda, and the sheer lack of sophistication in argument which comes from preaching decade after decade to a convinced and emotionally committed audience, are the major handicaps of Armenian historiography of the diaspora today.”
The decision of genocide is a judicial one. The United Nations 1948 Convention on Prevention and Punishment of Genocide provides the definition of genocide and stipulates that:
a) Genocide charges can only be litigated at a “competent tribunal” ;
b) “due process” shall be followed in the proceedings, and
c) “intent to destroy” shall be proven.
Such was never done in the case of Turkish-Armenian conflict and no court verdict exists saying it is genocide. Yet, the Armenian Diaspora as well as the Armenophile media and politicians insist on calling the 1915-1916 human tragedies as the Armenian genocide. To call it one anyway defrauds the unsuspecting public that there is a genocide verdict when we all know that there is not. So calling it genocide would be a fraud.
In a landmark decision, The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) unequivocally supported the above position in its Dec 17, 2013 verdict on Perincek vs Switzerland that “[t]he existence of a ‘genocide’, which was a precisely defined legal concept, was not easy to prove”. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) added: “…(It) doubted that there could be a general consensus… given that historical research was, by definition, open to discussion and a matter of debate, without necessarily giving rise to final conclusions or to the assertion of objective and absolute truths.”
Thus, the ECHR created a legal precedent of inadmissibility of any comparison between the Holocaust and the Armenian claims; the latter lacks what the former clearly has: concrete historical facts, clear legal basis, and existence of the “acts (that) had been found by an international court to be clearly established.”
“How can you be so sure that 1915 is genocide?” This simple but poignant question, posed by one of the presiding judge at the European Court of Human Rights to the lawyers of the Armenian side, sums it all up, doesn’t it? It is like “the king is naked, call of the genocide industry.”