Key parliamentary committee in Spain’s Balearic Islands adopts Genocide Resolution

On December 14th, 2010, the Human Rights Committee of the Balearic Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide, paving the way for the resolution’s adoption by parliament, Asbarez.com reported, referring to the Armenian National Committee of Spain (Consejo Nacional Armenio de España).

“I consider the recognition of Genocides, and in particular that of the Armenians’, as being a just cause and inevitable for a historical justice; it is necessary in order to prevent other genocides,” declared the deputy Miquel Àngel Llauger, member of the Bloc Per Mallorca (Coalition of the Left, Ecologist and Nationalist Groups) and initiator of the resolution.

The European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy welcomed the resolution, which acknowledges “the fate suffered by the Armenian people between 1915 and 1921 as a Genocide” in accordance with the UN Convention on the Prevention, and the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted in December 1948. The EAFJD said it “will support the Members of the Human Rights Committee of the Balearic Parliament for this courageous act.”

“It is a big step in the fight against genocides and its denial,” declared EAFJD President Hilda Tchoboian. “We invite all the political forces of Parliament to join the Bloc Per Mallorca and vote in favor of this resolution when put on the Parliament’s agenda according to the predefined calendar.”

The resolution in the Balearic Islands adds to similar resolutions passed in the parliaments of Spain in April 2007 and Catalonia in March 2010. The resolution’s call on the Spanish government to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide in accordance to a resolution adopted by the European Parliament in 1987, formally recognizing the Armenian genocide and calling “for a political solution of the Armenian question.”

According to Tchoboian, the Balearic resolution will “contribute to the necessary recognition of the Armenian genocide by the Spanish Parliament.”

“These successive recognitions in Europe aim to make Turkey involve itself in a process of justice with respect to the Armenian people,” said Tchoboian.

“The members of the Balearic Parliament understood the lesson from History–at the time when Europe is concerned with security issues, the recognition of the genocide is an additional guarantee against the dangers of the denial and the emergence of totalitarianisms which threaten European societies,” said Tchoboian. “It is a significant contribution to the construction of values for a Europe of citizens.”