NEWS RELEASE by the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem

A new world organization by the name of R 2 L -RIGHT TO LIFE has been proposed by the Genocide Recognition Network in Athens.  The Network represents three ethnic organizations of peoples, each of whom has suffered genocide in its history, the Pan-Pontian Federation of Greece, Armenian National Committee, and PanHellenic Union of the Assyrians.

Meeting in Athens to honor the United Nations Declaration of December 9 as a day of remembrance of the victims of all genocides, the Network passed a resolution to create an “International Association of Nations, themselves victims of Genocide, as well as those who have a consideration for the human right to life.”

On December 9, the day after the conference which is officially the UN “International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime,” a five-member delegation visited the Parliament House in Athens in order to deliver the resolution.  The delegation included the prior mentioned three groups, and the President of the Pan-Macedonian Confederation of Greece, and a representative of the Federation of Greek Refugee Associations.

The proposal to create “R 2 L – RIGHT TO LIFE” as a “Worldwide Union of Genocide Victim Peoples – and all Caring People – on behalf of the Right to Life of All People” was originally developed by Israeli-American genocide scholar, Israel W. Charny, director of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem.  This proposal was also presented originally in Athens in 2010 to an international conference which was devoted to respecting the co-victimhood of Greek, Armenian, and Assyrian peoples in what is generally known to us as the “Armenian Genocide.” Since then the proposal has also been delivered in talks in Armenia and in Israel, and was published in several publications.

The Network has advised Charny that they would like him to be a counselor to the project in the event that they will have the means to activate the world organization, a decision that will be made in the next few months.  Furthermore, the stated hope of the Genocide Recognition Network is that if Greece proves unable to undertake the initiative by itself that it will be implemented by an international group such as the International Association of Genocide Scholars.

RESOLUTION OF THE GENOCIDE RECOGNITION NETWORK (GREECE)

December 8, 2016

All of us who gathered here today, on Thursday the 8th of December 2016, at the Cultural Center of Athens, responding to the invitation of the Genocide Recognition Network, seizing the opportunity of the UN introduction of the 9th of December as the day of remembrance of the victims of Genocide, state that:

– We bow down before all of the world’s nations who have suffered the crime of Genocide, and are assuring toward every direction that we will continue the struggle both for the international recognition of the Genocides which were carried out in the past, as well as the prevention of any others in the future. A fight which the great humanist Raphael Lemkin has initiated, and which we proclaim “Just” for the Greeks, the Armenians and the Assyrians.

– We demand from the Greek Parliament to proceed toward the recognition of the Genocide suffered by the Assyrians, following the recognition of the Genocides imposed upon other Christian nations of the East, which eventuated within the same context, by the same perpetrator in the early 20th century, as well as the Genocide suffered by the Yazidi from the Daesh terrorist organization, held in Syria and Iraq nowadays.

– We demand from the Local government administration to proceed with the erection of monuments in central points of Greek cities, regarding the Genocide imposed upon the Christian nations of the East.

– Finally we recommend to the International Association of Genocide Scholars (I.A.G.S) and to other relevant organizations, to proceed with the establishment of a body with the symbolic name: R 2 L (Rıght to Lıfe), which would constitute an international association of nations, themselves victims of Genocide, as well as those who have a consideration for the human right to life.

– Our motto for the struggle toward the recognition of the Genocide of the Christians of the East, (Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians) is as follows:

One Genocide, One Strategy, One Monument, One Battle, One Recognition.

for the Genocide Recognition Network: DR PAVLIDIS ANTONIOS for the Armenian National Committee:KOUGIOUMTZIAN SERKO
for the Pan-Pontian Federation of Greece: SOTIRIADOU ATHENA
for the Panhellenic Union of the Assyrians: BATSARAS KYRIAKOS

-English translation by Athina Kehagias

The proposal for a “Worldwide Union of Genocide Victim Peoples – and All Caring People – On Behalf of a Right to Life of All People (R2L)” was originally developed by Israel W. Charny and was presented at an International Conference “Three Genocides, One Strategy,” in Athens in September, 2010.

In December 2016 the Genocide Recognition Network Athens issued a press release on “the need for the unity of the nations who have suffered genocides,” and announced that a delegation visited Parliament House to deliver the Resolution. The president accepted the delegation, submitted the Resolution with a request that it be distributed to all political parties of the Parliament, and in addition that it be read out in plenary on the occasion of 9 December which has been defined by the U.N. as the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Genocide. See the Press Release of the Genocide Recognition Network here.