Yerevan /Mediamax/. The international community is for the first time commemorating the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime today.

On this occasion, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has addressed a message which particularly reads:

“Nowadays, when the progressive international community commemorates the major anniversaries of the most atrocious crimes of the previous century including the Armenian Genocide Centennial, 70th anniversary of Auschwitz, 40th anniversary of the Cambodia Genocide as well as anniversaries of the genocides taken place in Rwanda people, Pontic Greeks, Assyrians and other nationalities, we witness the human history being distorted; we see ethnic cleansing and mass murders; centuries-old cultural monuments are being destroyed and the people’s memory is being erased.

To this end, the international public has again united efforts each December 9 to admonish that the joint fight is the best way of paying homage to the innocent victims of this grave crime.

It was owing to this unification that the majority of the UN member states supported the proposal of the homeland of the genocide survivors, Armenia, and declared December 9 under the relevant resolution of the General Assembly as “The International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime”.

According to the President, the initiative was one of the chief achievements of Armenia’s commitment to join the international fight against the crime of genocide and it was especially significant in the year of the Armenian Genocide Centennial.

“From now on, December 9 is not only the Day of Adoption of the Genocide Convention: each year this day, we will come together under the high patronage of the UN to reconsider the behest of the day -“Never Again””, the presidential message notes.