Brazilian Senate Recognizes Armenian Genocide on June 2
BRASILIA
By Agência Senado
With a vote of 55-0, the Brazilian Senate on June 2 approved a vote of solidarity with the Armenian people during the centennial of the Genocide. The detailed information was posted in the Senate’s official website.
With the motion authored by Senators Aloysio Nunes Ferreira (PSDP-SP) and Jose Serra, (PS- DP-SP) the Senate pays homage to the victims and recognized the contribution to Brazil’s economic, social and culture by thousands of Brazilians descendants of the refugees.
Aloysio emphasized, “It is necessary that Turkey recognizes the crime of genocide committed in the past and it can establish a productive dialogue with today’s Armenia, which can bring a future cooperation and understanding between the two countries.”
“What is more important,” the Senator added,” it signifies respect for life, diversity and a promise that this will never be repeated.”
The Senate resolution also described the events of the genocide, detailed the atrocities,
The resolution was praised by several leading senators, including Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (PSOL-AP) who added that this “crime is not widely remembered.”
Aloysio Nunes read into the Senate Record the article by Senator Jose Serra, published in the Folha de Sao Paulo [the largest newspaper in the largest city in South America]on April 24, 2015, entitled, “No Genocide Can Be Forgotten.”
Senator Serra himself read the last paragraph of his article, “All victims have to be remembered, the perpetrators condemned, its causes and motivations examined and analyzed, its brutalities recalled, its victims honored. Never forget so it does not happen again.”
Speaking the next day at a Yerevan joint press conference with visiting OSCE Chairman- in-Office Ivica Dačić, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian commented on the Brazilian Senate’s decision to recognize the Armenian Genocide.
“This was yet another important step in favor of the efforts of the international community targeted at the prevention of new genocides and crimes against humanity,” Nalbandian added.
